Chapter Summaries

Stelle and the others traveled to the past Abyss of Fate to learn why Tribios first accepted the burden of the prophecy. They witnessed Tribios vow to protect Oronyx from the Black Tide, then followed a memory of her mother’s fall to uncover the events surrounding the prophecy’s origin.

• Stelle held a milk tea commemoration for Mydei, and Phainon asked Tribbie to reveal the history behind the prophecy.
• Tribbie agreed to show them the past at the Abyss of Fate, while Aglaea warned her not to let the prophecy break the others.
• Stelle, Phainon, and Trinnon traveled to the past and witnessed Tribios speaking with Oronyx about the prophecy and the Black Tide.
• Tribios rejected Oronyx’s warning and promised to protect her from the Black Tide, even if it was their last conversation.
• Trinnon explained that their mother had fallen into the valley during a ritual and said the story of her fall would reveal what happened next.

Stelle, Phainon, and Trinnon explored the hidden library where Trinnon and her siblings grew up, and Trinnon recalled their childhood and their mother’s grief over a fallen friend. Meanwhile, at the Church of Eternity’s milk tea shop, the Flame Reaver recovered from an explosion and warned Fulisina that time was running short.

• Stelle opened Janus’ Maze with her milk tea, revealing the hidden library where Trinnon and her siblings had grown up.
• Trinnon described how they spent ten years confined to the temple complex, learning about Amphoreus and inventing devices before setting out to spread Kephale’s Prophecy.
• Stelle found a cup of milk tea emitting black fumes and wondered whether it could be a weapon against the Flame Reaver.
• Trinnon explained that her mother had brought home red glass after her friend died in battle, then gave Trinnon a beautiful piece of glass before the ritual.
• At the Church of Eternity’s milk tea shop, Fulisina mocked the soot-covered Flame Reaver as he arrived and drank milk tea.
• The Flame Reaver told Fulisina that their time limit was approaching and they needed to hurry.

Fulisina learned that a Lord Ravager was troubling the Church’s fleet, while Blake stopped her from rushing into battle. In Janusapolis, Stelle, Phainon, and Trinnon followed a memory of Tribios’s escape and watched her leave the Sanctum of Prophecy, where danger might soon emerge.

• Blake told Fulisina that an Emanator of Destruction connected to Elation was probing around outside and causing trouble for the Church’s fleet.
• Stelle and Phainon entered Tribios’s bedroom with Trinnon and witnessed a memory of Tribios’s mother describing a distant world beyond the Black Tide.
• Tribios resolved to find her mother and left the bedroom, and Trinnon explained that she had set out during the years without daylight.
• Stelle opened a secret passage in the bookshelf, and she and Phainon used Oronyx’s Miracle to help Tribios travel through the Sanctum of Prophecy unobstructed.
• Trinnon explained that their actions could not change the past and that someone else had helped Tribios in actual history.
• Tribios left the sanctum as Stelle noticed the nearby civilians might soon become enemies.

Tribios accepted Janus’s Core Flame of Passage and vowed to carry on the dying Titan’s mission, while Stelle watched her mourn her mother. As the Flame awakened, Tribios sensed a distant gaze connected to Eternity and continued preparing to set out for Amphoreus.

• Tribios entered the Janus Treasury with the group and told Janus she had come to take up the Titan’s fate.
• Tribios cut her palm and offered her golden blood to the Core Flame of Passage, accepting the burden of a thousand incarnations and a journey marked by loss.
• Janus gave Tribios final commands to overthrow the gods, reclaim the Core Flames, hunt their brethren, and ferry their souls before falling silent.
• Tribios knelt beside Janus’s remains, thanked the Titan, and told her mother she would cross the gods’ ruins and open myriad paths for Amphoreus.
• A mysterious gaze descended upon Tribios as the Core Flame resonated with it, and Tribios turned the sensation into resolve to continue her mission.

Tribios escaped Janusapolis with the Core Flame of Passage as Stelle, Phainon, and Ye Yan helped clear the way through her memory. At the mountain gate, Tribios revealed that she could hear Phainon and the others and told him he already knew the answer to whether she would begin her journey despite its sacrifices.

• Tribios urged the Holy City guards to attack her, but the guard captain ordered them to kill her and seize the Core Flame of Passage.
• Stelle’s cup of milk tea reacted, and Ye Yan appeared as a flash of white light struck down the guards pursuing Tribios.
• Stelle and Phainon fought alongside Ye Yan to help Tribios escape through Janusapolis, while Phainon recognized the meaning of Trailblaze.
• Tribios defeated the sun griffin at the mountain gate, took the Core Flame of Passage, and set out to finish the God of Passage’s unfinished road.
• Phainon questioned whether Tribios would have undertaken the journey knowing its catastrophe and sacrifices, and Tribios turned to tell him that he already knew the answer.

