Source material: Kill Six Billion Demons, chapter 4 and chapter 5

Blogged: June 8-15, 2019

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Howdy! It’s time for another round of K6BD!

Since last time, the patron who’s paying me for this has informed me that chapter 5 is relatively short, so unless chapter 4 is long, I think I’ll be doing both in one go. He has also sent me links to transcripts for each of these chapters, for anyone who might want them: chapter 4 and chapter 5.

So, last time, the rumor come out: Does Allison is have Magus Gate? And now Hell 71 is set to break loose over its control. I’m still thinking Allison is going to end up tangled up with this person before chapter 4 ends:

Let’s read and see how that might happen!

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Oh, wait, I just remembered, I forgot to go look at a few specific bits of alt-text recommended by the patron.

First on this page (3-38), “for humor”:

Yon hoverly mouse thee, wordens appear aboutswise thinken tha?

Ahaha, nice 😛

And then on this page (3-48), “which has a Demiurge name list which may be useful going forward”:

Jagganoth. Jadis. Mammon. Mottom. Gog-Agog. Solomon. Incubus.

Alright! A few of these names have connotations I’m familiar with. Let’s see what we have here…

• Jagganoth: Doesn’t ring a bell.
• Jadis: The name was also used for the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia. I don’t know the original connotations of it, but if my memory isn’t screwing with me, Narnia’s Jadis was a descendant of Lilith. Maybe that has some relevance.
• Mammon: This one’s associated with wealth and greed, right?
• Mottom: There are actually just six Demiurges. The belief that there are seven is a misunderstanding; Mammon got a nickname after the other Demiurges found out he was a bottom, and people thought Mottom was a separate Demiurge. Mammon has threatened give anyone who dares clear things up a fate worse than banishment and goes to great lengths to keep up the illusion that Mottom is a person who exists.
• Gog-Agog: Who let Dave Strider name a Demiurge?
• Solomon: The wise king. Potentially less awful than the others? Perhaps not.
• Incubus: Hm. Perhaps the map of Throne wasn’t confirming the existence of incubi after all. Yeah, looking back at it, it said “Spire of Incubus”, not “Incubi” and I’m seeing the other Demiurges’ names on there too. Anyway, whether incubi as a race of demons exist or not, Incubus is probably a sex-focused bastard. Probably a rapist.

Apparently Solomon has a surname of David, Jadis is the one with the Ziggurat, Mottom has a summer palace (does Throne even have seasons?), Gog-Agog has the Court of Worms (Skitter wasn’t content with Brockton Bay and went on to conquer heaven)…

Oh, and each of the places with Demiurge names attached are also associated with a slightly different symbol that I can now identify as Magus Gates that belong to each of them… but… none of them look like the one in Allison’s head. Closest one is Incubus’, but even that is slightly off.

But each of them would stake claim to 777,777 Magus Gates, wouldn’t they? So not just the ones shown, unless all their Gates look alike for some reason. Judging by the similarity in both color and shape, I’m guessing that if any of the Demiurges stakes claim to the one in Allison’s head, it’s Incubus.

(Boyfriend is still under suspicion. Incubi may be a thing, perhaps named after the Demiurge Incubus (or vice versa), and if the Earth is under Incubus’ claim, that’s all the more reason for one to be there.)

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Okay, now we can start chapter 4. 🙂

First off, we have the map I saw last time, but didn’t examine in detail. Let’s see…

Flame phones are fun.

The person he’s talking to looks like an angel, best I can tell. That or one of this Preem Nungsis’ kin. Either way, interesting.

Implying the armor is still potentially open to being refilled.

But while I do expect White Chain’s return down the line, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be in this particular armor. And if this armor gets filled again, there’s no guarantee it’ll actually be filled by White Chain.

The term “liquid angel” is intriguing. Are there different kinds of angels, perhaps aligned with different elements? Or is this just a term for angels who aren’t currently in armors (though the phrasing seems odd for that)?

She’s a Yisundamned delight, that’s who she is.

