“Is anyone here a fire mage?” I like that line. It shows that Erin not only gave these people the hope that they can be saved, but also that they can save themselves. And that’s important. He showed them that anyone can do it, if only they work together and work smart.
It’s not just that Erin, Kendal and Tess can beat Tynan. The people of Zuurith can do it too.
I love how it shows Tynan’s face as the people say “He hurt it! He can win!”, as it shows how Tynan’s power is diminishing, since his power is built on fear.
@youngstormlord Another Order of the Stick quote, that could be relevant at some point: Erin: I see. When he eschews logic and makes decisions emotionally, it is problematic. But when you do it, it is valid. Falst: NO! Maybe. My gut is smarter than his gut!
Yeah, you go Erin, level that playing field by draining some fear-power! I’m sure Tynan’s not done yet, but still, this might cause more people to fight back.
@Sandeon
Yeah. I like that too, and also because, as already mentioned, it shows that they’re losing their fear. It’s unclear how much more literal firepower can help them, but who knows.
The sunset through the storm is really pretty.
I’ll hazard a probably false guess to what will happen in this chapter:
Ali arrives with Falst and Dainix. Erin notices that she’s weakend, and so does VD. Given that Erin’s body is now more powerful than Alinua’s, VD tries to take over again. Ali, Falst and Tess need to fight Void-Erin while Dainix and Kendal finish Tynan.
Basically, Dainix needs something spectacular to do, and if Erin’s already beating Tynan alone then Dainix’ not very useful. Also the chapter just started, they can’t really win within the next 3 pages. It would also split up the group again because one 6-on-1 fight scene might be messy. Lastly, Dragon on the chapter cover.
@Rai626
No, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe June and the Archive Crew try and help, and/ or the champion person. We might even still get a Kendal glowy power-up everyone’s hoping for.
“He hurt it! He can win!” Wait, Erin is past the opposite side of the city from these folks, i.e. too far away to be identified. How the f*ck do they know he’s a he? Or is this a case of masculine pronoun assumption? (You see, it’s assumptions like this that make it clear as to why the default pronoun should be they! It’s the everyone pronoun!)
Shout out to that person in the far left of the first panel who’s holding at least one, probably two infants. They climbed a mountain with no hands, while holding delicate children, and neither adult nor children seem worse for wear. That person deserves a cake and a medal.
“He hurt him, we can win.” Knowing red this is going to lead to “we can defeat him together.. yada yada..” then someone just pulls out a giant hand fan and blow him away..??
@TheUnknownGame
It’s possible word got out about Tynan grabbing a guy from the Arena, where it must be said an awful lot of fire was occurring, and dragged him off somewhere to duel dramatically, and events/individuals have gotten conflated in the panicked retelling. The fact Erin *is* a mage and a male is co-incidental to the things they are aware of – e.g Tynan is fighting some guy, and some spectacular magic just occurred therefore a mage must also be involved. ALSO the pronoun thing…
@TheUnkownGame they might be assuming that Kendal is the one who caused the fire, since Tynan meant for him to be seen by all the people fleeing Zuurith? i’m not too sure. or those speech bubbles without the little dongles (whatever the little speech arrows are called) are June’s speech bubbles, and she’s assuming the fire is Erin’s doing? but, again, i’m not sure if she even knew he was a mage
but yeah, they/them is the every-person pronoun and should be used more (not this “he… OR SHE” nonsense)
@rai626 that is definitely a possibility I’ve been considering! But I’ve also realized… if Tynan goes down like a chump, that means that there’s not one, but *two* extremely weakened gods in VD Walter’s vicinity. And Void is the element of consumption. What if he decides they look… delicious?
I’m guessing this particular victory is gonna be short-lived (still half-expecting the void dragon to rear his head), but that still leaves room for Dainix to finish what Erin started via soulfire.
Me, but I pulled an all-nighter yesterday (? Sat-Sun.) The weather’s shifting, too, and that sometimes affects me as well.
To TheUnknownGame: I think they might be assuming Dainix is the source of the massive fireball, considering the last time they saw him he was mid-transformation and few if any of them would have reason to suspect that that was neither healthy not normal, given the whole ‘gladiatorial match to end all others’ situation that was going on at the time.
