Kill Six Billion Demons IV: King of Swords (part eleven)

Dang, I really need to remember to keep these main project updates regular. I'm glad to have finished the Utena episodes in one stretch there, but K6BD suffered as a result.

Where we left off, Cio had introduced herself to the tournament and took a kind of voluntary possession of Killy. The compound entity apparently named Allicio is pretty dang powerful, combining Killy's raw Masterkey strength with Cio's experience and versatile spells and equipment. This should enable them to survive the surprise free-for-all battle without too much trouble, even if I doubt Solomon would accept them as winners due to Cio's extralegal tournament status. Frankly, I'm not sure why (aside from maybe just plain not being sure if he can take them) he's allowed this nonsense to go on as long as he has at all.

Meanwhile, Nyave and Princess are attempting to rescue Zaid, who Solomon has made the very questionable decision to send to the same prison they use for drunk and disorderly arena spectators in response to a threat. Or at least, he's pretended to. Solomon might be playing along. Meanwhile, White Chain is just keeping herself corporeal elsewhere in the arena, not currently wanting to work with the serially insubordinate Killy anymore. That other mystery angel in the headless-looking avatar is still watching from the shadows, and Gog-Agog is still sort of squirming around nervously due to Solomon being at least partly on to her latest little scheme.

I think that covers everything. Let's continue!

Allicio takes a moment getting the hang of their new hybrid body. Once they do, though, it turns out to be every bit as powerful as it sounds like it should be. They launch themselves into the air hard enough to smash one of the stone platforms under them, and then rebound off the magic geodesic dome-ceiling hard enough to crack it as well (something that other super-powerful attacks have so far NOT been able to do). Allicio is basically a living meteorite, which is a logical enough outcome of combining those two powersets.

In the VIP box, Gog-Agog loses her multi-bodied shit cheering and babbling at how awesome this is. Solomon David remains totally impassive, watching like a statue while Gog's bodies prance and praddle all around him.

Even as Allicio decides that now would be a perfect time to try out some of those demiurge super-moves Incubus has been demonstrating in her dreamscape now that she has the magical skill to kinda-sorta execute them. Aesma's Pride Parade Footstep is the first among them, on account of Allicio being all gay and stuff.

This page's alt-text does make a point of reminding the reader that there's a reason Solomon needs to rebuild the arena after every tournament. The later stages of the tournament always have one or more contestants destroying some or all of the arena, regardless of its magic structural reinforcements. In light of that, Solomon's nonchalance about Allicio's rampage is perhaps unsurprising.

I wonder though. If the Battle Royale stage isn't part of the usual procedure, did previous tournaments just have progressively fewer simultaneous battles with progressively larger shares of the pit cordoned off for them until the final rounds? Said final duels then, presumably, being the ones that took up most or all of the pits and did most of the structural damage to their arenas? Probably something like that.

Also, given that White Chain seems to still be one of the upper-tier combatants even at this late stage, and that she is - while hardly a weakling by their standards - not a famously powerful angel either, I wonder what percentage of the finalists have always been angels? I imagine that the Concordant and/or Thorn knights might have sent champions to fight in Solomon's first few tournaments in the hope of reclaiming a seventh of the multiverse in the name of Yisun or whatever, before they learned that the rules are bullshit and Solomon makes sure he always wins. Even after that, we've seen enough fallen angels running around Throne doing random criminal shit that I imagine quite a few of those must have still been attracted over the millennia.

Maybe the tournaments usually end with one angel smashing another angel's avatar to bits along with most of the arena, and then Solomon either floating over and smashing the winning angel (if he knows he can do it) or finding an excuse to disqualify them and make himself look right for doing so (if he doesn't). Not ALL of the tournaments, perhaps, but a significant percentage of them. It seems likely.

Oh, speaking of White Chain! We jump across the arena to where she's managed to clear herself a bit of breathing room, and is watching Allicio's rainbow rampage with a mix of trepidation and grudging respect. And, speaking of angel vs. angel battles, the mysterious headless synth FINALLY steps into the foreground! By "steps," I mean "flies over to White Chain and slams its feet into the ground behind her hard enough to shake up dust clouds and make White Chain startle away." Whether Headless Billy over here just leaped down from the audience like Cio did, or if he'd already entered himself in the tournament and just kept to itself until now, it isn't clear.

