Recaps

At the Global Review Tribunal, Leila defended her criticism of E.U.’s bureaucracy and argued that soldiers’ lives and deaths were political matters, while taking responsibility for her own actions toward Great Han. Lin Cuo then acknowledged problems in Great Han’s review procedures but derailed the proceedings by publicly declaring his attraction to Leila, who angrily rejected his remarks.

• Thirteen members left the Forty-Person Committee in succession while its chair continued discussing a resolution supporting officers’ lawful personal opinions.
• Leila argued that E.U.’s procedures had become a way to evade responsibility and called for reform rather than handing power to a general.
• Leila said the soldiers aboard the Apollo Chariot deserved recognition and explained that Great Han and E.U. each had issues for which they must answer.
• Lin Cuo received permission to speak and admitted that Great Han’s review procedures had serious problems.
• Lin Cuo praised Leila and declared that he was attracted to her, prompting Leila to object and Montfort to remind him that the tribunal was not a marriage counseling agency.

As civilian airships across E.U. changed course, Laura Bodewig, Charlotte Dunois, Tatenashi Sarashiki, and Colonel Hans Krüger prepared for an operation backed by Lin Cuo’s orders. The chapter left E.U.’s own commercial agreement opening its roads to the Regent Council’s forces as they prepared to intervene.

• Laura Bodewig questioned whether she could take command by defeating Lin Cuo, and Hans Krüger explained that military authority required a lawful chain of command.
• Charlotte Dunois told Tatenashi Sarashiki that her father had urged her to use her relationship with Lin Cuo to help Dunoa Industries regain access to E.U.’s markets.
• Charlotte said she had joined to help Free Iris’s factories, engineers, and pilots restart production, and Tatenashi assigned them to protect demonstrators and key facilities.
• Hans Krüger opened Lin Cuo’s conditional sealed order, which directed his officers to cut off E.U. committee members’ escape routes if Jean Smilas signed an emergency military order.
• E.U.’s supplementary commercial-administrative agreement allowed more than seven thousand soldiers, hybrid Gao Hai machines, and twenty-four IS units to enter through its internal roads.

Airship leaflets and public footage sparked mass demonstrations across Europe as military forces moved to seize Paris and secure Leila Malcal's return. Smilas invoked an emergency military plan, while Kruger's forces took key sites and killed committee members fleeing the capital.

• Airships scattered leaflets demanding Leila Malcal's release, and footage of Lin Cuo's confession and Leila's rejection drew crowds into demonstrations across several regions.
• Iron-gray troops organized the Paris march as Laura immobilized three security vehicles and Charlotte and Tatenashi stopped an E.U. KMF force from advancing.
• General Jean Smilas activated the Emergency Military Order Restoration Plan, placing Paris's garrison, railways, broadcasts, Armory, and airfields under unified command.
• Kruger's forces deployed hybrid Gao Hai-Sutherland machines to seize Paris's broadcast station, railway hubs, and the committee district.
• The Forty-Person Committee discovered Smilas had taken military control, and Kruger's machines destroyed its fleeing evacuation convoy, killing several members and capturing survivors.

Gene Smilas discovered that armed units using his emergency authorization had killed and detained members of the E.U. committee, while C.C. shaped public coverage of Leila Malcal’s hearing around genuine emotions and civil rights. The crisis spread internationally, and Lin Cuo’s credibility collapsed as the system recommended Leila as a new guarantor.

• Gene Smilas learned that units linked to his military network had killed seven commissioners, wounded eleven, and detained thirty-two during an evacuation convoy’s attempt to breach the blockade.
• Gene Smilas ordered the units to halt their advance, but the network said they were executing phase two and could not be stopped by a single node.
• C.C. rejected Dietrich’s romanticized headlines about Leila Malcal and organized public posts supporting Leila, civil rights, and new elections.
• A short clip of Lin Cuo declaring his attraction to Leila and her rejecting him went viral, while many observers suspected Britannia or Lin Cuo of orchestrating the crisis.
• The system reported that Lin Cuo’s personal credibility had become utterly discredited and identified Leila Malcal as a potential guarantor.

