Part 36: A stupid mission and a lethal fight
~Update 17: A stupid mission and a lethal fight~Time for everything to go to hell. Soon. First there are two Sub-Labyrinths to blast through. I'm going to skim these very quickly, since there just isn't anything special about Sub-Labyrinths and there is a huge amount of story to get to in this update.
The two Sub-Labyrinths are called Dark Void and Blind Leap. Dark Void contains a class item for one of the remaining three classes in the game, while Blind Leap contains the last two.
Both of these Sub-Labyrinths are also pains in the ass due to most of the enemies being Dusk or Light based. Fair warning.
I pull Felicia once more out of retirement. These class items seem near impossible to steal, meaning you're better off just hoping for a drop instead, but Felicia's Lockpick skill is the main reason she's here. There's some good equipment available in these two Sub-Labs. Later, Felicia will lead her own Thief team when I learn that the game does not want me to have the other class item.
However, first up is Blind Leap. You want to head for the 2nd Floor (or the 4th) and look for a group consisting of two Stavess enemies (pictured above) and an eyeball dude. The Stavess should be level 43 or 47 depending on which floor you are on.
Use Wake's Dusk Analysis to check out the enemy teams before you go into battle with them, in order to make things easier. These guys will sometimes drop the class item Hermit's Gleam.
Hermit's Gleam will allow you to create Ninja. Ninja's are one of only two classes that are able to use Ninja Garb armor (which you may have picked up from time to time and not known what the hell to do with it).
Ninja's are a bit of a specialty class. They have great SPD and nice defenses. Their skills are a mix of status and instant-death style attacks like Silent Killing. They also have a skill called Invisibility, which is handy for avoiding monsters, or sneaking up on them for advantageous attacks.
Moving on, Floors 2 and 3 of Blind Leap are where you find groups of Level 42 Mibras (the purple eyeball creatures) accompanied by a Level 37 Micros (the red/orange eyeball creature). Killing them has a chance at snagging you the class item Vibrant Sparkle.
Vibrant Sparkle is used to make Tricksters. Tricksters have a similar stat spread to Ninjas and are an upgrade over the Berserker class. They have status moves like the Berserker (poison, ATK/SPD drop, Instant-Death chance), but the major draw to them is that they have a skill called Visual Aid.
Visual Aid lets you spot traps so that you no longer have to chance the Purple Chests or get hit by floor traps. Handy little scamps.
The final class item proves to be the most painful for me. On the 3rd Floor of the other Sub-Labyrinth, Dark Void, you have to go looking for a group of these bastards.
The group needs to have a Level 29 Micros in it. The other two eyeballs will be the slightly higher tiered versions of the enemy.
I run around and kill 15 of these damn things and attempt to steal from them about 30 times in total. It's takes about half an hour. Not a single class item.
Eventually the sunk cost fallacy rears it's ugly head, and I decide I need to tear myself away in order to invest time in a solution to this bullshit. I quickly train up two other Thief Star Children that have been kicking around in the wings for a long time now.
They get popped onto a team with Felicia. Having 3 Thieves on one team (that are all above Level 10) opens a team skilled called "Appraising Eye", which boosts the chances of items dropping after battle.
It does the trick, and I finally get a hold of "Fallen Knighthood".
Fallen Knighthood allows you to create Dark Knights. Dark Knights are very similar to Paladins, except they focus a bit more on offense. They get more attack skills than Paladins do, and instead of DEF Boost and Paladin Wall, they get a skill called Attack Wall. Attack Wall will buff their attack while decreasing damage to their allies.
They are kind of a counterpart to Paladins, but I consider them more of a replacement/upgrade myself.
That's about it for those Sub-Labyrinths. Again, they are largely just there for grinding and item collection.
This does it for the Star Child classes as well. We've now seen all 30. You'll get the chance to build teams of them in the next chapter, during the final Star Child Vote.
So let's get on with the Pride Labyrinth, because goddamn it--
the sooner the better. That's 20 floors to wander through. 20 Floors of no story beats and a mix of Dusk and Light enemies. It's as tedious as it sounds.
Henshin!
Iron-Blood Transformation!
I think I've finally got this locked in. That sounded great for some reason.
