Chapter 281 - Unification
Added 2026-01-14 17:30:42 +0000 UTCComments
Isnt the project used on miriam more powerful? Well, maybe not.
lunatic
2026-02-02 03:47:02 +0000 UTCI hope she'll talk to Trinea as well. She seemed nice. And they could support each other with their respective loss. And she could be the perfect person to address the whole "Voran murdered my mom and I got the memories scraped out of my soul, and also my dad is not actually that evil" situation in a more mature manner than "killing all the Praetorians with half the city as collateral damage." And to Arenthia! It's been too long. Actually, I believe she has to fly over Cairnmouth when opening the Gates these days, so it may well be that she saved her this cycle. And now that Mirian is actually trying to infiltrate the Deeps, she could even help with that!
fghsgh
2026-01-17 03:07:53 +0000 UTCYes
Erebus
2026-01-16 07:44:16 +0000 UTCAt most I see her keeping that secret as bait to get someone to try to use him against her, or because it is personal. She likes making people believe they are in power when they aren't so she can judge them.
Schuh
2026-01-15 23:33:36 +0000 UTCI feel like several of the Prophets must have figured out by now that there's something up with Atrah Xidi and Mirian. Ibrahim took several cycles to figure out a way to convince him, while Mirian did it in a few minutes. Mirian told Ibrahim she is one of the lost. Maybe Ibrahim will ask him to teach him how to resurrect his wife and he will refuse, while Mirian got to learn EVERYTHING. Gabriel knows about Project Flayer (perhaps even more than Arenthia did, considering he operated in Persama, and apparently he tried to talk to Westerun too) and must surely be competent enough at soul magic to see that the curse was healed when she first met Atrah Xidi. They kept slipping up in the Jiandzhi. Grandpa Irabi said he could see the family resemblance. Surely there's been spying in Torrviol they haven't caught on to. Mirian clearly trusts him completely. With necromancy, and to do spying for her (on Zhuan that time, which Gabriel definitely noticed). Also, several non-Prophets in high positions, people directly opposed to Mirian, know this secret and could potentially be manipulated into revealing it. And chapter 170 mentions there is a way to use divination to find someone's relatives (although that might not work with Gaius' chthonic needle). That being said, I don't fully understand why it MATTERS. They can't exactly kill Gaius considering 1. the loop, and 2. if they use relicarium for it, they would need to get his chthonic needle specifically, and 3. he is still crazy powerful. Sure, they could cause her some legal trouble in the final cycle by revealing this to the authorities, but then she will lose the influence over politics that she needs to do her part of the plan, and she and her dad both are too powerful for the legal threat to mean anything (besides, if the current Praetorians stay in power, they will just determine that Naluri ALSO "has too much power" and "must be stopped" even if her necromancy isn't revealed and she continues to pretend to be under the memory curse, so the political landscape will have to shift drastically for that reason too). Knowing the identity and location of his daughter could be a bargaining tool for the others, but he would want to check, would discover Naluri is a Prophet too, and suspect foul play among the Prophets, where he would obviously pick Naluri's side. It also shows why she considers cancelling Project Flayer to be non-negotiable, and that whatever grand secret gives her "control" over him is not something they could replicate (although... with the Mask, maybe Liuan could... or at least, enough for her to find out what's up) Speaking of, those runic sequences on the Mask of the Fifth are... somewhat suspicious? It's probably regular curses, so something Mirian could easily defend against or even replicate, but she's already traumatized enough from having her mind messed with, so I really hope this won't become an issue later. It is also possible that the third gem does NOT produce an undetectable illusion but rather some other undetectable effect that Liuan wants to keep secret.
fghsgh
2026-01-15 14:28:59 +0000 UTCFinished my binge. Quite good. This seems like a good place to stop again, there’s just nothing quite like Binging A REALLY GOOD Story. See ya in a month or two! (Of course I’m remaining subscribed, because I truly think it’s that good)
Amadhe
2026-01-15 09:28:54 +0000 UTCI didn’t think of this yesterday, but when I reread the chapter this morning, I also remembered that my main theory leaned toward the idea that the hypothetical Scebur was very likely to have some form of social enlightenment as well, given the kinds of individual enlightenments we usually see. And that ended up lining up too. On the other hand, for someone with social enlightenment, Liuan is surprisingly bad at interacting with and persuading the other prophets. Clearly in need of more enlightenment.
Evil Legend
2026-01-15 08:58:08 +0000 UTCI blame Ibrahim. Man is a master at theatrics. Nothing that happened this chapter could rival his performance last chapter. I do like the part where Gabriel spits the wine, though.
Michael Vonica
2026-01-15 06:45:22 +0000 UTCEasy to skim past, perhaps, on my first read I paid it little mind and none of these other comments are pointing it out, but that mask is perhaps the strongest form of "mind control" magic we've seen in the story so far, something that's usually said to be close to impossible, and obviously a significant factor in how easily Scebur/Liuan can manipulate Akana.
Althaea
2026-01-15 05:58:54 +0000 UTCI’d been looking forward to this reconciliation for some time but it felt a bit… perfunctory. It’s a pivotal moment but it didn’t feel like the narrative was granting it that weight.
sparkc
2026-01-15 05:05:55 +0000 UTCHey are you the one with the Platus theory in another post? I was actually tickled by that Platus line because I thought that was the author addressing your theory. Like no, he's just an obnoxious idiot, don't worry about him.
HelloDexter
2026-01-15 03:06:09 +0000 UTCLiuan admitting being Scebur, and that she was on the last airship with him renews my suspicion that she was manipulating Troytin. What was she doing while he was eliminating all the other prophets? Just hiding? Right along with him?
