Chapter Summaries

Norton’s public works and policies strengthened the Blood Court, while Yalian III rapidly reformed the Boya Empire and sought foreign partners. As both powers developed, the conservative Holy Lord Empire stagnated and appeared headed for decline.

• Norton conscripted vampires to build roads and dams, clear dangerous regions, and support the Blood Court’s development.
• Norton encouraged human creativity and competition for vampire status, and his rule earned him a reputation as a sage ruler.
• Yalian III reformed the Boya Empire, promoted education and commerce, and organized campaigns against monsters, beasts, and bandits.
• Yalian III pursued trade with smaller nations and attempted to establish a cooperative relationship with the Blood Court.
• The Blood Court and Boya Empire developed rapidly, while the Holy Lord Empire fell further behind by closing its borders and clinging to old ways.

Norton reflected on the Blood Clan’s stagnation and his own selfish rule, then rewrote his thoughts into a grand tale of selfless heroism. He continued using his bedroom in the Scarlet Tower as bait, hoping the Church would send Holy Knights for him to fight.

• Norton concluded that vampire society was stagnant and would eventually decay, while human society kept renewing itself.
• Norton reflected that his rule had caused deaths and oppression, then crossed out his self-critical writing and recast himself as a selfless savior.
• Norton slept in a room filled with holy symbols that made his location detectable to the Church’s Holy Judgment Order.
• Norton hoped the Church would send Holy Knights to the Scarlet Tower and believed he could defeat five hundred of them.

Aging Pope Adam tested his confidant Edward as a possible successor, and Edward proposed ruthless ways to destroy the Papal State’s enemies and purge its Vampires. Adam promoted Edward to Archbishop but privately judged him unfit for the papacy, while Edward left determined to seize both the papal throne and the Holy Judgment Order.

• Pope Adam asked Edward whether the Church’s scriptures and Adam’s actions were true and right.
• Edward proposed killing enemy leaders and armies, then using Vampires’ spread as a pretext to purge them and reduce the Papal State’s population.
• Adam praised Edward’s answer and ordered him to prepare to succeed Archbishop Rod.
• After Edward left, Adam judged him too rash and narrow-minded for the papacy, though fit to become an archbishop.
• Edward hid his ambition from Adam and resolved to claim the papal throne and the Holy Judgment Order.

His Holiness Adam prepared to renew the war against the Vampire Empire, believing Norton’s death could destroy the new-type vampires but ruling out a direct strike because Norton was too difficult to reach. He planned to expand the Church’s presence gradually and suppress vampire growth before his life ended.

• His Holiness Adam reflected on his advanced age and the threat posed by the flourishing Vampire Empire.
• Adam described how forced labor and production policies had strengthened the Papal State during the Demon-Hunting Campaign.
• Adam reviewed espionage reports claiming that Norton’s advancement drove the development of all vampires and that his death could kill them all.
• Adam decided not to send the Holy Judgment Order or Werewolf Legion after Norton because either force could be destroyed.
• Adam ordered a gradual advance into vampire territory, spreading religious symbols and building churches to restrict the vampires’ expansion.
• Adam regretted that Duoxia had become a vampire and could not succeed him as a loyal ruler of the Church.

The Papal State conquered half of Kate with a campaign that won over the poor through aid, land, and Church missions. Alarmed by Adam’s growing support, Norton resolved to meet with the Boya Empire’s emperor and unite against the Church.

• Adam sent Church knights, soldiers, and werewolves into Kate, where they took fifteen cities in three months.
• The Church aided the cities’ residents, distributed land to poor believers, and spread its faith, gaining widespread support.
• Yalian III summoned Norton to the Boya Empire to discuss an alliance, while Kate’s royal family fled north and other duchies sought protection.
• Norton recognized Adam’s tactics as a threat because they won popular support and made the Papal State stronger with each conquest.
• Norton ordered preparations to travel to the Boya Empire and proposed joining forces to destroy the Holy See.

Norton prepared the Blood Court for war against the Papal State and reached an alliance with the Boya Empire, then traveled to its capital to protect the imperial family. The crowd mocked and speculated about the vampire progenitor until an enormous palace emerged from the darkness as his arrival.

