Recaps

Elliot asked Flora whether she wanted a Ghoul transformation, but she refused because she feared becoming a monster. After he advanced her Thing of Immortality, Elliot discovered that Flora had reached Fourth Rank and met the hidden condition Dominate History, leaving him to wonder whether the Difference Engine itself had shaped history and whether Flora’s Thing of Immortality was counterfeit.

• Elliot took control of Vanessa and asked Flora whether she wanted to become a Ghoul.
• Flora refused the transformation, and Maeve angrily objected when Flora called Ghouls ugly.
• Elliot respected Flora’s choice and inserted the Thing of Immortality Card into her Fourth Rank slot.
• The Difference Engine advanced Flora to Fourth Rank and revealed that she had met the hidden condition Dominate History.
• Elliot considered how several people had dominated history and wondered whether the Difference Engine had done so, then suspected Flora’s Thing of Immortality was counterfeit.

Elliot investigated the growing hole in Flora’s chest and learned that the Thing of Immortality inside her was only a replica. When he prepared her Ascension, the Difference Engine showed three disturbing Cards, including one depicting Elliot tearing out Flora’s heart.

• Vanessa asked Flora whether the Thing of Immortality inside her was real, and Flora explained that it was a replica because the Mourning Poetry Society had lost the original.
• Vanessa noticed that Flora’s chest hole had grown larger, and Flora feared that she had become emotionless again.
• Flora could not explain how the Thing of Immortality had been lost because she had not reached middle rank and could not hear Secret History.
• Elliot suspected that hidden conditions such as dominating history restricted advancement, then considered completing the Thing of Immortality through Flora’s Ascension.
• The Difference Engine showed Cards depicting Flora with no hole, with another heart inside the hole, and with Elliot pulling her beating heart from her chest.
• Elliot kicked the Difference Engine in frustration, then began analyzing what the hole might represent.

Flora showed Vanessa the imitation Thing of Immortality embedded in her spine and explained Emperor Trist’s achievements and the Mourning Poetry Society’s reverence for him. Elliot reconsidered the clues about the hollow and began investigating what Dream Power was.

• Elliot had Vanessa ask Flora about the Thing of Immortality, and Flora revealed the black Spike embedded in her spine.
• Flora explained that Emperor Trist had created the Three Artifacts and the Path system, begun the First Industrial Revolution, and been assassinated before humanity could continue its progress.
• Flora said the Mourning Poetry Society mourned Emperor Trist rather than the lost artifacts, while Elliot resolved to search his family’s library for records about the emperor.
• Elliot concluded that the Thing of Immortality was the Spike in Flora’s spine, not something in her chest, and reconsidered the Difference Engine’s three Cards.
• Elliot noticed that reaching the Third Rank let him slowly absorb Dream Power during Dream Entry and wondered what Dream Power was.

Elliot chose Faith Ascension for Flora and selected a talent that would strengthen her Thing of Immortality over time. When Vanessa tried to sacrifice more Lords of Dreams to test the altar, it stopped accepting offerings.

• Elliot chose Faith Ascension for Flora, and the Difference Engine produced a card depicting her carving her own gravestone.
• Elliot considered Flora’s three Fourth Rank talents and selected Completion, which would strengthen her future Thing of Immortality talents.
• Elliot had Vanessa offer more Lords of Dreams to the altar to test how sacrifices affected middle-rank believers.
• The altar stopped accepting the corpses, leaving Elliot puzzled.

Elliot raised the ranks of the Communion’s believers by processing their sacrifices through the Difference Engine, discovering a new talent for Allen and a separate form for Sia. Sia became a forge and planned to make herself a new body while staying behind to craft items for the believers.

• Elliot set aside questions about sacrifice progress and ordered the believers to advance, then spent days allocating their points through the Difference Engine.
• Elliot chose [Rampage] for Allen, letting him move at extreme speed and use [Flash Blade] without its usual cost, though the talent quickly drained his Spirituality.
• Elliot discovered that [Believer Sia] could select talents separately from Dorothea and chose [Forge], allowing Sia to transform into a massive forge.
• Sia told Dorothea that they could still share a body and that Dorothea could draw on her abilities and Spirituality while they did.
• Sia planned to forge herself a new body from suitable materials and stayed behind at Lady Vanessa’s request to make things for the believers.

