Chapter Summaries

The Pale Church’s holy war against the Human Federation spread across the stars, and decades of fighting gradually weakened the Church while the Federation expanded. After a century of war, the Pale Holy See’s vast fleet finally reached the battlefield.

• After the Garden of Eden fell, the Pale Church began an all-out war against the Human Federation, with fighting erupting throughout its interstellar cities.
• The Pale Church gathered hundreds of billions of ships to pursue the Federation Government, but the fleets arrived too slowly to destroy it at once.
• Over forty years of fighting, the Federation used space jumps and population growth to reinforce its forces and seize territory from the Church.
• The Church’s ban on reproduction and space jumps drained its strength, while its reputation worsened and some believers began comparing it to the former Holy Lord Empire.
• After another fifty years, the Pale Holy See’s fleet of ten billion ships finally reached the battlefield.

Norton commanded the Pale Holy See’s vast fleet as it approached war with the Human Federation, and he gave Abraham Holy Blood to raise him to the Seventh Stage. Abraham transformed into a monstrous warrior and set out to lead the Church into battle.

• Norton lounged among adopted orphans aboard the Pale Holy See’s enormous space city while Abraham waited nearby.
• Abraham reported that the Pale Church had detected the Human Federation Government’s front lines and that battle was imminent.
• Norton ordered Abraham to begin the battle and promised to reveal how everything was under his control.
• Norton gave Abraham a drop of golden Holy Blood, which Abraham recognized as the substance once used to create Church knights.
• Abraham swallowed the Holy Blood, grew larger, and transformed into a horned, fanged creature with two pairs of bat wings.

Abraham led the Pale Church into war against the Human Federation Government, displaying power on a planetary scale. After destroying the planet Sinuo and hurling half of it toward another Federation world, he declared the holy war begun as the Church’s warships advanced.

• Abraham announced that he had inherited His Holiness’s bloodline, reached the Seventh Stage, and would lead the Pale Church against the Human Federation Government.
• Abraham grew to the size of the planet Garden of Eden, terrifying the Federation outpost and its defenders.
• Abraham flew into the planet Sinuo, smashing its cities and knocking it out of orbit.
• Abraham tore Sinuo in half and hurled one half toward another Human Federation planet.
• Abraham proclaimed the holy war, and the Pale Church’s warships advanced.

Abraham revealed overwhelming power by hurling half a planet at the Human Federation’s forces, and President Cliff ordered the Federation to resist despite its leaders’ desperation. The Pale Church began its assault on Adam Three, where Church ships battered Federation defenses and deployed troops while the Federation’s weapons fought back.

• Abraham hurled half a planet toward the Human Federation’s frontline planet, and Federation leaders recognized him as a being who had reached at least the sixth stage.
• President Cliff pressed the emergency button and ordered the Human Federation to fight the Pale Church, while officials refused to evacuate nearby populations.
• Abraham’s will rallied the Pale Church believers, who charged into the star system and attacked Federation fleets, bases, and cities.
• The Pale Church deployed small cruisers and armored knights from its space carriers as Federation ground defenses fired missiles and lasers at them.
• Church Elves cast defensive magic formations aboard the ships, intercepting the Federation’s attacks.

Pale Church forces invaded a Human Federation city by dropping armored knights into its streets, slaughtering civilians and overwhelming the city's defenses. The attack left the city in chaos as the Church knights began their purge.

• Pale Church cruisers released drop pods toward the Human Federation city, and residents mistook them for a meteor shower.
• The government launched missiles at the pods, but its defenses failed to stop them from breaking through the city's ionosphere.
• A mother and her young daughter sheltered in a tea shop as the pods grew larger and the government announced the Pale Church invasion.
• Drop pods crashed into streets and buildings, killing civilians and destroying parts of the city.
• Church knights emerged from the pods and attacked civilians and resisting humans with swords and guns.

Norton watched the slaughter on Uranus and realized that the overcrowded Heaven was driving souls back into reality, creating a bridge between the Garden of Eden and Heaven. He declared that he would transcend the universe or devour it rather than be destroyed by its entropy.

