Happy New Year! Here’s your present, enjoy.
*Not spell-checked so beware of typos*
*SPOILERS BELOW!*
Summary
Having run away from the rest of the gang, Ren sits on a park bench trying to sort out her emotions. She’s approached by the mysterious woman from the previous volumes. Their conversation eventually ends to the topic of pledge cancellation once again, and this time Ren decides to follow through with her decision.
Cou takes a break from the rebuild operation of the flying machine. He asks about Ren’s whereabouts, but Kuea is surprised to hear that Ren isn’t with him. Rowen realises the sound they heard earlier must have been Ren leaving the house. Worried, Cou goes to search for Ren.
The woman has taken Ren to the mansion Cisqua infiltrated earlier. Ren is still distraught from all the emotions turning inside of her, but after remembering all of the people that has been hurt and died because of her, she wills herself to keep her promise to herself. They soon arrive at the entrance of a room. The woman assures Ren there’s nothing to worry about and slowly pushes open the door. From inside the darkened room, a familiar and haunting voice greets Ren with the utmost hatred. Parl steps out of the shadows and quickly walks toward Ren. She proceeds to strangle the smaller girl with psychotic satisfaction. The woman stops her with a verbal request. The identity of the woman is revealed as Parl addresses her as “sister,” asking why she’s interrupting her revenge.
The ensuing flashback displays the events shortly after Beazon’s defeat at the hands of Cou and Ren. The woman, Beyloon, comforts Parl as the latter screams and writhes in pain from her wounds. Beyloon tells Parl that she’ll be able to have her revenge since their superior, Barbarooks, has given her the mission of capturing Metherlence. Beyloon’s Pleasure forbids her from thinking of the mission as some sort of revenge, but when he goes on to boast about himself, Beyloon slices his throat open with a hidden dagger. As the man slowly bleeds to death on the floor, she tells him she cares not about any mission and her only purpose in life is to satisfy her little sister’s wishes. Having made herself clear, she calls for Parl to come along with her so they can grant her wish for revenge. Parl has made up her mind that she won’t grant Ren a clean death. She’s looking forward to torturing her little victim as much as she can before she takes her life.
Cou has returned to the house, unable to find Ren. Cisqua fills them in on what she discovered earlier about Parl. Cisqua uses her radar to locate Ren, and realises she is being held in the mansion she infiltrated earlier. She finds it strange that Beyloon owns such a lavishly decorated mansion on the top level on Nad Lezen and points out whoever abducted Ren may have a larger organisation acting as their backing, possibly Orga Night. Euschut tells them due to the recent incidents of terrorism, all transportation has been shut down so the gang can’t get to the top via conventional methods. Bocca says the flying machine isn’t exactly ready to fly yet, but it doesn’t seem they have any other option. Just as the gang gets ready to leave, Kuea halts Cou and confronts him about his recent avoidance of Ren. Cou denies it again, but Kuea observes that he seem rather concerned about the whole Edel Garden affair. Cisqua almost blurts out Ren’s reasons for going, but Rowen cautions her. After a few panels of dramatic facial expressions, Cou admits his feelings for her - only to get completely humiliated by the underwhelming reaction of Kuea, Rowen, and Cisqua. (*note: My personal favourite moment in this whole volume) Kuea goes on to lecture Cou about the fact that it is his own insecurities that resulted in the current crisis. The fact that Ren picked him to be her Pleasure should be plenty clear of her feeling toward him, so in return Cou should get himself straightened out, and toughen up. Their counselling session is cut short by a sudden knock on the door. The Air Force has arrived much earlier than expected. Bocca isn’t all that shocked since he did have the only flying machine in the civilian population, so if a floatation stone is stolen his place is the first place they’ll suspect. As everybody scrambles around trying to figure something out, Cou proposes to go on first to find Ren alone.
A fight breaks out shortly after the Air Force officers break into the basement and spots the flying machine. Bocca gets the plane in gear and guns the engines. Cisqua, Rowen, and Kuea jumps aboard while the others hold the attackers back. The ceiling opens up and after a bit of drama, the plane takes off.
