Recaps

Norton hunted a werewolf in the forest outside Lino City, then continued monitoring the Church while avoiding the passing packs. Months later, Karl told him that werewolves had gathered in Holy Lord City, leaving Norton to suspect a connection to a mysterious cargo sent to the Holy See.

• Norton chased down a lone werewolf, killed it, and drank its blood before fleeing to avoid nearby packs.
• Norton decided not to kill all the werewolves because he considered them a source of high-quality food.
• Norton continued watching the Church in Lino City as Karl visited less often but brought him stored-up information.
• Karl told Norton that werewolves had occupied Holy Lord City and were gathering for a major move.
• Norton wondered whether the gathering was linked to something the Church had found in Holy Lord City, but Karl said the cargo had been sent directly to the Holy See.

At the Holy See’s research center, Pope Adam studied a human-looking werewolf cub and sought the substance that had caused its mutation, hoping to begin his own path to godhood. As werewolves gathered toward Holy Lord City and Boya Empire spies appeared across the Papal State, Adam ordered an attack on the werewolves and prepared to confront the empire.

• Pope Adam admired the human-looking werewolf cub in a cage and watched the Eye of Holiness study it for signs of what had caused its mutation.
• Pope Adam recalled abandoning his plans for expansion after seeing a god’s corpse and became determined to pursue godhood through the cub’s mysterious origins.
• An aide told Pope Adam that werewolves were gathering toward Holy Lord City, Bishop Rosen wanted aid near Lino City, and Boya Empire spies were active across the country.
• Pope Adam ordered the Holy Judgment Order to eradicate the werewolves, promoted Bishop Rosen to high bishop over Hadley District, and told his forces to feign ignorance of the spies while preparing to join forces against the Boya Empire.

Norton learned that Holy Lord City had fallen to the werewolves, then watched Lino City come under martial law as the Holy Judgment Order arrived. Archbishop Duoxia welcomed Wayne, His Holiness Adam’s trusted aide, who had come with the Papal Holy Decree to command the campaign against the werewolves.

• Norton overheard Lino City residents spread news that Holy Lord City had fallen and worried that Father Mia might have died.
• Less than a week later, Lino City imposed martial law, and Norton hid in the shadows to gather information.
• The Holy Knights arrived and took control of Lino City as Archbishop Duoxia led a solemn procession through the streets.
• Norton realized the Church knights did not detect him, confirming that God’s holy radiance had exposed him before.
• Archbishop Duoxia met Wayne, who carried His Holiness Adam’s authority to command the Holy Judgment Order, and entrusted the remaining arrangements to him.

Norton resisted the urge to attack the Holy Knights and stayed hidden while the Church’s response to Holy Lord City unfolded. In Lino City, Archbishop Ethan suspected the source of the Werewolf infant’s mutation was there, making the city a likely target.

• Norton smelled the Holy Knights’ blood and longed to feed on them, but chose to hide rather than risk a fight.
• The Holy Judgment Order left Lino City for Holy Lord City with two hundred missionaries as logistical support.
• The people and Church members in Lino City discussed the fall of Holy Lord City and the coming conflict with the Werewolves.
• Archbishops Duoxia, Milio, and Ethan discussed the mutant Werewolf infant while abusing boys during their supposed religious rituals.
• Archbishop Ethan said Werewolves were watching Lino City and proposed that the source of their mutation was there.

Norton hid among Lino City’s beggars while the Church searched the city for an unknown target. In Holy Lord City, the werewolves gathered under their dying wolf king and then fled together as the Holy Judgment Order approached.

• Norton destroyed his pastry walls and disguised his bell tower after Church knights began searching homes throughout Lino City.
• Norton stayed among the slum beggars at night and wondered what the Church was seeking, while its search caught no Boya Empire spies.
• The werewolves filled Holy Lord City after the wolf king summoned them two years earlier to pursue their race’s transformation.
• The wolf king bred with she-wolves in the cathedral, but their mutated cubs were grotesque or stillborn as the king weakened.
• When a warning howl sounded beyond the city, the wolf king led the werewolves out of Holy Lord City, and the pregnant she-wolves followed under guard.

Lord Wayne led the Church forces against the Werewolves, but the vastly outnumbered Holy Knights began to fall and Wayne charged into battle with the missionaries. As the rain washed away the battlefield, Norton grumbled about bat droppings in his clock tower, where the Church knights had failed to recognize the bats as a threat.

• Lord Wayne watched the Holy Knights meet the Werewolves’ charge and initially trusted their strength to hold the line.
• Lord Wayne realized Archbishop Duoxia had reported far too few Werewolves when tens of thousands surrounded the hill and overwhelmed the five hundred Holy Knights.
• Lord Wayne cut the carriage’s reins, mounted his warhorse, and led the two hundred missionaries in a charge toward the Werewolves.
• The Holy Knights and missionaries fought as the rain intensified and washed the battlefield’s blood away.
• Norton caught rainwater and wiped his clock tower floor, complaining that bat droppings had made it stink.
• Church knights had searched Norton’s clock tower but dismissed the bats as ordinary creatures and did not return.

