She already stated once, that she “beheaded him quite cleanly”, but he regenerated using blood magic and beat her after that. So yes, I think he will walk it off, strike her with an eviscerating blow and only after that, she MAYBE will hit him.
40 Crimson Cicada Sings Along to the Sounds of Armageddon
Not just blood alchemy, but also Head of John. My own headcanon for their encounter on Rayuba has Maya chopping Inkyâs head off in one cut, but as his head is tumbling away, he catches it by the hair and then uses it as a âhead-flailâ to pummel her nearly to death.
I feel like he will, because of how suddenly the fight seemed to end.
Sure, a character can be killed off suddenly â just look at Mammon and Mottom.
âŚBut the panel where Mammon was killed felt a lot more impactful than Incubus being cut open, and then it was pretty much a given that Mottom was going to die too.
Because this doesnât feel as final, I reckon Incubus isnât out of the story yet.
Of course he will. He was likely more damaged by Jagganoth cuts, and did reappear, just without all clothes. I’m afraid Maya will be happy that she managed to actually cut his flesh, but he is the current inheritor of the word Flame. There’s no way a Demiurge would fall so easily.
Patience, friend preem, the orchestra and attached choir responsible for boss music have been VERY BUSY for the entirety of this battle. Most all of them have been sprinting back-and-forth since the 108 pursuers joined in, and I’m pretty sure that at least two of the death metal guitarists fully passed out after Gog-Agog set forth her corpse-eating tidal wave.
And besides, a tune always hits a little harder when it has a breath or two of silence to precede it.
You misunderstand the nature of Cutting. Who are you to decide where one cut ends and another begins? It is in the burning soul of the swordsman. Incubus is weak of heart and makes many weak cuts. Maya is resolved to the total annihilation of her enemy and herself. Every step she takes is a continuous cutting motion. This is the way.
In truth, she made one slash, but the maybe sword, who’s blade shone for only a moment to our mortal eyes, cut a grid of possibilities, eviscerating incubus on every axis upon which he was vulnerable. People who called the last strip ‘filler’ might note that every slash was accounted for in this battle, and Maya Ten Meti did nothing but parry until this moment. If every sword fight ended after a single panel, I wonder what they would call filler next, perhaps they’d finally read about Jhonen Vasquez’ pink rabbit.
Maybe it’s a secret hyperspace cutting technique, wherein Maya moved in a single stroke through a higher dimension, and it was only manifested in normal space by appearing as multiple strokes.
You must never make ‘multiple’ cuts. Each must be singular in its beauty, no matter how many precede it. You must make your enemies weep with admiration, and likewise should your head be shorn off by such an object of beauty, you must do your best to shed tears of respect.
Maya, if you need one Cut, you need to go vertically, not horizontally!
I’m sure Inky can smush himself back together regardless but that seems like a much stronger Cut for someone who’s head can regen being lopped off
Q: I just noticed that in every appearance he’s made, right back to the flashbacks in the first book, Incubus has three studs in his forehead. Is he a master of Head of John?
A: He is indeed! Good catch. The style was actually based on stuff I added to his appearance early.
I once made a point to ask certain helpful computer vatra to bring all question-answer posts in one txt file, so that I have this knowlege conveniently stored in one place.
Incubus is the personification of Maya’s past crimes. She fled without atonement and her past slaughtered everything she had built. Here she fights as an earnest student, a sworn-sister, but explicitly not as god-king. She strikes to kill her past, not for vengeance or redemption, but out of necessity. A sword-king cannot be allowed to rule, be it Jantris, Mathangi Mantra, or Incubus.
Whether or not Incubus dies, Maya will carry him, the same way she caries Meti. For all the divinity of the cut, neither atonement nor vengeance find any closure.
Honestly, most powerful people in this story are assholes to some degree, one way or another. Maybe for good reasons, maybe not.
Some of them might have been made that way by a horrific past, like Mottom â but, well, Allison already lectured her about not pillaging entire worlds about it.
