Recaps

Norton watched two Holy Knights drown and tested their blood, confirming it was safe to consume. At Holy Lord Cathedral, Archbishop Adam confronted Father Mia over the deaths, while Bishop Rosen arrived and blamed Mia for the failure.

• Norton waited for the two Holy Knights to die, then removed their helmets and tasted their blood.
• After an hour without ill effects, Norton opened his mouth and showed that his teeth had begun to change.
• Archbishop Adam entered Father Mia's room, seized him, and ordered a church knight to kill the boy there.
• Adam accused Father Mia of hiding a vampire's appearance and causing the deaths of two Holy Knights.
• Bishop Rosen knelt before Adam, admitted fault for failing to control Father Mia, and left Mia furious at his attempt to shift blame.

Bishop Rosen sacrificed Father Mia to avoid responsibility for the deaths of two Holy Knights, while Archbishop Adam ordered him to stop pursuing Norton after the Pope issued a Holy Judgment Order. Norton suffered severe agony after drinking the knights’ poisoned blood, but it accelerated his transformation into a full vampire and derailed his revenge plan.

• Bishop Rosen urged Archbishop Adam to let Father Mia redeem himself, but Adam rejected the plea and the church knights killed Father Mia.
• Archbishop Adam told Bishop Rosen that the Holy Judgment Order meant their faction must abandon the vampire, then warned him not to let anyone find Norton.
• Norton writhed in a cave after drinking the Holy Knights’ poisoned blood, even cutting out his organs in a futile attempt to stop the pain.
• Norton’s body became gaunt, his teeth and nails sharpened, and his eyes turned scarlet as the blood completed his transformation into a vampire.
• Norton realized the transformation had disrupted his plan to take revenge on the church.

Norton discovered that his body had changed into a withered, red-eyed form he believed was a stage in his growth as a vampire, though his strength had increased. Fearing the Church would track him after its knights found his hiding place, he packed to flee and took his bat companion with him.

• Norton studied his revolting reflection and concluded that his appearance might mark the second stage of a vampire’s growth.
• Norton found that he had grown much stronger and decided he could no longer safely show himself to anyone.
• Norton resolved to flee to a large river, fearing the Church could track him through the dead knights or their equipment.
• Norton packed his belongings, left the Church equipment behind, and carried his coffin out of the cave.
• Norton took the bat from the cave and hung it upside down from the wrinkled skin on his chest.

Norton chose a mountaintop cliff as his new home, then began building a house there to escape his years of confinement by the church. In Holy Lord City, the arrival of five hundred Holy Knights in the Holy Judgment Order interrupted Mass and drew Bishop Rosen to meet them.

• Norton traveled through the wilderness with his coffin, avoiding lakes and searching for a safe cliffside refuge.
• Norton reached a high mountain with a view of the distant city and settled on its summit.
• After living there briefly, Norton made a stone axe and began building a house, enjoying his newfound freedom.
• A formation of five hundred golden-armored knights arrived in Holy Lord City and halted a Mass as the people prostrated themselves.
• Bishop Rosen left Holy Lord Cathedral to meet the Holy Judgment Order, whose members were all Holy Knights.

The Holy Judgment Order took control of Holy Lord City and triggered a year of slaughter as residents used false accusations to seize and defend wealth. The city was left nearly depopulated and facing plague, while the search for Norton remained fruitless.

• Bishop Rosen welcomed the Holy Judgment Order, which declared it would take over all church affairs in Holy Lord City and shut Holy Lord Cathedral.
• The Holy Judgment Order began killing people deemed unclean, and residents learned they could prompt the knights to act by accusing others of heresy.
• Poor and rich residents alike made false accusations to have rivals killed and seize their property, turning Holy Lord City into a massacre.
• One year later, fewer than one in ten residents remained, the streets were covered with corpses, and the vampire Norton had still not been found.
• As the heat intensified the stench, Holy Lord Cathedral reopened and sent missionaries and church knights to supervise the removal of bodies.
• The pope continued seeking immortality, while Bishop Rosen and Bishop Adam focused on ensuring the pope did not find Norton.

Norton remained hidden in the wilderness as he concluded that nutrients and time were necessary for his evolution and suspected an epidemic had devastated Holy Lord City. Meanwhile, the dying pope learned that fewer than one in ten residents remained and summoned Adam and the Holy Judgment Order so he could name his successor and reveal something to Adam.

• Norton reflected on his year in the wilderness and concluded that his stalled evolution required nutrients and a long period of time.
• Norton suspected an epidemic had struck Holy Lord City because its lights were disappearing and a foul stench was spreading, but he chose to remain in hiding.
• The pope asked his attendant for news of the vampire and learned that fewer than one in ten people remained in Holy Lord City.
• The attendant reported that Bishop Adam seemed to be stirring up disputes to divert the Holy Judgment Order's attention.
• The pope ordered Adam and the Holy Judgment Order summoned back so he could decide on an official successor and tell Adam something important.