Vapor angel. So they are indeed different types, based on states of matter. Especially water, by the sound of it – I’m guessing there are ice angels as well. Are there angels for the more exotic states, like plasma or the other eighteen types of ice?

Delicious is a name that I feel goes well with the JoJo-esque feel of this angel.

And hey, we’ve got a surname and a job for Allison! Nice.

The only word I disbelieve here is “small”.

Well, that explains how he got here. Airships are cool.

(Lately, I’ve been spending some of my off-time playing a Minecraft modpack that includes an airship mod. Maybe I should make one?)

 

It was fairly obvious from their initial scene that they were going to be relevant eventually, but I guess this seals them in for that relevancy coming up soon. Nice.

“Beggarknight” implies they’re a knight from the order of Mendicant.

Then there’s these badasses. Though Layla looks significantly less badass in this shot where she seems like she hasn’t slept in weeks.

The Mendicant is notably right next to them. Possibly going to intervene in the standoff?

Also, the standoffs are way further away from each other, and more separate, than I’d gotten the impression of.

Polishing glass, is that what they’re calling it these days?

The Bone Picker’s Guild are boarding Hell 71 like pirates, heh. Do they ever fly the Jolly Roger?

Number 71 on White Chain’s “82 least favorite places” list.

Ohhh, these enormous bodies being used as ships and busses and the like are angels in large armors. Neat!

My best interpretation of the bus thus far was “motorized god corpse”, which was really metal but rather strange for White Chain to accept.

Oh hey, more details.

Looks like the answer is somewhere in the middle. They’re reanimated corpses (through motorization or magic), but of prime angels, not gods.

Hah! I’ll say.

Seems there’s trouble from every direction, both outside and inside, but at least someone’s not here to fuck everything up. Tialvin Skychaser, huh…

Surprisingly enough, there aren’t any canon MLP characters named Sky Chaser, but there is a semi-popular background pony named Cloud Chaser, and several with Sky as the first part of their names (Sky Stinger, Sky Beak, Skystar…). Also, the name Sky Chaser has been used for a number of fan OCs. I have one named Sky Spinner.

But, y’know, even before all of those ponies and hippogriffs came to mind, the name did remind me of the Skywalkers from Star Wars.

The name Tialvin also makes me think “elf”, so that’s a thing. I guess we’re in for a pegasus elf centaur with a beak and a lightsaber.

(Wait, does that say Tulvin?)

Gate keeper… I have a feeling that means more than just “person who decides who gets to enter” in this case. Notably, there’s a Gate right next to Hell 71.

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We just saw that the airship is on the other side of Hell 71, so this implies Delicious is delicously fast. Fun time for us, perhaps. Not so fun for Allison.

Yeah, like that. That’s about what I expected. 😛

Delicious continues to make me think of JoJo, and I haven’t even gotten to the bits where stuff like this really starts happening (I think).

“Faster than fools can die.” is a really good line, by the way.

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It may indeed be best to measure Delicious’ speed in units of “deaths per meter”.

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Things are really going down now. It’s official: Hell 71’s broken loose.

Oh fuck, Delicious got distracted! Run, Allison, run! Run back and forth across Throne several times, creating a whole movement of demons following you, until you just stop because you don’t feel like running anymore! Then you can go and seek out your lifelong love or something.

And on the way, you might get tangled up with the Mendicant and maybe Side Mouth while you’re at it.

Did Murder Grandpa (Eris-Lo Kai) just pull a Jack Slash?

HELL YES CIOCIE FOR THE WIN

So is she bringing White Chain’s armor in the hopes of letting White Chain reinhabit it and kick some ass?

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yes but also CIO CAN KICK SOME ASS HERSELF TOO

I think Cio’s becoming a party member here and I’m so down for that.

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Allison has, so far, not exactly been the hero type, but she is a main protagonist. So somehow, sometime, she’s probably going to have to grow into that role, and now’s a good time to get started on that.

Nice work. A very heroic pluck, if I may say so myself.

Welcome back, White Chain.

