Part 52: BF47 - The Great Temple

The war strategist for new Bronquia left the world by his own hand at Machina Bridge, only to reappear in the ruined land of Lost Aries.

This was the man who emerged as the master of Kylier's soul, directing her to attack Yggdra, who was still weary from the war against Gulcasa.

His name was Nessiah, the Fallen Angel.

The former heavenly host had vowed revenge upon the gods, waiting patiently in the Great Temple.

After liberating Kylier's soul, the Royal Army clashed with Nessiah to prevent a war against the gods.





Video – BF47 Intro
Nessiah's voice actor really does a good job here.



I don't see the girl, so I'll assume she's dead... again.

Wh-Why you...! Don't think you're gonna get away with this!

Milanor!

Any moment now, we'll pass through Heaven's Gate... After which, naturally, we'll be in Asgard. I've waited so long for this moment... What seemed like an eternity...

...For revenge against the gods?

...Ah, did the girl tell you? She was not mistaken. Deep within this island lies my true body. I was sealed by the gods... abhorred as a fallen angel. They wrapped me in the Chains of Conviction... To sever those chains, I require the Holy Sword. It's grown very powerful... You did a good job of raising it. *chuckle* I have the Royal family to thank for that...

Raise? What do you mean...?

You still think that “Justice lies with the Holy Sword?” *chuckle* Foolish girl... I was the one who gave that sword to the Royal family.

What!?

This blade has taken many lives in the name of justice... All the rage, hatred, and suffering born from war... The Holy Sword has absorbed it all through the years. I couldn't always count on chaotic times, of course. There were several irritating kings who promoted peace. But it was never hard to spark new conflicts each time.

Then... all the wars throughout history were your doing!?

I've become quite a conductor. Everything went so smoothly. That girl's death has charged the last of the sword's power...

You put Kylier and us through this... just for that!?

“Just!?” I've spent my life working for this! Hundreds of years! I suppose I shouldn't expect humans to understand that... Anyway, as I said, I am that sword's rightful owner. It's time you gave me back the Gran Centurio!

…......... If I say no?

*chuckle* You're a brave one, Queen. But I didn't put in all this effort to stop now. The Holy Sword is the last vital element of my plan.

In that case, I refuse.

...I'm sorry? What was that?

I have a responsibility to the people of the world. What you have done... What you plan to do... It runs counter to those responsibilities. As sovereign, I have a duty to stop you.

I thought this might happen... So be it! Foolish humans.



Go, Astarte, my warriors of Hades! Keep them occupied!



You will return this island to its place beneath the sea!

It doesn't belong there, but rather in Asgard. Through the Holy Sword, I have heard the cries of humans. All that hatred and suffering has sustained me this long... Thus nourished, my vengeance can finally begin! I'll ask again, Yggdra: give me the Holy Sword...







No reason to hold back now. Nessiah is the only real problem on this map, so we'll take items that are good against him. More specifically, Nessiah's Reincarnation ability can pretty much make Nessiah unbeatable. If he takes a critical hit, he loses his trump card.





Failing a critical hit, Milanor should be strong enough to bring Nessiah to a one vs one, before he can use Reincarnation.





Elena is among the best suited to fight Nessiah in the first place, thanks to the weapon triangle, but a Reincarnation will put a stop to any advantage Elena takes. Again, 1 on 1 = win may tip the balance in our favour.





Mistel can take the same strategy as Yggdra, and will take this murderous weapon. Mistel is also a great choice against Nessiah, because he can't use Reincarnation to gain an advantage vs scythe users.



Finally, Nietzsche will take the last spot. She won't get a combat role, but there's a loose end she needs to tie up.

The Holy Sword was never an innately just weapon... Used for evil, the Gran Centurio is a cursed sword. But I swore at my coronation to use it for justice! As long as my will drives it... Mine and that of my friends...

You tell him!

We cannot let this foul creature reach Asgard.

This'll all be for nothing if he starts a war up here. It's now or never!

O Holy Sword! Lend us the power to fulfill our wish... By the title of La Pucelle... and my soverignty... Illuminate our chosen path. The way to peace!



Time to get to business. While not quite at max stats, and technically weaker in battle than Gulcasa, Nessiah has a few advantages over the other bosses. First, Void Ailments. There's no cheesing with Gravity Chaos here. Second, we can't lower his stats. The Revelations of the God held by Nessiah doesn't increase his stats any. Even if we break or steal it, we gain nothing. Third, we can't throw giant unions at him and expect to whittle down his numbers, thanks to No Battle Penalty.

