Recaps

After the Pale Holy See revealed that the Pale God was responsible for humanity’s disasters, the Church and the Human Federation descended into chaos. Regent Duoxia dismantled the Pale Church and revived the ancient Holy Lord Church, leaving himself installed as its pope and humanity’s new struggle against Norton underway.

• After the Pale Holy See’s announcement, mass suicides, violence, and unrest spread as the Pale Church’s faith collapsed and its personnel splintered.
• The Human Federation Government and the orthodox Pale Church suppressed crime, rebellion, and schism as the chaos worsened.
• In Norton year 4621, Regent Duoxia held the God Annihilation Conference, denounced Norton as the hidden cause of the disasters, and declared the Pale God a devil.
• Duoxia replaced the Pale Church with the ancient Holy Lord Empire Church system to unite humanity and oppose the Pale God.
• In Norton year 4622, the Pale Church was dismantled and reorganized, and Duoxia stepped down as regent before crowning himself pope of the Holy Lord Church a week later.

Norton raged over humanity’s return to oppression and depravity, then punished Abraham and Elizabeth for their divided loyalties by imprisoning them in the holy court. He revealed that their actions followed a path laid out long ago and began reaping what he had planned.

• Norton lamented that humanity had destroyed his world of devotion and returned to oppression, deceit, and brutality.
• Abraham watched Norton’s power crush visions of past spacetime and feared that Norton was still acting despite their plans being exposed.
• Norton accused Abraham and Elizabeth of disloyalty and sealed their bodies, leaving them unable to move or perceive them.
• Norton summoned the Gargoyles, which turned to stone and enclosed Abraham and Elizabeth in the silent hall.
• Norton told Abraham that humanity’s choices followed a path laid out long ago, then removed a miniature galaxy from his collection and wondered whether his own path was predetermined.

After a vanished star system exposed the Pale God Norton's crimes, public faith in him collapsed and Pope Duoxia rallied humanity to summon the true God. The chapter ended as the Human Federation prepared for the God-Conquering Grand Ceremony.

• After years of failed efforts to replace the Pale God's influence, Pope Duoxia realized that only Norton's own brutality could turn the people against him.
• During the 3,281st Great Crusade transport operation, netizen "Norton Lick My Big Hook" accused the Human Federation Government of corruption over empty transport ships.
• As officials investigated the unexplained shortage of assignments, witnesses and records suggested that one star system had vanished and been erased from people's memories.
• The public blamed Norton, and the Human Federation Government released evidence that he had previously erased hundreds of towns and their inhabitants from memory.
• Duoxia condemned Norton as the Pale Devil and, in Norton Year 4626, convened the God-Conquering Grand Ceremony to unite humanity in prayer and summon the true God.

Humanity gathered for the God-Conquering Grand Ceremony as Pope Duoxia prepared to awaken a god to oppose Norton. The ceremony began with Duoxia’s public account of Norton’s crimes and a call for the population to pray to the true spirit of the Holy Church.

• Church knights and Human Federation soldiers directed survivors into the streets and rooftops to take part in the ceremony.
• People discussed whether an awakened god could defeat Norton, and Church booklets explained how humanity could expose his deceptive scheme.
• Duoxia and the Human Federation’s leaders assembled at the rebuilt Holy Lord Holy See as the livestream began.
• Duoxia declared that Norton had returned after twice being sealed by gods Kuba and Jonah, and said humanity needed to awaken a god through its collective faith.
• Duoxia called on the population to pray to the true spirit of the Holy Church.

Pope Duoxia led humanity in praying for God’s descent, while Norton watched from his throne and revealed that he had engineered humanity’s history to gather souls and faith for his plan to devour a god. As the prayers transformed the universe into darkness and nothingness, a figure began to form before Norton and addressed him.

• Pope Duoxia led the Human Federation’s leaders and billions of people in praying for God to descend.
• Norton watched the livestream from his silver throne, with Elizabeth and Abraham’s heads impaled beside him.
• Abraham realized Norton had used immortality, war, and humanity’s final united resistance to prepare the souls and faith needed to summon God.
• Humanity’s murmurs synchronized, and their vibrations spread as light faded and people, planets, galaxies, and reality began to vanish.
• Norton found himself alone in nothingness as a pale figure formed before him and said, “This day has come again... Norton.”

God revealed that Norton’s existence had created new spacetime and that the Garden of Eden and its history were products of Norton’s thoughts, while each cycle offered him a choice between enduring the void, reincarnating, or dying in his original world. Norton realized the truth about Shenyin and entered primordial slumber, after which his divine corpse fell into a newly forming world as life began to evolve.

• God appeared before Norton in the void, explained that Norton had been drawn into a cycle of rebirth, and showed him countless versions of his life ending in vampirism.
• Norton attacked God but was restrained, and God explained that Norton could not destroy or escape him because Norton’s existence sustained God’s endless expansion.
• God offered Norton the choices of remaining in the void, entering another cycle, or returning to his original world to die, while Norton considered the loneliness and limits of each option.
• Norton asked why God had been born, and God revealed that Norton’s thoughts had shaped the Garden of Eden, its gods, its living beings, and its history.
• Norton asked about Shenyin and learned that life had been under his control; he laughed, shed golden tears, and fell into primordial slumber.
• Norton’s divine corpse was pinned to a cross, fell into the sea of a newly forming world, and its blood spread as life evolved and humanoid tool users appeared.

Norton, a young cleric, tried to escape Father Abraham’s predatory call by pretending to have stomach trouble, but when the priest grabbed him, Norton fought back. The rest of the chapter was an author’s note explaining the novel’s ending and apologizing for delays.

• Karl asked Norton what Father Abraham and Jacob were doing inside the confessional hut.
• Father Abraham summoned Norton after Jacob left, and Norton tried to avoid going in by claiming his stomach hurt.
• Father Abraham threatened Norton and reached for him despite his pleas and attempts to disgust the priest.
• Norton punched Father Abraham in the eye and cursed him.
• The author explained three possible versions of the ending and described why Norton served as an alarm clock for the parasite God.
• The author apologized for the slow updates, discussed the novel’s ending and writing, and said they had not yet settled on their next book.