2.5.25
on August 25, 2025
at 3:00 am
page 25 of chapter 2.5 posted on august 25! that’s so fun and satisfying. also something happened in the comic maybe
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
page 25 of chapter 2.5 posted on august 25! that’s so fun and satisfying. also something happened in the comic maybe
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: WHAT HATH THE BOOP WROUGHT
Image source: why
DAMN alinua is even more over powered than we thought.
Neat.
Person that is a vessel for the literal embodiment of life touching a creature twisted by a person that is… also somewhat carrying around the literal embodiment of life. Apparently that causes body horror.
But this did not happen when she touched the chimera remains two pages ago, so do things only get weird when she touches something alive?
I think its that there is barely/no life magic down there. Can’t drain it into the surroundings when there’s no life magic there.
I don’t think that’s how it works. If there’s no Life in the environment, then you can’t perform Life Magic (because you can’t manipulate a Primordial energy/spirit which is absent from your immediate vicinity). But obviously there’s a massive amount of Life in the Chimer-Wyrm (hehe) so I don’t see why Alinua couldn’t drain that energy into the surroundings. It would be like filling an empty bowl from an overfull cup.
It looks less like a cup and more of a balloon, and what happens why you put a hole in a water balloon?
my guess is because the original incarnation of the wyrm didnt have a lot if any life in it
the wyrm is an ocean current and we know that gods dont have to use all 7 elements when making incarnations since they dont need to work like mortals do so any life energy in the wyrm chimera is excess life energy
so when alinua takes that energy away it rips it apart
don’t we know that incarnations have life in them because of kendal? i feel like it would be hard to make something lifelike without having life in it
Not all of them. Multiple characters have said that Vash makes his incarnates “sturdy” unlike most gods, which is probably why Kendal has all 6 elements (and no void). But it is not necessary, like how Tynan’s incarnations are made of clouds and are easily cut through. The wyrm’s body is probably only made of water and rock as the mermaids said, more like a golem than an animal.
I think Vash was the exception among gods. He used all the elements (except maybe Void if that counts as an element; it’s either its own element or part of a more nuanced element, we don’t really know at this point), not to mention Starmetal, to build an incarnation that would last. Particularly in the event of battle. Each time. The exact same ridiculously complicated and robust structure, superficial differences notwithstanding. Even when just attending ceremonies or celebrating. I think he might’ve been a bit paranoid. Just a tad.
In any case, whether or not Vash was the exception in that way, Kendal is definitely an exception, thanks to Alinua’s magic.
“what if you were trying to heal a chimera but you filled her tail with explosion instead?!” Erin, 1.8.9 (that’s definitely what he said)
This has the same vibe as bible quotes 😀
To be fair, multiple members of the Floof Squad could say: “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
Yeah, but only Erin would
And then the other members of the Floof Squad would reply with some variation of “Yeah right, and pigs fly” (tho flying pigs come be a thing in Aurora)
Alinua used FLESH MELTING! It was super effective!
This felt like some extreme tissue rejection. Either Collie installed a failsafe or that incarnation was basically hanging on by threads and trying to apply Life magic would just cause it to unravel.
Uh, that doesn’t seem like what she wanted to do
What appears to have happened was that Alinua tried to scan the Wyrm, but all life energy she pumped in for a scan caused the body to unravel. I suspect that is because of what The Collector did to the Wyrm, the way she forced the body to stay stitched and together by using binds of Life energy. Any extra Life energy would cause those binds to break.
Also, found this song that might describe the Collector quite nicely.
“The Morrigan fills an empty throne
The Morrigan builds with flesh and bone
The Morrigan sees with another sight
And the Morrigan dreams old dreams of flight”
Ooo Nice! I love Heather Dale.
As do I, but haven’t heard this one. What’s it called?
“The Morrigan” by Heather Dale, of course 🙂
Oh. Right. Should have seen that one coming.
So… I’m guessing the chimera has very unstable Life energy?
Also, this is going to be a very unfun arc for Ali.
I wonder if that was an explosion or some sort of dissolution?
There was a sound but it doesn’t seem like there was a shock-wave or a physical blast and it didn’t damage Alinua or Selach so I would think it dissolved somehow, that’s an interesting way the life magic interacted with the Wyrm’s body and it’s certainly nothing like the way it interacted with Kendal the first time they met, maybe this is different somehow.
I’m sure that’s fine.
Okay theory time: either the Collector purposefully rigged the body to explode as soon as someone tried to use magic on it, or the mutations were just REALLY unstable.
If I’m correct on lore, life makes are already super powerful. Alinua more so. The only thing stopping people from reading your blood out (or removing the air from your lungs) is that the soul stops magic being cast in it. This is also why healing magic has a short application time, as damage starts reshaping a part of your soul to reflect it. Could it eb that this vestal for a god, quite litteraly has no soul in it, a automated brain closer to that of a plant, or could the soul simply be torn to ribbons on the inside meaning that any attempt to heal it would turn it into thos same shreads
Oh, that sounds pretty plausible. If that was actually the case here and the Wyrm was lost and this was just her empty vessel, I don’t think Alina would take it well that she actually couldn’t help the Wyrm because there would be nobody left to help. (I wonder if in that case she would try something completely unexpected and probably unhealthy?)
PS: Please pardon if I messed up this conditional clause, I just woke up and English isn’t my first language, but maybe it is also totally correct and fine. Besides, as long as one can understand it, it’s proper language, right?
Your English seems perfectly fine to me. Plenty of english first language speakers talk with the same grammar you used now, so yeah
Oh this makes a LOT of sense. Her sense of how much magical force she has to apply would be completely based on having a soul barrier there to push against. It would be like going to kick a ball lightly over to the other side of a field, only to discover the ball was actually made of hollow, disintegrating Styrofoam and it just gets annihilated.
