Part 45: Unsafe Playground

Time to tackle Milly's dungeon. It's accessible directly from the world map.







Music: The Pebble Cast


On the way home from the School of Magic, I'd badger my pilot until he agreed to make a stop. But it looks awfully barren now. And there were never so many beasts around...


A stack of rocks catches Milly's attention.


Huh? They're still here! Hey, look! I gathered all of these up myself! I used to scour all of Nekkar trying to find them. See, look at this one. Isn't it a beautiful color? And this one, doesn't it look kind of like a pow? Right here, see? It's got the belly! I can't believe it...they're still here! Come on, I'll show you something even more amazing up by the falls!





The falls are just northeast of the entrance. This dungeon is quite short-





Wha-





...

So this is a dungeon where you fall into holes that you can't see until it's too late. Naturally, some of these holes completely bar the path forward. It IS possible to zigzag around the place without ever falling, but I don't know the layout nearly well enough to pull that off. Of course, climbing back out takes you to a new place that isn't necessarily near where you were before.





On top of that, the enemies here are nasty. These guys are Slave Balloonas. They have moderate attack power but for some reason they seem to take forever to kill. They can also light themselves on fire to increase their damage output.





And that plant in the center is the Queen Alraune. Like its predecessor form Holoholo, these things are absolutely brutal. They can dish out good damage with their basic attacks, can use a special that hits the whole party for about 500 damage plus poison, and if a Slave Balloona is around it can hit them like a baseball at you for a good thousand damage.





So what I'm basically getting at is this place sucks.





See this rock? I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist. What rock? There's no rock.







Hey, I recognize this guy! It's the first boss from BKEWLO, the Sabre Dragon. This thing is really nothing major; it can belch a fireball for 850 or so damage, but that's about it.





These guys are just odd little creatures. They hit for about 400 damage which isn't so threatening (though they do come in groups of up to 5 so that adds up quickly). They also have these funny little hats. While they are wearing the hats, their defense is crazy good, but after you hit them a couple times the hats break and their defense plummets. Kind of a cute gimmick, I thought.





Anyway, I finally managed to squiggle my way back to the start ,on the opposite side of the original hole. Let's see what this thing is Milly wants us to see.





Video: Milly's Confession


Milly rushes up to the fountain, while Sagi and Guillo trail behind.


Today's a white day, hee hee! This lake is special..Every day the water changes color! Blue, red, yellow, white, green! Isn't that neat? I used to come to the lake and tell my own fortune. I'd pretend good things happen on white days.





…...

At the Senate council, you called Baelheit “Father”.

Yeah...

So, he is your father?

...Yes.

But all this time we've been trying to stop Baelheit. He's our enemy. Why would the enemy's daughter choose to travel with us?

I just...I just did what Father asked. He wanted me to observe Sagi.

Observe him?

Uh-huh. He wanted to know if Sagi was really a spiriter, or if he was one of the malideiters Olgan had made.





He would have to be killed.

...Yes.

So you used Gena.

No! My father never told me anything about her!! Don't you see? That's why I tried to stop him! The more time I spent with you, the more I saw what Father was doing was wrong. Now I want to stop him, just as much as you! No...more. Because I'm his daughter.

I don't expect you to forgive me for everything that's happened. But I want to stay with you! That's the truth – please believe me! And it's not because of anything my father said. I just...I just want to be with you. I want to argue with Guillo...and get in Sagi's hair...and go on more adventures with Meemai...





Tell me to get lost, and I'll go without a word. Sagi...

Milly...when we first met, did you really believe me about having a guardian spirit? Or was that a lie, too?

No...it was strange – we'd only just met. But even after all the things my father said – you're the one I found myself believing. There was something about you...that was easy to trust.

Then it's OK. You trusted me. So now it's my turn to trust you. Milly...I care too much about you. I'm not gonna let you go.

Sagi...





Milly and Sagi hug it out. They really are a good couple, I gotta say.


It's all right.


Guillo, I'm sorry...

