Part 16: Orchid Words Arc - Sakura

Sakura



Here's a title screen I've never seen before, just from starting Orchid Words but not actually unlocking any of her lieutenants in the Side-Story menu. We'll come back to this later.



Before we begin her first stage, I should mention Tamamo is *really* weak, offensively. While she's decently nimble, her actual attacking power leaves more than a little to be desired. So, I would suggest raising her Bond Level to at least 2, and getting two open slots. One for Moon Crux attack, and one for regular. We need to compensate for her weakness, after all.

Also, while it probably is not necessary on Medium, if you're going into Tamamo's Tale on Hard, I would highly recommend you run a few decently easy Free Battles (I used Flame Poem Stage 2) to level her up a bit. An absolutely miserable experience awaits if you're going in vanilla.


Orchid Words Stage 1

This is unexpected. I'd agreed to enter the battle, but I didn't think Caster would plan to rush right in on her own. I have to ask her to hold back. Caster is Caster. She shouldn't fight toe to toe. She's not that kind of Servant. She should stay in the castle anyway. As the ruler, she should just send her Servants into battle in her place. And she hasn't even mentioned the possibility of parleying with the enemy. She told me about the Regalia on our way here. It's the Royal Authority of SE.RA.PH, handed down by the Moon Cell. I don't mind it resting on Caster's hand. After all, nothing is impossible. But the enemy's in a whole different position. How could someone retaliate against the Sovereign of SE.RA.PH, who owns the Regalia? We should find that out before we charge off into battle...

Umm, honey? Are you serious when you say that? Ooh... Our very first date since you've woken up, and THAT'S what comes out of your mouth. Tamamo is a little shocked, to be honest. You might say I'm Tamamortified!

"Tamamortified". That's...something, all right. When she gets excited, she's quick with a joke, but they've not always good ones. She should stop and take a breath. Now that I think about it, is she...really thinking about conquering all of SE.RA.PH? By force? By defeating all resistance? Umm... Is she right in the head?

Are you QUESTIONING me, to my FACE? I know I can SOUND foolish, but I HAVE thought this through. Now apologize!

I HOPE she's thought it through. I have more to say, but we should definitely withdraw to the throne room first. The enemy is an Assassin Servant. If we come into direct combat, she'll be at a disadvantage. As a Master, her well-being is my responsibility...

...Oooh, Master. So sharp, so mindful, so charming. But...that's a different story. If you can't be reasonable about this, then...I will have no other option than to...yes, force you to stay by my side. ...Ohoho. Now then, right this way.★

...What?





Maybe Elizabeth was on to something...

Ohohoho...!!

WHAT IS THIS...?!

Can you hear me, Master? You're there, aren't you, inside my Regalia?

...I can hear Caster's voice. No, I can see her too. I can even feel the warmth from her body. Was I...sucked into her ring somehow?

...Now do you see it my way? Be a dear, stay right there and witness your wife at work. ★ Ohoho... I can feel...I can feel your breathing! Now we are one. Even on a dangerous battlefield, you won't get a scratch. Hmm, I knew this could be done, but now that I've done it, it's...quite nice, don't you think? My dearest, right by my side. Wrapped right around my finger. Ahh... I'll never let you go... Let's continue to caress each other like this forever. ♪

This is a strange feeling. It's not suffocating or cramped, but... Yes, it's fitting perfectly. Snug and secure. It's as if... I'm holding her hand, so tightly...

Yes, yes. It's so much warmer than holding hands any other way... It feels like we're clasped close together, in secret... Now then, Master. Let us go forth, hand in hand. ♪







So welcome to the first stage of Orchid Words. We've got two of Nero's generals to deal with at the moment, Gawain and Nameless. My advice...



Ignore the concert area, as Elizabeth gets serious when it comes to having a concert hall. We can leave this place to her.







Nobody saw that, right? Well, good, it'll allow me to explain how the Command Spells work.



In the hypothetical event I were to get nuked and lose all my health in one shot, you have a few options. You can use one Command Spell / Seal to revive a Servant back to full health, as if nothing had happened. You can also use all three Spells at the same time to raise your Servant's life / EM gauge to their maximum (which is a considerable increase at level 15), for, let's say, about 5 minutes. You can access this option at any time by pausing the in-game action with the Options button and selecting the option. Be advised, however. If you choose this, and then lose all your health at a later point, that's defeat for you.

Finally, if you've reached this screen via defeat, rather than just pressing a button, you can also choose to withdraw if things are going poorly. Hm...







Now, if you want my advice, I would advise going after Gawain first. Nameless is really dangerous, what with fast movement, attack, and ranged attacks that do a ton of damage. Gawain is much simpler. He may be a bit more powerful, but he's also considerably slower and has no ranged attacks. Tamamo can take much more advantage of her mobility and speed in a fight against him.



