Tales of Xillia Part #14 - Feinne Interlude 3: She Never Once Hesitated

Part 14: Feinne Interlude 3: She Never Once Hesitated

HaHA, now it is time for the greatest tale of all, the time Milla singlehandedly destroyed the Rashugal military an-

Okay I’m going to check you right there, tell the story right or there will be consequences.

B-But I’m just-

No. Seriously. I’m not playing around.

Fine, if you insist. Let me set the stage: Milla, Elize, and Driselle were engaged in the mysterious and shadowy pastime known to man only as ‘girl time’. Who can say what-

They were shopping, imbecile.

Video- Milla 3-1

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Wow! That’s not cheap! Just how much money do you have, Driselle?

Now, don’t be rude, Teepo.

Thank you.

Heh, my pleasure.

Hmm?

You like that pendant, Milla?

No. It’s just similar to something I already have.

She held out a small marble, which-

Had an epic story attached! See, she captured it frommmph!

Just stop.

It’s just a boring glass ball.

It is very pretty, though.

Why do you have that?

It was given to me long ago by a human child.

And you’ve carried it ever since? What if you dropped it? That would be a dreadful shame.
Shopkeeper: I would be happy to make it into a pendant like this one.

Good idea! Let’s do it.

Anyway, they turned the marble into a pendant. Are you ready to start telling the story right?

Y-Yeah, okay, fine, just stop choking me already.

For now.

This is quite pleasing to the eye. Thank you.
???: Aah! Stop, please!

Unfortunately, the cowardly Rashugal military chose that time to attack Sharilton!

Soldier: Resist and we will show no mercy!

Bolstered by the presence of the mighty lord of spirits, Driselle confronted the ruffians.

the governor himself has ordered all Rashugal troops to leave this city.

And you are?

A member of House Sharil.

Hmph, foolish girl.

The leader of the attack explained the situation.

What?!

Take them into custody. House Sharil is conspiring to rebel against the throne.

I don’t like the sound of this! Let’s run!

The doll is right. We must escape before we’re surrounded. Something major is at play here.
Stick with me, you two.

Okay.

Well, who do we have here?

Yah!

Coward that he was, he was forced to the ground by mere fear of Lady Milla!

Feinne’s Notes:
We have a fight here against two Rashugal troops, and no matter how well we do we can’t kill them. Allow me now to extol the virtues of the greatest arte of all, Death Knell. Death Knell is a leaping downward slash that will knock down any enemy that is capable of being knocked down and isn’t guarding. It will take enemies to the turf time and again and render them unable to do much of anything. There are further some other benefits to taking enemies to the ground which we’ll see within the next couple of updates.

How could such weaklings defeat the lord of spirits?

I was about to ask you that, since it objectively happened.

I blame trickery and unfairness! Perhaps a conspiracy!

For once I almost have to agree with you, I’m not sure how those attacks even worked.

Eek!
Oof!

P-Perhaps it was simply a ploy on her part, though! She wished to infiltrate Rashugal by pretending to be captured!

Yeah, no.

Is it over? You got them, yes?
Arrest them all.

And what’s more, the terrible grey jerk seemed to have taken an interest in the rude doll!

Lady Milla awoke in a dungeon.

Please, open your eyes.

Urgh…

Thank goodness.

Where are we? A cell?

We’ve been taken to Fort Gandala.

I see…

You decided to finally wake up.

The cheating jerk from before was there.

I am GIlland, deputy chief of staff for the Rashugal military.

Hmph. Call yourself what you will. You’re just another of Nachtigal’s dogs.

Heh heh heh. I’ll take that as a compliment. There’s something I’d like to ask you.
You stole the key to our device, yes?

What device?

And I hear you hid it somewhere, correct?

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Heh.
Soldier: On your feet! Out of the cell! Move!

They led the three of them, and some random woman they captured, out of the cell and into the hallway.

Where did you hide the key?

What key?
Woman: Wait, what are you—

The guard tossed the woman they’d brought into a glowing field of energy…

…and the device on her leg exploded!

No!

H-How horrible.

