Chapter Summaries

Fors discovered Xio secretly supporting Emperor George III and fled after overhearing their plans. Meanwhile, Richard fought the popes in the Spirit World, and Audrey and Taufik faced Archbishop Anthony, who defended his attack on the Southern Continent as a means of saving his own country.

• Fors followed Xio into an alley and overheard her discussing a plan involving Emperor George III and the Church of the Storm with a masked MI9 member.
• The masked man urged Xio to attend a prayer gathering for George III, and Fors escaped through the Spirit World.
• Richard seized Gade II, suppressed his spirituality, and swallowed him before turning his attention to the Evernight Pope.
• Audrey overcame her fear of a mythical creature and found Taufik badly wounded after his fight with Anthony.
• Audrey confronted Anthony about attacking the Southern Continent, and he said the conflict could only be settled through strength.

Audrey confronted Saint Anthony over Loen’s choice to wage war rather than use its own idle land and resources to help the poor, and the realization shattered her faith in the institutions she had respected. After Anthony attacked Taufik and Audrey’s puppet body was destroyed, she returned to her body in Backlund, having fully digested the Dreamwalker potion.

• Audrey challenged Saint Anthony to explain how conquering the Highlands would improve life in Loen, then argued that Loen could put its own neglected land to use instead of waging war.
• Audrey realized that Loen’s leaders chose slaughter despite having the resources to help their people, and she broke down in grief as Taufik and Anthony remained silent.
• Saint Anthony attacked Taufik in the darkness, and Audrey used a Dragon Roar to interrupt the Requiem before throwing herself in front of another attack.
• Anthony’s claw destroyed Audrey’s puppet body and severed Letty Orr’s head, triggering the return ritual; Audrey apologized to Taufik as her consciousness faded.
• Audrey awoke in her room at Earl Hall’s home, reassured Susie that she was fine, and confirmed that she had fully digested the Dreamwalker potion.

Audrey finished digesting her Dreamwalker potion and decided to return to the Highlands despite her family’s plans to send her to Intis. Meanwhile, Klein rejected the Lord of Withering’s offered choices and asked for the odds that he could become Door.

• Audrey recognized that Letty Orr’s death had ended the chapter of her life in the Southern Continent and chose to accept Letty as part of herself.
• Audrey concluded that her hospital work and dream experiences had completed her Dreamwalker potion digestion, and she resolved to seek the Manipulator advancement ritual.
• Audrey considered taking Hvin Rambis’s Beyonder characteristic but rejected killing him as a shortcut that could erode her humanity.
• Audrey learned that Susie had met her friends while disguised as her, then concealed her distress and prepared to leave for the Highlands.
• Audrey told her mother she loved her family while resolving to return to the Highlands, where people were waiting for her.
• Klein told the Lord of Withering that he would not abandon Mr. Richard, then asked for the probability of becoming Door.

Edward let Traynor choose his own path and agreed to help Klein pursue advancement as Door, while the Demon of Knowledge prepared to summon Bethel Abraham. Klein accepted the Demon’s conditions and stepped into the ritual, where someone descended behind him; meanwhile, an apparent Aurora Order demigod appeared at the Hall mansion.

• Edward questioned Traynor about his goals, then let him leave to help despite warning that he would no longer protect him.
• The Demon of Knowledge notified the Abraham Family to prepare a ritual, and Verdu and the other surviving members were taken to the Grand Cathedral of Mysteries to summon their Ancestor.
• Klein weighed the consequences of becoming Door, then agreed not to help the God of Thunder and promised to aid people threatened by the crisis without sheltering them.
• The Demon of Knowledge established a contract with Klein and publicly announced him as a candidate for Lord of Mysteries through a display of stars.
• Klein followed the starlight staircase into the cosmos, where the Demon of Knowledge began the summoning ritual and a figure appeared behind him.
• Audrey saw a translucent visitor outside the Hall mansion trace a cross and recognized the sign of the Aurora Order.

Audrey left for Intis with Botis, but changed course toward the Southern Continent after receiving blood for her demigod potion. Meanwhile, Klein met Bethel Abraham and learned that Bethel’s cries had not been pleas for rescue but warnings not to save him.

