Recaps

Norton’s betrayal of the Boya Empire gave the Blood Court control of its army and earned him the nickname Kuba. As the Papal State prepared for war, Abraham feared Norton would betray him next and began plotting to seal him away and seize power.

• Norton took over the Boya Empire after imprisoning its imperial family, and the Southern Continent mocked him as Kuba for betraying his ally.
• The Blood Court’s alliance with Boya alarmed Adam, who regretted not dealing with the vampires earlier.
• Abraham brooded in the imperial gardens, convinced Norton might eventually consider him a threat and discard him.
• Abraham planned to drive a stake through Norton and nail him to a silver cross after the Papal State fell.
• Abraham decided to seal away the two true progenitors, kill Elizabeth, and claim the title of vampire progenitor for himself.

Norton used the captured Yalian III to force the Boya Empire’s officials and army into his control, then prepared to attack the Papal State before the emperor could turn against him. In the spring of the ninetieth year of Norton's era, the Blood-Boya Empire Allied Forces marched toward the Papal State as Norton’s brutal rule and reputation drew condemnation.

• Norton turned officials throughout the Boya Empire into Vampires but could not fully control the people, while Yalian III’s refusal to become a Vampire preserved the imperial family’s legitimacy.
• Yalian III declared that anyone could claim the Boya Empire’s succession if his imperial line ended, leaving Norton unable to dispose of him without risking the empire’s unity.
• Norton sent Yalian III to lead the Boya Empire’s army against the Papal State, expecting the emperor to wait until the Church was defeated before betraying him.
• In the spring of the ninetieth year of Norton's era, Norton led the Blood-Boya Empire Allied Forces toward the Papal State and called the campaign the “Epic Holy War.”
• The campaign became known by other names, including the “Holy Church Orthodoxy War” and the “Blood Progenitor Calamity,” while Norton's coercion alienated both his soldiers and the Vampires.

In Year 93, the Blood-Boya army began its war against the Papal State, and Norton learned that werewolves created from his blood could counter vampires. After inspecting a captured werewolf, Norton rejected Elizabeth’s suggestion to kill people protesting the vampire slave labor used to build the Boya Empire’s wonder.

• The Blood-Boya army fought its first official war against the Papal State in the Duchy of Kate, where werewolves proved able to suppress vampires’ regeneration.
• Norton examined a captured werewolf and realized it was a product of his bloodline, as was Elizabeth.
• Norton reflected that werewolves and vampires countered each other because both carried his bloodline, then disintegrated the captive werewolf into ash.
• Elizabeth reported that three hundred thousand people had been turned into fourth-generation vampire slaves to build the Boya Empire’s wonder and asked Norton whether to wipe out the protesters.
• Norton refused to kill the protesters and declared that future generations would praise him.

After four years of brutal warfare against the Papal State, Norton ordered the creation of a rival church in the Duchy of Kate. The new Holy Lord Church quickly attracted followers by condemning the Old Faith and distributing food to the poor.

• The Blood-Boya Allied Forces and the Papal State fought a devastating war, while low morale, desertions, and local resistance prolonged the conflict.
• After four years without gaining ground, Norton grew anxious that the Papal State's influence would spread beyond the Duchy of Kate.
• At the start of the ninety-fifth year of Norton's reign, the Blood Court established the Holy Lord Church using people Norton had brainwashed.
• The first pontiff, Saint Peter, declared the new church the New Faith and denounced the Papal State's church as the Old Faith.
• The New Faith gained support in the Duchy of Kate by distributing free food and having its white-robed pontiff and missionaries serve the poor.

The New Faith’s charity won mass support across the Southern Continent, strengthening the Blood-Boya Allied Forces’ conquered cities and ensuring the Papal State’s defeat. In his bedchamber, Norton endured the burning effects of holy symbols while shedding his old body, then turned to reshaping the New Faith’s scriptures to hide the old God and vampires and establish himself as the progenitor of New-Type Vampires.

• The New Faith’s open churches, free food, and message of love drew poor people away from the Old Faith, making its believers increasingly fanatical.
• Norton sat among religious ornaments and sunlight, insisting that the burning pain no longer hurt as his body continued to ulcerate and shed teeth and nails.
• Norton tested a fallen fang, saw it pierce a steel nail, and put it in a drawer because he did not want to eat it.
• Norton concluded that the New Faith’s growth would help defeat the Papal State and bury the old God, Caesar, in history.
• Norton planned to revise the New Faith’s scriptures to conceal God, Kuba, and old-era vampires while presenting himself as the progenitor of New-Type Vampires.

