Kill Six Billion Demons IV: “King of Swords” (part two)

After that prologue introducing us to the arc villain and surprising us with the revelation that Zaid has a personality, we return to Throne. A dank, polluted slum in one of the lower wards. Ugly, save for the stubbornly beautiful shrine built around the head of a small god-corpse. A cloaked figure with conspicuously white hair hanging out of her hood stands before the altar.

We're informed via caption that one year has passed since the end of book three. Her hair is still white, even after all this time? I'm starting to think that she actually did permanently absorb a fragment of Incubus' personality in the process of neutralizing Succubus. Whether or not this is something to worry about, I'm not yet sure. It might make her more susceptible to future mindfuck attempts by Incubus, or it might make her more resistant.

I also really want to know if she went back to visit her family and/or friends in this intervening year. Once again, the ending of the previous book seemed to be strongly pointing to that, but there's no mention of it here. Disappointing.

Anyway, then she takes her overcloak off, and AYAYAYAAAAAAAA~ 💕💕💕💪💪💪

what was i talking about again?

Well. Um. Anyway. Apparently a year of practicing angel kung-fu helps you put on muscle. A lot. I like to think that Cio's cooking is also playing a role, but that's just me. As to how well she wears it, well, I'm pretty sure that's just Killy lucking out with biology. Damn, even the scars from her Mottom-punctures and Cio-scratches look good on her now.

Killy approaches the shrine, and then starts climbing up the face of the dead god. That tapir-headed priest who had been sitting half-asleep by the altar snaps awake and starts being vocally irritated at that stupid sexy buff human who dishonours the goddess by climbing her face every single damned morning. Killy tells tapirface that it's not like the goddess is using her face right now, so there's no reason not to climb it, and they don't take it very well.

Well, local cafe owner Oglad seems to feel differently. I'd sympathize with Tapirface, but them going straight to the racial slurs does make it a bit harder to take their side.

"Tunnel ape" is an odd slur for humans, though. Wouldn't "grass ape" or "bald ape" make more sense? Maybe most of the humans in this part of Throne live underground or something, hence the local pejorative? Not sure.

Oglad gets Killy her customary breakfast meat pie thingy, and convinces the racist muppet to calm down; Killy might be rude and inconsiderate, Oglad explains, but she's well worth having around and keeping happy with you. She saved Oglad from some gangsters that had been shaking the cafe down for protection money recently, which is why Killy gets free breakfast pies to this day as a quest reward.

Oh my god has Killy just been drifting around Throne doing random street level superhero shit this whole time? That's so stupid I love it.

Killy does some more stretches and excercises in the background while being approached by various locals about various things. Apparently, Tapirface needs to be more in touch with their community, because they seem to be the only one who doesn't already know Killy by name rather than just irritating parkour habits. I think they might be newer around here than she is, in which case they may have adopted that goddess face only after Killy classified it as gym equipment. And, fortunately for them, Killy actually might be looking to do them a favor despite their feelings regarding her species.

I guess when you're a well-liked superhuman with a perfect body and a divine artifact in your head that you can actually kinda use reliably-ish now, it's hard to really be offended by anything Friar Gonzo says to you. Especially when Gonzo reacts like that to seeing that yes, that white gem in your head really is what it looks like.

So, it turns out our tapiroid friend was a member of a criminal organization called the Golden Pearl before they took up the cloth and chose themself a goddess to be screechily protective of. You know, now that I think about it, the fact that half of the god corpses have literal buildings built onto or into them makes Gonzo's objection to her climbing one a lot less reasonable. Well, anyway, it seems like Killy was on a campaign against the Pearl before she got pointed to Tapirface, so that's just good luck for them.

Jump ahead to Killy, cloaked and cowled again, marching up to the gang's safehouse. A bouncer dude bars her entry, and she throws him on the floor and steps over him.

The insectoid behind the bar pulls out some knives and comes at her with them, but just gets thrown into the ceiling for his trouble. And, we see the first explicit fruit of Killy having been studying White Chain's martial arts techniques, as she uses one of her own favored moves to do the throwing.

Well, usually when White Chain does this she calls her attack as "empty palm crushes the wicked," but this might be a different variation on that. Maybe one specialized for use against fleshy opponents, rather than the stone and metal synths we've usually seen White Chain fight.

Thri-kreen bartender hits the ceiling hard enough to break part of it before thudding down to the floor halfway across the bar. Dang, pretty sure she just killed him there. Brutal, but also far from her first time at this point; Killy got her first inarguably sapient kill in book 2, I believe, when she portal-sliced one of the bounty hunters in half with a reflexive use of her Key. The assorted Golden Pearl membership are briefly stunned by the intruder's display of power, but then decide that this is apparently a battle to look forward to.

I'm not sure why they'd decide that, but those expressions are hard to read as anything other than it.

