Well, that's a trip and half. The Eight Apostles are behind everything after all. I'm honestly interested to see how Crosswell is gonna get through to Eve since honestly, he didn't come through with his side of the bargain either.
__________________
Illusion, illusion, this is illusion. It cannot harm me.
Still no idea how long this series will go on for, volume 13 out in winter 2022, lots to write about!
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Spoiler for Prologue:
Alice has almost reached the Empire, the Zoa family is conferring with Shanorotte about their plans and how their dreams are almost within reach, everyone is preparing but the unease in their hearts isn't going away. The moon and stars are being covered up with black clouds.
And Elletear has begun her own war, and the surviving Grand Apostles are first on the list. A lot of contempt is exchanged, and the Apostles bring out all the traps they had designed ever since Elletear escaped from Elsa's Coffin. But even their backup mecha doesn't work, Elletear is too much of a monster now. Physical force, astral power, nothing in the arsenal available to the Apostles works.
She confirms her kills with Johaim, the 1st Saint Disciple, and leaves the wreckage to be crushed beneath 5000 meters of rubble and detritus.
Spoiler for It begun:
Nebulis and Crosswell continue talking. Crosswell said a century ago that the Empire would be changed, the world's perception of witches and sorcerers changed from the inside, even if it took 10, 20, 100 years.
But Crosswell isn't going to lie. The war intensified over time, solidified the old hate, spread over the entire world like a plague. A giant mess was passed down to future generations.
The Emperor's condition ended up also meaning that they slept for great periods of time, and couldn't change the trends of the nation.
And the Nebulis Sovereignty only splintered under ideological grounds, while the public embraced the rage and fought to enforce the power of whichever family they followed.
To Nebulis, hearing all this is a confession. Crosswell has dreamed for a century, and it's time to wake up and deal with reality. To destroy the Empire.
Crosswell's own response is that he didn't need a sword.
He was a Astral himself, but had to hide and pretend being normal and had limited opportunity within the Empire. What he should have done - from the start was give his trust over to the unmarked, to people like Iska, Jhin and Nene.
To not take on everything himself. To pass down what he knew to the next generation.
And Nebulis is P I S S E D and attacks but Crosswell has a lesser version of the black star sword from the People of the Stars, and can defend himself.
It can't defeat Elletear - but it can serve the purpose of holding back Nebulis. And thus his fight to buy time continues.
Spoiler for The plaza:
The Zoa arrive at the 8th Border Crossing of the Empire, prepared to infiltrate and turn the Empire into ashes and dust. But while the noncombatants fled for their lives earlier, there's no sign of the army. Nobody to respond to the Astral energy alarms. Nothing.
Eventually the Zoa search the area and find many unmoving soldiers, as if they went into a coma on the spot. No fighting, no signs of a struggle.
And Kissing is losing her mind from the fear. She can see something that nobody else does - until Elletear shows up in her monstrous form.
Despite the shock, and the fear, the Mask is willing to make common cause with Elletear over destroying the Empire. Elletear cheerfully agrees, while telling him that she's also gonna take down the Sovereignty.
The choice is made, Mask no longer thinks of her as the daughter of the Lou family but a monster. The Zoa throw everything (minus Kissing's thorns) at Elletear and it does nothing.
And Elletear is enjoying herself. The touted forces, the elite of the Sovereignty, the strongest astral users are sweating buckets and losing their minds, but Mask decides to order Kissing to erase Elletear. With her uncle's warm hand, Kissing gets the courage and does indeed turn Elletear into nothing at all.
The Zoa forces applaud Kissing, but even after they stop the clapping sound doesn't. And Elletear decides to return tit for tat.
Schwarz informs Alice that the Zoa family was confirmed to have entered the 8th border crossing, but there have been no further reports from the spy. Everything has gone dark, and Alice decides to first stop the Zoa forces before trying her luck against Nebulis again.
As she enters, she finds the unmoving Zoa and Imperial soldiers in the same area they faced off with Elletear.