• Norton observed the massacre on Uranus while Elizabeth stood silently behind him.
• Norton saw soul particles being expelled from an overfilled Heaven and gathering in reality.
• Norton concluded that each death strengthened a bridge connecting the Garden of Eden and Heaven.
• Norton recalled his fifteen thousand years of existence and vowed to escape the universe’s eventual destruction by transcending it or devouring the starry sky.
• Norton calmed down after his outburst, while Elizabeth remained expressionless and unresponsive.

Norton reflected on his endless ambition and decided that he would sacrifice the Garden of Eden to transcend the universe by awakening and devouring God's will. He opened a gateway between reality and Heaven, preparing to send humanity across it as nourishment for God.

• Norton recalled his journey from mortal life to godhood and lamented that immortality and supreme power could not satisfy his desire to transcend.
• He compared himself with Jonah, Kuba, and Shenyin, concluding that unlike them, he knew of worlds beyond the universe and had a chance to escape it.
• Norton rejected settling for his current position and vowed to twist the Garden of Eden and Heaven, awaken God's will, and seize God's body.
• Norton formed a miniature galaxy showing Heaven's invading souls and pierced a gateway between reality and Heaven.
• Norton declared that humanity would march through the gateway to build a bridge between reality and Heaven, becoming nourishment for God.

The Human Federation fought Church forces across a city and the surrounding star system, where a Human Federation knight died destroying a Church knight. In the main space battle, an artificial sun engulfed Abraham and tens of millions of warships, leaving Norton to watch the Federation’s technological power.

• A Human Federation knight fought a Church knight who had attacked fleeing civilians, and the two killed each other in a blaze of light and fire.
• Church and Human Federation knights clashed across the city as both sides fought to break through the other’s defenses.
• Abraham battled among the fleets at the center of the star-system battle as a massive warship appeared before him and detonated.
• The explosion expanded into an artificial sun, engulfing Abraham and evaporating tens of millions of warships.
• Norton observed the artificial sun as the battle paused to witness the destruction.

During the Grand Holy War, a wave of soul infestation animated buildings, machines, and other objects into flesh-eating monstrosities, halting the battle between the Human Federation and the Pale Church. As the Human Federation fractured and fled, the Pale Church redirected its forces to purge the creatures.

• The Church knights attacked fleeing civilians and troops amid repeated artificial-sun explosions and waves of heat.
• A strange muttering swept across the star system, stopping combat before a giant flesh-and-blood tree emerged from a ruined building and crushed the Deputy Pontiff.
• Brother Delga charged the tree with his greatsword and nuclear bomb as other objects across the planet also mutated and attacked the living.
• Leaders of the Human Federation and the Pale Church argued over whether the creatures were caused by Soul Infestation and the sealing of reality and Heaven.
• The Human Federation's leadership splintered and its troops retreated, while Pale Church forces ceased firing at them and attacked the mutated creatures.

The Pale Church’s hundred-year war ended abruptly, and leaked footage from the fallen Adam Three Star System showed reality transformed by anomalous life-forms and humanity facing extinction. As panic and economic collapse spread through Pale Church territory, the Church imposed order and circulated propaganda blaming the Human Federation for the disaster.

• The Central Holy See halted the Pale Church’s resistance war after the front collapsed and the Adam Three Star System was lost.
• A leaked report and video showed mutated planets, monstrous life-forms devouring people, and Church knights fighting a losing battle.
• Copies of the footage spread across Pale Church territory, prompting panic, hoarding, flight attempts, and a sharp economic decline.
• The Pale Church deployed troops, arrested people, forced workers back to their posts, and sealed spaceports to restore order.
• The Pale Church circulated edited reports accusing the Human Federation and its elites of causing the apocalypse through greed, childbirth, spatial jumps, and war.

The Pale Church and the Human Federation fought over public opinion as the approaching apocalypse drove people in both territories to turn against their rulers and embrace religion. Norton watched the upheaval and smiled, satisfied that he had finally become a true god.

• People under the Pale Church praised Norton and blamed the Human Federation for humanity’s crisis, while the Federation cut communications and spread its own version of events.
• The Federation’s citizens learned that reckless space jumping had helped bring about an apocalypse and blamed the government for exploiting them and mocking Norton.
• Crowds in Federation territory rioted, destroyed factories and public buildings, looted stores, and attacked government offices and officials.
• People repaired monasteries, freed Pale Church believers and priests, and raised statues of Norton.
• Norton listened to the praise and mourning across the planets and smiled as he declared himself a true god.

