Recaps

Theus had Bazel prepared for execution as Blood Port braced for Lina’s expected attack. When Bazel’s bones suddenly grew flesh, Theus recognized the figure emerging as Isabella, the Empire’s assassinated Empress.

• Theus denounced Bazel’s crimes and ordered the Banshees to throw him into the furnace.
• Bazel tried to resist, but the Banshees shattered his gathered power and carried him over the firebox.
• A white bone arm shot from Bazel toward Theus, prompting the prepared Banshees, Ash, Gaia, and Gwen to protect him.
• Mystic Society believers and the Faithguard Army deployed weapons across Blood Port, while Granny searched for Lina with Dragon Breath Cannons.
• Bazel’s shattered bones grew a rapidly forming body, and Theus stopped the airship’s attack after recognizing Isabella, the Empress assassinated in Rhine.

Theus realized Isabella had appeared during the ignition ceremony and leaped into the furnace, while the gathered crowd believed the ceremony had simply succeeded. After the new Prince arrived, Theus remained uncertain about what Isabella was doing and whether she had been burned.

• Theus connected the Prince's recent absences and behavior to Isabella, then watched her pull a bone spike from her chest and leap into the furnace.
• The ignition ceremony succeeded, and the workers sealed the furnace while Theus ordered them to add an observation port.
• Theus told the Banshees to keep the incident confidential and maintained armed security because Lina had not appeared.
• Ewan brought the Prince to Theus, who wondered whether Isabella was inside the furnace before agreeing to hear the Prince's explanation.

Theus confronted the Prince and learned that Isabella had faked her death and was using a ritual intended to make the Empress a god. Isabella explained why she had told him the truth and declared that she wanted to remain mortal.

• Theus questioned the Prince about what was happening, and Isabella revealed herself to him.
• Isabella explained that she had used the Prince's assassination to fake her death and escape to the Duchy of Tis.
• Isabella told Theus that the royal family's ritual sacrificed willing followers to gain strength and ultimately become gods.
• Isabella offered Theus the ritual, but he refused, and she said she did not want to become a god either.
• Isabella showed Theus the bustling city of Blood Port and said she believed mortals could do what gods could not.

Isabella revealed herself to Theus and allied with him, declaring that she would go to war against the Empire and the Holy See. After she returned to the furnace to recover, Theus caught Nini spying and proposed sending her to Rhine to gather intelligence and contact Frey underground.

• Isabella told Theus she would declare war on the Empire and fight the Holy See, then asked him to join her; Theus clasped her hand and agreed.
• Isabella explained that she had revived through Bazel and would gradually recover in the furnace before returning the prince's body to him.
• The prince left, Isabella returned to the furnace, and Theus relaxed after learning the prince had not betrayed him.
• Ash caught Nini spying outside the window, and Theus offered her a chance to make up for her mistakes by working as a reporter.
• Theus asked Nini to travel to Rhine, enter its underground section, and use Mind Link to contact Frey because they could not reach Aksa.

Theus proposed using a Tsunami Generator to force seawater into dried river channels, creating a waterway from Castel toward Rhine so Banshees and ironclads could travel there. The plan remained untested, and the unexplained disappearance of the rivers left a lingering question.

• Nini asked how Theus planned to overcome the Banshees’ Symbiotic Pact when sending them to inland Rhine.
• Theus showed Nini and Ash old river channels on a map and explained that he intended to refill them with seawater.
• Theus revealed that Castel had modified the Storm Generator to control ocean tides and planned to use it to push seawater inland.
• Nini became so excited that she jumped into the ceiling, while Theus described sending ironclads and Tata’s ram ship toward Rhine.
• Ash questioned why the river channels had dried up, and Theus decided to test the generator by flooding channels in the Duchy of Tis.

Blood Port expanded its literate armies and prepared for the Great Expedition against Rhine while Castel pushed its factories and military recruitment. In the Northern Territory, Alexei’s railway-building campaign drew locals away from the nobles with paid work, and an injured worker marked the start of a turning point.

