Chapter Summaries

Theus redirected Castel’s research toward equipping the Banshees for combat and called on Moth Chasing Flame’s Transcendents to defend their home. With the threat of rising seawater forcing an immediate response, Castel began a full military mobilization.

• Theus told Chloe to suspend artillery and fuse research and design heavy armor for the Banshees, while Nini joined the effort.
• Theus invoked Castel’s defense covenant and summoned every Transcendent of Moth Chasing Flame to fight; Chloe accepted and rallied the assembled members.
• Moth Chasing Flame’s members raised their hoods in disciplined unison, and Theus ordered factories to prioritize military production.
• Alexei arrived after learning the details from Ash, and Theus ordered him to expand the Faithguard Army tenfold.

Theus and Alexei prepared Castel for the rising seawater by expanding the Faithguard Army, reorganizing its forces, and equipping it with bolt-action rifles and armored Banshees. As the monsters gathered outside the fortress, three newly built airships were finally completed.

• Alexei planned to expand the Faithguard Army tenfold, and Castel mobilized its people and factories for the coming disaster.
• Alexei and Chloe incorporated Moth Chasing Flame members as political officers, assigned the Banshees to independent combat squads, and kept the Nymphs in the command post as advisers.
• Theus replaced the Faithguard Army's rifled muskets with bolt-action rifles and abandoned plans for repeating firearms because Castel's machining could not produce reliable guns.
• Nini used Turn Stone to Mud to craft key armor components, and Ash demonstrated the finished armor by charging across the drill ground.
• Theus encouraged the soldiers to direct their devotion toward Castel, while the monsters continued to gather outside the fortress.
• After working day and night, Castel completed three new airships.

Theus sent three airships to investigate the mainland, Gem Bay, and the Storm Eye in hopes of finding a way to resolve Castel’s crisis. As the expeditions departed, Chloe revealed that she planned to summon an evil god in Gem Bay.

• Theus assigned Connor and Faithguard Army soldiers to seek help on the mainland, Chloe and Moth Chasing Flame believers to investigate Gem Bay, and Nini with four other Banshees to explore the Storm Eye.
• The mainland airship departed, and Connor resolved to seek aid for Theus and Castel if possible, but to take Theus to safety if the crisis became dire.
• Theus questioned Chloe about the large quantity of ritual supplies she was bringing to Gem Bay, and she explained that one ritual might let her transmit messages remotely.
• Chloe revealed that she also intended to summon an evil god, arguing that it could fight whoever was behind the crisis or the sea monsters, and that it could not threaten Castel from Gem Bay.

Theus watched the airships depart for dangerous missions and prepared contingency plans in case the Banshees were lost. He then asked Gaia to help test whether an airship could awaken a Machine Soul, but confused Ash and Gaia by warning them to watch Monica, who neither of them knew.

• Chloe's airship departed after Theus urged her to contact Castel before summoning an evil god, while a heavily armed Banshee team headed for the Storm Eye with a sea serpent as proof they were alive.
• Theus saw that seven more airships were being built and learned that reserve teams and black boxes would preserve the explorers' findings if they failed.
• Theus returned to his office, discussed machine-gun emplacements with Alexei, and asked Zoe to fetch Gaia after learning Connor had left for the continent.
• Ash asked for more explosives for the Banshees, and Gaia said the saltpeter mine would let production meet demand.
• Theus asked Gaia and Monica to try summoning a Machine Soul and told Ash to watch Monica, but Ash asked who Monica was.

Theus discovered that everyone but him had forgotten Monica, while his memories of her remained intact. He found no trace of her on the island or in the sea, leaving him with no leads as the severed link to the others returned.

• Theus learned that Ash and Gaia no longer remembered Monica, though Gaia still remembered Ken and Ash still remembered Jeremiah.
• Theus checked his memories in the ancient palace and confirmed that they had not been altered, then found that no one he questioned remembered Monica.
• Theus used Worker Theus's body to search the sea for Monica's thread but found only threads connected to Ken and Jeremiah.
• Theus reconnected Jeremiah and the others' link, and French Fries celebrated its return before asking whether Gwen was all right.
• Beatrice posed Hela for a portrait in Rhine's church, and Hela revealed her glowing eye after Beatrice finished.