Feene was the winner of the final heroine vote. Her popularity didn't seem to wane at all, although Chloe did have a sudden burst in the middle that almost had her catch up. Narika only got two votes, which saddens me because she is my favourite. The thread didn't seem to appreciate the whole 'attempted murder' thing, even if it was due to monster possession. Oh well, she still managed to hold her place as a focus heroine through the entire game. That makes me feel a bit better.
Regardless, the LP is now in the 'Feene's love confession timeline'. She will be Wake's partner for the two remaining dungeons as well as for the ending. As usual, I remind everyone that there will be an ending rundown for every heroine after the game's story wraps up.
-Pride Labyrinth-
If you feel low on stamina or Star Energy, don't be reckless. Come back to start anew.
Don't worry. I'll make sure I back you guys up even if Mark's not here.
Don't worry, we're used to this. Just look forward to us stopping this Dusk Circle crap once and for all. The big ones anyway. We'll worry about those new small ones after.You will be following Ruby's advice a lot for this place. Trying to do this entire dungeon in a single run is an exercise in tedium. It took me an hour to get through all 20 floors while avoiding fights and taking the portals as soon as I could find them. To speed things up, you could try buying a bunch of Simple Maps in order to immediately find the portals on every floor. I only remembered to do this like halfway through the damn place. Ugh.
The enemies here are mostly color swaps of ones you've seen before. The new Stavess enemies from Blind Leap are here as well.
You'll also find that the Gloomus type bug enemies are regular enemies here.
9 Floors in and we finally hit a mini-boss.
That's a nasty one that will decrease your speed and your Chain Gauge!And that's the advice Chlotz has for us. Even the characters are in a rush to get through this place.
Shellamgear is a goofy looking thing with a lot of Dusk stuff. Not especially strong, but still tough defense-wise. You shouldn't have a lot of trouble with it, but if you do then just remember that Bonding Drive is a Non-Elemental attack that will work wonders. It's joined by a Gloomus as well, but that's really not anything to worry about.
As for me, since you guys voted for Feene, I just have her and Wake bust out the second level Seventh Burst "Ruin-Onslaught".
Same as with Chloe, this is mostly the same as the first level Seventh Burst, except with a pose at the end. Wake looks kind of bored in this shot, not that I blame him.
That hits for 16k, and Team B follows it up by finishing it off. Easy-peasy.
In the next 'section' of floors, Sparf will make its debut as a regular old encounter. It also has color swapped versions with it.
Floor 15 stops us with another mini-boss.
That one can poison you and can use powerful Light spells. Watch out for those.Laiamis is accompanied by two upgraded Stavess. It's a fast little sucker, and the rest of its stats are fairly balanced. You need to be careful of that Light based attack though. It hit Team A(wful) for close to 3000 damage, which is not pleasant.
Using Bonding Drive or just MECUNITE'ing and spamming the Code attacks will deal with it pretty well. The MECUNITE's Code attack will also take out the Stavess that are chilling in the background.
Upon reaching the portal on Floor 20, we mercifully reach the boss.
Unlike the usual, we're stopping for a brief break before we tackle this. I need to offer some warnings for anyone that may be insane enough to be playing along, or for anyone that may be insane in the future and is playing along with the archive.
This upcoming battle is pretty much the only one in the base game that I will say requires absolute preparation. Unless you and all your Star Children are pushing Level 50+ (or you have optimized teams with a heavy focus on speed or physical defence), you are going to have a hard time with this.
Let's get a bit of a checklist going:
1. Make sure your Bond Points are maxed. You should be able to have a cap of 1000 by this point.
2. Make sure you stock up on Multi-Potions. They are expensive, but they are almost vital to this fight.
3. You need to at least be in the 40's in terms of level. Maybe someone has done it, but I personally don't see any of your Star Children surviving at below 40.
4. Get the best gear you can manage, either from exploring Labyrinths/Sub-Labyrinths, Quests, or straight-up buying shit from the shop.
5. Related to the point above, get a bunch of 'Seal' curative items (such as Chatter Herb), and look into Seal Resistance equipment. No particular reason.
