Chapter Summaries

Klein stopped the City of Calamity from completing its plan to consume Medici and Cheek, then learned that the City had been bluffing until it gained power from Medici. With Medici’s soul still partly preserved, Klein sought help from an Outer Deity who might be able to interfere with the City of Calamity.

• Klein prepared to confront the City of Calamity, but it abruptly withdrew its corruption from Saint Millon after provoking him.
• Cheek revealed that she had gained a controllable imprint of the City of Calamity and hoped to use it to approach the Red Priest Uniqueness.
• Klein deduced that the City of Calamity had bluffed its way into devouring Medici and intended to use its new strength to defeat Cheek and claim her pathway.
• Klein concluded that Ouroboros’s warning had helped him interrupt the City of Calamity’s plan and preserve part of Medici’s soul.
• An Outer Deity approached Klein, recognized that Medici might have been taken by the City of Calamity, and offered to cause it trouble.

A red figure returned to Bansy and found it barred from entering the world behind the Telegraph Office door, so the City of Calamity dissolved into the ruins and began shrouding the island in fog. In Balam, Anderson learned that the River of Eternal Darkness would descend that night, failed to reach Edwina, and encountered a strange gray-haired person who confirmed his life would end within five hours.

• The City of Calamity returned to Bansy, found the Telegraph Office door, and failed to pass through it because gray fog repelled it.
• The City of Calamity dissolved into Bansy’s ruins and spread white fog across the island until it vanished from sight.
• Anderson learned from an elderly pastry-shop owner that Balam’s people expected to enter eternal silence that night, earlier than he had anticipated.
• Anderson tried to contact Edwina, discovered she was beyond the reach of his communication, and fled through Balam looking for an escape.
• Anderson found the docks guarded by powerful spirits and Spirit World Creatures, then heard a gray-haired stranger discuss Medici and Balam’s imminent disappearance.
• The gray-haired stranger told Anderson that the River of Eternal Darkness would descend in less than five hours and that his life would end then.

Anderson begged an Outer Deity to help him escape Balam, then fled north as the River of Eternal Darkness appeared in the sky. In a modern city, a man woke on a bench and encountered his silver-haired coworker Wu at a fortune-telling stall, where strange memories and agitation began to surface.

• Anderson pleaded with the Outer Deity to save him, but the Outer Deity told him to run north and vanished.
• Anderson climbed a mountain and saw the sky turn transparent, revealing a bone ship carried by a dragon skeleton across a pitch-black river.
• The narrator woke on a bench in the rain and took shelter at the fortune-telling Old Man's stall.
• The narrator recognized his silver-haired coworker Wu, drew The World tarot card, and wondered why it was not the Wheel of Fortune.
• Wu asked how to save his dying friend, while the narrator experienced strange visions and the Old Man advised that letting go could be a good choice.

The Fortune-Telling Old Man told Xiao Wu that his terminally ill friend could be saved only if Xiao Wu gained power, but that the friend would still die soon. As pitch darkness covered the world, Anderson watched a mythic ship appear in the sky and realized he could not escape.

• The Fortune-Telling Old Man said Xiao Wu's friend had a terminal illness and warned that saving him would require Xiao Wu to gain power, with severe consequences and little time.
• Xiao Wu said his friend would likely want to live, while the old man told him to find a source of power before someone else claimed the opportunity.
• A young noble prepared to die at home, while the High Priest used Requiem and Sweet Dreams to let people sleep peacefully as the Church of Death awaited its god.
• Darkness spread across the sky, and Anderson saw a bone-built ship and a shadowy figure surrounded by undead creatures.
• Anderson tried Roselle Dream Divination and prayers, but his spirituality was suppressed, and he accepted that escape was impossible.
• The immense ship appeared more clearly as night covered the earth, distant chanting sounded, and water began flowing in the empty riverbed.

