BREAKER OF INFINITIES 2-47
“They said: “O Dhu’l-Qarneyn! the Gog and Magog do great mischief on earth: shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou might erect a barrier between us and them?”
He said: “(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than tribute): help me therefore with strength (and labour): I will erect a strong barrier between you and them:
“Bring me blocks of iron.” At length, when he had filled up the space between the two steep mountain sides, he said, “Blow (with your bellows)” then, when he had made it (red) as fire, he said: “Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten lead.”
Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it.
He said: “This is a mercy from my Lord: but when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will make it into dust; and the promise of my Lord is true.”
On that day We shall leave them to surge like waves on one another: the trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect them all together.
And We shall present Hell that day for Unbelievers to see, all spread out[…]”
– Quran 18:94-101
Dave boutta go full Salami
Never go full Salami.
Demon-
Strate.
No no no, you never go full salami. Forrest Gump, part bacon, part salami. Rain man, equal parts bacın and sausage and salami but no full salami. You never go full salami
Jag already went full salami.
Jagganoth has no salami, or have you not noticed?
BLASPHEMY! Red god has colossal salami!
Warning. Red Salami may contain high levels of sulfites. Please be aware that exposure to Red Salami may cause extreme allergic reaction. If affected please remove the source, sit down, and try to breathe calmly.
My wife loves when I go full salami.
It almost looks like Jagganoth’s salami is hidden under some sort of built-in jock strap.
He… really made sure he had NO weakspots, didn’t he? My goodness.
The Jaggahog is not real. Whilst the Salami David is clearly real, for he has a large line of descendants, now all deceased, and see how in their presence they were to David a weakness.
And Jagganoth has cut all weakness from himself.
Worm time
Oh, worm?
I don’t know if even Eidolon could beat him, though I suppose it depends on how matter annihilation works. Contessa could talk him out of the fight, but that’s cheating.
The real question is, can Gog-Agog take Skitter?
Depends, is it lunch time?
Skitter would probably do the pragmatic thing and become Gog-Agog.
Wrong question.
Can the Queen Administrator take (over) Gog-Agog? And if she can – will her control extend over the whole network?
It would be great, but I doubt it. Gog-Agog may not exist as some interconnected network that would let Taylor reach any of the worms outside her own range, or if she does I doubt it could be simple enough to fall under Taylor’s control. I figure she’ds end up stuck in the middle of a ball of worms with a 400 meter radius or whatever her range was, surrounded and crushed by a ball of worms the size of a planet. And then find out if Gog-Agog can take over her body in the usual fashion when she’d still control the worm in her body. . .
Barely arc 6 light spoilers, but it’s pretty clear that Skitter’s powers work on anything she considers (well, considered at the start) a bug, even if they’re not biologically related. Gog Agog is pretty clearly worms, and powers inherently are chill with multidimensional shenanigans. I think Skitter just goes godlike.
Does Shard’s purely physical superscience really beat Demiurgs’ and Key of Kings’ metaphysical shenanigans? I somehow doubt it.
Do you remember how Yisun ate metal fruit (plum?)? Lesson was that for Royalty reality is just a matter of perspective. Besides, normal anthropods do not have will of multiversal conqueror backed by key to the universe, so IMHO normal Shard’s rules -aka it’s my function so it works no matter what- do not apply.
I don’t know which I like more – the beautiful panels above, or that the conversation here immediately pivoted to ‘can Skitter take Gog-Agog’.
[DESTINATION]
[AGREEMENT]
[MASTURBATORY]
[AGR– WAIT, WHAT??]
Just one worm. One worm in either ear hole. Or both! Then the big guy would finally stop the blathering spiel he learned from Victim Radio.
Watch out everybody, Gog-Agog is gonna go buck wild on this fool!
So this is what they mean by the Quran being untranslateable from Arabic…
The Jagahog was a lie :'(
I thought I saw a hint there in the shadows… but it was just some dust on my screen.
The seal is not yet broken. The full potency may yet spring forth!
There is no Jagahog, as Jagganoth is good, while the penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Wheel with a plague of men. The Red God is good, as he purifies the Wheel.
Annihilation beckons
Uh oh incubus is having a bad day
The weak swordsman clings to his instrument. It is better you have a sword, but death must lie under your fingernails, if need be. Learn death with your elbows, death with your knees, and death with your thumbs and fingertips. It is said death with the tongue is useful, but I find words too soft an instrument to smash a man’s skull.
Perhaps Incubus was a bad student after all.
Words may be soft to the flesh, but look and see how they cleave the heart.
As Intra said to his disciples,
There is no such thing as a sword.
