Part 6: Mission 3 - I Am Providence - Part 2
: Okay, that’s all of them down!
: (Joey’s getting more and more used to fighting… The kid really is as good as I thought.): But what about Kurou’s group? Where are they…?
*Flash!*
: Waaaaaaaaaah!!*Dr. West is blasting off again! *twinkle**
: Hrm!
: D-Dude… That was just like Heroman!
: Hm, quite a decent performance for a novice. Our magical wavelengths resonate well, it seems.: You called yourself Al Azif, right? As in, the original grimoire Necronomicon?: Oh, so you know of me?
: H-Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t grimoires supposed to be books?: Why, 'tis only natural for grimoire as mighty as I to possess a soul and form of its own. : You say, like it’s the simplest thing in the world…: But pay that no mind. We have established a covenant, so I expect you to be worthy, Kurou Daijuuji.: What, just like that?! Why?!: 'Tis fate.: Oh, no, you’re not going to hand-wave everything with just one little word!*BOOM!*
: Aack! Wh-What is it now?!
: MWAHAHAHA! How do you like me now, Kurou Daijuuji, Al Azif?!: Behold my masterpiece, the Super West Invincible Robot Type-28 Special!: And now it’ll blast you all into dust bunnies!
: U-Uwaaaaah!
: He’s shooting the whole dang place!: Damn it, the creep’s gone nuts!: Hey, you so-called “mightiest grimoire of all”! Isn’t there anything we can do about that?!: Had I my Deus Machina, Aeon, available, his hunk of garbage would be of no consequence…!*Wooooooom!*
: Aah…?! Aeon… are you there?!: No… this is not Aeon. But I am sensing a Deus Machina, of that I am certain!: Hey, what is that “Deus Machina” business you’re on about?!: In this world, you would call it a god!: “God”?!: I am the keeper of knowledge, the weaver of spells. I am the howling of demons. I am that which conquers death, the original before which all are but copies. By my name, Al Azif, I ask thee!: Thou god armored in steel. Thou god made by man. Thou mechanical god… What art thou? *Wooooooom!*
: “Demonbane”…? A fine name. I like it!: Then, Demonbane, by my name, Al Azif, I summon thee!
: Commander, we’ve got trouble! The Demonbane’s activated!
: What?!
: Order the mystic generator to shut down!
: I’m trying, but it’s not working! (Chiaki): H-How… The Demonbane cannot move without a grimoire! Who could possibly…?!
: It’s headed towards the imaginary expansion catapult!: The Demonbane, the memento of my grandfather, is moving…!
SRW UX - Deus Machina : What’s that thing?!
: Thou art the tears that fall from a sky burning with hatred. Thou art the righteous anger that dwelleth in the blood-soaked flame!: Thou art the innocent blade… Demonbane!: This is the Deus Machina…? Demonbane?!: Ooh, this is unacceptable! You dare defy DR. WEST, GENIUS OF THE CENTURY?!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuNewqx_tbs
Captions are available.
: ?! My attack just bounced right off?!
: All those shots and it didn’t even scratch that robot?!
Ah, my old friends.
: Heheh… Well, things are looking real fun around here, huh? They gotta save some for us, though! (Sawatari): Wh-Who are those…?!: (Armas of the Katou Organization…! Are they after the Deus Machina?!)
: Hmhmm, I figured something big was up with how suddenly we were told to come to America, but I sure didn’t expect something like that to turn up! (Yulianne): The Mechanical God, Deus Machina… Did Hisataka know this was gonna happen?: I’m pretty sure “Imagine” would be his answer to that question. But, whatever the case, we’d best roll up our sleeves and get to work!: Wh-What the hell, another group?! And they look like they’re all gunning for us!: Fret not. The Demonbane and you are now one and the same! To battle, Kurou!: And how do you expect me to do that?! I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to do here!*Heroman walks over to Kurou.*
: That voice… Are you piloting that mech, Kurou?!: Joey?!: Ah, great, it IS you! The Heroman and I’ll help you out! We’ll beat those guys together!: Seems the choice has been made for us. Saya, back them up!: Aye, aye!: Crap, I’ve no idea what’s even going on… but there’s no way around this. I gotta make it work!: Forward, Demonbane! Let all bear witness to thine might!
