Chapter Summaries

Theus woke in his shell beside little Gwen, but the power he had used to lift the sea was gone. Little Gwen sensed a strange change in Theus, and back at his desk he went with Ash and Old Connor to seek Beatrice’s knowledge of the Mechanical Cathedral.

• Theus woke with his head in little Gwen’s lap, and they both bumped heads when he sprang upright.
• Theus realized he could no longer access the immense power that had lifted the sea, while little Gwen remembered witnessing it.
• Little Gwen talked with Little White and sensed something strange about Theus, wondering if they were connected by blood.
• Theus opened his eyes at his desk and told Ash and Old Connor to take him to Beatrice to ask about the Mechanical Cathedral.

Theus watched Monica train Beatrice to control her Pollution breath, then brought Beatrice to his office to ask about Transcendence. He ended the chapter by asking whether she knew of any existence stronger than a [Named One].

• Monica trained Beatrice to exhale Pollution across a wide area and declared that she had turned Beatrice into a legendary fountain.
• Monica proposed using Beatrice's breath to propel her car, prompting Theus to interrupt before she could lead Beatrice further astray.
• Theus came to see Beatrice, while Monica repeated Nini's rumor that he planned to sacrifice her in the Stellar Furnace.
• Theus ordered Ash to put Nini in solitary confinement until she finished writing her rumor's continuation.
• Theus brought Beatrice to his office and asked what she knew about Transcendence and whether anything was stronger than a [Named One].

Theus asked Beatrice about the strength and hierarchy of Transcendents, learning that second-tier Transcendents were largely confined to the Sea of Unconsciousness and that Named Ones were exceptionally powerful. Beatrice warned that Named Ones repeatedly caused trouble around the world and asked whether Theus had faced one before.

• Theus asked Beatrice whether anyone was stronger than a Named One, and she explained that Lina had once been renowned for compiling Candlelight Society records.
• Beatrice described ordinary Transcendent paths and explained that second-tier Transcendents, such as Moth Chasing Flame's Cocoons and Candlelight Society's Secret Keepers, could not freely exist in the present world.
• Theus asked about higher tiers and dual paths, and Beatrice said there were no tiers above the second, while Isaac and Jules had acquired dual paths by accident.
• Beatrice explained that Named Ones could vastly outmatch ordinary Transcendents, citing records that at least twenty-five Investigators were needed to stand a chance against one.
• Beatrice warned that Named Ones caused incidents around the world and asked Theus whether he had dealt with one before.

Theus and Beatrice realized Lina’s escape from Castel had been suspiciously easy and suspected something was wrong with the shell she left behind. They opened the sealed vessel at Experiment Site No. 7, where Beatrice examined it with her ability and began chewing a strand of its hair.

• Beatrice told Theus that Lina had never left behind a shell during her previous escapes, making the one at Castel seem suspicious.
• Theus asked through Mind Link where Lina’s shell was and learned it had been sealed at Experiment Site No. 7.
• Theus and Beatrice went to the site, where Gaia and the Banshees prepared to open the shell’s container.
• Gaia followed a manual to perform the ritual, causing the terracotta-like seal to crumble into dust and reveal Lina’s vessel.
• Beatrice inspected the vessel, activated her Transcendence ability, and chewed a strand of its hair.

Theus discovered that Lina’s shell was something he could control, like the shells he used for descent, and briefly made her move. The discovery connected Lina to the Named Ones and left Theus wondering what would happen if he controlled her for too long.

• Beatrice and Theus felt that Lina’s shell was familiar, while Gaia did not recognize her.
• Gwen arrived with a chainsaw, recognized the shell as Lina, and offered to treat it.
• Theus touched Lina and identified her as a shell, then compared the result with Gaia’s clone and remembered Chloe’s shell.
• Theus realized Lina might be another shell usable for descent and awakened her by focusing his will.
• Ash and the others trained their weapons on Lina, but Theus revealed that he had been controlling her and stopped after a brief test.

