Chapter Summaries

Fifteen Church knights aboard Franklin’s spacecraft completed the first Subspace Jump and entered a silent, matterless void while the ship’s Anchor searched for reality. As the knights waited, Franklin realized that the pounding they felt was not their own heartbeat but something else coming alive.

• The chief scientist explained how the Subspace Jump would work and watched the spacecraft begin to fade from the landing pad.
• The spacecraft vanished from the researchers’ view, and they hurried to contact the space station at the designated Anchor.
• Franklin and fourteen Church knights saw the world outside fade into darkness as their spacecraft entered Subspace.
• The knights activated the Anchor and waited in the silent void while it searched for the real world.
• Franklin sensed a pounding out of sync with his heartbeat, warned that something had come alive, and reached for his gun.

Franklin and the Church knights fought an escalating xenos infestation aboard their spacecraft during its jump. When John transformed into a Twelve-Winged Angel, soul matter merged with his body and turned him into a monster, leaving Franklin to continue the fight as the jump proceeded.

• Franklin and the Church knights found a giant, growing heart in a compartment and destroyed it, releasing small xenos.
• More heartbeats spread throughout the spacecraft, and Franklin led his squad against swarms of xenos that grew into larger mutants and masses of corrupting flesh.
• The flesh's muttering affected John, causing him to erupt into a Twelve-Winged Angel and melt a breach in the spacecraft.
• John's golden flames went out as soul matter merged with his body, transforming him into a monster that joined the xenos.
• Franklin suppressed his flames after his armor warned him about overheating and resumed fighting while the spacecraft's jump continued.

Knight Commander Xinuo and the Pale Church awaited a spacecraft returning from a Subspace Jump while a scholar explained research into merging matter and soul. The spacecraft appeared at the Anchor, but it remained silent and seemingly deserted.

• Knight Commander Xinuo waited with the Pale Church fleet while a scholar estimated the spacecraft would reach the required vibration frequency in about twenty-five days.
• Knight Commander Xinuo rebuked the scholar for questioning whether His Holiness could create a life-form formed from matter and soul, and threatened to report him to the Inquisition.
• The monitoring instruments detected faint vibrations, and the spacecraft materialized in the empty vacuum.
• The spacecraft showed no signs of communication or movement and floated silently, apparently deserted.

Knight Commander Xinuo’s forces discovered that the missing space-jump ship had been consumed by a grotesque life-form born from soul matter in Subspace. Franklin’s recorded warning revealed that every jump could bring soul matter into reality, and Xinuo’s scholar was killed after proclaiming that the findings proved the existence of a true God.

• Knight Commander Xinuo sent Church knights to investigate the unresponsive space-jump ship and cut open its hatch from outside.
• The knights found the ship filled with sticky flesh, the remains of Franklin’s squad, and a huge beating heart, so Xinuo ordered them to retrieve the black box data and destroy the ship.
• Franklin’s recorded message explained that soul matter filled ships during Subspace jumps, contaminated physical matter, and could be carried back into reality.
• A scholar declared that His Holiness had stolen life and that only the true God could create it, and someone split him in half with a power greatsword.

News of Adamxis Planet’s devastation and the dangers of Subspace Jump technology spread through humanity’s colonies, but most people welcomed the chance to reproduce and expand despite the threat of anomalous creatures. Online debate exposed a society eager for upheaval and confident it could survive a war, leaving humanity on the brink of a destructive reckoning.

• Reports of Adamxis Planet’s invasion and the discovery of Subspace Jump technology reached humanity’s interstellar colonies in 3211 of the Norton 3k era.
• The chapter described how birth controls had been imposed three hundred years earlier to prevent the enormous, long-lived population from exhausting the Human Federation’s resources.
• Streamers and bloggers celebrated Subspace Jump technology and argued that humanity should accept an endless struggle against anomalous creatures rather than abandon expansion and immortality.
• Online commenters demanded that the Pale God suppress the creatures or were condemned for questioning him, while others called for the destruction of the Garden of Eden and welcomed humanity’s extinction.
• The narrator described how prolonged peace had made people overconfident and left society’s moral and social foundations close to collapse, suggesting that upheaval would remake humanity.