Anyway, White Chain is naturally expecting an attack, but one doesn't come. At least, not a physical attack. The other angel starts admonishing White Chain for failing as an angel, a concordant knight, and an agent of the divine order, but the angle he's scolding from isn't the one I'd expect from a Thorn Knight. Or from 2 Michael. So, this is either Metatron himself showing a new side that the thornies don't know about, or someone completely unrelated to that whole conspiracy. Probably a new character, or someone who we've only seen in a bit role before.

...heh, could it be that fallen angel who White Chain fought in book 1 and then got beaten into dormancy by Juggernaut Star in book 2? She somehow regenerated early, and stole this old Concordant Knight synth that no one was paying attention to? That would be a bit hard to reconcile with what we saw of her former personality, heh, but who knows. I guess it could also be one of the angel sorority girls that White Chain was barely tolerating before she took up the secret mission and got her synth back. Don't thiiiiink we've met any other angels since then, besides the ones who already had bodies when this one reactivated.

I'm leaning toward new character, but we'll probably find out for sure in just a few panels.

How is this angel synth *coughing,* though? Dust caught in its gears or something? I didn't think they even needed mechanical airways to produce speech, but I suppose I could have been mistaken. Eh, still makes more sense than General Grevious.

Hmm. Possibly meaningful detail: when White Chain asks her "brother" to identify himself, it says "You are NOT my brother!" Which could be an expression of contempt for White Chain committing whatever sins this angel is accusing her of, or it could be recognition of her gender identity. In that case...hmm. Well, pretty much every angel character who I think it could be has seen White Chain's current spirit form at least once, so that doesn't really narrow it down.

Before Billy Bob Neckstump can finish his sermon, a string of explosions drown out his voice. Allicio is now systematically destroying the arena floor and everyone on it, either in an attempt to brute force a victory or to annoy Solomon enough to draw his attention even further away from Zaid. Whatever Ned Neckface wanted to tell White Chain, it might have to wait a little bit.

Meanwhile, Princess and Nyave successfully penetrate the security lockup. There are only a handful of guards there, at present, and Princess takes them down pretty easily. "High security cells," lol, right.

The noise from outside as Gog-Agog commentates and Allicio detonates covers their intrusion well enough. And, in short order, they manage to find Zaid. Well, unless Solomon actually sent a Zaid-lookalike to the cells as part of a ploy. That would actually make a lot of sense, all things considered. But at any rate, Nyave and Princess at least think that they've found the target, and they may be correct in that.

Also, the way that Nyave reacts to Zaid is kinda cute.

You know what? I could see this working out pretty well. They've both got to be lonely and frustrated at this point (Zaid much moreso than Nyave, but her social life doesn't appear to have been that great even after they settled in on Throne). They're both tired of being constantly out of their depths. They both have demonstrated some degree of political (or at least social) insight that could be a bonding element. Nyave's a princess, and now that Solomon glued his face together properly Zaid looks like your classic Disney-style prince. It's only natural.

As Princess breaks Zaid out of his cell and Nyave finalizes her plans to test out his face's newfound structural integrity with her ass, we return to White Chain and Norman Nohead. The angels watch as Allicia uses some silly fist-duplicating spell to punch thirty dudes in thirty directions at the same time. White Chain, thinking about the other angel's words and Killy's conduct, confesses that yes, she really has failed her oath to the law. Always acting without thought for the consequences. Always seeking power over wisdom. It's time to undo her mistakes.

The other angel starts to realize that White Chain has gravely misinterpreted his critique, but before he can stop her White Chain has already leaped over to Allicio. She reaches them just as Allicio finishes off the last few randos, with Guillotined Percy hurrying after her.

Now, if White Chain were to say "No, I want you to forfeit to me," I'm not entirely sure what would happen.

On top of her power-hungry and impulsive traits, Killy has been recently reminded that the Concordant Knights - and White Chain in particular - aren't all that trustworthy with power themselves. The last time she deferred to White Chain's instructions when it came to the use of her demiurgic power over others, she ended up unwittingly helping keep the B in ACAB. On the other side of the gestalt, Cio just plain dislikes angels in general, and doesn't see White Chain as differing from the rest.

That said, Killy has ALSO recently come down from a recklessness high and apologized to White Chain, with promises to heed her words more carefully now. While I'm sure that wasn't the first time she's gone through this cycle, I think if White Chain reminded her of her recent promise it might be able to make the difference. If White Chain is able to make a convincing argument for why she thinks she has a better chance of landed a blow on Solomon than Allicio does, it might be enough. Maybe. I may be putting too much faith in Killy, but I really don't want to give her too little.

