Chapter Summaries

Chloe pulled Nora back from the Sea of Unconsciousness and escaped with her from their wrecked self-propelled artillery. The Machine Soul then drove the ruined vehicle into the enemy, destroying itself and a Steam Tank in an ammunition explosion.

• Chloe found Nora in the Sea of Unconsciousness and pulled her back, though the effort made her bleed.
• Nora discovered that the self-propelled artillery's communications and power systems had failed as two Steam Tanks approached.
• Chloe fastened Nora into an ejector seat and launched them out of the wrecked vehicle.
• The ruined self-propelled artillery moved under the Machine Soul's own will and charged the enemy.
• After a Steam Tank fired on it, the artillery's remaining shells exploded, engulfing it and the enemy.

Chloe carried Nora across the battlefield to reach friendly artillery, but enemy fire forced Chloe to take cover. Nora showed her how modern fire support and a new, highly mobile self-propelled artillery vehicle had changed transcendent warfare, leaving Chloe confronted with how quickly the battlefield had evolved.

• Chloe carried Nora through the battlefield while hostile [Investigators] watched them.
• Nora warned Chloe that fire support was incoming, and Chloe escaped the bombardment by switching places with her duplicate.
• Nora explained that the [Investigators] had learned to use trenches and artillery instead of charging into transcendent fights.
• Chloe watched Galahad drive a second-generation self-propelled artillery vehicle called Heart Disease as it evaded enemy fire and attacked Steam Tanks.
• Someone in the trench called Nora over, drawing their attention to the next destination.

Nora and Chloe gathered surviving artillery vehicles and crossed the battle line to continue their relief mission. In the Empire's interior, Theus, Lina, and Little Gwen moved toward Nora's team as Lina accepted that she would face judgment after they dealt with Jules.

• Lance Corporal Raymond told Nora and Chloe that he had spotted a self-propelled artillery vehicle, where they found the unconscious Burier Atticus and a working radio.
• Nora and Chloe assembled seven functional vehicles after losing more than half their squad, then slipped through the battlefield and advanced into the Empire.
• Theus awoke on Lina's back in a forest west of Area 17B and said they would meet Nora's relief team that night.
• Lina asked whether Theus would arrest her and said she was willing to accept judgment after completing [Father]'s mission.
• Theus rejected the idea that merit could erase Lina's crimes, and Lina said she would escape on her own if they needed her to help deal with Jules.

Nora’s team returned with Lina and Little Gwen, and Theus’s identity and connection to Chloe were revealed during their journey. As Nora’s group neared the front lines, Grandma received their radio call and ordered a full assault to cover them.

• Nora led Lina and Little Gwen into her team’s self-propelled artillery vehicle, where Chloe recognized Theus as the Moth Lord and then identified him by his habit of saying he was not a god.
• Chloe misunderstood Theus’s chest wound as proof that he had cut open his chest for Jules, and the group continued toward Castel in the cramped vehicle.
• Nora’s team traveled back with fewer obstacles, while Theus kept them informed about the front lines.
• Isabella assembled more self-propelled artillery vehicles for the mission, and Grandma drove one while coordinating the battlefield over the radio.
• Grandma noticed the Holy See retreating, then received Nora’s call for support and ordered a full assault to cover her team.

Nora's squad reached the battlefield, where Little Gwen's Bone Colossi demonstrated their immense strength but were quickly destroyed by concentrated Steam Tank fire. The Empire withdrew and proposed a ceasefire and alliance, while Theus remained convinced the war would continue unless an even greater threat forced a change.

• Nora's squad arrived with all five artillery vehicles, and Little Gwen used Bone Colossi to clear a path and carry them through their journey.
• At the battlefield, Little Gwen summoned a towering Bone Colossus that destroyed a Steam Tank before enemy fire shattered it and its replacements.
• Chloe reflected on the growing power of industry as the battlefield's artillery destroyed Bone Colossi comparable to the calamity-level [Loving Mother].
• The Empire made its first voluntary withdrawal, leaving soldiers and artillery crews uncertain whether they had won or the war had ended.
• Theus reviewed the devastating battle reports and read the Empire's declaration of ceasefire and proposal for an alliance.

Theus rejected the Empire’s generous-looking ceasefire as a delaying tactic, but the accompanying alliance treaty caught his attention. After Chloe and Nora returned from the front and discussed Little Gwen and Lina, Chloe argued that Jules had fought them to measure their strength and urged Theus not to accept the ceasefire.

