Chapter Summaries

Stelle and her companions freed Sorabis from the Black Tide and learned more about Senios and Aegle from the heroic spirits. Sorabis guided them through the Firmament Fortress, and Stelle tried to force the Sky Titan out of hiding with a powerful throw.

• Hyacine urged Sorabis to hold on to its consciousness, and Stelle used Eternity · Oath of Beauty to purge the Black Tide from it.
• Sorabis awakened, recognized Hyacine as Senios's descendant, and questioned whether she and her companions could challenge the Sky Titan.
• Phainon and Stelle displayed their weapons and past achievements, convincing Sorabis that the group had the strength to continue the Flame-Chase.
• The Eye of Dawn and Dusk vanished, and Sorabis guided the group through the hall of the People of the Sun while explaining Aegle's fear of the Black Tide.
• Stelle activated the celestial globe and hurled her spiked mimicry bat toward the place where the Eye of Dawn and Dusk had disappeared.

Stelle and the others failed to keep Aegle from fleeing, and Hyacine asked to uncover the truth behind the legend of Senios. Through Mimi’s memory, they witnessed Senios condemn the People of the Sun and declare her intent to challenge Aegle.

• Stelle struck Aegle with the mimetic bat, but Aegle’s mark disappeared as it evaded them.
• Sorabis said Senios’s consciousness did not control the mark and that Aegle was driven by instinct to flee the Black Tide.
• Hyacine asked Stelle, Mimi, and the others to reveal the past so she could give the ancestors an answer about Senios’s legend.
• Mimi recreated a memory in which the People of the Sun confronted Senios for turning against Aegle.
• Senios denounced the People of the Sun’s fear and cruelty, declared that she would believe in a prophecy of mortal heroes, and left with Sorabis to hunt Aegle.
• Aegle fled to the other side of the Bulwark, and the others set off after it.

Phainon’s group pursued Aegle through the Sky Titan’s fortress as Lunabis revealed Senios’s painful history and Little Ica’s possible connection to her. After Aegle vanished again, the group learned it might have fled beyond the clouds, past the boundary it had forbidden Amphoreus’s people to cross.

• Lunabis told Phainon’s group that Senios had been rejected and exiled because of her mixed blood and Chrysos Heir identity, yet still fought for her people.
• Little Ica recognized a familiar scent from Lunabis, who suggested that Senios and the winged beasts had left something behind in the world.
• Stelle’s group found Aegle and fought its Black Tide-corrupted servant while Lunabis spoke with Little Ica.
• Hyacine and Mimi activated the Celestial Mural, but Aegle vanished after being struck by its laser.
• Lunabis directed the group upward, and Dan Heng noted that Aegle had cursed Amphoreus’s people so they could not reach beyond the sky.

Stelle and Mimi revealed Senios’s farewell to the People of the Rain and learned why she set out to kill Aegle. Sorabis then showed the group the aftermath of Senios’s victory, when the terrified people turned on one another.

• Stelle and Dan Heng considered whether Aegle could have broken through the sky, and Lunabis asked Stelle and Mimi to show Hyacine the past.
• In the memory, Senios defied the People of the Rain’s banishment, condemned their faith in Aegle, and said she would kill the Titan to end unjust gods.
• Senios forgave her kin, declared she would begin a new history, and departed with the words, “Fly, Lunabis.”
• Lunabis and Sorabis guided the group onward, and Mimi’s Remembrance crystal showed Senios and Aegle’s final battle at the dome of the Celestial Mural.
• Sorabis recounted how the people responded to Aegle’s defeat with fear and chaos, then slaughtered one another after their faith was overturned.
• Stelle and March 7th reacted in horror, and someone asked whether this was a theory of regression.

Hyacine and the others reached the dome of the Celestial Mural, where Lunabis and Sorabis prepared to reveal what happened after Senios began her Journey of Flame-Chase. After defeating Black Tide guards, they stood before the Celestial Globe, ready to uncover the truth and confront Aegle.

• Hyacine affirmed she would face the buried history with an open mind and fulfill her mission despite her convictions.
• Lunabis summoned the Rainbow Bridge, and the group followed it toward Aegle at the dome of the Celestial Mural.
• At the dome, Lunabis and Sorabis promised to reveal the Sky Folk's history after Senios began her Journey of Flame-Chase.
• Black Tide creatures attacked the group, and Phainon, Stelle, March 7th, and the others defeated the fallen guards.
• Hyacine declared that both the truth and the fates of ordinary people deserved to emerge from beneath embellished legends.
• Lunabis and Sorabis told Hyacine to touch the Celestial Globe so the forgotten past could unfold before her.

