Chapter Summaries

Charles discussed the approaching devil reinforcements with the Book of Causal Paths and decided to prepare for both victory and defeat in the coming war. He began building a hidden teleportation array so he could escape with Bruce if the battle went badly.

• The Book of Causal Paths warned Charles that Purgatory’s response to Hachiwote’s invasion would bring a massive war.
• Charles considered why Hachiwote would risk staying in Avernus, and the Book explained that he was close to gaining seventh-rank power and could not easily retreat.
• The Book pointed out that Charles was also driven by greed and wanted to advance to fifth rank by fighting and collecting soul power.
• Charles decided to prepare for victory by following Hachiwote back to the Abyss and for defeat by arranging a return to the Wizard World.
• Charles told the Book of Causal Paths to weave an escape if necessary, then built an underground teleportation array to flee with Bruce.

A vast devil army assembled under a devil marquis and advanced on the demons, while Charles prepared the city’s defenses and worried about the growing danger. The devils finally surrounded the city, where Hachiwote welcomed them with a furious challenge.

• A devil marquis assessed the nearby demon forces and chose to wait for more reinforcements before attacking.
• Devil troops continued to gather for over a month as demons also converged, though most of the arriving demons were weak.
• Charles strengthened his sector’s walls and defenses while the other demons largely neglected theirs.
• The devil army, now numbering ten to twenty million, arrived around the city, where at least a hundred million demons were gathered.
• Hachiwote took to the air and roared that the devils were a gift prepared for their destruction.

The demon and devil armies fought for several days, allowing Charles and the Book of Causal Paths to gather power from the dead. Hachiwote kept his strongest demons from joining the battle, but the Book of Causal Paths sensed that the devils were about to attack.

• The demons attacked the devil formations, while the devils used organized ranks and ranged attacks to kill many before the fighting became a melee.
• Charles asked whether the demons could escape, and the Book of Causal Paths explained that the demons had four sixth-rank beings against the devils’ one, leaving them a chance to win.
• Over several days, Charles gained soul power and the Book of Causal Paths collected golden pages as the armies suffered heavy losses.
• Hachiwote used control of true names to force Greater Demons back whenever they tried to join the battle, then struck down one who urged him to attack.
• Hachiwote told his followers to hold their territory and let it become an Abyssal world before fighting more devils.
• The Book of Causal Paths warned Charles that the sea of causality was boiling and the devils might attack soon.

Charles watched the devils launch a devastating assault on the demons and continued absorbing soul coins and rule power. Hachiwote finally ordered the demons to attack, beginning a major battle between the demon leaders and the devil commanders.

• The devil marquis ordered more than a hundred fourth-rank devils to attack the demons, slaughtering them and halting their advance.
• Charles observed the massacre and absorbed growing amounts of power through Wu Duo Duo Mall while secretly purchasing complete powers of rules.
• Hachiwote ordered the demons to attack and freed the three demon lords to kill the greater devils.
• Hachiwote killed a fourth-rank devil with one blow, then began fighting the devil marquis in the sky.
• The three demon lords engaged devil counts and viscounts, who used their numbers to challenge the demon leaders.

Charles and Zarlos fought together against the devil barons, with Charles using powerful witchcraft to kill two of them. The battle continued as Zarlos held off their remaining foes, expecting Charles to reward his loyalty with the corpses.

• The devil barons outnumbered the greater demons and attacked them with coordinated teamwork, while Charles fought alongside Zarlos.
• Three devil barons surrounded Charles and Zarlos, but Charles used Zarlos’s true name to force him to hold off two attackers.
• Charles killed one devil baron with Abyssal Disintegration and a barrage of attacks, then took its devil heart core.
• Charles promised Zarlos the corpses if he kept the remaining devil barons busy, and Zarlos attacked them with renewed ferocity.
• Charles cast Abyssal Disintegration again and detonated another devil baron, while Zarlos looked forward to claiming the corpses.

Charles killed three devil barons, then hid in the ruins with Zarlos and used him to lure another into an ambush. After Charles killed the fourth baron, he made clear that only he was allowed to claim the prey.

