Chapter Summaries

Rodna battled the vampire that had risen from the stone coffin while Moody and Amelia shielded the exhausted Aurors and the unconscious Lin Ze. As the fight shook the docks and warped the monochrome world, a silver-haired old man watched from outside the harbor.

• The vampire rose from the stone coffin and turned the docks into a black-and-white world, while Moody and Amelia formed a protective circle around the Aurors and Lin Ze.
• Rodna attacked the vampire with spatial magic, but it stopped his assault and sent him crashing through the walkway into a wrecked boat.
• Rodna recovered and continued fighting as the vampire appeared behind him, blocked his strike, and then sent a shockwave through the docks that froze the ground.
• Rodna unleashed more silver-blue magic, and the battle intensified as the harbor water flowed backward and debris swept out to sea.
• A silver-haired old man in star-and-moon pajamas watched the battle from outside the harbor.

Rodna fought the primordial vampire at the docks, discovering that the creature’s embedded spikes could prevent it from healing. After Rodna pierced its skull with one, the vampire’s speed and ferocity increased, and it sent him crashing into a ruined duty room.

• Moody spotted Dumbledore watching the battle from the sidelines, while Dumbledore made no move to intervene.
• Rodna’s powerful magic failed to injure the vampire, which claimed that humans could not kill gods and tried to choke him.
• Rodna pulled a spike from the vampire’s shoulder, leaving a wound that would not heal and vented black vapor.
• Rodna used another spike to pierce the vampire’s eye socket and skull, making its body convulse and fall.
• The enraged vampire attacked faster, struck Rodna across the back, and sent him through an abandoned duty room.
• Rodna crawled from the rubble and spat out bloody saliva.

Rodna forced the vampire to shed its human shell and fought its monstrous second form at the docks while the Aurors watched from a defensive formation. As the vampire’s eyes drained an Auror’s life and its mental attacks began slowing Rodna, the battle remained unresolved.

• Rodna transformed, shattered the vampire’s black net, and forced one of its embedded spikes farther out of its body.
• The vampire shed its human skin, revealing a featureless head covered in silvery-white eyes, and Dumbledore recognized that Rodna had forced it into its second form.
• Lin Ze woke and learned from Amos that Rodna had beaten the vampire’s human shell off.
• One of the vampire’s eyes killed the young Auror William, and Amelia stopped Ben from approaching his body.
• Rodna removed a third spike, but the vampire’s attacks grew faster and its mental erosion began delaying his movements.

Rodna weakened the vampire with a devastating attack, but Dumbledore arrived and used an ancient magic formation to nail it to the seabed. The dock was submerged, and Dumbledore was left exhausted as the survivors wondered whether the battle was truly over.

• Moody strengthened the defensive formation as Rodna and the vampire’s battle overwhelmed the Aurors.
• Rodna used concept-level magic to strike the vampire, destroying much of its body but failing to kill it.
• Dumbledore appeared at the crater, took Rodna’s nails, and formed a vast magic formation.
• Rodna left through a spatial rift, and Dumbledore drove countless phantom nails into the vampire, pinning it to the seabed.
• The sea surged over the ruined dock, leaving dark red mist above the water as Dumbledore wondered whether the fight was over.

After the Ministry covered up the Brighton Pier disaster, Lin Ze suspected Old Mulciber might have been behind it. At the press conference, reporters asked Bagnold about the deaths and secrecy before one requested that Lin Ze speak.

• Amelia told Lin Ze that the Ministry would report the disaster as an incident involving dark creatures and describe the Muggle deaths as a harbor gas explosion.
• Arthur brought Lin Ze fish and chips and said Mia would recover from magical exhaustion after a day or two of rest.
• Lin Ze suspected Old Mulciber might have manipulated events, since the vampire theory and the names Mulciber had provided did not seem convincing.
• At the press conference, Bagnold said thirty-seven Muggles had died and that Obliviators were modifying witnesses’ memories.
• A reporter asked Bagnold to invite Lin Ze, the young team leader, to speak.

Lin Ze answered reporters’ questions about the operation and the Ministry of Magic’s handling of Muggle victims, then received information about other Muggle groups from Oliver Sterling. After hearing that officials planned to conceal the dock incident, Lin Ze reviewed Sterling’s three addresses and opened the black leather diary.

