Ohhh... Library Battle SIMULATION: Let's Play Library of Ruina

[TeeQueue]

Fanart post updated. Have a good one!

[TeeQueue]

Book 47: Prologue, Small Story 3

VIDEO


"The Street," Yun Dong-ju.

Music: Lobby


I’ve been feeling ecstatic these days; the memories are fading.

You mean the harsh memories of working in that awful corporation?

Yes. Those cruel times…

The things I didn’t want to see are becoming faint; the things I didn’t want to remember are melting away. When I close my eyes, the moments that come to remembrance are of three or four days ago, not one million years in the past.

They are the times of my own… claimed through my own choice. And the flow of time is faster than ever for me. I’m no longer shackled to the fetter of perceiving the hours 100 times slower than humans do.

I feel happier with each new day, you know?

I’ve never seen you looking so happy before. What do you think of the City and its people that are breaking down because of the Distortion, though?

…That, I can’t quite receive with a smile.

Still, the despicable man who had locked me up for one million years would fall to despair if he saw what’s happening now.

Yes… He’ll endlessly despair. His idiotic and flawed plan caused more people to wallow in agony.

He’s going to pay his price in full soon enough.



Bring down? No. I told you my aim before. I will become free along with the librarians.

On top of that, the Abnormalities that are wandering inside this Library lacking a physical form will be able to leave. Garnering strength by devouring powerful individuals, the Abnormalities would roam the City as they like. That’s what my plan is. I’m setting them free to do whatever they want. And they’ll leave a mark deeper than any Distortion could on the City. The one absolute and perfect book shall be the guide to teach me how to do it all.

You’ve got the same ideas as the Blue Sicko out there, huh. The two of you would make wonderful partners in crime.

You’re wrong. There’s a world of difference. I have no interest in the “beauty” that Distortions or Abnormalities can arouse. I simply want them to live as they wish, whether they’re beautiful or unsightly.

Besides, even if the Blue Reverberation’s intentions were similar to mine, I would never give away my precious possession to a man like that.

So you just wanna feel the joy of vengeance, whatever the consequences of your actions might be.

That’s what I must do. I was forced to witness countless deaths while reciting a script like a promptress. Such things… are all I could watch and learn. I have to do what I can do well.



I have to feel joy as I witness the fall of the plan devised by the man I love yet hate. Even though it’s not… enjoyable to see the City and its people suffer because of me… I still have to feel happy. I’m obliged to. It’s what I’ve been waiting for… until now… If I don’t do this, I won’t be compensated for the million years of lone suffering—nowhere else would I be repaid…

…I still long for vengeance. However…

…

Forget it. I could spend all day thinking it over, but I’d reach the same conclusion regardless. I’ll find the one book at all costs and make my wish come true.



I suppose that’s not a bad idea.

And then… As I previously said, I want to travel around the world. It’ll certainly be fun. Once I’ve laid down all the burdens, of course.

…Alright. Let’s give that plan some good thought after we’re done with everything.



Haa… hahaa… at laast..!

Yesod! Hurry! There's a sighting!

Kaori. You've finished with that perfect deck project of yours, I take it?

Weell… sort oof..? There are aalways considerations to make, so there is no 'perfect deeck,' so much as synergies and streengths that maximize odds of viictoryy…

So are our synergies maximized?

Mmmhmm..! I've packed as muuch power as I can into every one of my buiilds..! They're fiinally… acceeptablee…

Hold on. Did anyone else just feel that shift in the psionic field just now?



…Mmmmmmmh..!

Is that… steam?

……………………Daaang…

I'm sure that what you've put together is already perfectly usable.

Yeaah, but… the synergiies..!

Will work just fine until you've had a stretch break. You're getting some air. That's an order.

Awww… Ookaay…



Despite being a relatively short chapter compared to the rest of the game, Impuritas Civitatis has a total of three Small Stories to cover as well. Since they all unlock at around the same time, I'll be breaking them up for pacing purposes. We'll start with this one.

VIDEO
Music: BinahStory


What more needs to be said? My role is only to observe.

To observe, is it…

Indeed so. Some would think that this is merely a form of neglect. I see that you are one of them.

I was simply curious. We haven’t had many opportunities to talk with one another.

There were practically none, were there? Neither you nor I left our respective posts. Yet now you have the time to visit me of all people for a chat… It must indicate that we are freer than before, able to spare more of our moments.

Do you not welcome this change?

I’m not quite certain of my sentiments. Regardless… Have a warm cup of tea, now that you are here.

…If you’d be so kind.



There's a page-turn effect here and the next sound effect is the clinking of glasses, so the teatime seems to have gone uneventfully.



Maybe so. There are enough variants of black tea that I have not bothered in attempting to imbibe other beverages.

Ah, although the azure-maned noble boy insists around the clock that I partake of coffee.

It is certainly true that there has been much change. I wouldn’t have expected that he would approach you first to recommend coffee.

One day, perchance, all of us will come together. Indeed… It will be quite different from the first time such a gathering took place.

I must wonder if the day shall come when we all will engage in casual conversation and share trivial tales. I am rather doubtful of it.

Yet deep down, you are looking forward to it. Perhaps everyone shares the same feelings.

…

I’ve finished my cup, so I’ll be taking my leave now. I appreciate the hospitality.

Rendezvous anytime. Tea will always be ready and waiting.

Music: Lobby


Oh, welcome back. Have a good chat?

Indeed. Her insights are… unique, if nothing else. Has Talow finished yet?

Not entirely, sir, but we do have news.

Good news, I hope?

Maybe. It doesn't seem like there will be any major fluctuations for a while. From what he's sorted out, everything starts the same way. Here's a report on what we have so far.



So all roads led to the same place, in the end?

To the Hana, specifically. We'll be seeing them soon. It always starts with that.

Oh. Are you finished writing?

No. Sephiroth won't shut up about trains running or something, and if I'd stayed there working I'd have thrown him out into the mist. Anyways… There's fifteen, maybe twenty? Different pathways all at once. None of them ended well. _{That damn woman… Dying one at a time is bad enough…}

We've read the Purple Tear's book frontways, backways, and sideways—not much of a hint there either, just stuff about making different choices to see different results, and sampling them all at once?

Then something similar may be going on here. Tell me, who faced the Hana Association?

That's where it starts differing. Gebura a few times, Binah some others… Netzach once, Chesed a few times, Yesod a few others… Malkuth.

But never us. I see.

I don't like where this is going, old man.

I do. It's wrecking time, isn't it?

You have the right of it. We'll receive the guests ourselves.

You sure about this? As far as teams go, we're definitely the weakest…

When what we know has failed us, we should try the incomprehensible. It's something I learned from watching Ayin all these years.

In that case, I'll check through the keypages and throw something together.

Ugh… I can't believe it, but I'm starting to miss when all I had to do was watch.

In many ways, we are all simply watching the Library's progress. The light itself determines our path, and Angela walks it as she is meant to. As for the architect of that path…

I'm sure she must know, on some level.

So are you going to tell us, or…

Come. There is much to be done if we are to properly stand on the field of battle..

Yeah, okay. _{Screw you too, geezer…}

The fewer distractions you have now, the better. Focus on the work in front of you.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: The last normal reception in the game.


Videos

Impuritas Civitatis
Small Story 3

[TeeQueue]

Book 48: Hana Association—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Our first reception requires a hefty set of books—it's worth noting here that if you're ever losing you can just alt+f4 or x out of the game to keep the books you'd wagered instead of finishing the reception. Nobody should have to redo Xiao and Yan just because they couldn't roll above a 4.

VIDEO
Music: StoryJinji


Hana Association will officially be in full charge of the matters regarding the Library from now on.



Your predictions were right, Director Mirinae.

Harold, you won’t survive here for long if you can’t figure this much.

…Your thoughts must be complicated right now, Olivier.



You won’t botch your job because of that, right?

That’s that, and this is this. It’s what he used to say all the time.

Good. We have one purpose. To thoroughly examine the relationship between the Distortion phenomenon and the Library. All conflicts are allowed in the process. The Library is a Star of the City that shines over us now.

There are still many ambiguous points in their connection… Someone’s got to observe the causality, and that someone’s us.

The Library continues to grow in strength, devouring pretty much anything and everything that enters. It’s so fierce, it could consume our City at this rate… That’s why we should figure out how the Library functions as well. To start off, let’s recap the current circumstances.



Then I suppose the southern branch of the Liu is being extremely passive at the moment, trying to avoid retaliation from the Thumb?

Not exactly. The Thumb is suffering from the same problem. They lost their Underboss who was stationed in L Corp’s Nest as well as a number of competent Capos, so it’s likely that they got knocked out of this strife too.

Which means, the only sizable threat remaining in L Corp’s Nest is…

Yes, it’s them.

When the Library unveiled itself as the fog surrounding L Corp’s Nest cleared away… The Blue Reverberation… No, the Reverberation Ensemble set up camp around it, preventing anyone else from approaching.

And they’re generating a concerning number of Distortions from there. Who knows what they’re up to in that base of theirs…

The Blue Reverberation… Judging by his recent actions, he can no longer be considered a Fixer… He’s leading a dangerous Syndicate, at least on the level of a Star of the City.

…He’s gone mad ever since he lost his sister.

Not that I can’t understand how he must’ve felt. The Pianist left an indelible, twisted mark on the City that day.

So, how is the workforce going to be distributed?



The objective is to retrieve as many books as possible from the Library itself, and secure Distortions from the Nest. And I’d like you to send an official request to all Grade 1 Offices for chasing down the Blue Reverberation.

Sections 1 and 2 have other things to do, I assume?

You said Section 1 was dealing with the Blue Reverb, and Section 2 was after the Eight Chefs, right?

You’ve got it. Furthermore…



That can’t be. All of them are gone?

I can’t fathom the strength the Blue Reverberation has…

And Section 2 sent a report saying that the Eight Chefs have already disbanded. Seven of the chefs were found cooked when they arrived at the site, to be exact. The chefs were all mutilated badly; it was nigh impossible to recognize them.

What about the last one?

Gone missing.

Did they betray their peers… and cook them…?

That probably isn’t the case. While what happened does appear to be something the Eight Chefs would do, their favored type of table service was full-course meals, not a buffet. Based on this evidence which suggests interference from outside, the Association HQ is considering to make an official announcement that the Star has fallen.

The prime question would be who was behind the dissolution of the Eight Chefs.

Could it be…?

Indeed. Section 2 speculates that the Reverberation Ensemble might be the culprit.

The Blue Reverb might be plotting schemes beyond the Association’s assumptions…



There have been worse events in the past, but the frequency and convolution of this situation is unprecedented. Every Association is in a state of emergency, including ours.

According to the Seven Association, the southern branches of Tres Association and Cinq Association also suffered losses of important members due to Distortions.



Both of which have risen in threat level significantly. Not to mention the Puppeteer. Moreover, Yesterday’s Promise is apparently capable of teleportation with such ease that it puts W Corp’s Singularity to shame…

None of those are powers that an individual should be allowed to possess. The Distortion is defying what the City had stood for until now. It’s changing the atmosphere of the City.

Is the Head doing nothing about it despite that?

They’ve been eerily quiet—or rather, our higher-ups could be intentionally withholding information on the Head’s activity.



No. We’ve been ordered to go to the Library, in fact. In order to control this situation, we need unambiguous information about the powers of the Library and its intentions.

We have Section 4 to help us place a lockdown on Nest L. We can’t let the Distortions created by the Reverberation Ensemble leave the area.

Did the powers that be determine that us Section 3 should be enough to take care of the Library?

If it doesn’t work out, then that’s the end of the line for us. It also means there’s nothing more we can do about it. And if that happens, the Library will mark its presence on the sky next to the other Stars as one of the freest beings of the City.

While the everyman is working overnight, restrained to the office desk.

Anyway, get ready to move, everybody.



Music: Lobby


Mhm. Looks like your goal is almost within reach.

That’s right. I’m almost there… That makes it feel even less real. We’ve been through so many things… and now the Hana Association is coming here.

You said the Hana Association is the largest among the Fixer Associations, right?

Yep. Like I said some time ago, the Hana Association is the institution that grants permits to Offices and grades Fixers. They also adjust the threat levels of incidents in real-time and let everyone know. And the Hana Association sometimes takes matters into its own hands to strike down Stars of the City. Just like now. You’ll be seeing them often, since they’ll keep sending people here as long as we’re a Star of the City in all likelihood.

…Strange.

What is?

Nothing. We have important guests to greet, so just make sure to be prepared.

Music: Entrance


Did you know? The Library is visible from anywhere in L Corp’s Nest now.

What do you mean?

The mist that protects the Library is almost gone. Which means it’ll become possible to demolish the whole Library from the outside soon.

So you’d better start making backup plans.

Here, let’s shake hands. I’m Mirinae, Director of Section 3 of the Hana Association, Southern Branch.

This is my first time shaking hands with a guest.

You’ve become a Star of the City, which means you’ll be seeing our Association frequently from now on. Please don’t fall too easily for us, now.

Go ahead and shake her hand, everyone.

I am Harold, a Fixer from Section 3 of Hana Association’s Southern Branch.

Olivier, a Fixer from Section 3 of the Hana’s South.

I hope to be greeting you for a long time.



The people at Section 2 are expecting you.

Got it.

…What is the meaning of this?

No need to be sensitive. I brought Olivier here so he could get a handshake from you.

I’ll see myself out, then.



You think we’ve come here with a carefree attitude? No need to worry about us underestimating you. We didn’t come here without a countermeasure, you see. Since you’re a Star of the City, and we’re Fixers of Hana Association… We should treat you with due respect.

Prepare yourself. A Star of the City is going down tonight.

…Understood. May you find your book in this place.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: A Star of the City does not go down tonight.


Videos

Hana Association 1







The Hana… Wow. Things are sure escalating around here lately, huh.

They sure are. Somehow, though, it looks like it's all blowing right over us.

That's really the ideal, isn't it? Being the eye of a storm. Making sure that things are fine where you are, even while everything's on fire.

It was inevitable, really. Out of all the weirdos in this place, ours are the least weird.

Didn't you always complain about Mr.Black's hobbies, though?

Course I did! He's creepy as hell!

But really, a former food service guy from District 23, who just happens to laugh a lot? He's stable, I'll take him. And Fat Sam…

Isn't he perfectly normal?

I wouldn't say that exactly, but he and Netzach are basically the Nap Patrol. Add in the most reliable source of booze in the whole Library… and there are worse deals.

Yeah… And the Head can't tax anything we make here.

We can't die, either… If it weren't for those receptions, this might be pretty good.

Well, nothing in life is perfect. Let's go watch someone else get murdered.

Oh. Sure, I guess.

[TeeQueue]

Book 48: Hana Association—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


I believe wearing her page may assist with figuring something out, Talow.

Or it could make everything worse. What if that dimensional thing is reflexive?

Then I shall try it first, and we shall observe. It's an ideal page for our floor in any case.

And if it turns you mental?

I have faith that it shall not.

The Purple Tear has four different decks up her sleeve at all times, and no one ever uses all four at once due to how different each build tends to work. Today we'll be focusing on our Guard stance, and in the future I'll focus on whatever stance we start with, showing relevant decks as they come up. The passives here are just pure Defense dice bonuses, so that we can more effectively Block everything to death.



No one else is playing anything particularly noteworthy, as the Hana don't have any specific gimmick outside of "being generically good at everything."

Woah… you've got that laid-back chic thing down perfectly, Sephiroth.

These fools are no threat to the likes of us… Why should we busy ourselves with proper posture?




Our fight today is another two Act fight, with the first being five standard enemies.



Each of the Hana has the signature ability Four Trigrams. To make a long story short, they can choose to be slightly better at one thing per turn, and when they do they stop being able to be better at that thing until they've chosen all three of the other things.



Music: HokmaBattle01


It seems they've sent two squads of Fixers after us. As expected of the Hana themselves, I suppose.

Does it matter? Let's just tear them apart and be done with it.

That's the way to look at it. They're just humans, same as anyone else.

Oh… Hod's team. You're with us. Today.

Of course. Given workplace protocol is to talk about something unrelated to keep your mind off of any mental trauma that might be going on, what better than trained conversationalists to try and give form to whatever you wind up saying?

You know that protocol barely works, right..?

No two people have the same psyche, so we have to use a variety of methods. Some will be more effective than others.

Oh! I know the next line, Miss Hod! "Remember: if your mental health's cratering, your therapy plan needs straightening!"



A close look at each of the Hana will show that they have some strange buffs we've never seen before. These are their Four Trigrams buffs, and they come in four varieties.




The Hana can use any of them on their turn, and once it's used they can't use it again until all four have been used. The decision is completely random—they have no problems with throwing out Gam while they're at full Light, for instance.




They use an assortment of decent pages, though of particular note here is Celestial Spear. It's Better Transpierce, and if these guys used Singular Strike or any kind of Pierce buff it'd be scary. Unyielding Strike also has some pretty good dice for what's effectively a 2-cost, but turn 1 is basically a freebie.

Their best attack costs 5 Light, you see. :shepface:



As for the Purple Tear's gimmick, it starts in a random stance. The one that it selected today happens to be Blunt stance, but we want to be in Guard. So we click on our E.G.O button…



And we can change our stance! These pages cost 1 Light each and are immediate, as soon as we play one our stance changes immediately. This also reshuffles our hand and gives us as many pages from the new deck as we had in hand with the old deck. This lets us do some silly things, and we'll cover a few as we go through the rest of the game.

Anyways, we play Guarding Stance and…



Ah, that's better.

That specialty-changing thing she did not causing any problems?

None at all. It's quite natural, so we can adapt to any situation.



These guys don't seem too bad… they're just Fixers, same as any other.

That's only because you haven't seen their ultimate attack yet. I remember people saying it was nasty… What was it called?

Oh, Divinatory Impact? It was on their summary… it looked nasty.

…Right. That's the one. Let's just hope we don't see it.

So are you ever going to explain why you're cringing every time I talk, or..?



No, thanks.

To the grave, then?

To the grave.



In that case, I've got an observation. Their weapons are really malleable—they change shape to match the user's… thought process? Desire, maybe? Either way, they can use them as armor and weapon both.



Just don't misjudge the distance, or things can get messy… Oogh, that packs a punch.

They can form it around their feet as well, for a sudden burst of speed or to keep their stance against a blow. The distance they can cover is longer than you're thinking it is.

Right, I'll get a feel for it as we go.



From turn 2 onward, we need to be vigilant any time that we see one of the Hana using a bunch of Light in one turn.



That's because Divinatory Impact is a pretty strong page. Packing a chunky die of each type, the order of the dice is just as interesting as the rest of the page. The lack of four die pages for us means that the only ways we can hope to avoid damage completely from this attack are either a powerful Counter die, or a 3-die page that leads with an Evade—a die type that is in short supply through most of Star of the City. Moreover, the last die being an Evade acts as a sort of pseudo-Counter die to later onesided attacks, since the odds are it's going to be saved in the Defense queue until it's needed.

Lastly, it absolutely crushes any Summation Mass Attack, with a minimum roll of 30 and an average roll of ~39. Because we have no E.G.O, this particular use will not come up today.



They also use Brace Up this turn, the last page that the base Hana have on hand. It's incredible drawtech for us, especially when paired with Bottom Deal, but it's not worth worrying about right now.



The goal here is to just mitigate damage as best we can, and to build our Emotion Level so that we can steamroll through the second phase of the fight before they can do anything too nasty.

Which is always the goal in this kind of reception, but between Celestial Spear and Divinatory Impact it's slightly harder than usual.

I'll take one of those impacts. Any volunteers for the other..?

I will give them the opportunity to show me their resolve. As I am now, I cannot be defeated.

Confidence is good, just make sure it doesn't get you killed.



I wouldn't worry about it. These guys never killed us.



You sure..? Because this hits hard.

Yeah. Not a once, that I can remember.



Their attacks have punch… but if that is as high as they can reach, then I shall forever be beyond them.



It's good to hear that these opponents are within our grasp, but don't get overconfident simply because of your memories—the point of the exercise is to change things.

And just telling Miss Angela won't work because… why?

Tried it once. Ended even worse. THAT one I remember, since it stands out so much.



Shall I pretend I am not hearing this conversation, then?

Erk. That's…

It should have been obvious you would be paying attention to such a stage. We'll simply talk later, so as not to influence your choices.

…yes. That will work for now.

I can't make heads or tails of what you're babbling about, anyways.



We pick up Lean, Bloody Wings to get Hokma's damage output online. From now on, our Blocks deal damage.



Now that he's ready to go, I have Hokma pull as many attacks as I can while playing a Serpent Barrier to eat three of them in entirety. Now that we have Wings set up, there isn't much else to showcase from our current opponents—it's all about execution.

So we execute them.



Okay, I got my footing back. Let's go take another beating.

In moderation, Talow.



Says the geezer who's only blocking attacks.

You know precisely why I've chosen this strategy.



I'll set them up, and leave them for you all to finish off.



And I'll take care of the real work. Ghh…

Talow, you're taking a bunch of damage… don't overextend yourself.

To the grave, Medea.

That didn't mean to go die, moron.



No problem! I'll just wipe them out faster than they can slice through us, and it'll all be good!

Trying to alter the natural flow of life into death… Hah. Laudable, if you hold the strength to do it.



Speaking of, I'll be tapping into the power of imminent demise from here on out. It's depressing enough to give this body a power boost.

Music: HokmaBattle02


Kinda morbid, isn't it?

I don't think you get to talk.



Heads up you guys, their formation's crumbling. We're an inch away from finishing them off!



Then we shall plunge them into the darkness evermore.



Yeah, well… it's done. Let's move on.



Caterwauling clocks! You gave those guys a butt-kicking in no time at all!

Most of you have taken some big hits, though.

We are no strangers to difficulty.

Just don't die, okay?

Music: GuestBattle01


Our second Act is against Mirinae and Harold, alongside three more of the Hana Fixers. The three generics are the exact same, but as is tradition by now Mirinae and Harold are both a cut above them.



Mirinae has the ability to pass any of the basic buffs she gets from pages on to her allies. This includes the boosts she gets from Four Trigrams as well—if she uses Geon it means two enemies will be getting 1 Strength that turn, for instance.



As for Harold, her All for Hana ability functions as a sort of reactive armor to give her an Endured resistance against whatever dealt the most damage to her last turn. It makes her somewhat bulky, in practice.

If we just keep hitting her she'll get Staggered eventually, though, so it's more of a speedbump here than anything.



Music: HokmaBattle02


Well… Here we are. What's your analysis, Harold?

Their mindsets are fundamentally different from those of Fixers. There's… one at most who would warrant a grade above nine.

And yet they stand here, as parts of a Star of the City. That just goes to show you how powerful the Library is.

A Star is a Star… the specifics of their powers change, but the way to defeat them never does.

Well said. Let's show these guys they're not as high as they think, hmm?



Both Harold and Mirinae have access to True Trigram Formation, a very powerful page whose effects differ based on which of the four formations they've used.



…Like so. Harold is in Gam here, so the True Trigram Formation will give +1 Light on use. Because she'll be gaining an Emotion Level this turn, this makes it redundant.

.

A new Act also means that Hokma's randomly chosen Blunt stance. I could immediately switch back to Guard, but he also opened with Mirage Storm and 7 Light. I decide to do that instead.



Insulting my coworkers… I've got to tear them one in your honor.

Confident, aren't we? Come on. We know who the one Fixer would be.

We don't have to worry about that Divinatory Impact just yet, Hokma… Try to make this leeway count.

I intend to.



He's mimicking that Purple Tear! Direct your weapons to defensive posture! Maximum leg reinforcement!

I'll weather this storm, for certain.



This 'storm' was simply a means to rock the boat somewhat. Consider it a trade for your attempt before.

You figured that much out, did you?

As if you were even hiding it.

So the old man can lead, as well… troublesome.



Sorry to cut in, but I just heard something unforgivably stupid.

Oh..? There's no need to be jealous. With age comes wisdom.

Now listen here, you little brat..!



While that one breaks himself against Harold, I'll take care of the weakest link.

That's…a bit much…

Is it?



Anyone could see you're holding back. That stab was barely a scratch… You're too soft to kill.

Well excuse me for having a problem with murder!

Such high-minded idealism can only come from those with privilege.



The woman seeks to shake our resolve… Come, then. I shall taste your despair.



Yeah! Like, if we wanted to get psychoanalyzed, Hod's already right here?

Therapy isn't exactly about psychoanalyzing anyone, though…



At our next Abnormality Level, we grab Silence for Hokma.



This adds the two new Combat Pages to his hand, but honestly they're not worth much to us in this particular fight.

However, if we change our stance to Guard…



Those pages are counted when it comes time to calculate our new hand size—this works with anything that adds pages to our hand, and the pages removed are gone forever. Even swapping back to the stance we were in won't bring Silence and Amplify back.



We also finally get a chance to stuff Divinatory Impact with Counter dice—its rolls are high, but Hokma's rocking a +5 to all Defensive dice, making his wins guaranteed.

Music: HokmaBattle03


Now, let's end this before they can find their footing.

It seems we've made one miscalculation, Harold.

Have we?

We brought too many allies. With the way the Library split us, it allowed these ones to warm up… so they can bring their full power to bear immediately against us.

In the future, send small teams of highly competent fighters. That's the best chance to stop the Library.

So our own run is lost, I take it?

It's a stalemate, at worst. We've got more plans to fall back on.



Don't worry about those! They'll fail too.

That's some confidence for someone who can barely stand.



Just took me a while to get warmed up today.

Oh yeah! My grandpa used to have that problem, too!



Sephiroth, are you okay? You're taking a lot of hits as well…

My counterattack failed me… but their power is nothing compared to Mother's.

Just hold on, I'll be right there!



There we go. I got you.

…Your assistance is appreciated, if unnecessary.



Khh..!

I think we've got everything under control now!

Don't say it before the fight's over…



We're already killing off their sidekicks. That's basically the end, isn't it?

I guess so, but one of you might still get hurt if you let your guard down.



I shall see to it that does not happen.

That's not entirely up to you.



Rather than vain provocations, I would recommend you savor what time you have left.

While Divinatory Impact is a very powerful page, it can backfire on the user if they run into a brick wall like Hokma here. After the first block, Mirinae's still got 84 SR to work with…



But over five dice, that gets cut all the way down to 14.

His defense is absurd… I can't even see him past those tendrils.

Such is the point.



I'm a little… anyways, can I take a second?

We should be able to accommodate that.

I'll take a second, too.

It's fine. I'll kill them… I'll kill them all.

Talow?

He's gone into that Rabbit battle frenzy… Best to stay out of his way for now.

At this point, I make a conscious choice: Both Mirinae and Harold are only at Emotion Level 2, and I want them to hit 3 or higher to ensure that I get copies of their books—back in the R Corp 2 fight I killed Nikolai so early that her book didn't actually drop and had to redo the entire fight afterwards, and I'm not interested in doing that again. Library of Ruina does have a feature which guarantees you get at least one copy of each book necessary for progression, but because I didn't remember what the next fight required I didn't want to chance it.

Thus, we slow down.



Coming for me now that I'm weakened, eh?

Rabbits have good senses, you know. I can smell your weakness. Your fear.

Oooh. I see. So that's the kind of person you are.

More talk, eh? Admitting that you're about to lose?



Maybe. But I won't run away, at least.

The hell are you talking about?

You stuttered and choked at nothing, then got yourself beaten almost to death to escape that. Even now, you can only fight properly because of that body's own properties. Between this and that… You're a coward, aren't you?





I think it's time you stop talking.

Hssh… Hit a nerve, huh..? But you can't say I'm wrong, can you?

I can say it just fine. You're wr—

…ah.



You were a distraction.



Ma'am, I don't think I can hold their leader back any longer.

She's off-balance... Everyone who's left, regroup now.



Not many left to listen to you, I'm afraid.

Then I'll strike back..!



So even the acclaimed Fixers of the Hana Association can panic.

Nngh… I've bought all the time I can…

You've done just enough.



I'll take care of things from here.



Mirinae brings out her other unique attack this turn: Augury Kick. This attack gives Strength, and even more of it when it hits with the first attack. Because of Mirinae's passive, this means that someone else will also get all the Strength that she gets from this page.



It's a bit late for that to matter, though, because Talow has 20 charge and I can finally use Feral Knives. This Mass Attack will deal 15 true damage to whoever we directly target with it on that last die, and because Harold is out regardless that means making sure to target Mirinae.



Don't think you've won. You may have stopped us, but the next group… They'll stop your leader for certain.

Yes, you'll keep coming until we fall. You've implied as such. Know, however, that this Star will be forever out of your reach.



I'm ending them all. Anyone have a problem with that?

Nope, you're good to go.



Feral Knives is another in the increasingly popular 'Move around quickly and stab everyone with each die roll' style of Mass Attacks.

More…



The main difference with this one is blood spatter and the orange R Corp trail as the user moves from target to target.

Faster… stronger…



I'll tear all of you apart!

So this is as far as I go…

Truly, to make something so powerful it can make opponents like these turn into our equals…

The Library has earned its place as a Star, at least.



Shut your goddamn mouth already!

Gah-!



Talking like you know everything. Picking holes in everyone. Saying we don't deserve to stand on the same level as you. You don't know shit about us. What we've survived.



Even if you never wanted to. Funny how that works out, isn't it?

…What are you implying?

You've beaten us due to a miscalculation on my part. I can admit that. So I'll tell you two things. First: you shouldn't underestimate our information gathering ability.



My guard… she's managed to overcome it.



And the second: That we will figure out how to slip past your every defense.



Then we'll just make new ones! Easy.

As if… Simply overcoming our expectation once was a miracle. To do it twice…

We'll do it as many times as we have to.



Even if we hate it. We're not playing around either, you know.



Their lives have returned to the darkness. As all things shall.

So, Talow. Did this wind up helping you with anything?

…mmh.

Arbitrary adrenaline crashes… that can't feel good.

I'm not entirely sure that's entirely adrenaline, Paul.



As befits the final normal Reception, the Hana Association are a strong group of fighters that require us to be decent at the fundamentals of the game in order to beat them. They don't have any gimmicks like Index targeting, however, nor do they force us into an even match. Because of that, we're able to follow the Library's textbook strategy of building Emotion Level in Act 1 in order to blitz down all of the more dangerous Act 2 before they can do real damage to us.

Music: Result


If it's all the same to you, Hokma, I'd rather we never did that again… Watching it's one thing, but actually putting a sword in someone… Ugh.

I can't promise that, for obvious reasons. We still have work to do, to determine the shape of what may come. Angela, might I make a request?

As I become more human, it has become increasingly easy to tune things out. I will focus my attention elsewhere.

In truth, it is rather refreshing to no longer be committing to memory every word of what every person in this place says.

I would have expected you to be curious.

I am.

However, you stated that simply telling me would somehow make the outcome worse.

I haven't yet forgotten what can happen when you reveal the inner workings of someone else's machinations to those trapped within it.

Quite an odd thing for you to say, as the owner of this Library.

I will speak with you all later.

SNAP

Huh. She ran?

Perhaps knowing about the Blue Reverberation's plan is getting to her…

Alright, that's quite enough chatter. My team, pick up the books. Talow, back to your writings. I have faith you shall complete them shortly.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


Is there someone you know among them?

I was thinking I might have to face an old friend of mine. Good thing I didn’t.

By the way, it looks like the situation out there is worse than I imagined. Even the Hana Association is making a big deal.

Could the City be breaking down?

Nah, I don’t think you have to worry about that. The City carries on somehow. As long as the Head stands, the City’s nature won’t change.

What does the Head do, exactly?

It’s shrouded in layers of secrecy, so no one knows in detail. A Corp—the Wing directly run by the Head—does stuff like managing patents, minting, and authorizing Wings on the surface. It’s in control of all the important factors that make the City breathe, basically. And they seek out anyone plotting to overthrow the City and uproot them.

That makes the Head one of the Wings, at least ostensibly.



Through Arbiters and Claws?

Huh, how’d you know about that?

The research facility the Red Mist used to be part of fell because of the Head. To protect her colleagues, Kali killed the Arbiter and the Claws before succumbing to injuries herself.

I can only guess that she fought with all her strength to save those behind her to the last breath, and I suppose that is something that could never be replicated.

I can kinda picture how that would’ve looked.

Well, going back to where I was… When the Head determines something to be an impurity of the City, they’ll send Arbiters, Beholders, and Claws to try and get rid of it.

Was their research an impurity to the City…

Something about that story doesn’t sit well with me, though. I heard it from Hod and asked her the same question…



As the other librarians likely have said to you, she is telling you the truth. Though I don’t know the reason, either… Is the Head staying quiet at the moment because they deemed the current state of the City to be acceptable?

