Chapter Summaries

The Northern Continent’s nuclear attacks and the East Continent’s chemical and plague warfare devastated the Holy Empire and crushed its people’s will to resist. Norton blamed Abraham for failing to discover the weapons, ordered the destruction of both empires, and ended in a furious outburst as a blood-red sun shone through the ruined hall.

• Newspaper reports of nuclear attacks on Leiyin City and Bell City spread panic and weakened support for the Pale God.
• The East Continent used poison gas and plague warfare, causing mass deaths and further collapsing the Holy Empire’s morale.
• Norton accused Abraham of hiding news about the enemy’s weapons, but Abraham denied knowing about them, and Elizabeth believed him.
• Norton ordered Abraham to break both empires, exterminate their races, and make the Pale God the only voice in the Garden of Eden.
• Norton crushed his silver throne and hurled it through the hall’s roof, revealing a blood-red sun that hinted at something awakening within it.

As the Southern Continent collapsed under nuclear and biological warfare, the Eternal Life Society seized a Northern Continent field hospital and killed its director. Its members prepared for their god’s revival in six months and a blood sacrifice meant to welcome the Primordial God of Death.

• Norton forced Southern Continent soldiers into nuclear blast zones as both sides fought to occupy devastated cities.
• In the seventy-seventh year of Norton's reign, the Southern Continent lost most of its territory and suffered 310 million deaths, while unrest spread among its people.
• Eternal Life Society members entered a Northern Continent field hospital and ordered Director Truman to leave within three hours.
• The Society's leader shot Director Truman and the nurse as they fled, then announced that their god would revive within six months.
• The Eternal Life Society members shouted about immortality and prepared to reveal a fraction of their god's power to the Garden of Eden.

As the Southern Continent’s forces collapsed and reports emerged that the dead were reviving and souls were appearing, Norton’s fear of Jonah and the final judgment drove him to the brink of madness. He chose to face the coming battle from his throne, declaring that he would destroy all life in the Garden of Eden.

• Abraham reported the Southern Continent’s military defeats and growing rebellion, and Norton struck him through a wall in rage.
• Abraham reasoned that Norton feared the destructive nature of souls and that the coming awakening of Jonah left him with no safe escape.
• Abraham told Norton that fallen Northern Continent soldiers had revived and that ghostly souls were overwhelming troops, prompting Norton to panic and deny that Jonah could awaken.
• Norton concluded that he could not flee the Garden of Eden or escape God’s judgment, and he told Abraham and Elizabeth to run for their lives.
• Norton restored his dignified appearance, summoned his followers to the Pale Holy See, and announced that he would slaughter all life and await the coming crusade from his throne.

As the Holy Empire neared collapse, Abraham wrote a final testament analyzing Norton’s history, weaknesses, and the danger his death posed to the contaminated Southern Continent. He left the book for future generations and remained in the Holy See as Norton's followers gathered in the capital.

• After Norton's declaration, the Holy Empire's resistance crumbled, and civilians fled toward Northern Continent territory.
• Abraham, fearing the war's consequences, wrote a testament describing Norton's origins, his mental state, and the possible weakness in his otherworldly soul.
• Abraham warned that Norton's death would annihilate everyone contaminated by his flesh and blood, but argued that the Garden of Eden had to risk a god-slaying war to resist him.
• Abraham reflected on how centuries of oppression and recurring nightmares had worn away his convictions, then arranged for a figure to hide his testament.
• As Norton's steadfast believers streamed into the imperial capital, Abraham remained in the Holy See awaiting the final moment.

Fanatical believers gathered at the Pale Holy See as the Holy Empire’s military situation worsened and its capital prepared for a siege. During an inspection of the city walls, Abraham spotted a dark figure in the distance.

• More and more believers traveled to the Pale Holy See, where they camped, worshipped, and pledged themselves to the Pale God Norton, who never appeared before them.
• Urgent dispatches reported the Holy Empire’s losses and the advancing Gothic Empire and Southern Continent armies, while the capital’s defenses and patrols increased.
• The gray skies allowed Abraham, Elizabeth, and other Vampires to move through the city by day as they reviewed the front and strengthened the capital’s defenses.
• During his usual inspection of the walls, Abraham saw a dark figure appear in the distance.

