Chapter Summaries

Chloe and the others struggled to find a way across the Sea of No Light and planned to build a ship while searching the Corridor of Despair for help. Chloe sensed something beneath the water, and the group discovered a massive submarine as Theus arrived.

• The group decided to transport materials across the height difference with help from Chloe and Gaia, then build a ship on the far side.
• Chloe explained that the Sleepless Ones might have a way across the ocean, but they had not been seen since Beatrice’s banquet.
• Chloe sensed something in the Sea of No Light, and the Faithguard Army brought machine guns, Dragon Breath Cannons, and a mortar to the shore.
• A huge black shape surfaced, and Chloe identified it as a ship beneath the water.
• Theus arrived, and the group asked if he was alive before he demanded to know where the submarine came from.

Theus and his group met the Skinwearers, who took them through the Sea of No Light to the South Continent in minutes. They arrived at a busy submarine port and discovered that the continent had changed dramatically since Connor last visited.

• Theus’s group met Carter and learned that the Skinwearers knew they were coming to help the sanctuary and considered Jules’s doctrine humanity’s enemy.
• Theus asked Carter to take them to the South Continent first so they could meet the Night Watchers.
• Carter’s submarine crossed the Sea of No Light in minutes, and Theus confirmed that little time had passed.
• The group emerged at a bustling port filled with submarines and machines carrying cargo.
• Connor said that when he had visited the South Continent before, it had only wooden sailing ships and no complex machinery.

Theus and his companions arrived at the South Continent, where they found advanced infrastructure and learned that the Night Watchers made the equipment operated by the Skinwearers. Their driverless vehicle revealed a living brain embedded among its machinery.

• Carter welcomed Theus, Chloe, and the others to the South Continent and led them from the dock toward the Night Watchers' Church.
• Theus noticed the asphalt-like Blackstone roads, and Carter explained that the Night Watchers made them and the submarines.
• Chloe told Theus that the Skinwearer pathway granted great combat strength at the cost of rationality.
• The group observed the port's industrial development and worried that the South Continent could soon outpace Castel in weaponry.
• Carter hailed a driverless vehicle that followed a spoken destination, then opened a panel to reveal a living brain inside.

Castel’s group discovered that the South Continent’s Night Watchers used living human brains to power machines, and that volunteers could abandon their bodies to connect to a game-like system. Theus arrived at the Temple of Sleepless Ones realizing that the South Continent’s workers were players and that his own territory could become their next conquest.

• Castel, Chloe, Theus, and the others found a living human brain powering a machine at the docks, and Carter explained that the Night Watchers used brains to operate their vehicles and other technology.
• A brain told the group that people volunteered to give up their bodies to escape work, illness, and pain, and Gaia mentioned Chloe’s relentless overtime and Nini’s novel about it.
• The brain revealed the system, and Theus opened Veronica’s character screen and inspected a quest to escort the North Continent visitors to a Temple of Sleepless Ones.
• Theus realized that people across the South Continent could connect to the dream and become players, then wondered whether they might invade the North Continent as a Fourth Calamity.
• Theus told the group to continue the quest, Chloe eagerly discussed something with Veronica, and they arrived at the Temple of Sleepless Ones.

Theus and his companions met Angelita, the Head of Radiance, and learned that the [Night Watchers] had made themselves into wetware to survive the Sea of No Light. Angelita revealed that humanity’s enemy was awakening and that the Sea’s increasingly contradictory rules could now kill directly, then explained that she needed their help.

• Theus and his companions entered the [Night Watchers]’ church and saw machines powered by human brains, which the church called wetware.
• Angelita greeted the group as a brain embedded in a wall and introduced herself as the Head of Radiance.
• Angelita recognized Chloe as the leader of Moth Chasing Flame, and the group teased Chloe about her notorious overtime work.
• Theus asked about the dream realm, and Angelita explained that it was the Sea of No Light, formed from the remains of humanity’s enemy.
• Angelita warned that the enemy was awakening and that the Sea’s growing, contradictory rules could now kill people directly.
• Theus realized the [Night Watchers] had turned themselves into wetware to avoid being killed by the rules, and Angelita confirmed that players could revive in a church after death.

