Recaps

Theus discussed the seawater channel project and its unexplained water loss with Old Connor, then considered Isabella’s prolonged stay in Blood Port’s energy core. Connor also reported that Grand Duke William had proved capable of managing the duchy’s affairs, leaving Theus puzzled by William’s poor reputation.

• Old Connor told Theus that seawater was disappearing midway through the river channels and described a plan to trace it using marked targets, Transcendents, and Banshees.
• Theus agreed to have the Banshees cooperate and asked the construction site to report problems immediately.
• Theus wondered why Isabella had remained in the energy core for over a week and suspected she was draining most of its output.
• Old Connor praised Grand Duke William’s handling of mobilization, logistics, and other affairs, saying he was capable of governing Blood Port.
• Theus questioned why William had previously earned such a poor reputation.

Theus visited Blood Port’s energy core and learned that Isabella had been siphoning much of its power while constantly arguing with its Machine Soul. When Theus reached the furnace and tried to communicate with it, he sensed several presences inside and an unusually enthusiastic, relieved welcome from the Machine Soul.

• Theus decided to inspect Blood Port’s energy core and brought Tata along.
• Theus and Tata climbed the unfinished energy core to its control-room platform, where Theus found that its Machine Soul was ignoring him.
• A stoker explained that Isabella and the Machine Soul argued constantly, and that the workers were called in to be scolded alongside it.
• Theus realized Isabella had diverted much of the furnace’s output, leaving the energy core running below half its designed capacity.
• Theus placed his hand on the furnace wall and sensed several presences inside, including a Machine Soul that eagerly welcomed him with relief.

Theus entered the furnace to check on Isabella and found Bazel, Lina’s incomplete will, and the Machine Soul under Isabella’s control. Isabella appeared to be thriving, and Theus learned she could not yet come out.

• Theus encountered Bazel and learned that Lina’s incomplete will had controlled him and caused the assassination at the Tribunal.
• Bazel explained that the Machine Soul had severed his connection to Lina’s true body and refined Lina’s will from him.
• Isabella emerged from the furnace depths and scolded the Machine Soul for resisting her mechanical lessons and workload demands.
• Isabella promised the Machine Soul more Pollution and possible evil gods, then stuffed mechanical knowledge into Lina’s will.
• Isabella noticed Theus and reassured him that everyone was friendly before he asked whether she could leave the furnace.

Isabella left Theus’s forge after deciding that technological progress and action mattered more than pursuing godhood through prolonged training. She joined Theus outside and set out to face the Empire’s enemies, while the Machine Soul discovered Bazel and Lina studying mechanical principles together.

• Isabella told Theus that the forge’s flames had strengthened her, but she chose to leave rather than keep pursuing individual power.
• Isabella argued that technology offered a more efficient path than Transcendence and said she wanted to fight the strongest enemies.
• Isabella stepped out of the forge, greeted Theus, and hurried down the stairs with him to begin settling grudges and conquering lands.
• After Isabella left, the Machine Soul inspected the furnace and found Lina teaching mechanical principles to Bazel.
• Bazel invited the Machine Soul to join their lesson, but it withdrew its consciousness, insisting it would not study mechanical principles.

Isabella rapidly reorganized the Duchy of Tis for war, raising troops with generous pay while extending Blood Port’s industrial system across the duchy. As the eastern continent mobilized and the Holy See changed its decrees, a letter from the Empire arrived on Theus’s desk.

• Isabella worked with Theus to reform the Duchy of Tis’s bureaucracy and shift it into wartime mode.
• Isabella’s conscription order reached Blood Port’s refugee camps, and her generous soldier pay persuaded many people to enlist.
• Workers and students left Blood Port for military service in Tis, while Theus allowed the talent to flow and sent observers to learn.
• Isabella spread Blood Port’s industrial system through the Duchy of Tis and toward the eastern side of the continent.
• The Holy See issued unusual religious decrees and altered its interpretation of doctrine, then a letter from the Empire arrived for Theus.

