Part 116: Scylla

Update 25: Scylla





A traditional eastern dish, kabutoyaki. It's quite a piece of work.
...Kabuto...yaki?
Around the duchy we tend to throw this part away, but in the hands of Apicius, it turns into a delicacy.
I don't really get it... but I can tell that Apicius was a great man.
I see... Kabutoyaki... We do not have a tradition of cooking those in my country. Sir Knight, what do you think?



Sounds delicious.
...I-Is that so? You seem to be very inquisitive when it comes to food.
I am... a bit hesitant to eat a grilled kabuto beetle.

It's a bit cruel.
Y-Yes, you agree, don't you!? It's a bit cruel to cook a kabuto beetle.

Dialogue merges here.

Uhhh, Arianna. Just in case you didn't know, kabutoyaki is a broiled fish head. It has nothing to do with the insect.
...Huh?
...Hm?
O-Oh... Is that so. I completely thought it was an insect dish... That was quite embarrassing.
But still... It does look a bit cruel, either way...
It's a fish head cooked whole, after all...
...Despite its looks, it tastes great. I'll add it to the menu, so order it whenever you feel like it.



Yeah, the chance of waking up sleeping enemies has decreased. What an understatement. What this actually means is that when you attack a sleeping enemy, the chance of waking them up is 25%! Also physical attacks still get a damage boost when attacking sleeping enemies, so that's a pretty powerful food right there. Certainly makes the upcoming boss' conditional easier to grab.



I just finished it. Eat up while it's hot.
Oden? ...That like a pot-au-feu?
Well, the broth is different, but you can consider the basis the same. It's a traditional dish in an eastern country, but using mustard as a condiment is another resemblance.
Hmm... It's interesting for dishes from completely different countries to have such similarities...
The way food is prepared varies greatly, but sometimes you get these coincidences. ...The desire to eat delicious foods is something that is the same for all countries, huh.



Exactly.
I'm sure Apicius made this recipe in search of delicacies here in this once-poor country.

Really?
I can't say for sure since I haven't been to every country, but I'd like to think so.

Dialogue merges here.

Tasty things are good things. That's a fact. Chloe approves.
*chuckle* Thanks. Alright, I'll put this on the menu, so order it again. I'll be waiting.



Useless. I really don't know what the devs are trying to tell us what we're supposed to use imbues for.



I just finished it. Eat up while it's hot.
*huf*... *huf* *huf*...
Dame Chloe, you'll spill your food eating so hastily like that.
But... it's so good.
I'm surprised that it's so delicious, even though it's not meat!
You're right... The crab flavoring mixes with each grain of rice, and the pleasant-smelling tea is in complete harmony...
...Yeah, this old man's satisfied. Good work, kid.
That comment makes me happy, but... the both of you are spilling way too much.



Warn Chloe:

But you're supposed to eat hot things while they're hot.
Well, you're right about that. You just need to get better at eating it...

Warn Bertrand:

...Huh? Hold on a sec. Let me just finish this... *huf*... *huf*... *siiip*...
......

Spill your chasuke:

Huh!? Wh-What's wrong? Are you not hot? You've spilled some tea onto yourself.
Knight, calm down.
Look who's talking, Chloe. You guys...

Dialogue merges here.

...Looking at this, it seems this dish does not do well with manners.
It's just that their way of eating it is wrong.
Pouring tea onto the dish and eating is a custom from another culture. It isn't improper, so don't worry.
I see. Then... I shall eat as well!
I'll add this to the menu, so order it if you feel like eating it.



Grimoire chances have a 40% chance of being converted into an Enemy Chance. Enemy skills in EO2U are much less useful than the ones you could get in EOU. There are only 4 major exceptions I can think of since most of the good ones from EOU either aren't in this game at all, or just flat out got nerfed.



I just finished it. Eat up while it's hot.
Huh? The egg shell's on the plate. ...It'll just get in the way.



