Chapter Summaries

Kallen was cornered by the possessed Mrs. Hughes in the house at No. 128 on Mink Street, while Alfred mistook him for a divine envoy and rushed to answer his summons. Alfred and Miss Molly stopped Mrs. Hughes, but Miss Molly consumed her along with the demonic presence inside her, leaving Kallen shaken by the result.

• Kallen inferred that the radio in the master bedroom was connected to the house’s supernatural residents and persuaded Mrs. Hughes to turn it on.
• Alfred, who had come to Mink Street, recognized Kallen as the terrifying being from his memories and believed he was witnessing the birth of a new religion.
• Mrs. Hughes prepared to kill Kallen, but Alfred heard Kallen’s shout as a summons and burst through the window, freezing her with his red-eyed power.
• Alfred asked Kallen whether to punish Mrs. Hughes, and Kallen managed to answer with a hesitant “Mm.”
• Alfred called Miss Molly, who emerged from beneath the bed and swallowed Mrs. Hughes and the black light possessing her.
• Mrs. Hughes’s body vanished into Miss Molly’s mouth, and Kallen sat silently beside her discarded clothes.

Kallen tried to maintain the illusion that he was a powerful being while Alfred and Miss Molly knelt before him, and his awkward attempt to share cigarettes with them turned into uncontrollable laughter. Alfred and Miss Molly pledged themselves to Kallen, while Dis and Puer watched from outside and Puer accused Dis of overlooking Kallen’s true nature.

• Kallen picked up Mrs. Hughes’s clothes and smoked a cigarette in front of the kneeling Alfred and Miss Molly.
• Kallen offered cigarettes to Alfred and Miss Molly, then laughed uncontrollably when the three of them faced the moon together.
• Miss Molly thanked Kallen for his guidance after the laughter ended, and Alfred announced that an Inquisitor from the Order God Church had arrived.
• Kallen identified Dis as his grandfather by blood, prompting Alfred to mistake him for a god who had descended into the mortal world.
• Alfred and Miss Molly pledged to serve Kallen, while Dis and Puer watched from outside No. 128 on Mink Street and Puer warned Dis that Kallen had brought the two Otherworldly Demons under his command.

Kallen left Alfred and Ms. Molly’s house with Dis and Puer, then told Dis what had happened as they drove to the Hughes Crematorium to stage Mrs. Hughes’s escape. As Kallen waited for Dis to tie him to a chair, Dis stabbed him, saying he would end the mistake he had begun.

• Alfred gave Kallen his business card, and Ms. Molly asked him for a purified body; Kallen told her to wait and left with Mrs. Hughes’s belongings.
• Dis spoke with Alfred, who revealed that a Divine Descent Ritual in Bellwyn City had summoned an evil god and suggested Kallen’s grandfather might have conducted it.
• Alfred and Ms. Molly agreed to play their roles obediently around Kallen, with Alfred demonstrating their part by barking.
• Kallen told Dis what had happened at the house and explained that he planned to stage Mrs. Hughes’s escape at the crematorium.
• Dis took a dagger from Mrs. Hughes’s tools and stabbed Kallen in the chest, saying, “The mistake I began should be ended by me.”

Kallen woke in the hospital after Mrs. Hughes stabbed him, and Chief Duke and Rodi questioned him about her while he concealed what he knew about the supernatural. Dis visited that night, warned Kallen to take Paul with him when danger threatened, and said he would end the mistake that began with him.

• Kallen woke after two days in the hospital, and the doctor confirmed that his chest wound had not damaged his spleen.
• Chief Duke told Kallen that Mrs. Hughes had escaped and that the police had issued a wanted notice.
• Rodi questioned Kallen about Mrs. Hughes, but Kallen described her as a stupid murderer and gave an account that concealed her supernatural nature.
• Piaget arrived, vouched for Kallen's psychological abilities, and offered to help him attend university; later, Aunt Mary cared for Kallen before taking Mina and Lunt home.
• Dis visited Kallen at night, advised him to take Paul with him when danger was near, and declared that the mistake that began with him should end with him.

Kallen agreed to learn the truth from Dis after recovering, while Dis admitted to Mr. Hoffen that he could not kill the being who called him Grandpa. In the hospital, Kallen discovered he could hear a corpse calling for her money, and the voice ended in a murder near the morgue.

• Dis told Kallen they would talk after he recovered, then confessed to Mr. Hoffen that he had stabbed Kallen but could not bring himself to kill him.
• Kallen walked with nurse Mina, learned about her work and wages, and met Uncle Mason, Paul, and Ron visiting the hospital on business.
• Back in his ward, Kallen heard a voice repeating that it wanted its money and learned from Puer that the morgue lay beneath his room.
• Puer explained that Kallen had not undergone purification and could not control his unusual perception, while Kallen admitted he was not the original Kallen.
• Kallen and Puer heard a morgue worker confront a woman over the missing money, and the woman screamed that he had taken it before killing him.

