Returning to Disgardium after the flight, Scyth falls into an ambush by Eileen and Mogwai. He almost manages to escape, but the dark elf girl summons her protector, the dark god Innoruuk, who neutralizes Scyth. Mogwai kills him, but is prevented from dealing the final strike of the banishment ritual by Eileen, who wants to do it herself. This hiccup saves Scyth, who, thanks to Second Life, revives on Kharinza.
The followers of the Sleepers seethe after Scyth gives up Tiamat’s temple without a fight, but Behemoth tells them that his Initial made the right decision and saved many lives in so doing.
The Sleeping God then gives Scyth a new quest — to destroy the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague. To do this, he must get Concentrated Life Essence, which can be obtained only by becoming champion of the Demonic Games and dedicating another two temples to the Sleepers. With the power of three temples, Scyth will be able to destroy the Nucleus.
Until the Games, the life essence is kept in the elvish capital, in the palace of King Eynyon, and it reaches full strength only when the names of all the contestants become known. With its help, a sentient can give a significant boost to certain character stats, but the nature of the essence is such that it loses its properties if obtained dishonestly.
But how is Alex to reach the lair of the Nucleus? After all, the weather debuff on Holdest is deadly to anyone without cold resistance. Scyth performs a range of experiments, but they all fail: Second Life doesn’t lift the frost debuff after revival; Jenkins, a Grand Master of Cooking who Scyth contacts for help, is unable to invent a new dish to protect against the weather; and even the giant haulers, who Scyth hires to try to fool the system using Sleeping Invulnerability in a raid group, turn out useless, because the Path of Sacrifice of Resilience transfers all the frost damage to Scyth, protecting the giants. Behemoth recommends that Scyth ask Fortune for help. In ancient times, the Goddess of Luck was friendly with Hodr, the Old God of Winter.
An elite crew of dwarven builders sent by Kusalarix arrives on Kharinza. They are there to erect a top-tier castle for the Awoken, but in order to protect their trade secrets, they need everyone to leave the island first.
The clan moves to the neighboring isle of Mengoza, where Scyth once spent time grinding in the Nether. There, Infect finds some Ruins of the Departed and begins an excavation.
Suspecting that someone in the top clans might have Concentrated Life Essence, Scyth comes up with a plan to attack the castles of the Alliance of Preventers. He invites the Yoruba and Taipan clans to participate in the looting. Yemi gladly agrees, but the Taipan leader Pecheneg, also known as Sergei Polotsky, who Alex met at Distival in Dubai, counsels against haste. He asks Scyth to visit him in castle, and sooner rather than later.
There, the secret of Otto Hinterleaf, leader of Modus, is revealed. As it turns out, the real Otto is the leader of Taipan, while Sergei Polotsky rules Modus under the guise of Hinterleaf. This happened because Otto tried to betray the Russian oligarch Polotsky, who (back when this was still possible) took from Otto not only the clan, but even his character.
Having opened up to Scyth, both ask for his help. Mogwai, after losing all his money for changing his in-game faction, is blackmailing the Alliance, threatening to take their castles. The Awoken, Taipan and Modus, joined by the Travelers and their leader Horvac, enter into an alliance against the undead. As a gesture of good will, Hinterleaf gives Scyth Heat Resistance Potions recently developed by Modus alchemists for the Lakharian Desert.
Scyth learns from Hinterleaf that Concentrated Life Essence cannot be found anywhere. All the essences obtained in the previous Demonic Games have been used.
Behemoth demands that the Plague Vector in the instance on Kharinza be cleansed. Trixie the gardener tags along with the group of Awoken officers. The clan kills Uros the lich and gets the Surprise perk for the First Kill.
In the meantime, Modus builds a cell that blocks abilities in the basement of their castle. Scyth takes Mogwai there, and then, taking on his form, detonates Plague Fury scrolls to showcase the horrifying power of the Destroying Plague to the people of the Commonwealth and the Empire, and most importantly, to King Bastian the First and Emperor Kragosh. In so doing, he collects enough Spheres of Serendipity to complete his quest from the Goddess of Luck.
Fortune names Scyth her chosen one and rewards him with the status of Fortune’s Favorite and the divine ability Wheel of Fortune, which judges the deeds of the target sentient, and, depending on the verdict, either lowers or increases their level by a random number.
Remembering Behemoth’s words, Scyth asks how to overcome the frost of Holdest. Fortune remembers that the higher demons of the Inferno possess Coals of Hellflame, which are capable of melting the snows on Holdest.
Scyth decides to somehow reach the Inferno. Flaygray the satyr and Nega the succubus are from there, so Alex speaks to them. They try to convince him to change his mind, but he insists, and then the former guards suggest they find someone who has sold his soul to demons, kill him and journey to hell in his place. The guardians disguise themselves as humans and set off in search of such a sentient.
Wanting to help Scyth, the Goblin League creates a range of traps for the legates of the Destroying Plague inside mountains, in naturally enclosed caverns in the rock. Scyth, Bomber and Crawler make portal routes to them.
With Scyth as mediator, Irita (Rita Wood, who previously played with the nickname Overweight), takes over the Awoken’s trading operations and meets auctioneer Grokuszuid.
Kusalarix gives Scyth a
