Recaps

Allen and the Believers traveled underwater to investigate the mines and found that seawater caused none of them any cognitive deviation, contrary to expectations. A former miner named Old Henry revealed the disturbing physical changes he had suffered from the work.

• Allen led the Believers into the sea and aboard the ship, where they discovered they could breathe underwater.
• Allen had the Believers assess their condition and calculate their cognitive deviation, but their results showed little or no effect from the seawater.
• Allen questioned sailors about the mines and learned that Old Henry had worked as a miner.
• Allen noticed Old Henry's aged appearance, overlapping voice, and scars, and Old Henry explained that an eye, a tentacle, and even a head had once grown from his body.

Allen learned that seawater corruption could transform miners into Dream Creatures, but he and the Believers showed no signs of being affected. As the Duke chose Allen to accompany him on an inspection of the mine, Allen prepared the Believers to hide their resistance and learn the mine’s survival rules.

• Old Henry and the sailors described how the sea altered miners’ bodies, minds, and sense of identity.
• Allen asked the sailors about seawater corruption and the mine, then returned to find that none of the Believers had been affected.
• Allen suggested that the Lord’s protection had increased their resistance, and the Believers accepted the explanation and prayed.
• A Machine Priest told Allen that the Duke had chosen him to accompany an inspection of the mine.
• Allen ordered the Believers to imitate the signs of seawater corruption and memorize the mine’s survival rules.

Allen and the Believers arrived at an enormous underwater mine, where he questioned why heavily mutated workers were paid more despite producing less. During Elliot’s inspection, Cora told him something that prompted him to send Allen to investigate the ore warehouse and record the ore’s quality and shape.

• The Communion members saw the vast spherical mine, and Allen met Old Henry, who had returned to work for extra pay despite his severe corruption.
• Old Henry said the mine paid more for experienced, mutated workers, but Allen pointed out that Old Henry could not produce enough extra ore to justify triple pay.
• Allen warned the Believers that the mine’s practices seemed suspicious, since overworking workers could bring compensation costs and their corrupted corpses became Dream Creatures.
• Elliot arrived with Cora and inspected the mining operation, learning that workers’ two-hour shifts could be extended for extra Leo to increase output.
• After Cora whispered something to him, Elliot gave Allen a key and ordered him to inspect the ore warehouse, recording the ore’s quantity, quality, and shape.

Allen took control of a Mine warehouse and discovered that its highest-quality ore consisted of miners who had been transformed by the Mine. The manager admitted that workers and supervisors knowingly stayed until they became human ore for the Empire, leaving Allen shaken by their sacrifice.

• Allen and the Communion believers took over the warehouse, where he found far more supernatural ore than the Communion possessed.
• Allen opened boxes of premium ore and discovered human-shaped bodies fused with the earth.
• The Mine manager explained that prolonged exposure to the ore transformed miners into valuable human ore, and that the Mine kept them there for this purpose.
• Allen confronted the manager, who revealed that he too was mutating from exposure to the ore.
• The manager said the Empire needed them and that workers chose to become ore rather than return to their families corrupted and disfigured.

Allen learned that the mine's workers included loyal veterans who accepted death to support their families, and he promised that the Empire would witness their loyalty. Elliot discovered that his believers had been infected with parasites at the mine and used the Stage-Play Difference Engine to inspect the ore, where he saw it moving and suspected the ore was alive.

• A mine supervisor told Allen that he had served the Royal Family and that several workers had come to the mine after mutating or losing comrades to Dream Creatures.
• Allen learned that workers accepted the danger partly because their death benefits would support their families, and he promised the Empire would witness the supervisor's loyalty.
• Elliot found that the Card Difference Engine marked his believers as infected with parasites and moved its core to the Stage-Play Difference Engine to examine the mine.
• The Stage-Play Difference Engine showed that workers dug inward through a hard outer shell into a sphere made entirely of ore.
• Elliot noticed the ore shifting slowly and wondered whether the mine's ore was alive.

Elliot realized that the ore parasitized miners and that Dream Creatures seemed to limit its accumulation, then spotted an enormous Nightmare and followed it through the sea. The Nightmare led Elliot’s ship to an uncharted mine.

