Chapter Summaries

Gehrman Sparrow told Moon City's High Priest Nim that the Sun God had fallen and the land was cursed, then learned that Moon City had tried to communicate with the fog through rituals. He asked Nim to repeat the ritual so he could listen to the voices within it.

• Nim explained that the Sun God's oracle had ordered Moon City to watch the fog for anyone walking out of it.
• Gehrman Sparrow introduced the Fool as his Lord and told Nim that the Sun God had fallen after the kings betrayed Him and devoured His flesh and blood.
• Nim and Moon City's Beyonders reeled at the news, and Gehrman Sparrow used the Staff of Life to stop one Beyonder from losing control.
• Nim said a former High Priest had devised rituals to treat the fog as a great being, and that the fog sometimes answered with indistinct sounds.
• Gehrman Sparrow asked Nim to perform the ritual again, then told him to use materials already nearby and identify where they had last been used.

Klein had High Priest Nim repeat a ritual to contact the grayish-white fog while Audrey pleaded with Earl Hall to share the family’s food with the poor. After the ritual finally produced a response, Klein heard many voices chanting the name “Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.”

• Klein conjured an altar and materials for Nim, who performed the ritual several times without an immediate response.
• Audrey asked Earl Hall to provide food for the poverty relief fund, but Earl Hall and Hibbert refused to risk the family’s stores.
• Earl Hall told Hibbert to prepare for a possible Loen defeat by negotiating with Intis and converting to the Church of Steam.
• Nim said the ritual could be tried again the next day, but Klein then heard faint voices coming from the grayish-white fog.
• Klein listened as the voices grew clearer and chanted, “Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.”

Klein heard the incantation “Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings” from the grayish-white fog and tested whether it could open a passage to the vanished Western Continent. The fog stirred but did not part, and Klein told Moon City's residents that the right time would come in more than ten years before settling nearby to practice asceticism.

• Klein heard voices chanting “Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings” and considered what the grayish-white fog revealed about the Western Continent and its connection to Sefirah Castle.
• Klein told High Priest Nim and the Moon City residents that the voices were praying to his Lord, then ordered them to retreat at least a hundred meters.
• Klein used a Historical Void projection to touch the fog and chant the incantation, but the rippling mist failed to form a door.
• Klein concluded that the fog could not be opened until the proper time and told Nim that more than ten years remained.
• Klein said he would practice asceticism nearby and offer purification and healing during periods of frequent lightning, and Nim agreed to pass the message on.

Colin Iliad prepared for another expedition into the Giant King's Court while Derrick Berg waited to advance, and Alger Wilson finally received approval for his Sequence 4 advancement ritual. The chapter left both men poised for the next step, with the City of Silver still waiting for Derrick and Lovia to advance before the expedition.

• Colin Iliad told Derrick Berg that Waite Chirmont's advancement and the discovery of a route to the sea meant the City of Silver could survive if the next Giant King's Court expedition went wrong.
• Derrick said he would join the expedition even if Colin wanted to keep him in the City of Silver, and Colin learned that Derrick had digested his Light Priest potion and gathered its ingredients.
• Colin told Derrick the expedition would wait until Derrick became an Unshadowed and Lovia became a Black Knight.
• Jahn Kottman told Alger Wilson that the Council of Cardinals had approved his advancement and appointed him to preside over the ritual.
• Alger had passed the Church of Storms' scrutiny by confessing his ambition, concealing the crucial secret, and demonstrating his loyalty during months of naval battles.

High Priest Nim announced that Gehrman Sparrow had purified Adal and Xin and would welcome Moon City residents to hear his god’s teachings and receive healing. Nim led a group to meet Klein, where his account of the world beyond the Forsaken Land and the taste of roasted mushrooms moved the residents.

• Nim fought off a bout of madness, then told Moon City that Adal’s hunting team had encountered Gehrman Sparrow, who had cleared their corruption and treated their mutations.
• Adal and Xin described their encounter, and Nim said they would be observed for fifteen days before allowing residents to visit Klein under strict precautions.
• Ruth and another hunter volunteered to go, and Nim led a group of seven or eight residents through the darkness to the edge of the grayish-white fog.
• Klein offered the residents mushrooms growing on monster corpses, warning them to avoid black ones and cook the others thoroughly.
• Klein told the group about the City of Silver and the world outside the Forsaken Land, then offered them roasted mushrooms.
• Ruth tasted a mushroom and wept, calling it the most wonderful food he had ever eaten.

Klein fed Moon City's residents safe mushrooms and learned that the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar had appeared near the grayish-white fog on the day Klein first entered Sefirah Castle. He began teaching them the Fool's doctrine, then proclaimed two commandments under the Radiant Cross.

