For mobile readers.
Alt-text: as soon as I had a problem I exploded into an uncontrollable fire monster and right away I had a different problem
Image source: fwoom
Sorta feel bad for light guy here. Shows up to kill the Void Dragon & each of his incidental besties consecutively proceeds to pull out some entirely unique and unprecedented brand of OP bullshit
I kinda have mixed feeling about this cuz yes he did choose to make the situation worse, but also as far as he knows Void is quite litteraly the end of the world walking, so I think he’s in a pretty stressfull situation
He really should have done some intel-gathering on that group before engaging. He assumed the group was just normal mortals, nothing special except for the possessed supermage. Now, both of them have found out that the entire group is anything but normal.
I realize this question is about a very pertinent problem going on at the moment in the comic, so it says something about me when I started thinking about his shirtless scenes.
He was so busy flying as quickly as he could towards The Vessel that he didn’t have time to do any homework on The Vessel’s Power of Friendship Posse which he is probably regretting right about now.
It’s kind of amazing how many of these arrogant types there are who don’t do their homework, assuming the only one with power is their target, only to find out how wrong they are mid-fight. He assumed VD was in control and the others were just mundane mortals being dupped by VD.
i mean… is it really arrogance? from his perspective erin is a time bomb prime to explode at any moment and most of the floof squad is comprised of people who are one of a kind, in aurora lore we only have register of maybe one other crucible that isn’t dainix, and no register of bearers of the chimeric plague who reached adulthood like alinua nor whatever the heck kendal is,especially when you consider that the whole collector business isn’t something of the paladins’s concern
I also think he had no idea who Erin was, what he was doing and if he was traveling with anyone before he got on the boat. I bet gods don’t really talk to paladins
Dainix is now ramping up the tension again and while the diadem still seems on and working I doubt it will be slowing fireboi down…
Hey Mikie whatca gonna now?
Oh dear it’s loading and a wall of fire slowly crawling down the page. Those effects. Damn impressive.
Is that a heat distortion effect or is the big fire monster melting the ship?
And oh no, the white spike crown is still on. This is gonna get messy.
Love Kendal’s expression, like “oh shit”. I predict that the Paladin is gonna try to make a hasty exit to the skies if they let him. Leave them alone with the big fire monster in the middle of the storm. CHAOS
It’s not Kendal that looks surprised in panel three to me. Michael looks shocked. Kendal looks calm, resolutely focused on Micheal as if firefalls exploding around him was a routine experience for him. Things getting hot Micheal? (I am not too keen with Micheal’s other nickname- doesn’t feel right to me- just my headcannon)
V.D.: Yes! With all my enemies distracted and incapacitated, I’ll take over the magus’s body, slip away unnoticed, and finally- (Dainix goes crucible mode) … Ah. On second thought, I’ll just … see how things play out for now.
Art wise, Dainix’s body in the first panel feels very visceral, like a musculature diagram on fire; makes this crucible transformation feel more painful and strained, and not clean like the others. And when he does transform, aside from the face he’s very ill defined; he doesn’t even have the focused mind or emotion to make it humanoid. This is more demon than crucible.
Fear from being on a boat, unease at the rough ride, confusion over this stranger’s attack, pain inside his head from the diadem, and above all else, the dread that he might hurt someone with his uncontrolled powers. All this combined it’s no wonder Dainix went crucible, and he’s not going to cool down soon.
Even if the diadem is removed or broken (it seems to be fraying in the final panel), the other factors will keep him alight. It took a while for him to return to normal in Zuurith, and it was pretty calm then. How’s he going to calm down here? Who can calm him down?
Well, that got the combatant’s attention, now what will they do? Maybe this is where the Kendal ‘yeet’ sketch comes from; Kendal uses this moment of distraction to fling the Champion away to focus on calming Dainix. Maybe the Champion realises, or is told, the diadem is doing this and drops the spell, but I doubt it’ll work. Will Falst shift his attention to freeing the others, or stay with Dainix trying to help him?
I don’t care if it’s raining right now; if that fire is melting metal, it’s going to set the wooden deck alight. Not to mention there’s no guarantee Dainix will just stay there; in his fury he might try and attack the Champion and make the fire situation worse. The ship of fools now has a limited lifespan, and I don’t see a good way to abandon ship.
