Chapter Summaries

Norton revealed that he had spent a century manipulating Abraham and others into helping him gain the ability to perceive and control souls. After Jonah’s infusion gave him that ability, Norton began devouring the souls filling the sky, leaving Jonah powerless as Abraham hailed his success.

• Norton recalled his century-long search for a way to strengthen his soul and explained that he had arranged for someone who could see and control souls to provide him with a feast.
• Norton revealed that he had deliberately pressured and manipulated Abraham, Duoxia, and others into conspiring against him, even knowing about Abraham’s diary.
• Jonah realized Norton had deceived him and stopped the souls he had been funneling into Norton.
• Norton used the souls he had absorbed to draw in the souls across the sky with a powerful vortex, claiming Jonah’s infusion had let him touch souls.
• As Jonah and the souls cried out, Abraham praised Norton’s scheme and called him Your Holiness.

Norton devoured countless souls and Jonah, gaining a higher-dimensional vision that showed him the universe’s entire history and his own emotionless existence after its end. As Jonah carried him into space, Norton desperately tried to undo his evolution, while Abraham’s head wondered where His Eminence had gone.

• Abraham praised Norton for his supposed plan, but Jonah blasted away Abraham’s body, leaving only his regenerating head.
• Jonah condemned Norton for devouring the Garden of Eden’s souls and warned that his actions would destroy reality.
• Jonah carried Norton toward the golden star, merging into Norton and accelerating their ascent into space.
• Norton’s perceptions expanded across time, showing him the universe’s history and his future as an emotionless presence throughout its final emptiness.
• Norton screamed and tried to vomit out the souls, but his Fourth Stage divine body exploded as Jonah continued merging into him.
• Abraham stared into space and wondered where His Eminence was.

After Norton exploded, Abraham and Elizabeth performed their devotion to him while the surviving Blood Clan searched the sky for their creator. The Pale God’s fate remained uncertain as the searchers struggled to fly at high altitudes.

• Norton's explosion devastated the Garden of Eden, and countless souls streamed toward the sun and vanished.
• Abraham lamented Norton's apparent death while privately concluding that Norton was probably still alive because Abraham had survived.
• Elizabeth appeared and professed her eternal devotion to Norton, leaving Abraham convinced that she might be an even more skilled schemer than he was.
• Abraham flew upward to search for Norton, followed by Coal Ball and the surviving Prince-level bats.
• More than a dozen bats fell back to earth when the altitude became too difficult, then took flight again to continue searching for the Pale God Norton.

Two weeks after the Godfall War, Maria resumed the throne while Abraham struggled to restore the devastated Southern Continent and consolidated power for himself. As he reviewed the census, Abraham ordered silverware confiscated and told Alexander to keep searching for the Pale God.

• Maria formally ascended the throne, renamed the era the Maria era, and began her second reign as Queen.
• Abraham allowed rebellious cities to remain autonomous regions because the Southern Continent lacked the strength to conquer them.
• Alexander brought Abraham the census report, but Abraham told him that confiscating silverware was the greater priority.
• Abraham ordered Alexander to report any sign of the Pale God, then privately mocked Alexander for crawling out on his knees.

The chapter recounted the scale and consequences of the Godfall War, comparing it with the earlier Cataclysm Wars and describing how Norton and humanity caused billions of deaths. It ended by explaining why later histories called the century of Maria and Norton the Dark Epoch.

• The chapter described how the War of Holiness overthrew the Holy Lord Empire and caused catastrophic population losses across the Southern Continent.
• Norton, the Pale God, revived and prolonged the War of Cataclysm, which killed more than two hundred million people.
• Preparations and battles in the Godfall War devastated the Northern Continent, the East Continent, and the Southern Continent, with humanity responsible for at least a billion deaths.
• Norton destroyed cities with powerful balls of light and killed nearly a billion people across the Southern Continent.
• Norton pushed the Southern Continent's tectonic plate, causing disasters that killed around three billion people; Jonah stabilized the crust by merging hundreds of millions of souls into it.
• Later histories named the century of Maria and Norton the Dark Epoch.

