Chapter Summaries

Kronos stayed at Argel Manor to make skill scrolls and avoid contact with the Church of Steam and Machinery while he gauged the political fallout. He returned to Backlund to meet Isengard and asked Professor Portland about recent developments, learning that the Church’s pressure on Portland and Kask might be part of a calculated effort to appease the Royal Family.

• Kronos made several skill scrolls, kept to a healthy routine, and stayed at Argel Manor to avoid the Church of Steam and Machinery’s invitations.
• Kronos left for Backlund on the day of his arranged transaction with Isengard and went to the Higher Education Committee to see Professor Portland.
• Kronos told Portland he was wary of contacting the Church because the Royal Family might question his loyalties.
• Portland said the Church had offered him money to end the contract, then sent Ikanser to threaten him at home, but Portland ignored him.
• Portland told Kronos that Kask’s appointment had been suspended and Parliament had turned against him; Kronos suggested the Church might be sacrificing temporary allies to placate the Royal Family.

Kronos visited Isengard and hired him to investigate the boy Will Auceptin through ordinary inquiries, then revealed that he knew Isengard was the Eye of Wisdom. Isengard was left panicked and despairing as he wondered whether Kronos knew his other identity too.

• Kronos asked Portland about the Research Center and learned that construction was proceeding as planned.
• Kronos visited Isengard disguised as Klein and startled him by greeting the image-transmitting ornament in the reception room.
• Kronos hired Isengard to make harmless inquiries about Will Auceptin at 66 Doughty Street, and they signed a contract.
• After Isengard offered to take more commissions, Kronos said he wanted to trade for 2-081 and called him Mr. Eye of Wisdom.
• Isengard panicked over Kronos exposing his identity, considered whether he could eliminate Kronos, then grew despondent when he judged Kronos likely to be better equipped.

Kronos and Isengard began trading 2-081 for one of four Beyonder Items, and Isengard weighed the options after inspecting them. Kronos recommended the Wind-blessed Boots, leaving Isengard questioning why he was being offered such sincere advice.

• Kronos interrupted Isengard's fearful thoughts and asked whether he still wanted to trade for 2-081.
• Isengard agreed to exchange 2-081 for one of Kronos's four Beyonder Items, and they brought the items together.
• Kronos tested 2-081 with his spirituality and felt its effects alter how his brain comprehended the world as pain began to build.
• Isengard inspected the Bright Light War Blade, Wind-blessed Boots, Distortion Gauntlet, and Hat of Order, ruling out the blade and gauntlet as unsuitable.
• Kronos recommended the Wind-blessed Boots because they had more abilities and greater resale value, and Isengard asked why Kronos was helping him choose.

Kronos and Isengard agreed on the Wind-blessed Boots, exchanged a way to contact each other, and Kronos left to stay in Backlund. On the way, a Church of Steam and Machinery bishop named Nosk intercepted him and began questioning him.

• Kronos joked with Isengard, then advised him to choose the Wind-blessed Boots and promised to keep his identity secret.
• Isengard learned Kronos had recruited the Artisan, and Kronos gave him a Kain Club card as a way to send messages.
• Kronos left Isengard's home and decided to stay in Backlund rather than avoid the Church of Steam and Machinery.
• A blue starlight rope bound Kronos's coachman, and Kronos recognized the man who stopped the carriage as a likely Sequence 5 Astronomer.
• The man released the coachman, introduced himself as Nosk, a bishop of Saint Hilleran Cathedral, and asked who had told Kronos he was Archbishop Horamick's adopted son.

Kronos met Bishop Nosk, who asked him to help the Church of Steam and Machinery place someone in the House of Commons through the Negan family. When Kronos refused and called out Nosk for making the request on his own, Nosk grew angry, and Kronos prepared to fight him if necessary.

• Kronos told Nosk that Ikanser had revealed his relationship with Archbishop Horamick, and Nosk vowed to remember Ikanser.
• Nosk asked whether Kronos's family would return to its seat in the House of Lords, and Kronos said he would ask his father but expected him to remain in Midseashire.
• Nosk asked Kronos to help the Church place someone in the House of Commons through the Negan family, but Kronos said he lacked the influence and connections to do so.
• Kronos suggested that Horamick approach Duke Negan, then accused Nosk of making the request without authorization.
• Nosk became angry, and Kronos readied his Sealed Artifact and weapons, deciding he would kill Nosk if a fight broke out.