Theus agreed to let Nora and Chloe test the Mechanical Cathedral while Lina’s vessel remained under guard. In the Empire, Lina met Jules and warned him that Castel and the Duchy of Tis would soon attack and that the Candlelight Society and Empire could not defeat them.

• Gaia reported that the Mechanical Cathedral’s technical analysis was complete, and Theus ordered Nora and Chloe to undergo the trial together.
• Theus returned to Castel while Lina’s vessel stayed under strict guard in case Lina could control it herself.
• At the Secret Keeper Council, Jules summoned Lina from the shadows and greeted her as the Named One from history.
• Lina asked where the Secret Keepers were, then warned Jules that Castel and the Duchy of Tis were preparing to attack the Empire.
• Lina described Castel’s powerful firearms and airships and said the Candlelight Society and Empire could not defeat it.

Jules accepted Lina’s offer of help against Castel and discovered that reading Bruno’s memory chip had fused their memories into a new personality. Lina believed the new personality’s claim that it would continue Bruno’s great mission, while Jules planned to use her support and wondered what secrets she was hiding.

• Jules told Lina he would resist Castel’s forces and send the Holy See’s armies into battle, and Lina offered him early Mechanical Society technologies.
• Jules inserted the data cartridges using an interface he had taken from Bruno, provoking Lina to attack him.
• Jules revealed that he had read Bruno’s memory chip and that their memories had merged into a new personality.
• Jules claimed he would continue Bruno’s unfinished great mission, and Lina eagerly offered to help.
• Lina left muttering about the great mission, and Jules concluded that her belief in his lie could keep her helping the Holy See.

Jules wrote a letter to Beatrice warning her that Theus was not human and explaining what he had learned about the churches and their doctrines. He sent the letter toward Castel by ordering it buried in an old hole in the Lower Rhine.

• Jules dismissed the attendants and typed a letter to Beatrice, saying he had killed the Secret Keeper Council and believed she had survived his ritual in Castel.
• Jules warned Beatrice that Theus was not human and that only humans could be trusted, but hesitated to reveal more because Theus would see the letter.
• Jules described how the four great churches worshiped things other than gods and hinted that the balance between their sects explained their fates.
• Jules signed the letter as Beatrice's uncle, sealed it, and ordered a priest to deliver it to Castel.
• Jules instructed the priest to place the letter in an exquisite box and bury it in an old hole in the Lower Rhine.

Old Vance recalled how his workplace injury compensation convinced him that the Expeditionary Force could be trusted, leading him to bring his family to Blood Port. At a coastal construction site, he watched the Castel people prepare to shelter from a tsunami they had apparently controlled, leaving him overwhelmed by their capabilities.

• After the Expeditionary Force paid Old Vance injury compensation, word spread, recruitment crowds surged, and the city lord visited to inspect the money.
• The city lord went to the Expeditionary Force camp, and the Expeditionary Force moved into his residence that evening.
• Old Vance agreed to work in the south, and he and his family boarded a train to Blood Port.
• Blood Port housed Old Vance's family and assigned him to a coastal construction site suited to his carpentry experience.
• When a safety officer announced that a tsunami would arrive in fifteen minutes, Old Vance followed the workers toward a lighthouse shelter and wondered whether the Castel people could control tsunamis.

Old Vance watched a tsunami approach Castel and found that reciting Theus’s name eased his fear. After the wave passed, he saw the seawater being directed through channels into a dry river valley.

• The security guard told Old Vance that the tsunami would end in five minutes and that people who came to Castel often went mad at least once.
• Old Vance watched the unchanging white line of the tsunami approach and imagined an enormous creature moving beneath the sea.
• The security guard urged Old Vance to recite the lord’s name, and Old Vance found that saying Theus’s name calmed him.
• Old Vance glimpsed twisted symbols in the security guard’s Holy Scripture and learned that it was Advanced Mathematics.
• After the tsunami passed, Old Vance followed the others out of the safe house and watched workers release seawater through channels into a dry river valley.

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.