Chapter Summaries

As [Primordial Blood] began escaping, Maeve discovered it was dissolving into the Sea of the Moon and turning the water scarlet. Elsa and Vanessa realized the resulting red sea might be the true Blood Moon, and wondered whether [Primordial Blood] had covered the moon all along.

• Elliot noticed that [Primordial Blood] was escaping and watched its countdown rapidly fall.
• Maeve sensed [Primordial Blood] fleeing from the [Worm] and dissolving into the Sea of the Moon.
• The Sea of the Moon turned red, and Maeve realized her own will was fading along with [Primordial Blood].
• Elsa and Vanessa observed the red sea and suspected it was the true Blood Moon.
• Elsa asked whether the Blood Moon visible from the Present World was [Primordial Blood], and Vanessa wondered if it had covered the entire moon.

Vanessa and Elsa realized that [Primordial Blood] was the Blood Moon itself, and that He had now vanished from the Sea of the Moon. As the Difference Engine recorded His escape, Elliot’s intervention brought Him back, causing the moon to shatter before the world froze again.

• Vanessa and Elsa concluded that the Blood Moon was [Primordial Blood] and recognized that the current Blood Moon was disappearing as the seawater cleared.
• The Difference Engine counted down [Primordial Blood]’s escape, discarded His card, and began recording Maeve’s loss.
• Elliot lifted his fingers from the Keyboard, and Vanessa told Elsa to use [Honey Moon].
• Elsa used [Honey Moon] to summon the Blood Moon, but the moon rejected her demand until another will intervened.
• [Primordial Blood] appeared in the Sea of the Moon, and His enormous body displaced the water and shattered the moon into fragments.
• The world stopped as [Honey Moon] demanded a Blood Moon containing both blood and moon.

Will rewrote reality to restore the blood moon, but [Primordial Blood] soon began turning the Sea of the Moon red again. Elliot and Elsa found Maeve inside [Primordial Blood], where she was being assimilated, and Elliot considered whether Elsa could help her claim the authority of [Blood].

• Will restored the shattered moon and halted the fusion reaction, making the Sea of the Moon calm as Elsa’s ability created a blood moon.
• Elliot deduced that [Primordial Blood] had abandoned its [Vessel] to escape, then arranged for Elsa to search the Sea of the Moon.
• Elsa and Elliot found [Primordial Blood] and located Maeve inside it, where Maeve said its influence was assimilating her.
• Elsa suggested digging out the piece of [Primordial Blood] Maeve controlled and proposed using Allen’s ability to cut through it.
• Elliot remembered the term [Blood Lord] and wondered whether Elsa could help Maeve advance toward the authority of [Blood].

Elliot used Elsa’s honey to weaken the influence of Primordial Blood on Maeve, helping her regain control in the Sea of the Moon. After Maeve stabilized, Elliot realized Vanessa could control Elsa’s corpses as vessels and considered using one to manage the Communion’s affairs.

• Elliot recognized that Maeve was being overwhelmed by Primordial Blood and proposed countering it with a stronger influence.
• Elliot used Elsa’s Honey Fruit ability to feed honey to Maeve, whose fleshy wall eagerly responded.
• As Elsa continued feeding Maeve, Maeve’s condition improved and she regained control over herself.
• Elliot’s Analysis indicated that Blood craved honey, and he decided to monitor Maeve’s recovery.
• Seeing Elsa’s stored corpses, Elliot realized Vanessa could control one as a vessel and planned to have it handle Communion affairs while Vanessa was under his control.

Elliot and Elsa descended into Moonheart to investigate the Worms, finding them motionless and invisible to Elliot even as Elsa sensed them gathering nearby. The chapter left them facing an approaching swarm as Elliot’s Analysis revealed that Worms lived in darkness and followed the Sun.

• Elliot prepared to leave Maeve with Elsa, then lingered near Primordial Blood and asked Elsa whether she could sense any Worms.
• Elliot suggested that they descend into Moonheart, and Elsa reluctantly agreed while holding the hem of his clothes.
• Elliot used Analysis to study the Worms and wondered why they had attacked Elsa before, driven away Great Beings, and then stopped pursuing them.
• Elsa sensed several motionless Worms around them, though Elliot could not detect any with Spirit Vision.
• Elsa warned Elliot that a multitude of Worms lay ahead and were approaching, while he gathered Spirituality Pressure without releasing it.
• Elliot’s Analysis identified Worms as moth-like creatures that followed the Sun and eventually fell beneath it.

