Does Mammon really think that he’ll be safe there when Jagganoth comes for him? He couldn’t prevent Mottom from ramming a flying disc of a city into it, how is he gonna stop Jagganoth?
I also thought he wasn’t too big on living anyways, he offered his belly the first time. Guess he found a desire to live again in his battle with Mammon.
Does Yre even exist now? Mottom totalled it, most of the priesthood died in the wreck, the townsfolk nicked the gold and Mammon murdered the architect who designed the hyperspatial bit. It’s gone.
He’s terrified. He just wants to go back to where he was comfortable and things made sense to him, he doesn’t care that that place doesn’t exist anymore.
Justinian, in despair, considered fleeing, but his wife Theodora is said to have dissuaded him, saying, “Those who have worn the crown should never survive its loss. Never will I see the day when I am not saluted as empress…Royalty is a fine burial shroud.”
–The Nika revolt
I’m thinking a Durga gambit will evolve, each of the demiurges will gift some aspect of themselves to Alison and she will fight the Buffalo demon, er, Jag’s, it will be glorious.
Salami Dave inspiring those two to stop their slap stick nonsense and get serious would be a greater leadership accomplishment then running an empire that stretches across thousands of worlds.
Of course it won’t be enough because it’s got to take Allison’s help somewhere along the line, but in the mean time it will surely warm the cockles of our heart’s.
So long as it’s big, loud and majestic I can let it slide. A failed tag-team attack is better than none at all, and something tells me the other four (except maybe Jadis) aren’t the type to bother with that sort of thing.
Isn’t the Tower generally a sign of calamity, catastrophe, destruction, and death? Unless we’re talking about the Tower that is the Wheel seen edge-on, in which case it’s everything and the refutation of everything.
Yes, yes. This is exactly when Galvatron faced his demons and futilely took on Unicron by himself, thereby rallying the Decepticons who’d been fleeing up to that point, and by extension spurring on the Autobots who’d lost hope.
*nods sagely*
Yes, of course. That is the obvious inspiration.
I realise it’d have been more impressive if I hadn’t been thinking of Scorponok instead of Galvatron and just wrote in the wrong name. But to be fair, Galvatron actually was the first one to defy Unicron. I was the best kind of correct.
Eventually it ends in worm marriage for everyone, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s like they say, the worms go in, the worms go out, the worms play pinochle on yer snout. What’s the use, then? What’s the use? I dunno…barkeep, more beer over here. The worms are makin’ me all philosophical like.
As a skeleton I cannot dispute this fact. But as a lover of love, I feel compelled to say that in my experience, worms have very little romance in their souls.
Unsurprisingly, the one who spent millennia holed up in an ‘impenetrable’ fortress would be the first to flee. But I suppose it is not fair to look too harshly upon him, it is a wonder that the senile serpent has managed to remember where he is up to this point.
Of course this could simply be his last dregs of wisdom trying to save his hide, while the queen of prunes entertains false bravado in denial of a futile situation. Certainly appears that it will take more than a pep talk to turn the tide of this battle.
Oh this is beautiful. Zoss, how many times did you give the wielder of names speech to the Demiurges and whatnot before you gave it to Allison? He’s such a wonderful secret dork.
Solomon: “Long we knew this day would come – and long have we prepared for it”.
Any moment now, aaany moment now we’ll see all that preparation come to fruition, and just what it is they’ve all prepared for the Pankrator, one is sure. They’ve just been lulling him into a false sense of security, that must be it.
Ilyria Hlaalu, Traveling Furniture Salesperson and Daedra Slayer
I know this’ll be a super unpopular opinion, but I’m getting kind of tired of the endless fight scene. I keep hoping that like, “okay, THIS will be the panel that Allison & Co escape & we can have a few pages of them reflecting on all this crap as a bit of a breather” and then it just… nope, it’s just another page of somebody powering up *even more* and punching *even more*
We also just finished an very long arc of fighting; I think the Tournament started in like, 2019 or something? So that’s over a full year where 90% of this has been crazy fight scenes. I miss the earlier volumes where we had exploration, tension, mystery, even a classic Dungeon Crawl.
You are in too much of a hurry, Preem Ilyria. The Worm has yet to make her move, and who knows what the bearer of the Sword That Is Not will do?
