Recaps

Edward opened the door in the void and met Bethel Abraham, who revealed that the Door Pathway’s Uniqueness was imprinted within Edward. Their conversation left Edward wondering how the Uniqueness reached him and what Adam or the True Creator had planned.

• Edward pushed the door fully open, crossed into another starry sky, and saw a blood-red moon before Mr. Door appeared.
• Mr. Door identified himself as Bethel Abraham and explained that he had expected Adam or the True Creator to visit him.
• Mr. Door recognized the Door Pathway’s Uniqueness within Edward, and Edward connected it to his strange journey and repeated encounters with Beyonders.
• Edward realized that his possession of the Uniqueness could prevent Mr. Door, Amon, or Klein from completing their paths to godhood.
• Mr. Door said Adam or the True Creator had taken the Uniqueness in exchange for reducing his corruption, and confirmed that his visitor had been rational.

Edward met Mr. Door, who asked him to help remove the Outer Deity’s corruption and get him home, then returned to the starry sky and advanced to Sequence 5 Wandering Mentor. After reviewing his new abilities and the dangerous Sequence 4 ritual, Edward reassured Lilith and Audrey and discovered that he had digested nearly a third of the Wandering Mentor Potion.

• Mr. Door told Edward that Adam had promised to free him from the Outer Deity’s corruption and send him home, and he asked Edward to help when they met again.
• Mr. Door told Edward to seek out the Abraham descendants for the Door Pathway formulas before the light door expelled Edward back into the starry sky.
• Edward successfully advanced to Sequence 5 Wandering Mentor and learned his new abilities and the Sequence 4 Spirit Mage ingredients and ritual.
• Edward used Delusion to borrow the Yazi ability, which could negate corruption and reflect it back at twice its strength.
• Lilith and Audrey checked on Edward, and he explained that the Spirit Mage ritual required his body to be destroyed while his soul remained intact.
• Edward discovered that his Traveler Potion was fully digested and that nearly a third of his Wandering Mentor Potion had been digested.

Edward considered how to digest his Wandering Mentor potion and planned to travel while teaching, while Derrick and Lovia returned to the City of Silver with concerns about the expedition party. At Saint Samuel Cathedral, Edward learned that the Evernight Goddess had already given his books to Stiano, but She told him he still had a chance to impart knowledge himself.

• Edward discussed wandering and teaching with Audrey, who asked when he would set off, and he told her that Queen Mystic had found several ingredients for her potion formulas.
• After Audrey and Susie left, Lilith accused Edward of acting guilty and bit his ear before he threatened to test her studies.
• Derrick returned to the City of Silver with Lovia and the expedition party, but Lovia stopped him from warning Chief Colin Iliad that the others had been corrupted.
• At Saint Samuel Cathedral, Edward asked the Evernight Goddess whether he could offer his books and technologies to the God of Steam and Machinery, and She told him they had already been given to Stiano.
• Edward explained that he needed to impart knowledge for his acting, and the Evernight Goddess told him he still had a chance.

Edward planned a westward journey through Feynapotter, Lenburg, and Intis, while Audrey arranged for him to become a professor at Backlund University of Technology. When Klein visited, Edward suggested asking the sentient mirror Arrodes for advice about whether Klein should see Benson and Melissa, and the three went to the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery to meet it.

• Audrey told Edward she had arranged a professor identity for him at Backlund University of Technology, and he described his planned route through Feynapotter, Lenburg, and Intis.
• Klein visited Edward and explained that he had not decided whether to return to see Benson and Melissa because his intuition warned him against it.
• Edward suggested that Klein consult Arrodes, a sentient Sealed Artifact that claimed to answer any question.
• Audrey joined Edward and Klein as they went to Saint Hillan Church to see Arrodes.
• Arrodes greeted the three with colorful fireworks and playful words.

Klein questioned Arrodes about visiting Benson and Melissa, while Audrey and Edward also sought information from the mirror. Afterward, Klein decided to return to Tingen, and Edward offered to go with him and urged him to consider making his siblings Beyonders.

• Arrodes advised Klein that he could visit Benson and Melissa but should not get too close to them, then revealed that Sherlock Moriarty was not his real name.
• Audrey asked where to find a hallucinatory wind chime tree and learned its location, then answered Arrodes's question by choosing Edward over Klein.
• Edward asked where to obtain an Undying Beyonder Characteristic and learned that Feathered Serpents were held by the Eggers Family and could be traced through a pirate ship.
• Edward told Audrey and Klein that Arrodes might be responding to traces of the gray fog connected to the Tarot Club and Mr. Fool.
• Klein said he felt lost and planned to visit Tingen, while Edward offered to accompany him and urged him to consider making Benson and Melissa Beyonders.