• Bagnold invited Lin Ze to speak at the press conference, where he described the cult and said the Ministry of Magic was investigating the aftermath.
• Lin Ze rejected the claim that Muggles posed a threat and avoided giving a definitive answer about the Ministry of Magic’s past handling of Muggle victims.
• After the press conference, Oliver Sterling told Lin Ze that at least three similar Muggle groups had appeared in London and offered to work with him.
• Sterling gave Lin Ze a note listing three addresses, then disappeared into the crowd.
• Lin Ze overheard employees say that higher-ups planned to hush up the dock incident, then locked Sterling’s note in a drawer and opened the black leather diary.

Lin Ze investigated addresses connected to Fearn Borgin and learned that the Borgin family’s Charles Street property once linked to tunnels near Whitechapel. At a cellar in the Old Oak tavern, he and Mia discovered a Soul-Locking Curse used in the past to seal the blood race, and entered to investigate.

• Lin Ze asked Tom about three addresses and learned that Borgin family property stood near 17 Charles Street.
• Sir Carl told Lin Ze about the Borgins’ old tunnels and gave him a card identifying Fearn Borgin as the creator of cursed finger bones.
• Lin Ze sent Mia and Barty Crouch Jr. to investigate the other addresses while he went to Charles Street, where he spotted what looked like a figure behind a third-floor curtain.
• Mia reported a magically sealed cellar at the Old Oak tavern on 42 Kent Road, and Lin Ze Apparated to join her.
• Mia recognized the Soul-Locking Curse as a spell once used by the blood race to reinforce its seal.
• Lin Ze cast Boundary Break on the cellar entrance, and he and Mia went inside.

Lin Ze and Mia explored a cellar containing records of decades of experiments linked to the Burke Family and discovered a hidden chamber with a numbered stone coffin. Inside, they found a corpse that had only partially transformed into a vampire.

• Lin Ze read records describing failed experiments on numbered subjects and found that the Burke Family had supplied materials for them.
• Mia uncovered evidence of repeated bloodshed, and Lin Ze concluded the test subjects might have been collected from Charles Street and Whitechapel.
• Lin Ze and Mia noticed the newest records were written recently and followed the cellar’s cart tracks to a concealed passage.
• Lin Ze entered the hidden chamber and found a stone coffin marked with the Runic numeral 49.
• Lin Ze opened the coffin and revealed a corpse with partially vampiric features.

Lin Ze and Mia uncovered evidence that the Burke Family’s experiments aimed to make human bodies accept vampire parts, possibly creating a vessel, and photographed the hidden laboratory. Barty Crouch Jr. then reported finding forty-eight coffins beneath an abandoned church at 9 St Mary's Lane.

• Lin Ze and Mia examined a living, half-transformed subject in a stone coffin, and Mia detected an alchemical core sustaining it.
• Mia identified dark powder in a stone basin as ground bone, and Lin Ze suspected the Burke Family sought adaptation to vampire tissue rather than transformation into vampires.
• Lin Ze connected the forty-seven experiment cards to forty-seven fangs in the Black family's secret chamber and had Mia photograph the laboratory's evidence.
• Lin Ze and Mia decided to withdraw with the evidence and secretly investigate who had supplied Sterling with accurate addresses.
• Barty Crouch Jr. contacted Lin Ze from 9 St Mary's Lane and reported finding forty-eight coffins beneath an abandoned church.

Lin Ze, Mia, and Barty Crouch Jr. discovered a crypt beneath an abandoned church containing forty-eight numbered coffins and records of failed experiments. The records and an empty coffin suggested subject forty-eight had escaped, and Lin Ze found a hollow section of wall that could conceal a hidden door.

• Lin Ze and Mia joined Barty Crouch Jr. at an abandoned church, where he led them into a crypt beneath the altar.
• Lin Ze examined the numbered coffins and found dead, mutated subjects whose lids identified them as phase one experiments.
• Lin Ze and Mia discovered that the records covered subjects one through forty-seven, while coffin forty-eight was empty and coffin forty-nine was in the Kent Road cellar.
• Lin Ze found gray-white powder in coffin forty-eight and concluded the subject had been used and was likely active outside the crypt.
• Lin Ze spotted a drag mark leading to a hollow patch of wall, and Barty Crouch Jr. confirmed it concealed a hidden door.

Lin Ze and Mia discovered a hidden chamber containing records of a blood-race experiment whose subject, Number Forty-Eight, retained his independent consciousness. After Lin Ze spotted a mysterious man entering an alley, the group reviewed photographs that revealed writing scratched inside Number Forty-Eight’s coffin.

