Awesome / Shadows over Meridian

• The first few chapters have Jade – who has avoided being imprisoned in the Infinite City following the canon failure of the Knights of Vengeance to return Phobos to the throne, and gained all the nine Shadowkhan tribes under her command thanks to her Split-Personality Merge with the Queen – setting out to take her revenge on her persecutors.
  • Elyon's castle is attacked at midnight by the Samurai, Bat and Sumo Khan. The defenders are caught completely off guard, the outer wall collapses entirely, and by all certainty, it would have been the end of Elyon and everyone in the castle had Jade not called her soldiers back.
    • Elyon refuses to stay back and uses her powers to blast as many Shadowkhan as she's able, even when seeing the entire army following the wall's collapse fills her with terror she experienced only once before when Phobos showed his true colors to her.
    • After Caleb and his rebels abandon Captain Granik and the rest of the Guard in favor of protecting Elyon, Granik correctly anticipate this will be his Last Stand and leads his soldiers to do their best to protect the castle from the invaders.
    • Jade reveals in Chapter 9 that she had the Ninja Khan rob the royal library of useful info while the castle was under attack.
  • While the castle is under attack, the Ninja Khan stealthily clear out the Infinite City's dungeons of guards before taking Vathek and Tynar by surprise and overwhelming them with sheer numbers.
  • Jade surprises Nerissa who's in her Mage disguise, reveals she figured out the sorceress' ruse, and turns down the delusional crone's offer of having a place by her side. As she talks and points a flashlight at Nerissa, a Leech Khan sneaks up to the sorceress' shadow and devours it while Jade restraints Nerissa before the latter can do anything about it. The former Guardian is then left comatose and unable to prevent Jade from exposing her machinations to everyone, making Yua's prediction from the original story true that Jade (whom Nerissa painted as an enemy to the heroes in order to get her on her side) will ruin the masterplan that took the sorceress more than a decade to bring to fruition.
  • Jade takes a leaf out of her past enemies' book and gives a rather good villainous introduction to Vathek, Tynar and all the prisoners, shocking everyone when they recognize the Shadow Realm as the fabled Land of Eternal Shadows and the Shadowkhan as the Shadow People.
    Jade: [using a loud voice as her red eyes glow and a chilling wind blows] I am Hisuikage no oni, last member of the warrior Oni race, [starts floating up] ruler of the Shadow realm and mistress of the nine warrior tribes that inhabitant it. I am who is and always will be… The Queen of the Shadowkhan.
  • After the Shadowkhan transport everyone but Phobos out of their cells, Jade has Vathek and Tynar put inside one of the vacant cells. Vathek, who's been one of Jade's most aggressive antagonists since her arrival to Meridian, can only rant in denial as Jade tells him to consider it overdue karma for having Raythor framed and banished to the Abyss of Shadows.
    • When Phobos is being transported out of his cell, Vathek tries to break through his cell's electric bars that keep shocking him to the point of smoking until the charge sends him hurtling at the back wall. Jade admits this display of stubborness was mildly impressive.
    • After reflecting on things following this night, Vathek has his Heel Realization about making Jade an enemy and decides to redeem himself by helping stop her (violently if she's deaf to offers of peace) and Phobos as well as ensuring Elyon's reign won't get turned into a Full-Circle Revolution by his old comrades or anyone else.
  • Jade promises to release Phobos and help him back to power for Raythor's sake, but only if he agrees to her three conditions: he shall reward Raythor for his loyalty and apologize to him for casting him to the Abyss, let him have a final word in their future decisions^note She's also sure to state that it'll continue like that until either Phobos is back on the throne or Raythor decides to call it quits., and restore Miranda and Cedric to their true forms and relinquish them to her. Phobos, sensing a great potential ally, accepts all her terms without complaint.
  • Phobos and his minions believe the Shadowkhan will take care of Elyon and the Rebellion for them as they witness the castle under attack, but Jade reveals it was only a distraction and calls it off with a snap of fingers. She then explains to everyone that they don't want to create a martyr out of Elyon and proposes they'll instead make the heroes look like failures to the public and convince the commoners that for all of Phobos' faults, he's preferable as a ruler due to having actual experience in political games and bringing all of Meridian's races under his banner, while Elyon is in her ignorance letting the rebels trouble the commoners with Fantastic Racism and manhunting any supposed Phobos loyalists. Phobos himself is so impressed by Jade's logic that he laughs out loud in mirth and agrees to do things her way.
