Chapter Summaries

After Charles defeated the coalition threatening the Verdant Crystal Domain, he settled the captured nobles and led his army to occupy the rebellious province. His victory quieted half-elf resistance for now, though the occupation remained fragile.

• Elendil awoke in the castle after the battle and learned from Charles that their side had won.
• Charles received Yvenjieling's report of the prisoners, supplies, and casualties, then ordered burials, a three-day rest, and the conquest of the three counties.
• Charles selected cooperative prisoners, held the rest, and led his infantry to reclaim the Verdant Crystal Domain and advance into neighboring territories.
• Charles's forces seized half-elf settlements, captured nobles, transported resources to Greenshade City, and canceled debts by taking creditors' castles.
• Charles's victory discouraged a wider half-elf revolt, and within a few months his army occupied the rebellious province, though its control remained insecure.

After conquering Mil Province, Charles returned to Isata and learned that Anderson’s path to becoming a fourth-circle wizard remained stalled. Inspired by Anderson’s account of advancing through the Abyss, Charles began planning a visit there and considered building a business, though past records warned that the Abyss could claim him.

• Charles secured Mil Province, absorbed captured human soldiers into his army, confiscated rebellious half-elf nobles’ estates, and ignored demands from Elegy City to withdraw.
• Charles returned to Greenshade City, rewarded his troops and wizard students, then went back to Isata.
• Charles learned from Lady Boxi that Anderson had not completed the procedures to advance to the fourth circle.
• Anderson told Charles that gaining the Abyss’s favor could lead to advancement, but warned that slaughter and demonic bloodline influence made the path dangerous.
• Charles asked the Book of Causal Paths about developing in the Abyss, and it suggested that Scorchflame could summon him back through a blood sacrifice.
• Charles researched the Abyss and found that a previous wizard had become a fourth-circle Sage through it but had ultimately died there.

Charles returned to the Abyss as a Greater Balor and learned that a Wolf Serpent Demon had killed the Balor who once ruled the nearby settlement. He decided to claim the territory and avenge his former trading partner, then found the new lord, Greater Wolf Serpent Demon Valak, in its lair.

• Charles summoned Delis, descended into the Abyss, and revealed that he had transformed into a Balor.
• Charles spent several days with Delis, who told him that a Wolf Serpent Demon had killed the settlement's former Balor lord.
• Charles decided to take the settlement and kill the Wolf Serpent Demon in revenge for his good brother.
• Charles disguised himself as a mid-rank Minotaur Demon and entered the damaged settlement to assess its defenses.
• Charles approached the Wolf Serpent Demon's stone cavern and identified its owner as Greater Wolf Serpent Demon Valak.

Disguised as a Minotaur Demon, Charles visited Mark’s shop to buy materials and learn how Valak killed the former leader, Balor. After preparing a trap and a sound-concealing sorcery array, Charles waited as Valak’s next meal arrived at its lair.

• Charles disguised himself as a Minotaur Demon, entered Mark’s reopened shop, and ordered materials for dealing with Valak.
• Mark told Charles that Valak had poisoned and ambushed Balor, whose Body-Burning Explosion destroyed Mark’s former shop and killed his employees.
• Charles learned that no powerful demon was likely to intervene on Balor’s behalf, then left with the materials.
• Charles refined the materials into a trap and a sorcery array that would conceal the sounds of battle, then waited.
• Valak rested in its venom-filled grotto, considered changing the settlement, and rose when it heard its meal arriving.

Charles ambushed the Wolf Serpent Demon with a hidden witchcraft bomb and fought him in Balor form. After overcoming the demon’s summons, venom, and attacks, Charles split him in two.

• The Wolf Serpent Demon killed two Fireburn Demons, then was caught in an explosion hidden inside the Flame Demon they had brought him.
• Charles approached in Balor form, and the Wolf Serpent Demon recognized him and called for his guards.
• Charles drove off the settlement’s Flame Demons and Fireburn Demons as Mark hurried to evacuate his shop and goods.
• Charles fought the wounded Wolf Serpent Demon, killed his three summoned Abyss Wolves, and countered his venom with Abyssal fire.
• Charles bound the Wolf Serpent Demon with his Flame Whip and cut him in two with the Execution Sword.

