Chapter Summaries

A mage in Sigil City watched Orsaga meet with Lady of Pain and mistook his ordinary-strength avatar for an immensely powerful being because of his overwhelming presence. Orsaga pressed her about their proposed deal, and Lady of Pain admitted she was still considering it as spectators gathered to listen.

• A mage saw Orsaga beside Lady of Pain and felt intimidated by his commanding aura and flawless appearance.
• The mage sensed that Orsaga's energy was weak but concluded that he must be hiding his true strength with a powerful disguise.
• Orsaga's avatar had spent nearly all its power on its ordinary human-level body and stylish outfit, leaving only the strength of a newly initiated professional.
• Orsaga asked Lady of Pain whether she had reconsidered their deal involving her Primal Pain, while nearby spectators strained to hear.
• Lady of Pain said she sometimes hesitated and believed making a deal with Orsaga required serious consideration.

Orsaga tried to persuade the Lady of Pain to accept his deal while she listened without taking him seriously. When assassins attacked her and threw a poisoned dart at him, Orsaga erased them with a gentle breath, leaving the onlookers unsure whether they had witnessed anything at all.

• Orsaga calmly continued his sales pitch as the Lady of Pain listened in amusement.
• Several masked assassins, including a Demigod Rank leader, sprang from the crowd and attacked the Lady of Pain.
• One assassin threw an enchanted poisoned dart at Orsaga to distract the Lady of Pain.
• Orsaga drew a trace of magic power and breathed at the assassins, breaking down their shields, armor, weapons, and bodies.
• The assassins vanished without a trace, and the bewildered onlookers wondered whether they had seen an illusion.

Orsaga demonstrated a devastating technique that impressed Lady of Pain, who recognized his superior mastery of power and cautiously considered his proposed deal. As Orsaga criticized the locals for daring to threaten her, the onlookers realized he was a Demon Lord from the Bottomless Abyss, though they did not know he came from a different, more powerful Abyss.

• Lady of Pain praised Orsaga's technique and realized there was a vast gap between their knowledge of wielding power.
• Orsaga said Lady of Pain could learn the technique, while she acknowledged that he had traveled farther along that path.
• Orsaga told Lady of Pain that he expected to surpass her even further in the future, and she wished him success.
• Orsaga wondered why the natives showed so little respect for Lady of Pain and said people in his Abyss Layers feared their rulers.
• The onlookers overheard Orsaga's remarks and guessed that he was a Demon Lord from the Bottomless Abyss, unaware that he came from a different one.

Lady of Pain explained that she treated challengers as both entertainment and trials to foster powerful figures who could strengthen the plane. Orsaga and Lady of Pain sensed a promising Two-headed Baboon had appeared in the Bottomless Abyss, though Lady of Pain said his future remained uncertain.

• Lady of Pain told Orsaga that she tested ambitious challengers to encourage growth and prepare the plane for a powerful new generation.
• Orsaga judged that a candidate would need strength comparable to the Cosmic Giant Snake Koma or the Cosmic Giant Wolf Sier to pass her trial.
• Lady of Pain said her actions served the future of the space-time, while spectators discussed why she allowed challengers to gather in Sigil City.
• When Destiny stirred, Orsaga and Lady of Pain looked toward the Bottomless Abyss and saw a frail-looking Two-headed Baboon with potential.
• Lady of Pain cautioned that the Two-headed Baboon's aptitude did not guarantee how far he would ultimately grow.

The Chaos Queen attempted to create a powerful, fertile race bound to obey her by forging mortal souls and other materials in magical cauldrons. Her first living creation emerged, but its weakness, ugliness, and divided mind made her suspect that it was a failure.

• The Chaos Queen directed Demons to add materials to cauldrons and cast spells as she pursued a plan to create powerful subordinates.
• She embedded control over her creations in her own soul so they could never rebel without her authority being shattered.
• After countless experiments, the Chaos Queen finally produced a living creature in one of the cauldrons.
• The creature emerged with two baboon heads, an insect-like lower body, tentacle-like arms, and two conflicting wills, leaving the Chaos Queen to suspect her first result had failed.

The Chaos Queen created the two-headed baboon Dimogegen Amur Heslati, then abandoned him in the mud while his two consciousnesses fought. As she refined her creation process, Orsaga and the Lady of Pain recognized Dimogegen’s unusual potential, but his heads resumed fighting over their individual names.

