Recaps

Norton learned the church intended to burn him as a sacrifice, but he revived as a vampire and escaped. After hiding in a cave and testing his abilities, he returned to Holy Lord City, where two Holy Knights tracked him to his lair and attacked underwater.

• Norton studied the church’s teachings and joined the Mass procession, where he witnessed the church’s brutal treatment of the poor.
• Bishop Rosen chose Norton for the Ascension Ritual, and Father Mia revealed that he would be burned alive as its sacrifice.
• Norton punched Father Mia and was stabbed by a church knight, then burned and discarded in a mass grave.
• A church knight killed his companion, and the fallen knight’s blood revived Norton as a vampire.
• Norton escaped into the woods, discovered his vampire abilities, and hid in a cave while the church sent Holy Knights to find him.
• Norton entered Holy Lord City, felt the God Shepherding Sheep Picture burn his skin, and fled back to his cave.
• The two Holy Knights tracked Norton to the cave and entered its pool, where Norton struck one with his sword and evaded their attacks underwater.

After becoming a Vampire, Norton fled the Church’s reach and survived in the wilderness as Holy Lord City collapsed. He settled in Lino City, where Adam’s new Church policies and the approaching Werewolves threatened his quiet life, but he chose to stay.

• Norton drank the dead Holy Knights’ blood and transformed into a Vampire, while Archbishop Adam ordered Father Mia killed and warned Bishop Rosen to conceal Norton’s whereabouts.
• Norton hid in the wilderness as the Holy Judgment Order’s purge devastated Holy Lord City, while the pope chose Adam as his successor and revealed that God remained sealed beneath the Church.
• Norton built a refuge in the mountains, but Werewolves attacked him, forcing him to flee toward Holy Lord City, and he then left the region and settled in Lino City.
• Norton studied the Church from a bell tower and searched for information about Vampires, while Adam became pope and established the Eye of Holiness to capture and research monsters.
• Norton learned from Karl that Adam was consolidating power and that the Church had secretly retrieved something from Holy Lord City, while the Eye of Holiness made little progress.
• Norton sensed that danger was approaching and chose to remain in Lino City, hunting Werewolves and deducing that the Gold Saints could track him through God’s holiness.
• Norton discovered that the Werewolves were passing through Lino City on their way to Holy Lord City, so he stopped keeping watch.

Norton hunted Church personnel and discovered that his flesh and blood could transform creatures, as Coal Ball’s bite turned Father Abraham into a vampire. After learning how the Church understood vampires and divine power, Norton found he could handle a silver cross that burned Abraham.

• Norton watched the Church’s forces move against the Werewolves, and the Holy Judgment Order and its missionaries were killed in the battle at Holy Lord City.
• Norton entered the cathedral to hunt and later killed a missionary, but the man’s blood gave him no new abilities and his corpse did not rise.
• Norton fed his flesh to Coal Ball, who shriveled before recovering with greater stamina and regeneration, then flew to Father Abraham and bit him.
• Norton discovered he could control Pressure, a sense that detected nearby living things, while Abraham developed bloodlust, fangs, and an aversion to crosses.
• Norton followed Abraham and learned from Church books that vampires had once flourished, that crosses could harm them, and that the Church described three stages of transformation.
• Norton theorized that his will and blood guided mutations in creatures he changed, then fled with Abraham from a silver cross and was pained by the sunlight.
• Abraham burned and lost half a finger when he touched the cross, while Norton picked it up unharmed and concluded that he could create vampires.

Norton seized control of Lino City and built a vampire regime while the Church prepared to investigate the new vampires and fight the Boya Empire. As the threat of discovery grew, Norton began planning escape routes and weighed how to preserve his power.

• Norton’s bats spread vampirism through Lino City, and Father Abraham created vampires within the Church while Norton discovered his Pressure could sense much of the city.
• Father Abraham turned Bishop Good and Archbishop Duoxia, then declared himself progenitor and ordered unruly vampires eliminated, and Norton burned more than a hundred vampires with his Pressure.
• After Karl left Lino City, famine and political turmoil worsened, and Pope Adam ordered war against the Boya Empire while Archbishop Duoxia plotted against him.
• Father Abraham’s vampires attacked Duoxia’s allies and transformed Duoxia, but Norton overwhelmed the vampires with his Pressure and claimed absolute authority over Lino City.
• Norton secretly ruled as Abraham took the title of Blood Progenitor, organized the vampires, and drowned the inactive Holy Knights so he could drink their blood and grow stronger.
• Norton turned Lino City’s elites into vampires, seized their grain and property, and made the rest of the population work as blood slaves, and a rebellion and Church crackdowns followed.
• Adam captured Duoxia for study and investigated the vampires, while Norton spread new-style vampires beyond Lino City and continued consolidating his rule.
• Norton realized the vampires could expose him, ordered Abraham to dig escape passages, and left the hall amid his swarming bats with Coal Ball clinging to his leg.