Recaps

Lumian and Aurora watched a strange lizard-like spirit leave Assistant Parish Priest Michel Garigu, travel through the village cemetery, and return to his body. They then reasoned that the Parish Priest’s circle had likely gained supernatural powers shortly before the Lent Festival, while White Paper observed Guillaume Béné and found him muttering angrily at someone unseen.

• A lizard-like creature crawled out of Michel Garigu, explored animal skulls and graves, then returned to his mouth as he woke, drank water, and went back to sleep.
• Aurora warned Lumian that the creature carried mental corruption, and the siblings discussed how many unusual figures lived in Cordou Village.
• Aurora decided to have White Paper observe the Parish Priest, reasoning that he was probably still an ordinary person on March 29.
• Lumian and Aurora pieced together that the Parish Priest’s group likely received supernatural boons between Naroka’s funeral and the Lent Festival.
• White Paper entered Guillaume Béné’s bedroom, where Aurora examined his aura and Lumian saw that he was physically healthy apart from heightened desires.
• Guillaume Béné stood and punched the air, bitterly saying, “It’s all your fault!”

Lumian and Aurora investigated the Parish Priest’s possible ties to Madame Pualis and a mysterious owl, then planned to question the sheep and seek help from the Three Foreigners. In the restarted Dream Ruins, Lumian found a living mass of flesh, which was suddenly seized by black, fleshy ropes.

• Lumian and Aurora watched Guillaume Béné curse an unseen presence and discussed whether Madame Pualis or a mysterious owl had led him toward supernatural power.
• Aurora told Lumian to rest, promised to teach him Hermetic, and planned to question Pierre Berri’s three sheep while Lumian approached the Three Foreigners.
• Lumian woke in a new Dream Ruins loop, found his belongings missing, and confirmed that he had sent the plea for help described in the Little Blue Book.
• Lumian entered the ruins, killed two familiar monsters, and followed a faint scent of blood to a living mass of flesh.
• Several black, elastic ropes covered in fleshy membranes emerged and bound the mass of flesh.

Lumian encountered a tentacled monster with black marks like those on the Parish Priest and fought it after its buzzing drove him to attack. He exploited the monster’s inability to hide its tracks to lure it into a fragile building, which he collapsed on top of it.

• Lumian watched a headless monster devour a mass of flesh and noticed three black marks on its body resembling those on the Parish Priest.
• The monster’s buzzing provoked Lumian into revealing himself, and he shot it with his shotgun.
• The monster vanished and used its tentacles to attack Lumian, but he wounded it again by shooting into its mouthpart.
• Lumian identified the monster’s invisibility and tracked its smell and footprints to evade its attacks and land more shots.
• With his ammunition running low, Lumian lured the monster into a half-collapsed building and brought the structure down on it.

Lumian killed the monster in the Dream Ruins, copied its mysterious black marks, and learned from Aurora that they likely represented supernatural contracts. Aurora suspected the marks were connected to the Thorn Symbol and the time loop, while Lumian went to visit Pierre Berri and learned he had gone to church.

• Lumian carefully uncovered the crushed monster, copied its three black marks in blood, and noticed that the hunt had helped digest his Hunter potion.
• Aurora identified the marks as possible contract symbols that granted the monster supernatural abilities, and she speculated that the Thorn Symbol and Dream Ruins might hold a key to the time loop.
• Aurora gave Lumian extra lessons in Hermetic before he left to meet Pierre Berri.
• Lumian asked Pierre Berri's mother, Marti, where Pierre was and learned that he had gone to church.

Lumian disrupted a secret gathering at the church by insisting on praying until Pierre Berri agreed to leave with him for the Old Tavern. Meanwhile, Aurora learned that Pierre had captured three people and transformed them into sheep with a ritual, and that he had a powerful companion.

