Recaps

Duoxia awakened and warned that Norton’s divine body would bring a dark age, while Norton learned of the Southern Continent’s slave trade and inequality. He announced a tour to deliver the people from suffering, though his display of compassion concealed his self-serving nature.

• Duoxia revived on sheep’s blood and learned that eight hundred years had passed and Norton had awakened.
• Jacob showed Duoxia a portrait of Norton, and Duoxia concluded that vampires were immature gods and that no one could restrain Norton’s divine body.
• Norton dismissed the danger posed by mortals and accepted blood from a human girl Abraham had selected to win his favor.
• Abraham told Norton about the maritime slave trade and the growing misery and inequality across the Southern Continent.
• Norton lamented the suffering, declared that he would tour the continent to help its people, and drank from the girl’s goblet.
• Abraham gathered vampires to pull Norton’s palace on his tour, while the narration condemned Norton for abandoning his former principles.

After breaking his seal, Norton surveyed the Southern Continent and questioned whether God had made him an experimental subject in a world shaped by his memories. Meanwhile, Duoxia warned Miles XIII that Norton had returned as a genuine god, but Miles dismissed the danger and trusted the strength of modern armies.

• Norton rode through the Southern Continent in his palace, saw shipborne slaves brutalized in the fields, and listened as Abraham praised him as a holy savior.
• Miles XIII asked Duoxia to confirm that Norton was the Vampire Progenitor who had once brought devastation to the Southern Continent.
• Duoxia explained that Norton had revived after a thousand years and become a genuine god, while Miles blamed the Holy Lord Church for concealing the old history.
• Miles XIII insisted that modern soldiers, cannons, matchlock guns, and ships could defeat Norton and asked how many divisions he commanded.
• Duoxia crushed an iron badge to demonstrate a second-generation vampire's strength and warned that even modern weapons were inadequate against Norton.

Miles XIII rejected Duoxia’s plea to unite humanity, vampires, and werewolves against Norton, arguing that cooperation with Norton was preferable to restoring the Holy Lord Church. Norton then visited Sake, where he used the people’s worship to present himself as a holy God and explore whether their reverence could help him advance.

• Duoxia demonstrated Duoxia’s strength by flattening an iron disc and warned Miles XIII that Norton could threaten the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIII fired a flintlock to show Duoxia the power of modern weapons and rejected the Church’s proposal to seal Norton away, preferring cooperation with him.
• Duoxia warned Miles XIII that Norton would enslave vampires and bring chaos, but Miles XIII ordered guards to escort him out.
• Norton flew into Sake, where Church believers knelt and prayed to him as God.
• Norton proclaimed himself a holy God and used his display of divine power to inspire the crowd’s worship.

Norton took control of Sak City and began replacing its religious imagery with his own while reshaping the city’s social order. As he pursued his plan to become worshipped as God, the Southern Continent’s rulers remained occupied with overseas trade and largely ignored his awakening.

• Norton’s Church staff ordered Sak City residents to remove religious objects and repaint images of God with portraits of Norton.
• Norton confronted an elderly priest praying in Sak City’s church, caught the priest’s flintlock bullet, and killed him by drinking his blood.
• Norton planned to turn the former ruling classes into Fifth-Generation Vampires and give confiscated land to the poor so they would have food and work.
• Abraham and Elizabeth led the Vampires in carrying out Norton’s plans, while Abraham wondered why the Southern Continent’s nations had not come to investigate Norton.
• Miles XIII hosted a banquet in the Aodelan Empire’s palace gardens, where royal representatives gathered to divide overseas trade profits and introduce marriageable members of their families.

At a lavish imperial banquet, Bella Miles Dick resisted the noblemen courting her while Miles XIII discussed the threat posed by Norton, the Vampire Progenitor, and the growing power of wealthy elites. Miles XIII proposed that the three countries uncover and reveal Norton’s whereabouts, letting the Eternal Life Society serve as a test of his power.

• Bella Miles Dick smoked alone at the banquet while noblemen gathered around her and tried to win her favor.
• Edward XVIII and Kaimen XVII warned Miles XIII that nobles had formed the Eternal Life Society and were searching for the God who emerged from the mountain behind the Holy See.
• Miles XIII revealed that a Vampire had approached him to cooperate and identified Norton as the Vampire Progenitor, while describing Vampires’ weaknesses and Norton’s apparent immunity to them.
• Miles XIII argued that cannons and the Southern Continent’s size could contain Norton, but warned that wealthy elites and pirate groups threatened imperial control of overseas trade.
• Miles XIII urged the three countries to find Norton and disclose his location so the Eternal Life Society could test whether he was truly powerful.