With that out of the way, we can proceed. Even with all those warnings, be prepared for this to end up as a scouting run if you are going in blind. Hell, even if you know what's coming, there's a good chance you're going to bite it at least once since it's hard to predict how well your Star Child teams will hold up.
Lucifer likes to make an entrance. Swooping in, grinding to a halt, then letting out a mighty roar.
About time. I'm really tired of wandering through the halls of this place.It's shown itself! That's the Dusk Spawner of this Labyrinth! From what I can tell... Looks like it's a non-elemental boss. It's going to go after you with a number of different spells and attacks. Unfortunately, Light and Dusk elemental attacks won't be very effective on it. You're going to have to play this one by ear!I sort of do that every time we run into one of these things, Chlotz. I'm sure we can handle this, don't worry.You're more than strong enough, but don't let your guard down! Got it?
Yes, Mom. We got it.Come on everyone! It's go time!
I will not let my guard down until the very end! I will fight with all my strength!You're so cute when you're fired up like this.
So, Lucifer. Lucifer is not the reason we're taking all these precautions. It isn't much of a threat on its own. Being Non-Elemental, Feene is really the only heroine that doesn't fare especially well against it. Remember, Non-Element is strong against Dusk and Light, but weak to all the basic elements.
Stat-wise, Lucifer has the typical boss stats of crazy high DEF and MDF. ATK and SPD are a bit lacking from what you'd expect though.
It does have a mix of Light and Dusk skills though, so that's a bit concerning. High Dusk Release is back and it still sucks to get hit by.
It has solid HP behind it as well. This is roughly 14,500 damage to it in total, and it's still above half. You're probably looking at about 30k-35k.
That being said, there isn't really much to Lucifer. If you go all out with your attacks and are in the mid-40's of SC Level, then you can probably end this fight before Lucy can score a second turn. It isn't especially fast.
There isn't much in terms of strategy here. Just dump on it using basic Elemental skills and you'll likely end up Chaining it, at which point you can dump on it even harder for more damage.
If it is outrunning you and scoring multiple turns (or spamming High Dusk Release), then just use some of the Multi-Potions that you should have with you.
DO NOT USE YOUR BP! Don't use Ether Release (Lucifer will just reverse it with High Dusk Release), don't use Bonding Drive, and don't use MECUNITE. There are also some specialty healing spells that use BP, so watch it. You will want to have your BP full for what is on the horizon.
The fight itself provides some good EXP, and Chaining will up that even more.
And that puts a cap on all the Dusk Circles. Now, who's ready for all of this to go tits-up? That's not a spoiler of any kind. Does this really feel like an End Boss to you?
The last Dusk Spawner is down. We're on--Huh? Oh come on, did they really decide to stumble in here of all places?
So this is the area around the Dusk Spawner...
So it seems.What the--!? Why are they here!?Weren't you only supposed to be going into the Labyrinths that were sterilized?This was Enzea's idea.
He proposed that showing Neo Ether off in the most dangerous Labyrinth would be best.
All of you are total idiots.
.....The opening of this Labyrinth at this very moment can only have been Star God's will.That is messed up...Well, you're right about it being Star God's will. I can guarantee that your reason for thinking that is wrong though.
...Where's the Dusk Spawner?
It's kind of our job. You know, God's Gift? Witches of the Seven Stars? Star Children? Did you really think your little camera team was going to get here ahead of us?
I see... We had planned to get Alec's gallant face on camera, but too bad.We'll edit you in.You're a funny guy, President Marker. You just try pulling a stunt like that and God's Gift will sink your company. Alec might be a friend, but I'm not going to stand aside and let you give him our credit.
Wake, it seems you have succeeded in sealing the Dusk Spawner. I will take the Matryoshka you have sealed it within.Whatever. Here. Run back to your lab and do your tests and shit. Just get out of here before you all end up dead. I'm officially done with pulling people's asses out of the fire.
Just get out of here. I'm not sticking around to play security guard for your little movie shoot.
There's no need to be so concerned.We do have the world's most famous Disciple here with us, after all.I wasn't joking, Rhiod. If I see any ad campaigns about how Alec single-handedly destroyed the Dusk Circles, your family will be on the street within the week. I have ways.
Gentlemen, please.That is not what I meant.What?
