Recaps

Norton realized Coal Ball was becoming a true familiar as his flesh and blood replaced the bat’s underlying code, while sunlight’s growing pain confirmed that Norton himself was transforming into a real Vampire. As Lino City fortified itself for the Church, the Papal State and Boya Empire’s allied forces prepared for their great war.

• Norton fed Coal Ball one of his fingers and sensed their bond strengthening as Coal Ball’s mutation replaced his underlying code with Norton’s.
• Norton considered spreading his flesh and blood to every creature, then dismissed the idea and reflected that sunlight increasingly hurt him as he transformed into a Vampire.
• Norton ordered the Vampires of Lino City to dig tunnels and build high walls around an immense castle to shelter them from daylight and prepare for Church troops.
• The Papal State mobilized eight thousand Church knights and two hundred thousand militiamen, while the Boya Empire’s allies assembled eight hundred thousand troops for the approaching war.

Yalian III forced the Boya Empire’s divided great lords into cooperation by arresting them, then led the empire into a brutal war against the Papal State. After the Church’s fearless soldiers inflicted heavy losses and forced Boya to rely on harassment and supply-line attacks, historians at home portrayed Yalian III’s battered army as victorious.

• Lord Meiers and other great lords resisted Yalian III’s call to unite against the Papal State, fearing losses and threats to their power.
• Yalian III ordered the great lords seized so he could force the Boya Empire’s factions to unite and weaken the lords’ power through the war.
• The unified Boya army met the Papal State’s offensive, and the two infantry forces fought intensely for three months, suffering tens of thousands of casualties.
• The Papal State’s soldiers fought fearlessly, frightening Boya’s troops and leaving them unable to maintain their ranks.
• Boya shifted to guerrilla harassment and attacks on supply lines, while sometimes requesting pauses in hostilities.
• Historians depicted Yalian III as undefeated and claimed he had taken fifteen cities and driven the Holy Lord Empire to seek peace.

Norton spotted a new Holy Judgment Order approaching Lino City and learned its knights were High-Rank Holy Knights immune to drowning. He grabbed Coal Ball and fled through the escape tunnel as a swarm of bats followed him.

• Norton watched the Church’s Holy Knights charge out of the forest toward Lino City and realized his magnetic field had not detected them.
• Norton ordered Abraham to rally the vampires and raise the drawbridge, planning to drown the knights in the moat.
• Abraham warned Norton that the attackers were High-Rank Holy Knights who had almost no vitality and could not be drowned.
• Norton jumped down from the cathedral dome, grabbed Coal Ball, and ran toward the escape tunnel while bats followed him.

Norton fled Lino City with Father Abraham and his bats, pretending he had only returned for Abraham because the old vampire could not keep up. After hearing that war between the Boya Empire and the Papal State was near, Norton agreed to seek refuge in a smaller neighboring country, and the group set off toward an uncertain destination.

• Norton blocked the escape tunnel with a boulder, leaving Father Abraham stranded outside as he fled.
• Norton returned, pulled Abraham through the tunnel, and blamed the old vampire for running too slowly.
• Norton and Abraham escaped Lino City with Coal Ball and the other bats, while Norton denounced the Papal State and spoke of rebuilding the Blood Clan elsewhere.
• Abraham warned that the looming war made the Boya Empire unsafe and suggested a smaller neighboring country.
• Norton accepted Abraham’s proposal and continued the journey, relying on his Pressure and expanded perception to travel farther from Lino City.

After five years of attrition left Sesvia devastated, the Papal State recaptured Lino City but failed to kill Norton and Abraham, and escaped vampires spread across the country. The chapter introduced Elizabeth I, a twelve-year-old former royal ruling the relatively peaceful frontier town of Mann, where two beggars approached on a quiet night.

• Yalian III and the Papal State prolonged the war with small clashes, exhausting their allies and leaving many small countries in ruin.
• The Papal State recaptured Lino City, but Norton and Abraham escaped, and vampires fled and began hunting people across the Papal State.
• Vampire hunters emerged as communities and powerful figures offered rewards for killing the new-style vampires.
• The chapter revealed that twelve-year-old Elizabeth I ruled Mann as the last surviving member of Sesvia's former royal house.
• Two beggars wrapped in rags approached Mann through the darkness.