Elletear sneaks up behind her in monster form, and cheerfully enlightens her to who exactly is with Alice, who turns as pale as a clean bed sheet.
And Elletear is out to do as much mental damage as possible to her little sister. Follow up on the shock, transform back into her human form and gladly tell her that she was the one who took out everyone here
And she did it with a giant smile because they are all hindrances. Alice's heart and image of Elletear shatters into dust
Alice shouts at Elletear, yelling at her idea of crushing the Sovereignty. The weak are being protected by the strong there!
Elletear points out that the Queen indeed should be strong as benefitting the leader - but what comes after that? The strong have proven their merit, and there would be no longer anyone who can oppose those who toppled the largest country on the world.
Who's left to change the nation on the inside? No one, and there's no incentive to uphold the existence of the weak and unneeded.
The nation will only double down, whether it's the Empire or the Sovereignty left standing and continue doing what the winner did to get where it did.
So Elletear will bring it all down to give the weak and helpless their chance at life without being held down by laws, force, lineage or anything of the sort.
But she also goads Alice, taking her power very lightly. Alice gets her temper really up and is ready to start fighting - but Elletear asks her "where's your knight?"
Alice is confused, why is Elletear talking about such an anachronistic term?
Elletear talks about how "witch" and "princess" are pretty fragile beings, and really should have someone fighting alongside them. And that Alice's automatic defenses are completely focused on Elletear as a terrible threat, but shouldn't she use her eyes and look at Johaim behind her?
Just like that, Alice gets a super fast sword hilt from the side and is on her knees, almost incapacitated by Johaim.
Elletear repeats her question: "where's your knight"? To her, Alice is a frail princess that believed too much in her own power and ended up completely alone as a result.
Full of mocking pity, Elletear tells Alice that's why she cannot defeat her and she's gonna disappear because of it.
Meanwhile, everyone along with the Emperor has seen Sisbell's reproduction of what happened with the 8 Grand Apostles and Elletear. And Sisbell is exhausted and crying her eyes out.
But the Emperor and Risya have business in mind. Iska might be a former Saint Disciple, but the orders comes down all the same: Put an end to Elletear, she is a threat to the entire world as the Star Nightmare.
Sisbell refuses to accept killing Elletear. Stopping her yes, even standing up in front of her sister and talking her down, yes. She can't cut off her older sister from her life just like that.
The Emperor warns Sisbell that this is probably gonna fail and Sisbell is up for a sad ending if it does - but even if it's a 1% chance for mercy then why not. Those are much better odds than fighting it out like this.
Spoiler for War:
So after the Emperor teleports everyone out to where they think Elletear is, yup, for the third time everyone arrives where all the comatose people are. Except Kissing who is going catatonic over the Mask, the fear and guilt. Alice looks like she's in a coma, but isn't and wakes up due to Sisbell and Rin's frantic yelling. It's the first reunion in a while for Iska and Alice though not in private, and while Alice is shocked by the sight of the Emperor being what they are, Elletear crashes the party (again)
Meln simply teleports both Crosswell and Nebulis behind Elletear.
And Crosswell doesn't hesitate to slash her up, and Nebulis has no hesitation in blasting Elletear with lightning even if she just shrugs it off.
This is the one case where the Ancestor will put aside her grudge and hatred for a moment, because Elletear is a nightmare that pollutes the stars
This is a case where everyone combined might have enough power to put her down, and thus Elletear sings "La Selan Milah Vis"
Elletear can disable Meln, Nebulis and Crosswell with how badly their bodies are rejecting the influence of the Nightmare.
Elletear tries to kill the helpless Ancestor as a risk factor to her plans, but everyone else is capable of action still. Alice attacks while making her declaration of war but Elletear cheerfully teleports behind her and is talking about how Alice still cares about Elletear while ignoring her own grooming and split hairs. She prepares to strangle Alice, but Iska goes for the kill.
Elletear can teleport without any warning or sign at all, but like with Keurvina she cannot do it if entangled by astral energy.
