honestly, with these past few volumes being about nothing but the war, the plot has become as lean as some of the male characters in their bishonen illustrations. makes me yearn for the early volumes when there was action, sure, but it happened between plot and the world building. bring back the days when a character's strength was displayed via their feats, not numerical values of existence points.
this volume ends on a highly intriguing note, however, and i'm excited to see what the pay off is going to be in the next volume.