I mean, considering that Erin almost killed the Dragon the second time he lost control and was only stopped by Kendal, his hubris might not be entirely unfounded in this case
That is irrelevant though, the only way he could do it was being too spiteful to care if he himself lived. Which is exactly what the Light Dragon is saying.
Did-did the light dragin lie to the paladin?
When Michael first arrived he seemed convinced Erin is basicly dead and the void is in control.
But now, the light dragon shows she knows Erin is still there, she just wants to kill him for the greater good.
Did she tell her champoin Erin is gone becasue he wouldn’t be able to to what’s needed to be done otherwise?
I think they’re both reacting to new information, namely that Erin actually is in control as he explained to them last page.
Also “But we can still spare you from it” sounds a whole lot like he is on board with killing a fully conscious Erin for the greater good.
V doesn’t seem like he would be able to do that without corrupting him(and rendering him useless) and his power over Erin waxes and wanes from whether he’s near a cave entrance or not. Where is she getting this garbage
To be honest, I wouldn’t question the primordial dragon goddess on her knowledge concerning primordial dragon god powers.
Also, point in her favor: at the start, Erin was absolutely determined to sacrifice himself to stop the dragon. Recently, VD commented on the fact that this is less and less the case. Could easily be a first hint of exactly the corruption the Lady is talking about here.
The self-sacrifice bit was a last resort. Remember, Erin pulled that stunt back in Ch. 7 because a) he didn’t know Kendal and Alinua’s whole deals, nor was he b) expecting them to go down and rescue him, and c) was out of other options to stop Walter.
He’s just as willing to get himself killed to stop the dragon as before, now he just has more options than in Nightmare and is in general not actively suicidal. Also I won’t put any faith into what she speaks until I know where she comes from
Given her use of the Primordial-exclusive font, her connection with Walter in the Ancient times, and the fact that soulfire seemingly transmuted Void into Light, I think there’s sufficient evidence that ‘Lucy’ really is a Primordial of some sort.
I know she’s a primordial, I just don’t know how old she is and the “dawn if your species” line is literal. I feel that the purple stuff just killed Fire and the white product is unique to soulfire, else the dragon might have commented on it so the lady can’t be a large amount of transmuted void
Walter said his ‘other’ gave mortals sentience, and there was a blue & white light doing it. Who else could it possibly be?
Dainix also immediately reformed and attacked, so there wasn’t much time for reminiscing.
“Your mind and heart will wither against him,
Until nothing but your hunger remains.”
A voice speaks over Erin’s protests,
A voice of light that reigns.
“You will break, and then he will use you to break
The world,” says that voice of beams.
“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything!”
Erin, purple-eyed, screams.
“I am sorry I could not protect you from this,”
States the horrible light.
Its champion joins it, a dual voice,
“But we can still spare you from it.”
Fun fact: you can sing this to the tune of the poke-rap (from the show, not the Brian David Gilbert version).
Erin: You know nothing! The only insatiable hunger I have, is for knowledge! … Plus a side of glory and validation.
L.D.: Keep talking, I’m feeling less and less sorry for killing you as you do so.
Well, this confirms it, negotiation is impossible. Even knowing Erin is currently in control, the Champion and L.D. are steadfast in their belief it’s a matter of when, not if, V.D. fully takes over. They regret having to kill him, but nothing’s going to stop them. It reminds me of 1-17-32 where V.D. said him killing Crucible-Dainix was a mercy, though here it’s actually genuine.
I do wonder whether L.D.’s speech has any truth to it; that V.D. will use his power to corrupt him, maybe not to a cave crawler, but to erode his will. But I get the feeling if V.D. was doing that we’d have seen signs by now, and last time he took over it was to protect his vessel as best as possible. That speech might just be righteous sounding and flowery to further their resolve that killing Erin is just.
It’s difficult to read the gang’s faces, aside from Tess and Kendal’s aches and pains (looking at that metal, Kendal’s landing was rough). Dainix and Alinua are listening, but that may just be standard practice when a god is talking.
This speech must be making Falst think of his own mother (“mind and heart with wither”) but some of these justifications may also remind him of his father’s actions. Plus it’s all coming from the mouth of a guy who just hurt his friends and is endangering their lives.
Prediction for next week:
See those light magic cracks coming through the ice in the final panel? These two monologues have given the Champion time to break free and he’ll resume his assault next page. Fortunately it’s also given the gang time to, while not recover per se, get their bearings so they can hopefully attack in unison now they know talking won’t help.
How this fight will go and who wins out, however, I have no idea.
