Chapter Summaries

Lumian and the others defeated Moran Avigny in the Mirror World, captured him in the form of a dog, and escaped to their Safe House. They planned to interrogate him after Lumian visited Mr. K, and Lumian then arrived at the headquarters of Spiritism magazine.

• Moran Avigny trapped Franca and Jenna with Confinement, while both Witches defended themselves with frost, black flames, and spider silk.
• Lumian emerged from the shadows and used Hateful Movement to exhaust Moran Avigny's Mirror Substitutes and overwhelm him with detonated desire.
• Lumian knocked Moran Avigny unconscious and transformed him into a giant dog with a Ritual Dog Skin.
• Franca realized the encounter had substantially digested her Pleasure potion, while Beatrice's Necklace could no longer arouse lust.
• The group escaped the Mirror World, returned to the Safe House, and agreed to wait until after Lumian visited Mr. K before interrogating Moran Avigny.
• Lumian arrived at the headquarters of Spiritism magazine on Schell Street.

Lumian met with Mr. K, who explained that he had tried to kill Moran Avigny to expose the School of Truth, and Lumian realized the Aurora Order’s god might have influenced the chain of events. Lumian returned to the quarry cavern with his companions to interrogate Moran Avigny using Truth Serum.

• Lumian told Mr. K that he had witnessed the failed assassination and captured Moran Avigny, prompting Mr. K to praise the True Creator and interpret the outcome as divine arrangement.
• Lumian connected the Dark Box Transaction to Moran Avigny’s escape and Mr. K’s attack, then shared his suspicions while concealing his role in changing destiny.
• Mr. K revealed that the Aurora Order and the Dawn of the Elements were investigating the School of Truth, which had been involved in disappearances and stolen pages of Roselle’s diary.
• Lumian grew concerned that the School of Truth might have clues to Emperor Roselle’s final mausoleum and learned Mr. K had targeted Moran Avigny to trigger an official investigation.
• Lumian returned to the safe house, and Franca used the Mirror Buckle to take the group to the quarry cavern, where she gave Anthony Reid Truth Serum for Moran Avigny.

Lumian questioned Moran Avigny after releasing him from the Ritual Dog Skin, learning that the School of Truth’s Supervisor was building a vast, invisible “whirlpool” that was nearly complete. Moran also claimed that Demonesses’ true selves were imprisoned inside mirrors, leaving Franca and Jenna troubled by memories of their own mirror selves. Meanwhile, Angoulême ordered the Purifiers to conceal Moran’s disappearance and investigate quietly.

• Lumian released Moran Avigny from the Ritual Dog Skin and questioned him about the People in the Mirror and their hatred of their real-world selves.
• Moran said the People in the Mirror believed they could return entirely to reality by completing their mission for the Chaos Witch, whom he called the true Primordial Witch.
• Moran claimed that Demonesses’ true selves were imprisoned inside mirrors and used to resurrect their outward selves, prompting Franca and Jenna to recall disturbing mirror encounters from their past.
• Lumian suggested that the mirror selves might instead be connected to the Demonesses’ mastery of Mirror Magic, then questioned Moran about his contract and dealings with the School of Truth’s Supervisor.
• Moran said the Supervisor was using people like him to build an invisible whirlpool that could fulfill people’s strongest needs, and that it was nearly complete.
• At Moran’s villa, Angoulême examined the scene and ordered the Purifiers to suppress news of Moran’s disappearance so they could investigate without alerting those behind him.

Angoulême’s Purifiers investigated Moran Avigny’s mirror and found signs of a struggle, while Lumian and Franca interrogated Moran about his dealings with the Supervisor and the People in the Mirror. Moran revealed that their leader lived in Fourth Epoch Trier and had a real-world counterpart, but withheld the counterpart’s identity.

