KING OF SWORDS 10-143
Chapter: 10
You are already a dead man. From the moment you started to exist, death has bored into your ribcage and settled in your chest. It has its fingers into your very bones. When you are born, death is very small and weak, but he grows stronger every second, until he will wear you like a second skin. Do not fool yourself into thinking he is not there. You will feel him. Do not deny his presence. You must swallow death, and make him a part of you, and make of your ribcage a home for him.”
-Yaun, the dead
I presume when Solomon initially said White Chain was too injured to continue, he meant there was no way to repair her body to full in a single night, unlike what many people can do (dismemberment notwithstanding) thus the makeshift repairs that continue right up to the fight.
White Chain is not being fully repaired. She is being made presentable, just as Allison and Cio were, so as not to besmirch Solomon’s image. Despite being so powerful, Solly is very concerned with appearances – one might say that it’s his Flaw Fatale.
Well, in one sense she has an advantage as she doesn’t have to win, just shed a drop of Solomon’s blood. He has to win. True, that’s an improbable distinction, but still …
Though an astute observer already noted that if you can injure Solomon at all, you can kill him (and in fact, successfully injuring him may kill him on the spot – Diamond shatters, after all).
Give me a home where the newborn gods roam, and the skies are unburdened by flame
The “I know it seems impossible” line doesn’t read as intended from the previous panel.
I’d rewrite the first text bubble in the 3rd panel to say something like, “He seems impossible to defeat–but when have I ever let that stop ME?” With “me” in bold.
Because as it’s written currently, it sounds like Allison is saying “it’s impossible to trust White Chain”, not “it’s impossible to beat Solomon David”.
If you read on it eventually becomes clear, true, but the little mental wobble going from panel 2 to 3 as I puzzle out what’s trying to be said pushes me out of the experience.
I agree with Domini. Parsing that bubble gave me pause too.
The sage asked the spirit of wisdom thus:
‘How and in what manner has Ohrmazd created these creatures and creation ?
And how and in what manner were the archangels and the spirit of wisdom formed and created by him ?
And how are the demons and fiends and also the remaining corrupted ones of Ahriman, the wicked, miscreated ?
How do every good and evil happen which occur to mankind and also the remaining creatures ?
And is it possible to alter anything which is destined, or not?’
The spirit of wisdom answered thus:
‘The creator, Ohrmazd, produced these creatures and creation, the archangels and the spirit of wisdom from that which is his own splendor, and with the blessing of unlimited time (zurvan).
For this reason, because unlimited time is undecaying and immortal, painless and hungerless, thirstless and undisturbed; and for ever and everlasting no one is able to seize upon it, or to make it non-predominant as regards his own affairs.’
~ Menog-i Khrad (“The Spirit of Wisdom” ) ~
Chapter One : Introducing the Sage and the Spirit of Wisdom
[ The Avesta-Zoroastrian Archive ]
If this was a martial arts movie some tense preparing music would be playing right about now.
Walk-up music: Anvil of Crom/Riddle of Steel.
It surprises me that nobody in the corridor notices Allison and Cio. I’d have thought that anybody who comes to watch the Ring of Power would be excited to meet the semi-finalists.
Well, now we can say with certainty that 82 White Chain really is screwed.
😀
And now, after that last frame, I respected Solomon David even more.
Yaun lies, death is the enemy, life is the prize. Chew him and gnaw him and after you swallow him, shit him out and do it again until death has suffered so greatly he knows you are not a fool who will submit to entropy. Death is a choice, life is an obligation. All that exists serves existence, an absence serves nothing. Death is only evidence of a severe lack of imagination.
And now I see the endgame of this confrontation, and it’s brilliant.
You tha best Abba.
“For then he looked upon the death before him and lo, there was blood, and bone, and wrecked land. But through his veil he saw no truth, and looked upon his companion, and desired to rename him. Yet, his feet were fleet, his muscles tone, and his mind clear, so he did not rename him, yet awaited the next battle with a slight glimmer in his heart…”
_Journal of Shadow
Excuse me, but are they…hammering in screws?
Wouldn’t be proper stigmata otherwise.
Nah, that’s just some ridges left over from the forging process on the nails you’re seeing. If they were screws the lines would be more regular and evenly distributed.
Screws are just crunchy nails.
Ringnails – they grip ruddy well but still dead shonkey under the circumstances. Not the work of a craftsman.
