I know the vote may be a little bit too close to do this, but I've decided to cut things off early. We'll be doing Tiphereth's Realization next!
Ohhh... Library Battle SIMULATION: Let's Play Library of Ruina
Concerto 1: Tiphereth—Sonata
Music: Lobby
So… we just wait here with our hammers in the sky for Angela? I know she went a bit off four times, but…
It's simple pattern recognition, Boksi. The second she shows up and everything starts rumbling, we'll be ready with a sneak attack.
Do we know for sure there'll be rumbling?
It was there every other time, so I don't see why there wouldn't be.
Still, we should probably just wait for her to start looking like an Abnormality.
Oh right… she'll be looking just like the magical girls, won't she?
Hmm… Somehow, I just can't picture it.
Well that was a bad time to walk in… Me either, though.
Oh, hey there Roland. Here to help with the ambush?
Nah, I'm here to talk to Tiphereth. Where is she?
Back near the main window. She's been staring at the gem again.
Got it. Thanks.
…
Heya, Tiphereth.
Oh… Hey.
VIDEO
Music: TipherethStory
Lost in thought, are you? What could you be pondering about?
Long ago, I used to think that my existence didn’t have any meaning. I had no expectations for my life. I just felt obligated… Obligated to live out the life given to me.
And that’s changed now?
Enoch was different. He always had his eyes set on the light that seemed so far away. I wondered how he could have such an outlook…
But I think I understand now. It’s expectations that give us the strength to push through hardship.
Those expectations being…?
That we can trust things to become better tomorrow. That my life holds possibilities and significance that could make this world a better place.
Natural science is a field of study born out of the urge to understand the inner workings of the world. Pure curiosity…
Maybe people couldn’t stand the unfairness that came from the inability to understand the world around them. So they began lighting up the world with knowledge; but only few made that advance while others went back into the shadow-filled cave they were in. Still too few are in a bright spot where they can see all the laws of nature. Most enclosed themselves with darkness yet again… Consuming the results without understanding the process.
Maybe you guys were right about the whole world being on the wane. This world is full of things they can’t understand even if they tried, so they just close their eyes. It’s gonna carry on just fine with one fewer person anyway.
You can’t keep your eyes shut forever. That’s not the humanity I know. Humans constantly try to understand… and move toward light. And I’m sure you’re no different.
Look, I don’t care what you think about humans, but don’t force your generalizations on me. All that’s ahead of me was darkness. There wasn’t a single glimpse of light…
It may seem as if there’s no light. You may think it’s too dark to see anything. But the light is in fact still there… There are many kinds of light, not just one.
Once you gain the insight to see those other lights, you don’t have to stay curled up in the darkness anymore. Though it’s up to you to approach that light or stay in the darkness.
Hell, there’s no way I could magically start seeing light that I couldn’t my whole life in the first place.
Even if I moved forward, there’s nothing left for me. I don’t have anything I want, either. I don’t wanna have any more expectations.
There’s no point doing that. Not in this City…
That’s not true; you will harbor expectations. You just refuse to admit it.
Music: Dark ambiance
Musty air. Gray room. A bit large for one person. A mind that feels a bit too empty for a lonely life. In that unlit room, I lie on the sofa and stare at the ceiling.
Beer cans rolling around the floor. Cigarette ash floating in the air. Droplets of water falling from the kitchen tap, plinking in the sink. Laughter seeping through the wall. The scenery I could’ve been in.
The room of a man who holds no expectation. A room with not a single sign of improvement. Every night, I fall asleep without any hope.
That room, occupied by a single black lump.
I bet you’re flopped on your bed after lashing out your anger at some unlucky plebs yet again. I’m here to make an offer you can’t possibly refuse… Care to give it a listen?
Music: Ominous rumbling
Because I know. Because I’ve seen it.
I’ve seen the struggles of humans who writhed in agony to illuminate the world, to grope their way to light.
People aren’t as strong as you think. They’re just lumps. And you… You are a copy of that lump, a fake. There’s no meaning to be found anywhere. Hopes are just empty dreams. Expectations will never get you where you want.
…It looks like Roland’s mind resonated with this place. The emotions were amplified from interactions with the Patron Librarian of each floor and their subject matter. That might be why he got ruffled over small things and snapped… It’s only a guess, though.
That sounds like a plausible explanation. I unwillingly exposed disorderly sides of myself a few times as well because of that.
I’m sure you know how to handle this situation by now, right, Tiphereth? I’m counting on you.
That faint smile on your face… Is this really fun to you?
Well, to an extent, yes…
Next time, on Library of Ruina: Angela tries to kill us because she's an AI and this is… wait, what? No. No that can't be right… Really?
Videos
Tiphereth 5
Music: Lobby
So… we just wait here with our hammers in the sky for Angela? I know she went a bit off four times, but… It's simple pattern recognition, Boksi. The second she shows up and everything starts rumbling, we'll be ready with a sneak attack. Do we know for sure there'll be rumbling? It was there every other time, so I don't see why there wouldn't be. Still, we should probably just wait for her to start looking like an Abnormality. Oh right… she'll be looking just like the magical girls, won't she? Hmm… Somehow, I just can't picture it. Well that was a bad time to walk in… Me either, though. Oh, hey there Roland. Here to help with the ambush? Nah, I'm here to talk to Tiphereth. Where is she? Back near the main window. She's been staring at the gem again. Got it. Thanks. … Heya, Tiphereth. Oh… Hey.VIDEO
Music: TipherethStory
Lost in thought, are you? What could you be pondering about? Long ago, I used to think that my existence didn’t have any meaning. I had no expectations for my life. I just felt obligated… Obligated to live out the life given to me. And that’s changed now? Enoch was different. He always had his eyes set on the light that seemed so far away. I wondered how he could have such an outlook… But I think I understand now. It’s expectations that give us the strength to push through hardship. Those expectations being…? That we can trust things to become better tomorrow. That my life holds possibilities and significance that could make this world a better place. Natural science is a field of study born out of the urge to understand the inner workings of the world. Pure curiosity… Maybe people couldn’t stand the unfairness that came from the inability to understand the world around them. So they began lighting up the world with knowledge; but only few made that advance while others went back into the shadow-filled cave they were in. Still too few are in a bright spot where they can see all the laws of nature. Most enclosed themselves with darkness yet again… Consuming the results without understanding the process. Maybe you guys were right about the whole world being on the wane. This world is full of things they can’t understand even if they tried, so they just close their eyes. It’s gonna carry on just fine with one fewer person anyway. You can’t keep your eyes shut forever. That’s not the humanity I know. Humans constantly try to understand… and move toward light. And I’m sure you’re no different. Look, I don’t care what you think about humans, but don’t force your generalizations on me. All that’s ahead of me was darkness. There wasn’t a single glimpse of light… It may seem as if there’s no light. You may think it’s too dark to see anything. But the light is in fact still there… There are many kinds of light, not just one. Once you gain the insight to see those other lights, you don’t have to stay curled up in the darkness anymore. Though it’s up to you to approach that light or stay in the darkness. Hell, there’s no way I could magically start seeing light that I couldn’t my whole life in the first place. Even if I moved forward, there’s nothing left for me. I don’t have anything I want, either. I don’t wanna have any more expectations. There’s no point doing that. Not in this City… That’s not true; you will harbor expectations. You just refuse to admit it.Music: Dark ambiance
Musty air. Gray room. A bit large for one person. A mind that feels a bit too empty for a lonely life. In that unlit room, I lie on the sofa and stare at the ceiling. Beer cans rolling around the floor. Cigarette ash floating in the air. Droplets of water falling from the kitchen tap, plinking in the sink. Laughter seeping through the wall. The scenery I could’ve been in. The room of a man who holds no expectation. A room with not a single sign of improvement. Every night, I fall asleep without any hope. That room, occupied by a single black lump. I bet you’re flopped on your bed after lashing out your anger at some unlucky plebs yet again. I’m here to make an offer you can’t possibly refuse… Care to give it a listen?Music: Ominous rumbling
Because I know. Because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the struggles of humans who writhed in agony to illuminate the world, to grope their way to light. People aren’t as strong as you think. They’re just lumps. And you… You are a copy of that lump, a fake. There’s no meaning to be found anywhere. Hopes are just empty dreams. Expectations will never get you where you want. …It looks like Roland’s mind resonated with this place. The emotions were amplified from interactions with the Patron Librarian of each floor and their subject matter. That might be why he got ruffled over small things and snapped… It’s only a guess, though. That sounds like a plausible explanation. I unwillingly exposed disorderly sides of myself a few times as well because of that. I’m sure you know how to handle this situation by now, right, Tiphereth? I’m counting on you. That faint smile on your face… Is this really fun to you? Well, to an extent, yes…Next time, on Library of Ruina: Angela tries to kill us because she's an AI and this is… wait, what? No. No that can't be right… Really?
Videos
Tiphereth 5
Concerto 1: Tiphereth—Adagio
Tylana swaps to a pierce deck so that I have someone to put Knight of Despair's Abnormality Page on, but otherwise these four get no major changes to their decks. It's just a few tweaks for better light curves and draw options.
Boksi is running a Maxim build, and our goal for him is to hit maximum Charge, and then to go on a rampage. Any time we play Leap or Energy Conversion, we'll want to play a page after it resolves that'll recharge him to keep Maxim's 20 Charge bonuses rolling.
Music: Roland01
A peaceful world… where people can dream of tomorrow… I don't have any purpose here.
Another mental breakdown… and over something we can't possibly understand fully, this time.
You can't ever fully know what's going on inside of someone… This place seems to have the power to catch on to some intense emotions, though.
Haah… this is why you have to keep your upper lip stiff.
Angela, what are the odds that he'll explode like Kaori did?
It would have happened already. It seems you patron librarians are stable enough to retain your form even when your emotions go beyond that threshold.
Does that mean we could see Tiphereth turn into a magical girl?
That sounds amazing. Boss?!
Don't be ridiculous. I worked through my stuff already… I wouldn't do something this unsightly.
If the world deprives me of my purpose… then I'll simply become the villain and reap you all.
In the Name of Love and Hate has all of the same passives as Queen of Hatred, and works in exactly the same way. The only new addition, Corrosion, is the standard Realization passive that shows us there's more to the fight.
His attacks in this phase have had some slight numbers changes since we fought Queen of Hatred, but most of them are to the minimum rolls. With Love! Had a slight buff to its maximum result on its Offensive die, but it only comes up to a tie with Arcana Beats~! These dice were all threatening at the start of Urban Nightmare… but we're in the middle of Star of the City now.
We don't need to respect the gimmick this time around.
One of you… It doesn't matter which. Where will I aim this hatred now..?
I'll take his focus head-on. Be certain to back me up, would you?
Since when do you throw yourself in the way of danger?
Since always. Even if anyone can be amazing, it doesn't negate the fact that I am amazing! Picking up the slack is nothing at all!
Your feelings… they've moved me. This power in my horn, I can feel it overflowing from within..!
I can't… control… the-
If you can't control that much power… you won't be any problem at all.
Neither fighter took damage, and there was no follow-up attack. Since we lost the clash, I'm not questioning it.
He's a real handful all of a sudden… good thing we just have to beat him down.
Tsk tsk. That's a naive way to look at it.
Eh?
When magical girls have a true battle, it's as much a conversation as it is a fight. Only an ideal merged with a fist can really win the day.
You're expecting us to talk to this guy while we fight him?!
It doesn't have to be a whole conversation. We can just refute the things he says somehow… show him the errors in his worldview.
This seems like a tenuous assumption, given the situation.
Never underestimate the power of a good one-liner, ma'am.
We'll give it a try, at any rate.
We're seriously listening to them?
I know, but their cartoon stuff's been useful more often than not.
Natural Science is ultimately about trying to apply theories to the world and see what sticks, right?
Don't get too carried away, Chinely.
Setting that aside…
You… I'll pour my hatred out at you.
I've got his full attention. Now's the time to attack him from the side, you four.
The only page that's seen significant buffs is In the Name of Love and Justice~, and even it's only had a +1-2 to all of the die maximums.
You villain… no. Good, bad, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I despise you.
We met today!
I hate everyone who can dream of tomorrow… You're just the one I saw last.
The hell you do. You're chummy with Angela all the time, and all she's got are dreams for tomorrow.
That… towards her… I…
Huh… he really did stop moving.
Of course he did. Chinely's an old pro at this stuff… We won't need to play villain this time at all.
Because Chinely can't realistically lose clashes today, putting Love on him is a no-brainer.
Now to press the advantage! Channeling love! Magical Chinely, limi—
NonononononoNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Love?! Who needs it?!
I am an avatar of hatred itself. I'll make you all taste the pain of this pointless existence before you die!
…Well, I guess it wouldn't be a real fight if he couldn't take the flow of things back, right?
It seems that talking has only served to aggravate the issue.
Right. We tried it your way. We beat it down now.
In snake mode, In the Name of Love and Hate's attacks do get a power-up to the tune of a +1 or 2 power across the board.
While this means hits can get through, we're not too fussed about them—Love will restore our HP over time as long as Chinely's winning clashes, and with 10 Speed Dice to attack with the action economy is strongly in our favor.
This world that wouldn't give me peace can die!
That laser burns… look out for it!
Got it, thanks for the heads-up!
Rrgh… you little nothings. How are you still standing?
Because as long as we've got hope in our hearts, we'll walk forwards to the light!
Empty platitudes… nothing else.
There's not a speck of light anywhere to be seen!
Why are you hitting me?!
Don't sweat it, Boksi. Just focus on Roland for now!
If it's any consolation, it appears that this form's energy is waning.
Hatred burning within, burst forth... Pitch-dark flame, snuff out the living.
It's going to fire its laser!
With this timing… it's a desperation attack.
While Arcana Slave! (magical girl version) has been buffed from a 13 to a 15 for this fight, Arcana Slave! (snake version) hasn't changed at all from the original Queen of Hatred battle. A 20 Summation Mass Attack just doesn't hit like it used to, so as long as we have Light it's actually trivial to block.
Tiphereth doesn't have enough Light, and will be eating one as a result.
A "desperation attack?" Couldn't you have given me a heads up?!
Sorry, Boss. I thought you'd see it coming!
Ugh, forget it. You guys take care of yourself. I'll face it head on!
Be careful, ma'am. That snake packs a punch.
Arcana…
SLAVE!
Finish it… off!
Yes ma'am! It's on the ropes, everyone!
Then this one is for the boss!
Even now… not one speck of light shines through.
Where did it go wrong..? Ah. Right. That's right.
It was when I stopped treating everyone equally. You're responsible for this..!
He's changed forms, like we expected. It's the green one, this time.
Do you need a minute, ma'am? I know you took a big hit just now…
I'm fine! Just focus on the enemy!
During the phase swap, both of our Librarians who were under 90 HP recovered enough HP to bring them back to 90 HP. We didn't get any SR back this time, and the others recieved no healing.
In a rare case of mercy the Blind Rage fight comes second—meaning we won't have to redo the entire thing should we fail the escort mission—and it's basically the same fight as Servant of Wrath.
The Staves are 10 HP/SR squishier this time around, but other than that the enemies are using the same attacks as before. That doesn't mean we're in the clear, however…
Blind Rage is using two copies of AAACK!!, dealing himself 20 damage of our 30 HP threshold before EMBODIMENTS OF EVIL!!!! comes out. We're officially in a hurry.
I never should have changed my policy. Maintain distance. Treat everyone the same…
That's cold, mister.
GRRRRRRRRR!!!
Well… we just did this with one person less, so I guess we're back here again.
How's this one work, again? We're just setting the stage for Roland to handle things himself?
Pretty much. Something seems off about it this time, but…
He's working through something. Let's just be there for him.
Boksi's Rhino Ram is enough to outright destroy this Witch's Staff in a single hit from full HP, thanks to the Stagger. Maxim's damage gets really big once we hit 20 Charge.
Embodiments of… evil… the things that made me stray from the path… RRAAAAGH!!
So… I'm guessing we don't talk with him this time?
Good instinct. I think we should stay out of his way and make sure he can dig through this himself.
Hrr… GRAH!
Easy to say that now… we already know how this has to end.
Our second Abnormality Page pick is Blades Whetted by Teardrops, a page which will work with Tylana's entire deck and will randomly deal 12 damage to the boss every time it activates.
…We're out of time, dear companion, so just say something.
I… have nothing to say to you..!
Tiphereth, the Hermit of the Azure Forest is…
Using her big attack, right? I got it, thanks.
The Hold Still this time around is also nearly identical—the only difference is a 4-7 instead of a 4-8 first die.
Alright, listen up! Roland can handle that last dummy, so focus everything right onto the Hermit!
If you do that, there is a high probability that it will recover from the damage you put out.
That's perfectly fine. It's more important that we serve her up on a silver platter for Roland over there.
Should that happen… Yes, I see your plan.
Hey!
It was a lucky shot… but you're okay, right?
Obviously. Follow up, everyone!
I've got her off-guard, boss!
I'm going to back off now. Any more and we might actually kill her.
We're not supposed to be able to knock the Hermit below 30 HP, but here Tylana managed to cut 12 more off with her Abnormality Page's True Damage effect. I have no idea what would happen if we killed the Hermit, but I assume we'd lose because
Now… now I can see clearly.
Again, Chinely takes the Clash Winner perks. This actually has an anti-synergy with Love, so this was a bit dumb, but… yeah, no, this was just a mistake. I should have put it on Boksi or Omni.
No more hiding..!
I wasn't hiding in the first place. Now, call my name, and I'll call yours in turn… Roland.
Don't... you... ever say my name with that voice!
What's the matter, mister?
AAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!
This definitely feels strange… Don't you think, partner?
I'm not sure we should let Roland finish off that Hermit…
It's our only way forward. Otherwise that thing's going to keep raging forever.
That Hermit's recovered, as well. You'll have to weaken it before Roland strikes it.
Shouldn't be a problem. Let's move, team!
It's your fault. It's your fault!!
I'm getting rather tired of all this acid…
Same, Boksi.
Well… for better or worse, it should be ending soon anyways.
If not for you… I wouldn't have expected anything. If not for you… I would still be treating everyone equally. I never should have opened up to you.
You widened my world… made me yearn for more than my lot… and then…
You died… and my world shattered.
Music: Roland02
But that was only because I couldn't protect anything… In the end, I was the one to blame all along. There's no light ahead of me… there's only despair. Endless despair… filling my whole being.
I'm beginning to find it difficult to watch this display.
Worried about what you might've said, huh?
Indeed. I know only too well that this is not his right mind, and yet… picturing what I may have said myself…
Oh. We call that 'cringe.' It's perfectly natural, just don't think too much about it.
I have already grasped the concept. Regardless, the battle has progressed..
And the change got all that acid off of us.
Thank goodness.
The Sword Sharpened with Tears is functionally identical to the first fight, with the biggest difference being having only 150 HP instead of 450. This plus our expanded team means that we'll only need to complete his mechanics once, 150 HP is simple to blaze through on a Staggered opponent.
His swords, meanwhile, have slightly increased SR but otherwise work the same—this includes the Tears mechanic making one of them have a weakness to Piercing attacks and high resistance to Slash and Blunt. Tylana's going to be focusing exclusively on that one.
She doesn't have anything in hand to easily handle its attacks, however, so we put Omni and Chinely to work.
As for the two normal swords, Weathered Pride is the only attack they used during our fight. It's lost its Fragile infliction, making it much less of a threat. Faded Faith's dice are slightly bigger, but it's also a relatively minor threat.
Stay back, and leave me to sink… otherwise, you'll be targeted as well.
Yeah, we know how this works. We're in it until the end, and that means suffering through some cuts.
Not if I have anything to say about it, boss!
The gold here is Intemperance's effect breaking the rest of the dice on the sword's page… not that Chinely really needed the help.
And I'll use my ultimate technique… Hrrrr…! Special horn cannon!
Between Chinely and Omni alone, the sword immediately gets knocked down to 2 HP. Our damage output is kind of absurd.
I've got this sword on the backfoot. Boksi, how's yours?
Trivial. You've got plenty of runway, Tylana.
Thanks for that.
The augmented sword has been broken. Splendidly quick work.
We've come a long way from the last time we fought this thing.
There's nothing left for me… nothing, nothing…
Leave me here in the darkness… or I shall make you leave.
In the despair phase, the trio of attacks from the swords are slightly weaker than in the original fight, with only the single-die Heart-piercing Sword remaining the same. This makes it much less difficult to ensure that we don't lose a single clash this time around.
I don't want to see light anymore… I've lost what I swore to protect. I don't deserve to.
And yet, you're still alive. Where there's life, there's hope. Even for you.
Talk is cheap.
Heh… True. The man who said those words is dead now.
But… I don't think that loss was pointless. He was able to pass that way of thinking on to me.
So surely the one you failed to protect must live on through you, as well.
That's that… and this… is this…
Say… is it just me, or are these things not as powerful as before?
While I did not observe your original fights with the Abnormalities directly, it's certainly possible that his compatibility with these E.G.O are somewhat low.
Hold on, you mean that this could have been even harder?
That is the essence of it, yes.
Makes sense. He's a middle-aged guy trying to draw on the powers of a young lady's hopes and dreams.
Really, it's a good thing that Angela isn't the one resonating with these powers. If she were…
Banish the thought from your head immediately.
Yes'm.
Lashing outwards, I've only harmed myself… At least now, things can end.
Thank goodness this one's done with… Knight of Despair's kind of depressing, you get me?
That does make sense… It's sort of her thing.
Either way, it's time to move on.
And not a moment too soon. When the world's like this it hurts to look at.
This all happened because I tasted joy… If I'd never done so… I never would have lost it all…
…But what the hell was wrong with that in the first place?!
Don't I have the right to be happy? To at least nibble on something joyous and feel sated?!
There's nothing wrong with it, exactly… but hoping for too much just causes problems.
I wouldn't say he was hoping for a lot in the first place…
That's even worse, really. If your expectations are low and you still get let down… It hurts.
Mmm… you're right. I didn't think of that.
Gold Rush skips the egg phase of King of Greed's fight, but is otherwise exactly the same as the last battle. Once we knock him down to half HP, he'll transform—the fight cannot be ended before then.
Like the previous phases, the attacks here haven't changed much from the first fight either. Like before, the strategy the game wants us to use is to wait for her Mass Attack, block it with the pages that her Fragments of Bliss give us, and then counterattack while she's Staggered. However…
My demon's eye reveals all your weakpoints… you'll keep no secrets from me!
I have no reason to hold back this time.
I've painted his weak point! Hammer it in: Slashes and stabs won't work on this one!
Pretty much leaves me out, then.
Ah… yeah, I'll see if I can find something for you next.
I pursued my own happiness… what happened destroyed it, and I've hungered ever since.
And now you follow that hunger to its inevitable end… no matter what, following your own path. It's a story I know well.
And what of it? Don't tell me you plan to warn me off.
Gold Rush is a powerful E.G.O, but it's also dangerous. Its greed… if you let it burrow into you, you'll lose sight of yourself in pursuit of your next meal.
So?! What's wrong with that, exactly?! I'm expecting something from my life now… isn't that what that fake brat over there was saying I should do?!
You're way off as usual, Roland. This isn't expecting a meaning for your life, this is still lamenting what you lost.
And that's normal, isn't it?!
It is, but you're taking everything too far like a moron! You can't recapture a moment that's slipped through your hands!
Is it a sin to wish for your own happiness?!
Of course not! It's only a problem once people stop looking towards the light of hope, lamenting things that weren't.
The light of hope..? But I can see it, you know? Its reflections are all around us in this dazzling world. Reminding me of what I crave… What I can't have. Your damn light is taunting me!
Omni is taking a break here because his Emotion Level is maxed out and he's at 7 SR. Chinely's doing a few clashes with defensive dice to try and recover some of it via Love, and the other three are still trying to hit Level 5 ASAP.
Do you need me to remind you that conversation is not the manner through which these situations are resolved? His mind is at most halfway there.
I got it, but he was saying something I couldn't just listen to quietly.
Ah, yes… I suppose this would be a sensitive topic for you.
Don't tell me you're feeling remorse now.
I don't regret any of the actions I've taken. However… I can acknowledge when they've caused pain to others.
That's… something new, I guess.
It's tangential to the current battle. Please focus on the enemy in front of you.
Enough of this… I'll consume every last one of you to sate this hunger. Then I won't have to hear that nattering anymore, either.
The real fight's starting. Got anything, Chinely?
Just another spot to slash at… sorry.
Gold Rush's second form is also the same as King of Greed's last form, and if we were to make it to his special attack, it'd be a single-target deal instead of a Mass Attack. However, we're not going to respect his gameplan for this phase of the battle either.
The numbers have barely been tweaked here as well—just a couple of +1's here and there among his new attacks.
Our goal here is to prevent damage to the rest of our party while allowing Tiphereth to get the last bit of Emotion that she needs to hit level 5—she's the last one we're missing, and we really want to max our Floor Emotion Level this turn.
We were going at a good clip before… think you guys can take him down before he can get that fish revved up?
Probably. It'd be nice to have a bit of help, though.
I wouldn't worry… I can feel our ultimate trump card about to descend.
Is that why you're still just standing there doing nothing?
When the time is right, I'll act. Until then… there's no reason to.
Fine… you look really shaky right now, anyways.
I'll do enough work to cover for the both of us in the meantime!
How touching… breaking yourself apart to let someone else be happy. You know that only kills your own joy, right?
Says you! Holding off the enemy while your pal charges their super attack is a time-honored tradition.
Delusional…
Call it whatever you like. At least they're looking forward at something.
I'm always moving forward… looking for my next meal.
He's trying to take a piece out of me! Be careful not to get chomped, you guys!
No worries. Seems like I'm being ignored…
Of course. Why would I want meat that's obviously turned?
Aha. Good for me, I guess.
Acidic Sludge's timing here is perfect. Gold Rush's final phase doesn't take a lot of damage from anything, but we have a massive action economy advantage over him.
When we select it, the field is covered in Servant of Wrath's green acid effects for a moment…
And Gold Rush has 5 stacks of Erosion. That means that if we don't do any other damage with our attacks, 19 offensive dice hitting him will Stagger Gold Rush, letting us skip his special attack this time as well.
We've got that and then some on tap.
I said when talking about Servant of Wrath's pages that 5 Erosion was unlikely to change the flow of a battle by the time we got to Emotion Level 5, but this fight happens to be perfect for showing off just how much work it can do.
What is… this green gunk? When did you…
Now's our chance, everyone. Pile on!
Does that mean—?!
Don't make me say it twice!!
Then once more… Special horn… cannon!
How dare… Come here you little..!
Don't even think about threatening my buddy!
No matter how strong you are, keeping up with all five of us at once is too much for you.
I can keep everything I want to consume front and center in my mind.
Everything you want to consume.
This damned gunk..!
Ah-ah.
I'm not going to let you get that stuff off in the first place.
Even this form fails… All of them meet the same end. But still…
Don't let your guard down. He isn't finished.
So we're getting a fifth one too, then?!
Having tasted happiness for the first time, the King lost herself within her desire…
Without a villain to grant her purpose, the Queen lost her place and fell into ruin…
Watching all she held dear crumble, the Knight wished for the pain within her heart to end…
With her friend's betrayal, the Servant realized they shouldn't have reached out at all…
Music: Roland03
The four of them call… and I answer.
Next time, on Library of Ruina: "There was no way to know if they had gathered to become the jester, or if the jester had come to resemble them."
Tylana swaps to a pierce deck so that I have someone to put Knight of Despair's Abnormality Page on, but otherwise these four get no major changes to their decks. It's just a few tweaks for better light curves and draw options.
Boksi is running a Maxim build, and our goal for him is to hit maximum Charge, and then to go on a rampage. Any time we play Leap or Energy Conversion, we'll want to play a page after it resolves that'll recharge him to keep Maxim's 20 Charge bonuses rolling.
Music: Roland01 A peaceful world… where people can dream of tomorrow… I don't have any purpose here. Another mental breakdown… and over something we can't possibly understand fully, this time. You can't ever fully know what's going on inside of someone… This place seems to have the power to catch on to some intense emotions, though. Haah… this is why you have to keep your upper lip stiff. Angela, what are the odds that he'll explode like Kaori did? It would have happened already. It seems you patron librarians are stable enough to retain your form even when your emotions go beyond that threshold. Does that mean we could see Tiphereth turn into a magical girl? That sounds amazing. Boss?! Don't be ridiculous. I worked through my stuff already… I wouldn't do something this unsightly. If the world deprives me of my purpose… then I'll simply become the villain and reap you all.In a refreshing return to normalcy, Roland starts this fight off in Queen of Hatred's E.G.O. The lack of offensive dice will make building our Emotion Levels early on a little tricky, but after Hod and Netzach's Realizations it's nice to start with something we've already seen before.In the Name of Love and Hate wrote:
In the Name of Love and Hate has all of the same passives as Queen of Hatred, and works in exactly the same way. The only new addition, Corrosion, is the standard Realization passive that shows us there's more to the fight.
His attacks in this phase have had some slight numbers changes since we fought Queen of Hatred, but most of them are to the minimum rolls. With Love! Had a slight buff to its maximum result on its Offensive die, but it only comes up to a tie with Arcana Beats~! These dice were all threatening at the start of Urban Nightmare… but we're in the middle of Star of the City now.
We don't need to respect the gimmick this time around.
One of you… It doesn't matter which. Where will I aim this hatred now..? I'll take his focus head-on. Be certain to back me up, would you? Since when do you throw yourself in the way of danger? Since always. Even if anyone can be amazing, it doesn't negate the fact that I am amazing! Picking up the slack is nothing at all! Your feelings… they've moved me. This power in my horn, I can feel it overflowing from within..! I can't… control… the- If you can't control that much power… you won't be any problem at all.Neither fighter took damage, and there was no follow-up attack. Since we lost the clash, I'm not questioning it.
He's a real handful all of a sudden… good thing we just have to beat him down. Tsk tsk. That's a naive way to look at it. Eh? When magical girls have a true battle, it's as much a conversation as it is a fight. Only an ideal merged with a fist can really win the day. You're expecting us to talk to this guy while we fight him?! It doesn't have to be a whole conversation. We can just refute the things he says somehow… show him the errors in his worldview. This seems like a tenuous assumption, given the situation. Never underestimate the power of a good one-liner, ma'am. We'll give it a try, at any rate. We're seriously listening to them? I know, but their cartoon stuff's been useful more often than not. Natural Science is ultimately about trying to apply theories to the world and see what sticks, right? Don't get too carried away, Chinely. Setting that aside… You… I'll pour my hatred out at you. I've got his full attention. Now's the time to attack him from the side, you four.The only page that's seen significant buffs is In the Name of Love and Justice~, and even it's only had a +1-2 to all of the die maximums.
You villain… no. Good, bad, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I despise you. We met today! I hate everyone who can dream of tomorrow… You're just the one I saw last. The hell you do. You're chummy with Angela all the time, and all she's got are dreams for tomorrow. That… towards her… I… Huh… he really did stop moving. Of course he did. Chinely's an old pro at this stuff… We won't need to play villain this time at all.Because Chinely can't realistically lose clashes today, putting Love on him is a no-brainer.
Now to press the advantage! Channeling love! Magical Chinely, limi— NonononononoNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Love?! Who needs it?! I am an avatar of hatred itself. I'll make you all taste the pain of this pointless existence before you die! …Well, I guess it wouldn't be a real fight if he couldn't take the flow of things back, right? It seems that talking has only served to aggravate the issue. Right. We tried it your way. We beat it down now.In snake mode, In the Name of Love and Hate's attacks do get a power-up to the tune of a +1 or 2 power across the board.
While this means hits can get through, we're not too fussed about them—Love will restore our HP over time as long as Chinely's winning clashes, and with 10 Speed Dice to attack with the action economy is strongly in our favor.
This world that wouldn't give me peace can die! That laser burns… look out for it! Got it, thanks for the heads-up! Rrgh… you little nothings. How are you still standing? Because as long as we've got hope in our hearts, we'll walk forwards to the light! Empty platitudes… nothing else. There's not a speck of light anywhere to be seen! Why are you hitting me?! Don't sweat it, Boksi. Just focus on Roland for now! If it's any consolation, it appears that this form's energy is waning. Hatred burning within, burst forth... Pitch-dark flame, snuff out the living. It's going to fire its laser! With this timing… it's a desperation attack. While Arcana Slave! (magical girl version) has been buffed from a 13 to a 15 for this fight, Arcana Slave! (snake version) hasn't changed at all from the original Queen of Hatred battle. A 20 Summation Mass Attack just doesn't hit like it used to, so as long as we have Light it's actually trivial to block.
Tiphereth doesn't have enough Light, and will be eating one as a result.
A "desperation attack?" Couldn't you have given me a heads up?! Sorry, Boss. I thought you'd see it coming! Ugh, forget it. You guys take care of yourself. I'll face it head on! Be careful, ma'am. That snake packs a punch. Arcana… SLAVE! Finish it… off! Yes ma'am! It's on the ropes, everyone! Then this one is for the boss! Even now… not one speck of light shines through. Where did it go wrong..? Ah. Right. That's right. It was when I stopped treating everyone equally. You're responsible for this..! He's changed forms, like we expected. It's the green one, this time. Do you need a minute, ma'am? I know you took a big hit just now… I'm fine! Just focus on the enemy!During the phase swap, both of our Librarians who were under 90 HP recovered enough HP to bring them back to 90 HP. We didn't get any SR back this time, and the others recieved no healing.
Blind Rage wrote:
In a rare case of mercy the Blind Rage fight comes second—meaning we won't have to redo the entire thing should we fail the escort mission—and it's basically the same fight as Servant of Wrath.
The Staves are 10 HP/SR squishier this time around, but other than that the enemies are using the same attacks as before. That doesn't mean we're in the clear, however…
Blind Rage is using two copies of AAACK!!, dealing himself 20 damage of our 30 HP threshold before EMBODIMENTS OF EVIL!!!! comes out. We're officially in a hurry.
I never should have changed my policy. Maintain distance. Treat everyone the same… That's cold, mister. GRRRRRRRRR!!! Well… we just did this with one person less, so I guess we're back here again. How's this one work, again? We're just setting the stage for Roland to handle things himself? Pretty much. Something seems off about it this time, but… He's working through something. Let's just be there for him.Boksi's Rhino Ram is enough to outright destroy this Witch's Staff in a single hit from full HP, thanks to the Stagger. Maxim's damage gets really big once we hit 20 Charge.
Embodiments of… evil… the things that made me stray from the path… RRAAAAGH!! So… I'm guessing we don't talk with him this time? Good instinct. I think we should stay out of his way and make sure he can dig through this himself. Hrr… GRAH! Easy to say that now… we already know how this has to end.Our second Abnormality Page pick is Blades Whetted by Teardrops, a page which will work with Tylana's entire deck and will randomly deal 12 damage to the boss every time it activates.
…We're out of time, dear companion, so just say something. I… have nothing to say to you..! Tiphereth, the Hermit of the Azure Forest is… Using her big attack, right? I got it, thanks.The Hold Still this time around is also nearly identical—the only difference is a 4-7 instead of a 4-8 first die.
Alright, listen up! Roland can handle that last dummy, so focus everything right onto the Hermit! If you do that, there is a high probability that it will recover from the damage you put out. That's perfectly fine. It's more important that we serve her up on a silver platter for Roland over there. Should that happen… Yes, I see your plan. Hey! It was a lucky shot… but you're okay, right? Obviously. Follow up, everyone! I've got her off-guard, boss! I'm going to back off now. Any more and we might actually kill her.We're not supposed to be able to knock the Hermit below 30 HP, but here Tylana managed to cut 12 more off with her Abnormality Page's True Damage effect. I have no idea what would happen if we killed the Hermit, but I assume we'd lose because
Now… now I can see clearly.Again, Chinely takes the Clash Winner perks. This actually has an anti-synergy with Love, so this was a bit dumb, but… yeah, no, this was just a mistake. I should have put it on Boksi or Omni.
No more hiding..! I wasn't hiding in the first place. Now, call my name, and I'll call yours in turn… Roland. Don't... you... ever say my name with that voice! What's the matter, mister? AAAAAAAAAAACK!!!! This definitely feels strange… Don't you think, partner? I'm not sure we should let Roland finish off that Hermit… It's our only way forward. Otherwise that thing's going to keep raging forever. That Hermit's recovered, as well. You'll have to weaken it before Roland strikes it. Shouldn't be a problem. Let's move, team! It's your fault. It's your fault!! I'm getting rather tired of all this acid… Same, Boksi. Well… for better or worse, it should be ending soon anyways. If not for you… I wouldn't have expected anything. If not for you… I would still be treating everyone equally. I never should have opened up to you. You widened my world… made me yearn for more than my lot… and then… You died… and my world shattered. Music: Roland02 But that was only because I couldn't protect anything… In the end, I was the one to blame all along. There's no light ahead of me… there's only despair. Endless despair… filling my whole being. I'm beginning to find it difficult to watch this display. Worried about what you might've said, huh? Indeed. I know only too well that this is not his right mind, and yet… picturing what I may have said myself… Oh. We call that 'cringe.' It's perfectly natural, just don't think too much about it. I have already grasped the concept. Regardless, the battle has progressed.. And the change got all that acid off of us. Thank goodness.The Sword Sharpened with Tears wrote:
The Sword Sharpened with Tears is functionally identical to the first fight, with the biggest difference being having only 150 HP instead of 450. This plus our expanded team means that we'll only need to complete his mechanics once, 150 HP is simple to blaze through on a Staggered opponent.
His swords, meanwhile, have slightly increased SR but otherwise work the same—this includes the Tears mechanic making one of them have a weakness to Piercing attacks and high resistance to Slash and Blunt. Tylana's going to be focusing exclusively on that one.
She doesn't have anything in hand to easily handle its attacks, however, so we put Omni and Chinely to work.
As for the two normal swords, Weathered Pride is the only attack they used during our fight. It's lost its Fragile infliction, making it much less of a threat. Faded Faith's dice are slightly bigger, but it's also a relatively minor threat.
Stay back, and leave me to sink… otherwise, you'll be targeted as well. Yeah, we know how this works. We're in it until the end, and that means suffering through some cuts. Not if I have anything to say about it, boss!The gold here is Intemperance's effect breaking the rest of the dice on the sword's page… not that Chinely really needed the help.
And I'll use my ultimate technique… Hrrrr…! Special horn cannon!Between Chinely and Omni alone, the sword immediately gets knocked down to 2 HP. Our damage output is kind of absurd.
I've got this sword on the backfoot. Boksi, how's yours? Trivial. You've got plenty of runway, Tylana. Thanks for that. The augmented sword has been broken. Splendidly quick work. We've come a long way from the last time we fought this thing. There's nothing left for me… nothing, nothing… Leave me here in the darkness… or I shall make you leave.In the despair phase, the trio of attacks from the swords are slightly weaker than in the original fight, with only the single-die Heart-piercing Sword remaining the same. This makes it much less difficult to ensure that we don't lose a single clash this time around.
I don't want to see light anymore… I've lost what I swore to protect. I don't deserve to. And yet, you're still alive. Where there's life, there's hope. Even for you. Talk is cheap. Heh… True. The man who said those words is dead now. But… I don't think that loss was pointless. He was able to pass that way of thinking on to me. So surely the one you failed to protect must live on through you, as well. That's that… and this… is this… Say… is it just me, or are these things not as powerful as before? While I did not observe your original fights with the Abnormalities directly, it's certainly possible that his compatibility with these E.G.O are somewhat low. Hold on, you mean that this could have been even harder? That is the essence of it, yes. Makes sense. He's a middle-aged guy trying to draw on the powers of a young lady's hopes and dreams. Really, it's a good thing that Angela isn't the one resonating with these powers. If she were… Banish the thought from your head immediately. Yes'm. Lashing outwards, I've only harmed myself… At least now, things can end. Thank goodness this one's done with… Knight of Despair's kind of depressing, you get me? That does make sense… It's sort of her thing. Either way, it's time to move on. And not a moment too soon. When the world's like this it hurts to look at. This all happened because I tasted joy… If I'd never done so… I never would have lost it all… …But what the hell was wrong with that in the first place?! Don't I have the right to be happy? To at least nibble on something joyous and feel sated?! There's nothing wrong with it, exactly… but hoping for too much just causes problems. I wouldn't say he was hoping for a lot in the first place… That's even worse, really. If your expectations are low and you still get let down… It hurts. Mmm… you're right. I didn't think of that.Gold Rush wrote:
Gold Rush skips the egg phase of King of Greed's fight, but is otherwise exactly the same as the last battle. Once we knock him down to half HP, he'll transform—the fight cannot be ended before then.
Like the previous phases, the attacks here haven't changed much from the first fight either. Like before, the strategy the game wants us to use is to wait for her Mass Attack, block it with the pages that her Fragments of Bliss give us, and then counterattack while she's Staggered. However…
TQ, approximately 6 months ago wrote: Information Assessment claims to only work on Normal or Endured resistances. This is not true, and it can change other resistance types to 'Normal' as well. This means we can do much more Stagger damage to King of Greed than the game expects, and I actually have to throttle my damage output a bit here to avoid skipping the last phase entirely.
My demon's eye reveals all your weakpoints… you'll keep no secrets from me!I have no reason to hold back this time.
I've painted his weak point! Hammer it in: Slashes and stabs won't work on this one! Pretty much leaves me out, then. Ah… yeah, I'll see if I can find something for you next. I pursued my own happiness… what happened destroyed it, and I've hungered ever since. And now you follow that hunger to its inevitable end… no matter what, following your own path. It's a story I know well. And what of it? Don't tell me you plan to warn me off. Gold Rush is a powerful E.G.O, but it's also dangerous. Its greed… if you let it burrow into you, you'll lose sight of yourself in pursuit of your next meal. So?! What's wrong with that, exactly?! I'm expecting something from my life now… isn't that what that fake brat over there was saying I should do?! You're way off as usual, Roland. This isn't expecting a meaning for your life, this is still lamenting what you lost. And that's normal, isn't it?! It is, but you're taking everything too far like a moron! You can't recapture a moment that's slipped through your hands! Is it a sin to wish for your own happiness?! Of course not! It's only a problem once people stop looking towards the light of hope, lamenting things that weren't. The light of hope..? But I can see it, you know? Its reflections are all around us in this dazzling world. Reminding me of what I crave… What I can't have. Your damn light is taunting me!Omni is taking a break here because his Emotion Level is maxed out and he's at 7 SR. Chinely's doing a few clashes with defensive dice to try and recover some of it via Love, and the other three are still trying to hit Level 5 ASAP.
Do you need me to remind you that conversation is not the manner through which these situations are resolved? His mind is at most halfway there. I got it, but he was saying something I couldn't just listen to quietly. Ah, yes… I suppose this would be a sensitive topic for you. Don't tell me you're feeling remorse now. I don't regret any of the actions I've taken. However… I can acknowledge when they've caused pain to others. That's… something new, I guess. It's tangential to the current battle. Please focus on the enemy in front of you. Enough of this… I'll consume every last one of you to sate this hunger. Then I won't have to hear that nattering anymore, either. The real fight's starting. Got anything, Chinely? Just another spot to slash at… sorry.Gold Rush's second form is also the same as King of Greed's last form, and if we were to make it to his special attack, it'd be a single-target deal instead of a Mass Attack. However, we're not going to respect his gameplan for this phase of the battle either.
The numbers have barely been tweaked here as well—just a couple of +1's here and there among his new attacks.
Our goal here is to prevent damage to the rest of our party while allowing Tiphereth to get the last bit of Emotion that she needs to hit level 5—she's the last one we're missing, and we really want to max our Floor Emotion Level this turn.
