Nanashi: You... called me Akira... did you know him?
Mastema: I had the privilege of being one of his best lieutenants. As you do, he had many hundreds of demons, but above all there were three he trusted the most - each was allotted a role in the plan devised by himself, Fujiwara, and the man called Skins. There was Asmodeus, who became the warden of the imprisoned Archangels; the Minotaur, who stood like an immovable pillar between Tokyo and Mikado, not to move until the time was right to reunite them. And myself... you might call me an administrator, of sorts. It was my job to keep the peace, such that it was, until the same sun rose on both cities once more.
Kazfiel: Is it true, Mastema. Has... has the Lord really been gaming all of us, both Orderly and Chaotic?
Mastema: I\'m going to be brutally honest, as that\'s all I can be - DUH.
Kazfiel: WHY DO I EXIST!?
Seraph: This is a most unfortunate predicament for we angels. We shall confer about this...
Black Rider: Kakakaka! You tools of order spend so much time having meetings and such; now is the time for action!
Red Rider: AH, THERE YOU ARE, BLIGHT-BRINGER. WE ARE ALMOST KAKAKAKOMPLETE!
Demiurge: WORSHIP ME! CREATOR OF ALL, UNPARALLELLED BY ANY!
Shax: I say, is that YHVH? He\'s... smaller than I thought he\'d be...
Nanashi: Nah, that\'s just a guy I made. He seems REALLY strong...
Head through the boss door when ready to meet a mechanical angel we\'ve never seen before. This one seems to have more sentience than the Ancients, and introduces himself as the Archangel Metatron, God\'s Voice. With a title like that, do you think he\'d let us pass?
BOSS: HERALD METATRON
Level 98. Resists everything but Elec, which he\'s weak to
With resistances like that this guy really should be harder than he is. He\'s actually a glorified random encounter, and more off him appear later with the exact same stats as regular enemies. He\'s most notable for getting back his Signature Move from Nocturne, Fire of Sinai, after it was missing from SJ and IV Vanilla; it\'s up to five random Almighty strikes. Can hurt, but also can miss a lot. Odin is excellent for this battle. Oh, and you can also nail him with ailments if you want.
But we\'re not done yet...
BOSS: HORDE METATRON ARMY
Level 98. Exact same resistances as above
This Horde\'s got a ton of health but not much else going for it; like the singular Metatron, it\'s a dolled-up random encounter, and we\'ll run into these further in, too. They\'re the best grinding in the game; good for training high-level demons like Fiends. Anyway, Thunder Reign their asses; Odin once again pulls his weight here, and indeed from hereon out; Electricity is the most common weakness in this entire dungeon.
Odin: Bah. This so-called \"heaven\" has such weak defenders. They wouldn\'t survive a day in Asgard.
Loki: I\'ll remember that next time I try to take it ov-ooh, did I say that out loud?
Welcome to Brane 3, without a doubt the most complicated of them all. Remember those impossible-to-open yellow doors from last time? Well now they\'re joined by red and green ones, and the way to open them is on this level. Starting in Section B, we take the right warp to Section D, the north warp here to Section F, then through to door on the west wall here to section G, where the switch that unlocks the red doors is.
Nanashi: Huh. Think I\'m kinda getting the hang of this place.
Chi You: NOT STRUGGLING TO THE BONE WITH WHATEVER YOU DO? UNACCEPTABLE! THIIIIIIIIS MEEEEEEEAAAAAAAANS WAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!
Nanashi: Gah, why did I make you?
Huang Di: Steady your hand now, war-god. It seems we are contracted to the same summoner now...
Chi You: YOU CAN\'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! IT TOOK ME CENTURIES TO REATTACH MY HEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! THIIIIIIIIIIS MEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAANS WAAAAAAAAAAR!
Nanashi: Oh joy, seems like I\'ve summoned some more... old friends...
Mara: Mehehehe... and speaking of old friends... how\'s it going, sonny? You look even more STRONG and RIGID than when you defeated me!
Angel: How obscene, do I really need to work with him?
Nanashi: I\'m pretty sure we\'re all against YHVH now, so, uh, yes.
Return to Section B. Sections C and D, to its immediate left and right respectively, both have now-unlocked red doors that lead to Sections H and I, which have the switches for the blue and yellow doors. Keep in mind that what I\'m doing is explaining the route to the end, but there are some good items around that are worth a bit of scavenging, including rare MP restoratives like Great Chakras and powerful armors themes after Law and Chaos. To move on to the next Brane, we go back to G, take the now-opened yellow door to Section J, take the south door here to L, then go east to N, where the exit is.
Pale Rider: Kheheheheheh... \'tis almost time for the trumpets to sound... we have been waiting to pass judgment on this world for YHVH... but it seems it\'s he who must be judged.
White Rider: Magnificent, all of us now present... and to PRESERVE this world, not destroy it. Conquest!
Red Rider: WAR!
Black Rider: Famine...
Pale Rider: Death!
Mandrake: So are you like, one of those superhero teams? Faaaaaaaaar ouuuuuuuuuut...
Cleopatra: My my, what an utterly ghastly place. Whoever designed this has no love for finer things, I see...
Mephisto: Quite so. Young man, might you wish to escape the dolorous confines of this place? I know of a place called Hawaii...
Melchom: Who the Hell are they?
Nanashi: No idea; they just popped out of my phone.
Demiurge: BASK IN MY GLORY, FOR I AM OMNIPOTENT!
Nanashi: Also that guy\'s still... doing that.
