Part 19: Master Horkos
Prayer
Well, we just had a (relatively) big ol' plot dump in that last scene. Let's see how the crew are doing!
What should we do now? Won't anything we do just show how powerless we really are? Anyway, all we can do is our best. Just what our "best" is... we'll have to go give serious thought to it.
But... if we don't do what we came here for, how is that different from running away...? ...I'm sorry. I know the strike team is always serious about this stuff. Let's just take down Horkos... it's all we can do right now.
Personally... I think we should go back, but I can't say that too loud. I mean... Commander Gore's body is resting here. I couldn't let him hear something like that.
He'd say, "We can't run awa here! We're humanity's hope... we can't give up until the very end!" Yeah, something inspiring like that to give us all a push. Commander... why'd you have to go and die? We need you most now...
That's why we gotta work harder'n ever now. All that nasty stuff's comin' outta here, after all. Right, Tadano?
I think we should worry about ourselves before we can worry about the Earth.There is absolutely nothing new in the Lab this time, so we'll just move on outta here.
Oh, well... Even if he does, we've got more than enough bullets to feed him. If we pile it on, he'll quiet down eventually and spit out that Rosetta.Dent, as always, just talks about sidequests but has nothing so... to Carina!
A Squandered Nation
Thankfully, the instant we step outside of the first little room we see Horkos on the map. He's running towards those nearby stairs, huh?
He's by the stairs over there. Let's get after him, Tadano!We've literally just got here, so...
In The Master's Name
I was careless... Trying to eat them raw...! I must go to the hideout and... Urgh! Urrrrrgh!> Something fell from Horkos's body...
Quickly! Quickly! I must run! Buo! Buo! Buono!
What're we gonna do, Tadano!? We can't follow him!> You searched the spot where Horkos dropped something.
What's that thing? Horkos dropped it, right? That fatass drops a lot of stuff, doesn't he? He get food poisoning or something? Food poisoning... Urp... ...... F... Forget that! Anyways, let's take that to the lab, see what they make of it. Time to pay Irving a visit!Sounds like a plan to me!
Malevolence and Benevolence
I can't tell if that porker's scary or just plumb stupid... Well, give it here. Mebbe I can make somethin' that'll track him down... Silence> Irving started working...
......
...
> A new function was added to your Demonica.
But listen to this. If there's one of them there "sanctums," this'll let the Demonica access it. I call it the Phase Shifter! Betcha this'll come in handy when yer chasin' down that porker! Take it! The End
Prayer
Believe it or not, from a couple random Forma we can make a new gun! It's... kind of terrible! Snipe is thoroughly okay, because it can't miss ever and deals Medium damage. It's easy to get the Miracle Gun at least - AT Carite x1, Brute Boards x1 (Momunofu), Snake Snout x1 (Nozuchi) - and that it took this long was a little bit amazing.
A Squandered Nation
Back in Carina, let's try out this Phase Shifter! It has no use at all in Antlia or Bootes, that we've seen, so all we can do with this is chase Horkos.
This creates a whole new second map for part of the floor of Carina. Why yes, for the fully mapped record stuff you do need to get the entirety of the Phase Shift sanctums AND the base form all done before it counts.
Sanctums, plural, because this is Phase Shifter A. There's obviously gonna be more than one.
Fork in the path immediately. We'll go right for now, since that could lead to the stairs at the bottom and give us our bearings.
Or it could just give us a Mental Drink and absolutely nothing else.
Going back and following the newest part just leads back to normal Carina rather quickly.
Pretty quickly come to a cross intersection but it's kind of irrelevant.
Left and up from there just lead into each other and back to the centre. Right is progress, so...
There's more to the 2nd floor, of course, but we could honestly finish Carina REALLY quickly if we wanted to.
....Or maybe not. God dammit, Carina!
We'll start off by heading over here, then. It's one of like three places we CAN get to and there's a Forma here.
Granted, there is ONLY that one Forma here. But, hey, a fixed 2 DF Carite II isn't that bad. Hopefully.
The left-most door just leads to a single Strength Incense. This is kind of nice and useful because it's Strength.
Alas, it's let down as far as things are going to go here by being an Incense.
