Recaps

Norton established the Pale Church and crowned himself pope, then crowned twelve-year-old Maria queen of the Southern Continent. The ceremony ended with Maria holding the crown and scepter as the first queen of the Holy Empire.

• Norton declared that the Southern Continent would submit to his rule and announced the founding of the Pale Church.
• Abraham prompted the frightened reporters and cardinal archbishops to praise Norton and acclaim his leadership.
• Abraham summoned Princess Maria, and she arrived at the Holy See in a carriage as the crowd watched.
• Abraham praised Maria’s virtues and faith before Norton, despite her being only twelve years old.
• Norton placed a crown on Maria’s head and gave her a jeweled scepter, completing her coronation as the first queen of the Holy Empire.

After unifying the Southern Continent, Norton began the Norton era and imposed a toilet law that sparked five months of brutal protests and killings. The revolt ended, and Norton’s subsequent reforms improved living conditions and encouraged education, science, and intellectual freedom, though the massacre left a legacy of resistance.

• Norton crowned Queen Maria and declared the first year of the Norton era in early Holy Year 1579.
• Norton decreed that toilets be built across the Southern Continent and ordered flogging for anyone who relieved themselves elsewhere.
• People protested the decree with demonstrations and public defilement, and Norton sent his forces to arrest and kill them.
• After five months of slaughter, Norton’s forces killed the resisters, and the conflict was remembered as “corpse burning and shit pits.”
• Norton issued reforms that redistributed land, assigned urban residents work, expanded welfare and public institutions, and subsidized research.
• Norton promoted intellectual and cultural freedom, and the Southern Continent’s development began to outpace that of its former empires.

After Norton imposed a brutal order across the Southern Continent, land, food, education, and work brought stability and expanded the Pale Church’s support. The growing Masses created demand for holy-water transport, and the Holy Empire’s improved steam engine marked the first industrial revolution.

• Norton’s massacres and executions forced the Southern Continent into submission, and his rule established a dark age under vampire control.
• The Holy Empire distributed land without agricultural taxes, while Elizabeth, Abraham, and the vampires took over city administration and dismantled managerial exploitation and criminal groups.
• Norton built free schools and assigned children who struggled or refused to study to Church service or juvenile correctional facilities.
• The Pale Church’s reputation reversed as it expanded across the Southern Continent and resumed Mass twice a year, increasing the need to transport holy water.
• In Norton Year Three, the Holy Empire Royal Research Institute developed the Norton No. 1 steam engine for industrial production, ushering in the first industrial revolution.

Abraham secretly arrived in the rapidly industrializing Southern Continent, where vampires were enslaved as laborers and blood-selling had become a regulated trade. After seeing a blood collection booth and resisting his hunger, he followed signs toward a tavern that appeared to be a gang hideout.

• A steam train arrived in a border city, prompting residents to discuss its wonders and the harsh conditions imposed on vampire workers.
• The chapter described how Norton used vampires as tireless laborers and how ship-borne slaves were exploited for their blood and strength.
• Abraham stepped off the train in disguise and observed the Southern Continent’s industrial growth after eight years under Norton.
• Abraham saw vampires paying to drink from a caged blood seller at a legally protected blood collection point.
• Abraham suppressed his longing for blood and followed the road signs toward a tavern that seemed to be a gang hideout.

Abraham and Duoxia discussed the growing opposition to Norton and whether his rule truly benefited the Southern Continent. Duoxia doubted that opposing Norton was still justified, but Abraham insisted Norton’s kindness served his own advancement and that he must be sealed away.

• A human speaker denounced Norton’s rule in a tavern, accusing him of stripping the Southern Continent of its heritage and dignity.
• Abraham condemned the protesters as ungrateful, while Duoxia questioned why Abraham defended Norton despite wanting to replace him.
• Duoxia explained that Norton’s current rule had brought prosperity and freedom to the Southern Continent, especially compared with oppression and slaughter in the Northern Continent.
• Abraham argued that Norton governed benevolently to pursue advancement and was cultivating people who could backstab him.
• Abraham insisted Norton had to be sealed away to secure lasting stability for the Garden of Eden.

