Poor spiders.

 

This definitely pushed the plot forward significantly.

Spoiler

Soul Death seems pretty overpowered in a time loop. I wonder what the restrictions on that are.

Zorian still has the Aranea's memory packet, I wonder if that will have a different significance now.

 

I hope Novelty somehow survived, though I'm not betting on it.

But what a way for the first arc to end. I think the second is going to see Zorian traveling.

 

Damn... I knew this was coming , but I was hoping that they would survive...

 

Did the red Mage discover who he was?

Because, exploding himself, without a immediate restart would allow the Mage to go for him at the start of the next iteration.

 

So, anyone has a guess over the meaning of Matriarch's last message?

- The time loop is degrading: The super spell seems to have limits.

- "Can leave at any time": since the Third knows the mechanics of the Time Loop, then he probably knows how to end it. What is he trying to accomplish? The summoning-unsealing of the Primordial (The success of the invasion isn't enough)?

- "can only ever be one winner in this game": Is the Time Loop part of something else? Something that has to choose only one winner (maybe the matriarch was hiding information because she was planning to "win", even if she had to betray Zorian)?

- What's that stuff about "Whole other continent"?

With any luck Zorian got eaten by something and won't get brought back as a zombie. Now the only loose end is Zach, who will try to punch Zorian next time they meet, if the Third keep an eye on Zach, finding Zorian will be trivial.

 

Zorian is going to have to travel now. We've been shown constantly that all the big bads are using soul magic and Zorian doesn't have it, and it's been pointed out it's not likely he'll find a way to get it in the city.

Which means he'll have to go looking for it.

 

Well, shit just got real. With his best allies gone I think not only will zorian travel, he's going to try and unite the magic spider tribes (I don't remember how to spell it) because what's better than one magic spider tribe? 30 magical spider tribes. Hopefully Xvim will show up at some point being a badass when zorian is about to be killed lamenting at the inadequecies of mages today and truly takes Zorian under his wing in showing him how to turn his shaping skills into a more structured fighting system of less is more.

My other thought is that part two will start in res media in the sense that we'll start either in a time loop where he's in the middle of traveling or it'll be post time loop post primordial released and zorian is going on a macguffin quest to try and figure out and reseal it. Either way more active characters will be the tinimi, Damien, the morlocks, Xvim, and the red Mage who will be actively hunting zorian trying to kill him forever.

 

Well that escalated quickly. Should be interesting to see where things go from here, but Zorian has clearly reached the point of total badassery with his command of magic, yet there is always someone scarier to pick a fight with. I am actually somewhat curious as to what exactly, if anything, the lich knows of the time loop.

 

Zorian's brother still has to come up in this some how so Zorian will likely seek him out for training. A wtf could be that he is the Red Mage, but I doubt that. He was meant to be a prodigy before the time loop, with it he would be beyond near everyone will all those decades of practice.

 

RIP awesome spider friends....


I think it was a good move by the author though. Everything was becoming a bit too routine. This was a great way to break the pattern and allow a major change in the route of the story.

I'm also wondering whether the red mage was able to see enough of Zorian to identify him. Cause if he did, things could get really messy for everyone Zorian cares about and I'm feeling anxious just thinking about it.

 

Rereading the scene, it appears that the red Mage didn't manage to see him.

Zorian was invisible, with a soul shield and had better understanding of the mind arts...

What Inthink happened is that he could see we're there was active magic...

 

Aside from the invisibility, he also covered his face, so I doubt it. There is also the fact that despite Zorian's growing badassery, the red mage is clearly his superior still, so if he could find Zorian at the start of the time loop the story would just be over with Zorian dead.

 

Ah right, missed that.

 

Well... I see two options-

Zoarian gets the fuck out of dodge, (probably on a magical training montage the problem is... that would make it pretty obvious he is the looper and he would be pretty fucked later on.

Zoarian tries to enlist Zach's aid.

Can't wait for the next arc/update.

 

I don't see another training section as such happening. The entire first arc was devoted to building up to this point, where the shit hits the fan and Zorian has trained enough to be able to make things happen. My guess is that things will be much more action packed from now on. Sure Zorian will continue to train and improve, but it wouldn't make sense for that to be the primary focus.

Damien getting involved somehow is probably a given, but whether it's now or whenever the time loop finally falls to pieces is anyone's guess. If I had to guess, I'd say that the 3rd arc will begin when the loop desintegrates.

 

There has to be a limit/counter to the "soul death" spell, otherwise this time loop shit would have ended ages ago. I don't think it would be an end, not when he's a loose end that has information that guy needs. He's too valuable to end.

 

To be honest I'm not sure the author thought through the implications of that spell.
Red robes could just have done it to all the enemies of his faction one by one. No need for a single massive invasion - just assassinate as many as you can each loop and eventually it starts with the entire opposition dead before they know anything.

I guess he might not have wanted Zach to have any clue about his existence though.

Also it doesn't really make much sense. It makes sense that soul magic (or mind magic) on Zach, Zorian, or red robes would be permanent (as their souls and minds are directly traveling back in time with accumulated effects, whereas everyone's else's seems to be reset). It would be perfectly reasonable for red robes to think his spell on the aranea would be effective (as he thinks the aranea are time traveling the same way as him), but not much sense for it to actually have worked the way he intended.

If soul and mind magic had permanent effects on people who weren't in on the loop, I can't help but think there would be noticeable traces of it. Like people /creatures killed by aranea would be permanently killed in all future loops.

 

Maybe its a spell Red Robes just learnt? Same reason why that was the first time he appeared at the school.

I mean we know the Lich tried some weird soul magic to Zach the first time but might not have been the same thingm