Recaps

Elliot discovered that his Difference Engine Core had returned and found that its Cards were blank until he looked at them, suggesting he could make the device function in the Dream. He then pieced together how the Blood Lord’s plan to claim the moon’s Authority of [Honey] had been disrupted, though Sidney’s war was still ongoing.

• Elliot found his Difference Engine Core inside the running machine and realized the Believers could not see the Cards’ contents.
• As Elliot looked at the blank Cards, they gained color, leading him to suspect that he connected the Difference Engine to the Dream.
• Elliot examined the battlefield’s historical records and learned that the Blood Lord had sent [Primordial Blood] to seize the moon’s unclaimed Authority of [Honey].
• The [Blood Lord] awakened the [Primordial Blood], whose pieces became Blood Vampires that devoured one another and gathered into a vast mass across the Sea of the Moon.
• Elliot learned that Elsa’s contact with [Honey] had awakened the moon and that the early arrival of [Ebb Tide] had forced the [Blood Lord] to accelerate His plan.
• Elliot’s actions helped the fleet and Dream Creatures survive and nearly destroy the Blood Vampire horde before the [Blood Lord] could complete His scheme.

Elliot pieced together how Maeve’s possession of [Primordial Blood] and [Casting Forge]’s intervention had trapped the [Blood Lord] in a desperate fight. As the warship headed toward the Courtyard, Elliot used Elsa’s corpse there to set his plans in motion and searched for the revived Elsa.

• Elliot learned that Maeve’s possession prevented [Primordial Blood] from benefiting from anything it consumed and redirected its attacks and enhancements back onto itself.
• [Casting Forge] descended into Elsa and fought [Primordial Blood], while Elliot guided the fleet and Dream Creatures away from the seabed battle.
• Elliot realized the [Blood Lord] was guarding the Honey Water beneath Moonheart and steered the warship toward the Courtyard while the fight continued.
• Elliot controlled Elsa’s corpse in the Courtyard to carry out his arrangements and searched the believers’ records for the living Elsa, whom he believed could break the deadlock.

Elliot discovered that Elsa had revived in Moonheart and was repeatedly driven into Permanent Madness by the Secret History, only to be restored by Honey. He tried to bring her back through the Difference Engine, but her new physical body could not pass through the seabed rock, leaving her trapped.

• Elliot found records showing that Elsa had revived, repeatedly fallen into Permanent Madness after seeing a Secret History, and regained her sanity by drinking Honey.
• Elsa pleaded with Elliot to save her, and he decided to give up the chance of her obtaining the Honey Authority and ordered her to return.
• Elsa began swimming upward when Elliot's command took effect, but her movement stopped each time she fell into Permanent Madness.
• Elliot repeatedly issued the return command, helping Elsa rise a little at a time until she could no longer move.
• Elliot realized Elsa's physical body had struck the rocky seabed of the Sea of the Moon, trapping her beneath Moonheart.

Elliot discovered that he could briefly control Elsa whenever madness overcame her, and used those moments to help her draw and activate a Sacrifice Ritual in the moon's core. With the Honey accepted as an offering, Elsa gained points, and Elliot began considering which attributes to allocate so she could escape.

• Elliot realized that Elsa's body became briefly controllable whenever she fell into Permanent Madness, and decided to use those moments to draw the Sacrifice Ritual.
• Elsa gradually drew the Sacrifice runes in blood on a rock wall, with Elliot guiding her body during each bout of madness.
• Elsa completed the Ritual, and the Honey swirling around her was accepted as an offering.
• Elliot opened Elsa's point-allocation interface and weighed the Restoration, Sharpness, and Rationality branches as possible ways to help her escape the moon's core.

Elliot discovered that Elsa’s supernatural options had all become [Honey] after she absorbed it during repeated resurrections, and he realized that resurrection might reshape her Path. He began allocating points, leaving Elsa with a newly unlocked [Honey] option and apparently endless resources for further growth.

