Recaps

Audrey met with Bailey Delair in a city within the collective subconscious, where he questioned her about becoming a Manipulator and her dealings with other Beyonders. After she promised to protect the Psychology Alchemists’ secrets, the promise bound her, and she joined the council under the codename Pride—the same mask once chosen by Herabergen Rambis.

• Bailey Delair brought Audrey to a cathedral in the city and asked how she had obtained the Manipulator potion formula and Beyonder Characteristic.
• Audrey said she had received them through a transaction in exchange for helping surround and kill another demigod, but kept the client’s identity secret.
• Delair asked when Audrey had last seen Herabergen Rambis, and Audrey described hypnotizing two Beyonder friends at Viscount Glaint’s residence under Rambis’s supervision.
• Delair asked Audrey to promise not to reveal the Psychology Alchemists’ secrets, and her words formed a binding restriction within her mind.
• Delair admitted Audrey to the Psychology Alchemists Council, and she chose the Persona Mask Pride, which Delair said Herabergen Rambis had also chosen.

Audrey joined the Psychology Alchemists Council as Miss Pride, meeting its other councilors and learning how their roles were assigned. She accepted an investigation into the Mind Dragon in East Chester County, asking for more information before beginning.

• Audrey wore the Pride mask and recognized how it intensified her assumptions about others, while Delair explained the masks’ risks and Herabergen Rambis’s arrogance.
• The Psychology Alchemists’ councilors arrived, and Delair introduced Audrey as Miss Pride and a rabbit in human clothes as Mr. Wrath.
• Delair assigned the councilors responsibility for cities and regions, then asked Audrey to find and reorganize the Backlund members who had gone missing during the war.
• Delair raised the Mind Dragon’s continued influence on Hedrak village, and Audrey volunteered to investigate after asking for detailed information.

Audrey attended a Psychology Alchemists council meeting in the Garden of Eden, where Delair warned her to invoke Adam if she faced danger and explained how members could enter the city using their persona masks. After observing the council and analyzing its ties to Adam, Klein remained wary while Audrey returned home without seeking his help.

• Delair told Audrey that saying “Adam” could save her in an emergency and explained that council members could use their persona masks to enter the Garden of Eden and requisition Sealed Artifacts.
• Greed objected to keeping all Sealed Artifacts in the city, while Audrey accepted either custody arrangement and agreed to wait through her observation period.
• Gluttony reported strange events in the Constant region, including the City of Constant’s overnight restoration, mass memory loss in Beldan, Merlin Hermes’s appearances, and animals losing their minds.
• Delair named the city the Garden of Eden and said its residents believed in the omniscient and omnipotent Creator; Klein concluded that Adam was likely behind the council and wrote down questions about His plans and Hermes.
• Audrey left the Garden of Eden and returned to her family’s villa without praying to Mr. Fool for help sealing the Pride mask.

Audrey investigated the Pride mask, received information about the Mind Dragon, and arranged for Mr. Fool to separate the mask from her mind. Meanwhile, Klein warned himself about Zaratul, Leonard received a new assignment, and the Tarot Club began discussing the Church of Earth’s unusual structure.

• Audrey discovered that she could summon the Pride mask through the Sea of Collective Subconscious and received an illusory letter containing information about the Mind Dragon in East Chester County.
• Audrey prayed to Mr. Fool, who made the Pride mask physical enough for her to embed it in Lies and carry it without contact with her mind or body.
• Earl Hall told Audrey that Alfred would return to Backlund as a general in the second half of the year and that the family would probably return to East Chester County in April.
• Klein used Grafting to fulfill Audrey’s wish, then learned that Zaratul had apparently tracked him to the City of Constant and took precautions.
• Leonard reviewed his mission briefing, recognized that Merlin Hermes was likely the only active Miracle Invoker, and went to choose a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact.
• At the Tarot Club, Emlyn asked about the Planter and Moon pathways and described the Church of Earth’s division into God’s Grace and God’s Blessed, prompting a sigh from Mr. Fool.

At the Tarot Club, Mr. Fool revealed that six Beyonder pathways originated from the cosmos, prompting concern from members connected to them. Emlyn raised questions about the Moon and Planter pathway potion names, Leonard shared news about Merlin Hermes and Gehrman Sparrow, and The World ended by asking about Barros Hopkins.

