Chapter Summaries

Eleanor told the Communion that the Night Watch Bureau had unexpectedly offered her and other low-rank detectives a chance to advance, while postponing higher-rank promotions, suggesting it urgently needed middle-rank supernatural people. The Communion prepared to attack the Genesis School, assigning Maeve and Elsa to lead the assault and pairing Maeve with Clara.

• Eleanor explained that her Night Watch Bureau promotion came through recommendations from inspectors she had met at alumni gatherings, then warned that the bureau had suddenly opened many low-to-middle-rank advancement slots while blocking higher-rank promotions.
• Eleanor and Elsa decided to accept advancement despite the risks, and Maeve resolved to eat people from the Genesis School so she could advance first.
• After the prebattle meeting, Flora went to speak with Elliot, Eleanor hurried to the Night Watch Bureau, Allen organized the Factory Guard, and Dorothea and Elsa prepared to join the operation.
• Elsa told Maeve that they would lead the assault together, with Maeve using her long-haired state and Elsa using her nightmare form.
• Elsa assigned Flora as her partner and Clara as Maeve's teammate.

Clara revealed that her [Possession] ability could strengthen Maeve while letting her use [Spirit Vision], making them a powerful combat pair. As the Communion prepared a major sweep against the Genesis School, its forces surrounded the hideout under the night sky, ready to attack.

• Clara explained that she could possess Maeve, strengthen her, and remain unharmed in spirit form, while Maeve asked what would happen if she died.
• Elsa revealed that Clara had chosen [Spirit Vision] and could use it while possessing someone, prompting Maeve to recognize how much it would improve her combat abilities.
• Elsa ordered Maeve and Clara to practice together before the sweep began that night or the next morning.
• Allen secretly assembled the Factory Guard under the pretext of a factory event, while Dorothea organized seven combat squads.
• Flora secured Elliot's authorization to mobilize factory priests and use his stockpile of military weapons, much of it produced in the Hearthfire District.
• The Communion and Machine Priests gathered, and their forces formed a loose encirclement around the Genesis School's hideout.

Elsa led the Communion and the Machine Priests to attack a cult hideout beneath the Hearthfire District, where the Machine Priests unleashed overwhelming firepower. As the assault appeared close to victory, the lead Machine Priest sensed faint vibrations and felt an unexplained unease.

• Elsa briefed the assembled teams on the sewer junction, assigned Maeve and Clara to rescue the sacrificial victims, and estimated that dozens of missing children might be inside.
• The Machine Priests rejected the available entrances and blasted a hole directly into the hideout beneath them.
• The Machine Priests plugged heavy weapons into their bodies and opened fire, burning and shooting down the cultists who charged from below.
• Flora watched the Machine Priests overpower the Genesis School fighters and wondered what enemies had troubled the Empire's expedition.
• Dorothea questioned whether absolute power could accomplish what her Mirror Secret Art could, while the Machine Priests maintained their relentless barrage.
• The lead Machine Priest detected faint vibrations and scanned the area, troubled by a sudden sense of unease.

Fisher and the Machine Priests were nearly swallowed by a vast flesh maw, but Elsa revealed a powerful nightmare form and forced it open. Maeve and Clara entered the sewers, where Clara sensed sacrificial victims like Elsa had once been.

• Fisher received a spiritual warning and shouted for everyone to retreat as a flesh maw snapped shut beneath them.
• Elsa braced the maw with her arms and then stretched it apart, while Fisher's eyepiece burned out under his spiritual warning.
• Maeve saw Elsa's nightmare form through Clara's [Spirit Vision] and decided to lead Clara into the sewers.
• Maeve used [Wild Hunt] to vanish into the sewer shadows and followed Clara's warning toward what looked like sacrificial offerings.
• Maeve passed a trembling Cultist, who was left in bloody pieces after she moved on.

Maeve used Clara’s Spirit Vision to locate and attack the Genesis School Cultists in a ritual room, while Elsa defeated the flesh monster above and headed into the sewers to support her. Elsa found Maeve in the sewers and froze at what she saw.

• Clara guided Maeve to a room filled with blood, ritual tools, and a writhing Cultist, and Maeve chose to fight rather than keep hiding.
• Elsa tore apart the giant flesh maw and left the Machine Priests alive; Fisher ordered his unit to hold their position instead of pursuing her into the sewers.
• Fisher recorded his fear and curiosity about Elsa’s power, noting that his flesh and steel seemed to be fusing more harmoniously.
• Elsa raced through the sewers to find Maeve, leaving Flora behind, and froze when she saw her.

