Kill Six Billion Demons III: “Seeker of Thrones” (part four)

Cio and a traumatized Killy ride the elevator to the bottom of the pit, which seems to actually be the floor of the ash-desert plane that Throne is hovering over. Maybe? The geometry of the hubworld is hard to wrap my head around, probably deliberately so. Anyway, they're standing on this big, dark empty plane that may or may not be in the literal shadow of Throne. An array of standing-stones rises before them. The outer circle is guarded by a small army of crimson devils, and each of the tall stones of the inner circle has an...ebon?...perched on top. Some of the Heretic Courtiers are obviously black-masked, but others appear to not be wearing masks at all, which is puzzling. Either their masks are hidden on/in their bodies, they've somehow found a way to retain their individual sentience WITHOUT masks (!!??), or these aren't actually devils but some sort of powerful allies or honorary court members.

...hmm. To the second possibility, a maskless devil might actually not be impossible in the framework we've been given. The whole mask system only exists because the demiurgi pursued a certain avenue of research and invented a specific device for turning the black flame into people. There's no reason to assume that their method is the only possible method. Someone else may have devised an alternative to the masks in the millennia since then. Considering that some devils are both very smart and very good at magic, it could have even been a self-augmentation project that produced a lucky few successes.

Or it could just be that some ebons know how to hide their masks from outside observers. That's also possible. And more likely, thinking about it some more; the Heretics' Court seems to be well known and do lots of business with other factions in Throne. If the courtiers were a special type of maskless devil, everyone would know about this, and someone in the comic would have mentioned it by now. Ah well; the alternative is still interesting to think about.

Anyway, Cio leads Killy into the circle, and says she wants to talk to "their king and prisoner." Prisoner? Weird. Wonder what that's all about? Regardless, before they can talk to this prisoner-king of devilkind, they'll need to deal with his jailor-councillors. The courtiers are not exactly thrilled to see a version of Yabalchoath returned.

"The charlatan kings of man." Fascinating glimpse of the diabolical perspective on the regime. It also sounds like robbing Mammon might have brought demiurgic retaliation down on a lot more than just the Gilded Cage.

On one hand, nobody forced them to go along with Yabalchoath's whackadoodle scheme. On the other, even if they're equally at fault for that themselves, I can't really blame them for telling the person with a reputation for coming up with bad ideas to go away and stop trying to tell them her ideas.

When Cio doesn't shut up and go away, the big eyeball-covered courtier on the right panel above leaps off of his pedestal and starts evicting her by force. While also pulling her journal open and reading it with a few of his eyes while trying to figure out what the hell kind of evil scheme Yabalchoath might be using sexed-up fanfiction for. Okay, eyeball dude, your overall position here may be reasonable, but reading her diary in public is just a dick move.

Killy, either receiving another wormhole-delivered meth infusion or just trying to leverage whatever the devils might think her Keybearer status is worth. Unfortunately, the devilish discoball of eyes isn't impressed, and casts that scene from the Matrix to prove it.

Ouch. I guess it's a good thing she has that souped-up healing factor right now. Even that might not be able to undo this kind of tissue mutation.

Also, I could be wrong, but it seems like Discoball genuinely believes that leaving this human staggering around with her palms fused to her lips would be more merciful than letting her continue traveling with Yabalchoath. Almost everyone from every stratum and faction of Throne's society is in agreement over Yabalchoath having been really, really bad news. Damn, Cio's really got a hole to dig herself out of, doesn't she?

Granted, Discoball should also be able to see the Key implanted in Killy's head, which should tell him that taking her this lightly might be ill advised. Sure, he probably thinks she's "just" some vatra, but even so that's probably not the sort of enemy you'd want to show your back to. Even when you have numbers on your side.

As Killy panics and pulls against her mutated lips, she receives another transmission from ground control. She could definitely use some help getting out of this situation, but then again he may have pushed her into it in the first place, so.

Oh, now that's a good villain speech, in context. It captures the entire theme of the Black Seven.

...

The power of want and struggle, and the self-deifying potential of will. Even if these turn out to not actually be central concepts to the metaphysics of this setting after all, they ARE central to its dominant religion. A religion whose precepts and parables Killy is being forced to immerse herself in as she practices her magical and social power, because the lessons these characters teach her are all framed through it. So, Killy's already being conditioned to pay attention to lessons about the power of want and will and royalty, and her future experiences will only condition her to pay even more attention to them, both going forward and in retrospect.