• Norton ordered the Blood Court to prepare for all-out war against the Papal State.
• Norton and Yalian III agreed that Boya soldiers would fight on the front lines while vampire knights guarded the flanks and handled logistics.
• Norton arranged to protect the Boya imperial family with Abraham, Elizabeth, Coal Ball, Plum Blossom, and five thousand second-tier vampire knights.
• In autumn, Norton's convoy set out from the Holy City for the Boya Empire's capital.
• The Boya capital's crowds argued over Norton's appearance and complained as they waited for him to arrive.
• A scout announced Norton's arrival, and a massive palace emerged at the end of the dark road.

Norton, the Blood Clan progenitor, arrived at the Boya Empire’s capital in a terrifying procession, shocking Yalian III and his court. Yalian III saw Norton for the first time and realized the messenger’s description of him had been false.

• More than five hundred third-generation vampires hauled the Blood Court’s enormous palace through the capital as vampire knights and two batlike monsters accompanied it.
• Yalian III awaited Norton at the imperial palace with ministers and imperial relatives, while Zuoge assured him the Blood Clan posed little threat.
• The Blood Court’s procession appeared, and its scale left Yalian III and his court stunned.
• The palace stopped at the entrance, and its roof opened to reveal Norton seated on a towering throne.
• Yalian III saw Norton’s pale, fanged appearance and wondered why his messenger had described him as an old man.

Norton arrived at the Boya Empire’s capital in a palace that crushed a path through the city, then met Yalian III, who sought friendly relations with the Blood Court. During a banquet held in Norton’s honor, the empire quietly prepared to test him through the displaced king of Kate.

• Norton rode into the capital on a palace dragged by five hundred Third-Generation Vampires, flattening buildings and alarming the residents.
• Yalian III welcomed Norton respectfully and proposed an agreement of close relations between the Boya Empire and the Blood Court.
• Norton’s palace blocked the imperial palace’s main gates as Yalian III led him to the state banquet and seated him beside the emperor.
• The Boya Empire served young maidens to offer their blood, while Norton sensed hidden religious tokens, portraits of God, and silver swords around the banquet.
• Yalian III signaled Prime Minister Zuoge as the banquet peaked, setting the stage for the king of Kate to test Norton.

At a Boya Empire banquet, King Rosen insulted Progenitor Norton, prompting Elizabeth to kill him in front of the assembled royals. Yalian III ordered the guards to stand down and began plotting to exploit the killing, unaware that Norton had already positioned his forces near the palace.

• King Rosen accepted Yalian III's arrangements to provoke Norton in exchange for the promised return of Kate's lost territory.
• Prime Minister Zuoge praised Norton, and Rosen smashed his glass before publicly insulting the Blood Progenitor and blaming vampires for Kate's occupation.
• Elizabeth transformed and beheaded Rosen, then drank from his severed neck as the palace erupted in shock.
• Yalian III ordered the knights to stand down and declared that Rosen had brought the death upon himself.
• Yalian III resolved to use the incident to spread fear of vampires and purge the Blood Clan once the Church's forces were depleted.

Norton ended negotiations with Yalian III and attacked the Boya Empire’s imperial palace, while Abraham and the batlike monsters fought the emperor’s guards. The chapter ended as five hundred Third-Generation Vampires pushed Norton's palace into the imperial palace and Blood Clan knights surrounded it.

• Norton declared that he would take command of the Boya Empire’s forces against the Papal State, then hurled Yalian III’s gold throne into a squad of knights.
• Abraham transformed into a batlike monster and attacked the guards surrounding Norton, while Yalian III fled and called for religious tokens to be used against the vampires.
• Two batlike monsters seized Yalian III, and the holiness of the religious tokens turned them into stone gargoyles as they held him.
• Norton deliberately dodged silver swords and fought the knights, leading Abraham to question whether Norton’s weaknesses and limited speed were an act.
• Five hundred Third-Generation Vampires pushed Norton's palace through the imperial palace entrance as Blood Clan knights surrounded the palace.

Norton’s betrayal of the Boya Empire gave the Blood Court control of its army and earned him the nickname Kuba. As the Papal State prepared for war, Abraham feared Norton would betray him next and began plotting to seal him away and seize power.