• Audrey hypnotized her mother and Annie, packed her belongings and potion ingredients, and left with Botis while Susie accompanied them.
• Audrey asked the Psychology Alchemists for the blood of an elderly Mind Dragon, and an old man sent her a bottle of his specially treated blood.
• After receiving the blood, Audrey told Botis to take her to the Southern Continent instead of the Cathedral of Light, and offered to leave Susie and her belongings in his care.
• Edgar met Dragon Harras, the Church-assigned scholar who would assist with his archaeological project.
• Klein met Bethel Abraham near the barrier, and Bethel explained that the personality urging others to rescue him belonged to the Mother of Life.
• The Demon of Knowledge revealed Bethel’s true message: “Don’t save me.”

Klein fought Bethel Abraham, trapped him in a fragment of the Historical Void, and switched bodies with him to escape. Klein returned to Earth through the summoning ritual as Bethel, while the real Bethel remained sealed in Klein’s body.

• Klein considered Mr. Door’s corruption and learned that Bethel viewed his return to Earth as a danger, then Bethel attacked him rather than agree to cooperate.
• Klein retreated into the Historical Void and asked the Demon of Knowledge to help turn it into a seal that could isolate Bethel.
• Bethel escaped the initial trap but was drawn into a Third Epoch battle fragment, where Klein used marionettes and a Miracle of Restoration to get close and seize his Spirit Body Threads.
• Klein used Ritual Magic to exchange bodies with Bethel, then left the Historical Void in Bethel’s body while the real Bethel was trapped in Klein’s.
• Klein followed the summoning back to the Mysteries Grand Cathedral, where he emerged before the Abrahams as a figure made of starlight and opened every door in the world.

Klein completed the apotheosis ritual and became a true god of the Apprentice pathway, but left the Abraham family without revealing himself as Bethel. In Trier, Audrey drank her prepared potion amid the disaster and entered the Sea of Collective Subconscious, where she resolved to punish those who destroyed happiness and help those who sought it.

• The apotheosis ritual opened doors and loosened seals across the world, alarming Audrey, Fors, Xio, and Leonard; Pallez told Leonard that a true god of the Apprentice pathway had been born, and it was not Amon.
• Klein, possessing Bethel’s body through the Western Continent’s Possession secret art, gained temporary control over the Door pathway’s powers while Bethel remained confined with the Demon of Knowledge.
• Klein emerged as Bethel Abraham, sealed the doors and seals affected by the ritual, and left before the Abraham family could reunite with their ancestor.
• Dorian told the Abrahams that the bloodline curse had ended, allowing their descendants to advance normally and continue the family line.
• Audrey reached the shelter but was mistaken for an enemy, then found a drowned family and drank the potion she had prepared.
• Audrey entered the Sea of Collective Subconscious, soothed herself through its sorrow and corruption, and resolved to give nightmares to those who destroyed happiness and aid those who pursued it.

The Hall family grieved as Audrey left for Intis, while Audrey fought Church of the Storm Beyonders and was ambushed by a Sauron Family Hunter. Elsewhere, Richard prepared to kill himself rather than let the Evernight Goddess decide his fate, but a door opened and pulled him away.

• Madam Caitlyn wept over Audrey's departure, and Hibbert and Earl Hall worried that Audrey was unprepared for life in Intis.
• Audrey knocked out a Mandated Punishers squad, trapped them in nightmares, and tried to lure a demigod while protecting nearby civilians.
• A tabby Beyonder creature searched for Audrey, and an unseen enemy with a sealed mind attacked her with a sword.
• Richard confronted the Evernight Goddess and said he would kill himself, but a door opened in the darkness and dragged him away.
• A red-haired Sauron Family Hunter attacked Audrey, who identified herself as a doctor and Spectator working for Richard, stopping his sword just before it reached her face.

Audrey met Traynor after advancing to demigod, while Klein rescued Richard from the Highlands and tried to find a way to protect the country from the God of Thunder. With no other plan, Klein lured the God of Thunder toward the Evernight Goddess by revealing her location in the Spirit World.

