CIel's arc seems satisfactorily concluded, but there were a few loose ends I had hoped would be answered before the end arrived. I was expecting there to be an in-universe reason for the timeline switches such as the Purple Tear nudging instances where she needs Ciel alive for some grander purpose. Maria's deal is still a mystery to me, I need to know more than "she's literally QoH" damnit!
Maria is really the one loose end I had to leave as is, simply because this resolution would have been difficult to weave into here outside of having Maria around for Elena where she would have to reveal herself to fight Elena off. But, well... Ciel did not have Maria there.
That aside, she is a Queen of Hatred who escaped a Lobotomy Corporation branch facility in District 23 and started out as a Fixer while trying not to let it slip she is not quite human. Hence why she used no magic where others could see (but totally teleported around instead of taking the train) and changed her outfit to be a shirt and pants instead of skirt and vest, plus a pair of glasses for extra camouflage. There was nothing great going on there beyond the fact she was an Abnormality figuring out how to human.
If you were to reread the Highlight Heroes section, you may find a mention of the nearby L-Corp facility collapsing not long before Ciel arrived in the area.
There was no canonical link into the resets beyond the fact Project Moon openly works with the Multiverse theory. I am rather sure I communicated that in the past, though.
Honestly I can't wait to see what you do next. Maybe a quest about someone starting a corp with ambitions of becoming a wing? Maybe some more Hollow Knight stuff? Who knows!!
No more Quests for now, I can say that much. My being out of ideas aside, keeping one of those going in addition to my regular writing eats up a decent chunk of time. Although it also taught me that my limits improved and made for decent practice, considering I managed 380k on top of my usual load in the last sixteen months.
Radiant Rebirth will be my only project for a while; depending on how some things shake out, I may end up posting a second story before that one is finished.
other than Maria's.... whatever she is (QoH aberration?), i felt like this is a good ending. abrupt but definitely good. though it's a bit odd that Iori told Ciel to "move out of district 9" as if she knows the pianist would be there in a few years.
The way I interpret what we know of her powers, Iori can actually intersect with herself in another timeline at an earlier point to effectively pass knowledge back in time. Hence why she managed to bring forth this completely unlikely scenario that is LoR's true end. So this is what I worked with here.
Who asked the other in marriage first Ciel or Parvati?
Parvati, obviously