Abraham reported that public opinion had turned against Norton, with people demanding that he solve humanity’s problems and spreading rumors about his motives. As Abraham and Duoxia reflected on human nature, they considered whether conflict and competition might help humanity more than peace alone.

• Abraham told Norton that people were questioning why he did not suppress mutated creatures or help humanity achieve faster-than-light travel.
• Abraham described rumors claiming Norton kept humans as nourishment and withheld help to control their population.
• Abraham reflected that Norton had already granted humanity peace, eternal life, and help with its development, yet people still demanded more.
• Duoxia suggested that war, oppression, exploitation, and competition might spur human society to correct itself.
• Abraham and Duoxia’s studies of human nature had made them increasingly detached from individual suffering, and they wondered if this was part of becoming gods.

Norton explained to Abraham and Duoxia that he planned to destroy humanity’s peaceful society and create suffering so people would depend on him and worship him. With his preparations nearly complete, he was ready to trigger the final catastrophe and secure the faith he needed for his return.

• Norton told Abraham and Duoxia that humanity’s doubts and resentment proved people could not appreciate peace, freedom, and immortality.
• Norton declared that he would create a real Hell and bring misery to humanity so they would struggle for peace and believe in his holiness.
• Norton reasoned that destroying humanity’s comfortable life and unleashing nonhuman invaders would make people miss, adore, and depend on him.
• Norton mocked Abraham for failing to understand that his goal was universal faith and an Anchor for his return.
• Norton concluded that his plans were nearly complete and that humanity deserved the suffering he intended to inflict.

Norton sacrificed himself by sealing his body into the sun, separating the Garden of Eden from Heaven and suppressing the escaping souls. His death was broadcast across the Human Federation, and people in other star systems also saw his cross-shaped figure on their suns.

• Norton appointed Abraham and Duoxia the supreme leaders of the Pale Church and declared that humanity must keep fighting Heaven.
• Norton grew to enormous size, took the shape of a cross, and flew toward the sun as the Human Federation broadcast the event.
• The sun darkened and revealed countless black hands and phantoms struggling to escape from its surface.
• Norton embedded himself in the sun, silencing the screams and restoring its orange-red surface as he closed his eyes.
• Pale Churches across star systems rang bells to mourn Norton, while residents elsewhere saw his cross-shaped outline on their own suns.

Norton staged his apparent sacrifice on the sun to become a distant, visible god whom humanity could believe in or slander. A week later, Abraham confirmed the spectacle was flawless while Norton revealed that the figure on the sun was a convincing special effect.

• Norton’s apparent sacrifice bewildered the Human Federation, and many citizens mocked him and spread slander online.
• The Human Federation Government warned that slandering the Pale God violated the law, while detractors circulated records of Norton’s past actions.
• One week after the sacrifice, Abraham inspected the towering figure on the sun and told Norton that the effects looked flawless from every angle.
• Norton explained that he had created physical bodies within the stars from matter like his own, making the sunbound figure appear real even under scientific examination.
• Norton revealed that the spectacle was staged to remove him from above humanity and make him a distant, visible god.

Norton explained that he had engineered humanity’s long peace, immortality, and ensuing crisis so that war and his sacrifice would make him revered as a true god. After Duoxia pieced together the scheme, Norton hinted that even recognizing it might be part of his trap.

• Norton said he had sealed reality and Heaven and arranged for humanity’s own expansion efforts to bring Soul Matter and war, letting him avoid blame for divine inaction while becoming humanity’s hope.
• A breach at the Holy See palace interrupted Norton and Abraham, and Abraham and Duoxia guessed that people were already seeking to transfer power.
• Abraham and Duoxia admitted that humanity needed external threats or internal conflict, and Duoxia reflected on how immortality and peace had contributed to the crisis.
• Duoxia realized that Norton may have guided humanity’s development and engineered its war and his own path to godhood, then felt rage and terror at the possibility.
• Norton told Abraham and Duoxia that people who thought they had uncovered the mystery might already have fallen into the hunter’s net, leaving Duoxia drenched in sweat and Abraham having wet his pants.