(We’re supposedly about half way through according to comments from our scribe. It will be glorious when binge-read in print, but things seem slower whe watching them unfold a page at a time online. Worry not.)
I have this horrible feeling that the entire story might end here, in the ruins on Rayuba. That would be a pity. I miss the scenery porn when the story was set on Throne.
We do seem to have shifted from character development in Allison’s group to character development amongst the demiurges, even while fighting. Crisis brings out truth, and that is our way: crisis and observation.
Honestly, I feel you on this fight scene. I wanted Allison to get her teleport off and then for the fight to move off-screen. This sort’ve arc really works better as a binge in a book than a page a week in a webcomic. Especially since this arc is making heavy use of page-turner style final panels. It’d be exhilarating if you were reading this in book format or as an archive binge, but reading it a page a week or so is much more exhausting.
Have to admire Solomon David here: for all his power he’s still vulnerable; unlike Jagganoth who risks literally nothing in taking on all the other Demiurges at the same time.
I wonder when Maya and 2 Michael are going to show up?
It would feel fitting if the demiurge fight becomes a stalemate then Allison leaves them to it and goes off to sort out Metatron and Micheal. And wins, and saves all creation, and comes back, and the demiurges are _still_ fighting.
Don’t forget that we saw that woman begging Allison to take her sovereignty away from her so she could live in peace and escape this fate. Interesting turn of spirit.
I love how they’re all in this together despite their conflicting views…
come on we must beat the shit out of jagganoth so we can go back to killing each other
Mottom’s initial attack – some kinda lightning thing – was pathetic, novice wizard stuff. And she’s capable of keeping an entire flying city afloat by her will alone! We ought to see some real fireworks now that she’s committing herself.
Mammon’s meteor attack was much better, though no more effective, than Mottom’s. I’m not sure we can expect anything much more magical from him, though I can picture some sort of physical self-sacrifice like divebombing Jagganoth.
Does anyone else notice that Jagganoth looks like an evil bunny rabbit there?
Also, way to go … Mottom!?! You’re right, old crone. We’re so focused on the deadly sin of each demiurge that we can miss the virtues that got each where he or she belongs.
IT’S ON
Awww, they’re gonna save him. And then they too may need to be saved, and eventually I guess it would be our team’s turn to do the saving?
That Agog bitch will save them all.
Let’s fuckin’
GOOOOOOOOOO!
To make Giants of worms.
Worms, you say? Grubs, perhaps? Gog-agog seizes all chances
cowardice saves no one, not even the coward!
Come now, screw your courage to the sticking point. Use glue if necessary.
Now, fellow peasants, let us witness True Royalty.
May our eyes be blissfully burned from our sockets as we behold the crown of stars!
If Mammon is the miserable worm, does that make Gog Agog the mirthful worm? The joyful worm? The batshit insane worm? 😆
she’s the miserable worms. plural.
or, perhaps, she is all of those worms and more
No. For this is the tragedy ‘Man’ and Gog Agog is the Conqueror Worm.
Ah, I See You’re a Man of Culture As Well
It seemed a very apt comparison. Not to mention that the Lady Ligeia also reconstitutes herself much like the Queen of Worms.
You are far too hard on our dear, sweet, homicidally insane friend. What would the people do without Gog Agog? Dance? Sing? Smile? Grow old?
They’re all miserable worms, all of them.
Yes. Gog Agog is all of the above. And below. It’s worms all the way down!
Wormoborus
The CONQUEROR Worm
I wonder how the Diamond will respond to the metaphysical equivalent of a hydraulic press. How will he be crushed?
Considering the pressures required to create diamond in the first place…. nothing?
Diamonds are used as anvils fo create extreme pressures in laboratory experiments, pressure alone isn’t going to crush it.
And yet if you strike a diamond with a hammer, it is easily shattered.
All good. Those are swords.
You misunderstand. The Diamond is the Hammer. Time to nail some swords.
Cmon Granddpa Dragon its do or die time.
Meat shield is tanking. Time for ranged support.
We’ve seen Mammons ranged support before…
But well, I’m pretty sure Solomon David has Improved Evasion.
We have a tank and a few dps, but who’s gonna be the healer?