Norton saw the New Faith’s growth as inevitable and feared that humans would continue to oppose him as a vampire, so he decided he had to become a deity. He began writing the New Faith’s scripture, rewriting history to conceal the old deities and make Abraham bear the blame.

• Norton reflected that the New Faith would replace the Old Faith, while uprisings and secret human opposition threatened his rule.
• Norton concluded that only becoming a god could make people lose the desire to resist him.
• Norton decided the New Faith needed a central tenet and planned to conceal Kuba while bringing himself to the forefront and blaming Abraham.
• Norton wrote the New Testament, portraying himself as humanity’s teacher and Abraham as his betrayer.
• Norton wrote the Blood Pact, assigning divine roles to God and Withering Death and claiming Abraham had been exiled for shunning sunlight.

Norton spread fabricated stories about himself while his eight-year holy war devastated both the Boya Empire and the Papal State. As the New Faith grew under Saint Peter, rumors about Norton multiplied, and a tavern crowd argued over whether he was a vampire, a half-vampire, or God.

• Norton wrote false accounts portraying himself as a divine figure and the progenitor of the Blood Clan, laughing as his body deteriorated.
• Norton conscripted hundreds of thousands and seized supplies for the front, while Adam’s forces resorted to desperate measures, including eating the dead.
• Norton burned Old Faith scriptures and sent scholars who had studied them to the battlefield, provoking public outrage.
• Saint Peter spread the New Faith and distributed food among the poor, drawing many followers with his message of love and peace.
• People in a Boya Empire city fled the Blood Court’s conscription squad while a tavern crowd traded conflicting rumors about Norton’s origins and powers.

On the Boya Empire’s frozen frontline, Archbishop Duoxia asked Yalian III to help save the Holy Lord Church by overthrowing the Holy See and surrendering its political rule. Yalian III agreed to recognize the Church after the Holy See fell and the vampires were defeated, leaving their alliance dependent on those enemies’ defeat.

• Yalian III met Archbishop Duoxia in a military tent and questioned why he had joined the vampires.
• Duoxia said Abraham had forcibly transformed him and explained that the Holy Lord Church faced destruction from both the Papal State’s defeat and the rise of the false church.
• Duoxia proposed working with Yalian III to overthrow the Holy See and preserve the Holy Lord Church as a religious institution without governing power.
• Yalian III decided that preserving the old Church would help balance the new church and the vampires against each other.
• Yalian III promised to recognize the Holy Lord Church after the Holy See fell and the vampire scourge vanished, and warned Duoxia not to disappoint him.

Abraham secretly plotted against Yalian III as the Papal State weakened and the Blood-Boya Allied Forces invaded, capturing cities through brutal conscription. The New Faith spread through the conquered territory, and its teachings began to separate the ideas of God and deity.

• After meeting Yalian III, Archbishop Duoxia left the camp while Abraham watched and decided to make secret arrangements of his own.
• In Norton Year 95, a border city rebelled against the Papal State and opened its gates to the Boya Empire's allied forces.
• Over the next five years, the Blood-Boya Allied Forces captured fifteen cities and forcibly conscripted their inhabitants.
• Yalian III sent massed conscripts to the battlefield as expendable soldiers while training select young troops in religiously marked Papal State armor.
• The New Faith spread rapidly through Papal State territory, and its scriptures gradually changed how people understood God and deity.

The Blood-Boya Allied Forces captured Ende City after Archbishop Ethan died defending its church, then turned toward the Holy See. As the war reached the Holy See, the ailing Adam learned that Archbishop Duoxia had betrayed the Papal State and considered how the Church might survive its fall.

• Archbishop Ethan led Ende City's defense, held a Mass to strengthen morale, and died standing guard at the church entrance when the city fell.
• The Blood-Boya Allied Forces chose to march directly on the Holy See rather than conquer the Papal State territory piece by piece.
• Twenty years later, Adam sat frail and isolated in the Holy See, where an attendant reported that Duoxia had colluded with the enemy and awaited judgment outside.
• Adam accepted Duoxia's betrayal as a chance for the Holy Lord Church to survive, while worrying that the divine corpse and Norton would shape what followed.
• Adam regretted the promise he had made and lamented that he had brought the Papal State to ruin.