The group witnessed the cruelty of Senios's followers in the Celestial Mural before Aegle turned scarlet and unleashed a Black Tide assault. As the creatures evolved into a giant colossus, Mimi used the mural to halt its attack, giving Dan Heng and Stelle a chance to strike.

• Hyacine showed the group how Senios's followers captured and executed an old believer who refused to convert.
• Aegle shone scarlet, and Black Tide creatures erupted through the dome as the Celestial Mural sealed Hyacine and the two winged beasts inside an amber cocoon.
• Dan Heng, Phainon, Stelle, and March 7th fought the Black Tide, but the creatures evolved, absorbed energy, and fused into a towering colossus.
• Mimi sent Remembrance light through the mural to stop the colossus's descending fist and weaken its prism.
• Dan Heng unleashed the power of Permanence while Stelle swung her bat to deliver the finishing blow.

Stelle and the others witnessed the memories behind Senios’s judgment of the Children of the Sky, learning that old believers had conspired with the Purgers against her. The recollection ended with Sorabis and Lunabis confirming that they had carried out Senios’s execution of the people, and Stelle resolved to free Senios from her suffering.

• Stelle shielded the Dome Stronghold as the group reached the crimson Eye of Dawn and Dusk and began viewing its past.
• The memory showed old believers asking Canis and the Purgers to help them defeat Senios, while the Purgers planned to target innocent Chrysos Heirs.
• Hyacine redirected the Celestial Globe toward Aegle, revealing the winged beasts’ memories of Senios condemning the Children of the Sky to dissolve in golden lava.
• Sorabis and Lunabis explained that they had served as Senios’s executioners, and Hyacine learned that countless Children of the Sky had died beneath the dome.
• After seeing the truth, Stelle decided to use the Mimicry Bat to release Senios from her suffering as soon as possible.

Hyacine and Stelle learned that Senios became a merged god and spared a nameless Chrysos Heir, binding her descendants to return and fulfill the World-Saving Prophecy. Hyacine recognized her ancestry, while Sorabis and Lunabis explained how they had come to understand humanity beyond Senios’s judgment.

• Lunabis explained that Senios had sought forbidden knowledge to merge human and Titan souls after losing faith in humanity.
• Hyacine faced the final memory with Stelle and resolved not to run from her mission.
• The memory showed a nameless Chrysos Heir admitting her failings and pleading with Senios for a chance to prove mortals could redeem themselves.
• Senios spared the Chrysos Heir and decreed that her descendants would carry the sky’s blessing and the curse of their origins until one returned.
• Hyacine realized she descended from the nameless Chrysos Heir, and Stelle comforted her.
• Sorabis and Lunabis told Hyacine that they had learned to understand humans through their own senses after Senios fell silent.

Hyacine and Phainon declared that humanity deserved a second chance and joined forces with Sorabis and Lunabis to tear open the sky and confront Aegle. As Stelle and her companions began fighting the skeletal bird, March 7th froze its wings, but Aegle’s heat continued to surge.

• Hyacine told Senios that humanity’s hope had endured and that the heroes’ sacrifices would help it flourish again.
• Phainon said the Journey of Flame-Chase had proven humanity was worth saving, and Hyacine declared that she would claim the Core Flame of the Eye of Dawn and Dusk.
• Sorabis and Lunabis transformed into streaks of light and bound Aegle with a golden chain, while Phainon pulled the chain to tear open the dome.
• Aegle emerged as a gigantic skeletal bird, and Phainon challenged it to battle on behalf of those who had sworn to save the world.
• Stelle told March 7th to target Aegle’s wings, and March froze them with her ice gun.
• Aegle unleashed a wave of heat that began melting the ice, prompting Dan Heng to warn that they had to suppress the rising temperature.

Stelle, Phainon, and March 7th severed one of Aegle's bone wings, but it regenerated and unleashed a lightning storm that sent their platform plummeting. Dan Heng identified the Eye of Dawn and Dusk as Aegle's power source, and Stelle prepared to strike it as they fell.

