Recaps

Angelita revealed that the church was a weapon built to fight the gods and transformed it into a towering war machine. She led the Sons of Insomnia into battle as the system issued its first real-world mission, and Theus watched the South Continent’s dreamwalkers rally to fight the Enemy of Humanity.

• Angelita told Theus that she had been designed as a powerful support node and could not leave the church, but intended to face the gods with him.
• Angelita activated the church’s hidden machinery, causing the vast structure and its surrounding plaza to rise and walk as a steel giant.
• Angelita addressed the Sons of Insomnia, and the system issued the world mission to defy the gods in reality, with no reward or failure penalty.
• Dreamwalkers emerged from vehicles and machines across the South Continent, accepted the mission, and followed the moving church toward battle.
• Angelita told Theus that the church was near the Sea of No Light so she could reach the battlefield quickly, and said the people would not flee or surrender.

Theus and Angelita arrived at the South Continent front, where allied forces tested their weapons against monsters emerging from the Sea of No Light. Angelita warned that the Enemy of Humanity was coming, and a colossal hair-like monster rose from the sea and sent a devastating tsunami toward the defenses.

• Angelita contacted the frontline forces while Theus checked in with Chloe, who reported five battle groups fighting and seven on standby.
• Chloe said South Continent troops and Castel's Faithguard Army were suppressing the monsters, which could be harmed by bullets, explosions, and fire.
• Angelita contacted the Skinwearers, then warned the battlefield that the Enemy of Humanity was coming.
• The sea collapsed inward as an enormous mass of writhing black strands emerged, its howls injuring soldiers and raising a towering tsunami.
• Angelita's Titan braced at the shore, and the Night Watchers raised their lamps to slow the oncoming wave.

Grisha and the allied forces faced the Enemy of Humanity, whose waves and ironworm-like filaments overwhelmed ordinary weapons. Dream Walkers damaged it with their skills, and as Angelita took command of the battlefield, Theus returned to his journey toward Blood Port.

• Grisha fired repeatedly at the Enemy of Humanity as a wall of water crashed toward the front line, until Veronica and other Dream Walkers raised barriers to stop it.
• Theus ordered incendiary bombs, but the Enemy of Humanity pierced the allied airships with its black filaments and sent a burning wreck crashing down.
• Angelita's war machine blasted a hole through the Enemy of Humanity, and the Dream Walkers followed with a barrage that severed and stripped away many of its threads.
• Theus told Angelita to withdraw the mortal soldiers, and the allied forces retreated while the Dream Walkers took over the attack under her command.
• Theus returned to his body aboard a train bound for Blood Port, where Nora offered to relay a message to Castel or the Empire.

Theus discovered that Blackstone could let weapons harm gods and mobilized Castel and its allies to develop and deploy it. Angelita reported that the Enemy of Humanity had feigned stupidity before exploiting the Dream Walkers’ lowered guard and inflicting devastating losses.

• Theus ordered Nini and the Banshees to search for Blackstone and arranged for Castel and the Frontier Testing Ground to produce weapons.
• Nini and Ash found Blackstone underwater, and samples from the seabed and mines near Castel were sent for testing.
• At a meeting in Castel, Theus ordered Blackstone weapons sent to the South Continent and the ore distributed to Alliance factions for research.
• Theus learned that weapons infused with Blackstone could harm gods and rejoiced that they could now be wounded.
• Angelita told Theus that the Enemy of Humanity had pretended to be foolish, then attacked when the Dream Walkers lowered their guard, causing heavy casualties and supply losses.

Theus and Angelita coordinated the united forces as Blackstone Weapons proved capable of harming the Enemy of Humanity. After weeks of rearmament and preparation, the allied army destroyed the god in a valley ambush, leaving Theus surprised by how quickly the battle had ended.

• Angelita shifted her support fully to the allied forces after they held the line, and Theus learned that Blackstone Weapons could damage the Enemy of Humanity.
• Theus and Angelita assessed the god's speed and agreed to hold the line until Blackstone Weapons could be mass-produced and deployed.
• The allied forces rearmed while the Banshees found Blackstone Ore near Gem Bay and the Makers built equipment to mine it.
• The allied forces lured the Enemy of Humanity into a valley and overwhelmed it with artillery, bombs, and explosives.
• Angelita organized a celebration after the god was killed, while Theus wondered why there were suddenly no battles left to fight.