Elliot discovered that the Courtyard’s corpse supply had dwindled because Maeve had eaten most of it, leaving advancement and food supplies in jeopardy. Vanessa learned from Lillian that she could open a passage to the Sea of the Moon, prompting plans for an expedition to hunt Dream Creatures.

• Elliot learned that Maeve had consumed most of the Courtyard’s corpse stockpile, while the Dock’s supplies were also running low.
• Elliot kept Maeve’s food quota because she supplied ingredients for the Communion and meat that helped Victoria recover spirituality, but he banned Dorothea from cooking.
• Vanessa proposed an expedition against the Lords of Dreams, and Dorothea questioned how they would find any.
• Vanessa revealed that Lillian had recovered and could open a passage to the Sea of the Moon, though she could not reopen a passage to the present world without a historical record linking it to the Courtyard.
• Lillian explained that she could open a passage to the place she had come from and was shocked when Vanessa told her it had been the seabed of the Sea of the Moon.

Elliot suspected the Old Duke’s ritual was a trap and decided to send Elsa’s disguised corpse in his place. As they sailed toward the Sterling Family’s base, he learned the preparations were supposedly complete and that both the Old Duke and Duchess would preside, deepening his suspicions.

• Lillian wondered whether Elliot’s lord could control the moon, but warned that opening a passage to the Sea of the Moon could let Dream Creatures into the Courtyard.
• Elliot postponed opening the passage and decided not to attend the Old Duke’s ritual himself, sending Elsa’s corpse under his disguise instead.
• Elliot told Allen to accompany him to the Sterling Family’s base, and they departed by ship after saying goodbye to Sidney and Michel.
• Cora told Elliot that the Expedition Frontline was advancing well, but that the Old Duke had restrained the troops so the princes could earn more impressive records.
• A Machine Priest said the Old Duke had assembled war machines, soldiers, and priests for Elliot’s inspection, then revealed that the Old Duke and Duchess would preside over the ritual.
• Elliot questioned why he had never been told that the ritual required two presiding figures.

Elliot learned that the ritual to gain the Sterling Family's recognition was simple but required the Old Duke's approval, then arrived at the family's base and saw the expedition's immense military strength. He discovered that the family had three mobile fortress-class War Titans, including the Undying Fire, which was staying behind as the princes headed into the Abyssal Sea.

• Elliot learned that the recognition ritual would let him safely access the Secret Library and that the Old Duke had to authorize it.
• The Machine Priests brought Elliot to the Sterling Family's base, where he saw a vast fortress surrounded by fleets of ships.
• Cora identified the fortress as the Undying Fire, one of three fortress-class War Titans deployed by the family.
• Cora explained that the Undying Fire would remain at the base while the other two Titans accompanied Sidney and Michel into the Abyssal Sea.
• Elliot realized the family's power was far greater than he had known and felt more confident in the princes' expedition.

Elliot arrived at the fortress and saw the forces the Old Duke had assembled to welcome him, then discovered that the Old Duke had removed nearly all his mechanical modifications. As Lady Camilla demanded to touch his bare hand, Elliot feared she would detect his deception and prepared an excuse.

• The Gear Hymn entered the fortress, where soldiers, warships, and machines bowed as Elliot passed.
• Elliot saw the Old Duke waiting with Lady Camilla and noticed that the Old Duke had removed nearly all his steel modifications.
• Elliot used [Spirit Vision] and found that the Old Duke's life force was still vigorous despite his aged appearance.
• Lady Camilla held out her steel arm and insisted that Elliot place his hand on it.
• Elliot removed his glove and reached toward Lady Camilla, hoping she would believe his explanation about controlling Elsa's body.

Elliot completed the simple Ritual that transferred the Sterling Family’s authority to him, only to learn the Old Duke planned to abandon this layer of history. As the Old Duke entered the great machine’s flames, Elliot was left to safeguard the family and its flame amid the approaching end of the Era.

• The Old Duke gave Elliot a badge and told him to pour his Spirituality into it, completing the Ritual that made him head of the Sterling Family.
• The Old Duke announced before the soldiers and Believers that Elliot would become Duke Sterling and inherit the family’s power.
• Elliot protested that he was unprepared and accused the Old Duke of abandoning the family and the Empire to escape the collapsing history.
• The Old Duke urged Elliot to protect the Sterling Family and the flame of Indomitability, then entered the machine’s flames, declaring that he would save this layer of history and Era.