• Elliot learned that most soldiers had worked in the mines and were exposed to the ore, though their mutations could lessen after they left.
• Elliot concluded that large accumulations of ore caused infection and that Dream Creatures deliberately prevented too much ore from gathering.
• Elliot spotted an immense Nightmare in the sea, visible only to him, and ordered the crew to follow it.
• Elliot steered the ship after the Nightmare until it stopped, and the crew discovered an uncharted mine.

Elliot led the expedition to a mine through spiritual guidance, prompting Pascal to call it a blessing from the Furnace. Sage Eliobuyazi challenged that claim by praying for confirmation, while Elliot insisted the Furnace would respond, leaving the Church and the Sterling Family’s authority at odds as Eliobuyazi beseeched the god for revelation.

• The crew and Machine Priests were shocked when Elliot’s directions led them to a mine in the Sea of the Moon.
• Elliot said his spirituality had guided him, and Pascal declared the discovery a blessing from the Furnace.
• Sage Eliobuyazi rejected Pascal’s claim and began praying to verify whether the Furnace had guided them.
• Elliot insisted that the Furnace would respond, leaving Pascal worried that the prayer’s outcome would undermine them.
• Eliobuyazi prayed aloud for the Furnace to grant grace and reveal whether it had guided the expedition.

Elliot used the Stage-Play Difference Engine to stage a display of the Furnace’s power, but the Furnace unexpectedly answered with a real miracle. After Eliobuyazi begged for mercy, the flames receded and the cabin’s machines resumed working.

• Eliobuyazi prepared a prayer ritual, confident that the Furnace would not respond and that he could expose Pascal and Elliot.
• Elliot moved the Difference Engine Core from the Card Difference Engine to the Stage-Play Difference Engine to create a miracle.
• The cabin went dark as flames, hammering sounds, and a machine hymn surrounded Elliot, while the Furnace’s power melted the Machine Priests’ prostheses.
• Elliot confronted Eliobuyazi, who confessed his error and begged to keep serving the Furnace.
• The Furnace’s flames subsided, the cabin’s lights and machines returned to normal, and the Machine Priests stayed prostrate.

Elliot’s gaze triggered a Divine Revelation that left Eliobuyazi gravely injured and convinced the Machine Priests that [Casting Forge] had manifested through him. As Pascal recorded the unprecedented event, Eliobuyazi recovered from terror into fanatical worship and begged Elliot to make him a Mechanical Spirit.

• Eliobuyazi questioned Elliot’s claim of a revelation, and Elliot’s gaze burned him so badly that the other Machine Priests stayed prostrate and silent.
• Scapa declared that a Divine Revelation had occurred, while Pascal rushed to record it despite his melted Prostheses.
• Pascal explained that the Great Being’s direct manifestation was unprecedented since the Mythological Era, though the Sea of the Moon lay outside the ordinary Present World.
• Elliot saw Eliobuyazi crawling away in madness and decided that leaving him in that state would warn the others.
• Eliobuyazi’s terror turned into fanaticism, and he hailed Elliot as [Casting Forge]’s incarnation before begging to become his Mechanical Spirit.

After Elliot received fresh guidance, he discovered he could control the ship through his spirituality, and it carried him to another mine. His crew knelt in awe, while Pascal wondered whether Elliot was the Great Being’s illegitimate son.

• The Machine Priests rescued Eliobuyazi and repaired their prostheses while Pascal recorded the incident with his nose.
• Elliot sensed guidance again and ordered the crew to move the ship, but the Machine Priests had not finished repairing themselves.
• Elliot felt the ship respond to his spirituality and directed it to move without operators or fuel.
• The ship followed Elliot’s instructions to a new mine, and the crew knelt to pray before him.
• Pascal marveled at how a Great Being seemed to guide Elliot and wondered if he was its illegitimate son.

Lillian watched the Communion’s believers haul mysterious ore from the Sea of the Moon with help from a massive Nightmare, and feared both the creature and Vanessa’s influence over it. When Vanessa brought her food, Lillian balked at the still-living Maeve meat and demanded to meet the cook.

