The Earth has been stagnating for a thousand years after the apocalypse failed to happen, and even the forces of Hell are losing their passion. Draco is a self-trained mage good for little else than starting fires and staying alive. After fending off an attack by the predatory demon Lascivus, he extracts from her a single debt, which he demands she repays by helping him track down his mother, a psychotic, abusive mage, so he can kill her. While he succeeds, it comes at a cost, and it is only thanks to the intervention of Lascivus that he avoids spending eternity trapped in a strange, featureless plane. He and the living-sword Drakkengard find themselves embroiled deeper and deeper in the Devil's machinations. Gods, ambitious madmen, and beings from other worlds are all vying to take advantage of an unfulfilled prophecy and to end the millennia of stagnation at any cost.