• Isabella recruited literate soldiers in Blood Port, where free schooling had made literacy widespread among refugees and residents.
• Theus organized Castel’s Expeditionary Force, combining army, naval, and air units for the Great Expedition against Rhine.
• Alexei focused on roads, railways, and shipping in the Northern Territory, with Hunter, Alvarez, and others helping manage the region.
• The Expeditionary Force used armored locomotives and airships to deter nobles from attacking its construction crews.
• Local people began taking paid jobs on the railway, prompting Northern Territory nobles to attack the workers and face the Expeditionary Force’s response.
• A hired worker was injured at a construction site, bringing the campaign to a turning point.

After Vance was impaled by rebar at the railroad construction site, the doctor arranged to take him to Blood Port for free treatment. Vance’s family and fellow laborers joined him aboard the armored locomotive, whose movement shocked them as it carried them away.

• Vance fell while carrying a rail, and a reinforcing bar pierced through his body.
• The doctor said Vance could not be treated at the site, while his wife and daughter feared they could not afford care.
• The doctor said Vance could be taken to Blood Port for treatment and promised that it would be free.
• Vance’s fellow laborers joined him on the locomotive, and the train began moving.
• The passengers panicked when they realized the steel structure was a moving vehicle, and a soldier stopped one man from climbing out the window.

Old Vance and the hired workers traveled by train to Blood Port, where the immense city overwhelmed them with fear and wonder. At the Expeditionary Force’s base, Nini removed the rebar from Vance’s wound and quickly treated him.

• Old Vance worried that the trip to Blood Port would cost his family money while Rebecca tried to comfort him.
• The train entered Blood Port, and the hired workers stared in stunned silence at its towering buildings, factories, and busy roads.
• Old Vance recognized that the buildings’ scale and construction seemed impossible, while Rebecca marveled at the city.
• At the station, Nini calmed the frightened Old Vance, melted the rebar embedded in him, and stitched his wound.

After Nini saved Old Vance with a swift operation, the Expeditionary Force’s free treatment and wages won the trust of Northern Territory workers. The chapter ended with a city guard secretly approaching Hodge to ask about future paid work, suggesting the lord might also seek a partnership.

• Nini operated on Old Vance in under two minutes, astonishing the workers and the military doctor.
• Old Vance mistook Nini for a six-handed monster, but Rebecca explained that the doctor had saved him, and said she was more human than the noble lords.
• Old Vance returned to the Northern Territory after receiving free treatment, and the Expeditionary Force kept him in its infirmary while he recovered and paid him a base salary.
• News of the treatment and wages spread, prompting many townspeople to seek long-term work with the Expeditionary Force.
• A young man representing about a hundred city guards approached Hodge and offered to establish contact for possible paid work, saying the lord might also approach them.

Hodge heard rumors of Blood Port spreading through the Northern Territory as Castel prepared for war and expanded its industry. Theus and the Banshees began a Tsunami Generator test at evacuated Gem Bay, and the experiment started with all teams reporting normal.

• Hodge learned that the lord connected to the distant city was related to Duke Alvaray and grew more eager to attack.
• Old Vance returned from the hospital and attracted crowds eager to hear about Blood Port, while young men asked Hodge for tickets there.
• Gaia took charge of Castel’s industrial production, and Theus and Isabella deepened their cooperation through standardized military supplies.
• Theus’s team prepared to test the Tsunami Generator at Gem Bay, using Banshees to plant beacons between Castel’s Stellar Furnace and the bay.
• After confirming that Gem Bay was evacuated and all systems were normal, Theus ordered the teams to begin generating the tsunami.

Tata’s first test of the Tsunami Generator produced a tsunami too powerful to control, while the Stellar Furnace’s pressure rose beyond safe limits. Beatrice was overwhelmed by the evil god’s presence, but as she drifted toward destruction, she saw its eyes react with shock to her.

