- Caption: Meanwhile, near Silver Bay, a small port city in the country Golnar.
- Sign: Milo’s Magic Games and Gimmickry
- Xaver Melor: You really took us to the cleaners, Elea.
- Xaver Melor: …?
- Elea Calisto: Xaver!
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The Tower In The Sky 017
└ posted on Friday, 14 June 2013, by Novil
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So the masked man has no problem killing quickly, and without warning. This does raise the question of why he let Lilith live, but Xaver gets the icicle to the sternum. Is this attack indiscriminate, or are these three somehow related to the conspiracy?
I suppose that’s going to be Lilith’s fault as well.
I wonder why he targetted Xaver first. And will he go after Quentin and Elea also, or disappear now that the deed is done.
ekimmak wrote:
*As it turn out, Xaver was standing directly in the line of fire of the hole Lilith made in her wall.*
Police: “For what purpose did you make this hole in the wall?! To escape?!”
Lilith: “Well, actually…”
Police: BAH! It is far too small for something like that! Also, you have sealed it up. Most likely to cover up your little SNIPER WINDOW!”
Lillith: “WAAH! NO! It was…I just…!”
Police: “Our sources tells us that a skilled mage like you would have no trouble to hit a target with a Level 10 Magic Missile from 10 Kilometers!”
Lilith: “NO! Well, yes, but…”
Police: “We knew that the whole treason thing was a stinky business from the beginning! There was no motive! So we but you under heavy watch for observation. Not to execute you. You would have been free in a matter of days. You knew that.”
Lilith: “I WAS!? But..”
Police: But now we know the real reason. You wanted Xaver DEAD! That’s why you got in suspicious circumstances at the prom.
Lilith: ” Now wait a minute…”
Police: “No one would suspect a prisoner in the Wizard Wing to be the guilty one! It was the PERFECT ALIBI! You’ll burn for this! We will move forward the execution for tomorrow.”
Lilith: “But you weren’t going to have one!”
Police: “We are always prepeared.”
Xaver should have left a bigger tip.
Framing powerful mages for murder (note she kicked their bums at the magic games) seems to be these dudes’ speciality.
TheManWithNoUserName wrote:
Yes. I would really like to know:
#1 Why did he peak in on Lilith.
#2 Why he didn’t kill her when he had the drop on her.
Maybe we’re overthinking this a bit. Maybe it went like this:
Lilith: -sticking wand into wall- “Yes, looks good.”
Masked Man: -thinking- I should totally try that.
-later-
Masked Man: -shnnnk-
Xaver:” Augh!”
Maybe it was a bout of misplaced, sadistic joy? Maybe?
Just for a change of pace in the commentary, would Milo’s place be a nod to the magic shop owner of the same name in http://www.thewotch.com/?
Boo! A totally random murder! Didn’t see that coming! (Ahem.) On a serious note, who is Xaver? Why do we care? I know it’s all going to be explained later, but right now it’s just confusing. And, worth noting: Mysterious Masked Man’s magic flashes are primary blue, with red highlights. Meaning… we have no idea which magic he’s using, or even if he’s using both, which would be a giveaway to his becoming an anti-hero. I certainly don’t know who’s side he’s on, but the bad guys seem fond of carefully planned major moves, and not the kind of guys to just randomly gunning people down in the street. But he’s obviously not Academy (too immoral). Corrupt government? Maybe, maybe. One-man army? That has my vote, for a lone anti-hero. But bear in mind that’s not the most likely, just the one I’m hoping for.
No! Not Xaver!
So…attempt at escape or manipulating the prison cell .. = friend attacked/killed.
now back to inform her.. and no more prison escape attempts….
kinda evil if thats the case….
@ PMark:
She somehow withstood impossible combination of a Disintegrate and dragon breath spell without beeing harmed… I would say that makes her a worthy speciment to study…
@ Falcon:
If he’s stolen some of Lilith’s magic and is using that for the killing blow in order to frame her, then the ‘red highlights’ could be the redstream power he used to steal and direct the stolen power.
If the investigation finds traces of redstream in the victim… that might just make her look even more guilty, especially if the properties of redstream aren’t well known.