Granted. If we're getting to the question of "who's more likely to draw Solomon David's blood," then the correct answer really would be for White Chain and Allicio to just fight each other instead of anyone yielding. Although...given the highly, highly questionable legality of Allicio's winning streak, it also seems like Solomon would have an easier time justifying a disqualification for them. Hmm.

Yeah, I think that if the goal still is to try and get that wish from Solomon instead of just stalling for time while Princess and Nyave do their hijinx, the best move would be for Allicio to throw this fight and let White Chain take the final match.

None of that matters, though, because White Chain doesn't say any of this.

She does tell Allicio to yield to her a moment later, to be fair. But it's a little weird of her to only do that AFTER the sucker-kick. And, even worse, instead of saying she wants Allicio to surrender so that White Chain can go on and try for the longshot match with Solomon David, she says...this:

It might be meaningful that White Chain didn't do her "forgive me for the violence I am about to perform" mantra before attacking this time. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure she did that at the beginning of the battle royale, in which case this might count as the same battle as for as that's concerned. So, maybe an important detail, maybe not.

More importantly though, the implication that they're going to pack up and go home without even confirming Zaid's rescue is. Um. Yeah, seriously, has White Chain completely forgotten that Killy's motives are not the same as her own motives?

And, it turns out that White Chain's demand for her to yield wasn't even made in good faith. It was just an expression of anger and contempt. She doesn't give Allicio a chance to answer in the affirmative or the negative. Just monologues at breakneck speed with ever-escalating condemnation, and then starts shooting to kill.

The giant flaming hand blast is a power I feel like White Chain should have used before now, ngl.

Well, it does more damage to Allicio than anything else people have shot at her so far has. But, that's not really saying all that much. The fusion recovers quickly, and hits back hard. While White Chain recoils, Allicio - with the Cio side of her seeming to take over a bit for the moment - delivers an orratory denunciation in return. Hey, White Chain broke that out first, turnabout is fair play.

On one hand, while Cio has definitely learned important lessons in recent times, I'm not sure that Killy has. She seemed to, in books 2-3, but the timeskip and its aftermath seem to have had her as a pretty static personality whose only growth has been in ability.

It's made a bit confusing by the fact that White Chain's speech was clearly addressed to Killy, with little to no relevance at all to Cio. Allicio's speech seemed to be mostly coming from Cio, with the speech mannerisms and refering to Killy as an outside entity at the start. So, to some extent, these monologues might be kind of talking passed each other.

Granted, White Chain's retort is probably the hollowest, most hypocritical thing that anyone not named Solomon David has said in this entire volume so far. Enough so that it's hard not to take Killy and Cio's side even though there's plenty to criticize them for.

Okay, so, first things first.

"You, whose only talent is violence."

Take a moment and think about that sentence, who is saying it, and who it is being said to (ignore Cio for the moment; she's such an obvious skill monkey that I don't even need to point it out).

There's a kind of determination, courage, and quick thinking that a person needs to have in order to defeat Vladock, or trick their way into Mottom's palace. Killy has it. That's a skill, or at least a useful enough set of traits to be as good as a skill. She's apparently a good enough barrista for the manifestation of that skill of hers to be a multi-armed Hindu coffee goddess. It's a niche skill, but it's a skill. More impressively, Cio has been teaching her actual factual magic. Like, literally "transform air into fruit in a puff of smoke" magic. Seemingly not violent magic, either, except maybe in the philosophical mumbo jumbo "acting upon the world is violence and the sanctioned act is to cut" sort of way. Cio's also been teaching her how to sex good. That's a skill; it's actually a more important one than people usually think of it as. She's gotten the common folk of Throne to love her, seemingly almost as much because she's just pleasant to be around as because she protects them from racketeers.

Significantly, Killy's most impressive magical feat that she wasn't taught by Incubus or White Chain or someone was plane-shifting an entire airship from Mykos to Throne. In the battle that immediately preceded that scene, the best she could do was some (very unimpressive, by the setting's standards) portal-cuts. Even the incendiary thing she killed Hastet with was barely a parlor trick compared to beaming a ship full of people across the entire multiverse. Her innate aptitude for the Masterkey's power pretty clearly leans toward noncombat applications.

In fact, she only became any good at violence after Incubus mind-whammied her. And White Chain didn't even see most of that. From White Chain's perspective, Killy learned nearly all her skill at violence from...White Chain. Who decided to teach her how to fight entirely on her own initiative.

