Recaps

Under pressure from the approaching God and the weakening sun, Norton reformed the Holy Empire’s economy, replacing its old communal system with private enterprise while retaining divine rule and protections for the poor. Five years later, the economy and living standards had improved, but resentful conservatives blamed Norton for their lost status, and he could hear their denunciations.

• Norton feared God's arrival, the fading sun, and the consequences of his past, so he ordered economic reforms in the Southern Continent.
• Norton opened the Holy Empire to private enterprise and outside capital, while using divine power to regulate prices and protect laid-off workers and low-income people.
• Over the next five years, new industries and businesses flourished, living standards rose, and new wealthy classes emerged.
• Conservatives who had lost their former status denounced Norton and resented former outsiders and factory workers who had become successful.
• Norton heard the abuse and resentment directed at him, despite the improved conditions the reforms had brought.

The Pale God’s reforms drove the Holy Empire’s economy to unprecedented heights, while the Northern Continent’s Gothic Empire struggled to keep pace. The chapter ended with nobles arriving at Miles XIV’s palace, including Yalian LV in a castle-like carriage dragged by vampires.

• Abraham reflected on the Pale God’s grand manner as reforms transformed the Holy Empire and astonished the Northern Continent.
• Over five years, the Holy Empire’s economy grew fivefold as factories expanded, incomes rose, and daily life improved.
• Rapid growth in the South put pressure on the Northern Continent, where the Gothic Empire remained half-feudal and half-capitalist.
• Miles XIV had the Gothic Empire’s imperial city locked down and prepared his palace to receive guests.
• Luxurious carriages arrived at the palace, followed by Yalian LV’s castle-like conveyance, which more than fifty fourth-generation vampires dragged along the road.

Miles XIV confronted Jacob over the empire’s decay and Jacob’s plan to slaughter the Northern Continent’s powerful dignitaries at a banquet. As war approached, Miles XIV let Jacob proceed, while War Machines gathered around the imperial capital.

• Miles XIV watched the extravagant royal procession and concluded that the Gothic Empire had rotted through.
• Jacob argued that humanity needed to be freed from the Pale God and defended the Holy Lord Empire’s oppressive system as a way to enforce stability.
• Miles XIV accused Jacob of seeking power and warned that replacing one system with another would not bring true freedom.
• Jacob asked Miles XIV to let him slaughter the Northern Continent’s powerful dignitaries at the banquet.
• Miles XIV said he was only a pawn and left Jacob to act as he pleased.
• War Machines gathered around the imperial capital in the darkness.

Miles XIV summoned the Gothic Empire’s elites and former Southern Continent rulers, condemning their monopolies, corruption, and betrayal of the empire’s founding purpose. He declared that he would commit the empire’s full strength to a final confrontation with the Pale God, even if the empire collapsed.

• The nobles gathered in the imperial palace, where their monopolies over nearly every industry and necessity in the Northern Continent were described.
• The elites discussed expanding into the Southern Continent and using cheap Northern labor to dominate its markets.
• Miles XIV arrived in a wheelchair and addressed Yalian LV, Edward XIX, Kaimen XVIII, and Nuoya XIV.
• Miles XIV accused the ruling elites of relying on vampires and imitating the Pale God, betraying the Gothic Empire’s founders.
• Miles XIV announced an all-out confrontation with the Pale God and said greedy capitalists and outdated emperors would disappear with the empire.

Miles XIV’s War Machines and the Holy Lord Church’s holy images enabled a massacre of the vampire dignitaries, including Yalian LV, as the Eternal Life Society seized control of the Northern Continent. Priest Mark escorted Miles XIV away while Miles questioned whether the Society intended to bring Jonah back and whether Jonah would be any nobler than the Pale God.

• War Machines smashed through the palace walls and attacked the vampire dignitaries while portraits of the Holy Lord Church’s God blocked their escape.
• Yalian LV confronted Miles XIV, but a War Machine tore him apart and killed him.
• The War Machines slaughtered the dignitaries as Miles XIV watched in shock.
• A priest of the Eternal Life Society told Miles XIV that the deaths were necessary sacrifices and that the Society had secured control of every enterprise.
• Miles XIV accused the Eternal Life Society of provoking war to bring about Jonah’s descent and admitted he had relied on the Society’s power.
• Priest Mark pushed Miles XIV toward the exit and claimed that gods were noble while false gods who stole divinity were vile.

