Part 44: Mountain Temple II

Apologies for the inconsistent schedule this past bit, work suddenly went a bit crazy. Things are looking like they're slowing down now, so other than today, I should be able to resume the previous Thursday-Sunday releases.

Update 44: Mountain Temple II



Welcome back! Last time we fought through a bunch of Sigil members to try and stop Raife from draining the final Relic. We were too slow to stop him and, after draining the Relic, he and Grim Eye summoned a ton of demons to deal with us once and for all.




We’ll be jumping straight into the fight. This one’s another relatively straightforward one, just need to ensure that Kyrie never goes down.



We start back in the same position as the previous fight but without a chance to heal any injuries between battles. I didn’t have anyone go down, but I’ll still be swapping people around to bring Reiner, Anadine, and Hannah in.






Against us, we have an Archafflictor and an upgraded version called a Pestilord, a few Harvest variants, a few Malcubus variants, and then Grim Eye and Raife themselves.

We haven’t seen the Archafflictor before, so here is a quick overview. As is probably evident from the similar sprite, they’re similar to Alphonse’s demon form from way back in the first temple. They’re kinda slow but are solidly bulky and have pretty high physical attack. Additionally, all of their abilities are about status effects, either inflicting them or getting damage boosts from targeted affected units. They’re not necessarily too bad on their own, but combined with Malcubi (to inflict more statuses and debuffs) and Harvesters (who can both buff the Archafflictors and do good damage on their own) they can be really nasty.



Raife himself is pretty similar to Kyrie. His Marked class is the exact same as hers. He also has the Cleave, Execute, and Avenger passives, which are all quite powerful, especially if he’s one of the last enemies alive. Not immediately evident, but he also is floating, so he can just hang out on top of the lava as he pleases.



Grim Eye is much more magically inclined. He has a unique class which gives him a bunch of dark-themed abilities. There’s Luussa which is a strong AOE dark attack that can inflict berserk, Blood Offering where he resurrects fallen units as a random demon similar to Reanimate’s zombies, Dark Beam which uses all of his MP and deals damage in a line, and then Dark Barrier which buffs all elemental resistances but Holy by 25. He has Blood Magic as a passive, though there’s no designated healer in this fight so it’s not nearly as devastating as the Lich could be in the Halloween fight. For one more annoying point, Grim Eye’s counter is to inflict weaken, which will make it hard to keep my people healthy. He also has the basic Kawa Warrior skills including the beloved Boomerang Bounce. Like Raife, he also floats.

Overall, while the demons are threatening, the real dangers for the fight are Grim Eye and Raife, so I’m going to need to be careful around both of them.



Grim Eye opens the fight by buffing his and Raife’s elemental resistances with a Dark Barrier.



Anadine buffs herself as well.



And on Kyrie’s turn, she starts talking to Raife (Part of the dialogue triggers on Raife’s turn too, but Kyrie didn’t do anything to warrant mentioning.)



But you were one of the greatest Arbiters of the era! And a partner to my mentor, Sylvia.
Yes, I used to be Sylvia’s partner. Did you know she was unhappy with the Council’s rule? Quite unhappy.
…
During a Council meeting, she raised concerns about how the Immortals were using their power, and how a few had been misusing it. And how do you suppose the Council responded? By sending her on a suicide mission! Knowing exactly the nature of her assignment, she… She left without me. And died, without me, just as the Council planned.
Great age they have, the Immortals, but precious little wisdom. They struck her down out of fear, but she would never defy them. She was too loyal to her word… to her principles.



Raife then uses the group’s Heavy Potion to heal Grim Eye back up, in a bit of overkill.



There are a few more general turns of maneuvering and buffing before Bzaro jumps out and puts one of the Malcubi to sleep.



The other one debuffs Kyrie a bit.



Sophia uses Quetzalcoatl to take out about half of the Archafflictor’s health from a safe distance.



Grim Eye hits Reiner, taking about half of his health off, though thankfully the berserk does not proc.



On Adadine’s turn, she has somethings to say to Raife as well.

…
…

Or not say, as the case may be.



She then pops up to the top of the stairs and takes a chunk out of Grim Eye and the Malcubus.



While the Huntsman floats over to my units and takes about a quarter each off of Kyrie and Hannah’s health.



And on Kyrie’s turn we get even more dialogue.

For so much more than revenge. This is the only way to free everyone from the Council!
But what is this “only way”? What do you accomplish by draining the Relics of the essence of the Ancient Beast?
Join us, Kyrie! Join us and I will tell you anything you wish to know.



Kyrie takes a moment to nearly kill the Malcubus before responding.



I don’t need to know what you’re planning to know you cannot be trusted.
Have it your way, then. I extended my hand to you for Sylvia’s sake. It is what she would have wanted. But this work is too important to be diverted by sentimentality.
You understand nothing of my mentor, or you would never have chosen this course.



I’m just out of range, so Raife just uses his turn to heal Grim Eye again.



