1% Lifesteal, Volume 2 recap

Freddy Stern survives Camp Violet, purchases the identity of Liam Cuttingsworth, and rebuilds his life as a delver in Nova York. His secret partnership with Sophia Sommer gives both of them undead bodies, but they are trapped when Sophia's former cult seals a passage realm and massacres its occupants. Bloodshed disrupts the cult's plan after a mummified arm seizes control of its summoned body, while Empress Kaya's intervention ends with her Eidolon destroyed and Silverheart killed by a crimson Asura. Sophia is reduced to a preserved head, and Freddy returns under Liam's criminally burdened identity to seek her restoration. Mark Affronte gains supernatural power, destroys Craven's remaining leadership, and flees after freeing two prisoners. Theodore Osborne and Jacob Santorio later ambush Freddy on suspicion alone. Freddy kills them, Grant, and Randy, then abandons Nova York to pursue greater wealth and power.

Previously: Freddy Stern survived captivity and the destruction of Camp Violet while pursued by Craven. He killed the clan's four-star patriarch and escaped with valuables from the dead man's storage ring, but his own identity was no longer safe. Bloodshed, a sentient spirit bound to Freddy's soul, remained his most unusual ally. Mark Affronte, once Freddy's confidant, had betrayed him to Craven under pressure connected to his sister Sarah's education. Madame Morlap retained a contractual interest in interviewing and protecting Freddy, while the wider consequences of Camp Violet remained unresolved.

Freddy is recovered from Camp Violet under Peter Vane's identity, but Peter's father sees through the substitution and dies after attacking him. Freddy heals by draining vegetation, removes traceable property from the dead Craven patriarch's ring, and reaches Imperta. There he bargains with Spike for the complete records of the deceased Liam Cuttingsworth and a platinum Tower of York card. He registers his own face under Liam's identity and leaves for Nova York. Meanwhile, Craven confirms its patriarch's death. His son Nahar takes control of the weakened clan and keeps Mark in service through Sarah's academy prospects. When records show that Freddy was sent to Camp Violet, Madame Morlap joins the search and demands Craven's information about him.

In Nova York, Freddy struggles to find lawful work that fits a two-star arch-human and takes a large loan to equip himself for delving. He discovers that his soul has formed a dangerous water-derived affinity, but keeps it and his blood powers secret. Theodore's established party hires him as a helper under the name Liam. Petra imposes strict safety rules while Theodore, Beatrice, Robert, Kyle, and Lance demonstrate their coordinated methods in a gorel realm. A deviant guard ambushes Freddy, forcing him to reveal a two-star Flowing Strike. He kills it but suffers severe backlash. Theodore's threat-reading talent briefly perceives Freddy as extraordinarily dangerous, yet offers him a larger share. Freddy instead asks to remain a helper while learning local procedures and decides he needs formal training.

Freddy develops his blood reserves, trains with Theodore's party, and then begins profitable solo hunts as Liam. He privately reveals his real identity to Robert and Lance after meeting them socially. Theodore's party breaks apart amid Theodore and Beatrice's separation, and Theodore later offers Freddy an evaluation for a party being assembled by Jacob Santorio. At Camp Violet, Mark, Nahar, and Madame Morlap find an unnatural passage. The reanimated scout Jenny Walker attacks them as a powerful square-pupiled undead, and Madame destroys her. Similar wisps animate another corpse. Craven searchers separately capture two square-pupiled looters connected to the dead patriarch, but an outside force prevents the pair from explaining their condition. Madame concludes that Freddy destroyed Camp Violet and suspects that the burned survivor registered as Peter Vane may be an impostor linked to the anomaly.

Freddy creates Crimson Mercury and Gore Knuckles while resisting Jacob Santorio's recruitment pressure. Sophia Sommer, initially an unidentified sickly woman, recognizes Freddy's regenerative power and reveals that she can extract and combine life sparks. Using tissue from Freddy, she creates a renewable source of healing and repairs both of them. They adopt false names with each other and form a guarded partnership, but Sophia's lethal training methods culminate in her throwing Freddy into a gorel horde. He survives through his hidden abilities and a large perished-water attack. During their argument, a death-affinity deviant impales him and leaves death essence in his body. Sophia supplies the creature's prime and attributes some of her recklessness to the effects of sudden pain relief. Freddy refuses a normal party arrangement but keeps her as a covert partner and possible martial instructor after she claims their abilities could make them immortal.

