Part 116: The Demon of Lies
Chapter 84 - The Demon of Lies
Music - "Bitva"
Download (Thanks to Grawl)
Previously on Divine Divinity:
What is the Sword of Lies? Why is it so powerful?
Hirixixix. That toy of death most dangerous thing in world, Marked One, or so I am guess. All know it the sword that Archmage Ulthring wield at Battle of the Damned - when Lord of Chaos banished to Hell and army of evil wizards called the Damned all slaughtered.
Yes, Zandalor told me that story too.
But I know old imp fable. Lord of Chaos made that sword for Ulthring. Put a little bit of his soul into the making of it. Ulthring dead at Battle of Damned, but great hero Ralph, who kill Ulthring, took sword. It never heard of again. But I thinking that if sword still exists, it is link to big bad God: Lord of Chaos. Bad folk may use it to call him back from Hell. Then we all die screaming.
Janus, the son of the old duke, has found an ancient artifact called the Sword of Lies. In this weapon lurks a tiny portion of the enemy of us all: the Lord of Chaos. That foul fragment of spirit has, I am sure, possessed and consumed the poor weak soul of Duke Janus. By creating war, discord and chaos, the Black Ring feed the demon spirit in Janus' unholy sword. Soon, the spirit of Chaos in the Sword of Lies will be strong enough to open a gateway to Hell. Then the sundered soul of the Lord of Chaos will be rejoined, here in Rivellon. If that happens, none can guess the outcome. At best, we will all be conquered and enslaved by the minions of Hell. At worst, the whole world may be returned to Primal Chaos: the endless, starless night that was here before the coming of the Gods.
As we suspected, the son of the old duke is no more. The Demon of Lies took possession of the boy's body the moment he touched the cursed sword. It used Janus' position to further its evil aims. Once it deemed chaos was powerful enough, it cast off its human shell and assumed its foul, natural form. That creature is a small par of the soul of the Lord of Chaos, the evil god of the fables. The Demon of Lies is trying to reunite itself with the rest of Chaos' foul spirit. If it succeeds, we are all doomed! I fear the Black Ring is about to achieve their goal. Arhu and I have desperately tried to block them, but they have grown too powerful now that the demon of the sword is free. If they complete the execution of their plans, all will be lost. Hell and Chaos will triumph! If this Lord of Chaos was beaten before, we can beat him again! If they incarnate him into a mortal body, Lord Chaos' powers will be tremendous, unimaginable! He could enslave the world with his magics, or fully open the gates of Hell to allow all the demons and every damned soul loose on the troubled land, or he might simply destroy everything and return the universe to Primal Chaos. I believe that the conditions are now right for his coming, and the Black Ring will waste little time summoning him. But I am the Divine One - the Good Gods' chosen avatar! You cannot imagine the powers I discovered in the Land of the Dead. I will settle with this Lord of Chaos and set the entire world to rights! Nay! Surrounded by his minions and assisted by the Demon of Lies, you will be no match for him. Our only hope lies in preventing his summoning. How can I stop the Black Ring? You must reach the Dungeon of the Black Lake, their base of power, and you must stop them from completing their foul ritual.Chapter 84 - The Demon of Lies
9 Apirus 1219
Was this what all the sacrifices had been for? My friends, the people I'd helped? My sister?! I returned from the dead, for THIS?!
In a way it was almost liberating. My failure had removed all the burdens and all of the weight from my shoulders. All cares and worries had dwindled to mere sparks in my heart. It was all gone, all of it. At that moment, there was only one thing at all which mattered to me. Revenge.
"About the Game" posted:
Yeah, after going through all 5 very long fortresses, slaughtering hundreds of trash monsters, you fail. All that's left is to run in and confront the Demon of Lies.
Or at least, how it should be. No, the game isn't done making you suffer.
Someone decided to make the Demon of Lies' fortress shaped like a ram skull, so after the player is at their lowest point, you need to fight your way from the entrance to one of the horns to flip a switch, then trudge all the way back to the entrance, and then go the other way, fighting all the way to the other horn to flip a SECOND switch.
It's not hard, (although it is tedious, it took me like 14 minutes to make the complete trip while killing everything), my problem is that by the time you get to that, YOU'VE ALREADY FAILED. It's all over but the end of the world, but you STILL need to do a bullshit switch hunt, and only after all that do you get to face the boss.
Well, Fuck. That. That's just rubbing salt into the fucking wound. So do you know what? I'm cutting that out. No one wants to see screenshots of that.
I did however, put together a video. I removed all the audio and replaced it with music which was cut from the game. If you want to watch 14 minutes of me kicking assand swapping spells on the fly seamlessly, watch that video and listen to the music.
Video: Jeremiah's Rampage
(Youtube)
Nothing was going to stand in my way anymore. Nothing.
I raced to the entrance of the fortress, this one was maybe even bigger than all the others.
But it was also the simplest. I sensed the demon straight ahead, in a room at the end of a long corridor.
It was time to make it pay for everything it had done.
"About the Game" posted:
Let's just take a look at Jeremiah's stats again.
I am fully equipped and loaded with charms - except for the Sword of the Gods, which I left 4 slots empty in case I wanted to pump it full of agility-boosting or strength-boosting charms so I could actually hit things in melee.
