Event type: Raid
Element: Water
Friendship Character: Summer Amane
Theme Song: Shiki Aoki - Stealth Dance
Aftering slaying the fiend Scylla, Euden and the gang decide to take a well earned vacation. However, the following day they are visited by a strange creature named Carmen and find Luca dead. Carmen tells the crew that one of them is the murderer as part of a little game all while revealing Scylla to still be alive and the one responsible for the game they are in.
Euden expresses no intent on taking part in a game where he has to kill his friends, and the crew works on finding a resting spot for Luca. As a barrier prevents them from leaving, they also figure that they need to find a way to escape outside of playing the game, all while Ellisanne ponders if playing the game is the only way.
The next day, Carmen informs the crew that another friend has been killed. After deducing the missing people to be Cleo, Norwin, and Mikoto. Upon searching, they quickly find Cleo's lifeless body and start questioning Norwin as he was supposed to be with her at the time. Norwin understands their suspicions and decides the best thing to do is lock him up in case it was him.
Despite being the first to accuse him, Ranzal has doubts that Norwin was the one who killed Cleo. From there, the party finds out that Scylla is actually among them. With the burden of distrust growing among them, the party decides it is best for stick together. As the day comes to a close, Elisanne approaches Ranzal to discuss the situation further.
On the third day, Carmen alerts Euden yet again of another ally's death, with the victim this time being Ranzal. With Ranzal dead, Norwin is not only ruled out as the person responsible, he is also ruled as being the only person who couldn't have been killing anybody. Something Norwin takes note of is that all three of their friend died without a hint of a fight, which he finds odd, especially since Ranzal wouldn't go down without one. Euden does his best to make sure the party remains calm as trust continues to dwindle. Amane, however, was aware of Elisanne talking to Ranzal last night and decides to have a word with her.
She figures the paladyn was talking to Ranzal about wanting Euden to be the one to survive in the worst case scenario, which Elisanne admits to be the case. Just as Amane starts to trust Elisanne though, the paladyn reveals herself to be Scylla deceiving her and prepares to have Amane be the next victim.
However, this turns out to just be a dream Euden was having as Amane turns out to be completely fine. Elisanne, however, is found dead when Mikoto comes in to check on everybody. When finding this out, Mikoto reveals that he discovered a cavern of dolls. He says there were three yesterday and that another was added following Elisanne's death. Not only that, but the newest lets out a cry sounding very much like Elisanne. That's when the party realizes that the souls of their fallen comrades are trapped inside the dolls. Something is wrong though, because even though there should only be four dolls, there are five.
Upon noticing this, the party finds Patia dead. Upon which, Carmen shows up and reveals that the souls of the losers are placed in the dolls to be consumed by Scylla. She also reveals that the winner of the game can offer their own life in exchange for the lives of everybody else.
While the party bring up the idea of finding and taking down Scylla as a means for everybody to live, with no way to find out where or who Scylla is, Mikoto offers to kill everybody and offer up his soul. Amane isn't fond of the idea and offers to sacrifice herself instead. Before a decision can be reached, Mikoto collapses in front of the whole party, his body becoming lifeless. It is at that point that Norwin figures out who the culprit is among them.
The culprit in question is Amane, on account of her asking for the trust of Mikoto, Patia, and Elisanne. Meanwhile, Norwin considers himself responsible for Cleo's death, while Ranzal's death is because of Elisanne. He also takes note that if one of them was actually Scylla and that the original had been killed, there should have been one more doll than there is. He then reveals that the island is a place of suspicion and that asking for trust is what got everybody killed. This means that to survive, they have to maintain suspicion and not reply to words of trust.
This makes Euden realize he was likely the one responsible for Luca. Carmen then confirms it for them, but she also tells them that figuring it out doesn't change a thing. She also tells them to consider the possibility of another person lying. Amane then decides to further confirm it, which Carmen decides to bite by saying she trusts Amane while demanding Amane to say it. However, Amane tells Carmen she already said it and that Carmen was the one who replied to them.
Carmen, realizing she has been tricked, is dissolved from existence in front of the party. With Carmen destroyed, Scylla emerges, angered over the crew ruining her plans. She then declares the game over and prepares to attack the party head-on. Just as she does, everybody who had died in the game is revived, and they arrive to aid in the fight.
With Scylla defeated, the party prepares to leave the island while coming to the thought that Carmen had been a player of the game as well. With all said and done, Euden is happy that they never gave up on trust even if it was killing them, and they set sail.
On the island however, somebody is still there saying that the game isn't over yet.
And then there were...?
This event contains examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Upon realizing that Carmen was likely a player who sacrificed herself to set other players free, the party started to feel remorse for her... Except for Amane.
- All Just a Dream: Episode 4 looks like Scylla is in the form of Elisanne about to murder Amane, but it turns out it was Euden having a nightmare.
- Batman Gambit: In the moment when working to confirm that replying to the word trust will kill somebody, Amane says she trusts everybody in the vicinity. Carmen than decides to trick Amane into replying to her saying she trusts her, but this results in Carmen triggering the curse on herself due to Amane's words including her as well.
- Breaking Old Trends:
- Rather than going from one episode to the next, the next one requires waiting until the next day for the next episode.
- Also a first for any raid event, players are able to engage in the raid boss right away instead of having to play through the episodes before they can gain access. same goes for the regular boss.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Episode 2 has Sinoa find a letter from a previous inhabitant of the island who reveals that one of their party had been replaced by Scylla, meaning any of the current survivors could just as well be her. Episode 6 reveals that she isn't disguised as anybody for this game on account of there not being enough dolls to warrant that possibility.
- Disney Death: With the possible exception of Carmen and victims of past games, everybody who died in this event for replying to the word of trust comes back to fight Scylla in episode 6.
- Dude, Not Funny!: At the end, Luca says that if they ever go through something like this again that he would survive. Both Patia and Notte are extremely unamused.
- Dwindling Party: Episode 1 starts with the group finding Luca is dead. Episode 2 then reveals Cleo is now dead. Episode 3 has Ranzal the next to fall along with Amane (though her supposed death turns out to be All Just a Dream). Episode 4 reveals it was Elisanne instead who's killed. Episode 5 then reveals Patia to have died with Mikoto keeling over at the end of the episode. Come episode 6, everybody who died is brought back due to Carmen being destroyed.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The regular boss for this event, Admiral Pincers, makes no appearance in the story and only serves as the means to get otherworld fragments to face Scylla with no story relevance either unlike regular bosses of past raid events.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Carmen reveals that the sole survivor can give up their own life in exchange for everybody else should they be the winner.
- His Name Is...: Norwin is about to reveal who the killer is when episode 5 ends.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Norwin had been restrained for the day when the group found out that Scylla is impersonating one of them.
- The Reveal: Scylla is in the form of Elisanne.
- That was a Bait-and-Switch to show Euden had a nightmare. Mikoto finds out that the souls of the victims are in dolls instead.
- Replying to the word TRUST is the cause of all the deaths. This means that everybody in the party was unknowingly responsible for the deaths of their friends.
- Sequel Hook: The ending has an unknown character say that the game isn't over yet, along with the text of "And then there were...?"
- Wham Line: Episode 4 reveals not only are the souls of Luca, Cleo, Ranzal and Elisanne are in the dolls... but so is another victim!