We were going at a good clip before… think you guys can take him down before he can get that fish revved up? Probably. It'd be nice to have a bit of help, though. I wouldn't worry… I can feel our ultimate trump card about to descend. Is that why you're still just standing there doing nothing? When the time is right, I'll act. Until then… there's no reason to. Fine… you look really shaky right now, anyways. I'll do enough work to cover for the both of us in the meantime! How touching… breaking yourself apart to let someone else be happy. You know that only kills your own joy, right? Says you! Holding off the enemy while your pal charges their super attack is a time-honored tradition. Delusional… Call it whatever you like. At least they're looking forward at something. I'm always moving forward… looking for my next meal. He's trying to take a piece out of me! Be careful not to get chomped, you guys! No worries. Seems like I'm being ignored… Of course. Why would I want meat that's obviously turned? Aha. Good for me, I guess.Acidic Sludge's timing here is perfect. Gold Rush's final phase doesn't take a lot of damage from anything, but we have a massive action economy advantage over him.
When we select it, the field is covered in Servant of Wrath's green acid effects for a moment…
And Gold Rush has 5 stacks of Erosion. That means that if we don't do any other damage with our attacks, 19 offensive dice hitting him will Stagger Gold Rush, letting us skip his special attack this time as well.
We've got that and then some on tap.
I said when talking about Servant of Wrath's pages that 5 Erosion was unlikely to change the flow of a battle by the time we got to Emotion Level 5, but this fight happens to be perfect for showing off just how much work it can do.
What is… this green gunk? When did you… Now's our chance, everyone. Pile on! Does that mean—?! Don't make me say it twice!! Then once more… Special horn… cannon! How dare… Come here you little..! Don't even think about threatening my buddy! No matter how strong you are, keeping up with all five of us at once is too much for you. I can keep everything I want to consume front and center in my mind. Everything you want to consume. This damned gunk..! Ah-ah. I'm not going to let you get that stuff off in the first place. Even this form fails… All of them meet the same end. But still… Don't let your guard down. He isn't finished. So we're getting a fifth one too, then?! Having tasted happiness for the first time, the King lost herself within her desire… Without a villain to grant her purpose, the Queen lost her place and fell into ruin… Watching all she held dear crumble, the Knight wished for the pain within her heart to end… With her friend's betrayal, the Servant realized they shouldn't have reached out at all… Music: Roland03 The four of them call… and I answer.Next time, on Library of Ruina: "There was no way to know if they had gathered to become the jester, or if the jester had come to resemble them."
Concerto 1: Tiphereth—Rondo
Music: Roland03
I've finished the analysis of our opponent.
And not a moment too soon… I was worried he'd attack at any moment, but he's just standing there for now… like he's waiting for us.
It seems that the Jester is in some kind of dormant 'Nihil' state, awaiting your action… Once you've begun the battle, then it should start moving. It appears to possess the abilities of each of the Magical Girls whose power comprises its form. When it uses those powers against your Librarians…
In truth, I don't have any particularly good ideas for how to defeat it.
Great. So it's a standoff…
If I may, ma'am, I might have a solution.
Of course you would. Okay, what'cha got?
Roland only used the negative power of the Magical Girls. Because they're dualistic entities… we should be able to harness their real power.
So you want to summon some kind of clown to beat up the jester?
Not exactly. We think that if we can each throw ourselves at a statue, we'll be able to give their true power a place to bond to. The natural enemy of an evil clown is a magical girl, after all… That's why we were able to defeat the 8 o'Clock circus before.
I guess that… kind of makes sense, if you don't think about it. 
Well… it's not like we have any other plans. Let's give it a shot.
I'll keep Roland distracted. Break those statues, you guys!
There's no point in struggling… the light doesn't exist. It's long been lost.
Nihil's attack isn't hard to avoid, but the -7 to all Librarians' Power from now on applies even if it doesn't hit us.
I got this one!
Quick as ever, partner! No worries, I've got the second statue!
I guess I'll take this one, then.
I really hope this works…
Even now, the ennui is seeping into you… I can see it.
Hate to say it, guys, but he's right. I can't hold him off any longer.
…did it work?
Something's changed. I can't see your Libarians' data any longer.
Hoo… that was a deep sleep… But it looks like we're just in the nick of time! Let's go~!
Ascending hope! The Magical Girl of Love!
Unerring virtue! The Magical Girl of Justice!
Overflowing joy! The Magical Girl of Happiness!
Fearless determination! The Magical Girl of Courage!
In the name of Love and Justice~ Here come the Magical Girls!
The Jester of Nihil… The Major Arcana of Major Arcana. Senpai, he's focusing on you right now.
That's just fine with me. Stand back, everyone.
Stand back nothing. I can still help!
There's still a civilian here…
Don't worry, child. We'll protect you.
I told you, I can fight too!
The diamond at the beginning of the turn tells us what phase Nihil is moving into, according to the effects of his passive. On the turn after using Nihil, that means moving into Greed and gaining the Worthless Greed passive. Every one of the phase passives has an effect which gives a -5 Power to anyone clashing him aside from that phase's Magical Girl, and the rest of it sets up the mechanics for that phase. In Greed, our job is relatively simple: we just need to win clashes.
He must be weighed down by all that desire… I'll set him free from it, for sure this time.
Every page in this fight is one we've seen before. The Magical Girls are all using their own pages from their fights, while Nihil uses the monstrous versions from their battles as well—because of this, we'll only cover particularly useful combat pages during this fight. Everyone's pages being preset means that the die ranges are relatively close, so while Happiness needs to win clashes here, most of her opportunities will be ~even odds. We need an ace up our sleeve.
Then I'll help you. Hold onto a piece of my powers!
That ace is Hope. Each of the Magical Girls has a copy of Hope in their deck, and they'll each want to play that copy every turn that they're able. Hope gives +2 Power to all dice of a Magical Girl being targeted by Nihil. These stack, and also give us a Counter die that'll be chunky enough to block anything in Nihil's arsenal after the power bonuses are involved. We want every Magical Girl to play their Hope every turn.
As long as someone needs our protection, we won't ever give up.
Magical Girl of Justice, meanwhile, has an important job with her other two dice: using her Swords Embracing and Protecting the heart. Each one deals True damage to Nihil, and despite what they say it only ever works out to being 10 damage per hit. While Greed's pages have a number of counter dice, once we're through this phase she'll be able to easily shave 50 HP off every turn.
I'll support you too, Senpais!
Magical Girl of Love also has the ability to contribute damage through In the Name of Justice! Its dice give +5 Power on one-sided attacks, negating the penalty and letting her do some chip damage with these. There's actually a better use for her in this fight, but I don't realize it for a few turns yet.
Happiness is transient… fleeting. But greed seeks eternity—seeks deep, deep eternity. It's no wonder that you and I walk the same path.
It's like he's not even paying attention to my attacks, Senpai!
Mine as well, Love. It seems he's copied Happiness's defensive prowess as well.
Sorry for being so awesome, you two~
No problem, I'll handle him!
No, wait!
The counter dice in this phase will block most attacks from the other girls against Nihil, as expected given the -5 Power we get when attacking him. Magical Girl of Justice's attacks still shatter the screen, too, which is wonderful.
Geh… why can't my attacks reach anymore?!
Do not, under any circumstances, attack with any leftover Librarians. They'll just get shredded.
This darkness isn't something you can comprehend… stepping forward blindly, your attacks will never reach me.
We're not walking blindly forward. I hold hope that the happiness I carry will spread to others and make something better.
To think anything will come from your efforts… that itself is greed incarnate… No matter how much happiness you give, the selfish will want still more.
Joy isn't a finite thing, like money or burgers. Helping others to find joy in their own lives… That's a happiness that transcends your desire!
But that wish to spread happiness to others is itself a desire. You are destined to sink, as I have, into blindly walking this pathway of darkness.
Heh… Then let's see what's stronger. Your desire against my happiness!
Everyone, protect yourselves. Things are going to get a little wild!
Wait… when did this get here?
Happiness has managed to share her bliss with us. It should protect us from the Jester of Nihil's attacks.
We need to win five clashes to get a Fragment of Bliss into everyone's hands, but that's a relatively easy task with how many dice Nihil throws out during the Greed phase.
The amber gate gleaming with greed opens…
The amber gate shining with happiness opens…
Overflowing joy-
Raging desire-
-gather in my hand and give me power! Here I come!
The Road of Gold!
Your desire to strike me leaves your allies unprotected. The Road of Gold!
She hasn't left anyone unprotected, Jester! Her happiness spread to every one of us!
Punch all you want, you won't get through!
It's clear which of your wills was stronger.
Even the brat…
Yeah, I admit it! That happiness is infectious, what about it?!
You see it now, right? No matter how dark the path ahead, you can always find a spark of joy.
That spark can become a blaze… and then you won't walk in the dark any longer!
I can see only that you're blinded by the tiny light before your eyes… heedless of the darkness that surrounds you. You cannot embrace your futility as you are.
Then… perhaps if those around you crumble first.
He's shifting?! That Jester of Nihil's just as much of a wild card as ever!
Ah yes… the Magical Girl of 'Love.'
Being lauded as the heroine, having a villain to fight once more… it must be ecstasy.
In the Pointless Hate phase, Nihil is trying to win a total of 10 clashes so that he can throw out a 20-20 Arcana Slave, and the phase will continue until Magical Girl of Love can use her own Arcana Slave.
His attacks are a bit stronger than ours, but Hope will make up for the difference. There's just one tiny problem…
I can't support you this turn, Love! I'm sorry…
Don't worry about it, Courage. The other three of us have this.
The three Magical Girls aside Justice actually have decks large enough to prevent them from drawing back into Hope. It's important that they be constantly playing attacks throughout the battle to keep the Hope train running—this isn't a problem for Love or Happiness yet, but I underused Courage in the first phase and it's biting us in the rear now.
Finally settling down, child?
Not a child!
But I have to admit I can't do anything here. I'd only get in the way.
Still… just having you here to support us is enough to power us up!
Such empty words… You can feel it even now, deep within you. That trembling knowledge that you'll become useless. Become the villain. We are one, at the end of the path we have all trodden together. In darkness, I walk with what's left of you.
That's perfectly fine!
How can you walk forward, knowing all you worked for is for nothing?
You said it yourself: We walk together! That means, no matter how dark things get for you…
The light of hope is always there inside you, waiting for you to see it!
Delusional… There's no hope for anything. Not the future, nor the present. Nothing will ever change for you.
There's no way of knowing that, so long as we have the courage to step forward.
Yeah, exactly! With love to light the path, and the courage to step forward, there's no such thing as a hopeless existence.
You think you can become something more..?
I will walk onward, no matter what.
Everyone's set to attack this turn, as I've finally realized the correct thing to be doing with Queen of Hatred: Spamming Arcane Beats.
On use, Arcane Beats applies a stack of Villain that lasts for 2 turns and inflicts 3 Fragile on Nihil for each turn. This lets anyone deal decent damage to him, and because Villain lasts for two turns we can chain it to get up to 6 Fragile a turn on Nihil. This adds up quickly.
I'll show you that human lumps can never grow!
Heed me, thou that are more azure than justice and more crimson than love.
In the name of those buried in destiny I shall make this oath to the light…
Chanting while attacking..? I see. But if I stop you before then…
You won't get in my kohai's way anytime soon, Jester.
We'll make you as much time as you need, Love.
I've nailed him in place. Strike now!
Mark the hateful beings who stand before us…
Let your strength merge with mine, so that we may deliver the power of love to all…
ARCANA SLAVE!!!
The light of love and hope… hm?
The Jester isn't moving anymore… Do you think we did it?
I doubt it… He's likely just given up on going after Love. Be ready, Courage. If he targets you…
Then I'll stop him where he stands!
That's my kohai… so long as this Jester keeps blindly walking towards a cliff, we'll stop him over and over.
Love and happiness have shown their strength. Fine. Another.
Magical Girl of Justice… you too are on this path with your fellows. You try so hard to protect them… But you know their foundations are built on sand. You cannot grasp it in your fingers…
The Meaningless Despair phase changes things up a little: Nihil itself still has to lose clashes with each of its pages in order to transfer to the next phase, but he's no longer alone.
He comes with a trio of Swords without an Owner, each of which use the True Damage attacks from Knight of Despair's fight.
Neither of them is very powerful compared to our Magical Girls' pages, but they can target anyone on our side so we'll want to do something about them.
You can barely hope to parry my attacks, while your wards are cut down one by one.
True… normally I would despair as the ones I swore to protect suffered in places beyond my reach. But such despair is meaningless… My companions are not so weak.
A spark of courage will ignite a revolution… Embodiments of evil, your time is over!
Ready or not, here I come!
Thankfully, we've got a number of perfectly spammable Mass Attacks to choose from.
I will trust in them to defend themselves, while I handle the problems I am able to.
You, too… Not one of you will join me here within the darkness…?
That's not on the menu today, Jester of Nihil!
For the justice and balance of this land… we will stop you!
These Mass Attacks actually do too good of a job, breaking one of Nihil's pages so that we can't defeat it with Magical Girl of Justice—remember, Mass Attacks aren't clashes, so if a page is destroyed due to a Mass Attack, it's not considered to have clashed at all.
Jester of Nihil. Our true natures are that of a mirror, reflecting one another.
As you reflect our insecurities, our pains, and our weakness… so too do we reflect your strength, your hope, and your kindness.
So I wish to thank you, for giving us this chance to be heroes once more. The path you have walked isn't for nothing.
What the hell do you know, you damned hypocrite?! Everything is for nothing. There's only darkness… and no matter how I walk, there won't be anything but. I've lost everything… everything!
But even you've got hopes, dummy! Wanting to pull everyone into that pit of cynical bullshit? That counts!
Miss civilian! Please stay ba—
I can't just stand here anymore and watch! I can at least take out a sword!
Looks like we can't refuse her now…
It's fine. Let's trust in her, like she's been trusting in us.
Rrrgh… shut up shut up SHUT UP!
It's my turn at last. Let's finish this!
Right!
You're talking all that crap about relying on comrades, or trusting others, but what does it get you? Stabbed square in the back! You remember plenty well what happened when you made a friend, right?!
Nihil's final phase, Senseless Wrath, will spam the EMBODIMENTS OF EVIL!!!! Mass Attack every other scene. Beyond that its attacks are identical to Servant of Wrath's pages. In this phase, we can finally deal Stagger damage to Nihil. The phase ends after we successfully Stagger him, and the cycle will reset all the way back at Nihil—thankfully, his Will of Nihil Mass Attack doesn't debuff Magical Girls, so we could do the loop as many times as necessary to whittle his HP away.
I wasn't wrong to try and make friends with others. Things became twisted only when I compromised my sense of right and wrong for a special someone.
The Hermit was special to me… But now that my wrath has subsided, I can see that I shouldn't have let that cloud my vision.
AAAAAAACK!!!
Don't worry. We'll make things quick.
We are a mirror, reflecting each other. If you defeat me… then you, as well, shall be lost in the darkness again.
Then we shall all travel together, for the justice of this world!
And for the love of our dear ones, that we never part again!
With happiness in our hearts, we'll clear a path to tomorrow!
And with the courage to move forward…
We'll trust that hope will carry on without us.
Jester of Nihil, return to your slumber!
It's… over.
It's over! You did it, you guys! You actually did it!
We did… but we don't have much longer to last in this world.
Just remember to call on us whenever you need help. We'll lend you what power we can.
Anytime, anyplace. It's a promise!
Good luck with what you're dealing with, too. It seems complicated… but give it your best!
Yeah… don't worry about that. Rest well, Magical Girls.
Tiphereth's Realization is my favorite in the game, in large part because the last fight is just a giant playable cutscene. It's not a very hard Realization by any means, with the trickiest part being the second battle of the marathon, but goddamn it's got style.
VIDEO
Music: STOP
And I want nothing more. It has been, it still is, faithful to me.
Music: TipherethStory
Are you feeling better now?
I dunno. I do kinda feel relieved, but that didn’t really feel like myself.
It’s good you vented out your feelings, at least.
I’m, uh… sorry about calling you a fake and stuff earlier.
I don’t mind. I’ve already gone through numerous repeats carrying someone’s memories. I’m not sure if I really am the same as my past self anymore. So you aren’t wrong on that account.
But… Are you okay with losing your old self completely?
Why’re you so serious about it?
And I don’t mind if I’m stuck here as a librarian. I’m good as long as I actually exist here and that I think. Every one of us has our own worth and meaning simply by existing.
…Even for a man like me, who holds zero expectation?
I’m sure you do.
I’m honestly not very confident even though I speak like I know better.
But I still wanna have faith. You’re free to believe whatever you want, right?
Yep, right you are.
Music: Lobby
We've done it! With Natural Sciences fully realized, we get the Jester of Nihil's Abnormality Pages and finally grab some E.G.O for Tiphereth.
As far as Abnormality Pages go, Magical Girls is… bad. It marks our highest-cost page with a Magical symbol, and when that page loses clashes we get stacks towards an overall goal of… 5 Protection a turn and immunity to status ailments. That's really not very good, particularly since high-cost pages tend to be our clash winners. It does also give the enemy some chip status effects on hitting the selected Librarian, but neither of these effects is worth a level 2 Abnormality Page.
Void is much more interesting, though it requires a specific build to be effective. It gives us a copy of a page which will remove our entire hand from play, in exchange for 1 Strength and Endurance per page removed every turn after that. The page also comes with us into additional acts, meaning it can be helpful in every combat in a reception after it's chosen. The best way to use it is alongside the Thumb's ammunition generation engine to get a lot of free pages to toss, so that we can get the benefits without removing anything strong from play; but it's also possible to use in more normal decks to stabilize into a couple of consistent attacks, like Bishop's deck back in Malkuth's realization did. The main problem is that this is a Level 3 Abnormality Page, and thus by the time we get to it the fight's probably already over.
The same can also be said of Nix, in that by the time we get to it the fight's probably already over—but this is for a very different reason. Nix requires us to pick four very specific negative Abnormality Pages and in exchange will drop off the negative effects of each of them, turning one person on Tiphereth's floor into an all-powerful god capable of ending anyone in their path as long as they can't null Power gain/loss. It is delightfully nuts, especially when stacked with Lone Fixer and Remembrance for maximum oomph.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Still making that noise, huh?
They've both been catatonic since we came back to our senses. I believe they're overloaded.
Well, they'll get over it eventually. You guys did a good job out there.
Speaking of which… did anyone see where Angela went?
Come to think of it, she just stopped responding part of the way through that last fight.
I decided to leave once it was clear you would win… bearing witness to such absurdity was beyond me.
You didn't even watch to the end? But that was the best part..!
aaaaaheywait …Does that mean you get it now, boss?
I wouldn't go that far… but I should at least tell you guys what happened, huh?
Definitely! And then maybe you'll want to watch one of our shows with us?!
Leeeet's not get too carried away.
There's still a lot to get done around here, after all.
Next time, on Library of Ruina
"People have been committing sins since long ago. "Why do they commit sins, knowing it's wrong?""
Gebura's long-awaited Realization is ready.
This battle cleans up Xiao's mess.
This fight deals with Yan's mess.
I think the R Corp situation qualifies as Nikolai's mess…
As for the Color… she can clean up her own mess.
Videos
Tiphereth 6
Tiphereth Realization (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)
New E.G.O Pages
Music: Roland03
I've finished the analysis of our opponent. And not a moment too soon… I was worried he'd attack at any moment, but he's just standing there for now… like he's waiting for us.Nihil wrote:
It seems that the Jester is in some kind of dormant 'Nihil' state, awaiting your action… Once you've begun the battle, then it should start moving. It appears to possess the abilities of each of the Magical Girls whose power comprises its form. When it uses those powers against your Librarians… In truth, I don't have any particularly good ideas for how to defeat it. Great. So it's a standoff… If I may, ma'am, I might have a solution. Of course you would. Okay, what'cha got? Roland only used the negative power of the Magical Girls. Because they're dualistic entities… we should be able to harness their real power. So you want to summon some kind of clown to beat up the jester? Not exactly. We think that if we can each throw ourselves at a statue, we'll be able to give their true power a place to bond to. The natural enemy of an evil clown is a magical girl, after all… That's why we were able to defeat the 8 o'Clock circus before. I guess that… kind of makes sense, if you don't think about it. Well… it's not like we have any other plans. Let's give it a shot. I'll keep Roland distracted. Break those statues, you guys! There's no point in struggling… the light doesn't exist. It's long been lost.Nihil's attack isn't hard to avoid, but the -7 to all Librarians' Power from now on applies even if it doesn't hit us.
I got this one! Quick as ever, partner! No worries, I've got the second statue! I guess I'll take this one, then. I really hope this works… Even now, the ennui is seeping into you… I can see it. Hate to say it, guys, but he's right. I can't hold him off any longer. …did it work? Something's changed. I can't see your Libarians' data any longer. Hoo… that was a deep sleep… But it looks like we're just in the nick of time! Let's go~! Ascending hope! The Magical Girl of Love! Unerring virtue! The Magical Girl of Justice! Overflowing joy! The Magical Girl of Happiness! Fearless determination! The Magical Girl of Courage! In the name of Love and Justice~ Here come the Magical Girls! The Jester of Nihil… The Major Arcana of Major Arcana. Senpai, he's focusing on you right now. That's just fine with me. Stand back, everyone. Stand back nothing. I can still help! There's still a civilian here… Don't worry, child. We'll protect you. I told you, I can fight too!The diamond at the beginning of the turn tells us what phase Nihil is moving into, according to the effects of his passive. On the turn after using Nihil, that means moving into Greed and gaining the Worthless Greed passive. Every one of the phase passives has an effect which gives a -5 Power to anyone clashing him aside from that phase's Magical Girl, and the rest of it sets up the mechanics for that phase. In Greed, our job is relatively simple: we just need to win clashes.
He must be weighed down by all that desire… I'll set him free from it, for sure this time.Every page in this fight is one we've seen before. The Magical Girls are all using their own pages from their fights, while Nihil uses the monstrous versions from their battles as well—because of this, we'll only cover particularly useful combat pages during this fight. Everyone's pages being preset means that the die ranges are relatively close, so while Happiness needs to win clashes here, most of her opportunities will be ~even odds. We need an ace up our sleeve.
Then I'll help you. Hold onto a piece of my powers!That ace is Hope. Each of the Magical Girls has a copy of Hope in their deck, and they'll each want to play that copy every turn that they're able. Hope gives +2 Power to all dice of a Magical Girl being targeted by Nihil. These stack, and also give us a Counter die that'll be chunky enough to block anything in Nihil's arsenal after the power bonuses are involved. We want every Magical Girl to play their Hope every turn.
As long as someone needs our protection, we won't ever give up.Magical Girl of Justice, meanwhile, has an important job with her other two dice: using her Swords Embracing and Protecting the heart. Each one deals True damage to Nihil, and despite what they say it only ever works out to being 10 damage per hit. While Greed's pages have a number of counter dice, once we're through this phase she'll be able to easily shave 50 HP off every turn.
I'll support you too, Senpais! Magical Girl of Love also has the ability to contribute damage through In the Name of Justice! Its dice give +5 Power on one-sided attacks, negating the penalty and letting her do some chip damage with these. There's actually a better use for her in this fight, but I don't realize it for a few turns yet.
Happiness is transient… fleeting. But greed seeks eternity—seeks deep, deep eternity. It's no wonder that you and I walk the same path. It's like he's not even paying attention to my attacks, Senpai! Mine as well, Love. It seems he's copied Happiness's defensive prowess as well. Sorry for being so awesome, you two~ No problem, I'll handle him! No, wait!The counter dice in this phase will block most attacks from the other girls against Nihil, as expected given the -5 Power we get when attacking him. Magical Girl of Justice's attacks still shatter the screen, too, which is wonderful.
Geh… why can't my attacks reach anymore?!Do not, under any circumstances, attack with any leftover Librarians. They'll just get shredded.
This darkness isn't something you can comprehend… stepping forward blindly, your attacks will never reach me. We're not walking blindly forward. I hold hope that the happiness I carry will spread to others and make something better. To think anything will come from your efforts… that itself is greed incarnate… No matter how much happiness you give, the selfish will want still more. Joy isn't a finite thing, like money or burgers. Helping others to find joy in their own lives… That's a happiness that transcends your desire! But that wish to spread happiness to others is itself a desire. You are destined to sink, as I have, into blindly walking this pathway of darkness. Heh… Then let's see what's stronger. Your desire against my happiness! Everyone, protect yourselves. Things are going to get a little wild! Wait… when did this get here? Happiness has managed to share her bliss with us. It should protect us from the Jester of Nihil's attacks.We need to win five clashes to get a Fragment of Bliss into everyone's hands, but that's a relatively easy task with how many dice Nihil throws out during the Greed phase.
The amber gate gleaming with greed opens… The amber gate shining with happiness opens… Overflowing joy- Raging desire- -gather in my hand and give me power! Here I come! The Road of Gold! Your desire to strike me leaves your allies unprotected. The Road of Gold! She hasn't left anyone unprotected, Jester! Her happiness spread to every one of us! Punch all you want, you won't get through! It's clear which of your wills was stronger. Even the brat… Yeah, I admit it! That happiness is infectious, what about it?! You see it now, right? No matter how dark the path ahead, you can always find a spark of joy. That spark can become a blaze… and then you won't walk in the dark any longer! I can see only that you're blinded by the tiny light before your eyes… heedless of the darkness that surrounds you. You cannot embrace your futility as you are. Then… perhaps if those around you crumble first. He's shifting?! That Jester of Nihil's just as much of a wild card as ever! Ah yes… the Magical Girl of 'Love.' Being lauded as the heroine, having a villain to fight once more… it must be ecstasy.In the Pointless Hate phase, Nihil is trying to win a total of 10 clashes so that he can throw out a 20-20 Arcana Slave, and the phase will continue until Magical Girl of Love can use her own Arcana Slave.
His attacks are a bit stronger than ours, but Hope will make up for the difference. There's just one tiny problem…
I can't support you this turn, Love! I'm sorry… Don't worry about it, Courage. The other three of us have this.The three Magical Girls aside Justice actually have decks large enough to prevent them from drawing back into Hope. It's important that they be constantly playing attacks throughout the battle to keep the Hope train running—this isn't a problem for Love or Happiness yet, but I underused Courage in the first phase and it's biting us in the rear now.
Finally settling down, child? Not a child! But I have to admit I can't do anything here. I'd only get in the way. Still… just having you here to support us is enough to power us up! Such empty words… You can feel it even now, deep within you. That trembling knowledge that you'll become useless. Become the villain. We are one, at the end of the path we have all trodden together. In darkness, I walk with what's left of you. That's perfectly fine! How can you walk forward, knowing all you worked for is for nothing? You said it yourself: We walk together! That means, no matter how dark things get for you… The light of hope is always there inside you, waiting for you to see it! Delusional… There's no hope for anything. Not the future, nor the present. Nothing will ever change for you. There's no way of knowing that, so long as we have the courage to step forward. Yeah, exactly! With love to light the path, and the courage to step forward, there's no such thing as a hopeless existence. You think you can become something more..? I will walk onward, no matter what.Everyone's set to attack this turn, as I've finally realized the correct thing to be doing with Queen of Hatred: Spamming Arcane Beats.
On use, Arcane Beats applies a stack of Villain that lasts for 2 turns and inflicts 3 Fragile on Nihil for each turn. This lets anyone deal decent damage to him, and because Villain lasts for two turns we can chain it to get up to 6 Fragile a turn on Nihil. This adds up quickly.
I'll show you that human lumps can never grow! Heed me, thou that are more azure than justice and more crimson than love. In the name of those buried in destiny I shall make this oath to the light… Chanting while attacking..? I see. But if I stop you before then… You won't get in my kohai's way anytime soon, Jester. We'll make you as much time as you need, Love. I've nailed him in place. Strike now! Mark the hateful beings who stand before us… Let your strength merge with mine, so that we may deliver the power of love to all… ARCANA SLAVE!!! The light of love and hope… hm? The Jester isn't moving anymore… Do you think we did it? I doubt it… He's likely just given up on going after Love. Be ready, Courage. If he targets you… Then I'll stop him where he stands! That's my kohai… so long as this Jester keeps blindly walking towards a cliff, we'll stop him over and over. Love and happiness have shown their strength. Fine. Another. Magical Girl of Justice… you too are on this path with your fellows. You try so hard to protect them… But you know their foundations are built on sand. You cannot grasp it in your fingers…The Meaningless Despair phase changes things up a little: Nihil itself still has to lose clashes with each of its pages in order to transfer to the next phase, but he's no longer alone.
He comes with a trio of Swords without an Owner, each of which use the True Damage attacks from Knight of Despair's fight.
Neither of them is very powerful compared to our Magical Girls' pages, but they can target anyone on our side so we'll want to do something about them.
You can barely hope to parry my attacks, while your wards are cut down one by one. True… normally I would despair as the ones I swore to protect suffered in places beyond my reach. But such despair is meaningless… My companions are not so weak. A spark of courage will ignite a revolution… Embodiments of evil, your time is over! Ready or not, here I come!Thankfully, we've got a number of perfectly spammable Mass Attacks to choose from.
I will trust in them to defend themselves, while I handle the problems I am able to. You, too… Not one of you will join me here within the darkness…? That's not on the menu today, Jester of Nihil! For the justice and balance of this land… we will stop you!These Mass Attacks actually do too good of a job, breaking one of Nihil's pages so that we can't defeat it with Magical Girl of Justice—remember, Mass Attacks aren't clashes, so if a page is destroyed due to a Mass Attack, it's not considered to have clashed at all.
Jester of Nihil. Our true natures are that of a mirror, reflecting one another. As you reflect our insecurities, our pains, and our weakness… so too do we reflect your strength, your hope, and your kindness. So I wish to thank you, for giving us this chance to be heroes once more. The path you have walked isn't for nothing. What the hell do you know, you damned hypocrite?! Everything is for nothing. There's only darkness… and no matter how I walk, there won't be anything but. I've lost everything… everything! But even you've got hopes, dummy! Wanting to pull everyone into that pit of cynical bullshit? That counts! Miss civilian! Please stay ba— I can't just stand here anymore and watch! I can at least take out a sword! Looks like we can't refuse her now… It's fine. Let's trust in her, like she's been trusting in us. Rrrgh… shut up shut up SHUT UP! It's my turn at last. Let's finish this! Right! You're talking all that crap about relying on comrades, or trusting others, but what does it get you? Stabbed square in the back! You remember plenty well what happened when you made a friend, right?!Nihil's final phase, Senseless Wrath, will spam the EMBODIMENTS OF EVIL!!!! Mass Attack every other scene. Beyond that its attacks are identical to Servant of Wrath's pages. In this phase, we can finally deal Stagger damage to Nihil. The phase ends after we successfully Stagger him, and the cycle will reset all the way back at Nihil—thankfully, his Will of Nihil Mass Attack doesn't debuff Magical Girls, so we could do the loop as many times as necessary to whittle his HP away.
I wasn't wrong to try and make friends with others. Things became twisted only when I compromised my sense of right and wrong for a special someone. The Hermit was special to me… But now that my wrath has subsided, I can see that I shouldn't have let that cloud my vision. AAAAAAACK!!! Don't worry. We'll make things quick. We are a mirror, reflecting each other. If you defeat me… then you, as well, shall be lost in the darkness again. Then we shall all travel together, for the justice of this world! And for the love of our dear ones, that we never part again! With happiness in our hearts, we'll clear a path to tomorrow! And with the courage to move forward… We'll trust that hope will carry on without us. Jester of Nihil, return to your slumber! It's… over. It's over! You did it, you guys! You actually did it! We did… but we don't have much longer to last in this world. Just remember to call on us whenever you need help. We'll lend you what power we can. Anytime, anyplace. It's a promise! Good luck with what you're dealing with, too. It seems complicated… but give it your best! Yeah… don't worry about that. Rest well, Magical Girls.Tiphereth's Realization is my favorite in the game, in large part because the last fight is just a giant playable cutscene. It's not a very hard Realization by any means, with the trickiest part being the second battle of the marathon, but goddamn it's got style.
VIDEO
Music: STOP
And I want nothing more. It has been, it still is, faithful to me.Music: TipherethStory
Are you feeling better now? I dunno. I do kinda feel relieved, but that didn’t really feel like myself. It’s good you vented out your feelings, at least. I’m, uh… sorry about calling you a fake and stuff earlier. I don’t mind. I’ve already gone through numerous repeats carrying someone’s memories. I’m not sure if I really am the same as my past self anymore. So you aren’t wrong on that account. But… Are you okay with losing your old self completely? Why’re you so serious about it? And I don’t mind if I’m stuck here as a librarian. I’m good as long as I actually exist here and that I think. Every one of us has our own worth and meaning simply by existing. …Even for a man like me, who holds zero expectation? I’m sure you do. I’m honestly not very confident even though I speak like I know better. But I still wanna have faith. You’re free to believe whatever you want, right? Yep, right you are.Music: Lobby
We've done it! With Natural Sciences fully realized, we get the Jester of Nihil's Abnormality Pages and finally grab some E.G.O for Tiphereth.
As far as Abnormality Pages go, Magical Girls is… bad. It marks our highest-cost page with a Magical symbol, and when that page loses clashes we get stacks towards an overall goal of… 5 Protection a turn and immunity to status ailments. That's really not very good, particularly since high-cost pages tend to be our clash winners. It does also give the enemy some chip status effects on hitting the selected Librarian, but neither of these effects is worth a level 2 Abnormality Page.
Void is much more interesting, though it requires a specific build to be effective. It gives us a copy of a page which will remove our entire hand from play, in exchange for 1 Strength and Endurance per page removed every turn after that. The page also comes with us into additional acts, meaning it can be helpful in every combat in a reception after it's chosen. The best way to use it is alongside the Thumb's ammunition generation engine to get a lot of free pages to toss, so that we can get the benefits without removing anything strong from play; but it's also possible to use in more normal decks to stabilize into a couple of consistent attacks, like Bishop's deck back in Malkuth's realization did. The main problem is that this is a Level 3 Abnormality Page, and thus by the time we get to it the fight's probably already over.
The same can also be said of Nix, in that by the time we get to it the fight's probably already over—but this is for a very different reason. Nix requires us to pick four very specific negative Abnormality Pages and in exchange will drop off the negative effects of each of them, turning one person on Tiphereth's floor into an all-powerful god capable of ending anyone in their path as long as they can't null Power gain/loss. It is delightfully nuts, especially when stacked with Lone Fixer and Remembrance for maximum oomph.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Still making that noise, huh? They've both been catatonic since we came back to our senses. I believe they're overloaded. Well, they'll get over it eventually. You guys did a good job out there. Speaking of which… did anyone see where Angela went? Come to think of it, she just stopped responding part of the way through that last fight. I decided to leave once it was clear you would win… bearing witness to such absurdity was beyond me. You didn't even watch to the end? But that was the best part..! aaaaaheywait …Does that mean you get it now, boss? I wouldn't go that far… but I should at least tell you guys what happened, huh? Definitely! And then maybe you'll want to watch one of our shows with us?! Leeeet's not get too carried away. There's still a lot to get done around here, after all.Next time, on Library of Ruina
"People have been committing sins since long ago. "Why do they commit sins, knowing it's wrong?"" Gebura's long-awaited Realization is ready. This battle cleans up Xiao's mess. This fight deals with Yan's mess. I think the R Corp situation qualifies as Nikolai's mess… As for the Color… she can clean up her own mess.Videos
Tiphereth 6
Tiphereth Realization (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)
New E.G.O Pages
Last edited by TeeQueue on Wed May 31, 2023 7:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
Music
TipherethBattle01
TipherethBattle02
TipherethBattle03
TipherethStory
Abnormality Pages
Level 1
There's kind of two modes with Tiphereth's Abnormality pages: Nix builds and Everything Else. For Nix Builds, we want to go for Hate/Despair/Greed/Wrath and then finish with Nix, making them kind of self explanatory. For other strategies, none of those four pages is worth our consideration aside from possibly Greed.
Of the remainder of Level 1 Abnormality pages, Blades Whetted by Teardrops is a clear winner. Against nearly any enemy in SotC, this effect will cut 12 HP off of the enemy each time it activates. Factoring in that Frontal Assault and Graze The Grass both have a 1-2 and 2-3 Pierce die on them respectively, it's a good way to get value out of pages that we'll be playing a lot of anyways. Love is great sustain so long as we can win clashes, and Justice is at its best in single-target fights as it lets us get a decent amount of bonus damage. Really, only Blessing is kind of meh, and only because the defense comes the turn after our Librarian's been bonked.
Level 2
Unfortunately, Tiphereth's Level 2 Abnormality Pages kind of fall flat. Of them, the best two are Intemperance and Greed. Greed should go on whoever grabbed Love, giving them even more value on every Clash they win, while Intemperance should go on someone different, while it seems like it may be built for Singular Strike users, it's actually better if the Librarian using it can follow up with more attacks—I'd put it on someone who has pages with chunky lead Evade dice, since they can roll multiple times and each one will have a 25% chance of wiping the enemy's page. Notably, it can also wipe out all of an enemy's stockpiled Counter dice should the 25% chance come up on a one-sided attack.
Of the rest, Road to Happiness is inoffensive, but Endurance is usually inferior to Strength. Companion can give us decent sustain if we can control who defeats the Companion, but it's situational and completely worthless against big single target fights. Wrath and Magical Girls are both bad, but if we ever get hit with the dreaded Companion/Wrath/Magical Girls Floor Emotion 4 pick, it's best to pick Magical Girls against solo targets and Companion against multiple enemy fights.
Level 3
There is a simple flowchart to follow when picking a Tiphereth Level 3 Abnormality page:
If you're using Nix strats, you select Nix.
If you've got a Librarian set up to abuse Void, you select Void.
In all other cases, select Acidic Sludge. Congratulations, you are playing Tiphereth optimally.
E.G.O.
In the Name of Love and Hate is an honest page in a game full of cheaters. It's nice and chunky as any good Summation Mass Attack should be, and while it'll delete the enemy's pages just fine it lacks the broken capabilities of some other E.G.O pages that exist. Still, sometimes all we need is a really big mallet that hits everyone—and Love and Hate does that just fine.
The Sword Sharpened with Tears is the only E.G.O on this floor that isn't a Mass Attack, and in exchange for being a single target Ranged page it gains the ability to seal up to two of an enemy's Speed Dice on hit. This leaves them incredibly vulnerable to follow-up attacks on the next turn. The Pierce type on its dice make it work well in a Wedge+Stiletto build alongside Blades Whetted by Teardrops.
Gold Rush is a Mass Individual page that gets better the more enemies there are. The most important thing to know about it is that its On Hit effect applies for each enemy hit. In a fight against 5 opponents, this thing is a beast that will pay for itself and give us 5 Strength next turn if we target properly. In a fight against a single opponent, its middling reward for hitting would make it not worth picking over the other E.G.O available here.
Blind Rage is the final keystone of the Nix strategy, and is usually picked up as quickly as possible to accomplish the dual purpose of killing off our remaining Librarians while also shutting the enemy down hard. Its three dice are very powerful for a Mass Individual, but the drawback means that it's never worth picking unless we want our entire team to get blasted half to death as well.
Lastly, there's Nihil. If we can carefully control our hand size, being able to play this while having 0 pages in hand will completely lock down the entire enemy team by giving them -4 Power on all rolls on top of Paralysis for two turns straight. It's particularly powerful in solo strategies since the second turn will give us more than enough time to get our coins back and play it again, but this requires careful deck and hand management in order to ensure we always have exactly enough resources to use. Anyone who has ever played Infernities can tell you that this is much harder in practice than it ever appears on paper.
Final Thoughts
Tiphereth is not a floor you play because you want to get carried by broken Abnormality pages or overwhelmingly powerful E.G.O. Most of its tools reward already playing the basic game well, and she doesn't have a lot in terms of ways to abuse the game's systems in order to give herself an overwhelming advantage. She's a floor that rewards playing the basic game well and doesn't give any easy boosts to level the playing field against difficult opponents. Because of this, she's not as well liked as most floors outside of her one gimmick, Nix. Nix itself is also incredibly powerful, but as the game goes on we'll see more things like Discipline that negate Power gain or loss, and that effect can render all of Nix's shenanigans completely worthless.
Ultimately, outside of her gimmick strategy Tiphereth is a floor to play when you want to show off your own skill at the game. She has a lot of options for Level 1 Abnormality pages, and three of her E.G.O are situationally really good, but her anemic Level 2 Abnormality pages mean she lacks the sick synergies that most of the other floors have which enable them to shatter the difficulty curve. Just make sure that your fundamentals are good, though, and you too can show that miracles and magic are real.
Remember: Nixlight, Girlkeep, Killboss.
"That's where you're wrong Xiao! My floor has no weak cards! I believe in the heart of the cards, unlike you, relying on your burn stacks and powernull turns. Now its time to meet your end! With these 4 cards in my hand, Wrath, Greed, Hate and Despair...I summon Nihil, The Jester!"
"No...THATS IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Now...Nihil, OBLITERATE!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
(Tipereth learned this while watching Omni and Chinely play yu-gi-oh)
"No...THATS IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Now...Nihil, OBLITERATE!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
(Tipereth learned this while watching Omni and Chinely play yu-gi-oh)
Book 41.5: Small Story 5
Music: Lobby
HAHAHAHA!! Gather 'round, gather 'round! It's barbecuing time, and I've been preparing this meat for days just in case!
…Cow meat?
Chicken! It's much more delicious if you do it right!
The steak lovers of the world are crying to hear that. Still, nice to have some time off.
Those of us smart enough to avoid extra duties, anyways~ What even happened?
You felt that rumbling earlier, didn't you? And then our head librarians all got called up to Tiphereth's floor… It's obvious, isn't it?
Oh! They must have had a kickin' crazy party, so she needed help with the cleanup!
I'm actually impressed by how close that was.
Do not seek a reason for respite. Simply appreciate what time we have.
It's too bad that the upper layers couldn't join us… though we won't say no to more meat.
Ehhh, screw 'em. We're the ones who've had to deal with the hardest stuff, anyways~
Is that the attitude you should have towards your former companions..?
Walling off your empathy and making light of your coworker's suffering is a valuable asset for any agent.
If that's the case, maybe the clerks had it better after all…
That's absolutely not the case.
VIDEO
Music: TipherethStory
…Ah, is this the right shelf?
That’s the one. Sort the books in order, please.
This one goes here… Malkuth? Could you bring me that book over there?
Got it! There are lots of difficult-looking books here~
…Why are we on this floor to help with work like this.
What other option do I have! I suddenly got a huge pile of books to organize, and the only vacant shelves are high up there… But, getting up there with the books… is a tough task to do on my own.
I usually get help from Chesed and Gebura, but they both seemed busy today.
And Roland is nowhere to be seen. Where did that beanpole go!
Oh, I saw Roland go upstairs some time ago, in fact.
He must’ve had some business there, I guess…
We looked like we had a lot of free time to you, huh…
…
Get a grip, Netzach! Tiphereth approached us to ask for help for the first time, you know?
She rarely came over to the Upper Layer back in the days, so it was hard for me to see her. I’m actually happy she came to us this time, you know?
Yeah, your department was at the very top, so you must have had even fewer chances to see her.
Right. We were occupied with our work, too.
You know how Chesed is. Librarians from other floors drop by to enjoy his coffee all the time, and he’s always happy to oblige… And Gebura’s been sitting still with her eyes closed for some time. I’m not sure if she’s sleeping or meditating.
Gebura’s been meditating often ever since she woke up here. Maybe she’s got lots of stuff to think about?
Maybe. I’d feel bad for invading her private moments too many times just to ask for help with errands… It’s not like I’m ignoring you or anything! You don’t… have to help if you don’t wanna.
