Chapter Summaries

Ash and Theus arranged for the Faithguard Army to engage a growing force of Fishmen and arm monsters while the Banshees stood ready to support them. The soldiers’ volleys and Theus’s trigger mines decimated the charging monsters, and the battle continued with the Faithguard Army still holding its position.

• Ash told Nini that the Faithguard Army’s rifled muskets could help it fight the monsters, even though the Banshees were stronger.
• The Faithguard Army took position seven to eight hundred meters from the gathered Fishmen and arm monsters, near the webway, and Alexei ordered the soldiers to fire volleys.
• The first three volleys killed around forty monsters before the Fishmen and arm monsters began charging.
• Alexei kept the Faithguard Army loading and firing as the arm monsters closed in, while the Banshees drew their swords and waited.
• Theus’s trigger mines detonated as the remaining arm monsters approached, killing several of them with directional metal jets.

Theus’s mines and Castel’s rifled muskets overwhelmed the attacking Fishmen, leaving Alexei’s soldiers to adapt to battle while firing from a safe distance. After the one-sided victory, Theus asked Chloe about the steam rifles stored in the manor, and she identified them as the powerful new weapons he had mentioned.

• Theus’s mines killed the arm monsters, while Alexei helped frightened soldiers recover from the blast.
• Alexei ordered volleys against the approaching Fishmen, whose poor endurance left them exhausted and easy targets.
• The soldiers advanced and finished off the remaining Fishmen, and Alexei said the battle had felt more like play than war.
• Theus reassured Alexei that the Faithguard Army would soon receive stronger weapons and asked Chloe about the steam rifles.
• Chloe told Theus that the steam rifles were the powerful new weapons he had been talking about.

After the Faithguard Army defeated the Fishmen with rifled muskets, Theus and Chloe went to inspect the rare steam rifles stored underground. Chloe explained their connection to the Mechanical Cathedral and asked Theus for one, while he examined its unusual construction.

• Alexei led the troops back after the battle, while Ash pursued the fleeing Fishmen and captured several for Moth Chasing Flame to interrogate.
• Alexei considered how rifles and Minié balls had changed warfare and discussed replacing drumbeats with Theus's proposed political commissars.
• The soldiers celebrated their victory and grew more admiring of Theus, who assured the guards that their comrades had fought bravely.
• Theus and Chloe entered the warehouse where supplies from Castel's transformation had been sealed away.
• Chloe showed Theus the steam rifle, described the Mechanical Cathedral's mechanical priests, and asked him for a set.
• Theus examined the rifle's brass barrel, steel body, riveted joints, steam pipes, and glass viewing windows.

Theus and Chloe tested a steam rifle recovered from Theus’s manor and discovered its blast could destroy a rocky hill, while the weapon’s poisonous mercury vapor and heavy steam tank made it unsuitable for ordinary soldiers. Theus realized the Banshees could wield the rifles safely and watched them eagerly take them up.

• Theus learned from Chloe that the steam rifle belonged to the Mechanical Society of a thousand years ago, whose technology the Mechanical Cathedral could no longer reproduce.
• Chloe loaded the rifle with a compressed steam cartridge and warned Theus and the Banshees to keep away from its poisonous mercury vapor.
• Chloe fired the rifle in blasting mode, obliterating the target and carving a crater into the rocky hill while a duplicate of her body was destroyed by the blast.
• Chloe explained that the weapon’s blast radius exceeded its range and that Mechanical Cathedral weapons often endangered allies as well as enemies.
• Theus found that Banshees could hold their breath long enough to avoid inhaling the mercury vapor, and the Banshees eagerly picked up the steam rifles.

Jeremiah and Ken discovered that the Masha Archipelago, including Gem Bay, had vanished and sailed toward Blood Port with the refugees. In Castel, Theus proposed traveling to Gem Bay to seek aid and learn about the monsters, then revealed a blueprint for an airship.

