Multiple news articles on this story over the last month and a half - here's a quick time line from sources in and out the valley that I could find in case anyone is out of the loop.

Hoodline: ASU Hockey Player Hospitalized After Collapsing in 106-Degree Tempe Workout. The incident happened on August 20th. Striking out due to comments saying this one has a bit of misinformation but its there if you want an initial article. AZ Central has some but most if not all are paywalled.

AZ Family - An Arizona State University student-athlete remains hospitalized days after collapsing during a workout on the first day of the fall semester.

AZSports has a similar article:

> Tempe Fire Medical Rescue was dispatched to Sun Angel Stadium, home of ASU’s Joe Selleh Track, around 8:30 a.m. Thursday for a “heat-related illness.” Crews provided treatment before transporting the player to a local hospital.

> The average temperature in the Phoenix area on Thursday was 92.5 degrees amid an extreme heat warning that started Aug. 17 and is expected to continue through Aug. 28.

Medical Daily: Arizona State Hockey Player Remains in a Coma Two Weeks After Collapsing in Heat as University Reviews Workout

12 News on August 28th: Former Green Beret disputes ‘military-style’ label for ASU hockey workout where player collapsed

> Attorney Buddy Rake has represented service members for years, including Tim Ziesel, who spent nearly a decade as a Green Beret. According to Rake, Ziesel led the exercise for the ASU hockey team.

> Rake told 12News that Ziesel volunteered to lead the workout after being recommended by the team’s head coach. Rake said the coach had previously seen Ziesel’s team-building work and believed it could benefit the players.

> "He accomplished that by having a number of talks, talking about what it means in terms of being a leader, what it means in terms of being a teammate," Rake said. "He was just doing this out of the goodness of his heart and his love for ASU."

12 News: ASU releases findings of what happened before hockey player collapsed and was hospitalized. The article (September 22nd) contains this statement from Attorney Rob Carrey:

> I've read ASU's report. It recommends new policies. ASU had policies. They called for a cold tub on the field, a wet bulb globe thermometer reading, a consultant who'd been checked out, and a 911 call the moment an athlete goes down. None of that happened, and ASU's own timeline says so.

> What the report doesn't say is what the players will tell you: this was a punishment workout. Miss a count, your group runs again. The head coach set it up, stood there and watched it, and didn't stop it when the signs were there. And when Matthew went down, there was no plan and no preparation, so he was treated in a way that hurt his chances rather than helped them.

> The report does settle one thing. The coach said the workout was planned for ninety minutes and cut short at forty-five. ASU's own timeline has Matthew on that field for more than eighty minutes, in a grueling workout with almost no water, with no acclimation to anything like it, eight days off a plane from Canada, and nobody doing their job on safety or ready for an emergency.

> A month later, nobody's been named, nobody's been suspended, nobody's been fired for violating the very policies ASU published today, and the university wants to appoint a committee. A committee isn't going to tell us why grown men with a rulebook in their hands let this happen to a young man at his first real workout in the desert. That's what an investigation is for, and it's why we're going to ask the County Attorney to do one.

Tempe Independent from September 23rd:

> Although the Arizona State hockey team notified the university of its intent to allow an ex-Green Beret to speak to the team, it did not submit a plan of training activities to ASU’s strength and conditioning coach, according to a report issued Monday about the Aug. 20 events related to hockey player Matthew Mayich's collapse during a workout that has left him incapacitated.

CBC on September 29th published an article containing similar details about a report not being submitted, as well as the players teammates disputing the report from ASU.

Which leads to the article linked aboved from MSN.

From Dan Bickley

Starting off with Good News for the Week

From Alex Weiner

TL:DR - SKK, Lucia, and Alpha converge at the old FOS location on Earth, where Dominik Fog Distortions occur. They regroup with the people stuck on FOS which was stuck in a fog rift after being pulled from Babylonia. They deal with an out of control monster from a former FOS student who came from another universe. Alpha gains the power of the Crown Sefirot and has full knowledge of the phylotree, thanks to a joint effort from SKK, Lucia, Ishmael, and other versions of herself from different timelines. Enhanced with the power over the fog and a new frame bolstered by Luna, she decides to abandon happiness for the sake of protecting her world, and stops the otherworldly invader. Everyone makes it out ok, but huge casualty losses in FOS.

___________________________________

The Homeward Voyage chapter in PGR was something that had been built up for quite some time. It is the conclusion to the Homeward Book of the story, which more or less was a continuation of the Pilgrimage Section; the book that followed the ‘reset’ in the story.