It makes it look better.
I understand, Sir Knight! It is quite cute, as if the food has spilled from the egg, right?
It looks like a failed attempt at cracking the egg open to me...
How rude. And let me tell you: that shell is edible.
What? I've never heard of an egg shell you can eat.

It actually can be eaten.
Alright, then try eating it. And don't tell me you can't.



...... ......! It is crunchy and sweet!



Dialogue merges here.

That is thanks to the forest ingredients. But flavoring it with the oil when frying makes it edible.
...Interesting.
But even knowing that, it still takes a lot of courage to eat it...
Ha. Once you taste it, you won't have that problem. I'll add it to the menu, so take your time eating.



Increases Arm bind resistance by 80%. Handy.

Okay, that's all the food we can cook for now. Let's head back to the 3rd Stratum. Here's the last audio only conversation that can play there.

So much snow. Amazing.
Oh, is snow a special treat for you Dame Chloe?
Mmhm. It doesn't snow much where I lived. It doesn't get this thick.
Then you should visit Caledonia. This forest is beautiful, I'll grant. But the open fields are splendid with glittering snow are quite a sight as well.
A whole field of this? Amazing.



The quiver that runs through your entire being is the same sensation you feel when you gain new power.

...Something really intense is through here.
Yeah. I can tell from here that it's dangerous. Knight? You think this is the one we're after...?

In answer to your friend's serious question, you nod silently. If you think yourself prepared to stand up to the threat beyond this door, then throw it open and face your adversary!





Though the view is breathtaking, you see that you are not alone here...



It's... quite sizable.





H-Hey, it's up to something!
Is it ready to face us?

Any fears or doubts you harbor will get you no closer to your goal... If you are prepared to fight the monster, then draw your weapons and challenge it to battle!













Here's my setup for this fight. The upcoming boss fight is one of the biggest roadblocks in the game, but fortunately, it tends to be the final roadblock for most parties, including the Story party. Once you get past this boss, it's smooth sailing from there. Now the room has 4 ice blocks, and slamming all 4 of them into the boss will reduce her HP by 40%, which is something you really want to do! Also it lets you get a preemptive attack on her.





Scylla
Level: 42
HP: 23700
STR: 39
TEC: 38
VIT: 34
AGI: 31
LUC: 35
Skills:

• Cry Soul: Uses the head. Deals 5-8 instances of 400% melee STR-based Cut damage to random targets. Can hit the same target multiple times. Has a 30% speed modifier and base accuracy of 1.
  
• Ice Shave: Uses the legs. Deals 180% ranged TEC-based Ice damage to one row. Has a 70% speed modifier and 130 base accuracy.
  
• Piercing Shell: Uses the arms. Deals two instances of 110% melee STR-based Stab damage to random targets. Can hit the same target multiple times. Has a 90% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
  
• Lullaby: Uses the head. Attempts to inflict sleep on each party member, with a 70% base chance. Has a 70% speed modifier.
  
• Six Sins: Uses the legs. Attempts to inflict blind, paralysis, and panic on one party member, with a 25% base chance. Has an 80% speed modifier.
  
• Call Ally: Summons one or two Ruin Creepers, depending on when Scylla uses it, at the end of the turn.
  

Damage resistances:
100% 100% 100% 125% 50% 100%
Disable resistances:
50% 25% 25% 25% 50% 25% 25%
0% 0% 10%
25% 25% 25%

Oh boy, the fight against Scylla pretty much has every single problem with EO2U's boss fights in it. Let's take a look at her attack pattern to see what I mean.

