Part 82: Orren To The Rescue

7/10. We’re almost home folks.


EPISODE SEVEN – Soul Eater

So Framboise, though her own stupidity, was sucked into the dark world at the end of the last episode, and it’s up to us to rescue her.




This is one of the shorter chapters of the Avatar Story, all told. There’s no sub-quests for us to get bogged down with, it’s just “rescue Framboise,” the end.

Seems straight forward enough, but this is actually a maze dungeon with a gimmick meant to artificially pad out the run time.

So we’re back here on the Magic Plane where we fought the Madoras Phantom, and Yulie got the Moon Maiden and Orren got the Arc Knight. We’ve long since established that these weirdass folks hail from this alternate reality. So we’re in enemy territory for this mission officially.


Here at the start of the level, we’ve got a couple of dormant Skeletons just lying around who we can talk to for… reasons. They’re going to explain the situation and the gimmick of this chapter to us.


Skeleton: …Ah. I can smell the stench of human flesh. It lingers here still. Such a rare treat for us. We hunger for it…
Orren: Fuck off, skeleton.
Skeleton: This is the realm of the dead. The realm of souls.
Orren: Oh so THIS is what I’ve got to look forward to after I die… Lovely.
Skeleton: The soul of the woman you seek has not been consumed yet. You can save her, if you hurry.
Orren: Gonna run the clock down on this one, I think.
Skeleton: You’ve come and gone from this world alive many time, I see. This should be no problem for you then. Hahahahahahahahahaha…


Thanks creepy fuck off skeleton.

So the map for this mission is nothing short of useless thanks to the random teleporter maze that’s the gimmick for this level. This platform here is the “home” platform, for lack of a better term. The objective marker never moves from this platform, so just like in Chapter 5, it’s absolutely useless.








So each platform we warp down to has a bunch of Shadow Warriors. That’s about it.






When we clear out the enemies and warp up to the next platform, the gimmick of the chapter unfurls before us. There’s two portals on this larger platform, a light one and a dark one. One of these portals advances is to the next portion of the maze, the other one warps us back to the start of the maze. Which one does which changes every time, but the skeletons lying about on the platform give you helpful hints as to which one is the one you want.

Basically, if you know the Kanji for “light” and “darkness”, you know what one to pick.


“It doesn’t respond to you. Apparently it’s lost its soul to the void already.”


“You hear a faint voice from the creature's soul.”

Skeleton: …White light…


Orren: Works for me!




“It seems the teleportation was successful.”


Skeleton: …Are you the one responsible for these disturbances? You stupid humans, always meddling in things beyond your understanding. Hahaha. Though we’re no better, really. Those fools on our side are messing things up too. In the end, it doesn’t matter who wins. Nothing changes. All of you running around in the mortal world, you're just spouts in the garden. A garden tended by Death. Ha ha ha haa.


And there’s also gigases here too occasionally.


“You hear a faint voice from the creature's soul.”

Skeleton: …Black darkness…


K.




And then it’s a matter of doing this a few more times until you make it to the central platform where the boss for the chapter is waiting.






Nothing to do now but run forward a couple of steps, aaaand…




Well, we found Framboise at least.






Orren: Alright, get the fuck up. We’re not letting you touch anything that looks important again after this. You hear me?


Framboise: Uuugh…


Framboise: Where are we?




Azel: Finally, you’re awake.




Our mysterious Man-Shem, now identified by the subtitles as “Azel” emerges from the ether before them.


Orren: Hell, at least you talk…


Framboise: You… You’re…


Azel: We are the ones born of this world. Those who are responsible for it, who maintain it. Your mortal world is a world of chaos, chaos you bring with you into our world. We intend to end that chaos, by destroying you.


Framboise: H-how could you possibly…
Azel: We will swallow up your world into ours and consume the souls of the living.
Orren: It’s always something generic with you people.
Azel: …Pardon?
Orren: Madoras wanted to rule the world, you fuckers just want to destroy it.
Azel: No no no, you don’t understand. It’s much more sophisticated than that!


Framboise: You… you people… You’re monsters.


Azel: Your world will be ours soon.


Orren: My fist will be down your throat soon.
Azel: You will be the first to fall to us, right where you stand.


And now someone is about to get his silver ass ruined.




Behold our boss battle for this chapter: Azel and a group of Ogres. It’s not unlike the final battle we fought with Shem in the Nordia Tunnels.


Azel is a bit more of a challenge than Shem was, though he wields the same weapon she did: the Lux Sword.




Taking out the Ogres first is a must, as they respawn every so often, so it’s best to clear the field and give yourself some breather room to take on Azel.


Just like Shem before him, Azel also transforms into a Knight when you defeat his humanoid form.




Azel’s Knight, called Azel’s Knight in-game, sports a slightly modified version of the Khshathra armour set with a halo similar to Shem’s Knight.


I let it stomp around for a little while as I deal with the Ogres.


Azel’s Knight, which I’ll just call the Onyx Knight, wields the Knight sword Granhades, the big purple evil-looking sword near the end of the Knight sword line.


Orren: Alright, enough of this crap. You wanna destroy our world? You’re going through me first! Or rather…


Orren: VERTO!






Orren: You’re going through ME!




Round Two! FIGHT!






















I don’t know what the hell is up with him, but Azel’s Knight has some kind of massive damage attack that can damn near kill everyone in the party, even when they’re modded out to near invincibility status.








I mean, look at this. Caesar and Kara are in the red. That NEVER happens anymore. Can you imagine playing this mission straight? It’s got to be damn near impossible.

Thanks, Level-5!


Alright, I’m tired of this omnicidal jackass. Let’s end this.
















Orren: Give my regards to Shem, fucker!

Also, here’s the official artwork for Azel’s Knight:











Azel: You two… Ugh… You dare defy… the will of fate?
Orren: I’m gonna go with “hell yes!”


Azel: It’s futile. You may have defeated Shem, and you may have beaten me… But you cannot stop what is already in motion.


Azel: Your world will burn. My master will see to it…






And then he died.




The red Ark Core flies free of his grasp as he disintegrates into energy.






And it rolls across the ground back to Framboise. Christ, this thing is like the fucking One Ring, I swear to god.










Framboise: We… We can’t just let this happen. We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to stop it.






Framboise: If there’s one person who can save us now, it’s you, Orren. I’m sure of it.






Saving the world three times in a row? Hell yeah, I’m down for this. Though I’m gonna start demanding an official “World Savior” discount at every shop I visit now.