IT BEGINS.
Rinko's missing and they don't have a clue where she is, that is until Shunpei receives her badge covered in blood. Where is Rinko and how is the mysterious Phantom that gave Koyomi the yellow magic stone related to it?
Aside that the plot in this series is finally picking up especially after they started doing this mini side plot for Phoenix in the previous arc, it seems that Rinko will be once again, useful in this episode, this time, as a bait to lure in the ring-bearing wizard. What's funny is that the one who suggested it is the Phantom that Koyomi met in the one episode later identified as Sora!
Sora is one enigmatic character; we don't know what side he is siding on. For one episode, he is helping Wizard but in this episode, he is helping Phoenix! What's interesting about him is that he doesn't refer a Phantom in their Phantom name, but in their human name. By the looks of it, he is quite knowledgeable about his "comrades" human shells, even if it is just their first name. Lastly, his motivation in this series, the only clue we have about it is that he thinks that there is something fishy with the Wiseman's actions.
Because he is the only guy who is aware of Rinko and Phoenix's whereabouts, he informs Medusa and later, Shunpei about it. Because hey, it will be interesting to see how they will react about it and their respective actions in this situation! In Medusa's case, after she informed this situation to Wiseman, she started looking for Phoenix, which then ends up in a duel between the two. The duel between Medusa and Phoenix is really well done; the fight choreography in this scene is really something as you can see the intensity of the clash between the two characters.
This duel also showed us why Medusa is called Medusa for starters. By the looks of it, her "eyes" in monster form might actually be visors just to cover her eyes. If you played or watched Fate/stay night, Rider aka Medusa is wearing a blindfold so that no one will see her eyes that once someone sees it, they will be turned into stone, and that's what happened to Phoenix after seeing her eyes when he is binded by her snakes. Guess this is what Wiseman is talking about that she can beat Phoenix without breaking a single sweat.
Much to her surprise, Phoenix's flames burned his body, removing the stone out of his body. To put it simply, Phoenix is now stronger than Medusa in one aspect. What I mean by one aspect is that we don't have an idea about Medusa's full strength in battle. We only saw her fight for some occasions but it is not enough to assess her full strength in battle. Maybe, she is hiding some skill that we are not aware off and that the reason why she left might be because she'll let the ring-bearing wizard to handle it.
Speaking of the ring-bearing wizard, after receiving Rinko's bloodied badge from Shunpei, he starts looking for her and finally, asked Agent Kizaki if he is aware about her whereabouts. Reluctant at first, he finally helps Haruto because it might be something related to a Phantom. The only answer we have from him is that her superiors are also not aware about her whereabouts! Finally, Sora appears in front of Haruto and what's great is that they exchanged greetings by what else, fighting! Though it is quite brief, the fight between Sora and Haruto is seriously amazing. It didn't help that the lighting added up the drama in the fight!
After informing Haruto about Rinko's whereabouts, he then proceeds to look for Phoenix. Finally, he arrived just in time to save the now awake Rinko! The fight between Wizard and Phoenix is also well done. The sword play is well choreographed and that form switching to the last form that killed Phoenix, the Wizard Water Dragon makes a lot of sense. But as expected, the same trick won't work on him twice! He also did a lot in Hurricane Dragon and finally, he defeated the Phoenix. Since three Dragon forms already defeated Phoenix, guess all of them won't work for the second time.
Even though it looks like this is all over, much to Wizard's surprise, Phoenix regenerated faster than expected. Since Land Dragon is the only form he didn't use, he used it to try and defeat Phoenix with it. The sad part is that this form didn't work because Phoenix is stronger than before and Gravity is not effective against him! To sum up what happened at the end, he gained burning wings and by the looks of it, Wizard's magic is not enough to stop it, thus ending the episode. Is it me, or this show is starting to become more interesting every week aside from how they handle the cliffhangers.