Kallen heard unexplained voices and screams from the basement but found no sign of trouble when Maina sent security to investigate. That night, a hole opened in the ward floor, and an old woman appeared to accuse him of stealing her money.

• Kallen and Puer discussed the Order Church, its ranks, and how its abilities could awaken the spirituality stored in corpses.
• Puer suspected Kallen had the ability to revive corpses and wondered whether he had returned from the dead, but Kallen denied being an evil god.
• Kallen heard screams from beneath the ward and asked Maina to have security check the basement; the hospital found nothing unusual.
• Kallen heard a voice asking for its money in his sleep, then woke to scraping sounds and found a hole opening in the floor beneath his bed.
• An old woman's face appeared in the hole and asked Kallen whether he had stolen her money.

Kallen survived an attack by a bewitching otherworldly demon, first with Puer’s help and then by using his Art to restrain a possessed nurse. Unable to reach Dis, he called someone else and summoned them.

• An old woman emerged from a hole beneath Kallen’s bed and tried to seize him, but Puer clawed her and broke her hold over his consciousness.
• Puer revealed that the attacker was a bewitching otherworldly demon and that she herself had once been a pureblood of that kind.
• A nurse entered the ward and attacked Kallen and Puer while possessed by the demon, but Kallen aligned the nurse with a phantom figure and awakened the struggle inside her body.
• Kallen commanded the nurse to kneel, stay still, and be silent, then left the ward to call for help.
• Aunt Mary told Kallen that Dis was away visiting Mr. Hoffen, so Kallen called another number and said, “I hereby summon you.”

Kallen survived a violent attack in the hospital, while Alfred removed the possessed nurse’s corpse and sealed the demon inside it for Miss Molly. As Kallen returned home with his family, Ron’s strange copper coin revealed a dangerous hold over him.

• Alfred found the dead nurse possessed by an otherworldly demon, sealed it inside her body, and carried her away after Kallen summoned him.
• Puer explained that the nurse’s awakened corpse and the demon’s soul made her body suitable as a purified body, while Kallen admitted he had called Alfred because he was nervous.
• Dis returned to the hospital, checked Kallen’s wound, and investigated the basement before Kallen underwent surgery and recovered in a different ward.
• Mina told Kallen that Nasi, the missing night nurse, had likely been the woman who died, and Uncle Mason arranged to take Kallen home for continued treatment.
• Paul and Ron carried Kallen home in a hearse, and Kallen examined Ron’s copper coin, after which Ron became vacant and muttered about his money.

Kallen returned home and learned that Ron’s copper coin was a counterfeit Source of Sin made by a Lax Church priest, which Dis purified before deciding to turn it in. Dis then began explaining Kallen’s past, opening with the revelation that he had killed Kallen’s parents.

• Kallen noticed that the copper coin strongly influenced Ron and felt reluctant to give it back, while Piaget handed it over without hesitation.
• Kallen told Dis about the coin, and Dis took it from Ron, identifying it as a counterfeit Source of Sin associated with the Lax Church.
• Dis explained the coin’s origins and the influence it had on ordinary people, then said he would turn it in for safekeeping.
• Dis purged the coin’s influence from Ron and sent him home to rest.
• Dis offered to explain Kallen’s past, and Kallen asked him to speak first.
• Dis began his account by telling Kallen that he had killed Kallen’s parents with his own hands.

Dis revealed that he had killed Kallen’s parents after they were irreversibly corrupted, then explained that he had arranged Kallen’s resurrection through a Divine Descent Ritual. Kallen and Dis reconciled as grandfather and grandson, and Dis left him to recover while promising to protect the family until he was gone.

• Dis told Kallen that he had killed Kallen’s parents, former Inquisitors of the Order God Church, to release them after their souls were irreversibly contaminated.
• Dis explained that he had lost faith in the church and wanted the Immerlis Family to withdraw from it and live ordinary lives.
• Dis revealed that Kallen had already died before he took him away, and that he had used a Divine Descent Ritual with Mr. Hoffen’s help to bring Kallen back to life.
• Kallen asked why Dis had not killed him as a descended Evil God, and Dis said he loved the child who called him Grandfather, regardless of the soul in the body.
• Kallen called Dis Grandfather and promised to help the family live safely and happily, while Dis told him he would not need to do that yet, before Dis left.