My stats when naked are:
Strength: 70
Agility: 30 (50 if you count the +20 Finnegan's magic lockpicks)
Intelligence: 177
Constitution: 25
With my gear and buffs, I have
Strength: +59
Agility: +63 (+43)
Intelligence: +145
Constitution: +49
The percentage bonus from Heaven's Blessing shows up the best on your highest attribute, in Jeremiah's case, that naturally is Intelligence.
I took off all my equipment and took screenshots of my skill points.
The total, including the 6 unspent is 175 skill points.
I am level 52. Subtract 51 skill points for leveling up. Subtract 2 skill points for the skills you started off with. Subtract 10 skill points for the bonus you get every five levels. That's 63 skill points accounted for naturally.
That leaves 112 SKILL POINTS you get as quest rewards or from spellbooks. Maybe 20 of those are quest reward points. Maybe another 20 are from pre-placed spellbooks. That's at least 72 spellbooks I found from save-reloading at bookshelves.
...
Yeah, I'd say I'm overpowered.
Approximate Kill Count for Black Lake Dungeon:
I stepped into the room as a dangerous, barely contained inferno of anger, ready to unleash onto the Demon of Lies. I could sense it's smugness from across the room, and that just infuriated me even more.
You are too late! I have completed the summoning of the Chaos Lord! Now I will eat your living heart!When that didn't get a response from me, the demon paused and cruelly added
It is a pity... just a few hours earlier and you could have seen me consume your sister's heart as it beat its last.My heart froze.
No... not her too... not after all this... I was so close, so close and I lose everything now.
Stop it! He's just trying to make you lose control. An angry enemy is reckless and careless, easier to dispatch. Yes... that's right... You're... you're lying!!Then the hellspawn spoke in her voice.
No! Please get away! Help me! Jeremiah! Please help! NOOOOOOOO!!I gladly let the last shreds of my control fall away.
In many of the ancient tales I'd read, usually the hero is supposed to say something clever, or witty, or heroic. All I could manage were incoherent screams of fury.
The demon laughed and charged as well.
Video: FINAL BOSS: The Demon of Lies (Voice-Acting)
I wanted its death to be slow and painful. I slowed down time, just as it finished summoning in reinforcements.
It was a clone of itself - weaker, but still dangerous. Good. I'd get to kill the bastard at least twice.
Naturally, being a demon, it cheated. A summoned entity wasn't supposed to be able to summon things itself!
The demon and its clone were so powerful that I couldn't get a sense of their abilities or weaknesses, but it bellowed in pain when I mutilated its foot with a blazing elemental strike. Good. No immunities to elemental damage was one less thing to worry about, I could focus on killing it. Painfully.
This fight was between me and the Demon. I banished it and its clone back into non-existence.
The demon was powerful, but without its minions, I stood a chance to defeat it. But it realized that as well.
BURN...
The blasted thing could summon multiple clones at once! But I realized it was getting weaker. It was trying to distract me.
The time for distractions was over. It was time to finish this. For Jenna. For me. For everyone.
The Demon gave another bellow, and lost control of its summons, which disintegrated back into dust. It tried to retreat back to the altar. I pursued the abomination, and I drove the Sword of the Gods deep into its scaly belly, and then pulled it out.
Video: The Demon of Lies is defeated
The demon's chaos magic exploded from the body uncontrolled.
I had to step back as the floor beneath the demon crumbled.
In its death throes, the Demon of Lies released a burst of chaos magic which created a portal to Hell beneath it.
Energy arced all around as the demon's corpse shriveled and fell into the pit.
I suddenly realized how exhausted I was. I had been on the move for almost a full day, with no sleep and little food or water, and I'd been fighting all that time. My mind was numb from all the mental exertion. I wanted to sleep.
The Sword of Lies still hung there, over the pit to Hell, held in place by magical bindings.
Then Sword spoke to me.
Jeremiah... Take me, Jeremiah.
Take me. 
I can give you such power. Incredible power. The sword was indeed very powerful... more power than I had on my own.
An army of the Black Ring is still out there. And there are many demons still stalking the lands. Hundreds of people. Thousands of Demons. I knew this to be true. The sword... it was making sense...
It will be long work killing them all. Killing them all. It would be a long and bloody struggle to defeat the armies still present. I'd only seen a fraction of their numbers.
If you think you're powerful now, imagine if we combined our power. Combine our power. But with the power of the sword at my disposal...
I started drawing the sword to me, slowly.
Together, we could save them all. Save them all. Yes... with the power... I could save them.
You could save her. Save Penumbra. I could save her.
Then I stopped drawing the sword to me.
A glimmer of memory had pierced my mental fog. There was something I had to remember about the sword... what was it?
You want to save her, don't you? You have to save her. It was on the tip of my mind, elusive... it was hard to think... I tried to fight through my exhaustion.
With our powers combined, we could wipe away those demons in days, not months. Days, not months. The sword... don't listen to the sword.
With effort, I pushed aside the sword's hypnotic words. The sword continued floating towards me anyway, seemingly on its own.
You could save hundreds of lives. Hundreds. Isn't that what you're here for? You're here to save lives. Take me. Hurry, take me! It's the only way. No... it isn't.
I dispelled the magic holding the sword up.
It fell into the pit to Hell.
I shuddered to think how close I had come to taking the sword. It had only taken a few seconds for me to realize what was happening, but it felt longer.
There was a great shuddering as the Sword hit somewhere below. I nearly fell into the pit.
The immediate threat had been destroyed. But there was still one thing left to deal with... my niece or nephew, also known as the Damned One, the new vessel for the Lord of Chaos.