• Lillian saw a tentacle-eyed Nightmare move enormous crates of seabed ore down from her tower, and wondered whether the Sea of the Moon’s seabed had once been alive.
• Lillian recalled how the Nightmare had silently approached her, caught her after three teleportations, and later obeyed Vanessa by entering the Abode to help the believers.
• Lillian remembered that she had tolerated the tower’s new sea view, the Nightmare on her roof, and the believers’ noisy work because she did not want to cause trouble.
• Vanessa brought Lillian a lunch box of Maeve meat and told her that it would be her food from then on.
• Lillian sensed that the cooked meat was still alive and asked Vanessa to bring Maeve over so the cook could see what was wrong with it.

Lillian confronted Vanessa and Maeve over supposedly living meat, then used her [Concealment] power to restore a cooked piece to its past state. The meat reattached itself to Maeve, leaving Lillian stunned to learn that Maeve meat was literally Maeve's flesh.

• Lillian accused the meat in her lunch box of being alive and asked Vanessa to bring Maeve to her.
• Vanessa brought Maeve, who explained that she had supplied the meat but Dorothea had cooked it.
• Lillian used [Concealment] to connect the meat's present with its past, restoring it to a fresh state.
• The restored meat flew back onto Maeve and reattached itself to her body.
• Lillian realized Maeve meat was Maeve's own flesh and asked whether Maeve was an [Undying].

Maeve discovered that her flesh could keep living after being eaten and let her use [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] on those who consumed it. Lillian explained that an [Immortal] was someone who had undergone a Great Being’s Elevation Ritual, leaving Maeve and Vanessa questioning how they had come to the Abode without one.

• Lillian explained that living flesh retained vitality, and Maeve called to the charred pieces of her own flesh and received an answer.
• Maeve realized her Talent could act through her flesh, causing Vanessa and several believers in the Courtyard to suffer as Maeve tried to control them.
• Vanessa reassured Lillian that Maeve’s ability and the meat were part of the Lord’s arrangement, and Lillian reluctantly ate the Maeve meat.
• Lillian explained that an [Immortal] was someone who had undergone an Elevation Ritual personally presided over by a Great Being.
• Maeve and Vanessa exchanged a glance because neither had undergone an Elevation Ritual.

Lillian explained that [Undying] beings could transcend history and that [Important Historical Nodes] shaped its course, but Vanessa and Maeve challenged her belief that the Theater’s dead could not have mattered. Lillian’s convictions collapsed, her power ran wild, and Miss Elegy declared that she had gone mad.

• Lillian explained that [Undying] beings transcended history, and that [Important Historical Nodes] could rewrite it.
• Lillian said she had let civilians die at the Theater to save the Second Era, arguing that they would survive in other histories if the Era continued.
• Vanessa questioned whether someone among the Theater’s victims could have been the key to saving the Second Era, despite leaving no trace in history.
• Maeve asked whether the Era’s destruction might be inevitable while its continuation depended on chances Lillian had discarded.
• Lillian broke down, transformed into shifting slime and arguing voices, and lost control of her supernatural power.
• Dorothea and Flora arrived, and Miss Elegy assessed that Lillian had gone mad.

Vanessa learned that Lillian belonged to the Hollow Cathedral, a church destroyed in every history whose believers could still travel to its past. She realized the Lord’s first meeting with Lillian must have taken place in an Abode that no longer existed in the present.

• Vanessa worried that she had driven Lillian mad and brought a bucket of Lillian’s remains to Victoria for help.
• Victoria mistook Lillian’s remains for food, took the bucket, and spilled Lillian across the floor.
• Victoria explained that the Hollow Cathedral had been destroyed in every history, though its believers kept trying to save it despite knowing they would fail.
• Victoria revealed that the believers could travel to the past, return to their former Abode, and pray to their vanished Great Being for power.
• Vanessa remembered that Lillian had said the Lord first met her at the Hollow Cathedral’s Abode and realized it had existed only in the past.

Vanessa learned that Lillian had died in this layer of history after losing faith, but could survive in other histories as an Immortal. Victoria agreed to restore Lillian while sending Vanessa to gather materials, then confronted Lillian, who revealed she knew Victoria was building an Abode within the Abode.

