Chapter Summaries

After Miss Justice verified that the bookmark concealed a Card of Blasphemy, Klein planned a cautious nighttime theft from the Kingdom Museum. He infiltrated the museum in spirit form and flew into its second floor, leaving the theft still underway.

• Miss Justice told Mr. Fool that she had verified the bookmark, and Klein decided to act that night while keeping suspicion away from her.
• Klein planned his route, rejected a faster spirit journey across Backlund as too risky, and prepared to steal other items along with the bookmark.
• Klein entered a storeroom near the Kingdom Museum, used ritual magic to summon himself, and strengthened his spirit with the Azik Copper Whistle.
• Klein passed the museum’s guards unnoticed, avoided the mysterious power surrounding the first floor, tossed a matchbox through a washroom vent, and flew into the second floor.

Klein set a fire to draw the guards away from Roselle's Diary, stole two bookmarks, and escaped a powerful woman's trap by returning above the gray fog. After returning to his body and fleeing through nearby buildings, he found a woman with a mutilated abdomen and missing organs.

• Klein ignited a fire in a first-floor washroom, drawing security guards toward it while the Machinery Hivemind members stayed to guard Roselle's Diary.
• Klein entered the reconstructed study and took two bookmarks from Roselle's desk, then reached for the others.
• A mysterious woman froze Klein with an infant's cries and surrounded him with bloodshot eyeballs as she questioned him.
• Klein vanished to the space above the gray fog with the bookmarks and Azik Copper Whistle, then returned to his body in a merchant's storeroom.
• Klein cleaned up the ritual traces and used the Master Key to travel through buildings, where he found a woman with a large abdominal wound and missing organs.

Klein stumbled upon the Devil’s twelfth murder, escaped the killer, and was briefly caught in a strange path of pea vines before a mysterious woman questioned him. The next morning, he returned home and went above the gray fog to examine the bookmark he had stolen.

• Klein found a woman’s corpse and confronted a giant Devil dog, then escaped by using a paper substitute and shouting for help.
• Klein fled through a nearby house with the Master Key, but a carriage ride led him onto a path of pea vines suspended in midair.
• A mysterious woman from the museum questioned Klein, and he truthfully explained his investigation and the Master Key; she warned him that the key carried a curse.
• Klein reached the East Borough, slept at his apartment, and returned home the next morning to find the newspaper reporting the twelfth murder and the police’s claim that they had identified the killer.
• Klein entered the space above the gray fog and examined the bookmark bearing Emperor Roselle’s image.

Klein experimented with the bookmark Miss Justice had verified and discovered that saying Bernadette’s name in Ancient Feysac activated Roselle’s Card of Blasphemy. He learned the Black Emperor pathway’s Sequences and godhood ritual, then prepared to answer Miss Justice’s prayer.

• Klein tried various words and languages to activate the bookmark, then reasoned that Roselle had designed an everyday, chance-like incantation.
• Klein said Bernadette’s name in Ancient Feysac, activating the bookmark and revealing the Sequence 0 Black Emperor card.
• Klein examined the card’s Sequences and learned the Black Emperor’s advancement ritual, resurrection conditions, and rules governing Sequence 1 Beyonders.
• Klein considered the card’s value for trading formulas and recalled that a woman at Eye of Wisdom’s gathering wanted the Barbarian potion formula.
• Klein confirmed that his other bookmark was ordinary, then answered Miss Justice’s prayer by identifying the object as a Card of Blasphemy made by Roselle.

Audrey learned that Klein’s operation had secretly recovered a Card of Blasphemy from the museum, while the Church of Steam investigated the theft and realized Roselle had deceived them. Klein secured several dangerous items above the gray fog, reviewed what others might have learned about him, and received a letter from Isengard Stanton.

• Audrey heard Klein’s blessed thank her for verifying the bookmark and raise her payment to 3,000 pounds after the Card of Blasphemy was taken successfully.
• Earl Hall told Audrey that a twelfth murder victim had been found and that police were searching for a suspect after a witness saw the crime.
• Max Livermore confirmed that two bookmarks had been stolen, and Horamick Haydn said the museum had hosted opposing groups, including someone possibly stronger than him, before revealing that the bookmarks’ purpose had been hidden for over 150 years.
• Klein left the Black Emperor card, Azik’s Copper Whistle, and the dangerous Master Key above the gray fog, then concluded that his clues from the museum incident had likely been erased.
• Klein considered the mysterious woman who had let him go and decided to send Isengard Stanton another letter, but discovered a letter from Stanton in his mailbox.

Klein learned that the police had found evidence pointing toward the giant Devil dog and then spent the morning at the Cragg Club. There, Allen Kreis described a string of misfortunes, prompting Klein to suspect a cursed object and ask whether Allen’s family had suffered bad luck too.

