Chapter the twelfth; little mermaids and demiurge wannabes.
In which our Heroine finally travels to Makai for the first time, in search of the lost lover of a sad siren. Also, Prisoners will be saved, Total Recall will be plagiarized, Old Ones will be shot and Matrix will be reminded it wasn't the first time someone thought Virtual Reality was a good idea in a story built around Gnosticism.
Once our heroine manages to go back to having around 30k Magnetite with her we are ready to assault the tower of evil evilness. First, though, we visit the virtual battler for another meeting with Stephen Hawkings, who has a new toy for us to play with.
I see that you've grown substantially stronger than before.
Today I will give you a program that will turn on a formerly inactive part of your arm terminal. It is an identification system that will analyze any item or magic that you wish to learn about... But it will not make the Appraisal stores obsolete, as it cannot tell you everything.
We shall meet again.
And straight to the tower we go. Unlike before the gates are open, and we enter unimpeded. This dungeon is composed of twelve small square floors. All levels from the third and until the twelft have one square that will drop you two floors below, but most other rooms will have chests and the like, including many incenses. So you just grit your teeth and keep falling down. Above those twelft small levels is a somewhat bigger thirteenth level, and do not ask me how it is that works but it does.
In the tower we fight against some new demons among all the old ones, like the Shiki Zombie Priest and Youju Arlaune.
The zombie priests are a pretty bothersome bunch as they are immune to bullets and having a save or die attack along with another one that sends a demon back to the COMP until you summon it again, so it's better to just evade them when it's not small groups of them or a pair of them along with some other thing, as in both cases your demons can kill them before they move. I really like their art.
Arlaune or Alraune, whichever is right, is a german word for Mandrake and, in turn, the title of Hans Heinns Ewers' best known novel. My interest into the late gothic horror and the early modern horror was never enough for me to read the novel, so that's more or less all you are going to get from me until i decide to go and do so. As far as i know it goes about Nature versus Nurture and stuff, influences i can kind of notice in the game's plot, and the titular Arlaune is a girl created by a scientist using an alchemical process involving the seed of a hanged murderer to impregnate a prostitute. Ewwww.
There's also Lilims, one of which i recruit, and Eligors, etc. There's also the ocassional Berith, showing the game's finally starting to catch up with me. Once we hit the thirteenth floor more demons come to the fray, the most notorious being the Yama Vampire. His sheet may not look like it, but being immune to bullets they are kind of annoying.
I recruit one to have around for fusion and to save me the trouble and stuff, but he's not my kind of demon so he will not get any use. Also, as we explore this top floor we come across a magically sealed gate. Unable to go beyond we keep looking around until we come across Daniel, his shape being a testament to who's the real Messiah in here.
Me neither. You were suposed to be the best warrior among us, Dani-Kun.
To think that they've got a demon as guardian of the Watchtower... What the hell is the Center thinking...!?
They got King Abaddon to eat Valhalla, Dani-Kun. It's not like The Center consorting with demons is news material.
Be careful in there. He's no pushover. I couldn't hold a candle to him on my own and barely made it out with my life...
You go write some more speeches and stuffies, Dani-Kun, and let the Pros handle this one, nya. We go to the watchtower's throne room to face off against...
Belphie, Demon Lord of dark crevices and shadowy holes!
*Standing Ovations*
And I wish I was joking, but I am not. Being a witch and all I kind of know those guys are really just symbols and riddles and stuff, representations and aspects of the forces and not the forces themselves, but Baalphegor is one of those cases i can't help but wonder, like, wasn't there a better way to pinpoint this one particular force, Rabbi? Or, like, why did you got overboard with the mushrooms beforehand, Goldstein? I guess that's a question that will never meet an answer, shame.
To be fair, though, Belphegor is also the demon of ingenious inventions and wonderful new discoveries, so i guess it may all come down to the Rabbi who first summoned him really believing the toilet was a neat development or something. His powers and offices include, also, to give great wealth and to take the shape of a little girl, and i'm totally not going there so make of it what you will. This is one of those few cases, though, were I'm unsure about the demon's true gender. I'll explain why...
