Kellhus using the "do-over" trick! Has he been doing this all along??? Imagine that he met his father 10,000 times and found the just right spot to kill old Moe without being harmed!
I wonder though if Kellhus can only use the trick with Kelmomas...
If Kellhus is editing time, it might be that the Series That Shall Not Be Named is going to be the First Apocalypse. Kellhus realizes that he just can not stop NG's return, so he goes way back. I bet he lets the First Apocalypse play out just so and then when NG is struck down makes his move to finish off the Consult.
Which do-over trick?
I had to go back and check, you'd think that he beheaded Malowebi after he defeated Meppa (the sword coming down and all). I had assumed the final scene in the chapter was just out of sequence, but when Kellhus finds Esmi (after defeating the Fanim and putting down Meppa like a punk) he still has both decapitants on his belt. So, yeah, I kind of wonder if he is editing time also.
Speaking of Meppa, I feel like it's safe to say that neither Moe nor Cnaiur, singularly or as one soul, quantum leaped into another body to form a super Cish.
I'm not sure about editing time but that one - I feel - results from Bakker not reorganizing the chapters.
However, the relationship between the Gods, the Outside, and the World and how Kellhus has co-opted that still confuse me.
Also, as I read it, Meppa is still very much alive. I wonder what Kellhus has planned for him. The Consult seemed quite bent on destroying the Cishaurim in PON, and we know that Indara's Waterbearers were not around during the FA, so I wonder if there is something about the Psukhe that will really mess with the No-God.
Madness and I were talking about this. Would love to see a twin-assault on the Consult, Kellhus and Meppa just tearing shit up. The way it reads (their confrontation) it very much seemed that Meppa almost killed Kellhus, if only it weren't for Malowebi's Chalice. Now, he's Kellhus after all, so that didn't happen. However, it begs the question: would Meppa's ocean of Water be enough to overcome other Gnostic sorcerers? Akka related in PON that he took out a Cishaurim in the past. But he's not Kellhus and that other Cish wasn't Meppa. Just makes me wonder at Meppa's power level relative to the average Gnostic sorcerer. Seems like he could hold his own.
To clarify, he almost killed Kellhus at the very beginning of his assault on Kel (or seemed to have). Malowebi was bearing the brunt of the onslaught, which allowed Kel to assess Meppa, then deal with him. My poorly-worded point was that it seemed as if Meppa's initial torrent pretty much tore through Kel's wards and the only thing that saved him in that moment was Malowebi's Chalice.
Yes, I do see what you are saying, but the assumption in your statement is that Malowebi's pseudo-anagogic chalice is stronger than gnostic wards, and I don't buy that. My opinion 
Lol - for my limited thoughts. I think Meppa is stronger than any normal Gnostic sorcerer for being the Last Cishaurim. But I also think that when Kellhus shelters inside the Iswazi Ward, it is the Mbimayu sorcery which attracts his curiousity - having never been exposed to Zeumi Schoolmen before - not concern as to how to defeat Meppa.
And yes, Meppa is still alive - as per Somnambulist correcting me over a month ago now
.
I really think that Bakker slips some interesting tidbits regarding Zeum into this momentous battle. Firstly, Mbimayu seems to be a state-sanctioned School akin to the Cishaurim being Fanim Holy. Secondly, and more importantly, what could possibly surprise Kellhus about "another Anagogic sorcery?" What does it mean that Malowebi chants and
thinks against his chanting? What is "the sacred-and-accursed Song of Iswa?" Are Mbimayu mayhaps not Damned in their exercise of sorcery?
EDIT: Also, bonus question: Why is Malowebi trained to pull an "omba" over his face when fighting Cishaurim specifically or maybe sorcerers generally?
