Chapter Summaries

Jenna found herself in a fake version of the Market District, where people repeated fixed routines and the Breeze Ballroom had been replaced by a dangerous darkness. After killing her double and evading a search, she prayed to Mr. Fool for help, and Lumian awoke with warmth in his chest.

• Jenna spotted Gabriel at the fake Golden Rooster Inn and realized the surrounding Market District was an artificial world populated by people repeating fixed routines.
• Jenna saw that the Breeze Ballroom was missing and that a profound darkness occupied its place, then fled when glowing figures began searching the streets.
• Jenna disguised herself by killing her double in Apartment 601 and taking her clothes, fooling a searcher that inspected the apartment.
• Jenna prayed to the Eternal Blazing Sun without getting a response, then used the Lucky Gold Coin to pray to Mr. Fool for help.
• Lumian awoke in Room 207 of the Golden Rooster Inn with a faint warmth in the left side of his chest.

Lumian woke in a distorted version of the Market District and realized he had been pulled into the Hostel, where Mr. Fool’s seal and a dangerous interference prevented him from receiving help. He encountered Gabriel and Safali in Room 207 and learned that Safali was known there as Room 12.

• Lumian found Mr. Fool’s seal triggered and realized the sunlit Market District around him was an unreal, corrupted place connected to the Hostel.
• Lumian performed a ritual seeking Mr. Fool’s help, but hostile interference disrupted the response and forced him to end the ritual.
• At the Sacred Heart Monastery, Magician and Justice discussed drawing Lady Moon out, then Magician sensed a fluctuation in the seal and an uncertain revelation from Mr. Fool.
• Lumian hid on Room 207’s ceiling as Gabriel and Safali inspected the room, then met Gabriel privately and learned that Jenna had also entered the Hostel.
• Safali confronted Lumian, explained that love had kept her from becoming a complete monster, and revealed that her name in the Hostel was Room 12.

Lumian questioned Safali and Gabriel about the Hostel, then devised ways to escape and searched for Jenna. He deduced that the replica was reconstructed like a painting and found Jenna hiding in Fake No. 3 White Coat Street, where she recognized his familiar voice.

• Lumian learned that the Hostel contained Rooms 2 through 13, that three fairies and their servants watched over the area, and that only Market Avenue and its surroundings lay within an invisible boundary.
• After Safali and Gabriel left, Lumian considered ways to contact the outside world or escape, but decided to find Jenna first.
• Lumian disguised himself, checked his Safe House on Nightingale Street, and noticed that its traps and stored items did not match the real version.
• Lumian realized the replica resembled a painting made from external observations and reconstructed key rooms.
• Jenna prayed with the Lucky Gold Coin, then continued impersonating her fake self until Lumian arrived at her apartment and spoke to her.

Lumian joined Jenna in the painted world and helped her conclude that it was cut off from the real Spirit World. As they investigated the black hole and the ritual’s possible purpose, they encountered a woman who resembled the Hostel’s artist’s model Safali.

• Lumian told Jenna that Mr. Fool had sent him to save her, then listened as she described how she had reached the painted world.
• Jenna and Lumian concluded that the Hostel and nearby streets formed a painted world, and her Magic Mirror Divination confirmed that it could not reach the real Spirit World.
• Lumian said they should inspect the black hole near the Breeze Ballroom while considering other escape plans.
• Lumian speculated that the painted world was part of a ritual intended to affect reality and possibly open the entrance to Fourth Epoch Trier beneath the Ballroom.
• As Lumian and Jenna left No. 3 White Coat Street, they saw a woman resembling Safali, who said their meeting was ordained by destiny.

Lumian and Jenna escaped the loop on White Coat Street by unleashing the aura of Alista Tudor, then ran toward a disturbance near Breeze Ballroom. Elsewhere, a painter was seized by a skeletal hand underground, while Franca woke to find Gardner Martin missing.