Angelita explained that humanity's enemy was about to awaken, ending the dream and bringing its rules into the real world, so the South Continent needed the North Continent's help. Theus learned that the South Continent had abandoned flesh-and-blood bodies to avoid electrical radiation, connecting brains to the Dream Entry system instead.

• Angelita told Theus that humanity's enemy was nearing awakening and that the dream's rules would descend upon the world when it ended.
• Theus agreed to help Angelita and asked what the South Continent needed.
• Angelita requested industrial goods, explaining that the South Continent suspected electricity was causing humanity's enemy to revive.
• Theus asked how the South Continent handled radiation from electrical equipment, and Angelita revealed that its people had removed their bodies and kept only their brains.
• Theus realized the brain-based wetware system let people use electricity and connect to Dream Entry without risking radiation damage or erasure by humanity's enemy.

Theus learned that electricity and warfare could awaken the hostile [Gods], leaving humanity with a dangerous choice between fighting them before they awakened or allowing them to awaken gradually. After assigning his people tasks in the South Continent and returning to Castel, he wondered what might happen if Lina performed her god-summoning ritual again.

• Angelita explained that radiation from electrical technology accelerated the awakening of [Gods], while massive damage would awaken them all rapidly and make them impossible to harm.
• Theus agreed that Castel would provide industrial goods and production capacity while Jules organized the army and shared the South Continent’s technology.
• Theus assigned Gaia and Ken to study Night Watcher technology, Chloe to verify Jules’s claims, Connor to investigate local factions and contact the Skinwearers, and Captain Jeremiah to return by sea.
• Theus returned to Castel and realized the motionless white-robed priest had moved when Lina used a ritual to summon a god.
• Theus awoke in his office beside Ash and said they were going to get busy.

Castel began converting its industries and supply system to wartime production as Theus prepared the territory for a major conflict. The chapter ended with officials reacting in shock to the possibility of war with the gods.

• Frey noticed purchase limits on sugar and grain in Blood Port and saw the nearby soap factory working at full capacity.
• Frey learned from a factory guard that Blood Port was switching to a wartime system and that most factories had been requisitioned.
• Theus told Castel's officials that nonessential production lines would be converted to arms manufacturing and that strategic reserves, including food, would be doubled.
• Theus explained that Castel might have to support the South Continent in a coming battle and distributed documents about strange changes there and Jules's unverified claims.
• Castel's officials reacted with astonishment when they learned they might be going to war with the gods.

Castel and Blood Port shifted to full wartime production while an Imperial delegation settled in Blood Port. Hughes sought Lina’s cooperation to learn more about her father and Prometheus, and tested whether Castel’s giant coyotes could serve as sacrifices for her ritual.

• Castel expanded factory shifts and production, while Blood Port hosted a closely watched Imperial delegation.
• Little Gwen recognized Lynn as a reader of Nini’s books, and Lynn explained that the Empire had sent her to Blood Port ahead of a possible alliance.
• Theus confronted Lina at Castel’s testing grounds, where she admitted that her assassination attempts had been meant to fulfill her father’s mission.
• Hughes asked Lina to repeat the ritual that had restored his memories, and she explained that it required vast numbers of living sacrifices to summon a god.
• Hughes brought two giant coyotes to test as sacrifices, and Lina was stunned by their size.

Theus and Lina tested a god-summoning ritual using pollution-fed coyotes, then used fifteen thousand coyotes to direct its power toward Theus. In the Throne Room, the power seemed to enter both Theus and the white-robed priest, who awakened as Theus began to descend into the priest’s body.

• Lina found that pollution-fed coyotes worked as ritual sacrifices, but using pollution directly drew it away without producing the ritual’s expected feedback.
• Lina suggested that using enough pollution might summon a real god, so Theus chose to proceed with livestock instead.
• Theus gathered fifteen thousand coyotes and had them transported to Gem Bay, where Lina directed the ritual’s power toward him.
• The ritual drained the coyotes and sent a vast force crashing down on Theus, causing him to lose consciousness.
• In the Throne Room, Theus suspected the power had entered his throne, while another portion flowed to the white-robed priest.
• The white-robed priest regained signs of life and turned toward Theus as his vision darkened and he began to descend into the priest’s body.

Theus relived centuries of failed attempts to free humanity from the gods, then returned from the vision to his companions at Gem Bay. He realized this world had no living gods ruling over it, and Nini noticed that he was crying.

