With everyone gathered, it's time to leave Silent Hill for good...but no one said it was going to be easy.
Tropes in this chapter include:
- 13 Is Unlucky: Chloe's number after going through ups and downs over her insecurities and fears about facing the same old-same old from Vermillion City rests at 13 and she notes that it's not a good sign. Sure enough, she ends up dying in this chapter.
- Ambiguous Syntax: When Chloe states to Alain that she's not like him, Hop or Paul, Hop says that she's right. Chloe then reiterates that she's not a trainer.
- And Then What?: Chloe's rant is based on her fears of what she's going to do after her mission to stop the Cage of Flauros and the Apex is finished as she's unsure of her future to a still very irate Vermillion City.
- Anyone Can Die: Simon is drowned by Sean, and both Chloe and Tuba are killed off by the former. Thankfully Atticus revives Chloe before her soul is reincarnated into a denizen.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Lexi points out that the Apex wouldn't care who they killed, like the likes of Sean, Lucy said they'd never kill him. To which he goes:Lexi: But if he was turned into a denizen? Like how many people who failed the Train became denizens? Like...I don’t know the thousands you sent to the wheels?!
- Asshole Victim:
- Amelia strikes the Apex Child who said a horrible comment on Chloe deserving her death with her shotgun. No one feels sorry for the little brat.
- Sean drowns Simon into Toluca Lake. Given how depraved he had become, except for Grace, no one mourns him.
- Call-Back:
- Chloe is ready to summon Andras — one of the most dangerous and ruthless demons in the Ars Goetia — when she sees the Apex (who said Chloe deserved her death). Back in the Crayon Car, she imagined herself as Andras in regards to how she assaulted Sara and wished to murder her classmates.
- Amelia only shouts "Oh my Goethe" when things are bad, like when she learned that Alrick died. She screams this when she sees Chloe dead.
- Chekhov's Gun: Atticus' Pendant of Life from the beginning of Arc 2 is finally utilized to revive Chloe.
- Cooldown Hug: Paul's Pokémon comfort him as he apologizes for being horrible. This is enough for the boy to break down into tears.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Chloe rants to the Trainer trio about how she foolishly rejected Ash's offers to join him and Goh because he wasn't giving her acceptance on the terms she wanted, and that she should have just given in and conformed to everybody's expectations instead of selfishly wanting to be accepted for who she was.
- Death of a Child: Chloe dies in this chapter from the impact of landing on the ground with only the Pendant of Life saving her.
- Deconstruction: Hop, Alain and Paul finally discuss that the life of the Trainer is not as glamorous as people want it to be. No one talks about the pain and suffering, the ups and downs and that they're only a face in the crowd. It also states how unfair it is that everyone held such a bias that hurt Chloe in the end.
- Defiant to the End: Just before she drops to her death, Chloe glares at Simon and tells him he'll die alone.
- Disappears into Light: Tuba's ultimate fate, as she sings one last lullaby for the grieving Hazel.
- Dying Alone: Simon's fate as Chloe states. He ends up being pulled into Toluca Lake by the Phantom — aka Sean — while screaming and begging for mercy.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- Simon states that he's stronger than Sean. The end of the chapter has him dead by the monstrosity Sean became.
- Chloe's final words before Simon drops her to her death is that he'll die alone. AT the end of the chapter, Simon ends up drowning in Toluca Lake by The Phantom, alone.
- After Simon dies, Chloe asks Paul whether he saw a light ascend from the lake after Sean drowned. He affirms that he didn't, while allowing that he could have missed it. This leads into the revelation that Sean became The Phantom of Toluca Lake.
- Finger-Twitching Revival: The first signs of the Pendant of Life resurrecting Chloe.
- Four Is Death: This is Chapter 34 and it's the one that ends with Simon, Tuba and Chloe (albeit temporarily) dead.
- Greater Need Than Mine: The Red Lotus Quarto planned to use Olmec's Pendant of Life to save Tuba. Tuba insists they use it for Chloe instead.