Trick us again and you'll pay!



...But I'll let this one go.

...Thanks. You too, Meemai.





It's all right. Seems like all of us have our dark secrets.


There, see? He says he forgives you.

Mm-hmm. Thank you, Meemai!

Well, now that we've heard Milliarde's little saga, what do you say we head back?

Wait! There's something I want to show you up ahead. It's not far. Come with me...please?

Sure! Lead the way.

Softie.





Well, I guess this wouldn't be complete without a boss fight. Let's see what's up ahead.





Wait till you see how incredible the view is up here! On a clear day you can even see Alfard! When I was little, I gathered up all sorts of rocks that looked like people...and lined them all up so it looked like they were gazing off into the horizon.


...Really? None of these rocks look quite right to me.





What happened? Someone knocked them all over! This is terrible...I was so excited to show-


Suddenly, a bird!


Ahh!





How could you! You'll pay, birdbrain!





Video: Revenge of the Bird

Music: Evidential Material


And so we meet our next boss, a bird that we're going to brutally murder because it knocked over some rocks that Milly liked.





Despite being a palette swap of the Holoholobird, this guy is far less dangerous. It's maybe a little more powerful relative to our health, but it doesn't have any little birds backing it up so we don't have to worry about hyper healing action.





Indeed, I would ordinarily write this off as just another generic boss.

So that said, I have to admit that I sucked royally in this battle. In fact, the jerk managed to kill me on my first try. You have no idea how much I wish I was lying because that is seriously humiliating, but it happened. I guess I let my guard down too much and figured I already had the fight won after I busted out Apotheosis, but it survived and managed to come back while I was dicking around with chipping damage trying to kill it.





The second fight went better, but I still didn't really do a great job. I could never seem to get the whole Apotheosis set up, instead just using one or two parts of it at a time (which is much, much weaker). The Godling's Rapture still does tons of damage by itself, at least, but still can't hold a candle to The Apotheosis completed.







Oh yeah, the boss also has Trample. It's powerful, but not devastating...is what I would normally say.





Except that I finally got The Apotheosis ready to go, and as I was inputting it...







...it killed Guillo. And since I had already input Sagi's turn, I couldn't stop to revive Guillo before Sagi carved the bird like a lumberjack carving a turkey with a chainsaw.





And once again, Guillo misses out on delicious boss EXP. Figures the one character who's level I'm most concerned with is the one that I can't seem to keep alive. Oh well, it just means I'll have to do a little extra Coliseum grinding, that's all.





Oh yeah, this is a nice new finisher for Milly. Granted, I probably won't end up using it much if ever since I'm slowly but surely turning Milly into pure support, but it's still nice to have.





Music: The Pebble Cast


...But they're all broken. I'm sorry. I wasted your time. Nothing I say makes sense anymore. How could I ever expect you to trust me...



...Hey, Guillo. Look at that rock over there. Doesn't that sort of look like a person?

Hm, it does. That one, too. The arms remind me of Milliarde when she's on the warpath.

...Hmm?

Milly...this time we'll all look. Maybe the rocks you found are broken...but that's OK. We'll just find some new ones – the three of us together.

It really is quite the view. Think how breathtaking it will be once we have all those rocks lined up.

Sagi...Guillo...





Thank you, Meemai. All of you...thank you so much.





And now we have Milly's ultimate (or is it?) weapon. Again, I don't expect to get much mileage out of this, but I at least added it to the deck in place of the Efreeti's Horn so she can help out a little with her combos + Sevenstar Dust.

That was pretty heartwarming, despite the general horribleness of the dungeon and enemies and boss fight. I wonder what Guillo's path has in store for us? Join me next time as we journey under the Taintclouds!


(Bear in mind that I recall Guillo's subquest being the longest and by far the most dialogue heavy, so I might split it into two parts. We'll see.)


-


Decision Time!


Let's learn about Guillo's past.


>Sure!

>I don't need to know.


I'm sorry I killed you before.


>Jerk!

>I don't really remember it anyway.