Edward began volunteering at an impoverished East Borough free school while Klein investigated disappearances connected to suspected human trafficking. The chapter left Edward preparing to teach, with the school’s students arriving for evening lessons.

• Audrey asked Edward about his complicated attitude toward Mr. World, and Edward explained that Klein would face the Apocalypse alone unless others helped him.
• Klein asked Old Kohler to investigate disappearances and learned that Liv’s younger daughter, Daisy, had gone missing.
• Edward sought a Beyonder Characteristic for his advancement but focused on digesting his potion by volunteering as a teacher at an East Borough free school.
• Edward learned that the school had lost most of its funding after its administrators abused the system, then heard that Daisy was missing and went home to fetch Lilith.
• Lilith told Edward she had nearly finished digesting her potion by instigating bad people, and Edward promised to take her out to sea the next day.
• Students began arriving at the free school that evening and quietly reviewed their notes despite the teachers’ absence.

Edward observed the student-tutoring classes and began helping the children, while Klein raided Capim’s villa, freed the kidnapped girls, and investigated Capim’s connection to Cynthia. Capim revealed that he had sent Cynthia to the trafficker Baelen and had handed him several thousand people, leaving Klein to question the scale of the trafficking.

• Edward learned the teaching procedures from Lyle, then visited classrooms and answered the students’ questions.
• Klein entered Capim’s villa, killed two bodyguards, freed Daisy and the other imprisoned girls, and left tarot cards at Capim’s corpse.
• Two powerful Beyonders confronted Klein’s Black Emperor guise at the villa, but he escaped by teleporting after stealing one man’s intention to prohibit it.
• Above the gray fog, Klein learned from Capim’s spirit that Baelen had received Cynthia after she escaped and had recently found traces of her.
• Capim told Klein that Baelen frequented the Lime Bar and that he had handed him several thousand people, prompting Klein to ask whether they were all kidnapped from East Borough and Harbor Borough.

Edward took Capim’s money after Klein’s escape and helped amplify the Phantom Thief Black Emperor’s performance, while Klein noticed a major leap in his Magician potion digestion. Audrey learned that Capim had been killed and that the Tower and Justice cards had been left at the scene; Edward confirmed his involvement but said he had not killed Capim.

• Klein reflected on the kidnapped people and human trafficking, then returned to the real world and was surprised by how much his Magician potion had digested.
• Edward took nearly ten thousand Pounds from Capim’s safe and, disguised as the Black Emperor, provoked two Half-Gods to help Klein’s potion digestion.
• Edward tested teaching at the free school as a way to digest his own potion and told Lilith he would wait for word from Bernadette before leaving.
• Earl Hall told Audrey that Capim had been killed and that the Tower and Justice tarot cards had been left in his emptied safe.
• Audrey visited Edward with the newspaper, and he admitted taking part in the incident but said he had not killed Capim.

Edward discussed the theft from Capim’s safe with Audrey, then learned the papers had falsely tied the robbery to Mr. Fool’s Blessed. After supporting a free school and meeting Bernadette, he asked whether he should leave Backlund, and she warned that the catastrophe was very close.

• Audrey learned that Mr. Fool’s Blessed had killed Capim while Edward had taken the money from his safe, and she planned to ask Mr. Fool to convey her respect.
• Klein read the report about Capim’s safe and the Tower and Justice cards, suspected Edward and Audrey, and set out to find Baelen before reporting to Prince Edessak.
• Xio urged Fors to open Mr. Lawrence’s letter because it might lead to Apprentice formulas, but Fors put off the decision to buy cigarettes.
• Edward donated food and promised monthly support to the free school, where Daisy and the other children received a lavish dinner.
• Bernadette told Edward that his teaching could count as acting and, after trying to glimpse the future, warned him that Backlund’s catastrophe was very close.

Edward persuaded Bernadette to travel with him and urged Audrey’s family to leave Backlund before the looming catastrophe. As smog spread over the city, Edward went to find Klein and noticed someone watching Minsk Street.

• Bernadette agreed to travel with Edward, asking him to tell her stories and teach her Roselle’s language along the way.
• Edward realized he could protect his friends by helping them leave Backlund, and he summoned Phoenix to act on the idea.
• Edward convinced Audrey to ask Earl Hall to take the family out of Backlund, and Earl agreed while instructing Hibbert to finish preparations and then put his work on hold.
• On Friday, Edward and Lilith set out to find Klein on Minsk Street as smog shrouded Backlund.
• Lilith sensed someone watching them, and Edward spotted a boy in a bowler hat hiding near 13 Minsk Street.