Demons, naturally, do not have a
sex. Being immaterial beings such things aren't really important, nor useful, to them. Demons, though, do have a
gender, since nothing beneath the Crown of Atziluth can't help but be a victim of duality, Demons included. When a demon becomes manifest in some way or another they don't take a shape at random, though. Their shapes are symbolical, a manifestation of the
will or
nature of the demon as seen through the prism of the witch's own psychological structures, paradigms, and cosmological models. And while some symbols can get very unique and personal through being related to very unique and personal experiences most are simply taken from the cultural, social, religious, or philosophical context, and the more basic and primal and common and simple a concept is the most common and less unique it's symbols usually are as long as you are at least partially socialized, and in the case of really base things they will be the same even if you were raised by wolves in a carpathian valley lost to time.
So when a demon appears always, or most of the time, as a female it's kind of obvious we are talking to something that shouldn't be refered to as
He. Take Marchosias, who we knew back in Shin Megami Tensei, as an example, whose shape is always that of a female wolf and only takes a male form if so asked by the summoner. This is even more obvious in the realm of natural elemental creatures, as most elemental spirits related to water are girls and most elemental spirits related to fire or earth are boys, and goes getting less and less obvious the most personal or particular we get. But then you have beings as Baalphegor, who are really hard to catalogue without first hand experience, and whom as the lore goes only a suicidal tasteless bitch would summon.
Now, as even a multiclassed low level Demonologist knows its name is said to come from the Moabites, who celebrated licentious and obscene and delirious orgies under its auspices in Mount Phegor, and refered to him Bel-phegor or Baalphegor. All other lore related to it is along those lines, too: Some say it can be offered homage while in the toilet, as the residues of mortal digestion are to its taste, or that offerings, as in
live victims now, are to be offered to it by throwing them into the darkest pits to be found in the deepest caves or by eating their flesh while they are still awake and conscious and screaming as part of dark ceremonies in its honor. See why i do have my doubts about the
Little Girl part? It is not that there aren't female demons who aren't totally not nice, as both the Sumerians and the Evil Jews both knew, but they are usually classier than this. This kind of gross crap is usually reserved for male demons, as style and class and good taste are abhorrent to guys. :3
So this smells like a case of either a really divergent prism, as in it got summoned by someone whose mind was really not working as intended, or a case of evil zionist overlords doing what evil zionist overlords usually do when they need to justify some past horror they visited upon their neighbours. Or maybe Belphie knew the best way to manipulate those creepy old jewish wizards was using the promise of some young... Ewww. Bad, bad rabbis. Back to the ovens you go, nao. D:
And I, like, totally forgot: It's time for a new
Kuroi Neko teaches olde and darke magicks, nya! segment! Aren't you joyous and extatic? Of course you are! Etc, now let's rumble!
Well, well, it looks like I have another visitor!
You seem pretty used to people walking in while you are, like, you know... Doing stuffies and thingies?
I have to admit, it's pretty impressive that you were able to see through the illusions guarding this tower.
However, the last guy who came here ran away with his tail between his legs! A smart thing to do, to tell the truth...
Aren't you the humble one? x3
Will you be as foresightful, I wonder?
Totally no, you don't need to worry. I'll free you from zionist chains and send you back home before you even notice, trust little kawaii me. :3
Boss music, activate!
Koneko begins the battle by shooting Belphie for 38 damage or so, and then Berith uses his Deathbound attack skill for a total of 109 damage. Anubis, in turn, falls to his knees and begins to pray for Divine Retribution: Power takes 44 damage, Berith takes 41 damage, and Belphegor takes 369. Mariah then shoots for 47 damage and Power does the same Anubis did, starting to pray for Divine Retribution, and in response Berith takes 35 damage and Belphegor takes 265 damage. Finally, Cyclops punches our enemy for 28 damage. For some reason whatever Belphie did was not among the screenshots.
As you may have noted, though, the spell is called Divine Retribution and not Divine Intervention, and i had to check to put my memory in order. Also, when the lightning and the explosions begins it hits anything of the target alignment present in the battle: All characters from both Law and Chaos if the caster's neutral, all characters from Law if the caster's Chaos, and all characters from Chaos if the caster's Law. The damage, also, is percentile: If Berith had had the same amount of Hit Points than Belphegor when Power casted Divine Retribution he would also have suffered 265 damage instead of just 35 damage. This makes Divine Retribution the kind of spell you want to go all out in the first turns, less so in the middle of the battle, and not at all in the end. Notice, though, that much of this knowledge will not be noticed as i play through this update and the next one. I had, like, kind of forgotten most of this, so i had to relearn it the hard way, and it is a testament to my overpowered party and amazing kawaiisa that i never died while doing so. Not even in the fight at the end of the next update, thought that was a pretty close call since i did not even remember to buff until the last three turns or so.