Methinks Life may have Opinions on this matter after the look into the Chimera from Alinua’s point of view.
My first bet was half right. My last one was all wrong. I’m down one and a half Auroran dollars…
2.5.25 on the 25th in the year ’25. Yeah, that’s awesome.
Now if only it were the year 2525
But we’ll have to make do with 2025
Another wonderful page layout! Now if I could only figure out what it means! Will Wednesday’s revelation answer Monday’s mystery? Guess I have to come back to find out then.
I don’t understand what happened either – but it was beautiful!
At the first hint of Life, the flesh of the Wyrm goes soft
Like Collector-slime, floats as the duo take off
That’s one heckuva boop, Alinua. :O
My theory is that because the wyrm was born like that, twisted, healing it will only cause it to die, because it doesn’t have a “healthy” form
Don’t you just hate it when you try to take a tricorder reading but accidentality whip out fire your set-to-kill phaser?
… No? … I’m the only one who does that?
Oh my, that is visceral, in a good way; it may not be flesh and bone Alinua just blew up, but the textures and lighting effects certainly make it feel that way. I also really like panel 2, both their expressions of shock with the sudden glow effects are very striking.
Also, is the Wyrm glowing less green after that attack? Maybe re-routing the life energy to heal the wound?
If I were to throw in my theory as to what happened, maybe the incarnation reacted that way because the god inside wants it to.
If the Northern Wyrm is trapped in this body, then she probably wants to de-incarnate and destroy it, but cant. Alinua’s magic is very feely, seeing how someone’s body wants to heal, and help it along. Maybe that’s what’s happened here; the god wants their body to be destroyed, and so Alinua’s magic does just that.
In any case, if the rest of the Wyrm is this reactive to Alinua’s powers, then this fight could be much shorter than I was expecting. Then again, it looks like the Wyrm is regenerating in panel 3; if they want to take it down, they need to go for the head, which is also where most of the danger lies.
But before any of that, Selach needs to knock Alinua out of whatever funk she’s on the cusp of falling into.
Also, I finally got my copy of volume 1!
It took a while for us UK natives, but it’s finally arrived here in the Shire. Shropshire to be exact!
It’s been a bit busy at home to start ready yet; been doing a bunch of dry outdoor garden jobs before the remains of Hurricane Erin hit us with wet weather this week. I’ll begin my manual re-read soon.
Noting, as was on the Tumblr, the comedy of that name being discussed here.
With a touch life rends
Her tail cut instead of drained
Yet why is unknown
There once was an elf who’s distraught
At the results her touch had brought.
She’s just trying to heal
Not to bring more weal–
What destruction hath the boop wrought?
If people were wondering where I’d gone, the answer is nowhere, I just hadn’t gotten the inspiration for any limericks lately.
Oh no! Poor Alinua, what a nightmare. Maybe the Collector somehow booby trapped the worm to prevent anyone fixing the situation? Although that seems like somewhat wasted effort considering that she would have no reason to think that there would be any life mages around… well she might still have done it just-in-case ig. And like others suggested, it might have just been an unintentional side effect of how she tampered with/rebuilt(?) the wyrm…
And it’s 2025! Definitely the most satisfying page so far
Any guesses to what music the gang would listen to?
And I think Dainix might like Oh Geeez Not Again. I think the acoustic rendition of Fighter fits him extremely well. (should be linked)
I wonder if Alinua or perhaps Falst would listen to The Crane Wives.
Or Falst listening to Skillet, and Tess listening to all of these.
Erin is listening to They Might Be Giants at the very least, but probably Tally Hall and Will Wood, imo
Salagadoola menchicka boola
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boop
Put ’em together and what have you got?
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boop
I guess the collector’s manipulation left the wyrm’s body a bit unstable.
I, too, love when numbers work out like that.
“Incredible!!! You just blew up my people’s patron deity!!! Wow so cool!!!1!”
The way Alinua casts life magic is unorthodox, she feels her way through, almost like a conversation with the living material she interacts with. An artificial animal like a chimera is still an animal, but the Wyrm’s incarnation is something divine, twisted with life magic, so perhaps she can’t just feel her way through, hence the extreme rejection. Is this perhaps a rare instance where Erin’s use of Life magic would be more applicable, given his knowledge of the properties of the magic?
What on earth…? What could cause this?
Did The Collector completely take apart the Wyrm’s Soul Barrier testing out her knife? Or is Life energy all that’s keeping most of its body together, and Alinua’s going to have to get close to its head to get any information?
Tumblr Text: This is normal on a Monday.
Bluesky text: such a gentle, healing art
Murmaider! Murmaider! Murmaider!
I also hate when I accidentally cast Inflict Wounds instead of Cure Wounds.
waiiiiiit
okay consider the following:
Alinua is the vessel of the living soul of Life. This means that she contains at least a fragment of Life in herself.
In every other situation so far, Alinua has had a way to ground the Life energy she seems to almost instinctively wield.
However, the following extenuating circumstances exist:
1. Alinua is currently underwater. This is not great because there is hardly any Life under all the Water, and could cause problems for the living avatar of Life.
2. Alinua recently underwent massive chimeric mutations to start breathing out of her chest, and being able to see and hear underwater.
Therefore, I hypothesise that what is currently happening (as well as what has been happening lately, note the strands of Life that broke off the little guy) is that Alinua/Life, being unable to vent or ground themselves in dead fragments of Life’s body/soul, is becoming unstable in some fashion. We have never seen Alinua’s Life magic behaving like it has been in recent pages. It remains to be seen what will be done about it.
Not to mention it was 8/25/25 🙂