Tamamo has a few attacks at this point, that you're going to be using a lot of, since her normal attacks are really weak. S T is a silly, yet effective, clawing attack. This is her bread and butter attack. Tamamo moves while doing it, it's decently powerful, and comes out quickly.



Gawain's chivalric nature shines through, no matter what the battlefield. Good to know.

More importantly, you're going to want to use this attack a fair bit, as Tamamo's use of the Regalia is going to be your major offensive weapon. To do that, obviously we need to find attacks capable of building it up quickly. This flamethrower attack is your ticket. S S T will bring it out, and you can rotate Tamamo around to catch enemies all around you. If you get lucky, a single use of this will build up the Moon Crux gauge like 20%, and it does a good job of keeping enemies away from you, as you cannot move at all while throwing this attack out.



As far as the Knight of Midheaven is concerned, he's still plenty dangerous. Most of his attacks hit really hard, and doesn't leave himself open a whole bunch for counterattacks. Your best bet is blocking his punishing combos, then taking advantage of his cooldown time to launch an attack of your own.



...Maybe next time, Elizabeth. Stay focused, please. Look, the enemy's Regime Matrix is almost complete. Time to stop playing around...













Tamamo's Regalia is, to put it simply, quite over-powered. While Nero's was decent, the Regalia is like 90% of Tamamo's offensive ability.





She just throws out powerful projectile attacks like crazy, that are also poisoned, and because they're Regalia-based attacks, they pretty much always stagger.



Like when we fought her as Nero, just pressing T with Tamamo will cause her to pirouette and have her rabbit foot keychain-thing fire a bunch of poisoned projectiles all around her. Not only is it *quite* effective against single-targets, she can mow down mobs without a second thought. This is why you try to buff her Moon Crux attack as much as possible. It really, *really* hurts.



One of the things I find endlessly funny about Elizabeth is absolutely no one likes her. Everyone complains about her singing, doesn't like her personality, and / or finds her completely useless.

But in spite of that, she always keeps going, with the love of her fans, both in-game and out. She's a saint.



Plants make an especially juicy target for the flamethrower move. Just make sure they're not at their "moving around" phase, and you'll do a ton of damage and get plenty of progress on your Moon Crux meter.



Tamamo's S S S T move is to throw a bunch of magical energy or something in a circle, and launch enemies near her into a tornado and throw them away. In spite of my description, it's not that effective an attack, since it doesn't do much damage and only has one hit in it. It's decent if you're surrounded, but generally doesn't have much utility.





But now we've gotta settle things with Nameless.



Now, hypothetically, if I wasn't wrecking his shit, I would be reiterating that Nameless is fast, decently powerful, and has projectile attacks that hurt a whole bunch. One thing I should also mention is AI oponents can pull off powerful combo moves out of their hat. Yeah, for example, if you were playing as Nameless, you'd have to press S S S S S T to fire his super-powerful explosive arrow. As an AI opponent, though, he can use it whenever.

My advice for fighting him would be to keep the pressure up on him, and don't back off, except during his Moon Drive. His opening attacks are quick enough that you'll frequently lose match-ups against him, and losing those means being on the receiving end of a powerful combo.

After defeating both of Nero's generals, however, the rest of the fight turned into a protracted mop-up operation. Note that, even if the game says to destroy the enemy Plants, you don't have to. You just have to complete the Regime Matrix. Other than that, nothing worthy of talk until the boss showed up, so...







So finally, Li Shuwen has appeared. As you might expect from a guy who is not armed with anything, he doesn't have a weapon, and he doesn't have any long-ranged attacks. However, he is a pretty fast attacker, and, while not overly powerful, he is a pretty quick combomeister. Oh yeah, and one thing not usually appreciated about Tamamo: she has a hell of a kicking leg. Chun-Li would be proud.

As always, a good strategy is to wait until the AI exhausts a combo, then counterattack. Just beware of projectile goons who can stagger you. Nothing worse than gearing up for an attack,then getting staggered and hit with a counterattack from the guy you were guarding against. Overall, the most dangerous part about him is the sudden burst of speed he'll get from some of his moves. You can start running in while he's attacking, then all of a sudden one of his moves will take up further ahead than you thought he'd end up, and end up getting punished that way.



But Demon Fist or no, none can stand against a dancing fox demon.



Now that's a splendid date, indeed. Side Missions were 3/5, which is unacceptable.


Battle with an empress

Thus the insolent Assassin falls, and peace reigns over the Empire. What a beautiful ending! Did you witness it from within, my love? My power?

*nod* I witnessed every moment of it. A physically fragile Caster single-handedly fought an Assassin - and won. No wonder they say the Regalia rules over SE.RA.PH. Its power is no joke.