After killing the Wolf Serpent Demon, Charles took control of the settlement and began building a castle with captured imps. The foundations were laid at the cost of thousands of imp lives, and Charles ordered Kaseron to capture even more.

• Charles killed the Wolf Serpent Demon, claimed its valuable materials, and announced that he was the settlement’s new leader.
• The Fireburn Demons and Flame Demons submitted to Charles, who appointed Kaseron sheriff and put him in charge of the settlement.
• Charles searched the Wolf Serpent Demon’s lair, found fewer valuable resources than he had hoped, and destroyed the cave.
• Charles ordered Kaseron to capture imps for a new castle, and the settlement’s demons forced them into construction work.
• Charles watched as thousands of imps were worked to death and told Kaseron to keep capturing more.

Charles recruited Old Mark to help sell demon bloodline potions across planes, promising a vast and reliable supply. Mark began considering prices for potions ranging from apprentice demons to Greater Demons.

• Charles gathered demons, extracted their bloodlines into potions, and released flame radiation that heated the settlement.
• Old Mark complained about the heat until Charles arrived at his shop, where Mark nervously offered him a discount.
• Charles showed Mark bloodline potions and asked whether he could transport them from the Abyss to other planes.
• Mark doubted the low-grade potions would cover transport costs, so Charles pointed out the settlement’s large demon population as a source of supply.
• Charles told Mark he could provide even Balor and Greater Demon bloodlines, and asked him to plan prices for the different grades of potions.

Charles recruited Intermediate Demons by promising food and advancement, then forcibly conscripted them through fear and violence. He took several hundred demons to his castle, where some became hunters and others were processed into bloodline potions and food.

• Charles abandoned the Imp-level potion business and decided to recruit Intermediate Demons in the Abyss to supply bloodline potions.
• Charles lured demons with fresh flesh and soul fragments, then had his Fireburn Demons and Flame Demons surround them.
• Charles killed demons who resisted, displayed his Greater Balor power and Fear Radiance, and forced the crowd to kneel and swear loyalty.
• Charles took several hundred demons back to his castle, where some joined his hunts while others were drained for potions or served as food.

Charles brought Bruce from the Osela Plane to the Abyss, appointed him commander of his growing demon army, and helped him strengthen his Minotaur Demon bloodline. Bruce crushed challengers and led raids to capture demons, while Charles began secretly harvesting Fireburn Demons and Flame Demons to prepare Bruce for fire-based advancement.

• Charles summoned Bruce from the Osela Plane to the Abyss and promised to help him advance to a Greater Demon.
• Charles appointed Bruce commander of his demon forces, and Bruce killed challengers until the others began obeying him.
• Bruce led more than a hundred Intermediate Demons on raids, killing some demons and capturing the survivors.
• Charles fed Bruce demon souls to strengthen his Minotaur Demon bloodline and planned a fire-based path for his future advancement.
• Fireburn Demons and Flame Demons began disappearing from Charles's territory and turning up in his laboratory or Bruce's belly.

Charles and Bruce bred rats in the Abyss to create obedient Ratmen who could serve as a reliable army. Their descendants rapidly gained strength and intelligence, and Charles sent some grown Ratmen to establish a camp outside the city.

• Charles and Bruce tracked how rats mutated after eating demon flesh, and Charles ordered Bruce to breed them and produce descendants with his bloodline.
• The first offspring inherited Bruce's appearance and could briefly stand upright, reminding Charles and Bruce of their early days together.
• Charles explained that he wanted to create a loyal force of Ratmen because ordinary demons often disobeyed orders, unlike the special retainers of demon lords such as Yeenoghu.
• Charles studied the Ratmen's growth, refined their diets, and fed some soul fragments while Bruce bred more of them and managed the slave-catching group.
• The Ratmen rapidly grew to rival imps in strength and intelligence, obeyed Charles and Bruce, and some adults established a camp outside the city.