Yalian III led the Blood-Boya Allied Forces to the Holy See, where vampires increasingly weakened and disintegrated as they approached. After the army reached the city, Yalian III focused his plans on overthrowing the pope’s rule, while Abraham turned back to summon the Blood Clan’s progenitor.

• Yalian III drove the allied army forward for five years, defeating Church forces despite worrying that the pope might relocate the Holy See.
• As the army neared the Holy See, fourth-generation vampires, then third-generation vampires, became unable to advance, and those forced onward disintegrated.
• Yalian III halted the troops briefly, then overrode objections and ordered them to keep marching as the phenomenon spread to second-generation vampires.
• The Blood-Boya Allied Forces reached the outskirts of the Holy See after another month, and Abraham turned back, intending to summon the Blood Clan’s progenitor.
• Yalian III rejected his attendant’s suggestion to ambush the progenitor and said the army should concentrate on defeating the Holy Knights and overthrowing the pope.

As the Boya Empire’s forces closed in on the Holy See, Adam chose to end the Church’s rule rather than prolong a human conflict while vampires threatened the continent. After Adam spoke privately with Yalian III, the emperor took up the papacy, merged the Boya Empire with the Holy Lord Church, and turned against Norton.

• Adam refused to flee or let his remaining troops resist, and sent his attendant away as the Boya Empire’s army charged the Holy See.
• Adam decided to station the six hundred Holy Knights to guard the divine corpse and to stop draining Yalian III’s strength for the war.
• In year 115 of the Norton calendar, the Holy See fell, and Yalian III publicly hanged Adam before giving him a state funeral according to Old Faith rites.
• Rumors said Adam had requested a private conversation with Yalian III on the day the city fell, after which the emperor abandoned his imperial ambitions and focused on fighting vampires.
• Yalian III reestablished the Boya Empire’s legitimate imperial line, made the emperor pope, declared the Holy Lord Church the state religion, and ordered a purge of vampires.
• Norton flew into a rage after Yalian III’s sudden betrayal.

Abraham returned to Norton after failing to enter the Holy See, where he saw that Norton’s body was nearing a strange, sun-resistant transformation. Norton learned that Yalian III had made the Holy Lord Church the Boya Empire’s state religion and began to suspect that a divine relic hidden within the Holy See had forced the emperor’s decision.

• Abraham begged Norton for punishment and explained that an unknown power had created walls preventing the Blood Clan from entering the Holy See.
• Abraham observed Norton’s rotting flesh, pale new skin, and rapid healing in sunlight, and feared that Norton was nearing a final transformation.
• Norton silently listened as Abraham sobbed, while Abraham struggled to judge whether Norton still had human emotions.
• Norton learned that Yalian III had taken over the Holy See and made the Holy Lord Church the Boya Empire’s state religion, ruining Norton’s efforts to end the Church’s influence.
• Norton reasoned that Yalian III’s sudden reversal and the Holy See’s barriers pointed to a powerful hidden force, possibly a divine relic or the flesh of God.

Norton concluded that his advancement was being blocked and suspected the Holy See possessed God's divine corpse, which might be his only route to the fourth tier. He tore out his wings and flew toward the Holy See with Coal Ball and fifty Gargoyles, while Abraham and Elizabeth feared he was abandoning them.

• Norton suspected Kuba or God was preventing old-era vampires from reaching the fourth tier, and realized that faith tokens could still harm him even after he changed the New Faith's doctrines.
• Norton decided to seek advancement by devouring a divine corpse or absorbing Holy Knight blood, then tore open his back and unfurled his pale wings.
• Norton flew out of the palace toward the Holy See, declaring that he would strike Yalian III first.
• Coal Ball and fifty Gargoyles followed Norton, alarming the vampires of the imperial city, who feared the Boya Empire was doomed.
• Abraham chased after Norton in his Vampire Lord form, convinced Norton was leaving him behind as a target, while Elizabeth stayed behind and took comfort in the palace bats remaining.

Edward resented Yalian III for taking the papal throne and hoped to gain power and eternal life through Norton, while Yalian pursued support from the Old Faith. Yalian led Edward into the mountain cave to show him a god.