Duoxia and Abraham weighed how to oppose Norton without awakening Jonah, whose return could cause another catastrophe, and decided to rely on technological progress for a chance to restrain or seal the Pale God. As unrest against Norton spread, factions across both continents prepared for a coming storm.

• Duoxia gave Abraham the information he had gathered on the Eternal Life Society and warned that its god, Jonah, might be either their only hope or another threat like Norton.
• Duoxia showed Abraham Norton's shed tooth, a relic that could inflict irreversible damage, and Abraham felt its power firsthand.
• Duoxia rejected awakening Jonah because it could require endless deaths and proposed using technology to oppose Norton instead.
• Duoxia promised to share the Southern Continent's technological achievements with Abraham, who agreed that technology might offer their only opening against Norton.
• Abraham and Duoxia left the tavern separately while a speaker urged people to unite against Norton, and factions across both continents prepared for conflict.

Norton reflected on the Eternal Life Society, Jonah, and the possibility that God was using the Garden of Eden to guide or study his advancement. Overwhelmed by his fear and lack of freedom, he indulged his strange powers as Maria arrived to claim the immortality he had promised her.

• Norton watched the Pale Church missionaries and recalled his old attachment to the small, solemn churches of his past.
• Norton learned of the Eternal Life Society and speculated that its ability to evade his perception might be connected to Jonah or research into existence levels.
• Norton studied the dimming sun and considered whether Jonah was sealed inside it, but judged that traveling there would be too dangerous.
• Norton reasoned that God might be guiding his advancement or observing it, and feared that he remained an experimental subject without true freedom.
• Norton let fissures open across his body and shouted that he was God as twenty-year-old Maria approached, while sunlight and light rain fell around them.

Queen Maria visited Norton to claim the vampire transformation he had promised her for her twentieth birthday, hoping to secure her position forever. Norton refused to make her a True Ancestor, leaving her to realize that she was only a puppet.

• Maria entered the Holy See, where Elizabeth told her Norton was waiting.
• Maria reminded Norton that he had promised to turn her into a vampire when she turned twenty.
• Norton suggested making Maria a fifth-generation vampire so she could preserve her beauty.
• Maria rejected the offer because she considered fifth-generation vampires slaves and demanded to become a True Ancestor.
• Norton withdrew his hand and said he never kept his word, leaving Maria to understand her powerless position.

Discontent with Norton’s rule spread through the Holy Empire as protests escalated into violence, and Queen Maria allied herself with former nobles seeking to restore their power. Convinced by Count Anlan that unrest could topple Norton, Maria decided to fight for power herself.

• Protests against Norton grew across the Holy Empire, with demonstrators demanding change and destroying fields, factories, and shops.
• Queen Maria met with former nobles while unrest raged outside and asked whether their plan would succeed.
• Count Anlan argued that the former elites could use public anger to overthrow Norton and promised Maria power if she joined them.
• Queen Maria accepted Count Anlan’s proposal and declared that she would fight for power herself.

As protests on the Southern Continent escalated into a movement for independence and sole rule by the queen, Norton remained unconcerned and transferred all temporal power to the Holy Empire’s imperial family. The chapter ended with Norton reflecting on the approaching modern age and the loneliness of eternal life.

• Abraham reported that Queen Maria and the old-era nobles had secretly supported and steered the demonstrations.
• Norton dismissed Abraham’s offer to punish the conspirators and explained that the protests meant nothing to him compared with his stalled efforts to advance.
• Norton praised Maria’s ambition and ordered all temporal power transferred to the imperial family, leaving the Pale Church with religious authority alone.
• Abraham accepted the order with excitement and left to carry it out, privately resolving to take Norton’s place.
• Norton stood alone beneath the moonlight and reflected that the modern age was near and eternal life was lonely.

After the Pale God Norton surrendered the Holy Empire’s administrative authority to Queen Maria Miles, public opinion turned against the demonstrators who had demanded Southern sovereignty. The leaders’ renewed protests ended in a deadly government crackdown, later recorded as the “Moment of Awakening.”