After the Old Duke entered the Forge and was consumed by its flames, Elliot struggled against the spiritual harm of hearing Secret History and faced the Sterling Family as its new head. He used [Mother of Concealment] to overwhelm the crowd with Spirituality Pressure, leaving those who defied him crushed beneath the vision of a burning sun.

• The Old Duke entered the Forge, and its flames surged until Lady Camilla shielded Elliot with her mechanical arm.
• Elliot realized that listening to the Old Duke’s Secret History had harmed his spirit and struggled to stand before the watching Sterling Family and Reforging Flame believers.
• Lady Camilla pointed out the crowd, and Elliot steadied himself, pinned the family-head badge to his collar, and handed the scepter to Cora.
• Elliot intensified his presence with [Mother of Concealment], causing more of the crowd to kneel as Cora called on them to pledge loyalty to Sterling.
• Elliot gathered and compressed his spirituality until those who resisted saw a blazing sun above them and were crushed by his Spirituality Pressure.

Elliot became the Duke after Lady Camilla vanished during the Forge ceremony, then sought answers about the ritual and the fortress. As Elsa’s spirit moved toward him, Elliot noticed something unusual about the family Emblem, and Cora said Lady Camilla would answer their questions in the Secret Library.

• Elliot completed the ceremony, and Lady Camilla’s soul dispersed from her steel body after she helped him become Duke.
• Elliot ordered Cora to gather information about the ritual, the Forge, and the soldiers at the front.
• While Elliot operated the Difference Engine, Elsa’s spirit formed the Sterling Family head’s Emblem and passed through his locked cabin door.
• Elliot later examined the Emblem as he walked through the fortress with Cora and asked what the priests had said.
• Cora used a device behind her ear to recall that the priests had directed them to the Secret Library, where Lady Camilla would answer their questions.

Elliot used the Emblem to enter the Sterling Family’s Secret Library, where Cora struggled to process its machinery and records. When Elliot touched a Difference Engine, it overloaded and kept moving even after he cut its power and removed its core, before displaying a message from Lady Camilla.

• Elliot learned that the Emblem transferred Secret Library access through its holder’s spirituality and used it to open the library door.
• Elliot brought Cora inside, but she became overwhelmed by the library’s vast data and could not locate Lady Camilla right away.
• Elliot touched a machine and felt a familiar emotion within its mechanical structures, triggering the Difference Engine to roar into overload.
• Elliot cut off the Difference Engine’s power and pulled out its core, but its Brass Dials continued turning without power.
• The Brass Dials stopped and displayed a message addressed to Elliot: “At last, I see you again.”

Elliot learned that Lady Camilla had joined him through the Difference Engine to help him secure the Sterling Family and lead the Sea of the Moon expedition. After the Veil blocked a mysterious being’s gaze, Camilla explained that the family’s wives became Mechanical Spirits by sacrificing their flesh, and that she had preserved her emotions within the Old Duke.

• Elliot questioned whether the presence in the Difference Engine was really Lady Camilla, and she told him to establish himself as family head before Michel and Sidney’s expedition began.
• Lady Camilla said she would help Elliot take control of the family and complete the expedition, while admitting she had deliberately deleted memories before leaving her armor.
• Elliot asked whether his father’s attempt to save a layer of history involved a being beyond the Veil, triggering the Veil’s power and stopping the Difference Engine’s Brass Dial.
• Elliot realized the Veil had blocked the being’s gaze and that Lady Camilla was afraid of it, so he avoided discussing the subject further.
• Lady Camilla explained that the Sterling Family’s wives sacrificed their flesh to become Mechanical Spirits and assist their husbands, and that she had preserved her emotions within the Old Duke.

The Courtyard ran out of food, and Vanessa used a Sacrifice Ritual to summon a mountain of Dream Creature corpses before visiting Victoria. Vanessa then confirmed to Lillian that she wanted to open a passage to the Seabed of the Sea of the Moon, leaving Lillian to obey despite the danger of flooding the Abode.

• The Courtyard’s food supply ended, and Vanessa said she had contacted Lillian and Victoria about opening a passage to the Sea of the Moon, but Victoria had warned against it.
• Vanessa performed a Sacrifice Ritual and summoned a mountain of Dream Creature corpses, prompting Dorothea to pray and open a Mirror passage to Victoria’s Library.
• Vanessa asked Victoria about the consequences of opening a passage to the Sea of the Moon, and Victoria warned that seawater and Dream Creatures could flood the Abode.
• Victoria trapped Vanessa in a cocoon of hair, but Vanessa vanished, and Victoria concluded that the Great Being had used Vanessa’s form to deliver a hint.
• Vanessa met Lillian, proved her identity by producing a hair clip that released Lillian’s pinned-up hair, and ordered her to open the passage to the Seabed.

