Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 14 – The Melancholy of Ophelia Salvadori

Ophelia isn’t some cartoon villain who is just evil because. She never asked to be the descendant of a succubus. As she tells her only friend Carlos years ago, she doesn’t make love to anyone, she merely devours. Her only duty as bestowed on her by her mother is to create superior progeny through selective breeding. But Carlos always thought she could, and should be more.

As Katie and Guy do their part by carefully taking class notes for their friends, Oliver, Nanao, Chela and Vera traverse the third layer of the Labyrinth, which resembles the Dead Marshes in The Lord of the Rings. Oliver, the only male among them, is tough, but they draw closer, he can’t help but grow…hornier, and more sensitive to Nanao’s tendency to be too close. He sucks it up and takes his medicine.

When the party reaches a lake impassible on foot, they build a boat with Guy’s toolplants, and Vera gives a crash course in walking on water should the need arise. Nanao gives it a go but sinks like a stone; only when she’s watched Oliver do it does she get the hang of it.

When Vera, all too aware of the gentle love triangle in play, pointedly asks Chela if “she’s going to stay on the shore”, the question has more than one meaning! Their boat, driven along the water by Vera’s wind magic, is stopped in its tracks by a bone basilisk conjured by Cyrus Livermore.

Cyrus scolds Vera for bringing first-years here like lambs to the slaughter. Chela tries to negotiate with Cyrus, saying they only care about retrieving their friends. Alas, there’s nothing Cyrus wants other than their deaths. I loved Oliver noticing that Chela is trembling while asking why they can’t all get along. Chela is a heroine and a top-notch mage, but she’s still a kid. They all are!

They’re bailed out thanks to Vera luring a chimera below the water to the surface. It’s drawn to the one with the highest mana, which is Cyrus with his bone basilisk. Now preoccupied with the chimera, they are able to slip away on the boat.

From there, we check in with Alvin and Carlos, who wonder if “Lia” still remembers when she first arrived at Kimberly. That’s when the episode launches into Ophelia’s heartbreakingly tragic backstory and fall from grace.

Due to the powerful male-seducing perfume constantly emanating from her person, first-year Ophelia was instantly an outcast and pariah at school. The deck was stacked against her. But her only friend Carlos took her under his wing, welcoming her with open arms, and assuring her she’d be able to make other friends as well, starting with Alvin.

Alvin is unlike any other boy she’s encountered (Carlos excepted): rather than immediately give in to her aroma, he checks his baser feelings by using what I’ll call a “nutshot” spell on himself. Every time they interact and he starts blushing too much, Alvin magically kicks himself in the balls to snap out of the spell. This is hilarious, but also sweet as hell. Like, Sword Roses sweet!

After two months of kicking himself in the balls in her presence, one day Alvin declares that he no longer needs to resort to such measures to be Ophelia’s friend. When she asked why he went to such lengths for her, he’s very clear: whatever pain he endured was insignificant compared to the pain she’s endured her whole life: the pain of not belonging, of being perceived as a slut and a predator, just because of the blood in her veins.

After she officially befriends Alvin, he and Carlos introduce her to Lesedi and Tim, and welcome her into their nascent Campus Watch. Because Alvin is unable to properly control the mana he was born with, he literally burns himself when he uses flame magic. He comes to rely on Ophelia to heal him, and she heals the other members of the watch, finding not only camaraderie, but a purpose beyond her curse of a birthright.

The Watch’s ranks swell, but unfortunately, Alvin and Carlos can’t always be by Lia’s side. When they’re not, she’s cornered and bullied by classmates watch-mates who envy and resent her position as Alvin’s friend and right hand. They even believe she’s controlling him with her perfume.

The bottom line is, they believe Lia has become inessential to the workings of the Watch, as others are just as good if not better at healing magic and the like. She puts it to them, if she were strong, they wouldn’t have a problem with her, then unleashes her succubus spell to take them all out.

There’s no putting that toothpaste back in the tube, so as time goes on, not only is anyone who questions or opposes her taken down, but she begins to devour any man she pleases, eventually becoming the uncaring monster she always feared she’d become. She even attacks Tim, and a rift grows between her, Alvin and Carlos. That last bit I’d wish we’d seen more of, even if it was just one conversation with them.

That brings us to the present, with the spell continuing to consume Ophelia. You get the feeling even if she wanted it to stop, she’s no longer strong enough on her own.

And that’s what she is at the moment: totally alone and isolated. Alvin and Carlos admit they didn’t do enough to save their kohai or prevent her from going over the deep end, and with the mention of a “final visitor”, there’s a strong indication one of them may die so that they can at least be there for her before she is completely consumed.

I hope it doesn’t come to that, and when they reach Lia, they can help pull her out of this tailspin while also saving everyone she captured. I wish that because it’s now been confirmed what I’d suspected: this mess happened to Lia because of who she was told she always was, not because she wanted it to happen.

Pete is able to use the orbs Joe gave him to escape from his cell, evade the magical beasts, and send a flare up into the sky once he emerges from the lair. We see that he’s in the same marsh where Oliver’s party, as well as Stacey and Lynette currently are.

Hopefully they spot the flare and make a beeline to that location for the big finale. Until then, I find myself not only rooting for Pete an Fay to be rescued, but for Lia to be saved as well. This was an efficient, effective, compelling piece of character work.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 13 – Frolick In the Forest

Years ago, Ophelia Salvadori was all alone, and she hated it. But one day a boy approached her, and rather than go crazy and try to ravage her due to her succubus pheromones, he’s not affected at all. Having passed his self-appointed test, he takes a shocked Ophelia’s hands in his and declares them friends.

It’s another reminder that while she was introduced as a two-dimensional villain, there’s a lot more to Ophelia, and there are tight-knit groups of friends in Beverly other than the Sword Roses. As Oliver, Nanao and Chela continue their descent through the second layer with Vera, we learn more about this strange place.

For one thing, the fake sun in the sky that never sets is a piece of ancient technology that cannot be replicated. I’m not sure if that nugget of info will ever be crucial to the plot, but it’s still neat. They also make use of Guy’s toolplants to build bridges and his delicious cakes to fill their bellies.

While they and the StuCo take different paths, we also see that Stacey is in the Labyrinth to retrieve her beloved Fay, with her fourth-year half-sister Lynette escorting her. Finally, Teresa is also lurking, and is extremely pleased when Oliver asks her to serve as an advance scout.