• Theus repeatedly reshaped his body after dying, learning that the Churches served gods who treated humanity as a resource and suppressed reform.
• After countless failed rebellions and technological advances, Theus saw the gods withstand his army’s attack and concluded that his efforts had been futile.
• Theus returned to the Throne Room with memories of those lives and descended into his body at Gem Bay.
• Ash and the others gathered around Theus, who saw that they could work and fight without sacrificing themselves in a world where the gods were dead.
• Nini asked Theus why he was crying.

Theus recovered the white-robed priest’s memories of humanity’s repeated, disastrous wars against the gods and told his allies what he had learned. He left them prepared to fight the gods as they began to revive, while still uncertain whether the priest had truly been himself.

• Theus recalled the white-robed priest’s memories and realized that humanity had faced an overwhelming alliance of gods, but he still could not explain the Throne Room or how the gods were defeated.
• Theus asked Lina to perform the memory ritual again, then decided to reveal the white-robed priest’s memories to his companions while keeping the Golden Throne secret.
• Theus gathered Castel’s high-ranking members and recounted the priest’s long history of descents, sacrifices, and failed attempts to defeat the gods.
• Theus warned the assembled allies that the gods were reviving and that losing would plunge the world into darkness again.
• Theus declared that he would fight the gods and urged humanity’s allies to stake everything on defeating them once more.

Jules explained to Isaac that he had stirred up conflict to test the contingencies left by [Father] and prepare humanity to oppose the awakening gods. After Theus shared the white-robed priest’s memories with potential allies, he asked Nini to stop writing unofficial histories and record humanity’s true history instead.

• Jules told Isaac he had tested possible contingencies by stirring up turmoil, and insisted humanity had to face pressure before the gods awakened.
• Isaac connected Jules’s actions to past events and asked whether he was Jules or the legendary Great Sage Bruno, but Jules left without answering.
• Theus shared the white-robed priest’s memories with the Holy See and the South Continent, choosing cooperation against the gods.
• Theus teased Nini about her failed novel-based plan to bring down the Empire and told her to stop writing unofficial histories.
• Theus asked Nini to write a true account of humanity’s long resistance to the gods, saying she was the one who could do it well.

Theus formed an alliance between Castel, the Empire, the Duchy of Tis, and the South Continent as the gods’ revival accelerated. He chose to continue the rituals to learn the gods’ weaknesses and began coordinating the allied powers’ resources and war preparations.

• Theus accepted the Empire’s offer of livestock and agreed to send engineers to help establish basic industrialization, while Jules proposed building a railway from Rhine to Blood Port.
• Chloe told Theus that the gods’ revival had accelerated at the same moment he performed the ritual, and Angelita warned that two or three more rituals might make the gods impossible to contain.
• Theus decided to continue the rituals despite the danger and asked Angelita to pursue closer cooperation, then shared the news with Angelita, Jules, and Isabella.
• Theus arranged communications between the allied powers using radios, telephone lines, undersea cables, and Worker Theus’s shell.
• Theus officially established a four-way alliance between the South Continent, Castel, the Empire, and the Duchy of Tis, then began coordinating their resources for development and war preparations.

Theus organized the alliance’s factions and established a neutral Academy of Sciences in Gem Bay, while Nora explained why the Silent Temple was dissolving into Castel. As the unified alliance prepared for its next stage, the Empire reported that one hundred thousand livestock were ready for the ritual.

• Theus brought Yami back from the Northern Territory and founded an alliance-wide Academy of Sciences in Gem Bay, where the factions combined their researchers and technologies.
• Theus planned each faction’s role in the alliance, while Angelita, Jules, and Isabella secured cooperation within their territories.
• Ignati told Theus that the Silent Temple would merge into Castel, and Nora explained that the Temple represented the White Crow people and no longer needed to govern them.
• Nora told Theus she wanted to fight for herself, and he recognized that she had found her battlefield.
• The alliance completed its framework, and the Empire reported that one hundred thousand livestock were ready for the next stage of the ritual.

Theus used the long-distance ritual to enter the Sea of Unconsciousness and tried to create a safe palace, but it vanished when he moved. He discovered he could create conscious beings by naming them and began making companions, including one named Lina.