Vanessa directed Lillian to open a permanent passage and sent her to search the Imperial Capital’s outskirts for Phoenix, who had been disrupting history. After Lillian completed the ritual, Vanessa cleared away the room and Lillian activated it, leaving the passage beginning to open.

• Lillian began inscribing a ritual to create a permanent passage, explaining that it required inventing a self-consistent history.
• Vanessa revealed she knew Lillian had hunted Phoenix and directed her to ruins on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.
• Lillian promised to find Phoenix and recover the Hollow Cathedral’s stolen sacred object.
• Several hours later, Lillian finished the ritual on a wooden board in the top of her tower.
• Vanessa moved the room’s walls, ceiling, and furnishings away, leaving the floor and ritual behind.
• Lillian activated the ritual as runes lit up and Vanessa heard seawater gurgling.

Vanessa and Lillian opened a passage from the Sea of the Moon into the Courtyard, but Vanessa could not find the old concealed cave. The passage began flooding the tower, and Vanessa told Lillian that a Difference Engine would soon come through it.

• The Lords of Dreams gathered around the opening in the seabed as Vanessa and Lillian crawled through, and Vanessa’s White Light drove the Dream Creatures away.
• Vanessa had Lillian enlarge the passage and throw a chunk of rock into it, then confirmed that the concealed cave had vanished.
• Vanessa and Lillian returned to the tower, where seawater poured through the room-sized rift and flowed toward a lake in the Wood.
• Vanessa told Lillian that a Difference Engine would come through the passage, leaving Lillian stunned.

Elliot sent a Difference Engine into the Sea of the Moon and began exploring cooperation with its Dream Creatures. Vanessa had Dorothea transport a seabed boulder to Maeve, who discovered she could eat it.

• Elliot dropped a Difference Engine from the Shallow Zone into the Sea of the Moon, and Lillian moved it through the passage.
• Elliot considered working with the Dream Creatures to make use of the Sea of the Moon and its resources.
• Vanessa asked Dorothea to use the Mirror Secret Art to carry a large seabed boulder to Maeve in the Wood.
• Dorothea exhausted her spirituality transporting the boulder, so Vanessa fed her Maeve meat to restore it.
• Maeve chewed the boulder and discovered that the stone was edible.

Elliot investigated the strange seabed stone that Maeve could eat and found that it was a different kind of existence from Dream Creatures, while it greatly advanced her progress. With the passage open and the Difference Engine delivered, he arranged plans for engineering lessons and seabed mining before preparing to explain his rise to Duke Sterling to Michel and Sidney’s Expedition.

• Elliot had Vanessa give Maeve a seabed stone labeled [Chunk of meat] by the Difference Engine, and Maeve found it extraordinarily delicious.
• Maeve said the stone was entirely different from Dream Creatures, and Elliot saw that eating it had increased her progress far more than eating them.
• Elliot instructed Dorothea to place the Difference Engine outside the Palace Hall and organize mechanical engineering lessons for the Believers.
• Elliot told Dorothea to organize Believers to mine ordinary stones from the seabed beyond the passage.
• Elliot prepared to tell Michel and Sidney’s Expedition how he had become Duke Sterling, and his pocket watch displayed his mother’s promise to help.

Elliot learned that Lady Camilla had become a Mechanical Spirit who could inhabit machines imbued with his spirituality and help command the expedition. An investigation revealed that the Reforging Flame’s machine was a Fire-Control Prophet calculating a ballistic trajectory, leaving Elliot to wonder whether the Old Duke intended to save the era with a gigantic weapon.

• Elliot used a pocket watch to communicate with Lady Camilla, who explained that she could move between machines connected to his spirituality as Family Head.
• Lady Camilla said she could command the expedition’s war fortress, while Elliot reflected on the Old Duke’s unexplained departure and the memories that had been erased.
• Cora reported that the machine on the platform was a computing machine resembling a Difference Engine and explained that Reforging Flame machines used furnaces and flexible fuel.
• Cora explained that the Reforging Flame’s compact Fire-Control Prophets calculated artillery trajectories, unlike the Troy Society’s Difference Engines, which extrapolated many possible futures.
• Elliot learned that the platform’s Fire-Control Prophet had calculated an unknown ballistic trajectory and wondered whether the Old Duke had been building a gigantic bomb to save the era.