Just leaves this one path down at the bottom, I guess. Well, let's see where this leads then.
...Oh, a terminal? That's kind of useful, as always.
Around the corner, we--
In The Master's Name
Hurry! Hurry! I must run! To my hiding place...! Buo! Buo! Buono!> You can't hear the voice anymore...
A Squandered Nation
This path is linear and comes to a dead-end. That we can already get through. What is the point of this...?
There's a turn in that linear path down here, don't worry. Ignoring that just leads to a bunch of Chakra Drops which is something, I guess.
Another hidden door that we can already open. Still don't know why this is here. It's redundant and pointless.
It gives us another Sanctum on the 3rd floor, which we can use.
Okay, going right last time we got this kind of break lead to a waste of time. So we'll go left!
Y'know, we have so many Beads. 2 more is nice but it's also just more for the pile.
We'll head up at that break in the path and follow the old dark rooms around back to where we found the terminal before.
There's nothing here but a Magic Mirror which is a useful item except not in the least. Being an item it goes first, and sets up a Reflect barrier on the entire party that affects a Fire/Ice/Wind/Elec/Expel/Curse spell. It only lasts for 1 turn, it can easily be ignored and skipped past, it has no effect on ailments, anything you would want to use it on has a fixed internal counter for if you try and do it...
Fortunately, the path that used to lead to a fixed Forma doesn't do that now. It leads to a path and... a terminal in the exact same spot as before? Huh.
Also there's a one-way door here. Well, shit.
Well, while we're here we might as well take advantage of this and check out the right-hand path. A few more Miracle Cores are never a bad thing and they're this path's version of the Beads, appropriately enough.
There's also a door here and a path leading back down, huh? We'll check this out in a minute but it occurs to me now that I haven't said anything about the Sanctum's fights, have I? Yeah, it has a few new demons.
The Fear of God
For starters, Halphas turns up here sometimes. Hey Halphas, how's it goin'?
Sadly, Halphas is kind of boring. He's weak to being shot with normal bullets, he resists Expel and Curse and can cast Tarukaja and Rakukaja. No ailment resistances or weaknesses and his Source paradoxically gives Gun Boost which is neat and useful and is a skill that I'm going to abuse in at least one case with something else later.
Silky is honestly even more boring than Halphas. Everything you can see here is all you need to know. Her Source does give Recovery Boost which boosts y'know Dia, Media, Diarama, Mediarama and nothing else.
It's also completely irrelevant because items are flatout better because of priority.
Lastly, we have Doppelganger and his Mou-Ryo buddies. We sort of used the latter but without any mention or fanfare. Mou-Ryo is at least a bit interesting by sheer default of having Kamikaze, because that kills him dead and deals Almighty physical damage to a single target.
Doppelganger is weird. He's both one of the worst and one of the best demons we'll ever see. He is the second, and final, Foul and his natural resistances are.. interesting. He Reflects Phys and Gun (remember this) and has a 300% weakness to Expel and Curse. No ailment weaknesses or resistances, but he comes with Makarakarn which if he gets off already makes him almost invincible. He'll be seeing a lot of use in non-canon sidestuff because he makes a really good base for Shenanigans but we won't be using him often in "real" fights.
Also Ally Call is an enemy only skill that lets him spawn in like Mou-Ryo and Macabre.
A Squandered Nation
Anyway, where were we? Ah, right. That door just leads to 5 Detox Cores. Boring!
The other path leads to stairs up to the 4th floor and a door further south.
...Alright, fine. More dark sooms it is, I guess!
Well, almost. Kind of. They're at least mercifully short and brief this time around.
Nothing else that-a-way so we'll head on over this way and see where this leads.
First we're gonna make a whole buncha new demons. Phoenix is pretty okay. That he's immune to instant-death is kind of clever and I like that. No ailment resistances, is internally weak to Fire so he drains extra damage and his source gives... Maragion? Really..? Man, Phoenix, Inferno does this better.
Added Raijuu's source to give elemental coverage.
Making a Sylph just so I can get actual Garudyne out of this. She's pretty straight-froward and I just like Sylph in general. Not so much in this game specifically, but I can't complain.