• Klein read Isengard Stanton’s letter confirming that clues linked the giant black dog to the serial murders and that the police had tentatively identified a suspect.
• Klein replied modestly to Isengard Stanton and planned to collect his share of the bounty after the culprit was arrested.
• At the Cragg Club, Talym Dumont asked Klein for advice about a friend in love with someone he should not be with, but kept the reason confidential.
• Klein practiced shooting and his Beyonder powers, then joined Talym and surgeon Allen Kreis for lunch.
• Allen told Klein that a string of accidents and misfortunes had recently culminated in a serious leg fracture.
• Klein suspected a Sealed Artifact like the Misfortune Cloth Doll and asked Allen whether his family had experienced bad luck as well.

Klein questioned Allen about the source of his misfortune and advised him to seek help from the Evernight Church, suspecting a child named Will Auceptin or the boy’s tarot cards might be involved. Later, at Leys Circus, Klein heard a familiar-sounding man warn the beast tamer that the animals were about to attack him.

• Klein asked Allen whether anything unusual had happened before his run of bad luck, and Allen recalled reading tarot with a young patient named Will Auceptin, who had predicted his luck would worsen.
• Klein advised Allen to report the matter to a bishop of the Evernight Church, and Allen agreed to seek the Church’s help.
• Klein privately suspected that Will or the tarot cards might be behind Allen’s misfortune, but decided not to handle the problem himself.
• Klein went to Leys Circus and watched a beast tamer perform with a bear, a tiger, and a baboon.
• A round-faced man in the audience warned the beast tamer that the tiger and baboon wanted to attack him, and Klein recognized something familiar in the man’s tone.

Klein attended a circus, recognized a possible Apothecary, and considered how a magician controlled his audience’s attention. On his ride home, he was caught in a supernatural battlefield where official Beyonders destroyed the giant Devil dog, then returned to reality wondering who had expressed anger at its death.

• Klein watched the circus animals and magician, suspected the sarcastic chubby man was an Apothecary, and guessed that a Magician’s tricks relied on controlling attention.
• On a rail carriage, Klein realized the passengers and surroundings lacked aura colors and emotional colors, while he remained spiritually visible.
• The giant Devil dog appeared and transformed into a Devil, and powerful Beyonders fought it in a strange battlefield that seemed to overlap with reality.
• A powerful object split the Devil dog and absorbed its final self-detonation, destroying it completely.
• Klein concealed himself with a paper figurine and heard an angry snort before the battlefield shattered and he returned to the ordinary carriage.
• Klein concluded that the Churches had swiftly eliminated the Devil dog and wondered whether its companion or another hidden figure had escaped detection.

Klein returned to the site of the Devil dog’s death and used his Spirit Intuition to estimate the reach of the Sealed Artifact that had shaped the battle. After sharing an awkward dinner with Jurgen, he received news that the serial murderer had been killed and planned to contact Maric and Miss Sharron about mysticism books.

• Klein revisited the street where the Devil dog had died and inferred that the Sealed Artifact affected at least one block and only worked on Beyonders.
• Klein watched the street from a café but found no further clues, while sensing that his Magician characteristic had been subtly stirred.
• Jurgen invited Klein to dinner, where Klein endured Jurgen’s unappetizing cooking and agreed to feed and care for Brody when Jurgen was away for two soli each time.
• Klein found a letter from Isengard Stanton reporting that the serial murderer had been found and killed, and that the police would pay the investigators at least half the bounty.
• Klein decided to visit the Bravehearts Bar to contact Maric and ask about mysticism books from him and Miss Sharron.

Klein investigated the new gang controlling black-market dealings at Bravehearts Bar and discovered a grisly murder scene bearing signs of a Werewolf. He met Maric and Sharron, who offered mysticism books in exchange for his help.

• Klein learned that a new gang had taken over Kaspars Kanlinen's business and followed one of its men to the billiard room.
• Klein found the gang's boss hanging dead and slipped away as the gang members raised the alarm.
• Klein discovered a dismembered body and deep claw marks behind the bar, concluding that a Rose School of Thought Werewolf had killed the Beyonder responsible for the boss's death.
• Klein left to report the scene but was stopped by Maric and invited into a carriage with Sharron.
• Klein asked Maric and Sharron for advanced mysticism books, and Sharron offered to trade them for his help once.

Klein considered whether to help Sharron and Maric, who had fled the Rose School of Thought over its bloody sacrifices and indulgent approach to desire. They asked him to help hunt a Sequence 5 Beyonder carrying a Sealed Artifact that countered Sharron, and Klein left the decision open until he learned more about the target and artifact.