The Harrower uses Spearvault to hit Reiner and Kyrie, nearly killing Reiner.



While Hannah hits Grim Eye and pops the Malcubus’s mirage charge.



Reiner uses Multishot to kill the Malcubus and hurt the Pesitlord and Raife, at least a little bit.



And I have Sophia heal Kyrie up so I don’t lose out of nowhere.



Meanwhile, the AI notices that I have a person on an edge and it has a ranged push attack. RIP Sophia.



Anadine falls just short of killing Raife, but I have her weaken him anyway.



And Kyrie takes out the Pestilord with an Infused Edge combo.



To demonstrate how dangerous he is, Raife kills Anadine



And then uses the extra turn from Cleave to nearly kill Hannah as well.



But she retaliates by taking him out, as well as doing some good damage to the Archafflictor and Grim Eye.



Since most of my guys are getting really low, I decide to have Bzaro sacrifice himself to revive Sophia at full health.



And as if to demonstrate the necessity of healing, the Hunstman kills Hannah and triggers her reraise.



I have Reiner pop behind Grim Eye and snipe him. With that, the 2 biggest threats are down and I just need to be careful not to lose Kyrie as I finish off the rest.



I have Sophia revive Anadine at low health to take advantage of her passives.




And she proceeds to kill both the Harrower and the Archafflictor.



Kyrie takes out the Huntsman.



And then soon afterwards she finishes the fight off by killing the final Malcubus.



Overall, I’m pretty happy with the fight. I lost Sophia to a bit of stupidity, but otherwise didn’t make too many missteps. Things definitely could’ve gone worse, at least.



After the battle, Raife and Grim Eye lie defeated, but not dead, in front of the party.



…
Now, you’re going to tell us your purpose in siphoning the energy of the Relics.
A plan the likes of which you simpletons could not comprehend.
Shouldn’t we confiscate that wand, just to be safe? Not that I’m volunteering to handle it myself, mind you.
The wand, Raife.



When suddenly, a familiar sound is heard.



A circle appears on the ground.



And Primus himself teleports in!

Do not touch that wand! We don’t want a repeat of what happened to young Anadine, now do we? I will handle this, Kyrie.
Primus?! But how did you-
No time to explain. Quickly, give me the wand!



And he teleports off. But not too far.





Illuster’s Relic is all I need now.
(To Raife and Grim Eye) It is unfortunate you couldn’t handle things here. I had to destroy the Temple barrier to get in. The rest of the Council will have noticed by now. We’re going to have to fight our way to the Relic.
A perfect test of your new powers.
So you say. But I do not relish using force. Anyone who obeys me shall be spared.
As you command.
Come. Our last task awaits.



At that, Primus teleports himself, Raife, and the absolutely loving it Grim Eye out of the Temple.

There’s then a brief pause as everyone gathers.



I don’t pretend to understand what just transpired, but I have a feeling it wasn’t good.
Were those two working with Primus all along?
: I’d never seen Primus before today, but I certainly wouldn’t have pegged him as an ally of Sigil. There’s definitely somethin’ janky goin’ on here.
Primus mentioned fighting their way to the last Relic, in Illuster. It sounds like he expects the rest of the Council to try to stop them.
What do we do, Captain? If the Council is divided, whose side shall we take?
I might not agree with everything the Council stands for, but this conspiracy to absorb the essence of The Maw must be the greater evil.
It seems as if the Primus is the one ultimately pulling the strings. If that’s the case, I don’t think we can trust his motives. And I definitely don’t agree with his methods.
Primus set everything in motion by initiating the Marked Pilgrimage in the first place. That he is absorbing the dark energy Sigil has been collecting points directly to Primus being the mastermind.
And that aside from the fact an Immortal should not have been able to enter the Temple. That he had enough power to force his way in must mean he has already absorbed the energy from the other Relics. He’s been planning this betrayal from the start.





Our objective will be to assist the Council in stopping Primus and Sigil.But I get the feeling there is something more afoot here. I want everyone to stay on guard once we’re on site. We may need to switch plans at a moment’s notice.
After Primus’s mess has been sorted out, the Council or what remains of it will need a new Immortal more than ever. I hate to raise this now, but… You should probably do your thing with the last Relic so you’ll be ready for that eventuality.






Kyrie suddenly falls to one knee.

Kyrie! Are you okay?
I have grown stronger than before. But so has the dark energy…



A lifetime- lifetimes enduring this… It is a daunting prospect.
…
I’ll manage. But I’m more concerned than ever about Primus. What must be his state of mind after absorbing so much dark energy? Let’s head straight to Illuster. There’s no time to dally now.

There’s then a quick fadeout back to the world map.




Having made it to all four Relics, Kyrie finally unlocks the final ability for the Marked class and gets the mastery bonus.



We can also see that Illuster has turned red, which is not a great sign of things to come. However, this is where we’ll be leaving things this time. Next time we’ll check out what the heck Primus has done.