- The Hero Dies: Chloe is killed by Simon; thankfully Atticus has his Pendant of Life.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Tuba pushes Hazel out of the way so that Destruction snatches her. When she lands on the ground, she has enough life in her to tell Atticus to revive Chloe with the Pendant Of Life.
- I Am the Noun: Simon/Destruction declares that he IS The Apex, crowing about how he's ascended into something better than human.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Chloe reiterates this desire, further clarifying what this always meant for her: she only ever wanted to be accepted for who and what she was.
- Immune to Bullets: Alex states that his Bogeyman form is this.
- Internal Reveal: The Apex learn that Simon is now Destruction and that Sean is dead, that Hazel is actually a denizen and how they're the true monsters.
- It's All My Fault:
- Chloe laments that she should have just conformed to what everybody expected/demanded of her rather than resenting all the pressure, and that so much heartache could have been prevented if she'd just become a Trainer rather than spitefully rejecting that lifestyle. Hop, Alain and Paul set her straight, helping her recognize that their lives weren't as glitzy and glamourous as she and others were led to believe and everyone who told her so had it all wrong.
- Kurune heavily blames herself for Goh's kidnapping, berating herself for not doing anything to curb his obsession with Mew nor making him go see Chloe more, creating the tracker for him, and replying to the online stalker.
- Grace's Heel Realization continues, as she sees the xenophobic fervor she instilled in the Apex with fresh, horrified eyes and how they could care less about seeing another person dead. She also blames herself for Simon's demise, and is the only one who mourns his death after being forced to witness it.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Amelia states that the Apex are assholes who have little to no empathy, Kenny states that the Apex being in the Fog Car wouldn't have happened if she didn't bring it up.
- Karma Houdini: Discussed; Chloe brings up how Alain and Paul got off way too easy for aiding Lysandre and being an abusive trainer while she is still in trouble for the domino effect created with her disappearance. However, given that Alain and Paul are going to be staying on the Train for months (or in Paul's case a few years for drowning Sean and his own apathy problems) while Chloe is at most one or two revelations from going home, karma still hit them hard.
- Karmic Death: Simon/Destruction mocks Sean as a weakling who couldn't survive on the Train while bragging about how much stronger he's become post-transformation. He ultimately perishes at the hands of The Phantom that Sean became.
- Kill the Cutie: Chloe dies after Destruction drops her, with only the Pendant of Life saving her from making it permanent.
- Lack of Empathy: The Apex are heavily insensitive over the deaths of Chloe and Tuba, one stating that anyone who ruins their fun deserves to die, that they should use the Pendant of Life on Sean instead of the girl who was risking to save their lives, and that Hazel can have better friends that aren't Nulls. This is the sign that makes Grace realize what she's created.
- Leeroy Jenkins: The Apex attempt to swarm the Bogeyman the moment he enters, against Grace's explicit orders. It's a really good thing that the Bogeyman was on their side.
- Little "No": Chloe says this when Destruction has his talons in her cloak and tears it apart.
- Mama Bear:
- Tuba protects Hazel from being killed by Simon.
- Don't hurt Hazel and don't insult Chloe or else Amelia will kill you.
- Moral Myopia:
- The Apex continue suffering from this, gleefully chattering about wanting to slaughter all the Nulls they come across along with stating Chloe deserved to die seconds after she was dropped from the sky in front of them, then cowering and bleating whenever they're called out on their casual cruelty or when Amelia decides to make her anguish known by hitting them across the head with the butt of her shotgun.
- They will never kill Sean, but what if he was reincarnated into a denizen? What about all of the denizens who were once humans over the years?
- My God, What Have I Done?: Grace is forced to recognize what she has created because of her lies and pride. The behavior she once encouraged in her indoctrinated followers now horrifies her, and Simon has taken her teachings to new extremes, bleating about his natural superiority and how he's ascended past humanity. And that's not getting into how she made the Apex so callous about Chloe dying in front of them or how they're ready to kill Hazel when her denizen form is revealed.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Alex as the Bogeyman is completely unharmed from the Apex attacking him.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Bogeyman vs the tortoise guards is mostly heard off-screen.
