Part 16: "Now I shall bring you to the Death!!"

Mysidia Tower is finally done, and with that, the game changes significantly.



Now the sea encounters have the enemies from Liviathan's stomach, since the sea monster seemed perfectly content to vomit out all the weird creatures residing in it.





Anyway, the spell we worked to get is rather weird, going anywhere from around 100 to 500 damage. That's pretty nice for a L1 spell, but leveling it does nothing to make it any more useful. Thus it's better to stick with Fade, though I level it anyway in case it actually does get better, and because Dude has nothing better to level anyway.







Also, here they are using their lackluster special attacks that hit everyone.



I manage to find a way to give Luna the Samurai gloves without completely destroying her evasion. Her evasion's no longer maxed out, but it's still in the eighties, and the huge defense boost and resistance to madness is a worthy trade-off, I feel.



Anyway, let's go visit Dist with our dragoon friend since I forgot to do it before. You see, it has some...special dialogue.







Well ........ I don't know what Mommy says, but ...... Yeah! Promise me to defeat that Emperor!!

What the fucking hell, Edward.



All killed ....
Oh, I am sorry .... Erina, I will come back to you .... Wait for me!

That's right, not two fucking seconds after Edward finds out Philip is dead, he immediately tries to move his way into his friend's family. Fucking Kain would be appalled by the nerve of this guy.



Going to Bafsuk to sell crap and heal, and



Oh yeah, all the random encounters have been beefed up! You'll fight all sorts of higher-end monsters now, so be prepared.



Xtal? Still lame.





These nasty foes are around Mysidia.











New NPC dialogue in Mysidia, though nothing too important. Well, besides this.



There's been a tornado. You know what that means?









DEATH COUNTER: EXTREME EDITION

So our last count is 24. I've actually taken the time to count all the NPCs in each town just so I can give you the most accurate death counter results.

Altea, Gatea, Parm, and Poft have all been destroyed. Mysidia, Bafsuk, and Salamand are untouched, though there's no dialogue changes for the latter two so fuck them. Here's the population of each town, pre-Tornado:


Cid's still alive, but everyone else is dead. So that's 9 + 7 + 11 + 10 = 37 + 24 =

DEATH COUNT: 61



But wait, that's not all!





Everyone in Fin town is dead besides the shopkeepers, two outside NPCs, and Paul! That's another six people!

DEATH COUNT: 67

Compared to...71 good guys still alive! So yeah, now we're close to having half the entire world's population dead. What a great job the Emperor is doing!











More lovely dialogue. The Emperor created the Tornado somehow and is now inside it. Trust me, it'll make even less sense later.



Tornado, you say?

The Emperor must be controlling the Tornado himself.

We can also ask about the Dragon.

Long time ago, when we wished to call Dragon and the Dragoon, we reflected the Pendant on the mirror in the Mirror Room in Castle Fin.

Now we can finally summon that Dragon.



But, we will be swallowed by [Tornado] in no time.

Tornado?

The only way to get into it is to fly ....



Flying a dragon into the tornado it is!













Hooray!



Unfortunately, it's not a new mode of transportation. No, the Dragon is now a slot in our inventory. However, it can cast Blaze 7 as an attack item, so at least it's not useless.



Anyway, we can actually ask Paul about the Tornado for some goodies.

What?! Going into that thing?? Well .. Then .... I'll give ya my treasure!! Look around the wall next to my bed!





There's a lot of different armor, the main one being a second Ninja suit, but there's also a second Blood Sword, as if the game's most difficult bosses didn't need enough trivializing.



Alright, now to fly a dragon into a tornado.







Yes, this is the inside of a Tornado.



Also, there are rhinos in the tornado, among other things.



Nuke's climbing up slowly. Still not very useful at this point, which is annoying considering how late we get the damn spell.



This knife is supposed to deal an extra 20 damage no matter what, though apparently that doesn't work in this version despite the game showing the extra damage being done. Oh well.



More hazardous water in a tornado.



Nice if we used axes.



Here's a VampLady, and here's Nathan Fillion dealing four-digit damage with a fire spell.



HorseMen are trivial. Wood Golems have huge defense, but they're also made out of wood, with Fire destroying them.



Lamias can Charm and inflict Sleep with their physical attacks.



Also, Ghotos's clones are rampant here. I even get another Ripper from them!



There's also Diamond/Opal equipment here, but it's heavy stuff so it's useless.



Poisonous Eyeamebas are just pussycats, really.



Apparently this little sword gives a better evasion boost than most shields in the game. It's also a nice step up from the Ice Sword Edward has. Obvious upgrade.





Generals are pretty scary.



They have a ton of hits, and they hit hard. They actually manage to kill off Luna in this fight, though I pull through.



Further up, the Tornado becomes a sort of castle.



Same enemies, though.







Time for another dragon!







Of course, Blood Sword and Fade helped tremendously as well. Powr is awesome, though.

Windfife casts Cyclone 13 and has a 1/5 chance of breaking. Alright, then.



Final floor is the Emperor himself!









First, you have to do two fights of fodder.







I'm not even going to bother doing the fake boss music because this fight doesn't deserve it.



Shield lets the target defend against various elements, and he can do a few tricky things like cast Ruse and use an Elixir.

That said, he has less than 1300 HP.





...Yeah.



Anyway, Emperor's dead, The End, blah blah blah.



He even drops a second Defender, a 5% chance of that! Man, I'm getting lucky with these drops.





Then he dies.



-----



We are grateful for you. Let us celebrate!



Then three couples randomly teleport in, and we get one of the oddest moments of the game.





It's the NES, but still.









Then some random guy pops up, tells us Lion is the new Emperor, and dies.

...

DEATH COUNT: 68



Remember Lion? The guy we named at the very beginning and have seen a whopping two times since? Yeah, he's finally going to be relevant, so there's that to look forward to.



AGI +1, VIT -1, INT +7, WILL +1, MAG +1, MP +43, Phys +1, Nuke +3, Psyc +1

More Int, less problems. Sticking with Nuke, Phys, and Psyc, with Fire/Ice for weaknesses and Power to let Luna humiliate everything.



STR +5, AGI +4, VIT +3, INT -2, HP +201, Spear +1, Shield +1

It just gets more and more beautiful.



VIT +5, WILL +9, HP +183, MP +21, Cure +1, Swap +1, Fade +1, Xtal +3

Look at that fucking Will. Yeah, it's +10 with the White Robe, but that robe's never coming off anyway. Not to mention that whopping 20% evade! Dude could actually evade one of the enemy's seven-or-eight hits!



STR +2, AGI +5, VIT +6, INT -1, HP +275, Sword +1, Shield +1

I still like having Edward around. Less evasion, but slightly more murder than Luna.





No reason to really show Luna's magic anymore since she never casts anything anyway.