After feeding on a deer, Norton recovered some flesh but found that ordinary blood did not speed his growth. He decided to return to the cave where he had encountered the Gold Saints and began climbing down the cliff.

• Norton fed on a deer and felt his stalled growth resume faintly, though the blood did not accelerate it.
• He considered seeking out the Gold Saints again for their blood but remembered their overwhelming strength and reconsidered.
• Norton decided to check whether the armor remained at the cave and whether anyone had discovered it, since the cliff was dangerous and conspicuous.
• He tested the vine rope attached to his hut, then lowered himself over the cliff.

Pope His Holiness revealed that Archbishop Adam had passed his test to become the next pope and said humanity’s fate would rest in his hands. He began taking Adam to the secluded hill behind the Holy See to reveal the church’s secrets.

• His Holiness told Adam that capturing a vampire was not the point of his test and explained that he had chosen Adam as his successor.
• The pope explained that Adam’s ambition, patience, ruthlessness, and ability to see the bigger picture set him apart from the other bishops.
• His Holiness said he was dying and wanted Adam to learn the church’s true secrets before inheriting responsibility for humanity’s fate.
• Adam pushed the pope outside, where His Holiness admired the sunset and spoke about life, God, and the church’s texts.
• His Holiness directed Adam to take him behind the artificial mountain, then fell asleep in his wheelchair as Adam pushed him toward the secluded hunting ground.

Archbishop Adam accompanied the weakening pope into a hidden crevice in the mountain, where ancient murals depicted events from the scripture Ascension. The murals suggested a deeper meaning to the wings shown on God and Kuba, which Adam recognized as a symbol of divinity.

• The pope asked Adam whether the church's scriptures were true, and Adam said their correspondence with reality made the question unimportant.
• The pope told Adam to follow a path through the woods to a crevice in the cliff, and Adam pushed him onward.
• Adam and the pope passed two ancient Holy Knights guarding the crevice and entered with their torch-bearing escorts.
• Adam saw murals depicting scenes from Ascension, including God being killed by Kuba and God's body being nailed to a cross by Shenyin.
• Adam noticed that only God and Kuba were shown with wings, which in the Holy Lord Church signified divinity.

Archbishop Adam learned why vampires bore God’s divinity as the Pope led him into a cavern containing hundreds of dormant Holy Knights and a corpse he identified as God. The chapter ended with Adam staring in shock at the body on the bone cross.

• Archbishop Adam noticed that the murals gave wings only to God and Kuba, while Shenyin and Jonah had none.
• The Pope explained that vampires could bear divinity because they were copies of God, created when his genes were nurtured in corpses.
• Archbishop Adam realized that vampires might be God’s true children and asked whether God had really existed.
• The Pope led Archbishop Adam into a vast cavern filled with hundreds of dormant Holy Knights.
• Archbishop Adam saw a pale, inhumanly perfect corpse hanging from a bone cross and recognized it as God.

Archbishop Adam and the Pope discovered that the Church’s records were true when they visited God’s corpse, which was nailed to a bone cross. The Pope explained that God was sealed rather than dead, leaving Adam shaken by the existence of beings far beyond his understanding.

• Archbishop Adam and the Pope entered the chamber and saw God’s pale body nailed to a bone cross.
• Adam noticed what seemed to be God’s chest rising and falling and recoiled in fear.
• The Pope told Adam that the movement was a manifestation of life and that God was sealed, not dead.
• The Pope recited the Church’s prophecy about God’s divine body, Heaven, Shenyin, and Jonah, confirming the accounts were real.
• Adam realized that powerful beings could easily overwhelm him and began to fear what God’s existence might mean.

The dying pope revealed that Shenyin had used Kuba’s divinity and remains to keep God’s corpse from awakening, then warned Adam to protect the secret at any cost. Adam became pope after the old pope died, burdened with the knowledge and responsibility.

• The pope told Adam that Shenyin, not Kuba, had sealed God by hanging God’s corpse on a cross made from Kuba’s bones and exposing it to focused sunlight.
• Adam realized the Ascension Ritual used sunlight to prevent God from awakening, rather than to restore God’s power.
• The pope warned Adam that God’s awakening would destroy everything and ordered him to ensure future rulers learned of the corpse, even if the Church fell.
• The pope died in his wheelchair, leaving Adam as his successor and responsible for protecting God’s corpse.

Norton built a fortified wooden cabin on a cliff to escape the growing hordes of animals and monsters drawn to Holy Lord City's mass grave. A year later, after the creatures fought and migrated, the Werewolves emerged as the final victors.