There are some pretty major developments in this chapter that set the tone going forward in the story. More importantly, this chapter explores ‘Lucia’ side of Alpha - and how she transcends herself to almost Godlike/Observer status to protect those she values while simultaneously defying predetermined destiny; a drastic turn from the usual Alpha routine. I'll explain more below, but for now, as of the end of the Chapter and her Journal of Promise, Alpha (Inverse Crown) currently is the strongest being in PGR behind Ishmael and has reached Overseer status.

I think it's important that everyone is up to speed on what happens, despite the chapter coming out a few days ago. For the most part, I think the writing team is trying to wrap up Alpha's character arc (will explain towards the end) and has been following the hard trend of trying to romanticize SKK with characters since Chapter 34 (well, it's been in side stories and Journal of Promises prior), but there is MAJOR investment in incorporating it into the main story. We got that in a sense…but it's not like what you expect.

It's also important to note how the new Phylotree Banners fit within the story. I'll touch on it later

Context leading up to Homeward Voyage

I won't go into giant detail what the ‘reset’ is exactly, but just know that the Gray Raven Commandant (who I will refer as SKK as most people do), alongside constructs Ishmael and Nanami saved the universe by reversing time after conquering the Hetero Tower a second time, resulting in a delay of its appearance. This is most of the Infinite Loop Section and endings 1 - 5 of the side mode Awakening Tundra.

The Pilgrimage Section is more or less rerunning the story events leading up to the moment SKK and Lucia enter the tower (Chapter 31), but everyone in Gray Raven is there, Cradle isn't a threat, Babylonia, the Ascension Network Crew (Alpha, Luna, Roland, Lamia) and everyone on earth is pretty much in good condition. These are Chapter 34 - 36 with Floating Records 11-14 being stories that are canon, just not the central focus of the plot.

Said plot is that Gray Raven starts regaining some memory or knowledge of what happened in Chapter 31 over the course of Pilgrimage and the Hetero Tower as a whole, with SKK communicating to the crew + big leaders of Babylonia (Hassen, Nikola, Asimov, Ishmael) more and more as time goes on. It's restricted to them for now. At the end of Chapter 36, after traveling through Reactor 1 and getting Lucia temporarily getting lost in the fog that can warp time and space, Gray Raven defeats, but doesn't kill Vonngeut (the big bad of the story up until Chapter 31) in reactor one (the origin of the Punishing Virus).

The fog is one of the key components in the story for this new chapter, remember this.

Chapter 37 is when the story proceeds forward from when it was reset, dealing with SKK and the new Limpidity frame that Liv has received; constructed with Phylotree Research, this frame is later known as the Mercy Phylotree Frame. The two deal with a powerful Punishing Virus monster in the form of Melinroe in a mineshaft area, who felt guilty over not being able to save a child. That child through her power was recreated as Aisling, the new ‘big bad’ so to speak. Aisling meets with the Wheel of Misfortune from the Church of Machina and they both conspire to bring down the FOS College.

From there, Chapters 38 - 40, ER15, and endings 6 - 7 of Awakening Tundra covers the gauntlet that SKK goes through during that chaos resulting when Babylonia begins to fall; an effort by Aisling to try and remove FOS college. We're actually told in Chapter 41 that it has been approximately 3 weeks for people in FOS college when they had gotten removed (displaced in a time rift), but for people outside, 3 months passed. This more or less is a different time scale than the one in Chapter 31 where it had been 7 years for SKK and Lucia inside the tower, but 30 years had passed outside. In these 3 months, Teddy, Rosetta, Nirvatia, and Kamui go through their own stories with new frames. The latter 3 are nexus frames within the Phylotree, with Teddy serving as the Foundation Sefirah frame.

Note 1: Nirvatia is a special case where she came as is but her origins are in Godfall Revelation - more on that later.

Note 2: The Sand Table in Awakening Undra ( also can simulate timelines…endings 6 and 7 (which more or less takes place after Chapter 39) indicate that despite the ‘reset’, the table can also see those timelines as well and what you need to know is Ending 7 warns of Ever Winter…the same ever winter SKK emerged in at the end of Chapter 31, the same Liv saw in Surviving Lucem…you get it. More on that later.

Now that you are caught up with context….

