Recaps

Norton learned that the Eternal Life Society, a group of wealthy third-generation vampires, planned to overthrow him, and chose to let them proceed. The Society’s ritual revived a rotting goat, which spoke for a deity demanding endless slaughter and souls.

• Norton read news about the coming Science and Technology Exhibition and hoped to use the industrial age to spread his name and achieve godhood.
• Elizabeth told Norton that the Eternal Life Society was plotting to usurp him, but Norton ordered that its members be spared and brought into the Pale God’s faith.
• The Eternal Life Society gathered underground around a corpse-covered ritual site and chanted as a hooded figure performed a strange dance.
• The Society’s ritual channeled black aura into a rotting goat, which rose and spoke of death, slaughter, and the souls needed to summon its deity.

The Aodelan Empire’s clash with the Holy Boya Empire triggered a continent-wide religious and military crisis as rival nations prepared to resist vampires while trying to manipulate Norton. Norton’s science and technology exhibition opened in the Aodelan imperial capital, drawing huge crowds eager to see his first public appearance.

• The Aodelan Empire sent holy water through a blockade, and after the Holy Boya Empire’s forces intercepted the ships and dumped the water, Miles XIII declared war in the Pale God’s name.
• The Holy Boya Empire, the Holy Noah Empire, and their allies established the Holy Lord Church as the orthodox Church and publicly claimed to honor Norton while guarding against vampires.
• Norton’s science and technology exhibition opened at the Aodelan royal estate, attracting scientists, scholars, and reporters from across the Southern Continent.
• The exhibition staff gathered the crowd and welcomed Norton, the Pale God, for his first major public appearance.

Norton made his public debut at a technology exhibition, presenting himself as a champion of scientific progress and freedom of thought. His speech persuaded the gathered reporters that history had wrongly portrayed him as a villain, though one reporter ended with a crude theory about his old enemies.

• Norton swooped down onto the exhibition platform, terrifying the crowd with his inhuman appearance and overwhelming presence.
• Reporters questioned Norton about his identity, his past, and why he had organized a technology exhibition.
• Norton declared that he had opposed the Papal State’s suppression of thought and intended to lead humanity toward a new age through technology.
• The reporters reinterpreted the hundred-year war as a struggle against the Church and concluded that the Papal State had smeared Norton in its histories.
• A reporter joked that Norton, rather than the priests, had been the one to sexually assault his enemies.

Norton toured an inventors’ exhibition, praised mechanization, and promised support for useful inventions. He renamed inventors’ creations after himself and offered one inventor eternal life, leaving the crowd clamoring for his favor.

• Norton announced a ten-billion subsidy for science and mechanization, thrilling the scholars and inventors at the exhibition.
• Norton toured the displayed machines and renamed a new spinning machine the “Norton Machine.”
• Volt presented his Voltaic Pile and pledged it to Norton in exchange for praise.
• Norton renamed it the “Norton Pile,” ordered a patent application, and promised Volt eternal life and exalted status.
• The crowd surged around Norton, hoping to earn the same chance at eternal life.

After the technology exhibition made Norton famous across the Southern Continent, rival empires and smaller kingdoms escalated disputes over holy water, trade, and territory. By the end, the continent’s alliances and conflicts had taken shape, and Norton watched the growing crisis without speaking.

• The technology exhibition ended, and the public largely credited Norton with its inventions after his appearance as the Pale God.
• The Aodelan Empire and the Holy Boya Empire clashed over a holy-water convoy, while the Aodelan Empire and the Kingdom of Del opened a trade route carrying holy water.
• The Kingdom of Himala converted to the Holy Lord Church and joined the Holy Boya Empire’s opposition to the Aodelan Empire, then attacked the Kingdom of Del’s holy-water convoy.
• The Kingdom of Del retaliated against Himala’s merchant ships, and escorts from the Aodelan Empire and the Kaimen Empire deterred further action by the Holy Boya Empire.
• The Holy Noah Empire fought the Balkan tribe but agreed to its independence after neighboring empires threatened its borders, worsening regional trade disputes and rivalries.
• Norton saw the Southern Continent’s opposing alignments forming but said nothing.

