Part 25: Update XXIII - Sugar candy teatime

Update XXIII - Sugar candy teatime

Music: First Chimeric Lunar Sea - First Floor


Another week, another orb.



Now with 100% more...!



...recolored enemies.





She's close, Master. We'll pounce on her and ravish her bones... Uh, not the way you're thinking!

Caster she's a kid what the hell.



Alice is off in the distance, just past the entry portal.



You're "It", lady. If you can catch Alice, you win, lady! All right, ready... Go!



Caster appears ready to dash off at any moment. In any case, I'll follow her nose (for it always knows) and chase after Alice.



The name of the game on this floor?



Hidden paths.

Everywhere.



Also palette swaps, but that's just Extra in general.



After the Klein and the Pradox, we now have an Escher.



When I say that hidden paths are everywhere, I do mean everywhere. You can't even see that distant room from the other side!



You don't even get anything good for it!



North of where we saw Alice, we have an Inspire variant.



This one is called a Prophecy.



There are chests floating in the damn void!



Left of the Prophecy is a path leading to Alice.



Those white frills could only belong to Alice.



Caster's having fun, at least.



Alice gets away from her.



And then teleports away for good measure.



South of there is a new enemy type.



The Weather Drive is a simple enemy, almost always using a 1-1-2-2-1-1 pattern every round. This makes early fights incredibly annoying, as if you don't get any middle actions revealed, you have to gamble on a 50% chance.



West of the Weather Drive is a red chest.



That's Taiga's first request finished, once we trade this for the comic book.



Directly south is another path.

Every path that's separate from their connecting rooms is hidden, by the way.



Caster gains a level off that Prophecy.



To the east of that is another floating chest.



Holding a new item!



The Pure Ether is the strongest heal in the game, so I'll be sure to hold on to it forever.



West of where we last saw Alice is another path.



And just north of that is Alice!



I need to make a serious effort to chase her down or she'll get away.







She vanishes again.





There's a path off to the right.



We can see Alice to the north.



But there's a chest to the east.





Guess who missed a spot!



Alice can wait a few minutes.



There we go.



This room has some loot.



But no path to the other room.

The solution?



A secret path within a secret path!



My reward for all this?



Some pocket money.



This took so long I ended up gaining another level on my way back to Alice.



Alright, she's in front of the Trigger for this floor. All we have to do is catch her, grab the Trigger, and wait for the second floor to open.



Hey, lady... Do you wanna hear Alice's story? Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Alice, who lived in a country far, far away from here...







What the fuck?



The sky got really red and then my house got really black. Then I woke up in a white room. Nothing ever changed. I had no friends. I had no Monmy or Daddy.

There's...another Alice...?



But something happened that hurt so much that I couldn't tough it out. Then I woke up here. But, it's okay. It's really fun here. There are bunches of nice people.

Alright, I'd say there's a 99% chance Alice is a ghost.





Oh no.



Oh no.

I'm not very good at sewing, but I'm sure I can, at the very least, stitch them together.



Of course it'd be okay.

What a relief. I wouldn't want to make Mommy mad again.

Then, let's play really hard with the lady! Cuz she is our brand new friend. This Master isn't like the two before. We can touch this Master and they even have warm blood.



Yeah! That's a good idea.

With that, Alice raises her hand. And then-

Music: Stops










Oh god what!?

Music: Breach


The Arena floor, the walls, the air- it all shakes under the influence of a huge influx of power. My mind is screaming warnings. Run. Run! RUN!



Play with him, lady.

I should-



Stand and face it.

Yes, let's pick a fight with the giant monster summoned by the crazy ghost doll girl. There's no possible way this could go wrong!

Next time: It goes wrong.