Yes yes, Nagi rescues Arika, Ala Rubra comes chargin’ in, et cetera. But the very, very best:

“Whoa, hey now, you sure you wanna take us with just these chumps?”

“‘Just these’, you say? Fools. This event is more well-guarded than it appears. We are surrounded by two ship squadrons and three thousand elite troops. Even you people…”

“Like I said.

You really sure wanna take us with just these chumps?”

And bonus, the Ala Rubra Saga is (for now) over. Back to Negi and co.

GETTO DA ZE.

Lexicon entries:

• He Astrape Huper Ouranou Mega Dunamene [Η Αστραπη Υπερ Ουρανου Μεγα Λυναμενη]
• The entry itself delves quite a bit so there’s another page.
• Umbrae Septemplex Paries Anti-corporalis
• Circuli Absorptionis
• Sinus Magnus
• Dios Logche ‘Titano-ktonon’ [Διος Λογχη Τιτανο-κτονον]

See something wrong? Let me know.

Table of Strength.

Self-explanatory.

Also working on a list of Rakan’s moves, for no particular reason other than being highly entertaining to translate.

Well, raws were bloody fast this week.

***

- To get it out of the way, Godel’s room is a set-up ‘projected into imaginary space/phantasmagoria’ (or something like that) hence the backdrop.

- Godel thought that with Negi so unstable due to Magia Erebea it would be easy to ‘pull him over’ to his side… which didn’t work, obviously. Chisame tells him to get on with it and explain why he wanted to do it in the first place.

“50,000,000 mages of mixed-blood descent; Megalo-Mesembria, the superpower wielding the greatest military strength in the magic world; at its core is the M.M. Senate. That is our enemy.

The Mage of the Beginning who was destroyed – that was also our, humanity’s, enemy.

Those who continue to follow his will, Fate Averruncus and company, they are currently the most dangerous enemy.

The empire of demi-humans, Hellas. Unfortunately, they are also nothing but an obstacle.

It’s simple, yes? Basically — I want you to crush them all!

That is the reason why I want you to lend me your strength.

Thus — we can save all the peoples of this dying world… every single one of our 67,000,000 brethren.

That is our objective.”

As Chisame points out, that more or less makes the entire world their enemy. Of course, as Nodoka says, Godel just said that he was one of the M.M. Senators.

- Godel considers what happened to Negi six years ago “a sin he won’t escape from” but doesn’t deny it when Asakura says he wasn’t actually involved.

He really does seem willing to die for the cause. He just needed someone for Negi to beat on, and “wouldn’t mind” if he was killed after everything was over.

- Finally, Nodoka confirms all this with Diarium Ejus, and that he was not involved six years ago.

(Possible point of interest, Godel – who Negi calls “Kurt-san”, by the way – notes Diarium Ejus by name. How did he know?)

- Godel shows Negi “the story of your father and mother” to have him understand directly – starting with Nagi defeating the Life Maker.

“Everything will be filled. There is no solution. Eventually, even they will fall under despair.

Become the hero who defeats me. And then, become the consolation for your flock.

But, never forget.

You are not an exception.“

(Nagi does it the Gurren-Dan way)

“In the end, even you will understand – that the ‘eternity’ I speak of is the only philanthropy that can save ‘every soul’.”

(Nagi: “Don’t look down on us humans!”)

…Aaaand the chapter ends leading into the next, Nagi and Arika after the war.

It’s been a long time coming.

EDIT: I didn’t even notice this the first time, but when Negi did that last attack, the staff transformed into lightning, and he threw it like a spear. Very, very similar to Titanoktonon.

*Adds another note in the “WTF?” list*

Late, not much to say, because the chapter was informative yet went nowhere.

- Diarium Ejus was totally overwhelmed by Magia Erebea, the first time the diary has failed, or maybe it should be said it worked too well and it just overloaded. Apparently enough so that the automatic ‘translation’ function broke down (or maybe the English’s just artistic license).

- The problem with Negi was the Mesembrina Senate views him as not “son of the hero Nagi Springfield” but “son of the Queen of Calamity Arika”.

- Godel seems to have wanted Negi to actually kill him, given his ‘disappointment’ when the girls brought him back from crazy demon mode. But it’s doubtful as Godel doesn’t strike me as the “dying for the cause” type.

- Negi’s choice turns out to be more or less correct, as Asakura, Nodoka, and Chisame are the ones who can appeal to him with words and emotions, something the fighters wouldn’t have managed quite as well.

- Chisame really is dethroning Asuna in this chapter. She was the only one completely distracted from worrying about ‘the other’ Negi (it never occurred to me at the time that Chisame hadn’t known about six years ago*) and the one to give the final blow – and longest rant – to bring him back to normalcy.