Now, sure, you need certain tools and skills in order to realize that godly power to change the world. But one thing that the story has done a pretty good job of communicating is that anyone can do it as long as they have access to those skills and tools. Zoss didn't give the Masterkey to Killy because she was the person most capable of using it; he gave it to her because he thought she could be trusted with it. Anyone can use a Key of Kings with a bit of training. The Black Seven equip their vatras with Keys all the time. Mammon only ever got a Key in the first place because he happened to have enough money to buy one with, and he demonstrably was able to use it as well as the other six survivors of the Darwinian multiversal war. We haven't learned much about the how-to's of Meti and Mathangi technique yet, but what we HAVE seen suggests that you can learn ways of gaining that power even without a Key. Mathangi was explicitly no one special until Meti decided to train her, and there's nothing to suggest that Meti couldn't have trained any other random street urchin just as well. Yisun is omnipotent, and everyone is Yisun.

What Incubus is feeding her here is basically the demiurge version of prosperity gospel, or great man theory, or divine right, or whatever it's calling itself this time. "You don't have an easy way to exercise power because Zoss gave you a Key and I gave you some warlock levels; Zoss gave you the Key and I gave you the warlock levels because you are one of The Powerful." It immediately puts up a wall between Killy and her companions. It makes her more likely to end up in conflict with her former companions, and more likely to be willing to play ball with people like Incubus and the other Black Kings. Ultimately, it puts her on a path to not changing anything about the multiversal status quo even if she ends up conquering it, at which point there's no reason her trusted friend and confidante Incubus can't keep ruling his own empire under her flag even IF she somehow shakes the magic addiction he's gotten her hooked on. And, as far as that addiction goes, "you are innately more worthy and more important than the powerless commoners you can tread on" is a hell of an added rush to make it harder to shake.

What really sells this for me though is that Incubus isn't just filling her head with lies to manipulate her. At least to some extent, he's also earnestly proselytizing for his own creed. This corrupted version of Yisun-worship is his version of it. The Black Seven have all sold themselves on this, for the same reason that the modern plutocrats, the 19th century Whigs, and the "superior men" of Hammurabi's day all sold themselves on versions of it. When you've clawed yourself into that kind of position of privilege, you either find a reason why everyone else can't do what you did to believe in, or you go insane with sleepless fear at the possibility that someday they will.

So, Killy must be special, because if she isn't then his kind are in a lot of trouble aren't they?

I've not been thrilled by the Incubus corruption subplot's execution so far, but this scene is great. Not only in the insight it gives us into the bad guys, but also in being a good show-don't-tell version of the Tokienesque "the dark lord enslaves you by making you more like himself" trope, plus the obvious social commentary.

...

Killy picks up Incubus' hazy cosmic jive on channel two, and starts using her Key. The phantom-Incubus beside her also starts glowing from the forehead, implying that he's walking her through this if not outright casting through her himself. A moment later, a giant goddess eidolon appears behind Killy and starts smashing its way into the opposition.

I thought that might be an unusually dignified-looking phantom of Aesma at first conjured by the realization of plucky human willpower, though that would be a little thematically off in this situation, but then I noticed the caption. Apparently, this is a named and documented spell called skull of Ys-Myra. So yeah, different goddess. The alt-text for this page gives us the Player's Handbook flavor text:

“Myra, also known as the Stinking Goddess, is the patron goddess of the poor. Though finely dressed, the hem of her long veil is perpetually stained with the mud and filth of her surroundings. She famously broke Un-Ogam’s nose when he tried to carry her off and wed her by headbutting him in the face.”

— Skull of Ys-Myra

As a minor aside, Un-Ogam is a familiar name. I looked it up, and yep, he was that loutish war god who played a bit role in the Red Eyed King story. Noted.

More to the point though, the colossal icon of Ys-Myra charges forward and...well, she headbutts Discoball. Sending him flying across the Heretics' Court and out of the ring of stones, punching a crater into the ground and sending up a huge cloud of dust with the force of his landing.

...

So, this spell summons a manifestation of the headbutting goddess to headbutt your enemies.

Perfection.

...

With the devils sufficiently intimidated, Killy uses another of Incubus' high level spells to pry her hands off her face and regenerate it all properly. Then, she shows us just how effective Incubus' corruption of her has been in a short timeframe. With just a taste of his tainted power, she's reached the darkest possible outcome for her native culture and demographic.

A Karen.

More seriously though, it was pretty clever of Incubus to have her use something as visually impressive and dramatic as skull-bashing skull of the skull goddess back there. It got her and Cio off the hook, but it also created an expectation of more spectacular magic. Killy *can* do quite a bit on her own when she's determined enough, as we saw in the previous volume, but not consistently, and not with this kind of finesse and visual flair. There's a precedent established as Killy being someone to listen to because of her brute strength.