Lin Cuo suspended Leila Malcal’s tribunal, detained its judges, and publicly recognized Smilas’s military government as the E.U.’s de facto authority. He then revealed to Leila that he planned for her to lead the judges’ escape and challenge Smilas’s rule through early elections.

• Lin Cuo used the Paris crisis to suspend the tribunal and detain Montfort and the other judges during the global broadcast.
• Lin Cuo announced that Great Han would recognize Smilas’s Office of the Supreme Military Coordinator and support his takeover of E.U. institutions.
• A group calling itself the E.U. National Revolution and Saint Committee backed Smilas, promoted Leila, and demanded the old committee’s dissolution and future elections.
• Leila watched the chaotic takeover unfold and concluded that Lin Cuo was behind its tangled political maneuvers.
• Lin Cuo told Leila that he had detained the judges so she could lead their escape in three days and return to the E.U. to challenge Smilas’s military rule and demand early elections.

Leila and Lin Cuo linked minds through her awakened blue Geass, revealing their deepest convictions and leaving them with a complicated bond as political enemies and soulmates. Leila still condemned Lin Cuo’s actions, but she offered to let him call her “mother” once.

• Leila’s blue Geass awakened, connecting her and Lin Cuo’s emotions, senses, and memories.
• Leila saw Lin Cuo’s ambition and cruelty alongside his determination to ensure humanity survived, while Lin Cuo saw her efforts to protect others and her doubts about the E.U.
• Lin Cuo caught Leila when the connection overwhelmed her, and the System Interface labeled them political enemies and soulmates.
• Leila told Lin Cuo she still hated him and condemned his detention, torture, Paris operation, and treatment of people as resources.
• Lin Cuo kissed Leila, but she pushed him away and told him not to mistake their closeness for forgiveness.
• Remembering Lin Cuo’s childhood loneliness, Leila offered to let him call her “mother” once.

Lin Cuo handed Li Xingke responsibility for the E.U. crisis while Jiang Lihua clarified how their government divided decisions. Great Han and Britannia launched competing satellites, and the system unlocked a diplomatic module that revealed dangerous cross-world theaters.

• Lin Cuo told Li Xingke that Great Han had secretly supported Smilas's takeover and assigned him to coordinate the E.U. response.
• Jiang Lihua divided the E.U. responsibilities among Li Xingke, Lord Cao, and the E.U. Affairs Executive Bureau, then sent Li Xingke a note of encouragement.
• Eleven days later, Great Han launched Celestial Balance One into orbit and broadcast its first image of Earth.
• Eleven hours after Great Han's launch, the Holy Britannia Imperium sent Pendragon One into low orbit, beginning a satellite rivalry.
• The system unlocked the Europa Universalis IV diplomatic system, but its first revealed theaters had unmet diplomatic conditions or presented deadly risks to envoys.

Lin Cuo inspected the collapsing war zones and abandoned plans to contact the Imperium of Man, deciding its envoy would not survive. He found a possible diplomatic opening with the Koprulu Joint Evacuation Fleet, whose leader James Raynor offered safe-route data and technology in exchange for high-energy resources, including sakuradite as a substitute.

• Lin Cuo considered sending a capable eunuch to the Imperium of Man, but the system warned that the envoy would be isolated and interrogated.
• Lin Cuo discovered the Imperium of Man was fighting the Void Legion and other catastrophic threats, then withdrew his offer of diplomatic contact.
• Lin Cuo surveyed other war zones and concluded that the order faction had collapsed, with even the apparent winners struggling to survive.
• Lin Cuo found the Koprulu Joint Evacuation Fleet and was surprised that James Raynor had maxed-out personal credibility despite his lack of stable territory.
• James Raynor's recorded message requested vespene gas, terrazine, or warp-repair materials in exchange for safe-route data and technology, and the system identified high-purity fluid sakuradite as a substitute.

Lin Cuo used Great Han’s sakuradite reserves to send unconditional aid to James Raynor’s refugee fleet, earning Raynor’s trust and unlocking a cross-world military-industrial path. The system assigned Great Han ambitious legendary objectives, leaving Lin Cuo exasperated by the obligations attached to a small relief shipment.

