A century before, in Sablier, a forbidden portal was flung wide by a boy, Vincent, in his single-minded desire to protect his brother, Gilbert. And thus did that foolhardy desire lead to the corruption of that innocent boy's soul like a sweet poison... Now, as Gil, Oz, and Alice wander the ruins of the former capital, they are assaulted by illusions from the past. But how much of it is real? And how much of it illusion?

Once, following the tragedy of Sablier, Jack Vessalius made a valiant sacrifice to stop his best friend, Glen Baskerville, by allowing his body to anchor a set of seals by which Glen's soul was confined. But now these seals, long guarded by mages under the watchful gaze of Pandora, are being smashed one by one at the hands of the Crimson Shinigami, whose aim is to return their master to his once-whole state. And so, the fragile peace achieved over the last century begins to writhe, like a horror released from Pandora's forbidden box...

Vessalius makes his high-society debut at the manor of Isla Yura intending to investigate the potential location of one of the stone seals that Pandora seeks. But over the festivities and the secrets that swirl behind the masks of the merrymakers hangs a cloying scent of intrigue. And when the blood-blackened hand of a demon unexpectedly descends on those gathered, a waltz of madness begins... as if heralding anew an all-too-familiar tragedy...

Oz. Leo. Inescapable tragedy assaults and binds the two. "He" is no more. That simple truth tears their hearts apart like castles of sand caving in . . . But will history repeat itself when, in the midst of their sorrow, the two are pitted against each other in a struggle that could end in catastrophe?

The tragedy that befell a bustling city a hundred years earlier. Eyes of ill omen. Stone seals. The warped gears that began turning long ago play out a requiem for one who was much loved. The solemn sound of the dirge colors the world that hears its notes a melancholy gray...as though it was always meant to be...

The earnest emotions of one man cross the divides of space and time, laying bare his life, which was long hidden in the depths of memory. But when these revelations come to pass, the reality Oz has known begins to change and shift into something wholly bewildering. Could the desire in one man's heart have been the very darkness gnawing at everything all along...?