Chapter Summaries

Kallen confronted Little John, the Sacred Artifact being nurtured by sacrifices, while Kevin, Puer, and Alfred prepared to deal with the site. Little John revealed that he was a Lax Copper Coin called the Source of Sin, then sensed that Grandpa had returned.

• Little John possessed him and attacked the group with a soul-piercing shriek, but Kallen and the others withstood it.
• Kallen explained that he had come to stop the sacrifices, not to claim Little John, and Alfred began preparing a formation below.
• Little John said he pitied the women in the pigsties and regarded them as the family who had raised him.
• Little John described his earlier possession of a young boy and his wish for the Law Expounder who sealed him to suffer the same fate as the women.
• Kallen identified Little John as the Source of Sin, a Lax Copper Coin, and Little John announced that Grandpa had returned.

Kallen prepared to detonate the contamination source beneath the factory, intending to expose Qi He's crimes and force the churches to respond. As the Law Expounder appeared, Kallen ordered Alfred to set off the trap.

• Loya confronted Qi He, revealed that the resentment of the women had awakened her consciousness, and rejected his attempt to raise her as a tool.
• Qi He imprisoned Loya in an Order cage and prepared to annihilate her, but sensed someone underground.
• Kallen told Mr. Pavaro that he planned to detonate the contamination source to draw the churches' attention, admitting he did not want to die trying to solve the case.
• Alfred completed a simple Formation at the spot Kevin had identified, and Kallen prepared to trigger it.
• The Lord Law Expounder appeared on the platform, and Kallen told Alfred to light it up.

Kallen and his allies struggled to contain the contamination released at the factory while fighting the Law Expounder and the Whip of Order. Kallen discovered a second, more concentrated source of contamination in the trough and prepared to awaken the dead within it.

• Alfred activated his formation, releasing contamination that spread through the factory, and Qi He used advanced Order spells to suppress it.
• Alfred and Pavaro attacked Qi He while Kallen protected himself and prepared to aid them, but Tiers and his squad arrived and shifted the balance.
• Qi He transferred the burden of his Purification Barrier and Triple Seal to Tiers, then cast Returning Tide to compress the contamination back down.
• Pavaro explained that Qi He was a highest-rank Law Expounder and urged Kallen to escape, but Kallen noticed that the trough held another source of contamination.
• Kallen realized the trough contained accumulated contamination from generations of corpses, then summoned a Black Chain and prepared to wake them.

Kallen connected his Order Iron Chain to the second Source of Pollution and endured the resentment within it as Qi He prepared to finish [Reflux]. He awakened the trapped dead, whose white chains began to glow, while Arbiter Rook witnessed an astonishing change outside.

• Qi He told Tiers that Kallen could not reach the second Source of Pollution, while Loya taunted Qi He and predicted his death.
• Kallen extended an Order Iron Chain into the recess, and Little John, Puer, Mr. Pavaro, Alfred, and the others watched as he confronted the pollution.
• Kallen was overwhelmed by the resentment and suffered as black pollution marked his body; Alfred kept faith and beat out a rhythm beside him.
• Golden Retriever revealed that Kallen’s body had been made to house Raniedal and that repeated exposure could build resistance, just as the pollution began to recede.
• Kallen rose as white chains branched from his chain into the dead in the recess, prompting Mr. Pavaro to praise Order and Alfred to weep.
• Kallen opened his eyes, declared “Awaken!”, and Arbiter Rook stopped in disbelief at what he saw outside.

Kallen awakened the dead women in the trough, breaking Qi He's restriction and exposing the horrors of his underground factory. As Qi He used the Lax Copper Coin to crush everyone and erase the evidence, Kallen awakened Loya from the traces of her presence in the dreams of Little John and the women, turning the Divine Artifact against Qi He.