• Monica and Beatrice watched as Tata activated the prayer module connected to the Stellar Furnace.
• Theus noticed the ritual circuits resembled circuit boards and imagined miniaturizing the generators onto Ash’s armor.
• The Tsunami Generator raised a towering wall of water, and Ash moved to protect Theus while ordering the crew to redirect it away from Castel.
• Tata reported that the ritual had gone out of control as the Stellar Furnace’s chamber pressure climbed toward its safety threshold.
• Beatrice sensed the evil god inside the furnace, lost control of her body, and watched herself pray to an unknown presence.
• Beatrice looked toward the furnace as the evil god’s cold eyes stared at her in apparent shock.

Beatrice’s encounter with the eye in the Stellar Furnace coincided with the furnace returning to normal, prompting Tata to suspect she could stabilize it. Theus redirected the tsunami toward a test site and measured the Tsunami Generator’s destructive impact, then ordered an inundation test.

• Beatrice stared at the eye in the observation window without suffering the madness she had feared, and the eye fled back into the furnace as its pressure and output stabilized.
• Monica claimed credit for restoring the Stellar Furnace, while Tata noticed the furnace had calmed after Beatrice’s gestures and wondered if she was the Machine Soul’s reincarnation.
• Theus sensed he might control the tsunami, but realized the connection pointed toward Worker Theus’s shell and decided to investigate later.
• Theus directed the tsunami toward Test Site Three, where it overtopped the breakwaters and destroyed most of the simulated buildings, though a reinforced bunker survived.
• Theus concluded that the generator’s current impact was limited to nearshore targets and ordered the Banshees to continue testing its inundation effect.

Theus tested the Tsunami Generator and planned an investigation into where the region’s river water had gone. He then entered the Golden Throne’s fog and discovered that Little Gwen’s true body was an enormous Bone Colossus.

• Theus ordered Tata to test the Tsunami Generator, which gently flooded the testing grounds while sweeping away nearly all the buoys in its path.
• Theus asked Tata to take the Banshees to the coast to investigate where the river water had gone, and planned for Tata and Ken to investigate the Stellar Furnace’s abnormal activity.
• Theus returned to his office, entered Worker Theus, and found himself in a tundra with the white fog gone and ice surrounding him.
• Theus discovered that Little Gwen’s true body was a massive Bone Colossus and learned that she had transformed after entering the fog.
• Theus told Little Gwen that he thought her Bone Colossus body looked cool and asked whether it could move.

Theus met little Gwen at the Temple of the Forgotten, learned that Lina was obstructing her efforts to control it, and rode the Bone Colossus toward the sea. As he sensed a mysterious connection with the water, he reached toward it and raised his hand.

• Theus admired the Bone Colossus and urged little Gwen to seek goodwill with Lina and exchange information.
• Little Gwen asked Theus to bring her fried fish made by Bettis, then asked him to take her to the sea.
• The Bone Colossus carried Theus and little Gwen across the tundra, where they discussed the Northern Territory's railways and its future.
• Little Gwen and Theus reached a view of the sea, and Theus sensed a strange force connecting him to it.
• Theus followed his intuition, extended his hand toward the sea, and slowly raised it.

Theus raised nearly the entire Storm Ocean, but the power caused Worker Theus to die and sent him back to the Throne Room. White-Robed Theus briefly moved and shook his head, leaving Theus wondering if it had been a warning as he descended into Worker Theus again.

• Theus lifted the sea into a vast vertical wall, and Little Gwen realized he was controlling the seawater.
• Theus's vision went black, and he awakened in the Throne Room, shocked that Worker Theus's shell had died.
• White-Robed Theus raised his head, met Theus's gaze, and shook his head before becoming motionless again.
• Theus descended into Lord Theus several times and confirmed that his body and the Banshees were safe.
• Theus returned to the Throne Room and began descending into Worker Theus, then suspected White-Robed Theus had been warning him about the shell's death.
• Theus tried to stop the descent, but his vision went black before he could.

