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Update 41: Your Contract Has Expired
Are we all set?
The house isn’t too far from here. I don’t think we need to prepare that much.
Let’s just get this over with.
We’re gonna progress the plot just a tiny bit as some stuff depends on getting this little event done first.
You’ve got the hairpin, right?
Been keeping it safe all this time!
Just head on over to the second floor of the house.
Aitelle? Are you there?
A few flashes of white.
A blue haired woman arrives from the stairs.
That would be us!
We’re the Odyssey guild!
Ya may have heard of us. That one guild’s that’s been killing dragons every now and then.
Not the time, Ark.
Odyssey? Ah, his choice... Certainly, you are bright young things. What do you want?
We need to head to Tokyon. We were told to head to you in order to make our way in.
.........! You want to go to Tokyon... I am indeed its keeper, and I can open the path. But... That is where the war dead slumber. Do not disturb them. Please, be gone.
This is not a mere request we’re making. We were in fact sent here by someone you know well.
That is...! That... she trusted you... For a very long time, I have not interfered.
Aitelle pauses.
......... I understand. I will unseal Tokyon Shrine and let you in. I'm sure he would also like to see you... Go to the world's center, surrounded by the sea. But I beseech you, please let the dead rest. I will see you there.
Aitelle leaves.
Something about her seemed familiar. Wait...
Yeah, 3 years ago, before the dragons invaded. Didn’t we hear someone warning Doris about something? Maybe it was about those dragons.
And she sounded just like them!
Just who the hell is she?
Someone we can trust.
Hmm, and she just mentioned the center of the world, correct?
Yeah. There was a weird light there we couldn’t do anything about. Guess we have to go there now.
We should probably make some preparations first. We have no idea what lies beyond in Tokyon.
Don’t expect me to know much, I haven’t been there in several thousand years. It would probably be unrecognizable to me now.
Once you’ve progressed the Kingsblade sub-event far enough and have witnessed Niara’s arrival, rest for a day and talk to Erin. (The last step was to witness Yuuri and Genbu’s conversation on the eastern side of town after Flame Eater’s first defeat, all the way back in update 21!)
We’d-
...?! What's this?
They seemed awful tired... I wish they hadn't accepted the quest. That Dragon seems like a terror, and it might be more than a match for them!
Oh no. That really doesn’t sound good.
Those kids must be nuts!
Hunters or not, you can't let them be so cavalier with their lives!
Where are they now!?
The target is in Phaedna Hollow... They're probably there. For my sake as well... Please save Kingsblade!
Odyssey... Please, go after them!
Just head on over to Phaedna Hollow to progress the sub-event. You don’t need to have done the quest to cure Ren, nor clear out the dungeon of dragons to progress it, for the record.
Saving yer butts ya dumbass!
This Dragon is ours! Stay out of this!!
That's ridiculous! In this state, we'll gladly accept your help.
Nestor, you’re being too reckless! Just fall back for a bit, and we’ll handle things from here!
Shut up!...I'm sorry to shout. But, this is our job and our duty. It must be done, right? More, more, more! We can't stand still!
Nestor...
Oh gods...
Damn it, I couldn’t get there in time!
Don’t focus on that, the dragon’s distracted! Take it down now! Nestor, Genbu! Take care of Yuuri!
Video: Phaedna Tyrant
Phaedna Tyrant
Level: 53
LIFE: 6500
ATK: 180
DEF: 110
INT: 60
SPD: 73
Attack Type: Blunt
Attributes: Disables Escape, Large, Death Resistant
Exp: 10800
Gold: 80
Item Drops: N/A
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Ailment Susceptibility:
Death: 20% Masked Pain: 100% Skill Seal: 25%
Fear: 25% Curse: 50% Bleed: 25%
Poison: 25% Sleep: 25% Confuse: 25%
Paralysis: 50% Blind: 10% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Gather Power: Multiplies the user's ATK by 150% for 2 turns. Has a speed factor of 100.