The second turn is again opened by Koneko going on a rampage and shooting at Belphegor for a total of 71 damage. Anubis then hits the big dude for 19 damage, and Berith uses his Deathbound skill for 111 damage. Belphegor's answer is casting Hapilma and enveloping in bliss both Cyclops and Berith. Mariah then goes with Media, healing the party as most of the skills my demons are using are fueled by Hit Points, and Power uses his Hellfan attack for 31 damage. Cyclops kicks for 29 damage.
The third turn begins, again, with Koneko going pew pew, this time for 47 damage, and in response Belphegor breathes a cold and icy breath, freezing all the characters but Koneko, who already did his thing so it doesn't really matters, Mariah, who again casts Media, and Berith, who doesn't really cares because he is too happy as to act this turn. Meh.
Fourth turn begins. Koneko goes pew pew for 37 damage and Anubis attacks for 24 damage, then Belphegor breathes coldness again, this time freezing both Power and Berith. Meh. Mariah casts Media and Cyclops uses his Rampage skill for 26 damage.
The fifth turn is opened by Anubis attacking and getting dodged by a guy sitting on the toilet, so those are some really amazing skillz on the middle eastern dood. Koneko shoots for 35 damage or so, Mariah casts Media, Berith uses Deathbound for just 45 damage this time, and Belphie breathes fire, doing 32 damage to Cyclops and 23 damage to Mariah. Power then goes Hellfan on his butt for 37 damage, and Cyclops does nothing because he is happy.
Sixth turn, now. Koneko pew pews for 50 damage, and in response Belphegor casts Plinpa, confusing both Cyclops and Power. Berith goes Deathbound for 57 damage, Anubis attacks for 21 damage, Mariah casts Media, Power attacks for 16 damage, and Cyclops attacks for 33 damage.
Seventh turn, yay. Koneko shoots for 57 damage and the battle ends. We rule, etc.
A human, yet summoning and binding many demons to his will...
Who are you...?
The name's Kitty, Soror Kitty... The Lord's last resort before open warfare and biblical revelation, nya! :3
Once Belphegor has gone to search for a more private place in where to, like, you know,
that we go back to the gate we discovered before. Belphegor's defeat has dispelled the enchantment that kept it locked, and as such we are now able enter the heart of the Watchtower to discover the secret force behind The Center's psychological indoctrination of The Factory's workforce. What new horrors lurk ahead our heroine?
Siren is singing on a sorrowful voice...
It's a sad siren! And now we have to discover what ails her heart so we can heal her sadness and stop her song. But she doesn't want to talk to us, so where can we go to ask around and discover the reason behind her pain? To where demons live, of course! But as we try to abandon the tower we discover The Center is no longer willing to sit idly while we go around doing as we please, and while most demons have retreated following Belphegor's defeat and the thirteenth level of the tower is completely safe, the lower levels are crawling with Temple Knights, Executors, and many other Mesian Troops, including some pretty unique military hardware known as the Lavi!
They are no match for us, though, and before we have time to even notice we are back outside. We transmit back to Holytown, visit the seer for confirmation, and then start looking for a way to travel into the Abyss. It's still too early to try opening the main gate so we will be using the same method that crazy scientist from the prologue tried to use. But first we need to find the fifth doll, since as i believe we already discovered before one of his doll was the wrong one and thus the corridor to the Abyss wasn't working as intended.
Now you would be damned to spend a couple centuries walking around
every single place we have visited so far while trying to find something that looks like a hint if it were not for the cutest Neko, who will go straight to Holytown's Great Church and, once there, straight to the second floor and to that guy we met before who was screaming in frustration but did not want to share with us his worries. Now he will want to since the frustation has been building up.
Well, you see, my ambition is to see the halls of the Abyss for myself, so I've been trying to open a door there.
You are real lucky i'm no longer in JEWtopia's payroll, i have to say.
I know how to get there in theory, but not in practice. Do you want to hear how it's supposed to work?
Yes, sure. We both know the bane of witches and sorcerers everywhere is talking way to much about our research, so spill it out already.
