As the Shadowkhan assault on the royal castle nears its end, Caleb's character is called into question. Meanwhile, Jade reveals to Phobos and his followers that she has a far more complex plan to defeat Elyon and her supporters than they thought.
- Badass Fingersnap: Jade uses one to signal her Shadowkhan to cease their attack on the castle.
- Breaching the Wall: The castle's outer wall is completely annihilated by the Sumo Khan strategically crushing sections of it.
- Broken Pedestal: Invoked in Jade's master plan to get Phobos back on the throne, which is to destroy the Meridian populace's faith in Elyon, the Guardians, and the Rebellion.
- Call-Back: It's brought up that Jade told Miranda in Kage that she's from the Shadow Realm, which the shapeshifter already suspected to be the Land of Eternal Shadows.
- Cliffhanger: As Phobos and his troops start making their way to the abandoned castle Jade has secured as their hideout, she enters the shadows with Miranda and Cedric.
- Continuity Nod: Jade refers to Shendu using the Book of Ages to rewrite reality when she explains to Phobos and the others why they can't simply crush their enemies immediately.
- Cult of Personality: Discussed. When Jade reveals that she plans to have the people of Meridian want Phobos back on the throne, Raythor and Miranda point out that Phobos is not loved by the people, with Phobos bitterly admitting that Elyon had that even before she set foot on Meridian. But as Jade retorts, the people don't love Elyon, they love the idea of her; they were not used to the idea of a man on the throne, and believed that once she was crowned, Elyon would take things back to normal or bring a utopia. Jade then explains how for all of Phobos' faults, he was trained as a noble and brought peace (if a fragile one) to the realm between the different races. The Rebellion then destroyed that peace, while Elyon is a normal Earth girl with no training to rule, allowing the Rebellion to cause problems for the commoners with their obsessive rooting out of any suspected Phobos loyalists. In light of that all, Jade believes that all they have to do is reveal Elyon's failings to the public, and her reign will fall apart.
- Don't Create a Martyr: Jade refuses to immediately crush Elyon and the Rebellion because that would only motivate their friends to rally against Phobos more fiercely than before.
- Environmental Symbolism: When the Sumo Khan shatter a part of the wall in the midst of Caleb and Granik's quarrel, the two captains and their troops end up on the opposite sides of the chasm before Caleb takes his troops to the castle and leaves the Guards behind.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Jade lampshades that Phobos' reign allowed all of Meridian's races to coexist in peace, even if in a fragile one, while Elyon's reign has given new opportunities for ancient interracial conflicts such as the persecution of shapeshifters.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Raythor is uncomfortable at the thought of many of his former comrades losing their lives against the Shadowhan, even if they betrayed Phobos, and he's relieved when Jade puts a stop to the attack.
- Evil Laugh: Phobos does this to show how delighted he's by Jade's idea of turning the whole Meridian against the heroes.
- Evil Plan: Jade finally reveals that instead of simply using the might of her Shadowkhan armies to return Phobos to the throne, she aims to secure his new reign by steering the public favor towards him and away from Elyon and the Rebellion.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Maybe not exactly friends, but when compared to how they started off in Kage, Jade and Frost seem to be in much friendlier terms with each other.
- Foreshadowing: Jade gives Cedric a snake wristband and Miranda a spider-choker that both have a familiar demon face engraved on them.
- Friendly Address Privileges: Jade tells Raythor that he can keep calling her just Kage without worrying about her title.
- Ground Punch: A group of six Sumo Khan do this to collapse a section of the castle's wall.
- A House Divided: Unlike what Captain Granik hoped in the first chapter, he's unable to work out the differences between the Guards and rebels with the badly arbitrary Caleb. This culminates in Caleb and his troops abandoning the Guards to protect the walls by themselves in favor of protecting Elyon.
- Kick the Dog: In response to Granik doubting Jade's connection to Phobos and refusing to abandon the walls just to protect Elyon, Caleb takes the majority of the defenders with him, abandoning Granik and the rest of the Guard to face the enemy alone. He even openly hopes they'll be killed off, to Aldarn's approval and the horror of Elyon and Drake.
