Part 41: Chapter XXXVIII: The Fall - Act 5

Now Mobius is all that remains. Once his soul has been offered to Chaos, it will be the end of the beginning.



But now Helshaft will follow his fellow elders into oblivion. But, the seal on the Pillar was broken by Mobius himself... The final resolve



I hold no grudge against you. Now, let us through.

And how would you react if I said that I will not do so?

The seal here is already broken. There is no reason left for you to bar our way.

Let us just say I'm one for upholding tradition. I see my actions here as necessary.

Why are you so eager to embrace death?

Or could it be that you are both scared and ashamed to be the only one left alive?

I would not deny any of your suggestions. But in this case, they are far from the truth. What I wish to know is just how committed you really are. Only something that you'd risk everything to achieve is worthy to be considered a -conviction-. What I want to know is if what you are doing is out of conviction, or merely obligation.

And you are willing to throw away your life simply to see if our motivations are pure?

I'm sure you think that I have been overcome by madness, and you may well be right. But the path you have chosen to travel is nothing short of pure insanity, especially in the eyes of those of this world who devoutly believe in their own lucidity.



Who could possibly accept the fact that living and dying are one and the same? And who could comprehend that this world is nothing more than a lie? Those who cannot accept the truth will be denied passage to the true world and will die along with this one. Of course that'd only be natural as, like this world's existence, their lives would be a lie as well.

We will open the door that connects this world with the true one. That I promise you.

We all promise the same. So please...

The gods used their own flesh and blood to create a new type of being... The new race became one with the world, and though weaker than us guardians, began to flourish. However, the power of the dark gods still held sway, with no indication that it would ever weaken. Because of that uncertainty, all we could do was wait and observe. We chose this path for our own continued survival, knowing that it'd cause hardships for the new race. Because of this decision, we received a great deal of criticism, and were eventually ostracized. In order to preserve our ancient blood, we exchanged marital vows only with close kin, despite knowing the risks and eventual tragedy that would befall us.

...

And all that we have endured throughout the ages was but for this one moment. Now, you must break the seal that hides the truth. And the key to do so lies within this body.

Very well...if this is what is required to prove our resolve.

By the oaths I swore as a guardian, I now give my life back to the gods. If you wish for the true world to be born, then take my blood in exchange for the key to open the door.





Yumil... Even in the end my actions were foolish... I've committed grave sins against Danaos, Rasta, and you... And most regretfully...against that nameless syrium woman and her child...

...

No one person can bear the weight of so much responsibility on their own. I was fortunate enough to have these others to help me carry the weight of my own duties.

No one is perfect. But it is never too late to admit to your mistakes and walk again on the right path.

I take great pride in the fact that I was a guardian. Even though I never received any praise and was generally reviled, I never regretted my choices in life.

Even if it was only for a short while, I was able to leave behind proof that I once lived. If that evidence of my existence could endure into the future... I believe that our actions were truly meaningful.

It is difficult to maintain faith. And I find faith distasteful, as it is frequently used as an excuse. If one cannot find a reason to live within themselves, then they are only lying to themselves. And even if your reasons changed many times before the end, wouldn't it be better than living a lie?

Yes... I should thank the gods now. For giving me a merciful end...

There is no reason to be thankful for death, be it merciful or otherwise...

Keep your eyes on the path ahead. Our task has yet to be accomplished. Come, it is time to settle things. We must make the one responsible for all of this pay...dearly.



While we do not fight for revenge, I'm sure no one in the party is too broken up about socking it to Mobius. He's had it coming for a long, long time now.



No "Event" indication? I wonder why...



Maybe because it's actually a short dungeon in and of itself. The enemies hanging around in Mobius' crib are the same tier of enemies you'd find in Etre Large Hollow, which mean my team absolutely kicked the crap out of every encounter here. He really needs better security. Oh, to rotate around the camera in dungeons, you can use the right control stick. That's how I got this nice top-down shot of the dungeon.

For the god who has all the time in the world, his has come to an end. Elders of the Sun



And humans, without fail, will always act foolishly.

Can't argue with you there. Seriously, we were idiots not to see that the one we needed to kill was with us all along. Really, how stupid could we have been?

While it doesn't say so in the actual script, Mobius' biography in-game spells out how exactly the whole Faz thing was accomplished. Before the dark gods met defeat in the last war, Mobius decided to play the long game and prepare for the day when he would no longer even need Chaos to become the one true god. He detached a part of himself, his spirit, if you will, into a vessel, before his body and powers were largely sealed by Lenion in the Pillar of Graccea. Granted, he still had some magical powers (how he got his power back from Eva, for example), but the bulk of it was gone.