All right, here's the deal. You need to find four magical dolls, each infused with special power. Then you need to place them in the right formation in a place where this world's energies are in synch with those of the Abyss. Then the portal to the Abyss will open.
The problem is, out of those four dolls, I only have one.
... So, do you want this Sleeping Doll I've got?
Haaaaaaaai. :3
All right then, here you go. I'm sick of trying and failing, so you find a way there for me. Good luck!
Geez, if wish some the evil black sorcerers i have met were as nice as this guy. Now, remember that room we find before in the third floor, with all the ceremonial stuff indicating someone had tried to open a gate to the Abyss on it? We go straight to that room, then we start placing the dolls but, when we are asked about the Dancing Doll we decide
not to place it, and then we will be asked if we want to place the Sleeping Doll in its place. We do so, and voila!
The gate to Makai has opened! We venture forth, and while there may be none of those totally kawaii Prinnies around right now and the place really needs better lightning the
totally awesome music more than makes up for it. I could listen to that track all bloody day, i could.
It is bloody hard to notice it on the screenshot but there is one of those raised tiles that indicate an encounter waiting to happen south of our position, so we go there once we decide we can keep listening to the song while exploring around. And in doing so we meet Petersen, who has an interesting story to tell.
you know what happened to my lover?
I can totally see where this is going...
... My lover, Siren, was kidnapped by someone and brought to your world. They probably wanted to use her song to enthrall others.
:evil: Those Evil Zionist Overlords!
... To tell the truth, I, too, was enslaved by her song initially. But as we spent time together, we ended up falling in love.
Awww. :3
We were together for a long, long, time... My body grew old and weak, and so I cast it aside, so I could be with her forever.
Awwwwww. :3
I am nothing but a sould now, and in my state I'm powerless to save her...
That makes me so sad... so frustated... Please, bring me to her! I beg you!
Sure,
yes, I will. He's pretty nice, I like the character. :3
I thank you for your kindness. I won't be any help in battle but I will come with you.
Welcome aboard! We now move north until we come across some strange building with a huge locked door on it. Unable to open it, then, we keep moving, now to the east, until we come across another encounter. A very weird one, to say the least. What's going on here?
of the spell that holds the secret to eternal life. If i can find it, then we can make Arcadia into a truly ideal world...
Beyond this one encounter we come across a kind of red distortion in space. We will explore this later, though, and for now we go back to the building we passed before and this time we move north. There we come across another of those tower like structures, but we cannot get close to it as a huge void beyond makes it dangerous. Does this sound familiar? We will solve this problem later.
We also come across our first Macha while so exploring. She is a war goddess of ancient Ireland or something, and the best way to known if someone plays Shin Megami Tensei Imagine is to show her the art for this demon. If she goes into an hysterical rampage, she does play enough as to have tried going solo to Cerulean Tower at least once, poor thing. Those damn birds are bloody hateful, i tell you. Lucky for me, though, in Shin Megami Tensei II they are nothing but fodder, so I take my chances to explain one or two things to them and, like, pay some debts.
We also discover Makai not only has mountains, just like the human world, but that the mountains
move. Does this reminds you of something else? In case it doesn't, though, a local is sightseeing not very far away with a bit of exposition to refresh our memories. Then a bit to the south and the west we come across a yellow building with a dangerous God sleeping inside, an elf with the soul and heart of a tourist guide, and the most populous settlement of the Abyss.
moving. See, over there? You can see it too, right? I've heard that they're the body of the Kuzuryu, actually.
Before we continue into the city of Tiphereth, though, it's that time, once more. What time, do you ask? The time in which
Kuroi Neko teaches darke and olde magicks, nya! Or it should be, but it isn't really a good idea. Why, you ask? Because the Tree Of Life is hard enough to understand without trying to start in the middle. So i will delay this segment until our second visit to Tiphereth, which will be happening as part of the third act, when we will have to walk the entire Tree Of Life from Malkuth to Kether while killing stuffies and defeating bosses, because walking the path of flaming sword is all about slaughtering the hordes of hell. Also, we will walk through them
almost in order so it will be easier to get the idea. For now we enter the city and start interviewing the locals, as usual. If i am not mistaken this is either the last time we'll have to talk this much, or the one before last. Once we hit the third act is almost non stop dungeon crawling and Youkai Elimination Service until the end, yay.
only fitting that someone as hot as I am live here.