Elliot realized the [Worms] had never been attacking him and might instead have been helping him, while he wondered whether his past and the Difference Engine were connected to their unusual behavior. He and Elsa left their bodies in the depths beside the [Worms’] orderly collection of corpses.

• Elliot questioned whether the [Worms] were drawn to his [Spirituality Pressure] and reconsidered the idea that they had attacked him.
• Elliot sensed that the world’s fate was woven together and thought the solution to its predicament might lie beyond the present world.
• Elsa warned Elliot that the invisible [Worms] had surrounded them, but they did not attack.
• Elliot concluded that the [Worms] had helped Elsa escape, driven away the Great Beings and the [Primordial Blood], and then stopped interfering when he wanted the [Primordial Blood] to return.
• Elliot suspected that either he or the Difference Engine was special and questioned whether his memories were wrong.
• Elliot and Elsa stopped controlling their bodies, which sank beside the rows of corpses collected by the [Worms].

Elliot recovered his resolve and decided to use the Dream and its creatures to save the Empire. Elsa overcame some of her fear and accepted the Lord’s task to investigate Father and the medicine with Dorothea.

• Elliot recognized how much he had relied on Sidney and Victoria and vowed to rescue them.
• Elliot resolved to draw on the Dream Creatures, the [Worms], and the Communion to oppose the Empire’s decay.
• Elsa returned to the office and realized that facing the [Worms] had begun to free her from her imagined torments.
• Dorothea told Elsa that the Lord had tasked them with looking for clues about Father and the medicine.
• Dorothea agreed to accompany Elsa in crow form while Vanessa served as acting Cult Leader.

Elsa, Dorothea, and Simon joined forces to investigate Holly’s condition and the Strauss family’s connection to otherworldly species. Elsa began recounting how a strange fog at the Imperial Capital’s harbor preceded her father’s decline, leaving the cause of his change unresolved.

• Elsa explained that Dorothea had cooked in crow form, while Simon arrived to join the investigation.
• Elsa inferred that Dorothea, Simon, and she represented the Feather-Born, Shell, and Tusk species, and that Holly’s situation might connect to the Strauss family.
• The three prepared to investigate, with Dorothea asking Elsa to explain what had happened with the pill.
• Elsa recalled that several of her father’s ships vanished in a sudden fog near the Imperial Capital, and that he returned from searching for them two days late.
• Elsa said her father became strange after returning, his business worsened, and the family eventually sold their house and moved to their old family home.

Elsa recounted how her father vanished while searching for a mysterious medicine, and the sisters realized his disappearance might connect to their task of finding Holly. They turned to figuring out how Holly had evaded the Sacred Blood Nobles and the True God Churches.

• Elsa explained that her father became secretive, left on a rainy night to find a medicine, and never returned.
• Dorothea said her search of their father's room and contacts had yielded no useful clues.
• Elsa suggested their father’s search for medicine could be connected to finding Holly, whose situation was more urgent.
• The sisters and Simon agreed to focus on locating Holly, who was being hunted despite the True God Churches' efforts.
• Dorothea reasoned that Holly likely had a rare ability that deflected prophecy, and Simon asked whether it came from the Royal Family's Path.

Elsa organized Dorothea and Simon’s search for Holly while arranging help from the Communion’s believers. Vanessa arrived using [Compliance] to control Elsa’s body and take over as Cult Leader, then sensed another [Vessel] nearby.

• Dorothea and Simon agreed to search the area where Holly had last appeared using crows and insects, with Clara’s [Possession] providing protection and enhancing Dorothea’s crows.
• Elsa said the Communion’s believers would help search for Holly and explained how the organization had spread through the Imperial Capital’s lower classes.
• Vanessa entered while controlling Elsa’s body through [Compliance], stumbled, and announced that she had come to serve as Cult Leader.
• Elsa handed the Cult Leader’s paperwork over to Vanessa, then left with Dorothea and Simon.
• Vanessa began handling the documents and sensed another [Vessel] she could control through the adjoining wall.

