Part 75: The Meaning of Birth

Last time we finally made it to Eldrant, and totally pressed onward, instead of turning right around and doing a dozen side quests.

Now then,

Suicide Run



: “That's right, Asch was riding the Albiore III.”





: “It was dangerous, but I had to. I flew in from the interceptor system's blind spot and rammed it with the Albiore. That was the only way to stop the anti-air fire.”

: “That's insane...”

: “Whoa, are you okay?”

: “Yes... I'm fine. I just got knocked around a little when Eldrant fell.”

: “I'll take care of him, you all go ahead.”

: “Luke, let's go.”

: “...Okay. Thanks, Noelle. All right, let's go!”

Skit: Ginji's Flying Skill

: “Ginji is amazing. He managed to squeeze the craft in through all that firepower.”

: “He's crazy, but he's good. I'm glad he's safe.”

: “Yeah, I'd just cry if he died now after surviving that crash in the Meggiora Highlands.”

Kind of like how Frings died after that fucking romance sidequest?

: “Yes... he seems to be very lucky indeed.”

: “Luck, huh? In this day and age, it takes more than a bit of luck to survive. Just look at us.”

: “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Music: The Glorious Land: Eldrant



Down we go.



Into a very, very white final dungeon.

Will + Boss Battle: Legretta





: “That's not going to happen. We've come to set Lorelei free.”

: “I won't allow anyone to get in the Commandant's way.”

: “Major... do you think the planet's memory needs to be erased, too?”

: “Of course. What good is free will if the future is decided by the planet's memory? I refuse to accept that my emotions are controlled by the planet's memory. The will of the people should be their own.”

: “Even if you have to destroy the original world to do it?”

: “If the original world is completely under the control of the planet's memory, yes.”



: “Is there not a single thing left in it you care about?!”

: “Anyone would feel some lingering attachment. People always cling to something. But the Commandant lifted me out of loneliness and despair. If this is his wish, then so be it.”

: “Those are your true feelings? Then I've lost all respect for you. You talk about free will, and yet you don't have any of your own! You are not the knight of Lorelei I looked up to.”









: “Major, where is your own will?”

: “My will shall bring about the Commandant's reformation and for that I will eliminate you all!”

: “We won't be eliminated that easily!”

: “You will be the one who dies here.”

: “If you fight for the Commandant, then we fight for Ion, and we won't lose!”

: “Of course. Your future and ours are different. We are enemies.”

: “Yes. My future and yours, Major, have now diverged.”

: “Then there is no more need for words.”

: “Our future is important to us too, so we will defeat you. Now!”

: “No you won't! Die!”



Right, Legretta. Surprisingly, Legretta is probably the hardest God General fight, for a couple reasons. First, see those 1's over her head? Yeah, Tear isn't exactly a prime damage dealer. Even Guy is only doing maybe 200-400 damage per hit, depending.



Second, she's very arte happy and hard to stagger. So she'll just rain death down on everybody, the immediately shift gears to shoot up Guy until he's down, then go back to casting. Unlike Largo who's slow and could really only focus on a target or two, Legretta has no problems prioritizing any of our party members at her leisure.



Finally, she has a lot of sixth light elemental artes, and then follow up artes that can FoF with those light circles she creates. This isn't helped by the fact that Tear also creates light circles with the majority of her artes as well.



So let's tip the scales.



: ”Oh light that rains down on Heaven and Earth, bring my enemies to their destined annihilation.”





But there's more.









: ”And grant us the divine protection of thy brilliance!”



The first part of that was Fortune's Ark, Tear's second mystic arte. It hits every enemy on the screen for around the same damage as mystic cage. The second part is Fortune's Ark Extension, which hits for a little more damage, but more importantly heals every party member back to full HP, and revives them if they're KO'd. It's very useful in a pinch.

Fortune's Ark comes with the usual innane requirements, this time you must be on a second playthrough or further, and Tear must have used every fonic hymn at least 50 times. Additionally, Fortune's Ark Extension is only available in the US version of the game, causes the aforementioned cast lock glitch, and had a decent chance of freezing your game on the spot.



Despite this, Tear simply isn't a good damage dealer, and Guy has to pick up most of the slack.



One interesting thing to note however, is Judgment. Though it rarely if ever hits, since Legretta is one opponent in a very big battle area, when it does connect is boasts over 3.5k damage, which is about half of what Tear's entire mystic arte did. Yeah, Judgment is that good.



However Tear just can't reliably hit with it, and the AI was being a moron with Guy which was dragging an already long battle out even further, so I cheated a little and took control of Guy for the second half of the fight. Sorry, had to be done.



Legretta doesn't take kindly to this.