• Cattleya, Leonard, Emlyn, and Alger explained different beliefs about the origins of Beyonder Characteristics, before Mr. Fool said some did not come from the Original Creator.
• Mr. Fool named the Prisoner, Criminal, Lawyer, and Arbiter pathways as cosmic in origin, and reassured Fors and Xio that the latter two were less affected.
• Emlyn questioned the gendered names of high-sequence Moon and Planter potions, and Audrey pointed out that Assassin pathway Beyonders became witches after drinking their Sequence 7 potion.
• Leonard shared news of Merlin Hermes, the overnight rebuilding of the City of Constant, and the Fully Automatic Wishing Machine; The World said he would soon leave the eastern shore of the Sonia Sea.
• The World asked the Tarot Club what they knew about the King of the Black Throne, Barros Hopkins.

At the Tarot Club, Audrey asked why a secret organization had sent her to investigate a Mind Dragon, and the members advised her to stall while they considered its motives. The Fool confirmed that Adam had become a Sequence 0 Visionary, and Derrick sought advice on how the City of Silver could earn money.

• Audrey told the Tarot Club that a secret organization had asked her to investigate the Mind Dragon site she had visited nearly two years earlier, and members considered whether the request was a probe or an attempt to contact the club.
• Alger advised Audrey to delay the investigation, proceed cautiously, and create a disturbance if she could no longer stall; Cattleya agreed that this was the best response.
• Audrey asked whether Adam had advanced to Sequence 0, and the Fool confirmed that Adam had become a god as the apocalypse drew near.
• Derrick asked how residents of the City of Silver could earn money, and Alger suggested forming mercenary companies to take jobs amid the unrest in the Southern Continent.
• Derrick said many residents also wanted to become chefs or brewers or work in candy factories.

The Tarot Club discussed plans for the City of Silver’s development and the establishment of the Church of the Fool, while Klein commissioned Cattleya to investigate the Hidden Sage’s sudden awakening. After the gathering, Cattleya connected Frank Lee’s Planter pathway to warnings about cosmic corruption and grew suspicious.

• Alger, Cattleya, Audrey, and other Tarot Club members advised Derrick on employment, investment, education, infrastructure, and recruiting official Beyonders for the City of Silver.
• Derrick asked for guidance on preaching in the Rorsted Archipelago, and Alger advised him to avoid attacking other Churches and to recognize the envoy as the Fool’s representative.
• Cattleya asked whether anyone had a Sequence 3 Mystery Pryer characteristic, and Gehrman Sparrow suggested she ask the Mystery Queen.
• Klein commissioned Cattleya to gather information about the Hidden Sage’s sudden awakening, and she agreed.
• After the gathering, Cattleya saw Frank promoting his seabed-microorganism beer and recalled that Planter Beyonders could be vulnerable to corruption, making her wary of him.

Cattleya asked Klein whether Frank Lee’s unusual beliefs suggested he had been influenced by the Mother Goddess of Depravity. Klein investigated Frank’s condition, concluded that a Moon Primordial believer needed to be separated from him, and then received Cattleya’s request to send a troubled descendant of the Emperor to him.

• Cattleya questioned Frank about whether the Merciful Mother had given him revelations, then wrote to Klein about Frank’s belief that the Mother’s will was everywhere in nature.
• Klein considered whether Frank had been corrupted, and worried that Frank’s mushroom experiments had drawn the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s attention.
• Reinette Tinekerr said Frank had not been corrupted physically, but could not tell whether his mind had been influenced; Klein divined that Frank needed to be kept away from a Moon Primordial believer.
• Reinette noticed that Klein’s divination coin carried Sefirah Castle’s aura, and Klein decided to use the actual coin more often.
• Cattleya read Klein’s reply, then wrote to her esteemed Majesty about a deteriorating descendant of the Emperor and her difficulty finding Prophet’s main ingredients.

More than half a year after Verdue Abraham arrived in Bayam, he considered leaving for East Balam, while Alger Wilson sought to keep him there under surveillance for Mr. Fool. The chapter ended with Badr preaching the faith of The Fool and preparing to pray alongside Bonn for Moon City’s residents to be freed from their deformities.

• Verdue Abraham, having found no reliable way to rescue Bethel Abraham, debated whether to leave Bayam or remain near the Church of The Fool.
• A shadow guard reported Verdue’s likely departure to Alger Wilson, who decided to spread mysticism knowledge to keep Verdue interested and delay him.
• A young man wearing a crystal monocle listened as Badr preached about The Fool and the angels, then said he might visit the church.
• Badr returned to the restaurant where he worked and offered to teach Bonn how to make grilled fish.
• Bonn told Badr that Mr. Fool had issued an oracle asking Moon City’s residents to pray at nine and wish to be free of their deformities.