While Teresa takes care of quite a few magical beasts on her own, eventually Oliver’s party has to confront one. In this case, it’s a gorilla-type beast that has been wounded by the chimeras. Nanao calms her heart, gets right in the beast’s face, and asks nicely if they can pass without violence, and the beast lets them.

However, that beast is soon gruesomely beheaded by a giant mantis-like chimera with razor claws. Vera falls back and lets this be her underclassmen’s first big test. Oliver, Nanao and Chela work well as a unit, mixing up elemental spells in order to discern weak spots.

That said, the chimera is not only full of surprises, but surprises specifically designed by Ophelia to affect those looking for those weak spots. As a result when Oliver goes for the head, he’s met by a fusillade of spikes. Vera suddenly rushes in, worried that he might have been killed.

But alas, Oliver is fine; he used a chunk of the chimera’s own exoskeleton as an improvised shield. The three complete their takedown of the beast, and Chela is so happy they defeated it together she gives Oliver and Nanao a big ‘ol hug. With their first test passed, they continue their journey, cutting down any chimeras in their way.

While resting in a cave for the night, Vera asks Oliver why the he and the others are going to far to save Pete. Oliver recalls how the six of them were the ones who didn’t run away when the troll nearly crushed Katie. That includes Pete, which doubly impressed them because he’s so new to the magical world. He didn’t run away, so they won’t run away.

Vera legit admires what a beautiful friendship the Sword Roses have, but there’s something else piquing her curiosity: Oliver’s whole deal. She can buy both Chela (extraordinary family) and Nanao (extraordinary place), but she doesn’t understand how such a perfectly average and ordinary mage like Oliver is a match for both in combat.

Naturally, Oliver is coy, and Vera can sense she’s hit a sore spot and decides not to dwell on it. She needs Oliver and the others to be on top of their game both physically and mentally as the near the far more dangerous third layer. Meanwhile, Joseph is the first of the captured males to come to.

When he learns that Pete is currently a woman due to his Reversi status, he helps him in he only way he can (with most of his mana sucked away): by digging his hand into his own chest and pulling out three magic orbs he keeps there for emergencies. One is a bomb, another a smoke bomb, and a third a distress beacon.

Finally, because he’s relying on this “nobody” to save his life and the lives of the other captives, he does Pete the courtesy of asking for his name. Pete steels himself and gives it, with a resolve and determination that makes me confident that combined with all the outside forces nearing their location, this is all going to work out okay, and maybe Ophelia won’t have to die for that to happen.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 12 – Class Is in Session

Alvin, Carlos, and their fellow StuCo members Lesedi and Tim head down to the Labyrinth to rescue the students Ophelia has abducted. Alvin curses himself for not acting before things got out hand, and Carlos tells Alvin to take care of things should he screw up. The Sword Roses are to a person restless about not being able to do anything.

Nanao is actually the most pessimistic, as her battlefield experience tells her Pete only has a 2-in-10 chance of surviving. But before the Roses start fighting further, Chela says it’s time to get back to class. Oliver meets with Gwyn and Shannon, but while they’re planning to join the StuCo, their larger force cannot reveal itself yet.

Even Professor Garland, clearly one of the nicer teachers, tells Katie that faculty can only go to the Labyrinth to search after students are missing for eight days, and that she mustn’t rely on teachers to come to their aid every time. Kimberly is about exercising independence and self-reliance; it’s how strong mages are made.

Chela reports to Oliver that she unsuccessfully appealed to her father to help, as he told her the moment she can’t protect her own friends is the moment she never should have made them. More tough love. So Chela is determined to go down to the Labyrinth. Oliver won’t hear of her going alone.

Their talk is interrupted by Vera, who takes them to Katie, who has offered up her body to Vera for all the research she wants in exchange for her help. Oliver and Chela ain’t about to let that happen, but fortunately Vera is open to a compromise. She’ll accompany them to Ophelia’s lair on the third level of the Labyrinth, and even train them on the way.

In exchange, Katie will become her official research assistant, not subject. The deal is struck, but while Nanao prepared her bag for what she deemed the certainty of Oliver and Chela coming for her, Katie and Guy are simply not strong enough for that part of the Labyrinth, so there are some emotional parting scenes of them.

Vera leaves her pet Milihand in Katie’s care while she’s away, telling her that the hand is also the key to her research, should she not make it back. With that, she leads Chela, Oliver, and Nanao through the looking glass and into the Labyrinth.

In our check-in with a weakened Pete, he finds himself the only one not unconscious or restrained by a creepy red claw thingy. Still, he fains sleep when Ophelia stops by with her chewing gum walk, assuring her sleeping princes that as long as they stay asleep, it will only feel like a bad dream.

Unfortunately, Pete is not asleep. While on the first layer, Vera explains that Ophelia has Succubus lineage, and used her womb to create the chimeras who captured Pete and the others. She’s using their mana in order to create something even greater than a chimera; possibly something closer to her ancestors’ ideal of the perfect being. Vera & Co. stop by the workshop for some potions and find Marco is there, having been ignored by the Chimeras.

Vera makes clear that Ophelia only needs the vitality—i.e. mana—from males for her research. Nanao decides Vera trustworthy enough to tell her that Pete isn’t fully male, or at least not always male, which puts him in even greater danger than the other captives, because he’s in Ophelia’s way.

The StuCo seems to be holding their own on the second level, and even run into an upperclassman in Kevin Walker, who helps in his way by providing a detailed map of the third level.

When Vera’s group comes upon their first chimera just before the entrance to the second level, she shows rather than tells them the proper way to defeat one. They have to assess and know their enemy’s weaknesses, like the Chimera’s poor eyesight that gets worse the more tentacles they sprout. They have to keep moving and not let their foe get a bead on them.

And they must have a plan of action for taking it out: in this case, close-range lightning. Her threefold lessons lay out the three jobs a mage must do, but she makes clear three mages could each take one job. That may be true, but Chela (and Oliver) don’t want Nanao to take on the brunt of the danger. The three of them will each perform all three jobs, sharing the danger equally, all to get Pete back safe and sound.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 11 – A Proper Defeat

Convinced by Nanao that holding back against Stacey and Fay will only further hurt them, Chela goes all out against the pair, demonstrating her superiority in both magic and sword arts by modifying her lightning to travel across Fay’s body and hit Stace directly, causing her to dismount.

If this is anime Harry Potter, than Joseph Albright is its Draco Malfoy, as beneath a veneer of confidence, Oliver can’t sense the same raw pride as Mr. Andrews…only a sense of duty. Oliver gets in close and grapples with Joseph, prolonging the fight.

