Chapter Summaries

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.

Crawford secured Elliot’s vote by promising vengeance on the nobles, while Tobias explained the coordinated plot against Michel to Alvin. Tobias then revealed that the prophecy had failed, as the Throne, Victoria, Michel, and Sidney were frozen in amber.

• Crawford told Elliot he wanted to kill him and the nobles, and Elliot agreed to vote for him in the Nobles' House.
• Tobias explained to Alvin how the Seven Families’ powers enabled them to kill Michel and drive Victoria mad.
• Alvin asked whether the operation had followed the prophecy, and Tobias turned to look at the Throne sealed in amber.
• Tobias declared that [Prophet in the Urn]'s prophecy had failed for the first time since the Second Era.

Elliot realized that his unpredictable [Honey] power could disrupt prophecies, and demonstrated it before the nobles by sealing the Throne and making a sacrifice to [Nameless Justice]. His apparent ability to defy the rules of sacrifice halted plans against the Sterling Family, and Tobias escorted him home.

• Elliot traced how Dorothea's choice and Elsa's death had disrupted events in the Sea of the Moon, defeating Lillian and Phoenix's expectations of history.
• Elliot concluded that [Honey] could break the [Prophet in the Urn]'s predictions, then used the Difference Engine to bring Elsa's corpses into the Crown District and sealed the Throne with [Amber].
• As the nobles debated the prophecy that called him “Elliot of the first rank,” Elliot sacrificed Elsa's corpse through the ritual beneath the Throne to [Nameless Justice].
• The nobles were shocked that Elliot, a believer of the [Casting Forge] on the [Indomitability] Path, had sacrificed to another Great Being while remaining first rank.
• The nobles called off every operation against the Sterling Family, and Tobias personally escorted Elliot home in a carriage.

After Crawford left, Elliot prepared for the growing conflict with the Sacred Blood Nobles and relied on the Difference Engine to find a way forward. As Elsa’s corpses began giving off a conspicuous sweet scent, a believer arrived with news of trouble in the Courtyard.

• Elliot watched Crawford leave and wondered whether Tobias’s prophecy of him becoming the Tyrant would come true.
• Elliot told Conrad to contact the Reforging Flame cautiously, recognizing that the Machine Priests could not support him alone.
• Elliot entered the Courtyard and reviewed his dwindling allies, the sealed ruins, and Phoenix’s release from the Communion’s control.
• Elliot noticed records showing Lillian’s ascension had been interrupted and that she was fleeing the Second Era, and wondered whether she had caused its destruction.
• Elliot realized Elsa’s corpses were undergoing Honey Transformation and their scent made it difficult to conceal his identity in the Present World.
• A believer entered the office and told Elliot that something had happened in the Courtyard.

Vanessa visited the Courtyard after learning that Sia’s forging had changed through the use of honey-sweetened water. Sia completed a blade that might mark a breakthrough in her Supernatural abilities, while Elliot wondered whether the process could produce a Relic.

• Vanessa reassured Elsa, then entered a dream and went to the Courtyard to investigate a problem at Sia’s Forging Ground.
• Allen explained that the Courtyard’s lake had grown sweet from Elsa’s [Honey Transformation], and Sia’s forged items had changed after she began quenching them in diluted [Honey].
• Allen told Vanessa that Sia’s [Stepwise Optimization] might let her advance in the Supernatural if the day’s forging succeeded.
• Elliot suspected Sia had awakened a Mechanical Talent from the Third Era and considered whether Honey Water could help create a [Relic].
• Sia forged a blade blank and quenched it in Honey Water, then announced that she had finished.

Sia forged Dorothea a Honey Water Relic, and Elliot discovered that Honey exposure had unlocked new abilities and point options for Sia. He chose Honey Forging for her, commissioned an item to conceal Honey’s aura, and sent Dorothea to cook with her Relic knife at the Canteen before preparing to allocate points to Vanessa.

• Sia forged Dorothea a Relic Chef's Knife that improved dishes with random buffs and a negative effect, but it was bound to Dorothea alone.
• Elliot controlled Vanessa to open Sia's point allocation interface and found a new branch of Honey abilities after her exposure to Honey Water.
• Elliot spent two Honey nodes to raise Sia to third rank and chose the Honey Forging talent.
• Elliot had Vanessa commission Sia to forge a portable item that could conceal the aura of Honey.
• Elliot ordered Dorothea to cook at the Canteen with her Chef's Knife, and Allen declared that every Believer would eat there.
• Elliot prepared to allocate points to Vanessa.

