LCD Mother of Learning

Hey dude, why are you reading so fast, I'm only in half way of chapter 103

 

One of the best days ever dude. I stopped everything to read.

 

Same.

And I'm done.
That was an amazing end I feel. I am glad Domagoj waited until he was ready to release it.
I can't wait for an epilogue to tie in the post action of the conflict and hopefully more fully set up future conflict for the potential sequel.
Usually I'd write something longer in praises of such a high quality gargantuan project... but I'm pretty well speechless right now beyond saying what I have just now said and still silently saying 'amazing' to myself as I continue to think of this grand tale.

I'll leave the eloquence of further praises and reviews until I digest this more and stop fidgeting in excitement.

 

Fuck me man. It's over.

And I'll never read something like it again.

 

NEVER MIND

 

This was truly something unique and a bit of an aberration I think with regards to quality and size.
I don't think I'll ever read something like it again, even if we get a sequel. It won't capture the same Magical Feeling from reading the first. It will capture a different feeling I think and do fantastically but this one here was special, and I won't ever forget it or stop perusing my favorite parts over and over again.

The only other novel to give me such a sense of awe and satisfaction upon completion was Dawn of Wonder.
And MoL still as an epilogue coming, so even more awe and wonder is on it's way.

 

This ends make me wanna cry with tears of joy

 

I can't wait for the epilogue! I really enjoyed how everything ended. I really want to see the aftermath especially Zach's reaction, Damien's reaction to the whole explanation of the loop, Zorian's life after, Zorian's repayments, his classmates reaction, and of course all things Kiriella.

 

the questions I do hope to see an answer during epilogue:

Grey hunter vs silverlake:
While grey hunter killed primordial silverlake and absorbed mana, it was still under wards. Did older silverlake managed to kill grey hunter and put into her dimensional pockets to haul it away? Or just knocked out/stole it's eggsack for her potion and grey hunter fled to the hole / lower layers? Did Absorbing essence made it dependable on mana rich environment so it delved into depths?

Quatach-Ichl.
What is the soul seed? Is it memories encapsulated in soul? Some parasitic entity which learns everything host does? How many hosts are in there implanted with it? Are Zach/Zorian implanted - like when he soul melded them? What did he learn from loop?
Does his current blessing from angels is contract (like zach had) and this is he cannot break any deals he makes - it is enforced by his divine blessing.

Eldemar. Mage guild. Immortal eleven, oganj.
Since the leadership of local Mage guild were cultists, there should be some sort of blow out. Stolen dagger, remaining cultists in mage guild, actions from capital.

Cyoria.
How bad it is. What is going change. Are MCs going to play large role in the future?

Zach.
Recovery of estate.

Zorian family.
Mysteries behind mid brother pushing girl into bushes. Also is Damien going to train him up? Mother/Father. Damien's marriage and the future plans for all of them.

 

The thing I'm happiest about the most is the sheer number of sequel-baits.

Sudomir and Quatach teamed up, and Quatach knows how to further augment Sudomir, his wife, and his other soul-related efforts. He even knows about the Sovereign Gate and its keys, ready for another run in 400 years or so. His country is still strong and thirsty for vengeance, and the political climate is more than ready for another massive war.

The cult is still out there, as is a spider with the primordial essence they need. Oganj continues to run rampant, and he now has two very powerful divine artifacts and a grudge. The angels may also begrudge Zorian for bamboozling the contract and try to correct it by going after him and Zach, and demons may be motivated to move against them as well. Some of the good guys seem ready to turn against him due to what a scary motherfucker he's become, and it's hard to blame them.

Heaven and hell-related shenanigans remain unexplored, as does most of the planet, as do countless possibilities represented by a pretty awesome and comprehensive magical system and ecology.

If this is it for MoL-verse I'm gonna be hella salty is what I'm really saying here.

 

write your own fanfic tbh

 

Sudomir, Qi and Oganj seem like obvious antagonists to some degree if there is a sequel. They simply have to make a return as they are too closely tied to the inception of the new conflict about to hit... namely another round of Splinter Wars.
I feel the most likely source of trouble will come from other nations as we begin to actually explore their power and the individual power of their most outstanding mages.
So far we have really only seen eagle riders and the churches forces. We haven't even really scratch the surface of Eldemars open power let alone their hidden power and all the same for the other nations.
For instance we have heard about Eldemars Immortal Eleven... but have 0 info on them beside Oganj killed a couple cause they were stupid. That would be something to explore.

I doubt the sovereign gate is going to come into play in any meaningful way.
Eldemar will secure it up even tighter than before after certain revelations and the only thing it does won't become possible for another 400 years... it wouldn't be a sequel really if it ended up becoming paramount to the plot.... we'd be so far in the future most everything should be unrecognizable. Though it could be possible should new info be provided. Who knows.

I think the spider is a perfect opening for Zorian and Co to actually explore the true depth of the dungeon. You have a creature that could feasibly survive or thrive in such depth with the most dangerous of creature as it is one of them, especially now with primordial essence.
There isn't a better opportunity for the author to grasp a legitimate reason for Zorian to be motivated to explore the dungeons and to properly expand and delve into that barely explored part of MoL. It's so perfect I can't help but think that was the intent.

The Angel's won't seek vengeance of any sort upon Zorian, they already discussed and came to the understanding that if they won, that Zorians existence would be allowed despite it being against the rules. They probably wouldn't bat an eye if he died... perhaps even be happy that the rule breaker is gone and a semblance of balance restored but they wouldn't have a part in it I firmly believe. Everything we have seen of their nature says they are honest in what they say and the deals they make.

