Chapter Summaries

An old woman recalled how her younger sister’s death turned her resentment toward Yae Village into devotion to the Fox God and a desire for other families to suffer the same loss. She explained how she pushed for Yae Rin’s sacrifice and grew to hate Yuequ for interrupting it, then realized years later that Yuequ might not be as difficult to deal with as she had thought.

• The old woman watched the Shrine Master kill her younger sister and came to resent the villagers and the Shrine Master.
• After seeing more girls sacrificed, she became a devout believer in the Fox God and took pleasure in the deaths.
• During the drought, she proposed sacrificing a Miko to make up for the previous failed offering and hoped Yae Sakura would be chosen.
• When Yae Rin became the sacrifice, Yuequ interrupted the ritual, and the old woman buried her hatred of the outsider.
• Years later, the old woman discovered that Yuequ did not seem as difficult to deal with as she had expected.

The old woman urged Yae Village to drive away the Frost God and resume worshipping the Fox God, blaming the Frost God for the monsters. A young villager argued that angering a god was dangerous and that the Fox God had shown herself unable to oppose the Frost God, but the old woman continued trying to sway the villagers.

• The old woman argued that the villagers should drive away the Frost God and hold another sacrifice to appease the Fox God.
• A young man warned that mortals could not bear a god's wrath and recalled Yeqū freezing the sacrificial altar with a wave of her hand.
• The young man questioned the Fox God's power, noting that the Frost God remained in the Fox God's shrine despite disrupting her sacrifice.
• Some villagers reconsidered the old woman's proposal after hearing the young man's argument.
• The old woman claimed the Frost God had brought monsters to the village and warned that worse attacks would follow unless they drove her away.

An old woman persuaded the villagers of Yae Village to secretly worship the Fox God and drive away Nocturne, whom they blamed for repeated monster attacks. She offered her own granddaughter as the sacrifice, leaving the villagers stunned.

• The villagers considered driving away Nocturne because monsters had attacked the village twice since she arrived.
• The old woman urged them to worship the Fox God for protection before driving Nocturne away.
• The old woman claimed the village's Miko had betrayed the Fox God and said they should worship in secret without them.
• When a villager asked whose child would be sacrificed, the old woman offered her granddaughter.

Yequ discovered that the seal on the box holding the Herrscher of Corruption had cracked, suggesting part of the virus-like Herrscher had escaped. Two days later, neither Yae Sakura nor Yae Rin showed signs of being affected, leaving Yequ uncertain about the Herrscher’s intentions.

• The villagers agreed to an old woman's plan, unconcerned because their own children would not suffer.
• Yequ examined the cracked black box and suspected the Herrscher of Corruption had partly escaped its seal.
• Yequ tried to speak with the Herrscher, then warned her not to hurt Sakura, Liliya, or Kallen.
• Yequ kept the box, believing the Herrscher would need it to fully recover.
• After two more days, Yequ observed no abnormal behavior from Yae Sakura or Yae Rin and wondered what the Herrscher intended.

Nocturne set aside her confusion about the Herrscher of Corruption and went with Kallen, Yae Rin, and Yae Sakura to explore Yae Village after her intuition warned that something might happen. The group found the village strangely deserted, but Nocturne did not care much about the villagers’ fate.

• Nocturne’s intuition warned her that something might happen in the village, so she went for a walk with Kallen, Yae Rin, and Yae Sakura.
• The four walked down the shrine steps through a bamboo grove, and Kallen delighted in the scenery.
• They reached Yae Village and noticed that few, if any, villagers were around.
• Nocturne chose not to investigate, since she cared mainly about protecting those close to her.

Yae Sakura and the others learned that villagers had seized a boy’s younger sister to use as a sacrifice to a god, without telling the Miko. Sakura promised to protect him and set out to investigate the secret ritual.

• A frightened boy ran to Yae Sakura and begged her to save his younger sister.
• The boy said his grandmother and other villagers had captured his sister to sacrifice her to the Divine Lord.
• Yae Sakura, Nocturne, and Yae Rin were puzzled because the Fox God’s festival was still nearly a month away and Sakura knew nothing of a ceremony.
• Yae Sakura comforted the boy and promised to protect him.

Yae Village prepared to sacrifice a masked girl to the Fox God, hoping to drive away the evil deity and its monsters. As the old woman prayed, a massive shadow appeared in the sky above the altar.

• Villagers gathered around the altar, convinced that sacrificing the girl would win the Fox God's protection.
• Some villagers doubted the ritual but stayed silent to avoid rejection by the majority.
• The old woman prayed fervently and said she was proud her child would become an offering.
• The bound girl felt sorrow and began to react strangely as the old woman ignored her faint struggles.
• A massive shadow suddenly appeared in the sky, leaving the old woman stunned.