Look at your ankles. That woman was wearing the same device.
If you pass through that hex zone while wearing it… Well, you saw what happened.

You won’t get away with such brutality! It’s a violation of the Sapstrath Convention!

Now, where is the key?

You’re wasting your time.

Eek! No!

The coward continued his threats.

Your threats are meaningless to me, human.
I have no fear of death or injury or loss.
Go ahead and push me through. Push us all through.
Maybe then you’ll see I’m not kidding.

Before he could respond, someone had a message for him. And I think this next part speaks for itself.

Yeah honestly I don’t want to hear your gross embellishments of something actually pretty cool.

Preparations for the experiment are complete. I leave the prisoners to you.
Make her tell us where the key is, or else.
Soldier: Yes sir!

Heh, what’s wrong? Your boss left you a big job and you have no idea how to accomplish it?
Why not start with a full-body search? You’ll learn quickly I don’t have this key on me.
Soldier: Fine.

Oh Lady Milla, you were so amazi-

I said no! Bad idiot, bad!

Not the sharpest blade in the Rashugal military, are you?
Now let’s see if the hostage strategy works on your comrades. Drop your weapons.

As it happened hostages did work on the guards, who were promptly knocked out and locked back in the cells.

I’ve had enough of this place.
Driselle, I don’t suppose you can wield a sword?
I figured. Elize, you look after her.

I can’t. Not without Teepo.

What?

I need Teepo to fight.

It’s okay. I can look after myself.
Don’t cry, Elly. I’ll protect you.
Let’s go.

Very well. We’ll need to get these shackles off first.

Right.

Hmm, we’ll need a key or some means of deactivating it.
We’ll find our solution. And find Teepo as well.

Okay!

Feinne’s Notes:
So yeah, for this dungeon we’ve only got Milla in the party because Elize is without Teepo. It’s not a significant problem, though, even if you’re not a rude jerk like me using NG+ stuff.

Skit: Hexed

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Elize, Driselle, we have to hurry.

But if we get careless, our hex shackles could explode!

Gilland said they only explode when you step in a hex zone.
It seemed quite precise. It should not explode otherwise.

You have that much confidence in our enemy’s traps?

It’s merely conjecture. There could be any number of other possibilities.

So in other words, we can’t be sure of anything!

That is correct. But no one can ever make guarantees about the future.

I’m a daughter of House Sharil. I can get through this. I can’t be scared.

Are we going to be okay?

Yeah. Hang in there, Elly.

At that point, Milla began a rampage through the Fort so legendary that the Rashugal military would-

Have I hit you in the head too many times or something? Is it my fault you keep doing this? No, it was really boring.

Feinne’s Notes:
I’m going to summarize the dungeon in like chipmunk time because it’s kinda dull. There’s an elevator we need a key for, so we go over into the only other room we can and run into a dude we have to fight.

Excellent. I believe this is the key to their control room.

Will Teepo be there?

He has to be. We’ll find him soon, okay?

…

Then SURPRISE SKIT INTERLUDE COMMENCE.

Skit: Higher Duties

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Are you okay?

Don’t worry. I will protect you.

Thank you.

You just said that you were willing to sacrifice us. Now you’re going to protect us? Which is it?

Hmm? It’s both. If I can protect you, I will.
However, if I’m forced to make a hard choice, I will not hesitate to do so.
That is my duty as the guardian of this world.

……

We can’t tarry any longer. We have to move on.

I don’t know how anyone could carry that burden.

I understand. My brother has that duty too.

Skit: Without Teepo

Elize, fear and panic won’t bring Teepo back to you.

But, still…

Milla, can we stop for a minute?

I’m going to teach Elly my secret magic spell. Here, take my hand, and jump up three times.
If you do that, you can give me half your sadness, and you’ll feel halfway better.

Okay.

There. Don’t you feel better now?

A little bit.

See? When I was little, my brother used to take my hand and cast this spell with me.
I think we’re ready to go.

Driselle…

I’m sorry. I’m not good at channeling spirits. This silly little spell is all I have.