Kronos persuaded Bishop Nosk that the Argel Family could not help the Church and escorted him back to Saint Hilleran Cathedral. After returning the borrowed books and manuscripts, Kronos waited in the cathedral in case Archbishop Horamick wanted to question him.

• Kronos convinced Nosk that the Argel Family lacked the power to assist the Church, and Nosk agreed to ride with him to the cathedral.
• Kronos stopped at his villa and gathered the borrowed books and manuscripts, including the manuscript containing a replacement bookmark.
• Kronos and Nosk arrived at Saint Hilleran Cathedral, where Kronos arranged for the books and manuscripts to be returned to the storeroom.
• A clergyman recruited helpers to unload the books, and Kronos rewarded them with cash.
• Kronos sat in the cathedral's main hall and decided to wait half an hour in case Archbishop Horamick sent for him.

Kronos received Marquis Argel’s decision to move the family’s life from Backlund to Midseashire and was tasked with overseeing the family’s remaining assets. He left Butler to organize the transfer while claiming the vital role of approving the expenses.

• Kronos left Saint Hilleran Cathedral without being confronted, while Horamick watched him depart and remarked on his promise and his Argel Family ties.
• Kronos continued researching Skill Scrolls and developing a variation of Decree called Punishment.
• Butler returned alone from Midseashire with Marquis Argel’s letter explaining that he planned to move there after advancing to Sequence 5 and wanted the family’s Backlund assets transferred or settled.
• Butler outlined how he would sort the family’s properties, valuables, companies, and investments, including arranging a Steam Train to transport movable assets.
• Kronos told Butler to coordinate with his father’s secretaries and handle the planning, claiming that he would provide logistical support and approve the funding.

Kronos set the Argel Family’s relocation plan in motion while the butler organized its businesses and secretly prepared Kain Bank and the Kain Club to move from Backlund to Midseashire. The butler began arranging a gradual transfer that would keep Kain’s connection to the family hidden until the kingdom’s coming crises drew attention elsewhere.

• The butler realized Marquis Argel had left him in charge because Kronos was unlikely to handle the tedious work, and he suspected Kronos had exceptional Beyonder talent.
• The butler recruited Marquis Argel’s secretarial team and told them the family planned to move its base to Midseashire, where they began assessing the family’s open assets.
• The butler focused on Kain Bank and the Kain Club, whose headquarters had to relocate quietly without revealing that Kain was Marquis Argel’s disguised identity.
• The butler planned to transfer the bank’s funds and business and the club’s intelligence and connections before the coming crises consumed the attention of Backlund’s powerful factions.
• The man in charge of Kain Bank eagerly supported the move after explaining that he had endured years of constant surveillance in Backlund.

Kronos weighed returning to the sea after reaching Sequence 5, then moved back to his laboratory and completed a Punishment skill scroll that advanced his potion digestion. When three church representatives arrived to discuss staffing the Scientific Research Base, he tried to buy time while considering how to treat them fairly without damaging his ties to any church.

• Kronos decided that after returning to Midseashire and advancing to Sequence 5, another voyage at sea would offer the best chance to find the Mysticologist potion formula and other opportunities.
• Kronos moved back into his Materials Center laboratory, where helping teach students gave his potion digestion a slight boost.
• Kronos completed his second Sequence 5 Skill Scroll, Punishment, and began researching the Black Emperor Pathway.
• A student told Kronos that Ikanser, Soest, and Roy Willing had arrived to discuss stationing church personnel at the Scientific Research Base.
• Kronos considered how to preserve good relations with the Churches of Evernight and Storms while avoiding a conflict with the Church of Steam and Machinery.
• Kronos invited the three representatives to inspect the rooms he had prepared, buying himself time to devise a fair plan.

Kronos tried to settle the three churches’ dispute over the Research Center’s rooms by proposing a draw, but first planned to suppress the deacons’ Beyonder abilities with a Decree scroll. He presented the scroll to Ikanser, Roy, and Soest, leaving its effectiveness untested.

• Kronos decided to use lots to assign the rooms and prepared Decree scrolls to suppress the deacons’ powers.
• Ikanser, Roy, and Soest toured the Research Center and traded insults over which church deserved the best room.
• Kronos explained that Kask and Portland had left the room decision to the deacons, who then argued over competing ways to settle it.
• After the deacons failed to agree, Kronos proposed drawing lots and explained that their abilities would need to be suppressed first.
• Kronos took out a Decree scroll made by his father and said it should suppress the deacons’ Beyonder abilities.