THERE’S A SWHOOSH WHEN HE APPEARED!
So it wasn’t the cape, then why didn’t he make a swoosh when he appeared in Lilith’s room?
Hmm, I may actually have a theory that might explain it…
Why is everybody convinced that there is *only* one red-mage wearing a blue cape with the same mask pattern..?
We’ve seen almost the same mask pattern before upon the man who fireballed Lilith, but he was otherwise wearing a quite different outfit in
The Red Hall 46
It seems that each of the void-wielding mage-hunters wear a mask the style of which denotes class:
Thief: bandit eye-cover (ex Robin, boy wonder’s mask)
Ranger: bird-beak mask
Warrior: Oni-mask
Seer: three-eyed mask
Magi: the \V/ -slit mask we see here
There were multiple people wearing Oni-masks, bird-beak masks, and bandit eye-covers.
How are we certain the Void only has a single Seeress and a single magi?
Saskyou wrote:
I noticed that too. So what is your theory?
Blaaaa! Someone stabbed me right in the ketchup packets I keep in my coat pocket!
Why oh why do I keep ketchup packets in my coat pocket?
Paeris Kiran wrote:
But that’s just the thing; he DIDN’T study her. He was there only for a second or two and then, “swoosh”, he was gone. He didn’t probe her. He didn’t touch her. (If he had, she is talented and skilled enough to detect it and resist.) He didn’t do a blamed thing. He just looked at her and then, “swoosh”, he left.. About the only thing he could accomplish in that short amount of time was establish the fact that; yes, she was in that cell.
Why?
• Was it morbid curiosity? “Hey, I’m bored. I think I’ll pop in on the notorious Lilith Caillean and see what the back of her head looks like.”
• Was he part of the plot to put her there, and he was just admiring his handiwork?
• Was it preparation for a later extraction? A good guy is planning a rescue. A bad guy might be wanting to study her as you suggest and possibly recruit her.
@ PMark:
consider it a preliminary check…
That mage has been playing too much Skyrim. But wow! An ice spike?!
That mage REALLY gets around… I sense a recruitment opportunity for Lillith
And I half expected Paeris Kiran to say “He’ll live! He could live!” given that it’s a kinetic weapon and all, but maybe he makes an exception to his rule of always assuming kinetic trauma is non-fatal when it’s caused by a spell.
@ PMark:
Can magic be traced to a caster? Perhaps the masked man is going to frame her for this.
Kintrex wrote:
I am not Novil. Only he knows the intricate details of how his universe works. However, I am inclined to answer no.
Remember the very first page, RH-1? Ilias came up to Lilith’s door and pulled back his knuckle to knock on the door, but before he could make contact with the wood, Lilith called out to him by name and told him to come in.
Also remember Lilith’s first magic test (RH-28)? Ars hadn’t even begun the spell yet, yet Lilith correctly sensed it and identified it.
A girl who can do all these things has to be very in tune with the Bluestream. I really don’t think Mister Creepy Mage did anything beyond verify she was in that cell. If he had somehow analyzed her aura, or sucked up a bit of it, I think she would have sensed it.
Hey, I’m still having trouble figuring out how he popped in and out of a lumium lined cell and swooshed going out but not coming in. He swooshed when he popped in behind Xaver and his friends. Why not when he popped into Lilith’s cell?
of course, now he has to kill the other two to get rid of witnesses, things are going to get messy in Golnar. A war shall soon begin I think.
Considering the alternative site is now restricting views of the most recent updates (ie, stuff that’s ahead of this) for anyone who’s not a subscriber (and I’m not about to subscribe, being the cheap git I am – I’ll wait for the print compilations and buy those instead!) I’m glad it’s finally catching up to what I’ve seen. 🙂
@ PMark:
The word “theory” is a link, that will answer all of your follow-up questions as well. Shouldn’t take more than 5 seconds either!
@ Saskyou:
Haha 🙂
Let’s hope Novil is a bit more detailed.
Oh geez, stuff just got real. Random people died. 😛
NO NOT THE GAME TRIO!! HOW DARE YOU TARGET THE GEEKY AND FUN-LOVING!!
