Part 80: What's a Fantasy Without a Prophecy?
Entry 75 - Part 3: What's a Fantasy Without a Prophecy?Duke of Darkness, self-made vampire and millenia-old leader of the shadowy assassins, meet your worst enemies: farm boy, vegan nun, forgetful playboy and sugar-addicted shopaholic.
DeRosso, having spent millenia improving his showmanship, floats down from the heavens at the start of combat.
But as we know, he's not all show. One attack can be deadly, as Ringabel demonstrates, and he'll often hit the entire party.
DeRosso is the hardest boss in the game we've met, by far.
I've got no patience to do strategy after all those cutscenes, which is why I don't mind falling back on an old, cheap tactic.
Along with a newer cheap tactic, Templar's Rampart, for a double layer of protection. Better safe than sorry.
DeRosso starts off his abilities with an animation similar to a genome. There's a good reason for this, we'll find out soon.
Battle Thirst steals BP when it actually hits. With Turn Tables providing BP, the party has no lack of turns.
Edea is MVP, hacking away at Lester the vampire with light abilities...
...But it's Tiz with a precision bonk to the head who gets the finishing blow. We're in asterisk space, dang it, and Tiz wants a new outfit.
The immortal Lester DeRosso has been defeated?Seeing how Tiz is already going through your pockets, going to go with 'yes'.
Tiz hurriedly claims this job for himself.
The Vampire job will be familiar to Final Fantasy fans: it's Bravely Default's blue mage.
DeRosso flinches before he talks. Looks like he's feeling his age for once.
Our reward is behind him: the final painting.
D's Journal: The Vampire Gallery: The Angel posted:
The Vampire Gallery 12:
Having reached the top floor of Vampire Castle and attaining a narrow victory over Lord DeRosso, we were given leave to view the final painting. Hung beyond the Lord's throne, it depicts a lone angel...
It is the angel descended from the heavens during my final battle against Yulyana.
An angel? When we last did battle eighteen hundred years ago, the battle raged one hundred days. The mountains of Norende, rent asunder. Knowing the battle was reaching its end, I mustered the last of my strength to cast my greatest of spells. As my final attack surged forth, the angel did descend from the skies over Norende.
Are you sure it was an angel? Verily so, for there are no other words to describe her. For a moment, Yulyana and I stood captivated. Before we realized it, our struggle was forgotten. We both tended to the angel. But the angel lost her light. Her wings were shattered, and her body torn asunder. There seemed little hope she would live.
What appeal? What did the angel say to you? Ere she passed from this world, she slipped in and out of consciousness over many a day. In between ever-growing periods of unconsciousness, it was all she could do to mutter incoherently.
These she would repeat, over and over. When she did come to her senses, she would speak of the calamity that had befallen her. She spoke of how Luxendarc was on the brink of doom, and spoke with precision of the events that has heralded its coming. She herself was surprised to find that she knew of details of our past, and events of the future as well. The struggle between the Old Faith and Orthodoxy, the tragedy that would befall my family, my immortality, even events of the distant future... The distant future? Yes, for the angel spoke of events that have not come to pass even now. Events that await you in your future... She told of a bringer of evil who would appear in the guise of one friendly to the vestals and seduce them into unleashing chaos in the name of awakening the crystals. This evil one would destroy Luxendarc by piercing the boundary that protects this world. 
The Great Chasm! The angel told of many other omens ere the Great Chasm would open. "The light of earth shall raise up the north and a deathly plague shall cover all the lands. Then shall a great rift rend the earth."D's Journal: The Vampire Gallery: The Angel posted:
"The Angel" 1:
"The angel that descended from the heavens during my final battle against Yulyana," he called her. At the end of a hundred days' combat, both men riddled with wounds, they prepared to bring their war to an end. As they incanted their greatest spells, the sky parted and an angel descended upon Norende... An angel? Do such beings truly exist?
"The Angel" 2:
Both men were captivated, to the point of forgetting their rivalry entirely. They rushed to her side, tending to her battered body. She was blind and broken, half her body lost... They knew she was not long for the world. I suspect Lord DeRosso is telling us that she was human.
"The Angel" 3:
Shuddering and gasping for breath, she spent what moments remained to her in an impassioned appeal. "A trap most vile," "such a fool am I," "the warriors of light," "if it is not too late"... As she drifted in and out of consciousness, she spoke of what had befallen her, and of the dangers that now face the world.
"The Angel" 4:
She detailed the threat facing Luxendarc, the history behind it. When Lord DeRosso confirmed the same events had transpired in his past, the angel was shocked. The clash of old and new faiths, the tragedy that struck his clan, his immortality... She spoke also of the future. Of DeRosso's future, now come to pass, and of our future, still ahead.
"The Angel" 5:
She warned that an evil would arise to deceive the vestals, posing as an ally and inciting them to "awaken" the crystals, driving them out of control and piercing the bounds that hold this world intact. Before its coming, she foretold a sign--a great rift that sunders the earth. We were stunned.
"The Angel" 6:
The chasm was merely the last of the omens the angel foretold.
