I have tons of money from those last few fights. I can’t remember if San Riese has a shop or not, but I might as well check. Yup, it does. Time to buy stuff. I spend a lot of my money on revival items, but end up using the leftovers to buy armor for some of my guys. I also equip Andre’s armor to Alph, and give that Regulus sword to Leon. After that, I save and head into the battle up ahead.
It’s been some time since I reported the levels of my guys, so I’ll do that now. Kai is 39, Claire is 40. Heath, Mel, Mavi, Vanessa, Nicolai, and Theo are 42. Leon is 43, Saki and Lucia are 44. Alph and Cecille are 45. For this battle, I’ll bring in some lower-level characters, since I doubt it’ll be all that difficult. I bring Theo, Nicolai, Kai, Claire, Mel, Heath, Mavi, and Vanessa.
Oh, for Christ’s sake. It’s THIS battle. *sigh* Lemme explain. This particular battlefield is huge. That, combined with the fact that it’s on constantly moving water, results in lag. Lots and lots of lag. I still find it ridiculous. Lag is usually for online games, not for DS games.
With that said, I begin the battle. My opponents are two Sauroids, two Griffins, two Minotaurs, and two Cerberuses.
Mavi moves first. She buffs herself, Claire, Theo, and Mel for speed. She levels to 43 for doing that. Claire heals herself and Nicolai after being attacked by a Cerberus, and she levels to 41. Nicolai moves next and buffs himself and Claire for speed. Kai levels to 40 after attacking a Griffin. Theo levels to 43 after attacking a Minotaur.
Claire almost dies, but manages to heal herself. Nicolai attacks a Minotaur and successfully poisons it. He also levels to 43. Theo gets killed by a Cerberus. Mel attacks two enemies and levels to 43. Heath does the same and levels to 43 as well. Oh my GOD, this lag is insane! Everything is taking forever. The magic animations get hit the worst, but even the regular attacks lag.
Vanessa levels to 43. Claire dies, leaving Mel with two people she has to revive. Kai levels to 41 after killing a Minotaur. That’d be the first kill of the fight on my part. The second comes soon after, with Mavi killing the other Minotaur and leveling to 44.
Heath dies right after I bring Theo back. And then Theo gets killed. Wow. Um…I’ll have to be careful now. Nicolai kills a Griffin, while the others focus on the remaining monsters. Mel brings Theo back again. Meanwhile, Kai manages to kill off both Cerberuses at once. This leaves only the Sauroids and the remaining Griffin. I get Vanessa to charm one of the Sauroids, but then she gets killed. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish this.
The charmed Sauroid kindly kills the Griffin. Thank you, Dellza the Sauroid. For that, you die last. Last, though, doesn’t mean much when there’s only one other monster on the field. Once he’s dead, that means that Dellza has to die. The Sauroid remains charmed for a while, even as I pound away at him. After one attack, Nicolai levels to 44. Earlier, by the way, Mavi leveled to 45 and learned a new flash drive. It’s called Tiger Fang, but obviously I can’t use it now. Mel levels to 44 after attacking, and learns her last flash drive.
Theo flash drives the last enemy, successfully poisoning it. Doesn’t stay that way for long, though, since Kai puts it out of its misery. The battle ends here.
I get 6200 Rico, as well as an FP-Fizzy and three Vitae. I intermission with Mel. She says she’s very grateful towards Alph, and asks if there’s anything he wants to have. My options are “A new weapon,” “The thought’s what counts!” and “I want your hat.” As tempting as the last answer is, it’d probably get her mad at me. So I choose the second option. She says she knew it, and calls Alph an absolute gentleman. Since he’s so nice, she’ll find something for him anyway. Unfortunately, no item for me.
Since the battle is over, I save and move onto the next map. This leads me right to my destination, which is labeled the Round Table Council HQ. The place it’s at looks like a large, icy island. Wonder why they’d have their headquarters in a place like this? I enter, prepared for another battle.
The scene shows a dark, stone building that looks more like a jail than anything else. Kingston and Hugo are talking. Kingston asks if everything is ready, and Hugo says it is. Just as he’s about to start it up, Priel appears. She tells them not to be building nasty things like that, and blows it up. Hugo is horrified, saying he put his heart and soul into that thing. Priel says normally she’d blow them up too, but since it’s Master God’s birthday, she’ll let them live. With that, she leaves. Kingston, understandably, is pissed.
Meanwhile, we switch to Alph and the others. He wonders what “that facility over there” is. He’s told that the Round Table Council’s headquarters is around here, and that’s probably what it is. The usual pre-battle screen comes up. I don’t have much money, so there’s no point in shopping. I select “action.” I can talk to either Kai or Nicolai, or go to the library. I go down the list, talking to Kai first. He wants revenge on the Round Table Council for killing his comrades. They probably knew that the Wind Lapistier was unstable, and went through with it anyway. Theo realizes that Kingston was making them gather the Lapistier because he wanted to use their powers. Claire says it’s not a power that humans can handle.