Others might have good intentions with it, Solomon David seems to have been very genuine in wanting the best for Rayuba â but his laws were still overbearingly harsh.
Part of what makes Incubus interesting, is how self-aware he is about it, though. He doesnât make excuses for it like Mottom did, he doesnât portray it as necessary like Solomon David, he doesnât try running away from that truth like Maya has doneâŚeven looking at what he said to Zoss â âyour heaven is rotten, old manâ â he doesnât fall into treating cruelty as something insignificant or meaningless, like how Gog-Agog views pretty much everything.
Incubus is cruel, heâs an asshole â and heâs directly acknowledging that fact.
Honestly, Iâd love to see something about what he would do if he âwonâ. How he would answer Metiâs question of âwhat then?â, what it would all be for.
Because Jagganoth has already given his own answer, stated his intentions to purge all evil from the wheel, explicitly including himself in thatâŚand in doing so, acknowledged the âevilâ in his own actions â and Mammon, the only other Demiurge who I felt actually directly and honestly acknowledged being an asshole, (at least in the past) kinda already made it clear that he had no particular ambitions anymore, and was already living out his âwhat comes nextââŚ
But with Incubus, it feels like something heâs kept to himself a lot more.
(I guess technically, Allison has a little bit of both Incubus and Gog-Agog in her, so her seemingly inevitable victory could give some sort of insight into what their aspirations would be. But sheâs still very much her own character, her will is very distinctly her own, so itâs still very much a different story)
Incubus is the bearer of the word Flame. Fire burns things down, and then when they’re gone it burns out. I’m not sure Incubus could continue to exist without someone more powerful to strive agaist
Incubus wins, quickly grows bored, and causes another universal war (the word âshatteringâ came to mind first, guess thatâs just from K6BDâs parallels with Elden Ring) just to push for someone to grow strong enough to be a worthy rivalâŚ
I imagine many people throughout The Wheel, sick of universal wars, would be pretty exasperated at that point.
I don’t think Incubus ever really had the *intention* to win. He might be the only one of the Seven who is- with the obvious exception of his obsession with Maya and disrespect from the other Demiurges- content with being a bloodthirsty warlord ruling over an anarchic chaos. No pretentions of reaching a greater transcendence and surpassing Zoss like Solomon David or Gog-Agog, just warring forever.
So, when he told Allison that âitâs only about winningâ, he maybe wasnât really talking about his own actions? Either commenting on how the others were competing to âwinâ in their own ways (at least some of them â but Mottom tried to give away her power, Mammon was content to live in his vault, and Jadis at least believes she has no aspirations), or ONLY encouraging Allison to see it that way for herself?
I guess that actually makes this battle pretty unfortunate for him. With Mottom and Mammon dead, and Solomon David having exhausted his strength, almost everyone who could rival his power is either in this battle, or going to be soon. And if his side were to win, thatâd only leave Jagganoth.
So, there might not be many wars left for him to fight, for some time. Unless heâs content with dying soon.
I interpret “it’s only about winning” as being an endorsement of a realpolitik view. He doesn’t have any grand aspirations, he’s still just trying to survive and he seeks power because he sees things as a zero sum game where if he can defeat all his competitors he’ll have complete control and be safe. Which is also why Meti saw him as unworthy – he has no answer to “what then”, and his only goal is to avoid death. He’s trying to win a feeling of safety, but that’s not really possible because any position he takes by force he’ll know could be taken from him by force. I think if he actually were to ‘win’ he’d just descend into paranoia
Oh yeah, that’s true. Forgot about him saying that. I guess it might be more him seeing “winning” as a lofty ideal but no understanding of what comes with it. You win by being the best at being dirty, underhanded, and too determined to die. What comes after that… who knows? More of the same, maybe? But Incubus has never truly been in a position where he *wasn’t* constantly striving for some goal- I doubt he’d be able to truly appreciate victory.