Charles used Imp Nutrient Packs and newly developed spells to rapidly expand and improve the Ratmen population. After a little over a year, the Ratmen had grown into a large army and workforce serving his rule.

• Charles trained a three-hundred-strong Ratman army, equipped it with armor and weapons, and assigned it to the slave-catching corps to capture imps.
• Charles developed spells to turn embryos in pregnant rats into Ratmen, though only two or three offspring per litter survived the process as Ratmen.
• Bruce grew haggard from breeding efforts and arranged for Ratman assistants to artificially inseminate female Ratmen, producing offspring with greater talent.
• Charles assigned Ratmen to military and construction work as their numbers grew, while Bruce purified the bloodlines of Ratmen born through sorcery.
• In just over a year, the Ratmen population reached ten to twenty thousand, including a trained five-thousand-strong army and over ten thousand construction workers.

Charles strengthened his Abyss settlement and defended his position as its leader while developing his forces and cultivating Bruce. Bruce finally broke through and became a Greater Demon.

• Charles killed a Greater Six-Armed Serpent Demon challenger and returned to his castle with the corpse.
• Charles maintained his compact, fortified castle, guarded by elite Ratmen alongside loyal Flame Demons and Fireburn Demons.
• Charles extracted the challenger’s bloodline essence and separated its materials.
• Charles cultivated Bruce with Fireburn Demon bloodline, heart cores, potions, and Balor flame radiation.
• Bruce erupted in flame and transformed as he advanced into a Greater Demon.

Charles began modifying Ratmen with Flame Demon bloodline serums to create stronger warriors, and his experiments produced a new force of Flame Ratmen. The initial batch suffered many deaths, but improved techniques raised the success rate as the experiments continued.

• Bruce emerged as a Flame Minotaur Demon, and Charles decided to give the Ratmen flame powers through bloodline modification.
• Bruce recruited one hundred volunteer Ratman warriors, whose eagerness to serve Charles sparked a deadly fight over the places.
• Charles began experimenting on the Ratmen with Flame Demon serums, runes, and bodily modifications.
• The first modified Ratman survived bloodline rejection, but many early subjects died or mutated during subsequent experiments.
• Charles refined his technique, and more than a hundred Ratmen completed modification, with at least half surviving as Flame Ratmen.

Charles learned that a Ratman had advanced into a Lesser Flame Ratman through battle and devouring alone, without bloodline modification. He promoted the Ratman and ordered more of his kind into combat, promising rewards for military accomplishments.

• Ratman cavalry from Charles’s Slave-Catching Corps captured a Mezzoloth family, and one Ratman swallowed a slain Mezzoloth’s heart core.
• The Ratman advanced into a Lesser Flame Ratman through battle and devouring, and his comrades hailed him as a hero.
• Charles personally examined the Flame Ratman, recorded his data, and concluded that Abyssal recognition and flame radiation helped Ratmen advance.
• Charles promoted the Flame Ratman from centurion to commander of a thousand and approved sending more Ratmen into battle.
• Charles ordered that only elite Ratmen with military merit could breed and promised medals, promotions, and personal-guard positions for battlefield kills.

Charles oversaw the Ratmen’s growing strength and studied their bloodlines while considering how to become a fourth-circle wizard. He weighed seeking recognition in Isata against earning the Abyss’s favor through mass killing, with neither path yet secured.

• The Ratmen eagerly joined the army and hunted for slaves to fight, using the Knight Breathing Technique alongside bloodline improvement to grow stronger.
• The Ratmen population initially fell from battle casualties, but rapid reproduction kept it sizable as specialized Giant Rats and other Ratman types grew more powerful.
• Ratman reproduction developed four stages, and Bruce’s pairings with Flame Ratmen produced the most talented offspring, though they were not yet Lesser Demons at birth.
• Charles expanded his bloodline research and earned substantial income from selling bloodline potions while continuing his cultivation.
• Charles considered whether he could become a fourth-circle wizard in the Abyss, where advancement required winning the Abyss’s favor through mass killing, or in Isata, where he needed the Wizard Throne’s recognition.

