Chapter Summaries

Audrey struggled with her anger at Viscount Conrad’s wasteful spending and the servants’ harassment while she and Susie discussed their plan to visit an Earth Mother church. Audrey hesitated over whether to exploit Emlyn White to spark unrest, while Everett saw a mysterious old gentleman appear beside the green-eyed visitor in Utopia and Edward considered the approaching collapse of the barrier.

• Audrey calculated that Viscount Conrad was using Susie’s money to clear debts and fund an extravagant New Year’s celebration, and restrained herself from using her powers to stop him.
• The servants mocked Audrey’s appearance and rumored about her background, but she kept her head down and left without responding.
• Susie told Audrey that Viscount Conrad had agreed to let her pray at an Earth Mother church, though he would not send an escort beyond the street.
• Audrey weighed using the Harvest Church and its leader, Emlyn White, to inflame tensions, but worried that exploiting him would be wrong and that others were watching him too.
• Everett saw an old gentleman suddenly appear beside the green-eyed man waiting near St. Merlin Grand Cathedral, then vanish after winking at him.
• Edward reflected that the barrier might fail sooner than expected and wondered whether he should arrange a New Year’s party.

Audrey visited Emlyn at the Harvest Church but chose not to exploit his kindness or use him as a fuse for social upheaval. She decided to seek another way to disrupt the social order, focusing on nobles while considering the risks of involving MI9 and the Churches.

• Emlyn discussed New Year celebrations with his assistant and warned him about tensions with the Church of the Storm and Redar Valentin.
• Audrey, disguised as Susie Conrad and accompanied by Susie, visited Emlyn, donated generously, and warned him that hostile people were lurking in Backlund.
• Audrey told Susie that she valued Emlyn as a Tarot Club member and would not use his goodwill to achieve her goals.
• Audrey observed how farmers were shunned and recognized that hidden forces were rapidly worsening social divisions, but refused to provoke violence among ordinary people.
• Audrey and Susie considered targeting nobles instead, and Audrey planned to watch Hvin Rambis and explore whether MI9 and the Church of the Storm could be maneuvered without endangering innocents.

Everett went shopping for souvenirs before leaving Utopia and visited Tracy’s unusual shop, where he tried a Fully Automatic Wishing Machine. A silver-haired boy bearing the Aurora Order’s inverted cross arrived and asked Everett to help him find someone.

• Everett planned to buy food, books, and local handicrafts to take home before boarding the afternoon train.
• Everett bought several cakes and a sandwich, then followed directions to Tracy’s small shop and became interested in a painting of the Hornacis Mountain Range.
• Tracy explained that the Fully Automatic Wishing Machine granted wishes, and Everett used it to wish for more pocket money.
• A silver-haired boy entered the shop and asked to use the machine, but Tracy refused until he said he wanted Everett’s help.
• Tracy allowed the boy to proceed, and Everett noticed the inverted cross on his chest and learned that he wanted help finding someone.

Everett cautiously followed a silver-haired youth from Tracy’s shop and was asked whether he had recently seen anything related to snakes. At a Loen banquet, Hvin Rambis used anti-Feynapotter prejudice to isolate Susie Conrad, while an unseen Spectator hoped the rising conflict would earn the Psychology Alchemists’ help.

• Everett bought souvenirs from Tracy, paid for them, and followed the silver-haired youth out of the shop.
• Everett saw his teacher trapped in an unnoticed loop on the street, then heard the youth ask about snakes and recalled hearing one in a corridor.
• At a banquet, Hvin Rambis noticed Susie Conrad watching him and judged her to be an unimportant newcomer from abroad.
• Hvin learned Susie had returned from Feynapotter and steered the nobles’ conversation toward hostility against Feynapotter people.
• The discussion soured Susie’s new friendships, leaving her isolated and visibly upset as Hvin watched with satisfaction.
• An unseen Spectator hoped that the growing conflict would bring change and earn the Psychology Alchemists’ help in escaping.

At Viscount Conrad’s banquet, Hvin Rambis intensified divisions among the nobles while Audrey and Susie suspected his role and left early. On the way home, Audrey overheard talk of an operation before New Year, and the chapter ended as flames engulfed the Harvest Church.

• Hvin Rambis used radical remarks to deepen the nobles’ divisions, then dismissed Susie’s early departure as youthful discomfort.
• Audrey and Susie discussed Hvin’s hostility and Audrey’s suspicion that he might be serving someone else’s plan, then left the banquet.
• Audrey overheard nearby voices discussing an operation planned for the New Year banquet and wondered whether common people would be in danger.
• A Spirit World Creature delivered Susie a letter from MI9 asking her to help conceal unspecified end-of-year operations.
• Audrey saw the Harvest Church engulfed in flames and wondered why the attack had happened so soon.