• Klein invited the Moon City residents to eat cooked mushrooms and warned them against pure black or undercooked ones.
• High Priest Nim revealed that a hill had vanished into a deep pit and that an enormous Dark Demonic Wolf with grayish-white fur had been seen there before fleeing.
• Nim dated the incident to June 28, 1349, and Klein realized it had occurred on the day he entered Sefirah Castle.
• The Moon City residents eagerly ate the mushrooms, and Nim asked Klein to share Mr. Fool's teachings.
• Klein raised the Radiant Cross, purified the residents with its light, and declared commandments against human sacrifice and taking God's name in vain.

Cattleya learned that Frank Lee wanted to become an Ancient Alchemist and received an invitation from Bernadette to visit Lashia. Emlyn searched for an Earl characteristic and considered cooperating with Maric, while Nim returned to Moon City with news that God had come to save its people.

• Cattleya encouraged Frank Lee's ambition to become an Ancient Alchemist and offered to help him, while Frank planned to ask Gehrman Sparrow for assistance.
• Cattleya received a letter from Bernadette inviting her to make a secret visit to Lashia.
• Kasimi told Emlyn that no Earl characteristics were available and that Emlyn ranked twelfth in line for one.
• Emlyn considered hunting the Dark Saint or seeking help from Maric and the Rose School of Thought to obtain an Earl characteristic.
• Nim returned to Moon City with Ruth and the others, and a resident's sister wept as she declared that God had come to save them.

Klein investigated the pit where a hill had vanished and used divination to learn that the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar had taken a mysterious curtain from the grayish-white fog. He suspected the curtain was an Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder Characteristic and realized Kotar had already possessed it when he turned the northern city into a city of puppets.

• Klein examined the pit and sensed an abnormal dulling of his thoughts, but found no other clues.
• Klein performed a divination about the hill's disappearance and saw the grayish-white fog expel a curtain that covered the hill and turned nearby plants into marionettes.
• Kotar tried repeatedly to control the curtain, eventually using marionettes to pick it up before the fog's vortex pulled both him and the curtain toward it.
• Kotar escaped the fog wearing the curtain, and Moon City's investigation team witnessed him fleeing.
• Klein concluded that the curtain might be an Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder Characteristic and wondered whether Kotar had used it to prepare the northern city's inhabitants for his ritual.

Klein learned that Moon City’s guards were instructed to welcome anyone emerging from the fog and say “Chernobyl,” while Audrey secretly gathered food for Backlund’s starving residents. Klein then sent a historical projection toward Chernobyl to investigate, wary that Amon might be waiting there.

• Klein questioned Duke about Moon City’s instructions for anyone emerging from the fog, and Duke said they should welcome the person and tell him “Chernobyl.”
• Audrey manipulated farmers and a grain merchant into gathering and selling mushrooms and fruit, then used a Traveler’s Bag to take food from the warehouse.
• Audrey worried that her food supplies could only provide temporary relief and resolved to ask Mr. World for advice and consider what she could do about the war.
• Klein connected the word “Chernobyl” to clues from Amon and Ancient The Sun God, then decided to investigate using a historical projection rather than his real body.
• Klein summoned a projection of himself and prepared to use the Staff of the Stars to Blink to Chernobyl.

Klein used the Staff of the Stars to reach Chernobyl and entered its sealed ruins, where papers revealed a research institute’s descent into madness after people discovered something underground. He encountered a skeletal Amon emerging from a collapsed section and faced his question about who he was.

• Klein transported his Historical Void projection to Chernobyl with the Staff of the Stars and found that the grayish-white building had no visible entrance.
• Klein used The Fool’s honorific name to inspect the site, then passed through its wall with Lemano’s Travel Notes and entered the building.
• Klein explored what appeared to be a research institute and translated papers describing an oil-field investigation, people turning into petroleum, and a voice calling from underground.
• Klein followed the corridor deeper into the institute and found a collapsed section that descended into darkness, where he heard a cry like the one from the bronze door in the Hall of Honesty.
• A skeletal Amon climbed out of the darkness, rapidly regained his flesh, and asked Klein who he was.

Klein questioned an Amon avatar at Chernobyl and learned secrets about the Chaos Sea, the Blasphemy Slates, and beings Above the Sequence. After the mention of the Starry Sky exposed him to a terrifying presence, Klein escaped to Sefirah Castle and realized Amon had been deceiving him.

• Klein asked the Amon at Chernobyl why he had emerged from underground, and Amon claimed he had been exploring the Chaos Sea after losing a vote among the versions of himself.
• Amon explained that the first Blasphemy Slate had formed in the Chaos Sea and that the second contained secrets about becoming Above the Sequence.
• Amon named Great Old Ones, Outer Deities, and the Starry Sky, triggering a dangerous connection between Klein and a vast presence beyond the world.
• Klein stopped sustaining his Historical Void projection and recited an incantation to escape the presence and reach Sefirah Castle.
• Klein concluded that the Amon at Chernobyl had been lying to lure him into danger, while Amon acknowledged that Klein had reacted quickly.

