Part 7: May the Light be with you
In which things get just a little more weird.
After all the great fun we had with the EA "Funmap" in the previous update, it's high time to go back to the underwater tunnel.
Submarine, here we come!
But first we must crawl through a huge Sea Life Lab. Oh well.
Standing water in the hall, the smell of rotting sealife.
[Intelligence] The place looks abandoned.
Devastated, even. Looks like the attackers made it here, too. Or maybe they came from below? Truly a mystery.
Nothing but more signs of devastation.
And the aquarium has started to leak...
Meet a King Rat. Looks like an ordinary rat, but has more HP. Makes sense, I guess.
Zain tries keeping the crew morale up. Also, a cryoscope.
The living area, the offices... all empty.
At least the armory is intact.
Hmmm, let's see... Mostly ammo, plus a Kevlar Suit. Nice.
The lab is rather large, so we keep on exploring. It's not like we have a choice, really.
Blue Flyers = more filler combat. They're usually killed in one hit (and a couple of misses).
Hey, we've finally made it to the submarine bay! And guess what, there's a submarine here. I wonder if we can pilot that thing.
Looks like we can, yay!
We enter the submarine...
...and get immediately transported to a sea volcano. And here I was hoping for a cool submarine cutscene.
This must be the volcano the researchers were mapping just before the attack took place.
Let's brave its depths, then! Because, why not.
Red Lizards are easy.
Green Dragons are tough! You must press ENTER five times to kill them instead of just two.
And then we walk
The tunnel is wet, the rooms are damp. I wonder just what we're doing here or what it is we're supposed to find.
Rocks may fall from the walls, rooms may cave in, but our party presses on.
A nearby ledge gives us a nice view of the volcano. Mmm, steamy.
Weapons and ammo in the middle of a volcano? I'm not complaining.
In the meantime, things are getting hot!
No wonder, as we're approaching another ledge.
The deeper inside the volcano we go, the foggier it gets.
And hey, what's with the orange glow?
A supply chest. I wonder who might've left it here.
Ammo. Handy.
And in case you're wondering, we're still exploring level 1.
Lava, lava everywhere.
Scary!
I can see it, I can see the exit!
Or rather, the entrance to the lower level...
And here we are, level 2. Nothing too fancy; we reach the southern yellowish room and descend to level 3.
Hmm, looks like south is the only possible way to go from here.
Some like it hot. We do not.
Water rains from above! No wonder Gimmel forgets his grammar.
Exploring a volcano is truly one-of-a-kind experience.
Now, let's see... Cross the bridge, go south, follow the linear path. Got it.
First water, then fog, now dust. Our party must look quite shabby.
We cross the bridge. More dusty corridors await us!
The walls that used to glow orange start glowing red now. We come across some shotgun and AK ammo along the way, reaching the tunnel leading down to level 4.
Level 4 introduces a new type of enemy, Lava Snake:
Too bad enemies don't really differ in anything but their name and HP pool.
Meanwhile, the fog is getting thicker.
And back to (a different area of) level 3 we go.
Again, just a liner path for us to follow -- back to level 4, of course.
I wonder if the developers were laughing maniacally when designing all these pointless filler areas.
Hey, it's level 5 already. And it even looks slightly different from the previous levels. It even has a maze of a sort (ha ha).
Ominous.
Thank you, Zain. That was... reassuring.
The maze we saw on the map is actually some kind of (no doubt evil) temple.
We safely cross the temple area and brave another bridge.
A chest with ammunition, conveniently placed.
Apart from another Kevlar Suit, the chest contains a Gauss Rifle! That's neat.
Bright Flyers look exactly like Blue ones, except they're non-hostile, thankfully.
They even help us fight the nasty Green Dragons!
I don't believe you! (c) Stanislavsky
Followed by a bunch of Bright Flyers (yeah, they insist on following us around for some reason), we reach...
...another temple!
Show's over, folks.
The end is nigh!
We cross a narrow rim in the north...
...and enter a large bright room. Who's there?
"Key of Thor"?
"Talk to Key"?
Who are you?