Don’t you worry. Netzach may be a bellyacher, but he’s not hesitant to lend a hand.
You’re certainly dealing with books on advanced subject matter as Roland said. Some are quite difficult to comprehend, even for me.
What was that? Are you treating me like a child like that beanpole did?
I did not intend to belittle you. It’s only…
You’re worried that I might have a real hard time trying to understand all these, right? I never had proper education, unlike you all.
…Yes, that is the case. I did not mean to pity you, but… are you really okay with this?
I kinda am upset, if you ask me. And the question could be taken as mockery, if I wanted to take it that way. I can brush it off because I know you’re not the kind of person to throw jabs at me, Yesod.
The Upper Layer Syndrome…
…Look, I’m sorry about that! I was immature back then… And I thought my opinions were always right. But not anymore. I’m still good at what I do, but now I admit that you aren’t half bad, either. That doesn’t mean I want to be on friendlier terms with you all to make up for the past, don’t get me wrong! All I ask is that you don’t feel so pressured about your relationships with me. We’re fine the way it is now.
You must have changed your way of thinking quite a bit.
Hmph, it’s a perk of being more mature.
Anyway… I didn’t take offense at what you said, Yesod. I’m actually glad that you seem to get how hard I’m trying, if you ask me. I’m the one who read all the books here, figured out what they’re about, and labeled them, after all.
You’re very positive, aren’t you?
I’m not. I would’ve been furious if someone else asked that.
…Alright, this is the last one for now. And…
Thanks for the help, guys.
Music : GeburaStory
…………
Why're you sneaking around like that?
Ah… well, I… that is…
I was wondering what you were thinking about while you were seated there, ma'am.
…That so? Why not. I've got a moment.
Videos
Small Story 5
Music: Lobby
HAHAHAHA!! Gather 'round, gather 'round! It's barbecuing time, and I've been preparing this meat for days just in case! …Cow meat? Chicken! It's much more delicious if you do it right! The steak lovers of the world are crying to hear that. Still, nice to have some time off. Those of us smart enough to avoid extra duties, anyways~ What even happened? You felt that rumbling earlier, didn't you? And then our head librarians all got called up to Tiphereth's floor… It's obvious, isn't it? Oh! They must have had a kickin' crazy party, so she needed help with the cleanup! I'm actually impressed by how close that was. Do not seek a reason for respite. Simply appreciate what time we have. It's too bad that the upper layers couldn't join us… though we won't say no to more meat. Ehhh, screw 'em. We're the ones who've had to deal with the hardest stuff, anyways~ Is that the attitude you should have towards your former companions..? Walling off your empathy and making light of your coworker's suffering is a valuable asset for any agent. If that's the case, maybe the clerks had it better after all… That's absolutely not the case.VIDEO
Music: TipherethStory
…Ah, is this the right shelf? That’s the one. Sort the books in order, please. This one goes here… Malkuth? Could you bring me that book over there? Got it! There are lots of difficult-looking books here~ …Why are we on this floor to help with work like this. What other option do I have! I suddenly got a huge pile of books to organize, and the only vacant shelves are high up there… But, getting up there with the books… is a tough task to do on my own. I usually get help from Chesed and Gebura, but they both seemed busy today. And Roland is nowhere to be seen. Where did that beanpole go! Oh, I saw Roland go upstairs some time ago, in fact. He must’ve had some business there, I guess… We looked like we had a lot of free time to you, huh… … Get a grip, Netzach! Tiphereth approached us to ask for help for the first time, you know? She rarely came over to the Upper Layer back in the days, so it was hard for me to see her. I’m actually happy she came to us this time, you know? Yeah, your department was at the very top, so you must have had even fewer chances to see her. Right. We were occupied with our work, too. You know how Chesed is. Librarians from other floors drop by to enjoy his coffee all the time, and he’s always happy to oblige… And Gebura’s been sitting still with her eyes closed for some time. I’m not sure if she’s sleeping or meditating. Gebura’s been meditating often ever since she woke up here. Maybe she’s got lots of stuff to think about? Maybe. I’d feel bad for invading her private moments too many times just to ask for help with errands… It’s not like I’m ignoring you or anything! You don’t… have to help if you don’t wanna. Don’t you worry. Netzach may be a bellyacher, but he’s not hesitant to lend a hand. You’re certainly dealing with books on advanced subject matter as Roland said. Some are quite difficult to comprehend, even for me. What was that? Are you treating me like a child like that beanpole did? I did not intend to belittle you. It’s only… You’re worried that I might have a real hard time trying to understand all these, right? I never had proper education, unlike you all. …Yes, that is the case. I did not mean to pity you, but… are you really okay with this? I kinda am upset, if you ask me. And the question could be taken as mockery, if I wanted to take it that way. I can brush it off because I know you’re not the kind of person to throw jabs at me, Yesod. The Upper Layer Syndrome… …Look, I’m sorry about that! I was immature back then… And I thought my opinions were always right. But not anymore. I’m still good at what I do, but now I admit that you aren’t half bad, either. That doesn’t mean I want to be on friendlier terms with you all to make up for the past, don’t get me wrong! All I ask is that you don’t feel so pressured about your relationships with me. We’re fine the way it is now. You must have changed your way of thinking quite a bit. Hmph, it’s a perk of being more mature. Anyway… I didn’t take offense at what you said, Yesod. I’m actually glad that you seem to get how hard I’m trying, if you ask me. I’m the one who read all the books here, figured out what they’re about, and labeled them, after all. You’re very positive, aren’t you? I’m not. I would’ve been furious if someone else asked that. …Alright, this is the last one for now. And… Thanks for the help, guys.Music : GeburaStory
………… Why're you sneaking around like that? Ah… well, I… that is… I was wondering what you were thinking about while you were seated there, ma'am. …That so? Why not. I've got a moment.Videos
Small Story 5
Concerto 2: Gebura—Sonata
Music: Lobby
Let's not mince words. Gebura wouldn't.
VIDEO
Music: GeburaStory
I was called that back then… Meeting my past self in person reminded me of a lot of things.
…You don’t get the opportunity to confront yourself often.
I certainly brandished my blade trying to protect many friends and colleagues. Even if I couldn’t meet the expectations; even if I couldn’t save them all.
Yeah. That’s how the Red Mist was. Not a lot of people can fight solely for the sake of others.
Kali the Red Mist, Gebura the Sephirah in L Corp, and my present self—a librarian…
My three lives may not have been the same, but my spirit has carried over.
Well, do you find yourself miserable right now?
Not really. I do think it’s laughable, though. I failed to protect everyone and ended up here like this.
Still, I can say for sure that I did my best.
And that she stole the fruit of everything you risked your life to protect, didn’t she?
…She’s probably still wandering herself. Thinking about everything she went through, I honestly can’t blame her so harshly for doing what she did. So I want to reserve my judgement until I’ve seen for myself the end of the path she’s taking. If I unleashed my rage at her now, nothing would change. It’ll only perpetuate the chain of fury and vengeance.
You didn’t even get to fully protect anything in your lives. How could you move on from that like it was nothing? You always tried, but others would steal from you and take advantage of you…
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel any anger or regret.
Even though I couldn’t protect everyone, I saved the ones I could.
…
I’m not like you; I couldn’t even protect the one person at my side. I don’t have anyone left.
There’s nothing around me anymore… All that remains is myself, an incompetent and despicable opportunist…
I’ve become a lump of obstinance before I realized it…
Nothing more than a hollow life trying to wrap itself in a glossy package…
Music: Dark ambiance
Thus began the days of endlessly looking back and retracing my steps… I was on a blind rampage. I razed anything and everything that seemed even just a little suspicious.
Making gear wheels out of kidnapped people was a mistake. But, you know… I thought it’d be okay since there’s plenty of humans in the City anyhow.
So… You don’t know anything about it?
I don’t! I’m begging you, please… I have a family. I still have a daughter to raise…
…
And those gears sitting back there must’ve had their own families, too.
I’m this close to bringing back my son. The puppets in this place were all made of children who’d already died…
So you’re saying that you’re ignorant of it.
Yes! That incident didn’t have anything to do with me. Can’t you just let it slide…? Please! My son is over there; he’s calling for me…
…That thing isn’t anyone’s son.
I thought I might get something out of the big shots… All they had to show was a pathetic display of brotherhood crap. And you aren’t being much better. You seriously know nothing? I’ll happily take a lie, so get your gums flapping.
…
There is no need to play along with his aimless spite. Speak no more… Just kill us. Let’s get this over with.
…As you wish.
Don’t come any closer if you wanna live, Astolfo. I’ll cut you down if you try to stop me.
If only we could’ve moved into the Nest… It’s all my fault…
You’ve killed too many… Some may have been hopeless scum, but if you relish murdering so much… You’ll completely lose yourself!
I’m far from done. I still have a whole lot of suspects on my list.
The corpses of more people than I could ever remember piled up, forming a hill before me. The further I tried to go into the past, the taller the hill got; and it ultimately became a mountain that blocked my sight.
Astolfo was right. I couldn’t tell what was going on anymore.
That person was also right. I couldn’t see ahead. This whole time, I was only looking behind.
Do I really want to find a lead to the past events and take revenge? Or was I just looking for an outlet to gush this fury. Is this a simple release of frustration? If I get my revenge this way, what’ll be next?
Those things no longer mattered. I didn’t have the breadth of mind to think about it. In the end, I couldn’t protect her. It’s my fault…
It’s people’s fault… This City’s fault!!!
What will be left of the man who failed to save what he vowed to protect?
…An empty husk, that’s what remains.
Music: Ominous rumbling
You’re just pretending to be cool-headed. I curse this City for taking everything from me… and I loathe myself for letting it happen. There’s no way you can humbly be yourself in this damned world…
Roland. When raging wrath is about to engulf you, you must quench it and forge it into your weapon. You’ll learn to temper it soon enough.
Next time, on Library of Ruina: Roland tries to kill us because he's got some issues to work through and we only know one form of therapy.
Videos
Gebura 5
Music: Lobby
Let's not mince words. Gebura wouldn't.
VIDEO
Music: GeburaStory
I was called that back then… Meeting my past self in person reminded me of a lot of things. …You don’t get the opportunity to confront yourself often. I certainly brandished my blade trying to protect many friends and colleagues. Even if I couldn’t meet the expectations; even if I couldn’t save them all. Yeah. That’s how the Red Mist was. Not a lot of people can fight solely for the sake of others. Kali the Red Mist, Gebura the Sephirah in L Corp, and my present self—a librarian… My three lives may not have been the same, but my spirit has carried over. Well, do you find yourself miserable right now? Not really. I do think it’s laughable, though. I failed to protect everyone and ended up here like this. Still, I can say for sure that I did my best. And that she stole the fruit of everything you risked your life to protect, didn’t she? …She’s probably still wandering herself. Thinking about everything she went through, I honestly can’t blame her so harshly for doing what she did. So I want to reserve my judgement until I’ve seen for myself the end of the path she’s taking. If I unleashed my rage at her now, nothing would change. It’ll only perpetuate the chain of fury and vengeance. You didn’t even get to fully protect anything in your lives. How could you move on from that like it was nothing? You always tried, but others would steal from you and take advantage of you… I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel any anger or regret. Even though I couldn’t protect everyone, I saved the ones I could. … I’m not like you; I couldn’t even protect the one person at my side. I don’t have anyone left. There’s nothing around me anymore… All that remains is myself, an incompetent and despicable opportunist… I’ve become a lump of obstinance before I realized it… Nothing more than a hollow life trying to wrap itself in a glossy package…Music: Dark ambiance
Thus began the days of endlessly looking back and retracing my steps… I was on a blind rampage. I razed anything and everything that seemed even just a little suspicious. Making gear wheels out of kidnapped people was a mistake. But, you know… I thought it’d be okay since there’s plenty of humans in the City anyhow. So… You don’t know anything about it? I don’t! I’m begging you, please… I have a family. I still have a daughter to raise… … And those gears sitting back there must’ve had their own families, too. I’m this close to bringing back my son. The puppets in this place were all made of children who’d already died… So you’re saying that you’re ignorant of it. Yes! That incident didn’t have anything to do with me. Can’t you just let it slide…? Please! My son is over there; he’s calling for me… …That thing isn’t anyone’s son. I thought I might get something out of the big shots… All they had to show was a pathetic display of brotherhood crap. And you aren’t being much better. You seriously know nothing? I’ll happily take a lie, so get your gums flapping. … There is no need to play along with his aimless spite. Speak no more… Just kill us. Let’s get this over with. …As you wish. Don’t come any closer if you wanna live, Astolfo. I’ll cut you down if you try to stop me. If only we could’ve moved into the Nest… It’s all my fault… You’ve killed too many… Some may have been hopeless scum, but if you relish murdering so much… You’ll completely lose yourself! I’m far from done. I still have a whole lot of suspects on my list. The corpses of more people than I could ever remember piled up, forming a hill before me. The further I tried to go into the past, the taller the hill got; and it ultimately became a mountain that blocked my sight. Astolfo was right. I couldn’t tell what was going on anymore. That person was also right. I couldn’t see ahead. This whole time, I was only looking behind. Do I really want to find a lead to the past events and take revenge? Or was I just looking for an outlet to gush this fury. Is this a simple release of frustration? If I get my revenge this way, what’ll be next? Those things no longer mattered. I didn’t have the breadth of mind to think about it. In the end, I couldn’t protect her. It’s my fault… It’s people’s fault… This City’s fault!!! What will be left of the man who failed to save what he vowed to protect? …An empty husk, that’s what remains.Music: Ominous rumbling
You’re just pretending to be cool-headed. I curse this City for taking everything from me… and I loathe myself for letting it happen. There’s no way you can humbly be yourself in this damned world… Roland. When raging wrath is about to engulf you, you must quench it and forge it into your weapon. You’ll learn to temper it soon enough.Next time, on Library of Ruina: Roland tries to kill us because he's got some issues to work through and we only know one form of therapy.
Videos
Gebura 5
Quick update: I've made it through ~100 of the roughly 350 screenshots that I took for this update, because Wolf has 2 phases, and MosB has 3 phases, and Nosferatu has 2 phases, and Gebura why do you not have any simple one-phase Abnormalities, seriously. Why are you like this? 
On the upside, it seems I have overtime for the next conceivable future, so I'll be working on the thread for 6 days a week instead of the usual five. Just letting you guys know about the delay.
On the upside, it seems I have overtime for the next conceivable future, so I'll be working on the thread for 6 days a week instead of the usual five. Just letting you guys know about the delay.
Concerto 2: Gebura—Adagio
Before anything else, let's just get this out of the way:
Retry Count: 8
To be clear: this fight is not hard. The opening is a little tricky, but overall it's perfectly fine if we just do what the game expects and come in with crazy-busted Red Mist strats. However, I decided to try not using an all-in TRM build and got destroyed five times in a row. I know this is doable, but I couldn't manage to put together a run that could get over the finish line. Two hours and five losses in, I decided to just embrace dominant strategies and make something that would work.
These are all very solid builds, designed for functionality instead of elegance. Credentia Marks and Smokes targets, Tenebrais sets them on fire, BICEPS and Sorcrane are generically strong builds, and Gebura has Myo attached for maximum oomph.
Music: Roland01
You think for a second you understand how crushing it is, do you..? To fail… to lose everything…
I'm familiar enough with it, yeah. The wrath is staggering.
It is… This city… anyone in it responsible… I'll kill every last one of them until I'm finally satisfied. Until my wrath is sated.
Welp… he's lost it, team. Don't bother hitting him just yet, he's copying that Little Red Mercenary bitch.
So we're guiding his pasty ass through a fight with that shadow over there, are we?
But won't that mean next he'll become the thing he wants to kill most..?
Truth born through battle, as always.
Right. Let's get to work, team.
No matter how hard I stab and break this wolf, it will recover sooner or later… an endless tale… a perfect hell, just for the me who failed.
Crimson Scar is up first, and just like Red before him, it's a problem. We need to make sure to carefully whittle down the wolf like in the first fight, but all of the numbers involved are bigger, which makes it harder to properly eyeball.
The Wolf who Lost Everything gains a new passive that adds Scars on with each attack it lands and deals bonus damage based on those stacks. That aside, the overall flow of the fight is basically the same. It does lose 200 HP, making the timing to kill it different than the original.
Crimson Scar's numbers have gotten a bit of a glow-up, and Beast Hunt's defensive die has become a second offensive one. He's a bit stronger, which is important for us.
This is because the Wolf is also a bit stronger than before. It still has that Counter die which grants Strength as well, though it's a 5-9 now instead of a 4-8.
Gebura, I've noticed the situation, and am here to—
Great. I'll let you know if we need anything.
You don't need my assistance?
Hearing too many voices just dulls the senses, and we've fought these Abnormalities enough to know 'em by heart.
What about if there are any changes because of their merge with Roland's psyche?
We'll figure it out. None of us really get it by being told anyways, right?
Very well. I shall observe your effort until you request aid.
My plan for this opening turn is to only clash directly with the Wolf, to keep from dealing too much damage while getting as much emotion as I can.
I'll crush you… kill you… tear you apart for what you've done.
We get a bit lucky here, as Crimson Scar doesn't lose any clashes to the counter dice.
You guys know how it works. Focus on keeping this thing off of Red's ass until she gets the kill.
I had a family, you bastard… And you robbed me of it.
Enemy's marked for disposal. Following up, sis?
It's… on the to do list.
Amateurs… get out of my way, or I'll cut you down too.
You say that like your wrath would let you discriminate between targets.
You're right… anything standing between me and that bastard who took everything from me will get mowed down, too.
That's only because you can't control your rage yet. You'll learn in time.
Now that we've taken a couple of hits from the Wolf, let's take a look at Scars.
Scars is a very powerful status ailment. Not only does the Wolf get bonus damage against anyone with stacks, or +2 Power against opponents with 4 or more stacks of it, it also gives Bleed equal to the number of stacks we have—and if we hit 6 or more, we lose 20% of our max HP with no questions asked. It's important to not let any one person get too beaten up by the Wolf, especially Crimson Scar.
Strike Without Hesitation has gotten much better in the refight, changing to a Mass-Individual page with a single 10-10 roll, meaning it'll eat at most one die from any page it hits while also having much better chances of landing a hit on the Wolf itself.
I continue the plan, giving Gebura two of the clashes and both BICEPS and Sorcrane one of the remaining two—I want Gebura to hit Emotion Level 4 ASAP, and spread out our other clash opportunities evenly.
We're taking a break. You two take point, alright?
Just leave it to us.
And the gun in our backs?
We're doing Roland a solid. Red couldn't beat that Wolf herself either, after all.
Affirmative.
Die… die..! DIE!!!
Geez, that hurts!
One of the two Marks on the Wolf applies to anyone targeted by Crimson Scar's attack, meaning that we all take 15 damage instead of 10.
This son of a bitch… It won't ever end, will it…
Two failed attacks means 2 Strength on the Wolf. Given that Red's got 6 next turn, that's probably fine.
Not as long as you can't temper that rage and focus it properly, it won't.
Don't talk like you're better than me, when you've got scars the same as I do.
Why don't you lower that hood, and we'll see who's got more?
…
Thought so.
It feels like we've made good progress, ma'am. Just a little more and we should be through this.
The grass is growing thin. Don't overeat.
That feeling… they're coming to speak to you. Those damned whispers… telling you whose fault it all is, demanding you destroy them.
That's right. And while your view gets muddled and murky, it's important to keep in mind who your enemy is.
My enemy… that wolf bastard.
It's going to howl.
Thanks… but we know.
Cunning little shits, aren't you?
We try.
Howl is still kind of a joke of an attack. A 9-11 Summation Mass Attack isn't a threat against any of our stronger combat pages, even with the +2 Strength that Wolf has this turn.
Both of Crimson Scar's attacks are pointed at the Howl die, so she doesn't have any clashes to worry about and her his Speed outspeeds everything but Gebura's infinite die. Eyeballing it, I figure that this should be fine after Gebura softens up the Wolf just a little bit more with a Spear.
Outside of blocking Howl, I have no reason to play the rest of these pages. We're running a fine line, and if Crimson Scar doesn't kill the Wolf on his turn, she's going to rage and we're all probably dead.
The safer play, outside of the first Spear, would be to sit here and tank the Howl. It wouldn't have dealt me much damage, the in-between round healing would have gotten rid of it, and if we didn't defeat the Wolf this turn then Crimson Scar would likely finish it off on the next turn with his Mass Attack. Unfortunately, I'm playing tilted—the #1 way to ensure poor decisions.
The howling of that beast… the bastards that make up this city, killing whoever they like.
Everyone fall back. We can't afford to hit this thing any more.
Yes, boss!
I'll kill you over and over again, ripping you apart every time you rise up until this entire city feels my wrath.
You took everything from me… And now I'll carve it into your flesh.
The fear… of a real apex predator.
I've confirmed the kill. He's vanquished the wolf.
Don't get comfy just yet. It's nowhere near done.
Don't worry boss, I'm keeping my guaaaaagh—!!
…The hell?
Mmh… Feeling a bit bloated. I thought someone that size would make a good meal, but…
Aha. When he changed, he immediately ate Sorcrane…
So he became what he hated in the end.
Isn't it obvious that it couldn't be helped..? I'm part of this city too, in the end… we all are.
The biggest change in Cobalt Scar's fight is the instant swallow effect—it puts us into a DPS check where we need to deal 250 total Stagger damage to an enemy with all Fatal resistances.. A total of 125 damage. However, because we can't set up for this check with things like Smoke or Mark it becomes very difficult to succeed. Like in the first phase, he can also inflict Scars with his attacks.
All three of his dice this turn are used for A Wolf is About! Because the counter dice all give Strength should they win a clash against us, losing even one clash here can be devastating—we lose the damage we need to save Sorcrane, we take a hit ourselves, and the boss gets more power on his next turn.
Making matters worse, most of the team only has 2 Light to play with. We can't use any of our big attacks. This is because I overspent so much Light last turn—even though the pages didn't get used from the phase transition, we still paid the Light costs. This was completely avoidable, but two hours into this fight I've broken the #1 rule of card games:
Never play one while you're exhausted and tilted. You'll make mistakes you normally wouldn't and make tough situations into impossible ones.
This isn't good… We may have to apologize to Sorcrane later.
Don't let it get to you. Even I miscalculated this time.
You say that, but you're the only one with the energy left to go all out.
It's been too long since we've had a meal this rough.
Now, don't be like that… Eating. Being eaten. It's the destiny of those in this damned City…
It isn't over 'til it's over, you three. Do your best to the very end.
The grass remains.
We're not going to make it! If I just had time to get a mark on this thing…
Dammit! Spit her back out already!
Mh… mm..!
GULP!
Ah… But I'm still so hungry…
Because of the overextension at the end of Crimson Scar, we lose Sorcrane to the damage check.
Stop... looking at me like that. I told you… it couldn't be helped..!
Do you really think we're going to let you get away with a weak excuse like that?!
No chance in hell. Everyone, show this guy how you're supposed to direct your wrath.
On this turn, Cobalt Scar uses proper Combat Pages, though none of them are particularly dangerous. The bigger problem is that he'll eat another one of our units if we don't Stagger him this turn.
With Credentia's Mark in place, that shouldn't be an issue this time.
When you're angry, it's vital to pinpoint the source of that anger. Otherwise, you run rampant, and harm those you shouldn't.
I've only done what's normal for the City! Everyone I've killed deserved it.
Did they, now?
Of course… I'm not a bad wolf. I've only done what everyone expected… So I'm not bad…
Oh, you're terrible alright… same as me, we're both killers.
We all grow up brutal in the end… no matter what we wanted, it's not our fault.
So we claw and tear each others' throats out, as wolves—
Hey! Don't cut in, BICEPS!
Negative. You were resonating with the enemy.
Ugh… yeah, I can hear the wolf a little, but I know how to—
Disregard it entirely. Focus only on the meal before you.
Ugh.
Then you don't mind if I handle that Wolf that's come to the surface, right?
Have it your way, boss. I don't need their help to crush this thing.
Right… Wolves are supposed to be crushed, aren't they? Punished in every story. Then I won't hold back.
I'll chew you all up, to fill this endless gaping hole inside.
In phase 2, Big and Will be Bad Wolf no longer has the ability to inflict Scars with each hit it gets on us, trading it for the ability to stall the battle out when he loses 25% of his HP. This is basically the second form of the original fight, except for one very key difference…
Uncontrollable Instinct, seen here in its actual on-screen size, is a page with text that's nearly too small to read, so I'll explain it here. UI's 5-11 die is rolled five times in a row, meaning that no page we have access to can block it entirely without some good Evade luck. Damage is not processed on any of those attacks, and then after the five rolls are done the sum of all rolls is added together and dealt to the target as True Damage. This means that Strength will not affect the damage we take from this page, but it also means that Block dice can't blunt it, and resistances don't do anything either. Basically, this is a 'make one Librarian's life very bad' button.
Lacking any good options, I just have BICEPS eat it. We could get lucky, right?
His other two attacks aren't nearly as big of a threat, though we have Gebura handle the Bloodstained Hunts to ensure nobody's Speed Dice get broken. My goal here is to hit negative Emotion Coins so that I can have the team form up together using Mountain of Corpses.
Hey… sis? There's something I've been meaning to ask.
Is this really the time?
It's the perfect time. Do you like wolves, or do you hate them?
Whuh? I like them, obviously. They're badass.
Ah. I just remembered you saying the opposite to Red before, so I was meaning to ask…
When a mentally unstable freak is standing behind you with a shotgun, you say what'll keep you on her good side.
Good words to live by.
That head… shining like a full moon. I can't hold back any more.
Defense unsuccessful.
My anger… my sorrow… and my hunger… To quiet them…
I'll tear you to pieces!
Ghrgh-!
We didn't manage to block any of the attacks despite using Emotional Turbulence against it, so Biceps took a full 43 HP/SR damage, ignoring his resistances. This page will mess up anyone it hits given half a chance.
You're still leaving yourself open every time you strike, pup. You're so blinded you can't even see forward.
If I'm destined to be blind, then I'll consume whatever's in my path regardless.
Quit talking nonsense. You're just—
Arrogant little brats should stay quiet!
Oh, it's on.
Unfortunately, I'm bad at playing to get negative coins. We wind up hitting zone 0, so Mountain of Corpses isn't there. I take the best of what's available instead.
We also get Manifest E.G.O for Gebura this turn, but we're going to be holding onto it for later. The damage/turn requirement can get a little iffy to work around with until later.
On this turn Big and Will be Bad Wolf doesn't use Uncontrollable Instinct, so I set up some clashes and have Gebura stuff the Bloodstained Hunts again.
BICEPS needs a minute to catch his breath.
Then it's a good thing he's behind me, because I'm not letting that guy through.
Well, cutting and stabbing don't work… Don't suppose anyone can still bash his head open a bit?
Sorcrane was the Blunt specialist, and she's…
Delicious.
'Course he was. Guess he's still able to plan even in this form.
Wolves are cunning.
Ah, so you're back up. Good.
Cunning, tough, it doesn't matter. We're going to tear him apart regardless.
That heat's a little bit too much for me…
Good thing there's a rabbit right here for me to snack on.
…Hm.
Ambush has been powered up significantly, going from a 3-8 to a 6-10 base.
Engaging the enemy.
Be careful, we can't support you while it's in that form.
The second attack not being a clash isn't an error. Because the best option I had in hand was Frontal Assault, I decided to eat the 6-10 die and let Wolf heal 10 HP, so that I could then follow up with a pair of attacks that can take full advantage of Mark and the 4 Fragile stacks on him. It'll make more headway than failing to stop the clash and taking full damage anyways.
A little more… A little more and I can shove you into my maw as well..!
Preposterous.
Your fear is apparent, whipped puppy.
I don't have anything to fear… I lost everything worth worrying about when that damned music rang through the city!
Then why do you kill?
Because that's the only option in this city! It's kill or be killed.
Like I said. A frightened puppy.
On the second turn of Ambush, I make a questionable decision. I remember that I was thinking it might be possible to kill BICEPS here and force a bad Emotion Level so that I can pick up Mountain of Corpses, so it might have been on purpose. I also remember being extremely tired, so I might have also tried deciding against it and pressing space instead of actually moving? I don't actually remember. The point is…
You fear death. That's why you're weak.
BICEPS, are you about to do something stupid?
I'm putting a dog in its place.
I decide to do nothing this turn instead of going for the kill. I honestly have no idea why, since the 5 Protection on BICEPS means that he isn't killable this turn no matter what happens, and the 20 HP two Ambush will heal back are a lot to chew through with our largely Slash and Pierce-focused team.
You already look like a piece of raw meat… get in my stomach, you rabbit.
…Hmph. I thought so.
You thought… what?
That Abnormality is a coward. It hides its fangs, knowing that it will be punished for stepping out of line. But even when it cuts loose… that cowardice is there, because it fears the death at the end of its story.
Rabbits don't fear death… but you do. That's why you fight so fiercely… but it makes you foolish.
I'll… show you foolish!
Everyone look out, he's about to cry!
Holy shit, you made him cry? Badass.
Not that kind of cry. Swords up, team.
Howl is honestly a nonissue, 15-15 summation is easy to block as long as we have Light, and now that the fight's past the early stages we should almost always have at least 3. The bigger issue here is another Uncontrollable Instinct coming out, targeting Tenebrais.
What I should have done here was have Gebura (who is still at full HP/SR) take it with Spear from her infinity die, letting her be hit by 2 of the attacks at most. Instead, I throw a Fervid Emotions out and rely on the Counter die to take the hits for a Librarian on the verge of Staggering.
No one will care who I am… My name will forever be obscured in this hellhole…
So I'll do whatever I like, thank you!
It's too loud, I can't-!
Bad luck, here. Incredibly poor rolls on Bulky Impact (our range with it was 12-21, with an average result of 16.5) for Credentia means we don't get to hit him with it.
And Tenebrais is Staggered right after by that Uncontrollable Instinct.
Jeez! And you just took one of these, BICEPS?!
Recovery was required.
No shit it was..!
The closer we get to finishing him off, the more he bucks around… but he can't survive forever.
About that, ma'am… His howl threw me off, so I can't intercept his strike…
That Bulky Impact fail gets even worse for us, as Ferocious Fangs undoes almost all of our forward progress this turn.
Sorry!
All I've done is eat the worthless meat that society left out to rot! It was a public service!
Our overall good clashes gives us Absorption as our final Abnormality Page, which means the Mountain of Corpses easy-mode strategy is impossible now. Paradoxically, being very bad at being bad at the game is turning out to make life harder for me.
On the next turn, Credentia's low speed makes me decide to give her the turn off, as I figure BICEPS and Gebura have enough damage output to take care of his remaining HP before he has a chance to touch Credentia.
If nobody remembers me… I should just do what I want. It'll all be swept away as the actions of a wolf, in the end.
Just because you can dodge the responsibility for something doesn't make it okay.
There was a 33% chance of this attack ending the fight outright.
Who cares if something is okay?! It's enough if it satisfies me for just a minute!
But you're still empty, in the end.
BICEPS is getting +2 to all his Blunt die rolls, so this was actually a 6-10 vs a 6-10, a roughly 48% chance to end the fight here as well. The next attack is a 5-9 vs a 4-8, which gives us a 60% chance to win outright and phase the enemy, and additional 16% odds of just getting a draw. If the enemy does manage to win, he'd have to roll max damage in order to kill BICEPS—the overall odds of this happening are 12%.
Damn.
Delicious… More… MORE!
I'll chew you all up!!!
He's healed back almost everything we did to him..!
Then we'll just tear him apart again.
Tch… he got away again. Who's he after?
I can't see a thing… Sis?
Yeah. I got him.
You're looking like you're on your last legs as well… Come on. Let's end this.
I couldn't agree more.
You saunter in here, run your goddamn mouth to the boss, make us fight your battle for you, and then you kill two of us with some cheap shots and act like it makes you hot shit?!
You can't even consider how I feel, being forced into this position… Losing every single person I cared about. Being left empty. Hollow.
Yeah. Sounds tough.
Now do it again, and then call me.
Do it again..? I lost my path after the first time…
Music: Roland02
Ah… shut up, you. Nothing you're saying makes sense anyways..!
He's changing again. We can't afford to take any more losses, either.
Then we won't. I'm not done pummeling him for killing BICEPS and Sorcrane off like that.
Just keep that temper under control, kid. There's still a long way to go.
After an absolutely botched opening, I've now spent entirely too much time dealing with Cobalt Scar and Big and Will be Bad Wolf. I've also hit all of the Floor Emotion levels that give Abnormality Pages, meaning my initial Mountain of Corpses strategy has gone out the window. This fight has, by every definition, gone sideways.
There's only one thing left to do: Pick ourselves up and play better.
Next time, on Library of Ruina: The salty runback.
Before anything else, let's just get this out of the way:
Retry Count: 8
To be clear: this fight is not hard. The opening is a little tricky, but overall it's perfectly fine if we just do what the game expects and come in with crazy-busted Red Mist strats. However, I decided to try not using an all-in TRM build and got destroyed five times in a row. I know this is doable, but I couldn't manage to put together a run that could get over the finish line. Two hours and five losses in, I decided to just embrace dominant strategies and make something that would work.
These are all very solid builds, designed for functionality instead of elegance. Credentia Marks and Smokes targets, Tenebrais sets them on fire, BICEPS and Sorcrane are generically strong builds, and Gebura has Myo attached for maximum oomph.
Music: Roland01
You think for a second you understand how crushing it is, do you..? To fail… to lose everything… I'm familiar enough with it, yeah. The wrath is staggering. It is… This city… anyone in it responsible… I'll kill every last one of them until I'm finally satisfied. Until my wrath is sated. Welp… he's lost it, team. Don't bother hitting him just yet, he's copying that Little Red Mercenary bitch. So we're guiding his pasty ass through a fight with that shadow over there, are we? But won't that mean next he'll become the thing he wants to kill most..? Truth born through battle, as always. Right. Let's get to work, team. No matter how hard I stab and break this wolf, it will recover sooner or later… an endless tale… a perfect hell, just for the me who failed.Crimson Scar wrote:
Crimson Scar is up first, and just like Red before him, it's a problem. We need to make sure to carefully whittle down the wolf like in the first fight, but all of the numbers involved are bigger, which makes it harder to properly eyeball.
The Wolf who Lost Everything gains a new passive that adds Scars on with each attack it lands and deals bonus damage based on those stacks. That aside, the overall flow of the fight is basically the same. It does lose 200 HP, making the timing to kill it different than the original.
Crimson Scar's numbers have gotten a bit of a glow-up, and Beast Hunt's defensive die has become a second offensive one. He's a bit stronger, which is important for us.
This is because the Wolf is also a bit stronger than before. It still has that Counter die which grants Strength as well, though it's a 5-9 now instead of a 4-8.
Gebura, I've noticed the situation, and am here to— Great. I'll let you know if we need anything. You don't need my assistance? Hearing too many voices just dulls the senses, and we've fought these Abnormalities enough to know 'em by heart. What about if there are any changes because of their merge with Roland's psyche? We'll figure it out. None of us really get it by being told anyways, right? Very well. I shall observe your effort until you request aid.My plan for this opening turn is to only clash directly with the Wolf, to keep from dealing too much damage while getting as much emotion as I can.
I'll crush you… kill you… tear you apart for what you've done.We get a bit lucky here, as Crimson Scar doesn't lose any clashes to the counter dice.
You guys know how it works. Focus on keeping this thing off of Red's ass until she gets the kill. I had a family, you bastard… And you robbed me of it. Enemy's marked for disposal. Following up, sis? It's… on the to do list. Amateurs… get out of my way, or I'll cut you down too. You say that like your wrath would let you discriminate between targets. You're right… anything standing between me and that bastard who took everything from me will get mowed down, too. That's only because you can't control your rage yet. You'll learn in time.Now that we've taken a couple of hits from the Wolf, let's take a look at Scars.
Scars is a very powerful status ailment. Not only does the Wolf get bonus damage against anyone with stacks, or +2 Power against opponents with 4 or more stacks of it, it also gives Bleed equal to the number of stacks we have—and if we hit 6 or more, we lose 20% of our max HP with no questions asked. It's important to not let any one person get too beaten up by the Wolf, especially Crimson Scar.
Strike Without Hesitation has gotten much better in the refight, changing to a Mass-Individual page with a single 10-10 roll, meaning it'll eat at most one die from any page it hits while also having much better chances of landing a hit on the Wolf itself.
I continue the plan, giving Gebura two of the clashes and both BICEPS and Sorcrane one of the remaining two—I want Gebura to hit Emotion Level 4 ASAP, and spread out our other clash opportunities evenly.
We're taking a break. You two take point, alright? Just leave it to us. And the gun in our backs? We're doing Roland a solid. Red couldn't beat that Wolf herself either, after all. Affirmative. Die… die..! DIE!!! Geez, that hurts!One of the two Marks on the Wolf applies to anyone targeted by Crimson Scar's attack, meaning that we all take 15 damage instead of 10.
This son of a bitch… It won't ever end, will it…Two failed attacks means 2 Strength on the Wolf. Given that Red's got 6 next turn, that's probably fine.
Not as long as you can't temper that rage and focus it properly, it won't. Don't talk like you're better than me, when you've got scars the same as I do. Why don't you lower that hood, and we'll see who's got more? … Thought so. It feels like we've made good progress, ma'am. Just a little more and we should be through this. The grass is growing thin. Don't overeat. That feeling… they're coming to speak to you. Those damned whispers… telling you whose fault it all is, demanding you destroy them. That's right. And while your view gets muddled and murky, it's important to keep in mind who your enemy is. My enemy… that wolf bastard. It's going to howl. Thanks… but we know. Cunning little shits, aren't you? We try.Howl is still kind of a joke of an attack. A 9-11 Summation Mass Attack isn't a threat against any of our stronger combat pages, even with the +2 Strength that Wolf has this turn.
Both of Crimson Scar's attacks are pointed at the Howl die, so she doesn't have any clashes to worry about and her his Speed outspeeds everything but Gebura's infinite die. Eyeballing it, I figure that this should be fine after Gebura softens up the Wolf just a little bit more with a Spear.
Outside of blocking Howl, I have no reason to play the rest of these pages. We're running a fine line, and if Crimson Scar doesn't kill the Wolf on his turn, she's going to rage and we're all probably dead.
The safer play, outside of the first Spear, would be to sit here and tank the Howl. It wouldn't have dealt me much damage, the in-between round healing would have gotten rid of it, and if we didn't defeat the Wolf this turn then Crimson Scar would likely finish it off on the next turn with his Mass Attack. Unfortunately, I'm playing tilted—the #1 way to ensure poor decisions.
The howling of that beast… the bastards that make up this city, killing whoever they like. Everyone fall back. We can't afford to hit this thing any more. Yes, boss! I'll kill you over and over again, ripping you apart every time you rise up until this entire city feels my wrath. You took everything from me… And now I'll carve it into your flesh. The fear… of a real apex predator. I've confirmed the kill. He's vanquished the wolf. Don't get comfy just yet. It's nowhere near done. Don't worry boss, I'm keeping my guaaaaagh—!! …The hell? Mmh… Feeling a bit bloated. I thought someone that size would make a good meal, but… Aha. When he changed, he immediately ate Sorcrane… So he became what he hated in the end. Isn't it obvious that it couldn't be helped..? I'm part of this city too, in the end… we all are.Cobalt Scar wrote:
The biggest change in Cobalt Scar's fight is the instant swallow effect—it puts us into a DPS check where we need to deal 250 total Stagger damage to an enemy with all Fatal resistances.. A total of 125 damage. However, because we can't set up for this check with things like Smoke or Mark it becomes very difficult to succeed. Like in the first phase, he can also inflict Scars with his attacks.
All three of his dice this turn are used for A Wolf is About! Because the counter dice all give Strength should they win a clash against us, losing even one clash here can be devastating—we lose the damage we need to save Sorcrane, we take a hit ourselves, and the boss gets more power on his next turn.
Making matters worse, most of the team only has 2 Light to play with. We can't use any of our big attacks. This is because I overspent so much Light last turn—even though the pages didn't get used from the phase transition, we still paid the Light costs. This was completely avoidable, but two hours into this fight I've broken the #1 rule of card games:
Never play one while you're exhausted and tilted. You'll make mistakes you normally wouldn't and make tough situations into impossible ones.
This isn't good… We may have to apologize to Sorcrane later. Don't let it get to you. Even I miscalculated this time. You say that, but you're the only one with the energy left to go all out. It's been too long since we've had a meal this rough. Now, don't be like that… Eating. Being eaten. It's the destiny of those in this damned City… It isn't over 'til it's over, you three. Do your best to the very end. The grass remains. We're not going to make it! If I just had time to get a mark on this thing… Dammit! Spit her back out already! Mh… mm..! GULP! Ah… But I'm still so hungry…Because of the overextension at the end of Crimson Scar, we lose Sorcrane to the damage check.
Stop... looking at me like that. I told you… it couldn't be helped..! Do you really think we're going to let you get away with a weak excuse like that?! No chance in hell. Everyone, show this guy how you're supposed to direct your wrath.On this turn, Cobalt Scar uses proper Combat Pages, though none of them are particularly dangerous. The bigger problem is that he'll eat another one of our units if we don't Stagger him this turn.
With Credentia's Mark in place, that shouldn't be an issue this time.
When you're angry, it's vital to pinpoint the source of that anger. Otherwise, you run rampant, and harm those you shouldn't. I've only done what's normal for the City! Everyone I've killed deserved it. Did they, now? Of course… I'm not a bad wolf. I've only done what everyone expected… So I'm not bad… Oh, you're terrible alright… same as me, we're both killers. We all grow up brutal in the end… no matter what we wanted, it's not our fault. So we claw and tear each others' throats out, as wolves— Hey! Don't cut in, BICEPS! Negative. You were resonating with the enemy. Ugh… yeah, I can hear the wolf a little, but I know how to— Disregard it entirely. Focus only on the meal before you. Ugh. Then you don't mind if I handle that Wolf that's come to the surface, right? Have it your way, boss. I don't need their help to crush this thing. Right… Wolves are supposed to be crushed, aren't they? Punished in every story. Then I won't hold back. I'll chew you all up, to fill this endless gaping hole inside.In phase 2, Big and Will be Bad Wolf no longer has the ability to inflict Scars with each hit it gets on us, trading it for the ability to stall the battle out when he loses 25% of his HP. This is basically the second form of the original fight, except for one very key difference…
Uncontrollable Instinct, seen here in its actual on-screen size, is a page with text that's nearly too small to read, so I'll explain it here. UI's 5-11 die is rolled five times in a row, meaning that no page we have access to can block it entirely without some good Evade luck. Damage is not processed on any of those attacks, and then after the five rolls are done the sum of all rolls is added together and dealt to the target as True Damage. This means that Strength will not affect the damage we take from this page, but it also means that Block dice can't blunt it, and resistances don't do anything either. Basically, this is a 'make one Librarian's life very bad' button.
Lacking any good options, I just have BICEPS eat it. We could get lucky, right?
His other two attacks aren't nearly as big of a threat, though we have Gebura handle the Bloodstained Hunts to ensure nobody's Speed Dice get broken. My goal here is to hit negative Emotion Coins so that I can have the team form up together using Mountain of Corpses.