No, תפארת means
beauty or
adornment you... you... you! ¬_¬U
The game also manages to finally catch up with us, throwing the first enemies in a long while that could manage to be a challenge where we not ready for them. Meet the Old Ones. Yes,
those Old Ones. And, fitting as it is, there's no diplomacy with them and if you want one you must fuse it. I don't remember the formula, though, so feel free to contribute it if you do. I want one soooo bad.
*puppy eyes*
They give good Experience, too, and a pack of them can hold two or three turns of Koneko and Mariah shooting them with nerve bullets while the rest of the party jumps on their heads. That's pretty amazing, and more than some bosses did.
We also meet a driad, find the local terminal even if we cannot activate it until we reach Tiphereth the right way, and visit the local healing temple, which is more like a healing spring tended by bunny girls. I wish i were making that up, i really do. The color indicates the alignment: Green for neutrality, red for chaos, and blue for law. They work in the same way the repair garages, gaian temples, and mesian churches do, respectively. This one's neutral, so anyone can use it but the prices are way higher than in the other two types.
From there we visit the local weaponsmith, a kind of creepy guy. We buy two guns from him, a Gigasmasher for Koneko and a Golden Gun for Mariah. Both guns are way more powerful than what we were using but instead of having multiple single target attacks, and being thus able to either hit each enemy in a group once or a single enemy several times, they have a single attack that hit everyone once. This is good for random encounters, since it hits every single enemy even if they are divided in two packs or if they are way too many for one of the other guns to have enough attacks for all, but it kind of sucks against bosses, though the net damage is just slightly inferior than with our previous guns since the damage potential of the new ones is way higher. We also meet our first Yaka thingies, or meet again since we did meet them back in Shin Megami Tensei already.
Then we find the local casino, but ignore it since i don't feel like playing minigames when every single step i take eats a whole lot of Magnetite, and the local seer, which I ignore since she will say either
go to the Abyss or
go to the Factory. Then we find the Disco!
It must be said: To go clubbing to this bloody place would be, like, totally rad. To smooch some drinks out of Orobas, to get hit on by Eligos and Leonard, to talk girly things with Marchosias, or to hit the dance floor with Decarabia the flying starfish! A witch's life for me, yo ho ho. And stuff.
and the Twelve Devas have taken up residence there.
This is kind of foreshadowing. We will have to break through Geburah later in a battle that's kind of like the twelve devas boss rushing you. It's also so bloody easy it hurts, and usually by that point my party is so totally overpowered i just AUTO the creeps to death.
I don't understand all those guys going to Chesed for "salvation" are thinking... they should just enjoy themselves!
And this is foreshadowing for a kind of side quest we can do later, since you can win the game without ever visiting Chesed nor, if you go either Law or Chaos, Binah, which also has a pretty cool side quest to do if you don't mind fusing yourself some high level demon and then let him go away.
This guy
really gets around.
I love playing around like a kid in a toystore!
D: !!!
After that little bit of clubbing and gossiping and fooling around we leave and go to the bar next door. Once inside the first thing we notice is that...
*squeeeee*
We keep bumping into each other, must be fate. :3
You've done well making it all the way here to the Abyss.
... But you came here by what's more or less a back door.
I don't know if this is a reference to the
secret paths or just some random thing they made up for the game without holding more than an accidental relationship with them. The secret paths are, more or less, paths that connect every single Sephirot to each other one inside that one world, or even to each of the Sephira of all the four worlds. Some say there is not such thing, some say there is such a thing but that they do not play a part in the path of the flaming sword so you shouldn't care, some say there may be such thing but are not of any use to us so why bother, and some say there is such a thing and they can be actually used to move through the four worlds. In practice, though, most people is busy enough trying to understand the normal paths and not fall through the shells as to try to see if there are really secrets paths or are just the normal ones playing tricks on you for the lulz. I love how very little new age and politically correct both kinds of Qabalah are.
Try and figure out how to come in through the front door next time! Good luck!
We finish talking with Louis, then go to talk with the other two locals present. The first is a resident whose information comes a bit too late for it to be of any use...
lover, but then someone came and kidnapped her.
... and the second one is a skeleton man whose information also comes too late for it to be of any use.
I dunno where he came from though.
