After last week’s bombshell of an ending, I wanted the show to keep up the momentum. But instead of a direct encounter against Spriggan or even Boojum, we get another setup episode. Basically, the faeries have taken over an important defensive position — some coastal tower — and they’re about to attack the city itself. As a result, we spend most of this week’s episode making plans. Oh well, it is what it is. Some loose thoughts and observations then.

— Venetim is trying to secure Rhyno’s release for the upcoming fight, and he has a special order in hand. Probably fake, right?

— Goddesses who can’t even wipe their mouths properly don’t get headpats, much less an outing.

— Anime food usually look pretty delectable, but this gray fish is doing nothing for my appetite.

— I like how Jayce doesn’t even wait until there’s a sequel to start Flanderizing himself, because every sentence out of his mouth is about dragons. Dude has made dragons his entire personality. I literally know nothing about this guy other than that he probably fucks dragons.

— Well, at least Teoritta’s popular with the kids. I’m surprised, however, that Xylo has managed to garner himself a positive reputation. Is this the start of a possible sea change among the masses? As Xylo continues to rack up victories, will the heroes’ reputation start to shift? He still wants revenge on the people who doomed him and his former partner. But if you think about it, he doesn’t stand a chance against either the Temple or the military alone. Maybe becoming the people’s hero is the only way forward.

— Marlen, Kivia’s uncle, wanted to say something about Xylo having a fiancee before he got cutoff. Oh come on, don’t tell me he of all people wants to wingman for the commander of the Holy Knights. He cares so much about his niece, but he wants her to get with a criminal? Plus, is it that obvious to everyone that Kivia has a thing for Xylo? Well, Marlen’s probably evil, so he won’t even be around for the potential wedding.

— Speaking of Kivia, she enters the archives where she bumps into Venetim snooping around. Obviously, last week’s revelations are bothering her, so she’s likely here to conduct her own investigation. But what is Venetim up to? Little chance he’s after the same thing, right? Well, you never know. He was sentenced for spilling the beans on the existence of demonkind lurking among humans, so maybe.

— We finally meet Rhyno, and Teoritta is immediately put off by him. Maybe he isn’t human. We know she has a sixth sense for this kind of thing. There’s also no reason for us to assume that Spriggan and Boojum are the only Demon Lords masquerading as humans. Plus, Rhyno is unnaturally pale. But if it’s truly the case that he’s secretly a Demon Lord, why is Rhyno fighting against his own kind? Why is Rhyno a Penal Hero to begin with? According to Xylo, he apparently volunteered to be one. The idea that anyone would volunteer for this sentence is odd. Can’t you just fight the Demonblight as is? Why do you need to become a Penal Hero to do it?

— Sounds like another suicide mission for our heroes.

— At first, I thought these folks were those miners from before, and they had followed Norgulle all the way here. But no, they’re actually reformed adventurers. Good on them, I guess.

— Rhyno looks extra evil in his suit of black armor. It looks like something out of Fire Emblem or whatever. Both he and Xylo want to force the military to lend a hand in the defending the port district, but he suggests a plan that would also doom the civilians in the area. Rhyno wants victory against Demonblight at any cost. This doesn’t prove he’s inhuman, but it certainly doesn’t help his case. Xylo opts instead to target the trade ships in the harbor, ’cause everyone knows that money is the biggest motivator. He’s quickly proven correct, because as soon as the news spread, Venetim secures approval for Jayce and his dragon girlfriend to be deployed. Ugh, just typing that out disgusts me.

— Kivia gets extra defensive when Venetim brings up her uncle. He obviously wasn’t trying to rile her up. He has no reason to. She’s been the heroes’ biggest ally since the start of the series. Kivia probably knows in her heart of hearts that Marlen is a traitor. She just can’t accept it yet. My biggest worry is that she’ll do something foolish. She’s the type of character who will take justice into her own hands. Killing a high-ranking Temple official, however… well, you can imagine how harsh her punishment would be. On the one hand, it’s weird how we don’t have a single female Penal Hero. On the other hand, don’t do it, girl. They need your privileges as a commander of the Holy Knights. She has been able to secure them even small things like giving Teoritta a much needed outing. If she gets punished, I imagine all those benefits will be gone in a flash.

— We cut immediately to civilians in a panic as the faeries swarm the city. The warning bell ran hours ago, though. Why are the people still here? Hell, some of them have even opted to shelter in place. Man, this ain’t covid. These are demons! Haven’t they gotten the memo? If they haven’t evacuated by now, it feels like it would be too late to run. But of course, we have Xylo on the case, and he’s the prototypical self-sacrificing hero who would stop at nothing to protect complete strangers. Good thing he can’t permanently die, I suppose. I just feel bad for the kids we saw earlier.

— In the waterways, Boojum transforms in order to wipe out a contingent of Holy Knights, but of course, we don’t get to see what his true form looks like. That’s reserved for an upcoming bout against the heroes. All we get is the gory aftermath. Shame.

— Last but not least, Marlen has amassed a huge fighting force comprised of both the Temple and the military, so on the surface, it seems like he’s still a do-gooder. But he then invokes the protection of a saint — the same saint that Sodrick name-dropped last week — which sets Kivia off again. They can’t do all this buildup just for him to be a good guy, right? Just too much smoke for there to be no fire.