New episode out.
The battle against the plant monster lady actually rocked. Everyone was busting out their skills and spells. Finn, Gareth and Riviera were absolute beasts. Finn rousing up everyone by mentioning Bell, then entering some sort of berserker mode while dual wielding spears (hnngg), Gareth forcing apart the vine wall even with tendrils stabbed into his chest, and Riviera's fire spell— all highlights of that fight. Though everyone else did good. Loved Tsubaki dual-wielding heavy weapons.
Also guessing that fight will be even more epic in the manga, so looking forward to that getting translated.
The monster turns out to be a corrupted spirit, apparently beings that are close to gods. And Ais is half-spirit, which explains her OP-ness. Anyway, floor 59 left me with more questions than answers.
Yeah, this was actually a pretty good fight, and it felt like a boss battle. Meteor Shower in the dungeon.
Well, this at least explains what's going on, and who's behind all of this. Also why Aiz is at the center of these events.
It's kind of weird how the actually big important stuff with the fate of the city at stake happens in the spin-off instead of the main series.
Bringing this thread back because Yen Press released volume 9 earlier this week.
Fair warning, Volumes 9 and 10 are effectively a two parter. As such 9 is mostly set up. Fun facts, we have Ship-to-Ship Combat in universe. Or almost. Ryu and Aisha (formerly of Ishtar Familia) almost get into a fight in the middle of the street over Bell/Syr vs Bell/Haruhime. (Speaking of Aisha, she's already joined a new Familia. No word on who yet.)
Speaking of Aisha she's apparently picked up a new Familia but no word on which one yet. Ouranos, Fels and Royman all make their debut in the main story. So does Lulune from Hermes Familia. We actually get Fels backstory. And Ganesha, the sly dog has been keeping secrets from us.
In terms of new characters, we have Ikelos (also known as Phobetor or Icelus
) and his familia. He makes Apollo and Ishtar look charming and while his Familia are an equally pleasant lot, their relationship with their god is distinctly adversarial which is a new dynamic.
As for the main plot, partly because it's not really concluded until Volume 10 (which is thankfully out in December) but also because it contains some major revelations and raises even more questions, I shall refrain from commenting on it directly.
Instead I shall comment on something that I've been pondering recently. Specifically that we're never getting a second season of the main story. Why do you ask. Volume 7 and Haruhime's introduction. It already feels like the publisher made him(?) shoe horn in the fact that Haruhime fainted on all her customers so nothing happened while she was with Ishtar Familia. I've just got the depressing feeling that even with that it wouldn't make it to broadcast.
Yen Press will start publish Days of Goddess
in next January. Now the issue is how're they putting in that missing "s".
That's easy enough to explain without going into the major spoilers (though they are tangentially involved. Ikelos Familia are running a smuggling ring, removing Monsters from the Dungeon and selling them outside Orario. While Ikelos is aware of this he is not involved directly and has to be actively cajoled into providing assistance. Furthermore he will make himself scarce when it suits him, leaving his Familia in the lurch and Dix (the leader of Ikelos Familia) explicitly makes the comparison of Ikelos moving them around like pieces on a chess board and has actively expressed the intention of thwarting both the Guild and Ikelos.
It's a little unclear if Ikelos actually has a plan of his own or if he's doing this all for shits and giggles. It would be a bit of an anti-climax if that was the case but its entirely consistent with the characterisation of some of the gods in the series. Like the two unnamed Gods in volume 8 who were stalking Eina to set up a prank on their followers who have crushes on her.
Actuality from what I've read volume nine is the start of a three book arc and supposedly the weakest of the three with ten apparently being the best and eleven somewhere in between. Not sure how accurate the ratings are but if this arc really does last through volume eleven then it won't end for awhile.
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I was going by the afterword in Yen Press's release of Volume 9. Which is more or less a straight translation of the afterword from the original release. So it's possible it did balloon out to a three volume arc.
Hmm. It's hard to say. It is stated that Ikelos Familia was right on the borderline of joining the "Evil" aka the Renegade guilds lead by the nastier gods first mentioned in Sword Oratoria. So it's possible he might be in cahoots with the remnants that Aiz and Hermes Familia were dealing with this.
Of course between this novel and Sword Oratoria it's more or less confirmed that there is a lot about the dungeon that even canny high level adventurers, the Guild and even the Gods (including Ouranos) don't know.
Three months means that it's not a double post, right?
So just finished Volume 10. ![]()
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Yikes. There's a lot to unpack. Light Novel my ass. (Then again I've read ''Owari no Chronicle. I should know better).
Easy stuff. First off. Aisha's new Familia is revealed. It's Hermes Familia. To be Asfi continues to be suffering. Hermes continues to be incredibly shady without crossing that fine line into being an antagonist. Turns out Ikelos was doing all this for shits and giggles but the leader of his Familia, Dix. He was the man with the plan. But it wasn't his plan. Holy hell was it not his plan.
More backstory as well, extra for Fels and more for Orario itself. So many of Chekhov's Guns got fired in quick succession it was a veritable Chekhov's Firing Line. On less spoilery notes, Tione, Tiona and Bete have at some point all managed to rank up to Level 6 while at the Benevolent Mistress it turns out Mia and Syr are aware of what Ryu's been getting up to and Syr's basically been running interference for her as Mia's patience wears out. But Syr seems to be up to something as well, but just what that is remains a mystery.