(I guess this is why they’re (she’s?) a liquid angel. I suspect the special effects show would be different if it were a vapor angel like Delicious, for example.)

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Hmmm.

I don’t trust that this is actually White Chain, and by extension, I also don’t trust this “master” we haven’t had any prior indication of that I remember.

Then again, I do think the scene going on here would be upsetting to White Chain (who likes order and peace and prays for forgiveness whenever they’re about to get violent), so an intense reaction like this isn’t necessarily an indication that it’s someone pretending to be them.

Oh hell yes. It was a small thing Ciocie was asking her to do, but the words she used were still inspiring Allison to actually stand up for herself. That’s what she’s finally doing here, and it’s great.

The artist’s skill with facial expressions comes to good use here, too.

“I have a fucking name.” – I wonder if the deeper meanings of this moment are involved in the way took us a while to learn it. Though obviously liveblog pacing had some hand in that too.

Welp, here they go again.

The terrible alternative, huh? As in ripping the Magus Gate out of her head yourself?

I just realized what the story’s setup here reminds me of. It’s reminiscent of Undertale of all things – a young human falls into a world filled with strange beings, many of whom use magic, and many of whom want something that is stuck inside the human’s body and are willing to kill for it. The thing inside their body would allow the beings to stage an invasion of the human’s homeworld.

(…oh hey, an Undertale track just started playing while I was writing this.)

I’ve shipped stranger things, but you’re not quite there yet, buddy.

Leaving sounds like a good call.

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And there goes the prayer. The full form, even, which I don’t believe we’ve seen since we met White Chain. Kinda feels like we’re coming full circle.

So the prayer is something all angels did, back in the day?

Not entirely unsurprising. White Chain is an angel who sticks to old ideas of what the angels in Throne should be, after all.

Ah, fuck, race time.

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I like that “Again?”

Genders are, as always in this comic, kind of uncertain even when the character clearly has boob-like appendages, but Mim strikes me as a Madam.

Disney characters aside, what’s this about Thorn knights?

“There are crazy… stone men doing kung fu!”

Sounds like a JoJo episode plot summary.

Yeah, that’s about how I expected that to end.

Ciocie seems like the kind of person who channels her worries into anger and competence rather than lets them shut her down.

I stand by my take that the sword was probably made for someone with more hands than Allison has.

Ciocie ciontinues to be ciontastic.

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Yeah, that sounds about right for what we’ve seen and been told.

How is the card going to help? Is there a fire-phone number on it to help her get in touch afterwards, or something?

(“Jumping” in this case isn’t some form of teleportation, right? Because if that were the case, why would they not have done it before now? I’m going to assume they’re just literally jumping off this edge until magic stuff happens.)

I appreciate your concern, Allison, even if I don’t like Boyfriend, but let’s face it. He’s the least of your problems right now.

Aaand yeah I suppose that is the best way to help someone who doesn’t have the courage to jump when you’re lacking in time. 😛

Is Ciocie going to come jumping after, perhaps landing on Allison?

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I’m with Ciocie.

I’m not sure what Allison “just want”s, but the thing she needs is clearly agency. That’s the main thing she’s been lacking throughout the story so far, and recently got a taste of. It’s what she’ll need to grow into over time, and I’m looking forward to watching that happen.

Such rude house guests, spilling blood all over the carpets…

That’s a pretty sizable chunk of “glass”.

Why does he want her alive?

And thus, the Allisonstakes begin.

…hrm. Doesn’t have the same ring to it as “jakestakes”.

*zooms in* Hah, someone’s willing to pay just for Allison’s teeth. I think they may have missed the memo on why she’s so valuable. Or they just really like teeth.

White Chain may be a bit of a threat going forward.

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A wise proverb indeed.

A name and unambiguous pronoun? Don’t mind if I do.

So Maya seems to like to present a bit of a facade of humility and kindness that isn’t entirely real.

Oh that is good.

She’s been sitting here, seemingly undisturbed by the fighting, but everyone who got within a few meters is dead.

I really like this.

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What?

