I didn't realize that crying and turning to face someone was synonymous with romance and gratitude.

I predict the death of Anthony will occur by the end of this week, as the title of this new chapter seems to imply!

How does "Ms. Abato has an unexpected road trip" imply Anthony's death? Just wondering.

The title is "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust" (technically not the chapter title, which is still simply "The Circle," but neither was the title you mentioned). It certainly implies some vamp will be dusted.

Dammit, panel 1 would have been a perfect time for Shankraft to Flux Urja while she and Kusari were disengaged.

Presumably they still have eyes on and Kusari's comm unit is still functioning.

Also, there must be a few HC handguns lying about among the carnage or in the van. Maybe some still have a round or two, or there's spare clips in the van.

Plus there's the other thing - we were taught in the Mohkudun chapter that fate makes altered timelines reconform up to a point. This is probably much stronger when something's fated to happen and the future is unwritten (ie no time travel shenanigans). That's partly why preventing the events of the R&D wars has been so difficult - fate keeps rearranging things. So yeah, Riff killing Izzy's bro is still on the table, I think. But if Riff stops himself, it won't cause a split timeline or anything, because unlike in DoR it hasn't happened yet.

Also, I'm gonna bet against Kusari killing Urja just yet. Not because of any clues per se, but just because I want to see her finally meet Sam

Don't forget though; if Kusari or Riff kills Urja, then Anthony will still die. If a Vryko-vamp's master dies, all of his/her minions die too. So maybe Riff spares Anthony for Izzy's sake, and then kills Urja and (inadvertently) Minion Master.

The one time that we saw a Vryko master die his minions died. That does not mean that this always happens. For instance, if any of the minions share the master's blood then they may take control of the other minions as a new master rather than dusting, which may be what makes other members of Urja's family valuable to her as vampires.

For all we know, the old master's personality might even transfer to or survive in the new master vamp, which would make family members extremely valuable, as they would essentially act as 1ups, extra lives for a Vryko master who gets dusted.

That would explain why Urja is so insistent on getting 'all of her blood'... Wow, until confirmed otherwise, this is my head-canon.

That's assuming a bit much. DoR is a different dimension, not necessarily the future of this dimension. This isn't the same thing as the altered timeline that K'Z'K was talking about. If anything, DoR is indicative of the result K'Z'K was trying to avoid. Namely, a timeline too altered to conform that branches off into another dimension instead. So we can't simply assume that DoN will alter to conform to DoR as though DoR is the "true" future of DoN.

In the DoR, the Vyrkos could have found Anthony a lot earlier, prior to the R&D war. This scene plays out sans the Minion Master getup, a few years earlier, and Riff would have met Izzy early enough to marry her before the R&D war nuked the planet. The same pieces on the board, the same moves are being played, but the moves are played in a different order from dimension to dimension.


(My head canon for Urja's hunt is that the more of her blood she has, the more powerful she becomes. If it was a simple 1-UP situation, she has incentive to catch them but leave them alive and let them breed new generations of bodies. No mass hunt, no turning everyone as soon as possible. Unless Izzy and Anthony's mother was never turned.....oh man, that's too horrible to think about.)

And, this gets confirmed, as well as Riff killing Izzy's brother.

Aw yeah, saw it coming, including the timeframe! (Kinda wish we were still counting points...)

So it seems that two people will be having unpleasant flashback experiences imminently.

1. Sylvia, when she sees Riff.

2. Riff, after Izzy takes off that mask.

Perhaps in Riff's case you could call it something of a flashforward.

So, Urja gains power from drinking her own blood. This makes me wonder why she hunts them so relentlessly. If she gets more power from each, then she should always want at least a few to get away at least long enough to reproduce. Yet she never gave up on Anthony or Izzy. Neither had children as far as we know. Maybe it's a case of dimishing returns, and this was the last generation that would matter? Or maybe she had all the power she needed. Have we seen their Queen lately? Forgetting her name. Maybe Anthony put Urja over the top, and that's why Sylvia's plea went no where.