Dawn of the Golden Witch

Dawn of the Golden Witch is the sixth arc in and the second arc of. The story follows BATTLER's game as narrated by Ange Ushiromiya to Featherine Augustus Aurora. The story focuses heavily on the romantic relationships of Shannon, Kanon, and Beatrice.

Introduction
Good morning. Now, the curtain shall finally rise on a game presented by that Battler-sama.

Will Battler-sama manage to successfully and spectacularly fill the enormous role of Game Master? Let us bear witness to this fight from the opposite side of the chessboard.

There is no longer a difficulty level. This is no longer a hint, but a confession.

Plot
In a Meta-World flashforward, Bernkastel presides over a wedding between Erika Furudo and Battler Ushiromiya.

Ange Ushiromiya and Juuza Amakusa meet with Tohya Hachijo, a mystery novelist who has been publishing "Forgeries" online. "Forgery" is the name for a series of stories that pose different interpretations of the events of the Rokkenjima massacre. Tohya gained Ange's attention after publishing her last three stories:, , and. Ange grows suspicious of the circumstances that led to this meeting as she begins to remember the events of Alliance of the Golden Witch, including her own death. Tohya reveals herself to be the witch Featherine Augustus Aurora. Featherine asks Ange to become her "miko," and read the next story, Dawn of the Golden Witch, to her. Ange begrudgingly accepts.

In the Meta-World, Chick Beatrice appears before Bernkastel, Erika, Lambdadelta, and Dlanor A. Knox. The witches are startled by the difference in personality between her and the original Beatrice; In truth, Battler had attempted to revive Beatrice but was unsuccessful and instead created two separate beings: Chick Beatrice and Beatrice the Elder. Eager to ignore his failed creations, BATTLER announces the start of the sixth game.

On October 4, 1986, before the Ushiromiya family arrive on Rokkenjima, Shannon and Kanon discuss the topic of love and their relationships with George and Jessica Ushiromiya, respectively. Shannon tells Kanon that there is a high likelihood that George will propose to her during the family conference and encourages Kanon to reveal his feelings to Jessica. Shortly thereafter, Kanon and Jessica confess their love for each other.

In the Meta-World, Chick Beatrice despairs to Chiyo Kumasawa about her inability to live up to BATTLER's standards as Beatrice. Featherine takes a liking to Chick Beatrice during this conversation and decides to have Chick Beatrice learn of the original Beatrice's nature by reading through all of her previous Fragments in Featherine's library. Soon afterwards, Chick Beatrice encounters Beatrice the Elder, a more mature form of Beatrice that represents the prevailing myth of the Golden Witch. The two bond as they strive to become the perfect form of Beatrice.

On the night of October 4, 1986, Erika Furudo falls from a boat and washes up on Rokkenjima. She spends some time playing quiz games with the family before retiring to the guest house with the cousins. Once there, she gets into an argument with Maria regarding the existence of Beatrice. This argument extends to the Golden Land, with Maria assisted by Sakutarou and Erika assisted by Dlanor A. Knox, Gertrude, and Cornelia. Erika leaves after a presumptive victory. In the real world, Maria leaves the lounge in tears. The others berate Erika for her childishness and join Maria. Erika spends the rest of the night having a conversation with Kumasawa about the legend of Beatrice. At one point, she asks Kumasawa for packing tape in order to use the same seals as she used in, but she finds that the tape isn't sticky enough to be usable. Meanwhile, George and Shannon retreat to the rose garden for a romantic rendezvous. George lays out his faults before asking Shannon to marry him, to which she happily accepts. Shannon returns to the servant's room in the guest house and again discusses love with Kanon. This discussion reveals that both characters possess one half of a golden butterfly brooch, once gifted to Shannon by Beatrice. At this point, Ange pauses her narration and questions Featherine about the necessity of the brooch, which Shannon and Kanon both believe has the magical power to make their romantic dreams into reality.

Meanwhile, an unknown character narrates their position of being locked inside a room in the Ushiromiya Main Building via a thick chain. The character attempts to scream for help but finds they are unable to use their voice. After rattling the door for some time, the lock changes to a simple chain lock and the character escapes. However, as soon as they step outside, they find a metal collar has fastened itself to their neck, chaining them to the room. A message scrawled on blood on the walls of the hallway inform the character that the chain lock must always be set; in order for them to leave the room, they'd have to do so without leaving the chain lock undone.

