Part 22: "...Fairytales tell children that dragons can be killed."
Chapter 21: "...Fairytales tell children that dragons can be killed."(Versus The Hero)
Welcome back!
On the way back to the superboss area, Camil and Randolf hit level 46. Aeritz is still level 42.
It's important to note that engaging the boss automatically heals you--you can't enter with a lowered HP threshold, so no first-turn The Perfect Hero or Hero Supplement uses. It does not, however, clear statuses granted by items like a healing spring does.
50% more Skill, +20 Critical, +4 Agility, and a global boost to damage dealt. It'll only last four turns, but it can't hurt. (Plus, the status is appropriate.)
20 Stamina Restores, 25 Energy Restores. Let's do this.
I walk forward a little. Just a little past the spring, and...
We're up against the final villain, the one that's motivated most of the stories so far: Zelphie. Appropriately enough, as the boss of a Story, he's got the same theme as all of the others.
The Final Battle As Planned activates here, I believe, though the names don't change to reflect it; I don't think you get Aeritz's bonuses here unless you've bought it. I'll check that later. (Or someone will say in the thread, either one.)
Camil's set-up is fairly simple: when she gets below 30% HP, she'll use The Perfect Hero. When she's between 30% and 70%, she'll use Shout. The Zara Mantle's Fast Attack ensures that she'll go first, despite the higher Agility on Aeritz and Randolf, so they can heal her without worry. The Dagger and Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark give her impressive damage. Camil is the star of the show; no one else can match her at this point, and there's really no point in trying.
(Remember, her stats are a bit inflated at this point still.)
Randolf's job is not to die. I'm being a little excessively cautious, but between his raw durability and the Stagger immunity on the Black Ladybug, I can be sure he'll always be around to heal or resurrect. When he's not doing that, Light Axe and Dragon Slayer will do okay damage.
Aeritz got the Dragon Slayer, since it's essentially an upgraded Baby's Breath. He's going to be healing. The Dragon Slayer's Recover SP when Defending, the Footfalls of Hope's Extra Attack +1, his high Agility, and his ridiculous SP score mean that he can throw out a group Healing Magic every other turn 80% of the time, and with that Skill score, it's going to be a good one. Final Battle As Planned Aeritz makes most threats not really that threatening.
That's after a full round of attacks, including Light Axe and a 460 damage crit from Camil. The Hero will not go down easily.
Crescent Moon is a pain in the ass. Not really threatening, just a pain in the ass; it Staggers nearly always.
(Also, Randolf's Never Die Ever set-up is already bearing fruit. 31 damage and he didn't even Guard it.)
Poison Spider is Pain In the Ass #2, hitting two characters and poisoning very often. This is particularly problematic in light of poison taking effect just before a character's turn and also being able to kill.
Eh, why not?
Healing spec Aeritz in action. When you consider that it's basically free, that's absurdly good.
Also, note the Exhilaration on Randolf. That's "why not," to answer my question a moment ago: it very slightly increases your offense but decreases defense by 5%. It's not very useful, and you're fairly likely to get it from Waterboy Resolve. Most of the others aren't amazing either. You can get a status that's basically The Perfect Hero's Perfection, but there's no real point in gambling on it.
Camil's Staggered, everyone else is fine. Randolf is still Light Axeing away, while Aeritz defends to get his SP back. The Hero hits Randolf for 65 Guarded damage--that's pretty impressive.
Camil has to Defend. Aeritz heals Randolf. Randolf Light Axes. Zelphie uses Crescent Moon again and doesn't Stagger anyone.
And that's why I've been basically ignoring Poison. Versatility's still up, but it's about to run out, so it's time to get her buffed and ready. Randolf is still Light Axeing away. Aeritz heals everyone.
And here we go!
Zelphie uses Poison Spider and doesn't Poison anyone. He still hasn't pulled out any other tricks. This is going well.
As you'd expect, you get the cut-in images here; I used Heaven's Blessing here, just for the hell of it.
Zelphie then Staggers Camil twice in a row, just to be a dick. (Or he's being clever and timing out Shout, but I think the other explanation is more likely.) Randolf defends to build up SP.
Wait what
Well, shit; I guess that skill is hereditary. I wish Randolf and Nana got the version that also summoned minions.
