As much as I resent the demons for the cascade of horrors they've inflicted upon us, I must admit that the idea of the Mesians exterminating everyone who doesn't agree with them fails to sit well with me.
: Fine. If things are as bad as you say, then they're the bigger threat. I'll get answers out of that angel, even if I have to beat them out of him.
: You will!? You'll do it!?
: Yeah. Yeah, I'll do it.
: Ah, thank you! I knew I was not mistaken in choosing you for this task! I'm counting on you.
She better behave while I'm gone, else I'm coming back for her. Hell, I might come back for her anyway.
*: There's still a branch of the Destiny Land upper floors I haven't explored yet, so I'll finish it before I leave. Fortunately the "pitfalls" seem to work both ways.
...hey, the makka/magnetite counter has unborked itself. That's a relief. Magnetite appears to be capped at 99999, but I guess the event with the demon summoner didn't check that cap. My current party eats up 11-12 magnetite per step, so it didn't take me too long to fall back under the limit.
Anyway. We find some more Luck Incense, which I actually give to Kei. I might start doing that with other Incenses now, because Francois' stats are getting ridiculously high. None of them are at the hard cap of 40, but I have to account for equipment bonuses if I don't want incense and levels to go to waste in the future.
...alright, that's all the chests. We Toraport back to the Terminal. Now we could go to Shinagawa straight away, but I remember that I still haven't checked out the upper floors of Ueno. I thought Destiny Land was a sidequest area; I certainly didn't expect to find Echidna there. So yeah, I warp back to Ueno and find the up staircase again.: I can't just sit here and let the Mesians do whatever they damn well please!
: That's the spirit! Finally someone besides me is going to take action!
: To keep undesirables out, there are traps set all around that will damage anyone who isn't aligned with Chaos.
: Well, thanks for the advance warning!
Never leave home without your amulets, is what I always say!
: To either build -- or take over -- something of that size would require massive amounts of energy. Where are they going to get it all from?
The last people I met who had any significant reserves of energy were the Red Count and the Black Baron. I hope the Mesians aren't getting theirs the same way.
*: Huh. A Nataku drops a Headhunter Spoon. That's just bizarre. It's 120/25, hits once, and can be used by anyone. It's also cursed. I don't know what the curse does, but I don't think I want to find out.
The second floor has a couple of annoying teleporters, but that's no big deal. We find a sealed door and a staircase to the third floor.
Gah, more frikking teleporters. Getting around is becoming pretty irritating.: So you're Francois, eh? You've become quite famous, you know.
: It's getting to be a bother, really. You have no idea how hard it is to go from point A to point B with all the demons trying to get my autograph. Fortunately I can charge them whatever I want.
: I've heard plenty of rumors about you... You're creating quite a stir, you know.
: Good! I mean to do nothing else!
: Francois, welcome... or so I would like to say, but I can see that you don't have what it takes to be allowed in here. Until you truly believe in our philosophy, I will have to ask you to leave.
Normally I wouldn't let some pissant little high priest talk to me like that, but this is not the time to make a scene, especially since Echidna believes I'm here to help her out.
*: Well, it looks like we're done here. I warp directly to Shinagawa. I don't know where our quarry is, but maybe Kaneda can hook us up. Before I go find him though, I hit the convenient Jakyou Mansion here. I got lots of demons with a level way lower than mine, so it's time to upgrade.
As nice as Tamamo's physical reflection is, she hasn't been doing much damage herself for a long time, and her MP is far too low for her spells to be consistently useful. So...
Tamamo + Senri = Manticore
Giant + Choronzon + Kerberos =Lv54 Jaryuu Serpent
The word "serpent" and its synonyms shows up about as often as you'd think in mythologies around the world; most notable in our culture is the serpent of Biblical Genesis, the physical form taken by Satan to tempt Adam and Eve with forbidden knowledge. However, given its appearance here, and its classification as a Jaryuu, I think it's a good bet that this is a sea serpent, your basic giant sea monster that sailors have been afraid of since men first put a hollowed out log in the water. They're decent fighters-types, if not entirely remarkable. They know Constrict, Rampage and Tail, which are all very powerful abilities unfortunately hampered by the fact that you don't get to choose which one gets used.Troll + Serpent + Manticore = Zochoten
And nope, I can't summon Zochoten after all. I have the level, but not the alignment. That said, I'm keeping him around anyway, because Kishin are hard to come by and I may want to fuse him even if I can't go back to Neutral. Plus, I like how Pascal ended up as part of a Heavenly King.
