Chapter Summaries

Jenna gained the Purifiers’ trust by confessing her doubts about the Church and volunteered to investigate Hugues Artois’s ties to an evil god. Meanwhile, Lumian joined Puivert Sauron and Black Cat for a king cake game, where Termiboros warned him to choose a different piece.

• Jenna met Imre and Valentine on Dole Street, claimed her mother’s death had shaken her faith, and asked who had enabled Hugues Artois.
• Jenna persuaded the Purifiers to let her help investigate, and Imre revealed that Hugues had been linked to the late General Philip and that Red-haired Cassandra belonged to a branch of the Sauron Family.
• At the Mechanical Café, Puivert proposed offering the king cake’s extra piece to his ancestor Vermonda Champagne Sauron, and the group agreed.
• Anyong cut the cake into seven pieces, Puivert made the offering, and Lumian was invited to choose first.
• As Lumian reached for the nearest piece, Termiboros told him to choose another.

Lumian attended a Black Cat gathering where Count Puyver used a King Cake game to give each guest a task, and Lumian found wax heads in the café basement. As Lumian left, he realized Count Puyver had claimed to eat the cake piece meant for the Sauron Family’s ancestors despite barely touching his own, leaving the game’s danger unresolved.

• Termiboros warned Lumian to choose another piece, and Lumian cautiously took a piece of King Cake while the other guests chose theirs.
• Count Puyver found the broad bean in his cake and ordered Anoli to shout insults at himself, Maren to slap Ilett, Anyong to swear allegiance, and Ilett to give his money to a vagrant.
• Count Puyver told Lumian to exchange his cake for white paper in the café basement, where Lumian found wax heads resembling the other guests and completed the task.
• Anoli explained that Count Puyver collected wax heads, and Lumian gave Black Cat 2,000 verl d'or before preparing to leave.
• Lumian noticed the platter for the Sauron Family’s ancestral offering was empty, and Count Puyver claimed he had eaten its cake despite having taken only two bites of his own.

Lumian reported Guillaume Béné’s death and the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s activities to Mr. K, who agreed to investigate the Sinners and explained the danger behind the King Cake game. Meanwhile, Franca received a Loen military reply about Anthony Reid’s past battle, leaving the group to suspect that its attackers were not Loen troops.

• Lumian questioned Termiboros about the King Cake and then reported Guillaume Béné’s death and the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s movements to Mr. K.
• Lumian asked Mr. K to investigate Roche Louise Samson’s family, and Mr. K agreed to pursue the Sinners organization.
• Lumian refused Mr. K’s offer of Source Blood and recounted the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s King Cake game; Mr. K warned that the ritual could have caused a mystical disaster and described Vermonda Soren’s mysterious disappearance.
• Jenna visited Franca and saw her Analytical Engine, which Franca used to decode telegrams and chat with a friend in the Loen military.
• Franca shared the military’s reply with Lumian, Anthony Reid, and Jenna: the battle in Anthony’s records never happened, so their attackers were likely not Loen troops.

Franca and Lumian helped Anthony Reid reconsider who had attacked his company and planned to investigate General Philip’s apparent death and possible links to Hugues Artois. Near dawn, Lumian received newly forged boxing gloves from Madam Magician, along with warnings about their powers and risks.

• Franca told Anthony Reid that the attackers had not been Loenian soldiers, and the group considered whether Hugues Artois had helped evil god worshipers sacrifice his company.
• Lumian proposed investigating General Philip and confirming whether he was truly dead, while Anthony Reid offered to gather information about the general and his associates.
• Franca and Lumian discussed Lumian’s possible cooperation in investigating April Fool’s Day, and Franca promised to explain the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society’s attitudes toward Emperor Roselle later.
• Near dawn, Madam Magician’s Doll messenger delivered iron-black boxing gloves and a letter explaining their ability to stimulate and detonate targets’ desires or emotions, their strong defense, and the dangers of carrying or using them.
• Madam Magician reminded Lumian that his two psychiatrists expected him for a final follow-up the next afternoon.

Lumian tested the Torture gloves, then endured repeated nightmares of a bloodstained castle and asked Franca about their possible meaning. Franca revealed that Emperor Roselle was a transmigrator from her world, and Lumian ended the chapter meeting Susie and Justice for a consultation.

• Lumian read Madam Magician's warning, tried on the Torture gloves, and found that their urges were manageable when he restrained himself.
• Lumian dreamed of a bloodstained castle and its inhabitants committing horrific acts; after waking, he suspected either the King Cake Game or the gloves, and the castle returned in several fading nightmares.
• Franca told Lumian that Emperor Roselle had come from her world and that his diary was written in her world's language.
• Franca explained that The Secret Records of Emperor Roselle mixed fact with embellished stories, while Lumian wondered whether his nightmares were a warning of madness.
• Lumian met Susie and Justice at Mason Café after arranging a consultation about his disturbing dreams.