Klein granted Moon City’s people a miracle that healed their deformities, while an unexpected bell-ringing by Amon left him baffled. After reading the City of Silver’s scripture about Amon, Klein noted that his potion was nearly digested and prepared to bring his marionette city into history.

• Badr prepared ingredients while Bonn prayed to Mr. Fool for freedom from his deformity, joining prayers from people across Bayam, the New City of Silver, and Moon City.
• Klein answered the prayers, healing deformities in Moon City as a bell rang and moved listeners across the cities to tears and praise.
• Klein saw Amon ringing the bell at the Church of The Fool in Bayam, then watched him vanish, unsure of his purpose.
• Derrick reported the unexplained bell-ringing to Klein and recalled that the City of Silver’s scripture described Amon as Mr. Fool’s agent.
• Klein read the scripture, shut it in embarrassment, and concluded that his potion was nearly digested and his marionette city was ready to enter history.

Klein weighed three ways to create a marionette town for his advancement ritual and chose a concealed island plan, accepting that it would take longer to avoid harming innocent people. Meanwhile, Verdue Abraham became interested in investigating objects connected to Bansy Harbor and their possible link to Bethel Abraham.

• Klein compared a suddenly appearing town, a concealed island town with grafted entrances, and a city replicated as a marionette town, weighing their risks and ritual requirements.
• Klein chose the concealed island plan and decided he would rather spend more time than affect innocent people's fates.
• Klein considered changing the City of Silver's holy scripture but instead planned to guide The Sun through The World Gehrman Sparrow so that references to the Angel of Time would point toward Pallez Zoroast.
• Verdue Abraham read that Bansy Harbor remained mystically anomalous despite the Church of Storms destroying its port, and that researchers were buying related items.
• Verdue considered purchasing Bansy items or visiting the harbor to investigate possible connections to Bethel Abraham.

Klein created a remote town, populated it with nearly five thousand marionettes, and named it Utopia. Months later, Audrey learned that Alfred was returning to Backlund, while his ship encountered a lighthouse during a storm in the Raging Sea.

• Klein finished preparing profiles and specialized knowledge for the marionettes who would inhabit his town.
• Klein used wishes to build a town and harbor on an isolated island, then populated the town with marionettes emerging from Saint Arianna Church.
• Klein named the town Yharnam, changed its name to Utopia, and left an avatar to watch over Sefirah Castle.
• In September 1352, Audrey learned from Earl Hall that Alfred had sailed back to the Northern Continent and that the family planned to return to East Chester County after he arrived.
• Alfred's passenger ship entered a storm in the Raging Sea, where a sailor spotted a lighthouse.

Alfred’s passenger ship was driven by a storm to the uncharted Utopia Port, where he chose to stay aboard while other passengers visited the inn. After reaching Port Escoson, Alfred learned that no official kingdom map showed Utopia Port.

• The storm drove Alfred’s passenger ship to Utopia Port, where Theodore and Trissy introduced the port and its inn.
• Alfred refused to go ashore and ordered his adjutant and attendants to keep watch while several passengers went to the inn.
• Alfred heard a sorrowful flute melody from the inn but detected no mental influence, and the night passed without incident.
• The passengers returned in the morning, and the ship resumed its voyage after the storm stopped.
• After reaching Port Escoson, Alfred learned from his attendant that official kingdom maps did not mark Utopia Port.

After Alfred ordered an investigation into Utopia, Wendel arrived in the town by chance when a storm forced his train to stop there. He checked into the Iris Hotel, where a bloody disturbance next door ended with a young woman telling him she had killed someone.

• Alfred ordered a report to Military Intelligence Section 9 and sent local official Beyonders to investigate people who had entered Utopia Harbor.
• Wendel boarded a train to deliver a classified document to the director of Military Intelligence Section 9, but a storm forced it to stop at Utopia Station.
• Wendel chose to spend the night at the Iris Hotel and secured his room before going to sleep.
• Wendel awoke to a violent commotion in the room next door and went to investigate.
• A bloodied young woman opened the door holding a dripping dagger and told Wendel, “I killed someone...”

Wendel helped Trissy after she killed the man who had abused and controlled her, then returned to the Iris Inn with his confidential document. As he checked the rain-damaged envelope, he saw the word “Utopia” through a tear and realized the document was connected to the town.