Summary of Homeward Bound - Alpha's Transcendence into the Inverse Crown and the fight to ensure FOS College survival

Picking up from Kamui's floating record, the science council led by Asimov uses the technology gathered from Ezette to further triangulate the position of FOS. It turns out, the other half of the FOS monument on Earth had sent out some sort of signal. The signal was amplified by the fact that fog signals were detected, giving an initial indication that the Hetero Tower likely had something to do with it. SKK and Lucia are dispatched immediately.

Meanwhile on Earth, Luna detects this anomaly as well, and Alpha has followed a lead of sorts. She returns and before further pursuing, Luna upgrades Alpha's frame to the current Inverse Crown we see currently in game. It's not as dramatic as we saw her transforming into Crimson Weave, which is probably why it's very similar in terms to that design, but it's an upgrade nonetheless.

All 3 people meet at the base of the old FOS, but before being able to explore any further, they get sucked into a rift. This rift is where the rest of the chapter takes place.

Note: this rift looks similar to the rifts seen in Lucia's last stand of Chapter 31, as well as the rifts in the DMC collab, just grey.

Meanwhile, the students attending the FOS College for the anniversary alongside Vanessa who happened to be there because Bambiata was getting maintenance are fighting for their lives. They got sucked in when FOS was dispatched and it has currently been 3 weeks for them with several casualties fighting against vagabonds (corrupted, hetero creatures), pretty much anyone swarming from these rifts. Almost ¾ of the attendees and anyone else on FOS are dead, including Instructors; one of which had a call back to Haynes. It's pretty bleak, but fortunately SKK, Alpha, and Lucia show up. With the extra firepower and Vanessa motivating the students, the crew formulate a plan to try and get to the signal tower to call for help from Babylonia with the three assisting and trying to figure out the source of the distortion. Vannessa assumes that if SKK, Lucia, and Alpha (they think she's an unknown construct) got in, they can get out, or at least reach Babylonia.

SKK, Lucia, and Alpha find the source of the distortion. This distortion is the “Vanguard” boss you see in previews that's a Chimera. Alpha charges this Chimera but finds it pretty hesitant to attack her and figures out it is grieving. Alpha goes in to attack but falls and is oddly enough cuddled by it. This chimera is actually being headed by Joanne, another FOS student from another universe.

A lot of the previews you saw are explaining the back story of the Lucia from Joanne's universe, who was reincarnated from the Lucia of the Chaos Containment (Vonngeut) Universe.

Pay attention, because the next 50 - 60% of the chapter is dedicated to explaining these two specific Lucia and spoiler alert: they merge into our Alpha. And by they, I mean the Lucia (Leora) who reincarnates into Lucia (Joanne). I put them in parentheses so that way you know which Lucia I am talking about. They are not being possessed, I promise.

The Dark Times in another Universe

The Lucia (Leora) was found by the Voyager crew (21st Hetero Tower expedition who are mostly constructs) after they removed the core from the Hetero Tower. Dominik hadn't come back with them (lost in the Fog). Unfortunately, removing the core didn't do anything. They failed and the world went to hell - actually worse. Leora, now the new leader, falls into despair, tries to look for a survivor, and the Lucia (Leora) of this universe is found.

They spend the next couple of years trying to find a solution and developing Sefirot keys. As Lucia (Leora) grows up, she learns, and tries to be the only person that keeps some sense of order, tidying up the place, essentially trying to be an adult as a kid. She even learns how to take care of plants and later helps in repairing the crew. Leora tells Lucia (Leora) about a story about a group of heroes trying to save the world, and that is where the name Alpha comes into play. The group of heroes was trying to cure the world, which was referencing the Voyagers trying to resolve the Chaos Containment.

Eventually things get so bad outside, that the crew ends up dying off slowly. Chris, the father figure of the group dies, the construct who was trying to do relays dies, and really Leora and Nemo are the only two left. You should note that Chris makes a ‘Crown’ out of red and blue wires as a birthday gift for Lucia (Leona), foreshadowing future events.

In a heart breaking moment, Leora decides to leave Lucia (Leora) to try and make a hail mary to do something and tries to lie to her about what's going to happen. Lucia (Leora) sees right through her and it ends up being a very teary conversation. Lucia (Leora) makes Leora promise to come back alive. Unfortunately, after surviving for a month learning how to shoot, change filters, plant dandelions, Lucia (Leora) finds Leora dead, a note on a ribbon telling her that she failed to keep her promise.

Lucia (Leora) is the last person in her universe. She cries but she doesn't give up. Resolving in being like the heroes in the story, she takes the name, Alpha, following the names of the heroes based on the Greek alphabet. She gathers whatever she has left and runs from the base, following a star in the sky. This leads to a rift…a similar rift to what we saw earlier. She jumps inside and what we see is her passing away into vastiness of space.