• Lin Ze, Mia, and Barty Crouch Jr. found a hidden underground chamber with an anatomical diagram and diary describing Number Forty-Eight’s stable transformation, intelligence, and growing relationship with the experimenter.
• Lin Ze noticed a fresh mark in the chamber and suspected someone had recently returned, so he took the diagram and diary before the group left the tomb.
• Lin Ze asked Riddle about the Burke Family’s raven mark and learned that the family forbade contact with blood-race materials.
• Lin Ze saw a man in a hunting cap enter an alley, but found it empty when he went to look.
• Lin Ze returned to the office, where Mia showed him photographs, including one of words scratched across the inside of Number Forty-Eight’s coffin.

Lin Ze and Mia theorized that Number Forty-eight was a Burke Family researcher who had experimented on himself, while Oliver Sterling revealed that someone was stirring up a scandal about the dock incident. Lin Ze suspected the missing Fearn Borgin might be Forty-eight and went to question the owner of Borgin and Burkes.

• Mia showed Lin Ze a rubbing of hidden writing that suggested Number Forty-eight had been kept in the chamber and smelled blood from the dead.
• Lin Ze and Mia theorized that Number Forty-eight was a researcher who had turned himself into a test subject, possibly developing a split personality.
• Oliver Sterling told Lin Ze that Witch Weekly had changed his article into an accusation against the Ministry and that an anonymous source had sent similar claims to three papers.
• Lin Ze deduced that Sterling's source was connected to the Burke Family and might be an escaped test subject; Sterling said the source had disappeared the previous day.
• Lin Ze asked Ben to investigate Burke Family records, focusing on people who vanished between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, especially Fearn Borgin.
• Lin Ze contacted Rodna about old records, then set out for Knockturn Alley to question the owner of Borgin and Burkes.

Lin Ze questioned Caractacus Burke about Fearn Borgin and a recent blood-matching card linked to vampire experiments. The ledger led Lin Ze to an unidentified tenant at a Burke-owned warehouse on 47 Knockturn Alley.

• Lin Ze visited Borgin and Burkes and identified himself to Caractacus Burke as a member of the Ministry of Magic Special Operations Team.
• Lin Ze confronted Caractacus with Fearn Borgin’s history of researching vampires and cursed finger bones, and Caractacus revealed that Fearn had disappeared in 1698.
• Lin Ze showed Caractacus a card from the Kent Road cellar reporting a failed blood match and asking for Mr. Burke’s next shipment; Caractacus denied writing it.
• Caractacus showed Lin Ze the Burke family payment ledger, where Lin Ze found rental fees for a warehouse at 47 Knockturn Alley with an unnamed tenant.
• Lin Ze asked Caractacus for the warehouse address.

Lin Ze investigated a hidden warehouse linked to the Burke Family and found a message directing him to meet Number Forty-Eight at midnight in Southwark. As he left Knockturn Alley, a mysterious figure waved to him and disappeared.

• Lin Ze used Caractacus’s connection to Tom Riddle to obtain the contract for the warehouse at Number Forty-Seven, Knockturn Alley.
• Lin Ze and Mia found notebooks in the warehouse that revealed Number Forty-Eight had survived for centuries and was hiding nearby.
• Lin Ze discovered a concealed message inviting him to come alone at midnight and connected it to an abandoned dock beneath Southwark Bridge.
• Mia offered to accompany Lin Ze, but he insisted on going alone, and she left with the notebook.
• Lin Ze saw a figure in Knockturn Alley wave and vanish before he headed toward the Ministry of Magic.

Lin Ze met Fearn Borgin in an abandoned air-raid shelter and questioned him about his experiments on people. Fearn gave Lin Ze a list of former associates still involved in supplying blood to the blood race, including Old Mulciber and a member of the Longbottom family.

• Lin Ze entered the abandoned shelter beneath Southwark Bridge and found Fearn Borgin waiting in a small room.
• Lin Ze asked Fearn about the people in his coffins, and Fearn admitted that he no longer remembered their names or regretted his experiments.
• Fearn gave Lin Ze a list marking which people were dead, imprisoned in Azkaban, or still active.
• Fearn told Lin Ze that Old Mulciber had continued supplying blood to the blood race, following his father's example.
• Lin Ze asked about Casa Longbottom, and Fearn said he was alive in the Welsh countryside, posing as a sheep farmer while trading with members of the blood race.

