Part 36: Mother Tiamat
Prayer
Jimenez is at least half-demon, Jack is never coming back, generally awkward times all around. Hopefully folks are still holding up.
But what shocks me is the very possibility that humans and demons can fuse to begin with... I don't get it...! This is way beyond what I thought possible...! How do we even classify a fusion of the two races...?
Humans are supposed to fuse demons together... Not themselves... Strange twist of fate. So! We have a non-human on staff. Great. WHat's going to happen now...?
But I'm more interested in his new morphology, and how compatible his human and demon parts are... Sad, isn't it? I'm a doctor to the core. So... what's his body like, now that he's a demon...? I wish I could get a good hands-on examination... EEGs, CAT scans, PET scans, real up close... Heheheheheh...
Was he really just looking out for his demon, or did he want the power of demons for himself? ...It's not my place to speculate, but one thing's for sure. Jimenez became a demon because he chose to. He made his decision. Unlike me, who talks big, but never does anything...
Well, thid time's the charm, or so they say. I think we can upgrade yer Demonica. Alright, Tadano. Give those forma here.
Ready to roll up yer sleeves, Chen? We got more ingredients than usual, but the procedure's the same.
Nice and slow... Let's do this right.> Irving and Chen started working.
> ...
> ......
Here, lemme install it on yer Demonica for ya.
This does change a few things around in every Sector. It doesn't replace ES A though; it stacks with it. When generating an ES demon it has a 50% chance to draw from the ES A pool and a 50% chance to draw from the ES B pool. Antlia gets the second best deal from this, really; it gets Fornax's ES demons added to its pool which is pretty cool. Bootes gets King Frost and Futotama added, both turning up solo. Carina, Delphinus and Eridanus just get modified spawn rates for everything. The best thing that happens with ES B is that Fiend rates across the board are now a 5% chance in total which is a massive boost really.
But hey, we grabbed this from the HQ and it's nice but... would've been nicer if we didn't need to have done more than half of Fornax just to get to it.
Because it lets you have the VR overlay thing for the Red Dark Rooms now.
Sure would have been useful if we didn't need to go though the dark room hell just to get part of the way to it!
Anyway, yeah, JSHQ didn't give us anything new in the shop. Are you surprised? Yes? No, you're not stop lying.
I thought I was tough, but if someone told me to do the same thing... I dunno if I could. Well, anyhoo... I'm glad the fusion went off okay.
Going through an experiment like that without any idea of the proper procedures... That's not science! And yet... given that it was a success despite that, it may in fact be a great achievement. Although I can't imagine who but Jimenez would be reckless enough to try it a second time.
But there's no doubt that he made his decision to become more powerful. Rather than be the demons' master, he chose to be closer to them... to be one of them. And there's no telling what that choice might lead to... The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried
Alright, so back to Fornax we go. Gonna drill down that middle path until we get back to the 5th floor. There's a rude jerk of an invisible demon here and we just got Enemy Search B, so...
In The Master's Name
You found me! Then I'll beat you by force...!
An Honor Befitting that Name
So the Formless' palette swap big brother is.... kinda really boring, not gonna lie. Not even strong or noteworthy enough to warrant a video. Just... think about that for a second.
I mean, sure, it can use Asura Roga which is a nice surprise and something I forgot entirely. It's only a very minor inconvenience because I have the Cursed Sarai equipped.
Also it casts Maragion. Good job, dude. Keep on trying.
It's immune to Expel and Curse and has no other weakness or resistance of note. It almost certainly resists ailments in some way but it's weak as hell so totally irrelevant.
In The Master's Name
I shall return to my body...
Tadano. Do not let this brief moment of victory go to your head!
"Brief moment"? Anyway, yes, good advice. Don't fall to Pride that you already conquered. That'd just be embarassing!
The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried
Just past there, we can get to a door that leads to the stairs down. Weird that it tells us this here and not actually on B6F, huh?
So, let's take a minute to finally drop in how I've been doing Wacky Effortless Things for a while. If you take two
Don't ever use a Source on a Mitama. Just... don't. It's not worth it.