After three years of growing complacency, the battered communications fleet returned to the Garden of Eden Galaxy and confirmed that Abraham’s warnings had come true. Abraham declared total war, appointed Duoxia Regent, and left the population facing the realization that the apocalypse had begun and the main fleet was still fighting.

• The Pale Church planned to restore its support system as people grew accustomed to life and doubted the doomsday reports.
• A battered fleet of millions of ships spatially jumped into orbit around Garden of Eden Planet, still clearing malformed life-forms from its vessels.
• Abraham used his highest authority to broadcast that souls had invaded reality and anomalies had emerged, declaring humanity’s apocalypse underway.
• Abraham ordered the Pale Holy See into total war and named Duoxia Regent to assume the Pope’s duties.
• The returning fleet was revealed to be only a communications unit, while Abraham and the main force remained at the battlefield.

After Abraham’s declaration and the fleet’s return, Regent Duoxia revealed footage showing humanity losing a desperate war against alien lifeforms and issued sweeping measures to mobilize the Human Federation. As society descended into panic, the Church imposed wartime policies and began turning criminals into sources of materials, but many high-ranking officials still tried to flee.

• Regent Duoxia took the throne as regent, while battlefield footage spread showing alien lifeforms overrunning a planet and attacking the fleet.
• Footage showed Pope Abraham fighting a gigantic monster near a mutated star, but the recording ended without any sign of victory.
• Panicked citizens attempted to strike, hide, or commit crimes, and Church knights arrested lawbreakers while enforcing order and promoting resistance.
• Duoxia abolished birth restrictions, lifted limits on spatial jumps, introduced war communism, ended privilege, and ordered mass recruitment and fleet construction.
• The Church imprisoned criminals, altered their bodies, and harvested special materials from them, while high-ranking personnel continued trying to escape.

A researcher explained in a live broadcast that immortality, the Pale God's sealed gateway, the Human Federation Government's rebellion, and its use of spatial jumps had caused Soul Infestation, making humanity's resistance worsen the crisis. The broadcast left humanity facing extinction and the possible birth of new life, while unexplained soul fluctuations suggested Heaven and reality might not be fully isolated.

• Three months of Church knights suppressed unrest under the Pale Church, while wealthy people fled the Human Federation to build refuges in space.
• In 3276, Pale God Says and Human Federation News aired a science program about the causes and dangers of Soul Infestation.
• A researcher said Norton had sealed the gateway between Heaven and reality, but wars and large-scale spatial jumps had left souls trapped in reality and triggered infestations.
• The researcher claimed that killing bizarre lifeforms and losing soldiers only added more soul particles, making humanity's resistance strengthen the crisis.
• The researcher rejected the reporter's suggestion that Norton's actions had caused the disaster and blamed the Human Federation's powerful leaders for war and flight.
• The broadcast concluded that humanity's extinction might give rise to new life, while measurements showed unexplained soul fluctuations across reality.

The Human Federation Government’s leaders fled, sparking public fury and a mass exodus toward Pale Church territory, while research and infestations showed that escape only brought people closer to danger. With humanity left no choice but to fight, Duoxia and Malahān united the Pale Church and the Human Federation Government, and in 3283 announced the beginning of the Endless War.

• More than three hundred Human Federation Government officials revealed that the senior leadership had fled a year earlier and led reporters through the deserted government building.
• Angry citizens abandoned the Human Federation, and a people-smuggling industry grew around “escaping the North” into Pale Church territory.
• Feilali and Mohammed proposed competing theories about soul particles, both warning that fleeing into remote space could increase the danger of Soul Infestation.
• Exploration teams confirmed that distant planets chosen as escape destinations by senior elites had been infested, leaving humanity with no route to flee.
• In 3280, Duoxia and Malahān agreed to unite the Pale Church and the Human Federation Government for a joint war effort and established the Holy Judgment Tribunal.
• In 3283, Duoxia and Malahān announced the beginning of the Endless War after Abraham requested reinforcements from the front lines.

