Part 54: Chapter 2 [Aullewyn Keep] (2)

Back at the Keep, I stock up on Union Plumes. This chapter can eat a lot of them if you're unprepared.





If it involves babysitting those twins, you can forget it.

The rebels have capitulated. You are to take their leader into custody, and put an end to the hostilities.

ca·pit·u·late
1. to surrender unconditionally or on stipulated terms.

Me?

Those were the orders from above, and I can hardly trust bloodthirsty brats to honor a peaceful surrender.

Why do you not go yourself?



...

Curious as to why?

It matters not.

So be it. I take it you intend to battle on.



And it would be foolish of me to ask?

My cause is no concern of yours.

I suspected as much. I'll be seeing you, then.

We shall see.

...

...

---



Heugoe actually leaves the party at this point. We'll just have to go on without him.



Noble words do not change what he is. A killer with a cause or a conscience is a killer all the same.

So he fought only to satisfy a hunger?

Living only to destroy or to be destroyed... a mercenary is a man of no self-worth.

Don't be silly.



What are you two doing here?

Worry about it later.



Two new allies at our disposal now, so let's see what the Wonder Murder Twins are made of.



Mireille is a Swordswoman, which also means she has access to tiaras and dresses. She starts off with a strong weapon (the Broad Sword has 75 ATK) that gives her a Soul Crush as well, but with the trade-off of only allowing her to use one attack. That means right now she has the best ATK of the party.



The twins share some common traits - they tend to have lower than average multipliers and are poor at building Attack Gauge, but are quite good at being support attackers. Mireille is short and her weapon isn't very big either, though her multipliers are better than Darius'. We don't have access to her best attack (and the only real reason to use her) right now, so I'll say more once we do. For now, her high ATK and SC makes her usable.



Mischka is a Warrior. He begins with two attacks, but no Soul Crush. This makes him better for filling the Attack Gauge than Mireille, but Mireille will do more damage overall.



Like his sister, we don't have access to Mischka's best attack (Roundabout) at the moment, but Mischka is generally excellent at launching and generating crystals, as well as gems with some support. He uses a larger weapon than his sister's, so his range is actually decent, despite his lower than average multipliers, and even now he does a decent job of garnering crystals. he does clash with Cheripha unless you're good at timing, however.



Mischka also has a siege technique - Shield Wall is the opposite of Darius' Razor's Edge, increasing allies' RDM but lowering Warriors' ATK. ATK is the one thing Warriors have going for them, so Shield Wall is pretty much junk.



It might seem like the game is pushing you to use both twins, but it's a bit of a subtle trap. The next battle is tough and we want both Cheripha and Lockswell here. Cheripha has better ATK than Wylfred right now and adds a second SC (and there's no excuse not to get the Crescent Bow last map). Lockswell has great support and knockdowns, so it's up to one whether to use Mireille or Mischka. Mireille has better damage and mobility, but Mischka makes filling the gauge easier. I picked Mireille, but in hindsight Mischka would be the better choice for the next fight - filling the Attack Gauge is more important than a third Soul Crush for now.





Make no mistake - this is one of the hardest maps to 200% Sin on a fresh A path. The Sin quota is extremely strict and you only have a leeway of 20 Sin. Enemies come at you straight away and three of them are tough Sorcerers. There are a couple ways to make it easier which I only realized in hindsight, but I'll get to that in a bit.



Guard Reinforce is one of the best spells to have in this map. The boost in defenses is not to be underestimated here. We move everyone forward just a little bit, to bait in the Warrior and the Rogue. They're Mercenary soldiers once again, so Frigid Damsel is the spell of choice.



The Rogue actually knows Heal, but chances are she won't get to use it.



Hmm... what shall I do with this one?



For some reason, I find Mireille's idle animation to be pretty adorable.



Mireille Soul Crush

The twins say 'Special Attack!' instead of 'Finishing Strike' like everyone else. A small touch.

Mireille's Soul Crush isn't really that hot. Low multipliers and Attack Gauge means it's really only better than Cheripha's and Natalia's, and they have much better hit counts. Still, it's damage if you need it.



Finished already? I'd just gotten started!

Even her victory pose is pretty neat. It's no Natalia or Liese, but it's alright.



The Rogue also goes down fairly easily. I then move people forward a little and have Lockswell Guard Reinforce Mireille.



There are two types of Sorcerers in this fight - two of them use Poison Blow, and the stronger one (the leader) uses Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt is pesky because we don't have any Pearl Grass yet, so the only way to cure paralysis is an Elixir. There's also a Lancer, which makes for four tough enemies with great range, allowing them to do easy, nasty combos.



Mireille barely lives past this one. Thank you Guard Reinforce.



After Cheripha goes down, there's this.



Oh, geez. This is why Guard Reinforce is so great in this fight. It should be noted that Mischka has better health compared to Mireille, but worse RST, so your mileage may vary on which twin does better.



...Nevermind.



I actually move Mireille specifically to this spot to revive Cheripha - this is so Cheripha is already in range to attack the Lancer and the Sorcerer, allowing Wylfred to initiate attacks without having to move her to a better position first.



I actually end up retrying this fight more times than I'd like to admit - for some reason my timing with Frigid Damsel was really bad and since Mireille's attacks are slow and she only has one attack, it can be hard to pump up the Gauge in time to start a SC chain.



If you're finding you have your own troubles with getting attacks to connect, there are a couple things you can do. First is to use Mischka instead of Mireille. You then have to time attacks so Cheripha doesn't miss her attacks when Mischka launches, but it's a more reliable way of getting that gauge to 100. Enemies don't actually need that much damage for full Overkills, you just have to get that first Soul Crush going.



The Lancer drops Silver Mail, which is a nice upgrade for Wylfred.



The other thing you can do is to forego Open Slash on Wylfred and just have everyone gatling their attacks without any launchers. You get no crystals or gems this way, but you're practically guaranteed to get Soul Crushes off.



Brother... where are you?







If, for whatever reason, you didn't get the Crescent Bow for Cheripha, you'll have a tougher time, but it's still do-able, but you almost definitely need Mireille for a second Soul Crush. If you sacrificed either Cheripha or Lockswell last battle but don't plan on doing so this one, either Gleipnir's Bonds or Vidar's Hush will shut the Sorcerers up.



Wylfred Vali's Awakenings up, to provoke the enemies into attacking him.



And he barely lives by the skin of his teeth.



He got paralyzed again, so this time I chuck an Elixir onto him.



So many to kill, so little time.

The most likely thing that'll get you restarting is not getting enough Sin. Since you can only lose 20 Sin for the best rewards, you almost need full Sin here, and the rewards are pretty great upgrades so it's well worth getting this fight right.





Once you actually get the Lancer and the first Sorcerer down, it actually eases up a bit, but you still want to make sure you get your full combos off to get that Sin.





And that's the end of that.





Even if you're planning on sacrificing Lockswell and don't want the Infinity Rod, you still want the Flame Pallasch for Wylfred. The Magic Bangle at 150% is also near irreplaceable. And since we're going the A route, we want them all.

---



Natalia, we will not let them take you... we'll fight until the last!

The last has come.

...



I do.

I apologize for making you come all this way. My name is Natalia. I command these rebels.

You are the leader?

Yes. And as agreed, I hereby declare our surrender.

Since Natalia's interactions with Darius aren't affected by the events of Aullewyn Keep, it can be assumed that the events of Camille play out the same to this point, with Darius committing suicide and Natalia deciding to sacrifice herself.



Aye. We return to camp.

That wasn't any fun at all!



Hardly.

...

...

...

You seem troubled...



Let us go.