What I think is more notable is what he said to Maya. He’s completely right that she doesn’t really have any moral high ground over him and she just wants to be truly done with her past- even though she cannot be rid of it by further killing. Incubus at least owns what he is.
From nothing we came, and to nothing we will return
Except for me. I came from something!
I’ll probably turn to nothing but eh
And so Maya will have her stone back?
Deep thought. What matters most is how we live the journey.
He better not enter a second phase with his blood magic.
FOOL! YOU ABSOLUTE MORON AND IMBECILE by 72 names! What have done?! Now that is JINXED.
Or maybe not? Who knows
Haha, just kidding.
Unless…?
He’s about to pull a Dio. Bet.
Dont forget he is a user of the head of john , his head is indestructible and still alive
If he demands a death by one thousand cuts who is she to deny him the full measure of her pity.
he isn’t dead yet because a true swordsman ends the fight with a single strike, and that was more than one.
He’s absolutely going to enter phase 2 with his blood magic
Regrettably he has entered phase two with his blood magic.
8 Hunks of Erstwhile Demiuge Twirling Gracefully in an Autumn Breeze
Taking bets on whether he walks it off or not.
20 ‘ket says he pulls some blood magic bullshit.
“You fool, I am not the body, I am the BLOOD!” and then she hits him with that Auntie Lemon Juice and White Distilled Vinegar combo
Or just some Pine Sol
Underrated comment
“Slice of lemon!”
She already stated once, that she “beheaded him quite cleanly”, but he regenerated using blood magic and beat her after that. So yes, I think he will walk it off, strike her with an eviscerating blow and only after that, she MAYBE will hit him.
Not just blood alchemy, but also Head of John. My own headcanon for their encounter on Rayuba has Maya chopping Inkyâs head off in one cut, but as his head is tumbling away, he catches it by the hair and then uses it as a âhead-flailâ to pummel her nearly to death.
Ha, you said headcanon to him using his own head as a flail. Maybe he even put it in a cannon and used it as ammunition. You are a funny lad.
I feel like he will, because of how suddenly the fight seemed to end.
Sure, a character can be killed off suddenly â just look at Mammon and Mottom.
âŚBut the panel where Mammon was killed felt a lot more impactful than Incubus being cut open, and then it was pretty much a given that Mottom was going to die too.
Because this doesnât feel as final, I reckon Incubus isnât out of the story yet.
it’s more than one cut, of course he does.
His skin and probably more regenerated after a minute or two from being flayed. Given half a chance he’ll be fine.
Of course he will. He was likely more damaged by Jagganoth cuts, and did reappear, just without all clothes. I’m afraid Maya will be happy that she managed to actually cut his flesh, but he is the current inheritor of the word Flame. There’s no way a Demiurge would fall so easily.
Phase 2 coming up. Whereâs the boss music?
Patience, friend preem, the orchestra and attached choir responsible for boss music have been VERY BUSY for the entirety of this battle. Most all of them have been sprinting back-and-forth since the 108 pursuers joined in, and I’m pretty sure that at least two of the death metal guitarists fully passed out after Gog-Agog set forth her corpse-eating tidal wave.
And besides, a tune always hits a little harder when it has a breath or two of silence to precede it.
Oh crap does anyone else here chanting in Latin?
Thatâs a lot more than one cut, Maya.
Right? She did what Incubus did to Cio
You misunderstand the nature of Cutting. Who are you to decide where one cut ends and another begins? It is in the burning soul of the swordsman. Incubus is weak of heart and makes many weak cuts. Maya is resolved to the total annihilation of her enemy and herself. Every step she takes is a continuous cutting motion. This is the way.
