Part 36: Episode 4: Part 9: Wrapping Up The Lab Work.

Episode 4: Part 9: Wrapping Up The Lab Work.
Short update today! Just want to wrap up the lab raid, finally!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4ebZxDz0xo



The glitchy arrows are back. Anyway, making our away back to and over the bridge, we pass through a room with a couple dead Shadow Lords and into...



Short story shorter, I go down the other way, kill some guys and find this.







Also I absorbed all the Stricite which gives me exactly enough Strides to fill every Blade Art slot if I equip all five Step 1s and 3 Step 2s. This means now Rhue will never NOT do a Blade Art on a pass, a big advantage (of sorts, some blade arts dont scale well at all, like Cool Winds 1-6 HP heal!!!) since it'll be a while before our opponents consistently do that.





It doesn't take long to absorb the Silver Stone either, since the Shadow Lords give tons of CTP. Also lots of AR.



Winding through the caverns... this is our last section of gameplay for this update.



We can't explore the other end of the hall, since Rhue and co. will automatically run into the main room when you get to close to the entry.





Again, I don't remember INVITING ANY OF YOU!!!!

Filthy Arastotzi. Meddling fools. Such greedy swine you are. Leave. Do that, and I'll spare you for now!

Burn you Jopaga! The Arastotzi will never be second to you! You're just a little piece of trash to us!
A little piece of trash exuding a horrible stench! A piece of trash in dire need of being disposed of!!

You lofty, self righteous peon! I made the formula! Not you!!! You break into my facility, murder my men, and then call ME trash?
This little back and forth Stoyko and Jopaga have has always felt really... bad to me. Like in a teenager trying to emulate jrpgs/anime kind of way. I think it should have been cut.

You're just a killer! You don't create anything! What value do you have? You're a menace to the entire society!!





Anyway, this is a short, easy fight. The Shadow Lords aren't even enhanced!



"I COULD USE SOME HELP HERE!!!!"



A familiar face drops down from the ceiling, scattering the party, and Rhue blacks out.



First of all, note how fucking goofy that smile is. I don't know if that's intentional but I love it. Secondly, you can see the top of Stoyko's head just above the dialogue box if you're wondering where he is.

(What happened...)

I hope you got plenty of rest because we're going to cover a lot material today! (missing 'of' is as in the game)

(Scatha!)

...

You all came here to take the formula for yourselves, right? Well I've decided to be generous.

Who wants the first injection of the completed substance?
Any volunteers?
Oh come on, you were all so eager before.

Why would you want to give any of us an injection of something that will make us stronger?

That's a GREAT question!!!

(Maybe it really isn't complete. Side effects maybe?)

I think I'll answer your question by letting you be the first to sample the formula.
Then I'm sure you'll know the answer!



It's done!

To better appreciate what you are about to witness, I feel it is necessary for me to explain what is about to occur.
Our goood friend here has just been injected with a large dose of formula #43.
I like to call it, "The Catalyst for Separation of Body and Soul."

I think I prefer the name formula #43.

EXCUSE ME! I'M NOT DONE TALKING YET!

The name is a trivial thing anyway.

The effect of the formula is the brilliance of it!!!



"However, a wanderers soul does not exist on the physical plane of the Way.
It does, however, project a "shadow" of itself which affects matter on the physical plane.
This "shadow" is a wanderer's natural aura."



"Formula #43 causes the bindings that tie a person's soul and body together to loosen.
This allows them to separate for a short period of time."


"To absorb a person's aura I use a special aura absorbent rod. This is not the only way to do it though."









"The soul would just cast another "shadow" it sounds like."

Well, that's one fault with the "shadow" philosophy so far.
We're not sure if an aura will grow back over time. Don't take it so literally.
All of the current evidence goes against a person's soul "casting" another aura.
That's why some describe an aura simply as a semi-permanent impression on reality.



"You see, people who have their aura extracted tend to become like empty shells of what they once were.
They become much like animals, much more instinctive.
In short, the natural aura has tremendous control over a person's view of reality."



So that I can use it for myself. An aura is a powerful force.
After I absorb our friend's aura with this small metal rod I can do many things with it.



It's beginning! Watch closely!



Cade starts shaking, gasping and bobbing his head.



It's almost finished. Soon I will draw his natural aura from him with this rod.





Then this crazy firey ring animation plays over Cade.



... and Rhue closes his eyes as the aura absorption animation plays over him.







...
Scatha silently watches as Jopaga runs back and forth between Cade and Rhue a bunch of times.



It's impossible!! How could you have exerted such a strong force on his aura?
Oh well, it doesn't matter! I'll just inject you with the formula next!
The clicking injection sound plays...

...

...

But maybe since you're such a tough guy I should give you two doses!
He does so.

...

Flaming fires, why not give you three??
And gives Rhue the third...

Jopaga...

What?

What you're doing is dangeroussss!

Don't tell me what's dangerous you freak!
If you want that special formula for your face, then you best keep your suggestions to yourself!!!

I haven't sssseen a traccce of this formula you ssspeak of. I've helped you enough that I dessserve at least to ssssee the progressss on it.

I told you, we're working on it! It will just take a few more weeks!

That's a lie! We found evidence that you abandoned every project long ago except for formula #43!



Jopaga hits Red Zero.

Ashkt! Isss thissss true?

She's lying! Don't trust her! She's the enemy!

...
I don't think you've been completely honesssst with me.
After all the trouble I went through to fetch your precioussss componentsss, I would expect much better!
I want to sssee the formula that I requessssted!

(My body... it's happening...)



NO! Sssend one of your call boys to go and get it RIGHT NOW!!!







Sacrifa's theme starts playing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oquad3rnZSI









We go into a weird lengthy sequence of moving images, pulsing and whirling colours. The whole thing takes a couple minutes to play out... The bottom right of the last pic there looks like someone wept away in water...









Someone leaving a tent with three people behind? Where have we seen that before...





Seems to imply Rhue's Body and Soul reconnected and his aura returned? But why?



And then over a black screen, we get the Blana Sera style reversed and slowed down speech sound file.

According to a site, this sound file, the WayVoice3 sounds something like:

"These are the greater [try orals]? [trails]? [trials]? [high morals]?, you [silly]? [stupid]? things."


Anyway, that's the actual content we'll be covering this update. But there's a little more. The images we saw in Rhue's... uh... vision.



This was the first image we saw during the sequence and... I'm pretty sure I know what this is depicting and if I'm right, it's biggest possible spoiler.



Then we slowly panned over this image. You can kind of tell what it is, but Lun helpfully included the unwarped version too.



This seems pretty decisive.



And last, the familiar scene. The first real scene of Episode 1. Rhue leaving the fist he met behind, only for the Phantom Slasher to emerge and slay them. The blood is even dripping down from those... eyes? to where the Phantom Slasher emerges from the trees. Huh.

the end