Queen Elizabeth I remained imprisoned in a decaying castle, dreaming of a prince who would rescue her, while Norton and Father Abraham struggled through the wilderness after leaving the Papal State. The two vampires remained lost and hungry, with Norton hiding how little the lack of blood affected him.

• Elizabeth I stayed under guard in the old castle, where the king’s servants and knights kept her confined after her brother Edward VI’s suspicious death.
• Elizabeth I imagined a handsome prince killing the king and finding her as he passed the castle.
• Norton and Father Abraham traveled through the Southern Continent’s wilderness after spending five years crossing the Papal State.
• Father Abraham offered Norton a foul-smelling rat, but Norton rejected it and demanded the blood of young maidens.
• Norton secretly maintained his strength without feeding while Father Abraham believed they were both weakened, and the chapter described how prolonged starvation affected the three vampire generations.

Norton pretended to be overcome by bloodlust to mislead Abraham, who began to suspect that the progenitor might have a real weakness. That night, Norton, Abraham, and Coal Ball silently fed on Elizabeth I’s sleeping knights in the old castle.

• Norton continued to hide his true nature and let Abraham believe that he suffered from the bloodthirst of new-style vampires.
• Norton claimed he smelled humans and raced ahead, prompting Abraham to follow while wondering whether Norton’s weakness was genuine or an act.
• Three dark figures entered the castle’s guards’ room, where Elizabeth I’s ten knights were sleeping.
• Abraham and Coal Ball quietly bit and drained a knight, while Norton snapped another knight’s neck and bit off his head.

Norton and Abraham attacked Queen Elizabeth, and Norton fed on her while secretly watching Abraham’s reaction. Norton decided he needed to create other first-generation vampires to keep Abraham in check, though he feared that all of them might eventually threaten him.

• A bloodied knight burst into Elizabeth’s room to warn her, but Norton killed him by piercing his throat and skull.
• Elizabeth screamed at the sight of Norton and Abraham, while Norton declared that offering her blood to His Majesty was an honor.
• Norton cut Elizabeth’s calf and drank her blood as Abraham watched and wondered whether he could gain the progenitor’s power.
• Norton observed Abraham through the magnetic field and considered creating more first-generation vampires to restrain him, despite the danger of empowering them.

Norton planned to destroy the Church, then weaken the vampires so they would eventually be forgotten. He ordered Abraham to turn Mann’s citizens into subjects of a new blood kingdom and collect the town’s pretty girls, then settled in for daytime rest.

• Norton looked toward Mann and reasoned that he needed to destroy the Church while preventing vampires from becoming powerful enough to attract enemies or turn against him.
• Norton told Abraham to establish a new blood kingdom by converting every citizen of Mann and restoring Lino City’s glory.
• Norton claimed all the pretty girls in Mann for himself and forbade Abraham from feeding on them.
• Abraham left to sleep, while Norton tossed Elizabeth onto the floor and rested on her bed.
• Norton called Abraham back and ordered him to have a coffin made, leaving Abraham frustrated by his difficult master.

Elizabeth survived the monsters’ attack and feared that Norton would keep her as a blood slave. Meanwhile, Norton organized Mann Town into a controlled vampire society and used customs such as coffin-sleeping to shape the Blood Clan’s thinking.

• Elizabeth woke injured in a shabby room, remembered the pale monster, and resolved to survive because her mother had told her to live well.
• Under Norton’s orders, Abraham turned Mann Town’s elderly and middle-aged women into third-generation vampires, middle-aged men into second-generation vampires, and kept the young as blood slaves.
• Norton offered second-generation vampires the promise that their children could become vampires after ten years as blood slaves, helping him control the families.
• Norton renamed the gloomy castle Norton Castle and observed Coal Ball’s increasingly gargoyle-like body as it continued to develop.
• Norton rose from his coffin in a staged vampire pose, while Abraham and the other vampires imitated him by obtaining coffins.
• Norton used vampire customs and routines to subtly confine the Blood Clan’s thinking and make its members align themselves with his will.

