Chapter Summaries

Keosius struck a deal with Asmodeus, retaining thirty percent of Avernus Authority in exchange for supporting Hell and helping restrain Bael. After Asmodeus departed, Keosius expanded the Empire Domain by raising boundary markers across the Empire, then prepared to travel to Avernus and meet his temporary ally.

• Asmodeus confronted Keosius and demanded the thirty percent of Avernus Authority, but Keosius proposed holding it while supplying troops, enemy souls, and a check on Bael.
• Asmodeus accepted Keosius's deal because he was interested in Keosius's future, then revealed his true form and vanished from the tavern.
• Keosius reflected on Asmodeus's overwhelming power and decided to expand the Empire Domain so beings like him could not easily enter the Empire.
• Keosius raised a boundary marker in Blackstone Fortress, which expanded the Empire Domain and provided citizens with a sense of safety and players with a respawn and teleportation point.
• Keosius created eleven more boundary markers in nearby cities, prompting players to praise their new functions.
• Keosius prepared to head to Avernus to meet his temporary ally.

Keosius studied the Blood War before entering Avernus through the Cursed Gate. He arrived as demons overwhelmed a devil legion and began burning them back, ending with a Balor commander facing his threat of destruction.

• Keosius learned that Kostchtchie might be seeking the ancient warhammer Father of Frost Matalotoque, then ordered Yude Puke taken for interrogation.
• Keosius opened the Cursed Gate, swallowed the Hell Core, and entered Avernus to witness the Blood War.
• A demon horde pursued a fleeing devil legion toward Oleg Fortress, while its Balor commander Zande declared that Avernus would be conquered.
• Keosius appeared as a gigantic Red Dragon and incinerated thousands of demons, rescuing the surrounded devils.
• Zande invoked the wrath of the Abyss Lord, but Keosius told the devils to kill the demons and declared that their destruction did not matter to them.

Keosius annihilated a vast demon force and rescued the remnants of Bael’s legion before joining the battle at the Bronze Fortress. Bael greeted him with concealed fury, recognizing Keosius as the one who had taken his Avernus Authority and prevented him from becoming a complete Hell Lord.

• Keosius unleashed a massive Flame Storm, destroying tens of thousands of demons and killing the Balor Zande when he tried to self-destruct.
• Keosius questioned the surviving devils, learned they belonged to Bael’s Twenty-First Legion, and agreed to go to the Bronze Fortress.
• The Devil Officer told Keosius that Bael was defending the fortress against an Abyss invasion that had overrun northern Avernus.
• Keosius arrived at the Bronze Fortress and burned a wide path through the demons attacking its walls.
• Bael appeared before Keosius, and their powers clashed as Bael recognized him as the one who had taken his Avernus Authority.

Keosius confronted Bael over the Avernus Authority, then negotiated their cooperation against a massive demonic invasion. Bael agreed to Keosius’s terms for bringing an imperial army into Hell as demons breached the fortress’s outer defenses.

• Keosius denied violating his contract with Bael and refused to return the Avernus Authority, revealing that Asmodeus had approved their arrangement.
• Bael swallowed his anger and turned to the worsening Blood War as demons overwhelmed the defenders outside the Bronze Fortress.
• Bael told Keosius that the Abyss Lords Kostchtchie, Mastiff, and Ishinix had sent nearly twenty million demons into Avernus.
• Keosius offered to help hold off Kostchtchie and bring at least three million Starfallers to Hell in exchange for an autonomous imperial concession with free teleportation rights.
• Bael accepted Keosius’s condition as the demonic army advanced toward the fortress.

Krum and Kostchtchie's demonic forces smashed through the Hell Legion's outer defenses and froze the magma moat to attack the second line near the Bronze Fortress. As Krum rampaged into the defenders, a powerful dragon roar shook the battlefield.

• Krum led the Frost Giant cavalry in shattering the Hell Legion's force wall and breaking through the outer defensive line.
• Uriel abandoned the Twenty-First Legion and Twenty-Second Legion, retreating with his elite forces while demons slaughtered the remaining devils.
• The demons assaulted the second defensive line across a magma river as the devils used gravity spells and flaming bolts to repel them.
• Krum froze the magma moat, allowing demons to cross, then rode his Abyssal beast into the Hell Legion's formation.
• A clear dragon roar rang across the battlefield and made even the demon Frost Giants tremble.

Keosius confronted Krum and the demon Frost Giants in Avernus, revealing that he had destroyed the Everfrost Tribe and then slaughtering tens of thousands of demons with overwhelming physical strength. He turned his attention to Krum, who had called on Kostchtchie’s power, and prepared to see how furious the Lord of Fury would become.