Which means that if Incubus withdraws his patronage, Killy needs to either learn how to use her Key as well as he can really, really quickly, or hide from the powerful devils she's surrounded herself with. Dim prospects, both. Giving her yet another reason to stay dependent. He really is the quintessential drug dealer.

...

Are each of the Black Seven going to have a psychological trick that Killy will have to see through to defeat them? Seems likely, at this point. That would certainly fit the Zen Buddhist sensibilities of the story.

While I like this concept, it also sort of calls attention to the issue of why the Seven keep choosing to make this a battle of wits instead of a battle of magic death lasers. Justifications have been provided, with them trying to subvert rather than defy the prophecy and so forth, but I'm not sure if that's enough when nonlethal force seems like it should still be on the table. Mottom tried exactly that last volume when her trickery didn't pan out, and only failed because Killy managed one of her rare get-the-Key-to-do-what-you-want-it-to moments. Giving your protagonist a superpower that they can only use unpredictably at authorial fiat is just a poorly disguised deus ex machina. Having that be the reason why the superpowerful villains are resorting to mind games instead of the brute force they've conquered worlds with is putting a lot of narrative weight on a very weak support.

Also, not all of the Seven seem to be on the same page about who the Chosen One actually is, so not all of them should care about not killing
her in the first place, right?

In short, I like that this is a thing, but I feel like there needs to be a better reason why it's a thing.

...

Killy makes her demand, and...either there's a timeskip while they're taken to the devil king, or they're just teleported straight to him. In either case, the next panel has Killy and a bloodied and bruised Cio sitting in front of a big fancy desk across from an unseen entity in a suspended cage.

Are those spikes sticking into his cage? Swords? They look like swords.

...is that the Red Eyed King? Maybe I just have that story on my mind at the moment due to Ogam's name coming up earlier, but the description - a hanging cage, spikes jammed inside from all directions as if to counteract a healing factor - definitely evokes it. Is that story literally true after all, at least in part? If so, this guy must not be a "devil" in the conventional sense, if those have really only existed since the Conquering King era. Granted, it's also possible that he was just one of several historical inspirations for the Red Eyed King story, the the fictional King borrowing some aesthetics from this real archdevil. Either way, there's got to be some sort of connection.

Killy, still high on Darth Bowie's supply, expresses incredulity that the master of all devils is a talking box. The caged entity has the best comeback for that ever.

“Well, it’s what’s inside that counts, don’t you think?”

— The Devil King

Well played, box boy.

...the devils outside talked about this guy being their "prisoner" as well as their leader. Wonder how that works? Maybe it's part of a condition that the devils were made to abide, in a treaty with the angels and/or demiurgi? They have to keep their king under house arrest in exchange for being allowed to operate within Throne? Maybe?

He asks what they want. Killy tells him that she apparently needs his permission to rescue Zaid, and he elaborates that "the business of all devils is his (my) business." Which sounds hard to believe, considering that we've seen devils making pacts with humans and independently ranging very far from this place, but it could be that he means that he's in charge of anything that effects devilkind as a whole rather than any individual devil. We already know that Yabalchoath's last operation against Mammon had dire repercussions for the Heretics' Court, so this would make sense then. A repeat of something like that stunt might bring down the heat against the devils as a whole again, so that makes this the king's business. That makes sense then, okay. Before talking business though, Killy expresses her displeasure about his councillors' treatment of Cio.

However, she makes the mistake of referring to Cio as "my friend," and it turns out that his majesty has been reading the comic.

The cage has little angel-like eyes on it. Hmmmmm.​

He knows about that conversation back at the beginning of this volume. And he can read minds. This guy's intel capabilities might just rival those of Incubus with his dreamwalking. This could explain why he and his entourage might be able to wring concessions out of the Seven; in addition to whatever influence he has over their own devil minions, he might just be able to release sensitive information about them. Say, if he knows one or more of their immortality methods and how to neutralize them, or something like that.

And he also finally names himself. As...Himself. That's his actual name.

If his name is just "Himself," or "Myself" when he's the one talking, then that definitely means he isn't just an exceptionally powerful devil within the hierarchy we already know about. Less of a name than even an ebon devil, and proportionately more powerful, but *something* keeps him from dispersing into mindless black fire.

...maybe the cage itself is what keeps that from happening? I mused earlier about how the heretic courtiers outside might have experimented with alternatives to the masks, and this could be another approach that yielded more powerful and intelligent, but less stable, results. The cage doesn't let him sustain a mobile body like the masks do, but it keeps his fiery essence just barely contained and nameable enough to retain an individual will.