• Lumian found Pierre Berri, the Parish Priest, and several others gathered at the church, then pretended to pray so they could not continue their discussion.
• Pierre agreed to buy Lumian a drink after dinner, but Lumian kept praying until Pierre offered to go to the Old Tavern with him immediately.
• Aurora approached the three sheep behind the Berri home and learned they had once been human before a ritual using sheepskins transformed them.
• The sheep told Aurora that Pierre had captured them with help from a powerful companion, leaving her puzzled about why Pierre deferred to the ordinary Parish Priest.

Aurora questioned three sheep who had once been Beyonders and learned that Pierre Berri and Nioll Best had captured them for a possible sacrifice; their attempt to recall the god’s name triggered a dangerous reaction. Lumian confirmed that Pons Béné still lacked supernatural abilities, and he and Aurora considered the threat posed by the unknown being.

• Aurora learned that Nioll Best had died while fighting the three sheep, and that Pierre Berri may have intended to sacrifice them to a god.
• When the sheep tried to write the god’s name, bloody tears appeared and Aurora’s intuition warned her to stop them; she fled the pen and erased their writing with iron-black powder.
• At the Old Tavern, Pierre told Lumian that a woman he might have married had died despite the efforts of priests and doctors, and spoke of a religious understanding he believed could save souls.
• Pons Béné and several thugs cornered Lumian, but Lumian escaped their search, knocked Pons down, and struck him before fleeing.
• Lumian told Aurora that Pierre had gone to church again and that Pons had no supernatural abilities; Aurora described the danger she had encountered with the sheep, and Lumian recalled the mysterious lady’s warning about corruption from knowing certain beings existed.

Aurora and Lumian pieced together how the village’s corruption and the Twelfth Night ritual might be connected, then planned to seek allies and investigate the Castle. After waking in the Dream Ruins, Lumian considered using a summoned Spirit World Creature to explore dangerous areas and set out into the ruins again.

• Aurora and Lumian speculated that the Lent Festival celebrations formed part of a grand ritual that would draw Cordu into the Parish Priest’s sacrifice to the Hidden Being.
• Aurora told Lumian to approach the Three Foreigners for help and suspected that Madame Pualis, Owl, or another hidden figure had started the village’s corruption.
• Aurora planned to invite Madame Pualis and others for afternoon tea while Lumian searched the Castle for clues, and she warned him to tell her if Owl returned.
• Aurora’s White Paper checked the Sheep Pen and found that the three sheep had licked the blood from one another’s faces, hiding the evidence from Shepherd Pierre Berri.
• Lumian continued studying Hermetic words, then considered summoning a Spirit World Creature to scout the Dream Ruins before leaving home armed and entering the ruins again.

Lumian found a monster whose dance triggered his Thorn Symbol and made it submit, revealing a possible way to weaken enemies with his special quality. He spared the creature so he could learn its dance, and waited for it to perform again.

• Lumian followed strange tracks and discovered a deformed monster dancing in a barren clearing, which he nicknamed Noodle Man.
• While watching Noodle Man dance, Lumian’s Thorn Symbol reappeared and partially activated his special quality, prompting him to consider using the effect against powerful monsters.
• Lumian approached Noodle Man, which trembled and prostrated itself, but it refused to dance again when he asked.
• When the symbols vanished, Noodle Man attacked, so Lumian fled and hid rather than risk killing the creature before learning its dance.
• Lumian waited for nearly two hours, and Noodle Man eventually returned to the clearing and began raising its limbs to dance.

Lumian learned that Noodle Man’s dance could partially activate the Thorn Symbol in the Dream Ruins, and he and Aurora connected the owl’s visits to major breakthroughs in his dream exploration. They planned to use Lumian’s next breakthrough to lure the owl into revealing its connection to Cordu’s abnormalities.