They're exclusively designed for Fusion material (their Sources are even all kind of awful but Base Kusi has the best because he'll Bonus skill either Charge or Concentrate). Using them does not give you a new demon. It gives you the other demon you fused it with but with a stat boost of +2 in one stat and +1 in another; these boosts cap at +8 in total. Most of the time, this fusion won't change skills because there'll be no empty slots. The real reason to bother with doing this is to add a Source to give new skills and change things around.
The stat boost is honestly not a big deal at all. The skill swap is what makes this a Very Important Thing To Remember. Just... keep it in mind. We'll get back to this twice in the future. For now, it's just a thing I do off-screen. A lot.
Silence
I'll not let you reach the Goddess Tiamat who birthed us! In The Master's Name
Asura is really boring here. He just warps in during a screen flash. No breaking walls or cool entrances or anything. Laaaaaaame.
The true power of Asura...
We demons are journeying to the Earth yearning for itself. To annihilate the humans, those defilers of soil and destroyers of lives. The power of demons, of destruction, is necessary to restore power to the land. And not only demons... If there are those within your brood who carry that noble seed within them...
It is the beautiful power of destruction we need to restore the Earth! Demons and the chosen humans shall reclaim the Earth's true nature! Destruction will rejuvenate Earth!
I won't let you. Unsightly power... unsightly spirit.. You spit words that change nothing. Your mere eistence is anathema. You shall not escape. In this land ruled by the Goddess Tiamat... You shall return to a mere seed!
Lady Asherah Vehement Rage
So, Asherah is... not going to buck the trend of the pseudo-refights being disappointing and simple.
Surprising hopefully no one, she opens the fight by using Asura Roga.
In terms of changes, she drops Maragidyne. For Maragion.
Asherah what are you doing? That's arguably worse than what Mithra did!
She kind of tries and fails to make up for it by casting Ashura and Black Flame whenever she wants instead of when low on HP but uhh... that's it.
She's still weak to Ice, still resists Gun, still reflects Wind and Fire. Her added resistance is for Electricity. I guess just to round those out even though it's kind of irrelevant.
As a complement to Eridanus's Superbia, Fornax is the inevitable Vanagloria. Moloch, Mithras, Orcus and Asherah were deluded. They believe that because they're wreathed in a different guise things would go differently. They were under the misguided impression that their own weakness was the result of their environment when it was their own lack of skill and strength in the first place. Their "true" states of being are essentially completely identical to their previous form save for one minor change and are in some ways actively worse than when they were being "held back".
End In The Master's Name
Tiamat... Mother... A fearsome human... draws near... Silence
Your destiny is now fixed... To be punished by me... Your body, your spirit... I shall crush you...
> You can no longer hear the voice.
The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried
I have verified your victory over the demon Asherah. Mission "Defeat the Three Demons" is confirmed complete.
She will be powerful. Remember to prepare yourself before you engage her.
Yeah, yeah, we'll be fine. Anyway, immediate crossroad so we'll take the left path and get to a wonderful deadend. I could have sworn there was a hidden door here but there isn't. Thanks, Fornax.
Also real quick, now that we've hit level 51 let's talk about a password that Atlus gave out. This is the first one we'll be seeing in this run, though there are some... very special ones for low-level demons.
This one gives Ishtar. Ishtar can only be gotten via this password. She's... kind of not very good at face value. Amrita is okay, Silent Prayer is very nice but a double-edged sword and Invitation is a Summon Stone. Normally Invitation isn't obtainable until level 73 so, uh, yeah.
Resistances are exactly how they look, boringly enough. Although her Source is an insanely early way to get Drain Wind (the only other Source with it is Norn's...) so there's that?
Because we can't do anything special with her by default, there's only one way to make her actually good and that is by Mitamaing her. I'm not stopping here, of course; I'm gonna add a few more things and then spend Way Too Much macca so I can keep these sources when I'm done.
The Fear of God
The area past the spot where the Strange Demon was guarding has some new demons. After Asherah, they become much more common so we'll deal with them here.
Throne I can't complain too much about. He's a pretty solid Divine, and spent a while on our roster. Nothing secret under the hood here, but he's pretty decent in general.