Hey… sis? There's something I've been meaning to ask. Is this really the time? It's the perfect time. Do you like wolves, or do you hate them? Whuh? I like them, obviously. They're badass. Ah. I just remembered you saying the opposite to Red before, so I was meaning to ask… When a mentally unstable freak is standing behind you with a shotgun, you say what'll keep you on her good side. Good words to live by. That head… shining like a full moon. I can't hold back any more. Defense unsuccessful. My anger… my sorrow… and my hunger… To quiet them… I'll tear you to pieces! Ghrgh-!We didn't manage to block any of the attacks despite using Emotional Turbulence against it, so Biceps took a full 43 HP/SR damage, ignoring his resistances. This page will mess up anyone it hits given half a chance.
You're still leaving yourself open every time you strike, pup. You're so blinded you can't even see forward. If I'm destined to be blind, then I'll consume whatever's in my path regardless. Quit talking nonsense. You're just— Arrogant little brats should stay quiet! Oh, it's on. Unfortunately, I'm bad at playing to get negative coins. We wind up hitting zone 0, so Mountain of Corpses isn't there. I take the best of what's available instead.
We also get Manifest E.G.O for Gebura this turn, but we're going to be holding onto it for later. The damage/turn requirement can get a little iffy to work around with until later.
On this turn Big and Will be Bad Wolf doesn't use Uncontrollable Instinct, so I set up some clashes and have Gebura stuff the Bloodstained Hunts again.
BICEPS needs a minute to catch his breath. Then it's a good thing he's behind me, because I'm not letting that guy through. Well, cutting and stabbing don't work… Don't suppose anyone can still bash his head open a bit? Sorcrane was the Blunt specialist, and she's… Delicious. 'Course he was. Guess he's still able to plan even in this form. Wolves are cunning. Ah, so you're back up. Good. Cunning, tough, it doesn't matter. We're going to tear him apart regardless. That heat's a little bit too much for me… Good thing there's a rabbit right here for me to snack on. …Hm.Ambush has been powered up significantly, going from a 3-8 to a 6-10 base.
Engaging the enemy. Be careful, we can't support you while it's in that form.The second attack not being a clash isn't an error. Because the best option I had in hand was Frontal Assault, I decided to eat the 6-10 die and let Wolf heal 10 HP, so that I could then follow up with a pair of attacks that can take full advantage of Mark and the 4 Fragile stacks on him. It'll make more headway than failing to stop the clash and taking full damage anyways.
A little more… A little more and I can shove you into my maw as well..! Preposterous. Your fear is apparent, whipped puppy. I don't have anything to fear… I lost everything worth worrying about when that damned music rang through the city! Then why do you kill? Because that's the only option in this city! It's kill or be killed. Like I said. A frightened puppy.On the second turn of Ambush, I make a questionable decision. I remember that I was thinking it might be possible to kill BICEPS here and force a bad Emotion Level so that I can pick up Mountain of Corpses, so it might have been on purpose. I also remember being extremely tired, so I might have also tried deciding against it and pressing space instead of actually moving? I don't actually remember. The point is…
You fear death. That's why you're weak. BICEPS, are you about to do something stupid? I'm putting a dog in its place.I decide to do nothing this turn instead of going for the kill. I honestly have no idea why, since the 5 Protection on BICEPS means that he isn't killable this turn no matter what happens, and the 20 HP two Ambush will heal back are a lot to chew through with our largely Slash and Pierce-focused team.
You already look like a piece of raw meat… get in my stomach, you rabbit. …Hmph. I thought so. You thought… what? That Abnormality is a coward. It hides its fangs, knowing that it will be punished for stepping out of line. But even when it cuts loose… that cowardice is there, because it fears the death at the end of its story. Rabbits don't fear death… but you do. That's why you fight so fiercely… but it makes you foolish. I'll… show you foolish! Everyone look out, he's about to cry! Holy shit, you made him cry? Badass. Not that kind of cry. Swords up, team.Howl is honestly a nonissue, 15-15 summation is easy to block as long as we have Light, and now that the fight's past the early stages we should almost always have at least 3. The bigger issue here is another Uncontrollable Instinct coming out, targeting Tenebrais.
What I should have done here was have Gebura (who is still at full HP/SR) take it with Spear from her infinity die, letting her be hit by 2 of the attacks at most. Instead, I throw a Fervid Emotions out and rely on the Counter die to take the hits for a Librarian on the verge of Staggering.
No one will care who I am… My name will forever be obscured in this hellhole… So I'll do whatever I like, thank you! It's too loud, I can't-!Bad luck, here. Incredibly poor rolls on Bulky Impact (our range with it was 12-21, with an average result of 16.5) for Credentia means we don't get to hit him with it.
And Tenebrais is Staggered right after by that Uncontrollable Instinct.
Jeez! And you just took one of these, BICEPS?! Recovery was required. No shit it was..! The closer we get to finishing him off, the more he bucks around… but he can't survive forever. About that, ma'am… His howl threw me off, so I can't intercept his strike…That Bulky Impact fail gets even worse for us, as Ferocious Fangs undoes almost all of our forward progress this turn.
Sorry! All I've done is eat the worthless meat that society left out to rot! It was a public service!Our overall good clashes gives us Absorption as our final Abnormality Page, which means the Mountain of Corpses easy-mode strategy is impossible now. Paradoxically, being very bad at being bad at the game is turning out to make life harder for me.
On the next turn, Credentia's low speed makes me decide to give her the turn off, as I figure BICEPS and Gebura have enough damage output to take care of his remaining HP before he has a chance to touch Credentia.
If nobody remembers me… I should just do what I want. It'll all be swept away as the actions of a wolf, in the end. Just because you can dodge the responsibility for something doesn't make it okay.There was a 33% chance of this attack ending the fight outright.
Who cares if something is okay?! It's enough if it satisfies me for just a minute! But you're still empty, in the end.BICEPS is getting +2 to all his Blunt die rolls, so this was actually a 6-10 vs a 6-10, a roughly 48% chance to end the fight here as well. The next attack is a 5-9 vs a 4-8, which gives us a 60% chance to win outright and phase the enemy, and additional 16% odds of just getting a draw. If the enemy does manage to win, he'd have to roll max damage in order to kill BICEPS—the overall odds of this happening are 12%.
Damn. Delicious… More… MORE! I'll chew you all up!!! He's healed back almost everything we did to him..! Then we'll just tear him apart again. Tch… he got away again. Who's he after? I can't see a thing… Sis? Yeah. I got him. You're looking like you're on your last legs as well… Come on. Let's end this. I couldn't agree more. You saunter in here, run your goddamn mouth to the boss, make us fight your battle for you, and then you kill two of us with some cheap shots and act like it makes you hot shit?! You can't even consider how I feel, being forced into this position… Losing every single person I cared about. Being left empty. Hollow. Yeah. Sounds tough. Now do it again, and then call me. Do it again..? I lost my path after the first time…Music: Roland02
Ah… shut up, you. Nothing you're saying makes sense anyways..! He's changing again. We can't afford to take any more losses, either. Then we won't. I'm not done pummeling him for killing BICEPS and Sorcrane off like that. Just keep that temper under control, kid. There's still a long way to go.After an absolutely botched opening, I've now spent entirely too much time dealing with Cobalt Scar and Big and Will be Bad Wolf. I've also hit all of the Floor Emotion levels that give Abnormality Pages, meaning my initial Mountain of Corpses strategy has gone out the window. This fight has, by every definition, gone sideways.
There's only one thing left to do: Pick ourselves up and play better.
Next time, on Library of Ruina: The salty runback.
Fun Fact about Roland:
Apparently, there used to be some special dialogue about Roland's floor!
You first have to enter a reception that allows multiple floors, and use Keter as the first floor.
Then, you must have all Keter librarians die. The next floor you use, the librarians will have special dialogue upon entering battle instead of the usual Combat Enter dialogue.
Like: "No way...they got through..him..?" (idk if this the line is accurate cuz i saw this in a post before library of ruina was fully released and it was a really long time ago)
Obviously, him refers to Roland, which means that Roland was canonically the strongest librarian in the library! Maybe he wasn't lying about being a Kick-ass Grade 1 Fixer. (well, before binah and gebura's red mist page was unlocked)
Anyways, this might be false or it might've been removed a long time ago.
Apparently, there used to be some special dialogue about Roland's floor!
You first have to enter a reception that allows multiple floors, and use Keter as the first floor.
Then, you must have all Keter librarians die. The next floor you use, the librarians will have special dialogue upon entering battle instead of the usual Combat Enter dialogue.
Like: "No way...they got through..him..?" (idk if this the line is accurate cuz i saw this in a post before library of ruina was fully released and it was a really long time ago)
Obviously, him refers to Roland, which means that Roland was canonically the strongest librarian in the library! Maybe he wasn't lying about being a Kick-ass Grade 1 Fixer. (well, before binah and gebura's red mist page was unlocked)
Anyways, this might be false or it might've been removed a long time ago.
Concerto 2: Gebura—Adagio al Fine
Music: Roland02
That sword… he's emulating a full-sized Mountain of Smiling Bodies right now, isn't he?
At least this one'll be easy. Gebura and I took this thing out as a warm-up back in the old days.
The circumstances are a lot different now. Stay on your toes, kid.
Those people I couldn't afford to let die… In the end, they couldn't send me off with the blame I deserve. Their smiles… and the mountain of bodies that came afterwards…
Smile is mostly the same as the original Mountain of Smiling Bodies with some slightly larger die rolls. Our main issue here is that it starts at its full size, and as a result we'll have to kill him three times to move on to the next phase of the battle.
In this form, Smile will lead with Vomit—a Summation Mass Attack that will seriously nerf anyone hit by it for the rest of that turn. It's the same power level as Howl, though, so it shouldn't be a problem to block.
Devour also recovers one more HP than before, but is only a threat in this phase as he'll be targeting his own allies with it soon enough.
No matter what you do, the bodies you stack up will be waiting for you to look back… You can only ignore it. Ignore it and move forward… never looking back.
Sounds like an aimless way to live.
Can't relate. When you down someone, it should be a big enough deal to be worth telling the story over and over.
Not everyone revels in it like you do, kid.
:barf:
Did this thing try vomiting all over you during your warmups?
Yeah, all the time. It binges on bodies, then purges to create more bodies. Repeat forever.
We're going to have to cut him back down to size regardless. Credentia, paint the target for us.
It's done, ma'am.
I can't go back… and I can't move forward, either. The mountain is high… insurmountable.
It'll bury you, too. Corpses whose faces I don't even remember…
Great, some of the crap we knocked off of him made one of those piles.
It'll only take me a moment to handle. You guys focus on Roland.
The Melted Corpses this time around only have 40 HP instead of 50.
Their Pained Wail is a bit stronger than before, but they're easier to kill now so it's a wash.
Smile also uses the other two major threats he has in this phase, with Flop Down breaking up to two of its target's Speed Dice should it hit, and Absorb outright Immobilizing whoever is hit by its second die.
Luckily for us, Absorption is at full power and Gebura's getting 3 Strength from it for the rest of the battle—this plus Myo's Prowess will ensure she's winning clashes from here forward. Credentia and Tenebrais's jobs are basically to pour on raw damage now.
Let me set the stage for you two.
The Melted Corpse does also serve as a good way to finish lowering the cost of our Level Slashes to 0—most of the Realization's enemies are highly resistant to Slash damage, making it hard for them to get the 8 damage they need to activate. If I were smarter, I would have brought Upstanding Slash for its Blunt dice instead of Level Slash… but if I were smarter, I also wouldn't have lost two Librarians, so…
Alright, all done here. Go nuts, girls.
Like we've ever waited for permission before.
Sis, he's still standing.
Not for long he isn't, I'll—
Already handled it. Get quicker or hit harder, kid.
Hey, he was mine!
A mountain of corpses, smiling in unison… If I can't bear it, I'll bury myself within them.
Deny the wounds… Cover your ears from the screams… Stay stagnant, letting the corpses build without end…
Don't worry too much about the details. We both know this guy's got a lot of fight left before we're done here.
As resilient as we'd expect from an ALEPH, huh?
Stage 2 Smile starts with 200 HP instead of 250, making our job a little faster than before. Like before, the goal is to ignore the Melted Corpses as much as possible while piling damage onto the center.
Horrid Screech's minimum rolls have increased though, making it more likely that we'll get dinged by one of the attacks.
Since Credentia's our only Librarian left below Emotion Level 5, I have her handle one of the Melted Corpses—the other one is targeting Gebura, so we can ignore it. Like with the first MoSB fight, I take advantage of the way Devour's targeting works to pile all our damage into one-sided attacks on him. His damage output is too low to realistically defeat any of the Melted Corpses this turn, and the HP he'll get back is low compared to our damage output.
Not again-!
Unfortunately, the first hit from Horrid Screech does exactly enough damage to Stagger Credentia.
Credentia, you alright?
Loud noises again… Maybe that Nikolai person has a problem with her ears?
On top of the big damage from Horrid Screech, the Melted Corpses rolls max damage twice to lop another 30 off of Credentia's HP. She's in danger territory now, but there thankfully aren't any more attacks directed at her this turn.
Another corpse for the pile…
Don't write any of us off as dead yet.
All you really managed to accomplish is keeping your beatdown from being quick.
No part of this should be quick… Life is a painful, slow, dragged-out affair.
Even after you've died, it goes on for an interminable time.
I can't say that's wrong, exactly, but that won't save you from getting the sense knocked back into you.
Because an Absorb hit one of the Corpses set to attack this turn, we've only got the one to worry about—with it targeting Gebura we can just focus entirely on Smile during his Mass Attack's off-turn.
The only thing I can see is to crush anyone who draws near this mountain.
That's not happening as long as I'm standing here.
No… no…
I'll deny and deny, and keep denying. I'll never accept this end.
Pretty sure you don't have a choice.
He's not getting any smaller… but he definitely feels weaker than he did.
Don't check now, but I think I've got tinnitus.
Will it get in the way of stabbing that guy?
Shouldn't.
Then it's fine. Payback time.
Stage 1 has 100 HP to chew through, and the same trick at the end where we have to take out all the Melted Corpses to move on.
That said, Smile's phase change healed Credentia for 20 HP, putting her out of the danger zone. There aren't any more Mass Attacks in this phase, and while we'll take some chip damage we aren't in any danger of getting hit by a big attack. We've managed to stabilize the situation. All that's left to do is move ahead.
Gh… I'm really glad I can just turn up the heat and burn off the smell.
Sounds pretty handy. I'm getting covered in this crap…
It's pretty awesome, yeah.
The smell of melted corpses hangs in the air, even if you burn them…
Then we'll just keep burning. We've got to punish you for BICEPS and Sorcrane's deaths too, after all.
Just make sure to get your lumps in now. When he wakes up, no hard feelings.
Of course.
It'll take more than this to kill me…
Yeah, but not much more.
No… I refuse…
I'll deny it all, and reform from scratch…
We're on a timer, kids. Take 'em out fast.
Got it.
Eat this!
One's down here. You guys?
I'm having a bit of trouble…
Mine just burned to death.
We're on schedule to finish things off with our next attack, though.
You guys breathe for a minute.
I needed to focus up for the next fight anyways. That wine glass thing isn't gonna' happen twice.
I denied… and denied… and in the end, I was broken free…
I left revenge behind long ago. All that is left is this eternal thirst for blood.
Dipsia's base stats are exactly the same as Nosferatu's, as is basically tradition for 4th Abnormalities at this point. He also has a 50% hp threshold that we can't go below before his transformation is triggered.
The Sanguine Bats also have the same HP/SR. This might make it seem as though the fight is unchanged. It isn't.
All three of the pages Dipsia uses this turn have received upgrades from their original form.
The Sanguine Bats' attacks have also gotten a bit bigger, enough to counteract the Fervor that we've got on all our allies.
This is the phase where we want to let Gebura's E.G.O rip, so that she can build up kills to increase her Red Mist passive's power bonus. This will also restore 6 Light for us, meaning…
There's no reason not to deflect Dipsia's Thirst in style.
You two, handle the bats. I'll go right for Roland.
That didn't work too well last time.
Last time I was getting used to my body. Just do it, would you?
Sheesh, fine. We'll keep them off your back, right sis?
I see what you're going for… let me do you one better, ma'am.
Enough talk… have at you!
Wine glass's comin'!
I got it.
Repeating the same trick over and over again won't work forever.
Doing as I please is never a waste.
I've marked one, and smoked up another, Gebura!
Third bat's taken care of, too.
I don't need to lie to myself anymore. I killed for the sake of killing… Because killing felt like something.
Woah buddy, back off.
Don't you feel it too..? The emptiness of being alone. The way killing fills that void… until you forget why you started.
Hm.
That's a dangerous noise for you to be making, kid. Notice something?
I think… maybe?
I'll hear you out, but make it quick. It's no vampire, but this armor doesn't like it when I go too long without spilling blood either.
Now that Gebura's in Red Mist mode, our goal is to quickly defeat as many of the enemy as we can. Each one of them she downs will give her an additional +1 Power for the rest of the Realization, and we really want to get her rolls as high as possible.
Good thing that we've got the perfect tool for wiping out an entire field full of enemies.
I think… this guy's just lying to himself about his reason for killing. From what I've heard, Roland's a lazy-ass who tries to weasel his way out of doing his job. If it were me, I wouldn't shy away from any chance to kick someone's ass if I really enjoyed it.
He certainly doesn't seem like a shameless killer, no…
So since this is just an Abnormality-fueled lie, he's going to have to look beyond it after we beat the crap out of him. I think that when he really thinks about it… he'll see that there's no point to anything he's been doing.
You're thinking about what the enemy's going to do next?
Nngh..!
We're down two people, even with you kicking eight kinds of ass. Call me desperate.
Fair enough. So, what's your read of the situation?
My read is that once we rip this mask off of his face, we'll find there's nothing there underneath.
Basing the enemy's moves on wordplay..?
Hell, it's as good a guess as any. Let's tear this costume away and find out.
There is no costume. All that there is is thirst… this endless, desperate thirst for blood, turning me into a monster.
If this is to be the monster's final moment… then I shall empty my glass and give it my all.
Dipsia's second form normally starts off by clearing out all the remaining Sanguine Bats to gain 5 Blood. Because we've defeated them all, he doesn't get any Blood. This is actually kind of bad, because it means he gets to use both Lust for Blood and Unbearable Drought at the same time, while getting +3 Strength right out the gate.
Unbearable Drought is a beefy raw damage page, and if it wins the first die then it's going to deal a massive amount of damage to anyone it hits. Lust for Blood is the bigger problem, though. It recovers Dipsia's HP based on the number of people hit, and can easily put him back over 200 HP to cleave through. Additionally it'll give anyone it hits Fear of Water, which as a reminder deals us 5% of our max HP in damage in exchange for 1 Strength and Haste, as well as gives us a 50% chance to lose control of our character should they fall below 25% HP. Finally, he gets +1 Strength next turn for each hit this lands—and a 20-25 range is only simple for Gebura to stop right now, neither Tenebrais nor Credentia can guarantee a block.
On the upside his last die is using Looming Presence, a complete nonissue of a page.
Come now… let us participate in this Danse Macabre, until one of us falls. Either I sate my thirst, or you end my life.
Regardless, one of our thirsts will be fulfilled.
Not… Again..!
You okay?
I'm fine, I'm fine!
Because of the hit, Dipsia now has 200 total HP to get through before we're done with this phase. However, he's still got Credentia's Mark on him from last turn.
This means that Gebura's able to deal absolutely massive damage to him with every hit of Spear.
Yes… yes! The end to everything is finally here!
Sorry to break it to you, but you're not going to die from just this.
We'll knock you down as many times as you need, so pick yourself up and start over again.
Two copies of it are all it takes to finish off Dipsia.
Start over… start over?! There's nothing left! Nothing but this thirst for blood! If you deny even that…
Then I… am empty.
Next time, on Library of Ruina: "And the many shells cried out one word, "Manager"."
Music: Roland02
That sword… he's emulating a full-sized Mountain of Smiling Bodies right now, isn't he? At least this one'll be easy. Gebura and I took this thing out as a warm-up back in the old days. The circumstances are a lot different now. Stay on your toes, kid. Those people I couldn't afford to let die… In the end, they couldn't send me off with the blame I deserve. Their smiles… and the mountain of bodies that came afterwards…Smile wrote:
Smile is mostly the same as the original Mountain of Smiling Bodies with some slightly larger die rolls. Our main issue here is that it starts at its full size, and as a result we'll have to kill him three times to move on to the next phase of the battle.
In this form, Smile will lead with Vomit—a Summation Mass Attack that will seriously nerf anyone hit by it for the rest of that turn. It's the same power level as Howl, though, so it shouldn't be a problem to block.
Devour also recovers one more HP than before, but is only a threat in this phase as he'll be targeting his own allies with it soon enough.
No matter what you do, the bodies you stack up will be waiting for you to look back… You can only ignore it. Ignore it and move forward… never looking back. Sounds like an aimless way to live. Can't relate. When you down someone, it should be a big enough deal to be worth telling the story over and over. Not everyone revels in it like you do, kid. :barf: Did this thing try vomiting all over you during your warmups? Yeah, all the time. It binges on bodies, then purges to create more bodies. Repeat forever. We're going to have to cut him back down to size regardless. Credentia, paint the target for us. It's done, ma'am. I can't go back… and I can't move forward, either. The mountain is high… insurmountable. It'll bury you, too. Corpses whose faces I don't even remember… Great, some of the crap we knocked off of him made one of those piles. It'll only take me a moment to handle. You guys focus on Roland.The Melted Corpses this time around only have 40 HP instead of 50.
Their Pained Wail is a bit stronger than before, but they're easier to kill now so it's a wash.
Smile also uses the other two major threats he has in this phase, with Flop Down breaking up to two of its target's Speed Dice should it hit, and Absorb outright Immobilizing whoever is hit by its second die.
Luckily for us, Absorption is at full power and Gebura's getting 3 Strength from it for the rest of the battle—this plus Myo's Prowess will ensure she's winning clashes from here forward. Credentia and Tenebrais's jobs are basically to pour on raw damage now.
Let me set the stage for you two.The Melted Corpse does also serve as a good way to finish lowering the cost of our Level Slashes to 0—most of the Realization's enemies are highly resistant to Slash damage, making it hard for them to get the 8 damage they need to activate. If I were smarter, I would have brought Upstanding Slash for its Blunt dice instead of Level Slash… but if I were smarter, I also wouldn't have lost two Librarians, so…
Alright, all done here. Go nuts, girls. Like we've ever waited for permission before. Sis, he's still standing. Not for long he isn't, I'll— Already handled it. Get quicker or hit harder, kid. Hey, he was mine! A mountain of corpses, smiling in unison… If I can't bear it, I'll bury myself within them. Deny the wounds… Cover your ears from the screams… Stay stagnant, letting the corpses build without end… Don't worry too much about the details. We both know this guy's got a lot of fight left before we're done here. As resilient as we'd expect from an ALEPH, huh?Stage 2 Smile starts with 200 HP instead of 250, making our job a little faster than before. Like before, the goal is to ignore the Melted Corpses as much as possible while piling damage onto the center.
Horrid Screech's minimum rolls have increased though, making it more likely that we'll get dinged by one of the attacks.
Since Credentia's our only Librarian left below Emotion Level 5, I have her handle one of the Melted Corpses—the other one is targeting Gebura, so we can ignore it. Like with the first MoSB fight, I take advantage of the way Devour's targeting works to pile all our damage into one-sided attacks on him. His damage output is too low to realistically defeat any of the Melted Corpses this turn, and the HP he'll get back is low compared to our damage output.
Not again-!Unfortunately, the first hit from Horrid Screech does exactly enough damage to Stagger Credentia.
Credentia, you alright? Loud noises again… Maybe that Nikolai person has a problem with her ears?On top of the big damage from Horrid Screech, the Melted Corpses rolls max damage twice to lop another 30 off of Credentia's HP. She's in danger territory now, but there thankfully aren't any more attacks directed at her this turn.
Another corpse for the pile… Don't write any of us off as dead yet. All you really managed to accomplish is keeping your beatdown from being quick. No part of this should be quick… Life is a painful, slow, dragged-out affair. Even after you've died, it goes on for an interminable time. I can't say that's wrong, exactly, but that won't save you from getting the sense knocked back into you.Because an Absorb hit one of the Corpses set to attack this turn, we've only got the one to worry about—with it targeting Gebura we can just focus entirely on Smile during his Mass Attack's off-turn.
The only thing I can see is to crush anyone who draws near this mountain. That's not happening as long as I'm standing here. No… no… I'll deny and deny, and keep denying. I'll never accept this end. Pretty sure you don't have a choice. He's not getting any smaller… but he definitely feels weaker than he did. Don't check now, but I think I've got tinnitus. Will it get in the way of stabbing that guy? Shouldn't. Then it's fine. Payback time.Stage 1 has 100 HP to chew through, and the same trick at the end where we have to take out all the Melted Corpses to move on.
That said, Smile's phase change healed Credentia for 20 HP, putting her out of the danger zone. There aren't any more Mass Attacks in this phase, and while we'll take some chip damage we aren't in any danger of getting hit by a big attack. We've managed to stabilize the situation. All that's left to do is move ahead.
Gh… I'm really glad I can just turn up the heat and burn off the smell. Sounds pretty handy. I'm getting covered in this crap… It's pretty awesome, yeah. The smell of melted corpses hangs in the air, even if you burn them… Then we'll just keep burning. We've got to punish you for BICEPS and Sorcrane's deaths too, after all. Just make sure to get your lumps in now. When he wakes up, no hard feelings. Of course. It'll take more than this to kill me… Yeah, but not much more. No… I refuse… I'll deny it all, and reform from scratch… We're on a timer, kids. Take 'em out fast. Got it. Eat this! One's down here. You guys? I'm having a bit of trouble… Mine just burned to death. We're on schedule to finish things off with our next attack, though. You guys breathe for a minute. I needed to focus up for the next fight anyways. That wine glass thing isn't gonna' happen twice. I denied… and denied… and in the end, I was broken free… I left revenge behind long ago. All that is left is this eternal thirst for blood.Dipsia wrote:
Dipsia's base stats are exactly the same as Nosferatu's, as is basically tradition for 4th Abnormalities at this point. He also has a 50% hp threshold that we can't go below before his transformation is triggered.
The Sanguine Bats also have the same HP/SR. This might make it seem as though the fight is unchanged. It isn't.
All three of the pages Dipsia uses this turn have received upgrades from their original form.
The Sanguine Bats' attacks have also gotten a bit bigger, enough to counteract the Fervor that we've got on all our allies.
This is the phase where we want to let Gebura's E.G.O rip, so that she can build up kills to increase her Red Mist passive's power bonus. This will also restore 6 Light for us, meaning…
There's no reason not to deflect Dipsia's Thirst in style.
You two, handle the bats. I'll go right for Roland. That didn't work too well last time. Last time I was getting used to my body. Just do it, would you? Sheesh, fine. We'll keep them off your back, right sis? I see what you're going for… let me do you one better, ma'am. Enough talk… have at you! Wine glass's comin'! I got it. Repeating the same trick over and over again won't work forever. Doing as I please is never a waste. I've marked one, and smoked up another, Gebura! Third bat's taken care of, too. I don't need to lie to myself anymore. I killed for the sake of killing… Because killing felt like something. Woah buddy, back off. Don't you feel it too..? The emptiness of being alone. The way killing fills that void… until you forget why you started. Hm. That's a dangerous noise for you to be making, kid. Notice something? I think… maybe? I'll hear you out, but make it quick. It's no vampire, but this armor doesn't like it when I go too long without spilling blood either.Now that Gebura's in Red Mist mode, our goal is to quickly defeat as many of the enemy as we can. Each one of them she downs will give her an additional +1 Power for the rest of the Realization, and we really want to get her rolls as high as possible.
Good thing that we've got the perfect tool for wiping out an entire field full of enemies.
I think… this guy's just lying to himself about his reason for killing. From what I've heard, Roland's a lazy-ass who tries to weasel his way out of doing his job. If it were me, I wouldn't shy away from any chance to kick someone's ass if I really enjoyed it. He certainly doesn't seem like a shameless killer, no… So since this is just an Abnormality-fueled lie, he's going to have to look beyond it after we beat the crap out of him. I think that when he really thinks about it… he'll see that there's no point to anything he's been doing. You're thinking about what the enemy's going to do next? Nngh..! We're down two people, even with you kicking eight kinds of ass. Call me desperate. Fair enough. So, what's your read of the situation? My read is that once we rip this mask off of his face, we'll find there's nothing there underneath. Basing the enemy's moves on wordplay..? Hell, it's as good a guess as any. Let's tear this costume away and find out. There is no costume. All that there is is thirst… this endless, desperate thirst for blood, turning me into a monster. If this is to be the monster's final moment… then I shall empty my glass and give it my all.Dipsia's second form normally starts off by clearing out all the remaining Sanguine Bats to gain 5 Blood. Because we've defeated them all, he doesn't get any Blood. This is actually kind of bad, because it means he gets to use both Lust for Blood and Unbearable Drought at the same time, while getting +3 Strength right out the gate.
Unbearable Drought is a beefy raw damage page, and if it wins the first die then it's going to deal a massive amount of damage to anyone it hits. Lust for Blood is the bigger problem, though. It recovers Dipsia's HP based on the number of people hit, and can easily put him back over 200 HP to cleave through. Additionally it'll give anyone it hits Fear of Water, which as a reminder deals us 5% of our max HP in damage in exchange for 1 Strength and Haste, as well as gives us a 50% chance to lose control of our character should they fall below 25% HP. Finally, he gets +1 Strength next turn for each hit this lands—and a 20-25 range is only simple for Gebura to stop right now, neither Tenebrais nor Credentia can guarantee a block.
On the upside his last die is using Looming Presence, a complete nonissue of a page.
Come now… let us participate in this Danse Macabre, until one of us falls. Either I sate my thirst, or you end my life. Regardless, one of our thirsts will be fulfilled. Not… Again..! You okay? I'm fine, I'm fine!Because of the hit, Dipsia now has 200 total HP to get through before we're done with this phase. However, he's still got Credentia's Mark on him from last turn.
This means that Gebura's able to deal absolutely massive damage to him with every hit of Spear.
Yes… yes! The end to everything is finally here! Sorry to break it to you, but you're not going to die from just this. We'll knock you down as many times as you need, so pick yourself up and start over again.Two copies of it are all it takes to finish off Dipsia.
Start over… start over?! There's nothing left! Nothing but this thirst for blood! If you deny even that… Then I… am empty.Next time, on Library of Ruina: "And the many shells cried out one word, "Manager"."
Concerto 2: Gebura—Rondo
Music: Roland03
I have nothing… but I need something to exist. This emptiness…
Seems like you were right. Kind of wish you weren't.
Guys, the walls have eyes.
It's a mimic. Those eyes are probably part of him as well.
We're not thinking about that. Those things aren't a threat. Just keep your cool and push forward.
Mimicry is a relatively simple boss. Nearly immune to every form of Stagger damage and to Slash in general, it's kind of a tanky opponent. Its abilities are simple enough. When we knock him to 0 HP he'll change to his second form, and in addition every two turns he'll try to hit us with a Wear Shell.
Wear Shell is an instant kill page which will let him copy one of our Librarians that it kills on his next turn. There's theoretically a way to use this to our advantage, having him kill one of our units to be super weak so we can murder him on the following turn.
This is a bad plan, there is no reason to ever do this.
For the attacks he's using, he's got three copies of Dense Flesh—an attack which inflicts Disarm to prevent defensive dice from being useful—and a single copy of Eye Contact. This is a slightly more powerful attack which gives anyone its second die hits 2 copies of Terror. Terror is the other unique mechanic of this phase of Mimicry, and it has the ability to cause problems for us.
Terror is a dead card in our hands, which we have to play to get rid of. It wastes a die entirely as its 1-1 Evade die can't help us in clashes, and it costs 3 Light as well. If we let too much Terror stack up on one Librarian, though, they'll take a chunk of Stagger damage and lose their turn. This puts the Terrors back into our deck, meaning we're on a timer to play them before drawing all three and getting hit again.
But Terror has to hit someone to enter their hand… and Gebura currently has 4 Strength, +5 Power from her kills in Red Mist mode, and +2 more power from being in Red Mist mode. That 11 bonus power is by itself more than any of Mimicry's attacks can match.
Okay, so here's the plan: I'll draw Roland's focus. You two get in the hits you can and whittle him down.
I want a piece of him, too.
Too much bloodthirst is going to get you killed, kid.
One of the eyeballs on his arm seems to have a weak point. Focus your attacks there, boss.
Got it.
Give it to me… your shell… I need it to become whole again…
Not happening.
Information Assessment does major work here, as this Spear rips through almost all of Mimicry's SR in a single attack. Unfortunately, my bad deckbuilding comes back to bite me again.
Level Slash simply isn't capable of dealing enough damage to Mimicry to activate its effect, even with the absurd amount of Power Gebura's got under her belt now. She's effectively unable to regain Light for the rest of the battle, meaning we need to play conservatively with what we have.
Thanks for attracting his attention, ma'am. We'll take it from here.
Huuuf… paah… Huuuf… paah…
Euuugh… he's even breathing the same.
Don't worry about it. That weak point of yours worked wonders, sis.
He's already gone.
Even my empty self can see… there's a hand that guides this destruction, someone who benefits from this way of life…
If this shell becomes a form acceptable to that hand… then will I be complete?
He's become… an egg.
We've got about six seconds to scramble that thing, or we're going to have problems.
Not a problem… but I prefer my eggs fried.
Mimicry's second form is an egg. This is its cocoon form, and how well we do against it determines how much HP the final phase will have. It'll restore 100 HP every turn, and if we can't burst it down then Mimicry's final form will come out at full HP. That would be… bad.
The only combat page Mimicry plays in this form is Hard Cocoon, a trio of Counter dice that each restore 10 HP any time they're used. They also deal 5 Stagger damage if they win a clash, and can theoretically regain 10 HP multiple times if they win any clashes—but a 3-6 isn't really very difficult to overcome. The bigger problem is that Mimicry's three Speed Dice mean there are nine of these dice total, which can add up quickly.
It looks like that big eyeball's even more vulnerable to being stabbed than before. If you strike now, we should be able to break through.
Sounds good to me. We'll give it an all out attack—don't give him time to prepare anything.
Now you're speaking my language!
Normally, the strategy against Mimicry's second phase requires us to Stagger the egg and then pour damage onto it, using its Normal resistance to both Pierce and Blunt Stagger damage,
Information Assessment lets us get around that, with a single Spear from Gebura dealing around 30 damage even after all of the healing Mimicry's pages can put out.
Dammit. I tore a hole in it, but it's still tickin'. You two have a followup, right?
Uhh… working on it. Even if you can see where you're aiming, it's hard to accurately hit an enemy whose anatomy shifts.
Then we do things the hard way. I'll pin it down…
Got it!
I've taken it out.
A form suitable for this world…
My shell emerges… empty. can yoU HeAR mE??
heLLo?
Looks like we couldn't stop this thing from getting out…
Just a little further to go. We take this thing down, he'll have nothing left in him.
Shouldn't be hard. This thing lost to a cutesy pink slime monster back in the day.
wHO ss THis?? maNaGEr!
Mimicry's final form is a straight-up brawl with a minimum damage requirement of 10 to deal damage. This is after resistances, meaning that we actually have to be dealing 20 damage to get through his Hardness. Beyond that, we have to deal at least 40 damage a turn to break even against his Regeneration, and we'll still be getting very small returns unless we deal 80+ in a single turn. Because we blew through phase 2, we only have to deal with 280 HP instead of 400, which is a small mercy that can quickly get healed back if we aren't able to damage him.
Mimicry's final phase primarily uses pages which give it stacks of Imitation on use. Imitation is a recolored version of Charge, maxing out at 10 and decaying by 1 per turn. He uses this to power up his stronger attacks against us.
One of those attacks, Goodbye, is being used this turn. It's a massive die that inflicts 10 Bleed on hit, and if he had 10 Imitation it would get another +10 Power on it. We've only got one thing in our entire arsenal that can stand up to this page.
We're forced to throw out our Great Split: Vertical here. Gebura only has 5 Light total, and her Level Slash can't deal any damage to Mimicry, so she also has no Light recovery from here on—this means we can't block another Goodbye.
It's not all bad, though. We've got probably the best two people to bring to this phase of the fight. Tenebrais's Burn doesn't care about Hardness, and she can stack up a lot of it relatively quickly to blunt the worst of the Regeneration. And Credentia…
It looks like part of his shell's been diverted to make up that scythe. His structural integrity is weaker as a result. Smash him with blunt weaponry!
Between Smoke and Nikolai's Mark she helps our team get over that 10 damage threshold, and Information Assessment actually breaks this fight.
GoDdByE.
Bet you think you've got me, huh?
But a shell can't win against the real thing.
aAaHHH, mAn!!
Going from a 10 point deficit to a 9 point win, Gebura's got some absolutely insane power stacking going on here—but even that was only barely able to scratch Mimicry—Slash dice are worthless for damage.
Hah! Hey, sis, you were right! Smacking him works like a charm!
Information Assessment, meanwhile, is worth its weight in gold, allowing Tenebrais's Blunt die to break the 10 damage threshold…
Told you! You can't run from these eyes.
And allows Credentia to deal damage even though she was below it! For some reason, Information Assessment applying to one of Mimcry's resistances will permanently turn off Harden for that particular resistance—for the rest of this battle, Blunt attacks will damage him even if they deal below 10 damage.
you have a new voice mail! I loVe yOu. WheRe diD You gO?
With three Imitation on him, Mimicry is able to power up Flail Skin, a decently strong pair of dice that deal a bunch of bonus Stagger damage on hit. This isn't really our biggest problem this turn, though.
He's also throwing out a copy of Hello?, a single chunky die that has the ability to instantly Stagger whoever it hits. This is a must-block, but thankfully he doesn't have enough Imitation to make it get the +2 Power.
HeY, mAn. ToGEtheR, We aRE oNe.
I don't have the energy to deal with his big attacks… Need a second to catch my breath.
No problem, boss. Just leave it to me.
Alright. Go be the hero, kid.
Please. Training my ass off and I'm still miles behind you… But I'll open the path. You tear him a new asshole, boss.
heLLo?!
No, this is goodbye.
The 21 Bleed Gebura stacked up onto Mimicry also pays big dividends this turn. Over the course of the turn this will deal around 50 damage to him from his own dice alone.
Now… Without letting him attack. Without letting him breathe…
Don't worry. You did fine, kid. We'll stamp these embers of wrath until there's nothing left.
hOW may I hELP you? how may i help you. HeLp yOu. wE Are hELp yOU?
He's weakening. Now's your chance!
As I said earlier, once Information Assessment hits a resistance, Hardness will no longer apply, even on subsequent turns—this lets Credentia deal 8 damage to help out. Mimicry now has 20 HP and more than 20 Burn on him. This fight's over.
Got it.
When defeated, Mimicry sprays body parts all over the place, as it falls apart.
Even a shell laughs at me… How pathetic I must seem.
It's time to wake up, Roland.
Once we get out of the first phase, Gebura's Realization is really not hard. If anything, the 11 different HP gates (minimum) make the fight a long but easy case study in exactly how powerful Gebura is. I had trouble, but it was entirely my own fault—I messed up Gebura's deck, tried doing fancy stuff I didn't have to, and then played incredibly badly on top of it. We still crushed the last three phases through The Red Mist being hilariously overpowered. Just leave Level Slash at home, bring Upstanding Slash instead and you'll be fine. You can also build towards Mountain of Corpses using weak block-heavy pages like E-Endure alongside Udjat pages to easily farm up the negative Emotion necessary.
VIDEO
Music: None
When my soul crushed the depths of my heart, It was seated there beside me?
Music: GeburaStory
I guess my past self in Lobotomy Corp. wasn’t too different from Roland just now.
Not quite. I saw you run amok in a blind fury countless times back then, and I can say that this wasn’t like those past moments. And it’s not quite the same as me, either.
Uh, hey, both of you… Is that supposed to be some backhanded mockery?
Not at all.
…Are you feeling alright?
I feel… relieved, but something feels kinda off and awkward about it. At least my body’s all fine.
That’s good. Get back to your work once you’ve taken your time recovering from the aftermath.
That doesn’t make this any less awkward, man.
Roland. I well understand where your anger comes from. But wrath is like a blade with the sharpest edge. If you aren’t careful with wielding it, you might end up cutting yourself before you even realize it. So it’s important to hold that blade correctly. And the next step would be deciding where to point your sharp blade.
You’re right, I gotta be careful not to cut myself with it.
That’s that, and this is this.
…Want a cig?
Fine. Just for today.
Music: Lobby
Anyways, overcoming that… ordeal… finally gives us our last three Gebura Abnormality Pages. It also gives us her E.G.O pages, but the Red Mist keypage can't use any E.G.O outside of the two Great Splits, which means they don't matter as much for most players.
The new Abnormality Pages are amazing, though. Goodbye is a hilariously powerful ability. Slap it onto someone with a big single-die attack, have them use it last in a turn, and watch it immediately delete whoever you're facing down—it combos very well with Great Split: Vertical, and while it can only activate on Mass Attacks if they're the only thing you play that turn, it turns out that a GS:H roll of 100+ is enough to Stagger basically any group of enemies.
Hello?, meanwhile, is an incredible recovery aid. It gives the first die we use each turn a property that heals us for as much damage as we deal with it. Once again, we want to pair it with single massive dice—Mass Attacks are great here, but things like Blazing Strike work just as well.
Lastly, there's Shell. Shell prevents any Stagger damage coming from enemy attacks, making the holder effectively immune to being Staggered. It's very good, but also is competing with Goodbye and Hello?, meaning it's not an instant-pick. All three of these are incredibly powerful tools, and which one to go with depends on the situation.
…
You okay, dude?
Our coordination is still lacking. Won't be able to crush enemies like this.
Hey, at least you didn't get eaten by a wolf. I couldn't even contribute, really…
That was also due to negligence.
Thinkin' over the fight, you two?
Pretty much. With how that went, we should really get together and have a strategy meeting. We all kind of just do our own thing.
It's worked so far, but that last fight showed us its limitations…
Yeah, you can say that again… Well, since the boss is busy having a smoke anyways, let's see what we can put together. We can't just lean on the great and powerful Red Mist forever.
Agreed. Perhaps the Rabbit Team's swarm tactics could be useful here.
I've got some spare paper, I'll see if I can draw a decent gameplan for us all.
I'll sort through our equipment for anything we might have overlooked, then. Gebura's not just going to wait for us to catch up to her… we'll need every trick we can think of and then some.
And hey, maybe some new weapons would even the odds too.
Next time, on Library of Ruina
"People have been committing sins since long ago. "Why do they commit sins, knowing it's wrong?""
Handling two of the 5's in a row seems to have thrown our guide off. Why not a third?
We could also get back to that Prescript. It said no time limit, but we've kept them waiting for some time.
The Snake has also been waiting for a while, but there's no issue there.
Also Nikolai's ultimatum is on standby.
Videos
Gebura 6
Gebura Realization (Unedited combat footage; will cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)
New E.G.O Pages
Music: Roland03
I have nothing… but I need something to exist. This emptiness… Seems like you were right. Kind of wish you weren't. Guys, the walls have eyes. It's a mimic. Those eyes are probably part of him as well. We're not thinking about that. Those things aren't a threat. Just keep your cool and push forward.Mimicry wrote:
Mimicry is a relatively simple boss. Nearly immune to every form of Stagger damage and to Slash in general, it's kind of a tanky opponent. Its abilities are simple enough. When we knock him to 0 HP he'll change to his second form, and in addition every two turns he'll try to hit us with a Wear Shell.
Wear Shell is an instant kill page which will let him copy one of our Librarians that it kills on his next turn. There's theoretically a way to use this to our advantage, having him kill one of our units to be super weak so we can murder him on the following turn.
This is a bad plan, there is no reason to ever do this.