AntiClimax she her
2026-01-15 01:56:16 +0000 UTCAnother encounter with Platus, and once again, nothing gained from it. I'm almost certain that he is actively trying to avoid Mirian or push her away so that he can hide whatever secret he thinks he has. That, or he is really just such an ass that he warrants special recognition for it. We are finally getting some closure on Scebur. I still think Liuan is hiding things. There have been too many hints at mind control, and she is the best positioned to have developed it, with her access to experts and tools, plus her ascension. I have a feeling that we still haven't reached a point where this can end peacefully. I doubt we'll get anything like a secret prophet jumping out to cause havoc, but the distrust runs too deep and too many tools have been foreshadowed for this to end without things getting physical. I just wonder if that conflict will be about Mirian overcoming her opponents, or her finding a way to overcome their distrust itself.
Michael Vonica
2026-01-15 01:14:29 +0000 UTCWhat she means is that even if they commit suicide or have too much control of their soul and can that avoid she can just kill them and fly to Luamin to remove the anchor directly
Aei Thena
2026-01-14 23:46:48 +0000 UTCIsn't it important that she make it known she's only responsible for one of the temporal anchors returning to the Ominian?
AntiClimax she her
2026-01-14 22:12:15 +0000 UTCHave to remember that Gabriel is a highly skilled social manipulator. I very much suspect that 'putting on a show' is exactly what he's doing. It makes sense too, considering that he clearly has been getting blindsided by things that fall outside his wheelhouse, so he keeps playing the character they expect while getting his bearings.
Derik Botha
2026-01-14 22:01:37 +0000 UTCHa, so Scebur really was just a pretext for Liuan to cause chaos! Turns out my very first intuitive and most plausible guess was right all along. Honestly, huge respect to the author for not pulling new entities out of nowhere without setup, and for making every plot twist properly foreshadowed — in a way that feels intuitive and well integrated into the narrative. You can genuinely predict where the story is heading just from the storytelling and the characters themselves. It’s all that consistent. The whole story actually feels like a really fresh take, precisely because it manages to stay engaging and compelling without forcing the characters to act out of character or conjuring drama out of thin air through contrived behavior.
Evil Legend
2026-01-14 20:29:21 +0000 UTCShe could maybe feel the souls inside.
Mr NerfGun
2026-01-14 20:04:58 +0000 UTCIt won't work for the prophets from before her time. They are protected by causality because effecting them could prevent her from being born and receiving an anchor. There is no causal protection for the Prophets of her own time because they were all chosen simultaneously.
Robert Mullins
2026-01-14 19:49:12 +0000 UTCTypo: “each soul is as different as the memories we carry care.” Should be “are.” at the end
BlastYoBoots
2026-01-14 19:30:19 +0000 UTCInteresting seems like I misread last chapter then I didn't expect the anchor removal on Luamin to work! Thanks for the chapter!
Gopard
2026-01-14 19:25:09 +0000 UTCNot yet at least, but well they have the time to learn. We still have no idea if we're past the halfway point of total time spent in the time loop (from their perspective of course). Perhaps they won't prevent moonfall for another thousand years worth of perceived time. Maybe working together it'll only take a few years/decades, hard to say for now.
RainbowCatTopHat
2026-01-14 19:10:40 +0000 UTCI’m honestly so proud of her for this
YarrowFlowers
2026-01-14 19:01:40 +0000 UTCI wonder if she has any way to tell the anchors apart on Luamin, or if she'll just have to make sure they one she wants to get rid of is the only one dead at the time.
Rose
2026-01-14 18:38:27 +0000 UTCThese secrets are more in line with the way she wants the others to keep secrets though. Nothing that could be critical to solving the problem like relicarium, the elder artifacts, and the artifacts of the other prophets. Just her contingencies.
Robert Mullins
2026-01-14 18:28:19 +0000 UTCMirian and Liuan having an important conversation 30 years in the making, meanwhile Gabriel is putting on a clown show in the background trying to get a single sip of wine
Clara
2026-01-14 18:27:56 +0000 UTCDamn, Mirian really did just reveal one set of secrets just to keep another set in reserve. Good instincts - I hope they serve her well.
Armo
2026-01-14 18:22:19 +0000 UTCWhat secret did Gabriel have anyway? He’s still sus! With him knowing soul magic and all
Touch
2026-01-14 18:19:53 +0000 UTCThey know that Mirian can remove people if she captures them, but they currently think that if they successfully kill themselves or trigger the anchor's quick release they will be fine. Now if they escape those ways she can just go to the moon to remove them at her leisure instead of having to track them down at the start of the next loop.
RedeyeA
2026-01-14 18:18:50 +0000 UTCShe withheld from the others that "she could remove temporal anchors of Prophets in this era from Luamin", but did she not just tell Lian about how she removed Troytin´s anchor? Whats the caveat here?
AE CHAMPION
2026-01-14 18:14:48 +0000 UTCI feel like the other prophets are underestimating the impact of meeting a creature unbound by time like the Unmoored. Mirian gained so much knowledge from the meeting that none of the other prophets will ever be able to acquire because they do not understand Divitrius.
Anonymous
2026-01-14 18:08:46 +0000 UTCYeah, it really makes sense why Liuan would be walking on egg shells around Mirian
Chaos
2026-01-14 18:03:35 +0000 UTCI'm... very pleasantly surprised. Thank you for the chapter.
Evgenii Grishin
2026-01-14 17:56:36 +0000 UTCOh damn, Liuan being there on that ship when Mirian took out Troytin, really puts her behaviour into perspective
Clara
2026-01-14 17:43:59 +0000 UTCHa damn it really was Liuan. So Celen wasn't actually an red herring.
Lamaschokolade
2026-01-14 17:43:02 +0000 UTC