• Theus read Jules’s ceasefire agreement, recognized that it ceded vast territories while withholding the Empire’s industrial cities and workers, and suspected Jules planned to resume the war.
• Chloe returned with Nora, who reported heavy mortal army casualties but no losses among the [Buriers].
• Chloe explained that Little Gwen and Lina were being kept at the front, with Little Gwen needing examinations and Lina requiring strict containment.
• Theus showed Chloe the ceasefire agreement and alliance treaty, and Chloe concluded that Jules had prepared the ceasefire after testing Little Gwen and Lina in battle.
• Chloe urged Theus to refuse the ceasefire and teach Jules a lesson.

Theus and Chloe considered the Empire’s ceasefire proposal, but Chloe opposed ending the war after learning the Empire planned to attack the distant South Continent. The chapter ended with Theus questioning why Jules had raised the Temple of Sleepless Ones and its possible crisis.

• Chloe argued that Castel should keep fighting because the Empire’s much larger population could quickly overcome its industrial disadvantage.
• Theus showed Chloe a treaty revealing that the Empire planned to attack the South Continent and that the Sons of Insomnia might soon be unable to hold on.
• Nora explained that the Temple of Sleepless Ones consisted of the [Night Watcher] and [Skinwearer] sects, whose opposing beliefs about the world’s dream nevertheless allowed them to cooperate.
• Theus decided he would not end the war without a sufficient reason, while Chloe and Nora agreed to gather information about the Temple and the South Continent.

Jules explained to Theus that the gods had vanished a thousand years ago and that the South Continent was poisoned by the dream of a dead god. He ended by warning that the gods were awakening.

• Theus met Jules at a guarded border negotiation site and agreed to hear him out alone.
• Jules said the Temple of Sleepless Ones believed the world existed within a god’s dream and that poison had seeped into it after a world-ending catastrophe.
• Jules described how the Orthodox Gods fell, evil gods became monsters, and Outer Gods lost their power about a thousand years ago.
• Jules explained that the Sea God’s death polluted the ocean and the Sleepless Temple’s god’s death shrouded the South Continent in Dream Poison.
• Theus questioned what had caused the gods to fall, and Jules said he did not know before declaring that the gods were awakening.

Jules told Theus that the gods were reviving and argued that technological advancement might be accelerating their return. He asked Theus to sign an alliance pact between the Empire and Castel to wage war against the gods, but Theus remained wary as the chapter ended.

• Jules pointed out that the Stellar Furnace's rising Pollution and Little Gwen's power suggested the gods were reviving.
• Jules questioned why no Burier had lived beyond a thousand years and suggested that earlier believers might have been killed in a war against the gods.
• Theus recalled his dream of companions discussing waging war against the gods and wondered whether they had succeeded, sacrificing themselves to leave the world without gods.
• Jules told Theus that the South Continent had advanced technology, including flying machines, while its gods were reviving rapidly and the Temple of Sleepless Ones was nearing collapse.
• Jules proposed that technological progress was linked to the gods' revival and explained that he wanted to industrialize the Empire and ally with Castel.
• Jules asked Theus to sign an alliance pact and fight the gods together, but Theus still did not trust him.

Theus and Isabella discussed Jules’s claims that gods were reviving and considered investigating the South Continent while putting the war on hold. Theus and the Empire tacitly withdrew their battle lines, and Isabella began building railways and opening aerial routes across the vacant territory.

• Theus rejected Jules’s alliance and ceasefire proposals after suspecting that Jules was trying to drive a wedge between Castel and the Duchy of Tis.
• Theus explained Jules’s claims to Isabella, and they increased intelligence sharing between their forces.
• Theus theorized that Worker Theus’s shell had gained power from the Sea God’s soul, while Little Gwen had gained the Bone White Crow’s power.
• Theus proposed pausing the war to investigate the South Continent and prepare for the possibility that gods were reviving, and Isabella agreed that she would fight them.
• Theus and the Empire tacitly withdrew their battle lines as both sides faced war-weariness and mounting psychological strain among their soldiers.
• Isabella left the vacant territory unoccupied for the moment and began building railways and opening aerial routes to move troops and supplies.