• Angoulême and the Purifiers used the Statue of Ulamoth to enter the Mirror World, where they found shattered mirror fragments but no traces of Moran Avigny; Angoulême blamed the Aurora Order and concealed his suspicion that Sleeve Sword had attacked Moran.
• Moran explained to Lumian and Franca that he and the Supervisor exchanged information through mirrors using their coordinates, and Franca learned that her Mirror Buckle could record the Supervisor’s mirror coordinates.
• Moran said the Supervisor likely carried his mirror through a close subordinate, and Lumian postponed pressing him for the coordinates when Moran hesitated under hypnosis and Truth Serum.
• Moran described how he and the Supervisor traded political assistance, resources, shelter, and discreet benefits through dark box transactions.
• Moran confirmed that the Supervisor had communicated with the leader of the People in the Mirror through a ritual, and said the leader was in Fourth Epoch Trier and had a real-world counterpart whose identity Lumian and Franca would never guess.

Lumian and Franca questioned Moran Avigny about the People in the Mirror, their origins, and the layers of their world. After piecing together the clues, Lumian concluded that their leader was Roselle Gustav in the mirror.

• Lumian exposed Moran Avigny's wording to infer that some Sequence 4 People in the Mirror had escaped and their leader was at least a Sequence 3 Half-God.
• Moran Avigny explained that People in the Mirror originated from underground corruption, descendants of the Primordial Witch, or certain Fourth Epoch bloodlines such as the Tamaras, and described how their deaths related to their real counterparts.
• Moran Avigny revealed that escaped People in the Mirror were building influence in Trier, infiltrating the Witch Sect, or searching Lenburg for an item, while seeking to open the seal to the third layer of the Mirror World.
• Moran Avigny described the Mirror World's three layers and said the Primordial Witch was trapped in the deepest layer, guarding the truth.
• Lumian combined the clues about the leader's divinity, activity, and connection to Trier's underground, then whispered a name to Moran Avigny.
• Lumian told Franca and the others that the leader of the People in the Mirror was Roselle Gustav in the mirror.

Lumian investigated Moran Avigny’s connection to Roselle in the Mirror and used Hunt Destiny to remove a fragment from Moran’s past. After learning that the fragment’s removal did not undo what had already happened, Lumian had Franca and Jenna kill Moran so they could proceed with spiritism and uncover the Supervisor’s mirror coordinates.

• Franca, Jenna, and Anthony accepted Lumian’s guess that Roselle Gustav had a corresponding Person in the Mirror, while Lumian said the School of Truth had contacted Roselle through a ritual.
• Lumian told Jenna to report the discovery because the School of Truth’s cooperation with Roselle in the Mirror made the situation urgent.
• Lumian examined Moran Avigny’s destiny fragments and saw him lend the Supervisor a classical silver mirror and take shape as a Person in the Mirror at around seventeen or eighteen.
• Lumian hunted the destiny fragment in which Moran’s lust had exploded, then observed that Moran’s capture, interrogation, and memories remained unchanged.
• Lumian knocked Moran unconscious, and Franca and Jenna shot him dead before Franca began preparing for spiritism.

Franca used ordinary spiritism to question Moran Avigny’s spirit, obtaining the Supervisor’s mirror coordinates and information about the People in the Mirror connected to him. Before the spirit could finish answering, Magician, Judgement, and another woman arrived in a Pumpkin Carriage.

• Franca summoned Moran Avigny’s spirit and gave him the Mirror Buckle so he could provide the coordinates of the Supervisor’s mirror.
• Moran Avigny revealed that Griffith held the classical silver mirror used to communicate with their leader, but Franca had no question left to obtain its coordinates.
• Moran Avigny identified Griffith, Karantanza Tamara, Palia, and Spot as People in the Mirror, describing their real-world roles and activities.
• Jenna finished writing her letter and prepared to summon Madam Judgement’s messenger, but an ethereal voice told her there was no need.
• Magician, Judgement, and a scholarly-looking woman arrived in a Pumpkin Carriage drawn by gray rats.

Ma'am Magician and Ma'am Hermit followed a strange lamp into the Mirror World, where they confronted Loki and a church full of hanging corpses. Meanwhile, Lumian took Moran Avigny's Vanity Mirror, which summoned Perle, a possible School of Truth Supervisor, who used a Word of Order against the group.

