Well this has been quite a ride.

MSQ

I know there was some discussion *somewhere* previously that Zodiark's shard in the Thirteenth might not be able to dissipate due to the lack of Lifestream, but that was in conjunction with the idea that Golbez would have absorbed it. Wasn't expecting it to be a separate threat.

We should theoretically be able to beat one shard of Zodiark after we managed to beat the semi-assembled one, but maybe you could assume he's much more powered up here due to the overbalance of Darkness?

This chapter feels unbalanced overall. Was all ready to leap into the void, but no, we're stuck getting permission from multiple parties... which is a good and necessary thing, but it leaves me wondering whether the story might have been better presented with a chapter in a non-major patch to get some of this talking side out of the way? Though I suppose in the long run people are going to be working through it all consecutively anyway.

The dungeon boss battle was fun. Nice to be getting some interesting arena designs this patch. (It also made me realise that Exdeath's tree form seems to be borrowing the kraken model.)

I think I had more to say, but it's all gone out of my head since yesterday.



Pandaemonium

Tell us you're doing a sequel without telling us you're doing a sequel.

Leaving Claudien with the One Ring his precious the Heart of Sabik has to be the worst choice we've made since we tossed Nidhogg's eyes off the bridge, and we can't even excuse it as a hasty decision in the moment.

Lahabrea's final speech to us in Pandaemonium seemed odd, like he already knew everything that would happen between us, which he shouldn't and didn't.

And Themis's farewell felt incomplete. He was supposedly created from "Elidibus's soul" found in the aetherial sea, so has to be in his post-Endwalker state to have ended up there, but only seems to have the knowledge level of his earlier Pandaemonium-era self besides a few vague notions of what he even describes as his future.