• Lin Cuo learned that the fleet needed vastly more sakuradite than Great Han could provide and that unstable coordinates prevented real-time contact.
• Lin Cuo watched Michael Liberty and James Raynor’s recorded appeal, which explained the fleet’s dangers and need for supplies.
• Lin Cuo sent twenty tonnes of high-purity fluid sakuradite without conditions, despite the cost to Great Han’s reserves.
• Raynor’s fleet used the shipment for medical transports, jump-beacon repairs, and civilian transport reactors, and the system marked Lin Cuo as Raynor’s Friend.
• The system unlocked the Beacon of Order Across Worlds path and set legendary objectives involving support for displaced civilizations and shared arms standards.
• Lin Cuo complained about the system’s new obligations, and the system said it was only good for recording Ironman results.

After donating twenty tons of High-Purity Fluid Sakuradite to the Koprulu Fleet, Lin Cuo wrestled with the human cost of leading a civilization through war and sought comfort from Jiang Lihua. He proposed a Global Mobile Weapons Tournament to ease worldwide war stress and redirect competition into a controlled arena.

• Lin Cuo reflected on the Sakuradite donation, the casualties at Kashgar, and his fear that he might someday stop feeling the weight of wartime deaths.
• The system assessed Lin Cuo’s rising stress and noted that he used jokes and shameless remarks to conceal his fear.
• Lin Cuo went to Jiang Lihua after the imperial briefing, and she comforted him while urging him to share his burdens and accept opposition to his judgments.
• Lin Cuo proposed a Global Mobile Weapons Tournament featuring machines and pilots from across the world.
• The system assessed the tournament as a way to relieve war stress, identify strong pilots, and encourage military exchanges, while warning of accidents and a new arms race.

Lin Cuo proposed a global tournament to boost the Great Han’s prestige and test military equipment, while the government redirected resources toward anti-BETA forces and logistics. He recruited Rakshata to lead a new mobile headquarters design and research program, and baited her with the prospect of competing against Earl Lloyd.

• Lin Cuo persuaded Jiang Lihua that a tournament could provide public relief and let nations compete without risking territory, despite the likelihood of injuries.
• The Ordnance Standards Committee approved slower, more heavily armored anti-BETA KMF designs, support variants of the Gao Hai, Kitty Vehicles, and fiber-optic drones.
• Lin Cuo presented Rakshata with plans for the Mirage Bird of Paradise and proposed making IS Core technology and its supporting systems reproducible without relying on Tabane.
• Lin Cuo offered Rakshata a large pool of technical personnel and said Earl Lloyd would bring a new Lancelot to the world tournament.
• Rakshata agreed to lead the core machine design and research, motivated in part by the chance to beat Earl Lloyd.

Leila and the judges escaped Great Han’s detention zone as Lin Cuo launched a worldwide mobile-weapons tournament to promote human unity and challenge rival powers. Just as the broadcast was ending, military sensors detected three artificially accelerated objects near Mars’s Hellas Basin.

• Leila and five other judges left the detention zone through an escape route Lin Cuo had quietly prepared, and Montfort mistakenly assumed Leila had made a personal sacrifice to secure their freedom.
• Lin Cuo announced the first Human Common Defense World Mobile Weapons Tournament, inviting nations to compete in Luoyang and challenging Britannia and the E.U. to enter their machines.
• Lin Cuo named Kallen Kouzuki and Li Xingke as Great Han representatives, while Li protested his selection and Leila’s allocation of 360 TQ-21s.
• Li Xingke’s stress-triggered trait evolution gave him the Legacy of Han Restoration, and his old injuries and chronic conditions were fully healed.
• Celestial Balance One and other international sensors detected three high-intensity thermal events near Mars’s Hellas Basin and confirmed that three objects had accelerated artificially.

Lin Cuo reviewed Li Xingke’s preparations for the coming decisive battle, including military deployments, Western Regions garrisons, and uncertain orbital targets. The three objects were expected to enter near-Earth space in about forty-two days, half the time Great Han had before the Kashgar crisis.