A fox demon appeared in Yae Village and slaughtered the villagers after they mistook it for their protective Fox God. Yae Sakura, Kallen, and the others arrived too late and faced the rampaging monster.

• The villagers recognized the massive fox demon as the Fox God from their legends.
• The fox demon killed the old woman who addressed it as a god and sent the villagers fleeing in terror.
• The offered little girl stood up unharmed while the fox demon continued its slaughter.
• Yae Sakura and the other three arrived to find the village devastated and the fox demon raging before them.
• The fox demon turned its threatening gaze on Yae Sakura's group, who prepared to face the monster as Valkyries.

Kallen tried to attack the Fox Demon after seeing it slaughter villagers, but chains sprang from the ground and bound her. Yae Sakura freed Kallen, then wondered whether the Fox God she had believed was fictional had truly existed.

• Kallen drew her twin pistols and prepared to fight the Fox Demon.
• Chains burst from the ground and restrained Kallen.
• Yae Sakura drew the Void Blade and cut the chains, then checked whether Kallen was hurt.
• Kallen admitted that she had let her guard down against the unusual Honkai Beast.
• Yae Sakura watched the Fox Demon and questioned her belief that the Fox God did not exist.

Yae Sakura rejected the Fox God and chose to protect her family and friends with Nocturne’s help. Yae Rin joined her, and the Fox Demon confronted the sisters for defying their god.

• Yae Sakura refused to worship the Fox Demon and declared that she would become the Witch of the Fallen instead of the Fox God’s Miko.
• Yae Rin stood beside Yae Sakura with her Anti-Field Katana Type 11 and said she supported her sister and Nocturne.
• Yae Sakura was moved by her younger sister’s choice.
• The Fox Demon stopped hunting the villagers, addressed the sisters as its Mikos, and asked whether they would defy their god.

Kallen and the Yae Sakura sisters learned that the Fox Demon was a Honkai Beast, but Nocturne warned that it was only a proxy for a Herrscher. Nocturne shielded the others as Kallen realized they faced a far greater enemy.

• Kallen dismissed the Fox Demon as a Honkai Beast rather than a god.
• The Yae Sakura sisters realized the creature they had worshipped as the Fox God was only a Honkai Beast.
• The Fox Demon claimed it had fulfilled the villagers' faith by letting them be killed by their god.
• Kallen tried to attack the Fox Demon, but Nocturne stopped her and said the real opponent was a Herrscher.
• Nocturne drew Echo of Night and pulled Kallen and the Yae Sakura sisters behind her, leaving Kallen stunned by the warning.

Nocturne confronted the Twelfth Herrscher, who had appeared in the Far Eastern village behind an Emperor-Class Fox Demon. Kallen feared she had brought the disaster there, while Nocturne challenged the Herrscher to stop hiding behind the beast.

• Kallen realized a Herrscher could destroy the village and regretted bringing the black box to the Far Eastern Land.
• The Yae Sakura sisters were shocked when they recognized the Fox Demon as an Emperor-Class Honkai Beast and learned a Herrscher had appeared.
• Nocturne spotted the unharmed girl who had been used as a sacrifice behind the Fox Demon.
• The Twelfth Herrscher offered to grant the group godlike power and eternal life if they surrendered their bodies.
• Nocturne rejected the offer and accused the Herrscher of hiding behind a Fox Demon she had modified.

Yequ revealed that the little girl behind the Fox Demon was the Herrscher of Corruption, an ancient Herrscher controlling the modified Honkai Beast. The Herrscher exposed herself and sent the Fox Demon to attack Yequ and the others.

• After Yequ pointed her out, Kallen and Yae Sakura noticed the fox-masked little girl standing behind the Fox Demon.
• Yequ identified the girl as the Herrscher of Corruption, the Twelfth Herrscher whose power was corrosive control, and explained that she had modified the Fox Demon.
• The Herrscher of Corruption leaped onto the Fox Demon's head and asked Yequ how she had discovered her.
• The Herrscher of Corruption ordered the Fox Demon to attack Yequ's group, and the beast charged at the four of them.

Nocturne overwhelmed the Emperor-class Fox Demon while protecting Kallen and the Yae Sakura sisters, then faced the Herrscher of Corruption, who questioned whether Nocturne’s strength was enough. The Herrscher’s weakened state and her original plan to possess Miko Yae Sakura were revealed.

• Nocturne moved Kallen and the Yae Sakura sisters away from the fight and confronted the Fox Demon alone.
• Nocturne struck the Fox Demon with her gun, then battered it with a rapid series of punches and kicks until it collapsed, nearly defeated.
• Nocturne returned to Kallen and the sisters and saw the Herrscher girl standing atop the collapsed altar.
• The Herrscher removed her mask, praised Nocturne’s power, and asked whether it was enough.
• The chapter explained that the sealed Herrscher of Corruption had regained less than one-tenth of her strength and had originally planned to possess Miko Yae Sakura.

