KING OF SWORDS 10-168
Chapter: 10
“Now I will make of this stone Earth and Water both,” said Intra, standing in front of the blaze.
“And air too, I suppose,” jested Yem Yeddo, the richest man in the vale, and all his men laughed.
But Intra did not. He took his proclamation very seriously. At this point, he had been sober for months and had a headache.
– The Song of Maybe
So glad I came back to this. Such a great story, and the art hits like Planescape but better.
Even the most stoic and mournful of hearts finds solace in a meaty onion broth. Surebaet Rayuba and our new mobile noodle cart, Surebaet Everywhere, offer King Solomon David sincere congratulations on the tournament and on an honorable result–and a free lunch any time he would like to claim it. Long may he rule! Tea is extra.
Surebaet Noodles–it’s a “sure bet” you’ll love your bowl!
Tea may be extra, but are the refills free?
Refills are also extra.
I may or may not be crying over the fact that the comment about Solomon fits a perspective on life I’ve had since birth and have been struggling to overcome. Thank you for this.
It is as Zoss said. The demiurges are as much victims of the wheel as much as they are masters of it. Only through strength beyond strength can one overcome it. And I believe that is the strength that comes from allies. People always come together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
In less profound talk, I cannot get over how beautiful the human White Chains is. It has been some time, and still it strikes me.
Yesss WC finally admitted being wrong!
This is the real victory.
All is forgiven.
Damn, this writing is gonna have me hooked till i die
Abbadon, i love your artstyle, your characters and first of all the story. But (for me, as a fact of personal judgement) i find this arc less good than others. Don’t mistunderstanding me, i have appreciated a lot the David’s chapters (myself is a David, btw). However i have not adore very much some of the choices you made in this story. For example, you’ve drawn Salami as one of the strongest beeings in the existence, (proven by the Arena genocide), even feared by the other 6 idiots, but defeated by an unknown normal angel (don’t mind if trans or not i support them and i find her development amazing, this has nothing to deal to an individual strenght so i’m not referring to her identity to show her weakness, TLM)? Sorry, but how could not the lots of warriors break the unarrivable Ki rata style, but WC magically becomes as strong as SD and succeds to hurt him? Mmh i find it a strange fact. And at the end the readon of his victory is basically : the power of friendship (read in the lines, it is obv the message). Obv i am not the author and he will have all the reasons to choose that way. I simply thougth about an other altervative ends, with SD end WC in a great battle. But only bc i think it would have been more realistic and even more interesting, (obv a personal opinion). I’d hope and i believe the story will be fantastic and i’ll love it, your artstyle is amazing.
I am using a pacific and personal point of view, do not accuse me of hate or else. Sorry for my bad english, not my first language. See you next wonderful works
One thing to keep in mind is that he wasn’t even *really* beaten– the crowd perceived him as having lost, but White Chain didn’t even draw a drop of blood. And if she hadn’t been an entirely new type of being, that punch would have killed her– he was only defeated because he was facing someone who is the first of her kind in the entire universe.
And White Chain was starting from a position of already being a highly skilled combatant; the lore talks up the combat abilities of angels a LOT, and White Chain specifically continued to do her work long after other angels gave up, so presumably she’s got a lot of combat experience compared to many angels of her same age category. Combining her past experience with something entirely unexpected– and also surviving a blow that *should* have killed her even despite her experience and unexpected tactics, which is even MORE unexpected– is what allowed her to win.
It ended up better than I had suspected, as White Chain barely scuffed his skin by sacrificing her shell and doing something no angel in all of history has ever done.
Remember that White Chain has existed longer than these Demiurges and has shown exceptional skill that even other angels take note of.
I was a bit disappointed and my transhuman sensibilities a bit triggered when she became enfleshed, I felt that implied it was an evolution from immortal energy being which is the exact opposite direction I would want to go. It also risked looking like White Chain being a woman could only be ‘realized’ or fulfilled by having an actual biological female anatomy which can be a harmful message.