And, with that as the bridge, let's look at White Chain now. What is a single skill that she has demonstrated - or even demonstrated an interest in learning - besides violence and teaching other people to do violence? I guess she has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Throne's laws. That's a skill. I'll give her that. But it's still not that much. It's really the "interest in learning" part that I'd call out the most, though. Killy tries to learn and improve herself in all sorts of ways. Some of those attempts are much more earnest and much more successful than others, but she at least develops herself in other ways besides fighting. White Chain, up until this literal moment, has shown little but contempt for anything besides violence and the laws - laws that tell her when and against whom to use violence.

But wait though. That's still just the second most idiotic thing White Chain said in this speech.

Why does White Chain think that Zaid is the "rightful heir?"

Well, Michael and/or Metatron told her that he is, sure. But why do THEY think (or more likely pretend to think, but White Chain doesn't know that) that Zaid is the rightful heir?

Because Zoss decided to give him the Masterkey.

Why does White Chain care about Zoss' opinions?

She just denounced the "ruiners of the multiverse," and called Killy a demiurge as an accusation, a decrying, almost an insult. Isn't Zoss *the* ruiner of the multiverse? The original demiurge, the one who paved the way for all the others and encouraged them in their rise to power? Didn't he found the society that produced a generation of genocidal idiot tyrant gods? Isn't he the reason the Prime Angels are nearly all still dormant, why Michael only recently returned to lead the Concordance, why Metatron lays crippled and immobile in the void?

What gives Zoss the right to name a rightful heir? Why does White Chain think Zoss is qualified to choose a good candidate for leadership, after the last bunch of psychos he put his trust in?

The best answer I can think of is something like "the surviving angels signed a pact with Zoss, so that means they have to enforce it." Nothing to do with right and wrong. Just a rule that they grudgingly accepted. A concession offered by a conqueror who ruled through violence and force.

Zoss might have also been a liberator, depending on what the situation was with the Servants when he arrived. But he was, nonetheless, a conqueror who ruled through violence and force.

...

Even moreso than before, I feel like Killy just needs another person to call her on her bullshit. White Chain is almost uniquely unqualified to do this.

...

After giving her extremely dumb speech, White Chain does this thing where her fiery tendrils extend out the openings and joints of her synth, surrounding her in a cloud of feathery eyeball-studded blue flame. Headman's Axe Henry, still standing off to the side waiting for White Chain to calm down again, identifies this trick as a technique called Krayu Mat. It's another angel-specific martial art, apparently, and - according to the bottom text - it's designed for use by unhoused angels in their spirit forms.

...huh?

I thought the whole point of the avatars was that angels needed them to interact with the physical world? If they don't need them, why bother having them?

Maybe Krayu Mat is like, a super energy-intensive way of temporary bypassing the intangibility problem? Although in that case, it seems like White Chain would have used it in Jabba's Palace back in book one when they shorted out her synth with puresilver darts. So no, I don't think that's it either.

From the metaphysics we've been shown thus far, it seems like Krayu Mat should only be useful for fighting other unsleeved angels and maskless devils.

...well, actually hold on. A few chapters ago we saw Juggernaut Star, in spirit form, pull White Chain out of her synth. So, maybe being incarnated doesn't completely protect angels and/or devils from the touch of spirit-forms. In that case, White Chain might be exploiting a vulnerability in Allicio's composition. White Chain's spirit form can touch an incarnated Cio, just like Juggernaut Star's spirit form can touch an incarnated White Chain. Humans like Killy might be immune to Krayu Mat, but Allicio is only half human.

And, thinking about it more, the Concordant Knights must have surely fought fusions like this before. The Multiversal War had thousands of demiurgi using every trick and weapon they could think of to bite off as much territory as possible; it's statistically impossible that none of them tried fusing with their devil buddies (or at least ordering their human and devil underlings to fuse, possibly including vatras with partial Key access), and that the angels never had to fight these individuals. In that case, "shift to spirit form and use Krayu Mat" might actually just be SOP for Concordant Knights facing this type of opponent.

...hmm. It also looks like White Chain isn't entirely unsleeving herself. Being still attached to her synth might also just render her spirit form's extensions partly tangible? That could be a factor.

Whichever it is, White Chain's spirit wings are solid as far as Allicio's skin is concerned.

I hope this is going to end with White Chain's body getting totalled. Not because she deserves it, neccessarily, but just because I want to see what her next one looks like. And because I'm amused by the possibility of her having to steal a Thorn Knight synth and spend the next volume carefully tiptoeing around to avoid poking people's eyes out.

That's long enough for now. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer before finding out who's piloting neckstumpbot.