Prism Ballet is a pretty boring arte to watch, but it's damn effective. Legretta just kinda shoots someone a million times, then fires a giant laser at them. Instant KO, more or less guaranteed. It didn't happen here, but if other people are directly behind the person Legretta is targeting, the laser will keep going and probably kill them, too. Watch that.





This was a very long, very hard fought battle, but also kind of boring from a commentary perspective. It's basically showing off what Tear can do for five minutes, then hit and run tactics with Guy for another six. Check the video if you want to see me get batted around for the full 11 minutes.





: “At least... I didn't... I loved him and his ideals... I was willing to die for him.”



: “Van... reform this... twisted world...”



: “Major...”

: “Tear... are you okay?”

: “...Yes. There's no time for grief now. Let's go.”

: “You never change... it's okay to cry, you know.”

: “I won't cry. Crying won't change anything. If I can't control my emotions-”



: “Tear wouldn't be Tear if she didn't act tough.”

: “Tear needs to be the ideal soldier. Otherwise, in her mind, Legretta's death means nothing. It's one way of overcoming the loss.”

: “...You all understand Tear a lot better than I do.”



: “Huh?”

: “Never mind. Let's go.”

And so passes another God-General.

Skit: Tear and Legretta

: “What kind of person was Legretta, anyway?”

: “Hmm... she was a mystery to the end.”

: “Don't you know anything about her?”

: “Only that she was an Oracle member before I joined. She never talked much about herself. Tear might know something about her.”

: “Tear, huh...? She had to kill her respected instructor. She may not show it, but I'm sure it hurt her. A lot.”

: “Yeah... but what can I say to her? I was thinking that maybe if I knew something about Legretta, I could go with that...”

: “Don't think, just go for it!”

: “Yeah. Just say to her what you want to say instead of spending time thinking about it.”

: “Yeah, I guess...”

Skit: And Old Friend

: “Vandesdelca... you idiot...”

: “Guy...?”

: “Huh? ...Sorry, did you hear that?”

: “I don't mind... what is it?”

: “...I've known Van since we were little. He always treated me like a little brother. He was calm, cool, smart... and kind.”

: “...Yes.”

: “To be honest, I don't want to fight him. You don't either, do you?”

: “...I...”

: “He was always so serious. And that eventually led him down this crazy path. So as his friend, I feel it's my duty to try and stop him... to tell him to come back.”

: “I... I want to talk to him, too. Convince him to stop all this. If only he'd listen, but...”

: “I know. I just can't help feeling that way. I know he won't listen to us, but even so...”

: “...Thank you, Guy. Thank you for caring about my brother...”

: “Not at all... I hate not being able to do anything.”



Nothing to do but press on.

Lost Glories



: “And tall, too...”

: “This is the city of Hod, after all. But to think someone would replicate an entire city...”

: “Damn...”

: “Come on. We won't let them make any more replicas.”







For the moment, the dungeon is split between two sections: the inner city of Hod filled with the solid white rooms we saw before, and these crazy support structures and pillars that hold the whole structure together. This dungeon is really pretty.

Skit: Where is Asch?!

: “We've yet to see Asch. Could he be that far ahead of us?”

: “I doubt it. Judging from the state of the Albiore III, not much time has passed since it crashed into Eldrant.”

: “So if we hurry, we can still catch up?”

: “Either way, he'll be waiting for you. There's no need to rush.”

: “Unless, of course, he's killed by the enemy first.”

: “Why must you always say such horrible things?!”

: “Apologies. I was only considering the worst-case scenario.”

Trapped Opposites





: “Luke!”

: “Damn it! We could jump in and...”

: “No.”

: “Jade!”

: “If he drops out of the running here, he's nothing more than a burden.”

: “But the others are after the Jewel of Lorelei that Luke has.”

: “Precisely. So the enemy must have a safe path leading to Luke's location. Let's go on ahead and look for it.”





: “Damn it! I don't have time for this! Am I already too late?!”





: “Asch! What are you doing here?!”

: “Humph. I could ask you the same thing. House Fabre must have very stupid genes. Even my replica fell into the same trap... disgusting.”

: “Don't say it like that!”

: “It's true!”

: “Isn't there any way out?”







It's not exactly obvious because of how white everything is, but the door only opens when Asch uses his hyperresonance to open it. The moment he stops, the door slams shut.



: “If only one of us can get out, you should be the one to go. Use the Key to free Lorelei...”

: “Stop it! Just stop! Are you trying to insult me?!”

: “No, I'm a replica. My hyperresonance isn't as powerful. If our skill with the sword is equal, then the one who is better in another area should go.”

: “Now that you're not just putting yourself down, you're even more irritating!”

: “Asch...”