Eh, there’s a difference between protecting Erin from death and withering his mind away until he can’t put up a fight anymore.
I think where she might be wrong is that VD’s problem, as we’ve seen, isn’t not being able to take over, it’s that all of Erin’s buddies would kill him if he did. So maybe he’s not putting as much effort into such a corrupting influence as he would against someone who resisted him through sheer mental fortitude.
Still, I remain partial to the idea that we saw a first hint of such a corruption/influence in 1.21.4 and 1.21.5. Sure, we and Erin can rationalize it away with changed circumstances to earlier, but it’s pretty damning that Erin didn’t say a word for four panels after.
But also, what I just noticed reading that conversation again:
Erin: “They are going to be your only protection when the Paladins start hunting me down.”
VD: “I have no need of-”
E: “Yes you do, […] you made that sacrifice when you pinned all your hopes on my continued survival!”
E: “You seem to think you can blast every problem with overwhelming force and win automatically. You have no experience […] needing help.”
E: “Sit down, shup up and defer to my expertise.”
Looking at the past few pages, who is Erin describing here? It is, to a T, what ERIN is acting like right now. Everyone but him is useless, should “Just get out of the way!”, he and only he can solve everything, on his own, by blasting it with overwhelming force.
A part of me thinks V.D.’s comment at the end of that conversation was him wanting the last word.
The corruption idea, though, is something I am afraid of; I dreaded him using Void magic to heal Falst, less because of the physical danger, and more the psychological danger of him getting a taste of that power. I was relieved then in 2-2-11 when he reaffirmed his mission to stop the dragon. But re-reading it he does say stopping V.D. is more important than his “pride”, not “life”. … I’m scared.
Great catch on that dialogue; everything Erin accused V.D. of doing, he’d doing now. It does make me wonder, how much of that speech about needing the gang was directed at V.D., and how much was Erin, consciously or subconsciously, talking to himself?
Gee I sure am glad Erin has no personal investment in his agency against forces bigger than himself. This encounter would shake him so much further if that were the case. Glad he’s keeping his composure.
The last few pages have been so good from both storytelling AND art perspectives. I think one of the reasons why Erin is so upset by the LD paladin (besides being threatened) is the fact that he thought he had Walter under control -he can even control void while not possessed- and the LD is basically saying that it’s all for nothing. Also, I cannot wait to find out if Falsts powers get talked about in this chapter.
I think it’s less that he thought he had Walter under control…Erin has known from the beginning how unmatched he is against the literal embodiment of the void. But actually coming to terms with that would drive someone mad, so he’s been trying to shove it to the back of his mind. This is someone saying out loud what he has feared since the moment he realized what Walter was. They’re calling his bluff, and if he accepts their logic, there’s only two ways this ends: a swift death, or, what I think he’s really afraid of, the murder of his friends and his complete loss of self, right before Walter literally unmakes the world and eats the sun. Worse, if the Paladin and the Lady are right…at that point, there won’t be enough left of him to care.
That’s not something anyone, and especially not Erin, who is so fiercely independent and who, after “everything he did”, as Tess said…could take without a fight.
Yeah, I think your explanation holds more truth. The main point is that Erin is extremely frustrated at LD words because it’s dismissing or undoing his efforts to stop thinking about/combat the problem that, in his mind, no one can help him with.
Agreed (sorry, my words were meant as complimentary, not a contradiction or correction!)
He hasn’t figured out yet that the key to keeping himself together is standing around him…if he’d let them. “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry YOU”, and all that 😉
poor tess checking out her jaw after getting clocked to start the fight is weirdly funny to me.
now that we’ve got the full squad together, i’ll be very interested to see what happens in a all out fight against an opponent like the champion…
Condolences to the Paladin for choosing ‘this is a problem you are physically incapable of fixing’ as his argument against Erin, notable person with a pathological need to fix every problem himself. Good shout but it was never going to work
Well that sure sounds like foreshadowing.
Especially the ‘you will break, and then he will use you to break the world’
God, this speech is just *chef kiss*
She really believes that. Doesn’t she? Erin was right: The Lady lied to her paladins. She’s not the black dragon’s “equal and opposite”. If she were, then she would not be saying this. She would be touting some virtue–some principle–that can counterbalance The Black Dragon. Instead, here she is, claiming there is no such thing. She is a fraud; a fraud with good intentions, but a fraud nonetheless. She is afraid because she knows she is no match for him.
What’s worse is that she’s wrong. There are people who choose to die of starvation rather than betray their principles: Activists who go on hunger strikes for a cause, monks who self-mummify out of sheer discipline, parents who give whwhawhwhat little food they have for their children. The Lady’s startling lack of faith is telling of what she really is.