Talking with Nicolai has him saying that forbidden research and manipulating life reminds him of his father, Fareth. His father left him alone and went missing. Alph says that he heard Fareth was executed. Cecille says that Nicolai has never said anything until now. Nikolai says that this isn’t the sort of thing that he’d usually talk about. His father specialized in research dealing with the essence of life. He worked for the Round Table Council. Nicolai says that chances are he realized during the course of his work that messing with life is dangerous. When the fundamentals of life are warped, you warp the future of mankind. No single person should be able to control the fate of all humanity like that. That’s probably why he disappeared. I’m actually pretty impressed – this is some pretty serious stuff for Nicolai. I mean, the guy’s an annoying pest that’s been there for comic relief the entire game. I’m glad to see him actually being serious for once, even if it’s only for a little bit.
That said, there’s still the library. The books are “The Power of the Dawn Witch,” “Steel Witch R&D Record 3,” and “The Thunder Lapistier.” The first one talks about how the power of a Lapistier is very destructive, even when most of the energy is released as light. They apparently recorded and analyzed this light, and found it to have unusual properties. Apparently, it resonates inside the Lapistier and amplifies its power. They think this is what caused the Aldheld disaster. They mention something called Over Flash, which is a large-scale version that only the Dawn Witch can perform. This is a threat that may destroy the entire world if allowed to happen. The Dawn Witch can’t be allowed to acquire that much power. Looks like we’ve got some foreshadowing here. It’s obvious that this will come up later.
The next book is another one about Iris. They’d been warned not to do the next step, but Kingston forced them to. Beta-13 was renamed the Steel Witch. There’s still the unsolved problem of unstable life force, though. In this condition, she’ll require periodic maintenance. Nonetheless, they’ve succeeded in what they were doing, and gained knowledge about Rune energy and the Lapistier. Shockingly, the book also says that they’re considering making two more Steel Witches. This never happens, but it’s still pretty disturbing that they were thinking of making more.
The next one says that at one point in time, they figured out where the Thunder Lapistier was. They demanded it, but the Shadow Clan refused. So later, they came in and killed everyone who resisted. They then took the Lapistier. There was one survivor, a baby who wouldn’t remember the event. The Church adopted her. They then added an R&D department to the Round Table Council. Only a few high-ranked clergy, including Kingston, know it exists. Its purpose is to research the Taboo. The Thunder Lapistier was given to them. Everything else is too torn to read.
One thing confuses me about this. If Saki is the only Shadow Clan member left, then how does she know how to fight like them? No one was there to teach her. Meh, whatever. Doesn’t really matter. Still kind of bugs me, though.
Anyway, that’s all I can do. I go to the world map, save, and come right back. The group finds Kingston and Hugo. Kingston isn’t too happy that we followed him all the way here. The group demands to know where the Cocoon is, but Kingston doesn’t know. Priel took it somewhere. The group doesn’t seem to believe him. Lucia warns him that if they can’t stop the cocoon from opening, the planet will be destroyed. He’s still pretty pissed about Priel destroying his machine. He could have controlled God if he’d been able to use it.
He tells the group that this world belongs to humans. During the past thousand years, it was humans who made it flourish. He doesn’t care who tries to destroy that, he’s not going to let them. Humans will not be slaves to God. They then explain what they were trying to do, and what became of it. Lucia says that these guys are no threat anymore. They have to stop Zehaal’s revival. Claire, though, wants to do one more thing. She asks Kingston for the Water Lapistier. They’ll need it to fight Zehaal.
Obviously, things don’t go as he plans. He realizes that with the Lapistier, he can fight God. He demands that we give him all our Lapistier. He can create an army of Steel Witches, and he can still rule the world! He asks Hugo where the Lapistier fusion device is. Hugo tells him, but reminds him that it’s not been fully tested. Kingston says why not finish the testing now? He pulls out the Water Lapistier, and uses the device on Hugo.
Claire, of course, thinks that this wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t say anything. But Mel says they have to stop Hugo. Kingston orders Hugo to attack, but he gets attacked instead. All Hugo wanted was to retire and live quietly, and they’ve ruined his dreams.
The battle prep screen comes up. Besides Alph, I bring in Claire, Leon, Kai, Vanessa, Lucia, Mel, and Heath.
Oddly enough, there are a bunch of other guys along with Hugo. I guess it makes sense, since it’d be too easy with just him, but where did the others come from? Doesn’t matter. We’ve got three mages, two archers, two clerics, and Hugo. I should be able to do this, but just in case, I save.
The battlefield here has two layers, with me on the bottom one near the stairs. I begin to move my guys up the stairs. Vanessa and Lucia stay behind to attack a nearby mage. The mages here seem to be Dark-attribute, and have a buff that boosts magic attack. I’ll have to be careful, since all my enemies except the archers use magic.