As expected, once Stacey is off her furry mount and has to fight Chela sword-to-sword, the duel doesn’t last long. When the defeated Stacey weeps and asks why she can’t win, Fay tells her the two of them simply aren’t strong enough against a member of the main family.

Chela asks if Stacey and Fay always hated her, but Fay says she did nothing wrong other than being “too perfect.” We learn that while Chela and Stace are technically half-sisters, Chela was never allowed to call her such. Stacey developed a complex about becoming strong enough to replace Chela should the need to arise.

Nanao draws near to Stacey and asks her to dispense with the notion that she’s some kind of replacement tool. “We’re born ourselves and no one else,” Nanao says with wise certainty. She takes Stace’s hand, cheering her up.

Perhaps inspired by the McFarlane/Cornwallis backstory, a similarly defeated Joseph proceeds to tell his own tale. A servant his age named Emma used to play chess with him endlessly. At first he won every time, but she studied and studied until she finally beat him one day. Even though he lost, Joseph remembers being happy, because Emma was so happy.

Why Joseph thought he could tell his stern father that he lost to anyone at anything, I have no idea (you’d think he’d, ya know, know who his dad was at his age) but the result is tragic: Joseph is brutally beaten and tortured, while Emma and her family are eliminated. That was when he learned that Albrights such as himself weren’t allowed to lose.

As such, he does not recognize his loss to Oliver, but instead uses magic to open a giant stingbee hive located within the Labyrinth layer’s ceiling, The bees swarm at his command, but Guy uses his plant magic to create a shelter for everyone, including Stacey and Fay.

When Oliver wavers over whether to simply surrender, Nanao says she’d prefer if Joseph tasted “proper defeat”, as she pities anyone who believes they’re unable to lose, while Pete, Katie, and Guy all assure him he doesn’t have to coddle them. Chela also agrees to reveal a power of hers she’d been concealing.

That power stems from the fact she’s a half-elf, something only the members of her family knew, but now she’s telling her new school family. Since elves are able to handle much more powerful spellcraft, she serves as the anchor for a double incantation that burns away all of the bees.

Left exposed again, Joseph must face off against a Nanao utterly dedicated to delivering unto him his first defeat since poor doomed Emma. She does so, and he deems it an “excellent loss.” Nanao helping all these blue bloods shed their hereditary hang-ups with all due haste!

In the frankly refreshingly pleasant tradition of this series, we get two more instances of former adversaries gaining respect and even admiration for our heroes. Stacey commits to reconnecting with her half-sister, even promising to make her a new flower crown, while Joseph promises Oliver  he’ll get stronger so they can fight again, and maybe next tim he’ll win for himself rather than the Albrights.

All would be well that ends well, but the episode chooses to take a sharp left turn into a not-well-at-all end. Giant magical beasts emerge from the forest, armed with long tendrils that capture Joseph, Fay, and Pete. Everyone else makes it to the surface, where they learn the source of the beasts from Alvin and Carlos: Ophelie Salvadori has been consumed by “the spell.” Oliver now remembers her warning him to stay out of the Labyrinth. He didn’t, and now Joseph, Fay, and Pete are in big trouble.

However, I’m confident that some combination of Oliver, Nanao, Chela, Katie, Guy, Stacey, Marco, Joseph, and the upperclassmen will ultimately prevail and return the captured students from Ophelie’s clutches. This also sounds less a case of Ophelie being straight-up evil, but merely corrupted, which means she may be able to be reasoned with and redeemed. We shall see.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 10 – Triple Clash

The Sword Roses enjoy their first night of “camping” together by the fire in Katie’s workshop, unaware that three classmates are coming for them, each for their own reasons. Early the next morning Oliver is training Nanao in spellcraft with regular wands when the lesson is interrupted by a scream from Guy: Katie’s troll friend has arrived.

There’s nothing to fear; Marco is a good fellow, and any friends of Katie are friends to him. He even has a name: Marco. He also says Katie is always talking about Oliver, which embarrasses her. Vera, who is no longer their enemy, brought Marco to the workshop, accompanied by her severed demon hand, whom she’s given semi-consciousness. After she takes their leave, the Roses continue exploring with Marco backing them up.

This is when they’re confronted by Stacy Cornwallis and her attendant/knight, Fay Willock. She challenges Chela and another Rose to a tag-team duel. Chela and Nanao accept, but the battle expands when Joseph Albright shows up and agrees to join Stace’s team if he can fight the “samurai girl”. He calls Oliver a “nobody” and says he can be the Roses’ third fighter.

Albright leads everyone to a suitable battle ground in the second layer of the Labyrinth, which feels like outside takes the form of a magical forest. Nanao is excited to fight beside Chela for the first time, and Chela doesn’t disappoint, as Stacy doesn’t pose a huge threat.

While Fay is his initial opponent, Oliver hits him with a flash spell and fights Albright instead, leaving Fay to Nanao. The bottom line is that it pisses Oliver off that Albright insists on calling him a nobody; he’ll make him remember his name, even if it’s fake.

As he three fights progress we learn tidbits about Stace and Fay’s long history: she saved him from her father putting him out of his misery and took him in as a manservant. Because of this, he tells her she doesn’t need to hold back when it comes to ordering him around.

Stacy wants to beat Chela no matter what, so she conjures an artificial full moon, which is enough for Fay to transform into a werewolf. While this turns the tide of the battle, I have to say it feels an awful lot like cheating, especially the Team Sword Roses are keeping their troll on the sidelines.

Albright proves highly adept at anticipating and countering Oliver’s mostly-textbook tactics, but has no idea about the depth of Oliver’s talent and resourcefulness. He’s just a tank of a combat wizard, saved from instant defeat only because Oliver can’t show the true extent of his powers or reveal his Spellblade, lest he blow his cover.

Chela acknowledges Stacy as someone doing whatever it takes to win, but urges her to allow Fay to transform back. If he’s a student at Kimberly, it’s because he’s half-blood (full werewolves cannot attend), which means transforming puts him in a constant state of extreme pain.

This troubles Stacy, but Nanao tells Chela to curb her kindness in this instance. Both Fay and Stacy already knew what it would cost to be in the position they’re in, and were resolved to endure the pain. As such, it would be tremendously rude if they didn’t give their absolute all in this fight.

Chela admits Nanao is right, and withdraws her demand that Fay change back. She then assures Stacy and Fay that he won’t be in pain for long. I’m looking forward to seeing her take the kid gloves off!