Psychic torture doesn’t work as a deterrent on the people who got superpowers from psychic trauma. Rookie antagonist mistake. Even the Slime Cave Crawler learned this
I can’t find what you mean by the diadem burning last page. It looks fine to me. but yeah it does look like it’s begun to be destroyed this page. Though why would it change color?
If you look close to were the soulfire was touching the diadem, it was spliting apart on the left. And it was relevant to the light being transmuted void theory I read from one or two people
Yeah, that is weird if the theory is right.
The diadem’s fraying shape makes me think LD is struggling to keep it like that. Maybe if a Primordial is actively manipulating their substance they can resist transmutation? (VD doesn’t seem to control his blasts after shooting them.)
If the crown breaks and doesn’t change I’ll have to rethink the theory.
@Rai Fire can only turn things into other versions of the same element. Like, you could take a rock and make it diamond or gold because it’s all Stone. If the dragons are forms of the same thing, then unless there’s a secret third form Light could only become Void.
Yeah, I’m worried too. I don’t see him at all in panel three. I’m hoping the explosion just knocked him to a different part of the deck, and not overboard. If he is overboard, at least he has the air bubble lacrima.
Considering that Dainix in his crucible form was going to kill Erin while he was being possessed by the void dragon, the paladin might be in a lot of trouble.
Oh dear. Well. I think we all saw that coming. I just wanna wrap the poor guy up in a blanket and offer him tea after all this, though.
I think it’s a neat artistic choice how he’s drawn as a wildfire this time, with nothing humanoid or coherent in his shape. He literally, physically just can’t hold together anymore.
You can sort of see that he’s still mostly sprawled on the deck if you trace the thin yellow lines–his claws are the easiest to pick out, you can kinda follow them from there.
What I find neat is that if you’re not looking for those lines, then Dainix’s flames have a kind of hunched-up look–either defensively, or as he’s considering who to pounce on. (Or that the demon is considering pouncing on. I can’t remember right now if it was ever mentioned how aware Dainix is in his Crucible form)
(Sorry if this is a double-post, I replied earlier but I think it glitched and didn’t go through)
I only see the one response from you, so I think you’re good. (And it’s ok either way!)
Perhaps your eyes are better than mine? I can definitely see the human shape in the top panel, but in the bottom panels, I’m having trouble picking out the lines. I’m trying, but I mostly just see a mass of fire, with the barest hint of head shape (suggested by the diadem) and an eye.
I don’t think this is going to go as well as last time, especially if the diadem is still on. If it’s having its effect, even while he’s in that form…yeah. Maybe we’ll end up getting one of those “I know you’re in there somewhere” fights that Red always likes to talk about.
“I’ve seen soulfire burn at the bottom of the ocean” + “Good thing we won’t be going down there” + “Kendal doesn’t need to breathe” = I don’t like where this is headed
I don’t necessarily think I could get much use out of any of the weapons in Aurora, but Tahraim’s god-trapping knife would be pretty cool to have, especially if it came with Tynan inside it.
Man this ship’s taking a beating, the mast got cracked, the stairs are melting and the sail caught on fire earlier.
I love the expressions, the paladin is shocked and Kendal just has dread on his face. I’m so curious to see what the paladin’s reaction to the crucible is going to be.
Also this is 3 out of 6 for unexpected reactions to the diadem I wonder if the paladin is staring to think he’s in over his head.
Okay! Not what I was expecting to happen, if Dainix went full fire-mode with the Diadem on! I was kinda thinking that going Crucible would break the diadem, because I had the idea in my head that Fire would overwhelm Light, because if Fire is emotion and Light is mind (at least, that’s my conjecture), then it would act like how sometimes your emotions can overwhelm your mind. But technically emotions are part of the mind, right? So skewing your body ratio to a high level of emotion wouldn’t necessarily break something that’s influencing your mind.
Also, on a funnier note, I’d like to dub Kendal and the Paladin’s faces on panel 3 as ‘oh my god, the stove just exploded.’
Well Wah-Oh
Well, ****.
Ditto
Yep.
Huh… the diadem’s still on, that’s not what I expected to happen…
Now to see Anakin’s reaction!
It looks to me like the diadem is starting to burn off in the last panel
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: as soon as I had a problem I exploded into an uncontrollable fire monster and right away I had a different problem
Image source: fwoom
Tumblr text: and right away I had a different problem
tumblr text: and right away i had a different problem
Bluesky/Twitter text: some very reliable engineering on this one
Sailors consider it a bad omen when the metal parts of your boat start melting.