• Edward followed Yalian III into the cave behind the Holy See, envying his combined imperial and papal authority.
• Edward recalled poisoning rival successors and blamed Norton for the Blood-Boya Allied Forces taking the Holy See before he could become pope.
• Yalian III considered Edward a necessary target for conciliation because the other surviving archbishops had died.
• Yalian asked whether Edward had studied the Church's scriptures, and Edward professed admiration for the Boya Empire instead.
• Yalian III told Edward he was about to see a god.

Edward saw the divine corpse beneath the Holy See and learned from Yalian III that vampires could become gods by bearing divine power. Yalian III revealed that he intended to subdue the Old Faith and quickly stop Norton’s transformation, while his own imperial ambitions led him to expose the corpse for research.

• Edward saw the pale divine corpse nailed to a bone cross and panicked when its chest appeared to move.
• Yalian III told Edward that God was not dead, only sealed, and explained that the corpse was the ultimate form of a vampire.
• Yalian III said the Papal State’s Demon-Hunting Campaign aimed to prevent Norton, an old-era vampire, from completing his transformation into a god.
• Yalian III tasked Edward with leading the submission of the Old Faith so they could gather strength and stop Norton quickly.
• Yalian III’s imperial outlook led him to reveal the divine corpse and permit research, hoping to strengthen the royal family’s rule.

Yalian III’s scholars found contradictions in the Church’s records about the divine corpse and questioned whether it was truly God or perhaps Kuba. As Yalian III considered the possibility, an attendant reported that something bizarre had flown in from the horizon.

• A scholar told Yalian III that the Church’s accounts of the divine corpse contained inconsistencies, including why it had not been dismembered and sealed in pieces.
• Another scholar questioned how Shenyin could have dismembered Kuba if only Kuba could harm the divine corpse.
• The scholars suggested that the Church’s records might have been deliberately written to mislead readers, though they could not determine whether the corpse was God or Kuba.
• Yalian III considered that the corpse might be Kuba rather than God and compared its presence to Norton’s evolving form.
• An attendant rushed to the palace and told Yalian III that something bizarre had flown in from the horizon.

Norton flew toward the Holy See, drawn by the overwhelming life-force of the being inside and convinced that the divine corpse could help him advance. Yalian III ordered the Church to stop him, and hundreds of High-Rank Holy Knights attacked as Norton approached the rear mountain.

• Norton sensed a higher life-force within the Holy See and flew toward it, while his Gargoyle troop fell behind under the oppressive aura.
• Norton kicked Coal Ball out of the air and sent Plum Blossom and the Gargoyles after him, leaving Norton to continue alone.
• Norton resolved to risk approaching the Holy See’s divine corpse so he could advance and avoid being crushed by a god.
• Yalian III spotted Norton flying toward the rear mountain and ordered the Church legions to surround and kill him.
• More than six hundred High-Rank Holy Knights rushed from the mountain cave and hurled golden greatswords at Norton, filling the sky with blades.

Norton survived the High-Rank Holy Knights’ golden sword attack and discovered their holy power could not stop his rapid regeneration. He pursued Yalian III into the palace and blocked the emperor’s escape, leaving their confrontation obscured by dust and falling rubble.

• The High-Rank Holy Knights hurled hundreds of golden greatswords at Norton, piercing his body and wings as he fell from the sky.
• Norton regenerated from his wounds, flew back into the sky, and laughed at the Holy Knights’ limited power.
• Yalian III ordered his forces to bring silver weapons and siege crossbows, then fled toward the mountain behind the palace.
• Norton decided to capture Yalian III and use him to force the Holy Knights to lead him to the place where God’s flesh and blood lay.
• Norton tore two golden greatswords from his body, crashed through the palace roof, and landed in front of the fleeing Yalian III.

Norton seized Yalian III, who defied him and ordered his own soldiers to fire, but the crossbow bolts failed to injure the Blood Progenitor. After Yalian III died, Norton charged into the Holy Knights, and the Royal Knight Order rallied to fight him.

• Norton grabbed Yalian III by the neck and taunted him for betraying him before his plan could succeed.
• Yalian III ordered the imperial troops to loose their crossbow bolts, and the volley killed him without harming Norton.
• Norton tossed aside Yalian III's corpse and attacked the more than six hundred Holy Knights, tearing through their ranks.
• The knight commander rallied the Royal Knight Order to charge Norton in the name of Yalian III.