• Kallen awakened the corpses and skeletons in the trough, and they broke the restriction as the women’s accumulated contamination rose into a black cloud.
• Qi He restrained Tiers, destroyed Loya with the Order-Fire of Discipline, and used the Lax Copper Coin to erase the contamination and kill Tiers.
• Kallen learned that Little John grieved for the nameless girl who had visited him and the women in their dreams, then realized her spiritual traces might remain there despite her lack of a corpse.
• Kallen used Order-Awakening through Little John and the women’s memories, restoring Loya and stopping the descending barrier.
• Loya gained control of the copper coin, pinned Qi He in place, and told him he would die that night.

Loya killed Qi He with Lax’s Coffin, then let the dying women in the pigsty pass peacefully and merged into the Lax Copper Coin. After the survivors left the factory, Kallen reunited with his companions, but Mr. Pavaro died after handing him the skin from his face.

• Loya saw through Qi He’s death-substitution puppet, trapped him between barriers, and defeated his forbidden spell with the phantom of Lax’s Coffin.
• Loya sent Kallen, Alfred, Pavaro, Little John, Puer, and Kevin away from the fight, then sealed Qi He inside the coffin, where his own Black Flames burned him to ashes.
• Loya comforted the women in the pigsty with shared dreams, and they died as the pollution dissipated; she then merged into the Lax Copper Coin, which the Order God Church took into custody.
• Kallen reassured Little John, spoke with Pavaro about awakening Loya, and agreed to help Pavaro visit his family before making a mask from his facial skin.
• Kallen caught Puer after she fell from a tree, then watched Pavaro tear off his facial skin and hand it to him before dying.

Kallen brought Mr. Pavaro’s body home and took his donated face to Lemar’s Pottery Gallery to have it made into a mask for infiltrating the Order God Church. Lemar refused to help because he feared the trouble, but Selena arrived and mistook Kallen’s visit as being for her.

• Alfred and Kallen carried Mr. Pavaro’s body home after Kallen thanked him for the identity and promised to care for his family.
• Kallen reflected on the Church’s corruption, ate breakfast, and set out with Alfred to have Mr. Pavaro’s face made into a mask.
• At the gallery, Kallen told Lemar he intended to use the mask to infiltrate the Order God Church, and Lemar sensed that Mr. Pavaro had given his face willingly.
• Lemar refused to make the mask because Kallen’s plan could bring trouble to the gallery.
• Selena entered the gallery, recognized Kallen, and excitedly assumed he had come to see her.

Kallen visited Lemar Ding Voss to have a mask made from Mr. Pavaro’s facial skin, and Selena persuaded her brother to do the work for free. The Voss siblings completed an enchanted ring that let Kallen assume Pavaro’s appearance, leaving him ready to enter the Order God Church as an Inquisitor while pondering the meaning of his new disguise.

• Selena convinced Lemar to make Kallen’s mask without charge and gave him 500 Abyss Vouchers, which he left on the desk.
• Kallen learned that the Voss Family specialized in Puppet Art and that Lemar’s family had once suffered persecution for refusing the Church of Light.
• Lemar used a purple gemstone and Mr. Pavaro’s facial skin to create a disguise, then set the gemstone into a valuable Ring Band at Selena’s urging.
• Selena told Lemar that she felt an unusual connection to Kallen and admitted she had been hoping to become his lover despite his engagement.
• Kallen tried on the ring and transformed into Mr. Pavaro, discovering that the disguise reproduced his face and body even to physical touch.
• Kallen switched back to his own appearance and wondered whether he was Pavaro or Kallen as the thought “Order is a mask” came to mind.

Kallen contemplated the Mask and the meaning of Order, weighing several possible paths to becoming an Inquisitor before choosing to wait and understand judgment more fully. He left the mirror without advancing, tested the Mask, and ended by insulting the God of Order.