And Virtue's gonna let us walk through the randoms that Mudoon doesn't help much with. Nothing super fancy here.
Anyway, this path leads around to a different set of stairs leading up and another path south.
This happens when we go up those stairs. Well, okay then. Time to head back down because this was just for putting the stairs on the map anyway.
Around the corner back on the 3F, we can find a single Summon Stone. Sure, okay, whatever.
We'll double-back briefly to the top stairs leading to the 4th floor and... wow. This just leads to a dead-end. Well, this was pointless. Figures.
Alright, fine. Back to the 2nd floor we go. There's a reason, yes.
The door by the stairs now leads to a Sanctum area. We'll be heading through this for a special reason.
It's only a small Sanctum area, but it has a Phase Shifter in it? We'll look at that in a moment. There's also a normal base Carina area over here.
It's not that exciting or anything but it does let us get a couple more things.
Namely this. Luck is the best stat for Hitonari, of course, so this one might just see some use. Might.
Probably not though.
The other gap lets us grab these. Tetraja Stones are neat and useful for preventing Expel or Curse but I'll likely forget that I have them. Unlike the mirrors they don't just last for one turn either! Throw one up at the start of the fight and it lasts until its used.
Anyway, we passed a Phase Shifter on the way through this part of the floor. Let's see what that does for us.
It lets us get a VERY GOOD weapon for Hitonari.
Sure it's weaker than the Plasma Knife but it inflicts Fear. Fear is insanely good and broken and I love it. It's annoying in the enemy's hands, but it's arguably the best ailment in our hands!
No really, it works on almost everything and it makes them skip their turns. What's not to like?
.....and yes, this is something where I have to grit my teeth and admit that IV almost did it better. It had a Chainsaw weapon as well. It inflicted instant death. More useful for randoms but way less useful for bosses.
Oh and I somehow missed this hidden door on the 2nd floor earlier.
I'm not sure how, since it lets us get some hopefully useful new Forma.
It also gives us our first Soma. Full HP and MP on a single target? Don't mind if I do.
Yes, a single target and not the full party. You may have noticed that Soma Drops were not this. SJ inexplicably downgrades what these do because reasons.
Anyway, the main goal part of the 4th floor!
It's not super-big or anything, but it has some stuff in it. Like this door over here. We can't get through it yet. Lame.
Both of the other paths up lead around to this terminal. We'll just duck out of Carina for a second...
Prayer
Just to see what we can get from Irving. We don't need anything new or anything, but we can sure see what we can get anyway.
The Dynamic ring is +15 MP. That's fucking awful. At least it's easy to get now since it's just AC Carite x1, Fallen Feather x1 (Halphas) and Jirae Seal x3 (Sudama) for some reason.
And that's it. That's the only new thing we unlocked during our trip through Carina. Lame.
Oh well. I'm gonna take this out on Virtue and just throw him in the trash. His job is done, so he can get outta here!
...So that we can make a whole new one just outside Horkos' room. Either Gnome or Inferno's sources are good for this one. Inferno is better because it gives Agidyne and Fire Boost but Gnome gives Ziodyne and Rakunda. I'm gonna go with Gnome for expediency.
In The Master's Name
Anyway, Horkos!
Even beasts know their keep... You are less than they. And do not compare yourselves to we noble demons... You humans, who have forgotten your great debt to the earth, are fated to die. Devouring all your pointless goods is a sign of my love! You disagree? You dare claim humans, who covered the earth with products of their desire, can handle this matter? How will you deal with such excess?
We'll learn to control it. So overconfident. Humans lack the means to control themselves.
Finding joy in order... Only those foolish angels can do that!
> You aimed the Horkos Buster.
What!? It's not working!? Your weapon cannot affect this body! Buono!
But humans upset that rhythm and have joined the ranks of the eaten, the consumed. I, Horkos, am the proof! First, I will eat you! Then I will eat that iron ship! And for the finale, I will devour all the humans of the Earth!
Tyrant Horkos Vehement Rage
Horkos is a weird awful spelling of Orcus. Orcus is a Roman god of the dead and his name also means the land of the dead. In a way, he's basically the Roman equivalent to Hades or Hel.