After the Holy Judgment Order was annihilated by the Werewolves, Norton saw the Church’s weakened position as a chance to investigate it, but chose to wait while the remaining Church knights still guarded the church. As a relentless downpour trapped him in the bell tower, he considered his changing body and the opportunity to test his vampire abilities.

• Norton learned that the Holy Judgment Order and the missionaries from Lino City had perished in Holy Lord City, and abandoned his idea of scavenging the battlefield because surviving Werewolves might still be there.
• The Werewolves watching Norton outside Lino City disappeared, while the two hundred remaining Church knights continued to guard the church.
• Norton decided the Church’s loss of the Holy Judgment Order created an opportunity, but resolved to wait until the Church’s defenses weakened further.
• Heavy rain kept Norton in the bell tower, where he watched the church and wondered what the storm, enemy spies, and the Church’s defeat foreshadowed.
• Norton noticed that he had grown taller and planned to find a chance to drink human blood and test his vampire abilities.

Norton used the storm as cover to sneak into Lino City's cathedral, hoping to test whether Church members’ blood could trigger his evolution. He entered without feeling any holy pressure and began navigating the grounds toward potential targets.

• Norton crossed flooded Lino City under cover of the rain, listening to residents and Church members discuss the storm and the Church’s silence.
• Norton decided to hunt Church personnel to test whether blood from people touched by God’s radiance could cause him to evolve.
• Norton reached the cathedral, climbed its unguarded outer wall, and cautiously tested whether crossing its boundary would harm him.
• Norton entered the cathedral unharmed and used his knowledge of the staff’s locations to move through the grounds unseen.

Archbishop Duoxia urged the Boya Empire to act against the Papal State, hoping to destroy the Holy See’s rule and rebuild the Church as a missionary institution. Norton overheard the plan and began hunting inside the church, targeting the confessional.

• Archbishop Duoxia criticized the Boya Empire for delaying action while the spy explained that the king feared acting without confirmation from the Holy See.
• Duoxia warned that the pope could create another force of Holy Knights and urged the empire to overthrow the Papal State before it was too late.
• The spy offered Duoxia the position of next pope if he cooperated and fomented rebellion, while admitting the empire still doubted his motives.
• Norton eavesdropped from the roof, delighted by the prospect of upheaval in the Papal State.
• Norton searched the church for a place to hunt and chose the confessional as his target.

Norton assassinated a missionary by dropping loosened masonry on him at the Lino City confession hall, then escaped over the Church wall. At the Holy See, Pope Adam killed a cardinal who challenged his plan to keep the people ignorant and society impoverished, fearing that prosperity might lead someone to discover the divine corpse.

• Norton waited on the confession hall roof until night, then dropped heavy tiles and masonry onto a missionary leaving the group, killing him.
• Norton escaped across the rooftops, climbed the Church's outer wall, and fled as the missionaries raised the alarm.
• As famine loomed, a cardinal publicly urged Pope Adam to open the granaries and help the people, while the other cardinals watched in silence.
• Adam defended his plan to suppress the people's minds and development, then had a golden Holy Knight stab the cardinal to death.
• Adam reflected that he was keeping society stagnant to prevent anyone from finding the divine corpse hidden in the hills behind the Holy See.

As cold weather and food shortages worsened in Lino City, Archbishop Duoxia worried about the Church’s declining reputation and mounting deaths among its missionaries. Norton followed a missionary who had kicked him into a secluded alley and attacked him, leaving the missionary’s fate uncertain.

• Cold, rainy weather threatened poor harvests, and the Church gathered the dead to make soup for the starving.
• Archbishop Duoxia feared that Pope Adam’s brutality would turn the public against the Church, while a string of accidental deaths unsettled him.
• The Church planned to promote clerics to replace more than two hundred dead missionaries and sent missionaries out alone to find children in the slums.
• A missionary kicked and insulted Norton, who pretended to retreat before secretly following him toward the outskirts.
• Norton clung to a wall to follow the missionary through flooded alleys, then leapt onto him and bit into his throat.

Norton experimented with drinking a missionary’s blood and found that it did not grant him memories or strength, unlike Holy Knight blood. Back at his clock tower, he considered testing whether his blood could mutate his growing bat family and decided the bats were the safest subjects.