• Jeremiah confirmed that the Masha Archipelago was missing and agreed to take the ship to Blood Port in Tis Territory.
• Theus argued that Castel should reach Gem Bay for help, news from beyond the island, and information about the monsters.
• Chloe questioned how they could cross the monster-blocked sea, and Alexei suggested building a steel ship.
• Theus revealed a blueprint and asked whether the others had heard of an airship.

Theus revealed plans for an airship, but its envelope material posed a major obstacle. Chloe explained that Castel’s technology lock had recently lifted and suggested using the tough skin of captured Fishmen, leaving Theus with a possible solution to investigate.

• Theus showed Chloe, Alexei, and Ash his airship blueprints, and Chloe and Alexei learned that the Empire had no way to fly.
• Chloe identified the airship envelope as its main design problem because Castel lacked rubber.
• Chloe explained that the technology lock had lifted, allowing some previously blocked inventions to succeed while other research still required gradual progress.
• Chloe said captured Fishmen appeared to lack reason and that experiments had found their skin remarkably tough.

Theus considered using Fishman skin for airships, while Ken arrived in Blood Port aboard the Black Pearl and learned that the local lord was known as the Prince. Ken reunited with Josh, who offered to explain the Prince’s reputation and how soap sales had brought him into contact with the lord.

• Ash said Fishmen had once been rational and communicative, and Theus considered their resilient, waterproof skin as airship material until he realized they would have to be kept alive.
• Ken registered the Black Pearl at Blood Port after Jeremiah’s search for Castel failed and the ship ran out of fresh water.
• A tax official told Ken that all foreign sea merchants had to visit the Prince’s manor and warned him that the lord was widely mocked for ruining everything.
• Ken went looking for Jeremiah and ran into Josh, who said he had been waiting for the Black Pearl to arrive.
• Josh told Ken that soap had sold extremely well and helped him make a connection with the Prince, then invited him to discuss the lord over drinks.

Ken told Josh that Castel and Gem Bay had disappeared, and the two decided to find the prince for answers. Meanwhile, Theus received Ash’s report on the Fishmen attacks and prepared to test a heavily armed locomotive for transporting ore.

• Ken followed Josh to the Herring Tail tavern and told him that Castel and Gem Bay had vanished.
• Josh urged Ken to find the prince, who might know what had happened, and agreed to return with him to speak with Jeremiah.
• Ash reported to Theus that the Faithguard Army had held off the Fishmen’s third attack of the day and that Alexei’s tactics helped with night fighting.
• Theus had assigned the steam rifles to the Banshees and planned to equip them with armor as Castel’s steel production grew.
• Theus prepared to conduct a trial run of an armored steam locomotive built to carry ore and defend itself.

Theus unveiled Castel’s armored locomotive and oversaw its first test run, drawing cheers from islanders and workers eager for a sign of progress. The train cleared a series of obstacles, and its trial continued toward the largest boulders.

• Theus prepared the armored train for a test run as Connor reported that workers and islanders had gathered to watch.
• Theus arrived at the crowded factory district and presented the locomotive, marked Castel First Steelworks.
• Old Ivan fueled the engine with solidified Pollution and started the locomotive as the crowd cheered.
• The train rolled beyond the church walls and easily pushed aside straw, branches, logs, and nails.
• Old Ivan slowed the train as it shoved aside and crushed basketball-sized rocks, then approached enormous boulders.

Theus’s armored train cleared a boulder from the tracks, giving Castel’s residents a way to travel beyond the walls and reclaim their homeland. Aboard Jeremiah’s ship, Ken and Josh asked him about what he had witnessed in Gem Bay, and Jeremiah began recounting how the Tattooed Man turned into a monster while trying to contact the Pirate King in a dream.

• Old Ivan used the Clamorer to push a boulder off the tracks, and the crowd cheered as the train continued.
• Theus reflected on how the armored train could let Castel’s people leave the walls and help drive back the Fishmen.
• Ken tried to leave the ship at night to find the Prince, but Josh stopped him and urged him to wait until morning.
• Jeremiah offered Ken his curved blade, then agreed to tell Ken and Josh what he had seen ashore.
• Jeremiah explained that he had asked the Tattooed Man to contact the Pirate King through a dream, and watched the man turn into a monster.