To Rai626, Hermit Thrush:
Depending on who you’re counting, then there’s three–Zuurith, Tynan, and (technically) Life. Plus Kendal’s exhausted, Alinua’s hurt, Falst is literally playing support right now, and Tess probably isn’t going to want to try and hurt Erin even if he goes rogue, so… Honestly, I think I’d be more surprised if Walterdidn’t try and take over. About the only ones who wouldn’t have any qualms attacking possessed!Erin would be Dainix and Michael, and only one of them is (probably) even in the area right now, while the other could probably be talked down to “he’s out friend, so let’s not kill his body while trying to get him back in control of it” levels of violence” which tends to give the villain the upper hand for the majority of the fight…
@TheUnknownGame Isn’t the junior archivist the one speaking there? She already met Erin, so maybe she is guessing that it is him and saying “he” because of that.
i want to say erin used inferno overdrive but inferno overdrive is a z-move and erin wasn’t using a lacrima and google wasn’t helpful either i need suggestions.
@TheUnknownGame I think the archivist saying “that mage” is her guessing that Erin is the only one in the city with the balls to fight a god, and thus (correctly) assuming it’s him.
I see Tynan is a “crush the last vestige of hope” type dramatic villain. In that case this must be pure torture to him that a couple of mages and a half-god are giving so much hope to so many.
So the J.A. has a good view of goings on, that … might be bad. Erin has just shown himself a powerful mage and has flashed his Asera credentials to the archives; Asera boasts having an elemental magus; an elemental magus would have been the only person to enter the storm and free the dragon; and Erin was dead set on learning about old Voidy. It may not take too much for her to put two and two together and realise, or at least become suspicious of, Erin’s secret.
I wondered previously whether the giant tree Alinua grew might affect the psyche of Zuurith in the long term. But now I’m thinking that fire, be it elemental, starfire and (soon to come) soulfire, might make a bigger impact if it’s seen to be the deciding factor that saved the city. Maybe the people will gain a great respect for fire mages and Zuurith himself might grow some fire attributes.
Alright yeah. Based on what I’ve seen so far in this comment section, I’m convinced. We’re definitely seeing Voidy again this chapter.
@Evil Tree
Well, if we’re correct and Voidy is showing up again, we’re going to have WAAAY bigger problems than J. A. suspecting something. But yes, she’ll probably put the pieces together eventually.
Yeah, it wouldn’t completely unreasonable for fire to become a big, or at least bigger, part of their culture, and therefore part of Zuurith. It’s interesting because at least to me, fire is a chaos element. For a lot of the systems of magic I’ve created, it’s *the* chaos element. So Zuurith gaining fire attributes would be… weird, and it would probably change his personality and the strict ‘Lawbringer’ persona he has. Just speculation, though, of course, I don’t even know if gaining powers has any connection to changing personality for a god.
I am honestly wondering if a whole new god could end up, maybe not fully taking Zuurith’s place, but perhaps encroaching on his territory. The people have seen Zuurith not be able to protect them, and have seen his strict focus on Order Above All ALSO fail to help them in any meaningful way (with the breaking of the prison). Like, how far from the basic theming can a god change to, and how quickly, before instead that belief just spawns a new god altogether
Okay, spit-ball theory hear: The gang defeats Tynan and he’s all diminished at the end of it, but then the Collector swoops in and grabs another god to experiment on. The gang tries to stop her, but the Shadow Dragon turns Erin against the others (since it’s in his interest for the Primordials to be brought back, so he can be freed)
@Random Passerby i suppose it depends on the people’s sense of cultural identity. even if Zuurith changes entirely, the people will probably still have a sense that they are citizens of Zuurith, as a population. for a new god to ‘move in’, i think that new god’s domain would have to physically move in as well; like Tynan, who follows his storm, for a new city god to appear, a new culture/population would have to occupy Zuurith’s territory. but if Zuurith does undergo intense metamorphosis following these events, the result might be effectively the same
It’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure that it’ve very likely, since last we saw she was still experimenting on Vash. I really don’t see her seeking out another god unless she’s done with him, and I think we’d know if that were the case, since Vash and Kendal are linked and as such if Vash died (which is, to be honest, the only way the Collector would be done with him) Kendal would probably be suffering some sort of psychic shock due to the link being broken. And while I wouldn’t rule out that event for later in the storyline, I think it’s a bit early yet…
This is why everybody needs a bard. Why send fireballs into the sky, when you can seduce the sky god instead? I mean, I love mages, and use them primarily, but you cannot deny the benefits of the peaceful approach.
I didn’t have time to comment the other day, but I love this POV switch so much. I didn’t expect it, and it’s just so gratifying to see that people know they’re being championed and that some sort of fire mage is responsible.
“never met a problem that couldn’t be solved by a trusty fireball or seventy”
Spoken like a true wizard
Gotta love to see the people rally together like this. ^_^
guess you could say tynan’s full of hot air
(i’ll see myself out)
9:00 motivation with Erin feat. Many Fireballs!
