Motif · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Demon Eviction

'Souls rain. Sheol overflows': too much death and hell throws its unwanted upward into any weakened shell — a zombie will do — each demon returning home only by dragging a soul down (the big ones need two, by a ranged portal that pulls your gear through you). An end-of-ninth-floor event that comes early, and earlier every floor now, part of the Ascendency's setup; vorpals are the gods' suicide-bomber deputies against demons. Porthus: 'Do not, do not, do not… teleport a shell.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 32 — Minge
• Chapter 33 — Vorpals
• Chapter 34 — Family business
• Chapter 54 — Demon Eviction
• Chapter 55 — Survival Royale
• Chapter 60 — The last rampart
• Chapter 61 — Three out of four
• Chapter 64 — Spunky Jefferson
• Chapter 67 — The Big O
• Chapter 68 — Raul's moment

Progression

'Souls rain. Sheol overflows' (ch. 54); Porthus's do-not, and a beach of freed valets (ch. 55); a prince through a serpent (ch. 58); ranged portals, two souls, explosions at the threshold (ch. 61); docile demons waiting for a train (ch. 64, ch. 65).