Nightmare Fuel / Dragalia Lost

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

And you wondered why Aurelius locked this little monster up.

• The first interlude of Chapter 12 gives us a taste at what the fifth heir is like and why he was locked up and kept a secret, and it's nothing pleasant that's for sure. He had to be put under a magically induced coma to keep him in check, and once he finally wakes up? He emits dark energies and forcibly pulls in a hapless guard as he does... something to him that he leaves him dead, as Phares maintains the tenseness by saying that he enjoys it when someone dies to satiate their curiousity.
• The Accursed Archives that runs in March 2019 finally gives the players a genuinely unsettling story in this otherwise lighthearted game. Inquisitor Curran, a scholar named Heinwald along with your New Alberia crew are investigating Hethiwood village, suspecting its populace of worshiping something other than Goddess Ilia. But its inhabitants all vanished for seemingly no reason, save one little girl called Lathna. Turns out the worshiping villagers were turned into books and tomes inside a forbidden library close to Halidom by the handiwork of none other than Nyarlathotep itself. The dragon (?) pretty much made a messy corpse out of an Ilian priest sent to Hethiwood earlier and possessed the girl to lure even more victims into it.
  • Then comes The Stinger: turns out everything was a ploy by the other dark Nyarlathotep your team already meet to free itself out of the library with nobody, not even the light Nyarlathotep outside, the wiser. It possesses Heinwald out its way out, meaning we're not going to see the last of the Lovecraftian horror anytime soon...
  • Those who follow up Accursed Archives by taking a glance at Nyarlathotep's dragon story will also get a scare: despite showering a homeless boy with everything he could want to corrupt him with greed, the boy says that all he wants is for Nyarlathotep to stay by his side... only for Nyar to grin and say that desire is enough greed, and wisks the boy away to never be seen again.
• The Stirring Shadows now adds another new Lovecraftian horror to the mix: Hastur, the King in Yellow.
• In the Monster Hunter collab: Primal Crisis, we get to see what happens when a Fatalis is allowed to run amok without any hunters stopping it, and the results are NOT, PRETTY.
  • It's best exemplified in the 8th story of the event: The Legend of the Black Dragon. It shows a small village about to be ransacked and its villagers killed by the Empire, only for the Fatalis to emerge from a portal, and kill all the Empire soldiers in one swing of its claws. The villagers are at first grateful for its help and readying a feast for its new "Guardian Dragon", only for the Fatalis to start OBLITERATING the village with but a few blasts. A nun in the village can only look on in despair, as a kid asks why the dragon was doing this as he thought all dragons were good. The only thing the nun had to say to that was this: "It is neither good nor evil, but instead a calamity that befalls all equally." and that she prayed to the goddess to help save them. It ends with only the kid surviving the devastation, scarred for life at the erasure of his home and can only utter one thing: "Black Dragon"
  • Then there's Fatalis' dragon story, you see Fatalis in his home series was always described in myths as being able to destroy the world in fire, killing all life until the land itself is scorched black. Yet this was only ever described within in-universe myths making it questionable if it was really true or not. But Fatalis' dragon story confirms that those myths are very real. During Fatalis' time within the space between worlds portals to other worlds would open occasionally and Fatalis would utterly destroy those worlds and then return to the space between worlds until the next portal opens.
    In addition Fatalis is powerful enough to be completely immune to the Black Manas corruption, something no other creature, dragon, human or otherwise, was immune from.
• "Scars of the Syndicate" introduces the Syndicate who have actually been lurking in the lore from the beginning with the Syndicate Mask wyrmprint. They stay hidden not just from Euden's party, but also the Empire as they kidnap whole villages and use them for twisted experiments that make Shou Tucker look kind in comparison. Such experiments include fusing man and dragon like Aldred and Barbatos to the point where him dragonshifting is a Dangerous Forbidden Technique since it shortens his lifespan each time he uses it compared to the Hinomoto Wyrmclan leaders whose lives are shortened just by the pact alone.
• "Doomsday Getaway" has Euden and his group stuck on an island after killing the fiend Scylla and then waking up to find that Luca is not only murdered, but by one of their own...and more of them fall, one by one.
• Most of the Agito's introductions in the main story are quite unnerving. Volk viciously tortures a nobleman with his plagues before tearing him apart. Kai Yan ruthlessly slaughters an entire village, and even murders the bandits who were previously attacking it. Ayaha and Otoha seem to just be playing house with their dolls, only to reveal that the "dolls" they were using were the corpses of a couple that they murdered themselves.
  • The Agito Uprising scenes also have their own twinge of terror and, yes, at least one scenario is confirmed canon. That scenario is Kai Yan charging into Luca's village and slaughtering everyone there. This is confirmed in Chapter 18, after the Kai Yan rematch, where Luca explicitly calls him out for the casualties he incurred that day.
• "Caged Desire" gets into what makes Emile the narcissistic, petty tyrant of a prince he is, and even worse now that he's the Emperor of the Dyrenell Empire. As the party and the Phantom Thieves raid the Prison's Cores, Euden tells how he used to be talented in the arts and music, but considering the way Alberia and Grastaea is, such things would have no use on the battlefield or in the boardroom, leading him to develop an inferiority complex. It turns out it only got worse after Euden defeated him back in Chapter 4, left him alive and there the party hears his soldiers outright shit talking him to his face that they'd rather be with any of his siblings, or even the Traitor Prince. They're only with Emile just for the cushy positions. What also makes the event nightmare worthy is he gets his "advice" from a smartphone given to him by EMMA, who in Strikers is not only an AI, but becomes the final boss and the successor to Yaldabaoth!
  • Additionally, there's the fact that a Jail even managed to appear in a completely different reality. The idea of the Metaverse starting to seep into other worlds is a highly unsettling one.
• The Faerie Forest is practically a Genius Loci that does everything in its power to keep everyone out by subjecting them to Mind Rape, playing their worst fears. Cleo is made to watch King Alberius suffer under the Blood Casket while Tartarus tells her he suffered and died for nothing. Mascula finds himself in his own body... but Laxi's own is torn beyond repair. Gatov has suffered it before, watching his family die from war and his daughter be rendered practically mute. Luca is made to watch as his own village that he founded in his Gala story is destroyed by Kai Yan, and Euden is told by the people they don't want his help since he's not a real prince and for everyone to leave the Halidom.
