It also occurs to me, in retrospect, that Akio has even more on Gryphon. By participating in the tournament like he did, G tied himself to Oriphos. As... prince, I think? If the same roles even apply. That would make Akio pillar and Raven priestess. And as we all know from the Cephiro trinity... nothing with ties to the realm can harm the pillar.

This of course assumes that Oriphos is in fact a true mirror of Cephiro.