Chapter Summaries

Elliot realized that the Great Beings and the Supernatural were increasingly constrained, then suspected that Sidney had arranged every coincidence to steer him toward joining the Expedition. Though he still regarded Sidney as a friend, Elliot refused to go, hid his Difference Engine Core, and destroyed the Cards, leaving Conrad to send the reply.

• Elliot questioned Conrad about why scholars had begun calling historical Eras Industrial Revolutions, and Conrad explained that the naming followed Tryst's Thrice-Great.
• Elliot agreed that Sidney's generous terms gave him an easy way to avoid the Emperor's decree, then accused the coincidences surrounding the invitation of being too perfectly arranged.
• Elliot said he would help Sidney because he considered him a friend, but he was angry that Sidney had blocked every other path and left him only one choice.
• Elliot removed the Difference Engine Core, told Conrad to hide it, and declared that he would stay home and let the authorities arrest him.
• Elliot shredded every Card in the Difference Engine, and Conrad agreed to send the reply before leaving the room.

Elliot reflected on Sidney’s reckless yet shrewd nature and wondered what ideal drove him. After Sidney arrested him and the Emperor quickly pardoned him, Elliot chose to remain in prison, where Sidney finally came to ask whether he still considered him a friend.

• Elliot recalled Sidney’s bold political moves and concluded that Sidney was both shrewd and idealistic, though he could not identify Sidney’s ideal.
• Sidney seized Elliot at the Sterling Family mansion and took him to prison, while Elliot’s family forces did not intervene.
• The Emperor pardoned Elliot and reprimanded Sidney, but Elliot stayed in prison by choice.
• Elliot tried prison black bread for the first time and reflected on how poor people depended on it to survive.
• Sidney arrived at Elliot’s cell, looking haggard, and asked to talk if Elliot still considered him a friend.

Allen explained the Communion’s relationship with Elliot to Phoebe and Clara as tensions rose in the Hearthfire District. Elsa returned with orders for Allen to accompany Elliot on an Expedition, promising a garrison for the district and hinting the mission could bring back people trapped in the Dream; she began to explain what the Expedition really was.

• Phoebe and Clara questioned Allen about the missing Communion members and whether war had begun, and he confirmed that it had.
• Allen explained that the Workers’ Association temporarily managed the factory and Communion together, while Elliot governed the district and the Communion oversaw the workers’ faith.
• Elsa returned and told Allen that Elliot had officially joined the Expedition and that Allen must accompany him with a squad.
• Elsa said Lillian, an Immortal from the Hollow Cathedral, would garrison the Hearthfire District under an agreement Elliot made with Third Prince Sidney.
• Elsa gave Allen a secret mobilization order and said the Expedition might bring Vanessa and the others back from the Dream.
• When Allen asked how the Expedition could do that, Elsa began explaining its true purpose.

Elsa explained to Allen that expeditions were humanity’s wars against monsters and revealed that the Communion’s next expedition would go to the moon. Meanwhile, Elliot learned that Cora, a survivor of the Blood Feast, had been assigned as his expedition secretary, though he did not know how it happened.

• Elsa told Allen that the Hundred-Year War had been humanity’s first expedition because the heretics persecuted by the Blood Moon Sect were not human.
• Elsa explained that expeditions fought monsters to stabilize the present world and oppose humanity’s enemies, and said Allen’s group would travel to the moon.
• Elliot recognized Cora as a survivor he had rescued from the Blood Feast and questioned why she had become his secretary instead of going to the Hearthfire District.
• Cora said she had repeated Elliot’s words to Conrad, who then arranged her secretary position, leaving Elliot puzzled about what he had said.

Elliot clarified that he had never promised to take Cora to war, though her training had already granted her access to Secret History. He explained Sidney’s plan to reform the Empire and left Cora stunned by the prince’s belief that nobles should lose their political monopoly.