Kallen watched a hospital power failure turn a little girl’s successful surgery into her death, then stayed to arrange her funeral despite her father striking him. Back home, he lashed out at Lunt for joining Delis’s march and told Puer he would ask Aunt Mary to give the grieving parents a discount.

• Kallen prepared a pig-head meal with Ron, Paul, Aunt Mary, and Aunt Winnie, and Paul asked how to grow closer to his fiancée before their spring wedding.
• Kallen and the funeral society staff went to Hans Hospital, where the doctors initially saved the little girl he had been waiting to serve.
• A power outage caused by a student protest at a coal-fired power plant interrupted the girl’s surgery, and she died; her father punched Kallen when he identified himself as a funeral company representative.
• Kallen stayed at the hospital and offered the parents the Immoreles Funeral Company’s services, then accompanied the girl’s body back to Mink Street.
• Lunt proudly showed Kallen Delis’s signed protest placard, and Kallen splashed ice water on him and slapped him.
• Kallen told Puer he would ask Aunt Mary to give the girl’s parents a discount.

Kallen deliberately used his ability to bring the deceased little girl back for one final dance, then let her return to rest. After the lights went out, Puer sensed that the power involved was not Dis’s, while Dis identified it as Order.

• Uncle Mason punished Lunt for joining Delis’s protest, and Aunt Mary decided the family would handle the girl’s funeral at a loss.
• Aunt Mary prepared the girl’s body and talked with Kallen about grief, guilt, and the need to manage his feelings.
• Kallen played “Rojia Sprite” and reached out to the girl, sensing her presence as black, vine-like patterns spread across the workshop floor.
• Puer recognized that the power was not Dis’s, and Dis said it was Order.
• The girl returned to her body, danced for Kallen, then lay back down; Kallen applauded and switched off the lights.

Delis helped Mr. Oka and his allies plot to manipulate protests and stage a family’s suicide to undermine Rojia City’s mayoral incumbent and elect Ford. After Piaget directed Oka to the Immoreles Funeral Company, Kallen unknowingly accepted a reservation for a family funeral intended to support the conspiracy.

• Delis delivered an environmental speech, then attended Mr. Oka’s dinner with Ford, Humil, Haggett, and Molf.
• Mr. Oka and his allies planned student marches, protests by injured workers, and a staged family suicide to turn public opinion against the old mayor and help Ford take office.
• Mr. Oka asked Priest Aloteta to personally ensure the selected family’s deaths, then met Piaget and learned about the Immoreles Funeral Company on Mink Street.
• Dis led a funeral for a little girl while Kallen helped pack up the company’s things.
• A man asked Kallen to reserve the Immoreles Funeral Company for a joint family funeral between the 14th and 17th, and Kallen agreed without knowing the family was part of the plot.

Dis learned that High Priest Rasma would lead a second investigation into the Bellwyn incident, while the Immerlis Family arranged to acquire the Hughes Crematorium and hire new staff. The chapter ended when Kallen recognized the applicants as Alfred and Miss Molly, who knelt before him and pledged to answer his summons.

• A Whip of Order agent collected a replica of the Source of Sin from Dis and told him that High Priest Rasma would oversee a new investigation into the Bellwyn incident.
• The Immerlis Family discussed buying the Hughes Crematorium, and Paul offered 100,000 Lu Coins and volunteered to manage it.
• Aunt Winnie drafted the acquisition and share plans, the family raised the funds, and Mason bought a new hearse amid protests and marches in Rojia City.
• Kallen read religious books while awaiting two job applicants, unaware that the woman was Miss Molly disguised as Nasi and the man was Alfred.
• Alfred and Miss Molly knelt before Kallen and declared that they had come to answer his summons, startling Aunt Mary.

Kallen questioned Dis about hiring Alfred and Miss Molly, learning that they were legitimate assistants to Dis’s work as an Inquisitor and that Dis trusted them not to endanger the family. Dis reassured Kallen that he would not be forced to undergo Purification, while Puer urged Dis to reconsider and discussed the ongoing investigation into the Divine Descent Ritual.

• Kallen served a lavish lunch to the family, Alfred, Miss Molly, and Mina’s classmate Sarah, and the guests enthusiastically praised his cooking.
• Kallen asked Dis why he had allowed Alfred and Miss Molly, both otherworldly demons, to work for the family, and Dis explained that Inquisitors commonly employed otherworldly assistants.
• Dis told Kallen that he trusted the new employees and would not let anyone interfere with Kallen’s development or secretly perform Purification on him.
• Puer told Dis that Kallen’s power seemed pure and asked whether he would let Kallen undergo Purification, but Dis refused and warned Puer against acting without permission.
• Dis explained that the investigation into the Divine Descent Ritual in Bellwyn City had resumed and that Kallen would remain safe as long as he did not undergo Purification or reveal his power.

