So I think Pete have spend the last days giving us clues on how the imminent danger from the cult is going to end.
It's all focused on people "not being that kind of hero".
Zoë could kill Meander with Chaz, but she is not that kind of hero. Riff and Bun-bun could kill the queen, but they are not that kind of heroes either.

Nash, however, is exactly that kind of hero. He hasn't done anything for the forces of good in this dimension, but his 4U City alternate claimed hero status.

Nash doesn't want to die tonight, and he's worried because the end of the world seems to imply that everybody dies. He could save the world by shooting Siphaniana (or so Siphaniana herself believes) but then the demons would take revenge on him, and Nash isn't the kind of hero who would sacrifice himself to save the world. He primarily wants to save himself, and right now that requires saving the world, so he'd save the world if he only had an "exit strategy".

That is the kind of hero Nash is.

He isn't the kind of hero Sluggy Freelance needs, he's the kind of hero Sluggy Freelance deserves.



Sorry.

And Nash is also the kind of hero that need only about 10 seconds to think up an exit strategy with several layers of insurance and distraction.
Remember his exit from Hereti-Corp, with a Kusari to chase him. She is quite possibly a better tracker and assassin than any of the demons, even though they are tough in a straight-up fight.

It just occurred to me that an exit strategy in this case might involve calling in some back-up. Maybe even from his former employer.

Because things just aren't bad enough yet.

Orbital DFA strike?

Well, DFing the site from orbit IS the only way to be sure.

What Nash really needs here is an InflatoBike. Although I still think the Angsty Thud ought to make a return for this. Just for the record: I believe that Chaz just needs a few drops of blood to power up. No real need to kill Meander, just a nick would do.

But we still have no proof that Chaz can power up from innocent blood without killing the donor.
Every powering so far have had a dead innocent.

True, but Torg did manage to "fist-bump" Chaz while already powered and while it's not entirely clear the skin was pierced, he was no worse the wear for it.

I don't think Torg ever broke the skin on Chaz. Granted, I fall squarely into the "if you're innocent and get cut by Chaz, you're dead" camp.

You know, one possible reason Chaz requires the blood of the innocent to power up is because, perhaps, the sword's first master demanded that he be protected from ever being the victim of whatever deadly power was needed to make the sword a demon-slayer. What better trick to ensure the wielder is impervious to Chaz's death hug: in order to wake him up in the first place, you must kill an innocent person. And like that, you yourself are no longer innocent! Instant insurance! The requirement alone provides its own protection. Very elegant, if it has any merit.

The loophole, of course, is if you're Torg and find yourself constantly surrounded by extremely unfortunate innocent people :P

I'm going to take issue with this. Alt-Nash gained hero status through his tactical abilities and skill with weapons. Also because (again) his survival was clearly tied to that of the other obsolete REA pilots.

Sluggy Prime Nash has been a little callous, sure. But unless I'm greatly mistaken, he hasn't killed any innocents.

Lupae was linked to the cartels that wanted Oasis dead, and she was almost certainly going to make things tough.
(Getting involved with Lupae may have been accidental, like being sweet on N'awww)
Oasis was a job, and apparently a kill-crazy vigilante.
Nash *could* have killed Feng and the Zalias.
He did eventually kill Officer Tod, but I won't lose sleep over that one.
Chopping Oasis' head off was a bit over the top, but she'd already been dead.
Then he blew up the Hereti-Corp building. I don't see the bad part about that. Gennaro just had to go to the pet store again.
While he did kill (this name has fallen out of my brain), that person was about to shoot Zoe.

Anti-hero maybe, but Nash isn't written as a psychopath, or other form of thrill-killer.


Also: Alt-Bert powered Unholy Death-Bringer before he died. I have always believed that it only takes a small quantity of blood.
We don't know for a fact that the cephalopod died after being sliced.
And while this brings me to who can power Unholy Death-Bringer, I might as well do that here before this thread loses relevance.

Queen Siphy cannot power Unholy Death-Bringer, because she is not innocent.

The key is here.

King Scubius died with no heir. "Dux Kane" was tortured and killed either in the protracted war of succession that followed, or in Farahn's (in character) purge of rivals afterwards.
Obviously for Siphy, "Uncle Tempest" knew these events for many (6?) years ahead of time. And Siphy learned that Tempest's Fate Web (though she probably did not know it as such) can guide the path of Humanity. Therefore, so far as Siphy is concerned, Tempest could have warned them, or even changed the path of humanity accordingly, but did not. Certainly it was a traumatic episode for a young lady that thought she was going to grow up to be a princess.
[It is probably germane to note that she DID accomplish this by other means.]

Therefore, I speculate that Young Siphy sought out Symachus for justice against the Gods. And justice of a sort was done. Members of Tempest' extended family died. This starts to explain Symachus' involvement. Where my spec breaks down, is right here. Symachus' motivation here is hazy. How does one kill gods? He intentionally goaded Farahn to summon the Destroyer. He was intentionally trying to get Farahn in the same room with certain Gods, and a God-killing sword.
In the above strip, note a small change between panels 10 and 11. Her collar insignia changes from Justice to Power. She's not wearing an insignia when we first see her as queen in Mokadun.

There is another strip that I haven't found yet, that shows (in the desert? on the ship?) Siphy putting a laptop away just as Wil Wil comes in. I further spec that the Siphy who was projected into the future, located and got into contact with both branches of the K'Z'K cult though the internet. She was doing everything that she could to get home. And starting with the hotel fight, innocents were being killed as a result.

The bug-form of K'Z'K claimed that everything in Mokadun was happening just as it had previously - including the deaths of the gods. That may not have been possible without the cursed necklace being in play. Did I miss it, or where did Kron get the necklace from? Was that one of Dunuloas' that didn't work as expected, or did the bug change it?

Regardless, Gwynn may not be innocent, but Siphy certainly is not.

Uh, hang on. I know that strip. It was at the hotel; the ship probably lacked internet anyway. However, this strip clearly states that it was Willcot who invited Chilius and her gang, with specific instructions to follow and not interfere. How would the Queen even get Chilius' contact information anyway?

I'm still thinking that she set something else up when she used Wilcott's laptop, and precisely what just hasn't been revealed yet. Chekhov's gun is never left unfired in this comic, I've learned that much over the years.


Yes, it was Dunuloas' handiwork. Kron had it commissioned by his sister before the story started. It allowed the Bug to time travel because it was Magic, and since magic is his domain of reality, making contact with magic or using magic gives him power. Its a looooong story, I know, but then some of these concepts go waaaaaaay back to the earliest story arc featuring K'Z'K's possessing Gwynn, and this story has made sure to reiterate them from the beginning.

Easily, the Cult has been monitoring the townhouse Gwynn, Aylee, and Zoe lived in. It was theirs after all, they had cameras all through it. They would have known immediately when Siphy arrived, remember Lacey finally managed to snag the Book then.