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Part XX: The One We Confronted
This is going to be quite an update to end the second act of the game on. Before we set sail, you can turn in the Millionaire quest in for 7800 gald, which is a bit below the price tag I would assign to it. It was called the Millionaire, you know. Anyway, since there's a shop nearby you might want to restock, but with our business in Baird Marsh concluded, we don't really have any reason to stick around. By the way, if you talk to him again, the Bloodwings agent says "Can't a dedicated soldier make a little bob on the side?". I looked it up, a "bob" in this context is actually slang for a shilling. Never would have guessed they'd slip some British slang into this game.
By the way, when you take this particular travel to Titania, the ship actually moves quite a bit faster than normal, which is a nice touch. I mean, it's difficult to tell when I'm watching the content I recorded back to write this update, since I play the videos at 2x speed, but I can assure you it does happen.
In the seas between Westgand and Titania... What it means to feel
So it was you all along, Bienfu.
M-Miss Magilou...!
I'm surprised I didn't sense it. There is a geas on you, interfering with our pact. Heh. Well played, Melchior. *stops using that spell* Impressive. That old man must have planned all of this, from the very moment you escaped me... Even my imprisonment in Titania and my encounter with Velvet.. All calculated down to the minute. Nice.
For those not familiar with Irish mythology, a "geas" is essentially a strict taboo placed upon an individual to do something or foreswear not to do something. The punishment for violating one is either death or dishonor, and yes, an individual could have multiple ones placed upon them. In this context, I'm guessing the geas placed on Bienfu obligated him to not tell anyone he was playing stoolie for Melchior.
F-Forgive me, Miss Magilou... There was no way I could fight against Lord Melchior's artes...
Eh. I don't care. I don't care about anything... And I don't care that I don't.
That's not true! I'm the one you want!
We were listening. We heard it all.
Aww, boring. Fine then, do with us what you will.
...It's not like I trusted you to begin with. Spy or no spy, this was inevitable. Besides, you're not sorry. Make yourself useful and fight for us.
*sighs* ...You're good at this cruelty-that's-also-compassion thing, aren't you.
I just don't have the time to deal with you two. After this whole business is over with, I'll devour you. If that's what you want.
*smirks a little* ...Hey, Velvet. Tell me. What does it feel like to hate? Does it torment you? Is it agony? Does the searing fire of your hatred empower you to feel? Does it give your life meaning where there was none?
...
Land ho! Titania! There's an Abbey ship in the front docks!
Take us around back! *turns back to Magilou* If you want your answer, fight by my side. You'll see it the very moment I kill Artorius. *marches off*
Heh... You really know how to vex me.
Dang, I think the most serious, by far, we've ever seen Magilou? I wonder does give her life meaning, if there is any. For both Velvet and Magilou, that is. The battle begins
So... You're using the forbidden artes? This has to be Melchior's doing...
The Lord of Calamity...
That again? What a melodramatic name.
It's what you're called by the scores of citizens whose lives you've ruined. Face the enormity of your sins.
What idiocy...
Hmph... We'll carve the weight of your sin from your flesh! We are the wings of the divine will!
The armatus!
As expected.
Indeed. The male exorcist uses Earth-flavored punching attacks, while the woman will attack with a bow firing Water arrows and attacks. The bow is more dangerous because it's long range, but both enemies have a decent amount of health and even a Break Soul. Overall, not too hard, but definitely more trouble than the mooks we've faced up to now.
*unsheathes arm, staggers forward* Kill...them... I have to kill... *continues staggering*
Velvet!
They destroyed themselves.
Just as I expected.
The Abbey... They know exactly what they're doing...
Grimoirh, where are the therions?
Couldn't tell you. They came out of nowhere, and before I knew it we were all split up...
How's the book?
Nearly done, but I'm still working on the critical passages at the very end.
All of you, get on board the Van Eltia. I'll find the therions.
Oh? You really think we can make it past a horde of armatized exorcists?
Stay behind. I don't care. *staggers again, drops Laphi's comb*
*reaches for it*
Don't touch that! *picks up comb*
...You don't have to do this alone. We're all in this together. And I promise... I promse I'll protect you, Velvet.
You'll protect me... Long ago, Laphi said the same thing. But that sort of idealistic drivel will kill you. Make your worthless promises. They won't change reality. Look what happened to Laphi. Dead... Murdered!
In the end, no matter how much he cared for me... My only brother, he... His life torn away from him... How it must have hurt...
Velvet...
You worry about yourself, Laphicet. That's an order.
An... An order...
We have to keep Innominat out of the picture... So that I can kill Artorius.
She is uh...definitely losing it. Let's just hope we can get the therions out of here soon before Velvet does or says something she'll really regret. Before we continue on, there's a conversation on the docks we just entered in from, as well as a regrown Lavender. They must have planted some pretty potent stuff to make this one grow back so frequently.
Continuing deeper into the (former) hideout, we get a skit where Bienfu formally apologizes for being a spy, and Eleanor gets her long-overdue apology. That's setting it aright, alright. There's another skit right afterwards about the armatization being apparently quite common in the Abbey's ranks right about now. Who knows why so many have signed on, but our enemies certainly have quite a technique at their disposal.