Abraham and the Pale Holy See defended the imperial city against endless hordes of corpses led by a proof of Jonah’s existence. After the attackers overwhelmed the outer defenses, Abraham transformed and led more than fifty giant batlike monsters into battle, rallying the defenders, but the corpses were only cannon fodder for the Northern Continent’s army.

• Abraham spotted a rotting soldier outside the imperial city, identified it as proof that Jonah existed, and rang the alarm.
• The corpse hordes charged the city, broke through the artillery line, and began climbing the walls as the defenders panicked.
• Abraham crushed a believer who questioned the Pale God, transformed into a giant monster, and called on the believers to defend the city.
• Abraham led more than fifty giant batlike monsters into the corpse hordes, while witches and vajra warriors fought from the walls.
• The defenders rallied and began pushing back the corpses, but the chapter revealed that the horde was only cannon fodder for the Northern Continent’s army.

Northern forces bombarded the Pale Holy See, nearly destroying the imperial capital and killing or crippling its defenders. When fifteen nuclear bombs detonated over the pale tower, Norton absorbed their light and explosive force, then declared himself the Pale God and threatened destruction across the Southern Continent.

• Northern artillery and aircraft devastated the imperial capital, suppressing Abraham, Elizabeth, and the other Prince-level vampires.
• Fanatics fired antiaircraft guns at the aircraft, but the bombardment reduced the capital to ruins and left most survivors near death.
• Abraham watched Norton remain seated on his silver throne as the pale tower endured the assault, then recognized that the final formation carried an unfamiliar weapon.
• Fifteen nuclear bombs detonated above the tower, and Norton rose, opened his monstrous mouth, and drew in their flames, shock waves, and light until the explosions vanished.
• Norton flew above the tower, identified himself as the Pale God, and unleashed a pressure across the Southern Continent while promising destruction to those who tried to kill a god.

The chapter contrasted popular myths about Norton’s omnipotence with researchers’ belief that he was merely indestructible, before revealing his overwhelming power during the war. After swallowing the force and light of fifteen nuclear bombs, Norton proclaimed the end of the epoch, killed nearly two hundred million people with his Pressure, and drew his own spine out as a weapon while steel creations approached.

• Researchers concluded that Norton was an indestructible vampire whose powers came from his foreign soul and life level, not broad destructive attacks.
• Abraham watched Norton swallow the effects of fifteen detonated nuclear bombs, including their shock waves and light.
• Norton proclaimed himself the Pale God and sole deity of the Garden of Eden, and his Pressure killed nearly two hundred million unprotected people across the Southern Continent.
• Norton tore open his neck and pulled his own spine out to wield as a pale longsword.
• Endless steel creations appeared on the distant edge of the city as the war continued.

Norton, the Pale God, fought off the human assault and unleashed a laser that devastated the battlefield and killed Priest Mark. He continued attacking the survivors as the sky darkened, while Abraham wondered whether Jonah could challenge him.

• Priest Mark ordered the Eternal Life Society to begin its grand blood sacrifice as Norton appeared above the encircled imperial city.
• Human soldiers fired nets, guns, corpses, and War Machines at Norton, but he broke through the crush and burned the machines with a stream of fire.
• Norton transformed the fire into a laser and swept it across the battlefield, destroying the Northern Continent’s forces and killing Priest Mark.
• Abraham survived after lying down, while Norton declared that he would destroy the Garden of Eden and resumed his assault with his bone sword.
• Abraham watched Norton rampage across the ruins as the sky grew darker and heat distortions rose from the battlefield.

As Norton’s Pale God devastated the Gothic Empire’s capital, Emperor Jacob II questioned the ideals he shared with his former teacher, Duoxia. Duoxia revealed that Abraham had helped him become a Blood Progenitor, then carried Jacob away, leaving the empire’s struggle behind.

• Jacob II watched the Pale God destroy the imperial capital and lamented the loss of the Northern Continent’s seventy years of effort.
• Duoxia argued that the Pale God’s rule had restrained human greed and oppression more effectively than the Gothic Empire’s claims of freedom.
• Duoxia revealed that Abraham’s blood and the Pale God’s holy water had transformed him into a Blood Progenitor True Ancestor.
• Duoxia told Jacob he would not stop the coming tide, but wanted him to see whether the struggle brought humanity freedom or merely empowered jackals.
• Duoxia seized Jacob and flew toward the horizon, escaping before the war began.