• Kallen put on and removed the Mask in front of a mirror, entering a contemplative state as Chains of Order spread through the bedroom.
• Lemar and Selena watched as Kallen considered Mr. Pavaro’s life and manifested several possible Inquisitor uniforms, including one bearing the aura of a family faith system.
• Kallen recalled Dis’s words about Order and masks, then stopped reaching toward the family-faith uniform after remembering that Dis had admitted his youthful path was wrong.
• Kallen concluded that he wanted to practice while wearing a mask and test what he learned without it, manifesting a faint, personalized Inquisitor uniform but deciding not to advance yet.
• Kallen turned the mirror away, used the ring to take on Mr. Pavaro’s appearance and praise Order, then returned to his own form and cursed the God of Order.

Kallen visited Lemar at the Pottery Gallery, obtained Blood Spirit Powder, and used Mr. Pavaro's appearance to return to the Pavaro Family Funeral Society. He reunited with Mrs. Lake and her daughters, helped bathe them with the powder, and the chapter ended with Mrs. Lake silently breaking down in tears after leaving him.

• Kallen thanked Lemar for helping him, exchanged contact details with Selena, and received Blood Spirit Powder while warning Lemar that supplies might soon become scarce.
• Kallen transformed into Mr. Pavaro and entered the Funeral Society, where Pike and Dinkum welcomed him back after he said he had been cleared of charges.
• Mrs. Lake struck and pinched Kallen, then stopped when she learned he had brought Blood Spirit Powder for her daughters.
• Kallen helped Mrs. Lake bathe her daughters with the powder, which eased their discomfort and expelled black contaminants from their bodies.
• Mrs. Lake brought Kallen food and scolded him as Mr. Pavaro before leaving to check on the girls; afterward, she slumped by the bedroom door and wept silently.

Kallen secured Mrs. Lake’s agreement to let him support Mr. Pavaro’s family while keeping their unspoken understanding, and decided to take over the Pavarro Funeral Society. After learning the Raphael Family had been wiped out, he went to the Funeral Society the next morning and met Order God Church representatives delivering Mr. Pavaro’s commendation and death benefit.

• Mrs. Lake accepted Kallen’s promise to provide for Mr. Pavaro’s wife and daughters, and agreed to keep his identity secret.
• Kallen planned to take over the Pavarro Funeral Society and consider legitimizing his own identity as an officially registered Divine Servant.
• Kallen returned home, startled Xili by appearing as Mr. Pavaro, and asked Puer whether the pollution affecting Mr. Pavaro’s daughters could be treated.
• Alfred told Kallen that the Raphael Family had been wiped out, and Puer thanked him for helping Mr. Pavaro and Ms. Annie.
• The next morning, Kallen went to the Funeral Society with Alfred and met two Order God Church representatives bringing Mr. Pavaro’s certificate of commendation and death benefit.
• When a representative asked his name, Kallen introduced himself as Pavaro.

Kallen confronted Arbiter Vicolai over stealing Pavaro’s credit and negotiated a reward, promotion, and freedom to choose a Divine Servant. After Vicolai left, Kallen laughed at his boast that his grandfather was a bishop, thinking of his own grandfather.

• Two Divine Servants arrived to deliver Pavaro’s death benefits, but left to report to Vicolai after finding Kallen alive.
• Kallen resolved to let Vicolai buy his silence, while privately vowing that Vicolai would pay for taking Pavaro’s honor.
• Kallen reassured Mrs. Lake that her daughters might receive better treatment and listened as she grieved for Pavaro and apologized for how she had treated him.
• Kallen learned from Pike that a seventh-rank Inquisitor could have only two Divine Servants and earned one thousand Order Vouchers each month.
• Vicolai offered Kallen a promotion to sixth rank and seven thousand Order Vouchers; Kallen demanded fifth rank, ten thousand vouchers, and the right to choose his own Divine Servant, and Vicolai agreed.
• Vicolai said his grandfather was a bishop, and Kallen laughed after he left, amused that Vicolai had compared grandfathers with him.

Kallen arranged Annie’s funeral at the Pavaro Funeral Society and learned from the mourners how deeply she had supported the women of Red Leaf Street. The chapter ended with the pastry shops closing for the night as the women mourned her.