• Klein explained that he would not risk his life without knowing exactly what Sharron and Maric needed from him.
• Maric described their former organization’s origins and bloody rituals, while Sharron said they had rejected its indulgence and burning of desires in favor of suppression and temperance.
• Klein learned that Sharron and Maric had been pursued to Backlund, though the dead man in the alley had become involved for another reason.
• Sharron asked Klein to assist them in surrounding and killing a Sequence 5 Beyonder, explaining that the target’s Sealed Artifact strongly countered her.
• Maric said his and Sharron’s staged roles as bait would help Klein use the Eye to find the target, and Klein asked for details about the Beyonder and his artifact before deciding.

Maric explained the Prisoner pathway’s increasingly severe curses and the abilities of its Sequences to Klein, while Sharron and Maric outlined the dangers of the Crimson Moon Corona. They revealed that their target was a Wraith and set out how they would divide the spoils if they succeeded.

• Maric told Klein that Prisoners and Lunatics belonged to a secretive pathway whose members were cursed and prone to madness, and explained how they and Sharron had escaped their organization.
• Maric described the Werewolf and Living Corpse Sequences, including their combat abilities and the curses imposed by the full moon.
• Sharron and Maric explained the Wraith Sequence and its curse, then said their target was also a Wraith.
• Maric explained that the Crimson Moon Corona could simulate a full moon and weaken them, while granting its wearer powerful abilities at the cost of freezing their blood.
• Sharron named Living Corpse Jason and Werewolf Tyre as allies of their target, Steve, and Maric proposed that Klein receive the remaining spoils and the Book of Secrets if they succeeded.

Klein considered Maric and Sharron’s commission, used divination above the gray fog, and agreed to help after making preparations. Meanwhile, Audrey, Fors, Xio, and Viscount Glaint prepared to attend a Beyonder gathering to seek a Spectator formula and information about the Psychology Alchemists.

• Maric explained that Warlock King Calamity was a powerful figure whose Book of Secrets covered mysticism and related subjects, and Klein asked for time to consider the commission.
• Sharron made Klein promise with the Notarized Document not to reveal what he had learned, then left him with Maric.
• Klein performed misleading divinations at home, then repeated them above the gray fog and concluded that accepting the commission was dangerous but manageable with proper preparation.
• Klein agreed to help on the condition that he receive a few more days to prepare, and an illusory voice told him to visit the bar when ready.
• Audrey met with Fors and Xio, learned that a gathering seeking a Spectator formula and leads on the Psychology Alchemists would take place that afternoon, and heard that Viscount Glaint would attend to trade for Apothecary ingredients.

Audrey, Fors, Xio, and Glaint attended a grisly Beyonder gathering, where Audrey sought the Spectator potion formula but failed to find it. After Xio noticed they were being followed, Audrey suspected the Psychology Alchemists had taken an interest in her, and the chapter ended with Klein preparing to attend old Mr. Eye of Wisdom's gathering.

• Audrey, Fors, Xio, and Glaint entered the gathering venue, where Glaint was horrified by the corpses preserved in a pool.
• Audrey asked for the Spectator potion formula, but no one offered it, while Glaint also failed to find the materials he wanted.
• Xio sensed that someone was following their carriage, and Audrey told the others to prepare for an attack while pretending they had not noticed.
• Audrey suspected the Psychology Alchemists were assessing her as a potential recruit, and the group reached Glaint's mansion without being attacked.
• Audrey left openly with Susie and her maids, wondering whether a member of the Psychology Alchemists would contact her.
• Klein spent two days at the Cragg Club and then dressed in a black robe to attend old Mr. Eye of Wisdom's gathering.

At the gathering, Klein exchanged the Barbarian formula for a set of specialized Beyonder bullets and asked for powerful Sun-domain purification items. The gathering ended with a request for Giant Widow Spider silk glands, which Klein recognized as a main ingredient of the Demoness of Pleasure potion.

• The Apothecary sought a subdued Beyonder beast, and Klein inferred that the Apothecary’s next Sequence involved commanding beasts.
• Klein suggested making a Beyonder creature by feeding a chosen animal potions, but the Apothecary dismissed the idea as too costly and risky.
• A concealed woman offered fifty Purification, Demon Hunting, and Exorcism Bullets with a revolver; Klein traded her the Barbarian formula after Eye of Wisdom authenticated it.
• Klein sought powerful purification items or the Briber formula, but no one fulfilled his request, and the woman offered to look for such items before the next gathering.
• A masked participant asked for adult Giant Widow Spider silk glands, and Klein recognized them as a main ingredient of the Demoness of Pleasure potion.