• Audrey proved to Traynor that Richard had hired her, and Traynor recognized her as Audrey Hall.
• Traynor killed the captured Church of the Storm Beyonders after warning Audrey that her obvious trap would not lure in a demigod.
• Audrey admitted she had never killed anyone, so Traynor told her to turn away and killed the captives himself.
• Klein rescued Richard and the nearby residents, but Richard urged him to leave and said he intended to die protecting the Highlands.
• Klein concluded that he had to fight the God of Thunder, then grabbed Richard and entered the Spirit World as the sky turned white.
• Klein shouted the Evernight Goddess's coordinates to the God of Thunder, challenging him to confront her in the Spirit World.

Death suspected that Bethel Abraham’s message was a trap, but the Mother of Heaven attacked him in Calderón and trapped him in overlapping dreams with Antigonus’s help. Meanwhile, Klein rescued survivors in the Highlands and used Bethel’s records to link his mind to the enraged God of Thunder, hoping to drive him back.

• Death received a message and Spirit World coordinates from a voice he suspected was a false Bethel Abraham, then recognized the possibility of a trap.
• The Mother of Heaven ambushed Death in Calderón, and the two gods fought over control of the River of Eternal Darkness.
• The Mother of Heaven drew Death into a dream and enlisted Antigonus, whose power began turning Death into a marionette and slowing his thoughts.
• The Mother of Heaven struck Death’s wounded neck and sang an ancient demon wolf song, pulling him into a nightmare of Flegrea’s attack.
• Klein rescued people across the Highlands, sealed Jahn Kottman behind an angel-only door, and decided he had to drive back the God of Thunder.
• Klein tore out Bethel Abraham’s record of True God-level Mind Link and connected his will to the furious God of Thunder.

Klein tried to exploit the battle between the Evernight Goddess and Death to reach Antigonus, but Amon disrupted his plans and drew him to Leonard and Pallez in Tingen. Amon’s trap and the God of Thunder’s lightning struck the River and Sea Church, where a new angelic figure emerged and took Leonard away.

• Richard reassured the survivors in the Highlands, praised Sharron and Maric, and told Sharron she could visit her teacher if he was still alive.
• Klein failed to affect the God of Thunder with the Blood Emperor’s Mind Link, then considered seizing Antigonus’s Uniqueness and Sequence One characteristic to become a Dual-Pathway True God.
• Amon stole Klein’s coordinates to Hornacis Mountain and interfered with his attempt to teleport Leonard and Pallez away in Tingen.
• Ailnuo warned Leonard from outside the office door, and Klein’s remarks made Leonard and Pallez suspect that he was Bethel Abraham.
• The God of Thunder’s lightning disrupted Klein, while Leonard opened the door to find Ailnuo gravely wounded and Amon waiting nearby.
• The God of Thunder’s strike devastated the River and Sea Church, and an angelic figure resembling the Angel of Time appeared and carried Leonard out of the real world.

Amon seized Pallez and escaped into Sefirah Castle while Klein tried to keep Leonard from losing control. As Leodero’s lightning pursued them into Sefirah Castle, Amon fled through history, and the Demon of Knowledge instructed his allies to create an opportunity for Klein.

• Klein brought Leonard into the Spirit World, where Leonard’s trauma over Amon and the deaths of his friends pushed him toward losing control.
• Klein told Leonard that Pallez still had a chance to return, then threw him out of the Spirit World when Leodero’s lightning struck.
• Amon rested in Sefirah Castle and revealed that he had trapped Pallez by impersonating the Ancestor of the Jacob Family and secretly devouring him.
• Leodero’s lightning attacked Amon inside Sefirah Castle, forcing him to flee through the Historical Void as a paper copy carrying the god’s power pursued him.
• The Demon of Knowledge told his allies to strike somewhere on the Northern Continent to create an opportunity for Klein and said they could negotiate about releasing the Son of Chaos.

Edward agreed to help the Demon of Knowledge by attacking Loen and testing the God of Thunder’s response, while the Son of Chaos accepted the offer to leave his flooded tomb. Leonard discovered that Pallez Zoroast had survived Amon’s attack, but learned that Amon was preparing for his Apotheosis Ritual and would eventually target him and the Fool.

