Ishtar and her soldiers, the twelve Dark Warlords, Manfloy and his Lopt Sect priests, and even Julia, mind-wiped into working for them, are all now beginning their attack. This is the final battle, and the penultimate entry for this run.
First, I need to deal with the dark priests near Freege, since their sleep staves will make life much more annoying if I don't. Ishtar and her soldiers also approach, and with those three Falcon Knights in their ranks as well, they will prove incredibly tough to take down.
Queue Arion, flying in from just west of Chalphy, with his remaining soldiers. He laments his lost homeland, and commands his men to take Chalphy castle.
This is not good at all. I place all of my hopes for stopping Ishtar in Sety, the rest of the party either too far or too unconscious to really help on that front, and hope Holsety will let him defeat them. Lana restores Altenna from her sleep, and Nanna warps her to Chalphy, since I think she can possibly fend off Arion's men, or hopefully even talk her adoptive brother out of fighting entirely.
Ah dammit, that was to be expected. Sety fell to the onslaught of foes, and thus my Reset Counter is pushed to 23.
This time, Sety holds a chokepoint closer to the party, hoping to weaken the enemies before dealing with Ishtar. Altenna flies just out of reach of Arion and his troops, waiting for her chance to either slay or speak with him. I hope she can do the former, and make him leave the battle out of whatever filial bond they may still share.
Sety is able to take down most of Ishtar's men, including the pegasus sisters, and is healed before he faces Ishtar at last. Altenna flies around Arion's wyvern knights, Gae Bolg at the ready, and as she land next to him... She can talk to him! She demands to know what she msut do to get him to stop this, and he's utterly surprised that she's there right now. She reprimands him, telling him that he's so caught up in his own ego that he's lost sight of what's right, and he asks what she thinks he should do in that case. She tells him to think of Serlis, the reason he is fighting and why he's toiled for so long. Arion counters, asking if that makes Serlis in the right, and yet stops him from being in the right as well. Altenna finally gives up, saying that if she can't convince him, he may as well just finish her right then and there. Arion, unable to bring himself to harm his sister despite his previous beliefs, understands her now, and decides to join her in her battle.
And now he and his men are allies? That turned out better than expected! They all gather around Altenna, so I guess that means I have my own squad of awesome wyvern knights. I can dig it.
Altenna flies north towards Dozel, planning to use that as a jump off point to allow them all to strike at the dark warlords. Sety battles and defeats Ishtar for the final time, and Serlis runs ahead, preparing to completely bypass Barhara for the time being and overtake Velthomer.
Before he charges forth, he makes sure Julia can attack him, and prepares to play the most heart-breaking game of follow the leader, all the way to the gates of Velthomer. This way she runs no risk of dying nor of killing anyone, since Serlis's Tyrfing and barrier ring give him a whopping 42 effective resistance, to her 44 magic.
Serlis reaches Velthomer, and after ignoring the attacks of the Lopt priests guarding it, is greeted by Manfloy. The archbishop says he has been expecting Serlis, and Serlis responds with indignation at the spell Manfloy placed on Julia. Manfloy confirms this, and says that the only way to remove the spell is to kill him (gladly). He also says he did the same thing to Dierdre, and that she was like putty in his hands. Serlis puts the pieces together, and discovers that all of this Lopt Sect garbage has been Manfloy's doing. Manfloy mocks him for only now discovering this, as he revels in the knowledge that Loptous has fully entered Julius's body, and a new dark age shall arise, without any hope of being stopped. Serlis swears that, for all of the pain that Serlis caused his family and friends, he will never forgive Manfloy, and the archbishop does piddling damage with his Fenrir tome.