Does anyone know how to curse a real sword?
“My glasses, my glasses… I can’t be seen without my glasses!”
Help me, Scoob!
Bro this is a different sword bro uts a different this is wakizashi bro this isnt saber different sword this will not give you anxiety just try it I swear bro just do a continuos cutting motion please bro this isn’t sabi this is waki not saber saber is more metal bro this is going to release your ghot from your mortal body there are different swords please
Doesn’t Mammon have a whole bunch of swords sticking out of him?
Which presumably have not been well-maintained. Not that Incubus doesn’t have some experience using rusty, beat-up old swords. But he might as well just use a hairpin.
The addiction inherent in FLAME is showing. That is a word that masters its bearers.
Jagganoth basically responding to Aspected Chaos with the “You got me there!” meme is very cute for some reason
Bold of the God Eater to assume she *isn’t* the true heir of this cyle.
Exactly what I was thinking. It’s quite hilarious to see them focus so much on a pronoun in the prophecy, and not remark upon all the other important signs; the 108 fools tracking and white and black flame who couldn’t be flanking her closer then they already are. I don’t think that would’ve made a difference, he is maybe the most trapped creature of them all, trapped in rebellion.
to me it seems more like the true heir is the one that ultimately continues this cycle, is it not? in which case absolutely nobody can say what would happen if someone who wasn’t the true heir happened to appear in his place. like completely turning this shit on its head and breaking the cycle, or something.
Now you have me doing semantics again. If you mean heir as in “continue the legacy of Zoss as he left it”, you might be right. However, I think Zoss explicitly seek a heir that think in ways other than power, as was apparent when Allison fell to Incubus ploy. It is Zoss that chooses his heir and so it’s on his intentions that the title of “true heir” rely; if he sees the cycle and wants to break it, then Allison would be the true heir if she succeeded.
It’s kind of funny really. Even the one most dedicated to breaking the cycle mistakes the crown for the king. All of them are so certain they know about the true future they never stop to notice how the present leads to a completely different direction already.
Especially since they’re all technically speaking UM, and we have no idea how pronouns work in that language. The word for “king” night easily be gender neutral as well. I have no idea if the specifics of language is something Abbadon thinks about when writing this story though. It might be just like the universal translators in star trek: a plot device introduced early on to explain away why all the aliens speak english so that we don’t have to think about it again.
A better twist would be all the heirs before were false heirs and this is the first true heir.
An astute observation nameless one.
Oh, maybe the Thorn Knights saved Allison from Zaid? Like Zoss has always wanted to give it to a malleable wishy-washy person who needs to grow as they go and rely on their friends but the allure of the key seduces some overconfident Jackass on their world to steal the power before the story truly begins…
Juggernaut doesn’t seem underhanded enough to do such a plot. He’s been portrayed as a honest, straight to the point murdermachine. He thinks he made a mistake, so I truly doubt he wanted to arrange Allison being chosen.
I believe, in the past, they were the Heirs merely because Zoss named them so and granted them the Key.
Allison was not named Heir. But that does not mean she cannot be his heir.
Remember that Jadis is the source of this prophecy. If she’s drawing conclusions based on knowledge of previous cycles (and is NOT, in fact, just plain omniscient), she has no indication that Zaid wouldn’t be chosen again. Since everyone’s used to believing that she just knows everything, they assume that the “he” in her prophecy is still correct and rationalize accordingly. Hence, “Allison can’t be the TRUE heir, otherwise Jadis would have told us!”.
It says a lot about her that the other demiurges place such faith in her words. They don’t really seem to give serious consideration that she could be wrong (or lying) even when the truth is staring them in the face.
Honestly I don’t think Jadis can lie anymore. Recalling how she got this way, she saw the shape of the wheel, and in so doing lost a great deal of her followers and power. Her knowledge of everything that is, was, will be, and shall never be is due to that event, so the only way she can be wrong is if someone breaks the wheel.
I think the difference between Allison and Zaid is that Zaid would learn to master the wheel, yet Allison would learn to break it. Given Zoss’ comment that he thought this time would be different when Allison on power was abandoning Cio in Yre, I don’t think the previous heirs were all that attached to their followers.
The shape of the universe is a wheel. This is both true and false. Who’s to say that breaking the wheel isn’t simply showing a different facet of existence?
I question whether or not Jadis has ever spoken the prophecy aloud, or if it’s merely been interpreted by her followers.
What puzzles me is that Jagganutter thinks that there’s a true Heir at all. According to his own sequence of events, there have been a near infinite number of true Heirs. Thus, the true Heir of a given cycle seems to be defined as whoever Zoss gives the key too. In this case, Allison.