Well, anyway.

Rather than try to puzzle over who and what the entity she's talking to is, Killy (who seems to be embodying Ys-Aesma's anti-intellectual side under Incubus' influence) changes subject back to the things she saw on her way in. Not just the Courtiers bullying Cio, but also the whole "devils eating scores of humans to get out of having to make pacts" thing. If Himself has really been magically spying on Killy, she says, then he should know what her stance is on entities that eat people to extend their own lifespans. Himself counters by saying that if that's how Killy feels, then she really, really, REALLY shouldn't be calling Cio her "friend."

...yeah, sorry Yourself, but that's not nearly as good a comeback as your previous one. Even if Yabalchoath was literally the worst person in the entire multiverse, Ciocie Cioelle is not currently in the practice of eating people. Working with her in the present doesn't make Killy complicit in additional murders. Himself's cronies or jailors or whatever are doing that shit right now, and will continue to do so into the future unless something forces them to stop. Even if Himself might potentially be a step above Mottom in that he isn't personally choosing to do this kind of thing, he isn't ordering the ebons to STOP doing it either, so it's a pretty small step.

Unfortunately, Crackhead Killy isn't sharp enough to point this out. Which is a pity, because she absolutely IS sharp enough to catch this sort of rhetorical motte-and-bailey when she isn't having heroin teleported directly into her bloodstream. For now, it just falls on Cio - still nursing cuts and bruises from Discoball's attack - to angrily protest that she's not like that anymore. Himself expresses scepticism. Or at least, pretends to express scepticism in order to rattle her further.

"She came from this pit, and she will return to it."

Is he being metaphorical, calling her "a creature of this place" in the sense that you'd call an American politician a "creature of Washington DC" etc, or is he being literal? In the latter case, was I actually on to something last update when I wondered if this facility was the birthplace of devilkind?

...

...if so, then maybe Himself actually is the hot black flame from the tongue of Ys?

It all fits. He's contained in a chamber under that isolated facility. He's a nameless devil who all the other devils regard as an authority figure despite them not usually caring about authority in general. The story didn't make it sound like the black flame itself was sentient, but nothing in it contradicts that possibility either. Also, it could be that the flame wasn't an intelligent being to begin with, but that it's been evolving ever since people started extracting its essence to create devils. Maybe it absorbs the memories and personality fragments of dead devils, if they really do "return to this pit" when they die? In that case, Himself is not only the devils' ancestor, but also their afterlife.

And if he IS the hot black flame, then the "Aesma and the Red Eyed King" story could have much more truth to it. The flame would have existed during the time of the Multiplicity, and if Himself was sentient to begin with rather than only having become so later then yes, he could literally be the Red Eyed King.

...

Abruptly, Himself says that he's decided to grant them his permission to enlist devils in another Mammon Heist. Huh. That didn't take any convincing at all. Maybe he just needed to meet them in person in order to make an assessment of them? If his mind-reading powers have limited range, then that would make sense; he can essentially conduct a whole job interview without them knowing it, but he needs them to be in his office to do it. Heck, this entire "office" could just be a dreamscape he conjured in their minds, with Himself actually being a bodiless entity bound to those standing stones or something that the metal cage is just a metaphorical representation of.

...hmm. If he's doing a dreamspace VR thing, then his powerset really IS a lot like Incubus'. Of course, we were told that the demiurgi created the devils at least in part in order to learn more magic from them, so that makes perfect sense. Incubus could very well have learned this spell from Himself.

Himself explains that he knows Killy has a grand future ahead of her, so she's worth taking some big risks for. Does he also know that Incubus is in her head right now? Maybe. It probably doesn't change his assessment either way, though; even if he has to arm-wrestle Incubus over Killy, she's still his big chance to improve his standing in the multiversal order. Hopefully it won't just be a literal repeat of Aesma and the Red Eyed King lol.

Oof.

"Spare a thought for me when you take over the multiverse."

He's going to steal a critically important thought right out of her head at her moment of triumph, isn't he? Like, the true secret name of Yisun that gives you total omnipotence or something. I'll bet that's what he's going to do.

...then again, she didn't do the handshake and black runic fire symbol thing, so maybe this isn't a binding devil-pact that they just made. In that case, he might not be able to pull off that kind of fuckery. Maybe he really just is asking her to please remember the good turn he did her when she's in a position to repay it.

...

