Chapter Summaries

During Senegal’s civil war, Joey Clive summoned Helena Rose and a new member, Clyde Phoenix, into the hall above the gray fog. Clyde’s attempt to peer at Joey’s power exposed him to maddening whispers, leaving him kneeling in terror.

• Joey joined the Imperial Knights as a city-defense soldier after Charles’s coup split the capital, while a strange fog kept both sides in a tense ceasefire.
• Helena returned to the gray-fog hall and told Joey about her family’s unusual stone, prompting him to consider adding more members.
• Joey’s attempt to recruit someone drew Clyde from a corpse-filled pirate ship into the hall through a triangular stone.
• Helena welcomed Clyde and asked Joey’s permission to recite his honorific name.
• Clyde activated his supernatural sight to examine Joey, and Joey parted the gray fog enough for maddening whispers to strike him.
• Joey ended Clyde’s agony, and Clyde knelt to beg forgiveness for his offense.

Joey hosted Helena and Clyde in the gray-fog hall, learned that the Color Out of Space had caused Senegal’s devastation, and discovered that Clyde’s crew had encountered R’lyeh. After the gathering, Joey experimented with sacrifices and found he could receive inanimate offerings, while Clyde used Helena’s advice to seize control of his ship.

• Joey explained the Acting Method to Helena and asked her to share secret events, so she described the Color Out of Space’s arrival at Chernobyl during the First Epoch.
• Clyde told Joey about his fleet’s encounter at sea and asked to be purified; Helena identified the island as R’lyeh and said the Deep Ones’ virus could be cured by offering a beautiful woman to Mother Goddess Hydra.
• Clyde gave Helena a Sheriff potion formula, and Joey ended the gathering before creating an alternate identity named Azure Dragon.
• Joey devised an honorific name and tested sacrifices, discovering that he could receive inanimate objects but that his physical body mutated when brought into the gray-fog hall.
• Back aboard the ship, Clyde had the captain’s woman thrown into the sea, led the infected crew in killing the captain, and took command by claiming a deity had warned him.

Joey returned to the Gray Fog and convened a new gathering, where Helena and Viper Clyde met a newly introduced member. Joey used the Azure Dragon to ask Clyde for rare ingredients needed for his Sequence 8 potion.

• Joey decided to wait for the next gathering to ask Lady Rabbit about the Color Out of Space and returned to his rented house.
• Naomi told Joey she was going to Alida's husband's funeral and voiced her fears about more deaths in Senegal.
• Joey reviewed the Sequence 8 Fortune Shifter potion ingredients and summoned Helena and Clyde to the Round Table Hall.
• Helena and Clyde observed the unfamiliar new member and greeted Mr. Hermit.
• Joey spoke through the Azure Dragon and asked Clyde for a deep-sea fish skull and Five-Colored Divine Turtle Sand.

Joey held a gathering where Clyde exchanged for Hermit’s help and Helena shared information about the Color Out of Space, then the gathering stirred a hidden power beneath the gray fog. As the Color Out of Space’s influence spread and a mysterious woman boarded a royal warship, Joey spotted an Undead Cultist and followed him into an alley.

• Joey, posing as Azure Dragon, taught Clyde to send potion ingredients through a sacrifice to Hermit, and Clyde agreed to provide them free in exchange for information about the Deep Dweller Pathway.
• Joey told Clyde that Hydra had stolen the Sea God’s authority and that Chernobyl held an original General History of the Calamity Era, then asked Clyde to gather information about the Sun God.
• Helena told Joey that the Color Out of Space fed on dark emotions and could be stopped by finding and banishing its growing offspring, and Joey promised her an Angel’s Blessing when she advanced to Sheriff.
• Joey announced that the gatherings would take place every Thursday, and Helena proposed naming them the Heavenly Court; afterward, the pillar above the gray sea shed its rocky disguise and revealed a golden cylinder whose characters vanished as the sea stirred.
• The Color Out of Space’s influence caused ships to sink and people to fall into madness, while a mysterious woman boarded a royal warship and wondered whether Hydra could resist the loosened seal.
• Joey realized the fog had thickened as the Color Out of Space grew, then sensed an Undead Cultist nearby, followed him into an alley, and used a coin toss to invoke good luck.

Joey encountered a half-corpse Necromancer Sect disciple performing an Abomination Butcher advancement ritual in West District 9, escaped, and reported the threat to Captain Wade. Wade welcomed Joey into the Survey Corps’ inner ranks and sent him to choose a weapon, where the Gate of the Abyss, Sealed Artifact 0-09, opened excitedly as Joey prepared to leave.

