As the Phobos loyalists investigate and scavenge the rebels' abandoned camp, Jade finds out she has an unwanted worshipper before she's forced to prevent Metalbeak from undertaking a reckless course of action.
- The Antichrist: Tyrian is revealed to believe Jade is the goddess his religion has foretold to one day come from the Shadow Realm to engulf the Infinite Dimensions in some kind of a new era of eternal darkness.
- Anti-Climax: The sudden retreat of Elyon's army feels like this to the Phobos loyalists who were brought to their limits while defending Snowpoint for weeks.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Jade admits she doesn't want to be viewed as an apocalyptic danger to Meridian, Ymir nervously asks if it's not like she could actually engulf the whole Meridian into the Shadow Realm. This causes her to stop in her tracks and worriedly wonder if she really could do it.
- Battle Trophy: The Mogriffs discover to their horror and wrath that Vera has been collecting skulls of their slayed conspecifics, effectively following her grandfather's footsteps as a butcher of their kind.
- Berserk Button: The discovery of the Nest Butcher having living kin following his footsteps enrages the Mogriffs so much that Metalbeak is about to lead his entire clan to hunt Vera down, forcing Jade to intervene.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Tyrian proves in this chapter that while a Cloudcuckoolander, he's also an Ax-Crazy cultist who fanatically worships Jade as The Antichrist. He easily defeats Quinn and two other soldiers with his agility and two knives, and if not for Captain Ymir's timely intervention, he would have killed Quinn right then and there.
- Big "YES!": Tyrian exclaims this when a Lurden opens a chest that reveals a lot of valuable items inside, believing they make a good offering to Jade.
- Call-Back:
- Upon learning that she matches the description of the deity worshipped by Tyrian's religion, Jade flashes back to the time that an animated Quetzalcoatl statue mistook her for an Aztec goddess and nearly flew her into the sun, and decides she doesn't want to deal with that kind of nonsense again.
- Ymir's comment about the impossibility of engulfing Meridian into the Shadow Realm causes Jade to remember how Tarakudo would have been capable of such a feat with the help of his nine Oni Generals and conclude she probably could do the same.
- Cliffhanger: Having drawn a circle in the snow around her, Jade challenges the enraged Metalbeak in front of the Phobos loyalists; if he can make her take one step outside the circle, she'll help him hunt down the Nest Butcher's kin.
- Comically Missing the Point: To make Tyrian stop trying to force other soldiers to give tribute to Jade or otherwise share his worship of her, Ymir tells him that Jade is unlikely to be the kind of a girl who can be bought with jewels or covets after them. The crazy fanatic blinks and facepalms for not having thought material riches wouldn't interest his goddess. This makes him decide he must show his devotion through other means like a Human Sacrifice as he glances at Quinn.
- Cult: Ymir tells Jade that Tyrian is a member of a religious sect that was long banned in Meridian for worshiping the Shadow Realm and prophesying that a goddess would emerge from it to engulf the Infinite Realms in darkness.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Tyrian ends up in a fight against Quinn and two of her fellow soldiers, he defeats them easily.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Tyrian's religion seems to believe that their prophesized shadow goddess will guide everyone to paradise by snuffing out the corrupt light of Meridian's queens.
- Establishing Character Moment: Rosetta is quickly shown to be a Nice Girl who's more openminded about Tyrian's beliefs (albeit in a saner way) than the other soldiers, while Quinn has her materialism and bare tolerance of Tyrian's craziness established.
- Expy: Tyrian's fanaticism combined with his already established insanity firmly makes him his namesake's knock-off.
- Facepalm:
- Ymir does this when Tyrian wants to chase after the rebels without waiting for the scouts' return first. He later has to refrain from doing it again in front of his troops while reprimanding Tyrian for fighting Quinn.
- Jade, already anticipating a headache, places a hand on her forehead in response to learning that Tyrian views her as a goddess.
- When Ymir tells Tyrian that Jade in unlikely to want gold and jewels as tribute, Tyrian facepalms and chastises himself for thinking his goddess would care about material riches.
- Foreshadowing: After Tyrian leaves Quinn's group alone, Rosetta gazes after him.
- Hand Behind Head: Ymir scratches the back of his neck as he's about to tell Jade that Tyrian's already been trying to convince the other soldiers to worship her.
- Human Sacrifice: When Tyrian gives up on trying to enforce offering the loot as tribute to Jade, he considers giving her the purest of devotion through a sacrifice as he glances at Quinn, only for Ymir to forbid that.