Norton let rebels attack the Holy See so the Pale Church could appear persecuted and later claim credit for saving humanity, while Abraham, Duoxia, and Elizabeth staged their capture. After the attackers carried them away, Norton restored them to the chamber, leaving the apparent transfer of power as part of his scheme.

• As rebels attacked the Holy See, Norton explained that he wanted the Pale Church and himself to escape blame for the coming war and gain public devotion by first appearing persecuted.
• Norton told Abraham, Duoxia, and Elizabeth to surrender and act helplessly when the attackers arrived.
• The rebels broke into the chamber, and their leader declared that the Pale Church’s political rule should end.
• Abraham challenged the attackers, while Elizabeth was wounded and Abraham endured repeated blows without resisting.
• The rebels restrained Abraham, Duoxia, and Elizabeth and took them away, but Norton then restored them to the chamber, where Abraham poured him tea.

After Abraham and the Pale Church’s leaders surrendered political authority to the Human Federation Government, the government reclaimed power and prepared to confront the Church’s supporters. The chapter ended as fanatics launched widespread attacks on government institutions.

• On December 31, 3159, Abraham and the Pale Church’s archbishops agreed to relinquish ruling authority and disband the Church’s knight forces.
• The Human Federation was shaken when news spread that the Pale Church’s leadership had submitted without resistance.
• On January 1, 3160, the Human Federation Government reclaimed ruling authority and gathered allies in preparation for armed conflict.
• Pale Church fanatics stormed the presidential residence and government departments across the Federation, including large numbers of power-armored Fifth Stage knights.

After the Pale Church surrendered political power, Norton’s self-sacrifice and the Church were attacked and defended in a fierce online debate. As tens of billions of believers gathered at the Pale Holy See, the Church ordered them to return home, leaving extremists and false believers behind.

• People online mocked Norton and the Pale Church, while others defended the Pale God and challenged accusations of corruption.
• The Human Federation reclaimed political power in Norton 3k, year 160, though the Pale Church still had many powerful knights.
• In year 163, fanatics from across human space gathered outside the Pale Holy See, led by Archbishop Marcus, to urge Abraham, Duoxia, and Elizabeth to resist the transfer of power.
• Marcus and the other leaders failed to persuade the Church’s leadership, and the Pale Church declared that believers must preserve order and return to their families.
• Most believers obeyed and departed for their home planets, while extremists and false believers, including Marcus, remained.

After returning from the Pale Holy See, Bishop Marcus rallied fanatics and opportunists to form an opposition faction within the Pale Church. The fanatics began organizing a College of Cardinals Outside the Church and a Crusade Holy War, while Marcus revealed that he intended to use the movement to bargain with the Human Federation and rise to power.

• Bishop Marcus gathered Pale Church extremists and opportunists on Lesser Abraham Star after the Pale God’s death.
• A priest called for enslaving nonbelievers, and the meeting’s extremists agreed to launch a holy war against the Human Federation.
• Marcus proposed establishing a College of Cardinals Outside the Church to replace the Church’s three leaders and restore the Church’s orthodoxy.
• The extremists left to begin organizing the College and Crusade, while Marcus stayed behind with the opportunists.
• Marcus explained that he wanted to use the faction’s military strength and claim to orthodoxy to negotiate a split Church and secure high-ranking positions for its leaders.

Marcus and his followers formed a rival College of Cardinals and launched a Holy Crusade, breaking the Human Federation’s three-thousand-year peace. As war spread and the Federation fractured into competing factions, its government conscripted and exploited civilians while the elites indulged in brutal abuses.

• Marcus and other clergy condemned the three old stalwarts, established a separate College of Cardinals, and declared a Holy Crusade to cleanse the world of sin.
• The College of Cardinals and the Human Federation began fighting as religious, political, and commercial factions formed across the fragmented star regions.
• The Pale Church Elder Faction rejected both sides, the Church Independence Faction stayed neutral, and the Human Federation Lord and Noble Factions pursued their own interests.
• The Human Federation Government abolished the Pale God’s support policy and forced civilians into military service and twelve-hour factory shifts.
• The Federation’s elites arrested people for research materials and introduced cruel entertainments and abuses that the Pale God had once forbidden.