Mobius then took the time to seal Fiona, as the the body of a high elf was the closest in power compared to a god, having been created by the most powerful of all gods, Lenion. She was going to be Mobius' ace in the hole when he was finally able to release Chaos' seal and begin putting his plan into action. The cover of Faz, an archeologist, was an excuse to find out about where the seals of the gods were, as well as the artifacts necessary for his plan, like the Yumas Vessel he was using to drain the life from Fiona.

Fastie... No, Mobius. I am grateful to you in one respect. It was you who gave me hope in the midst of despair. Even if that hope was based on something as ultimately meaningless as revenge. If I had not met you when I did, I would've never been given the opportunity to meet everyone else. And should that have come to pass, I would have died alone, having done nothing of worth with my life. Even if my life was ultimately fleeting, I was able to live that time as -myself-. Though I'd lost everything dear to me at the start, I ended up with more than I ever thought possible.





I am profoundly grateful you feel that way. I am of the same mind. Now I can stop pretending that you lowly human animals are friends. However, my warning to you was real. I wanted to at least give you some thanks for all that you have done for me over the years.

This will be the first time in my life...and beyond...that I refuse to accept the gratitude of another.

You were a guardian before, yes? Do you know when Lenion first subjected the guardians to his delusional nonsense?

Who knows? I sure as hell don't.

And despite the best of efforts, those words have inevitably been distorted over time, have they not? How can you be sure that Lenion told the truth in the first place? What makes him so trustworthy? I will say the same about Chaos; what makes you so sure he isn't lying to you? Without any basis for your beliefs, how can you be so sure that the truth you believe is the only one?

Easy. We just used the process of elimination. For example, we know for a fact that you're lying. Knowing that, it's simple enough to tune out everything you say to us. Not all that hard, really.

That is the most asinine thing I've- Humans are truly absurd little creatures! Can't you even TRY to come up with a less blatantly idiotic answer? Fine, you don't believe what I've told you. But that does not prove that Chaos is telling the truth.



No matter how eloquent the words or how reasonable and truthful they seem to be, if there is no sincerity behind what is being said, those words cannot be trusted. Chaos has said little, but he has been nothing but honest to us.

You made it a point to insinuate yourself into the confidences of others to manipulate them, so why would we believe anything you say? Especially about you wanting to save the world.

I see... So you've made your decision already. I despair to think that I could ever make -humans- understand the sublime ideas of the divine. That in and of itself was foolish of me. Hmph... And are you bothered by the fact that it was I who slew Chaos, and not you?

No, because in my eyes there is very little difference between action and intent. At that time, I pulled the sword free for the sole purpose of killing Chaos. It is that sin that I have been forced to bear all this time.

And we've been forced to struggle with its weight as well. Well, we've got to drop this psychological baggage sooner or later. The weight of it was actually enough to drag all of us back from the dead. Kind of sucks, really...

Mobius, in the end not even one such as you can deny fate. And in the grand scheme of things, you are but one of the foundation stones on which the world rests.

Ah, you speak as if you actually know what you are talking about.



Your insolence is astounding! You humans have no right to such arrogance! Compared to us gods, you are little more than worms. Neither life nor death will be yours once I have you in my grasp!



This circle of fate ends now.



Mobius, the god of Time and Space. Mobius is a heavy magical attacker, with almost all of his attacks being magical. As such, he has a magical counterattack, not a physical one, and has a lot of HP and defense. Aside from his magic, he really doesn't have any exceptional abilities, and the Gurgs are as hapless as they've been since Mayastia, at least.



In fact, they are so pathetic in this fight, with Weiss's incredibly high AGI and his formation bonus (Accuracy and Evasion up), he simply can't be hit with physical attacks. Neither Gurg can hit him at all with physical strikes, and most incredibly, neither can Mobius. For physical strikes, Mobius does have a few attacks, like Solid Caliber, Raging Sword, and Storm Attack, but he can't hit Weiss either. When I first fought Mobius this playthrough, it was one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen in this game.

In the video, you can watch the physical Gurg just piss away tons of AP trying, in vain, to even hit Weiss, let alone kill him.



By the way, you conniving little bastard, thanks for putting Poison on Weiss and causing his HP to fall below 20% after the Gurgs were done. Really appreciate you getting Weiss into position for turning on Rile in the first turn.



We've got three new weapons this fight: Fiona is currently using Avenir (Dialos' dagger-sword thing), Aina is equipped with Mr. Tiddles (from Nemesis, of course. Rune Blade Shard is better in every way, but I figure I should bring out Mr. Tiddles for at least one fight. Tiddles has pretty low magical power, but has very, very high physical attack power (about 3200 or so fully upgraded), and finally, Georg is using the Muso Fugaku, which is the most powerful sword in the game by quite a bit, but has very low magical attack power. Basically a sword version of the Revolver Cannon, but not as extreme.









There's over-the-top attacks, and then there's Fanatic Rave level 3. It's uh...pretty potent. Better be, since it costs 50 AP without Genius.