After the upheaval in Upper Rhine weakened Lower Rhine’s faith in the priests, passages to the underground became more common, and an ornate box fell into the hands of the Untouchables. Frey opened it and discovered a letter from Jules to Beatrice, which Hodge later brought to Theus for investigation.

• The appearance of the Untouchables in Upper Rhine shook the believers of Lower Rhine and changed how they viewed the priests.
• The Gear Sage taught underground listeners while Frey helped distribute handwritten copies of the Holy Scripture of Empire Truth.
• A mechanical kid found an ornate wooden box in the dump and brought it to Frey.
• Frey recognized the box’s value, opened it, and found a letter from Jules, Pope of the Candlelight Society, to Beatrice, the former Pope.
• Hodge recounted the letter’s discovery to Theus, who examined the suspicious message.

Frey found a letter from the Candlelight Society’s current pope to its former pope and arranged for Little Bu to carry it out of Rhine. Little Bu was captured by Nini in an underground river and brought to Blood Port, where she met Theus and declared that he was a god.

• Frey found a letter from the current pope to the former pope in a box and decided to send it to Castel for a reward.
• Little Bu suggested digging an underground route out of Rhine, and Frey agreed to have the Untouchables deliver the letter.
• The Untouchables chose Little Bu to carry the letter because she spoke the surface language well, and she followed an underground river toward Castel.
• Nini encountered Little Bu underwater, captured her, and brought her and the package to Blood Port.
• Theus told Little Bu she was in Blood Port beside Castel, and she concluded that he was a god.

Theus and Beatrice read a letter from Jules revealing that he had arranged the ritual that nearly killed her and had warned her about nonhuman beings. The letter and the Gear Sage’s vow to protect humanity led Theus to question whether Little Bu and the Untouchables were human—and what that made everyone else.

• Theus stopped the others from silencing Little Bu when she called him a god, then reminded her that he was not one.
• Theus gave Beatrice the unopened letter, and they read Jules’s account of how he had set up the ritual that endangered her.
• Beatrice said she could not understand why Uncle Jules had betrayed her, since he had always treated her kindly.
• Beatrice recalled that Jules had repeatedly warned her to beware of nonhuman beings, making her wary of Nini.
• Theus asked Beatrice about the Gear Sage’s words, “Supreme Protocol: Protect humanity,” and connected them to its rescue of Little Bu.
• Theus considered Little Bu’s unusual features and wondered why the Gear Sage recognized her as human, and what that meant for the others.

Beatrice questioned whether she was human, but Nini’s awkward reassurance distracted her while Theus read Jules’s letter and Chloe’s diary. He learned that the Sea God Church’s Fishmen were long-mad believers who only appeared ordinary on land, and Chloe revealed that Churches pursued power and knowledge rather than faith in gods.

• Beatrice worried that she might not be human until Nini reassured her, then called her a fountain and sparked chaos in the office.
• Theus took Jules’s letter and Chloe’s diary to a quiet corner and asked Chloe about the churches described in them.
• Chloe explained that the Sea God Church’s Fishmen were Polluted believers who had become monsters but imagined themselves sane and human.
• Theus asked whether the Sea God Church had been destroyed because of its god, and Chloe said Churches did not worship gods.
• Chloe said people sought power and knowledge rather than believing in gods, leaving Theus stunned.

Theus questioned Chloe about the world’s lack of gods and the limits of Transcendent power, learning that churches viewed gods as evil gods and that Transcendents were supposedly the strongest beings in the mortal world. He realized the Golden Throne and its hall did not fit that explanation, and wondered whether the Three-Pointed Gate had been blocked off.

• Theus asked Chloe whether churches believed in gods, and she said gods were evil gods or Outer Gods that could not be communicated with.
• Theus reflected on the Sea God Church’s destruction and realized people in this world seemed to have abandoned belief in gods without resistance.
• Chloe explained that Priest Kaeschi was a second-rank Transcendent called [Cocoon], who stored her soul and let her communicate through the diary.
• Chloe said second-rank Transcendents could barely leave the Sea of Unconsciousness near the Three-Pointed Gate, and that Transcendents were the strongest force in the mortal world.
• Theus remembered the Golden Throne and its hall, then questioned why higher Transcendents were called second-rank and suggested the Three-Pointed Gate might have been blocked off.