Tribios remembered why she believed “see you tomorrow” was a prophecy: people kept moving toward a better future even in the darkest times. She glimpsed a future in which she and little Tribbie would reunite at the end of the west wind, leaving their journey’s promise unfulfilled but their hope intact.

• Tribios recalled that her past self had left a wish for her future self and vowed to press onward despite loss and suffering.
• In Year 3760, Tribios became Janus’s demigod, carried the Core Flame, and passed through the Gate of Myriad Paths to spread the Prophecy of Creation.
• During her century of travel, Tribios told 'Ye Yan' that “see you tomorrow” was a prophecy sustained by everyone who believed and kept moving forward.
• Tribios saw a vision of little Tribbie continuing their journey and promising to cross Amphoreus toward a new world.
• Tribios and little Tribbie imagined meeting again at the flower-scented end of the west wind and said, “See you tomorrow.”

Anaxa and Cerces discussed Anaxa’s dwindling soul and the answer to what they were, until Cerces revealed that Anaxa had already been a corpse before receiving the Core Flame. At the Cloud Stone Heavenly Palace, March 7th considered taking the trial of Oronyx’s Core Flame, while Dan Heng warned that Senate agents had been investigating the Trailblazers and might draw them into Okhema’s political conflict.

• Anaxa told Cerces that he was close to understanding what they were and expected to reclaim his body soon.
• Aglaea confronted Anaxa about his encounter with a Titan, and Cerces revealed that Anaxa had been a corpse before the Core Flame was placed in his heart.
• Stelle, March 7th, and Dan Heng returned to the Cloud Stone Heavenly Palace, where Dan Heng asked March 7th whether she intended to take the trial of Oronyx’s Core Flame.
• March 7th accepted that she might become the demigod of Years, then realized the role could keep her from running her milk tea shop.
• Dan Heng told Stelle and March 7th that Senate agents had questioned him about their arrival in Okhema and their ties to the Chrysos Heirs.
• Dan Heng warned that Senate opposition to the Chrysos Heirs could pull the group into Okhema’s internal conflict, while Stelle planned to stage a spy thriller in the Senate.

Tribbie recounted the prophecy surrounding Castorice and Stelle’s apparent death, but Stelle woke from it and wondered whether Oronyx’s trial would fulfill the prophecy for March 7th. At the Chrysos Heirs’ baths, Aglaea and Castorice discussed Anaxa’s future before Stelle and March 7th arrived to join them.

• Tribbie narrated Castorice’s vision of Stelle dying in her arms and the prophecy of an eternal farewell.
• Stelle woke in her private bath palace, checked that she was unharmed, and wondered whether Oronyx’s trial would involve March 7th in the prophecy.
• Stelle recalled that Tribios’s memories revealed a prophecy saying everyone would part with one person, who alone would witness a miracle, and decided to wait for Ye Yan to answer her questions.
• Castorice returned Aglaea’s books, and they discussed Anaxa’s irreverence, his appointment by Cerces, and how Aglaea might respond if he endangered them.
• Stelle and March 7th arrived at the Chrysos Heirs’ baths as Aglaea and Castorice prepared to entertain their guests.

March 7th agreed to take Oronyx’s trial after Mimi and Stelle encouraged her, while Aglaea explained the risks and promised to prepare the ritual. Stelle and Castorice discussed a tragic poem and what people leave behind, before Phainon arrived at the baths with news about a citizens’ assembly.

• Aglaea explained that becoming Oronyx’s demigod would cost March 7th her human identity and bind her fate to the Chrysos Heirs until the end of Creation.
• Mimi recalled memories of Oronyx despite never having met the Titan, and March 7th decided to take the trial with Mimi and Stelle’s support.
• Aglaea told March 7th, Stelle, and Mimi to rest until her teacher summoned them for the ritual, and she promised to discuss their journey home and the curse in the sky later.
• Castorice described Alcippe’s dark poem about a princess revived as a destructive dragon, then spoke with Stelle about the traces people leave behind.
• Stelle returned to the baths, where Phainon told her and Dan Heng that he planned to discuss a citizens’ assembly and would visit the Cloud Stone Market later.

Phainon warned Stelle and Dan Heng that Senate opponents were gaining influence and might recruit Anaxa, while Dan Heng learned more about the Senate’s members and suspected Ye Yan was Lycurgus. Meanwhile, Ye Yan met March 7th at a milk tea shop, where she discovered he would examine her trial of “Years.”

