Chapter Summaries

As cold weather and food shortages worsened in Lino City, Archbishop Duoxia worried about the Church’s declining reputation and mounting deaths among its missionaries. Norton followed a missionary who had kicked him into a secluded alley and attacked him, leaving the missionary’s fate uncertain.

• Cold, rainy weather threatened poor harvests, and the Church gathered the dead to make soup for the starving.
• Archbishop Duoxia feared that Pope Adam’s brutality would turn the public against the Church, while a string of accidental deaths unsettled him.
• The Church planned to promote clerics to replace more than two hundred dead missionaries and sent missionaries out alone to find children in the slums.
• A missionary kicked and insulted Norton, who pretended to retreat before secretly following him toward the outskirts.
• Norton clung to a wall to follow the missionary through flooded alleys, then leapt onto him and bit into his throat.

Norton experimented with drinking a missionary’s blood and found that it did not grant him memories or strength, unlike Holy Knight blood. Back at his clock tower, he considered testing whether his blood could mutate his growing bat family and decided the bats were the safest subjects.

• Norton drained a missionary and discovered that the man’s blood tasted stale and gave him no new abilities.
• Norton carried the corpse to his clock tower, avoiding passersby and postponing its disposal until he could check whether it would rise or infect anyone.
• Norton greeted his ten bats and reflected that Coal Ball had lived for more than eight years without showing signs of age.
• Norton considered whether his blood could strengthen or mutate the bats, but rejected experiments on people and wild creatures because they might become dangerous.
• Norton decided that experimenting on the bats was the only risk he was willing to take.

Norton tested whether his flesh could empower Coal Ball, but the bat ate a piece and later dried up and died. The experiment left Norton with no new supernatural abilities and a dead bat in his hand.

• Norton offered Coal Ball a piece of his flesh to test whether it would have a special effect.
• Coal Ball licked the flesh, stretched strangely, then dropped a pellet of shit into Norton's hand.
• Norton flicked Coal Ball, threw away the bat shit, and ate the remaining flesh himself.
• Norton checked the corpse in the bell tower and concluded it had not revived, so he still could not infect others.
• Norton noticed Coal Ball had stopped moving, touched it, and found that it had dried up.

Norton mourned Coal Ball after finding him shriveled and apparently dead, then went to dispose of the missionary’s corpse in the forest. A strange goat fed on the remains while Norton fled, and Coal Ball revived at the bell tower, leaving Norton to realize his flesh could cause other creatures to evolve.

• Norton found Coal Ball shriveled and seemingly dead, but hung his body from the bell tower ceiling in hope that he might recover.
• Norton dragged the missionary’s corpse into the forest and began dismembering it for safe disposal.
• Sensing that something was watching him, Norton tore off the missionary’s head, fled toward Lino City, and smashed the head with a rock.
• A goat that walked upright emerged from the forest, ate the missionary’s remains, and did not follow Norton into Church territory.
• Norton returned to the bell tower and found Coal Ball alive and squeaking, though still shriveled.
• Norton concluded that his flesh could make creatures evolve and worried that enemies might eat his severed limbs.

Norton watched Coal Ball evolve after drinking his blood and discovered he could sense and overpower the bat through a mysterious, pitch-black field. Coal Ball flew to the wealthy district and attacked Father Abraham, leaving blood from its feeding in his neck wound before servants drove it away.

• Norton found that Coal Ball had gained stamina and regenerative potential but showed no special abilities, then sensed the bat in a dark field and felt he could crush it at will.
• Coal Ball flew from the bell tower into the wealthy district, drawn to the home of Lady Mary’s family.
• Father Abraham returned to his mansion after midnight confessions and demanded that his servant kneel before him.
• Coal Ball latched onto Father Abraham’s neck, pierced his skin, and drank his blood, then spilled some of it into his wound.
• The servants rushed to help Father Abraham, and Coal Ball flew away as he shouted threats at them.

Norton stayed in Lino City after a frightening, undetectable encounter and tested his new Pressure ability, which let him sense nearby living things but drew attention to him. He hid again to watch the Church and plan further experiments, while Father Abraham began to feel that something was strange about himself.

• Norton decided to lie low in Lino City after an unknown presence had hunted him without being detected by his senses.
• Coal Ball returned to Norton, who discovered he could release and control a new passive sense he called Pressure.
• Norton tested Pressure in the slums and found it could track nearby living things and make them look toward him, making it harder for him to hide.
• Norton reined in Pressure and returned to watching the Church, intending to wait before experimenting again.
• Father Abraham felt that something about him was strange.

After vampire bats bit Father Abraham, he began experiencing a growing hunger for blood and feared he was turning into a vampire. In his cellar, the smell of blood overcame him, and he turned on the terrified servant he had imprisoned.