"The light of earth shall raise up the north and a deathly plague shall cover all the lands. Then shall a great rift rend the earth." She spoke of the highlands' rise, and of the Great Plague...
More detail on the angel's state, including that the 'angel' was a human.
She then entrusted me with a certain task--one that only an immortal such as I could fulfill. What sort of task could only an immortal fulfill? That I cannot say, for she swore me to secrecy. But thereupon she quietly passed from this world. For three days and three nights, my former mortal enemy Yulyana and I spoke of what had transpired. Ultimately, we vowed to join forces to prepare for the coming doom of which the angel had foretold.D's Journal: The Vampire Gallery: The Angel posted:
"The Angel" 7:
Lord DeRosso claims her words were a revelation to him. He had dismissed the tragedy that befell him, the oppression of the Old Faith as the simple products of human greed. Now, in the face of a threat to the entire world's existence, the petty power struggles surrounding the crystals came to mean something greater...
"The Angel" 8:
The dying angel's experiences pointed to a great evil capable of manipulating the crystals and the desires of man alike. Or a sinister plot to tear the world from its foundations... Alas, the angel left this world before Lord DeRosso and the sage were able to learn the identity of this sower of doom.
"The Angel" 9:
Thereafter, Lord DeRosso scoured the writings of the Old Faith, and Yulyana those of the Orthodoxy for any mention of this evil, but their search bore no fruit.
"The Angel" 10:
Who was this angel, in the end? From whence did she come, and how did she come to arrive at the scene of their battle? To these questions, Lord DeRosso could offer no answer. The only words to pass his lips were, "Vestal of Wind...she bore your face."
"The Angel" 11:
The dying angel's words evinced such deep knowledge of the crystals, they could only surmise she was a vestal, or at the very least a high official of the Orthodoxy. Among her revelations were things that even the sage and Lord DeRosso, experts in their own right, could not understand.
"The Angel" 12:
When the power of the prayers held within a crystal dwindles, it becomes susceptible to contamination by darkness or monsterkind. In that weakened state, it is unable to keep nature's wrath in check, and can only be restored to proper function by the prayers of the vestals and the common man alike. This much is known to any cleric...
"The Angel" 13:
But what followed were enigmas. A normally functioning crystal subjected to focused prayer can be driven berserk. Still further prayer can see it destroyed outright. In death, a crystal bequeaths its will unto the next generation. That new crystal will grow over millenia, eventually bestowing its blessings upon the world as its predecessors had.
"The Angel" 14:
It was after he finished speaking that Lord DeRosso noticed the pendant Agnès wears, reeling at the sight. In her final moments, he said, the angel called him and the sage individually to impart her final words. Whatever she told him, he now gave only a meaningful nod before sitting upon his throne and going silent...
Ringabel mentions several interesting new points here, but arguably the strangest is that the angel looked like Agnès. Maybe it's just a coincidence.
It all started with this fateful meeting.The party's reached the top of the castle and discovered DeRosso's final secret. All that's left to do is leave.
But as the party is about to exit the angel chamber, Edea turns back to DeRosso.
Why Yulyana and I forgave the rebel templar, even rendering him aid?
Yes.D's Journal: The Vampire Gallery: Parting Ways posted:
The Vampire Gallery 13:
As we prepared to depart the castle, victorious over Lord DeRosso, Edea asked him one final question. It almost seemed he had been expecting the question. Why had he and the sage forgiven her father's betrayal? Why do they aid the templar, even now? He offered a glimpse into a history we could never have imagined.
Yulyana and I conspired in a masquerade. He rose through the Orthodoxy's ranks for vanquishing me, and I went into hiding. That was when the first of the angel's omens came to be. The lands ringing Eternia began to rise. While the second omen, the plague, had not yet come to pass, we continued to watch over the crystals and the Orthodoxy.
It was not till thirty years ago that the omens returned as if out of legend. First, the lands ringing Eternia began to rise once more. Ten years later, the Great Plague struck, whereupon I knew the Great Chasm was coming. It was then that we began our preparations to strike.
Before the appearance of the Great Chasm, we would assault the temples and seize the crystals. We readied our forces for this plan. I entrusted the task to the templar, a former cleric of the Orthodoxy. He was also to lead the newly mustered host.
Father... While far from infallible, that was the best response I could manage for the coming of the Great Chasm. But I was soon faced with another problem, for the Orthodoxy began conspiring to hold the Grand Ritual in a bid to regain authority.
The Grand Ritual!? But that is forbidden! It raises the energy long accumulated within a crystal to a cataclysmic level... Indeed, and the templar feared the heavy toll it would exact upon the crystal. He counseled us to dispatch our forces to the head temple with the greatest of haste. Were we to overlook the Grand Ritual and focus upon the coming Great Chasm? Or was the ritual the event that would bring upon the chasm? To wait, or attack...
That is why my father did what he did...? As I said before, the templar is not the sort to send troops into battle over private matters, be they concerned with his wife or not. We threw our backing behind the templar-led forces, for ever did we believe in his tireless resolve and action.