Miles XIV mobilized the Gothic Empire for war against Norton, the Pale God, using forced conscription and the Eternal Life Society’s control to prepare an invasion of the Southern Continent. In Year 69, he delivered a final speech calling humanity to fight, while troops and support gathered for the campaign.

• Miles XIV used the Eternal Life Society to seize control of the Gothic Empire and directed its three million War Machines toward the coming war.
• The empire began mass conscription, forced civilians into factories and military camps, and shipped troops to occupy islands near the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIV’s regime blockaded escape routes and punished those who resisted or tried to flee as the Gothic Empire plunged into wartime mobilization.
• In Year 69, the frail Miles XIV delivered a speech condemning Norton and urging humanity to fight for its own destiny.
• Peoples from the East Continent offered weapons and supplies, while the Northern Continent’s indigenous people were also sent toward the battlefield.

Norton discussed whether gods were truly divine beings or merely powerful life-forms with a scholar from the East Continent. After interpreting the scholar’s remarks as proof that he was being deceived, Norton killed him, and Abraham reported that the Northern Continent had attacked.

• Norton convened a study of gods and questioned whether beings such as himself possessed genuine divine authority.
• A scholar from the East Continent argued that gods might resemble the impersonal laws of heaven and earth, which did not care about individual lives.
• Norton recognized the scholar’s saying about heaven and earth as without benevolence and accused him of being a spy sent by God.
• Norton suddenly went mad and killed the scholar by opening a bloody hole in his chest and absorbing his blood.
• Abraham witnessed the killing and told Norton that the Northern Continent had attacked.

After learning that Miles XIV had launched a punitive expedition against the Southern Continent, Norton panicked and became convinced that God and Jonah had trapped him. He ordered a Cataclysm War that would conscript all living beings in the Garden of Eden and drag them into his destruction.

• Abraham told Norton that Miles XIV had landed troops on islands around the Holy Empire and was preparing an all-out assault on the Southern Continent.
• Abraham believed the Northern Continent's invasion would awaken Jonah and that Norton would ultimately turn Jonah into nourishment for himself.
• Norton panicked, tore off a scholar's head, and tried to remove blood that had merged into his body.
• Norton regained his fury, accused God and Jonah of relentlessly targeting him, and declared that he would show them true savagery.
• Norton ordered Abraham to conscript everyone in the Garden of Eden and begin a Cataclysm War, even if they all died with him.

The Northern Continent launched a massive amphibious invasion of the Southern Continent, using seafaring carriers, aircraft, and landing craft against the Holy Empire’s coastal defenses. After a week of costly assaults failed to hold any landing sites, the Northern Continent’s supreme commander concluded that the invasion needed overwhelming force.

• The Northern Continent sent fleets carrying eighty thousand advance troops toward a Southern Continent coastal city, while three other fleets approached from different directions.
• The Southern Continent’s coastal artillery and winged angel units attacked, but Northern antiaircraft guns and warships opened fire in response.
• Northern landing craft charged toward shore under heavy bombardment, suffering devastating casualties from artillery, machine guns, torpedoes, and aerial attacks.
• The Northern Continent tested landings at four sites, but the Holy Empire held its defenses through a week of fierce fighting and drove attackers out of any positions they briefly captured.
• The Northern Continent’s supreme commander decided that breaking through the Holy Empire required overwhelming force rather than separate landing assaults.

The Gothic Empire captured Kaier City and used ideological campaigns, confiscations, and public purges to turn its residents against Norton, the Pale God, and into loyal supporters of the Northern Continent. The city was left wholly under Northern control, with its people spreading denunciations of Norton.

• The Northern Continent launched another war, and the Gothic Empire breached Kaier City's gates after a week of fighting.
• After capturing Kaier City, the Gothic Empire purged resistance, built defenses, and sent other units to conquer nearby areas.
• The Northern Continent's ideological workers denounced Norton, the Pale God, and encouraged residents to form a Judgment Squad to arrest and publicly punish wealthy people and officials.
• The Judgment Squad confiscated wealth and shared part of it with residents, drawing many frightened civilians into supporting the occupiers.
• Over two months, the Gothic Empire killed those who resisted and turned Kaier City into a loyal Northern Continent stronghold.

