1 Kyros: Here it is! The Quintessential Fifth Elementalist!
2 Kyros: The book that explains the fifth element and opens all the thaumaturgical secrets of the universe to my mystical power!
3 Lambert: What does it say?!
3 Kyros: “There is no fifth element.”
4 Kyros: “The real magic is the friendships you made along the way.”
4 Lambert: Well that’s a lame conclusion.
4 Kyros: I’ll say!

Draak think so too.

This is, indeed, the conclusion of the Fantasy theme. I've been casually mentioning in various places that I'm in the process of winding up Irregular Webcomic! for the foreseeable future, and you may have noticed that some of the themes have already reached some sort of conclusion. I still have a few themes to go, but nearly everything will be wrapped up by the end of this week. The exception is Stranger Things, which still has a few more story beats to run before it reaches its logical conclusion, so that will continue another couple of weeks or so.

After 22 years of making these comics, I need a break, and to reclaim some of my spare time for other things. I'll keep doing the reruns once Stranger Things reaches its conclusion. But no more new comics, at least for a while. I don't know if I'll change my mind in the future, but for now this is planned to be the ending of IWC. Enjoy the remaining new strips, and I'll mention again when we're done with the last of those.