• Wendel found Trissy beside the dead man and urged the innkeeper to call the police.
• Trissy explained that she had been the man’s mistress and killed him after he beat her and threatened to keep her from leaving.
• Wendel vouched for Trissy’s account, ensured she received medical attention, and gave a statement at the police station.
• Wendel returned to the Iris Inn and dried the damp envelope containing his confidential document.
• Wendel spotted the word “Utopia” through a tear in the envelope and tensed.

After reading a classified report suggesting Utopia might not exist in the real world, Wendel tried to escape the town and survived the night aboard the train. Once safely away, he realized the platform attendant had known his washroom excuse was false but had let him go unexplained.

• Wendel read the classified report and concluded that something was wrong with Utopia, so he decided to return to the steam train.
• Wendel left the hotel and abandoned his plan to send telegrams after hearing heavy breathing inside the Utopia Telegraph Office.
• Wendel entered the closed station by vaulting its wall, then told the platform attendant he was going to the washroom and waited out the night on the train.
• Wendel stayed awake until the train departed Utopia and relaxed only after it reached a familiar station.
• Wendel realized the platform attendant had seen that his suitcase and umbrella contradicted his excuse but had not challenged him.

Wendel escaped Utopia and learned that the kingdom had no record of the town or its railway station. Alfred returned to Backlund, read an investigation report linking Utopia’s Trissy to a murder, and warned Audrey about the dangers of becoming a Beyonder.

• Wendel realized he had left Utopia, then overheard officials say that Utopia did not exist in the kingdom and that the steam train had been classified as missing.
• Alfred returned to Backlund after visiting relatives, friends, and family associates along the way.
• Alfred read Military Intelligence Section 9’s report, which described an investigator’s escape from Utopia and identified Trissy as the town’s murder suspect.
• Alfred concluded that Utopia’s residents seemed real despite the town’s apparent absence from the real world, and decided not to investigate further.
• Alfred met Audrey and warned her about the madness and suffering caused by potions after learning she was a Sequence 7 Beyonder.

Xio received an assignment to investigate the elusive town of Utopia, while Fors endured Mr. Door’s Full Moon Ravings and Emlyn woke from a disturbing dream. Alger learned that Verdue was seeking passage to Bansy and arranged a ship for him.

• Xio was assigned to inform her team about Utopia, a town people had entered through unrelated circumstances, and warned them to abandon any attempt that seemed dangerous.
• Fors listened as Mr. Door described the Wanderer pathway and promised her its potion formula, characteristic, and ritual if she helped him escape.
• Emlyn woke from a dream in which he fell into a bubbling swamp and decided to ask Father Utravsky about it.
• Alger received a message that Verdue was seeking a pirate ship or smuggling vessel to Bansy and arranged passage through his contacts.

Trissy reflected on the pressures that had driven her to crime and prepared to defend herself in court, while Klein and the Tarot Club considered a ritual, Emlyn’s dream, and Verdue’s plans. The chapter ended with Klein’s many marionette avatars sensing the threads connecting them to him as his fractured consciousness continued to resist being overwhelmed.

• Trissy accepted that she would face court for stabbing a man and asked the police to borrow books about social thought and education.
• Klein identified the events in Utopia as a ritual and questioned Trissy about her family.
• Klein advised Emlyn that his dream might be guidance, an attempt to erode him, or the product of his worries, and told him not to investigate it or leave Backlund unnecessarily.
• Klein agreed to represent Trissy in Utopia and asked the police to arrange a meeting with her.
• After The Hanged Man reported that Verdue planned to visit Bansy, Klein instructed the Tarot Club to keep monitoring him.
• Klein’s marionette avatars saw the threads linking them to him, while his main consciousness continued to resist being absorbed by the many consciousnesses he had formed.

Alfred encountered his brother Hibbert at Backlund station, while Verdue boarded a pirate ship and Xio investigated a woman who had stayed behind in Utopia. Xio learned that someone had recently claimed to come from Utopia, and Wendel was summoned to testify in Trissy’s murder case there.

• Alfred smoked on the platform, greeted Hibbert, and learned that the people watching nearby were railway dispatchers attending training.
• Verdue boarded a pirate ship in Bayam and found several other passengers lodged on the same level.
• Xio’s subordinates reported that a passenger named Monica had stayed in Utopia, and Xio ordered them to investigate her background and whereabouts.
• Xio asked around about Utopia and learned from a bartender that a recent customer had said he came from there.
• A police officer named Byers told Wendel he was needed as a witness in Trissy’s murder case in Utopia.