Beatrice told the others that the Empire and the Duchy of Tis were at war after the Prince assassinated the Empress and restored Tis, while Theus learned that the Imperial Navy had defected. Theus returned his attention to Castel, where the investigation into Monica remained at a dead end.

• Beatrice asked Hela about Castel and Count Theus, but Hela offered no new information and left.
• Beatrice told French Fries that the Prince had assassinated the Empress, fled to Tis, and restored the Duchy with support from rebels.
• Ken reacted emotionally to the news that the Prince had fought for Tis, while Theus realized the Empire might have lost access to the sea.
• Jeremiah asked about the Imperial Navy, and Beatrice revealed that it had pledged loyalty to the Prince.
• Gwen woke up, and the others helped her plan to gather wild vegetables after she regained strength.
• Theus ended the conversation and returned to his desk, with Castel's crisis unresolved and the investigation into Monica stalled.

Chloe's airship reached Gem Bay, where she hoped to enlist the pirates' help for Castel. As the harbor came into view, an observer noticed that its people appeared impossibly huge.

• Theus learned that Monica had vanished without a trace, then prepared for the monsters' advancing offensive.
• Theus sent the armed airship into the sky and headed for the frontline command post to observe the battle through the Transcendents.
• Chloe spotted Gem Bay's harbor, the pirates, and the Black Sail Fleet still intact, and decided Castel could be saved with their help.
• Chloe dismissed the observer's concern that the harbor had not reacted to the airship's approach.
• The observer stared at the harbor in shock and told Chloe that the people there were enormous.

Chloe and the Moth Chasing Flame crew discovered that every island in the Masha Archipelago was inhabited by Fishmen behaving exactly like humans, a sight that nearly overwhelmed them with fear and Pollution. Chloe concluded the islands might be caught in a Dreaming aberration and decided to descend and investigate, still unsure why the inhabitants saw themselves as Fishmen.

• Chloe spotted that the people on Tula Island were all Fishmen, then led the airship to other islands and found the same thing throughout Gem Bay.
• The Fishmen acted like ordinary people, and the crew became terrified as they struggled to tell whether the beings below were monsters or humans.
• Chloe performed purification rituals and jolted the frightened crew back to their senses before the Sea of Unconsciousness could pollute them further.
• Chloe refused to return without investigating because Castel was short on time, and she ordered the crew to record their findings in the black box.
• Chloe and her secret-history specialists suspected the archipelago was experiencing Dreaming, but she could not explain why the inhabitants saw themselves as Fishmen.

Chloe and Moth Chasing Flame investigated a strange island where Fishmen lived in a human settlement, unsure whether the phenomenon was [Dreaming]. The lookout reached a Fishman’s home and discovered that it could speak, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• Chloe noted that the Fishmen looked alive and lived in a place built for humans, making [Dreaming] an unlikely explanation.
• Chloe agreed to investigate from the airship while the lookout went down to the island.
• The lookout descended and approached a house, guided by Moth Chasing Flame members using [Self-Binding].
• The lookout knocked, and the Fishman opened the door and asked what he wanted.
• The Fishman introduced himself as Fabien and showed humanlike speech and behavior.

Chloe and the Moth Chasing Flame investigated a settlement where Fishmen had humanlike memories and awareness but ignored deaths and disruptions around them. Chloe concluded they were pretending to sleep and headed for the Pirate King's Court to confront the Pirate King about his dream.

• The lookout asked a Fishman about Jeremiah and learned it remembered him and recent events, deepening the group's confusion about the Fishmen.
• Chloe shot a Fishman from the airship, but the crowd's brief panic faded and the Fishmen ignored the corpse.
• Chloe descended, killed another Fishman at close range, and watched the Harbor Guard confront her before behaving mechanically and dispersing.
• Chloe reasoned that the Fishmen were like people pretending to sleep and ordered the airship toward the Pirate King's Court.

Chloe realized the Pirate King's Court on White Sand Island was the center of Gem Bay’s dreamlike mutation, where Pollution Serpents fed the palace pollution gathered from the Storm Ocean. With the palace nearing an unstoppable transformation, she and her Moth Chasing Flame squad prepared to summon an evil god and crash it into the palace.

