Part 61: Episode LXI: Amon

Episode LXI: Amon


Music: Wind Which Blows From the Dark II



Hmm… Well, this is quite a place. Hard to believe the basement contains all this. It’s enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight.
Is Wales known for its ziggurats?
Yuri, how do you not know any geography or basic social norms half the time... but you know what a ziggurat is...?
<shrugs> I read it in a nudie mag article.
<bewildered glare>
What?! I clearly DID read it for the articles.
The spirits in this place are very different from any other place… They don’t feel any happiness or pain. They’re just… nothingness that floats around.
I'm somewhat wary of the giant tentacles floating around up top there as well...
...Yeah, that ain't great.
Maybe those graves aren’t for humans.
<That Voice> I have been expecting you…
Bacon! Albert old buddy! Where’re ya hidin’ these days?
I’m right above you. Please, come on up.
Like up the stairs or literally above us? You can fly, my dude. Also, we're underground so you could be ABOVE ground. You gotta have some specificity, man!
<sigh> Up the stairs.
You just sit tight!! We’ll be there before you know it!!



Well, no sense in keeping the old man waiting. Hey, remember multiple people weirdly going on about Koudelka being dead after last time we saw her? Well... they definitely jumped the gun a LITTLE bit.



Roger Bacon was certain that the Door of Judgment would open.
Well, yeah. He opened it...
It seemed pretty easy to do, honestly.
Hmm... interesting. I didn't bother trying. Teleportation lets one sidestep so many mundane tasks.
<shakes head> Hah! So this is all part of your plan, too, eh? So you’re not planning on running this time, then?
This is the big finale for me, you see. Which means you’ll finally be able to achieve closure as well.
Albert. What are you planning? Is it the same as the Demon’s Gate Invocation?



Alice. I broke the seal inside the Vatican and stole the three secret books. The first is the Pulse Tract. With it, one can command the earth veins in order to wake an ancient god. Dehuai went far with this. He woke the Seraphic Radiance, but somehow it remained sealed within that boy.
Sure, I needed to push his corpse past the finish line. But it was far more than anyone expected of him.
I'm sure everyone in the smoking crater of Shanghai is thrilled about it...
Now whose fault is that?
Yours!
You, jag-off!
<nods> That was definitely on you.
...That's fair.



Aside from a few hundred sacrifices, naturally.
But both Patrick and Jack failed… They only succeeded in making a soulless puppet…
I assume that is how it went down with dear old Jack. To be honest, I have had a lot on my plate of late and forgot all about giving him the Emigre Document until I heard about the orphanage closure back in London.
Yeah, more or less...
A pity.



An omnipotent god from the far reaches of space shall descend upon earth to cleanse us!!
<sigh> Oh great, you're one of THOSE baddies...
<steps forward> Hey now, you quack magician! I can’t let you do that! You can’t hurt others just so you can play this game of misplaced vengeance!
Yuri, you still haven’t figured it out? That in order to begin anew… we must first wipe the slate clean.


Music: Much Hatred Still Rankles



No, I am summoning a god. Pay attention, boy.
I did... back when I saw this whole dumb plan in a crappy comic book.
Don't compare my plans with such lowbrow rot.



You’ve got plenty of excuses, but I think you’re just after revenge for what happened in the past!! My father worked hard to protect this world! I’m not letting a deluded scheme take it all away!
Fool!! What value is there in a rotten world such as this?! Do you really believe that your power alone is enough to right all the injustices of the world?!
I mean... I just gotta punch you out and yah...
<starts pacing> I can see… not perfectly, but I can see the future in store for this world… A few foolish elite will soon bring about a tragedy which will inflict great misery upon us all!! None will escape, and earth will overflow with the screaming of the dead who know not yet their fate. An iron behemoth will rise and in a flash, countless lives will be snuffed out. A hopeless future!!
A war that covers the world, if you will. Maybe even two of them.
We mustn’t bring this future upon the world!! But this terrible vision is drawing nearer as we speak!!
So to avoid a terrible whatever where tons of people die you are gonna... summon some god to kill everyone? Al, buddy, you're seeing how that ain't really the best solution...? Right?

Simon raises his arm.



Yeah, but what if whatever vague thing you're afraid of is inevitable and you're just delaying it? Also what if... whatever it is, god or whatever, you're summoning doesn't want to blow up the world and just like makes the moon explode? That who you wanna be? The idiot who made some alien god explode the moon?
I do not know why I punish myself using words against you. It is a waste of everyone's time.
Yeah, cuz all the words comin' out of your mouth are DUMB AS HELL!
Let us go back to something you do understand, eh?




You'd think Yuri would build up a resistance to Dapper Force Lightning after getting zapped so many times.

Alice and Margarete run up to Yuri's aid.