Do they really not see the Key in her head by this point?

Well, maybe they do, and also recognize her now as that rogue keybearer who Mottom and possibly Incubus and Mammon have bounties on. But in that case, it really seems like Killy should have been doing more to avoid attracting attention from the beginning. If they haven't ID'd her, then they should be assuming she's a sanctioned vatra, in which case winning this fight would probably be even worse for them than losing it. So yeah, I'm really not sure what's going through their heads at this point.

...also, I'm just going to assume that the idiots that were chasing Killy throughout books 1-3 were all wiped out in the Battle of Yre, or else Killy superheroing around Throne without hiding her face and Key is really dumb.

So, anyway, there's a big goofy 1970's Kung Fu movie fight that goes on for several pages. Most memorable moment is one bit where Killy appears to miscalculate and get her throat cut open, allowing the Pearlers to then crowd in around her and stab her in the eye...only for it to turn out she was feinting the whole time and using microportals to disintegrate the knife points millimeters from her body, just to lure them in closer for a follow-up sweeping attack to take a bunch of them down at once.

Extravagant, but stylish.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting, and Killy actually did screw up for a second there when she let that red devil under her defences and got her throat cut. In which case she must have healed herself super quickly and then done the Key trick to block the follow-up eye stab. I hope not. Or at least, I hope that if that's what she did, it took a lot out of her. Killy having an at-will self healing spell would be too big a change too quickly in terms of tension and stakes in most battles.

Once she's beaten most of the mooks, one of them runs into the back room to alert the boss abou...PIMPDEMON???

Man, this guy just has the worst luck when it comes to run-ins with Team Killy.

I probably would have figured it out earlier if I'd remembered his character design better. I'd have realized that most of the mooks were of his species (goblin, I think?), and thus made the connection. I kinda forgot what he looked like until I actually saw him in his distinctive outfit again, though. Anyway, I really wasn't expecting to see this dumb shmuck again after volume one, so that's kinda funny.

And yeah, he remembers her too.

Also, a combination of this new close-up shot and the artist having gotten much better since last volume he drew Omun Vash in makes it clear that goblins (or whatever thet are) aren't nearly as humanlike as they look at first glance. Those facial orifices seem to be one huge nostril that tapers off into gill slits at the corners. No eyes? There have been a couple of times so far that Vash commented on someone's smell, specifically, and if the entire upper half of his face is apparently a giant nose, well...maybe they perceive the world mostly by scent? It would certainly make sense.

Unsurprisingly, Vash refuses to be arrested. Killy is expecting him to sic that fallen angel he had last time on her (naturally, White Chain wouldn't have told Killy what happened to that one. She's sworn to secrecy about that whole episode, after all), but of course he has a replacement by now. It's not quite angel-tier, but still pretty imposing. An absolute beast of a red devil, even taller and heavier than Princess. He knocks Killy out of the room first thing after the duel begins. When she recovers and manages to hit him back, he is revealed to have astonishingly tough natural armor. And also a much better attitude than his choice of employers would otherwise suggest.

I kinda like this guy, ngl.

Killy doesn't show the same grace and politeness that her opponent does, insulting and snarking at him as she darts around trying to find an opening. Bad form, Killy. Very bad form. He doesn't sink to her level. Also, he can kick really hard.

l don't know if "Kill Boss" is actually his (partial) name or not, but for now I'm going to assume that it is.

Additionally, the bottom text informs us that few devils have the patience to learn proper martial arts, but that those few are very formidable indeed. I suspect it means that few lower colored devils have the patience for this, because greens at least have been described as very patient and meditative by nature (with Charon mostly living up to that description), and that seems perfect for martial arts training. I'm guessing that the devils who most people see doing fighty stuff are reds, and they're also the most poorly suited for this type of study, so hence the "devils don't often use martial arts" belief. Like most bottom texts, this one is from an in-universe source, and thus potentially biased or misinformed.

Still, even if its just red devils who don't learn martial arts very often, Killboss is implied to be an exception to that. Which is another thing that makes him cool.

Killboss continues to dominate the fight, swatting Killy down whenever she tries to counterattack and eventually knocking her clear out of the building. Unfortunately for her, Vash specifically told Killboss to kill her, so he's not going to just let her run from here. Unfortunately for him, an angel divebombs him off the roof while scolding its student for her poor performance.

Oh my god it actually is a 70's Kung Fu movie this is so dumb I can't not like it.

Kissboss gets back up, and White Chain gives Killy a running commentary and critique during the next stage of the battle. You'd think Killboss would retreat at this point, seeing that he's been reduced to a training dummy and has no hope of doing as his master instructed while the angel is here, but no. He's either too proud and enraged to back down, or he just can't bring himself to turn down a challenge like this.