• Jade uses her power over the Shadow Realm to do some reshaping in the endless void and creates several floating islands with a palace, forests and mountains on them. Shadow animals later start appearing on them.
  • While she works on her redecorations, she unknowingly causes Kandrakar to be hit by a massive earthquake as a portal doorway is formed between the two worlds.
• Elyon and Will return from Kandrakar to find the rebels and the Guard about to coming to blows over the rebels' treatment of the Guard and Caleb's refusal to accept the truth about Jade and Nerissa. Elyon puts her foot down and orders Caleb and the rebels to patrol the surrounding area and leave the protection of the castle to the Guard, both to prevent infighting and to punish Caleb for abandoning the Guard the night before. She afterwards remarks to Cornelia that she's finally acting like a true Queen.
  • Before Elyon and Will arrive, Caleb declares his intention of executing Jade along with Phobos. Erec, a Guard under the late Granik, takes that moment to tell Caleb that he if anyone deserves execution for abandoning them and delivers a well-earned Punctuated Pounding.
  • Elyon, self-aware of her failures with Jade and other things, apologizes to Erec and the rest of the disgruntled Guard for letting them down and actually bows to them while swearing she'll rectify her mistakes and be the ruler Meridian needs.
• Jade's plan to destroy the Guardians' civilian lives is to simply have Cedric and Miranda befriend their friends and family in order to make them suspicious of the girls' secret lives. Lest they want to make themselves look like petty offenders, the girls are unable to do much against the nice "Rick Hoffman" and his daughter "Melinda" who wants to make amends for getting them suspected of Elyon's disappearance.
• When Caleb's losing it during his argument with Elyon about her desire to make peace with Jade when he wants to kill her, Vathek interjects by striking an ax on a table and orders Caleb to remove himself from the meeting.
• When Frost is sent to conquer Cavigor, he proves himself capable of more cunningness than expected. Instead of immediately attacking the prison, he uses the time Vathek's relief force takes to hurriedly march through the desert to add to his ranks the local Sand Dwellers and other Phobos loyalists who then wait in the shadows of canyons to ambush the tired rebel army from the front and flanks. The end result is that though lesser in numbers, Frost's troops (in better shape, armed with the superior Shadowkhan weapons, and having expert desert fighters in their ranks) force the rebels to take refuge in Cavigor (a situation Vathek did not want to happen since the prison is much harder to defend than besiege), making it only a matter of time before the defenders run out of food and fuel to maintain the huge fire keeping the invaders at bay.
• When the Razor Khan infiltrate Cavigor, a rebel soldier named Yoruichi proves herself to be one of the best ones to face the fast Elite Mooks and their sharp blades.
  • After Vathek and Drake learn from Yoruichi that the Warden has ordered his men to kill all the prisoners to deny Frost the victory of freeing them, the three of them refuse to let the Rebellion sink so low and force back in line the extremists they can find. At one point, Vathek throws in a cell one of the extremists who's then finished off by a Razor Khan.
  • With Frost's army having breached Cavigor and the Razor Khan cornering Vathek, he manages to deny Frost some of the latter's triumph by surrendering to Jade instead of the brute or Phobos in the hopes that his remaining soldiers will be treated more mercifully by the Shadowkhan Queen. When Frost claims he can do whatever he wants with them anyway, Vathek points out that the Razor Khan can report it back to their Queen who wanted to give the rebels a chance to surrender. Realizing from the narrowed gazes of the Razor Khan that Vathek's right, Frost begrudgingly accepts his surrender to Jade (though he still gets the last laugh by having Vathek clarify that the rebels on the upper levels are to be spared and then killing Jax who's not in the upper levels).
• When the army Jade leads to the northern mountains reaches Snowpoint, they arrive in the nick of time to reinforce the fortress that's on the brink of falling to the rebels after weeks of siege. The rebels are completely taken off guard by the Mantis Khan and the shadow snakes Phobos' soldiers ride to battle, and soon retreat.
  • Jade herself dismounts her snake to personally engage in hand-to-hand combat with rebel soldiers and dispatches many of them in her Oni bloodlust.
  • Vera Bexley, leader of the Sky Hunters, uses her master archery to take aim at Jade from the other side of a chasm. The arrow gets past even Jade's shadowy Combat Tentacles, and she doesn't even notice it until it's just inches from her head. She's saved when the arrow's intercepted by a kunai thrown by a Ninja Khan that emerges from her shadow without order.
