Is this a spirit? If it is, maybe it's another proof that Burk has Esper skills

This is how we know Burk would be mostly unflapped in the nightmare world of Noah's adventure.

"All the badness of this scenario was created by my apprentice. My apprentice is in the market at this location. If he dies you will be stopping a tremendous spiritual monster of great evil. Thank you and goodbye."

This is my hope, but it's not very realistic :P

Strong start.

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@Ahriman
Maybe? Could be one of the spirits in Evyle's "collection" as she calls it.

What if...Burk...is Noel...IN THE FUTURE

@estherTb wayyyy to different people

And less important for sure @Joe, but Noel lost his human arm.

@Ahriman, @TheMegax
Most likely a spirit, we've seen it in 2045 and some other number I can't recall.

But I think Evyle's spirits are visible to regular people. We've learned just now that her sword is also a spirit, but when she summons it in 2641, Pablo reacts to it. This might be some artifact of her ability.

Overall, while "Burk - Esper" conclusion is reasonable for Evyle to reach, the reason I think he isn't is pretty simple - it would be too easy. There's too much mystery surrounding him for "oh he's just an esper" to be the explanation. No, I think he's something else.

There is quite a bit of characters around that seem to have supernatural abilities despite not being visible to any forms of magic detection, I can't see a reason why Burk doesn't have some of those.

Burk is so non-shocked by Corkscrew that he even describes him in one sentence.

people out here coping that ten years/over 3000 pages isn't enough buildup time to reveal burk's powers

my dudes

@Hexi Regarding point 2

I don't think spirits are visible to regular people, but we know all espers can interact with spirits in different ways, so for Evyle to be able to imbue a sword with a spirit similar to how magic users imbue objects with spirit energy isn't farfetched. The contracts are literally pieces of paper imbued with magic that directly affects spirits too.

For example, Evyle could've made a contract to imbue a sword with a spirit, or a contract between herself & the spirit to enable it to manifest in the physical world.

@Zed,
Isn’t that just a spirit with extra steps?

And literally nobody is complaining about the esper statement/reveal being too sudden.

@Zed just five pages back on page 3111 Evyle stated "You spirits can't interact with the physical world in any way, can you. But through the help of an esper it's possible".

Given that it's a spirit working for Evyle, it seems possible that she granted it that ability.

For people who hate opening the mystery box, there's no explanation that won't be "too easy".

"We've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty..."

Finally up to date on the chapter drop.

Gotta say, I'm not terribly fond of the way it was written. It feels completely sudden, like we were thrown in a plotline with none of the prior hints and breadcrumbs that Neo likes to drop.

What exactly is a wandering spirit? Have we seen one before? Is this related to the intermission with the purple creature speaking to the viewer who wished she was born with thousands of arms, talked about the significance of omens, about not fitting in with this world? Thats the first thing that came to my mind.

Feels like an artificial plot thread just sprang up. Theses things remind me of Jujitsu Kaisen spirits

@Joe Zed was responding to HexaDoken, specifically the part about "it would be too easy; there's too much mystery surrounding him."

And for what it's worth, I agree with Hexa. Burk's story has always been about the mystery of who and what Burk is. If he's actually just an esper, the reveal is in fact too sudden.

@Zed The problem isn't that ten years of buildup isn't enough. The problem is that one day of buildup isn't enough. Everyone got Burk wrong for ten years of comic, and you're telling me that Evyle just casually spilled the beans during a chapter drop? Sorry, but I don't buy it. It's not that easy and it's never going to be that easy.

I predict that if (not when) Burk's deal is ever spelled out for us, it'll be near the end of his story, and it won't be sudden. Also, it will be bad news for Burk, who has always benefited from being misunderstood.

Since I'm sure many people won't buy the meta explanation, here are some in-story reasons to go with it.

Reason 1: If Burk was just an esper, how would he defeat all those non-magical enemies? Ghoulified pigs, gang members with guns, shaders galore. How would he open impossible locks and throw logs impossible distances? We know how Evyle defeats people without magic: she uses bound spirits to do the work for her. But Evyle commented that trying to defeat Burk would be a waste of her talents, meaning she didn't see any spirit(s) on him. So Burk would need to have a whole suite of non-magical non-esper abilities, making the esper abilities redundant and putting us back to square one. Far simpler for him not to be an esper.

Reason 2: If Burk's an esper, he's doing a remarkably good job at _not_ striking up conversations with all those spirits of pandemonium floating around. They seem to talk and act like ghouls (see page 1900), and Burk is quite chatty with ghouls (see page 2040). To not talk to them at all would require either (a) self-restraint, or (b) a desire not to be seen as crazy. Neither of which Burk has.

Yeah it seems Evylles sword is a spirit. It’s been said most spirits are nonsapient, we mostly just see the ones that talk because they move the plot
Espers can make spirits able to manifest physically it seems, so no surprise of can also make them visible.
But I think Burk n might actually be an esper since there were sparkles in his fight against blue sword guy

@player_03

"(a) self-restraint, or (b) a desire not to be seen as crazy. Neither of which Burk has."

What if crazy burk is all an act?