George and Jessica find themselves transported to the Witch's Smoking Room and learn from Shannon and Kanon that their love is about to be tested. Shannon and Kanon join their halves of the golden brooch, summoning Zepar and Furfur, twin demons of love. The demons explain that only one relationship can continue forward; the other will inevitably crumble. They organize a fight between Shannon/George and Kanon/Jessica to resolve which relationship continues. Beatrice the Elder encourages Chick Beatrice to join in this fight in order to preserve her relationship with BATTLER. In order to prove the worth of their love, each person has to sacrifice one person on the island. This takes place across four separate scenes: Following Chick Beatrice's trial, BATTLER joins the love trials as well, claiming he has already killed his sacrifice. With six deaths, these trials have effectively functioned as the first twilight of the witch's epitaph. On Rokkenjima, at 1:11 AM, Erika searches the mansion for the six corpses and manages to find the bodies of Rosa, Maria, Kyrie, Eva, and Natsuhi. The six corpse is that of Battler Ushiromiya and is found by Krauss and Rudolf inside of an unused and chain-locked bedroom. Erika initially refuses to invoke the "detective's authority" to examine the crime scenes with certainty, limiting her ability to fight against BATTLER. However, BATTLER realizes that she is only doing this due to the demands of Bernkastel; he berates Bernkastel for manipulating his game and mends the situation by retroactively changing the story so that Erika would have enough sticky packing tape to seal three rooms. After he leaves, Erika, Bernkastel, and Lambdadelta laugh, revealing that they had been acting in order to trick BATTLER into giving Erika her tape seals.
 * 1) A scene wherein George reveals his relationship with Shannon to his mother. This leads to a battle with Eva-Beatrice, which George ultimately wins. He asks Gaap to transport her body to the VIP room on the second floor of the mansion.
 * 2) A scene wherein Jessica asks Kyrie for love advice. This leads to an extended conversation about Kyrie's history with Rudolf, after which Jessica attacks her. Kyrie manages to defend herself with the assistance of Leviathan, though the two are eventually defeated after locking themselves in Krauss's study.
 * 3) A scene wherein Kanon discusses with Rosa her financial involvement with Maria's father. Rosa despairs at her situation and Kanon kills her as a form of mercy. He is then attacked by an angered MARIA. Shannon interferes and successfully kills MARIA using defensive barriers.
 * 4) A scene wherein Chick Beatrice confronts Natsuhi regarding the cliff incident. Chick Beatrice does this under the assumption that the baby that had fallen from the cliff was actually Battler Ushiromiya. Chick Beatrice attempts to strangle Natsuhi but is repelled by a spirit mirror that Natsuhi has in her possession. Lucifer destroys the mirror and then kills Natsuhi herself under BATTLER's direction. Zepar and Furfur count this as successfully completing Chick Beatrice's trial as "a pair in love are as one."

Determined to wait out the typhoon and contact the police, Krauss, Rudolf, Jessica, Genji, Gohda, Kanon hide in one bedroom while Erika, Hideyoshi, George, Shannon, Nanjo, Kumasawa hide out in another. Soon after, Erika slips away and uses her tape to seal both rooms. As she leaves to perform in-depth investigations on each crime scene, Erika finds Beatrice's letter on the ground, declaring that Battler's corpse has vanished. Erika contacts BATTLER and informs him that she had used her last tape seal to retroactively seal the room Battler's corpse was found in. This cripples BATTLER's plans, as he had intended for the secretly-living Battler Ushiromiya to be the one who placed the letter on the ground. Erika offers to let BATTLER remove the letter from the game to avoid a contradiction but BATTLER's pride prevents him from accepting this proposition.

Erika decides to investigate the room Battler's corpse was found in first. Upon doing so, she becomes embroiled in a fight with BATTLER wherein both of them repeatedly retroactively alter the story to determine the outcome of Erika's investigation. This culminates in a fatal Logic Error on BATTLER's part; he is backed into a situation wherein no one in the story could have feasibly placed Beatrice's letter. As a punishment, BATTLER's soul is made to spend the rest of eternity trapped within his Logic Error. His body becomes a lifeless husk. As a present for her victory, Bernkastel arranges for Erika to marry BATTLER; Erika would receive BATTLER's successor ring and BATTLER would receive a ring of subordination. This would allow Erika to torture and humiliate BATTLER for the rest of time. Bernkastel and Lambdadelta cackle to themselves as they leave to plan the wedding.