• Phainon explained that the Senate’s citizens’ assembly could influence the Journey of Flame-Chase and that its next meeting was approaching.
• Phainon worried that Senate members might persuade Anaxa to defect and planned to ask Aglaea to give him more time.
• Stelle and Dan Heng read about the Senate, including Lycurgus and Senator Canis, and suspected Ye Yan was Lycurgus.
• Stelle, Dan Heng, and Mimi discussed the upcoming trial of “Years” and rested before their next plans.
• Ye Yan met March 7th at the Pink Fairy milk tea shop, where she learned he was the examiner for her trial of “Years.”

March 7th and Mimi began Oronyx’s trial of Years by placing its Core Flame in the Tides in the Basin, then vanished into the trial. Elsewhere, Anaxa found himself in a strange wilderness where a traveler spoke of the Hand of Ashen Gloom and a Titan that rejected him.

• March 7th sought advice from Castorice and Phainon before undertaking Oronyx’s trial, and Phainon reassured her that he and Trinnon would be ready to intervene.
• March 7th and Mimi performed the ritual with Trinnon and placed the Core Flame of Years into the Tides in the Basin.
• March 7th and Mimi entered the trial as Aglaea, Phainon, and the others watched them disappear.
• Anaxa woke in a misty wilderness and questioned a traveler who spoke of the Hand of Ashen Gloom and said the underworld did not exist.
• Anaxa listened toward an immense shadow after the traveler pointed him toward the sound of a tide.

March 7th and Mimi began the Years trial in Janusapolis and fought the Flame Reaver and corrupted creatures. In the Garden of Life, Castorice touched Stelle to investigate her soul and found a clue pointing to Thanatos, promising to seek its Core Flame.

• March 7th and Mimi heard Oronyx call them forward and entered a portal to begin the Years trial.
• March 7th discovered the Flame Reaver and strange Black Tide creatures waiting for them, then used Six-Phased Ice to defeat the creatures.
• Castorice touched Stelle in the Garden of Life to investigate where a departed soul might go.
• Stelle received the clue “Go find... Thanatos...” when Castorice touched her, though the Hand of Ashen Gloom recording failed.
• Castorice promised Stelle she would find Thanatos and bring back its Core Flame.

After Aglaea warned that Anaxagoras was contacting the Senate, Anaxa met its envoy, Lygus, in the Garden of Life and explained his understanding of death. Lygus then asked Anaxa how he understood Eternity.

• Stelle told Aglaea and Phainon about the unexpected situation, and Aglaea said Cipher might know where Death was while warning Castorice that no one had escaped it.
• Aglaea revealed that Anaxagoras had begun contacting the Senate, and Phainon feared the consequences of his actions.
• In the Underworld, Cerces told Anaxa that his consciousness could remain in the mortal world for at most fifteen days, and Anaxa said he had never been loyal to Aglaea.
• Anaxa and Cerces met the Senate envoy Lygus in the Garden of Life, where Lygus acknowledged that Aglaea was listening in and invited them to meet Lady Canis.
• Anaxa argued that a Titan's falling was not death but a long process of dying, and Lygus asked him how he understood Eternity.

Anaxa argued that eternity was an endless form of death and that finite life gained value from its certain end. When he proposed asking Kephale about its fall, the Worldbearing Titan’s gigantic stone hand descended toward the Garden of Life.

• Anaxa told Lygus that eternity was an endless, frozen process of dying and said finite life was more meaningful because it ended.
• Anaxa said Cerces, who resided in his mind, could ask Kephale about its fall, and he dismissed the myths of Amphoreus as worthless if the Titan refused to answer.
• Lygus encouraged Anaxa to test his theory, noting that a Titan which had reached its end could not respond.
• Kephale’s immense stone hand appeared above Okhema and descended toward the Garden of Life, while Lygus motioned for Anaxa to go ahead.

Anaxa and Cerces waited at Dawncloud Cliff while Anaxa investigated the Senate’s plans and Cerces searched his memories. Meanwhile, March 7th and Mimi faced overwhelming enemies in the Vortex of Genesis trial of Years.

• "Lygus" welcomed Anaxa and Cerces to Dawncloud Cliff and said a messenger would guide them to Canis's faction.
• Anaxa questioned a young scribe and learned Canis's faction planned to target Aglaea and her followers at the next citizens' assembly.
• Cerces and Anaxa discussed the mural depicting Cerces and why Cerces had saved Anaxa during the Grove's attack.
• Cerces searched Anaxa's memories and discovered he had once slept with a plush toy made by his older sister.
• March 7th hid behind a wall of Six-Phased Ice as the Flame Reaver and golden-blooded Memory Spirits attacked her and Mimi in the trial of Years.