“Idiot!

We have no idea what pains you tasted that day. We don’t even know how long that night of loneliness and anguish has carried you. But that’s not all, is it? Is worthless vengeance the only thing you gained that day?! That can’t be right!

No, what took hold inside you…”

- Seeing Nagi actually tearing up while hidden under the hood was… quite something.

* Which reminded me of something else from 2ch: it really is getting hard to keep track of and figure out who knows how much about what at any given time.

***

So what does attacking Negi’s village in such a roundabout way actually do for M.M. (or that “one part of M.M.”, as Eva puts it)? Evidently it’s something to do with Negi himself, and the way Godel planned this it’s as though they all expected Negi to have the potential to ‘fall to darkness’ in the first place.

And apparently, even Mahora itself has Mesembrina Senators in their higher-ranking members.

Well, I suppose for now we just take Chachazero’s theory:

“They did it ’cause it was fun, dumbass.”

Magia Erebea gets its own page. Still working on Concepts.

General housekeeping. I really should just make Updates a real-time message-board type display so I don’t have to bother with posts.

Formatted Spells – only Latin spells, and a lot of stuff is cut for reorganisation (Magia Erebea and Pactio are probably getting their own pages).

Greek Spells now in its own page. Added the blurb about Kosmike Krystallopegia and finally got most of the rest of Kosmike Katastrophe up.

(More updates to follow…)

Negima Vol.27 still not available at local store. Waiting for it or scans, whichever shows first.

PS: Fairly sparse Shinmeiryuu page is up. Still working on Concepts terminology at the mo.

Doing the Another World OAD1 sub got me interested in going over Konoka’s whole ritual prayer again, so I did a page on it in the same style as that on Gravity Magic/black holes/Encompandentia Infinitas. Here it is.

And formatted Artifacts while I was at it.

Still waiting for Vol.27 so I can get cracking on those new lexicon entries (and there better be lots, given all the new stuff that got pulled out).

PS: Translation now fixed for idiocy.

* One big plot hook right in the first two pages: Albiero asked both Evangeline and Eishun to go see him because of certain ‘information’.

* Godel asks Negi to meet him, with three companions, no more and no less. Negi picks Nodoka, Asakura, and Chisame. Asakura is there to gather information, Nodoka is to “act as previously arranged”, and Chisame is there… because Negi “wants her by his side at all times” (for her advice). Bad wording is bad.

Godel meets them in a ’special room’ (think holopad) where he lays it on again: “Which do you really want to know about?”

A. the secret of Mundus Magicus
B. the goal of Kosmo Entelekheia
C. whether or not Arika is alive
D. where Nagi is

And before Negi could even answer, Godel denies him and says, no, what he really want to know is who his true enemy is, so he can have his revenge on the ones who attacked six years ago.

“Until you can fulfill this desire, you will never be able to enjoy your time spent with your friends – just a person filled with emptiness.”

“You’ve thought about all the possibilities, haven’t you? From that night onwards, every single day, you have sharpened the blade of vengeance, alone…”

A. Fate Averruncus
B. the demons
C. the Mage of the Beginning

“Any one of them would be an appropriate ‘mastermind’, and your revenge on them would make your tale very straightforward, no? But… the real world is a bit more complicated, a bit more shadier than that… “

“It was us. In other words, the Megalo-Mesembria Senate. We are all of us masterminds. Of course, you would have considered this as well —”

* And as most of you will already know from the spoilers, Negi cuts him off with a SHORYUKEN.

Oh, this is going to be good. Or really really bad.

Three chapters, three girls. It was a much nicer interlude than I expected – it didn’t feel rushed or out-of-place, and it’s not overly long, meaning the action’ll be back very soon (what with Fate and Rakan still being in the background). And most importantly, with the slow character buildups, this sudden string of Pactios doesn’t feel totally forced.

In short, this is the ‘other’ side of Negima distilled: comedy, romance, drama, all balanced with no weaknesses.

(And it sure introduced a whole mess of plot trinkets into the mix…)

Vol.27 – September
Vol.28 – November
Vol.29 – January

(…the depths of some of which won’t be fully illustrated until January of next year.)

Small changes pretty much on every page, so I won’t bother listing them all.

New stuff: Concepts page, ESP entry in Abilities

I’ve been wanting to get Concepts up for a while now, since there’s quite a few terms in the Lexicon that doesn’t quite fit anywhere else (Rakan’s posing, for one). Not to mention that there are some pretty important terms which don’t even have entries there.*

* Of course, whether it’s because Akamatsu considers them common knowledge or what they are will have some impact on the plot is unknown.