We just need to beat Dr. West to end the mission, but of course we want the cash (and kills) from the Katous. This would’ve been simpler if Joey didn’t insist of heading to the opposite side of the map to talk with Kurou, but whatever…
Demonbane (Kurou Daijuuji, Al Azif)
Pilot Skills:
Sorcerer (魔術師) L1 – Increases all stats except SP by a fixed amount, maxing out at +20 at L9.
Grimoire (魔導書) L3 – Al’s skill. Increases the unit’s maximum MP and rate of MP Regen in proportion to the skill’s level.
Prevail L1
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Spirit Commands – Kurou:
Invincible
Strike
Spirit Commands – Al:
Focus
Accelerate
Fury/Direct Hit (直撃) – your next attack will bypass all of the enemies special defenses, including supports.
Squad Bonus: Accuracy +5, HP +500 (Accuracy +20, HP +1000, 1250 Barrier)
Kurou’s voice actor: Kentaro Ito (other roles: Renji in Bleach, Akagi in Dai-Guard, Chester in Tales of Phantasia and MANY more).
Al’s voice actress: Rie Kanda (other roles: Judith in Atelier Judie, Vanette in Growlanser V and a few more)
You know what’s fun? Getting one of the absolute best units (I won’t say outright best simply because I may be forgetting stuff) in the game by mission 3. True to its fame, the Demonbane has PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS, and while Kurou can’t do much with it just yet, once he gets going, oh boy, will he just tear through everything.
It’s powerful as no one’s business, incredibly hard to kill (further bolstered by already having access to that barrier), Al gives it Accelerate right off the bat and about the only thing stopping Kurou from destroying everything forever is its lack of flight (which can be fixed by squaddies).
Oh, and it runs on magic, so of course it doesn’t consume EN with its attacks: it uses MP, which Al will always be regenning. At Grimoire L3, she already gives it a 10% refill every turn – by max level, it’ll be 30%. Do note, however, that this means E-Save and EN+ Squad Bonuses won’t work BUT having someone with a Resupply Module on his team is still fine.
All hail the king.
Idaten ver. 2 (Takurou Sawatari)
Pilot Skills:
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Sawatari’s Voice Actor: Tetsu Inada (other roles: Elzam in SRW, Lu Bu in Dynasty Warriors, Harry Ord in Turn A Gundam, and a billion more)
Tsubaki-hime (Yulianne Faithful)
Pilot Skills:
Prevail L2
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Yulianne’s voice actress: Emi Shinohara (other roles: Youko in Orgun, Yu-Fan in Full Metal Panic, Precia in Rayearth, Sailor Jupiter and many, many more)
Sawatari and Yulianne are pretty much the archetypical fragile speedster enemies, but they each have slight differences that you need to account for. Sawatari is clearly the bulkier of the two and has slightly better range, while Yulianne drops her range a bit more and focuses more on outright dodging and being waaay more accurate than Sawatari.
If you were there for the L LP, you should already know that Yulianne is the one you REALLY need to watch out for: she still has her Decapitation attack and she’ll debuff your units’ armor into crap with it. If you’re unlucky and the enemy decides to gang up on someone, that might cost you dearly.
But, while not as fragile as they were in L, Armas still aren’t the bulkiest enemies around – if you can reliably connect against them, they’ll fall in short order.
Destroyer Robo (Dr. West)
Pilot Skills:
Prevail L2
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Dr. West’s voice actor: Takumi Yamazaki (other roles: Young Ocelot in MGS, Isamu in Macross Plus, George in G Gundam and a ton more).
And on the other side of the spectrum, we’ve got defense-specced DOCTAAAAA WEEEEEEST. For all his bravado, though, he’s not really all that tough: his Destroyer Robo can take a decent amount of punishment, but it’s got no significant tricks at its disposal.
West’s stats aren’t that great and his accuracy is worse than Sawatari’s, meaning his best shot is using his Tornado Crusher attack with a +30 accuracy modifier. It’s only got 1-2 range, though, so you can easily set your guys out of that range (Kurou can’t do that yet, but he doesn’t need to).