Sharptooth: Deals 120% melee ATK-based Blunt damage to one party member and has a 50% chance to inflict Stun. Has a speed factor of 90.
Tyrant Dance: Deals 90% melee ATK-based Blunt damage to the entire party and has a 30% chance to inflict Fear. Has a speed factor of 80.
This boss is just a very beefed up Tyrannosaurus. It does have the addition of Gather Power to its moveset to make it a bit more fearsome.
Every 4 turns it’ll use Gather Power, and then immediately follow that up with Tyrant Dance. So just put up a form of defense to deal with that. Aside from that it prefers to cast Sharptooth most of the time. Once it gets to 30% LIFE it’ll start casting Tyrant Dance more often, but that’s about it.
I would avoid making use of Bleed and Masked Pain for the record, as those ailments will also cause it to use Tyrant Dance more often. Blind also triggers that reaction, but the only source of Blind you can inflict, which is the Rogue’s Sand Kick, lasts for 1 turn so that won’t change its AI. That being said once it’s below 30% feel free to inflict those, as they won’t change its AI by that point.
Incidentally you are reading the enemy attributes correctly. Despite being a dragon, it does not actually count as a dragon in battle. What this means is that clearing out the Bloom around Phaedna Hollow will not have any effect on its damage nor ailment multipliers, so you can’t make the fight easier that way. Killing it will decrement the dragon counter though.
Once again using standard opening tactics. I’m avoiding using Painkiller as like I said before, Masked Pain causes it to be more aggressive in using Tyrant Dance, which I don’t want to see come out that often. Tarantella is just much better here.
Ya won’t be munching on anyone anymore!
I-I’m okay! Just let me get my bearings here.
Make sure to keep this dragon away from Kingsblade!
Over here you big dino!
Yeah this fight is gonna take a while. It has a pretty good defense stat and a lot of LIFE.
You won’t get anywhere near them!
This means it’s time to break out the EX spam to burst it down. There’s not anything else to fight here so might as well.
I’m not watching another guild march to their deaths!
I’ve saved this little mix for you!
I was too slow on the uptake before, but not this time!
This should make the next few turns not that dangerous.
Ride the lightning!
Try chomping at us now! Oh, ya can’t huh!?
All of you are safeguarded!
We’ll finish what Kingsblade have started!
Ahahahaaa!
How lucky! This is why I love Tarantella.
Oh boy. Even after all that, it’s health bar isn’t really missing much. We’re gonna be here for a while. The fight doesn’t even have all that much going on for it, the Phaedna Tyrant has barely any moves and only 2 phases, so I’m gonna skip ahead here and there.
Foolish of you to think I can’t do anything against that!
When the Phaedna Tyrant casts Gather Power, it will always follow that up with a Tyrant Dance, so be prepared for that.
Nothing a Shield Front can’t handle though.
P-perhaps I overestimated my own capabilities...
Yeah, it hurts like hell even through Shield Front. Remember that Guarding exists if you don’t have any other defensive measures, so that’s an option to deal with it.
Eventually...
This is the end for you!
Stella guillotines it.
It’s a bit of a long fight, though there’s really not much actually to it. As long as you can deal with Gather Power boosted Tyrant Dances, it should go down eventually.
Yuuri!!!
Get her to the airship outside! We need to head back to Kazan right away!
I’ll try keeping her stable for as long as I can.
Fade to black.
.........
Why did you overdo it like this, Nestor? You can't continue to push beyond your capability like this. Why do it?
.........
And it's not just this time. You've been stubborn lately. Something must have happened. Is there anything you'd like to tell me?
Nestor looks towards Odyssey.
...Because... It's because of those guys!
...Oh.
My reward as a Hunter has always been the President's recognition! But what now? The President picked a bunch of newbies like them? He didn't even think of us! I'm a loser!!
Nestor...
They were way in the back, and suddenly, they just jumped to the front. I want to overtake them again so desperately... I can't stand to lose.
But pushing yourself and your guild that much isn’t the right way to go about it.
