LogFAQs > #962484408

Okay, so firstly, to follow up from something earlier in the topic: Anime Milwaukee is letting me wear a face shield, so I'm not gonna be playing this weekend. Yes, I know Cristina Vee won't be there (possibly 2023), so I won't get to post a "VELVET" autograph in all its glory, but it'll be my first con in two years so FUCK YES!

With that out of the way...

I don't bother fighting very much here; the music gets redundant (possibly because I've heard a previous version of this track hundreds of times in Abyss already). I just trek through, taking the shortcut I opened up last time (if I missed anything, oh well). The party thinks Aifread isn't actually a daemon and is just spellbound to Melchior, making his appearance as it is now an illusion. We just have to whoop his ass and break through to him. I get to the arena - the apparently pointless dead end the last time I was here. Zaveid is winded and looking defeated, but he's not giving up: He's not fighting - he's trying to break Aifread from Melchior's dark magic. It's not working. Eizen blocks Aifread's attack on Phi... after which Eizen gives him an earful. "Going after kids now?" Aifread picks up Zaveid's evoker Siegfried and promptly attacks. The fight isn't that hard, but hey: He at least gets a Mystic Arte! Makes things better than it did against the last few big monsters I fought.

After the fight, Aifread uses his last strength to attempt to murder Phi in cold blood. Taking him as a hostage, Eizen goes into this epic monologue that includes Aifread's own line "If you can't hold something in your hand, then make a fist and take it by force!" and Eizen promptly does with an epic gut punch. This makes Aifread come to his senses... he recognizes Eizen, and is happy his friend is there for him. Phi... manages to disspell his malevolence, ending Melchior's mind control. However, Aifread... has taken more than enough damage. And, using his last strength, explains that Phi's powers stem from him being part of Innominat, and that will allow him to... seal off Innominat's domain using the four true Empyreans, thus weakening it. Aifread is sad he won't be there to help us raise hell, but... in another life, there will be another Aifread. Though Eizen will have to duel Zaveid because... Zaveid is MAD that Aifread had to die. Gotta say I kind of have a problem with this: Aifread was as hard-boiled as they come. How'd this kill him, exactly? It was only something that happened out of necessity for the plot, not because it was natural.

Back at camp, Eizen goes back to inform Benwick and the crew what happened. The rest of us ask Grim about what we need to do. Grim says that if we awaken Amenoch, any water malakhim under Innominat's control will gain their free will, and the same goes for the other Empyreans and their elements. Some of them will no longer obey exorcists, and the most weak-minded sheeple will be unable to perceive malakhim and daemonblight at all any longer. This will solve pretty much all of the world's problems, but most ESPECIALLY the monster Innominat. Things will go back to the way they were, and the Abbey will be nothing more than a fad. Grim says all we need is a soul free of malevolence... and Magilou reminds us that Velvet has eaten quite a fair share of exorcists, so she can expend those since they're already dead. Teresa and Oscar are the first two, but won't we need two more? Grim says maybe not and because DEUS EX MACHINA there's a lifepool that's a hack! That, uhh... sorry, but no. I don't like that part either. It's being brought up because the party needs a miracle. There should have been a lifepool early in the game explaining all this for later. This was only created (or reused from Zestiria) so the party can win, as opposed to them finding some other way. This occurs from earthpulse flows going vertically. There are also lifesprings, which go in the reverse direction, and since the only lifepool that's known to man has become the Empyrean's Throne, we can't use that. So we go to Mt. Killaraus - the volcano near Hellawes. The fire Empyrean should be there.

Grim is thrilled by this sheer lunacy. Seems like she hasn't had something fun happen in a few hundred years! The pirates don't seem choked up about Aifread at all - they probably had accepted it, and know that if they cried at all beyond his Viking Funeral, he'd give them an ass-whooping in the afterlife. Their hearts are eternal and we have to push on like the creed says. Good.

I stop by the Class 4 with the Katz chest just to open that. There's a scene on the ship (who sent off that slyphjay and with what?) where Rokurou expresses confidence in Kurogane even though the orchicalcum blade snapped in half, because only he could have crafted such a blade to begin with. I also must note that it's only partly the blade but also the wielder - Rokurou is letting himself get psyched out too much. We speculate about the Ceremony of Suppression but are ambushed by a horrible beacon suddenly removing human cognition almost entirely. The fuckers need to die - history is populated by evil creatures like them who want nothing more than to destroy humanity.

We wake the crew up and end up in Zeksom. Benwick describes it as "some jerk playing tug of war" with his brain. Eizen's merchant friend tries to drown himself but Eleanor tries to restrain him, after which Velvet punches him in the face. One down, several hundred thousand to go! We have to save all these people who have committed at least one sin in their lifetime (aka everyone). Even the guy who made Velvet "coo" wants to die for... taking pleasure in things? WHAT THE FUCKITY FUCK!? People can't enjoy themselves AT ALL here!? They are all zombies! Every last one. Like... this has to be one of the most inhumane and vile things I've ever seen in a game - like this is even more extreme than in Abyss. "Shepherd" is an appropriate title for Artorius - it wants to herd everyone like cattle, control which ones live and die, and... yeah. These... things... aren't human. They are evil itself. Why we didn't impale Melchior when we had the chance, I do not understand. If it dies, maybe this isn't happening so fast. I look forward to actually killing it next time, alongside its fellow fiends. Like I can't think of a single nice thing to say. They've gone past the point of being too vile to be human.

This is reinforced by an old guy along the way wanting to jump off a bridge and die, simply because he's too old to be useful to society. Another zombie releases his pets to the wild, thinking that's where they belong since they... offer no benefits so society? What the HELL!? Pets offer love and companionship and help people emotionally. The fact that the monsters think WE'RE the bad guys is insane. Sorry, but the Abbey's about to be part of history. It will be remembered like our world remembers Germany in World War II. Once we kill the vile thing known as Artorius, it will go down as the most evil man to ever live. Well, either it or Melchior. And Innominat will be akin to Satan.

I end outside Loegres for the night. This is getting too depressing to keep playing right now. I'll play more - just not right now. They can't let this go on for TOO long.