Chapter Summaries

Evenson learned that Dimension Walkers are associated with impending void calamities, though the Eredar Twins believed Earth had escaped one because its Dimension Walker had been there for so long. After Klayya showed signs of embracing the void, Evenson asked the Twins to explain Dimension Walkers and Voidlings, and Aurelles began recounting the history of the Pantheon and Sargeras.

• The Eredar Twins initially panicked at the mention of a Dimension Walker, then relaxed when Evenson said the figure had been on Earth for a long time.
• Saloras and Aurelles explained that Dimension Walkers tend to arrive before void calamities, which usually strike within three years, and said Earth had likely avoided one.
• Klayya asked what Dimension Walkers and void calamities were, and Aurelles mocked her until Saloras noticed black smoke in Klayya's eyes.
• Saloras and Aurelles recognized that Klayya had begun embracing the void, and Evenson said Ancient One planned for the Dimension Walker to teach her.
• Evenson asked the Eredar Twins to explain Dimension Walkers and Voidlings, and Aurelles began telling him about the Pantheon and Sargeras.

Usaless explained how her people discovered a passage into the Void and encountered a terrifying Void Lord, information she later revealed to Sargeras to provoke him. She said the Void’s influence had grown beyond what the Fel Lords expected, producing something that made Sargeras tremble with fear.

• The Eredar Twins began explaining Sargeras’s fall, and Evenson summoned Usaless to recount what the Fel Lords had taught him.
• Usaless described how Sargeras captured her people and imprisoned them in Maldon, where they harbored hatred toward him.
• Usaless explained that a hole between the real world and the Void had changed the Fel Lords and given them knowledge and abilities.
• Usaless recounted how the Fel Lords fled after sensing a terrifying gaze from beyond the hole, later understood to belong to a Void Lord.
• Evenson realized that Usaless had told Sargeras about the Void Lord to provoke a fight and create a chance for her people to escape.
• Usaless confirmed his deduction and revealed that the Void’s influence had spread and created something that made Sargeras tremble with fear.

Usaless and Saloras explained how the Void Lords breached the real world and sought material vessels, while Evenson learned how their plans to possess Titans and Great Old Ones unfolded. The chapter ended with Aurelles warning Evenson to remember the history for his exams.

• Usaless recounted how the Void Lords discovered and enlarged the opening between the Void and the real world, and how Sargeras destroyed a planet to stop a corrupted Titan soul from awakening.
• Evenson heard that Sargeras then turned against the Pantheon and began the Burning Crusade to prevent the Void from corrupting his children.
• Saloras explained that Void Lords needed material vessels because their Mental Power would dissipate in the real world, so they targeted newborn Titan souls.
• Aurelles explained that the Void Lords also planted seeds that became Great Old Ones, but those creatures could resist possession through their independent wills.
• Saloras said no Void Lord was known to have entered the real world, and Evenson learned that the Great Old Ones needed many worlds' worth of energy to mature.
• Aurelles told Evenson that the history of the Void was important exam material, while Voidlings were only an optional extra question.

Aurelles and Saloras explained how Voidlings arose as survivors of worlds swallowed by the Void and why their factions disagreed about serving or resisting it. Evenson learned that the Dimension Walker coming to teach Klayya belonged to a small, powerful third party that fought the Void more rationally.

• Aurelles explained that Voidlings were transformed survivors from different worlds consumed by the Void, not a species deliberately created by the Void Lords.
• Saloras said the Star Alliance submitted to the Void while the Vengeance Army sought revenge, and Aurelles warned Evenson that neither faction was necessarily his ally.
• Saloras explained that Diemensius was an expendable Void creature whose death mattered little to the Void Lords.
• Evenson asked which faction the Dimension Walker belonged to, and Aurelles said the Dimension Walkers opposed the Void as a rational third party, with some members stronger than the Eredar Twins.

Ancient One waited for Klayya and Evenson to finish their private conversation, only to discover that they had disappeared. Zahaiyd arrived to observe his prospective disciple, but Ancient One could not explain where Klayya had gone.

• The chapter described the Vengeance Army, the Star Alliance, and the Dimension Walkers’ efforts to train heroes against the Void.
• Ancient One waited outside while Klayya and Evenson spoke, then found the room empty when she went to check on them.
• Ancient One moved her chambers into the Mirror Dimension after Zahaiyd appeared through a dark purple portal.
• Zahaiyd asked to secretly observe the new disciple Ancient One had prepared for him.
• Ancient One realized Zahaiyd thought she was troubled about Klayya becoming his peer, while she was actually frustrated that Klayya and Evenson had left without telling her.

