2.3.19
on November 11, 2024
at 3:00 am
the dragon would never deny our protagonists an opportunity for a complicated fight scene
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
the dragon would never deny our protagonists an opportunity for a complicated fight scene
Uhh ohhhh
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: heh…… all according to keikaku
Image source: unmistakable
I love the mental image of Kendall finally snapping and screaming “*THIS* is what ‘according to keikaku’ looks like?! This is what you were planning to use *before* trying the power of friendship? Tess must have really had her hands full keeping you alive up to this point.”
tumblr text: what ELSE could possibly go wrong?
Don’t forget this is all happening on a very non fire demon and kaiju dragon fight proof
Tumblr text: what ELSE could possibly go wrong?
Twitter/Bluesky text: this is getting out of hand! now there are two of them!
. The Champion leaps into the air to avoid Dainix, floating on his wings of light. “Unmistakable,” the Light Dragon tells him. “The dark power of our enemy burns within this being.”
. “But where did that power come from?!” The Champion cries. “This… thing is no avatar! I sensed no corruption! But now–”
. “Unmistakable,” the Void Dragon murmurs, Erin’s eyes still closed.
. “Whatever you’re doing, you have to stop,” Kendal says, kneeling next to Erin.
. “This isn’t me, swordsman,” the Void Dragon tells him. “Or rather, this IS me, but I did not choose to bring me here.”
. “You need Erin alive. I assumed your interference was inevitable.”
. “Erin has this whole situation well in hand, wouldn’t you say? You’re protecting us from the Paladins, just like he planned.” The Void Dragon lifts a hand to the Diadem, the void coalescing into a ball above his finger. A slight smirk graces his face. “And if he falls, I’ll catch him.”
Wow. Just wow.
V.D.’s being really manipulative right now…
I wonder what he’s doing with that Void? Probably going to try to destroy the Diadems, then give control back to Erin.
I… don’t really have a lot of thoughts for this page. I guess V.D. and L.D. don’t know anything about soulfire.
Also, where’s Falst? Haven’t seen him since that panel like 2 pages ago. Maybe he’s trying to free one of the others, like Tess? Maybe he’s been knocked out by Dainix’s fire explosion?
Oh, I should say something about Dainix shouldn’t I, that would be good
That’s the consequence of posting these before I can think on them lol
. The Champion leaps into the air, floating on his wings of light. Dainix’s head follows his movement, Void tainting the flames on his arm, the Diadem turning the fire around his head darker with transmuted Light.
. “Unmistakable,” the Light Dragon tells the Champion. “The dark power of our enemy burns within this being.”
Oh, this is so exciting… And it looks like the next page is going to be full of even more void/light glow effects.
I wonder what’s going on with Erin’s eyes.
I’m confused at how the dragons talk – is VD using Erin’s mouth? Sometimes we see his thoughts. Can the others hear LD or is she just talking to Michael?
The Primordial font is a bit funky, but you can tell from context clues that LD is speaking to Michael right now, which she can just do in his mind, while VD is possessing Erin so, if he’s talking to Kendal, then he has to use Erin as the mouthpiece.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that VD can do telepathic communication in an area around him when he’s in control, or that he can “speak” audibly without using Erin’s mouth somehow.
Which is what I assumed – it’s weird to think about.
ohhhh, I like the confirmation that Walter was listening to Erin’s emotional breakdown.
OH I DIDN’T REALISE THAT
That makes that line so much more ominous
I didn’t realize that either! That really does just ratchet up the creepy, possessive vibes from the VD, doesn’t it?
Oh yeah, right! It’s a callback! Dragon’s more attentive than I thought…
Quote from 2.2.32:
“It always comes back to me to carry the weight, and if I fall, nobody can catch me!”
Erin seems to be rather inexperienced in needing help.
I’d argue that line sounds less like being inexperienced in *needing* help and more like being inexperienced in *getting help when he needed it*, really. He seems to have a whole thing where if he doesn’t pull himself by his bootstraps he doesn’t think anyone will actually be there for him, nobody will actually be able to help him.
And I’m rather wondering if the Void Dragon is building up to a “see, none of them can help you, nobody could before, I know, but *I*, a Primordial Architect of the Cosmos, DO have the power to actually help you, you can rely on ME” sort of thing.
Meanwhile the boat is casually on fire in the background.
It’s fiiiiiiiine, they’ve got all that water all around them! 😀
Yes, panel 5 really looks like it could be an “everything is fine” meme.
Casually? I dunno, the fire seem kinda agro at the paladin.
This is a very fun bit of banter from the VD. Also, kinda motivational/uplifting? VD might kinda(?) be the big bad, but they believe in our protagonists! Or… at least believes in their ability to defeat an agent of a Big Good, I guess?