• Norton took over the Boya Empire after imprisoning its imperial family, and the Southern Continent mocked him as Kuba for betraying his ally.
• The Blood Court’s alliance with Boya alarmed Adam, who regretted not dealing with the vampires earlier.
• Abraham brooded in the imperial gardens, convinced Norton might eventually consider him a threat and discard him.
• Abraham planned to drive a stake through Norton and nail him to a silver cross after the Papal State fell.
• Abraham decided to seal away the two true progenitors, kill Elizabeth, and claim the title of vampire progenitor for himself.

Norton used the captured Yalian III to force the Boya Empire’s officials and army into his control, then prepared to attack the Papal State before the emperor could turn against him. In the spring of the ninetieth year of Norton's era, the Blood-Boya Empire Allied Forces marched toward the Papal State as Norton’s brutal rule and reputation drew condemnation.

• Norton turned officials throughout the Boya Empire into Vampires but could not fully control the people, while Yalian III’s refusal to become a Vampire preserved the imperial family’s legitimacy.
• Yalian III declared that anyone could claim the Boya Empire’s succession if his imperial line ended, leaving Norton unable to dispose of him without risking the empire’s unity.
• Norton sent Yalian III to lead the Boya Empire’s army against the Papal State, expecting the emperor to wait until the Church was defeated before betraying him.
• In the spring of the ninetieth year of Norton's era, Norton led the Blood-Boya Empire Allied Forces toward the Papal State and called the campaign the “Epic Holy War.”
• The campaign became known by other names, including the “Holy Church Orthodoxy War” and the “Blood Progenitor Calamity,” while Norton's coercion alienated both his soldiers and the Vampires.

In Year 93, the Blood-Boya army began its war against the Papal State, and Norton learned that werewolves created from his blood could counter vampires. After inspecting a captured werewolf, Norton rejected Elizabeth’s suggestion to kill people protesting the vampire slave labor used to build the Boya Empire’s wonder.

• The Blood-Boya army fought its first official war against the Papal State in the Duchy of Kate, where werewolves proved able to suppress vampires’ regeneration.
• Norton examined a captured werewolf and realized it was a product of his bloodline, as was Elizabeth.
• Norton reflected that werewolves and vampires countered each other because both carried his bloodline, then disintegrated the captive werewolf into ash.
• Elizabeth reported that three hundred thousand people had been turned into fourth-generation vampire slaves to build the Boya Empire’s wonder and asked Norton whether to wipe out the protesters.
• Norton refused to kill the protesters and declared that future generations would praise him.

After four years of brutal warfare against the Papal State, Norton ordered the creation of a rival church in the Duchy of Kate. The new Holy Lord Church quickly attracted followers by condemning the Old Faith and distributing food to the poor.

• The Blood-Boya Allied Forces and the Papal State fought a devastating war, while low morale, desertions, and local resistance prolonged the conflict.
• After four years without gaining ground, Norton grew anxious that the Papal State's influence would spread beyond the Duchy of Kate.
• At the start of the ninety-fifth year of Norton's reign, the Blood Court established the Holy Lord Church using people Norton had brainwashed.
• The first pontiff, Saint Peter, declared the new church the New Faith and denounced the Papal State's church as the Old Faith.
• The New Faith gained support in the Duchy of Kate by distributing free food and having its white-robed pontiff and missionaries serve the poor.

The New Faith’s charity won mass support across the Southern Continent, strengthening the Blood-Boya Allied Forces’ conquered cities and ensuring the Papal State’s defeat. In his bedchamber, Norton endured the burning effects of holy symbols while shedding his old body, then turned to reshaping the New Faith’s scriptures to hide the old God and vampires and establish himself as the progenitor of New-Type Vampires.

• The New Faith’s open churches, free food, and message of love drew poor people away from the Old Faith, making its believers increasingly fanatical.
• Norton sat among religious ornaments and sunlight, insisting that the burning pain no longer hurt as his body continued to ulcerate and shed teeth and nails.
• Norton tested a fallen fang, saw it pierce a steel nail, and put it in a drawer because he did not want to eat it.
• Norton concluded that the New Faith’s growth would help defeat the Papal State and bury the old God, Caesar, in history.
• Norton planned to revise the New Faith’s scriptures to conceal God, Kuba, and old-era vampires while presenting himself as the progenitor of New-Type Vampires.