Lumian discussed his recovery and the supernatural corruption behind his nightmares with Susie and Madam Justice, then accepted a commission to retrieve water from the Samaritan Woman Spring. When he returned to his safe house, he discovered someone had taken his piece of earthblood ore.

• Lumian recounted his revenge against Guillaume Béné, and Susie judged that he had recovered from his severe self-destructive state.
• Susie credited Lumian and Aurora with his recovery, while Madam Justice explained that Puyfer's King Cake Game had caused mental corruption that shaped his nightmares.
• Madam Justice asked Lumian to retrieve water from the Samaritan Woman Spring in a burial chamber on the fourth level of Trier's Catacombs, and he agreed.
• Lumian returned to his safe house and found that his earthblood ore was missing, though Aurora's Witchcraft Notes and the Torture gloves remained.

After a thief stole only the earthblood ore from Lumian’s safe house, Madam Magician confirmed the theft was suspicious but could not identify the culprit. Lumian made plans to relocate his possessions and arranged to explore the Samaritan Woman Spring with Hella, then investigated the King Cake Game with Gardner Martin before Franca and Jenna met their client about the missing monastery gatekeeper; Lumian headed underground for his meeting with Hella.

• Lumian found that only the earthblood ore was missing from his safe house, and Termiboros said he did not know who had taken it.
• Madam Magician confirmed something was wrong with the theft and offered a way to ask monocle wearers at the Different from the Rest dance hall, but Lumian chose to wait for someone else to investigate.
• Lumian planned to move his belongings, wrote to Hella about the Samaritan Woman Spring, and received her agreement to meet the next day at four in the afternoon.
• Gardner Martin told Lumian that Count Puyfer’s blood connection to Vermonda let him omit steps in rituals and warned Lumian to avoid becoming king in the King Cake Game.
• Franca and Jenna met the Warlock who had hired them to investigate the Deep Valley Monastery Gatekeeper’s disappearance and asked to speak privately.
• With an hour before his appointed meeting, Lumian entered Underground Trier beneath the Market District.

Lumian crossed the underground tunnels and entered the catacombs with Hella to search for the Samaritan Woman Spring. On the third level, a frightened young man ran up to them, saying his friends had disappeared.

• Lumian hid from a group of armed smugglers, then fired a shot to make them waste ammunition before quarry police officers passed him.
• Jenna and Franca told the hooded commissioner about the abnormalities they had found at Deep Valley Quarry, and he offered half the reward for evidence from its hidden cave.
• Lumian met Hella at the entrance to the Empire of Death, and they entered the catacombs together with white candles.
• Hella led Lumian through the first and second levels toward the fourth level, explaining how to follow signs and black guide lines below.
• On the third level, a pale young man ran to Lumian and Hella, shouting that his friends had disappeared.

Lumian and Hella encountered Gérard in the Catacombs’ sacrificial plaza, then investigated strange bones as they traveled toward the Chrismona Night Pillar. Meanwhile, Franca and Jenna noticed they were being followed underground.

• Gérard told Lumian and Hella that his classmates had vanished after tripping in the sacrificial plaza, but he forgot them once he left the plaza with a candle.
• Lumian praised the Sun at the plaza’s sacrificial pillar before he and Hella headed north toward the Chrismona Night Pillar.
• Lumian found that skeleton bones he had kicked off the path had returned to their original position, and Hella explained that the Catacombs’ environment could make the remains abnormal and eventually turn them into undead.
• Hella told Lumian about Chrismona, Marie Ann, and Lius, whose Night Pillars stood in the Catacombs, then led him toward the fourth level.
• Franca warned Jenna that someone was following them as they traveled toward the underground area beneath Opera Arcade Street.

Franca and Jenna encountered the Commissioner in the tunnels, while Lumian and Hella explored the Catacombs’ fourth level, where corruption stirred violent impulses and Lumian saw a mysterious Witch. They reached the western tomb chambers and came face-to-face with Monet, who emerged from a sealed chamber.

• Franca noticed someone following her and Jenna, but the pursuer appeared ahead of them and revealed himself as the Commissioner, asking Franca to make a deal.
• Lumian felt the fourth level’s corruption intensify the negative effects of his contracts, but he calmed himself and followed Hella toward the western tomb chambers.
• Lumian and Hella found that their compass malfunctioned and navigated using the Catacombs’ signposts and overhead markings.
• Lumian saw a beautiful woman without a candle vanish near Crimson Order Hall, and Hella warned that she might have been a high-ranking Witch.
• Lumian noticed corpse-like discoloration on Hella’s hand as they reached the western tomb chambers, where a damaged wall opened and Monet emerged with a lit candle.