…alright, looks like we’ve got some kind of dream connection that allows the guy who “gave” Allison the Gate in the first place to communicate with her.

The guy who was definitely offed by angels. Was he merely banished? Is this where banished demons go?

Is it just me, or does the melty humanoid before them – The Sovereign? – look kind of like Allison’s demon disguise?

Also, in her current form, Allison reminds me of Yis.

Welp, he just tasked her with killing the Demiurges.

I’m not sure she’s ready for that yet.

Kingling seems analogous to “princess”… interesting.

Title drop!

So what the hell is the Conquering King doing here?

If he’s the King and she’s the Kingling, is he implying that she’s his daughter? And he’s asking her to end the later Demiurges’ tyranny over the multiverse… Where do the other 5,999,994 demons fit into this?

Also, looking back at the Conquering/Ruling King backstory, now I’m noticing the electro-crown. If I’d been paying more attention to that, I could’ve called this back then.

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Hi there, Boyfriend. And, uh, curtain person.

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Alright, the URL tells me this next page is at the Concordance of the Demiurges, at the top of Throne.

Would the great red idiot be the King? Except I didn’t get the sense that he’s included in the Demiurges’ rule.

Is the one talking Mammon? They seem like a Mammon.

Ah, it’s Mottom. Close enough, especially if we’re to believe that bullshit I spun earlier. 😛

Is the one at the bottom here Jadis?

(Narnia’s Jadis was also a woman from an alternate world who found out about the multiverse and came along to conquer a different world.)

Ah, of course the prosti– I mean, first consort, is a servant of Incubus.

The King’s blade, I presume.

Solomon looks suitably regal.

So, uh, who let the skeleton KKK in?

Zoss. Well, better name to refer to him by than “the Conquering King”.

After the last few pages, the successor is obviously Allison. So over over the span of those same few pages, we’ve gone from “isekai’d girl wants home” to “isekai’d girl is destined for rulership over the whole multiverse”.

I’m guessing all these other empty chairs belonged to the Demiurges that didn’t survive the War for Dominion.

Oh, here’s the great red idiot.

Hmm. Jagganoth? Mammon?

I like your face.

Also I realize he means he called the meeting, but that last panel is still going in my reactions folder for use when I predict something correctly.

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Possibly-Jadis seems vaguely unhinged, but who knows, even unhinged people may be right.

Queen of Worms? I guess that’s Gog-Agog, then. Skitter’s getting a bit less rational these days.

…

*opens his reactions folder for another deposit*

…well then. Didn’t expect her to follow that order.

But if this was one of the Demiurges, surely this is too easy of a way to reduce the numbers. Can she reconstitute herself or something?

Yeah, this is pretty much what I was picturing, except way better illustrated than my mind pulled off.

Ohh, so that’s why they took him. They thought the King was after him, not Allison.

Also, it seems Gog-Agog claims ownership to Earth’s world, not Incubus, suggesting there’s no connection between the color of their symbols and the associated Magus Gates.

Unless the Magus Gate is actually the one for Zoss’s homeworld?

Prophetic fun!

They’ve clearly got the wrong pronoun in there for some reason.

A white and a black flame… no blue flame? Hmm. I suppose given the whole yin/yang thing with Yis and Un, this might refer to genders?

(By “blue flame”, I meant to allude to Ciocie, but I realize it sounds more like White Chain.)

108 is a number of some significance in Japanese culture. I forget the exact reason why, but I think it’s associated with death, like 4? It’s also got religious connotations – for instance, it’s the number of Innocence pieces in D.gray-man.

The “terrible heat of the voice” – “the Voice” is sometimes used to refer to the Abrahamic god. See also Aslan singing worlds into existence in Narnia. But Zoss is not god, and neither were the creators of the Magus Gates. Is this Magus Gate special?

Alice?

If I had believed the pronouns at this point, I’d be hyped about finally getting a name for Boyfriend right around now.

Oh, and the Blade of Want… is that literally the name of the sword Allison has, or a flowery description of the way everything she’ll be doing is because of her desire to go home?

