Recaps

Vanessa confronted Dorothea’s loss of control and recognized that her rigid Rationality concealed guilt and grief over failing to save Elsa. Vanessa used Spirituality Pressure to force Dorothea to face her buried feelings, leaving Dorothea scorched and reaching toward the light as her Rationality made one final decision.

• Flora explained that Dorothea’s Rationality had not fulfilled the Ascension requirement because she treated it as a tool rather than fully surrendering herself to it.
• Vanessa realized Dorothea had never escaped the childhood guilt of hiding while Cultists took Elsa, and told her she had lost control because she could no longer find her own heart.
• Dorothea remembered following Vanessa into the Communion because Vanessa never abandoned her companions, and she recognized her own fear and shame had kept her trapped in the past.
• Vanessa held Dorothea in place and struck her with Spirituality Pressure, burning away the crow feathers as Dorothea cried out and cursed her.
• Dorothea reached toward Vanessa despite the pain, and her still-active Rationality helped her make one final decision.

Dorothea survived Vanessa’s Spirituality Pressure by entering Dawn, then uncovered what her Rationality Ascension required. After facing and accepting her own past and emotions, she completed her Ascension.

• Dorothea entered the Enlightenment State and used her Radiance Talent, Dawn, to recover from Vanessa’s Spirituality Pressure.
• Dorothea escaped Vanessa’s grasp and scolded her for nearly burning her to death; they discovered her Black Feathers had burned away.
• Dorothea explained that Rationality had magnified her guilt and that Ascension required her to accept herself and face the parts of her past she avoided.
• Dorothea realized she had remained in Rationality Mode without suppressing her emotions, and Vanessa and Flora recognized the change.
• Dorothea switched off Rationality Mode and completed her Ascension.

Dorothea completed her ascension ritual and became a fourth-rank supernatural person. Elliot chose the Mirror Secret Art specialization for her, leaving her next stage of development set around the ability she used most.

• Dorothea realized that ascension required accepting her past and desires, then told Vanessa and Flora she had completed it.
• Vanessa prepared the sacrifice ritual, and Dorothea stepped onto the altar as Allen organized the believers to bring the offerings.
• Dorothea's ascension completed immediately, and Elliot saw that she had fulfilled the Control Rationality and Dominate History conditions.
• Elliot examined three ascension cards representing radiance, the monocle, and the Mirror Secret Art.
• Elliot chose the Mirror Secret Art card because Dorothea used it often and could combine it with other abilities.

Elliot chose Sovereign Ascension and the Frenzied Crow Assault talent for Dorothea, weighing their strengths against their risks. After ending her sacrifice, he considered how he and the Difference Engine would leave the Sea of the Moon.

• Elliot selected Sovereign Ascension, whose Card depicted Dorothea seated on the Bone Crow Throne.
• Elliot chose Frenzied Crow Assault for Dorothea, accepting that the ability could reduce her intelligence when her crows were killed.
• Elliot ended Dorothea’s sacrifice after she reached the fourth rank and decided to prioritize Vanessa’s points later.
• Elliot recalled that his Original Body had to leave with the Expedition Army and wondered whether he could leave the Difference Engine in the Abode.

Elliot used Elsa as a [Vessel] to test whether [Compliance] could operate the Difference Engine from the dream, and confirmed that it could. Meanwhile, Xixi searched the Sea of the Moon and dug up a gigantic snail.

• Elliot realized he could use [Compliance] to control a [Vessel] and operate the Difference Engine without risking being trapped in the dream.
• Sidney arranged for Elliot's group to learn the ritual for creating [Vessels], and Elsa made several, including one from her own body.
• Elsa asked Elliot to control her like Vanessa, and Elliot used [Compliance] to make her eat in the canteen before quickly relinquishing control.
• Elliot controlled another of Elsa's corpses to put Vanessa's Card in the Difference Engine, confirming that a [Vessel] could operate it.
• Xixi wandered along the seabed of the Sea of the Moon and dug up a gigantic snail.

Xixi broke Lillian out of her giant snail shell, and Lillian fled after transforming into a mothlike creature. While Xixi headed toward the [Primordial Blood] and the [Worm], Elliot and Sidney prepared to sacrifice the [Primordial Blood]'s gathered flesh and discussed returning to the Imperial Capital.