• Victoria explained that Vanessa had shattered Lillian’s faith and caused her to die in this layer of history, though her obsession and Immortality could keep her alive across histories.
• Vanessa asked Victoria to restore Lillian, and Victoria agreed after Vanessa promised to collect a list of materials from the Abode.
• Victoria sent Vanessa out to gather samples, then watched her leave the Library.
• Lillian reformed herself from the bucket and challenged Victoria, saying the Great Being’s gaze watched everywhere in the Abode.
• Lillian revealed that building another Abode within the Abode could evade that gaze and said she knew what Victoria was planning.

Victoria’s strongest web attack failed to stop Lillian, who overwhelmed her and then restored the Abode. Lillian revealed that Victoria was an important juncture in history, but warned that this did not mean Victoria had succeeded and suggested that her death could serve history.

• Victoria wrapped Lillian in a massive silk cocoon, but Lillian appeared beside her and shredded her web defenses with duplicate bodies.
• Lillian tore through the cocoon with her bare hands, and Victoria realized she had been defeated.
• Victoria awoke across a tea table from Lillian, who said the Abode had been restored and claimed they could be allies.
• Victoria concluded that building an Abode had let her transcend history’s destruction and attain immortality, but Lillian said being an important juncture did not mean she had succeeded.
• Lillian told Victoria that her death could be the event that affected history.

Lillian tried to recruit Victoria into an alliance to leave the Abode and change history, then argued that the Great Being was guiding them through hidden hints. The chapter ended with Lillian interpreting the waterfall flooding her home as a message for them.

• Lillian told Victoria that many Abodes had failed to prevent the Second Era’s destruction and proposed an alliance to leave their Abode.
• Lillian explained that she wanted to save the Hollow Cathedral, while Victoria stayed silent when asked whether she was leaving for Vanessa.
• Lillian speculated that Vanessa might be directing history and warned Victoria that the Great Being in the Abode was terrifying and uncanny.
• Lillian persuaded Victoria to assume the Great Being had a plan for them and urged her to abandon mortal ways of thinking.
• Lillian pointed out the waterfall pouring onto her home and declared that the hole above it was a hint from the Great Being.

Lillian persuaded Victoria that the Great Being had opened a passage to the Sea of the Moon for them to investigate, and the two prepared to leave. In the Deep Zone, Lady Camilla detected Elliot’s signal coming from the Abyssal Sea.

• Lillian argued that the passage to the Sea of the Moon was a hint from the Great Being and that she and Victoria should prove their worth by going there.
• Victoria agreed to leave with Lillian and put her into the bucket to disguise her, as she had promised Vanessa she would.
• Sidney worried that strange changes in the Dream, the sealed Abode, and Dream Creatures could signal the Era’s destruction.
• Lady Camilla revealed that her Detector had picked up Elliot’s signal from the Abyssal Sea.

Sidney worried that Elliot’s signal and the Expedition’s suspiciously smooth progress pointed to danger in the Sea of the Moon, while Lady Camilla warned him that Spirituality Intuition might guide people toward a predetermined fate. Michel then reported finding a cluster of mines, and as he and Sidney went to celebrate, Camilla detected the presence of another old friend on the Seabed.

• Sidney panicked over Elliot’s signal, but Lady Camilla confirmed Elliot was safe and said her Spirituality Intuition suggested the signal was real.
• Lady Camilla warned Sidney that Spirituality Intuition might be one of several forces steering history toward predetermined outcomes, and Sidney stopped their discussion of [Secret History].
• Sidney told Lady Camilla that the Dream Creatures seemed to be deliberately avoiding the Expedition.
• Michel entered and reported that his team had destroyed a group of Dream Creatures before finding at least a dozen ore spheres.
• Sidney went with Michel to celebrate, though he still wondered whether the Dream Creatures’ avoidance could lead to an outflanking attack.
• Lady Camilla continued operating at full power and detected another old friend on the Seabed, suspecting the detector was broken.

Elliot found thirty-seven mines while leading the Expedition Army, and the crew increasingly treated him as an incarnation of [Casting Forge]. He distracted them with games made from Cards to conceal his Difference Engine, then returned to his cabin to check on the Believers and investigate the ore.