• Ma'am Magician exchanged Franca's Mirror Buckle for Inexhaustible Wine, which Franca, Jenna, Lumian, and Anthony drank to restore their spirituality.
• Ma'am Magician opened a passage into the Mirror World, and Ma'am Hermit used a ball of yarn to guide her and Ma'am Judgement after the strange lamp.
• The three Major Arcana holders reached a church where Loki sat beneath suspended corpses, then watched the corpses open their pitch-black eyes.
• Lumian took Moran Avigny's Vanity Mirror, and it opened by itself and formed the figure of Perle in the quarry cavern.
• Lumian suspected Perle was a School of Truth member and possible Supervisor before she told the group, "Your crimes have yet to be punished!"

Perle attacked Lumian, Franca, Jenna, and Anthony in the quarry cavern, while conjured punishers targeted each of them according to their crimes. After surviving Perle’s attack with a Mirror Substitute, Lumian inferred that the School of Truth and April Fool’s Day might be involved in Perle’s Dark Box Transaction and a larger trap.

• Franca escaped Perle’s ice and black-flame attack with a Mirror Substitute, while a conjured Black Witch pursued her.
• A blazing-sun clergyman exposed and attacked Jenna, and a Trier police officer struck at Anthony with a lightning whip.
• Lumian’s suspected punisher failed to form, so he attacked Perle with Flame Spears and an Implosion Bullet, but her Word of Order turned both attacks back on him.
• Lumian survived the reversed attack with a Mirror Substitute and heard Perle say that a Dark Box Transaction required her to capture him alive.
• Lumian connected Perle’s rapid response to Moran Avigny’s situation with a possible informant inside the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun and suspected a partnership between the School of Truth and April Fool’s Day.

Lumian and his companions were trapped in a special Mirror World, where Perle and the manifested Punishers attacked them. As Franca turned the Pride Armor against Perle, the struggle in the church took a strange turn when Loki dragged a crowned woman into view.

• Lumian tried to teleport to Saint Viève Church and summoned Mr. K, but the Mirror World blocked his escape and Perle attacked him.
• Franca realized the group was inside a special Mirror World, but Clarisse destroyed her Mirror Substitute.
• Jenna and Anthony were struck down by the manifested Punishers, each breaking into mirror shards.
• Franca brought out the Pride Armor and sent it charging at Perle with a Giant Sword of Light.
• In the church, Judgement prohibited the use of marionettes, and Loki reached through the Magician’s doorway to pull out a crowned woman in a black gown.

Loki and the Major Arcana fought in the gloomy church while Lumian, Franca, Jenna, and Anthony struggled against Supervisor Perle in the Mirror World. Perle exiled the Pride Armor and confined Franca and Jenna, while Lumian and Anthony escaped her sight.

• Hermit used The Ugly Duckling to reveal her incomplete mythical creature form as the crowned woman and the mural attacked her and Magician.
• Judgement reached the church dome and weakened mysticism while strengthening reality.
• Franca shattered the Black Witch with lightning, and the Pride Armor struck Perle, dispersing the other punishers in the quarry.
• Franca and Lumian tried to reach Moran Avigny's makeup mirror, but Perle revealed that she had replaced the exit with a fake and exiled the Pride Armor.
• Lumian teleported away with Anthony, while Perle confined Franca and Jenna in an amber cage and began searching for Lumian and Anthony.

Lumian endured Perle’s successive lightning punishments while Anthony worked on a crucial sketch inside the Fictional Bottle. Just as Perle prepared another move, Lumian used a Golden Mask to halt the punishment, and Anthony completed a monocle on his sketch of Monet.

• Perle saw through Lumian and Anthony’s hiding place, but discovered that Lumian had built the remaining Fictional Bottle around himself to protect Anthony.
• Perle prosecuted Lumian for murder, and lightning struck him; he survived the first punishments with a Mirror Substitute, the Torture gloves, and his shadow.
• Anthony struggled to finish his sketch as the page began burning, while Lumian held Perle’s attention and endured another gathering execution.
• Lumian put on the Golden Mask, became undead, and caused the lightning punishment to stop because it had apparently fulfilled its purpose.
• Anthony trusted Lumian’s instructions to draw Monet before Madam Magician, and the page’s flames paused as he completed a monocle over Monet’s eye.