The archer on the left is Left Hand - Alma and the knight on the right is Right Hand - Mililanis. (You may remember them, but probably don't, from the books in The Hamlet way back.) The fight really begins with Hero Supplement.
Camil reapplies Shout; it ran out. Randolf uses Light Axe on Alma. Aeritz heals everyone.
Alma's a lot less durable... At first. Zelphie heals himself with Breath here, also giving himself the Focus status.
Iron Will gives everyone the Iron status, greatly decreasing damage taken. Mililanis uses Charge, which probably Staggers, but he did 0 damage to Aeritz. That's sad.
Still, with those buffs...yeah, I think I'm just gonna defend for a little bit...
Random ran out. Alma uses Iron Will again. Camil and Randolf are still defending, while Aeritz heals everyone.
Zelphie manages to poison both Camil and Randolf at the same time during the next round, so Camil uses Destiny's Defeat on Randolf and Aeritz uses Healing Magic on her, clearing both of them.
Demon Eye is really goddamn irritating. Still, it didn't hit Aeritz; thank goodness for small mercies.
Camil targets Alma. Randolf accidentally attacks. Aeritz defends.
Alma uses Rapid Fire, hitting Camil and Aeritz repeatedly. It does pretty pitiful damage. Mililanis uses Armor Break on Camil, lowering her defense. And Zelphie...
What the hell!?
Thankfully, Breath runs out at this point, so one of his damage buffs is gone. Camil attacks Alma, Aeritz resurrects.
Alma's Rapid Fire actually hurts Camil now, since her defense is lowered--about 20 a hit, for roughly 60-80 total. Ouch. Zelphie uses Demon Eye again and doesn't Skill Bind anyone. Mililanis uses Charge and hits Aeritz, which is incredibly annoying.
Camil Shouts, Randolf uses Dragon Slayer on Alma, Aeritz defends.
Zelphie used Breath again, Mililanis used Armor Break on Aeritz. Uh-oh.
Do Yell and Perfection stack? I don't know, but probably! LET'S FIND OUT
Randolf uses a Stamina Restore on Camil. Aeritz heals everyone.
Okay, Aeritz died, that's bad, but AHAHAHAHAHA
(The Perfect Hero also gives a cut-in, naturally.)
Iron Will just expired; Alma hasn't been using it in a while. Randolf raises Aeritz. Camil, meanwhile...
WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW
Then Mililanis uses Charge on Camil. It Staggers.
This is a good demonstration of the lower damage on additional swings, by the way. Contrary to expectations, the extra swings are tacked on to the start of the attack sequence, so the later hits do the most damage.
Still, Randolf is able to Dragon Slayer Mililanis while Aeritz heals everyone. Camil's still got at least one more turn of ridiculous murder potential in her.
Zelphie uses Breath again. Mililanis tries to use Sword Breaker on Camil to neuter some of her ridiculous murder potential and misses.
(There's also a 800 damage critical on Mililanis that I missed.)
Randolf restores Camil to full SP with an Energy Restore, Aeritz heals himself, Zelphie uses Demon Eye and gets both Aeritz and Camil.
Camil's still got both Yell and Perfection up, though. Randolf heals Skill Bind from Aeritz, Aeritz defends. (Don't want him getting murdered by Focus+Hero on Zelphie.)
(Bad at capturing third hits. About 450 to Zelphie from a crit, about 300 to Mililanis.)
Defending with Aeritz was prudent--he takes two hits from Poison Spider and loses 2/3 of his health. One unlucky non-activation from Sporadic Guard would have killed him.
Man, these statuses last longer than I thought. Still, this is the last turn on Yell; it expires following the attack.
(I am fighting literally an entire LP's worth of screenshot timing reflexes here, okay? It's hard!)
Perfection lasted long enough--Mililanis goes down to another Light Axe.
This is bad.
Still... He's down to 1/3 health and I still have nearly all of my potions.
Thankfully, Perfection overrides Hero here, so far as I can tell. No double superbuff.
Camil uses Shout, Randolf uses Light Axe, Aeritz uses Healing Magic on Camil. This isn't the time to get cute with trying to get The Perfect Hero--if I get it, great, otherwise I'm not taking risks.
This... doesn't appear to give a status. Hmm. That means it's probably a "super move next turn" warning. I defend.
