Chapter Summaries

Lumian and Franca investigated signs that Maip Mayer’s group had returned to the Market District and discovered that suspected evil god followers across several organizations had gone quiet and abandoned their usual locations. The Doll Messenger confirmed that the old bones beneath the Breeze Ballroom came from the Fourth Epoch, leaving Lumian with a possible explanation for the underground activity.

• Franca and Lumian tracked recent underground visitors from the destroyed sacrificial mine, but lost their trail in tunnels used by cave explorers and smugglers.
• Lumian suspected that Maip Mayer’s group was searching for something beneath the Market District and connected the mystery to the old bones under the Breeze Ballroom.
• Lumian and Franca found Madame Pualis’s Gorse Street home abandoned, with a newspaper showing she had stayed there until after early July.
• They discovered that the suspected Interstellar Bridge swindlers had also abandoned their office, and Lumian asked Franca to contact 007 while he wrote to Madam Magician.
• Lumian summoned the Doll Messenger, who said the old bones beneath the Breeze Ballroom were disgusting remains from the Fourth Epoch.

Lumian learned why Beatrice’s gifted power had caused a mutation, received a lead about the dangers beneath Trier, and bought the Conspirer potion formula from Gardner Martin. Meanwhile, Franca remained stuck in the Witch Sect’s probationary period, and Jenna discovered that she had fully digested her Instigator potion.

• Lumian learned from Madam Magician that the Torture gloves had connected him to the Mother Tree of Desire and made Beatrice’s returning gifted power visible, and that retaining such power required a Sequence 4 ability or a special environment.
• Madam Magician told Lumian that the abnormal situation in Trier might change within two to six months and that whatever lay beneath the Breeze Ballroom was more than corruption left by Alista Tudor.
• Lumian paid Gardner Martin thirty thousand in gold and thirty thousand felkine, memorized the Conspirer potion formula, and burned the parchment.
• Franca learned that the God of Disease’s messenger remained missing and that information about Saint Robles Church’s old cemetery was highly classified; she also reported the unusual quiet among evil-god worshippers to 007.
• Franca remained in the Witch Sect’s probationary period and was barred by Bruns Soren from attending the Women’s Revelry Party at the Red House Café.
• Jenna told Franca that she had fully digested her Instigator potion and worried about the cost of obtaining the Witch potion formula and ingredients.

Franca gave Jenna the Witch potion formula and discussed preparations for the coming disaster in Trier. Lumian attended another gathering at Count Puyver’s castle, where he unexpectedly met Albus Medici.

• Franca convinced Jenna to pursue Sequence 7 and wrote down the Witch potion formula, advising her to seek ingredients through the Purifiers, Charles, and a separate occult gathering.
• Jenna explained that she had used Instigation to arrange a six-month work exchange that sent her brother Julian to Leucer Harbor, completing her potion digestion.
• Franca and Jenna considered whether the Official Beyonders were arranging factory exchanges to reduce Trier’s population, but Franca warned that a mass departure could endanger the city’s seal.
• Lumian visited Count Puyver’s Red Swan Castle while nearing completion of his Pyromaniac potion digestion and wondered whether the gathering would be his test.
• Count Puyver introduced Albus Medici, an unexpected member of the Iron and Blood Cross Order, as a new regular attendee at his gatherings.

Lumian joined Albus Medici, Alois, and Ilett in an adventure through Red Swan Castle’s Underground Labyrinth, where he hoped to find the hidden place tied to his visions. The group entered a chamber of lifelike wax figures, and Alois revealed that her full name was Alois Einhorn.

• Puivert Sauron proposed that the guests search the Underground Labyrinth for an earl’s ruby coronet, and Lumian realized the labyrinth was the site of his test.
• Lumian led Albus Medici, Alois, and Ilett into the labyrinth while Puivert Sauron took the other guests along a different route.
• Lumian chose the passage ahead at random and entered the chamber marked “Madness,” where the group found lifelike wax figures dressed in agony.
• Albus Medici asked Alois about her family, and she revealed that her full name was Alois Einhorn.

