WHEEL SMASHING LORD 6-204
Chapter: 6
“Tzimin secret arts (index pp 45):
Bloody rain blade
Insect flesh cultivation
Cicada shell razor
Wheel of god’s organs.”
– Skin alchemy manual, 400 BSC
Kill Six Billion Demons
BREAKER OF INFINITIES
“Tzimin secret arts (index pp 45):
Bloody rain blade
Insect flesh cultivation
Cicada shell razor
Wheel of god’s organs.”
– Skin alchemy manual, 400 BSC
For fusks sake. I get it. Incubus is a horrible person. But he is still one of the most clever people of the setting. He actually put in an absurd amount of effort, to reach his goal. And everyone still disrespects him. To be frank, I think he will win against Maya and then lose to the cubit spear from Allison.
I sort of hope you’re right, there.
Like you said, everyone disrespects and underestimates him…the only Demiurges I don’t remember being hostile to him are Gog-Agog (who still looks down on him and everyone else) and Mammon, his own subjects are shown to be very vocally demanding towards him, and Maya even blamed him for her own actions on killing Meti…
So, while I don’t know what would be most satisfying for the story as a whole, the most satisfying way to kill off Incubus for his own character arc (definitely not for Maya’s, but I find Incubus more interesting anyway) would be the way that proves everyone wrong in looking down on him, that lets him be seen less like a pretender and more like an underdog who managed to surpass his rivals.
What better way to do that, than have him die to the person he mentored, to a technique he trained her to use?
GOOOO INKY HE’S OUR MAN IF HE CANT KILL IT NO ONE CAN
Unironically cheering for Inky here, Maya is responsible for very likely billions of deaths, entire worlds butchered. You don’t get to walk away from that. You don’t get a pass because you have regrets, or because you know how to make a killer spicy hot pot. ALL the demiurges will be called to answer for their crimes and their excesses and the horrors and cruelties before the end of this.
Incubus is very clearly The Bad Guy and he needs to go, without question, but he’s *not* wrong about Maya. She murdered Meti because Meti called her out on her monstrosity and destroyed her ego and she’s got the audacity to be upset that Incubus honored Meti’s last wish to be fed to the dogs? After all she’s done, all the death and monstrosity and blood?
Nah. They BOTH gotta go.
It wasn’t that easy.
Very polite of her to cut perfectly around his hair. No Sephiroth should ever be parted from his alabaster locks.
Head of John. His hair is immune to cutting. Maybe that’s why it’s only short in his dream visits… he’s been growing it out for centuries
That smug look in response to being called a lapdog just about makes me suspect that Incubus has a plan to defeat Jagganoth himself and truly Win.
I mean, we already had a huge vs Jagganoth fight, why can’t Incubus be the true final boss?
Because Jagganoth was never the true final boss, it’s Metatron
I’ve been thinking from back when they were first shown to be working together that…both of them intend to turn on the other, neither of them were hiding it (Jagganoth saying “you think your new toy will be enough to stop me from finishing my work?”, Incubus saying “then we’ll see if you deserve the master key”, they’re both openly talking about how they’ll end up as enemies), and even with how unlikely it looks at this point for Allison to play into what Incubus wants from her… (Though, who knows what he might have done from in her mind, in preparation for this?)
Well, he knows Jagganoth will be his enemy. He wouldn’t be fighting for Jagganoth here — fighting all potential allies against him — if he didn’t still have a plan to overcome him.
As for what his plans are, and whether they’ll be enough…I don’t think he’s actually shown his hand yet. He knows an army won’t help against someone who can kill the whole planet they’re on, (and allies he gained through assurances of being spared by Jagganoth, won’t want to then side against him) he was already rejected as an ally by Allison on Rayuba (and then cemented that by killing Cio), he’s known for centuries how determined Jagganoth is to exact justice on the world (and can’t possibly expect to be spared by him)…nor can I see any reason why the angels or Gog-Agog would side with him…and I can’t see devils being too inclined to trust him, though won’t rule out there being another pragmatic alliance.
Whatever has him so confident that he can win, feels like an unknown right now. So, there’s no telling how effective it would be, if at all.
You know, it was never established that he doesn’t have access to Allison’s mind anymore, and this whole battle is a GREAT way of eliminating anyone with even a remote chance at defeating him, his own “allies” included. Well, except her. She was able to cut the Head of John master on the cheek. A pity she won’t be able to do anything about it when she’s lost in dreamland~
Yep. Question is, if he tries to exploit that now…will it work? Will he be able to control her, at this point? Or would she be able to overcome him?
Before the years Allison spent with Jadis, I’d think that, sure, it would play out to Incubus’ advantage.
But not only have Cio, White Chain, Gog-Agog, Zoss, and especially Incubus himself given Allison a lot of experience with others being in her body…but being shown Jadis’ memories and being trained, again, by Incubus himself, has given Allison plenty of experience with mindscapes.
Enough to see through a Demiurges techniques and overcome him in his own domain? I wouldn’t think so…if Allison hadn’t overcome Gog-Agog in her mindscape, enough to have power over her even now.
