Asherah: MITRA?
Mitra: Y... yes?
Asherah: DID YOU TRULY MEAN THOSE THINGS YOU SAID ABOUT THAT ZELENIN WOMAN? SHE MAY BE AN ANGEL AND I A DEMON, BUT WE ARE STILL BOTH WOMEN, AND WE WERE BOTH HURT...
Mitra: Guh... I aplogize, milday... Mostly... I just wanted to see that porcelain mask of hers crack... Stronger stuff... than I realized...
Asherah: YOU MEANT WELL, IN YOUR OWN WAY, BUT YOU OF ALL DEMONS WERE NOT ONE TO CRITICIZE...
This update will be mostly devoted to a couple difficult side quests that need doing. First of all there's the last and hardest quest in Sector Eridanus. You may recall from last time that you can train with the angels Aniel and Kazfiel there, as well as the Four Devas, and the last mission in each of these quest chains is exclusive to the alinement of the petitioner, so Law for the Heralds and Chaos for the Devas (note that you can actually cheese the system by accepting the quest on the required alignment, then coming back after changing your alignment; you'll still be able to do the quest).
Drake: I have a promise I made to those Angels - they wanted to put me through the ultimate test of a knight, slaying a dragon...
Cherub: Promises to angels are always good ones to keep, my man!
Dybbuk: 'cuz they'll burn your head off otherwise...
Enter the final door behind the angels to find the dragon - or rather, the Mother Harlot. She complains that she was forced into her current role by God and now he wants her dead, but regardless, she attacks.
=BOSS: MOTHER HARLOT=
Level 90. Null Phys, Drain Elec, Weak Wind, Null Light, Null Dark
Mother Harlot isn't a very hard boss until you get her down to low health, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The basic setup for this boss consists of a full party of demons of the same Alignment - Law, in my case - all equipped with powerful Wind moves, Zandyne or better. This will allow for the maximization of damage by exploiting demon co-ops. When she gets into the red, though, that's when you have to watch out, as she'll start using her unique Almighty move, Babylon Goblet. It hits at least as hard as Megidolaon does and can inflict Charm; the last thing you want is a bunch of low-health demons beating each other up! When you win, you can either spare her, kill her, or let her own dragons devour her; this doesn't affect anything though.
Drake: Your story intrigued me. Alright, you can go.
Cherub: S-sir Drake?
The reward is the Amanomi Sword, the strongest in the game and usable only by Law characters. The Seraph quest gave the game's third-best gun, the Megido Fire; on the Chaos path equivalent quest, where you fight Seraph at Mara's behest, rewards the best gun, the Peacemaker. The last Deva quest, as you might imagine, awards the third-best sword, the Vajra. Neutral players have to make do with the second-best of both.
Drake: Sir Thoth, a word?
Thoth: Mrm?
Drake: Something that demon said bothered me. It said "God" made it that way, then wanted to kill it... is this the same "God" Zelenin follows? Is he THE God? I've never been particularly religious, I just don't want anyone to die. So, what is this God actually like? Some of my other demons seem... apprehensive about him, and I can't say I blame them after what happened to my crew...
CRASH CRASH CRASH
Tell me everything.
CRASH CRASH
Thoth: T'be honest, ain't sure it matters what kinda god he is, ta tell ya the truth...
Drake: Oh? What does that mean?
Thoth: Well, if'n ya look at your human history, you'd see that fer a not-too-small percentage of it, ya could get away with practically anythin' by sayin' "God told told ya to do it." It don't necessarily matter whether a god actually said that, just that humans BELIEVE they did.
Drake: So, wait, gods DON'T endorse all the horrible things humans do in their name? Kinda confused now, Thoth...
Thoth: Depends on the god. I never done it, probably some that have. Truth is, mosta us gods like you little fleshbags a lot. Ever consider how easy it'd be fer us ta just ignore ya? But if ya look at yer race's old stories, you'd find most of us do try to help... most of us...
Drake: ...
Norn: Apologies if we are interrupting, but we have located the source of the temporal anomalies. It is at the bottom of Sector Grus. Shall we proceed?
Drake: ...OH! Right, I almost forgot about that!
You remember this quest, right? It's just as before - head to the Type A Sanctum in Grus and head to the Unlock E door, meet the suspicious crewman, and head through the obnoxious Bonus Dungeon. I gave my directions for how to get to the boss last time, so I'm not going to repeat them.
CRASH CRASH CRASH
A Metatron?
CRASH
Drake: Been here... been here before? Have I... no, it wasn't last time, was it... I'm having... memories that never happened?
CRASH
Drake: St-stop knocking! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!
CRASH CRASH CRASH
Never knew her first name...
Never got his first name...
The DEMONICA can do anything...?
CRASH
Norn: The incursions are getting more intense around here... we should brace for impact...
Enter the door in the bottom basement to challenge the boss...
=BOSS: ALILAT=
Level 84. Strong Phys, Null Gun, Null Light, Null Dark
Alilat's got no weakness, but if you recall she's quite fragile, having only 3000 HP, less than half of Jimenez's total. She has only four skills: her basic Physical attack, Megidolaon, Concentrate, and Diarahan, so it's entirely possible she will be able to heal herself to full. She does have a pattern, though: she will always use Concentrate before Megidolaon.
Fight back by first buffing with Luster Candy, then going to town with Almighty. The Moan Bullet attack of the Meteor Dragoon pistol is useful to have, as it can strike with Almighty more than once. It's entirely possible to finish her without seeing a single Megidolaon, due to her Glass Cannon status, but if you do see Concentrate, have everyone defend.
Drake: Hmm... that thing didn't seem all that powerful, I wonder if it was the thing causing the-
CRASSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH
To be continued...