Wendel reported Byers’s visit to Military Intelligence Section 9, and Xio began investigating how Byers had traveled through a shifting street. Meanwhile, Verdue arrived at the ruins of Bansy Harbor and found a strange mark and carving before something dripped onto his neck.

• Byers gave Wendel documents summoning him to testify in Utopia in two weeks, and Wendel alerted his colleagues after Byers left.
• Xio learned Byers had come to see Wendel about the Trissy murder case, ordered a search for him, and received Gehrman Sparrow’s permission to investigate as normal.
• Locke reported that Byers had stepped out of a carriage on an unfamiliar street that the driver could not find again, and Xio arranged for Wendel to stay at headquarters.
• Verdue arrived at Bansy Harbor wearing a Sealed Artifact robe and found two blood-red silhouettes and an image of an armored octopus-headed monster at the ruined telegraph office.
• A cold, sticky drop landed on Verdue’s neck, and he looked up into the starless night sky.

Verdue explored Bansy Harbor’s ruins, where ominous signs and a failed attempt to study an altar drove him from one site to the next. At an intact wooden door, he finally found a misty view of the Bansy Harbor Telegraph Office and heard a voice invite him inside.

• Verdue’s crystal ball exploded while he divined at the ruined telegraph office, and the blast revealed the woman from the pirate ship watching him.
• Verdue Teleported to the former weather-worship altar, where a sudden storm and blood-red seepage from beneath a boulder frightened him into leaving.
• Verdue searched for the intact wooden door and noticed a middle-aged man watching him before the man silently departed.
• Verdue tested the door, then turned its handle and opened it to reveal a mist-shrouded street and the Bansy Harbor Telegraph Office.
• A voice from within the mist asked Verdue whether he had come to send a telegram and invited him inside.

Verdue fled after hearing a voice from the strange street beyond the wooden door, while Gehrman Sparrow investigated the door and found that its power only worked in Bansy. After Verdue dreamed of a deity’s honorific name, the Red Angel Evil Spirit Sauron Einhorn Medici discussed their plan with a raven.

• Verdue panicked at the voice from the telegraph office, ran back to the pirate ship, and collapsed in his cabin.
• Gehrman Sparrow opened the wooden door and saw a fog-shrouded street with grotesque people and a train carrying headless passengers, but could not enter it.
• Gehrman Sparrow tested the door aboard the ship, discovered it lost its effect outside Bansy, and watched it decay before continuing his experiments with another door.
• Verdue dreamed of the honorific name of the God of War, woke able to remember it, and decided to research the deity before acting.
• Sauron Einhorn Medici told a white-ringed raven that their plan had fooled Him and discussed gaining the trust of a member of the Abraham Family.

Monica completed a travelogue about Utopia and mailed it to a Backlund newspaper before visiting Saint Arianna's Church. Meanwhile, Alfred, Hibbert, and Audrey hunted in the Hall Family forest and discovered they were near Hedrak, a village known for dragon worship.

• Monica revised her travelogue about Utopia's weather, people, weddings, and food, then mailed it under her pen name, Charlotte.
• Monica met police officer Byers outside Saint Arianna's Church and listened to Priest Townsend's sermon.
• Alfred, Hibbert, and Audrey hunted together in the Hall Family forest while Alfred restrained his abilities.
• After the siblings reached a wheat field, Hibbert sent an attendant to ask their location.
• Hibbert's attendant reported that the nearby village was Hedrak, and Audrey recognized its custom of dragon worship.

Audrey sensed an unseen force drawing her toward Hedrak, a village associated with Dragon worship, and used her Manipulator powers to keep her brothers from going there. That night, she entered a lucid dream and found a Mind Dragon waiting for her, which recognized her visit to Liveseyd and said it sensed no ill intent.

• Audrey grew wary of a feeling that fate was pushing her toward Hedrak.
• Hibbert first suggested staying at a nearby manor, then changed his mind, and Alfred led the group back to the family manor.
• Audrey used her Manipulator powers to keep her brothers away from Hedrak, but later woke in a strange, lucid dream.
• Audrey left her bedroom and passed doors that represented the Mind Worlds of her family, choosing not to enter them.
• Audrey entered a dark landscape through the sunroom and encountered a Mind Dragon atop a stone pillar.
• The Mind Dragon said it knew Audrey had been to Liveseyd and sensed no ill intent; Audrey asked whether it feared a trap.