Hvin Rambis witnessed an eerie fire and a deadly outbreak of violence at a ballroom, while Audrey discovered Xio was being pressured to join a dangerous operation and saw her attacked. Meanwhile, Raymond, Traynor, and Dunn interpreted the Red Angel’s coded summons to Feysac, and Traynor abandoned his request to travel elsewhere after hearing reports of trouble in Backlund.

• Hvin Rambis watched the Harvest Church burn as the surrounding crowd and nearby churches did nothing, then realized the ballroom party was trapped in a repeating ten o’clock loop.
• A baron was shot dead at the ballroom, and Hvin Rambis discovered that the guests showed no fear and shared the killer’s eerie expression.
• Audrey entered Xio’s mind and learned that a Golden Masked MI9 handler was trying to recruit Xio for an operation to awaken the Emperor.
• Xio refused to join the operation, and the Golden Masked person attacked her with an explosion and flames.
• Raymond, Traynor, and Dunn discussed the Red Angel’s coded order to travel to Feysac and avoid Saint Millon, while Traynor tried unsuccessfully to request a different assignment.
• Raymond reported that a disturbance had engulfed three blocks in Backlund, so Traynor gave up asking to travel elsewhere and agreed to await the planned route.

Emlyn resisted Hvin Rambis’s attempt to manipulate him in a dream, but woke to find his church on fire as Hvin’s influence over a banquet descended into slaughter. Aaron was trapped in a nightmare involving a giant serpent, and a baby’s cries interrupted the serpent’s attack.

• Dunn and Raymond told Traynor that intelligence from the Southern Continent and Loen was limited and that he should wait for news.
• Hvin Rambis entered Emlyn’s dream and urged him to leave Backlund for Feynapotter, but Emlyn recognized the delay as a warning and woke as flames burst into his bedroom.
• At the banquet, Hvin used Dragon Might to try to stop the violence, but guests attacked him, and he began striking them down in fury.
• Velma and Aaron went to sleep after Aaron had struggled with exhaustion and disturbing dreams; Aaron later awoke from a nightmare about a white figure and a giant snake.
• Aaron realized he was still trapped in the serpent’s grasp when a baby began crying.

Aaron woke from a terrifying dream of a giant serpent pursuing him, but quickly forgot its details as he told Velma that a snake had chased him. Meanwhile, Ouroboros tracked Will to a labyrinth built with the Dice of Probability and entered it to pursue a chance to accommodate the Uniqueness; Medici recruited Arnold Dean, who offered information about the Holy Cathedral and Pontiff.

• A crying baby distracted the giant serpent from Aaron, and it threw him into the void before he awoke beside Velma and Leah.
• Aaron forgot most of his dream and told Velma that a snake had chased him.
• Ouroboros chose to follow the pull of Beyonder characteristics and found a labyrinth containing a projection of Will in a stroller.
• Will explained how he had used the Dice of Probability to escape and invited Ouroboros to find and control it as a possible opportunity for accommodation.
• Medici confirmed to Arnold Dean that the God of Combat had fallen and that he intended to take control of Feysac and wage war.
• Arnold Dean offered to join Medici and provide information about the Holy Cathedral and the Pontiff.

Hvin Rambis slaughtered the guests at a banquet under an unknown influence, then destroyed the mansion to cover his actions. Meanwhile, Arnold offered his services to Medici, and Audrey learned that conspirators planned to awaken Emperor George III during the New Year celebrations.

• Arnold told Medici that the God of Combat had died and described how the Church had trained him from childhood, then offered to fight and kill for a new Lord.
• Hvin Rambis realized someone might have manipulated him into killing Loen nobles, searched for the missing girl and her maid, and blew up the mansion before fleeing.
• A person in a golden mask killed Xio, took her Beyonder characteristic, and hurried toward the mausoleum after hearing an explosion.
• Audrey hypnotized the person in the golden mask and learned that the conspirators aimed to awaken Emperor George III during the New Year celebrations.
• Audrey and Susie decided they had to abandon their current plan, while Audrey noted that Xio was safe and that they had more urgent work to do.

Audrey assessed the competing plots behind the nobles’ deaths and the mausoleum infiltration, then planned to warn surviving nobles and persuade them to donate their wealth. The chapter then shifted to an isolated office worker wandering a silent city, before Arnold left the Red Angel and observed secret religious activity at a Feysac harbor without reporting it.