Norton saw the New Faith’s growth as inevitable and feared that humans would continue to oppose him as a vampire, so he decided he had to become a deity. He began writing the New Faith’s scripture, rewriting history to conceal the old deities and make Abraham bear the blame.

• Norton reflected that the New Faith would replace the Old Faith, while uprisings and secret human opposition threatened his rule.
• Norton concluded that only becoming a god could make people lose the desire to resist him.
• Norton decided the New Faith needed a central tenet and planned to conceal Kuba while bringing himself to the forefront and blaming Abraham.
• Norton wrote the New Testament, portraying himself as humanity’s teacher and Abraham as his betrayer.
• Norton wrote the Blood Pact, assigning divine roles to God and Withering Death and claiming Abraham had been exiled for shunning sunlight.

Norton spread fabricated stories about himself while his eight-year holy war devastated both the Boya Empire and the Papal State. As the New Faith grew under Saint Peter, rumors about Norton multiplied, and a tavern crowd argued over whether he was a vampire, a half-vampire, or God.

• Norton wrote false accounts portraying himself as a divine figure and the progenitor of the Blood Clan, laughing as his body deteriorated.
• Norton conscripted hundreds of thousands and seized supplies for the front, while Adam’s forces resorted to desperate measures, including eating the dead.
• Norton burned Old Faith scriptures and sent scholars who had studied them to the battlefield, provoking public outrage.
• Saint Peter spread the New Faith and distributed food among the poor, drawing many followers with his message of love and peace.
• People in a Boya Empire city fled the Blood Court’s conscription squad while a tavern crowd traded conflicting rumors about Norton’s origins and powers.

On the Boya Empire’s frozen frontline, Archbishop Duoxia asked Yalian III to help save the Holy Lord Church by overthrowing the Holy See and surrendering its political rule. Yalian III agreed to recognize the Church after the Holy See fell and the vampires were defeated, leaving their alliance dependent on those enemies’ defeat.

• Yalian III met Archbishop Duoxia in a military tent and questioned why he had joined the vampires.
• Duoxia said Abraham had forcibly transformed him and explained that the Holy Lord Church faced destruction from both the Papal State’s defeat and the rise of the false church.
• Duoxia proposed working with Yalian III to overthrow the Holy See and preserve the Holy Lord Church as a religious institution without governing power.
• Yalian III decided that preserving the old Church would help balance the new church and the vampires against each other.
• Yalian III promised to recognize the Holy Lord Church after the Holy See fell and the vampire scourge vanished, and warned Duoxia not to disappoint him.

Abraham secretly plotted against Yalian III as the Papal State weakened and the Blood-Boya Allied Forces invaded, capturing cities through brutal conscription. The New Faith spread through the conquered territory, and its teachings began to separate the ideas of God and deity.

• After meeting Yalian III, Archbishop Duoxia left the camp while Abraham watched and decided to make secret arrangements of his own.
• In Norton Year 95, a border city rebelled against the Papal State and opened its gates to the Boya Empire's allied forces.
• Over the next five years, the Blood-Boya Allied Forces captured fifteen cities and forcibly conscripted their inhabitants.
• Yalian III sent massed conscripts to the battlefield as expendable soldiers while training select young troops in religiously marked Papal State armor.
• The New Faith spread rapidly through Papal State territory, and its scriptures gradually changed how people understood God and deity.

The Blood-Boya Allied Forces captured Ende City after Archbishop Ethan died defending its church, then turned toward the Holy See. As the war reached the Holy See, the ailing Adam learned that Archbishop Duoxia had betrayed the Papal State and considered how the Church might survive its fall.

• Archbishop Ethan led Ende City's defense, held a Mass to strengthen morale, and died standing guard at the church entrance when the city fell.
• The Blood-Boya Allied Forces chose to march directly on the Holy See rather than conquer the Papal State territory piece by piece.
• Twenty years later, Adam sat frail and isolated in the Holy See, where an attendant reported that Duoxia had colluded with the enemy and awaited judgment outside.
• Adam accepted Duoxia's betrayal as a chance for the Holy Lord Church to survive, while worrying that the divine corpse and Norton would shape what followed.
• Adam regretted the promise he had made and lamented that he had brought the Papal State to ruin.