Final issue. Following last issue's climactic confrontation among Tim, the Other and Barbatos, we jump 30 years into the future to see the consequences of Tim Hunter's actions. By selling one of his memories to the demon Barbatos, Tim lost his own soul, but now Barbatos finds himself possessed, as Tim fights back with a secret plan of his own. This issue wraps up all the plotlines from the first volume of THE BOOKS OF MAGIC, setting the stage for the next chapter in Tim's life, his fantastic quest to become the greatest mage on earth. Tim returns later this year in a miniseries that finds Tim with new allies and enemies as he pursues his destiny, setting the stage for a whole new direction in a new regular series.
Some workers in the Dreaming find Barbatos (the one from the future), still locked in the giant armored hand 40 years from now. They free him and send him to Hell.
Barbatos demands entrance, based on his previous role as an archduke, and is let in. He finds that Hauptman has taken his place, and that he is considered a joke. He is kicked out, and randomly helps another demon. This kindness is considered heretical, and he is caught and examined. They believe he is possessed by a human soul, and needs to go to heaven. Before they can take him, he remembers his time-travel hourglass, and goes back to the time when Tim beat the Opener.
Tim can now talk to Barbatos. Barbatos plans to stop his original self from taking Tim's memory, which is how he got possessed. Tim explains that when he gave Barbatos his memory, he secretly gave him his soul as well. The whole time that Barbatos was manipulating Sir Timothy, Tim was manipulating Barbatos. That way Tim's old body could die without his soul in it.
Barbatostries to force his way into the Other's mansion, but his puppet underlings grab him. They want to stop Barbatos because they want to be put out of their misery.
Events unfold as they did before (in issue 74). Then Tim uses his power to reshape Barbatos's body into his own original body, so he can live a normal life starting at the same point that his other self starts living in slavery.
Joh finds her way back to the Inn Between Worlds, and finds Accasbel alive. He says that he and Drunk both survived, and that Joh and Accasebl can now start over again.
Various characters from the series, including Tim's dad, Reverend Slaggingham, the waitress from the Arcana annual and issue 26, Circe, and Marya walk around in London, with a waft of magic passing them by. We see Cupid happy as the Lord of the Hunt, Auberon and Titania still suspicious, and Cyril using his glamour stone to look like Tim, then, in a nod to the oft-commented-to-be-similar Harry Potter series, runs through the train station at platform nine and three quarters.
Mary Hunter's grave is seen to be once again clean and put to rest; Molly plays with Tim's creatures. Leah looks down on them from a cosmic perch.
Tim, having created himself a new body, says that he doesn't know what he's going to do, but he will be the one to decide, and he will take responsibility for it.
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