• Abraham announced that Queen Maria Miles would assume the Holy Empire’s administrative authority in Norton Year 11 while the Pale Holy See retained only religious authority.
• Newspapers praised Norton as a noble, holy ruler and criticized demonstrators, leaving the former protesters abandoned by their backers.
• In Norton Year 11, the disgraced demonstration leaders organized another protest, destroying factories and demanding compensation.
• At the end of Norton Year 11, Maria established a parliament to enlist the wealthy class in governing the Holy Empire.
• In Norton Year 12, the government sent imperial guards armed with flintlocks and cannons against the demonstrators, killing more than 3,500 people during a month of conflict.

Queen Maria was elevated by a coordinated wave of newspaper praise while parliament and wealthy families consolidated power and transferred the Pale God’s industrial foundations into private hands. As the Holy Empire entered the capitalist era, workers faced longer hours, lower pay, and gang exploitation, leaving many of the former protesters trapped in debt.

• Newspapers across the Southern Continent praised Queen Maria as its greatest ruler and called the age the Maria era, and she came to believe their flattery.
• At the end of the twelfth year of Norton, parliament abolished the maritime ban, resumed oceangoing trade, and transferred factories and lands into private ownership.
• The Pale God neither approved nor opposed parliament’s actions, and the members of parliament and wealthy class grew bolder in passing measures for their own benefit.
• Private factories forced workers into unpaid overtime, longer hours, and lower pay as workers struggled to keep their jobs.
• Gangs divided territory and exploited the populace, while former protesters took high-interest loans to survive and sank deeper into debt.

Abraham saw how industrial expansion had impoverished and exploited the Southern Continent’s workers, and lamented to Norton that life had been kinder under his rule. Norton rebuked Abraham for enjoying a day of extravagant luxuries at the Holy Empire’s expense before pretending to pity the poor.

• The Southern Continent’s industries and technology advanced rapidly while workers endured long hours, meager pay, dangerous labor, and overcrowded housing.
• Abraham observed workers’ suffering and the desperate lives of their children, who worked in mines or cleaned fireplaces to survive.
• After spending the day indulging in luxuries paid for by the Holy Empire, Abraham returned to the Holy See and praised Norton’s former rule as far kinder.
• Norton listed Abraham’s lavish meals, entertainment, fishing, and other indulgences, then questioned whether capital had corrupted him.

Norton reprimanded Abraham for becoming indulgent and warned him that advancing technology would eventually turn the Holy See’s allies against them. Abraham felt moved by Norton’s concern, though he remained guilty over secretly sending intelligence to Duoxia and the Northern Continent.

• Abraham stood trembling before Norton, who condemned his wealth, luxuries, and indulgent lifestyle.
• Abraham inwardly noted that Norton enjoyed even greater luxuries, but apologized and blamed his excesses on a lasting fear of hunger.
• Norton recalled their past and forgave Abraham, then warned that technological progress would eventually bring their enemies to surround and exterminate them.
• Abraham accepted Norton’s warning, felt grateful for his kindness, and regretted secretly passing information about Southern Continent developments to Duoxia and the Northern Continent.

The Southern Continent’s supernatural population grew under Norton’s system, but mutations, discrimination, and vampire rule deepened its class hierarchy. The chapter then turned to the Northern Continent, whose vast Garden of Eden had been discovered by an adventurer in Holy Year 1447 and had since changed beyond recognition.

• The Pale God’s Mass caused supernatural beings to appear across the Southern Continent in increasing numbers.
• Witches and other ability users developed powerful abilities alongside grotesque mutations, and fire-breathing witches were recruited to supply power plants.
• The Southern Continent’s elite became vampires and used their strength and the supernatural system to maintain control, while ability users faced exploitation and exclusion.
• The chapter contrasted the Southern Continent’s outward growth with the Northern Continent’s genuine flourishing under the royal houses.
• An ocean-going adventurer circled the upper half of the Garden of Eden in Holy Year 1447, disproving an ancient account and discovering the Northern Continent.
• The Northern Continent, once wilderness inhabited by dark-skinned peoples, had completely changed.