Well… Zaid was the INTENDED heir. At least, he appears to be the one intended by Metatron and Metatron is likely the most knowledgeable of everything going on if Jag is correct… And Metatron has instructed the Thorn Knights to get the key from Allison and to Zaid. So it seems likely that something’s gone wrong as far as Metatron is concerned.
A lot of Jagg’s argument (such as it is ) breaks down if Zoss is in open rebellion against Metatron though.
You may remember one of the first things that happened in this story is that an agent of Metatron murdered Zoss.
And was punished under the supervision of Metatron for doing so.
F.M., my guess is that 6 Juggernaut Star was disciplined by Metatron [ King of Swords 8-75 ] not for killing Zoss, but for attempting to kill Allison outright way back at Mottom’s flying palace. That attempt flew right in the face of the orders given to White Chain to protect Allison and the key she carries.
Juggernaught Star doesn’t necessarily know that Zoss’s reset is the intended result of Metatron– or maybe Zoss is trying to avoid whatever occurs if Metatrons plan succeeds past the point he always resets at.
And anyway it’s not like being Beheaded mattered. He’s Royalty. Times a suggestion for Zoss.
That may “always” happen in every loop. And if it doesn’t, then Jagganutter’s spiel here makes even less sense.
Zoss might be in open rebellion against Metatron but maybe there’s little he can do about it. If you look at what little he’s said to Allison he’s indicated that he found the world turns ever towards ruin and in trying to stop it he created a prison. He also noted that he thought this “cycle” might be different but changed his mind when he thought Allison sought the throne.
One more thing to note is that the first time Allison meets Zoss after he’s given her the key, he seems somewhat disoriented and vague. It’s possible that Zoss is not of his full wits when he passes on the key or is in possession of it but steadily gains them back.
The previous Heirs were chosen and named by Zoss.
Allison chose her own path, and names herself as she wills. By Zoss’ own words, that is the only way to be a true Ruler.
“A true ruler is the Wielder Of Names. By Names she cuts the world as she pleases and she cuts herself into greater forms still. She is not shaped by the world, but instead becomes the Shaper. There’s work to be done. What shape will you choose, hm? Will you choose to be a king? Or Will you choose to remain as you are? Peasant!”
What does it mean to be the true heir? It seems to merely be the one who would heroically vanquish the demiurges and take the throne when Metatron offers, achieving nothing but a new game plus.
Allison is GREATER for not being the true heir.
the master of the wheel cannot break it
I see the outline of the J______G
This quizzical bystander is most insightful!
Check out the circle of failed heirs. They’re all the same person in different iterations; the same young brown guy with dark eyes and dark brown hair, who looks like a younger version of Zoss. They’re all Zaid. When Jagganoth talks about “the heir” or “the true heir” that isn’t a description of like, meritocratic worth of the Key of Kings, he means the specific one guy (who might have a biological connection to Zoss) who has always played that role in the cycle.
Then we find out that what Jag considers multiple cycles is just a part of the first cycle.
[6,000,000,000 songs about demons faintly play in the background]
Incubus proving he is indeed not a master of the Cutting arts.
There Is No Such Thing As A Sword.
Seems to have made Maya’s job a lot easier. Think she may be hiding somewhere in the risen arena?
Check out the circle of failed heirs. They’re all the same person in different iterations; the same young brown guy with dark eyes and dark brown hair, who looks like a younger version of Zoss. They’re all Zaid. When Jagganoth talks about “the heir” or “the true heir” that isn’t a description of like, meritocratic worth of the Key of Kings, he means the specific one guy (who might have a biological connection to Zoss) who has always played that role in the cycle.
oh snap, wrong thread
Here we see that Incubus is a poor swordsman. He focuses too much on his sword
I find it kind of unlikely a manipulative guy like Incubus would actually make a ‘where are my glasses!?’ type comedy act out of his weakness if he were really that reliant on a sword to fight. The only question is who exactly he is trying to sucker with his comedy act.
I don’t believe Incubus is putting on an act. I think it’s a hyperfixation or he actually might be panicking considering who’s about to break free.
oh no is it time for worm
BEWARE. BEWARE! THE VOICE OF THE FLAME IMMORTAL IS COME AGAIN! THE SPARK OF THE WORD WHOSE MEANING IS YISUN, NEVER TO BE SPOKEN BY A TONGUE OF FLESH. IÄ! FEAR IT!
I was thinking that last page
The true heir wasn’t chosen… And Metatron has been instructing his minions to retrieve the key and get it to the heir. Strange that the cycle is broken but he seeks to almost restore it.
