Part 22: Update XX - Featuring: Breaking and entering

Update XX - Featuring: Breaking and entering

Music: UE77 Tokyo


Music: Cladeon - An Undersea Shimmer


To the Star Crystal!



Lookout Girl: Yes, I know... I need to help however I can... Just please, take care of him...

But first, this lady who wasn't here before.





No. Admiral Yoritomo and I will not be joining you. We shall pursue another course of action.

ISDF forces will undertake the collection of Dz in order to construct necessary facilities.

Dz...? Construction? What the hell are you talking about?



Chief Toglau: What...?

Hey... You serious!?

Yep, the lion's share of work for saving an entire civilization is going to be done offscreen by the ISDF.

Doing it ourselves would take away from valuable god slaying time, after all.

Chief Toglau: Your efforts are appreciated, but to leave this hallowed home for a world of land...

Novice Smith Cub: I-I wanna go! I don't want the forging lineage to end with me!

Lookout Girl: Me too... I don't wanna die, Chief!

Chief Toglau: But...

Most of the Star Crystals are gone. Atlantis is done for even if we can beat that damn dragon... I honestly hadn't even thought about what happens once we kill Nyala...

*nods*

Suicide is not the only path. Let your people know that we will rescue anyone who desires it.

Novice Smith Cub: Chief!

Lookout Girl: Chief...!

The Chief bows her head for a few seconds.



Chief Toglau: I shall issue a notice to the citizens of Cladeon.

Thank you for cooperating.

Unit 13, please head to the Royal Palace. Speak with Consul Tallieri and obtain the Dragonslayer. We will stay behind and focus on gathering Dz for the construction.

I'll take you over to the palace. Lemme know when you wanna go.

*nods*



Militia: Yes, Sir!

*chuckle* I'll be counting on you!



Now, you'd think the people of Cladeon being told that they have an option other than dying would change up what they have to say.



You good to go?

But everyone still has the same lines, so we might as well head out.



Yup!

Then let's get a move on!

Music: UE77 Tokyo


Strangely, Eigur doesn't take us directly to the palace, instead sending us to the normal map screen.



At a whopping 30 dragons, Berg Sea Palace will be our biggest dungeon yet.

...It's probably a bad sign when the queen of the city is sitting on the biggest dragon nest in the land.

Music: Berg - Ultimate Sea Palace


So did we actually use the portal to get here, or does Cladeon have some kind of teleporter tucked away in the back?



The upper-class snobs from around here would always look down on us lower-class people... Even people like my dad, who poured his blood, sweat, and tears into his work down in the mines...

Oh my, the standard Fantasy Class Divide. Will it become an issue as we drag the nobility and the commoners alike to Nodens?







For whatever reason, a save spot sound played as soon as I got control, despite being nowhere near a save point.



A quick run back to get a better look at Berg.

It certainly looks pretty!







Atlantis Soldier: S—Squadron Head Eigur!?



You know them?

Yeah, I was in a squad with 'em back when I was in the Royal Knights.

~

Squadron Head?

Yeah, that's what they used to call me back when I was a Royal Knight. I quit ages ago, though.

~~

Hey, I've got a small favor to ask. Think you guys could lend me a hand?

Atlantis Soldier: By all means, Sir!

I owe you guys. Anyways, think you could get us a meeting with Consul Tallieri?

Atlantis Soldier: But the consul is busy preparing for the ritual...

Ritual...? What ritual?



So, it has been established that time in Atlantis and time in Tokyo is roughly in sync with each other.

It has also been established that we cannot go back any further without creating an alternate timeline. Why that matters when our original goal here was to snag a sample from Nyala will never get explained, but let's just assume that this would completely crater the whole True Dragon Chronicle thing.

This means that, had Opal decided to delay going to Seventh Encount by a few days, Tallieri's plan would have gone through, destroying Atlantis and crippling Nyala.

We came down to the wire on getting this done, and we have a time machine.

What!? We're already blowing up the Star Crystals!? Nobody told us about that!

Atlantis Soldier: The consul had mentioned that an official notice would be unnecessary... Once Dragonsbane has engulfed the capital, there will be no chance of defeating Nyala. And so, the consul concluded that we could waste no time in destroying the Star Crystals.

And the man couldn't even spare a messenger or two to even try to warn the people about their imminent demise. What a dick!

That bastard...! He's lost his goddamn mind!



Atlantis Soldier: Y-Yes, Sir! Right away!







Tallieri! Is it true that you're gonna start destroying the Star Crystals!?



And you're not even gonna tell your citizens first? Do our lives mean nothing to you!?

There is nothing to tell. The Atlantis people are already of one heart.

Grr... I can't stand you! You can't just make these decisions on your own!

Say what you will. I am doing what I must... for the sake of this kingdom.

How can you say that!? All you're doing is betraying your citizens!

*shakes head*

Look Tallieri, I'm not here to fight with you. Please, just hand over the Dragonslayer!

Eigur... What do you plan on doing...?