The Lady comes across as more than a tad arrogant and paternalistic here, assuming that she automatically knows best and that mortals are unable to contribute there own solutions to problems. I can understand why she’d think like that, and teach the same to her followers, but, frankly, ancient divinity or not thinking yourself infallible is still a d*ck move.
I also wonder if her believing any mortal “will break” is influenced by knowing they were created at the behest of Walter, perhaps she sees mortals as implicitly tainted for it.
“There are no principles a mortal can hold fast in the face of *eternal* , *unending* hunger”, also gives me strong ‘ancient being that has lived with a status quo so long they can’t imagine any alternative’ vibes.
Honestly, these last few pages make me think the Paladins’ paragon tendencies could make them some of the most dangerous/determined antagonists in the story.
On an unrelated note, does anyone remember how to italicise/embolden comments?
To make italic text you need to use the em HTML tags; “em” surrounded by arrow/angle brackets (the lesser-than < and the greater-than > symbols) and “/em” surrounded by said symbols again. (hopefully that formatted correctly)
Put the “em” part at the start of the section you want to be italics and the “/em” part at the end. For example:
“Light energy on the ice? A (em)CRACK(/em) is coming!”, replace those parentheses with the corresponding angle brackets and you get:
“Light energy on the ice? A CRACK is coming!”
The hilarious part is that there is only one person on this ship who has fully zero ways (without dying pretty quick afterward) to fight Walter. And to be fair dainix would probably sink the ship if he went crucible but he’d be fine so I’m counting it. The worst part though is how since Michael has been bodying them he probably would either refuse to believe or ignore that piece of information. Especially since everyone who can fight the dragon has some kind of limitation currently.
I don’t see him joining the gang. He’s too driven by his ideology and connection to L.D. and his abilities might upset the delicate power-scaling balancing act Red is contending with.
However, I do see a certain Paladin potentially joining the gang, Theia. She’s not powerful enough, even with Shrike’s help, to just take out Erin, Erin’s experience here with L.D. might make him talk to her differently, and she may even want to speak to him to hear an explanation.
If they can talk to her in a, relatively, safe environment and explain Erin’s plans and the natue of his V.D. counters, then she might be persuaded that their approach is worth a shot. Even more so if the other Paladin’s turn on her for abandoning her post at the archive. Her knowledge of the dragons, and potential to help Falst with his powers, could be an interesting angle to pursue.
No, but if I were in Erin’s position I’d definitely make the offer. Suppose the two groups compromise by having the Champion accompany them to the monks as a chaperone. And the moment things seem fishy or Erin starts losing control, they can neutralize him. It’ll buy some time at least.
He seems more like an ’11th-hour Ranger’…he’ll flit in and out of the story, particularly when the REST of the Paladins start gunning for Erin, maybe have some stuff of his own, before coming in for the final battle.
While it was happening, I did appreciate the story convenience of having the two toughest characters be the ones who got ragdolled. It would have been real ugly if that opening light-claw had been leveled against Alinua.
The speed at which the paladin pivots from “Y’all don’t know this guy’s Secret Hitler” to, when that’s disproved, “You’re possessed and that’s going to turn you into a monster soon” is honestly kind of creepy. The certainty of fanaticism.
It just occurred to me that the shift is a matter of knowledge: The person talking isn’t surprised because They already knew that the void dragon could be a more subtle possessing presence, even if the paladin didn’t and was acting on the assumption that he had to fight all-out from the word go.
Man the railing got wrecked when Kendal and Tess got thrown into it, anyone else and they would’ve died, I forget just how durable those two are until I see it in front of me. I don’t think the paladin could’ve known they’d survive so I think he just tried to kill two people in one hit, which is slightly odd as based on what he said he was under the impression that they were defending their friend so he’s being dangerously ruthless right now.
He knew Tess would survive, metal caste are famously tough (assuming he noticed she was metal caste). Giving him the benefit of doubt, he may have noticed Kendal being super strong from holding his arm.
What a PAGE. What a SPEECH. Erin’s slipping, he’s felt the start of this with the invigoration from void control and it bothers him but also doesn’t, and I bet a tiny bit of him is bothers him that it doesn’t, too…
Ngl I saw Tess’s expression & thought it was shock/sibling anguish at the bomb-drop speech Michael just gave about Erin’s fate to irreversibly evolve into a singleminded puppet for Aurora’s version of a god of evil. But nope, she’s just sore from the smack.
I fear Alinua is thinking about Primordial Life in panel 5. Could she be thinking about how her situation may mirror Erin’s in an entirely different way?
