Ahhh, the end of a Volume. And not just a Volume, but the entire Act! That's right, Act 3 - Memento Mori - is officially complete! Woohoo, rejoice!
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Truly, this Act has blown me away quality-wise. Of course I had high hopes for it even before I started it, since I knew roughly what was to happen in it, but honestly, just the sheer amount of lore and character development I managed to cram inside is truly astounding. I truly do feel like the previous two Acts pale in comparison to this one, which only goes to show you how much a year of writing makes a person improve over time. I am truly proud.
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Looking back, we went through a lot. From peeking into Schnell's journey that served as the catalyst that started it all, to witnessing our heroes avenge Lune's unfair death. The rest of the Act was more focused on the other main characters and their individual ways of dealing with the loss of Lune, as well as their painstakingly slow and tedious journey towards acceptance. First it was Meil, who we assumed at first wasn't all too fazed by it, what with him instead focusing on securing a safe place for himself and Nelly, then we saw the situation from an outsider's perspective in Volume 14, wherein we also saw how Nelly, as Lune's daughter, started reaching unhealthy levels of dependance towards Meil. Their dynamic is something I hope to expand on more in the future, and as of me writing this, I do have plans of writing a larger spinoff of their time in University. I feel like the University gang has a lot of potential for a story.
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Ah, where was I? Right, the Gods of Ivrys. I'm gonna be honest, the original draft said nothing of this Volume. Of course, I had plans for Aru to show up and join Ed and the others on their travels, with her sometimes giving away vague clues about Heaven 2.0 and the other Gods. That's when I recalled Mount Ivrys was a thing, and how it was the meeting place of the Gods. I thought of how cool it'd be for them to meet all of the Gods, as well as how good of a story arc that's lend itself to, so I got to writing it. Looking back, I only now realize the similarities between Mount Olympus in Greece and Mount Ivrys. It's a complete coincidence as far as I know that they're both mountains atop which the Gods gather, but think about it, wouldn't it be cool to hike up Mount Olympus and actually meet the Gods of Greek Mythology?
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What else, what else... Ah, Issei is back, and we now finally got to see him and Othelia get together. If you're wondering why we don't hear much of his story, it's because I have plans of writing a spin-off specifically for him. It's way easier that way, and I'm sure you'd love to hear more about them as well. Oh, but you might have to wait a while for it. I didn't expect Eleanor to be so prevalent in the story, much less for her and Issei to have such good chemistry, hehe... (don't do it, Mikan, he already has Othelia...!)
All in all, for an Arc that mainly focused on answering some of the greater questions of the story, it sure is ironic that it ended with such a mysterious cliffhanger. Oh, and if you're wondering, it is a cliffhanger, because next Volume we'll be returning to see how Schnell and company are doing again in Act 4 - Better With Age.
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Thank you all again for sticking with me this far, you guys rock! An extra announcement before I go, I've been thinking of setting up a Discord server where we can chat more freely about the story, as well as migrating the story thus far to an official website for TraCon. Nothing is decided yet, but I hope you can continue to look forward to more of the story, because that I can 100% guarantee won't stop until the very end!
Once again, this is your sensei, Mikan Akai, signing out! See you next time!