Meh. We go back to explore, finding the Armorer and taking the chance to buy a set of Jagd Armor for Koneko and a set of Panzer Armor for Mariah. We also meet the new incarnation of the Naga on the way to the Junk Shop, where we buy a lot of thingies. When i leave i have nine of each basic status cure, eighteen hiranyas, and nine Hyper Drops. On the way out we come across an Elf who tells us about Set next door.
He's been sealed off there since before anyone can remember...
Soon he will be, like, unsealed, but now we leave for the vortex like thing we came across before, near the place where the Arcadian guy was wandering. As we prepare to explore beyond, though, we come across the original though girl you don't want to mess with, the one and only, the cool and fearsome and totally not submisive... Morrigan!
Not that ugly bitch, no. I mean, like, Morrigan, man. The Morrigan, yes? The dark and dangerous and totally amazing and scary one that kills people and rules and kicks massive amounts of butt and doesn't affraid of anything?
*facepaw*
What were we saying about how guys lack in class and style and taste and manners? I present you Evidence One and Evidence Two. But no, not that one either. Like,
the Morrigan? The totally great and amazing phantom queen? Yes, that one. Yes, now show it and go away. Geez.
And we proceed to recruit her. The negotiation goes bizarre pretty quick, though. Do I think she's alluring? Who do I think is better, then, she or Mariah? Etc. It's kind of funny, Mariah being about as alluring as a naked old bum covered in festering sores and hungry leeches, but anyway. Once Morrigan has joined us we get near the vortex and cross beyond.
A pretty ugly place receives us on the other side. Our scanner indicates the area is safe, which is kind of weird when you have an open portal to the Abyss in your wardrobe. Everything looks dirty and untidy and kind of rotten, but we press forward, noticing how the pattern of corridors and rooms is kind of familiar. The first room we enter, then, explains why it is so.
Arcadia is truly a utopian world!
Oh, my beloved Arcadia, you are so wonderful... This is truly an ideal world!
We are on Arcadia! Or in some kind of tower, each of its floors an aproximate reproduction of one of the arcadian houses, just with one or two more rooms and all but the first floor lacking a door to the exterior. Indeed, the first floor has two doors to the exterior, one leading to the true Arcadia Area, which we will see later, and the one leading back into Makai. Each floor also has one room containing a Luck Incense, and one room where the local arcadian and his life support system are located. We start going up, stoping only to explore each level throughly for Incenses.
The accusations of Daniel are surely all lies!
and put an end to the evil lies he spits out!
It doesn't matter what Daniel says.
Some uneventful floors later we get to the Control Room for the Arcadia Area, and the man himself is waiting for us here. Lord Sarab's true form appears before us!
You know the truth about my Arcadia Area...
... As I am sure you have witnessed for yourself, Arcadia is not a true utopian world. It is a fabrication, a virtual reality. But even if it is just a fabrication, is it so wrong to give the people the peaceful world they so desire? They are all none the wiser, and happy in their belief that what they experience is real. What is true is what people want to believe is true. That is all that matters.
He actually has a pretty good point, i think. This encounter points to some of the influences behind this game, though many of those would only become obvious if we were to follow the path of Law later on. Shin Megami Tensei II has truly a ridiculous number of Gnostic references and influences and stuff, and this one's a pretty cute one that's kind of wasted in such a small side quest.
I really like Gnosticism, though, and there's no way to be a witch or a wizard or an occultist or an alchemist without having some Gnostic in you even if you never met Gnosticism and thus you use a diferent set of, like, metaphors and symbols and things and stuff, so a quick introduction if you are not familiar with it will follow.
The Gnostic cosmology works like this, though if you take it literally something may be wrong with you... Reality, as we today know it, is a prison built by a hungry demon god who, after being raised in isolation, thinks himself to be the supreme divine lord and, by diferent motives in diferent tellings, builds the world as both a fortress to protect himself from the rest of the hierarchy, what in Qabalah is some times mentioned as The Outer Gods. To feed himself and power his creation, though, he imprisons with him a number of souls, which it then forces into material prison as to be for all time tortured by his agents, the Archons, who will visit diferent kinds of corruption, horror, and falsehood upon humanity to create diferent types of, like, food for themselves and the Demiurge. Meanwhile the war between the Demiurge and the Hierarchy still rages, and agents of the Outer Gods are constantly trying to either free someone who shows promise and potential or pull some old school sabotage in the pattern that holds reality together.