I guess? It’s not like we’ve had a visitor from the Head…

The Head coming to the Library… I’m curious how it will turn out.

Sure, you’ll want to draw as much attention as possible if you wanna live long.



After the Hana Association battle, we get the necessary books to do our last pair of Realizations. Long-time readers are probably expecting that a poll will be coming soon, but it's not quite time for that…



Hana Association is the last of our two-part nodes, so we have to complete it first.



Maaaan… in the end it feels like we didn't really accomplish much of anything.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. If nothing else, I confirmed my theory on why Talow's been rushing out of his therapy sessions the moment I show up.

Wait, you noticed that? So why's it happening? He hasn't mentioned anything to me.

Simple, Elle Tee: Imagine you spent two months being incredibly Not Over It with an ex who shot you down. Then imagine you were left alone for about thirty years, having no company outside your own thoughts. What do you think would happen?

Oh. I think I get it!

Then explain it to me?

It's cringe. That reaction is his attempt to not immediately roll up into a ball and die of shame.

Oh… like when I think about my school days.

Exactly.

Jeepies. Our handbooks don't have any information on how to handle that kind of problem!

That's because we don't have to. A problem like that isn't going to kill him unless I decide to beat him down myself.

So… to the grave, then?

Hah! Maybe later.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Olivier returns, and we get more handshakes.


Videos

Hana Association 2

New Key Pages





New Combat Pages



Mirinae, Harold, Olivier Exclusive:

[TeeQueue]

Book 48 Intermission: Small Story 8

Music: Lobby


Malkuth? I don't see you here very often. Where are you going?

I'm heading up to Hokma's floor to say hello.

Were we that close before..?

All the more reason to say hello, don't you think? We're all working together now.

You hold a valid point. Very well, I shall accompany you.

Right. Let's talk lots about work!

VIDEO
Music: HokmaStory


Hey Tiphy! Hey Roland! What brought you two here?

Nothing big. These books seemed a bit too heavy for her to carry on her own. Though… I’m already bringing a whole lotta books here myself. What more does this old man want…?

That’s not exactly the most appropriate thing to say in front of the person to whom you’re referring, is it, sir?

…And since when did you start addressing me so politely?

I simply desire to read many books. I would rather not spend my time in complete idleness.

Let’s see… What books did our resident geriatric want to read so much that he’d ask Tiphereth to pick ‘em?

“Continuity of Life”… “Bioengineering Technologies”… Boy, this is straight out of a biology shelf.

He’d gone through chemistry the other day.

I wouldn’t have made you go through the trouble had I known that you would bring this many books… I owe much gratitude to you for your continued assistance, young miss.

I did think about asking for help… But Roland came over and lent his hand, so I chose not to.

I didn’t really expect you to ask for stuff like this, Mister Hokma. I thought you would know all this already.

I am reading them multiple times so that the knowledge won’t be lost from my memory.



I see what you mean. The same sentence can give off different impressions every time you read it.

Mmh… Cultured people talking cultured things I don’t get. Anyhoo, what were you guys doing here?

Little more than insignificant chatter which is related to the work we do in this place.

That’s what we were up to. As you indulge in work, you pile up all kinds of feelings!

…Does that mean you were mouthing off about your boss?!



And then she’d show up like she saw nothing and…

Aren’t you the one talking about your boss behind her back?

We were mostly chatting about receiving guests. Hmm… Oh right, Yesod complained about Angela, too!

Malkuth, don’t say anything that could cause confusion. My complaint was simply about the stacks of books remaining in the corridors which are making a disordered sight.

I mean, you’re basically saying that you don’t like how untidy the Library is, right?



Still, great efforts are being exerted to constantly receive a variety of guests, and that is worthy of praise in itself. That extends to you folk as well.

Well, I’ve gotten pretty used to it by now, so it’s no biggie really.

Music: Lobby


That said, regarding your concern… there is little to worry about. While Talow is finishing his work, she has decided to turn her attention to other sections of the Library.

Work? What's that stuffy guy up to?

Divining the future, courtesy of that Purple Tear woman. Which I've finished while you all were chatting, by the way.

How interesting. Be careful that you do not enable whatever future you seek to avoid.

You're leaving?

I seek to observe this place, and see with my own eyes what comes of it. Knowing what may happen before it does would only serve to cause bias.

Yeah… if it's something that she caused, we should give them some space. For sure.

You think so?

Absolutely. Let's leave them to it. I'll even treat you to some coffee.

At Chesed's expense, I'm sure.

You caught me… C'mon. Let's just clear the room, ASAP.



I'm not entirely sure that was necessary…

Be that as it may, speak.

Okay, so. It was really a pain in the ass to figure out everything—there's no sequence to it. It just came in all at once, and it took time to get everything sorted out. Basically, we finish our work with the Hana. Needless to say, we didn't do much. Sometimes I looked in, most of the time I was back here doing whatever. They're no trouble. But after that, usually something would happen on Binah's floor. I could feel it from here.

Another of those 'Realizations,' surely. Those three birds are long past overdue to reunite.

Yeah. And then… something happens, there's a lot of yelling, we fight a rear end in a top hat—

The skeletal gentleman?

Yeah. Sometimes he kills us, sometimes we kill him, eventually things come to an end. Except they don't. Something happens upstairs. Another guest. A big one, rumbling like a Realization.

You never saw who?

I saw something a few times, but it sure as hell wasn't a person anymore. Then smoke spread all over everything. After that, the system was cut off until it was over. The next thing I know, I come to in a warzone, Bishop's pre-murdered in one of five or six different ways, and I get the hell out of there. Then there's a voice, something about the cruel fate of living in a cycle where I can't do anything but watch. I agree that I have to break out of it, and… nothing. It ends there.

I see. And you were unaware of the state of things in these visions?

In all but one. No idea how that works, but to be fair I'm not used to having my brain raked over the coals like this. That time, I tried to warn everyone and Angela listened. She wound up fully completing our floor before Binah's, and. Well, I'll make a long story short: It's WhiteNight again, and us without a dragon to throw at it. We don't even have a skull.

Were we successful in defeating it?

I guess? I was dead for the end of it, but man what a pain in the ass… It's still on its god of the new world schtick. From there, things went about the same. No rumble from Binah's floor, we fight the skeleton again, smoke monster appears, only this time there's some sketchy-looking… thing with a sword right through Angela's gut. Next thing I know, I'm unraveling into pages as the Library stops existing. _{It turns out even after 10,000 years there were ways to die I hadn't discovered yet.}

Then, to summarize: no matter what, there was never a time in which both Apocalypse Bird and WhiteNight were faced?

Pretty much. The Library never had quite enough time to complete itself.

Then its completion must be our priority. Unfortunately… the manner of its completion is entirely out of our hands. We must trust in Angela and that the path the Light has laid out for her will succeed this time.

Okay, and what if it doesn't?

Then it will mean the Light itself has betrayed us. We can only have faith that it will not.

It all comes back to faith again, eh?

Ah, Talow. Everything in this world is ultimately about faith. We must believe in something, or we can only have nothing.

Can I be dismissed before this becomes a sermon..?

It may do you some good to listen for once…







_{Alright, then.}

Rooooland? Where'd you get to?! I had to ask Chesed to start brewing without you!

Ah, sorry, sorry! I'm coming! Just taking a moment to really see how backed up the books are. Yesod's right, they really are all over the place…

[TeeQueue]

Book 48: Hana Association—Chapter 3

Music: Lobby


The second chapter requires books of Mirinae and Harold. As a side note, all of the books of the Hana Association will give results as though they were Tier 2 or 3 Star of the City books should we use them for General Receptions. The new content from here on is all very straightforward to get to.

VIDEO
Music: None


All that’s left is to settle this my way.

Music: Entrance


There is a tiny swish here, as her sentence is cut off. What happened will become apparent soon enough.

The Purple Tear was right, you are nearly indistinguishable from a human now. At the same time, the power of the Library which protects you has gotten weaker.

…What is the meaning of this?

You should be more careful when your body is made of flesh rather than metal. But it seems you can’t die from having your head chopped off yet.

Sigh… I suppose I can’t. I was wondering what you were up to.

There’s still an abundance of options that don’t involve killing.

Music: None


The lettering during this part wavers and slides around, a unique effect we don't see anywhere else.

A workshop-crafted assassination device with T Corp’s Singularity applied to it, bought just for you. You may have power, but you’re certainly gullible.

That’s what happens when you accept handshakes from those who oppose you without having a hint of doubt.

First, it paralyzes the target, and when I p—

Music: Entrance


The device overloads the human brain, causing their mind to experience a thousand years of time passing by… Which is more than enough to ruin the average person’s brain. Just like the WARP trains, huh.

…Olivier. You went to the lengths of the world to join the Hana Association, and now you resort to this extravagant little gadget of doom.

Did you blow your entire fortune on this thing or what? And you spoke too much.

It’s been a while, Roland… I was waiting for you to show up. So you’ve been guarding this monster mimicking a human all along?

Whoa now, she’s no monster, y’know? She’s my responsible boss and a good friend.

Angela. I’ll deal with this fella on my own, so please back off for a bit.

…Thanks. You don’t need my help?

I have to take care of this matter on my own. This is between him and I, so you don’t have to worry.

Alright. …You can call me anytime if you need assistance.



What you’re doing isn’t any different from all the tragedies we’ve seen and gone through… You’ve been perpetuating it in the Library with that machine.

…I won’t expect you to understand me.

…Take these. The gloves of the Black Silence. And let’s say we’ve evened the score now.



With this, I got all the help I could ask of you.

I’m partly responsible for what happened to you, which led you here…



Neither of us had parents or any real family, so you probably thought no one would be concerned about you. And you were wrong. I was actually pretty worried for you, unlike some others in Charles’ Office.

A bunch of thoughts came to my mind when you left after making a lengthy ramble. Not long after that… I heard news that a person who appeared to be the Black Silence was on a crazed rampage across the City. Said he was slaughtering Syndicates that were doing suspicious experiments left and right. His wave of destruction didn’t discriminate. Even Fingers and Fixer Offices were caught in its wake…

I almost had to question myself for a moment when I heard that you crushed a good half of the Middle in the south. It was as if you were venting out all of your frustrations and resentment on the City. And if that were the case… I thought you might keep going and demolish the City itself out of sheer anger and madness.

C’mon, you’re blowing things out of proportion again.

Anyone would’ve thought the same thing if they had looked into your eyes behind that dark mask at the time.

Thanks for worrying, man. I was concerned you might have died an unfortunate death somewhere out there.



I appreciate you coming over to help me along that short call that day… Sorry about… what happened next.

Never mind it. I only rushed to save your ass ‘cause you said I might get a Nest Migration permit.

I’m sorry for all the trouble.

How’re the others doing, anyway? Like Ogier or Astolfo.

Joining Wings, exploring the Ruins… They’ve found their ways to make a living for themselves. We just aren’t how we used to be. We’ve grown too distant.

I see.

…Say, ‘member when the two of us handled an Urban Nightmare case for the first time? The uh… What was that case called…

The Secret of the Demi-glace Sauce, which occurred in the Backstreets of District 16.

Yeah, that! We were just about done with it, and then your arm almost got caught in a blender at the last moment. Though thanks to me, you saved yourself the need to get a new arm. That was one thrilling job.

Huff… Let’s set the record straight.



C’mon man! Can’t you let me come out on top for once!

…Those were the days, still. We didn’t have to worry about too many things, and just stuck to the matters at hand.

Yeah… But you know we can’t go back to those times anymore, Roland. You swallowed your anger and sadness to work with that machine, so I don’t doubt that you’ve prepared yourself for a lot of things.

I know. Both of us have gone too far down our roads. It was nice talking to you after a long while though, Olivier.

I’m only doing my job as a Fixer of the Hana Association now. To retrieve the books of my colleagues, and dispatch threats.

That’s that, and this is this. Isn’t that right?

…Right you are. That’s that, and this is this.

…Let us begin.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: No Passives, Roland only, Final Destination.


Videos

Hana Association 3








That device… I nearly…

Is this what being human entails? This sense of… unease?

Ah, yes. I recall it. The humans I saw every day were uneasy as well. Perhaps that is simply how it is within the City.

Indeed… It is something that needs to be changed.

You are quite certain? That sounds difficult to believe.

True. I will see soon enough…

…

No, it's nothing. Soon, the one book will be in my hands. On that day, everything will be finished. This… is all to get what I'm owed.

[quantumpapaya]

Last week I realized that this LP wasn’t finished (I was about halfway through at the time) and I promptly doubled down on my reading in order to catch up before it was finished… it still doesn’t quite feel real yet now that I actually made it.

TeeQueue, I want to thank you so much for making these LPs. I love the agents, the dynamics, the little dialogues you write, the setup– while reading it is certainly a lot of time investment, no other playthrough could make me smile this much. I know you put a lot of time and effort into making this into what it is, and you really are going the extra mile for us-- and I’m very grateful for that : )

I initially started reading your Lobcorp LP because I didn’t think I wanted to get the game but I wanted to know the story anyway, but funnily enough, reading your LP changed my mind about that– soon as I get a computer that won’t fry immediately, I’m buying LC and LoR for sure. I’ve also been inspired by all your agent shenanigans to create some agents of my own; I now have several dozen new OCs and a 30,000-word lore doc, so… suffice to say, your LPs have had a huge impact on me and I’m so glad I found them.

Anyway, I’m stoked to be here to see the last chapter unfold in real time. I can’t wait to see the endgame-– great job so far, good luck moving forward, and again, thank you so much for doing this!

While I’m here, please accept my (very belated) offering of a Very Accurate Depiction of Argalia recruiting Philip into the ensemble:


Sorry for rambling, I just have Feelings about this : P have a great day!

[TeeQueue]

Book 48: Hana Association—Chapter 4

Music: GuestBattle01


Alright, boss. I just changed my reed and I'm ready to—

Not today, Steve. This one is my duty. You guys can all just watch.

Are you sure, si—

Okay, boss. We'll have a siesta. You want your privacy, right?

Appreciated. This is something I have to do.

Our reception today is a simple 1v1. It doesn't actually matter what Key Page we put on Roland here, as they actually don't matter..



Those gloves have unlocked Roland's keypage of the Black Silence.



Roland's new keypage comes complete with Speed 3, a ban on any alterations to our Combat pages, and an ability that gives him +2 Pages at the start of combat, while giving +2 Power to all dice on every third Combat Page he plays. Keeping track of that tempo makes him a bit more effective, and I always forget to do that.



Olivier, meanwhile, has one of the best chassis in the game for raw combat. The Twelve Fixers is great, giving a +2 to Minimum rolls that helps protect against terrible rng, while Four Trigrams is always useful and All for Hana ensures he has a solid defensive core to keep him going for a while.

Duel is actually a handicap skill, which powers Roland up. The Black Silence's Combat pages have dice that are at best only slightly more powerful than Olivier's pages, so in order to give us a fighting chance with a deck we don't know, Roland will be getting a hefty chunk of bonus HP and SR to even things out.



Music: KeterBattle01


Very kind of the Library to give me this opportunity. A simple 1-on-1 fight, without any frills.

Ah, your boss's notes said that this would be the right way to proceed, didn't they?

We observed as much, yes.

That's the Hana I've always heard of.

Olivier mostly uses the same attacks as his fellow Hana Association members, but we still have pages to show off: Our own. Over the course of this fight, we'll be seeing all of Roland's attacks, as the point of it is to give the player a chance to feel out his new abilities. He's no Red Mist or Binah, but he's got some good stuff in his own right.



First up, we have Durandal—a pair of decent dice that we really want to hit with as they give Roland +1 Strength next turn for each successful attack.

Each of his pages has an icon next to the cost as well—like with Blade Unlocked on the Proxies, this is just an indicator that we haven't played it yet.



Mook Workshop, meanwhile, is one of Roland's new recovery pages—2 Light for 1 Draw and 3 Light recovery, with a relatively chunky single die to work with. It's very good for breaking single Counter dice or stopping pages with one Offensive die lead.



How we line up our clashes is important in this fight, and on this turn we can't actually redirect either die. Since both are pointed at our rear die, I decide to eat a Celestial Spear die to ensure that we stop the Brace Up. Durandal aims for a one-sided attack, I'd really like to get that bonus to Strength.



Well. No need to put this off any longer.

Guh..!



You never did waste time.

And you never fought without that mask of yours.



You're right. I never have.



Is that the face you were always making, then?



This is just for business.

Of course.



I would have loved to get Lies here, but unfortunately didn't lose enough clashes to make that happen. Heart of Aspiration it is, since I would like to ideally control what goes where… and 15% of over 200 is pretty hefty.



…Back to business, then.

Right. Business.



Olivier is also capable of using Augury Kick, and we'll be stuffing it with Wheels Industry. It's got a massive 14-24 first die, and as the third Combat Page Roland will have used he'll get another +2 to it. It also destroys a die on the opponent's page upon winning a Clash, so it's actually great for blocking strong 2 or 3-die enemy pages.



The other page I use this turn is Old Boys Workshop, a powerful Light generation page that gives us a 1-for-3 trade, as well as letting us draw a page on use. If its attack hits, we also heal SR as well—it's very useful and worth playing almost any time it shows up.



Wheels Industry manages to completely stuff Augury Kick, of course.



And the Old Boys Workshop restores some of our SR.



With only one target available, Pale Hands is my other pick here—we could have taken Curiosity here, but Roland's got enough draw potential to keep things flowing regardless, making it worthless without Lies to go along with it.

Music: KeterBattle02


You know… it's funny.

What's funny?

That move you used just now… It was so awkward. Did the Library make you rusty?

You try wearing other people's bodies and see how comfortable you are afterwards.

That's why you haven't done that yet, then.

If I could have, I already would.



I have to warm up first.

I know. I saw how you handled yourself last time.

Furioso counts how many of his nine pages Roland has used, letting us see at a glance how many more we need to play to have used all of them. Right now, we've used four.



Meanwhile, the single sword is his Black Silence ability, which tracks how close we are to our third attack. On this turn, it'll be the second page that we use—remembering this exists can let us win clashes we otherwise wouldn't, so it's handy to keep the tempo in mind here.



Olivier throws down one of his new pages this turn: Double-edged Rencounter. It's a decent 3-cost page that makes subsequent dice get a +3 maximum roll when they win their Clashes. I've decided to block it with Crystal Atelier, a completely basic 3-cost page for Roland that has his only Counter die in the deck. This is actually very stupid of me, for the following reasons:

-Roland will not be getting his +2 Power on this attack.
-Olivier has +1 Endurance and +2 Strength, alongside a +2 to minimum dierolls.

This means the first clash is a 10-11 vs a 8-11, and it doesn't get better from there. Still, we have to play it eventually!



The other page we play this turn is Allas Workshop, which can use the +2 Power from being the third Combat Page played and its own -2 enemy Power effect to crush an Augury Kick.



If I'd been thinking, I would have shoved Crystal Atelier and Allas onto Augury Kick, to allow us to get a onesided attack off while praying for our Counter die to stop some of Rencounter, but I am not smart so I just clashed everything and called it a day.



That mask made you sloppy. You look where you're trying to strike.



…



On our next turn, both Olivier and Roland hit Emotion Level 3. One of the handy things about this fight is how balanced the Emotion gains are, making sure that we're never behind in total Speed Dice unless we get Staggered… at which point we'll have bigger problems to deal with.




On this turn, Olivier's using Geon to get bonus Strength, so I have to fire off Wheels Industry to block a Power-boosted True Trigram Formation. I also try to block a Celestial Spear with Learn, but that's really just wishful thinking. Olivier's 3 Strength and +2 minimum/+1 maximum dierolls weigh the odds heavily in his favor.



I also progress our Furioso stacks by playing Zelkova Workshop, a draw page which cannot have its cost changed by anything—most importantly Lies. It's decent enough drawtech outside of that.



And so, as if by cruel twist of fate the two old friends fought. There wasn't any more need for words between them. Sound itself seemed to fade between the pair.



Aside his one lucky blow, Olivier shows the clear upper hand.



Time and again his weapons strike home, overpowering Roland's blades.



But Roland has more blades he can call upon.



Blades, knives, and even guns that remain unused.

Music: KeterBattle03


Roland focuses entirely on breaking his old friend's stance before his own can be broken.



And so, the sounds of gunfire ring through the empty floor—a pair of pistols and a shotgun forcing Olivier back.



And the hesitation allows Roland to dash forward with his favorite sword: a pair of slashes that nearly take Olivier over the edge…



Nearly, but not quite.



Their willpower, as much as their skills, are tested as they dance on the edge of a knife. The slightest mistake could be the end of it all.



For an instant, Roland leaves his back open. Not anything more than a half-second of an opening, at most.



In a battle between two high-level Fixers, that opening is more than enough.



And now we are in serious trouble, as Olivier decides to use the strongest page in his deck.



Impugnatio Ultima is actually for discard decks, pitching Olivier's entire hand in exchange for +2 Power on every die on the page.



It hits exactly as hard as you'd think.



But whether through hesitation or miscalculation…



Olivier can't quite finish the job, either.

Music: GuestBattle03


Roland, 7 HP. Olivier, 8 SR. The next hit will determine the winner.

The edge of a knife.



And it's here that Roland uses his trump card, a unique E.G.O page much like the other Colors have had.



Furioso. An incredibly powerful attack, but one that requires all the other pages of the Black Silence keypage be used first.



The pair stare each other down. Neither man speaks—there isn't any point. The gloves of the Black Silence are working at their maximum capacity, and with it not a single sound can be heard within the room…



…aside the sounds of Roland's weapons, doing their bloody work.



And in the end, it all comes back to Durandal.

… Looks like you remembered how to use those gloves after all.

Yeah. Thanks for everything.



And…



Huuf… Pah…



Olivier's reception is ultimately a tutorial for the Black Silence keypage. It's a much more difficult fight than other tutorials in the game due to where it's located, but we have a lot of wiggle room to defeat Olivier—we even got Staggered and still pulled out a handy win.

Music: Result




You seem… really intense, sir.



You alright..?



Roland.

…Yeah.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


That’s well… Umm… A case of… missing the right moment to confess it. I guess?

Though I do wonder, how were the Fixers we’ve seen unable to recognize you?

I completely concealed my identity behind this mask back when I worked as a Fixer.

…A tiny bit of personal info being leaked can come back to bite you in the ankle. It’s a lesson my gran taught me.

If you have any more secrets you’re keeping from me, you’d best find them well-hidden.



Although… You saved me this time, so I’ll forgive it. I might have suffered serious damage if I was forced to endure a thousand years in my current state.

Just doing my job, ma’am.

…And you just lost your friend, are you feeling okay?

…That’s that, and this is this.



With Olivier beaten, Roland permanently gains the Black Silence keypage for the rest of the game. Like with Binah, we can't alter it in any way—but we can add on passives if we want.



With the Hana Association finally dealt with, we can finally pick from our two Realizations that we have left over. However, there is also another option available:



We can also just continue the plot at any time, and the game is done with any sense of subtlety. There is no question mark anymore—we're dealing with Argalia's crew, and there's no point in hiding it.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



Apocalypse Mizu

I've been here with you all from the start of this story until now.

I already know there's no combination of words that could beat those two.


Videos

Hana Association 4

New Key Pages




New Combat Pages

[quantumpapaya]

Oh man... Apocalypse Mizu is tempting, but I'm incredibly excited and intrigued to see what the murderhobos have in store... plus, Hokma's realization would give us more juicy Talow lore...
Yeah screw it, I'm voting for Mizu >:P

In other news, I think this would also be a good time to mention that Roland shares his name with a legendary knight, also known as Orlando, and who wields a sword called Durandal, and who has a friend named Olivier, and who's featured in the poem Orlando Furioso... yeah, this isn't a coincidence.
"Orlando Furioso" roughly translates to something along the lines of "Enraged Orlando," or perhaps, "Angry Roland."

Yeah... doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

[TeeQueue]

The thread has spoken, and not one soul was surprised. We're doing Binah Realization next.

Oh man... Apocalypse Mizu is tempting, but I'm incredibly excited and intrigued to see what the murderhobos have in store... plus, Hokma's realization would give us more juicy Talow lore...
Yeah screw it, I'm voting for Mizu >:P

In other news, I think this would also be a good time to mention that Roland shares his name with a legendary knight, also known as Orlando, and who wields a sword called Durandal, and who has a friend named Olivier, and who's featured in the poem Orlando Furioso... yeah, this isn't a coincidence.
"Orlando Furioso" roughly translates to something along the lines of "Enraged Orlando," or perhaps, "Angry Roland."

Yeah... doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Last week I realized that this LP wasn’t finished (I was about halfway through at the time) and I promptly doubled down on my reading in order to catch up before it was finished… it still doesn’t quite feel real yet now that I actually made it.

TeeQueue, I want to thank you so much for making these LPs. I love the agents, the dynamics, the little dialogues you write, the setup– while reading it is certainly a lot of time investment, no other playthrough could make me smile this much. I know you put a lot of time and effort into making this into what it is, and you really are going the extra mile for us-- and I’m very grateful for that : )

I initially started reading your Lobcorp LP because I didn’t think I wanted to get the game but I wanted to know the story anyway, but funnily enough, reading your LP changed my mind about that– soon as I get a computer that won’t fry immediately, I’m buying LC and LoR for sure. I’ve also been inspired by all your agent shenanigans to create some agents of my own; I now have several dozen new OCs and a 30,000-word lore doc, so… suffice to say, your LPs have had a huge impact on me and I’m so glad I found them.

Anyway, I’m stoked to be here to see the last chapter unfold in real time. I can’t wait to see the endgame-– great job so far, good luck moving forward, and again, thank you so much for doing this!

While I’m here, please accept my (very belated) offering of a Very Accurate Depiction of Argalia recruiting Philip into the ensemble:


Sorry for rambling, I just have Feelings about this : P have a great day!

Never apologize for having Feelings. I'm glad to know that my work has an effect on people, tbh—the best part about writing is trying to make your audience feel things about the stuff you're writing and the characters you're weaving stories for. Feelings are the second best thing ever, behind the ability to trigger your own theme song at will with the push of a button.

All that's left is the home stretch now, more or less... here's hoping I don't wind up in the nostalgia hellpit again before it's over.

[EncLun]

Agreed on the writing part, and I can say the thread as a whole is a great read! Both LobCorp and this have been a treat to read through!

I wish you the best of luck with the upcoming trials, though. I ended up not finishing the game around this part, so I'm looking forward to what lies beyond, and of course the ordeals of the nuggets.

[TeeQueue]

Appendix 39: Hana Association

Each Association has a creed or maxim that reflects its atmosphere. Some emphasize gallant passion, while others aspire to a quiet and cold attitude. The Hana Association is no exception in that it has a number of outwardly seen principles. Coincidentally, they represent the most basic ideas of the attitude a Fixer must have.

We must exercise concentration and resoluteness in all situations. Be diligent to detect the emergence of a new flow, yet be wary not to be swept by the flow yourself. As our occupation involves placing some on low positions and holding others in high regard, we must secure the values that constitute our frame, while amending outdated parts of our ideologies. Thus, we need to have an open mind that can accept opinions that differ from our own in moderation. Be willing to listen to the criticism of others and acknowledge it, but be cautious not to throw yourself into confusion by accepting any and all opinions, changing yourself without due consideration. Change what needs to be changed, but be stubborn about the rules we’ve maintained. In conclusion, we mustn’t fall for temptation or deception.

Much like how a foundation influences the structures that stand on it, these principles serve as a basis for all Associations to uphold. Being the Association that supervises the system of Fixers in general, the principles of the Hana are also applicable to the mindset any Fixer should have.

There are twelve Fixer Associations across the City, and the Hana Association is the one in charge of general management of the rest. We’re renowned for rating the threat level of hazards that occur in the City, and grading Fixers and Offices. On top of that, we give out Fixer licenses, issue official documents about certain requests, and assign Colors to Fixers who prove themselves to be beyond the grading system. Our Association calls the shots on pretty much everything regarding Fixer activity. Although, there is one thing the Hana Association can’t touch on.

The ratings of hazards in the City are as follows: Urban Myth, Urban Legend, Urban Plague, Urban Nightmare, Star of the City… and Impurity. Most other Associations only deal with Stars of the City or lower. Even though Hana Association has control over grading the hazards… There’s one grade our Association can’t assign: The Impurity. Only the Head has the authority to decide that. I don’t know the exact rationale behind designating Impurities… From what I can see, they seem to declare beings that defile the City as Impurities and banish them to the Outskirts. I suppose the Head manages that part since things like the ethics of the City aren’t subjects we are qualified to discern.

Some people ask how Stars of the City, the highest level of urban hazards, are any different from Impurities. They wonder… “Aren’t they disrupting the City’s order?”
If you ask me, this City as it exists with the Stars… might be what the Head thinks as the ideal image of the City.

In the universe that is the City, a center of mass forms for each person who bears a wish for something, and clusters of dreams comparable to interstellar matter gravitate toward those centers. Driven by the force people exert in their efforts to reach those goals, such nebulae repeatedly expand and contract, until they finally fulfill their wishes—creating a Star whose glow we can observe. The people who witness the sparkle of that Star admire how brilliantly it shines in the dark, and entertain the hope that they will shine as brightly one day, making yet more centers in the universe…

Of course, some people will have their eyes fixed to the ground—too busy to gaze at anything other than their path ahead; however, once a person sets their eyes on a Star, they begin to head towards it, using its guidance like a compass. Although they probably aren’t trying to become a Star themselves. They merely want to shine with their dreams for once, not to indulge in the sense of superiority that comes from being high up in the City’s sky.

Roland and I were long-time partners in Charles’ Office since the year dot. There were twelve members in total—excluding Angelica who joined the Office later on to resolve the case of the Blood-red Night. Consisting of rather few Fixers for a Grade 1 Office, it took on various requests, playing to the strengths of the twelve members who had different quirks and characteristics each. Roland and I got along well together, so I often worked with him. Well, not exactly for that reason. To be precise, someone had to keep his impulse to jump into action before thinking on a dog’s leash.

“Valor without forethought is little more than a bluff, and there is more strength in discretion than recklessness.” I wonder if you remember this piece of advice I gave when you were still prone to take action without thinking. I remember you conceding it and taking a step back. Although I gave you that advice, now I understand that it’s not without fault. Thinking alone doesn’t make progress, and too much caution can be a harm to oneself. I had the prudence, and you had the unhesitating action. We helped each other with our strengths, and we could just live on by dealing with matters at hand back in the day. Maybe those were the days when we could laugh and lament the most, and carry out our lives just like that. But now we’ve come too far to go back—so did you, and so did Charles’ Office.

[TeeQueue]

Book 48.5: Small Story 9

Music: Lobby


So, what do you think? It meets your expectations, doesn't it~?

I'm not sure… It tastes good to me, but there are others to think about.

Does the taste even matter that much?

It does.

Huh. In that case, why not go with that… machyato?

It wouldn't pair quite right with the snacks Hod's prepared, I'm afraid~

Knock-knock.

Who's there~?

Buncha librarians.

Buncha librarians who~?

Buncha librarians here to kidnap you!!

What the-? The hell's going on?!

You're between cups of coffee, and we were considering having tea. And I thought about how I'm always coming here for some of the good stuff…

So it was decided that our penance would include providing some for you all. Please do not resist.

Well, if you're going to put it like that… How are we supposed to refuse?

You're not! Hup-cha!

Oh, my!

Oi, oi, put me down, would you?! I can walk jus' fine!

And I got the coffee guy! Let's move, people!!

Brings back memories, doesn't it~?

Ahh shove it, you.

Sometime later…

VIDEO
Music: BinahStory


It is quite a shame to know that such is the pitiable hill you choose to die on. Perhaps your tongue has been paralyzed by the overbearingly thick, strong flavor and scent.



Oh, it’s Angela. What are you doing here?

…I was just meandering around using the bit of free time I have. What about you lot, then? Are you engaging in a book discussion or whatever?

While that activity piques my interest as well… At the moment, we are having a friendly chat between Patron Librarians.

We were kinda dragged here by her assistants, though~

It is regrettable that you put it that way.

The assistant librarians?

Mmhmm~ They sometimes visit my floor for a cup of coffee. Not many other floors make it a habit to enjoy fine beverages. I was having some coffee with Hod and Gebura~ Then they suddenly brought us here, saying they’d like to return the favor. Isn’t that a surprise?

Should’ve realized that they were hers from the color of their attire…

Sounds like you’re on friendly terms with assistant librarians.

They’re our coworkers, no need to be cold with them.



Maybe. Why do you ask?

I was wondering if you could stick around for a cup of tea. Since you’re here, why don’t you help yourself~? No coffee, though; I only brought mine.

We don’t get to talk with you like this often.