She gets off on a technicalityâŚ
I count seven cuts
In truth, she made one slash, but the maybe sword, who’s blade shone for only a moment to our mortal eyes, cut a grid of possibilities, eviscerating incubus on every axis upon which he was vulnerable. People who called the last strip ‘filler’ might note that every slash was accounted for in this battle, and Maya Ten Meti did nothing but parry until this moment. If every sword fight ended after a single panel, I wonder what they would call filler next, perhaps they’d finally read about Jhonen Vasquez’ pink rabbit.
A single cut, approaching infinity, may wrap around creation to cut multiple times.
By rejecting his words, Maya copied him in actions
Maybe it’s a secret hyperspace cutting technique, wherein Maya moved in a single stroke through a higher dimension, and it was only manifested in normal space by appearing as multiple strokes.
You must never make ‘multiple’ cuts. Each must be singular in its beauty, no matter how many precede it. You must make your enemies weep with admiration, and likewise should your head be shorn off by such an object of beauty, you must do your best to shed tears of respect.
– 8th Precept, Meti’s Sword Manual
Someone has been neglecting their studies . . .
When Metiâs own head was cut off, she must not have considered the cut an object of beauty.
If Incubus draws power from his blood, and Maya loves to drink, there is but one solution
Drincubus
The spirits spoke to me in a dream, they said this was the best comment on the internet ever.
..that should suffice.
Not even close. Incubus looks singularly unimpressed, and Maya is about to get absolutely worked.
Oh, this is gonna leave a bruise
Maya, if you need one Cut, you need to go vertically, not horizontally!
I’m sure Inky can smush himself back together regardless but that seems like a much stronger Cut for someone who’s head can regen being lopped off
Unfortunately, Incubus is a practitioner of the Head of John, and his head is quite invincible.
Maybe. Maybe not. đ
Sequences cut in fractions of both time and space, with past fragments mixing with very blood body fragments of the present slice
I don’t think that’s enough to kill him, but I hope it hurts like hell.
He probably enjoys that
helpppp incubus is so chopped đđđ
Should of aimed for the head- a certain mad tyrant
His head is invulnerable, that’s the entire point of Head of John.
Didnât realize Incubus was a practitioner of âhead of Johnâ where was it stated?
Waaaay back in the author’s Tumblr.
Q: I just noticed that in every appearance he’s made, right back to the flashbacks in the first book, Incubus has three studs in his forehead. Is he a master of Head of John?
A: He is indeed! Good catch. The style was actually based on stuff I added to his appearance early.
I once made a point to ask certain helpful computer vatra to bring all question-answer posts in one txt file, so that I have this knowlege conveniently stored in one place.
it’s why he’s so shocked when Allison’s spear cuts him in the dream sparring sequence way back before the heist arc.
I fucking hope he won’t be fine.
By Aesma, what a holy composition!
Pull yourself together, pretty man!
“It’s just a flesh wound.”
He’s seems happy about this, so hopefully she’s playing straight into his hands.
Incubus is the personification of Maya’s past crimes. She fled without atonement and her past slaughtered everything she had built. Here she fights as an earnest student, a sworn-sister, but explicitly not as god-king. She strikes to kill her past, not for vengeance or redemption, but out of necessity. A sword-king cannot be allowed to rule, be it Jantris, Mathangi Mantra, or Incubus.
Whether or not Incubus dies, Maya will carry him, the same way she caries Meti. For all the divinity of the cut, neither atonement nor vengeance find any closure.
March ever forward.
well well WELL now the shoe’s on the other foot AIN’T IT
So much for that one cut, eh? We’re not done here.
Tis but a scratch!
Huh.
He honestly was not wrong.
He was an asshole, but still. He wasn’t wrong.
Honestly, most powerful people in this story are assholes to some degree, one way or another. Maybe for good reasons, maybe not.
Some of them might have been made that way by a horrific past, like Mottom â but, well, Allison already lectured her about not pillaging entire worlds about it.
Others might have good intentions with it, Solomon David seems to have been very genuine in wanting the best for Rayuba â but his laws were still overbearingly harsh.