• Norton drained a missionary and discovered that the man’s blood tasted stale and gave him no new abilities.
• Norton carried the corpse to his clock tower, avoiding passersby and postponing its disposal until he could check whether it would rise or infect anyone.
• Norton greeted his ten bats and reflected that Coal Ball had lived for more than eight years without showing signs of age.
• Norton considered whether his blood could strengthen or mutate the bats, but rejected experiments on people and wild creatures because they might become dangerous.
• Norton decided that experimenting on the bats was the only risk he was willing to take.

Norton tested whether his flesh could empower Coal Ball, but the bat ate a piece and later dried up and died. The experiment left Norton with no new supernatural abilities and a dead bat in his hand.

• Norton offered Coal Ball a piece of his flesh to test whether it would have a special effect.
• Coal Ball licked the flesh, stretched strangely, then dropped a pellet of shit into Norton's hand.
• Norton flicked Coal Ball, threw away the bat shit, and ate the remaining flesh himself.
• Norton checked the corpse in the bell tower and concluded it had not revived, so he still could not infect others.
• Norton noticed Coal Ball had stopped moving, touched it, and found that it had dried up.

Norton mourned Coal Ball after finding him shriveled and apparently dead, then went to dispose of the missionary’s corpse in the forest. A strange goat fed on the remains while Norton fled, and Coal Ball revived at the bell tower, leaving Norton to realize his flesh could cause other creatures to evolve.

• Norton found Coal Ball shriveled and seemingly dead, but hung his body from the bell tower ceiling in hope that he might recover.
• Norton dragged the missionary’s corpse into the forest and began dismembering it for safe disposal.
• Sensing that something was watching him, Norton tore off the missionary’s head, fled toward Lino City, and smashed the head with a rock.
• A goat that walked upright emerged from the forest, ate the missionary’s remains, and did not follow Norton into Church territory.
• Norton returned to the bell tower and found Coal Ball alive and squeaking, though still shriveled.
• Norton concluded that his flesh could make creatures evolve and worried that enemies might eat his severed limbs.

Norton watched Coal Ball evolve after drinking his blood and discovered he could sense and overpower the bat through a mysterious, pitch-black field. Coal Ball flew to the wealthy district and attacked Father Abraham, leaving blood from its feeding in his neck wound before servants drove it away.

• Norton found that Coal Ball had gained stamina and regenerative potential but showed no special abilities, then sensed the bat in a dark field and felt he could crush it at will.
• Coal Ball flew from the bell tower into the wealthy district, drawn to the home of Lady Mary’s family.
• Father Abraham returned to his mansion after midnight confessions and demanded that his servant kneel before him.
• Coal Ball latched onto Father Abraham’s neck, pierced his skin, and drank his blood, then spilled some of it into his wound.
• The servants rushed to help Father Abraham, and Coal Ball flew away as he shouted threats at them.

Norton stayed in Lino City after a frightening, undetectable encounter and tested his new Pressure ability, which let him sense nearby living things but drew attention to him. He hid again to watch the Church and plan further experiments, while Father Abraham began to feel that something was strange about himself.

• Norton decided to lie low in Lino City after an unknown presence had hunted him without being detected by his senses.
• Coal Ball returned to Norton, who discovered he could release and control a new passive sense he called Pressure.
• Norton tested Pressure in the slums and found it could track nearby living things and make them look toward him, making it harder for him to hide.
• Norton reined in Pressure and returned to watching the Church, intending to wait before experimenting again.
• Father Abraham felt that something about him was strange.

After vampire bats bit Father Abraham, he began experiencing a growing hunger for blood and feared he was turning into a vampire. In his cellar, the smell of blood overcame him, and he turned on the terrified servant he had imprisoned.

• Norton tested his newly acquired ability while Father Abraham recovered from his bat bites at his mansion.
• Father Abraham felt drawn to the nun’s neck and removed the cross from his chest, unsettled by his strange urges.
• Father Abraham went to the cellar, where he had a servant tortured for failing to rescue him during the bat attack.
• The cellar’s smell of blood intensified Father Abraham’s hunger as his eyes reddened and his teeth grew into fangs.
• Father Abraham turned toward the suspended servant and opened his mouth, prompting the servant to scream.

Norton sensed an overwhelming difference in existential rank when he saw Father Abraham, a priest he had known for years, and became curious about what Abraham had become. He decided to follow him into the Church, confident that Abraham could not detect him unless Norton chose to reveal himself.

• Norton reflected on his vampire nature and waited in his usual spot near the Church, wary of drawing suspicion by killing too often.
• Norton noticed that the Church and the Boya Empire had remained strangely quiet after the Holy Judgment Order was destroyed and Archbishop Duoxia’s betrayal was revealed.
• Father Abraham hurried past Norton toward the Church, distracted by panic and guilt.
• Norton felt that Abraham was an inferior life-form and realized he could kill him merely by allowing him to look at him.
• Norton decided to follow Abraham and investigate what had changed, trusting his instinct that Abraham would not notice him unless he chose to be seen.