• Turn 1: Cry Soul
  
• Turn 2: Ice Shave, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 3: Attack or Piercing Shell
  
• Turn 4: Ice Shave, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 5: Attack or Piercing Shell
  
• Turn 6: Cry Soul
  
• Turn 7: Ice Shave, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 8: Attack or Piercing Shell, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 9: Attack or Piercing Shell, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 10: Attack, Piercing Shell, or Ice Shave, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 11: Lullaby
  
• Turn 12: Cry Soul
  
• Turn 13: Ice Shave, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 14: Six Sins, summons 2 Ruin Creepers at end of turn
  
• Turn 15: Piercing Shell, summons 1 Ruin Creeper at end of turn
  
• Turn 16: Attack, Piercing Shell, or Ice Shave, summons 2 Ruin Creepers at end of turn
  
• Turn 17: Lullaby
  
• Turn 18: Cry Soul
  
• Turn 19 until death: Repeats turns 13-18 actions, except will always summon 2 Ruin Creepers instead of 1

If you got a preemptive attack on her, move her first four turns down one turn. The attack pattern goes back to normal on turn 6. Anyways...

First of all, Scylla fights at her own pace. Unlike most other bosses, her attack pattern is not dependent on her remaining HP. Instead, it's all laid out like that. Meaning that if you don't have enough damage, her offenses will overwhelm you. Usages of Cry Soul are meant to emulate phase changes. She also constantly summons adds, which greatly slows the fight down, and they can't be ignored unless you want to get party wiped. Oh and what's worse is that if you decide to take her on without slamming any ice blocks into her, you have to deal with these FOEs as well!

Barrier Creeper
Level: 39
HP: 3980
STR: 34
TEC: 34
VIT: 29
AGI: 32
LUC: 32
Skills:

• Tentacle Creep: Uses the legs. Attempts to stun and bind the legs of every party member, with a 60% base chance. Has a 100% speed modifier.
  

Damage resistances:
100% 100% 100% 125% 50% 100%
Disable resistances:
0% 100% 50% 75% 0% 50% 75%
50% 50% 50%
0% 0% 75%

Yeah you really don't want to deal with these things. Oh and if you do the ice puzzle correctly, you won't fight them at all. Which means that you'll have to fight Scylla at full health later in order to register these things in your Codex. These aren't the tentacles that Scylla summons. Those are actually these things.

Ruin Creeper
Level: 39
HP: 380
STR: 28
TEC: 34
VIT: 29
AGI: 28
LUC: 32
Skills:

• Tentacle Creep: Uses the legs. Attempts to stun and bind the legs of every party member, with a 60% base chance. Has a 100% speed modifier.
  

Damage resistances:
100% 100% 100% 125% 50% 100%
Disable resistances:
0% 100% 50% 75% 0% 50% 75%
50% 50% 50%
0% 0% 75%

Despite having slightly lower STR, they still hit really hard. I'll go more into these guys a bit later. But all this makes Scylla one of the most reviled bosses in the game.











Just gonna do some setup here. Not really showing how the turn plays out since it's pretty uninteresting. (Totally not an excuse to cover up the fact that I lost those images.)






Let's get this party started.



Ha! Nailed Scylla with Paralysis that time!







One of the key aspects of getting through this fight is damage. You need lots of it, because you really don't want this fight lasting long. If you're playing with a fairly defensive team, this still applies. Unless you level ground to a ridiculous degree, no amount of defenses will save you from her 4th phase.



The other aspect is crowd control. Scylla will constantly summon Ruin Creepers. Dedicate a party member to take them out, or just use attacks that hit multiple targets. Preferably AOEs, as they're the most reliable form of crowd control. If you leave the tentacles alone, they'll overwhelm you, and will cause a game over on a Cry Soul turn.





Ice Shave turns happen to be dangerous for 2 reasons. If you don't have Ice Wall at a high enough level, that usually means your front line will go down. The other reason is that even if you do, you can't use Front Guard to protect the front line against the tentacles, and they deal a non-negligible amount of damage.





It's in your best interests to take them out as soon as possible. Sadly, the Story party's only true AOE is Arianna's Link Order II.





If Knight wasn't transformed right now, that would be half his HP gone. Now imagine there being up to 4 of those tentacles bashing away at your party on top of having to deal with Scylla's attacks and you can see why this boss is so hated.