Oh holy jeez, I didn’t even notice that before. Utterly terrifying.
Sorta feel bad for light guy here. Shows up to kill the Void Dragon & each of his incidental besties consecutively proceeds to pull out some entirely unique and unprecedented brand of OP bullshit
I don’t. He was given several chances to back down and have the situation explained to him (and to Lucy). He chose to keep escalating things instead.
And now there are Consequences. Hopefully (for the Floof Squad, and especially Dainix) they aren’t too severe.
I kinda have mixed feeling about this cuz yes he did choose to make the situation worse, but also as far as he knows Void is quite litteraly the end of the world walking, so I think he’s in a pretty stressfull situation
And he had no idea Erin was traveling with a bunch of superheros
He would if he wasn’t being so stupid about it
He really should have done some intel-gathering on that group before engaging. He assumed the group was just normal mortals, nothing special except for the possessed supermage. Now, both of them have found out that the entire group is anything but normal.
You fell for the classic blunder! You never go up against a party of main characters when DEATH IS ON THE LINE!
INCONCIVABLE
Yikes. I guess when Dainix has a *melt*down, it’s a little more literal than most.
When stern is right, sailors delight
When stern is molten, sailors get boltin
Sweet mother of Jesus
The crown is still on
Uh-oh
Could this be considered a parallel to when the Void Dragon had to face Crucible Dainix in the Tynan fight??
Maybe a bad idea to take mental control away from the crucible . . .
Bye bye ship
Oh shit the boat’s melting… How hot is Dainix anyway?
Thermite hot. The deck is about to get a new hatch.
I realize this question is about a very pertinent problem going on at the moment in the comic, so it says something about me when I started thinking about his shirtless scenes.
The answer is “very” in both scenarios.
It’s a good thing boats aren’t very flammable. Wait…
My guess is about as smoking hot as a smoking hot fire demon can be
i love kendal’s expression in panel 3 lmao
Kendal: It’s happening again.
Champion: AGAIN?!
Let’s see how prepared Michael is for giant fire monster. He wasn’t really prepared for what could possibly come from the floof squad so far.
He was so busy flying as quickly as he could towards The Vessel that he didn’t have time to do any homework on The Vessel’s Power of Friendship Posse which he is probably regretting right about now.
It’s kind of amazing how many of these arrogant types there are who don’t do their homework, assuming the only one with power is their target, only to find out how wrong they are mid-fight. He assumed VD was in control and the others were just mundane mortals being dupped by VD.
i mean… is it really arrogance? from his perspective erin is a time bomb prime to explode at any moment and most of the floof squad is comprised of people who are one of a kind, in aurora lore we only have register of maybe one other crucible that isn’t dainix, and no register of bearers of the chimeric plague who reached adulthood like alinua nor whatever the heck kendal is,especially when you consider that the whole collector business isn’t something of the paladins’s concern
I also think he had no idea who Erin was, what he was doing and if he was traveling with anyone before he got on the boat. I bet gods don’t really talk to paladins
Dainix is now ramping up the tension again and while the diadem still seems on and working I doubt it will be slowing fireboi down…
Hey Mikie whatca gonna now?
To quote Red from another context a few pages ago: “pretty miffed, looks like.”
RIP the boat. It never stood a chance.
Hey just checking, did we already have enough set up for Dainix/Falst having the kind of “I know you are in there” scene with romantic undertones?
No?
Crap
“Shit’s on fire yo”
Oh dear it’s loading and a wall of fire slowly crawling down the page. Those effects. Damn impressive.
Is that a heat distortion effect or is the big fire monster melting the ship?
And oh no, the white spike crown is still on. This is gonna get messy.
Love Kendal’s expression, like “oh shit”. I predict that the Paladin is gonna try to make a hasty exit to the skies if they let him. Leave them alone with the big fire monster in the middle of the storm. CHAOS
It’s not Kendal that looks surprised in panel three to me. Michael looks shocked. Kendal looks calm, resolutely focused on Micheal as if firefalls exploding around him was a routine experience for him. Things getting hot Micheal? (I am not too keen with Micheal’s other nickname- doesn’t feel right to me- just my headcannon)
No, he definitely wasn’t expecting that. His eyes are just as wide as Michael’s.
I think with Kendal it’s less shock and more horrified realization.