For the attacks he's using, he's got three copies of Dense Flesh—an attack which inflicts Disarm to prevent defensive dice from being useful—and a single copy of Eye Contact. This is a slightly more powerful attack which gives anyone its second die hits 2 copies of Terror. Terror is the other unique mechanic of this phase of Mimicry, and it has the ability to cause problems for us.
Terror is a dead card in our hands, which we have to play to get rid of. It wastes a die entirely as its 1-1 Evade die can't help us in clashes, and it costs 3 Light as well. If we let too much Terror stack up on one Librarian, though, they'll take a chunk of Stagger damage and lose their turn. This puts the Terrors back into our deck, meaning we're on a timer to play them before drawing all three and getting hit again.
But Terror has to hit someone to enter their hand… and Gebura currently has 4 Strength, +5 Power from her kills in Red Mist mode, and +2 more power from being in Red Mist mode. That 11 bonus power is by itself more than any of Mimicry's attacks can match.
Okay, so here's the plan: I'll draw Roland's focus. You two get in the hits you can and whittle him down. I want a piece of him, too. Too much bloodthirst is going to get you killed, kid. One of the eyeballs on his arm seems to have a weak point. Focus your attacks there, boss. Got it. Give it to me… your shell… I need it to become whole again… Not happening.Information Assessment does major work here, as this Spear rips through almost all of Mimicry's SR in a single attack. Unfortunately, my bad deckbuilding comes back to bite me again.
Level Slash simply isn't capable of dealing enough damage to Mimicry to activate its effect, even with the absurd amount of Power Gebura's got under her belt now. She's effectively unable to regain Light for the rest of the battle, meaning we need to play conservatively with what we have.
Thanks for attracting his attention, ma'am. We'll take it from here. Huuuf… paah… Huuuf… paah… Euuugh… he's even breathing the same. Don't worry about it. That weak point of yours worked wonders, sis. He's already gone. Even my empty self can see… there's a hand that guides this destruction, someone who benefits from this way of life… If this shell becomes a form acceptable to that hand… then will I be complete? He's become… an egg. We've got about six seconds to scramble that thing, or we're going to have problems. Not a problem… but I prefer my eggs fried.Mimicry's second form is an egg. This is its cocoon form, and how well we do against it determines how much HP the final phase will have. It'll restore 100 HP every turn, and if we can't burst it down then Mimicry's final form will come out at full HP. That would be… bad.
The only combat page Mimicry plays in this form is Hard Cocoon, a trio of Counter dice that each restore 10 HP any time they're used. They also deal 5 Stagger damage if they win a clash, and can theoretically regain 10 HP multiple times if they win any clashes—but a 3-6 isn't really very difficult to overcome. The bigger problem is that Mimicry's three Speed Dice mean there are nine of these dice total, which can add up quickly.
It looks like that big eyeball's even more vulnerable to being stabbed than before. If you strike now, we should be able to break through. Sounds good to me. We'll give it an all out attack—don't give him time to prepare anything. Now you're speaking my language!Normally, the strategy against Mimicry's second phase requires us to Stagger the egg and then pour damage onto it, using its Normal resistance to both Pierce and Blunt Stagger damage,
Information Assessment lets us get around that, with a single Spear from Gebura dealing around 30 damage even after all of the healing Mimicry's pages can put out.
Dammit. I tore a hole in it, but it's still tickin'. You two have a followup, right? Uhh… working on it. Even if you can see where you're aiming, it's hard to accurately hit an enemy whose anatomy shifts. Then we do things the hard way. I'll pin it down… Got it! I've taken it out. A form suitable for this world… My shell emerges… empty. can yoU HeAR mE?? heLLo? Looks like we couldn't stop this thing from getting out… Just a little further to go. We take this thing down, he'll have nothing left in him. Shouldn't be hard. This thing lost to a cutesy pink slime monster back in the day. wHO ss THis?? maNaGEr!Mimicry's final form is a straight-up brawl with a minimum damage requirement of 10 to deal damage. This is after resistances, meaning that we actually have to be dealing 20 damage to get through his Hardness. Beyond that, we have to deal at least 40 damage a turn to break even against his Regeneration, and we'll still be getting very small returns unless we deal 80+ in a single turn. Because we blew through phase 2, we only have to deal with 280 HP instead of 400, which is a small mercy that can quickly get healed back if we aren't able to damage him.
Mimicry's final phase primarily uses pages which give it stacks of Imitation on use. Imitation is a recolored version of Charge, maxing out at 10 and decaying by 1 per turn. He uses this to power up his stronger attacks against us.
One of those attacks, Goodbye, is being used this turn. It's a massive die that inflicts 10 Bleed on hit, and if he had 10 Imitation it would get another +10 Power on it. We've only got one thing in our entire arsenal that can stand up to this page.
We're forced to throw out our Great Split: Vertical here. Gebura only has 5 Light total, and her Level Slash can't deal any damage to Mimicry, so she also has no Light recovery from here on—this means we can't block another Goodbye.
It's not all bad, though. We've got probably the best two people to bring to this phase of the fight. Tenebrais's Burn doesn't care about Hardness, and she can stack up a lot of it relatively quickly to blunt the worst of the Regeneration. And Credentia…
It looks like part of his shell's been diverted to make up that scythe. His structural integrity is weaker as a result. Smash him with blunt weaponry!Between Smoke and Nikolai's Mark she helps our team get over that 10 damage threshold, and Information Assessment actually breaks this fight.
GoDdByE. Bet you think you've got me, huh? But a shell can't win against the real thing. aAaHHH, mAn!!Going from a 10 point deficit to a 9 point win, Gebura's got some absolutely insane power stacking going on here—but even that was only barely able to scratch Mimicry—Slash dice are worthless for damage.
Hah! Hey, sis, you were right! Smacking him works like a charm!Information Assessment, meanwhile, is worth its weight in gold, allowing Tenebrais's Blunt die to break the 10 damage threshold…
Told you! You can't run from these eyes.And allows Credentia to deal damage even though she was below it! For some reason, Information Assessment applying to one of Mimcry's resistances will permanently turn off Harden for that particular resistance—for the rest of this battle, Blunt attacks will damage him even if they deal below 10 damage.
you have a new voice mail! I loVe yOu. WheRe diD You gO?With three Imitation on him, Mimicry is able to power up Flail Skin, a decently strong pair of dice that deal a bunch of bonus Stagger damage on hit. This isn't really our biggest problem this turn, though.
He's also throwing out a copy of Hello?, a single chunky die that has the ability to instantly Stagger whoever it hits. This is a must-block, but thankfully he doesn't have enough Imitation to make it get the +2 Power.
HeY, mAn. ToGEtheR, We aRE oNe. I don't have the energy to deal with his big attacks… Need a second to catch my breath. No problem, boss. Just leave it to me. Alright. Go be the hero, kid. Please. Training my ass off and I'm still miles behind you… But I'll open the path. You tear him a new asshole, boss. heLLo?! No, this is goodbye.The 21 Bleed Gebura stacked up onto Mimicry also pays big dividends this turn. Over the course of the turn this will deal around 50 damage to him from his own dice alone.
Now… Without letting him attack. Without letting him breathe… Don't worry. You did fine, kid. We'll stamp these embers of wrath until there's nothing left. hOW may I hELP you? how may i help you. HeLp yOu. wE Are hELp yOU? He's weakening. Now's your chance!As I said earlier, once Information Assessment hits a resistance, Hardness will no longer apply, even on subsequent turns—this lets Credentia deal 8 damage to help out. Mimicry now has 20 HP and more than 20 Burn on him. This fight's over.
Got it.When defeated, Mimicry sprays body parts all over the place, as it falls apart.
Even a shell laughs at me… How pathetic I must seem. It's time to wake up, Roland.Once we get out of the first phase, Gebura's Realization is really not hard. If anything, the 11 different HP gates (minimum) make the fight a long but easy case study in exactly how powerful Gebura is. I had trouble, but it was entirely my own fault—I messed up Gebura's deck, tried doing fancy stuff I didn't have to, and then played incredibly badly on top of it. We still crushed the last three phases through The Red Mist being hilariously overpowered. Just leave Level Slash at home, bring Upstanding Slash instead and you'll be fine. You can also build towards Mountain of Corpses using weak block-heavy pages like E-Endure alongside Udjat pages to easily farm up the negative Emotion necessary.
VIDEO
Music: None
When my soul crushed the depths of my heart, It was seated there beside me?Music: GeburaStory
I guess my past self in Lobotomy Corp. wasn’t too different from Roland just now. Not quite. I saw you run amok in a blind fury countless times back then, and I can say that this wasn’t like those past moments. And it’s not quite the same as me, either. Uh, hey, both of you… Is that supposed to be some backhanded mockery? Not at all. …Are you feeling alright? I feel… relieved, but something feels kinda off and awkward about it. At least my body’s all fine. That’s good. Get back to your work once you’ve taken your time recovering from the aftermath. That doesn’t make this any less awkward, man. Roland. I well understand where your anger comes from. But wrath is like a blade with the sharpest edge. If you aren’t careful with wielding it, you might end up cutting yourself before you even realize it. So it’s important to hold that blade correctly. And the next step would be deciding where to point your sharp blade. You’re right, I gotta be careful not to cut myself with it. That’s that, and this is this. …Want a cig? Fine. Just for today.Music: Lobby
Anyways, overcoming that… ordeal… finally gives us our last three Gebura Abnormality Pages. It also gives us her E.G.O pages, but the Red Mist keypage can't use any E.G.O outside of the two Great Splits, which means they don't matter as much for most players.
The new Abnormality Pages are amazing, though. Goodbye is a hilariously powerful ability. Slap it onto someone with a big single-die attack, have them use it last in a turn, and watch it immediately delete whoever you're facing down—it combos very well with Great Split: Vertical, and while it can only activate on Mass Attacks if they're the only thing you play that turn, it turns out that a GS:H roll of 100+ is enough to Stagger basically any group of enemies.
Hello?, meanwhile, is an incredible recovery aid. It gives the first die we use each turn a property that heals us for as much damage as we deal with it. Once again, we want to pair it with single massive dice—Mass Attacks are great here, but things like Blazing Strike work just as well.
Lastly, there's Shell. Shell prevents any Stagger damage coming from enemy attacks, making the holder effectively immune to being Staggered. It's very good, but also is competing with Goodbye and Hello?, meaning it's not an instant-pick. All three of these are incredibly powerful tools, and which one to go with depends on the situation.
… You okay, dude? Our coordination is still lacking. Won't be able to crush enemies like this. Hey, at least you didn't get eaten by a wolf. I couldn't even contribute, really… That was also due to negligence. Thinkin' over the fight, you two? Pretty much. With how that went, we should really get together and have a strategy meeting. We all kind of just do our own thing. It's worked so far, but that last fight showed us its limitations… Yeah, you can say that again… Well, since the boss is busy having a smoke anyways, let's see what we can put together. We can't just lean on the great and powerful Red Mist forever. Agreed. Perhaps the Rabbit Team's swarm tactics could be useful here. I've got some spare paper, I'll see if I can draw a decent gameplan for us all. I'll sort through our equipment for anything we might have overlooked, then. Gebura's not just going to wait for us to catch up to her… we'll need every trick we can think of and then some. And hey, maybe some new weapons would even the odds too.Next time, on Library of Ruina
"People have been committing sins since long ago. "Why do they commit sins, knowing it's wrong?"" Handling two of the 5's in a row seems to have thrown our guide off. Why not a third? We could also get back to that Prescript. It said no time limit, but we've kept them waiting for some time. The Snake has also been waiting for a while, but there's no issue there. Also Nikolai's ultimatum is on standby.Videos
Gebura 6
Gebura Realization (Unedited combat footage; will cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)
New E.G.O Pages
Last edited by TeeQueue on Sun Jul 09, 2023 7:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
I think I've learned it's actually the one I like the least, just because there's 11 goddamn phases. Can you imagine any other 11 phase fight in this game? Good thing we definitely won't ever have to deal with that again.
Anyways, POLL TIME.
It is time for birb.
I'm also taking the rest of the night off because I need a minute, Gebura Roundup tomorrow maybe idk.
Anyways, POLL TIME.
It is time for birb.
I'm also taking the rest of the night off because I need a minute, Gebura Roundup tomorrow maybe idk.
Music
GeburaBattle01
GeburaBattle02
GeburaBattle03
GeburaStory
Abnormality Pages
Level 1
Gebura's Abnormality Pages tend to follow a theme, and that theme is 'Powerful effects that only work on a single character.' Of her Level 1 pages, the standouts are Vampirism for the sustain when using Bleed (a very common status effect), The Role of the Wolf for its bonus to Gebura's natural Counter die, and Claws of Savagery for its ability to make a single Librarian invincible in solo builds. Prey seems like it might be an exception, adding a Mark that everyone can target to deal bonus damage, but it's not—the Mark only applies for the person who has the Page, making it strictly worse than several other options here. In general, Mountain of Corpses builds go for Claws of Savagery and Role of the Wolf (due to their tendency to generate a ton of Negative emotion leaving Vampirism out of reach), but any two of the three are very strong.
Of particular note is Fear of Water, which gives your Librarian the Blood status and starts tracking it. It can apply Bleed, which makes it work decently with Vampirism, but its most common effect causes your Librarian to lose 2-7 HP with every offensive die rolled, which can cause them to bleed out. It's rarely actually worth it.
Level 2
Her Level 2 Abnormality pages continue the theme from Level 1. Each of them is very powerful and only works on a single person. Mountain of Corpses is the most extreme version of this gimmick, outright killing off everyone else on the floor to create a single Librarian who regains up to 5 Light a turn alongside +4 to all die rolls. Mountain builds tend to use Udjat Key Pages alongside weak block dice in order to force a lot of clash losses without actually losing any Librarians, and once the target Librarian has turned into a literal god at Floor Level 3, they suddenly win a bunch of clashes and either take Absorption (for longer battles, as it goes away at the end of the Act) or Instincts (for shorter ones).
Wine is the only truly bad page of what's left over, since Absorption is just wine but better—Blood stacks are still not very good. Ruddled Welts and Laughter also aren't chosen very often, but they have some potential with Yujin builds. It's just that most people who use Gebura are here for the sheer power of the Red Mist, so these are much less likely to be useful.
Level 3
For Level 3, the question we have to ask ourselves is "How do we want to destroy our foes today?" If we want to do it by being unstaggerable and blowing through them while ignoring the small amounts of Stagger Damage they deal, we pick Shell. If we want to obliterate everyone with a single massive die, we go with Goodbye. If we want to become Netzach-levels of unkillable healbot, we go with Hello?.
Of the three, Shell and Goodbye see the most usage in normal play due to the number of ways to regain HP in the earlier Abnormality Pages, and while Hello? has some potential on Yujin builds, there aren't a lot of Gebura strategies that rely on Yujin.
E.G.O.
Before we begin, I'd like to note again that the Red Mist Key Page cannot use any E.G.O outside of her unique two—these cannot be used if we're doing any Red Mist solo strategies.
Crimson Scar is another Synchronization E.G.O, so we once more get to talk about its deck.
Our Light Restoration is three copies of Beast Hunt. It's got a decent Evade die that'll power up the Slash die that comes after, but there isn't much to say about it. It costs 1 to play, so we've got a little more of a Light squeeze than with Magic Bullet's synchro.
The new deck also comes with three copies of Hollow-point Shell, a Ranged page that deals in Pierce and Slash damage. It's cheap, but it isn't the best at clashing due to its low cost—still, the first die can make sure we win the second, so it's not all bad.
Our two Mass Attacks are Bullet Shower and Strike Without Hesitation. BS is a Mass-Individual and with enough Pierce power or Strength stacked gets ridiculously strong, while SWH is a single chunky hit that can rip through most any page we see at this point. Both are decent for their Cost, though we really want Power for Bullet Shower.
Lastly there's Desynchronize. It… exists.
Overall, Crimson Scar's pages are okay, but there's no immediate unifying theme to them—Stiletto helps BS but hurts all the other attacks, the only Blunt is SWH, and the Slashes aren't on the big attacks. This makes it difficult to build around, and only Strength is really important to making Crimson Scar work. It winds up requiring a bit too much technique for not enough benefit in most cases, especially since the usual way to play Gebura is to dump all our Abnormality Pages onto the Red Mist—who, again, cannot use any of these E.G.O.
This is the E.G.O version of Roland's Ultimate in the Cobalt Scar phase, and it's got all the ups and downs of that same move. It deals true damage, and can therefore completely ignore any kind of resistance. However, its damage is entirely reliant on the rolls we get—it cannot be raised in any way, so it's got an average damage of ~34 if everything hits. That's not a lot, so it's really only good if we couldn't output more damage than that in a single page. On Gebura's floor. It's not amazing.
Smile is good. Its 7-14 die is likely to sneak a hit in as an Individual MA, and its effect gives the enemy a straight -2 to all die rolls for all enemies hit that turn. Numbers at this point are close enough that a -2 is enough to take clashes from being 50-50 ordeals to a near-guaranteed victory for our team, and the 4 cost is low for a Mass Attack. Not much else to say about it.
Dipsia is a nice, meaty Mass Attack that gives one of our Librarians a quick heal of up to 25 HP depending on how many enemies it hits, alongside up to 5 Strength. It does give the enemies hit 1 Strength each, making them slightly stronger for Librarians outside of our main one, but that's not a massive deal given that enemies hit by this will frequently be Staggered on the turn where they'd get that Strength. Ultimately, Dipsia is the only Big Chunky Mass Attack that Gebura's floor gets naturally, and sometimes you just need a Big Chunky Mass Attack. Therefore, it's pretty good.
Lastly we have Mimicry. It's got a single chunky offensive die that heals us for however much damage it deals, while also dropping a bunch of Bleed on the enemy. It combos very well with Goodbye, and there's not a lot more to say about it.
Final Thoughts
Gebura's Abnormality Pages all combine very well in order to make a single Librarian incredible strong, and as such Gebura's floor tends to be the Red Mist show. She's insanely strong, and using her as a center of the team makes for a very powerful floor that can easily deal with anything the game can throw at us outside of power nullification. It's possible to spread the power around and use the Floor of Language in a more standard manner, but ultimately Gebura-focused strategies are easier to build and frequently more powerful to boot.
Game balance… what's that? Is it tasty?
Philosophy—833.56—Punishing Bird
Music: Lobby
For Punishing Bird, we need to make some nonstandard decks. Blunt is a strong type here offensively, and we want to try and avoid pages with offensive Counter Dice. It's also ideal to bring along units that have some chunky Blunt resistances, and adding in Grit is also smart. Keypages that'll work for our purposes include Boris and the Udjat, of course…
Woooah… You're huuuge!
You think so? I was hoping I could find something even bigger.
We can also use Maxim. Huge Mizu is officially too big to fit in the key page panel.
Hiii Miss Angela~! Oh, wait, you still can't see me, can you?
What are you babbling about? I can see you just fine.
Say whaaaaat?! But I'm supposed to be invisible to robots!
Maybe it's because she's actually becoming human, little by little?
Huh! I guess so? Congratulations on your humanity, Miss Angela!
I was never…
Dear, these children have lost the ability to search for a truth beyond their perceptions. No matter what you say to them, it shall be filtered through the lens of their own preconceptions. Instead, why not spend those words with me once again? I have more I wish to speak of.
So you would be sending them to fend for themselves alone, once again?
Is my company so unpleasant?
I suppose there are things I wish to ask you, as well. I agree.
Leave the hard part to us!
The dying, too.
I have faith in your abilities.
SNAP
Music: AbnormalityBattle01
Cutie spotted!! Ooh, I just wanna grab it and snuggle it! :syoon:
Met with punishment, 37 times…
Ooh, pat it on the head then!
Petty assault. Punished 12 times…
Fiiine, I'll poke it in the tummy!
It still counted it as sinful. Punished 83 times…
Boo… party pooper!
Maybe we need to drop the cage on it, then?
Seems so… but those three appear to keep the keys.
Then we're gonna' beat them all up!
Despite its small stature, Punishing Bird is one of the most powerful opponents in the game—if we break its rules. Any time it clashes against an offensive die, its power will suddenly get a +50, ensuring we lose the clash and it deals us a massive chunk of damage. Our job here is to completely ignore it for most of the battle, a job which we must take incredibly seriously.
Our real opponents today will be a trio of Keepers of the Black Forest, who we have to defeat to get the Forest Keeper's Locks we need in Punishing Bird's third passive. They gain +2 Power when clashing against opponents with lower speed, and also will mass-target anyone who is Staggered.
This fight is also unusual because the enemy has an action economy advantage over us—because we can't currently counter at least three of these attacks directly, we need either good Counter dice, stocked Defensive dice, or just sheer bulk to weather the enemy's attacks. Defense is vital here.
All three of Punishing Bird's dice will only ever be used for Peck, a nuisance move that hits three times for 2-4 Blunt damage. It can be easily avoided if we have any Evade dice, but we need to remember not to use any Offensive die to intercept this attack—52-54 Blunt is a lot harder to deal with.
As for the Keepers, four of their offensive dice are using Cuckoo. This attack is largely ignorable, only having a single small offensive die on it.
The other two dice are using Smack, the most threatening attack in this fight. If it so much as touches one of our Librarians, they're immediately Staggered and lose their next turn. This makes all of the Keepers target that one Librarian for the next turn, and if one of them uses Smack again… well, it gets bad.
Its 4-8 die is also just high enough that we can't guarantee we'll stop it if the Keeper gets its +2 Power passive from outspeeding, so we'll need a bit of luck to get by today.
You who are standing between me and a cutie… prepare to be pummeled to oblivion!
Don't get overconfident.
It's fine! We're all really powerful.
I'll keep the bird off of you as best I can, then.
:toughguy:
It broke through and… ooh. Oh! That actually feels pretty good. Can you get a little to the left?
With Endured resistances on Blunt, Peck can only deal Huge Mizu 1-2 damage every roll. This is what Grit is for—it turns Peck into a 0-1 damage roll. We can basically ignore all of Punishing Bird's attacks.
Mmph! These birdsuit guys can't hit very hard at all either!
Boris's page, meanwhile, only Endures Blunt HP damage. Just Mizu needs to worry very slightly more about Blunt attacks, but none of it is a problem unless she—
Blarg!
—gets Staggered.
I can't say she doesn't deserve it… Such light punishment is nowhere near enough.
I'd prefer no punishment at all!
That's not an option.
It is if I say it is!
Just Mizu takes a few hits, but it's nothing too serious yet—the Keepers and the Bird both have relatively small dice numbers.
Now that Just Mizu is Staggered, all of the Keepers go directly for her. During this phase, there are two things we need to make sure to peel off of her. The first and highest-priority are any copies of Smack the enemy may be using—if they hit her, she'll be Staggered again.
The other page we want to look out for is Ring. This is the Keepers' only page that can get more than one hit in, so we want to make sure to peel it off to keep Just Mizu from taking too much damage—the 2 Protect she got from Punished Mizu's Udjat passives should take care of most of the rest of the damage.
Using Steel Knuckles here is also a bit of a risk, since the Slash Counter die that it gives us would wind up clashing with Peck, meaning Punished Mizu would take a giant chunk of damage if we didn't do anything.
That's why she's got three copies of Smoking Pipe. This page has no offensive dice, making it a perfect counter to Peck.
Huuh… Justy's about to take a big beatdown.
She'll keep. Just take care of the most dangerous attacks.
Okay, Patchy!
Seriously, stop calling me that…
We are, all of us, Mizu. You and me and her. One as three.
But that means we still need a way to tell each other apart, or it gets really awkward at parties.
No one invites us to parties.
Then we should hold some parties. Don't you think so, little birdie?
Grr… okay, now I'm miffed!
Thanks to the Protection from the Udjat passives, Just Mizu manages to get out of the turn with only 20 HP lost. She's fine.
Ooh… the big one is calling me. I can feel it tingling.
Neither of our Level 1 Abnormality Pages are particularly useful here, but I give Huge Mizu the ability to redirect attacks.
Huh… could this be the rumored big pinch?!
Naah, there's still three of them and three of us, but one of them is about to be dead.
Another corpse on our consciousness… of course.
Don't be silly, Patchy. They turn into books now. 
Aww, c'mon! Fall over!
Ah…
What's up?
I've made a terrible mistake.
So anyways, that clever manipulation I did to Punishing Bird last turn? I forget about it immediately this turn and wind up clashing a Peck with Steel Knuckles's Counter die.
We… deserved this… I accept your punishment.
:hai:
Well look at it this way, it couldn't get much-
Owies!!
…what was that?
Oh, it got a lot worse! Really quick, actually!
It's all okie-dokie though, we'll get through it. These guys can't just get punched in the face forever.
This is actually a pretty terrible situation. Punished Mizu can't take any clashes, and the enemy has a couple of Smacks targeting Huge Mizu once again.On the upside, she's got 2 Protect to blunt the worst of the damage.
I'm gonna' beat up the one that's looking shaky!
Then I'll weaken one of the others. Our third self should be able to hold out for now.
Hooah! I punched the snot outta' this one!
We'll have to hope we can make them fall before they finish off the big one. How're you holding up?
It's not so bad..! I think I'll be good to go in-
Bwawawawawa…!
That thing stunned her again.
It's a really rude cutie! I think it's kind of a cute look on it~
Oo, what's that, Mr. Big Bird? Uhh… okay! I'll tell them!
We give Just Mizu Watchful Eyes. I'd honestly almost prefer that nobody get this page, but we don't have an option to skip Abnormality Pages and she could use the Light most.
Hey Punishing Bird! Your big buddy wants me to say you said hi, and also that it's been missing you sitting on its head.
So I'm gonna hurry up and finish beating you so we can have two bird cuties in the hand, okay?!
I stopped one of those strange smacks. Did you get the other?
Uhh…
I was beating up this guy? So I kinda… forgot?
Why are we like this..?
Hey, we're all doing the best we-
BLORF!
Because Staggered dice are always counted at 0, the Keepers will get their +2 against Huge Mizu whenever attacking her. She's starting to get a little low on HP.
Thankfully, we're finally able to pull all of the Smacks off of her. This should be her last turn Staggered… she just has to live.
Once more, we've spilled the blood of others…
Awesome! That means just two left! I'm really getting excited now!
Heehee… heeheeheehee!!!
Uugh… I still don't feel that great.
Can you move?
Yeah.
Then that's enough. We're getting too excited. Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid.
I heard that, you know!
It's true enough. We always get carried away, go too far, hurt people in our playtime.
And what's the problem with that?!
Mmhmm! If someone's trying to hurt us, it's normal to hurt them back!
And it's even better if it's fun! The more fun we have, the better it gets!
Your 'fun' is going to get you murdered by that bird if you go too far.
Hehehe… maybe!
But the more we can play with the cuties, the better I feel! I never got to frolic and run free with them like this in the old days~!
Ooh… so now you want to play too..?!
Okie-dokie! Let's play!
Now that the Keepers are defeated, we need to work on lowering the cage over Punishing Bird. Luckily, the Keepers add a special page to the hand of the Librarian that defeats them: Forest Keeper's Lock.
Each time that Lock clashes against Punishment, one of the three chains holding the cage up shatters. This doesn't remove the Lock from our deck, so it's theoretically possible to win while only defeating one Keeper—but that's a lot less simple. Since all three are dead now, we can focus entirely on Punishing Bird, but we're left with one problem: To get Punishment to show up, we have to hit it, but Offensive dice will get us a +50 Power smack in response if we clash Peck. How do we get around that?
...Okay, I've got a plan. I have one of these lock things, so I just have to distract it. I'll evade its attacks, and then crash down on it. It'll come at me… but I'll be ready for it. You just need to stand there, okay Huge Mizu?
Yep! I can stand back and do nothing.
I'm going to need someone to follow up after that… Just Mizu, can I trust you to attack it and use your locks to stop it after that?
Justy? Um… hey, where is she?
Oh no. She didn't-!
Aaaahahahaha! This is the best! The absolute best!!
Sometimes… I scare even myself.
While Evade dice are able to dodge Punishing Bird's pecks to set up an attack, it's also possible to just use Discipline. It nullifies the +50 Power, letting us easily overpower Punishing Bird. This enrages it on the next turn.
:rant:
Aww… it's even cute when it's going to murder me!
Punishment is a 90-90 Blunt attack, which will still gain +50 when clashing against an offensive die. If we provoke it without Forest Keeper's Lock in our hand, we're in real trouble.
Why can't we ever stick with the plan..? It's just… chaos. We break everything we touch.
Plan? Oh, yeah, I've got one of those!
When it bites me… I need to not be there.
…That was never a good plan.
WOOB WOOB WOOB!!!
And then I bonk it! And we repeat until it's Suppressed!
With the first dodge, one of the three chains holding the chain up shatters. From here, hitting Punishing Bird makes it target Just Mizu again, meaning that she can use her second Forest Keeper's Lock to break the second chain, and we repeat until done.
So we do that.
Missed again! You keep biting those locks, cutie, and you're gonna' be the one to get punished~!
This is absurd… I'll put an end to it.
Alright! I'll just stand over here. Getting beaten up that much really takes it out of you.
Don't get too comfortable. This won't take long.
While I accept your judgment… I'm afraid your punishment must wait until later.
Like us… you too were overzealous. You crushed anything you deemed in the way of your ideal…
And now, like us, you're trapped in a cage of someone else's design.
Alright! We did it! Well… mostly you two did it. But I took hits!
Aww… but you stole the good part!
Consider that your punishment… Let's get going.
Punishing Bird is a very interesting fight, all told. There aren't a lot of battles that care more about defense than offense, and this one is entirely about setting up a team that can tank all the dice that the Punishing Bird and its followers can dish out while slowly defeating them and setting up to break the locks. Out-DPSing the enemy is still possible, of course, but it's much more volatile and can end with Punishing Bird's pecks Staggering people at awkward times.
VIDEO
Music: BinahStory
Have you gotten used to carrying the Abnormalities on your back as you fight?
Just wielding ‘em as I like has been working pretty well so far, I guess?
You must have a natural aptitude for it.
Eh, it’s not a matter of aptitude or anything. I’m just doing it ‘cause I gotta.
If you truly do have an aptitude… you may be able to manifest your own E.G.O next.
That means I could also undergo the Distortion and become an Abnormality?
That is correct.
Honestly… I don’t care if I turn into a monster or whatever at this point. I don’t think it really matters anymore.
Your words suggest that you have let go of many things.
I was robbed of them against my will, more like. I got caught up in events I couldn’t even understand and lost everything I had.
Do you believe the City is responsible for it? You appear to be under the impression that the City stole your ordinary and humble happiness.
…Yep, I am. Or maybe I just accepted that there’s nothing I can do about it and gave up. This world just won’t let me have anything I want. It always finds a way to make me suffer for it.
…Course I have.
But that’s—!
“That’s that, and this is this.” I see you are resorting to your favored justification.
Does it hold true, however? Do you think that the boundaries between what concerns you or not could be defined so conveniently?
Well, obviously… The pain I suffered is mine to care, and the pain others suffer is their own business.
Such a carefree statement you are making. You know better than anyone, yet you refuse to face it more adamantly than most others.
It is not that you cannot see the suffering of others. You are merely turning a blind eye to it. That is what makes the denizens of the City so vulnerable.
Their own anguish is the most tangible; they believe it matters more than anyone else’s. However, they know deep down that their belief is untrue. Such contradiction is what gives rise to the phenomenon known as the Distortion.
What is your point? Are you saying that you can see it, the pain this City is bearing?
You can fathom all of it? And figure out what’s at the core of it?
It is what you must look at, rather than merely fathom.
…I knew it, so you were just playing with words.
Perchance there is some truth in what you said just now. After all, I would not be here if I did not face such a fate.
I gave you the books, so I’m leaving now.
One moment.
I don’t have anything more to say to you.
Take these with you.
…What’s this?
These are black tea leaves, a recommended variant of mine. It has a good scent.
Gah, dammit. Alright, I’ll take it for now.
…Thanks.
Music: Lobby
And so, we've finished getting Binah's floor to Level 3. This means we'll get some more Abnormality Pages to work with.
Punishment gives us 2-4 Power the turn after we take a hit, but only on the first die we roll. That makes it really quite lackluster, though that one die will most likely win whatever clash it's involved in.
Next is Punishing Beak, which is the opposite of Punishment—the longer we go without taking damage, the more bonus damage the selected Librarian deals, to a maximum of 10. As we hit the late game, it'll become very difficult to go for more than one turn without taking at least one stray hit somewhere, making this one also a rather meh Abnormality Page option.
Lastly, there's Small Flutters. Small Flutters is a boost to Evade dice that also boosts Offensive Dice after a successful Evade, though we're at the point in the game where most of the Combat Pages we'll be getting our hands on use Block dice over the more all-or-nothing Evades. Still, it's a Level 1 Page that isn't Watchful Eyes so I'm glad to see it.
Binah… there was one more thing I needed to tell you about.
A moment, if you would.
Thank you for your patience. Now, what was it?
There has been a complication in awakening your next Librarian.
Were they uninterested in returning to the physical world?
To be precise… they took a single look at their outfit, and complained about being too fatigued for this before finding an alternate book to sleep within.
Mm… Such a reaction is within my expectations. We shall have to handle the next book as soon as possible.
What? But that's not fair! We worked really hard, and we deserve a reward!
Yeah, yeah!
And so you shall have it. A constitutional would benefit me, I believe. Will that suffice as a reward?
Only definitely! I can't wait to handle a cutie with you, Miss Binah!
If this lull in invitations keeps up, you may not have to.
Next time, on Library of Ruina
"Its scale would never neglect the weight of even the smallest sin."
I feel somewhat sorry for Xiao. She's been waiting for some time.
Not as long as the Index, though they will wait eternally without a Prescript.
I don't think our Color friend will have wound up waiting at all, so there's no rush here.
And, to be quite honest, I don't have any idea what to expect after R Corp.
Videos
Binah 3
Music: Lobby
For Punishing Bird, we need to make some nonstandard decks. Blunt is a strong type here offensively, and we want to try and avoid pages with offensive Counter Dice. It's also ideal to bring along units that have some chunky Blunt resistances, and adding in Grit is also smart. Keypages that'll work for our purposes include Boris and the Udjat, of course…
Woooah… You're huuuge! You think so? I was hoping I could find something even bigger.We can also use Maxim. Huge Mizu is officially too big to fit in the key page panel.
Hiii Miss Angela~! Oh, wait, you still can't see me, can you? What are you babbling about? I can see you just fine. Say whaaaaat?! But I'm supposed to be invisible to robots! Maybe it's because she's actually becoming human, little by little? Huh! I guess so? Congratulations on your humanity, Miss Angela! I was never… Dear, these children have lost the ability to search for a truth beyond their perceptions. No matter what you say to them, it shall be filtered through the lens of their own preconceptions. Instead, why not spend those words with me once again? I have more I wish to speak of. So you would be sending them to fend for themselves alone, once again? Is my company so unpleasant? I suppose there are things I wish to ask you, as well. I agree. Leave the hard part to us! The dying, too. I have faith in your abilities.SNAP
Music: AbnormalityBattle01
Cutie spotted!! Ooh, I just wanna grab it and snuggle it! :syoon: Met with punishment, 37 times… Ooh, pat it on the head then! Petty assault. Punished 12 times… Fiiine, I'll poke it in the tummy! It still counted it as sinful. Punished 83 times… Boo… party pooper! Maybe we need to drop the cage on it, then? Seems so… but those three appear to keep the keys. Then we're gonna' beat them all up!Punishing Bird wrote:
Despite its small stature, Punishing Bird is one of the most powerful opponents in the game—if we break its rules. Any time it clashes against an offensive die, its power will suddenly get a +50, ensuring we lose the clash and it deals us a massive chunk of damage. Our job here is to completely ignore it for most of the battle, a job which we must take incredibly seriously.
Our real opponents today will be a trio of Keepers of the Black Forest, who we have to defeat to get the Forest Keeper's Locks we need in Punishing Bird's third passive. They gain +2 Power when clashing against opponents with lower speed, and also will mass-target anyone who is Staggered.
This fight is also unusual because the enemy has an action economy advantage over us—because we can't currently counter at least three of these attacks directly, we need either good Counter dice, stocked Defensive dice, or just sheer bulk to weather the enemy's attacks. Defense is vital here.
All three of Punishing Bird's dice will only ever be used for Peck, a nuisance move that hits three times for 2-4 Blunt damage. It can be easily avoided if we have any Evade dice, but we need to remember not to use any Offensive die to intercept this attack—52-54 Blunt is a lot harder to deal with.
As for the Keepers, four of their offensive dice are using Cuckoo. This attack is largely ignorable, only having a single small offensive die on it.
The other two dice are using Smack, the most threatening attack in this fight. If it so much as touches one of our Librarians, they're immediately Staggered and lose their next turn. This makes all of the Keepers target that one Librarian for the next turn, and if one of them uses Smack again… well, it gets bad.
Its 4-8 die is also just high enough that we can't guarantee we'll stop it if the Keeper gets its +2 Power passive from outspeeding, so we'll need a bit of luck to get by today.
You who are standing between me and a cutie… prepare to be pummeled to oblivion! Don't get overconfident. It's fine! We're all really powerful. I'll keep the bird off of you as best I can, then. :toughguy: It broke through and… ooh. Oh! That actually feels pretty good. Can you get a little to the left? With Endured resistances on Blunt, Peck can only deal Huge Mizu 1-2 damage every roll. This is what Grit is for—it turns Peck into a 0-1 damage roll. We can basically ignore all of Punishing Bird's attacks.
Mmph! These birdsuit guys can't hit very hard at all either!Boris's page, meanwhile, only Endures Blunt HP damage. Just Mizu needs to worry very slightly more about Blunt attacks, but none of it is a problem unless she—
Blarg!—gets Staggered.
I can't say she doesn't deserve it… Such light punishment is nowhere near enough. I'd prefer no punishment at all! That's not an option. It is if I say it is!Just Mizu takes a few hits, but it's nothing too serious yet—the Keepers and the Bird both have relatively small dice numbers.
Now that Just Mizu is Staggered, all of the Keepers go directly for her. During this phase, there are two things we need to make sure to peel off of her. The first and highest-priority are any copies of Smack the enemy may be using—if they hit her, she'll be Staggered again.
The other page we want to look out for is Ring. This is the Keepers' only page that can get more than one hit in, so we want to make sure to peel it off to keep Just Mizu from taking too much damage—the 2 Protect she got from Punished Mizu's Udjat passives should take care of most of the rest of the damage.
Using Steel Knuckles here is also a bit of a risk, since the Slash Counter die that it gives us would wind up clashing with Peck, meaning Punished Mizu would take a giant chunk of damage if we didn't do anything.
That's why she's got three copies of Smoking Pipe. This page has no offensive dice, making it a perfect counter to Peck.
Huuh… Justy's about to take a big beatdown. She'll keep. Just take care of the most dangerous attacks. Okay, Patchy! Seriously, stop calling me that… We are, all of us, Mizu. You and me and her. One as three. But that means we still need a way to tell each other apart, or it gets really awkward at parties. No one invites us to parties. Then we should hold some parties. Don't you think so, little birdie? Grr… okay, now I'm miffed!Thanks to the Protection from the Udjat passives, Just Mizu manages to get out of the turn with only 20 HP lost. She's fine.
Ooh… the big one is calling me. I can feel it tingling.Neither of our Level 1 Abnormality Pages are particularly useful here, but I give Huge Mizu the ability to redirect attacks.
Huh… could this be the rumored big pinch?! Naah, there's still three of them and three of us, but one of them is about to be dead. Another corpse on our consciousness… of course. Don't be silly, Patchy. They turn into books now. Aww, c'mon! Fall over! Ah… What's up? I've made a terrible mistake.So anyways, that clever manipulation I did to Punishing Bird last turn? I forget about it immediately this turn and wind up clashing a Peck with Steel Knuckles's Counter die.
We… deserved this… I accept your punishment. :hai: Well look at it this way, it couldn't get much- Owies!! …what was that? Oh, it got a lot worse! Really quick, actually! It's all okie-dokie though, we'll get through it. These guys can't just get punched in the face forever.This is actually a pretty terrible situation. Punished Mizu can't take any clashes, and the enemy has a couple of Smacks targeting Huge Mizu once again.On the upside, she's got 2 Protect to blunt the worst of the damage.
I'm gonna' beat up the one that's looking shaky! Then I'll weaken one of the others. Our third self should be able to hold out for now. Hooah! I punched the snot outta' this one! We'll have to hope we can make them fall before they finish off the big one. How're you holding up? It's not so bad..! I think I'll be good to go in- Bwawawawawa…! That thing stunned her again. It's a really rude cutie! I think it's kind of a cute look on it~ Oo, what's that, Mr. Big Bird? Uhh… okay! I'll tell them!We give Just Mizu Watchful Eyes. I'd honestly almost prefer that nobody get this page, but we don't have an option to skip Abnormality Pages and she could use the Light most.
Hey Punishing Bird! Your big buddy wants me to say you said hi, and also that it's been missing you sitting on its head. 
So I'm gonna hurry up and finish beating you so we can have two bird cuties in the hand, okay?! I stopped one of those strange smacks. Did you get the other? Uhh… I was beating up this guy? So I kinda… forgot? Why are we like this..? Hey, we're all doing the best we- BLORF!Because Staggered dice are always counted at 0, the Keepers will get their +2 against Huge Mizu whenever attacking her. She's starting to get a little low on HP.
Thankfully, we're finally able to pull all of the Smacks off of her. This should be her last turn Staggered… she just has to live.
Once more, we've spilled the blood of others… Awesome! That means just two left! I'm really getting excited now! Heehee… heeheeheehee!!! Uugh… I still don't feel that great. Can you move? Yeah. Then that's enough. We're getting too excited. Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. I heard that, you know! It's true enough. We always get carried away, go too far, hurt people in our playtime. And what's the problem with that?! Mmhmm! If someone's trying to hurt us, it's normal to hurt them back! And it's even better if it's fun! The more fun we have, the better it gets! Your 'fun' is going to get you murdered by that bird if you go too far. Hehehe… maybe! But the more we can play with the cuties, the better I feel! I never got to frolic and run free with them like this in the old days~! Ooh… so now you want to play too..?! Okie-dokie! Let's play! Now that the Keepers are defeated, we need to work on lowering the cage over Punishing Bird. Luckily, the Keepers add a special page to the hand of the Librarian that defeats them: Forest Keeper's Lock.
Each time that Lock clashes against Punishment, one of the three chains holding the cage up shatters. This doesn't remove the Lock from our deck, so it's theoretically possible to win while only defeating one Keeper—but that's a lot less simple. Since all three are dead now, we can focus entirely on Punishing Bird, but we're left with one problem: To get Punishment to show up, we have to hit it, but Offensive dice will get us a +50 Power smack in response if we clash Peck. How do we get around that?
...Okay, I've got a plan. I have one of these lock things, so I just have to distract it. I'll evade its attacks, and then crash down on it. It'll come at me… but I'll be ready for it. You just need to stand there, okay Huge Mizu? Yep! I can stand back and do nothing. I'm going to need someone to follow up after that… Just Mizu, can I trust you to attack it and use your locks to stop it after that? Justy? Um… hey, where is she? Oh no. She didn't-! Aaaahahahaha! This is the best! The absolute best!! Sometimes… I scare even myself.While Evade dice are able to dodge Punishing Bird's pecks to set up an attack, it's also possible to just use Discipline. It nullifies the +50 Power, letting us easily overpower Punishing Bird. This enrages it on the next turn.
:rant: Aww… it's even cute when it's going to murder me!Punishment Time! wrote:
Punishment is a 90-90 Blunt attack, which will still gain +50 when clashing against an offensive die. If we provoke it without Forest Keeper's Lock in our hand, we're in real trouble.