On a related note, not directly connected to Volume 10, it looks like Ryu has her own spin-off coming up
. The original author is the only one listed so I'm assuming that this is another set of Light Novels. rather than a manga like "Days of Goddess". Though if anyone could confirm that it would be much appreciated.
It came out last December and is set between volumes six and seven of the main series. Speaking of which, you've read volume ten. I own volume nine but haven't read it because I hear volumes nine through eleven comprise a miniarc. How were volumes nine and ten for you as a whole? Like I'm wondering if I should just read them now or wait for eleven to come out.
Nine and ten are definitely a two parter while going by the author's afterword in ten, eleven is meant to be more of an "aftermath" story. And having read them several months apart, I would suggest trying to read them back to back so you don't forget details. Especially as there are a bunch of new characters introduced.
Technical double-post, but it's been more than a month and I've got a new topic.
We're getting a movie and a second season!
The movie is an original story written by the author. While the second season will presumably be following the novels, but there's very little information so far.
This is actually a relief for me. I've been afraid for a long time that we wouldn't get a second season, mostly because of Volume 7. Given the way it already feels like the publisher forced a cop-out at the end of volume 7 regarding Haruhime's time in Ishtar Familia, I was afraid that the TV station wouldn't be willing to touch it. Thankfully I was wrong, though I do suspect we might see some changes there as well.
Relief as well, I thought they drop the idea of 2nd season since SO wasn't selling well.
BUT, I still worries about JC is going to machine gunning through its adaption this time, SO was so terribly chopped that I couldn't stand to finished it.......
BTW, Was wondering what Omori was doing in the late half of 2017 since volume 13 got delayed twice. Seems like he got himself involved into production with the movie. I just hope he could finish volume 14 before Yen Press catch up with its translation.
I agree with the not behind on the translation part, but I don't sure about getting translation quicker part. I'm not very familiar with how fast publisher schedule their translation on the new book. It is quite possible that when translation catches up with the main book, each time when the new volume got schedule to be translation, there could be quite a delay.
Plus, there is quite some complain about Omori spreading himself too thin with the spin off. I think the delay for volume 13 is getting on people's nerve. With movie and games now, volume 14 is going to be quite a wait.
Ok, so I've not long finished reading Volume 5 of Sword Oratoria novels. This is technically concurrent with Volume 5 of the main series, covering the time on the 18th Floor from Loki Familia's perspective with some additional stuff wedged in there before they leave for the surface.
Important development on the whole Aiz/Aria development and from a surprising source. Welf. It turns out that some humans do have a connection to the spirits in that at least one occasion a spirit shared their blood with an injured human out of gratitude for their assistance and that granted that person's bloodline special abilities. In this case the Crozzo family and their ability to create magic swords. So it gives away for Aiz (and possibly Bell if you subscribe to the theory of them being siblings) to be connected to the spirit Aria without being a direct descendant or being a spirit herself.
Also from a timeline perspective it foreshadows some of the stuff revealed in Volumes 9 and 10 of the main series regarding the descendants of Daedelus and the actions of Ikelos Familia and their connections to the remnants of the Evils. Lyu gets a chance to shine and show up Leyfia. Leyfia gets to go absolutely berserk over the "Hermes tricked Bell into spying on Aiz and the others in the bath" (Leyfia of course only caring about Aiz). Also, more Leyfia/Filvis ship tease.
And honestly at this point the opposition seems to be running into a Gambit Pile Up on the side of the bad guys. We have the corrupted spirits and whatever is pulling their strings, the remnants of the Evils who are acting as flunkies but seem to have their own agenda and the descendants of Daedelus and Ikelos Familia with their monster smuggling and construction of an artificial dungeon all of whom are trying to use the others for their own purposes. And that's not even counting Ouranos's plans for the Xenos.
So... I've read Volumes 6 & 7 of the side story as well as Volume 12 of the main series. 12 is mostly a breather between arcs with Bell adjusting to being Level 4. Though it does bring up a couple of minor side character from Volume 8 in a more serious light.
6 & 8 of the side stories are very much back stories for the Tione and Tiona (Volume 6) and Bete (8). And they make Aiz's childhood look almost happy. Especially the twins. Fate didn't start dumping on Bete until he his adolescence but it sure made up for lost time when it did. 7 is more direct battles with the Evils and we run into another descendant of Daedalus. That story continues into 8, intermixing with Bete's back story.
More gods introduced as well. Vidar and Njörðr (more Norse), Kali (though in terms of personality she's probably a little more Temple of Doom than her actual portrayal in Hinduism) and Sekhmet.
Edited by KnightofLsama on Mar 2nd 2019 at 9:46:28 PM

@ Chaosjunction Huh. Did Aiz just live that long or was she in some state of stasis? Or we might find out what the deal is next episode. Also gonna have to ask who the other Level 7 is!
@ Shlugo I actually thought the lower levels aren't as hardcore as they should have been. Was expecting floods upon floods of monsters, fireballs and web strings and toxic gases everywhere, that sort of thing. Level 58 just seemed like one of those midgame dungeons (though I suppose that would be hell in a universe where you can't level grind properly.
On the episode itself: Oh, Lefiya, you were never in the race in the first place.