The crowd regains hope
as they look up at the sky.
Tynan is angry!
Hell yeah! Erin for the win! The reason why he was unstoppable is gone now so I guess Kendall doesn’t need the power up now. Oh well.
So first Erin cooled down the storm, and now he heats it up? This seems counterproductive
“In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet…
For just a moment…”
I’m sorry, couldn’t resist!
“Is anyone here a fire mage?” I like that line. It shows that Erin not only gave these people the hope that they can be saved, but also that they can save themselves. And that’s important. He showed them that anyone can do it, if only they work together and work smart.
It’s not just that Erin, Kendal and Tess can beat Tynan. The people of Zuurith can do it too.
Like a true wizard, Erin is a lawyer of the firebball policy
“As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.
…
And that would be wrong.”
Vaarsuvius, Oots
The eyesight those people have are making me envious.
I love how it shows Tynan’s face as the people say “He hurt it! He can win!”, as it shows how Tynan’s power is diminishing, since his power is built on fear.
Feeling a bit like the Storm of Magic now, huh Tynan?
oh i like this page
seventy fireballs please, I will pay in advance
Welp, snap, Tynan’s dead, hope he had a good life before he was torched into oblivion by 176 fire mages that lived in the city he was trying to kill
Really like this page. I don’t yet see any image source comment, but I’m guessing that the image source is ‘hope’.
TL;DR: We have hope! Woohoo!
And all the fear that was powering up Tynan is evaporating quicker than the rain itself.
perhaps this will empower Zuurith a bit, help him put himself back together?
Well, listen then Ms. Archivist, it’s a phenomenon known as “the sky”
Here’s where we find Tynan’s just been chilling to ride that fear wave and now feels the need to do something extra dramatic to re-set the mood.
@youngstormlord Another Order of the Stick quote, that could be relevant at some point: Erin: I see. When he eschews logic and makes decisions emotionally, it is problematic. But when you do it, it is valid. Falst: NO! Maybe. My gut is smarter than his gut!
Yeah, you go Erin, level that playing field by draining some fear-power! I’m sure Tynan’s not done yet, but still, this might cause more people to fight back.
Look upon the sky.
IT BURNS….
Wow! I think this might be one of the most beautiful pages yet!
The colors of the sky are so pretty!
A new chapter of Aurora is such a great birthday present.
ooo fansy
its an elementl dumy
Oh boy here it come! the villanous breakdown!
I cast Fireball
@Sandeon
Yeah. I like that too, and also because, as already mentioned, it shows that they’re losing their fear. It’s unclear how much more literal firepower can help them, but who knows.
The sunset through the storm is really pretty.
Everybody shoot fire into the sky! Don’t think about it! Just fire!
it only takes one spark, one slash of noticeable damage, and Tynan falls.
I’ll hazard a probably false guess to what will happen in this chapter:
Ali arrives with Falst and Dainix. Erin notices that she’s weakend, and so does VD. Given that Erin’s body is now more powerful than Alinua’s, VD tries to take over again. Ali, Falst and Tess need to fight Void-Erin while Dainix and Kendal finish Tynan.
Basically, Dainix needs something spectacular to do, and if Erin’s already beating Tynan alone then Dainix’ not very useful. Also the chapter just started, they can’t really win within the next 3 pages. It would also split up the group again because one 6-on-1 fight scene might be messy. Lastly, Dragon on the chapter cover.
@The Registrar If you’re on desktop, you can right-click the page to see the image source. For this page, the image source is “win.”
Fire is good damage but the real blow to Tynan is the lose of its main god fuel: fear
@Rai626
No, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe June and the Archive Crew try and help, and/ or the champion person. We might even still get a Kendal glowy power-up everyone’s hoping for.
Anyone else just really tired today?
“He hurt it! He can win!” Wait, Erin is past the opposite side of the city from these folks, i.e. too far away to be identified. How the f*ck do they know he’s a he? Or is this a case of masculine pronoun assumption? (You see, it’s assumptions like this that make it clear as to why the default pronoun should be they! It’s the everyone pronoun!)
Shout out to that person in the far left of the first panel who’s holding at least one, probably two infants. They climbed a mountain with no hands, while holding delicate children, and neither adult nor children seem worse for wear. That person deserves a cake and a medal.
“He hurt him, we can win.” Knowing red this is going to lead to “we can defeat him together.. yada yada..” then someone just pulls out a giant hand fan and blow him away..??
Appreciate red putting time and effort in making every side/background character to bring the comic to life..