• Cora reminded Elliot that he had warned her about the dangers of war, and Elliot realized the Old Butler had mistaken his words and trained her for the Expedition.
• Cora told Elliot that Conrad had raised her to middle rank so she could study Secret History, and Elliot concluded that he would seek the Old Duke’s Ritual at the front.
• Cora asked Elliot whether he had beaten Sidney, and Elliot explained that Sidney had apologized publicly, made promises, and agreed to join him on the Expedition with the Difference Engine Core.
• Cora reacted with alarm when Elliot said Sidney believed nobles should not rule, then realized she had instinctively spoken as though she were a noble herself.
• Elliot recalled Sidney’s proposal to break the nobles’ political monopoly, create a path for commoners to govern, and gain the Sterling Family’s support.

Elliot decided to support Sidney despite doubting his plans, then joined Sidney and Michel as they led a grand expeditionary procession out of the Imperial Capital. The expedition set out toward the Outskirts, leaving Elliot to wonder what would await them when they returned.

• Elliot told Cora he would help Sidney because Sidney was the only person offering hope, then returned to prepare for the expedition.
• Allen brought more than twenty Factory Guards to the assembly square, where he found the Sterling Family’s lavishly equipped contingent.
• Elliot gave Allen’s men Sterling Family Crests and rode to the Crown District to meet Michel and Sidney.
• Michel, Sidney, and Elliot led the ceremonial procession through the Imperial Capital as crowds cheered and nobles watched.
• After the procession passed through the city gate, Elliot looked back and saw the smog hiding the Imperial Palace.

Elliot traveled toward the Expedition Frontline and learned that it was located on the moon, which the Empire reached through a woodland near New Scandinavia. After arriving, he wondered whether the city was supplying the expedition with corpses.

• Elliot left the Imperial Capital with his retinue and prepared to board a royal airship equipped with a Difference Engine.
• Cora told Elliot that the Expedition Frontline had occupied Deep Dive Points and was preparing to establish a Forward Base.
• Elliot learned that the expedition was heading to the moon and wondered whether Dorothea could emerge from the mirror in his luggage.
• Elliot traveled with the party for three days and arrived at a woodland with a lake and a railway leading to New Scandinavia.
• Elliot realized that New Scandinavia supplied the expedition and wondered whether its supply of corpses came from the people who died in its streets.

Elliot learned that corpses were scarce across the Empire and asked how the expedition would reach the moon. As the full-moon departure approached, he joined the expedition’s camp and suspected the still lake was tied to their journey.

• Elliot asked Cora whether her university’s Medical School had enough corpses, and she said students often had to reuse dissected bodies.
• Cora explained that a lunar expedition required midnight under a full moon, unless a lunar eclipse made the phase irrelevant; she said the next eclipse was decades away.
• Cora showed Elliot the expedition camp and said the Royal Family and the Sterling Family were contributing the most manpower, while the Seven Orthodox Churches had also sent members.
• Michel greeted Elliot and said the expedition would set out that night because the ritual was ready.
• Michel’s expression shifted into a rational state as he looked toward the lake, and Elliot wondered if its still waters provided a route to the moon.

Elliot joined Michel and Sidney’s ritual at the Lake, where he realized the glowing flowers and mirror-like water were part of an entrance to the moon. As a vast eye appeared in the mirror and fixed its gaze on him, Elliot became trapped and considered using [Spirituality Pressure].

• Elliot recognized the weathered pillars as Cosmog Dynasty ruins and questioned how their apparent age fit the known history.
• Elliot noticed that the Lake’s glowing flowers matched patterns on items Vanessa had brought back from Victoria and suspected they were connected to the entrance.
• Michel began the ritual, a barrier formed around the Lake, and everyone knelt to pray while Sidney joined them.
• Elliot noticed Michel switch off [Rationality] and guessed that the ritual required abilities to be disabled, so he withdrew [Spirit Vision].
• The Lake became a mirror, and the moon appeared as an enormous emotionless eye that turned to stare directly at Elliot.
• Elliot found himself unable to look away or switch off [Spirit Vision] and considered using [Spirituality Pressure] against the eye.

Elliot crossed through a magical passage to the lunar Expedition Frontline, but arrived alone in a strange, muffled wilderness. As distorted monsters appeared above him, he suspected that being beyond the Difference Engine’s protection had exposed something special about him.

