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

Dang, it's been a while. We're long overdue for a main project installment, especially one that ended on a bit of a cliffhanger last time. So, where we left off, Killy and White Chain were having friction, Gog-Agog hasn't literally gotten under Killy's skin but she has done so metaphorically, and Solomon David - after suspected his event was being fucked with - just flipped the table on everyone by replacing the traditional elimination matches with a battle royale.

All non-combatants have been removed from the pit, and Solomon has reshaped the terrain to turn the pit into an array of hills and canyons for everyone to fight on. This would normally work in the favor of someone like Killy, letting her opportunistically strike and hide herself to recover in between bits of action. Unfortunately, a large number of the Key-chasing idiots who have been harrying her since book one also signed up for the tournament, and a good number of them are still in the game. So, naturally, the instant that the free for all begins, they all get back to their old business from a year ago.

Because apparently they think they can nab the Key from right in front of Solomon David. Well. Like I said. Idiots.

After a succession of near-misses that include being literally picked up and thrown across the landscape by Time Baby, Killy happens to fight her way to within sight of White Chain. The angel is doing much better than her, needless to say, but in this case that has at least as much to do with White Chain not having a whole bunch of competitors ganging up on/fighting over her for metagame reasons as it does with skill. Killy tries to hail her and team up to survive this chaos, but unfortunately her recent attempt at reconciliation just wasn't enough for White Chain.

I wish we knew what this new plan of Killy's was supposed to be. Normally when the author doesn't let the reader know what the good guys' plan is, it means that the plan is going to work perfectly so they feel like they need to use some cheap meta-knowledge tricks to conserve the tension. With things going off the rails this majorly though, I'm not sure what the point of not telling us could have been.

...

By the way? If any aspiring writers are reading this, please don't do that shit. All it does is alienate the reader from the protagonist, and it's also really noticeable and cheap-feeling. If you feel like you need to raise the tension, it's better to let the reader know what the plan is, but then have a complication arise that the characters need to improvise or adjust things to deal with.

As for this sequence of K6BD, it's either just doing the worst of both worlds, or trying to do some kind of weird meta-meta-text trick by looking like it's going to do the thing but then not doing the thing. without ever telling you what the thing was going to be. In either case, I'm not thrilled with it.

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Things get even whackier when some of the geometric tiles Solomon just rearranged the floor into start collapsing into a bottomless pit that the arena is apparently sitting on.

Notably, they collapse with a flash of purple light and smoke. Purple being Solomon David's color motif. Which...I guess it's possible that he just set the revamped arena up to do this periodically at random, but it really seems like he's doing this actively. There's a visual emphasis on him being meaningfully pokerfaced as Gog Agog sits in front of him in the VIP box and babbles her surprised reactions to this.

Even if he's not choosing which panels to drop when, nobody in the arena or the audience has any way of knowing that. Or even reason to think that.

In other words, as far as anyone (including the reader) can tell, Solomon is just deciding who he does and doesn't want to face him in combat and possibly become his successor. Which, okay, sure, it's not like I thought he wasn't rigging these tournaments to favor whatever outcome he thinks works best for propaganda purposes. But...this doesn't even make a show of plausible deniability. He can't expect anyone to actually believe that he isn't choosing which contestants to drop into the abyss.

And in that case, why even bother having the tournament? Or at least, why bother pretending the tournament is for finding a successor? Why not admit that it's just a big tournament that you can win bragging rights and/or money in, and that the Emperor likes to hold these periodically because he's a fighty guy who likes tournaments?

...

I suspect the answer to these questions is that Solomon's subjects aren't actually the intended audience of this theatre. Solomon himself is.

He knows how far his own willing suspension of disbelief can go, and he isn't concerned about anyone else's. He doesn't believe that he really is the wise, benevolent, longsuffering, forever-disappointed warrior philosopher king. He just likes to see himself as that. So, he creates that image of himself. For himself to look at. Using everything and everyone else in the multiverse as props.

He knows that no one else believes it, and that they only pretend to believe it out of fear. As long as their acting is good enough for him to find satisfying as a director and convincing as an audience, they've done their job.