Theus organized an expedition to investigate the South Continent and planned how to bring Little Gwen safely to Blood Port. He left the story with an absurd proposal moving toward construction: a walking Stellar Furnace that Little Gwen could drive around the streets.

• Theus summoned Jeremiah, Ken, Little Bu, Chloe, and Connor, then assigned them to investigate the South Continent using Jeremiah's nautical charts and a refitted Black Pearl.
• Theus chose Little Bu to investigate the region, Connor to guide the group through the Sea of No Light, and Chloe to lead them back safely.
• Theus kept Little Gwen and Lina near the front lines, concerned about Lina's instability and the danger Little Gwen might pose if she encountered Bazel.
• Monica proposed building a Stellar Furnace to suppress Little Gwen's power, and Theus began putting the walking machine plan into action.

Lina told Little Gwen how her first home was lost when the kingdom fell, then explained that Bruno had revealed the Named Ones’ purpose to her. She left Little Gwen with the revelation that [Father] had created them to destroy the world.

• Little Gwen asked Lina about a house in Blood Port, prompting Lina to recall buying a home in the royal capital after saving money for decades.
• Lina described moving into the little house, sleeping on the floor, and furnishing it with a stone bed and other belongings.
• Lina said the kingdom fell while she was away, and the royal capital burned to ash; only the stone bed survived.
• Little Gwen asked whether Lina had destroyed a country because of [Father], and Lina asked if Theus had prompted the question.
• Lina explained that she had once felt she had forgotten an important mission, until the great sage Bruno told her that Named Ones were war machines created by [Father] to follow in his footsteps and destroy the world.

Little Gwen questioned Lina about her belief that [Father] had ordered the [Named Ones] to destroy the world, then offered to tell Theus about Lina’s motives and seek cooperation. Theus interrupted by revealing that he had built a new Stellar Furnace for Little Gwen.

• Little Gwen challenged Lina’s claim that [Father] wanted to destroy the world, and Lina explained that she and other [Named Ones] had inferred the order from their fragmented memories and Bruno’s deductions.
• Lina admitted that she had manipulated Bazel, supplied the Empire with Steam Tank blueprints, and tried to use the White Bone Sanctuary to contain Castel’s growth.
• Lina said her devotion to [Father] was an obsession that had sustained her, and she intended to follow his orders until the world ended.
• Little Gwen offered to tell Theus what Lina had said and suggested Lina might cooperate with Castel against the South Continent.
• Theus opened the door and told Little Gwen that he had built her a new Stellar Furnace to try out.

Ken persuaded Jeremiah to let the Black Pearl undergo a complete steel refit, and Rebecca photographed the old captain beside his ship before the work began. As Jeremiah and Rebecca walked into Blood Port together, Ken reflected on the city’s meeting of old and new and considered submitting a story to Nini.

• Jeremiah rejected Ken and the engineer’s proposal to replace the Black Pearl’s wooden structure with steel, but later returned with Rebecca to have his photograph taken beside the ship.
• Rebecca titled the portrait “The Last Pirate,” while Jeremiah paid her to develop it herself so Nini would not get involved.
• After Jeremiah left for a tavern, Ken told the engineer that the captain’s protests and drinking were an old ritual for soothing the Black Pearl’s Machine Soul.
• Ken explained that Jeremiah carried traces of the old era but kept moving forward, and the engineer admired Ken’s knowledge of ships.
• Ken watched Jeremiah and Rebecca head into Blood Port, remembered the scene, and considered submitting a story to Nini despite Zoe’s many rejected submissions.

The Black Pearl departed Blood Port for the South Continent, carrying Gaia, Chloe, Nora, and Jeremiah toward a region afflicted by strange poison. As the ship sailed, Theus reflected on Castel’s growth and its preparations for the conflicts ahead, while Monica was left behind after discovering her friends had secretly boarded.

• Theus watched the crowd gather around the newly rebuilt Black Pearl and considered Castel’s expansion, its changing government, and the coming war with resurrected gods.
• Jeremiah prayed aboard the ship and spoke to the Black Pearl as its familiar presence answered through the steel hull and boiler.
• Ken explained the Black Pearl’s new steam turbine and internal combustion engine to the crowd, while Gaia, Chloe, Nora, and Monica joked nearby.
• Theus smashed a bottle of Sweet Fruit Wine against the ship’s bow, and the Black Pearl sounded its whistle before departure.
• Gaia and Chloe revealed they were already aboard with Nora, leaving Monica behind; Monica leapt into the sea as they called out to her.
• Jeremiah ordered the Black Pearl to full speed toward the South Continent, and Monica swam in the bitter seawater as the ship disappeared into the distance.