• March 7th restrained Aegle's wing with ice while Stelle and Phainon struck together and severed its root.
• Aegle regenerated the wing and summoned a storm of purple lightning, causing the elevator platform to fall toward the golden pool.
• Stelle used her fire lance and the power of Preservation to block and deflect Aegle's divine lightning.
• Dan Heng spotted an energy vortex in Aegle's eye whenever it summoned lightning, and March 7th confirmed the core's location.
• Stelle locked onto the Eye of Dawn and Dusk and aimed her fire lance at it.

Stelle froze Aegle long enough for Phainon to carve into its body, then replicated Aegle’s lightning and hurled it into the creature’s eye, bringing it down. The collapsing platform threw the group toward the pool of gold, but Phainon’s Goldweaver bracelet caught them in a golden net.

• Stelle used the authority of Eternity to freeze Aegle for three seconds.
• Phainon carved deep molten furrows into Aegle’s breastbone and spine with Dawn’s Advance.
• Stelle used the Remembrance quill to replicate Aegle’s lightning spear and hurled it into the creature’s eye.
• Aegle’s core was pierced, and the falling creature crashed into the platform, sending Stelle, Phainon, Dan Heng, March 7th, and Hyacine toward the pool of gold.
• Phainon’s Goldweaver bracelet transformed into a net that caught the group above the pool of gold.

After Aegle’s Core Flame joined Hyacine, the collapsing city forced Phainon and his companions to flee. Phainon lost Aglaea’s Goldweaver bracelet in the golden pool, then led the others toward a route out as her prophecy came true.

• Hyacine took Aegle’s Core Flame, and the platform began to collapse as the golden threads trembled.
• Phainon tried to retrieve the Goldweaver bracelet, but it fell into the golden pool and was swallowed.
• Phainon grieved over losing Aglaea’s final gift, then stood and told his companions they had to leave.
• Aglaea’s prophecy about bathing for the final time in warm, dazzling gold echoed through their minds as the group departed.
• Phainon recognized a broken staircase leading upward and pointed his companions toward a door that might lead outside.

As the cloudborne ruins collapsed, Stelle and her companions used Aegle’s Core Flame to reach a floating platform, only to be attacked by a corrupted Aegle. The Titan fixed its split eyes on Stelle and the others, its gaze driven by a desire for Destruction.

• Stelle used the power of Remembrance with Mimi to hold up falling pillars as the group fled the collapsing ruins.
• Hyacine called on Aegle’s Core Flame to create Rainbow Bridges, helping everyone reach a working floating platform.
• A piercing cry and a bolt of black lightning struck as the platform moved, then an immense force pressed March 7th, Hyacine, Dan Heng, Mimi, and Phainon down.
• Stelle remained standing and recognized a Titan as a huge figure crashed onto the platform.
• Aegle emerged, corrupted by the Black Tide, with split eyes and twisted appendages, and fixed one eye on Stelle.

Aegle unleashed the Black Tide and attacked Stelle and the others, while Stelle used Remembrance and Eternity to freeze the falling meteors. The group identified the Eye of Dawn and Dusk as the source of Aegle’s power and the Black Tide, but the battle worsened as corrupted eyes filled the dome and began raining destructive energy.

• Black Tide surged across the platform, restraining Stelle and the others as Aegle summoned a barrage of burning meteors from the Celestial Mural.
• Stelle used her hourglass pendant and Remembrance quill to freeze the meteors in time.
• Dan Heng urged the group to target Aegle’s eyes, and he and Hyacine attacked while identifying the Eye of Dawn and Dusk as the Black Tide’s source.
• Aegle grew two crowlike heads from his shoulders, which attacked Stelle and forced her to defend herself with her Preservation lance.
• The Eye of Dawn and Dusk filled the dome with corrupted eyes that opened and unleashed a silent rain of destructive energy.

Phainon, Hyacine, Stelle, Dan Heng, March 7th, Sorabis, and Lunabis turned the battle against Aegle by unleashing the “Sky” Core Flame and pinning the monster in frozen spacetime. Stelle and Phainon struck Aegle’s Eye of Dawn and Dusk together, branding it with an infinite cycle as an explosion swallowed everything.

