Part 15: The Ordeal of Fire

Last time we arrived at the Temple of Kemuel and got almost talked to death by Ni, the Nagi Chieftain. Today it’s time to finish the Ordeal of Fire in the Beetle Forest of the Netherworld. But first let’s check out the Temple while we are free.



We begin by talking to Ni again.



: Although at first glance the forests appear no different from those on our world...

Read the forests are completely the same as they were before...

: Each one shall challenge you with a treacherous ordeal.

... except for the bosses and minions. As such I’m going to skip parts of the forest where nothing changed.

: You must focus your thoughts. Ask me anything you please.





: ... we selected a midwife, a reincarnation of the divine spirit Azura. That was Garai.

: And Garai had another purpose, the Time of Gathering...

: She was to spin the souls of the beasts of knowledge and usher in the Chosen One through the divine powers of Azura.

: That is our mission as foretold in the Prophecies of Gi...



Next let’s ask him for some more information concerning Mahbu.



: You know the Tale of Alcana. Her dying wish was to curse mankind for its greed. And Mahbu is her reincarnation.

: Healing the soul of Mahbu, that is, the soul of Alcana...

: ... will break the curse of the forest minions.

: Only one man can heal her... You. The reincarnation of Prince Menek!

Nothing we didn’t already know. Hopefully he can shine some light on the whole issues with the ordeals.





: Those ordeals shall form the fruit of new knowledge...

: The first ordeal was solitude... For this you obtained the Jewel of Water.

: The remaining three ordeals are fire, air and earth... They lie in a forest far away, beyond space and time...





: Do not hesitate to ask for their help when you need it.

: They can perform merging and purification and provide you with weapons and supplies.

That is all from Ni for now so let’s say our goodbyes.

: now you must pass through the Kumari Gate and venture into the Beetle Forest of the Netherworld.

: There, the Disciple of Fire awaits...



Here is a better view of the Kumari Gate to the left and the Kaya Gate to the right. Now we’ll head over to Ra’s place to play around with our minions for a bit.





: I hope my magic will be of service to you.

That more or less all the characterisation both Nagi Maiden get. “ The Chief asked me to help you so I will. Hopefully it will be of some service on your journey”. Coupled with the rather lackluster voiceacting the two kinda fall flat whereas Mahbu and the rest of thr villagers in Syrus had some real depth. Also Ra never gets cursed brandings no matter how often she perform purification and mergings for us.

Anyway let’s create some abominations.



First off I fused our resident earth mage with the earth tree we caught back in the Spider Forest giving it access to Deva Ulvi. Still to be viable in the next stage of the game he needs Ulvia and we do not have access to a minion with that spell yet. I called it Teryan but I may change it to Woodpecker or something like it.



Next up on the merging block is our air mage e.g. the other bird we had. He gets fused with the Seashell creature we caught in the Moth Forest. It has a rather particular look but this merge give him access to Maltia completing his air spell book for now. Besides it also increases his growth in Magic and Speed. It gets called Mashulia honoring its heritage.



And our third mage bird gets fused with the other seashell creature in order to maximize its growths. He changed his new to Sheragsha.



We also create the second secret minion Tweengo. A crab like physical attacker. Despite its looks it is focused on speed in addition to his physical nature rather than defense.



Like Sherrick before him he gets immediately thrown into the merging pot as well as we add the Raddreg to it that we caught in the Moth Forest as well. This improves on his growths and ads +Power to his Horn: Water Attack.

This is enough fusing for now. We take Mashulia, Radeengo and Sheragsha with us into the Beetle Forest of the Netherworld.

First off though we take a look at what Mu has got for sale.







The Spring Blossom is a really nice weapon but we probably won’t be able to afford that for quite some time. The Blue Phantom reduces our speed and is thus not really an option.



As for armors Mu sells the Forest Garb a pretty nice peace of Armor that is going to be affordable but loses out to a random drop from a later enemy.

She doesn’t have any interesting new accessories or new items for us so we end our window shopping.

: So... You’re heading fort the Beetle Forest of the Netherworld, aren’t you?

: Oh no... Nevermind...

If you know something then tell me. Unhelpful NPCs

Anyway we are stocked and ready to go through the Kumari gate into the Beetle Forest of the Netherworld











So welcome to the Beetle Forest of the Netherworld. Nothing much has changed from the regular Beetle Forest. In fact you can still find everything at its place. The only difference is item placement and minions. To finish the forest we have to go to Koris hut.







Meet the first minions we encounter in the Netherworld. Srikarta and Swav look like Flying Hydra or something and focus on inflicting magical damage while having a decent defense. In order to dish out damage against your minions both have the strong single target spell of their respective element: Vahlia (as seen above) and Agnia (seen before used by Sheragni). These two best demonstrate why magic/defense build aren’t that great as the focus on magic leaves their HP pitifully low compared to physical attackers like Radeengo for instances. Even a great defence (which they do not have) can’t counter this flaw. Still opposed to the minions we fough in the “real world” the minions of the Netherworld can all kill you if you aren’t careful or even dare to use minions that are at an disadvantage agaisnt them. This is the point where cross elemental minions really lose all their value.