• Charles killed a wounded devil baron and then helped Zarlos defeat the devil baron who had been fighting him.
• Charles surveyed the fierce battle and told Zarlos to lure more devil barons toward him in exchange for a devil's thigh.
• Zarlos lured a devil baron to Charles's hiding place, where Charles and Zarlos ambushed him with sorcery and Firestorm.
• When Zarlos tried to kill the weakened baron, Charles stopped him and killed the baron himself.

Charles continued hunting devil barons while the three sixth-tier demon lords betrayed Hachiwote, helping the devils overwhelm him. Hachiwote fled, but the devil marquis ordered the pursuit of both him and the traitorous demon lords.

• Charles gave Zarlos a devil baron's thigh and ordered him to lure more devil barons down.
• One sixth-tier demon lord secretly revealed Hachiwote's weakness to the devils and urged them to kill him.
• The three sixth-tier demon lords feigned weakness and let devil nobles join the assault on Hachiwote.
• The devil marquis and his forces injured Hachiwote, who fled the battlefield while cursing the traitors.
• The devil marquis ordered his forces to pursue Hachiwote and the three sixth-tier demon lords.

Charles led his legion out of the city as the demons and devils retreated, then fled toward the Abyss while the Book of Causal Paths used golden pages to help guide their escape. More than ten days later, three devil nobles pursued Zarlos, and Charles prepared to lure them into an ambush.

• After Hachiwote fled and the demon lords retreated, Charles ordered Zarlos to lead his legion out of the city.
• Zarlos led Charles's legion past the devil barons, and hundreds of clever Greater Demons joined them as they escaped.
• Charles had the Book of Causal Paths burn golden pages to help guide their retreat toward the Abyss.
• When the Abyssal aura began to vanish, Charles urged his troops to flee faster and chose safer routes over several more days.
• Three devil nobles approached to pursue Zarlos, and Charles concealed his aura while ordering Zarlos to draw them into an attack.

Charles and Zarlos ambushed three devil barons, killing two, while Charles let Bruce deliver the final blow to the third. Bruce began advancing into an Archdemon as Charles held back his own advancement until Bruce finished.

• The three devil barons attacked Zarlos, believing him to be a weak, recently advanced Archdemon, while Charles concealed his casting among the Greater Demons.
• Charles and the Greater Demons struck together, and Charles killed the first devil baron with Abyssal Explosion and the Flame Execution Sword.
• Charles revealed his flaming elemental true form and killed a second devil baron while Zarlos held off the remaining one.
• Charles beat the last devil baron nearly to death and gave Bruce the chance to kill him, dismissing Zarlos's request for the power.
• Bruce killed the devil baron and began transforming inside a demon egg as the Abyssal Will blessed him, while Charles restrained his own impending advancement.

Bruce advanced into a fourth-tier Flame Rat Demon while Charles prepared him for an important task. Meanwhile, Hachiwote’s attempt to return to the Abyss World failed, leaving him surrounded by traitorous demon lords and pursuing Devil nobles.

• Charles concealed Bruce’s demon egg in a rune-inscribed carriage while Bruce completed his advancement.
• Bruce emerged as a fourth-tier Greater Demon, and Charles gave him Devil Barons’ corpses and a heart core to strengthen him.
• Zarlos grew jealous of Bruce’s reward, struck Kaseron after he provoked him, and then quieted when Charles reprimanded him.
• Three sixth-tier Abyss lords ambushed Hachiwote, worsened his injuries, and thwarted his return to the Abyss World.
• The three traitors and a group of Devil nobles surrounded Hachiwote, while the Devil Marquis urged the Devils to kill him for the Abyss’s blessings.
• Hachiwote faced the attackers in fury and challenged them to see who would die by his hand.

Hachiwote was besieged by devils and demons until he self-destructed, killing one demon lord and grievously injuring the others before his soul fragment escaped. Charles sensed Hachiwote's death and realized the vacant Abyssal Overlord authority offered him a chance to claim immense power.