• Lumian realized Spirit World Traversal could not take him and Jenna beyond White Coat Street, and suspected Vazan Sanson was trapped inside Room 7.
• Lumian knocked the woman serving as Room 7 unconscious with his Heng-Ha Art, triggering the loop to restart and confirming that attacking her reset it.
• Lumian activated the Blood Emperor's brand, shaking the painted world and cracking the barrier around White Coat Street, then escaped with Jenna and headed toward the rumbling near Breeze Ballroom.
• In an underground cavern, two painters entered the mural of Market Avenue as cracks spread through the painted scenes, while a skeletal hand seized the remaining young painter's ankle.
• Franca woke at Number 11 Springwater Street and found Gardner Martin gone, then dressed and went to check the dark, silent corridor.

Franca found that the people and guards at Number 11 Springwater Street had become headless and fled to report the change. Meanwhile, Lumian and Jenna reached the black hole by the Breeze Ballroom, where two winged Painters called Lumian “Room 1” and welcomed him back to the Hostel.

• Franca found a headless couple in the valet's room, then saw a headless maid and guards and discovered that the suits of armor and weapons had vanished from the villa.
• Franca left Number 11 Springwater Street to report to Madam Judgement and inform Bruns Soren and Clarisse.
• Flame Danitz led his sailors through an underground mine and found a cavern that had served as a rebel hideout, but he could not tell where the rebels had gone.
• Anthony Reid learned from his dockside informant that a general strike with weapons distribution was planned for the next day, then found Lumian's room silent and empty.
• Lumian and Jenna used flames and Spirit World Traversal to reach the black hole near the Breeze Ballroom, but a crystalline barrier enclosed the area.
• Two winged Painters appeared above Lumian and Jenna, and the man welcomed Lumian back to the Hostel as Room 1.

Lumian and Jenna fought two Painters near the Breeze Ballroom, but the Hostel residents converged on them as an ancient skeletal hand emerged from the darkness. Elsewhere, Angoulême learned that the Breeze Ballroom stood over a former seal node where the dead of Fourth Epoch Trier had once escaped.

• Jenna used Bloodsucker's Arrow to form dark wings and distract the two Painters while Lumian teleported behind the man in red trousers and knocked him unconscious with the Heng-Ha Art.
• The woman in the blue beret conjured an image of Aurora, but Lumian attacked her with fireballs; she turned intangible, then struck Jenna and shattered her into mirror shards before Jenna reappeared by the darkness.
• Lumian and Jenna saw Safali, Room 12, Room 7, and other Hostel residents approaching, while Gabriel followed Safali with a vacant, pained expression.
• A rust-stained skeletal hand reached out from the darkness at the Breeze Ballroom, while an ancient skeleton and other dead crawled from a swamp-like opening beneath the mural in the cavern.
• Angoulême reviewed reports of unrest and Sleeve Sword's questions, then learned from his superiors that the old cemetery beneath the Breeze Ballroom had been a seal node where Fourth Epoch dead once emerged.

Angoulême connected the old cemetery’s leak to the Evil God Cults’ plans and urged his superiors to investigate, while Franca discovered that Jenna and Lumian had both vanished. Magic Mirror Divination revealed that Jenna and a figure resembling Lumian were trapped in a Painted World near the Breeze Ballroom; after Franca reported this to Madam Judgement, cannon-like sounds rumbled from northwest Trier.

• Angoulême suspected the Evil God Cults might be trying to bypass the old cemetery’s seal and advised his superiors to send a team, preferably led by a Saint, to inspect the leak.
• Franca learned from Anthony Reid that Lumian had disappeared and found Jenna’s room empty, with the Grayish-White Cloth Bag also gone.
• Franca’s divination could not locate Jenna or Lumian, so she summoned Arrodes and learned Jenna was in a Painted World near the Breeze Ballroom alongside someone who appeared to be Lumian.
• Arrodes asked Franca embarrassing questions about her feelings for Jenna and Lumian, and Franca admitted she had fantasized about both.
• Franca reported the disappearances and the Painted World finding to Madam Judgement, then heard cannon-like rumbling from northwest Trier.