A vast death ritual emptied the Balam Empire as the River of Eternal Darkness entered the real world aboard a colossal ship. Anderson tried to choose his own death before the ship fully manifested, while the godlike figure aboard it turned toward the sunlit Northern Continent.

• Night spread across nearly half the Balam Empire, killing everyone there as the Primordial Demoness absorbed a Beyonder Characteristic on an island.
• The Demon of Knowledge told the Seven Lights that it would not stop the ritual, then said it would give another Attendant of Mysteries characteristic to support an effort to save the War Angel.
• Edwina learned that the ritual had begun early and ordered the Golden Dream to sail toward Balam, though she expected to observe only its aftermath.
• The enormous ship emerged from the Spirit World, and Anderson drew a knife to his throat as the divine figure aboard it overwhelmed his senses.
• An aged spirit entered the ship, making it fully solid; Anderson cut his own throat as the ship crashed into the prepared river channel.
• The ship entered the river channel, all living things in Balam died, and the divine figure looked toward the sunlit Northern Continent.

The Demon of Knowledge watched the River of Eternal Darkness’s corruption reach Bansy while Edward used it to weaken the City of Calamity and hurl Bansy Island at the Southern Continent. The collision shattered the Gray Fog Wall around the Western Continent, giving the Demon of Knowledge a chance to draw more of the Knowledge Moor beyond its seal.

• The Demon of Knowledge took Kotar’s Curtain and passed it to Klein’s avatar in Sefirah Castle while noticing corrupted dead spirits moving toward Bansy.
• The Demon of Knowledge learned that many corrupted bodies had reached Bansy, where the River of Eternal Darkness’s power began disrupting the City of Calamity.
• Edward arrived at Bansy and used the corruption carried by five hundred people’s souls and bodies to suppress the City of Calamity temporarily.
• Edward lifted Bansy Island and hurled it toward the Southern Continent, triggering a catastrophic impact that sent death and calamity across the world.
• The impact weakened the Gray Fog Wall around the Eastern Continent, revealing the Western Continent and prompting the Demon of Knowledge to seize his chance to bring more of the Knowledge Moor out of the seal.

The Demon of Knowledge withdrew from the gathered Beyonder Characteristics, while Klein discovered that his perception had expanded to the Western Continent. Ouroboros prayed to the Circle of Inevitability for help becoming the God of Fate, and the chapter ended with figures on the Western Continent reacting to a sudden disturbance.

• The Hidden Sage returned to Intis and shared newly gained knowledge with the Church of Mysteries, overwhelming its praying faithful.
• Klein's Sequence Two Avatar finished a Dream Divination, stored the Curtain, and realized his perception now reached the Western Continent.
• Ouroboros saw the Key of Light appear in the River of Fate and prayed to the Circle of Inevitability for help becoming the God of Fate, offering his past and future in exchange.
• The Circle of Inevitability received Ouroboros's plea as a gale of calamity and death swept across the world.
• Heavenly Mechanism awoke on the Western Continent, while a returning traveler visited a Taoist temple and a plump fortune-teller abruptly abandoned his stall after sensing trouble at home.

The weakened seal between the Eastern and Western Continents let their worlds begin to connect, while the powers behind the conflict reacted to the opening. Edward confronted the incarnation of the River of Eternal Darkness, and Anderson Hood awoke in an unfamiliar body and met another Anderson.

• Two Taoists witnessed a gray-fog manifestation at their temple and wondered whether their patriarch had appeared.
• A young man on the Western Continent promised his reflected senior that he would win the next religious assembly, then disposed of a man he had murdered.
• The weakened seal let information and Sefirah power pass between the continents, though the Demon of Knowledge remained trapped behind God Almighty’s watch.
• Bansy Island crashed into Balam, damaging the continent and provoking the Goddess’s manifestation through the tributary of the River of Eternal Darkness.
• Edward challenged the incarnation while sensing his connection to his Sefirah return.
• Anderson Hood awoke in a square with a paintbrush and canvas, found himself unable to speak, and wrote his name to a wary green-eyed young man.

