Update 20: In which Reginald's manhood is called into question
Demon: Everyone went crazy!
Soul on the right: He locked the door, so the fairies that were outside are in a panic.
Demon: That Sakahagi messed everyone up and slipped right inside...
That's the situation. The door is locked, so let's explore the plaza further.
To the north we find a large terminal and a Cache Cube with 3 Life Stones.
Demon: Is that human in the southern room in cahoots, too!?
Another human is here. Let's pay them a visit.
This is the room the Pixie spoke of.
BGM:
Reunion with Master
You heard about what's happening here, right? The existence of a power that can change the world... I'm sorry that I disappeared after you saved me. It was my god who did that; I couldn't do anything about it...
Demonic possession, even willing, has its drawbacks.
But, my god has been protecting me since then, and I'm doing much better now. Hikawa won't be able to take control of me again.
What he envisions is a world where the thread of time is spun unerringly, without change... You can't call that a world. It's just wasted space, totally devoid of power. To restrain the reborn world like that would be unforgivable.
Agreed whole-heartedly.
The world cannot remain in a state of chaos, nor can it fall prey to Hikawa's ambitions.
My god has spoken to me, but she has yet to reveal the Reason.........
Aradia sounds like a very frustrating patron.
Well, it's all because of the Yahirono Himorogi. The Yahirono Himorogi is a stone that contains an enormous amount of Magatsuhi. It grants tremendous power to its possessor. Word spread that the stone is somewhere in Yoyogi Park, and now everybody is trying to claim it for their own.
Once I have that power... I'll be worthy of receiving the Reason from my god.
I'm not sure who, but I can sense a strong, evil power.
Whoever could it be?
Their power is so strong that I wouldn't stand a chance against it... But, I think you would.
What an unexpected turn of the conversation.
If I promise to give you the Magatsuhi contained inside it... will you try to get the Yahirono Himorogi for me?
Let me think about it.
The thing sounds pretty damn powerful. Let's not promise anything we can regret later.
If you're having doubts, then I really shouldn't force you to do it, but... you're the only one that I can rely on in this world. Even if you say no, I'll still have faith in you.
Translation: this is not a side quest.
You weren't able to get inside the park before, right? Here, take this. It's the key to that locked door.
You obtained the key to Yoyogi Park.
The choice is yours, but... I believe in you.
I'll be here waiting for you...
You didn't forget she's Reggie's teacher, did you? Enough creepy subtext, game!
You used the key to Yoyogi Park.
And we're in. Well, almost.
Pyro Jack: Ah, whatever... Pixies, deal with him!
Pixies? Really?
Pixies: You're nothin' to us! We'll chase you outta here!
Pixies aren't a real combat threat at this point of the game, but it doesn't mean they can't cause trouble.
Soul: If you get too close to one without thinking, you'll be teleported somewhere else!
We have another teleporter maze on our hands.
See that steel bar thingy at the upper left corner? Pixies are hiding in some of them.
Attempting to pass under one will boot you back to the beginning. It's not all bad, though. First, all Pixie ambushes you trigger get noted on the auto-map with exclamation marks. Second, there's a way to know where the Pixies are in advance.
Soul: There's a platform in each one, so try climbing it. From there, you will be able to see the entire section and where the shining Pixies are hiding.
See? It's not that hard. Now let's talk about the overall layout of this dungeon.
Soul: That's where that Sakahagi is. But, you can't get into that section from here.
The construction site is a square, divided into four smaller square-shaped sectors. A communications tower is in the middle, and that's our destination. The entrance is in the south-western sector, we start in the south-eastern one. There's no door connecting them directly, so we'll have to circle around the tower counter-clockwise.
Here's a complete map of the starting sector. The only loot here is a Cache Cube with 2 Life Stones.
All demons encountered in the park belong to the Fairy race, which mean you've seen all of them, but one.
This is Titania, Oberon's wife. It may be the most modest and conservative fairy queen design in the history of gaming.
Gameplay-wise Titanias can be quite annoying: they can both nuke your party with Glacial Blast and completely heal theirs with Mediarahan. They repel Expel and Death (no God's Bow fun for the White Rider) and are resistant to four basic elements, making them hard to kill as well. At least they yield a lot XP upon dying.
Reginald reaches level 59. Tetraja is replaced with Makakaja.
That's all for the first sector.
Titania: I hope that you do not bore me. Pixies! Play with him!
Here's the north-eastern quarter. Pixies are a lot more numerous here, and most of them teleport you to a location other than the start. We still can use a tower to see where they are, and trial and error mapping is always an option.
Soul: Sakahagi used that to summon a powerful demon. ...It reflects physical attacks. *sigh* How did it come to this?
