I liked how relatively lighthearted this chapter was. For a series as grimdark as this one, having the characters focus on saving people, and actually doing so with no strings attached, is a refreshing change of pace that wouldn’t feel so good if the series wasn’t generally so dark and cynical.
Of course, it also makes the events at the end of the chapter more effective. Seeing Lucas wiping out the village, apparently more for what they did to him than anything else, was genuinely unnerving. He seems like he is starting to take a dark path to eliminate all futurists, I wonder how far will it go. Is he being influenced by the Druid hive mind to some degree?
The futurists have a decent ending. Their half-assedness being partially responsible for their undoing is fitting. Them letting Lucas go was treated as less than a sympathetic moment, and more of a show of their whims. I wonder if they will represent trouble as they return to the tower.