Anthony’s drawing of Monet caused the slumber effect to strike Supervisor Perle instead of Lumian’s group, but the shattered mirror let Mr. K enter the damaged Mirror World. Mr. K attacked Perle with recorded powers and cries of praise, and the chapter ended as he launched a desperate sword strike while Perle’s Dark Box Transaction failed to weaken her enemies.

• Anthony finished drawing Monet, and the slumber effect struck Supervisor Perle while Lumian and his companions remained awake.
• Lumian prepared to take Perle’s mirror, but it fell and shattered, cracking the Mirror World and allowing Mr. K to emerge from the broken mirror.
• The Magician used a stone clock and a mercury-colored snake to halt and then reverse the information torrent pursuing her, while the Hermit and Judgement returned to normal.
• Perle accused Mr. K of murder, but the punishment vanished, and Mr. K declared that the Lord had borne his sins before attacking her with a recorded Half-God ability.
• Perle protected herself with Word of Order, severing Mr. K’s arm when he struck, but Mr. K continued attacking and Perle’s Dark Box Transaction failed to weaken him or Lumian’s group.
• Mr. K lost both arms, bit down on his sword’s hilt, and leaped at Perle with a final strike.

Lumian realized his linked fate with Termiboros let him use himself as a weapon against the Half-God Supervisor, and he destroyed Perle’s painted figure, collapsing the Special Mirror World. The group returned to the Quarry, where Perle warned that a whirlpool was about to sweep everyone into it.

• Mr. K’s divinity ran out, forcing him back into his ordinary form as Perle’s shadowy figure began to reassemble.
• Lumian concluded that his connection to Termiboros let him harm Perle, then covered himself in Blazing White Flame and struck her while she was still recovering.
• Lumian detonated his right arm and blasted through Perle’s head; the Mirror World shattered, freeing Franca and Jenna as Perle’s figure fell.
• Lumian landed badly wounded but digested much of his Reaper potion, then found that Perle’s body had vanished and a ruined painting of a woman in a red dress hung on the rock wall.
• Perle spoke from inside the painting, saying the whirlpool was about to form and sweep everyone into it, before her voice faded beyond Mr. K’s reach.

After the failed attempt to stop the School of Truth, Lumian suspected Perle had gone elsewhere to fulfill a more important part of her Dark Box Transaction. The next morning, Mr. K brought Lumian to a True Creator church, where Lumian's contract with Bainfel revealed Lizard-like Sprites around the statue.

• Mr. K admitted he had failed to uncover the School of Truth's plan and told Lumian to meet him the next morning.
• Madam Magician healed Lumian and his companions, and Franca found the Pride Armor back in her Traveler's Bag; Lumian stopped her from taking it out.
• Perle searched through the Mirror World's dark tunnels while a colorful ball of yarn secretly followed her.
• Mr. K took Lumian to a church of the True Creator to repent and report that Lumian could serve as His Messenger.
• Lumian's contract with Bainfel triggered at the church, and he saw Lizard-like Sprites crawling around the True Creator's statue.

Franca told Angoulême that Moran Avigny had been captured and shared the major revelations about the People in the Mirror, the whirlpool plan, and the hidden traitor, while negotiating a reward. Later, Lumian returned to Trier and, after hinting that he had begun blaspheming, wrote to Madam Magician asking to meet her.

• Franca told Angoulême that her team had captured Moran Avigny and explained how the operation unfolded, including the revelations about the mirror's Roselle Gustav, the whirlpool plan, and a hidden traitor.
• Angoulême agreed to report the information and request all the ingredients for a Pleasure potion as Franca's informant's fee.
• Angoulême told Franca that the transaction involving the Humanoid Sealed Artifact had been approved and described what little he knew about its former identity as a Spectator demigod.
• Jenna reflected on how she could act as a Witch and then encountered Lumian singing outside the Golden Rooster Inn.
• Lumian told Jenna he had begun blaspheming, walked back to his apartment with her, and wrote to Madam Magician asking to meet.