Does Mammon really think that he’ll be safe there when Jagganoth comes for him? He couldn’t prevent Mottom from ramming a flying disc of a city into it, how is he gonna stop Jagganoth?
I also thought he wasn’t too big on living anyways, he offered his belly the first time. Guess he found a desire to live again in his battle with Mammon.
*Mother Om
I think he offered his belly knowing she couldn’t kill him.
Probably not. But it’s still his first fearful instinct.
Does Yre even exist now? Mottom totalled it, most of the priesthood died in the wreck, the townsfolk nicked the gold and Mammon murdered the architect who designed the hyperspatial bit. It’s gone.
He’s terrified. He just wants to go back to where he was comfortable and things made sense to him, he doesn’t care that that place doesn’t exist anymore.
Experience says he’ll choose King.
“rather be a living peasant than a dead king”
Justinian, in despair, considered fleeing, but his wife Theodora is said to have dissuaded him, saying, “Those who have worn the crown should never survive its loss. Never will I see the day when I am not saluted as empress…Royalty is a fine burial shroud.”
–The Nika revolt
Again, I believe that Alison will rise to lead these rabble.
I’m thinking a Durga gambit will evolve, each of the demiurges will gift some aspect of themselves to Alison and she will fight the Buffalo demon, er, Jag’s, it will be glorious.
Well now, it seems that Mottom did learn something from Al-YISUN after all.
Is she referring to Incubus?
“Video Unavailable”
In the url, before X is a capital i, not lower case L. y6EcIXaHoeU
You can also just right click and inspect element to get the alt-text in copying-friendly form. Makes life easier.
Salami Dave inspiring those two to stop their slap stick nonsense and get serious would be a greater leadership accomplishment then running an empire that stretches across thousands of worlds.
It appears he has done just that, who’d have thunk he had it in him after all these ages? It’s a self-realization on par with White Chain’s.
The video linked in the subtext is not available for general viewing, it seems
Works for me!
(it’s The Legend by Pallbearer)
The letter before X in the url is a capital i, “I”, not a lower-case l. I had the same problem.
PANEL 1
Frank: I’ve been watching you. Come closer.
What is a king to a God?
And what is a God to a Mage?
Is that character growth i’m sensing, Mottom?
Character regrowth perhaps. Returning to a semblance of the demiurge she used to be in rosier, bygone days. The raisin’s acting like a grape again.
*hearty chuckle*
I honestly did not expect Mottom to have it in her. Might be they’ll actually pull of something vaguely coordinated…
…and yet it still won’t be enough.
Of course it won’t be enough because it’s got to take Allison’s help somewhere along the line, but in the mean time it will surely warm the cockles of our heart’s.
You might say Jaggy hurt their pride a little.
GLORY and TOWER are about to show of what their names really mean
Are you suggesting that we’re about to see a Glorious Tower Tag-Team Attack? Because that is something I would very much like to see.
Glorious Tower Implosion, I suspect. These two are practically redshirts.
So long as it’s big, loud and majestic I can let it slide. A failed tag-team attack is better than none at all, and something tells me the other four (except maybe Jadis) aren’t the type to bother with that sort of thing.
I’m with you, get ready to rumble! may the best demiurge (hopefully my favorite) win!
Isn’t the Tower generally a sign of calamity, catastrophe, destruction, and death? Unless we’re talking about the Tower that is the Wheel seen edge-on, in which case it’s everything and the refutation of everything.
“Are you a King or are you a schnitzel”
Is Jag’s mask a red devil?
Gotta give it to Mottom: She’s pretty good at substituting spite for actual backbone.
*Choirs of angels singing “THIIIIIIIS!” appear*
Never underestimate the power of spite.
How much of this book is just an excuse to draw Solomon’s muscles 😀
Gorbles is observant
I love Mottom so much
and seeing a callback to Zoss’ speech to Allison brings me so much joy 😭
So she actually heard and remembers Zoss’ speech? Zoss was not just a ghost in Allison’s head?
She knew Zoss before the war. Possibly that’s a favored saying of his.
Yes, yes. This is exactly when Galvatron faced his demons and futilely took on Unicron by himself, thereby rallying the Decepticons who’d been fleeing up to that point, and by extension spurring on the Autobots who’d lost hope.