Lumian and his companions explored the underground rooms beneath Red Swan Castle, finding traces of people who had gone mad, exploded, or vanished. A red-haired man making a puppet asked whether they wanted to be turned into wax figures.

• Alois told Lumian, Albus Medici, and Ilett that she was an Einhorn whose parents and grandfather had died.
• Lumian and the others left the wax figure room and explored several underground chambers, finding bloody scratches, remains from an explosion, and a room of finely chopped furniture.
• Lumian discovered an intact room filled with childhood toys and heard a voice recounting relatives who had gone mad and entered the depths of the underground palace.
• Ilett opened the room across the passageway, where a red-haired man was painting a flesh-white puppet.
• The red-haired man asked Lumian, Ilett, Albus Medici, and Alois whether they wanted to be made into wax figures.

Lumian, Albus, Alois, and Ilett descended into Red Swan Castle’s Underground Palace, where they learned of a recurring madness among the Sauron Family and encountered a strange giant spider. The creature resembled a Hunting Black Spider, one of the ingredients Lumian needed for the Conspirer potion, but its unusual features left its true nature uncertain.

• Lumian questioned the wax sculptor, who urged him, Albus, and Alois—but not Ilett—to hurry deep into the Underground Palace.
• As the group descended, Alois explained that Saurons connected to Red Swan Castle sometimes went mad and vanished into the Underground Palace, while she refused to reveal what the unaffected family members had in common.
• Albus asked whether Alois or her family might suffer the same madness, and Alois replied that everyone would eventually go mad.
• The four reached a vast hall containing piles of bones, where Lumian spotted a huge spider crawling across the ceiling.
• Lumian recognized the creature as resembling a Hunting Black Spider, but noticed that its appearance differed from the known descriptions and that it carried a shriveled humanlike heart on its back.

Lumian, Albus Medici, and Alois Einhorn fought a giant black spider with a withered humanlike heart, then Lumian escorted Ilett toward the surface. Ilett revealed that he had seen Albus Medici at Sacred Heart Monastery, leaving Lumian with new questions about his companions and the Sauron Family’s secrets.

• Lumian tried to lure the giant black spider into attacking Ilett, and Albus Medici intercepted it as Alois Einhorn and Lumian struck it with fire.
• The injured spider escaped into the shadows, and Alois Einhorn said the Sauron Family had removed the hearts of dead masters and core members and taken them into the underground palace.
• Ilett learned that Lumian, Albus Medici, and Alois Einhorn were Beyonders, then chose to leave the underground palace with Lumian escorting him.
• On the way back, Ilett speculated about Alois Einhorn’s father and said he had seen Albus Medici before at Sacred Heart Monastery.

Lumian burned the wax figures in Red Swan Castle’s underground palace, discovering that they concealed the corpses of people who had gone mad, and fully digested his Pyromaniac potion. He killed the Wax Figures Maker and returned to Albus and Alois with a strange crimson remnant, while Puyfer sensed a disturbance deep in the palace.

• As Lumian and Ilett left the underground palace, Ilett said he had once seen Albus Medici walking with a monk at Sacred Heart Monastery.
• Lumian returned to the Madness Door and burned the wax figures, revealing human corpses inside and clarifying that a Pyromaniac could choose whom to destroy; he then completed digesting his potion.
• The Wax Figures Maker confronted Lumian, who stunned him and blasted apart his head with an infused fireball.
• Puyfer Sauron sensed a disturbance near the bronze coffin as candles went out in the underground hall.
• Lumian found that the Wax Figures Maker had no heart, collected a blood-colored remnant and some blood, and left the burning room.
• Lumian returned to Albus and Alois, who asked if he had killed Ilett; Lumian said he had killed the Wax Figures Maker.

