Chapter Summaries

Kronos infiltrated the Bayam ruins and followed a faint pull from Baron Pound’s Tudor bloodline into a dangerous chasm. After passing a bloodline screening, he reached a candlelit chamber and found a statue of Alista Tudor.

• Kronos avoided MI9 personnel and entered the ruins using his Invisibility Hat and Concealment Cloak.
• Kronos saw MI9 Major General Qonas Kilgor arrive with Lockhart Siakam, and Qonas ordered the ruins sealed.
• Kronos stayed inside and searched the ruins, discovering that Baron Pound’s blood reacted near a deep chasm.
• Kronos descended into the chasm, followed the blood’s guidance, and entered a cave where a probing force triggered a spiritual warning.
• Kronos uncorked Baron Pound’s blood, passed the screening, and followed the passage into a candlelit chamber containing a statue of Alista Tudor.

Kronos uncovered Tudor’s safeguard in the Bayam ruins and used the portal network to reach the Southville County ruins, where he recovered a second piece of parchment. He returned toward Bayam as Amyrius prepared an operation against the Iron Anchor and the Death Announcer.

• Tudor’s statue told Kronos that nine ruins held pieces of information leading to the safeguard, and Kronos found a blank parchment beneath it.
• Kronos examined the Bayam portal, and the Death God Mask revealed the coordinates of the nine ruins and their connections.
• Kronos secretly traveled through the portal to the Southville County ruins and retrieved another parchment piece from Tudor’s stone chamber.
• Kronos left the Southville County ruins and headed back toward Bayam.
• Amyrius returned to the Sonia Fleet and prepared to encircle and suppress the Iron Anchor and the Death Announcer.

Kronos retrieved Tudor’s parchment from Ruins No. 1, where Qonas Kilgor caught him with the help of his Lucky Clover. Kronos opened the box for Qonas, then seized the moment to attack him with Source of the Peach Blossoms and Time Barrier.

• Amyrius returned to Bayam after the navy’s failed operation and asked Kronos about the ruins.
• Kronos convinced Amyrius that the ruins belonged to the royal family, and Amyrius abandoned his plan to claim a share.
• Kronos spent over a month retrieving Tudor’s parchment from the ruins, collecting eight pieces before entering Ruins No. 1.
• Kronos used a Sun Card strike in Desi County to draw reinforcements away, then entered Ruins No. 1 and took the final parchment from its stone chamber.
• Qonas Kilgor confronted Kronos after Lucky Clover led him to the chamber and demanded the contents of the wooden box.
• Kronos showed Qonas the parchment and claimed it was part of a Blood Emperor treasure, then attacked him with Source of the Peach Blossoms and Time Barrier.

Kronos isolated Qonas and overwhelmed him with the Fallen Domain, turning the Fallen Earl into a Fallen Servant. After gaining Qonas’s abilities, Kronos prepared to leave, having discovered that releasing a corrupted servant could contaminate its Beyonder Characteristic.

• Kronos used the Source of the Peach Blossoms and the Time Barrier to isolate Qonas, then attacked him with the Fallen Domain, lightning, and the Deadly Crossbow.
• Qonas countered with his Decrees, Distortion, and other abilities, but Kronos’s spells and the Fallen Domain steadily corrupted and subdued him.
• Kronos took Qonas’s Lucky Clover, Rivell's Desperate Scream, and Concerto of Light and Shadow, then released the Conspirer to make room for Qonas as a Fallen Servant.
• The released Conspirer crumbled to ash, leaving behind a Beyonder Characteristic contaminated by the Fallen Domain; Fan Aistin warned that it could cause severe corruption or loss of control.
• Kronos turned Qonas into a Fallen Servant, gained Bestow, Exploit, Magnify, Chaos, and Distortion, and withdrew the barriers to leave.

Kronos used Tudor family blood to reveal a map pointing to a safeguard in a Backlund park, while the factions searching for missing Qonas tightened their scrutiny of the city. He returned to Backlund and identified the factions’ leaders, but the marked location’s proximity to a cathedral and its open setting made his next move difficult.