• Xixi chased down the giant snail, repeatedly biting chunks from its shell until it shattered.
• Lillian emerged from the broken shell transformed with moth wings, then fled from Xixi into the sea.
• Xixi ate the shell and licked up Lillian's black slime before heading toward the battle between the [Primordial Blood] and the [Worm].
• Elliot and Sidney gathered the [Primordial Blood]'s scattered flesh beside the sacrificial runes and agreed to perform the sacrifice in the Sea of the Moon.
• Sidney said the ruins' passage to the Imperial Capital remained unopened, and proposed that the Expedition Army return by force and charge straight into the capital.

Sidney prepared the Expedition Army to return to the Imperial Capital, expecting a political confrontation or a battle if their arrival went badly. After the Royal Family’s soldiers completed a sacrifice and gained new powers, Sidney invited Elliot to a banquet before their march.

• Sidney warned Elliot that their return could lead to fighting and said he would take command, with Elliot assuming command if he died.
• Elliot reflected on becoming Duke Sterling and asked Sidney for a deed to the ruins, but Sidney reminded him that Elliot already owned the surrounding land from a childhood wager.
• Sidney explained that the Royal Family’s sacrifice was being held on the seabed because the War Fortresses were destroyed and the Judgment Angel could not be repaired.
• The Royal Family’s soldiers quickly completed the sacrificial ritual and returned to their ships with newly acquired powers.
• Sidney invited Elliot to an all-night banquet before they fought their way back to the Imperial Capital.

At an all-night banquet, Sidney and Elliot drank the last of the soldiers’ homemade liquor, marked with the names of those who had brewed it. Sidney remembered the dead and missing soldiers and gave Elliot a bottle to save for the day Sidney became emperor, before drinking and falling asleep.

• Sidney explained how soldiers brewed liquor, exchanged bottles, and wore the brewers’ name slips on their helmets when they returned to battle.
• Sidney told Elliot he remembered every soldier’s name, including Flynn Morrison, whose fate he did not know.
• Sidney said Morrison had probably died unnoticed and that remembering the soldiers’ names was all he could do for them.
• Elliot saw Machine Priests pour their liquor into their fuel tanks, and they said it would make their furnaces burn hotter.
• Sidney gave Elliot a bottle labeled with his name and the date, telling him to save it until Sidney became emperor.
• Sidney toasted Sterling, the Empire, the Second Era, and fine liquor, then drank with the soldiers and fell asleep.

Elliot and the Expedition Army returned from the Sea of the Moon to the present world, where a blood moon hung beside the Sun. Sidney planned to lead the army straight to the Imperial Palace, and Elliot chose to join him as the conflict over the throne reached its decisive point.

• Sidney arranged the Expedition Army’s formation and led Michel and the Court Guards through the passage first.
• Elliot waited until the army had passed through the narrow passage, then returned to the present world in his original body.
• Elliot saw the blood moon hanging beside the Sun and noted that the dream travelers, including Victoria and Vanessa, had not come with the army.
• Sidney told Elliot that he and Michel would charge into the Imperial Palace and asked whether Elliot would join them or go home first.
• Elliot chose to go with Sidney, recognizing that his support for the Royal Family had put him at odds with the other nobles.

Sidney gave Elliot a pendant granting him access to the Imperial Palace, then led the Expedition Army toward the palace to seize the throne before the Great Nobility could act. He addressed his soldiers about their reasons for joining the expedition and reminded them that they had expected to die in the Sea of the Moon.

• Sidney gave Elliot his pendant and promised him permission to carry weapons anywhere in the Imperial Palace.
• Sidney ordered the Expedition Army to move out and charged ahead with Michel to seize the palace and install a new emperor.
• Sidney led the soldiers in white-and-gold robes and reminded them of the Empire’s founding and its decline.
• Sidney questioned Spencer, Elias, and Ezra Boone about why they had joined the Expedition Army.
• Sidney told the soldiers, “Yes, we should have died in the Sea of the Moon,” and watched the light fade from their eyes.

Sidney led the Expedition Army into Saint Clair to seize the Imperial Palace before the Sacred Blood Nobles could act. As the army charged through the cheering streets, Elliot sensed that something was wrong.

• Sidney rallied the Expedition Army by recalling their fallen companions and the nobles who meant to take their spoils and send them back into danger.
• Sidney ordered the soldiers to advance on Saint Clair, and they set out with the names of the dead attached to their flag.
• The Expedition Army rushed toward the unwalled Imperial Capital, betting that the Sacred Blood Nobles would not have time to organize a defense.
• Patrol Officers fled and changed out of their uniforms as Sidney and Michel's forces entered the city, while commoners cheered from the windows.
• Sidney ordered the soldiers to hurry and seize the Imperial Palace, while Elliot used [Spirit Vision] and sensed that something was missing from the streets.

