And now, a special message for the benefit of the public from the Chief Financial Officer of Nanashi\'s Phone Demon Removal and Fetch-quest-doing, LLC
Melchom: Good afternoon. It has been brought to my attention that NPDRFQD, LLC has received a number of nasty letters over that... \"birth scene\" from a few chapters ago. To which I am obligated to say... Really? You care about that sort of thing this much?
Halphas (offscreen): You can\'t say that you idiot; they\'ll sue!
Melchom: It\'s how I really feel though... alright fine. We at NPDRFQD, LLC would like the public to know that we do not endorse teenage pregnancy. We understand that teenagers have urges, but we urge them to conform to recent research on sexual health that indicate you should not have sex at all until you\'re forty and have been married at least fifteen years. If you must do it before then, do it through steel wool; it\'s the only way to make sure. If you neither practice abstinence nor use steel wool, you will get pregnant, get AIDS, and die of flesh-eating crotch-maggots by age thirty. Furthermore... uhh, list of things we can be sued for, please?
Tangata Manu: ereH.
Melchom: Thank you. Furthermore, NPDRFQD, LLC would like to remind the public that if you watch Power Rangers, you\'ll beat your friends into comas, if you play Dungeons and Dragons, you\'ll shoot yourself, and teenage rebellion is absolutely your own fault and not that of your ultra-right-wing suffocating parents. For that matter, NPDRFQD, LLC does not endorse demon summoning. Demon summoning is strictly for use in desperate measures that do not apply to your comparatively peaceful universes. Doing any of these aforementioned things also makes patriotically-significant birds cry.
(Cut to: a closeup of HRESVELGR, who dramatically sheds a single tear)
Melchom: Please, think of the birds. ...please tell me that\'s everything we can be sued for.
Halphas: Acceptable.
Melchom: Thank you. Now if you\'ll excuse me I need to find a human to observe me out of existence.
The night after Masakado departs, Nanashi has one last strange dream. He appears in a strange, black-and-white world, and Stephen arrives to speak with him. He congratulates Nanashi on triumphing over Merkabah, Lucifer, and Krishna, but wants him that the true enemy is still out there: YHVH, the Creator God. As long as He lives, any freedom humans could possibly have would be artificial, and the cycle will always repeat itself. Stephen also reveals that, of all things, he was Dr. Matsuda, inventor of the Shesha Radar, helping humanity triumph over the Powers. He bids Nanashi to come to Masakado\'s Stone in Ginza, if he wants to settle this cosmic debt for all time.
Nanashi awakens to find his friends in his room - they\'ve seemingly all had the same dream and are raring to take the fight to YHVH.
Nanashi: Wow, knocking the Creator of the Universe on his ass... Freakin\'s sweet.
Macabre: Pardonnez mois, Nanashi, might I request un petit dalliance first?
Nanashi: Oh?
Macabre: It seems that with the order of things destabilized, my masters, the Clan of Death, have made touchdown in this realm! They would be VERY eager to meet with you; it seems they have grown slothful in another realm and are eager to test their skills!
Nanashi: I\'m not... really sure. We have a Creator God to deal with after all...
Macabre: Monsieur Nanashi, as YHVH is powerful, so is He also lazy. He will not leave his own realm in person. You have all the time in the world!
Nanashi: Well, alright... I can\'t see letting people called the \"Clan of Death\" run wild being a good thing...
Python: Did you know that in universe 567392, you chose to side with Dagda, and now everyone there worships ghost butts?
Nanashi: Wat.
Yes sir, it\'s Bonus Dungeon time! Apocalypse\'s secret dungeon is called Twisted Tokyo, and it appears in the Bay area, due south of Miami Sunamachi, after Merkabah and Lucifer are defeated. It\'s home of the entire Feind race, and was designed to replace the infamous 1/256 chance of encountering them in IV Vanilla. That\'s said, it\'s... only slightly less of a slog. Head there to be greeted with a huge, ominous vortex, next to which is a \"pale man\" (his identity is uncertain; he may be Charon or one of the White) who explains that through this portal is an alternate Tokyo where Nanashi and Flynn never lived, thus damning to the Fiends who rule over death.
Xi Wangmu: Well we certainly can\'t be having that... as goddess of immortality, this idea revolts me.