Lumian, Albus, and Alois encountered a hall full of giant black spiders beneath Red Swan Castle, and Alois drove them back by invoking her Sauron bloodline. They continued through the Underground Labyrinth, where Lumian claimed the severely wounded spider as his spoil and prepared to face it alone.

• Lumian told Albus and Alois that the wax figures he burned had concealed human corpses, then continued with them deeper into the Underground Labyrinth.
• The group found Anyong near a set of double doors, where Albus surrounded him with flames and exposed his wax-like body.
• Anyong tore at his face, causing coffins to open and giant black spiders to swarm the hall and bombard the passage with fireballs.
• Alois commanded the spiders in Hermetic, invoking the Sauron Family's bloodline, and they fled; she explained that half her blood was Sauron.
• Lumian spotted the wounded spider that had fought the Hunters and claimed it as his spoil, while Albus and Alois declined to help him fight it.

Lumian defeated a wounded giant black spider while concealing his true abilities, then followed Albus and Alois deeper into Red Swan Castle's Underground Palace. The group reached the candlelit hall containing the bronze coffin from Lumian's nightmare, where Albus attacked it before anyone could investigate.

• Lumian used Lie and fire ravens to kill the giant black spider, then collected its Beyonder characteristic, shriveled heart, compound eyes, and venom glands.
• Albus and Alois questioned Lumian's Sequence, and he claimed he was still only a Pyromaniac.
• The Hunters found a room of nearly two-meter-tall tin soldiers, and Albus used Delayed Explosion to destroy them after they left.
• Alois opened the blood-splashed iron doors, revealing a candlelit hall and the bronze coffin from Lumian's nightmare.
• Albus sent two crimson fire snakes toward the bronze coffin, startling Lumian and Alois.

Lumian, Alois, and Albus hesitated outside a hall deep in the Underground Palace before a terrifying presence overwhelmed them. Lumian awoke after escaping a wax-figure transformation and returned to the first-floor sitting room, where Albus appeared moments later.

• Alois and Albus questioned each other and Lumian about why they had entered the Underground Palace, while each kept parts of the truth concealed.
• Alois explained that the Sauron Family used the Underground Palace as a restricted hunting ground and that most half-god-level characteristics had been recovered.
• A dark-veined hand appeared in the corridor, and the three Hunters stepped into the hall as visions of purple flames, a bronze coffin, and a blood-filled ring overwhelmed them.
• Lumian awoke restrained in a metal frame as a red-bearded man prepared to turn him into a wax figure, then escaped using the black mark on his shoulder.
• Lumian found his possessions intact, returned to the sitting room, and told Ilett that he had been separated from the others.
• Albus appeared in the sitting-room doorway.

After escaping the Underground Palace, Lumian reported his discoveries to Gardner Martin and learned that the Wax Figures Maker’s ingredients could be used to make a Conspirer potion, though they carried extra risks. He chose to keep the ingredients and ended the chapter writing to Madam Magician.

• Lumian returned to Red Swan Castle’s drawing room, where Albus and Alois had also escaped the Underground Palace and Count Puyver arrived without Mr. Anyong.
• Lumian thanked Puivert Sauron for the adventure and left the castle, reflecting on how helpless he had been against the illusory roar.
• Lumian told Gardner Martin about the dangers in the Underground Palace and challenged him over failing to intervene; Gardner revealed he had witnessed Lumian’s actions and implied he had helped him wake.
• Lumian declined an immediate reward and asked Gardner whether the Wax Figures Maker’s Beyonder characteristic and other ingredients could make a Conspirer potion.
• Gardner explained that the ingredients could make the potion but included extra characteristics and risks, and Lumian chose to try them himself.
• Lumian returned to the Golden Rooster Inn and began writing a letter to Madam Magician.

After investigating Red Swan Castle’s Underground Labyrinth, Lumian received Madam Magician’s warning that Vermonda Soren was a sealed, insane angel and learned more about Albus Medici’s ties to a powerful evil spirit. He then visited Franca, revealing that he had digested his Pyromaniac potion and gathered nearly all the ingredients for his Conspirer potion.

