Chapter Summaries

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.

Audrey questioned the ancient Mind Dragon Arihogg about Liveseyd, and he revealed that they were standing in the City of Miracles itself. Meanwhile, Wendel gave in to his fear and agreed to testify in Utopia, then opened his washroom door onto an unfamiliar hall.

• Audrey suspected that fate had guided her to reveal Liveseyd to Arihogg, who explained that he had entered a Dream Labyrinth to find her.
• Audrey told Arihogg that she had found Liveseyd inside Groselle's Travels and described the city and the dangerous bronze gate in the Hall of Honesty.
• Arihogg revealed that the pillars and palaces around him were Liveseyd, and Audrey heard a door open behind her as a huge white rabbit appeared.
• Wendel grew increasingly anxious as his court deadline approached and imagined Trissy being convicted while he watched.
• After hearing colleagues say that Utopia could appear in unexpected places, Wendel decided to testify and opened his washroom door onto an unfamiliar hall as a raven watched.

Audrey escaped a dream labyrinth where Mr. Wrath and Arihogg attacked each other with nightmares, then woke the manor before the corruption could spread. Arihogg withdrew after warning that Adam might not be Adam, and Klein found no unusual activity in Utopia.

• Wendel left the washroom at Military Intelligence Section 9 and met Byers, while the black raven vanished unnoticed.
• Mr. Wrath confronted Arihogg in the dream labyrinth by weaving a nightmare of the Ancient The Sun God, and Arihogg answered with a nightmare of Ankewelt corrupted by the underground.
• Audrey placated herself and escaped the dream, then used a guard's Virtual Persona to trigger a grenade and wake the manor's residents.
• Several servants who failed to wake shed their skin and died as the nightmares' corruption spread through the manor.
• Arihogg flew away with the giant white rabbit pursuing Him, then warned that Adam might not be Adam, just as He might not be Arihogg.
• Klein checked Utopia through the Worms of Spirit but found nothing unusual.

Klein suspected that the simultaneous events involving Justice and Wendel signaled danger, so he began evacuating Utopia’s outsiders. Zaratul and his allies attacked, forcing Klein to flee through the Fog of History, where Gehrman Sparrow stabbed him and said Adam had given him humanity.

• Klein reasoned that Hermes had used Justice to learn about Arihogg and became wary when her encounter coincided with Wendel’s return to Utopia.
• Klein prepared a warning and began arranging for outsiders to leave Utopia, while Wendel checked into the Iris Inn and went to sleep.
• Roselle Gustav’s Historical Projection helped Zaratul and projections of William Augustus I and Suah enter Utopia; Zaratul extracted Byers’s Worm of Spirit and used Suah’s puppet to isolate Klein’s main body.
• Zaratul wrapped the Klein puppet in a shroud, severing the marionettes’ Spirit Body Threads and freezing Utopia’s inhabitants; Klein woke beneath Saint Arianna Cathedral and found Sefirah Castle blocked.
• Klein evaded Zaratul with a paper figurine and fled through the Fog of History, but after reaching the City of the Great Old One, Gehrman Sparrow stabbed him with an ancient wooden cross and said Adam had given him humanity.

Adam captured Klein in his divine kingdom after Gehrman Sparrow’s humanity turned against him, and explained his alliance with Amon and Zaratul. He revealed the second Blasphemy Slate and ended by addressing Klein as Mysteries, calling them old friends who had met before.

• Gehrman Sparrow pushed Klein out of the Fog of History, while Adam’s Corpse Cathedral blocked the attack from Sefirah Castle and trapped Klein.
• Klein’s uncontrolled avatars went mad after losing contact with his main body, and Gehrman Sparrow died in the ruined city.
• Klein sat before Adam in the Corpse Cathedral, and Adam explained that he had made a deal with Amon to capture Klein in exchange for the first Blasphemy Slate.
• Adam said Zaratul had cooperated because He hoped to become an Angel King under Amon, and explained that neighboring pathways required only their Uniqueness and one Sequence 1 characteristic to become a Great Old One.
• Adam showed Klein the second Blasphemy Slate, which listed the requirements for the God Almighty and Lord of Mysteries, and said he would otherwise prefer to help Klein become the Dominator of the Spirit World.
• Adam called Klein Mysteries and said they were old friends who had met once before.

Klein learned from Adam how a Visionary could separate Sequence 1 characteristics and create independent Authors, and concluded that Adam was the Ancient The Sun God’s resurrection. While Klein remained trapped in the Corpse Cathedral with Zaratul waiting outside, Bernadette awakened aboard the Dawn and began calling on the Fool.

• Klein questioned Adam about being the Ancient The Sun God, and Adam explained how a Visionary could replace separated Sequence 1 characteristics with envisioned ones while preserving their power.
• Adam explained that he had awakened when the Ancient The Sun God perished and True was born, and that he had disguised himself as a fanatic who wanted his father to return.
• Adam said Medici had survived for so long as an Evil Spirit because he was a necessary sacrifice.
• Klein stayed in the Corpse Cathedral to decipher the second Blasphemy Slate because Zaratul waited outside and could turn him into a Marionette.
• Bernadette woke aboard the Dawn, took the Wishing Lamp, and recited an honorific name to summon the Fool.

Klein and Adam discussed the Great Old Ones, the pillars, and the danger of accommodating multiple sefirot, before Klein questioned whether Adam had any humanity left. In Bayam, Verdue Abraham learned that a pauper’s prayer to the God of War had succeeded, and the pauper survived with some wishes fulfilled.

