Part 39: Episode XXVII: In Which We Learn the Dangers of Karaoke

Episode XXVII: In Which We Learn the Dangers of Karaoke

Verse 4: Two and Cent
Music: Nethernox



Here we are at last at the Shrine of Sands. Time to get down to business in our sibling murder quest.



We're not wasting any time pulling out the big guns by mounting Mikhail and wrecking house. I mean, come on now. Two is a perfectly nice, pleasant person whose only fault is being a bit naively optimistic. She is in a stable, loving relationship with her disciple with no weird sexual hang-ups or kinks between the two. In her spare time she comes up with cuisine using meat from monsters wandering the desert to help better feed people living in the harsh desert climate. And she takes care of fucking war orphans like they're her own children, just out of the goodness of her heart.

She cannot exist in Drakengard's universe. Blood must flow!



But before our objective to murder the only perfectly nice, altruistic Intoner sister thus far gets underway... There's still the matter of Two's elite guard. Fifty soldiers will defend Two's inner sanctum to the last man and must be dealt with before we proceed.

Given the presence of a dragon with a psychotic songstress regularly caked in the blood of her enemies on its back... It doesn't go well for them.



Yep.
If you're scared, we can totally turn back!
Nope.
Don't retreat. Never retreat!
It's Zero, the black swan of falsehoods!
She'll rue the day she challenged Lady Two!
No! I'm scared! Get me off the front line!
Hang in there. If we die, we die together! Hold your ground. We're Lady Two's last vanguard.
Yeah! It's time to show her our invincible iron fist!
We must keep our beloved Lady Two safe!
<belches fire>
<AGONIZING SHRIEKS>

Forty dead Imperial soldiers later...



We were about to die of exhaustion out there.
They were using a song to put up some kind of magic wall. I couldn't get in until you beat up the bad guys. But I made sure to do my business before I came for you! And I covered it in sand just like you taught me! That's good, right? That's really good!
<sigh> Uggh...



RIP the last remaining soldiers left in The Land of Sands. You know if some invading force from the west decided to roll in right about now it would be a bad scene for Midgard right around now. Who knows what kind of jerks are hanging out in Drakengard Asia. They don't have to worry about the north, at least. The Byzantine Empire got lit the fuck up by dragons a couple hundred years ago in Drakengard's timeline. Yes this is an actual event that happened.



Beyond the first large, empty chamber of the shrine is a massive arena like area with nothing but a great pit in the center. Alright, so Zero after you unlock the shady ladder thief NPC and get him to build you the second tier ladder. Then you're going to need to save up about 13,400 souls and go hit up the talking cat merchant for the fall damage reducing ring. Strip down all your armor and wea--





...Wait wrong game. We have a dragon here... Fall damage in video games is for jerks.







At least these fools weren't hard to find. It'd be funny if one of the Intoner sisters just took off to one of the previous regions and hung out there. Zero would never find them. She already did that area. It's nonsense to ever need to go back!





<concerned glance at Two> .....



Lady Two is a tad exhausted at the moment. I, uh... _{Heh heh heh.} Well, what can I say? I guess my physical gifts speak for themselves. You know, I actually try to make sure she enjoys our little liaisons just as--
TWO!



<briefly looks at Zero>
..... <zones out again>



Lady Two is lost in her dreams right now. Perhaps you could try not to interrupt.
...Her mind's gone, isn't it. She wasn't fully developed. Her body couldn't handle the power of her song.



Hand her over. I'll end her suffering.
Yeeeah. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Do you have any idea what you're doing?
Tch. Well, of course I don't! Hmph. Duh! I mean, look--I'm just some idiot old disciple, after all. It's pretty simple, really. All I do is put my nose to the grindstone and follow orders.



.....
You really are an idiot.







Aaaaaaaah.



Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Behold the second song: Great Fist of Antiquity!





AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!










Cent, you put on a good hype man show follow-up after Octa's unwilling participation last chapter. But we've already seen what you're summoning. Just sayin', it's a bit much effort for a known act.

New Music: Blissade - Egregori (You should listen to this!)





In case you've forgotten, it is these neon blue twin jerks that kidnapped Mikhail the end of the previous chapter. Nobody gets to abuse our dumb baby dragon except for Zero. Time for some payback.