Edward learned that Klein had gone missing while investigating Cynthia’s disappearance at Red Rose Manor, and his attempts to locate Klein revealed that Klein had left Backlund and was beyond ordinary perception. Mr. Fool assured Edward that Klein was safe for now and told him to pray every four hours; Edward then went to question Arrodes, only to learn it had just returned from an investigation with Ikanser.

• Edward met Ian outside Sherlock’s home and learned that Sherlock had been missing since the previous afternoon.
• Ian told Edward that Sherlock had asked him to investigate Detective Zreal’s inquiry into missing maids at Red Rose Manor, and that the dates in Sherlock’s information did not match.
• Edward asked Phoenix to find Klein, but Phoenix could not locate him because he was somewhere that blocked its perception.
• Edward prayed to Mr. Fool and divined that Klein had left Backlund, then Mr. Fool assured him Klein was safe for now and instructed him to pray every four hours.
• Edward took Lilith to Saint Hillan Church to ask Arrodes questions, where Dirac Odom told him Ikanser had taken the mirror to investigate the Phantom Thief Black Emperor.
• Ikanser returned with Arrodes after the mirror had suddenly seemed to go mad during the investigation.

Edward used Arrodes to investigate Klein’s disappearance and learned that Klein vanished while following Baelen, a man connected to the slave trade, near Backlund. Arrodes could not locate Klein, but promised to send word through Edward’s messenger if it found him, leaving Edward to investigate on his own.

• Edward asked Arrodes where Detective Sherlock was, and it showed Klein in a snowy town before the image vanished.
• Arrodes revealed that Klein had disappeared while investigating the maid Cynthia and later showed him walking into a forest outside Backlund before vanishing.
• After Ikanser left the room, Edward learned that Baelen was connected to the slave trade and had drawn Klein to the outskirts of Backlund.
• Edward asked whether Klein was in a Tudor mausoleum, but Arrodes said it could not see clearly and that its master was not there.
• Arrodes promised to summon Edward’s messenger if it found news, and Edward left to investigate Klein’s disappearance himself.

Klein awoke in a strange town with missing memories and warnings written on his hand, while the townspeople greeted him as Sherlock Moriarty with eerie smiles. Edward failed to locate him and began gathering help as he suspected the Demoness Sect might be involved; a letter revealed Katarina had gone to Backlund, and Edward headed to the Aurora Order’s base.

• Klein remembered entering the snowbound town but could not recall what happened after he arrived, and he found three warnings written on his hand.
• Klein recalled being struck in the forehead with a kitchen knife and realized he had apparently died once.
• Fors Wall appeared in the town, and the smiling townspeople greeted her and Klein by name.
• Edward answered Edward’s prayer, searched for Klein without success, and sent requests for help to several contacts and organizations.
• Alger relayed Tracy’s letter saying Katarina had left for Backlund, and Edward offered to trade an Undying Beyonder characteristic for a way to become a man again.
• Edward traveled with Lilith to the Aurora Order’s base, where Priscilla complained that she had not been able to act for days.

Edward sought Medici’s insight into his missing detective friend and learned the Aurora Order was negotiating with the Demoness Church while the Demonesses planned a massacre. Meanwhile, Xio searched for the missing Fors, who was trapped with Klein in Snowy Town, where death cost them their memories.

• Edward visited Medici, who explained that the Demoness Church wanted the Aurora Order to stage a major event in Backlund and that negotiations over the price were ongoing.
• Edward asked Medici about his missing detective friend, and Medici suggested Evernight might be concealing the place where he was trapped.
• Medici warned Edward that the Demonesses under Cheek intended to carry out a massacre, and Edward promised to do what he could to stop them.
• Edward left with Lilith, while Medici joked about taking the cat to visit the Sanguine.
• Xio realized Fors had failed to return from buying cigarettes and hurried to seek help from MI9.
• In Snowy Town, Klein and Fors avoided a dangerous dinner and prepared to face another night of monsters, after dying there had already begun erasing their memories.

Klein and Fors searched for a church that might be their way out of the strange town, while Edward investigated Klein’s disappearance in Backlund. Dunn revealed that Fors Wall had also vanished, leaving Edward to confirm she was his friend.

• Klein and Fors concluded that the church marked on a town map might be their route out and planned to reach it after dark by moving through empty houses.
• Klein used divination to find an empty house, and Fors used Door Opening to take them through a wall as they began working toward the church.
• Edward spent the day searching for Klein, while Audrey described pretending to be hypnotized at a Psychology Alchemists salon after Mr. Fool’s angel protected her.
• Dunn told Edward that MI9 was also searching for the missing maid and that dozens of people had disappeared around Backlund, including novelist Fors Wall.
• Edward told Dunn that Fors Wall was his friend.

