Part 61: Madana-Bhasma
Madana-Bhasma[Music: Exploration]
Alright, let's not put it off in the slightest. Time to shoot down Alioth!
Hey, it's Hibiki. Looks like the operation's a go!
Go get 'em!
You know it! But am I going to have to dance again? It really wears you out, you know.
Now c'mon!
I'm gonna assume you can remember how Shiva pops in, since it hasn't been that long.
[Music: The Enigma Deepens]
You've come, woman. I have been waiting for you. Now tell me what it is you wish.
Y-You scared me...! I can't believe you really came! What the heck... I wish you wouldn't just pop out like that. I need to get ready... Oh, well. I should get to the point... Uh... Hibiki, how should I say this?
Pasupata.
No doubt.
Hm, great. We'll go ahead with our plan, then. Good work, Hibiki. Now watch it all unfold...
Hibiki, I don't know what to say! What did Yamato tell you? Do a dance or something.
...What!? Who does he think he is? Man...
Meanwhile, over in the north...
[Music: JPs -Geomagnetism Research Department-]
No way! If I shoot Shiva, he's gonna kill me! ......
Excuse me. Let me explain the situation once more, as you don't seem to grasp it. Hey... Wait! Wait, child of man! You must be the devil!
I am in no mood for negotiation. What do you want to do? It's your choice. Uh... Huh. I need to know one thing. Shiva's going to be REALLY mad. Will you protect me?
Hmmmmmmm... Fine, I'll do it. Might as well get this over with... I'm counting on you. Please, shoot Shiva. He is in Nagoya at the moment... Hold on. I'm Kama! I can tell where Shiva is from miles away with my eyes closed! Hah... Good for you. I'll let you get on with it.
Well, let's go, to an unfolding world of love and passion![Music: Silence]
...Are you done? Yep. And now... we wait. Status update, please.
All right... [Music: The Operation Starts]
Seems like it's going to go well. All members, pull back! Huh!? Wait, you said you'd protect me!
...Goodbye. Take pride in knowing that you can become this nation's foundation.
[Music: Silence]
[Music: The Enigma Deepens]
Gosh, Hibiki! What's Yamato doing!?
[Music: Silence]
Huh!? What...!?
...... ......? Hey, are you okay?[Music: Countdown]
Why, you... Wh-What's going on!? Something terrible's about to happen...!
Oh, no! Shiva's really really mad! What should we do, Hibiki?
Let's run! Move it! Move! R-Right... We need to get out of here, or we'll be in big trouble...!
[Music: Silence]
Okay, yeah. That was pretty awesome.
[Music: Exploration]
And Alioth...?[Music: Over the Brink of Death]
...Wait, hang on. We just destroyed the tower at Sapporo?
Do we fight the core now? Haha, don't be so anxious. It's outer shell stores an immense amount of toxin.
How long will it last? Our analysis shows that these toxins are gaseous and wont linger in one area for long. Soon, the toxins will dissipate to a level where humans can survive in the area.
...This seems like it's completely pointless. When Alioth fell, it took out the tower at Sapporo. It can't exactly just pick itself up and leave at this point either.
We've already established that an area without its tower is well and truly buggered. Not only is it without a line of defence, the encroaching void will inevitably remove it from existence entirely. And it is a literal void at that. At this point we could do absolutely nothing and still win.
There is absolutely no reason to bother going to Sapporo at this point other than to put ourselves in danger. Like, I'm not complaining about getting a fight out of it or anything. I just think this is weird and kind of unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.
All right. ...I expect much from you. Good luck.
Now we just gotta go defeat this "core" thing in Sapporo... That should finish it! Alright, let's make sure we're ready as we can be before the trip. Almost there, Hibiki!Sweet, now we can go and actually fight Alioth proper. Again, not sure it's completely necessary but whatever. Might as well do it just so the job is definitely done.
But first, since we just wiped Kama out for good we can now fuse the guy. Once we get to level 42. Bit earlier than Bifrons but still a bit away.
Speaking of fusion, we haven't done that for a bit. Let's go get ready for Alioth.
There's two demons at level 38 right now. We can make Peri (Lorelei & Cait Sith) thanks to Hinako. We can make a super good Peri thanks to Lorelei.
Elec Drain's gonna help a ton because the other level 38 demon is weak to Electricity. And only that. Sadly, Peri can't fuse directly into it... but we can do it very easily just by buying a Kamapua'a from the compendium to make a second Cu Chulainn (after making sure the original was already registered and then dismissing it for a moment because Unique).