Lucia (Leora) dies.

I'm kidding..she actually reincarnated and she didn't die for nothing.

We now transition to the universe of Joanne (the one heading the Chimera/Vanguard). Dominik (who seemingly survived? More on this later) and had discovered that this Lucia (Leora) who passed away was able to be used as a medium for information with a set of engineering instructions and other space-time details. The Science Council of that universe (pre Punishing Virus) ended up intercepting that information.

In that same universe, Lucia (Leora) is reborn as that universe's Lucia (Joanne). This is the Lucia we see in the previews, and FOS College. The next couple of chapters in the story end up portraying her life story. SKK (us), Adelyde (who was previewed during the Live Stream), Joanne (Boss of the Chapter), Lucia (Joannne), and Ophelia, all of which become best friends. Their FOS careers expand

Note: specifically that Joanne, with assistance from the Science Council in her career ends up making a ‘Crown’ - this will be important later. For simplicity purposes, it's better to think of the crown as a mind device but super enhanced with space time capabilities.

SKK and Lucia (Joanne) end up falling hands over heels for each other, the other three are rooting for them. They end up flying into space and landing on the moon. The two make a love confession to each other and propose at FOS graduation. This is 41-14 through 41-20 and I would suggest reading this game or on Huaxu, it’s pretty cute…..

…and then the Punishing Outbreak happens. At the ceremony. And it's not good because everyone in FOS dies, literally EVERYONE, including 4 out of the 5 best friends. It's bad. Joanne is literally the only survivor, having been pushed out of an emergency door by Adelyde and Ophelia who sacrifice themselves to make sure the Crown is intact. She makes it out, nearly dies to a construct but is saved by one of the headmasters of the school, Cassandra who is a construct herself. She buys Ophelia time to get to the FOS monument.

A significant moment afterwards..the Casandra doesn't long against the corrupted but in her dying moments, is consumed by the fog. This fog shows *our Alpha* which is referenced later.

Back to Joanne, the world by the fog (similar to the one in the hetero tower). It took two weeks this time and she literally held out, before deciding to wear the crown herself. The crown was intended for SKK and Lucia (Joanne), but they died. Her body literally starts dying and the crown feeds off the morrow. It is only when Aisling from our universe saves her from the fog does Joanne get the idea to try and save her world by making Lucia or SKK wear the crown otherwise all the people in her universe would've died for nothing. This is how the plan to pull FOS in the rift kicks off.

I would like to note that 41-20 after clearing the story mentions that Aisling is now labeled as Agent One?! She has been off screen for - …never mind I'm getting off topic.

We are now done with the back story. Back to the present day. I wasn't kidding when I said it takes up 50-65% of the chapter.

Present Day, still cradled by the Chimera, Alpha (our Alpha now) learns that whole backstory and feel remorse over the fact this monster is a litany of voices being controlled by Joanne who just wants their home back. They lost everything and even feel guilty at dragging innocents in this in hopes of finding Lucia and SKK. Alpha starts degrading from mind damage via the chimera until Lucia, SKK and some firepower assistance from the crew breaks her out. Due to the regenerative powers of her frame, as well as some light repairs, Alpha is back to fighting condition and relays to the others about the crown. If they get the crown, they can fix everything, and this chimera for better or worse isn't exactly able to hand it over (it's literally gone haywire at this point). Good news is that Babylonia was able to reach them at this time as well. Asimov relays them the plan to get FOS moving and everyone now has a plan to at least get them out the rift.

41-22 is something special. For the first time since Wintry Shackles, we see Lucia and Alpha fighting side by side in a situation similar to Lucia's last in Chapter 31. Lucia's Omega Core got upgraded to where it can sustain itself completely. This is important because Lucia does something completely unexpected knowing that things will be okay.

“I'm so afraid of how much I'll miss you.”

Having gotten her memories back from Chapter 31, she creates Alpha an opening; she actually self-destructs herself into the Chimera, merging her mind with the minds of others. She does this because she knows she isn't alone anymore, knowing that Alpha saw similar dreams to her own, and that her and Alpha, despite having different stories are still the same.

The plan works. Alpha is able to defeat the Chimera and the creature ends up surrendering the crown from its body. The final wish from the chimera is to bring everyone happiness.

