KING OF SWORDS 10-145
Chapter: 10
“Chief among the concerns of any code of punishment is that it is important for the executed to have dignity. A man’s death must be treated with reverence and not treated at some soiled thing. It therefore transforms from a wrongdoing into a spectacle.”
– Au Vam, Pankrator of Vesh
Hell Yeah
He was feeling a chill, and decided to put the robe back on. (And laundry isn’t a concern, and Angels don’t bleed.)
Such beautiful clothes Solomon wears. I wonder how they would look coated in Defeat?
Mud. You mean coated in mud.
Or a mud-like substance.
I got mud on my bum once.
Big if true
That’s not so hard to believe.
Even I have been knocked on my ass a few times. Once in six distinct planes of reality.
Kick him in the dick white chain!
That sounds like a good way for a brother-I mean sister to get her foot shattered.
Is a diamond harder than the alloy of Law, Oblivion, and Humanity?
The alloy of law is great, though at times I fear it is a lost metal.
Forgive her for the dick-kicking she is about to inflict.
Amen.
A question to consider: what hurt would be more humiliating to inflict upon he who considers himself untouchable? A kick to the genitals, or a kick to that expertly braided beard? (a rather phallic symbol in itself, and possibly hiding a second set of genitals; we cannot be certain).
I posit that White Chain should go for the beard first, I wish to know if the rumors of the hidden chin salami are true.
Beneath Solomon’s beard is Chuck Norris, staring back at you. Beneath Chuck Norris’s beard? Chuck Norris. It’s Chuck Norrises all the way down.
I DON’T KNOW YOU!!!
The theatrics of imperial hubris look like a weighty crown.
Shiny, though.
It would seem, my dear, that the pride presented is not far from earned. Is it as great a sin, to boast, if you speak the truth, than if your lips seep lies?
A tyrant only finds honor when his head is on the gibbet.
Gotta hand it to him, dude can really put on a show.
Their robes shift. Calm before a gale of death. Clad in ivory, azure & amethyst flames flicker in eyes that have seen the passing of eons. Divinity challenged by the devout. How will Ki Rata display its mastery over the art of annihilation. Will the angel fly into the realms of legend. The clash looms.
yeah white chain def feeling honorable right now, just gonna fight with honor cause she’s just in that sort of mood, for sure
I would say that only White Chain is ready to fight with honor, for she alone is ready to die for what she believes in.
i see what you’re saying
i just think her little lesson from allison is going to be put to use here
she going to cheat, because she respect her opponent’s strength
GET HIS ASS
Now that you mention it, SOLOMON GOT BACK
ATTACK AND DETHRONE GOD
her feet are missing bandages in the first panel.
OOPS!
And panel 5. not as noticable but you should see the bandage from that angle i think.
If they walked to the centre of the platform from their opposite sides to meet, then both should also be in shadow from the suspended canopy.
Their shadows also appear to lengthen as the comic page goes on. Either those suns move really fast, Rayuba has a REALLY fast rotation, or Solomon is mentally shifting them so that one of them would appear to be just above his head from White Chains point of view.
Have to remember that there’s some potentially impossible astrophysics happening here.
Salami’s bin a tad distracted wi summat, an’ ‘is astromechanicking gone a bit loo-lah.
Even the angels are said to be skilled in the secret art of CLOTHES BEAM
Well, Cio can magic up clothes at her convenience, so I’d imagine White Chain could too.
Also on the previous page her left hand was shown being bandaged. In third panel on this page, no bandages.
Implying the existence of a REVERSE CLOTHES BEAM!
It occurs to me that we’ve spent a lot of time looking at character’s feet lately, vis-a-vis footwear, or the lack thereof.
Abaddon did say early on that he hates drawing feet.
Minor detail for Abaddon — White Chain’s feet are bare in the first frame, then wrapped in the third frame. FWIW, I think bare is more bad-ass.
Also, Solomon’s key momentarily turned blue in panel 3. Just pointing it out for the final check before printing this book n.n
That’s just highlight.
Yeah, in other panels, the key is blue in the center with purple on the outside, kind of like a refractory effect or something.