Which is why it's very convenient for Johaim to show up and keep Iska from making a fatal strike.
But Elletear still doesn't like the odds, it's a real nuisance to suppress three monsters while facing off against Iska, Alice and everyone else there.
Better to go down to where the source of the nightmare is and finish up her transformation.
She is used to running away after all, but leaves a pair of gifts for everyone, the Ghost of the Sea and the Earth, those who could destroy the Empire and the Sovereignty.
Spoiler for Problems:
A pair of inhuman giant cyclops, red and blue.
Blue reflects all astral power. Red reflects all physical power. And not deflect, it's actual JRPG reflect, barely enough time to react to reflect attacks.
Of course, Blue is affected by physical force, and Red cannot withstand astral power, but they have attacks of their own.
Sure, Alice could stop a tsunami of astral fire, but can Iska actually cut apart non-astral lightning showers at the same time? Things don't go well, and the Emperor goes teleport happy to separate and divide and get the incapacitated out of the way.
Things don't improve much. Red does have the physical power to just blast away Alice's ice storms with a swipe, and Blue has enough astral powers crammed into it that even getting close is a major problem when it can just merge with the earth or fire and become intangible. Even seeing it is tough with everything exploding everywhere! Mismis has to go through a bizarre trance, undergoing her own awakening as a wind astral user with the deeply unusual ability to prevent all astral fire.
So when it looks like the giants are cornered, guess what?
They can simply change color! And just at the moment that they were about to receive a huge attack.
No one is hurt too bad, but people are getting cornered real fast. Mismis is falling unconscious, Iska and Rin are tied down trying to keep Mismis from getting squashed, Alice and Risya have no ways to contain blue when it can just go intangible with fire and no way to hurt it. It's a real pinch.
So Jhin saves the day.
How?
Spoiler for Impossible:
It’s true that his bullet would be reflected by red - but what happens if it ricochets all the way right back to red after being reflected?
Crazy trick shot works wonders as it turns out. Use the unnatural rules to his advantage.
After breaking up the giants, Nebulis arrives again and drops the Staff on Heaven on the giant to finish it off.
There’s a bit of downtime to recover and sit among the wreckage of the border crossing, but the Ancestor doesn’t want to stay. She hates the Empire, but her star spirit won’t let go of what Elletear is. She teleports off - somewhere.
Spoiler for Intermission 1:
Shanorotte is losing her mind. Nobody from the higher ups or elites of the Zoa can be contacted anymore, all the plans have gone up in dust. The other subordinates believe that the family is finished.
All that’s left to Shanorotte is her hatred. And she will give voice to hers.
The Hydra are deeply concerned. The 8 Apostles aren’t talking any longer. They know that the Zoa have disappeared from the Imperial Border. They know that Elletear was a risk factor from the start, but she’s no longer under anyone’s thumb.
But Talisman also listens to the opinion of his family members, and figures that Elletear might be dangerous beyond measure but she will want to power up even more, because she was the weakest. An assassination at the center of the star might be their only option.
But the sun in the sky is being covered with clouds, just like with the stars and moon.
Spoiler for Cope:
Cleanup is ongoing, with the Emperor having returned instantly to the capital and Risya directing the army. A helicopter has arrived for Alice, Rin and Sisbell. Alice is lost in thought, and neither of the sisters want to leave Iska, but they have to return and tell everything to their mother, expose the Hydra and clean up a huge mess at home.
But the Emperor calls all of sudden through Risya’s comm, asking to speak to Alice. It's time to consult about what to do. Become more than a POW but less than a guest, and listen to what Meln has to say.
Why? Because the Emperor wants her to defeat Elletear. In exchange for as much freedom as she wants and whatever she needs to know about the Nightmare, don’t start fighting the Empire or subverting it.
Not a kind proposition, but the Emperor makes it simple. The time for protecting only the Sovereignty or the Empire from Elletear is gone. If Alice cannot accept it, then better she goes home and waits for whatever is to come.