• Li Xingke told Lin Cuo that Takemi Tae was preparing drugs to improve neural-load tolerance and recovery, and that Lin Cuo had to attend the next human trials.
• Li Xingke sent Lin Cuo military reorganization orders placing ten Category A divisions in the Second Echelon and preparing Great Han’s main forces for a decisive battle.
• Lin Cuo approved using India’s mobilized troops to hold the front while Great Han’s main forces attacked the Landing Units’ production nodes and Brain-class units.
• Lin Cuo objected to the Western Regions garrisons’ slow mobilization, but Li Xingke and Cao Yuanming chose to preserve their troops’ readiness and defer investigations until after the war.
• Lin Cuo checked the system’s estimate that the three targets would enter near-Earth space in about forty-two days and realized the warning period was half as long as during the first Kashgar crisis.

Clovis allowed residents of Area 11 to use the name Japan and accepted that many resistance supporters had left for Goryeo. After learning Lelouch and Nunnally were alive, Jeremiah asked Clovis to release him from his military posts so he could go to them, and Clovis told him to go.

• Clovis rejected an official’s demand to ban the name Japan from schools and local newspapers in Area 11.
• Clovis explained that most people still willing to fight Britannia had left for Goryeo, and he cared more about order and taxes than what residents called their homeland.
• Clovis showed Jeremiah records confirming that Lelouch and Nunnally were alive in Goryeo.
• Jeremiah knelt before Clovis and begged to resign from his military posts so he could go to Lelouch and Nunnally.
• Clovis praised Jeremiah’s loyalty and gave him permission to go.

Lin Cuo launched nationwide broadcasting and unified wartime messaging, turning communications into a tool for mobilization as Great Han prepared for continued war. In Pendragon, Schneizel rejected a wholesale shift away from KMFs and proposed expanding KMF production while restoring conventional military industry.

• Lin Cuo adjusted Luoyang’s signal network and launched the Voice of Weiyang broadcast across Great Han, announcing free National Receivers and unified wartime communications.
• Lin Cuo’s broadcasts increased recruitment and community services, and the system completed national broadcasting and unified messaging before he started synchronized broadcasting and community mobilization together.
• Dietrich praised Lin Cuo’s propaganda skills, while C.C. observed that his methods shaped what people saw before they formed their thoughts.
• Schneizel dismissed proposals to convert KMF factories and trained pilots wholesale to conventional forces, then ordered the reactivation of six artillery and Armored Vehicle Factories alongside expanded KMF production.

Schneizel advanced Britannia’s anti-BETA weapons and satellite plans as the Empire competed with Great Han for control of orbital defenses. In Paris, Leila returned with the six judges, learned her family had ended her engagement, and was appointed interim prime minister while Smilas took command of the military.

• Schneizel presented the upgraded Anti-BETA Sutherland and argued that Britannia needed to rebuild its conventional army while keeping Knightmare Frames as its striking force.
• After Great Han and Britannia launched rival satellite networks, Schneizel backed competing orbital weapons plans so Luoyang would not set the rules for space warfare.
• Leila arrived near Paris with the six judges and became furious over tabloids’ rumors about her and Lin Cuo.
• Leila learned that her family had terminated her arranged engagement, citing the danger of remaining connected to the eastern Regent.
• Montfort told Leila that the emergency assembly had passed the National Reconstruction Act and made her E.U.’s interim prime minister.
• Smilas learned that he would become supreme military commander while Leila led the government and Montfort and the judges held emergency judicial review powers.

Jean Smilas learned that Leila Malcal had become the E.U.’s provisional prime minister and was being sent to Great Han for the Orbital Competition. As Great Han prepared to host the World Mobile Weapons Tournament, Schneizel decided the Britannian Empire would participate, with Suzaku Kururugi’s Lancelot entering as an experimental unit.

• Smilas reviewed the provisional constitution naming him Supreme Military Coordinator and Leila Malcal provisional prime minister, then heard the press had called Leila’s rescue of six judges from Great Han the “Trafalgar of the East.”
• E.U. officials assigned Leila to lead a visit to Great Han for the Orbital Competition, and she objected that she had only just returned before accepting the burden.
• Jiang Lihua returned exhausted from factory and public-site inspections, while Lin Cuo tried to soothe her after her visits had prompted longer shifts at each factory.
• Lin Cuo reviewed the risks and events planned for the World Mobile Weapons Tournament, including combat, repairs, and simulated Hive assaults.
• Schneizel decided Britannia would enter the tournament, and Suzaku Kururugi’s Lancelot was designated an experimental unit of the Area 11 Governor-General’s Office.