One thing I should note about Mobius is that he always, ALWAYS targets the formation's leader first. He never fails when it comes to that.



Actually, this turn, I'm in a pretty good position to kill Mobius right on the first turn. My team is so powerful right now, and I have enough AP, I'm pretty confident I could have killed him in one punishing offensive. But, I elected not to do that, as to keep symmetry with the other gods.

Last playthrough, I did kill a god before the Gurgs. It was against Nemesis, and I had a really powerful team, and was in a good enough spot to kill her. I threw everything I had into the attack, and did wind up killing her before either Gurg fell. But, my Wait went up so high that the Gurgs just got turn after turn as they took my team apart. I had so much trouble with Nemesis last playthrough, but this one, I beat her on the first try. Mainly because, unlike last time, I'm not throwing everyone's level-up points into either VIT, ATK, or MAG.



Interesting thing to note is Mobius' weapon of choice. It's an artifact called the Mobius Link, and in Agarest 1 and Zero, it was the most powerful Breaker-class weapon. Since Breakers were completely excised from the weapon line-up in this game, as far as someone who hasn't played the previous games knows, Mobius is just using some ol' nameless weapon. But, Mobius Link is the name of the weapon he uses.



The last Gurg of the playthrough falls. Fun, but frustrating, fact: the magic Gurg's other rare drop, which I haven't got on video, is the Gremlin Wand, and the melee Gurg rare drops an Asura (fairly good sword). But, between the 12 Gurgs I slew on camera, not one of them dropped either of those weapons. But that's not the craziest thing.

The craziest thing is that on the god fights you didn't see, because I got defeated, I'd get Gremlin Wands and Asuras a lot. It never failed. It was like "If I get the Gremlin Wand or Asura, I'm going to end up losing", or something bad would otherwise happen. As I recall, I think I got the Gremlin Wand on the previous successful Mobius fight I recorded and was all ready to use as the official Mobius video, but that video got corrupted and I couldn't use it! What a weird goddamn turn of events.



With around 7500 ATK and Rile still affecting Georg (but not Weiss or Fiona, since they got KO'd), holy smokes is he doing a lot of damage to a high-tier enemy.



And of course, we can't let adorable Mr. Tiddles feel left out.



Aw, why do you have be such a lout, Mobius? I don't need a worthless Kounodaki.



Behold the everlasting fire of life.

Goddamn! Look at that EXP count! That's because Aina used Endeavor on the penultimate turn (EXP gain), and Weiss used Gospel before the killing attack. They definitely stack, but that's 11 levels right there! Once a character hits level 100, all further level ups cost 999,999 EXP. Oh, and Mobius' second Original Skill, Demise, is in the video, added on to the end.



It's over, Mobius.

Don't worry, we'll put you down nice and easy like.

Bastards...! You will come to regret what you have done! The likes of you cannot guide the world! Only we gods have the ability, and the right, to rule over the world and inferior beings such as you!

Is that so?

I have serious doubts about that.

People have lived a very long time without guidance from the gods. I'm confident that they'll be able to continue doing so into the future.



Go away already. The sight of you makes my eyes bleed.

Guh!



Hmmm...given what a snake this guy is, I doubt we've seen the last of him... But nonetheless, Chaos is now in possession of Mobius' soul.

Wouldn't it be nice if everything could've been settled as easily as this?

I suppose that this is the end of the beginning.

Not quite. We still have one more thing to do.

Grey, Weiss, Schwarz; let's get going.

Yes...to finally finish what we started. To allow the true beginning to occur.



Back in town, I finally crafted the best scythe in the game, using materials from the Mobius commission (also requires a Helheim and three Dragon Orbs, from the Arc Dragons in Boundary). Soul Blaze, as I've mentioned, is Chaos' scythe, and is incredibly powerful. To top it off, I threw a Divine Crest on it. Weiss' Lost Regnum has not one, but TWO Divine Crests on it, for maximum fisticuffs.



Okay, so, this is a bit anachronistic. To see an "Event" icon over Eternalness, you need to beat the final bosses of the game, and then reload the save game you were prompted to do after the final cutscenes roll. We'll do that over the next two updates, but look at it this way: over the past half dozen updates, we've fought all sorts of demons and monsters, gods, evil knights, and we've been to hell and back. I think everyone on the team could use some much, much needed R&R before the end. This is the ultimate hot spring event. Women united from across time to bathe in the best hot springs gods or men could enjoy. Have fun watching it, in preparation for the end of the story



I screenshot this only because it seems Li Ra-Lua is REALLY fond of Sofia...

Oh, and the team from the second to last screenshot this update the is one I'm rolling with for the final battles. The key word here is "balance", between the generations, between the sexes, and between those who will live in the new world, and those who laid down their lives so that new world could be born. A representative from every generation, and Eva, who has guided the team from day one.