At a gathering of Southern Continent dignitaries, Miles XIII argued that human knowledge and cannons surpassed the supernatural power of the mythical age, then presented two captured vampires. As the vampires went berserk and the crowd panicked, a pale, handsome stranger appeared behind Bella and held her protectively.

• Edward XVIII praised Miles XIII, who spoke about the growing tensions among Southern Continent nations and the power of scientific knowledge and cannons.
• Miles XIII had guards bring out two vampires in covered prison carts and revealed them to the assembled dignitaries.
• The chained vampires begged for mercy, then attacked their cages and shouted for blood, frightening the crowd.
• Bella retreated in panic and collided with a pale, handsome man, who wrapped his arms around her and pushed through the crowd.
• Bella felt drawn to the man's frank, beastlike manner as he told her not to be afraid.

Miles XIII used the execution of two vampires to warn the empire’s powerful figures against seeking eternal life and to demonstrate that vampires could be killed by God’s portrait and cannons. The gathered nobles backed away from their ambitions, though Miles expected some would ignore his warning and be eliminated later.

• Miles XIII warned the powerful figures that vampires and werewolves would have no place in the Aodelan Empire and ordered the vampires’ execution.
• A portrait of God burned one vampire into ashes, frightening the gathered nobles and prompting Marquis Aibolan to publicly support Miles XIII.
• Miles XIII declared that cannons could also kill vampires and ordered the second vampire executed.
• A cannon blast shattered the cage and reduced the vampire to scattered scraps of flesh.
• Miles XIII reflected that becoming a vampire meant becoming a slave, and planned to let the Pale God eliminate nobles who ignored his warning.

Norton staged a grand Catholic Church Mass in Sak City, where citizens revered him for reforms and the supposed benefits of holy water. He revealed that the holy water was actually his bathwater and planned to use creatures made from his flesh and blood to investigate advancement.

• Norton revived many vampires and werewolves, and some of them began abusing their supernatural strength.
• Norton merged the Holy Lord Church and the Common Lord Faith into the Catholic Church and made himself its sole deity.
• Sak City's citizens gathered for a Mass, praising Norton for punishing oppressors, distributing their wealth and land, and improving conditions for the people.
• Abraham led the Mass carrying a gold cup of holy water, which citizens believed brought health and strength.
• Norton revealed that the holy water came from his bath and decided to create more experimental subjects from his flesh and blood to study advancement.

Norton built Sak City into a prosperous religious stronghold while Aodelan Empire's Miles XIII dismissed him as a relic of the past and planned overseas expansion. After Bella spent the night with a werewolf, a proud butler from the powerful Childe Family arrived at Norton's monastery with an invitation from his master.

• Norton led a grand procession through Sak City as its residents worshipped him, while vampire slaves labored in the fields.
• Norton cautiously expanded his influence through religious services and aid rather than violence, drawing poor people from neighboring cities.
• Miles XIII heard that Norton had won Sak City's people and hoped powerful families would test Norton's strength while the empire focused on colonization.
• Bella spent the night with a werewolf, then woke at dawn to find him gone and wolf fur left on the bed.
• A Childe Family butler arrived at Norton's monastery, boasted of his family's wealth and influence, and delivered an invitation for Norton to visit his master.

Norton ruled Sak City as the Pale God while Abraham suspected Norton's sacred food could transform vampires. After secretly drinking holy water, Abraham felt himself growing stronger, and Norton wondered how he would advance further.

• Norton rejected invitations from Southern Continent nobles and ordered his influence to expand gradually while keeping the nobles alive for later use.
• Abraham connected Sak City's transformations to Norton's sacred food and speculated that it could help him become a True Ancestor.
• Norton read about a crude steam engine and worried that beings cultivated with his flesh and bathwater might eventually turn against him.
• Abraham secretly collected holy water, drank it, and felt a sensation of growth within his body.
• Norton watched Abraham from the monastery roof and wondered what he would do when he sought to advance further.

