Kill Six Billion Demons III: "Seeker of Thrones" (part nine)

Where we left off, things had basically gone tits up. White Chain and Nyave are alienated from each other, Killy is possessed by a sort-of personality copy of Incubus that's making her leave all the devils (including Cio, who's gone out of her way to save Killy several times over) for dead, and Mottom's ship is closing in. Things are looking grimmer than they have since the beginning of the comic, and it's not clear if anyone's going to be able to fully recover from this.

Well, White Chain and Nyave probably can. But the others not so much.

So, Succubus/Killy just walked deeper into Yre with the others all buried under rubble behind her. Continue!


Succubus advances on through Yre, passing through some rooms that look important (and also, notably, distinct from the preceding labyrinth area). One of which contains some immense, mummified kindsies that seem to correlate to the giant statues back in the maze.

The bottom text confirms that these are, in fact, the bodies of Mammon's own clan elders. The way that they're arranged doesn't seem contemptuous or trophy-like, though. This seems like they're being treated as honored dead, with dignified-looking ornaments, a beautiful reflecting pool among them, and even candles spread out before each like the icons of saints in a Catholic shrine. Most curiously, it appears that some of these candles have been placed and lit here very recently, and the volume of melted wax around them suggests that this is an ongoing practice.

Well, hmm. Even if I'm right about Mammon being dead, it seems like he must have already had these corpses onhand in order for his cultists to use them as part of their worship after his own passing. Finding and getting ahold of these from outside of Yre would probably not be possible, after this long. Also, rather than these bodies just being part of Mammon's story, it appears that they're being honored for their own sake, not just as props in his legend. Also - again, regardless of whether or not Mammon is still alive - it seems weird that his cultists would treat the bodies of his enemies this way unless he at some point told them to, or at least indicated that they should.

So, maybe Mammon didn't completely renounce his people's traditions after all. He still opted to give his elders a proper funeral, and has their bodies honoured - they are his own ancestors, after all - forevermore. Either because he saw their killing as a regrettable necessity (which contradicts Charon's version of the story, but there's no reason to think he's 100% reliable), or because even if he loathes them they're still elders and elders still need to be given the proper mummification and enshrinement.

In either case, there is something more to Mammon than just greed after all. Maybe not that much more, but still, he hasn't completely lost himself. Or at least, he hadn't by the time this place was set up.

Naturally, Succubus demonstrates no curiousity about any of this. She just marches right on through. She only stops when the ghost of Zoss appears to her for the first time since book 2. Last time he showed up, it was to give Killy some advice on dealing with Mottom and her pet husbandtree. This time, it's to ask her what the actual fuck. Is this all that power is to her? Is she really willing to discard her companions the instant she doesn't think they're useful anymore?

Zoss doesn't seem able to tell she has Incubus in her head. Or to take the white hair as a clue. I'm thinking that whatever this manifestation of him is, it might not have access to his full sensory and cognitive faculties. Or else, he does know, but he's just judging her for taking that deal with Incubus in the first place and/or having a part of her personality that can be so readily nourished into a copy of him.

Not sure what Zoss means about "cycles," though. It doesn't seem like this has happened more than once. Notably, the demiurgi reacted to the appearance of the Rising King (or at least, what they thought was the Rising King) was much more dramatic than "oh well, here we go again." Cosmic cycles, maybe? The general pattern of leaders falling to corruption? Not sure.

Zoss also paraphrases the famous "he who hunts monsters" line from Nietzche as a warning about slaying dragons. Because this is still What If Planescape But Also Existentialism, the Comic.

...

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, it occurs to me that while Zoss having ascended to a Yisun-like state of post-mortem atemporality IS a possibility, it isn't the only one. There's no indication that he can appear to anyone BESIDES Killy. The only time we saw him interact with someone else was when the thorn knights killed him at the beginning of book one, which was notably before him becoming dead. Right before it, in fact . Since then, Killy has only been able to see him as a sort of ethereal advisor figure. And, for the same time period, she's had the Masterkey in her head.

Granted, if Zoss' spirit (or a personality copy of it) is inhabiting the Masterkey and directly contacting Killy's mind, you'd think he'd have been much more aware of Incubus poking around in there. Or maybe not. Depends on how things are interconnected.

It might also be that the Masterkey is "catching his voice," just as it catches the voices of the gods and uses them to open portals to their respective worlds. In that case, Zoss might be talking to her from the past, using the Key as an intertemporal communication device.

...huh. If that last one is it, then maybe the "cycles" he was referring to are alternate timelines, where he tried giving the Key to different candidates. When one doesn't work, he decides to not give it to that person when the time comes after all. Far out, I know, and based on very minimal evidence, but it's a possibility that just jumped out at me even if it's not a terribly likely one.

Anyway, the main point I wanted to make is that I think Zoss might be appearing in Killy's mind using the Masterkey some way or another rather than being an actual "ghost."

...