And, I think that's the main theme of this volume. Gog-Agog asking Killy if she wants to see herself being "the hero" of a classic Campbellian narrative, and then goading her further into it by strategically showing her things on the TV. White Chain bouncing off the obvious contradiction between how angels are "known" to be, and how she knows they really are. Belief in belief. Superposition of narratives over reality. The "Grand Enemy Called I" is twofold; 1) the narrative role you cast "yourself" in in defiance of your eyes and ears, and 2) the part of you that does that casting, like a Gnostic archon placing illusions to hide the truth from your own senses.

Heh, that's actually a better reason for the bad guys of this story to be called "demiurge" than any other I can think of. It only works metatextually, but still, it's something.

Back in the first chapter of this volume, Solomon said that he considers himself to have come closer to true Royalty than anyone else since Zoss. He's almost correct in that. "Let there be no Genesis, for beginnings are false and I am a consummate liar." Solomon is trying to do this. His problem is that he's a shit liar who has to constantly scramble to prop up his story.

...

While this is going on...okay, I think this is part of Killy's plan, so at least we are getting to see it, but if so I don't get how the parts of this were meant to fit together. Up in the audience seating, Nyave pretends to be sick and delirious, and uses that to lure a guard into a dark corner where Princess is waiting.

And then...okay, I feel like this is tonally a little bit off of the rest of this story arc, but sure, why not.

lt works. Somehow. They trick the other guard into helping them drag the unconscious guard (who he doesn't recognize as his coworker. Somehow. I get that this is a gigantic arena and probably has a gigantic security/maintenance crew, but you'd think the people assigned to the same specific areas of it would know each other, right?) to the arena complex's holding cells. The high security ones, because apparently drunk and disorderly calls for supermax.

As the guard leads them to their destination, Nyave silently hopes that Killy's plan can work, because their own part is underway. Alright, I guess this was part of the original plan after all; my guess is that Nyave and Princess are going to release all the prisoners or something like that to create a big distraction.

Also, the guard who isn't knocked out may suspect them and be playing along to lead them into an ambush (seriously, he should recognize his teammates, right?), but if so we won't know that until he springs it. Best of luck, Nyave and Princess!

Meanwhile, down in the battle royale, Killy is still struggling for her life against the idiots. Seriously, how many of these guys are even left at this point? True, some of the people she's fighting against are probably just unrelated tournament contestants, but quite a few of them are recognizable from the idiot army. Killy gets buffeted around, cursing this bullshit, cursing Solomon watching all smugly from his VIP box, murmuring about how sick she is of people thinking she hasn't earned anything she has or doesn't belong where she is and so on and so forth. Erm...that's some gamma-ray frequency projection, Killy. The only one who hasn't been throwing Chosen One titles at you and speaking about your role in the prophecy or whatever is you.

But, she tells herself, she's been strengthened by what she's been through. She's got the scars to prove her grit. And, most importantly, she's been paying attention to her teacher. Oh good, are we finally going to try and be a little more cautious and considered like White Chain advises despite her limitations as a...oh. Oh no. Killy why no.

The "teacher" she referred to isn't White Chain. It also isn't Cio.

Seriously Killy just go back to Throne and knock on Incubus' door. At this point you might as well ask him for a uniform and an official rank/title.

That said, while she's using the demiurge powers Incubus taught her, the specific levitation trick that she just did looks an awful lot like Mottom's schtick. Pretty sure she levitated herself up on a flower-shaped construct similar to that one during the final confrontation at the end of book 2. I wonder if Killy is using what she's seen other demiurgi do as inspiration? Or it could just be a matter of her and Mottom happening to develop their powers in similar directions.

Well, anyway, she launches herself into the air riding a crystal lotus flower and surrounded by a nimbus of rainbow-colored light, screaming in a magically amplified voice directly at Solomon. I want to say this is also part of the plan, but...well, it's hard to tell with Killy.

Hmm. Plan or otherwise, she's definitely trying to goad him into...something.

Or maybe it's a reverse psychology thing? Being super obvious about trying to distract him/get his attention, so that he'll sit back and remain defensive for a critical juncture? Not sure. Either way, after she crashes back to the arena floor in a track of smoke and glowing fireballs, she seems to feel like she's done her part of the plan.