Overall here I think it has worked out though. Solomon David is still powerful, he still could have ended White Chain with ease but chose to refrain. The narrative doesn’t seem too judgemental on him, the message seems to be he tried to do what he thought was good but his self-reliance made that peace brittle and Solomon suffer needlessly.
First of all, thank you for your responses, i appreciate your reasonable and pacific arguments. I love discussions like that. So now i’ll reply. I understand your points, but i’d like to point out some episodes which could show and confirm the distance of powers between the characters:
Let’s focuse about SD: we already knew his strenght in the ki rata skills told by Incubus. He showed us SD killing his masters, so he excells in the strongest martial art. In some descriptions of Abbadon, ki rata moves are described as a terrifing tactic (as proven in the arena btw).
SD also became one of the survivors amd victors in the Great War, an other proof of his power. Then, he organized lots of ARENA things, and i think he made sessions too. So he did not decrease in his combactive skills and he improved them. In the chapters, he is even percieved by some demiurges with respect or fear, at the end as a man who you can not offend or assault easily (if a challenging Angel succeds to hurt him, imagine about Agog or Jagganoth, lol).
So i think he was and remains a great and overpowered adversary.
Now we can talk about WC. In the arcs, we saw this angel was not stronger than his brothers, (JS and the mentor for ex), and he had a beginning difficulty to beat a similar.
Then, he obv could not compete in the arc of Mottom, i think bc of phisical skills are not comparable to her Magic, in fact she was “defeated or over field” in a short time.
Obv she trained herself, (but i don’t think only her), and we saw her progress in the Arena arc. But we experienced in the last pages the following facts:
Two angels are incredibly stronger than her, you can admit that ( true she was ‘tired’ but even in the SD fight she was not in a good state)
A demon (weakest class) and an apprentice with a key (her appr)’ fusion fought her and was then beaten by WC but not easily.
SD fight finally: we saw David’s first skills, he was clearly destroing her, without Ki Rata. Then the state of WC is compromised, it seemd she was now surviving.
And now, the important one: ki rata move.
You said she broke SD move bc she was a new entity. But she transormed herself after and not before her break. And focused about a logic: if a well trained angel could reach and fight at the point to hurt SD, how about all the past Arena? Were not there angels who could beat SD in the same way? What about other stronger entities such as a demiurge, or a first class demon?
But most immportant is about how the author draw the characters to us. Sd is portraied as an exisibitionist, and personification of pride. He could not let someone beating him so easily, bc it is against his character ‘s mood and bc he is all he shows. He would never do submission. If the author wanted SD as an entity with a great strenght AND with the first id of fierce soul filled by selfpride, he could not react with the facial expressions shown in the 5, 8 and 9 pages from the last one.
And i do not think WC mutation change her skills, she only reached a human form as called the definitive one (as told by centaurus angel about her brothers), and as seen in the last page, she showed her skill as usual bit in a new form.
Obviously this last point is an opinable ipotesis, but all the past facts i cheched could question the author decision.
Again thanks for your answers, but i do not think i could change this in my mind, maybe next pages will confirm or deny my rational point of view. Hope i will be wrong but i do not think so.
She beat a fusion of a demon who once had a key herself and someone carry not ‘a key’ but THE key. And she did so using a demon slaying art in a way that Ten Vigilant noted never having seen angels manage.
When I said her transformation beat SD it was because she sacrificed her shell, usually a death sentence, in order to touch him and only survived due to the transformation, even if it happened after the hit.
SD still could have just obliterated her right after instead of standing down but he saw the will of the crowd and it stung his pride, I suspect he has decided that they are not worth him holding up the pillars they depend on any longer.
However the theme of solitude and internal flaws in some entities is nice, MOTTOM and MAMMON are amazing. Can’t wait to read about my love JADIS and JAGGANOTH.
wait, does this all mean WC can be permanently killed?
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.