Norton endured the sunlight and decided Elizabeth might become a first-generation vampire after years of conditioning. When Elizabeth begged him to feed on her, he coldly ignored her to deepen her anxiety and dependence.

• Norton stood in the sunlight, found that his skin healed immediately, and decided to begin developing first-generation vampires.
• Norton judged Elizabeth clever enough to become a first-generation vampire but chose to frighten and condition her for several more years first.
• Elizabeth crawled to Norton's throne and begged him to feed on her, fearing she would remain a blood slave while the other young people were promised eventual conversion.
• Norton silently ignored Elizabeth's plea and used his coldness to make her more anxious to win his favor.

Norton ignored Elizabeth and ordered Abraham to bring him blood food, then fed on a group of girls from Mann Town while treating them more gently than her. He left Elizabeth alone in the throne room, where she eventually began to sob.

• Norton dismissed Elizabeth's offering and sent Abraham to prepare feeding time.
• Abraham brought a dozen or so beautiful girls from Mann Town, and Norton said he would feed on all of them.
• Norton fed on the girls gently and reassured them, while Elizabeth watched and silently wept over his kindness to them.
• After feeding, Norton ignored Elizabeth's plea to taste her blood and left with Abraham to rest.
• Elizabeth remained prostrate in the empty room until she finally began to sob.

Norton established the Blood Red Church to build a tightly controlled vampire hierarchy and expand the Blood Clan across Sesvia. As vampire numbers grew and Sesvia’s nobles began turning, his information channels with the Southern Continent reopened.

• Norton sent second-generation vampires to establish families in cities across Sesvia, rejecting uncontrolled mass creation of first-generation vampires.
• Norton conscripted five hundred third-generation vampires and unconverted blood slaves to build the Blood Red Church in Mann Town.
• Norton named Coal Ball the Blood Clan True Ancestor and prince, while Abraham became a duke and head of the Church’s Inquisition.
• Norton made the remaining second-generation vampires barons, bound them to his vampire laws, and subjected young children to ideological and obedience training.
• As the Blood Red Church’s systems matured, vampire creation across Sesvia stabilized, and the kingdom’s nobles gradually turned into vampires.
• Norton’s sources of information reconnected with the Southern Continent.

As vampire families expanded under Norton’s rule, some third-generation vampires ignored his laws and committed brutal atrocities in Sesvia. A group of imposing vampires approached the blood-soaked town, and the perpetrators sensed their forefather Abraham drawing near.

• Abraham focused on administering the growing Blood Red Church while Elizabeth gained more opportunity to seek Norton.
• Some third-generation vampires in Sesvia broke Norton’s laws and slaughtered, tortured, and abused civilians.
• A blizzard covered a town filled with victims while vampires forced residents to watch women being tortured.
• A dozen black-cloaked vampires approached the town, and the third-generation vampires stopped their crimes in fear.
• The approaching vampires’ presence stirred the bloodline of the third-generation vampires, who sensed their forefather Abraham among them.

Abraham led the Blood Red Church's Inquisition in punishing vampires who had violated the Blood Court's laws, then traveled to Sesvia to meet its king. Back at the castle, Norton tested whether his own advancement affected the bats he created, while struggling to dress himself without Abraham's help.

• Abraham sentenced a second-generation vampire to be flayed and deboned and ordered the third-generation vampires to be ground to dust.
• The Inquisition carried out Abraham's judgment, recovering the second-generation vampire's flesh and bones as the town filled with screams.
• Abraham headed to Sesvia's royal palace to speak with the king, who had applied to join the Blood Court's faith in pursuit of immortality.
• Norton stayed in the castle to seek advancement and fed his blood to Coal Ball's wife while testing whether his rank limited the bats' development.
• Norton swept aside his custom clothes because their back fastenings were too difficult for him to manage alone.

After five years of training Elizabeth into obsessive devotion, Norton decided she was ready to become a vampire. He offered her eternal life as his servant, and she eagerly accepted, leaving her future at his side assured.