At a decadent banquet in the Aodelan Empire, nobles mocked Norton and spread rumors about his divine power while pursuing the Disease of Affluence. Miles XIII watched the Southern Continent’s elite with disgust and decided to bring in fresh blood.

• Count Lansen and the nobles laughed about the Disease of Affluence as they displayed their rotting bodies.
• The nobles discussed Norton’s origins and rumors that Kuba, the Primordial God of Death, might revive as the sun weakened.
• A man reported that a mysterious group in the imperial capital worshiped Kuba and sought his recognition through death.
• Count Lansen questioned whether people could gain power like Norton’s, while Miles XIII silently observed the gathering.
• Miles XIII concluded that the country’s corrupt elite had to be replaced with fresh blood.

Norton spent time with Maria, the young princess Miles XIII had sent to test the Pale God’s character and build a bond with him. Though Maria’s company touched his loneliness, Norton chose to encourage her selfishness and make clear that he was no benevolent guardian.

• Miles XIII sent his young daughter Maria to spend time with Norton, hoping to learn more about the Pale God and influence him.
• Maria listened as Norton hummed, and he remembered the kindness he had received from Bill (Karl) in Lino City.
• Elizabeth saw Norton’s smile as a sign that he was becoming more human.
• Norton told Maria that royalty was born to enjoy itself and that commoners were honored to serve her.
• Norton reminded Maria that he was greater than her, revealing that his loneliness did not make him a good person.

Norton’s holy water continued to cause supernatural mutations in the Southern Continent, while he frightened Princess Maria by cutting her arm to collect her blood, then healed her and revealed his monstrous mouth. He told Maria that just as humans were his food, everyone in the Aodelan Empire was food for royalty.

• Norton sensed that holy water had begun transforming women in Sak City into witches and men into demon hunters.
• Princess Maria brought Norton a cream puff cake and admired his appearance.
• Norton cut Maria’s arm and caught her blood on the cake despite her frightened sobs.
• Norton licked Maria’s wound closed, then revealed a huge mouth full of sharp teeth and ate the bloodstained cake.
• Norton told Maria that he regarded humans as food and that, as royalty, she could regard everyone in the Aodelan Empire as her food.

As the Southern Continent’s rulers prepared for a succession crisis, the Holy Noah Empire’s defeat and rising rivalries drove nations into an arms race and two opposing military blocs. The Madrid Empire remained outside both alliances as the continent moved closer to war.

• Norton ignored most outside affairs while Maria continued his harsh training, and he monitored developments such as Abraham’s preparations and Duoxia’s return to the Holy Lord Church.
• After Yalian LIII died, Yalian LIV became emperor, but the Liba tribe invaded the Holy Noah Empire and forced him to sign the Imperial City Accord, ceding territory and paying compensation.
• The Aodelan Empire and Holy Boya Empire expanded their militaries and clashed through attacks on holy-water convoys and merchant caravans, while other nations’ conflicts further inflamed tensions.
• Miles XIII, Kaimen XVI, and Edward XVII signed an alliance in 1571 to support one another against the Holy Boya Empire, prompting Yalian LIV and Noah XIII to form a rival mutual assistance pact.
• The two military blocs rapidly expanded their armies and budgets, while the Madrid Empire remained uninvolved and full-scale war drew nearer.

George XV prepared to abandon the Madrid Empire and pursue transformation through the revival of Jonah as the Southern Continent plunged into war. After the Madrid Empire collapsed under attacks from the Aodelan Empire and the Holy Noah Empire, its fate was left in ruins.

• George XV watched performers in an underground chamber and learned from Lide that preparations were complete for his departure to a refuge.
• George XV ordered the plan to begin, seeking to become a god's favored one through Jonah's revival.
• In autumn 1572, the Madrid Empire invaded the Liba Tribe, prompting the Holy Noah Empire to send troops to defend it.
• Miles XIII and Yalian LIV signed a non-aggression treaty, but the Aodelan Empire soon attacked Madrid with a million troops while the Holy Noah Empire opened an eastern front.
• Within half a year, the Madrid Empire fell completely.

Norton watched the Southern Continent’s war spread while reflecting on his desire to be betrayed in a way that could force his advancement. The Aodelan Empire’s invasion of Holy Boya drew the continent’s military blocs into a vast war, leaving the conflict escalating across the region.