Norton waited for someone in the Garden of Eden to find a way to harm him and open a path to further transformation, while the Southern Continent’s elites grew frustrated that he refused their invitations. As the Childe Family weighed its future and a new trade opportunity emerged, Miles XIII worried that Norton’s expansion inside the Aodelan Empire would eventually threaten the Miles Family’s rule.

• Norton welcomed the possibility that Duoxia, Abraham, or others might discover a way to hurt or seal him, since it could give him a new path forward.
• Old Childe asked whether the Pale God had answered his invitation, but his son Luosi urged him to abandon the wait and seek eternal life by becoming a vampire.
• Old Childe rejected becoming a low-ranking vampire and explained that he had hoped to ally with Norton, but he told his family’s powerful members and young people to avoid vampirism until old age.
• Luosi reported that dried leaves from the Northern Continent had become a craze across the Southern Continent and might provide the Childe Family with a new source of wealth.
• Miles XIII grew troubled because the elites had not tested Norton, who was occupying and expanding through territory within the Aodelan Empire.

Norton accepted Miles XIII’s invitation to visit the Aodelan Empire’s military parade after learning the emperor offered to share power and recognize him as the Southern Continent’s sole God. Miles XIII intended to use Norton’s power amid rising political turmoil, while his son Miles XIV objected and was exposed for visiting Queen Bella, his aunt.

• Abraham told Norton that Miles XIII had invited him to the Aodelan Empire and offered him half the empire’s ruling authority.
• Norton grew curious about the invitation and ordered Abraham to prepare a carriage for his visit to the imperial palace.
• Miles XIV accused Miles XIII of treason for offering power to Norton, and Miles XIII explained that he wanted to recruit Norton as an ally against threats to the empire.
• Miles XIII rebuked Miles XIV for his lack of ambition, then demanded to know why his son had a red rash.
• Miles XIV admitted that he had visited Queen Bella, and Miles XIII shouted at him for having an affair with his aunt.

The Aodelan Empire prepared a military parade that would display its strength and announce that Norton, the Pale God, would receive half the empire’s power. As foreign rulers and nobles gathered in the capital, rivalries across the Southern Continent grew increasingly volatile.

• The Aodelan Empire announced that Norton would attend its May 7 military parade and that Miles XIII would recognize him as the true God of the Southern Continent and hand him half the empire’s power.
• Royal families from major empires and neighboring countries arrived in the Aodelan Empire’s capital, including representatives of the Holy Boya Empire and the Holy Noah Empire.
• People in the capital spread conflicting rumors about Bella’s pregnancy, the child she gave birth to, and the strained relationship between the Madrid Empire and the Aodelan Empire.
• Residents reacted with praise or hostility to the arriving delegations, reflecting the Southern Continent’s growing divisions and tensions.

Norton traveled to the Aodelan Empire’s capital in a modest carriage, while Crown Prince Miles XIV waited to welcome him despite his illness and resentment. As Norton’s arrival was announced, the imperial family’s spreading “Disease of Affluence” had left half the privileged classes infected.

• Norton traveled toward the imperial capital in a small carriage escorted by Church cavalry, with Abraham driving and Elizabeth feeding him blood grapes.
• Abraham praised Norton’s past rule and argued that the Southern Continent still needed his salvation, while Norton criticized the people laboring in the fields.
• Miles XIII sent Crown Prince Miles XIV to welcome Norton while he attended to foreign visitors, and a large crowd gathered outside the city gates.
• Miles XIV concealed his rotting fingers with silver covers as his unexplained illness worsened, and he had spread it through indiscriminate sexual encounters.
• The illness spread among the imperial family and privileged classes, who called it the “Disease of Affluence.”
• A messenger announced that Norton’s carriage had arrived and told Miles XIV that the celebratory fireworks could be set off.

Miles XIII and the Aodelan Empire prepared to welcome Norton, while vampires and other observers watched the Pale God's procession arrive. The modest appearance of Norton's carriage disappointed the crowd, but Steyr Miles formally welcomed him on behalf of the empire.

• Miles XIII arranged an honor guard and fireworks to receive Norton in the imperial capital.
• A fourth-generation vampire spotted a werewolf feeding on a beggar and reflected on werewolves spreading disease through forced reproduction.
• Norton's carriage and a small escort of white-armored riders appeared, disappointing onlookers who expected a grand procession.
• Miles XIV recognized the carriage as Norton's and judged the Pale God unimpressive despite the rumors about him.
• Steyr Miles rode forward and respectfully welcomed Norton to the Aodelan Empire.

