Chapter Summaries

Leila read Lin Cuo’s book, which traced his childhood and argued that humanity must unite under one political entity, alliance, ideology, and commander-in-chief to survive the Alien Civilizational War. Her reading was cut short by the review officers, who shocked her and took the book before reporting that Mein Führer had not yet arrived.

• Leila read Lin Cuo’s account of growing up without his mother and of his father’s death, alongside his early interest in painting cities.
• Lin Cuo argued that Britannia’s empire had to be defeated and dismantled, while distinguishing it from ordinary Britannian citizens.
• Lin Cuo criticized Great Han, the E.U., and his own purge policies, and wrote that Leila’s kindness could not change a system that treated W-0 as ammunition.
• Leila read Lin Cuo’s proposal for one nation, one alliance, one ideology, and one commander-in-chief, including his warning that a dictator might claim to be buying time for democracy.
• The female officer ended Leila’s reading, and guards shocked her and took the book away.
• A German-speaking officer reported that Leila’s response matched expectations and that Mein Führer had not yet arrived.

Lin Cuo planned a personal Knightmare with Tabane and C.C., giving C.C. a role with independent veto power despite her objections. As he left Penglai, he strengthened his bond with Nina, while the Mars Hive prepared three new landing units and the distant war continued to divert the BETA’s attention.

• Tabane and C.C. teased Lin Cuo about his efforts to stabilize Nina, and he brought them into a meeting about his personal machine.
• Lin Cuo presented the Mirage Bird of Paradise design, placing C.C. in its lower core pod; Tabane proposed giving her emergency authority to stop the machine and eject him.
• C.C. remained in Penglai as Supernatural Affairs Advisor and Experimental Knightmare Safety Supervisor.
• Lin Cuo left Nina a handwritten note and asked her for advice; Nina prepared recommendations about his interactions with female political figures and responded warmly to his call for her to be a dependable big sister.
• The Mars Hive divided its G-Element reserves among three surface-seeding units aimed at the Athabasca Basin, Mashhad, and Bhopal.
• The node on Mars continued receiving echoes of a war in another A.D. universe, where conflict among BETA, ELS, and humanity kept the BETA’s main forces occupied.

Installation began on Great Han’s Apollo Chariot No. 2 Test Facility, where former W-0 members now enforced safety rules over the E.U. engineers. Eito Hyuga accepted that the new procedures meant pilots could refuse dangerous tests, while his centrifuge results raised questions about how much g-force KMF pilots could withstand.

• Eito Hyuga checked the installed track data as the chapter described how Great Han had adapted the E.U.’s Apollo Chariot design for orbital launches and crewed missions.
• Sayanami blocked Anna Kleiman from authorizing the third track section until she reran the Escape Pod separation test and obtained the required approval.
• Eito Hyuga reflected on how Great Han’s test rules required officials to cancel unsafe launches and guaranteed that pilots could refuse missions.
• Eito Hyuga completed a human centrifuge test, maintaining mission-level reactions at eleven g and showing fluctuating vision after a brief fourteen-g peak.
• Lin Cuo questioned the medical officer’s assessment of Eito Hyuga as an excellent candidate, noting that his performance seemed abnormally good by ordinary human standards.

Lin Cuo used newly identified human traits and pilot data to push Great Han toward rebuilding its conventional air force alongside its KMFs. Chou Xianglin took charge of the reconstruction plan as the country’s military-focused mobilization expanded, bringing new opportunities and mounting costs.

• Lin Cuo’s system identified humans’ strong and charismatic traits, then mocked his attempt to use them to explain his personal history.
• Lin Cuo submitted pilot adaptability findings to Chou Xianglin and urged a full reassessment of Great Han’s aviation forces.
• Chou Xianglin accepted responsibility for air force reconstruction but demanded that authority be divided to prevent all work from accumulating on her desk.
• Chou Xianglin reorganized the plan around floating relays, restored conventional aircraft, KMFs, and new orbital observation and communication networks.
• Great Han’s aviation workforce and military institutions expanded, creating advancement for commoners while increasing workloads, training risks, and pressure for permanent wartime mobilization.

Britannia examined BETA specimens and ordered research into how to kill them before they reached the ground. Lloyd rejected Heavy-Metal Clouds as too disruptive to Britannia’s own systems and proposed layered defenses built around energy shields, thermal-protection coatings, cooling, and maneuvering.

• Cornelia, Schneizel, Lloyd, Cecile, and Charles examined BETA specimens, and Cecile explained that the creatures gathered humans and other materials for Hive production.
• Charles ordered the Imperium to study the BETA and learn how to kill them before they reached the ground.
• Imperial researchers proposed Heavy-Metal Clouds to weaken Laser-Class beams, but simulations showed the particles would disrupt Britannia’s communications and equipment as well.
• Lloyd rejected the cloud approach and presented data on Laser-Class irradiation and recovery windows alongside the Imperium’s existing shield technology.
• Lloyd proposed layered defenses combining adjustable Luminous Shields, Special Composite Thermal-Protection Coating, active cooling, structural redundancy, maneuvering, and Unmanned Decoys.