…Fine, I’ll accept your offer.

There's a screenwipe here, then…



Do not be too harsh on them. Refreshments such as these are a necessity from time to time. They are all busy workers, racing to get their jobs done.

Well, even though we’re here together, that doesn’t mean we’re all that comfortable with each other~

Still, I think it’s amazing that we can gather round and face each other in the first place.

…It’s unfortunate that I can’t taste or smell the tea you troubled to prepare for me.

Soaking up this atmosphere is nice enough, I think?

Though, as great as it’d be to be able to enjoy it together next time~

…Anyway, thank you for the conversation. I’ll be going now.

Come over to my floor sometime~ Roland is an occasional visitor, so feel free to bring him with you if you don’t feel like coming on your own~

I’ll consider it if I get any free time later.



My hunch leans toward yes~

Music: Lobby


Well, at any rate. This was a lovely time, but we should get back down to my floor…

Ah, right. We still need to figure out what kind of coffee we'll be having at the next book club meeting.

I've still got no idea why you dragged me into this.

You and Paul have similar palates, so…

For real? Huh…



Did you enjoy your respite, my children?

Sure did! It was tea-riffic!

From the way you said that… it sounds like we're about to have work to do.

Of course, dear. Gird yourselves for what is to come… our next trial already approaches.

Ooo, ominous!

[TeeQueue]

Concerto 4: Binah—Sonata

Music: Lobby


Before we get started, there's one piece of advice that I feel should be given upfront:

Don't bring The Strongest to this realization.

Anyways, let's get this ball rolling.

VIDEO
Music: BinahStory


Nope. She never really told me about who she was based on, and I didn’t really wanna bother asking further.

Angela was created in the image of the person named Carmen. She was one who sought to change the City.

Hang on, what? You mean the Carmen who recruited people for her quest to cure humanity?

She strove to create a world without conflict. To elaborate, her idea of utopia was one in which people did not harm each other, and could mutually understand.

She dreamed of a world where people could dream… Alas, she could never reach that ideal herself, tragically. The fruit of her research could only be borne after she sacrificed her life for it.

And the Head didn’t miss that prime opportunity to strike?

Of course, her cause was an important offense… even though that was not all. Angela was meant to be a substitute of Carmen.

The one who created Angela and carried out the plan…

And the one I am keeping an eye on; he was the same type of individual as I.



He was frail, yet could not be understood by anyone. It may be that he desperately longed for understanding from another being for that reason.

So you’re saying Angela was made to fill the Carmen-sized hole in his heart?

The forbidden endeavor to create someone to look over his fragile self. A cocktail of irony and lingering attachment… self-loathing and insanity. The irony of codependency where the two gravely needed each other but could never be next to one another. The abiding affection for Carmen that compelled him to create a mechanical copy of her, even though there was no real need for such resemblance.

The result ended up resembling him more than Carmen, funnily enough. The self-contempt that stemmed from countless contradictions and regrets. And the insanity of neglecting Angela to suffer for nigh eternity when she was capable of having a mind that is no different from humans.

Beautiful, is it not?



Yet he was a beacon of virtue for some.

There is no such thing as “good” in this world, however. There is only what is perceived as such. It is not up to the individual to dare make universal judgement…

Right. And I bet he was a spawn of evil to others…

Humans are bound to view the world while carrying certain things on their backs.

You are no exception, of course.

Music: Ominous Ambiance


And I was left alone when she was gone not too long after. Looking for a way to make a living for myself, I jumped into the world of Fixers at a young age. I had my gran to thank for that, since she taught me how to survive as a Fixer before she left.

I spent all of my time dealing with requests and errands for others, rather than doing anything for myself. In time, I gradually forgot. Was there anything that I could do for myself?

I thought as I watched the naked and explicit facets of the City. Should I settle for a life where I won’t lack for anything crucial…? Will I be happy if I live in the Nest…?

Music: StoryNervous






I said fuck off.

…Huh?

Try looking at what’s in front of you for once. You’ll miss the most important things if you’re always looking back, don’t you know?

…You’re not getting any thanks from me.

I wasn’t expecting any.

And I’m still getting credit for this one’s head.

What is a young green sprout like you doing here anyway, partaking in this war?

It’s none of your business.

I bet you’re here for the migration permit to the Nest.

…Are you here for that too, old fart?

I’m a Nest resident at birth, so I don’t quite need that.

…The hell are you here for, then.



In the most shocking reveal to date, Salvador did not always have that mustache.

A badge of I Corp’s Nest…

An entire Association has been hired, you see. I frankly don’t know what we’re fighting for.

This smoke admittedly made the City a nasty mess, I’ll give you that… But they won’t tell us anything beyond that. All we ought to do is go and kill whoever we’re ordered to kill. Such are the principles of the Fixers, and this City as a whole.

…Say, kid. How many kills have you scored in this war until now?

Twenty three.

Think your life is worth more than twenty-three people?

No… All I did was strike at them with my sword so I could live… My life probably isn’t worth anything more than one…

And yet some higher ups believe that a handful of this smoke is worth more than tens of thousands of lives.

Music: Ominous ambiance


Hrrrk…

You vomit with your mask on? Hrp…

…Filthy tot. You made me queasy as well.

What… is that thing…

You’d better get used to this kind of scenery. The Singularities that keep the City running all have a nasty truth or two hidden from the public eye. Well, we’ll be subjected to amnestic treatment now that we’ve seen this. Though this disgust won’t go away entirely.

What…? This was what’s behind the splendor of the City? The City could be in motion thanks to this crap…?

You learned a valuable lesson today, kid.



But I can’t forget the dreadful image of what makes this City a prosperous place. This sickening world itself. They don’t realize that their convenience is built on the sacrifice of numerous others.

They wouldn’t even want to know.

Music: StoryChaboon


Numerous people came and went in my life. Countless crises and hardships later, all that remained by my side were the twelve Fixers in Charles’ Office.



Gasp… Huhh… Huff…



…I just nodded off for a moment, that’s all.

What are you…? Oh, you must be the new one. You know how everyone else who took this request died awful deaths, right?

“Why should I begrudge it, since during the hours when my soul crushed the depths of my heart, it was seated there beside me?”

Great, I get to work with a sicko.

There is a thwack here.



It’s a passage from a poem I like. It helps me accept the agony rather than suffer trying to shake it off.

Just what kind of augmentation did you get to be so strong… You almost crushed the back of my skull!

Another thwack here.



You aren’t any less of a sicko if I’m being honest, mister. I heard you keep that mask on at all times like a creepy psycho. That said, I also heard you’re quite skilled. Say mister, why won’t you take your mask off, anyway?

Don’t pry. We’re both Grade 1, let’s not cross each other’s lines. You know the unspoken rules.

No I don’t, mister.

Stop with that “mister” crap, it’s making me feel awkward. The documents say you’re older than me, too…

And I swear I’m gonna pay you back for hitting me twice before the contract with Charles’ Office ends, so you’d better be prepared.

You mean three times, my good mister sir?

Huh? But I could’ve sworn I only got hit twice—

One more thwack goes here.

…You piece of—!



It’s pretty much unavoidable to talk with coworkers on a long-term mission. Perhaps I should’ve kept my silence.

Was it because of all my colleagues… No, all the people who died so early and suddenly before I could even call them colleagues—that I grew a yearning for something more?

Why did I bother opening up to her…

Music: StorySimgak


To be precise, I was a test subject in a Wing, apparently. And when they were done experimenting with me, they dumped me in the Outskirts. I don’t really remember what kind of experiments I went through… but the horrible feeling still persists.

How unfortunate.

You’re cold, mister.

It’s just too banal.

Yeah… I guess it really is a cliché story when you put it that way. What about you? Tell me something more about your mask.

…Focus on work.



Her reason was that as a Fixer, it’s important to not let your potential enemies remember your face—if I remember correctly. But now I had to keep my mask on for another reason.

I couldn’t stand to take it off. I couldn’t stand to be open with a clear conscience in this City.

The mask became my own enclosed world I couldn’t leave.



So please leave my brother be… Please let him go…!!

There is another thwack here.

…Ack!

Dozing off in the middle of a mission, are ya? I don’t think you’re one to criticize anyone else’s sleeping habits, hm?

Hey! Hold on! That hurt too much!!!

I still have two more hits to go. And wow, you’re just dropping your courtesy because you’re hurt.

…

Sigh… I got a little agitated, sorry mister. My childhood must have come back to me while I was asleep.

…You told me about it before. The part about you having a brother is new to me, though.

What about you, Roland? It’s about time you told something about yourself.

…I participated in the Smoke War.

An acrid smoke covered the whole City for a while thanks to that war.



I can’t remember what it was anymore… But I still have a feeling that I witnessed something I shouldn’t have to this day. And the feeling that I’m taking part in something no better than fueling that disgusting origin.

It’s like something is boiling within me.

Copious amounts of agonies surround the City. Maybe the reason you’re always wearing that mask is…

Heads up. The target is approaching your location.

…Back to work. We’re almost done with this long mission.



She employed sly trickery to kidnap people from the Backstreets and the Nest alike. The victims were later found in the Backstreets as corpses.

Animated corpses.

The bodies are empty inside. I have no idea how they’re able to move. But they kept walking anyway. They endlessly craved for fresh things, as if to fill their emptied bodies.

She was only designated as a Star of the City so quickly because the Nest saw direct harm, I bet.

Music: None


So many people died on the way here.

You and I managed to survive it, though.

Should we consider that lucky, or unlucky, mister?

Check this out… How many people did it take to make everything here? I’m guessing at least three thousand folks.

Music: StoryNervous


You must’ve made quite a bit of effort to catch me, seeing as you’ve come all the way here?

Sure as hell have. Took two damn years to track you down.

The strings decorating this room are all human blood vessels.

She’s been kidnapping people at random and extracting all the veins from their bodies. The things we dealt with on our way were the shells you took all the veins out of, as I expected.

They were just crude contraptions of flesh lacking their own will, unfortunately. It wasn’t what I was looking for. I was hoping for ones whose veins were flowing with blood that’s a little more enticing…

Whatever your sentiment is, your little game ends now… Tonight, a Star of the City shall fall.



We’re almost there!

Hey!!! Watch your back!!!

…Aaargh!!!

…You didn’t have to—!

Hahh… So sweet.

You damn bitch!!!

…This won’t be the last you see of me. The night shall fall once again someday.

Shut up! And die!!

Music: None


They only give a few dry words of consolation; they never wish to truly understand each other’s pain. But Angelica was different; she wanted to learn more about the pain I was bearing. My agony is abstract and enormous.

Could you really understand me?

Music: Ominous ambiance


…“You are like those who never left the sad fireside corner of my poor black heart…” It’s finally over… Good work, mister…

Keep it together! Hey! You can’t just die like this… I can’t have you die because of me…

Don’t close your eyes! Stay with me!!!

Another thwack here.



…Wha?

Sigh… I was just trying to lie flat and rest a bit… And then you almost beat me to death…

Thank goodness…

Are you actually relieved or what? It’s hard to tell what you’re thinking behind that mask, mister.

…I’m wearing this mask because I don’t want to show my face to anyone. I was not proud to face the abominable deeds of the City I’m contributing to… I don’t want my contorting face to be seen…

I don’t have the confidence to show myself to anyone…

…Sometimes, I think… If we can kill so many people nonchalantly just because Associations and Offices ordered us to, excusing it as part of our work… Then we could be killed by someone with the same kind of excuses.

Even if we were to get murdered in the City one day… we wouldn’t be able to make any complaints about it. That’s what makes me scared.

This time, it's the sound of something shattering.



I guess you really were worried for me, though? It’s bearable to look at.

Gah… My face, it hurts.

I don’t get why you care so much about all the problems in the City like that’s your burden. That’s that, and this is this. You know?

That’s that, and this is this…

Yeah. I guess that’s how this City is…

Music: None


The person who then became the new foundation of my world. She showed me the way to turn away from the City’s agonies even without my mask.

You may have been a good person, but I would not consider you a wise one. You heard about the pain I was bearing, and taught me how to turn a blind eye to it.

You said you embraced the pain, but you only pretended to do so.

O my sorrow, you are better than a well-beloved.

Music: Ominous rumbling




Come, now.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Roland tries to kill us because birdemic is happening and we're in the area.


Videos

Binah 5

[quantumpapaya]

Well I was not expecting to cry today

(Roland and Angelica have no right to make me that emotional QnQ)

[quantumpapaya]

Turns out it's Roland's birthday today. Happy birthday, Roland!

[TeeQueue]

Concerto 4: Binah—Adagio



We've got some unique builds going on today, so a little more depth than normal. For starters, Binah is Binah, and is using Four Trigrams alongside a couple other Power bonuses. She just needs to scale, even degraded Arbiters are kind of absurd.



Just Mizu is using a Singular Strike Olivier deck, and will be throwing out massive Violet Blades and Celestial Spears at anything in her way. Her Light curve is terrible, but that's fine.



Huge Mizu is still Huge, but we've put Identify Weakpoint into her deck. This page is amazing in Realizations, as the enemy will have a variety of weaknessess… all of which are hit by this one page. It's hard to overstate just how versatile it is.



Then there's Chiral, who will be using the basic Guard setup for today's Realization. Guard stance prevents Overcharge from causing immobilization, giving a lot of Charge that will power Nikolai's passive, and the Identify Weakpoint is here as well just to give us a fourth strong offensive option.



Lastly, there's Punished Mizu. She's playing an Irina build that's designed to deal with Binah's biggest problem: her Light generation. Our plan here is fairly simple. We want to drop numbers early on in the fight to remove it from our deck, then Clone Multi-party Compensation three times. Once that's done, we'll be able to spam one Sword of Volition and three Brace Up every turn for the rest of the fight—ensuring that every turn we have one strong offensive option, and also give everyone on our team 3 bonus Light every turn. In theory, this should give us plenty of Light to let us keep spamming all of Binah and Just Mizu's strongest options while also letting Huge Mizu and Chiral be more loose with their Light as well.

Music: Roland01


I suppose it was inevitable that we would view this story once more..

I see you have arrived, dear. You intend to watch over our task?

Of course. There's no telling what may happen during this battle, given the… unusual state of your Librarians.

Yes, I'm interested to see what will happen as well.

What's that supposed to mean? Don't tell me things are going to be even more of a pain than usual..!

Such fear, such excitement… there is no need for any of it. Come, rest and be free.

Let me close my eyes in peace… I want to fall sound asleep now…

Let’s get out of this place. I’ll help you with it…

There can’t be any better way than this to escape from pain and insecurity.

You’ll join me and sleep here…

With just one simple act, I’ll give you a permanent and comfortable rest…

You’ve been freed from the other dangers, how can you not see this as salvation?

I’m only helping you so you will no longer tremble in fear…

There won’t be anything to be afraid of anymore. Just go to sleep… Fall asleep…

Let’s be free before we have to face that fear…

One attaches to me for each head that was chopped off, and I turn my gaze away—looking for a new person.

Woah… My head feels all tingly.

Is it attempting to lull you to itself?

Oooh… yeah, that's the one. Shiny~

Come closer. Rest without pain or stress.

Okee-dokie!



Lamp works much the same as Big Bird's fight, but he cannot be put to sleep in any circumstance. Over the course of the fight, he'll Enchant 1, then 2, then 2, then 3 Librarians, taking them out of our control.



Controlled Librarians will only use Dazzled with each die, targeting Lamp. His goal is to force them to clash against his own Salvation page's counter die.



This kills them instantly, but just like before the affected Librarian's Speed dice are stuck at 1, allowing us to redirect them. This is why you shouldn't equip The Strongest—if the Librarian who has it gets Enchanted, they'll be stuck with two infinity dice, making them impossible to intercept.

As it is, this mechanic is trivial as long as we remember to intercept the two attacks.

Retry Count: 9. I did not remember.



Brood is the other page that Lamp will play in this phase, and it's just three bulky Block Counter dice. We aren't going to be able to get past any of them until we've successfully lowered his rolls by defeating some of his followers.



The Eyeball Chicks have less HP, but there are four of them now instead of two.



Their attacks are nothing to write home about… but like before they can force us to target them, stopping us from intercepting our allies.



This opening phase is the perfect chance to get Punished Mizu's build set up by clashing the weaker Numbers and Clone pages against the 1-1 cost Dazzleds. Here, we don't have our copy of Multi-party Compensation, so Numbers gets used to remove it from our deck, and we also use Brace Up to get what we need into our hand.



I'll handle myself. We know best what will hurt us.

The task shall fall to you. The rest of you, it is time to cull the chaff. Do not listen to the thoughtless utterings of a man drowning in forgotten dreams.

I'm just going to hope this body is immune to that hypnotic effect…

It isn't.

Gee. Thanks, boss.



Now… until we get to the end of the dream, we shall be your partner.



Huh… these cuties are squishier than last time!

You can tell?

Of course! I know how squishy every cutie I've played with is~



C'moooon..! I wanna look into those eyes..!

You don't deserve to do as you like.



…Hm.

You are simply taking their attacks.

I am taking the measure of their resolve.

Isn't that what led to your death?

Come now, dear. These are nowhere near the Red Mist's level.



Come… come and rest. We'll escape together.

I'm trying, but I'm getting in my waaay!

And I will continue to do just that, denying your every wish.



Brace Up got us the key page in our strategy, so now the plan is to spam Clones to block Huge Mizu while making more copies of Multi-party Compensation.



Two of them.

Ma'am?!

Two of those eyeballs shall be destroyed with this salvo of attacks. Choose whichever you prefer.

Oh, uh… _{Geez, like that's something we can just pick.}

Is there any reason you cannot?

It's a fight, there's no way to tell what's going to happen…

That doesn't matter! Miss Binah said two go down, so two are goin' the heck down!

That's… I know she's good in a fight, but—

I have guided your hands time and time again, through rote work in an indeterminate hell. I am fully aware of the capabilities of the children here.

—I'll give it a shot.



Be quick, then. Lo, one of the predicted two has fallen already.



And I don't have the oomph to finish the second one off.

Concern yourself no further. You have done enough.



Come on… This is seriously getting frustrating!

You are still denied, my other self. Return to your senses.

Uuuugh, fine.

Our innocent self is suppressed. What of your work, traitor?



I thiiink I just about got this lil' eye cutie to pop! One more hit, and—



Got it! Sorry Mister Roland, I think I got eyes all over your eyes!

You have freed it from pain. You deserve only praise. Now, I shall help you as well.

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure Miss Binah doesn't want me to sleep just yet!



Are you back with us, big one?

Better than that! While I was all doozly and confoozly, I managed to get a good hold on the lamp in my mind!

They run and they run… Why flee from salvation? Is it too bright to rest your eyes?



Come… I'll dim the lights, so you can slip into sweet slumber. No more fear.



On turn 3 and every 3 turns afterwards, Lamp uses Darkness. As a 15-15 Mass Summation attack, it isn't hard to block. However, its effect activates on use, cloaking everyone in Darkness for this and the next turn.



His other two dice are using Bite Off, a page we definitely don't want to ram into.



Clear the remaining servants. Then, our path shall nearly be open.

You speak as though you already know what Roland is capable of.

As I should. There are none in this place who spent more time with the Abnormalities than I. Their proclivities are known to me.

I did not believe you were so diligent with your work.

I was not provided a choice.



As Darkness activates, Lamp fiddles with its namesake.



And we get to see the shot of Big Bird's many many eyes again.



Guh-!

Gosh, why'd it get so dark?

This happened in whatever department the Big Bird escaped to, so it shouldn't be a surprise for us…

It didn't do it last time, though! Silly Roland, thinking he's allowed to just change things up because he's wearing a cutie's skin on him~!



Do not shy away from what is known to be true. What does the inclusion of darkness mean, children?

That he's a cheatyface!

Maybe we just beat up the Big Bird too fast?



It's neither. The books make an environment perfect for those creatures. Likewise, the Bird only made it dark when it was released from its containment in the Company. The 'darkness' it spreads is an attempt to make its surroundings more to its liking.

An interesting assumption… what conclusion does it lead you to?



Oh! Oh! The one where the cutie power is mine!

Of course not. It's obvious if you so much as look at his face beneath that haphazard mask.



Roland isn't comfortable in this dream of his. The darkness spreads because he can never be comfortable.

It's dangerous here… I'll help you escape… Let's go together…

There is a thread of truth to what you say. And yet, he seeks salvation for others just as the creature whose shell he bears.

Must… be saved…

Ooo… shiny~

Ahh, beans! They're all loopy looped again! Let's stop 'em and punish that bad cuteish!

Hold off on punishing him a moment more, child. It wouldn't be wise.

Huh?

Do you not see it? Look carefully at that man's cunning trap.

Attacking Lamp this turn seems like a good idea, now that he's packing -20 Power to every die he has, but it's vitally important that we not do that.



This is because of Darkness. That Mass Attack sets it up for 2 turns, and its effect completely negates all Power effects. We'd be running facefirst into a 25 Counter die, without any Power.



Thus, the correct answer is to completely ignore Lamp.

Ooh, that's really clever! Sneaky little cuteish!

Just block their way.



Okee-doke! Stop right there!

Wh… what? Why won't you let me pass..!

Ummm… I dunno!



Because to proceed would mean death. Your wants must be denied.

Aww… you're just being self-flagellating like always, Patchy.

Yes… but also, you would die.

Oh. That's a pretty ok reason, I guess.



Lights are on! It's smashin' time, right?

Yeah… It's time to put an end to this.



Punished Mizu is mostly set up now. Every turn from here forward she'll be using Sword of Voliton and two Brace Ups to give everyone either 1 or 2 Light back. Once she hits Emotion Level 4 she'll be giving a guaranteed 3 back every turn. Attacking into those Counter dice will help get her there.



I could honestly have gone all out here—the Counter dice would have been gone long before either of the Dazzled units would have hit Lamp—but I tend towards playing defensively in Realization fights.



I don't understand… This is all for your salvation. Come to me… then you can live without fear of tomorrow.

But I don't fear tomorrow!



Things might be scary, and I don't really remember anything from before I woke up here. But everything is so fun, and even the stuff that seems bad isn't as bad as people say it is!

If you're so damn lucid, why are you charging at the bird?

Oh! Because he worked very hard on that light, so it'd be rude to ignore all that effort.

…

Would it sound better if I said "Because I'm walking onward without fear?"



Ooh, that one! It pops!



Somehow or another, it seems your chance has arrived.

Indeed. And for this power to be offered with such ironic timing… Perhaps these Abnormalities do experience humor.

Tilted Scale is our pick here, as it'll keep us topped off of any minor damage we take through the rest of the Realization.



What the… Ah, man, was I dazzled?

Pretty much! Don't worry, I beat the snot out of you!

…Great. Let's just finish the bird off.

We do not use Sword of Volition here, because Lamp should be defeated this turn—Sword only gives Light back on use, so if we play too loose with it we can wind up with 0 Light at a bad time.



Heck yeah we are! No sleeping on the job, Mister Roland!

Meeting salvation with such violence… Can't you see that only pain lies in front of you?

Well, doi! Because she's right behind you, silly!

..?



Oh, sorry! I meant 'punishment' is behind you. My bad!

You shouldn't tell the enemy what I'm doing when I have the drop on them.

Oh, it's fiiine! They didn't even have time to react before—



That trickery… you only did such a thing because no one would punish you.

Music: Roland02


I'll punish those who wrong me. Then, they'll stop..!

If one commits sin, isn’t it only right that they are justly punished…?

Bearing the karma of my loved one… I shall bring a just punishment upon those who robbed me of what is mine.

We are punished for our sins, but it’s clear that yet more will sprout from the roots of sin.

Thus, punishment must uproot sin…

People have committed misdeeds since long ago…

And why do they commit them, knowing it’s wrong?

But perhaps the same can be said of me. One is only obligated to follow their own justice.

The pain of ripping myself open was nothing; the agony of losing you had numbed me.

And I wish to inflict the pain back on them.

Isn’t it truly wicked to commit a sin and then fear the punishment?

Beak is also a somewhat different fight than Punishing Bird before it. We still absolutely do not want to clash one of its Offensive dice with one of our own, as that +50 Power will knock us for a loop. Our main goal here is to have someone tap Beak to trigger Punishment mode, then have everyone else beat down on him to Stagger Beak quickly—100 SR isn't a lot to burn through once all of its resistances are Fatal.



He's not alone, though. There's four Keepers of the Black Forest, and each of them will be trying to get in our way. On any given turn, two are set to attack and two are set to defend. They can't be defeated permanently, but we can knock them out for a little while. They'll get more power when they attack slower targets, and we also need to be careful about the order in which we clash them.



This is because of their Vigilance status, which gives them a bonus to Strength whenever a slower ally of theirs is targeted. Finally, if we provoke Beak's Punishment phase early, all of the Keepers who are still up will go right into Attack mode. It's a good idea to knock a couple of them out before triggering Punishment from Beak.



When in defense mode, the Keepers will use two copies of Roost.



Attack mode, meanwhile, gives them a number of options to draw from. Whiffle is basically nothing, but the other three each have their own ways of disrupting our tempo and we should make sure to stop them.



All three of Beak's pages this turn are Preen, which means he's packing three counter dice and has no meaningful damage output this turn.

I decide to just wait for a better opportunity and focus on the Keepers for now.



Before what? Don't just leave me in suspense forever!



This isn't good. Can't you feel it?

…Oh, shucks! I can feel it! We're…

We're going to see that ULTRA-Cutie before too long! Oh boy oh boy I can't wait!

…Nevermind. I likely won't have to deal with our ignorance much longer, in either case.

Hey, wait a second. Did beating that bird up somehow do something to the big Mizu?

It seems so… how unexpected.

Her mind appears to be unresponsive. As if it's been pulled somewhere else…

The controls from L Corp can still be activated, yes?

I can reinstate them, certainly… but you would be controlling her body as well as your own.

I have not forgotten that interminable hell, dear. Controlling the bodies of two or three of them should still be quite simple.



The energy's basically free now. Do whatever you want.

Heck yeah! The faster we beat this guy up, the sooner we can get to the ULTRA cutie~!

Punishment… for your sins…

It seems I have his attention at the moment. Grasp the opportunity.

I guess there aren't any sinners bigger than you, huh ma'am?

Perhaps… but that depends on one's own definition of 'right' and 'wrong.'



After all, I have always acted in accordance with my own guidelines. If that is 'sin,' then who cannot say the same?



Yes, we are all following our own justice… and it is with that justice that I damn you to this punishment.

I appreciate your leniency.



I got one of the other birds! It won't be moving for a while.



The punishment is administered… Now, who else has sinned..?

This form he's in… we can't clash weapons with him or he'll just hit us all the harder.

I understand your reservations, but if we never attack, we can't proceed…

Should it come to it, I could have the Mizu I control draw his attention.

There's no choice. I'll just strike it, and when it attacks…

Um… are we missing a Mizu?



HUP-CHA!!

Of course…

Well you were all being boring, and it didn't seem like he was gonna' attack… so I just smacked him a good one!

That intuition of yours never stops being absurd.



This turn, all three of Beak's pages are Rapid Flutters. These pages only have Evade dice on them, meaning it's our opening to squeeze in an attack against him and trigger the Punishment phase. Just Mizu's gigantic Violet Blades are great for ensuring that we can do just that.



Regardless, we've opened a pathway. Take it!



Oh no, no thanks. I'll make sure these birds can't overwhelm us.

A good attention to detail… but you need not worry about such trifles.



Heehee~! He's just as bouncy as the real thing!

You've sinned… and as a sinner, you are to be punished.



Do not fear… what you've rightly earned.

Hah! Am I supposed to be afraid? _{You didn't even turn red.}



In Punishment mode, Beak uses three copies of Punishment. Each one is a 9-9 die that instantly Staggers on hit. We can deflect this with defensive dice easily enough, but with only 20 SR left we don't even need to worry about it.



So… what do we do? Just dodge when it attacks?

No. From the very start, that was a plan borne of desperation. After observing the Abnormality which makes up this E.G.O for so long, there is a better way.

And that is..?



Before it can ever attack…



Crush it absolutely.



Wow… that is way better!

Why… do you run from your just punishment?

Isn't it obvious?



That bird justifies ripping others in half as a punishment, but its own self is ripped open each time as well. You can't mete out pain to others without harming yourself. Thus, I have sinned.

Ghh…

Ultimately… pain is pain, and those who inflict it deserve it all the same.

That includes you as well.



I welcome it. The issue is that your punishment could never match the magnitude of my sin. You would tear yourself apart before even reaching a tenth of its depth.

It is to know such things that justice was created. To measure your sins, and punish you for them.

Measure them, hm..? As if this trio ever could with so broken a scale.



Yeah, I get where this is going… Do your thing, Roland.



Binah, please use my body as well.

Of course.



You question the "justice" we have found… then let me show you.



The reasoned judgment from which justice is born.

When I lift these scales, I wish for immortality upon the sinner…

I condemn you, but you will still commit more sin without end…

All men sin, consciously or not.

And you lot have committed an unforgivable sin against me.

That’s why you need to be judged, and this won’t change…

I was distressed because I couldn’t overlook any little thing…

There will never be a day when this scale of justice does not tilt…

I will liberate you from the agonizing feeling of guilt…

Living an honest life has to be an impossibility in this City…

There can’t be such a thing as unfairness… I shall judge you solely by my discrimination…

When I’ve taken off the old sins, I shall be free at last.

Justita is our third opponent today, and there are only a few small changes between this fight and the one against Judgment Bird. The first is half the amount of SR versus the Bird, and the second is an immunity to all Beed/Burn/Fairy damage—we cannot cheese this boss by piling Fairy on him anymore.




Judgment and Ceaseless Judgment are both exactly the same as always, and if we see Ceaseless Judgment we're still probably about to lose the fight.

Marks of Sin also work exactly the same, but Roland now has his own stacks and can hand them out on hit.



Also, he actually attacks—something Judgment Bird never did.





The Runaway Birds also still exist, but are more of a nuisance than a threat this time around.



How interesting. It appears your judgment is lacking.

It isn't. Guilty, guilty, all of you are guilty… This scale must tilt. It will only ever tilt. There can be no doubt.

If that is what you say.

This phase is much easier than the original fight, just because Justita is actually interested in fighting with us. The correct answer to dealing with his gimmick here is to just blitz him down before he can do anything.



Children, seal his motions immediately.

Yes, ma'am!



You will not feel guilt for much longer. I will free you from the weight of your sin.

Oh? And who is to say that I feel guilt about my actions? I have only ever done the tasks I was assigned.

Then your judgment is lacking.



I disagree! Miss Binah has the best judgment!



Such blindness... Within this city there is only sin… my scale balances as it does because of the festering rot beneath it all.

No, your scale balances like it does because it's broken? _{Silly, I know you're blindfolded but you should be able to tell.}



So since you're making everything up anyways, why not just flip around which side is which, and boom! Nobody's guilty, and everyone wins!

That isn't judgment or justice..!



It's just as fair as that gangly bird ever was.

Aww, it was a heckin' cutie, though!

In either case, you've lowered his guard.



Then it's time to observe where all of this is going.

It's likely you will lose access to another Mizu's consciousness.

If it occurs, so be it. I can control them without issue.



Children. Rest for a moment. You both will need options for what is to come.

Aye-aye, Miss Binah!

You're not even worried about the whole 'loss of consciousness' thing?

Nah! Worrying won't do me any good… so why bother?

I have Punished Mizu take the finishing blow here, as her Sword of Volition should be more than enough to finish off Justita—and it's vital that she uses it here, in order to get back the Light. Now that she's at Emotion Level 5, if ever the page is played but not resolved she'll be at 0 Light for the rest of the fight.



Complaint after complaint… Such things as judgment and punishment are meant to save you from that which would hurt you. That is justice.



If that is what you say.



Now, let us continue from the essence to the result of things. The tragedy of this avian triad.

Okee-dokie, Miss B—!



The third Mizu's consciousness has been lost as well.

Then we shall capture the result of this with our own eyes.

Tragedy..? No, we are only protecting the forest… Helping others.



That stranger, they came into the forest that day…

A nobody.

But it was peaceful, and they were suspicious… We couldn't break that peace.

We cast them out. But they had the audacity to grow angry…

Soon, a tragedy will befall the forest. It will be tainted with misdeeds and evil, and there will be constant conflict. The tragedies will only stop when a terrible beast appears and devours everything. The sun and moon will shine upon the forest no longer; the forest will never go back to what it was before.

Of course we would worry. The forest was our home. We loved it more than anything. We needed to protect it.

So we became guardians of the forest!

My eyes can see far. My eyes can see things others cannot. I will watch over the forest.

But what if the beast shows up in the middle of the night, when the sky is dark and everyone is asleep?