Norton followed Father Abraham into the Church and then to his cellar, where he watched the priest struggle with a growing craving for blood. When Abraham’s fangs appeared, Norton was shocked and began questioning whether he was really a vampire himself.

• Norton climbed the Church wall to observe Father Abraham, who entered the grounds while fighting his unease and bloodlust.
• Father Abraham avoided religious images and crosses, then entered a side hall and took several Church books about vampires.
• Norton followed Abraham home and secretly watched him from the cellar ceiling.
• The smell of blood overwhelmed Abraham, and his eyes reddened as his front teeth grew into fangs.
• Norton saw Abraham’s vampire-like appearance and wondered which of them was the real vampire.

Norton wondered why he felt complete control over Father Abraham, whose new vampire species seemed to have been created through Norton's blood. He concluded that Father Abraham was a creation of his own, then worried that this made Norton a lower-ranked creation himself.

• Norton compared his lack of bloodlust with Father Abraham's frenzy and wondered how Father Abraham had become a vampire.
• Norton suspected that Coal Ball had gained the ability to create a new species after consuming his flesh and blood.
• Norton puzzled over why Coal Ball did not seem to belong to him, while the vampires Coal Ball created seemed entirely under his control.
• Norton conjectured that he felt like Father Abraham's creator because Father Abraham belonged to a new species created through Norton.
• Norton realized his theory might make him a downgrade material and wondered how he could possess an ability associated with God.

Norton waited in Father Abraham's cellar until Father Abraham gave in to his thirst for blood and left. Norton searched the books Father Abraham had brought from the Church, learning about vampire history, divinity, and existence levels.

• Father Abraham succumbed to his bloodlust and left the cellar to feed.
• Norton searched the books Father Abraham had left behind and found that they were about vampires.
• Norton read that vampires had once flourished after Jonah was imprisoned, but the Holy Lord Church's holy war had nearly wiped them out.
• Norton read the Church's account of vampire divinity and considered how crosses could harm vampires through divine power or the remains of Kuba.
• Norton connected existence levels to vampires' control over lower-ranked beings and to the Church's methods for suppressing vampires.

Norton read about how divine rank could establish rules that limited the growth of lower beings, and he concluded that God was the origin controlling all life and strength. He continued studying the Church’s research on vampires, which identified three stages in their development.

• Norton realized that the cross could harm vampires because God’s act of hanging the divine corpse on it had created a rule.
• Norton connected Coal Ball’s lower life rank after mutating with the idea that beings created from God’s flesh could never surpass God.
• Norton called God the origin of everything, then wondered whether Earth might also have a god.
• Norton resumed reading the Church’s vampire research and learned that vampires had three stages.

Norton read a Church book detailing the three known stages of vampires and learned that none had ever reached a fourth stage, which he believed Kuba’s will prevented. He lamented his own limits, then noticed the book omitted vampires’ ability to create thralls and wondered whether anyone had ever tried it.

• The Church book described how vampires changed through three stages, with crosses remaining their only sure means of death at the third stage.
• The book said the Church had never encountered a fourth-stage vampire and speculated that Kuba’s will suppressed their transformation.
• Norton regretted reading the book and concluded that Kuba’s rank kept vampires like him from advancing.
• Norton vowed to oppress Abraham in return, then noticed the book never mentioned vampires creating thralls.
• Norton wondered why the Church and vampires had not investigated whether feeding creatures his flesh and blood could turn them into thralls.

Norton speculated that his transmigrated soul let him shape mutations through his will, then followed Father Abraham into his mansion. Both vampires fled when they discovered an overlooked silver cross, and Norton escaped into painful sunlight, furious at Abraham.

• Norton theorized that his soul might share God's rank of existence and that his will, working through his blood, could guide mutations in creatures such as Coal Ball and Father Abraham.
• After hearing Father Abraham cough, Norton hid and later followed him from the cellar into the mansion while Abraham carried a servant's corpse and a book.
• Father Abraham entered the hall and recoiled at the silver cross he had left on the table, startling Norton above him.
• Norton and Father Abraham fled the cross, and Norton reached the sunlight outside, where it caused him pain and he blamed Abraham for nearly getting him killed.

Norton tested whether the silver cross that burned Father Abraham could also harm him, and discovered that it had no effect. He concluded that Abraham’s weakness to silver came from his own ideas about vampires and that he possessed the power of creation.

• Father Abraham cautiously approached the silver cross, then burned and lost half a finger when he touched it.
• Father Abraham panicked over losing his ability to serve as a priest and fled with his book on vampires.
• Norton wondered whether the cross’s holiness or its silver had burned Abraham.
• Norton touched and picked up the cross without being harmed.
• Norton concluded that Abraham had become the kind of vampire he had imagined and celebrated his power to create.