• Norton tested his newly acquired ability while Father Abraham recovered from his bat bites at his mansion.
• Father Abraham felt drawn to the nun’s neck and removed the cross from his chest, unsettled by his strange urges.
• Father Abraham went to the cellar, where he had a servant tortured for failing to rescue him during the bat attack.
• The cellar’s smell of blood intensified Father Abraham’s hunger as his eyes reddened and his teeth grew into fangs.
• Father Abraham turned toward the suspended servant and opened his mouth, prompting the servant to scream.

Norton sensed an overwhelming difference in existential rank when he saw Father Abraham, a priest he had known for years, and became curious about what Abraham had become. He decided to follow him into the Church, confident that Abraham could not detect him unless Norton chose to reveal himself.

• Norton reflected on his vampire nature and waited in his usual spot near the Church, wary of drawing suspicion by killing too often.
• Norton noticed that the Church and the Boya Empire had remained strangely quiet after the Holy Judgment Order was destroyed and Archbishop Duoxia’s betrayal was revealed.
• Father Abraham hurried past Norton toward the Church, distracted by panic and guilt.
• Norton felt that Abraham was an inferior life-form and realized he could kill him merely by allowing him to look at him.
• Norton decided to follow Abraham and investigate what had changed, trusting his instinct that Abraham would not notice him unless he chose to be seen.

Norton followed Father Abraham into the Church and then to his cellar, where he watched the priest struggle with a growing craving for blood. When Abraham’s fangs appeared, Norton was shocked and began questioning whether he was really a vampire himself.

• Norton climbed the Church wall to observe Father Abraham, who entered the grounds while fighting his unease and bloodlust.
• Father Abraham avoided religious images and crosses, then entered a side hall and took several Church books about vampires.
• Norton followed Abraham home and secretly watched him from the cellar ceiling.
• The smell of blood overwhelmed Abraham, and his eyes reddened as his front teeth grew into fangs.
• Norton saw Abraham’s vampire-like appearance and wondered which of them was the real vampire.

Norton wondered why he felt complete control over Father Abraham, whose new vampire species seemed to have been created through Norton's blood. He concluded that Father Abraham was a creation of his own, then worried that this made Norton a lower-ranked creation himself.

• Norton compared his lack of bloodlust with Father Abraham's frenzy and wondered how Father Abraham had become a vampire.
• Norton suspected that Coal Ball had gained the ability to create a new species after consuming his flesh and blood.
• Norton puzzled over why Coal Ball did not seem to belong to him, while the vampires Coal Ball created seemed entirely under his control.
• Norton conjectured that he felt like Father Abraham's creator because Father Abraham belonged to a new species created through Norton.
• Norton realized his theory might make him a downgrade material and wondered how he could possess an ability associated with God.

Norton waited in Father Abraham's cellar until Father Abraham gave in to his thirst for blood and left. Norton searched the books Father Abraham had brought from the Church, learning about vampire history, divinity, and existence levels.

• Father Abraham succumbed to his bloodlust and left the cellar to feed.
• Norton searched the books Father Abraham had left behind and found that they were about vampires.
• Norton read that vampires had once flourished after Jonah was imprisoned, but the Holy Lord Church's holy war had nearly wiped them out.
• Norton read the Church's account of vampire divinity and considered how crosses could harm vampires through divine power or the remains of Kuba.
• Norton connected existence levels to vampires' control over lower-ranked beings and to the Church's methods for suppressing vampires.

Norton read about how divine rank could establish rules that limited the growth of lower beings, and he concluded that God was the origin controlling all life and strength. He continued studying the Church’s research on vampires, which identified three stages in their development.

• Norton realized that the cross could harm vampires because God’s act of hanging the divine corpse on it had created a rule.
• Norton connected Coal Ball’s lower life rank after mutating with the idea that beings created from God’s flesh could never surpass God.
• Norton called God the origin of everything, then wondered whether Earth might also have a god.
• Norton resumed reading the Church’s vampire research and learned that vampires had three stages.

Norton read a Church book detailing the three known stages of vampires and learned that none had ever reached a fourth stage, which he believed Kuba’s will prevented. He lamented his own limits, then noticed the book omitted vampires’ ability to create thralls and wondered whether anyone had ever tried it.

• The Church book described how vampires changed through three stages, with crosses remaining their only sure means of death at the third stage.
• The book said the Church had never encountered a fourth-stage vampire and speculated that Kuba’s will suppressed their transformation.
• Norton regretted reading the book and concluded that Kuba’s rank kept vampires like him from advancing.
• Norton vowed to oppress Abraham in return, then noticed the book never mentioned vampires creating thralls.
• Norton wondered why the Church and vampires had not investigated whether feeding creatures his flesh and blood could turn them into thralls.

Norton speculated that his transmigrated soul let him shape mutations through his will, then followed Father Abraham into his mansion. Both vampires fled when they discovered an overlooked silver cross, and Norton escaped into painful sunlight, furious at Abraham.