Poor Xaver….he finally gets to make his debut, and then dies before the next page even begins.
@ y0k41:
and to think, only three days away from retirement.
Avianmosquito wrote:
Well I just expected draconic scale and mane of an imp to have somewhat better stopping power than human tissue…
Here however one can see that bolt pierces nothing more interesting than human flesh and bones…
@ Paeris Kiran:
Given that an arrow will perforate steel plate, that seems unlikely. Arrows have been repeatedly recorded penetrating a cavalryman’s greaves, leg, greaves once more and their saddle with enough force to pin their leg to their horse. Against strong fabrics like leather and carbon fibre, they have penetration comparable to carbines. Against strong, soft fabrics like kevlar, they have penetration superior to rifles. They can NOT be underestimated.
Also, human bone is both as hard and as strong as aluminum. Lighter, too. It just isn’t very flexible. Human skin is as tough as leather, and actually has better tensile strength, it just isn’t as thick. Human muscle isn’t very strong, but it is loaded with sinew. Sinew is as strong as low-grade steel, and much more elastic. The human body is one tough piece of machinery, most of its parts are redundant and those that aren’t are well protected by the ribcage or skull. Compared to that, Ars did NOT have a significant advantage, and he was shot twice with a weapon proven to overachieve in penetration through an organ difficult to make redundant and the largest blood vessel in his body. We could even see by the length of arriw sticking out of him that it was a through and through.
He’s not the only one, either. The first teacher stabbed, you said was going to live. He was stabbed through his common illiac artery, and likely his spine, and even if he wasn’t a knife that size through his intestines or especially his kidney would have killed him in minutes from blood loss. Not to mention the knife was clearly enchanted, even though that’s completely redundant with a wound like that.
Just because it’s not a magic spell, laser blast or bullet doesn’t mean it isn’t deadly, or that it needs anything special to kill somebody. A simple, sharp piece of steel usually outperforms firearms and fancy energy attacks in terms of lethality, and people had thousands of years to bring the already high killing power of edged weapons even higher, with a great deal of success. Stop underestimating them.
@ Paeris Kiran:
And on another note, bringing a bit of fusing plasma out of a star wouldn’t result in a massive explosion. The plasma’s temperature would instantly drop several orders of magnitude, because its temperature comes from its pressure. (Combined gas law, look it up.) The plasma would instantly stop fusing, and you’d end up with an unimpressive burst of heat and pressure, too short to be effective and less damaging than a regular oil or gas fire. Your plan in “Day After Tomorrow” stupid. You managed to show a complete lack of understanding in all fields three strips in a row. Next time, before you open your mouth, make sure you know what you’re talking about.
Avianmosquito wrote:
Temperature actualy is not the issue, given the gravitic pressure involved even small volume of plasma in the centre of an star will create sufficient shockwave by simple volume expansion when the gravity is taken away, to kill everything in few dozen kilometre diameter. And the nuclear fussion reaction is already occuring so it already produces radiation at point I need, and there is, of course, no need to sustaining it unless you want to commit suicide.
And the general issue is actualy different, it is simple conjuration spell. to create equivalent firepower different way one would need large volume of explosives… technicaly those could be teleported in, but replenishment and storage would be issue. Instead of negligably small magical rift.
Wheather things do or do not look impresive is irrelevant, as long as they are sufficiently deadly and destructive.
@ Paeris Kiran:
You are overstating the level of compression by several orders of magnitude AND forgetting about inverse cube law, not to mention overestimating the lethality of beta particles. You’ll get a bang, sure, but a weapon of mass destruction it is not. You’ll deafen everybody in the red hall, break the windows if there are any, probably cause concussive trauma to everybody due to the confined space, (as opposed to just those close to it) and if your definition of a few cubic centimetres is a few dozen, you might cause serious structural damage to the building or even collapse it. You won’t kill anybody from the ionizing radiation or the beta particle release. Even causing illness is unlikely. You will, at most, give them the equivalent dosage of a full body x-ray, which is NOT seriously hazardous.