Kali: Immortality is horrifying, Goddess of the East, but all destruction should beget new life! Endless death helps no one!
Qing Niuguai: Whoa, Lady Xi Wangmoooooooooo! Nice to see you again, Empress. And some other goddess nobody cares about.
Kali: You are lucky I love cows, beefy one...
Twisted Tokyo is, sadly, a pretty big dull slog. It\'s a GIGANTIC Domain (57 floors!), which means randomized layouts and no maps. As well, the enemies here are jacked-up versions of normals ones, and of course we can\'t recruit them. How the dungeon works is that we navigate our way to the exit of each floor, but on the final floor before the boss, we have to find a treasure chest with an item called a Twisted Ticket that unlocks the boss door.
Surt: This place stinks of disgusting death. Let\'s BURN IT ALL TO THE GROUND!
Kangiten: Oh no no no. We must HUG all this death away!
Kartikeya: Run away, little summoner kid! No fiend could possibly be scarier than my mother AND my brother in Maximum Hugs Mode!
The first boss is two floors down, easy enough.
Macabre: Aha, Maestro! How fitting that you should open the ceremony!
Nanashi: A skeleton with a violin? He doesn\'t look so tough...
BOSS: FIEND DAVID
Level 85. Resist Fire, Resist Ice, Weak Elec, Resist Light and Dark
There are certain commonalities the Fiends all share. They each have at least one unique move, typically from their fights in Nocturne, they all have a different weakness, and they all have a move called Soul Drain, that is a souped-up Energy Drain, that becomes as strong as a -dyne on a Smirk. They also all have a ton of health and oh yeah, if you take more than ten turns to beat them, back to start for you! See what I mean about this dungeon being a slog? Thankfully their health doesn\'t regenerate.
David specifically has around 45,000 HP and honestly? He\'s one of the harder ones. He has both Dekaja and Dekunda to wipe all our buffing progress, Mamudoon as well as Smile Charge to activate its instant kills and beef up Soul Drain, and finally his unique move, Haunting Rhapsody, which drops all our stats and inflicts Panic. We definitely want Dekunda and Me Patra for this fight.
Samyaza: Hang back, Hallelujah, and watch your dad roast this cretin!
Samyaza is definitely helpful here; I didn\'t have anyone else with a fourth-tier Elec move at the time. Another commonality the Fiends have is that at low health, they\'ll throw in a shakeup to their usual repertoire. In David\'s case he adds Makarakarn to block our magical assaults on him. Definitely good for making the battle longer, but David isn\'t very strong offensively, but he is very annoying.
Nanashi: Whew! And that guy was the weakest?
Macabre: Je surprise? We are death!
Attis: Ugh, if only I could have death... Life is a meaningless pit; I have been swallowed by despair since the slaughter of my people...
Ixtab: Well I have a way out for that if you don\'t mind...
Hanuman: Presenting my Lord Master, the King of Kosala himself... Prince Rama!
Rama: No need for the ostentation, Hanuman... was so eager to meet the young one who defeated my rogue Other Self...
Nanashi: This guy seems familiar somehow...\'
Next boss is three floors down from David. I\'m sorry I can\'t make this dungeon sound more exciting.
BOSS: FIEND MATADOR
Level 87. Resist Phys, Resist Gun, Weak Ice, Resist Light, Resist Dark.
Despite his infamy in the series, Matador is sadly pretty unimpressive this time. What\'s unique about him is that he has a passive that allows all his Phys attacks to pierce resistances, and most of his attacks are Phys... sadly, most of them also aren\'t very strong even with the Pierce. He has Mist Rush, Dark Sword, Mortal Jihad, Hades Blast, and his unique move Andalusia, which can be anywhere from one to fifteen strikes of weak Phys damage. Definitely hurts as it adds up, but if we buff up our hit and evade that\'s more opportunities for him to miss. He unfortunately does have both Dekaja and Dekunda though.
His low-heath tactics change consists of adding Critical Eye to his repertoire. This will get him more Press turns but by that point it\'s likely too little, too late. There are really so many ways of dealing with Phys attackers that he\'s not much of a threat at all.
Stonka: Thanks for killing that guy. He made me really mad for some reason... MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Titania: OOOOOOOOBEROOOOOOOOOONNNNN!
Oberon:\' Yeep, hide me!