VD believes in his ability to defeat anything that is thrown at him (perhaps just not before it kills his vessel)
Love that the first word out of both dragons is “unmistakable”.
They’re the same being, your honor.
Walter and Lucy are siblings who’ve just been arguing over who gets to have the one controller with working buttons
Except that they no longer argue over the controller. They had their discussion and VD agreed to ride passenger.
Unmistakable! is the new Finally!
Not until we hear Life say it too.
D’you reckon we’ll get Life in this fight as well?
I REEEAALLY hope so, if only for a “HEY, LUCY!! STOP! DO YOU KNOW HOW F-ING HARD I’VE WORKED TO KEEP *THIS* VESSEL ALIVE!? STOP BEFORE WALTER GETS ANY MORE IDEAS!!!” But I’ll settle for Life showing up at all.
i would love to see life here but i doubt it, life seems to be too scared of accidentally killing alinua to interfere and we haven’t seen anyone with a life lacrima on this ship for her to use
Dragon fight! (now with intermediaries)
Haha fire go transmute
Oh I just noticed Micheal’s diadem has spikes pointing upwards and downwards (kind of like a crown?) meanwhile everyone else’s are pointing towards their heads and outwards (like they’re poking inside their heads?). I just checked the previous pages and it seems to stay consistent so I wonder if that marks his diadem as like a boss diadem that will release all the other ones if broken *chough*Falst*cough*
“Erin” hasn’t opened his eyes… Did he pass out from the combination of the diadem and overtaxing his magic?
I hope that’s not a beam attack he’s charging… Say what you will about the Champion, I don’t think he deserves being melted. Though the look of utter shock is funny.
I think he is about to drstroy the diadem.
Lady and Champion are equally shaken
And Voidy seems happy to stay and not waken
Very nice!
Likewise!
Unmistakable to both Dragons
Is the darkness in the demon,
But the Void, talking to Kendal, didn’t bring itself here,
And the Champion sensed no corruption.
“Erin has this whole situation well in hand,”
On his body is the Dragon’s grin.
“You’re protecting us from the Paladins, just like he planned.
And if he falls, I’ll catch him.”
Hey, has anyone read The Door Into Fire by Diane Duane?
even knocked out, our boi Erin still smug as hell
It looks like he’ll just break Erin’s diadem and leave
Interesting, I was not expecting VD to sit back and watch here.
Aurora Question #19: Is it just me or is Walter becoming more… Amicable?
I think it might be more a matter of “Oh, you think you can get rid of me? Go ahead and try. I’ll probably be fascinated by the result.” than anything else. And he can afford to be patient. He’s been waiting for the entirety of the world’s existence to be out of that box, he can wait until Erin has lost all hope and willingly turns to him.
Given Erin’s current state of mind, it won’t take long.
i think its a combination of curiosity and the fact that they’re on a literal burning boat in the middle of the ocean, he’s not gonna start whipping around disintegration beams everywhere…
I mean, in a very literal sense, he’s just getting to know the party better. He isn’t going somewhere else when Erin’s in control. For all intents and purposes, he’s as much a member of the Floof Squad as Erin himself. He probably doesn’t see them as friends, although that would be an interesting development, but he is growing more familiar with them.
Hmm. I’ve been reading the comments and realizing, yes, it’s not just you. The Void Dragon is behaving rather familiarly. Perhaps it’s a calculated maneuver, the shift of a pawn in a long game to get them to drop their guard. Perhaps the Void Dragon is amusing himself with these pseudo-friendly interactions. Or perhaps, in a twisted sort of way, he’s becoming fond of the people he’s observing and traveling with–in the same way one might develop a fondness for a creature they’re raising to slaughter and consume. Perhaps it’s a combination of all of that. Who knows?
So just confirming that the Lady is either using Dainix as a cover-up or genuinely doesn’t know that she’s probably used to be part of the Void Dragon and is incapable of introspection. Okay. Okay!
We still don’t know their exact connection and even if we did, what her not knowing have to do with her ability to introspect?
Hubris.
Remember, she was very sure she understood the situation on the boar–her unwillingness to consider she might have misread things is what caused this mess.
(Yes, some of this is also Michael’s fault. But he’s also under orders/actively possessed.)
(Funny how both dragons and their vessels seem to suffer an excess of know-it-all. The people saying they might be two parts of the same being may be into something there…)
Boat. Stupid autocorrect.
Though all of this happening on the back of a giant pig is certainly an amusing mental image.
Well, upon seeing that Light and Soulfire produced Void, she immediately assumed that the Soulfire was the source of the Void, when it’s becoming very clear that Soulfire is just causing a reaction which transmutes Light to Void and Void to Light. She’s so self-righteous and so opposed to the Void Dragon that she can’t conceive of herself or her Champion being a source of Void.