• Norton learned through the Pressure that Miles XIII had conquered more than half of the Madrid Empire without promoting the Pale God and was allowing the Holy Lord Church to grow.
• Norton reflected that he wanted a betrayal powerful enough to threaten him, and decided he needed to reveal his ugliness to encourage others to turn against him.
• War production in the Aodelan Empire surged as Miles XIII funded factories and the machines associated with Norton, creating jobs and accelerating industrialization.
• After a brief period of peace, the Aodelan Empire provoked Holy Boya and invaded in spring 1574 with three million troops, advancing sixty kilometers before the empire’s rulers learned of the attack.
• The Holy Noah Empire declared war on the Aodelan Empire, and the Aidebao and Kaimen Empires joined under alliance treaties, turning the conflict into a massive war between military blocs.

Lide and James died in a rain-soaked trench battle after tobacco distributed by the Aodelan Empire left Lide too intoxicated to fire his musket. The war between the great military blocs then ground to a costly first ceasefire, and Miles XIII turned to Norton, the Pale God, as a force that might change the conflict.

• James gave Lide an empire-issued cigarette and urged him to ignore religious rules because he believed the soldiers would never be allowed to return home.
• An enemy surprise attack began, and rain-soaked muskets forced the soldiers into close combat; James was killed, then Lide was struck down without firing his weapon.
• The chapter described how population growth and tobacco-fueled militarism drove the Southern Continent into a year-and-three-month war that killed millions.
• In winter Holy Year 1575, the Aodelan-led alliance and its enemies began their first ceasefire after enormous casualties and stalled advances.
• Miles XIII, alarmed by the war’s cost to the Aodelan Empire, decided it was time to deploy Norton, the Pale God.

Miles XIII asked Norton to turn five hundred thousand people into vampires so the Aodelan Empire could gain an advantage in the war. Norton rejected the plan and ordered Abraham to display the Pale God’s authority, leaving the scale of his response unknown.

• Miles XIII greeted Norton respectfully and explained that he wanted the Aodelan Empire to prosper rather than gain eternal life.
• Miles XIII asked Norton to make five hundred thousand people vampires to help the empire win the war and expand overseas.
• Norton rejected the idea, calling vampires an inferior species that would pollute the Garden of Eden.
• Norton told Elizabeth to contact Abraham and show the world the authority of the Pale God.

Abraham returned to Norton after secretly drinking his holy water and advancing to a True Ancestor-level appearance. Norton exposed Abraham’s theft, then spared him and ordered him to lead the Blood Progenitors in a devastating campaign against those who refused to worship him.

• Abraham arrived before Norton, hid his changed green eyes, and claimed his mutations came from longing to sense Norton’s aura.
• Norton told Abraham he knew he had been stealing holy water, terrifying him with his control over the Blood Clan.
• Abraham begged Norton to forgive him and let him continue serving.
• Norton declared that the empires beyond the Aodelan Empire treated him as a heretic and gave Abraham authority to destroy them.
• Norton ordered Abraham to lead the Blood Progenitors in unleashing the Taotie Blood Feast against all who refused to revere him.

A monstrous transformation and explosion at Norton’s bedchamber alarmed Miles XIII, while Abraham led a devastating assault on the Holy Boya Empire’s imperial capital. Abraham and more than fifty giant figures destroyed the palace and city, killing Noah XIII and many nobles.

• A winged monster rose from Norton’s bedchamber, and Miles XIII ordered the head of intelligence brought to him.
• Noah XIII hosted a victory banquet and welcomed envoys from five small nations and a general from the Holy Noah Empire.
• The banqueters mocked Miles XIII and Norton as a powerful wind approached the imperial palace.
• Abraham announced that those who dishonored Norton would suffer death, then crashed into the palace roof.
• More than fifty giant figures descended on the imperial capital, wrecking its buildings and crushing Noah XIII and numerous nobles.

Abraham, Coal Ball, Plum Blossom, and more than fifty bat youngsters rampaged through the Holy Boya Empire’s imperial capital, destroying buildings and killing its people. General Mike’s cannons wounded Coal Ball, but it healed and crushed the empire’s resistance as the capital burned.