March 7th prepared to face the Flame Reaver while Anaxa recounted how his failed attempt to revive his sister led him to study the soul. After Cerces explored Anaxa’s childhood memories, Anaxa insisted they contained the answer to Cerces’s doubts and demanded that Cerces share their own secrets.

• March 7th judged that she was outmatched, loaded her ice gun with Six-Phased Ice bullets, and walked out to face the Flame Reaver.
• Anaxa told Cerces that he began studying alchemy after the Black Tide destroyed his home and took his sister and loved ones from him.
• Anaxa recalled sacrificing one eye to bring his sister back for a final glimpse, then accepting his teacher Empedocles’s advice to begin a new life and continue researching the soul.
• Cerces explored Anaxa’s memories of his curious childhood, his sister’s support, and his journey toward the Grove of Epiphany, interrupted by the Black Tide.
• Anaxa told Cerces that the answer to Cerces’s plans lay within his story and demanded an equivalent exchange of secrets.
• Cerces admitted that their knowledge of their own past might be limited and said Anaxa alone could resolve their doubts.

March 7th fought off the Golden-Blooded Memory Spirits and the Flame Reaver during the “Years” trial, but she was nearly overwhelmed. Mimi delivered the enormous camera March 7th had been missing, and it awakened as a power linked to Eternity just as March 7th aimed it at her attackers.

• March 7th used her Six-Phased Ice gun to freeze and shatter Golden-Blooded Memory Spirits while evading the Flame Reaver.
• The Flame Reaver wore March 7th down, wounded her arm, and cornered her as the Memory Spirits reformed around them.
• Mimi dropped from the temple dome and threw March 7th the oversized camera she had found.
• March 7th caught the camera, which lit up and resonated with her Six-Phased Ice as a device blessed by Eternity.
• March 7th aimed the awakened camera at the Flame Reaver and the surrounding Memory Spirits, told them to smile, and pressed the shutter.

March 7th defeated the Flame Reaver and gold-blooded Memory Spirits with her camera, but watched them dissolve and considered Ye Yan’s questions about Eternity, Remembrance, and obsession. She returned to the Vortex of Genesis with Mimi, having passed her trial of Years and grown closer to Six-Phased Ice.

• March 7th froze the Flame Reaver and gold-blooded Memory Spirits with her camera, and Mimi admired the resulting ice sculptures.
• The frozen enemies silently dissolved into the golden mist, leaving March 7th and Mimi confused about the missing rewards.
• Ye Yan appeared and asked March 7th to consider how Eternity, Remembrance, and burdensome obsessions related to the enemies’ disappearance.
• March 7th reflected that the twisted Memory Spirits’ madness and obsession might have kept them from reaching true Eternity.
• Ye Yan sent March 7th and Mimi back to the Vortex of Genesis, where March 7th declared that she had passed her trial of Years.

Anaxa met with Canis and Lygus at the Demigod Council, where he negotiated Senate protection and support against Aglaea. Canis began testing his loyalties as the council prepared for a citizens’ assembly fifteen days away.

• Anaxa challenged Canis over the guards and hostile welcome, and she dismissed them before discussing the Senate’s opposition to Aglaea.
• Canis led Anaxa and Cerces to the council’s central stage and said the citizens’ assembly in fifteen days would be a turning point for Okhema.
• Anaxa demanded that the Senate protect him and support him because Aglaea wanted Cerces’s Core Flame.
• Canis agreed to negotiate openly with Anaxa and began the Senate’s test by asking whether he had colluded with Aglaea.
• Anaxa said Aglaea needed his wisdom but would not want a Chrysos Heir she could not control.

Anaxa negotiated an alliance with Canis against Aglaea and secured permission from Lygus to seek an audience with Kephale. As Anaxa and Cerces began ascending the Abyss of Fate, he remained focused on the mysterious Audience of Divine Ordeals.

• Anaxa offered the Senate the academy’s support and his influence in the citizens’ assembly, while rejecting Canis’s demand that he prove his loyalty.
• Lygus revealed that Aglaea was heading to Dawncloud Cliff, and Anaxa warned Canis that surrendering him could undermine the Senate and cost it two Core Flames.
• Canis agreed to handle the situation, while Anaxa hinted that another ally would stand with them at the next citizens’ assembly.
• Anaxa suspected that Lygus, the Audience of Divine Ordeals, was the true power on Dawncloud Cliff and called him back before he left.
• Lygus granted Anaxa permission to seek an audience with Kephale and guided Anaxa and Cerces toward the Abyss of Fate.