A steel train carrying soldiers and steam-powered war machines was ambushed by werewolves and vampires in the Northern Continent. After the tracks were destroyed and the train stopped, the mechs emerged and fought back against the supernatural horde.

• A heavily armored train carrying beaked-hooded soldiers armed with silver weapons sped across the Northern Continent.
• Werewolves and second-generation vampires attacked the train, while soldiers fired silver bullets and defended it through firing ports.
• A blast destroyed part of the track, forcing the train to stop as the supernatural creatures surged toward it.
• The train's crew opened the armor and released three-meter-tall steam-powered war machines.
• A wolf king charged a steam mech, which blasted him apart with its cannon.
• The steam mechs fought through the werewolves and vampires, cutting them down with cannons and blades.

The emperors of the Northern Continent Gothic United Kingdom received a successful hunting operation’s results: the Eternal Life Society had captured werewolf and vampire souls to power War Machines. Duoxia proposed leading five hundred of them to the Southern Continent to test whether they could seal the Pale God, leaving the empire poised to challenge him.

• Miles XIV and the other emperors gathered at the concealed station to question the returning commander about the hunting operation.
• The commander reported that the werewolf and vampire tribes had been nearly wiped out and their souls could power War Machines.
• Bloodied steam-powered mechs emerged from the train, animated by captured souls stored in lantern-like steel containers.
• Duoxia explained that soul-driven machines might escape the Pale God’s flesh-and-blood oppression and proposed taking five hundred War Machines to the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIV and the other emperors heard Duoxia’s plan to test whether the Pale God could be sealed away.

Miles XIV and the Northern Continent’s emperors agreed to use the Eternal Life Society’s machines and turn the Northern barbarians into an army to fight the Pale God and the Southern Continent. The chapter ended with Duoxia warning that Priest Mark’s ambitions could make the Society a rival to the Pale God, then hoping Jonah would prove noble.

• Miles XIV argued that the Northern Continent should turn its barbarians into war machines and prepare for a devastating war against the Pale God and the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIV told the assembled emperors that their conflict with the Pale God could not be reconciled and urged them to work together for their descendants.
• After the emperors departed, Duoxia accused Priest Mark of overreaching and asked whether he wanted the Eternal Life Society to become a second Pale God.
• Mark declared that the Society could replace the Pale God and ordered its members to leave with the war machine.
• Duoxia remained with Jacob and hoped that Jonah, sealed within the sun, would be as noble as Kuba had been.

The Gothic Empire slaughtered and exploited the Northern Continent’s natives, developing Proton Gas to make mass killing cheaper and more efficient. Meanwhile, in the peaceful Southern Continent, Norton indulged in pleasure and made Elizabeth manage the dangers posed by his living flesh.

• Miles XIV declared the Northern Continent’s natives sacrifices to imperial rule, and the Gothic Empire began massacring them to supply souls for war machines.
• The Gothic Empire developed Proton Gas and used enclosed concentration camps to kill captured natives more cheaply than with weapons.
• The empire enslaved many survivors and sold their bodies, organs, blood, bones, and remains for labor, experiments, and military supplies.
• Norton abandoned his reclusive ways and began appearing frequently in the Holy Empire’s capital to pursue pleasure.
• Norton avoided reproduction because his weak soul and living flesh could create dangerous creatures, so he ordered Elizabeth to manage his flesh and blood.

Norton rode through the imperial capital as the poor begged him to restore their former lives, while the Holy Empire’s soldiers violently suppressed them. He ordered his carriage onward and told his attendants to send the dead to Abraham.

• Norton surveyed the workers and poor people as his carriage monopolized the streets under special laws.
• Poor people prostrated themselves before Norton and demanded that he restore their former lives and distribute land.
• Holy Empire security forces charged the crowd and beat the poor people with clubs.
• Norton covered his eyes and ordered the carriage to keep moving, claiming he could not bear to watch.
• Norton told his attendants to send those beaten to death to Abraham.

The three leaders of the Holy Empire Parliament secretly agreed to help the Northern Continent attack Norton, hoping to seal him away and preserve their own power. Beinuo was assigned to coordinate the effort as Norton’s procession continued through the empire.