• Abraham charged through the imperial palace while Coal Ball, Plum Blossom, and more than fifty bat youngsters rampaged through the capital.
• General Mike rallied the surviving imperial guards and ordered more than a hundred cannons to fire at the monsters.
• The cannon barrage knocked Coal Ball down, blasted off one of its arms, and left its body badly wounded.
• Coal Ball rapidly regenerated, rose from the ruins, and crushed the cannon shells and resisting forces beneath its foot.
• Coal Ball roared and wrecked the surrounding buildings as flames engulfed the Holy Boya Empire’s imperial capital.

After the Pale God destroyed the Holy Boya Empire’s capital, Miles XIII recognized the threat to humanity and resolved to resist him. He sent his eldest son, Miles XIV, to the Northern Continent to establish a new Aodelan Empire and seek a way to fight back.

• Miles XIII read that the Pale God had destroyed the Holy Boya Empire’s capital, killing Noah XIII and countless others.
• Miles XIII reconsidered his earlier belief that humans could cooperate with the Pale God and decided humanity had to fight for self-determination.
• Miles XIII summoned Miles XIV and acknowledged that his son had been right about the Pale God.
• Miles XIII ordered Miles XIV to take people, weapons, and supplies by ship to the Northern Continent and found the Aodelan Empire anew.
• Miles XIII warned Miles XIV that supernatural beings served the Pale God and that humanity would remain his prey unless he was killed.

After the Holy Boya Empire’s imperial family was destroyed, the Southern Continent’s rulers ended their war and secretly prepared to relocate their imperial families to the Northern Continent, where they could rebuild and eventually challenge the Pale God. Miles XIII sent Miles XIV and the rest of his family away, warning his son to address class conflict and never return if the Pale God proved impossible to defeat.

• News of the Holy Boya Empire’s destruction spread across the Southern Continent, where commoners welcomed the Pale God’s attacks while the ruling classes panicked.
• The Southern Continent’s emperors withdrew their armies, established diplomatic relations, and agreed to develop and colonize the Northern Continent as a refuge and future base against the Pale God.
• Miles XIII arranged for the Aodelan imperial family and many palace experts to leave for the Northern Continent, leaving the imperial palace nearly empty.
• Miles XIV knelt before Miles XIII and vowed to rebuild the Aodelan Empire, then led his siblings away.
• Miles XIII warned Miles XIV to address class conflict and explain its relation to racial conflict, and told him never to return if the Pale God could not be overcome.
• Miles XIII stayed behind, watched the Pale God’s bedchamber, and said that he would remain with him.

Norton learned that Miles XIII was sending the imperial family overseas and used the evacuation to persuade Maria that her abandonment was a chance to seize power. He revealed a secret plan to assemble a million troops against him, leaving Abraham shaken by the extent of Norton's knowledge.

• Abraham asked Norton whether he should stop Miles XIII from sending people and imperial family members overseas.
• Maria realized her family had left her behind and worried that Norton would discover her father's plans.
• Norton teased Maria about her nervousness, then told her that imperial royalty should sacrifice anything to gain power.
• Norton claimed that the Aodelan Empire and other countries had secretly agreed to send a million troops to besiege him.
• Abraham wondered how Norton had learned of the plan and feared that he could perceive Abraham's own past conspiracies.

Norton dismissed Abraham’s suggestion to stop the Southern Continent’s royal family from marching against him and revealed that he welcomed their betrayal. Abraham grew convinced that Norton was deliberately seeking a chance to advance, then left with a psychology quotation reminding himself to stay away from negative energy.

• Norton sent Elizabeth to take Maria away to rest while he looked out over the palace.
• Abraham asked whether he should obstruct the royal family’s forces, but Norton said he was delighted by their courage to betray him.
• Norton recalled people who had betrayed him and spoke as though he welcomed the chance to face such a challenge again.
• Abraham reconsidered Norton’s actions and concluded that he was deliberately exposing himself to threats in pursuit of advancement.
• Abraham left, concealing his excitement, and read a psychology quotation advising him to stay away from negative energy.