It’s hard to argue with a being with centuries of experience and underlings who can collaborate your observations.
I disagree with DragonMaster66 (respectfully) Not only is Tess rubbing her sore jaw in pain from the blow but her eyes and posture shows thought to LD/Micheal speech that look like worry or concern. But that is an interpretation on my part.
My concern here is primarily that, realistically, do we really know that killing Erin would kill the Void Dragon? That seems like an awfully vulnerable elder god….
My money is on killing Erin being a *release* of the void dragon, which sounds like a really, REALLY bad idea.
The Void Dragon is currently imprisoned within the world, and is currently magically linked to Erin’s soul (it did this by corrupting a magical object of an ancient race to produce the giant ever-storm in the first that Erin undid).
There’s no way killing Erin will help the Void Dragon because that was Erin’s first response to being possessed way back in like chapter 2 or 3, and the Void Dragon desperately tried to get him to “see reason” by trying to appeal to Erin’s flaws (being knowledgable, turning the tables and such).
killing erin certainly won’t kill the dragon but it will foil his plans, it will force the dragon to wait until another elemental magus is born(something that only happened twice in history) but also will force him to set up another trap to trick said next elemental magus into becoming his vessel and there is the possibility of well everyone who knows the truth about the storm just making the fact that it was a trap public knowledge so it will only make it harder for walter to trick the next elemental magus into becoming his vessel
Hold on. What if Dainix makes the connection between the paladin power and Falst saving him back in 1-22-37? Or if the Collector showed up? The amount of information she could gain about the situation (and wider planetary plot) is insane. God there’s so many potential things that could get developed this chapter! I can see why Red spent ungodly amounts of time charting ahead
i don’t think the collector is going to show up now, between michael and the climate its just too inconvenient for her to show up
however i do think she will show up at the monastery, she already has connections to the study of soul energy so her curiosity surely would bring her to the soul shaper monks and it just so happens to be where the party is going
I am waiting to see whether our paladin friend “???” gets moved up from the “faces from previous arcs” section to the “everybody else” or the “antagonists” section
We are really zoomed in on the action right now, I’m worried about the storm. Prediction that at least a few people get knocked overboard and are helped by the fish people?
Oh so if the reader theory that Falst was blessed in the caves, and is basically a Ferin with Paladin Powers, I wonder if that will be revealed and save Erin. Because right now it’s not looking good…
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: no thanks we don’t want any
Image source: break
Tumblr text: this can only work out amazingly
Twitter Text: negotiations are going great
i hope somebody knocks this person out all of a sudden somehow
OOOH AND THERE’S FALST WITH THE METAL CHAIR!!!
Alternatively, with the air bubble spell and a good kick
…dang
The good news is, Michael and the Lady accepted that Erin is in control right now.
That’s it for good news, tho.
Unless that’s Erin’s hand against his own chest getting all sparky spark I’m not too sure they do…
I’m pretty sure they can’t reach him right now, look at how they are held in the ice.
I think that IS Erin’s own hand.
That is definitely Erin’s hand. You can see his tattoos if you zoom in.
Yea, not for long.
I mean, considering that Erin almost killed the Dragon the second time he lost control and was only stopped by Kendal, his hubris might not be entirely unfounded in this case
That is irrelevant though, the only way he could do it was being too spiteful to care if he himself lived. Which is exactly what the Light Dragon is saying.
What? Erin is completely unable to harm the Dragon in anyway, reread Nightmare
Yes, killing him by DYING. Guess what the Paladins are trying to do now?
Yes… peacefully
Did-did the light dragin lie to the paladin?
When Michael first arrived he seemed convinced Erin is basicly dead and the void is in control.
But now, the light dragon shows she knows Erin is still there, she just wants to kill him for the greater good.
Did she tell her champoin Erin is gone becasue he wouldn’t be able to to what’s needed to be done otherwise?
I think they’re both reacting to new information, namely that Erin actually is in control as he explained to them last page.
Also “But we can still spare you from it” sounds a whole lot like he is on board with killing a fully conscious Erin for the greater good.
Ah, yeah. That sounds more likely.
V doesn’t seem like he would be able to do that without corrupting him(and rendering him useless) and his power over Erin waxes and wanes from whether he’s near a cave entrance or not. Where is she getting this garbage
To be honest, I wouldn’t question the primordial dragon goddess on her knowledge concerning primordial dragon god powers.
Also, point in her favor: at the start, Erin was absolutely determined to sacrifice himself to stop the dragon. Recently, VD commented on the fact that this is less and less the case. Could easily be a first hint of exactly the corruption the Lady is talking about here.
