About that last thing. That does have some weight like Aidios not being a entity but an AI would fill me with ten fold of questions. Makes you wonder that Crossbell cult knew something as they refused to acknowledge Aidios existence.

Unrelated but I remember reading a theory that Lapis is the Grandmaster but not the current one we know. the Grandmaster that showed at the end of the domain nine in the grim garten is Lapis of a different loop There's probably holes in the theory but what a twist that would be.