Norton, the Pale God, arrived at the Aodelan Empire’s imperial city and revealed a divine, terrifying presence that left the crowd and vampires enthralled and afraid. His arrival forced the Southern Continent’s nations to reconsider their plans and recognize the power of mythical creatures.

• Elizabeth stepped out of Norton’s shabby carriage, and the crowd mistook her for the Pale God.
• Norton emerged, and his beauty and overwhelming aura silenced the crowd and caused the vampires watching from the imperial tower to collapse in terror.
• Abraham broke the crowd’s trance and told Miles XIV to escort Norton to the imperial palace.
• Miles XIV struggled to speak but arranged for Norton’s accommodations, while the crowd cautiously resumed the welcoming procession.
• Foreign representatives sent messengers home to revise their plans as Norton’s arrival threatened the balance among the Southern Continent’s nations.

Miles XIII welcomed Norton to the Aodelan Empire and crowned him as a co-ruler, publicly granting him authority over the empire and declaring him its orthodox God. The ceremony ended with the empire announcing the creation of a new religion centered on Norton.

• Miles XIII praised Norton and promised religious and political reforms centered on him.
• Miles XIII escorted Norton to a pure silver throne while discreetly testing whether it harmed him.
• Miles XIII announced that he and Norton would share imperial rule and that Norton would hold authority over all imperial affairs.
• Miles XIII placed the silver crown on Norton while fearing his presence and hidden power.
• Miles XIII declared Norton a ruler of the Aodelan Empire and announced a new religion to establish his divine status.

Miles XIII handed Norton authority and religious influence in the Aodelan Empire, while Norton used his power mainly to impose public toilets and pursue scientific research. The chapter ended with Norton and assembled scholars examining a severed arm that appeared to be his own flesh.

• Miles XIV confronted Miles XIII over yielding power to Norton, and Miles XIII had him removed and warned that he might replace him as crown prince.
• Norton took up residence in the imperial capital and issued a decree requiring toilets throughout the empire and punishments for relieving oneself in the streets.
• Norton's public appearance inspired a wave of fanfiction and portrait worship, while other Southern Continent rulers surrendered some maritime interests to the Aodelan Empire.
• At the Holy Year 1561 military parade, Norton showed little interest in the empire's modern forces and instead mingled with scholars.
• In September, Norton gathered scholars at an experimental site to examine a severed pale arm in what appeared to be forbidden research using his own flesh and blood.

Aodelan Empire scholars studied Norton, the Pale God’s severed arm and concluded that his body was an invulnerable, self-contained whole whose Existence Level could only be matched by another god. As their experiments revealed that nothing they tried could damage him, Aibolan devised a test using the bones of Norton’s own arm to see whether they could seal him.

• Scholars recorded that Norton had willingly severed his arm for their research, and they wondered why he seemed eager for them to uncover a way to counter him.
• The scholars concluded that Norton’s body remained alive and under his control after separation, and that only something with the same Existence Level could seal him.
• Aibolan gathered the scholars around the severed arm and warned them to treat Norton with caution as its fingers moved.
• The scholars recognized that Norton’s personal strength, rather than only his ability to reproduce and infect others, made him terrifying.
• Experiments involving heat, freezing, cannon fire, and sulfuric acid failed to damage Norton’s flesh, leaving the scholars with no known way to restrain him.

Norton encouraged Aibolan and his scholars to study his divine body in hopes that they would develop a way to harm him and help him advance. After demonstrating that his severed arm could instantly reattach, he agreed to provide flesh and blood for research using a microscope from the Kaimen Empire.

• Aibolan asked Norton whether his severed arm could regenerate, since vampire limbs could regrow.
• Norton revealed that he had prompted the Southern Continent’s research into weapons or methods capable of harming him, hoping to overcome the limits of his existence level.
• Norton claimed his divine flesh could not regrow, then reattached his severed arm instantly, disappointing the scholars’ plan to replicate Kuba’s earlier feat.
• Aibolan asked Norton to provide flesh and blood so scholars from the Kaimen Empire could study it with a microscope.
• Norton agreed to the request.