Master Enzea... The preparations for the live broadcast are complete.
What live broadcast? What is he going on about, Enzea?Father, you are absolutely correct. Publicizing a product does require a sense of entertainment. However... The show we're putting on is not about promoting Neo Ether to the public.
I'm sure this comes as a complete shock to everyone. Let's be honest, it was always going to come down to the Church or Shinra Lite.
Enzea... What are you talking about?
Your time, and the time of the Star God's world, is over at this. Very. Moment.Oh, I'm loving where this is going.Rus, Clau... Open the curtains.
I'm busy with the camera. You do it, Clau.
Okay, Rus.
*Clau rushes in the for attack*
[Bodyguard A]: Gah!
[Bodyguard B]: Ngh!
[Bodyguard C]: Aagh!
[Bodyguard D]: Hrgh!
[Bodyguard F]: Hnngh!
The hell happened to Bodyguard E? Must have taken a personal day. Lucky dude.
*pant* *pant* Heeheehee... You're all so weak...
Did you get all that, Rus?
...It was amazing. You got me all excited.What are you doing!?Their comm channel will interfere with our live broadcast. Let's cut it off.Wait, Enze--
You can just do that? Why didn't anyone tell me is was that easy?
Wake, sir!? I do not believe now is the time!Right, right. My bad. Kids, at the ready!
Since you have no idea of the power of your own pawns, there is no future for you.
What...?
Brother! What is the meaning of this!?It's exactly as it appears, Alec. This is being broadcast live, all around the world.
I call it "Egalitaria".What...?I will watch over this world from the Pandora Labyrinth... the fortress of God.
What?You, with your money, and your social standing... You control the inequality. Killing you cuts the ribbon that will create a new world order.What are you saying, Brother!?I thank you for giving me life. Truly, I do, from the bottom of my heart. Thanks to you...
Enzea... Have you lost your mind?Everyone, please rest assured. I do this to save the world. In Egalitaria, all inequality will be eliminated from this world... I shall guide the people of Aterra to the ultimate peace.Good-bye, Father. I hope the Abyss treats you well.Clau, give my father a farewell kiss.
Gah... A...lec...
No... Father... You bastard!Haha... Do you want a taste of me, too?
You're so slow...Ha!You're making me yawn...Dammit!You're so weak... Come on, a pathetic man like you will never satisfy me!*Clau kicks Alec*
Gah!
Alec! I know you're pissed but you need to keep your head on straight! I'll be there in a second!
No. You must face me, first.
I will eviscerate you!Let's see if you can...Alec, do you detest me?Nngh... Brother... How could you... kill Father...?Right now, you aren't capable of even touching me, let alone defeating me.Ngh...Well then, what do you think you should do?
Alleec... doooon't...*The screen starts to shake*
Oooh, you're turning it up!
Nngh... Haaa... I... can do this... I can still do this.Aha, he's up, he's up!
Alec! Stop it!Get the fuck out of my way you little insect!Hragh!Oh, it's not enough! More! More! Come on, crank it harder!Raaaaaaagh!
Eek!*The screen flashes white as Alec attacks*
I... I hit her...Heehee... That felt nice...I can... I can stay on top of it... Urgh!? A-Aaaaaagh......It seems it's begun.Aaaaaaaaah...Dusk Alec - Check out the cutscene
That's probably not good...
That isn't good.Okay, I'll give you that one Official Wake. We can drop the "probably".
...It's the side effect of an overdose on Neo Ether.But this is something much worse than turning into a monster with Dark Crystals.D-Dark Crystals are responsible for that?Didn't you know? Yes, Dark Crystals are turning humans into monsters. Neo Ether is a product of the energy from the Dark Crystals, after all.Those who absorb too much Dusk Energy are transformed into monsters.
Aaaaaaagh.... Aaaaaaah!*Alec fucking books it*
Alec! Stop!...Shall I pursue him?
That won't be necessary. He will take over as this Labyrinth's Dusk Spawner, and produce more Dusk Energy.I'LL KILL YOU ENZEA!Ah yes, I must thank you as well. You did well in sealing the seven Dusk Spawners you faced.With this much Dusk Energy... I will be able to immediately create God's Fortress, that would have taken so long.