Elsa found Maeve fighting and devouring the Genesis School cultists at an altar, then used Maeve’s healing flesh to rescue the captive children. Elliot reviewed the aftermath in Hearthfire District and learned that Maeve had reached middle rank.

• Elsa entered the altar room and found Maeve and the Genesis School cultists tearing into and eating one another.
• Maeve gave Elsa pieces of her flesh, and Elsa fed them to the injured children trapped on the racks.
• Elsa carried the rescued children out, then returned to help Maeve fight the remaining cultists.
• Elliot checked reports that Hearthfire District was recovering, the Factory Guard had lifted its lockdown, and the Night Watch Bureau had withdrawn.
• Elliot saw a card reporting that Maeve had reached middle rank.

Elliot discovered that Maeve had become his first middle-rank believer, and he investigated how her devouring count had reached 1327. After sacrificing her to the Difference Engine, he learned she had ascended to fourth rank and gained the ability to tear open dreams as she entered them.

• Elliot checked Maeve's advancement records and found that she had devoured 1327 people, then realized the count might include Genesis School cultists and their sacrificial victims.
• Elliot considered using the captured Genesis School prisoners as sacrifice offerings and ordered the believers to guard them closely.
• Elliot had Flora perform a sacrifice for Maeve, noticing that controlling Flora had become less responsive as the hollow in her chest seemed to fill.
• Elliot placed Maeve's card in the fourth-rank slot, and the Difference Engine confirmed her ascension and offered her the ability to tear open dreams and sink deeper.
• Elliot recalled that the Lords of Dreams had torn openings in Elsa's dream when they entered it.

Elliot used the Difference Engine to choose Ascension paths for Maeve, discovering that she could take two Ascensions instead of one. He selected Physical Ascension and Blood Ascension, and the Engine printed Maeve’s newly transformed Card.

• Elliot wondered whether the Difference Engine could tear dreams apart and considered that he had not unlocked all its functions.
• Elliot examined the Ascension choices and saw three Cards depicting different versions of Maeve.
• Elliot chose Physical Ascension, strengthening Maeve’s physical abilities.
• Elliot realized the other Ascension Cards remained and chose Blood Ascension as well.
• The Difference Engine combined the choices with Maeve’s original Card and printed a new Card showing her with blood-red hair and an extra pair of arms made of blood.

Elliot chose [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] and [Blood Cocoon] for Maeve as she advanced to middle rank, and he wondered whether her increased spirituality would make her stronger in dreams. Maeve emerged from the altar and immediately tested her new strength against Flora.

• Elliot considered [Blood Cocoon], [Pre-digestion], and [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse], then selected [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] and [Blood Cocoon] for Maeve.
• Elliot wondered where Maeve’s increased spirituality went and suspected it might have a greater effect in dreams, where she could now enter the Deep Zone.
• Maeve stepped down from the altar in the Mansion, assured everyone she was fine, and looked eager to test her strength.
• Maeve crossed the basement in an instant and struck Flora, then pulled her back as she fell.
• Maeve withdrew her fist with a grin and told Flora to take the fight more seriously.

Maeve brought a captured Genesis School Cultist to the training grounds to test how her new [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] talent interacted with Clara’s [Possession]. She began the experiment by feeding her severed arm to the Cultist, while Elsa and Dorothea prepared to attack.

• Flora felt Maeve’s touch make her blood rush and realized Maeve’s strength in human form nearly matched her own.
• Maeve carried a captured Cultist from the Underground Prison, eating strips of its flesh when it tried to resist.
• Maeve asked Clara to possess her, but Clara feared being made to eat flesh again until Maeve promised that was not the plan.
• Maeve took Clara and Elsa to the training grounds and explained that she wanted Clara to possess her before she used [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] on the Cultist.
• Maeve summoned Dorothea from a mirror and asked her and Elsa to attack during the experiment.
• Maeve tore off her left arm and threw it onto the Cultist, whose flesh rapidly grew and regenerated.

Maeve discovered a way to interrupt the erosion from her [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] by combining her possession ability with Clara’s [Possession]. Dorothea then devised a sequence that sent her through a mirror into the Genesis School’s sewer, where Maeve sealed her inside a blood cocoon.