Norton questioned why the Southern Continent’s history and technology so closely resembled Earth’s, especially after studying its contradictory cell theory and fossil record. He considered whether God had shaped the world using his memories or whether the Garden of Eden had been unconsciously influenced by them, which might mean his evolution was continuing.

• Norton observed the Southern Continent’s development and wondered why it followed a path so similar to Earth’s.
• He read about Liewen Make’s microscope and Dulan’s cell theory, which proposed that life evolved from simple organisms and was used to challenge the Church’s creationism.
• Southern Continent scholars searching for fossils found that older organisms were more powerful and complex, while the oldest fossils dated back only three hundred thousand years.
• Yalian VII ended the archaeological effort after the discoveries failed to support evolution and instead appeared to support creationism.
• Norton suspected that God might be using his memories to shape the world, or that the Garden of Eden had been influenced by his memories and his evolution was still progressing.

Luka, Aibolan, and Ryan began examining Norton's flesh under a microscope to uncover the Pale God's nature. They discovered that it had no visible cells or microbes, and that separate pieces merged together, leaving Ryan horrified by the possibility that the Pale God was one enormous cell.

• Luka rejected cell theory and hoped the research would expose the Pale God as a fraud or reveal his weaknesses.
• Aibolan defended microscopic research, and Ryan argued that cell theory could explain the Pale God's living body and perhaps help humans gain his power.
• Ryan placed a slice of Norton's flesh under the microscope and found it smooth, alive, and apparently without cells or surface microbes.
• Luka speculated that the Pale God's flesh might be a primordial cell like God in the Church's ancient records.
• Ryan touched two pieces of Norton's flesh together and watched them merge, then shouted in disbelief that the Pale God could be one enormous cell.

Norton considered whether his experiments could create a new primordial lifeform from his and God's genes, but rejected the dangerous idea for now. Three years after settling in the Aodelan Empire, he imposed holy-water rituals and Masses on its churches, prompting widespread ridicule and an official denunciation from the Holy Lord Holy See.

• Norton watched an experiment and wondered whether a Primordial Lifeform could be a new generation of Kuba created from his genes and God's.
• Norton decided not to pursue the risky experiment, wary of the danger despite seeing it as a possible path to growth.
• In Holy Year 1563, Norton ordered the Aodelan Empire to restructure its churches and monasteries, distribute his blessed holy water, and hold Masses twice a year.
• People across the Aodelan Empire and beyond mocked Norton's decree as a return to oppressive papal rule.
• The Holy Lord Holy See declared Norton a heretic and impostor, identified Caesar as its only God, and ordered its churches and monasteries to resist him.

The Holy See condemned Norton, the Pale God, but the nations mocked its decrees and ignored its arrest warrant. Miles XIII then decided to end the stalled negotiations over the division of interests and use the Pale God's name to draw supernatural powers into the nations' conflict.

• Pope Nicholas declared Norton an enemy of all servants, issued a Southern Continent-wide arrest warrant, and condemned Miles XIII for sheltering him.
• The nations ridiculed the Holy See's decrees, and the Kaimen Empire imposed export restrictions that forced Nicholas II to change his tune.
• At a meeting with Kaili Kaimen and George XV, Miles XIII said his experts considered Norton largely harmless and Abraham ambitious but manageable.
• Miles XIII announced that he would stop negotiating with the Holy Boya Empire and the Holy Noah Empire and redraw the world's order.
• Kaimen XVI and George XV agreed to stir up conflicts in Norton's name to pull him and other supernatural powers into the contest between nations.

Norton focused on advancing technology in the Aodelan Empire while allowing Miles XIII to use his name to provoke neighboring countries and pursue unification of the Southern Continent. Elizabeth reported the military tensions and struggled to understand Norton's increasingly human manner and the dangers of his experiments with holy water.

• Norton devoted the Aodelan imperial family's wealth to supporting scholars, universities, patents, and titles, and called for the empire's first science exhibition.
• Elizabeth told Norton that the Aodelan Empire had been provoking small clashes and using Abraham's converted vampires to destroy ships blockading the empire.
• Norton said Miles XIII had not crossed his limits and that unifying the Southern Continent would help spread his beliefs, regardless of which empire ruled it.
• Elizabeth recalled Abraham's claim that Norton's holy water could help vampires advance and wondered whether Norton was using common people as experimental subjects.