• The Chaos Queen named her first creation Dimogegen Amur Heslati, judged him a failure, and sent him through a Space Door.
• Dimogegen landed in the mud and his two heads attacked each other, each trying to control their half of his body.
• The Chaos Queen adjusted her creation method and began producing more stable Demons, while Orsaga praised Dimogegen’s chaotic nature.
• The Lady of Pain recognized that Dimogegen’s divided consciousnesses and Primal Fear fragments gave him rare abilities and the potential to grow stronger.
• After several days, the two heads agreed to use Dimogegen as their shared name, but began fighting again over who would use Amur and who would use Heslati.

Orsaga spent his days roaming Sigil City, stealing from hundreds of people while lavishly spending the money on extravagant meals. After finishing a legendary meal, he smashed its valuable jade bowl and left the waiters grieving over the wasted soup.

• Orsaga praised Dimogegen’s performance while eating ramen-like food in a Sigil City shop.
• Orsaga’s brazen thefts made him a notorious Master Thief, and one Legendary Adventurer changed his profession to Death Assassin after Orsaga stole his money and weapons.
• Lady of Pain was surprised that Orsaga had stolen from several hundred people in just four days without making any effort to hide it.
• Orsaga paid for a lavish meal made with rare ingredients, including meat from two adult Red Dragons, while his stolen wealth barely kept pace with his spending.
• After eating, Orsaga tossed his fine jade bowl onto the floor, spilling the potion-like soup and leaving the waiters heartbroken.

Orsaga spotted a wealthy-looking wanderer and left to pursue him, tipping the chef before he vanished from the attendants’ sight. The chapter revealed that Orsaga had reached Rogue Level 20 / Fighter Level 20, though the God Above Gods had restricted his growth and blocked his path to godhood.

• Orsaga noticed a young, well-equipped wanderer on the street and decided he would be an easy source of money.
• Orsaga dismissed his attendants, gave one a pouch of gems as a tip for the chef, and vanished before their eyes.
• The attendants cleaned up the dining area, while some tried to lick up the remaining soup from the shattered jade bowl.
• Hidden observers guessed that Orsaga was a high-level rogue or used magic equipment to turn invisible.
• Orsaga’s local professional levels had reached Rogue Level 20 / Fighter Level 20, making him a Level 40 Legendary Rank Professional.
• The God Above Gods had capped Orsaga’s level and blocked his path to godhood, though he could freely alter his extraordinary profession.

Worida Mala, the God of Rogues, walked through Sigil City in a mortal-strength Avatar, confident that his divine nature made him nearly invulnerable. After flirting with a woman, he faced her furious male companion, who drew a sword and threatened to cut off his hand.

• Worida Mala reflected on his power as the God of Rogues and his confidence that mortals could not harm his Avatar.
• Worida Mala wondered whether rumors of a nearby Master Thief were false or part of a plot.
• Worida Mala winked at a passing woman, prompting her male companion to glare at him and reach for his weapon.
• Worida Mala looked contemptuously at the man as he drew his longsword and threatened him, while nearby onlookers moved away to watch.

Worida Mala effortlessly disarmed and maimed an adventurer who challenged him, then discovered that Orsaga had secretly stabbed him repeatedly. Orsaga killed Worida Mala and took his money, leaving him to speculate about conspiracies without realizing the attack was motivated by a lack of cash.

• Worida Mala cut an adventurer's sword in half and severed the man's arm, mocking him as weaker.
• Worida Mala noticed the onlookers' horrified reactions and found a dagger protruding from his chest.
• Orsaga, still invisible, stabbed Worida Mala repeatedly, ignored his resistance, cut off his head, and took his money.
• Worida Mala wondered who had attacked him and imagined conspiracies, never guessing Orsaga had needed money.

Worida Mala mistook Orsaga’s random stabbing for a plot against him and triggered military preparations that spread alarm across nearby Divine Kingdoms and mortal churches. As Lady of Pain watched Orsaga reach Demigod Rank on his own, she reconsidered his Coping Level system, which judged how difficult someone was to handle by more than raw power.

