Yes, I'm still alive...

I haven't posted anything since thursday for a reason. I've been going back and making a few spot edits to places earlier in the second draft to add things before the point where I stopped to re-outline, and one part in a recent chapter that I forgot to put in in my haste. Rather than reupload the chapters that have changed I'll leave them as they are now. All of these edits will be included when I post the second draft as a whole. Most of the changes have to do with Heretic Magic, as it plays such a gigantic part in the end. I give a brief explanation about how it works when Silmera uses it to heal the hurt little girl, but I don't really go into specifics. Basically, there is demonic energy contained in a Heretic's blood, and that power can be released through drawing out spellforms with it that describe to the energy what it's supposed to do. The more powerful the Heretic, the more demonic energy there is in his or her blood, and the stronger his or her spells can be. Being the most powerful Heretic to have ever lived, Silmera's blood is extremely potent, which is why Fayt Nightfang chose her to trace the spell that he painted on the floor of the Mystic King's palace, which, itself is like a gigantic magic amplifier. A lot of the things that I added were bits and pieces of explanation about Heretic Magic and how it works, and little clues as to how Fayt Nightfang intends to use it.

I toyed with adding in the storyline I have planned for Patrick and Weasel during this little break too, but then I realized that it's really too long and would take too much effort, and I'm already past my goal of finising this draft by the end of july, sooooooo, I'll just leave that for the third draft.

Anyway, the things I added you don't really NEED to know to get the ending, but without them being there earlier on it seems like I'm just pulling Fayt Nightfang's evil plot out of my butt as he's putting it into motion. And seriously, I totally thought of this idea way before the chick that wrote Fullmetal Alchemist ever published the end of hte series XD. That always seems to happen to me. I'll think of something really really cool, and I'll write it out, and give it to someone to read just as a movie or anime or TV show or something has done the same thing and everyone always thinks I'm copying. It's so annoying! And the really annoying thing about it is that i think my version of it is better than the Fullmetal Alchemist ending, (not that FMA wasn't incredibly awesome) but whatever. /endrant

I have the day off work tomorrow, and I plan to write out the next chapter then. Can't leave my guys hanging any longer, Like every single main and supporting character is currently engaged in a duel of some sort, not to mention the gigantic battle that's raging on in the background.