- I Owe You My Life: Discussed when Tyrian wants a group of five soldiers to present their loot as tribute to Jade. Quinn and the two Escandors intend to keep the loot like their superiors said they could, but Rosetta, while wanting to keep a beautiful nightgown for herself, considers it might be appropriate to give Jade tribute for helping them fight the war and freeing them from the Infinite City, with the Lurden seemingly agreeing with her. Tyrian is quick to grasp this support to argue that since they owe Jade their freedom or even their lives, showing gratitude through obedience and offerings is the only right thing to do. They ultimately don't have to give up anything when Ymir arrives to put Tyrian back in line and his words make the madman decide mere trinkets mean nothing to his goddess.
- Is That the Best You Can Do?: As Tyrian effortlessly evades Quinn's attacks, he mockingly says a soldier under Phobos and Jade can't be this unskilled.
- Knuckle Cracking: Tyrian cracks his neck during his Curb-Stomp Battle against Quinn.
- Loud Gulp: Ymir gulps nervously after Jade tells him he'd better hope he'll never find out if she actually can engulf Meridian into the Shadow Realm.
- Military Maverick: Ymir states that before being incarcerated in the Infinite City, Tyrian was a volunteer in Phobos' army who was reassigned three times to three different squadrons due to being a Cloudcuckoolander. Despite this, he's proven to be a skilled fighter.
- Mr. Exposition: Ymir is the one who reveals to Jade (and the readers) who Tyrian is and why he's so interested in her.
- Nightmare Fetishist: While most of Phobos loyalists are still wary about Jade and the Shadowkhan, serving them is for Tyrian like a lifelong dream come true.
- Offerings to the Gods: When Rosetta, Quinn and their fellows find from a noble's tent fineries and valuable items, Tyrian tries to convince them to give the loot to Jade as a show of worship even though the higher orders clearly state the soldiers are free to keep whatever they find. He backs off only when Ymir gets him to realize that a goddess wouldn't care about material riches.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Since they're at this point unaware that Elyon ordered her northern army to retreat, Jade and many Phobos loyalists suspect they might be planning something with their sudden leaving because the rebels are not by their experience cowards who give up this easily.
- Pinned to the Wall: Tyrian throws one of his knives through Quinn's sleeve at the end of their fight, pinning her to the ground.
- Psycho Knife Nut: It's shown that like his namesake, Tyrian fights with two knives.
- The Purge: The religious sect Tyrian is loyal to was ordered to be completely wiped out by one of the past queens for worshipping the Shadow Realm. Several of their members, including Tyrian's ancestor, were able to escape death and hide among Meridian's general population.
- Revenge Before Reason: Metalbeak goes into a blind fury when he realizes that a descendant of the Nest Butcher is among Elyon's army, and nearly charges off without a second thought to hunt her down, forcing Jade to take a violent approach to make him think things through.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: One of the Snowpoint soldiers is surprised to learn from his fellow that Phobos has personally gone to the Swamplands to liberate the locals from the rebels' oppression (with a rumor having spread among soldiers that he was inspired by Jade who fights alongside her troops) since according to Meridian's history books, only the first queen actually joined the battlefield, while others would occasionally show up to inspire their troops and demonstrate their powers at most.
- Stop Worshipping Me: Jade is not at all enthusiastic about Tyrian's worship of her since she doesn't want to be regarded as the herald of an apocalypse.
- Suddenly Shouting:
- When Tyrian tells his opponents that Shadow Striker prefers his meals alive and screaming, he roars out the last word as he charges at Quinn.
- Jade does this while trying to talk sense to the furious Mogriffs she's restrained with her shadow tendrils. Unleashing a gust of wind for emphasis helps all of them but Metalbeak freeze.Jade: Listen I know that you're pissed... But this is... NOT THE TIME FOR THIS!
- That's an Order!: When Ymir finishes reprimanding Tyrian following the latter's conflict with Quinn and Rosetta's group, he tells the crazy soldier to continue searching the camp with everyone else while making it clear with a slight glare this isn't a request.
- Threat Backfire: Before the Curb-Stomp Battle Tyrian inflicts on Quinn and two other soldiers begins, one of them threatens to cut the lunatic to pieces and feed them to Shadow Striker. Tyrian only giggles and responds before charging that his serpent prefers his meals alive and screaming.
- Troll: At one point Tyrian scares two other soldiers by having Shadow Striker shriek loudly behind them, both for his amusement and because he considers keeping allies on their toes a part of serving Jade's will.
- Twitchy Eye: Jade has this twice, first upon learning that Tyrian believes her to be a goddess, and again when told that he's already been trying to convert his fellow soldiers to his beliefs.
- Weapon Twirling: Tyrian twirls his knives as he prepares to fight Quinn and her fellows.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Jade has this reaction to learning that Tyrian is worshipping her as the dark goddess of his religion.
- You're Insane!: Quinn ends up crying this out when she has enough of Tyrian's religious ramblings.
