The book speaks through Philomela, but it wouldn’t be possessing her if she wasn’t a little complicit in being possessed. After all, she wants her mother and father back, and if this is the way to do it, well, it’s not like she can go back and become un-possessed.
She demands that Liza drop the veil over the College, so Liza does so, something the werewolf was waiting for. When Chise arrives, Philomela lashes out at them with her root-hair, but the amulets Chise made protect everyone.
Gregory transforms into a giant bear, but his first attack on Philomela is blocked by Alcyone. Greg’s second attack is stopped when he’s plastered by the werewolf, who takes both Philomela and the injured (damaged?) Alcyone and vanishes through a portal.
Chise tells Liza that she’s going after them. She notes that Liza did nothing to stop this, but Liza tells her young student to take a good look at her black left arm, then grabs her by the scuff and says if she really wants to keep her friends safe, she’ll ditch her “pathetic, self-congratulatory compassion.”
Look, I don’t blame Liza for doing what she did: her primary responsibility is the safety of all of the students and staff of the College. She couldn’t risk them to save one girl, particularly one who was keen on destroying themselves anyway.
Still, I don’t think Chise will be following Liza’s advice anytime soon. She’s well aware that her compassion and her desire to save Philomela is selfish and very possibly self-destructive. But she’s going to try to save her anyway. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be Chise.
That said, she does stand still for a few moments to muster her resolve, and she’s rewarded with a pat on the head from Elias. His bride may still be full of mysteries, but he knows her well enough to know what she wants and how to help her.
So, in order to keep things above board, he asks Chise if she formed a contract with Philomela. Chise recalls that she did, by promising to make potpourri with her sometime. Because she’s a mage, not a sorcerer, and bound by such contracts, she has to go try and save Philomela…and he’s going with her.
Lucy, Isaac, and Zoe all ask if they can come too, and they have their reasons: Lucy to confront the werewolf who killed her family; Isaac to save his new venting buddy, and Zoe because he’s worried about her. When Fabio offers to tag along and take responsibility for them, Elias allows them to come.
Quite without warning, Chise gets things started by assuming the form of the red dragon. Elias covers the others with his body before following her. Her transformation really spooks Liza and the faculty and even Muriel notices the dragon’s presence as it passes beneath her and her acquaintance.
Meanwhile, Philomela has returned “home” to the Sargeant mansion with the werewolf and Alcyone. There, Lizbeth meets with her, doesn’t fail to get a dig in about how “unsightly” she’s become, takes the book, and prepares for a ritual. We know she wants Adam back, but she never said anything about Philomela’s mother.
In fact, Philomela served her purpose for Lizbeth, for once, and it would seem her use to her is now over. She has the book for the resurrection ritual, and Philomela’s personality has reverted to default as her body slowly crumbles.
Lucy, Isaac and Zoe wake up in a strange cave, and are then approached by Elias, who tells them he took them (and Fabio) inside his body so they’d be able to travel with him through the same underground veins where Dragon!Chise is traversing.
She’s using the dragon within as a bloodhound to track Philomela using the scent of her emotions and soul. I love the concept of Elias serving as a kind of protective capsule for Chise’s friends (and Fabio), and the dragon’s “swim” through the veins makes for some striking, trippy visuals.
The dragon eventually surfaces and transforms back into Chise. She finds herself in front of the Sargeant manor, but before she can locate Philomela, she’s accosted by a murder of crows that coalesce into the Winter Goddess. Apparently she has business with Chise that takes precedence. She blinds one of Lizbeth’s guards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s 100% on Chise’s side, does it?
As Philomela returns to the pathetic state she was in when in her dorm room, only now with the appearance of an eldritch abomination, Alcyone is at a loss of what to do, but then it dawns on her: perhaps she can learn how to help Philomela by accessing the recordings of her childhood she carries.
While her first attempt to access the data results in grainy black-and-white images with the parents cut out, eventually she finds herself transported into the past, to when Adam Sargeant first switches her on. After introducing himself, Adam shows her who she’ll be protecting henceforth: lil’ baby Philomela, being held by her mother Iris. Let the deep dive down memory lane commence…
RABUJOI - An Anime Blog 