Elliot realized the Night Watch Bureau had failed to appear during the Expedition Army’s advance and discovered that one of its members was guarding the Imperial Palace. He warned Sidney and ordered preparations in the Hearthfire District as Sidney called for heavy firepower to breach the Palace’s wards.

• Allen told Elliot that no one from the Night Watch Bureau had appeared, so Elliot used [Compliance] to control his [Vessel] and inspect the Difference Engine’s records.
• Elliot found that Eleanor Bennett was on guard duty in the Imperial Palace, despite the Bureau not normally being responsible for Palace security.
• Elliot sent Dorothea to warn Sidney about the Bureau’s presence in the Palace, and Sidney began making arrangements.
• Elliot sent crows to alert the Hearthfire District and scout the situation, while Dorothea relayed Sidney’s request for the Machine Priests to prepare heavy firepower.
• Elliot learned that the Imperial Palace had wards and asked whether its gates had already been sealed.

Elliot and Sidney discovered that the Imperial Palace’s wards barred the Night Watch Bureau, raising the possibility that the palace had been breached. On the road back, Tobias Helms appeared with a ceremonial cavalry unit, and after he spotted Elliot through a mirror, Sidney drew his sword.

• Crow relayed that only the Emperor, Michel, Victoria, and Sidney could authorize entry to the Imperial Palace, and Sidney suspected it might have been breached.
• A crow warned Elliot that a cavalry unit was ahead, and Elliot used a mirror to see the approaching riders.
• Elliot and Sidney recognized Tobias Helms, a leader of the Old Nobility and a member of the family devoted to the [Prophet in the Urn].
• Tobias said he had come to congratulate Sidney on his return, while Michel and Dorothea found no sign of anyone else nearby.
• Tobias looked through the mirror at Elliot, and the crow on Elliot’s shoulder exploded.
• Sidney drew his longsword and slashed toward Tobias’s cavalry.

Sidney, Michel, and Elliot continued toward the Imperial Palace after Tobias warned them of eternal slumber in the light, while Elliot suspected Tobias could sense imminent attacks. The Expedition Army reached the center of the eerily ordinary Imperial Capital, where Elliot spotted the Sterling Family mansion and nearby noble residences.

• Sidney attacked Tobias, but Tobias avoided the blow and noticed Elliot's disguised crow preparing to strike.
• Tobias insisted he meant no harm, welcomed the returning royals and Duke Sterling, and warned Sidney to prepare for eternal slumber in the light.
• Tobias ordered the cavalry to clear the road, and the Expedition Army continued toward the Imperial Palace.
• Sidney worried that Tobias's foresight meant the nobles knew about their operation, but resolved to press on and rely on his own trump card.
• Elliot sensed something wrong as the Expedition Army crossed the unnaturally normal Imperial Capital and saw the Sterling Family mansion near the other nobles' residences.

Elliot and Sidney’s Expedition Army reached the Imperial Palace after discovering the Great Nobility had gathered there, but the palace’s restrictions concealed a catastrophe within. Elliot saw that the Throne had exploded and released what it had sealed, leaving the army and nobles confronted by a vast, monstrous presence.

• Elliot and Dorothea found the Great Nobility’s residences undefended and their family heads missing, while Michel’s investigation had uncovered the same absence.
• Sidney guessed that the Great Nobility had gathered inside the Imperial Palace and warned that the Expedition Army lacked the firepower to storm a fortified position.
• Dorothea’s Split Crow could not spy inside the Imperial Palace, so Sidney and Elliot led the Expedition Army to its entrance.
• Sidney entered the palace, and Elliot used her Pendant and his spirituality to see through a disguised crow.
• Elliot saw the Great Nobility gathered before the Palace Hall and a vast vortex above the palace, with a crown embedded in a mass of putrid flesh beneath it.
• Sidney identified the sight as Throne Fragments and said the Throne had exploded, freeing everything sealed beneath it.

Elliot discovered that the Throne beneath the Imperial Palace had exploded, exposing evil beings suppressed under the Imperial Capital. Daphne Fitzgerald explained that the prolonged Blood Moon had strengthened the monsters until the Throne ran out of fuel, while Lord Isaac opened a [Door] to keep them from flooding into the city.