As the World Mobile Weapons Tournament began, Great Han and the Holy Britannia Imperium accelerated their special-machine programs to prepare for the coming BETA threat. Lin Cuo made Kallen and her Guren Shen Hu the first obstacle for challengers, while E.U. General Andrei Farnese entered the arena to expose the gap in military technology and judge whether a new era of warfare had arrived.

• The Holy Britannia Imperium advanced Vincent production and upgraded its ace machines, while Tabane fitted Kallen’s Guren Shen Hu with a two-person load-sharing interface to manage its strain.
• Lin Cuo opened the tournament by naming Kallen Kouzuki and the Guren Shen Hu as the Defender’s Platform, requiring challengers to defeat her before facing the top aces.
• Lelouch noticed Suzaku Kururugi listed as a Lancelot entrant, while Lloyd read insults about Suzaku aloud and Cecile rebuked him for treating Suzaku as a test instrument.
• Leila warned Andrei Farnese not to challenge the Defender’s Platform for personal reasons, but Andrei said the E.U. needed a public demonstration of the technological gap to force military investment.
• Andrei submitted the E.U.’s challenge and said he also wanted to confirm whether the next generation of warfare had arrived.

Lin Cuo introduced Kallen Kouzuki as the defending champion while needling her on the global broadcast, then Milly Ashford revealed Kallen’s Britannian noble background. Kallen and Lin Cuo entered their first combat test against Andrei’s heavily armed Iron Man, where their new two-person cockpit system caused as much friction as the enemy fire.

• Great Han approved the E.U.’s challenge, and Lin Cuo mocked the delegation before presenting Kallen as an inexperienced, hot-tempered champion.
• Milly Ashford read Kallen’s public file, revealing that she was registered as Kallen Stadtfeld and had Britannian noble ancestry, startling Clovis and officials in Pendragon and Area 11.
• Andrei began the match by firing the Iron Man’s paired guns and using recoil to retreat, while Kallen and Lin Cuo struggled to coordinate their two-person controls.
• Kallen deployed the Guren Shen Hu’s Radiation Barrier and directional defense to deflect Andrei’s first volley as Milly calmly described the cockpit argument on air.
• Andrei maintained his distance with successive volleys, and Kallen used missiles and limited radar to disrupt his retreat while Lin Cuo misread her movements.
• Kallen realized Lin Cuo was distracted by her posture data and threatened to turn his interference into a tournament accident.

Kallen defeated Andrei’s Iron Man in forty-seven seconds with Guren Shen Hu, demonstrating the experimental machine’s power. After the battle, Lin Cuo connected its two-person interface to his ideas about mind synchronization and began imagining a future machine that could transform through a mental link.

• Kallen used Guren Shen Hu’s flight wings and Gefjun interference units to disrupt Iron Man’s targeting, then destroyed both of its cannon arms with a focused energy attack.
• Andrei’s Iron Man lost combat capability, and he uploaded the battle data before telling Leila that a new era of warfare had arrived.
• Kallen confronted Lin Cuo about his distraction in the rear cockpit, and he explained that the two-person interface had inspired him to consider mind synchronization technology.
• Lin Cuo proposed expanding the interface, while Kallen warned him not to treat her driving posture as a private hobby.
• Lin Cuo seized on the idea of man-machine unity and began considering how mind synchronization, KMF technology, and World of C consciousness connections might be combined.

Lin Cuo ended his first copilot test with Kallen and proposed developing a more advanced consciousness-linking system, while Kallen admitted she might be willing to test two-person piloting again. After the E.U. lost every qualifying match, Leila ordered the tournament report made public and demanded military reforms.

• Lin Cuo imagined a giant shared-piloting machine, and Rakshata and Tabane discussed improving the two-pilot system as Milly urged Kallen to face her next challenger.
• Lin Cuo returned control to the IS Core, but Kallen privately said she would consider trying ordinary two-person piloting again.
• Kallen defeated the remaining E.U. challengers, and none of the E.U.'s machines qualified for the Highest-Tier Competition.
• André gave Leila the match statistics, which showed how the E.U.'s training and military systems fell short in high-mobility combat.
• Leila ordered the report published and told the Military-Industrial Commission not to delay reforms supported by combat data.