Theus woke in his shell beside little Gwen, but the power he had used to lift the sea was gone. Little Gwen sensed a strange change in Theus, and back at his desk he went with Ash and Old Connor to seek Beatrice’s knowledge of the Mechanical Cathedral.

• Theus woke with his head in little Gwen’s lap, and they both bumped heads when he sprang upright.
• Theus realized he could no longer access the immense power that had lifted the sea, while little Gwen remembered witnessing it.
• Little Gwen talked with Little White and sensed something strange about Theus, wondering if they were connected by blood.
• Theus opened his eyes at his desk and told Ash and Old Connor to take him to Beatrice to ask about the Mechanical Cathedral.

Theus watched Monica train Beatrice to control her Pollution breath, then brought Beatrice to his office to ask about Transcendence. He ended the chapter by asking whether she knew of any existence stronger than a [Named One].

• Monica trained Beatrice to exhale Pollution across a wide area and declared that she had turned Beatrice into a legendary fountain.
• Monica proposed using Beatrice's breath to propel her car, prompting Theus to interrupt before she could lead Beatrice further astray.
• Theus came to see Beatrice, while Monica repeated Nini's rumor that he planned to sacrifice her in the Stellar Furnace.
• Theus ordered Ash to put Nini in solitary confinement until she finished writing her rumor's continuation.
• Theus brought Beatrice to his office and asked what she knew about Transcendence and whether anything was stronger than a [Named One].

Theus asked Beatrice about the strength and hierarchy of Transcendents, learning that second-tier Transcendents were largely confined to the Sea of Unconsciousness and that Named Ones were exceptionally powerful. Beatrice warned that Named Ones repeatedly caused trouble around the world and asked whether Theus had faced one before.

• Theus asked Beatrice whether anyone was stronger than a Named One, and she explained that Lina had once been renowned for compiling Candlelight Society records.
• Beatrice described ordinary Transcendent paths and explained that second-tier Transcendents, such as Moth Chasing Flame's Cocoons and Candlelight Society's Secret Keepers, could not freely exist in the present world.
• Theus asked about higher tiers and dual paths, and Beatrice said there were no tiers above the second, while Isaac and Jules had acquired dual paths by accident.
• Beatrice explained that Named Ones could vastly outmatch ordinary Transcendents, citing records that at least twenty-five Investigators were needed to stand a chance against one.
• Beatrice warned that Named Ones caused incidents around the world and asked Theus whether he had dealt with one before.

Theus and Beatrice realized Lina’s escape from Castel had been suspiciously easy and suspected something was wrong with the shell she left behind. They opened the sealed vessel at Experiment Site No. 7, where Beatrice examined it with her ability and began chewing a strand of its hair.

• Beatrice told Theus that Lina had never left behind a shell during her previous escapes, making the one at Castel seem suspicious.
• Theus asked through Mind Link where Lina’s shell was and learned it had been sealed at Experiment Site No. 7.
• Theus and Beatrice went to the site, where Gaia and the Banshees prepared to open the shell’s container.
• Gaia followed a manual to perform the ritual, causing the terracotta-like seal to crumble into dust and reveal Lina’s vessel.
• Beatrice inspected the vessel, activated her Transcendence ability, and chewed a strand of its hair.

Theus discovered that Lina’s shell was something he could control, like the shells he used for descent, and briefly made her move. The discovery connected Lina to the Named Ones and left Theus wondering what would happen if he controlled her for too long.

• Beatrice and Theus felt that Lina’s shell was familiar, while Gaia did not recognize her.
• Gwen arrived with a chainsaw, recognized the shell as Lina, and offered to treat it.
• Theus touched Lina and identified her as a shell, then compared the result with Gaia’s clone and remembered Chloe’s shell.
• Theus realized Lina might be another shell usable for descent and awakened her by focusing his will.
• Ash and the others trained their weapons on Lina, but Theus revealed that he had been controlling her and stopped after a brief test.

