The scene opens up on the silhouettes of a small village pared against two other people in a similar fashion. The ones armed with weapons yell at the child shaped shadow person and claim he killed another kid. The mother shadow says he did it in self defense, but the villagers don't care to listen. The mother calls her son "Noir" and tells him that demons can be good just as people can be bad. His father was one such demon. The villagers encroach on the two and kill her. They're grotesquely jubilant and plan to do the same to Noir. The screen erupts in blue flame as Noir changes, and all the people are Thanatosed away. We return to the current Noir, who wishes he could have followed through on his mother's wish. Sadly, he's an outcast to both humans and demons, so it'll never be. This is why he wants to make his own utopia... ...with just demons?
We return to the party, and Colette recalls what's happened. We wind up in Couscous Village. Croux goes in first and sees a flower beginning to bloom. It reminds him of that girl, and he thinks he's been here before. The rest of the group catches up to him. A villager shows up, and we learn about this town's claim to fame. The flower Croix saw is famous. Its seeds are said to predict the love life of lovers, so those who are engaged often come here for luck. He also assumes that Croix and Prier are dating and envies them. Croix goes out of his way to deny it, which upsets his not-girlfriend, but she's unsure why, especially since she joined in too. Colette thinks they've finally started to notice each other.
At this point, we're kicked to the World Map, but our blinking indicator tells us to return to Couscous. Enter and talk to the villagers. It's a bit of world building, but it's also some foreshadowing. We remark that their accents sound like ancient Paprikan, so Eclair assumes her kingdom can trace its roots back here. A few others think the land is cursed, perhaps, by demons. They also eat lizards, much to Alouette's chagrin. One such villager even invites us to stay the night at his place and enjoy the local cuisine. Eclair asks if she can have a bath first, and Homard requests that they share the same tub. His fairy girlfriend attacks him, and I no longer want him on my party. I don't know how old he is, but I don't at this point.
That night, just as Prier is about to fall asleep, she senses a disturbance around her. She kicks at something, and we hear a window break. We're back in the village square, and the townsfolk have been turned into zombies. Behind them is a second Demon Lord, and he informs us that he's brainwashed everyone in the village. We can kill his monsters, but they're still just the simple townsfolk. We'd practically be committing murder. The demon turns into his true self, and Homard wonders if this is the demon as before. It isn't. Regardless of who it is, a fight breaks out.
The goal is to defeat the boss, and he's surrounded by about six manticores. They get in the way a lot, so you may have to deal with them. Be careful, though, for reasons I'll get into later. Or for the obvious thing mentioned above. The manticores don't have any special moves, but the boss can raise a group's defense or unleash a devastating attack on a group of us. He can only use it once before he's out MP, though. He's got 1200 HP, 300 defense, and a lot of attack, so it'll take a while to widdle him down. I primarily used special attacks because I'm getting really annoyed by how much "Guard Skill" shows up on my screen.
After the fight, somehow, Prier got captured... She's being crucified behind the zombie villagers, but no one seems upset. This includes her. Everyone is yelling at her for getting caught, and she's defending herself. Isn't this supposed to be a tense moment, so why is it played up like a joke? Even the demon is annoyed because he yells at everyone to stop being stupid. During this, Croix's memories begin to flash in and out. The girl Prier reminds him of keeps appearing before him. Eventually, a villager with a spear enters and is about to put Prier to death. This toggles a memory of when the girl was executed, and then Croix...changes. His hair stands up straight, and his jacket flies upward. It's like in DBZ when the characters start to power up and create all that wind. This gives Alouette a headache... The enraged Croix enters a one-on-seven fight.
He's at level 100, so the numbers game doesn't really matter. Croix has three special attacks, all of which are maxed out and do nearly 1000 damage. The poor demon lord doesn't stand a chance.
When the dust settles, Croix is stomping the demon lord, who's alive for all of this. His green blood begins to pool out of him as Homard and Collette get Prier down. The demon begs for mercy, so the captain tries to calm Croix down, but he's sent flying away by one backhand punch. Prier tries her hand at it and gets backhanded as well. But it worked well enough. Croix comes to, standing over a dead demon lord and all his friends terrified. The voice work for Prier continues to shine during the scene. He wonders who he is as the camera pans upwards to see a gargoyle over us. He says he finally found him and returns to Noir to inform the news.
I get the bad ending... Oh yeah, we were supposed to save all the villagers, and I killed every single one. Good job, me! Well, it's a short chapter, so I redid it all. I used my box as a decoy to get four of the manticores away from the main boss and focused on the target as best I could. I got really lucky that ol' boxy didn't counter kill anyone. Doing all of this allowed the boss to boost his defense six times, so Colette used two turns to lower it. I worked well enough, and I killed him in a few rounds with no casualties. The Croix fight was worrying because I used the wrong move. I used Banish, which isn't as good as Retribution but does look a lot cooler. It took three turns, and he almost counter killed a villager. Use two Retributions instead of three Banishes. I got a bunch of money, a new weapon, and the feeling that I saved the day.
It was a short chapter tonight, but I think a lot was set up going forward. Will it hold up or be worth it? I dunno. I do know the creepy pedophile makes me want to shut the game down, but there are only three more chapters to go...I think.
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