Chapter Summaries

Abraham, Coal Ball, Plum Blossom, and more than fifty bat youngsters rampaged through the Holy Boya Empire’s imperial capital, destroying buildings and killing its people. General Mike’s cannons wounded Coal Ball, but it healed and crushed the empire’s resistance as the capital burned.

• Abraham charged through the imperial palace while Coal Ball, Plum Blossom, and more than fifty bat youngsters rampaged through the capital.
• General Mike rallied the surviving imperial guards and ordered more than a hundred cannons to fire at the monsters.
• The cannon barrage knocked Coal Ball down, blasted off one of its arms, and left its body badly wounded.
• Coal Ball rapidly regenerated, rose from the ruins, and crushed the cannon shells and resisting forces beneath its foot.
• Coal Ball roared and wrecked the surrounding buildings as flames engulfed the Holy Boya Empire’s imperial capital.

After the Pale God destroyed the Holy Boya Empire’s capital, Miles XIII recognized the threat to humanity and resolved to resist him. He sent his eldest son, Miles XIV, to the Northern Continent to establish a new Aodelan Empire and seek a way to fight back.

• Miles XIII read that the Pale God had destroyed the Holy Boya Empire’s capital, killing Noah XIII and countless others.
• Miles XIII reconsidered his earlier belief that humans could cooperate with the Pale God and decided humanity had to fight for self-determination.
• Miles XIII summoned Miles XIV and acknowledged that his son had been right about the Pale God.
• Miles XIII ordered Miles XIV to take people, weapons, and supplies by ship to the Northern Continent and found the Aodelan Empire anew.
• Miles XIII warned Miles XIV that supernatural beings served the Pale God and that humanity would remain his prey unless he was killed.

After the Holy Boya Empire’s imperial family was destroyed, the Southern Continent’s rulers ended their war and secretly prepared to relocate their imperial families to the Northern Continent, where they could rebuild and eventually challenge the Pale God. Miles XIII sent Miles XIV and the rest of his family away, warning his son to address class conflict and never return if the Pale God proved impossible to defeat.

• News of the Holy Boya Empire’s destruction spread across the Southern Continent, where commoners welcomed the Pale God’s attacks while the ruling classes panicked.
• The Southern Continent’s emperors withdrew their armies, established diplomatic relations, and agreed to develop and colonize the Northern Continent as a refuge and future base against the Pale God.
• Miles XIII arranged for the Aodelan imperial family and many palace experts to leave for the Northern Continent, leaving the imperial palace nearly empty.
• Miles XIV knelt before Miles XIII and vowed to rebuild the Aodelan Empire, then led his siblings away.
• Miles XIII warned Miles XIV to address class conflict and explain its relation to racial conflict, and told him never to return if the Pale God could not be overcome.
• Miles XIII stayed behind, watched the Pale God’s bedchamber, and said that he would remain with him.

Norton learned that Miles XIII was sending the imperial family overseas and used the evacuation to persuade Maria that her abandonment was a chance to seize power. He revealed a secret plan to assemble a million troops against him, leaving Abraham shaken by the extent of Norton's knowledge.

• Abraham asked Norton whether he should stop Miles XIII from sending people and imperial family members overseas.
• Maria realized her family had left her behind and worried that Norton would discover her father's plans.
• Norton teased Maria about her nervousness, then told her that imperial royalty should sacrifice anything to gain power.
• Norton claimed that the Aodelan Empire and other countries had secretly agreed to send a million troops to besiege him.
• Abraham wondered how Norton had learned of the plan and feared that he could perceive Abraham's own past conspiracies.

Norton dismissed Abraham’s suggestion to stop the Southern Continent’s royal family from marching against him and revealed that he welcomed their betrayal. Abraham grew convinced that Norton was deliberately seeking a chance to advance, then left with a psychology quotation reminding himself to stay away from negative energy.

• Norton sent Elizabeth to take Maria away to rest while he looked out over the palace.
• Abraham asked whether he should obstruct the royal family’s forces, but Norton said he was delighted by their courage to betray him.
• Norton recalled people who had betrayed him and spoke as though he welcomed the chance to face such a challenge again.
• Abraham reconsidered Norton’s actions and concluded that he was deliberately exposing himself to threats in pursuit of advancement.
• Abraham left, concealing his excitement, and read a psychology quotation advising him to stay away from negative energy.