The Human Federation Government and Marcus's College of Cardinals began a controlled war, each side using it to expand its power and weaken rivals. The conflict escalated into atrocities and mounting casualties, while both governments lost control of their forces and distorted reports obscured conditions on the ground.

• The Human Federation Government rejected the opportunists' demands but delayed its response and encouraged a war that could weaken independent forces and the Pale Church.
• Marcus recognized the Federation's plan and used the fighting to seize planets and expand the College of Cardinals' territory.
• The two sides escalated raids and attacks, and their clashes caused thirteen billion casualties over ten years.
• Believers resisted the College of Cardinals' leaders and Marcus, while the Federation military grew increasingly unrestrained as its government gained influence.
• After a delayed warning failed to reach a targeted city before a strike in 3173, the Federation military used chemical weapons and other covert attacks, then manipulated media coverage to blame the Pale Church.
• The war expanded as the College of Cardinals lost control of its followers and Federation elites and military departments distorted orders for their own gain.

As the Human Federation’s war against the Pale Church worsened, the government and elites exploited and impoverished the public, driving widespread protests and intense devotion to Norton. The government responded by pushing outward expansion and, in Norton 3k,190, announced that all reproductive restrictions were abolished.

• The war’s escalating costs and the abolition of public support drove ordinary people back into factory labor, while elites profited from their hardship.
• The Human Federation introduced thousands of taxes and assigned jobs to residents, while exploitation, prostitution, gangs, and human trafficking spread.
• Public opinion reversed, with people across the Federation praying for Norton’s return and treating him as a god.
• As opposition approached ninety percent, the government accelerated spaceship production to redirect internal unrest toward expansion.
• In Norton 3k,190, the Human Federation announced that childbearing was completely free and all reproductive restrictions were abolished.

Norton revealed to Abraham that he intended to use engineered disasters and population control to make humanity worship him forever, demonstrating his power by destroying a planet. Meanwhile, legislators began impeaching the Human Federation government over massive fraud involving a fictitious planet, leaving the corruption scandal unresolved.

• Norton showed Abraham that public opinion had turned against the Human Federation and said humanity's survival would ensure his own immortality.
• Norton explained that he planned to control wars and population density, with Abraham choosing regions whose populations would be destroyed.
• Norton crushed a populated planet in his constructed star chart and told Abraham he could erase matter, life, souls, and memories in designated regions.
• Days later, a legislator moved to impeach the Human Federation government, alleging fabricated aerospace projects, population reports, and a fictitious planet used to steal subsidies.

The Human Federation recovered rapidly after reproductive restrictions were lifted, as people married, had children, and rebuilt industries around newborns. The Pale Church, led by Abraham, then opposed the policy in the Pale God’s name and provoked widespread public anger against the Church and Norton.

• The Human Federation’s repeal of reproductive restrictions led to more marriages and newborns, helping restore social institutions and industries.
• Over the next decade, parents worked harder for their children, and public protests against the government’s policy became less common.
• The Pale Church’s leaders, led by Abraham, declared that unrestricted reproduction violated the balance established by the Pale God Norton.
• People who had previously criticized the government’s use of reproductive freedom turned against the Pale Church and defended the right to have children.
• Influencers and prominent online personalities condemned the Pale Church, and public anger erased much of the goodwill it had previously held.

The Human Federation Government failed to control Abraham and tried to split the Pale Church by recognizing the Church College of Cardinals, while humanity’s rapid expansion and growing population increased the danger from soul matter. Abraham declared holy war against the government, and Pale Church forces devastated the Garden of Eden, leaving the Federation’s leaders fleeing by space jump.

• The Human Federation Government exhausted its negotiating tactics with Abraham and turned to the Church College of Cardinals to divide the Pale Church.
• The Human Federation’s population surged, prompting rapid expansion through space-jump technology and research into changes in soul matter.
• After the government recognized the Church College of Cardinals and failed to issue a birth ban, Abraham blamed humanity’s actions for the coming catastrophe and declared holy war.
• Hundreds of millions of Pale Church believers attacked the Human Federation Government in the Garden of Eden, joined by angels, other mutated fighters, and awakened Gargoyles.
• The Garden of Eden was devastated, most civilians and officials perished, and the Federation’s top leaders escaped aboard ships using space-jump technology.