• Elliot rejected sending Dorothea through a mirror to retrieve Elsa except as a last resort because the risks and delays could leave Elsa permanently mad.
• Elliot opened Elsa’s point allocation interface and found that every option on her supernatural tree was [Honey].
• Elliot connected the changed options to Elsa absorbing [Honey] during repeated [Resurrection] and recalled that a previous resurrection had given her a nightmare form.
• Elliot concluded that resurrection might let Elsa absorb powers and redirect her Path, making each resurrection another form of growth.
• Elliot selected a [Honey] option, and the Difference Engine displayed [Honey +1] as a new progress groove filled immediately.

Elliot advanced Elsa along the Honey Path and chose talents, but none could free her from the moon’s core. Her Ascension task appeared to require devouring a Supernatural person on a similar Path, though the completed requirement showed she had already exceeded it.

• Elliot advanced Elsa to Second Rank and chose Honey Resurrection, which made her resurrection location within honey and reduced her resurrection time.
• Elliot advanced Elsa to Third Rank and chose Honey Fruit, which let her produce honey in the Present World.
• Elliot added two more points to Elsa’s Honey Path and checked her Ascension task, fearing it would require her to eat someone on a similar Path.
• The Difference Engine displayed the task as devouring Supernatural people on similar Paths, with Elsa’s progress already at 75/1.

Elliot deduced that Elsa’s consumption of 75 Maeves satisfied her advancement requirement because the Paths of [Honey] and [Blood] were similar, then examined the three Ascension Cards offered to her. He rejected the first as disturbing and found the second ill-suited to Elsa, while the third showed her surrounded by devoted people and cups of honey.

• Elliot realized that Elsa had met the requirement to devour Supernatural persons of similar Paths by eating 75 Maeves, whose Path of [Blood] resembled her Path of [Honey].
• Elliot considered how [Honey] differed from [Blood], concluding that it leaned toward vitality, decay, pleasure, and being eaten.
• The Difference Engine produced three Ascension Cards for Elsa, and Elliot recoiled from the first Card’s depiction of diners carving her up alive.
• Elliot judged the second Card’s seductive ball scene unsuitable for Elsa and examined the third, which showed her seated by a fire as people prayed around her among cups of honey.

Elliot selected a motherly ascension for Elsa, but she was repeatedly killed by an unseen being inside the Honey Sea. He controlled Elsa’s corpse to reach her and began investigating the attacker, leaving her to sense it again.

• Elliot chose the motherly ascension for Elsa and returned to the point-allocation interface.
• Elsa warned that something had set its sights on her, then died and immediately resurrected through Honey Resurrection.
• The unseen attacker killed Elsa again, and Elliot used a corpse Card to control her body.
• Elliot’s controlled Elsa reached the newly resurrected Elsa, and his blazing white light dispelled the darkness around them.
• Elliot asked Elsa to sense the attacker again, then relinquished control, and Elsa died once more.

Elliot used Elsa's resurrection to ambush and kill her invisible attacker, then discovered that it was a Worm. Michel separately suggested that something might have lured the [Worms] away from the Great Beings' Abodes.

• Elliot found that Elsa's attacker struck only when he left and suspected that it was an incorporeal being vulnerable to [Spirituality Pressure].
• Elsa followed Elliot's plan, died again, and resurrected between the two corpses holding hands in the [Honey].
• Elliot returned to the corpse just before the attacker struck Elsa and killed it with [Spirituality Pressure].
• Elliot checked the Difference Engine's kill records and discovered that the attacker was a Worm.
• Michel questioned how the Great Beings could descend into [Vessels] while their Abodes were sealed and suggested to Sidney that something had lured the [Worms] away.

Michel and Sidney discussed the ancient Worm War and the possibility that [Worms] had been drawn to the Sea of the Moon. Elliot confirmed that [Worms] were already there and urged the fleet to take refuge in his Abode.

• Michel told Sidney how [Worms] fed on the Primordial Sun's corpse, prompting the True Gods and Great Beings to fight the first [Worm War].
• Michel and Sidney considered whether [Worms] might come to the Sea of the Moon and went to ask Elliot for information.
• Sidney discovered that Elliot's cabin was the only dry one aboard the Judgment Angel.
• Michel asked Elliot whether the Worm disaster had passed and whether the fleet was in danger.
• Elliot said he had found traces of a [Worm] in the Sea of the Moon and told the fleet to take refuge in his Abode.