*nods sagely*
Yes, of course. That is the obvious inspiration.
Pleasant to fine one so well versed in the classics.
I realise it’d have been more impressive if I hadn’t been thinking of Scorponok instead of Galvatron and just wrote in the wrong name. But to be fair, Galvatron actually was the first one to defy Unicron. I was the best kind of correct.
I sincerely hope Book 5 ends with the marriage of Mottom and Mammon after they go from enemies to grudging allies to lovers.
Naw, I’m here for Mottom x Solomon
A very spicy choice right there. But I can respect it. I can respect anything that doesn’t involve Gog Agog.
Gog Agog actually marries everyone.
That there is the worst timeline, the timeline that involves worm marriage.
Eventually it ends in worm marriage for everyone, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s like they say, the worms go in, the worms go out, the worms play pinochle on yer snout. What’s the use, then? What’s the use? I dunno…barkeep, more beer over here. The worms are makin’ me all philosophical like.
As a skeleton I cannot dispute this fact. But as a lover of love, I feel compelled to say that in my experience, worms have very little romance in their souls.
If we’re being honest, basically all animal life is just highly derived worms.
It’s honest, but is it fun? For some, yes. For ol’ Jack? Absolutely NOT.
It says the video is unavailable. Can anyone send me another youtube link or tell the name of the video?
Pallbearer – The Legend
Look at you Nadia, unknowingly quoting Zoss!
Unsurprisingly, the one who spent millennia holed up in an ‘impenetrable’ fortress would be the first to flee. But I suppose it is not fair to look too harshly upon him, it is a wonder that the senile serpent has managed to remember where he is up to this point.
Of course this could simply be his last dregs of wisdom trying to save his hide, while the queen of prunes entertains false bravado in denial of a futile situation. Certainly appears that it will take more than a pep talk to turn the tide of this battle.
Solomon still being a role model . . .
Turns out the tyrant is useful when it comes to fighting other, more genocidal tyrants.
Who wants to live forever anyway?
mottom: DON’T BE A WEENIE
And this is why stepping up matters. even among people with cynicism that’s older than Christ. Now he only needs his second idiot.
And you people don’t want me admiring Solomon.
can anyone copy the youtube link here? how do I get it? xDD
Just go to Youtube and search for The Legend by Pallbearer. Epic doom metal song, from the album Sorrow & Extinction.
Oh this is beautiful. Zoss, how many times did you give the wielder of names speech to the Demiurges and whatnot before you gave it to Allison? He’s such a wonderful secret dork.
Inspiration.
What a force it is.
The sight of Salami Dave charging headlong against the Big Red Idiot fills you with determination.
Solomon: “Long we knew this day would come – and long have we prepared for it”.
Any moment now, aaany moment now we’ll see all that preparation come to fruition, and just what it is they’ve all prepared for the Pankrator, one is sure. They’ve just been lulling him into a false sense of security, that must be it.
I know this’ll be a super unpopular opinion, but I’m getting kind of tired of the endless fight scene. I keep hoping that like, “okay, THIS will be the panel that Allison & Co escape & we can have a few pages of them reflecting on all this crap as a bit of a breather” and then it just… nope, it’s just another page of somebody powering up *even more* and punching *even more*
We also just finished an very long arc of fighting; I think the Tournament started in like, 2019 or something? So that’s over a full year where 90% of this has been crazy fight scenes. I miss the earlier volumes where we had exploration, tension, mystery, even a classic Dungeon Crawl.
Just hoping for a break soon.
You are in too much of a hurry, Preem Ilyria. The Worm has yet to make her move, and who knows what the bearer of the Sword That Is Not will do?
(We’re supposedly about half way through according to comments from our scribe. It will be glorious when binge-read in print, but things seem slower whe watching them unfold a page at a time online. Worry not.)
I’m loving every page, but I also miss the world and mythos building. The obvious answer is that we need 7 more books!
I have this horrible feeling that the entire story might end here, in the ruins on Rayuba. That would be a pity. I miss the scenery porn when the story was set on Throne.
We do seem to have shifted from character development in Allison’s group to character development amongst the demiurges, even while fighting. Crisis brings out truth, and that is our way: crisis and observation.