Titania: First that stunt with the dagger, then I track you down here in a basement full of rotting corpses? Is that your fetish, or something?
Nanashi: Cool your jets, it\'s actually not his fault for once - I summoned him. You wanna come aboard too?
Titania: Oh alright... just to keep an eye on him, though. I see you have some Chaotic tramps in your stock.
(A hole opens in the ground and ANAT pops out, carrying BAAL)
Anat: Found him. You won\'t believe how often I have to do this. Say you\'re sorry, \"dear.\"
Baal: I was... just trying to bring us back to the top? You remember what it was like... when YHVH betrayed us, slaughtered our worshippers...
Anat: Don\'t give me that. i had to bribe mot with my entire set of ER DVDs this time. FIFTEEN SEASONS, BAAL!
Next boss, four floors down.
BOSS: FIEND WHITE RIDER
Level 89. Drain Elec, Weak Wind, Resist Light, Resist Dark
Another fairly-easy-for-its-level fight. White Rider attacks using Light, Elec, and Gun skills, but only has Pierce for the last of these, so bringing lots of Light and Electricity-resisting demons easily cheeses him into wasting his turns. His Gun moves are Grand Tack, Myriad Arrows, and Heaven\'s Bow, and his unique move is the similarly-named God\'s Bow, which is identical to Hamaon, with the added quirk that it can instant-kill without a Smirk. Don\'t bring anyone weak to Light, obviously, and Samyaza is once again helpful. My Samyaza had Floral Gust to help maximize his Press Turns and Smirks.
Nanashi: Man your dad kicks ass, Hallelujah! Must be why you do!
He has Dekaja, Dekunda, and Luster Candy, but thankfully seems to use only the last of these with regularity. At low health he\'ll add Thunder Reign and Thunder Gods, which hurt, being tier four moves and all, but are less dangerous than they could be as they don\'t pierce.
Macabre: Magnifique! Slaying a Rider of the End? Marvelous! Three more wait for you...
Next boss is, say it with me, five floors down!
Nanashi: \'\'Egad, another really big skeleton on a funky horse. I feel like there\'s some meaning to these guys I don\'t get. Once we\'re done here i\'m massively boning up on my mythology.
BOSS: FIEND RED RIDER
Level 91. Resist Gun, Repel Fire, Weak Ice, Resist Light, Resist Dark
Another notoriously hard boss gone completely meh. The Fiends must\'ve gotten fat and last after conquering this alternate Tokyo. Red Rider is a Phys and Fire specialist who thankfully doesn\'t have a passive Pierce in either. He fights with Trisagion, Maragidyne, and his unique Phys skill, Blade of Terror, which is similar to Mist Rush but inflicts Panic instead of Daze. He has Luster Candy to buff himself and War Cry to de-buff you, but again, he\'s not very interesting at all. Bring Hallelujah to this fight to drop True Bufudynes on him, too.
Azazel: AZAZA, DEFINITELY HIS FATHER\'S SON - OPPOSITE ELEMENTS THOUGH, WEIRD.\'
Bishamonten, Beiji Weng, and anything else with Glacial Blast chews through this guy. At low health he\'ll ad his second unique move, Ruinous Brand, a no-strings-attacked tier-four Phys strike. Thankfully doesn\'t pierce though. I\'m sorry I\'m not making this boss sound more interesting but... he isn\'t.
Tezcatlipoca: Wehehehehe... stronger that two of the Riders are we? I just have to sign up. I see you also disciplined my... rebellious little brother earlier... always like seeing him put in his place.
Quetzalcoatl: That is completely out of me now, you fiend. If anything it was YOU rubbing off on ME.
Tezcatlipoca: Oh I don\'t blame you. We all want vengeance on the Creator.
Amaterasu: Indeed.\'
Hachiman: A-Amaterasu-sama! Forgive me, my lady; I have conducted myself without honor.
Amaterasu: Stop self-flagellating, Hachiman, that\'s even less honorable. So you\'re Nanashi, huh? Just wanted to say... thank you so much. If you don\'t know me, I\'m the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, chief deity of your own country. I wanted to thank you for disposing of so many threats, divine and human, to Japan.
Ame-no-Uzume: Fabulous! With Lady Amaterasu on our side, we\'re invincible!
The lower floors of Twisted Tokyo yawn, as if inviting us in...
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