Klein learned that the Apocalypse would bring the Outer Deities, who were gathering around Earth to claim the nine Sefirah, and realized that even the Seven Gods might not be able to stop them. He asked Audrey to hypnotize him to protect him from corruption, but the truth left her questioning whether anything she had done could matter.

• Fors woke with the familiar premonition of the Full Moon Curse, then saw daylight and wondered why she had felt it.
• People across the world, including Derrick and the residents of the City of Silver, witnessed the moon change from red to white before disappearing; many in the City of Silver took it as a favorable omen.
• Above the gray fog, Klein connected Amon's revelations about the Great Old Ones, the nine Sefirah, and the 1368 Apocalypse, and suspected that the Outer Deities wanted the Sefirah more than the destruction of the world.
• Klein decided to have Audrey hypnotize him so he would not consciously recall the dangerous secrets, and also planned for her to forget them afterward.
• Audrey listened to Klein explain the truth behind the Apocalypse and asked whether even the Seven Gods could save them, then said her recent efforts seemed insignificant by comparison.

Klein counseled Audrey on accepting risk and helping Backlund’s people survive the war, then underwent hypnosis to forget the dangerous secrets about the Starry Sky. In Bridge Borough, Emlyn approached Maric with news that Rose School of Thought demigods had become easier to find, but Maric challenged his authority to act.

• Klein helped Audrey regain her resolve and advised her to obtain food from nobles, churches, wealthy merchants, and the royal family rather than seize supplies from invading armies.
• Klein explained that the churches would tacitly permit Audrey’s efforts because protecting ordinary believers would help preserve the deities’ anchors.
• Audrey asked whether the Fool and the Evernight Goddess were allies, and Klein said they were allies for now before Audrey hypnotized him to forget the Starry Sky secrets.
• Klein checked that Audrey had attracted no attention from the Great Old Ones, discarded the reminder of his erased memories, and resolved to read it only after becoming an angel.
• Emlyn visited Maric and said the war had brought Rose School of Thought demigods into the open across the Southern Continent, but Maric dismissed him as unqualified to represent a Sanguine duke or marquis.

Emlyn planned to recruit powerful allies through the Tarot Club so he could secure a Sanguine artifact and pursue advancement. Audrey witnessed the hardship of Backlund’s hungry citizens, while Klein converted Moon City into believers of The Fool and explained how to use the mushrooms.

• Emlyn told Maric he could find high-level helpers, then left to consider arranging a Tarot Club mission despite lacking payment.
• At a food distribution outside Saint Samuel Cathedral, Melissa gave her own portion to a hungry mother and child, and Audrey offered Melissa her food instead.
• After Moon City’s residents received purification, treatment, and mushrooms, they accepted Gehrman Sparrow as the Saint and divine emissary of The Fool.
• Klein held a Mass, gave Nim The Fool’s honorific name and simple ritual guidance, and warned against reciting the full name in ordinary prayers.
• Klein explained that the mushrooms could provide food and that the pure-black variety accumulated toxins, corruption, and madness; the residents praised The Fool, strengthening his anchors.

Klein reassured Moon City that he would seek other survivors, then traveled to North to hunt the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar. In the City of Silver, Audrey helped Derrick advance to a demigod and bring sunlight to the city, before she admitted to Klein that she felt a chasm between herself and others.

• Nim offered Moon City's Sealed Artifacts and Beyonder Characteristics to Klein, who declined the offerings but examined them during a tour.
• Klein told Moon City's priests that they would have to wait longer to leave the Forsaken Land of the Gods, then set out to find Kotar and hunt him.
• Klein used projections of the Staff of the Stars to reach the ruins of North after scouting the destination.
• Derrick summoned Audrey, who separated and later restored his deepest emotions as he drank the potion made from the Unshadowed Crucifix.
• Derrick completed his advancement, and rays of sunlight illuminated the City of Silver.
• Audrey returned above the gray fog and told Klein that she had been revealing more of her true self, but still sensed a chasm between herself and others.

Audrey questioned her motives and the danger of losing herself in Spectator acting, while Klein urged her to seek answers through firsthand experience and offered a blessing focused on loving family and friends. Elsewhere, Alger led Loen’s fleet to victory in the Rorsted Archipelago but was shaken by the destruction he saw, and at the Tarot Club Klein accepted Emlyn’s commission to hunt a Warlock King with the Temperance Faction.