• The Demon of Knowledge told Edward to attack Loen and the God of Thunder, watch the God of Combat, and bring back the Son of Chaos’s terms.
• Edward found the flooded mausoleum in Loen and asked the imprisoned Son of Chaos what he would offer in exchange for release; the Son of Chaos agreed to leave.
• Leonard landed in Intis and was relieved when Pallez Zoroast revealed that he had revived at Sequence 2 after Amon took his Sequence 1 characteristic.
• Pallez warned Leonard that Amon would focus on his Apotheosis Ritual before eventually coming after Leonard and the Fool, and urged Leonard to advance quickly.
• Three hundred years ago, paper Amon dragged Amon into a historical scene, where Leodero located him and unleashed a lightning storm across the Eastern Continent.

The Mother of Heaven and Antigonus fought Salinger while Antigonus questioned the perfect dream she had created to shelter him. In Backlund, Edward confronted the God of Thunder and offered him alternative lands to pursue, while Salinger sensed an unfamiliar attack and saw another version of himself emerge.

• The Mother of Heaven admitted she did not know whether she could defeat Salinger, but said she had to fight rather than remain helpless prey, and Antigonus promised to help her.
• Antigonus asked whether the Mother of Heaven would stay by his side after the dream ended, and she promised that she would.
• Edward left the Demon of Knowledge and sought Klein, then the God of Thunder attacked him and Edward proposed that the god pursue Feynapotter or Feysac instead of colonies.
• Antigonus realized the dream had concealed his true condition and questioned when he had fallen asleep and why he felt exhausted, while the Mother of Heaven remained silent.
• Antigonus accepted that he would eventually have to wake and urged his sister to defeat Salinger first so she could become stronger.
• Salinger sensed changes in his body and attacks, then saw another version of himself emerge from the darkness.

Death fought Antigonus’s dream manifestations while Bethel learned that the Demon of Knowledge was willing to let Klein and Amon die for their Beyonder Characteristics. Bethel agreed to return to Earth and cooperate with the Demon of Knowledge, partly to protect his reputation as Klein struggled against the God of Thunder.

• Salinger burned Antigonus’s false self, but Antigonus emerged from its ashes and multiplied into creatures that revived Flegrea, the Wolf King.
• Bethel questioned the Demon of Knowledge about Klein’s danger and learned that the God of Thunder was hunting Klein after he intervened to protect innocent people.
• The Demon of Knowledge explained that Klein’s and Amon’s deaths could let him collect their Beyonder Characteristics from the God of Thunder.
• Bethel proposed that the Demon of Knowledge erase Klein’s body and Bethel’s soul, then recreate them on Earth so they could cooperate.
• Bethel insisted that Klein’s struggle was damaging his reputation, while Klein sneezed and Amon escaped the Historical Void with the invading power still lingering.

The Demon of Knowledge cleansed Bethel Abraham’s soul of outside corruption and restored him to Klein Moretti’s body on Earth. When Klein faced the God of Thunder’s attack, Bethel took control and used the Door pathway’s powers to escape and counterstrike.

• Bethel chose to return to Earth, and the Demon of Knowledge removed the corruption and altered memories recorded in his soul.
• The Demon of Knowledge returned Bethel to Klein Moretti’s body, and Bethel discovered the Abrahams’ decline and realized his mistakes had endangered his descendants.
• Bethel asked to control Klein’s actions and took over when Klein faced a threatening attack.
• Bethel bribed the thundercloud, escaped through the Spirit World and Starry Sky, and warned Klein to use the horrors beyond the heavens as power.
• Bethel evaded the brass-colored eye’s spatial restraints, unleashed a series of recorded abilities, and struck at the eye before retreating through a door.

Bethel and Klein watched as the God of Combat and the Earth Mother entered the Spirit World to exploit the battle between the Evernight Goddess, Death, and the God of Thunder. The God of Combat abruptly abandoned the Earth Mother and headed for Calderón, while Bethel condemned the mother and son as untrustworthy.

