The story picks up where the last novel, The Muzzle Of Nemesis, left off, and also serves as a continuation of the Seven Crimes And Punishments story. The world has been destroyed and everyone is a spirit wandering around the ground world as it has merged with the Hellish Yard. Allen Avadonia and his friends, including the still-alive Nemesis Sudou, have set out to secure a better ending for the world, the "Heavenly" ending, with the added mission of Allen trying to finally reunite with his sister Riliane. Meanwhile, other forces are at work that threaten Riliane and the rest of the cast, with the deceased Gammon Octo leading the extremist Tasan Party to capture and seemingly destroy those who had contracted with the Demons of Sin. The battle between spirits, demons, and gods begins to decide what kind of ending the world of Evillious is meant to have.
The novel concerns a large cast as several characters from other Evillious light novels make an appearance in the story, and likewise takes place over a wide range of locations from previous installments. It is meant to serve as a Finale for all of the Evillious light novels as a whole, and as is tradition for mothy it contains a lot of shocking revelations and plot twists about the story. As such, it's recommended that you read the preceding novels in the series first to prevent being spoiled for all of the series' other plot twists.
The novel's website can be found here
(note however that it’s all in Japanese), and it can be purchased on Amazon.
master of the heavenly yard provides the following tropes:
- After the End:
- The premise of the story is that the world was blown up by Nemesis previously.
- Also revealed to be the premise of Evillious as a series overall, that it's really just Earth after the first society to live on it caused their own apocalypse.
- Alas, Poor Villain: In the end, the audience and the cast learns that all Ma really wanted was to exist, and to confirm her own existence like literally everyone else in the world could. Ultimately she's denied her wish, as her process for confirming her own existence meant the world would end. It's even more bittersweet when she dies because, as she was in Nemesis' body, her death means the extinction of the (living) human race.
- All Lower Case Letters: The title itself is written this way in English.
- And the Adventure Continues: When you get right down to it, the ending of Evillious is really a new beginning for everyone involved except Ma. Irina, Gammon, Adam and Eve all relive the Third Period from the beginning, Banica travels through alternate worlds endlessly seeking the ultimate evil food and Allen and Riliane create the Fourth Period brings everyone a fresh start in a new world.
- Arc Words: "Just what in the world is evil?" In a callback to the Daughter of Evil light novel series.
- Big Bad: Irina first for a definition of "bad," since her motives this time around were to save the world, then Ma.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ma ceases to exist and Riliane is saved, but with the death of Nemesis' physical body, humanity is effectively extinct. Since Adam and Eve started their Re_Birthday too early, they, Irina and Gammon end up caught in the Court Ending, which forces them to reincarnate and relive the Third Period again and again, possibly forever. Banica and her servants use technology given to them by Seth to leave for alternate worlds, terrorizing their residents in search of the ultimate "evil food" and instigating the Graveyard Ending for themselves. Allen and Riliane begin their Re_Birthday with the help of Behemo, creating a new world in the Fourth Period that incorporates everyone else into it, giving everyone who didn't end up in the Court or Graveyard Endings a chance at life and redemption again.
- Call-Back:
- "Just what in the world is evil" references a line said often in the Story of Evil.
- Riliane transforms briefly back into Rin Miroku and calls Kayo out for murdering her in The Tailor of Enbizaka. She also transforms into Lilith Balledold aka the Postman from PN to reveal to Gallerian that Lilith was a reincarnation of her.
- The reveal about Irina being Master of the Court and birthing children calls back to her finally realizing in the Fifth Pierrot novel that she wanted a family.
- The very cover of the novel features Allen and Riliane in the same pose that they were drawn in on the cover of the Evils Kingdom Album.
- Venomania's hatred of Gallerian is a call-back to when he was murdered by Karchess, who is Gallerian's ancestor. Ironically, both Karchess and Gallerian made contracts with Adam to fulfill their goals.
- Chekhov's Gun: Nemesis complains about the inconvenience of being alive and thus susceptible to fatigue, hunger and thirst in a ruined world; Allen brings up that Seth could break her demon contract so she could die, but Nemesis doubts that he would do it. As Nemesis is falling from a great height in the climax, she allows Ma to swap into her body. Seth breaks the contract with Nemesis right before she hits the ground, killing Ma once and for all.
- Continuity Porn: mothy tries his best to explain some of the plot points in the story, but given that this is a finale for the series featuring nearly all of the (sizeable) main cast, it ends up being pretty hard to follow for people who haven't read the other novels.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Allen and Riliane more than anyone. The rest of the sin contractors to a lesser degree, though it's debatable as to whether or not Banica getting a happy ending is a good thing.