Edward investigated Fors's disappearance and learned that she was with Klein in an independent space protected from divination, while several dozen people had vanished across Backlund. The Three Great Churches and MI9 became involved, and Qonas Kilgor learned that finding the missing author might reveal the way into the artificially created space.

• Edward questioned Dunn about Fors, searched her and Xio's home, and divined that Fors was with Klein in a place that blocked divination.
• Edward asked Arrodes about Fors and learned that she had disappeared somewhere different from the other missing people, possibly because she was an author, was cursed, or was an Apprentice Pathway Beyonder.
• Edward told Ikanser that dozens of Backlund disappearances might involve a High Sequence Beyonder or a Sealed Artifact, prompting Ikanser to report the matter to his superiors.
• Edward reported the disappearances and his suspicion about the Demoness Sect to the Church of Evernight, which was asked to notify the Church of Storms.
• Qonas Kilgor learned that the Three Great Churches were investigating the disappearances and ordered his subordinate to find the missing person; Mr. Lambis said the person was likely an author in an artificially created place between reality and illusion.

Edward learned that the missing people were trapped in a Book World and suspected Fors’s writing was connected, while Klein and Fors fought their way toward a church inside Snowy Town. The chapter left Klein and Fors alive after killing a disguised monster, as Edward sought confirmation from Miss Magician.

• Akasha told Edward that the missing people were likely inside an independent Book World, though she did not know its location.
• Edward suspected Fors’s blizzard-themed novel had created or connected to the Book World, failed to divine her whereabouts, and asked Mr. Fool to question Miss Magician.
• Edward warned Mr. Fool that Klein’s disappearance might involve a High Sequence Beyonder or Beyonder Characteristic of the Spectator Pathway.
• Klein and Fors used divination and Door Opening to navigate Snowy Town toward the church, pausing when Fors’s spirituality ran low.
• A child entered their room and transformed into a monster, but Klein and Fors worked together to kill it.

Klein and Fors escaped a monster tide by reaching a church, where its occupants recognized Klein as the person who had brought them there before. In Backlund, Edward investigated the unpublished story tied to the Quill and discovered a manuscript called The Blizzard Mystery that Fors had once been asked to review.

• Klein and Fors fled the approaching monsters, and the church bells halted the beast tide long enough for them to enter the church.
• A girl in the church told Klein that he had previously brought everyone there to hide, leaving him stunned.
• Edward and Akasha found the Backlund Daily’s former offices burned down and learned the fire had destroyed the papers and printing plates before the story about Ince Zangwill could be published.
• Akasha confirmed that the story had appeared in no newspaper, and Edward concluded that someone had eliminated it before publication.
• Edward questioned the new editor-in-chief, who produced The Blizzard Mystery and recalled that Fors had judged it passable but too stereotypical to revise.

Edward and Akasha traced the disappearances to Jessica, a lost-control Half-God who had used the Quill and a Sealed Artifact to trap nearly a hundred people in a Book World. Saint Anthony had confined her to a church to prevent further harm, but warned that she could destroy the book and kill everyone inside if provoked.

• Edward learned that Jessica had written the manuscript connected to the Book World, while Klein discovered that Fors recognized her as the priest in Snowy Town.
• Edward and Akasha found Jessica's ransacked flat, and Akasha recalled sensing a lost-control aura near a hidden church where Saint Anthony had been present.
• Edward and Akasha visited Saint Anthony at the Nofiel Church and found Jessica transformed, with the book and Quill in her possession.
• Saint Anthony explained that Jessica had trapped nearly a hundred people in the Book World and threatened to destroy it if he intervened.
• Saint Anthony warned Edward that someone else wanted the people inside the book dead, so they had to act quickly.

Edward learned that MI9 was approaching the Book World to destroy it, while Klein and Fors received Edward’s message inside Snowy Town. They suspected Fors’s unusual role held a clue to escaping, but the chapter left them questioning whether Jessica’s world confirmed Fors’s criticism of her writing.

• Phoenix delivered Captain Dunn’s warning that MI9 was heading toward Backlund’s outskirts with a powerful High Sequence Beyonder, and Edward asked Phoenix to find Klein and help him.
• Anthony told Edward that the people trapped in the book might escape only if they found their own way out, and Edward prayed to Mr. Fool for help protecting the book.
• In Snowy Town, Klein and Fors noticed Jessica’s church kept them from feeling hunger or thirst, and Klein spotted Edward’s Messenger forcing its way through a rift.
• Phoenix delivered Edward’s letter, which explained that they were inside Jessica’s Book World and suggested finding the main storyline’s ending as a possible way out.
• Fors said Jessica had brought her into the Book World to prove her wrong, and Klein questioned how that fit with the town’s puppet-like inhabitants.