That's a total of 1495 damage right there. Unfortunately, even after slamming all 4 ice blocks into Scylla, her HP total starts around at 14000, so we're still in for a long fight.



I should note that Chloe is dealing way more damage than Knight right now, and she isn't even the best damage dealer in the game. Yeah in case you couldn't tell, the Fafnir class is really terrible early on. Not only are a bunch of their skills gated by plot, they're really skill point hungry. They're powerful in the late and post-game, but it's gonna be a while before we reach that point.



The skills he does get through the plot do at least prevent him from being the worst class in the game, at least.





May as well get off as much damage as I can.









Since the Paralysis wore off, I'm gonna try to Blind her. The Blind food will make her a non-entity in the fight, and Chloe will be able to continually deal tons of damage with Ailing Slash.



Ugh, didn't even land.









Well, Sagittarius Shot did more damage than Flavio's other skills, at least.





If you're unlucky, Cry Soul can end up killing someone even if they don't have their evasion disabled. If that happens to more than one person, just reset the game and try the battle again.



Won't end the battle, but should make a decent dent in Scylla's HP.





That's barely more than what Chloe was dishing out before!





Still, Scylla can't take much more of this.



May as well get some extra damage in now.



Lullaby is coming up soon, and I'm gonna have Arianna block that with Prevent Order.



Aw yeah, time for Chloe to dish out the pain again!





The only thing I have to worry about now are her tentacles and her status moves. This also means that I can use Front Guard on the turns where she uses Ice Shave, to reduce the damage her tentacles deal.





I really hope your team has good crowd control, because dedicating only one person to take out the tentacles won't work unless said person has really strong multitarget skills.



Flank Shot and Illusion Step should soften up the ones currently out in battle a bit.



I also hope you have some TP recovery at your disposal, because this fight can take a very long time to beat. If you've been hoarding all the Amritas you've found, now is the time to make use of them.







Eh. Good thing I've got a surefire way to deal with those tentacles.







If you have a Survivalist, I highly recommend saving their Force Break for when there are too many tentacles on the field, so you can give your team a little breather.





Not happening.





Link Order II is also a really good way to clear out the tentacles. I hope you have that skill at a high level.





Cry Soul misses again. Let's see how much longer this fight is gonna take.



Well then.





The brick wall has been demolished!





This fight is pretty tough, even if you are as prepared as possible. It took me several attempts to get past this fight, and most of those got ruined by a tiny bit of bad RNG. I was really reliant on those ailments landing, as those were the only things that could give me enough breathing room. Don't be fooled by Ragnar's attempt at this boss. She is really tough if your party isn't capable of bursting down her large HP pool. Fortunately for the Story party, it's smooth sailing from here.



You have succeeded in slaying Scylla, the Ice Princess. But before you can say anything, a familiar figure appears.

Music stops.



The woman of the Esbat Guild is on the verge of tears as she regards Scylla's unmoving form. Several questions come to mind...



What do you mean by that?
......

The woman seems to not hear you as she silently approaches Scylla's still body and gazes down upon it.





The man in black arrives soon afterward to see the woman standing in a daze before Scylla's corpse. He sighs deeply.

I see... It's all over already.

His expression seems pained, and you decide to ask him what's on your mind.



What did Artelinde mean by 'sister'?
...There's no reason now to hide it. You of all people, at least, deserve to know.

Wilhelm regards the unmoving monster sadly... and then begins to answer your question.

What we fought to protect... It was the one you saw as a monster. Scylla. Before she was Scylla, the Ice Princess... She was called Marguerite. Sister to Ms. Artelinde... And proud member of Guild Esbat.
......!
H-How...!? What do you mean? Isn't Scylla a monster!?
It is all the work of the Ruler of Heaven which has dominion over this Labyrinth. Allow me to tell our story. It is an old tale, involving that Ruler and our guild. It is long, and I am uncertain where to begin...



Let's find out about this ruler.