Leonard mistook the painter Anderson for the famous adventurer Anderson Hood and tried to take him to the Church, while Ouroboros and Will fought over the Dice of Probability through endless cycles of rebirth. Ouroboros secured the die and erased his past to advance, then spared Will as promised to Klein.

• Leonard recognized the name Anderson Hood, suspected the painter’s body held the adventurer’s spirit, and ordered him to come to the Church of the Fool’s cathedral.
• Will and Ouroboros stood within the River of Fate’s infinity symbol as Ouroboros drew on an Outer Deity’s power, and Will tried to seize the Dice of Probability.
• Ouroboros and Will repeatedly became creatures and fought to kill each other, until Ouroboros escaped the cycles by traveling back to their first beginning and breaking Will’s egg.
• Ouroboros picked up the Dice of Probability, which landed on six, and absorbed the droplets of his past into the darkness behind his halo.
• Will regained consciousness, and Ouroboros told him to reboot himself because he had promised Klein not to kill him.

Ouroboros used the Circle of Inevitability’s power to defeat Will and ascend as the god of fate, while Will lost his Sequence One characteristic and accepted that he could no longer advance. Ouroboros then negotiated with another Outer Deity over Medici’s fate, and Will watched a new battle begin over Backlund.

• Ouroboros controlled Will’s Reboot, took his Sequence One characteristic, and became the god of fate as Will conceded defeat and vanished.
• An Outer Deity offered to keep Medici alive in exchange for control of his fate, and Ouroboros accepted the offer.
• Ouroboros contacted Ricciardo and told the School of Life to send him records while he stayed in the Northern Continent.
• Will surveyed the earthquake damage around Backlund, saw Aaron Ceres and his family mourning, and left for Intis.
• Will saw a storm rise over Backlund as a colossal black tower emerged and spread threads across the Loen Empire.

A wounded MI9 officer reached the chamber where George III had fallen and pledged himself to the emperor, who said he would escape and reclaim the country. Elsewhere, Baranka and others organized relief and rebuilding after Balam was devastated, while the officer was left to serve as George III’s key to leaving the mausoleum.

• The MI9 officer emerged into a pitch-black underground chamber, found that his Wishing Glass Bottle could no longer grant his request for light, and fell into a vast hole.
• Baranka and another speaker discussed Balam’s destruction, the casualties, and emergency rescue and rebuilding efforts.
• The officer landed before a colossal black figure and recognized it as Emperor George III.
• The officer told George III that the Church had taken control of the country and weakened the emperor’s authority.
• George III announced that he would leave the mausoleum and reclaim the country, and said the officer was the key to his escape.
• The officer kowtowed and agreed to obey George III.

The Son of Chaos escaped his mausoleum as the God of Thunder attacked, while a corruption linked to Anderson Hood spread through Utopia and threatened Klein’s ritual. In Feynapotter, the Earth Mother watched the royal palace and the Castiya Family vanish before the God of Thunder confronted her.

• The Son of Chaos possessed a human officer’s body, left his mausoleum, and prepared to confront the God of Thunder after losing contact with the Justiciar Uniqueness.
• Leonard and Pallez discovered that Utopia’s marionettes were attacking one another under a strange corrupting influence, while Anderson remained unaffected.
• Leonard rescued Anderson from the cathedral and suspected that the power surrounding him had been sent to sabotage Klein’s ritual by destroying Utopia.
• The Earth Mother sensed a terrifying presence in Feynapotter City, but the imperial palace and the Castiya Family disappeared before she could respond.
• The God of Thunder appeared before the Earth Mother as lightning gathered in the sky.

Cheek secured the Trunsoest Brass Book as George III’s voice announced his return across Loen, while Audrey discovered that the broadcast was drawing disaster survivors into worship. In the Astral World, the newly ascended Ouroboros waited for a chance to reach Bansy Island as the Black Emperor fought the God of Thunder; Leonard and Anderson watched Utopia burn before hearing a sigh beside them.

