Kill Six Billion Demons

Yes this is the last book. Although booksize-wise we're probably about 1/3rd of it in.

Edited by Adannor on Sep 11th 2021 at 11:59:42 AM

Perish NSFW, the Jaggahog cannot be held back.

Brutal

Mottom is definitely one of the more memorable characters and one of the ones with most development.

Not any more she ain't

Mammon also got some good character growth, pulling himself out of his senility and obsession with his hoard to engage with the world again.

Shame how it ended for both of them.

Fallen

I have the feeling that the time has come for him to choose an heir, in what little time he has left.

He apparently has enough energy to put his knee up at least.

I'm not sure voluntarily becoming this guy's heir right now would be a good long-term move for just about anyone.

Edited by DeMarquis on Oct 4th 2021 at 12:38:15 PM

A heroic move in this position would be to declare the people of Rayuba are to govern themselves while he will try and shield them with his own life.

Solomon isn't normally that kind of guy.

Feet of Clay

The Diamond cracks.

On the one hand, it's going to suck for Rayubans when Solomon murders them all.

On the other hand, disregard for collateral gives a chance to see 9 or 10 fingers Ki Rata and I'm hype for that.

SD's doomed. The only question is whether or not he realizes it.

I feel like this is probably going to be the bit where White Chain inherits the throne. She's come a long way, but she'll always be the sort of painfully earnest dweeb who answers the call in situations like this.

Sadly, I believe that there will be no throne to inherit, and no kingdom.

She wouldn't want it anyway.

The Celestial Empire is a highly developed, bureaucratic nation that spans an entire seventh of creation. One planet going pop, even an incredibly important planet, won't cause the whole thing to spontaneously evaporate, and someone needs to be in charge of minimising the damage of the strike on Rayuba and preserving the lives and livelihoods of as many of its trillions of civilians as possible.

White Chain is mildly infamous as the most socially responsible angel in the history of creation - hence the 82 and her matchless combat experience. No way she'd tell all of those people to fuck off and fend for themselves.

Also, even if the entire kingdom did pop like a soap bubble, the heir that Solomon is really looking for is the heir for his Key. That's still something he can give up to someone he finds worthy.

Well, not if Jagganoth takes it.

That's what I mean. Jaggy is not only capable of taking the himself (no matter who has it), but even of ending the entire empire, regardless of how big it is.

That said, I don't foresee WC or Allison just abandoning the casualties, unless they are forced to flee (not unlikely).

It's time for the War for Rayuba round 8 recap.

This round hosted the final clash, as Pyre assaulted the Bastion headquarters by airdropping the giant Ruin sword (a plan that was set up back in the round 5 grand battle). This clash also doubled as a deathmatch, meaning the entire losing team got their characters eliminated from the tournament. Both of these clashes decided to break the mold in some pretty extreme ways. The Bastion clash did it by forgoing the usual linear comic format for some interactive thing hosted on itch.io (though there is an imgur version in case you're on mobile). The Pyre clash, meanwhile, used the battle itself mainly as dressing for a meta commentary on the War for Rayuba as a whole. It also starts with an informative explanation of what's going on, so I would recommend reading this one first if you're not fully up to date on the story (in which case you probably don't need this recap in the first place). The art in both entries is amazing, with the Pyre one having a more beautiful and consistent overall artstyle, but the Bastion one having much higher highs, expecially in the climax. Speaking of climaxes, while both comics are great, I feel the Pyre comic's decision to [[focus on completely different characters, in a different setting, and with Ruin's impact itself only shown in the abstract]] undercuts it as the final showdown for Bastion's temple that's been built up over several rounds, as well as the final sendoff for four different characters; two points which the Bastion comic manages noticeably better.

One of the hypest matchups this round was Aubrey versus Temurin. As expected, both sides absolutely knocked it out of the park, with beautiful art, clean presentation, fulfilling character interactions, and heartwarming stories. Temurin's entry stood out with an adorable flashback and a really cool combat trick, while Aubrey's entry had great humor and interesting meta-shenanigans.

Another of my absolute favourites this round is this deathmatch between Hanz and Leopold, two former Pyre characters who've switched to Bastion, vs an exiled Bastion member. It switches perfectly between wholesome and adorable to absolutely mindblowing art and action, and even diverges from the static image format enough that it requires an epilepsy warning (epilepsy safe version here, btw). The opposing entry is also one of the most disturbing things in the tournament, and continues the meta theme, although I don't quite get what's going on at the end.

On the weirder side of things, Sabi's creator submitted a cat girl version of her this round as a joke, only to actually be picked for the main round. The result is one of the strangest, funniest and downright creepy things to come out of this entire event.

Continuing the wedding theme, we have a comedic action-packed romp with Shoota and Basil vs Bronwyn and Technique of Relief. As fun, awesome, and beautiful as this comic is, I worry that it might be a bit hard to parse certain details of the plot if you're not up to date on the characters' stroylines, though at least there is a character summary at the start. The pyre version doesn't really match the Bastion version in either art, spectacle or zaniness, but I still found it very much worth checking out, with a kickass climax and a bittersweet ending.

Probably the zaniest matchup of all this round was a 2v2 with several characters who've ben borderline on getting into these posts for several round now, including the hilariously sociopathic rock creature Grubmush and General Morsu, who has a magic 8-ball for a head and can only communicate in stock 8-ball responses. In general I think the Bastion version had better art, clearer action and less cramped panels, but the Pyre version has a funnier climax.

The acorns return in a new round that is way more emotional than it has any right to be. I like the art, twist and ending better in the Pyre version, but really, both of these comics hit really hard, Bastion version included.

There's been a lot of Pyre vs Bastion philosophy discussions over the course of these nine rounds, and you grow tired of them very quickly, but occasionally you'll come across one that's actually touching and engaging, like this encounter between an archivist and an evil tree. This one really stood out to me for the strength of its dialogue, its somber tone, and genuinely selling me on the words being powerful enough to actually make someone change their life path.

For our final roundup we have Page Turner meeting an old acquaintance, Hessian versus Dregliege being exactly as kickass as that matchup sounds like (the former especially just kept going one step further whenever I thought that it had reached its peak), this pure manifestation of sheer wholesomeness, an amazing climbing/wrestling matchup, psychic vampire adventures, this amazing two-page deathmatch, and finally a third judge summon involving Abbadon's old OC's.

And in the grand battle this round we have a continuation of Jude's storyline featuring Rem, some fun dancing, the wordless adventures of Leggg, the devil battleship downed by Lezaford and Temurin making one hell of a comeback, and Mnem's story coming to a head with a terrifying new form. Finally I think this comic revisiting the lava angel bound to Ruin is worth linking despite it being very unfinished in some parts, due to the breathtaking art in the finished parts and the origin story that it gives to Ruin.

I was gonna put Aubrey versus Temurin here, but then I thought about Hanz and Leopold and man that shit is just way baller. But then I also thought about Nya-bi, and this thing really has to be seen to be believed.

Edited by Druplesnubb on Oct 17th 2021 at 2:48:16 PM

Is there a place you can go to browse the whole thing? I wouldn't even know this was going on if it weren't for your posts.

https://discord.gg/FnEeVe4K

(On my phone right now, so I can't give more specific details for the time being)

Edited by Druplesnubb on Oct 19th 2021 at 4:37:26 PM

Oh-it's a discord thing.