Ancient One and Zahaiyd revisited Ancient One’s past as King Arthur and Morgan, including how Zahaiyd’s intervention ended her dangerous experiment with the Void. Zahaiyd explained that Evenson might help Klayya surpass Ancient One’s power, and confirmed that most of what Evenson had told her was true.

• Zahaiyd teased Ancient One about her youthful mistakes and revealed that she had once been both King Arthur and Morgan.
• Ancient One recalled how drawing too much power from the Void changed her temperament and led people to believe Morgan was her twin sister.
• Zahaiyd admitted that he created Mordred from Ancient One’s shadow and let rumors about her spread to teach her a lesson.
• Ancient One explained that Zahaiyd took her to R'lyeh after the Battle of Camlann, after which she founded The Order of Mages.
• Zahaiyd said Klayya might grow stronger than Ancient One if he and Evenson combined their methods, then confirmed that most of Evenson’s story was true.

Ancient One questioned Zahaiyd about Evenson’s claims and learned that the Burning Legion fought the void by devastating worlds, while Saloras and Aurelles had once served Kil'jaeden before joining a Sorcerer organization. She concluded the twins had likely sought refuge with Evenson’s group after betraying the Legion.

• Ancient One pressed Zahaiyd to identify the falsehoods in Evenson’s account, and Zahaiyd demanded she forgive him over Guinevere before answering.
• Zahaiyd explained that the Burning Legion opposed the void by turning worlds into scorched earth, so its war offered no safety to mortals.
• Ancient One asked whether the Burning Crusade had set sail again, and Zahaiyd said it had never stopped and that its many simultaneous invasions made identifying a recently destroyed world impossible.
• Zahaiyd confirmed that Argus had been a great magical civilization and that the fallen titan had corrupted the Eredar.
• Zahaiyd revealed that Saloras and Aurelles, former assistants to Kil'jaeden, had vanished from the Legion and reportedly joined a Sorcerer organization after being captured.
• Ancient One reasoned that Saloras and Aurelles had sought political asylum after betraying the Burning Legion and had come to help Evenson.

Ancient One questioned Zahaiyd about Sorcerers and Evenson's artifacts, learning that the intelligence was uncertain and Sorcerers were notoriously unpredictable. Meanwhile, Evenson prepared to begin the next stage of his plan and decided Klayya should learn everything about him.

• Ancient One compared Zahaiyd's information with other accounts and asked about Sorcerers and Evenson's weapons.
• Zahaiyd identified the weapons as Legion artifacts and described how Azeroth's Dark Harvest Council forged new artifacts by sacrificing demons and their own Lord.
• Zahaiyd warned Ancient One that his information might be inaccurate and that Sorcerers were known for deception and betrayal.
• Evenson finished speaking with the Eredar Twins and announced that he would begin the next stage of his plan.
• Evenson decided to let Klayya learn everything about him, despite Saloras's concern that she might not accept it.

Evenson brought Kreia to a secret surveillance room and revealed that Peggy Carter was helping him train Hydra recruits so they could be sent to their deaths. As Stephanie rallied five hundred recruits for a deadly elevation ritual, Kreia learned that Evenson’s plans involved Hydra, and Peggy made their real purpose clear.

• Evenson brought Kreia and the Eredar Twins to a hidden surveillance room, where the twins activated the console with their tails.
• Peggy Carter arrived in costume, removed her mask, and learned that Kreia was now one of Evenson’s allies.
• Kreia admired Peggy’s armor and asked to borrow it, prompting Evenson to pull her away and apologize.
• Peggy told Evenson that training Hydra recruits had made her want to cut them down, and he said she could finally act on that feeling.
• Aurelles played footage of Stephanie rallying five hundred battered Hydra recruits for a cruel elevation ritual.
• Kreia asked whether Evenson was working with Hydra, and Peggy replied that they were sending the recruits to Hell.

Stephanie selected twenty Hydra members for the first ascension ceremony, while Evenson and his allies prepared different procedures for two groups of ten. The first group died during soul extraction, and their Soul Crystals were used to summon demons as the transformation process continued.