Heehee! The sages of every age were called that! Let history decide if my actions were good or bad. For now, we must simply forge ahead!
You're destroying the planet, dumbass! There ain't gonna be a history.
I never said anything about *human* history judging me.
<turns to Koudelka> Koudelka, Witch of the Dark Flames! Come with me and let us raise the throne of the “Other Gods!” The legacy of the ancient gods! Neameeto!



Albert floods the area with his Dapper Force Lightning. Koudelka does not seem to be having a good time due to it. The rest of the party tries to intervene but...



Welp. It's a LOT of lightning and Yuri never built up his bolt dodging skills on the Thunder Plains.



The laser light show just kind of goes on for a while. That is, until...






Music: Tanjou



What?! But why? The power flow has stopped! The “float” cannot be raised!! Koudelka! Is it you?!
I'm just a medium with a little curing power and I'm over your BULLSHIT.



You’re going to disappear into the darkness with me, to a world of nothingness…
N-no, it cannot be… are you saying that you intend to kill us both?!
You wouldn’t understand. I’d give my life to save that child’s future without a second thought.
What…?!
You gave your word! You'd help me in exchange for the boy's life!
What part of that bargain holds up when you intend to destroy the world and kill everyone on it?
A... a minor technicality...
Now…



Seems Koudelka can also do Halley's power-up special. But she can focus hers into a combo fireball straight into Albert Simon's balls, taking him out instantly.



Fuck 'em up, Socrates!



Unfortunately...



Music: ENDS



Albert Simon is a VERY sore loser. It's kind of the crux of his turn to evil...


Music: Much Hatred Still Rankles



N-no…! The Soul Contract…?



I wanted to save this power for last, but I have no choice…
Can someone explain that proper noun? It sounds bad. Alice, you know what this Soul Contract thing is?
<shrug> I've been a touch lost this whole time...
Do not fret, my dears. I'll give you a full demonstration.
Is it a stupid monster form like Dehuai and Wugui had...?
Silence! I'm on another level with those fools!
<turns to the others> It's totally that...





Albert!!

Albert Simon briefly collapses as the energy dissipates.



Ho ho ho… Yuri. Come for me!!
...
...Naw, I'm good.
You think you are the only one with fusion powers!?
...
...Wait, wh-




Music: Demon's Gig



OK... If I've got this straight Albert Simon wants to use the Pulse Tract, an until now completely unmentioned tome similar to the Emigre Document, to summon some sort of god alien to Earth and hope it is really rowdy and nukes the planet because he vaguely knows World War I is about to go down and that seems like a huge bummer time. Yeah... we should probably not let him do that... Gonna go ahead and make the bold claim that both World Wars were preferable to a global extinction event.



With that said, Albert Simon is quite over the gang's bullshit and it's time for a proper battle against our warlock nemesis. Kinda... Albert initially begins with roughly 2000 HP, give or take. Remember that boss fight against Yuri early in the European adventures? It's gonna kinda be like that.



Sandaphlon is actually pretty useful for this fight by sheer virtue of using its Holy Crest spell to boost everyone's defenses. My first playthrough I don't think I had Alice with her full party heal yet, but did get Yuri's Level 3 Light Fusion so he was on healing duty for this battle. It made this fight a little bit rougher. But we're gonna stick to the tried and true Ifrit for now.





Usually, we've just been buffing Yuri with Ignition to boost his physical stats. But we've also been stuck almost exclusively with extra party members that were magic oriented so hell if it would have been any use there. Margarete, however, can totally benefit from a nice boost to her physical stats.





Alice's first duty is going to be giving Margarete Holy Edge to shift her physical affinity over to Light magic since Albert Simon is a Dark elemental jerk.



After that, Margarete is just on shooting Simon in the face duty while we spend Yuri and Alice's next turns giving our punchboy the same buff regiment. Marge and Yuri will both be dishing out around 350-400 HP of damage for this phase of the fight. It's going to go by very quickly at this rate. Which is good, as Cardinal Simon has some real bullshit moves.





He's still packing Revelation as his primary attack. Thankfully, we have a party that can withstand a blow from this attack and not Level 1 folks still in the tutorial. It only causes around 75-100 HP of damage at this juncture. Though, Simon can buff himself with Black Surge where he just kind of vapes/blows a cloud of fart gas (is there truly a difference) and suddenly has 33% more special attack output. Still, it ain't too bad.







On the other hand, here's a brand new attack unique to Albert Simon. He just fucking plops down the goddamn Ark of the Covenant and cracks that sucker open on the party. No face melting here, it only does 100-125 damage to the entire party. On the other hand, if we weren't equipped with this Will Power accessories we bought from Roger's shop... this attack would also halve everyone's SP. We're probably NOT gonna be able to finish this fight in less than four more turns, so that... ain't the best surprise if you're going into this fight unprepared. It still does a good 100-120 HP of damage to the entire party and that ain't insignificant. Albert, knock that shit off! That thing belongs in a museum, not as a makeshift summon!