• Keosius appeared above the Abyss Legion, and Krum warned him to leave Avernus or face Kostchtchie’s wrath.
• Keosius revealed that he had destroyed the Everfrost Tribe, triggering the Frost Giants’ fear and hatred of him.
• Keosius crashed into the demon horde and killed tens of thousands of demons, then tore through the Frost Giant Warriors who attacked him.
• Krum unleashed a freezing beam powered by Solem’s divine cold, but Keosius shook off the frost and advanced on him.
• Keosius asked how furious Kostchtchie could become as he confronted Krum.

Keosius defeated Kostchtchie’s incarnation and crushed the demon army attacking the Bronze Fortress, then claimed a leased territory in Avernus for the Empire. A boundary marker opened a cross-planar arrival point, bringing tens of thousands of players into Hell, where they recognized Keosius.

• Keosius’s Fire of Order overwhelmed Krum’s defenses, forcing Kostchtchie to manifest an incarnation to protect his follower.
• Keosius used Avernus’s power to overpower Kostchtchie’s incarnation and destroy it, then killed Krum and scattered or annihilated his demon army.
• Bael accepted Keosius’s choice of a frontline Hell Legion position as the Empire’s leased territory, while Keosius raised an Empire Boundary Marker there.
• The marker brought thousands of players into Avernus, where they crowded around it and recognized Keosius as their emperor.

Players flooded into Avernus and initially turned the unrestricted area into a chaotic free-for-all, alarming the devils and Bael. Keosius announced the Blood War mission, redirecting the million-player force toward the defense of Avernus, while the Church of the Machine God rapidly built fortifications and a steel fortress.

• Players crowded around the new Teleportation Point, and a grenade attack by an Original Restoration Society priest sparked a deadly riot that escalated into a massive player free-for-all.
• The devils watched the players fight one another, and Bael questioned Keosius about whether the promised reinforcements would survive long enough to fight.
• Keosius subdued the players with his dragon's might, announced the Empire's entry into the Blood War, and triggered the Blood War main quest for them.
• Players stopped fighting to prepare for the war, and their numbers surpassed a million as they dug trenches, built defenses, and moved supplies.
• Hundred-meter-long airships from the Church of the Machine God arrived, and its teams quickly constructed bunkers and a steel fortress in Avernus.

Born Battle Maniac reunited with Steamed Bun and Singo, then warned them that three Abyss Lords had invaded Avernus with a vast demon army. As the demons attacked the Bronze Fortress, Bael rallied the devils and the players rushed into battle, eager to claim the kills and rewards.

• Steamed Bun and Singo met Born Battle Maniac at the concession and learned about his role in Duke Bael's coup against Zariel.
• Born Battle Maniac explained that tens of millions of demons were invading Avernus and that Keosius had temporarily halted their advance.
• Steamed Bun spotted the Abyss Legion approaching the Bronze Fortress, including the wills of Mastiff, Ishinix, and Kostchtchie.
• Bael rallied the devils, who joined forces to defend the fortress as demons charged their lines.
• The Church of the Machine God unleashed its machines and firepower, killing tens of thousands of demons within minutes.
• Steamed Bun and other players hurried to the front line to fight the demons and claim their rewards.

Steamed Bun and Singo fought through a Vrock ambush before Steel Frenzy and the Dragon Scale Monks joined the battle against the demon horde. Steel Frenzy’s team was surrounded as Kostchtchie, the Frost Shaman, arrived on an Abyssal Dragon with a blizzard and mutated Frost Giants.

• Steamed Bun bombed the demon horde, but Vrocks surrounded the Wyvern Knights and used their Dance of Destruction to disorient them.
• Singo blasted a gap in the Vrocks’ encirclement, and Steamed Bun and the surviving Wyvern Knights escaped through it.
• Steel Frenzy arrived aboard a Church of the Machine God airship and leaped into the demon horde with twelve Dragon Scale Monks.
• Steel Frenzy and the Dragon Scale Monks fought the demons, and Steel Frenzy killed a Gorebull Devil and wounded an Abyssal Hound Devil.
• Deputy Captain Chen Yan warned Steel Frenzy about a powerful enemy, and Kostchtchie appeared on an Abyssal Dragon amid a blizzard, leading corrupted Frost Giants.

Steel Frenzy and the Dragon Scale Monks battled Kostchtchie's demons but were overwhelmed when the Abyss's power blocked their escape. The Crimson Scale Conquerors and Misha's Dragon Pact Sorcerers arrived to turn the tide, while the Dragonkin Paladins advanced behind them.