Theus agreed to let Nora and Chloe test the Mechanical Cathedral while Lina’s vessel remained under guard. In the Empire, Lina met Jules and warned him that Castel and the Duchy of Tis would soon attack and that the Candlelight Society and Empire could not defeat them.

• Gaia reported that the Mechanical Cathedral’s technical analysis was complete, and Theus ordered Nora and Chloe to undergo the trial together.
• Theus returned to Castel while Lina’s vessel stayed under strict guard in case Lina could control it herself.
• At the Secret Keeper Council, Jules summoned Lina from the shadows and greeted her as the Named One from history.
• Lina asked where the Secret Keepers were, then warned Jules that Castel and the Duchy of Tis were preparing to attack the Empire.
• Lina described Castel’s powerful firearms and airships and said the Candlelight Society and Empire could not defeat it.

Jules accepted Lina’s offer of help against Castel and discovered that reading Bruno’s memory chip had fused their memories into a new personality. Lina believed the new personality’s claim that it would continue Bruno’s great mission, while Jules planned to use her support and wondered what secrets she was hiding.

• Jules told Lina he would resist Castel’s forces and send the Holy See’s armies into battle, and Lina offered him early Mechanical Society technologies.
• Jules inserted the data cartridges using an interface he had taken from Bruno, provoking Lina to attack him.
• Jules revealed that he had read Bruno’s memory chip and that their memories had merged into a new personality.
• Jules claimed he would continue Bruno’s unfinished great mission, and Lina eagerly offered to help.
• Lina left muttering about the great mission, and Jules concluded that her belief in his lie could keep her helping the Holy See.

Jules wrote a letter to Beatrice warning her that Theus was not human and explaining what he had learned about the churches and their doctrines. He sent the letter toward Castel by ordering it buried in an old hole in the Lower Rhine.

• Jules dismissed the attendants and typed a letter to Beatrice, saying he had killed the Secret Keeper Council and believed she had survived his ritual in Castel.
• Jules warned Beatrice that Theus was not human and that only humans could be trusted, but hesitated to reveal more because Theus would see the letter.
• Jules described how the four great churches worshiped things other than gods and hinted that the balance between their sects explained their fates.
• Jules signed the letter as Beatrice's uncle, sealed it, and ordered a priest to deliver it to Castel.
• Jules instructed the priest to place the letter in an exquisite box and bury it in an old hole in the Lower Rhine.

Old Vance recalled how his workplace injury compensation convinced him that the Expeditionary Force could be trusted, leading him to bring his family to Blood Port. At a coastal construction site, he watched the Castel people prepare to shelter from a tsunami they had apparently controlled, leaving him overwhelmed by their capabilities.

• After the Expeditionary Force paid Old Vance injury compensation, word spread, recruitment crowds surged, and the city lord visited to inspect the money.
• The city lord went to the Expeditionary Force camp, and the Expeditionary Force moved into his residence that evening.
• Old Vance agreed to work in the south, and he and his family boarded a train to Blood Port.
• Blood Port housed Old Vance's family and assigned him to a coastal construction site suited to his carpentry experience.
• When a safety officer announced that a tsunami would arrive in fifteen minutes, Old Vance followed the workers toward a lighthouse shelter and wondered whether the Castel people could control tsunamis.

Old Vance watched a tsunami approach Castel and found that reciting Theus’s name eased his fear. After the wave passed, he saw the seawater being directed through channels into a dry river valley.

• The security guard told Old Vance that the tsunami would end in five minutes and that people who came to Castel often went mad at least once.
• Old Vance watched the unchanging white line of the tsunami approach and imagined an enormous creature moving beneath the sea.
• The security guard urged Old Vance to recite the lord’s name, and Old Vance found that saying Theus’s name calmed him.
• Old Vance glimpsed twisted symbols in the security guard’s Holy Scripture and learned that it was Advanced Mathematics.
• After the tsunami passed, Old Vance followed the others out of the safe house and watched workers release seawater through channels into a dry river valley.