Vanessa used Elsa’s corpse to handle Cult paperwork and discovered that a nearby [Vessel] was moving without Elsa’s honeyed scent. She left to investigate, while her abandoned corpse collapsed in the canteen and sparked a chaotic rescue attempt.

• Vanessa sensed a nearby [Vessel] moving on its own but put off investigating while she worked through the Cult’s paperwork.
• When Vanessa opened her office door, the Believers were captivated by the fragrance of Elsa’s corpse, and they followed her to the canteen to make their food easier to eat.
• Vanessa realized the moving [Vessel] lacked Elsa’s scent, suspected it might be an intruder, and withdrew her consciousness to investigate it in her original body.
• Elsa’s corpse collapsed at the canteen, prompting the Believers to panic and blame Dorothea’s cooking before Dorothea’s crows restored order.
• Dorothea struck Elsa’s corpse and ordered two Believers to feed the Cult Leader her uneaten food.

Vanessa followed a concealed [Vessel] through the Hearthfire District and used the Lord’s control to evade its surveillance by changing disguises. She recognized the figure as Holly but hesitated to approach, suspecting Holly was hiding her plans from the Communion.

• Vanessa followed the [Vessel] while considering whether it might be Holly, Sidney’s adjutant.
• When the [Vessel] noticed her, the Lord took control of Vanessa and steadied her.
• Vanessa disguised herself as different people to shake the watcher and move closer to the [Vessel].
• Vanessa caught sight of the figure and recognized Holly.
• Vanessa wondered why Holly had not contacted the Communion and suspected she might be planning something dangerous.

Vanessa followed Holly from the Hearthfire District into the nobles’ quarter, where the contrast between the decaying city and the nobles’ untouched luxury filled her with anger and despair. Holly finally stopped outside Sidney’s palace, leaving Vanessa to wonder what she intended to do there.

• Vanessa suspected Holly had come to avenge Sidney but kept following her without revealing herself.
• Vanessa followed Holly out of the Hearthfire District and saw how badly the Imperial Capital had deteriorated under noble rule.
• Vanessa crossed into the nobles’ quarter and saw its extravagant streets sharply separated from the city’s decay.
• Vanessa grew angry at the nobles’ selfishness and briefly thought that destruction might be more just than salvation.
• Holly stopped outside Sidney’s palace, and Vanessa wondered why she had come there.

Elliot watched Holly return to Sidney's palace and investigate the room that the Difference Engine could not display. Holly transformed it into a First Era building in the style of the Cosmog Dynasty, leading Elliot to suspect it existed outside the current layer of history.

• Elliot used Vanessa to follow Holly to Sidney's palace and watched her head for the mysterious room.
• Vanessa staked out the room and saw Holly close its door before chanting and changing the damaged room into an antiquated stone house.
• Vanessa recognized the building as a First Era ruin in the style of the Cosmog Dynasty.
• Elliot recalled Phoenix's explanation that the ruins on the outskirts existed outside history and concluded that Holly's room did too.

Holly entered the darkness inside the Palace and emerged carrying an apparently lifeless, golden-haired person, then the Palace exploded while Vanessa was nearby. The Lord used [Secret Art; Overdraw] to heal Vanessa, who escaped through a mirror as a black-flamed figure reached through and attacked the Crows.

• Holly entered the writhing darkness inside the Palace and came back carrying a golden-haired person who appeared to be dead or unconscious.
• Holly searched through the Palace while Vanessa sensed danger and moved away from it.
• The Palace exploded, hurling Vanessa away and leaving a massive crater where the building had stood.
• The Lord used [Secret Art; Overdraw] to heal Vanessa's broken body and restore her spirituality.
• Vanessa escaped through a mirror with the Crows, but a black-flamed figure reached through and engulfed them in flames.

Elliot let Isaac’s group force Dorothea’s mirror passage open, trusting the Difference Engine and Vanessa’s Overdraw to keep the initiative. Vanessa recovered and faced the Trenchard attacker as the passage widened, while Tobias appeared to receive a prophecy and Isaac escaped through a rift.