Klein realized his warnings might mean he needed to die and rely on someone else’s help to remain conscious and reach the world beyond death. Meanwhile, Anthony explained that stealing the novel would draw MI9’s pursuit, prompting Ace Snake to leave rather than take part.

• Cynthia told Klein that he had previously gone looking for the source of the monsters, and questioned the warning written on his hand.
• Klein reconsidered his three warnings and suspected that death might let him reach the monsters’ source, while another person’s help could keep him conscious after resurrection.
• Klein pressed his hand to his chest and silently praised Mr. Fool.
• At Nofiel Church, Ace Snake urged Anthony to kill the entity inside, but Anthony explained the risks of seizing its novel and pen.
• Ace Snake realized that whoever took the novel and pen would face MI9’s pursuit, then flew back to the Church of Storms.

Edward fought off MI9 agents while Anthony, Ace Snake, and Horamick prepared to enter the Book World, but Hvin Lambis used his Spectator powers to puppet Edward and make him hand over the Quill. Grove Augustus blocked Horamick from intervening as Hvin asked Edward to give him the Quill.

• Horamick learned that Anthony was staying in the church to protect people trapped in the Book World, and he and Anthony agreed to act together.
• Qonas Kilgor confronted Akasha, who used the Picture Frame Edward had given her to transport them both away.
• Edward fought the MI9 agents, using spells and control effects to make them attack one another before binding the survivors.
• As Edward tried to leave, Hvin Lambis appeared and controlled him, while Grove Augustus prevented Horamick from reaching him.
• Hvin ordered Edward to take the Quill from his Leather Pouch and hand it over.

Edward fought Hvin Lambis, whose Spectator mythical creature form repeatedly attacked his consciousness, and apparently killed the half-god with amplified spells. Mr. Fool then ordered his followers to pray without interruption, while Hvin’s consciousness survived and entered Edward’s mental world; elsewhere, Medici sent Mr. A to bring about the Lord’s descent.

• Edward resisted Hvin Lambis’s hypnosis and unleashed a barrage of attacks, forcing Hvin to transform into an incomplete mythical creature form.
• Hvin’s Dragon Might and Mind Storm overwhelmed Edward, but Edward used Yazi to reflect the corruption and counterattacked with amplified spells.
• Edward blasted Hvin’s head apart and used repeated Distortions and Killing Curses until the dragon’s body lost all vitality; he confirmed Hvin’s apparent death with a coin.
• Mr. Fool appeared to Edward and ordered everyone to pray to him without interruption, and he gave the same instruction to Alger and Derrick Berg.
• Hvin’s consciousness entered Edward’s island of consciousness and began probing his secrets despite his body’s apparent death.
• Medici ordered Mr. A to bring about the Lord’s descent, while Priscilla refused to tell Medici whether a mysterious being had contacted her.

Klein risked another suicide to escape the Book World, using the Tarot Club’s prayers to awaken in the church that existed during the day. He found the monster consuming the townspeople and attacked it, drawing its first cry of pain.

• Klein told Fors he would gamble on suicide to recover his memories, and she worried that he might forget their recent experiences.
• At dawn, Klein asked the Tarot Club members to pray to him continuously, then shot himself in the temple.
• The prayers reached Klein as he sank into darkness, and he opened his eyes in the daytime church.
• Klein found a monster swallowing residents and feeding their blood into a book, then fired his revolver and Air Bullets at it.
• Klein loaded silver demon-hunting bullets and shot the monster again, making it shriek.

Klein tried to destroy the church-bound monster with his last Flaring Sun Charm, but it regenerated, while Jessica revealed the town’s nature and gave Fors a way to weaken the monster by bringing its residents to life through writing. In Edward’s Mind World, Hvin Lambis attacked him, and Edward realized he could control his dream world.

• Klein used his last Flaring Sun Charm to blast the monster inside the church, but the church remained intact and the monster quickly regenerated.
• Jessica told Fors that the monster was her dark self and explained that Fors could weaken it by writing the town’s puppet residents into real life.
• Fors accepted Jessica’s book and pen and began writing to give the residents true life.
• Edward left his body as a wraith to summon help, then returned to face Hvin Lambis in his dark Mind World.
• Hvin Lambis attacked Edward with mental pressure and storms, but Edward resisted with [Unrestrained] and realized he controlled his Dream World.