Theus began another ritual in the South Continent after the allied forces prepared Blackstone Weapons and evacuated Castel Island. He witnessed a memory revealing that the gods kept reviving despite repeated killings, especially the Sea God, leaving the allies searching for a way to contain them.

• Theus arranged for Angelita to gather livestock for another ritual and ordered Jules to prepare more as well.
• A month and a half later, Nora confirmed the South Continent ritual site and the allied forces were ready, and Theus ordered the ritual to begin.
• Theus awoke in a clearer memory of the Throne Room and learned that the Bone White Crow had been killed again.
• Theus heard that the Bone White Crow had revived three times, the Bright Candle twice, and the Sea God 135 times, sometimes reviving almost immediately.
• Theus listened as his companions debated trapping the gods or fixing their revival locations, but neither plan seemed workable.

The Theus clones concluded that they could defeat the gods only by truly dying at their hands, and Sisyphus sacrificed himself to prove the idea worked. The clones and the original Theus descended to carry out their plan, leaving Prometheus on the Golden Throne as the new one to face what came next.

• A clone proposed that a Theus killed directly by a god might delay that god’s revival, allowing them to perish together.
• Sisyphus volunteered to test the theory, and the clones later confirmed that he had truly died while the Sea God had not revived for nearly a month.
• The clones resolved to prove they were not gods and chose to descend into the real world to confront the remaining gods.
• The white-robed priest refused to stay behind and joined the others, so they chose Prometheus to remain in the Throne Hall.
• The white-robed priest placed Prometheus on the Golden Throne, then descended himself and never woke again.

Theus recovered his memories of the age of gods and learned that his companions had sacrificed themselves to suppress the gods for a thousand years. As the gods revived across the continents, he coordinated efforts to contain them and learned that Castel had lost contact.

• Theus remembered that he was an avatar and that his companions had sacrificed themselves to seal the gods away a thousand years earlier.
• Theus descended to his companions, told them the gods could not truly be killed, and ordered them to keep Enemy of Humanity occupied rather than attack it.
• Theus descended into the noble Theus’s body on the North Continent and learned that gods had revived simultaneously across the world.
• Ash reported that Jules’s forces had suppressed two gods in the Empire and one in Rhine, while the Northern Territory’s revived god remained unlocated.
• Theus sent Little Gwen to assist the search and asked about Castel, then learned that Castel had lost contact.

Kyle and seven Faithguard Army soldiers chose to risk descending through the church to reach the Stellar Furnace and stop its Pollution leak instead of escaping Castel. They began rappelling down through an atrium packed with Fishmen, with their fate uncertain.

• Kyle explained that shutting off the Stellar Furnace's Pollution output might stop the monsters, though the mission had almost no chance of success.
• Kyle asked the soldiers to vote between fleeing and attempting to reach the Stellar Furnace, and the squad chose to follow him.
• The political commissar stayed with the squad, and the soldiers joked as they prepared to descend.
• The soldiers saw the atrium floors crowded with Fishmen and tied ropes to the railings to descend directly toward the Stellar Furnace.

Kyle led the Faithguard Army squad through the Fishmen and into the Pollution-filled Stellar Furnace pipelines, sacrificing himself to get a tech-priest across. The tech-priest reached the valve but found its steam assist broken, so he began turning it by hand as the Pollution corrupted him.

• Kyle led the soldiers down through the Fishmen, but Ian and several others were killed or lost along the way.
• Kyle and the tech-priest reached the leaking Pollution pipeline, where Fishmen cut off their retreat.
• Kyle carried the tech-priest through the Pollution and hurled him ahead before collapsing and dying.
• The tech-priest reached the Pollution valve and tried to close it, but the steam assist failed.
• The corrupted tech-priest began turning the enormous valve by hand, determined to shut the pipeline.

Theus and the Faithguard Army waited anxiously as Kyle’s team tried to stop the Pollution leak at Castel’s Stellar Furnace. After the leak stopped, Theus discovered that a corrupted Tech Priest had shut the valve by hand, and Ash’s team had yet to identify him.