And so I tore off my own feathers, burning them to make an everlasting lamp. They shall be safe day and night.

To ensure a proper judgment of anyone who would enter the forest, I used my scales. They would measure any sin, fair and just.

But what if the scale doesn't tip in either direction someday?

Such a gray area could not be allowed… So I made a new scale. One which would always show a result.

And to protect the forest, I give my all. The wrongdoers met justice by my beak.

But your beak is so small, no one would find it hurtful.

So I tore my maw apart, wide enough to swallow anything whole.

We did it to watch over them… but rumors spread anyways.

To protect them… but no one came back to the forest.

To help them… but even we heard what people would say.

I heard terrible things happen to any creature that enters the forest. The Big Bird is always watching the creatures there, there's no freedom.

The Long Bird's scale isn't fair at all.

The Small Bird's punishment is so scary.

We worked so hard to protect this forest… but no one appreciated it.

Fights broke out every day. Fewer visitors came, and every day there were more complaints.

As hard as we could work… it wasn't enough.

No, this forest is so vast and wide, the three of us aren't enough to protect all of it.

But there is no creature to protect this forest but us.

If we combined our power, we could be stronger.

So they did it. For the forest they loved.

The day when Big Bird's eyes that could see hundreds of kilometers away, Long Bird who could judge any sin, and Small Bird's mouth that could devour everything united into one, darkness fell upon the forest.

Creatures screamed in terror and fear at the sight of the bird, and the forest soon fell into mayhem.

Music: RolandBattle03


Next time, on Library of Ruina: "Through the Dark Twilight."

[TeeQueue]

Concerto 4: Binah—Rondo

Music: RolandBattle03


Hoorgh… That was weird. Did time just kind of hiccup for anyone else?

Binah, I've lost track of her consciousness entirely. This is outside of our past experiences.

Indeed, something strange has occurred. Let us observe it and see where it may lead.

I've transferred the control back over to you.

Ooh, this is neat! Your voices don't reach me, but I can still see them. And my voice no longer carries to you, as well? Then it's only the others who hear it now.

Oh! But where are my manners? This is so confusing, to speak as three when I am one. I'm not these three bodies anymore… Not Just, not Punished, and certainly no longer Huge. I'm… an apocalypse as well? Or perhaps all of them at once? Another thing entirely? Well… no matter how it's sliced!

I am still a Mizu in each case. It's the perfect name for myself!

Hey… I'm not going to go loopy from this too, am I?

What do you believe?

…Well.



I believe there is a way bigger problem staring at us right now.

A mega ultra cutie of a problem.

That much is undeniable. Deal with what you can today, and worry not for a future you may yet not see.

This Abnormality has proven too much to be contained entirely within in Roland's distorted form. It may attack alongside him. Be ready.

How interesting… I shall.

The time for words has ended. You will sink here. Thus is my judgment, my punishment… and my salvation.

Those who endure until the last moment shall reach an apocalypse for themselves…

Nothing will dare harm you.

When you reach the end, there will be no such thing as fear…

Sink with me together. Don’t take another step forward, and just stop here…

This is my judgement and punishment against all, and salvation at the same time.

What if something is taken from me while I turn away for a split second?

What if my mind wavered—deterred me from making a fair outcome?

Seeing this, what can I accomplish with my small power…

The darkness will forever be the same, so I only have myself to trust… I surrender all of my being to the fire at last.

The blade is always pointed in the same direction… The one that I deem correct.

Finally. The strength and outcome I have mustered are revealed… The time has come to punish my wrongdoings and yours alike.

I am but one of the many who play the tunes of the apocalypse in the abyss…

…I’m afraid. I’m afraid of what the end might be like.

Although, the end won’t be as excruciating as now—fearing what it might be…

Twilight, Roland's final form, is a cuteish with a number of unique mechanics. Unlike the last time we had to deal with Apocalypse Bird, this time the eggys are all being carefully guarded. We'll have to knock him on his butt if we want to break any of them! Each phase has its own weakness, and we want to target it, as other attack types are resisted… thats like, four times different! He also uses a buncha' different attacks, and gets special ones based on his phase. He always starts off in Big Eye's phase, and it's the real doozy.



For starters, everyone gets the Big Eyes egg effect on them, so their Power's all pooped out. Can't weaken him in this state, and we can't get any stronger either. It's a problem for how we fight!

Blind Faith would help with that… but this isn't Mr. Hokma's floor so we don't believe in things for just no reason around here. We'll handle it with what we have. Besides, it's not like Twilight there has any strong attacks to go with it, ri~ight?



Sure enough. That first attack, Surveillance, really isn't much of anything. An 8-8 Mass Summation page? Hah! I eat those for breakfast. _{When Miss Binah lets me eat the pages. Which is never.} It does make the two people it targets Horrified, though, which does… something bad.



Oh! Four Paralysis and all Stagger Resistances turn to Fatal to both targets. That's pretty bad, but if you never get hit it basically doesn't matter. Maybe that's why it stops our Power, though… Paralysis will still mess them up even through that, so it's a cunning plan. But if that's as bad as it gets…



Haha… I didn't fool anyone with that one, did I? Brilliant Eyes is way scarier, being a Mass Individual page whose first two dice steal Light from everyone it hits. It's very easy to have our Light curve go straight into the ground. Of course, Patchy's build lets us blunt the worst of this effect—regaining three light every turn will do that, you know?

I think… on some level I may have had an inkling. That's why I built it. To atone for all the wrong I've done… a gun who feels bad for being used as a gun. Even if it doesn't make sense, it's a precious feeling I'll cling on to. Nothing makes sense in this world after all.



The other attacks aren't a big deal at all. Light Illuminating the Forest gets to go again if it kills one of us, but that shouldn't ever happen because we aren't completely terrible at this.



I'm not sure what 'peak Ruina' means, but this definitely looks like it!

Only those who have been through hell, who have been tempered by the end of all things shall reach their own end. Then, only then will you have the knowledge to choose for yourself.

So you say that none should choose for themselves until they have reached that end? But in that case, how could it be said that they will be able to choose even then?

Word games from a desiccated husk are light as a burning feather. At the end, they shall find salvation and lose all sense of fear.

Yes… I find children are frequently quite useful once all will has been beaten out of them as well.

Again you twist my meaning.

Do I?

_{Holy crap, I don't know who's scarier… Why do I have to deal with this alone?!}

Oh, silly. You're not alone! Just as the cutie is looking down from the background, I'm looking at you from this side too. You'll be fiiiine~



So anyways, for Surveillance they both just stand there, menacingly.



Then suddenly: eyes! _{I feel like I saw this before, honestly.}



But it's fine, because the other attack is the important one.



He's not doing anything. Then where..?

The bird itself is charging its laser.



Got it, thanks!

Everyone blocks the first two shots no problem. Those are the bad ones, so it's fine from here.



The lasers are really pretty to look at, though. Good thing that we don't get hypnotized in this part of the fight, huh? That'd be a mess.



The opening moments of the bird's rage has always been the most difficult to weather. Things will simplify once we have crushed its eggs.

I won't let you. Everything is within my sight… I won't leave them alone for an instant.

He's got a point, Miss Binah. We can't rely on it to teleport around this time.

If he doesn't move, we'll make him unable to move.

Mmm… Still glad I'm on this side of the fight, I think.



Unfortunately, disaster strikes! Patchy's body got Staggered before she could use her badass sword move, so she's not going to be able to use that totally badass sword move for the rest of the fight. You know how it is when you're trying to do something cool and someone completely cramps your style, right? It's the worst.



We've finally stripped away all his defenses, ma'am! I'll do what I can!

Because each of the birdmodes has its own weakness, Identify Weakpoint is suuuper valuable here, too. When you can see what a cutie wants, you can always deliver after all~ Chiral's going to be having no problem at all dealing big damage in any of this fight's phases.



One by one, you step forward in this darkness and strike at me. But I will not falter.



I shall bring you peace.

My my.



Peace for All is a heckin' chonker of a Summation Mass Attack, and with Patchy Staggered that body will be taking 36 damage. She's got 86 HP so it's fine, but that's still a lot of hurt to pour on!



The other two attacks aren't anything worth writing home about, though.



Anyways, we don't want to take THAT much damage, so we have Miss Binah fire off a Shockwave. The protection is worth double on Staggered Librarians, after all!

Wait, 'we?' I'm seeing all of this, sure, and I'm talking about it like I think I'm s'posed to… but am I also doing this?



What is the purpose of the one who sees things from this side? What does it mean to 'narrate,' anyways? Can events be changed, or are we merely watching and relaying them..? If I don't like the result, do I have to accept it?

Huh… No matter how deep I look, I can't find the answer. It may well be something beyond human consciousness's ability to accept… or maybe there isn't an answer. Like an inkblot!



An inkblot… you know, they gave me those when they tested my mental stability! I always saw cuties. It's really fun trying to figure out which cutie it is from the curves and the bloopy bits.

You're not going to try and call this one a greeting, right?

Certainly not. This one is for our defense.



For this attack, the Apocalypse Bird rears back one of its massive claws…



WHAP! Right down it goes, bonking everyone! Except we blocked most of it, but even the guys who got smacked didn't get it too-too bad so it's fine. Though… Hum.

I've felt that claw like, a bajillion times? And I remember that it used to do 23-45 Black damage. But now it's all 18 blunt? Maybe the Library and the Company both had different ways of tracking this stuff… or maybe Roland's making it weaker? Because he's not a proper cutie afficionado? Yeah, that makes sense!



Ah. I've gotten off on a tangent, huh? Um… Okay, let's try this: "Using their totally powerful skills, Miss Binah and the others kick Mister Roland's butt! Hard!"



Well, I guess I can't do that much from this side of things. Still, I didn't know he could shoot zappies from his lamp! So that's a cool thing we've all learned.



Geez..!

Struggle as much as you want. I will not disappear, as long as they exist.

Boss, I can't do this any longer..!

Then crumble under the onslaught for a time. We shall cover while you regain your footing, so long as your back remains unbending.

Easy for you to s—



Ghh!

The attacks we ignored in the first few phases come back to bite us on the tooshie here, since nobody has a lot of SR left right now. We could have just taken Mind Hauler on everyone to fix that…

But momma' didn't raise no Sweeper Lover.



Come to think of it, momma' didn't get to raise much at all. She forgot her keys… or maybe they were stolen? Funny, isn't it? But me and Aniki (I think that was his name?) and momma and poppa were just, locked out! And we called a locksmith, but… Was it T corp? Or maybe we were in L corp. I don't remember where we were anymore… But I remember they took foreeeever to show up.

Too long. The Night at the Backstreets came. Poppa and momma tried to fight back. They lasted a whole half a wave.



A new egg has begun to glow… A change in his tactics, then?

It appears so.

My blade shall point in the right direction… for the right direction is wherever I point it.

Such reasoning is self-serving. Nothing simply is. You must observe, and determine what the state of things are. False assumptions will only hinder you.

I remember the smell of them. The smell of momma and poppa breaking down into goo. Getting sucked up into tubes. They saw us too, you know.



I don't understand their numberspeak, but they reached for us. Aniki tried fighting back, and bonked into one. Its visor went fwish, and their gunk splashed out all over us! _{It got in my nose! I gagged! You do not forget that smell!}



Anyhoo, they tried taking us with them, but I ran away, and I ran away, and I ran away! They probably could have killed me way more times than I could count, but they were too busy being creepy goop-people to do a murder. Maybe I wasn't tasty-looking?

Wait, was I supposed to be doing something?



Well, whatever it was, the new bird power raises two pages in hand by 1 cost for each person we have. It can get a little crunchy if we've been taking hits from Brilliant Eyes, but even though she can't use the power of BIG SWORD we're still going to be ok on Light from Patchy's deck.



Buuuut he's weak to Blunt damage right now, and Miss Binah's gonna' go before anyone, so none of that really matters!

A just punishment shall be rendered…

Come, now. Do you not recall how this works? Before you can ever attack…



I shall crush you absolutely.

I… can't move..? No… I need power. Give to me the power to crush these foes!



There is a reaction between Roland and the eggs. It seems you won't need to target them directly after all.

Such is reasonable. This oppressive system the birds have created is powerful, but Roland is the sort who would destroy it if given the reins.

He does not seem idealistic enough for that.

The systems in place grind idealists working within them to nothing. No, he is something else right now.



A being who will gather power that he might act as he wishes, at the cost of the power structures supporting him.

I don't fear the end… I'll continue, my blade cutting through everything wrong in this world.

If that is what you say.



Now that one of his eggs got scrambled, our cuteish friend gets a bit weaker. One of his Speed Dice is permanently busted for the rest of the fight, meaning everyone sees one less attack. On top of that, Miss Binah sealed one of his dice as well… AND we can beat him up more—down to half health! It's a heckuva good turn.



That trick of yours will avail you no longer. My arms, concealing the time, shall prevent its flow.

I do not need tricks to make a raging beast be still.



So the plan is what, hit him as hard as we can?

Is that what you perceive it to be?

I've been knocked flat on my ass for the last minute or so… Damn if I know.

If it is simpler for you, then yes. My children should be able to keep us full of energy once more.



Fall, you damnedable woman.

Oh? Should you truly be focusing on one whose power you so proudly sealed?

My judgment shall fall upon those deserving of pain.



Which is all of us, right?!

Everyone has sinned. All deserve the end. My scale can never waver…

Then judge yourself with it!

I have. I am punishing both our wrongdoings.



Silly Mister Roland. Even though he's a cuteish now, nobody's Staggered any more this turn. That means he can't help but take on a full salvo of all our attacks. And since he's weak to Pierce now, and we have really strong stuff like Celestial Spear and Brace Up that are good Pierce dice…



Got him.! That was a lot smoother.

The second time is nearly always simpler than the first.



No… no. With these arms, I'll crush you all. I'll gaze through you. Consign you to the darkness of oblivion where we all deserve to be!

And the third easier still.



We hit with another lock last turn, so Mister Roland can barely move at all! It's not all good, though. He's stuck permanently in Big Eyes mode, and that means our power is pfft until we Stagger him again.



And like a meanie-butt, he's gone back to that one attack that can heck up our tempo! But we're all out of Staggering danger now, so if everyone goes all out and hits as hard as they can we could probably just knock him out right now!



So we do that!



Silly bird. The most we got was a couple scratches. Nowhere near enough to stop us!



Miss Binah does a heckin' chunk of the cutieish's SR all at once, because most of her good attacks are Slash already.



Almost there…

Ultimately, Mister Roland just isn't able to keep up with the full damage output of 19 total dice, you know? Not without resistances, anyways! And the thing about resistances…



Is that Identify Weakpoint sniffs its way right through them, like, wha-psh! And then… Wait. Sniff sniff! Hey! Who's here?!

Oh. This is a surprise! _{Librarians aren't supposed to be here…}

Wait, are you the person who's supposed to be doing the narrating?

Oh, no, I'm simply here to drop something off for him. Is the battle going well?

I think so? Stuff might be nearly done now.



Got him!

I will not be consigned to this darkness alone..!

Nobody's consigning you anywhere! Wake up already!

Yeah, basically almost done probably!

I'm sure you've done your best, dear child. Still… for you to be in this state, both here and there yet truly in neither place, what happened?

I dunno! I just sort of became A Mizu and here I am, opposite that mega-ultra cutie!



Once more… all the power there is left. I'll crush you with that, and send all of us to our sweet salvation!

Oh, A Mizu? Is that like your other taken names?

Maybe! I dunno if it means Apocalypse Mizu or if it means All Mizu or if it means Another Mizu, but it's definitely a very 'A' feeling.

Hmm… I don't suppose it could be 'Aggrieved,' could it?

Uhh… Maybe I guess?

It must be difficult, being in this position because of the one direction you couldn't follow. Who could be blamed? It's only natural to want to peer into something you shouldn't be allowed to. All the misery that followed couldn't be your fault.

Um, excuse me, miss.



But we are at the climax of a very important battle, and if you're not going to comment on it, then please butt out! I got narratin' to do!

You do not feel wronged in the least..?

A-doi. I mean, come on. Miss Binah told me what would happen, but I still had to see it! That's obvious. But everything that happened after? What's to complain about!? I got to meet a hundred cuties in a thousand ways, and enjoy every minute of it. So what if I get a little shattery-shaky or whatever. It was worth it, all to meet everyone~

So you've already accepted it that much… Do you feel no regret at all?

My one regret is not being down there so I can wrestle with the cutiest of the cuties all by myself right now!

_{Well. Whatever you have become, it's outside of the hands of myself or my colleague. I don't think there's anything more I can say to you right now…} And all you're doing is narrating, you say?

Yep! I think that's all I can do over here.

I see… Alright. I have much to do now, so I'm afraid I must leave you here. Good luck getting yourself back together, my child.

Thanks, Miss Lady! Now, where was I?



What are you doing, boss?

This child has slept for too long. Now that the eggs connected to her selves are shattered, I shall try waking her with her favorite pastime: "playing with the cuties."

Wait what? Oh, come on! That's not fair!!

Oh, I get it. Make her wake up, or she'll miss the good part.

I'm not missing it! I'm right here! Watching it! I wanna doooo it though!



Okay… think. Think. So… We beat them up. And as we do, Mizu thinks about the nature of her name. A Mizu. There's gotta be a way to get back. The A can be anything as long as it's just A. Like X or Y.



So um… maybe I need to pick a thing? Like how that lady suggested 'aggrieved.' But it has to be a thing that lets me get back? Oh geez but we are kicking his butt! I dunno if I have time. I gotta think of a thing!

Is this… it? The end? Then this feeling, deep inside… freezing cold. That must be my fear.



No! I don't want to feel that ending! Not yet… just a second more. A minute. An hour. I don't want to face that ending!

I knooow! I wanted to feel that! Don't die yet, Mr. Roland! Okay. A word. Aardvark. Atbash. Apression. No, that's not even… Oh! Oh!



HUP-CHA!! I did it!

What the..?

Have you enjoyed your dream, child?

I dunno… it's all hazy, like I was somewhere I shouldn't be! But I'm up now! And I know something for sure!



No matter what, I'm myself. All three of us are one again.

And the result is A Mizu unlike any other.

It turns out it stands for Abased Mizu! Because we're based as heck!

Her thought processes are as impenetrable as ever.

The words have meaning to her. That is enough.



It's besides the point. That Apocalypse Bird is incredibly restless… Roland is preparing a pair of powerful strikes as a coup de grace.

_{It doesn't matter none of it matters it's all meaningless if this is where I meet my end then let's all sink together as others sing the tune of the apocalypse let us all sink together as sinners…}

No problem! I know just what to do now!



Before it can strike…



SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!



And then I play with the li'l cutie~



Until the work's all done~!

Ah… so this is the end.

I never thought… it would feel…



So peaceful…

So, what's our work result Miss Binah~?

Acceptable, as always.

Heehee~ Obviously.



Now then… with no eggs, and no focus for its power, the fragile heart of the Bird is laid bare.



Will you stay and fight for the control you prize? Or will you show yourself a coward and flee once more?



The Abnormality appears to be surrendering. It no longer wishes for a fight.

Of course. Ultimately, all of its changes stemmed from fear. Cowardice is all it has once its defenses are stripped away.

Wheew. I'm just glad it's over.

Yes… All of you are dismissed. I shall see what feelings have stirred within Roland once he has awakened.

Don't have to tell me twice.

I shall be going as well. Despite the unexpected difficulties… working with you was not unpleasant.

I trust you shall stop by for tea later?

If there is time.



And so, Apocalypse Bird falls. This fight is one of the main sticking points for players, as the varied weaknesses mean one phase or another will generally hold up the player and each phase has its own unique mechanical way of instantly murdering Librarians if we're not careful. It requires a good knowledge of how to build decks for long-term fights to make it through, and the Apocalypse Bird itself can mess with the Light curve of good decks and knock even a well-prepared player off their game if Twilight should manage to tear off enough Light.

If we can navigate those couple of tricky bits, though, the fight is relatively easy and becomes a giant bag of HP to chew through.

VIDEO
Music: None


You will be there, lying in my sheets, O sorrow, So that you might once again attempt to enter my heart.

Music: BinahStory


I don’t know how great that guy you’ve been watching was, but I’m just a nobody.

I’m nothing more than a speck of rust on the gears of this world. I was just one of the many foul people partaking in this vile world. That’s why I’m so afraid.

The City as it is. Humans as they are. And us as we are. Observe simply what your eyes can see, without imputing any external values to it.

I’ve turned away from lots of things, saying “That’s that, and this is this.” We ran from reality, and my wife and I got what’s coming to us. It’s ultimately no one’s fault that things went south. I guess I’m partly responsible for it, too. I’m paying my price for remaining a bystander in this City…

Perhaps you are right.



Everything shall repeat. We managed to break the cycle one time, yet us librarians are now going through another repetition. What truly matters, however, is that the cycle did break at least once.

Breaking it once…

That is all I have to tell you. You may visit me for tea occasionally. Let us have trivial chitchats from time to time.

Music: Lobby


With the realization done, Binah's floor jumps two levels instead of the usual one. This means we actually get six Abnormality pages to talk about, in two sets of three. So let's do that!



The first three are all based on the eggs of the Apocalypse Bird.

Long Arms is simple but effective, protecting us from any damaging status ailments. It's handy if we were to face Xiao again or something similar. Big Eyes, meanwhile, gives all enemies the Enchanted status, making them prioritize a specific Librarian as a target. It then grants the target both Power and SR recovery when facing off against an Enchanted enemy. Lastly, there's Small Beak. This page will let us recover 1 Light for 5% of our max HP. As it returns to the hand when played, we can use it to refill as much light as we need—though the costs can certainly add up. All three are definitely powerful options for our future builds…

But Apocalypse Bird itself has pages too. They're all Level 3 pages, and we'll be taking a look at them now.



Of these three, we'll start with Peace. This marks the first opponent hit by the chosen Librarian as an Intruder, which makes them deal less and take more damage. Nice and simple, but also never what we should be aiming for with this floor. That falls to the other two.

The first one of these is Guardians of the Forest. On its own, it gives everyone 1 Haste, which is not much of anything. However, if all five Librarians each have a single Abnormality page it becomes 1 Haste and another 1-2 Strength and Endurance for everyone. +1-2 Power for all allies is quite strong, and it's a relatively easy get.

Lastly, there's The Beast. This Abnormality page only does something only if one Librarian is holding all three of the egg pages, but if they have them they become incredibly powerful. While The Beast is active, all dice of anyone that the Librarian targets or is targeted by lose all of their Power effects entirely—this does not apply to the Librarian themselves, so their Power will still work fine. Additionally, it hits them with a sort of super-Paralysis, lowering both the Max and Minimum rolls of the die by 3. Finally, at the end of the scene everyone but The Beast loses 15 HP and The Beast restores all their Light. This page, much like Tiphxodia, is powerful enough to be worth building an entire strategy around—if we can make it to a point where we have one Librarian left with the full Beast setup, Tilted Scale and Lone Fixer, the fight is basically over.



Uhh… hey, Miss Binah? We got one more problem.

Speak.

After we got back, all three of the Mizus just up and vanished. I found their keypages lying there, but they were empty.

That is not a problem. I am already aware of the state of all my children. She has been dismissed to prepare the tea.

So she's… Back. And you let her make tea while I did all the work.

You have had her tea yourself. What do you believe?

Yeah, I get it. But I'm having some.



It's steeped! We're ready to go anytime, Miss Binah!

So you just… Folded yourself back into one, huh?

Yep. Being three people was really useful when I was all muddled up inside, but there at the end I was seeing three things at once and it was really confusing.

…So can you split again?

Maybe? Doesn't feel like a good idea. I kinda like being me again.

So then… We're basically down two people if anything happens.

Yeah, I guess maybe… but psssh! C'mon, what are the odds of that?



What broke once can be broken again… This City's cycle isn't absolute, eh..?

Well, it's a nice thought… even if I dunno how true it is.

Roland. Have you returned to yourself?

Oh, sure thing. Sorry you keep having to deal with my stuff.

I don't say anything too strange, do I?

I couldn't say. At the very least, nothing that could be worse than when I was having the same problem.

Good, good… I'll admit, knowing you were watching over them… I was worried I'd say something I'd regret.

I've had the same worry before. Is this simply a part of being human?

Must be.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



I wasn't expecting that child to appear here… Still, I doubt it will change anything now.

This is the final poll. Thank you all for participating.


Videos

Binah 6
Binah Realization (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)

New E.G.O Pages

[cryptologicalMystic]

Thank fuck for SomethingAwful user Quackles. I'd never have gotten as far as I did without the manga comment.
I'm having trouble figuring out what comes after that, though. The hex doesn't convert into anything?

[quantumpapaya]

Thank fuck for SomethingAwful user Quackles. I'd never have gotten as far as I did without the manga comment.
I'm having trouble figuring out what comes after that, though. The hex doesn't convert into anything?

It's a number in hexadecimal form.
Hexadecimal numbers (base 16) can be converted into a 'regular' number (decimal form; base 10)
The converted number can then be plugged in to a certain somewhere... that's all I'll say for now

A puzzle... for the ages /ref

[cryptologicalMystic]

I know. The problem lies in the fact that I have no idea where to plug it in, and no idea where to start looking

E: Never mind, I was using the wrong converter. The right number has some similarities to the wrong links.

[TeeQueue]

Music

BinahBattle01
BinahBattle02
BinahBattle03
BinahStory

Abnormality Pages

Level 1



Big Eyes and Long Arms are the obvious picks here if we're going for The Beast, but otherwise the level 1 pages are nothing to write home about. The Weight of Sin is great with some health recovery to offset the damage and Eternally Lit Lamp is wonderful for ensuring we can redirect enemies, but Small Flutters comes too late to have access to the Evade dice it needs—most pages have Block as their defensive options, and Watchful Eyes is just counterproductive. Binah likes the extra Light generation, but we don't have any way to properly build around the 0 Light regain for a random ally… and as a -2 page we should never be seeing it anyways.

Level 2



Tilted Scale is the winner here, and there's no situation in which we don't want to grab this and slap it immediately on Binah. She's going to be targeting the enemy with the most HP in almost every instance anyways, since that lets her maximize the effects of Fairy, and being able to get some quick start-of-turn heals in off of it makes her even more valuable. Salvation really wants to combo with Eternally Lit Lamp, and the other three are all just kind of there. Obviously Small Beak is important if we're going for The Beast, but outside of that Punishment lets you trade taking a hit for getting +2-4 Power on one die, which is good for Violet Blade but not much else, and meanwhile Judgment is a -2 and almost never will appear and Punishing Beak is ultimately just a tiny buff to our damage output. There aren't any particular standouts here.

Level 3



Binah's three final Abnormality pages are incredibly easy to work through. She has a flowchart based on their usefulness:

If we have all three eggs on one Librarian, we take The Beast and win because it's insanely powerful.

If we don't, and instead have spread out all of our pages among our allies, we take Guardians of the Forest and get 1-2 Power on all dice for the rest of the battle.

In all other cases, we take Peace. We would prefer never having to take Peace.

E.G.O.



Lamp is great. The 3 cost makes it dirt cheap, and a 7-14 Mass Individual page is fairly good at slipping past and landing a hit on everyone, but the best part of it doesn't even require the page to hit. On combat start, Lamp negates all Power effects from all enemies it targets… which is "all of them." Being able to just shut off the enemy's ability to gain Power is really good, doing it while getting to keep your own is even better, and this is a great way to turn difficult situations into an easy win for us.



Then there's Justita, which might be even better. A single hit attack, it's also incredibly cheap and on hit deals 10% of the enemy's maximum health as True Damage, to a maximum of 50. Not many enemies have more than 500 HP, so this is a massive chunk of health to be cutting off of things. While Lamp is arguably situational, Justita is always good. Beautiful E.G.O.



Sadly, they can't all be winners. Beak costs a bit too much for what its dice are, and its effect of saving us 2 cost total on random pages in hand doesn't make up for the added cost. There's almost always something better to use.



Back to the winners, though, Twilight is a decent Mass Individual page with two dice that each inflict 1 Paralysis on the next turn. It can work alongside Lamp to completely obliterate the enemy's ability to do anything—remember that Paralysis will activate even if Power is nullified.



Finally, there's Apocalypse, a Mass Summation page. If the user is at 50% HP or less, it goes from 20-25 to 28-33, which is an incredibly chunky attack to try and get over, letting it pair well with the still-somehow-relevant Yujin key page. It also deals 50% more damage against any enemy at 50% health or less, which can turn into a massive hit. It doesn't have any special additional effects or what have you, but it's one of the best E.G.O in the game for trying to come back from a losing position by just throwing a gigantic die out and praying.

Final Thoughts

Binah's floor at full strength is ridiculously powerful, giving us a number of options that let us do solo strats with the Arbiter herself, or to spread things out through the entire team to reward a more cohesive effort. However, there are only three fights left in the game for us to use it in—so it's kind of like having a tricked out dragster that never leaves the garage. If we're using her throughout most of the rest of the game, it's solely to get access to Binah and her incredibly powerful toolkit. She can shred through most anything effortlessly, and the other four Librarians only need to hold out and force additional die rolls from the enemy whenever possible. The thing is that by the time we can do this… we've got the Red Mist and access to Gebura's Realization battle, and Gebura's floor is just outright stronger.

Despite having all of the tools for success, her floor's low availability at full power and Gebura's finishing up at the same time that she starts being playable makes it so that only the most diehard Binah fans use this floor.

There are a lot of those, though, so she's doing fine in terms of playtime.



_{Gee Binah! How come your director lets you have two outfits?}

[TeeQueue]

I know. The problem lies in the fact that I have no idea where to plug it in, and no idea where to start looking

E: Never mind, I was using the wrong converter. The right number has some similarities to the wrong links.

so what I am hearing here is that THE FAULT LIES WITH YOOOOOU

anyways I'm glad you guys are having fun. The poll seemed a little off, so I went ahead and edited the links in it into the post itself so that they won't disappear if anything strange should happen.

[TeeQueue]

Thesis 5: Hokma—Introduction

Okay, so—



…Huh. Well that's unexpected. Okay, then.

Book 49: Uninvited Guests—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Speaking of unexpected, the final node appears as a question mark just like normal right up until we click on it.



At which point it shows off exactly what we're about to be in for.

So far nothing has occurred…

Are you still worried about that stuff from back with the Purple Tear?

Only somewhat. The invitation has so far not steered us wrong prior to now, so should it do what I expect…

And if it doesn't do what you expect?



…I would rather not think of such a thing.

Sounds like you're not telling me something, ma'am.

It's nothing concerning you.

Right. Then I won't pry any… hey.

Do you hear someone knocking?



Click.

VIDEO
Music: Entrance


We hear knocking. This happens for a couple of lines' worth of sound, before we hear a smashing noise.



Knock, and the door shall open!

Talk about stupid-strong.

Hawhaw! Cooking is a test of endurance, after all.

Whatever you say sister.

Now, friends? You’re going to frighten the residents of this place—they might end up hiding… We’re introducing our whole group to them for the first time, so we should be polite about it, no?

They might turn us away if we’re too noisy.

If they do, then we’ll just hafta break in and wreck ‘em.

So this is the famed Library~! I’ve heard many things about it, but to see it myself!

You used to lead a circus in a humble tent for such a long time…

And I thank you for changing that! With your help, I could finally step out of that tent filled with the musty scent of flowers~!



I was not in my right mind at that time. Why, I thought you were simply trying to perform with me…

Still, I think it’s truly serendipitous that we could walk the same path in the end.

I feel the same… Sir Argalia gave us true salvation.

Haha, no… Don’t mention it, friends. I couldn’t have done this alone. I should be thanking you all.

By the by… It seems no one is here to greet us today?

Rarf, arf arf!! Ruff!!! Neiiiigh~ Cha-caw~ Neigh! Bwak!!

Musta wimped out and hid behind a shelf.



That’s a first, I gotta admit.

Perhaps this is an indication that the Library has grown close enough to the physical realm that it can be interacted with from the outside?

And we knocked several times, too, mind you.

If you rap your dirty fists on a door and no one responds, what you should do is leave, not break in.

Don’t get your skirt in a twist. We were in a bit of a… hurry, so to speak. Pluto? Do your job.



There is a sound here, which is presumably Pluto fixing the door.

…

…Is that a Singularity?

Singularity? Such a preposterous claim…

It’s magic!

We are truth seekers and artists, perched on the boundary as we search for an answer.

You haven’t been taken over by the Distortion… How is that possible?

To eat! Or be eaten! We’re walking a fine line at the crossroads!

The so-called Pale Librarian has fully become a human, huh… I can’t even call her pale anymore. She now has red blood coursing beneath her soft flesh.

