< Act 4-11 >
Alexia: ... Oh, Katrina...
Clarissa: There's no point in hanging around...right? After all, Princess Katrina isn't here anymore...
Alexia: How...how could I be so weak...?
Alexia: As royalty, it's my duty to stand on the front lines, leading the charge, but...
Clarissa: Yeah, that may be true...
[Alexia turns to Clarissa but keeps her head hung.]
Alexia: ...
Clarissa: But I'm your friend, Alexia. So you don't need to be that way with me.
Clarissa: You can take my hand whenever you want. We can walk forward together, hand-in-hand.
Clarissa: You don't need to stand alone out front, parting the headwinds by yourself!
[Alexia looks up, surprised, as Clarissa grasps her hand.]
Alexia: ...
[Clarissa smiles.]
Clarissa: We're all right here beside you. That's what it means to be a part of Chevalet Blanc!
Alexia: Clarissa... Is it really all right for royalty to be so weak?
Clarissa: Whenever you're about to fall, you can take my hand again. So of course it's all right. No problem at all.
Alexia: Please, Clarissa... Don't let go.
Alexia: You were the one who said it was all right for me to be weak... I'm going to hold you to that.
Clarissa: We'll go together--to find Princess Katrina.
[Alexia finally manages to smile.]
Alexia: Yes... Thanks.
[Suddenly, Charlton arrives to disrupt the moment.]
Charlton: There's no need to go anywhere. Your corpses can decompose right here!
[Tactical Map style, Charlton summons another squad of undead.]
Alexia: Poor Charlton... Your only friends were the dead. Through thick and thin, you had no one to share your feelings with...
Charlton: Those who achieve ultimate power are fated to live solitary lives... I was aware of that long before this.
Alexia: Then no wonder you feel like you're controlling an entire nation by yourself!
=D.E.R.=
Labyrinthia: Let's take a look at the Tactical Map we'll be fighting on.
Labyrinthia: We'll be starting here...
Labyrinthia: And the enemy line looks like this.
Labyrinthia: Charlton has another army of John Does in his command...but I doubt he would try to take us on again without some sort of new strategy.
We know how to deal with John Does by now, but there's the possibility he has another plan ready to back them up with when the time comes.
Get a solid grip of the battlefield situation, and prepare as best you can for what lies ahead.
Also...I doubt I even need to say this, but Charlton needs to be watched carefully. He is the Council chariman, after all.
Labyrinthia: The deathly energy that fills the Schnell Ruins undoubtedly will make both Charlton and his Ex Mortes book all the more powerful.
We'll need a full supply of recovery items and skills to deal with this increased menace.
Charlton: A chaotic world demands normalcy--normalcy that only noble tradition can afford. You fools are no more than a pox upon all of Elesius!
[The battle ends when all enemies are defeated.]
Clarissa: You can't make a single friend with warm blood running through their veins, and yet you hope to rule Elesius?!
[Charlton smirks.]
Charlton: Did you think that you were chasing me down? A grave mistake. I was luring you to me!
Charlton: Welcome, Chevalet Blanc, to the kingdom of the dead!
[Charlton smacks his hand against the ground, leaking with dark purple power. The screen shakes and rumbles and the ground splits. The ground gives way and Chevalet Blanc falls down... Tactical Map, they find themselves in an underground passage.]
Alexia: Underground again...?
Ragnar: He sure knows how to cause trouble!
Labyrinthia: Is...is everyone all right? Stay, uh, stay calm, everybody...
Levin: I think you're the most uncalm out of all of us here, Ms. Wordsworth...
Clarissa: There's a huge door on the other side...
[The camera pans over to the other side of the room, revealing a door and multiple switches on the ground.]
Labyrinthia: We...we're probably in the temple district. It's already fallen into the ground, it would appear.
Felius: And it looks like it won't be an easy task to reach the other side. This is a troublesome city indeed...
=D.E.R.=
Labyrinthia: Let's take a look at the Tactical Map we'll be on.
Labyrinthia: We'll be starting here...
Labyrinthia: And I don't see any enemy units on the map. I don't think anyone's hiding from us, either.
Labyrinthia: There's a sturdy door blocking our path...and the switches on the Tactical Map are likely what's keeping it shut.
Labyrinthia: I would imagine the door would open once we activate all the switches...
But I have a feeling the mechanism we're dealing with is far more complex than first impressions would reveal.
Try to get an idea of what classes and skills we'll need to call upon before deploying. We must be careful here.
[The stage ends when all the switches are activated and the door is opened. The party arrives at the chamber with the glyph, where Charlton awaits.]
Charlton: Well, Chevalet Blanc...it certainly took you long enough.
Charlton: The preparations are already complete. My army of undead is ready to begin your funeral procession.
[Across the room, a significant number of John Does walks aimlessly around.]
Alexia: How could you animate this many corpses...?!