Unfortunately, I find myself shorthanded. My minions are Zochoten, Dominion, Atlas, Gnome and Ongkot; if I absolutely wanted a full party, I'd have to summon Gnome, which wouldn't be the smartest idea. That said, I'm about to search Shinagawa anyway, so I'll just shangai a Loa or whatever else I can find here to fill in my ranks.
Ha, I dropped by the Junks store to sell my extra crap, and the guy gave me 10 makka for the Headhunter Spoon.
Alright, enough dilly-dallying, we got to see a man about an angel. The trip to the third floor is mostly uneventful; I do recruit a Loa, and also a Werewolf, just because.: I heard bad things about your people, Kaneda. And I'm afraid I can't take you on your word anymore, not the way you are now. I had to come see for myself.
: Alright, that's quite enough using us to do your dirty work! Show yourself!
: Ah!... That voice is...
: I am Tenshi Haniel, servant and messenger to God himself! For your unremorseful heresy, there can be only one punishment! I shall throw you into the flames of Hell myself!
: Ha! You're out of luck! The gatekeepers of Hell all work for me!
*: Haniel is very fast, knows Maha-Zionga and can hit four times, and that could be pretty scary, but all my people have good physical defense to begin with so he can't one-shot anyone, and Ongkot can boost our defense enough that Kei can Me-Dia away the damage we take. He uses lightning so I don't want to risk using Zionga on him, and I fused my frost damage caster away, so I have to duke it out fairly this time.
Fortunately we don't need any tricks. The Fuujin-Ken shows its power again, and Ongkot's Taru-Kaja allows everyone to hit for decent damage. Loa deals the final blow, and we earn 40k EXP for our trouble, dinging us up two levels.Lv? Tenshi Haniel
Haniel seems unique so far, in that he is a Tenshi with a name; I would have expected him to be a Seraph, but it turns out he's counted among the Dominions, which is pretty funny because I have one of his colleagues on my squad right now. In any case, I can't find much in the way of details, but apparently he's from ancient Jewish lore and may or may not be a part of the Seven Archangels listed in the non-canonical Book of Enoch.: Some saviors you guys are. Can't even defend yourselves from a kid with a computer.
: You are abusing your power, using it to bring wicked ends!
: You're one to talk! I've been to the jails in Ikebukuro, I've seen all the fanatics there who stole and murdered because you let them believe that's what your God wants!
: Continue on this path, and you will only bring about your own destruction...
: Pfft. If your boss wants a showdown, he knows where to find me. I'll be waiting.
It's a shame it had to turn out this way.
Oh well.
Time to get back to Destiny Land and see exactly how grateful Echidna is going to be.
*: Wait a minute... Lessee...
Ah-ha! See what I did there?
Excellent.
[spoiler]If you didn't notice, yeah, that's Zochoten in my active party. We is Neutrals ag'in, ma![/spoiler]
Before I go, I return to the Jakyou Mansion. Now that I'm level 61...
Gnome + Dominion =Lv61 Tenshi Throne
Thrones form the third order of God's angelic forces. They are the conduit of God's will; what He decides, they make known to angels and to the rest of the universe. In some traditions they are also called the Ophanim, and are literally the living wheels under the throne of God, or are even the throne itself. They are spectacular fighters, with immense HP and MP, unusually high Luck, and excellent, well-rounded stats otherwise. They know Me-Diarahan, Estma (prevents random encounters with demons of a lower level than you until the next full moon) and Ricarm, all incredibly valuable spells.That is sexy; she's got almost as much HP as Francois, and almost as much MP as Kei. Of course she comes with a CP of 42, but that's not a problem for us. The next (and final) step up the Tenshi ladder is the badass Cherub we saw a long time ago when I was explaining rank-down fusion. It's not for a while yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
We transmit back to Destiny Land. It's kind of a long way to Echidna, but Throne's Estma is gonna make that so much more pleasant!
...in fact I don't even run into any random encounters at all. This is GLORIOUS.: Honey, I'm hooooo~ome!
: I heard that you successfully disposed of the Tenshi Haniel. Good job!
: Aw, it ain't no thing!
: Well then, our next order of business is the Cathedral itself. The Gaians are just about ready to undertake their plan to invade and conquer it. Francois, will you lend your strength to the invasion effort?
*: And here's another undoubtedly crucial choice. We become card-carrying members of the Gaian Church and help lead their assault on the last bastion of pure human resistance, or we cut off the head of the snake-lady right here and now.
Of course I have an idea of how's it's gonna turn out, but hey, who knows, maybe the boards are going to receive an influx of satanists or wiccans or who knows what else before my next update.