Seeker of Thrones 10-122
Chapter: 9
“There was one who came with the broken sun in her brow, and her blood was like molten gold. Once she stole the secret fire of Those Who Came Before from the Red Gods and coveted it, but it ruined her and made her ugly. She was a dirty god and she had a powerful enemy. She could not avail to touch him, so she crouched in his shadow while he became increasingly swollen with his own power and bloodthirst. Instead of growing, she diminished, and grew disheveled and her fire dimmed. But inside, her spark grew more powerful and fierce. She waited for the day her enemy became so tottering under his own monstrous power she could hack at it his ankles and fell him with a single blow.”
-Chronicle of the Fourth Conquest
There’s a city with a power level
about a tenth of this
Roland knows it (he goes big).
to clarify, the director
of Independence who came forth since
and (I heard) set the west ablaze.
Odd. Normally a run on a bank features about twenty percent fewer swords.
Friend Ulurhad, as a mercenary I can confidently say you’re a bit off on this one.
The number of swords scales to the size of the bank, and this is Yre. If anything, they don’t have nearly enough swords. Nor axes, nor bombs, nor lock picks, nor knives, nor mirrors, nor chains, nor bags, nor rations. Nor a lot of things now that I think about it, but my trade is mercenary, not bank-robber.
But I digress, if Auntie Maya is willing to use the Art of Cutting for more plain utility purposes, they should be more than able to make due.
In life, we seldom get to tackle problems with all the resources we would like (which, for the record, is ALL the resources). When needs must, we make do with what is on hand.
On another note, it helps that this band has a giant baby, able to crash through walls Kool-Aid Man style. As Mottom demonstrates, this can counter a bit of the advantage of infinite recursion, just as a blade cuts the advantage of a hedge maze.
The sanctioned action is to Cut. Surprisingly this is not very helpful in a variety of situations, for instance if one wanted to build a house or cook noodles.
cook noodles
through violence
Whew! THAT escalated quickly!
ALL THE WARRIORS!
With sunglasses (and an open Gi)
Who are the Warriors? Bring them to me!
The word flies like a knife at Coney.
Nowhere to run to, baby. Nowhere to hiiide.
It wasn’t us… It was them! It was the Warriors! >.>
And so comes the woman who will look at the gods’ battle and slice the heels from under the victor.
The *Fourth* Conquest? The Third Conquest hasn’t even started yet; what would a Fourth Conquest be aiming to conquer? Itself?
perhaps there are some that consider the pact of the seven Demiurges to be the third conquest. To the average person, the worlds in the universe are still being pillaged and raped by the Seven, so why not call this the third conquest?
Wrong, check the first book, Ksbd-4-77. Prophecy is: The new king (actually queen) shall ignite the third conquest.
According to White Chain in the same book, the second conquest wasn’t over yet.
There was a note from some historian, too, complaining about the author of the main source about the 3rd conquest (Cio!), in some commentary as well.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=519
Ah, right, the megassiah, walks on lava and turns water into vodka
I guess Allison has kickstarted the 3rd conquest by now, and those on this page are also contributing.
Hm. Talk about a 4th conquest is reminding me about the famous quote on World War IV.
I admire the persistence of this trail of stars, but is there really still 108 standing?
They don’t call him the shepherd of the dead for nothing.
The parade of fools does look like it has seen better days. I spy several bandages and the celestial infant’s skull seems to be sporting a large lump.
It’s probably a lot more by now. If there were only 108 power-seekers in the world, it’d be a pretty friendly place. Wouldn’t be much of a story.
I see that Auntie Maya has the prime spot in the team shot. Guess that’s fair.
Even if those from the original 108 stars did fall, it may only mean they fell behind. The issue with some of the strongest bounty hunters in the land being after you, is that some of them can be quite hard to kill, or even require being killed many times over. Even then, if you did manage to permanently push one off, there is always another waiting to take its place.
I see nine left….
Like moths to the flame they are drawn by the scent of chaos. Therein lies all possibility of reward and success. All will burn. Most will die. Some will transform and rise anew.
Threats converge. Events are advancing quickly and I fear the heroes are not prepared. If young Alice is lost now… then there may be none left to stop the destroyer Jagganoth and his madness.
Murder the gods and topple their thrones.
Murder The Gods And Topple Their Thrones!
MURDER THE GODS AND TOPPLE THEIR THRONES!
AYE, SHE RETURNS
Murder the gods and there will be triple the thrones.
Maya: *Smiles* “It’s SHOW TIME!”