Taotie is REALLY ABSURDLY GOOD. Like, holy shit. Those Weaknesses are all base damage, so they're secretly just Neutrals so they're exclusively for co-ops, so feel free to ignore them. Immune to Phys, Gun and Expel. Comes with Tyranny and Void Nerve (immunity to Petrification, Paralysis, Bomb and Poison). Bomb Knuckle is an ST phys skill that has a chance to inflict Bomb of course; Taotie might just be the single most deadly Bomb user because the enemy version almost exclusively uses Bomb Knuckle and absolutely nothing else.
Alraune is really, thoroughly eh. She has no resistances. Like, at all. Her ailment resists are 100% across the board... except Charm. Charm is a 300% weakness. The one thing she can do is the one thing that cripples her the most. Good job, Alraune. The usable version has Watchful and her source gives Vigilant which is... something, I guess.
And there's a Nocturne boss fight just hanging out as a regular ol' normal random encounter.
Atropos is pretty good at doing the whole cutting your string of fate, thing. She has 3 ways of kiling you dead. As an added bonus, she's immune to Sleep because Eternal Rest exists so she can't be instant killed outside of things like Waking Dream.
Ad, uh, you can guess how often that one's going to come up again.
The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried
Following the other path brings us to this dark room. The last one in Fornax and one that's teeny tiny!
Because of course it is. Red dark rooms are apparently antifun. Now that we CAN see in them, it gives us such a softball that it might as well not even matter.
Da Peng is the only new enemy in the dark room down here. He has Magarudyne, nulls Wind in kind and is only weak to Guns. No ailment resistances or weaknesses. Has a tendency to come in packs of 3. That's about it.
The other two doors up top are ones we'll come to later, don't worry. The door on the right leads to an empty dead end and bottom brings us to a phase shifter.
Fornax: it uses every single dungeon gimmick exactly once. Well, except teleporters. Haven't had any of those, huh.
So, the Sanctum is kind of small but also very, very important. The three doors up-top just all lead to the same area this time so that's disapointing but whatever.
There's a pair of Megido Stones over to the side which might prove useful sometime I guess, maybe.
Over on the right we have this Gate Search door. This door is Very Important, so I made extra-special double sure to open it!
New demons? Eh, there's two. Well, just Decarabia now but Catoblepas kind of technically counts as well sort of I guess.
Decarabia's immune to Curse, weak to Gun, has a flat 100% resist for all ailments and can only cast Megido and Tetrakarn. He likes the latter a lot, yes.
South of the gate search door, and a very short walk from the Phase Shifter we have a return to the normal area of Fornax. The Phase Shift area is really not that big, no.
Over on the left side, there's a hidden door here. This one is also quite important though not for the same reasons as the other one.
Right now, it just lets us get DF II for the first time somehow, in a fixed spawn. That's nice of it.
We could go down the stairs now, but there were a few areas that we can do something else with first...
Returning back to the Original Space and heading through the top-left door lets us look around back to the stairs.
This is solely just there to let you get these 3 AT IIs and for map complexion, of course.
The other hidden door we opened lets you get this. Full MP to everyone. This is the earliest you can get one, and we won't get others easily for a little while.
NOW we can head on down to the 7th floor.
Immediately get told about a boss up ahead. Gee, I wonder who that is...
Anyway, there's an Enemy Search right by the entrance and the ES B does give A new thing to Fornax. Hopefully this'll be i--
Oh. I mean, I guess that works but it's not what I wanted. I will gladly take those scales again but that's it.
An Honor Befitting that Name
Going up and down the stairs a bunch got Hanuman to spawn at last. Kinmamon is the only thing from ES A outside of Black Rider, and the same applies to Hanuman for B. He has a 60% chance of spawning solo, and a 32% chance of appearing with a Da Peng buddy. This isn't taking into account the 50/50 split of what Enemy Search gets used in the first place of course.
He's resist to Phys (but not Gun) and Curse, and immune to Expel and weak to Wind. He has Retaliate just to deter you from shooting him and he has Endure so he survives with 1HP when he should otherwise die.