Charles returned to Isata after Scorchflame summoned him and learned that his teacher, Anderson, had advanced to fourth-circle wizard status. With Anderson now a Wizard Sage, Charles expected his standing in Isata to improve.

• Charles arranged for Bruce to oversee his territory, gathered valuable demon materials, and answered Scorchflame's summoning ritual to return to Isata.
• Scorchflame told Charles that Anderson had sent a crow messenger announcing his advancement to fourth-circle wizard.
• Charles celebrated the news, recognizing that Anderson's new status could raise his own standing in Isata.
• Charles walked through the tower with Scorchflame, commented on one of Scorchflame's fat offspring, and saw how the snakes had become a major part of his forces.

Charles prepared lavish gifts for Anderson after his promotion to Wizard Sage and visited his tower, where a huge crowd had gathered. He entered without difficulty and presented ten Greater Demon heart cores, leaving the wizards outside amazed at the gift’s value.

• Charles added demon resources to Scorchflame’s gifts, deciding that Anderson’s new status as a Wizard Sage called for a substantial present.
• Charles flew over the crowded queue outside Anderson’s tower, while the waiting wizards expected Anderson’s soul companion to knock him down.
• A guard welcomed Charles as Anderson’s student, and Charles estimated the value of the gifts already registered at the tower.
• Charles added another portion to his present and gave the guard a Demon-Sealing Box containing ten Greater Demon heart cores.
• The guard announced Charles’s gift, and a messenger crow rebuked the crowd for questioning it as the wizards marveled at its value.

After Anderson became a Wizard Sage, Charles helped him receive visitors and met other powerful wizards. Anderson began introducing Charles to Isata’s contacts, and Charles’s service under Sage Webster ended as he shifted to following his teacher.

• Anderson summoned Charles and told a visiting Grand Wizard that Charles was his student, then described the long process of securing approval to advance.
• Anderson asked Charles to stay and help receive visitors, promising to introduce him and his senior brother Aiden to influential contacts.
• Charles spent over half a month receiving wizards who brought Anderson valuable gifts, while he became acquainted with several Wizard Sages.
• Sage Webster visited, urged Charles to study diligently under Anderson, and ended Charles’s time following him.

Anderson discussed the obligations he accepted after becoming a Wizard Sage and rewarded Charles and Aiden with support for their cultivation and planes. He revealed that he had traded away the ocean plane’s fourth-tier cores, prompting Charles to wonder whether he could obtain the Moonshadow Queen’s core from the Giant King.

• Anderson told Charles and Aiden that he had agreed to serve Isata for centuries and would help answer their cultivation questions.
• Anderson cautioned Charles about the dangers of the Abyss and promised Aiden a share of the ocean plane and a subordinate plane to manage.
• Anderson asked Charles to take back his five million Magic Stones, but Charles refused to reclaim the gift.
• Anderson told Charles that he could no longer reserve the ocean plane’s fourth-tier creatures for him because he had traded their cores for Wizard Sage votes.
• Anderson explained that Wizard Sages could use fourth-tier cores to improve their strength, and Charles wondered if he could claim the Moonshadow Queen’s core after defeating the Giant King.

After strengthening the portal to the Osela Plane and handling Elf Kingdom affairs, Charles returned to his Abyss territory to pursue growth and profit. He learned of a nearby volcanic eruption and began preparing to investigate it while resuming bloodline potion production.

• Charles upgraded the cross-planar portal, settled administrative matters on the Osela Plane, and descended into the Abyss through Isata.
• Charles summoned Bruce, Delis, and Kaseron, learned that a volcanic range had erupted nearby, and ordered Kaseron to send Flame Demons to scout it.
• Charles promised to support Kaseron's advancement if the expedition gathered enough resources, and told Bruce to raise more Flame Ratmen for a unit to join him.
• Charles resumed producing bloodline potions with his assistants, using the demons held in the storeroom as subjects.