- Precision F-Strike:
- After being revived, Chloe tells the Apex to "Go Sawsbuck yourself" since they were ready to just let her die and didn't care about the people mourning over her. Hop, Alain and Paul are shocked as even they would never say that to a kid.
- Amelia (already grieving Chloe's death) states that the Apex is all going to "fucking die" if they hurt Hazel.
- The Reveal: The machine used to torture the Apex were from the Organ Man.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- After pushing everyone who ever cared for him away, Simon ends up dying alone with no one to comfort him.
- Simon mocks how Chloe is Sleeping Beauty and that there is no prince to wake her up. Atticus, King of Corginia, gives him the middle finger by reviving her.
- Chloe's Cloak of Marchosias gives her wings, but she falls like an angel cast out of the heavens.
- Hazel is forced to come out of her shell (her human form) when everything starts going to hell.
- Skewed Priorities: The moment Atticus enters the room where the Apex are being held, they immediately start asking questions like "Who gets to kill the Null?" and "Who gets to keep his crown?"
- Speak Ill of the Dead: The Apex are shown to do this, which is the red flag that makes Grace realize that she has fucked up.
- One Apex girl decides it's a good time to say that Chloe — who has just died by the hands of Destruction to the point her head has cracked open — that she deserved it. Because all who oppose the Apex deserve this fate. This is said within earshot of Amelia, who is wielding a shotgun, and proceeds to lay out her anger at how apathetic this little brat is.
- While Hazel is mourning Tuba, Todd tries to comfort Hazel that Tuba was nothing but a Null and she'll find better friends. Hazel does not appreciate how her mother figure was called that by the supposed cool Apex whom Grace talked about and starts beating up.
Hazel: She's not a null! SHE'S TUBA!!! - Symbolically Broken Object: Tuba's pair of tubas get shattered from the fall, meaning they will never be used again...and also foreshadowing that Tuba herself is going to die moments later.
- Take That!: The author states that Hop, Paul and Alain's speech was her annoyed with how the anime glamorized the life of a Trainer to the point that it's so suffocating as to why Chloe has to be forced into it.
- Tempting Fate: Simon states that he's stronger than whatever Sean became. The chapter reveals that Sean became a giant monster called "The Phantom" that emerges from the lake to kill the former.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: Stated in the author's notes at the start of the chapter. It wasn't lying.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- The Apex girl who decides to say out loud that Chloe deserves to die in front of the Mama Bear with the shotgun. The girl should be lucky that Amelia only hit her across the head instead of shooting her for that remark.
- All of the Apex are about to kill Hazel, again, in front of the Mama Bear with a shotgun.
- Wham Episode: Simon kills Chloe and Tuba, with the former being revived by the Pendant of Life. Grace is forced to reveal to the Apex that they were wrong the entire time, and Simon is killed by The Phantom of Toluca Lake, who's revealed to be none other than Sean.
- Wham Line: The final line that reveals the identity of "The Phantom" that killed Simon."SEAN?!"
- The Worf Effect: How powerful is Simon as Destruction? He easily swats Alain's Charizard, the same one that defeated Ash-Greninja, to the water like a fly! Even without being able to Mega Evolve, Charizard is pretty strong.
- Who Dares?: Atticus states this to the Apex wanting to revive Sean and not Chloe, after they selfishly said she deserved to die.
- Would Hurt a Child: Amelia hits the Apex child who said Chloe deserved to die with her shotgun and is ready to kill them all if they start attacking Hazel. And Simon was about to kill Hazel and killed Chloe by dropping her.
- You Monster!: Hop spits out how the Apex are monsters — for saying Chloe deserved her fate and were about to kill Hazel (and also said that Tuba was nothing) — just as he's about to transform into Delirium.