• Lumian sent Madam Magician a detailed account of his experiences in Red Swan Castle’s Underground Labyrinth.
• Madam Magician explained that using the Sauron heart could give Lumian a trace of the family’s bloodline and warned that Vermonda Soren, a powerful angel, was sealed beneath the hall.
• Madam Magician advised Lumian not to approach the seal before reaching Sequence 4 and told him to treat future missions from Gardner Martin as routine.
• Madam Magician revealed that Albus Medici was likely connected to an evil spirit formed from Red Angel Medici, Soren, and Einhorn, and said Miss Justice and Susie were watching Sacred Heart Monastery.
• Madam Magician urged Lumian to advance to Sequence 6 soon and flee Trier or seek refuge in Mr. Fool’s church if the brewing disaster could not be stopped.
• Lumian visited Franca and asked her to hold something in case his potion advancement went wrong, then confirmed he had digested his Pyromaniac potion and gathered nearly all his Conspirer ingredients.

Lumian used the Catacombs’ sacred plaza to suppress outside influences while advancing with the Wax Figures Maker potion and the Mutated Black Spider’s heart. The advancement succeeded, and his newly clarified thoughts led him to question details of a past nightmare involving Ilett.

• Franca warned Lumian that the Sauron Family bloodline in the heart could make his advancement dangerous, but Lumian said their destination would help suppress its influence.
• Lumian brought Franca to the Catacombs’ third-level plaza and prayed at the Eternal Blazing Sun’s sacrificial pillar, planning to weaken external corruption during his advancement.
• Lumian gave Franca Gray Ambergris Perfume and asked her to watch over him, then mixed the potion ingredients and drank the iron-black liquid.
• Lumian endured pain, ravings, and hallucinations before the effects subsided, and he confirmed that his advancement had succeeded.
• Lumian noticed his thoughts were clearer and questioned how Ilett could have remained well despite supposedly being halfway transformed into a wax figure in the nightmare.

After advancing to Sequence 6, Lumian tested his new Conspirer abilities and formed two acting principles from his past experiences. He planned to capture a liaison from the Sinners organization, then brought Jenna to Lavigny Docks, where an old three-masted ship caught her attention.

• Lumian examined his Conspirer abilities, including improved flame control, brief movement through fire, and heightened senses.
• Lumian concluded that a Conspirer relied on the mind rather than supernatural abilities and concealed their true purpose to carry out a conspiracy.
• Lumian and Franca agreed to target the Sinners organization's liaison when he next visited Pauline, and Lumian agreed to introduce Jenna to the faith of Mr. Fool.
• The next morning, Lumian took Jenna to Lavigny Docks without explaining why they were going.
• Jenna saw an old-fashioned three-masted sailing ship at the docks and exclaimed in surprise.

Lumian brought Jenna to the Church of the Fool, explained his and Franca’s faith and warned her that some churches might be unsafe during an approaching disaster. Bishop Tessilian welcomed Jenna and began explaining that the Fool allowed believers to follow other deities too.

• Lumian noticed a three-masted ship at Lavigny Docks and felt the Blood Emperor’s residual aura resonate with it.
• Lumian took Jenna to the Church of the Fool and explained that he and Franca believed in Mr. Fool, then asked whether she wanted to convert.
• Lumian told Jenna that the Church of the Fool could shelter her if they became separated during a possible disaster, because the Sacred Heart Monastery and Deep Valley Monastery had problems.
• Bishop Tessilian introduced himself to Jenna and offered to explain the Fool’s faith.
• Tessilian told Jenna that Mr. Fool accepted believers who also worshipped other deities, then began his sermon.