Not the right kind of craftsman, anyway.
Solomon David: You, the imperial master carpenters, are known as the finest craftsmen in the empire. I *trust* entirely you to aid this aeon.
Carpenters: Yes Paternum!
Carpenter’s thoughts: Shitshitshitshitshitshit WTF do we doooo? OMGs, OMFGs: angels? Forged ash? I don’t even…
The Paternum does not concern himself with details like appropriate skill-sets. One does not say no to the Paternum. Not twice, anyway.
Hrmm… Would rather see some butt-welds on that repair instead of rivets. Definitely not the best body work I’ve seen, but I suppose it’ll have to do.
“That’ll buff out”
– every redneck body man ever
Is that fish headed thingy in the middle speaking in PETSCII character graphics?
It’s Universal Metaconstant, the language spoken across the connected worlds
Even White Chain’s dress is a poofy hideous mess…
Hrmm… Folks questioning the use of “nails” on White Chain’s body (actually more like a rivet than a nail)… It’s common practice to drill a hole at the end of a crack in order to stop that crack from growing. Figure having Swiss cheese for “armor” isn’t a good way to go into battle, the smiths inserted rivets into the holes. Reckon?
I figured that’s what they were for, to stabilize the cracks. However, since the armor is hollow and her arms seemed so badly cracked as to be barely holding together, drilling holes doesn’t seem like a great idea if you’re not careful. Still, I assume these two know what they’re doing since they’d have to be pretty skilled to get it done that quickly and skillfully.
This comments section reads like a requiem. It ain’t over til it’s over oh my brothers, sisters and whatevers!
So WT is Rocky and Solomon is evil russian guy waiting to being beat up enough to acknowledge WT?
But what’s the problem here, if this mortal shell of WT will get destroyed and she will be send away, they just need to bring her back and give her better one.
The problem is that angels can spend millenia in the void waiting to get a new body, and we don’t know if there are any shortcuts. If Solomon takes White Chain out, she might be out of the picture for all intents and purposes.
But you got me thinking about what a “better” body for WC might look like. A more feminine figure, perhaps?
Doesn’t have to be millennia per incarnation. WC has died mainly in defense of Throne, and she’s not a Prime, so that’s, say, 75 incarnations since the start of the second conquest ~2000 years ago.
Actually, going by the number of tournaments taken place and that they happen every roughly 3.5 years and that I doubt Solomon would have held them when war was active, the second conquest reached it’s current stalemate state around 1,100 years ago. I don’t recall if it was ever said how long the second conquest lasted until the stalemate was reached.
Anyways, there is technically a shortcut, Metatron, which is how 6 Juggernaut Star got a new shell so quickly. However, WC has already rejected Metatrons offer.
The main problem is that the usual makers of ash armor haven’t made any for 300 or 400 years due to some unspecified dispute.
White Chain’s limiter… is starting to break!
What a pretty sacrificial lamb she makes.
Allison’s expression in panel 2 is priceless. Maybe it’s just that we haven’t seen her accessorized in a while, but she’s lookin’ FIERCE!
Does plugging up an angel’s holes increase their strength? Because that’s what they have apparently done.
The actual function, if any, of the holes/vents in the armor is unknown, other than to Abbadon. I also noticed that it can be variable, 6 Juggernaut Star’s shell (the one that got flash welded the previous in-comic day) doesn’t have the holes on their back or the back of their hands, neither does 10 Vigilant Gaze’s shell. By the same token, Liminal Blossom has the vents on their ankles while the other three angels mentioned don’t appear to have them.
I doubt plugging up the holes would increase their strength, otherwise why have them in the first place?
It should also be noted that even the Primes had them, long before any of the rest of them had shells made. So, it could be a case of the first armor makers copying without understanding the purpose.
Hail, White Chain!
Yours is a righteous fight!
“The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears, and swords. Being carried away by surging waves. Being thrown into the midst of a great fire. Being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake. Falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease, or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai.”
-Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Since death is inevitable for mortals, it remains then only to choose the manner of one’s death. Seek death, therefore, in whatever way seems best to you.
The foolish man thinks he will live forever if he keeps away from fighting; but old age won’t grant him a truce, even if the spears do.
Cattle die, and kinsmen die, and so one dies one’s self; but I know one thing that will not die, and that is the good name of one who does glorious deeds.