Abraham feared being held responsible for the Southern Continent’s devastation, so he seized power and blamed the fallen Norton for the catastrophe. As Pontiff, he began restoring order by ordering a military crackdown on postwar criminals.

• After reviewing the census figures and destruction, Abraham feared the Southern Continent and other powers would punish him for Norton’s actions.
• Abraham decided to distance himself from Norton and proclaimed that Norton had ruled as a brutal tyrant, while he had been powerless to oppose him.
• In the first year of the Maria era, Abraham became pontiff, took the title Grand Patriarch, and was later known as the Uncrowned King.
• Abraham issued the Edict of His Crimes, attributing the Southern Continent’s losses to Norton and publicly declaring his break with him.
• Seeing gangs and bandits terrorize the postwar Southern Continent, Abraham ordered an army to suppress them and decreed that anyone committing crimes amid the chaos would be shot on sight without trial.

Abraham imposed brutal order on the Southern Continent while the Northern Continent collapsed into revolution, purges, and warlord rule. A mysterious hooded figure inspired a movement that founded the Northern Continent Human Federation, which adopted a system once associated with Norton’s policies.

• Abraham crushed crime and protests across the Southern Continent, then began reconstruction by concentrating the population in new cities and assigning people to production work.
• After Jacob and Jonah disappeared and the Eternal Life Society lost its War Machines, the Northern Continent erupted into violence and the August Revolution, which was defeated by the third year of Maria.
• The Northern Continent’s purges killed many skilled workers, and the Eternal Life Society fractured into rival warlords who fought over territory and imposed severe taxes.
• In the tenth year of Maria, a hooded speaker spread a revised system based on Norton's former policies and attracted followers among the Northern Continent’s oppressed people.
• In the winter of the fifteenth year of Maria, young people under the hooded figure’s leadership proclaimed the Northern Continent Human Federation and established putting humans first as its principle.

Abraham, exhausted by ruling the Southern Continent, learned that Clausius’s theory of increasing entropy might explain Jonah’s prediction that the Garden of Eden would perish. He rejected the theory because Norton’s soul came from outside the universe, then frightened Alexander with a veiled threat.

• Abraham woke from a nightmare about Jonah’s warning and reflected on his loneliness since His Holiness disappeared.
• Alexander reported that the Pale Holy See in Sak City refused to submit, and Abraham ordered Sak City destroyed and the protest leaders dealt with.
• Alexander introduced Clausius’s research on entropy and explained how the universe might ultimately suffer heat death.
• Abraham argued that the universe could not be an isolated system because His Holiness’s soul came from another world, and his anger made Alexander drop a glass.
• Abraham ominously asked whether Alexander thought he had only one pair of trousers, and Alexander wet himself in terror.

Abraham’s harsh rule isolated him from the Southern Continent’s people and led him to launch a purge that replaced one corrupt system with another. After Abraham was assassinated and Elizabeth disappeared, Alexander became Pope and gradually eased the vampires’ oppression.

• Abraham’s severe demands drove officials to conceal problems, leaving him isolated and suspicious of even Elizabeth and those close to him.
• In the winter of the thirty-third year of Maria’s reign, Abraham launched a nationwide purge and gave the masses power to expose and judge their former superiors.
• Over the next two years, the purge devolved into jealousy, robbery, and new forms of corruption, leaving Abraham disillusioned and alone.
• Abraham withdrew to a villa on an island in Lake Pal, and in the forty-third year of Maria’s reign an assassin killed him with a siege ballista as he opened his door.
• Elizabeth mysteriously disappeared, the purge was halted, and Alexander became Pope, later easing vampires’ working conditions and allowing them to live more like ordinary people.

After humanity reclaimed the Southern Continent, it flourished and turned its ambitions toward space, while Norton watched the universe as an eternal god. Because his soul came from outside the Garden of Eden, God could not assimilate it and began stripping it away; ten thousand years passed as the discarded matter was gathered.