Fearn revealed that he had become immortal through his experiments and asked Lin Ze to help him find an honorable death. Lin Ze agreed only on the condition that Fearn help bring the people on his list before the Wizengamot, and Fearn gave him Old Mulciber’s secret London address.

• Fearn told Lin Ze that he had lost his memories and humanity over centuries of living, and explained that Number Forty-Eight had been him playing two roles.
• Fearn revealed that Number Forty-Nine had been his closest failed experiment before he injected the sample into himself and became unable to die from physical injuries.
• Fearn said he could help Lin Ze find Longbottom, Mulciber, and the others in exchange for a death in an honorable, fair duel.
• Fearn offered his research data and assets for Lin Ze to distribute to the families he had harmed, but Lin Ze required the people on the list to stand trial before the Wizengamot.
• Fearn gave Lin Ze Old Mulciber’s secluded Kensington address and said a vampire delivered things there every Thursday evening.
• Lin Ze left the air-raid shelter and reflected on Fearn’s request for a death befitting his status.

Lin Ze visited Frank and Alice Longbottom to ask about their ancestor Casa Longbottom. He learned that Casa had lived for centuries and returned every few decades under a different face, while the Longbottom family had kept his history secret.

• Lin Ze found Frank and Alice's address and went to visit them in the Welsh countryside.
• Frank told Lin Ze that Casa Longbottom was an ancestor remembered as unusually capable and long-lived, who returned every few decades with a different face.
• Frank recalled that a mysterious man attended his grandfather's funeral, and that his father Algie warned him not to ask about the stranger.
• Alice revealed that the Longbottom family had warned her never to speak about Casa because it could bring trouble.
• Lin Ze thanked Frank and Alice for the information, and Frank asked whether Casa had done something bad.

Lin Ze confronted Old Mulciber at his fortified house and learned how the thirteen vampires created by the Primordial Vampire were divided among six wizarding families. Old Mulciber began explaining his family’s experiments and revealed that Dumbledore had confronted his father, who hid the family’s secrets by burying his memories.

• Lin Ze and Barty Crouch Jr. surveyed Old Mulciber’s guarded house while Mia and Weiqi watched the back street.
• Lin Ze entered the house alone and confronted Old Mulciber about his lies, Fearn Borgin, and the Thursday-night deliveries.
• Old Mulciber said the Primordial Vampire had created thirteen vampires by giving blood to lost Muggles, including Targaryen.
• Old Mulciber revealed that six wizards from the Mulciber, Burke, Black, Gaunt, Longbottom, and Greengrass families each took one vampire, while five others stayed hidden.
• Old Mulciber said his family had studied its vampire in hopes of giving wizards vampire-like longevity, until Dumbledore confronted his father, who buried his memories to preserve the family’s secrets.

Lin Ze learned more about the six families’ vampires and discovered that Old Mulciber was being slowly consumed by a vampire bloodline. He forced Old Mulciber to hand over his research and testify to the Wizengamot, then agreed to bury him at Grey Mist Manor if he died.

• Old Mulciber told Lin Ze that Chivalis Black destroyed his family’s vampire, while the Gaunt family drained theirs and the Greengrass Family sent theirs to the Americas before contracting a blood curse.
• Old Mulciber revealed that his father had left a strand of vampire bloodline inside him, which was keeping him alive but would likely kill him within months.
• Lin Ze demanded Old Mulciber’s remaining resources, vampire leads, research records, and contacts, and ordered him to account for his actions to the Wizengamot.
• Lin Ze displayed a dark golden spark that frightened Old Mulciber, who agreed to cooperate and asked to be buried at Grey Mist Manor if he died.
• Old Mulciber directed Lin Ze to the study and its secret room, and Lin Ze sent Barty Crouch Jr. upstairs to retrieve the materials.

Lin Ze confronted Old Mulciber for manipulating him and uncovered records of the Mulciber family's vampire experiments. Old Mulciber revealed that Amycus had escaped the Gaunt family and that a notebook linked him to an address in central London.

• Lin Ze questioned Old Mulciber about the Greengrass vampire and his schemes, then severed the old man's little finger with a Severing Charm.
• Barty Crouch Jr. brought documents and a hidden case of vampire records out of the secret room.
• Lin Ze read that Targaryen Nox had been used in hundreds of experiments and learned Amycus had been assigned to the Gaunt family.
• Old Mulciber explained that the Gaunts had drained Amycus for blood until a woman in the family helped him escape.
• Old Mulciber directed Lin Ze to the address 19 King Street, St James's Palace, and described it as the heart of Muggle London.