Chapter Summaries

Lillian explained to Victoria that authorities underlay the Paths and enabled Great Beings to ascend beyond the world’s limits. They discussed the Blood Lord’s plan to devour the moon and claim the [honey] authority, but Victoria’s question about why Great Beings shared their authorities left Lillian stumped.

• Victoria asked Lillian what an authority was, admitting she knew little about Great Beings’ essence.
• Lillian explained that ascension raised a Supernatural person’s level of life and granted access to more of the world’s secrets.
• Lillian told Victoria that Great Beings stood at the pinnacles of Paths and that possessing authorities was what made a Great Being.
• Victoria connected the Blood Lord’s plan to drink the Sea of the Moon and swallow the moon with obtaining the [honey] authority.
• Victoria asked why Great Beings shared their authorities with those who walked their Paths, and Lillian had no answer.

Victoria convinced Lillian that the Great Being had been preparing them to assimilate [Primordial Blood] by feeding them Maeve’s flesh. The chapter ended with Lillian realizing they were protected from [Primordial Blood]’s urge to devour.

• Victoria questioned why Great Beings allowed believers to gain authority through sacrifice, then suggested Lillian could seek authority over honey.
• A crash revealed Maeve clinging to [Primordial Blood] after charging into Him, and Victoria corrected Lillian that the flesh they ate was Maeve’s.
• Lillian warned that eating Maeve’s flesh meant being assimilated by [Primordial Blood], but Victoria argued that assimilation worked both ways.
• Victoria claimed the Great Being had guided them there to turn [Blood Lord] and [Primordial Blood] from hunters into prey.
• Lillian checked herself and found that, despite eating Maeve’s flesh, she was not controlled by an urge to devour, confirming the Great Being had protected them.

After the [primordial blood] appeared, Maeve went mad and charged toward the Rift, ignoring Vanessa’s [Spirituality Pressure]. The nightmare atop the tower let Maeve get stuck in the passage again, then began whipping her backside and pushing her toward the other side as Vanessa tried to stop it.

• Maeve became crazed when the Blood Vampires began slaughtering one another, and the [primordial blood] later drove her to charge at the Rift.
• Vanessa tried to restrain Maeve with [Spirituality Pressure], but Maeve’s madness made her bodily instincts ignore it.
• Vanessa called for the nightmare atop the tower to stop Maeve, but it let her climb up and leap into the passage, where she got stuck again.
• The nightmare repeatedly lashed Maeve’s backside, pushing her inch by inch toward the other side of the passage.
• Vanessa realized the nightmare was helping Maeve through and blasted it with [Spirituality Pressure].

Maeve went berserk under the influence of [Primordial Blood] and began devouring [Blood Lord]'s original body, rapidly growing stronger as she tore herself apart and healed with each bite. Lillian realized the attack might draw [Blood Lord]'s attention, and then sensed the Great Being descend in person.

• The Nightmare bundled its tentacles together and struck Maeve out of the passage, while Vanessa ordered the believers to find her.
• Vanessa concluded that Maeve's flight was part of the Lord's plan and told the believers to contact Dorothea.
• Maeve corrected her course toward [Primordial Blood] and began devouring its flesh, repeatedly injuring herself and healing as [Song of Flesh] made her stronger.
• Maeve rapidly swelled into a huge mass of flesh as Lillian and Victoria watched in shock.
• Lillian feared that Maeve's attack would draw [Blood Lord]'s attention, then sensed that [Blood Lord] had descended into [Primordial Blood].

The Blood Lord descended into the Primordial Blood, and Lillian and Victoria tried to save Maeve from his attack. Lillian’s old form briefly stopped Maeve’s mindless eating, but the Blood Lord struck as she remained unaware.

• The Blood Lord’s arrival sent a Mental Shock through the sea, and Lillian fed Victoria her shed old form to restore her senses.
• Victoria and Lillian realized Maeve’s eating had likely drawn the Blood Lord, who appeared intent on crushing her.
• Victoria asked Lillian how she had awakened her, and Lillian explained that the bitterness of her old form could revive reason.
• Lillian sent another lump of her old form to Maeve, who swallowed it with a strip of Primordial Blood and suddenly stopped moving.
• The Blood Lord’s flesh bulged out of the Primordial Blood and began crashing down toward the oblivious Maeve.