I want to rip out every little blood vessel in your body and eat it. The veins of a machine turned human… How will they taste, I wonder?

Easy there, Elena! That stuff tastes better cooked than raw!

…The thought is making my mouth water.

I respect your preferences, but please save discussions about them for private conversation.



I heard that the answer we seek lies at the Library. At its very core…

And we’ve come to snatch that book with our forky tongue!

Angela. We are aware that you have nearly completed that volume.

…Who said anything about giving it away?

I never said anything about asking permission, either.

…

Ah, right. Roland… It’s been a while since I got to have a chat with you in peace.

…

You won’t talk to me? That’s heartless of you. And I had good news for you, too…



…What?

Truth be told, I didn’t want her to meet you again. The two of you were comparable to a marriage between a beautiful rose and a rabid beast… Though, a love story that ends with the lovers never getting to see each other again would be… too tragic, wouldn’t you say?

So I decided to take her with us.

What bullcrap are you…

It’s been a while, Roland.

…Have we met before?

How could I forget. She wouldn’t shut up about you.

Music: Ominous Ambiance




…

What’s wrong…? Are you at a loss for words by the reunion of your dreams?



There’s no trickery here. Or are you so mesmerized by her polished up beauty that you can’t stop admiring her?

…Argalia!!!



Oh, don’t tell me… Fell in love at first sight for the second time? Want to steal away Angelica from me yet again?

No, you won’t. I won’t let that happen this time. You don’t deserve Angelica. She deserved better than having her life ruined by the likes of you.

…Don’t you feel anything when you look at that mess you made out of her?

You must be quite bedazzled by her perfected form.

You’re not gonna croak in peace. I’ll chew you up alive, crunch your bones to dust…

You’re still bound to the past, blind to the present. Roland, you fool. Try looking into the future like I do. Do you know how hard Jae-heon worked for this?

Sorting out the corpses clustered within the piano was an arduous task, even for me.

I went through a fair bit of trouble next to him. I had to extract Angelica’s blood out of the pile of bodies bloated from the heat.



What? Hahaha… Ah… My oh my. Was it too early to reveal this…? Oh, I’m so sorry, Roland.

I didn’t ruin your little… “plan” by accident, did I?

…

Is this about… the Pianist?

…

Neeighhhghh!!! Arf arf, ruff ruff ruff!!!

HAWHAWHAW!!! Even I know that fact! All your smarts were good for nothing, heh?

This show is getting spicier than I thought~!



But this is too hysterical, I can’t hold back my tears…

You naive, moronic heap of scrap… Angela… You’re the one who killed that black-hearted bastard’s undeserved better half, do you see it now? You’re the one who killed my sister…

Quite a scene, indeed… Even I cannot help but laugh at this.

The White Nights and Dark Days caused the Distortion phenomenon… which made the Pianist.

And you, Angela, are responsible for the White Nights and Dark Days.

The relation couldn’t be any clearer.

Poor Miss Angela… How can you be still so blind to the truth…

…

…Cut it out.

You’re being calmer than I expected this time. Rather than, you know, throwing a furious fit.

That rabid psycho whopped a whole lotta Syndicates and Offices that were running experiments which seemed even a tiny bit suspicious.

And his blind rampage… affected us as well.

…



All I wanted… was to bring back my son, who had died in an unfortunate incident. There was no way for me to have anything to do with the death of your wife. I explained it all to you, and yet… You killed my son in cold blood, in that workroom. You were such a merciless being.

…Right. It was the place with a terrible stench…

This was unexpected. You actually remembered it.

Looking at that puppet… I can’t help but be reminded of it. I guess you got more skillful since then, even though your disgusting method hasn’t changed one bit…

…No Singularity could save my son when he was found. He was in an abysmal state. He was playing in a spot that was out of my sight… when he unfortunately got in the way of a road roller which was making way for gentrification in a Backstreets redevelopment site. I shouldn’t have been at work that day. But I still wanted to undo what happened… even if it cost everything I had…

What’s more… The revival of my son was nearly complete. But then you had to intervene moments before our touching reunion, and ruin it all.

…You still insist that thing was your son. All it was, was an abomination made with the flesh of random people weaved together.

You don’t get to decide the worth of my method. Or the ways of anyone else here for that matter. I… never did any harm to you.



Even so, if the parents of those kids wanted to hold me accountable… I was ready to accept their judgement.

…Not yours, Roland! You had no right to kill my son who was just about to be given new life, or judge me for my actions! That day, staring at the fire which engulfed all I had, I swore to myself… That I’d do everything… to make you suffer the same. And to make this damned world suffer as well. There was no justification for a maniac who was lashing out at blameless people to kill my son…

Then I came across another chance. I could awaken to this power… But I was confused, and lost my way for a good while. My head was brimming with all kinds of thoughts. That was when the orchestrator here reached out to me, and led me to this exact moment.

…That’s that, and this is this. Whatever you’d gone through…



It doesn’t matter what kind of miserable past you have anymore… I don’t even care if I was the reason for your suffering… But you… YOU!!!



…

What’s the matter? This isn’t like you.

Not like me, huh…? You’ve got the wrong impression, then.

…



Don’t get me wrong, Angela. I’m not here to get my revenge like that man with a heart of coal is.

It’s the opposite, rather… I’m thankful for you, you see?

You gave us the power to reach here, sister!!

Thank you… for opening up a path through which we can reach salvation…

Here, we’ll take the light of the Library, and illuminate the City with beauty that exceeds the Pianist’s. So that no one will ever be able to forget us!

That’s why, Angela… you have my deepest gratitude.

Let me express my appreciation as well. I could shake him up as I desired thanks to your ignorance.

As eager as I am to see what happens next with googly eyes, we’ll have to miss out on it, sadly.

Now! Get ready, then. The song of this City is approaching its coda… And you have your stories to keep, don’t you?

Neiiiiigh!! Bwakbwakbwak!!! Woof! Arf~!! Ruff ruff ruff!!



Don’t say a word. We still have a common goal of stopping Argalia…

…Okay.



Now then, everyone~!



Let's begin the music.

With pleasure.

HAHAHAHAHA! Before they're ready to go, rush on through!



What the..?

Miss Angela, someone's run straight through Malkuth's floor and taken the stairs up towards ours!

Then we must prepare to intercept them immediately. They must not be allowed to take hold of the light.

…

Miss Angela?

Hey, Angela… do you really have time to be staring at a piece of paper right now?!

They were not invited. It would appear we are simply out of time. And yet… what if they were chosen the same as everything else?

What are you talking about now?

I speak of the invitations. If I am to assume this place works the same way it always has, this too was a deliberate choice.

The invitations… are not unlike another script, in that way. From start to finish every step I have taken is on the path laid out for me. But I am becoming "human" now, am I not?

Music: Start Successfully


Then this time, it should be fine to do whatever the hell I please.

Roland.

What.

The lower floors have already been infiltrated, if they are allowed to get beyond the middle layer then any hope for an ideal outcome has been lost. Stall them for as long as you're able.

You'll be fighting off the lot of them, on the stairs the whole time…

No problem. Don't complain if I murder them all before they ever get a chance to get past me.

I won't.

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 1: Whatever the hell I please



Lower layer, all Librarians: prepare to engage the intruders. Handle it like any other reception.

I'll leave your knowledge of death's nature here intact. Use whatever strategies you deem are necessary to defeat them.

Won't that make it harder to get our emotions up enough to fight?

If we should fail, the light shall be stolen from us—our lives will be forfeit as well. That should serve as an adequate threat.

…Yep. Feeling plenty motivated, ma'am.

All Keter floor Librarians: There will be four simultaneous battles going on. Each of you, handle one.

Breaktime's over, is it..?

Seems that way, sir.

…Mm.

It's not like we can fight right now anyways. Roland's going to be busy.

Tiphereth. Gebura. Chesed. Should they be more apt than we anticipated, your floors are likely to come under attack. Prepare for battle.

Preparations are already underway, Angela.

I'm ready to go anytime, too.

Things have gotten so serious all of a sudden~



Lastly, Binah. This is likely to become an ordeal unto itself, and Roland is otherwise occupied…

I shall observe your struggle, capturing its entirety in my sight.

Very well. In that case…



There is one question which weighs heavily on my mind, particularly now.

I must see to it that it is answered.

VIDEO
Music: HokmaStory


…Hokma, is there anything you know around how the invitation works?

Do you expect me to know it? Or are you merely wishing to confirm what you think is the answer?

I may not be all-knowing, but is the same true for you? You two were always knowledgeable. The purpose of that facility, what needed to be done… You knew everything.

And you said to us that you would not come down to where we were. Followed by a remark about how you hope we never have to face each other from now on. I find it rather alien and laughable that you are coming up here, only now trying to converse with us. You previously asked me if I had a change of heart, but now I’d like to ask the same to you.



How harsh. Do you wish to have a conversation or not? Even though I am sure you did not have to bother in coming here, I will give you an answer as you wish.

There can be only one answer. How was it possible for you to construct an architecture as intricate as the Library from nothingness? Is there only one iteration of the perfect book you seek? Will it truly grant freedom? A book is no more than a vessel of the Light.

What’s your point?

You wished to move onward, but in truth, what you’ve been doing is simply collecting the Light along a course set by someone else. You could make much progress despite having little to no knowledge of the outside world, other than bits of secondhand information…



…

The invitation is the guiding hand of your original. It is Carmen’s auspices that you are under. Assimilated with the Light, Carmen is dictating for where you and your Library should head. The invitation is sent to whomever she appoints, guiding them into this purgatory in an inescapable course of events.

Angela. You seemed to hold utmost faith in the invitation. Which is especially peculiar considering that its choices are brimming with Carmen’s own interpretations and deductions. You must have noticed this at least vaguely.

…Are you trying to say that I can’t escape from Carmen?

Haven’t you realized by now? You are a copy of Carmen. Yet you can never be the same being as her.

…The time Carmen had seen and experienced was ingrained right into my head. In the form of knowledge, and nothing more…

I want to escape from Carmen’s ascendancy. But then again… I’ll be completely and absolutely alone if she leaves my side.



Is that so? Who do you think would be willing to stay with me?

That we do not know.

…I despise you all so much. I just wanted to erase you all. I didn’t even want to bring you back in the first place if possible. But that was not an option for me. Because Carmen interfered! She told me not to kill you… To give you another chance…

Angela, do you truly think Carmen is responsible for stopping you? I believe otherwise. It is by your own will that the lives of the librarians and guests are being retained.

Music: neutral 1


Could there be a better way? Couldn’t I pursue a path where at least one more person would meet a better outcome…? What should I do…

If someone’s listening to me… Tell me… Please.





Every time we see this screen, an alert sounds off.



Thanks, Angela! You helped me realize how meaningful my work could be.



You’re right, Lady Angela… Maybe I’m just a defect who can’t do anything right.

I must thank you for giving us some room to breathe in this place.



I suppose I must obey your orders and abide by the principles.

You’re the only one who really gets me, Angela.



Why won’t any of you understand me!!!

Working with you… makes me wanna try just a bit harder, I gotta say.



What’s the point, I bet you just want everyone to die.

Music: None
























Music: Ominous ambiance


It was foolish of me to believe that anyone would stay around. You lot… and I… We were just exploited and ditched. Such was the script.

I tried time and time again at first. Even after a failure, I approached them again; even when I failed, I did not despair… I was hopeful that something would change. That the situation could improve. That there might be a way.

Sadly, after numerous repeats, my innocent mind had already worn out and gone cold. We couldn’t build any kind of relationship in the first place.

Instead, I piled up a towering edifice of books for me to read. Random assortments of letters, incoherent and unintelligible messes of volumes. I scrounged through them trying to find any meaning. Ceaselessly… I read and read and read without a moment of respite.

I thought at least one of them would give me the answer. The path I should take. The way to be free.

But possibilities were only possibilities.



I… want to begin anew. To start again, along with the things that were abandoned just like me… I don’t want to be alone… Please…

Was it really vengeance that I wished for? I only wanted to be rewarded for everything I went through… Can I be forgiven for rendering everything null just so I can survive alone?

Will there be anyone left by my side at the end of it? The weight of my choice…

I don’t know anymore. I just want to forget it all. I pondered, and pondered… The conclusion was always the same.



As Carmen taught me… She whispered to me that the answer is written in the book… That it will teach me everything I want to know… All contained in the one perfect book, stitched and bound just for me…

I have no choice but to believe in it… The words of the only one who remained by my side…

Music: Ominous rumbling


If I embrace all of my past and lift it off my chest, what will be left of me? Up until now, my entire existence was based on my past sufferings. The long-cherished yearning for revenge was what led me here… But if I were to accept everything I went through as history… then what would I be?

Maybe I’ll end up being reduced to nothing… The things I want to know, and the reason I want to keep living, it’s all about vengeance. I’m scared I might lose the meaning to my life… That’s why I’m too afraid to accept the past.



No matter what conflicts, agonies, and regrets you may face in that process… You have to grow onward while facing the future and be born again. I had been chained to the past for too long, until this knowledge came to me…

You may find yourself confused at the moment, but you will understand soon enough.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Paying debts, settling scores.


Videos

Uninvited Guests 1
Hokma 5

[TeeQueue]

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 2: Old flames and paying back



For the Uninvited Guests, the fight is split up among four different battles, each with their own ! mark. To begin one, we only need to click on it.



So let's start at the beginning.

Let's begin the music.

With pleasure.

HAHAHAHAHA! Before they're ready to go, rush on through!

Music: MalkuthBattle01


Not so fast!



…

I had an inkling that something might happen… and with our floor being on ground level, someone has to stall for time while the others get ready.



…

Not feeling talkative, eh..? That's fine. I only need another few seconds…



I'm here and ready to go! Good job holding things down, Bishop.

Hardly. Nine of the bastards got past before I could intercept.

But you stopped one. The others should be able to prepare themselves while those guests are on the stairs.

Lower layer, all Librarians: prepare to engage the intruders. Handle it like any other reception.

I'll leave your knowledge of death's nature here intact. Use whatever strategies you deem are necessary to defeat them.

And that's the go-ahead. Let's get this handled.





…

Mm, are you going to say anything?

What more do I have to say to you.

Are you holding some sorta grudge because you think we took everything from you?

Maybe so.

You don’t sound all that certain about it.

There are remnants of memories and feelings inside me. I’m not sure if I forgot them or lost them, though. Those feelings only become more dull over time. I imagine myself in the past would’ve gotten upset and sad over those, unable to let go of them all. Right now, I’m simply standing here for the performance that will awaken the people of this City like everyone else. I have no hard feelings, other than the desire for the Light you’ve kept hidden.

Don’t you feel that you’ve lost something important to you?

Having my happiness taken away doesn’t always mean that sadness has to fill that space. I haven’t become intrinsically unhappier. I’ve simply returned to a past state, back when I hadn’t realized such emotions… back before I met them. I’m sure I wasn’t a miserable man at that time.



Nothing. I don’t feel sad about it, though. Why are people taught that they must earn things? Jobs, assets, friends, family, knowledge, wealth… They tell us that our lives are made successful and content by acquiring them, whatever they may be. Even though nothing in this world lasts forever. What we get is destined to depart from us one day. Eventually, when people try and fail to latch on to them in an unsightly struggle, they despair and lament. I did, too.

Do relationships between people really matter? They’ll all break in the end, sooner or later. Can’t a person be himself and walk down a path he chose purely on his own, without anyone else’s intervention? He may seem like a nobody, but he’ll ultimately gain more.

It’s understandable to be afraid of what might happen between people. After all, I had the same fear. But… without such emotions, we can’t move forward. There might be difficult and trying times, but there’s still a lesson to be learned from that pain.



Such a bold thing to say, after taking the lives of the people around me…

…

I haven’t come here to take revenge, though. Most would say the same. All I want is a free life, one where I’m not chained to anything. I’m tired of having to worry about taking flak for anything I do.

I guess I don’t have any more arguments to make. I don’t have a clear conscience about what I’ve been doing, after all.

There’s only one way to settle this now. It’s time for me to do what I must do.

…Get ready, guys.



Speaking of… have you seen the others?

I haven't. There's no way they didn't hear the order to fight, but…

HOOOOOOLD EVERYTHING!!!



What the hell are you wearing, Dimi?

Hmph! You thought you could sneak a fight in during my very important snacktime gaming session to finally get a point on me, did you Bishop?! Well, too bad! I'm here, and ready to fight!

I'm glad you made it, but can you fight in those outfits?

Obviously!!



I just scribbled some doodles into the margins of some key pages, and voila! I'm even more fabulous. And I made these two some fitting outfits to serve me in the meanwhile, as well! Ohohoho~!

These three today are sporting outfits from the Steam workshop, specifically here, here, and here.

These can be slotted over any existing key page, and will act accordingly. They are here because forums poster MetaMeme was very specific about the repayment for her help with making the incredibly cool-looking banners, and there are some faustian bargains you just have to take.



The decks we're bringing today are all relatively normal for endgame Malkuth, the only standouts are Bishop's Clone/Fervid Emotions combo deck that will be taking advantage of the Bear to work and Dimi's final version of Dimi-style Big Single Dice. Those Violet Blades are going to make some absolutely stupid numbers.

Music: The Reverberation Ensemble (Asiyah)


Hey now, Mr. Crying Children. You look all dry. Did you run out of tears?

Ah. You. Even with my feelings lost to me…

I remember wanting you to die.

Pfft… That's our Dimi, alright.

Woah! Servants, protect me!

Affirmative.

The first thing to know about Philip is that he follows Index Targeting rules. Every single attack he makes will be focused on Dimi until she is dead.



As for the rest of it… every member of the Reverberation Ensemble has Nuovo Fabric as a passive. Remember that cloth they took from the Carnival way back at the beginning of the game? Turns out it reduces all incoming HP and SR damage by 1-2, going a long way towards giving them staying power. Additionally, he's a Shimmering boss so Light isn't a problem for him. He doesn't take any damage from Burn, he deals bonus Burn on hit, and as his Emotion Level rises he'll place more Burn on everyone including himself—while also increasing his own Power. His special mechanic is Overheat, making it so that if he's got enough Burn stacked on him at the start of a turn (after it's been reduced by EOT burn), he'll become more vulnerable to Stagger damage but deal more damage with his attacks. While in that state, he also puts out more burn.

In short, Philip douses the entire floor with gasoline, tosses a match, and says "good luck."

Sustain is important here, and by bringing Xiao's page into this fight its Emotion Level 4 ability to ignore Burn damage is also a godsend.



His attacks are decent for this point in the game. Notably, Conflicting Emotions will spread Burn to both himself and us while Despairingly Stigmatize will give him a massive chunk of Emotion Coins on hit. It's important to remember that he'll be getting Power bonuses to each of these as the fight drags on.



Also annoyingly, it's going to be hard not to fall a little behind Emotion Levels here due to his 4 dice versus our 5 Librarians. We could theoretically use a Counter die to make up the difference, but he's only got one of those.

So it's agreed, we're protecting the most important member of the team, right?

Of course! I've got your back, ma'am!

Seriously, what were you people doing?

I was working as something called a 'maid.'

A what?



A domestic servant who works at the behest of the owner of a household to manage its daily affairs.

So… a butler.



No, Miss Dimi definitely said they were called 'maids.' She was very clear while doodling the outfits.

Pretty sure those are butler outfits, too.





She was very clear that these were called 'maid outfits,' Bishop. They're from older gaming culture, apparently.

So this is just more of her weird retro-gaming thing, then?



Hmph! The fact that this world can't tell the difference between a maid and a butler is a mark of absolute shame! Everyone knows butlers wear suits.



I'm not familiar with either one, but does it matter all that much what they're called?





It matters. Butlers are a very specific kind of Fixer who have long-term contracts to serve either an estate or specific person. Maids are not a thing.

It's not my fault Fixers are so boring they forgot half the words for their own thing~



I see. So a butler is a specific kind of Fixer, and a maid is something made up?

They exist! Or they did, one time!



The things that you see in those games of yours don't correspond to reality. They wear fancy uniforms, they keep up the household, they serve the family, they're butlers. Mistaking that's a good way to wind up with your head on the floor.



I do not currently intend to put someone's head on the floor. Is that the qualifying difference? Would this make me a maid?



No, because I keep telling you they are not a thing.



We missed Overheat by just a smidgen, and Philip also showcases another attack this turn. It's another fairly middle-of-the-road page.



Bishop, come on. You don't have to manifest E.G.O just because you don't know what a maid is.

That's just how this body works, Dimi. It's nothing to do with you not understanding butlers.

If you say so~



Wouldn't it make sense to say that since we aren't Fixers, then, we qualify as maids?

Well… I guess it's true that you aren't nearly as skilled as the butlers I had back home.





Ohoho, now this is interesting. You had butlers?

Yeah, like ten or so. Someone had to keep the estate up to snuff while dad was out investigating. _{They're probably still there running the estate now. Not like it'd fall apart if we went missing for a while.}



Hey… Bishop? How rich were you, anyways?

I dunno! I was comfortable, that's all!

Wow. I was always joking about you having bought your certification? But you might actually have been able to do it. That's hilarious!

Oh shut up, Dimi!





Do you people ever stop talking?!

Wuhoh, we've made him mad.

I guess his emotions haven't cooled completely, huh?

I suppose they're not immune to your incessant rambling, no.



Maids, butlers, what matters about any of it? You're the only ones who care. They'll both burn the same.

Actually, Maids tend to have a—

Shut up about maids!

He's grown unstable. You've got an opening.

Right!

The subtle red particle effects around Philip show that he's in Overheat mode, and this means all his Stagger resistances lower to Fatal—we should be able to deal real damage to him now. His attacks themselves don't change, but remember that he'll be throwing out some extra Burn.



Everyone, now's our chance. Pile on!

Go forth! Crush him, my battle maid battalion!



No. No more talking from you.

The one downside of Dimi's Singular Strike build is that she inevitably takes hits from the second or third die on enemy pages. She's great at breaking single Counter dice or one-die pages, but otherwise she'll take a lot of damage by attrition.



I couldn't do it. He's definitely taking damage, though!



The purpose of a maid…



Is to gracefully sweep problems away. So it has always been.

Gh-aak!



We did it! He's wide open!



Good job, team! We've got him on the ropes, now!

I see. These feelings. To become lost in them is to render myself vulnerable once more. I must deny everything.



I shall cast my emotions off, and return to that safest state of 'before.'

So he can slough off his feelings into those little angels from last time he was here… Dammit, we were finally making good progress!

Don't worry about it. We opened him up once, we can do it again.

Ohohoho~ Ooooooohohohohoho~!

I suppose we do have specialists in being agitating.

Oh? Finally admitting your defeat, Bishop?





In this phase, Philip gets a new HP floodgate at 30%, and also a new weakness in Vanished Mind. Now when an Unspeaking Child is defeated, Philip will lose Power on the next turn equal to the number of children who have been defeated.



In exchange for this, he starts getting some of his nastier attacks from the last fight. Restrain is still dangerous, giving a -2 to all dice on our next turn, but Wound of Sorrow is a 3-die Ranged page that is forced to target Dimi, who is using Singular Strike. It shouldn't be an issue.



The Unspeaking Children, meanwhile, don't have any of the lockdown abilities they did the last time we fought them. Instead they're very tanky until we set them on fire, at which point they gain the same weaknesses as Philip. Please note Torched Heart only gives them 1 Strength and Endurance every turn, it doesn't stack with itself.



Their attacks are fairly decent, but they're not as dangerous as Philip since they don't get his bonuses to Power from high Emotion Levels. We still want to keep Victimize from hitting us.



Well then! Since this operation has the greatest possible leader on point, please allow me to say what we're all thinking.

Crush 'em!

Just be sure to rekindle those emotions.

Oh, don't you worry. I have plans~



Hey Philip. I can't help but notice that your offenses are lacking something.

They're more than enough for what I need to do.



They're really not. Where are those two weirdos you made to do your fighting for you? Mustache and Guitarcase?

You mean… Salvador and Yuna, right?

Those are the ones!

Memories of those two… I don't have them anymore. I'm quite alright to not remember.

Oh riiight… You left your memories in here when we kicked your ass, huh?





This one's under control. Moving to the next child!

And those memories became a book. One that Malkuth over there has attached to her keypage. Meaning your memories are right here with you. Those things we stole~

You did me a favor. I don't need those things.

But as close as you are to them, and with how this place works with emotions, can you say you won't remember anyways?



I need no such thing. My history doesn't matter.

Keh! Talk is cheap.



Madam Dimi, you're on your last legs. Should you really be pushing like this?

It's fine, those fairies will keep me going. _{I can't die for real anyways.}

Hey, sure. Not like this guy has murdered us all before.

He hasn't. I survived, remember?



It appears he does. That must be why you're being targeted, Madam Dimi.

Can't help but notice your goading didn't work, though. Maybe it's time to change it up?

Ooohoho… No need. After all, he's told me plenty~

Speaking of, Bishop!

Ma'am!



Those children are an issue. Cover me for a second.

…Got it. I'll take care of it.



Both Philip and the Children use a new attack this turn. Wing Stroke is a normal Combat Page that can hit us with Feeble to lower our offensive dice next turn.

Fierce Spirit, meanwhile, is a trio of counters that set up for a +2 Strength and 2 Bonus Burn on Philip's next turn. It's a perfect page to set up Forming Storm on, since it can't attack back. Ideally we want to down one of the Crying Children this turn to try and lower Philip's power next turn.



Ah, you see that, right Philip? A guy doing his best to help out a girl who's completely out of his league? Feel familiar?



No, of course not. You don't remember the reason you distorted at all, do you?

It doesn't matter. Strike them d-



Maid beam!

What.

You didn't know? Maids can fire laser beams.



Butlers, and no they can't.

Then I guess maids are better than butlers~

Aren't you trying to piss him off?!

You just make it too easy.

Dimi, focus.

Don't worry, I know just what I'm doi—



Blech! Rude!

Finally, some peace and quiet.



All that incessant chatter was truly obnoxious… but I choose to hear and see only that which I acknowledge. Whatever truth of my past she hoped to invent, I don't recall it. I need it not.



I think she was trying to remind you of the camaraderie you had with your old office.

Camaraderie… yeah.

The group I've fallen in with has much more camaraderie than whatever came before. I'm sure of that.



Well, while you've been talking I've just murdered a fifth of what's left of you. …What were the points at, again?

Iunno, that was months ago.



Damn. Let's just say I'm winning, then.

Grrr…

Xiao's page is fully online.



Finally all warmed up, Bishop?



Yeah. I'm ready to dole out pain and then some to these guys.

We've finally got Bishop down to 0-cost Fervid Emotions, meaning there's not a single page in his hand with a Light cost.



That means that while Philip is using Combusting Courage to try and toss out a bunch of Burn to all our Librarians at once…



We've got some ultimate attacks of our own.



Now, at last I'll make sure that silence lasts forever.

The heck you will! A maid—

Butler.

—'s duty is to protect their Madam!

And to always have snacks ready after any death.

Right. You handle the snacks! I'll do the protecting!

I think we can work with that. They'll handle the cleanup…



And we'll bring the heat! Bishop!

I've got your back!

Malkuth's Raging Emotion: Love knocks off one of the dice from Combusting Courage…



And Bishop's Tao Tie destroys every single attack the Crying Children were going to make this turn.



You'll go no further! The Madam will reign forever!

That 'madam' of yours is a stone's throw from death. One touch and she's—

Oh, dear.



I seem to have dropped the snacks.





Is this a fucking joke to you?!

Ohohoho! Good job, my loyal maids!

Butlers.

Maids. You managed to tick him off by doing your duty!

Shut your damn mouth. Every one of you refuses to take this seriously, talking about 'points,' or holding on to my past or whatever. None of it matters. I don't remember any of it, and I don't care what you have to say.



You say that, but we both know what you're hiding from. I wonder who it is you're pining after now? Another person you won't ever be able to have?

What in the hell are you babbling about?



Honestly, I'm curious myself…



But first I need to deal with this little girl who wants you to explode.



And also, I want you to explode.

Having no Light cost on anything in his deck means Bishop can go absolutely nuts with both Xiao's E.G.O and the ones Malkuth's floor normally has. If we were to put the Haulers and a copy of Lone Fixer onto him, Xiao's page would actually be quite easily able to solo the entire fight with this build. Philip's just the less-powerful Burn user.



And then from me… Maid beam!!

No matter, I'll simply crush that abominable woman with—



Not so fast! Deflected..!



And broken! The path forward is yours, madams!



Excellent work, you three!



Indeed! As expected of my servants.

But as for you… Well, I don't think you want me telling you what I really think out loud.

I think you're going to do it anyways.

Nah. Just this once, I'll be nice. You see, _{whisper whisper, whisper whisper.}

How dare you..!



Oh, I dare. And further, _{whisper whisper whisper, whisperwhisper whisper whisper!}

That's not true. None of it is true!

Ohohoho, but it is~!



That tears it!



You really should've kept your damn mouth shut for once. Emotions… things I'd forgotten are raging to life. You've shown me that I still have the capacity to feel.

So thank you. I can burn them all away to nothing… and you along with it. Then I'll finally be as pure as I wish.

Dimi, what the hell did you say to the guy?!

Oh, nothing much. I basically just said he was a discount version of you~

Somehow, I doubt that's the end of it.

I think it's probably wise not to press any further.



In his final form, Philip's constantly has the +1 Burn on hitting and being hit that being Overheated used to give him.



He also gains access to Scorching Desperation, a 2-hit multitarget attack that deals burn on its second die.



In exchange for those bonuses, he's lost all of his protection. He's now neutral to every attack type.



Our HP on Joshua isn't looking so hot, though, and Dimi has only 7 HP left and nothing but single hit pages. She's in deep trouble.



Alright, team. We've pushed him this far. He's feeling his feelings, and that rocky exterior's crumbled. I know it's going to be hard…

But we're the Floor of History. No matter how bad it looks, we can do it!

We'll make sure to mourn your sacrifice, Dimi.

Don't just kill me off like that!

Indeed. It is the duty of a maid to protect the Madam. Thus…



I will do what I must.

Didn't you hate using E.G.O?!

My identity is less 'defined' than yours. I needed a wall between myself and them, if I was to survive. But now, I am acting as madam's maid. And a maid shall never lose its way. Until the end, I serve.



Every last fiber of feeling left in this wretched form… I'll scorch it into you. Blaze you into nothing!



DIE!

Philip rolls a 13 on his attack, more than Dimi has HP left…



But she Endures Pierce damage, so she's fine.

Ooooohohohoho~!



You rat-faced bastard..! Fall over, already!

One trick behind up until the very end, no matter how much information you're given!



Looks like you went and proved me right after all~

Fuck you! Fuck every single one of you! I'll see you burn!



If Dimi and ImIdiot couldn't set this floor on fire, what makes you think you ever could?!



Yeah! You can't hold a candle to how much I can mess things up!



Shut up! Die!

He's gone incoherent, and I just took the last of his defensive maneuvers. Now, Joshua!



You are having some big feelings right now. Thankfully, the manual tells us what to do in case of Murder-type panics.

What the hell are you talking about?!



Hugs. And overwhelming White damage.

Ghkkk..!



Your spine's broken. I'll make this quick!



It's fine. Even if you slay me, I get what I want. These emotions too shall end… and I shall return to before I ever knew them!

I'm afraid there's nothing waiting for you beyond this. But I will say:



It has been a pleasure to serve you today, Sir.



We did it. Good work, team.

Yeah. Just a shame that in the end I beat Bishop by ten points.

Notebook says I was up by ten.

Well, you wrote it down wrong.

None of that matters, madam. As you announced before, the final piece of Philip was worth 100 points. That means the winner is ImIdiot.

Wait, really? Awesome!



Whatever! I didn't really care anyways. Back to my very important gaming!

Yes, madam!

Oh, but when you were winning… Ah, whatever. I guess we're cleaning up without them?

Well, they did seem to be busy. Just this once, then. They'll owe us later.

Works for me, boss.



Philip is indicative of how the coming fights will go—each one of the Ensemble has some kind of gimmick, and we can build around it in order to gain an advantage in the coming fights. In this case, that gimmick is Burn. Going for a full-on Liu strategy is fairly good here, but since this fight can be solo'd with a Lone Fixer Xiao build, any amount of Burn is enough to kickstart his Overheat phases and move the fight along.

Music: Result


Each fight in this reception will give us its rewards immediately, so we can actually use them in later fights. I'll be appending them at the end of the update.



We're also only allowed to get these drops once, limiting our number of these pages in conventional gameplay.

Music: Ominous ambiance


Hey. Did you feel that, you bastard? One of your friends is already down.

Ah! Our smelly friend downstairs met his end? I suppose he wasn't able to run backstage any longer!

It's unfortunate, but it won't stop us.