So, what!? You've had Ruby slipping them to you this entire time!?Don't trouble yourself with that any longer. Your duty has come to an end. Once God's Fortress has materialized, the world will be reborn into beauty.You really think I'm going to let you live!?
Haha, I'm here too.Kids! Rip them to pieces! Make them suffer!
Yes Father!
Yes Father!
Yes Father!
Despite their cocky attitudes, Rus and Clau are fucking jokes. You're fully healed for this fight, but honestly, you wouldn't need it.
A very important thing to keep in mind, however: DO NOT USE YOUR BP. Hold on to that shit tight. Besides it not being necessary for this "boss" (and I use that term lightly), you could screw yourself later.
Going by their stats, they might seem to be relatively tough. High DEF, MDF, and decent SPD. Rus has solid ATK and Clau has solid MAT. Clau has a major lack of MDF though, for good reason.
Their skills are bare minimum though. Ultimate Slash Storm is a skill that Wake has been throwing around since Chapter 2. Clau only has Triad Gravity.
Also...
Their HP is pathetic. Rus here only has something like 18,000. He's also weak to Dusk and Earth (because he's Water element). Wake and Feene can take him out by themselves in two turns using Seventh Burst.
The first attack he manages to pull off gets intercepted by Wake and Feene, thereby dealing a big fat 0 in damage.
Rus has enough speed that he can probably manage to score back to back physical attacks on you (like, once maybe), but they only dish out about 1000 damage. He hits Team Normal Person twice in a row and only knocks them down to about 60-65% HP, then has to wait 4 player turns until he can act again. He will not be acting again.
So yeah, Rus is laughable. Wake and Feene (or any Heroine, really) could kill him on their own, so I send the kids out to play with Clau instead. Clau is a bit hardier than her brother, but that's only because she has the power of Dusk Element on her side. Even with her low MDF, the Element advantage is enough to compensate. Unfortunately for Clau...
She's not exactly a powerhouse. That looks like a lot of damage from Triad Gravity, but if you check out Team B's health bar down there, you can see that it only scratched them. Her basic attack deals about 1000, but that's actually pathetic when you realize that she has an element advantage.
You can also see that she doesn't really have the MP to keep that offence going. She's got maybe 4 or 5 of those Triad Gravity attacks in her. If you somehow have difficulty against her, then you could easily just turtle until she burns herself out.
If you for some reason took the time to craft a bunch of Dusk Element Star Child teams (or got really lucky with finding Dusk Matyroshkas), then Clau becomes totally neutered. There's even a chance that Wake and Feene's second Seventh Burst "Ruin-Onslaught" could just one-shot her. During one of my runs, Wake and Feene used that skill and scored a critical which dealt 19,000 damage.
Of course, you've probably realized something by this point (or at least, I hope you have). Rus and Clau were never going to be a threat. This is actually gameplay and story integration as opposed to segregation.
The only reason Alec had trouble with Clau in that cutscene is because he was fighting at far less than half strength due to Ether Density. Remember, Alec is the only one who got his brace set low because of side effects. Rus and Clau were running at higher settings, which gave them an advantage.
Also remember that Neo Ether is a cheap Ether substitute byproduct of Dusk Crystals, as was just explained to us before this battle. Wake has a pure, unfiltered, natural Ether count 30 times greater than the average. He is under no time limits or constraints when it comes to Star Energy usage, and neither are the heroines. Rus and Clau never stood a chance against him to begin with, even more so with him being backed up by 9 Star Child warriors. It's honestly kind of adorable that these two morons thought they could put up a fight at all.
And the reason for that is because this fight is not supposed to be a challenge. It's supposed to trick you into burning gas before the next fight (It's especially tempting to use Bonding Drive on Clau). The game has only pulled a back-to-back boss once so far, and the boss that you fought second (The Dusk Eater) was really just one of those EXP pinatas. The game heals you between these two fights, but it pulls that rug out from under you by not healing you before the next fight.
That's why you want to be careful with your important resources such as BP and Multi-Potions (unless you have a ton of those). You also want to try and top off your HP and MP just before killing off Rus/Clau, whoever happens to be on the field last. Prep yourself before finishing this fight.
