Part 60: Otome Yanagiya ~ Aparigraha

Otome Yanagiya ~ Aparigraha

So, before we do anything else there's one last thing I want to fuse. It's not a stellar demon or anything, but it's also one that I really quite like so...

Problem is, I want to make one that has its weakness to Curse patched which at the moment necessitates either a needlessly long fusion chain or just using the Curse Set.

But I also want to make one that's a step above even that - with both Dynes we have access to - and achieving that AND patching the weakness in one fusion is impossible. Regardless of how you slice it, the Dynes alone require a bit of a chain.

First things first, I need to step way back in demon ranks a bit. We need to take a Mahakala and a Leanan Sidhe and fuse them to make...



A Basilisk. I am actually doing this for a reason, and that's to give the end-result actually good magic. The reason is in order to get the Dynes onto the final product I need to use Botis who's not a spellcaster. I can mitigate that by using the Basilisk to create a Cait Sith that has Ziodyne and the ability to transfer points from Magic; hopefully more of that than Strength. It's also in the creation of the Cait Sith where I use the Curse Set to add Null Curse.

Cait Sith's only half of what I want though. Next I'll buy a random Wendigo from the compendium and fuse it with the Brigid we made earlier. This lets me add Bufudyne and Null Fire to a Yuki Jyorou.



Combining the Yuki and Cait Sith let us make Lorelei. Unfortunately, by default Lorelei has a Marin Karin and greyed out Diarahan. Using Remove Command lets us not worry about that (don't worry if you think this is a waste; we can get more later if need be). Sadly, there's no feasible way to add Diarahan by default without overcomplicating things further. Oh well, she has Fairy Dust so we don't really *need* Diarahan anyway.



So, much like with the first time I made things needlessly complex here's a badly made diagram so you can hopefully understand it better.

[Music: Exploration]



Anyway, let's see...

quote:

Otome Yanagiya...

Survives 94% (112)
Dies 6% (7)

Yep, Otome lives. Sounds about right. Let's go see what the hell The Anguished One's playing at.



Hm... Kuze! Are you heading to the Tsuutenkaku?
That's right.
Good. We lost contact with the security team there a moment ago...!



[Music: Silence]



Hm...!? That scream... Let's go, Kuze!

[Music: Countdown]





Oh, there are still some more left...
What should I do? I don't think I can help it...





......!
Oh, my, how pathetic. Heh heh heh...
Don't you understand? I'm not trying to get in your way.



You're so loud... Can you please be quiet? After all, you're already dead.



Aaaaaaah!



Oops...! Oh... Hahaha...
Otome!? Are you hurt!?



Hello, Shining One. So you have come... it's ironic.
What are you talking about?
I didn't want to fight you. It was, of course, possible to avoid this...
But then I wouldn't be able to test humanity's potential.



Hibiki! Makoto! He's after the Tsuutenkaku!
Ugh...! I knew it... that bastard!
We don't have time... There's no other way.



I know! But... Come on...
......
Bifrons.
...! You're no fun.



Wait...! Dammit, bastard!



And then he summons some more demons, because of course he does.



...Stay out of my way. If you stay quiet, I will refrain from killing you.



Dammit... They're after the Tsuutenkaku! I have to stop the demons from invading!
Hibiki, Makoto...!
Otome...!



Can you destroy the other demons in the area?



Yeah... He seems to be on another whole level... We can't beat him in a normal fight!
I have to think of a way to keep it from getting into the Tsuutenkaku...!

I think "killing him" is a pretty good way to achieve that.

[Music: Challenge to the Fate]



Oh, yeah, in a surprisingly nice change Otome is not an NPC in her death clip battle. We also don't immediately lose if she bites it.

The latter one's a bit weird, admittedly, but hey not complaining. It won't matter but it's nice that you get some leeway for once.

Also ignore the bit about Bifrons' death being optional. He's totally not gonna survive, spoiler alert.



Crack-wise, 3 of these are easy picks. The fourth is a bit trickier, but at the same time not really.



Weak Kill lets you deal big numbers to enemies inflicted with ailments. Ailments like, say, petrification. If it doesn't shatter them, then they feel the hurt that much more.

