Trip entry (see the post below) #2 is Helck, and yes – it’s the Patron Pick for Summer 2023.  I have a suspicion I’d have ended up sticking with this one anyway, for the simple reason that it’s entertaining while managing to avoid any single element that seriously annoys me.  Still, it’s a done deal now either way.  And that makes me happy that the show seems to be getting better (as the manga readers promised).  I still see a few potential banana peels here but generally speaking the movement is in the right direction (and it was perfectly fine to start with).

While there were some comic moments this week to be sure, the balance definitely shifted in favor of plot.  Hyura’s arm did in fact regenerate – though rather than a general demon trait here, it’s one specific to her clan.  In fact she let herself be cut in an attempt to get the enemy leader to lower his guard (and it certainly worked).  Helck still stepped in to stop him from killing her, though, addressing him by the name “Edil”.  They’re old comrades, clearly.  And Helck unsurprisingly knows a lot more about what’s going on here than he’s volunteered so far.

Just what is happening isn’t 100% clear, though we’re getting closer.  The term “awakening” is obviously important, and it seem to be a matter of humans undergoing some sort of magical process to turn themselves into heroes.  Seems like sometimes it doesn’t take – with disastrous results – and even “successes” like Edil have a rough time of it.  Helck needed have intervened on Hyura’s behalf – she had it covered.  In fact he eventually has to step in to stop her from killing Edil, but it seems there’s more than friendship behind it.  “Killing them would be a really bad idea”, he says – but why, exactly?  Does it somehow clear space for something or someone even worse?

At this point the ground collapses and the entire party falls into an underground chamber where a failed portal spell of some sort has turned into a kind of miniature black hole.  Dorsche finally shows off his barrier ability (though he does make quite a song and dance about it), but Vermillio realizes that the only chance is if she destroys the “barrier stone” which is powering the spell.  Who set this up in the first place?  Humans, presumably – though I get the strong sense that there’s someone (maybe human, maybe not) orchestrating all their recent endeavors to wipe out demonkind.  Vermillio does manage to destroy the stone but not before she’s about to  be sucked into the disappearing portal.  Helck finally arrives, but not in time to save her – only to be sucked in himself, and the two of them land on what looks like a tropical island.

These are all quite interesting developments, and I’m more than satisfied with the way they’ve expanded the plot.  Helck remains very much the center of the mystery, but if I were to hazard a guess at this point I’d say he’s either the most successful “awakening” so far or was already a hero by natural selection, and opted out of whatever this human improvement program was as a matter of personal belief.  I don’t think he’s either a double-agent or a human spy – he’s trying to save both species, and may in fact be the only one who can.  That probably wouldn’t be enough to satisfy Anne from management at this point, but she’s going to come to accept Helck for what he is sooner or later.