• As Michel completed his spell, the lake folded open and revealed a dark passage beneath its mirrored surface, interrupting the enormous eye Elliot had seen.
• Elliot resolved to learn more about the eye and the Great Being of the [Justice] Path, and to use supernatural abilities himself as little as possible.
• Michel and Sidney invited Elliot to cross with them, and Elliot jumped through the passage after watching the soldiers, horses, and carriages enter.
• Elliot emerged alone in a misty place with weak gravity and sluggish movement, and realized the bubbles escaping his mouth suggested he was underwater.
• Elliot wondered whether leaving the Difference Engine’s protection had revealed something unusual about him, then saw distorted monsters looking down at him.

Elliot found himself on a seabed beneath the Lunar Surface, surrounded by distorted monsters that watched him from above. While he tried to avoid provoking them, Michel and Sidney searched for him, and Michel warned that Elliot might have sunk into the Abyssal Sea.

• Elliot realized his spirituality had warned him not to enter the Lunar Surface and found himself trapped beneath a dense mass of monsters.
• Elliot used [Concealment] and [Mother of Concealment], but the monsters kept watching him; when he jumped, they gathered overhead, so he sank back to the seabed.
• Michel told Sidney that repeated searches had found no trace of Elliot, and Sidney confirmed that Cora had followed Elliot into the water.
• Cora asked what happened to someone lost in the sea, and Michel explained that they might float toward a dangerous surface or sink into the Abyssal Sea.

Michel and Sidney questioned Cora about Elliot’s disappearance, while Elliot followed his spiritual guidance across the seabed. The guidance led him to a dark cave, whose contents remained unknown.

• Michel and Sidney concluded that Elliot was likely in the shallows or the abyss, since reaching the moon’s surface was nearly impossible.
• Cora explained that locating devices had burned out and that her ritual gave precise directions that kept changing.
• Cora recalled hearing the entire Sea of the Moon cheering when Elliot disappeared.
• Elliot’s [Veil] talent guided him toward a hidden location as monsters watched him from above.
• Elliot reached a meter-wide cave opening and peered into its darkness.

Elliot investigated a narrow underwater passage but discovered that ascending caused him severe pain and bleeding, leaving him trapped on the seabed. He noticed that the monsters reacted whenever he rose and began to wonder whether they were warning him and could help him.

• Elliot tested the narrow passage with a glowing ring and found no danger in the section he could see, but worried he might get trapped if he entered.
• After standing, Elliot realized that his dizziness might be connected to ascending and rushed upward to test his suspicion.
• Elliot suffered a stabbing pain, blacked out, and began bleeding from his nose after rising several meters.
• Elliot tried ascending slowly but felt the pain return, then concluded that he could not return to the surface.
• Elliot noticed that the monsters calmed when he sank and gathered excitedly whenever he tried to rise, prompting him to consider using them.

Elliot used Hypnosis on the monsters surrounding him and discovered that they could descend but not ascend. After one monster suddenly killed another when Elliot gave it a new instruction, he suspected the attack had triggered one of the rules he had implanted.

• Elliot hypnotized a monster and imprinted rules requiring it to protect him, obey his orders, and repeat any order that would harm him before carrying it out.
• Elliot ordered the monster to sink and rise, learning that it could descend but resisted ascending because doing so would harm him.
• Elliot hypnotized a second monster and instructed it to nod when he said something correct.
• The first monster abruptly killed the second just after Elliot imprinted the instruction, then sank again when he ordered it to.
• Elliot suspected the first monster's attack had triggered one of the rules he had implanted.

Elliot discovered that Dream Creatures could understand him but that attempts to communicate with them caused them to die, and he suspected they were secretly trying to help him. He used a hypnotized Monster to investigate an opening and recognized the wall material as Nightmare.

• Elliot reasoned that a hidden rule had caused his hypnotized Monster to protect him when he gave an order involving communication.
• Elliot tested his theory and found that hypnotizing Monsters to communicate caused them to die, while other commands worked.
• Elliot ordered an unhypnotized Monster to dive, ascend, and confirm it understood him; it burst apart after meeting his gaze.
• Elliot had his hypnotized Monster touch him and enter an opening, and the opening expanded to let the Monster through.
• Elliot recognized the material of the walls as Nightmare.

Vanessa sensed that the nightmare's arrival should not be opposed, and Victoria captured a hypnotized Dream Creature whose ability matched Vanessa's. Meanwhile, Michel learned Elliot was missing and tried to keep Duke Sterling from finding out, offering Cora a chance to become a noble.