• Kallen asked Mrs. Lake to prepare Annie’s body and arrange a funeral that night, with a separate grave for Mr. Pavaro.
• Kallen and Alfred brought Annie and Mr. Pavaro’s body from Kallen’s home to the funeral society.
• Kallen read Mr. Pavaro’s work journals while Mrs. Lake restored Annie and prepared the mourning hall.
• Kallen told Dinkum he planned to recruit a divine servant and instructed Pike to announce Annie’s funeral.
• Women from Red Leaf Street arrived to mourn Annie, and Mrs. Lake explained that she had reached out to them.
• Kallen gave Mrs. Lake forty rael as his condolence money, and every pastry shop on Red Leaf Street closed for the night.

After burying Mr. Pavaro and Ms. Annie, Kallen took charge of the Funeral Society and prepared to learn combat arts while arranging for Little John to attend school. He received Pavaro’s Fifth-Rank Inquisitor documents and rewards from the District and Vicolai, then headed to obtain an Identity Card for his Divine Servant.

• At Green Vine Cemetery, Alfred carved Kallen’s thanks onto Ms. Annie’s and Mr. Pavaro’s headstones, and Kallen drove Mrs. Lake back to the Funeral Society.
• Kallen agreed to run the Funeral Society, told Little John he would arrange school for him, and discussed buying scrolls for Puer and Kevin’s arts.
• Kallen returned to the Funeral Society disguised as Mr. Pavaro and confirmed his Qi He case statement to Deputy Director Mian, who gave him Fifth-Rank Inquisitor documents and Vicolai’s gift.
• Kallen demanded the District’s two-thousand-Order-Voucher reward, then gave the vouchers to Pike for Mrs. Lake and told Pike and Dinkum to welcome the incoming Divine Servant.
• Kallen opened Vicolai’s gift box, found ten thousand Order Vouchers, and gave them to Alfred before setting off to get an Identity Card for his Divine Servant.

Kallen obtained Divine Servant identification and met Neo, who offered him a place in the Whip of Order. After accepting, Kallen left with a contact sheet and a flimsy whip-emblem ring, realizing the supposed membership was little more than an informal arrangement.

• Kallen suspected that Vicolai's concern about scrutiny centered on clerk Neo and went to the Regional Administration Office to obtain Divine Servant identification.
• Kallen passed the sensing-orb test by releasing only a tiny amount of spirituality, and the clerk completed his identification paperwork without the usual police verification.
• Kallen found Neo on the twenty-fourth floor and followed him to a concealed office on the thirty-second floor.
• Neo offered Kallen a place in the Whip of Order, and Kallen accepted, receiving a gray document bag and instructions to report monthly and collect a 100 Order Voucher allowance in person.
• Kallen examined the bag in Alfred's car, found only contact information and a gray whip-emblem ring, and broke the plastic ring with his fingers.

Kallen joined the Pavarro Funeral Society as a Divine Servant, took charge of the office, and went with Pike and Dinkum to collect a body. At the Red Tree Apartments, they found the supposed deceased woman pinned behind a bathtub curtain, and Kallen identified her as a Bloodthirsty Otherworldly Demon.

• Alfred drove Kallen to the Funeral Society after agreeing to buy supplies and investigate a silent march by hooded torchbearers.
• Kallen showed Pike and Dinkum his Divine Servant identification, ordered them to clean and work properly, and told them to call him boss.
• Kallen read Mr. Pavaro's notes, wrote down three goals, and rested until Mrs. Lake told him the Society had received a funeral call.
• Kallen drove Pike and Dinkum to apartment 702 at the Red Tree Apartments to collect a dead woman, but nobody answered the door.
• Pike found a woman with fangs and long black fingernails pinned to the washroom wall by a silver spike, and Kallen recognized her as a Bloodthirsty Otherworldly Demon.