It's not; he just uses Demon Eye. Aeritz gets silenced, so while Camil and Randolf are attacking, Aeritz uses an Energy Restore on himself.
Ehh, why not?
You son of a--
Thankfully, unlike your version, this just brings him back to 50% of max health. He doesn't just undo all your work.
Luna is another cut-in attack. It hurts! He can only use it if he's used Art of Sword Drawing some turn previously and hasn't already used Luna since then, but he can't wait quite a while before pulling it out, so you can't really choose to Guard against it.
He could conceivably kill Aeritz outright with it if Sporadic Guard fails to activate, and if anyone had lowered defense from Mililanis here, then they'd also die. Still, it's hard to believe you'd get to this point without killing the minions.
Camil attacks, Randolf uses Hero Supplement, Aeritz uses Healing Magic on everyone.
Zelphie pulls out another attack here--Swallow Dive. Like Poison Spider, it hits twice and can either focus one or hit two, but it drops the Poison for an increase in raw damage. When Camil doesn't defend it, it does about 90 damage to her per hit and hits twice.
Camil has like 90 defense, which is incredibly unimpressive for this point. He should hit harder than that.
Zelphie uses Art of Sword Drawing again the next turn while my time gets their stuff in order again. Then he uses Luna right after, doing about 100 to everyone.
I don't think I ever showed the with-Hero status screen for Randolf.
Zelphie is just spamming Art of Sword Drawing->Luna at this point. Every-other-turn high group damage is really, really easy for Aeritz to deal with, to say nothing of the fact that Camil just got two triple-crit turns in a row.
Like that.
Still, Zelphie can't keep up with our raw power. Soon...
Camil ends it.
The Hero isn't actually very scary--Aeritz alone can carry you through. If you give him the Black Ladybug, the combination of high SP and Stagger immunity trivializes it, no matter your offense, unless Aeritz gets very unlucky. Bringing in Shout and The Perfect Hero on a physical Camil just seals the deal.
And you return to the main menu. Zelphie will always be there to challenge again, should you want to grind to level 99 and humiliate him or something.
There's no Glossary entry unlocked by beating him. There is, however, a book about him that I
It's the book Kumo was standing in front of in Death Rat House. I guess he never got around to throwing it into Zelphie's corner of Cave Chronicle?
A match for a thousand men, he was a politician who created a fair and just government to protect the people, and a general unrivaled in both strength in numbers and tactical wisdom. He brought peace to our land which was once wrought with war. There never was, and probably never will be, another man like Zelphie Eluonto. We should be thankful we were born during this era. We were able to see a true hero with our own eyes.
This unlocks the Zelphie Eluonto glossary entry at the end of this update. Pop down and read it, then come back.
The chronology on the parenthetical note in that one seems out-and-out wrong--I think they mean "twenty years AFTER Zelphie became known as a hero," especially since Kumo's third story calls him "The man known as the Virtuous King 20 years ago" and the fourth calls him "The man treated as a hero for the last 40 years." (Both stories are in Update 08, by the way.)
I'm not sure where Aeritz and Kumo versus Zelphie happens on the timeline, but if he became a hero forty years before that fight, and he became a king twenty years after he became a king, then Aeritz probably kept to his promise and met him again after 19 years... Which means that Zelphie kicked their asses when he was about 79 years old and had spent the last 16 years as a mad king. Combined with Nana's age in the Zelphie Glossary entry, that suggests Aeritz and Kumo spent a year or two on The Island at most.
He's still in his early 80s, though. That might undermine my "everyone (except possibly Camil) goes to beat up Zelphie" epilogue theory, but... Eh, 79, 81, difference is probably minimal.
(The bit about how the story "spread through the continent as a proverb about the importance of keeping your word" is really dark, in light of the whole insane tyrant period. I imagine they probably wanted a great hero who could slay Zelphie, and resented Aeritz for not living up to that.)
The end of Zelphie's life is sad precisely because there's never any real reason given for it. He was a hero, he became a king, he grew old, he went insane; there's never any reason to think it was something other than a sudden tragic stroke of bad luck. That book won't be the way he's remembered.
There's also one last thing in His Memory. Sadly, the game doesn't count any stats achieved during the battle itself--Camil's 1005 damage attack went completely unnoticed.