Sisbell goes all in for it. She will not sit back and let Elletear do this, even if she can’t fight. And Alice ends up accepting too.
Spoiler for The important Intermission:
Medical inspection of the comatose is ongoing but absolutely nothing is waking anyone.
And Kissing, under restraints of all kinds isn’t responding to anyone or anything. The trauma is too great.
But when Kissing sees the light of the moon hours later, alone in her room, she begins to remember a bit. And cry too, because why not?
About the Mask. About how he saved her with teleport when the Requiem of the Stars got everyone else.
About how her astral crest on the eyes allows her to see the form of astral spirits within people, how different they all look. And of the mind crushing horror that Elletear has become.
About how the night was once full of joy and pride, only be swallowed up by the fear of the dark, of how all her power and training and and family meant nothing against the Nightmare. Of how she is learning what loneliness feels like.
So what is she supposed to do now?
Spoiler for Wrap up:
Risya is riding in another chopper with the 907. And the news from the capital is not great, because Elletear had to pass through the central army base for her entrance to where the 8 Grand Apostles were.
The Imperial Army’s effective personnel have been reduced by 20%. Indiscriminately comatose, no matter if they were a soldier or a commander or general. HQ is in chaos, and all the Saint Disciples have a huge mess on their hands.
This is also part of the reason why the Emperor wants the Lou sisters on board, to remove any possible risk of the war starting up again when the world is in danger. They are not hostages in name, but that could change really quickly with all the Saint Disciples in the area. Deterrence.
So with the 2nd Saint Disciple and Mei stationed in the Emperor’s tower, Unit 907 is assigned as well to secure the premises, with Iska and Jhin first heading over while Nene and Mismis handle HQ.
Inside is pandemonium. Sisbell and Rin are demanding all the customary luxuries while the Emperor is playing around and falling asleep. Jhin is not entirely pleased about their “promotion” and the never ending babysitting. Iska goes off on his own to check on Alice.
And Alice, well.
Spoiler for Ending:
Alice is having trouble. She believed with all her heart in creating a world where nobody is persecuted, a world of peace.
She fought against the Empire, and now she is going to fight to preserve the Empire.
She fought for the Sovereignty’s cause and now has to fight against her own royal sister to prove that strength shouldn’t count for everything.
She fought for Astral spirits and now has to fight the advocate of the weak ones.
She believed in her strength and now is faced with someone who completely overpowers her, and that person has someone who she trusts with all heart.
Alice feels so lost, where indeed is that one person who she will entrust above all with how she feels, who will fight alongside her? How exactly is she supposed to beat Elletear like this?
And like that, Iska comes in her room.
It’s awkward, but Iska knows that Alice won’t misbehave so long as Rin and Sisbell are protected. He doesn’t want her as a guest to feel bad, but he doesn’t know exactly why her eyes are red. She does blurt that Elletear said that Alice is alone, but doesn’t elaborate, stubbornly refusing to go further despite Iska trying to figure out what she means.
But of course there’s another comm call, except this one is about a witch rampaging within the central base. Iska can only believe that it’s Kissing, and has to run off to put a stop to it.
Alice is also wondering, what if she had reached out to Iska? Be her knight. Fight alongside her.
Put an end to the rivalry.
And she is scared. Scared of changing from their current relationship into...what? What exactly is he aiming for? What is she really trying to do right now?
Kissing is waiting at the base for Iska, introducing herself, asking for his name and declaring war.
And this time she has prepared herself. Instead of grabbing a bunch of bombs and missiles and fail to kill him with a great big explosion, she has loaded her thorns with a horrendous amount of flashbangs, seeking to take away his senses.
But Iska can fight all the same even if he’s momentarily deaf and blind. She’s scared again, but accepts her defeat, asking for his pardon. She had to be sure he wasn’t a fluke back in volume 2.
She has thought about what to do, and her future looks awful. So she has a proposal for him: she will serve under him.
In exchange, kill Elletear.