• Theus traveled to Tis and began the ritual with Lina while allies prepared defenses against the possible return of humanity's enemy.
• Theus created a palace in the Sea of Unconsciousness, but it crumbled when he moved, leaving him unable to use it as a refuge or a base connected to the world.
• Theus realized he could divide his consciousness and create more versions of himself, then sat motionless on a Golden Throne while he experimented with creating shells.
• One shell gained consciousness, called Theus Father, and received the name Bruno; Theus named him a Named One.
• Theus created more companions and named them Casbin, Kieran, Lillian, and Lina.

Theus discovered that the other transmigrators were his avatars, whom he had created alongside the Named Ones in the Throne Room. After returning to the Sons of Insomnia's sanctuary on the South Continent, he began trying to contact his former companions.

• Theus created many Named Ones, but found they lacked human emotions until another body awakened and named himself Sun Wukong.
• Sun Wukong and the other bodies formed their own identities, then joined Theus in declaring war against the gods before vanishing from the Throne Room.
• In the Duchy of Tis, Theus realized that the transmigrators were his avatars and that he had created the Throne Room, the Golden Throne, and the Named Ones.
• Theus returned to the Throne Room, understood that he could rise but chose to remain seated for humanity's sake, and recalled his mind-link with the Named Ones and avatars.
• Theus returned to the Sons of Insomnia's sanctuary on the South Continent and told Angelita to wait while he tried contacting his former companions.

Theus reconnected with Lina, Little Gwen, Big Gwen, and Jules, discovering he could precisely control Little Gwen and questioning Jules’s identity as Bruno. He learned that the Enemy of Humanity was close to awakening, leaving the next ritual likely to trigger war before they could learn its weakness.

• Theus reopened a long-dormant connection and discovered Lina, Little Gwen, Big Gwen, and Jules were still reachable.
• Theus proved his identity by remotely making Little Gwen kick Lina, then explained that he had created her and could control her.
• Jules said he was Bruno but was not a Named One, and claimed he and Theus were brothers, leaving Theus puzzled about their memories and relationship.
• Theus paused the conversation to ask Angelita about the Enemy of Humanity, and she reported that the players were struggling and the Enemy was nearing full awakening.
• Theus told Angelita he believed the next ritual would reveal the Enemy’s weakness, but they realized it would likely awaken the Enemy and force them into war.

Theus learned about the near-invulnerability of gods and discussed forming a united army with Angelita, who provided the Temple’s military records. Jules explained how he survived the cataclysm-level aberration and revealed that he had become the world’s only active second-rank Transcendent, a being near godhood.

• Theus told Angelita that Castel had failed to harm the Pirate King with bombs and had instead burned it as fuel in a Stellar Furnace.
• Angelita proposed a united army against the revived gods and gave Theus the Temple’s military records; Theus agreed to consult the other parties.
• Jules explained that he and Aksa survived the aberration after the Holy See used the reinforcements as bait, leaving both without their Anchors and with openings to the Sea of Unconsciousness.
• Jules said that Isaac had defected to Moth Chasing Flame while Jules stayed with the Holy See and pursued Transcendence as a Secret Keeper.
• Chloe explained that second-rank Transcendents were confined to the Sea of Unconsciousness, but Jules revealed that he had anchored himself in the present world and was the only such Transcendent, near to godhood.

Theus learned from Jules that the second tier of Transcendence led to Near-Godhood and the third to godhood, and he began to suspect that the gods’ fall had sealed those paths. After reflecting on his forgotten past, he heard from Chloe that the South Continent’s reliance on dreamwalkers and electric motors was creating a dangerous cycle.

• Jules told Theus that second-tier Transcendents were Near-Gods and that the third tier led to godhood, though he did not know why the Three-Pointed Gate could no longer be crossed.
• Theus and Chloe speculated that the gods’ fall had closed the path to higher tiers, limiting Transcendents and allowing industry to develop.
• Theus realized he had created Chloe’s body, and Chloe recoiled and refused to call him Father.
• Theus recalled that in his dream he had stood beside the throne rather than sitting on it, leaving him uneasy about a missing piece of his memories.
• Chloe told Theus that many Sons of Insomnia had become dreamwalkers to fight the Enemy of Humanity, leaving the South Continent short of living workers.
• Chloe showed Theus factory photographs and explained that widespread motor use increased radiation, driving more people to become dreamwalkers and worsening the cycle.