• It seems Persona's, as well as Shin Megami Tensei's influence is creeping in with Divine Deception. Basileus reveals each sealing stone incident is in the name of reviving Satan, but outright references Jaldabaoth, also known as the Demiurge. It also reveals that Harle's name isn't even his true name.
• Chapter 18 has Harle not only poised to lead all forces to the Faerie Kingdom, but Nedrick drops a bombshell that he was PARTIALLY pacted to Bahamut, who in the Cygames universe ranks on par with Elysium.
• "Drifting Sorrows" has Nyarlathotep as every bit the horrific bastard that Lovecraft wrote him as: Banquo's widow making a Deal with the Devil perverting the Quinbell Lantern ritual to not only summon Lathna and unleash zombies upon the festival, but her presence around Banquo's widow is enough to make Nyarlathotep come out and plan to open the Gate that's keeping the Ancient One sealed. Even after Cleo pulls a Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? on Gnarly, they reveal that they're just one of many. Whether it's Lathna, Heinwald, or even some random nobody in the middle of nowhere, one of the Nyarlathoteps will eventually unleash the Ancient One.
• "Knights of Alberia" shows Cecile had killed innocent dragons and citizens in the early days of the Dyrenell Empire and after Emperor Aurelius's death, has fallen into a case of Shellshocked Veteran. She's used Manachew, which is meant to be ground up with water, but the way she gets the shakes without it is like a meth addict needing a fix.
• Chapter 21 Part 2:
  • It turns out Phares has been Dead All Along, having given up his body to The Progenitor, the setting's god of order who has Beren pump Elysium full of black mana until even the setting's own Top God himself is turned into Void Elysium, showing dragons not only don't have to be alive, but even GODS aren't immune to black mana! The two of them are not only part of the Satan Revival plot, but nobody was aware of Harle sneaking off a piece of the Sacred Shard for the plot as well, and that he plans to do it in the City of Grams.
  • In the exact moment where The Progenitor reveals what happened to Phares, he makes a sinister grin as his face darkens and his eyes become dull and narrow. Compared to the more mellow smiles he gave beforehand, this one looks just plain wrong.
  • When Beren found out Euden hasn't given into despair even after learning the truth about himself, Beren is so furious he's actually trembling with rage until his face suddenly morphs into a demonic one with red eyes, black sclerae, and mouth full of razor-sharp teeth as he rants about he's going to kill him. It's only because of Phares telling him they have to leave that Beren doesn't go through with it. Whether it's in March 2022 in time for the 3.5 Anniversary or later, we may be seeing the return of Morsayati, the Other.
  • Anniversary? Fuck that; Chapter 23 Part One gives us the page image. For all the nastiness Beren gave off before, one could say, up until this point, that he was mostly doing Phares (the Progenitor)'s bidding out of respect for being released from his imprisonment. Then everyone tries to get through to him, and it seems to be working at first... up until the actual Phares reclaims his body long enough to tell the others to put him out of his misery and close up the gateway before the Progenitor can return. While retaliatory black mana does stall the heroes' advance, what kills any hope of stopping the Progenitor's return is Beren drawing in all the miasma and black mana to effectively serve as the gateway for the Progenitor out of sheer spite for everyone and everything the heroes stand for. Remember: it was mere hours after Satan was locked back up that Beren chose hatred for the world, and back in Chapter 22 Bahamut threatened to tear the entire world apart just to stop this.
• Faith Forsaken deals with the upcoming resurrection of Satan, and it comes with a slew of very unnerving stuff.
  • Harle, the smarmy asshole the party has come to know and hate, isn't the real Harle at all. His true identity is a demon named Loki, created by "Phares", AKA the Progenitor. The real Harle was thrown into another world and replaced with the fake Harle several years before the story even began. Nobody except for Loki, "Phares", and the real Harle was even aware that he was replaced with a fake. Imagine how that must have felt for Leif, who would witness his longtime friend and rival become a despicable bastard, and commit numerous atrocities.
  • In order to draw out Satan's soul from the underworld, he requires a Human Sacrifice in a ritual. How many people are needed? 666. Basileus, Graht, and the fake Harle plan to use the Auspecalia as a glorified ritual ground, where there will be so many people to kill. Pinon is rightfully horrified when she learns just how many people will be mercilessly slaughtered in the process. And then you get to personally witness the sacrifice in the next scene, which is easily the most horrific and violent onscreen slaughter in the entire game so far. The worst part is, the apostles arrive far too late to save even a single life. It gets even worse when they are tricked into killing Graht for the last sacrifice and fulfilling the ritual, and then are forced to watch Origa offer herself up to finish the revival they had desperately tried to prevent.
  • Then part two reveals that Loki had been playing both Origa and Basileus as Origa loses control and is ultimately absorbed by Satan while Loki and Satan leave to destroy all of Grams. Satan proves so powerful that he actually manages to kill all of the archangels, leaving the apostles with only a day to stop him before they drop dead as well. Fortunately, everything's fixed by the end, with the archangels being brought back by Body Backup Drive. Still... Pretty terrifying while they were dead, though.
• Harle's Adventurer Story has him thrown into an alternate world after discovering Phares' journal and finding out that the Progenitor has not only taken over the second-born prince's body, but has an evil clone of himself to take his place, and throws him into an alternate world where now KING Leonidas has won his war against the dragons. Over that story, it's shown killing all the dragons is a bad idea as it's making the entire world die out as Sol Alberia is reduced to a desert wasteland, and Leonidas is still strict in his Social Darwinist methodology pre-Character Development.
  • On the other hand, that means Leonidas had the forces and the power to match not just his world's Elysium, but also had to kill other dragons like Nyarlathotep and Hastur, stopping the Ancient One in its tracks!
• Chapter 4 of Bondforged Zethia's Adventurer Story has the Doomcrier summoning fiends to attack villagers. It's when he opens up a hole to Summon Bigger Fish that it turns out there's Always a Bigger Fish. In this case it's Phraeganoth, who has been sealed between worlds since "Loyalty's Requiem" for the last 3 years.