• Joey found corpses infected with fungi in an alley and recognized that a Necromancer Sect disciple was preparing to advance to Sequence 7.
• Joey shot at the half-corpse disciple and fled; the disciple did not pursue him because his powers were strongest in darkness.
• Joey reported the advancement ritual to Wade, who praised him, offered him a place in the Survey Corps’ inner ranks, and authorized him to claim a Transcendent item.
• Wade explained the Light pathway’s advantages and urged Joey to consider switching pathways, but Joey privately preferred to remain a Luckster.
• Joey entered the Storage Room, passed through the Gate of the Abyss, and chose the cursed Weeping Blade, whose psychic toxin caused diarrhea as a side effect.
• As Joey prepared to leave, the Gate of the Abyss opened by itself, its eyes moving excitedly as Joey thought he heard a baby giggle.

Joey joined Vade Wisker at Earl Aaron’s estate, where Sealed Artifact 0-013 forced everyone into a play and began assimilating them into their assigned roles. After using the Round Table Hall to protect his consciousness, Joey searched for Vade and found him embracing a mysterious woman in the garden.

• Vade Wisker brought Joey to Earl Aaron’s estate and warned him to keep repeating his own name because 0-013 had gone out of control.
• Joey learned that 0-013 directed a play, that the maids were already dead, and that the real Earl Aaron was imprisoned in the basement.
• When the castle’s clock struck, Joey was assigned the role of a stablehand while Vade began acting as a servant.
• Joey split off part of his consciousness to the Round Table Hall, allowing him to resist 0-013’s mental assimilation and move freely around the estate.
• Joey searched for Vade and found him embracing a woman in a garden, prompting Joey to complain that the director should recast him.

Joey and Vade entered Earl Aaron’s castle as Sealed Artifact 0-013’s influence intensified, and the artifact altered reality until Joey’s pursuers became his allies. After learning that Wayne led the operation to find the Book of Ebola, Joey’s thoughts of joining the Necromancer Sect destabilized the Round Table Hall, forcing him to transfer his consciousness there.

• Joey found Vade resisting mental assimilation, and Vade warned that 0-013 was growing stronger as someone tried to undo its seal.
• Vade revealed that Earl Aaron had sought help from the public security office because political turmoil surrounding the second prince, Charles, made imperial factions wary of taking sides.
• At the basement entrance, Vade ordered Joey to wait while he went inside, and Joey’s coin tosses repeatedly foretold danger.
• Necromancer Sect disciples attacked Joey, but 0-013 rewrote the situation so they treated him as an ally and told him that Priest Wayne led their search for the Book of Ebola.
• After learning Wayne had reached Sequence 6, Joey considered joining the Defiler pathway, destabilizing the Round Table Hall and prompting him to transfer his consciousness into it.

Joey encountered Wayne and Vade Wisker inside the castle, where 0-013’s Decrees blocked their abilities and prevented Joey from escaping. Vade stayed behind to keep the Necromancer Sect from reaching Earl Aaron, while Joey was forced back into the manor as the sect’s rituals spread across Senegal.

• Joey found Wayne fighting off blue electrical attacks, and his thrown dagger only grazed Wayne before Vade Wisker’s attack was canceled by a Decree.
• Vade learned that the Necromancer Sect knew 0-013’s true name, the Book of Ebola, and planned to find Earl Aaron to reach it.
• Joey told Vade that the Evil God’s influence and 0-013’s assimilation had barely affected him, and Vade urged him to escape while he stayed to protect Aaron.
• Joey tried to leave on a white horse, but 0-013’s Decree kept him trapped at the castle exit, so he returned to the manor.
• Necromancer Sect disciples carried out sacrificial rituals across Senegal as a black-robed High Priest entered an underground cavern.

Nur Maimaiti Plato confronted the awakened Dagon, the true Sea God, after R'lyeh appeared and devastated the surrounding sea. She revealed her power over sunlight and pursued Dagon after asking for his life.

• A black-robed priest performed a blood ritual, and the fiery pattern consumed him as flames died away.
• A woman aboard a royal warship watched as R'lyeh emerged, tentacles attacked the ship, and the crew descended into madness.
• Simmons Herman sealed Mermaid Island behind a barrier after its inhabitants began attacking one another, then repeatedly prayed to the unresponsive Sea God.
• R'lyeh merged with a mass of stitched flesh, devoured approaching Deep Ones, and cried out that Hydra had betrayed him.
• The woman calmed the sea, cleared the clouds with sunlight, and identified herself to Dagon as Nur Maimaiti Plato.
• Dagon fled when Nur Maimaiti Plato said she had come to take his life, and she followed him.

Joey brought the Book of Ebola, which called itself Azrael, into the Round Table Hall and used it during the gathering. When Clyde asked about recent events at sea, Azrael revealed that a Mermaid Princess had been born in Siberia.