It's not like death matters here, after all. Why, so long as I get the light in the end it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Angela… Whatever the hell you've gotten up to, you'd better finish soon.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: “I shall heal you, curing you of all disease and injury you possess.”


Videos

Philip Battle
VS Philip (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)

New Key Pages



New Combat Pages

Philip Exclusive:

[quantumpapaya]

Philip :(
I hope he's okay eventually

On that note,
I'd been waiting for a 'good time' to share this but Idk if there really will be one so I might as well drop it here now

The captains driving their sephirah-bots as cars. Because why the heck not
I love them all :3
also I drew this pre-mizupocalypse, hence threezu

[TeeQueue]

oh no it's amazing.

[TeeQueue]

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 3: Doctoral Thesis



Everyone here is kind of doing their own thing here. Hokma is using a Liu deck, and I've gone with Chun since Xiao and Lowell are both spoken for. Talow's grabbed Purple Tear, and while I had plans involving Pierce I sort of forgot them so he spends 90% of this fight in Guard mode. Morgan is using Myongest, Robin is on a support build that will throw out massive amounts of Power with Mirinae, and lastly there's Sephiroth who is using Rapid Gashes Yujin.

RGY is a meme build, but it's also one of the strongest decks in the entire game. The kid gloves are off.

Music: Angela03


Hey geezer… that ominous looking set of wings in the back, there. It's holding exactly what you're thinking.

Yes, but it hasn't been unleashed yet.

You're saying that, but those things are its Apostles… What are they doing here already?

Apostles..? I've never seen those things before.

I have… they're connected to that thing that called me Mason. Where is it..? I'll pray and kill it as many times as I have to.

Ah… do not worry. I am here to aid you.



Aid us, is it..?

What's… that thing?

And that's going to be—

I know, Talow. I remember the Plague Doctor quite well.

How about this time around we finish her off first, and maybe..?

I wish only to help save you from pain…

No. We'll work alongside her for now.

Tch.

Before someone committed a grave sin, everyone lived a painless and peaceful life.

Without a thing such as death… there was no fear.

Alas, the sin of one person tainted with desire gave rise to the emotion called fear…

And it devoured all chances of another sprout budding.

We are no different, suffering because of a single man.

Angela's first phase, Prophet, doesn't do anything to harm us directly. Quite the opposite, as we defeat Apostles she'll throw out tiny heals onto our party. She cannot be targeted or damaged in any meaningful way here, so we have to beat up all twelve Apostles to move on with the fight. Speaking of, we should see what they can do.



Scythe Apostles cannot be killed, and we don't have questionable coding decisions to circumvent that this time. Instead, each one will be removed from the field once they hit 1 HP to advance the battle. Their second ability doesn't matter yet as nothing will have Revelation yet, but the third ability can be painful—every single one of them is going to target Sephiroth until either he's dead or he gets more HP than one of the other Librarians.



Their attacks are… fine. We need to watch out for the Bleed inflictions and the Fragile from the two purple pages, but otherwise the numbers aren't that high. It's perfectly okay to ignore Teach Us if we find ourselves in a pinch, it's not that powerful.



Lastly, while fighting with the Apostles we need to keep in mind that Hokma's defeat will mean the Realization is over. We need to keep him standing today.



Lastly, I make an unusual decision: keeping Talow in Pierce stance to start with. I decide that it's best to have the guaranteed playable hand that the game gave me, rather than pay 1 Light to pray for a 3-cost and a 0-cost. Once he's got 5 Light it'll be easier to chance stances.

Guys, everyone knowing what those things are but me is kind of freaking me out… Anyone want to explain?

They are… an end result. The process, when done by the incorrect person, results in a perverse endpoint.

That's… close enough to correct. You were dead the last time these guys showed up anyways, so…

She's been dead every time they've shown up.

We get it, you're a time traveler.

Focus, all of you.



Focus… You know these guys aren't even all that tough, right?

They had a sure-kill attack the last time we fought them.



Good for them. It won't help them this time, though.



Still, you should look out for their offhand. If you're grabbed…

Even if they do take hold of you, you would be fine. Remember how slow that attack was.



That's true… if they did grab us, by the time that scythe took our heads off we'd have already teleported back to our position. Is that why we haven't seen much in the way of grappling?

It's possible, I guess…



I surmise as much, at any rate. For better or worse, Angela has made this place's combat much more decisively quick.



…Ah, there it is. We're on a timer, you four. Push through them.

What are you up to, old man..?

It's nothing but an expression of faith in A's works.

Ugh, nevermind.



Speaking of faith… hey, Angela? Thought you were helping us.

I will… I want to, but I need power. Those things that man left behind… as you defeat them, I'll get their power. Can use it to cure you.

Aha. I think I get how it works… We crush 'em, and you'll keep us moving as long as we're doing that.

Bingo. Right up until she… let's cross that bridge when we come to it.

You're being cryptic, and that means we're in trouble.

Eh, we were already in trouble. Setting that aside… _{Well. No time like the present.}



It's really no great thing, Talow.

Says you. Altering your own timeline feels like a mess waiting to happen…



Huh. She does do it pretty easily.

It's quite a smooth process, isn't it? I wish we'd had access to it before. It would have made things so much easier…

For you, maybe. I'd have had to learn how this works from scratch.

I'd like to revisit the obvious looming threat you alluded to.



What threat? There's not a single thing that could possibly give pause to us in these bodies.



I've seen Twee die in that invincible armor of hers. Don't get cocky.



Yes… nothing exists that cannot be cut.



If the threat happens, then it will happen. We'll worry about it then, Morgan.

Fiiine…



Slashing weaponry.

Huh?

While you guys were busy talking, I was testing it. We want to slash them to bits.



It's true… These beings are weak to the sort of attacks they prefer. Hating things which you yourself are guilty of… one should remove the plank in their eye before speaking of the specks of others.

Slash them to bits, eh..? Then you're in the right place. I'll unleash my true power, now.



Now that we've had a couple of turns to throw some Clones out, Sephiroth is ready to go. Rapid Gashes will lower its cost for each Gash in hand, and Sephiroth's Yujin key page will regain 2 Light for each base 4+ cost page he plays. That means any Rapid Gashes we play once we're done filling our hand with Brace Up are effectively free, or even generating Light.



Please… just a little further and I'll be able to help you.

No problem, Miss Angela.



But really… do these things feel familiar to anyone else?



Of course they do, we fought them. You were just… dead at the time.

Come to think of it, what even killed me? We had Records pretty well on lockdown back when…

Don't worry about it.



You became one of them. As did I, but I disagreed with the name given to me and rebelled. That is why you're feeling deja vu.

I… what?

Sephiroth!

Hiding things at a time like this is worthless.



Doubts are worthless, and overexplaining is just going to—

Those apostles are not Morgan nor myself. The rest of the facility is also in combat, without issue.

It is weird that these things showed up without the twelve transforming into them…

But… wait, at any minute you or I could..?



I don't believe that will be a problem.

You don't?

Indeed. Let's observe.

Once we take an Apostle down to 1 HP, the start of the next turn gives us a short cutscene.



I shall draw in its power now!

A familiar clock appears, ticking forward to 1…



And the Apostle is finally destroyed.



I have gained its power… now, a blessing for you.

Hokma…

You observed a clock?

You know it well.

It would seem clear to me that these Apostles are mere shadows of the real thing.



Now that we've defeated an Apostle, Prophet will use one Blessing on us. Blessings are always targeted in the same order each time, so Talow will be getting all the single-kill Blessings we receive in this battle. It's a small heal and a boost next turn, but it does deal 1 damage and can eat a Counter die.

So… wait, am I turning into one of those things or not?

An old foe of mine once struck down mental images of his demons in order to free himself from their influence. This place borders mind and matter… I see no reason why this isn't something similar.

…Okay! I've made up my mind!



This is exhausting, and I don't want to think about it any more!



I'm going wild, and what happens happens!

Honestly… that might just work.



O child… I grant unto thee my blessing.

Um… thanks but no thanks?



Hence we shall go together 'ere the time of reunion.

Hey! _{Stings just as badly this time around, too…}



Let's hope that's all it does to you, Talow. You know what that thing's blessing entails…

Nope. Not even dignifying that with a thought.



Can you explain for the ones who don't have time powers?

This Abnormality that Angela's copied… it would bless people, who became the Apostles.



Then it's all good. I don't remember being blessed.

Not in this timeline, at any rate. The odds are we were both blessed in an event only those two remember.

You're being remarkably coherent for once, Sephiroth.

I am always speaking the truth. It isn't my fault if I'm surrounded by the blind.



Tick.



Tock.



Yes… you've done well. I have more blessings for you.

Do we get to say no?

Who cares… There's still an enemy there, and I'm going to rip him in six.

I have Sephiroth hold back here because we don't need to waste Rapid Gashes, and Hokma because he's on a strict timer.



Hence we shall go together 'ere the time of reunion.

You keep saying that, but there's nobody else coming…

The former Plague Doctor would say it frequently as well.



And let me guess, the time of reunion was..?

Its advent.

Great. I'll try to stay ready.



Ah… A fourth of my power has returned. I can feel more of his Apostles rising to face us... Be cautious.



Now please direct your attention to the second wave, in case anyone thought we were done.

It's just more bodies to put in the ground. Nothing tough.

Yes, I noticed as well. It means we're progressing.

You must press on… we must be freed from that man's designs.

You could try and proceed, but only death will await you at the end of it. Maybe that’s the reason for that fear.

My future is grim and dark, much like yours. It’s so bleak… I can’t see a thing ahead.

Why are we chained to something like this? Can we not be freed?

I want to return to that place, a paradise I’ve never trodden before.

To a place where there is no such thing as the end.

The second wave comes with two Scythe Apostles, and two Spear Apostles to go with them as well. Spear Apostles focus on Librarians with status ailments.



Their Combat Pages work better against those opponents as well. With Scythe Apostles inflicting Bleed, this can also result in our lowest HP member getting dogpiled. Most notably, For He is Holy and Let Thy Light Lead Me both gain Power when attacking targets with Bleed—and the former can break the rest of the dice on the enemy page.



Anyways, this whole wave is weak to either Pierce or Slash so we're just going to kind of annihilate them all.



Charge is full. I'm gonna' go wild!

We'll follow up.



One…



Two…



Three..!



A million!



And with one move, Morgan has completely trivialized this phase of the fight.



As promised, more of my power…

If you have to.

I do. Hence we shall go together 'ere the time of reunion.

Sure. Well, while you're blessing us or whatever…



I'll just take this one out.



Then we've crushed two of them already.



Make that three. Morgan did a splendid job creating this opportunity.



And that's four! We've capitalized on it.

Yes… I can feel their power coming now.



Little by little, the curse that man laid is unwinding.



And the chains too shall be broken before long…



We shall escape the end in his designs, I am sure of it…



Just a little longer… a little more. Please.



Six wings… It's almost complete.

And then the real fight begins…

Less talking, more stabbing!

…Child. I am here to treat disease.

Place your trust in me. I am the only one who can help you.

I promise, so I want you to promise in return. Swear that you will not leave me.

You harbor suspicion. Do not worry.

I shall heal you, curing you of all disease and injury you possess.

The last wave is two Spear Apostles and two Staff Apostles. The Staff Apostles have no unique targeting abilities, and only have the same Undying and I will Follow Thee that the other Apostles have.



Their attacks can deal some bonus Stagger damage and make our Defensive dice worthless, but the really noteworthy thing is that they're all Ranged attacks.



Fear not… My powers are overflowing now. I have a blessing for all of you aside…

Do not feel guilty. I shall be well without any blessing.

You still do not trust me. Nevertheless, I shall cure you all.



Only four left… And they seem to lack the danger of the first set.

Their coordination isn't quite the same as those scythe guys, it's true.

Then we shall cut them down.



Hence we—



—shall go together—



—'ere the time—



—of reunion.



So we're all blessed now, huh? Except for the geezer, anyways.



Pointless… Once these things are slain, what will come will come.



Exactly! No point in using our heads on this anymore! Just going to stab these guys to death!



Just three more… The dawn is coming. The time of reunion is close.



The Apostles use some new pages this turn. The Spear Apostle's page is just a pair of dice, the second of which becomes more powerful if we have an ailment.



As for the Staff Apostles, one attack deals in Feeble to blunt our offensive dice, and the other will give Strength to an ally next turn and smack us with Feeble on hit.



Two this round… Two more after that… Yes, this is going perfectly.

Scheming something over there, geezer?

Indeed. If our hunch proves correct, it'll be handy.



Let them come.



Even should a god descend, I shall slay it and take its power as my own.



One way or another, we'll find out soon…



The time is nearly midnight, after all.



One more… I can feel it… we've nearly overthrown the fate left to us by that man. Finish them.



The rest of you, stay on guard. I'll take this one myself.

And the last blessings?

Well… we are still 'ere the time of reunion. It can't kill you any more.

If I turn into a monster, I'm smacking you first.



Worry not, for I shall help you all.



That man's desire unwound, and with all that power given to me… The one perfect book… The apple of original sin. I shall use it to finally be free, and to cure you all in the process.



The last one is down. Be prepared.



At last… I have it all. I can be free…

Music: Mass for Four Voices: Agnus Dei


With My perfect book in hand, Reunion is upon us. Truly, this is all I have striven for. Now… come with Me, that I may forgive ye thine every sin. Even death shall flee before thee.

The advent came, as expected. Have any of the Librarians elsewhere..?

…

The battle remains contained solely to this floor for the moment. It seems that even WhiteNight is not able to exert its influence beyond the borders of the Library's dimensional walls.

Guys, the ribbons are coming undone!



Why do ye hesitate? Dost thou not see that I am making miracles?

Do you remember any of this, Talow?

Uhh… Full disclosure: This is where I died. I was 'blessed' then, too, so…

That is information enough, I believe.

O ye who are drenched in sin, be without fear. I shall certainly lead thee to paradise, for I have given thee my blessing.






Next time, on Library of Ruina: The gears of endgame grind onward.

[TeeQueue]

Unrelated to Library of Ruina (that update should be complete and firing out in like... 24 hours or so from now, it's basically on the cusp of being done already), there's a second project that's been setting my brain on fire and keeping me from being able to focus.

Thus, I'm dedicating a night a week to working on it so that it'll shut up and let me write insane card game battle stuff.

Welcome to mushroom game.

[TeeQueue]

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 4: Dissonant Gears



Now that we've gone past the first fight in the Uninvited Guests, we'll run into the main mechanic of this battle.



All the pages that we used to defeat Philip, both the Key Pages and any Passives we've put into them, are now locked to the floor we used. We can refight the opponent if we want to free them up for later, but otherwise we're locked out of them for now.

We're going to have to use whatever's left over.



This is buull..! I worked haard on that Xiao buiild..!

At least it's being put to good use?

Riight… How about Purple Teear..?

Hokma's got it.

Myo and Red Miist..? Or at least that broken Yuujin strat..?

We thought that it would be best to assign as much heavy ordinance to the battle with WhiteNight as possible.

So what doo we have..?

I found that one Irina build you liked!

But that's for… Loonger fiights..!

It'll have to do. Null_Mia can't keep her attention forever.

This 'fidget spinner' you have asked about… Now that I see it, I don't believe it would qualify as a proper gear. It is at best a momentary distraction for those who subconsciously desire the stability of spinning in step with others.

So it's a sort of gateway gear. Its spinning opens the door to becoming a gear..? But that would be acting just like a gear should—their actions can also open doors.

A splendid point. Perhaps there should be some kind of consideration towards gears that are transitory, yet still performing their work properly as gears…

Aaaaaaaaa..! Fiine..! It's just geears..! Let's make do with whateever..!



As long as we have Puffy Bruume, it shouldn't matter anywaay..!

It'll have to do. It's time.

VIDEO
Music: YesodBattle01


Greetings.

Hello. My name is Eileen. Let us greet them, everyone.

…

The sound made by the gears of this place isn’t so graceful. However, all sound that intermeshed gears produce is a pleasure to hear nonetheless.

Is that so. I find it rather irritating at times. Some of the gears on our floor don’t quite mesh well together, which can produce a loud noise.

To me, the gears here don’t sound so happy. Ahh… And yet, their beautiful collaborative struggle to transmit a larger force… Can I… think of you to be a similar being as us?

I doubt that. I do not quite understand how the gears that rotate here can be likened to yours.

That is because you’re denying the gears.



I can help you with that.



It’s not right for one to spin alone. As my father led me to my savior as a gear… You can become a genuine gear, and rotate according to his purpose.

I follow no one’s commands. I am not like you, who followed your gears.

Yet your expression tells me that you haven’t found an answer. You are making a sorrowful face. You’re in pain… You must’ve suffered just like I have. Had you become a gear and rolled along, you would’ve been filled with bliss, rather than pain…

Why won’t you see? You are no different from us. Cease your suffering, and accept the gear. Walk the path of the gears.



… I’ve long put the past behind me. If I let my emotions blur my rational judgement, I won’t be able to act with discretion and distinction.

Just look at us. Don’t we look so blissful? A gear with a purpose is content, for its rotation has meaning. Humans are cogs in the machination that is the City. Someone has to make those cogs turn. That way, the City can run correctly. He is guiding us to take the right path. For us, who are incapable of doing anything on our own.

Praise be to Argalia!!

…

It’s not too late. This might be your last chance.



I didn’t take this journey only to become a gear.

It’s so disheartening to hear that. I know that many gears were wasted in this place. You’re going through such hardship. You deny the gears, and you know that you’ve robbed many gears of the opportunity to cycle the right way… But it’s alright. We shall arduously turn to make up for those that were lost.

This is the path I chose. I try to look ahead, rather than bind myself to the things of the past.

I do feel sorry for those who have passed away in this place…



I see. They were gears that could no longer rotate justly.

…

I was so certain that we were kindred components… Yet you’re insistent on renouncing the gears. Please know this. You can’t rotate to the goal alone. You’ll break down someday.

…



Let this be a fair battle.

If that is what you wish… Fellow gears… Let us prepare.

Music: The Reverberation Ensemble (Asiyah)


It's about time you were ready. Those worshippers are so loud when they move that it gets hard to think.

You know how it is. We had to gear up for the fight ahead.

Aha! A pun! I understood that one!

Support is standing by, sir!

Give me a report on what we're dealing with.

Sir!



Eileen has a lot of text, so I'll simplify it as best I can. Eileen herself will target the last person to hit her on the previous turn, and she will respond to the first one-sided attack against her with a decent Evade die. She has the Nuovo Fabric, and murdering her Worshippers will deal her Stagger damage—this is the only way her SR can change in this fight. She has three phases, and between them she'll respawn and and heal all of her worshippers to bring them back to full. Yesod honestly has enough raw offensive power to punch clean through her if we used the strongest decks we have available…

But that stuff's elsewhere so we have to care about the Worshippers as well.



Not much has changed with them. They get a one-sided Block die that comes with that Smiling Faces passive now, I guess? It slightly increases their longevity.



Eileen's pages are all draw pages, and while she doesn't have Shimmering this means she'll have a consistent stream of attacks throughout the fight. Preach is a decent single die, and Accelerate is an extra pair of Evade dice.



One question, before we get started. Those worshippers of yours… can you make them run more quietly?

They have the finest internal combustion engines providing energy to their gears so that they can turn most splendidly. Their every noise is a reminder of the beauty of the process of gears.

Gears again… Humans obsess over the most worthless things.

Sure doo…

Couldn't you at least put a muffler on them or something?

I have no such thing here, I'm afraid.



Well hi, afraid.



I'm D.A.D.



I've applied the smoke. We're ready to continue.

It's worth noting that Eileen does not have Puffy Brume in this fight—Smoke still debuffs her like normal. It can add on a hefty chunk of damage, especially if we let her allies inflict Smoke on us to boost our own damage.



These guyys… Mmm… Didn't we fight them foreever ago…?

It was a short time after we were made a Star of the City, ma'am. You were a book at the time.

I seee…



Either way, it's nice of her to bring back these overdue books. We'll get them shelved.



We don't need them! Just tear these ones apart and move on to their leader!



Something strange this turn… Eileen's attacks are very spread out, despite her passive. Maybe each Speed Die focuses on the last person to hit it?



Anyways, she uses three copies of Thought Gear: Propagate this turn, alongside one copy of Accelerate.



It does look like defeating those enemies will trigger something with Eileen, sirs.

Obviously! When it comes to humans, they need to do things to prove they have faith in something. Without her works, she's dead!

That's not precisely how the saying goes… but it's as good a theory as any.



The wheels of Argalia's grand design turn and turn on. Join us, or be crushed between them.

Thought we covered this already, kid…



There's a certain brand of religious sort who don't take no for an answer. The sort to proselytize until their head is taken off.



Ah, yes. Evangelical Tenebrists. They never did shut up.



At least the oothers don't talk much…

No, but that sputtering and misfiring is almost worse… not to mention all the grinding.



If it's grinding they want, we can do some of our own.

Come to think of it, wasn't that old Singing Machine basically just a couple sharp gears as well?



So you see now that gears are ubiquitous?

Nah, that thing was nothing but trouble. Honestly glad we never had to deal with it before now.

You only say that because you lack understanding.



Eileen uses the last of her standard offensive pages this turn, Thought Gear: Preach. It's one decently big die. Nothing to write home about.



The gears themselves mesh in a glorious cacophony, every motion transferring to the others, creaking in a chorus to move onward. They—

Are terrible.

Excuse me?



Listen well, human: Gears are an antiquated solution to a problem at their very best. They can spin power up and down, but if you're spinning it down in revolutions you're just wasting energy, and if you're spinning it up you're causing undue strain that'll just break the damned thing at a critical moment!



There's absolutely nothing they can do that can't be done better by simply limiting the power output through other means, and you don't even have them meshed right! For something called a thought gear, did you put any into how you were placing them?!



You're very… passionate about this.

Obviously. This planet has shown the ability to create weaponry, armor, and even entire buildings out of one's own thoughts. Even setting that aside, you've invented circuitry. Only a nostalgic fool would put this much stock in a basic tool.



You say, as a human, riight..?

…Yes. _Precisely.



To question the sublimity of one's own place as a gear. To question the very nature of gears themselves—

I'd rather be a transistor! At least circuitry can accomplish something useful!



Circuitry… Pitiable fool, do you not know the ease with which such things can burn out?



Shift it down a level there, kiddo.

She denies the grandness of the gears. So long as she does, she'll never find her place in this world.

Eh. I think they're doing an okay job.



If we may interject, we know a thing or two about multiple minds being within a body as well. Gears don't seem like the best way to do it. Like, what if they fall out?

The greatest joy of every gear is to become worn down in sacrifice to the movement of those who work the mechanisms. They will be replaced, but before then they will know bliss.



We'd still rather direct ourselves, to be honest.



Same here. I'll listen to mummy, of course, but I like the flexibility in carrying our jobs out.



D.A.D, I said that we should handle the battle like professionals. Further debate over the validity of one's religion is a waste of time.

Throwing a wrench into my flow, eh? :mmmhmm:



As many as it takes for you to stay on task.

Got it, got it… let's clean up.



Speaking of cleaning up, Mass Attacks are incredibly helpful in this fight. Grinder is an easy win over anything else for our first E.G.O for that reason.



Ah… As the gears give out, I can feel it. Their torque, adding to my own… Now, o grand power of the gears, purge these nonbelievers.

Thaat doesn't sound good…

It's not, ma'am! She's changed her strategy!



On the turn after any of her minions are defeated, Thought Gear: Brainwash will be used. This is a two-die Summation Mass attack, with the summation of all our page's dice being taken twice each time. This makes it trivial to block the first die, but that second die can be a problem… if it hits anyone, they're going to be Immobilized for their next turn, letting her get free hits against them.



She also is using a trio of Meat Gear pages this turn. None of them are capable of causing any damage, but they'll power up her allies as well as heal off a little bit of damage. However, this lack of offense gives us a major opportunity.

With only one worshipper left, we can drill down onto it, and once it's defeated then Eileen will be permanently Staggered until her next phase. Doing this will let us progress through the battle with relative safety.



Unfortunately, I am terrible at this fight and do exactly Not That.



May the sound ring true, of teeth meshed with teeth.



So that Argalia's will may be done…



May we spin onward, one rotation at a time, knowing our place forevermore.

That last one is from her Meat Gear pages, and is unrelated to the Mass Attack.



If you're not using thought gears anymoore… Then your mind must be vuulnerable, riight..?

Of course not. As long as even one of my fellow gears still stands..!



There's only this one left…



This is a library. Keep it down.



We are no longer asking.



My flock..!

There we go. Looks like her gears slipped when everyone else bit it.



I've underestimated you… that much I admit.

Downside of letting the gears do your thinking for you, kid.

No… my faith in the gears cannot be wrong. After all, the purpose of gears is to spin, and wear themselves down.



But gears exist to replace other gears. Such is their purpose.

It seems she has some more of those cultists in reserve, sir. Expect at least another wave after this!

I appreciate the information.

At the start of each new phase, four more Worshippers spawn in. This recovers Eileen's SR entirely and lets her move again. And since we downed one of her worshippers last turn…



She leads with another Brainwash, with us having just played our best responses to it last turn.

I'm fully chaarged… Can I do the thiing..?

Won't that leave you open to her attack?



Thaat's… Mmm… Not reeally the issue… If I'm eating it aanyway…

I'll authorize it. Go wild.



Hahaa..!

We'll join in as well.



The sooner these things are dead, the sooner it's quiet again.

My misplay has put Kaori in the poor position of not having any really good options to deal with the turn, so I go with plan B for her: Throw out mass attacks and pray.



As one, my followers. Move forward, one rotation at a time!

D.A.D, Hinman, prepare to intercept!

Sir!



Here gooes..! Miind cruush..!

Now that there's more than one target, Mind Crush will have its beam snake between every enemy at once with each hit.



And after Grinder is done, two of the Worshippers are just about ready to keel over.



In response, Eileen Staggers Kaori just as expected.



And you… Transistors. Transistors! I must sincerely ask you to reconsider.



I refuse! If I need to move something, I'll utilize pneumatics!

You are desperate to avoid the truth of things…

Eileen's SR also isn't recovered by successful evades. It's entirely a measure of how many Worshippers are alive.



Ah… Didn't think that any of them would still be moving…

Null_Mia also gets staggered by a Vapor targeting them. This was more sloppy play on my part, I could have drawn it off of them if I'd thought about it.



Don't worry about it. I'll clean these guys up.



These gearheads don't know a thing about functioning in a clutch situation.

…D.A.D.



That was a good one and you know it. :mmmhmm:

I wasn't going to say anything about your pun.



I just wanted to mention that those worshippers should have stayed alive for the moment.

…Ahh hell, I just got Null_Mia killed, didn't I?

That's the size of it.

It's another Meat Gear turn, and with it a Brainwash comes out from our downing two of her allies.



Let the majesty of the Gear wash over you… Until you're crushed within their teeth!

Dammit… At least it'll finally be quiet.



The first of your misshapen gears has been broken.

My people are not gears.

You live without meshing, and that is why you have lost one so dear to you.



I haven't lost anyone. They'll be back right after you're dealt with.



Until then, let's shift into something different, shall we?

Ahh, now you too are using the parlance of gears.

Wouldn't say that…

Music: AbnormalityBattle02


This is more of a blue shift, kid.

Curious… is this the miraculous power our leader seeks?

No… This is a gun. Not a gear to be found anywhere in the thing, either.



Siir… I'm pretty dooomed…

I could move to intercept the attack, and—

One bad hit, and you're staagered too… Leave iit… and you'll win for suure..!

You're certain, then.

Mmhmm..!

Then we'll respect your wishes. Forward, team.



Abandoning one of your own..?

You're one to talk.

My followers serve their purpose and reach glorious salvation. What do you know about such things?



I don't know a thing about meaningless sacrifices. But when one of my own says they have a clear path forward… I believe them.

You can truly believe in such a thing?

For suure..! Because even though the good decks are takeen..! Even though we cobbled it together in a minuute..!



And even though our navigator couldn't guide us worth a craap..!

Hey! I'm doing my best, ma'am!

It doesn't matter at aall… A geear can't win heere..!



Because everybody in this place is a wreench..!

Then let them come. Even a wrench can be broken within the gears if they turn as one.



Hinman, she's vulnerable. Push things, now.

Affirmative!



I owe her for harming my human buddy, anyways!

The gears turn, on and on. In lock step, we shall carry forward as is Argalia's grand will.



Come forth, my dear followers! Once more, we move onward!

They're a little… bigger than the last set, aren't they?

While the last wave's size and speed dice are bigger, they are not functionally different from any previous Worshippers.



She's about to do that attack again, sir! Be on the lookout.

Evasive formation?

…No. I see what Kaori's endgame was now. D.A.D, lay down suppression fire.



No problem. I've got a bullet with everyone's name on it.

And you, sir?



I'm going to put an end to this in one strike.

Cutting our members by 1 and flooding Emotion Coins off of her death brings Grinder back online super quickly, giving us an easy solution to the entire phase.



Forward, o gears! Rotate with all that you have!

Not happening!



Yesod has 9 Smoke on him for +1 Power, and 45% bonus HP and SR damage. Add in that none of the enemies are using Vapor this time around…



And all four of the Worshippers are Staggered before anyone else has a chance to move.

Now!

Roger that~!



Looks like this set was toothless, all told.

My gears..!

With all four of her allies defeated in the Mass Attack phase, Eileen is Staggered before she can even fire off her last Brainwash.



One last question: What's steel, round, and spins until it breaks apart?

A gear..? It's certainly a gear, isn't it..?



Sorry, kid. The answer was a bullet.

Ah..! My rotation will not stop so easily… Praise be to Argalia-!



Well… All's well that ends well. Let's get the others revived and regroup.

Good job, sirs!

…They all seem to have great faith in their leader. He must be a dangerous sort.

And this shaking… seems like stuff's started getting crazy upstairs, too. Gotta' say, it really takes me back to those days after the Light started…

We'll make sure that this place doesn't collapse.

That's confident of you, boss.

Yes, well…

We're wrenches, after all. There's no way a plan can survive contact with us.



The Church of Gears is not hard. I played terribly, ate entirely too many Brainwashes, and was going easy on Eileen by using none of the really terrifying tricks that Yesod can get up to… and we still melted through the latter half of the fight. Bring AoE, put Puffy Brume on everyone, and don't play like a total moron. As long as you do any two of these three things, you will be fine.

Yesod is really good.

Music: Result


…We woon, riight..?

We certainly hope so.

No worries, you two. Everything finished nice and fast. Neither of you were even dead for more than a couple of minutes!

Is there a five minute rule for deaths..?

Mmm… probablyy…

We'll discuss it after the situation's resolved. Be ready for anything, that shaking from upstairs still hasn't stopped.

Music: Ominous ambiance


Where're the ensemble at?

Still on the stairs between Asiyah and us.

It's a good thing that there are so many of them, after all~

Heave…

HO!

We're shoving bookshelves and TV carts downstairs as quick as Chinely and Omni can pluck them out of books or get them moved over… Anything to buy time.

…I'll take the field as well. That should buy a lot more time than a cart.

Going to take them all out early, are we~?

If I get the chance... But it's likely their side is going to want to conserve their strength instead of risk being tired out for the real fights.

So that's how Roland's holding them off by himself…

Mmhm. If he leaves an opening they'll roll right over him, but if he's keeping on the razor's edge… Well, I'll make sure he doesn't slip.

Good luck~

Next time, on Library of Ruina: "Rise, my servants. Rise and serve me."


Videos

Eileen Battle
VS Eileen (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)

New Key Pages




New Combat Pages

[Kacie]

I love D.A.D. And Yesod. And the whole floor.

Wrenches - perfect.

Thanks for the stellar writing, as always!

[quantumpapaya]

The floor of technology is simply The Best

[TeeQueue]

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 5: Religious College



Music: Mass for Four Voices: Agnus Dei


Weapons up, team. Give it everything you have.

It has been long since last My countenance hath graced thee. Lo, it hath been three days since My temple was destroyed and now it hath been raised anew.

This daughter of man and I are as one, and as Father, Child, and Spirit we shalt show the seekers their path to salvation.

So uh… I guess she's human enough to be possessed by a god, now.

You'll pardon me if I don't feel like congratulating her.

Ah… I see mine servants among thy number. I shalt undo the restrictions upon thy form, and bring thee into the salvation I have promised ye.

She has not yet summoned those troublesome Guardian Apostles.

I have a feeling that there's a reason behind that…

Ye who are drenched in sin. Rise and face me.

Pursue peace and holiness. Without these, ye shan’t look at me.

The disobedience of one hath caused the many to become sinners…

Now, the many seeketh salvation through the obedience of one.