• Maeve possessed the Genesis School flesh while Clara possessed her, and Dorothea and Elsa attacked the mass until Maeve was exhausted.
• Dorothea suggested that Maeve possess Clara before Clara possessed someone else, and Maeve tested the idea with Elsa as Clara’s host.
• Maeve and Clara confirmed that transferring Clara into Elsa stopped the erosion without harming Elsa.
• Dorothea instructed Maeve and Clara through a timed sequence that made Dorothea disappear and emerge from a shattered mirror in the Genesis School’s sewer.
• Maeve transformed into a monster and enclosed Dorothea in a blood cocoon as Dorothea turned insubstantial again.

Elliot admired how Dorothea and Maeve’s abilities complemented each other, then the Difference Engine detected a world shift and changed the Worm’s descent countdown to seven. Meanwhile, Maeve found strange bones in the sewers that Dorothea could not identify as belonging to any known creature.

• Elliot watched Dorothea and Maeve’s teamwork overcome the weaknesses of their abilities and concluded that his varied Believers could create powerful combinations.
• Elliot learned Vanessa had regained consciousness and left to visit Victoria and check on Evan.
• The Difference Engine stopped, detected a world shift, and recalculated the Worm’s descent countdown from 103 to 7.
• Elsa asked Maeve what her [Wild Hunt] had pointed to in the Genesis School hideout, and Maeve revealed that she had found bones in the sewers.
• Dorothea examined the bones and said they matched neither humans nor animals and seemed too twisted to belong to any living creature.

Maeve identified the strange bone as potentially belonging to a Lord of Dreams and planned an expedition into Elliot’s dream to compare it. Elsa tasted powder scraped from the pill her father had left her and reacted with shock, while Elliot arrived at the Library and waited for Victoria, who he suspected was in his dream building the Abode.

• Maeve explained that her Song of Flesh let her sense and gain power from spiritual flesh, and suggested comparing the bone with a Lord of Dreams.
• Dorothea agreed to gather munitions for the expedition, while Maeve contacted Flora, Clara, and others to prepare an ambush and Elsa insisted they first pray for the Lord’s permission.
• Elsa remembered the pill, considered swallowing it, then scraped off some powder and tasted it, only to stiffen and tremble in shock.
• Elliot searched the Library for Victoria, learned from a maid that she had shut herself away there, and waited outside because he suspected she was moving things into his dream.

Elliot discovered that Believer Elsa Ramsey had died just as the Worm's Descent began. In the Abode, Victoria sensed something outside and saw Dream Creatures above the Courtyard.

• Elliot remodeled his dream palace to keep the Believers, Victoria, and the sleeping dog in separate areas, then waited for Victoria to return.
• When Victoria did not appear, Elliot went to the Difference Engine and found a Card showing Elsa Ramsey's corpse.
• Elliot saw Maeve contact Flora and Clara to prepare for combat while Dorothea organized the Believers to move weapons.
• The Worm's Descent countdown reached zero, and the Brass Dial announced that the Worm had descended upon the world again.
• Victoria kept hauling buildings to the Grand Library to build an Abode, determined to save everyone before the Second Era's destruction.
• Victoria sensed something was wrong and spotted Dream Creatures outside, above the Abode's Courtyard.

Dream Creatures invaded the Great Being’s Abode, forcing Dorothea and the others to defend themselves as rifts multiplied. Flora declared the attack a Trial and said the Great Being had sent an Immortal to help, as spider silk began pulling the Lords of Dreams back.

• Victoria saw Dream Creatures charging toward the palace and dismissed the attack as a hallucination.
• Dorothea organized the Believers to fire on a Lord of Dreams after rifts opened in the courtyard.
• Dorothea accused Maeve of summoning the creatures, but Maeve denied it and Flora confirmed she was telling the truth.
• The defenders killed one Lord of Dreams, but more creatures appeared, and Dorothea feared they could not hold the Abode.
• Flora called the invasion a Trial, and Miss Elegy said the Great Being had sent an Immortal to help them.
• Spider silk appeared behind the Lords of Dreams and began dragging them backward.

Victoria joined the battle against the Dream Creatures after realizing they were real, while Dorothea coordinated with the Immortal attacking them and questioned whether the invasion meant something had gone wrong. The chapter left Victoria recognizing the Immortals’ weapons as products of the Second Era and wondering whether the Great Being had mastered humanity’s industrial power.

