Part 79: Here and There (The Sopia Core)

Last time we were told that we need to create a new Sopia Core, to be able to proceed with the Rite. How are we going to be doing that? By fighting a boss, of course! But first...



Let's have a chat with Marie. If you are wondering where is Li Hua, she is in our party at the moment. It was a bit clumsily translated at the end of the last part, but Marie basically said she wants to research something--by this she meant in the library! Therefore, we cannot take her with us, so the only choice is Li Hua (or whoever is remaining un-sacrificed at this point depending on your choices). In any case...













Before we go, we can stop at the library ourselves, and read the info on Conor which is now available there.




  CONOR

Born into the world as the first son of the Whelan family of Leagard. Entered Smizzle Preparatory School at age 5 and earned high marks. Trasferred to Ohrand Academy after relocating to the fortified city of Ohrand for his father's work.

Sacrificed as a Pillar of the 1,685th Rite.


Finally, a few words with Lessica before setting out. I apologise, but I actually forgot to talk to Piu-Piu this time. Sorry.







As should be obvious from her words (?), we actually have four options where to go (the destinations labeled with "Next"):



Each of these four locations contains a boss fight, which will yield a Sopia Core. But in actuality we only need one of these, not four. Therefore it is enough to do just one of these four and you will be able to proceed with the story. However, all four bosses have nice items to steal and yield lots of EXP and it's fun to fight them, so there is nothing stopping you from doing all four if you wish (the other three do not disappear once you defeat one of them). So that's what we'll do!



Our first destination is The Land Desolate. On the way to the boss...

















Interesting. Lots of people seem to be picking up on something here.

But, meanwhile back at the library...





















It scared the daylights out of me, Lessica. I knew for certain tha we couldn't do anything--much less defeat him.
Then why...
Because if I'd given up then, I'd really be helpless now. I'll do everything I can, and if that's not enough...
...
I am sure I have told you many times: there is no way to defy Neron apart from the rite.
I figured as much...



















Back with Darwin and Li Hua, we reach the boss... and I can't believe that we have to fight this guy again! It's even more strange, because as you'll see the other three bosses are not really repeats (well one is kind of but so much).









Yes it's Firedrake again. Sigh.





First we do this.



This is a nice weapon upgrade for Darwin, this time without negative effects!



And then we find out that this guy is still very much weak to water, so...









And there's our Sopia Core, so we could now proceed with the plot already.



But, as I've already explained, we won't do that, as there is stuff to do in the other three locations. For the next trip (Destiny's Heights) we'll take Darwin and Marie--Darwin doesn't matter, but we definitely need Marie present here.







As we are running towards the boss, we come across this odd situation. There appear to be three barely visible Pandas on this location (one in the centre, one top right, one bottom left). This looks like part of our Panda Gang subquest, but what to do?



Well, we can use Marie's ability to move objects to put them all three in the same place...



...upon which they will yield a fully visible Panda that we can now fight normally.



It's a Panda Scout!



Three more left.



Now we can go fight the boss! He's a bit ugly looking though.



His name is Ceyx, it comes from the Greek mythology, but it does not have anything to do with octopi, so I am not really sure what's going on here.





As always... this item is clothes for Marie with upgraded defence.



The best way to fight this guy...



...is to keep countering his elemental spells.



In the meantime, use Marie's overpowered heal when you need.



That's it for this one.



On the next trip, we will be taking Marie and Li Hua. Li Hua is the one we really need and Marie is there again for her healing.





On the way to the boss, you might notice something in bottom right corner...



It's an oversized Panda! Luckily...



...Li Hua can keep punching him...



...to bring him back down to normal size.



And then we can fight him as usual.



So close... and yet so far!





Now we can get to the boss, which is apparently a big tree with eyes!



Same tactic of countering elemental spells applies here.



Although every few turns he will cast a poison spell, but this is not a huge problem. You can actually steal from him an accessory that prevents you from being able to be poisoned!



That's done. Let's do the final one now.



On this one we'll take again Darwin and Marie--actually doesn't matter who you take, but I want Marie for her healing. It will be really really important here!



There are no Pandas to deal with here for now, so we can go straight for the boss...



Hello there!



I was curious what his name means (I can tell that it's in Chinese, but not much beyond that)...



...so I switched the game to Japanese for the moment to see how they call it there. But the Japanese text says just something like "Grave Keeper of the Ruined Kingdom", which tells me nothing at all. So I don't know what this is supposed to mean or what it is a reference to, if anybody knows, let me know.

Oh, in case you are wondering why Marie has so much HP it's because in the meantime I've found an accessory that gives +1000 HP to the character wearing it. As you'll see in a moment, it's necessary for low HP characters for this fight.





First we steal from him!



It's a weapon for Li Huna.



This guy doesn't really have an elemental weakness so the best way to fight him is with non-elemental magic.



This is pretty good.



From his side, he's a brute, pure physical attacker. Look how much damage he's doing to us! Hence the need for Marie to get a bit of a HP boost if she's to survive fighting this guy!



But the damage is (again) easily countered by Marie's heal. Unlike Conor, her limit break heal spell is not fixed to 1000 HP but instead depends on her magical power and will heal for more and more as she's levelling up (as if it's not powerful enough already!). That's why Marie is practically obligatory to have here!





With this we are done for now, and can return to the main hall.







It's already time for the next sacrifice, believe it or not!













But who shall we pick this time?





Is it going to be Li Hua? Or...



Oh. I guess it IS going to be Li Hua then. Marie is still not a choice, so there IS no choice. Li Hua is the only option at this time. Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.