Kill Six Billion Demons

The Tower was divided into five zones, with the team controlling the most zones winning the entire tower. Possibly the most high-profile zone was the Pinnacle, where two characters alone fought for the entire zone, judged solely by Abbadon. The Pyre entrant was Aubrey, who I've already talked about at length. The Bastion entrant is the Marquis, who I don't think I've posted here outside some King's Players comics (though he's been borderline several times). The Marquis is basically a stuffed bunny man illusionist who can also use the Black Art, but at the cost of his own soul flame. He's also in a relationship with Costard from the Kings Players. The Marquis' storyline has actually been leading towards the Tower for several rounds now, and it might be worth reading these two interlude comics to understand his story better, but the cliff notes version is that he's created a pocket dimension to protect people from Rayuba's eventual destruction. The Marquis' actual finale is absolutely incredible, explaining his backstory while excellently tying it to the tragic ending that his storyline has built up to over the entire tournament, and giving a pretty good treatment of Aubrey's character too. But while said entry might be perfect as a finale to the Marquis specifically, Aubrey's entry is the perfect capstone to War for Rayuba as a whole. Not only is it a whopping 350 pages long, not only are the action, animation, writing and humor all wonderfully done; but I also love the way it ties the "non-canon" losing comics into the story through Aubrey's key, making it feel like a true grand finale.

The second zone was the Archive, which consisted of a 4v4 match that was basically a clash. The Pyre version stands out for its absolutely amazing suggestion of what was actually in said Archive, and if that had been the story's focus it would probably have been my favourite, but instead it barely factored into the actual comic. It felt more like a quick diversion before going back to the actual plot. I also felt that the Bastion characters were too inconsequential in the story. I found I preferred the Bastion version when it came to art, panel flow and the climax (though the Pyre version was pretty great at all of those as well), and I especially love what they did with Bronwyn.

The third zone was the Hall, which consisted of ten 2v2 deathmatches. Easily the most hype matchup of this zone (and possibly all of round 9, pinnacle and archive included) is the deathmatch between Leopold and Hessian versus Tower Fucker (made by the creator of Leslie) and Technique of Relief. The Pyre comic is really amazing in its own right, with great art, a natural end for To R's story, and some really clever fates for Leopld and Hessian. You'd probably need to read this breathtaking backstory comic first to fully understand what is happening at the end, though. As great as the Pyre entry is though, the Bastion entry is my unquestionable favourite. Not only is the entire thing over 80 pages long, and not only is every single one of those pages intricately and masterfully drawn with tons of details, but this is one of those rare comics that just keeps topping itself over and over. I literally lost count of all the time this thing made my jaw drop to the floor just to then do it again even harder. This comic challenges the Pinnacle comics for my round 9 favourite, and is yet another addition to my shortlist of favourite comics of the entire tournament.

Another great matchup from the Hall is Shoota and Lucille trying to stop the resurrection of the Many Hands. The Pyre version has absolutely amazing art and colouring, and one of the most brutal and depressing endings in all of WFR, while the Bastion version succeeds at creating a really creepy atmosphere, and gives us a really intriguing look at the Many Hands' home dimension.

The fourth zone was the Gallery, which was yet another set of ten 2v2's, but this time without the death. The clear standout for me among these matchups was a fight between characters who have been mostly absent from these posts, though luckily both comics come with character introductions. This is one of the matchups where I had the absolute hardest to pick a favorite. The Pyre comic stands out for its amazing use of color, zany antics, excellent fight choreography, and one of the most creative fight setups I've seen in the entire war. The Bastion comic, meanwhile, stands out for its great humor, its exploration of the character's backstories (also done in a pretty creative way), and having probably the best summary of War For Rayuba I've ever seen on page 1. (Also, here's a fun bonus page.) This one genuinely rivaled the Pinnacle for overall favourite matchup in round 9.

I also have to give special mention to the latest outing with our old talking tree. This is another absolute highlight of the round for me. Not only is it 140 pages long, not only is the coloring gorgeous, not only did it do some really unusual art choices with the real life segments, but this was easily one of the hardest hitting stories of them all. The ending especially left me absolutely speechless when I first read it. This comic summarizes everything that has happened so far and ties it up with a single haunting question. Aubrey's entry in the Pinnacle may be the perfect ending to War for Rayuba, but this is the perfect epilogue.

Other great comics from the Hall and the Gallery include Lata, Lezaford and Greenhorn hunting a nascent demiurge, this amazingly drawn comic about nightmares, this heartfelt piece which gives some very interesting lore for the key that Aubrey found and features some cool themes about truth and hope, two very different and very good endings to Killstar's story, even more MURDER CUBE, and finally this meta comic that breaks the fourth wall and plays around with the comic format in some really interesting ways (to the point that you'll probably wanna read this one on desktop rather than mobile).

The fifth zone was the final grand battle of the war, taking place right outside the tower. When talking about this zone I'd be very remiss not to give special mention to this piece of insanity featuring Mr Completely Undefeatable (from the creator of Sishigeshiji). Beyond that masterpiece, we have a catch up with what remains of the King's Players, more feels with Jude, even more Leggg, this heartwarming reunion between friends, made by four different artists, and finally, this tribute to the war as a whole, featuring every single fighter from the main rounds.

So in the end pyre won the Tower, which let them win with an extremely tight margin (I think the final score was 111-113). Abbadon posted a short comic◊ giving Aubrey the choice of what to do with Rayuba.◊ Aubrey's artist responded with their own short comic◊ of Rayuba getting destroyed◊ but also giving all the characters from either team the chance to escape◊ if their authors want them to.◊ I'll be honest that I'm not really a fan of the place we've been following for almost a year getting blown up, and I was definitely hoping for a Bastion victory, but at least it leads to a more eventful epilogue round than the alternative. Oh yeah, there's an epilogue channel where people can post their character epilogues. I might post the highlights from it some day, but since there's no deadline it's gonna take quite some time for all the epilogues to actually get finished.