No. It’s a wonderful arte.

Thank you.

Now is the time for block pushing puzzles. There are blocks and elevators we need to use to move them. Sometimes you go through a vent. You don’t actually need to do any of them, progress is up the freight elevator you use to move the block downstairs. Up on the next floor we fight another dude in a room.

Let’s keep moving.

Wait. That soldier had this on him.
Looks like a key.

Well spotted. Thank you, Driselle.

See, even I save the day sometimes.

With that key, we can access the main elevator in the hall and go to any of the floors. I think there’s some more block puzzles in the basement, but progress is on the first floor.

They found a strange lab, where terrible experiments were taking place!

Way to just jump right to the point. Idiot.

Video- Milla 3-2

Watch

Scientist: Mana lobe activity is off the meter.
We’ve recorded an instantaneous value of 585,000 rayles from the mana discharge.

Heh heh, magnificent.

Anyway, the guy they were experimenting on didn’t really find all this ‘magnificent’.

Lady Milla could hardly stand by while such barbarism was occurring!

What the—Hey, how did you get here?!

Elize, Driselle, jump!

What? But I… I can’t!

Don’t be afraid. I’ll catch you.

B-But…

Your best friend is about to be taken from you again. Is that what you want?

Teepo…!

You have to jump. I know you can do it.

I did it!

Unfortunately, things were about to get much worse.

King Nachtigal!

Nachtigal!

Did they disrubt the experiment?

Yes, Your Highness, but not before we collected the data.

Very good, well done.

Nachtigal!

Because the King was rather powerful.

Hmph! I suspect treachery here as well, as facts do not live up to my expectations!

I am going to put an end to your petty ambitions right now!

So is this her?

Yes.

So is this girl really supposed to be the Lord of Spirits?
Oh please, don’t make me laugh.

Urgh…

You can suspect what you like, but he rather casually tossed her to the side.

Fortunately for her, some help arrived about then.

With the Lance of Kresnik, know that I will bring Auj Oule to its knees.

That’s why you invaded Sharilton?
How can you keep committing these atrocities?!

Silence, boy! These matters are not meant for children such as you.

How dare you!

You didn’t really think you could stop me, did you?

Some of which was actually good for something other than talking, though I contend Lady Milla would have miraculously caught that thrown sword at the last second.

Keep telling yourself that.

Hmm?!
Ilbert? Is that you?
Soldier: Rowen Ilbert…

Wait, what?
The Ilbert from the history books?! “Ilbert the Conductor”?!

What business could oen who cast aside both his army and his kingdom have here?

Lady Driselle, I’m so pleased to find you safe. I was beside myself with worry.

Hmph. You have fallen far, Ilbert, but your new role as a servant suits you.

Your Highness, this way. You need not trouble yourselves with these criminals any longer.

Get back here!

And then Milla ran after them alone.

Mana-boosting technology like that could pose a real threat in Auj Oule’s hands.

What are you so afraid of? We’ll just have our military equipped with the same technology.

Well, it might not be that easy.

I do not care. Bring the data back to Fennmont at once.

Do you wish to use it on the Lance of Kresnik subjects?

Yes, and without delay.

Stop right there!
Aaah!

She had a rather bad habit of doing things like this.

Well, if it isn’t the phony Maxwell.

Tell me. Why do you use spyrix?
Why do you sacrifice your own people to attain power that you don’t need?
A king is supposed to protect his people.

Hmph, as if a charlatan like you could comprehend. It is my duty to rule this world. Is it my destiny!
But to fulfill this duty, to my country, to my people, power is a necessity. I must protect them both!
All kings derive power from their people. It’s a small sacrifice. And a worthy sacrifice.

Good speech, but it has one flaw.

Really? Then do tell.

And if you truly need something like spyrix to fulfill this precious duty of yours.
Then in the end, you will achieve nothing!
Not this false, twisted mission. And, not your imagined destiny. Nothing at all!

Hah! You can lecture all you want. It changes nothing.
You haven’t even scratched me yet.

It looks like there were more flaws than I thought.

What?

And, well, this.

…