Why can't we ever stick with the plan..? It's just… chaos. We break everything we touch. Plan? Oh, yeah, I've got one of those! When it bites me… I need to not be there. …That was never a good plan. WOOB WOOB WOOB!!! And then I bonk it! And we repeat until it's Suppressed!With the first dodge, one of the three chains holding the chain up shatters. From here, hitting Punishing Bird makes it target Just Mizu again, meaning that she can use her second Forest Keeper's Lock to break the second chain, and we repeat until done.
So we do that.
Missed again! You keep biting those locks, cutie, and you're gonna' be the one to get punished~! This is absurd… I'll put an end to it. Alright! I'll just stand over here. Getting beaten up that much really takes it out of you. Don't get too comfortable. This won't take long. While I accept your judgment… I'm afraid your punishment must wait until later. Like us… you too were overzealous. You crushed anything you deemed in the way of your ideal… And now, like us, you're trapped in a cage of someone else's design. Alright! We did it! Well… mostly you two did it. But I took hits! Aww… but you stole the good part! Consider that your punishment… Let's get going.Punishing Bird is a very interesting fight, all told. There aren't a lot of battles that care more about defense than offense, and this one is entirely about setting up a team that can tank all the dice that the Punishing Bird and its followers can dish out while slowly defeating them and setting up to break the locks. Out-DPSing the enemy is still possible, of course, but it's much more volatile and can end with Punishing Bird's pecks Staggering people at awkward times.
VIDEO
Music: BinahStory
Have you gotten used to carrying the Abnormalities on your back as you fight? Just wielding ‘em as I like has been working pretty well so far, I guess? You must have a natural aptitude for it. Eh, it’s not a matter of aptitude or anything. I’m just doing it ‘cause I gotta. If you truly do have an aptitude… you may be able to manifest your own E.G.O next. That means I could also undergo the Distortion and become an Abnormality? That is correct. Honestly… I don’t care if I turn into a monster or whatever at this point. I don’t think it really matters anymore. Your words suggest that you have let go of many things. I was robbed of them against my will, more like. I got caught up in events I couldn’t even understand and lost everything I had. Do you believe the City is responsible for it? You appear to be under the impression that the City stole your ordinary and humble happiness. …Yep, I am. Or maybe I just accepted that there’s nothing I can do about it and gave up. This world just won’t let me have anything I want. It always finds a way to make me suffer for it. …Course I have. But that’s—! “That’s that, and this is this.” I see you are resorting to your favored justification. Does it hold true, however? Do you think that the boundaries between what concerns you or not could be defined so conveniently? Well, obviously… The pain I suffered is mine to care, and the pain others suffer is their own business. Such a carefree statement you are making. You know better than anyone, yet you refuse to face it more adamantly than most others. It is not that you cannot see the suffering of others. You are merely turning a blind eye to it. That is what makes the denizens of the City so vulnerable. Their own anguish is the most tangible; they believe it matters more than anyone else’s. However, they know deep down that their belief is untrue. Such contradiction is what gives rise to the phenomenon known as the Distortion. What is your point? Are you saying that you can see it, the pain this City is bearing? You can fathom all of it? And figure out what’s at the core of it? It is what you must look at, rather than merely fathom. …I knew it, so you were just playing with words. Perchance there is some truth in what you said just now. After all, I would not be here if I did not face such a fate. I gave you the books, so I’m leaving now. One moment. I don’t have anything more to say to you. Take these with you. …What’s this? These are black tea leaves, a recommended variant of mine. It has a good scent. Gah, dammit. Alright, I’ll take it for now. …Thanks.Music: Lobby
And so, we've finished getting Binah's floor to Level 3. This means we'll get some more Abnormality Pages to work with.
Punishment gives us 2-4 Power the turn after we take a hit, but only on the first die we roll. That makes it really quite lackluster, though that one die will most likely win whatever clash it's involved in.
Next is Punishing Beak, which is the opposite of Punishment—the longer we go without taking damage, the more bonus damage the selected Librarian deals, to a maximum of 10. As we hit the late game, it'll become very difficult to go for more than one turn without taking at least one stray hit somewhere, making this one also a rather meh Abnormality Page option.
Lastly, there's Small Flutters. Small Flutters is a boost to Evade dice that also boosts Offensive Dice after a successful Evade, though we're at the point in the game where most of the Combat Pages we'll be getting our hands on use Block dice over the more all-or-nothing Evades. Still, it's a Level 1 Page that isn't Watchful Eyes so I'm glad to see it.
Binah… there was one more thing I needed to tell you about. A moment, if you would. Thank you for your patience. Now, what was it? There has been a complication in awakening your next Librarian. Were they uninterested in returning to the physical world? To be precise… they took a single look at their outfit, and complained about being too fatigued for this before finding an alternate book to sleep within. Mm… Such a reaction is within my expectations. We shall have to handle the next book as soon as possible. What? But that's not fair! We worked really hard, and we deserve a reward! Yeah, yeah! And so you shall have it. A constitutional would benefit me, I believe. Will that suffice as a reward? Only definitely! I can't wait to handle a cutie with you, Miss Binah! If this lull in invitations keeps up, you may not have to.Next time, on Library of Ruina
"Its scale would never neglect the weight of even the smallest sin." I feel somewhat sorry for Xiao. She's been waiting for some time. Not as long as the Index, though they will wait eternally without a Prescript. I don't think our Color friend will have wound up waiting at all, so there's no rush here. And, to be quite honest, I don't have any idea what to expect after R Corp.Videos
Binah 3
Last edited by TeeQueue on Wed Jul 19, 2023 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
Philosophy—834.62—Judgment Bird
Music: Lobby
Hey hey, guess who I am: "I am the sword of my blade. There is no forgiveness… only slashy."
Ooh, is it Patchy?
Bingo!
We never did realize when to stop…
The inner struggle, externalized… It's important to be able to view yourself objectively, and make an accurate gauge of your own existence.
I'm not fortunate, or whatever you're on about.
If you view it as such.
Wooah! You figured out what she was saying? Are we actually pretty smart?!
No, we are not.
I take it we are still without any new invitations?
Correct. There is little else to do aside manage the Abnormalities.
And thus, you are doing what you have always d—
I would rather you didn't phrase it in such a way.
I see… Then, let us get things underway.
Yes. I wish you success.
SNAP
Music: AbnormalityBattle02
Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh! So tall! So handsome! With that rugged air of mystery!. This cutie and me, we're meant to play together!
The unjust scale, pushing its own twisted sense of justice to ensure it gets the result it wants… Yes… it's meant for us, as well.
Now, children… let us test this Abnormality's strength.
Will do, Miss Binah!
Judgment Bird is is a fight which will always be over with quickly. Every turn, our Librarians will be building up one sin. We can pass it to either allies or enemies by successfully hitting them, and our goal is to ensure that no more than two people on the field have 3 or more at a time. If we go above 3, Judgment Bird will use Ceaseless Judgment.
This is Ceaseless Judgment. If we see it, we've lost the fight. It'll hit everyone, and instantly defeat any of our Librarians with 3+ Sin on them. We want to avoid that. To do this, we need to pile as much Sin as possible onto one person, and try to trigger Judgment. Each time Judgment Bird uses Judgment, it loses 25% of its SR, at which point it'll become open to attack. Lastly, attacking it with someone who has a lot of Sin is pointless; all of Judgment Bird's dice gain Power equal to the amount of Sin on its opponent.
On turns like this where nobody has enough Sin to trigger its attacks, it will use Stare on all three dice. This page is full of Block dice to keep it safe while our Sin builds up.
This is all complicated by this trio of Runaway Birds. Each one accrues 1 Sin/turn the same as we do, and while we can pass Sin to them once per page by hitting them, they can also pass it to us once per page as well. If we're not careful, one of our Librarians can get targeted by one of these things, fail to land a hit and pass their own Sin off, get +1 more from the next turn, and suddenly they're at 3 Sin, threatening to get Ceaseless Judgment'd.
Their main form of offense is Terrified Flutter, a trio of relatively weak Slash dice that we aren't equipped to fully block. This means that their attacks are going to get through on my Librarians, and it's most important to figure out how I'm going to spread that Sin around.
To deal with this, I first need to designate a main Sinner, whose job will be to have as much Sin piled on her as possible.
Worry not, children. I shall bear the brunt of this one's anger.
Binah is our designated Sinner, her Endured/Ineffective Slash resistances make her take very little damage from Slash attacks, and each of our Librarians has three copies of To Overcome Crisis that are almost exclusively for Binah only. This'll let them keep their hand counts high, while also passing Sin off efficiently. This is also why Binah has Grit today—that passive really pays dividends throughout all of Binah's Abnormality Battles.
To help with managing the chaos I've put the Full-Stop Passives on Huge and Punished Mizu, and their job is to use their dice to try and immediately take one of the runaway birds out of the picture. Outside of that, our main goal is to make sure none of the birds have a chance to pile a bunch of Sin on anyone but Binah. Here, the top Runaway Bird will lose their first clash entirely to Punished Mizu's opening salvo, and be forced to transfer its Sin to Binah on the second clash. The middle bird can only transfer its one Sin to Huge Mizu or Binah, and the bottom one will transfer it to Punished Mizu. This means nobody except Binah will have more than 1 Sin going into the start of the next round—right where we want to be.
Now, children… It is time.
Strike them down.
These birds are simply migrants, trying to get away. We're standing between them and their freedom.
That may be the case. I don't sense any malice in their flailing attacks… Merely desperation.
But then… to this Abnormality, their sins weigh just as heavily as our own.
Then as the one in charge, you should hold on to all of ours.
They're talking about really important stuff over there, I think… Honestly, I don't follow any of it.
Eh! Following things is overrated. What matters most is having fun in the moment…
And then we pass the buck on to Miss Binah! She's the sinniest of us all!
Oh? Is that to say you have not sinned yourself?
Oh no, I do lotsa bad stuff! I can just blame most of it on the boss!
So you are not responsible for your own actions?
Duuuh! If you tell me to go have fun and protect the cuties, of course a buncha' people would get murderized. Everyone knew it, so it's not my fault. And Mr. Birdie agrees with me!
See? He's suuuper interested in all your sins, Miss Binah… and he's gonna' hug you!
Even if the decision was made for us… it was still our body, in the end. This doesn't absolve us of anything.
Guys is this really the time for this, we've got a very tall bird in front of us and he looks really angry!
Indeed. Something will need to be done about this situation.
Once one of our allies has 5 or more Sin on them, one of Judgment Bird's three dice will use Judgment against them. This page instantly kills anyone it targets with 5+ Sin, meaning we have to draw it away from Binah. If someone without 5+ Sin loses a clash to it, they lose 20% of their health with no questions asked.
Child… are you going to simply allow one of your dear Abnormalities to give its attention to another?
…Hey, that's right! Heck no I'm not!
Just Mizu's entire build is set around successfully winning clashes with this page, with her key page giving her a +6 total power to all of her single die Slash pages… which is all of the pages in her deck.
Meanwhile, because the middle Runaway Bird was injured last turn it's switched out for Piercing Shriek. This is a two-die page that can deal bonus Stagger Damage, and while the dice are a little chunkier than Terrified Flutter, it's still not a big deal.
I have Binah use Shockwave here—it'll put a little damage onto Judgment Bird, definitely take out the top bird (Giving Binah a Light refill from her Emotion Level increasing), and put damage on the other two. For Sin, Huge and Punished Mizu will both be taking on an extra one this turn if the birds get their attacks off, putting them both on 2 Sin each after passing the extra on to Binah. Ideally we take out the middle bird before this happens, but we're fine either way.
Gonna get the cutie to pay attention to me and not Miss Binah…
Wow… you handled that quickly.
She's got thousands of years of experience making us do what she wants…
That's only because you make yourselves much more useful than most of your fellows.
Now, let us give this Abnormality a proper greeting, since it will soon be joining us on our path.
Binah takes out one of the three birds.
Your greeting was late.
It's important to lay the groundwork long before you greet your enemy.
Fairy finishes off the second bird, as well. Unfortunately, counting wrong leads to her having 3 Sin at this point. Even if she passes one to Binah, she'll have 3 again next turn—if one more person hits the same threshold we're in serious trouble.
You… me… we're both beyond saving. We should sink together, you know.
Despite your words, your blows are light. Worry not, I will carry this burden.
Um… well, for what it's worth, I've got this one over here!
You are going to give me a hug, cutie!
And Justy's got the bird taken care of! So everything should be okay now, Miss Binah!
Do not worry about telling me what is going on, child. Capture it in your eyes, and act according to your own interests. Should I need you again, I will provide orders.
Punished Mizu's Sin is hidden, but she's at 3 right now—if anyone else hits 3 as well we're in deep trouble, so our main goal here is to not let that happen.
The bird is coming for me again… If you would.
Oh yeah! You're definitely gonna hug me for real this time!
The plan here is to have both Binah and Punished Mizu throw their dice at the last Runaway Bird, which should be more than enough damage to finish them off. Huge Mizu is there only to draw one of the clashes so that if somehow it doesn't die from overwhelming damage output, she can shut it down with Concentrate.
The final chirping bird has been silenced… Our work here nears its end.
You don't mind if we keep smacking you until the end, though, right?
You carry more sins on your back than your fellows. Why do you not allow yourself the same leniency as them?
They deserve to carry just as much as I am. It's not my fault they're too far gone to understand what we've done.
So you believe the other Librarians to have more right to pursue their aims than yourself..?
Don't act like you know anything.
Give… me… my… hug!
Miss Binaaaah! The birdie keeps backing away from my hugs!!
That one has always been quite aloof. Simply keep trying until it is over.
Oh yeah. How did it always go…?
Um… How it always went..?
Shh! I'm thinking! When I shut my eyes and looked really hard…
You shouldn't do that.
The birdie can't do anything other than try to hit Miss Binah with Judgment over and over, so we could now have everyone hit Miss Binah and whittle it down risk-free…
You really shouldn't…!
Ooooh, I see..! It's fine. We already did it once before.
So we do that.
Such endlessly interesting children I have…
Allow me to prepare a path for you.
YOU! ARE GOING! TO HUG ME!
This is going to take forever.
There. Assert your damn justice, my other self.
Ooh… thankees!
I just did it so we could get out of here.
Yay for teamwork!
Alright cutiepie! You've given me your brand of judgment, how about you try some of mine?!
All cuties get my undivided love and affection! That's my absolute rule!
So accept my love, and come with us!
And so it ends. You have faced that which would judge you unfairly, and weathered the storm until the end without bending your back. Remember this experience going forward.
We mostly just passed the blame on to you for everything, though?
Indeed. Do you believe there was a better way?
…Overwhelming violence?
Perhaps. Unfortunately, decisions can rarely be remade.
While the balancing act of fighting Judgment Bird may seem difficult at first, there's actually a trick to it. The fight can be trivialized by having Binah use Full-Stop passives to force through a Pillar and a Fairy on turn 1 to deal 8 total Fairy to Judgment Bird. From there, our other three Librarians clash against its dice with big, weak pages like Opportunity Spotted!, encouraging it to roll as many times as possible. If done correctly, it'll bleed out by turn 2 and give us a very quick victory.
It is incredibly silly.
Anyways, Judgment Bird is ultimately just a test of dealing with the Sin stacks, and as long as we beat the snot out of Binah and pay attention to where the enemy is targeting, the fight isn't too bad.
VIDEO
Music: BinahStory
Everyone is basking in such indolent complacency. We live in an era where the only threat to humanity which is present in the City is humans themselves. Even as monsters created by the hands of mankind are present in the Outskirts… And entities well above the grasp of human cognition reside in the territories beyond those Outskirts.
Heard there’s a ton of ‘em.
Is humankind being kept safe from those monsters, or are those creatures the ones being protected from us?
Would you not agree that the boundary between these two possibilities is rather thin and hazy?
You call that a question? It’s gotta be protecting people from monsters.
When that frail boundary finally dissipates, the true colors of humans are brought out. Those may manifest in the form of E.G.O or an Abnormality as we had termed. It appears that the phenomenon has now been named the ‘Distortion’.
Wha? I thought we were just talking about the City and its borders?
And you keep talking about the “true form” of people…
What’s your definition of a human, anyway? Why do our “true forms” have to be all so weird like they’ve got a screw loose?
Well. I wonder… Are humans merely a species of primates, constituting the animal kingdom? What do you think is a man?
Thinking in unsophisticated ways truly gives you an impeccable perception of the essence of things.
Just tell me the answer already.
It is exactly as you said. Desires are the truest aspects of humans, are they not?
More word games, huh… You know that’s not the answer I want to hear.
So you wish to hear what I know as an Arbiter of the Head. You want to learn the secrets of the City. The reason the Head neglects the suffering of the City and lets it fester. You crave an explanation for the utter lack of governance in our otherwise strict reign.
Yeah, that. And that’s because…?
I simply maintain my silence.
Why you…
I urge you to relax. It is not possible for me to teach you the answer regardless of my will. Unrolling me into a book will yield the same result. I have already emptied my mind of all knowledge relating to it.
Fine, you win. I’m all outta motivation now. I give up trying to pry or figure out anything from you.
That ended on a trifling note. Still, it was the wise decision. What stands before you is not an Arbiter or other such things; it is simply a being that was once human.
You still aren’t a likable one in my book. Angela probably dislikes you too.
Epoché. Perceive me as who I am. Do not make any ancillary judgements… Do not be bound by anything you have learned in your life.
I’m a human being; I can’t just disregard all my background experience when I watch something.
Regard me as what I simply am, neither as an Arbiter nor a Sephirah. Consider only the time I have gone through. You may be able to see it when you observe me as though you knew nothing.
Through a long history of being entwined with each other, humans in the City have accumulated a layer of sediment. One cannot properly see through such turbid waters. The City is in such a state. A clear vision can only be attained through one’s own eyes.
So, you basically mean everyone oughta look at the world from their own perspective and think what they want? People can see the same cup of water in different ways, like half empty or half full or some shit?
Use your own eyes to watch things as they are. Then you may see it. However, you will inevitably forget why you wished to see it once you reach that point. That oblivion is what creates anguish; that is why it is a tragedy.
That means everyone’s going to have their own arbitrary vision of the world… That can’t possibly happen in the City, there’s a predetermined answer to everything…
Perhaps. Peek into your own universe, as everyone else shall.
Music: Lobby
And so, we've hit Level 4 for Binah's floor. This also means we'll get another trio of Abnormality Pages, so let's take a peek at them.
The Weight of Sin is a funny page that makes us take 2-7 damage in return for 1-2 bonus Power on our next turn. It's interesting, but inconsistent—still, if we throw enough dice out the odds are good that one of them will be a minimum roll, and that's not a lot of damage in return for 1-2 Power.
Judgment is much more powerful, and the longer a fight goes the stronger it becomes. It re-introduces the Sin mechanic from the Judgment Bird fight, but now whenever someone hits 5 Sin they instantly lose 10% of their HP. This is True Damage, and there is no cap. This allows us to shred through a large amount of the enemy's HP through simply damaging them with our pages. It's at its best in fights against single big enemies, as they're the ones most likely to have high resistances and massive health pools.
Finally, there's Tilted Scale. Like Judgment, Tilted Scale is at its best in Boss Fights against big enemies with massive HP pools, but it can also be used in normal battles as well. Whenever we damage the enemy with the most HP, it'll give 2-8 HP back to whoever on our side has the lowest HP total, which isn't a lot but it's enough to keep us going. There's a limit of 3/turn, however, so this isn't really Netzach levels of healing.
Binah.
Angela. I take it they did not escape this time?
There were no more books to hide within, so the task was quite simple.
Oh boy! New friend!
I've seen it now… and I still don't believe it.
So the final child has awakened… Here to suffer with the rest of us?
Oh, don't be like that! We're all going to have a lot of fun with the cuties and the guests!
I've seen the kind of 'fun' you have, and I don't think it's quite my thing.
It never was. We were the monster who enjoyed it all enough for the both of us…
Oh, don't worry about Patchy too much. She's a bit of a downer, but she means well.
Heeheehee~ Oh I can't wait to go talking and catching up and finding out exactly how perfect it felt to be in those two books sleeping away..!
Is it okay to worry about this one?
If you want!
Right. I'm going to walk away slowly now. Don't… follow me.
Aww…
Told you. It was inevitable…
Thank you for delivering them yourself, dear. This should prove quite interesting…
You're… welcome.
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Binah 4
Music: Lobby
Hey hey, guess who I am: "I am the sword of my blade. There is no forgiveness… only slashy." Ooh, is it Patchy? Bingo! We never did realize when to stop… The inner struggle, externalized… It's important to be able to view yourself objectively, and make an accurate gauge of your own existence. I'm not fortunate, or whatever you're on about. If you view it as such. Wooah! You figured out what she was saying? Are we actually pretty smart?! No, we are not. I take it we are still without any new invitations? Correct. There is little else to do aside manage the Abnormalities. And thus, you are doing what you have always d— I would rather you didn't phrase it in such a way. I see… Then, let us get things underway. Yes. I wish you success.SNAP
Music: AbnormalityBattle02
Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh! So tall! So handsome! With that rugged air of mystery!. This cutie and me, we're meant to play together! The unjust scale, pushing its own twisted sense of justice to ensure it gets the result it wants… Yes… it's meant for us, as well. Now, children… let us test this Abnormality's strength. Will do, Miss Binah! Judgment Bird wrote:
Runaway Birds wrote:The Big Bird is always watching the creatures of the forest, there’s no freedom.
Judgment Bird is is a fight which will always be over with quickly. Every turn, our Librarians will be building up one sin. We can pass it to either allies or enemies by successfully hitting them, and our goal is to ensure that no more than two people on the field have 3 or more at a time. If we go above 3, Judgment Bird will use Ceaseless Judgment.
This is Ceaseless Judgment. If we see it, we've lost the fight. It'll hit everyone, and instantly defeat any of our Librarians with 3+ Sin on them. We want to avoid that. To do this, we need to pile as much Sin as possible onto one person, and try to trigger Judgment. Each time Judgment Bird uses Judgment, it loses 25% of its SR, at which point it'll become open to attack. Lastly, attacking it with someone who has a lot of Sin is pointless; all of Judgment Bird's dice gain Power equal to the amount of Sin on its opponent.
On turns like this where nobody has enough Sin to trigger its attacks, it will use Stare on all three dice. This page is full of Block dice to keep it safe while our Sin builds up.
This is all complicated by this trio of Runaway Birds. Each one accrues 1 Sin/turn the same as we do, and while we can pass Sin to them once per page by hitting them, they can also pass it to us once per page as well. If we're not careful, one of our Librarians can get targeted by one of these things, fail to land a hit and pass their own Sin off, get +1 more from the next turn, and suddenly they're at 3 Sin, threatening to get Ceaseless Judgment'd.
Their main form of offense is Terrified Flutter, a trio of relatively weak Slash dice that we aren't equipped to fully block. This means that their attacks are going to get through on my Librarians, and it's most important to figure out how I'm going to spread that Sin around.
To deal with this, I first need to designate a main Sinner, whose job will be to have as much Sin piled on her as possible.
Worry not, children. I shall bear the brunt of this one's anger.Binah is our designated Sinner, her Endured/Ineffective Slash resistances make her take very little damage from Slash attacks, and each of our Librarians has three copies of To Overcome Crisis that are almost exclusively for Binah only. This'll let them keep their hand counts high, while also passing Sin off efficiently. This is also why Binah has Grit today—that passive really pays dividends throughout all of Binah's Abnormality Battles.
To help with managing the chaos I've put the Full-Stop Passives on Huge and Punished Mizu, and their job is to use their dice to try and immediately take one of the runaway birds out of the picture. Outside of that, our main goal is to make sure none of the birds have a chance to pile a bunch of Sin on anyone but Binah. Here, the top Runaway Bird will lose their first clash entirely to Punished Mizu's opening salvo, and be forced to transfer its Sin to Binah on the second clash. The middle bird can only transfer its one Sin to Huge Mizu or Binah, and the bottom one will transfer it to Punished Mizu. This means nobody except Binah will have more than 1 Sin going into the start of the next round—right where we want to be.
Now, children… It is time. Strike them down. These birds are simply migrants, trying to get away. We're standing between them and their freedom. That may be the case. I don't sense any malice in their flailing attacks… Merely desperation. But then… to this Abnormality, their sins weigh just as heavily as our own. Then as the one in charge, you should hold on to all of ours. They're talking about really important stuff over there, I think… Honestly, I don't follow any of it. Eh! Following things is overrated. What matters most is having fun in the moment… And then we pass the buck on to Miss Binah! She's the sinniest of us all! Oh? Is that to say you have not sinned yourself? Oh no, I do lotsa bad stuff! I can just blame most of it on the boss! So you are not responsible for your own actions? Duuuh! If you tell me to go have fun and protect the cuties, of course a buncha' people would get murderized. Everyone knew it, so it's not my fault. And Mr. Birdie agrees with me! See? He's suuuper interested in all your sins, Miss Binah… and he's gonna' hug you! Even if the decision was made for us… it was still our body, in the end. This doesn't absolve us of anything. Guys is this really the time for this, we've got a very tall bird in front of us and he looks really angry! Indeed. Something will need to be done about this situation.Judgment Bird during Judgment wrote:
Once one of our allies has 5 or more Sin on them, one of Judgment Bird's three dice will use Judgment against them. This page instantly kills anyone it targets with 5+ Sin, meaning we have to draw it away from Binah. If someone without 5+ Sin loses a clash to it, they lose 20% of their health with no questions asked.
Child… are you going to simply allow one of your dear Abnormalities to give its attention to another? …Hey, that's right! Heck no I'm not!Just Mizu's entire build is set around successfully winning clashes with this page, with her key page giving her a +6 total power to all of her single die Slash pages… which is all of the pages in her deck.
Meanwhile, because the middle Runaway Bird was injured last turn it's switched out for Piercing Shriek. This is a two-die page that can deal bonus Stagger Damage, and while the dice are a little chunkier than Terrified Flutter, it's still not a big deal.
I have Binah use Shockwave here—it'll put a little damage onto Judgment Bird, definitely take out the top bird (Giving Binah a Light refill from her Emotion Level increasing), and put damage on the other two. For Sin, Huge and Punished Mizu will both be taking on an extra one this turn if the birds get their attacks off, putting them both on 2 Sin each after passing the extra on to Binah. Ideally we take out the middle bird before this happens, but we're fine either way.
Gonna get the cutie to pay attention to me and not Miss Binah… Wow… you handled that quickly. She's got thousands of years of experience making us do what she wants… That's only because you make yourselves much more useful than most of your fellows. Now, let us give this Abnormality a proper greeting, since it will soon be joining us on our path.Binah takes out one of the three birds.
Your greeting was late. It's important to lay the groundwork long before you greet your enemy.Fairy finishes off the second bird, as well. Unfortunately, counting wrong leads to her having 3 Sin at this point. Even if she passes one to Binah, she'll have 3 again next turn—if one more person hits the same threshold we're in serious trouble.
You… me… we're both beyond saving. We should sink together, you know. Despite your words, your blows are light. Worry not, I will carry this burden. Um… well, for what it's worth, I've got this one over here! You are going to give me a hug, cutie! And Justy's got the bird taken care of! So everything should be okay now, Miss Binah! Do not worry about telling me what is going on, child. Capture it in your eyes, and act according to your own interests. Should I need you again, I will provide orders.Punished Mizu's Sin is hidden, but she's at 3 right now—if anyone else hits 3 as well we're in deep trouble, so our main goal here is to not let that happen.
The bird is coming for me again… If you would. Oh yeah! You're definitely gonna hug me for real this time!The plan here is to have both Binah and Punished Mizu throw their dice at the last Runaway Bird, which should be more than enough damage to finish them off. Huge Mizu is there only to draw one of the clashes so that if somehow it doesn't die from overwhelming damage output, she can shut it down with Concentrate.
The final chirping bird has been silenced… Our work here nears its end. You don't mind if we keep smacking you until the end, though, right? You carry more sins on your back than your fellows. Why do you not allow yourself the same leniency as them? They deserve to carry just as much as I am. It's not my fault they're too far gone to understand what we've done. So you believe the other Librarians to have more right to pursue their aims than yourself..? Don't act like you know anything. Give… me… my… hug! Miss Binaaaah! The birdie keeps backing away from my hugs!! That one has always been quite aloof. Simply keep trying until it is over. Oh yeah. How did it always go…? Um… How it always went..? Shh! I'm thinking! When I shut my eyes and looked really hard… You shouldn't do that. The birdie can't do anything other than try to hit Miss Binah with Judgment over and over, so we could now have everyone hit Miss Binah and whittle it down risk-free… You really shouldn't…! Ooooh, I see..! It's fine. We already did it once before. So we do that. Such endlessly interesting children I have… Allow me to prepare a path for you. YOU! ARE GOING! TO HUG ME! This is going to take forever. There. Assert your damn justice, my other self. Ooh… thankees! I just did it so we could get out of here. Yay for teamwork! Alright cutiepie! You've given me your brand of judgment, how about you try some of mine?! All cuties get my undivided love and affection! That's my absolute rule! So accept my love, and come with us! And so it ends. You have faced that which would judge you unfairly, and weathered the storm until the end without bending your back. Remember this experience going forward. We mostly just passed the blame on to you for everything, though? Indeed. Do you believe there was a better way? …Overwhelming violence? Perhaps. Unfortunately, decisions can rarely be remade.While the balancing act of fighting Judgment Bird may seem difficult at first, there's actually a trick to it. The fight can be trivialized by having Binah use Full-Stop passives to force through a Pillar and a Fairy on turn 1 to deal 8 total Fairy to Judgment Bird. From there, our other three Librarians clash against its dice with big, weak pages like Opportunity Spotted!, encouraging it to roll as many times as possible. If done correctly, it'll bleed out by turn 2 and give us a very quick victory.
It is incredibly silly.
Anyways, Judgment Bird is ultimately just a test of dealing with the Sin stacks, and as long as we beat the snot out of Binah and pay attention to where the enemy is targeting, the fight isn't too bad.
VIDEO
Music: BinahStory
Everyone is basking in such indolent complacency. We live in an era where the only threat to humanity which is present in the City is humans themselves. Even as monsters created by the hands of mankind are present in the Outskirts… And entities well above the grasp of human cognition reside in the territories beyond those Outskirts. Heard there’s a ton of ‘em. Is humankind being kept safe from those monsters, or are those creatures the ones being protected from us? Would you not agree that the boundary between these two possibilities is rather thin and hazy? You call that a question? It’s gotta be protecting people from monsters. When that frail boundary finally dissipates, the true colors of humans are brought out. Those may manifest in the form of E.G.O or an Abnormality as we had termed. It appears that the phenomenon has now been named the ‘Distortion’. Wha? I thought we were just talking about the City and its borders? And you keep talking about the “true form” of people… What’s your definition of a human, anyway? Why do our “true forms” have to be all so weird like they’ve got a screw loose? Well. I wonder… Are humans merely a species of primates, constituting the animal kingdom? What do you think is a man? Thinking in unsophisticated ways truly gives you an impeccable perception of the essence of things. Just tell me the answer already. It is exactly as you said. Desires are the truest aspects of humans, are they not? More word games, huh… You know that’s not the answer I want to hear. So you wish to hear what I know as an Arbiter of the Head. You want to learn the secrets of the City. The reason the Head neglects the suffering of the City and lets it fester. You crave an explanation for the utter lack of governance in our otherwise strict reign. Yeah, that. And that’s because…? I simply maintain my silence. Why you… I urge you to relax. It is not possible for me to teach you the answer regardless of my will. Unrolling me into a book will yield the same result. I have already emptied my mind of all knowledge relating to it. Fine, you win. I’m all outta motivation now. I give up trying to pry or figure out anything from you. That ended on a trifling note. Still, it was the wise decision. What stands before you is not an Arbiter or other such things; it is simply a being that was once human. You still aren’t a likable one in my book. Angela probably dislikes you too. Epoché. Perceive me as who I am. Do not make any ancillary judgements… Do not be bound by anything you have learned in your life. I’m a human being; I can’t just disregard all my background experience when I watch something. Regard me as what I simply am, neither as an Arbiter nor a Sephirah. Consider only the time I have gone through. You may be able to see it when you observe me as though you knew nothing. Through a long history of being entwined with each other, humans in the City have accumulated a layer of sediment. One cannot properly see through such turbid waters. The City is in such a state. A clear vision can only be attained through one’s own eyes. So, you basically mean everyone oughta look at the world from their own perspective and think what they want? People can see the same cup of water in different ways, like half empty or half full or some shit? Use your own eyes to watch things as they are. Then you may see it. However, you will inevitably forget why you wished to see it once you reach that point. That oblivion is what creates anguish; that is why it is a tragedy. That means everyone’s going to have their own arbitrary vision of the world… That can’t possibly happen in the City, there’s a predetermined answer to everything… Perhaps. Peek into your own universe, as everyone else shall.Music: Lobby
And so, we've hit Level 4 for Binah's floor. This also means we'll get another trio of Abnormality Pages, so let's take a peek at them.
The Weight of Sin is a funny page that makes us take 2-7 damage in return for 1-2 bonus Power on our next turn. It's interesting, but inconsistent—still, if we throw enough dice out the odds are good that one of them will be a minimum roll, and that's not a lot of damage in return for 1-2 Power.
Judgment is much more powerful, and the longer a fight goes the stronger it becomes. It re-introduces the Sin mechanic from the Judgment Bird fight, but now whenever someone hits 5 Sin they instantly lose 10% of their HP. This is True Damage, and there is no cap. This allows us to shred through a large amount of the enemy's HP through simply damaging them with our pages. It's at its best in fights against single big enemies, as they're the ones most likely to have high resistances and massive health pools.
Finally, there's Tilted Scale. Like Judgment, Tilted Scale is at its best in Boss Fights against big enemies with massive HP pools, but it can also be used in normal battles as well. Whenever we damage the enemy with the most HP, it'll give 2-8 HP back to whoever on our side has the lowest HP total, which isn't a lot but it's enough to keep us going. There's a limit of 3/turn, however, so this isn't really Netzach levels of healing.
Binah. Angela. I take it they did not escape this time? There were no more books to hide within, so the task was quite simple. Oh boy! New friend! I've seen it now… and I still don't believe it. So the final child has awakened… Here to suffer with the rest of us? Oh, don't be like that! We're all going to have a lot of fun with the cuties and the guests! I've seen the kind of 'fun' you have, and I don't think it's quite my thing. It never was. We were the monster who enjoyed it all enough for the both of us… Oh, don't worry about Patchy too much. She's a bit of a downer, but she means well. Heeheehee~ Oh I can't wait to go talking and catching up and finding out exactly how perfect it felt to be in those two books sleeping away..! Is it okay to worry about this one? If you want! Right. I'm going to walk away slowly now. Don't… follow me. Aww… Told you. It was inevitable… Thank you for delivering them yourself, dear. This should prove quite interesting… You're… welcome.
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Binah 4
Last edited by TeeQueue on Sat Jul 29, 2023 7:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
Book 41.6: Star of the City General Receptions 2
…okay. Deep breaths. I got this. I totally for really got this! I c-can't believe you guys talked me into recording things again.
You can't really blame them. They want to see a legend in action.
And work with them, too! It's just a shame that all our image editing stuff got destroyed when the facility turned into the library…
We managed to switch the lettering out, isn't that plenty?
I'm sure it'll be fine… really. Let's just start filming.
─────
Please, don't try anything you're about to see at home.
We're what you'd call "experts."
Music: Theme of M
In this extra-long bonus episode of GuestBusters, it's Librarian rumors on trial. You've seen her, you know she's the strongest, but today the GuestBusters find out: Can Gebura solo anything that the Star of the City can throw at her? Then, from the Strongest to the Weakest, the Literature team finds out if Urban Nightmare pages are still relevant after coming this far. Later, the entire team comes together to address one final question: Can a booked Librarian be brought back just by going into battle?
Who are the GuestBusters? Hod and Paul, between them more than 10,000 years analytical experience. Joining them: Medea, ElleTee, and Switch. They don't just receive the guests: They put them to the test.
Miss Hod! Oh, there you are!
Oh, hey there Paul. What's on your mind today?
Well, I was talking with the film crew about Fixers, and one of them mentioned the strongest Fixer ever, The Red Mist, and some of her more famous exploits. So that got me thinking…
Ah, I got it: You were wondering how strong Gebura really is, right?
Exactly! So what I'm thinking is: we see if she can really take out as many enemies solo as people say she used to be able to.
Well to test that out we're going to need Gebura, and some enemies to throw her up against. Should be easy.
Right! I grab the enemies, and yooou convince Gebura, Miss Hod~
How come I always get stuck with the hard part?
The Red Mist's Key Page is one of the strongest in the game, and with Myo's Prowess and Lone Fixer, the Red Mist is said by many to be the strongest Librarian we have. In her prime, she was easily able to take out an Arbiter and two Claws, alongside any number of Abnormalities… but the question on the GuestBusters' minds is simple: Can she still do it today?
Now, Gebura is really, really strong—combining her raw speed with Myo's Prowess and Lone Fixer makes her an unstoppable machine that nobody can compare with. So I had to find some enemies that would match up with all of that power!
It's a good thing Angela was willing to help out.
Darn tootin'! And I got us the perfect opponents for a death-dealer as incredibly powerful as Gebura: a life insurance company!
…Life insurance employees?
Yep! But not just any life insurance employees… these are actuaries!
But Paul, how are actuaries supposed to hold up against the Red Mist?
Well, they measure risk…
Let's just hope they can do more than measure.
Like most life insurance companies, Mirae's insurers are incredibly adept at gathering information necessary to determine the risk behind a given threat, as well as investigating anything suspicious when claims are involved.
But can they manage to weather the Red Mist's onslaught?
The biggest problem when it comes to solo battling is managing your SR. With so many attacks coming in every which way, Gebura's likely to get Staggered without some kind of mitigation. Mind Hauler should help with it… but I'm not sure it'll be enough.
And, sure enough, after one round of fighting Gebura's already on the edge of being Staggered. Will Mind Hauler be enough to prevent it?
Hey, check this out Miss Hod. She's Staggering the enemies, and that's managing to keep them from getting big attacks off on her!
She's breaking even on SR… I guess Mind Hauler is enough after she starts being able to Stagger her opponents.
But there's a problem.
In just two rounds, Gebura's almost out of gas. The reason… is Bleed.
Exsanguinating envoys, Miss Hod! That HP number doesn't look too good!
It sure doesn't, Paul. I think she's as good as done for.
And sure enough, without even losing another clash… Gebura bleeds out.
Shuckaroonies… that didn't work at all!
Gebura's floor doesn't have a lot of options to restore health. Vampirism is the best one, but even it can't do anything without Bleed on the opponent…
And we just don't have room in the deck for that, because we need so many Counter dice. But what if the problem was just with our clashes? Gebura had to pick specific attacks to prevent her from getting Staggered, and that did cost her some damage.
Well, what if we found a way to completely remove Stagger from the equation?
Well that'd be just fine! But where are we going to find that?
Where indeed? Meanwhile: Medea, Elle Tee and Switch are sinking their teeth into another Library rumor.
Okay guys, I've got one: You've seen lately how everyone's using only the fanciest new key pages in their reception work, right?
Well, yeah. The stronger a page is, the better.
Well, apparently the word's going around that any pages we got before we were promoted to a Star of the City aren't even worth using.
What? But that's… dumb! Haven't they ever worn Bamboo-Hatted Kim?
My thoughts exactly. Let's round up some enemies, the toughest we can find, and send them into battle against a bunch of weaker Key Pages to see what happens.
Sounds good!
…But we're not going to do it ourselves, right?
Heavens no. Let's put someone else in harm's way.
Good plan. Let's get right to business.
It's a trope as old as time: beating your enemies and taking their loot to beat the next group that comes along. But what happens when we skip over one of the biggest power bumps we've ever seen? To find out, Netzach's team is equipped only with Key Pages and passives from Urban Nightmare and below.
The idea here is pretty simple: Because smoke is so powerful, everyone's built to take full advantage of it. We're hoping that stacking up that kind of damage will make up for the difference in HP and SR.
We're also not limiting our Combat Pages, because this test is specifically about the Key Pages. We already know that if we use terrible Combat Pages, it doesn't matter what we're wearing—we're going to lose.
Ultimately, a lot of the fight will come down to the opponent: The gang's chosen a general invitation that uses a pair of books today, in hopes they'll hit something truly spicy.
It looks like we've called up a Workshop… Wait. Guys, take a closer look at those statistics.
They're smoke users. This is bad, isn't it?
It's perfect. If Netzach's crew can manage to win even here, in the absolute worst-case scenario, nobody can say that we managed to get lucky.
And so the two teams come to blows… but will the Urban Nightmare pages be enough to overcome these late Star of the City opponents?
Now, I know it might seem as though taking hits early on is the wrong strategy, but Netzach's actually playing really smart here.
That's wild, man.
Wild, but true. In any Smoke versus Smoke battle, there's smoke flying everywhere, everyone's getting hit by it—what matters most is who's getting to 10 Smoke first. By taking a couple of hits early on, we get a lot more smoke generation than the enemy, which means we'll be dealing more damage.
And damage they do. Even though Yae tries to use their ultimate ability…
In the end, it's Netzach who winds up standing tall at the end. The bonus damage and clever play is enough to overcome any advantages the stronger Key Page had.
Wow! It's amazing just how much work we can put in without even using the "powerful" Key Pages.
In the end, it's all about strategy and timing. There's a lot more to a fight than raw numbers.
And that isn't even getting into our ultimate trump card.
E.G.O doesn't even care about our Key Page, and using it we'd be able to make quick work of almost any group of guests that happened to come in here.
So, in that case, what are we thinking?
It's obvious that Urban Nightmare Key Pages could be used even now. Heck, it's possible to win even using things we got way back when we were just a Canard. What matters is how we balance out our Combat Pages and how well we can avoid taking enemy attacks. It's busted.
And if all else fails, we start throwing E.G.O around and no enemy can stand a chance. Busted, definitely.
I agree. This one's busted.
After the break, will a new possibility allow Gebura to solo the Life Insurance agents?
Perpetual pain machines, Miss Hod, that's super OP!
Hod and Paul have been hard at work trying to figure out if Gebura can actually solo all of Star of the City, but they've run into a problem. Thankfully, the Literature team's put a solution right in their hands.
Good news, Paul! We just got our hands on a new key page from a workshop guy. It's got just the thing we need to handle our SR problems for good.
Really? Well let's plug it in and see what happens.
You see, with Lone Fixer and Myo's Prowess being all but required for us to get anywhere, the remaining 2 points have to go to some kind of sustain ability. The idea is to use Immediate Repairs to make sure that Gebura doesn't get Staggered. This should double her SR, letting her make it to turn 4—where she'll get another free SR refill from Manifest E.G.O.
Perpetual pain machines, Miss Hod, that's super OP!
But is it enough? The GuestBusters want to find out, sending Gebura into battle once again.
Well… she certainly has more SR than before.
But there's a new problem, the same as the old problem: That HP stat is getting in the way. And even worse, the Life Insurance agents had one last trick up their sleeves.
Final Stroke is their ultimate trump card, letting them discard their entire hand for one massive attack, one that even Gebura's raw strength can't always defeat. Between that and the bleed… there's only one outcome.
Yowie wowie! She ran out of HP again!
Maybe it's just luck? We should run more tests.
But no matter how often they run the test, it always ends the same way. Gebura, with bleed stacking upon her, winds up running out of HP on the second or third scene.
The problem is Equivalent Exchange.