@TheUnknownGame
It’s possible word got out about Tynan grabbing a guy from the Arena, where it must be said an awful lot of fire was occurring, and dragged him off somewhere to duel dramatically, and events/individuals have gotten conflated in the panicked retelling. The fact Erin *is* a mage and a male is co-incidental to the things they are aware of – e.g Tynan is fighting some guy, and some spectacular magic just occurred therefore a mage must also be involved. ALSO the pronoun thing…
Erin used too many fireballs!
It was super effective!
Tynan now has status effect : EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!
…
…
I’m not sorry.
@TheUnkownGame they might be assuming that Kendal is the one who caused the fire, since Tynan meant for him to be seen by all the people fleeing Zuurith? i’m not too sure. or those speech bubbles without the little dongles (whatever the little speech arrows are called) are June’s speech bubbles, and she’s assuming the fire is Erin’s doing? but, again, i’m not sure if she even knew he was a mage
but yeah, they/them is the every-person pronoun and should be used more (not this “he… OR SHE” nonsense)
“Is anyone here a fire mage” are we about to see the city come together to defeat him? Or at least the fire-wielding population?
alt text: no no, I’ve read about this, that’s called “the sky”
@rai626 that is definitely a possibility I’ve been considering! But I’ve also realized… if Tynan goes down like a chump, that means that there’s not one, but *two* extremely weakened gods in VD Walter’s vicinity. And Void is the element of consumption. What if he decides they look… delicious?
“Is there a fire mage in the house?!”
SLAAAAAAY ERIN!!
Tynan is definitely going to lose his shit now! I hope that when he’s defeated, that he’ll get the beatdown he deserves.
I’m guessing this particular victory is gonna be short-lived (still half-expecting the void dragon to rear his head), but that still leaves room for Dainix to finish what Erin started via soulfire.
To SarrissaTieflingDruid:
Me, but I pulled an all-nighter yesterday (? Sat-Sun.) The weather’s shifting, too, and that sometimes affects me as well.
To TheUnknownGame: I think they might be assuming Dainix is the source of the massive fireball, considering the last time they saw him he was mid-transformation and few if any of them would have reason to suspect that that was neither healthy not normal, given the whole ‘gladiatorial match to end all others’ situation that was going on at the time.
To Rai626, Hermit Thrush:
Depending on who you’re counting, then there’s three–Zuurith, Tynan, and (technically) Life. Plus Kendal’s exhausted, Alinua’s hurt, Falst is literally playing support right now, and Tess probably isn’t going to want to try and hurt Erin even if he goes rogue, so… Honestly, I think I’d be more surprised if Walterdidn’t try and take over. About the only ones who wouldn’t have any qualms attacking possessed!Erin would be Dainix and Michael, and only one of them is (probably) even in the area right now, while the other could probably be talked down to “he’s out friend, so let’s not kill his body while trying to get him back in control of it” levels of violence” which tends to give the villain the upper hand for the majority of the fight…
Better run Stormy! That city’s armed with hope now.
@TheUnknownGame Isn’t the junior archivist the one speaking there? She already met Erin, so maybe she is guessing that it is him and saying “he” because of that.
*in the distance, the voice of a man wearing a wiggler head can be heard* “JUST FIREBALL!!!”
i want to say erin used inferno overdrive but inferno overdrive is a z-move and erin wasn’t using a lacrima and google wasn’t helpful either i need suggestions.
That last panel probably did more damage to Tynan than anything else. If people think he’s beatable, he’s doomed.
@alolanvulpix: Blast Burn, maybe?
@The Registrar @Zer0 Wolf: wait, whats an image source?
Quick, somebody get Tim the Enchanter!
Dainix: Did somebody say, FIRE?
@TheUnknownGame I think the archivist saying “that mage” is her guessing that Erin is the only one in the city with the balls to fight a god, and thus (correctly) assuming it’s him.
“Is anyone here a fire mage?”
Ooh, group fireball incoming!
@waves_under_stars
He froze the falling rain to make it snow, to delay the onset of flooding.
The fire was aimed at the top of the storm, the clouds themselves. This was aimed at the source, while the cold was aimed at the effect.
Enough heating of the clouds themselves will dissipate them.