Meet, properly this time, the Egregori twins. Egregori is a transliteration from Greek of "The Grigori" which is just straight up "The Watchers". The Watchers were a group of angels set to earth to well... watch over those dopey humans doing their thing. Turns out sending lackeys to be creepy stalker types of women folk is a bad fucking idea! Even if you are God.

And thus The Watchers went and got drunk and started knocking up human women (which produced pissy rebel teenager giant offspring called Nephilim) and teaching everyone else cool party tricks like sorcery and how to make sweet blades for knife fights and all sorts of rowdy business. God came home from work early one weekend and saw all the kids had trashed the place and SHIT he wasn't going to get the security deposit back if things were in this state. This still being Old Testament not fucking about God, that whole Great Flood thing happened and yadda yadda.

I think that's roughly how it went. Anyway, these two glow stick looking assholes have nothing to do with any of that.



Oh? But Lady Two thinks they're much more useful than plain old gourds.
Oh--trivia time! Do you know why some gourds are narrow in the middle? So they can rearrange their nutrients halfway down the fruit! It's SCIENCE! Wah-chaaa!
Stop pretending you know what you're talking about, idiot!
Idiot? Mmm, yeah. Ruude. Now, I'm a kind-hearted man, so I'm usually willing to forgive such insults... But that was really uncalled for. Wasn't it, Lady Two?
An idiot's an idiot. And Two lost her soul because she believed all the idiot crap you spouted. That makes her the biggest idiot of all.
ENOUGH! You will STOP belittling my lady at ONCE!



So the Egregori twins. Despite getting an entire chapter early introduction, these two are... extraordinarily simple. The only thing they have going in their favor is the fact there are two of 'em to contend with. Well that and those lousy glowing candy cane pillars on the perimeter of the arena are very easy to both accidentally fly into, as well as completely make the camera get caught and crap itself.





These guys have exactly two attacks. The first is a Stretch Armstrong-esque arm punch technique. This attack reaches across the entire arena. But much like Indian Yoga masters, once the elastic arm is put into play they are committed to where it was directed toward. Like most dummy fire projectiles, keep moving and it's easy to avoid.



The secondary attack of our armored blue friends is, of course, a laser cannon. EVERYONE in Angel town gets a laser cannon. This one also can go the entire length of the arena and does so in front of where the Egregori is facing along a vertical slice upward. So only slightly more troublesome to avoid than elastic arm antics.



The primary issue of this battle is the fact these two overgrown bug zappers are covered in armor that deflects Mikhail's fireballs. That is always going to be an issue with fire breathing dragons. Luckily, Zero has done enough abuse to Mikhai's head over the course of the adventure to harden his thick skull to the point it has no issue shattering the metal plating bit-by-bit. Five or six good headbutts to an Egregori will be more than enough to tear the beast down to its birthday suit.



Yeah, 'cause we're attack it!
Oh, my. If it loses it all, this will be bad. Very, very bad...
Fighting two of these at once is rough.
Maybe we can all be friends instead!
Doubt it.
Hey, Zero? What's wrong with Two, anyway?
She fought her own powers and lost. You need a strong mind to withstand the power of a song. She didn't have it.
So she's just sick, right? Can we cure her? Huh? Can we?
No. And besides, I'm trying to kill her here!







Once an Egregori is stripped down to nothing it also shrinks down to a third of its height and begins fleeing in terror. It's kind of adorable. Too bad this is the time to light that sonuvabitch on fire and which him burn.





There is about a thirty second window where the little guy will try his darnedest to escape Zero's wrath before it regenerates its armor. If we're really quick and perhaps pop Intoner mode at a key time to get in some good licks, it is possible to take down an Egregori in one round. But it is usually a two round affair to finish it off.







After the first of the twins bites the dust, the battle might as well be over. The survivor doesn't get any dramatic second form or desperate enraged mode upgrade where it dishes out more damage. It doesn't even get as little as an extra back-end of battle attack. We just simply have to deal with a single target instead of a pair.



And that takes care of that. Egregori is defeated. Now just to take care of that twit Cent and taking Two off life support, so to speak. Stay tuned.








Video: Chapter 4 Verse 4 Highlight Reel


Video: Egregori Boss Battle



Egregori Concept Art - Somewhere out there an armorer is making a killing since these Intoner broads took over the land.



Egregori Battle Concept Art - This fight would likely be somewhat more problematic had it been Zero on foot.