• Lumian watched Noodle Man perform its difficult, spiritually draining dance and confirmed that it partially activated the Thorn Symbol.
• Lumian returned home from the Dream Ruins and slept; at dawn, the owl appeared outside his window and flew toward the woods before Aurora could send White Paper after it.
• Lumian and Aurora concluded that the owl’s appearances seemed to follow major advances in his dream exploration, and they planned to prepare for its next visit.
• Aurora explained that ancient ritual dances could influence nature and communicate with deities, and she suspected Noodle Man’s dance was meant for the Hidden Being linked to the Thorn Symbol.
• Lumian joked that Noodle Man was the Sequence 9 of the Person of the Loop, then studied Hermetic and headed out.

Lumian met the mysterious lady at the Old Tavern and learned how to use the Thorn Symbol in a Dual Ritual to gain the supernatural flexibility he needed. She told him to seek the power of a Dancer, the Thorn Symbol’s Sequence 9, and explained the higher ranks and the monster he had killed.

• Lumian found the mysterious lady at the Old Tavern, told her about his recent experiences, and asked how to master the mysterious dance.
• The lady said Lumian needed supernatural flexibility and explained that he could use the Dual Ritual Method with the Thorn Symbol, but must not draw on the bluish-black symbol protecting him.
• Lumian learned that he could pray to the power represented by the Thorn Symbol for the boon of becoming a Dancer, a Sequence 9 beyond the twenty-two pathways.
• The lady named Sequence 8 as Mendicant Friar and Sequence 7 as Contracted One, then confirmed that the mouthpart monster Lumian killed had been a Contracted One.
• The lady explained that Contracted Ones gained abilities through special contracts and warned that abilities, intelligence, and preparation could matter more than Sequence in a fight.

The lady taught Lumian how to safely pray for the power of a Dancer and warned him about the corruption sealed within him. After recording the ritual instructions, Lumian encountered the Three Foreigners and told them he knew who they were looking for.

• Lumian asked about receiving the power of a Contracted One, and the lady warned that a boon that powerful could corrupt or transform him; she said Dancer was the strongest boon he could currently withstand.
• The lady taught Lumian the prayer to the power of inevitability, explained the ritual materials and the use of a candle containing his blood, and warned him to keep the words concealed and scrambled.
• The lady crushed a black worm that emerged from the table as she recited the prayer, then could not clearly explain what had crawled from the assistant Parish Priest's mouth.
• Lumian wrote down the ritual instructions in scrambled order after the lady left the Old Tavern.
• Lumian found Ryan, Lya, and Valentine and told them he knew who they were looking for; the Three Foreigners followed him.

Lumian revealed Cordou Village’s supernatural abnormalities and time loop to Ryan, Lya, and Valentine, then recruited them to investigate. The group began their plan after Valentine confirmed the date was April 10, and Ryan returned with a reply to his telegram.

• Lumian showed Ryan, Lya, and Valentine the Little Blue Book and explained how he had tested whether they knew about his letter.
• Lumian described the village’s bizarre residents and revealed that Cordou Village was trapped in a time loop centered on Twelfth Night.
• Valentine remembered that his youngest son’s birthday was April 10, and Ryan and Lya persuaded him to delay reporting the loop to their superiors.
• Lumian asked Ryan to telegram their superiors about the Parish Priest and the current date, and asked the investigators to help search the Administrator’s residence that afternoon.
• Ryan sent the telegram while Lumian, Lya, and Valentine waited beneath the elm tree, where Lumian admitted he did not know why he retained memories from the last two loops.
• Ryan returned from the Administrator’s building after receiving a telegram reply.

Lumian and the three foreign Beyonders learned that the village’s anomalies fit into wider legends about sprites, then arranged to investigate the Administrator’s castle. He later discovered Raymond had vanished at the very start of the loop, and Aurora suggested Raymond might have been taken as a sacrifice after being thrown into the river.