The self-sacrifice bit was a last resort. Remember, Erin pulled that stunt back in Ch. 7 because a) he didn’t know Kendal and Alinua’s whole deals, nor was he b) expecting them to go down and rescue him, and c) was out of other options to stop Walter.
He’s just as willing to get himself killed to stop the dragon as before, now he just has more options than in Nightmare and is in general not actively suicidal. Also I won’t put any faith into what she speaks until I know where she comes from
Given her use of the Primordial-exclusive font, her connection with Walter in the Ancient times, and the fact that soulfire seemingly transmuted Void into Light, I think there’s sufficient evidence that ‘Lucy’ really is a Primordial of some sort.
Also, she was around when the Elder Races were made. She can’t be a god like Erin thinks.
I know she’s a primordial, I just don’t know how old she is and the “dawn if your species” line is literal. I feel that the purple stuff just killed Fire and the white product is unique to soulfire, else the dragon might have commented on it so the lady can’t be a large amount of transmuted void
Walter said his ‘other’ gave mortals sentience, and there was a blue & white light doing it. Who else could it possibly be?
Dainix also immediately reformed and attacked, so there wasn’t much time for reminiscing.
I am stating I do not believe The Lady is made of transmuted void and nothing more
Elemental Magus DESTROYED with FACTS and LOGIC!
Okay, Lucy can tell Walter isn’t in control, and it doesn’t change shit in her opinion. And hoo boy, that struck a nerve.
Are we nicknaming LD Lucy? Cool, I like it.
Me too.
Where did ‘Lucy’ come from? I love it 😀
I don’t know, but I love it.
Lucy = St. Lucia = Bringer of Light
Michael = St. Michael, the dragonslayer, destroyer of evil
Walter = … Walter?
How are you so good at conveying SFX through comics?! I swear I heard that last panel.
The Lady sees for Erin only doom ahead
But says she can still spare him, heedless of what he’s said
“Your mind and heart will wither against him,
Until nothing but your hunger remains.”
A voice speaks over Erin’s protests,
A voice of light that reigns.
“You will break, and then he will use you to break
The world,” says that voice of beams.
“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything!”
Erin, purple-eyed, screams.
“I am sorry I could not protect you from this,”
States the horrible light.
Its champion joins it, a dual voice,
“But we can still spare you from it.”
Fun fact: you can sing this to the tune of the poke-rap (from the show, not the Brian David Gilbert version).
she is talking about cave/void corruption
Erin: You know nothing! The only insatiable hunger I have, is for knowledge! … Plus a side of glory and validation.
L.D.: Keep talking, I’m feeling less and less sorry for killing you as you do so.
Well, this confirms it, negotiation is impossible. Even knowing Erin is currently in control, the Champion and L.D. are steadfast in their belief it’s a matter of when, not if, V.D. fully takes over. They regret having to kill him, but nothing’s going to stop them. It reminds me of 1-17-32 where V.D. said him killing Crucible-Dainix was a mercy, though here it’s actually genuine.
I do wonder whether L.D.’s speech has any truth to it; that V.D. will use his power to corrupt him, maybe not to a cave crawler, but to erode his will. But I get the feeling if V.D. was doing that we’d have seen signs by now, and last time he took over it was to protect his vessel as best as possible. That speech might just be righteous sounding and flowery to further their resolve that killing Erin is just.
It’s difficult to read the gang’s faces, aside from Tess and Kendal’s aches and pains (looking at that metal, Kendal’s landing was rough). Dainix and Alinua are listening, but that may just be standard practice when a god is talking.
This speech must be making Falst think of his own mother (“mind and heart with wither”) but some of these justifications may also remind him of his father’s actions. Plus it’s all coming from the mouth of a guy who just hurt his friends and is endangering their lives.
Prediction for next week:
See those light magic cracks coming through the ice in the final panel? These two monologues have given the Champion time to break free and he’ll resume his assault next page. Fortunately it’s also given the gang time to, while not recover per se, get their bearings so they can hopefully attack in unison now they know talking won’t help.
How this fight will go and who wins out, however, I have no idea.
Eh, there’s a difference between protecting Erin from death and withering his mind away until he can’t put up a fight anymore.
I think where she might be wrong is that VD’s problem, as we’ve seen, isn’t not being able to take over, it’s that all of Erin’s buddies would kill him if he did. So maybe he’s not putting as much effort into such a corrupting influence as he would against someone who resisted him through sheer mental fortitude.