Lumian and Hella followed an awakened skeleton through the Catacombs, hoping to find the Samaritan Woman Spring, while Monet repeatedly appeared and unsettled them. They reached a vast tomb chamber, where an unseen figure ordered them to stop.

• Monet identified nearby tombs as belonging to Fourth Epoch families, including the Amon Family, and described undead gathering near a possible anomaly.
• Monet left, and Hella animated a skeleton to lead them toward the place where the undead were gathering.
• Monet reappeared and asked to join them, then withdrew after Lumian suggested he wait until they had explored.
• Hella linked people who wore Monocles to the Amon Family, and Lumian and Hella continued following the skeleton toward a tomb chamber.
• Monet appeared again near the chamber and offered to pass on last words; Hella and Lumian declined to attack him and continued inside.
• A hoarse voice called for them to stop, and a figure staggered into view at the edge of the candlelight.

Lumian and “Hella” reached the Samaritan Woman Spring beneath the Catacombs, where the spring’s strange mist and a pitch-black hole revealed a connection to the grayish-white mist that protected him. The earthblood ore suddenly returned to Lumian’s hand, and the skeletons around the spring invited them to try it as a terrifying aura emerged from the hole.

• Lumian and “Hella” bypassed the elderly Catacombs Administrator by using her black diamond ring to conceal themselves in a mistlike state.
• They descended through a bone-strewn passage and found that Lumian’s Mr. Fool seal protected him from the grayish-white mist.
• Lumian and “Hella” entered the mist and found the Samaritan Woman Spring, where pale water surged around wet black hair and indistinct figures.
• The spring water drained into a lightless hole and returned darker as Lumian found the lost earthblood ore in his pocket.
• A skeleton touched its right eye and laughed, and the surrounding skeletons repeated, “Now that you’ve got it, how could you not come and give it a try?”

Lumian and Hella were trapped at the Samaritan Woman Spring after Monet’s theft and return of the Earthblood Ore triggered a dangerous anomaly. The spring swept the monstrous figures back into its depths, but it surged again as Lumian fled, leaving him hoping the Torture gloves would draw in another threat and give them a chance to escape.

• A towering, rotting figure of madness and invisible flames emerged from the spring, while other entities and living black hair dragged Lumian toward the water.
• Melodious singing calmed the entities, and Lumian realized Monet had returned the stolen Earthblood Ore to lure him into triggering the anomaly.
• Lumian tried to escape with Hella, but the area blocked Spirit World Traversal; the ore crumbled, and its blood-colored specks seeped into his palm.
• The entities seized Lumian and pulled him toward the spring until the water burst through and swept them back into the pitch-black hole.
• Lumian fled uphill with Hella, but the spring surged again; unable to finish reciting Mr. Fool’s honorific name, he relied on the Torture gloves to attract other dangers.

Franca and Jenna confronted a suspicious commissioner who planned to tamper with their contract, while Lumian and Hella struggled against the horrors at the Samaritan Woman Spring. A pale hand dragged the enormous armored figure into the spring’s depths, but two rust marks pierced Lumian’s corrupted right hand before the water vanished.

• Franca questioned the warlock-dressed commissioner’s terms and prepared to use mirror divination, while Jenna recognized his reaction as suspicious and attacked with Mental Piercing.
• Lumian and Hella resisted the spring’s madness and the attacks of the white-robed figure and black hair, but the enormous armored figure forced them back to the water’s edge.
• As the spring’s inhabitants reached for Lumian, he prepared to cut off his corrupted right hand and cursed the absent dangerous creatures.
• A pale hand emerged from the spring’s dark opening and dragged the enormous armored figure back into the depths.
• The armored figure’s madness sent two rust marks through Lumian’s Torture glove and into his corrupted right hand before the spring water withdrew.

Lumian and Hella collected the true water of the Samaritan Woman Spring and escaped the Catacombs as the pale currents surged again. Franca and Jenna defeated a Warlock Commissioner, but his death and spirit were linked to a hidden danger; Lumian left still affected by the Catacombs and worried about the earthblood ore corroding his palm.

• Hella explained that the droplets seeping from the soil were the true Samaritan Woman Spring water, and she and Lumian collected some in enchanted gold bottles.
• Lumian and Hella fled the slope when the pale spring water gushed out again, reaching the fog's edge and escaping the Catacombs.
• Jenna and Franca ambushed and restrained a Warlock Commissioner, then killed him when his words triggered a collapse in the tunnel.
• Franca questioned the Commissioner's spirit, which spoke vaguely about machinery, life, and people at the Deep Valley Monastery slipping into the Abyss before a spreading fog shattered the mirror and destroyed his body.
• Franca and Jenna found a brass key and coins, erased their traces, and left; later, someone arrived carrying a miniature golden kettle.
• Lumian told Hella that the Catacombs' effects still lingered, then left for the Public Carriage stop while worrying about the earthblood ore and rust in his palm.