Humanity’s forces struggled to contain the aberration of the Adam Three Star System as Soul Infestation spread from planets to the dark matter filling space. After Susan died and the fleet withdrew, Norma warned that the system had become one enormous aberrant entity and that the infestation was spreading toward Adam Two.

• In January 3284, Church knight Susan reported that every planet in the Adam Three Star System had become aberrant and requested urgent reinforcements as human forces suffered heavy losses.
• By February, Susan warned that dark matter could be affected by Soul Infestation, causing aberrant life-forms to appear throughout space and forcing the fleet into defensive formations.
• Aberrant creatures overwhelmed the fleet from outside and within, while dying personnel joined the infestation as new aberrant life-forms.
• In September, Norma reported that Susan’s soul had returned to the Pale Throne and that the entire Adam Three Star System, including its star and dark matter, had fused into a stellar-system-sized aberrant entity.
• Norma said the fleet had withdrawn under Pope Abraham’s orders while Abraham restrained the entity, and she urgently requested reinforcements to stop the infestation from reaching Adam Two.

The Human Federation mobilized its reserves and sent the first massive expeditionary force to reinforce the front lines. As the first wave departed, families said farewell, and the second force prepared to follow.

• Regent Duoxia ordered the Human Federation’s reserves to deploy, and hundreds of billions of troops began heading to the battlefields.
• Soldiers received three days to visit their families, and parents and descendants filled the planets with painful farewells.
• The soldiers’ leave ended, and transport spacecraft carried them back to their bases.
• On October 28, Norton Year 3284, the first expeditionary force departed with one hundred billion personnel and nearly a trillion AI androids aboard billions of spacecraft.
• The first force used spatial jump devices to reach the frontline positions, while the second expeditionary force prepared to depart three months later.

The Pale Church deployed ten Gore weapons against the Aberrant Star System despite the danger to Pope Abraham, while thousands of ships sacrificed themselves to protect the weapons. As the attack wounded the monster and exposed Abraham, Churchill arrived with the Human Federation’s first wave of reinforcements.

• Archbishop Blair ordered Gore deployed against the Aberrant Star System despite an attendant’s warning that it could injure Abraham.
• Thousands of spacecraft guarded the Gore weapons, sacrificing their crews as the fleet fought off swarms of aberrations.
• Ten Gore weapons detonated, burning and splitting the Aberrant Star System’s flesh and sharply reducing the number of incoming aberrations.
• The blast exposed Abraham, who was still holding back the monster, inspiring the Pale Church’s forces to attack with renewed fervor.
• Mid-Ranking Bishop Churchill arrived with hundreds of millions of ships and requested permission to join the battlefield.

Norton and Abraham watched a staged battle in which humanity fought the aberrants, while Abraham struggled with guilt over the deception. Norton defended his prison of hardship as a means of curbing humanity’s evil, leaving Abraham shaken and convinced Norton had gone mad.

• Norton created a false version of Abraham to make the staged battle against the aberrants appear real, while the true Abraham watched with him.
• Abraham felt ashamed as humans died believing they were defending humanity, the Pale Church, and their emperor.
• Norton rebuked Abraham’s compassion and reminded him of humanity’s past betrayals and atrocities.
• Norton argued that his prison of mind and body had made humanity devout and noble, and declared that he had shaped gods of Heaven rather than fiends of Hell.
• Abraham accepted that Norton had gone insane and silently resolved to let him run wild for two more chapters.

Abraham watched the Human Federation’s reinforcements enter the battle and reflected on how faith and human virtue had been forged through suffering, while still longing for freedom. The Federation then began a nationwide livestream of the war, and the grisly footage stirred the public into a frenzy for battle rather than fear.

• Abraham watched Church knights and fleets rush into the aberration swarms, then lamented humanity’s history of suffering and his own desire for freedom.
• The Human Federation deployed construction ships to build Subspace receivers and establish communications between the front and the rear.
• In Norton Year 3285, the Federation began broadcasting live footage from frontline soldiers’ brain-computer interfaces across the nation.
• Viewers saw warships and Church knights fight the aberrations, with many feeds ending in the destruction of ships and the deaths of their crews.
• As casualties filled the livestream, the united public became increasingly eager to continue the war.