Cirvante and Lethe meet us near the gate to... wherever we're going. After annoying Alphonse a bit, they fly away.
Inside we meet Shaher. He expects us to just hand over the spear, but we're here to give it to him in a different way. He summons three demons and two angels. The dark twins join the battle as well.
Two angels and two demons come at us. Others hang back. We stay near the start in an AOE-unfriendly formation.
After a few turns, Shaher uses Ice Requiem. It's an ability that hits ALL our forces, and can cause sleep! Good time to break formation and utilize Heal Plus to the max.
Glycinia ends up in serious trouble. The spell and one angel's attention bring her to critical health. Thankfully, she managed to dodge one attack, which allowed her to survive until Alphonse came to rescue.
: My hero <3
: Don't relax just yet. Come where Sanae can heal you!
Another angel follows her comrade. Patchy's fan strike was so strong she got pushed away! Good thing we dealt with them first, Banish would be a troublesome thing to deal with.
Only one demon decided to go melee on us, the other hanged back and tried using Nightmare without much success. A successful Divine Radiance makes sure he falls next.
The last demon is taken care of easily.
Next we ascend the stairs towards the second group. Shaher throws another Ice Requiem, so we waste one turn healing midway there. But good news is that a few turns without attacking allows our spellcasters to store some MP for later use.
However, Patchouli and Eleanor weren't seriously damaged and spearheaded the offense on the closest enemy with their summons. Said enemy happened to be Lethe.
Cirvante is the next one we concentrate on.
Demon eats another Divine Radiance and falls as well.
Now only Shaher remains, and he has 400+ HP, an insane amount! Coming at him head-on is a problem because of his crazy-high agility. Even summons have around 50% accuracy. And this is where having Ariel really shined. She barely used her abilities, so she had a lot of SP, and she used them to cast Cheer on spellcasters. It worked wonders, kicking the summon accuracy all the way up to 99%. Glycinia came in handy as well, allowing some of them cast twice while the buff was still active.. That said, Shaher was just moving around, but he did stab Patchy once, bringing down almost all her health. Sanae had to use Full Heal on her that turn.
When his health got low, Shaher pulled back, but instead of healing he used Descent, summoning an angel. He later used it again to summon a dark one too.
But before long, he is defeated.
...Except not.
He transports us... somewhere and becomes this monstrosity - a Sacred Demon. Feel free to play
One-Winged Angel for this battle. He also summoned a few helpers. Ninjas are Dark Stalkers, and giants are Hell Gigantes. The former are strong, hard to hit and impossible to dodge, the latter are even stronger, but aren't too accurate. Both kinds are tough, have a lot of health and get little damage (about 20 tops).
The people you have for this battle are the same that took part in the last one. Well, this is it, the final battle and the moment of truth. Let's see if we can do this!
Since this is the end, I have the spellcasters use the MP-restoring items so that they can cast their summons. But turns out I have only a few magic leaves and one magic salve (which gives 100 MP). I wanted to buy some more of those, but kinda forgot. Oh well, let's call it a challenge.
On his first turn, Shaher uses Day of Reckoning, which deals no damage, but everyone can get a random status effect. Half of our units are immune to them, but others can be hit. He does stun Reimu and Ariel... but they recover when our turn comes!
Now, first thing to do in this battle is to hit Shaher with Sacred Spear. He has a barrier that prevents all damage, but that removes it. So, with Glycinia's help, Reimu goes for it.
: Hah! You call THAT a barrier? I've broken stronger ones in my sleep!
I try to use a summon on him on that turn but... they do only 5 damage per hit, and he has OVER 600 HP! This battle will be a long one...
On his turn, Shaher answers with Apocalypse, an extremely strong single-target spell. Reimu survived it just fine, though. However, Glycinia gets surrounded by the evil ninjas. Everyone clumps together so Sanae can heal more people at once.
And it was just in time - he uses Cataclysm next, which hits everyone for over 100 HP. Good news - it hits enemies as well. Bad news - we have our first big loss.
At full health, she'd BARELY survive, but Sanae can heal only so much per turn. But worry not, that's what we have the altars for! So she's back in no time at all.
Cataclysm killed one ninja and Alphonse finished the other one, so on his turn, Shaher uses Descent, summoning two more enemies, including a new one. He looks like a dark dragoon and is named Predator. Get it? A warrior with a spear, in face-covering armor, named "predator". No way that's a coincidence.
Next turn, Shaher uses Apocalypse on Sanae, but she survived with 2 HP! If she wasn't at full health, she'd be the next loss.
: Ah... It's a... mira...
: Shut up and heal yourself!
After this, battle repeats itself - Day of reckoning that hits noone, Cataclysm that kill poor Glycinia (her death quite turns out pretty fitting), Sanae barely surviving another Apocalypse on her head. Ariel does manage to land multiple Lullabies on giants (they turned out to be especially weak to it) which kept others busy curing their comrades half the time, keeping them off our backs.
Finally, the battle is over.
Shaher still takes to take us with him, but Eleanor sacrifices herself, allowing him to ascend.
Well, this is it. We completed our quest.
Cybil helps Alphonse escape to Galius, since he is wanted for killing Rictor. However, she herself leaves the church. (If I accepted Shiven, he'd be with her here.)
Ivanna rules Rananculus now. Ovis is under protection of Galius now, while the Duke of Felis lost his influence for his scheming.
Mermaids move on with their lives, but it seems Aerial was satisfied with the journey.
But what about Alphonse's ultimate fate? Well...
If you somehow know about the previous game (Let Us Cling Together) but not this one, better hold on to your seat.
Yes, all this time we were playing as the antagonist of that game!
Well, this was the ending of this game. But we should address one more thing, don't we?
: Girls, you have my deepest thanks. You did an amazing job. I hope you liked the adventure.
: That was interesting. Glad we could help you.
: I did a good job showing off my powers, didn't I? I hope to see you all at my shrine soon. We can do much more than that.
: Again with trying to steal my followers?
: I don't think they'd stop coming to your shrine anyway. It's not prayers they come for, anyway.
: Ugh. I guess so, but that's...
: Well, I can say I'm not disappointed. I sure liked the stylish outfit you gathered for me.
: I really enjoyed the adventure, it took my mind off the usual routine. And yet, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss it as well. I'll be happy to return to Lady Yuyuko.
: The magic of this world was interesting. I can't wait to try using some principles I saw here in my usual spells.
: It was interesting to see the local dragons. Magnificent creatures.
: Hey, why don't we take one home?
: It's best to leave them in their natural habitat.
: Glad to hear you enjoyed yourselves. Let's hope we meet again someday.
Well, this is it. Not that bad a game, but not too outstanding either. The story isn't bad, but has some questionable points. The difficulty isn't too great, but is quite uneven and can throw problematic tasks. I thought about doing optional stuff afterwards, but I'm tired enough by now.
So, many thanks to everyone who followed this playthrough. Yes, that means YOU. Don't be a stranger now!
Someday, I might make another LP. I'd love to show a certain game I enjoyed years ago which I'm sure few even know of. But that won't be any soon. For now, see ya later!