And given that distance is (usually) important to teleportation magic, a spell requiring the transportation if matter from the sun would likely be less efficient than just blasting the building down fire regular mage’s fire.
Man, Sub-Zero’s such a n00b character.
WHAT THE FRIG?! That guy is an uber-powerful magic-weilding LOONY!!
Stay frosty.
Avianmosquito wrote:
What beta partcles? Sun in the core utilizes mostly p+p fusion using neutrinos to create deuterium, and after that it fuses rather quickly to helium3 versa to helium4 Gamma rays produced here are sufficiently energetic to multiple excitation of the atmospheric atoms which will in term produce sifficient amount of lower gamma and Xray.
General temperature is 15,6 Million kelvin, the density granted is not not overall high, however since it is compressed hydrogen it forms rather a lot of atoms with insane kinetic energy… when slowed they will have to radiate- to create rays. 150 grams per liter 150 times more denser than water, immediate expansion…
If you want a somewhat more elegant way to blow something up take an liquid helium cooled analyzer for nuclear magnetic rezonance. If the superconductor looses superconctivity (it happened, it is difficult to cool them in volume and radiation can make them normaly conductive localy and take few dozen litres of instantly evaporating helium rapidly expanding… equivalent of tactical nuke, one can squeeze a kiloton or two from that… in this case getting explosive is easier than liqifiing and cooling the helium)
@ Paeris Kiran:
The problem is that the lack of mass means both a lack of both kinetic energy and especially momentum in the shockwave. The blast will take the path of least resistance even quicker, transferring less energy to those in its path, and lose even more energy to air resistance. Again, even ONE building being collapsed by it is overestimating it. You would need a nuclear warhead to create the kind of destruction you were describing.
As for radiation: nuclear fusion is cleaner than fission. That long of exposure to a fission reaction would NOT cause radiation sickness, would NOT increase cancer risk, and would NOT otherwise have an ill effect. Radiation is NOT that lethal, you need 6-10gy to die from it, scale is unimportant and younger, healthier individuals take more radiation to kill. You will give a couple milligrays to everybody in the room, at the very most. You would need several thousand times that to kill somebody. Radiation sickness comes from lengthy exposure or ingestion of radioactive particles. Neither will happen here. It will do NOTHING.
And funny how you jumped on this to deflect from your other indefensible position, the one on kinetic weaponry. Hoping I’d forget that, or hoping to discredit me by catching me out of my element? Either way, it didn’t work.
@ BLackShadow:
But he’s so easy and cheap. I’m not saying he’s not powerful, but TOO powerful. See how he just dominated this fight against Jhonny Cage without makeup, there? Easy mode.
Avianmosquito wrote:
@ Paeris Kiran:
The least resistance given that air is everywhere around at more or less same temperature and same densite effectively means spherical explosion. (Rather wastefull if utilized directly on the ground, one can recycle much more energy by altitude explostion, that was actualy tried with nukes)
One p+p fusion gives about energy of few MeV subsequeant reactions will squaze much more… per 2 fusing protons and general absorbtion/reradiation of rays in atmosphere you get thousands of photons of RTG equivalent. (those range at best in dozen keV), not counting the decelerating radiation of those hot protons which by necessity will produce lot of other rays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core is cakewalk compared to amount of reactions in solar plasma in center of the star. Plus the radiation is actualy far less energetic. That however has little benefitial properties.
And if you want more firepower… just sustain the portal longer… the pressure will squeeze more plasma through 🙂
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the Masked Man actually has nothing at all to do with Lili being framed. What he’s actually doing is trying to foment a civil war, and Lili being framed was entirely the work of her own government.
Huh?
Not to nitpick, but why didn’t the mage just to that to Lilith? Clean up the cell afterwards, tell anyone who asks that Lilith was executed behind closed doors for public safety, and go about your your evil plans. I swear, villains are ALWAYS one bout of common sense away from certain victory!
Death by icicle. Cold.
Next time, shop at MY STORE!!! (We’re having a sale on healing spells, so hurry on by!)
I feel bad for dissing Elena and Xaver’s faces in the 4th panel, now.