• The devils and three sixth-rank demon lords battered Hachiwote until he was severely wounded and weakened.
• Hachiwote ignited his laws, authority, and soul, self-destructing and sending a fragment of his soul through the torn void.
• The explosion killed one demon lord and several devil viscounts, while the surviving demon lords and devil nobles suffered grievous injuries.
• The two surviving demon lords fled to pursue the vacant Abyssal Overlord authority, and the devils withdrew to recuperate.
• Charles sensed Hachiwote's death and considered seizing the power vacuum to become the Abyssal Overlord.

Charles returned to Millstone Fortress after a costly campaign and decided to advance to a fifth-rank Demon Lord rather than pursue the greater but more dangerous opportunity of becoming an Abyss Great Lord. After securing the fortress and placing Bruce in charge of his defenses, Charles began drawing on the Abyss’s favor to break through.

• The Book of Causal Paths warned Charles that becoming an Abyss Great Lord would put him in the path of stronger lords and invading devils, so he set his sights on becoming a fifth-rank minor lord instead.
• Charles led his surviving army back to Millstone Fortress, where he found resources replenished and at least thirty thousand Lesser Demon-level Flame Ratmen in his ranks.
• Charles weighed advancing before the wizard did and decided that becoming a fifth-rank Demon Lord would help him defend his territory from the devils.
• Charles reinforced his core tower, strengthened Bruce, gave him Zarlos’s true name, and ordered him to guard the fortress while Charles cultivated.
• Bruce used Zarlos’s true name to force his surrender, and Charles then sank into the magma and began his breakthrough with the Abyss’s favor and the power of the Sea of Rules.

Charles absorbed laws and immense power to advance from Greater Demon to fifth-tier demon lord while keeping control of his Balor form. After overcoming the threshold, he celebrated his successful breakthrough above Millstone Fortress.

• Charles abandoned the attempt to become a fifth-ring wizard and focused on strengthening his body and advancing his demon rank.
• Zarlos considered interrupting Charles's breakthrough, but Bruce and Charles's guards kept watch around the central tower, and Zarlos backed down when Bruce confronted him.
• Charles absorbed the lava's magical power, swallowed two Baron heart cores, and used discounted purchases from Wu Duo Duo Mall to acquire more complete laws.
• Charles's body grew to nineteen meters as he controlled his transformation and retained his Balor form.
• Charles crossed the threshold to become a fifth-tier demon lord, causing the sky to churn and dozens of nearby volcanoes to erupt.

Charles became a fifth-tier Demon Lord and revealed his new power to the demons, who knelt before him. Mark brought Charles a Celestial soul as a gift, and Charles asked what Mark wanted in return.

• Charles emerged from the core tower as a fifth-tier Demon Lord and ordered his followers to kneel.
• The demons bowed under Charles's overwhelming pressure, while Mark admired Charles and decided to stay with his legion.
• Mark searched his warehouse and chose a preserved third-tier Celestial soul as a gift for Charles.
• Mark presented the Celestial soul to Charles and described how it could be consumed, corrupted, or transformed.
• Charles accepted the gift and asked Mark what he wanted in return.

Charles appointed Mark as his trusted merchant and ordered him to reopen cross-planar trade routes and investigate Saru’s caravan. He then began transforming a Subspace Godkin’s soul into a demon, leaving the conversion underway.

• Mark offered to serve Charles as a merchant, and Charles accepted after Mark surrendered his true name.
• Mark proposed using his connections to restart cross-planar trade under Charles’s protection and warned that Saru’s caravan was vulnerable.
• Charles ordered Mark to open the trade routes and investigate Saru and his master’s caravan for a chance to attack.
• Charles began channeling Abyssal rule power into the Celestial soul, which cried out as it transformed into a demon’s soul.

Charles created a loyal Balor named Christo and ordered him to serve Bruce, then began cultivating in the lava to strengthen his elemental form and study rules. Meanwhile, Bruce expanded Millstone Fortress through demon roundups, sparking conflicts with local demons as Purgatory’s devils infiltrated the Abyss.