Norton forced his way through the Holy See and followed the immense life pressure to a hidden cavern, where he found a god’s corpse that looked almost exactly like him. There he recognized an old acquaintance, Bill, who identified himself as Karl and climbed onto a stool beside the corpse as Norton pleaded with him to remember their past.

• Norton explained that his soul was unaffected by holiness, then blasted through the Holy Knights and flew toward the source of the pressure behind the Holy See.
• Norton reached a cave and pressed onward through its murals and mounting life pressure until he found a pale corpse pinned to a cross that looked almost identical to him.
• An elderly man emerged from behind the corpse, and Norton recognized him as Bill, the boy his family had once sent away to become a priest.
• The man called himself Karl, and Norton recalled promising to turn him into a first-generation vampire.
• As Norton urged Karl to come with him and reminded him of an old meal, Karl set down a stool beside the corpse and climbed onto it.

Karl tried to free the bone nail from Kuba’s corpse, hoping to seize power and escape a life of oppression, while Norton struggled to stop him. Norton killed Karl with a thrown stone, and Karl died wishing he could return to Lino City.

• Karl stood before the pale corpse and tried to pull the bone nail from its chest as Norton pleaded with him to stop.
• Norton argued that the corpse was Kuba, not God, but Karl said he wanted power regardless of who was sealed there.
• Karl revealed his ambition and the suffering he had endured in the Church, declaring that he would rather see everyone die than remain powerless.
• Norton hurled a stone that pierced Karl’s chest, and Karl collapsed against the corpse as blood stained its pale skin.
• Karl told Norton that he had always wanted to return to Lino City, then died.

After Karl's death, Norton recognized how cruel he had become, but the divine corpse began to awaken and Holy Knights trapped him in the cavern. The corpse opened its eyes and was enveloped by a pillar of white light.

• Norton looked at Karl's corpse and realized he had become the tyrant he once hated.
• Norton noticed the bone nail in the divine corpse's chest trembling and tried to flee.
• Holy Knights charged into the cavern, impaled Norton, and drove him against a wall.
• The Holy Knights knocked down the cross, dislodging the bone nail from the divine corpse.
• The divine corpse opened its black eyes, freezing everyone as a pillar of white light descended from the sun.

A golden sun unleashed a deadly wave of light across the Southern Continent, destroying vampires and causing exposed humans and animals to age and melt. In the Holy See cavern, Kuba revived and tried to kill Norton, but Norton’s body regenerated after being shattered, leaving Kuba terrified by his unusual soul.

• A white pillar of light transformed the dim sun into a golden blaze, and sunlight burned nearly half the vampires roaming the Southern Continent to ash.
• The sunlight intensified, scorching humans and animals and rapidly aging or melting those caught outside.
• Norton hid among the Holy Knights as Kuba revived beneath a pillar of holy light that also burned Kuba’s body.
• Kuba drank a Holy Knight’s blood and declared that he would kill the person who had awakened him.
• Kuba spotted Norton and crushed his body with life-level pressure, but Norton immediately regenerated.
• Kuba realized that Norton’s soul was unlike his own and feared that another god might exist.

Kuba explained that God’s will could return to the Garden of Eden through his awakened body, and blamed Norton for bringing the world to the brink of disaster. Norton tried to deceive Kuba and seal him with the bone nail, but neither his attacks nor the nail could overcome Kuba’s defenses, leaving Norton searching for another way.

• Kuba recognized Norton as an outsider and crushed his body with his presence, while Norton knelt and claimed he was a loyal servant trying to save people from the Church.
• Norton struck Kuba’s shin and attempted to grab the white bone nail, but Kuba pinned it down and crushed Norton into blood mist; Norton’s body regenerated each time.
• Kuba realized that his attacks could destroy Norton’s body but not his underlying essence, and explained that only God could erase him completely.
• Kuba revealed that God had created the vampire body to study reproduction and change, and warned that his awakening was letting God’s will descend so the Creator could return.
• Norton threw the bone nail at Kuba, but it bounced off without piercing him; as Norton faced the pain of being crushed again, he suddenly reconsidered the meaning of existence level.