But hey, that's what we have Alice here for, isn't it? I mean, other than the fact she's mandatory for this segment of the game for... some reason. Come to think of it, she doesn't actually DO anything of note in Nemeton and barely has any dialogue other than bagging on Yuri for being weird occasionally.



As I said early, we just need whittle down roughly 2000 HP from the warlock. He's surprisingly not very durable for the primary antagonist. That is, until...



Hehehehe!


New Music: Sick Fucking (The berserk version of Demon's Gig. Good a time as any to play it since we're firmly in bonus/end game bosses after this.)



Meet Amon -- Albert Simon's Soul Contract Fusion. The sequel makes a much bigger deal about this but in the Shadow Hearts world, you can make a pact with a demon/spirit/magical BS to get a one-off Fusion type ability. It's not fair if only the protagonist gets to have fun transforming into monsters, now is it? I think Dehuai and Wugui technically had a Soul Pact too which is why they had monster forms. It's just never brought up because of course Dehuai would be making every dumb sorcerer decision and hoping for the best.

In any event, Amon has 4000 HP and there is no break here its phase two of the same fight. A most notable difference between Albert Simon and Amon is that Amon has a Non-Elemental affiliation. With that in mind, Yuri and Margarete's Holy Edge buffs are now negated. Light element ain't gonna matter an extra spit against this guy.



Amon also has a powerful new (but very limited) skill set. And by "very limited" I mean it has exactly two techniques.





Demon Rays is a doom laser that will immolate one unfortunate target for a HEFTY 300ish HP of damage, give or take twenty points depending on who it is targeting.



This is the one we want it to use more often than not since Alice can just negate it with one of our stockpiles of Thera Roots. Remember, Arc is a massive MP drain and the less we have to use it the better. Sometimes good fashion home remedies are the best solution, ya know? For some reason, Amon just HATED Margarete and targeted her with like four out of the five Demon Rays it cast.



Ignition has probably worn off with Margarete by this point and we really can't afford to waste a turn topping her off again for just like maybe an extra 100 damage a turn. That's a 300 damage loss wasting Yuri's time and Yuri needs to top off Ignition again as well. Marge can shift over to her magic attacks. They'll only do around 200-250 damage but it's a little bit better than her physical shots will be doing. Amon is just innately more durable to physical strikes. He's a very chuffy boy. Margarete also needs to make sure Alice has enough SP/MP going forward. Yuri is too busy punching to both with that kinda stuff and we do NOT need Alice out of commission. Especially with the next attack coming up.



The thing we really need to worry about with Amon is Atomic Dust.





He just casts a nuke. We cannot come upon the horrors of the atomic age and the threat of nuclear Armageddon if it is I who burns the planet to ash first, Albert Simon declares flipping the Thanksgiving dinner table over and declaring his victory over the times.



This attack does around 150-200 HP of damage to the entire party. Which means Alice needs to tag in with Arc because the follow-up of Demon Ray will 100% KO whoever it targets with their HP drained from Atomic Dust.





As long as everyone stays the course, we should be OK. I was quite happy I managed to end this fight in the most demeaning way possible -- by having Margarete drop a pan on Amon's head.





Albert Simon did NOT prepare for the possibility of a French spy burrowing a hole through the top of the sanctuary ruins and dropping an iron pot on his head. Honestly, who possibly could have seen that one coming?


Music: Results



We get a massive load of experience and Cash for defeating Amon -- enough for Alice to learn Resurrection which... well... resurrects a KOed character. With full health, mind you. We're also rewarded +5 Soul Energy for every single element. We're moving into the endgame. We really need to get those Level 3 Fusions already!



The party also receives the final in the +20% series of earring accessories. This one boosts Sanity Points by 20%. This might not be a bad idea to stick on Alice sometime, given her eternal SP woes.



Most important of all... hey, remember that whole Destruction Stone sidequest we wasted the last time updates doing? Yeah, it was for this moment. The player MUST have the Destruction Stone in their inventory before fighting Albert Simon/Amon in order for Yuri to obtain the Amon Fusion. This is gone forever otherwise. There are no second chances!



Amon is one of two hidden bonus Fusions, this one being of the Non-Elemental Class despite looking like the Dark Elemental line's buff older brother. Amon boosts stats a straight +17 across the board in every single stat. He's a beast! The catch is... this jerk takes a whopping 56 Sanity Points for his Fusion. For reference, Yuri following this fight is currently sitting at 62 SP total.



Tune in next time as Albert Simon gracefully concedes his defeat and everything turns out just fine. Surely, the LP is nearly over!






Video: Simon Albert/Amon Boss Battle (You should at least watch the Amon half.)





Amon Fusion Render - Devilman 2.0!