• Cheek reinforced the seal on the Trunsoest Brass Book, heard George Augustus III proclaim himself emperor, and returned to the Demoness Sect’s heartland with the Uniqueness.
• George III’s broadcast reached Loen and nearby regions, prompting celebration among royalists, unease among foreign Beyonders, and confusion among ordinary people.
• Audrey and Susie learned that the Hall family was safe, while Audrey noticed injured survivors unconsciously repeating prayers to the emperor and decided to leave for Hedrak Village.
• Ouroboros hurried toward the Southern Continent but found the area around Bansy Island blocked by black clouds and mist as the Black Emperor and the God of Thunder fought in the Astral World.
• The Son of Chaos discovered that his Justiciar Uniqueness had been contaminated by the City of Calamity and continued battling Leodero rather than risk recalling it.
• Leonard and Anderson watched Utopia burn from a mountain, and a sudden sigh sounded beside them.

As Klein’s consciousness spread through Utopia’s marionettes, the Abyss’s power flooded the town with malice and turned its residents violent. Klein briefly rescued the visiting souls, but the corruption struck his main body through the marionettes and left Utopia burning as he lost control.

• Klein’s fragmented consciousness experienced the lives of Utopia’s marionettes while his main body slept inside Sefirah Castle.
• Leonard prayed to Klein’s Sequence Two avatar after corrupted souls made Utopia’s marionettes attack one another, and Klein gathered the eighty-seven visitors into a safe building and put them to sleep.
• The avatar recognized Anderson among the souls and noticed Klein’s main body stirring in pain.
• Abyss’s power overwhelmed Klein with the marionettes’ murderous thoughts, causing his Spirit Worms to writhe, fall, and devour one another.
• Klein’s avatar also lost control, and Utopia burned into black silhouettes beneath the snowy mountains.

Klein ended Utopia to escape the torment of his marionettes’ deaths, but the collapse of his mental balance let the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth deepen his influence over him. Klein regained control of his body and watched the world through Sefirah Castle, leaving as the cold, indifferent Fool while grieving the guide he had lost.

• Klein reassembled part of his body from Spirit Worms and struck the Bronze Long Table, forcibly ending Utopia and its ritual.
• Anderson discovered that his Beyonder abilities were gone and saw that Utopia had vanished, leaving only bare grass and churned earth.
• The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth mocked Klein and urged him to destroy the Garden of Eden in Loen, where Leodero’s fate was nearing its end.
• Klein realized the Celestial Worthy was using his weakened state to assimilate his consciousness, and he thought of Benson and Melissa.
• Klein reassembled himself at the Fool’s chair, looked out at the world through Sefirah Castle, and settled back into the cold, indifferent role of the Fool.

Klein surveyed the aftermath of the catastrophe and considered how to obey the Lord of the Mysteries’ order to destroy the Garden of Eden while preventing God Almighty from taking Loen. Emlyn encountered a terrifying mass invocation of the deceased emperor, Audrey entered a strange dream connected to Hedrak, and the God of Thunder rejected Klein’s attempt to help Him.

• Klein observed that Will had fallen to Sequence Two, while Ouroboros was missing and the Southern Continent remained hidden behind black fog.
• Emlyn helped survivors with the Church of the Earth Mother, but the patients suddenly raised their arms and called out to George Augustus III.
• Audrey and Susie reached the Hall Family’s forest near Hedrak, and Audrey entered a lucid dream after reciting Hermes’ honorific name.
• Klein realized that God Almighty might seize Loen after the God of Thunder’s defeat and decided to help prevent that outcome.
• The God of Thunder blocked Klein’s attempt to send information through Sefirah Castle and told him not to interfere.

