Recaps

Norton returned as a godlike Vampire Progenitor and built a following across the Southern Continent, while Miles XIII brought him into the Aodelan Empire’s rule. As scholars failed to find a way to harm Norton and rival powers planned conflicts around him, Norton backed scientific research and accepted the prospect of continental unification.

• Duoxia revived and learned that centuries had passed and Norton had awakened, while Norton set out to tour the Southern Continent after hearing of its suffering.
• Miles XIII rejected Duoxia’s warnings and tried to contain Norton through cooperation, while Norton declared himself a holy God and began drawing worshippers in Sak City.
• Norton seized land and wealth from the ruling classes, distributed aid, and formed the Catholic Church around himself as its sole deity.
• Miles XIII displayed vampires to the Southern Continent’s elites and used a portrait of God and a cannon to execute them, while Bella encountered a pale, handsome man who comforted her.
• Norton expanded his influence through religious services and aid, then accepted Miles XIII’s invitation to the Aodelan Empire and was crowned ruler alongside him.
• Norton ordered scholars to test his severed arm, but experiments failed to damage it and the scholars found that only a being of the same Existence Level might restrain him.
• Scholars examining Norton’s flesh found no cells and watched two pieces merge, while Norton considered but abandoned a risky experiment involving a possible Primordial Lifeform.
• The Holy Lord Holy See condemned Norton and Miles XIII, but Miles XIII joined other rulers in planning to reshape the world, while Norton funded scholars and accepted the empire’s efforts to unify the Southern Continent.

Norton turned the Southern Continent’s wars and a coalition’s rebellion into an open display of his godlike power. After crushing the uprising and executing its leaders, he founded the Pale Church and the Holy Empire, though resistance plunged the continent into chaos.

• Norton opened a science and technology exhibition, claimed he would lead humanity into a new age, and promised vast support for mechanization.
• As rival alliances formed and the war spread across the Southern Continent, Miles XIII asked Norton to make an army of vampires, but Norton refused and ordered Abraham to punish those who rejected him.
• Abraham and the Blood Progenitors destroyed the Holy Boya Empire’s capital, killing Noah XIII and prompting Miles XIII to send his family and experts toward the Northern Continent.
• The Southern Continent’s rulers secretly organized a coalition against Norton, while Miles XIV’s fleet discovered mutated sea life and linked it to holy water dumped in the ocean.
• Miles XIII led millions of soldiers toward Norton’s palace, but Norton’s pressure forced the army and his own followers to kneel as he declared himself ruler of the Southern Continent.
• Norton publicly executed Miles XIII and the other rebellion leaders, stripped the surviving rulers of their authority, and sent his supernatural forces to crush the resulting resistance.
• In autumn 1578, Norton founded the Pale Church as the continent’s sole faith and the Holy Empire as its sole political authority.

Norton’s rule gave way to Parliament’s growing power as the Southern Continent’s elites allied with the Northern Continent and brought War Machines against him. Norton survived their assault and fled, leaving the elites convinced that he could be challenged.

• Norton founded the Pale Church, crowned Maria the first queen of the Holy Empire, and imposed brutal rule while reforms and steam technology transformed the Southern Continent.
• Abraham and Duoxia weighed how to oppose Norton, while Norton refused Maria’s demand to become a True Ancestor and later transferred temporal power to her and the imperial family.
• Parliament and wealthy elites took control, exploited workers, and turned public anger against Norton as Queen Maria became increasingly isolated.
• Duoxia and the Northern emperors developed soul-powered War Machines, while the Gothic Empire massacred and exploited native peoples to supply souls for them.
• Parliament secretly coordinated with the Northern Continent, and Norton encouraged Abraham to intensify his apparent betrayal even though he knew of the plans against him.
• More than five hundred War Machines attacked Norton at the Pale Church, smashing it and battering him despite his overwhelming Pressure.
• Norton broke free, spread his bone wings, and escaped as the elites ordered greater War Machine production and prepared to join forces against him.

Norton’s war against the Holy Empire ended with his conquest of the Southern Continent, where he imposed a system of control that eased poverty while deepening fear. As Norton’s paranoia and fear of God worsened, Abraham and Elizabeth struggled with whether to seal him away, while Duoxia sought a new path and the Northern Continent prepared for nuclear weapons.

• Norton revoked his title, built a new Pale Divine Court in Sak City, and ordered Abraham to conscript people and gather information on the War Machines.
• When Sak City demonstrators demanded freedom and their former status, Norton ordered them killed, and his forces shot them before Abraham secretly arranged to ship them north.
• The Holy Empire declared war on Norton, and its armies fought the Pale Crusade as Norton took command and Abraham secretly sent captives to the Northern Continent to build War Machines.
• The Pale Crusade captured Holy Lord City, but the Holy Empire’s modern weapons and nuclear research began to threaten Norton’s forces while Norton withdrew into isolation and feared the soul vessel was a trap.
• Norton recovered his confidence, proclaimed himself the Pale God, and used his power to crush the Holy Empire and take control of the Southern Continent.
• Norton abolished the old regime and imposed nationwide slavery and mind control, while providing work, housing, land, and food, and he rejected guilt and killed Father Joshua when the priest tried to make him repent.
• As Norton’s paranoia led to the deaths of the psychiatrist and Elizabeth, Abraham concluded that sealing Norton away would not be enough and resolved that the Garden of Eden must have no god.
• Duoxia traveled south, developed his political ideas, and found inspiration in debate about equality, while Miles XIV ordered the Northern Continent to prepare for a nuclear weapon and Norton planned to spread the Pale God’s mercy.