I'm a congenial fellow, I am. Some call me the Key of Thor. Are you some kind of transmitter? Transmitter? A mechanical device? Goodness no! I am alive.
Who made you? Made me? Dear fellow, you don't understand. I exist just as you. You do not appear organic.. I am of the Light as you are of the Light. Just a different appearance.
Paragraph 87 posted:
"Dear fellow, we are all creatures of the Light, every blessed one of us. Everything that lives is of the Light. In some it shines with an intensity that matches the stars, while in others it is but a feeble glow. It shines brightly in you dear fellow, and with a radiance that warms my very core.
"How can one in whom the Light shines so brightly not know of the Light? You mystify me, you do! Can it be that your kind has forgotten? Ah well, that will be for others to explain, for I am not a teacher, I am not the pedagogue."
Why are you here? I was put here by an evil one who had no better use for me than to hide me! Who is this evil one? (Read Paragraph 31.)Paragraph 31 posted:
"Why, he is one in whom the Light shines with a fierce dark intensity that I have never before seen. He is called Malcolm Trandle and he was once a Sentinel. Surely you must not judge the Sentinels harshly by comparing them to Malcolm, for he left their ways for the ways of evil. The Sentinels are the keepers of the Light. They find those in whom the Light shines brightly and they nurture it. Why, they found me many, many aeons ago, on a far distant world where all have my appearance, but where I was the only one in whom the Light shone brightly. There was another in whom it shine darkly and he they destroyed.
"In Malcolm Trandle the Light once shone brightly. Once it shone with a radiance that would illuminate a galaxy. But when the Sentinels took up residence on a planet called Earth by its people. Malcolm began to change. A darkness crept into him and he began to treat the poor primitives who lived on that world as cattle and playthings. Before any of the other Sentinels knew what had transpired, Malcolm had gathered a small army of these pitiful savages and decided that he should be the ruler of the Sentinels. He stole me from the dwelling of Kedro, and he stole the book of spells as well. You see, although the Light shines brightly in me, I wield it but slightly. Those around me, however, can wield it far beyond their normal capacity. Malcolm feared Kedro as long as Kedro had me with him. And Malcolm feared the book even more. Ahh, how he feared the book! So he stole us and brought us to this Light-forsaken corner of the cosmos.
"The delicious irony of it all my friend, is that Malcolm stole me in order to increase his power, but it could never happen. He took possession of the planet called Caldorre because he sensed a power here beyond understanding. The three towers that stand on that planet have stood since time immemorial. The builders of those towers powered them with a generator of Dark Light. What Malcolm did not understand was that as I amplify Light so I destroy Dark Light. The Dark Light is, how do you say it? Allergic to me. So Malcolm had to hide me away, far away where no pursuit might find me. And here I have lain for three thousand years and more."
Do you mean to say we have rescued you? Precisely. Now you must take me to the Sentinels. How shall we do that? (Read Paragraph 61.)Paragraph 61 posted:
The Key of Thor rises quickly to hover in the air before your eyes. "I will ride in your backpack. We must find the Sentinels. Before Malcolm hid me here, Kedro and the band of Sentinels from that planet Earth came to rescue me. Malcolm dealt them a blow that left them helpless, their minds confused forever. I can restore the knowledge, but I must see them to do so. Help me find them so we can put an end to the Dark Light of Malcolm!
"The Sentinels have the power to wield the Light just as you do. On Earth, the name the people gave to it was 'magic'. Have you heard of it? You have it in you, but you clearly do not have the knowledge to wield it. Kedro does. The Sentinels do. The Light can let you mend people, it can let you change their nature, it can let you confuse them or strip them of their knowledge. It is the only way Malcolm can be defeated."
The key vanishes into your backpack, but strangely, it feels no heavier.
It's magic!
How do I return to the labs? Tell me you want to return and you shall. (Why did we even need to rescue you, then, if you can teleport to and fro just like that?..)Oh well, whatever.
And so, with Key of Thor in our backpack, we teleport back outside. I wonder who could tell us the Sentinels' whereabouts...