Jenna wavered after hearing a sermon about the Fool, and Lumian offered to use his Iron and Blood Cross Order contributions to obtain the Witch potion ingredients for her. Gardner Martin approved the exchange, while a letter from Madam Magician later asked Lumian and Two of Cups to summon the Armored Wraith again for Mr. Hanged Man.

• Jenna heard that Gehrman Sparrow belonged to the Church of the Fool and began reconsidering her resistance to believing in the Fool.
• Lumian offered to help Jenna obtain the Witch potion ingredients in exchange for thirty-five thousand verl d'or, and Jenna agreed to pay ten thousand upfront and owe him the rest.
• Lumian asked Gardner Martin to exchange his contributions for the Witch potion ingredients for Jenna, and Gardner agreed to provide them the next morning for an additional ten thousand verl d'or.
• Lumian watched Jenna sing at the Breeze Ballroom and wondered about the income and dangers of hunting evil god believers.
• Lumian found a letter from Madam Magician saying Mr. Hanged Man wanted him and Two of Cups to summon the Armored Wraith again, with Mr. Hanged Man providing the gold.

Lumian and Franca joined The Hanged Man aboard his ghost ship to summon the Armored Wraith and seek answers about its origins. Jenna inferred that Lumian and Franca belonged to the secret organization using tarot code names, and the chapter ended as The Hanged Man prepared to begin the summoning ritual.

• Lumian visited Franca and asked her to translate while he summoned the Armored Wraith; Jenna deduced that he and Franca were connected to the tarot-named secret organization.
• Lumian and Franca were transported from the Golden Rooster Inn to a ghost ship, where the ship’s living ropes reacted to Lumian’s right palm.
• Madam Magician identified the vessel as The Hanged Man’s ghost ship, a legacy of the Tudor Empire, and said Lumian could explore it as a future reward.
• Lumian and Franca met The Hanged Man, who identified himself as Alger; Franca recognized him as the Storm Messenger and praised his reputation as a treasure hunter.
• The Hanged Man asked whether they could begin the summoning ritual, and Lumian said they could start at any time.

Lumian summoned the Armored Wraith and asked about its identity and the eastern sea, learning that the lost mountain Penglai had reappeared and its inhabitants’ corpses had drifted into the River of the Underworld. He requested a chance to explore the ghost ship Blue Avenger but chose to wait until the time was right after Termiboros warned that Alista Tudor might resurrect within him.

• Lumian summoned the Armored Wraith, and it identified itself as Chen Tu, a spirit invested by the Celestial Master.
• Chen Tu said Penglai was a lost Immortal Mountain in the Eastern Sea and that corpses from Penglai had drifted down the river.
• Franca explained Daoism and investiture to Lumian and The Hanged Man, who asked her to prepare a written explanation for him.
• Lumian asked The Hanged Man for a chance to explore the Blue Avenger as compensation for the answers.
• Termiboros warned Lumian that exploring the ship could cause Alista Tudor to resurrect within him, and Lumian decided to wait for the right time.

Lumian and Franca returned from meeting the Hanged Man and suspected his arrival in Trier was connected to the looming disaster. The next day, Jenna advanced to Sequence 7 as a Witch in the Catacombs, where an unseen influence intervened; Lumian identified a nearby Night Pillar tied to a Calamity Witch.

• The Hanged Man agreed to Lumian's request and told him to contact him through the Magician, then the Magician sent Lumian and Franca back to the Golden Rooster Inn.
• Franca questioned why the Hanged Man had waited to meet them in Trier, and she and Lumian suspected the Tarot Club was preparing for the approaching disaster.
• Lumian brought Jenna to the Catacombs' Sacrificial Plaza to weaken any influence from the Primordial Witch during her advancement.
• Jenna drank the Witch potion and fought through a vision of Black Flames, an ice barrier, and a malicious version of herself as an unseen shadow intervened.
• Jenna successfully became a Sequence 7 Witch and told Lumian she had heard a sigh; Lumian said a Chrismona Night Pillar nearby represented a Calamity Witch who had died there.