Elliot offered Sidney and Michel’s fleet shelter in his Abode, which he claimed was nearby beneath the Sea of the Moon. The commanders accepted the offer, but Sidney paused to notify Duke Sterling before sending the people inside.

• Elliot invited Sidney and Michel to bring the fleet into his Abode, though he warned that the entrance might be blocked.
• Sidney and Michel agreed to enter the Abode because the Expedition Army had no safe way to escape the Sea of the Moon and the nearby battle remained unresolved.
• When Sidney asked Elliot’s name, Elliot admitted he had forgotten to invent one and would ask his believers later.
• Elliot spotted the entrance ahead and told Sidney and Michel to send the people inside without the ships.
• Sidney asked Elliot to wait while he notified Duke Sterling, and Elliot reacted strangely to the name.

Elliot used his power to make Sidney’s group believe he had cured Duke Sterling and sent him to the Abode, then withdrew from the Vessel and returned to his own body. Sidney and Michel tried to contact [Nameless Justice] and [Casting Forge] for guidance, but neither ritual connected, and they received a transmission from Lord Elliot.

• Elliot claimed he could treat the unconscious Duke Sterling and led Sidney, Michel, and Allen to the room where the Duke was supposedly recovering.
• Elliot announced that he had cured Duke Sterling and sent him to the Abode, then showed the group that the room was empty.
• Elliot withdrew from the Vessel, leaving Sidney and Michel confused about whether they should enter the Abode.
• Sidney and Michel contacted [Nameless Justice], but the Lord cut off the ritual after hearing their account.
• The Machine Priests reported that their ritual never connected to [Casting Forge], and a sailor brought word of a transmission from Lord Elliot.

Elliot brought Sidney and Michel through a passage into an Abode connected to the Sea of the Moon. As they emerged above its vast landscape, Sidney was stunned by the kingdom-sized realm.

• A fleet found Elliot waiting at a seabed passage, and Sidney reluctantly decided to inspect it himself.
• Michel recognized a resemblance between the passage’s power and the Hollow Cathedral, but Sidney concluded that the nearby traces were only residual power.
• Elliot, controlling Elsa’s corpse while his Original Body operated the Difference Engine, noticed a resurrection countdown and an increasing number of [Worms] around Elsa’s trapped original body.
• Elliot led Sidney and Michel through the passage and warned them not to make a fuss when they arrived.
• Sidney emerged above an expansive land of woods, fields, a lake, a towering library, and a palace, and realized the Abode was an enormous kingdom.

Sidney and Michel explored the Abode after Elliot brought the fleet there for shelter, discovering its vast world and the many Dream Creatures within it. Their awe turned to unease as they spotted disturbing scenes around the Library and realized the enormous meat entering Maeve's Canteen might come from [Primordial Blood].

• Sidney was astonished to find that the Abode contained an enormous world, and a Nightmare carried him and Michel to a tower.
• Sidney and Michel wondered how the Great Being could shelter the fleet and so many believers, then spotted Dream Creatures gathered near a distant lake.
• The narration revealed that Elliot had let the Dream Creatures into the Abode after danger grew at the passage, then brought the fleet there too.
• Sidney and Michel saw a strange figure being dragged by a rope inside the distant Library and speculated that the building held an interrogation room or execution ground.
• Michel pointed out huge slabs of meat being carried into Maeve's Canteen, and Sidney recognized them as possibly belonging to [Primordial Blood].

Elliot showed Sidney and Michel around the Abode, but their suspicions grew when they learned that Maeve meat came from a believer who had joined [Primordial Blood]. They decided to move the Expedition Army’s supplies into the Abode, then Elliot watched the [Resurrection] countdown end and Phoenix Everhart appear.

• Sidney and Michel mistook the Canteen’s Maeve meat for [Primordial Blood] and learned that Maeve had become one with it.
• Elliot took Sidney and Michel to the Library, but they refused to explore further and decided to move the Expedition Army into the Abode.
• Sidney and Michel returned to the fleet to prepare supplies, while Elliot noticed that the [Resurrection] countdown was nearly over.
• Phoenix Everhart resurrected beside the Difference Engine after the countdown ended.

Phoenix surrendered to Sidney’s forces at the Abode, and Elliot asked that Phoenix be handed over to the Great Being in hopes that he could open a passage back to the Present World. Sidney agreed, but remained uneasy about the Great Being’s motives as the group considered leaving the Sea of the Moon.

