Part 58: Cornering the Rat

After the cutscene, we regain control outside the throne room.


All the hallways are blocked except for the ones that lead directly to the courtyard. How convenient.




Oh no, what are they doing here?

All the troops are going crazy! And it's crawling with monsters outside! Huh? You want something?


I do want something, but Gerard doesn't carry it. It's time to go to the Fire altar in the Graveyard.





The Soul Drop releases the Power of Fire!!


You have to fight a guardian to gain the third-tier Fusions. It's a lot harder than the third-tier fights in the first game.


All the guardians look nearly exactly alike. Fire's monster is named Svarozic.


The only difference is that they have skills related to the element you're trying to unlock.


I fight Fire with Fire.


And after a repetitive battle of attack-heal-attack-heal, I win.


No reward for Graveyard fights, unfortunately.





You got a Fides Soul!!

Your Power of Fire has been completely resurrected.


Well, no reward except for a KICK-ASS NEW FUSION!


Anyway, time to go into the courtyard. There's a chest in the lower-left corner with the Ipos Crest (Arc Gale).


Moving to the center of the courtyard triggers a cutscene.

Yuri!


Before Karin can say whatever she was going to say, the ground shakes.



Look at that!


It's Sapientes Gladio's airship.

Where was that hiding?


It soon becomes obvious that all the shaking is being caused by bombs the ship is dropping on Petrograd.


Oddly enough, none of them seem to have hit any of the streets we can access, as there won't be any damage once we can visit the city again.


The airship seems to be heading for the top of the palace by that staircase.

The city!
Oh!
No!


As the ship flies overhead, Yuri starts looking around.

Where is he?



There!


And "there" he is indeed, calmly climbing the stairs to the roof.


But before everyone can chase after him, a group of monsters flies down and attacks the party.




The monsters are called Perytons. They aren't exactly challenging.


We grab a hidden Talisman of Mercy before chasing Rasputin up the stairs.


We can get into random fights now, but it's just more Perytons. Our goal is the top of the palace roof.


Veronica is waiting for us there. Nicolai is nowhere to be seen, the coward. (And, no, he's not on the airship.)


Now that we know Rasputin's secret, he's got a new moniker.

Yes, Lord Rasputin!





I'll see you in hell! You can't match this power of mine, a gift from Lord Rasputin himself!


The final boss fight with Veronica begins. The fight went a little long (mostly because I wasn't having any luck with Combos) so the video is trimmed a bit, such as in spots where I dithered over the command menu too long.


Oh my God, what is THAT!?!


I break out my shiny new Fusion for the occasion.


And then I take out the two minions.


Arc Gale is awesome.


Veronica in her Night Queen form can cause Instant Death, but Leonardo's Bears make that a non-issue. She also casts several high-level spells like Hail Breeze, Bright Crime and Rock Storm.


But even her impressive, um, arsenal doesn't save her in the end.


A picture of the Moon Oil will have to wait; there's a lot of cutscenes after this and I forgot to look at it until later.