I just noticed that Erin’s eyes change color when he uses magic. Nice touch
“A fireball is the best multitool a wizard can ask for” -Fire happy Tiefling Wizard
To Sam Doehart:
LOL! (I’ve really got to rewatch those at some point…)
To alolanvulpix:
Burn Up, maybe? It’s not quite as strong as Blast Burn, but it removes the user’s Fire-typing after use…
To cosmerefan:
Why is that name familiar? I swear I know it from somewhere …
when the thing you though was unbeatable is hurt & everyone stops fearing them, they have lost.
myspacebaris half broken
ya know what.
the time is weird
I see Tynan is a “crush the last vestige of hope” type dramatic villain. In that case this must be pure torture to him that a couple of mages and a half-god are giving so much hope to so many.
So the J.A. has a good view of goings on, that … might be bad. Erin has just shown himself a powerful mage and has flashed his Asera credentials to the archives; Asera boasts having an elemental magus; an elemental magus would have been the only person to enter the storm and free the dragon; and Erin was dead set on learning about old Voidy. It may not take too much for her to put two and two together and realise, or at least become suspicious of, Erin’s secret.
I wondered previously whether the giant tree Alinua grew might affect the psyche of Zuurith in the long term. But now I’m thinking that fire, be it elemental, starfire and (soon to come) soulfire, might make a bigger impact if it’s seen to be the deciding factor that saved the city. Maybe the people will gain a great respect for fire mages and Zuurith himself might grow some fire attributes.
Tynan has his “Envy meets Roy Mustang” Oh Crap moment.
Tynan: Wait, isn’t that the guy who turned the “World Storm” off? Compared to THAT I’m a breeze!
Not a critical hit, but it kinda was…
Alright yeah. Based on what I’ve seen so far in this comment section, I’m convinced. We’re definitely seeing Voidy again this chapter.
@Evil Tree
Well, if we’re correct and Voidy is showing up again, we’re going to have WAAAY bigger problems than J. A. suspecting something. But yes, she’ll probably put the pieces together eventually.
Yeah, it wouldn’t completely unreasonable for fire to become a big, or at least bigger, part of their culture, and therefore part of Zuurith. It’s interesting because at least to me, fire is a chaos element. For a lot of the systems of magic I’ve created, it’s *the* chaos element. So Zuurith gaining fire attributes would be… weird, and it would probably change his personality and the strict ‘Lawbringer’ persona he has. Just speculation, though, of course, I don’t even know if gaining powers has any connection to changing personality for a god.
I am honestly wondering if a whole new god could end up, maybe not fully taking Zuurith’s place, but perhaps encroaching on his territory. The people have seen Zuurith not be able to protect them, and have seen his strict focus on Order Above All ALSO fail to help them in any meaningful way (with the breaking of the prison). Like, how far from the basic theming can a god change to, and how quickly, before instead that belief just spawns a new god altogether
@Evil Tree sooo…hot Zuurith?
It’s those seventy-one fireball problems that are a real killer.
Okay, spit-ball theory hear: The gang defeats Tynan and he’s all diminished at the end of it, but then the Collector swoops in and grabs another god to experiment on. The gang tries to stop her, but the Shadow Dragon turns Erin against the others (since it’s in his interest for the Primordials to be brought back, so he can be freed)
@Random Passerby i suppose it depends on the people’s sense of cultural identity. even if Zuurith changes entirely, the people will probably still have a sense that they are citizens of Zuurith, as a population. for a new god to ‘move in’, i think that new god’s domain would have to physically move in as well; like Tynan, who follows his storm, for a new city god to appear, a new culture/population would have to occupy Zuurith’s territory. but if Zuurith does undergo intense metamorphosis following these events, the result might be effectively the same
Wow, that last comment was garbled. what I mean is the Collector will try to take Tynan.
also, *here
To He Who Wonders How Seven Ate Nine:
It’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure that it’ve very likely, since last we saw she was still experimenting on Vash. I really don’t see her seeking out another god unless she’s done with him, and I think we’d know if that were the case, since Vash and Kendal are linked and as such if Vash died (which is, to be honest, the only way the Collector would be done with him) Kendal would probably be suffering some sort of psychic shock due to the link being broken. And while I wouldn’t rule out that event for later in the storyline, I think it’s a bit early yet…
This is why everybody needs a bard. Why send fireballs into the sky, when you can seduce the sky god instead? I mean, I love mages, and use them primarily, but you cannot deny the benefits of the peaceful approach.
I didn’t have time to comment the other day, but I love this POV switch so much. I didn’t expect it, and it’s just so gratifying to see that people know they’re being championed and that some sort of fire mage is responsible.
D:<
What’s better than fireball? Delayed fireball!
I kinda like this better conceptually than a spirit bomb! After all that’s been happening to our heros, this is such a nice moment of success for them
…here’s hoping there’s not another Darkest Hour or anything on the next page