Brane Four is gigantic, with sections going all that way from A to S, our destination. Explore if you want, but the trick? Almost all of it\'s a dummy. Four warps get us to the end - southeast warp in A to B, southeast warp again in B to C, yellow door in C to R, blue door in R to S.
Ganesha: They don\'t pay me enough for this...
Nanashi: Alright, think my forces could do with one last bolstering, and - oh. OH. Hahahaha, how can I NOT do this?
(NANASHI presses the Fusion button. MERKABAH and Lucifer appear in a flash of light!)
Krishna: Oh... my...
Merkabah: Behold my glory, for thou hast invoked the Lord\'s Chario- oh, it\'s you. Filth. I hope you have a good explanation for this. Out prior conflict did not count. Had I not been so focused on the Demon Lord, there would be nothing left of you.
Lucifer: Gwehehehehe... well done, child to have grown powerful enough to invoke us... congratulations are in order. Lucifuge, Beelzebub, Belial... wonderful to see you again, old friends. However, I shall not work with that Chariot. I am sorry to report that you have invoked us in vain.
Nanashi: Whatever. Can I give you two my spiel, first? I feel like I can be quite persuasive when it comes to demons.
Merkabah: You have five minutes. Afterwards I shall break out of your contract, as it is well within my power to do.
Nanashi: Noitisnt. Buy anyway, if I\'m understanding things right, you were both screwed by YHVH. You\'d think after thousands of years of nonstop war you\'d realize it, but it seems like I\'ll need to drill it right into your thick skulls. NEITHER of you could have won. Lucifer, your whole job was to act really evil and then lose. And Merkabah, if you care about peace like you say yo do, surely you realize you\'d have never gotten it? You\'d never fully beat Lucifer because Lucifer was created to keep people afraid and dependent on you. No more fear and YHVH can\'t control you - and us - anymore. Classic tyrant tactic, just blame everyone else for your problems. I feel sorry for you. You two wrecked my city, and I can\'t feel anything other than sorry. What else can you feel for people, or demons for that matter, who got so. Completely. Hosed. So, what do you say?
Lucifer: Gweheheh, bravo, child! Yes... I came to an epiphany as you defeated me. My true purpose, and yours, Chariot - to keep everything conflicted and controlled for all eternity. Yes, I\'m in. What say you, archangel?
Merkabah: Bah... I feel... as if I have known this all along somehow. I shall trust this child for now, but if he lies... there will be nothing left of him to bury.
Krishna: Ha. I don\'t believe it. Perhaps the Egg was unnecessary after all...
Mitra: First all humans, then all demons, beneath the same banner... the same sun...
Mastema: My old master, Akira, foresaw all this. Near clairvoyant, wasn\'t he?
Proceed up the long passageway at the end of section S to be greeted by... nothing. Nozomi thinks we\'ve hit a dead end, but than Jonathan and Walter\'s shades reappear. They now know what they have to do. Merkabah and Lucifer must become one once more, and take on their original form! The two spirits then perform a fusion ritual with each other and vanish, in their place appearing a GIGANTIC black and red demon with seven heads and ten horns.
Pale Rider: ...impossible. That was their secret all along?
Cherub: Yes... this is what I was forgetting...
The demon introduces himself as \"Satan, the Ancient Angel, the Arbiter.\" Strangely enough, however, he isn\'t an enemy, not really. He is a servant of the order of the universe, but he is open to that order changing. He\'s willing to take us to YHVH... but first we have to prove ourselves!
BOSS: PRIMAL SATAN
Resist Phys, Resist Gun, Drain Fire, Drain Light, Drain Dark
Satan\'s oddly low health for this point in the game, only 11111, belies his threat level. H\'es packing Akasha Arts, Trisagion, and his unique skill Megiddo Ark, the tier-four skills for Phys, Fire, and Almighty, and he has +8 affinity for all three and Concentrate to make them all stronger. These plus Dekaja, Dekunda, Luster Candy and Debilitate are all he has... but does he really need any more?
Lucifer: This thing, this tool of order, is my true form? Bah. The child truly was right...
Merkabah: ...just fight.
Satan obviously has no weaknesses but he is normal to Ice, Elec, Wind and of course Almighty, so that\'s what we attack him with. He has some interesting Boss Banter scenes as well. One his second turn, he drops all our HP To One and asks who we depend on in the face of insurmountable odds. Answering \"my friends\" gets us a full heal, but drops the Assist Gauge to zero. On his third turn, he heals himself back to full!
Mastema: Gah, and just when it looked like we were making headway!
Fourth turn, he tests to see what we well do when our body is \"sapped of strength;\" Nanashi eats a Debilitate and a Mute here. Fifth turn asks what we would do if a terrible fate would befall either us or our allies; correct option here is to sacrifice yourself. Satan wallops us with heavy damage, but it\'s nothing we can\'t heal.
Krishna: Oh my, what is that little ghost doing?
Nanashi: Navarre get ba-
(NAVARRE lobs a Zio Stone at SATAN... and SATAN drops to one knee!)
Lucifer: ...what?
Yes, that\'s how this battle really ended in my run. Best boss kill EVER.
Satan, sufficiently impressed, thus offers to guide us to YHVH. We can prepare however we want, we just need to return to him.
Nanashi: I don\'t think we have anything else we need to- what the? Something just dropped into my bag, the Hell?
(NANASHI pulls the object out; it is a sinister looking metalwork in the shame of an infinity symbol...)
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