Still, I remain partial to the idea that we saw a first hint of such a corruption/influence in 1.21.4 and 1.21.5. Sure, we and Erin can rationalize it away with changed circumstances to earlier, but it’s pretty damning that Erin didn’t say a word for four panels after.
But also, what I just noticed reading that conversation again:
Erin: “They are going to be your only protection when the Paladins start hunting me down.”
VD: “I have no need of-”
E: “Yes you do, […] you made that sacrifice when you pinned all your hopes on my continued survival!”
E: “You seem to think you can blast every problem with overwhelming force and win automatically. You have no experience […] needing help.”
E: “Sit down, shup up and defer to my expertise.”
Looking at the past few pages, who is Erin describing here? It is, to a T, what ERIN is acting like right now. Everyone but him is useless, should “Just get out of the way!”, he and only he can solve everything, on his own, by blasting it with overwhelming force.
A part of me thinks V.D.’s comment at the end of that conversation was him wanting the last word.
The corruption idea, though, is something I am afraid of; I dreaded him using Void magic to heal Falst, less because of the physical danger, and more the psychological danger of him getting a taste of that power. I was relieved then in 2-2-11 when he reaffirmed his mission to stop the dragon. But re-reading it he does say stopping V.D. is more important than his “pride”, not “life”. … I’m scared.
Great catch on that dialogue; everything Erin accused V.D. of doing, he’d doing now. It does make me wonder, how much of that speech about needing the gang was directed at V.D., and how much was Erin, consciously or subconsciously, talking to himself?
Also its possible that the whole overchanneling issue is going to make him unable to use non void Magic for a while and that is bad
Gee I sure am glad Erin has no personal investment in his agency against forces bigger than himself. This encounter would shake him so much further if that were the case. Glad he’s keeping his composure.
The last few pages have been so good from both storytelling AND art perspectives. I think one of the reasons why Erin is so upset by the LD paladin (besides being threatened) is the fact that he thought he had Walter under control -he can even control void while not possessed- and the LD is basically saying that it’s all for nothing. Also, I cannot wait to find out if Falsts powers get talked about in this chapter.
I think it’s less that he thought he had Walter under control…Erin has known from the beginning how unmatched he is against the literal embodiment of the void. But actually coming to terms with that would drive someone mad, so he’s been trying to shove it to the back of his mind. This is someone saying out loud what he has feared since the moment he realized what Walter was. They’re calling his bluff, and if he accepts their logic, there’s only two ways this ends: a swift death, or, what I think he’s really afraid of, the murder of his friends and his complete loss of self, right before Walter literally unmakes the world and eats the sun. Worse, if the Paladin and the Lady are right…at that point, there won’t be enough left of him to care.
That’s not something anyone, and especially not Erin, who is so fiercely independent and who, after “everything he did”, as Tess said…could take without a fight.
Yeah, I think your explanation holds more truth. The main point is that Erin is extremely frustrated at LD words because it’s dismissing or undoing his efforts to stop thinking about/combat the problem that, in his mind, no one can help him with.
Agreed (sorry, my words were meant as complimentary, not a contradiction or correction!)
He hasn’t figured out yet that the key to keeping himself together is standing around him…if he’d let them. “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry YOU”, and all that 😉
poor tess checking out her jaw after getting clocked to start the fight is weirdly funny to me.
now that we’ve got the full squad together, i’ll be very interested to see what happens in a all out fight against an opponent like the champion…
Condolences to the Paladin for choosing ‘this is a problem you are physically incapable of fixing’ as his argument against Erin, notable person with a pathological need to fix every problem himself. Good shout but it was never going to work
omg this is so intense!
Well that’s a rough diagnosis, hopefully they’re thinking of Cave crawlers and Erin’s situation is more treatable with the power of friendship.
…Maybe I’ll finish typing this one before I click the wrong thing!
Ah. Yeah, I’m not terribly surprised LD and Michael are still resolved to kill Erin to save the world.
Erin’s desperate expression is heartbreaking.
Well that sure sounds like foreshadowing.
Especially the ‘you will break, and then he will use you to break the world’
God, this speech is just *chef kiss*
She really believes that. Doesn’t she? Erin was right: The Lady lied to her paladins. She’s not the black dragon’s “equal and opposite”. If she were, then she would not be saying this. She would be touting some virtue–some principle–that can counterbalance The Black Dragon. Instead, here she is, claiming there is no such thing. She is a fraud; a fraud with good intentions, but a fraud nonetheless. She is afraid because she knows she is no match for him.
What’s worse is that she’s wrong. There are people who choose to die of starvation rather than betray their principles: Activists who go on hunger strikes for a cause, monks who self-mummify out of sheer discipline, parents who give whwhawhwhat little food they have for their children. The Lady’s startling lack of faith is telling of what she really is.
