Oooooh, me like it!
1. It's always a bit on the nose, but at least here I like how splitting up the party is NOT a decision made by the party, but a plan - not a bad one - made by the villains. That stream of mud was very well-controlled though, a bit too much. Somebody's Jinki, perhaps? Maybe that girl who was making clay dolls had something to do with it?
2. It looks like my boy Nijik gets to run it back again Jabber. Now, without surprise attacks and nobody else to distract him. We're gonna see which one is stronger. Since Jabber already won against 4 people one after the other, even if he loses here, it won't damage his "villain status". He'd still be menacing. That's why, narratively, I wouldn't be surprised to see Nijik beat him here.
3. I'm glad Zodil doesn't just want to crush them or at least not Rudo. Maybe because he's newly-arrived, a freshman, if you will. He might even sympathize a bit with Rudo or just because he also had a part of the set. Whatever the case is, I fully expected the plan to destroy Heavens at some point. A bit extreme, of course, but we're gonna see his reasoning at some point.
4. What I now want to learn is Zodil's perspective on his own folks or folks at large. Is he just a sociopath, who doesn't care who dies - friend or foe - during his crusade? Or maybe he's just being practical - doesn't waste resources, doesn't burn bridges? Since he doesn't know who Amo is yet, we've gotta wait for his reaction to Rudo's anger. That will tell us a lot about what to expect.