LP Beach

History—117.50—Queen Bee

Music: Lobby


Only a few tweaks, and this body's unquestionably top-of-the-line.

Index outfits really suit you, it seems.

Oh, you'd say that about anything.

Yeah, but I really mean it this time.

Malkuth is playing a very basic Index deck today. The Haulers and Speed are perfect complements to the +2 Power she'll be getting every turn, and her pages are designed to have a spread of various die types to avoid off-turns.



I noticed you changed your gun out, too.

Well, I decided I wanted to have the option to go in close too.

Aww, I made you self-conscious. Don't worry about it, Bishop. I can protect you.

That's not it at all! I just… wanted a plan for if I ran out of ammo.

Sure, sure~

Bishop's deck is designed for long-term battles, so he's at a bit of a disadvantage here. Still, Tailoring has a lot of punch after we've used our GUN pages to up our Emotion Level—we just can't use it more than once or twice.



As for the great Dimi, I think I've leveraged this Prescript thing properly.

Dimi's playing a hybrid, debuff-based deck. Binding Arms, Execute, Rules of the Backstreets, Clean Up and Heavy Peaks all have gargantuan single dice as usual, and the rest of her deck is debuffs and Light sustain. Electric Shock will paralyze her targets as well.



It's about time you all finished. I've been waiting here for fifteen minutes!

You remembered to balance your stronger moves with easier to use ones, right?

For sure.

That's perfect. We'll be sure to win without any casualties this time, then.

ImIdiot's deck is perfection incarnate and I refuse to explain further.



Now, our next Abnormality seems to be Queen Bee. Everyone, remember the proper handling protocols.

I guess that means our memory isn't going to get toyed with. For once.

Handling procedures… handling procedures… don't… die horribly. Okay, I've got it.

I'll take it you are prepared. I'll transfer you now.

Thank you, Angela.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle02


It's already got drones working underneath it.

It's okay. We'll think of a countermeasure.

Queen Bee wrote: We must protect the queen. Raise your teeth and be on guard!

Drones! Move, move, move! We’ve no time to waste!

Carry the honey. We must collect enough to satisfy our queen.

There can never be enough drones! There’s no end to our labor.

Our queen’s safety comes first! Focus, chew those fiends in the right spot.

My bees. It is time to move.

Your wings, legs, jaw… Put every part of your body to work. Lest they pillage our honey.

Hurry and supply me with more honey.

I can make more drones with this… I like this.

Make haste, my minions. We cannot waste a minute.

Starting with the Bees, all of the Worker Bees have identical stats and abilities. They will gang up on whoever the last person to target the Queen was, and if the Queen should ever be reduced below 20% HP they'll turn on her.



Half of them are using Procure Nutrients this turn, a page which restores HP to the Queen Bee on hit.



The other half are using Carry Larvae, an attack which inflicts 3 Spores to our Librarian on hit. Spores is the Queen Bee's signature ability, and we'd prefer to keep our stacks of it low if possible.



Each point of Spores on our Librarians counts as both 1 point of non-degrading Bleed, and 1 point of Burn as well. Too many Spores will melt right through us, even with our Health Hauler passive… and any Librarian who dies with stacks of Spores on them will turn into another Worker Bee with the same stats as the others.

The bees are about how I remember them…

One or two of them could cause a problem; they'd just keep killing more people and before you knew it there was a whole swarm.

Yeah… that Manager's first rewind was because of one of those swarms. They're serious business.

I remember that… They were everywhere, and we'd heard about the death of—

She did it again!

At least these memories are definitely yours, right?

That's not the point.



Queen Bee herself will give 1 Spores to all of our Librarians after any turn in which she was attacked. In addition, she gives 2 Spores to all our Librarians every turn if she has 2 or fewer bees remaining. This'll hit an equilibrium around Spores 6, but having a permanent Bleed and Burn 6 on our Librarians will still eat through them quickly. Doing so will also replenish her Worker Bee count, as she converts slain Librarians to her new army.

So… what do we do?

It's a good question. Standard procedures were to lower her Worker Bee count down to zero, at which point she won't be able to do anything to us.

But these bees aren't quite the same as the ones back home, spreading spores just like their Queen. Plus, she's emitting more on her own over time. How do we contain the bees while keeping Queen Bee from going on a rampage..?

Hmm…

We don't!

We… don't?

This isn't the old days. Queen Bee isn't in one of those containment cells, and we aren't being paid to keep her well. Let's just beat the shit out of her!

That… might just work! Okay, let's give it a try.



Vigilance is the only page Queen Bee plays on normal turns. It's a ranged attack with 4 weakish Block dice, and it plays two of them each turn. This means our first few attacks will be less powerful than expected.



We haven't observed what happens when the Queen Bee is attacked directly before, everyone. Be ready for anything.

Got it, boss!

We'll handle it, whatever it is.

While it's certainly possible to win against Queen Bee by whittling her armies down to nothing and then going all in on her, the simpler way to deal with this fight is to simply beat her down with relentless aggression.



While the HP damage we deal will be mostly healed off by the Worker Bees' attacks, our target isn't to lower her HP at all. Queen Bee's Stagger Resist is the real target here.



After ImIdiot's opening salvo, Bishop manages to take off the remainder of Queen Bee's eight Block dice. (He went later because ImIdiot clashed against a faster Ranged die.)



