Extra: Explaining the Easter Eggs and Author's Thoughts

Easter Eggs:

1) Chapter: Moving Out

Pretty much all the easter eggs in this chapter are related to Spider-Man with, NYC, the Forest Hills High School, etc.

2) Chapter: The Looming Shadows

The Broken Cup {1}; Alright the broken cup incident in the morning after Shroud returns from his morning exercise. Here, this scene is a foreshadowing for the chapter Echos of the Past, The hot liquid i.e. coffee is pretty much a metaphorical representation of the Quantum Honkai Beast- Opaque Shadow.

The incident where the cup breaks is the foreshadowing of the opening of a Fracture in the Chapter: Homecoming. The scene where the coffee almost burns Shroud is the foreshadowing of when the eye attacks Shroud.

Finally, the moment when Shroud casts {Sky Capturing Net} to prevent him from getting burned is the foreshadowing for the OO which is looking after Shroud as his guardian angel and protecting him from harm just like the Sky Capturing Net protecting Shroud from getting burned.

The Broken Cup {2}; Okay I will now talk about the broken cup incident which happned in the school around the end of this Chapter, The broken Cup in this scenario is a foreshadowing of the chapter Whithering Humanity.

To better understand this, suppose that Shroud was that cup or to be more precise it was Shroud's humanity which was the cup in this chapter.

The crack on the cup is an indication that Shroud's inner humanity was damaged and had become fragile by a delicate touch, well The touch later on becomes a slap from Julie but they say that girls have delicate hands so yeah.

A/N: By the way, what is this word called woman? {jk}

3) Nokia 3310:

There is also a small reference to the Nokia 3310 in Chapter Frustrations and Desperation, You know how there is a joke that no matter how much you damage the phone; the Nokia 3310 will still work for some reason.

In this case, I used the Herrscher of Reasons as the Nokai 3310 who was still alive after, getting hit with the Death Light, but since I cannot just weaken the power of Death Light, afterall, I did mention that if an entity of Zenith Rank is hit by it even they would die if they don't protect themselves.

Also, since the Herrscher was a construction worker and construction workers work with a brick and ironically we call the Nokia 3310 the brick phone, so yeah, it was a reference to that as well.

4) The HOMU Costume:

Another reference to Spider-Man but I used an Honkai-Honkaiizing beam on it🤷.

5) The Divine eye:

The pattern of the pupil of the eye and the time stopping should be enough for the readers to get the idea of the entity who was behind the eyes.

6) Chapter: The Crimson Square

There is a reference to Zhong Li in this chapter, There is a part where the Herrscher says, "This god's order" which is a direct reference to Zhong Li's signature, "This is order."

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Author's Thoughts on the Volume:

Well, the main theme of this volume was Humanity, I did try my best to showcase how although we may be known as humans in species we may not possess the quality that makes us human; humanity.

Yet, humans and humanity are two different terms. Just because you are a human does not mean that you possess humanity. I also showcased how we humans are willing to give up our most valuable things for the sake of survival, like how Shroud willingly let go of his humanity so that he could better focus on survival.

Was there a moment I felt that I was doing a terrible job? Partially.

Could I have written the chapters in this volume better? Probably

Will I try rewriting it? No, after all, the volume may not be perfect but I still somehow managed to make the best of my abilities.

With this, all said, I officially end Volume 2: Shadows of Cataclysm, The next Volume: Trials over the Foreign Horizon is in the making and I will start publishing it very soon.