Chapter Summaries

After the Pale God Norton surrendered the Holy Empire’s administrative authority to Queen Maria Miles, public opinion turned against the demonstrators who had demanded Southern sovereignty. The leaders’ renewed protests ended in a deadly government crackdown, later recorded as the “Moment of Awakening.”

• Abraham announced that Queen Maria Miles would assume the Holy Empire’s administrative authority in Norton Year 11 while the Pale Holy See retained only religious authority.
• Newspapers praised Norton as a noble, holy ruler and criticized demonstrators, leaving the former protesters abandoned by their backers.
• In Norton Year 11, the disgraced demonstration leaders organized another protest, destroying factories and demanding compensation.
• At the end of Norton Year 11, Maria established a parliament to enlist the wealthy class in governing the Holy Empire.
• In Norton Year 12, the government sent imperial guards armed with flintlocks and cannons against the demonstrators, killing more than 3,500 people during a month of conflict.

Queen Maria was elevated by a coordinated wave of newspaper praise while parliament and wealthy families consolidated power and transferred the Pale God’s industrial foundations into private hands. As the Holy Empire entered the capitalist era, workers faced longer hours, lower pay, and gang exploitation, leaving many of the former protesters trapped in debt.

• Newspapers across the Southern Continent praised Queen Maria as its greatest ruler and called the age the Maria era, and she came to believe their flattery.
• At the end of the twelfth year of Norton, parliament abolished the maritime ban, resumed oceangoing trade, and transferred factories and lands into private ownership.
• The Pale God neither approved nor opposed parliament’s actions, and the members of parliament and wealthy class grew bolder in passing measures for their own benefit.
• Private factories forced workers into unpaid overtime, longer hours, and lower pay as workers struggled to keep their jobs.
• Gangs divided territory and exploited the populace, while former protesters took high-interest loans to survive and sank deeper into debt.

Abraham saw how industrial expansion had impoverished and exploited the Southern Continent’s workers, and lamented to Norton that life had been kinder under his rule. Norton rebuked Abraham for enjoying a day of extravagant luxuries at the Holy Empire’s expense before pretending to pity the poor.

• The Southern Continent’s industries and technology advanced rapidly while workers endured long hours, meager pay, dangerous labor, and overcrowded housing.
• Abraham observed workers’ suffering and the desperate lives of their children, who worked in mines or cleaned fireplaces to survive.
• After spending the day indulging in luxuries paid for by the Holy Empire, Abraham returned to the Holy See and praised Norton’s former rule as far kinder.
• Norton listed Abraham’s lavish meals, entertainment, fishing, and other indulgences, then questioned whether capital had corrupted him.

Norton reprimanded Abraham for becoming indulgent and warned him that advancing technology would eventually turn the Holy See’s allies against them. Abraham felt moved by Norton’s concern, though he remained guilty over secretly sending intelligence to Duoxia and the Northern Continent.

• Abraham stood trembling before Norton, who condemned his wealth, luxuries, and indulgent lifestyle.
• Abraham inwardly noted that Norton enjoyed even greater luxuries, but apologized and blamed his excesses on a lasting fear of hunger.
• Norton recalled their past and forgave Abraham, then warned that technological progress would eventually bring their enemies to surround and exterminate them.
• Abraham accepted Norton’s warning, felt grateful for his kindness, and regretted secretly passing information about Southern Continent developments to Duoxia and the Northern Continent.

The Southern Continent’s supernatural population grew under Norton’s system, but mutations, discrimination, and vampire rule deepened its class hierarchy. The chapter then turned to the Northern Continent, whose vast Garden of Eden had been discovered by an adventurer in Holy Year 1447 and had since changed beyond recognition.

• The Pale God’s Mass caused supernatural beings to appear across the Southern Continent in increasing numbers.
• Witches and other ability users developed powerful abilities alongside grotesque mutations, and fire-breathing witches were recruited to supply power plants.
• The Southern Continent’s elite became vampires and used their strength and the supernatural system to maintain control, while ability users faced exploitation and exclusion.
• The chapter contrasted the Southern Continent’s outward growth with the Northern Continent’s genuine flourishing under the royal houses.
• An ocean-going adventurer circled the upper half of the Garden of Eden in Holy Year 1447, disproving an ancient account and discovering the Northern Continent.
• The Northern Continent, once wilderness inhabited by dark-skinned peoples, had completely changed.