Lumian told Madam Magician that the Lizard-like Sprite was connected to the True Creator and learned that his rapid rise as a Hunter had likely been arranged to prepare him to become a Red Priest. He decided to use those arrangements to grow stronger while waiting for Mr. Fool to awaken, then asked to explore Mr. Hanged Man's Blue Avenger.

• Lumian recounted how Bainfel and the Aurora Order's concealed church led him to identify the Lizard-like Sprite's connection to the True Creator.
• Madam Magician explained that the True Creator had likely arranged Lumian's rapid advancement to create a Red Priest who could fight the Primordial Witch.
• Lumian admitted he wanted to punch the deity responsible for Cordou Village, and Madam Magician advised him to restrain himself and grow stronger until Mr. Fool initially awakened.
• Madam Magician warned that the True Creator likely knew of Lumian's hatred but still valued him, and urged him to use the deity's arrangements cautiously as a form of revenge.
• Lumian asked to explore Mr. Hanged Man's Blue Avenger.

Madam Magician warned Lumian not to rush his advancement, offered his team rewards for their investigation, and explained how becoming an Aurora Order Divine Emissary might help him fulfill the Iron-Blooded Knight ritual. After she left, Lumian told Jenna he had seen the spirit linked to the Aurora Order’s god and that he would wait for Mr. Fool to awaken before considering what to do.

• Madam Magician assigned Lumian to investigate important Persons in the Mirror and offered his team the Hunter pathway’s Sequence 4 potion formula as a reward.
• Lumian asked whether he would become an Aurora Order Divine Emissary, and Madam Magician explained that the role could help him gather a team for the Iron-Blooded Knight ritual.
• Madam Magician said the Church of Knowledge had suggested that Ludwig, if tamed, could offset most of the ritual’s numerical requirements.
• After Madam Magician vanished, Lumian reviewed what he had learned, then joined Jenna on the balcony with a bottle of absinthe.
• Lumian told Jenna that the lizard-like spirit he had seen came from the being worshipped by the Aurora Order, and said Madam Magician had advised him to wait until Mr. Fool initially awakened.

Jenna told Franca that Lumian had learned the True Creator was responsible for the Cordou Village disaster, prompting Franca to plan a warning for the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society. Later, Lumian learned Loki had become an unstable vessel shared with Zaratul and used Beyonder Characteristics to persuade Ludwig to cooperate and explain his Pathway.

• Jenna returned to Franca and described her meeting with Lumian and his reaction to learning the True Creator's role in the Cordou Village disaster.
• Franca decided to warn Lady Hella and the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society's organizers about the School of Truth's cooperation with evil god cults, and to investigate the People in the Mirror.
• Franca told Jenna that Spot, the Deputy Minister of the Trier Police Department, had vanished, likely after the escaped Supervisor warned the People in the Mirror.
• Lumian read Lady Magician's letter saying Loki had become an unstable mixture of himself and Zaratul, and was advised not to seek him out or use his remaining resurrections.
• Lumian offered Ludwig Beyonder Characteristics in exchange for answering questions, and Ludwig agreed to call him Godfather and obey him.
• Ludwig told Lumian that his Pathway was the Gourmet Pathway, with Vagrant as Sequence 9 and Glutton as Sequence 8.

Lumian questioned Ludwig about the Gourmet pathway’s Sequences and learned how a Depriver could steal abilities by consuming a target’s flesh and blood. He struck a deal to help Ludwig advance in exchange for Ludwig’s obedience, then asked what mystical dishes could be made from Ombella’s remnant umbilical cord.

• Ludwig explained how Gluttons, Gourmets, and Cooks gained increasingly specialized eating and food-preparation abilities.
• Ludwig described Deprivers’ ability to temporarily strip targets of abilities and permanently acquire one by eating their flesh and blood.
• Lumian showed Ludwig a Deprivation Bullet, learned it came from a Depriver, and offered to help Ludwig obtain Depriver-related items and Beyonders in return for his obedience until Lumian became a Half-God.
• When Lumian asked whom Ludwig had followed, Ludwig broke down crying and said he had forgotten everything.
• Lumian showed Ludwig Ombella’s remnant umbilical cord, and Ludwig said it could make food that cured infertility or granted strong self-healing, before beginning to describe a third effect.