As for the demons, meh. I doubt they would attach any extra importance to Zorian. They'd probably be just as happy to rip apart John Doe as they would be for Zorian. They were just contracted to fight, they didn't have any known stake in the fight that I know of beyond being OP mercenaries.

 

I don't think we know enough about heavenly/infernal hierarchies to really say that last part. Angels could have split factions. Quatach, Zorian's memory crystals and maybe other things were unaccounted for in terms of Sovereign Gate memories, and they're not unlikely to spread the knowledge even more. There's also the fact that Zorian solved the contract without it actually being solved in reality, which is a straight-up subversion of God-given authority. There's a lot of potential reasons for a grudge there, and I'm definitely not just making mental gymnastics because I personally enjoy watching angelic wings be plucked or anything, I swear.

As for demons, we know even less about them. Also, they're demons. That's enough said for me to rest my case if you think about the potential things they might like or dislike. Consorting with heaven, preventing the destruction of a country and personally opposing them are reasons enough to make them enemies. Also, Zor's potential for mayhem is enough justification for a destructive entity to go after the things he likes to turn him evil.

 

The point on Demons is fair enough even following my logic. They are unreasonable and will do pretty much anything. You could be just as right as I could be, who knows. Enter their line of vision and one could have a demon trailing you forever trying to kill you.
Something could be written in to make it more logical as well, could go either way.
If they give no shitss and may kill someone else just as easily for no good reason they could hold a grudge for no good reason either. I'd concede I'd Demons based on their naturally chaotic nature and the fact they will work for anyone whom makes a deal with them and fulfills the demand.


I doubt Angel's have split factions. I mean, they could. It could be written so that they could but it could be written that Angel's are Gods in disguise playing a game. I'm just going by what has been said by Alanic, the people in the Church and Zorians actual dealings with the Angels. Just using the knowledge we have to guess instead of guess what future knowledge will be then make a guess based on that.
The only thing we know about Angel's is that they were the Gods servants of a kind, they stayed behind to look after the Gods creation, help humanity and fight demons as I recall. And that the one helping Zorian was guessed to be very highly ranked. Granted I am just assuming that the Angel tasked with preventing the scorched earth safeguards upon the mortal realm and Pans release speaks for the masses. I could be wrong on that.

Previously I said Pan couldn't bestow abilities and I felt I had used the information in the novel properly to deduce it wasn't possible . Strengthening and other things yes but super abilities, no. Well Jornak went and threw that to shit but that's fine. It was still cool and I'm fine with new things being introduced that make previous guesses no longer hold weight or just being shown wrong.

So without saying what knowledge could be revealed later and using that to guess what may happen in the story since anyone can say anything can be revealed in the story to back up a guess I make.
The angel doesnt care about the contract not being solved in reality. It knew what Zorian was going to attempt. It knew he was trying to find a way out of the contract for zach, in their initial conversation it pretty blatantly said if you keep Pan in his cage, we will overlook everything else concerning the loopers since that was the most important thing and the angel needed them to help instead of bail since zach couldn't do it on his own.

As for wanting to see more of heaven and hell. Yup right there with you. I'm sure there are ways to bring them into the story and expand upon them as a whole without making the Angel's openly aggressive to Zorian. Perhaps there is a way to do that well, I am not an immensely talented author like Domagoj so perhaps I just can't see it... but I just can't see it.

 

Epilogue has out

 

Next 400 years later will be serious for people who aware of time loop ability of Sovereign Gate beside Z&Z, they know well not to skip something like this and surely would have their representative to be present when planar alignment happen.
Beside primordial enhanced Grey Hunters I more afraid of Silver One the winter wolf shifter, there's no mention if it's dead in battle. If it's alive then Altazia would have another monster sapients because Silver One decendants will inherited it's shifter power, they can reason and intelligence thinking like other sapient beings. They can even transform into human and have potential be become mage (difficult but plausible) by learning human spell casting system instead ivented new one.
Z&Z should build proper company and research facility in future to obtain money instead selling magical devices in black market.

Thanks to Nobody103 aka Domagoj for creating this amazing story, I love it and surely want to buy printed version if it's published.

 

Man, I kinda wanna read a SoL sequel where Kirielle is attending Cyoria... except she's been tutored by Zorian for the last 10 years.

 

Bahahahaha, I second that for at least a short story companion piece.

 

I guess there's never going to be enough of delving deeper into MOL world.

What do you think about the intercontinental gates? Were those expropriated from Ibasians or self-crafted?
Do you think Zorian will build his own aircraft (or airlines company even) besides gate network?

I do wonder why Zorian is not using simulacra at most of the times. While he apparently done A LOT (which might imply employing simulacra to achieve that). So maybe internal self-nagging is too annoying.
But he should be at least coordinating with other aranea webs/travelling or revisiting/exploring other continents (like sending a clone to Han empire to look for remote balkorian (or whatever) stones to get them open for his spider friends).

Pan has a troyan spider... I doubt the grey spider was able to process his flesh/energy, but my guess is Pan will be growing himself a clone/another body in the depths to recover his main body or other purposes.

I would like to see Zorian giving Xvim lessons on shaping and nagging him That's the least he could do for his tutor, teach him some more shaping tricks.

 

What's SOL?