Albus Medici's forces attacked the Boulevard District as Magician and Justice learned that the disaster had begun early and moved to seize Lady Moon and locate the painted world. In Market Avenue, Lumian used the old bones' power to attack the rooms and fairies, then rushed toward the Breeze Ballroom's original location.

• Albus Medici watched headless corpses reanimate as soldiers and sent them into the night alongside Trier's Garrison Troops.
• Magician and Justice concluded that the rebellion was poorly coordinated, then Magician sent the Sacred Heart Monastery into a dark void while they prepared to act.
• After reading Judgement's letter about the painted world, Magician told Justice they needed to control or eliminate Lady Moon and find the painted world.
• Lumian summoned a brutal aura that made the old bones bow to him, then directed them to attack the rooms and fairies on Market Avenue.
• The old bones' attacks injured the Painter in red trousers, while the other rooms evaded or deflected the fireballs.
• Lumian grabbed Jenna and charged toward the Breeze Ballroom's original location.

Lumian and Jenna entered the Painted World’s darkness, where a ritual transformed Lumian into a three-headed, six-armed figure with an angel’s level and drew him toward a sealed door to Fourth Epoch Trier. As the ritual’s other conditions began unfolding across the city, a military mutiny erupted and a newborn’s cry filled Trier with sunlight.

• Lumian and Jenna fell through the darkness toward an ancient iron-black door as the Hostel’s other rooms manifested around them.
• Lumian temporarily acquired an angel’s level through the Hostel’s mystical connections, becoming a three-headed, six-armed giant while Termiboros remained sealed inside him.
• Lumian realized the evil god believers had created the Hostel to use his angel’s level to open the seal leading to Fourth Epoch Trier, but their ritual was incomplete and he could not pull away from the door.
• Angoulême de François heard cannon fire over Trier and suspected a military mutiny had begun while Purifiers were scattered across the city.
• Lady Moon spoke to Magician and Justice as a baby cried, turning the Sacred Heart Monastery into a blazing sun and awakening citizens across Trier.

A sudden ritual plunged Trier into chaos as the Market District’s Painted World and real streets flipped places, while Lumian was held against a mysterious door that began to open. As the city shook and divine powers stirred, Alger invoked the Tyrant card and brought torrential rain to the sunlit sky.

• Angoulême, Imre, and Valentine saw Trier abruptly shift from night to afternoon as explosions and fires erupted across the Market District, and Angoulême rushed toward the destruction.
• Gardner Martin revealed that the Iron and Blood Cross Order had launched attacks across the district to complete a ritual, while Albus had been sent to Erato District and Lumian remained a concern.
• The Painted World and real Market District flipped places, the seals around Breeze Ballroom weakened, and Lumian was held against a bloodstained door that began to open as Trier shook.
• Count Puyver felt summoned to Red Swan Castle’s underground labyrinth, and Alois followed him in silence.
• Franca and Anthony Reid saw the bizarre daylight and felt a citywide effect; Franca’s Primordial Witch statue and Ancient Silver Mirror reacted as she suspected a nearby High-Ranking Witch pathway presence.
• Magician and Justice endured the Eternal Blazing Sun’s power at Sacred Heart Monastery, while Alger invoked the Tyrant card and summoned torrential rain over Trier.

Alger’s storm confronted the forces around the Breeze Ballroom as Lumian and Jenna were pulled through the mysterious doors into a strange city. Count Puyver entered the corrupted seal beneath Red Swan Castle, and Lumian and Jenna arrived outside what Lumian suspected was Fourth Epoch Trier.

• Alger invoked Emperor Roselle’s image and summoned a vast storm over Trier.
• The president and vice president of the Iron and Blood Cross Order protected Gardner Martin and Olsen, then entered the distorted double doors at the Breeze Ballroom.
• Count Puyver entered the Bronze Coffin and plunged into the bloodstained entrance beneath Red Swan Castle; Alois summoned Snarnana Einhorn, who followed him inside.
• The ancient silver mirror reflected Franca’s Primordial Witch statue, engulfing Franca and Anthony Reid in darkness before falling out of the Painted World.
• Lumian and Jenna passed through the mysterious doors and arrived outside a mist-shrouded city, where Lumian suspected they had reached Fourth Epoch Trier.