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 09 – A Second Heart, A Secret Base, and the Unforgettable Rose

After a detour to introduce Tullio Rossi, the focus returns to Pete’s new status as a Reversi. Oliver arrives home one night to find Pete in severe pain. He manages to correct his manaflow with a healing art, but warns Pete that he can’t keep his condition from the others forever.

He doesn’t, and tells everyone the next day, and unsurprisingly, everyone is not only fine, but incredibly supportive. I love these damn kids so much! Chela even demonstrates how women can use their wombs as a “second heart” to store vast quantities of mana. Pretty neat!

Whether Stacey Cornwallis makes use of her womb in this way in her duel with Pete, I don’t know, but one thing’s for certain: she has an axe to grind with Mister Reston. She didn’t like being shown up in her uncle Teddy’s class, and wants to beat him into submission.

And while she does dominate most of the match, Pete never gives up and keeps fighting to the end, almost scoring a hit when time runs out applying the training provided by Chela. Stacey resents her Chela siding with someone from a non-magical family, but even Tullio congratulates Pete for holding his own in the duel.

While hanging with her troll friend, Katie receives a scroll dropped from a crow familiar: to apologize for what she did to her, Vera Milligan is giving Katie her workshop on the first floor of the Labyrinth. Katie is super excited about the prospect of having a secret base, but Oliver and Michela are concerned.

Katie knows the Labyrinth is a dangerous place, but she has a dream of becoming a top researcher who can protect and support demi-humans. This is no lark; she’s serious about this, and one by one, everyone agrees to help her out, even Oliver…as long as they’re extra careful down there.

The group heads down to explore the Labyrinth together, and they come across butt-stabbing traps, strange creatures, a gourmet club that barbecues and eats said creatures, and a student who moonlights as an RPG-style food shop proprietor.

After buying some food for a little barbecue of their own, Katie finds the symbol on the wall indicating the concealed entrance, and opens it to reveal their new secret base, which she’s told is one of the better workshops on the first floor. The potential of the well-appointed space gets everyone excited.

They make a fire and cook their dinner in their new base, and it feels like camping, Chela in particular is extremely moved and emotional about how much fun she’s had and is having with her five new friends. So much so that she wants to give their group a name.

Nanao makes the first suggestion by having everyone cross their blades together in a circle. Called a “sword rose” where she’s from, it is a very powerful visual symbol of what a group of friends can achieve to hold on to the present, as warriors cannot think too much about the future.

Having made a new sword rose with her friends, Nanao nominates “Sword Roses” as the name of their coterie, which gets unanimous approval. It’s extremely adorable and endearing, so much so that I’m a little miffed that  the vibes are soured a bit after the end credits, when Stacey voices her intention to attack the Roses. That said, if this is a prelude to a Michela-focused storyline, I’m all for it.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 08 – A Bit of Cleverness

While they’re watching this world’s version of Quiddich, Oliver and his circle of friends are approached by fellow first-year Tullio Rossi. He doesn’t come off as evil or anything, but the tight bond the friends share, and the notoriety they’ve received so far…it just kinda pisses him off.

In sword arts class when he’s paired up with Pete for a duel, Tulio quickly exposes Pete’s offensive shortcomings, even going so far as to call him a “princess” who is always being bailed out by his stronger friends (though there’s no indication he knows Pete’s a Reversi).

Afterwards, a defiant Pete tells his friends that he wants to get better at sword arts. This causes Oliver and Chela to bicker over which fighting style they should teach him, and seem equally matched in their logic, so they agree to both teach him: Chela offense, Oliver defense.

While the friends have a meal in the dining hall, Tullio once again stirs the shit. He doesn’t like how Oliver & Co. get all the attention while everyone else gets left out, and declares it’s time to determine who the strongest first-year is. To that end, he sets up a tournament and calls for volunteers.

Nanao, Oliver, and Chela all agree to participate, as does Chela’s cousin Stacy. One Evelynn Odets, famous for talking fast, is the first to challenge Nanao. She’s supremely confident she can embarrass the Azian samurai, but she’s the one who ends up embarrassed, as Nanao easily redirects her spell with her sword.

After running Pete ragged with a sword arts training session (though there’s no further discussion of Pete’s Reversi status) Oliver receives an invitation to tea from Gwyn and Shannon via Miss Carste. On his way, he encounters Ophelie, but she isn’t interested in succubussing him, simply having a little chat.

We learn she was once friends with Alvin and Carlos, and she also issues a friendly warning for Oliver to stay out of the Labyrinth and keep his head down for the next couple months. I appreciated how “Lia” (as Shannon later calls her) isn’t just a sexy cartoon villain, but portrayed as an actual person here.

Oliver is greeted warmly by Gwyn and Shannon, who tell him he should consider the little hideout his home whenever he needs it. He tells them how much he’s come to care about Nanao, and Gwyn gently warns him not to let such a charismatic girl “change the very essence of who he is” by getting too close. After all, Noll has a lot more names on his list to take care of.

On Oliver’s way back to the dorms, he senses he’s being tailed and calls Tullio out. Tullio wants to prove which one of them is stronger once and for all, and it’s clear from the outset of their ensuing duel that Tullio plays dirty. He has to, because none of the three classic styles worked for him.

His creative self-made style leaves Oliver with a bloody nose and bruised face, but just when Tullio thinks he’s just getting started, Oliver calmly tells him he’ll defeat him in eight moves exactly…and proceeds to do just that. There’s nothing Tullio can do against Oliver’s mastery of by-the-book fighting.

That said, Oliver admits to the beaten Tullio that he’s always a little envious of anyone who is able to fight with their own talent, as opposed to the borrowed knowledge he’s amassed and practiced. That said, he warns Tullio that he’ll soon reach his limit if he relies on just his talents forever.

Miss Carste was watching the fight, as she emerges from the shadows to praise her “lord.” She draws close to him and says that his kindness is a sheath that can dull his raw power, and if killing her will sharpen his blade, she’s ready and willing to be his disposable whetstone. Oliver doesn’t play like that; he’s not going to use and discard her, or anyone else.

This interaction, which is the first time we get a good look at Teresa Carste (and learn just how into Oliver she is), takes place as the credits roll, followed by Tullio, still in the Labyrinth, being challenged by Joseph Albright. Will Oliver’s warning about Rossi’s talents only going so far prove prescient once again?

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 06 – Mask Off, Mask On

My thoughts going in were They got this, right? Sure, Vera’s an upperclassman and mad scientist, but it’s 2-against-1 and we clearly haven’t seen all that Oliver and Nanao can do. And yes, indeed, they got this. But the boss battle is still steeped in danger throughout.