Finally, as I've been leaning on before, Reincarnation can be a brutal card to face. If you don't remember what it does, here's the rundown. When Nessiah uses it, he recovers to 8 units again. On top of that, he gains units that are strong against your character. His Book type is similar to rod, and is good against most types to begin with, but Reincarnation can make it worse.

And he has High status.



Aside from the couple Skeletons and Golems on the map, Nessiah has summoned three of these Astarte. Basically, they're undead Valkyries – weak to Holy, and Strong against Darkness.



Yggdra and Mistel take point. Hopefully, between their 50% Crit, and Gravity Chaos's absurd power, the two of them should be able to eliminate the entire row of enemies.









Well, only one crit, but we still steamrolled them.

Meanwhile, with our remaining Mov, Mistel will go item hunting.



Ok, exciting. We move Mistle off of that tile, and back on...

It's still on my mind... But it's too hard to dig...

Ok, third time's a charm.

I know! I'll use the Hyper Drill...



Wh-What is this!?

The Hyper Drill was our reward for trading all of the cannonball duds. The Fanelia appeared in Riveria as well, and it was a pretty broken one-shot weapon. This one could be, but... we'll see.

Nessiah's Reincarnation card only has 2 Mov, but I don't think any of his forces would move regardless.



Yggdra charges in solo, with Crusade. The plan here is to defeat the rest of Nessiah's minions, and deal a powerful blow to Nessiah himself. The plan will backfire, however, if any of the minions survive, or Yggdra loses. The latter is unlikely, though, between Crits and Crusade.







Three down. Perfect.





Nessiah easily shrugs off Yggdra's charge, thanks to his 6 Gen. Even so, I'd expect to deal some damage. He also deals three damage to Yggdra, bringing her to 2. Speeds things up, in any case, because as soon as Yggdra is alone...







Crusade saves the day. Now, normally this wouldn't help us, since Nessiah has High status.

Tch... You're already finished with all my Astarte...? Bravo, Yggdra. It seems I've underestimated you. All this means, though, is that playtime is over!

With the defeat of Nessiah's soldiers, he loses High status. I'm not sure if he was being cocky and seeing you wipe the floor with his allies makes him realize his defeat is inevitable, or if the Astarte were supposed to be threatening and they didn't want you to bumrush Nessiah to end the level too quickly.

Well, we have some movement left. Nietzsche visits the one water tile northeast of the Great Temple.

Huh? There's something shiny here...



S-Sister! Everyone! Nietzsche finally found it!!

And that pretty much wraps up the Undine story. Pretty much every conflict in this game can be traced back to Nessiah's meddling. From him seducing Nietzsche's sister and taking the Transmigragem, to him creating the Ankhs and giving them to Rosary and Roswell's ancestors, he's had his hand in everything. Even creating the Gran Centurio, and giving it to King Paltina the first, it would follow that Nessiah was instrumental in the founding of the Kingdom, and the Meriant religion of which the Royalty and Gran Centurio play key rolls.



It's time to kill him.

Straight across we have good odds, but that doesn't factor in Reincarnation. Kiss of Death, however, will help. Not only are all of our units near max Rep (Nessiah will take a huge Atk penalty), Kiss of Death will buy us almost 8 seconds of combat, shutting down his card usage.





First up is Yggdra, putting the Criticalizer to use.



Up next is Elena, who gains a nice advantage early on.





She can't take him out fast enough, though, so we need Kiss of Death. It drops Nessiah to 2 Atk for the duration, as well as silencing his card skill.





Elena takes him out, and halves his morale again. This is going pretty well.



Mistel starts dead-even. We don't have any Reincarnation to worry about with Mistel, so we'll use Kiss of Death early on, to grind down Nessiah's Atk.





Even with it, Nessiah was too much. We take a loss, but shrug off most of the damage his 6700 power card can do... Thankfully, Kiss of Death was still active, so the damage calculation took into consideration Nessiah's modified 2 Atk.





Milanor's not looking great after the charge. However, he has a full skill gauge, and Nessiah's is empty.



Kiss of Death's Atk drop helps Milanor catch up, with ample time to finish Nessiah off.





Eventually it's down to a one on one. Milanor finishes the turn with another victory. A solid win on Nessiah's attack will win it.






With nothing else to do, Nessiah targets Yggdra, and will face the same union. It won't go as well this time. Everyone that used Kiss of Death last round will be down to 1 Rep, negating a large part of its advantage. Yggdra is the only one that didn't, so there's a good chance she can end this now.