• After the mass grave attracted more predators and monsters, Norton abandoned his cave and began building a safer shelter.
• Norton fed from a deer and recovered his former appearance and some strength, while his body continued to improve gradually.
• Norton chopped down trees and built a cabin with sharpened roof spikes and barricades around it.
• A year passed as the animals around Holy Lord City's mass grave multiplied, then fought over dwindling food and territory.
• Norton watched from his cabin as the Werewolves emerged as the final victors.

Norton prepared to defend his cabin as a disciplined pack of Werewolves surrounded him and charged. He decided that after the attack, he would go to the city rather than remain in the dangerous wilderness.

• Norton saw that Werewolves had gathered around his cabin and were watching him from the forest.
• Norton considered why the monsters kept targeting him, despite the plentiful prey nearby.
• Norton put on the Holy Knight's armor and picked up his golden greatsword.
• Norton sensed the Werewolves closing in and resolved to fight them with his Vampire abilities.
• A howl sounded, and dozens of Werewolves charged toward Norton's cabin.

Norton was overwhelmed when the wolf king led dozens of werewolves in an attack on his cabin. He escaped by leaping off a cliff after maiming the wolf king, while the pack gathered at the edge and then raced back into the forest.

• The wolf king charged through Norton's cabin, and Norton severed its right arm before it knocked him into the wreckage.
• The werewolves swarmed Norton, biting and tearing at his armor until they pinned him down.
• Norton broke his own arm to stab a werewolf through the chest, then threw off his attackers and fled toward the cliff.
• Norton shed his limb armor and struck the wolf king's muzzle while leaping off the cliff.
• The werewolves howled at the cliff's edge, then followed the wolf king into the dark forest.

After the Werewolves destroyed his home and kept pursuing him, Norton fled toward Holy Lord City, hoping the Church knights would protect him from the wilderness predators. At the cathedral, Father Andrew led a sparsely attended nightly prayer as the Church’s population continued to shrink amid famine and plague.

• Norton escaped the Werewolves by jumping from the cliff, but they tracked his position and continued the hunt.
• Norton stripped off his damaged armor and ran through the forest toward Holy Lord City, with his bat companion clinging to him.
• Norton decided to seek refuge behind the Church’s defenses, despite having once been persecuted by the Church.
• Father Andrew lit the cathedral candles and led the few remaining missionaries in their nightly prayers.
• The chapter revealed that judgment, famine, cannibalism, and plague had left Holy Lord Cathedral increasingly deserted.

Bishop Rosen told Father Andrew that growing Werewolf attacks had prompted the Church to withdraw its knights and secure Holy Lord Cathedral. As the cathedral closed again and Holy Lord City faced another period of danger, a strange, shadowless figure with scarlet eyes appeared outside the city.

• Bishop Rosen greeted Father Andrew and explained that reports of increasing Werewolves had led him to recall Church knights and warn Father Andrew to stay indoors.
• Father Andrew agreed that the people of Holy Lord City were beyond saving and supported keeping the Church away from them.
• A year later, Holy Lord Cathedral closed again, and Church knights withdrew their patrols from the city’s neighborhoods and outskirts.
• As darkness fell over the devastated city, a slender, shadowless figure with scarlet eyes appeared outside Holy Lord City.

Norton fled Holy Lord City after choosing not to lure Werewolves toward its starving survivors, and the Werewolves later attacked the city. By autumn, he had reached the livelier Lino City and settled unseen in a church-owned clock tower.

• Norton entered the ruined Holy Lord City, saw its starving survivors near the cathedral, and struggled with guilt as he considered leading Werewolves to them.
• Norton fled the city, and dozens or hundreds of Werewolves charged into Holy Lord City and attacked its inhabitants.
• By autumn, Norton had left the Holy Lord City region and discovered that other cities in the Papal State were less extreme in their religious rules.
• Norton arrived in Lino City, where laborers noticed fresh claw marks climbing the stone wall while the city carried on around them.
• Norton made his home at the top of a Church-owned clock tower and spent his days observing Lino City and learning about the Church.

Norton had spent a month in Lino City, where Archbishop Duoxia’s relatively open rule made him consider settling down and searching the Church for books about Vampires. Despite the city’s peace, Norton still hated the Church and remained focused on understanding his abilities while evading the Werewolves hunting him.

• Norton considered Archbishop Duoxia’s practical rule normal and liked that Lino City allowed commerce and daily life to flourish.
• A vampire bat returned to Norton at the bell tower, joining the other bat that stayed with him.
• After a month in Lino City, Norton decided its openness might let him hide from the Werewolves and search the Church for Vampire research books.
• Norton worried that, without inherited memories, he did not understand his Vampire abilities and could be vulnerable to new threats.
• Norton looked over the sleeping city and felt no belonging or sympathy for its people, while retaining his hatred of the Church.