It's only a matter of time now, Manfloy. Serlis rips through one more priest, and then enters Velthomer. With three strokes of the Holy Tyrfing, Serlis snuffs the life from Manfloy, and seizes Velthomer. Serlis asks Levin if he thinks Narga is truly here, and Levin assures him that the news is that Alvis hid the tome here personally. He asks Felipe where it is, and the priest says that it was hidden in the treasure hall, but that they lack the key needed to enter. Levin asks where the key is, and Felipe explains that Alvis had it affixed to Dierdre's circlet (oh Alvis you sly dog you! Heh, without you, we wouldn't be able to have gotten the only failsafe to defeating Julius, so in spite of everything, thanks).
Serlis speaks to Julia now that Manfloy is dead, and begs Julia to snap out of her trance. Her eyes return to her normal color, and that evil smile fades, as she wonders what's going on. Serlis explains the situation to her, and she remembers what happened beforehand; the kidnapping by Manfloy. Serlis is thankful for her safety, and Julia says she must do something. Serlis tells her that everything has been explained to him by Levin, and so she needn't do anything, but she says that she knows what she must do. She must fight alongside him, and she is no longer scared, and Serlis commends her bravery, saying that they must all persevere. I have Julia enter Velthomer, and Levin leads her to the treasure hall, where she opens it with her Circlet. She claims Narga, does the glow-y thing, and equips the most powerful of all the holy weapons.
Narga grants +20 to speed, skill, defense, and resilience, shielding its wielder from harm and providing them the strength to bring down any foe, no matter how powerful. The party remains near Freege, since I calculated how effective everyone would be against Julius, and learned that the answer would be "not at all". They wait for word of victory to come, as Julia, Serlis, Leaf, and Altenna, prepare for the final assault on Barhara. Before that though, I take care of one final conversation, between Fee and Arthur. Fee asks what Arthur is doing, and he exclaims rather angrily that he is fighting, and mocks her for her carefree attitude. She gets defensive, and Arthur notes that that is why people tend to get the wrong impression. They argue for a bit, while Arthur then calms down and explains what he means, noting that despite all of that he still adores her. She is happy to hear that, and they both decide that once the war is finished, they will return to Silesia.
Noting the tendencies of the Thracian knights, I decide that Serlis will lure the warlords over to the party's location, and allow them to defeat them en masse. Altenna leads her wyvern knights just south of where the attack will take place, and soon everything is in position.
Lakche leads the charge, claiming two kills right off the bat thanks to Sibling Power of Love criticals (the critical animations actually look pretty cool when they aren't for mounted units or mages). Soon the dark warlords are defeated, though not without dealing a fearsome amount of damage to the party, even despite the fight being on my terms.
Once they are slain, Julia (I mentioned those calculations from before, right? Yeah, I won't be able to beat Julius without Narga in any realistic fashion, so I'm just gonna end him) approaches her brother, preparing to face him with her own power, equal and opposite to the one he wields. Arion's men act as decoy's drawing his fire from the rest of the party, so that she may face him without any threatening distractions.
Julius is surprised by her presence, and curses Manfloy for his error, before they fight. They trade blows, Julia coming out on top, and Serlis is the next to strike. Julius is far more confident in this case, mocking Serlis's title of "Imperial Prince of Light", saying that no warrior of Baldo lineage can defeat him. Serlis puts up a good fight, wounding the dark prince, and tanking the attacks as well, before Julia engages her brother in a fierce, long duel, and eventually strikes him down.
Loptous curses Narga for his interference once again, as the dark dragon is finally destroyed for good. Serlis then seizes the castle, and begins speaking ancient Hylian to Levin, because apparently the translators didn't reach this far. I'm not sure if there are any translations of the ending online, but for now, I can at least glean that Serlis is doing as Ike does at the end of Path of Radiance, and addressing every one of his soldiers in their groups, and then letting them head out to wherever they plan to live. It then goes to a map, and soon the icon travels all around the continent, likely explaining what each group did in the end as they split off to their different homes. It curiously stops on Verdane in what I'm not sure is a glitch or the actual ending, given that no buttons work and everything stops.
Ah well. I'll be posting my final thoughts and review-y type stuff tomorrow, and if anyone could provide an actual online translation of the end of the game, that'd be great.
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