Part of what makes Incubus interesting, is how self-aware he is about it, though. He doesnât make excuses for it like Mottom did, he doesnât portray it as necessary like Solomon David, he doesnât try running away from that truth like Maya has doneâŚeven looking at what he said to Zoss â âyour heaven is rotten, old manâ â he doesnât fall into treating cruelty as something insignificant or meaningless, like how Gog-Agog views pretty much everything.
Incubus is cruel, heâs an asshole â and heâs directly acknowledging that fact.
Honestly, Iâd love to see something about what he would do if he âwonâ. How he would answer Metiâs question of âwhat then?â, what it would all be for.
Because Jagganoth has already given his own answer, stated his intentions to purge all evil from the wheel, explicitly including himself in thatâŚand in doing so, acknowledged the âevilâ in his own actions â and Mammon, the only other Demiurge who I felt actually directly and honestly acknowledged being an asshole, (at least in the past) kinda already made it clear that he had no particular ambitions anymore, and was already living out his âwhat comes nextââŚ
But with Incubus, it feels like something heâs kept to himself a lot more.
(I guess technically, Allison has a little bit of both Incubus and Gog-Agog in her, so her seemingly inevitable victory could give some sort of insight into what their aspirations would be. But sheâs still very much her own character, her will is very distinctly her own, so itâs still very much a different story)
Incubus is the bearer of the word Flame. Fire burns things down, and then when they’re gone it burns out. I’m not sure Incubus could continue to exist without someone more powerful to strive agaist
Incubus wins, quickly grows bored, and causes another universal war (the word âshatteringâ came to mind first, guess thatâs just from K6BDâs parallels with Elden Ring) just to push for someone to grow strong enough to be a worthy rivalâŚ
I imagine many people throughout The Wheel, sick of universal wars, would be pretty exasperated at that point.
I don’t think Incubus ever really had the *intention* to win. He might be the only one of the Seven who is- with the obvious exception of his obsession with Maya and disrespect from the other Demiurges- content with being a bloodthirsty warlord ruling over an anarchic chaos. No pretentions of reaching a greater transcendence and surpassing Zoss like Solomon David or Gog-Agog, just warring forever.
So, when he told Allison that âitâs only about winningâ, he maybe wasnât really talking about his own actions? Either commenting on how the others were competing to âwinâ in their own ways (at least some of them â but Mottom tried to give away her power, Mammon was content to live in his vault, and Jadis at least believes she has no aspirations), or ONLY encouraging Allison to see it that way for herself?
I guess that actually makes this battle pretty unfortunate for him. With Mottom and Mammon dead, and Solomon David having exhausted his strength, almost everyone who could rival his power is either in this battle, or going to be soon. And if his side were to win, thatâd only leave Jagganoth.
So, there might not be many wars left for him to fight, for some time. Unless heâs content with dying soon.
I interpret “it’s only about winning” as being an endorsement of a realpolitik view. He doesn’t have any grand aspirations, he’s still just trying to survive and he seeks power because he sees things as a zero sum game where if he can defeat all his competitors he’ll have complete control and be safe. Which is also why Meti saw him as unworthy – he has no answer to “what then”, and his only goal is to avoid death. He’s trying to win a feeling of safety, but that’s not really possible because any position he takes by force he’ll know could be taken from him by force. I think if he actually were to ‘win’ he’d just descend into paranoia
Oh yeah, that’s true. Forgot about him saying that. I guess it might be more him seeing “winning” as a lofty ideal but no understanding of what comes with it. You win by being the best at being dirty, underhanded, and too determined to die. What comes after that… who knows? More of the same, maybe? But Incubus has never truly been in a position where he *wasn’t* constantly striving for some goal- I doubt he’d be able to truly appreciate victory.
What I think is more notable is what he said to Maya. He’s completely right that she doesn’t really have any moral high ground over him and she just wants to be truly done with her past- even though she cannot be rid of it by further killing. Incubus at least owns what he is.
What a lousy swordsman Maya has become.