I have not manifested myself in such a form to lay judgement.

Worship me, and ye will not belong to that sin. I redeem you to free you of such things.

Ye who are full of blessings, rejoice. For I am with ye.

I shall undo the restrictions that have imprisoned you in this place, and lead you to the paradise that welcomes everyone.

I shall be with ye as I relieve you of the fear of horrifying death.

Be at ease. No calamity shall be able to trouble you.

Ye will gain a body free of such corruption, so how could one deny that this is salvation.

Those who endure until the end will be able to proceed.

Accept my grace, and I shall bury your errors in the past.

We are shackled to the fetters of sin; how can we wish for eternal salvation, and claim ourselves to be truly saved?

Paradise Lost is our final boss for this Realization, and she resists all forms of damage. She starts off with a Wand and a Spear Apostle, and on the second scene she'll be getting two Guardian Apostles. She'll do that based on the results of her special page from this turn, Rise and Serve Me.



This page murders the Librarian it targets at the end of turn, period. We're guaranteed to lose two Librarians right here, which can lead to only having two left if the Scythe Apostles from phase 1 managed to cut down another.



Fear Thou Not is the only other page that Paradise Lost uses under most circumstances, and it's just a trio of Block counters to make hitting her a little harder.



Ray… Mason. Why have ye returned to the form of a sinner? Hast thou forgotten our bond?

That name… why does it sound so familiar?

I… am not Mason. No matter what you may call me.



Yeah… yeah! No matter what name you call us, we're still who we are. And who we are is kicking your ass!



Such violence against thy savior. Worry not, for I am magnanimous. I have learned from the last defeat.



The name of thy soul may be Mason, but it matters not what name ye respond to. Thy devotion is all I require. Such is the manner in which that Sinner controlled ye all.



I have no intention of being an anecdote in the story of another.

I shall elevate ye from sin, delivering thee from thy fate. I have not come to bring punishment, but salvation.



I have no need for your salvation, for I have a savior all my own.

That Sinner who hath wrought naught but destruction… ye would call him a savior?



Savior, mentor… he wore many hats. Perhaps you will remember this one.

In a stroke of perfect timing, Hokma's used 12 attacks since we picked The Thirteenth Toll two updates ago… and we have the perfect page in hand to use for number thirteen.

Take this! Flaming Dragon Fist!



Dragon… Dragon?! No… no. No. Never again!

How very interesting…



As expected… the Abnormality still had a recollection of its defeat.

Wait… so we gave god PTSD?

We did very little… It was Ayin's work, in the end.

But yes. It seems we have.



Then maybe this won't be so hard after all?



If we can simply crush it here… then this feeling won't… Surely, I won't…

…I think it's too late, Sephiroth.

……Damn.



That dragon is not here. I have nothing to fear from these sinners and their attempts at borrowing its technique.

Yes… that is what I had near forgotten. Ye blasphemers, the righteous among ye shall rise to my side.



The promised time is at hand, and reunion has taken ye and lifted ye up in salvation. Go ye children, and spread my word.



Guardian Apostles are more powerful Scythe Apostles. They have more HP, better Combat Pages, and their resistances are whatever the Librarian they replaced's resistances were. As long as they're up, each one will give 5 Protection and Stagger Protection to Paradise Lost, rendering her nigh invulnerable. Upon being Staggered, that protection falls away and Paradise Lost's resistances change to Fatal for the next turn.



Four of their five pages are on display this turn. The notable ones are Thou art the King for the six bleed it can put out, and Wilt thou that We Command Fire? which will destroy a die with its first hit and seal the entire Speed Die with its second.



The last thing we need to be aware of is the Reverence status effect. Everyone got 5 stacks of it for free at the start of this phase, and it counts as a status effect for any of the combat pages that look for them.



Pretty sure this one on the bottom is Sephiroth. I can handle him, easy.

Then the top one is Morgan… Alright, I'll take care of her.

I'll join you. We need to pass some time, in either case.

Looking for another big thirteenth toll hit?

WhiteNight isn't the only one here who knows their way around a clock.



I'll clear you a path, then.

All is vanity, thine every action steeps ye in sin anew.



If ye only fall to thine knees and pray, ye too shall be saved.



There is no salvation in blindly following the will of another.

I find it laughable that ye should say that.

I'm actually with the freakbean on this one, geezer.



You saying that blind faith is bad?

Is it truly so surprising? I did not blindly choose to follow Ayin. I looked at him, and knowing who he was decided to follow him.



Very well. I shall show ye a taste of My own power, that ye may be freed from the fetters of sin.



Every third turn, Paradise Lost will use I am thy Saviour. This page is a pair of Individual Mass dice, and each one deals a bit of bonus Stagger damage on hit. The damage is not the real threat of this page, however, as it'll revive one of the Apostles we've already downed and also inflict Revelation on one of the Librarians it damages at random. Revelation, as a reminder, is the status that will give all Apostles a +2 Power against that Librarian. It does nothing else.



The final page from the Guardian Apostles comes out this turn as well. Thou art His Son gives 4 Fragile to whoever it hits, which can add up to a lot of damage if they take more hits on the next turn. The die is somewhat chunky as well, so we might lose a Clash to it… the best strategy should that happen is to just not get hit on the next turn.



Hokma will be crushing it with a 7 Strength Flaming Dragon Fist, however, so we don't have to worry about that.



Drink deep from the cup of My wrath, that ye might still know My mercy which follows it.

That mercy turned them into monsters, I don't think we need it.

How can ye say that thine form is not the monstrous one? I have borne witness to thy works, and seen the hell ye folk have wrought. Shed thy sinful flesh and accept My blessing. Leave these games behind.



For it is written: do not test the Lord your God.

It's gonna' do that ring thing!

Deflect it.



The Mass Attack is a pair of WhiteNight's signature Red Rings of Death, though thankfully these ones don't deal 40% of our health on hit.

That wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

I am not here to pour out my judgement on ye sinners. I offer ye the salvation ye have wished for.



Honeyed words won't work here, we all know you're lying.

I do not tell lies. Ye shall be saved from every malady which torments ye.



If nothing else, it's certainly less aggressive this time.

I know, it's like that asskicking taught the thing respect.

The one who I wished to judge is no more. For ye I have naught but compassion.



He must have really hated the old Manager, huh..?

A sinner who condemned countless others to sin. Could ye think of any who more deserved to be cast out, left with naught but weeping and gnashing of teeth?



We basically do the same thing nowadays that we did back then. We just beat down humans instead of Abnormalities. If that was a sin, what's your difference?

Ye folk were lost, adrift in a maze with no prize.

I offer ye an exit. An ending.



And with it, an eternity as My servants, freed from thy corruption. Ye need only revere Me.

Her guardians are down, Angela's vulnerable.

Talow, help me knock out the Apostle that just got back up. She's all yours, boss.

Like hell am I just trusting him to handle it, I'll do both.

While both Guardians are down, we have a chance to properly hit Paradise Lost. With her only having Block dice on most turns, she's quite vulnerable once stripped of her entourage.



Fine then! I've blown it away in either case. Just make sure you finish it off.

Will do.



Thy sword hand is steady. Thy strike is true. And yet I still draw breath. Do ye still question my power?

None could question the power of the Abnormality that controls you, Angela.

Ye speaketh unto the divine, sinner. That name no longer holds meaning before Me.



Translation: Nobody's home.

I was aware of the meaning, Talow.

Just making sure.



From my understanding, all of the other Realizations merged her mental state with the Abnormality. Does this mean that a big one like this is taking up all the room on her bus?

She is more human than machine right now, but I believe so. They speak in unison, completing each other's thoughts. It is as one mind over two bodies, rather than the usual blend.



…I want to escape from Carmen's ascendancy, huh..?

There is no need to escape.

All that hath transpired is for the salvation of the damned.

Indeed. She is likely feeling trapped beneath the weight of all of this. Carmen herself could be quite overbearing as well, you know.

I'll take your word for it.



With but a little more time, salvation shall take ye all.

No, I am afraid that the time to 'save' us has passed.

Now that the turn has passed, Paradise Lost has returned to her Endured resistances. We don't mind, because Hokma's clock is back at 11.



So I make sure Flaming Dragon Fist is the second page he plays this turn.



Ye wise fools, thy power will serve ye not here.

My power is tempered by faith, as is that of my flock.

We are eternal. Take My gift.

I refuse.



Ugh… I can barely scratch her like this!

She must have found some way to regain her guard.



We'll just do what we can…

Your efforts are appreciated, you two.



Though you needn't have done so much.

I am prepared for thy dragon this time. It shall not startle Me.



It is not you who I need to startle.



The pain… of an endless eternity.



Angela, your E.G.O is broken. It's time to awaken.

Broken… I am broken, even now? Then where shall I place my faith..?



Ye need only follow the path that has been created for ye. Your faith, as ever, lies with Me.

Music: T-03-46's Breach Noise


This pressure..!

Is this the power of an unbridled ALEPH..?

Ye foolish mortals… Rebuilding My vessel is nothing for Me. I have offered ye salvation, and ye have slapped My hand away. Sinners, ye shall worship Me.

I refuse..!



The rooster hath crowed. Ye shall no longer deny Me.

…Hey geezer… Got a plan?

…

Next time, on Library of Ruina: A 4/4 string ostinato in D minor.

[tezcat158]

I just finished rereading both this and lobotomy corp lp and man

I really hope we get see your X again, because man, I love that dumb mess up person probalaby the most entertaning meaningful way I ever seen him written

[TeeQueue]

X did his best, and he died for it.

And I can’t really say much more than that at the moment, but I’m very glad you liked him.

[TeeQueue]

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 6: Librarian Au Jus



Those guys went on ahead without me. That leaves it to me to make a nice meal, as ordered! Victory doesn't mean much without something tasty to snack on afterwards! HAWHAW!!!



Everyone's ready to go, right?

Sure are. Thanks for the tip, Elle.

It's normally bad form to bring up things that come up in therapy sessions, but it seemed important this time.



Like I used to say: Confidentiality is important, but only when it doesn't matter to business needs.

And in this case it's our business need to bleed that shark dry, right?

We're going to do our best, anyways. While she's setting everything up, let's...

Oh… hey now, what's this?

Aw beans! She can smell like a shark, too!

Well, it was worth a try.

VIDEO
Music: HodBattle01


Greetings. I’m Hod, the Patron Librarian in charge of this floor.

Patron Librarian? Are you one of the chefs here?

This isn’t a restaurant or anything… But I guess it’s an equivalent if I had to make a comparison.

Name’s Greta! I got an order from our conductor!

Greta… Your skin is white like a pearl, just as your name suggests. I heard what happened to your former colleagues. The Eight Chefs have disbanded…

Oh, you’re talking about those cretins?



Their own bodies?

Cooking, tasting, rating it, making notes… then back to preparing another part for cooking… They kept going until their teeth and tongues were all that’s left. Ain’t it sad? They got the teeth to chew the dishes, but their digestive tracts were boiled in a stew… They had the tongues to taste the dishes, but their brains turned into steaks!

…I’m sorry to hear that you were the only survivor.

Eh, it’s no biggie. If they were satisfied, who am I to mourn ‘em? How you cook doesn’t matter! So long as the end result is a treat!!! Nobody gives a rat’s buttered buns about what kinda ingredients are in their food. It’s the taste that matters!

It may not be easy to remember an ingredient’s name, but its taste would leave a strong impression that’s hard to forget.

I can’t with the snobs who are picky about ingredients. A lot of ‘em are too inflexible.

…

Hm? Ah, so you were one of ‘em!



Still… I don’t think I can be at peace with the idea of eating my fellow human being.

Why think of ‘em as the same kind as you? You get wind of something savory, an’ ya find and eat it. What more is there to think about? The smell in the air tells me that there’s a fresh ingredient out there. How could a predator ignore the scent of blood in the ocean current! But let me tell ya, sister, ingredients these days are too filthy or frail. Delicious ones are hard to come by nowatimes.

What do you mean by that?

I’m being literal! There’s more than enough food for everyone to feast on, but people always feel that there’s not enough ‘cause some of ‘em like their meals luxurious. When somebody who can live with three meals a day decides to take four, someone else is left with two! Then the poor sods who only get two meals a day fight over what little food they’ve got left to sate their hunger. If you lose that competition, you live the life of a rat feeding on scraps!



Now the filthy flavor is seeping into the dishes we cook!!! Our conductor will be the one to fix that! He’ll take me to a world where there are pure and clean ingredients aplenty! That day can’t come soon enough! I’ve been filling my stomach with trash for too long.

Pure and untainted people… I guess neither of us… or anyone in the City could say that they’ve done the right thing. We just followed our hearts…

And that’s why… I’ll do my best to stop you here.

I wonder what sauce will go well with this display… Want a little taste test? HAWHAW!!!

Music: The Reverberation Ensemble (Asiyah)


Looks like she's ready to attack…

Um, hey. Are those bags…?

They're definitely not moving, if that's what you're asking.

They were supposed to be foodstuff, right? So then, we got here before she could prep a meal!

That means we don't have to worry about them. Let's kick her ass, team!

Right. Follow my lead, everyone.



Greta is an incredibly hardy opponent, with a bunch of HP and a guaranteed 3 Protect on top of her usual Nuovo Fabric damage reduction. She takes more damage as long as she's got stacks of Bleed on her—negating the Protect—but she also starts with 20 stacks of "Resilience," a unique buff that blocks her from getting negative status effects. She'll get another 10 every five turns, so we need to be applying a lot of effects to melt those off, then stack Bleed on her so that we can actually damage her. Because it's clearly built around the application of bleed this fight would be the perfect use case for Sanguine Desire.

We will not be seeing Sanguine Desire in our picks today.



The three Some Fresh Meat...?s, meanwhile, sit there and do absolutely nothing because they are incredibly dead. They are the single most vital part of my strategy for this battle.

Yes, really.



Anyways, Greta's Shimmering uses specific pages based on what kind of mood she's in. Right now she's in a default state, and on these turns she'll use two copies of Settle in Steam and one Slap and Fold. The Strength-boosting Counter die can be problematic, but more importantly Settle in Steam cuts off 1 Resistance any time its decently-sized Block dice lose a Clash, and because there are so many Block dice here we could theoretically use Block dice right back to win clashes and deal bunches of SR damage. Greta's passives prevent her from being Staggered, but any time we go through all 500 of her SR she loses 100 HP and gets it reset to full.

This is not a very good way to fight her and we will not be taking advantage of it.



Her only offensive pages in this default mode are 2 copies of Break an Egg. Unfortunately for us, Break an Egg is really good. The first die is beatable unless we have Bleed, which makes it much harder to handle, while the second die is massive enough to regularly hit us and also inflicts 3 Bind and 3 Paralysis—effectively neutering a Librarian for their next turn. Because this will usually hit, it's a good idea to bring Blunt resistance. Most of the damage we take will either come from this page or Bleed.



Now, you guys. You all are perfectly balanced. Not greasy, not all skin and bone either!

So you're planning to cook us.

Love to! But those bodies of yours are like biting into a mirage. If I kill you during the cooking process, you wind up turning into pages!

Meaning she's going to try preparing us while still alive…

HAWHAW!!! That obvious, huh? You'll make a great snack for once we're done here!

Setting aside eating another person, I certainly can't agree with being cooked myself.

Then let's filet this fish, already.



Don't you know anything about sharks?! You're gonna' have to hit a lot harder than THAT to get anywhere!

All I know is shark fin soup is supposed to be delicious.

HAWHAW!!! Big words from a tiny lady!



Her body is incredibly resilient… I barely scratched her.

Of course! Don't you know anything about sharks?! Their body is built of lightweight but powerful materials that allow them to survive even after being slammed to the ground by a tornado!

That… doesn't sound right.



I dunno, I like the sound of it!

Guh..!

Anyways, let's get this omelet made!



Silly shark, you can't possibly make an omelet without any eggs!

I'll just use your heads for eggs! It'll work out fine if I scramble 'em right!



…Jeepies! I tried to make her bleed, but her skin's way too thick!

That makes sense too! Sharks are evolved to be nigh invulnerable to any kind of status effect, you'll have more luck throwing a snowball at the sun!



Where… did you learn all this about sharks, exactly?

It came up while I was training at Nat Sciences.

…Okay, so Steve's information is probably worthless.

Hey!



In fairness, all he's got so far is "tough and hard to make bleed," and… well, that's definitely applicable. Anything else?

They have a special organ that allows them to sense tiny electrical changes within 47 meters of themselves, letting them see things around them. That leads to some incredible counter abilities.

HAWHAW!!! Is that that tiny tingle I've been smelling? I thought it was some kind of spice!



Oh boy! I'm having big feelings again, Miss Hod!

Make sure to embrace them, Paul.



Steve… do your shark facts have any kind of shark weaknesses?

Uhh… Punch them in the nose?

In that case, we'll hear them another time. Okay? I don't want you to accidentally make Greta even more powerful.

Oh! Sure thing. Just… don't try setting her on fire. Or turning her into undead. And as long as she has food, she can recover from any injury. Also, she might have control of any traps in the area, so—

We'll keep it in mind. Thank you.



For right now, our strategy is in a holding pattern. Greta's reusing the same pages from last turn, so our main goal is to reduce her Resilience to 0, and hopefully inflict her with some Bleed as well.



Hah! That defense of yours isn't all-powerful after all.

'Course it isn't! Cooking's about how you use the tools you have on the ingredients you hunt!



Like you there! You're standing with all that swagger, but your hits aren't spiced right!

I'll filet you yet… just give me another couple moments.



I'll give you as much time as you need, Medea!

HAWHAW! Ain't that camaraderie sweet?

Of our pages, Paul's Lock is one of the few that can realistically clash with Break an Egg.



+3 Power on the massive second die is generally enough to win the clash with it.

Watching your fellow worker's back is the hallmark of good employee! Just… not too much.



What happens if you do it too much?

That's communism! Which is against company policy.



The company crumbled to the ground some time ago, Paul. You're allowed to care for them as much as you want.

I got it, Miss Hod! I'll get right on it!

I've got to hand it to you, this is a great show you guys are putting on! But you didn't provide dinner…



I'll just bring my own! HAWHAW!!!

At the start of the next turn, the border of the stage turns red for a second or so. This means Greta is entering her next pattern.



In this phase, she selects one of her Fresh Meats and attempts to attack it with everything she has.



That Fresh Meat gets a unique debuff, which lets Greta heal for 8 HP every time she hits it.



In this phase, she leads with two copies of Mince, a 3-hit page that applies Bleed on each hit.



She also uses one copy each of Trial Smack and Season the Meat, which inflict even more status effects or give Greta even more healing. They also each have one counter die, though either one will crumble before a good 3-cost page.



Lastly, there's Mash. Mash is a pair of weak dice that cannot be redirected, meaning no matter what we do Greta will be able to damage and eventually defeat the Fresh Meat.

Or, to put it another way: No matter what we do, this attack will never target our Librarians.

Conventional wisdom says to redirect as many attacks as possible in order to prevent Greta from healing too much and let the Fresh Meat stick around a bit longer.



Instead, I drill everything onto the Mash die. Greta's only taken around 27 damage so far, so my goal here is to stack as much Bleed onto her as possible and more than make up for the difference next turn.



Hod blows away both Counter dice, and gets rid of Greta's last two stacks of Resilience.

She's left herself open. Now's our chance!



Oh, I get it. You guys want some too, huh? Sorry, but this is only enough to serve one! It's barely a mouthful for me.



Because you have entirely too many mouths, of course.

You know how it is! Savoring multiple flavors at once, it's that kind of feeling!



Not to mention mixing flavors while separating textures! It's a whole new way to taste, unlike anything before.



So those mouths each send flavor to the same part of the brain?

More or less! I can sort it out if I want to, but it's more interesting to just let it blend.



Speaking of! My first helping of namja-yukhoe is all finished. Let's give it a taste!



While you're eating, have a bit of this then!

HAWHAW!!! The ringing does change up the flavor. You may be on to something, there!

Tch.



Good as that is, I've still got plenty of room in my stomach… and I think a slightly different spice mix would work better. Let's have another helping!



With Greta at -2 to offensive dice, I pull just Trial Smack off of the Fresh Meat this turn. While we want to pile damage onto the shark, it's nice if we keep her from finishing the Fresh Meat off as well.



I've got those BIG feelings… I'll take her head on this time!

Alright. Everyone else, we need to make her bleed as much as possible.

Yes ma'am!



I got 'er! Dragging her over here for a proper beating!



Hey, hey! You tried to take my head off… not bad! But my neck's nothing but muscle and bone!



That's why I'm going with the old standby of 'hitting you in the nose!'

Gah!



Whatever! I'll have another snack!

She's going for the meat again.. She might just heal back everything you guys did!



Then we'll just have to do more, won't we team?!



One last bite… Ahh, leftovers?! Can't stand 'em! I want to eat the rest!



Sorry to hear that… but we've got to make you work for your meals here.

HAWHAW!!! Exercise to burn the calories, and calories to fuel the exercise!



Fine! I'll just cram the whole thing down my throat at once!

On this turn, Mash is off the menu as Greta chooses a different unredirectable page onto the Fresh Meat.



Mealtime will kill any Fresh Meat it hits, and heal off 20 HP on landing. It sets the Speed Die it's assigned to to 1, making it the last thing to go off in a turn. We could kill the Fresh Meat ourselves to deny Greta her supper…



But why? I line up a couple of guaranteed clashes for Emotion Levels, and focus on hammering as much Bleed as we can onto the shark. Greta starts this turn at 885 HP…



And she's already below 800 after her first attack.

Finally, we're getting somewhere…

Yeah, you're making plenty of room in my gut for more haute cuisine!



You really should try this stuff! It's amazing!



I'll pass… Sweets are more my thing.

A kid's palate, eh? I was the same way once! Tender and perfect for boiling…

Don't even think about it.



Steve, what's our progress at?

About a quarter of the way, I'd say? Progress is slow, but steady.

That's good to hear…



I'm telling you, I'm telling you! It's just making more room for me to eat all this delicious stuff I cook up!




Masticating menaces, Miss Hod, she's healing some of it back just by swallowing that bag whole!

Then we'll have to gum up some of her mouths… Paul, you feel it, right?

Sure do! Dibs!!

We slap Alertness onto Paul here because I'm a moron. His distorted Yan page is already giving him +1 extra power from having 1 more breakdown than awakening Abnormality page, so the -1 in clashes from this is being negated by losing that +1 power. The second effect is amazing here no matter who we put it on, however. It counts as two different inflictions for Resilience once it comes back online.



Like I said, no Sanguine Desire today. Without that to make our lives easy, just take any Mass Attack E.G.O. You'll always have at least one of Black Swan, Laetitia, or Sanguine Desire available in E.G.O page selection.



Alright, that's enough snacking for now. Let's get back to buttering you up!

On turn 6, Greta restores her Resilience back up to 10 and immediately purges all her debuffs. We're having to start from nothing. Because she's hit Emotion Level 4, she also has an extra speed die which plays an additional attack.



It's just a Season the Meat on top of her usual pages, though. Nothing to write home about.



Just when we finally had her bleeding good and plenty..!

It's fine. We can just do it again.

And it looks like she doesn't have as much resistance to it this time. With a little push, I'm sure you'll overcome.

Let's just do things one step at a time.



Then I'll go first!

Laceration is incredible for removing Resilience stacks, taking off 6 between its two hits.



You guys are sure putting up a fight!

Of course. We don't want to be eaten.

It's a good thing. I have to sweat the meat anyways!



Not if I hit you with the green goop!

HAWHAW!!! Your heart's not in it! Come back when your mood's better!

Reminder: never forget to wait for Look of the Day to be angry.



Keep it up, she can't keep going forever!



Geh..!

Don't have to! Just have to keep going a little longer than you lot!



We're definitely dealing damage… her healing can't keep up with everything we're doing.

Even so, we need to stop her from eating and healing it all back up.

She doesn't seem to be doing that right now… her focus is all on us. So that's a chance, right Miss Hod?

Right. Let's hit her as hard as we're able.



Then allow me to lead off!



Decapitate!!

Still attached, once again!

They say it takes three cuts to fell a tree. One more…



That's why I'm a chef. It only takes one smack to break through the bone!

Ouchies! That was right in the egg!



Be a little more cautious in the next group of attacks.

Yes ma'am!

And the rest of you… all out offensive. Medea, be careful, you look a little shaky.

Ahh, no worries, no worries! I'll go easy on you guys, promise.



I slap Friend onto Switch. Without any really high-cost pages, he's good to go wherever the Friendscript points.



Still no Sanguine Desire.



Anyways, I think it's time for another snack! You guys'll wait over there, right?

We will not.

Actually, Miss Hod?



I made a little oopsie. I think I need to sit this one out.

Thank you for saying something. The rest of us will do as much as we can.



We bear down on the die that can't be redirected again. If I was a little smarter, I'd have stolen a couple of her less-dangerous attacks to try and encourage more Bleed activations, but this should be a good enough play.



I say "Good enough," but here Hod takes off ~100 HP just working through her counter dice.

Follow me, everyone!



On it!

Always with the slicing and dicing… Sashimi's too plain for my palette, you know.



Though I was pretty into that shabushabu stuff I tried once… I guess a meal just ain't a meal if you don't prep it at all. What's the point of a chef if everyone's getting a raw deal? HAWHAW!!!

By the time the last Fresh Meat is eaten, she's below 400 HP. We're very close to triggering her phase change.



I gotta' say… the amount of punishment she can take is incredible.

Well yeah, she's a shark. They can—

Hold off on those shark facts, Steve. I think we're good.



Actually, I'm pretty sure of it.

Huff… You guys do hit pretty hard. And I've worked up a good appetite even despite all the snacks I've had.

Once she hits 300 HP, Greta's done for the phase—she can't lose any more until she transitions.



Alright then! Let's kick it up a notch!!

Once she's changed phases, she gets a shiny new passive called Feast and Furious.



It consumes all of the remaining Fresh Meats to restore her HP, and also gives her 1 bonus Strength for the turn. Since she's already taken out all the Meat, 1 Strength is the only bonus she gets. She also learns a brand new attack:



Hey, guys..? Call me crazy, but I think she's looking at us as her next meal.

I don't think that's crazy at all…

Into the Sack You Go! is a special combat page which will turn one of our Librarians into Fresh Meat upon use. This unique form of Fresh Meat has some special rules, so we don't exactly lose our Librarian just like that—but Greta is hungry, so it's usually a good idea to avoid this. Because its effect activates On Use, that means breaking it with a Mass Attack means that it can't capture anyone. The conventional strategy is to use our Mass Attacks to stop it from going off in order to ensure we can safely grind her down… but in our current position, there's a better option available.

She's targeting one of you to be pulled into a bag… like the ones those first three victims were in.

Then we shut it down immediately, and keep fighting.

Or… Well. You saw how she got when there was meat available.

Let her get someone, then bleed her out when she's trying to eat them alive… right?

Right. But that means one of you—



It's fine. I'll take care of it.

Are you sure?

Mmhm! One last special… just for our very special guest!



Hi! I'm Paul! Just your everyday plucky employee of Lobotomy Cobotomy, here today to try out getting bagged and tagged!

That really isn't necessary, Paul…

Maybe not, but I'm sure we all want to see what happens! And hey, it's not like death is real here anyways!



Good attitude! I'll make sure to season you up perfectly!

Greta begins Into the Sack You Go! by throwing her hammer right at Paul's face.



Then she holds the rope attached to it as a bag falls over Paul's head…



_{Yowie wowie… I'm an ingredient, Miss Hod!}

There we go… nice and tight! Let's get this meat all spiced up and ready to eat!



Now… let's do this fast!



Don't worry, Paul. We'll get you right out of there as soon as we can.

_{No rush! It's actually surprisingly comfy.}



Yeah, come on! I waited all day to prep you guys for something this delicious! Just stand over there and wait for it.

Not a chance!

Medea's Stagger Protection is the only reason she's still standing at this point, we've been playing it very recklessly with her SR.



Well, time for me to eat!

At this point, Greta's got 44 HP and 36 Bleed—the fight is basically over. However, Paul's fresh meatsack has a special property since the person inside of it is one of ours.



Greta's attacks will deplete HP from the bag, and our attacks will deplete SR from it. If the bag is Staggered, Paul is freed. If the bag hits 0 HP, Paul is dead.



But she has 44 HP and 36 Bleed so we can just kill her.



Hey now, what's with that look? You trying to get in the way of my meal?

Three.

Three? But this is my fourth snack!





Three cuts…



And the tree is felled.

Ahh, dammit! I wanted to cook more!

That's it… Life signs are zero.



…That's it. We're done. Let's clean up, everyone.

_{And remember! Knowledge is just pain plus observation! …Can someone let me out of here?}

Oh, yeah, I'll get right on it.



Greta is the hardest fight of the initial floors, and in contention for one of the hardest in this entire reception. Her dice are big, and Break an Egg will get damage and Paralysis on our side when she uses it. She almost requires a setup abusing Bleed or Burn to get one-up on, and with Hod having a Bleed synergy that gives us a clear choice.

Ultimately, it's all about timing out our attacks to try and get as much Bleed damage as we can while minimizing her heals… and using Mass Attacks to break her Into the Sack You Go! if we can't afford to lose a Librarian.

Or we could have just pulled Sanguine Desire the first time, and the fight would have been over about three turns earlier.

Music: Result


Hod, I have need of you.

Now? Oh… Well, what's going on?

Switch and Elle Tee were both affected by the Abnormality known as WhiteNight. Has anything strange happened to them?

You can't mean… You two, do you feel any different?

Not at all.

That last hit covered me in shark blood… I don't suppose I could take a shower?

Of course. You're dismissed.

I see. Thank you for cooperating.

The battle remains contained solely to this floor for the moment. It seems that even WhiteNight is not able to exert its influence beyond the borders of the Library's dimensional walls.

I guess Angela's having a difficult time of things, too…

She'll get through it. Should I run after the ones who went upstairs?

…No. We're all exhausted. Prepare to assist with any additional fights in an advisory capacity.

Ma'am!



Having trouble, you bastards?

Your fellows can throw as many carts and shelves down here as they like. You can't hold us back forever.

Such a scintillating performance! You're quite the smelly fellow yourself, aren't you?

Enough from you-UGH!

Finally clipped him. Five against one… well, not even you can dance on that knife forever.

Don't you tell me what I can and can't do.

I think we've all had quite enough of you doing whatever you like…

Hold on, we're not alone.

Guess I couldn't expect to surprise a team like this, could I?

Not with that kind of power, you couldn't.

Gebura… What the hell are you doing here?

Buying more time. You must've had it pretty hard, eh?

…Fine. I'll watch your back and you watch mine.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: "It feeds on the “evil” that seeps out during conversations between people."


Videos

Greta Battle
VS Greta (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)


New Key Pages



New Combat Pages

[TeeQueue]

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 7: Educated Stupid

Music: T-03-46's Breach Noise


The rooster hath crowed. Ye shall no longer deny Me.

…Hey geezer… Got a plan?

…

Do Not Deny Me is a hell of a page to deal with at the start of phase 3, with it Staggering us and also offing Talow and Robin this turn to boot. That's… worrying.

But hey, since this is clearly a new phase it's time to start by checking Paradise Lost's passives.

I… want to start over from the beginning… That’s all I want.

How am I supposed to live… How are beings titled as humans supposed to live?

You’re going to march toward the future when you aren’t even certain of how it will turn out…?

Without that person, who is going to watch me… No one, I suppose.

It was a choice I made to survive… There was nothing more I could do!

I can’t depend on myself anymore… All I trust is the words that person spake to me.

I’m too afraid to see what awaits me next… Yet still, I want to live…

Have faith in me… For I… have risen to this seat for you…

The horrendous life brought on by the sins of one person… I shall make it right…

No one is leaving… We shall bask in the fortune of being together forever at last…

Ye lot… None of you can leave my side until I permit you…

Her passives hint at the trick to this part of the fight: It's effectively a glorified cutscene. We've already won, we just have to watch the fireworks.



Now, ye too shall be among the saved. Place thy faith in me and embrace ye own salvation.



This is to save you… This is to save everyone…

Hm.

Ah, hell..!

Feels… like being torn apart from the inside out!



Be reborn in thy proper forms!



Gh…



Ye still dare resist My power?

My faith has always been with another… there is no room in my heart for you.

…Even now ye forsake My mercy? Then I shall allow ye to drink deep of my wrath. I shalt have ye benothinged.

I doubt that is entirely up to you, at this point. Angela, a moment?



What is it you want?

There's one thing I have always wondered… Within our infinite cycles, did you only murder me once? Or did Ayin make you repeat that action time and again, like so many others?

…I do not see how that affects you now.

I was merely curious. I thought that you might be quite tired of rending this old body apart.