Needless to say, Killboss gets thrown back the way he came (people have been smashed through this wall so many times I'm surprised the building hasn't come down already), and Killy and White Chain close in on Vash. Vash makes the foolish choice to denigrate his minion and vocally wish that he'd managed to hold onto that fallen angel instead.

Killboss continues to be a surprisingly reasonable and emotionally healthy individual. Again, choice of employers aside. And he might even be learning his lesson on that last front.

I hope that's not the last we see of Killboss. Him joining the team at some future date would be far from the worst decision this comic has ever made. If not, well, I'll at least have enjoyed him as a one scene wonder.

So, it took long enough, but the first baddie we ever met in Throne has finally been laid low. I would have totally forgot about him otherwise, but, well, still an accomplishment I suppose. I wonder if they're going to go after Jabba the Sphinx next? He's basically just a higher Challenge Rating version of the same thing, so it would be a logical progression. Anyway, we jump ahead to White Chain, Killy, and a bound and gagged Omun Vash riding the giant robot bus through a region of Throne dominated by tall, isolated spires. According to the captions this is Throne's airfield district, with those towers being essentially vertical wharfs to dock airships at. The Concordant Knights also have a major precinct here, and it's the most convenient one to drop the perp they arrested at.

As they ride, Killy tries to get White Chain to be happy about nabbing that annoying crime lord who he's been a pain in her ass for at least the last year. White Chain isn't having it though. After a year of intensive Empty Palms training, she's still relying on the Masterkey to do the fighting for her in a much greater sense than just "fortify my body enough to not tear it apart doing stunts meant for angels in robot supersoldier bodies." And also putting herself in situations where she needs the Masterkey to do the fighting for her, for that matter; White Chain did not authorize that raid on the Golden Pearl, and she would never have sent Killy to do it alone at her current level of ability. Killy was just lucky that White Chain was able to arrive in time to bail her out against Killboss.

Hmm. On one hand, White Chain is entirely right about the second part. On the other, maybe using the Masterkey to fill in the blanks of her Empty Palms training is actually the best approach? If she's able to use it that consistently, at least for small-scale things, and doing so is easier for her and works just as well as casting muscle wizard fist spells in those situations, well...just letting her hybridize her power sets might produce the most effective results? In the grand scheme of things, it seems more like the fist magic should just be there to patch over the missing spots in Killy's demiurge magic rather than the reverse.

Although, White Chain also raises the point that even if she can use her Key's low level functions pretty reliably at this point, she still doesn't understand it very well, so depending on it at all might be unwise. And, unfortunately, the only people who can actually teach her how to use it better are either in the enemy camp, or cryptic old riddle-speakers who only show up for three panels per volume. So yeah, White Chain makes a good argument overall.

She reminds Killy of the mantra that we heard her repeating to herself but not really living up to all that well during the fight. "Wisdom, restraint, emptiness." To master an angelic martial art like the Empty Palms, you have to be able to think like an angel. Detatch yourself from earthly concerns and desires, and let it be the mission alone that motivates you, the knowledge of good and evil that guides you, and your duty that animates you. Killy is, even for a human, hasty and reckless. No wonder her Empty Palms weren't doing shit to Killboss, with that kind of attitude behind them.

Well, that's White Chain's opinion anyway. After all we've seen up to this point, I'm really not convinced that what she describes as "thinking like an angel" has much at all to do with how angels actually think. Maybe it's easier for angels to get INTO the mindset that Empty Palms requires, on account of them not being distracted by needing food and air all the time, but it's definitely not inherent. And...also? If Killy's way of doing things clashes so hard with the Empty Palms method, why did she even try to teach her this? Why not find someone else to teach her something more flexible and intuitive, even if it's slightly less powerful?

Basically, I'm not sure at this point why White Chain thought this was the best use of a year.

Still. Killy at least manages to get a little bit of praise out of White Chain for doing as well as she did. If Vash's bodyguard had happened to be any weaker than Killboss, she'd have solo'd that mission handily.

Hah. I don't think that's just White Chain's first smile in front of Killy. I think it might be her first smile of the entire comic. I'd have to look back through her chapters in volume 2 to be sure, but I think so.

As they complete their bus ride, White Chain rejects Killy's assessment that she's changed since they first met, because angels are fundamentally incapable of change - they are eternal, implacable, no matter what reactions different scenarios may evoke from them. It's just how they are, like water flowing downhill and stars burning hydrogen. Oh my god White Chain is there actually a single person in Throne who seriously believes this? Killy has done some extremely stupid shit, but even so you're just insulting her intelligence right now. And yeah, she doesn't buy this at all. Frankly, neither does White Chain. Or Michael. Or literally any other being who has ever met an angel.


This is probably a decent stopping point, considering the word count. In retrospect, I probably paid way too much attention to the fight scene, because it ended up not giving me much to talk about besides just action summary.

Next time...things get a little more interesting.