Was she waiting for a certain amount of time to pass? Some kind of hidden signal that Nyave and Princess got to her, somehow? More likely a time thing. Though in that case, why did Solomon changing things from elimination to battle royale jeopardize the plan? I guess it's just a matter of it being harder to last that long in the battle royale's conditions. Fair enough.

Up in the VIP box, Solomon sees Killy's little performance, and...okay no this is stupid.

Unless Solomon is on to their plan and playing along, this makes zero damned sense.

"A rogue demiurge is going to try and rescue Zaid, so take him away from my presence and throw him in the drunk tank?"

Really? Really?

How could they have possibly known that Solomon would send Zaid there, of all places, in response to Killy doing her thing? Why would he send him there, of all places? Wouldn't it make more sense to bring Zaid into Solomon's presence so he can guard him personally? Or, if Solomon doesn't want to put himself in the center of things for whatever reason, send Zaid as far away from the arena as possible? Put him on an airship to the far side of Rayuba, or (better yet) just plane shift him to another of Solomon's worlds?

How do they know Zaid is even here at the arena complex at all? What if Solomon decided to leave him in the palace to watch the tournament on Gog-Agog's technologically questionable TV network this evening?

Solomon's reaction to this is nonsensical, and it's nonsensical for Killy, Nyave, and Princess to have assumed he would react in exactly this nonsensical way. In fairness, this would explain why White Chain thinks this idea is stupid and wants no part in it, but like...in that case, White Chain is right? It IS stupid that this is working.

Again, unless Solomon is playing along. In which case its just Team Killy who are being stupid and Solomon isn't.

Well. Moving on, I guess.

In Killy's mind, she actually is putting White Chain's teachings into practice for this plan, and thus was likely thinking of her as well as Incubus when she thought of "her teacher" before. Specifically, she's going through the mantra that White Chain has been making her repeat all the time. Wisdom: don't try to beat Solomon at his own game, force him to play Killy's. Restraint: now that she's hopefully goaded him into doing the stupid, improbable thing that I don't buy him having done, she just needs to defend herself, stay alive, and conserve her strength. Emptiness: have faith in Nyave and Princess to do their part now, and put Zaid out of her mind until the next phase begins.

However, there's also a factor she failed to consider.

To be fair to Killy, this wouldn't have been as much of a problem if Solomon hadn't surprised her with the battle royale thing. So, unforeseen complication in the plan. Which, like I said, would have hit a lot harder if we knew the damned plan to begin with. Totally regardless of the plan itself being dumb.

...

This is not the best chapter of K6BD.

...

As she's being surrounded by Gun Witch, Encyclopedia Kickassica, and who even knows how many other new and recurring nuisances, bracing herself for a fight she's not sure she has the stamina for, Killy feels a sudden burning against her chest.

I'm trying to remember if Cio gave that to her before their blow-up back in Throne, or if Killy has just been carrying this in her shirt pocket for the last year and change. Whichever the case may be, when she wraps her fingers around the burning card a high pitched scream sounds over the arena. A moment later, the shriek forms itself into a pronoun, and its source comes shooting down in a ballistic arc from one of the audience entrances down into the arena pit.

Killy's smile in this panel is just so, so kawaii.​

I very much doubt that the tournament rules allow for this. On the other hand though, I'm not sure if Killy is actually fighting to win at this point, and if she's just trying to distract Solomon and his guards as much as possible while Nyave and Princess do the thing then sure, this will help with that.

...wait a minute though.

If Killy isn't fighting to win at this point, then why is she fighting at all?

Just in case Nyave and Princess fail, so she can try to actually win the tournament and challenge Solomon as a backup plan? Seems weird, considering that this whole scheme was preceded by Killy realizing that there's no way she can win the tournament.

The more I think about this sequence, the more parts of it just don't add up.

Killy is surprised at how quickly Cio was able to get here; she doesn't have a fast travel ability of that caliber. The only way she could have showed up so fast is if she was already nearby. Cio admits it; she followed them to Rayuba after taking just a little time off to sulk. She knew it would be bad for her, she didn't want to do it, but Killy is just too thick for Cio to let out of her sight and too thicc for Cio to stop looking at. As they fend off randos with spell and sinew (okay seriously Cio has got to have security inbound if she's ganking contestants without being one), the two apologize to each other, promise to communicate better, accuse each other of mostly-true faults, and try to come to terms with what their relationship actually is. While continuing to fend off randos.