• Ryan reported that Cordu’s actual date was in late April and shared legends of parasitic, lizard-like sprites appearing across the continents in recent years.
• Lya described local reports of mischievous sprites called jesters, and Ryan speculated that the parasitic sprite might be connected to the assistant parish priest.
• Lumian arranged to search behind the hill near the Administrator’s castle with Ryan, Lya, and Valentine that afternoon, then told them about Madame Pualis and the castle.
• Ava told Lumian that Raymond had been missing since the afternoon of March 29, and Lumian realized he had disappeared at the start of the loop.
• Lumian told Aurora about Raymond’s disappearance, and Aurora proposed that the river entity might have taken him as an offering; she asked whether Raymond could have left as a corpse.

Lumian and Aurora discussed Raymond’s disappearance and planned to summon his spirit, while preparing for Lumian’s exploration of the Castle. Lumian joined Ryan, Lya, and Valentine, and the group found a safer route into the Castle’s garden and reached its side windows.

• Lumian worried that Raymond had been sacrificed and suggested his ghost might appear after a loop reset; Aurora planned a Spiritism ritual using one of his possessions.
• Aurora agreed to provide ingredients for exploring the Dream Ruins, advised Lumian to collect tulips from Madame Pualis’s garden, and gave him instructions for preparing for the ritual.
• At the Castle hill, Lumian met Ryan, Lya, and Valentine and showed them the axe he had brought as a weapon.
• Lya used her bells to divine that the rear and front entrances were dangerous but that entering through the garden would work.
• Ryan stopped Lumian from picking tulips until they were leaving, and the group reached a row of side windows.

Lumian, Lya, Ryan, and Valentine searched the Administrator’s residence for clues, moving from the servants’ rooms to Madame Pualis and Administrator Beaost’s bedroom on the third floor. There, they found photographs of Madame Pualis and an unidentified man, but no picture of the Administrator.

• Lya avoided a servant on the ground floor by climbing onto a painting, then led the others upstairs.
• The group searched the second floor and found Louis Lund’s bedroom empty, though blood and other traces showed he had recently been there.
• Lumian spotted Louis Lund outside, looking healthy as he discussed gardening with Sever, and Ryan explained that childbirth, healing, and life could be linked.
• The four searched Madame Pualis and Administrator Beaost’s bedroom on the third floor, where Lumian noticed the Administrator was absent from the photographs.
• Lumian and the others examined a photograph of an unfamiliar man who resembled Madame Pualis, and Lumian wondered whether he was her brother.

Lumian and his companions searched the Administrator’s Castle and discovered a nursery where an empty cradle began rocking, unleashing a supernatural attack. As they fought back, the woman who had delivered Louis Lund’s baby confronted them, while Madame Pualis abruptly left Aurora’s tea party, saying she had to return to her children.

• Lya and Ryan told Lumian that their investigation found no Pualis de Roquefort in Dalege, but uncovered a missing man named Prit de Roquefort, who had fathered many illegitimate children.
• Aurora discussed Trier’s arcades and romance with Madame Pualis and Naa La Yiza, while Pualis described a lover she had wanted to kill but ultimately saved.
• Lumian, Ryan, Lya, and Valentine searched the Castle and found an empty nursery with an unusually well-preserved scattering of crops and a cradle.
• The cradle began rocking by itself, and children’s faces appeared across the windows and walls as their cries darkened the third floor.
• Valentine protected Lumian and Lya with golden light while Ryan formed armor and attacked the faces, then the woman who had delivered Louis Lund’s baby appeared with enormous scissors and threatened them.
• Madame Pualis suddenly left Aurora’s tea party, saying she had remembered something concerning her children.

Lumian, Ryan, Lya, and Valentine fought the woman in the grayish-white dress as she attacked them through the faces embedded throughout the Castle’s third floor. They fled into the tower, where they found more than a hundred strange children clinging to the walls, just as the woman appeared at the stairway bend.