Kallen and his Funeral Society collected a Bloodthirsty Otherworldly Demon’s corpse, and he decided against turning it over to the Church for a paltry reward. After learning that the dead woman had killed herself to prevent harming others, Kallen agreed to hold her a dignified funeral the evening after tomorrow.

• Kallen freed the female Bloodthirsty Otherworldly Demon’s corpse from a silver spike, and Pike and Dinkum purified and transported it to the Funeral Society.
• Kallen rejected Dinkum’s suggestion to investigate the house and decided not to submit the corpse to the Church for its 50 Order Vouchers reward.
• Kallen told Pike to prepare to burn the corpse, but a caller asked him to arrange a funeral for his wife, who had killed herself to keep from attacking people after losing herself.
• Kallen realized Neo had referred the caller to him and agreed to hold the dead woman a dignified funeral in white the evening after tomorrow.
• Kallen accepted that the Funeral Society would conduct the funeral and privately celebrated the business’s upgrade.

Kallen arranged a funeral for a Bloodthirsty Otherworldly Demon and investigated her connection to Neo. After learning that Neo had helped her and her husband, Kallen reported the situation to Neo, who told him to help give her a proper funeral.

• Mrs. Lake completed the dead demon’s funeral makeup while Kallen examined her fangs and nails and wondered why Neo had directed her husband to the Funeral Society.
• Alfred told Kallen he had delivered supplies, investigated the torch-bearing group, and found that they opposed illegal immigrants.
• Kallen questioned the demon’s husband, Keen, who explained that Neo had helped him and Elisa live together for two more years before she chose suicide rather than lose herself.
• Keen paid Kallen 2,000 Abyss Vouchers for arranging Elisa’s funeral, and Kallen decided the Funeral Society could specialize in funerals for nonhumans.
• Kallen secretly called Neo to report that Pavaro was refusing to surrender the body and preparing a funeral, and Neo instructed him to help give Elisa a proper one.

Kallen prepared for Elisa's funeral, investigated the bloodline condition behind her death, and suspected that Neo had been more than her friend. Anticipating trouble at the funeral, he arranged for the Pavaro family to stay elsewhere and chose not to disguise himself as Mr. Pavaro.

• Alfred decorated the funeral hall while Kallen finished Mr. Pavaro's journals and researched Bloodthirsty Otherworldly Demons.
• Kallen inferred that Elisa had lost access to potions suppressing her ancestral bloodline's whispers and had killed herself before losing control.
• Kallen reported the funeral arrangements to Neo and suspected a romantic connection between Neo and Elisa after noticing Neo's emotional response.
• Alfred enrolled Little John in school, while Xili told Kallen about white-robed groups and Mr. Luther's campaign against discrimination.
• Kallen summoned the old man and learned that Light could imitate other systems' powers through conversion.
• Alfred moved Mrs. Lake and the two young ladies to a hotel, and Kallen arrived at the Funeral Society without assuming Mr. Pavaro's identity so he could flee if trouble arose.

Kallen hosted Elisa’s funeral, where her family’s arrival and a plot involving the Bocart and Magna families exposed the conflict behind her death. After Neo stopped an attack on the Anavas Count, he discovered Edis had caused Elisa’s death and killed her, saying Elisa would not be alone.

• Kallen and the Funeral Society prepared Elisa’s mourning hall, and Captain Neo and Elisa’s sister Edis arrived to pay their respects.
• The Anavas Count arrived, ordered Edis to kneel before Elisa’s coffin, and said he had given Gross genuine Resting Liquid.
• Gross revealed he had alerted the Bocart and Magna families, who had come to kill the Count and Edis, but Neo announced Order had purged their illegal forces.
• Neo stopped Edis from attacking Gross and asked the Count whether the Resting Liquid had been fake; the Count denied it and suggested Edis may have wanted Elisa dead for Neo’s advancement.
• Neo realized Edis had caused Elisa’s death, decapitated her, and said she could be buried with Elisa so Elisa would not be lonely.