• Theus ordered his forces to wait for news from Kyle’s team rather than attack Castel, while the Stellar Furnace leak continued.
• Theus sensed the Stellar Furnace’s Machine Soul wail, then learned that the Pollution leak had stopped and ordered Ash to prepare for landing.
• Ash led fifty Banshees in clearing the Sea Urchin Monsters from Castel with help from ironclads and airships.
• The Banshees stormed Castel Cathedral, defeated the Fishmen, and secured the underground level containing the Stellar Furnace.
• Theus arrived at the leak site and saw a corrupted Tech Priest repeatedly turning a valve that he had manually shut to stop the Pollution.

Theus and the engineers stabilized Castel's Stellar Furnace after Kyle's Faithguard Army sacrificed itself to save the island. The furnace's output had increased dramatically, prompting Theus to order more built while the revived gods continued to threaten the Alliance.

• Theus saluted the monster who had completed the task of shutting off the Stellar Furnace's main Pollution pipeline, and Castel was secured under Banshee protection.
• Engineers and Banshees worked for three days to stabilize the Stellar Furnace while the revived Sea God struggled inside it.
• Theus learned that the South Continent had built two Stellar Furnaces and an extra backup, while Castel's repaired furnace had gained more than tenfold performance.
• Tata reported that Castel's output could rise at least twentyfold once the Pollution co-production system was completed, and Theus ordered Stellar Furnaces built wherever there was surplus capacity.
• Theus heard that the Empire had barely contained its god, Little Gwen was tracking the Bone White Crow, and Jules had nearly assembled the livestock needed for another ritual.

Theus’s second ritual failed to make him unconscious, but revealed that he needed far more Transcendence power, specifically the kind associated with Pollution. He canceled further rituals and prioritized building Stellar Furnaces to seal the gods, while the Empire prepared to expand its Pollution supply.

• Lina guided Transcendence power toward Theus in a second ritual, but he remained conscious and sensed that the power was insufficient.
• Theus said he needed at least ten times as much power and recognized that the missing element corresponded to Pollution, not more souls.
• Lina proposed sacrificing a hundred thousand people, but Theus rejected the idea and explained what he had learned from the earlier experiment in Castel.
• Theus said Castel could supply enough Pollution, though repairing and expanding the Stellar Furnace pipeline would take time.
• Theus ended the ritual and told the others to prioritize building new Stellar Furnaces, which would be designed with enough capacity to contain intact gods.
• Over the next month, construction of larger Stellar Furnaces began across both continents.

Theus approved Tata’s Second Castel Plan to turn a Steel Ark into a mobile fortress with a Stellar Furnace, factories, housing, and defenses. After months of construction and preparations, the alliance completed twelve Stellar Furnaces and prepared to begin the God Capture Plan.

• Tata proposed installing a Stellar Furnace and supporting facilities on a Steel Ark, creating a mobile refuge beyond the gods’ reach, and Theus approved a special budget for the Second Castel Plan.
• Castel approved twelve new Stellar Furnaces, while engineers from Castel and Tis mobilized across the world to build them and allied forces pinned the gods down with heavy firepower.
• Over several months, Theus used Little Gwen’s help to establish instant connections with Jules and other allied leaders.
• Theus met with Angelita and the allied leaders in Blood Port and announced that the God Capture Plan was about to begin.
• The leaders saw that twelve Stellar Furnaces had been built across the two continents, and Theus said the South Continent furnace had completed testing and was ready to operate.

Theus led the alliance’s plan to kill the Enemy of Humanity, lift it into the Stellar Furnace, and ignite the furnace. The god was loaded inside and the furnace was sealed, leaving Theus to begin the ignition test.

• Theus explained why the alliance would target the Enemy of Humanity first and use airships to carry its corpse into the Stellar Furnace.
• The allied forces bombarded the Enemy of Humanity for a day until it was dead.
• The lifting teams threaded steel cables through the god’s limbs and transported it into the Stellar Furnace without casualties.
• Theus told Angelita that the furnace still needed to be fully sealed before it could be lit, and said he would handle the Machine Soul and ignition test.
• The engineers completed the furnace seal, and Theus joined them as they entered the ignition test phase.