• Maeve admitted she could not match the unidentified Immortal, who had swiftly killed several Lords of Dreams, and Dorothea warned that the creatures might still overwhelm her.
• Dorothea asked Miss Elegy to return to the Present World and notify Elsa, then prepared to coordinate Maeve and the Immortal in battle.
• Victoria used her Rationality state to confirm that a Dream Creature was real and stopped it from attacking the palace with spider silk.
• Victoria concluded that the Great Being had allowed her to help the Immortals fight the Dream Creatures and accepted that she might be part of its plans.
• Victoria recognized the Immortals’ standardized firearms as products of the Second Era, when humanity used industry and gunpowder to drive monsters into the Dream.

Elliot investigated Elsa’s mysterious death and the Dream Creatures appearing in his dream, then discovered he could not remove the entry cards. The believers seemed to be trapped in the dream as Victoria faced a swarm of monsters.

• Elliot found that Elsa had died after taking a small amount of powder from the pill, though Maeve had taken it before without harm.
• Elliot used Elsa’s intact corpse to retrieve the pill and wondered whether her death was connected to what she had seen with [Burial].
• Elliot questioned whether the [Worm] and the Lords of Dreams were separate threats and wondered where the Dream Creatures had come from.
• Elliot decided to recall the believers from his dream, believing he could simply remove his card from [Dream Entry].
• Elliot found that his card and the other believers’ cards would not come out, and realized everyone might be trapped in the dream.

Elliot discovered that everyone in the dream was trapped there and mobilized the Hearthfire District to send fighters, weapons, and ammunition to defend the palace. As he shifted factories to full wartime production, he learned that events across the district were being canceled for the same unexplained reason.

• Elliot realized that dying in the dream could mean dying in reality and used Flora's body to forbid the Believers from killing themselves.
• Flora announced that the dream could no longer be left and that the Believers had to hold out against the Lord of Dreams; Dorothea sensed the Great Being's presence and spread the order.
• Elliot took control of Elsa and mobilized the Communion and Hearthfire District to send combat teams, weapons, and ammunition into the dream.
• Elliot approved full wartime production at the district's factories and noticed that his control let him conceal much of the mobilization from the outside world.
• Elliot asked Conrad to cancel his engagements, but Conrad reported that most organizers had already canceled their events, claiming they were unwell.

Elliot investigated a sudden crisis that severed all contact with the Great Beings and discovered that the Dream World’s upheaval had altered events around the Difference Engine. He found that Xixi had vanished and Phoenix Everhart had spoken with the corpse of Believer Elsa Ramsey.

• Elliot ordered Conrad to investigate reports that people everywhere had fallen ill, then suspected the [Worm's Descent] had caused a wider Dream World crisis.
• Conrad reported that the Church and the Reforging Flame had lost their connection to the Great Beings, leaving Formless Arts unusable and preventing anyone from returning from the Great Beings' Abodes.
• Elliot inspected the Difference Engine and discovered that [Retainer Xixi] had disappeared, possibly after its [Learning] countdown was fast-forwarded.
• Elliot found a new Card for [Phoenix Everhart] and searched the Believer interaction logs to learn which Believer had encountered him.
• Elliot discovered that Phoenix Everhart had conversed with the corpse of Believer Elsa Ramsey.

Elliot investigated how Phoenix Everhart could have spoken with Elsa’s corpse before she died and realized the encounter may have taken place in the Ruins. He found a mural depicting the Blood Cocoon, discovered Evan’s Spirit in his dream, and watched the battle turn in the Believers’ favor before seeing Maeve go to eat again.

• Elliot deduced that Phoenix Everhart may have entered the Ruins and spoken with Elsa’s corpse, causing the Difference Engine to record him as a Card.
• Elliot controlled Elsa’s corpse in the Ruins and found an old mural depicting the Blood Cocoon talent he had selected for Maeve.
• Elliot discovered that Evan’s Spirit, like Elsa’s, had appeared in his dream, and wondered whether they had come to him because they could not return to their own dreams.
• Elliot saw the Believers’ reinforcements shift the dream battle from a desperate defense toward suppressing the middle-rank Lords of Dreams.
• Elliot noticed Maeve had gone up to eat again.