Sinister Dominion

• It seems the Ilian Church has yet more dirty laundry in its basket than initially suspected. Some time after the First War of Binding and the fall of human civilization, angels and demons started their own war, and both sides were equally matched. So what the angels did to seal away their evil counterparts was to create replicas of the Archangels, seal the essences of the Five Archdemons inside the copies, then seal the copies inside sealing stones with all the miasma pent up. By the time Fallen Angel Ramiel is released, he is weary of his role and wants nothing more than to release Lilith just so his suffering can end. The original Ramiel is subtly disquieted, but when this is all over, the Archangels and the Church are going to have a lot of explaining to do...
• Jaldabaoth's opening chapter of the Sinister Dominion starts with regular people going quite mad and killing each other because "Mama" told them to. Said "Mama" is Gabriel's own Evil Twin, who unlike the motherly angel warps normal people into savage killers. After she's defeated, Jaldabaoth comes out and says the reason he does this is cause Humans Are Bastards and that they should embrace it, and if they feel even any remorse, then "Mama" will make the pain go away.
• Which brings us to Asura's opening chapter, where people are literally fighting each other in the streets thanks to the influence of Fallen Angel Raphael. The blasphemy of a healing angel using her power to make folks kill each other - and joining in on the killing from time to time - is bad enough, but unlike with Jaldabaoth and Lilith, we haven't seen Asura's sealing stone tampered with. Basileus and Harle are making more headway with releasing these demons than initially projected. All one can hope is that Basileus is less Benedict and more Honorius in his motivations...
• While Fallen Uriel and Iblis are what you'd expect from the prior demonic encounters, their influence is more horrific than they are. When the group arrives, there's a single nun running around with a crazed look in her eyes about how she wanted to be left alone, so she killed everyone around her. When the holy water comes out to cleanse her of miasma, she reacts the way you'd expect her to. This does not make the fact that Iblis' corrosive influence led her to slaughter everyone against her will any less horrifying.
• And then there's Fallen Michael. Whereas the others submitted to the demons within them, Michael is still fighting, but he is yearning for oblivion's embrace when the apostles find him. That's not to preclude the fact that everywhere he goes, the miasma he spreads causes folks to kill themselves in despair. It's clear that folks are dying because of him and he's powerless to stop it, so what's more nightmarish: the fact that Fallen Michael is aghast at what he's become, or the fact that all this misery is a mere extension of Surtr's own desire to die?