Norton read a book about spreading negativity while the Southern Continent’s empires sent a massive fleet of settlers and soldiers toward the Northern Continent. At sea, Miles XIV discovered that holy water dumped into the ocean after a naval battle had triggered strange mutations, and realized the Pale God was assimilating the people of the Aodelan Empire.

• Norton read Southern Continent Thick Black Theory and was surprised that the Southern Continent had a book describing principles he already knew.
• Miles XIV watched a fleet of over a thousand ships carry settlers and soldiers toward the Northern Continent, with the Southern nations destroying maps and ships to hide their destination from the Pale God.
• The fleet encountered a giant deep-sea monster’s corpse covered by red roundcap fish that had developed fangs and remained active even after being crushed.
• A captain told Miles XIV that strange marine species had appeared since the naval battle two years earlier, including an unusually large octopus and mutated fish.
• Miles XIV connected the mutations to the holy water dumped into the ocean after the battle between the Aodelan Empire and the Holy Boya Empire, then realized the Pale God was assimilating the Aodelan Empire’s people through years of Masses.

The emperors of the Southern Continent gathered nearly nine million troops to attack the Pale God, despite doubting they could defeat him. Miles XIII revealed that they planned to exploit a mass rout to plunge the continent into chaos, whether their assault succeeded or failed.

• Several smaller kingdoms pledged allegiance to the Pale God, while the great empires assembled their armies against him.
• Miles XIII left Maria behind and met with Kaimen XVI, Edward XVII, and Yalian LIV to discuss the attack.
• Kaimen XVI and Edward XVII warned that the Pale God's power could make the war unwinnable and that fleeing soldiers could devastate the Aodelan Empire.
• Miles XIII said the Pale God's holy water was changing people in Sak City and warned that waiting would let the influence spread across his empire.
• Miles XIII and the other emperors revealed they intended to use the soldiers' potential rout to destabilize the Southern Continent and hinder the Pale God, regardless of the cost.

Miles XIII led a massive coalition army into the Aodelan Empire’s capital to confront Norton, the Pale God, while preparing to chain and bury him if they could not kill him. After rallying the soldiers, Miles XIII charged toward the palace at the head of the army.

• The coalition deployed millions of soldiers, iron nets, chains, and siege weapons around the Aodelan Empire’s capital to prevent Norton from escaping.
• Miles XIII planned to bind Norton in chains and bury him beneath an artificial mountain if the army could not kill him.
• Miles XIII entered the capital with his troops while the other emperors remained in the rear, accompanied by four knights in golden armor from the Holy Lord Church.
• Miles XIII addressed the soldiers, describing Norton as a threat to humanity and urging them to fight for the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIII drew his sword and charged toward the palace, and the soldiers followed him.

Norton confronted Abraham over his lack of courage, then faced Miles XIII and the nine-million-strong army sent to overthrow him. Norton crushed their resistance with his overwhelming power and declared himself the sole god and ruler of the Southern Continent.

• Norton told Abraham that his fear and flattery had kept him bound, and compared his potential to Kuba’s.
• Miles XIII led the army to Norton’s bedchamber and explained that the emperors had come either to kill Norton or die trying.
• Norton welcomed the emperors’ rebellion and released a pressure that forced Abraham, Elizabeth, and all nine million soldiers to kneel.
• Norton transformed, rose above the army, and declared himself the true god of the Garden of Eden and ruler of every living being on the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIII realized the Pale God was far beyond his expectations, and the army’s rebellion ended without a fight.

In Holy Year 1578, Norton, the Pale God, took control of the Southern Continent and executed the monarchs and nobles who had rebelled against him. After rumors and rebellions plunged much of the continent into chaos, he crushed the resistance and established the Pale Church and Holy Empire.

• Norton publicly tried and hanged Miles XIII and the other monarchs and nobles who had taken part in the rebellion, while stripping the remaining rulers of their titles and power.
• Rumors that Norton was a Vampire Progenitor stirred people and local governments to resist his rule.
• Rebel factions plundered, raped, and killed civilians, leaving much of the Southern Continent in greater disorder than before.
• Norton sent giant bat beasts, vampires, and mutated creations from Sak City to crush the resistance.
• In autumn of Holy Year 1578, Norton founded the Pale Church as the sole faith and the Holy Empire as the sole political authority of the Southern Continent.