Life Drain is like Drain but worse in every conceivable way. It only saps HP and it costs more MP to use for some bizarre reason. Drain costs 2 and recharges itself basically forever. Life Drain costs 12 and does not have that luxury. It's still almighty but eh. It does have one minor saving grace in that it will drain more HP the closer to death you are. Which is worthless really, since if you're so desperate for healing you wouldn't use Life Drain for it.



Since we're inevitably going to murder him for his Agidyne and extra boost to said Agidyne, let's take a look at Bifrons. He's not completely terrible, surprisingly, and has no weakness to exploit (it would be Elec, but he's patched that). He also doesn't have Shield All to be a tanking goof like Botis and Kama did which is nice. He could totally throw Agidyne at us 4 times in one fight if he were to use Beast Eye effectively but, well, you'll see.

Fallen's Mark is the upgraded Fallen racial skill of course. The description makes it sound identical to the base form, but the HP cost and Range: 3 are a bit weird and out of place. What it doesn't tell you is that Fallen's Mark lets you drain MP from stuff upto 3 tiles away.

He has 800 HP for what its worth.



Since Hibiki's going to deal with that, Jungo's going to start clearing out the right side of the map.



Since he doesn't have Cait Sith any more, having Hitokotonusi is a bit unnecessary since he generally destroys everything quickly. But it helps just in case I guess.



This Cait Sith has an Asp. Asps are the level 36 Dragon and are thoroughly worthless. Too many weaknesses, skills that don't fit it at all, and its a pain to get to be even potentially usable.



The AI's not all that great at remembering the resistances of your guys sometimes. Probably a good thing, considering it would make things a mite more difficult if it was aware enough to not punch the dude that drains punches.



I say "probably," but it also probably wouldn't. Not when the AI is dumb enough to have the weak Loa try to fight Hibiki who's decked out and ready to murder Bifrons.



It was sort of smart enough to focus more on Lorelei but it won't matter in the slightest. She'll have that healed up long before it becomes anything resembling relevant.



Oh, that Baphomet we're cracking Diarahan from? Yeah, it's on Bifrons. I proceeded to completely forget that for this entire fight. My positioning was based on his Asp, not the Baphomet.

So I let Otome get in Chaos Wave range.



Oh the Cait Sith's entire party gets its shit pushed in by Brigid's Elec Dance. Very ho hum, no surprise here.



Kind of a weird time to get the Phys Set, huh? Not really the fight itself, so much as after both Release add-ons.



When Bifrons finally gets a turn, he whines a bit. Whatever.



That Bifrons opting to blast Otome is what it took to remind me he had the Baphomet is probably a bad thing. Don't be me is the moral here I guess.

[Music: Shudder]



Thankfully for us, Bifrons never chooses to use Agidyne when it might be a smart idea. Instead, he just opts to use a regular attack twice instead. This hurts significantly less, and is why we're not a lot more dead right now.



Before he remembers he might want to stop us murdering him, let's murder him.



Lorelei's REALLY good, huh? Baphomet is neutral to Electricity and she damn near oneshot it anyway. If I had her Bufudyne the Asp instead, that would've taken about 500+ damage no problem.



But doing that would mean that Moloch and Hibiki can't get to have some fun with the rest of the fight too. Bifrons is a bit more hardy than Baphomet, of course, but...



That just means she can singlehandedly kill it in 4 Bufudynes instead of 2.



Oh, and no one in Hibiki's party is in any danger ever against Bifrons. Even if he does remember he has Agidyne and can spam it a lot it doesn't matter. Hibiki resists it and will take further reduced damage while the other two are alive. They basically can't die here because they're both outright immune to Fire and Lorelei can heal with Fairy Dust if he gets a lucky physical hit in.

He might not have dropped in one skirmish, but he's already dead and has no chance of surviving. Poor Bifrons never stood a chance. And he's a boss too!



Fine! I don't even care about the Tsuutenkaku! I'll kill everyone, starting with you!
Like I thought, it's not like the other demons. We should avoid fighting with Bifrons.
Make protecting the Tsuutenkaku your top priority!

Uh, Otome? Bifrons stands no chance. He has...


ahaha


exactly 1hp left

800-47-48-45-267-98-98-97-99

what are the fucking odds



Okay, so, we have to remember to not kill the 3 non-Bifrons things immediately. We can get rid of this before it heals the guy though.



It's easy enough to manage at least. This just leaves the two Cait Sith's on the right; Otome can handle one...



And Jungo the other.