After the Hostel ritual ended, Lumian and Jenna fled from the giant and Fourth Epoch Trier while the other Hostel rooms and their occupants began to collapse into monstrous forms. As the Painted World faded, Magician and Justice sensed that the corruption underground had weakened and realized that either Mr. Fool or the God controlling the anomaly might be responsible.

• Lumian saw that he had returned to normal, found no sign of the other Gift-Bearers nearby, and led Jenna away from the giant and the city to seek shelter.
• In the Fake Market District, Safali warned Gabriel that the Hostel rooms would cease to exist after the guests left, then transformed into blood dragonflies and urged him to run.
• Gabriel returned to Safali, embraced and kissed her as the dragonflies consumed them both, and their remains transformed amid the rain and sunlight.
• Angoulême, Valentine, and Imre returned to the Breeze Ballroom area as sunlight engulfed the mutating bodies and the Painted World began fading away.
• Magician and Justice spotted Lady Moon entering the unstable darkness and iron-colored gate, then hesitated to follow her.
• Justice sensed that the underground calling had weakened, and Magician considered whether Mr. Fool or the God controlling the underground anomaly had reduced the corruption.

Saint Viève and Saint Bonaventure intervened as the unstable ritual around the Sacred Heart Monastery collapsed, while a mysterious woman used a golden lamp to learn that Lumian’s father needed another compatible corruption to achieve balance. Franca and Anthony Reid entered a Mirror World and found a way through a light gate, while Lumian and Jenna discovered Gardner Martin speaking with the supposedly dead General Philip.

• Saint Viève entered the collapsing seal, Saint Bonaventure guarded the area, and a woman with a golden lamp heard that Lumian’s father needed another compatible corruption to establish balance.
• Franca and Anthony Reid found themselves in a mine tunnel in the Mirror World and passed through a light gate after finding no other exit.
• Lumian and Jenna ran through the stone ruins but returned to the edge of the same city, where Lumian considered performing a ritual to replenish his spirituality.
• A cloaked man emerged from a mirror fragment, and Lumian recognized him as the Carbonari member he and Franca had encountered.
• Gardner Martin met the cloaked man and asked why he was still wearing his cloak; Jenna used Mirror Magic to reveal that the man was General Philip, who was believed to be dead.

Lumian uncovered that Gardner Martin and the supposedly dead General Philip had conspired to arrange the Hostel ritual and exploit the Market District, while keeping Lumian close as its intended target. As Gardner and Philip approached Fourth Epoch Trier, Franca and Anthony confronted them, and Count Puyver ran toward the rampaging Vermonda Soren.

• Lumian connected Gardner Martin's ties to General Philip with the Hostel ritual and realized they had planned it together with the Painters and other Evil God Cults.
• Lumian concluded that Gardner had backed Hugues Artois and admitted him to the Iron and Blood Cross Order to fulfill the ritual, while keeping Lumian nearby as a target.
• Jenna stopped her Mirror Magic and heard Gardner tell Philip that they should enter Fourth Epoch Trier and that he regretted losing the chance to use Lumian.
• Franca and Anthony emerged from a mirror fragment and recognized Gardner Martin and General Philip, bringing the four face-to-face.
• Count Puyver ran toward Vermonda Soren, who had lost control and gone mad underground.

Count Puyver and the blue-bereted Fairy reached the calamity giant, while Snarnana Einhorn arrived to confront it and Pualis moved toward Trier with Vazan Sanson. Elsewhere, Franca, Anthony Reid, Lumian, and Jenna encountered Gardner Martin and General Philip, who used destiny to stop Anthony’s attack.