We're... so weak...At least Clau is honest about it.
The power to resist fate, hm...? That is interesting, as well. I'll be waiting for you beyond Heaven's Door...*Enzea proceeds to... fade away? Teleport? He disappears somehow. Hell if I know*
Goddammit! He got away! That rat bastard!
Please, calm yourself...
...
Alec...Ah, we're through! Chief Ruby, we're back online! Hey, are you all right!? The video on our end cut out right when the President collapsed...! We have no idea what's going on! Are the President and Alec okay?Wake, what is the meaning of this?
Wait, what?I'll deal with you later. I'm going to look for Alec.Hey, wai--*Wake cuts off communication and the team leaves to find Alec*
Alec...Aagh... Help... me...Just, drop your swords. We can take you in and try to figure something out...I'm... done... for... I don't... want... to become... Nngh... a... monster...
A-Aaaaaagh... Aaaaaaaghhhh...!Feene... Kids... Get ready.I am forever by your side.
Yeah... we've got an Old-Yeller situation on our hands...
Whatever your feelings are about Alec as a character, be prepared to pack them away for a little and dig out your rage instead. Dark Alec is largely agreed to be the hardest fight in this game (DLC not included). He can be incredibly frustrating and the entire battle can go south in an instant, at any point, before you can do anything about it.
Dark Alec has a brutal combination of stats. His DEF and MDF are ludicrous, and his SPD is great. His only way of attacking is physical, since he has no skills. He is also Light element, which means Non-Elemental is the only way to pierce his defenses.
His HP is nothing to scoff at either. Bonding Drive, which is your BP Non-Elemental attack that deals super effective damage to Light and Dusk, deals out 12000 and doesn't even bring him to half health. He probably has somewhere north of 30k, with enough defense that nothing the Star Children can do will even dent him.
Now, his ATK doesn't seem overly bad. On the surface, he seems to be similar to Torri. A very fast moving brick wall that somehow doesn't pack much of a punch. Dark Alec has a fix for that little shortcoming though...
Dark Alec's standard (and actually, only) attack will hit all four surrounding zones for 1000-1100 damage (less or more depending on your physical DEF). Wake and Feene take an extra hard hit due to being Dusk Element.
Also, there are no other enemies in this fight, so your entire team starts the fight automatically surrounding Dark Alec and you can't move a group of Star Children to safety in order to act as healers. This is a rare time where the ally movement mechanics work against you.
You've probably figured out the issue here. Dark Alec is fucking fast. He uses the basic physical attack, which has a low 'cost' (meaning his turn won't be pushed back as much compared to if he had used a big attack skill or magic). He can hit your entire party with each attack.
He's a blender. It's absurdly easy for him to get multiple hits on you back-to-back. You can't count on the turn order at the bottom, because that one Alec portrait could be 2-3 attacks in a row (or even 4 if you're especially slow). You might get hit for 1000 damage and then get a turn for one of your teams to heal up, or you could get slammed for 3000+ damage.
That isn't even the worst part. You see that symbol on Wake's turn portrait? That's Seal. Yes, Dark Alec's regular attacks can cause Seal. This is a major problem since Wake's Bonding Drive is one of the only major damage dealers you have against him. Also, it's why I told you to look for Seal resist stuff.
This is why I told you to save your BP and stock up on Mutli-Potions. You will need to be popping Multi-Potions all the time to keep everyone's HP maxed out. Dark Alec only needs one good string of attacks to annihilate your party. Wake is also a giant target in this fight, because if he goes down then it's game over (his Ether is the only reason anyone here can fight).
BP will be needed for Bond Drives, MECUNITE, and Ether Releases (if you can ever manage to get one of those off safely). If you CAN get the Ether Density up, then that will help even the SPD field.
The Star Children will be able to manage a little damage, but not a lot. This 2300 was the result of Team A(wful)'s Crescent attack skill, which is the hardest hitting skill they've got at the moment. Against regular enemies, it normally deals upwards of 10k.
With all of that fun information out of the way, let's talk about what you can actually do against him.
