Chapter Summaries

Kronos searched an underground marketplace for materials and discovered that the Heart of Life could resonate with the power of time, giving him a promising ingredient for Time Magic. After finishing his shopping, he left Gner at the bar and returned to the inn to experiment.

• Kronos bought a Darkness Pathway material for three soli and several other spellcasting materials while searching the marketplace.
• Kronos bought a mysterious black cloak for fifty pounds after his spirituality warned him not to pass it up, but he could not identify its properties.
• Kronos purchased a pale green crystal called the Heart of Life for five pounds and found that it had a weak resonance with the power of time.
• Kronos continued browsing the remaining stalls and collected more inexpensive materials before leaving the marketplace.
• Kronos found Gner among a crowd at the Fragrant Tree Leaves Bar, said goodbye, and returned to the inn alone.

Kronos used the Time Stone to develop a powerful new attack spell, Time Ray, but the Warlock Potion did not recognize it as his original creation. The next morning, he asked Benjamin to arrange a large supply of Hearts of Life before they left Bayam.

• Kronos ground the Heart of Life into powder while tracing the Time Stone in his mind, which became an inner image of temporal power and improved his meditation.
• Kronos found that visualizing the Time Stone was more effective than ordinary meditation and continued until the Heart of Life was ready.
• Kronos cast a spell using the Time Symbol and Heart of Life powder, creating a beam that rotted a hole through his table; he named the spell Time Ray, but the Warlock Potion did not react.
• Kronos left the inn alone the next morning because Gner was still asleep, then found Benjamin near the Harbor.
• Kronos asked Benjamin to buy and machine-grind more Hearts of Life, and Benjamin promised to obtain three to five hundred pounds before they left Bayam.

Kronos attended a Mid-Sequence Beyonder gathering with Ozil, where he bought stone monster powder for Gner. The meeting continued with a member offering Storm Church charms for sale.

• Kronos exhausted his potion-digestion acting method by wandering Bayam's busiest districts in a warlock's robe.
• Kronos met Ozil at the Fragrant Tree Leaves Bar, and Ozil led him by carriage to the gathering's fixed location.
• Ozil introduced Kronos as Klein, a Mid-Sequence Beyonder, at a brightly lit gathering of about twenty people.
• The gathering began with requests for potion formulas, and Ozil told Kronos to state his own needs first.
• Kronos bought a small bottle of stone monster powder from a masked man for 350 pounds, collecting it for Gner.
• A member on Kronos's left offered three Church of Storms charms, each usable only once or twice and roughly as powerful as Sequence 8.

At the Trading Gathering, Kronos bought a Spirit Guide Beyonder Characteristic to draw out a man who wanted it and shared information about Edwina Edwards with a reluctant informant. After the other attendees left, Kronos and the interested man were the only two people remaining.

• Kronos recognized that a token for sale had been corrupted by the Mother Tree of Desire and avoided bidding on it, though another attendee bought it.
• A seller offered a stolen Spirit Guide Beyonder Characteristic, and Kronos bid it up to 3,500 pounds to attract an excited buyer who might know an Artisan.
• Kronos bought the characteristic and mouthed to the interested man to come find him if he wanted it.
• When a man sought information on the Golden Dream for Vice Admiral Iron Blood, Kronos told him that Edwina Edwards was a Sequence 5 Mysticism Mentor interested in treasures and ruins, earning 300 pounds.
• The gathering ended, and after Ozil and the others departed, Kronos remained alone with the man who wanted the Spirit Guide Beyonder Characteristic.

Kronos met the Artisan Sharf in Bayam and arranged for him to craft Beyonder items from two characteristics. After leaving Sharf’s home, Kronos learned that Gner had attended a dangerous gathering held by local natives and asked what he had found there.

• Kronos left the restaurant with the man, learned he was an Artisan, and introduced himself as Klein while the man gave his name as Sharf.
• Sharf explained that he wanted to use the Spirit Guide characteristic to make an item that could sign contracts with Spirit World creatures and recruit a messenger, and Kronos agreed to the deal.
• Kronos asked Sharf to make a dagger from a Demoness of Affliction characteristic; Sharf said he would study the design before they settled on a price and abilities.
• Kronos left the Spirit Guide characteristic with Sharf and returned to his lodgings, where he found Gner back from a local native Beyonder gathering.
• Gner said he regretted attending the gathering but had seen several strange weapons for sale.