• Humanity inherited the Southern Continent after the extinction of those with extraordinary might, and the Garden of Eden became entirely human.
• As technology advanced, astronomy and spaceflight grew popular, inspiring literature, films, fashion, and the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
• Norton's consciousness became part of the universe, allowing him to watch all of time and space without emotion or desire.
• God could not absorb Norton's foreign soul particles and began gathering them together as discarded matter.
• Ten thousand years passed while the matter was gradually stripped away and collected.

The chapter described humanity’s limited progress into interstellar space despite ten thousand years of technological development, explaining that material science and human biology constrained long voyages. The Firmament Outlook had just left the Garden of Eden, carrying a research team tasked with investigating ancient mysteries and the roots of theology.

• Humanity’s grand plans for expanding through the Garden of Eden Galaxy remained incomplete after ten thousand years, despite establishing space cities and crossing the Lesser Garden of Eden Galaxy.
• The chapter explained how unresolved material problems and the risks of long-term hibernation limited spacecraft speed and voyage duration.
• Humanity relied on enormous spacecraft where generations could live and work together, since space jumps were impossible and hibernation alone could not sustain journeys lasting millions of years.
• The Firmament Outlook left the Garden of Eden with its crew gathered for a meeting before entering physiological hibernation.
• The research team aboard the Firmament Outlook set out to investigate the past and the roots of theology, with Norton praised as being worth his weight in gold.

Professor Jenny told her students that the Human Evolution Elixir came from excavated ancient remains and was discovered through research into ancient theology, rather than being artificially manufactured. The revelation left the research team questioning whether gods had truly existed.

• The chapter described how abundance after nuclear fusion led to widespread idleness, risky behavior, and violence among young people, prompting the Human Federation to restore a system that forced most people to work.
• Professor Jenny led a meeting on ancient theology and explained that the Human Evolution Elixir was extracted from ancient remains.
• The students reacted with surprise as Jenny revealed the Elixir’s origins, despite its long history as a hugely popular treatment that extended lifespans and granted some people special abilities.
• The chapter recounted how powerful awakened individuals such as Benny were classified and recruited into the military.
• The students wondered whether gods had existed in ancient times.

Professor Jenny explained the evidence for the Great Hibernation, when much of the Southern Continent fell asleep and died ten thousand years ago. She left the class with the revelation that the authorities had concealed other discoveries alongside Queen Maria’s corpse.

• Professor Jenny described historical accounts of the Great Hibernation, which began after the pope and vampire queen Maria fell asleep and spread across the Southern Continent.
• Professor Jenny showed old photographs of people collapsed across cities and explained how a deep-sea expedition later found vast deposits of human skeletons in the Yela Trench.
• Professor Jenny recounted how an excavation in AD 7002 uncovered Sak City and more than ten thousand bodies, confirming that the Great Hibernation had occurred.
• Professor Jenny said archaeological teams continued to uncover remains and revealed that Queen Maria’s identity matched the historical vampire queen.
• Professor Jenny told the class that the authorities had concealed other corpses discovered alongside Queen Maria.

Professor Jenny lectured her students about evidence for vampires, nonhuman species, and the theory that humanity was held captive on a planet marked by glass-like weld seams. An urgent message summoned her to a major archaeological discovery on the Southern Continent that might reveal the secrets of the gods.

• Professor Jenny showed footage of Queen Maria, whose dried body regained vitality where researchers dripped blood into her mouth.
• Professor Jenny explained that evidence of other humanoid species had inspired theories about humanity’s origins, including the widely trusted theory of captivity.
• Professor Jenny displayed Heaven Planet and described its equatorial weld seam, noting that more than eight hundred observed planets had similar glass-like seams.
• Professor Jenny received an urgent communication asking her to return to the Garden of Eden because excavators had uncovered a ten-thousand-year-old site on the Southern Continent.

Benny arrived at a newly uncovered ten-thousand-year-old ruin, where the restored vampire queen Maria and other unearthed creatures had baffled scientists and alarmed the Human Federation. He and his seven A-rank teammates prepared to secure the excavation, which might contain surviving monsters and lost technology.