So, I’ve totally lost it. There seems to be multiple looping back to the demise of Mottom’s city and its associated events. But what in the worlds is going on here?
Hrmm… Seems to me we are seeing the same City demise, just from a different perspective – that of the folks on the outside of Yre.
So same point in time, different location in space.
Maybe.
Mottom is angery at Al-YISUN, and heard she was going to Yre to go screw stuff up.
So she tried to go into Yre, but forgot how parallel parking worked and was attacked by mimics, hence why she is so angery at Grandpa Dragon
Why do I get the feeling that she’s now the leader of the 108…
The Second Middle Army
If there are two middle armies, wouldn’t they push each other apart and become one east army and one west army?
The Burning Stars arrive
Fueled by wanton drive
Atop a hill of gold
With blades sharp and heart’s cold
Brimstone Lives!
Also Eris-Lo Kai, my fave curmudgeon
Here comes the neighborhood.
Comment of the day. Have a cigar.
Noodles would be more apt
Oh boy, do I sure love a parade!
Fourth Conquest? I thought we were still in the second?
I bet you thought time was a constant too. Rookie mistake, but don’t you fret. We’ve all made it, and I’m about to make it again.
And so the tranquility of the vault is disturbed once again.
Or perhaps for the last time.
This is the longest intro to a porn comic I’ve ever seen.
HAH!
Anybody else remember when she had her tits out in the first scene, before it got retconned?
Wouldn’t be much of a party without the gang now would it.
I don’t see orange goggles fish lady anywhere. I DON’T SEE ORANGE GOGGLES FISH LADY ANYWHERE!
A lot of people are in a hurry to die today.
The dead arranged in the same pose foreshadow the fate of the impatient.
Yes, the Gunwitch!
I’m so happy that she survived.
It is joyous to see that many of the Fools have survived. It wouldn’t be a parade without Giant Baby, Gun Witch, Sword Warlock, et al.
It’s our old friends the pursuers. What fun.
Mammon is going to have to get a lot of snacks for all those guests.
Or maybe Mammon will be the one having the guests as a snack.
Also, that text about “secret fire of Those Who Came Before” is making me think of the Vril from the Hellboy universe. I read a Magnoliaverse storytime recently.
DEICIDE
Fewer of them, this time.
I sense a trend.
Here comes Trouble
make it Nonuple
Nine companions. They shall be known as the Fellowship of the…King?
More like Fellowship of the Get This Done So We Can Get Back To Killing Each Other.
She’s… Healed???
Don’t act so surprised. My kind are all about. Someone’s got to keep the world from flying apart from all the senseless cutting. (The excellent qualities of certain liqueurs don’t hurt either.)
It is worth noting, perhaps, that the previous page thinks itself the most recent page. It stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the “Next Page” button.
Wait, the scale here seems…. weird. Is all of this still INSIDE Mammon’s vault, or is this outside? I got the impression from the last pages that all of the flying city was *already* inside the infinite vault crashing around.
I’m confuzzled.
The infinite vault is bigger on the inside than on the outside, of course. So a whole flying City can indeed crash into a window and vanish inside a house, if only there is enough infinity behind the window.
The vault is an infinite space inside a bounded finite space. Don’t think about it too hard, you’ll go cross eyed.
This is outside. The previous page showed part of Mottom’s palace poking into the vault from the perspective of those inside. On this page we cut to a view from outside as the rest of the palace vanishes into the breach.
Those mounds of coins on this page are Charon’s treasure hoard overlooking the vault from a distance
I want to think that at some point -preferably towards the end- these guys are going to say “You know what, fuck this shit” and just go for pizza and beers together or something.
Noodles
Noodles it is, then.
EVERY BODY DANCE NOW
It’s a long journey from Mykos to Yre on foot.
I think it’s safe to assume the Count will not be continuing.
Oh no, it will. It’s just that after this, the survivors will busy themselves counting the CORPSES.
Auntie Maya …
GUESS WHO’S BACK, GUESS WHO’S BACK AGAIN
AND GODS DAMN IF A PARADE OF IDIOTS DOESN’T MAKE FOR SOMETHING VIOLENTLY SWELL
Here comes trouble
A parade of fools,
A parade of dead,
Äiv äov äum somutreh.
Her old Middle Army? or perhaps its successor.
Before things clear up, they must become messier.
Giant baby bounty hunter has had about enough of this, Mottom.
中
The True Middle Army
I spy a new angel.
One of 4 suits of stone armor made and maintained by a rodentlike Knight Peregrine hiding in Throne’s sewers
I spy a new angel!