We're in good shape. We're at even numbers, but we'll have Kiss of Death when we need it.



Yggdra uses it to stop Reincarnation, and takes a victory.



Yggdra by herself can't cut through Nessiah's 6 Gen, or his Fort GEO bonus, but he's on the brink of defeat.



Ass.





And just to rub it in.



Hunters? That's low. Fuck you.



Oh damn. That was a close one.





Mistel's looking in a rough spot. Nessiah has a man up on her, and Kiss of Death won't decrease Nessiah's stats.



So Nessiah claims his second win against her.



He even starts up over Milanor. We have a full skill bar to dump into aggressive mode, though, and Milanor has the Wasteland .



Not too long later, Milanor ends the battle.





Video – Nessiah's End



H-How... How could I...?

My love for this world is stronger than any hatred. As white-hot as your anger burned... It could not withstand a sovereign's responsibility. Not a kingdom, not an empire... You lost to the entire world.

What...?

After defeating Gulcasa, I am now the world's sole monarch.

Ha... Hahaha... Is that so...? I have... lost... Undone by the Holy Sword I myself created...

I promised Kylier I would forsake the sword after this. I swore to create a new world, without war. This is our one wish... our most fervent desire.

Haha... So your wish for peace has conquered my hatred... …...

...So be it... Then you work toward this fabled world of peace... ..Heheh... We will see... what kind of future...



…Is it... over...?

I can't say for sure. At the very least, we've stopped him.

Great, but how do we stop this island? How far up are we...?

According to Nessiah, we will pass through Heaven's Gate. Which means...

What're we gonna do? I mean, we're all still living...

I don't know, but the Holy Sword is still resonating. There is something beyond here... I'm certain of it.

Then, let us proceed ahead. To Asgard!



Loot


Fanelia: It's a completely devastating item in Riviera, and it has the makings of a brutally power item in Yggdra Union. UP to three stats, and All Attributes UP UP... What this means is any elemental card deals Overkill damage, immediately ending the fight. It also boosts Rage damage a huge amount, if you deal elemental. But honestly, there'd be one mission left on the GBA, and one more on our version, and it's 100% useless in the first, and pretty damn useless in the second...


Transmigragem: The lost gem used by Undines to enable them to be reborn. It doesn't do anything, but is a hefty morale bonus to Nietzsche or Pamela.


Revelations of the Gods: Another item to unlock the extra contents, the Cards menu in this case. Interesting note, the cover of Nessiah's book has the same image as the back of each card. Since they're stated in game to have significance, it can be assumed Nessiah had a hand in creating the cards as well.

Notes

Well, for all intents and purposes, that's the final boss. The story wraps up quite nicely, and most loose ends fall into place. In the end, though, it's not very climatic to play. Going through Flarewerk and Castle Bronquia has a much more climatic feel to it, at least from a gameplay perspective. While attacking Gulcasa you're fending off forces from multiple directions, dodging cannon fire, and dealing with the last of the Empire's elite forces. Here, however, you simply walk up to and kill some nameless undead, and then wail on Nessiah for a few turns... A boss rush might have been more interesting, but I don't know if it would be necessary for the story at all.

Despite that, Nessiah is a challenging battle. Most of the tricks we've used prior are useless, like large unions or Gravity Chaos, and his powerful card can mess you up at least as bad as Genocide. His Fort Geo and 6 Gen also give him incredible longevity. There are a few advantages we still have, though. There are plenty of wasteland tiles, as well as forts, so Milanor and Yggdra can both claim a Geo advantage. Elena is pretty much plain better than Nessiah, thanks to her weapon, but the mission is also locked to night.

With that, it gives us both Bloody Claw, and Kiss of Death, as effective anti-Reincarnation skills. Aside from that, Crusade obviously makes short word of him. If you're having trouble, it's a safe bet to have Yggdra lead Elena in to battle with Crusade, and then have Elena withdraw before Nessiah attacks. At the very least Yggdra will win twice, and Elena's pretty likely to as well. On the next round, have Yggdra Ace Bloody Claw for Elena. Depending on who else is capable of fighting Nessiah, thanks to stats, terrain, or items, they can join the union as well, aiming for a few extra victories. It shouldn't take more than a couple of turns to defeat him.

If you really have issues, you can focus on Crusade. If you hit him with Crusade the same turn you clear out the Astarte, your cards refresh, and you can hit him twice more with it if you need to. Considering I beat him with Kiss of Death, which is still weaker than Crusade starts at, it should only take a few Crusade victories to beat him.