Wearing the Crown

Now having the crown, Alpha wears it, gaining control of the whole fog distortion. She has no idea on how to use it to try and save everyone, so she cycles through fog trying to find someone who can help. Remember Cassandra from earlier? She returns here and guides Alpha to the (Phylo)tree, starting with Lucia (Leora) trying to find happiness when she was left alone, trying to fight against the monsters.

Our Alpha clears them all out, but then Lucia (Leora) in a reversal decides to not leave Alpha behind so she can experience happiness.

“At last, she becomes one with herself, and from there plunges into the cycle of every world.”

Alpha now experiences a life where she experiences true happiness for the first time. She becomes an FOS student and graduates. Luna starts a band and wants her to be the Bassist for 3 months. She accepts, but also tells Luna that she and SKK will be partners in command. She ends up being a warrior who celebrates birthdays and grows old on her death bed. In those moments, she asks SKK to help her look for Lucia who hadn't gotten a chance to experience the happiness she did, which they accept. That Lucia ends up being the same Lucia who self destructed that she brings back using the power of the crown.

At the end of it all, deep down, She's okay if a version of her exists that is happy, and decides to absorb all the negativity that exists.

I encourage you to read this for yourself - this is 41-23 and it's a reflective moment for Alpha. This will probably be the most controversial part of the story and especially in Alpha's story, and I'll expand on this more later.

From there, she returns to the tree, discovering a lamb that represents everyone, being headed by SKK. The two work towards absorbing the negativity of others at the tree. Luna was first, and she called hers through the telephone booth 16 days after the Punishing Virus strikes to give her some encouragement, letting her know she won't be alone.

The next person is Vonngeut…likely Nemo inside him. In front of him an unconscious SKK from Chapter 31… - he does mention the tower is destroyed and Lucia is holding the key of the tower. Alpha actually tends to SKK wounds and the two have a conversation about Vonnegut's fate - she won't kill him despite the atrocities he committed. His last request is for her to take care of the tabby cat so he can maintain the ‘thread of fate’ or else the ‘top layer will collapse’.

Following that, Alpha returns to the Phylotree, now recognizing that it is the M.I.N.D. she mentions to the lamb that Mercy is the blueprint for the (see: Phylotree description). She also explains that the fruits of the tree can help the universe resist the filtering through packing enough information, and the leaves are each of the world's frame development areas (Baylonia's Phylotree, The false Frame Date in Elysium, the Corona Gene in Ezette). The Ascension Network selects agents to absorb negativity (Vonnegut absorbs regret, Luna absorbs hatred). She willingly shares this with the Mind Dossier.

Alpha then begins eating the fruits AND the crown, gaining full knowledge of the tree.

There is a catch to this, despite doing all of this, she forgot about SKK and his negativity, or at least the one in Joanne's universe. So in defiance of everything, she refuses to marry them, and they understand. She directs the fog to absorb everything until someone is left.

She then meets up with Ishmael, who congratulates her on her choice of Atheism. That choice is something that she chose, and Ishmael states that universes follow conservation. There is no universe where everything is absolute. In addition, other universe “Crowns” chose the preserve the most promising and as a result, they didn't make it. Alpha resolves to protect this world, if it means keeping the others at bay. With Ishmael's approval, everyone from a version of Lucia who went to FOS finds her farewell.

Before she leaves the fog, she returns to the tree, plucks the fruit, and scatters them across the world.

The Journey Home

Having returned now, Alpha (in a reference to the end of Chapter 33) returns back to a moment before Lucia decides to sacrifice herself and tell her that she does not need to blow herself up. Lucia notices something fundamentally changed in Alpha, and sees a bleeding crown appear on her head. Looking back at SKK, she knows that they will not have the vision to see beyond worlds.

And then SKK holds Alpha's hand, letting her know they will be there for her.

The three stand ready to go home.

The PV here plays, and the FOS ship returns to Babylonia. Unfortunately Alpha's new frame alerts everyone and there is a call back to Chapter 26 where everyone is about to shoot here. She doesn't pose a threat but just makes sure everyone is evacuated safely. Once then, she leaves, not being able to speak the name of someone she didn't marry.

Later on, looking over the Atlantic, she meets Helentine, Ophelia's sister, who isn't actually Helentine. She tells her that Alpha found the truest vein, severing all other paths and that there will be trials up ahead for humanity to accept. Alpha accepts this and figures out that ‘Helentine’ might be a Sefirah..the Phylotree has all the answers.

Meanwhile, Luna begins to work on the anomalies. It's revealed that she remembers that phone call that Alpha made while she was in the fog.