All in all, taking him down is simple stuff – Prevail L2 isn’t enough to be significant – but do keep this in mind:
Secret Alert Demonbane Secret – 1st step: Shoot down Dr. West with Kurou
Demonbane’s got one of the longer secrets of the game, and this is where it starts. West won’t even retreat, so all you need to do is remember that Kurou needs to deal the finishing blow.
While I’m backing folks away from the Katous, West takes the time to snipe at Heroman.
SRW UX - JOEY AND HEROMAN: You little bundle of junk! Now you’ll understand the greatness of DR. WEST!: H-His mech’s huge…! But I know Heroman can beat it!
: Hmm!
The Armas themselves are frailer than the MP Destroyer Robos, but got more evasion and accuracy.
FYI, Demonbane’s secret also requires Kurou to have 200 kills, but the cutoff point is the start of the penultimate mission of the game, so you got plenty of time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evOgq7J6La4
Fine, he can kill you later.
SRW UX - Shadows that Rend Darkness: So these are the famous UX, eh…?: Hah, now ain’t this is a hoot?! Let’s cut loose and have some fun, you and I!
I enjoy the double support defense combo Heroman and Joey pull there.
: (UX… they certainly don’t look like your run-of-the-mill mercs, that’s for sure…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut8bbv6oILU
Richard: “Time passes on, but gangs like yours never go away, huh…?”
And we might take this opportunity to show the DK of Richard’s Last Testament, seeing how every single mook is gunning for him.
SRW UX - Shadows that Rend Darkness
: The name’s Takurou Sawatari of the Katou Organization! Now come and show me how strong that Deus Machina actually is!: “Katou Organization?!” You’re not with Black Lodge?!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b268KKrCZys
Here’s Sawatari’s best trick.
: You expect such a puppet to stand up to a mechanical god? Absurd!: Deus Machina… Let us put to the test whether you’re something we should be wary of!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH9iRwIRg6Q
And here’s Saya’s best one. Sparkly!
Take her out and we get a Kyushu Castella Cake (Melee and Defense +10, Skill +5)
: Oho, not bad. Not bad at all. But this should be good enough, I think.: What, we’re backing down already?!: Our mission today was just to survey things, remember? The commander’ll be annoyed if we ignore our orders.
: Psh… Fine!
: (They’ve retreated. Then their objective here really was to…) SRW UX - Shadows that Rend Darkness: Come on, come on! My drills turn you into Swiss cheese!: I’ll admit that they’re pretty impressive… but they’re no more than props if you can’t get ‘em to connect!
: That support unit won’t even dent my Destroyer Robo’s armor!: “Support unit”…? Hm, I guess it falls on me to correct you. This is a fighter-bomber!
SRW UX - Deus Machina: Aaargh, screw you! My Destroyer Robo is the greatest piece of technology ever made! Now hold still and let me gut you!: Urhg, you mad scientist! Get over yourself!
And we steal Dr. West’s Favorite Guitar (Defense and Range +10, Skill +5) as a prize!
: Th-This thrice-blasted buffoon! Maaaybe I was messing around too much, but not anymore!: Behold! The super HARD! Super THICK! Super LONG! Super Electromagnetic DRILL! TORNAAAADO CRUSHEEEEEER!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4kDgQdgYVo
: What in blazes are you doing, fool?!: Damn it, I messed up...! Hey, grimoire, there anything we can use?!: Aye, there is – now we shift back on the offense! Set forth and strike with all the strength you can muster! I shall see to the rest!: O-Okay… Here goes!: I-Is that…?!: Timaeus and Critias are active! Output at maximum!: Demonbane shifting to Aether Dancer Mode!: Are they… going to use it?!: The Chain-Severing System… Atlantis Strike!: Haaaaaaah…!
: Take him, Kurou!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCP5q9t5YYc
: Gaaaaah! I’ll remember thiiiiiiiis…!
: Victory is ours, Kurou!: I-I actually did it…?*Beep!*
: Hey there, Mr. thief! Do you hear us?!: Wah?!: Who are you?! And just how did you know about Demonbane, the Hadou Financial Group’s most closely guarded secret?!: The Hadou Financial Group?!: Your voice… Wait, are you?!: C-Crap…!: We’re sending a recovery team your way as we speak! Don’t go anywhere!: You understand what will happen should you escape, yes?: J-Just let me get away from here first!: What?! Where are we going, Kurou?!