No, no. Don't misunderstand. This is OUR power, yours AND mine. If we stay together, we have nothing to fear. Now please go ahead touching me, Master. Wrap yourself around me some more. Deeper and hotter... As if you're going to melt... Or if you want, you can tie me up with some straw rope. ★

Tie up Caster...I don't know if I COULD do that, but sometimes I have might have to. When I synced up with the Regalia, on top of being locked away, I could actually feel wrapping around Caster with my own consciousness. We really were as one. The more I think of wanting to protect her, the more her defensive power increases.

Hm, Hakuno is bold as always. She really does enable Caster.

Ohoho, you're kind as usual, my beloved. ★ Whereas I'm a bit strict. It's the perfect combination, really. You're the heart and I'm the fist. Between us both, we can govern all of SE.RA.PH. And the peace we build will last forever. ♪

No matter how many times I hear that, it always piques my interest. Does that mean you'll refrain from unleashing your full wrath, then?

Oh, were you listening in...? A Servant who brazenly assumes she's an Emperor.



But your oppression ends here. Forgive my presumption, but i have come to read your last rites. Here in your "Millennium Capital", full of poison and demons, no flowers dare to bloom. Know that none would ever applaud your reign. I am the Servant, Saber. I have descended from on high to stop your atrocities! Ha!

It would seem our favorite Roman Emperor is no fan of Heian period architecture. Interesting.

...How futile.

Saber...? I've seen her before... Her appearance is unmistakable. She's the other Servant I fought alongside in the Holy Grail War...!

What? You remember that clearly, do you? I should give my ring a little pinch. But what if she is? She is just another foe. Our enemy! And we were enemies to begin with, if you recall. At least as far as I'm concerned. Remember that time when we were on our way to the Moon Cell core...? You shoved me from behind, and I fell all the way to the other side of the moon.

I'm sure I haven't the faintest idea of what you're talking about.

I'm sure... Incidentally, the "Far Side of the Moon" she speaks of, as I mentioned near the start of Flame Poem, is a whole other thing. Basically it's the garbage bin of the Moon Cell, where all kinds of wild and crazy things can go on, in the shadow of the more normal rules of the Moon's Holy Grail War.

It is also a very phantasmal place (there's a good word, "phantasmal"), which does help explain why Tamamo wasn't sure if anything actually happened between the resolution of the Moon's Holy Grail War and Hakuno waking up at the start of this story. It also helps explain why Gilgamesh is allowed within the Moon Cell now, as CCC makes mention of the fact that he wouldn't normally be eligible to be summoned here, as he would be too powerful and stomp a mudhole in everyone else. Tamamo's still probably a bit sore about being shoved to the lunar equivalent of the ephemeral Ass End of Nowhere.



Praetor, does that sound familiar? ...Hm, I cannot seem to recall anything of the kind.

*shakes head*

Hakunon? No doubt about it. That's me, standing next to the red Saber. Same face, same look. Even the same breathing pattern. ...I know nothing is impossible, but still... I ask Caster what's going on. Free-spirited as she seems, Caster's actually very cunning and alert. She has to know what's happening here, if anyone does.

I mean, fair point. Nero was on the warpath with basically no comprehension of how things happened, but Tamamo seems to know a decent bit about what's going on, and how we got to this point.

Uh... Uuuhhh... Oh yes, yes. I forgot to tell you... You see, honey, for some reason, you've been split up into halves. One is your Mind, and the other's your Soul. ★ But please don't worry. The one I've fallen for is the beautiful Soul, which is you. So you see, there's nothing to worry about.

...I've actually heard of this. I believe there are three elements involved in building a digital shell for oneself. If I'm the Soul, then that must mean the one over there is indeed the Mind. I get it. That's why I have such a floaty sense of reality. The Mind controls the expressions of passion and emotion. I control the existence of true nature and instinct.

...Flaunting your intimacy, are you? I see that head of yours is as twisted as ever. But as you must understand, that all comes to an end this instant. This "Millennium Capital" nonsense is finished! We have no time for such petty feuds. The true threat...is approaching SE.RA.PH as we speak.

"True threat". Saber must be talking about that giant monster I saw in the Moon Cell core. I nod in understanding. I notice the other Hakunon gives the same motion.

Ohoho. Ohoho. Ah, how very interesting. Are you finished now? Really, what do you suppose that has to do with anything? As long as my Husband stays with me, that's all I need. Nothing else matters but to have my dearest close beside me forever. Everything else is trivial nonsense. I wouldn't trade that for anything, no matter what you think you can offer me.

...So you refuse to fight alongside me. In all sincerity, that pains me more than you know. So be it. Then I must strike down this evil Queen, who would rule SE.RA.PH only to indulge her own sinful whims. Even if it costs me the other Praetor. ...Praetor!



