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Previously: The final battle is under way. Zeph and the others are trying to stop Astaroth from permanently opening the gate to his plane. They don't have much time left though, demons are coming through quickly and Astaroth himself is proving to be too powerful.
When Zeph came to, he formed a new plan to fight Astaroth. Gathering the rest of the Ryotians, the empress makes her move on him. Zeph tries to gather his forces too.
Astaroth has basically claimed victory at this point. He has been untouchable up to this point and there is not much time left before all his demons are moving through the permanently opened gate.
The Ryotians really have no chance. They still have a lot of trouble against Astaroth. He puts them down without much trouble. But it does give Zeph time to organize.
Though his previous plan failed, the others do not have much of a choice except to join him in his new plan as well. With a bit of an attack from the others, Zeph gathers his power. Astaroth of course takes the challenge. He obviously has far greater magical ability as a demon lord.
So the two magical powers clash and everyone else dives for cover.
Astaroth comes out on top rather easily. But nameless ones start to appear. Astaroth declares victory but notices the strange new creatures appearing.
This was Zeph's plan all along! Taking a page out of Aragon's book, he purposely triggered the massive amount of magical energy to attract the nameless ones. Knowing Astaroth was much more powerful, he knew they would attack him instead of Zeph.
This gives him an opening to attack as well. With the help of the nameless ones he runs his sword into Astaroth. But Astaroth thinks he's won still with the gate open.
He was wrong. The nameless ones follow Astaroth into the gate after Zeph's attack. So much power from the nameless ones slam the gate shut on their way. Finally ending the demon threat.
Aragon now has control of his body, only to tell Zeph that he should be more trusting. They did after all just save the world, like he said they would.
Turns out they didn't need the gem at all. They didn't need to do anything about the dragon's body. Astaroth's fire and presence was enough to reverse the ice age. With the seasons back to normal all the characters moved on.
All the other races began to reclaim their lands from the Ryotians. Tahjarra returned home to help. Elene returned to the elf lands. Zeph has returned to his sanctuary, as the world's protector. Though he does not think the new kingdoms will need or want his help.
The end!
Well, that is another story in the Warlands done. It was quite enjoyable. Not perfect or the greatest story ever or the greatest art either, but still a lot of fun. I felt like Zeph's appearance constantly changed in this series. Sometimes he was a very buff looking large berserker almost. Other times he was pretty frail and skinny looking. Sometimes he had a large head and neck like a strong character but his body was small and skinny... I don't know. It was strange. Other than that and some of the earlier panels not being super coherent, the art was pretty cool though. I really liked the winter setting.
The story was mostly good too. I feel like they crammed a little in the end. It started out as an epic quest feeling. Elene searching out Zeph, who has given up on the world. The goal to beat the ice and the tie in to the original guardian dragon. But then all that kind of just fell off when it just turned out Astaroth ended the ice and the quest only took Zeph to the Ryotian's prison mines... a little anti-climatic.
In such a short story it also is hard to build up characters. Zeph was done okay, being the main focus. But I expected a lot more from Jaros. Relegating him to bland mercenary was not so cool. He played almost no role after he caught Zeph and the others. Aragon was probably the second most fleshed out. He was a pretty good character actually. Not entirely evil nor good. Manipulator of the plot. Really, he saved the world, not Zeph. Okay... maybe a little of both, but mostly him.
If I gave Warlands a 10/10, I think Age of Ice gets about a 7. I think even Pat Lee's art in the beginning was not as good as it was in the original. But Also Mateo's taking it over half through was not super great. Some things improved, others got worse. The style was definitely a bit different. Even though Pat's style was a bit anime-ish, Mateo's is kind of cartoon-like. And the original characters and story, at least in my opinion, were on a much higher level overall.
We have one more series set in this world. Warlands, volume 3. Dark Tide Rising. I know almost nothing about this series. It is six issues. Looks like more Mateo art throughout. So that's cool. We'll get into it sometime this weekend! Looking forward to finally finishing reading it all!