• Steel Frenzy led the Dragon Scale Monks against the Tanar'ri Frost Giants, and the squad killed more than thirty before the demonic horde surrounded them.
• Vulcan discovered that the Abyss's power prevented the Monks from activating their teleportation arrays, forcing them to fight their way through the frost domain.
• Three Frost Giants smashed Steel Frenzy into a rock face, leaving him badly injured as demons rushed to finish him off.
• The Crimson Scale Conquerors swept in and bombed the demons, rescuing Steel Frenzy and destroying the Frost Giants around him.
• Misha led twelve Dragon Pact Sorcerers onto the battlefield, melting the glaciers with scorching magic as the Dragonkin Paladins advanced behind them.

The Avernus coalition fought off a demon assault as players joined the battle, and Dawei Tianlong confronted a powerful Marilith. The Marilith unleashed Abyssal Corrosion that forced Dawei Tianlong to dodge, just as someone called out to help him.

• Frost Shamans and Tanar'ri Frost Giants battered the Hell Legion's defensive line while the Empire's forces and player groups held their positions against the demons.
• A player used homemade Omni-Directional Mobility Gear to kill Frost Giants, while a Marilith slaughtered several Monk players.
• Dawei Tianlong arrived and pummeled the Marilith, but she survived and transformed amid Abyssal mist.
• The Marilith attacked Dawei Tianlong with corrosive black spears and filthy rain, forcing him to dodge and expend his qi.
• Someone shouted to Dawei Tianlong that they would help him.

Born Battle Maniac transformed into a Pit Fiend and, with Dawei Tianlong’s help, killed the Marilith before suffering the form’s debilitating aftereffects. As more than a million players joined the battle in Avernus, the war grew increasingly unpredictable, while three enormous figures watched from behind the Magic Tide.

• Born Battle Maniac transformed into a Pit Fiend and fought the Marilith, whose weapons he overwhelmed with his strength.
• Dawei Tianlong joined the fight and battered the Marilith with holy-power fists, creating an opening for Born Battle Maniac.
• Born Battle Maniac killed the Marilith with a devastating axe strike, then returned to human form and faced a three-day weakened period.
• Red Blade Heavenly Venerate challenged an Abyss Dragon Beast, was struck down, and was crushed while nearby players watched.
• Players from the Embers of the Burned Empire flooded the battlefield, and their chaotic tactics disrupted the usual advantage of the Abyssal Devils.
• As the player forces in Avernus exceeded one million, three enormous figures watched them from behind the Magic Tide.

The Avernus coalition held its defensive line against the Abyss Legion until Ishinix, the Lord of Black Water, entered the battle and devastated the defenders. As the line collapsed, Bael flew out to confront the demon himself.

• The Hell Legion, players, and the Embers of the Burned Empire fought the Abyss Legion for three days while holding the line before the Bronze Fortress.
• Ishinix, a towering demon covered in black slime and countless eyes, advanced with Rotten Pioneers and slime-born monsters.
• Ishinix dissolved attacks and corroded or swallowed soldiers, causing immense casualties and driving the devils into retreat.
• Keosius offered to fight Ishinix in exchange for a share of Hell's authority and a kingdom-sized colony, but Bael rejected his price.
• Bael spread his wings, raised the Purgatory Longsword, and flew toward Ishinix to face it himself.

Bael confronted the Lord of Black Water as the Abyssal monster threatened to consume Avernus. Using Avernus’s power, Bael trapped the seemingly immortal creature in a magma formation and began banishing it from the world.

• Bael arrived on the battlefield, rallied the fleeing Devils, and challenged the Lord of Black Water, which mocked him as a crippled scapegoat.
• Bael used the Purgatory Longsword and Avernus’s authority to sever the monster’s tentacles and split the ground with fissures, while Devils fought the attacking Rotten Pioneers.
• Bael grew into a towering form by drawing on seventy percent of Avernus Authority and drove his sword into the Lord of Black Water, but the creature’s body devoured his Hell Power and proved impossible to kill.
• Bael carved fissures around the Lord of Black Water, enclosing it like an island, while Keosius recognized that Bael was preparing to banish the abomination.
• Bael formed a giant Inverted Pentagram around the monster and invoked his authority as Lord of Avernus to banish it, causing its body to blur as space folded around it.