Lina, Little Gwen, and Theus traveled toward Blood Port inside Unit-01, a prototype machine controlled through a Machine Soul. As Little Gwen reflected on her hopes for Theus’s rebuilt city, Lina asked what Blood Port was like, and Little Gwen said she had heard it had changed a lot.

• Lina complained about being taken to Blood Port inside a Stellar Furnace, while Theus explained that Little Gwen had requested he join them.
• Theus described Unit-01 as a prototype machine controlled through a Machine Soul, and Lina judged it worse than a Steam Tank.
• Little Gwen recognized the machine’s potential and recalled how she had hoped Theus would make Blood Port different.
• Lina interrupted Little Gwen’s thoughts and asked what Blood Port was like.
• Little Gwen said she had left Blood Port years earlier and had heard that it had changed a lot.

Theus, Lina, and Little Gwen discussed what made a city truly different as they traveled toward Blood Port. After Lina mistook a refugee resettlement zone for the city, Theus clarified that they had not arrived yet.

• Lina argued that most cities only differed on the surface, while the White Crow Duchy’s cities centered on the Silent Temple and its Burier.
• Theus joked that Lina might develop Castel Syndrome, and he and Little Gwen teased her about being illiterate by Castel’s educational standards.
• Theus explained that Castel and Blood Port residents had to learn practical science and technology to avoid dangers caused by Cognitive Interference.
• Theus pointed out an observation window on the train carrying the mobile Stellar Furnace, and Little Gwen and Lina looked outside at the housing.
• Lina criticized the square buildings she saw as ugly and assumed they were in Blood Port, but Theus told her they were only passing through a refugee resettlement zone.

Lina, Theus, and Little Gwen arrived in Blood Port aboard a mobile Stellar Furnace, and Lina was stunned by the city’s population and scale. The chapter ended with the walking furnace entering the busy city, where towering buildings and freight trains filled her view.

• Lina learned that Blood Port’s refugee housing was made of sheet metal and wondered how the city could afford so much steel.
• Theus told Lina that Blood Port had about 130,000 official residents and over 400,000 people including refugees.
• The train reached Blood Port’s freight area, where Little Gwen used her power to make the Stellar Furnace stand upright.
• The Stellar Furnace walked into Blood Port as crowds watched, and Lina saw the city’s towering buildings and busy railways.

Little Gwen toured Blood Port inside the mobile Stellar Furnace and visited Bettis’s fish-and-chips shop, where the awkward encounter left Bettis recognizing something familiar. After Bettis spotted the wallet the giant had returned, she ran after the departing furnace while Little Gwen hid and said she would visit her later.

• Theus guided Little Gwen through Blood Port in the Stellar Furnace, and she struggled to recognize the transformed city and worried about the size of her true form.
• Theus brought the furnace to Bettis’s fish-and-chips shop, where Little Gwen watched from the cockpit and Bettis prepared a family bucket of food.
• The furnace awkwardly leaned toward Bettis, then left with the food after Nora set it on its mechanical arm.
• Bettis recognized something familiar about the retreating furnace, found its wallet, and ran after it as Theus drove away.
• Little Gwen hid behind Lina and guiltily said she would visit Bettis later.

Chloe’s expedition reached the Corridor of Despair and discovered that it formed a towering barrier above the Sea of No Light. After learning from Connor about the sea’s deadly rules and the gradual effects of Pollution, the group wondered how to proceed, since their ship remained on the Storm Ocean side.

• Jeremiah confirmed with his sextant and chart that the Black Pearl had reached the Corridor of Despair after just over ten days of travel.
• Chloe led the group ashore, where they found the Sea of No Light hundreds of meters below the Corridor’s cliff edge.
• Chloe sensed dense supernatural aura and said the Sea of No Light felt like the Sea of Unconsciousness.
• Connor explained that sailors followed complicated, sometimes contradictory rules in the Sea of No Light and that Pollution gradually eroded them.
• The group discussed why sailors explored the dangerous sea, and Connor said it was profitable and ordinary people could retire before Pollution drove them mad.
• The group realized they had no way to sail across the Sea of No Light because the Black Pearl was anchored on the Storm Ocean side.