• Stephanie chose twenty people at random to undergo ascension first, and Peggy Carter said she had selected them by rolling dice.
• Evenson told Peggy Carter to place a vulnerable man near the end of the process so he would be close to breaking down, and he promised to intervene if necessary.
• The twenty recruits split between two surgical rooms, where restraints locked them into chairs and spinal needles put them under anesthesia.
• Saloras activated a Magic array in one room, which extracted the souls of ten recruits and sent their corpses down a chute to Moira for experiments.
• Aurelles powered the array with red energy, and the ten Soul Crystals shattered into gateways that summoned Demon Guards and Wrathguards.

Evenson used binding arrays and soul-extraction magic to kill ten summoned demons, while Peggy Carter watched and learned why their lack of intelligence made them dangerous. Mechanical arms then removed the demons’ still-beating hearts, leaving the purpose of the procedure unexplained.

• Ten Demon Guards and Wrathguards arrived expecting a chance to fight, but the binding arrays froze them in place.
• The room’s elimination protocol extracted the demons’ souls, killing all ten before they could attack.
• Peggy Carter praised the trap, and Evenson explained that Demon Guards and Wrathguards were not among the cunning demons.
• Evenson told the others to keep the demons’ armor and weapons so he could use them for enchanting or smithing materials.
• The room’s machinery arranged the corpses and extracted their still-beating hearts into trays.

Evenson and Aurelles completed the survivors’ demonic modifications, inscribing runes and replacing their hearts with demon hearts. Peggy Carter learned that her own magic came from the same procedure, while the modified survivors began seeing terrifying visions.

• Mechanical arms tattooed the ten survivors with demonic runes and prepared them for heart replacement.
• Evenson and Aurelles oversaw the operation as the machines removed the survivors’ hearts and implanted demon hearts.
• Peggy Carter confronted Evenson after learning that he had replaced her heart with a demon heart without telling her.
• Evenson defended the bargain by pointing to Peggy Carter’s restored youth, power, and renewed relationship with her former lover.
• The survivors’ modifications finished, and flames burned their eyes as they saw indescribable visions.
• Evenson asked who would go down and calm the survivors so they could learn what the world truly looked like.

Peggy Carter planned to recruit Hydra operatives whose faith had collapsed, while Klayya confronted Evenson over his industrial slaughter of them. Evenson defended his actions as necessary preparation for a war against powerful enemies that had not yet arrived.

• Peggy Carter altered her mask so she could breathe more easily and explained that she would give the disillusioned Hydra operatives greater ideals to follow.
• Peggy Carter said secretly recruiting Hydra’s people would repay Hydra for dismantling S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Klayya recovered from her shock at Evenson’s soul-extraction experiment and called his actions monstrous.
• Peggy Carter challenged Klayya’s objections, saying they were facing a war, and Evenson described the unprecedented enemies threatening countless worlds.
• Klayya clarified that she objected not to the deaths but to Evenson treating people like livestock and processing them as materials.

Klayya confronted Evenson over his disregard for human life, but he defended his choices as necessary sacrifices and argued that he cared more about strangers’ deaths than most people did. Peggy Carter then rejected Klayya’s appeal to humanity, declaring that war had no humanity.

• Klayya accused the Eredar Twins of turning Evenson into a monster, and her newly obtained power erupted into a shadowy transformation.
• Evenson warned Klayya that she could lose her mind, and she suppressed the power and returned to normal.
• Evenson admitted that his ruthless ideas and actions were his own, and he defended them as necessary choices that minimized suffering.
• Klayya told Evenson that human lives could not be treated as numbers, but he argued that he carefully calculated how to save as many lives as possible.
• Peggy Carter dismissed humanity as a battlefield illusion and declared that war had no humanity.

Peggy Carter explained to Klayya that war was a struggle for survival, stripped of humanity and glory, and that people might have to become monsters to defeat their enemies. Evenson asked Klayya to accept that they must prepare for war, whether they intended to win it or escape it.

• Peggy Carter challenged the Eredar Twins' understanding of war and described how her World War II experience had taught her that people fought to survive.
• Peggy Carter told Klayya that invaders fought for greed, while defenders fought to protect their families, homes, and lives.
• Klayya questioned whether becoming monsters to defeat the enemy meant losing the value of victory, and Peggy Carter said survival left room to reclaim humanity.
• Peggy Carter warned that defeat and annihilation would leave no chance to recover, and said no one should want to experience another World War.
• Evenson told Klayya that they had to become monsters to win or escape the coming war, and asked whether she understood.