That's a very superficial and simple version but it will work as an introduction. Basicly Gnosticism is what happens when you take the philosophy behind most of the western mysteries and build a religion around it while keeping the meaning close to it's heart instead of becoming a political body, use a set of very catchy and cool and epic stories and symbols to embody the mysteries you want to transmit, and remind people no one should be telling them what to think or how to interpet that stuff and that the only way to understand the truth behind the lore is to experience it first hand. And it is a testament to it's totally cool and awesome and epic lore that a great number of very popular and very cool, and not so very cool or popular, works of art and entertainment, from Pathologic to Matrix to Shoujo Kakumei Utena to Dark City to Shin Megami Tensei to Mage The Ascencion to Warhammer 40k to a bazillion animes and mangas and urban fantasy novels and etc and etc and etc have been, as a bare minimun, very much influenced by Gnostic lore and stories. It is also the original
the thing we call God is actually a jerk who's trying to fuck, torture, rape, and eat us all with a side of fries once his agents finish having their way with our butts cosmology, so modern literature has invented nothing at all. Meh.
However, as you have seen the reality behind Arcadia, the reality that must never be disclosed at any cost, I cannot let you leave here alive.
So it's The Messiah versus Demiurge Jr, yay. Koneko begins by shooting Sarab for 62 damage, then Anubis prays for Divine Retribution and does 43 damage to Power, 59 damage to Berith, and 405 damage to Sarab. Mariah goes pew pew for 47 damage, and Berith uses his Deathbound skill for 104 damage. Then, finally, Sarab attacks and does 35 damage to Berith. Cyclops, in response, punches him for 17 damage and Power tries to use Divine Retribution but only hurts Berith for 35 damage. Meh.
Second turn begins with Koneko shooting Sarab for 61 damage. Mariah then casts Diarama to heal Berith and Sarab attacks Cyclops for 36 damage. Berith goes Deathbound for 92 damage, Anubis attacks for 20 damage, Cyclops attacks but is dodged, and Power uses his Hellfan for 31 damage.
Third turn begins, again, with Koneko going dakka, this time for 108 damage, and Berith joins in the fun with his own Deathbound strike, for 91 damage. Anubis attacks 23 damage, Mariah casts Media, and Sarab attacks Cyclops for 37 damage, who then counter attacks for 19 damage. Finally, Power goes Hellfan for 37 damage.
Fourth turn, now. Koneko shoots for 52 damage, Mariah casts Media, Anubis attacks but is dodged, Berith goes Deathbound for 98 damage. Sarab casts Diarama to heal himself, Cyclops goes on a Rampage for a meager 10 damage and Power uses Hellfan for 35 damage.
Fifth turn. Koneko pew pews for 60 damage, Mariah casts Media, Anubis attacks for 18 damage, Berith goes Deathbound for 52 damage. Sarab attacks Berith for 35 damage, Cyclops casts MahaJionga for a pathetic 2 damage, and Power goes Hellfan for 32 damage.
Sixth turn, yay. Koneko shoots for 52 damage, Anubis attacks for 21 damage, Mariah casts Diarahan for Berith and then Berith uses Deathbound for 98 damage. Sarab attacks Cyclops for 32 damage, Cyclops attacks but is dodged, Power uses Hellfan for 34 damage.
Seventh turn now, sigh. Koneko does his thing for 63 damage, Mariah casts Media, Anubis attacks but is dodged, Berith uses Deathbound for 58 damage. Then Sarab casts Tetrakarn, a spell that reflects all physical damage done after it is cast and until the end of the turn back to who deal it. Cyclops then attacks and hurt himself for 20 damage, and the same happens with Power's Hellfan for 38 damage.
Eighth turn, and this battle is kind of boring because Sarab can take a lot of damage but there's no way to lose to him if you aren't, like, epic fail. Koneko goes pew pew for 54 damage, then Anubis attacks for the single Hit Point Sarab had. Mission accomplished!
