Angels, Demons, and Humans

Captain Gordon, the Defender of Earth, is the vassal of the demon Overlord, Laharl. You're a smart cookie, so I'm sure you can figure out how this is going. The Prince is commanding Gordon with reckless abandon, making him do laundry and other menial tasks. Gordon is, as you'd expect, upset and wants to apologize to the other 36 Defenders. He knows that heroes don't break promises, so there's nothing he can do. However, he suddenly thinks up an escape plan. Laharl sees him filled with hope and questions him. Suddenly, Jennifer comes in and calls the Prince "Harlie" because it's cute. He doesn't like it, but she tells the guys that the girls are going for a picnic. It's Sunday, a day off, so why not. Even Thursday joins in.

Etna and Flonne discuss the plans. It's a picnic today and a shopping trip tomorrow. Clearly, only Gordon is the vassal here. Laharl decides to join in because of thinly veiled sexism, and Gordon manages to talk his way in. He plans to use this distraction as a way to escape. It's off to the Sea of Gehenna!

Stage One begins after a scene in a strange place. It's not the Netherworld, Celestia, or Laharl's Palace, but somewhere on the futuristic, megacity Earth! General Carter, Gordon's former boss, is talking to a man with sharp green hair named Kurtis, who seems to be Gordon's rival. They discuss the plan that sent Gordon to Hell, which is obviously a massive ruse. There's still something fishy going on, even in all this sea of smelly...uh...fish. Meanwhile, Gordon is romping through the Netherworld going, "la la la," and laughing while feigning pleasure. Laharl questions whether or not he's an idiot, but Flonne defends him because she's into justice or something. Jennifer, kinda, agrees with her. Etna isn't moved. We then cut to Celestia, where Lamington and the voice discuss something secretive. The battle is one of the easiest in the game. Most of the field is overlayed with an Invincible Geo Crystal. The only place without it is the middle section. Try to get the guardians there by either using weak characters as bait or a monk's special attacks. It's a bit tedious, but I didn't take any damage here!
Stage Two has the characters discussing their age. Laharl is the youngest at 1300 years old, followed by Etna at 1400. Flonne, though, is a surprising 1500 years old. "Mental Age" is a strange thing, it seems. Jennifer is amazed because, as Laharl put it, humans only judge by appearance, but Jennifer says a sexy joke. From out of nowhere, Mid-boss shows up! He makes off with the picnic basket because he's a widower with no one to make him lunch. Laharl and Etna are annoyed, Flonne feels pity, and Gordon goes into Defender of Earth mode until Mid-boss calls him out. The fight has us up against a horde of Pucks and a few Dragons. I tried to use the terrain to my advantage, but the Demon's Breath made it a moot point. Fortunately, my strong characters can overpower them, and Laharl seems immune to sleep. if you're lucky, the mobs will take each other out!
Stage Three is just a battle. I went around the map and defeated the four, two at a time, Pucks. There's a Cyclops in the very middle, but he won't interact with us until we're close. You can either destroy the six Geo Crystals affecting his spot or use a monk's Triple Strike to move him and use the effects for yourself.
Stage Four happens after the demons want to give up. Everyone else wants to keep giving chase because of all the effort they put into making it (and escape). Jennifer suggests having Thursday use his olfactory tracking ability, which works! Before they return to the chase, Gordon reveals that Jennifer is the creator of Thursday. Not only that, but she's a genius! Jennifer created the robot at age five and gained a Ph.D. "in every subject" by age ten. She also solved the case of Jack the Tripper. This time, Laharl is shocked as he just thought of her as a dumb blonde. Jenn tells him that he shouldn't judge based on appearances. The battle is another where I tried to use the terrain to my advantage against the pumpkins. I think it worked, though, as no one died. The pumpkins are a lot easier, and they like to stay lines up for multi targeting moves. There are also several EXP bonus tiles that I didn't make much use of.
The Final Stage is where we finally meet Mid-boss. Captain Gordon and crew make a poetic speech about being a hero fighting against evil, and they all begin to shine. This encourages Flonne, who doesn't want to be upstaged by the humans, to try something similar. Laharl and Etna play along in the most apathetic way, but they both regret it, and Flonne can't match the glow of Gordon. She's disappointed/"pissed" that Mid-boss is laughing at them. Laharl ends the charade, and a fight breaks out.

There's a million Pucks, three dragons, and a Mid-boss. Mid-boss has no new moves and tends to use his single target attack more than not. The enemies took themselves out while I tried to help. Comradery is a very strange move. The dragons are the hardest mobs here, but they don't use their breath attacks if you get close. I split my characters into two groups to, once again, fail to use the terrain to my advantage after I lured them close to the spawn point. It did line up the enemies to kill themselves, though. I kept my healer back until round three when I was on the ropes and managed to keep her alive when I surrounded Mid-boss and pummeled him down.

After Mid-boss loses, again, he hands over the basket. Alas, he already ate everything and flees... Jennifer remains optimistic that they can just make a new lunch again. Gordon tries to use this as an excuse to head back home for some teriyaki pizza until Etna poses a good question. How was Gordon going to leave? And then it hits him that his spaceship was destroyed when they crashed landed here. Laharl reminds him that he'll always be a vassal, and Gordon wonders about his job. Flonne suggests he should just become the Defender of the Netherworld, and, oddly enough, Jennifer encourages him. Laharl gives him a new title, "Slayer of the Netherworld"! Gordon doesn't like it, but Jenn seems cool with it, and Laharl says, "I'll try to tolerate that sexy body of yours." Flonne and Etna discuss how the Overlord could tolerate things, and Etna thinks he's just gotten into sexy bodies. Thursday says, "Alls well that ends well," but Gordon isn't well. Flonne ends it with a soliloquy about the potential friendship of angels, demons, and humans.

Tonight's skit has Etna talking about her role in defending the Netherworld against General Carter. She promotes her advanced weaponry, including Love-Freak Flonne, and her ability to annoy people into submission. Carter is flummoxed!

Etna's diary reveals more about the King. It turns out the Black Petzel story was a cover. An Alternate Overlord tried to invade the Netherworld, so King K stopped him. However, that drained a lot of his health. Etna wished to sacrifice herself to save the King, but he wouldn't let her. Etna made a promise to him but can no longer remember what it was.