• Victoria approached the rotten flesh and Crown, but the flesh recoiled from her touch and the Crown fell to the ground.
• Elliot approached the hostile nobles and spoke with Lady Daphne Fitzgerald, who recognized him as Duke Sterling.
• Daphne told Elliot that the Throne had exploded after the constant Blood Moon strengthened the monsters and exhausted the Throne's fuel.
• Daphne explained that Lord Isaac had opened a [Door] to prevent the monsters from entering the Imperial Capital.

Elliot confronted nobles who had given up in the face of the apocalypse, then learned that the [Clock Tower] recognized his identity as Duke Sterling through the history of the Third Era. He suspected the Old Duke had sacrificed his Vessel to steal machinery from that era, and challenged the Trenchard heir over who had conferred his rank.

• Isaac told Elliot that his [Gate] could only delay the Throne's explosion, while the nobles joked about the coming destruction.
• A young Trenchard noble mocked Elliot's claim to be Duke Sterling, and Elliot ridiculed him for envying power while surrendering to the apocalypse.
• The Trenchard noble challenged Elliot's title, prompting Daphne to invoke the Fitzgerald Family's authority and announce that the [Clock Tower] had verified Elliot's identity through the Third Era.
• Daphne clarified that the Second Era had not ended, but Elliot's existence had already been recognized by the Third Era.
• Elliot connected this recognition to the Old Duke's plan to sacrifice his Vessel in the Forge and steal the Third Era, then asked the Trenchard noble who had conferred his rank.

Elliot learned that Isaac’s [Door] could hold back the enormous vortex only until tomorrow evening, then found Victoria grieving the destruction of the Grand Library. As Sidney joined them among the palace ruins, Victoria asked whether he could produce another miracle before the Second Era ended.

• Elliot rebuked a Trenchard heir for insulting him and noticed that only heirs, not family heads, had gathered.
• Isaac warned Elliot that his [Door] would last only until tomorrow evening and that the Second Era would end if the crisis remained unresolved.
• Elliot found Victoria in the palace ruins and gave her a Library borrowing card, but she threw it away because the Library was gone.
• Victoria mourned the losses and spoke of Thorne’s failure while Elliot recalled a peaceful moment from the Library that he could not explain.
• Sidney said Thorne had attempted the impossible, and Victoria asked Sidney whether he could bring the Empire a miracle.

Elliot and Sidney discussed the unstable [Door] holding back the monsters beneath the Throne, which was expected to fail by the next day. As the Expedition Army worked among the ruins and nobles feasted nearby, Elliot wondered whether surviving the breach would save the Second Era, and Sidney warned that the apocalypse would continue until the era itself ended.

• Sidney rejected reliance on miracles and explained to Elliot that Isaac used the [Door] Principle to connect the damaged Throne to somewhere else and keep its monsters from reaching the Imperial Palace.
• Sidney said Isaac's [Door] would fail by the next day and that the Empire lacked the strength and allies that had helped the Founding Emperor Augustus seal the monsters.
• Elliot considered ways to close the breach but found none, while reflecting on his disagreement with Sidney over whether to reform the Empire or replace it.
• The Expedition Army camped near the ruins, and Elliot directed the Machine Priests of the Reforging Flame to help clear the damaged Imperial Palace as Michel continued his Ritual.
• Elliot saw the nobles feasting while the army labored and asked Sidney whether surviving the next day's crisis would save the Second Era; Sidney said the apocalypse would persist until they found a way to end the era.

Elliot and Sidney discussed how to save the Second Era and deal with the coming disaster, and Sidney revealed that he intended to use a coronation ritual to suppress the monsters by taking the Throne forever. Sidney gave Elliot Theresia’s sword, the Azure Blade, and Elliot planned to investigate it for another solution before Sidney made his decision the next day.

• Elliot admitted he did not know how to save the Second Era, while remembering the Old Duke’s suggestion to steal power from the Third Era.
• Sidney pointed out Michel’s enormous ritual and explained that it was a coronation ritual that could suppress demons and monsters, but would bind its ruler to the Throne forever.
• Sidney said he would take the Throne, though he agreed to reconsider and decide the next day after Elliot urged him to find another option.
• Sidney gave Elliot Theresia’s sword, the Azure Blade, and Elliot accepted it so he could try communicating with the relic in a dream and seek another way to save Sidney.