He has no ailment resist though, and Endure can't do shit about Petrify so uh whoops.
The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried
The 7th floor is, bringing us back to Fornax's MO of being boring as dirt, mostly a straight line right to the boss. There's a terminal and a heal spot by the stairs, and this Chimera hangs out here but that's it.
Nothing else here at all. How... Fornax of it.
So, let's just head on into that big room at the end where the "!" on the in-game map is.
In The Master's Name
Destruction... to the cursed humans who defeated my demons...
And then... give us shape once more...!
Ahh... Patience... Your wish will soon be granted...Tiamat! Goddess! Death to the humans...!
We demons have slept as seeds in this land unknown to humans... Over time, we lay dormant.
The dark thoughts of humanity flowed to this land, giving us shape... giving us power... We are the seeds who slept below the soil of this land. But we were not meant to sleep eternally...
Now, our buds begin to open...!Death to the humans! May demons reign!
Faster than the humans can fill the land... Faster than the humans can destroy the planet... I shall give birth to demons to keep them in check! So long as this land is abundant with seeds, I will birth an endless orchard of demons!Suddenly, boss fight starts! Yeah, no alignment dialogue choice this time.
Drake Tiamat Vehement Rage
Tiamat is a Mesopotamian goddess of the ocean. She does indeed give birth to a bunch of other gods, as one of her main roles which is a really weird thing to carry over here and make plot relevant.
I can kind of see Tiamat being a bit of a difficulty spike, in a way. Ouroboros' main difficulty came from randomly giving you a game over with there being very little you can do about it and then Fornax is so simple that it's harder to not faceroll.
Then Tiamat actually kind of, like, does things. Black Rider is still the biggest threat we've fought though.
Mother Earth is probably her most special attack but if you use the Hardwired it's not that big of a threat. What makes it marginally more annoying than "some Ice damage" is that she heals about half the damage it does. Kind of like Horkus/Orcus but multitarget so it's less shit about it.
Like Jack, she can also cast Pure Blue. Unlike Jack, there are three things that make her do this:
1. You debuff her to -4 in anything;
2. You cast/queue up Silent Prayer;
3. She just feels like it.
Somewhere in the region of Everything On The Internet says that 1 is the only thing that makes it happen. They're wrong.
On the flip side, if you buff to +4 there is dickall she can do about it. Well, there is one thing.
She can cast Sunset Melody, also like Jack did. That's it. That's all she can do to debuff you in any way. Good job, Tiamat.
Anyway, Tiamat likes Ice spells. A lot.
This is why the Hardwired is a good armor for this sector. She drains Ice at 200% its normal rate, so don't do it! Immune to Fire, resists Gun but she's weak to Elec, at least.
Since she uses almost nothing but spells, popping a Magic Mirror might be a good idea right? Ahahahahaha.
Ahahahahahaha.
She responds by dropping all pretenses and immediately casting Diarahan. Not Pure Blue, just flat Diarahan to really rub it in your face. She is not the first boss to just throw a fuck you out there if you try this; she won't be the last either.
My first playthrough, she's also the boss where I learned that Fear is ludicrously good. I got a Tyranny proc in turn 1 and she just proceeded to sit there the entire fight and do nothing. That was fun, albeit bizarrely lucky considering she has 4500HP to cut through.
...Oh and she gives bonkers EXP. Decent macca for one fight, as well. Balm of Rising is nice I suppose.
End In The Master's Name
It will not be... just me... Soon... your life... your spirit... ...will... per...ish....
I see you have recovered the Exotic Matter from Tiamat. Mission "Fornax's Exotic Matter" is confirmed complete. Return to the ship immediately.
...... There must be an innumerable amount of demons sleeping here. Some of them would no doubt be beyond our comprehension... We can't just leave this be...> You can feel a presence...
Silence
Now... The flow of air shall shift... as will my destination... Ahh, who am I...? And what awaits me...? ...> Gore disappeared somehere...
No purpose, no destination... I feel sorry for him, but there's nothing we can do... Malevolence and Benevolence
Well done, Crewman Hitonari. I will send this to Engineering. We will begin preparations to travel to the next sector immediately.
