Remember Ozwella, the ghost with a grudge against Helene from Chapter 11? It turns out Helene had kept the hat she threw away in disgust after Helene refused to acknowledge her. Maybe there's hope for Helene yet!

No, Cyrus isn't ready to talk about Luzi/Trickster yet. Have a map I labored over instead.

Ugh, this map! To save myself the hours of effort sketching out the placement of buildings, I used a web program called Icograms to put down basic building shapes in an isometric grid. I fully drew out the castle as it's the building most people are familiar with, but left the rest as shapes. Please consider this less a representative map and more a pulled-back sketch of what the city looks like now.

Yay, the crew is back! Sag, Redburn, and Xisea haven't been seen since April of last year! I know all the Xisea fans missed seeing her sweet little face :)

Music for this scene.

This is the last scene of the comic, aka the epilogue! I am concerned this scene is going to be long XD That's good for you guys, it's just more work for me. Let's see if I can't wrap up this wrap-up in less than 15 pages. 

Cyrus is moving up in the world! He's got a new room in one of the castle's back towers. The last time we had a wide shot of the back of Castle Thantopolis was the end of Chapter 2! I usually draw the castle from the front. 

I rewrote the dialogue in this scene SO many times! After watching people's reactions to the Amazing Digital Circus finale, I tried to take what worked and what didn't work from Caine's redemption scene as direction. I know Helene has her haters out there, but I hope you found her redemption at least satisfactory from a narrative standpoint. 

This is technically the end of the chapter! But don't worry, we still have a meaty epilogue to get through.  

No Helene, you can't be my mommy anymore, but we can be co-workers?

What did you expect him to say?

The reason I included pages in past chapters where Cyrus and co walked to and from Osiris's villa was to make it clear that the those places were east of the city center -- and thus were totally destroyed by the Orinthope. 

For a sec there, Helene thought someone else had swooped in and saved the day. 

Do you know it's almost been a year since Helene has been on-page??!? I can't believe my audience was deprived of her presence for so long.

Looks like Fear took a bite out of Thantopolis.

And when I see the light

How could I turn away

But all I know

Is it will tear me all apart if I stay

Cal has many regrets in her long life, but having the courage to protect her child is not something she regrets. Never forget that Cyrus!!!!

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Based on where I'm at in my buffer, I am estimating that this chapter go past page 40, probably ending up near 50 pages. That will put the end of the comic closer to November. 

My lips are sealed!

This is why Cynthia was surprised to see Cyrus as a human when she stopped by the castle in Chapter 10. She believed Newark when he told the other Offsprings everything had gone according to plan, and that's why she thought Helene was playing with her from the moment Trickster as Cyrus walked down the stairs. Her comment of "more like his mom" makes a bit more sense now, right?

Yes, she panicked all right. And Cyrus ended up in a coat closet. 

There isn't any symbolism to the Offsprings keeping Cyrus's Muse soul in a birdcage, I promise. It is just what I've always pictured for this scene. 

When you have memory powers, you can make actual flashbacks. Real handy!

And hey hey hey THAT'S THE CONTEXT FOR THE FIRST SCENE OF THE COMIC! I was pretty slick naming the characters speaking off-screen as "???" and "??????", but now we know it was Cal and Newark (of the Offsprings). (It was them on this page too! Oooh!) At some point I have to go back and update the tags for spoiler characters... another item on my list of to-do's for when the comic ends. 

There's a lot Cal could say about Helene... that one panel is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Fun fact! Cody, aka the Traveler's original mortal name was Kodiak, after the island off the coast of Alaska. I was pretty attached to this name but felt it was a bit too strange, even for the unusual names of Cal's family. Cody also fits better into the naming convention. 

AHHHH MY GIRL IS HERE!!! Sorry Cyrus, for today's page you are playing second-fiddle to my oldest ongoing OC who I love so much (which is why I make her suffer). 

Here's Cal's page on Toyhouse if you want to know a bit about her background, as well as some art of her at different ages. 

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If you missed it, HoT's 12th anniversary was this past Sunday! I made a cool illustration for the occasion so please check it out!

Today is Heroes of Thantopolis's 12th anniversary, and it's a special one â€“ it's the last anniversary to be celebrated while the comic is updating! Before the end of 2026, HoT will be complete. It's a rarefied status among webcomics, and I couldn't have gotten this far without all of your support. Thank you to my fantastic readers who have followed along with this comic throughout its lifespan. It's hard to express how much you mean to me, but do know that I appreciate each and every person who takes time out of their week to check in with Cyrus and pals.

For this anniversary's illustration, I wanted to give a send-off to Kid!Cyrus. Future readers of the comic will likely go into it knowing about Cyrus's transformation, but you guys were here for it! You got to witness it live! Please do wear that as a badge of honor; I know I would. 

See you on Thursday for the next page!

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More ways to support Heroes of Thantopolis!

• Share the anniversary post on Bluesky and Tumblr!
• Purchase the physical edition of Book 1!
• Purchase ebooks of Books 1-3!
• Contribute to the HoT TVTropes page!
• Tell your friends about the comic! 

After nearly 12 years... Cyrus gets to go home.

And hey, he learned how to stop time! I guess we know what kind of god he's supposed to be. 

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HoT's 12th anniversary is on Sunday! Please stop by for a celebratory illustration :)

NOW it's time to cry.

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Just a heads up, Heroes of Thantopolis's 12 anniversary is coming up on May 24th! Mark your calendars!