• Phainon tore open the darkness with Dawn's Advance, and Hyacine poured the “Sky” Core Flame’s light through the rift to burn back the Black Tide.
• Hyacine healed her companions as Stelle imprisoned Aegle, while Dan Heng and March 7th broke free and helped clear the platform with Hyacine’s rainbow spears.
• Stelle stopped Aegle from summoning more demonic eyes, and Phainon prepared to strike its imprisoned spine.
• Sorabis and Lunabis broke free of the mural’s barrier and carried Hyacine, Stelle, and Phainon toward Aegle’s cracked eye.
• Stelle pierced Aegle’s left pupil with her flaming lance as Phainon cleaved its right pupil with Dawn's Advance, and their attacks branded the god’s core with an ∞ symbol before an explosion engulfed everything.

After Phainon and his companions defeated Aegle, Stelle awakened the “Eternity · Wings of Preservation” and tested their speed and defensive power. She returned to her companions as dawn reached the shattered vault, leaving them to face Okhema’s second dawn.

• Phainon and his companions defeated Aegle, and Senios praised humanity for earning a new dawn.
• Stelle received a notification that the “Eye of Dawn and Dusk” authority mark had been recorded and the “Eternity · Wings of Preservation” module was being constructed.
• A wisp of essence from the “Sky” Core Flame entered Stelle, and enormous rainbow wings formed behind her.
• Stelle flew through the vault at incredible speed and created a powerful shield from a luminous feather.
• Stelle returned to her companions as the vault’s first morning light heralded Okhema’s second dawn.

Stelle’s new Wings of Preservation let her fly at immense speeds and form powerful defensive shields, but an unexplained force suddenly dragged her toward the lava. Their protective power awakened just in time to catch her above the molten ground, leaving the cause of the fall unknown.

• Stelle examined her Wings of Preservation and discovered their immense speed, shielding, and energy-converting abilities.
• An irresistible force from the wings’ amber ∞ symbol pulled Stelle down toward the shattered platform.
• Dan Heng, Phainon, and Hyacine tried to catch her, but none could stop her fall.
• Stelle’s Preservation power formed an amber pillar that slowed her descent and caught her above the lava.
• Stelle hovered unharmed inside the pillar and wondered what had happened.

After the wings guided Stelle toward Okhema, she accepted their call and flew toward the holy city as her companions watched. Meanwhile, Ye Yan and Hyacine predicted that Stelle would bring about Okhema’s dawn.

• Stelle emerged from the crater and told Dan Heng, Phainon, Hyacine, March 7th, and Mimi that her wings were guiding her to Okhema.
• Stelle’s companions agreed to go with her and trusted the wings’ guidance.
• Stelle joined her will with the wings’ call, awakening their sacred power.
• Stelle transformed into a beam of iridescent light and flew toward Okhema, leaving a bridge of light behind.
• Ye Yan and Hyacine watched the trail vanish and said that Stelle would light Okhema’s dawn.

Stelle reached the outskirts of Okhema, where the Flame Reaver ambushed her in an attempt to seize the Sky Core Flame he sensed in her wings. She used the wings’ defenses to hold him off, buying her companions time to escape the Dome Stronghold and reach the Holy City.

• Stelle landed outside Okhema, and the Flame Reaver attacked her with a pitch-black sword strike that her wings blocked.
• Stelle realized the Flame Reaver had mistaken the Sky Core Flame’s aura in her wings for the real Core Flame and made herself bait to keep him away from her companions.
• The Flame Reaver launched a barrage of slashes at Stelle, but her wings formed layers of shields that absorbed and converted the attacks.
• Stelle held her ground behind the shields, focused on stalling the Flame Reaver until her companions could safely reach Okhema.

Cipher searched the high priest’s bedchamber and stole the All-World Gem, but her disguise as Atticus led the dying priest to reveal a secret about Okhema’s future. She agreed to tell the city’s citizens that the Dawn Machine would protect them for only three hundred years and saw a chance to become a hero.

• Cipher rummaged through the high priest’s chest and found a red-lacquered box containing what she believed was the All-World Gem.
• When the dying high priest mistook her for Atticus, Cipher disguised her voice and pretended to be the priest’s apprentice.
• The high priest told Cipher that Kephale had warned the Dawn Machine would watch over Okhema for only the next three hundred years.
• The high priest admitted he had concealed the time limit from the citizens and asked Cipher to tell them the truth.
• Cipher, still speaking as Atticus, promised to complete the task and decided that her chance to be a hero had arrived.