• Dorothea’s flaming crows attacked the Trenchard man and the mirror, but Isaac seized control of the mirror surface and began widening the passage.
• Elliot noticed an [Interrupt] card slot but chose not to use it, intending to exploit Vanessa’s still-active [Secret Art: Overdraw].
• Isaac opened the Gate for Tobias and the gathered Sacred Blood Nobles, and the Trenchard man charged through ahead of them.
• Tobias froze as though listening to a prophecy, while Isaac dropped through a pitch-black rift and the other nobles wondered why the Trenchard man had stopped.
• Vanessa recovered from her fall, gathered Spirituality in her eyes, and stood facing the black-flamed attacker as the passage widened.

Vanessa’s radiant power destroyed the black flames and closed the passage, leaving her to suspect that the Lord had directly intervened in the present world. Elliot arrived at the ruined Palace and confronted the battered nobles, while Holly remained at large and Sidney’s secret stayed buried.

• Vanessa’s radiant flames consumed the black sun and burned a powerful Supernatural person, while the passage abruptly closed.
• Vanessa collapsed as her spirituality faded and wondered whether the Lord had closed the passage; a text revealed that Twin Eclipsing Suns had obtained the Sun’s authority but refused to become the new Sun.
• Elliot inspected the Palace’s ruins and suspected Holly had triggered the destruction to protect the secret of the body she had carried away.
• Elliot found nobles from all Seven Holy Bloodlines gathered nearby, with Tobias singed, Alvin unconscious, and two Harveys suffering temporary madness.
• Elliot greeted the nobles and mocked the Trenchard youth for hanging his backside in the air.

Elliot’s power killed the High-Rank Trenchard Supernatural who came through the passage and left the nobles shaken. Tobias appointed Jonas Trenchard as head of the Trenchard Family, and Elliot saw Jonas’s aura surge to immense strength.

• The passage closed on the High-Rank Trenchard Supernatural, killing him as a burst of white light scorched the nobles nearby.
• Elliot confronted the nobles while they feared the power behind the passage’s closure.
• Isaac told the nobles that only half the spell had been his and that the other half had been forcibly taken away.
• Tobias stayed silent under Elliot’s provocation, then named Jonas Trenchard as the head of the Trenchard Family.
• Elliot used [Spirit Vision] and saw Jonas’s aura grow immensely powerful.

Elliot realized Tobias had borrowed power from the future to raise a young noble to high rank and confronted him over the nobles’ choice to embrace destruction. After Elliot killed a Trenchard Family Supernatural person and declared himself outside Tobias’s prophecy, he left with his sword still shining.

• Tobias used a gesture to raise a middle-rank Supernatural person to high rank, and Elliot used [Analysis] to learn that Tobias was borrowing power from the future at a cost.
• Elliot accused Tobias and the nobles of sacrificing their future, and Tobias insisted that humanity was doomed and destruction was the only right path.
• Elliot challenged Tobias’s prophecy, asking whether it was wrong or whether belief in it caused destruction.
• Elliot drew his longsword, killed a Trenchard Family Supernatural person, and declared that he would bring a future Tobias did not deserve.
• Elliot rode away with his sword still aflame as Tobias stayed silent and the nobles watched.

After Elliot’s confrontation weakened Tobias’s alliance with the Sacred Blood Nobles, he found that the Difference Engine’s progress indicators had accelerated and discovered a mysterious [Reviving: 75] countdown. He also learned that Flora had regained her power and completed the [Thing of Immortality], and he prepared to investigate the results now that her group had returned.

• Elliot returned to the mansion with Theresia’s longsword, whose scabbard was burning with enduring white flames, and hung it on the mansion’s gear decoration.
• Elliot concluded that his offensive against the nobles had weakened Tobias’s authority and exposed cracks in the nobles’ unstable alliance, so he planned for himself and the Communion to shift from defense to offense.
• Elliot found that the Difference Engine’s Page Turner progress indicators had surged forward and discovered a new, seemingly stuck [Reviving: 75] countdown.
• Elliot read Flora’s message and learned that she had regained her power and completed the [Thing of Immortality].
• Elliot noticed that Flora’s group had returned and looked forward to beginning the sacrifice to examine the changes to her Tree of the Supernatural.