Charlton: The death energy that pervades Schnell is almost completely pure. Mustering an army out of it was no great challenge.
Charlton: But let's skip the elegy, Chevalet Blanc. It's time to add you to their ranks.
[Charlton's Ex Mortes suddenly bursts into purple flames.]
Charlton: What?!
[On the other side of the room, Edna laughs, holding a dagger.]
Edna: Heh heh heh. Ah hah hah hah hah...
Charlton: You... You again?!
Edna: I cut some pages out of your precious little book.
Edna: With the shape it'S in now, it looks like it might be having trouble containing all that power...
Charlton: Why would you...
Edna: I'm done following you, Charlton. Maybe you can give your nobility-of-the-spirit speech to your undead minions now?
Edna: If you don't mind, I'm going to take off a little early. Oh, and I'm taking all the treasure that we plundered from the capital with me.
Charlton: Grrrrrrrrr...
Edna: I don't know what I ever saw in this wretched country in the first place. Maybe I'll take a trip to some far-away land and start over?
Edna: Do me a big favor and buy me as much time as you can, mmmkay?
Charlton: Ednaaaa...!
Edna: Between Chevalet Blanc and that horde of undead you can no longer control, you'll have plenty of debutantes to dance with at your nobleman's ball.
They seem a good fit for a man of your stature!
[Edna turns and runs off.]
Charlton: ...
Labyrinthia: Charlton...
[Charlton, after a moment, slowly lights himself another cigarette, exhaling deeply.]
Charlton: ...
Charlton: I was born into a widely despised family that was nobility in name alone.
Charlton: House Blunt dwelled in the shadows of Elesius, serving as spies and assassins.
Charlton: On my 15th birthday, the secret arts of life negation were bestowed upon me. My arm has been rotting away ever since.
[He folds his arms.]
Charlton: From that day on, I have been admonished repeatedly never to expose myself to the light of day in Elesius.
Charlton: They claimed that with my rotten arm, any future I could grasp would rot to dust in my hands.
[He smirks.]
Charlton: Heh. What an absurd thing to say, when Elesius itself has been rotting away for centuries...
Charlton: But it was precisely because they exhorted me not to, that I have spent my life climbing to the sunlit surface of this world.
Charlton: And eventually I made my way to this lofty position. And there is still higher to climb.
[As he speaks, a pair of John Does slowly make their way towards him from behind.]
Charlton: To keep my house from sinking into the shadows, I must set my sights on higher and brighter peaks still.
[He suddenly backhands one of the zombies and folds his arms again.]
Charlton: This drawn-out chat is ruining a good cigarette. I think it's time to wrap things up.
Charlton: Prepare yourselves, Chevalet Blanc!
=D.E.R.=
Labyrinthia: Let's take a look at the Tactical Map we'll be fighting on.
Labyrinthia: We'll be starting here...
Labyrinthia: And...well, I had never imagined the situation could end up like this...
Labyrinthia: These John Does were awoken via the power of Charlton's book...
But they are no longer under Charlton's direct control. Instead, they will attack any living thing that comes near them.
Labyrinthia: Still...our enemy here is Charlton. Our enemy, and the enemy of every man and woman in Elesius.
This battle will never come to a close unless we defeat Charlton and put an end to his vast, powerful necromancy.
Don't let yourselves get caught in the chaos. Rather, use the chaos to your advantage. Either way, we've got to resotre peace to Elesius!
Charlton: I will drive out all opposition. I will take everything into my hands!
[When Charlton is defeated...]
Charlton: That is it...?! It's going to end...in this cesspit?!
[The battle ends. Clarissa hangs her head, eyes downcast.]
Clarissa: You poor man... Your life ended in the same darkness in which it began...
[The John Does continue lumbering around the room.]
Clarissa: I guess we need to return them to the darkness, too...
[Clarissa draws Strahl Gewehr and fires at the remains of the Ex Mortes. It burns, and the undead disappear.]
Clarissa: I wonder what sort of life you might have led, if you had at least been able to hold someone's hand...
[A while later, the party makes it back to the surface. Tony gets there first and Ragnar catches up to him.]
Ragnar: Whoa, slow down! I can understand you wanting to get out of there, but there's no need to run so fast!
Levin: Hey, what's that...?
Felius: --?!
[The party looks up to the sky... which has turned an ominous shade of purple. A gigantic hole, glowing light blue, is in the middle of the sky.]
Ragnar: A hole gouged into the sky? Is...is that even possible?!
Labyrinthia: As capable a woman as I am, I've never seen nor heard of anything like that...
Alexia: Don't tell me Katrina did this...
Felius: ...
Felius: ...She didn't...
Felius: That's an out-of-control dimensional transport gate...
Felius: As far as I know, there's only one person who could do such a thing...!
Clarissa: ...
[The screen fades to black and the player is prompted to save, thus ending Act 4.]