  • Following this, Jade uses her Combat Hand Fan to bat away three consecutive arrows before using it to create an energy-filled air wave that stops the rest of the arrows mid-air and brings an avalanche down on to the Sky Hunters, taking them out of the fight. She then unleashes another wave onto the rebels on her side of the chasm; those who aren't killed by their volley are left paralyzed by dark electricity.
• As it turns out, Vera's grandfather killed numerous Mogriffs, including hatchlings and eggs, while clearly enjoying it, and Metalbeak killing him was years in the making. Jade actually calls it justice when she hears what the man did.
• To stop Metalbeak from going off on a half-cocked rampage to find the Nest Butcher's descendant, Jade challenges him to duel. She then easily beats him into submission despite being only one-third of his size, before talking him down about the flaws in his thinking. Afterwards, he reluctantly admits that she's right, while Jade promises that she will help him get his revenge, in a smarter and safer way.
• Tyrian challenging a random Ninja Khan to a dance fight. While it starts out as a funny moment, it becomes much more impressive when it turns into a knife juggling contest like the Mamushka. When Tyrian sword-swallows the last knife the ninja throws at him, even the ninja is shocked before bowing his head at the winner.
• Jade manages to get the Frostbiter, the apex predator of the mountains that was able to shrug off everything Vera's group did to get it off their trail, to return to its territory simply by offering it two giant rat carcasses to eat.
• Though Vera goes off the deep end, the fact remains that despite fate itself seemingly working against her, she manages to lead her team across difficult mountain terrain and get inside the Stone Nest while having to get past the Frostbiter, Tyrian, the Shadowkhan and even Jade herself (the last one by bringing a tunnel down on her). Such a shame her determination and resourcefulness are wasted on avenging a brutal man like her grandfather.
• While also horrifying, there's Jade going full Oni and bursting onto the scene in a tornado of shadows to interrupt Vera's attempt to hold Metalbeak's son hostage, before easily capturing her. And when the Mogriffs then decide to kill Vera, Jade shuts that down, by firmly making it clear to them all that any decisions about Vera's fate will be decided jointly by herself, Metalbeak, and Ymir.
  • While everyone (except Tyrian) is terrified of Jade's power and wrath, Metalbeak brings her to her senses by reminding her that she warned him about letting one's desire for revenge blind oneself. Realizing she's currently risking the Stone Nest (if not the entire Meridian) getting pulled to the Shadow Realm, she restrains herself.
• In a Call-Back to what Jade did to him earlier, Metalbeak challenges Vera to a duel. And just like Jade in that earlier fight, he completely dominates it, easily smacking her around until she can't even walk anymore. And then he realizes that by letting her witness her grandfather's death, he set her on her self-destructive path, so he apologizes to her for it and contends himself with leaving her imprisoned, concluding that since she has pretty much already ruined her life with her own choices, there's no need to punish her further.
• Vera manages to escape her cell and start a Prison Riot inside Snowpoint, but when Maya manages to raise the alarm, the fighting is quickly subdued by the Phobos loyalists and the Shadowkhan. Jade herself swiftly eliminates a group of rebels by conjuring shadow chains that drag them away, the sight of which makes even Vera decide that fighting her isn't worth it and driving her to try to flee, only for the Samurai Khan to intercept her.
  • During the riot, Vera tries to kill Maya after discovering that she's a shapeshifter, only for Caroline to tackle and start fighting her, desperate to protect her new friend from her former one. And then Maya returns the favor a few minutes later by taking a sword strike from Vera for her.
    • Vera subjects Caroline to a Punctuated Pounding, but when she attempts to attack Maya again for raising the alarm, Caroline stops her by kicking her injured leg and rising up, still willing to challenge Vera despite her bruised face. When Vera rants that now the entire fortress knows what's happening, Caroline smiles dangerously and confirms that's exactly the case as the Shadowkhan appear right on cue.
    • Caroline kicking Vera's injured leg can be considered overdue karma for the fact that as part of a plan to get past the Frostbiter in Chapter 24, Vera cut Caroline's palm without even apologizing.
  • Before Vera's punishment is carried out in the next chapter, Caroline further shows she's started growing a spine by directly calling her delusional ex-friend out of her petty and selfish actions and declaring that Vera brought Kage's punishment on herself.
• Phobos arrives in Riverdeen just in time to stop a public lynching of some Lurdens by the corrupt local rebels, his forces and the Bat Khan loaned to him by Jade easily overpowering the rebels.

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