Just as I thought... You fool. Have I not told you to learn your place in this world?

*shakes head*

I don't think you get it. I'm not gonna wield the Dragonslayer... Opal will.

You seem to be more of a fool than I had estimated. Letting a foreigner wield the Dragonslayer? Even King Utrello failed to control its supposed power. How will a mere foreigner manage?

I mean technically speaking a foreigner taught you how to make the damn thing in the first place. Also you explicitly skipped a step in forging it, so you can't really complain that it didn't work.

Just listen to me! I know it's hard to believe, but I'm sure that Opal can do it! This is exactly what King Utrello had mentioned! The hero we need... is Opal!

And Eigur gives no real evidence to back us up, like how we took down a High Dragon with just six people or how we strolled in and offered a way for everyone to live.

...

From Tallieri's perspective, Eigur just strolled up with some random nobodies who tried to fiddle with a Star Crystal a few days ago and started yelling about them being capable of killing the dragon that brought Atlantis to the brink.

So he shakes his head, understandably.

...Preposterous.



The power of the Dragonslayer is naught but superstition. It will not help you against Nyala. If only I had expressed my doubts to King Utrello... he would not have perished. To make up for that grievous error, I will defeat Nyala... without the Dragonslayer's help!





We can't just wait around here. If he starts the ritual, the whole kingdom's done for. Oh yeah, let's look for Ulania! The Star Crystals are ultimately her responsibility, after all. We're just gonna have to sneak into the palace and convince her before the ritual!

*nods*



We will not be splitting up. Seriously, the one place we have access to is a long corridor.



Atlantis Soldier: H-However, I do not have the power to change the rules! Please forgive me...

~

Atlantis Soldier: My apologies. I cannot let you in without proper approval from Consul Tallieri.



The door is locked, as you might expect.



The solution?



Like five seconds away.



Eigur you are terrible at this.







This'll definitely get us in. It's gonna be a pain... but we don't have much choice. We've gotta find Ulania and stop that ritual at all costs. C'mon, follow me. I'll lead the way.

Wait, so has there always been this damaged floor here?







Music: Ladyin - Sacred Tranquility




You know a lot about the palace.

Yeah, I guess so.

~

How do you know about this path?

I guess I can't blame you for wondering...

~~

Well, my dad was a blacksmith for the Royal Family, so I lived in the palace when I was a kid. Me and Ulania are the same age, so we played together a lot... and explored all over the palace. This is one of the places we found back in the day. My dad got so mad at me when he found out...

*shakes head*

But who cares about my story? C'mon, let's just go and find Ulania already!

*nods*



...you know, Tallieri pushing ahead with the suicide plan sounds a lot more reasonable when you consider the fact that there are dragons in the basement of the royal palace.



Gameplay-wise, uh...

Hope you like corridors and straight lines!



Hey there, first victim of the daydragon!



Shit.



I have got to stop running away in a panic when this happens.



You can't tell, but the dragon is in a state of constant anger and is trying to phase through the wall in order to get to me.



Seriously why are all the dragons so angry.

Music: Battlefield - Furious Predator


Let's deal with it properly, this time.



Aaaaaaaaaand we already have palette swapped dragons.



Opal actually maxed out Jab near the end of Cladeon, but she hasn't had a chance to use it until now.



This lets her instantly start landing debuffs, jacking up her utility by a ton.

No one else has actually hit the dragon yet, by the way. The power level in VFD is so high that I can drop a dragon down to half LF with just two attacks.



The Forval Dragon's palette swapped breath attack inflicts Blind, and also hits decently hard.



But then something really odd happens.

See, I gamble on not clearing Blind on Aiden and hope he can land a scapegoat.exe anyways. The damage from that, plus a hit from Yuno and the follow-up TROY proc, would kill the dragon before it could move this turn.

The gamble failed, and Aiden missed.



Yuno lands her hit.



And for whatever reason, the TROY proc leeched MN like it was scapegoat????

Like, this isn't some designed interaction in the skills, the TROYs should never have MN leech. Something about how scapegoat missed caused the MN leech to be delayed until something else from him hit.



But it still leaves me just shy of killing it, making me take a few extra hits.



It doesn't last another turn.

Music: Ladyin - Sacred Tranquility


Down the path that dragon was guarding...



Is loot.



Like how Cladeon started with enemies from Atlantica, Berg starts with late enemies from Cladeon.



Down the western path on the first split...



Is a door.



Also our first Gold Rabi.



They like to run away, so you have to kill them quick.



Doing so nets you a good chunk of change.



Much like any self-respecting JRPG player, I'll leave any doors till last.



South of the split is another dragon.



It was another Forval. Yawn.



The dragon was guarding another split path.





Unmotivated Girl: *sniffle* Why isn't anyone coming? Is there somebody there? Anybody...? The monsters are gonna eat me at this rate...

Down the left path is our first civilian.



Although, why are there random people hanging around the dragon-infested basement?

Next time: Boy, I sure hope you like corridors!