Hah... I'm a fool. The President isn't around to tell me so. We weren't chosen. So we have to know when to give up. I have been endangering my own guild members. I'm resigning as leader.
H-hold on! You don’t need to go that far! Y-Yuuri’s still alive, so it’s not like you made a lasting mistake!
The President, as you say, is no longer with us. It's up to us to decide how to carry on his spirit and his will.
Fade to black.
We need to talk to Erin to progress the sub-event.
So what’ll happen to Kingsblade...?
I should hope they don’t disband. He should take this time to learn from that mistake, not let it destroy him.
Don't worry too much, guys, I'm sure he'll... Yes... they know better.
Then rest for 1 day to progress it again.
Then head to the eastern side of town.
I was talking about you. With Yuuri here. She's been worried about you and the way you push yourself. I know you're tough. But think about others.
I've gotten bossy, I'm jealous of others, I make you worry. Do you really want to follow a guy like me?
Fade to black.
Phew. Seems like things’ll work out.
I never really realized he felt that way. Maybe if I knew about this earlier...
Don’t beat yourself up over it. What’s done is done. Not like any of us realized it ran that deeply either.
Either way, it doesn’t seem like any lasting harm was done to their guild. You should take a cue from them and move forward yourself as well.
Ehehe, thanks you guys.
Let’s see how some of the folks around town are doing.
This guy and I are gonna see the whole world!
I hope he doesn't get booted again.
Seems like things are working out in lotsa places, huh?
It was once peaceful, but is dangerous now.
Mrm, we really should investigate there soon to see just what we’re up against.
I can only imagine how bad that place has gotten with Haze spreading the Bloom from there.
Apparently the Dragon boss is called Nia or something. It would be nice if someone would defeat her!
I... suppose it would.
Can you check on her for me, once in a while?
Sure. Shouldn’t be too much trouble.
Zzz...
Already got that one right at the beginning of the game.
You guys should be able to run him down regardless.
We won’t be reaching the ending for quite a while, as there is still plenty of game left.
Mrm, plenty of us feel the same as well.
Use it well, and even fearsome Dragons'll fall!
They’re called Reacts, not Reflex. But yes, they can be very fearsome skills under the right conditions. Extra turns are very powerful after all.
We get another item for checking up on him.
But I'm not despairing. They may be mighty, but we'll find a way to be even mightier.
Hee hee! Now that’s the spirit!
Found any quests you can finally finish up?
By this point a majority of the quests in the game can be finished, though that won’t apply for all of them. We’ll still have to get further in the game for that.
Are we gonna die anyway?
I’m hoping no, and that we’ll live through this. Somehow.
Odyssey. Hurry up and win!
Yeah sure, if we can figure out how to get past that damn rainbow first! Uh I mean, get in that tower.
But when you're sidetracked, sometimes you discover something helpful.
Lots of goodies to be found in the side content of this game. So much so that we’ll check all of it out before reaching the end of this game.
Yuuri's doing better, but it'll take time before she's as good as new.
Tell her we wish her a speedy recovery!
Incidentally, make sure to talk to Erin at some point after taking a rest at an inn to progress the Kingsblade sub-event again. That was all we could do for this sub-event for now. Unlike before we won’t have to wait for too long to progress it again, but there’s nothing more we can do but wait for Yuuri to recover.
We’re done with Kazan, for now, so let’s check up on another area.
Let’s see if we can’t do something about Arietta and her hellhole of a workplace this time.
Forget everyday misery in this BEAUTIFUL, REFRESHING spa! Eh? How about it ♪
Really. This is the kind of advertising he’s resorting to now?
Never underestimate the lengths some people will go to for money.
This Rushe will give us an item after the Soulcannon event.
Amid all this pain and worry, thank you for giving us hope. Please take this to help you on your way. Please don't give up! I'm on your side.
Oh, why thank you! And I’m sorry as to what happened there.
That way the boss will be in a peaceful mood, and so will I.
We’ll think about it. Bootlicker.
If you're the grand heroes you seem like, why not do something?
Hmm, Nila did offer that she could burn this inn down when no one was looking.
