In the original story, the Human Citadel had also been built, but it happened much later. The Demon World's plans succeeded first, and Deathrock became exactly what it had been prepared to become: a hidden route into the human world.
Gehenna used it to move larger armies behind humanity's defenses and strike at the capital of Aethelgard, including the Kingdom Council itself.
By the time anyone understood the scale of the operation, Aethelgard was unraveling. It was up to Renan and his girlfriends to save a kingdom that was already falling apart around them.
A lot of people died during that arc.
President Alistair Bane was one of them. Dean Ordenance died too, along with several characters Renan had met and grown close to across the Academy and the wider world.
Aethelgard eventually survived, but the kingdom needed several arcs just to recover enough military strength, political stability, and confidence to start thinking about retaliation.