• Norton named Coal Ball's obedient wife Prince Plum Blossom and fed her in the secret chamber.
• Elizabeth fantasized about Norton and showed signs of an intense fixation on earning his approval.
• Norton decided to stop Elizabeth's training and turn her into a vampire now that she was seventeen.
• Elizabeth entered Norton's chamber and knelt before him.
• Norton praised Elizabeth for five years of service and asked whether she would become his eternal servant.
• Elizabeth tearfully accepted and kissed Norton's foot.

Norton continued transforming Elizabeth into a First-Generation Vampire and reflected on his slow approach to becoming a Third-Tier Vampire. As the Blood Red Church shaped Vampire clans into a mysterious and noble society, the royal family of Sesvia began to admire them.

• Norton had Prince Plum Blossom bite Elizabeth and inject her with blood, making her the second First-Generation Vampire he acknowledged.
• Norton dismissed Elizabeth and examined his own gradual transformation, noting that his body had begun to resemble a corpse as he neared the third tier.
• Norton maintained the Blood Red Church’s rules and clan system, executing disobedient newborn Vampires through the Blood-Colored Inquisition.
• The second prince of Sesvia eagerly praised the Blood Red Church’s Vampires, while the third princess dismissed them as ugly monsters.

Sesvia’s King Andrew II and his royal family welcomed Abraham and the Blood Clan, hoping to gain immortality by joining them. Abraham introduced himself as a grand duke and head of the Blood-Colored Church’s Grand Inquisition, leaving the royals awed but newly able to see the vampires as people.

• Sesvia’s King Andrew II prepared a lavish banquet and gathered noblewomen to entertain the Blood Clan, hoping to secure his family’s transformation into vampires.
• Andrew II and the royal family greeted the approaching black-robed vampires, whose speed and appearance convinced them of the clan’s power and nobility.
• Abraham introduced himself as a grand duke and head of the Blood-Colored Church’s Grand Inquisition, demanding that Andrew address him with respect.
• Abraham’s ordinary speech broke the vampires’ otherworldly aura, allowing Andrew II and the assembled nobles to regard them as people.

Abraham negotiated the conversion of Andrew II and Sesvia’s royal family into vampires in exchange for their eternal submission to the Blood Red Church and His Holiness the Progenitor. After the royal family celebrated their new power, Abraham told Andrew II to vacate the palace because it belonged to His Holiness Norton.

• Andrew II welcomed Abraham and the Blood Court envoys with a lavish banquet and sought to have Sesvia’s royal family become vampires.
• Abraham agreed to the conversion on the condition that the royal family obey the Blood Clan’s laws and the Progenitor’s decrees, and he recorded their submission in a contract.
• The second-generation vampires transformed Andrew II and his family into third-generation vampires, and Andrew II celebrated his renewed youth and strength.
• Andrew II declared that Sesvia’s lands would submit to him forever and decided to expand his power.
• Abraham refused Andrew II’s invitation to remain at the palace and ordered the royal family to leave, declaring that the palace belonged to His Holiness Norton.

Abraham seized control of Sesvia for the Blood Red Church, then chose to remain loyal to Norton rather than pursue the throne. As Norton’s procession traveled through worsening winter weather toward Sesvia Castle, Norton worried that the dimming sun might signal God’s return or the end of the world.

• Abraham ordered the Sesvian imperial family beaten and driven from the palace, and announced that the Blood Red Church would govern Sesvia and convert its people into vampires.
• Abraham sat on the imperial throne but gave up his ambition to claim it, deciding instead to serve Norton and protect his position.
• Norton’s long procession, pulled by third-generation vampires, traveled through heavy snow toward Sesvia Castle with the Blood Court Knights and Inquisition members.
• Norton caught snowflakes and worried that the colder winters and dimming sun might mean God was recovering or that the world would eventually become lifeless.
• Elizabeth prepared warm blood soup in Norton’s carriage while Coal Ball rested nearby among the family of bats.

Abraham eagerly prepared to welcome Norton and planned to distract him with pleasure so he could gain control of the Blood Clan, but Elizabeth’s appearance and Norton’s orders ruined his ambitions. Abraham was left following Norton’s carriage to Sesvia’s imperial capital, assigned to gather food and attend him.