That temporary Cu Chulainn and a second Kamapua'a make Xuan Wu/Gui Xian/Genbu, the black turtle of the north (he resists ice because he's also representative of winter and water; it's all very clever). He's pretty okay, I guess. Kind of expected to make one that's more physical oriented but he can be built in either direction so it doesn't matter.
Also that base Vitality, holy shit. Killing Gui Xian is not gonna be that easy.
Okay, that's all the prep we need. Let's go and get rid of Alioth now.
[Music: The Enigma Deepens]
Oh, man... I got butterflies in my stomach! I hate this feeling!
Yeah... Will we be okay, though? Yamato said Sapporo's become a biohazard zone... Won't it be dissipated? Well... I guess, but I hate to think of what happens if it's not all gone... Gah... Io, don't say stuff like that! You're making it worse! Calm down.
[Music: Connected Hearts]
Ah...! Makoto...
Oh... R-Really? It won't be dangerous, will it!? We're going into battle...
Oh... Haha. Yeah, makes sense. I just had my hopes up...
This is for you, Kuze...
Looks weird. It releases a neutralizer Fumi developed from the toxin sample that the Chief collected. I see.
According to our research, Alioth's core still houses a small amount of the toxin.
Leave it to me. Yes, I'll be counting on you. Sad to say, I'm not as skilled at reading combat situations.
[Music: The Operation Starts]
...The operation begins now. Let's go!
Something of that mass fell here after all. Its impact must have been... Hm!?
[Music: Countdown]
It's... Alioth! It's here. This is the Alioth core...!
Demons appear, because of course they do. Other than the new Legion in the middle, there's also a Cu Chulainn over on the far right.
I will now display where the neutralizing agent has been calculated to be most useful.
There's three spots all by Alioth; naturally, getting the neutralizer placed is pretty important.
Choose one of the displayed locations to set the neutralizer! If you move to that location, you'll be able to set it there.
Kuze...! Watch how the battle is going. Don't use it when you don't have to! Everybody ready? Let's go![Music: Septentrion]
All right, so there's 5 demons and Alioth to worry about.
Despite there being a lot to crack here, there's no question as to what we're getting. If we got Ziodyne earlier off Botis, it'd still be pretty easy!
But we don't have Ziodyne yet, so we'll grab that now. Pierce and both Nulls are pretty obvious, really.
Alioth's actually somewhat more resilient than he looks. He loves using Curse skills, and his Proof ties into his poison gimmick. His Ziodyne is actually less punishing than every other -dyne we've fought against so far, strangely enough, but he has a fuckton of MP and 1800 HP, so he's sticking around a while and that attack range of 6 is a bit more annoying than it seems.
We'll worry about that later though. To avoid splitting up too much, we're not gonna barrel down the middle. Hibiki and Jungo are heading to the right to get rid of Cu Chulainn.
Meanwhile, Hinako and Otome are heading down the left to grab both Null skills. For a while, absolutely nothing happens. Alioth doesn't do anything on its first turn and the regular demons spend some turns sitting around with their thumbs up their ass.
Then from Alioth's second turn onwards, he does this.
Fortunately, they land in predetermined places depending on your location. Since Hinako and Otome are closest to Alioth so far, it drops over by them... and because I know the few places its shots can land, I was ready for it.
Also I gave Otome Agidyne before the fight starts. She doesn't have Fire Amp though, because that requires 12 Str and that's not happening.
It's pretty good for a non-boosted spell, honestly.
Two of 'em and Brigid helping with a dance of her own, and we're done here already.
That taken care of, Hinako can now fight the Legion that was chilling over here. This is the only enemy here that fights from range (aside from Alioth itself) so the quicker we get rid of this the better. It's still just an Asp, but it's the principle, really.
This is both indicative of how badly Asp sucks and how much Hinako rocks.
Legions have a crippling weakness to Fire AND Electricity. Lorelei and Gui Xian both have Ziodyne. It's pretty one-sided.
Now let's make Jungo completely unstoppable forever.
Hito got punched by Cu Chulainn. Since Pierce ignores Drain that was a bit of a problem.
Oh, right. Cu Chulainn resists physicals. Jungo don't give no fucks. Without Pierce, he still punks Cu Chulainn's ass with Power Hit.
Jungo's fist is now functionally unblockable; it can be Reflected but by the time that comes up in any real capacity, Jungo won't care about that either.
Oh, and our Cu Chulainn has Pierce now too. Once I can, I'm gonna fuse that onto so many things.
The right is pretty much a straight shot to Alioth at this point, so let's focus over here for a bit. The Legion in the middle decides that since it has Winged Flight it should come and fight now.