Also… The Heir is supposed to crush the Demiurges. But Allison didn’t do that, she talked with, and even helped them. This is likely the strongest they’ve ever been.
Wow this is a great observation
You’d think Jag would pick up on it. He’s working against Metatron and the one and only thing Metatron appears to be actively doing is trying to get the key to Zaid.
The strangest thing for me is that the Thorn Knights appear primarily responsible for the broken cycle. So was there something else special about this cycle that Metatron was intending?
Just how many cycles have they been through… 6 billion?
It would be very funny if Juggernaut was the only pebble who screwed everything up by seizing the wrong person too soon, scrambling the whole scheme of the demiurges who don’t even understand the prophecy is going just as planned.
I don’t believe Zoss made a mistake- but Juggernaut *is* familiar with the cycle, and is not a fan of it.
There’s a lot more than 6 billion droplets in the ocean, assuming Jagganoth wasn’t speaking hyperbolically.
True but which ocean is he necessarily talking about? Maybe his home Earth/world was dry.
Seriously though, I think he was speaking in metaphors and dramatising somewhat. He likely doesn’t know the exact number beyond “a lot”. I myself was just theorising that it could be 6 billion and that might be the source of that number.
But some of the scripts suggest demons are a real thing and not to be equated with devils. Apparently most of them are imprisoned within or beneath throne. Maybe they’re the cause of the inevitable ruin.
There wrong, zoss did choose,but in not picking the assumption of heir was to be a male
Maybe… It’s difficult to know how much of Allison gaining the key is Zoss’ intention and how much might be accidental. But this is all supposed to be architected by Metatron and Metatron is instructing the Thorn Knights to get the Key from Allison and give it to Zaid. If Metatron is the ultimate orchestrator of the cycles and the only one truly knowing how things are supposed to be then his actions suggest Zoss didn’t choose the expected heir for once, be it by will or chance.
If Allison is a business major, with a minor in philosophy, then she’ll realise that to get the most from your subordinates you don’t command them, you facilitate them.
Aspected Chaos may not be able to bring the full power of the master key to bear, but she can allow access to its power for the other demiurges (perhaps she could accept an emissary from each? for example), and they’ll know how to wield it to its utmost.
They’ll soon know they have to co-operate again, and they’ll know also that Allison is the key to that.
BEHOLD, THE KNOWLEDGE OF ASH! THE FADING FLAME CASTS LIES TO SHADOW AND TRUTH TO DUST WITHIN OUR CURSED LUNGS! MAY OUR ASHES SCATTER PAST THE WHEEL AND INTO VOID!
REPENT AND BURN!
-Lament of St. Astor
Quick everyone! Walk without rhythm!
Shai Hulud approaches, may his passing cleanse the world!
“Thumper activates in the distance
I’m actually going to go ahead and assume that Jag et all are correct and that Allison isn’t the “true” heir
Mind, that doesn’t mean she isn’t the CHOSEN heir. Zoss has never been shy about that.
Heir to do what, though? I sense she might have to surrender her power in some fashion.
Auntie Maya is feeling more and more like a checkovs gun the longer we don’t see her
Just got a feeling (or hope) she sneaked aboard in the crumbly stadium stands just before lift-off.
Particularly with Incubas apparently neutered without his sword, while Maya understands the sword is just a prop. And she’s been a pretty strong thread throughout this story, it would be shame not to bring her to some kind of resolution
Does Mr J mean not the least…, or does he actually believe the ‘true’ heir not being chosen to be the most inconsequential of the strangenesses he’s aware of this cycle?
I think it depends on how much he really does remember. If it’s a decent bit, then it’s gotta be pretty weird that… the heir didn’t purge the old kings, fundamentally deviating from the metatron boogie. An angel manifested itself into a totally new life form. A human-demon-angel fusion was seen for the first time. I’m making a lot of assumptions here but these all seem to key off Allison and her willingness to depend on / build up her friends, which is why I think they may be true firsts.
Whether Jaggy realizes any of that is questionable, though, as it’s unclear what details he really does remember.
Next panel, we find out 95% of the stadium is just worms.
111,111 universes is a lot of worms
If all matter in our Earth except the worms were swept away, our world would still be dimly recognizable. It’s a nematode world – Nathan A. Cobb
To break the cycle, one must simply not follow the cycle. Easier said than done- Jagganoth is too weak of will to embrace peace as rebellion.
Ahem, “Reach the Heavens for Violence”
Shush, Incubus. Go play with the other demiurges.
Salami Dave’s about to give us a light show, it seems.