: Huh?! Hey, Kurou!: (Seems he’s got plenty of things to sort out on his end…)
Aboard the ship Shangri-La, we find two figures discussing Sawatari and Yulianne’s mission. The man in brown reports that they were forced to retreat after having to face both UX units and another unknown, but the boss man says that’s fine. Their main objective today was to confirm that “it” had awakened.
“Machina and Deus Machina… are the similarities merely superficial, or perhaps…” he ponders.
Cut back to the Hadou command center, Kurou’s already been brought over and can’t believe Arkham City had something like this hiding in its underground. Indeed, and Ruri says the Hadou Financial Group built it as a facility meant to defend the city from the Black Lodge.
Now, while things got really crazy out there, Ruri has an idea of what happened thanks to all the information recorded within the Demonbane. With that in mind, she is willing to pay Kurou accordingly for his work. Nice.
HOWEVER, and she’s sure this needn’t even be said, the Demonbane is highly classified and Kurou is to forget everything that’s happened today. It is their only means of standing up to the Black Lodge – certainly not something they could leave with Kurou to use as he pleases.
Kurou’s fine with it, but Al isn’t: the Demonbane was created to do battle, so she’s certain that it desires the mightiest grimoire at its side. Ruri isn’t having it, though, pointing out how reckless it was for her and Kurou to pilot the thing. If they wound up getting it destroyed, that’d be the end.
Al protests that anything that takes part in combat is bound to be damaged. The Demonbane isn’t a toy for her to fuss over! Alright, that does it, Ruri is not satisfied with this vulgar grimoire AT ALL and commands Kurou to go and find a better, more fitting grimoire to power the Demonbane!
Um, what about that talk about paying him, etc.? Forget it. And depending on his behavior, she’ll have him face full responsibility for commandeering the Demonbane – get to work! As Kurou sulks, Winfield reminds Ruri that they must get ready to depart for the Earth Federation HQ in New York.
Fair enough, so Ruri turns to Kurou and orders him to find a better Grimoire and make it snappy! As she leaves, Kurou then turns to Al and grumbles that this is all her fault. Al’s not particularly fazed.
: It appears Dr. West’s Destroyer Robo was beaten by another machine, one presumed furnished with magic circuitry. (Augustus): It is very likely that what he fought was the Deus Machina the Hadou Financial Group has been constructing in the shadows…
: Hm, so it seems. And it has stepped into the light at last… (Master Therion): Augustus, take care of things here.: Certainly. But where are you…?: I must go and greet Al Azif’s new master, of course…
: Oh, my… the Grand Master himself is taking to the field?: ?! Who goes there?!*Magic!*
: Stand down – that’s an old acquaintance. It has been quite a while…hmm…
: Nya is what I’m calling myself right now. Rather straightforward, I know, but names have never been my forte. : Regardless, you are looking rather merry for someone who’s simply going to “greet” another, aren’t you, Grand Master...?: Merry? Indeed, I am. Facing that one is the only thing that can bring me some measure of excitement during these tedious times…: Despite the thousands, the millions of times this has repeated, that, alone, is something I never grow weary of…: Hmhmhm... The stray children of the samsara are also gathering together. From across the void, they come in procession, ever under the guidance of the possibilities...: Oh? Now that is interesting to hear…: Grand Master… there’s a chance, albeit small, that things may be different this time…
Cut to the California base, Graham runs in and tells Jin and Arnie we’ve an emergency: there’s an unknown spaceship approaching Earth! What, is it another Skrugg ship? No, it’s actually looking like a DIFFERENT one!
Arnie and Jin are not happy with the prospect of another bunch of invaders when we already have our hands full with the Skrugg – whatever is gonna happen to Earth? We’ve got a special committee over by the New York HQ currently discussing how we’ll approach these new aliens. Depending on how things turn out, we may be ordered to deploy and intercept them, so Graham wants them all on standby and ready to go.
Arnie does remember Ronin grumbling about the Skrugg attack and how it somewhat affected his testimony at the parliament. Is this what he was talking about? Did Ronin know about these new aliens, and that they were coming, all along?