Sophia combines a spark of undeath with ordinary life force and transforms herself, then Freddy, into undead beings who can survive otherwise fatal wounds but remain vulnerable to destruction of the brain. They conceal the change. Freddy sells the deviant prime, refuses Jacob's party offer, and trains his emerging abilities with Bloodshed's assistance. A self-restoring barrier then seals the gorel realm. Sophia identifies the attack as the work of the cult that raised children as controlled monster fighters and from which she escaped. Freddy tells her his real first name and reveals Bloodshed. She explains that his two spirit abilities severely slow his advancement and that the cult intends to open other passages, provoke the gorels, and kill the trapped delvers. Rather than confront stronger cultists immediately, Freddy and Sophia plan to hide, train in the Nether Echo under Bloodshed's protection, and escape through another passage when one opens.

Jacob's party enters the sealed realm and defeats an initial cult kill squad, but the wider force surrounds a crowd at the central barrier. Rachel dies in the massacre. Petra sacrifices herself for Beatrice, while Robert and Kyle are also killed. Jacob, Theodore, Philip, Karen, Beatrice, Jack, Jean, an armored stranger, and several others escape because the cult deliberately allows the armored man through. Elsewhere, Sophia reshapes Freddy's body for balance and combat, and the pair train with Bloodshed as the gorel population surges. Freddy acquires a two-star satellite that regenerates essence. When the horde reaches their shelter, Freddy and Sophia fight toward an exit while accumulating blood for a sacrifice. Bloodshed manifests as an enormous skeleton, ignores Freddy's command, tears through the false sky, and receives a mummified clawed arm, creating a new threat just as the pair attempt to flee.

The mummified arm overwhelms Bloodshed's summoned body, which rampages through monsters and cultists before Ilya's force recovers the artifact. Freddy carries the exhausted Sophia into an elite realm. Empress Kaya and Leona begin clearing the sealed passages, while the armored survivor is exposed as an avatar user whose main body seeks an alliance with an Eidolon of Authority for a coup. Soldiers capture Freddy and Sophia as suspects and rescue Jacob's survivors. The cult's final ritual then empowers its remaining members at the cost of their lives. Leona is sealed inside a red barrier, and Karen, Jack, and Jean die in the renewed violence. Sophia ignites five stars to break the cult's control mark. She is dismembered, and Ilya tortures Freddy for information, but Bloodshed destroys Ilya's ritual support and kills her. The cult leader identifies his former identity as Silverheart before a crimson Asura destroys Kaya's Eidolon and kills him at a passage.

Freddy preserves Sophia's living undead head and survives alone for months before returning as Liam Cuttingsworth. Investigators clear him of cult involvement but impose a $2.5 million fine for Liam's earlier crimes. Bloodshed reveals that the freed Asura altered Freddy's blood ring, while withholding its warning of a coming planetary war. Madame Morlap discovers and destroys a square-pupiled parasite in her soul and fears that Mark and Nahar are also infected. After Craven dissolves the organization supporting Sarah's education, Mark attempts suicide, accepts power from a Freddy-faced dream figure, and becomes a three-star. He kills Craven's new patriarch and elders, frees two hidden prisoners, retrieves his family, and follows a snake-eyed broker to negotiate an escape. Theodore and Jacob, suspecting Liam without proof, ambush Freddy with Grant and Randy in a volcanic realm. Bloodshed saves Freddy from lava. Freddy kills all four attackers, takes Jacob's ring, destroys incriminating gear, and leaves Nova York by bus. Sophia still has about a year before preservation can no longer protect her identity, and Freddy departs determined to gain the wealth and strength needed to restore her and survive future retaliation.

Freddy keeps Sophia's undead head hidden in a preservation solution that gives him about a year to restore her body before her identity is irretrievably lost. He remains bonded to Bloodshed, while Bloodshed conceals the Asura's warning of an approaching planetary conflict. Liam Cuttingsworth's identity is still usable but carries a $2.5 million fine, and Freddy loses it as a safe local cover after killing Theodore Osborne, Jacob Santorio, Grant, and Randy during their ambush. He leaves Nova York by bus, expecting retaliation from Leonard Santorio and resolving to seek strength and wealth. Elsewhere, Silverheart is dead, Empress Kaya has lost her Eidolon, and Leona remains sealed behind the cult's red barrier. Madame Morlap has destroyed a parasite in her own soul and suspects Mark and Nahar may carry similar entities. Mark, newly empowered, kills Craven's last patriarch and elders, frees the clan's two secret prisoners, retrieves his family, and follows a snake-eyed broker to negotiate escape from imperial punishment.