Part 64: Update LVIII - Rejection of Battle

Update LVIII - Rejection of Battle

Music: Fourth Chimeric Lunar Sea - First Floor




Wait, this is actually good. I feel really energized from that firewall bypass we got earlier. We might be able to break that stupid effigy into splinters. Let's go shatter it!



The effigy moved up a bit since yesterday.





A trickster fox like me will see through your disguise no problem!



Music: Duel - Unauthorized Battle


The Firewall Bypass dropped his HP down to 4K and shows three moves a turn.

This week's Nephilim variant has 7K HP.



Take a guess how this goes.



We gain a level for it, at least.

Music: Fourth Chimeric Lunar Sea - Second Floor




And before you ask, losing nets the same Dead End as yesterday, while running out the clock get the exact same victory scene but you lose the EXP/money from winning.



I can tell the treatment is taking effect. If our enemy is a Lancer, we'll be at an advantage. But— The effigy is an imitation. Knowing that the real thing could be much more powerful, I feel I ought to remain wary.

Note: The Firewall Bypass ceases to exist after this, the actual fight against Rin has proper boss fight HP.



There's still a cipher key at large, and not much time to collect it. We better explore now. And also, I should search for an enemy that the Mystic Code will approve of, if possible. Maybe it was due to the SE.RA.PH's intervention, but the Mystic Code didn't react to the effigy. I still need to search for the Triggers and get approval from the Mystic Code. —I'll do whatever it takes.

Music: Fourth Chimeric Lunar Sea - First Floor


Just past the gate is a small island.



With a hidden path that leads right to it!

Sound: Phone ringing












That foe should be enough to gain the Mystic Code's approval. But, if you do engage it in combat, be cautious. It may prove even more dangerous than some Servants.





There's no fox who doesn't love eating a nice fat fish.



The whale doesn't chase you when you get close, so you have to start the fight yourself.

How strong is it?

Music: Duel - Unauthorized Battle


So strong that Unauthorized Battle plays, which I think makes it the only enemy program to use it.



And Moby Dick (could it have been anything else?) has 12K HP, putting it at double the health of Robin or Rhyme.



The only notable thing it has is a Skill called Vortex that inflicts Poison.



It dies.

Music: Fourth Chimeric Lunar Sea - First Floor


At Caster's insistence, I check the Mystic Code slots in the terminal. The Base Red Mystic Code stored as a program in my computer seems to come alive.

I am reading that it responded. I'll send the approval program in just a moment. —Address conferred... Port connected. Session opened, presentation on, application executed...

The terminal whines as the Mystic Code bucks the program Rani sent. Will it work? Right as I'm starting to worry, Rani alerts me of the approval's completion.





The approval is finalized. By altering the Holy Grail through the back door, increasing the power of one's Code Cast is possible. Please equip it.



I thank Rani and terminate the transmission chain. This equipment was supposed to be Rani's. It's haute couture designed by the Atlas Institute. There's no doubt in my mind that it's a really high-quality item. I'll try it on in a moment.



So after all that, was it worth it?



Eeeeeeeh, kinda. It has the largest MP boost we've seen so far, but 70 Master MP for a full heal is a stiff cost, especially when we already have over 10 full heals between Pure Ethers and Elixirs. That's 120 MP we could give to Tamamo! The main thing to keep in mind is that unlike Remedies, which can only heal Poison, Curse, and Paralysis, recover(); can treat move seals, but those are so rare it'll hardly ever be a factor.



Moving on, we find that floating Golem-type from the floor preview guarding two red chests.



This jolly green giant is a Phalanx.



Our rewards are one of the two items Taiga wants.



Plus a new Mystic Code.



Aaaaaaand the Base Red's MP boost is already matched.

Also the Crystal Ball is placed in a very strange spot in the menu. Most Mystic Codes are sorted roughly in the order you'd be able to get them, but the Crystal Ball gets put right next to the starting gear.



How good is view_map();?



Extremely. It shows the entire floor, plus chests, plus enemies that aren't near you, plus hidden floors, all for a piddly 20 Master MP.

The problem is that this is the last dungeon in the game with hidden paths, so that last bit is now useless until NG+.

At least it'll tip you off to Moby Dick's island if you haven't found the path yet.



I'm getting pretty tired. How about we go home before we get hurt?



Past the fountain is a Phalanx guarding another two chests.



They hold the second thing Taiga wanted.



And a regular item.



From here we have a straight shot to the Trigger and the exit portal.



Plus this giant cave-looking thing in the distance.



And there's the Trigger.









Just past that is the portal.



To give an idea on how long view_map lasts, it barely wore off before I finished mapping the floor.



I gain one last level to get Tamamo's final Skill.



And bounce.







Music: School I




That moment, Rani stops talking and looks me up and down, as if assessing my condition. What was she saying there?

Music: Duel of Fate


I think it would be best if you confirmed their identity tomorrow for yourself, Hakuno. For now, I can tell you the enemy Servant's Noble Phantasm. Gae Bolg. It's a spear that, once levied, reverses causality itself so that it will strike true.