- Easter Egg: The PV for the song has a humorous one that lampshades the fact that Banica Conchita is absent from the video.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Hoo boy. So the Gods were originally avatars in the Second Period, except for Behemo, who came from the First Period (the "real" world). The First Period had created a simulation of their universe (with some more fantastical elements, like sentient masks), the Second Period. It got too advanced faster than them and somehow caused a disaster for the people of the First Period, so it was infected with the Malice program, later known as Hereditary Evil Raiser Syndrome. When chaos began in the Second Period, the restrictions on the simulation meant to stop them from rebelling against the real world or destroying themselves were lifted. As a result, Levia - Behemo’s gender-swapped counterpart from the Second Period - managed to make contact with with him, thinking it to just be an alternate universe. Because the First Period’s Earth was destroying itself and there were only a handful of people left, Behemo had a plan. He put Levia and Seth's knowledge to use, moving the avatars from the simulation to the real world. He had the newly artificially-reincarnated human race revive the Earth without even knowing it. This worked so well that even the other gods thought it was a completely different planet. The new humans Behemo had created in the Third Period, furthermore, ended up being exceptional enough that they could use magic naturally. In short, the real world created a simulation, the simulation created a real world, and the scientist did themselves in by creating the wizard. Confused yet?
- Grand Finale: For the Evillious Chronicles as a whole. And grand it is, bringing back nearly every major character in the franchise and plenty of minor ones too.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: With the exceptions of Ma and Banica, everyone in this story simply wants to save the world from ruin, they just have conflicting ways of going about it. Allen ultimately decides that this is the case overall, stating that asking "what is evil" is a foolish question as all humans at their core are selfish on some level and working toward what they believe is right.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The fates of Adam, Eve, Irina, and Gammon as part of the Court ending.
- Heel–Face Turn: With the exceptions of Gammon, Irina, Adam, Eve, and Ma, everyone in the Evillious Chronicles, regardless of prior affiliation, pretty much ends up on the same side in the end, namely allying themselves with Allen and Riliane. In fact, in the case of all of the previous exceptions but Ma, the main reason they're on opposing sides is a disagreement on which means of saving everybody would be best.
- Karma Houdini: Banica remains the only villainous character to never truly be punished or redeemed. In her case, she simply heads off to another world, where she's free to kill and terrorize the people of that world for the sake of satisfying her hunger. While she did join everyone in siding with Allen and Riliane, her personality and morality level doesn't change when she does so.
- Last of Her Kind: A lot is made of how Nemesis, due to her demon contract allowing her to survive Punishment's blast, is the last living human on earth. With her death, humanity is effectively extinct.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Michaela's leading all of the spirits of the world in singing the Clockwork Lullaby to hold off Ma, Gumillia comments that "it's like they were all born to sing".
- Mystical Pregnancy: The fact that so many of these have happened in the series (Maria's virgin birth, Arth the mud golem getting two women pregnant, Project Ma in its entirety, etc.) is discussed directly in this novel. Each child born of an impossible pregnancy is known as an "Irregular"; twin Irregulars are capable of enacting what is called a "Re_Birthday", wherein one twin destroys the world and the other rebuilds it anew.
- Ominous Cube: The Black Box looming over the merged afterlifes, which the Tasan Party hopes to use to reformat everyone. Nemesis destroys it.
- Sadistic Choice: Allen at the end is urged to kill Ma in order to stop the world from being definitively destroyed, but doing so would also kill Riliane, since Ma is possessing her.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Allen and Nemesis; besides the snarking they do, Allen has to repeatedly convince Nemesis to even help them all in the first place, given she's not exactly broken up about destroying the world.
- Take a Third Option: At the end, Riliane has been possessed by Ma and threatens the whole world, with several characters urging Allen to choose between saving her or saving the world. He chooses both.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Gammon, Gallerian, Michelle, and even Irina are causing so much trouble because they want to bring about the Court Ending, which will revive the world (albeit not the way the protagonists want it.)
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The chapter called "Prologue" (and yes, there is an in-universe reason for this) explains the outcome of the Four Endings and the people involved in them:
- Graveyard: Banica Conchita is given technology to move between alternate worlds by Seth Twiright. She uses this technology to travel across the multiverse, sampling each worlds' denizens in search of the ultimate evil food. Hansel and Gretel join her (choosing to live as Arte and Pollo permanently), as do Lich and Eater. The first world we see them in is a war-torn nation filled with abnormally massive humans.
- Court: After Adam's premature Re_Birthday, he, Eve, Gammon and Irina are caught up in a timeloop. All four are sent back in time to the beginning of the Third Period, wherein they're reborn and end up as different people. Irina becomes Maria Moonlit/Alice Merry-Go-Round and has a virgin birth, but the Senate refuses to believe that and she isn't permitted to keep her twin children. History will repeat itself with this ending many times and it's unknown when it will end, or even if it will end at all.
- Hellish or Heavenly: Riliane and Allen's Re_Birthday has created a world with both good and evil in it known as the "Fourth Period" and have made it so that the gods cannot interfere as much as before. As Behemo, Levia, Sickle and Held watch and comment upon this new world, a girl named Rin (implied to be Riliane's reincarnation) meets a boy from another school on the bus.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Allegedly this was a function of the Hellish Yard, which the world itself now has thanks to their merging. Human souls can summon up objects, their own appearances, and locations from how they remember them, with the caveat that they can't summon anything that isn't from their own time. Contractors of the demons of sin similarly can shapeshift into demonic forms because of their experiences before dying.