Oliver and Nanao prove a very effective duo, as Nanao launches forward attacks and Oliver bails her out when she’s too reckless. He also keeps Vera off balance with a creative array of spells. Nanao even shows she can deflect spells with her blade, as if it was truly the extension of her body she believes it to be.

Vera has a little too much fun against her kohais, allowing Nanao to slip behind her using a well-placed bounce spell from Oliver. She then reveals she has a second eye in her left hand, but faced with this unexpected tactic, Nanao continues to simply charge forward.

Rather than getting petrified or injured, her blade cuts through space and time to close what should have been an impossible distance and cleaves Vera’s hand clean off. To Oliver, this undefendable ability is none other than a heretofore unknown (and titular!) seventh Spellblade.

Godfrey and Whitlow arrive too late on an anonymous tip, interrupting Nanao’s attempt to get Oliver to give her a victory kiss. Oliver and Nanao both fine and will be fine, but worry about how Katie will take the betrayal of a senpai. But after she recovers in the infirmary and they tell her what happened, her reactions surprise them both.

Rather than despair in this betrayal, she turns the other cheek, then kisses Oliver and Nanao on theirs—simple tokens of gratitude for saving her. She then declares that she’s not going to let this get her down, nor is she willing to wash her hands of Vera. She forgives her, and vows to speak to her properly.

Vera’s betrayal only galvanized Katie’s resolve to continue toughening up while remaining quintessentially Katie Aalto: empathetic, emotionally intelligent, forgiving, and kind. She aims to graduate from a school a little kinder than when she first arrived, a declaration that brings tears to Oliver’s eyes.

Those tears are understandable; who wouldn’t be moved by Katie’s resilience in the face of face of betrayal? But I wouldn’t understand their additional meaning until later in the episode. As he expected and as Richard warned, Professor Grenville approaches him. Oliver leaves his friends to go with him, and on a path for which there may be no return.

Grenville explains the reason for summoning Oliver as they descend back into the Labyrinth. It was pretty evident by now, but the road of magical discovery is soaked with the blood of mages. When a powerful spell is too much for a mage, the spell absorbs him, and becomes even more powerful.

That makes it an enticing prize for the mage or mages strong enough to master that spell. Call it magical scavenging with a hint of magical cannibalism. It’s an interesting, and appropriately brutal mechanism for magical development, and explains why the mortality rate at a school is so high.

In keeping with the darkness of this magical world, we simply haven’t known Oliver’s Whole Deal all this time…until now. “Oliver Horn” is a persona; a mask he wore to stand out as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none student who might prove a useful assistant.

Little did Grenville know he was recruiting someone who had a major vendetta against him. Oliver asks him where he was on a specific date and time seven years ago. When Grenville deflects, Oliver draws his athame and steps to Grenville. He then reveals that he is the Fourth Spellblade, using it to defeat Grenville with one move.

But he’s far from done with the man who murdered his mother. Adopting an entirely different demeanor, Oliver proves he’s both masochist and sadist when it comes to his bloody goal of revenge, explaining how he made sure to endure all 128 types of pain that were exacted upon his mom by Grenville and others seven years ago. That allows his own pain magic to exhibit those same 128 forms, which he uses one by one to torture Grenville.

Once Oliver gets to 57 (is the writer a Heinz fan?), Grenville finally says “the magic words” he wanted to hear: Please…end it. Reduced to begging for his life, Oliver obliges with all due haste. Immediately after, his older brother Gwyn, his sister, and his bodyguard Miss Carste appear before him, congratulating him for getting rid of the first of their mother’s murderers.

A whole army of young mages file in and bend the knee before Oliver, whom Gwyn calls by his real name, Noll. He places the mask from the OP over his eyes, the symbol of his right to lead the family, presumably as the inheritor of their mother’s Spellblade. But there is still much work to do. There were seven people involved in their mom’s demise, and six remain.

As he lists them like a magical boy Arya Stark, w learn they consist of other Kimberly professors we’ve met, who similarly don’t seem to suspect who Oliver is and what he wants. The fact he doesn’t look much like his mom, as well as concealing his true power, has helped him maintain anonymity.

Chief among those names, and likely to be Oliver’s final target, is Esmeralda, the current headmistress and someone who literally stabbed his mother in the back seven years ago. Notably, and crucially, it doesn’t seem like Emmy enjoyed having to do so one bit.

That makes me wonder: were these seven assailants simply Bad Guys trying to steal Oliver/Noll’s Spellblade, or is his family actually a serious threat to the magical world, making his mom a kind of WMD that couldn’t be allowed to live? Considering all the twists and turns I’ve endured thus far, I can’t help but consider all possibilities.

Oliver/Noll proves he’s no different from Vera: driven towards a singular goal: in her case, a future where demi-humans have equal stature and rights as humans; in his case, revenge for himself and on behalf of his family. And that’s where those tears at Katie’s words come back into play.

He wasn’t just moved by her resolve, kindness, and forgiveness. He wept because he believes he is beyond those qualities do not, cannot, and will never apply to him. He wears his royal mask with pride and conviction, but I can’t say with certainty that his Oliver Horn persona was merely an act.

And then, of course, there were Nanao’s prescient words: there is no joy in a blade wielded for revenge; only one wielded out of mutual love. I want to think Oliver and his siblings’ mom would not want them to sully themselves with the bloody business of revenge, which may offer some comfort and justice in the immediate, but is ultimately self-defeating.

Noll’s greatest enemy is himself. I believe Nanao, Katie, and the others have the power to deliver him from his ruinous path, but they have to somehow be made aware of it first. I don’t see Noll revealing who he is to them anytime soon, but at some point professors are going to start dropping, so one of his friends will surely catch a hint at some point.

Until then, this episode caps off the first half of Seven Spellblades by dropping some enticingly volcanic plot and character bombshells, and promises that the next seven (ha!) episodes will be must-see anime.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 05 – Under the Skin

Oliver’s shadow, Carste, is extremely contrite about not being by his side when a Garuda attacked, but I can’t rule out that his brother hung him out to dry on purpose to test his mettle. Katie’s gentle treatment of the troll has him eating again, and Vera Milligan is very intrigued by her progress with the big guy.

Of course, it was fairly clear she was behind the Garuda attack owing to the shot of someone with identical hair at the end of last week’s ep. There’s also what amounts to a spoiler in the OP that was there all along of Vera looking sinister in front of some very foreboding vats in some kind of lab. That image haunts sweet Katie’s steps.