• Worida Mala suspected a conspiracy, listed potential threats, and readied his Divine Kingdom for battle.
• Other gods misinterpreted Worida Mala’s preparations as a threat and put their own Divine Kingdoms on alert, prompting mortal churches to prepare for war and sparking clashes.
• Lady of Pain told Orsaga that he had caused chaos again and marveled that he had advanced to Demigod Rank without outside help.
• Lady of Pain recalled Orsaga’s eight-tier Coping Level system, which weighed factors such as knowledge, willpower, and personality alongside power.
• Orsaga’s system rated OAA’s inhabitants as low threats and judged Rick as Ordinary Goods because his psychological vulnerabilities made him easy to handle.

Orsaga compared powerful beings by how difficult they would be for him to handle, placing Rick, Destiny, the Emperor, his three Ozhaki leaders, Halifask, and the Lady of Pain at different levels. He concluded that neither OAA nor Gann was truly impossible to deal with, though both were far beyond him.

• Orsaga explained that Rick’s struggle, suffering, confusion, and creeping madness fascinated him, and speculated that Rick might rise in rank if he embraced true madness.
• Orsaga described Destiny of the Ultimate Family as barely acceptable because OAA’s meddling had made Destiny’s possibilities dangerously unstable.
• Orsaga recalled the Emperor as relatively outstanding, but said he had died after confronting Orsaga and the other four Chaos Gods.
• Orsaga named Imokku, Kojire, and Ulamo as very impressive foes, citing their immense abilities and experience conquering countless planes.
• Orsaga judged Halifask to be difficult to deal with and the Lady of Pain to be below that level, despite her accumulated power.
• Orsaga said that beings who were impossible to deal with would surpass him in virtually every respect, and that neither OAA nor Gann qualified.

After seeing Orsaga easily kill Worida Mala, Lady of Pain proposed sending the gods through harsh trials in the Bottomless Abyss to push their potential. She and the Order Serpents and AO agreed to establish periodic trials, leaving the gods’ future shaped by a recurring elimination system.

• Lady of Pain watched Orsaga kill Worida Mala and considered the gods weak and in need of training.
• Lady of Pain suggested stripping the gods of their Divine Seats and sending them into the Bottomless Abyss to fight their way out alive.
• Orsaga approved Lady of Pain’s proposal, and she contacted the Order Serpents and AO to discuss it.
• The Good Serpent and Evil Serpent agreed that the gods should face trials, while AO urged delaying them until the gods’ institutions had developed further.
• Lady of Pain, the Good Serpent, and the Evil Serpent agreed with AO to hold periodic trials and limit the number of gods who died each time.

Lady of Pain proposed creating a seemingly natural need that would make the gods accept the planned trials, and suggested adapting the Killing Tribulation from Orsaga’s copy of Investiture of the Gods. The other God Above Gods heard her idea as they prepared to implement the trials in the future.

• Lady of Pain and the other God Above Gods confirmed that their future trials would screen the gods and use those of mediocre aptitude as resources.
• Lady of Pain proposed establishing an essential need for the gods and presenting it as a natural problem rather than something the God Above Gods had created.
• AO asked Lady of Pain to explain her idea.
• Lady of Pain produced the hardcover Investiture of the Gods that Orsaga had given her and suggested borrowing its Killing Tribulation setting for the gods.

At Lady of Pain’s suggestion, she, AO, Good Serpent, and Evil Serpent devised a mechanism that would force gods into periodic wars to restore balance and strengthen the worlds. They outlined escalating activation thresholds and accepted the immense mortal and divine casualties as the cost of planetary growth.

• Lady of Pain proposed a Special Punishment Mechanism that would activate when the number or actions of gods crossed a threshold, weakening them and forcing their number to fall by about twenty percent.
• Good Serpent suggested restricting gods to a fraction of their power in the Material Plane, with a god’s death there shattering its Divine Kingdom and distributing its power between the victor and the world.
• Good Serpent argued that the mechanism’s aftermath would enrich worlds and drive civilizations to grow stronger, even though mortal races would suffer during each Divine War.
• Evil Serpent proposed raising the activation threshold after every cycle while continuing to require a twenty-percent reduction in gods, making each future mechanism larger and more brutal.
• Evil Serpent, Lady of Pain, AO, and Good Serpent prioritized the overall flourishing of the planes over the lives lost and civilizations destroyed.