I guess then it’s a question of…who’s better at this — a Demiurge who’s specialised in techniques targeting people’s minds, or a Demiurge at least thousands of times older (probably far more) who’s had far longer to master just about everything? And even if it’s Incubus, is the gap significant enough for him to also best Allison?
As Maya acknowledged as true, Incubus’ mentoring of Allison was genuine…and I hope that will be his undoing, to still give him a “victory”; failing as a villain because of succeeding as a mentor.
(Technically, he could succeed outright — it was confirmed that Allison has another few decades to live, but not that she’ll be in control of her own body throughout that. And her main flaw as a fighter has been overreliance on the key, which seems more linked to her body than her mind or soul, maybe taking over her body would allow for isolating her from her power.
But it simply doesn’t feel like Incubus is going to survive to the end himself)
just keep the dril quotes comin’
well, that’s truly horrific
Oh so that’s what she meant by blood alchemy earlier.
I get the feeling that Incubus isn’t *actually* trying to kill Maya (though, if she dies she dies, like when Allison broke down and he gave up on her). He could’ve killed her easily when he sought her out at her home – or when Maya defended Allison (in her words, he beat her up within an inch of her life). He still sees her as his sister, which she can’t even understand in her rage – I think Incubus has been doing everything for is to spur her to return to her previous power, perhaps even at the cost of his own life.
“When given to violence, you should not be fooled by it’s character or consequences. You should not be taken with it’s promises or the feelings it gives you. You should probably focus more on why you’re so determined to kill this guy, and how strong that reason is. This is the crux of all things, but violence above all else.”
– Grand Stance Between The Leaves, Human Fighter, veteran of mental combat.
He just does not understand. She discarded the power to rule in service of a different thing but somebody so drunkenly in love with his own might would never grasp the concept.
Beginning to wonder if either of these two even want to kill the other.
Oh I’m sure they do, they’re both murderous demons from the goddamn pits of hell. Frankly I’m kind of hoping for a mutual kill here, both of these people have OCEANS of innocent blood and galaxies of pain to answer for and making a good hotpot doesn’t balance the scales.
hmmm… fire + jagged rock?
funny that he talks about stagnation. you’re the only centipede looking guy right now.
I knew Inky was going to pull some absurd bullshit to walk off being shoved into a blender, but I certainly didn’t expect him to take a page from clan Tzimisce’s playbook.
For how much Incubus doesn’t think much of Meti’s teachings he seems to be demonstrating a very literal reading of this segment from Meti’s Sword Manual: “The only truly useful thing in this cursed world is will. You must suffuse your worthless body with its terrible heat. You must be so hot that even if your enemy should strike your head off, you shall continue to decapitate ten more men. Your boiling blood must spring forth from your neck and mutilate the survivors!”
I’m beginning to get the feeling the good guys are not going to win.
Sword Pervert…
That last panel is giving off some serious “next page Maya is getting stabbed really bad” energy
nm, what’s lap with u
I don’t particularly like Maya, she’s a consummate hypocrite. Like I’m sorry but you don’t get a pass on slaughtering entire worlds because you’re regretful and make a mean hotpot. In the greater context of things I’m not fond of Incubus either but in this very specific confrontation, Inky VS Maya, I think I’m on his side.
Best case scenario, they mutually annihilate each other.
I’m hoping she gets some kind of comeuppance, but more in the form of accepting her past instead of trying to kill it by proxy. She is still deflecting from what she did—she blames Incubus for her master’s death, calls him her greatest failure, has dedicated her entire wretched half-life to killing him because he’s the mirror of her own evil. If she’s going to get a satisfying end as a character, I feel like she needs to move past that ultimately self-pitying hatred.
I think mutual annihilation is a good bet, but Maya hasn’t shown anything capable of actually harming Incubus thus far. She really comes off as kind of a doofus for continuing to ram her head against this wall. The guy is immune to sword, and sword is all she does.
To be clear I still feel like she needs to die. Not in a moral sense, just that her story doesn’t really work if she lives. She already tried the noodle vendor thing, but she’s spilled far too much blood to escape violence, and Incubus proved it. The only question now is whether her death will have meaning.
As Meti herself was taught by Ryo-ten-Ryam:
“Remember, oh student, this above all other laws: the grip of a sword is suffused with a deep and powerful poison that rots to the bone. It can never be rid of once touched, no matter how much you wish otherwise.”
Maya is almost certainly going to die. She said herself that this will be the day of her death.
But whether she’ll realise before she dies how irresponsible it is to run from her past — and the fact that she hasn’t changed that much (commenting that the number of people she’s killed here just to get to Incubus is “not too many” is at best a lie, at worst a sign that she doesn’t see the value in others’ lives) — well, I guess that’ll depend on if she takes in any of what Incubus is saying.
Even he finds it “sickening” to ignore the price of power paid in lives, even he sees significance in others’ lives — Maya should be able to as well, like she did when they first met and she offered him food. (Even if she’s since taken after Meti in the worst way)
Whelp, time to try fire.
Definitely need crush type damage for this enemy.
That opening panel of her licking the blood off while the whole frame explodes in red is fantastic. The speed lines and the SHRIIP lettering sell how fast this fight got.