So this is the second Exotic Matter... It's just like Arthur said. We're making progress, and that's a good thing, but...
We may have some hope, but on the other hand... those monsters might just be toying with us.
Who knows how long it'll take us to get there...
Well, there you go, Arthur. It's all up to you.
Some situation... Is moving into the unknown all we can do...? So, Arthur, how do we get to the next sector?
We will enter the new sector using a continuous jump. I hope those three life forms don't get in the way this time. Drive safely, now. Fornax was teeming with all kinds of demons... I suppose the next sector will have even more powerful demons, yes? Before we move to the next sector, I have two items to report. First, about Crewman Jimenez...
If it is deemed necessary, we will put him in cold sleep. Jimenez has been begging to return to his duties, but...
We can't have him run in and get captured again like he did at Jack's Squad HQ... About that...
He didn't just up and decide to go in himself. Of course, that's all spilled milk now...
Fate dealt him a funny hand, I guess.
As a result, we may gain some sort of technological advance from them in the near future. We receive regular reports on the materials and demons they collect.
That concludes the report. Let us begin preparations to move to the next sector. We must begin searching for more Exotic Matter. All hands, to your designated positions...
Now we get a repeat of the Vanishing Point cutscene. Yay...
The new Exotic Matter has led us through the Vanishing Point to a previously unreachable area. We have safely landed in a new sector. All hands, prepare to begin this sector's mission. Monitors, report on field conditions.
Grus is, of course, named after a bird; if you've ever played Zelda: Skyward Sword you sure didn't me to tell you that one. It actually means crane, though; the latin name for the common Crane is even Grus Grus. The constellation itself is in the southern hemisphere and is one of the Southern Birds as a result. As an added bonus, it used to be called the Flamingo (albeit in latin still, yes).
...The Schwarzwelt's Grus is either my least favourite or second least favourite sector, depending on how well it stacks up to Fornax this time.
Monitors here! Setting up the outside camera feed! Fear
Hey... I recognize this place...!
Can't be. It's too blue and there's not enough planes bombing things in the background.
It does look like it, but... It's not quite the same as Antlia, is it? Wasn't Antlia burning more? There's no way this can be Antlia. Our space-time coordinates are nowhere near there. We've just confirmed some strange readings. It's bad enough this place looks like Antlia, but there's more...
You mean just like Literally Every Sector before now? Grus will have things that aren't just lazy palette swapped reused assets? Be still, my beating heart.
So basically, while there'll be pockets that look like Antlia... There'll also be areas that look completely different. The whole thing's like a giant mosaic...
Take caution while carrying out your duties.
The materialization progression is relatively advanced at our LZ. This sector smells all kinds of suspicious, but not much would surprise me anymore. We have a job to do, same as ever. Have we confirmed our target? Is there Exotic Matter here?
It's as if we're marionettes on a string. Perhaps we were crazy to think we could escape... Everyone knows already. Please don't say anything to stir up anxiety, Zelenin.
...I'm sorry. I spoke out of turn. But I wasn't simply voicing my frustration... I'm thinking there must be some other way... As the Command Unit, I propose that the search for Exotic Matter remains our chief priority.
I posit a theory: Mem Aleph is believed to be the core of the Schwarzwelt.
Destroy the Schwarzwelt...? Is that possible? We've already failed once... The attack from outside failed... But what about an attack from the inside? Either way, it's nice to have some good news for a change, Arthur.
It'll be the most dangerous thing we've ever tried here. Everything's up in the air... But even a slim hope is a hope. And without that Exotic Matter, it's out of our reach. So I'm ready to go on investigating. You've gotten good at handling the crew, Arthur. That fairy tale about being able to destroy the Schwarzwelt sure lifted everyone's spirits... Hey, don't use that as an excuse to slack off.
Put your feelings aside and focus on the mission. But if we destroy the Schwarzwelt... Will we be able to return to Earth!? What'll happen to us inside!? Calm down. No use worrying yourself sick over something that may or may not happen.
We can't even nail down our own hopes... Human crewmen are expected to be in control of their emotions. Stay calm, assess the situation, and carry out your duties.
I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.