• Phoenix inspected the Expedition Army’s fleet and surrendered, mistaking Sidney’s pursuit for a mission by Hollow Cathedral.
• Sidney ordered the Royal Guards to gag and remove Phoenix, then told Elliot that he had helped Lillian hunt the traitor.
• Elliot asked Sidney to hand Phoenix over to the Great Being because Phoenix might know how to open passages back to the Present World.
• Sidney agreed that Phoenix’s appearance could be significant, then questioned whether the Great Being had planned their arrival at the Abode.
• Elliot reassured Sidney that the Great Being had acted with the regard of [Casting Forge] and [Nameless Justice], and Sidney accepted that they should go to the Courtyard.
• Sidney lamented that the fleet might have to remain behind, but Elliot said that was not necessarily the case.

Sidney began relocating the Expedition Army into the Abode, where he set aside a clearing for their supplies and quarters. When he and Michel crossed over after hearing that something had happened, they found Elsa and watched a magnificent palace appear in the clearing.

• Sidney arranged for the Expedition Army to move its supplies through the narrow passage while keeping its food separate from the Communion's supplies.
• Elliot assigned the Expedition Army a clearing beside the Wood, near the High Tower, for its quarters and warehouses.
• A messenger reported that something had happened in the Abode, so Sidney and Michel rushed through the rift.
• Sidney and Michel found the Expedition Army members frozen in shock as they stared at a white-haired girl, and Sidney bowed when she asked what sort of residence they wanted.
• Sidney began to decline the offer, then saw that a grand palace had appeared where the clearing had been; Elsa raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

Elsa remade the Palace Hall and surrounding grounds into a modern street with a single snap, leaving Sidney and Michel overwhelmed by her power. Sidney returned to the fleet unable to describe what he had witnessed, while Vanessa remembered her past as she looked at the newly recreated building.

• Elsa collapsed the Palace Hall and conjured a modern building and streets with a snap of her fingers.
• Michel identified Elsa’s feat as the Great Art, the Authority to remake the world, and Sidney struggled to comprehend what he had seen.
• Elsa explained that she had recreated the Poor Relief Committee Building from Vanessa’s Dream Memory and regretted that it had never helped the poor.
• Vanessa looked at the building from the Library, recalled her past, and listened distractedly as Victoria warned her not to go outside.
• Sidney and Michel returned to the fleet, where Sidney resumed directing the sailors but kept losing himself in thought.
• Elliot asked Sidney what he had seen, and Sidney compared Elsa’s power to the Sun shining over the whole world without noticing him.

Elliot asked Sidney about Great Art and learned that it was a world-changing miracle that could not be learned or blocked by Great Beings. Sidney then mistook the Library for an Execution Hall haunted by a swinging ghost, while Elliot privately suspected the ghost was Victoria.

• Elliot disguised himself and asked Sidney what Great Art was.
• Sidney explained that Formless Art depended on a Great Being's permission and could fail, while Great Art could not be learned or stopped.
• Sidney described seeing a Being erase a palace and instantly build a larger tower, which he believed was Great Art.
• Sidney asked whether Elliot had visited the Library, then called it an Execution Hall after hearing sailors had seen a hanged ghost swinging inside.
• Elliot suggested Victoria might be hiding in the Library after stealing floor tiles, but Sidney dismissed the idea as impossible.

Elliot took Sidney to the Library to check on Victoria, but Sidney insisted it could not be her Library until they spotted spiderwebs inside. Victoria rushed toward them, recognized them, and swung away before Elliot could speak.

• Elliot took Sidney to the Library on the Nightmare and tried to persuade him to go inside.
• Sidney used a mirror to look under the door and argued that the brick floor and two sets of teaware meant the Library was not Victoria's.
• Elliot opened the door and revealed spiderwebs across the ceiling, proving the Library was Victoria's lair.
• Victoria rushed toward Elliot and Sidney, stopped when she recognized them, and swung away at high speed.

Victoria fled after spotting Sidney and Elliot in the Library, then returned with Vanessa to confront them. After Vanessa cleared up Sidney’s mistaken belief that she was Xixi, the group exchanged stories about the expedition and Victoria angrily defended her unusual way of swinging.