V.D.: Yes! With all my enemies distracted and incapacitated, I’ll take over the magus’s body, slip away unnoticed, and finally- (Dainix goes crucible mode) … Ah. On second thought, I’ll just … see how things play out for now.
Art wise, Dainix’s body in the first panel feels very visceral, like a musculature diagram on fire; makes this crucible transformation feel more painful and strained, and not clean like the others. And when he does transform, aside from the face he’s very ill defined; he doesn’t even have the focused mind or emotion to make it humanoid. This is more demon than crucible.
Fear from being on a boat, unease at the rough ride, confusion over this stranger’s attack, pain inside his head from the diadem, and above all else, the dread that he might hurt someone with his uncontrolled powers. All this combined it’s no wonder Dainix went crucible, and he’s not going to cool down soon.
Even if the diadem is removed or broken (it seems to be fraying in the final panel), the other factors will keep him alight. It took a while for him to return to normal in Zuurith, and it was pretty calm then. How’s he going to calm down here? Who can calm him down?
Well, that got the combatant’s attention, now what will they do? Maybe this is where the Kendal ‘yeet’ sketch comes from; Kendal uses this moment of distraction to fling the Champion away to focus on calming Dainix. Maybe the Champion realises, or is told, the diadem is doing this and drops the spell, but I doubt it’ll work. Will Falst shift his attention to freeing the others, or stay with Dainix trying to help him?
I don’t care if it’s raining right now; if that fire is melting metal, it’s going to set the wooden deck alight. Not to mention there’s no guarantee Dainix will just stay there; in his fury he might try and attack the Champion and make the fire situation worse. The ship of fools now has a limited lifespan, and I don’t see a good way to abandon ship.
Everyone that had “Dainix becomes a fire elemental again” on their bingo cards, raise your hands!
Oh! BINGO!
Uhm…the uh…metal. It has a melting point. And I think he passed that point even before his clothes burned away.
Erin! I’ve found another thing to note in your report. The metal needs a higher melting point in case of Crucible Fire.
“Whoops.”
Psychic torture doesn’t work as a deterrent on the people who got superpowers from psychic trauma. Rookie antagonist mistake. Even the Slime Cave Crawler learned this
The flesh peels back, above it all
Rises the demon burning,
Melting a wall, still crowned in white,
Like the sea in storm, flames churning.
well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of your actions, light dragon!
Warning! The labrador erupts in flames
Still withheld by the Diadem that him so maims
Which is also going to be a problem.
I think Falst is in the firing range, he was standing way to close… so…
The diadem is burning away, I did see right. But its turning white, not dark purple
This was meant to be its own comment
I can’t find what you mean by the diadem burning last page. It looks fine to me. but yeah it does look like it’s begun to be destroyed this page. Though why would it change color?
If you look close to were the soulfire was touching the diadem, it was spliting apart on the left. And it was relevant to the light being transmuted void theory I read from one or two people
Yeah, that is weird if the theory is right.
The diadem’s fraying shape makes me think LD is struggling to keep it like that. Maybe if a Primordial is actively manipulating their substance they can resist transmutation? (VD doesn’t seem to control his blasts after shooting them.)
If the crown breaks and doesn’t change I’ll have to rethink the theory.
I’m not sure the logic “if void transmutes to light, then light transmutes to void” is particularly sound
@Rai Fire can only turn things into other versions of the same element. Like, you could take a rock and make it diamond or gold because it’s all Stone. If the dragons are forms of the same thing, then unless there’s a secret third form Light could only become Void.
Yeah, I’m worried too. I don’t see him at all in panel three. I’m hoping the explosion just knocked him to a different part of the deck, and not overboard. If he is overboard, at least he has the air bubble lacrima.
He is in panel 3; isn’t that shape to the right of the Champion’s foot Falst?
I feel like falst may have to use his bubble soon.
Considering that Dainix in his crucible form was going to kill Erin while he was being possessed by the void dragon, the paladin might be in a lot of trouble.
When void stuff hit a crucible, it turned pure white and when light stuff was burned by a crucible, it turned white too. I wonder what this says
Oh dear. Well. I think we all saw that coming. I just wanna wrap the poor guy up in a blanket and offer him tea after all this, though.
I think it’s a neat artistic choice how he’s drawn as a wildfire this time, with nothing humanoid or coherent in his shape. He literally, physically just can’t hold together anymore.