- Knight Templar: Caleb was already showing signs of becoming extreme in his hunt for any suspected Phobos loyalists in the original story, but now he has all but reached this point. He accuses the Guards of still being loyal to Phobos when they question his conviction of Jade being Phobos' creation and refuse to focus all their efforts on Elyon's protection at the expense of the defenses. He holds no qualms about abandoning them to face possible death and is confused when Elyon rightfully calls him out on it.
- Last Stand: After being abandoned by Caleb and his rebels, Captain Granik anticipates he won't see sunrise again and leads his men to protect the castle as best as they can. Chapter 7 confirms he ends up dead.
- Oh, Crap!: As the Shadowkhan march towards the inner sanctum following the wall's collapse, Elyon is filled with terror she felt only once before when Phobos revealed his true colors to her.
- Off with His Head!: Granik destroys one of the Samurai Khan by slicing its head off with his ax.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Even though the Shadowkhan have the clear advantage, Jade reveals their attack on the castle was only a distraction and orders them to pull back. She justifies this by reasoning that crushing Elyon now would only rally the rest of her supporters and the Guardians to defeat Phobos once again.
- The Pratfall: When Jade finishes explaining how crushing the heroes' PR by turning the public favor towards Phobos can be achieved, she accentuates her point by crushing the rock Frost is sitting on and causing him to fall on his rear, annoying him.
- Rightful King Returns: Deconstructed; as Jade helps Phobos realize, Elyon was assumed to be a better ruler than him simply because she is the Heart of Meridian and preferred in the matrilineal monarchy, but she's mentally a normal Earth girl with no political training and very little knowledge of her kingdom. Meridian hasn't become a paradise since her ascension; if anything, her reign has fallen short in some ways, like in the renewal of Fantastic Racism.
- Spiteful Spit: Caleb does this while talking about the Guards he abandoned to the walls.
- Spotting the Thread: Though Caleb's still convinced Jade and the Shadowkhan are Phobos' creations, Granik is doubtful of that for the same reasons as Drake in Chapter 2 and also points out that as powerful as Phobos is, he couldn't have possibly created the entire army during his brief time outside prison.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Just like Aldarn, Caleb is revealed to have become hostile towards the Guard, which he wasn't shown to be in the original story.
- Victory by Endurance: When Caleb gets to Elyon, the Shadowkhan have changed tactics after she blasted many of them once in Chapter 2; instead of attacking all at once, they're now taking turns on attacking in small groups to force her to tire herself blasting them one by one.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Jade reveals that she's planning to return Phobos to the throne by making him this. As she explains, for all his flaws, Phobos is still a born and raised royal who maintained a fragile peace among Meridian's various races, with his more heavy-handed tactics only coming about because of the Rebellion, which was opposed to him (in no small part through Nerissa's manipulations) primarily just because he was a male ruler in a traditionally matriarchal society. By contrast, Elyon was raised on Earth and has no idea on how to be a queen, and her ineptness is allowing for things like a renewal in Fantastic Racism and the Rebellion's aggressive tactics to root out anyone suspected of being loyal to Phobos.
- Wham Line: Jade surprises everyone when she reveals that instead of returning Phobos to the throne through brute force, she's planning to make Meridian's people want him back in charge.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Caleb realizes the Shadowkhan have reached Elyon's bedchamber, he orders all the troops back to the castle to protect her even when Granik objects that abandoning their defenses will only aid the enemy. He even willingly leaves all the Guards who stay with Granik to face possible death. Elyon herself calls out Caleb with the trope's title.
- Why Isn't It Attacking?: Just when it looks like the army of Samurai, Bat and Sumo Khan is about to make a final clash against Elyon and her followers in the courtyard, they suddenly stand down and vanish into shadows by Jade's signal, leaving the defenders perplexed.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: The narration described Elyon's Oh, Crap! reaction like this.
- Won the War, Lost the Peace: Defied. Jade explains to Phobos and his followers that if they just overpower Elyon, the Rebellion and Guardians will rally the people against them, so they need to destroy the people's faith in Elyon to win the war.