• Audrey told Klein she could not yet bring herself to target wealthy acquaintances for their hoarded food, and explained how Spectator acting had nearly blurred into her real self.
• Audrey asked whether poverty and hunger would return after the war, and Klein advised her to investigate life in the fields, factories, East Borough, and old records while separating urgent questions from those that could wait.
• Klein asked Audrey to analyze a description of a Mythical Creature, then told her he would wish that she could still love her family and friends after seeing the truth; Audrey thanked him.
• Alger used his Catastrophe Interrer powers to defeat an enemy warship, helped Loen reclaim the Rorsted Archipelago, and then saw a bombed playground and ruined building that dampened his mood.
• Emlyn asked the Tarot Club for help hunting a Warlock King, and Klein accepted the commission after learning Emlyn had contacted the Rose School of Thought’s Temperance Faction; Klein told Fors to prepare a medium.

Klein arranged a plan with Emlyn to hunt a Rose School of Thought Warlock King while using a historical projection to draw away the enemy’s ambush. He then asked the Tarot Club to help devise a way to find the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar, and a new lead occurred to him as the discussion ended.

• Emlyn agreed to pay Gehrman with a future favor and the Warlock King’s Beyonder characteristic, and to provide a spirituality-enhancing item that would not trigger Fors’s Full Moon Curse.
• Alger, Leonard, and Xio warned that the Rose School’s Indulgence Faction might have prepared a trap, so Klein planned to target a different Warlock King and draw the enemy forces away from Emlyn’s operation.
• Emlyn named the Warlock King besieging Loen’s colonial cities in North Olrit State as his target, and agreed to meet the Temperance Faction to finalize the plan.
• Klein distributed information about Kotar and invited the Tarot Club members to suggest ways to track the Mythical Creature.
• The Tarot Club discussed Beyonder characteristic convergence and using Kotar’s honorific name, but Klein rejected both approaches before realizing Kotar might notice the corresponding prayer lights.

Klein considered using a prayer light to lure the Dark Demonic Wolf, but could not find a way to avoid becoming its helpless target. After seeking advice from allies, he met Emlyn and Maric in Backlund, where Miss Sharron appeared for their discussion.

• Klein reasoned that the Dark Demonic Wolf might monitor him through a prayer light, but the plan left him unable to prepare or retaliate.
• Klein asked The Star Leonard and The Hermit Cattleya to seek advice from Pallez Zoroast and Bernadette, and planned to consult Miss Messenger, Will Auceptin, and Arianna.
• Leonard asked Pallez Zoroast for advice, and Pallez told him Klein would need The Fool's help against the Dark Demonic Wolf.
• Fors asked Xio whether she would evacuate her family from Backlund, and Xio said she would move them only if the fighting reached the city.
• Fors used her ability to bring Gehrman Sparrow to his meeting with Emlyn and Maric in Backlund.
• Klein summoned his messenger and asked Maric to bring out Miss Sharron, who appeared as Emlyn watched in confusion.

Klein coordinated a trap to draw out the Rose School of Thought’s Warlock Kings, then sought advice on hunting the Dark Demonic Wolf. Will Auceptin pointed him toward a clue about what happens when Fate pathway Beyonders below angel level look directly at Klein.

• Klein, Sharron, Emlyn, Maric, and Reinette Tinekerr planned to use Historical Void projections and concealed states to lure the Rose School of Thought into a coordinated ambush.
• Sharron proposed that Reinette Tinekerr remain with the group and signal the attack by leaving her concealed state, with everyone withdrawing if she did so.
• After leaving the meeting, Emlyn discussed his contradictory feelings about dolls and living women with Klein.
• Klein summoned Reinette Tinekerr and asked for advice about hunting the Dark Demonic Wolf, and she answered, “Sefirah Castle!”
• Reinette Tinekerr reminded Klein that he owed her a gold coin, and Klein sent Will Auceptin a question through a paper crane.
• Will Auceptin told Klein to remember what happened when Fate pathway Beyonders below angel level looked directly at him, prompting Klein to realize the clue.

Klein tested how Sefirah Castle’s projection affected observers and nearly corrupted himself when a powerful marionette saw its Door of Light. In Winter County, the dead began rising under a hooded figure’s influence.

• Klein asked Will Auceptin about Sefirah Castle’s aura, then summoned Arianna and told her he planned to target the Warlock King and later the Dark Demonic Wolf; she warned him to be cautious.
• Klein went to the wilderness near the Ancient City of North and tested his strengthened Sefirah Castle projection on monster marionettes, himself, and Beyonders of the Seer pathway.
• Klein found that ordinary observers noticed nothing, while Seer pathway Beyonders below angel level sensed his connection to Sefirah Castle without seeing its projection clearly.
• Klein let Winner Enuni observe him, and Enuni saw the Door of Light within the projection; the impact made Klein bleed and lose control of the Historical Void image, so he retreated above the Gray Fog to recover.
• In Winter County, a hooded figure in a black robe embroidered with crimson patterns spread spirituality across the battlefield, and the corpses left by the resistance rose and approached the Loen defensive line.