I should also mention that the skits video for this update contains the first skit of next update, as well. Normally I wouldn't, but the problem is the video I recorded for this update and the last one, and the first couple scenes of next, was more than 3 hours long, most of it being the Baird Marsh. So I wanted to delete this as soon as possible, and if I had this final skit sitting around, that would be a lot of space being taken up for the sole purpose of a 90 second skit or thereabouts. I'll link it normally in Part XXI, of course.
And yep, armatized exorcists and their malakhim are treating this place like their own place. Not good.
That said, floating elephant head enemies are cute. To get to where you're going, go past the Turtlez and head down the stairs to the lower cell blocks.
We do get some good news down here. Kurogane, Medissa, and Kamoana are fine, and we have an orichalcum sword for Rokurou. If he can't compete with Shigure with this...maybe it was hopeless from the start. Let's see, of the seven therions, we have Velvet, Medissa, Kamoana, Orthie / Russ, and the beetle accounted for. The seventh one, well, we saw how well that worked out last time. Only Griffin and Percival are unknown, but we still have the lowest level of Titania to search. We also get a follow-up skit about the Orichalcum blade.
Well, it better be.
And pretty boy and his bird are fine, too. Well, at least they got away safely. We do get some valuable information from Percival: Artorius is on-site, which means this was a bigger operation than we even anticipated. I sense a climax coming up. Once you're doing getting Percival out (he'll head to the back docks as soon as this conversation ends), we're heading to the back docks as well. We get a skit along the way about Artorius potentially using an Empyrean as a partner in armatization. Everyone says it's impossible, even for such a man, but...
When you put it like that, it does sound not only possible, but entirely within reason. When you return to the room before the back docks... Plan of action
Several enemy ships are heading this way now!
Set sail, now! *everyone runs out, except for Velvet / Phi*
...I'm, uh, glad we were able to save everyone.
There's no escape, Lord of Calamity!
That's madness! What do you think you're doing?!
If I don't take them down, they'll sink you from afar!
... Raise anchor! We'll make it through somehow!
Aye aye! But don't die, you hear me?!
Crazy kids.
We're not going to die... We're going to kill.
And so we will. First up, these three jokers. I'd advise focusing on the pugilist first and KOing him. Once he's down, the two bowmen are easy to mop up.
What do we do now?
We'll head to the front docks.
To steal an Abbey ship, I take it.
That's where the Abbey's main forces will be concentrated. And Lord Artorius should be there, too...
All the better.
But...we still don't have a way to fight Innominat...
I told you. If you want to die, do it alone.
I'm not asking you to come with me.
Use me.
Percival...!
Don't worry. Griffin got away. If you use me as a hostage, you should be able to steal a ship.
...I owe you one for this. But don't expect gratitude.
I don't.
Looks like this is our best--and only--bet.
*scoffs*
I'm with Eizen here. This plan is *extremely* sketchy. Percival gets his pet Griffon back, defying Abbey wishes (and gets an exorcist killed in the process), defects to a bunch of pirates, gallivants with them for some time, then tries to use himself as a hostage to steal an Abbey ship. We have to count on the Abbey, and Artorius in particular, *really* placing a lot of stock in what he has to say. I place the odds of this succeeding at approximately 0%.
You don't say, Phi... There's no telling how Velvet will react to seeing Artorius again, and as I said, this hostage thing has very very little chance of succeeding. Not to mention, if Artorius is here, his flunkies are probably not far behind. Once you open the door to the front docks lobby room, a scene. Crisis
Phew... Well, looks like we shook off our pursuit.
Course we did. This is the Van Eltia.
Turn back, now!
What?! There's no way we can do that!
I finally deciphered the last part of the book! If what it says is true, then Innominat is already...
Encounter with fate
The coast is clear!
All right! Let's make a break for the docks!
??? You're running?
It's Lord Artorius, and...!
*jumps down*
*rushes forward as well*
*grabs her arm* No, stop!
Yes, please. Now's the time to negotiate for safe passage...
Step back, Your Highness. The girl before you wants nothing other than to kill me.
*shoves Phi off* You better believe it!
*starts trying to stop her again*
*grabs his shoulder* This is a trap. We're leaving.
Let me go! I have to save her!
That ain't gonna happen, kid. Don't forget, you're my ticket outta here, too.
*breaks free* I'm not your tool! *punches him in the chest* Try to stop me, and I'll you down. Even you, Eizen!
... *everyone runs after Phi*
*knocks armatized exorcist away* Your armatus isn't gonna stop me!
Don't worry. I have another trick up my sleeve.
*jumps away* That sword... Is that orichalcum?! Good JOB, little bro! Never seen that before!
Damn right! The hardest sword there is!
It may be made of orichalcum, but still...
*begins fighting with Rokurou again*
It's time. Stand down, Shigure.
*disengages* Don't be a spoilsport. I'm just startin' to have fun!