• Abraham waited in the snow with hundreds of women selected to entertain Norton, hoping to win his confidence and take control of the Blood Clan.
• When Norton’s carriage arrived, Abraham saw Elizabeth inside and realized she had become a First-Generation Vampire and grand duke.
• Norton barely recognized Abraham and ordered him to follow the carriage to the imperial city.
• Abraham told Norton he had gathered beautiful young women, and Norton assigned him to gather quality food and attend him.
• Abraham realized he had lost his authority over the Inquisition and followed Norton’s carriage toward Sesvia’s imperial capital.

Norton began turning Sesvia into a Blood Clan Holy City, ordering construction and establishing laws to govern humans, vampire slaves, and vampire clans. His reforms left Abraham astonished and gave every class a future to strive toward, while layers of oversight were put in place to control local clans.

• Norton launched a massive construction project to replace Sesvia’s crude buildings and ordered toilets and an underground drainage system built.
• Norton assigned second-generation vampires to govern territories as clan lords and placed production in the hands of third-generation vampire slaves.
• Norton established a contribution system allowing third-generation vampires and second-generation vampires to rise through the ranks over time.
• Norton arranged for humans to receive housing, food, and care, but required the sick and infertile to be converted into third-generation vampire slaves.
• Norton divided local authority between vampire clans, the Blood Red Church Inquisition, and an inspection department established by Elizabeth, leaving Abraham impressed by his governance.

Norton strengthened the Blood-Red Holy See in Sesvia while the Papal State’s twenty-year war against the Boya Empire and its allies escalated into a war of extermination. The chapter ended after the massacre of Savanea shocked the world and changed the nature of the conflict.

• Norton divided Abraham’s power and bloodlines, fostered Elizabeth’s line alongside Abraham’s, and barred people from leaving Sesvia as the Blood-Red Holy See expanded.
• After twenty years of war, Emperor Yalian II and Crown Prince Yalian III consolidated the Boya Empire’s resources and led peace petitions to the Papal State.
• Pope Adam ignored the peace overtures and ordered his armies to kill everyone taller than a wagon wheel in captured cities and villages.
• In 2252 of the Church calendar, Church soldiers massacred more than thirty thousand people in Savanea under the pope’s order.
• News of Savanea’s destruction shocked the world and transformed the war of attrition into a war of extermination.

Adam defended his order to massacre the populations of conquered cities, arguing that destroying the kingdoms’ foundations would secure the Papal State and give him time to address threats within it. Meanwhile, Yalian II read reports of the slaughter and the Papal State’s vampire and werewolf research, with no progress reported on cultivating Holy Knights.

• Archbishop Duoxia and the surviving cardinal urged Adam to rescind his massacre decree and protect the Church’s reputation.
• Adam explained that killing serfs as well as rulers would keep neighboring kingdoms from recovering and threatening the Papal State.
• Adam planned to suppress the vampires spreading through the Papal State after stabilizing the outside world.
• Yalian II read a report that the Papal State had taken three cities and slaughtered 110,000 people, but he did not consider the losses a reason to intervene.
• Yalian II reviewed intelligence about new vampires and the Eye of Holiness’s suspected werewolf research, which included producing spiked collars.
• The intelligence report stated that research into the fundamental basis of cultivating Holy Knights had made no progress.

Yalian II suspected the Holy See concealed the secret behind the Church’s powerful supernatural forces, while the coalition kingdoms united against the Papal State after its city massacres. The brutal war returned to a stalemate, and far behind the front lines Norton sensed a chance to advance in rank.

• Yalian II read a report about trainable Werewolves and concluded that the Holy See must be hiding a powerful secret.
• After the Pope ordered several cities massacred, the war’s stakes grew existential for the kingdoms fighting the Papal State.
• Crown Prince Yalian III led a reorganized coalition army against the Papal State, and fear for their families united its soldiers and leaders.
• Coalition and Papal State forces fought with fanatical resolve, suffering immense losses as the coalition pushed the enemy back across its borders.
• In the war’s twenty-sixth year, both sides reached another stalemate, while Norton sensed an opportunity to advance in rank.