Here, he's a fat pig man with 1800HP and a weakness to barbecue (Elec and Fire). He resists Phys and Gun, and of course is immune to Instant Death.
He's also a weird paradox in that his boss form is immune to every ailment. And yet you can inflict him with any and every ailment (except maybe 3 at the absolute most) with 100% success. You'll see...
Skill-wise, he's all Physical so if you have one bringing Doppelganger isn't a bad idea by any means. Taunt Horkos and have Doppelganger contribute by existing. But that's boring, so I won't do that.
I will however just casually turn Beads into my go-to healing item. This is going to be a trend from now on. We have an infinite number (thanks Irving!) so there's no point in being frugal and it's just a flatout better Diarahan.
Oh and Horkos is clever. Bosses are finally learning. Don't debuff him to -4 in anything otherwise he'll wipe it. -3 is perfectly fine though.
Same with buffing yourself. +3 is fine; +4 is anathema.
Horkos does have a gimmick and it's a special one. He'll summon a mook!
It's always a Katakirauwa. She's levelled up a bunch for this fight but that's irrelevant.
She'll try and cast Mudo a lot and do basic attacks and just otherwise be there pretending to matter.
I have to say "pretending" because, well...
Her resistances are completely and totally unchanged. This means she is susceptible to every ailment, yes.
Oh and Horkos has a couple more unique things. Hit him even a little bit and he'll start using Air Dive. It's...
It's something, I guess. It hits everyone, but deals less damage than Stun Claw and doesn't inflict ailments or anything.
Also a non-SA friend of mine described this attack as him imagining Horkos just falling over and landing on everyone. I can't not picture that as well now.
He can also kind of try and heal while damaging you at the same time, I guess? Taking A Bite deals Phys damage and he heals half the damage dealt.
His main reasoning for summoning the Katakirauwa is to do the same thing to her. The difference here is that Binge Eating deals 100% her current HP and he then heals half of that.
Oh, and no. I wasn't kidding at all when I said she's susceptible to every ailment still.
....But so is Horkos. Guaranteed. When Katakirauwa has an ailment and he eats her, he gets that ailment.
Paralysis? Works fine. That's a good one because it doesn't wear off and makes him take extra damage.
Fear? Sure, why not! This one DOES wear off but he can just sit there doing nothing for a while.
Poison is the obvious one and Jimenez told us to do it but uhh...
Poison is kind of super underwhelming. It actually deals calculated damage so it's not super-useful against bosses, tragically.
But point here is, yes, you can use this to inflict say Mute and completely shut him down wholesale.
The End
Or you can just kill the fuck outta him and not care. It's a clever mechanic and one the game actually hints at in advance, but it's not necessary at all. In fact, it might be actively detrimental to try and use it.
At least he gives decent EXP when he goes down. Less macca than we'd get from, say, Kanbari though.
Attack Mirror is the Phys/Gun equivalent to the Magic Mirror. This is infinitely more useful, yes.
End In The Master's Name
No... One day... flow... disappear... ......> A strange energy cluster is sitting where Horkos was!
Silence
The energy mass you retrieved must be sent to analysis immediately. Proceed directly to the command room... Malevolence and Benevolence
Uh, Arthur... you... I... no.
This concludes the mission. Mission "Carina's Rosetta" is confirmed complete. We are now equipped to plane shift to the next sector. As I mentioned during our correspondence with the Joint Project...
It's been easy enough to do that in the three sectors we've seen so far... I wonder if it will be as simple in this new sector. Alas, our scant data so far makes it difficult to verify a region through which we can escape. Let us hope we will learn something in the fourth sector.
"Vanishing Point"...? That's... We will need your help in this, First Lieutenant Zelenin, as well as the Joint Project's help. I look forward to the result of your work, First Lieutenant Zelenin. Thanks to the supply and comms teams, we expect to be able to contact the Joint Project again. Our course of action will become clear then. Please rest until we launch for the new sector...
There's no one on the crew by that name... Started seein' things, eh? Wait...! Could it have been a demon...!? ...Nah. Other people would've seen it then, and it would've left some kind of trace behind. What about you, Bugaboo? Did you sense anything?
