Part 48: Cataracta Citadel

Update 48: Cataracta Citadel



Welcome back! Last time we fought a bunch of demons at the gates of Illuster. This time we’ll be heading inside to confront the Immortals themselves.



The party walks in to see Tertia on the stairs.



Seeing you again makes me buzz with joy, Tertia!
And you and your men as well, Captain Kyrie. You arrived at just the right time. Primus has been deceiving us all this time in some mad bid for power. He has drained the Relics from all four Temples. If he reaches the last Relic in the Council chambers, he will become unstoppable! But before we can deal with him, we must get past these two.



The camera pans up to reveal Septimus and Secunda.

Why would you side with Primus in his crazy scheme? No single person should ever command that much power! Can’t you see that he must be stopped?
Do you know how powerful Primus is already? No one can stop him. The only choice is to join him, as I did, or be annihilated. What say you, Tertia? It is not yet too late.
Ha! I have been Primus’s steadfast ally from the start. Lord Alphonse was simply my puppet, his one function to siphon the energy from the Centina Temple. A task these idiot Arbiters nearly ruined! Tertia can join us if she wants, but I will be getting my revenge on these fools. One way or another!
Your pride at being Primus’s lackey surprises me not one whit, Septimus. If you do not stand down at once, you will be forced aside.
Bah! I am done listening to your sanctimonious hectoring. I say we kill them all, Secunda.
Yes, regrettably that is what it has come to.




And it’s time to fight! It’s a simple fight, but we’ll be facing 2 Immortals so it won’t be easy.



For this fight, I’m bringing Reiner, Selina, Bzaro, Mongo, and Sophia. We also have Tertia fighting alongside us. I didn’t screenshot her abilities, but she’s pretty supportive, with alchemystic abilities in her Immortal class and a Druid secondary.




Up against us are 3 Bzil of various close-range types, a Ranger, a Vampire, and Septimus and Secunda. Thankfully, there are no real healers on the enemy team, so whatever damage we inflict will stick.




Secunda’s version of the Immortal class is essentially a Warmage with the top-tier Wizard spells added on. Combo that with her dual wielding, good stats, and immunity to most statuses, and she’s incredibly dangerous. She is, however, a little fragile and has a very short effective range. She does have a Plague Doctor secondary, but only knows a few abilities from it so it’s not that important.



Septimus’s skills are unchanged since we previously fought him, basically just the Vampire skillset with a few additions like Teleport. He’s tankier than Secunda, but I think he’s much less of a threat overall.



The battle opens with a bunch of enemy movement as everyone but Secunda and Tertia is faster than my entire party. Nothing’s too consequential, though Selina does take a good bit of damage. Eventually, Reiner and Mongo start my moves by blasting the Rakkerjak Bzil and the Vampire with some good damage AOE attacks.



After a bit more assistance from Kyrie, Sophia moves to finish off the Rakkerjak Bzil before he can do any real damage.



While Tertia does what she’ll do for most of the fight: Toss healing spells at a few of my units. It’s not crazy, but it is helpful at least.



And Secunda moves up to poison Kyrie and threaten everyone else.



Selina moves up to take the first whack at Septimus.



And Bzaro uses Sedate to put the Vampire to sleep.



The Bzzrk Bzil rams Sophia and nearly kills her, but it doesn’t matter because she still can’t swim. Septimus drowns her again. That’s definitely something I should deal with (I won’t ever remember to do that).



Being down my healer is not great. Still, everything’s not lost yet. If you look back at Secunda’s stats page, you can see that she, in fact, is not immune to being rooted in place. Reiner takes the shot and pins her, giving me a bit of breathing room.




I take a few more moves that don’t result in any kills or really notable changes. Selina does nearly 1-shot the Ranger off of 2 crits though.



On Kyrie’s turn we get some more dialogue.
What’s to be gained by an Immortal in that?
I could tell you it was all part of the plan. That sowing chaos left and right was a sure way to keep Arbiters from meddling with our Temple business. But I’d be lying. I did it because I enjoyed it. And now I won’t have to worry about having the Council on my back anymore as I enjoy myself.
You are a sick, sick man.



She demonstrates her disapproval by killing the Bzil.



Sadly, Selina’s just barely in range for Secunda to kill her with a Locus, but Reiner and Mongo retaliate by teaming up to kill the Ranger.



There’s also a bit more dialogue on Tertia’s turn.

I’m sorry, Tertia. I found out long ago that I will do whatever it takes to survive. And if you’d seen what he did to Sekstus… No, right now the only path to survival is to side with Primus. It’s nothing personal.
You’re making a big mistake.



And then she kills the Vampire, just before he wakes up.




I have Bzaro debuff Septimus’s defenses, but did not notice that the remaining Bzil can absolutely explot his thunder weakness to 1-hit kill him. Thankfully his auto revive does kick in.



Instead of killing Bzaro, Septimus pops down to take 2/3 of Reiner’s health off. Reiner gets a boost from the terrain to return the favor and snipes off half of Septimus’s health.




Which is soon followed up on by Kyrie who takes him out with an Infused Edge Thunder Burst.



Tertia heals Bzaro up to full health, and then there’s even more dialogue on Secunda’s turn.

You must already feel the darkness growing heavier, with one of our number dead. If your dogs kill more of us… Ha, you wouldn’t last a fortnight! Only Primus can bear that Burden!



And it’s a very good thing that Tertia healed Bzaro, because he barely survives this.



Since I have no way of killing it with him, I instead try and use the AI’s tricks against it. Bzaro uses Soul Binder on the Bzil and the charm chance procs!



Instead of killing Bzaro, the Bzil heals him up to full health with a potion.



Which Reiner takes advantage of by copying it to heal himself to full as well.



Meanwhile, Mongo moves in to start weakening Secunda. He has the Evade Attack reaction, so he is actually pretty safe from most of her damage. Or at least can stand next to her without risking instant death.

Quintus is guarding the Relic, but I don’t know how long he’ll last by himself. We have to hurry!

On her turn she has 1 more bit of dialogue, and then gives Bzaro some regen.



Kyrie revives Sophia and the charmed Bzil uses its turn to heal her back up to full health too.



And Secunda uses her 2nd turn of free movement to absolutely obliterate poor Bzaro.



Reiner roots her again.





And then after some weakening from Kyrie et al, Sophia goes in for the kill.



And soon afterwards Reiner takes out the Bzil to end the fight.



Not too bad a fight, but I did get majorly lucky twice. First was just rooting Secunda on the first shot. It was a 75% chance, but that still leaves a big area of failure. The second was actually charming that Bzil. While I probably could’ve still won, getting everyone healed instead of losing a character helped a lot.

The rewards for this fight are also great. The leather is a crafting material used to make a bunch of very solid armor sets, the Drake Talon is an absolutely amazing accessory, and the Witch Crown is the one of the 2 best caster helmets in the game.



After the fight, Kyrie talks to Tertia one more time before confronting Primus.

Primus, the Sigil leader, and his pet Kawa are all waiting ahead. You’d best make sure you and yours are ready, Captain.



And we are then put on the map, ready to go to the Immortal Council Chambers.

Though Tertia’s warning definitely sounds like it, this is not actually a point of no return. However, there are multiple difficult battles in a row, so you do still definitely need to prepare.

Still, next time we’ll be going in to take stop Primus once and for all!