On a side note, oh the parallels
stressed but excited the boat arc has just been so fun!!!!!!!
It’s definitely my favourite so far.
I wonder if Michael realises that he has the Void Dragon’s power within himself as well?
It’s probably just more evident when the fire-attuned guy turns into a daemon of all-consuming flame, especially when said daemon has a source of additional consumption energy to draw from.
Oh he probably does, just like all living beings. But he didn’t know that soulfire could transmute light energy to void energy, to be fair both the paladins who can do combat magic seem extremely rare, or good at keeping under wraps. And soulfire and/or demons are are also very rare, it’s probable that they simply never came into contact.
The Light Dragon seems surprisingly uninformed about the Light Dragon’s own powers.
You’d think the Light Dragon would know the basics of what happens when power meets power.
What are you saying? I can’t figure it out.
What are you saying? I can ‘t figure it out
I think Jakalor is saying that Lucy is surprisingly ignorant of her own power, especially when it comes to what happens when Light and Void get transmuted. Not sure that’s right, but it’s the read I got on the LD and her crew, too.
VD gonna purple they ass
At this point, the Void Dragon is the more reasonable of the 2. Which is certainly a thing
So there’s a new motion from VD. We definitely haven’t seen Void employed like this before. Unless..
Could he be moving to dissolve the Diadems?
Oh…ohhhh I hate it. This is the first time VD has used Erin’s name, instead of referring to him as “this one”.
You’re protecting US. If he falls, I’ll catch him.
He’s making it sound…intimate. Like he’s a partner to Erin, instead of Erin bargaining for his friends’ lives by insisting on their practical usefulness. And at the same time, using that vulnerable point Erin made to say, You can’t help him. But I can.
I freely admit I’m not quite sure what all the dialogue is getting at, but it feels like Walter is trying to divide and conquer by hunting that Erin knew this could happen and used his friends as pawns, while telling Erin, THEY can’t match you. They can’t save you. But I can.
(And by ‘I hate it’, I mean ‘I love it’, but OOF.)
*hinting. Damn autocorrect.
Ohhh man. Good catch on the name thing.
I would find this moment oddly sweet if I didn’t know the Void Dragon is a manipulative jerk who wants to eat the world. Augh. It’s so good.
its my birthday 😀
also i really like what walter is doing here, it feels that he finally noticed that he can’t just power his way trought the group and so he might try to manipulate the squad as a way to divide and conquer
also lucy and michael getting wrong conclusions due to lack of context but nothing new here
Happy birthday!!! 😀
Happy Birthday/Veteran’s Day!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!
happy birthday!!!!! : D
Happy birthday!!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday! 🤩
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday!
Wait what if VD hasn’t opened Erin’s eyes so the Paladin doesn’t recognise that he’s currently in control? I read the first two panels as Michael being confused at where the Void magic came from, so maybe Voidy left his eyes closed to gain at least a tiny bit of advantage/time
please PLEASE let Erin manifest void wings i wanna see them fight in the sky
He can’t do that
not yet…
He just can’t, void can’t mutate or form constructs like life can. It just breaks things
*Like life or light. And actually, i’m not too sure of this
It has pretty tangible, physical matter, like the stuff floating above Erin’s finger right on this page. I think he could make wings out of that.
Besides, every bit of visual storytelling related to the dragons so far has made them appear like mirror images of each other, especially connected to the Champion and Erin. Same eyes, same speech-effects, same ability to control dragons/dragon-shaped things, (same tendency to talk right out their butt, particularly about Dainix).
I would not be surprised in the least if Erin could fly just like the Champion.
Everyone else is noticing the callback to Erin’s breakdown about no one able to catch him if he falls from the last chapter, and here I am still bopping to that Transformers One song.
The void energy is unmistakable, but L.D.’s thought process isn’t. Take a closer look Lady, Dainix has void inside, but no more than any human; that void came wholly from the outside. More evidence I say that neither dragon was aware of this link between them; the Ancients and the dragons themselves knew they were linked, but they didn’t know about Fire’s part in it.
It’s a shame both times something like this has happened, here and the Tynan fight, Erin wasn’t conscious to see it, or else he’d have his own theories to spin. And if he is going to be out of commission for a while after this, his input may take a while.
One thing that is giving me hope is old Michael Kaiba Skywalker asking so many questions; L.D. might be convinced of V.D.’s power in Dainix, but he isn’t. If the gang ends up giving them the slip, the Champion might decide they need to do more information gathering on the gang as a whole, maybe even use Theia or an unwitting Falst to help them do so.