The Journal to Promise is something you should experience on your own.

It's a lot more grounded and picks up where the chapter left off, but in short, the Shadow from Wintry Shackles returns. The implications are that the Ascension Network isn't done with her.

Thoughts

So, I'm mixed on this chapter. While I would say this is good, I don't necessarily think that it's OMG YOU SHOULD GO READ THIS RIGHT NOW. It's a solid “This was infact, a PGR episode out of 10.”

More importantly, this chapter introduces a lot more concepts and continuity “issues” to the story. I'm not a big fan of characters absorbing other versions of themselves as if their story was their own. Like, there is Kingdom Hearts II where Sora and Kairi absorb Roxas and Namine, but that was pretty basic and 358/2 Days hadn't been made yet.

By the end of the story, there were 3 versions of Alpha that currently make up our Alpha - Chaos Containment Alpha, FOS Alpha from The Chimera Universe, and True Happiness Alpha; 2 of which happened in other timelines while one wanted to experience it in a fog like scenario, similar to how Nanami experienced the simulations back in Chapter 18. You can even include a 4th one which is Rejected marriage Alpha, which is mostly our Alpha but still.

I appreciate that they wanted to continue the theme of Alpha defying her fate by denying herself happiness in a predestined fate by refusing marrying SKK, but Alpha up until this point had never shown an interest in hanging with SKK *like that*. In fact, she really wanted to be there for Luna, which she *reaffirmed*. That not saying other players can, it's just I never felt that it was reciprocated from Alpha. I do think that transforming the crown into something of her own volition rather than leaving it as is was excellent and speaks to that theme forging her own path. But I also think elevating her to *overseer* status was a bit too much.

The idea that her version of the crown is interesting, especially with the idea of Atheism. By rejecting SKK, she is rejecting this universe's version of not a deity, but a focal point. She rejects the idea that everyone lives around SKK, which I think speaks volumes about the laws of the PGR Universe. Obviously, she is connected to the Ascension Network, but what if someone from Babylonia refused to accept SKK as well? Would they pass into overseer status as well? I hope they continue to explore this.

Going back to the ‘merging other versions into one’, it sets a really bad precedent I think especially if they are going to use fog distortions as a way to build up towards the hetero tower respawning. Are we going to get new frames for Sophia and Changyu who have stories built off of other universes rather than explaining what's happened since Surviving Lucem? How about Ayla? Lee already had his for the most part but was forgotten as a consequence for scaling the tower…is that gonna be undone?

On that note, Aisling is now at crazy levels of strength but has a significant amount of off screen time. She was only born recently in the story and now has the power to reach into the fog and pull people from different timelines; is she gonna get Dominik? And another note, did they retcon there being different Dominiks - because 41-9 and 41-10 implies that he made it to a different universe.

We had good hype moments. It was nice seeing the NPCs and Vannessa being actively involved. We got to see Lucia and Alpha team up, and it felt like the stakes were actually high because we didn't have Liv or any resources to replenish. I do feel like they rushed the ending, especially doing something significant as causing Lucia to self-destruct to get Alpha that was crowned. I don't think they needed to do that. Especially because the FOS ship was firing at the enemies. A giant laser I think could've handled it.

The journal of promise definitely saved that ending. I know that Alpha has a really huge kill count, but not doing a call back to Lamia and handing over intel was crazy. Although, I guess because she now has the power of the fog, she doesn't need to give them directly.

And I think that's what really sucks about the ending of this chapter. The status quo didn't change. No one wanted to ask what happened to FOS, no one wanted to say “hey, while we view you as an enemy, it seems like you didn't kill anyone and we just wanted to say thanks for keeping the future of Babylonia alive as best as you could” and it was an isolated incident. No crash out from Vanessa. The story itself is set up to where things could escalate- I don't think people will be too thrilled at SKK pairing up with Ascendants again. This chapter is just like a middle point in a long arc, which makes sense if you consider this to be the middle of Chapter 32 to whatever the final battle of the transatlantic conflict will be with Chaos.

And on that note, so many repeated plot threads. From Haynes to the ending. Alpha mirrored what Liv Empyrea nearly did in Surviving Lucem.

I'm really…whelmed by this chapter. For something featuring Alpha, it should've been more, but I'm glad it wasn't anything less. It had the build up from a story perspective but the characters involved weren't really included in that build up and the story really can go up from here.

Give it a read yourself if you have time, but I hope this at least gives you a summary or something to reference later.