Elliot reviewed the fortresses’ operations and learned that his Formless Art had severely injured or driven mad those who looked directly at him. Unsure why his ability had become so powerful, he blamed an out-of-control Relic and prepared to travel by boat to explain the Old Duke’s replacement to Sidney and Michel.

• Elliot asked Cora about the fortresses, and she explained that Lady Camilla had taken charge of most operations while leaving some decisions to him.
• Cora reported that Elliot’s Formless Art had caused severe mental and physical harm to several people who looked at him, including permanent madness in a high-rank priest.
• Elliot considered how his heightened presence, unstable state, and the victims’ eye contact might have strengthened [Spirituality Pressure], but he could not explain why higher ranks suffered worse effects.
• Elliot told Cora to describe the incident as an out-of-control [Relic] and leave the remaining affairs to Lady Camilla.
• Elliot decided to find a boat to explain the Old Duke’s replacement to Sidney and Michel, and said he would check on Elsa’s Spirit Body.

Elliot discovered that Elsa had consumed another warehouse of Lord of Dreams corpses, so he sent her to the seabed to eat rocks. After revealing that he had become Duke Sterling, he learned from Sidney that a prophecy foretold the Second Era’s destruction and explained why the nobles had descended into depravity.

• Elliot sensed Elsa’s location, found her absorbing another warehouse of corpses, and told her to search the seabed for rocks to eat.
• Cora’s ship returned, and Elliot slipped aboard before meeting Sidney and Michel at the dock.
• Elliot told Sidney and Michel that Duke Sterling was dead and pinned the Coat of Arms to his collar, declaring himself the new Duke Sterling.
• Elliot asked what his father had meant by saving the era, and Sidney revealed the prophecy that the Second Era would end without another era following it.
• Sidney explained that the Prophet in the Urn’s prophecies had never failed, and that the nobles had abandoned hope and embraced the Blood Feast after their attempts to resist fate failed.

Elliot learned that the Empire’s leaders feared the era’s imminent destruction, explaining their desperate plans and willingness to gamble everything on the expedition. As the fleet prepared to depart, the pocket watch warned him that Dream Creatures were approaching.

• Sidney told Elliot that the era’s destruction could come at any moment, and that its signs showed the end was close.
• Sidney doubted the expedition could continue without Duke Sterling, but Elliot revealed that Lady Camilla could command the War Fortress; the pocket watch confirmed she was still present.
• Sidney and Michel kept the expedition scheduled for the next day, with Elliot assigned to guard the Dock and Sterling's Garrison.
• The next morning, Elliot saw the assembled fleet and received a warning from the pocket watch that a group of Dream Creatures was coming.

Elliot reported the Dream Creatures’ arrival to Sidney, but the fleet detected nothing and the warning was dismissed as a false alarm. Elliot realized the creatures were actually clinging outside the dock’s portholes, and they departed only after he silently urged them not to attack.

• Elliot told Holly that Dream Creatures had appeared and noticed her surname matched Maeve and Simon Strauss’s.
• Elliot used a typewriter to relay Lady Camilla’s warning that Dream Creatures were three hundred meters below the dock.
• Sidney ordered the nearby ships to move away, but the fleets spotted no creatures and the detection reading vanished.
• Elliot recalled a previous Difference Engine error and looked through a porthole, where he saw Dream Creatures covering the dock.
• Elliot silently urged the creatures to leave without attacking, and they rose away from the dock.

Elliot discovered that he alone could see a swarm of Dream Creatures, and he suspected Nightmares could make other creatures invisible. Sidney launched the Expedition Army into the Abyssal Sea despite the danger, while Elliot stayed behind to investigate the Mine and the Dream Creatures.

• Elliot questioned the guards and sentinels, who had not seen the Dream Creatures he had observed outside the ship.
• Elliot told Sidney about both sightings and proposed that Nightmares could conceal other Dream Creatures and might be able to reach the surface.
• Sidney admitted that no records described such behavior but decided the Expedition Army had to continue into the Abyssal Sea.
• Sidney formally asked Elliot to hold the rear, then departed with Michel and the Expedition Army as Elliot watched the fleet disappear into the depths.
• Elliot read a reassuring message in the Pocket Watch and ordered Cora to gather Dream Creature reports, prepare a ship and escort, and summon Allen while he prepared to inspect the Mine.