Kronos helped Gner find a place to brew his Weapon Master potion, then arranged for Sharf to craft Beyonder Items from two characteristics. After Gner advanced, Sharf advised him to prepare a greatsword and agreed to reforge his Radiant Flame War Blade.

• Kronos examined Gner for signs of corruption from Kalvetua and warned him to avoid the serpent’s followers.
• Kronos gave Gner Stone Monster Powder, then brought him to Sharf’s residence so he could brew the Weapon Master potion.
• Sharf examined the Spirit Guide and Demoness of Affliction characteristics, explained the risks and timelines for crafting them, and began preparing Kronos’s dagger.
• Kronos read that Vice Admiral Iron Blood and Vice Admiral Iceberg would fight in two months and suspected the Church of Knowledge had spread the news to benefit Edwina and Admiral Amyrius.
• Gner finished advancing to Sequence 7 Weapon Master, and Sharf advised him to choose a greatsword before advancing further.
• Gner asked Sharf to reforge his Radiant Flame War Blade into a two-handed greatsword, and Sharf agreed to finish it by the next day.

Kronos, restless in Bayam, seized on a Navy Base expedition to unexplored ruins and asked Admiral Amyrius about joining. Amyrius confirmed the Navy would lead the mission, but the ruins remained a mystery, and Kronos asked whether he could receive special treatment.

• After leaving Sharf's residence, Kronos felt aimless and returned to researching spells, considering the Marauder pathway and Yodsen aboard the Golden Dream as a possible target.
• Gner invited Kronos to guard archaeologists on Symeems Island, but Kronos refused because the island was Kalvetua's dangerous lair.
• Gner told Kronos about a Navy Base expedition to ruins, and Kronos decided to inquire about joining it.
• Kronos used Intimidation to persuade a guard to contact Secretary Lü Er'an, who welcomed Kronos into the base while arranging a guide for Gner.
• Amyrius told Kronos that MI9 had supplied information about intact, unexplored human ruins, but no one knew their age or what was inside.
• Amyrius confirmed that the Navy Base would lead the expedition, and Kronos asked whether he could receive special treatment.

Kronos secured Gner a Beyonder greatsword as a reward for joining the expedition to the ruins on Blue Mountain Island, then arranged to modify another weapon and stock up on Heart of Life powder. While waiting for the expedition, he learned that Gner had found a pirate-run Beyonder gathering, but attending would require earning a pirate’s recommendation during a crackdown.

• Amyrius told Kronos that the Navy Base planned to send a reconnaissance team to the ruins in five days, including ten recruited outsiders or death row inmates, and agreed to wait for Kronos’s offensive Beyonder item if needed.
• Kronos asked Amyrius for a Sequence 7 greatsword for Gner, and Lü Er'an brought Gner a Raging Fire Greatsword with a mild negative effect.
• Kronos took Gner to Sharf’s residence to have another weapon changed into a sacred-flame dagger, then visited Benjamin and asked him to deliver twenty pounds of Heart of Life powder.
• Kronos spent the next three days with no progress on his potion digestion or new spells, while Gner reported a pirate-organized Beyonder gathering that required a pirate’s recommendation.
• Kronos assigned Gner to find a pirate willing to recommend him, despite the navy’s crackdown making pirates difficult to approach in Bayam.

Kronos and Gner collected two newly crafted Beyonder Items from Sharf: a Purification Revolver for Gner and the powerful but dangerous Disease Triangular Dagger for Kronos. Kronos left hoping the Evil-Patterned Black Panther hide could provide more protective pouches, or the dagger might have to be stored away.

• Kronos and Gner visited Sharf to collect their newly crafted Beyonder Items, still locked in a silent standoff after a joke had offended Gner.
• Sharf showed Gner the Purification Revolver, which could use ordinary bullets to produce Holy Light Purification and would last ten months.
• Sharf presented Kronos with the Disease Triangular Dagger, whose abilities were Extreme Speed, disease, and Silk Entanglement.
• Sharf explained that carrying the dagger caused progressively worse illness, though its pouch could protect Kronos from the side effects for a day.
• Gner offered to bring Sharf the Evil-Patterned Black Panther hide for examination, while Kronos asked how distance and recovery affected the dagger's illness.
• Kronos considered getting more protective pouches for the dagger and otherwise sending it to an army storeroom or church basement.

Kronos prepared for the Navy’s expedition to the ruins while arranging a concealed identity and resolving his silent standoff with Gner. As the party entered the jungle, Kronos suspected Deputy Captain Chad was using Spectator Pathway abilities to influence them.