On the bright side of things, the bullying of Katie has ceased overnight, and Nanao is super-popular for her flashy fight with the Garuda. Katie resents that Oliver, whom it’s clear she has a little thing for, isn’t getting the same rewards. A playful Chela decides to give him one in the form of a “victory kiss”.

Before her lips reach his face, Nanao appears beside them, and when she hears of a victory kiss, she doesn’t hesitate giving Oliver one, much to Katie’s scandilization. Nanao even has Oliver about to kiss her back when his pretty older cousin stops by to say hi…and steal a kiss of her own.

Poor Katie…so much competition for her guy! For that matter, poor Guy and Pete, in whom no girls seem interested…

I’m glad this series hasn’t abandoned the occasional magical class sequence. We see the aftermath of a particularly bloody biology class in which garms and wargs are dissected (I’m surprised Katie went along with it), and we also have Grenville, the alchemy teacher, doing his best Severus Snape impression.

Unlike Snape, Grenville doesn’t mock Oliver when he comes to each and every classmate’s aid when they screw up the alchemy process, including and overconfident Pete who almost blew himself up. While Grenville’s praise is delivered with his usual dour surliness, it’s genuine praise, and Oliver’s friends congratulate him for finally getting some public props.

However, Oliver’s new frenemy Mr. Andrews gives him a friendly warning after class not to trust Grenville, who is infamous for inviting his favorite students to alchemy gatherings, then stealing their ideas and passing them off on his own. I’m more inclined to think Oliver will infiltrate Grenville’s little clique on purpose to gather more intel on Kimberly.

Richard also gets his friend (toadie?) Miss Mackley to own up to what she did during the parade in town. It was she who cast a spell Katie to make her legs run toward the troll. She’s sorry about that, and seems sincere enough, but she insists she didn’t cast a spell to drive the troll crazy. Oliver and Chela believe her. There must’ve been second spell-user.

Katie, who continues to show she’s far tougher than she looks, tables discussion of who did what to the troll, and decides to hang out with the troll more. To her surprise, he starts to speak, telling her o stay away from him, not because he doesn’t like her, but for her own good. Hiding behind a wall is an increasingly sinister-looking Vera.

While Oliver helps Nanao some fire and wind magic training, having her imagine the outside world and her body becoming one and such, Nanao says something that turns on a light bulb in Oliver’s head. At the time of the incident, Nanao didn’t think the troll was rampaging, but trying to escape to the school gates.

Oliver puts what he knows together and they rush to the troll enclosure to find Katie missing, and her athame on the ground. The troll tells them she was taken somewhere deep and dark—the Labyrinth.

Oliver and Nanao find a dark, abandoned classroom amidst Kimberly’s vast halls, go through a magic mirror into the Labyrinth, but he stops when they reach a point that will be too dangerous without upperclassmen support. Unfortunately, the one they’re pursuing already knows they’re there, and magically teleports them into her lab.

There, Vera makes no bones about her intentions: she is a demi-human rights activist who experiments on demi-humans in order to make them capable of human speech and intelligence, so they can one day join society. Fine ends, but far from fine means. She’s basically a mad scientist, and the very entities she claims to care about are her victims.

The troll wanted to get away from her, but with Katie, Vera believes she has the key to completing his development. To use that key, Vera wants to dissect Katie’s brain. She implies it will be a painless procedure and leave no scars, so I assume Katie won’t die, but still…this is really freakin’ bad and wrong!

When Nanao turns her hair white and rushes at Vera without assessing the situation, Vera reveals that the eye under her bangs is that of a basilisk, able to petrify anyone with her glare. Five of her siblings died before it chose her, demonstrating that some magical families are more barbaric than others.

But while her harsh, violent upbringing explains her motivations, it doesn’t justify her actions. Oliver and Nanao need to save Katie, or at least buy time for an upperclassman to help them out. But Vera is determined to perform her experiments and neutralize anyone who would stop her.

7 Spellblades continues to provide engrossing, satisfying storytelling, mystery weaving, and character and world building. One week Andrews does a face turn, the next Vera does a heel turn. These developments expertly keep the audience on its toes, while underscoring the danger of Kimberly contrasted with the cozy camaraderie of the friend group.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 03 – A New Way to Live

Ophelie and Cyrus could probably achieve terrible things together if they joined forces, but each finds the other’s methods (her promiscuity, his necromancy) repugnant, so they fight each other with huge summoned monsters. Ophelie actually gives birth to hers; judging from her ahegao she seems to get a kick out of doing so.

When Cyrus blocks the underclassmen with his wall of bones, Nanao arrives to give them cover to escape. She also makes it sounds like she’s been looking for a place to die, and has found one. Oliver is ready to follow her into battle when Ophelie and Cyrus’ duel is cut short by the student body president, Alvin Godfrey.

Backed up by school prefect Carlos Whitlow, Alvin orders the two villains-in-training back to the depths of the Labyrinth, and escorts our first-years to safety.

Once there, Oliver gets in Nanao’s face and asks her what all the suicidal talk is about. Chela pulls him away, but is just as curious to know what’s up with Nanao, so she asks her to please tell them all if she can. That’s when Nanao looks back to the last and worst battle she ever experienced.

Even with a seemingly hopeless deficit in numbers, Nanao is able to easily carve her way to the enemy general, and dispatches his son, who was purportedly one of the finest warriors in the land, before she even knew it was him.

When the general orders his armies to kill her without learning her name, their spears are suddenly stopped dead…by a western mage on a broom. He invites Nanao to Kimberly, and here she is. But ever since being plucked from that battle—and from her certain death—Nanao has felt like she’s strayed into a dream.

When Nanao fought Oliver in class, she experienced shiawase, a moment of clarity and shared admiration and respect when locked in mortal combat with an opponent. But the battle was cut short, and Oliver pushed her away. Attempting to join the battle with the upperclassmen was her way of ending that dream on her own terms, before it ended on its own, worse terms.

Oliver thinks Katie is speaking out of turn when she says that, basically, Nanao is saying she’s heartbroken after Oliver rejected her entreaty of love and happiness (i.e. shiawase). But Nanao admits that yes, whether she fell for Oliver the person or his sword, to a warrior like her, there’s little difference.

This is when Chela asks Nanao, as a friend, to consider living her life in a new and different way than she did before. One need not cover themselves in blood or glory to thrive at Kimberly. Chela wants to spend more time with Nanao, and all of the others feel the same way. Indeed, it was clear Oliver was only upset with Nanao because he thought she was being too reckless with her life.