• Chloe concluded that the Fishmen were part of a dream whose true protagonist was likely at the Pirate King's Court.
• Chloe found Pollution Serpents covering White Sand Island and carrying pollution into the palace at the heart of Gem Bay.
• Chloe warned her squad that the palace was absorbing pollution from the entire Storm Ocean and would soon become too powerful to stop.
• Chloe and the Moth Chasing Flame members chose to sacrifice themselves rather than return for reinforcements.
• Chloe began preparing rituals to send a message to Castel and summon an evil god, planning to crash the hydrogen-filled airship and its dynamite onto the palace.

Chloe and Moth Chasing Flame prepared to sacrifice themselves to stop the palace monster from crossing a dangerous threshold. Remembering the home and life she had built in Castel, Chloe led the ritual, which unleashed Cognitive Interference and summoned an evil god before the palace was engulfed in flames.

• Chloe sensed the palace monster was nearing a threshold that could doom the Storm Ocean, but had no time to seek reinforcements.
• As she prepared to sacrifice herself, Chloe remembered her mother, her dead comrades, and the happier life she had found with Theus in Castel.
• Chloe ordered Moth Chasing Flame to begin the ritual, and the cultists embraced their madness and focused their will on protecting what they cherished.
• Their shared will shattered reality's boundaries, causing the Sea of Unconsciousness to surge into the real world as Cognitive Interference.
• The ritual bypassed its usual steps, summoned an evil god, and sent the airship crashing into the palace before immense flames swallowed everything.

Kyle fought with the Faithguard Army as Fishmen overwhelmed Castel’s defenses and the rising sea reached the battlefield. The chapter ended with Hodge realizing that the monsters grew stronger when they stood in seawater.

• Kyle panicked under the Fishmen’s assault, but the political commissar gave him a loaded rifle and Sweet Fruit Wine, and Kyle returned to firing.
• As the monsters increased in number, Banshees used explosive packs to clear corpse piles while the battle line fell back toward the fortress.
• Kyle noticed seawater had risen into Castel’s core district, while Fishmen swarmed the western fortress and began chewing through its concrete walls.
• Ash led the Banshees in a brief counterattack that cleared monsters from the fortress before the soldiers resumed firing.
• When soldiers noticed Fishmen taking several bullets to kill, Hodge pointed out that the monsters grew stronger in seawater.

Kyle reported that seawater strengthened the monsters, but Sea Urchin Monsters soon shattered the fortifications and forced the defenders to retreat. As Kyle carried wounded soldiers into the tunnels, the fortress was struck again and a massive figure came crashing toward him.

• Kyle told Count Theus that the rising seawater made the Fishmen harder to kill, and Theus rushed to inform Alexei.
• Kyle saw Sea Urchin Monsters smash through the western fortress while Ash covered the Faithguard Army's retreat with her Gatling Guns.
• The Sea Urchin Monsters attacked Kyle's fortress, collapsing part of it and exposing the soldiers to the monsters.
• Kyle helped the commissar evacuate unconscious soldiers into the basement, then returned upstairs to rescue more people.
• Kyle saw the commissar and captain retreat, but a deafening impact sent a massive figure crashing toward him.

Kyle and the retreating Faithguard Army rescued an unconscious Banshee as rising seawater and Sea Urchin Monsters overwhelmed Castel’s outer defenses. At Castel Cathedral, Theus learned the Banshees were badly wounded and the cathedral might not withstand the rising water, while Alexei urged him to escape if the battle turned against them.

• Kyle, the captain, and the political commissar dragged an unconscious Banshee into the basement with help from wounded survivors before the fortress collapsed and seawater flooded in.
• Faithguard Army reinforcements arrived and ordered the troops to abandon the outer fortresses and hold Castel Cathedral.
• Kyle learned that the battlefield situation had worsened and that the Banshee was severely injured as the army retreated through the Webway.
• Alexei reported to Theus that the Faithguard Army had withdrawn, the Banshees were nearly incapacitated, and the cathedral could struggle against Sea Urchin Monsters if the water kept rising.
• Alexei urged Theus to board the airship and seek imperial reinforcements if Castel could not be defended.