Lillian tried to restore Maeve’s reason by forcing old forms into her stomach, but Maeve was crushed by [Primordial Blood] before she could escape. Victoria and Lillian accepted that Maeve could not resurrect without the Blood Moon and prepared to leave after their failure.

• Victoria’s webs could not stop the mountain of flesh, so Lillian tore open Maeve’s stomach and stuffed old forms inside to restore her reason.
• Maeve began to recover, but [Primordial Blood] fell toward Lillian; Victoria pulled Lillian clear with spider silk.
• Victoria and Lillian found Maeve crushed beneath [Primordial Blood], and Victoria confirmed that Maeve could only resurrect with the Blood Moon.
• Victoria admitted they had failed and urged Lillian to leave with her.

Lillian and Victoria discovered that Maeve was regenerating on the Blood Moon and tried to hide her while she recovered. Victoria realized the Primordial Blood had been watching them all along, but the Ascent Curse weakened her escape attempt as the Blood Lord’s enormous hand swallowed all three.

• Victoria and Lillian turned back after seeing Maeve’s pulp begin to squirm, and Lillian realized the moon beneath them could be the Blood Moon.
• Lillian and Victoria concealed themselves near Maeve as she reassembled, with Lillian spreading her body over Maeve to camouflage them.
• Victoria sensed that the Primordial Blood had become unnaturally still and warned Lillian that it had been watching them.
• Victoria saw the Primordial Blood’s flesh cupped around them like a giant hand and used her web to pull Lillian and Maeve upward.
• The Ascent Curse struck Victoria, and the Blood Lord’s hand rapidly closed around all three and swallowed them.

Lillian failed to rescue Maeve before the [Primordial Blood] devoured the seabed, and the loss triggered Lillian’s [Regret] and sent her out of control. Victoria escaped alone and told Vanessa that Maeve was dead, but Vanessa questioned whether Victoria had really seen Maeve lunge at the [Primordial Blood].

• Lillian and Victoria tried to carry Maeve away, but the [Primordial Blood] closed its maw and ground Maeve’s flesh to dust.
• Maeve’s death made Lillian lose control through the Hollow Cathedral’s [Regret], and her power briefly broke through its limits.
• Victoria tried to pull Lillian to safety, but Lillian bit through the spider silk and fell as the [Primordial Blood] swallowed everything below.
• Lillian transformed into an enormous snail while Victoria escaped the [Primordial Blood]’s attack using [Rationality].
• Vanessa and the Communion’s Believers found Victoria, who said Maeve was dead and recounted what had happened.
• Vanessa asked Victoria whether she was certain she had seen a shadow lunge at the [Primordial Blood].

Vanessa told Victoria that Maeve had parasitized [Primordial Blood], while Victoria insisted that a middle-rank ability could not affect a Great Being. Vanessa suspected Maeve’s parasitism could drain the moon-eating creature and eventually let her take its vessel; meanwhile, Sidney learned that the human fleet was still moving under Lady Camilla’s control, though most of its crew had gone mad from Mental Shock.

• Vanessa explained that Maeve’s [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] could parasitize and erode a host, and Victoria said it should not work on a Great Being like [Primordial Blood].
• Vanessa urged Victoria to trust that Maeve had successfully parasitized [Primordial Blood], and Victoria reconsidered as the creature resumed devouring the seabed.
• Vanessa privately reasoned that the power [Primordial Blood] gained by eating the moon might be transferred to Maeve, potentially preventing its recovery and allowing Maeve to obtain its vessel.
• On the Judgment Angel, Sidney asked Lady Camilla about the fleet, and she reported that [Casting Forge] kept the machines running while she controlled the ships.
• Lady Camilla told Sidney that most crew members had suffered severe Mental Shock and fallen into temporary madness, though their condition might be reversible.

Sidney and Lady Camilla tried to keep the damaged fleet away from the Great Being below as strange changes spread through the Sea of the Moon. The Great Being began convulsing, suggesting another powerful being had attacked Him, while the Dream Creatures also started behaving strangely.