This ends up being quite a bad idea. Vidofnir is weak to Force (Lorelei has Mazan) and Gui Xian can be petrified.
This guy decides that he wants some of Hinako too, despite being right next to Otome. I guess it makes sense, all Otome's done so far is school an Alioth Shot; Hinako's drained her own HP a fair bit.
On the other hand, there is this. If it wasn't for Gui Xian's remarkably good 22 Vitality, this would've been destoyed. Fortunately, it's tanky so we just left it crippled.
The other one gets to eat shit and die though. Need to leave the one on the left alive, because it's what Otome's cracking Null Ice from.
The second shot lands exactly where the first one did. This time it's a tad more inconvenient.
Otome has to take it out again. She could go and punk the Loa, but that'd delay her to after the shot. Hinako would only get one chance at taking it out. Possible, if she procs Petrify, but risky.
Having Otome blast it with Agidynes is much safer and guaranteed to work.
We can stick Almighty stuff on demons with this. Can't use this to its full potential yet though. Once we can, though, it's going to be glorious.
Alioth's beginning to worry because Jungo and Hibiki are right by it. Understandable, but he should've kept trying to wear down the girls.
As effortlessly as Jungo could put this thing down, Hibiki can do it with even less effort.
Peri has Fire Dance. The shot isn't even getting to pretend to get a turn this time around.
Yuki Jyorou from the middle decides that she finally wants to do something too.
She really shouldn't have even bothered, though. It was pretty one-sided.
Next shot lands in the same place as the 3rd one.
Jungo can handle this one though.
Might Call + Pierce + Power Hit. Jungo's Jungoing pretty hard at this point. And it is awesome.
With the shot out of the way, Hibiki can just waltz up and place the device. Despite what Makoto implied, there is no reason not to; once you're close enough to do this, you're close enough for Alioth to attack you.
Now every toxin on the map (including ones from the shots should they get to explode) gets frozen. This is pretty helpful, since it means we can now saunter up to Alioth and not eat poison everytime our turns come up.
Speaking of Alioth, since we're well within his range at this point he decides to try and pick us off from a distance.
[Music: Break Out]
At the start of every skirmish, Alioth does this. Doesn't matter if you're right next to him, at the edge of his range, or anywhere in between.
...But since we put down the purifier, he's not getting to use it. Ever.
Marked Wing likes to pretend it matters, but Hibiki and Peri are immune and it barely damages Moloch. It does paralyse him, but eh.
Hey look, the Loa finally decides that it wants to fight Otome.
This was an awfully terrible idea, for something of its ilk. At least it was worth it from our perspective.
Oh look, we can hit Alioth now. 1800 HP's a bit of an issue but it shouldn't be much of one.
Ziodyne gets to meet both Anti-Elec AND the defense boost from living demons. It should've targetted Moloch; it might actually hurt that guy.
In return, it gets to eat Force Dances.
More than half its HP taken out in one skirmish. There's basically no surviving a second one.
Since there's no demons left and we're embarassing Alioth, new ones spawn in on both the left and right sides sometimes.
Strangely, though, only 2 Legions dropped in on the left. Usually it alternates, but not this time. Weird.
Oh right. The neutralizer's limited use means if it gets 4 turns it disappears and Alioth's toxin runs rampant again. The neutralizer shouldn't get 4 turns.
It'd be amazing if it even got 2, honestly. You're probably underlevelled if it gets to run out.
Alioth should've listened. If it didn't attack, it wouldn't have died right away. Oh well.
Yay...! We defeated it!
Oh, and those demons spawn in infinitely so if you want to grind you can do it pretty well here I guess. Not worth it though.
Like, if you were underlevelled enough to need to you wouldn't have the resources to keep it up for long and not get punked by Alioth in the end.
[Music: Over the Brink of Death]
Man, that was scary. But I'm glad it worked out...
It was weak! Haha... You are something. We're on the fifth one, and you have yet to break a sweat. Now... I've prepared a feast for you tonight. It's the least I could do.
Hmm, I don't think 18:00 works very good for me...
It's a secret. Huh!? Don't be like that! What'd he say, man? What'd he say?You return via the Terminal, chatting amongst yourselves...
So now we have some time to kill before having to go see Yamato. There's a sequence of 3 events we'll want done before then, so we'll do that of course. That leaves enough time for 1 event... but man, Yamato can wait longer than that. We haven't had much downtime today so let's take the opportunity to hang out with a few more people too.
The question, as always, is who.