Klein explored 32 Williams Street in search of clues about the Apprentice pathway and found a deadly supernatural trap that looped the stairs. After using the Azik Copper Whistle to lure out and destroy a Wraith with a Purification Bullet, he reached the basement and found the brown notebook from his Dream Divination.

• At the gathering, Klein noticed a man buying ingredients for a Demoness of Pleasure but decided not to follow him.
• Klein prepared his weapons and protective items, then traveled to 32 Williams Street to investigate the place where the thief had found the Master Key.
• Inside the house, Klein discovered a dead burglar and realized the staircase was looping him back to the second floor.
• Klein used the Azik Copper Whistle to draw out the unseen attacker and destroyed the Wraith with a Purification Bullet.
• Klein confirmed the house was clear, descended to the basement, and found the brown notebook he had seen in Dream Divination.

Klein found an Abraham descendant’s notebook, learned about the family’s curse, and confirmed that the Apprentice, Trickmaster, and Astrologer potion formulas were genuine. He suspected the curse came from Bethel Abraham’s cries for help and sent Miss Magician an offer to trade the Trickmaster formula for a Sun-domain purification item.

• Klein searched the basement and read a notebook describing the Abraham Family’s lost glory and the curse that drove its Beyonders mad.
• Klein found the Apprentice, Trickmaster, and Astrologer potion formulas and read that the notebook’s owner planned to drink the Apprentice potion during a full moon.
• Klein deduced that Bethel Abraham might be Mr. Door and that his full-moon cries had caused the family’s curse and the Master Key’s dangerous effects.
• Klein took the notebook, returned home, and used the gray fog to confirm that the three potion formulas were genuine.
• Klein sent Miss Magician a message offering the Trickmaster formula in exchange for a Sun-domain item that could purify and exorcise.

Fors obtained the Trickmaster formula through The Fool and promised to find an item for Mr. World, while Klein received his share of the serial murder reward and learned that a missing man named Emlyn White was the vampire Father Utravsky had imprisoned. The chapter left Audrey being approached about her interest in mysticism by Madam Norma.

• Fors received the Trickmaster formula from The Fool and agreed to find a purification or exorcism item for Mr. World.
• Fors considered ways to pay for the item and concealed the truth from Xio, who celebrated her possible lead on the formula.
• Klein paid Leppard the remaining 20 pounds for the bicycle and warned him not to pursue further investment before the patent was granted.
• Isengard Stanton distributed the serial murder reward, giving Klein 300 pounds and Kaslana and himself 160 pounds each.
• Stuart asked Klein to help find the missing Emlyn White, whom Klein recognized as the vampire imprisoned by Father Utravsky.
• Madam Norma asked Audrey whether she was interested in mysticism, and Audrey cautiously agreed.

Audrey arranged a meeting with Madam Norma while Klein investigated the Master Key’s full-moon effects and prepared for a battle with Sharron and Maric. Klein discovered that touching the key let him hear Mr. Door’s deadly plea for help, then offered Maric a new sedative to try during the full moon.

• Audrey accepted Madam Norma’s invitation to afternoon tea and suspected she was a Spectator, though she believed Madam Norma meant no harm.
• Klein avoided asking about Emlyn White’s employer, collected his share of the bounty, and discussed the serial murder case with Isengard, who warned him to stay cautious.
• Klein used the gray fog to divine the Master Key’s behavior during a full moon and heard an agonizing plea for help in Ancient Hermes before waking.
• Klein visited the Bravehearts Bar, confirmed Kaspars had returned, and met Sharron, who said she had prepared a mystical item but was still waiting for another item before proceeding.
• Klein learned that drugs no longer worked on Maric after repeated use and offered Sharron a new sedative from an Apothecary for Maric to test during the next full moon.

Klein prepared for his cooperation with Sharron while Audrey met two psychology experts who might be connected to the Psychology Alchemists. The chapter ended with Allen telling Klein that his bad luck had lifted and urging him to convert to the Goddess.

• Klein asked Sharron about the possible battle sites, and she told him to prepare a map of Backlund for their next meeting.
• Klein returned home, made boiled chicken breast for Brody, and spoke to the cat about missing Madam Doris and Jurgen being away.
• Audrey met Hilbert Alucard and Islante Osilika at Madam Norma’s afternoon tea, concealed her Beyonder abilities, and learned about the Great Year and Great Month.
• Madam Norma suggested Audrey consider becoming a psychiatrist, and Audrey said she might hire Islante as a private psychology tutor.
• Klein studied the battle locations marked on his map, then visited the Cragg Club and heard Allen explain that praying at the church had ended his run of bad luck.
• Allen praised the Goddess and urged Klein to convert from his faith in the God of Steam and Machinery.