• Audrey concluded that at least two groups were involved in the attack on the nobles and the infiltration of the emperor’s mausoleum, and she spread a Mind Plague urging nearby residents to stay alert and protect their families.
• Audrey told Susie they would investigate Heradek Village and visit Earl Hall and other surviving nobles, hoping to persuade them to donate their property to public causes.
• An unnamed office worker described his exhausting job, loneliness, and homesickness as he wandered through a deserted city with no phone data or credit.
• Arnold left the Red Angel, disguised himself while walking through the lower city, and overheard people discussing the God of Combat, the Sea God, and the Fool.
• Arnold examined the harbor’s strange food offerings and concealed religious practices, decided not to report them, and returned to the Holy Cathedral.

Arnold investigated the spread of the Sea God and Fool faiths, then witnessed George Augustus III contest the Patriarch’s control of a Sealed Artifact and concluded that Feysac needed to change sides. Meanwhile, MI9 used a wish bottle to reveal an entrance into Mausoleum No. 1 at the cost of an officer’s subordinate, and the officer prepared to descend.

• Arnold told a priest that he had found no evidence of an evil-god conspiracy behind the Sea God’s faith, and warned the priest to put the Lord above other deities.
• Arnold considered contacting the Fool’s believers and the giant descendants, then saw a notice board’s message struggle between naming George Augustus III and “the Church.”
• Arnold realized that George Augustus III could influence a Sealed Artifact from afar and decided that Feysac urgently needed to change sides.
• MI9 members failed to open Mausoleum No. 1 and found a narrow hole filled with standing water.
• An MI9 officer wrote a wish for an inconspicuous entrance in a wish bottle, and the water receded after his subordinate died in the hole.
• The officer tested the newly exposed passage with a stone and told his men to go down.

MI9 entered the Emperor’s Mausoleum through a concealed passage, where a brass eye killed two members and the rising rain threatened to drown the survivors. The Demon of Knowledge recorded how the group’s arrival might serve the emperor’s purpose, leaving MI9 trapped near the end of the tunnel with a chance of reaching him alive.

• The MI9 commanding officer led his team into the concealed hole, where they found a dark, distorted passage and could not locate the body of their first dead companion.
• An MI9 member uncovered a brass eye on the wall, which erased him with a ray of light; the commanding officer recognized the danger and led the survivors into the tunnel.
• The brass eye killed another MI9 member before its beams bent away from the passage, and lightning collapsed the entrance above them.
• Rainwater flooded the narrowing tunnel as the God of Thunder’s power threatened to drown the MI9 survivors.
• The Demon of Knowledge watched 0-08 record the events and wrote that the MI9 members had reached the tunnel’s end, where they might still reach the emperor alive.

The Demon of Knowledge monitored Arrodes and the trapped MI9 team as 0-08 described their predicament, while Will Ceres sensed Ouroboros closing in. The MI9 officer secretly tested a sinister item and chose to descend toward the Emperor, but it demanded more sacrifices.

• MI9 members were swept through the collapsing tunnel, and only four reached the shore of the flooded mausoleum chamber.
• The Demon of Knowledge questioned Arrodes about Klein Moretti and considered returning it, then read 0-08's account of the survivors trapped underwater.
• The Demon of Knowledge noticed Ouroboros and another Snake of Fate appearing to pursue each other in Backlund and chose not to intervene.
• Will Ceres realized Ouroboros was tracking him to take his Beyonder Characteristic before attempting to accommodate the Dice of Probability.
• The MI9 officer left his three surviving subordinates and tested his glass-bottle item, asking to reach the mausoleum's bottom before the Emperor.
• The item replied that those were two destinations and that three people were not enough.

The MI9 chief escaped the Black Emperor mausoleum’s restraints by making his clothes asymmetrical, but a vortex pulled him into the water. Meanwhile, Medici was attacked by the Primordial Demoness in Feysac and began recovering when a silvery-white light intervened.

• The MI9 chief’s two subordinates died, and the bloodstained note told him he was already before the deity within the mausoleum.
• The chief altered his uniform and boots to break the mausoleum’s restraint, then a vortex pulled him underwater.
• Edward reflected on the conflict among the God of Thunder, Klein, and the Demon of Knowledge, then realized his visitor had already left.
• Medici went downtown in Feysac and recognized a young man’s description of a beautiful woman with long black hair.
• The Primordial Demoness attacked Medici through a mirror, spreading poison that killed nearby people and left him unable to breathe or speak.
• A silvery-white band of light intervened, partially reversing Medici’s condition, and he hoarsely apologized.

The Primordial Demoness Cheek attacked Medici with disease and watched for signs that he could summon help. As she spread her influence through Saint Millon and seized control of the Church of the God of Combat, Medici recovered enough strength to head toward the city center’s Notice Board, though his body was rapidly failing.