Lumian returned from the Samaritan Woman Spring with worsening corruption and asked Madam Magician how to remove it. After Mr. Fool's angel purified most of the damage, Madam Magician identified the scars on Lumian's palm as a mark linked to the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor, and Lumian's attempt to sense it caused the apartment building to shake.

• Lumian reached the Safe House looking corpse-like and sent Madam Magician a letter asking how to remove the corruption from the Samaritan Woman Spring.
• Madam Magician arrived and told Lumian to pray to Mr. Fool for an angel's purification.
• The angel purified Lumian's worsening corruption, but the scars caused by the earthblood ore remained on his right palm.
• After hearing Lumian's account, Madam Magician identified the terrifying figure in the spring as likely the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor and explained that his remnants could persist after death.
• Madam Magician said Lumian's scars were not corruption but a mark that could let him open treasures left by Alista Tudor, and Lumian's attempt to sense them made the room and apartment building shake.

Madam Magician explained the danger and uses of Alista Tudor’s aura, then revealed that Monet and the anomalies around the Different from the Rest Dance Hall were manifestations of Amon, an ancient angel with countless avatars. Lumian decided to keep the aura for his future Underground Trier mission, but remained wary of Amon and asked what the Samaritan Woman Spring’s water did.

• Lumian withdrew his spirituality from the scar, stopping its mutation, and Madam Magician explained that Alista Tudor’s aura had no direct effect but could make him more impulsive and dangerous.
• Madam Magician warned Lumian to vent his accumulated negative effects and explained that the aura might help him underground while also attracting anomalies; Lumian decided to keep it.
• Lumian questioned the motives of Monet and the Different from the Rest Dance Hall, and Madam Magician cautioned him that their true purpose was still uncertain.
• Madam Magician revealed that Monet was Amon, a former King of Angels and deity who now used Parasitism to create countless avatars, including members of the Amon Family and people associated with the dance hall.
• Madam Magician warned Lumian that Amon’s avatars were always angel-level despite being weakened, and Lumian asked what the Samaritan Woman Spring’s water did.

Lumian reviewed how his failure to report Justice’s commission and check his belongings let Amon return the earthblood ore to him before the Samaritan Woman Spring, while suspecting Termiboros had knowingly stayed silent. Justice used the spring water to repair the damaged mausoleum, and Lumian’s scar faded before someone began pounding on his window.

• Madam Magician told Lumian he should have reported Justice’s commission and warned him to be more careful before seeking the entrance to Fourth Epoch Trier.
• Lumian reviewed his mistakes, suspected Termiboros had noticed Amon return the earthblood ore, and left the safe house after checking his belongings.
• Magician told Justice about the incident, and Justice concluded that it resembled a certain person’s style; Magician predicted the gates to Fourth Epoch Trier would soon open.
• Justice poured Samaritan Woman Spring water onto the damaged mausoleum in a special dream, healing it further and noting that two more treatments should suffice.
• After sleeping, Lumian found that his palm scar had faded, wrapped his normal left hand in bandages, and heard someone pounding on his bedroom window.

Lumian and Jenna went to rally families owed compensation by factory owner Old Edmond, while Franca planned to report a sinister discovery to the Purifiers. When Lumian caught a man using a trick to preach the God of Disease, he attacked him and demanded he produce an impossible sum of money.

• Franca told Lumian and Jenna about their encounter with a secret cave and agreed to hand its key and information to the Purifiers.
• Jenna took Lumian to meet families awaiting compensation and explained why she disliked Madame Morgana, whom she then incited against Alphonse and Old Edmond.
• Lumian noticed a neatly dressed man tricking local women with banknotes while preaching that the God of Disease could protect them from illness.
• Lumian struck the preacher with his revolver, challenged the God of Disease to heal him, and demanded that he count out a hundred thousand felkine.

Lumian interrogated a swindler who recruited believers for the God of Disease, while Jenna led a crowd of workers to confront Old Edmond and recover their compensation. After both groups succeeded, Lumian returned to the Golden Rooster Inn and teased Charlie in the bar.

• Lumian forced the middle-aged swindler to reveal that a pale, thin Messenger of the God of Disease had taught him tricks and arranged to split the proceeds.
• Jenna turned the compensation claimants into a crowd that marched on Old Edmond’s home, while Lumian shot three of the swindler’s accomplices and sent the swindlers to a Steam church.
• Jenna and nearly a hundred debt collectors overwhelmed Old Edmond’s guards and surrounded his family until he began paying the delayed compensation from his household’s valuables.
• Jenna offered Lumian her compensation in gold jewelry, but he said he would buy it after collecting money from the Breeze Ballroom.
• Lumian returned to the Golden Rooster Inn, offered to buy the basement bar a round at Charlie’s expense, and joked that Charlie could pay by doing a striptease.