Whoa whoa whoa! We are NOT doing that!
But, none of the other Rushe will tell me about it. Mr. Jen said that he would tell me when I'm done. I'll hurry!
You may want to reconsider your curiosity there...
Yeeeahhhh, we sure did.
I must have dropped my wallet on the mountain. I'm flat broke. So, while everyone is celebrating, I might have to make my exit.
Your secret is safe with us.
I might as well spend my time in a hot spring getting backrubs.
Might as well. I suppose it’s not like you could fight back against the dragons yourself.
Hmm, would you say now’s a good time to do this?
Yep. Coast looks clear. Doesn’t look like too many eyes are on us. Had a look at the workers’ schedule while we were moving around the place. The shifts are changing real soon. It’s now or never.
...?
Stella, don’t get cold feet now! We gotta do this soon, or who knows how long she’ll be stuck here!
Oh, sorry. Ahem.
You need to have met with Aitelle to be able to trigger this escape. Otherwise Arietta won’t even consider it until then.
Arietta, before, you said you wanted to get out of here? You wanted to come with us? Well let’s do that right now. Let’s escape from this horrible place.
Escape? Running from here... There's nowhere I could go from here.
That’s not true! We can take you far away from here. We have a way of getting off this part of the continent. Jen won’t be able to come after you once we’re out of here.
But...
We got a sweet as hell place you can live in back in Kazan, free of charge!
And do you really want to stay in a place like this?
We can give you a much better life than what you’ve suffered through all these years.
Yes. Even so, I have to leave here!
The front entrance has too many people there, but that Rushe at the back entrance should be leaving her shift any minute now...
She’s leaving! Let’s move!
Fade to black.
Video: Arietta’s Escape
But, be careful... Some of the servants are on Jen's side. So we must avoid being seen by anyone.
Oh boy, there’s a lot of them here...
Don’t worry, we can do this. Ark, got a route planned out?
Hang on, let me take a quick look around first.
Some Rushe will be cooperative and help you escape. Others will take Jen's side and impede you. You'll lose three steps if any of them engage you. Avoid being seen whenever possible and get to that door!
Couple of mistranslations here. You don’t “lose three steps”, whatever that means. It’s actually saying that the Rushe workers only have an active sight line of 3 tiles in front of them. And by “get to that door” it just means leave to the world map.
No point in going back into the inn at this point, we can’t back out now. Now before I show off the proper way to escape from here, let’s see what happens if you get caught.
...!
...Unless you want me to report you, pay up!
They missed me now, but they won't next time... let's stay quiet.
If you get caught, you’ll either lose 500, 600, or 1000 G depending on which Rushe worker caught you. And you’ll have to start your escape attempt over. If you’re curious on what happens if you don’t have enough money to pay them, the fade to black happens immediately after Arietta exclaims in surprise and she says this instead:
...huff...huff... I ran away... I got away somehow, but I might not next time... let's stay quiet....
You really don’t want to get caught here. Not only does getting caught waste your time and lose you money, if you manage to pull off a perfect escape, you’ll get a nice little reward for doing so. With that in mind, let’s do this properly.
Move a bit to the right so you avoid the left worker’s line of sight without going into the right worker’s sight lines.
Squeeze in between these two like so. Now there’s a little detour we can take here.
Crap!
Oh, phew!
I'll give you this. Stay safe...
Ye gods, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Let’s try not having anymore of those close calls, can we?
When the game mentioned that some of the Rushe workers were on our side, there’s actually only 2 of them. This is the first one. Most other Rushe should be avoided.
Don’t go into the pool, you’ll be forcefully dragged out of it and placed onto the edge by a Rushe worker. Thankfully it doesn’t count as getting caught so you don’t lose anything.
Back to where we were before, squeeze through the trees here. Be careful, as there are Rushe workers hiding in the woods too.
Make sure to preemptively move out of their sight lines as far as possible before walking directly in front of them.
There’s another Rushe here to the left. Make sure to move south as much as possible to slip by him.
