Part 56: Stratum 2: Rapture Part 1

It is said that in Besek there is a flying mountain where the judge of the heavens dwells.
- excerpt, Legends of Besek, Vol I

Hallelujah

We reached the heights of the sky today.



Retica is doing quite… poorly.

Video- “Rapture Lead In”

Click For Video

Don’t give up on me now, you useless body!
I still have things to take care of!
DAMMIT!
It looks like he’s reaching his limit.
He’ll be fine.
Thage, what are you thinking?
That boy is concealing something.
Oh? How can YOU judge him?
Hm?

But at least I can be reasonably sure he won’t turn on me.



I am hiding nothing.
So you say…
Thage, now isn’t the time for this.
And we’re wasting more time babysitting the runt.
I don’t share your opinions.
What are you saying…!?
Thage! Raki! I saw some Majin ahead!
Kid…
Wh-What!?
Nothing. Let’s move.

Even in a place like this the Majin are everywhere.

Video- “Rapture Part 1”

Click For Video with Commentary



Ally Team:
This map provides us with an interesting situation, because we have a chest here that only a Thiefler can reach. I’m not going to start with one out, though, I’m going to fill that slot with a Sprite at first and summon the Thiefler later. Komori sits for the Majin, since he’s least useful.

Enemy Team:
We’ve got a really sort of nasty group of Majin here, there’s a big Thiefler to steal the chests, two of the strongest Sprites, three Dawnwalkers, and two newer, stronger Aethon.



This Aethon has a stronger attack and is more resistant to the things it’s resistant to. Fire and Pierce attacks are your best bet against it, and you need to be careful for its really brutal spear attacks.

Deployment:



We deploy as far to the left as possible, I’d like to stop the Thiefler from stealing that chest if I can.

Tactical Objectives:
- Get as many chests as we can.

Map:



How many times are you gonna ask me that?
Hmph, looks like the kid is growing a backbone.
Maybe you’re so cautious toward me because…
YOU’RE the one who’s scared.
Enough.
That door… Let’s drag the Majin out from behind it.
Understood.
Even if I say no, you’d do it anyhow, huh? Alright then.

We start out by rushing Raki towards the chest. This was the first mistake. I should have ceded that chest and started with a Thiefler out to just immediately secure the near chest. I underestimate how badly Raki is going to get smacked around by the Majin on this map.



You dare command ME!?
Grrrrrrrrrr…

Raki catches a brutal Light Attack from the Sprite and a spear strike from the Aethon, nearly killing him outright. If he’d died, I definitely would have just restarted the map. I fire back with brutal force, Cursing the Aethon with a Malus IV and then Bleeding it with a led action from Raki. The Dawnwalker in the middle engages now, but its only targets for its Sacra II are Sprite and Thage. The trick of this is that Sprite resists Light, so it thinks it can harm Thage more and casts on her even though she’s got Negate. I get some heals on Raki and some brutal hammer blows on the Dawnwalker, then land a Bleed on the Sprite with Raki. The goal here is to get a lot of status spread around so the Sprite is forced to cure instead of healing or attacking, and this works perfectly. It actually cures the Aethon instead of itself, and I end up killing the Aethon trying to wear it down to near death. Sadly, I’m just not able to reach the chest in time and the Stiletto rapier inside is stolen.



I don’t… know the Eternal Poison.
What? I know it’s here… It can’t just be a rumor.

I take out the loss on the middle Dawnwalker, sending it to hell with Thage’s magic. I push Raki up to try and get some attacks on the Thiefler, not realizing that the Sprite’s Longsword can reach from the upper level. This proves a costly mistake, and it brutally chops him with a Light Attack. I send my Sprite to hit the Thiefler, not expecting what’s about to happen to Raki. The Dawnwalker on this path then whacks him with a Sacra II, which Slows him. Now is when I kick myself, because he’s not going to get to act in time to pull back and it’s going to be hard to heal him enough to let him survive another Light Attack. If I’d healed him he’d be okay, nobody to blame but myself. Still, between Thage’s magic and a brutal hammerblow from Alexei the Thiefler does go down, and Alexei even levels up.



Alexei gets Bonecrusher here. It’s his unique move, and it’s like Fracture Attack with a huge attack bonus added on. Anyway, Raki does sadly fall here, but the Sprite runs away afterwards as it’s almost dead. This lets me pull everyone back together and prepare for a new push on the Majin. A barrage of blows from the party followed by a Malus spell from Thage is the end for the Dawnwalker. I should have summoned the Thiefler now, but I wanted to see if it was possible to directly fly from the top level to the chest (it’s not).



N-No!
I’m… I’m not…!

We push up top to take on the Sprite that ran away, it comes back at us and quickly falls to a slash from Ares followed by a hammer strike from Alexei.



Hmph, it watches us, and it waits.
It could be out of cowardice…
It could be he’s planning his strategy…

We summon up Thiefler now and keep moving forward. I quickly figure out that Thiefler can’t do what I was hoping and start sending it the long way around, he lasts a million turns so it’s no big thing. As we keep moving forward the other Sprite also engages. We Bleed it with Ares, shoot it with Retica, pierce it with Alexei, then finally blast it out of the park with Thage. Then we quickly scoop it up, because the Aethon on this side is coming now as well. When it gets there Alexei unleashes the Bonecrusher on it, doing massive damage and Fracturing it. After throwing a bit more into it I try to finish it off with a Malus spell from Thage, but I end up using a rank that’s just a bit too low to Overkill. I do get a level for her, though.



Behold the ruination of worlds, folks. We’ve got five casts of Malusphere, which is like Pyro III but an area of effect. This will absolutely destroy anything that’s not resistant to Darkness, and it’s why this class is so damn awesome. If we wanted five Maluspheres on anyone else we’d need to sacrifice Doom Shade like five times.



(I’m human, I’m human, I’m human, I’m human.)
(I’m… a human…)

Now we’ve just got an item to steal and a Dawnwalker to kill. We work to drag the Dawnwalker down bit by bit to scrape out as much experience as possible. Meanwhile Thiefler reaches the chest, which has a Silk robe in it. More importantly, this robe has the Cast Speed I skill on it, which reduces the speed penalty for our next action after we cast. That’s going on Thage immediately. We end up finishing the job on Dawnwalker with a Thage/Ares combo, getting Ares a level. And that’s all she wrote.

Battle Result:

Levels:
Thage 19->20
Alexei 14->15
Ares 13->14

Majin:
Dawnwalker Lv 14 x 3
Sprite Lv 14 x 2
Thiefler Lv 16 x 1

Gold:
5000

The Count’s rumor proved accurate.



The fall of the Falsin has been decided.
Before you disappear into the wind, hear my name.

The filthy corpse dragged itself out of the door to face us.





Grief escapes the body so effortlessly…
And my wrath shall be the final refrain.
Are you the one they say is made of pure wisdom?
Standing in our way doesn’t seem very wise, to me…
The heavens, free of impurity, reflect in Izel.
Become one with my power, and reign over the skies forever.
We don’t have time for your sermon.
Haste is but a pattern of youth’s impertinence.
My dream is a gem, shattered and wanting of hope.
Do you think this Majin will fit into Camelia?

Some rotten antique saint is no threat at all, though.
- recovered text fragments