• Joey encountered 0-013 in Earl Aaron's estate and learned that its powers included deduction and prophecy.
• Joey brought 0-013 into the Round Table Hall, where it called him its master and accepted the name Azrael.
• Helena and Clyde joined the gathering after performing rituals to summon the Hermit.
• Clyde gave Joey a transcription of ancient writing, which Joey recognized as script from his own civilization.
• Clyde asked about recent events at sea, and Joey directed him to ask Azrael.
• Azrael wrote that a Mermaid Princess had been born in Siberia.

At the gathering, Joey used the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact to learn the ocean was safe and shared warnings about machinery, technology, and the Supreme Mother Goddess. After the gathering, Clyde prepared to sail, while Joey learned the Artifact could not leave because of its contract; meanwhile, Vade searched for Earl Aaron, who was secretly with Wayne.

• The Grade 0 Sealed Artifact asked Clyde strange questions, then answered that the ocean was safe when he asked whether they could sail.
• Joey read ancient records describing gods, an attempted Apotheosis Calamity, and a monkey that had gone mad, then warned the group about machinery, technology, and the Supreme Mother Goddess.
• Joey ended the gathering and told everyone that future sacrifices would not be needed for transmission.
• Helena returned home to research ancient scripts, while Clyde returned to his ship and announced that they would set sail the next day.
• Joey asked the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact to stay with him, but it said the Aaron Family's contract prevented it from leaving.
• Vade fled pursuers while searching for Earl Aaron, unaware that Aaron was drinking coffee with Wayne.

Wayne met Leila Aaron while Vade and Joey fought their way through the castle, and Vade discovered that Wayne could use transcendent weapons despite 0-013’s decree. Joey helped Vade break the decree’s restriction on firearms, but Wayne survived the gunshots and cut away poisoned flesh as the fight continued.

• Wayne met Leila Aaron, who welcomed him as the Aaron Family’s returning heir, before gunshots interrupted their conversation.
• Vade lured Wayne into a fight, where Wayne wounded him with poisoned flying daggers that the decree could not restrict.
• Joey eliminated the remaining initiates and secretly followed Vade to confront Wayne.
• Joey urged Vade to use his gun and asked Azrael to lift the firearm restriction, allowing Vade to shoot Wayne in the forehead.
• Wayne healed from the gunshot and survived Vade’s further shots, while Vade asked Joey to stall him for one minute.
• Joey struck Wayne with his poisoned weapon, but Wayne cut the affected flesh from his body.

Joey witnessed Wade reveal his demigod power and reunite with Leila, who was exposed as a leader of the Necromancer Sect. After Leila was stabbed, Wade rampaged and began draining the castle and Joey, who escaped into the Round Table Hall for help.

• Wade revealed a terrifying black-hole-like power, while Wayne resisted it with his Living Dead traits and demanded to know where Leila was.
• Leila appeared and used 0-013's Decree to stop time, then Wayne knelt and called her Bishop, revealing her position in the Necromancer Sect.
• Leila and Wade spoke of their love and the life they had once dreamed of sharing, but the Church of the Sun's bell pulled them back to the present.
• An attacker stabbed Leila from behind, sending Wade into a rampage that split Earl Ailu's castle and buried Joey and Wayne in rubble.
• As Wade's power drained energy and blood from his surroundings and Joey, Joey recited the words to enter the Round Table Hall and sought outside help.

After surviving Wade’s rampage at Earl Aaron’s estate, Joey was questioned by the Elder Council’s agents and learned that Wade was still alive. Joey later returned to the ruined estate, found a fragment of 0-013, and brought it home to question it.

• Joey woke among Knights Templar soldiers, who identified him as the sole survivor at Earl Aaron’s estate and questioned him about Wade.
• Joey was held by Military Intelligence for several days, then questioned by a white-bearded Demigod who asked whether Wade had chosen him and confirmed that Wade was alive.
• Joey escaped the interrogation with his memory of the old man erased, then recovered it in the Round Table Hall and realized he had met a Demigod.
• Joey returned to the cordoned estate at night and found a yellowed page of 0-013 beneath the ruined fountain.
• The page told Joey it could answer his questions without obeying the law of conservation, and he returned home to plan what to ask.

Joey learned that war was the Necromancer Sect’s aim and that 0-013 could be freed after Leila’s task was completed. Meanwhile, Vade joined Wayne’s group, learned more about Leila’s plan and the truth about Night Demons, and watched 0-013 absorb the Gate of the Abyss.