Theus attempted to ignite the Stellar Furnace, but the Enemy of Humanity awakened and seized control before the Machine Soul could take root. Angelita hurled the furnace away before it exploded, leaving her fate unknown as the Enemy of Humanity regenerated nearby and Theus took command.

• Theus began the ignition ritual, but the Enemy of Humanity convulsed and broke the Machine Soul before it could awaken.
• Theus ordered Angelita to attack the Stellar Furnace before the Enemy of Humanity could take control and trigger a catastrophic explosion.
• Angelita rammed the furnace repeatedly, tore it free, and pushed it away from the site before it exploded.
• Theus survived the blast and found the Enemy of Humanity gone, while Angelita lay collapsed and unresponsive.
• A liaison officer reported that the Enemy of Humanity had regenerated three kilometers away and that the 19th Legion had engaged it.
• Theus began issuing orders as he waited for news of Angelita and prepared for the Enemy of Humanity to return.

Theus discovered that the Machine Soul had caused the Enemy of Humanity to revive instantly, stalling the Stellar Furnace Project. Realizing he could suppress a god by letting it kill him, he overcame his hesitation and prepared to sacrifice himself.

• Theus ordered the allied forces to kill the Enemy of Humanity, but it immediately revived after each death.
• Theus traced the god’s instant revival to its contact with the Machine Soul inside the Stellar Furnace.
• Theus asked Jules to kill the Undying Bright Candle, which stayed dead and confirmed that the Enemy of Humanity’s revival was unusual.
• Theus concluded that the Stellar Furnace could not work unless someone suppressed the god and remembered that a god’s killer could hold it down for centuries.
• Theus recalled the sacrifices made by mortals in Castel, overcame his hesitation, and declared that it was his turn.

Theus arranged for Castel’s leaders to take over its institutions after the Stellar Furnace failed, then revealed that he was a transmigrator from Blue Star and planned to suppress the gods with his death. As his companions absorbed the truth, Monica offered to share an idea.

• Theus convened Castel’s leaders, and Erwin reported that Angelita had died but could be resurrected because she was a Dream Walker.
• Theus assigned Chloe to manage the Tribunal, Erwin to command the war priests and allied forces, and Ken and Gaia to oversee the military factories.
• Nini realized Theus was preparing to die, and Chloe pressed him to explain what was happening.
• Theus told his companions about his transmigration, Blue Star, and the Throne Hall, then said he intended to suppress the gods by dying.
• Monica said she had an idea.

Theus attempted a ritual with more than ten times the usual Pollution, but the priest in white revealed himself as Theus’s original and sacrificed his own soul to suppress all four gods. Theus awoke among his companions, who had taken over the work of transporting the gods and promised to protect Castel together.

• Theus agreed to try the ritual, and Lina activated it using a vast pit of Pollution while he sat inside Nora’s self-propelled artillery.
• The priest in white awoke in the Throne Hall, revealed that he was Theus’s original, and explained that Theus could not suppress all four gods alone.
• The priest in white suppressed the gods with his own soul, leaving Theus trapped on the Golden Throne as memories of his companions flooded into him.
• Theus awoke surrounded by Nora, Chloe, and his other companions, who told him that the gods had been suppressed.
• Chloe said the group had taken over command and would protect Castel, and Theus agreed to trust them.

Six months after the war against the gods ended, Theus described the Human Federation’s recovery and unveiled a memorial to those who died. As Chloe asked about his name before crossing over, he remembered it was Gu Yuan Gui.

• Connor told Theus that the Stellar Furnaces were operating, Jules had disappeared, and Isabella was arguing with him over ownership of one furnace.
• Theus and Zoe traveled to the memorial ceremony as he discussed the alliance’s future and humanity’s growing industry.
• At Castel Cathedral, Theus introduced himself as Prometheus, the Human Federation Council’s Speaker, and unveiled a monument bearing the names of the fallen and a blank space for the unknown dead.
• Chloe asked Theus what his name had been before he crossed over, and he answered, "Gu Yuan Gui."