As Zoss shakes his head and tells daughter that he is disappoint, Killy is practically wailing and gnashing her teeth inside her own mind. Watching Succubus ruin her relationship with Zoss is only slightly less painful than watching her let the catgirl get sacrifice or leave Cio to bleed out in the rubble. Killy tries to figure out how to regain control of her body; if there's anything in her mindscape she can use against Succubus that will actually leave a mark. Her rainbow regrets all tell her that no, she's got nothing. She's 23 years old, and she's got nothing to show for it.

...

Okay, this? This is the kind of thing that I wish we'd seen more of early on.

Even if Killy's life until the time of the comic was as underachieving as she thinks, the events of book 2 by themselves should make up for that. She saved Nyave's life. Nyave is one of her homeworld's most promising young adults - the exact kind of overachiever that Killy probably wishes she herself could be - and Killy practically knight in shining armor'd her. Right after that, she killed the Hastet tree, which may (depending on what alternatives Mottom looks into) have saved countless other women from being sacrificed going forward. Very few people have saved that many lives. Or even close to that many lives. And sure, some the circumstances leading up to Hastet's destruction were kind of handed to Killy on a silver platter, but not all of them were. She had the moxie to infiltrate the tribute group (which is the part that saved Nyave). She had the courage to stand up and get the attention of the evil sorcerer queen when everyone else bowed down. As of the last volume, she's racked up some impressive accomplishments.

The comic has been telling us, over and over again, that Killy has self-esteem problems. Until now, I don't think it ever actually showed us this. If there had been some moments like this early on, I would have found the temptation arc with Incubus much more compelling all along.

...

So, Killy tries to conjure up a part of herself that's strong enough to wrestle Succubus away from the wheel. There's some comedy value in this next screenshot, but the main reason I took it is because of the rightmost figure in the top panel.

I don't think Killy is actually full-on transmasc, or there'd probably be more masculine figures in here and/or this one would be getting more focus. However, it does appear that she is, to some degree, nonbinary. Granted, maybe the intended implication is just that everyone is, at least a little. Either way, part of her personality being male is certainly interesting.

Aside from that, this page reveals that Killy is a Jim Henson fanatic. Goth!Killy has a Skeksis shirt and a hairstyle and earrings that look like feathers. Between this and the earlier Labyrinth thing, I'm wondering if after his philosophy club meeting at Mottom's, Gilgamesh should go get Kirei and introduce themselves to Killy, she might find them amusing.

Also, what's up with deep one Killy?

Also also, why do I find six armed barista Killy more attractive than her usual self? This one is probably not a question I actually want answered.

After bouncing off of her personality fragments for a few panels, Killy manages - due to being reminded by the things they try to misrepresent in a negative light - to recall the same things that I pointed out. She had the courage, and the competence, to infiltrate Mottom's palace ship. She's used the Key voluntarily, multiple times without needing someone else to walk her through it. In other words, aside from a handful of practical skills, Incubus didn't actually give her anything fundamental. Like he himself said, Succubus was cultured from Killy's own personality before being sculpted into an Incubus-minime. The courage and confidence were already there, even if most of the swordsmanship and spellcasting experience wasn't.

So, Killy absorbs her self-doubts and other minor facets, turning herself into a giant multicolored version of herself that prepares to confront Succubus in a kaiju battle of the mind.

They're also wearing complimentary styles of slutty superhero outfit. I remain amused by the question of whether Killy or Incubus is the source of all this thirst.​

lt's also interesting to me that it's Succubus, not Killy Prime, who's talking themself down at this point. Putting the lie to the assertion that she's the confident, self-loving one.

As the specter of Zoss watches from outside(?), Killy Prime and Succubus charge at each other. And then they do this:

...I'll leave it up to my readers to decide what this says about our heroine's sexuality. I just know that there's no way in hell that I can blame this one on Incubus.

So, she does the thing like Prince Kassardis did in the story and accepts the evil part of herself as part of herself instead of trying to hide from or make excuses for it. And also like Yis and Un supposedly did before creating the Multiplicity; the complementary Yin-Yang colors of the two are leaning on that pretty strongly.

I'm not sure what this means as far as Incubus' role in all this is concerned. Did she actually permanently absorb some traits of his, here? There was SOME actual aspect of him that went into the creation of Succubus, as evidenced by her look. So, rather than just putting herself back together more self-aware than she was before, has Killy also added some new ingredients to the mix?

Interesting question. If the answer is yes, then I hope that that doesn't include the knowledge and skills he let her borrow. The story has handed Killy enough power ups by now that I'd like to see her advance through honest-to-yisun practice and training for at least the next while.

Anyway, I'll talk more about Succubus, Killy, and how well this psychodrama arc ultimately works for me at the end of "Seeker of Thrones." For now, I'll just say that Crackhead Killy had more than enough screentime.

It turns out that, just as Killy was getting herself under control again, her body was in the process of tumbling down the final shaft. She lands in a river of water with a strangely metallic bed, and picks herself up to see one of the most bizarre and impressive bits of fantasy scenery in the comic thus far.