Then again, not every entry there is going to be serious. Coffee (which should really be under Artifacts) and Mamma come to mind.

Oh, and I put the entire translation of Gravity Magic’s entry in a page of its own, for no particular reason.

PS: And finally updated the Pactio entry under spells. Artifact Card = Pactio Card, Pactio Card =/= Artifact Card, apparently.

PPS: And I put what little I’ve done on the Magia Erebea entry in Concepts. Something of an odd choice, but the one under Spells already has how it works in relation to casting – this is dealing with the more philosophical aspects.

I think it’s been months now, but Affinities is back up and updated accordingly.

Still on the recovering end of a bout of flu. Anyway, the last two chapters have been nothing special (in relation to what Vetus is for, I mean) except all of Fate’s girls have shown their abilities.

Homura is a fire spirit/a salamander and can basically “flame on” like the armationem of Incendium Gehennae. I’m still wondering on the significance of her one-eyed flame power – why does it seem like it’s a separate ‘add-on’? She’s definitely not (completely) human, but only one of her eyes ever goes, er, torchy. And on that same subject, lol horns.

Koyomi is a, er, panther half-beast? And not too surprisingly, Horaria Porticus can be used to speed herself up, though the mechanics behind it will need an explanation. (It’s already said that she can’t make exemptions when setting down time fields – ie. everything in it gets affected including herself – so I guess it’s a ’sped-up’ bounded field around herself?)

Shirabe is a dryad… is what I originally thought a couple dozen chapters back, but this chapter puts that in a new light. “Plant spirit/dryad possession, greatest manifestation” seems more like she’s demoning up dryads – then again, she is one for sure (her capturing vines are “an ability of my race”) so that’s weird. Anyway, seeing as she ‘became’ a tree dragon, it might be a good time to get that Creatures page up and running (because after all, I still haven’t translated ‘vrkso nagasya’ from volume 24, and who knows what relevance it might have…)

Tamaki, like the rest, beasts out and gets (just to go with the random words in this post) lizardy. Technically she’s a ‘dragon half-beast’.

This does put a dent in my original idea that Fate’s girls in part represent the “four constructs” (salamandra, drya, undina, sylpha) that Akamatsu brought up long ago during the Festival arc and the fact that all of them including Fate are constructs are supposed to be a plot point connected to “the magic to begin and end the world”. Let’s see how this turns out…

PS: Fate was totally going “Gate of Babylon” there with his pillars.

PPS: Well, I’ve translated Vrkso Nagasya for no particular reason (but it’s really short anyway) and put it into WIP due to a lack of actual content in Creatures. Bah.

I’ve already updated the entry after the spoilers, but it deserves repeating, because it’s finally confirmed. Mundus Magicus is Mars. Well, a spirit/phantasmal world overlapping on the ‘real’ Mars. The term is 「異界」 ’spirit world’, as Nodoka continually repeats, an overlapping world that is slightly removed from the real world (ah, Gensokyo, then?)

Negi strings the following together immediately:

“The cradle of civilization”
“The power of the Age of Gods”
“Life Maker”
“The Mage of the Beginning”
“The founder’s descendants”
“The magic to begin and end the world”
“Princess of twilight”

And:

「人造異界の存在限界・崩壊の不可避性について」論文1908年
“As long as an artificial spirit world exists, destruction cannot be avoided.” <- v. loose

(I haven't found an actual source to this yet, if there is one – 1908 theory? – so for now, the actual importance of this line will be an IOU.)

And this all somehow links back to Chao, who of course claimed to be from the future where "Mars was inhabited", not to mention that she herself cannot use magic for some reason, despite being a Springfield descendant…

Chisame brings up that this feels like "the point of no return" – if he continues trying to find out 'the secret of this world' then he wouldn't be able to return to the 'normality' of Mahora.

In other news, Rakan is almost guaranteed to die or somehow be removed from (most of) the rest of the story. It's been built up that Ala Alba is supposed to 'succeed' Ala Rubra and finish the job, so to speak, and now pretty much every member of Ala Rubra is gone: Nagi and Arika disappeared, Zecht is… somewhere, Gateau is dead, Al is trapped, Rakan has this very foreboding chapter, and I'd be surprised if something doesn't happen to Takamichi very soon.

On Fate (大)'s side, he goes right ahead and calls the inhabitants of Mundus Magicus "unknowing, pathetically transient puppets".

And finally (packed chapter is packed), we get to the confrontation between Rakan and Fate. Did Rakan mean Fate was invited to the ball? What did he mean when he called his adult form a way to “catch up with Negi”?

Next chapter, I guess.

Nothing I particularly want or need to say, but the idea of Kugimiya Rie as Tsukuyomi is amusing.