Britannia and Great Han independently began developing shielded aircraft, KMFs, and floating battleships after encountering the Tank-class threat. In Luoyang, Lin Cuo visited the imprisoned Leila Malcal, who condemned him, and he tried to deflect responsibility for her treatment onto the E.U. and his subordinates.

• Britannia rapidly redirected its military industries toward shield technology and accelerated plans for floating battleships.
• Leila Malcal endured interrogation in Luoyang until Lin Cuo entered and asked how far she had read the books in her cell.
• Leila denounced Lin Cuo as a torturer hiding behind official procedures, while he privately took satisfaction in her criticism.
• Lin Cuo's system showed that Leila regarded him as a mortal enemy and had almost no willingness to be recruited.
• Lin Cuo told Leila that her imprisonment and interrogations were a diplomatic-management failure, blaming the E.U. and the personnel who carried out his orders.
• Leila was left disbelieving as Lin Cuo portrayed himself as a victim of the situation he had authorized.

Lin Cuo confronted Leila with documents showing that General Jean Smilas planned to pin W-0’s failures on her while preparing for emergency military control. He asked her to distinguish personal responsibility from institutional blame, then accused her of refusing to make the same distinction for him.

• Leila tried to kick Lin Cuo, but her weakened body slowed her, and he caught her ankle before she nearly pulled him off balance with an aikido move.
• Lin Cuo stopped the guard from intervening and said he had come to correct the security procedures that had left Leila too weak to stand for her live public review.
• Lin Cuo showed Leila a draft investigation assigning her responsibility for W-0’s creation, casualties, and the leak of Apollo Chariot technology, while placing little blame on Smilas.
• Leila examined a separate emergency military plan that could give Smilas administrative power during a crisis, but said it did not prove he was planning a coup.
• Lin Cuo asked whether W-0’s humanitarian crisis was Leila’s fault, and she said she bore command responsibility while arguing that the committee and Smilas had created the conditions behind it.
• Lin Cuo admitted his own command and supervisory responsibility for coercive measures, then accused Leila of demanding that others separate him from the institutions and personnel involved.

Leila challenged Lin Cuo over his responsibility for the torture she endured, but he argued that blame should be apportioned across the institutions and officials involved. He revealed that the interrogations had been documented as evidence for a live public review the next morning, then predicted that E.U. legislators would soon demand Leila’s return to Paris.

• Leila accused Lin Cuo of using her efforts to protect W-0 to excuse his approval of torture, while Lin Cuo argued that both of them had acted within flawed systems and should share responsibility.
• Leila recognized that Lin Cuo was using a false equivalence, but her exhaustion made it difficult for her to dismantle his argument.
• Lin Cuo called the interrogations compensation and gave Leila records documenting the torture, his authorization, and the E.U. committee’s revocation of her status.
• Lin Cuo told Leila that a live joint public review of W-0 citizenship, her revoked E.U. status, and Great Han’s protective custody would take place the next morning, with time for her to question officials and him.
• Lin Cuo proposed a bet and predicted that E.U. legislators who had approved keeping Leila in Great Han would demand her return to Paris within a week.

The E.U. launched a public review intended to blame Leila Malcal for W-0 and related scandals, while Lin Cuo turned the proceedings into a worldwide political spectacle. The trial began with the prosecution portraying Leila as the central force behind W-0, elevating her importance before the audience.

• Lin Cuo and Dietrich planned to use the review footage and public trial to build Leila's public profile and expose the E.U.'s hypocrisy.
• The Forty-Person Committee approved an open review, Britannia sent observers, and Jiang Lihua and Li Xingke questioned Lin Cuo's decision to appear as a witness.
• Lin Cuo publicly denied any improper relationship with Leila and dragged Kallen Kouzuki into the rumor, prompting Kallen to berate him.
• The broadcast showed Leila's detention footage before she entered the tribunal, and she reacted with surprise when she realized the world had seen it.
• The E.U. prosecutor accused Leila of directing W-0's political, military, and personnel activities, and Dietrich recognized that the accusation had made her seem more important than the Committee and its generals.

At her trial, Leila challenged the prosecution’s claim that she was W-0’s guiding spirit and demanded that responsibility also be placed on the system that shaped the unit. With W-0’s former members standing behind her, the court allowed her to continue her statement, while Dietrich ordered a key line from the broadcast prepared for worldwide release.

• Anna Clement, Eito Hyuga, Sayanami, Naruse Yukiya, Kousaka Ayano, and other former W-0 personnel entered the hearing chamber in their new uniforms.
• Chief Justice Montfort overruled the prosecutor’s objection and admitted the group as parties to the case and witnesses.
• Leila argued that the prosecution’s description of her as W-0’s guiding spirit entitled her to answer before its presentation was complete.
• Leila admitted signing orders that caused casualties but argued that the indictment ignored the conditions that had forced W-0’s members to earn identity through military service.
• Eito Hyuga testified that Leila had never ordered or pressured him to change affiliations, and said someone else had ordered him to die.
• Leila demanded that politicians share responsibility with her, and Montfort allowed her to finish her statement while Dietrich ordered a key line cut for worldwide broadcasts.

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.