After Jules’s letter prompted Theus to expand Castel’s military and investigate the world’s hidden history, he learned that the Banshees felt little connection to the Sea God and that even long-lived people knew almost nothing about gods. Research into seawater disappearing from rivers revealed a vast underground river network, and Theus realized Little Bu had traveled through it from Rhine toward Blood Port.

• Theus ordered a full-scale military expansion, recruited large numbers of ordinary auxiliary troops, and assigned Faithguard Army soldiers to lead them.
• Theus questioned the Banshees, Nora, and Helena, discovering that the Banshees did not care much about the Sea God and that the others knew little about gods.
• Theus established research groups to investigate the hidden history of gods with support from Beatrice and the Silent Temple.
• Researchers used rune-carved wooden blocks to trace vanished seawater and found that nearly every river in the Duchy of Tis connected to an underground river.
• Nini told Theus she had found Little Bu in an underground river near the Duchy of Tis, prompting him to ask whether the river ran directly from Blood Port to Rhine.

Theus learned that Nini was exploring the vast subterranean waterways near Tis and warned her to stay safe after she admitted she had gotten lost. At the battlefield, Galahad protected Isabella with Morningstar Twenty-Three, then reached for a Gatling Gun as an enemy scout fled.

• Theus realized that underground rivers near Tis might connect to Rhine and asked whether anyone was exploring them.
• Nini told Theus she had gotten lost underground because the waterways were too complex to navigate, and he warned her not to die.
• Isabella went to the battlefield with Galahad, despite usually directing the war from Blood Port.
• Galahad reflected on his intended sacrifice for Isabella and the way events had strayed from the original plan.
• Galahad split an arrow aimed at Isabella with Morningstar Twenty-Three, then took an ordinary Gatling Gun from his back as a scout fled.

Isabella and Galahad found the Holy See’s forces retreating in an unusually orderly fashion, despite their superior weapons. Suspecting the withdrawal was part of Pope Jules’s plan, Isabella prepared to charge the enemy formation with her personal guards.

• Galahad used a heavy machine gun to kill a scout who had taken cover in the ruins.
• Isabella said the Holy See’s retreat was out of character and suggested that its new Pope, Jules, had planned the withdrawal in advance.
• Isabella ordered Galahad to assemble the cavalry so they could charge the enemy formation.
• Isabella put on her armor and formed up with more than seventy personal guards, each armed with a bolt-action rifle, against an enemy force of at least a thousand.

Isabella led the Tis Knights against the Empire’s battle line, where bolt-action rifles and Galahad’s Gatling gun devastated the tightly packed soldiers. The Knights charged through the panicked survivors as the Empire’s line collapsed.

• Isabella led fewer than a hundred Knights to within a hundred meters of the Empire’s front line and ordered them to halt.
• The Knights fired two rapid volleys from their rifles, inflicting more than a hundred casualties before the Empire’s soldiers understood what was happening.
• Galahad rode forward carrying a Gatling gun and used it to cut down the remaining soldiers across the front of the line.
• Isabella ordered the Knights to advance, and their charge sent the Empire’s soldiers fleeing and trampling one another.
• The Knights rode through the broken formation, leaving the Empire’s battle line in collapse.

Isabella’s forces overwhelmed the Empire’s soldiers with new weapons, but she warned Galahad that the Holy See might have hidden war machines and ordered her army to adapt quickly. Meanwhile, Little Bu was quarantined at Castel after delivering her letter, where she asked for clothes and then knowledge.

• Isabella led repeated cavalry charges against the Empire’s troops, then ordered her knights to withdraw after the battlefield descended into chaos.
• Isabella realized the Empire’s investigators should have known about her army’s weapons and suspected the Holy See was focused on other plans, possibly including ancient war machines.
• Isabella ordered her armies to replace their old equipment, gain experience with new weapons, and develop new tactics, especially under Galahad’s leadership.
• Theus had Little Bu quarantined at Castel’s testing grounds because she might carry an unknown disease, but agreed to grant most of her requests as a reward for delivering the letter.
• Little Bu asked for clothes, changed into an outfit from Blood Port, and then told Theus she wanted knowledge.

