mithril is down but not out. In chapter 4 (the newly released chapter !! i think !! ) from what I heard its a plan to regroup the members of mithril for a counterattack or something. I could be wrong due to the language barrier. Also I found a page in which there are monthly pictures of whats in the next novel. Though they kinda stopped on jan 2006 it does show alot of novel picture goodness. The mag is called Fantasy Dragon Magazine or "Doramaga" or "Gekkan Dragon Magazine".
Take a gander
http://fmp.abstratica.org/gallery-novelsm.html
http://fmp.abstratica.org/gallery-dm.html
and the main pic page
http://fmp.abstratica.org/gallery.html