Chapter Summaries

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.

Edward defeated Hvin Rambis in his mind world after a ray opened a door that unleashed Mr. Door’s ravings, then used Spirit Channeling to question Hvin about potion formulas. In Snowy Town, Fors continued writing stories about the town’s residents and travelers, and Jessica said Fors had made progress.

• Edward and Hvin Rambis fought in Edward’s mind world, where Hvin’s dragon form tore through Edward’s spells and attacked his soul.
• Hvin’s psychic ray struck a glowing door, and Mr. Door’s ravings caused Hvin to lose control.
• Edward killed Hvin with an amplified Avada Kedavra after Hvin transformed into a withered human body.
• Edward performed Spirit Channeling on Hvin’s corpse and learned his identity before asking him for every potion formula he knew.
• Fors wrote interconnected stories about Snowy Town’s residents and visiting travelers, and Jessica said Fors had made progress.

Klein defeated the monster inside the novel, escaped the Mind World, and fully digested the Magician Potion. When Edward tried to hand the Quill to Horamick, it vanished as a fake, and the novel burst apart, scattering photographs over the village.

• Klein weakened the monster with the Biological Toxin Bottle and killed it after it fell, completing the digestion of his Magician Potion.
• Klein emerged from the book in a dilapidated village and recovered his lost memories as the other trapped people appeared around him.
• Edward awoke beside the dead grayish-white Dragon and learned from Horamick that the danger involving the pen was not over.
• Edward handed the novel and Quill to Horamick, but the Quill turned into motes of light and was revealed to be fake.
• The motes entered the novel, which exploded and sent photographs raining over the village.

Photographs exposing George III’s trafficking and tomb construction fell over Backlund, while Anthony and the Quill’s allies tried to make the Churches witness his plans. As Mr. A began a ritual and Panatiya spread smog through East Borough, a fierce wind swept the fog away, leaving her wondering who had intervened.

• Edward saw photographs exposing George III’s crimes fall before Backlund’s residents and the Churches, and suspected Anthony had helped arrange their release.
• The Quill recounted how Anthony had cooperated with its owner to expose George III, explaining that the Churches—not ordinary people—were the crucial audience.
• Mr. A sacrificed four attendants and began a ritual to summon his Lord in an underground chamber, but Cecimir led the Red Gloves and Machinery Hivemind in to stop him.
• Panatiya walked through East Borough, spreading iron-black and pale-yellow smog across Backlund as her potion digested.
• A powerful north-to-south wind swept the smog toward the harbor and sea, and Panatiya wondered whether someone from the Churches had intervened.

As the Great Smog spread across Backlund, Bernadette faced Derlink Augustus while rescuers and Sanguine worked to save civilians. Edessak revealed how hypnotized aristocratic heirs had been made to attack their families, then escaped with Helena and resolved to oppose George III; the smog continued spreading toward Audrey’s home.

• Panatiya resumed releasing plague viruses after a gale briefly scattered them, while Bernadette was blocked by Derlink Augustus and prepared to fight him after Phoenix warned that Edward was in trouble.
• One-Eyed Kedge, the Lime Bar staff, Emlyn, Leonard, and Pallez helped people survive the smog by distributing masks and potions, and a storm and heavy rain finally cleared it.
• Edessak shot Kriya Macht, then wrote that hypnotized children of Loen’s elite had been driven to attack their relatives, weakening the kingdom and threatening George III’s plans.
• Edessak left Red Rose Manor with Helena, thanking her for the quill that had exposed the scheme, and they agreed to make George III suffer and abandon his ambition to become a god.
• Audrey watched the Great Smog thicken and spread toward the Hall family villa.

Audrey discovered Hibbert had stabbed Earl Hall during the spreading Great Smog, and Edward rushed to the Hall villa after hearing Earl Hall was near death. Edward used the Resurrection Stone Ring and reversed a failed divination, bringing Earl Hall back to life, though the ring cracked.

• Audrey found Hibbert attacking Earl Hall and used Intimidation and Frenzy to stop him.
• Audrey tried to heal Earl Hall, then sought Edward when his wounds and blood loss left him near death.
• Edward saw the Great Smog spreading over Backlund and hurried to the Hall villa after Phoenix relayed Audrey's plea.
• Edward used the Resurrection Stone Ring, the Paper Crane, and the Black Doll, then reversed a divination result to revive Earl Hall briefly.
• Earl Hall died again, but the Resurrection Stone Ring cracked and he suddenly returned to life, asking what had happened.