: “Better in another area? You don't know anything. How can you possibly say that? You couldn't possibly know which of us is better!”

: “Either way, I'm...”

: “Shut up!”



: “Only one of us can leave this room. The stronger one will destroy Van. This isn't about hyperresonance or who is or isn't a replica... as two of Van's pupils, we're going to find out who's stronger... who the real 'Luke' is. This is a fight to settle who we are.”

: “We're both real! You and I are two different people!”

: “Shut up! This isn't about logic! You can't possibly understand how I feel! You stole my past, and my future! Now is all the time I have!”





: “I don't even have a past to lose, but I've still decided that I'm me. It doesn't matter what you think. Here I am.”





This box doesn't really denote just how long Asch holds that last syllable. Something like “Replicaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” would be more appropriate.



Boss Battle: Asch

Music: The Meaning of Birth

In the grand Tales tradition, the meaningful duel gets an orchestrated version of the opening theme as its battle music. Check it out, it's definitely worth a listen.



: “Excuse me, I'd like to talk with you about your research...”

: “Dr. Balfour? This is a surprise.”





: “Most likely to ask about the experiments Dist was performing in Ortion Cavern.”



: “...Yes, he did. It seems he learned at Choral Castle that he and Luke were not merely isofons, but perfect isofons.”



: “And thus he wondered if the cheagles in Ortion Cavern were perfect isofons, just like him.”

: “Yes... and he was correct.”



: “Based on your theories, Dr. Neis recreated the accident that occurred when Luke was made. He managed to succeed in creating a perfect isofon, but after that, that fon machinery broke down, and the recreation data was lost.”





: “Yes.”



: “Then, did you explain the gradual emission effect caused by fonon separation?”

: “A technical explanation would be beyond a layman, so I just told them that his physical and fonic strength would gradually decrease...”





: “That may have lead him to misunderstand.”

: “Misunderstand?”



: “Nothing. I've just finally realized the reason behind his reckless behavior. Though I imagine it's already too late.”





: “Finished already?”



: “What the? Are you bragging?”





: “...Mmm, perhaps. But this time, I do hope that the answer I’ve produced is incorrect.”

: “Um, okay...?”







: “You have a habit of doing things beyond what I can predict, so maybe.”



: “Just maybe...”



Luke fon Fabre

Music: Crimson Pride





: “Take it.”

: “Asch, I...”





: “I'll hold them off! Go!”

: “I'll fight with you!”

: “Don't be stupid! Are these guys important right now?! Of course not!”

: “But if I take the Key, you won't have a weapon...”

: “I'll just take one from an enemy, hurry!”



: “If you don't, Natalia and I will... never stop grieving!”

: “Shut up! Fine, I promise! Now go!”



: “Humph... no time left... I'm going to disappear soon...”











: “Yeah... Asch helped me.”

: “Asch?! What's he doing now?”

: “Holding off the enemy.”

: “Then we should keep going so his efforts won't go to waste.”

: “We're not going to save him?!”

: “Asch hates Luke, but he let him go ahead. He must have his reasons.”



: “Natalia...”

: “I'm sure it's just my imagination. I'm sorry. Let's go.”

And that's it. Luke is no longer that scared little child he was when we first found ourselves in Yulia City. He's surpassed Asch. Now it's Asch's turn to grow, starting with helping out his own hated replica.

Next Time: The Final Obstacle

Synopsis:

Inside Eldrant, we encountered Legretta. She had apparently come to take
the Jewel of Lorelei from us. I was concerned for Tear, but neither of us can
back out from this battle now.

We defeated Legretta.
Her last words were of hope that Master Van would reform the world. Tear
looked pained at having lost her instructor, but didn't cry at all. That's
some self-control she has.

Come to think of it, I've never seen her crying even once since we met. I
wonder if she won't cry even after I die? Probably not. Not that I want her
to or anything... It just seemed to me that would be like her.
As we headed farther on, I suddenly got caught up in a trap and separated
from the others. That was sure clumsy of me.

But I was startled to see that Asch had been caught in the same trap, and
both of us were stuck in a room with no way out. I guess Asch and I really
are the same person in some ways.

Asch said that the room was made so that only one of us could get out. I
tried to make him go, but he refused.

So we both ended up fighting to prove who we were.

I won. Asch wasn't civil about it, but he gave me the Sword of Lorelei.
Now our roles have been decided. I'll defeat Master Van and free Lorelei, and
Asch will help me.

Just then, Oracle soldiers came and attacked, trying to take the Key of
Lorelei. I thought of staying with Asch to defeat them so that both of us
could leave, but Asch told me to perform the role he had left to me.

For all that he hated me, Asch really has left his hopes with me. I can't
betray those. I put my trust in Asch, and left the room to rejoin the others.