The God Above Gods devised the Fate Stone Tablet as a fake treasure to serve as the scapegoat for triggering the Punishment Mechanism. The Lady of Pain compared their scheme to a more elaborate version of the Killing Tribulation of Deification from Investiture of the Gods.

• AO asked whether they had arranged a trigger for the Punishment Mechanism, since forcing the new setting into the worlds would attract attention.
• The Evil Serpent proposed creating a tempting but supposedly dangerous object and blaming whoever touched it.
• The Evil Serpent fashioned a stone tablet from dust and grime from his scale, and AO named it the Fate Stone Tablet and invented an ominous origin for it.
• The Evil Serpent suggested displaying the tablet somewhere gods knew about but feared to approach, then blaming the first god who touched it for the disaster.
• The Evil Serpent proposed giving the Punishment Mechanism a grand name and claiming its effects would recur even after the tablet was restored.
• The Lady of Pain remarked that the plan resembled a doubled version of the Killing Tribulation of Deification and a knockoff List of Deities.

AO placed the newly formed Fate Stone Tablet in the Pantheon, telling the gods they might earn a chance to study it through major contributions. In Sigil City, Lady of Pain admonished Orsaga for killing Worida Mala’s avatar in public, and Orsaga defended the robbery as a way to fund his lifestyle.

• A stone altar and the Fate Stone Tablet appeared in the Pantheon, stirring greed among the gods.
• AO declared that the tablet had existed since the Beginning of Creation and would be kept under strict supervision, with worthy gods allowed to study it.
• The gods accepted AO’s explanation and considered how they might qualify, while some still wanted to seize the tablet for themselves.
• Lady of Pain summoned Orsaga in Sigil City and admonished him for killing Worida Mala’s avatar in public and disrupting discipline.
• Orsaga claimed he had robbed Worida Mala because he needed money for eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, and was too lazy to earn it another way.

Orsaga received a self-refilling spatial ring from Lady of Pain to keep him from causing trouble, then secretly enhanced it to generate far more resources. Lady of Pain asked whether to accelerate the slow progress of civilizations, and Orsaga agreed, saying they could destroy any civilization that went too far astray.

• Lady of Pain gave Orsaga a spatial ring filled with resources that replenished every twenty-four hours, asking him to use it instead of causing more trouble.
• Orsaga modified the ring to absorb energy from the void and generate hundreds of substances, multiplying its daily resources by dozens of times.
• Lady of Pain questioned why Orsaga still stole and robbed when he could create matter, and he said he was avoiding greater disruption for her sake.
• Lady of Pain asked whether they should push slow-moving civilizations to progress, and Orsaga agreed that they should.
• Orsaga said that if a civilization went too far astray, they could destroy it and start over.

Orsaga explained to Lady of Pain how successful civilizations could spur their neighbors to develop, then she summoned Koma, the Cosmic Giant Snake and Orsaga’s former ally in destroying the World Tree. Koma wrestled with his guilt and resentment over the destruction of his home, while Orsaga greeted him as if nothing had happened.

• Orsaga told Lady of Pain that cultivating a few successful civilizations could prompt surrounding powers to imitate them and compete, though the leaders might also conquer or exploit their neighbors.
• Lady of Pain considered Orsaga’s advice and began forming plans.
• At Lady of Pain’s signal, Koma, the Cosmic Giant Snake, came out of the jungle and entered the courtyard.
• Koma felt conflicted about meeting Orsaga, since he had helped destroy the World Tree that birthed him but could not defeat Orsaga or claim the moral high ground.
• Orsaga greeted Koma casually and asked how he had become so weak.

Koma explained that he had spent several thousand years adapting the spells of Dominion Time and Space to the local reality, recovering only a tenth of his former power. Lady of Pain asked him to share some low-to-mid-level results to help advance the local civilization’s spellcasting system.

• Koma ignored Orsaga’s greeting and asked Lady of Pain why she had summoned him.
• Koma’s power and spellcasting knowledge had weakened because the local time and space required him to adapt his methods.
• Koma had made progress in localizing his spells and expected to regain his former strength after several more thousand years.
• Lady of Pain asked Koma for accessible spell knowledge to improve the local civilization’s underdeveloped spellcasting system.
• Koma agreed to provide part of his research, while Lady of Pain noted that local spellcasters could eventually become among the strongest professions.