• Joey questioned 0-013 about the forces behind the conflict and learned that its freedom depended on completing Leila’s task.
• At the Necromancer Sect’s camp beyond the Great Fog, Wayne revealed that the Empire secretly supported the Sect and accused Vade of causing Leila’s death.
• Wayne told Vade that his mission was to bring the Gate of the Abyss, Sealed Artifact 0-09, into the main city, and explained that contaminated people were sent to be incinerated.
• Val learned that his wife had escaped the Church after becoming contaminated and disappeared into the darkness while searching a Night Demon’s corpse.
• Vade and Wayne’s group reached the Gate of the Abyss, and Wayne used 0-013 to absorb it into the book.

Joey returned to the Outer City to look for Alisa after hearing reports that people were going mad, but he found her room abandoned and ransacked. Meanwhile, a cheerful procession following the Divine Maiden advanced toward Senegal, and its leader was revealed to be Alisa.

• Wayne gathered the Necromancer Sect and rallied its members to storm the Imperial City and overthrow Daniel.
• Joey learned at the Adventurers' Bar that rumors challenged Charles's legitimacy and that madness was spreading through the Outer City.
• Joey traveled to Udil Beckett Farm and found Alisa's room empty, then returned to the Inner City overwhelmed by her disappearance.
• A well-fed procession of commoners following the Divine Maiden advanced toward Senegal in the opposite direction from the Necromancer Sect.
• After an explosion sent black smoke spreading around their cart, a potbellied man rushed inside and called out to Alisa.

Joey awoke poisoned and bound in a basement, where his landlady Naomi Jeff tried to peel off his face and claimed she was preparing to resurrect her husband, Jeff. As Naomi continued a blood ritual, Joey tried to learn who had taught her, but she only told him to guess.

• Joey woke in a candlelit basement, paralyzed by poison, and discovered Naomi Jeff standing over him with a knife.
• Naomi argued with herself, then confessed her love for Joey and said she wanted to peel off his face.
• Naomi mistook Joey for Jeff, became enraged when he refused her food, and told him the story of her romance with her dead husband.
• Naomi placed Jeff's ring on Joey's finger and said he would soon return to her side.
• Joey provoked Naomi by accusing her of betraying Jeff to worship an evil god, and she insisted she was trying to resurrect him.
• Joey asked who had taught Naomi the ritual, but she smiled and told him to guess.

Joey witnessed Naomi perform a ritual to resurrect Erich Jeff through the Gate of All Doors, but Erich’s spirit possessed Naomi instead. Erich revealed that Naomi had imprisoned and mutilated him, leaving Joey caught between the two conflicting accounts of their relationship.

• Naomi opened the door-like painting with a ritual and called for Erich Jeff to return.
• A spirit emerged from the Gate of All Doors and appeared to enter Naomi, whose face changed to a man’s.
• Joey realized that the person speaking through Naomi was Erich, who begged to be released and tried to kill himself.
• Erich told Joey that Naomi had locked him in a cage and cut off his feet, contradicting Naomi’s story of their romance.
• Joey stopped Erich from stabbing himself and insisted that he had no relationship with Naomi.

Joey discovered how Naomi’s obsession with Erich led to Sarah’s imprisonment and the deaths of both women through a ritual, while the strange door and the Book of Ebola hinted at Joey’s unexplained connection to Sealed Artifacts. He asked the Book to investigate the pasts of Naomi, Sarah, and Erich.

• Joey showed Naomi her altered face in a mirror, and she realized the Necromancer Sect had deceived her.
• Joey found Sarah sealed inside a jar, and she explained that Naomi had suspected her of an affair with Erich and imprisoned her while seeking to resurrect him.
• When Joey tried to subdue Naomi, Erich’s personality surfaced, and Sarah began choking before dissolving into bloodlike fluid that flowed into the door.
• Naomi alternated between her own voice and Erich’s as her body melted, then was dragged through the door and vanished.
• Joey summoned the Book of Ebola, which spoke with the door; the door opened onto a street, and Joey asked the Book to deduce Naomi, Sarah, and Erich’s pasts.

Joey returned from the basement to find Senegal engulfed in unrest and a strange, colorful mist, then discovered that Naomi Jeff had survived as a grotesque mass of flesh and tentacles. Naomi admitted she had been deceived into performing ritual magic to regain her youth, and Joey retreated as she crawled toward him.

• Joey found useful potions in a chest, returned 0-013's page to the Great Hall, and emerged onto a street near his home.
• The Sun Clock boomed as rebels attacked and the mist over the main city changed color; Joey suspected 0-013 and the Color Out of Space were directing the chaos.
• Joey heard Naomi Jeff next door and found blood seeping from beneath her door as she pleaded for help and spoke about Erich and her past.
• Naomi opened the door, revealing herself embedded in a tentacled mass of bloody flesh, and said Erich had told her about ritual magic that would give her a noble's skin and beautiful hair.
• Naomi realized the figure she had believed was Erich was not him and begged Joey for another chance to perform the summoning, while Joey backed away from her crawling body.