Perhaps both.

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…are you telling me Kill Six Billion Demons was a character name all along

Hello, welcome to Kill Six Billion Demons, the story of Kill Six Billion Demons.

(Hi there red person)

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And there she is.

Alice “Allison” “Kill Six Billion Demons” W. Ruth.

What a mouthful. But I did spend the better part of two chapters waiting for a name for her, and I gotta say, the story has delivered.

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And we’ve got another text story. “Aesma and the Three Masters (and the Lessons She Never Learned”. A more intriguing title that the last one, but I think I’m going to do the same thing and leave it for now and return to it at some later date.

I take it we’re done with chapter 4, then. That was a very solid one. I’ll hold of on more in-depth wrap-up, though – I’m going to stick chapter 5 in this post first.

But it’s getting late, so I’m going to leave that for tomorrow. Good night!

[End of session]

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[Session 2]

“Tomorrow”. Hah.

So because of a horrendous sleep schedule and a particularly busy day or two, it’s been a week. But let’s get back to this and read chapter 5 of K6BD!

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Huh. Looks like Aesma is a long enough story to take several pages.

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Three pages, four parts.

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Good morning, sunshine!

And before you start wondering if it was all a nightmare, take a look at that neat sword next to you. And at what you’re wearing.

It’s worth noting the room looks rather unruffled for having had an army of angels storm through here.

The door is open, so I think someone’s been in here since chapter 1. Time has passed; we’re not doing the Narnia thing. Also it’s bright out.

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Yup, time has indeed passed. Hi there, roommate I’m interested to see whether I’ll like or not.

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Oh, that’s very helpful: She’s got a decent cover story for her absence.

The forehead’s gonna be a lot harder to explain away, though.

…as is her new… child? pet?

Oh wait, is that the end result of the potion that let her understand the demon language and gave her horns?

Zaid. Interesting name for Boyfriend.

I think I’m going to like the roommate.

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I’d joke about hot shower scenes, but honestly, I have a feeling Allison’s more in the mood for a cold shower? I’m not sure why.

Also, looks like you may have unlocked some half?-demon strength there, Ally.

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Just for the record, I have no illusions that Allison is back to Earth for good.

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I think this is going to be one of the questions this chapter will help answer.

We’ve seen a lot of how she reacts in a crisis, but we know very little about Allison W. Ruth’s life on Earth, about who she actually is beyond that. So now that we’re back here, we can start learning about that while also exploring how she’s coping with what she’s been through as well as the revelation that she might be the princess of heaven.

Also I like that there seems to be no chance of keeping everything secret from the roommate. Allison might try spinning a story, but I don’t think she’ll buy it, at least not for long.

Then again, the truth might be less believable.

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Oh boy, there are five of them.

And one of them has the hindu forehead dot… let’s hope she doesn’t think Ally’s mocking her with the Magus gate.

(Can they see it?)

Marisa is a good name, by the way.

I like Marisa, but my gut feeling is that the one of these characters I’m going to like the most is the one who wants to focus on the sword.

Oh, and because there weren’t already enough things to talk about in this screenshot: I like Allison saying she’ll be back for the little babelfish demon.

This is wonderful.

Bindi, right, that’s the term… Called it!

Narnia’s not quite the right religiously-inspired alternate dimension, but you’re not too far off…

Oh yes.

Definitely gonna like Marisa.

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Having an “adventure” like the one Allison just had? Yeah, I can see why she’d prefer to just stay somewhere safe.

…is it just me or has Tintina down there fallen asleep?

Ah, no, she’s awake.

These all seem like supportive friends in each their own ways.

I appreciate that it’s made clear that she’s offended (by the Magus Gate looking like a bindi) rather than just generally bitchy. Though it can still be both.

Marisa is a good.

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We don’t see much of it in this screenshot, but that’s a Sailor Moon poster on the wall. So at least some trace of that Allison is still around.

But yeah, identity is a really hard thing to figure out sometimes.