• Norton theorized that his soul might share God's rank of existence and that his will, working through his blood, could guide mutations in creatures such as Coal Ball and Father Abraham.
• After hearing Father Abraham cough, Norton hid and later followed him from the cellar into the mansion while Abraham carried a servant's corpse and a book.
• Father Abraham entered the hall and recoiled at the silver cross he had left on the table, startling Norton above him.
• Norton and Father Abraham fled the cross, and Norton reached the sunlight outside, where it caused him pain and he blamed Abraham for nearly getting him killed.

Norton tested whether the silver cross that burned Father Abraham could also harm him, and discovered that it had no effect. He concluded that Abraham’s weakness to silver came from his own ideas about vampires and that he possessed the power of creation.

• Father Abraham cautiously approached the silver cross, then burned and lost half a finger when he touched it.
• Father Abraham panicked over losing his ability to serve as a priest and fled with his book on vampires.
• Norton wondered whether the cross’s holiness or its silver had burned Abraham.
• Norton touched and picked up the cross without being harmed.
• Norton concluded that Abraham had become the kind of vampire he had imagined and celebrated his power to create.

Norton realized his flesh and blood could mutate creatures God had created, and he began using his bats to spread vampirism through Lino City. He discovered Father Abraham had already created two vampire dependents inside the Church, leaving Norton wondering whether the entire city would become a city of vampires.

• Norton tried feeding Coal Ball a piece of his flesh and imagining him as a gargoyle, but realized his power could only mutate existing creations rather than make entirely new ones.
• Norton decided to use his flesh and blood to nurture old bats while leaving younger bats to reproduce naturally, and he chose Coal Ball and Coal Ball's wife for the task.
• Bats began attacking people in Lino City as Norton hoped to turn its residents into vampires, while disorder worsened in the poor districts and the Church remained shut away.
• Norton sensed two new-style vampires inside the Church and concluded that Father Abraham had created them through the Embrace.
• Norton praised Father Abraham's efforts and wondered whether all of Lino City would eventually become a city of vampires.

Father Abraham used his new ability as a vampire to make himself safer within the Church. After moving religious objects that could harm him, he attacked Low-Ranking Bishop Good and began turning him into a vampire.

• Father Abraham ordered the church missionaries to move portraits of God and other religious objects away from the main hall, while leaving the crosses in place.
• Father Abraham reflected on his transformation and his ability to create thralls, and decided to turn Low-Ranking Bishop Good and Archbishop Duoxia to protect himself.
• Father Abraham tracked Bishop Good to his room and approached him while concealing his changed appearance beneath his hood.
• Father Abraham revealed his vampiric face, overpowered Bishop Good, and drained his blood.
• Father Abraham cut his wrist and fed Bishop Good his blood, beginning the bishop's transformation.

Norton’s pressure ability expanded across all of Lino City, and he began considering taking control of the city to claim the Holy Knights’ blood. As famine and disorder worsened, Father Abraham confronted the vampires he had created for revealing themselves and losing control.

• Norton discovered that his growing pressure ability could sense people and buildings throughout Lino City, though the Church grounds remained a blind spot.
• Norton decided he no longer needed to fear the city or the wilderness and considered making Lino City his own, with the Holy Knights’ blood as his main prize.
• After heavy rains damaged the harvest and cold weather arrived, famine and violence spread through Lino City while its Church knights remained at the church.
• Father Abraham and the bat couple’s vampire-making caused the population outside the church to exceed a hundred, but some newly powerful vampires openly indulged their desires.
• Father Abraham berated the vampires gathered in Low-ranking Bishop Good’s room and realized that vampires he created seemed to have weaker bloodlines than his own.

Father Abraham ordered his Blood Clan to eliminate the unruly vampires in Lino City and keep their kind hidden. Norton, angered by the newly made vampires’ violent behavior, used his power to destroy more than a hundred of them, while his plans for a vampire territory remained in progress.

• Father Abraham declared himself the Blood Clan’s progenitor and ordered the second-generation vampires to eliminate the unruly vampires in Lino City within three days.
• Norton sensed the bloody situation in Lino City and reflected that death could be a release for its people.
• Norton told Coal Ball to stop creating thralls and condemned the new vampires for abusing their strength.
• Norton spread his Pressure across Lino City and ignited more than a hundred vampires from within, burning them to nothing.

As Lino City remained tense after its new-style vampires vanished, Karl visited Norton on the first snowy day to warn him of danger and say goodbye. Karl left for the Holy See to train as a priest, while Norton expected they would meet again.

• After the new-style vampires disappeared, Lino City fell into an eerie calm.
• Karl brought Norton a padded coat and warned him that Lino City might soon become dangerous.
• Karl explained that his family was splitting into branches and that he was being sent to the Holy See for training.
• Karl gave Norton his family ring and promised he could stay and eat for free at the family tavern.
• Karl asked to see Norton's face before leaving, but Norton refused and said they would meet again.