Norton read a book about spreading negativity while the Southern Continent’s empires sent a massive fleet of settlers and soldiers toward the Northern Continent. At sea, Miles XIV discovered that holy water dumped into the ocean after a naval battle had triggered strange mutations, and realized the Pale God was assimilating the people of the Aodelan Empire.

• Norton read Southern Continent Thick Black Theory and was surprised that the Southern Continent had a book describing principles he already knew.
• Miles XIV watched a fleet of over a thousand ships carry settlers and soldiers toward the Northern Continent, with the Southern nations destroying maps and ships to hide their destination from the Pale God.
• The fleet encountered a giant deep-sea monster’s corpse covered by red roundcap fish that had developed fangs and remained active even after being crushed.
• A captain told Miles XIV that strange marine species had appeared since the naval battle two years earlier, including an unusually large octopus and mutated fish.
• Miles XIV connected the mutations to the holy water dumped into the ocean after the battle between the Aodelan Empire and the Holy Boya Empire, then realized the Pale God was assimilating the Aodelan Empire’s people through years of Masses.

The emperors of the Southern Continent gathered nearly nine million troops to attack the Pale God, despite doubting they could defeat him. Miles XIII revealed that they planned to exploit a mass rout to plunge the continent into chaos, whether their assault succeeded or failed.

• Several smaller kingdoms pledged allegiance to the Pale God, while the great empires assembled their armies against him.
• Miles XIII left Maria behind and met with Kaimen XVI, Edward XVII, and Yalian LIV to discuss the attack.
• Kaimen XVI and Edward XVII warned that the Pale God's power could make the war unwinnable and that fleeing soldiers could devastate the Aodelan Empire.
• Miles XIII said the Pale God's holy water was changing people in Sak City and warned that waiting would let the influence spread across his empire.
• Miles XIII and the other emperors revealed they intended to use the soldiers' potential rout to destabilize the Southern Continent and hinder the Pale God, regardless of the cost.

Miles XIII led a massive coalition army into the Aodelan Empire’s capital to confront Norton, the Pale God, while preparing to chain and bury him if they could not kill him. After rallying the soldiers, Miles XIII charged toward the palace at the head of the army.

• The coalition deployed millions of soldiers, iron nets, chains, and siege weapons around the Aodelan Empire’s capital to prevent Norton from escaping.
• Miles XIII planned to bind Norton in chains and bury him beneath an artificial mountain if the army could not kill him.
• Miles XIII entered the capital with his troops while the other emperors remained in the rear, accompanied by four knights in golden armor from the Holy Lord Church.
• Miles XIII addressed the soldiers, describing Norton as a threat to humanity and urging them to fight for the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIII drew his sword and charged toward the palace, and the soldiers followed him.

Norton confronted Abraham over his lack of courage, then faced Miles XIII and the nine-million-strong army sent to overthrow him. Norton crushed their resistance with his overwhelming power and declared himself the sole god and ruler of the Southern Continent.

• Norton told Abraham that his fear and flattery had kept him bound, and compared his potential to Kuba’s.
• Miles XIII led the army to Norton’s bedchamber and explained that the emperors had come either to kill Norton or die trying.
• Norton welcomed the emperors’ rebellion and released a pressure that forced Abraham, Elizabeth, and all nine million soldiers to kneel.
• Norton transformed, rose above the army, and declared himself the true god of the Garden of Eden and ruler of every living being on the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIII realized the Pale God was far beyond his expectations, and the army’s rebellion ended without a fight.

In Holy Year 1578, Norton, the Pale God, took control of the Southern Continent and executed the monarchs and nobles who had rebelled against him. After rumors and rebellions plunged much of the continent into chaos, he crushed the resistance and established the Pale Church and Holy Empire.