• Valentine burned away one of the woman’s attacks, and Ryan struck her with the Dawn Sword, but she repeatedly escaped through the Castle’s transparent faces.
• The woman wounded Lumian and turned his blood into a pursuing figure; Lya shifted his wound while Ryan destroyed the figure and helped stop the bleeding.
• Lya tested the room’s surfaces, then directed everyone toward the tower, and Ryan held the woman back while the others escaped.
• Lumian and the others entered the cramped tower and found more than a hundred clawed children perched on its walls.
• Ryan ordered everyone away from the entrance, and the woman appeared at the stairway bend as the tower filled with the aura of life.

Ryan, Lya, Valentine, and Lumian escaped the Castle after Ryan killed the midwife with the Sword of Dawn, and Valentine purified the group. Lumian avoided fleeing with the others and rushed home to warn Aurora, where the siblings found each other alive and asked if the other was all right.

• Ryan unleashed a storm of light that destroyed the midwife, then led Lumian, Valentine, and Lya out of the Castle.
• Lya heard a baby crying and nearly became a monster's mother, but Valentine purified her with holy water.
• Valentine purified Ryan and himself without incident, while Lumian's purification caused severe pain and brought back a mysterious voice before Valentine stopped.
• Ryan proposed going to the village edge to trigger the loop if Madame Pualis pursued them, and Lumian refused to flee with the group.
• Lumian hurried home to warn Aurora that Madame Pualis might suspect her, but found her alive at the doorway.

Lumian told Aurora about the search of the Castle, and they suspected Madame Pualis was the missing Prit, a man transformed into a woman by a mystical pathway. After Lumian returned to the Castle to gather tulips, he saw the supposedly dead midwife alive in the garden.

• Lumian told Aurora to surrender and betray the Three Foreigners if Madame Pualis attacked, then recounted what he and the others had discovered at the Castle.
• Aurora guessed Madame Pualis was Prit, explaining that advancing along the Assassin pathway could transform a man into a woman.
• Lumian and Aurora wondered whether Madame Pualis had retained memories across loops after recognizing that she might have saved them as the Night Lady.
• Lumian suggested visiting the Castle for tulips, and Aurora agreed to trigger the loop if he did not return within half an hour.
• Lumian asked permission to pick tulips and spotted the midwife, whom Ryan had killed, alive in the garden.

Lumian found the supposedly dead midwife alive at the Administrator’s Castle and discovered that Raymond had vanished, taking his exercise book home for Aurora to investigate. Aurora summoned Raymond’s spirit, which appeared swollen and bloodied and screamed that someone had drowned him.

• Lumian saw the midwife trimming trees at the Administrator’s Castle, though he remembered Ryan killing her and destroying her spirit.
• Lumian visited Raymond Klegg’s family, learned Raymond had gone missing, and found his exercise book and fountain pen beneath Raymond’s pillow.
• Lumian heard Pierre Krag say the family’s luck would soon improve, and Aurora suspected someone was spreading beliefs about changing one’s constellation.
• Aurora suggested the midwife might be a living corpse and agreed to investigate the village and try contacting Raymond’s spirit.
• Aurora performed a summoning ritual, and Raymond’s spirit appeared above the candle, swollen and pale, then shrieked that they had drowned him.

After Raymond revealed that Pons Béné and his men drowned him as a sacrifice and pointed to something beneath the Church, Aurora and Lumian planned how to survive the coming ritual and break the loop. The next morning, Lumian prepared a ritual to seek a boon from the power within himself and began calling upon the Power of Fate.

• During Spiritism, Raymond named Pons Béné and his men as his killers and cried that the being involved was underground beneath the Church.
• Aurora ended the ritual and concluded that the Church basement held a key part of the sacrifice, while Lumian argued they could retaliate against Pons Béné before Lent Festival without provoking the Parish Priest's group into acting early.
• Aurora proposed that they unite with the Three Foreigners, possibly cooperate with Madame Pualis, and explore beneath the Church before Lent Festival began.
• Aurora explained that Raymond retained memories across the loop because his bodiless spirit preserved lingering obsessions, suggesting the force controlling the loop had become mechanical and might be breakable.
• Aurora taught Lumian Hermetic and Ancient Hermetic words and prepared ritual candles as they studied together.
• After waking in the next loop, Lumian gathered the ritual materials, built a Spirit Wall, and began invoking the Power of Fate.