Get caught in the middle of this, and even you won't survive unscathed. The one to face Velvet will be Innominat.
*jumps back up to where Artorius is*
What?!
Hello, sister. Did you miss me?
Laphi...!
Velvet's brother?!
So that's his game.
That's right. I am Laphicet Crowe. And more. I am also the Empyrean Innominat, the Suppressor.
I actually just recently learned this, but "Innominat" comes from the Latin "innominatus", which, very appropriately, means "Nameless". In Japanese, Innominat's name is just "that lord", which I guess is just referencing Innominat's kind of a nullity or a void.
N-No... That's...Innominat...?
If you're gonna do this, you gotta commit! He's our enemy!
I'll devour all of you!
Uhhhh....I wouldn't get too ahead of yourself, Velvet. In fact...
Yeah, I normally always cut out Game Overs, and believe me, I've gotten more than a few over the course of this LP, but I just wanted to leave this bit in to show you how fast Innominat can wreck your entire time. Every time he'll start out by casting Insubstantiality, which has a huge radius and will 99.9% of the time destroy anyone caught in it. The other .1% is when you manage to backstep out of it.
If you can manage to get close to him in-between his rapid fire spell casting, you'll quickly find Artorius back at the Throne doesn't have shit on Innominat. Guaranteed you'll be doing 0 damage and being close to him is practically suicide, except in therion form. This is...not going well.
*begins crying*
Is this...the power of an Empyrean...?
Exactly. This boy is Empyrean Innominat the Suppressor.
But how? We took away his strength...
By kidnapping the therions? Sorry to burst your bubble, but you were a wee bit late! It was never about the AMOUNT of malevolence the therions devoured. What we needed to awaken him...
...was eight different "types". Greed, conceit, lust, cowardice, selfishness, obsession... Those six Innominat had already obtained by the time you managed to tear the therions away. That leaves...just the two that Velvet carries inside her. Once Innominat has them, he will fully awaken.
So now that we've heard that, from what I've been able to gather, Medissa = Conceit, Kamoana = Greed, Griffin = Cowardice, Orthie / Russ = Obsession, Velvet = Despair / Anger, Dis = Lust, and I guess that beetle was Selfishness.
Also, I heard an interesting bit of speculation about Teresa and Dis in particular. Granted, none of this is ever stated directly but it can certainly be inferred from what we saw. According to this theory, Dis was the therion associated with Lust, and since Teresa was so instantly receptive to her, it stands to reason her focus on Oscar was just a wee bit more than familial love. I personally believe it's pretty plausible, given what we saw last time, but like a lot of things in this game, it's never exactly stated this way, but that little fusion is also the first time we saw a human merge with an already-existing therion, so according to the rules of this setting, they apparently were pretty receptive to each other.
Also, the word "therion" comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "wild beast" or "savage beast". Pretty appropriate.
And I don't even need an earthpulse for that. I can eat them right here.
*draws Orichaclum sword out* Like hell you will!
Good effort but...all that hard work...
What?!
If you're that weak, stay out of my way.
...Ow.
It's all...an illusion.
That hurts, Velvet.
Shut up, shut up!
Are you going to kill me, sister?
Go away! Go away! GO AWAYYYY!
...Velvet, it was always so hard for me. I was so frail. All I did was cause you trouble... Is that why... Is that why you wanted me to go away?
I never wanted you to go... I wanted you to live... I wanted you to be by my side... But in the end, I couldn't protect you... All I could do was avenge you... To get my vengeance, I... I devoured... I killed...
Of course you did.
I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Laphi! It hurt, didn't it... Phi! Heal him! Please!
But--- But he's...
It's Laphicet! He's... He's my brother!
...But Velvet, I never wanted you to avenge me. I mean, it's that sort of selfish emotion that creates malevolence... That creates the daemons.
What?!
That's why I'm going to help Arthur. We're going to make all the pain in the world go away. Including that hate, that ugly malevolence in you.
Ugly...malevolence...?
The awakened Innominat will suppress all negative emotions. He will remake humanity into beings free from sin.
You take away all their sins, and people aren't people anymore!
I think that's just what they intend. Like how they steal free will from the malakhim.
It will be a peaceful world, free from pain.
So your goal this whole time was to rob people of their free will?!
If even an exorcist like you can let your emotions tempt you to betrayal, clearly it is the only way.
...
I'll make this world a safe place, free from daemons. That has always been my dream. Don't worry. My wounds will heal. Once I have eaten you, sister.
What's going on?!
This is bad! We'll be swallowed alive!
Thank you. It's because of what you've done that I need to make amends. You've hurt so many people, and all for nothing.
...Unfortunate.
But they're within me now. I'll find them.
A weapon can't just be hard, you know. It's got to flexible, too... Or it'll snap.
*shifts eyes* ...If you're addressing me, do you care to test that out?
Nah, think I'll wait on that. At least until you and Innominat finish up your armatization.
Shepherd Artorius, what have you done?!
It's all according to my plan, Your Highness. Let us return to the capital.
And with that, Act 2 is at its end...