Part 63: The Fire, Awakened

Entry 60: The Fire, Awakened



Time to get this done.



With its vestal dead for some time, what condition will this crystal be in?



*ROAR*

A creature lurks at the Fire Crystal!



The game so far has shown the 'of doom' bosses as this black cloud. A shame they aren't shown out of battle.

What is that thing?



Egil nods and runs off.

That's Chaugmar!

Chaugmar, the Mark of Doom. It appears in the teachings of Crystalism.

I had a feeling that might be the case. I'm all ready to go.

We can't begin the Rite of Awakening until we defeat it, right?

I'm afraid not.

Let's go, Agnès! The four of us are more than a match for that thing!



The myth behind the Chaugmar name was a bit tricky to uncover. In the end, the only remotely close reference I could find was for Chaugnar Faugn, an Old One from the Cthulu Mythos. To summarize, Chaugnar is a giant bad elephant demonic thing that sucks life force out of its victims with its trunk.



The contributors at the Final Fantasy wiki apparently reached the same conclusion about the boss's origin, and it seems reasonable based on the boss's attacks.



Chaugmar begins the battle within a chaotic purple barrier. It will spend most of the fight like this.



While its barrier is up, Chaugmar's physical and magical defenses are at 9999.



During this phase, Chaugmar's attacks will absorb HP (Blood Suck), MP (Soul Suck), or BP (Heart Suck) from his target.



Since attacking it's mostly a no-go, this is a good time to heal, buff up, and default up to 3 BP.



If you insist on attacking during this phase, items deal a set amount of damage, bypassing defense. Chaugmar never expects to face determined salve-makers.



In a few turns, Chaugmar will drop the barrier.

We all know video games. What better indicator to attack, right?



So here's a lesson that hasn't come up yet, but will be much more evident later on: Bravely Default hates the player.



The turn after the barrier goes down, Chaugmar does an attack that will likely wipe your party unless you Default.



It's simple once you know what to expect, but is bound to catch first-time folk. So in return for all the rage Chaugmar's caused players, let's show off a feature!



Way, waaaay back near the start of the game, our friend the Adventurer (or their green cousin) gave Tiz a strange hourglass.

With that item, pressing Start during combat causes you to enter Bravely Second, freezing time to allow a single character to take action at any point during battle.




Bravely Second costs 1 SP. You can only ever have 3 SP max, and SP regenerates 1 every eight real life hours, so it's not easily abusable. You can/could also pay real life money to buy SP drinks which would restore SP without the time limitation, if you want to support the game's single controversial microtransaction. Doing so isn't necessary at all.



Whichever character you choose to take an action will start off by saying one of several preset phrases. Someone posted a video of the phrases earlier in the thread.

And that's that for Bravely Second: useful when you need it, does neato visual effects, but due to its cost it's an easy feature to forget.



To clarify, the Bravely Second phrases are preset and voiced, while the special attack phrases are not voiced but player set, so you can be as stupid as you want. Note the background and stance difference as well.



Anyway, after doing his big attack, Chaugmar will spend a turn with no barrier, then put the barrier back up and repeat the proce-- what's that?



Oh, he's dead. Once you know Chaugmar's routine, he's easy to take down, provided your healer can keep up.



We've no time to pat ourselves on the back. Let's begin the Rite of Awakening.

I'll help you get changed, Agnès.

Would you?

Agnès and Edea leave the room, returning a minute later with Agnès dressed.

It's nice that Agnès has a friend to help her out with things like this.



Let us begin, Airy.

Wow, you look beautiful...

Are you blushing, Egil?

Of course not! Don't be silly!

No need to be shy. Any man would be hard pressed to pull his gaze from Agnès now.

H-hey, what are you looking at me for?

No reason.

Come on, let's hurry this up! Everyone but Agnès, stay back!



Doot doot doot, it's the press X song~ Let's begin~



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What did one Bravely Default player say to the other about the crystal prayer sequences?



They're 'X'-tra long!



These sequences do help get across the painfully exhausting process Agnès is going through.



Not yet! Just a little longer!

Rgh...!

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Stop! That's it!



The awakened fire crystal is significantly more threatening looking than the water and wind crystals. Appropriate for the heart of a volcano.



Thank goodness...

Are you alright, Agnès?

Yes... I'll be fine. I just need to rest.

......



Oh... I was just amazed at how different she looks...

Thank you for watching over me, Egil. The fire vestal would be very pleased with you.

No problem! So I kept my promise to the fire vestal, right?

Of course. Thanks to you, we were able to awaken the crystal.

*nods*

That's good...



Third crystal, third support slot upgrade. One more to go.



Chaugmar's gimmick takes patience, but at least we only have to fight it once.



Chaugmar dropped this lovely piece of jewelry with a genre-relevant description.



Hopefully the weather around the last crystal is nicer than the center of a volcano. No, I'm never going to normalize how unliveable the center of a volcano is for a temple, even a fire temple. Even the Hero of Time had to scrounge up a set of fire-resistance clothes.



The party exits the Underflow. It's impossible to warp past this scene; the temple, the Underflow, and the mythril mines each only warp to the beginning of their respective areas.

Huh? What's this? Something looks different.



Egil crouches down and rifles around in the rocks.



What is it, Egil?

All the ore... It's disappeared.



Any idea, Airy?

With the death of the fire vestal, it was no longer possible to control the magma that represents fire.

The mythril ore used to create powerful weapons and armor... Perhaps it's another symbol of fire, subject to the crystal's control.

What!?

Well, we don't know that for sure yet. Anyhow, we'd better go report to Commander Goodman.

The fire crystal controlling magma wouldn't explain the decomposition of rocks in the non-magma-filled mine, but as with the rest of this world's environment, presumably it's *handwave* crystal magic.



A new sidequest has shown up at Starkfort. We've revived the local crystal, but there are still some other loose ends to clean up. Let's take a quick look before heading back to the Shieldbearers.



Back in Starkfort, the party once again comes to the two passages which once held Qada and Egil -- west and east, respectively. Except now there's one noticeable difference.



The north way has opened.


Next: The virtues and flaws of the patient.

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Event Viewer
Main Scenario:
The Mark of Doom
The Fire Crystal
The Fire Crystal Awakened
The Vanishing Ore