• Vanessa's spiritual intuition warned Victoria not to attack as a huge rift opened in the dream courtyard.
• A nightmare threw a Dream Creature through the rift, and Vanessa urged Victoria to capture it before the rift closed.
• Vanessa discovered that the Dream Creature had been hypnotized with an ability exactly like hers, and it obeyed her when Victoria released it.
• An adjutant reported that Elliot was missing and had likely fallen into the Abyssal Sea, so Michel ordered a deeper search and another locating ritual.
• Michel insisted that Duke Sterling must not learn Elliot was missing and asked Cora whether she wanted to become a true noble.

Michel urged Cora to impersonate Elliot so he and Sidney could search for the missing man, and Cora agreed after securing promises of wealth and noble status. Meanwhile, Elliot discovered that a cave had vanished after a monster entered it, then watched the opening reappear as he searched for other concealed locations.

• Michel told Cora to pose as Elliot and buy time while he and Sidney searched for him, warning that Duke Sterling would kill her if Elliot's disappearance became known.
• Sidney objected to Michel pressuring Cora and offered to impersonate Elliot himself, but Michel said Sidney's height made the disguise too difficult without a Formless Art.
• Cora asked whether Michel could make her a noble and agreed to take the risk so she could control her own fate; Michel gave her a ring, and Sidney gave her a pendant.
• Elliot found that the cave had disappeared after the monster entered, and he suspected its opening might have been a Nightmare's mouth or part of a vast creature beneath the seabed.
• Elliot used [Veil] to search for concealed locations and sensed that the hypnotized monster was still alive, then saw the cave opening appear again.

Elliot discovered that the opening beneath the Sea of the Moon led to his dream and entered it disguised as Elsa. Meanwhile, a mysterious man used the Blood Moon to reach Elsa’s corpse, only to appear at the bottom of the sea surrounded by Lords of Dreams.

• Elliot found Vanessa’s name written on the robe the Lord of Dreams had brought back and realized the cave connected to the dream.
• Elliot disguised himself as Elsa and sent several Lords of Dreams into the opening to wait before he followed them inside.
• A mysterious man left the ruins beneath a mound outside Saint Clair with Elsa’s corpse when the Blood Moon appeared.
• The man and Elsa suddenly appeared at the bottom of the Sea of the Moon, where countless monsters descended toward him.

Vanessa and Victoria watched the Lords of Dreams remain still while the Communion Believers cooked Maeve’s flesh for food. A new rift opened, and orderly Lords of Dreams bowed as a small figure with a coldly burning Sun emerged.

• Vanessa and Victoria observed that the Lords of Dreams had stopped attacking, and Victoria warned Vanessa not to approach the Communion Believers’ courtyard.
• Vanessa discovered that Dorothea and the Communion Believers were eating Maeve’s regenerating flesh to sustain themselves in the dream.
• A huge rift opened, and Vanessa and Victoria recognized it as the one that had released the hypnotized Lord of Dreams.
• Vanessa prepared for a possible response from the being connected to her Path while Victoria and the Communion Believers readied themselves for danger.
• Lords of Dreams emerged from the rift in orderly rows, and Vanessa saw a coldly burning Sun rise behind them.
• A small figure stepped out of the rift, and the Lords of Dreams bowed to her in unison.

Victoria realized that the hidden Great Being had built a palace of materials for her, while Vanessa became certain that Elliot was her Lord. Elliot reached the Courtyard and presented himself to the Communion’s Believers from a throne of flesh, ending with Dorothea bowing before him.

• Victoria warned Vanessa not to keep watching the Great Being and explained that Dream Creatures revered and obeyed Him.
• Victoria concluded that the Great Being had built the material-filled palace specifically for her to take supplies from.
• Vanessa recognized Elliot as her Lord through their spiritual connection and prayed to him devoutly.
• Elliot emerged into the Courtyard, saw the kneeling Believers and Victoria’s group, and chose to approach the Believers first.
• A Lord of Dreams carried Elliot on a throne woven from its tentacles as the other Lords followed in orderly ranks.
• Dorothea looked at Elliot, then respectfully bowed before him.