By the way, while we're here... In light of that fight just now, and the fact that these three doors contain Zelphie Eluonto's three greatest tools? It's safe to say that he's the "His" of "His Memory." So apparently Camil is sneaking into Zelphie's memories and pilfering all of his techniques and stats. And all she needed to do this was the power she started with and a single dirty mirror.
Camil was a terrifying reality warper before I turned her into a god of combat. Here's hoping she doesn't also get Zelphie's mental illness. (Or that she retains the presence of mind to use Destiny's Defeat on it, because she can probably do that.)
(Man, Camil is so bullshit.)
The Starcaller is the final weapon of the game, and as you'd expect, it's also the most powerful... The most powerful by a lot, actually, especially with how levels on items work.
For reference, the Long Sword is the second-strongest Attack boost in both categories, and it gives +105 and +60 at base level. The Starcaller gives +160 Attack, 24 Range, and +12 Critical as a weapon and +90 Attack, +2 Defense, -2 to magic damage taken, and +10 Critical as an All-Purpose. Fully leveled, the Starcaller gives an insane 256 Attack.
It is, as with all superweapons, held back only by the fact you now have nothing to use it on.
Next time: ...or is there?
Annihilation Record:
Annihilation count:37
No new entries.
Battle Record:
2014/04/30/ 19:00:08
Demon King Chronicle
■Battle results
Playtime:23:29:22
Save count:225
Steps taken:113057
Battle count:1390
Max damage:
Max damage taken:605
Items:52 Types 143 Items
Turns to defeat Last Boss：53(Best Record53)
Turns to defeat Hidden Boss：40(Best Record40)
■Treasure Chests
The Nest: 8/8
Demon King's Castle: 26/26
The Hamlet: 31/31
The Snow Fields: 20/20
The Dragon Mountain: 6/6
Sands of Remembrance: 26/26
The Tower: 11/11
The Seashore: 12/12
The Mirage: 10/10
Leviathan Depths: 5/5
The Disease: 20/20
The Imagination: 32/32
Cave Chronicle: 46/46
Unmapped area: 10/10
■Camil(46)
HP:243
SP:85
Attack:330
Defense:95
Range:64
Critical:44
Skill:132
Agility:77
・Dagger(3)
・Mask of Determination(3)
・Aegis(3)
・Zara Mantle (3)
・Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark(3)
■Randolf(46)
HP:205
SP:101
Attack:357
Defense:200
Range:8
Critical:14
Skill:181
Agility:80
・Long Sword(3)
・Cordelia(3)
・Delusion Cocoon(3)
・Varnished Bird Wing(3)
・Black Ladybug(3)
■(42)
HP:200
SP:80
Attack:202
Defense:152
Range:15
Critical:26
Skill:75
Agility:81
・Rat Slayer(2)
・Three-Legged Frog(3)
・Helm(3)
・Footfalls of Hope(3)
・Parts(3)
■Top 10 defeats
Rat(301)
Green Mud Man(178)
Conflict(160)
Toothy Piranha(157)
Mermaid(143)
Deformity(98)
Abominable Snow Monkey(97)
Monkey(90)
Wake-Eater(89)
Merman(84)
Glossary:
(Unlocked by reading the book in Death Rat House)
■Zelphie Eluonto
Though approaching 60 years old, the infamous
Hero managed to slice the book being stolen
by the thief clean in two with a speed that
human eyes could not follow.
In awe of such an amazing technique,
the thief fell right where he stood.
Even with such amazing power,
he could tell that he was about to
fall into a normal "Preachy Grandpa" mode,
so Aeritz cuts him short
with the following claim.
"This may be the extent of my ability now,
but in 19 years I'll be the one the people
call Hero, Mr. Great Hero."
(*This was 20 years before Zelphie Eluonto
became known as a Hero to the people.
This is a very famous episode,
and spread through the continent as a proverb
about the importance of keeping your word.)
Zelphie was pleased to hear such a claim
and promised to meet him again in 19 years.
With that he let the thief go.
The thief took one half of the
sliced book ad quickly ran away.
Watching from the corner, Zelphie's
grand daughter picked up the
other half of the book. Though it was only
half as thick as the part the thief had held,
the 3 year old girl became
very interested in it.
----
Only 3 years after the two promised to meet
again, the Hero was beset by a strange
illness and lost his sanity. There was no one
that could stop the murderous rampage of the
Hero who controlled most of the continent.