• Norton publicly tried and hanged Miles XIII and the other monarchs and nobles who had taken part in the rebellion, while stripping the remaining rulers of their titles and power.
• Rumors that Norton was a Vampire Progenitor stirred people and local governments to resist his rule.
• Rebel factions plundered, raped, and killed civilians, leaving much of the Southern Continent in greater disorder than before.
• Norton sent giant bat beasts, vampires, and mutated creations from Sak City to crush the resistance.
• In autumn of Holy Year 1578, Norton founded the Pale Church as the sole faith and the Holy Empire as the sole political authority of the Southern Continent.

Norton established the Pale Church and crowned himself pope, then crowned twelve-year-old Maria queen of the Southern Continent. The ceremony ended with Maria holding the crown and scepter as the first queen of the Holy Empire.

• Norton declared that the Southern Continent would submit to his rule and announced the founding of the Pale Church.
• Abraham prompted the frightened reporters and cardinal archbishops to praise Norton and acclaim his leadership.
• Abraham summoned Princess Maria, and she arrived at the Holy See in a carriage as the crowd watched.
• Abraham praised Maria’s virtues and faith before Norton, despite her being only twelve years old.
• Norton placed a crown on Maria’s head and gave her a jeweled scepter, completing her coronation as the first queen of the Holy Empire.

After unifying the Southern Continent, Norton began the Norton era and imposed a toilet law that sparked five months of brutal protests and killings. The revolt ended, and Norton’s subsequent reforms improved living conditions and encouraged education, science, and intellectual freedom, though the massacre left a legacy of resistance.

• Norton crowned Queen Maria and declared the first year of the Norton era in early Holy Year 1579.
• Norton decreed that toilets be built across the Southern Continent and ordered flogging for anyone who relieved themselves elsewhere.
• People protested the decree with demonstrations and public defilement, and Norton sent his forces to arrest and kill them.
• After five months of slaughter, Norton’s forces killed the resisters, and the conflict was remembered as “corpse burning and shit pits.”
• Norton issued reforms that redistributed land, assigned urban residents work, expanded welfare and public institutions, and subsidized research.
• Norton promoted intellectual and cultural freedom, and the Southern Continent’s development began to outpace that of its former empires.

After Norton imposed a brutal order across the Southern Continent, land, food, education, and work brought stability and expanded the Pale Church’s support. The growing Masses created demand for holy-water transport, and the Holy Empire’s improved steam engine marked the first industrial revolution.

• Norton’s massacres and executions forced the Southern Continent into submission, and his rule established a dark age under vampire control.
• The Holy Empire distributed land without agricultural taxes, while Elizabeth, Abraham, and the vampires took over city administration and dismantled managerial exploitation and criminal groups.
• Norton built free schools and assigned children who struggled or refused to study to Church service or juvenile correctional facilities.
• The Pale Church’s reputation reversed as it expanded across the Southern Continent and resumed Mass twice a year, increasing the need to transport holy water.
• In Norton Year Three, the Holy Empire Royal Research Institute developed the Norton No. 1 steam engine for industrial production, ushering in the first industrial revolution.

Abraham secretly arrived in the rapidly industrializing Southern Continent, where vampires were enslaved as laborers and blood-selling had become a regulated trade. After seeing a blood collection booth and resisting his hunger, he followed signs toward a tavern that appeared to be a gang hideout.

• A steam train arrived in a border city, prompting residents to discuss its wonders and the harsh conditions imposed on vampire workers.
• The chapter described how Norton used vampires as tireless laborers and how ship-borne slaves were exploited for their blood and strength.
• Abraham stepped off the train in disguise and observed the Southern Continent’s industrial growth after eight years under Norton.
• Abraham saw vampires paying to drink from a caged blood seller at a legally protected blood collection point.
• Abraham suppressed his longing for blood and followed the road signs toward a tavern that seemed to be a gang hideout.

Abraham and Duoxia discussed the growing opposition to Norton and whether his rule truly benefited the Southern Continent. Duoxia doubted that opposing Norton was still justified, but Abraham insisted Norton’s kindness served his own advancement and that he must be sealed away.

