It's a story all about the plights of demons. Prepare to have Sympathy for the Devil.
Unmarked spoilers ahead
- The War in Heaven ended with Lucifer being defeated and cast out of the realm alongside his rebels by Michael and the Archangels. The Heavenly Choir feels no joy or victory in that moment, just Tears of Remorse for all of the pain and suffering the war wrought, as well as just the pain of having to bring down their former comrades.
- The last time the Princes of Hell met, as detailed in the fourth chapter, resulted in a falling out between them all. None of them can find a solution to their predicament, Mammon is futilely trying to get them to work together, and Belphegor suggests that all they can do is head to their respective circles and do nothing. The Princes comply, bitterly going their separate ways, leaving Mammon in the dust.
- Lucifer is completely silent throughout the whole argument, implying that he doesn't want to have to deal with his fellow Archdemons' petty squabbles, or he's simply given up on his former friends.
- Everything about Matilda and her husband. From the moment we learn about her affair with a mortal, it's clear that she housed a lot of love for him, particularly her Freudian Slip in calling him her husband. But over time, we learn that she and him were practically made for each other, warts and all, until he died. Matilda was forced to choose between them staying together in Limbo or him going to Heaven while she stayed in Hell. Her reward for choosing the latter is being demoted for her actions and never seeing her husband again. Ouch.
- Even when they're reunited in Heaven, Matilda cannot comprehend the idea that he would want anything to do with her after spending so much time in the wonderful land above with how out of place she is there. He doesn't care thankfully.
- While the chapter detailing the time Beelzebub possessed a girl and broke an exorcist is mostly horrifying, it has a rather sobering moment in which the Archdemon details why he and his kind hate humanity so much: they're jealous. Jealous that, in spite of being God's first creations, they were somehow given less of a chance to redeem themselves than the puny, fallible mortals below them in terms of power. And yet, despite all of the times people do bad things, THEY get to go to Heaven while the demons are stuck in Hell forever. It makes even the exorcist start to reconsider his opinions on Beelzebub's kind for a bit.Beelzebub: Why does the charlatan forgive you and not us? Why do you get a choice when we didn't? What makes you so damn special?!
- This point is referred to again in the chapter with Matilda and how she met her husband. When the man realizes that he's being bribed by a succubus, he keeps pushing the question as to what demons do in Hell all day. Matilda snaps that they watch the mortals and agonize over exactly how humans can be such awful creatures and yet still have God's grace. Her outburst is arguably worse than Beelzebub's due to how pumped full of venom it is.
Matilda: We watch to see why! We watch in hopes of understanding why you were given preference above us, why you were given the world and free will, and why you have the favor! We watch in stunned amazement at what horrors you are while our brains scream themselves stupid in an attempt to figure out why, of all things, YOU were chosen for salvation! So congratulations, you smug fucking enigma! Congratulations on being born the chosen race!- In that same chapter, when the man asks her if she knows love, she says with bitter sarcasm that she does, and how it shines down on them while burning them with the feeling of longing for what they can't have.
- Poor Samael and Lilith. The former was a high-ranking demon of Envy who was in a secret relationship with the princess of Hell, a love that was very much reciprocated. But as with any story of Star-Crossed Lovers, Lucifer and his court didn't approve. And once the demon lord became aware of the situation, he immediately assumed Samael just wanted the throne, and had him castrated and forced to break off the relationship. Gee, some dad you are.
- Lilith, for her part, feels like a prisoner in Cocytus, and gets into frequent fights with her dad and her caretaker, Paimon. Making matters worse is that Paimon refuses to tell her who her actual mother is, straining their relationship.
- And THAT above detail is all the more terrible considering that Paimon IS her mother, and Lilith always kind of knew. The question was less "who is my mother" and more "why won't you just admit you're my mother", and Paimon couldn't even do that, as much as she'd like to.
- Pandaemonium, Mammon's city and the supposed proof that something decent could be made in Hell, is both invaded by the Intruders and then smashed into falling pieces of debris by Sheol collapsing on top of it. Mammon has no time at all to save his empire or his riches as he's taken with everything by the destruction of his tower with him in it. When he recovers, he can only react in tearful sorrow at his riches sinking into Scathatch and how all of his ambition amounted to nothing.
- It's surprisingly understated, but Pug realizes while in Limbo that all of the humans in the mortal realm are gone, thus rendering his initial quest to become a tempter completely pointless.
- Lucifer helplessly watching his daughter and mate get swallowed by Intruders. It causes him to zoom over the Despair Event Horizon before Asmodeus and Beelzebub rush to his aid.
- While stuck in the main Intruder, Sheol tells Mammon that he's very much aware of how everyone sees him as a joke, and yells at him how he did nothing to really improve things except fuel his own greed. Both he and Sheol then sadly agree that their priorities were misplaced.
- Beelzebub reveals to Asmodeus that he literally cannot taste anything because he has to spit acidic vomit on whatever he eats. He goes further by telling how he ruined everyone else's meals in Gluttony out of spite before possessing mortals to get the sensation. It worked for a time, but then it just reminded him of the food he used to have in Heaven, rendering that pointless.
- Asmodeus, for his part, reveals to his friend that his massive codpiece is in fact Compensating for Something. Namely, how his nether regions have shrunk to near-nonexistence. He tried tons of drugs and fetishes to get it up, but nothing worked. And now he indulges in debauchery just to forget.
- Lucifer, alone and beaten within the main Intruder, finally admits that he was a terrible leader who only has himself to blame for the disastrous fate of Hell. It gets so bad that he outright admits that he regrets ever rebelling against God, acknowledging that he was wrong to assume He was the cause of all his problems and begging Him to spare everyone else. Thankfully, it's this repentance that gives him power again.
- The epilogue takes place immediately after the War in Heaven, with the angelic choir weeping for having to strike down their former friends. Each and every angel states why they cry, and Michael and Gabriel take it the hardest. God is quick to reassure them that it's not the end for the fallen, and as the last chapter demonstrated, He was right.