• Bethel escaped the sealed space, studied his enemies’ powers, and scolded Klein for using the Door Pathway carelessly.
• Bethel and Klein worried that the God of Thunder might target the people Klein had come to protect, then saw twilight, the blood moon, and signs of the Earth Mother’s arrival.
• Dorian and the other Abrahams watched their protective charms melt, but the full moon brought them peace instead of ravings, and they wept together.
• Klein recognized that the God of Combat and the Earth Mother were entering the Spirit World to take advantage of the conflict involving the Evernight Goddess, Death, and the God of Thunder.
• The God of Thunder redirected his attacks toward the Earth Mother, and the God of Combat left her to enter Calderón and pursue his own goal.
• Klein was dumbfounded as Bethel laughed and denounced the God of Combat and the Earth Mother as members of a repulsive, untrustworthy family.

Edward watched Leodero attack the Earth Mother while the Demon of Knowledge considered the danger around Antigonus, and Bethel challenged Klein to imagine a future beyond protecting Earth. Antigonus captured Salinger with the Mother of Heaven, but she was suddenly decapitated as the chapter ended.

• Edward watched Leodero drive the Earth Mother toward retreat and asked the Demon of Knowledge whether they should intervene to protect Antigonus.
• The Demon of Knowledge said the victor would keep Antigonus asleep, then asked Edward to try locating Amon's main body through a mystical connection.
• Bethel asked Klein whether he would explore the starry sky after becoming a god, and Klein admitted he wanted to see the universe while insisting that he would not let George III rule freely.
• Antigonus caught Salinger's Spirit Body Threads while he and the Mother of Heaven restrained him, and the Mother of Heaven planned to return to Loen with Salinger.
• The Mother of Heaven's head was suddenly severed, and Antigonus watched it fall into his arms.

Antigonus awoke from his dream of the Mother of Heaven’s death and remembered how she had died while trying to save him, unleashing a worldwide convergence of Seer-related powers toward Hornacis Mountain. As the God of Combat prepared to finish Death in Calderón, the Demon of Knowledge considered how to manage Antigonus’s awakening and the coming struggle over the Seer pathway.

• Antigonus watched the dream world collapse around his sister’s body, then remembered his past, including his failed attempt to become a god and the Mother of Heaven’s death.
• Antigonus roared that the weak were not given miracles, and Seers around the world felt compelled to travel to Hornacis Mountain as he began to wake.
• The Attendant of Mysteries characteristic in Edward’s hands moved toward Antigonus, while the Demon of Knowledge recognized that convergence was drawing Seer-related powers and Sealed Artifacts toward the mountain.
• The Demon of Knowledge confirmed that Amon’s presence in Sefirah Castle was preventing it from being drawn toward Antigonus, while Klein and Bethel strengthened seals worldwide.
• The Mother of Heaven’s concealment lifted, revealing her body in Calderón, where the God of Combat confronted the weakened Death.
• The Demon of Knowledge proposed that Edward either help Antigonus become a god so Amon could steal his ritual, or speak with Antigonus as the Mother of Heaven’s killer and possible benefactor.

Edward considered how to use Antigonus’s awakening and the “Attendant of Mysteries” characteristic, then put on a jeweled monocle to contact Amon. Meanwhile, Klein learned that Antigonus’s pull on the “Seer” pathway came from his intertwined psyche with the Lord of the Mysteries, and that an old experiment to attract Sefirah Castle through Antigonus’s Uniqueness had nearly fooled fate.

• Edward discussed Antigonus’s incomplete Apotheosis Ritual with the Demon of Knowledge and decided to pursue his first plan while preparing for Amon’s refusal.
• Edward sealed the “Attendant of Mysteries” characteristic, took out a jeweled monocle, and put it over his right eye to contact Amon.
• Klein reinforced seals on Seer-related Sealed Artifacts as Antigonus’s convergence drove them into a frenzy and drew them toward Hornacis Mountain.
• Bethel explained that Antigonus had volunteered for an experiment using a simplified Apotheosis Ritual to attract Sefirah Castle, with Adam and Amon helping him.
• Bethel described how Antigonus, Amon, and Adam had used hypnosis, identity theft, and tampering to create two simultaneous fates, but failed to complete the ritual safely.
• Bethel told Klein that Antigonus’s lost control let the Lord of the Mysteries’ psyche influence Sefirah Castle, while the residual will of the Lord of the Mysteries was gradually dissipating.