Elliot tested whether [Honey] could unlock Honey-related abilities for Vanessa, then used it to advance her to the fifth rank. He examined her new abilities and considered how to use them, but ended by noting that he had no Formless Arts cast through the eyes.

• Elliot had Vanessa eat Dorothea’s honey-laden cooking and tested the effects of Dorothea’s Chef’s Knife, which gave Vanessa three positive effects and one negative effect.
• Elliot praised Dorothea’s cooking Talent, and Dorothea and the other Canteen Believers cried at receiving recognition from the Lord.
• Elliot used Ore as Sacrifice Offerings to allocate Vanessa’s points, confirmed that [Honey] had become available, and advanced her to the fifth rank.
• Vanessa’s advancement granted her the ability to use dream power to resist a Dream’s erosion, and Elliot examined her new Talents: [Analysis], [Spirit Vision Amplification], and [Honey Transformation Gaze].
• Elliot considered the healing, vitality, and weakening effects of [Honey Transformation Gaze], then dismissed [Spirit Vision Amplification] as he had no Formless Arts cast through the eyes.

Elliot concluded that Vanessa’s greatest strength was gathering information and chose [Analysis] as the talent that might reveal her true core power. After calculating the cost of advancing her further, he instead prioritized developing the Communion’s hundreds of other believers to address its shortage of miners.

• Elliot reasoned that Vanessa’s talent for gathering information through [Spirit Vision] and books might make [Analysis] her true core power.
• Elliot used Vanessa’s Card to select [Analysis], and Vanessa regained consciousness after the ritual, feeling stuffed from eating.
• Elliot estimated that the remaining ore and Elsa’s honey could barely fund Vanessa’s sixth-rank advancement, while the same resources could advance hundreds of believers.
• Elliot weighed the value of Vanessa’s advancement against the Communion’s need for workers and removed her from consideration for further advancement.

Elliot used Elsa’s [Honey] to advance her and organized the Believers’ advancement, then prepared to attend a vote at the Nobles' House. Meanwhile, Vanessa entered Victoria’s hidden Library and confronted the place Victoria had prepared for her.

• Elliot discovered Elsa’s progress bar was full, selected [Honey] twice, and saw that she was nearing the sixth rank.
• Elliot gathered the Believers to perform Sacrifices and spent an unknown amount of time assigning their points and considering their Talents.
• Conrad told Elliot that morning that he had to attend the vote at the Nobles' House, and Elliot ordered him to prepare the carriage.
• On the journey, Elliot used [Spirit Vision] and [Analysis] on Tobias’s Knights, receiving the thought, [He is walking toward his destiny].
• Vanessa entered Victoria’s hidden Library, which Victoria had granted her authority over, and knelt to touch the floor tiles Victoria had brought there.

Vanessa used [Analysis] while reading in Victoria's Library to glimpse the [Sea of Knowledge] and the [Overflowing Garden], revealing a possible path to her true power. Elliot then arrived at the Nobles' House, where armed Sacred Blood Nobles tried to intimidate him, and asked Conrad for his sword.

• Vanessa committed herself to searching Victoria's Library for clues and hope, then read books while [Analysis] helped her absorb their information.
• Vanessa sensed a vast Sea of Knowledge and saw an elegant courtyard called the [Overflowing Garden] overflowing knowledge into it.
• Elliot recalled Vanessa's vision and suspected she had contacted an Authority related to knowledge or information.
• Elliot arrived at the Nobles' House and saw soldiers, knights, Steam Cars, and salute cannons assembled to intimidate him.
• Elliot remained unfazed by the display and told Conrad to bring him his sword.

Elliot confronted the Sacred Blood Nobles at the entrance to the Nobles' House, wielding the Azure Blade and claiming the Empress's authority. As Theresia rose and the assembled soldiers faltered, Tobias ordered the nobles back inside.

• Conrad brought Elliot the longsword covered with the names of Expedition Army soldiers, and Elliot vowed to avenge them.
• Elliot advanced alone toward the Nobles' House, using [Mother of Concealment] to overwhelm the watching soldiers and nobles with his presence.
• Elliot drew the Azure Blade, forced the soldiers to face its radiance, and caused the Iron Firmament to open as Theresia rose into the air.
• Elliot invoked Empress Sidney's authority to enter the Imperial Palace with a sword, and Alvin challenged her right to rule.
• Elliot threatened to release Sidney and the Throne, leaving the nobles unable to answer as Theresia's eyes glowed red.
• Tobias ordered everyone back to the Nobles' House, then turned and left.