• Victoria saw Sidney and Elliot in the Library and rushed to fetch Vanessa, telling her she had seen a ghost.
• Vanessa persuaded the frightened Victoria to return with her and meet the visitors.
• Victoria confronted Sidney and Elliot, while Sidney mistook Vanessa for Xixi and was startled when she spoke.
• Elliot and Sidney told Victoria how their expedition had encountered [Primordial Blood], summoned two Great Beings, and brought them into the Abode.
• Sidney teased Victoria about swinging by her hair, and Victoria admitted she liked swinging before blaming Elliot for bringing him to cause trouble.

Victoria explained to Sidney and Elliot that the Great Being of the Abode appeared to possess every Authority, giving His Believers powers spanning every Path. The group began considering what to do next with the Expedition Army, while Vanessa secretly listened so she could report their conversation to the Lord.

• Victoria used her Spirituality to shield the Library from the Great Being's gaze so they could speak freely.
• Sidney asked how Victoria had come to the Abode, and she claimed the Great Being had invited her to become His Immortal.
• Victoria described the Great Being as uncanny because His will seemed to determine the world's rules.
• Victoria explained that Great Beings' Authorities shaped the powers available to their followers and the limitations of each Path.
• Victoria observed that the Abode's Believers displayed powers from every Path and concluded that the Great Being seemed to possess every Authority.

Victoria reasoned that the Great Being’s followers could overcome the fixed weaknesses of supernatural Paths, while Elliot redirected the discussion to the expedition’s losses. The Empire’s fleet had little hope of returning or recovering, but Elliot knew the Sea of the Moon’s resources had been concentrated rather than lost.

• Victoria explained that the Great Being’s believers could draw on powers beyond a single Path, and Vanessa grew excited at the implications.
• Victoria described the Great Being’s power as beyond their comprehension, then led Sidney and Vanessa in praising Him while Elliot felt the conversation had gone astray.
• Elliot asked about the expedition’s prospects, and Sidney reported that only a little over three thousand crew remained and the fleet might not be able to return.
• Sidney and Elliot acknowledged that the expedition had lost the Empire’s elite manpower and gained no resources, leaving the Empire near collapse.
• Elliot looked toward Elsa by the Difference Engine, knowing the Sea of the Moon’s resources had been concentrated rather than destroyed.

Elliot fought an endless swarm of worms in Moonheart, repeatedly using [Spirituality Pressure] to protect Elsa as she died over and over. After Elsa died in his arms, Elliot unleashed a devastating burst of power that crushed the worms, then quietly inserted another corpse Card.

• Elliot repeatedly used [Spirituality Pressure] and [Secret Art; Overdraw] to kill worms, but they kept killing Elsa between attacks.
• Elsa broke down and asked Elliot whether they could escape, then died in his arms from a precisely aimed wound.
• Furious at Elsa's death, Elliot compressed his spirituality until his body began to burst apart.
• Elliot unleashed a blood-tinged [Spirituality Pressure] that illuminated Moonheart and crushed the worms throughout the Honey Sea.
• Elliot's controlled body was destroyed, and he inserted another corpse Card as Elsa's corpse Cards covered more than half the Card Table.

Elliot discovered that Moonheart was nearly filled with Elsa’s corpses and devised a plan to use her repeated deaths to displace all the Honey, hoping to change the threat posed by the Worms and the powerful beings seeking the Honey. Elsa agreed to keep resurrecting and dying as quickly as possible while Elliot stayed with her, and the Worms engulfed her as she faced them with resolve.

• Elsa woke in the Honey and told Elliot that the Worms in Moonheart had been killed but were drawing near again.
• Elsa said that her sister, Clara, and Elliot had helped her endure fear and pain, and she found the courage to continue.
• Elliot realized Elsa’s corpses nearly filled Moonheart and planned to fill it completely, displacing the Honey and unleashing it along with the Worms.
• Elliot asked Elsa to use Honey Resurrection and die as often as she could, explaining that her corpses were their weapon.
• Elsa agreed to the plan, and as the Worms attacked, she let them engulf her while telling Elliot, “Lord, please bear witness to my will.”