• Sidney and Lady Camilla coordinated treatment for the crew, with Royal Family priests performing Psychological Analysis and Machine Priests providing transport and protection.
• Sidney discovered that his spiritual warning had eased, and other ships reported the same change as the fleet’s communications suddenly improved.
• Lady Camilla detected that the seawater had become spiritually sweet and honey-like, a change that began when the warning eased.
• Sidney saw the Great Being below writhe in apparent pain and concluded that another Great Being had attacked Him.
• Lady Camilla warned Sidney that the Dream Creatures were also behaving strangely, suggesting that something larger was happening.

A being who had waited through countless ages saw a mechanical arm assemble by chance from the wreckage of a dock on the Moon. Frozen in an ice wall, Elliot woke and noticed the arm, but his attempt to call it to him left him wondering how he could control it.

• A loose rivet caused an ancient dock to collapse, and collisions accidentally joined its scattered parts into a mechanical arm.
• A mysterious being noticed the arm, while the great beings below failed to look up.
• Elliot opened his eyes inside the ice wall and found himself unable to move or use his abilities.
• Elliot spotted the nearby mechanical arm and called for it to come to him.
• Elliot realized he was not a Machine Priest and did not know how he could control the arm.

Trapped in ice, Elliot discovered he could control machinery and instinctively assemble it, using a drill to free himself. He survived because the [Casting Forge] protected him, leaving him to wonder why the Great Being kept helping him and whether it knew the Difference Engine’s secret.

• Elliot discovered that [Compliance] let him control the mechanical arm, which he suspected counted as a [Vessel].
• Elliot used the arm to assemble a crooked ice drill and realized that operating and building machinery came to him by instinct.
• Elliot drilled through the ice and freed himself from the block that had trapped him.
• Elliot used [Spirit Vision] and recognized the warm crimson power covering him as the [Casting Forge]’s protection.
• Elliot wondered whether the [Casting Forge] had been watching him and why it kept helping him.

Elliot found himself stranded on an ice wall in a vacuum and prepared to climb down in search of the Difference Engine. Meanwhile, Sidney witnessed Dream Creatures fuse into a Nightmare and suspected they had once been one intelligent being before being separated.

• Elliot discovered that the ice wall overlooked an airless, seemingly bottomless expanse of glaciers.
• Elliot built crampons and ice axes from discarded mechanisms, strapped the mechanical arm to his back, and leaped down the wall.
• Sidney watched solitary Dream Creatures swell, burst, and multiply from their fragments after drinking honey water.
• Sidney saw groups of Dream Creatures fuse into a gigantic Nightmare as they drank more honey water.
• Sidney concluded that Dream Creatures might have once been intelligent beings forcibly separated into smaller creatures.

Holly unexpectedly built a Mechanical Monkey, and Sidney discovered that the fleet’s ships had developed wills of their own. Suspecting the Honey Water could replace supernatural materials, he began testing whether it could help him recreate Theresia’s miracle.

• Holly showed Sidney the Mechanical Monkey she had built and explained that she had suddenly gained the ability to make machines.
• Lady Camilla told Sidney that the ships were moving without her orders and seemed to have developed wills of their own.
• Sidney contacted the Judgment Angel with his Spirituality and felt its joyful, curious response.
• Sidney suspected the Honey Water could replace supernatural materials and make it possible to recreate Theresia’s miracle.
• Sidney drew a ritual with his blood, drank the Honey Water, and stood inside the ritual as radiance streamed from his head.

Sidney discovered that the [Rationality] ritual could help the Empire exploit the Sea of the Moon, while Michel revealed that a [Vessel] could host a great being’s temporary descent. The Judgment Angel was attacked by the great being below before they could decide how to respond.

• Sidney tested a [Rationality] ritual and realized it might help the Empire transport seawater from the Sea of the Moon, despite the dangers and the risk of losing his emotions.
• Michel reported that the Royal Family had found an account describing a [Vessel] as a temporary Abode for a great being.
• Michel explained that creating a [Vessel] required a believer who had undergone at least two ascensions and would sacrifice themselves, and that one could sustain only a brief, diminished strike.
• Sidney and Michel doubted whether [Vessels] could stop the great being beneath them or whether they could find enough High-Rank Supernaturals.
• The great being attacked the Judgment Angel, and Lady Camilla alerted Sidney as the ship shook violently.