The Herrscher of Corruption escaped part of the black box’s seal by possessing a despairing girl in Yae Village. She empowered the near-dead Fox Demon, which turned its madness and strength against Nocturne.

• The Herrscher of Corruption found that Yae Sakura was beyond her control, so she sought another host among the villagers of Yae Village.
• A crack in the black box’s seal let some of the Herrscher of Corruption’s viruses escape.
• The Herrscher of Corruption possessed the little girl chosen as a sacrifice and declared that she would show the power of a Herrscher.
• The Herrscher of Corruption sent a black crystal into the near-dead Fox Demon, healing it and causing it to grow larger and blaze with black flames.
• The Fox Demon’s power continued to rise as it fixed its irrational, brutal gaze on Nocturne.

Nocturne protected Yae Rin and the others from the Fox Demon's powerful domain and blocked its black foxfire with two Judas's Oaths. Kallen recognized the Divine Keys and was stunned that Nocturne possessed two of them.

• The Fox Demon darkened the sky and unleashed a rain of flames that engulfed Yae Village, while Nocturne shielded her group with ice elemental power.
• The Fox Demon's fire rain empowered its next attack, and it blasted Nocturne with a torrent of black foxfire.
• Nocturne deployed two Judas's Oaths, whose golden light blocked the foxfire.
• Kallen saw the two Divine Keys and questioned how Nocturne could have two when only one Judah was supposed to exist.

Nocturne used two weakened Judah replicas to shield Kallen, Yae Sakura, and Yae Rin from the Fox Demon’s black foxfire, then attacked the demon. She ended her combo by darkening the daytime sky and summoning a bright moon overhead.

• Kallen recognized the two weapons as Judah, and Nocturne explained that they were unupgraded four-star replicas rather than true Divine Keys.
• Nocturne left the Judah replicas in front of Yae Sakura, Kallen, and Yae Rin after they blocked the Fox Demon’s black foxfire.
• Nocturne charged the Fox Demon and struck its neck with an ice-powered kick that separated the flames from its body.
• Nocturne followed with a four-hit Dusk Nocturne combo, which made the Fox Demon cry out in pain.
• Nocturne invoked Black Moon... Tide of Lightlessness... Repentance, darkening the daytime sky and leaving only a bright moon overhead.

Nocturne used her Crow Feather powers to defeat the Fox Demon in Yae Village. She then turned on the corrupted little girl controlled by the Herrscher of Corruption.

• Nocturne emerged behind the Fox Demon and froze her with Crow Feather Marks and ice.
• The Fox Demon broke free and lunged at Nocturne, but Nocturne restrained her with the Crow Feather Cross.
• Nocturne unleashed Mad Night Moment, dashing through the suspended Fox Demon nine times and killing her.
• Nocturne transformed into spectral shadows, seized the corrupted little girl by the throat, and confronted the Herrscher of Corruption.

Nocturne tried to force the Herrscher of Corruption out of the little girl, but it escaped into the dead Fox Demon and revived her as a Herrscher. The Fox Demon attacked Nocturne, who shielded the girl as the others' bullets failed to hurt their enemy.

• Nocturne threatened to kill the little girl to force the Herrscher of Corruption out, while the Herrscher taunted her from inside the girl's body.
• Kallen told Nocturne not to attack, and the Herrscher of Corruption fled the little girl and possessed the dead Fox Demon.
• The Fox Demon revived as a Herrscher with five tails and lunged at Nocturne, who was holding the little girl.
• Kallen, Yae Sakura, and the others fired at the Fox Demon, but their bullets did no harm.
• Nocturne shifted into an ethereal state while protecting the girl, and the Fox Demon pounced on her.

Nocturne escaped the Fox Demon’s attack by vanishing into a subspace and rescued the little girl, whom she handed to Yae Sakura. She confronted the Herrscher of Corruption in the Fox Demon’s body, but had not yet decided how to fight it with the Divine Keys she could use.

• The Fox Demon pounced on Nocturne, but she vanished before its claws could reach her.
• Nocturne emerged from a subspace beside Yae Sakura carrying the little girl and told Yae Sakura to protect her.
• Nocturne explained that the Herrscher of Corruption had left the girl’s body, reassuring Yae Sakura.
• The Herrscher of Corruption, possessing the Fox Demon, questioned Nocturne and sensed danger from her.
• Nocturne called herself an ordinary SSS-rank Valkyrie and considered which Divine Keys she could wield effectively.