The Emperor is having awful nightmares, but the astral spirits are showing him glimpses of the nightmare to come. So sleep time is over. Everyone is getting called into the meeting to discuss what exactly is all this talk about how the Star Swords are the last hope for the world, what is this disaster and who are the People of the Stars.
Ahhh, the illustrations, I dunno what's going on with those.
Covers are fine, but I wish Nekonabe would stop using those really flat colors on the opening pages and take a bit more time with them, even if it means we can't get the glory of the past back.
Anyways, spoiler time. Volume 14 along with Secret File 3 is scheduled for the summer, I still have no idea how many books we have left.
Spoiler for Prologue:
Shanorotte is watching the army take away the Zoa family.
And she is mad to her core.
She went through all the pain and trouble of being a spy in the Empire, and endured all kinds of grief. And this is how things ended up: the purebloods lost almost instantly.
She certainly can't forgive the Empire.
But she can't forgive her superiors either for being defeated for zero gain.
She will continue her war without them.
As for Kissing and Iska, she has another reason for chosing Iska: Elletear's astral power has become a song that cannot be blocked by other astral powers or by anything. Steel walls will not stop it.
But if the star swords could cut through Kissing's thorns...why not cut through the Song?
Spoiler for Phase 1:
The next couple days is a division of labor and separation of guests. Jhin will watch the surveillance cameras, Mismis and Nene will handle Sisbell, May is with Kissing and Iska gets Rin and Alice. The Emperor is not waking up for a bit so it's time for Alice and Iska to spend time together for the first time in many books.
Elletear's words won't stop echoing in Alice's head, but there's plenty of light hearted stuff here as everyone hurries up to wait, like Iska cooking Alice food (a guest's request), nudity and Alice's lust peeking out, hearing Rin badmouth Alice's cooking and losing her cool a few times, propaganda and Sisbell trying to use the sleeping Emperor as a replacement stuffed toy. A break from all the ominous conflict brewing. Even Risya and Mismis's discussion about her difficult future doesn't break the mood.
As Alice attempts to improve her cooking so that Iska can taste test, Kissing escapes May's surveillance and eats Alice's omelet instead in order to get close to Iska and get his attention (also spits it out for being gross). Iska didn't say for certain that he would kill Elletear, so she bows and asks again.
Rin is aghast at the dishonor this brings to the Royal Family, but Kissing simply asks who's going to suffer from it? Her uncle won't wake up. The upper ranks of the Zoa family are gone. Kissing is alone. She's scared, she's not used to talking for herself, she's against horrible odds and has little hope.
But she is prepared to get revenge, no matter what.
The Emperor wakes up and interrupts this moment for a PSA, to summarize quickly
-Nucleus of the world is where Astral Spirits resided, deep beneath the crust and mantle.
-Long time ago something foreign arrived and began to alter and mutate Astral spirits.
-Astral spirits began to flee and escape, causing star springs and spreading across the surface.
-the Emperor, Nebulis, Elletear, the corrupted spirits from 12 are all examples of what is remade in body, and can be remade in mind for the unlucky
-Elletear is different in that this is what she clearly and knowingly wanted, although Emperor doesn't know why she chose this specifically, and neither does her family.
-Unless something is done, everything and everyone will be remade as the Nightmare decides.
So the time has come for people to see what a world ruled by the Nightmare will look like, in the Catalyst disaster zone.
And their guide is a gnome, one of the People of the Stars, a race that has coexisted with astral spirits for a very long time, although they cannot say if they were like this from the beginning or fused with astral spirits down the line.
On a side note, the Emperor also finally sees Mismis's Astral spirit and it has something or other to do with Eve's sister from a century ago, although details are not forthcoming.
Spoiler for Road Trip to Hell:
All aboard Iska's crew, Alice's crew, Risya and May. May is not at all diplomatic about the current situation but sticks to talking with Risya. Alice is wondering about how Elletear and Kissing were prepared to sacrifice something cleanly and resolutely in order to achieve their goals. Does she really have their resolution? Does she really know she is prepared to do to fight her own family?