You are not from this country, so I am unsurprised you do not know of him. It is a fable told in High Lagaard. A being who dwells in a floating castle and supervises the forest... He is called the Ruler of Heaven. His minions gather the souls of the deceased on land... granting them eternal life. A fairytale for children, yes...? In truth, we all thought so as well.



And now about Marguerite.

She was Ms. Artelinde's sister, and an extremely skilled war magus. It was her idea to create the guild of Esbat. She was very kind... and it was that kindness which cost her life. Such is not uncommon in this forest. However... it did not end as these tragedies ordinarily do. For Ms. Marguerite was selected by the Ruler of Heaven.



Once both questions have been asked, a third option pops up. We need to ask about eternal life to progress.

......

An inexplicable loathing spreads across the man's face for the first time.

That is what the fables call it. But it is hardly so wondrous as it sounds. You have seen the fate of those selected by the Ruler of Heaven. They lose their reason and their forms, and must live eternally as little more than monsters...
Live eternally...?
Do you recall the Flame Demon...? Her situation is the same.

If you were wondering why people were referring to Hellion/Flame Demon as female, this line is why. Yes, an unfortunate woman got turned into a spiked nipple monstrosity. Feel free to barf out of your nearest window.

Even if they're killed... they come back after a few days. Is that... what eternal life means?

Wilhelm nods quietly at Chloe's question.

We've seen it countless times. Time and again, we watched as she suffered agonizing pain, mercilessly rent limb from limb... Over and over, death came down upon her...

Wilhelm's tone as he speaks is heavy and detached, and his words are swallowed by the white forest.

...That's why you kept explorers away from Scylla's domain.
That's right. Ms. Marguerite... was a kind woman. For her to do harm to others would be nothing less than Hell itself to her. That is why milady decided that we would intercept them all.
...... It was... all for her sister's sake...?

You know now why Guild Esbat slew so many explorers of this whitened forest. A heavy silence falls upon the room... As you struggle for words, the woman standing before the unmoving monster... her sister... speaks at a whisper.

...Were we wrong to do what we did?



It was wrong.
...You're right. I'm... certain my sister would've said the same. It's so strange. I can practically hear her. Still... What... should I have done?

The woman's voice trembles until it becomes a sob, and her voice quietly echoes through the white forest.

I suspect... we had lost our way from the very beginning.

The man clad in black mutters sadly and helps the sobbing woman carefully to her feet.

......

As the woman stands uneasily, she looks to you with puffy eyes.

I... We're going to think about what we should've done. Maybe it's too late, but...

She nods.

Goodbye, Knight.

The two members of Guild Esbat vanish from the forest, supporting one another as they go.

Those people... they seem so troubled.
But they chose to live... That must be how they'll atone for what they did.
Atonement, huh...
......







Oh boy, this skill. It's probably the most broken skill Knight will get, and is what truly turns him into a powerhouse. What this skill does is that it sacrifices Knight's current turn, in exchange for being able to select up to 3 different actions on the next turn, on top of being given priority! One of the reasons I said that even Scylla is the last true roadblock for a Story party is because of this skill.



Hm? Is this true, Sir Knight?

Though the mood had been grim, a stirring of excitement passes through the group. You have now gathered all the power needed for the ritual... You decide to leave the forest and head to Ginnungagap.



Okay, now that we're done with this floor, let's head on up to the next Stratum!



Oh come on! Not even a sneak peek? Whatever, let's go back to town.





I dunno, but this expedition... just made me really tired.
...A lot of things happened.
Yes... a great deal has happened.
But this should be the end. All that remains is for us to go to Ginnungagap.



I'm going to miss all of you.
Sir Knight...
Don't worry. There's a good chance that this ritual might require a little more time and effort to complete. After all, judging by what happened before, we might be told that we still need to obtain more power.
Yeah, that does sound likely.
Eh, don't worry too much about it. I'll be sure to end it this time. C'mon, let's get going. To the depths of the world...