As soon as Sarab dies, though, the system notifies us that with the death of Sarab a new saviour must be chosen, since Sarab was kind of the heart and soul of Arcadia and without him the thing can't function correctly. We must choose to either input our own name and become the new saviour, somehow substaining the ilusory world Sarab created, destroy Arcadia, bringing and end to the virtual Utopia and probably killing or at least badly maiming everyone in the process, or do nothing and leave, leaving them to live inside the now kind of guideless virtual world to sink or swim on their own. If you either crash the system or leave, though, Arcadia's integrity is compromised and demons can start pouring in through the gate we used to get there, so it's more or less killing everyone inside. The choice is, to put it simply, do we want to pull a
Syndicate Wars with Old Ones, Tentacle Monsters, and Fallen Angels instead of guys with coats and guns, or do we want to be compasionate?
I don't really work as a villain so i do the nice thing an input myself as Saviour, thus preserving the virtual world's integrity and stuff. If you don't think that's the good thing to do you are jerk and your opinion doesn't matter so there, screw you. Nya.
We return to the first floor and leave through the front door. Outside we found Arcadia to be little more than a dome with some very basic building, and we also come across King Muscle, who isn't so pretty when seen from this side of the mirror.
We leave Arcadia, then, and find ourselves back in the underground passage connecting Arcadia to the Center. Instead of walking all the way back to the Factory, though, we enter Arcadia from this side, now, and find ourselves in the virtual world. I go straight for the church, recover, and then Transmit to The Factory by means of the church's Terminal. Once there it's straight to the Tower and to the Siren, and along the way we get to see more of The Center's military hardware, the Golem. Once atop the tower we leave it to Petersen to make Siren happy and save The Factory.
I thought for sure that I'd nver see you again...
Petersen:
Siren!
Siren:
My love!
Petersen:
......
Siren:
......
The two of us will return to the Abyss. Never again will I leave her side!
... Thank you, and farewell! We will never forget you!
That's totally my kind of ending, cheesy and cute. Have fun and good luck, you two! For our part, now, we go back to the prison and start freeing lazy people, no longer wanting to work for the good of the many.
They make you work 26 hours a day here! I was just about to die of exhaustion when you came here.
They've been making me work without pay here for a long, long time.
They literally sucked all the Magnetite energy out of me as fuel. I won't last long. This is how they repay me for putting my life on the line in all those battles for them...
You mean in the arena? Well deserved you had it, then. Shoo shoo, smallest violin in the world for you.
I beg you, I long to be free! I want to work for the good of the people, but under my own free will!
They weren't going to let me out of here until I died from exhaustion!
then it's just a blur... When i came to, I was caged up here in this little hole in the wall.
then they just put me to work like a slave...
And with that we are done. Now that the workers are no longer under the effect of Siren's song, though, we go pay a visit to that miner guy who was working on the spot where we fought Betelgeuse's boss form. He's no longer as dedicated as he was.
Here, take this Jupiter Pillar. Just looking at the damn thing makes me want to dig holes. It's weird as hell, I want to get rid of it!
Only two more to go, yay. Now we go back to The Factory's main settlement and, once there, to watch the big TV screen for a bit of guidance on what to do next. It seems the time has come for us to finally put and end to The Center's evil zionist machinations, once and for all! Though, truth be said, it seems those evil joos can't even stop stealing when it comes to being evil jerks, dood.
Report immediately to the Center and turn yourself in. If you do not turn yourself in by the end of the day, we will cut off the air flow to Holytown. Everyone in Holytown will most likely die, but it will be an unavoidable consequence.
Repeat: Daniel, report to the Center at once...
Next time we meet will be, like, let's go slaughter evil zionist legions and kill their evil zionist overlords time for our Heroine and her merry band of demons, devils, and assorted supernatural creatures! We will kill many things, we will meet our old pal the quizzing stone door with a face on it, we will finally face the Elders of Millennium, Daniel will once more get his butt handed back to him by a boss just before we reach the scene, and the second act of Shin Megami Tensei II will end with an epic battle against four bosses in a row, each with a metric fuckton of Hit Points, while the most boring battle music, like,
ever plays on and on and on, and on and on and on, and on and on and on, and on and on and on, and...!
Also, flying knights are cool.
If someone uses that image for a
Jesus needs YOU! poster i will be totally joyful.
*second use of puppy eyes of the day*
'till next time!
@ Deniszi
"Hall of dicks?"
It is a testament to how very much time i have spent with you people that i first understood that as
hail of dicks and saw nothing wrong with it.
I need longer vacations.
Good catch, though. XD