There's not much to say. It's unclear why I didn't restart the game right away; the situation was bleak. Everything was going badly, with devils appearing on the path, and Annabelle wasn't leveling up (neither Earth nor Tactics were working). I found Tyraxor and started leveling him up in the third week. I reached level 144 (my opponent reached it earlier). On level 145, I found the Earth book, took a castle in the center using a lock, teleported, and saw Jeremy. I attacked with shackles. I had an advantage in both army and stats.