Hm, but this is interesting. Nero is acting a lot more responsibly in this timeline, where Archimedes decided to try his luck betting on Tamamo's success. Recall that he oriented Nero around uniting the Regalia again, which brought her into conflict with Tamamo and all the assorted mayhem that followed.

Here, though, Nero seems to be well aware of the stakes of what's going on, but conflict is inevitable anyway. How unfortunate...

The other Regalia...! So YOU got the other one, Saber! Then I won't hesitate to use my full power! ...My Husband! Now, Moon Cell! If you would acknowledge our Royal Authority, then come! ...Deliver your power to the Queen of the Moon!

You would summon your full strength? Then I shall do the same! Defend yourself!







The numbers...are on our side!





From a bold, linear motion to...

...a fierce attack based on pinpoint movement! I praise your defense, Caster! ...I had expected to best you easily face to face. It seems I underestimated you. I could have easily pressured you further, of course. And in the end, you would have fallen had I willed it so. However... Crushing you with the full measure of my strength, after that struggle with Assassin left you so exhausted, would be so very dull. And it would tarnish my good name, besides.

...

I will leave you be for now, Caster. But know this: When next we meet, we shall settle every one of our differences for good and all. You, with all your power, care only for your own selfish desires...or is it that power that drives you toward such greed? With the world in flames around you, you would rather play the harlot than the heroine. How very pitiful. *teleports out*



...Selfish? Desires? Yes, yes, that's right! I will seize these lands with the one I love. I will rule them all, enjoy their finest delights, and... And what's wrong with any of that?

Oy... Well, back to the throne.


The idol's words

My apologies, dearest. I know we've just returned to the castle, but I'll be going on ahead to the sleeping area...My Room. I spent more mana than I thought, so now I'm terribly drowsy, and... Oh, you can join me, love. Or, if you're still groggy, please make yourself comfortable on this nice, relaxing throne. The castle, the throne, every atom in the air, it all belongs to you. ...Well, to you and I both. So please enjoy and relax to your heart's content. ♪ If you need anything, please let the maid know. I would love to treat you to a wondrous feast, but as a Queen, I'm kind of busy...so I let the maid handle all the minor details. Please use her to your liking. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I'll be nodding off. ♪



If you happen to sneak into my room while I'm asleep, I won't mind a bit. Just come on in. ♪



...The castle, the throne, and everything else here belongs to me. To me and Caster, really. Why is that not sinking in yet? Maybe because everything feels so empty. I would be lying if I said I wasn't tired. Even though I slept for so long, just moving takes a lot out of me. The throne is padded and soft. These fine cushions remind me of Caster's skin. I have to will to stay awake at this point. But even so, I have a few things to think about. Caster's words. Saber's words. Even Archimedes' words. The "unknown threat" approaching SE.RA.PH...



Well, great, you made it back in one piece. ...Did you get a load of Caster out there? Crazy, right? Super-crazy. Weird and crazy. She wasn't like that before. At first, she was just a little down, but, um...that Regalia ring? Once she turned that thing on, she went fully tyrant. And that's how she is now. Anyone who goes against her ends up like this. Look, believe me when I say you're heading down a dead end here, and no good's gonna come of it. So...little squirrel. If you and I were to bring her down...

I understand what Elizabeth is trying to say. I even understand where she's coming from. This situation isn't good for Caster, and she'll be in danger if she stays like this. It's true. I've known it ever since we reunited on the throne. But...that's neither here nor there. I don't want to stop Caster, or deny her anything. I want to let her do what she wants right now.

Huh...? Are you serious? You're just going to let her do her thing? You remember how she was gonna handle you and Archimedes?!

She has a point. But Caster must have a good reason for acting this way.

...What if she doesn't? No, what if she does, and she's hiding it from you?

That's not possible. Caster always explains everything thoroughly. No matter what. If she ever held anything back, she wouldn't be the Caster I know. If that time ever comes...I will have to fulfill my responsibility as her Master.

...You really believe in her that much? Because... You know what means, right? Let's say if some situation occurred that broke the contract between a Servant and Master... If you messed up...

Something that could break a Master-Servant contract would be formidable, indeed. The only things that could do that would be a Master using up all of their Command Spells, the Noble Phantasm Rule Breaker (used by Medea, FSN's Caster), or the death of either party. Let's hope it doesn't come to any of that.

I know. That's why I have to fulfill my responsibility. Caster's sin is my sin. If she disappears, that'll be cause for me to disappear as well.

...You must be an idiot. You know you totally believe in her more than she does? You are one determined little squirrel. Besides...I'm a little... No, never mind. *sigh* Don't worry about it. If you're so stuck on her, you go ahead and do whatever. ...But don't come crying to me later.

Hm...you know things are bad when ELIZABETH is the one making sense. Stay tuned...