Jeremiah described witnessing a man drown in his bed and transform into a monster, then admitted he had begun dreaming of the deep sea. Chloe told Theus that Fishmen seemed to be crudely imitating humans and revealed she had used her own skin as a new research material, prompting Theus to question how much humanity remained in her.

• Jeremiah recounted how a man drowned in bed, became a strange monster, and disappeared before Jeremiah returned the next day.
• Jeremiah told Josh and Ken that he had started dreaming about the deep sea and agreed to meet the 'Prince' with them the next day.
• Chloe told Theus that Fishmen had human accessories embedded in their flesh, suggesting they were crudely imitating humans.
• Theus told Chloe to stop researching Fishman skin for airships because of the possibility that Fishmen were connected to humans.
• Chloe said the new material she had found was her own skin, and Theus lifted her by the collar and asked whether any humanity remained inside her.

Theus and Chloe discussed her [Cocoon] ability and the alarming disappearance of the cost of Transcendence powers across the island. In Blood Port, Jeremiah, Ken, and Josh waited to meet the “Prince,” whose betrayal of his followers had earned him his bitter nickname.

• Chloe showed Theus that she could shape a light, tough, waterproof, and fireproof [Cocoon] into forms suitable for an airship.
• Theus urged Chloe to cherish her humanity, and Chloe insisted that abandoning her pursuit of knowledge would betray herself.
• Chloe told Theus that Transcendents on the island could now use their abilities without paying a cost, though she feared the price might have changed instead.
• Jeremiah, Ken, and Josh waited at the “Prince’s” residence in Blood Port before his arrival.
• Josh explained to Ken that the “Prince” had betrayed his followers to the Empress, who granted him Tis Territory in exchange for his loyalty.

William promised to send grain and settle refugees from the Northern Territory, then swore to help Lady Nora if reports of Count Bazel’s massacre proved true. Ken and Jeremiah were stunned by his determination, and Ken began to believe him.

• William asked Josh, Ken, and Jeremiah to transport grain to the famine-stricken Northern Territory, and offered to pay for trips bringing refugees to his territory.
• Jeremiah told William that Count Bazel had slaughtered two refugee settlements and that Nora was leading the survivors against him.
• William ordered Ewan to investigate and vowed to help Nora and persuade the Empress to send troops if the reports were true.
• Ken asked whether William would really save Nora, and William’s oath made Ken waver toward trusting him.

Jeremiah, Josh, and Ken discussed whether the Prince would help investigate Castel and rescue Nora, while doubting his ability to send troops. In Castel, Theus unveiled a hand-cranked Gatling gun and explained that he planned to mount one on an armored locomotive.

• Jeremiah said the Prince would help investigate Castel because guilt and his oath would motivate him, and planned to sail there with the others.
• Ken asked whether the Prince would send troops to the Northern Territory, and Josh reassured him that Lord Theus would not abandon Nora.
• The three men worried that Castel lacked soldiers and might not be able to defeat the Northern dukes.
• Theus presented a hand-cranked Gatling gun that he had designed and explained that it could fire more than three hundred rounds per minute.
• Theus said he planned to mount a Gatling gun on the front of an armored locomotive, and Alexei asked whether soldiers could carry it.

Theus brought a prototype Gatling gun to the beach to face an unusually large group of arm monsters, while Alexei doubted the weapon could help against them. Theus prepared to test the gun from more than fifteen hundred meters away, with Chloe using her ability to spot where its bullets landed.

• Theus learned that an unusually large group of arm monsters was gathering in the south and took Alexei through the webway to the beach.
• Theus and Alexei saw at least fifty arm monsters gathered across the beach, and Alexei judged that the Banshees would have to handle most of the fight.
• Theus had Banshees mount the Gatling gun on its tripod and secured an ammunition hopper above its barrels.
• Theus asked Chloe to use [Self-Binding] and telepathic communication to report where the Gatling gun's bullets landed.
• Theus aimed the prototype at the distant monsters and prepared to demonstrate beyond-visual-range shooting.