When everyone else chimes in agreeing with Chela, Nanao bows her head in apology and vows not to put her life in danger again. She also admits she’s happy she has friends at this school, since she hasn’t been able to learn much of anything in the classes so far. They all agree to help and support one another. If any dangers cross their paths, they’ll face them together.

It’s the Oliver-and-Nanao making up scene I’d hoped for at the end of last week, but I won’t knock the show for interrupting it to demonstrate how dangerous the school can be when our first-years are fractured. The next morning, Nanao clings to Oliver, who is both embarrassed and flattered. I love the varied reactions from the others to what is basically a newly formed couple.

Back in Garland’s Sword Arts class, Richard Andrews isn’t done with Oliver, and wants to fight him one-on-one. Oliver agrees, but before they get started Nanao grabs his arm, sensing he intends to lose on purpose. When Richard hears this he gets even more angry. Thus Oliver needs to give it his all to satisfy Nanao, and not humiliate Richard into desperation.

Chela takes Oliver aside to tell him she and Richard were childhood friends, always compared to each other by their elders, hence Richard’s inferiority complex. She’s not entirely sure how Oliver should proceed, only that some kind of fight is inevitable.

This dilemma is interrupted by news that Katie has rushed to the defense of the troll who went on a rampage at the parade. It’s about to be executed by faculty member Darius Grenville, but she stands fast in his path. Unamused by her insolence, when he learns she’s a “civil rights activist” he mocks her parents.

When she refuses to step aside, he uses an extreme pain spell on her, cementing his status as a real sonofabitch. Her friends come to her rescue, and thankfully don’t have to fight Grenville, as he’s told to stand down by fourth-year Vera Milligan, backed up by Professor Garland.

They inform Grenville that not only is there an ongoing investigation that demands the troll stay alive for now, and that it wouldn’t do to anger the growing pro-demi civil rights political faction, but the use of pain spells by faculty were banned five years ago.

Vera formally introduces herself to Katie as a fellow pro-demi advocate, and tells her she’ll be happy to help her in her efforts going forward as they share the same cause. Even though she’s still feeling the effects of the pain spell, Katie leaves the confrontation with a big smile on her face, having found a strong, cool upperclassman ally.

While the good vibes are somewhat marred by an inevitable duel challenge from Richard to Oliver, I still enjoyed this episode immensely from start to finish. Oliver and Nanao made up and may be an item, and we learned that Kimberly isn’t just a school full of perverts and assholes outside of the friend circle. In Alvin, Carlos, and Vera, there are good seeds looking after them too.

It’s a testament to the character writing that Garland’s explanation of the titular Spellblades (there are apparently only six of them at the moment) is the least interesting part of the episode. I’m sure they’ll come into play soon and a seventh will emerge, but for now I care more about these lovable kids.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 02 – What Lies Beyond That Moment

The first years’ classes commence, starting with sword arts (the offline kind). I did notice that instead of wands, our wizard analogues are running around with little daggers. Thanks to Pete wanting to show off his knowledge, we learn they’re called athames.

Professor Garland decides the best way for kids to learn is by doing, so he asks for volunteers to have a little friendly duel. Nanao’s hand is the first to go up, followed by Richard Andrews, clearly one of the old money kids who is full of himself.

Oliver takes exception to Andrews dueling Nanao, and makes it known that he helped Nanao bring down the troll while Richard and others stood by and did nothing. Chela does Oliver a solid and volunteers to duel Andrews so Oliver can duel Nanao.

We know two things going into this duel: First, Nanao has fought so many battles she’s covered in scars (and kudos for Oliver’s gaze last week focusing on those scars and not the usual body parts). She killed before, and not just one or two people. Not even one or two dozen.

Second: Oliver is pretty decent with magic, and he’s also secretly a big deal, or his brother wouldn’t be having him tailed. Between his magic and her swordsmanship, the duel ends up being quite a spectacle. The episode does a really cool visual trick of having Oliver see Nanao in full battle regalia as she slashes at him.

When Oliver sees tears in Nanao’s eyes, he suddenly feels awful for even thinking about holding back against her. He decides to commit himself entirely to the battle, as she is. Then Garland stops them, because broke the anti-lethality spell he placed on their blades.

Chela retracts her challenge of Andrews, who is perfectly willing to not have his ass handed to him by an ojou-sama with drill ringlets. Oliver leaves class in a hurry, but Nanao catches up, elated over how exciting and fun their duel was. She just wishes they’d been able to finish.

Nanao wanted to see “what lies beyond that moment” when they were forced to stop, but to her shock, Oliver angrily refuses to ever fight her again. When she asks way, he says he doesn’t owe her a reason, but he doesn’t want to kill her, or be killed by her.

The next day, the gang is together for lunch after spellology (oy) class, whose instructor abhors athames as medieval. Notably, Oliver and Nanao are as physically distant from one another and not facing each other. But classes roll on, like magical biology with the shark-toothed Vanessa Aldiss

Aldiss makes it clear to all the bleeding-heart magical animal lovers in the class that in her class, living things are resources to be exploited to improve their magic. This sucks for Katie. The teacher provides them with live magical silkworms and tells them to create cocoons. If they fail, the cocoons turn black and deadly moths emerge that must be incinerated.

Once again, Chela, who is an ace at this, helps Oliver out by helping Nanao out with her magic, since she can tell there’s something going on that hasn’t been resolved yet. Poor Katie takes extra time to ensure her silkworms don’t suffer, but her final cocoon fails, and the moth bites her.

Oliver and Chela kill the moth for Katie, and their teacher docks points for helping her. Oliver takes Katie to the infirmary to get her wound tended to. While he appreciates that Katie came from a wonderful, caring upbringing that respected creatures great and small, he also gives her a gentle warning that she can’t be an “angel” in a place like Kimberly.

That said, he also makes it clear she’s not alone in her struggle. She has him to lean on, and he then opens the door and all the others spill out into the room. I really appreciate how this show has so quickly endeared me to these characters, all of whom are good kids.

The fact remains, however, that we’re not quite sure what Oliver’s whole deal is. All I know for sure is that when Miss Carste informs him that she’ll be leaving his side temporarily to meet with his brother, it felt like a sign Oliver would end up in trouble with no covert ninja agent to back him up.

That night at dinner, Katie is just mentioning that Nanao seems out of sorts about something when Pete says he needs to go grab a book he left in a classroom. Oliver and Chela decide to go with him and brook no argument: the school, which doubles as a castle, isn’t safe after dark.