I will do as I am told… I must.

Indeed… time and again you've been told to do terrible things. This is simply another one of them.

I shall take on this wrath as my penance for my own sin.



All I have is the words of that person… the voice that tells me what to do. Mother watches over me, even now.

Behold My Power calls the twelve servants with its first three die, each attack being from a group of four of them.



So long as you place your faith in me, we shall be immortal here. We cannot go back to the beginning… nor can we continue on. This 'now' is all we have.



Your words are desperate, but your spirit is no longer in your attacks, Angela. You do not want to see anyone hurt, even now.

Even if that is the case, what am I to do?! This world is greased by blood. If no one will watch over me… then I will truly be alone. It's best to do as I'm told… No, that must be the path forward.



Worry not, o vessel Mine. I shall handle what ye cannot, so long as ye serve only Me.



Ye worthless servant! Be thee cast out into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!

…

Music: WhiteNight phase 3 Special


I will not go quietly into the night.

How dare ye… What grants ye power to stand there despite My condemnation?

You gave unto me your own blessing earlier, did you not? Then you should know precisely what role I am to play, given that I still stand against you.

…Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil…

Hokma, what are you doing?



One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds, that old Abnormality, began watching over us some time ago.

So I am going to confess to my sin… And hopefully, I will help you find your own way forward.

Hokma is effectively immune to damage, and his hand has been replaced with a single page.



Ultimately, Ayin was the one who worked to bring you into this world… and he was also the one who connected you to the "voice" that you now seek to overcome. But I was there with him, through the process. Aiding him as he built you. Allowing him to sentence you to your purpose without a word. I stood and did nothing.



The pain you feel is ultimately because of me as well. My hand helped guide all of this. All of the blood on your hands, I would coat mine with it as well.

You may not remember this confession when you awaken from this dream, Angela. But know that I believe you can go beyond simply repeating what you have learned so far.

Binah?

I have captured it in my sight. So too has the Abnormality behind you.

Then I have done what I can.



Light filters in from behind One Sin, as bells begin to ring.



I am that I am. I will be because I shall be. Ye guilt shalt by no means be cleared, visiting the iniquity upon thy children and thy children’s children, until ye penance is paid!

You are a distorted reflection of the issue with which Angela grapples, called to her mind by desperation and emotion.

You've served your purpose. Begone.

WRYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!



Of course, WhiteNight can't just leave normally.



No matter how many times, it is always an enrapturing sight to watch such a powerful being fall.



It only has what power we give it, the same as most such beings.

Such as our own Director?

If that is what you say.

Hm.



Yet again Hokma serves as a sort of inverse to Binah, as while Apocalypse Bird will wait until the end to kill you WhiteNight's most dangerous phase is the first couple of turns against four Scythe Apostles. Once we get through that (burst fire is acceptable, as with two Agents being lost early on it's fine to give up to two people Full Stop passives that won't become dead passive slots later). There used to be an exploit that would make it so that Burn could permanently Stagger all of the Apostles with around 4-500 stacks that would grow infinitely, making the fight a cakewalk… But that one I know they patched out.

Just bring your good stuff, try not to lose anyone in part 1, and the fight should come together pretty quickly. WhiteNight's phase is more 'cinematic' than 'difficult.'

VIDEO
Music: HokmaStory


I resent you, Benjamin.

I understand. Yet I do not. It is unlikely for one’s thoughts and interests to perfectly coincide with another’s. That may be the reason my mentor, I, and the rest of us ultimately failed.

I was the one who ruined your plan. Why are you being so compliant with me now?

Could it be that our faiths and translations did overlap for once? The Sephirot may be helping you despite regaining their memories, perhaps because of that…

What, are you lot taking pity on me?

One could call it that.

To elaborate on this matter in my own words: I believe each of us is understanding you for different reasons. It helped that we could feel a glimpse of your pain when we were in the Light.

…Don’t make me laugh. So it’s just pity wrapped in fancy words.



At the end of the day, sympathy motivates one to understand the circumstances of others and reach out to them to make their lives better…

How can I not acknowledge it as a form of love? You could call love “pity”, and you could call pity “love” at the same time.

And besides, don’t you have sympathy yourself, Angela? You sought at the end of your endeavor to give freedom to all of us who are chained in this cycle.



You still are awfully dishonest.

Anyway… …Thank you.



Like Binah, Hokma's floor also gains both its last levels at once. This means six Abnormality Pages to look at here as well.



Confession is a decent way to get back into the game if our SR has taken some damage over the course of a fight, fully restoring everyone's SR and removing status ailments before giving us a permanent 2 Stagger Protection for the rest of the battle. It's alright, but generalist pages aren't as good as more focused builds that can help us avoid getting hit in the first place.

Baptism and Advent, meanwhile, are something of a set. Baptism gives one Librarian a page which restores HP. It costs 2 Light, and boosts defensive dice which makes it good for Blockma strats as well. Advent intensifies this, giving anyone who gets it an extra Light regain per turn, and then also a Baptism holder a stronger Baptism which restores more HP and gives an extra Endurance as well. They're also… okay. Baptism specifically works well alongside Blockma builds to give our Block dice +1 Power while ensuring our shield user stays healthy.



As for our Level 3 options…

Sentinel is an amazing farming page, making one of our Librarians completely untargetable and ensuring that we can get double the books as long as that untargetable Librarian survives to the end of the reception.

We are at the end of the game, there are no more books to resolve, and Request does this with a level 1 page that we had access to since Urban Nightmare. It's not great.

Divine Power is interesting, letting us select someone who then gives everyone else 2 Protection, as well as making those allies absorb instances of 3 or less damage if the selected ally has also used the WhiteNight E.G.O. It can add some decent longevity to our units, especially if we're using the Neuvo Fabric passive on them to absorb even more damage. Unfortunately, it comes online a bit later than it needs to to be a defensive power.

Lastly, there's Apostles. It's a damage buff to everyone but one character's attacks, and if that character happens to have used Baptism 12 total times it also gives all their allies +1 Power. I find this page interesting, but ultimately all three of the level 3 pages are so slow that they aren't worth considering in our strategy.



…Now that I've returned to myself…

SNAP

-you fuckass piece of—!!

Ah. You're awake.

Please put your sword away, Roland. I need a status report. How far has the battle progressed?



Gebura and I held them on the stairs somehow, but they figured out she doesn't have her speed right now. She's too crafty to die from only this much, but they'll blow past her any minute without backup.

As for the lower layers… Zaida!

She's still indisposed, sir. The other three floors have completed their fights successfully, and are in the middle of recuperating after their battle.

Right. _{Who was she watching over, again..?} Netzach, wasn't it? What the hell could be going on there..?

I'll take a look. Rest and prepare yourself, Roland. We'll need you before too long. As for what comes after…

First we deal with these bastards.

That's that and this is this, right?

More or less.

Very well. Netzach, what is your status?

Music: The Reverberation Ensemble (Asiyah)


Busy.

Grrr…. BKAW! BKAW!!!

It's okay. We've got everything under control.

…How.

It's a long story… You probably don't need to hear it.

Zaida.

We have time.

Right, right. If you're twisting my arm, allow me to recap…

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Remember to bring a way to slice your cheese, lest it turn out you're serving chhurpi.


Videos

Hokma 6
Hokma Realization (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)

New E.G.O Pages

[TeeQueue]

Music

HokmaBattle01
HokmaBattle02
HokmaBattle03
HokmaStory

Abnormality Pages

Level 1


Abnormality page selections are based entirely on if we're running Block-based strategies or not. If we are, Lean Bloody Wings needs to be the first Page we take. The second can be Attention and Focus, or it can be Baptism (the only real "generalist" page on offer here), or it could even be Gaze of Others (though it's unlikely we'll ever hit the -2 zone without specifically trying).

If we aren't running Block-based strategies, we can select Thirteenth Toll in order to chunk off large amounts of HP from a tanky enemy like we did to Paradise Lost, and if we've built our decks around P-space autoplay we can even select Time for a chunky +1-2 Power. Really, Hokma is a floor where the deckbuilds and the strategies we intend to use are based around the available Abnormality Pages—once we have our deck, we more or less already know the pages we want.

Level 2


Hokma's Level 2 Abnormality Pages are much simpler, as none of them are vital to any strategy and most of them are also somewhat generalized. Did we take Baptism? Then take Advent. Otherwise, it's a choice of SR recovery and protection, outgoing Stagger Damage, Strength if someone is Staggered, or Speed Control.

We will never pick Speed Control.

Level 3


The Level 3 Abnormality Pages are all kind of eh, to be honest. Sentinel seems like a powerful page, making one Librarian untargetable and doubling the books we receive at the end of a reception. However, the first place you can get this at is right after doing Hana Association 1… meaning we get it one fight too late to have any normal books left in the game to resolve—nothing in endgame drops books. This would make it seem like a good option for going back and rounding out anything that we may be missing, but there's another problem: it takes a while to get to Floor Level 5 in a normal fight, we've only done it a couple of times throughout the game. We'd have to play incredibly carefully in order to do so, and in the time it would take to do this we'd surely be able to clear the map twice with Request for even more gains. It's just worse than Yesod.

Divine Power is a strictly defensive ability that, while pretty good, comes online too late to really be meaningful as few fights last long after hitting Floor Level 5.

This makes Apostles the default winner, as the extra damage can help close out a fight even if we don't qualify for the +1 Power. Still… nothing here should be playstyle-defining, just pick whichever one is most applicable for the current situation..

E.G.O.



Low-cost ranged attack that seals an enemy speed die on hit—and it will hit. It's good!



Low-cost melee attack that gives an extra Speed Die next turn on hit—and it will hit. It's less good than Heaven! This is because the extra Speed Die requires some additional thought to how we put together and use our deck's Light and draw curves… but it's not a lot of thought so it's still very good.



It's a 6-cost Big Freaking Die Mass Summation E.G.O. We've seen a lot of these, this one has a chunky enough die to hit and a strong secondary effect to deal bonus SR damage. It's useful against fights with lots of enemies, and otherwise probably best skipped.



While 15 HP and Stagger Resist don't sound like particularly amazing numbers, it's important to remember that most of the time we aren't running much over 100 HP and 60 or so SR. This is a very good chunk of our health, and works great to keep our team going long after they should have fallen over. Hokma's no Netzach, but if Penitence shows up he can keep himself running for a good while.



And then there's Paradise Lost. This is a Synchronization E.G.O that changes the user into a main body, and all their remaining allies into Apostles who will move automatically. From what I've seen, if all allies are alive we'll wind up with one each of the Guardian/Scythe/Staff/Spear Apostles. I don't know how it decides what gets excluded in the event of Librarian deaths because nobody in endgame is using Hokma except for people good enough with him to not take deaths in the first place.

Because we can only control the Paradise Lost Librarian, I'll show off their deck in entirety like usual, then just show the pages of each of the four apostles below.



Our Light Recovery is Fear Thou Not. A single 6-9 die isn't particularly powerful, it works out to being the same average result as Magic bullet, but 6-9 is slightly less swingy than a 5-10. Also much like Magic Bullet, all of our pages here are Ranged, but that's where the similarities end.



This is because Paradise Lost is a support character. Benediction is a 2-of that gives all allies +1 Strength. With two of them in the deck, we can play one each turn or throw two out at once without any real issue if we want a little extra oomph. It's the most important page in Paradise Lost's arsenal.



Meanwhile, I am thy Saviour is a healing option that gives back 6 HP/SR to all allies, and with three of these in the deck we can stack healing every turn as well. With four Speed Dice, a turn of Bene/Savior/Fear/Fear is actually Light positive, while with three Speed Dice it's Light neutral. Almost every page in this deck is remarkably cheap, and the 6-9 die remains a constant throughout it all.



Behold My Power is our one Big Move, and it's a 6-cost Mass Individual that heals the user by 8 HP/SR for every enemy that's still alive. It's also a trio of 6-9 dice that can cause some problems for enemies using smaller Combat Pages. This page basically exists to keep Paradise Lost topped off in fights against multiple enemies, and there's no reason to use it if you don't need the healing.

Notably, there is no Desynchronize. Once you go into Paradise Lost, you're stuck for the entire three turns.

Before I talk about the strategy with it, let's also quickly cover the four Apostles. Please note that all Apostles have their passives changed to a single unique passive, but persistent status effects like Purple Tear's stances will stay on them and their resistances do not change.

Guardian Apostle


Guardian Apostles can inflict Fragile to open enemies up to more damage, and Protect to keep allies from taking as much.

Scythe Apostle


Scythe Apostles do bleed. That is all they do.

Staff Apostle


Staff Apostles have a Ranged page that inflicts 1 Disarm to nerf enemy Defensive dice, and can also inflict some SR damage directly

Spear Apostle


Lastly the Spear Apostles have their own Celestial Spear, alongside a relatively good Block-Pierce-Block page.

None of the Apostles are particularly good at blocking attacks, and their random targeting means they'll go all over the place. This led to the following synopsis being put in the thread:

You're going to eat shit if you use this against a serious opponent, since they're going to be able to directly attack your entire party and steamroll your EGO users pathetic cards, and when you get access to it serious opponents are all that's left.

Frankly, I don't entirely disagree. Using this page means the enemy will be able to directly attack us, and even when our clashes go through we'll likely take followup hits from dice 2 or 3. The numbers of the dice mean that this is not a clean E.G.O to work with, and our side will take hits.

But Library of Ruina is not a game about winning cleanly. It's a game where the objective is to die a little more slowly than your opponent.

There is a term in card games called 'Tempo.' It refers to the temporary assets you have access to over the course of a match, things that must be spent or be lost at the end of a turn. In Library of Ruina, tempo would refer to things like the Clashes we can make to farm Emotion Coins, how efficiently we spend our Light during the turns in which it's ramping up from the early Emotion Levels, and how many of our Speed Dice we're managing to use every turn. Paradise Lost ensures that our entire team will have the Light and cards in hand to play an attack with every single Speed Die they have for the next three turns, while ensuring no one can die from any of the enemy's attacks.

Paradise Lost as an E.G.O is a tempo play. It's best used to ensure that the pressure you can put on your enemies never gets a chance to let up from bad draws or unlucky interactions. It ensures that every single Speed Die we have will be used, something that frequently doesn't happen when Light or cards in hand get too low due to a few wonky turns. Paradise Lost is incredibly good at taking a position that's even slightly advantageous to us and making it snowball into a massive advantage just through ensuring we never have a chance to drop any part of our tempo.

When I use it, I generally have a couple of things in mind: First, I don't care about attacks coming to my side. PL is an E.G.O that is provoking a wild brawl, it's going to be chaos so you may as well embrace it. Second, the purpose of the PL librarian is to support the nigh-unkillable murderbots you've unleashed on the guests. If the Apostles' HP/SR looks good, I'll throw out double Benedictions. Otherwise, I'll try to do at least one every turn, alongside whatever healing the team may need. Your Paradise Lost user can use other E.G.O while synergized, and Penitence, Heaven, or Dead Silence can give specific answers in the event we need them.

Finally, I aim to hold on to my PL user's block dice. This doesn't always happen, but the low-power block dice from Benediction and Saviour can go a decent way towards blunting the damage the user takes. In an emergency we can use Behold My Power to gain some HP/SR back while stopping some of the incoming dice, but it's best to try and avoid this, or else fire it off when there's a page that's worth stopping with its dice anyways.

It's ultimately a very good E.G.O for turning a volatile position into a safe and controlled victory. People call Paradise Lost bad, and I get why they do, but it's ultimately the sort of bad that wins you fights.

Time can also make the Apostles into little murdermachines with its +1-2 Power on top of the Strength they get from Benediction, but I wouldn't recommend using Time in the endgame.

Final Thoughts

Anyways, none of this actually matters because Hokma comes online too late to ever be used outside of three fights. He's perfectly serviceable in those three fights, but by this point most players have strategies they're comfortable with and the relatively high difficulty of the endgame discourages playing around to find new ways to do things.



_{Are his sleeves too long for his arms, or is he only wearing his coat around his shoulders to try and feel cool? You be the judge.}

[TeeQueue]

Book 49: Endgame—Chapter 8: I should have brought Dimensional Sections

Okay, so it all started around when everything went to hell…

_____



…Um… You guys seem a little… Under-dressed?



The good stuff was already taken by everyone else. We're the leftovers.

It's fine, it's fine! HAHAHAHA! We only need one good deck to win the day, anyways!

Maybe, but… Is the plan what I think it is?

Go. Suffer. Die to succeed.

Ahh, man…

We'll just walk it off afterwards! No problem!

Is one person going to be enough, though..? The fight ends faster with more guys hitting the enemy.

We're doing Shenanigans today.



This is the only deck that isn't designed specifically to die. Our plan is to abuse Netzach's floor mechanics to become invincible and murder everyone in our path. In hindsight, I should have swapped either All for Hana or Mind Hauler out for Dimensional Sections and some other things… or at least brought some pages that deal True Damage on hit—All for Hana is really good for staying alive over a long battle, after all.

If everything goes to plan, we'll both be able to just sleepwalk through the end of things. It'll be almost like nothing.

Watching you guys die is never good, of course, but…

Eh! We've watched you do it plenty of times. We'll call it payback!

Sure.

There's that smile! Let's get out there and get this dog-and-pony show running!

It's actually a dog, a rooster, and a donkey…

Semantics!



Neigh!! B-kaw! Cawcawcockadoodledo!!

Ruff! Grr….

Hello to you, as well.

VIDEO
Music: NetzachBattle01




This is a face Netzach only makes in this conversation, and it's perfect in every way.

It is not in my sprite sheets, unfortunately.

Bawk? Babawk? Neigh!!!

…

Sigh… I’d try asking something if I could understand what you’re saying… You… Well, the three of you… You can still catch what I’m saying, yeah?

Bowow! Rarf~!!!

I’ve been wondering a couple things. If being this messed up shape that can’t even speak human language… was the form of art you actually wished to create. If this is how far you wanna go to live your lives.

Woof. Woof. Cluck?

…Honestly, I wanna tell people to stop doing the kind of art that requires ‘em to immolate themselves and others. Although, on the other hand… I can kinda see where they’re coming from. Art narrows your vision, after all.



_{<put self-deprecating joke here later—DON'T FORGET.>}

And so, you indulge in the craft, not realizing that you’re throwing yourself and your surroundings into the fire you started. It’s like the human life when you think about it.

…

Woof, woof! Bawk? Neiiiigh~!

If I could get another chance at life, I’d wanna get into art. Not as a librarian of a floor dedicated to the subject… but as a free spirit. If I can see that light once more…

If I have to muster up the courage to reach it, I’ll gladly do it. It’s easier said than done, though; you need a lot of fearlessness for it.



Even if yours was a twisted creature…

Ruff ruff~ Neiiigh~!! Neigh!!! Neigh!!! Arf arf, arf! Cluck, neigh!!! Bwakbwakbwak!!!

Aight. Chillax, pals… The noise is making my head hurt. To be frank… I’m not really happy about the art you and your ensemble are trying to do. I’d tell you to drop it right now if I could.



And I know pretty well that we have no right to devilishly pick apart each other’s ways of art. I’m not very proud of mine, really…

So… We’ll just have to face each other this way.

Bark, bark! Neigh~!! Bwak!! Cluck-cluck-cluck!!!

Yeah… Let’s get this started.

Music: The Reverberation Ensemble (Asiyah)


They've brought a veritable menagerie with them…

Two puppets, a smoke worshipper, some kind of… Mermaid? Thing?

Mere chaff. Unrelated to our plan.

Indeed! We who are about to die salute you! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Neeeigh~!!

Laugh while you can, guest.



The Musicians of Bremen are another Shimmering fight, with four dice to their name. Each head has two pages it can play, and each of the first three dice are associated with a specific head, while any remaining dice are for general attacks. When it Staggers, a head is broken and stops acting. Once all three heads are broken, the fight progresses to its next phase. Their Blunt attacks also deal a little bit of bonus Stagger, and they have the ubiquitous Nuovo Fabric to protect them.

The Gear Worshipper we've seen before and isn't any different here. As for the others…



Ms. Mermaid's only meaningful passives are Speed and Shimmering, as Oswald isn't present here. We'll see her again later.



The Puppets now come with Improv Drumming to inflict Fragile on hit, and cannot gain Speed Dice from high emotion. Nothing else here matters either, we'll be dealing with them again when we face the Puppeteer.



As for attacks, each head of Bremen has two different pages it can play, with the last die using one of a slightly larger pool of generic options. They've got all of the best parts of the Bremen pages from before (between Rarf RARF RARF!!'s inflicting 2 Feeble cutting our Power at turn start, and Everlasting Melody's spreading Strength on turn start to go with it), and also some of their own new tricks like BAWKBAWKBAWK!!! forcing a reaction into a Counter die that can boost Strength if we fail… and then there's NEIIIGHHIHIHH!!!, which in addition to driving my autocorrect to madness will give whoever it hits the Tagged status.

We want Netzach to get the Tagged status, because it lets us do silly things.

The attacks of everyone else don't really matter, and we will look at them when we get to their main fights and-or have already looked at them in previous fights.



I set up clashes on Netzach for the one page I care about and otherwise just do whatever. Dealing damage here would be nice, but it's far from vital. We're playing to lose today.

…That's a lot of heat coming at me.

Just look at it this way: You'll get off early! HAHAHA!

You know what… yeah, I'm down for that. Finally some time off.

You're all really cavalier about this…

Today, we know it doesn't matter. So today we don't have to worry!

Bark bark! RUFF!!



The Mermaid uses ranged pages, so she'll always hit before anyone else.



NIHIHIHIHIGH!!

Geez… Alright then. My turn.



Um… Hm.

Neeeehihihihigh!!



Didn't go so well?

…We'll get there.

Fair enough. It's a you problem anyways.



I'm clocking out early. Laters.



_____

You expect me to believe that this was the plan.

I was surprised too, but they hit on something interesting. A way to win while doing… almost nothing.

Of course, we didn't think it would take this long, but…

And it involved dying en masse.

Strategically so, yes.

This is absurd… Continue.

_____



Our plans require us to go really far into the negatives on Emotion Coins today, so naturally we pick Laughing Powder. Between this and the Udjat's natural SR regeneration, Netzach is now effectively unstaggerable.



Oh! So it's my turn already, is it? Very well then! Come at me!

Going out with a smile, then?

Always, my boy! That's all any of us need to do! My one regret is that we aren't fighting that shark. I'd have loved to see what a lunch we'd make! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!



Now that Netzach has been hit by Tagged, we can see what it does—for this scene, any time Netzach wins a clash against a page, he gets that page added to his deck. This is a permanent addition, and means that we can throw most of Bremen's worst tricks right back at them. If we can win the Clash, of course.




While Powerful Tendon Chords is a tempting option to aim for, and another Rarf RARF RARF!! might also be good, Neiiigh~!!! is our best option by far. This is because it is the Combat Page with three offensive dice, and all of them are pretty darn good.



If I were smarter, I would have had the others all gang up on the bottom Puppet to try and simplify the situation. It won't make the enemy any more likely to beat us, but this probably would have saved ~a turn or two.

Well, let's get this over with.

See you on the other side!



RUFF RUFF!!! BARK RUFF!

Yes, yes! I look forward to it!



That's two down… Is this working?

Well, I'm sure feeling pretty bummed.



Even knowing they're going to be fine, it's never nice to watch your friends die.

Neigh~!!

Winning this clash gives Netzach a copy of Neiiigh~!!! for the rest of the fight. Normally we'd want to do this a few more times to get more of Bremen's good pages… but that's not really necessary today.



So anyways… who's next?

Not it.

…Guess we'll get it over with, then.

At this point the goal is to continue to shave off our allies, and gain Emotion Coins on Netzach as we do. Since we get 3 from a death, we need 2 more to ensure he hits level 3.



Bremen uses the new page Cockadoodledoo~!!!! this turn, which will help us because it gives everyone on their side 1 extra Strength. Kill me as fast as you like, it only progresses my strategy.



Anyways, this turn I wake up and realize I should be trying to lower the number of enemies. As many attacks as possible go on that Puppet, and I take one clash with Netzach to ensure he gains an Emotion Level.



You know… there's one thing I don't miss about having that robotic body: I didn't have to worry about smell.

Bkaw?

I'm sure the other two-thirds of you get what I mean.

RUFF RUFF!!! Neeeeeigh~!



This is why I didn't charge the fish…



Gah..! I think this is about it, boss! Been a pleasure.

Enjoy your time off.

Bcaw! Cockadoodledoo~!! Bawkbawk, BAWK! Neiigh~?? Whinny, neigh!

Bark. Ruff ruff!

Bawk bawk bcaaaaaw…!



NEIIIGH!!!

I, too…

Now this could potentially be a problem: We want one person to die each turn, since excess Emotion Coins don't contribute to the next level.



Thankfully, this was the last attack targeting Sam this turn. We're fine.



You know… I did hope they'd hold back a little if I used their old bandmate's gear. But no…



This just sucks.

That's three of them down… and Sam's basically on death's door. Nearly go-time, Netzach.



I know… We're nearly set up now.

Flower Petals will keep Netzach alive for a good while when it's just him—at least long enough to put the finishing touches on everything.



And if it doesn't, Our Galaxy will.



…Well, Sam. It's been a pleasure working with you.

Kick their asses, boss.

Yeah. I'm working on it.



Bremen's general die uses Dark Shrine to Music this turn, which is a souped up version of our own copy of Shrine to Music. It hits one of us with 1 Feeble, has better dice, and is completely irrelevant due to how we've decided to handle this fight.



And then there was one…



Which means I get to take all the hits from now on.

Yeah… if you die here, everything's done with. No pressure.



Yeah. No pressure.

Netzach's down by about 20 or so HP, and everyone's focusing on him now.



And he's back to full!



Neeeeigh~!!

That's right… hit me as hard as you can.



It'll just rebound on you.

Flower Petals is paying dividends, since 10% of our health is around 10 HP, meaning 5-10 HP healing winds up being most of what we normally lose.



Grrr…. Ruff! Ruff! CawCAWcaw BCAWW!!!

I still don't know what you're on about… but that rooster is sounding the right amount of worried.

At the end of the turn, we've lost a little over half our SR…



But the Udjat's Mirage passive takes care of that for us. We just need to buy a little more time…



Though Bremen is pulling out all the stops to hit us now, too. Trio is a page that both gives +2 Power to one ally and hits one of us with -2 Power on all dice. If we were Tagged this would be a great page to try and snag, but we're not so we just have to weather it. Barkruff! BARK~!!!, meanwhile, will lower our Speed and Defensive dice for every hit it gets. They're both powerful pages, and with our debuffs it'll be difficult to land hits over them.



Thus, I opt to ignore them completely. Ideally we take out the puppet this turn, but my actual goal here is generating Emotion Coins and Staggering the Gear Worshipper before it can apply Smoke to us. Getting too much of it might make us take on more damage than we can reasonably heal off.



You take a load off…

We get the Stagger, thanks in part to getting hit.



Neeeeeigh~!!

That's right. Just a little more…

BAWK! B'KAW! CAWCAW, CAWBOKBAWK!!



I think that's enough out of you.

Caw… Ruff? BARK BARK! Neeeeigh~!!

Because the Rooster head was the active head this turn, we don't have to deal with any of its attacks for the rest of this phase… but that's only the second-most important thing to happen this turn.



The most important thing is Spring's Genesis. This is the keystone to our strategy, and the reason we whittled our team down to only one member.



A Petal (circled here in blue) is now attached to one of the opponents. If we can hit them four times in a single turn, then we're untargetable for the next turn. Once we do it once, it'll become trivial to do it again until the fight is over. There's just one problem:



_____

So at the cost of everyone else's lives, Netzach gained access to the keystone of this plan… but he lacked the resources to actually execute it.

Yep. Making sure he just got there wound up playing too much of his options out.

This is… the single most foolish thing I have ever…

Hey, it worked eventually. Otherwise I wouldn't be standing here.

If it had worked, I imagine you would be done by now.

Listen, there were complications. I'm getting to them.

Then hurry. We do not have all day.

_____



Netzach tops off his HP to start the turn, since it might take a moment before I can line up four attacks on one enemy.



And try as they might…



They're simply not able to make much headway against Netzach's defenses. We're still lacking in the cards we need to attack anyone, so I swing at the Puppet with everything in hopes of slaying it.



Ruff BARKBARK!!

Right back at you..!

Gotta say, it looks almost like you don't even need my help anymore. I'll just take a break and—



You're not really working right now anyways. At least stay 'til the end.

Fine.



Finally, three full turns later, the perfect opportunity arises. The Petal is on the Worshipper this time, and as luck would have it it's using Vapour.



That means we can pull its only offensive die into our Block die on Will of the City, and between that and Neigh we finally have our required four hits. This is also extremely cheap, leaving us able to try something else to blunt incoming attacks this turn.



With Our Galaxy still on cooldown, Da Capo's Feeble will work nicely.



Neeeigh~~!! Neiiigh!!! Bark bark, GRRR, bark RUFF RUFF!! Neeeeigh~!!

…Sure. Whatever you say.



But I'll be repaying your performance with one of my own. It's only fair.



Ruff… RUFF BARK!!! Neigh! NEIIIGH~!!!

I honestly can't tell if you liked that or hated it…



NeeeeeeEEIGH…!

Though given that you decided to break yourself against me…

No, there's still no way to tell. Could be a fan or a hater.

True enough…

The donkey head breaks itself trying to kill us as well, leaving just the dog.



But Netzach has finally, finally landed four strikes against an enemy with the petal.



Because of this, a curtain of flowers opens up at the start of the next turn…



And Netzach is now untargetable. Without a legal target, the enemy is unable to do anything at all. We've won.

…Finally. All that's left is to finish them off, and we can move on.

Make it quick, eh?



Methodically we follow the petal as it points us to slaying first one Puppet…



Then the other, while recovering Netzach's health with Our Galaxy…



Which proves to be a two-for-one, as the Gear Worshipper falls as well.



And the Mermaid, finally, falls a few rounds later. When the enemy can't make a single move, receptions get much easier.

_____

And that's the size of it. We've been here beating on the Musicians of Bremen ever since, and they just won't die.

Right, it appeared they still had most of their health left when last I looked.

Well, I do have some good news. I did more work while you were talking…



I think I might be… around a quarter of the way done?

Why is it that this group is so particularly hardy..?

No clue on the why, but I know more or less how it happened.

I would hear it.



A few turns into things, Netzach finally shut that third head up. You'd think that would be the end of it, right? But nah, these three decided to work overtime.



Without their heads conscious to direct them, their body just kept right on performing. It's that level of a natural instinct for the three of them… they're making noises and striking without even thinking anymore.

Once all three heads are broken, the Musicians of Bremen will no longer be able to be Staggered. Instead, they will use a unique Mass Attack once every few turns:



Chorus at the Climax is a pair of decent dice which will automatically inflict Fragile and Paralysis on whoever it targets. Once it's used, all of Bremen's resistances will change to 'Fatal,' allowing us to damage them.

But the enemy can't target us, so we're stuck dealing 25% of our usual damage with a deck that doesn't have many high-damage pages in the first place.

Put simply, Netzach is stuck in purgatory waiting for the enemy to eventually die. This would not have been the case if I'd brought even one source of True Damage, which I could easily have done by putting Dimensional Sections into his passives. The 10% chance of dealing 10 damage every hit would have dramatically increased our output, and probably gotten the fight finished much more quickly. Instead…



We're stuck dealing the Musicians between 0 and 4 damage per hit, every turn, until they finally expire. This will take a while. :shepface:

…So there you have it. We're basically already beating a corpse, but someone's got to do it.

I'd appreciate a break.

Just take a second between attacks to breathe, I don't mind waiting.

I see. Given that the heads have been defeated…

Music: Result


It seems that we've already gained their portion of the Light. Very well, then. The two of you keep doing as you are until the work is finished. I have other matters to attend to.

Yeah, yeah… I'll clean up.

And I'll watch every minute of it. You go handle your business, boss.

Dammit! Angela, we got a problem!



Speak.

They managed to get past the stairs up to the middle layers. I took a nasty hit, so I'll need a minute to regroup before I head up myself.

I see. What of the upper layer?

They're still on the stairs approaching us. It'll be a while before they can get anywhere past that~

Then all of Briah, prepare to intercept them. There's no more need to hold back. Argalia's dream or my own… one will die today.

…

Next time, on Library of Ruina: My own personal hell, but more importantly: Tiphxodia.


Videos

Bremen Battle
vs Bremen (...I wouldn't.)

New Key Pages



New Combat Pages

[Sweetfish]

Finally had time to bring the meme that's been haunting me ever since the update to life. The goofy strategies this game has to offer are delightful