Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 08 – There’s No Going Back

Gedouiin may be the Absolute Ruler of Illuminati’s Far East Laboratory, but in the presence of a temporarily conscious Lord Lucifer he devolves into a blubbering, idolizing supplicant. He wants nothing more than to help his lord accomplish his goals, and more importantly, that he is more important an asset then the “sow” commander or anyone else.

There’s just a small hiccup: despite him reporting that Kamiki Izumo is extraordinarily compatible with the Nine Tails, extensive testing has revealed that in fact she has a 99.92% chance of dying instantly during the transplant process. Gedouiin is going to run with those terrible odds, because he has to, but just in case Izumo dies, he at least wants to report to Lucifer that he was able to subdue the Spawn of Satan.

Yet, even on that front Gedouiin fails, at least this week. While the chimeras he keeps locked away are the stuff of nightmares, even Konekomaru is able to escape their jaws when he snaps out of his state of panic and anxiety and remembers what his friends told him he was capable of. He lures his chimera to a hatch and once the hatch is smashed open, he slips out of his cell and reunites with Kuro, who is very hangry. He also checks in on Yukio, who was able to subdue his chimera by literally stitching its body to the ground.

Bon initially tries to use his Dragoon’s bazooka, but when he realizes the chimeras can not only speak, but his chimera in particular wants to “go home.” He learns he’s dealing with an entity that still has a shred of humanity. Summoning a mirror of water, the chimera sees itself and collapses in distress. Bon then uses his Aria skills to help the poor wretched creature pass on in peace. I couldn’t help but thing of poor Mitty after Bondrewd’s experiments in Made in Abyss.

Shiemi is saved by Nee, who breaks them out of their cell by growing a huge tree and turns their chimera to dust. At the end of the ordeal, Rin can tell Shiemi is shaking with exhaustion and exertion, but still won’t give up on saving Izumo and Shima, if its the last thing they do.

Konekomaru is troubled that Rin, their ace in the hole, still won’t commit to using killing force against even things that were once human but can never be human again. Of course, if Rin does start killing humans, even to save his friends, it puts him on the path to losing his humanity.

But just as the chimeras can’t go back to their human lives, neither Rin nor anyone else in this lab can go back to who they were. Shima knows Rin’s weakness all too well, and as he counsels an increasingly desperate and unhinged Gedouiin, he’s counting on Rin’s inability to kill humans as the lynchpin in the fight to defeat True Cross and make Lucifers plans a reality.

Rin & Co. have escaped their cells, but they’re still deep within Gedouiin’s twisted madhouse. Things are likely to get much uglier before they start looking up, while the life of Izumo, who is probably feeling more defeated than ever after the loss of her fox-brothers, now hangs by the thinnest of threads.

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.