Our Sun looks yellow or red depending on the time of day due to atmosphere scattering the light we get. When viewed directly from outer space, it’s white.
Aye an the sky en’t blue.
“Honorable means I flatten you at normal speeds so that my subjects can see the play by play.”
“I see.”
“If you look like you’re about to win, trust me, you’re not.”
“I get it, I get it.”
“You are so thoroughly boned you-”
“Please just kill me right now.”
Solomon is a gentleman, and will certainly give White Chain cab fare back to the void.
I find it impossible to dislike Solomon David. I feel like he has been honourable this entire time, even despite White Chain’s reasons for fighting him.
He has put a lot of effort into *looking* honorable, but if you pay attention he has slighted others at every turn, often in subtle but noticeable ways.
Just in this scene alone, look at how they’re dressed. He has forced White Chains out of her monk’s garb into a gi that is more befitting his style. What’s more, hers is unadorned and ill fitting, while his is immaculately tailored and subtly patterned. The entire spectacle is designed to make her look like his lesser, not due to his superior skill, but how she has been positioned.
If he were truly honorable, she would be wearing garb that represents her order, rather than his, and of equivalent make. Even before that, he would not have turned the tournament into an impromptu battle royal.
Left hand fist, right hand palm – the salute for a male should be the reverse. Is that a subtle slur to his opponent? Or is Solomon cack-handed?
Ah. It’s the salute he should do at a funeral.
@Epsilon Rose: The impromptu battle royale was an attempt to fix the subtle yet not so subtle (the clearly mismatched fight with Eris Lo-Kai certainly gave it away) match fixing that Gog Agog attempted in Allisons favor.
Also, I believe what you’re observing with the clothes is what’s meant and implied by the alt text.
It’s probably a political skill he has honed over the centuries.
Playing Black Flame’s Advocate for a moment, giving someone robes “befitting his style”, specifically Ki’Rata, could easily be construed as a gesture of immense respect.
I have little reason to believe it to be true HERE, but nonetheless, the Wheel has born witness to 108 stranger things since I started uttering this sentence.
Meh. He’s the one paying for the clothes. What difference does it make in the end?
If honour is making sacrifices to do the right thing, how can Sol be honourable? he has sacrificed nothing – he is an immortal god emperor who has modelled thousands of worlds after himself. Everything he is currently doing, he enjoys because it feeds his ego.
I actually think that of the demiurges we have seen, he is by far the worst as a person. The nicest to be ruled by, but what a *dick*
“If you can’t be polite, you can’t be anything.”
– said by a homeless person I know
He’s mastered that, if nothing else.
Politeness is a shallow social guise and indicates little enough of the wearer’s character to be practically meaningless. As stated by Sando Thrabe of the Leaf Sniffer Guild in their autobiography (accurately titled Sando Thrabe of the Leaf Sniffer Guild):
“The politest being I ever met was a Goblin merchant. When he greeted me, he recited the nine strictures of meeting from memory, and proceeded to bow deeply and insist upon washing my feet as a gesture of goodwill. By the time he had finished, all the while praising my purported good looks and impressive reputation, his henchmen had robbed me blind.
He apologized profusely as he vacated the premises.”
Aye thums’ll be fae ‘Mendax an Mendax Goblin Merchants o bestsome quality used an nearly new’. Bignose Sando muss be offgoin if’n him nae sniffoot thums tricksy lads.
None of the Seven are such unpleasant people to live under, so long as you are willing to bend the knee, slay the innocent, and pay your tithes to an indifferent god of cruelty.
Solomon just hides those requirements behind a veil of pageantry and paperwork.
I don’t see any of the civilians watching being forced to stab random commoners to death.
Gog-Agog reports that it is absolutely wonderful to live under the benevolent leadership of Gog-Agog! This is fortunate, since that is pretty much the only thing that lives under Gog-Agog; the assimilation is total…
Heed well the words of Au Vam. What you see here isn’t honor, but a cruelty of such ancient magnitude that you have been blinded to it.
It’s time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel!
Salami Dave summons Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
Salami Dave is my new favorite thing, thank you for that.
Alas, I cannot take credit as it was another soul who came up with it but it is an excellent name indeed.