Kronos settled a fair room draw for the three church deacons, then discussed his family’s move back to Midseashire and the future of the Research Center with Kask and Portland. He arranged for the center to be named after his family and offered to help Kask, who said there was no hurry.

• Kronos suppressed Beyonder abilities with the Decree Scroll and held a random draw to assign rooms to Ikanser, Soest, and Roy.
• Soest drew the best room, Roy the worst, and Ikanser the middle one; all three accepted the results and went with assistant researchers to discuss their rooms’ decor.
• Kronos left the deacons with the assistant researchers, then told Kask and Portland about shifting blame onto them and treated them to a meal.
• Kronos said his family wanted to return to Midseashire and that Portland would take charge of the Research Center.
• Kronos asked for the center to be named the Argel Research Center after Backlund Technical University opened enrollment, explaining that his family wanted to keep a low profile until it was established.
• Kronos offered to ask Duke Negan to help Kask, but Kask said there was no hurry.

Kronos decided to send Yodsen, his marionette, to Mr. A’s gathering so he could attend with less risk. After settling Yodsen into a chair and finding little of interest among the trading offers or guests, Kronos was approached by an attendant.

• Kask explained that he would rely on his parliamentary support and future seat rather than ask Duke Negan for the weak Secretary-General position, and Kronos agreed.
• Kronos learned that Mr. A’s gathering was being held again and decided to attend through Yodsen, his marionette.
• Kronos released Yodsen near the villa and endured the Marionette Illustrated Compendium’s ten-minute stiffening effect before taking control of him.
• Kronos controlled Yodsen into the gathering and settled him in an armchair while conserving his spirituality through meditation.
• Kronos examined the trading board and guests, hoping to find a useful Beyonder to recruit, but gained no clear information.
• An attendant approached Yodsen and addressed him as “Sir,” catching Kronos’s attention.

Kronos met privately with Mr. A, who wanted to trade a rare Beyonder Item called Flesh Whisper. Kronos’s bluff about military restrictions and the Aurora Order’s alliance scared Mr. A away from negotiating, leaving Kronos regretting that he had refused the deal.

• Kronos went to Mr. A’s room and refused to sell him Beyonder Items, claiming his supplies were strictly controlled and trading with the Aurora Order risked exposure.
• Mr. A offered Flesh Whisper, which stored Beyonder flesh and blood and could refine five pounds into a Flesh Bomb at the cost of half a pound of the user’s own flesh and blood.
• Kronos warned that MI9 and the royal family could not cover up everything, making Mr. A fear that a military demigod might oppose the Aurora Order’s alliances.
• Mr. A asked for intelligence or potion formulas in exchange for Flesh Whisper, but Kronos demanded a Shepherd Beyonder Item as well, and Mr. A declined.
• Kronos and Mr. A fell silent without making a deal, while Kronos privately regretted refusing the trade.

Kronos completed a trade with Mr. A at the Trading Gathering, then noticed a newcomer seeking the Sequence 8 Trickmaster formula and suspected the person was Fors. He let events take their course and eventually returned his consciousness from the exhausting marionette to his real body.

• Mr. A bought Flesh Whisper from Kronos for five thousand pounds and arranged to have a war blade made to fit inside a walking stick.
• Kronos returned his marionette to his seat and rested while recovering his spirituality.
• A cloaked newcomer arrived late and posted a request to buy the Sequence 8 Trickmaster Potion formula.
• Kronos suspected the newcomer might be Fors but chose not to approach them.
• After the gathering ended, Kronos slowly guided the marionette out of the villa and returned his consciousness to his real body.

Kronos attended Philip’s dinner party and learned that the Negan family avoided pursuing demigod power because of the royal family’s control. He privately promised to help Philip after they both grew stronger, leaving them resolved to change their families’ situation in the future.