Sidney and the fleet escaped the Great Being’s attacks with the help of their living ships, then began ascending while preparing [Vessels] in case they needed a Great Being’s intervention. As the fleet rose, Sidney realized the Great Being was attacking the Dream Creatures and seemed to be in great pain, leaving him wondering if He had gone mad.

• The Judgment Angel dodged a giant claw on its own, and Sidney realized the ship had come alive.
• The living ships evaded the Great Being’s barrage as Sidney ordered the fleet to ascend.
• The Ascent Curse caused everyone aboard to cough up blood, and Sidney told Michel to prepare the [Vessels] without committing to using them.
• Sidney saw the Great Being turn His attacks on the Dream Creatures after the fleet began rising.
• Sidney noticed the Great Being seemed to be in pain and attacking indiscriminately near the Seabed.

Sidney paused the fleet’s ascent to watch Dream Creatures attack the Great Being, and their sudden fury overwhelmed the creature with seemingly endless assaults. Lady Camilla said the damage was negligible and urged confidence in the Great Being’s strength, but the Judgment Angel unexpectedly opened fire as the fleet began to leave.

• Sidney stopped the fleet’s ascent and ordered everyone to watch the Dream Creatures.
• After the Great Being killed several Dream Creatures, the swarm gathered around their dead, then turned its attention toward the creature in apparent anger.
• The Dream Creatures and Nightmares attacked the Great Being, repeatedly wounding it while regenerating and multiplying in the honeyed water.
• Lady Camilla said the Great Being had not yet used most of its power and could soon wipe out the Dream Creatures.
• Sidney ordered the fleet to continue ascending, but the Judgment Angel suddenly fired, shaking the ship.

Sidney struggled to control the living fleet after it attacked the Great Being to protect the Dream Creatures, while Elliot reached the bottom of the Glacier and tried to build a machine to break through the ice. The chapter left Elliot preparing to test the limits of his Mechanical Talent and Sidney considering a dangerous ritual as the battle continued.

• The living warships attacked the Great Being without orders because they saw the Dream Creatures as friends, and Sidney and Lady Camilla tried to steer them toward disengaging.
• Sidney sent Holly to check on Michel's [Vessel] and told her to bring the tools for drawing a ritual.
• Elliot climbed down to the ice plain at the Glacier's base and found that the red glow around him vanished whenever he tried to dig toward the sea.
• Elliot decided to return to the sea despite [Casting Forge]'s apparent resistance and began modifying discarded materials with the Mechanical Hand to build a powerful machine.

Elliot assembled a massive, crude drilling sled with his Mechanical Talent and used it to escape the glacier into the Sea of the Moon. In the Honey Water below, he recovered his vitality and Spirituality, then spotted something glowing in the depths and steered toward it.

• Elliot used his Mechanical Talent to build a large sled equipped with an enormous drill from discarded parts.
• Elliot powered the machine with Spirituality and drove it into the glacier, breaking through to the Sea of the Moon.
• Elliot steered downward, unsure where to find the Courtyard, while the red-light figure watched him leave and then vanished.
• Elliot discovered that the Honey Water restored his vitality and Spirituality, even replenishing the losses from [Secret Art; Overdraw].
• Elliot activated [Spirit Vision], spotted a glow below, and charged toward it on the sled.

Elliot followed Victoria’s spider silk toward the Courtyard, but diverted his attention to a newly appeared [Vessel] near the fleet. Sidney and Michel prepared a ritual to create [Vessels], leaving Sidney face to face with an indifferent Healer radiating an ancient, rational light.

• Elliot found spider silk on the seabed and followed it, hoping it would lead him to Victoria, the Courtyard, and the Difference Engine.
• Elliot heard explosions from the fleet but continued toward the spider silk, believing he could not help without the Difference Engine.
• Elliot sensed a newly appeared [Vessel] and briefly tried to control it, but its presence faded as if someone else had claimed it.
• When another [Vessel] appeared near the fleet, Elliot activated [Compliance] to take control of it.
• Michel brought Sidney and Holly to a cabin where he had prepared two [Vessels], and told Holly she would not need to take part in the ritual yet.
• Sidney saw a fleet Healer standing at the ritual site and perceived her as a radiance of cold, unfeeling order.