• Reporters and crowds gathered around a deep excavation site after workers uncovered ancient ruins beneath a city road.
• Benny landed on and crushed a camera drone, drawing an excited response from the crowd and reporters.
• Benny's seven A-rank teammates arrived in a special operations vehicle to support the mission and deter possible ancient threats.
• Experiments showed that Queen Maria recovered after being soaked in blood despite lacking blood and active cells, while Pope Alexander and the other unearthed creatures showed similar traits.
• The Human Federation's leadership treated the excavation as a major operation because the ruins might hold ancient monsters or technological advances.

Benny and the Super Eight joined an expedition into ten-thousand-year-old ruins, where researchers prepared to breach a massive concrete wall. The opening revealed a chamber beyond as Professor Charles hoped to find clues to the Immortal Objects.

• Researchers deployed nanobots to map the cavern and check it for danger.
• Benny crashed into the cavern, asserted full authority, and waited for the scans while his seven teammates arrived.
• Professor Charles explained that the expedition sought ancient life-forms and clues to the indestructible Immortal Objects.
• The nanobot scan found no signs of life or movement, and soldiers began cutting through the thick concrete wall.
• Benny dismissed the threat of ancient life-forms as the nanocutter opened a passage, and drones revealed the space beyond.

Benny, Professor Charles, Professor Jenny, and their expedition entered a vast underground chamber filled with ancient black coffins bearing the Pale Holy See’s emblem. Benny nervously led the way as the group followed, recording the discovery for research.

• Professor Charles recognized the Pale Holy See’s emblem on the coffins and tried to rush into the chamber, but Professor Jenny stopped him.
• Benny stared at the seemingly endless rows of coffins and grew afraid of what might be inside.
• A drone startled Benny, and he jumped backward before pretending he had only meant to break the group’s silence.
• Benny steeled himself and walked into the chamber, prompting the others to praise him and follow.
• Professor Jenny confirmed that the expedition was being livestreamed as soldiers and AI robots guarded the group.

Benny and the professors explored an immense underground burial site and discovered Holy Lord City, an ancient city built as a gift to the Pale Holy See’s Holiness. The inscription at its entrance mentioned vampires and werewolves, but the expedition ignored its demand that visitors prostrate themselves and pray.

• Benny led the expedition through a forest of coffins bearing distressed messages, while Professor Charles and Professor Jenny examined them.
• Professor Charles identified the bodies in the coffins as Pale Holy See missionaries and noticed that their pointed teeth varied in position.
• The group found that the burial site opened into a vast underground palace, where an enormous city wall and Holy Lord City came into view.
• The professors discovered dried corpses set into the city walls and read an inscription naming Abraham as the city’s builder and forbidding lesser vampires and werewolves from entering.
• Professor Jenny was startled by the reference to werewolves, while Professor Charles wondered why they had been barred; the group ignored the inscription’s instructions to kneel and pray.

Benny led the group into Holy Lord City and climbed the immense silver throne, convinced he might be the reincarnation of the ancient god it awaited. He found a figure seated at the summit, whose golden eyes opened before Benny melted like black water.

• The group entered Holy Lord City and found its streets filled with posed corpses and a towering throne surrounded by gargoyle statues.
• Benny ignored the danger and climbed the throne while a professor translated Abraham’s inscription about the city being built to welcome His Eminence’s return.
• As Benny ascended, he began to believe he was the returning god and hurried toward the summit.
• Benny discovered a silver-haired figure seated on the throne as someone below asked whether it was another dried corpse.
• The figure opened its golden eyes, and Benny melted like black water.

When Benny climbed the platform, the Holy City fell into supernatural darkness, and the people below watched in horror as his face and body seemed to dissolve into black liquid. Norton, the Pale God, then declared that he had returned as the ancient dead awoke around him.

• The Holy City plunged into darkness, and John called for Benny while the Super Eight, soldiers, and professors gathered to face the platform.
• Black liquid dripped from above, revealed an eye, and flowed into a sheet of facial skin bearing Benny’s features.
• The crowd screamed and fled as gunfire, explosions, and the sounds of opening coffins erupted through the city.
• Norton declared himself the Pale God and announced his return while the dead hailed his arrival.