Lumian completed a ritual to become a Dancer, gaining mystical knowledge, greater flexibility, and enhanced spirituality. After testing his new dances and discovering that one could summon remnants of monsters, he decided to rest before returning to the real world to lie in wait for the Owl.

• Lumian performed the sacrificial ritual and endured intense pain as he received a Dancer’s boon.
• Lumian gained knowledge of the Noodle Man’s dance and a dangerous dance that could summon beings to possess him.
• Lumian practiced the Noodle Man’s dance, activating his Thorn Symbol and measuring that it remained visible for about a minute.
• Lumian practiced the summoning dance and drew the spiritual remnants of the Skinless Monster, the Shotgun Monster, and the Mouthpart Monster to a window.
• Lumian heard faint voices from the corruption sealed inside his body, then confirmed that Dancer had strengthened his flexibility and spirituality.
• Lumian chose to rest before returning to the real world to lie in wait for the Owl.

Lumian and Aurora tracked the owl to a hidden tomb beneath Cordou Village’s cemetery, where White Paper glimpsed something in an open coffin and was badly hurt. They concluded the Warlock’s corpse might be behind the village’s growing abnormalities and planned to investigate the Church Underground first, while Aurora explained Lumian’s successful ritual.

• Lumian saw the owl return, and Aurora used White Paper to follow it to the cemetery beside the church.
• The owl landed on a spotless, unmarked grave whose stone slabs opened to reveal an underground tomb chamber and an open coffin.
• White Paper looked into the coffin and was severely damaged by what it glimpsed, causing Aurora to suffer bloody tears and facial spasms.
• Lumian and Aurora suspected the Warlock’s corpse or another presence in the tomb was connected to Cordu’s abnormalities, and they agreed to investigate the Church Underground before returning to the chamber.
• Aurora explained Mythical Creature Forms and suggested Lumian’s ritual had drawn power because the black thorn and blue-black symbol overlapped in their authority over fate.

Lumian investigated Jean Mori’s sudden muteness and disappearance, suspecting that the man had discovered something dangerous. He shared new leads with Ryan, Lya, and Valentine, who agreed to seek limited cooperation with Madame Pualis before investigating beneath the church.

• Lumian found Jean Mori mute and learned that Jean had supposedly caught Sybil Berry with the Parish Priest, but he suspected Jean had been poisoned or had discovered something else.
• Lumian searched Cordu for Jean, questioned Sybil, and grew alarmed when she said Jean might have left the village after their argument.
• Lumian told Ryan, Lya, and Valentine his sister’s deductions about Madame Pualis and Prit, and Ryan planned to send a telegram to his superiors.
• Lumian proposed limited cooperation with Madame Pualis to help break the loop, and Ryan asked him to approach her because the investigators did not know her attitude.
• Lumian shared leads about Raymond, Jean Mori, and the tomb where the owl had flown, prompting Ryan to prioritize contacting Madame Pualis before investigating beneath the church.

Lumian met Madame Pualis to discuss Cordu’s time loop and learned that she could escape at a particular time but could not take him and Aurora with her. She agreed to offer limited help if things went wrong, and Lumian rejoined Lya, Ryan, and Valentine as they prepared to explore beneath the Church.

• Lumian visited Madame Pualis at the Castle and saw the dead midwife standing beside her.
• Lumian told Madame Pualis that he knew Cordu was trapped in a time loop, and she revealed that she knew about the situation and had a way to leave when a certain time came.
• Madame Pualis said she could not take Lumian or Aurora with her, but agreed to provide some help if danger arose.
• Lumian returned to Cordou Village and told Lya, Ryan, and Valentine what Madame Pualis had said.
• Ryan reported that their superiors had suggested Prit might have become a woman through a potion or other power, then decided they would explore beneath the Church immediately.