At the mansion, a injured and exhausted Ren lies helplessly on the floor. Parl is awaiting the arrival of Ren’s rescuers as she sits agitated in a chair close by. She’s planning on “punishing” not only Ren, but also Cou and the others. As she breaks out in maniacal laughter, Cou breaks the door and barges in. After some brief taunting, Cou attacks Parl, but is stopped dead in his tracks when Beyloon puts a dagger to Ren’s throat. Parl takes the opportunity and smacks Cou onto the floor with her whip. Cou is surprised by Beazon’s absence and ask about his whereabouts. Apparently, after the battle Beazon’s completely lost it and has also developed a fear for Edel Raids. It goes without saying that Parl also lost her master as a result. Parl deems that as the first mistake Cou made. As she continues to trample and smack Cou, she points out their second mistake: ruining her life. (*note: at least that’s what I think she’s saying, since the translation is pretty vague here again) Parl says she couldn’t care less about what becomes of Ren’s Elemental Gelade or the fact that she’s a Glittering Jewel, all she wants is for them to suffer. She sits on top of Cou with her dagger drawn and stabs it into the tile next to his head, still taunting him. Much to Cou’s puzzlement, Parl gets off of him and tosses Ren into his arms. She tells them to react because she wants to kills them in their reacted state. Still in a slight state of disbelief, Cou is surprised once again when Parl reacts with Beyloon, with the latter in weapon state.
Bocca’s flew the gang to their destination, but since Cisqua gave Cou their only radar, they can’t pinpoint the couple’s location, much less pick them up. To further complicate things, the Air Force has scrambled their squadrons to chase down Bocca.
On the inside of the mansion, Cou’s doing his best to hold his own against the combined fury of Parl and Beyloon. After blocking and taking a couple of attacks, Cou finally lands a hit on Parl, cutting free the bandages around her face. With the bandages gone, Cou sees the damage he’d inflicted on Parl during their last fight. Parl has lost her right eye, and much of her face has been scorched and scarred. Parl says this wound is their third and final mistake, because this wound is a reminder of the moment when they took everything from her. Her next attack knocks the couple through a wall and into the courtyard. After coming to their sense, the couple confesses their feelings toward each other and does some bonding. Well, okay, a lot of bonding that spans many pages. Now fully prepared to face their adversaries, Cou does battle with Parl once again. Parl traps them in a cage of lightning that slowly closes in from all sides, rendering the wind armour useless. But Cou’s got a trick up his sleeve. He collects the rods of lightning together into one and fires it at Parl, effectively KO’ing her. With her right arm broken at the elbow, Parl still wants to fight. Cou remarks that she’s completely gone insane. As Beyloon holds her little sister in her arms, Parl still wants to react and fight. But in completely unexpected twist of fate, Beyloon stabs her through the heart. A stunned Parl looks at her sister in disbelief before finally collapsing and buying the farm. Beyloon explains that she has nothing personal against Cou and Ren. She only fought them because her one and only sister wanted her to, and that alone is enough reason for her. She tells the couple to leave quickly, and her parting words were: “Glittering Jewel, for you to even consider cancelling your contract with that boy… It’s easy to see how much he means to you.”
Bocca is engaged in a dogfight with the Air Force planes in the sky. Cou and Ren climb a tower in order to let Bocca spot them easier. It works, but now they have to make a gamble and jump onto the plane while it’s moving. They jump, but miss. Luckily, Cou latches onto the plane with his hook and they make it to safety.
Within the ruins of the mansion, Beyloon, with Parl on her lap, pierces her own throat with her dagger, and follows her sister into the Underworld.
Impression
I have mixed feelings about this volume. I think I’ve said this before, while character building is nice and all, it really needs to happen under the right circumstances. Otherwise, it just feels out of place and awkward. I’m going to have to say Azuma’s style of character building in EG is really beginning to get repetitive. It can be simply be boiled down to this: during downtime, Ren and Cou runs into relationship problems, Ren gets into trouble, which becomes an excuse for cool fights (or sometimes not-so-cool fights), Cou and Ren learns more about themselves and each other, they get back together, beats opponent(s), story arc concludes. Other than that, this volume is still typical EG. It’s a rather Cou/Ren centric volume, but then again this whole arc has been concentrated on the main leads. So don’t expect a lot of panels on the side characters. As far as action goes, this volume features a mediocre battle that ends rather quickly and unexpectedly. Who would’ve thought Beyloon would be the one to put Parl out of her misery? But I suppose it’s only appropriate for her to do the job. The prequel to the fight where Parl basically dominates Cou was strangely funny to read. It’s pretty blatant S&M undertones Azuma’s inserted in there. Sex sells, I suppose. Again, a lack of comedy in this volume save for Cou’s underwhelming confession response.
I’m starting to feel EG has been taking itself too seriously with the recent turn of event. Seriously (no pun intended), lighten up the mood. All the awkward teenage angst is really bogging down the story. It’s slowly getting to the point where it isn’t even fun to read anymore. At this point, EG doesn’t have that many routes to take. I say cut the excessive emotional baggage loose and have some fun. Either that or ramp up the action.