3 of them, in one turn.
because screw the rules, he’s the Emperor.
“As the challenged, I dictate the method of the duel. I declare….combat by foot massage!”
Chaos!
Pandemonium!
This was unheard of, an outrage!
Gog sat back sipping a mint julep that Gog had purloined and handed to Gog for Gog.
It was going to be one of THOSE days.
I am half-expecting White Chain to turn around only for Allison to slam the Key of Keys into her forehead.
Oh, I thought the attendants were taking his robe off…
Provided this doesn’t end in Solomon’s patented one-shot technique, of course, I predict that this battle will take nine… no, let me say ten strokes. Three to test, two to confirm. Four to press, and then the final blow that grants victory.
Yeah, the rules of narration dictate that it won’t be a one-shot punch or whatever, but Abbadon probably won’t draw it out like the Alicio-White Chain fight.
The rules of drama say he will take one more hit than he intends to. A ever so slight chip in his armor of fear.
And what a lovely sound it may be. The sound of the Impossible striking home, the one-in-a-trillion chance manifesting in real-space. The Doom-driven RNG… making itself known to those that think they have surpassed such concepts.
*TINK!* How very interesting.
Quite like Incubus taking that face scratch from Allison in one of her dreams.
Oh? You’re approaching me?
I can’t beat the shit out of you without getting closer.
“To Be Continued”
*YES – ROUNDABOUT INTENSIFIES*
My cup has run dry.
Perhaps friend White Chain can find a drop to quench my thirst?
White for striking, blood and piss
Colours progress. Analysis?
Ooh, and that’s a bad miss
And the fans go wild with ardor
Gorge on combat-sport palaver
Take another swig of lager
To quote a pre-fight ritual from a small and often overlooked world within the wheel: Let´s get ready to ruuuuuuumble!
‘I Will Go to the place where Gilgamesh Lords it over the people,
I Will Challenge him Boldly, and I will Cry Aloud in Uruk,
“I Have Come to Change the Old Order,
For I Am The Strongest Here !” ‘
~ Enkidu,
The Epic of Gilgamesh
“Game recognize game.”
Somehow, I doubt that this will end *quite* the same way as it did for good old Gil and Enki though.
Gil and *Enkidu*.
Enki — “Lord Ki”, meaning Lord of the Earth — was a Sumerian god. In KSBD terms he’s possibly a demiurge or one of the Multiplicity, remembered. I prefer to think of him as a demiurge, as I have in mind a disturbing story concerning Enki and the people of Throne.
Enkidu — possibly meaning “Creation of Enki”, or “Beloved of Enki” — and Gilgamesh were men. In KSDB, one could retcon Gilgamesh as a junior demiurge and Enkidu as an emissary.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu, occupying a place called “Throne”, which stands above all other realities…
For some reason, my memory stirs. Calling back to a distant Night related to…Fate? Ah, the memory did not Stay.
Can Salami Dave even hit the insubstantial form of a released Angel?
Pretty sure energy projection is within his arsenal.
Alicio didn’t have a problem stopping the blows of released White Chain once she realized the pattern, which is always essential in a boss battle.
Though I suppose you mean fully released, like no armor to attach to. Well, they’re supposed to explode in a ball of fire if that happens (unless there’s a difference between igneous and liquid angels in that situation), but we’ll see.
He’s quite a cheeky bastard, I daresay.
Love the gorgeous light of Rayuba, as always.
Remember that this light flows from two stolen suns, which he pillaged to replace the one his predecessor destroyed.
It’s easy to see this as a benevolent act of healing, unless you remember that he actually doubled the number of sunless worlds, with this act.
I don’t think it was said anywhere that he stole them, merely that ‘he put them there’.
Indeed. And even if he had, there are FAR more stars than their are planets actively or even potentially safe for any form of non-Angelic/Devilish life.
Never before appreciated just how large the man is.
Damn.
Never seen him before next to anybody for whom we know the height. Abaddon said that WC is 6’1″ IIRC.
Gog Agog got the “jolly green” part, Solomon got the “giant”
Wait until you see her in her World Devourer form.