Maybe the Cutie Mark Crusaders could help her?

I like this sequence, little snapshots of… well, of Allison.

…I find it amusing that there’s a post-it that just says “You are wrong”.

Also, apparently she was going to call Marisa about Zaid… after the whole loss of virginity thing?

Uh. Is this triggering some sort of magic, or just symbolic of how the Magus Gate and her adventure ties into this quest of self-discovery, as well as third eye imagery?

…all of the above?

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This is a hella good page.

• Starting off with a clear statement of identity.
• “I scheduled losing my virginity” speaks to a desire for planning and control over her situation. (A trait which always makes me think of Twilight Sparkle, who summarizes it with the lyrics “I don’t know how to travel / to a future that I can’t see.”)
• Allison is just as confused as me on the proper pronoun usage surrounding White Chain, which reinforces to me that the ambiguity is intentional and tying into angel mythology.
• I take it she changed the duration of her trip to two weeks to buy herself some time on her quest before people start asking questions.
• “I don’t want to leave this. This hollow life that was somehow important to me.” That’s a really nice juxtaposition, highlighting how even if her life is hollow, it still matters. It’s still where she wants to be.
• But even so, and even while she’s scared shitless and doesn’t think she’s as badass as Xena, she’s actively making the choice to go back and be the hero. The antagonists haven’t come after her and forced her back into the adventure; no, she’s claiming her agency and taking up the sword (which she barely knows how to use) and eating the babeldevil to go to a world full of people who are after her and save Zaid.
• …while acknowledging that yes, Marisa and I have a point, he’s a bit of a creep. Which in turn reinforces the heroism – it’s not just a matter of “hey, my body wants a part of his body in me and the demons are in the way”. It’s a matter of “he’s an actual person stuck in that heavenly hellscape and I morally can’t just leave him there”.

So, uh, does something about the babeldevil or about the sword send her back there? Can she use the Magus Gate to do it?

Also, I really hope she still has Ciocie’s business card, because seriously, we need more Ciocie.

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Hehe.

Fuck yes, let’s go.

(Does the sword allow her to cut a portal or something?)

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I guess she just needed to concentrate on the Magus Gate.

Hi, everyone.

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I just got to a cover page… it’s not labeled with a chapter number, but rather the title Wielder of Names, and the description (which I looked at for once) suggests it’s the cover for Book 2…

I’m guessing that’s the end of chapter 5, then. A good end.

Oh, looking at the chat with the patron, I’m reminded that he said I should take a look at this cover page before ending the session! Let’s do that.

• So the immediate takeaway, of course, is CIOCIE.
• Other than that, we’ve got Mottom… first Demiurge we’re going to be focusing on?
• A weird demon llama Ciocie’s sitting on… is that just a matter of aesthetics, or is that demon a mount or acquaintance of Ciocie? They look vaguely familiar too.
• On the left we’ve got the closest we’ve seen to the modern image of a Christian angel, but I don’t think that is an angel.
• The rectangular obelisks remind me of the scene with Zoss, but I don’t think they’re related. The environment Allison and Zoss were in was way more melty, with nothing rectangular in sight. I think it’s just the colors, really.
• Wielder of Names is a good title. Reminds me of “power of the true name” lore; maybe there’s something about that coming up. Might explain why “Kill Six Billion Demons” is supposed to be a name.

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End of chapter 4 and 5

This comic is getting really good.

We’ve been ditching White Chain (who was interesting but kind of a drag sometimes) in favor of the best character so far, watching excellent fights, learning (to some extent) about Why Things Happened in chapter 1 and some interesting prophetic lore, meeting some excellent friends that I hope we’ll see more of (especially Marisa), and seeing Allison begin to come into her own with respect to agency, determination and identity. Wonderful stuff, all of it, and I’m more excited than ever to see where this is all headed.

Next up, I suppose Allison will need to figure out how blue devil business cards work, and then somehow convince Ciocie to help her find Zaid. Oh, and get out of the crowd she just arrived into without causing another Hell to break loose.

Should be fun! 😀