Kallen helped Mina and Sarah with their homework, then drove Sarah home to Mine Street and accepted her family’s invitation to dinner. After learning about Rot’s life and the Eastern District workers’ concerns, Kallen and Mina shared a meal with the Rott family before heading home with a jar of pickles.

• Kallen tutored Mina and Sarah, noticed Sarah’s hearing trouble and modest circumstances, and stopped them from massaging him because they were growing up.
• Kallen drove Mina and Sarah to Mine Street, where Sarah’s mother invited them to dinner at the family’s home.
• Kallen spoke with Rot about his injury, his tire-rubber slipper business, and the allowance Mayor Sixson had promised disabled and chronically ill workers.
• The Rott family served Kallen and Mina a generous meal, and Kallen praised Sarah’s mother’s cooking.
• Sarah’s mother gave Kallen a jar of pickles, and the Rott family saw him and Mina off as he drove away.

Kallen learned that Rot’s family had died by suicide after their desperate circumstances were worsened by the city’s neglect and a slanted newspaper interview. At the scene on Mine Street, Kallen recognized the dead as the family he had visited the night before, and Rot told him to get up as he struggled to support him with his crutch.

• Kallen read about the workers’ protest in the Rojia Daily and saw that the paper had distorted Rot’s words to portray him as condemning Mayor Sickson.
• A funeral job brought Kallen, Uncle Mason, and Afu to 117 Mine Street, where police reported that a man, his mother, and the man’s wife and daughter had all died by suicide.
• Kallen recalled meeting Rot and his family the previous night as he realized the bodies belonged to them.
• Kallen slipped while steadying the stretcher, and the man’s sheet fell away to reveal his empty trouser leg.
• Rot caught Kallen and urged him to get up, warning that his crutch would not hold out much longer.

Kallen recognized that the Mine Street family's deaths had been arranged and suspected an otherworldly demon was involved, but hesitated to endanger his family by pursuing the truth. When he told Dis about the contradiction in the wife's apparent suicide, Dis decided the Order God Church had to intervene and prepared to confront mayoral candidate Ford.

• Rot told Kallen that One-Armed Siso had been planning for his daughter's future and doubted that Siso's family had willingly died; he broke down as reporters photographed the bodies.
• Mason realized the family's deaths had been planned in advance, but feared that the powerful people behind them could silence the Immerlis Family.
• The hearse returned to Mink Street, where white-rose protesters and reporters gathered, while Humil directed reporters to photograph the prepared bodies at the memorial service.
• Kallen told Dis that he suspected an otherworldly demon had caused the deaths, and Dis agreed that the Order God Church had to intervene.
• Kallen identified Ford as the likely beneficiary of the deaths, and Dis proposed going directly to Ford's house to question him, confident that no powerful figure was beyond the Church's reach.

Kallen realized that Dis viewed the powerful as beings within reach of divine authority, not untouchable rulers, and Dis urged him to act against those responsible for the family's deaths. As preparations began for the memorial service, Kallen planned to use its guest list to visit the suspects with Dis, while Puer revealed that Dis did not believe in religion.

• Dis told Kallen that the gods had always stood above kings and ordered him to prepare a list of suspects and their addresses.
• Kallen admitted that he had come to Dis only to ease his conscience, and Dis told him to learn to take action.
• Kallen assigned the household work for the memorial service, including preparing the bodies, arranging the first floor, monitoring the reporters and protesters, and compiling a list of attendees.
• Kallen planned to use the memorial service to identify the suspects and visit them with Dis afterward.
• Puer teased Kallen about divine power and offered to help him embrace a faith, explaining that Dis did not believe in religion.

Kallen helped his family prepare for the memorial service of Siso and his family while political figures and protesters turned it into a public spectacle. After the service, he took Aunt Winnie's list of influential guests and went to Dis's study, ready to begin his own plans.

• Aunt Mary and Molly restored the bodies, while Mason and Ron prepared the memorial hall and joked grimly about confronting the protesters with shotguns.
• Rot's family visited Siso's coffin, and Rot explained that he had refused a reporter's bribe and was taking his family away to avoid being tempted by the money.
• Kallen read the newspaper's attacks on Sickson, prepared food for the memorial, and watched politicians, celebrities, and activists use the service to denounce the mayor.
• Mr. Oka paid the remaining balance, and Kallen told Mason that Dis wanted the coffins kept in the basement until the next day.
• Aunt Winnie gave Kallen a list of guests and their addresses, and Kallen went to Dis's study, saying it was his turn to knock.