Gog’s certainly got potential, but here in space she’s physically separated from most of her potential mass. It’ll be interesting to see how she gets around that.
Have you ever seen a brethren moon?
I know that they’re awake, certainly.
She can teleport.
While that’s an ability inherent to the Key of Kings, I don’t know that it’s something we’ve seen her do before. Usually she’s just kind of… already there? Hence, why it will be interesting to see what she does.
It’s not something we’ve seen from Gog Agog, but several of her peers have demonstrated the aptitude. It’s how the one encased in a giant block gets around, after all.
How do you think she travels between universes? Walking?
She might, actually. Perhaps she “assumes direct control” of worm infected agents who did indeed get to the different universe by walking… through the various open portals between worlds. That seemed to be how it worked when Gog delivered the tournament invitation to Allison.
I don’t know; I’m interested to find out, as I’ve said before.
I stated this on the last page, and I will restate it here:
I don’t want Allison to be another “special snowflake” protagonist that breaks a cycle that has persisted for eons. That story has been done before and I think it will cheapen this wonderful story.
Neo did it. Commander Sheppard did it. The traditional Monomyth is getting dry.
Let Allison fight and fail. But let her sacrifice change the cycle in some small way that ensures it total collapse in the next iteration.
Or, have her defeat Jag and become the next dustwoman, and see her see her friends again in the next cycle and scramble to change an end that she has seen before.
*and have her see here friends
Commander Shepard did that too, if you made a specific choice near the end.
Exactly. That was my canon ending. It was more realistic, but it also gave their struggle meaning.
This is an excellent comic and Allison is an excellent protagonist. The creator has done a great job in not making her a standard perfect hero. A great twist would be her losing and breaking herself against the rigid cycle, and being chained to it as it’s new enforcer. That could be the true fate of the KSBD persona that we have seen before.That’s just headcanon from a guy that likes broken and conflicted protagonists, but I would be forever grateful to Ab if he went that route.
While I sympathise with your plea for less well-explored themes, do remember not to ask to break the literary anthropic principle, if you will.
The reason this story is being told, is, hopefully, because it is a story worth telling.
Conversely, if it’s the next cycle that would be broken, it has the potential to be a more interesting and satisfying story than this one — in which case, why aren’t we being told that story instead?
I don’t know. This cycle is already different. Seems kinda redundant to have a highly abnormal cycle only to change things slightly so that the next cycle is also abnormal.
Also it’s kind of just passing the buck. There’s really no difference between Allison being “another ‘special snowflake’ protagonist that breaks a cycle that has persisted for eons” and Allison being “another ‘special snowflake’ protagonist” whose sacrifice changes a cycle that has persisted for eons such that the breaking of the cycle on the next iteration is ensured. She’d still be the first one to be able to do something different and the one responsible for the end of the cycle.
Like, this ending you’ve constructed could happen. It’s entirely possible. Personally I think it’s unlikely, it feels incongruous to the themes of the story so far, but I could be proven wrong. Just, be careful about getting super invested in a story ending the way you want it to. That leads to dark places. It might be more healthy to write a story with the ending you want.
Also all life in 777,777 universes (plus some other places) being erased from time is a serious downer of an ending.
Eh, just personal musings really, I am not really attached to any particular ending. GOT Season 8 has taught me better than that haha.
I understand that this is not my story and not my ending. If Abby wants this to be the cycle that breaks, so be it. I trust that he will do it in an interesting manner that is consistent with the established story and it’s themes.
Hero does thing which change course of plot: overdone?
Abandon just needs to emphasize the parts of her that allow her to change the cycle, the themes of her character. Not do a hand waved “she’s special.” I think he’s done that, even if the Fool Isn’t the *perfect* (or only) way to do that.
I mean… I’d say this cycle will fail simply because she’s *not* a special snowflake.
She’s a basic, inconsequential, scared-to-death college-graduated barista with body image issues, an anime obsession, a philosophy minor, and a complete lack of anything that makes her special besides the big glowing key to the universe lodged in her head.
Walk down to your local Starbucks and you’ll find at least three Allisons working there, sans magic key.
Zaid was the special snowflake chosen one, as was every other courageous boy chosen in every cycle. The cycle could have been broken any time by Zoss deciding to grab a macchiato along with his decapitation.
yah, but she’s a bar mitzvah – excuse me, I meant a barista – from L.A. which makes her super-duper special with two cherries on top!
A new, old horn for a gunslinger, and the faint lingering of rose scent in the air.
Nah that ending sounds boring and pointless. The beginning is more important anyway.
10 finger technique in 10…9…8…7…