Artist: Maeshima Shigeki
The second Book of the game, running from December 2017 to November 2018. See the opening cinematic here
, and the Chibi Playhouse recap here.
Tropes:
- Anyone Can Die: It's here that this trope comes into effect, with Gunnthrá as the first on-screen death of the game.
- Bittersweet Ending: Surtr dies, but Gunnthrá is dead, countless innocents from both Nifl and Múspell are dead, Laevatein is devastated and traumatized by the deaths of her family, Embla and Loki are still threats, and Fjorm has only months to live due to a gambit that was necessary to remove Surtr's Múspellflame.
- Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of Chapter 4: Part 2, the village the heroes saved from the previous chapter gives Alfonse some special colored hay that is stated to be handy if they need a quick signal fire. Cut to the end of Chapter 4, where said village is threatened to be burned down by Surtr. The village is saved when Alfonse burns the hay as a signal fire, warning the village to evacuate before Surtr can do harm to anyone.
- Cutscene Power to the Max: The Book II opening movie shows the Order of Heroes in a all-out brawl against Múspell's elites. Notably, the summoner is going toe-to-toe with Veronica, and Fjorm and Surtr are locked in a big power battle, with Surtr launching a gigantic fireball and Fjorm countering with giant ice lances and lasers. None of this happens in the game proper.
- Hate Sink: As Book II goes on, it becomes clear that Surtr is designed to be this. Anything that comes out of his mouth is more or less how much he loves the sight of people burning, suffering and despairing, and he'll do everything to make those happen for his own amusement and then rub the salt in his victims' wounds. He comes off as an invincible Generic Doomsday Villain as he's Nigh-Invulnerable and has very little depth compared to other villains in the franchise. He also kills Gunnthrá in cold blood in front of her sister. Finally, just as the heroes think they've killed him for good, he instantly comes Back from the Dead, rendering their efforts thus far futile, taunts them even further, and is given more time to rile up the players by doing more evil acts up until his death at the end of Book II.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Like Embla's Ward from Book I, Surtr is equipped with a special Sacred Seal (Múspellflame) that makes him completely immune to damage. That said, he's an armoured unit that (usually) only moves one space at a time, so Holding The Line is much easier.
- Human Sacrifice: The Rite of Flame and Rite of Frost require a human sacrifice to work. Surtr was going to sacrifice Veronica to increase his power, but after she escapes, Laegjarn uses it instead to spare Laevatein, which leaves her with hours to live. Fjorm uses the Rite of Frost to empower Breidablik by offering herself as the sacrifice. Like Laegjarn, the Rite has left her with a limited amount of time, but so far it hasn't killed her.
- Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The key art for Book II, as shown above, has Fjorm and Surtr staring at each other in the background, and Alfonse, Sharena, and the summoner facing Laevatein, Loki, and Veronica in the foreground.
- Sadistic Choice: Surtr presents Alfonse with one in Chapter 4. Since the gate to Nifl is rapidly closing, Surtr threatens to burn down an Askran village if the prince decides to enter Nifl, or he could save the village at the cost of being able to enter the ice kingdom. Luckily, Alfonse is able to signal to his people to flee the area before Surtr can burn it down, and is able to do this before the gate to Nifl closes.
- Take a Third Option: Surtr in gives Alfonse a choice: stay and fight a hopeless battle that will surely get him killed, or flee and let Surtr massacre an Askran village instead. Alfonse chooses to flee to Nifl, but not before secretly using a smoke signal to warn the villagers to evacuate.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 7 gets very dark near the end where Surtr actually burns Gunnthrá to death in front of the heroes, making Gunnthrá the first character in the game to actually die in the story.
- Chapter 8: Surtr officially turns on Veronica, overpowers Xander and leaves him for dead, and forcibly takes control of Veronica's Hero Contracts before ordering her sent to Múspell to become a Human Sacrifice. In addition, it is heavily, heavily implied that Fjorm is now slowly dying as a result of the Rite of Frost needed to defeat Surtr. It was later proven true at end of Book II, where Hríd said that just like the Rite of Flames, the Rite of Frost also requires a sacrifice.