A steel train carrying soldiers and steam-powered war machines was ambushed by werewolves and vampires in the Northern Continent. After the tracks were destroyed and the train stopped, the mechs emerged and fought back against the supernatural horde.

• A heavily armored train carrying beaked-hooded soldiers armed with silver weapons sped across the Northern Continent.
• Werewolves and second-generation vampires attacked the train, while soldiers fired silver bullets and defended it through firing ports.
• A blast destroyed part of the track, forcing the train to stop as the supernatural creatures surged toward it.
• The train's crew opened the armor and released three-meter-tall steam-powered war machines.
• A wolf king charged a steam mech, which blasted him apart with its cannon.
• The steam mechs fought through the werewolves and vampires, cutting them down with cannons and blades.

The emperors of the Northern Continent Gothic United Kingdom received a successful hunting operation’s results: the Eternal Life Society had captured werewolf and vampire souls to power War Machines. Duoxia proposed leading five hundred of them to the Southern Continent to test whether they could seal the Pale God, leaving the empire poised to challenge him.

• Miles XIV and the other emperors gathered at the concealed station to question the returning commander about the hunting operation.
• The commander reported that the werewolf and vampire tribes had been nearly wiped out and their souls could power War Machines.
• Bloodied steam-powered mechs emerged from the train, animated by captured souls stored in lantern-like steel containers.
• Duoxia explained that soul-driven machines might escape the Pale God’s flesh-and-blood oppression and proposed taking five hundred War Machines to the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIV and the other emperors heard Duoxia’s plan to test whether the Pale God could be sealed away.

Miles XIV and the Northern Continent’s emperors agreed to use the Eternal Life Society’s machines and turn the Northern barbarians into an army to fight the Pale God and the Southern Continent. The chapter ended with Duoxia warning that Priest Mark’s ambitions could make the Society a rival to the Pale God, then hoping Jonah would prove noble.

• Miles XIV argued that the Northern Continent should turn its barbarians into war machines and prepare for a devastating war against the Pale God and the Southern Continent.
• Miles XIV told the assembled emperors that their conflict with the Pale God could not be reconciled and urged them to work together for their descendants.
• After the emperors departed, Duoxia accused Priest Mark of overreaching and asked whether he wanted the Eternal Life Society to become a second Pale God.
• Mark declared that the Society could replace the Pale God and ordered its members to leave with the war machine.
• Duoxia remained with Jacob and hoped that Jonah, sealed within the sun, would be as noble as Kuba had been.

The Gothic Empire slaughtered and exploited the Northern Continent’s natives, developing Proton Gas to make mass killing cheaper and more efficient. Meanwhile, in the peaceful Southern Continent, Norton indulged in pleasure and made Elizabeth manage the dangers posed by his living flesh.

• Miles XIV declared the Northern Continent’s natives sacrifices to imperial rule, and the Gothic Empire began massacring them to supply souls for war machines.
• The Gothic Empire developed Proton Gas and used enclosed concentration camps to kill captured natives more cheaply than with weapons.
• The empire enslaved many survivors and sold their bodies, organs, blood, bones, and remains for labor, experiments, and military supplies.
• Norton abandoned his reclusive ways and began appearing frequently in the Holy Empire’s capital to pursue pleasure.
• Norton avoided reproduction because his weak soul and living flesh could create dangerous creatures, so he ordered Elizabeth to manage his flesh and blood.

Norton rode through the imperial capital as the poor begged him to restore their former lives, while the Holy Empire’s soldiers violently suppressed them. He ordered his carriage onward and told his attendants to send the dead to Abraham.

• Norton surveyed the workers and poor people as his carriage monopolized the streets under special laws.
• Poor people prostrated themselves before Norton and demanded that he restore their former lives and distribute land.
• Holy Empire security forces charged the crowd and beat the poor people with clubs.
• Norton covered his eyes and ordered the carriage to keep moving, claiming he could not bear to watch.
• Norton told his attendants to send those beaten to death to Abraham.