Music: Stops




I know that weapon. Because I've seen it once. The Master guiding that weapon... That friend who extended her hand to me— She's my opponent. She's not a friend like Shinji was a friend. She's been an ally who's shown me genuine concern.

It only took the entire fucking week to resolve this meaningless guessing game!

In fact, Hakuno being able to recognize Gae Bolg on sight makes it even worse, as it means she should have twigged to it as soon as we learned the enemy used Celtic Runes!



Please... Don't let this sway your resolve.

I know. He who hesitates is lost in this Holy Grail War. And even though I might be no more than data, I've chosen to fight this War to the last.



Promise— I promised Rani I would eat her cooking, after the lunch incident. Yes. That's reason enough to live. My commitment to that promise will be tested tomorrow...



Music: School I


And so...I'm so, so sorry, but I'm your Servant. I will never, ever let anyone harm you. Y...You can hate me if you want, but I have to do that much for you—

Caster's sadness echoes my own. I can tell she's trying to ease my pain by playing the villain. ...I'm grateful for the sympathy. And there's no way I could ever hate her. I had known. I had known since the beginning. It is the fate of all Masters to kill other Masters, until only one remains to claim the Holy Grail. She and I were no exception. In this world, there are only victors and losers, and losers are quickly culled. At least I can say of my opponent that we equally share the risk of victory or defeat.

...Master. Is that all right? But, I...

I plop my hand on Caster's head. Her taut lips relax into her usual cheery smile. Let's go, Caster. I don't want any regrets, so let's be as prepared as we can for the battle.

...Yeah! I'll welcome them with a fire so scorching it will crack the earth!

I'm still unhappy, but I feel like I owe someone who's a friend the best effort I can muster. The prep period ends today. I want to wake up tomorrow fully prepared for the fight to come.



And despite knowing Rin is our enemy...



Her Matrix page still flags her as unknown!






The generic Master is out today.



I doubt this warning is needed, but if you have yet to get your cipher keys, do so today.





And Rin is marked.



... No, I didn't manage to find out who I'm supposed to fight. —Is how I'll answer her for now. If I can do that, these almost carefree times can continue, if only for one more day...

This is how the week should have been, with everyone pretending nothing is wrong. Instead we got all this bullshit.

And just think, we still have Rin's route to go through!



That's too bad. Anyway, as Masters, we have to fight with all of our strength, right? Good luck to us both in our Elimination Battles tomorrow.









Here, have this goldfish bowl. It'll go well with the rest of the decorations in your private room.



~

*Giggle* Just the thought of tonight's dinner makes me shiver with antici...PATION!



The goldfish will bob up and down while slowly spinning.



Wouldn't it be good to go to the chapel and commissary?



Tamamo gets her final Skill, and an A+ rank in Magic.







We're a single day off from the penultimate boss, and Tamamo is two levels above the week's recommended level. Surely Land of Eternal Bane blows everything else out of the water, right?



Ehhhhhhhhhhh.

Like, first off, that HP requirement makes it useless 95% of the time. As it stands, letting Tamamo dip below 30% HP means she'll have less than 500 HP, and with her lacklustre defenses a single solid hit could kill her. You could, I dunno, set things up so a lightly damaged Tamamo takes a hit while setting up a buff to knock her down to critical in the middle of the turn and follow up with Eternal Bane, but then you risk a low damage roll not pushing her into the red and making the Skill fail (in which case she takes an extra hit which will probably kill her), or an unlucky crit could her outright! The 80 MP cost also makes it prohibitively expensive, which shoots up to 140 MP if I want to pair it with Merciful Sky! I can use it alongside Blessings of Amaterasu, but I can only use that once per fight, and I'd need two moves worth of setup to use it and Merciful Sky.

Oh, and there's a Perfect Patch change here too. In the unpatched game, the skill description was straight up wrong and said you had to be above 30% HP, making it impossible to use unless you went online and found out about the mistake!

But hey, surely the damage it does will be worth the cost, right?.



After all, having the right item could be the difference between life and death in battle.



I might as well show off Eternal Bane here, since there's no way I'm letting Tamamo stay that low during an actual boss fight.

Music: Battle - Fourth Chimeric Lunar Sea


I actually had to make heavy use of save states to get a set of moves that would knock Tamamo into critical but not actually kill her. And even then, a few attempts failed from either Tamamo staying just above 30% or getting crit to death. Exactly as I predicted when I got the skill!





1K damage is... decent. And the poison itself deals ~700 a turn for several turns.

How does a Curse stack up?



Identical upfront damage for nearly a third of the MP cost and the bonus of not having to nearly kill Tamamo to use it.

And if I use a measly 10 MP more than Bane's cost to set up Merciful Sky...



That would take four turns for the initial hit and the poison to match, and I did it in just two actions.

And as some extra salt in the wound:



Poison being unable to kill cuts both ways.

Land of Eternal Bane is a complete letdown of a final move, which is a real shame considering this is the only player source of poison in the entire game, and she's hitting you with the Sessho-seki. Just stick with Merciful Sky-buffed Curses if you want to hurt someone.



Music: School III


I'm happy, you know. Happy that you still want to fight. I'll do my best, too. I'm proud to be your Servant. I'll give it my all tomorrow—



Next time: The Elimination Battle.