Now, is V.D. preparing that void energy for an attack on the Champion, attempting to remove the diadem, or simply moving/storing it away so it doesn’t hurt his ‘protectors’? … Speaking of protectors, where’s Falst? I haven’t seen any on-panel screams, so either he escaped the fire blast or, more concerning, might have been knocked out.
ok, so it seems that the Dragons don’t speak but their voice just kinda radiates out from them, also im calling Dainix as a void mage like how Falst is a light mage
Dainix is not a void mage. The dragons talk through their host’s mouths, but they speak in their heads when exclusively addresseing them
Dainix isn’t a void mage. Fire is the element of transmutation, and the current leading theory is that since Dainix uses soul fire (different than normal fire), he can transmute elements into other elements.
*hands out the graded test paper, placing it facedown on desks.*
Paladin flips it over and calls out, “A C+??! But I was right!”
Heaves a sigh. “You used two sources, true, but they were the first two links in a Google search, and one was the AI recap I told you not to use. Then you did no analysis but just repeated your superficial conclusions as fact, ad nauseum.”
“But I was right! My mom said I was brilliant.”
“Yes. I don’t doubt she did.” *mentally prepares for the call from the principal about her challenging the grade*
Dainix seems to be assimilating the Void into himself there. That seems fine!
I wonder if Dainix could, at least in principle, destroy the diadem by transmuting it into void
TL;DR:
“This isn’t right!”
“Oh no, this is VERY right.”
Dragon duel???
you’d think the paladin and the light dragon would get tired of assuming everything they can’t explain immediately is fundamentally evil and not thinking about it beyond that even a little bit. i guess years of hunting for an enemy no one was sure even existed gave them a nasty case of conspiracy theory brain
“and not thinking about it beyond that even a little bit.”
kendal is literally a anomaly and we only have register of one other possible crucible in aurora’s history(the writer of treatises in soulfire that erin mentioned), and we only know that soulfire can transmute light and void from each other because in the tynan fight we see dainix transmute void into light, both of these things are stuff that we barely even know how it works because not even kendal and dainix themselves fully understand how do they work… the very concept of a demigod and a crucible probably never even passed inside michael’s mind
“There’s too many hands
Touching where I stand
And I can’t fall because you’ll try and catch me
Never let me go
You don’t think I know
I’ve heard it all and so you’ll never scratch me…”
– Heard It All, Emilie Autumn
I suppose it makes sense for fire to have an element of consumption. Perhaps rather than just converting matter to different states, the soul fire beast consumes entirely? Or converts matter into energy? Maybe the flame avatar is nuclear!
Don’t remember exactly where, but Red has confirmed that fire is the element of *transmutation*, not *destruction* or *corruption* in this world. So LD thinks that the void came from Dainix, but really Dainix turned to light into void, if that makes sense.
Although ‘maybe the flame avatar is nuclear’ is VERY funny, and i greatly appreciate that image
No clue if this is the plan but I think it would be extremely funny if the Void Dragon got a “villain gets gradually domesticated” style of reluctant redemption arc.
If that happened, he would surpass Shrike as least interesting character to me.
Maybe its just the black goo, but he is giving a little bit of Venom vibes right now.
The fact that not even the two Dragons know wtf is happening goes to show that there’s so many Weird Ass Outliers Of Magic Logic in one place that not even the gods of this world can keep up with how magic works anymore XD
Side note, but I love that the Void Dragon calls Kendal ‘swordsman.’ Everyone else keeps referring to Kendal by his relation to Vash – incarnation, avatar, demigod – Gleicann calls him ‘godling’ and Zuurith calls him a weapon. The Void Dragon is the only side character who doesn’t care about Vash at all, and as a result he only sees Kendal through his usefulness to *him* – a guy with a sword, capable of protecting Erin.
Also it makes him sound dismissive and smug, which must have been a priority when he decided to commit to it.
This is the first time VD has called Erin by name and i don’t like it, it feels weird and too familial
Right? Previously it’s always been “my vessel” or “this one”. Somehow the familiarity is…very unsettling.
I love how LD and VD are in denial that they’re not essentially two faces of the same creature
They don’t seem to be in denial, they’re just not thinking of the possibility. The void dragon probably has a better reason than the other one
“Swordsman check out this little ball of goo, isn’t that sick? Anyway the boat’s on fire.”
iNcOnciEvAbLe
To our elven OVERLORDS! (Sorry i play too much Skyrim)
‘Well in hand’? ‘Well in hand’??? VD, this is not what ‘well in hand’ looks like. This is what FUBAR looks like. This fight is going to send your vessel and all the people he wanted to fight for him into a watery grave.
I’m truly expecting life to wake up next and for the paliden to even be more confused!
If the diadems are essentially “sedating” both Dainix’s *and* Erin’s consciousnesses, allowing the crucible and VD to take control, then, yeah, maybe. It’s interesting that Michael has essentially hoist himself with his own petard, here.
It’s almost like this paladin of the Lady has hubris matching Erin’s…