I knooow, right? I just wanna end up with more matter than I started with!
…
Oh, whoopsie. Not that kind of Equivalent Exchange.
The problem we're running into is actually pretty simple. Equivalent Exchange is a 2-cost page, making it cheap to use, and each opponent runs multiple copies of it. It always deals 2 Bleed on the final die, and on turn one it's possible that the enemy can get lucky and break a counter die with the second for 2 more. As a result, we're frequently seeing six, eight, even ten bleed on Gebura—and she can't heal that off.
Then what if we just add more healing, Miss Hod?
We'd need room… but maybe Myo's Prowess will give it to us?
It's a risky play, but it's the only one the GuestBusters still have to try. Removing Myo's Prowess will keep Gebura from being able to Stagger enemies on turn 2, but in return they can add on some additional healing passives instead.
Alrighty, Miss Hod! So we've got healing passives, we've got Counter Dice out the wazoo, and we've got The Red Mist, the absolute strongest there is.
We've done everything we can now… if this doesn't work, then it's just not possible.
Well then, let's get her out there and kick some Life Insurance butt!
It's all or nothing, as Gebura takes the field.
But once again, the Bleed piles on to her. Will she be able to get further this time?
While she does manage to Stagger more of the enemy this time… it's just not enough. She runs out of counter dice.
And once again, returns to a book.
Oofa doofa..! That's a real sad result, Miss Hod!
It just goes to show you… teamwork matters.
And matter it does. To ensure that Mirae Life Insurance isn't an overwhelming threat, the Guestbusters then had Gebura's entire team take them on.
Unsurprisingly, they cleaned the guests right up.
So… I think we know what the verdict is here, but let's cover a couple other things. One: What about our combat pages? Couldn't we just use better ones?
We were running six different counter dice pages, all of which drew more pages. The only other pages we had were Gebura's Level Slash pages to inflict bleed and recover light. Even changing our ratios to run less counters or more counters, nothing worked. It's busted.
Okay, but what about passives? Instead of Mind Hauler, we definitely could have gone with Firm as a Great Mountain for more HP, right?
It's pointless. We would have gained 15 more HP from the first turn to the second, and there are more than enough attacks to overwhelm us. Busted.
Then what about just getting lucky? Surely we could just go until they don't use Equivalent Exchange or Final Stroke.
That's simply impossible. Those two pages constitute roughly a third of each enemy's deck. We're going to see them, and in numbers enough to ensure that we're going to get destroyed. Up, down, left and right, it's Busted. Gebura cannot do everything by herself.
I agree. It's busted.
After the break, the entire GuestBusters crew comes together to ask an important question: Can Library combat bring one of our own back from being a book?
Woah!!
They're certainly not slowing down at all…
Oh hey, you guys. We were just finishing up over here. What's up?
Well, Elle Tee, Switch and I were talking—you two remember the story of Kaori, right?
Oh… I remember her. She got too emotional in the middle of a reception and wound up blowing herself up, right?
Bingo, and she's been stuck in a book ever since.
So here's what we're thinking: since the act of being in battle alters our mental states, and the act of ending a battle resets us entirely… maybe bringing her book into a fight would be enough to reinitialize her.
Well, I'm all for a happy ending. Let's give it a shot.
It's a theory as unprecedented as it is plausible. Perhaps bringing Kaori's book into a battle will cure her illness? After all, the healing our Librarians receive at the end of each combat is supposed to be absolute. Could that absolution even apply to damage to a person's soul?
After talking it over together, Yesod's floor has decided to take on some powerful enemies, an office of Fixers who specialize in hard penetrative strikes. We're hoping that being in danger will make Kaori's heart resonate with theirs so that she can get off the ground.
It sounds like a bunch of hogwash, but we did recently have a magical girl war break out here… so who can say if it'll work, right?
I agree completely.
The enemies are really a cut above the others… hopefully they'll be able to fight Yesod into a corner to see what happens.
The battle begins, but there's no immediate effect. It seems things won't be so easy.
But… Miss Hod, hey, what do we do if Yesod's team just overpowers the enemy entirely?
Mmm… I guess we'd need to do another test.
It shouldn't be a problem. That Bayard guy is using his ultimate attack, Pinpoint Breakthrough. It'll deal a ton of damage to whoever it hits, all but guaranteeing a Stagger. That'll definitely slow them down.
But it seems like T. Hinman has a plan…
Woah!!
They're certainly not slowing down at all…
Using the effect of the Energy Beam face laser, it's possible to completely negate the second die of the attack, rendering it useless! Their main deckbuilder may be gone, but Yesod's floor is still a force to be reckoned with.
And quick as a flash, Bayard is taken out of the fight entirely. All thanks to a timely face laser.
It's starting to look like these enemies aren't going to be a real challenge to Yesod's team… any other ideas?
I know, Miss Hod! What if we tried using the E.G.O that Kaori used before she exploded?
It's worth a try.
But even while holding her book and calling on Solemn Lament, T. Hinman can't make Kaori budge an inch. There's not even a page ruffle.
It's unfortunate, but it looks like just fighting alone isn't enough… Yesod's crew is really good at what they do—they're strong enough to rip through high level threats even down a person.
It's really amazing to watch!
Well, we've confirmed that fighting alone isn't enough. But there is still the possibility that a high threat level could make them—
We're done.
Done? But… there's the possibility another test will—
At this rate, all you're going to do is get the rest of my team killed for nothing. My people need rest. We're done.
It's an abrupt but final end to the story, as Yesod and his crew leave the studio.
…Well… that's deflating.
It's not ideal, but we still got some data! We've determined that whatever's happened to Kaori, it's not something that can be fixed by just taking her through the usual Library pathways.
Still, how do we call this one? Ultimately, we haven't fully tested everything.
Ultimately, there's still too many open ends that remain untested without Yesod helping us out. We've figured out what won't work, but there are too many variables here that we haven't controlled for yet. We can't say for sure it's impossible… just that we haven't done it.
So… plausible?
I can agree to that.
Plausible it is!
New Combat Pages
Yae Exclusive:
Irina Exclusive:
Bayard Exclusive:
…okay. Deep breaths. I got this. I totally for really got this! I c-can't believe you guys talked me into recording things again. You can't really blame them. They want to see a legend in action. And work with them, too! It's just a shame that all our image editing stuff got destroyed when the facility turned into the library… We managed to switch the lettering out, isn't that plenty? I'm sure it'll be fine… really. Let's just start filming.─────
Please, don't try anything you're about to see at home. We're what you'd call "experts."Music: Theme of M
In this extra-long bonus episode of GuestBusters, it's Librarian rumors on trial. You've seen her, you know she's the strongest, but today the GuestBusters find out: Can Gebura solo anything that the Star of the City can throw at her? Then, from the Strongest to the Weakest, the Literature team finds out if Urban Nightmare pages are still relevant after coming this far. Later, the entire team comes together to address one final question: Can a booked Librarian be brought back just by going into battle?
Who are the GuestBusters? Hod and Paul, between them more than 10,000 years analytical experience. Joining them: Medea, ElleTee, and Switch. They don't just receive the guests: They put them to the test.
Miss Hod! Oh, there you are! Oh, hey there Paul. What's on your mind today? Well, I was talking with the film crew about Fixers, and one of them mentioned the strongest Fixer ever, The Red Mist, and some of her more famous exploits. So that got me thinking… Ah, I got it: You were wondering how strong Gebura really is, right? Exactly! So what I'm thinking is: we see if she can really take out as many enemies solo as people say she used to be able to. Well to test that out we're going to need Gebura, and some enemies to throw her up against. Should be easy. Right! I grab the enemies, and yooou convince Gebura, Miss Hod~ How come I always get stuck with the hard part?The Red Mist's Key Page is one of the strongest in the game, and with Myo's Prowess and Lone Fixer, the Red Mist is said by many to be the strongest Librarian we have. In her prime, she was easily able to take out an Arbiter and two Claws, alongside any number of Abnormalities… but the question on the GuestBusters' minds is simple: Can she still do it today?
Now, Gebura is really, really strong—combining her raw speed with Myo's Prowess and Lone Fixer makes her an unstoppable machine that nobody can compare with. So I had to find some enemies that would match up with all of that power! It's a good thing Angela was willing to help out. Darn tootin'! And I got us the perfect opponents for a death-dealer as incredibly powerful as Gebura: a life insurance company! …Life insurance employees? Yep! But not just any life insurance employees… these are actuaries! But Paul, how are actuaries supposed to hold up against the Red Mist? Well, they measure risk… Let's just hope they can do more than measure.Like most life insurance companies, Mirae's insurers are incredibly adept at gathering information necessary to determine the risk behind a given threat, as well as investigating anything suspicious when claims are involved.
But can they manage to weather the Red Mist's onslaught?
The biggest problem when it comes to solo battling is managing your SR. With so many attacks coming in every which way, Gebura's likely to get Staggered without some kind of mitigation. Mind Hauler should help with it… but I'm not sure it'll be enough.And, sure enough, after one round of fighting Gebura's already on the edge of being Staggered. Will Mind Hauler be enough to prevent it?
Hey, check this out Miss Hod. She's Staggering the enemies, and that's managing to keep them from getting big attacks off on her! She's breaking even on SR… I guess Mind Hauler is enough after she starts being able to Stagger her opponents.But there's a problem.
In just two rounds, Gebura's almost out of gas. The reason… is Bleed.
Exsanguinating envoys, Miss Hod! That HP number doesn't look too good! It sure doesn't, Paul. I think she's as good as done for.And sure enough, without even losing another clash… Gebura bleeds out.
Shuckaroonies… that didn't work at all! Gebura's floor doesn't have a lot of options to restore health. Vampirism is the best one, but even it can't do anything without Bleed on the opponent… And we just don't have room in the deck for that, because we need so many Counter dice. But what if the problem was just with our clashes? Gebura had to pick specific attacks to prevent her from getting Staggered, and that did cost her some damage. Well, what if we found a way to completely remove Stagger from the equation? Well that'd be just fine! But where are we going to find that?Where indeed? Meanwhile: Medea, Elle Tee and Switch are sinking their teeth into another Library rumor.
Okay guys, I've got one: You've seen lately how everyone's using only the fanciest new key pages in their reception work, right? Well, yeah. The stronger a page is, the better. Well, apparently the word's going around that any pages we got before we were promoted to a Star of the City aren't even worth using. What? But that's… dumb! Haven't they ever worn Bamboo-Hatted Kim? My thoughts exactly. Let's round up some enemies, the toughest we can find, and send them into battle against a bunch of weaker Key Pages to see what happens. Sounds good! …But we're not going to do it ourselves, right? Heavens no. Let's put someone else in harm's way. Good plan. Let's get right to business.It's a trope as old as time: beating your enemies and taking their loot to beat the next group that comes along. But what happens when we skip over one of the biggest power bumps we've ever seen? To find out, Netzach's team is equipped only with Key Pages and passives from Urban Nightmare and below.
The idea here is pretty simple: Because smoke is so powerful, everyone's built to take full advantage of it. We're hoping that stacking up that kind of damage will make up for the difference in HP and SR. We're also not limiting our Combat Pages, because this test is specifically about the Key Pages. We already know that if we use terrible Combat Pages, it doesn't matter what we're wearing—we're going to lose. Ultimately, a lot of the fight will come down to the opponent: The gang's chosen a general invitation that uses a pair of books today, in hopes they'll hit something truly spicy.
It looks like we've called up a Workshop… Wait. Guys, take a closer look at those statistics. They're smoke users. This is bad, isn't it? It's perfect. If Netzach's crew can manage to win even here, in the absolute worst-case scenario, nobody can say that we managed to get lucky.And so the two teams come to blows… but will the Urban Nightmare pages be enough to overcome these late Star of the City opponents?
Now, I know it might seem as though taking hits early on is the wrong strategy, but Netzach's actually playing really smart here. That's wild, man. Wild, but true. In any Smoke versus Smoke battle, there's smoke flying everywhere, everyone's getting hit by it—what matters most is who's getting to 10 Smoke first. By taking a couple of hits early on, we get a lot more smoke generation than the enemy, which means we'll be dealing more damage.And damage they do. Even though Yae tries to use their ultimate ability…
In the end, it's Netzach who winds up standing tall at the end. The bonus damage and clever play is enough to overcome any advantages the stronger Key Page had.
Wow! It's amazing just how much work we can put in without even using the "powerful" Key Pages. In the end, it's all about strategy and timing. There's a lot more to a fight than raw numbers. And that isn't even getting into our ultimate trump card. E.G.O doesn't even care about our Key Page, and using it we'd be able to make quick work of almost any group of guests that happened to come in here. So, in that case, what are we thinking? It's obvious that Urban Nightmare Key Pages could be used even now. Heck, it's possible to win even using things we got way back when we were just a Canard. What matters is how we balance out our Combat Pages and how well we can avoid taking enemy attacks. It's busted. And if all else fails, we start throwing E.G.O around and no enemy can stand a chance. Busted, definitely. I agree. This one's busted.After the break, will a new possibility allow Gebura to solo the Life Insurance agents?
Perpetual pain machines, Miss Hod, that's super OP!Yae’s Page wrote: A friend of mine who was trained in the same workshop as me told me about this place. Said some new tech was discovered recently. Something about tinkering with the mind to use it for your advantage… It’s apparently more powerful than I can ever imagine? I’m honestly not very good at forming an impression of something when I just hear or read about it… So I told them I don’t get it, and then they said maybe going to the Library would help. They’ve been researching this new and exciting technology lately, but they say they’re too scared to head into that place even if there’s vital information to be found. They weren’t the kind of person to get physical… so I understand. Thus, I told my buddy that I’d visit that place for them once I’m finished developing this one thing. There’s a new gadget to test anyway, and to witness a technology that’s still obscure and hot off the presses… That just makes your heart throb, doesn’t it?
A Leaflet Workshop Fixer’s Page wrote: Leaflet Workshop… It’s a good place! Offers serviceable weapons to Fixers at a reasonable price, and sells quality weapons to underground Syndicates at higher prices… There’s been cases of the opposite happening sometimes, but that’s not what matters. Just wanted to emphasize that people from all walks of life visit our workshop. Oh, and I heard some workshops have membership clubs! The select few chosen by the workshop’s owner are sent an invitation, or so I heard. Business would be much handier if we adopted the same system… as with everything else… Greeting guests is the one thing that’s more dangerous than developing new weapons when you run a workshop.
Hod and Paul have been hard at work trying to figure out if Gebura can actually solo all of Star of the City, but they've run into a problem. Thankfully, the Literature team's put a solution right in their hands.
Good news, Paul! We just got our hands on a new key page from a workshop guy. It's got just the thing we need to handle our SR problems for good. Really? Well let's plug it in and see what happens. You see, with Lone Fixer and Myo's Prowess being all but required for us to get anywhere, the remaining 2 points have to go to some kind of sustain ability. The idea is to use Immediate Repairs to make sure that Gebura doesn't get Staggered. This should double her SR, letting her make it to turn 4—where she'll get another free SR refill from Manifest E.G.O. Perpetual pain machines, Miss Hod, that's super OP!But is it enough? The GuestBusters want to find out, sending Gebura into battle once again.
Well… she certainly has more SR than before.But there's a new problem, the same as the old problem: That HP stat is getting in the way. And even worse, the Life Insurance agents had one last trick up their sleeves.
Final Stroke is their ultimate trump card, letting them discard their entire hand for one massive attack, one that even Gebura's raw strength can't always defeat. Between that and the bleed… there's only one outcome.
Yowie wowie! She ran out of HP again! Maybe it's just luck? We should run more tests.But no matter how often they run the test, it always ends the same way. Gebura, with bleed stacking upon her, winds up running out of HP on the second or third scene.
The problem is Equivalent Exchange. I knooow, right? I just wanna end up with more matter than I started with! … Oh, whoopsie. Not that kind of Equivalent Exchange. The problem we're running into is actually pretty simple. Equivalent Exchange is a 2-cost page, making it cheap to use, and each opponent runs multiple copies of it. It always deals 2 Bleed on the final die, and on turn one it's possible that the enemy can get lucky and break a counter die with the second for 2 more. As a result, we're frequently seeing six, eight, even ten bleed on Gebura—and she can't heal that off. Then what if we just add more healing, Miss Hod? We'd need room… but maybe Myo's Prowess will give it to us?It's a risky play, but it's the only one the GuestBusters still have to try. Removing Myo's Prowess will keep Gebura from being able to Stagger enemies on turn 2, but in return they can add on some additional healing passives instead.
Alrighty, Miss Hod! So we've got healing passives, we've got Counter Dice out the wazoo, and we've got The Red Mist, the absolute strongest there is. We've done everything we can now… if this doesn't work, then it's just not possible. Well then, let's get her out there and kick some Life Insurance butt!It's all or nothing, as Gebura takes the field.
But once again, the Bleed piles on to her. Will she be able to get further this time?
While she does manage to Stagger more of the enemy this time… it's just not enough. She runs out of counter dice.
And once again, returns to a book.
Oofa doofa..! That's a real sad result, Miss Hod! It just goes to show you… teamwork matters.And matter it does. To ensure that Mirae Life Insurance isn't an overwhelming threat, the Guestbusters then had Gebura's entire team take them on.
Unsurprisingly, they cleaned the guests right up.
So… I think we know what the verdict is here, but let's cover a couple other things. One: What about our combat pages? Couldn't we just use better ones? We were running six different counter dice pages, all of which drew more pages. The only other pages we had were Gebura's Level Slash pages to inflict bleed and recover light. Even changing our ratios to run less counters or more counters, nothing worked. It's busted. Okay, but what about passives? Instead of Mind Hauler, we definitely could have gone with Firm as a Great Mountain for more HP, right? It's pointless. We would have gained 15 more HP from the first turn to the second, and there are more than enough attacks to overwhelm us. Busted. Then what about just getting lucky? Surely we could just go until they don't use Equivalent Exchange or Final Stroke. That's simply impossible. Those two pages constitute roughly a third of each enemy's deck. We're going to see them, and in numbers enough to ensure that we're going to get destroyed. Up, down, left and right, it's Busted. Gebura cannot do everything by herself. I agree. It's busted.After the break, the entire GuestBusters crew comes together to ask an important question: Can Library combat bring one of our own back from being a book?
Woah!! They're certainly not slowing down at all…Irina’s Page wrote: Did you know? Many people whom insurance companies employ are those who have experience with detective work involving investigations and deduction. Since we deal with huge sums of money, there are more than a few cases where our clients deliberately harm themselves or lie to us in an attempt to commit insurance fraud. A considerable number of calls we get actually aren’t mere incidents. How do we tell apart a real accident from the fake ones, then? Haha, that’s a business secret. Well, maybe a little hint… Oftentimes, something will be off about the way they act or talk. I told you that folks who used to do detective work frequently jump over to our industry, right? Those armchair fellows certainly have their wits… Their keen eyes will catch the signs hidden in even the most elaborate of disguises.
They say the terms can be a little too particular, but I disagree. When handling that much money, it doesn’t hurt to be thorough with inspecting and determining the validity of cases, right? If people started reaping insurance payouts for the smallest things, our business wouldn’t survive. You’d be surprised to learn how many people in the City still cling to the idea of get-rich-quick schemes.
A Mirae Insurer’s Page wrote: In this City, money has more value than anything. You need money to be able to start anything. Money is also required in case of unexpected events. An accident that will cost you a great deal of money could happen at any time; insurance is useful for such cases. As long as the conditions are met, the payout will fill in for financial damage. Of course… not all accidents will fit the insurance’s bill perfectly.
There are insurance plans for Fixers, Associations, and even Wings… on top of secondary insurance an insurer can take… It would take a long while to list all the insurance that exists in the City. There’s a wide range of carriers and plans to choose from, each fulfilling the needs of a different type of individual or group. You never know what danger awaits you…
Oh hey, you guys. We were just finishing up over here. What's up? Well, Elle Tee, Switch and I were talking—you two remember the story of Kaori, right? Oh… I remember her. She got too emotional in the middle of a reception and wound up blowing herself up, right? Bingo, and she's been stuck in a book ever since. So here's what we're thinking: since the act of being in battle alters our mental states, and the act of ending a battle resets us entirely… maybe bringing her book into a fight would be enough to reinitialize her. Well, I'm all for a happy ending. Let's give it a shot.It's a theory as unprecedented as it is plausible. Perhaps bringing Kaori's book into a battle will cure her illness? After all, the healing our Librarians receive at the end of each combat is supposed to be absolute. Could that absolution even apply to damage to a person's soul?
After talking it over together, Yesod's floor has decided to take on some powerful enemies, an office of Fixers who specialize in hard penetrative strikes. We're hoping that being in danger will make Kaori's heart resonate with theirs so that she can get off the ground. It sounds like a bunch of hogwash, but we did recently have a magical girl war break out here… so who can say if it'll work, right? I agree completely. The enemies are really a cut above the others… hopefully they'll be able to fight Yesod into a corner to see what happens.The battle begins, but there's no immediate effect. It seems things won't be so easy.
But… Miss Hod, hey, what do we do if Yesod's team just overpowers the enemy entirely? Mmm… I guess we'd need to do another test. It shouldn't be a problem. That Bayard guy is using his ultimate attack, Pinpoint Breakthrough. It'll deal a ton of damage to whoever it hits, all but guaranteeing a Stagger. That'll definitely slow them down.But it seems like T. Hinman has a plan…
Woah!! They're certainly not slowing down at all… Using the effect of the Energy Beam face laser, it's possible to completely negate the second die of the attack, rendering it useless! Their main deckbuilder may be gone, but Yesod's floor is still a force to be reckoned with.And quick as a flash, Bayard is taken out of the fight entirely. All thanks to a timely face laser.
It's starting to look like these enemies aren't going to be a real challenge to Yesod's team… any other ideas? I know, Miss Hod! What if we tried using the E.G.O that Kaori used before she exploded? It's worth a try.But even while holding her book and calling on Solemn Lament, T. Hinman can't make Kaori budge an inch. There's not even a page ruffle.
It's unfortunate, but it looks like just fighting alone isn't enough… Yesod's crew is really good at what they do—they're strong enough to rip through high level threats even down a person. It's really amazing to watch! Well, we've confirmed that fighting alone isn't enough. But there is still the possibility that a high threat level could make them— We're done. Done? But… there's the possibility another test will— At this rate, all you're going to do is get the rest of my team killed for nothing. My people need rest. We're done.It's an abrupt but final end to the story, as Yesod and his crew leave the studio.
…Well… that's deflating. It's not ideal, but we still got some data! We've determined that whatever's happened to Kaori, it's not something that can be fixed by just taking her through the usual Library pathways. Still, how do we call this one? Ultimately, we haven't fully tested everything. Ultimately, there's still too many open ends that remain untested without Yesod helping us out. We've figured out what won't work, but there are too many variables here that we haven't controlled for yet. We can't say for sure it's impossible… just that we haven't done it. So… plausible? I can agree to that. Plausible it is!Bayard’s Page wrote: This wasn’t always the prim and proper Office of amenable Fixers that it is now. It was the complete opposite, actually, full of uncontrollable punks. I tried to gather the rascals in one place and lead them, but it never worked out smoothly. It was a ragtag band of people without a place to call home, like Rats. So I got my frustration off my chest when I met my old friend Maugie… Oh, maybe you’re more familiar with the name Maugris? Anyway, after hearing my ramblings, they said that there’s someone in their Office who would be perfect for the job, and I took the offer since I didn’t have any better ideas. That someone was Renaud.
At first, I didn’t expect that spring chicken to be able to do much, but I was surprised to see that he only needed a week to convince everyone. For a guy who looked much younger than me, he had both power and smarts to boast. He had a way with words that persuaded some, and for those that wouldn’t listen, he’d settle it with a contest of strength like in some parts of the Backstreets. Back then, I was kinda jealous seeing Renaud handle something that I struggled with like it was nothing, but now I’ve accepted that he’s the better man. I know that I wouldn’t have managed to do it myself. I could’ve booted him out like a stubborn old man, but I have better things to keep than my pride.
New Key PagesA Bayard’s Office Fixer’s Page wrote: Charles’ Office, the place Renaud worked, was popular among Fixers. It was the subject of a lot of gossip. For good reason, as it was a Grade 1 Office consisting of just a few elites, handling any request with ease… People would often wonder exactly what kind of Fixers were in that Office. All we know about the Office is that its Fixers wore luxurious clothes, and the Office interior was fancy as well—in a style unique to the northern side… And that there were twelve Fixers led by someone called the “captain”… and they’ve all parted ways now, living their own lives. That’s about it.
Outside of Renaud, the person who helped us, we’ve only ever seen Maugris and Astolfo, who he would sometimes accompany… And someone called Bradamante. Their attire and weapons were all so distinct from what I could see of just those four, I couldn’t find anything in common. And the pressure I felt just from being around those powerful Fixers… The stark difference between me and them was something, I couldn’t think much else.
New Combat Pages
Yae Exclusive:
Irina Exclusive:
Bayard Exclusive:
Book 42: Xiao—Chapter 1
Music: Lobby
It's been a while since our last normal reception, huh?
Well, since we've had a very angry lady with horns growing out of her head wandering the hallways for around two realizations and change… we should probably check up on that.
VIDEO
Music: Ominous Ambiance
For some reason, neither guest gets highlighted when talking in this cutscene. I like to imagine this is because they're hiding somewhere bickering.
They've also both lost their titles. They're just Xiao and Miris now.
There has to be some reason you’ve done this, then… If your reasoning is unsatisfactory, know that there will be consequences to your actions!
Your battle will be nothing more than a messy scrape if you try to keep up in your current state, ma’am! You have to have realized it yourself!
Out of my way!!!
…Step aside. I am as composed as I can be.
You can’t even best your own subordinate right now, director. There is nothing composed about charging blindly into the fray and brandishing your sword like a madwoman…
They’re foes that we must destroy anyway! In fact, I would argue that it’s better this way, as I can firmly grasp my blade with an undaunted heart, unshaken by fear.
…Even if they were opponents that warrant such a fight, wielding your blade while you’ve lost yourself will only yield a pointless and juvenile revenge. They say anger is needed in order to face the enemy, but an excess of that emotion will ultimately hurt yourself. Fury shouldn’t be the only motivation to bestir oneself… I thought you knew this well, director. You’re the one who taught me that I’ll spill my own blood if I can’t see where the edge of my sword is pointed, after all…
I have no resolve to show to those who have taken what is mine. They had the nerve to make an offer where we must put our lives on the line to earn it back. Such absurdity.
Now tell me why I should treat them with any courtesy!
Even then!
…
Miris… I am aware. I know that the Library didn’t snatch Lowell and Section 2 away from us. I am well aware that they took a fair offer and made a bet, and paid the rightful price for losing it. But what can I do when I simply cannot bring myself to accept that? Was it truly done of their own volition?
Can anyone say with utmost certainty that no coercion was involved in their decision!
Whenever my mind was plagued with such thoughts, I couldn’t make rational judgement…
Is it because Chun and the other Fixers are dead? Is that why you’re acting like this?
You would be right. At first, I thought I only had to care about my own safety As long as I could get my hands on Lowell’s book… I decided that I wouldn’t care about my surroundings, even if that meant I would have no one to rely on once everything was over. But, as I saw my colleagues die out one by one, my mind began to waver…
Am I truly going down the righteous path? Is it truly right as a human being to think of myself, and only myself?
When the many of those who trusted me and followed me have perished, should I overlook their deaths and keep moving forward…?
…
If my selfishness is causing harm to others, shouldn’t I stop it before it’s too late? Shouldn’t I save those who still have a chance? If I had to make a choice, who should be putting up with the hardship? Is it you, or I?
Miris… Answer me. I’m no longer certain what I should put first.
Here’s what I can say, Xiao… None of the Fixers who followed you here were forced by anyone to do so, and I’m no different. There can’t be any compulsion about trusting you and willingly following your lead, now can there… Call it heartless, but as with everyone else… If it was your power that we were after, we would’ve left you once your authority faded.
You’ve stepped down from the Liu’s Section 1. You’re not in the position to pressure us anymore, and we aren’t obligated by any duty to obey you.
What you’re saying is that I can stick to my belief and move on, the same way you kept believing in me, and acted for me.
Like a cup of tea that maintains its good scent after half is gone, and a quarter of a day has passed…
…
…Xiao?
A warm and charming voice… almost as if it were out of this world…
…
What are you talking about? I don’t hear anything other than our own voices.
…
…What?
…You’re wrong. No, maybe there is truth to what you said…
…
Are you calling me selfish?
…No, I don’t think so.
…
…A human cannot live alone. No man is an island entire of itself. They need someone else… Yes. Someone whom I will keep alive. Someone who will become the reason for me to keep on living, no matter what…
Someone can be alive because I am there with them… As that person can live thanks to me, I myself should not expire. A way to protect you all and myself at the same time…
I shouldn’t die. By cherishing myself, I am cherishing the people around me… Therefore, what you’re saying… isn’t right. I won’t be deceived by your temptation…
…Yes. I suppose this is what you meant when you said a selfish mind shouldn’t be viewed negatively.
I’m sorry. I had let my own emotions overwhelm me and failed to lead you rightly.
This will be the last time I apologize to you and everyone else.
Miris… I’m still in the dark, and I cannot see ahead. I’m frankly afraid, and I might stray onto wrong paths sometimes. However, I trust myself to return to the proper way as I stoutly press onward. Just because I cannot see the way ahead, does not mean that a way doesn’t exist.
Music: Lobby
That certainly resembled E.G.O, although it was incomplete like Philip’s.
And she was mumbling to herself, but it sounded like she was talking to someone.
The voice we couldn’t hear, but Xiao could…
…Kinda like Abnormalities.
What do you mean by that?
I can hear some sort of voices whenever I borrow strength from the Abnormalities here. The other librarians can’t hear what I hear. The voice is only audible to one person. Sometimes, a voice filled with rage rings through my head, and other times I hear a sorrowful wail…
And my mind gets sorta… shaken… by those voices somehow. Listening to it sometimes makes me feel something is boiling up inside me, or cooling my head down all of a sudden.
In what way?
The voices you hear will only say whatever they want to say, one-sidedly. I’m sure there are exceptions, but most will probably behave that way. On the other hand, Xiao was talking with the voice. She was in a conversation with whispers that seemed to want something to happen to her.
Hmm… I’m not so sure. We don’t have solid evidence to prove that the voice was different just yet.
Anyhow… We’ve gotta receive her before anything. The problem is how we’re gonna deal with that figurative beast of a person…
Next time, on Library of Ruina: The difficulty curve is vertical.
Videos
Xiao 1
Did you catch that?
No? Is it something pointless again?
Those two were apparently just hanging around in the corridors, fighting, the entire time we were dealing with everything else. Something about it doesn't add up. Why didn't we see them?
Because they were upstairs, duh.
Then why aren't they books already? It's not like they're being subtle… And that voice. There's something going on here… I'm sure of it.
Uh-huh. Lemme guess, you're going to dig into it.
Yeah… given what we already know about the library… there's something else going on here. Make sure ImIdiot doesn't burn anything down again. I'll be out for a bit.
Kaaaay~
Music: Lobby
It's been a while since our last normal reception, huh?
Well, since we've had a very angry lady with horns growing out of her head wandering the hallways for around two realizations and change… we should probably check up on that.
VIDEO
Music: Ominous Ambiance
For some reason, neither guest gets highlighted when talking in this cutscene. I like to imagine this is because they're hiding somewhere bickering.
They've also both lost their titles. They're just Xiao and Miris now.
There has to be some reason you’ve done this, then… If your reasoning is unsatisfactory, know that there will be consequences to your actions! Your battle will be nothing more than a messy scrape if you try to keep up in your current state, ma’am! You have to have realized it yourself! Out of my way!!! …Step aside. I am as composed as I can be. You can’t even best your own subordinate right now, director. There is nothing composed about charging blindly into the fray and brandishing your sword like a madwoman… They’re foes that we must destroy anyway! In fact, I would argue that it’s better this way, as I can firmly grasp my blade with an undaunted heart, unshaken by fear. …Even if they were opponents that warrant such a fight, wielding your blade while you’ve lost yourself will only yield a pointless and juvenile revenge. They say anger is needed in order to face the enemy, but an excess of that emotion will ultimately hurt yourself. Fury shouldn’t be the only motivation to bestir oneself… I thought you knew this well, director. You’re the one who taught me that I’ll spill my own blood if I can’t see where the edge of my sword is pointed, after all… I have no resolve to show to those who have taken what is mine. They had the nerve to make an offer where we must put our lives on the line to earn it back. Such absurdity. Now tell me why I should treat them with any courtesy! Even then! … Miris… I am aware. I know that the Library didn’t snatch Lowell and Section 2 away from us. I am well aware that they took a fair offer and made a bet, and paid the rightful price for losing it. But what can I do when I simply cannot bring myself to accept that? Was it truly done of their own volition? Can anyone say with utmost certainty that no coercion was involved in their decision! Whenever my mind was plagued with such thoughts, I couldn’t make rational judgement… Is it because Chun and the other Fixers are dead? Is that why you’re acting like this? You would be right. At first, I thought I only had to care about my own safety As long as I could get my hands on Lowell’s book… I decided that I wouldn’t care about my surroundings, even if that meant I would have no one to rely on once everything was over. But, as I saw my colleagues die out one by one, my mind began to waver… Am I truly going down the righteous path? Is it truly right as a human being to think of myself, and only myself? When the many of those who trusted me and followed me have perished, should I overlook their deaths and keep moving forward…? … If my selfishness is causing harm to others, shouldn’t I stop it before it’s too late? Shouldn’t I save those who still have a chance? If I had to make a choice, who should be putting up with the hardship? Is it you, or I? Miris… Answer me. I’m no longer certain what I should put first. Here’s what I can say, Xiao… None of the Fixers who followed you here were forced by anyone to do so, and I’m no different. There can’t be any compulsion about trusting you and willingly following your lead, now can there… Call it heartless, but as with everyone else… If it was your power that we were after, we would’ve left you once your authority faded. You’ve stepped down from the Liu’s Section 1. You’re not in the position to pressure us anymore, and we aren’t obligated by any duty to obey you. What you’re saying is that I can stick to my belief and move on, the same way you kept believing in me, and acted for me. Like a cup of tea that maintains its good scent after half is gone, and a quarter of a day has passed… … …Xiao? A warm and charming voice… almost as if it were out of this world… … What are you talking about? I don’t hear anything other than our own voices. … …What? …You’re wrong. No, maybe there is truth to what you said… … Are you calling me selfish? …No, I don’t think so. … …A human cannot live alone. No man is an island entire of itself. They need someone else… Yes. Someone whom I will keep alive. Someone who will become the reason for me to keep on living, no matter what… Someone can be alive because I am there with them… As that person can live thanks to me, I myself should not expire. A way to protect you all and myself at the same time… I shouldn’t die. By cherishing myself, I am cherishing the people around me… Therefore, what you’re saying… isn’t right. I won’t be deceived by your temptation… …Yes. I suppose this is what you meant when you said a selfish mind shouldn’t be viewed negatively. I’m sorry. I had let my own emotions overwhelm me and failed to lead you rightly. This will be the last time I apologize to you and everyone else. Miris… I’m still in the dark, and I cannot see ahead. I’m frankly afraid, and I might stray onto wrong paths sometimes. However, I trust myself to return to the proper way as I stoutly press onward. Just because I cannot see the way ahead, does not mean that a way doesn’t exist.Music: Lobby
That certainly resembled E.G.O, although it was incomplete like Philip’s. And she was mumbling to herself, but it sounded like she was talking to someone. The voice we couldn’t hear, but Xiao could… …Kinda like Abnormalities. What do you mean by that? I can hear some sort of voices whenever I borrow strength from the Abnormalities here. The other librarians can’t hear what I hear. The voice is only audible to one person. Sometimes, a voice filled with rage rings through my head, and other times I hear a sorrowful wail… And my mind gets sorta… shaken… by those voices somehow. Listening to it sometimes makes me feel something is boiling up inside me, or cooling my head down all of a sudden. In what way? The voices you hear will only say whatever they want to say, one-sidedly. I’m sure there are exceptions, but most will probably behave that way. On the other hand, Xiao was talking with the voice. She was in a conversation with whispers that seemed to want something to happen to her. Hmm… I’m not so sure. We don’t have solid evidence to prove that the voice was different just yet. Anyhow… We’ve gotta receive her before anything. The problem is how we’re gonna deal with that figurative beast of a person…Next time, on Library of Ruina: The difficulty curve is vertical.
Videos
Xiao 1
Did you catch that? No? Is it something pointless again? Those two were apparently just hanging around in the corridors, fighting, the entire time we were dealing with everything else. Something about it doesn't add up. Why didn't we see them? Because they were upstairs, duh. Then why aren't they books already? It's not like they're being subtle… And that voice. There's something going on here… I'm sure of it. Uh-huh. Lemme guess, you're going to dig into it. Yeah… given what we already know about the library… there's something else going on here. Make sure ImIdiot doesn't burn anything down again. I'll be out for a bit. Kaaaay~Book 42: Xiao—Chapter 2
Music: GuestBattle01
Alright kids, fall in. We've got ourselves a former Section 1 Director, and she's manifested E.G.O.
Not to mention she has help… This is going to be a completely different ballgame from that Phillip guy.
That's what I'm hoping for.
Well, we'll just do the best we can.
Irina wasn't added in until after I'd finished the game originally, so I'm actually pretty excited to play around with it. I'm hoping that this deck strikes the proper balance between discard and Light generation. I'm also using Margin+Better Deal, so hand size should never be a problem.
Our opponents today are Xiao and Miris, both of whom have gained bigger numbers since our first encounter with them.
They also both have Shimmering now, meaning that we can expect them to continually play powerful pages every turn.
Music: GeburaBattle01
We shall walk this path together, Miris. …Tell me. Do you remember the last time you only had one person at your side?
As I recall, you sent Chun and I into a trap that was en route to the actual battlefield.
Yes… I had thought that the area was suspicious, and the two of you crushing them ensured our flank was secure.
They didn't make it easy. Shall we show them our strategy from that day?
Yes. Let's crush them with the strength of our bonds.
While we've seen most of the pages that Miris and Xiao use in this fight, there are two new ones that we have to look at. The first is Coordinated Assault. This page will give the other fighter 1 Strength alongside 2 Protection and Stagger Protection, making them incredibly resilient against attacks.
Fiery Dragon Slash is the other new page we're seeing this turn, and it's a basic offensive page with a Counter die that inflicts Burn. The two lead offensive dice are perfect for clashing Focus Spirit into, so we're going to do that.
Huh… I hate to say it, but we're definitely the bad guys this time.
Oh… it's you guys today?
Don't sound so enthused, there, pal~
We'll be keeping an eye on you from up here, since the enemy's emotions might make things unpredictable.
Sweet Pea? Well hell, I didn't realize you were back. Let's do this.
Wait… Chesed's team had people you liked in it?
Sometimes the bastard would steal good talent.
You always could have had better working conditions…
They come.
That sword… that stance… You were supposed to have disappeared ten years ago.
Yeah. I've been here the whole time.
Does this change anything, Xiao?
It doesn't. We knew we'd have to defeat anyone who got in our way.
Then I'll do just that.
Jeez..! These guys know how to put up a defense.
Only against you guys. Thanks for being one of the big targets, as always.
Don't mention it!
That Arbiter isn't here, and these four aren't using our tactics this time!
Miris! Take down the Rabbit! I don't want to deal with supporting gunfire!
…Something's off. He's a bit more resilient than one of R-Corp's pack should be.
Hope it was worth it.
Your teamwork isn't bad… but we've been working together a lot longer than you.
Unlikely.
I'm loathe to admit it, but these Librarians are a troublesome opponent.
We knew going in that they were able to use the abilities of their other guests, and their attacks and techniques are cobbled together from the best of all of them.
On top of that, they're able to hide their true forms using other ones… did you sense any other discrepancies?
No… Just the Rabbit.
Well, the battle is not yet lost. This place is not all-powerful.
So you've noticed something?
Our major threat page this turn is Miris's Flaming Dragon Fist, which BICEPS has something to deal with. Xiao's the one playing Coordinated Assault this turn as well, so our extra attacks are all directed at her.
There is a limit to how much this Library can replicate. The Red Mist, for certain, and that fixer with the open shirt… to say nothing of the actuary. They were powerful… and this place can't handle that much at once. That means… they must be cutting corners somewhere.
But their attacks are offensively identical to the source… So if it's not offensive prowess…
…Then they are fragile. The reason that they come in groups, the reason they cover for each other's weaknesses… the reason that one from before died so quickly. If they begin taking blows, they will quickly wither and burn.
Then if we overpower them even once… we'll win.
Give them your all.
You're no ordinary opponents… but overpowering us still isn't going to be easy.
Because of your ability to read our intentions, yes?
My, you are good.
You're still standing… I'm impressed.
Standing's what I do.
We'll see for how long.
Same to you. How're you holding up, Sorcrane?!
I'm holding! She's tough!
Just one slip… one error… I'll wait for my chance, and then…
You're going to be waiting a long time. We don't make mistakes!
You just have happy little accidents! Muah-
Shaddup.
If we just keep going… surely, an opening will come.
Yes… we'll just wait a little longer, to find that moment. Hold on, Miris.
My life isn't the important one, Director. I was already prepared to lay it down to protect yours.
Keep going. That's an order!
…Yes, ma'am.
Hey Gebs, looks like glasses there is the one doing that big protective move. He's on the backfoot—you've got this for sure.
That's what I like to hear. Okay, team: let's start wrapping things up!
Affirmative.
Uh… actually, BICEPS, you're looking a little beat up. You may want to-
I'll graze until there's nothing left. Same as always.
…Uh…
If he's chosen it for himself, there's not much else to do but hope…
Hope ain't worth much without action, Chesed. I'd think you'd know that by now.
Good thing we've got you to take the action, then~
Xiao..!
I'm on my way, Miris!
The hell you are!
Get out of my way!
Not how it works. I'm here to make space.
Your friend there won't hold her forever…
She doesn't have to. Just long enough…
Aren't you underestimating me..? Just one little crack… that's all I need…
And then I'll break through you!
I'll give you this: you're a lot more determined than most guests we see.
But it's time to pass on, now.
Dammit… Get out of my sight!
Blech! Sorc, watch your—!
Miris… You too, I'll carry your hopes on my back like the rest. I'll step forward…
And I will not stop until you're all put to the flame!
She hits like a truck and a half..!
Candles flicker brightest before they're out.
Music: GeburaBattle02
It looks like a hell of a candle… look out, everyone!
On this turn, Xiao is only playing two pages…
But they are very good pages. She's at Emotion Level 3 now, meaning she's got +1 Strength, +1 Offensive Power from Fervor, and +1 to the two dice on Fervid Emotions from her heightened Emotion Level.
I'll take on the brunt of it. You guys do what you can about the rest.
Yes, ma'am.
Yes… I think you're the right place to start.
Geez that's hot..!
Would you figure out how to block big attacks already, sis?!
Right... Right! I got it!
Y'know… nevermind, actually…
Your team is as a wheel, revolving around a singular fulcrum. So long as I crush the center, there's nothing to fear.
Hittin' a hell of a lot harder, all of a sudden…
Xiao's bonuses are high enough now to let her take clashes over Gebura's Infinity die and its +5 Power on clashes. It gets worse, though—Gebura's The Strongest + Myo's Prowess combo has one major flaw.
As for your speed… you rely on it to crush your enemies with a decisive first strike. That serves you well here, where you can read our intentions and find the correct places to strike.
But should your enemy be prepared, all your speed comes to naught!
Hell..!