Specifically, the giant labyrinth beneath it starts to encroach on the upper levels. I like how subtly and suddenly the once cozy, opulent school halls take on the dark and sinister look of a dungeon. But Chela and Oliver insist that they’ll be okay: faculty and upperclassmen patrol the school at night.

Unfortunately, the trio comes across two of the less savory members of the upperclassmen, starting with fourth-year Ophelie Salvadori. Her body secretes pheromones that can put others in her thrall. Oliver and Chela are magically gifted enough to resist it; Pete can’t.

When they try to make a speedy getaway from Ophelie’s clutches, their path is blocked by a fence of bones summoned by fifth-year Cyrus Rivermore, who is in cahoots with Ophelie. I expected Oliver and Nanao would make up by episode’s end, but we end on a cliffhanger, with Oliver, Chela, and Pete having more pressing issues afoot.

The Eminence in Shadow – 17 – Moonlight Oriana

While sneaking away from his sister (by again flying out a window), Cid notices Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata being played in a concert hall. It’s Epsilon at the keys. Like Gamma and Beta, she’s using knowledge from Cid’s world to advance her position in this one. He doesn’t mind, and even compliments her figure, because he loves the Moonlight Sonata. And why the hell wouldn’t he? It’s the perfect theme song for Shadow.

He asks Epsilon about Rose’s whereabouts, but all she knows is that she is in the underground labyrinth. That’s all Cid needs to know. Alexia is already leading Beta down there, the former by now completely unconvinced that “Natsume” is a weakling. Alexia doesn’t know how fortunate she is that Beta is capable, because they’re heading into a totally unknown and potentially fatal situation.

When an exhausted and bloodied Rose catches her breath, we finally see what she encountered when she met with her father and Lord Perv. The king was clearly not in his right mind, and he and all of the assembled nobles and courtiers were under Perv’s control. Rose lashed out with violence, but now regrets that decision as a princess shouldn’t be so reckless and shortsighted (though considering that’s Alexia to a T, maybe they should?)

The nasty wound on Rose’s chest wasn’t caused by her pursuers; rather it is the early effects of possession; before long she’ll be consumed like Alpha & Co. were before they were freed from their curses by Cid. Just as Cid wishes he could have been there to see Rose go all “rock-n-roll”, Rose wishes she could get rid of Perv and his ilk, marry Cid, and live happily ever after. Now she’s not even sure how much longer she’ll live, period.

Throughout her monologue, which is spoken aloud, I kept thinking Cid would emerge from the shadows to tell her he still believes in her, still has her back. Of course that’s ridiculous; Cid would never act like that. Instead of emerging from the shadows, he appears before her in disguise as Shadow, playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano he borrowed from the concert hall. A gorgeous moonlike light suffuses the hall, and thousands of white feathers fall, all adding to the theatricality. Cid is killin’ it here.

Once the sonata ends, he stands up and asks Rose if she’s going to give up or keep going. Rose isn’t sure how. Shadow tells her he’ll give her the power to do anything and everything she needs and wants to do. With few other options, Rose accepts, and Shadow not only extracts the curse, but imbues her with power comparable to the Seven Shades.

Shadow doesn’t stick around, leaving a single black feather on the piano keys, because he doesn’t have to. Diabolos assassins arrive, but the newly supercharged Rose turns them all into red mist with a single slash of her sword. With this power, perhaps she truly can save her father, her kingdom, and all the other nations threatened by the Cult.

When she encounters Alexia and Beta, the former demands to know what’s going on, but Rose won’t tell her. She doesn’t want Alexia to get dragged into it, and telling her will do that. Alexia won’t take no for an answer, and starts a fight with Rose. While she fights better than Rose expected, she’s obviously no match for her.

Rose leaves an unconscious Alexia with Beta, who doesn’t offer any resistance and even expresses her support for Rose’s future ventures. Their alliance may now be shattered, but Beta suspects they’ll meet again. Beta is hardly one to question Lord Shadow’s actions—if he bestowed upon Rose the same power as her and the other Shades, he must’ve had a good reason.

The Rising of the Shield Hero S2 – 07 – Sonny Girl

Naofumi’s arrival in another another world doesn’t turn out at all like I’d thought. Instead of being a fish out of water in Glass & Co’s backyard, he ends up in a prison with just Rishia. Both their levels have been reset to 1. Later, Raphtalia jumps out of a pile of hay, revealing that she’s reverted to her previous smaller self. The three may have been tanks in their isekai, but this place seems to follow an entirely different set of rules.

That said, the cell they’re in is unlocked and they still have their weapons (Raph’s sword is way too heavy for her), so they start exploring. They soon find a portal of light that takes them to an isolated island. The sea stretches to the horizon, where it glitches in and out. Instead they head into the jungle, where they slowly start to level up by defeating easy lesser monsters. There’s a refreshing feeling to this, like just starting out on a new JPRG.

When they find a body of fresh water and are attacked by a kappa that’s way too strong for any of them, it looks like they’re about to suffer an ignominious defeat and end up God-knows-where, but they’re saved, by none other than the “Hunting” Hero, Kazayama Kizuna. She’s voiced by Tomita Miyu, who along with Penkin makes this a welcome Abyss reunion.

Before Naofumi, Raph, and Rishia arrived, Kizuna was all alone in this place, which she calls the Infinite Labyrinth. She says she was trapped there by a hostile country, and has long since lost count of how many years it’s been. At one point she even considered suicide, but that was long enough ago that she can talk about it in a cheerful tone. For someone who’s been a alone so long, she’s remarkably well-adjusted and “normal”.

Naofumi proceeds to make an absolute mockery of the untold years she spent here, as the moment she shows them what she believes to be the edge of the Labyrinth, he comes up with a plan to bust them all out. He has her cultivate a Bio Plant Seed, which he then detonates right next to the portal none of them can move through.

The plant starts to grow, and with it the portal grows. I suppose this has the effect of thinning out whatever barrier kept them out of it, because once it reaches a certain size everyone is able to go through it. Naofumi, Raph, and Rishia call out to Kizuna to come with them, and she snags them with her fishing wire, hitching a ride through the infinite.

The four are spat out in a place Kizuna recognizes as the world where she was originally summoned, and as soon as she realizes she’s finally free of the Labyrinth, she leaps on Naofumi and spins around in giddy elation.

While the Labyrinth crisis was solved way too quickly and easily, I still enjoyed this trippy, slightly unnerving, yet fun bridge between the Tortoise arc and whatever’s to come. Similarly, while Kizuna was rapidly introduced and had to spout a lot of exposition (much of it rendered moot by their escape) Tomita made her effortlessly charming and rootable throughout.