Artist: Kozaki Yusuke
The third Book of the game, running from December 2018 to November 2019. See the opening cinematic here
, midpoint cinematic here in English and here in Japanese, and ending cinematic here in English and here in Japanese.
Tropes:
- Alternative-Self Name-Change: Líf and Thrasir both do this, taking on the names of their ancestors after their kingdoms are destroyed, in addition to hiding their faces, which delays their counterparts from recognizing them.
- Bad Future: In Chapters 7 and 8, the ruined Askr that the heroes explore turns out to be this. The Order of Heroes in this realm discovered a way to defeat Hel, which resulted in the end of all life in the kingdom. It is also revealed that "Líf" isn't the resurrected first Askran king, but in fact the Alfonse of the future, who enlisted under Hel in exchange for having his memories and grief erased. Thrasir is later revealed to be the Veronica of the future as well.
- Bookends: In the opening cinematic the Alfonse that would become known as Líf is forced to watch Hel kill Sharena, with Sharena and him both doing a Futile Hand Reach towards each other before the fatal blow. In the ending cinematic, the exact same thing happens again with our version of Alfonse and Sharena, though this time Hel is stopped by Eir. Interestingly, Hel attempting to kill our version of Sharena is not something that happens in the story itself.
- Easter Egg: According to Kozaki, the composition of this book's key art is meant to resemble a skull.
- Foreshadowing:
- In the Aether Raids intro, Alfonse name drops Líf, the first king of Askr. Guess who shows up as one of the antagonists of Book III? Subverted, it's not the actual Líf himself, but an alternate Alfonse naming himself after the first king of Askr.
- The Book III Intro movie shows off a field of flowers, one with Eir dancing inside it before Hel embraces her and the field withers away, and a close-up shot in one of Eir's flashbacks. While not relevant to Book III as a whole, it later becomes important in the "Life & Death" Tempest Trials+ Series as the series reveals that the flower field is actually within the Realm of Life Ymir, Eir's true homeland.
- Irony: We are introduced with a temporary alliance between Veronica and the Order of Heroes. Even with Veronica temporarily allying with them, they still face contracted heroes under Líf. As learned from Chapter 8, "Líf" is an Alternate Self of Alfonse, meaning that Alfonse is the one issuing contracts, while Veronica isn't at this point.
- Red Herring: The opening movie implies that Sharena will die. While it does happen, it's actually "Líf's" Sharena.
- Spoiler Opening: The opening movie shows Sharena getting killed by Hel in front of her brother Alfonse. It's actually Sharena from an alternate timeline, and her death causes Alfonse to snap and become "Líf".
- Stealth Pun: The intro shows off characters from Hel, the land of the dead before the music changes to metal music. Specifically, Death Metal.
- The Stinger:
- The Feh Channel broadcast in November 2018 has one announcing Book III, showing the text "That day, the light died.", before showing Sharena injured, crying, and reaching out to someone.
- The video Remembering Book I & II on the official Nintendo Mobile channel has one showing the continuation of last Book III teaser, with Alfonse with his back to the camera in a castle hallway, standing and looking upon two people on the floor, heavily implied to be dead.
- The Feh Channel broadcast in November 2018 has one announcing Book III, showing the text "That day, the light died
- Thwarted Coup de Grâce: Eir stops Hel from killing Sharena in the ending.
- Villain Song: Though it doesn't become obvious until several chapters in, Book III's boss theme is one for "Líf", explaining his motivations for serving Hel.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 4: Alfonse has been cursed by Hel with 9 days left to live. Eir explains to the party that there is no escaping the death curse, and Gustav appears to be accepting of Alfonse's death. The Askrans are determined to spend Alfonse's last days trying to kill Hel and break the curse, to no avail. After 9 days pass, Hel comes to kill Alfonse, but Gustav, the king of Askr, pulls a Heroic Sacrifice at the last second and is murdered by Hel, branding Alfonse as the new king.
- Book III Chapter 8: The Askr trio learns that the Sharena of the alternate Askr they've arrived in is dead, and that the cost to defeat Hel would kill nearly all life. Alfonse realizes that "Líf" is, in fact, the alternate Alfonse.