The three leaders of the Holy Empire Parliament secretly agreed to help the Northern Continent attack Norton, hoping to seal him away and preserve their own power. Beinuo was assigned to coordinate the effort as Norton’s procession continued through the empire.

• The chapter revealed that Queen Maria had been isolated by Parliament, while the Rothschild, Anlan, and Beinuo families had become the Holy Empire’s true rulers.
• Rothschild, Anlan, and Beinuo watched Norton’s carriage procession from the Empire Spire and discussed the Northern Continent’s plan to break through the Pressure of life.
• Anlan questioned the risk of aiding the Northern Continent, but Beinuo argued that either outcome would benefit Parliament.
• Rothschild authorized Beinuo to coordinate secret contact with the Northern Continent and send ships to assist its attack on Norton.
• Parliament’s leaders sought to stop Norton because they feared his influence and the mutations among the Southern Continent’s people would eventually place the empire under his control.

The Holy Empire Parliament turned the Southern Continent’s hardship against Norton, using newspapers and public opinion to destroy his reputation and weaken his believers. Five years later, its leaders prepared to suppress his power with a Northern Continent War Machine and potentially strip him of his divine status.

• The Holy Empire Parliament exploited the poor’s suffering, while newspapers reframed their protests and beatings as a challenge to Norton’s failure to help them.
• As Norton did nothing to ease their lives, people stopped attending Mass and increasingly cursed and despised him.
• Over five years, the Parliament’s public-opinion campaign ruined Norton’s reputation and made him a target of popular hostility.
• Senate Presidents Rothschild and Anlan explained that the Parliament planned to undermine Norton’s holiness first, then use the Northern Continent’s War Machine to restrain him.
• Senator Beinuo agreed that the leaders would test whether the War Machine could help them complete their campaign against Norton.

Norton confronted Abraham about the War Machine and the Southern Continent’s efforts to undermine him, revealing that he knew about their plans and wanted them to backstab him. He secretly welcomed the War Machine as a possible means of advancing and encouraged Abraham to continue his schemes.

• Abraham urged Norton to punish the Southern Continent for its disrespect after returning from receiving the Northern Continent’s War Machine.
• Norton praised Abraham’s resolve, then told him that steel and public opinion could not threaten him and criticized him for pursuing the War Machine instead of researching existence level.
• Abraham realized Norton knew about the War Machine and the continents’ plans, and took comfort in believing his role as a backstabber might help him survive.
• Norton stopped Abraham from explaining himself and ordered him to continue his plans and make the backstabbing more intense.
• Norton privately anticipated that Jonah could help him ascend, as Kuba had before, and considered exposing weaknesses to provoke more attacks.

The Southern Continent’s leaders tested whether Northern Continent War Machines could withstand Norton’s life-level Pressure, hoping to attack him and seize control of the Pale Church. The machines proved immune and stormed the church, but Norton remained standing amid the ruins before a War Machine punched him in the face.

• The Holy Empire and the Gothic Empire coordinated their campaign against Norton as the Pale Church was isolated and supplies and trains were repositioned.
• More than five hundred War Machines arrived in the rainy night and surrounded the church while Norton waited inside.
• Norton’s Pressure forced Senate Speaker Rothschild to his knees, but the War Machines remained unaffected and charged into the church.
• The War Machines smashed the church into ruins, and Norton hurled more than a dozen of the first attackers into nearby buildings.
• Norton announced that he would reveal the Pure White God’s might, but a steel fist struck his face and sent him flying.

The Southern Continent’s elites watched Norton, the Pale God, get struck and overwhelmed by War Machines, shattering their belief in his invincibility. Norton fled after escaping the machines, and the elites resolved to work with the Northern Continent to build more War Machines before he returned with allies.

• The Southern Continent’s elites celebrated as a War Machine punched Norton into the ruins, while Norton secretly rejoiced at sensing the souls inside the machines.
• Norton threatened to unleash a cataclysm, then rose unharmed as the War Machines charged and forced him down beneath their blades and steel bodies.
• Norton burst free of the machines, spread his bone wings, and fled toward the horizon as the elites ordered iron-chain nets fired at him.
• Norton tore through the nets while vowing to destroy the Southern Continent, then escaped into the distance.
• The Southern Continent’s elites concluded that Norton was not invincible and ordered an immediate joint effort with the Northern Continent to increase War Machine production.