• The chapter revealed that Queen Maria had been isolated by Parliament, while the Rothschild, Anlan, and Beinuo families had become the Holy Empire’s true rulers.
• Rothschild, Anlan, and Beinuo watched Norton’s carriage procession from the Empire Spire and discussed the Northern Continent’s plan to break through the Pressure of life.
• Anlan questioned the risk of aiding the Northern Continent, but Beinuo argued that either outcome would benefit Parliament.
• Rothschild authorized Beinuo to coordinate secret contact with the Northern Continent and send ships to assist its attack on Norton.
• Parliament’s leaders sought to stop Norton because they feared his influence and the mutations among the Southern Continent’s people would eventually place the empire under his control.

The Holy Empire Parliament turned the Southern Continent’s hardship against Norton, using newspapers and public opinion to destroy his reputation and weaken his believers. Five years later, its leaders prepared to suppress his power with a Northern Continent War Machine and potentially strip him of his divine status.

• The Holy Empire Parliament exploited the poor’s suffering, while newspapers reframed their protests and beatings as a challenge to Norton’s failure to help them.
• As Norton did nothing to ease their lives, people stopped attending Mass and increasingly cursed and despised him.
• Over five years, the Parliament’s public-opinion campaign ruined Norton’s reputation and made him a target of popular hostility.
• Senate Presidents Rothschild and Anlan explained that the Parliament planned to undermine Norton’s holiness first, then use the Northern Continent’s War Machine to restrain him.
• Senator Beinuo agreed that the leaders would test whether the War Machine could help them complete their campaign against Norton.

Norton confronted Abraham about the War Machine and the Southern Continent’s efforts to undermine him, revealing that he knew about their plans and wanted them to backstab him. He secretly welcomed the War Machine as a possible means of advancing and encouraged Abraham to continue his schemes.

• Abraham urged Norton to punish the Southern Continent for its disrespect after returning from receiving the Northern Continent’s War Machine.
• Norton praised Abraham’s resolve, then told him that steel and public opinion could not threaten him and criticized him for pursuing the War Machine instead of researching existence level.
• Abraham realized Norton knew about the War Machine and the continents’ plans, and took comfort in believing his role as a backstabber might help him survive.
• Norton stopped Abraham from explaining himself and ordered him to continue his plans and make the backstabbing more intense.
• Norton privately anticipated that Jonah could help him ascend, as Kuba had before, and considered exposing weaknesses to provoke more attacks.

The Southern Continent’s leaders tested whether Northern Continent War Machines could withstand Norton’s life-level Pressure, hoping to attack him and seize control of the Pale Church. The machines proved immune and stormed the church, but Norton remained standing amid the ruins before a War Machine punched him in the face.

• The Holy Empire and the Gothic Empire coordinated their campaign against Norton as the Pale Church was isolated and supplies and trains were repositioned.
• More than five hundred War Machines arrived in the rainy night and surrounded the church while Norton waited inside.
• Norton’s Pressure forced Senate Speaker Rothschild to his knees, but the War Machines remained unaffected and charged into the church.
• The War Machines smashed the church into ruins, and Norton hurled more than a dozen of the first attackers into nearby buildings.
• Norton announced that he would reveal the Pure White God’s might, but a steel fist struck his face and sent him flying.

The Southern Continent’s elites watched Norton, the Pale God, get struck and overwhelmed by War Machines, shattering their belief in his invincibility. Norton fled after escaping the machines, and the elites resolved to work with the Northern Continent to build more War Machines before he returned with allies.

• The Southern Continent’s elites celebrated as a War Machine punched Norton into the ruins, while Norton secretly rejoiced at sensing the souls inside the machines.
• Norton threatened to unleash a cataclysm, then rose unharmed as the War Machines charged and forced him down beneath their blades and steel bodies.
• Norton burst free of the machines, spread his bone wings, and fled toward the horizon as the elites ordered iron-chain nets fired at him.
• Norton tore through the nets while vowing to destroy the Southern Continent, then escaped into the distance.
• The Southern Continent’s elites concluded that Norton was not invincible and ordered an immediate joint effort with the Northern Continent to increase War Machine production.