• Kronos assembled the nine pieces of sheepskin, then used Baron Pound’s blood to reveal a map of Backlund.
• Kronos learned that Qonas’s disappearance had triggered searches by the Augustus Family, MI9, the Demoness Sect, and the Aurora Order, and he stayed in Bayam to avoid scrutiny.
• At the Tarot Club, Kronos made no trades while Alger showed interest in political developments following Duke Negan’s death.
• Kronos returned to Backlund and moved into Saint Samuel Cathedral while observing the city’s search efforts.
• Kronos identified Panatiya, Mr. A, and Lockhart as the leaders coordinating the search for suspicious people.
• Kronos visited the marked park in Saint George District and realized that its open setting and proximity to Saint Hilleran Cathedral would make his work difficult to conceal.

Kronos entered Tudor’s hidden safeguard in the Spirit World, destroyed the Worms of Time guarding it, and found a letter and a wooden box. Tudor’s letter asked whoever found it to protect his descendants, leaving Kronos to consider what the box might contain and whether Baron Pound deserved better treatment.

• Kronos chose the dead of night to search beneath the former site of Tudor’s statue in a Backlund park, using his Time Godbody to locate the statue’s original position.
• Kronos poured Baron Pound’s blood onto the parchment, revealing a symbol that opened a door and transported him into an enclosed space in the Spirit World.
• A statue claiming to be Tudor invited Kronos closer, so Kronos surrounded it with Playing Cards Castle and blasted it apart, recovering eleven dead Worms of Time.
• Kronos checked the statue’s hidden compartment and found a wooden box and a letter from Tudor asking the finder to protect his descendants.
• Kronos recalled that the Red Angel had killed the Pound Family, leaving Baron Pound as its likely sole surviving descendant, and considered improving his treatment if Tudor’s box held something valuable.

Kronos cautiously examined Tudor’s hidden box and discovered Home, a powerful item that cultivated Spirit Worms, Worms of Time, and Worm of Stars. He traced the sealed Spirit World space’s history, learned how Bethel had created it and Tudor had hidden forces there, then used the Key to the Space to escape and erased his traces, though the Desire Pocket Watch suggested someone was watching him.

• Kronos used his Appraiser glasses on the black bamboo tube and learned that Home could cultivate three kinds of worms once a month, each with a different drawback.
• Kronos failed to break the space’s barriers, traced its history, and watched Bethel create and conceal it for Tudor.
• Kronos saw Tudor hide Demigod-level forces in the space as a reserve against Trunsoest, then later return after falling from Sequence One and leave the place prepared as a hidden storehouse.
• Kronos memorized Bethel’s Key to the Space symbol and merged it into the Death God Mask, allowing him to leave the sealed space.
• Kronos returned to the park in the Saint George District, erased the parchment and symbol, and left under cover of darkness as his Desire Pocket Watch grew warm.

Kronos realized that Horamick was following him and, instead of escaping to Saint Samuel Cathedral, lured the Archbishop out to a secluded valley to take revenge. As Horamick emerged and Kronos tried to keep him distracted, Horamick quietly prepared an attack with a mechanical puppet.

• Kronos suspected that Horamick was tracking him with an item that evaded the Eyes of Mystery Prying, and considered fleeing to Saint Samuel Cathedral.
• Remembering how Horamick had threatened his family, Kronos decided to fight now that they were protected and he had grown stronger.
• Horamick followed the spatial fluctuations from the ruins, waited for Kronos to return, and tailed him out of Backlund.
• Kronos confirmed Horamick was his pursuer, led him to a secluded valley, and called him out to talk.
• Kronos provoked Horamick with remarks about the Church of Steam and Machinery, while Horamick covertly aimed a mystical cannon at him from a mechanical puppet.

Kronos fought Horamick, using a decoy and a corruption-enhancing spell to overcome Horamick’s powerful puppet and Sealed Artifact. The battle continued as Kronos’s bullets struck Horamick with the mental effect of Rivell’s Desperate Scream.