• Kronos imbued the Heart of Life powder and Lucky One Cane with his aura, then received orders to assemble at the Navy Base for the next morning’s mission.
• Kronos asked Lü Er'an to arrange a reliable false identity so he could join the mission without exposing himself.
• Gner delivered three leather pouches made by Sharf and Evil-Patterned Black Panther hide that could conceal Kronos’s triangular spike; Kronos agreed to end their standoff, then claimed a small victory by shutting the door on Gner.
• Kronos and Gner joined the expedition led by Baldwin Barrow, which included four adventurers and six death row inmates.
• As the party entered the jungle, Chad soothed the group’s resentment toward Baldwin, and Kronos suspected Chad was a Psychiatrist or Hypnotist who was influencing them.

Kronos used a series of rituals to search for the spiritually concentrated area where MI9’s underground ruins might be. After narrowing down the location, Baldwin and Chad decided the group would begin digging there.

• Chad explained the mission, and the group reached the clearing Amyrius had prepared after marching until night.
• Kronos slept through the night, then set up several rituals to search for the ruins, borrowing Baldwin’s power.
• Kronos’s first search found a spiritually concentrated area in a direction he indicated, and the group moved two kilometers that way.
• Kronos performed a second search and concluded the ruins were likely beneath their current position, within a one-kilometer area.
• Baldwin and Chad decided to start digging straight down, while the adventurers helped carry away the dirt.

Kronos helped Amyrius’s team uncover and enter ancient ruins after locating them through divination. The chapter ended with Kronos, Gner, and Amyrius descending into the ruins while the others remained outside.

• Kronos and the excavation team dug through packed earth for several days until they uncovered a huge stone door.
• Kronos used divination to guide the search, and Baldwin activated a charm that summoned Amyrius to the site.
• Amyrius opened the door with a charm supplied by MI9 and entered the ruins.
• Kronos and Gner followed Amyrius inside, while Baldwin and Chad stayed outside as the door closed behind them.
• Kronos sensed that the passage led farther underground and realized the stone they had excavated was only an entrance, not the ruins themselves.

Kronos, Amyrius, and Gner explored ruins in Bayam that Kronos recognized as one of Tudor’s hidden sites, finding only a mysterious platform. After Amyrius activated it, Prince Grove Augustus ordered them to leave and warned that anyone who might reveal what happened must not leave the ruins.

• Amyrius led Kronos and Gner deeper into the ruins after they concluded MI9 had probably sent them there knowing they would find nothing valuable.
• The three reached a hidden space between reality and the Spirit World, where a strange metal platform stood beside a cliff and a bottomless gorge.
• Amyrius tossed a charm onto the platform, triggering spatial fluctuations, and Kronos deduced that Botis had helped the alliance locate Tudor’s ruins and undo Mr. Door’s protections.
• Kronos suggested that they return, since the ruins held no apparent treasure or other discoveries.
• Grove Augustus identified himself through the platform, acknowledged Amyrius’s contribution, and ordered the group to leave while warning that anyone who might talk must not leave the ruins.

Kronos and Amyrius returned from the ruins, and Amyrius rewarded Kronos with a powerful charm for his help. At the Navy Base, Lü Er'an gave Kronos the false identity papers he had requested and revealed his resentment at being associated with MI9.

• Kronos relaxed after he and Amyrius left the ruins, and Amyrius used an Imperative Mage ability to open the sealed doors.
• Amyrius teleported Kronos back to the Navy Base and gave him a five-use Ninth Law charm as a reward.
• Kronos returned to Amyrius's office to ask for a carriage, and Amyrius told Lü Er'an to arrange one.
• Lü Er'an gave Kronos the false identity documents he had prepared through secret contacts.
• Lü Er'an explained that Amyrius had freed him from MI9 and that he served only the admiral, then left angrily after Kronos linked him to MI9.

Kronos adopted the detailed Carlson Norman identity prepared by Lü Er'an and visited Sharf to collect items made from the Evil-Patterned Black Panther hide and the Spirit Guide characteristic. Sharf gave him the Spirit Harmonica and explained its abilities and risks, then offered to add a function that could summon a messenger directly.

• Kronos read Carlson Norman's detailed life history, used the Vampire Mask to take his appearance, and decided to use Carlson as a lasting cover identity.
• Kronos returned to the inn, slept, and went to Sharf's residence the next morning after learning Gner had not yet returned.
• Sharf gave Kronos thirty leather sheaths for his Triangular Bayonets and returned some of the Evil-Patterned Black Panther hide.
• Sharf presented the Spirit Harmonica, which could intimidate undead and form up to five contracts with messengers, undead, or nature spirits, while repeated use increased Kronos's undead aura.
• Kronos asked whether the harmonica could summon a messenger directly, and Sharf offered to add that function in one night.