As the Northern Continent’s invasion threatened his rule, Norton drifted between furious outbursts and disjointed muttering, while Abraham uncovered what he believed was the secret behind Norton’s soul and feared transformation. Abraham left determined to make Norton become part of this.

• Abraham warned Norton that the Northern Continent had captured Kaier City and won local support, and Norton ordered him to slaughter the traitors.
• Abraham began asking Norton for permission to send eighty Blood Progenitors against the Northern Continent’s airplanes, but Norton drifted into another episode of muttering.
• Abraham overheard Norton say that his soul came from another world and that he must not become part of this, then saw clues in the mural’s depictions of future technology.
• Norton recovered enough to approve sending the Blood Progenitors to the border, and Abraham realized he believed Norton’s soul was an unusual loophole beyond God’s control.
• Abraham concluded that Norton feared Jonah because the Primordial God of Death could assimilate his soul, then transformed into a monster and flew away, intending to make Norton become part of this.

Abraham pieced together evidence that Pale God Norton came from another world and grew terrified that another deity might exist, identifying with Norton’s burden of confronting truths about the world. Meanwhile, after Kaier City fell, the Northern Continent’s death-benefit system drove its soldiers to seek death in battle as its war against the Southern Continent escalated.

• Abraham gathered evidence from Norton’s inventions, murals, words, and past actions that Norton came from another world.
• Abraham feared that another deity might have created Norton and wrote in his diary that pursuing the world’s ultimate truth could lead to an abyss.
• Abraham reflected on the burden borne by those closest to divine power, then watched the city from his palace window and imagined himself an emperor.
• After Kaier City fell, the Northern Continent’s army advanced, fueled by conditions that made warfare seem more rewarding than ordinary life.
• The Northern Continent offered soldiers’ families generous death benefits and subsidies for three generations, encouraging soldiers to seek death in battle.
• The Northern and Southern Continents’ armies and supernatural forces clashed, unleashing a devastating catastrophe.

The Northern Continent’s Gothic Empire expanded through conquest and indoctrination, drawing people into its movement while the Pale God’s arbitrary rule drove both the Southern Continent’s elite and common people toward despair. The chapter ended with the Northern Continent gaining ground as the Southern Continent’s leadership appeared ineffective and absent.

• The Gothic Empire persecuted or assassinated people who condemned its policies, silencing opposition across both continents.
• Frustrated people from the Southern Continent flocked to occupied territories, attracted by the empire’s promises of power, community, and security for their families.
• The Pale God’s unpredictable rule oppressed the Southern Continent’s upper classes and common people, leaving both increasingly hopeless.
• After Kaier City fell, the Northern Continent’s army advanced while indoctrination personnel assimilated conquered territories into logistical bases.
• Norton remained shut away, Abraham was rarely seen and seemed distracted, and Elizabeth proved unable to manage the crisis.

Over three years, the Northern Continent conquered much of the Southern Continent but lost popular support as its occupation turned brutal. When the East Continent invaded from the north, Norton ended his silence and called the Southern Continent to war against both powers, plunging the Garden of Eden into total conflict.

• The Northern Continent gained support in the Southern Continent by spreading propaganda against Norton, then resorted to forced conscription and brutal occupation as its advance continued.
• Reports of Northern Continent atrocities and abuses by its poorly trained recruits strengthened resistance in the Southern Continent, and people began praying to Norton for help.
• The East Continent invaded the Southern Continent's undefended northern border, rapidly capturing cities and slaughtering their inhabitants.
• In the seventy-fourth year of Norton's reign, Norton emerged from seclusion and called for war to drive out the Northern and East Continents.
• The Northern, Southern, and East Continents each claimed to fight for a righteous cause, and the war engulfed the Garden of Eden.

In the seventy-fourth year of Norton, the Pale God emerged from seclusion and his Pressure halted the invading armies, allowing the Pale Holy See to purge Northern Continent agents and collaborators. Although Southern Continent residents had begun to long for his rule, his return brought renewed slaughter and oppression.

• Norton emerged from his palace, and his Pressure crushed the East Continent army while halting the eight Southern Continent puppet corps.
• The Pale Holy See's Judgment Squads and Inquisition hunted down Northern Continent agents and collaborators, imprisoning them and executing them by fire.
• The chapter recounted how war deaths, conscription, economic hardship, and Northern Continent propaganda had fueled protests and resentment against Norton.
• Violence by the Northern Continent and massacres by the East Continent led Southern Continent residents to remember the peace of Norton's rule and hope he would protect them.
• Norton's return began a new wave of slaughter and oppression across the Southern Continent.

