Part 47: The Final Battle

Welcome back, everyone. Things took a grim turn last time, as the Armies of Light were annihilated and the Child of Light sacrificed herself to defeat the Shadowstorm.



A quick check for survivors turns up none.





Tragically, even Pablo, Kips, and Wip were killed in the blast. We're the only survivors.






As we head north, the valley darkens, then takes on a eerie red glow, and we come to the teleportal that leads to Mephistocles' prison.



The prison itself is pretty uninteresting, though the walkway is lined with demonic statues to give it a more threatening aura.



And here's the big demon himself.






The demon king has more choice dialogue, as befits the big villain.



So here we are. Mephistocles (or "Mephisto" as he's called in the enemy list) joins the fight with two appendages to assist him. Our basic strategy for this is simple: use Curly to apply Heroic to our party and heal as necessary, while everyone else takes out the appendages and then the boss himself. In practice, of course, it's not so simple. This is partly because Curly's beneficial spells have an obnoxious habit of missing, but mostly because, well, this is the final boss.




The front appendage, the Grapnel, uses Omnislash, which looks impressive but just hits the party for middling damage.





The Talon, in the back, uses Ruination, which hits one character for minor damage and a status ailment. I saw Sleepmore and Inept, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could inflict others.





When the Grapnel is destroyed, Mephisto replaces it with a new appendage, the Red Terror. Despite the intimidating name, it got destroyed before taking a single action.





When the Talon is destroyed, Mephisto likewise grows another arm, the Gloomblade.





This arm uses Gloomslasher, which hits the whole party for middling damage and inflicts Sap. It's also incorporeal, so physical attacks can't touch it. But with that name, maybe it counts as undead?




It does, in fact - and so, it turns out, does Mephisto himself. That discovery makes the fight much easier, since it means Akira can reliably deal over 4,000 damage per turn by throwing Spirit Skeans.




Despite that, Mephisto himself is no slouch. He opens the fight with Dhoom, reducing our party to 1 HP, and then uses Raspall to drain a chunk of our MP.





He often uses Laser Eyes on one target, though only Curly takes much damage from it.




Soul Frenzy restores a huge amount of HP for him and any arms that are around, but he doesn't use it much (I only saw it once). I think it's meant to prevent the central body from dying before the arms are dealt with.








Once the arms are all dealt with, Mephisto transforms into the Mephisto Core. He keeps most of his previous attacks, but gains at least one new one.





Unholy Blast is impressive-looking and does solid damage to our party. Well, except for Curly, who appears to be immune.





He's still undead, though, and falls to a concentrated offensive. The fact that this happened right after he used Dhoom definitely made it look like a closer call than it was.

We've won! The world is saved!




Oh wait, no, there's still phase 2, because this is a 90s-style JRPG final boss.








Not if we can help it.



And now for round 2. Mephistocles is an appropriately tough fight, but the basic strategy is no different: apply Heroic, stay healed, and beat the piss out of Mephistocles.



As with round 1, he opens the fight by casting Dhoom, which does absolutely nothing since we're already at 1 HP.




He's also still undead for some reason, so Spirit Skean is going to do good work.



We can also apply status ailments to him, but they don't seem to last long, so it's not especially worth it.




By far the least dangerous of Mephistocles' attacks in this form is Charge Up. Though it looks impressive, it's no different from the version used by other enemies; it's still followed up by a weak physical strike.



His standard physical attack, shown here, actually deals more damage.







Ultra Black Death is probably the most skill name in Mephistocles' arsenal, and does a decent chunk of damage to the party.






Red Star certainly looks cool, but I have no idea what it does, since this was the only time he used it.





Blackfire is by far his most obnoxious attack. It doesn't deal much damage, but it hits consistently and dispels our buffs.







Ion Storm deals decent damage and can inflict Surround, which is most problematic for Moe and Shemp (the two who were, of course, affected by it).





Darkblast, like Red Star, only got used once and missed, so I'm unsure what it's supposed to do.

Overall, it's a more irritating fight than a difficult one, though that may be because this party is so powerful.



Finally, with one last Spirit Skean...



...Akira takes out the dark lord.





With one last gasp, Mephistocles acknowledges our victory, then explodes.




As his prison begins to shake and collapse, we run back for the exit.