Elliot discovered Sidney’s hidden letter and recovered his lost memories of Sidney’s identity and their promise. As Sidney began a ritual to take the Throne and save the Empire, Victoria warned him that the Throne would corrupt him just as it had Thorne.

• Elliot found a letter Sidney had hidden in the Azure Blade and learned that he had once told Sidney about the Difference Engine.
• Elliot read Sidney’s confession and remembered that Sidney had always been the Empire’s third princess, though he had taken up a sword and called himself a prince.
• Elliot recalled Sidney’s wish for him to take up the sword and continue in his place, while Sidney promised to end the Empire’s suffering.
• Sidney stood before the ruined Palace Hall, preparing to take the Throne and suppress the monsters.
• Victoria appeared before Sidney and begged him not to proceed, warning that the Throne would exhaust his Rationality and corrupt him.

Sidney sacrificed his emotions and took the Throne to suppress the Empire’s evil entities, leaving Elliot and Victoria behind. Reborn as a cold, emotionless emperor, he activated the ancient Ritual over the Imperial Capital.

• Sidney told Victoria he would sacrifice his emotions and become an uncorruptible ruler, while Elliot would take his sword and a new sovereign would govern the Empire.
• Victoria wept and begged Sidney not to leave her, but he comforted her and then stepped onto the Altar.
• Michel began the Ritual as Sidney walked toward the vortex and climbed the golden steps that formed a Throne.
• Elliot reached for Sidney as he sat on the Throne, but Sidney’s consciousness and emotions faded, and he became a new emperor.
• Sidney struck the ground with a Radiance scepter, activating the Empire’s Ritual and dragging the evil entities into the Throne to be destroyed.
• The people knelt and praised the new empress, while Elliot looked up at Sidney’s emotionless face.

Sidney sacrificed himself to transform the Imperial Capital’s suppression ritual into a Great Art, freeing the Empire from its need for blood sacrifices. As dawn arrived, the Sacred Blood Nobles seized the Throne, killed Michel, and drove Victoria into Permanent Madness.

• Sidney used his Rationality and the Throne to draw the Vortex into himself and ascend the Imperial Capital’s Formless Art into a Great Art.
• Michel explained to Elliot that Sidney had become part of the Throne’s Great Art and could never return, while Victoria urged Elliot to carry on Sidney’s work and Michel to rule the Empire.
• Victoria revealed that she could not take the Throne because her mental state had reached its limit, and the Empire greeted the dawn without the Vortex overhead.
• Tobias Helms and the Sacred Blood Nobles surrounded the Throne, overwhelmed the Expedition Army, and killed Michel.
• Victoria witnessed Michel’s death and fell into Permanent Madness.

Elliot returned to the Sterling mansion under guard, where Tobias and the Sacred Blood Nobles kept the estate surrounded. After Conrad explained how the Throne’s collapse and the Blood Moon had changed the Imperial Capital, Elliot asked about the Hearthfire District.

• Tobias escorted Elliot to the mansion and promised the Nobles' House would handle his succession to the Sterling title.
• Conrad admitted Elliot to the mansion while knights remained outside and soldiers from other families occupied its grounds and facilities.
• Conrad explained that the Throne’s collapse, the Blood Moon, and the evil entities had changed the Imperial Capital and helped Tobias rally the nobles.
• Conrad said the estate had been surrounded, its contact with the Reforging Flame Church severed, and its telegraph burned out.
• Elliot asked Conrad about the Hearthfire District.

After Sidney’s sacrifice and the loss of his allies, Elliot prepared for the possibility of fleeing the Imperial Capital while the nobles kept him under house arrest. Fourth Prince Crawford confronted him in grief and announced his intention to take the Imperial Throne and massacre the nobles in the name of his [Justice].

• Elliot reflected on Tobias’s apparent power to foresee the future and trusted the Difference Engine as he prepared for the worst.
• Elliot and Conrad went to answer an angry pounding at the mansion’s door.
• Crawford rushed Elliot and punched him after seeing him, then demanded to know why Sidney had been the one to sacrifice himself.
• Elliot apologized for failing to protect Sidney, and Crawford calmed enough to say he would seek the Imperial Throne.
• Crawford declared that he would slaughter the Seven Holy Bloodlines and kill Elliot last, calling his vengeance the [Justice] he would bring to the Empire.