There are plants growing in here, somehow. Not to mention rivers running across the landscape of gold coins instead of just percolating down into them to make a gold aquifer. Maybe there's some finer treasure particles that act like dirt or dust, or that have even congealed into a cement to form treasure-conglomerate. Does the vault actually have its own hydrological cycle? Its own lithology? Or...aurology, perhaps?

This adds a new dimension to the Priests of the Count never leaving the structure. Even if they don't have food coming in from outside, there's enough space in here to practice full-on subsistence agriculture for a population of thousands using the plantlife that inexplicably exists.

The view of the night sky...hmm. Throne doesn't have stars in its sky, so that couldn't actually be what it looks like. It could just be an illusion, or it could be that Yre looks out over one or more worlds within Mammon's empire despite only being accessible from Throne. That would definitely fit the MO of Mammon the paranoid hoarder.

Well, regardless of how weird and wondrous the environment is, Killy doesn't have long to appreciate it before being distracted by immense pain and exhaustion.

Heh, what a prick. Incubus didn't actually let her borrow a healing spell, just a "cause wounds to close and pretend to be healed for the duration" spell. Either that, or he used the last few seconds of Succubus' existence to reach back in and actively undo the healing purely out of spite.

Well, okay. To be fair, there may have been more to this than just pettiness. If he can't control her, she's a threat to him, so setting up a kind of pseudo-deadman's switch like this might have been pragmatic rather than petulant. Not that it couldn't be both at once, of course.

She drags herself across the gold and jewel (and forested. somehow.) landscape trying to find a way back. Interestingly, she hasn't mentioned anything about Zaid in quite a while. Succubus seemed to have forgotten completely about Zaid and just decided to kill Mammon because he's the final boss of the dungeon she was in. Killy probably does still care about rescuing him, but she recognizes that saving Cio (if possible) is a much more pressing issue. She can always come back and try again for Zaid. If Cio bleeds out (assuming devil physiology works like that), then she's permanently down a...hmm. You know, I was about to say "friend," but at this point Cio might actually be Killy's best friend. They've had quite a bit of time together even ignoring the days that Killy spent under Incubus' influence, and in that time there's been a lot of bonding and mutual life-saving. If you asked Killy who her best friend at this point was, she'd probably have to think for quite a while before naming either Cio or her buddy from the sorority.

Also, Cio still needs to smash. Assuming she can forgive her for this and/or recognize that she wasn't herself at the time.

Anyway! She starts to search the vault, but soon hears some immense footsteps that literally shake the gilded gravel ground. A cloud of thick red smoke rises behind some nearby construction, and from the cloud emerges what can only be Mammon.

Okay, looks like I was wrong. Mammon is very much not dead.

Back to square one on me figuring out what the deal is with Yre's decoration scheme, I guess. Well, if Mammon is anywhere near as talkative as Mottom he'll be explaining it himself shortly.

Moving as fast as her punctured limbs can take her, Killy hides behind one of the columns, struggling to keep herself out of the titanic Black King's line of sight. There's something else emerging from the smoke on her other flank, though. Something smaller. She lunges toward it with her sword out, and just barely stops herself in time to avoid murdering a pair of children.

Well huh.

At first I thought that this was some other priestly order of Mammon's, a complementary organization to the Priests of the Count. But no! They might be wearing proper clothing, but these guys have the exact same facial markings as the priests Killy and her companions fought a few rooms ago. It's hard to tell through the thick cowls, but I think I see the chains of counter-thingies on some of them as well, marking them as part of the hierarchy. I guess the Treasury Mad Max look is just for when they're patrolling the defences and responding to threats; while in the inner sanctum, they have purpose made priestly attire. Which, again, makes more sense given that Mammon is in fact alive and maintaining the status quo instead of letting it devolve into a post-apocalyptic feral megadungeon world.

Also, the Priests of the Count have children. Which implies that they're a self-sustaining population, rather than an organization that recruits novices. They're not actually "priests" of the count so much as the tribe of the count. Yre isn't just their base; it's their homeland. Mammon's treasure hoard has a small kingdom inside of itself that it uses for maintenance and defence.

Killy manages to avoid slicing those six year olds in two, but she still causes quite a commotion. The procession of robed Counters stops moving as everyone reacts to the armed intruder (shouldn't there have already been an alarm or something after the last line was breached?). It isn't long before the bossman notices that things are getting held up.

Mammon's size seems to change a lot from panel to panel, but that's a hard thing for any artist to keep consistent so I won't harp on it. Anyway, he's about as intimidating as one would expect. According to his boss card, Mammon's power word is "Tower." Makes sense on at least a couple of levels. He's physically towering. He has himself locked in a fortified tower, and essentially rules his empire remotely from it. Interestingly, the Tarot card "the Tower" is associated with calamities and unexpected losses. That might not be related, but it also might be.


Anyway, Killy's just met her third Black King. And, despite me only having gone over a few pages of comic, I've somehow racked up over three thousand words. So, I guess I'll end this post on a dramatic cliffhanger!