It would seem the hunters have reached an accord.
Murder Baby returns, praise Murder Baby!
INGVILD LIVES!
INGSVLD LIVES!
inb4 the comment section is overrun with excitement about INGSVLD being alive and reconstituted
3 minutes too slow.
So I can totally see peace and harmony in 3, 2, 1…
The dead are all “… yes, yes, very dramatic. We’re here too. And we’ve bling.”
Uhhh what?
“Be steady to your purposes, and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts might be; it is mutable, cannot withstand you, if you say that it shall not.” – Frankenstein’s Monster
Whoops! That should have been attributed to Frankenstein, not his monster.
The other raid team showing up to help with the 2nd stage boss fight.
Return of the rowdy fight boys.
isn’t that our rare and beloved gunwitch i see? its been a while since we last saw layla brimstone
It is kind of the Pursuers to give that dead woman another chance
Look! La! Some rowdy howling fightybubs, some raggedy rowlin’ fightin’ duds!
Ia*
So, has Heaven come to just sitting around waiting for something to happen other than the latest fetish masks? And is it just me or does that big baby not look like Donald Trump.
Hrmm… He’s definitely YUUUUGE! And believe me, he’s absolutely the Best Giant Baby bounty hunter. Just wait, you’ll see.
But I think he needs more hair to really pull it off.
Is one of these guys gonna be door food?
Who needs a door when God has blown a bloody great hole through the wall?
REACH HEAVEN BY VIOLENCE BABY!
Second
BOOK HEAD RETURNS
INGSVLD LIVES
INGSVLD LIVES!
*breaks out the popcorn*
This is going to be good.
I hope that Mottom has paid her flying city insurance premiums, or she might be quite dismayed at the expense of those repairs. I assume, of course, that she survived the crash. It doesn’t seem like an unlikely one.
But here is a query, how does one cut away the indolence of wealth, when we all know that what cuts keenest is the whip of poverty?
The only entity which might conceivably offer such insurance is the Grand Dragon Bank itself and somehow I doubt they will be willing to pay out after this.
So Mottom verses Maya is class warfare! Consider how rich Maya seems to the skeleton guy in front of her…
Well, when it rains, it pours…
I desire to know the name of the Dirty God. I shall place an idol of this power in the shadows, this titan of sycophancy, within my private shrine to Mammon, for she is my role model in her transmutation of her own blood into molten gold, a procedure I myself have undergone. I shall pray to her daily, that the precious metal burns hotter in my veins, shines brighter in my orichalcum heart, if only I knew her name!
Kill Six Billion Demons
Winston Overwatch
Ia! Ia! Ingsvld lives!
Woe befalls any who stand in the path of the parade of fools.
INGSVLD LIVES!
Burning sky cities can’t melt fractal beams!
The attack on Yre was an inside job!
It is always worrysome when you don’t see your favorite katana wielding mercenary admist the group.
Hopefully she’s still in there, soemwhere.
Wait… FOURTH conquest?
You know, this is almost completely unrelated to the topic at hand, but seeing Maya reminded me of Meti’s Sword Manual. The point is, I was reading Berserk the other day and realized that Guts wouldn’t need to read Meti’s Sword Manual, he’s already all but mastered it. Thoughts?
Yo ingsvild is back lookit that old bookie boi
OOOOO…. Moma Maya is coming. I wish I was with her.
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii still ship Maya and Zoss as the drunken/badass power grandma/grandpa couple.
They probably hate each other or something, but that just makes the fanfic more interesting.
(I must be the off-beat blue devil that ships rare-pairs, while Cio goes for the popular stuff…)
> Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii still ship Maya and Zoss as the drunken/badass power grandma/grandpa couple.
Aaaaaactually that’s sorta impressive 😀
*there could be baffled comment concerning the Fourth Conquest or cheerful one concerning returning of the pursuers, but there are plenty o’ them already, so why should I bother*
Michelangelo, is that you?
9/11 ?
Iron birds of fortune
Adrift above the skies
Cloudy revelations
Unseen by naked eyes
Flying tools of torment
Will penetrate the sphere
Erupt the rock of ages
Bringing final fear
Instruments of destruction
Tools of foul play
It’s a violent eruption
Existence drips away
At this point, I think Mammon should fire his security staff.
Hrmm… What do you think about death?
Now, THAT is a party.
And hell followed with her.
Gold may stave off the blade’s caress, but never truly avert it, such is the nature of violence.
Hang on, need to put on ‘The Boys are Back in town’