Kronos summoned a messenger, but a powerful lady in red seized the birdlike spirit and offered to become his messenger instead. After learning that her aura would drive off other messengers for three years, Kronos agreed and used a Deathling Contract witnessed by the Underworld to bind her.

• Sharf gave Kronos the Spirit Harmonica, modified to summon Sharf’s messenger, and supplied the summoning incantation.
• Kronos performed a messenger-summoning ritual and called forth a birdlike creature made of white bones and feathers.
• A mysterious lady in red dragged the bird into the Spirit World, then appeared before Kronos and asked to become his messenger.
• The lady struck a dragon emerging from the Spirit World and warned Kronos that her aura would repel ordinary messengers for three years.
• Kronos agreed to take the lady as his messenger and wrote a Deathling Contract bearing the Underworld’s Honorific Name.
• The lady burned the contract with green flame without reading or signing it.

Kronos finalized arrangements with his new messenger, sent news and summoning instructions to his family, and prepared to leave Bayam with Gner. The fleet set sail for Gurain, where they expected to arrive after a week at sea with limited fresh provisions.

• The messenger lady signed a contract with Kronos and explained how he could summon her before returning to the Spirit World.
• Kronos modified the ritual, sent Sharf instructions for summoning a messenger, and telegrammed his family using their private cipher.
• Gner shared the information he had gathered, then learned the ritual and recruited a fast messenger of his own.
• Benjamin showed Kronos the fleet’s accounts and reported that he had secured seventy pounds of Heart of Life; Kronos approved preparations to depart.
• Kronos and Gner left the hotel the next morning and boarded the repaired fleet, with Gner bringing crates of provisions for the voyage to Gurain.

Kronos learned that an enormous fish migration might signal either a seabed disaster or the presence of Vice Admiral Deep Sea, Howl Constantine. The fleet survived a night of violent seas, rested, and resumed its voyage at its usual speed, one day behind schedule.

• Kronos reviewed how little he knew about the Southern Continent and resolved to proceed cautiously because of the dangerous organizations there.
• Gner brought Kronos onto the deck, where they watched a procession of sea creatures swimming past the fleet.
• The captain warned that the migration could indicate either a seabed disaster or Vice Admiral Deep Sea, Howl Constantine, whose ship was said to attract fish.
• Kronos considered what he knew about Howl and his search for a way to advance without losing control, while the fleet hurried onward and saw no pirate ships.
• That night, violent sea turbulence tossed the ships and left Kronos and the others sick and exhausted; the captain ordered a rest until four in the afternoon.
• After dinner, the fleet resumed sailing at its usual speed rather than pushing the ships harder to make up the lost day.

Kronos and Gner arrived in Gurain, where they explored the city and settled into a luxurious hotel. They planned to investigate the Southern Continent separately, with Kronos setting out to learn about the area and Gner to gather information from adventurers.

• Kronos and Gner reached Gurain and marveled at its mountain-built streets and coffin-shaped carriages.
• Kronos and Gner chose a conventional carriage to reach a lavish hotel halfway up the mountain, where Kronos declined the attendants’ services.
• Kronos told Gner he wanted to explore the Southern Continent on his own and asked him to investigate its adventurer and Beyonder circles.
• Kronos rented a coffin carriage for himself while Gner returned to the port in a regular carriage to visit adventurers’ bars.
• Kronos headed to the shopping district to gather information by talking with shopkeepers and staff.

Kronos questioned the attendants in Gurain and compared their answers with information Gner gathered, confirming that impoverished regions were vulnerable to dangerous cults and blood sacrifices. He planned to travel through the more prosperous Paz Valley and arranged to meet Alfred Hall, asking Gner to come along so he could test an idea.

• Kronos asked his attendants about their origins and faith, inferred that they belonged to an unspoken religion, and dismissed them with tips.
• Kronos decided to avoid poor regions and planned a circuit through Paz Valley while waiting for Gner's reports.
• Benjamin told Kronos that Major Alfred Hall wanted to meet him, so Kronos arranged a dinner for the following evening.
• Gner returned the next morning, and he and Kronos compared information that confirmed Kronos's concerns about strange gods and sacrificial rituals in resource-poor regions.
• Kronos asked Gner to accompany him to meet Alfred, and Gner agreed before Kronos began refining their travel itinerary.