Anyway we catch these two and move onwards on the well know paths.



While fighting additional Three-Headed Dragon minions one of them dropped this accessory. It increases magical defense by one point compared to our equipped Sparrow Ruff while decreasing speed by three points. Not worth it in my opinion.





In the ruins where we found our first spellcaster of the game e.g. Mukhambu and Patash we find these two minions. Skwimel and Patmandy are middle of the line minions with a slight edge towards attack and speed in their growths that are entirely unimpressive short of one annoying gimmick. Instead of an elemental attack they posses an attack that drains HP. As such the fight may take longer than you think it might but at no time should they pose a problem.

We catch these two and move on.



Even the treasure chest is in the same place as it was before. Still we lack a Skeleton Key at the moment.





A little further down the line we meet the last two minions we can catch in this forest. Hackaroo and Patdreg are similiar to Terfrayd and Mardreg. They possess good basic stat scores and focus on speed in their growths. They also come with the last two Deva spells of the game and their respective elemental attack. This makes them a good base or even good merging partner for physical fire and air attackers respectively. However since they always start out with the Deva spell when fighting them you should almost always be able to kill them before they can get started making them a nice enemy to level up minions against.

Speaking of leveling up. The game wants you to outlevel the minions of each forest by at least one or two levels. This is evident in that you gain enough experience points to reach a new level if you defeat an even leveled minion even if you have no points on said minion. Past these one or two levels though the Exp dries up pretty fast which makes grinding further an act in futility.



We find the Skeleton Key for the Chest we passed earlier in the hut where we fought the Masked Boy and found a spear type weapon.



The Blessings are Levant only items that let him cast the respective Deva Spell, while the Ruff is another subpar accessory.

After fighting enough against the Hackaroo/Patdreg pair to get our minions up to snuff and healed we move towards Koris Hut.



Koris (?) Voice acting





: The appointed task of we Cocoon Masters is to trap in our cocoons the negative energy which is overflowing in this world...

: But what if our very existence is harmful to the forest?

: Lui… When I see that boy, I am utterly convinced of this.

: It is his hatred against the minions that sustains him.

: The villagers are the same. Man fears any existence other than his own. All this invites is ruin.

: Since the age of Gehena, our souls have gone through fear and ruin countless times...

: How can true purification exist inside eternal ruin and fear?

: If you are the Chosen One of Light, then banish the doubt that lurks in my heart...











Here we are fighting the Disciple of Fire also known as the Fire Boss. Despite his name he himself is not fire elemental himself. Also take note of the background in this fight. The burning flames mean that Deva Agni is in permanent effect and cannot be overridden.
Anyway as its first turn he calls his minion to help.



Which turns out to be butt ugly

Tuturis, as this minion is called, is a handful, especially with Deva Agni in effect. He got a good deal of HP and several strong attacks. Do not send any air minions against him s they will get obliberated immediately. Minions that lack HP and defense, while not being water are also not a good idea. Your best bet is probably a physical fire or water minions to either play against its weakness or abuse Deva Agni as well.



For starters he loves to blow you up with an enemy only spell that probably derives its damage from Agnia.



He can also poison you with its tail attack which luckily for me didn’t happen as this would have left me at a severe disadvantage seeing as I pack an air minion that would have died instantly.



Lastly he can also drain your MP which he did at the start and once again at the end (I used an Excellent Liqour during the fight). This can really destroy your offense and is especially bad if you get poisoned as time is against you in these cases.



Once you are past his minion the fire boss is the only one left.



His only attack is a double axe handle blow which deals damage but shouldn’ be enough to be a big problem to you, unless Tuturis has blown you to smitherns and you lack any healing items.



I have my air minion get the experience for the Boss himself. He gets fried by repeated Maltia casts.



And that’s it for the Disciple of Fire.



: But that is also a part of my true self.

: In light there is also darkness... You must guide the souls of your fellow Man.

: So long as we live, our souls need flesh...

: For the future of mankind... And... for the one you love...















: Excellent. That crimson brilliance is the Jewel of Fire. That is the crystal for the Ordeal of Doubt.

: Perhaps the darkness in the Blue Cocoon Master’s heart was the doubt he had about his own fate...

No? He told us exactly what he doubted e.g. whether humans can coexist with the forest or are only harmful to it.

: Two jewels yet remain... Let us open the way to the next ordeal.

: Now, for your next ordeal, you are to venture into the Dragonfly Forest of the Netherworld.



This is what our minions look like after going through the second ordeal.









Next Time

We head into the Dragonfly Forest of the Netherworld for our third Ordeal.