The flaw is that it doesn't do anything against Counter dice. I didn't realize this, and Gebura winds up eating several Fervid Emotions counters right to the face. This leads to her being Staggered from full SR at the start of the turn, which triggers Xiao's Force of a Wildfire to give everyone else 5 more Burn.
If any single thing goes wrong in this phase, it can quickly cascade to deal a large amount of additional damage. This will become a theme—Tier 3 SotC receptions do not play around.
Gebura's on the backfoot, team. Give it your all!
Oh, I'm giving it!
You are as a wheel without an axle. Wobbling furiously for but a moment, before you all fall.
We're a bit more determined than that! Isn't that right, BICEPS?
…BICEPS?
…Damn.
The 5 extra Burn sped up BICEPS's final moments—he had 7 HP, 6 Burn, and was Staggered already… so it's not like this wasn't inevitable. He did his job fine, though, so this is acceptable.
Goddammit, not this shit again..! No, wait, you never died before… So this is a new one, huh..? Hah… hahaha..!
Wait. This is…
It looks like you're falling apart even faster than expected.
Tenebrais has been pushed too far. Credentia, you should-
It's fine. I trust her. She's been working hard.
And anyways… we can't just rely on Gebura forever.
Haha… You talk about loss… about how much it hurts to be without. But even with nothing, you don't have a single problem carrying on. What… vanity!
I am here to reclaim the one I have chosen to protect. Don't even think to compare us.
Don't compare us?! Your boytoy's a book, bitch!
Without someone behind us, we're both hollow.
What in the..?!
Let me lament the emptiness…
Of tHIs hOllOw sHelL.
GoDdByE.
What the hell was that..?
No… I can't let it distract me.
anOTheR… No. No… one more would be-!
Tenebrais, you okay?!
I… need a minute! heLLo? No, I told you, shut up-!
We'll buy you all the time you need.
I see… so that power can't be borrowed without cost. You're desperate.
How are you still analyzing everything?!
Because I'm still looking forward. Step by step, I'm moving.
You're moving alright… right towards a cliff. You can feel it, can't you?
Pardon?
You've lost so much blood, and you've fired off all of your most powerful attacks. You've got one more push in you, at most. That's the longest you can last—and you have to know… You can't kill us.
…
Holy crap, I think you broke her.
Oh, you feeling better?
Once she hits 100 HP, Xiao is Staggered. She won't attack anymore, but none of our attacks can damage her any further either.
Yeah… that thing's a lot louder than the others.
I'm just glad we bought enough time.
I'm good to go too. Let's finish her off, before—
VIDEO
Music: None
You have all died. No one remains by my side. In here, you fought with me till the end… and perished. I feel lonely as a dragon soaring in the air, my heart heavy with regret.
…
I only see darkness. I can’t see a step ahead. Where must I go? Where does the courage to put one’s foot forward come from?
What did you believe in so firmly until your last moments? Was it the hope that we will emerge victorious… a strong leader… or the goal of earning the books…? I sadly won’t be able to hear your answers now.
…
You again. You’re one persistent conversationalist, are you not.
…I won’t collapse or succumb to fear out of the despair I brought onto myself. There’s nothing that a human… that I cannot overcome.
I believe that I will reach the ideal consequence if I remain steadfast and proceed with perseverance… I sincerely, ingenuously believe this.
Fear is born for there is hope, but bravery is born because there is fear…
Without all these, there is no life. And what is life without a reason to live… So why would I not bask in this sensation of vitality? I will still fight for my own sake. Not to disregard the colleagues who gave their lives for me.
…No. Rather, I would be disregarding their sacrifice if I gave up here because of what happened to them.
…
I don’t see myself ever agreeing with your words.
A lone tree cannot form a forest on its own, you say… An interesting tale.
For the first time, we get a transition that isn't a page-turn effect here—the scene burns away instead.
Music: GuestBattle01
Our second Act is against just Xiao, but she's got a few…
New…
Oh…
Maybe..?
Oh.
Oh we're screwed, huh?
Next time, on Library of Ruina:
Videos
Xiao Intermission 1
Music: GuestBattle01
Alright kids, fall in. We've got ourselves a former Section 1 Director, and she's manifested E.G.O. Not to mention she has help… This is going to be a completely different ballgame from that Phillip guy. That's what I'm hoping for. Well, we'll just do the best we can.Irina wasn't added in until after I'd finished the game originally, so I'm actually pretty excited to play around with it. I'm hoping that this deck strikes the proper balance between discard and Light generation. I'm also using Margin+Better Deal, so hand size should never be a problem.
Our opponents today are Xiao and Miris, both of whom have gained bigger numbers since our first encounter with them.
They also both have Shimmering now, meaning that we can expect them to continually play powerful pages every turn.
Music: GeburaBattle01
We shall walk this path together, Miris. …Tell me. Do you remember the last time you only had one person at your side? As I recall, you sent Chun and I into a trap that was en route to the actual battlefield. Yes… I had thought that the area was suspicious, and the two of you crushing them ensured our flank was secure. They didn't make it easy. Shall we show them our strategy from that day? Yes. Let's crush them with the strength of our bonds.While we've seen most of the pages that Miris and Xiao use in this fight, there are two new ones that we have to look at. The first is Coordinated Assault. This page will give the other fighter 1 Strength alongside 2 Protection and Stagger Protection, making them incredibly resilient against attacks.
Fiery Dragon Slash is the other new page we're seeing this turn, and it's a basic offensive page with a Counter die that inflicts Burn. The two lead offensive dice are perfect for clashing Focus Spirit into, so we're going to do that.
Huh… I hate to say it, but we're definitely the bad guys this time. Oh… it's you guys today? Don't sound so enthused, there, pal~ We'll be keeping an eye on you from up here, since the enemy's emotions might make things unpredictable. Sweet Pea? Well hell, I didn't realize you were back. Let's do this. Wait… Chesed's team had people you liked in it? Sometimes the bastard would steal good talent. You always could have had better working conditions… They come. That sword… that stance… You were supposed to have disappeared ten years ago. Yeah. I've been here the whole time. Does this change anything, Xiao? It doesn't. We knew we'd have to defeat anyone who got in our way. Then I'll do just that. Jeez..! These guys know how to put up a defense. Only against you guys. Thanks for being one of the big targets, as always. Don't mention it! That Arbiter isn't here, and these four aren't using our tactics this time! Miris! Take down the Rabbit! I don't want to deal with supporting gunfire! …Something's off. He's a bit more resilient than one of R-Corp's pack should be. Hope it was worth it. Your teamwork isn't bad… but we've been working together a lot longer than you. Unlikely. I'm loathe to admit it, but these Librarians are a troublesome opponent. We knew going in that they were able to use the abilities of their other guests, and their attacks and techniques are cobbled together from the best of all of them. On top of that, they're able to hide their true forms using other ones… did you sense any other discrepancies? No… Just the Rabbit. Well, the battle is not yet lost. This place is not all-powerful. So you've noticed something?Our major threat page this turn is Miris's Flaming Dragon Fist, which BICEPS has something to deal with. Xiao's the one playing Coordinated Assault this turn as well, so our extra attacks are all directed at her.
There is a limit to how much this Library can replicate. The Red Mist, for certain, and that fixer with the open shirt… to say nothing of the actuary. They were powerful… and this place can't handle that much at once. That means… they must be cutting corners somewhere. But their attacks are offensively identical to the source… So if it's not offensive prowess… …Then they are fragile. The reason that they come in groups, the reason they cover for each other's weaknesses… the reason that one from before died so quickly. If they begin taking blows, they will quickly wither and burn. Then if we overpower them even once… we'll win. Give them your all. You're no ordinary opponents… but overpowering us still isn't going to be easy. Because of your ability to read our intentions, yes? My, you are good. You're still standing… I'm impressed. Standing's what I do. We'll see for how long. Same to you. How're you holding up, Sorcrane?! I'm holding! She's tough! Just one slip… one error… I'll wait for my chance, and then… You're going to be waiting a long time. We don't make mistakes! You just have happy little accidents! Muah- Shaddup. If we just keep going… surely, an opening will come. Yes… we'll just wait a little longer, to find that moment. Hold on, Miris. My life isn't the important one, Director. I was already prepared to lay it down to protect yours. Keep going. That's an order! …Yes, ma'am. Hey Gebs, looks like glasses there is the one doing that big protective move. He's on the backfoot—you've got this for sure. That's what I like to hear. Okay, team: let's start wrapping things up! Affirmative. Uh… actually, BICEPS, you're looking a little beat up. You may want to- I'll graze until there's nothing left. Same as always. …Uh… If he's chosen it for himself, there's not much else to do but hope… Hope ain't worth much without action, Chesed. I'd think you'd know that by now. Good thing we've got you to take the action, then~ Xiao..! I'm on my way, Miris! The hell you are! Get out of my way! Not how it works. I'm here to make space. Your friend there won't hold her forever… She doesn't have to. Just long enough… Aren't you underestimating me..? Just one little crack… that's all I need… And then I'll break through you! I'll give you this: you're a lot more determined than most guests we see. But it's time to pass on, now. Dammit… Get out of my sight! Blech! Sorc, watch your—! Miris… You too, I'll carry your hopes on my back like the rest. I'll step forward… And I will not stop until you're all put to the flame! She hits like a truck and a half..! Candles flicker brightest before they're out.Music: GeburaBattle02
It looks like a hell of a candle… look out, everyone!On this turn, Xiao is only playing two pages…
But they are very good pages. She's at Emotion Level 3 now, meaning she's got +1 Strength, +1 Offensive Power from Fervor, and +1 to the two dice on Fervid Emotions from her heightened Emotion Level.
I'll take on the brunt of it. You guys do what you can about the rest. Yes, ma'am. Yes… I think you're the right place to start. Geez that's hot..! Would you figure out how to block big attacks already, sis?! Right... Right! I got it! Y'know… nevermind, actually… Your team is as a wheel, revolving around a singular fulcrum. So long as I crush the center, there's nothing to fear. Hittin' a hell of a lot harder, all of a sudden…Xiao's bonuses are high enough now to let her take clashes over Gebura's Infinity die and its +5 Power on clashes. It gets worse, though—Gebura's The Strongest + Myo's Prowess combo has one major flaw.
As for your speed… you rely on it to crush your enemies with a decisive first strike. That serves you well here, where you can read our intentions and find the correct places to strike. But should your enemy be prepared, all your speed comes to naught! Hell..!The flaw is that it doesn't do anything against Counter dice. I didn't realize this, and Gebura winds up eating several Fervid Emotions counters right to the face. This leads to her being Staggered from full SR at the start of the turn, which triggers Xiao's Force of a Wildfire to give everyone else 5 more Burn.
If any single thing goes wrong in this phase, it can quickly cascade to deal a large amount of additional damage. This will become a theme—Tier 3 SotC receptions do not play around.
Gebura's on the backfoot, team. Give it your all! Oh, I'm giving it! You are as a wheel without an axle. Wobbling furiously for but a moment, before you all fall. We're a bit more determined than that! Isn't that right, BICEPS? …BICEPS? …Damn.The 5 extra Burn sped up BICEPS's final moments—he had 7 HP, 6 Burn, and was Staggered already… so it's not like this wasn't inevitable. He did his job fine, though, so this is acceptable.
Goddammit, not this shit again..! No, wait, you never died before… So this is a new one, huh..? Hah… hahaha..! Wait. This is… It looks like you're falling apart even faster than expected. Tenebrais has been pushed too far. Credentia, you should- It's fine. I trust her. She's been working hard. And anyways… we can't just rely on Gebura forever. Haha… You talk about loss… about how much it hurts to be without. But even with nothing, you don't have a single problem carrying on. What… vanity! I am here to reclaim the one I have chosen to protect. Don't even think to compare us. Don't compare us?! Your boytoy's a book, bitch! Without someone behind us, we're both hollow. What in the..?! Let me lament the emptiness… Of tHIs hOllOw sHelL. GoDdByE. What the hell was that..? No… I can't let it distract me. anOTheR… No. No… one more would be-! Tenebrais, you okay?! I… need a minute! heLLo? No, I told you, shut up-! We'll buy you all the time you need. I see… so that power can't be borrowed without cost. You're desperate. How are you still analyzing everything?! Because I'm still looking forward. Step by step, I'm moving. You're moving alright… right towards a cliff. You can feel it, can't you? Pardon? You've lost so much blood, and you've fired off all of your most powerful attacks. You've got one more push in you, at most. That's the longest you can last—and you have to know… You can't kill us. … Holy crap, I think you broke her. Oh, you feeling better?Once she hits 100 HP, Xiao is Staggered. She won't attack anymore, but none of our attacks can damage her any further either.
Yeah… that thing's a lot louder than the others. I'm just glad we bought enough time. I'm good to go too. Let's finish her off, before—VIDEO
Music: None
You have all died. No one remains by my side. In here, you fought with me till the end… and perished. I feel lonely as a dragon soaring in the air, my heart heavy with regret. … I only see darkness. I can’t see a step ahead. Where must I go? Where does the courage to put one’s foot forward come from? What did you believe in so firmly until your last moments? Was it the hope that we will emerge victorious… a strong leader… or the goal of earning the books…? I sadly won’t be able to hear your answers now. … You again. You’re one persistent conversationalist, are you not. …I won’t collapse or succumb to fear out of the despair I brought onto myself. There’s nothing that a human… that I cannot overcome. I believe that I will reach the ideal consequence if I remain steadfast and proceed with perseverance… I sincerely, ingenuously believe this. Fear is born for there is hope, but bravery is born because there is fear… Without all these, there is no life. And what is life without a reason to live… So why would I not bask in this sensation of vitality? I will still fight for my own sake. Not to disregard the colleagues who gave their lives for me. …No. Rather, I would be disregarding their sacrifice if I gave up here because of what happened to them. … I don’t see myself ever agreeing with your words. A lone tree cannot form a forest on its own, you say… An interesting tale.For the first time, we get a transition that isn't a page-turn effect here—the scene burns away instead.
Music: GuestBattle01
Our second Act is against just Xiao, but she's got a few…
New…
Oh…
Maybe..?
Oh.
Oh we're screwed, huh?
Next time, on Library of Ruina:
Videos
Xiao Intermission 1
Last edited by TeeQueue on Sun Aug 20, 2023 5:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hey wait, didn't we slay 9 others to get to Xiao, if my math is right? Also Reverse Scale is interesting cause my recall was that those were more endemic to European dragons, not Asian ones
Combat strategy is to clash Reverse Scale on turns where Pu Lao will negate the Strength effect and otherwise do combat triage on the everbuilding flames I assume? She probably Burns herself as well since she's immune to Burn Damage not Burn Status, and doesn't halve Burn she incurs
Combat strategy is to clash Reverse Scale on turns where Pu Lao will negate the Strength effect and otherwise do combat triage on the everbuilding flames I assume? She probably Burns herself as well since she's immune to Burn Damage not Burn Status, and doesn't halve Burn she incurs
Reverse scales are a thing in chinese dragons as well, uhh... lemme grab the article that I definitely didn't get for next-update-writing-purposes.
It's from an essay about persuading people, by Han Fei.The dragon, being a creature, may be tamed, played with in close quarters, and even ridden. However, below its throat are the inverted scales, each spanning one chi. The dragon would kill anyone touching them. A prince of men has those inverted scales too. Persuaders might have a chance at success, provided that they can avoid touching the inverted scales of the prince.
Book 42: Xiao—Chapter 3
Music: GuestBattle01
Our opponent for the second act is just Xiao, but she's had a few upgrades. We went over her new abilities last time, but the fight makes much more sense once we can see them all in action.
So let's do that.
VIDEO
Music: None
Like the last transition, the screen burns back into this scene—Xiao is so determined that she's messing with the narrative structure itself.
And every night is followed by dawn…A mere star that will fade cannot hope to best the light of the rising sun.
I recognize this… it's the same as what happened with Phillip, or those clowns.
Geez that's hot..!
She's exerting her influence… bear with it.
This is trouble.
(Seriously this song is fire) Music: Iron Lotus
Móchǔchéngzhēn. If your strength is like iron, then I shall grind you down into a needle.
Xiao's second act throws a lot of mechanics at us at once, and we need to understand what we're dealing with if we want to have a chance. For starters, on this turn and every odd turn after, all Dice Power effects are negated. This means we can't rely on Strength stacking to win, and also completely destroys any Full-Stop plans we may have had.
Of course, she has several of the greatest hits from the past Liu Receptions on hand.
She's also bringing along a number of new pages. Jiao Tu is a favorite of hers in this form, giving her a pair of Counter dice to help blunt our attacks—the second of which also inflicts Burn on hit.
Lastly, there's Reverse Scale. There are actually two different versions of this page, but they both do the exact same thing—the only difference are the dice numbers and which one says Reverse Scale. She plays one of them every turn, and if we defeat the Reverse Scale die in a clash then Xiao takes 70 Stagger damage but gains 4 Strength and Endurance next turn.
I'm going to pull out the big guns. Don't let her get anything started until then.
Hey, guys..? Just a thought, but try to avoid going anywhere near her Reverse Scale attack.
Should be easy enough.
You still read my intentions as effortlessly as you breathe.
You're not bothering to even try hiding them anymore, either.
It doesn't matter. I know myself, and I know you lot now as well.
Good for you. I know how to hit things.
Hmph…
So, why're we avoiding it?
Well… Xiao's taken on the look of a dragon. In classical mythology, most dragons tend to have the same weakness.
Go on.
There's a specific kind of dragon that has something known as a Gekirin, a single scale that's growing in wrong. It's a weakpoint, but touching it also invites the dragon's frenzy… So you don't want to do it when she can act on that anger.
Huh. I'll try to keep it in mind.
Oh my god, this is your tabletop stuff again, isn't it?
Kind of! A while back I ran a game, and there was a dragon like that in it.
Ah yes! The one I murdered with a trout, a rubber band, and a ball of twine!
Please don't remind me.
Don't provoke the dragon, I got it. But what do we do about this heat?
Suck it up!
Easy for you to say! You're already on fire all the time anyways!
The sun's flame will have vengeance!
Geez!!
She's barely feeling anything from this..! If we don't do something, she's going to burn us all away before we can take her down.
Music: The Red Mist
Then I guess it's time to do something.
So you've stopped holding back.
Fight E.G.O with E.G.O.
On this turn, Xiao uses a copy of Chi Wen, a page that reduces the Burn damage she takes by 10 (she is immune to burn) and gives her a 4 HP heal and 2 Protection next turn if she has Burn (which she is immune to). It inflicts a base 3 Burn on hit, but also applies Burn to the user (she is still immune to burn).
If we're fighting E.G.O with E.G.O…
Mimicry isn't ready yet.
That's fine… I'm feeling something else right now. Credentia, Sorcrane?
You need time, right?
We'll get you the time you need. Good luck, sis.
We don't need luck, we need power—enough to overpower her.
No need to worry about that, kid.
We shall see.
Well, for what it's worth… you seem to be able to run circles around her.
Naturally. Her E.G.O is powerful, but I've always been the fastest.
Regardless of your speed, you've awakened my wrath.
We don't really have much choice… you're quite strong. Without a couple of risks, we're not going to get anywhere.
So you admit your own weakness, in the end.
Calling you strong isn't saying we're weak… When the sun goes down, the stars shine overhead instantly.
Yet it is the sun who is in control of the cycle.
The sun and the stars, neither has control. It's the earth that determines where it's looking.
And this earth is sculpted to my taste. You've no chance.
That flowery talk doesn't make much sense… but you're saying that you're unbeatable as long as you control the terrain, right?
Indeed. I fight on desperate ground, and the earth itself has responded to my cry.
Well, if that's all it takes…
Music: AbnormalityBattle02
Looks like the ground's mine, now. Time to hunt a dragon.
That presence… E.G.O again?
Yeah. But don't think it'll go like last time.
Xiao throws two new pages at us this turn. The first, Ya Zi, is a Mass Attack that functions as a warmup. The dice themselves aren't very large, but the 2 Strength and Endurance will make Xiao much harder to deal with next turn. Jin Ni, meanwhile, is a single massively powerful die that we don't have any realistic ways of blocking. "What about Great Split: Vertical," you may ask?
Well I'd prefer you didn't, because I forgot about it!
So… bad news. I've been talking to Sweet Pea.
What's she saying now?
Basically, if we keep going at this rate only Gebura'll be left standing.
Seems like it.
Meaning we have to take a risk if we want to try and get out together?
Looks that way.
Then it's settled: We take the risk and provoke the dragon. I'm tired of losing people to my prey.
While Power is off this turn, we've got one massive advantage over Xiao: Paralysis still works just fine, and her 2 stacks will ensure that most of her dice will get a -3 to their maximum.
Rip… tear… Shred her to pieces!!
Such unfocused gunfire is barely a trifle.
Sez you. The night is ours, though.
The night is but a pause between dusk and dawn.
My fires cannot be cooled so easily.
Your 'fires' have an obvious weakpoint.
Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
I'll say this… she's way more tenacious than our usual enemies.
What was your first clue, this being the third time we've had to beat her down?
One… two… three…
I'll beat her down a million times!
You believe yourself a star shining down upon the City, beyond repercussions.
It's common enough, among phenomena of your level… But you never understand the truth of matters.
Know that stars don't shine… they burn. But now, it is you who needs fear the flame.
Xiao isn't using any new pages this turn, but she does have two things we need to be aware of.
The first is that she can still use Violent Flame, and it's much more dangerous coming from her six Speed Dice than it is when we use it.
The second is that she has 7 Strength and Endurance. +1 Power from Nine Children of the Dragon. +1 Offensive Die power from Fervor.
I'll get her attention. You guys take her out.
Don't flatter yourself, kid. I'm the only one who can keep up with her.
I'll take on the both of you. Come.
Don't have to tell me twice!!
Hollow bullets heat more quickly than solid ones.
Such half-hearted attempts will burn away long before they reach me.
Goddamn… you..!
Sleep in your book now.
Dammit, kid… this is why I said to hang back.
You are not safe either, Red Mist.
I don't have to be safe. We're an even match.
Enough. You surround yourself with kindling.
And thus, you become it as well.
A commander is only as good as their soldiers… and yours are weak.
I wouldn't call a single person here weak.
Kèzhōuqiújiàn… you approach without considering the reality of your situation.
Music: Iron Lotus
Begone from my sight.
Kkhhh…
…Wow. We are screwed!
Kit…
Xiao does take a little break on this turn, using a copy of Bi An—a Block-only page that draws 2 pages. It is utterly pointless here.
The lives of your fellows, and to hold victory over me. You held two cintāmaṇi, and so your body was too burdened to fly.
…Looks like Gebura wasn't enough on her own.
Time for the backup plan.
Music: GuestBattle01
Man… I thought that Gebura had it for sure…
It's okay, sir. I'm sure we can handle it.
The plan here is actually relatively simple: Roland and Gaia slip hits in to try and stack Paralysis, Steve adds Smoke, and Zaida is trying out Bayard's pages.
Let's do this so we can get back to our downtime ASAP.
Just be careful. She's a tough one…
Music: Iron Lotus
…Ah. I see.
Miss Guest, I don't like that look in your eye…
I know now whose body I'll have to rip my beloved's book from once we are done here.
Please calm down, dear Guest. This isn't-
Did you think I wouldn't grow numb to your tricks?
Ah, hell… Zaida, can you step in..?
Nah. I'm on break.
What.
When played, Ready Position immediately locks all of Zaida's dice. On Play pages like this are very rare, but they don't actually take up a Speed Die, meaning we could play them alongside other pages… er, most of the time.
Be careful down there, Roland. If you piss her off at the wrong time…
I'm pretty sure she's about as angry as she can get. Really wish I'd picked another outfit…
Why'd you take that one, then?
Would you believe I just like the feel of a good suit?
Uhhh… seriously, seriously, ma'am—can we just-!
Silence! You need only perish within the flames.
Oh… of course you don't honor union breaks.
Geez..! Even going full-tilt at her with R-corp gear, she's able to just deflect what we've got going on!
Then maybe my new Oboe techniques can handle her!
…Nope, guess not.
Do you think me a snake? I shall not be lured by your techniques.
She's got a definite strength advantage… We need to tip the scales somehow.
If only it were that easy…
Alright. Before they have time to notice…
What the-
Pages… a book?
Nea's actually running a very unique gimmick build, and one that's set us up to perfectly win this fight.
A basic Assistant Librarian has 30 HP, and by equipping her with the 25% HP start from Yujin, she winds up at exactly 7 HP. This sets her up to be defeated instantly by playing Wrath of Torment. Battle Ready and Skim Prescript increase her starting hand to 7 pages, ensuring that she gets a copy of it, and her final ability is Speed, so that she can try to peel attacks away from her allies on turn 1 before approaching the enemy and instantly exploding.
This has two effects for our current setup. The first is activating the Remembrance passive I put on everyone else, giving them +2 Strength for the rest of the battle. The second is forcing everyone to gain an Emotion Level with heavy Negative coins, letting us quickly get Curiosity or Lies right away—this has the side benefit of fully restoring Zaida's light, as she spent it all on taking her break.
Huh… I feel stronger all of a sudden.
Me too. This isn't as difficult anymore…
An enemy stratagem… I must see through it quickly.
Hey, guys? Don't look now, but your strength just went way, way up.
…That's a little too convenient, don't you think?
Let's not question it. We need a break right now.
Speaking of breaks… mine's over. Let's get this over with.
Don't get cocky, Zaida… at this level, she's practically a Color.
Just make me a path.
Leave it to me. I can take a few hits.
I don't trust your scent.
Nnh… you really are the real deal… but setting me on fire's only going to make it worse.
This smoke… You're hiding something…
There!
Tch… pain in the ass..!
Don't worry, ma'am, the wrecking service is coming through!
Nothing more than a moment's distraction.
All I needed.
You really made me work hard for it. And I…
Hate.
Working hard.
Jeez… you crushed her throat clear in. Did you have to go that far?
It's her fault for putting her weak spot right on top of it.
Zaida is able to get this extra attack off because of the Grit passive—normally, Pinpoint Breakthrough would Stagger her instantly, but with Grit she'll keep going at 1 SR.
So… this is to be… the end…?
Geez… that heat..!
She's not able to control her power anymore… it's radiating outward. Be careful!
And we tried so hard to make an opportunity…
…I'll take care of this one.
You sure, boss? I mean, that heat…
I said I've got it.
If this is to be the end… I welcome it.
You shouldn't be talking right now.
Hmph…
I had hoped to take his book and leave this place… but like this… we shall still be not so far apart.
Bad luck… and good luck… sàiwēngshīmǎ…
…
…Let's go.
What's the matter..? What'd she say?
Nothing important.
Overall, Xiao's reception is difficult but perfectly beatable as long as we follow the rules properly in phase 2. A single mistake when handling the Reverse Scale will most likely lead to a full floor wipe, but because we have two floors for this reception that means we can make one mistake and get away with it.
Music: Result
God… dammit…
Can't say I envy you guys. That looked like it hurt.
Get over here and I'll show you.
I'll pass~ Good fight out there.
You four okay?
Been better… Back to the drawing board, huh?
Not like we had much time to come up with anything good…
We probably should have spent more than ten minutes on it, at any rate…
Excuses have no effective range.
I'll take that as a yes.
VIDEO
Music: Lobby
She didn’t break down like the other kid with the power did, at least. I was actually amazed by how unswerving her determination could be…
…
…Lost deep in thought again? What is it this time?
I’ve been thinking about the distinctions between E.G.O and the Distortion after watching Philip and Xiao. The two were similar yet different. They clearly had some things in common, but the contrast was apparent as well.
Really? Tell me your thoughts, then.
I think there is something that can restrain one from reaching the point of the Distortion. They both had highly unstable emotions, enough to touch the threshold of manifesting E.G.O or Distortion. And those emotions had a similar nature.
Egoism…
As in the mindset of only caring about your own interest?
That’s it. The two interpreted that same selfishness in disparate ways, however. Because that selfish mind had the potential to change the self, the two were able to take a form resembling E.G.O, albeit incompletely. Philip’s mindset was flawed even in his awakening, however. He still had distrust in the back of his mind.
I think Xiao had the same problem, too. She didn’t look like she had full conviction at the start. It took some time for her to make up her mind.
That’s where the two differ. As far as I can see…
The voices, huh…
Indeed. Philip’s mind was in such a vulnerable state, even Oswald’s words could crack him. I don’t know what the disembodied voice Pluto told Philip to “pay close attention to” said, or if the voice really was the last straw that broke him… But I could speculate a little based on what we saw of Xiao. She didn’t give in to the voice whispering to her… Instead, her will solidified further.
And she managed to fully manifest her own E.G.O.
Right. She was able to resist the voice’s snare… I wonder why she could.
It might be what she said when she first came here… The precious things and whatever. All the things that motivate humans to live, to be precise. I guess it’s not something that can be pinned down to one specific element. Each person cherishes different things.
Maybe E.G.O is the thing that keeps one from crossing the line of the Distortion. It’s like walking a tightrope at all times. One wrong step and you crash to the ground.
…I suppose you’re right, Roland.
Maybe the world is about to change, then.
It’s not as simple as that. If this power really has the potential to shift the ecology of the City, the Head could take action at any time.
Even if the Head does intervene, it won’t make a difference. We’ll simply greet them as guests, like any other.
And with that, we've finally finished off the Liu branch of Star of the City! There's only four guest receptions left in the entire chapter… we've come a long way, huh?
And with no new Abnormality battles… Well, you guys know what to do!
While all three options enable incredible strategies… I think it's past time we follow the Prescripts.
This snake's gimmick is overcomplicated, after all.
And whatever comes after the Rabbits provides the smallest rewards.
Videos
Xiao Intermission 2
Xiao 2
VS Xiao (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)
New Key Pages
New Combat Pages
Xiao Exclusive:
Music: GuestBattle01
Our opponent for the second act is just Xiao, but she's had a few upgrades. We went over her new abilities last time, but the fight makes much more sense once we can see them all in action.
So let's do that.
VIDEO
Music: None
Like the last transition, the screen burns back into this scene—Xiao is so determined that she's messing with the narrative structure itself.
And every night is followed by dawn…A mere star that will fade cannot hope to best the light of the rising sun. I recognize this… it's the same as what happened with Phillip, or those clowns. Geez that's hot..! She's exerting her influence… bear with it. This is trouble. (Seriously this song is fire) Music: Iron Lotus Móchǔchéngzhēn. If your strength is like iron, then I shall grind you down into a needle. Xiao's second act throws a lot of mechanics at us at once, and we need to understand what we're dealing with if we want to have a chance. For starters, on this turn and every odd turn after, all Dice Power effects are negated. This means we can't rely on Strength stacking to win, and also completely destroys any Full-Stop plans we may have had.
Of course, she has several of the greatest hits from the past Liu Receptions on hand.
She's also bringing along a number of new pages. Jiao Tu is a favorite of hers in this form, giving her a pair of Counter dice to help blunt our attacks—the second of which also inflicts Burn on hit.
Lastly, there's Reverse Scale. There are actually two different versions of this page, but they both do the exact same thing—the only difference are the dice numbers and which one says Reverse Scale. She plays one of them every turn, and if we defeat the Reverse Scale die in a clash then Xiao takes 70 Stagger damage but gains 4 Strength and Endurance next turn.
I'm going to pull out the big guns. Don't let her get anything started until then. Hey, guys..? Just a thought, but try to avoid going anywhere near her Reverse Scale attack. Should be easy enough. You still read my intentions as effortlessly as you breathe. You're not bothering to even try hiding them anymore, either. It doesn't matter. I know myself, and I know you lot now as well. Good for you. I know how to hit things. Hmph… So, why're we avoiding it? Well… Xiao's taken on the look of a dragon. In classical mythology, most dragons tend to have the same weakness. Go on. There's a specific kind of dragon that has something known as a Gekirin, a single scale that's growing in wrong. It's a weakpoint, but touching it also invites the dragon's frenzy… So you don't want to do it when she can act on that anger. Huh. I'll try to keep it in mind. Oh my god, this is your tabletop stuff again, isn't it? Kind of! A while back I ran a game, and there was a dragon like that in it. Ah yes! The one I murdered with a trout, a rubber band, and a ball of twine! Please don't remind me. Don't provoke the dragon, I got it. But what do we do about this heat? Suck it up! Easy for you to say! You're already on fire all the time anyways! The sun's flame will have vengeance! Geez!! She's barely feeling anything from this..! If we don't do something, she's going to burn us all away before we can take her down.Music: The Red Mist
Then I guess it's time to do something. So you've stopped holding back. Fight E.G.O with E.G.O. On this turn, Xiao uses a copy of Chi Wen, a page that reduces the Burn damage she takes by 10 (she is immune to burn) and gives her a 4 HP heal and 2 Protection next turn if she has Burn (which she is immune to). It inflicts a base 3 Burn on hit, but also applies Burn to the user (she is still immune to burn).
If we're fighting E.G.O with E.G.O… Mimicry isn't ready yet. That's fine… I'm feeling something else right now. Credentia, Sorcrane? You need time, right? We'll get you the time you need. Good luck, sis. We don't need luck, we need power—enough to overpower her. No need to worry about that, kid. We shall see. Well, for what it's worth… you seem to be able to run circles around her. Naturally. Her E.G.O is powerful, but I've always been the fastest. Regardless of your speed, you've awakened my wrath. We don't really have much choice… you're quite strong. Without a couple of risks, we're not going to get anywhere. So you admit your own weakness, in the end. Calling you strong isn't saying we're weak… When the sun goes down, the stars shine overhead instantly. Yet it is the sun who is in control of the cycle. The sun and the stars, neither has control. It's the earth that determines where it's looking. And this earth is sculpted to my taste. You've no chance. That flowery talk doesn't make much sense… but you're saying that you're unbeatable as long as you control the terrain, right? Indeed. I fight on desperate ground, and the earth itself has responded to my cry. Well, if that's all it takes…Music: AbnormalityBattle02
Looks like the ground's mine, now. Time to hunt a dragon. That presence… E.G.O again? Yeah. But don't think it'll go like last time.Xiao throws two new pages at us this turn. The first, Ya Zi, is a Mass Attack that functions as a warmup. The dice themselves aren't very large, but the 2 Strength and Endurance will make Xiao much harder to deal with next turn. Jin Ni, meanwhile, is a single massively powerful die that we don't have any realistic ways of blocking. "What about Great Split: Vertical," you may ask?
Well I'd prefer you didn't, because I forgot about it!
So… bad news. I've been talking to Sweet Pea. What's she saying now? Basically, if we keep going at this rate only Gebura'll be left standing. Seems like it. Meaning we have to take a risk if we want to try and get out together? Looks that way. Then it's settled: We take the risk and provoke the dragon. I'm tired of losing people to my prey.While Power is off this turn, we've got one massive advantage over Xiao: Paralysis still works just fine, and her 2 stacks will ensure that most of her dice will get a -3 to their maximum.
Rip… tear… Shred her to pieces!! Such unfocused gunfire is barely a trifle. Sez you. The night is ours, though. The night is but a pause between dusk and dawn. My fires cannot be cooled so easily. Your 'fires' have an obvious weakpoint. Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. I'll say this… she's way more tenacious than our usual enemies. What was your first clue, this being the third time we've had to beat her down? One… two… three… I'll beat her down a million times! You believe yourself a star shining down upon the City, beyond repercussions. It's common enough, among phenomena of your level… But you never understand the truth of matters. Know that stars don't shine… they burn. But now, it is you who needs fear the flame.Xiao isn't using any new pages this turn, but she does have two things we need to be aware of.
The first is that she can still use Violent Flame, and it's much more dangerous coming from her six Speed Dice than it is when we use it.
The second is that she has 7 Strength and Endurance. +1 Power from Nine Children of the Dragon. +1 Offensive Die power from Fervor.
I'll get her attention. You guys take her out. Don't flatter yourself, kid. I'm the only one who can keep up with her. I'll take on the both of you. Come. Don't have to tell me twice!! Hollow bullets heat more quickly than solid ones. Such half-hearted attempts will burn away long before they reach me. Goddamn… you..! Sleep in your book now. Dammit, kid… this is why I said to hang back. You are not safe either, Red Mist. I don't have to be safe. We're an even match. Enough. You surround yourself with kindling. And thus, you become it as well. A commander is only as good as their soldiers… and yours are weak. I wouldn't call a single person here weak. Kèzhōuqiújiàn… you approach without considering the reality of your situation.Music: Iron Lotus
Begone from my sight. Kkhhh… …Wow. We are screwed! Kit…Xiao does take a little break on this turn, using a copy of Bi An—a Block-only page that draws 2 pages. It is utterly pointless here.
The lives of your fellows, and to hold victory over me. You held two cintāmaṇi, and so your body was too burdened to fly. …Looks like Gebura wasn't enough on her own. Time for the backup plan.Music: GuestBattle01
Man… I thought that Gebura had it for sure… It's okay, sir. I'm sure we can handle it. The plan here is actually relatively simple: Roland and Gaia slip hits in to try and stack Paralysis, Steve adds Smoke, and Zaida is trying out Bayard's pages.
Let's do this so we can get back to our downtime ASAP. Just be careful. She's a tough one…Music: Iron Lotus
…Ah. I see. Miss Guest, I don't like that look in your eye… I know now whose body I'll have to rip my beloved's book from once we are done here. Please calm down, dear Guest. This isn't- Did you think I wouldn't grow numb to your tricks? Ah, hell… Zaida, can you step in..? Nah. I'm on break. What.When played, Ready Position immediately locks all of Zaida's dice. On Play pages like this are very rare, but they don't actually take up a Speed Die, meaning we could play them alongside other pages… er, most of the time.
Be careful down there, Roland. If you piss her off at the wrong time… I'm pretty sure she's about as angry as she can get. Really wish I'd picked another outfit… Why'd you take that one, then? Would you believe I just like the feel of a good suit? Uhhh… seriously, seriously, ma'am—can we just-! Silence! You need only perish within the flames. Oh… of course you don't honor union breaks. Geez..! Even going full-tilt at her with R-corp gear, she's able to just deflect what we've got going on! Then maybe my new Oboe techniques can handle her! …Nope, guess not. Do you think me a snake? I shall not be lured by your techniques. She's got a definite strength advantage… We need to tip the scales somehow. If only it were that easy… Alright. Before they have time to notice… What the- Pages… a book?Nea's actually running a very unique gimmick build, and one that's set us up to perfectly win this fight.
A basic Assistant Librarian has 30 HP, and by equipping her with the 25% HP start from Yujin, she winds up at exactly 7 HP. This sets her up to be defeated instantly by playing Wrath of Torment. Battle Ready and Skim Prescript increase her starting hand to 7 pages, ensuring that she gets a copy of it, and her final ability is Speed, so that she can try to peel attacks away from her allies on turn 1 before approaching the enemy and instantly exploding.
This has two effects for our current setup. The first is activating the Remembrance passive I put on everyone else, giving them +2 Strength for the rest of the battle. The second is forcing everyone to gain an Emotion Level with heavy Negative coins, letting us quickly get Curiosity or Lies right away—this has the side benefit of fully restoring Zaida's light, as she spent it all on taking her break.
Huh… I feel stronger all of a sudden. Me too. This isn't as difficult anymore… An enemy stratagem… I must see through it quickly. Hey, guys? Don't look now, but your strength just went way, way up. …That's a little too convenient, don't you think? Let's not question it. We need a break right now. Speaking of breaks… mine's over. Let's get this over with. Don't get cocky, Zaida… at this level, she's practically a Color. Just make me a path. Leave it to me. I can take a few hits. I don't trust your scent. Nnh… you really are the real deal… but setting me on fire's only going to make it worse. This smoke… You're hiding something… There! Tch… pain in the ass..! Don't worry, ma'am, the wrecking service is coming through! Nothing more than a moment's distraction. All I needed. You really made me work hard for it. And I… Hate. Working hard. Jeez… you crushed her throat clear in. Did you have to go that far? It's her fault for putting her weak spot right on top of it.Zaida is able to get this extra attack off because of the Grit passive—normally, Pinpoint Breakthrough would Stagger her instantly, but with Grit she'll keep going at 1 SR.
So… this is to be… the end…? Geez… that heat..! She's not able to control her power anymore… it's radiating outward. Be careful! And we tried so hard to make an opportunity… …I'll take care of this one. You sure, boss? I mean, that heat… I said I've got it. If this is to be the end… I welcome it. You shouldn't be talking right now. Hmph… I had hoped to take his book and leave this place… but like this… we shall still be not so far apart. Bad luck… and good luck… sàiwēngshīmǎ… … …Let's go. What's the matter..? What'd she say? Nothing important.Overall, Xiao's reception is difficult but perfectly beatable as long as we follow the rules properly in phase 2. A single mistake when handling the Reverse Scale will most likely lead to a full floor wipe, but because we have two floors for this reception that means we can make one mistake and get away with it.
Music: Result
God… dammit… Can't say I envy you guys. That looked like it hurt. Get over here and I'll show you. I'll pass~ Good fight out there. You four okay? Been better… Back to the drawing board, huh? Not like we had much time to come up with anything good… We probably should have spent more than ten minutes on it, at any rate… Excuses have no effective range. I'll take that as a yes.VIDEO
Music: Lobby
She didn’t break down like the other kid with the power did, at least. I was actually amazed by how unswerving her determination could be… … …Lost deep in thought again? What is it this time? I’ve been thinking about the distinctions between E.G.O and the Distortion after watching Philip and Xiao. The two were similar yet different. They clearly had some things in common, but the contrast was apparent as well. Really? Tell me your thoughts, then. I think there is something that can restrain one from reaching the point of the Distortion. They both had highly unstable emotions, enough to touch the threshold of manifesting E.G.O or Distortion. And those emotions had a similar nature. Egoism… As in the mindset of only caring about your own interest? That’s it. The two interpreted that same selfishness in disparate ways, however. Because that selfish mind had the potential to change the self, the two were able to take a form resembling E.G.O, albeit incompletely. Philip’s mindset was flawed even in his awakening, however. He still had distrust in the back of his mind. I think Xiao had the same problem, too. She didn’t look like she had full conviction at the start. It took some time for her to make up her mind. That’s where the two differ. As far as I can see… The voices, huh… Indeed. Philip’s mind was in such a vulnerable state, even Oswald’s words could crack him. I don’t know what the disembodied voice Pluto told Philip to “pay close attention to” said, or if the voice really was the last straw that broke him… But I could speculate a little based on what we saw of Xiao. She didn’t give in to the voice whispering to her… Instead, her will solidified further. And she managed to fully manifest her own E.G.O. Right. She was able to resist the voice’s snare… I wonder why she could. It might be what she said when she first came here… The precious things and whatever. All the things that motivate humans to live, to be precise. I guess it’s not something that can be pinned down to one specific element. Each person cherishes different things. Maybe E.G.O is the thing that keeps one from crossing the line of the Distortion. It’s like walking a tightrope at all times. One wrong step and you crash to the ground. …I suppose you’re right, Roland. Maybe the world is about to change, then. It’s not as simple as that. If this power really has the potential to shift the ecology of the City, the Head could take action at any time. Even if the Head does intervene, it won’t make a difference. We’ll simply greet them as guests, like any other.And with that, we've finally finished off the Liu branch of Star of the City! There's only four guest receptions left in the entire chapter… we've come a long way, huh?
And with no new Abnormality battles… Well, you guys know what to do!
While all three options enable incredible strategies… I think it's past time we follow the Prescripts. This snake's gimmick is overcomplicated, after all. And whatever comes after the Rabbits provides the smallest rewards.Videos
Xiao Intermission 2
Xiao 2
VS Xiao (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)
New Key Pages
New Combat Pages
Xiao Exclusive:
Last edited by TeeQueue on Mon Aug 28, 2023 12:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.