Demo... Demon..? ...No... No... Hahah, that's a neg, he says. Man, I can't believe he's back! Irving was really surprised that we managed to revive him, too! And I was wondering how much longer he'd live when I saved him at Bootes...
It's against regulations to summon demons unles absolutely necessary. And this isn't the first time I've seen you do it. You don't respect authority much, do you, Jimenez?
Spending time together like this makes a difference when it comes time for actual combat, y'know. Besides, Bugaboo needs some rehab. He's been treated as a "thing" for all this time. That's a dangerous philosophy. Demons only obey humans because of the summoning program...
Hitonari, you really must speak up when he does this. It's all to prevent any accidents from happening. Excuse me, please...> Zelenin left.
I don't think that woman's ever gonna come around on the whole demon thing. Sheesh, it's not like having such a hate on for 'em will make them go away. It's too bad...
Preparations to plane shift into the new sector are complete! We'll begin the plane shift as soon as we get the okay from Ops! Guess we should get ready. Right? Hey, Tadano...? If--I mean, WHEN we get back to the surface...
Ahhh, I ask like we'd get a choice. They'll just take it away along with our Demonicas. We're just grunts, after all...
And then we plane shift ever onwards...
You're in, what, the fourth sector now...? We're all hoping to see an end to the investigation soon.
The structure of the quantum tunnel was extrapolated from the theory of the Schwarzwelt. Our data thus far has confirmed this theory.
You've probably forgotten but Zelenin DID mention this guy before we entered the Schwarzwelt forever ago.
Correct, First Lieutenant Zelenin. Dr. Hammerschmidt predicted the presence of quantum tunnels within the Schwarzwelt. He also theorized the Vanishing Point at which the Schwarzwelt connects to our world. If this theory of the Vanishing Point is also correct...
The monitor team is ready with their report on the atmospheric conditions. Bringing up environmental imagery on the main display... Silence
Fear
To think there'd be a world of waste in the Schwarzwelt like there is in our world... I mean, we had some idea from the drone photos, but... It's hard to believe, even seeing it with my own eyes.
We have noted this tendency in the three previous sectors as well. True, true... The professor said the Schwarzwelt is a "spiegel," a mirror to our own world... I didn't realize this is what he meant by that. To look at it, you wouldn't think the Schwarzwelt was any different from Earth... To the human eye, perhaps not.
It's a literal hell on Earth... I don't envy you having to go around and investigate the place. Psh, don't sweat it. Real work always takes a little elbow grease.
I get a real big charge outta wondering what'll hit us next! Am I right, guys? Could you please tone down the sarcasm, Jimenez? They honestly are sorry to have to send us here. There's no need to antagonize the like that.
Am I alone in sensing some sort of will at work here...? The Schwarzwelt is undoubtedly influenced by the human world. It shouldn't be long now before we understand how this influence works.
We're all depending on you succeeding in there. May God be with you.
Sorry, IF we make it back. Let us resume the task at hand. The first order of business is to designate this sector.
Ah right!
Delphinus the do--
Do you want to do my job now Zelenin? Go for it.
In keeping with the mission objective as outlined by the Joint Project... We will proceed with our analysis of the Schwarzwelt's structure using the equipment on this ship.
Monitor team... Please proceed to Delphinus and begin your search for the quantum tunnel's location. Understood, Arthur. I'm getting used to going into the field... I'm sure we'll be successful. Strike team... You are tasked with searching for the Rosetta.
Please stay alert during your search of the sector.
It now has a wider range and greater sensitivity. Use it well in your search for the Rosetta. Uh... what do you want us to do about the demon we find? Bring it home, introduce it to the family?
...I tell you, Tadano, some folks can't appreciate sarcasm. But look, you and me should come up with a plan for when we do find the big ugly. I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Delphinus's Rosetta."
Alright, cool. So as per usual we'll put this on hold and head back to Ca--
Crisis
An, um... i-important article has gone missing. I'd like to call for an inspection. Arthur, c-can I have backup from the s-strike team? Your request is acknolwedged.