Alternate answer: she *is* Void’s equal and opposite, because she can’t comprehend the power of mortals.
She could certainly be able to fight VD one on one, but Erin fighting off VD’s control would require himself to have equivalent strength.
The Lady comes across as more than a tad arrogant and paternalistic here, assuming that she automatically knows best and that mortals are unable to contribute there own solutions to problems. I can understand why she’d think like that, and teach the same to her followers, but, frankly, ancient divinity or not thinking yourself infallible is still a d*ck move.
I also wonder if her believing any mortal “will break” is influenced by knowing they were created at the behest of Walter, perhaps she sees mortals as implicitly tainted for it.
“There are no principles a mortal can hold fast in the face of *eternal* , *unending* hunger”, also gives me strong ‘ancient being that has lived with a status quo so long they can’t imagine any alternative’ vibes.
Honestly, these last few pages make me think the Paladins’ paragon tendencies could make them some of the most dangerous/determined antagonists in the story.
On an unrelated note, does anyone remember how to italicise/embolden comments?
To do italics is:
WORDS
Just without the spaces in between, hopefully that works
It’ll look like this
I don’t know about bold
To make italic text you need to use the em HTML tags; “em” surrounded by arrow/angle brackets (the lesser-than < and the greater-than > symbols) and “/em” surrounded by said symbols again. (hopefully that formatted correctly)
Put the “em” part at the start of the section you want to be italics and the “/em” part at the end. For example:
“Light energy on the ice? A (em)CRACK(/em) is coming!”, replace those parentheses with the corresponding angle brackets and you get:
“Light energy on the ice? A CRACK is coming!”
Italics are (i ) text(/i)
Bold is (b) text (/b)
Replace ( with
might be just me but. isn’t everything the light dragon is saying pretty applicable to (what we’ve seen) of her control of the paladin??
I think he’s usually in control. If LD was talking through him she’d be using the special font.
The hilarious part is that there is only one person on this ship who has fully zero ways (without dying pretty quick afterward) to fight Walter. And to be fair dainix would probably sink the ship if he went crucible but he’d be fine so I’m counting it. The worst part though is how since Michael has been bodying them he probably would either refuse to believe or ignore that piece of information. Especially since everyone who can fight the dragon has some kind of limitation currently.
Okay…place your bets below. Who thinks Michael will join the gang, á la Falst?
I feel its unlikely because his concept is too close to Alinua’s and Erin’s
Not sure if he will join. But I can see them teaming up evetually.
I don’t see him joining the gang. He’s too driven by his ideology and connection to L.D. and his abilities might upset the delicate power-scaling balancing act Red is contending with.
However, I do see a certain Paladin potentially joining the gang, Theia. She’s not powerful enough, even with Shrike’s help, to just take out Erin, Erin’s experience here with L.D. might make him talk to her differently, and she may even want to speak to him to hear an explanation.
If they can talk to her in a, relatively, safe environment and explain Erin’s plans and the natue of his V.D. counters, then she might be persuaded that their approach is worth a shot. Even more so if the other Paladin’s turn on her for abandoning her post at the archive. Her knowledge of the dragons, and potential to help Falst with his powers, could be an interesting angle to pursue.
No, but if I were in Erin’s position I’d definitely make the offer. Suppose the two groups compromise by having the Champion accompany them to the monks as a chaperone. And the moment things seem fishy or Erin starts losing control, they can neutralize him. It’ll buy some time at least.
I don’t think he’s going to join the gang, but I do think he’ll be a recurring antagonist – serving as Erin’s foil probably
He seems more like an ’11th-hour Ranger’…he’ll flit in and out of the story, particularly when the REST of the Paladins start gunning for Erin, maybe have some stuff of his own, before coming in for the final battle.
So, yes…but not for some time.
Do love that both Kendal and Tess are standing up from DENTING THE HULL like they’re nothing worse than winded.
While it was happening, I did appreciate the story convenience of having the two toughest characters be the ones who got ragdolled. It would have been real ugly if that opening light-claw had been leveled against Alinua.
Well, to be fair, there’s a reason they are the ones who charge in against unknown dangers.
I know right that was awesome.
Wait so being possessed by an evil primordial ISN’T good for your long term health and wellbeing? :0
The speed at which the paladin pivots from “Y’all don’t know this guy’s Secret Hitler” to, when that’s disproved, “You’re possessed and that’s going to turn you into a monster soon” is honestly kind of creepy. The certainty of fanaticism.
