Chainsaw Man War

Inside Asa's apartment Yoshida looms with his blade unsheathed. Staring in dread at the arm now lying severed on the floor, Asa hears him apologize even though she cooperated, then watches him lift the katana to finish her. Across the city, Denji, Fumiko, Nayuta, and several Public Safety agents march Barem along while he recounts what the church truly did. Though it lied about which devil it served, he insists the remainder of its tale held up.

Barem reveals that Fami, through her ties across the demon realm, bound the faithful to the Fire Devil, an entity that grants any shape its host imagines. On cue a church building ignites and pours smoke, and bystanders in the watching crowd erupt with chainsaws from their skulls and limbs, slashing at the guarding police. The change sweeps the globe as countless followers become humanoid Chainsaw Devils; even those trapped inside the building stormed by Katana Man alongside the Nail Fiend twist into the same shape, driving Katana Man to roar Chainsaw Man's name. The more hosts the Fire Devil claims, Barem adds, the mightier they grow, though most surrender their minds, and he prefers this look to the grislier forms once worn by Yuko and the old man. The mutated mob slaughters the escorting agents yet spares Barem's group. He explains that at five that afternoon the church's branches in China and Canada wed and bound roughly 350,000 members to the Fire Devil, stripping their humanity entirely. A far tower's upper floor bursts apart, jolting Denji and Fumiko, as Barem promises the prophesied Great King of Terror will arrive in six months, the target he and Fami mean to slay for humanity's sake. Denji mocks the prophecy, but Nayuta backs it, naming the coming ruler as her eldest sister, the Death Devil. With hunters already clashing against the transformed throng, she grasps Fami's design: drown the world in dread of Chainsaw Man and of war so their devils outgrow and destroy the Death Devil.

Released October 18, 2023 in Volume 17, this Chainsaw Man Church arc chapter is titled Chensoman Senso. Barem's six-month countdown pins the Academy Saga to early 1999, with the prior chapters falling in late 1998, and it confirms that Denji is eighteen during the saga.