• Charles formed a powerful body for the Balor soul, placed the soul inside it, and named the newly awakened Balor Christo.
• Charles ordered Christo to follow Bruce and obey his instructions, then sent them away.
• Charles entered the lava and began strengthening his elemental true form, analyzing complete rules, and studying Devil Baron heart cores.
• Bruce organized demon slave laborers and sent Greater Demons to capture demons across the surrounding region for Millstone Fortress’s expansion.
• Charles’s forces occupied settlements belonging to other powerful demons and Demon Lords, leading to fierce clashes.
• Greater Devils infiltrated the Abyss while Purgatory’s rulers waited for the Abyssal world to produce a new Abyssal Overlord.

Charles assessed how the devils’ invasion and the demons’ injuries created a safe window for his territory to grow, while considering whether to use captured devil heart cores to cultivate more Greater Demons. He left the chapter weighing a plan to strengthen his trusted Flame Ratmen and profit from attacks on devil settlements.

• Devils advanced through the Abyss while injured Demon Lords and Greater Demons ignored the encroachment and focused on recovery and power.
• The Book of Causal Paths told Charles that the devils’ rule-inflicted injuries would likely keep them from fully recovering for at least a hundred years.
• Charles agreed that his territory had time to develop and noted that Mark had invested as an exclusive merchant because he expected a long period of safety.
• Charles considered using Devil Baron heart cores to help create Greater Demons capable of attacking devil pioneer settlements.
• Charles decided that Flame Ratmen were more trustworthy than other demons because they were his dependents and were less likely to betray him.

Charles prepared a cross-planar portal between the Abyss and Isata, hoping to transport resources and secure an escape route while considering building a wizard tower. With Scorchflame assembling a receiving array in Isata, Charles completed the portal at Millstone Fortress.

• Charles asked the Book of Causal Paths whether he was strong enough to conduct cross-planar trade, and it confirmed that he was while warning that devils might intervene to maintain balance.
• Charles ordered Mark to buy spatial materials so he could build a portal to Isata and considered using a wizard tower to challenge powerful demons and devils.
• Scorchflame began constructing a receiving rune array in Isata, using Abyssal runes and demons as materials.
• Charles and Scorchflame compared data through their soul connection and aligned the planar coordinates on both sides.
• Charles completed the cross-planar portal in the core tower of Millstone Fortress.

Anderson struggled with poverty and the demands of his new life as a Fourth Circle Wizard Sage in Isata. After Fifth Circle Wizard Noah assigned him to oversee repairs to Isata’s upper-level arrays, an Abyss Gate suddenly appeared.

• Anderson lectured Second and Third Circle Wizards, then returned to his tower to work and cultivate despite his severe financial strain.
• Anderson admired Sage Webster’s wizard tower and envied the resources it provided for cultivation.
• Fifth Circle Wizard Noah ordered Anderson to oversee the rebuilding of Isata’s upper-level rune arrays, and Anderson reluctantly prepared to accept.
• Noah suddenly stood and looked toward a place within Isata, exclaiming that an Abyss Gate had appeared.

Noah and the other Wizard Sages discovered an Abyss Gate forming inside Charles's tower, despite receiving no warning from the will of the plane. Scorchflame's unusual soul aura led Anderson to suspect that Charles had become a fourth-rank Greater Demon.

• Noah realized the Abyss Gate had opened without warning and feared the damage a demon lord's forces could inflict on Isata.
• Noah, Anderson, Webster, and the other Wizard Sages rushed to the gate's location and found it forming inside Charles's tower.
• Anderson explained that Charles was his three-ring wizard student, who had Balor bloodline and had been developing in the Abyss World.
• Anderson contacted Scorchflame, who opened the tower's defenses and welcomed him before noticing the other Wizard Sages.
• Noah and Webster were astonished by Scorchflame's near-fourth-rank soul aura, and Anderson wondered if Charles had advanced into a fourth-rank Greater Demon.