Leodero fought the Son of Chaos in the Astral World while questioning whether Klein Moretti was restraining him, and the Hidden Sage joined the battle under the Demon of Knowledge’s control. The Son of Chaos invoked the Astral World’s connection to the Lord of the Astral World and began reclaiming his symbol, leaving Leodero facing a faster defeat.

• Leodero sensed his believers’ prayers fading and recalled his past as a young Cataclysmic Interrer serving them during the Ancient Sun God’s expedition.
• Leodero suspected Klein Moretti was controlling the Son of Chaos and challenged his motives while exchanging lightning and conceptual attacks with the incarnation.
• The Hidden Sage appeared and drove Leodero’s seawater back, disrupting the balance of the battle.
• The chapter explained how faith and detailed cultural impressions of gods provided them with useful anchors.
• The Son of Chaos declared that no god could exert large-scale influence over the Astral World, forcing Leodero to confront the danger of fighting there or abandoning Loen.
• The Son of Chaos said he had borrowed George Augustus’s identity to become a god and was reclaiming his symbol as the Hidden Sage watched Leodero, leaving him close to defeat.

Earth Mother Lilith and Leodero entered the Astral World, leaving Cheek an opportunity to pursue 0-01 on Pasu Island, while Audrey confronted buried fears in a dream. Klein recognized Cheek’s plan but, after a painful warning altered his thoughts, decided the God of Thunder should die and abandoned the matter.

• Lilith assessed the damage to Feynapotter and Loen, then answered Leodero’s summons to the Astral World.
• Cheek saw the gods leave the real world and headed toward Pasu Island to seize 0-01, despite noticing a strange crimson spreading across the sea.
• Audrey dreamed of the Beyonder Doll, her family, and a monstrous dragon before reaching a cliff overlooking golden light in the gray depths.
• Klein recognized that Cheek was targeting the Church of Lightning to take 0-01 and considered intervening.
• A sudden headache warned Klein away from helping the God of Thunder, and he decided the god was more useful dead than alive.

Klein struggled with the temptation to turn humanity into immortal marionettes, while Audrey entered a mysterious castle dream and Emlyn faced mass fanaticism in Loen. As Lilith and Leodero fought the Son of Chaos and the Hidden Sage, Klein granted a grieving child’s wish and reunited her with her mother.

• Klein considered making everyone marionettes to spare them suffering, then confronted the danger in his desire to create a perfect world.
• Audrey discovered mind doors in a dragon-sized castle dream, tried to retreat, and found herself unable to escape the castle’s pull.
• Emlyn and the Church of the Earth Mother treated Loen civilians who had developed fanatical faith in the emperor, while Lilith ignored their prayers to help fight in the Astral World.
• Lilith and Leodero battled the Son of Chaos and the Hidden Sage, and Leodero’s attack disrupted the Hidden Sage’s attempt to transmit Knowledge Moor data.
• Klein appeared as a magician in Hila’s dream, granted her wish to be with her mother, and she awoke reunited with her mother before Klein moved on to another dream.

Emlyn investigated the sudden disappearance of injured patients, then met a wandering magician who offered to grant wishes. Bethel visited Fors and Xio, warned them to flee to Intis, and prepared to confront Klein if necessary; meanwhile, Cheek entered the blood-red tornado surrounding 0-01.

• Emlyn learned that more than ten critically ill or severely injured patients and their families had vanished, with a witness claiming that a dead child had come back to life.
• Emlyn recited the Fool's Honorific Name, but an unfamiliar wandering magician appeared and offered to grant his wishes; Emlyn refused.
• Fors returned home and found Bethel visiting Xio, where he advised Fors on digesting her Traveler potion and told both women to move to Intis.
• Bethel said he would fulfill his promise to challenge Klein and would kill his body if Klein's personality had been destroyed; he then urged Fors and Xio to leave.
• Cheek arrived on Pasu Island and sensed that 0-01 had been released from its seal and taken into the Astral World by Leodero.
• Cheek entered the blood-red tornado around 0-01, driven to obtain the banner and become a Red Priest despite the danger.