• Horamick’s Mechanical Puppet blasted through Kronos’s chest, but Kronos escaped with Feign Death Escape and trapped Horamick behind barriers.
• Horamick dismantled Kronos’s Spear of Longinus with the Rules Peeper, then demanded Kronos’s spoils, the ruins’ coordinates, and fifty years of labor.
• Kronos attacked Horamick and trapped the Mechanical Puppet inside the Playing Cards Castle, where four allies fought it while the Justice Mentor waited.
• Horamick tried to dispel the castle, but Kronos’s God's Avatar struck him with lightning and drew him away from the puppet.
• Kronos retreated from Horamick and magnified the urge to corruption with the Corruption Bracelet, halting Horamick long enough for bullets from Rivell’s Desperate Scream to hit him.

Kronos and Horamick fought through layered attacks, with Horamick using a Purification Potion to push through the Fallen Domain and Kronos revealing his control over time. Kronos gained an opening with Time Reload and a Spear of Longinus, but Horamick’s Mechanical Puppet returned and restored the standoff.

• Kronos attacked Horamick with Mind Breath, the Fallen Domain, and Tyrant's Roar, while Horamick repeatedly used the Rules Peeper to counter the assaults.
• Horamick drank a Purification Potion and charged through the Fallen Domain, forcing Kronos to use the Time God Domain to keep him at a distance.
• Horamick tried to disassemble Kronos from afar, but Kronos reflected the damage with the Curse of the Marionette, forcing Horamick to stop and repair his hand.
• Kronos used Time Reload to restore himself, then struck Horamick's leg with a Spear of Longinus as Horamick struggled to restore his right hand.
• Horamick's Mechanical Puppet emerged from the Playing Cards Castle and aimed its cannon at Kronos, leaving the two sides at a standoff.

Kronos faced the enraged Horamick, a Sequence 3 who threatened him with a powerful Mechanical Puppet, but Fan Aistin secretly took control of the Puppet and turned it against its owner. Kronos killed Horamick, claimed his Beyonder Characteristic, and erased traces of the battle to conceal his identity and implicate the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun.

• Horamick revealed his desperation to advance to Angel and threatened to destroy Kronos and the barrier with his Mechanical Puppet.
• Kronos called on Mr. Aisting, and the Mechanical Puppet fired into Horamick’s chest before a Spear of Longinus pinned him down.
• Kronos recalled how Fan Aistin had infiltrated the Puppet while Kronos and four Demigods distracted Horamick and the machine.
• Kronos refused to reveal his identity, shattered Horamick’s head, and used Purification to extract his Scholar of Yore Beyonder Characteristic.
• Kronos searched the area and used a Justice Mentor attack to erase traces and make the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun appear responsible.

Kronos secured Fan Aistin’s service in exchange for the Mechanical Puppet and learned about its abilities and Horamick’s Rules Peeper. In Darkened Heaven, Arianna offered Horamick’s Beyonder Characteristic as a route to Sequence 3, and Kronos chose to switch to the Paragon Pathway as the Characteristic was shattered for his advancement.

• Kronos returned to Saint Samuel Cathedral with Fan Aistin and secured his agreement to work for five years in exchange for ownership of the Mechanical Puppet.
• Fan Aistin explained the Puppet’s Alchemist core and three demigod-level Beyonder Items, while Kronos appraised Horamick’s Rules Peeper and learned its abilities and risks.
• Arianna summoned Kronos to Darkened Heaven and offered Horamick’s Beyonder Characteristic as a way to advance to Sequence 3 as a Scholar of Yore.
• Arianna explained that Will had blocked Kronos’s chances of obtaining the Clairvoyant Potion Formula, and Kronos decided to switch to the Paragon Pathway.
• Kronos handed over Horamick’s Beyonder Characteristic, and Arianna shattered it into points of light that began converging again.

Kronos negotiated with the Evernight Goddess to keep Sealed Artifact 1-17 by impersonating Horamick and infiltrating the Church of Steam and Machinery. He accepted the mission in exchange for Beyonder characteristics to strengthen his Death God Mask, then returned to Saint Samuel Cathedral and asked Fan Aistin whether they would work.

