Oh god this arc will never end 😭. The biggest problem is that by the very nature of the Manga (it's premise), does any of this matter? There's so much exposition in this flash back about this dragon that ate a god and it's like all so clunky. All of you know all of this why are you repeating it back to yourselves?? It's not that long, so usually it's fine. This can be a background chapter that you move on from to make the entire world feel a little richer, but are we ever going to visit THIS world again? How many of these characters are going to stick around? Maybe Cardinal, but I'd be surprised. It seems set up for both the faction leaders to pass away and Cardinal to take over protecting the people and restoring the coexistence peace. Freya is probably a ghost or something. This feels like needless meandering. Like someone trying to desperately hit a certain amount of time in their presentation to get an A, but they also already told me that none of the tangents are even that important to the rest of the presentation. Like you're wasting everyone's time and I want to throw a rock at you and crack your skull.
This is just, ugh. The worst part is that this doesn't need to be a flashback at all. If there's any important information just have Freya say it in dialogue in the present. That can be like a panel or two of discussion while we move the plot forward with present things involving our characters that actually matter once we close this gate and get out of this place and literally NEVER INTERACT WITH IT AGAIN. I'd forgive it if the Manga had like set things up as a more casual "adventure of the month" deal, but there's this whole overarching story and plot filled with mysteries we the audience have been made to actually care about. This isn't even connected to that and it isn't even trying to form a real connection other than the MC's missing GF having MENTIONED one of the characters in this arc as another saint. A good story knows how to advance its characters and plot while also building its world and introducing new concepts we care about. This is somehow failing at all of the above for me. With the way the premise works it just feels like a waste of time, and then it's also just not interesting. These characters are generic and the exposition and lore execution bad, and the setup of "Oh now those former besties are tussling from some misguided desire to set things right." isn't exactly peak fiction. I don't need or want this particular locations behind the scenes dragged out like this.
God, it's gonna be months more of this arc and then we get some vague line about his girlfriend. Yay! So exciting.