The Pale God used his overwhelming Pressure to terrorize the Southern Continent into submission as the Pale Church conscripted its people for war. Meanwhile, the Church annihilated the East Continent’s invading army, leaving no survivors.

• The Pale God's Pressure made people across the Southern Continent fear that they could be reduced to dust at any moment, and past criticism of him gave way to submission.
• Armed Pale Church missionaries conscripted people from the streets, assigning even a sickly younger brother to the battlefield while sparing his stronger sibling to support their family.
• Missionaries and local church officials obeyed the Pale God because those who pursued their own interests during the purge had been exposed and destroyed.
• The Pale God's Pressure pinned the East Continent's invading soldiers to the ground, allowing the Pale Church's missionaries to slaughter them.
• The first invasion echelon of 350,000 East Continent troops was killed in one day, with no survivors.

Norton declared that he had recovered from his former confusion and proclaimed a thousand-year Epoch of punishment against those who defied the Pale God. Abraham obeyed his command to mobilize the Pale Church, but left the palace uncertain whether to expose Norton's weakness and risk his own eternal life.

• Norton told Abraham that all 350,000 East Continent soldiers had been executed and their heads piled into skull mounds.
• Norton announced that he had awakened and would punish those who failed to revere the Pale God, declaring a thousand-year Epoch of punishment.
• Norton ordered Abraham to mobilize all forces and command the Pale Church to punish everyone who defied him.
• Abraham obeyed, then wondered whether Norton's madness would bring catastrophe upon the Garden of Eden and whether he should reveal Norton's weakness.
• Abraham left the palace burdened by the knowledge that Norton's soul might be his true weakness and that exposing it could cost Abraham his eternal life.

In winter of Norton Year 74, the Pale God enslaved the population and conscripted a million barely trained soldiers into an unrelenting war against the Northern Continent. As both sides suffered massive casualties, the East Continent joined forces with the Northern Continent and struck the Pale God from behind.

• The Pale God abolished former wealth and status, forced people aged eight to seventy-five into factory labor, and exempted only women near childbirth.
• The Pale God conscripted a million soldiers, gave them barely a month of training, and sent them into a nonstop war against the Northern Continent.
• The Southern and Northern Continents suffered up to thirty thousand battlefield deaths each day as artillery, Fifth-Generation Vampires, witches, and War Machines fought across the front.
• The Pale God repeatedly conscripted replacements while the Northern Continent strained under the costs of fighting across the ocean and keeping the Gothic Empire controlled by its War Machines.
• The East Continent conspired with the Northern Continent, bought tokens from the Holy Lord Church, assembled an army, and attacked the Pale God from behind.

Miles XIV reflected on the suffering caused by his lifelong pursuit of defeating the Pale God and recognized that he had governed for the sake of the past rather than his people. Jacob rejected his warning and killed him, leaving the Gothic Empire's collapse looming.

• Soldiers forcibly conscripted a mother and her son in the collapsing imperial capital, as Miles XIV watched from his wheelchair.
• Miles XIV told Jacob that he had finally understood his mistakes and warned that using the Eternal Life Society to defeat the Pale God would leave another threat behind.
• Jacob urged Miles XIV to approve the use of nuclear weapons against the Southern Continent, then dismissed Miles XIV's regret as cowardice.
• Jacob declared Miles XIV unfit to rule and stabbed through his neck with his sharp nails.
• Miles XIV died gazing at the suffering people of the imperial capital, admitting, "I... was wrong..."

After Miles XIV died, Jacob Gauss ordered the war against the Southern Continent to continue with doubled forces and unrestricted slaughter. The Northern Continent used its first nuclear bomb to destroy half a Southern Continent city, changing the course of the war as the attack began.

• The Gothic Empire announced that Miles XIV had died and Jacob Gauss had become emperor, prompting Northern and Southern Continent forces to retreat while they awaited confirmation.
• Jacob ordered the war to continue with twice as many troops and authorized the slaughter and torture of the Southern Continent’s people.
• The Northern Continent sent nuclear bombs to the front, and in July its aircraft carried the first one toward a frontline city.
• Southern Continent soldiers and officers mistook the aircraft for a routine nighttime attack and resumed their rest after it passed overhead.
• A nuclear bomb exploded above the city, incinerating its center, destroying half the city, and spreading radiation.