As the sun dimmed, Norton descended into madness and unleashed power capable of destroying life, planets, and reality itself. The Eternal Life Society began its final preparations for a sacrifice across the Southern Continent while the dying sun drew the Garden of Eden’s phantoms toward it.

• Abraham and Elizabeth watched Norton rage in the sky, and Abraham wondered whether merging Norton’s soul with the Garden of Eden’s could still save it.
• Norton roared above Biyang, fired a crimson laser, and drove surviving humans to mutate or die as he swept the beam across the Garden of Eden.
• The chapter revealed that Norton’s existence level stood above reality, allowing him to destroy planets and even the universe.
• The Eternal Life Society began its final preparations, poisoning wounded soldiers and dropping a pitch-black object by parachute over occupied Southern Continent cities.
• The sun turned gray and dimmed as transparent phantoms across the Garden of Eden evaporated toward it, and Norton sensed its decline.

Norton, as the Pale God, destroyed cities across the Southern Continent and declared that humanity would be punished for betraying him. The star went dark, plunging all of Garden of Eden into darkness as the world fell silent and strange figures appeared.

• Norton fired a ball of light that reduced a city of nearly ten million people to powder.
• Norton proclaimed that he would annihilate the humans of the Garden of Eden and fired more balls of light at cities across the Southern Continent.
• More than a dozen major cities were destroyed, breaking the remaining resistance after decades of Northern Continent and Eternal Life Society preparations.
• The star orbiting Garden of Eden went dark, plunging the entire world into darkness.
• Black figures appeared in ruined cities as animals, insects, plants, and the wind fell completely still.

Norton confronted the silent Garden of Eden and called on Jonah, the Primordial God of Death, while pretending he wanted to devour souls and become a god. Hidden in the rubble, Abraham decided he had uncovered Norton's true fear and believed mental illness would finally defeat him.

• Abraham and Elizabeth hid beneath rubble and watched Norton, while Abraham grew alarmed by Norton's words about consuming souls.
• Norton noticed the Garden of Eden had fallen unnaturally silent and saw that the star overhead had gone dark.
• Norton raised his bone sword and claimed his unique soul could not be erased, taunting Jonah and declaring that the Garden of Eden's souls would help him ascend.
• Abraham interpreted Norton's boasts as a deception meant to keep Jonah away because absorbing souls would contaminate Norton's unique soul.
• Abraham recalled Norton's long history of feigning fear and concluded that mental illness, rather than Abraham himself, would defeat His Holiness.

A pitch-black star released countless black souls and revealed the Primordial God of Death, who declared that he would eliminate the disorder in the Garden of Eden. Norton recognized the colossal figure as Jonah, and the god leaped from the star toward the Garden of Eden as Norton asked to settle things peacefully.

• Black souls poured from the star toward the Garden of Eden, bound by chains held in an enormous shadow hand.
• The Primordial God of Death declared that the Garden of Eden's disordered state violated God's will and that he would eliminate its source.
• A colossal, flame-wreathed monster pulled itself out of the star and fixed its gaze on Norton, parting the clouds around him.
• Norton saw the monster and realized it was Jonah, then asked whether they could settle things peacefully.
• Jonah leaped from the star and merged into the black tide as it surged toward the Garden of Eden.

As Jonah descended and the Eternal Life Society hailed him, Norton recognized the threat and fled at unimaginable speed. Abraham realized Norton had been holding back all along, but saw that he had run in the wrong direction.

• Jonah’s arrival stirred the Southern Continent, as the Eternal Life Society prayed to him and other citizens cheered for Norton's destruction.
• Norton saw Jonah’s figure above the black star and cursed in shock.
• Norton vanished in a burst of speed, leaving a white line across the sky and a shock wave that knocked Abraham, Elizabeth, and the surviving Vampire Princes down.
• Abraham realized Norton’s earlier displays of speed and fury had been deliberate restraint, and feared that the conflict might have been part of a deception.
• Abraham shouted that Norton had fled in the wrong direction.