Klayya agreed to face the horrors of war, believing she could preserve her humanity and help Evenson reclaim his after the fighting ended. She embraced him, while Peggy Carter left and Saloras interpreted Klayya’s words as a warning that the Eredar Twins would eventually have to step aside.

• Klayya admitted she could not understand Evenson’s reasoning but chose to continue despite the pain it might cause her.
• Klayya told Evenson that she wanted to endure the war for him and lead him back to his humanity when it ended.
• Evenson realized Klayya was stronger than he had thought and pulled her into his arms.
• Peggy Carter left to brainwash the transformed Hydra agents, while Aurelles reacted angrily to the couple embracing.
• Saloras told Aurelles that Klayya’s words implied the Eredar Twins would have to step aside after the crisis.

The Eredar Twins dismissed the prospect of peace, while Peggy Carter secretly turned ten modified Hydra soldiers to her side and Stephanie celebrated their powers. Evenson, Klayya, and the twins later relaxed at the Final Doctrine, where Saloras praised Evenson’s scheme.

• Aurelles and Saloras joked that their infiltration experience would let them pose as righteous saviors even if war ended.
• Peggy Carter told ten newly modified Hydra members about the wider universe, won their loyalty, and took them into isolation to hide their defection.
• The ten soldiers demonstrated their new abilities to Stephanie, who was thrilled by the results and believed the expensive modifications had paid off.
• After the first round of modifications, Evenson agreed to visit the Eredar Twins’ recreation room with Klayya, and Evenson stopped the twins from offering her their private collection.
• At the Final Doctrine, Saloras praised Evenson’s plan as a sly way to achieve two goals at once.

Evenson explained to Klayya that he planned to launch a preliminary attack on the forgotten Burning Legion outpost Fel Scar Rift, using the battle to gain resources and test his warriors. He revealed that his shadow-war operation had already recruited key figures inside the outpost, but Klayya asked why he had not attacked yet.

• Evenson told Klayya he planned to strike first and prepare his new warriors for the enemy.
• Evenson explained that Fel Scar Rift was a neglected outpost on the fringe of enemy territory while the Legion focused on Azeroth.
• Evenson revealed that Agatha, codenamed Deep Sea, had pledged allegiance to him and commanded Fel Scar Rift's Internal Affairs forces.
• Evenson revealed that Gernos, codenamed Shrine, had become his contract demon and controlled the outpost's artillery.
• Klayya asked Evenson why he had not yet launched the attack despite secretly controlling those forces.

Evenson explained why the rebels had not yet moved against Hailmondas and revealed that he had a weapon capable of gravely wounding the Pit Lord. With the Eredar Twins unwilling to risk drawing Kil'jaeden or Soul Hunter Imenar, Evenson planned to rely on his own trump card and deal with Hailmondas's loyal army first.

• Klayya questioned why Evenson and the defectors had not begun an uprising, and Evenson explained that Hailmondas was too powerful for Agatha and Gernos to challenge directly.
• The Eredar Twins refused to fight because their appearance could draw Kil'jaeden or the bounty hunter Soul Hunter Imenar to the Fel Scar Rift.
• Saloras pointed out two wooden crates as Evenson's trump card, and Evenson said their contents could gravely wound Hailmondas but might not kill him outright.
• Evenson explained that Hailmondas commanded the Rift's largest and most loyal battle legion, which would keep fighting until their lord fell.
• Evenson revealed that he had already begun dealing with Hailmondas's army.

Evenson and the Eredar Twins coordinated a plan to weaken Hailmondas by having Agatha purge his loyal demons while secretly using demons from Fel Scar Rift as summoning and training targets. The story left Hailmondas’s forces dwindling, with Saloras confident he was too stupid to notice.

• Agatha used Hailmondas’s impatient order to claim authority over military and state affairs, then began executing his loyal demons in batches.
• Klayya and Saloras discussed how Agatha would likely disperse the remaining troops loyal to Hailmondas, while Aurelles praised Klayya’s political insight before regretting it.
• Evenson revealed that he had arranged for the Eredar Twins to summon demons specifically from Fel Scar Rift, weakening Hailmondas’s forces while strengthening his own troops.
• Evenson explained that he planned to use the summoned demons as sparring targets for his modified Hydras, further reducing the enemy’s numbers.
• Klayya worried that Hailmondas would notice the losses, but Saloras said he could barely count beyond thirty and would not realize his forces were disappearing.