Zepar and Furfur announce Battler's informal retirement from the love trials. The remaining couples, George/Shannon and Jessica/Kanon, decide to settle the love trial with a duel between Shannon and Kanon. Zepar and Furfur arrange this in the style of a traditional Western duel, giving Shannon and Kanon each one pistol with a single bullet that causes instantaneous death regardless of where on the body it lands. The duel ends in Shannon's victory. After the loss, Kanon's spirit offers to help Chick Beatrice save BATTLER.

At BATTLER and Erika's wedding, Gaap, Ronove, and Virgilia attempt to figure out a solution to BATTLER's Logic Error but fail. Zepar and Furfur host the wedding until Beatrice arrives, seemingly with her original personality. Beatrice challenges Erika to a duel using the Red Truth and Blue Truth, claiming that she has solved the Logic Error by having Kanon swap places with Battler. Lambdadelta verifies this as true, ending the Logic Error. In order to win the duel, Erika has to prove how Kanon escaped the room after saving Battler. Erika is ultimately unable to figure out the solution and is defeated. BATTLER's soul returns to his body and he joins Beatrice. The two declare that, even including Erika, there were never more than 17 people on the island and shoot Erika together, killing her.

The Ushiromiya Family

 * Kinzo Ushiromiya
 * Krauss Ushiromiya
 * Natsuhi Ushiromiya
 * Eva Ushiromiya
 * Hideyoshi Ushiromiya
 * Rudolf Ushiromiya
 * Kyrie Ushiromiya
 * Rosa Ushiromiya
 * Jessica Ushiromiya
 * George Ushiromiya
 * Battler Ushiromiya
 * Maria Ushiromiya
 * Ange Ushiromiya

Servants

 * Genji Ronoue
 * Toshiro Gohda
 * Chiyo Kumasawa
 * Shannon
 * Kanon

Witches and Demons

 * Furfur (first appearance)
 * Zepar (first appearance)
 * BATTLER
 * Bernkastel
 * Lambdadelta
 * Beatrice
 * Ronove
 * Virgilia
 * Gaap
 * Dlanor A. Knox
 * Gertrude
 * Cornelia
 * Featherine Augustus Aurora (first appearance)
 * Chick Beatrice (first appearance)
 * Beatrice the Elder (first appearance)
 * Sakutarou
 * Lucifer
 * Leviathan
 * Satan
 * Belphegor
 * Mammon
 * Beelzebub
 * Asmodeus
 * Eva-Beatrice

Other

 * Terumasa Nanjo
 * Erika Furudo
 * Juuza Amakusa
 * Tohya Hachijo (first appearance)

Deaths and Disappearances
All deaths and disappearances are listed only as they are told in  and apply only for the individual arc, not the overall series.

Deaths

 * Natsuhi Ushiromiya, decapitated on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
 * Eva Ushiromiya, decapitated on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
 * Kyrie Ushiromiya, decapitated on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
 * Rosa Ushiromiya, decapitated on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
 * Maria Ushiromiya, decapitated on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
 * Battler Ushiromiya, died on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
 * Kanon, died on October 5, 1986 as part of the second twilight.

Chapters

 * 01 (130). The Sixth Game
 * 02 (131). Fledgling
 * 03 (132). Confession
 * 04 (133). Beato's Existence
 * 05 (134). The Wedges of Blue Truth
 * 06 (135). As Each Grows
 * 07 (136). A Different Interpretation of Magic
 * 08 (137). Trial of Lovers
 * 09 (138). Opening
 * 10 (139). Absolute Will
 * 11 (140). The Hell of Love
 * 12 (141). Two in One
 * 13 (142). Detective's Authority and the Premise of Magic
 * 14 (143). Battle of Red and Blue
 * 15 (144). Arrogance and a Trap
 * 16 (145). A Tiny Seam
 * 17 (146). Battler's Counter
 * 18 (147). The Skirmish over Battler's Disappearance
 * 19 (148). Erika's Trap
 * 20 (149). The Prize for Victory
 * 21 (150). Ceremony and a Duel
 * 22 (151). Into One....
 * 23 (152). Detective's Pride
 * 24 (153). Conclusion
 * 25 (154). Tea Party —Episode 6—
 * 26 (155). Secret Tea Party —????—

Volumes

 * 01 (21). Dawn of the Golden Witch: Volume 1
 * 02 (22). Dawn of the Golden Witch: Volume 2
 * 03 (23). Dawn of the Golden Witch: Volume 3
 * 04 (24). Dawn of the Golden Witch: Volume 4
 * 05 (25). Dawn of the Golden Witch: Volume 5
 * 06 (26). Dawn of the Golden Witch: Volume 6