• Arianna warned Kronos that Sealed Artifact 1-17 belonged to Saint Hilleran Cathedral and that the Church of Steam and Machinery would seek to recover it.
• Arianna offered Kronos the choice of becoming Horamick and taking his place as Backlund's archbishop, or having the Evernight Goddess conceal 1-17 in return for a favor.
• Kronos learned that the Goddess wanted him to replace Horamick and gather information inside the Church of Steam and Machinery, with Horamick's advancement resources and a possible route to Sequence One as potential rewards.
• Kronos asked for an Undying and a Secrets Sorcerer Beyonder characteristic, and the Evernight Goddess instead offered a Traveler characteristic and a Sequence 3 Ferryman characteristic.
• The Evernight Goddess ordered Kronos to advance to Sequence 3 within three days and replace Horamick, then sent him back to Saint Samuel Cathedral.
• Fan Aistin said the Traveler and Ferryman characteristics should complete Kronos's Death God Mask, and Kronos told him he would rely on him for the mission.

Kronos advanced to Sequence 3 as a Scholar of Yore by switching from the Hermit Pathway to the adjacent Paragon Pathway, enduring a painful clash before the powers merged. After succeeding, he relied on Fan Aistin’s expertise and resolved to keep him close for the dangerous impersonation ahead.

• Kronos rejected Fan Aistin’s despairing objections and remained determined to impersonate Horamick, while quietly adding a drop of blood to Home to cultivate his Worm of Time.
• Kronos prepared the Scholar of Yore potion and drew twenty-three analytical diagrams of matter before ten gained the authority of knowledge’s acknowledgment.
• Kronos drank the potion, endured a painful struggle between his Hermit and Paragon powers, and let them merge completely.
• Fan Aistin explained that Kronos’s pathway switch had succeeded early and that completing the full merger would help him digest the potion faster.
• Kronos thanked Fan Aistin’s experience and decided to keep him at his side for the undercover undertaking.

Kronos impersonated Horamick at Saint Hilleran Cathedral and spread a rumor that Horamick was nearing angelhood to buy time. Arianna rewarded him with Beyonder Characteristics and the Evernight Goddess’s divinity, but ordered him to appear within a week; Old Fan warned that using the True Creator’s divinity could expose Kronos to its influence.

• Kronos returned to Saint Hilleran Cathedral disguised as Horamick and avoided meeting Nosk by having Old Fan, as Mr. Jacques, claim Horamick was absorbed in potion research.
• Nosk spread word that Horamick had gained a new insight into potion digestion, and the rumor grew into a claim that Horamick was about to become an angel.
• Arianna recognized Kronos’s delay tactic and gave him a week to appear and take charge of Saint Hilleran Cathedral’s affairs, or the Church would reclaim its gifts.
• Arianna gave Kronos two Beyonder Characteristics and a portion of the Evernight Goddess’s divinity, which Old Fan said could enhance the Concealment Cloak.
• Kronos showed Old Fan a portion of the True Creator’s divinity, and Old Fan warned that using it could create a dangerous connection to the god.

Kronos prepared to interfere with the Backlund Great Smog while avoiding a direct confrontation with George III’s apotheosis plan. At the Tarot Club, he shared knowledge about Ouroboros and the gods, and warned the members that a major disaster was brewing in Backlund, promising to limit its impact.

• Kronos planned to use his new Time Reversal ability and investigate Horamick’s memories before deciding how to act against the Great Smog and the Demoness Sect.
• At the Tarot Club, Kronos explained that Ouroboros, a King of Angels of the Wheel of Fortune pathway, could have trapped them in a loop.
• Kronos found Horamick’s Knowledge Mentor potion formula, ingredients, and advancement ritual, which required helping at least two Beyonders advance to demigod; he considered the Tarot Club members potential candidates.
• Kronos identified the gods in Derrick’s vision as the Evernight Goddess, the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the Earth Mother, and explained that they had once had human forms.
• Klein’s alternate identity, the World, warned the Tarot Club that a major event was brewing in Backlund, and Kronos said he would try to reduce the number of people harmed.