Norton settled into a routine in Lino City, hunting periodically and gathering information while considering how to learn more about Vampires from the Church. He learned that the Papal State was close to electing a new pope, whose rule might make his quiet life more difficult.

• Norton hung the hide of a Werewolf he had hunted and wondered why the same pack had pursued him from the mountains near Holy Lord City to Lino City.
• Norton described his daily routine of listening to people in the streets and secretly observing Lino City's church for a chance to find books about Vampires.
• Norton listened outside a tavern as a drunk man praised the Boya Empire and criticized the Church, and Church knights dragged the man away.
• Norton recalled that the old pope's seat had been vacant for more than five months while the eight archbishops traveled to elect a successor.
• Norton worried that the incoming pope would worsen people's hardships and bring stricter oversight that could threaten his routine.

Norton watched the Church’s new activities after His Holiness Adam established the Eye of Holiness to hunt and study monsters and Vampires. While spying from a beggar’s corner, Norton also discovered Boya Empire spies and was repeatedly approached by a kind boy offering him pastries.

• His Holiness Adam was confirmed as the new pontiff and burned the old pope’s attendants and servants during his ascension ritual.
• His Holiness Adam established the Eye of Holiness to capture and research monsters and Vampires, worrying Norton, who was a Vampire pursued by Werewolves.
• Norton watched squads of unfamiliar armored knights leave the city at night and spotted spies planted by the Boya Empire.
• Norton continued disguising himself as a beggar to observe the Church, but the priest’s favorite boy repeatedly brought him pastries.
• Norton ignored the boy’s latest offering, hoping to discourage him from returning.

Norton continued hiding in Lino City, studying the Church and avoiding the Werewolves while he waited to grow stronger. Months later, a family of bats made their home with him in the bell tower.

• A young boy brought Norton pastries and confided his troubles while Norton silently sketched the Church’s layout and guard positions.
• Norton threw away the pastry the boy had left behind and returned to his bell tower to copy his sketch.
• Norton observed that the Eye of Holiness had made little progress in Lino City, though Church knights had hunted three Werewolves.
• Norton remained hidden in the city for months and watched the Church without seeing a Gold Saint appear.
• A baby bat was born on Norton’s chest, and he moved it and its parents onto a branch he had set up in the bell tower.

Norton spent years in seclusion, growing stronger through drinking blood while becoming less able to tolerate sunlight, and gradually grew attached to life in Lino City. He continued mentoring Karl and learned that the Pope was dissatisfied with the Eye of Holiness and might be preparing a major move.

• Norton reflected that drinking blood had increased his strength, especially the blood of the two Gold Saints, but he resisted pursuing more because he wanted to stay hidden.
• Norton grew familiar with Lino City and developed a faint sense of belonging after living there for two years.
• Karl asked Norton whether he could leave Jennifer for Mary, and Norton told him he could pursue both.
• Norton asked Karl for news, and Karl reported that the Pope was unhappy with the Eye of Holiness and might take major action.
• Karl added that the Church had secretly obtained something from Holy Lord City and that the Pope seemed intent on consolidating power, though Archbishop Duoxia and the other bishops might oppose him.

Norton learned that the Church had obtained something from Holy Lord City, then watched tensions rise as the Pope condemned the Eye of Holiness and Boya Empire spies arrived in Lino City. Sensing disaster ahead, Norton resolved to rise in power while continuing to hide with his bats.

• Norton asked Karl what the Church had obtained from Holy Lord City and wondered whether it was a plague, Werewolves, a monster, or Father Mia.
• A little over three months later, His Holiness Adam raged at the Eye of Holiness for failing to carry out its work.
• Norton noticed increasing numbers of Boya Empire spies in Lino City and identified them by their heightened senses and the scent of their blood.
• Norton sensed that a disaster was approaching and decided he would rise rather than keep hiding and swallowing his humiliation.
• Norton returned to his bell tower, where five bats now lived and where he had named the first one Coal Ball.

As Werewolves gathered near Lino City, Norton considered leaving but chose to stay under the Church’s protection while hunting Werewolves to ease his guilt. After discovering they were passing through from other directions toward Holy Lord City rather than following him, he stopped keeping watch over the city.

• Karl warned Norton that Werewolves might attack Lino City and offered him shelter at his home, but Norton refused and praised the Church’s protection.
• Norton decided to stay in Lino City, reasoning that leaving would draw the Werewolves after him and that the Church could shield him.
• Although Norton claimed not to care about the city’s suffering, he watched for danger and went out at night to hunt Werewolves.
• Norton deduced that the Gold Saints could track him through the aura left by exposure to God’s holiness.
• Norton detected that the Werewolves had come from other directions and were merely passing through Lino City on their way to Holy Lord City, so he stopped keeping watch.