• A human speaker denounced Norton’s rule in a tavern, accusing him of stripping the Southern Continent of its heritage and dignity.
• Abraham condemned the protesters as ungrateful, while Duoxia questioned why Abraham defended Norton despite wanting to replace him.
• Duoxia explained that Norton’s current rule had brought prosperity and freedom to the Southern Continent, especially compared with oppression and slaughter in the Northern Continent.
• Abraham argued that Norton governed benevolently to pursue advancement and was cultivating people who could backstab him.
• Abraham insisted Norton had to be sealed away to secure lasting stability for the Garden of Eden.

Duoxia and Abraham weighed how to oppose Norton without awakening Jonah, whose return could cause another catastrophe, and decided to rely on technological progress for a chance to restrain or seal the Pale God. As unrest against Norton spread, factions across both continents prepared for a coming storm.

• Duoxia gave Abraham the information he had gathered on the Eternal Life Society and warned that its god, Jonah, might be either their only hope or another threat like Norton.
• Duoxia showed Abraham Norton's shed tooth, a relic that could inflict irreversible damage, and Abraham felt its power firsthand.
• Duoxia rejected awakening Jonah because it could require endless deaths and proposed using technology to oppose Norton instead.
• Duoxia promised to share the Southern Continent's technological achievements with Abraham, who agreed that technology might offer their only opening against Norton.
• Abraham and Duoxia left the tavern separately while a speaker urged people to unite against Norton, and factions across both continents prepared for conflict.

Norton reflected on the Eternal Life Society, Jonah, and the possibility that God was using the Garden of Eden to guide or study his advancement. Overwhelmed by his fear and lack of freedom, he indulged his strange powers as Maria arrived to claim the immortality he had promised her.

• Norton watched the Pale Church missionaries and recalled his old attachment to the small, solemn churches of his past.
• Norton learned of the Eternal Life Society and speculated that its ability to evade his perception might be connected to Jonah or research into existence levels.
• Norton studied the dimming sun and considered whether Jonah was sealed inside it, but judged that traveling there would be too dangerous.
• Norton reasoned that God might be guiding his advancement or observing it, and feared that he remained an experimental subject without true freedom.
• Norton let fissures open across his body and shouted that he was God as twenty-year-old Maria approached, while sunlight and light rain fell around them.

Queen Maria visited Norton to claim the vampire transformation he had promised her for her twentieth birthday, hoping to secure her position forever. Norton refused to make her a True Ancestor, leaving her to realize that she was only a puppet.

• Maria entered the Holy See, where Elizabeth told her Norton was waiting.
• Maria reminded Norton that he had promised to turn her into a vampire when she turned twenty.
• Norton suggested making Maria a fifth-generation vampire so she could preserve her beauty.
• Maria rejected the offer because she considered fifth-generation vampires slaves and demanded to become a True Ancestor.
• Norton withdrew his hand and said he never kept his word, leaving Maria to understand her powerless position.

Discontent with Norton’s rule spread through the Holy Empire as protests escalated into violence, and Queen Maria allied herself with former nobles seeking to restore their power. Convinced by Count Anlan that unrest could topple Norton, Maria decided to fight for power herself.

• Protests against Norton grew across the Holy Empire, with demonstrators demanding change and destroying fields, factories, and shops.
• Queen Maria met with former nobles while unrest raged outside and asked whether their plan would succeed.
• Count Anlan argued that the former elites could use public anger to overthrow Norton and promised Maria power if she joined them.
• Queen Maria accepted Count Anlan’s proposal and declared that she would fight for power herself.

As protests on the Southern Continent escalated into a movement for independence and sole rule by the queen, Norton remained unconcerned and transferred all temporal power to the Holy Empire’s imperial family. The chapter ended with Norton reflecting on the approaching modern age and the loneliness of eternal life.

• Abraham reported that Queen Maria and the old-era nobles had secretly supported and steered the demonstrations.
• Norton dismissed Abraham’s offer to punish the conspirators and explained that the protests meant nothing to him compared with his stalled efforts to advance.
• Norton praised Maria’s ambition and ordered all temporal power transferred to the imperial family, leaving the Pale Church with religious authority alone.
• Abraham accepted the order with excitement and left to carry it out, privately resolving to take Norton’s place.
• Norton stood alone beneath the moonlight and reflected that the modern age was near and eternal life was lonely.