We’re not home free yet. However there’s a Rushe worker we can’t avoid.
But you're almost there. Run and don't look back!
Fortunately that meant it was the other friendly Rushe worker. He doesn’t give us anything but words of encouragement.
Don’t try moving south past the Rushe worker next to the lantern, that’ll just get you caught by the Rushe worker further down.
Instead move up to avoid the worker next to the lantern.
But we’re at the front. 
In all seriousness, just head south to the loading zone and...
Made it!
We’re out!
Music stops.
...Ha ha! We did it! You’re free! You’re finally free! Okay, right outside there’s a portal network that only we can use, so Jen or his workers can’t chase you down. Ooh, I don’t think you’ve gone through a portal before haven’t you? So this should be fun and-
Calm down Stella, you’re going to overwhelm the poor girl.
Yeah. What matters is that you won’t ever have to touch this damned place ever again.
So, got any last words ya wanna say to this hellhole before we take off?
Fade to black.
Ooh! You actually made it out? Nice going you all!
I knew you could do it! Uh, you heard nothing.
Ha ha! Well now, welcome to our home, Arietta. We’ve got another part of the room you can rest in.
So this is the Rushe worker that you worked so hard to rescue. Hmph, why so tense? You may relax now. You needn’t worry about that abusive innkeeper any longer, I can ensure your safety here in the unlikely event he comes after you.
She might seem a bit scary, but you can trust Telos on that, hee hee! Welcome to the home of the Odyssey guild! Hey Cowabunga, come say hi!
Tell me if I... can do, if there's anything...
Worry about that later. You just got out of that horrible inn.
Yeah, just relax and take a load off! I mean I guess we could use more help taking care of our guard cow- n-not that you need to help us out with that right now or anything!
......... What you did... You saved me despite what a hassle it was... Really, truly, thank you.
We couldn’t leave someone in need behind in a place like that.
Now, if there’s anything you want done to that innkeeper or even his inn, like a mysterious fire outbreak, or a sudden lightning strike, I can probably make it happen for you, like magic!
She’s only been in our house for 5 minutes and you’re already trying to corrupt her.
Eheehee! I’m really glad to hear that! Stay here for as long as you need to, we can afford to support you.
Thank you, Odyssey.
Now if you managed to pull off a perfect escape, Arietta has something for you.
Oh, right. I got this from an inn. There you go!
Bit of a mistranslation, she actually took this from the inn we escaped from, not some random inn.
And a very nice reward indeed. If you got caught at any point... You get absolutely nothing for helping her escape.
So yeah, now we basically have a maid living in our house. Arietta doesn’t really do anything. Yet. You see, this mini sub-event isn’t actually over yet, but we can’t progress it until later in the game. For now, you just get the satisfaction of rescuing a worker from an abusive workplace.
Say, why don’t we go back to the inn to see how Jen’s doing, hm?
Pssst... did you help Arietta escape?
Oh yeah. You bet we helped her with that.
She’s living a very comfortable life in Kazan now.
No way?! You didn't?! I told that kid, keep your chin up and one day you'll show him!!
You'd better not be planning on helping anyone escape here! ...Although it wouldn't do them any good. They'd crawl back here.
This is a mistranslation. He’s actually aware of what just happened and is freaked out about it!
No! One of my servants is missing! What a big loss! You weren’t the ones that helped them escape, did you? ...Not that it matters, they’d crawl back here.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Maybe one of your employment contracts just expired or something.
Or incinerated. Ripped up. Torn to shreds.
Bold of you to assume that any former worker would automatically come back to working conditions like these.
Maybe you should think about treating your workers better if you want to avoid more incidents like this. That’s just my advice.
That was a fun little check in session. But that’s all we can do at this inn.
Some official artwork of Arietta.
Beta artwork of Arietta. At some point she had a differently colored dress. Also apparently she was just a normal human as well. She’s not the only Rushe character like this, a few other Rushe characters, including some class portraits, were originally ordinary humans at first before being given the Rushe attributes.