That is perhaps but a small link in the great chain of events of which the angel foretold.D's Journal: The Vampire Gallery: Parting Ways posted:
"Parting Ways" 1:
The angel vanished, Lord DeRosso went into hiding, and the sage rose within the Orthodoxy for his defeat. Decades later, the first of the angel's omens came to pass with the highlands' rise. Luckily, the second--a worldwide plague--did not follow, though the two redoubled their watch over the crystals nonetheless.
"Parting Ways" 2:
The next 1,700 years passed in peace, save for a handful of manmade crises surrounding the crystals--until thirty years ago. Again the highlands rose, and a decade later the angel's second omen struck. With the Great Plague a reality, the sage and Lord DeRosso knew the coming of the chasm was nigh. They began to gather an army.
"Parting Ways" 3:
They would calm the crystals and prevent the Great Chasm's coming, even if it meant striking the temples and claiming them by force. To spearhead this force, they reached out to a former cleric of the Orthodoxy--the templar. Together, they readied what preparations they could for the coming crisis.
"Parting Ways" 4:
But a problem emerged within the halls of the Orthodoxy's head temple, brought on by base human desire. To restore their quickly eroding authority, they planned to invoke the Grand Ritual, a forbidden rite to trigger the explosive release of energies long built up within the Earth Crystal.
"Parting Ways" 5:
As a former cleric, the templar knew the dangers such a rite held for the crystal. He begged Lord DeRosso and the sage to send their forces to strike the head temple immediately. The debate raged on among them: should they focus on the Great Chasm's arrival and allow the ritual to be performed, or would the rite itself summon the chasm?
"Parting Ways" 6:
Ultimately, the templar unilaterally chose to march against the Orthodoxy that day, fifteen years ago. It was not the tale of betrayal we had been told. Lord DeRosso spoke to Edea as if addressing her father directly. They backed him, he said, because they believed in his tireless resolve and in his action.
With that, DeRosso returns to his throne. We're done with Vampire Castle.
Some questions were answered, more questions were formed. What does the prophecy mean? What the hell's going on with the angel and the immortality and so on?
But DeRosso's finally sick of chatting, and it's about time we rescued the fourth crystal to save the world and all.
Next: Everlast Tower awaits.
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Event Viewer
Sub-Scenario:
The Final Painting
Angel Painting - A
Angel Painting - B
A Parting of Ways
D's Journal: Agnès Oblige posted:
After an epic battle, Lord DeRosso showed us a painting of the angel that had descended during his last battle with the sage... It was the spitting image of Agnès. The angel told of the coming of the evil one, who would lead the vestals astray. A great chasm would herald its coming... It seems the angel's omens had set the wheels of fate turning for all of us.
D's Journal: Edea Lee posted:
Before leaving, Edea asked how Lord DeRosso and Sage Yulyana could forgive the templar for rising in revolt. Lord DeRosso explained the bond of trust between the sage, the templar, and him, and how the templar had acted in the interests of the people of the world.
D's Journal: Sage Yulyana posted:
After defeating Lord DeRosso on the top floor of Vampire Castle, he showed us the angel painting. He spoke of the angel that descended upon his last battle with the sage at Norende, and how they both heard many terrible secrets regarding the crystals before the wounded angel relinquished life.
Lord DeRosso told of why he and the sage forgave the templar for the uprising and helped his daughter. Before they could prepare for the Great Chasm, the Orthodoxy began planning the Grand Ritual, which would place enormous strain on the crystals. The templar proposed to protect the Earth Crystal, and the sage and DeRosso sanctioned his assault on the head temple.
D's Journal: Braev the Templar posted:
Following an intense battle with Lord DeRosso, Edea asked why he and the sage would help the templar after his revolt. It seems that as the angel's omens came to be, the Orthodoxy held a Grand Ritual that placed great strain on the crystals. With DeRosso and the sage busy preparing for the coming Great Chasm, the templar rose up alone to defend the crystals.
D's Journal: Lord DeRosso posted:
D's Journal: Norende Village posted:
Norende Battlewastes:
The final battle between dark and light took place 1,800 years ago here on the Norende Heights deep within the mountains. The Orthodoxy's forces led by Sage Yulyana clashed so fiercely with Lord DeRosso's forces of dark that the very peaks of the mountains were obliterated before an angel descended from the heavens to intervene.
D's Journal: Yulyana Region posted:
The Uprising:
Before Braev the Templar launched his surprise attack on the Orthodoxy's head temple fifteen years ago, he mustered his forces here in this land. His wife remained here with young Edea, praying for the templar's safe return.
D's Journal: Everlast Tower posted:
The Grand Ritual:
Performed fifteen years ago by top clergy of the Orthodoxy along with the earth vestal, this ritual taxed the crystal to its limit. By the time the templar stormed the Temple of Earth, the crystal had already begun to spiral out of control. In a last ditch effort to channel the dangerously powerful energy away from the temple, the templar ordered white magic cables be attached to the crystal. And so it is said the crystal's energy began to be used for healing purposes.