Honestly, I feel you on this fight scene. I wanted Allison to get her teleport off and then for the fight to move off-screen. This sort’ve arc really works better as a binge in a book than a page a week in a webcomic. Especially since this arc is making heavy use of page-turner style final panels. It’d be exhilarating if you were reading this in book format or as an archive binge, but reading it a page a week or so is much more exhausting.
Well, when White Chain was fighting Solomon the days of waiting between pages were deliciously terrifying. My lips trembled in antici——pation!
Oh I totally agree about White Chain’s fight. That was epic and fantastic. But that also represented the climax of a long-running character arc.
These demiurge dinguses on the other hand are nowhere near as compelling as White Chain.
Woah are these petty tyrants figuring out that they need to work together? And before centuries of war has passed?
Did… did he just INSPIRE the other demiurges to courage and unity? By every God, he truly is a leader!
Have to admire Solomon David here: for all his power he’s still vulnerable; unlike Jagganoth who risks literally nothing in taking on all the other Demiurges at the same time.
I wonder when Maya and 2 Michael are going to show up?
I would love to see Himself show up, and maybe Metatron.
It would feel fitting if the demiurge fight becomes a stalemate then Allison leaves them to it and goes off to sort out Metatron and Micheal. And wins, and saves all creation, and comes back, and the demiurges are _still_ fighting.
Hilarious! I would pay to see that. After declaring herself the new Urge, she goes and kicks butt on the Demiurges.
Hell yeah Pallbearer!!!!!
AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I’M A PESANT !!!!
RUNNNNN AWAYYYYYYYYYY
“Will you fight? Or will you perish like a dog?”
There’s that courage!
That Agog bitch will save them all.
Jagganoth demonstrating why rabbits are the scariest animals.
King.
Don’t forget that we saw that woman begging Allison to take her sovereignty away from her so she could live in peace and escape this fate. Interesting turn of spirit.
I love how they’re all in this together despite their conflicting views…
come on we must beat the shit out of jagganoth so we can go back to killing each other
I wonder how many Perfect Defenses Salami Dave has left. He’s gotta be runnin’ low on motes and willpower.
I will be safe in that vault that’s just recently been breached by a bunch of bumbling fools! Nothing implies otherwise!
Come on, you overgrown lizard, show some spine!
MEGALOVANIA INTESIFIES
Why… why doesn’t King Salomon simply move infinitely faster than all the swords, as everyone knows he can?
Starting to wonder why big boy didn’t crush these fools a long time ago, cause so far they aren’t putting up much of a fight.
Mottom’s initial attack – some kinda lightning thing – was pathetic, novice wizard stuff. And she’s capable of keeping an entire flying city afloat by her will alone! We ought to see some real fireworks now that she’s committing herself.
Mammon’s meteor attack was much better, though no more effective, than Mottom’s. I’m not sure we can expect anything much more magical from him, though I can picture some sort of physical self-sacrifice like divebombing Jagganoth.
Lepid, leaping, lateness,
hatter, hating empress,
mycophile, Alice.
Jagganoth’s craving a bit of pressed salami. I get it.
“Come on you worm, do you want to live forever?”
“As a matter of fact…”
From the Upanishads
THIRTEENTH KHANDA.
1. ‘Memory (smara) is better than Ether.
Therefore where many are assembled together, if they have no memory,
they would hear no one, they would not perceive, they would not understand.
Through memory we know our sons, through memory our cattle.
Meditate on Memory.
2. ‘He who meditates on memory as Brahman, is, as it were,
lord and master as far as memory reaches;
–he who meditates on memory as Brahman.’
‘Sir, is there something better than memory?’
‘Yes, there is something better than memory.’
‘Sir, tell it me.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HAIL ABBADON !
Please consider throwing up a long playlist of these favorite tunes of yours to accompany reading of the KSBD Epic.
Cheers !
Death surrounds me, I must withdraw
It was inevitable.
I’ve been looking forward to seeing the Tower light the place up since book 3, and that aoe meteor slam earlier had me even more excited…
Does anyone else notice that Jagganoth looks like an evil bunny rabbit there?
Also, way to go … Mottom!?! You’re right, old crone. We’re so focused on the deadly sin of each demiurge that we can miss the virtues that got each where he or she belongs.