Not entirely related to the main topic, but food for thought nonetheless:

They keep saying they gave existence to the will of the star - the will of their world - and that became Zodiark. But have they even thought that manifesting the will of a sick, dying star would most likely bring about a being that represents that state of life?

Zodiark is darkness, and for a while I thought he might not be the bad guy we all are led to believe. But the more I know about him, the more I notice the Ascians are only sided with it because they're tempered, as everything Terminus (meaning in this use "from the End of something in space and/or time") in Amaurot screamed "Zodiark" to me. That's what I believe they summoned, in the end: something attuned to the end of the world, willing to stop it in demand of greater and greater sacrifices. It's like appeasing a bloodthristy deity with gradual death, rather than the entire world at once.

My point is, in the end, did Zodiark really "save" the world from dying or was it all just his doing from the very first, halted for his own amusement? We can't really ask that the Ascians, considering they're eternally enthralled to it's will and their response will most likely be influenced by that.