Bael defeated the Lord of Black Water, but Mastiff, the Lord of the Hunt, attacked and nearly killed him with arrows carrying the power of death. Keosius intervened after Bael signed his contract, destroyed Mastiff’s arrows with his Fire of Order, and became Mastiff’s next intended prey.

• Bael banished the Lord of Black Water, and the devils celebrated his victory.
• Mastiff appeared and wounded Bael with an arrow imbued with the Abyss’s power of death.
• Mastiff revealed that he had been born from the corpse of the God of Gray Centaurs and continued attacking Bael until Bael begged Keosius for help.
• Keosius demanded that Bael sign a contract, and Bael agreed while Mastiff’s arrows continued to strike him.
• Keosius unleashed his Fire of Order and annihilated Mastiff’s arrows, while the players cheered his arrival.
• Mastiff became fixated on Keosius as his perfect prey, and Keosius challenged him.

Keosius and Bael defeated Mastiff, but the wounded Abyss Lord survived long enough to witness Kostchtchie’s arrival. The Frost Giant King froze Mastiff and turned his attention to Keosius, declaring that he had come to kill him.

• Mastiff fired a Dragon Slayer Arrow at Keosius, but Keosius used silver flames to destroy it and its Abyssal mist before charging in.
• Keosius crushed Mastiff in close combat, and Bael joined him by stabbing Mastiff with the Purgatory Longsword and hacking his body apart.
• Mastiff reassembled himself through his immortal essence, and Keosius warned Bael that killing an immortal Godspawn would require a price.
• Kostchtchie arrived in Avernus on an enormous Ice Mountain throne, and Keosius recognized the Frost Giant King’s true body and divine power.
• Kostchtchie rejected Mastiff’s claim to a third of Avernus and revealed that he had sent an army to seize Mastiff’s Abyssal layer.
• Kostchtchie froze Mastiff in a block of ice, then faced Keosius and declared that his time of death had come.

Keosius and Kostchtchie clashed in a battle of fire and ice that devastated the surrounding wasteland and killed many players watching nearby. After trading wounds and escalating their attacks, the two powerful foes continued their fight in the sky.

• Kostchtchie unleashed a blizzard that shattered over a thousand devil soldiers, and Keosius answered by filling the sky with dragonfire.
• The fire and ice collided, creating a vast storm that ravaged the land and killed players who had gathered to watch.
• Keosius fired his Primordial Breath at Kostchtchie, then dove past an ice wall and wounded the Frost Giant with his claws.
• Kostchtchie struck Keosius with the Heart of Winter, but Keosius countered with an Order Flame–charged tail strike that knocked him into a crater.
• Kostchtchie transformed under the power of the Abyss and attacked with ice spikes and an Ice Storm, while Keosius escaped the storm’s restraints with Eternal Freedom.

Keosius fought Kostchtchie across Avernus, using a conjured sun and Sun Breath until the Frost Giant’s divine power overwhelmed him. Keosius then revealed Father of Frost and drained Kostchtchie’s Frost Divine Power, leaving the enraged Abyss Lord increasingly consumed by chaos.

• Keosius summoned Lava Giants to distract Kostchtchie, then created a miniature sun that melted the Frost Giant’s glaciers.
• Keosius unleashed Maximized Sun Breath, but Kostchtchie countered it with Frost Divine Power, and their clash devastated the battlefield.
• Kostchtchie overpowered Keosius with his frost domain, slowing the dragon’s body and dimming his sun.
• Keosius broke free of the ice and revealed Father of Frost, the warhammer that stored Kostchtchie’s divinity.
• Keosius used Father of Frost to drain Kostchtchie’s Frost Divine Power, weakening the Frost Giant and allowing his chaotic nature to surge.

Keosius combined his authority with Bael’s to wield Avernus’s complete power and transformed into a Hell Dragon. He killed Kostchtchie, triggering the demons’ rout and sounding the signal for Avernus’s counterattack.

• Keosius escaped Kostchtchie’s Abyssal restraints, swallowed Matalotoque into his Alternate Dimension, and fought the Frost Giant with Silver Order Flame.
• Keosius persuaded Bael to lend him the Purgatory Longsword, and their combined authorities gave him control over Avernus’s power.
• Keosius transformed into a gigantic Hell Dragon as devils watched, while Bael resented the power he had surrendered.
• Kostchtchie regained some reason and attacked Keosius, but Keosius trapped him in Avernus and unleashed the Breath of Hell.
• Keosius’s Hellfire destroyed Kostchtchie’s body and soul, leaving his skeleton as the demons fled in panic.
• Keosius sounded the final horn of the counterattack across Avernus.