What it basically comes down to is that Killy needs to understand other people's needs and limitations, and Cio needs to decide whether the two of them are actually in a committed relationship and beholden to one another. I still think Killy was much more in the wrong than Cio, but from the way the dialogue goes I think that she realizes that now too. They both apologize, but Killy apologizes more, and appears to understand why she needs to do so. So, that's good.

Also, they talk some shit about White Chain that I feel is...only partly deserved.

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Also also, I just noticed that the falling arena sections are causing the battlefield to get smaller and smaller, forcing the remaining competitors to stay close and keep fighting. Fucking lol it's literally Fortnite.

...

Anyway, Killy needs to recover her strength, and Cio needs a way to not get kicked out of the Arena. Erm...I think it's a little too late for the second one. She already just parachuted in and scored some KO's without so much as trying to register. Cio says that there might be a way of saving this situation, but it's risky. Risky, and difficult.

And also intimate. In her own words, "devils don't do this for just anyone." Oh? What are we getting at, now?

The answer should have been obvious to me, heh. There must have been a reason the devils were built around human-sized masks that fit human-sized faces, after all. In fact, this might have been the original way of conjuring/communicating with devils, before the demiurgi had the idea of sticking those masks onto inert organic matter to make artificial bodies.

So, this is K6BD's take on diabolical possession. You put a devil on and act as its body for as long as you're wearing it. Presumably, this can be totally parasitic (we saw devils herding faceless once-human chattel around in the Heretic's Court; presumably those people are being functionally zombified to be perfect, compliant hosts), or just dangerously unstable (the "we don't do this for just anyone" line indicates that there could be dangerous consequences if the devil and human aren't in harmony), but ideally it's a mutualistic relationship where devil and demiurge feed on each other's soul-flame and synthesize their skills and spellcasting ability.

It...looks a lot more Steven Universe than I was expecting it to.

The fusion entity is named, via boss card, as "Allicio." I'd have gone with Coca-Killy, personally, but I'm not the author. Presumably, their main advantage will be using the Masterkey to amp up the power of Cio's very diverse (but not normally all that hard-hitting) spells, while stacking Killy's magic kung fu toughness with Cio's devilish hide to cover their defence. It looks like they're wearing Cio's "coat of arms," which probably means they can use all eight fists for punching, so Allicio is no slouch in close quarters either.

I don't know if this actually helps at all if Killy is still trying to win, though. Even if they can somehow get Solomon to ignore the couple of people who Cio illegally attacked before fusing, and even if they can get him to accept that Cio is acting as a piece of equipment that Killy is using rather than an extra combatant...I really, really doubt the rules allow you to grab an extra weapon from outside the arena once the battle has started. BUT, once again, I don't think Killy actually is hoping to win at this point. If she's just trying to be a distraction, then becoming Allicio should allow her to keep being a distraction for much longer once Solomon tries to do something about her.

Well, let's hope Killy and Cio's relationship issues don't resurface mid-battle, because that's likely to make Coca-Killy unstable and potentially dangerous for both constituents. Also...if Killy and Cio are fused in mind as well as body, does that mean that they now know everything the other knows? Does Killy now have access to Cio's memories as Yabalchoath? Does Cio now know about Killy's dream sessions with Incubus, and whatever other secrets she might be keeping? Unclear. For dealing with the immediate situation though, they're in pretty good shape.

Seems like a good stopping point for this post.

It's definitely one of the weaker parts of the story, as far as plot goes. I also feel like I'm losing my sense of who Killy is as a character, when she's so constantly either getting the rug pulled from under her, being led by the nose, or sharing her body with one possessing entity or another. I really hope that the tournament arc is followed by something lower key that gives Killy a chance to calm the fuck down for a bit and let both herself and the audience get to know her again.

I like what I think it's getting at with its themes, at least. This section also cinches it; sometime in the next week or so, I'm going to do a special post analyzing a certain thread that K6BD and several other things I've reviewed recently have in common.