Sakahagi wasn't just sitting on the stone Yuko is looking for and used its power to make a powerful friend. It's good to know its resistances in advance.
Mystical Chests are all over the place. In addition to the Balm of Rising, we find a Luck Incense and a Sapphire. There's also a Chakra Drop in a Cache Cube.
We should see the western half now.
Oberon: My troops shall entrap you as you move! This falls out better than I could devise!
Shit just got real: High Pixies were unleashed! There are only four of them, but there's a trick. Every time you pass under a, uh, metal bar thingy unprotected by a High Pixie, they change formation, of which there are two.
This is the square formation.
This is the X formation. The auto-map is as helpful as always, and finding your way past them is still easy.
Loot's worse than it was in the previous section. No Incenses, but we get a Bead Chain, Sacred Water and 3 Medicines.
Things are more interesting on the leveling front.
Amaterasu learns Debilitate, one debuff to rule them all.
Reggie discards War Cry in favor of Rakukaja, completely moving away from debuffs. No Magatama teaches Debilitate, and everything else is now outclassed by it.
Djed also curses him when it goes wild. Only a Fountain can remove it, so we use the small terminal in this section to return to Asakusa.
BGM:
Heretic Mansion ~Curse~
The curse given by Magatama has a curious side-effect: it completely changes the fusion table. All fusions now result in demons of Haunt, Wilder, Foul, Night, Vile or Tyrant races. Fusing elementals from two demons of the same race is disabled, but you can still fuse Mitama out of two Elements. Finally, elemental fusion is reversed: Elements that normally upgrade a demon of a certain race downgrade it now, and vice versa. Note that normally demons of some races (Deity and Tyrant, for example) can only be downgraded with elemental fusion, so getting cursed is the only way to upgrade it.
One use for this feature stands out: fusing a certain level 84 Tyrant that can later evolve in an even more power level 95 Tyrant. You see, under normal conditions, pretty much the only way to create a Tyrant is by fusing a Vile with a Fury (there's also a couple of recipes involving a Raptor, but there's only Raptor in the entire game, so it's a bit limited). The problem here is that no combination of a Vile and a Fury of comparable levels results in this particular demon. You either get the level 74 Tyrant or the level 91 one. Normally, to get the Tyrant in question you have to either downgrade the level 91 Tyrant or use the level 95 Fury in fusion. Both of these options become available quite a bit later than the level 84 Tyrant does, so he'll be lagging behind in levels when you finally do get him. The better option is to get cursed, then use the increased number of combinations resulting in a Tyrant to your advantage.
Level 84 is still far away, though, so we're getting rid of this crap for now. But since we're here anyway, why not use the Cathedral of Shadows for other purposes? Making Debilitate easily accessible to future demons sounds like a good idea to me.
Amaterasu is first fused with a Kodama, then with another Kodama and finally with a Pixie. The resulting Aeros is registered in the Compendium for future use.
The Aeros is then fused with a Black Ooze we picked up gods know when. This will be the final form of the Pixie that originally joined us at the hospital... until we get to the Fifth Kalpa.
That said, we need a replacement for Amaterasu.
We get Barong by fusing Sparna with Baihu. Sparna, in turn, is obtained by upgrading Orthrus with an Aeros. The fusion of Baihu is a bit more complicated: we upgrade a Power to a Virtue with an Aquans bought at Rag's, then fuse it with another Orthrus.
Barong embodies all that is good and is the archenemy of Rangda in the mythology of Bali.
We give him a boost with an Ara Mitama fused from a bought Aquans and a summoned Erthys. After he learns Iron Claw, we'll have a very flexible demon, capable of physical and magical offense and support. Electricity draining will prove highly useful in the next Fiend battle.
We return to the Third Kalpa. The Black Rider becomes available on level 61 and we're out of Deathstones.
Will you try to open it?
Yes.
Voice of the door: Your strength is worthy of praise! You may pass.
This time we manage to get inside the strength section.
Inside we find the desired Deathstone, two Beads and a Magic Mirror.
The final resting place of the weaker three of the four Oni is here.
Randomly encountered enemies include Titans, Yaksini, Ara Mitama, Onkots and Oses.
This isn't all the strength part of the Kalpa has to offer. Two more doors refuse to open to us, so we'll be returning here yet again.
Will you try to open it?
Yes.
Voice of the door: Your magic is worthy of praise! You may pass.
The magic section has several Mystical Chests. Inside we find this Attack Mirror, a Balm of Rising and a Chakra Pot. No Deathstones for now, which is a shame, as the Pale Rider is only 2 levels above the Black one, but, again, two more doors can't be opened right now, so there's still hope for us if we put all our stat points in Magic on several level-ups.