• Medici realized Cheek’s diseases were consuming Ouroboros’s protection and tried to hide his fear by acting contemptuous and composed.
• Cheek intensified Medici’s illnesses, then spread her power across Saint Millon and began targeting the Church of the God of Combat.
• Cheek’s influence drove priests and worshippers in the church into violence and then left them smiling in a blissful stupor.
• Cheek appeared before Patriarch Larion, overcame his resistance, and ordered him to surrender the Sealed Artifacts and tell the emperor he had found Medici.
• Medici smashed the Walnut Mirror, spat blood onto its shards, and staggered toward the city center’s Notice Board as his body deteriorated.

Medici recognized that the City of Calamity had transformed Saint Millon into a reflection of Bansy and tried to make contact with it as his body rotted. Ouroboros sensed the danger and attempted to seek help, while Edward confirmed the City of Calamity’s invasion and checked on the river channel’s construction.

• Medici realized the decay and ruined landscape around him signaled the City of Calamity’s presence, and Sauron urged him to flee.
• Medici concluded Saint Millon had become Bansy, erased a decree forbidding the City of Calamity from invading reality, and wrote that communication was permitted.
• A headless figure carrying its own bloody head told Medici that his descendants had followed his orders and communicated with the City of Calamity.
• Ouroboros sensed Cheek attacking Medici, then perceived a greater catastrophe and began reciting the Fool’s Honorific Name before Will accused him of breaking their agreement.
• Edward confirmed that the City of Calamity had invaded reality, sent a message to the High Priest of the Church of Death, and learned that the river channel needed more time.

Anderson learned that Balam’s people planned to die with their god, while a young acquaintance offered him his property and revealed that he had become engaged. Medici confronted the City of Calamity, which overwhelmed him with memories of the destruction and slaughter he had once inflicted.

• High Priest Haiter told Edward that the digging would finish by dawn as Balam prepared for the promised eternal tranquility.
• Anderson offered his Balamian regular a chance to leave for the Northern Continent, but the man refused because he wanted to die with God.
• The regular offered Anderson his property and said that his fiancée had accepted his proposal so they could welcome the end together.
• The City of Calamity taunted Medici about his weakness and asked whether he could pay to obtain power.
• The City of Calamity flooded Medici with memories of war, massacres, and devastation, portraying him as the herald of catastrophe.

The City of Miracles prospered through Zaratul’s coal and railway miracles until Mrs. Skold received a warning from Ouroboros about a catastrophe approaching from the north. Meanwhile, Medici transformed into a manifestation of calamity, and Cheek stood with the Trunsoest Brass Book as the world around her decayed.

• Zaratul helped the City of Miracles establish coal mining and a railway after advising its leaders on trade.
• Mrs. Skold’s locket portrait spoke with Ouroboros’s warning that a tremendous catastrophe was approaching in the north, and she prayed to the Fool for help.
• Medici wandered through a battlefield illusion in the City of Calamity, rejected its questions about war, and was told he was still far from enough.
• Medici tore away his tongues and teeth, summoned blood mist and celestial forces, and became an incomprehensible calamity.
• Cheek held a bloody Beyonder Characteristic and the Trunsoest Brass Book as Medici’s death was confirmed and the blood-red sky spread into the Imperial Palace.

Cheek faced the City of Calamity’s living corruption in Saint Millon, while Klein learned of the disaster and used Sefirah Castle to locate Medici. Klein’s intervention disrupted the City of Calamity’s domain, but Cheek was wounded and disappeared after its blood threads entered her body.

• The City of Calamity surrounded Cheek with blood vessels, attacked her with a blazing strike, and revealed an army of concealed attackers that she petrified and destroyed.
• Cheek tried to collect the red mist in a Reaper Beyonder Characteristic, then confronted an armored figure that appeared beside her.
• Klein received Madam Skold’s prayer and saw that the City of Calamity had devastated Saint Millon, leaving only about a third of its million-plus inhabitants alive.
• Klein prepared to find Medici and used a pendulum divination, but the blood-red vision caused pain and made Sefirah Castle shake before he forced through it.
• The upheaval let Cheek cut the armored figure’s neck as the sky cracked open, but it struck her shoulder with its sword and blood threads entered her body, making her vanish.

Klein discovered that Medici’s soul still remained within the City of Calamity’s corrupted creature and used a card bearing Medici’s aura to try to stabilize him. The card pierced the creature and reached a faceless figure in the ruins, who recognized it as himself.

• Klein used divination to confirm Medici’s location and learned that his soul still remained inside the corrupted creature.
• Klein drove back some of the City of Calamity’s corruption with Sefirah Castle and saw Cheek emerge from the sky rift.
• Klein’s tarot readings showed that Medici could not escape alone and that fate was needed to save him.
• Klein retrieved an object Medici had used, grafted its aura onto the Red Priest Card of Blasphemy, and hurled the card at the creature.
• The card pierced a faceless figure wandering the ruins, who regained human features and recognized the card as himself.