Pretty easily at that. I'm pretty sure Jungo's party deals more damage to themselves just from using skills rather than anything else.



Before Otome gets to finish things off, Bifons decides he doesn't want to live any more. I can't complain about this.



Unsurprisingly, his 1 hit point does not last more than a couple seconds.



All he had to do was survive and he could come back later to try and fail at murdering us again. He decided he'd rather die now. I am fine with this.



And not just because it lets me finally stop doubling up on elemental dances.



Agidyne isn't crucial here by any means, but the game no doubt expects you to be able to actually get this one.



And now we can finish things off with a relative anti-climax. But, really, it had to be.



...At least it lets us get really nice and big numbers.



Beyond it letting Brigid show off with her own very good Bufudyne skills, there's not much to a fight like this one.



Didn't I say at first that Thursday was harder than Wednesday? It kinda is, but then it kinda isn't. This is the point where you begin to get really good things and have the capabilities to make them even better.



The enemies do get tougher to compensate. Like, we had some fun with +Stone stuff before and then game turns around and does the same to you shortly afterwards. It lets you play with the toy for a bit, then uses it in retaliation... by the time you've already learned the downsides to it and can mitigate it. It's pretty clever, but at the same time it just makes it sort of underwhelming.

Bifrons is sort of that as a microcosm. We start getting demons with Dynes? Oh cool, here's a boss with one that (on paper) is technically harder than Botis and Kama because he doesn't spend half his time casting Shield All. So he can totally spam that Agidyne thanks to Beast Eye! But he won't because he's too dumb to do it, so he's not really a threat and then you plaster his face against the wall and suddenly you're walking out of here completely unhindered because the only real threat was a paper tiger.

I'm sure I had a point somewhere in that rambling.

[Music: Over the Brink of Death]



What's shakin'?
This is no time to be flip. Are you hurt anywhere...?
I guess not. Thank goodness!
Otome, Kuze. I'm glad you're safe.
Thanks to you, yes. That was a close one.



Which reminds me... What were you doing there, Kuze?
I was there for Otome.
For Otome? Then you knew she'd be in trouble already...!
Did you get a death clip...!?

You tell them about Otome's death clip...

[Music: The Enigma Deepens]



Th-That's...!
You didn't get it?



Oh... wait a second. That man said something odd...



Yes... that must be it. That man is Nicaea's administrator. It would be easy to arrange.
But if he wanted to destroy the Tsuutenkaku, he wouldn't have sent the clip... Strange.
That's true... What was he trying to accomplish?
And why target the Tsuutenkaku to begin with?
Because it's a tower.
Well... When I got here, the SDF and JP's backup had been defeated already...



No... but there's no question that he was targeting the tower.
It's clear that his powers are beyond human, too. And if that's the case...
He's a Septentrione?



Hm...? But... wait a moment, that doesn't make sense.
It doesn't? Why not?
He helped beat Megrez.
What...?

[Music: Connected Hearts]



Even before that, he created the summoning app... our weapon against the Septentriones.
He seems to be on good terms with Hibiki, too... is he really an enemy?
Otome, have you forgotten? The man tried to--



This is Sako. How may I help you, Chief Hotsuin?



No... The attacker escaped. But the Tsuutenkaku is safe.
Ha... Well done. Is Hibiki with you?
...Er, yes. We had to borrow his help for this one too.



Ah...! Understood. I'll tell the others.



[Music: The Operation Starts]

Yes, everything is ready. We're going to shoot down Alioth.



I look forward to it.
Ha... Reliable as always. THe way you were when we first met seems like a false memory.





You say your farewells to Makoto and Otome and leave...

[Music: Exploration]



And just like that, Otome's made it up to Fate 2. Not a moment too soon, either. Sort of a bit late, but I'm not complaining too much.





Hey yourself.
Just a heads up. I got back from the main office and the Tsuutenkaku is online.



Why?
No idea. But if that had been destroyed, we would've been in deep trouble.
The Tsuutenkaku has this thing for the Terminal... It's like a switchboard for a phone.



Well... just thought I should let you know. Talk to you later.

The call ends...

Huh, weird. I guess despite telling us how bring down Alioth he doesn't want us to get to Sapporo to finish it. Or something along those lines any way.



Ah well, we took down Bifrons so we can fuse him now. Just need to get to level 45 first.



Before that, though, I think we should go and get rid of Alioth.