Lin Cuo arranged to keep Suzaku Kururugi in Great Han for an identity verification while considering whether Anya Alstreim carried memories of Marianne. Suzaku was intercepted by Li Xingke, and the competition’s Knights of the Round entrance was delayed as his screening went public.

• Lin Cuo told Chou Xianglin that Li Xingke would help verify Suzaku Kururugi’s identity and prevent him from leaving Great Han without provoking a fight.
• Lin Cuo asked C.C. whether Marianne’s consciousness had survived her death, and C.C. warned him that Marianne was not a harmless adviser and that Anya’s body had its own owner.
• Suzaku left the Britannian maintenance area hoping to speak with Kallen, but Great Han officers stopped him in a controlled corridor for an identity check.
• Li Xingke told Suzaku that Lin Cuo wanted to speak with him and that the security procedure barred him from entering other areas until verification was complete.
• The competition venues announced Suzaku’s special identity verification, delaying the Knights of the Round’s entrance as Cornelia, Lloyd, and Cecile noticed his restricted status.

Britannia’s delegation began evacuating as Lin Cuo used the tournament’s safety procedures to keep Suzaku under review. After Li Xingke stopped Suzaku’s escape, Lin Cuo warned that fleeing would trigger consequences for the entire delegation and put thousands of spectators at risk.

• Lloyd ordered Britannia’s delegation to evacuate with its technical documents and spare parts, leaving Suzaku behind.
• Milly discovered that she and the Ashford Family had guaranteed the tournament’s safety procedures, and Lin Cuo admitted he had used their credibility to bring Britannian officials and Lancelot to the event.
• Li Xingke refused to let Suzaku leave before his identity review was complete, and Suzaku tried to escape through the maintenance passage.
• Li Xingke fought Suzaku and took him down after Lin Cuo warned that Suzaku was nearing the imperial landing pad.
• Lin Cuo threatened to freeze Britannian assets and detain personnel if Suzaku continued fleeing, and warned that entering the spectator area could endanger hundreds of thousands of people.

Kaguya Sumeragi confronted Suzaku over his service to Britannia and persuaded him to stay and speak with her, while Great Han publicized his protection as proof of its commitment to allies. Lin Cuo then framed the incident as part of Great Han’s political credibility and announced that the competition and wage payments would continue.

• Kaguya Sumeragi entered the passage and struck Suzaku before confronting him about serving the empire that had conquered their country.
• Kaguya told Suzaku that Great Han recognized her country, unlike the empire he served, and asked him to hear her out.
• Suzaku agreed to stay if the others could leave, but insisted he had not transferred citizenship or relinquished his military post.
• A news broadcast announced that Suzaku had decided to remain and speak with his country's political representative, prompting him to protest that this was not what he meant.
• Lin Cuo presented Great Han’s protection of Suzaku as a national commitment to its allies and said the competition would proceed as usual.
• Workers in a Luoyang factory canteen focused on the announced back payment of technical-post allowances.

The Ashford and Stadtfeld families publicly disowned Milly and Kallen while secretly moving assets and influence toward Great Han, sparking rumors about their relationships with Lin Cuo. In Goryeo, Lelouch watched Nunnally’s recovery and faced Shirley’s anger, then received Lin Cuo’s latest provocative wager about his feelings.

• The Ashford Family froze Milly’s inheritance and authority while transferring technology trusts and other assets into accounts she could influence, then spread rumors about her closeness to Lin Cuo.
• Earl Stadtfeld publicly disowned Kallen while secretly routing assets through the Kouzuki Culture and Military Dependents Relief Fund, and planted a rumor that her future eldest son could inherit the Kouzuki surname.
• Lin Cuo denied making promises about Milly and Kallen as Dietrich praised the rumors’ political effect; Milly and Kallen called to challenge him, and he told Kallen that she could build a family of her own.
• In Goryeo, Lelouch watched Nunnally practice standing and reflected on his work with Great Han, while Shirley confronted him for ignoring her messages.
• Lin Cuo sent Lelouch a wager about developing complicated feelings toward a young-looking girl, leaving Lelouch to explain the message awkwardly to Nunnally and Shirley.