Theus discovered that Little Bu had mastered the Empire Truth Holy Scripture and advanced concepts in only a few days, leaving him stunned by the Untouchables’ exceptional abilities. Suspecting that Rhine’s condition hid deeper secrets, he sent Nini to find a water route there with Little Bu’s help.

• Little Bu asked Theus for more knowledge and revealed that she had finished the Empire Truth Holy Scripture and its continuation.
• Theus tested Little Bu on waves and harmonics, then called for Yami to teach her and arranged for her isolation while she continued reading.
• Gaia asked whether Little Bu and the others had faced Cognitive Interference, but Little Bu said they had never encountered it.
• Theus realized that the Untouchables’ intelligence made their long underground struggle against the Candlelight Society difficult to explain.
• Theus redirected Nini from the seawater backflow project to finding a water route to Rhine, and Nini agreed to bring Little Bu along.

Nini, Monica, and Una followed Little Bu’s map through underground rivers to the route beneath Rhine. They found a garbage dump and spotted a mechanical claw reaching into it, suggesting they had reached an inhabited area.

• Theus raised the investigation of Rhine to the highest priority after learning of Little Bu’s extraordinary ability, but kept her information secret and suppressed calls to eradicate the Untouchables.
• Little Bu drew Nini a simplified map of key underground waterways, allowing Nini to navigate the route with Banshee support.
• Nini, Monica, and Una followed the map, with Una recording their path, Nini widening narrow passages, and Monica inspecting small openings.
• The group reached a rift valley beneath Rhine and confirmed that its rock pillars matched Little Bu’s map.
• Una found a large garbage dump, and the three Banshees saw a mechanical claw collecting parts from the trash.

Nini met Gragra after the Banshees discovered the Untouchables operating machinery based on Theus’s designs. Gragra agreed to take her to Frey, while Monica returned to Castel with news of their discovery.

• The Banshees saw an excavator matching Theus’s blueprints and realized the Untouchables had built it.
• Nini ordered Monica to return to Castel with the news while Una stayed behind to support her.
• Nini introduced herself to Gragra and explained that she had come from Castel with a reply to Little Bu’s letter.
• Gragra warned Nini not to touch him because contact brought misfortune, then offered to take her to Lord Frey.
• Nini followed Gragra through the garbage dumps and saw the Untouchables’ strange machines and curious people.

Nini met Frey among the Untouchables at White Stone Fort and delivered Gaia and Zoe’s letters, while learning that he was well-liked and eager for Castel’s support. She arranged for further contact and supplies, leaving Frey and the Untouchables in place for now.

• Nini reported the Untouchables’ complete lack of wariness to Una, who stayed hidden and continued observing.
• Nini met Frey in a cavern and introduced herself as a Banshee from Castel, bringing Gaia and Zoe’s reply.
• Frey recognized Nini as the author of The Strange Tales of Headless Nora and asked her to autograph his robe, easing their initial tension.
• After checking the coded letters, Frey welcomed Nini and asked whether Castel had come to take over leadership of the Untouchables.
• Nini explained that Castel would send someone to meet Frey later and offered to arrange supplies; Frey requested copies of the Holy Scripture and other books.
• Nini confirmed that Little Bu was in Castel and said they planned to invite her to stay and see the island.

Nini’s meeting with Frey and the Untouchables was interrupted when their underground cavern collapsed, but Big Guy saved the group by pushing back the falling ceiling. The collapse revealed sunlight and an excavated opening above, where Nini recognized the Candlelight Society and the Holy See waiting.

• Nini sensed danger through Una’s warning and her water vein perception, then spotted something above the cavern.
• Nini shielded those nearby as the ceiling collapsed, and Frey called for Big Guy.
• Big Guy rose from beneath the junk, blocked the falling rocks, and hurled the cave roof aside.
• The collapse opened a hole to the surface, exposing the Untouchables to sunlight for the first time.
• Nini noticed excavation marks and saw the Candlelight Society’s priests and machines above, then identified them as the Holy See.