• Klein interpreted the Great Old One titles and asked Adam how their relative strength and status worked.
• Adam explained the three pillars, the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s sefirah, and the risks of accommodating additional sefirot.
• Adam revealed that the River of Eternal Darkness and the City of Calamity could form a hidden fourth pillar capable of ending the universe.
• Adam said he had deduced Great Old One formulas before the Primordial awakened within him, and explained that Klein’s marionette had wanted rest and freedom.
• Klein said Gehrman Sparrow was part of him and asked Adam whether only divinity remained in him.
• In Bayam, Verdue Abraham paid a pauper to pray to the God of War, and learned that the pauper survived and had some wishes fulfilled.

Verdue Abraham performed a ritual to summon the God of War, who agreed to help free Bethel Abraham in exchange for a price paid by Mr. Door and provided the required sacrifices. Meanwhile, Klein questioned Adam about his relationship with the True Creator and the hidden forces behind Fourth Epoch events, while Bernadette’s prayer light remained under attack above the Gray Fog.

• Verdue Abraham teleported to a remote forest and summoned the God of War to ask how to bring Bethel Abraham back to the real world.
• The God of War said the ritual required sacrifices corresponding to a Bizarro Sorcerer, a Secrets Sorcerer, and a Parasite, and offered to collect the price from Mr. Door in exchange for Verdue’s blood.
• Verdue accepted the deal, and the Door of Sacrifice and Bestowal produced three monster sacrifices for the ritual.
• In the Corpse Cathedral, Adam told Klein that he had only divinity and could become complete only by uniting with the True Creator, with the two competing over which would dominate.
• Klein questioned Adam about the Red Angel’s death and Fourth Epoch conflicts, and Adam cited hidden powers and intensified Outer Deity erosion after his fall.
• Above the Gray Fog, the vortex of transparent worms repeatedly attacked Bernadette’s expanding and contracting prayer light until one tentacle touched it.

Klein negotiated with Deng Shen, trading the Wishing Lamp’s delivery to the cosmos by 1368 for two wishes, while Mr. Door’s arrival through Verdue’s ritual caused doors to open across the world. The chapter ended with blood pouring from Klein’s head as he spoke with Adam inside the Corpse Cathedral.

• Bernadette’s prayer activated the Wishing Lamp, and Deng Shen appeared above the Gray Fog as Klein’s failing control over Sefirah Castle became apparent.
• Klein offered to send the Wishing Lamp into the cosmos before the end of 1368 in exchange for two wishes, and Deng Shen accepted after binding the bargain with a rule.
• Verdue completed the God of War’s ritual, causing three demigod-level monsters to burst apart and form a door of flesh through which Mr. Door began to emerge.
• Verdue’s body fell apart as Mr. Door passed through the door, and supernatural rifts and hurricanes shook Blue Mountain Island.
• Doors opened on their own throughout the world, including in Bayam, the New City of Silver, Backlund, Trier, and Saint Milom.
• Klein asked Deng Shen to count Bernadette Gustav’s two previous wishes as his first wish and to create a corresponding region for Utopia in the Spirit World as his second; later, blood streamed from Klein’s head as he questioned Adam in the Corpse Cathedral.

Klein returned after Adam killed him, restored much of his power above the gray fog, and turned against Zaratul in Utopia by calling the Lord of Storms’ attention. As seals failed across the world, Derrick and Alger moved to contain the resulting dangers.

• Adam watched Klein die inside the Corpse Cathedral, but Klein reassembled above the gray fog and reclaimed his seat as The Fool.
• Klein promised Deng Shen that he would fulfill his promise, then wished to return to his former condition and recovered Beyonder characteristics from the Curtain.
• Klein’s marionettes in Utopia resisted Zaratul’s attempt to escape, while Historical Projections of William Augustus, Roselle Gustav, and Suah attacked the shadow isolating the city.
• Klein’s marionettes shouted Leodero’s name, drawing the Lord of Storms’ lightning down upon Utopia before Zaratul could leave.
• Derrick learned from Waite Chirmont that the underground seals had failed and accompanied him to use Proof of Glory.
• Alger ordered teams to remove safer Sealed Artifacts from Bayam’s underground stores, then decided to handle the remaining danger himself.

Alger prayed to the Lord of Storms and unleashed a storm that disrupted the battle in Utopia, giving Klein a chance to thwart Zaratul’s escape and drive him from sight. With Adam occupied and the ritual’s effects fading, Klein prepared and drank the Attendant of Mysteries potion.

• Alger prayed for the Lord of Storms’ protection and rushed underground as lightning enveloped the Sea Waves Cathedral and struck Utopia.
• Zaratul used the storm as cover to escape through a prepared void, but Klein grafted its destination to the Iris Hotel, leaving Zaratul’s image exposed to the lightning.
• Klein used Sefirah Castle and The Fool Card to draw Zaratul out of the fog of history, but Zaratul escaped by using paper figurines, a wish, and a prepared stone.
• Klein moved his resurrection to a marionette outside Utopia, gathered the Curtain and nine Spirit World specialties, and began preparing the Attendant of Mysteries potion.
• Klein finished digesting the Miracle Invoker potion and drank the Attendant of Mysteries potion while Adam remained occupied by the Lord of Storms.