[Hereafter] Chapter CCXXVIII: Test Run (Patreon)

Editor's out sick, so this might be a little rough, but I was happy enough with how it turned out.

This chapter provided me a neat segue into a side plot to take up some of the team's time between America and Camelot, and that side plot will also let me put Taylor and Ishtar in a bit of a pressure cooker to work out their issues with each other and learn to work together. Of course, I also got to establish Ishtar's place in the power scaling, because, uh, the fact that her NP canonically only really scratched Tiamat doesn't do the fact it's an EX mountain-busting NP much justice.

I hope I managed to capture exactly how awesome it is.

Next, we catch up with Ritsuka. It's been a while since he had an interlude, and we're due for one anyway.

EDIT: Moving down all the way. 2/28/2025