You can sort of see that he’s still mostly sprawled on the deck if you trace the thin yellow lines–his claws are the easiest to pick out, you can kinda follow them from there.
What I find neat is that if you’re not looking for those lines, then Dainix’s flames have a kind of hunched-up look–either defensively, or as he’s considering who to pounce on. (Or that the demon is considering pouncing on. I can’t remember right now if it was ever mentioned how aware Dainix is in his Crucible form)
(Sorry if this is a double-post, I replied earlier but I think it glitched and didn’t go through)
I only see the one response from you, so I think you’re good. (And it’s ok either way!)
Perhaps your eyes are better than mine? I can definitely see the human shape in the top panel, but in the bottom panels, I’m having trouble picking out the lines. I’m trying, but I mostly just see a mass of fire, with the barest hint of head shape (suggested by the diadem) and an eye.
Fire hazards do not mix well with boats, this should be interesting
Ya don’t say 🤔
Good place reference!!
that doesn’t seem good
I don’t think this is going to go as well as last time, especially if the diadem is still on. If it’s having its effect, even while he’s in that form…yeah. Maybe we’ll end up getting one of those “I know you’re in there somewhere” fights that Red always likes to talk about.
Also that last panel is epic.
Congratulations! You have reached the “find out” portion of the show.
I thought they reached that when the diadem didn’t work on Kendal?
DAMN HE’S SO FUCKING HOT (temperature rizz)
Falst: Oh no he’s hot! LITERALLY!
I also like in panel three Kendal readying to go to a two handed grip from one depending on his need against Micheal’s aggressive two sword technique.
“I’ve seen soulfire burn at the bottom of the ocean” + “Good thing we won’t be going down there” + “Kendal doesn’t need to breathe” = I don’t like where this is headed
You are so right for this.
Aurora Question #16: Which weapon from Aurora would you take?
None, every god weapon takes being a god to do anything special or wield without injuring yourself. The normal weapons are just normal weapons
As much as I like Zurrith’s glave and Kendal (the sword), I’d pick Dainix’s spear. I just really like spears.
I don’t necessarily think I could get much use out of any of the weapons in Aurora, but Tahraim’s god-trapping knife would be pretty cool to have, especially if it came with Tynan inside it.
I liked Shrike’s chains. I don’t have stone magic but they’re pretty epic nonetheless
Kendal’s sword. I wouldn’t have a practical use for it, but I like swords, and that one’s really, really cool.
Dainix’s design is amazing this chapter! Also the Paladin’s double swords look pretty sick.
Man this ship’s taking a beating, the mast got cracked, the stairs are melting and the sail caught on fire earlier.
I love the expressions, the paladin is shocked and Kendal just has dread on his face. I’m so curious to see what the paladin’s reaction to the crucible is going to be.
Also this is 3 out of 6 for unexpected reactions to the diadem I wonder if the paladin is staring to think he’s in over his head.
oh the diadem is burning. looks like it’s transmuting to fire.
i suppose that that confirms that a crucible really is just fire.
Yes, but does this cure sea sickness? (I mean, there are other concerns right now, sure, but…)
If it does, think of the possibilities! Set someone on fire as an instant cure!
TL;DR: Fire in the hole! Er, hull.
The champion every two pages: NOW WHAT?
VD, somewhere deep within Erin: Lol. LMAO even-
Life:*enjoying a mountain sized bucket of primordial popcorn*
MELTABLE BOAT
BIG OCEAN
ok time for everyone to get in the ocean
What I wouldn’t give to see Torren’s reaction to the state of his boat by the end of this. Pleasepleaseplease don’t sink, I want to see his face.
Erin: “As you can see, I was able to return your boat to you in one piece. Fused into one piece, but with enough magic anything can sail.”
Okay! Not what I was expecting to happen, if Dainix went full fire-mode with the Diadem on! I was kinda thinking that going Crucible would break the diadem, because I had the idea in my head that Fire would overwhelm Light, because if Fire is emotion and Light is mind (at least, that’s my conjecture), then it would act like how sometimes your emotions can overwhelm your mind. But technically emotions are part of the mind, right? So skewing your body ratio to a high level of emotion wouldn’t necessarily break something that’s influencing your mind.
Also, on a funnier note, I’d like to dub Kendal and the Paladin’s faces on panel 3 as ‘oh my god, the stove just exploded.’