This battle can go in two major ways. If you have the speed to keep up with Alec (or you can get the Ether Density up), then you should be able to manage with Multi-Potions while you try set up Wake/Heroine for Bonding Drives. Two Bonding Drives and a scattered attack should be able to take him down (or you could get really lucky and score a Crit). The difficulty is making sure Seal is off of Wake before his turn rolls around.
If you can't match the speed, then you better hope you've got solid DEF. MECUNITE can help any weak team survive a bit better and will also let you have Master Heal on hand, just in case. You then play a game of tag with Alec and Wake by making it rain Multi-Potions and Chatter Herbs while waiting for the stars to align in such a way that Wake's turn comes up and he is able to use Bonding Drive during it.
Other than that, I guess you could try an attrition battle. Keep throwing Multi-Potions while chipping away with whatever attacks you can manage. Seal is going to be the worst part of this strat. If Dark Alec is able to keep getting Seal slapped on you, then you'll either be wasting turns trying to heal that and HP, or you'll be reduced to using basic physical attacks.
I prefer ending this fight as fast as you can. There's no effective way to cripple Alec's offense, and it's hard to tell when your luck is going to fail you and feed you 3 attacks to the face to end the fight.
The one 'good' thing about this fight is that it isn't overly hard to get back to it. Lucifer should take no more than a minute or two if you go all out, and we've established that Rus and Clau are as threatening as kittens. If you get stomped, then you may need to look at your Star Child teams or levels and do a bit of grinding. If you just had a spot of bad luck and think you could pull it off, then pop a 'Simple Map' to show you where the portal is and just run straight there to avoid wandering around the last floor blindly.
Anyway, with that done we get some solid EXP and Glow. Kinda hard to feel good about that though...
Thank... you... The rest... is... on you...*And with that, Alec falls over dead*
Alec is dead, Chlotz.Huh?I killed him. He's gone.Wait, what...!? You killed him!? I don't understand. What about the others? You have to tell us what's going on in there!-???-
Pandora Awakens - Check out the cutscene
The Sealing Matyroshkas are all gathered.
And they form a ring of light around the spire. What spire, you ask?
The Pandora Labyrinth's spire.
Holy crap! There's a Disciple with actual meat on his bones! And of course he's the only one with a giant-ass hamburger in his hands.
Also, is that Wake's long-lost brother in the background or something?
Oh, right. The whole Pandora thing. I got distracted.
Anyway, Pandora takes off into the sky to do... something.
-R&D Lab-
[Citizen]: Holy Stars.. The Pandora Labyrinth has finally shown itself... Enzea's broadcast was for real...
This can't get any worse...
Enzea, what have you done...?Pretty sure you can piece it together Ruby. You've been keeping a big secret.
[Priest A]: Excuse me, Ms. Ruby?
...What is it?[Priest A]: Regarding AngelMarker...
[Priest B]: Please do not resist.
What're you talking about...? What did Chief Ruby do!?
Chlotz, it's alright. I'll be back in no time.Chief Ruby?[Priest B]: Well, then...
About time the Church got off of its ass. Trust me, Chlotz. The Church's thinking is completely reasoned.
-Serenity Chamber-
You're going to explain everything, right?Look.
Alec took the limiter off of his God Brace. He was losing himself and turning into a monster...Then, did you really...?Yes, Chlotz. I killed him.
Do you think I don't know that?No... What am I supposed to tell Luce...?
I'm sorry. That's all I can say.Sorry's not gonna cut it!Then what will cut it, Chlotz? You feel like telling me the answer?Dammit... Dammit!I'll tell her myself.No... I'll tell her. It would be better if you're not there when she hears it. If Alec's killer was the one who told her that he was dead... There's no way she could bear it.Cool, you do that and we'll just go and see what's happening with Ruby. Then you can fill us in--
-Heroes' Grave-
Shit.
Luce, it's the truth.
Alec promised me. He asked me to go to the Star Conception Festival with him. He may be difficult to get along with... but he always keeps his promises. He's never ever broken a promise to me before...
Never...I'm sorry... I couldn't do anything...
We are... uhh... we are not done with that by the way. It gets worse. Other things will also get worse before that. There's also the matter of Ruby and her hand in fucking everything beyond repair. The Church is correct in arresting her. Chapter 8 is on the way.