Notes: the thing in the very first panel is actually the “closed gate of Heaven”. In Edenworld, this gate is not the pearly white or golden gates version of popular myth. The gate is a black shimmering obelisk etched with the words of the universe. You can’t read the words, let alone find the gate, unless you’re dead. Reading the words of the universe after you’ve died is the only true way to reach the top of the Yggdrassil and ascend to Heaven. Without this gate, you could climb Yggdrassil forever, theoretically, assuming you’re not crushed by the terrible force of gravity that kept Lyron from flying in the first place.

edit: fixed the immage.

I tried to dig up the previous version of Slepnyr that I had created but I think that pic fell victim to the deleting habits I’ve had for many years. Basically I’ll have to make a new design sheet for him, but even without it, I’m quite surprised I was able to really conceptualize him with just a silhouette and a head shot. More on that later…

The silhouette behind Lyron is Slepnyr, who is like Lyron’s anti-version. He’s the main bad guy in this story, but he doesn’t show up until much later (probably after the Edenworld story arc). The significance to this is, the “possible and likely” future that Hresvalgr shows Lyron depicts Slepnyr looking back at his would-be “good version”. But since this is the worst possible scenario, Jotunheim gets nuked and the Devil Mashina get to do whatever they please (much to the dismay of the regular Devils.)