Theus tested his hand-cranked Gatling Gun and, guided by Chloe, used it to destroy more than fifty arm monsters on a beach fifteen hundred meters away. Alexei realized the weapon could let ordinary soldiers confront Transcendent monsters, changing the balance of the battlefield.

• Theus explained the Gatling Gun's range and ammunition advantages, then called Nini over to help operate it.
• Theus fired test rounds while Chloe judged their accuracy and Alexei questioned the weapon's value.
• After Theus found the range, Nini cranked faster and Chloe directed a continuous stream of bullets into the clustered monsters.
• The Gatling Gun killed more than fifty arm monsters in minutes, leaving Chloe and Alexei stunned by its destructive power.
• Alexei realized ordinary soldiers could use the Gatling Gun to fight Transcendent monsters head-on.

Ken and Jeremiah investigated the sea where Castel had stood, finding only a deep, flat rocky foundation and no clues to the island’s disappearance. As the search seemed hopeless, Ken remembered the wooden chest they had salvaged, leaving him with a possible lead.

• Ken measured the seabed and found a rocky protrusion at the depth and range where Castel had once stood.
• Jeremiah ruled out diving to the seabed, and Ewan’s salvage attempts recovered almost nothing unusual.
• Ewan returned the fleet to Blood Port while Jeremiah stayed aboard the Black Pearl to keep watch overnight.
• Ken and Jeremiah discussed the Prince’s kindness and political choices, while Jeremiah urged Ken to focus on finding Castel.
• Ken recalled that Jeremiah had hauled up a wooden chest and suddenly realized he might have forgotten something important.

Ken and Jeremiah opened a mysterious sea crate and found an unspoiled corpse inside. In Castel, Chloe told Theus that a polluted vessel meant for an evil god’s descent had vanished from a supposedly secure Cocoon.

• Jeremiah pried open the outer crate and found an ornate, seawater-proof inner crate bearing a fiery emblem.
• Ken recognized that the inner crate’s lock had been reinforced with Transcendent power, so he used nitroglycerin to blast it open.
• Ken and Jeremiah glimpsed a figure inside and retreated before returning with a lantern, blade, and musket.
• Jeremiah and Ken found a young boy’s corpse in the crate, with a bloody wound in his chest but no sign of decay.
• Chloe admitted to Theus that the polluted vessel for an evil god’s descent had disappeared from the guarded Cocoon.

Theus discovered that Chloe had lost the box sealing his vessel and descended into Worker Theus to investigate. He awakened free to move, only to realize the room was aboard a ship at sea, far from the main cathedral where Chloe thought the hidden entrance led.

• Theus learned that Chloe had hidden the entrance to their hideout within the protective inscription and that the missing box had been kept inside.
• Chloe explained that the hideout’s entrance could open at different points within the main church, and Theus asked her to draw the box so Connor could help search for it.
• After Chloe left, Theus descended to the Golden Throne and sensed a brief burst of static through Mind Link.
• Theus entered Worker Theus’s body and found himself able to move freely inside a dark, cluttered room.
• Theus heard waves and felt the floor sway, realizing he was aboard a ship at sea and accusing Chloe of misleading him about where the door could open.

Theus woke aboard the Black Pearl and realized the ship was at sea, but the sight of the dark water made his vision go black. Jeremiah then awoke from a strange deep-sea dream and watched Theus’s corpse fall overboard, leaving him with the fear that the sea was calling him too.

• Theus explored the ship and recognized it as the Black Pearl after finding soap made in Castel.
• Theus confirmed that the Black Pearl was at sea and hoped its crew could carry news of Castel’s monster siege, but the darkness overtook him.
• Jeremiah woke from a deep-sea dream, then heard footsteps on deck and armed himself to investigate.
• Jeremiah recognized the approaching figure as the corpse found in the box and tried to stop it from going over the rail.
• The corpse fell into the sea despite Jeremiah’s gunshot and thrown scimitar, and its final gaze reminded him of Tattooed Man’s transformation.