Once outside of the Empire, Alice gives the Queen a call to inform her about Elletear, Sisbell, the defeat of the Zoa and a multitude of other things although the silence about Imperial cooperation stands. The Queen has no great insight to offer about Elletear's goals, but she does not know how to understand why the Hydra have made no overt moves and are being passive.
However, Talisman, Mizerhyby and Vichy are all headed for one of the secret locations of the family. A very old star spring, and the focus of Gregory's Secret, a decades old plan to travel to the center of the world. Talisman's predecessor and the 8 Grand Apostles found value in making use of the Nightmare and began their plan together.
And the spring is most likely the quickest way to find Elletear.
Spoiler for Set up:
The Catalyst zone is abnormally hot, full of red swamps, yellow air and desolation. And thick with corrupting Nightmare essence, but Kissing's astral marked eyes are capable of seeing the safe spots, and so the party goes marching on in single file. It's a tough wade through swamps and not everyone has been training their bodies like mad, so Iska carries Kissing on his back after preventing a face plant and Sisbell tries to get carried by Jhin.
Final destination is a small clean oasis full of life, with Astral energy fighting a long losing battle against the corruption. The People of the Stars have a audience with the princess group, Iska and Risya, and Alice is even more displeased with Kissing staying on Iska's back and Kissing not feeling like getting off.
A lot of info is dropped, so here's the highlights #2:
-Astral spirits are running away from the Nightmare in the nucleus
-Astral spirits hide on the surface, either wandering or in people. In truth, they'd rather descend back into the nucleus and leave humans if the Nightmare was gone.
-The black stone is a aggregation of hundreds of thousands of astral spirits, all their colors combining into black
-The Nightmare could be beaten if all astral spirits were to gather up, human strength alone will never beat the Nightmare.
-Astral spirits of the same element are friends, but the People of the Stars have no idea how to bring all of them together or how long that could take
-The People of the Stars cannot understand differences between individual humans very well and ask Iska "Did you shrink Cross?"
-Crosswell asked for the White Star Sword to be made but the People have no deeper insight into why he wanted it
-There's a bit of the black stone in the sanctuary so Kissing asks for a dagger to use against Elletear and the Nightmare, the People are willing to do it if she can wait out the night
And as night passes after the conference, people began to talk about what they have been pondering
Alice with Rin, and Talisman with his family far away.
Spoiler for The unpleasant truth:
Alice knows that sacrifices are inevitable in stopping Elletear and by destroying the Nightmare. But now she knows this entails the end of the Nebulis Sovereignty, that all astral mages lose their power.
And Talisman points out to Mizerhyby that the Hydra must not destroy the Nightmare. Elletear yes, but this is not a battle to deprive the Sovereignty of its power.
And sooner or later, as the truth emerges to the public, all Astral mages will agree to keep the Nightmare alive, regardless of how or why they justify it to themselves.
Mizerhyby for one declares she would rather lose all of her property and wealth and status than give up her astral powers.
On the other hand, Talisman does confess that he has a deep curiosity over the Nightmare. What is it? Why is it?
Is there any way to come to some kind of agreement with it, something mutually convenient?
The 8 Grand Apostles would rather have used the Nightmare as a fuel source and a weapon, but Talisman believes that fools can only defeat their enemies. The wise find ways to tame enemies.
As for Alice, well.
If the Nightmare doesn't die, all astral spirits will become corrupted and distorted, and the world will get worse and worse and worse.
If the Nightmare does die, then that's it for the Sovereignty. The power will go and all that's left for former mages is their hatred for the Empire.
If she had to give up her astral powers and only hers for the sake of world peace, that'd be an easy yes. And the Nightmare can't be allowed to exist, Rin has had enough bad encounters and memories to agree without any doubt
But can any mage really choose for thousands upon thousands of other mages to lose their power without hesitation?
It's a pretty cruel choice. The future doesn't look very happy.
And Iska passing by ended up hearing part of it, so comes the drama.
2021-06-01, 01:10
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