• Elliot learned that communication with the Expedition Army was failing as it explored deeper, while Cora reported that they had found thirty-seven mines.
• The crew and Machine Priests grew to revere Elliot after [Casting Forge] intervened, even though Elliot was not Its Believer.
• Elliot handed Cora and the crew entertainment Cards and games made with other Difference Engines to disguise his use of the Stage-Play Difference Engine.
• Elliot left the command room and returned to his cabin, letting the Nightmare wait while the crew began mining the discovered deposits.
• Elliot compared the shallow-sea ore with Seabed ore, noted that Believers showed [Infected with parasites] near the former, and went to check the Difference Engine's records.

Elliot used machines delivered by Dream Creatures to mine the Sea of the Moon’s seabed, then discovered Elsa Ramsey’s Spirit Body was sinking past the seabed while devouring flesh chunks. When her descent stopped, the Sea of the Moon began to tremble, and Elliot’s instincts warned him that something beneath it had awakened and that he had to flee.

• Elliot read the Difference Engine’s records and realized it could record conversations hidden from a Great Being’s gaze.
• Elliot had Machine Priests build simple mining machines, which Dream Creatures delivered to the seabed passage, allowing the Communion to haul ore into the Courtyard.
• Elliot noticed Elsa Ramsey’s Spirit Body was missing and found records showing she had reached the seabed and was repeatedly devouring flesh chunks before diving again.
• Elliot realized Elsa’s Spirit Body might have passed through the seabed and kept descending beneath it, where a heartbeat seemed to come from the Abyssal Sea.
• Elsa’s Spirit Body stopped diving as the ship, Dock, and Sea of the Moon began to tremble, and Elliot’s intuition warned him to escape immediately.

The Sea of the Moon began to awaken, transforming the mined ore into Awakened Flesh Chunks and making the seabed surge like a living creature. Maeve protected Dorothea from the upheaval until Victoria arrived and held back a giant hand.

• Elliot noticed that the ore Cards had changed into Awakened Flesh Chunk Cards and took control of the chaotic ship.
• Maeve sensed a heartbeat beneath the seabed and warned the Communion's Believers to flee toward the passage and the Courtyard.
• Dorothea arrived through a mirror just as the seabed surged, and Maeve shielded her from crashing rock before carrying her toward the passage.
• A massive hand formed from the seabed and lunged at Maeve, while Dorothea could not carry Maeve through a mirror because she was too large.
• Victoria held back the hand as Maeve prepared to be crushed, then emerged anew from her own split skin.

Victoria and Maeve struggled to escape the living Seabed as its enormous stone hands attacked and the passage began to collapse. Elsa arrived with a plan to save Maeve, while a mass of Dream Creatures surged down to protect her and batter the Seabed.

• Victoria pulled Maeve and the Communion Believers toward the passage while the living Seabed attacked them.
• Victoria discovered Maeve could not change back into human form, and the passage was too small to let her through.
• Victoria and Maeve were struck by the Ascent Curse, and Lillian warned that the passage was close to collapsing.
• Elsa arrived and told Victoria to rescue the other Believers and level the ground beside the passage, promising Maeve that her plan might save her life.
• Dream Creatures rushed down onto the Seabed, striking back its stone hands as Elsa advanced through the surrounding chaos.

Elsa and the Believers fought to hold the Seabed back while Elliot altered the stage set to make a passage large enough for Maeve. Maeve became trapped in the rift and died, but Elsa repeatedly switched the moon between Blood Moon and Full Moon, resetting Maeve’s resurrection as the chapter ended.

• Dream Creatures joined the fight and pressed the Seabed down while Elsa cleared an area around the passage rift.
• Victoria rescued the surviving Believers and Lillian, then sent them through the passage; Elsa kicked Lillian through after her.
• Elliot dug through the stage platform to enlarge the passage, but Maeve still could not fit through it.
• Elsa positioned Maeve with her head inside the Courtyard and her body stuck in the rift, where she was attacked as the Dream Creatures faltered.
• Maeve died and resurrected under the Blood Moon, then watched Elsa rapidly alternate the moon between Blood Moon and Full Moon to reset her resurrection.