• Kronos gave up on using his marionette to join the Hermits of Fate and planned to turn its Beyonder characteristic into an Error Pathway item.
• Kronos attended Philip’s dinner party after Philip returned to Backlund for a military commendation ceremony.
• Philip explained that Duke Negan had advised him not to intervene in Kronos’s conflict with Saint Hilleran Cathedral, and Kronos warned Philip to avoid getting involved.
• Philip said the Negan family had no demigod potion formula and feared the royal family’s conditions for granting demigod power.
• Kronos privately told Philip to seek his help after digesting his Sequence 5 potion, and Philip agreed to wait until they were both in their prime.

Kronos discovered that Patrick Jason, a Sequence 5 Devil he wanted to hunt, was a shareholder in Kain Bank. After learning where Jason lived, Kronos moved to West Borough to investigate carefully while preparing to make scrolls.

• Marquis Argel's butler brought Kronos detailed files on Kain Bank and the Kain Club, including a preliminary relocation proposal.
• While reading the files, Kronos recognized shareholder Patrick Jason as Jason Beria, a Desire Apostle whose Malice Perception made him a dangerous target.
• Kronos realized his Concealment of Time could prevent Jason from sensing him and considered how to kill him after Kain's shares were brought under the family's control.
• Kronos recalled Jason's appearance, habits, and address at 6 Edward Street, deciding not to hire a detective who might alert him.
• Kronos moved to West Borough to observe Jason's surroundings for ten days to half a month and arranged for his scroll-making materials to be brought over.

Kronos prepared for a possible attack on Jason Beria, then attended a Navy Committee commendation ceremony where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. The ceremony left off with Kronos asleep during the speeches, while Philip tried to wake him before the admirals called attention to him.

• Kronos surveyed the neighborhood around 6 Edward Street and planned to obtain Jason's building plans and learn his routine before acting.
• Kronos arrived at the Ministry of Defense for his promotion, where Philip joined him and led him to the Navy Committee.
• Philip told Kronos that his merits were genuine and asked whether he wanted a position in the Navy Committee, but Kronos declined.
• The commendation ceremony began, and Kronos fell asleep during the admirals' speeches.
• The admirals recognized Kronos as Marquis Argel's heir and signaled Philip to wake him, so Philip nudged Kronos.

After a military commendation ceremony, Kronos visited Philip’s estate to see his hunting animals and asked him to obtain house plans from Edward Street. Philip showed Kronos his enormous kennel of fierce hounds, while Kronos considered whether any would suit his needs.

• Kronos received the rank of lieutenant colonel at the Ministry of Defense ceremony, while Philip received the rank of colonel.
• Philip explained to Kronos that the ceremony’s fabricated military achievements were a customary favor to retiring men and would not diminish their genuine records.
• Philip invited Kronos to see his hunting pets, and Kronos asked him to obtain plans for the houses on Edward Street.
• Philip agreed to arrange for the plans and told Kronos to ask for help if he needed it, but Kronos said he could handle things himself.
• Philip took Kronos to his estate outside Backlund, where Kronos saw more than a dozen powerful hounds and learned the family bred and sold them as a business.

Kronos joined Philip on a hunting trip, where their banter led to Philip promising him an eagle. Watching Philip unwind in the mountains made Kronos resolve to grow strong enough to save Duke Negan and protect the people he cared about.

• Kronos and Philip argued over the Argel Family’s demigod-level Sealed Artifacts, which Kronos denied having.
• Philip explained that he had released his eagles into the mountains because training them required too much time, then offered to catch Kronos a beautiful one.
• Philip and Kronos stayed overnight at the manor and set out early with seasoned hunters to hunt in the mountains.
• Kronos watched Philip’s excitement and understood that the hunt helped him release the strain of his family responsibilities.
• Kronos resolved to become stronger so he could save Duke Negan and give his friends and family better futures.

Kronos and Philip hunted in the mountains, where Kronos spotted a Sea Eastern Green and captured it without injuring it. Philip watched Kronos use his Beyonder abilities and realized he had let his own abilities and advancement stagnate.

• Kronos found hunting dull but discovered that his enhanced eyesight made him an excellent archer.
• Philip described the mountain’s leopards, and Kronos recounted his dangerous encounter with one in Tiana.
• Kronos and Philip spotted a Sea Eastern Green, and Kronos stopped the hunters from shooting it.
• Kronos used Requiem to make the hawk drowsy, then used Rampant Growth to trap its talons in a branch.
• Kronos knocked the hawk unconscious with a blunt arrow and captured it alive.
• Philip reflected on Kronos’s progress and recognized that he had neglected his own Beyonder abilities and advancement.