After the Holy Empire stripped Norton of his title and allied with the Northern Continent to deport and exploit supernatural races, Norton returned to Sak City and began rebuilding his power. Abraham guessed Norton wanted the War Machines’ souls for advancement and chose to pursue his own opportunity, while former elites in Sak City began demonstrations against Norton’s harsh rule.

• The Holy Empire Parliament revoked Norton’s title, replaced his faith with the Holy Lord Church, and classified vampires, supernatural beings, and werewolves as third-class races.
• The Southern and Northern Continents formed an alliance and forcibly shipped third-class races north as laborers.
• Norton ordered Abraham to conscript living beings and gather information on the War Machines, while Abraham decided to exploit their souls for his own advancement.
• Norton established a new Pale Divine Court in Sak City, enslaving its residents and forcing supernatural beings into his expanding army.
• Former Sak City elites organized demonstrations and small strikes, hoping Norton would again yield to public pressure.

A group of former rich people in Sak City organized a mass demonstration, believing the Pale God would yield to public pressure as he had in the past. Norton ordered Abraham to kill them, and Abraham saw the order as a chance to strengthen his position while secretly serving his own plans.

• Former rich people in Sak City rallied slaves and former beneficiaries of the old order to protest against forced labor and demand freedom and the return of their status.
• The demonstrators gathered beside the monastery where Norton lived, expecting their protest to draw his attention and force concessions.
• Norton listened to the shouting from the Holy See as Abraham arrived with a report about the strike.
• Norton ordered Abraham to kill all the demonstrators, and Abraham agreed.
• Abraham planned to send the demonstrators to the Northern Continent to help build its War Machine, hoping to satisfy Norton while preserving his own cover and influence.

Former wealthy demonstrators in Sak City demanded freedom, equality, and their wealth back, expecting the Pale God to negotiate. Abraham arrived with armed missionaries and ordered a brutal response, leaving Jason and James wounded as the protest collapsed into gunfire.

• Jason handed James a speech and told him to make the demonstrators follow the demands planned by Mr. Wayne and the other hidden leaders.
• Abraham approached the procession as missionaries with firearms surrounded the demonstrators.
• Jason and James mocked Abraham and assumed the Pale God would use threats to make them disperse or compromise.
• The missionaries opened fire directly on the crowd, killing and wounding demonstrators.
• Jason discovered his legs had been riddled with bullets, while James had both legs shot off and cried out in pain.

After brutally suppressing the Sak City demonstrations, Norton rebuilt the Pale Church, crowned himself Holy Lord Pope, and sent Abraham’s transcendent army to conquer Southern Continent cities. Norton believed Abraham was still falling for his schemes, while Abraham secretly sent the supposedly crippled demonstrators to the Northern Continent.

• Norton’s forces shot the Sak City demonstrators in both legs and sent them by train into Holy Empire territory, where they disappeared.
• Norton completed a new Pale Church, declared himself Holy Lord and Pope, and re-established a papal court against the Holy Empire.
• Norton’s pressure exposed suspected dissenters in his territory, and Pale Church missionaries took them away.
• Norton held weekly grand Masses and fed slaves food made with holy water mixed with his bathwater, creating transcendents for Abraham’s expanding army.
• Abraham secretly arranged for the demonstrators to be shipped to the Northern Continent, while Norton watched and praised him as a loyal servant who remained under his control.
• Norton resolved to intensify his war and reveal the cruelty of his past, unaware that Abraham was leading him around by the nose.

The chapter showed the Northern Continent’s concentration camp turning prisoners into market goods through an industrialized processing chain. Mr. Wayne was shot for leaving the line, then killed and processed, while the War Machine effort against Norton continued to benefit from the system.

• Mr. Wayne and other former protest instigators, gang bosses, and nobles arrived at a concentration camp and surrendered their belongings for inspection.
• Mr. Wayne tried to ingratiate himself with an officer but was shot in the leg for leaving the line.
• The guards took Mr. Wayne to a gas chamber, where he died with the other prisoners.
• Workers processed the prisoners’ bodies into leather goods and canned or smoked meat for sale across the Northern Continent.
• The chapter revealed that the industrial chain also helped produce more War Machines to seal Norton away.