• The blue-bereted Fairy entered the storm, caught fire after seeing the giant, and became a flame sprite circling it.
• Count Puyver reached the giant, recognized Vermonda’s face and his ancestors among its burning forms, then merged with Vermonda.
• Vermonda howled, causing earthen puppets to rise as soldiers, while Snarnana Einhorn landed nearby and revealed his calamity-like Mythical Creature Form.
• Madame Pualis left her family outside Trier and stepped toward the city with Vazan Sanson as something inside it called to her.
• Franca emerged from the Mirror World, warned Anthony Reid to get down, and dodged Gardner Martin’s barrage of fireballs while Anthony lunged at General Philip.
• General Philip recognized Anthony as a survivor of the sacrificial company and used his destiny to make him land in terror; Lumian and Jenna recognized Franca’s voice nearby.

Franca, Anthony Reid, and Lumian fought Gardner Martin and General Philip in the underground Mirror World. Anthony broke through his fear and opened a chance for Lumian to strike Philip, leaving the outcome of Lumian’s point-blank attack unresolved.

• Gardner Martin used the Pride Armor’s dawn light to reveal Franca and swung his greatsword at her.
• General Philip prepared a sacrifice while Anthony Reid lay paralyzed by memories of the massacre that had killed his comrades.
• Anthony reignited his determination to seek revenge and used Frenzy on General Philip, disrupting Philip’s unstable mind.
• Lumian took the opening, struck Philip with two streaks of white light, and fired a compressed crimson fireball at the back of his head.

Lumian and his allies overwhelmed General Philip with coordinated attacks, killing him before Gardner Martin could intervene. The battle left them with a pitch-black Primordial Witch statue that appeared to be the item Gardner had smuggled into Trier.

• Lumian struck General Philip with a crimson fireball, but Philip escaped through a Mirror Substitute and appeared beside the invisible Jenna.
• Jenna shot Philip, while Franca used Beatrice's Necklace and her charm to slow Gardner Martin before firing the Cannon-Firing Gun at him.
• Franca threw her Primordial Witch statue, and it resonated with Philip's matching black statue, freezing and cursing him as Lumian and Anthony Reid attacked.
• Anthony used Dragon Might to leave Philip dazed, and Lumian killed him with a crimson fireball.
• Lumian recognized that Philip's black statue matched Franca's white one and suspected Gardner Martin had smuggled it into Trier through Christo's caravan.

Lumian's group escaped Gardner Martin's attack, saved Anthony Reid from his mortal wounds, and examined the two statues of the Primordial Witch. Lumian began a ritual to restore his spirituality under the Fool's protection, but the chapter ended as he invoked the Power of Fate.

• Gardner Martin broke away from Lumian's group and fled toward the Ruined Buildings after the Storm of Light struck them.
• Lumian transferred Anthony Reid's deadliest wound, and Jenna used the Bloodsucker's Arrow to help Anthony recover.
• Franca and Jenna took the white and pitch-black statues of the Primordial Witch, and Franca guessed that they depicted a mirror version of the Witch.
• Lumian asked Franca and the others to search General Philip's corpse and guard him while he set up a ritual to restore his spirituality.
• Jenna offered Lumian the Lucky Gold Coin, and his prayer to Mr. Fool brought gray fog that shielded the group from a terrifying roar.
• Lumian began chanting to the Power of Fate.

Lumian completed the Ascetic boon ritual, gaining greater spirituality, endurance, and the ability to store and release power, while the gray fog's protection began to fade. He led Franca, Jenna, and Anthony toward Fourth Epoch Trier, hoping its fog would protect them from the raging angel and the dangers outside.

• Dist told Tony Dunn he would give him the Weather Warlock characteristic if Dist obtained the chance to become a Conqueror, then used soybeans and tin soldiers to create giants and charged toward Vermonda Soren.
• Gardner Martin met Olsen near the gray fog and said Lumian's team had killed Philip; Olsen followed him toward Fourth Epoch Trier while secretly eyeing his injuries and missing helmet.
• Franca and Jenna watched Lumian endure the painful completion of the Ascetic boon ritual as another terrifying roar sounded.
• Lumian's spirituality, endurance, and ability to accumulate and release emotions, desires, and physical and mystical power increased; the gray fog around the altar began to recede.
• Lumian decided to take Franca and Jenna into Fourth Epoch Trier, reasoning that the city's fog might offer protection, and Anthony Reid arrived after collecting the battlefield spoils.