Kronos followed Klein and Azik to a hidden ruin where Mr. A and Panatiya prepared a Descent of God. After revealing himself as Horamick, Kronos confronted them but delayed taking action, intent on drawing out the True Creator’s divinity.

• Klein learned from Trissy that the Demoness Sect was involved in the crisis and that she had been renamed Trissy Cheek, then sent Azik a plea for help and warned the Tarot Club through Sefirah Castle.
• Klein narrowly survived meteors striking the woods, and Azik rescued him through Spirit World Traversal while Kronos followed their trail.
• Azik and Klein encountered Mr. A and a Golden Masked demigod in a ruin, while Kronos followed Klein to the altar where Panatiya awaited Mr. A.
• Kronos revealed himself as Horamick, prompting Mr. A to begin a Descent Ritual while Panatiya tried to hold Kronos back.
• Kronos asked Panatiya whether she had originally been a man or a woman, while secretly planning to draw more divinity from the True Creator’s Descent.

Kronos stopped Mr. A’s Descent Ritual, captured Panatiya, and arranged for the Church of Evernight to pursue Mr. A. He chose to prevent the Backlund plague and preserve the political fallout that would pressure the Royal Family.

• Mr. A began the True Creator’s Descent Ritual, and Klein’s bullets failed to penetrate the altar’s light.
• Klein threw the Master Key into the ritual, but Kronos stopped Panatiya, cut off the altar’s location signal, contained the Key’s curse, and destroyed the altar.
• Mr. A escaped using a recorded teleportation ability, and Kronos allowed him to go so the Church of Evernight could capture him.
• Kronos subdued Panatiya and forced her to reveal the Demoness Sect’s plan to spread a plague through Backlund.
• The Angel of Concealment arrived, and Kronos sent her after Mr. A while keeping Panatiya as his prisoner.
• Kronos reflected that he had saved the citizens who would have died in the Backlund Great Smog Incident and wondered whether the act fulfilled the Sage potion ritual.

Kronos secured Panatiya as a Fallen Servant and took control of the response to the thwarted Aurora Order and Demoness Sect plot in Backlund. He helped the churches confront the Royal Family, which offered sweeping concessions, while Kronos suspected George III had planned them as part of his own scheme.

• Kronos reassured Klein and Mr. Azik, then advised Klein to leave Backlund before investigators came looking for him.
• Kronos turned Panatiya into his second Fallen Servant and returned to Saint Hilleran Cathedral to impersonate Horamick and direct arrests of Demoness Sect members.
• Kronos delegated Saint Hilleran's affairs to Old Fan, then explained the plot to Radal Valentin and worked with Anthony to inform the Church of Storms.
• Riedal, Anthony, and Kronos confronted the Royal Family, and George III offered political, labor, and military concessions through the palace Earl.
• Kronos considered whether George III had intended the concessions to help establish the abnormal rules required to become the Black Emperor.

Kronos used the Negan family to help the Church of Steam and Machinery secure a major foothold in the military, then withdrew its forces and began upgrading his concealment artifacts. At the Tarot Club’s next gathering, he revealed the titles of the other Kings of Angels while withholding their true names.

• Kronos told Old Negan the full story behind the recent crisis and persuaded the Negan family to help the Church of Steam and Machinery enter the navy.
• The Church of Steam and Machinery quickly gained military influence with the Negan family’s support, angering Riedal while Anthony held back from challenging Kronos.
• Kronos ordered Saint Hilleran Cathedral to lie low, then began upgrading his Death God Mask and Concealment Cloak before preparing material-structure research.
• At the January 3 Tarot Club gathering, Klein introduced Emlyn as Mr. Moon, and Miss Justice thanked Mr. Fool for saving Backlund.
• After Derrick described his visit to the temple, Kronos named the Kings of Angels by their titles and warned the others not to speak their true names.