Recaps

Nora and Nini showed the Silent Temple priests Castel’s railways, airships, defenses, and Cathedral, forcing them to confront how much the city had changed. At the Stellar Furnace, Helena and other priests lost themselves in the Sea of Unconsciousness, and the Banshees restrained them as Nini tried to bring them around.

• Gwen used Nora’s censer as a flail to awaken the unconscious priests, including Patriarch Ignati, who urged Nora to unite against the Forgotten Temple.
• Nora challenged the Silent Temple’s reliance on sacrifice and urged Ignati and the priests to see Castel for themselves, so Nini led them on a tour.
• Nini showed the priests Castel’s hospital, subway, and Skyveil Behemoth, while Nora warned that the Temple had to change or perish.
• Theus learned that Richard had isolated dangerous electrical interference inside a Faraday cage, then watched Richard demonstrate a lightning-striking Storm Generator.
• Theus redirected Richard away from weapons research, and Nini brought the priests through Castel’s air harbor and military district to the Cathedral.
• Nini revealed more than a hundred armored Banshees praying in Castel Cathedral, leaving the Buriers shaken by Castel’s strength.
• Helena entered the Sea of Unconsciousness near the Stellar Furnace, lost her anchor, and began to lose herself before Nini pulled her away from the railing.
• Nini joked that the colossal being was inside the furnace and summoned Banshees to restrain and wake the priests suffering episodes.

Theus prepared a delegation to negotiate with the Mechanical Cathedral while the prince readied for war against the Empire. Gaia, Zoe, and Erwin reached Rhine and found a decaying sanctuary under Candlelight Society control, while Beatrice waited there as the ritual neared completion.

• Theus received Beatrice’s decree ordering him to eliminate Moth Chasing Flame, then learned that Lina had been identified as its leader.
• Theus met the prince in Blood Port and agreed to support his campaign against the Churches, while delaying his offensive to approach the Mechanical Cathedral.
• Theus discovered that he could hear prayers and investigated Gaia and Zoe’s Transcendent abilities as Castel’s experiments produced storm technology and pollution-feeding electric fish.
• Theus sent Gaia, Zoe, and Erwin to negotiate with the Mechanical Cathedral, but Isaac disappeared while investigating its suspicious invitation.
• Zoe invited Frey to join the delegation, and the group crossed the Wall of Despair by airship toward Rhine.
• Frey witnessed a priest using a machine to whip believers, while the delegation arrived in Rhine and was received by Hela.
• Gaia recognized that the Mechanical Cathedral’s machinery depended on fixed rituals and linked defects, then examined the Gear Sage and suffered cognitive displacement.
• Erwin presented a steam rifle, Hela restrained an angry priest and offered to discuss an exchange, while Beatrice examined Castel goods and said the ritual was nearly successful.

Beatrice’s attempt to become a [Named One] unleashed a battle in the Mechanical Cathedral, while Frey and the Untouchables joined the fight. The survivors escaped with Beatrice, whose severe Pollution left her near death until Little Gwen began treating her through the connection.

• Beatrice returned to the connection and explained that she had been performing a ritual to become a [Named One], while Scepter revealed that the Holy See had concealed the powerful figures’ history.
• Gwen warned Theus that Lina had said [Named Ones] could not advance through rituals and that Beatrice’s attempt might go badly.
• Frey urged Lower Rhine’s Untouchables to resist the Candlelight Society, and Little Bu used Big Guy to rally them to build more war machines.
• Gaia and Zoe suspected the Mechanical Cathedral was planning a coup, then attended its banquet, where Hela sealed the doors and ordered an attack on the Candlelight Society.
• The Cathedral’s cannon opened a breach to the Sea of Unconsciousness, and Beatrice absorbed its Pollution before declaring herself the new [Named One].
• The Candlelight Society’s [Investigators] revealed that Beatrice’s ritual had no chance of success, but Frey and Little Bu broke into the church with the Untouchables’ machines and fought them.
• Frey stayed behind with the Untouchables as Gaia and Zoe escaped with Beatrice, while Jules killed the Secret Keepers, freed Isaac, and offered him a cardinal’s position.
• Gaia used the Steam Engine’s Machine Soul to suppress Beatrice’s Pollution, and Zoe’s ritual boosted the engine’s efficiency as Beatrice expelled more Pollution.
• Little Gwen connected to Beatrice and then Sister Scepter, helping reduce Beatrice’s Pollution flow as Zoe discovered that calling out through the connection seemed to improve her condition.

Theus spread his stories through the threads while Castel developed a Storm Generator from ritual modules and used it to destroy a tornado. The delegation carried Beatrice toward Castel for treatment, where she watched the transformed cities and ships along the way.

• Theus suppressed Beatrice’s pollution and shared stories through the threads, which gave her and others strange new knowledge and shifted Gwen’s [Anchor] toward him.
• Yami, Alvarez, and Hunter traveled north with the Silent Temple delegation while Theus returned to Castel and inspected Tata’s research.
• Tata demonstrated a Storm Generator built from standardized ritual plates, and Helena used it to summon lightning before Tata proposed a mobile version.
• Yami decoded a warning aboard the train as a tornado chased an airship, and Ignati organized the passengers and [Buriers] to assemble a Storm Generator in a carriage.
• Gaia supplied Beatrice’s pollution to power the ritual, and Ignati channeled the storm’s electricity into lightning strikes that shattered the tornado.
• Little Gwen revealed that, as a [Named One], she could handle pollution and asked Theus to test whether Storm Generator lightning could help her consume White Calamity’s power.
• Theus arranged transport for Beatrice to Castel, while she traveled with Zoe and Gaia past Blood Port and the Steel Ark, recalling her childhood and earlier arrival in Castel.
• Beatrice reached Castel’s vicinity and mistook its enormous church for a Candlelight Society church before Zoe pointed out the Skyveil Behemoth hidden in the dark clouds.