Nini, Una, Frey, and the Untouchables fought the Candlelight Society after its forces tunneled into the underground ruins. Nini and Una opened an attack on the clerics’ battle line, but a massive shield appeared and stopped their assault.

• The Candlelight Society’s clerics and Transcendents formed up after tunneling into the ruins, while Nini learned they would not accept surrender.
• Nini and Una opened fire, and Frey led the Untouchables into battle using their damaged machines as weapons.
• The Candlelight Society’s steam rifles pinned Nini and Una down and pierced Nini’s Banshee armor.
• The Untouchables’ machines provided cover, allowing Nini to advance and Una to fire her Dragon Breath Cannon at the clerics’ line.
• A massive shield appeared in midair and blocked every attack from Nini and Una.

Nini and Una were overwhelmed by Jules and the Candlelight Society’s forces in the junkyard, leaving Nini near death. Big Guy awakened and shielded her from Jules’s finishing shot, turning the battle’s course.

• A huge shield blocked Nini and Una’s Dragon Breath Cannon, then dissolved into black liquid as Candlelight Society priests and choir performers appeared.
• The priests opened fire, and Jules confronted Nini before shooting her through the head despite her attempts to dodge.
• Una and Nini were left near death, while the priests’ gunfire killed several Untouchables who tried to rescue them.
• Jules pressed his gun to Nini’s head, but Big Guy awakened and blocked the shot with its mechanical arm.
• Several Untouchables pulled Nini to safety as Big Guy stood in the sunlight and entered war mode.

Nini realized the Holy See could use Una’s capture to drain the Life Pools of everyone bound by the Symbiotic Pact, but Una broke free and reinforcements arrived. As the Untouchables and Banshees pushed back the priests, Jules ordered the choir to begin the Sacred Hymn.

• Nini recognized that the Holy See might exploit Una’s capture to drain the Life Pools of all the Banshees and Theus, so she called for the pact to be terminated.
• Una broke free of the priests’ control, attacked them, and restored Nini’s life force through the Symbiotic Pact.
• Ash reported that the Fourth and Eleventh Advance Squads were coming, while Nini learned that Jules’s forces had powerful steam rifles and an unknown shield.
• Frey sent Big Guy’s steel arm crashing down, but the priests blasted it back with overloaded steam rifles that became unusable afterward.
• Ash and the other Banshees arrived, and Nini opened fire as Jules ordered the choir to begin the Sacred Hymn.

Ash and the Banshees charged the Candlelight Society’s priest corps and annihilated them with Dragon Breath Cannons. Jules and his choir remained unharmed behind a shield as he prepared to answer the Banshees’ attack with a hymn.

• Nini shared her assessment of Jules with Ash as the Banshees formed up to attack the Candlelight Society’s forces.
• Ash ordered the Banshees to charge, and they endured the priests’ gunfire before wiping out the priest corps with a volley of Dragon Breath Cannons.
• Nini wondered where Jules had gone, then saw him standing calmly with his choir on a stone stairway.
• Ash ordered the Banshees to fire on Jules and the choir, but a shield blocked the bullets and scattered the cannon blasts.
• Jules praised Castel’s firepower and announced that the choir would sing a hymn of praise.

Jules overwhelmed the Banshees by conjuring weapons and machines that carried dangerous pollution, forcing Ash to lead a retreat toward the underground river. As the cave began collapsing, Frey sent Big Guy charging straight at Jules.

• Jules conjured swords, Dragon Breath Cannons, and other weapons, bombarding the Banshees and forcing them to scatter.
• Nini realized Jules could create anything he had seen, while his conjured constructs rained down on the Banshees and Untouchables.
• Una survived a Dragon Breath Cannon blast through the Symbiotic Pact and warned that the attacks carried pollution.
• Nini discovered that Jules's constructs were contaminated, and Ash ordered the Banshees to retreat through the underground river with the Untouchables.
• Frey ordered Big Guy to charge Jules, and the machine smashed through the cave, bringing more than half of it down toward him.