With the seawater rising over Castel and the expeditions to the Storm Eye apparently lost, Theus rallied the people in the command center to keep fighting. The chapter left Castel preparing to resist until the last moment, even if no miracle came.

• Theus refused Alexei's suggestion to abandon Castel, insisting that hope remained while the airships were still unaccounted for.
• A researcher brought Chloe's report from the Pirate King's Court, which ended with her saying she could no longer return; the evil god's brief fluctuations had also vanished.
• Theus discovered that the sea serpent around his neck had disappeared, suggesting that all the banshees sent to the Storm Eye, including Nini and Chloe, had died.
• Alexei told Theus the next airships would take at least four more days to build, while seawater was expected to reach the main cathedral that night.
• Theus admitted he did not know whether they would win, but promised to struggle alongside Castel's people until the very last moment.
• The people returned to their duties, preparing Castel's defenses and vowing to make their will and lives its final wall.

Theus returned to Worker Theus’s body on land, where he discovered that his sea-based thread abilities no longer worked. He encountered Monica, now grown, and learned that she could not return to Castel even if the island came back.

• Theus left Lord Theus’s body and returned to Worker Theus, expecting to gather information and continue searching for a way to save Castel.
• Theus realized he was no longer underwater and that the receded seawater had taken away his ability to see and control the threads.
• An unfamiliar Banshee confronted Theus with a scimitar, and he recognized her as Monica.
• Monica questioned Theus about his chest wound and thread powers, while Theus asked how she had survived outside the Symbiotic Pact’s range.
• Monica said she could not return to Castel, even if it returned.

Monica recognized Theus by intuition and believed him when he revealed his identity, then explained that the force that eroded her in the past was the Sea God, not Pollution. Theus was left confronting the truth about Monica’s mysterious transformation and the god’s influence.

• Theus revealed to Monica that he was her Lord Theus, and Monica said she trusted him based on her banshee intuition.
• Theus recounted how he had met Monica in the Abyssal Trench and how he had purified her after she was overcome by what he thought was Pollution.
• Monica told Theus that only half of the Pollution had been purified and pointed out that the amount surrounding her had been unusually great.
• Theus reconsidered Monica’s past symptoms and remembered that purifying her had released a strange aura that triggered a storm.
• Monica explained that she had heard something speaking to her after summoning the Machine Soul and identified the threads Theus had held as part of a god’s authority.
• Monica told Theus that the Sea God, not Pollution, had eroded her.

Theus learned from Monica how the Sea God’s followers revived their fallen deity through a thousand years of sacrifices and how the Sea God’s soul became bound to her. After Theus purified that soul, Monica revealed that she was now the Sea God.

• Monica told Theus that the Abyssal Trench led to the Sea God Temple and that the Sea God’s remnant had begun merging with her.
• Monica explained that the Sea God’s corpse produced the ocean’s Pollution, and its flesh formed the monsters that were actually devoted Sea God Church believers.
• She revealed that the believers’ sacrifices had revived the Sea God, which had been driving creatures from the Abyssal Trench before accidentally binding part of its soul to her.
• Monica explained that Flesh Magic and the shattered Banshees’ Cognitive Barrier connected her to the Sea God’s soul throughout the sea.
• Monica told Theus that his purification had annihilated the Sea God’s soul in the ocean, leaving her as its sole remaining soul, and declared, “I am the Sea God now.”

Theus learned that Monica had become the Sea God but knew nothing of the danger threatening Castel, so he brought her toward the Storm Eye. There, they discovered Nini and other Banshees had crossed from the other side, leaving Theus overjoyed that Nini was alive.

• Theus realized Monica had merged with the Sea God's soul and warned her that Castel was flooding and a monster in the Pirate King's Court was absorbing the Sea God's power.
• Monica admitted she knew nothing about events in Castel, and she and Theus set out for the Storm Eye to investigate the Sea God Temple and stop the threat.
• Theus and Monica reached the Storm Eye, where Monica sensed a Mind Link with Nini.
• Nini and several Banshees surfaced from the sea, and Theus recognized Nini and rejoiced that she had survived.
• Nini's group explained that they had crossed through the Storm Eye while investigating the seawater pouring from it, and they reacted warily to Monica and the talking corpse.