Kai is attacked by the archers, but survives long enough for Alph to heal him. He’s got this skill called Rym Cure, and I haven’t really used it up until now. Kai goes ahead and attacks one of the archers. He levels to 43, learning a new skill. Vanessa levels to 44 in the process of attacking the lone mage.
Hugo started with a full flash gauge. He used it all on Leon, who survived the attack. Claire quickly heals him along with Heath. Kai, Claire, and Alph are attacked, but Mel heals them. They’re attacked again, though, and Alph is killed. The others keep going at the enemy, eventually killing off one of the archers.
Lucia finally kills the mage that started out nearby me, and she levels to 45 afterwards. With that done, Vanessa begins to catch up with the rest of my guys. The remaining archer kills off Claire, and then a mage kills Kai. Leon is then killed by Hugo. Um…OK then. Good thing it’s Mel’s turn. She brings Claire back.
Vanessa keeps on moving forward, buffing Mel for resistance. Lucia follows. She’s too far away for any healing, but she does revive Kai. Good thing, too, because one of the mages kills Claire. Heath kills him on the next turn. I move Vanessa out of the fray and have her bring Claire back.
One of the mages buffs a cleric and Hugo for magic attack. Lucia heals Claire, Vanessa, and Mel. Hugo tries to put Heath to sleep. It doesn’t work. Heath then begins attacking Hugo. He levels to 45 and learns a new skill.
Kai gets killed at one point by a mage. Vanessa soon follows, after being hit by a few water attacks. THEN MEL DIES. Now I only have three guys left. I’ll have to be really careful. I should probably start reviving, too. I start with Mel. Lucia heals some of my guys, leveling to 46 and learning a new flash drive. Claire heals a nearby cleric, and levels to 42. Claire is killed again after a barrage of attacks. It’s Lucia’s turn, so I have her bring back Kai. Mel revives Leon, leveling to 45 and learning a new spell.
Heath uses his second flash drive on Hugo. The remaining mage kills Leon and nearly kills Lucia. Lucia heals herself and Kai. Kai then goes in to finish Hugo. Very fitting, I’d say, since he hates Hugo so much. He levels to 44.
Mel’s new spell is Salvation, a wide-range healing spell. She uses it to heal all my guys. Lucia uses her third flash drive on the mage and archer. It has a huge range, but like most of her magic, it doesn’t do much damage. It’s pretty good by her standards, though. Kai uses a flash drive on the cleric. To make things even better, the attack succeeds in silencing her. The other two enemies are in a neat little line, perfect position for Heath to attack them. The last mage dies. So now we’ve got an archer and a magic-less cleric. Great! Obviously, archer dies first, since she can still be dangerous. Actually, though, the cleric ends up killing off Lucia with a physical attack. Not so harmless?
Mel kills the archer, leveling to 46. Heath then moves in and kills the cleric, ending the battle. Wow. That was close. I did manage to do it on my first try, though. That hasn’t happened in a while.
I get 8200 Rico and four Vitae. I decide to intermission with Lucia.
Kingston is annoyed that Hugo couldn’t control the Lapistier. How could he lose to the Witches? Lucia answers for him. The Witches were given their power by the planet. They’re the only ones who can control Lapistier. Kingston, desperate, says that God will smite them. He’s the Cardinal – God has to listen to him! The group remarks that he’s pathetic. He then warps away with the Water Lapistier. Claire knows where the battlefield is, though, so we start on our way there.
Lucia seems upset about something, and the other Witches notice. Claire says that she has a right to be worried. She and Alph are going to be key players in the battle to come. But she shouldn’t be ashamed of being worried, because everyone else is too. After that, Claire says that with Cecille here, all seven of them are finally together. She’s going to teach them the Witches’ greatest secret. They learn the Rainbow Array synergy. From what I understand, it’s nearly impossible to use. Like all synergies, it involves all participants having full flash gauges. With this one, all seven of the Witches are involved. You can only bring in eight people for one battle. You get the idea.
My intermission with Lucia starts. Apparently, she’s bathing, and Alph walks in on her. My options are “You have a cute face,” “That’s a cute hat,” and “I wasn’t looking at you!” The last one will probably get a negative response, because Lucia will think he’s lying. So I pick the middle option. She says thanks, and says that she made the hat herself. She’s proud of it.
Kopin spent seven days on the deserted island after being abandoned by Vanessa. He had no way to get home, so Vivi’s Kopin came to help him.
Two new locations open up on the map. One of them is my destination, and the other is a battle on the way. At least I can see my destination this time. I’ll stop here, since the chapter ended.
Just three more chapters to go, guys. We’re almost done! I’ll make sure to update sooner than last time. Keep checking the liveblog, and thanks for reading.
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