“Yo this guy has a nuke in his chest that’s controlling him.”
“Nah, I can control the nuke.”
“Yeah but that doesn’t fix the nuke issue.”
It just occurred to me that the shift is a matter of knowledge: The person talking isn’t surprised because They already knew that the void dragon could be a more subtle possessing presence, even if the paladin didn’t and was acting on the assumption that he had to fight all-out from the word go.
Man the railing got wrecked when Kendal and Tess got thrown into it, anyone else and they would’ve died, I forget just how durable those two are until I see it in front of me. I don’t think the paladin could’ve known they’d survive so I think he just tried to kill two people in one hit, which is slightly odd as based on what he said he was under the impression that they were defending their friend so he’s being dangerously ruthless right now.
He knew Tess would survive, metal caste are famously tough (assuming he noticed she was metal caste). Giving him the benefit of doubt, he may have noticed Kendal being super strong from holding his arm.
“I just hope, one day, you might learn to forgive us”
What a PAGE. What a SPEECH. Erin’s slipping, he’s felt the start of this with the invigoration from void control and it bothers him but also doesn’t, and I bet a tiny bit of him is bothers him that it doesn’t, too…
Ngl I saw Tess’s expression & thought it was shock/sibling anguish at the bomb-drop speech Michael just gave about Erin’s fate to irreversibly evolve into a singleminded puppet for Aurora’s version of a god of evil. But nope, she’s just sore from the smack.
I fear Alinua is thinking about Primordial Life in panel 5. Could she be thinking about how her situation may mirror Erin’s in an entirely different way?
I i/love/i your username-
hehe thank you!
It’s hard to argue with a being with centuries of experience and underlings who can collaborate your observations.
I disagree with DragonMaster66 (respectfully) Not only is Tess rubbing her sore jaw in pain from the blow but her eyes and posture shows thought to LD/Micheal speech that look like worry or concern. But that is an interpretation on my part.
Oh this is gonna go great
TL;DR: He’s really letting it get to him…
Woah, Erin’s face in the second-to-last panel is doing things to my soul. Poor hubris guy, he’s experiencing the horrors already
Can’t believe this comic is making me want ti fight dragon Jesus
lol I wish I could like comments
Tess’s expression… oof…
My concern here is primarily that, realistically, do we really know that killing Erin would kill the Void Dragon? That seems like an awfully vulnerable elder god….
My money is on killing Erin being a *release* of the void dragon, which sounds like a really, REALLY bad idea.
I don’t think they’ve ever said killing Erin would end VD. It would just ruin his plan to escape.
The Void Dragon is currently imprisoned within the world, and is currently magically linked to Erin’s soul (it did this by corrupting a magical object of an ancient race to produce the giant ever-storm in the first that Erin undid).
There’s no way killing Erin will help the Void Dragon because that was Erin’s first response to being possessed way back in like chapter 2 or 3, and the Void Dragon desperately tried to get him to “see reason” by trying to appeal to Erin’s flaws (being knowledgable, turning the tables and such).
That attempted self-sacrifice play was in Arc 1 Chapter 7.
killing erin certainly won’t kill the dragon but it will foil his plans, it will force the dragon to wait until another elemental magus is born(something that only happened twice in history) but also will force him to set up another trap to trick said next elemental magus into becoming his vessel and there is the possibility of well everyone who knows the truth about the storm just making the fact that it was a trap public knowledge so it will only make it harder for walter to trick the next elemental magus into becoming his vessel
Hold on. What if Dainix makes the connection between the paladin power and Falst saving him back in 1-22-37? Or if the Collector showed up? The amount of information she could gain about the situation (and wider planetary plot) is insane. God there’s so many potential things that could get developed this chapter! I can see why Red spent ungodly amounts of time charting ahead
i don’t think the collector is going to show up now, between michael and the climate its just too inconvenient for her to show up
however i do think she will show up at the monastery, she already has connections to the study of soul energy so her curiosity surely would bring her to the soul shaper monks and it just so happens to be where the party is going
I am waiting to see whether our paladin friend “???” gets moved up from the “faces from previous arcs” section to the “everybody else” or the “antagonists” section
We are really zoomed in on the action right now, I’m worried about the storm. Prediction that at least a few people get knocked overboard and are helped by the fish people?
Uh-oh
PEACEFULLY, RIGHT
Oh so if the reader theory that Falst was blessed in the caves, and is basically a Ferin with Paladin Powers, I wonder if that will be revealed and save Erin. Because right now it’s not looking good…
What does “blessed in the caves” mean?
Feels like it’s about time for someone to get whacked by a volcanic rock.