The Northern Continent’s nuclear attacks and the East Continent’s chemical and plague warfare devastated the Holy Empire and crushed its people’s will to resist. Norton blamed Abraham for failing to discover the weapons, ordered the destruction of both empires, and ended in a furious outburst as a blood-red sun shone through the ruined hall.

• Newspaper reports of nuclear attacks on Leiyin City and Bell City spread panic and weakened support for the Pale God.
• The East Continent used poison gas and plague warfare, causing mass deaths and further collapsing the Holy Empire’s morale.
• Norton accused Abraham of hiding news about the enemy’s weapons, but Abraham denied knowing about them, and Elizabeth believed him.
• Norton ordered Abraham to break both empires, exterminate their races, and make the Pale God the only voice in the Garden of Eden.
• Norton crushed his silver throne and hurled it through the hall’s roof, revealing a blood-red sun that hinted at something awakening within it.

As the Southern Continent collapsed under nuclear and biological warfare, the Eternal Life Society seized a Northern Continent field hospital and killed its director. Its members prepared for their god’s revival in six months and a blood sacrifice meant to welcome the Primordial God of Death.

• Norton forced Southern Continent soldiers into nuclear blast zones as both sides fought to occupy devastated cities.
• In the seventy-seventh year of Norton's reign, the Southern Continent lost most of its territory and suffered 310 million deaths, while unrest spread among its people.
• Eternal Life Society members entered a Northern Continent field hospital and ordered Director Truman to leave within three hours.
• The Society's leader shot Director Truman and the nurse as they fled, then announced that their god would revive within six months.
• The Eternal Life Society members shouted about immortality and prepared to reveal a fraction of their god's power to the Garden of Eden.

As the Southern Continent’s forces collapsed and reports emerged that the dead were reviving and souls were appearing, Norton’s fear of Jonah and the final judgment drove him to the brink of madness. He chose to face the coming battle from his throne, declaring that he would destroy all life in the Garden of Eden.

• Abraham reported the Southern Continent’s military defeats and growing rebellion, and Norton struck him through a wall in rage.
• Abraham reasoned that Norton feared the destructive nature of souls and that the coming awakening of Jonah left him with no safe escape.
• Abraham told Norton that fallen Northern Continent soldiers had revived and that ghostly souls were overwhelming troops, prompting Norton to panic and deny that Jonah could awaken.
• Norton concluded that he could not flee the Garden of Eden or escape God’s judgment, and he told Abraham and Elizabeth to run for their lives.
• Norton restored his dignified appearance, summoned his followers to the Pale Holy See, and announced that he would slaughter all life and await the coming crusade from his throne.

As the Holy Empire neared collapse, Abraham wrote a final testament analyzing Norton’s history, weaknesses, and the danger his death posed to the contaminated Southern Continent. He left the book for future generations and remained in the Holy See as Norton's followers gathered in the capital.

• After Norton's declaration, the Holy Empire's resistance crumbled, and civilians fled toward Northern Continent territory.
• Abraham, fearing the war's consequences, wrote a testament describing Norton's origins, his mental state, and the possible weakness in his otherworldly soul.
• Abraham warned that Norton's death would annihilate everyone contaminated by his flesh and blood, but argued that the Garden of Eden had to risk a god-slaying war to resist him.
• Abraham reflected on how centuries of oppression and recurring nightmares had worn away his convictions, then arranged for a figure to hide his testament.
• As Norton's steadfast believers streamed into the imperial capital, Abraham remained in the Holy See awaiting the final moment.

Fanatical believers gathered at the Pale Holy See as the Holy Empire’s military situation worsened and its capital prepared for a siege. During an inspection of the city walls, Abraham spotted a dark figure in the distance.

• More and more believers traveled to the Pale Holy See, where they camped, worshipped, and pledged themselves to the Pale God Norton, who never appeared before them.
• Urgent dispatches reported the Holy Empire’s losses and the advancing Gothic Empire and Southern Continent armies, while the capital’s defenses and patrols increased.
• The gray skies allowed Abraham, Elizabeth, and other Vampires to move through the city by day as they reviewed the front and strengthened the capital’s defenses.
• During his usual inspection of the walls, Abraham saw a dark figure appear in the distance.