The magic section introduces Jinn.
Supernatural beings created by Allah and given free will. On average, tend to be far less dickish than Efreets, but bastards still exist among them.
Dekaja replaces Shock on the Reggie's skill list. It is time to fuse the Black Rider.
Any fusion that would normally result in a Night demon results in the Black Rider on new Kagutsuchi. First, we fuse an Ikusa from the White Rider and a Naga. Then we downgrade a Pyro Jack to a Jack Frost using a summoned Aeros. Then we fuse the Ikusa and the Jack Frost together.
...I am the Fiend Black Rider. My thirst for blood... shall never be quenched.
Random numbers hate us today and not all skills I'd like to have on the Rider get inherited.
We soup him up with a Nigi Mitama fused from summoned Aeros and Erthys. As a bonus, it sends the Rider's Magic stat through the roof.
Our little detour ends here, and we return to the park to tackle the south-western quarter.
Oberon: Rascals! You grow bolder with each passing day!
No biggie, we still have the auto-map to help us out.
Oberon: Now, you will die...
This is more of a problem. Pretty much all random encounters in this section include not one, but two Titanias assisting another Fairy. The XP is delicious, though.
First of all, there's a locked door nearby.
Will you unlock it?
Yes.
The door is now unlocked.
This leads to the western entrance and, by extension, to Shibuya and the hospital. Back to the construction site.
This part can be confusing: Pixies are numerous and teleport you all over the place.
This Mystical Chest can only be reached by getting teleported by a Pixie. In Cache Cubes you can find 2 Life Stones, a Chakra Drop, a Bead and a Revival Bead.
Barong levels ups, forgets Analyze and learns Iron Claw.
Time to face Sakahagi.
Will you enter?
Yes.
You too, huh? You should've thought twice before coming here. They all come for Magatsuhi, but then they find out that it's already mine. There was a girl who showed up not long before you.
He isn't talking about Yuko.
Yeah, I taught her a lesson... a painful one. Hehehe...
Rape, violence, or both? Your interpretation is as good as mine.
Didn't I tell you before? I won't be used by demons. With all my Magatsuhi, I'll be the one using them. Not just any demons... Even the strong ones.
It blinks several times, then...
...it rises!
And then it fights us.
This is Girimehkala, the mount of Mara. He's a part of the Sri Lankan mythology and is generally thought to be demonized Ganesha, as there were tensions between the island and the mainland India.
I still fondly remember the first time I encountered a couple of these in SMT II, turned on auto-combat, then stared at the game over screen, wondering what the hell had just happened.
As we were warned, Girimehkala reflects all physical damage, but that's just about everything there's going for him. He can spread Poison and Panic, do a basic physical attack, boost his accuracy, remove debuffs and... and that about sums it up.
The strategy is simple: we set up Rakukaja and Sukukaja ASAP, rendering him harmless, then Makakaja four times and start spamming multi-hit spells like Glacial Blast and Bolt Storm. He goes down in no time.
After he's dead, Sakahagi takes his place. What he can do, I have no idea whatsoever. All buffs carry over. The very first Glacial Blast freezes him, then he faces a flurry of automatic criticals and dies without ever getting a turn.
Very badly.
The XP reward is disproportionally huge.
However, the power of Magatsuhi seemed to be absent from it...
Pyro Jack: In my dream, I was a bad demon, hee ho!
Voice: No, it was not a dream.
Oberon: Reggie, I ask you to forgive our discourtesy...
As if they could stop us.
Oberon: By the way... Before we were cursed, a human girl came here. She was beaten by Sakahagi, yet somehow survived and limped to safety, but... I felt an evil power from her heart. Something even stronger than that of Sakahagi. That girl is not an ordinary human...
Doesn't mean it was useless.
Oberon: We shall take our leave. We all thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Please put the Yahirono Himorogi to good use...
So should we. Let's return to the eastern entrance and see how Yuko's doing.
I felt it when the evil presence faded away. Does that mean you have the Yahirono Himorogi?
Can I have it then, since you have no use for it?
My god will surely teach me the Reason now...
The grave awaits even the victor at the end of the road. Show me your heart...
Because of your name, you will carry the burden of plague, pain, and ridicule.
This question officially ushers in the end-game, as it has the most direct influence on which ending you will get. Specifically, Reginald's behavior here will define which of the two neutral endings he'll qualify for, should he show the middle finger to the Reasons and the old gentleman.
Immediately after this is answered, another question will be asked: does Reggie fear betrayal?
It's voting time. Is Reggie afraid of suffering? Of betrayal? Both of them? Neither of them? You decide.
nearly finished now :3
+ 