I think my favourite thing about Himself is the sheer ambiguity of him. Not just in terms of his backstory and the nature of his relationship with the lesser devils, but his ethos and motives too. Is he a mischievous imp just amusing himself with an exciting gamble? A sadist setting them up to fail? A visionary leader doing what he thinks will give the devils a better future? A selfish opportunist who just sees an opportunity for personal advancement? He has a clearly defined personality, but everything underlying it is as hidden from the reader's view as his body inside that cage.

It only makes sense that he'd be hard to pin down, of course. He barely has a name to narrow him down into something less unknown and undefined. Going back to the language motif that devils have going on, you could say that if a pale devil is a specific phoneme, Himself is something close to this.

Also, I've been reading him in Jemaine Clement's voice. Which might be a problem, because if Clement is voicing Himself than that means we'll need to find a different David Bowie impersonator to be Incubus, and I don't know if there are many other good ones. Quite the predicament.

...

Of course, he says, in the event that they fail, the devils will need to make a show of opposition to appease Mammon, and Cio will have proven herself just as dangerous to diabolical wellbeing as her previous self. So, he's not going to be able to reign the Heretics' Court in when they hunt Cio and all her friends down and present their bloody pieces to Mammon's agents, and will therefore make no attempt to.

To be fair, if they fail in their mission then that probably means that Mammon's security caught and killed them anyway. So really, this doesn't make things too much riskier for Team Killy than they already were. Himself's threat is basically just window dressing.

So, they have the go-ahead. Now they just need to go get Oscar and have him round up any other survivors from Yabalchoath's original heist crew, and find replacements for those who didn't survive. They leave the building again, seemingly unmolested by the Courtiers within who are probably just glad that they're leaving. Killy isn't in great shape, between the Incubus PCP and the diabolical horrorshow she's just witnessed. Cio, however, is worse.

Awww, a little of the old Killy showing itself through the cracks. Granted, I don't think she has anything to apologize for here, since Cio was the one who decided to take her to the Heretics' Court rather than risking it with less experienced nondevil mercs. Nobody forced Cio to do that. But still, it was likely a desire to please/prove herself to Killy that led her to make that decision, and its nice to see Killy retain enough emotional intelligence to realize that.

Himself bringing up the "you're not my friend" line in front of both of them had to have hurt Cio more than getting beat up by the dread archdevil known as Discoball of Eyes Man.

Killy picks up her broken eyeglasses (looks like the lenses shattered during the beatdown) and offers them back to her, but Cio just blows up.

The glasses are just an aesthetic choice, of course; part of embracing humility and limitations. And man, I definitely feel her with the writing-related self doubts. I wonder if maybe the author was putting a bit of himself into that detail as well, heh.

More seriously though, being exposed to Yabalchoath's enemies is starting to make her think and act more like Yabalchoath as a survival instinct. And seeing them eat people to keep up their strength the way she used to, combined with that deadly threat that she'd need her old strength to deal with, puts a really nasty temptation in front of her.

I guess temptation is going to be the byline for this whole volume. Killy gets a resisting corruption arc with Incubus. Cio gets a resisting corruption arc with Yabalchoath. Maybe White Chain will also get one, before this book's end. It's a logical progression I guess. "Wielder of Names" was about the will to power. "Seeker of Thrones" seems to be about navigating the pitfalls of having and using power, as well as the temptation to seek more of it for its own sake rather than to actually improve one's self and situation.

...if this is following the philosophical thread that I think it's following, the next book is going to be about master morality, slave morality, and eventual transvaluation. I remember someone mentioning that the original quest that K6BD is loosely based on had an actual Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche cameo in it. I believe Nietzche was sort of an admirer of Buddhism, so an existentialist thread might coexist well enough with the Zen-ish stuff. I'll keep my eyes open for it.

...huh. This would also mean that Incubus' take is basically Heidegger's proto-nazi corruption of existentialism. Will to power as an essential trait, rather than a set of behaviours a la Nietzsche's original concept. Wonder if that's intentional by the author?


Anyway, that's the end of this very long chapter. The first half of it was kind of so-so, but things picked up a lot when they got to the Heretics' Court. Himself being a real standout; I hope to see more of him.

Granted, part of the reason the first half was weaker is because Crackhead Killy is pretty shallow and boring relative to her sober self, and part of the reason the second half was better is because Cio stepped into the protagonist role. So, I expect the quality to continue to be uneven whenever we're sharing Killy's head with Incubus. Hopefully he'll be out of there by the end of the volume. Again, I like the concept of Killy having to deal with this Sauron-like figure who tempts and corrupts by sharing his magic with her, but the execution leaves something to be desired.

But there's plenty of great stuff alongside it to enjoy, so that's good.