Norton charged Jonah’s tide of souls, while Abraham concluded that the attack was part of a cunning plan to conceal Norton’s weakness. Jonah stopped Norton and pinned him in a crater, leaving the Pale God screaming in pain.

• Norton raced through space toward Jonah’s approaching tide of souls instead of fleeing, and Abraham mistook his charge for a carefully planned strategy.
• Norton declared that he would ascend to the fifth stage by consuming Jonah’s soul, then plunged through the swarming souls, which could not harm him.
• Jonah condemned Norton for disrupting the Garden of Eden’s order and struck him with an enormous supernatural palm.
• Jonah’s blow created a vast crater in a Southern Continent city, where a five-meter-tall, black-flamed monster pinned Norton by the neck.
• Norton begged for mercy as Jonah’s flames seared his soul with unbearable pain.

Norton discovered that his invulnerable flesh concealed a frail soul, leaving him helpless against Jonah’s soul-targeting attacks. As Jonah burned him and the Garden of Eden filled with wandering souls, the deity panicked at a light appearing in the black star and blamed Norton for disrupting the Garden’s survival.

• Norton reasoned that his advancement had strengthened his flesh but left his soul weak, making him vulnerable to Jonah’s attacks.
• Jonah lifted Norton from the crater and burned him with black flames while Norton insisted that his unique soul could not be destroyed.
• Jonah realized Norton’s soul was not created by God and called him an unclean heretic who had disrupted the Garden of Eden’s order.
• The sea of souls entered the Garden of Eden, frightening its inhabitants as Jonah’s flames continued to torment Norton.
• Jonah noticed a tiny point of light appear in the black star and cried that the Garden of Eden must not be revealed, blaming Norton for ruining its chance of survival.

Jonah tried to restrain Norton, but Norton moved the Garden of Eden and caused devastation across the world. Abraham revealed that souls from the Garden of Eden could contaminate Norton’s unique soul, and Jonah began pouring them into him, leaving Abraham to realize that his betrayal might have been unnecessary.

• Jonah pinned Norton down and tried to bind him with chains made from the souls in the sky.
• Norton resisted by using his Pressure to move the Garden of Eden, causing earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis, and mass deaths.
• Jonah begged Norton to stop and promised not to seal him.
• Abraham arrived and explained that Garden of Eden souls could contaminate Norton’s unique soul, just as Norton had used that method against Kuba.
• Norton shot Abraham from the sky, and Jonah understood Abraham’s explanation and had the souls pour into Norton.
• As Norton screamed in terror, Abraham realized he could have simply died instead of betraying Norton.

Abraham lay helpless in the ruins as Jonah forced countless souls into Norton, and he realized Norton had feigned madness for over a century to manipulate him and bring about the rebellion. Abraham was left overwhelmed by the possibility that every step, including his betrayal, had been part of Norton's plan.

• Jonah held Norton aloft as countless wailing souls poured into his body, while Abraham remained pinned in the ruins.
• Abraham reconsidered Norton's past schemes and concluded that Norton had pretended to be mentally ill to conceal his plan to advance.
• Abraham realized Norton's pressure and apparent failures had pushed him toward rebellion and helped Jonah's plan succeed.
• Abraham suspected Norton had deliberately allowed the rebellion, concealed his knowledge and strength, and driven the crisis to force Abraham and Jonah into his trap.
• Abraham cried out and beat his chest as he regretted sympathizing with Norton and saw himself as a fool.

Jonah poured souls into Norton, discovering that the Pale God’s dependence on absorbed souls gave him a way to gain control. As Jonah burned and berated Norton, Norton’s perception and power changed, and the chapter ended with him rejecting his repeated apologies and insisting he had not been wrong.

• Jonah sensed a growing connection to Norton as he flooded the Pale God with souls, realizing that enough souls could let him control Norton.
• Norton asked Jonah what he had meant about God, but Jonah seized his neck and condemned him for throwing the Garden of Eden into chaos.
• Norton absorbed more souls and began seeing them, sensing locations more clearly, and rising without relying on his wings.
• Jonah’s divine power spread through the Garden of Eden, and souls flowed into the earth to rapidly heal the Southern Continent’s fractured tectonic plate.
• As Jonah burned him, Norton’s pleas weakened before he abruptly declared, “I wasn’t wrong!”