Hyyah!

This frees up the rest of the team to attack Queen Bee unopposed.



It feels like we're making good progress!



Gh—keep an eye on the drones!

This does, of course, leave us wide open to attacks from the Worker Bees. Bishop's page is rather outdated by now, and that means his resistances are more fragile than the other Librarians. Using ranged Key Pages in Urban Nightmare means remembering to keep them out of harm's way, especially from their weaknesses!



Barely felt that one..!

Key Pages like Oscar, on the other hand, are much better for taking hits.



You see? My plan worked amazingly! The Queen doesn't seem to be doing very well at all anymore.



You say that, but you're not the one getting chewed on.

Quit crying, you're fiine!



At the start of the next turn, a fog of spores bursts over the battlefield, indicating the Queen's effect has gone off. Everyone gains 1 Spore from attacking it.



Um… They're all focusing on me?

Aww, quit crying. You're fiiine.

One or two hits is different from this!

Whoever the last person to hit Queen Bee was will trigger Loyalty, making all of the Worker Bees target them. At this point, the fight becomes something of a balancing act—we still want to focus on taking out the Queen, but we need to spend some resources on keeping our targeted Librarian alive.




Promote Growth is a new page this turn, and two of the bees are trying to use it on Dimi. It's got a trio of strong dice which deal bonus True Damage to the target equal to the number of Spores stacks they have on. I redirect both of them over to ImIdiot to avoid letting the enemy pile onto her too hard. Since he's not going to be hitting the Queen at all this turn, that means we can pile damage on him as much as we want—the Worker Bees have no chance of attacking him next turn.



Aside from that it's another round of attacks on Her Majesty.



I'm not doing much damage, but I'm at least taking care of some of her defenses for you guys.

It's appreciated!



The great Dimi will also—BOOF.

Run facefirst into a slab of bee?

Never you mind!





We've got her all set for you, boss. How're you doing, Im?



Been… better!



I'm just… happy to contribute!



I'm all refueled and ready to go. How're you holding up, Dimi?



I'm rising above this ocean of Bees with a two-handed smack to the skull!



You sure you're okay?

This much is nothing!



On turn 3, the screen fills up with fog, indicating Queen Bee's special attack is coming. On this turn, it uses two unique combat pages.



Boost Loyalty and Boost Aggression are both basically the same thing in different flavors. Their dice are identical—smaller and fewer than Vigilance, but inflicting Spores upon a Clash win. The kicker here is that if the Queen Bee isn't Staggered by the end of this turn, all of the Worker Bees (and itself) gain 5 Strength, Haste, and Endurance next turn—all but ensuring we're in for a very painful time.



Thankfully, all its Stagger resistances are changed to Fatal. Between that and the groundwork we've laid, this should be simple enough to avoid.



Garde du Corps is the last page the Worker Bees play under normal circumstances. It's a trio of relatively decent rolls which inflict Spores on the first and last hit. Bishop peels this one off, as I don't think Dimi can take the full focus of all four Bees this turn.



Three is fine, though. She probably won't die from three.

It looks like Queen Bee has to lower its defenses to power up its army. This is our chance!

Then let's do it!



One bee's suppressed! Good luck, Dimi!

Don't just leave me with three of them!



Speaking of, I've got the Queen Bee open!

Queenslayer Malkuth at it again, huh?

You've got it!



I've done all I can as well!



Just… finish them off..!

Will do!



Take that! And turn off this fog!

You mean the spores?

Yeah, that! Whatever!



As the last person to hit Queen Bee, ImIdiot receives all the attention. ImIdiot is wearing Oscar's page.



I do not care if ImIdiot takes a beating this turn.

Okay team. All together now!

_{None for me, thanks… I'm driving…}



It didn't work—she's still up!

The full attack of all three History members knocks Queen Bee down to 6 HP, but doesn't quite manage to finish her off.



I am also still up! Barely!

The Bees, meanwhile, don't quite manage to down ImIdiot.



On my last legs, here…

Same here…

We're in trouble if we don't end things soon.

Oh, I don't think we need to worry about that.



They've started the balling process.

The what now?

The balling process! When worker bees are unsatisfied with their Queen, they form a tight cluster around her and slowly choke her out. That was why it was so important to keep the Queen Bee healthy.

So… we're saved by the things that were killing us two seconds ago. I'll take it.

Once Queen Bee is reduced down to 54 or fewer HP, the remaining Worker Bees will all focus their aggression entirely on it. The fight is effectively over at that point.



Each worker will use Embrace of Death on the Queen, instantly Staggering it on hit and taking a chunk out of its HP.



So… should we do anything?

It's a new form of Abnormality behavior. Take notes; Yesod will want to hear about it later.

I'd get blood all over them, so…

You and ImIdiot are excused.

Sweet.

Surprisingly, there is no new text for this situation. In the event that we should finish off all of the Queen Bee's drones, however, there are some unique lines:

Queen Bee wrote: Who will remember the bees that have died for the kingdom…

I don’t care that a drone has died, I can always make more to fill their role.

Goodness… You there. Do you know where my drones have gone to?

To bring my kingdom to greatness… I need more bees…

Anyways… for the first time this LP, our opponent is defeated by our opponent. Heck yeah!



When the Queen dies, the Worker dies with it.



Seconds later, the other Worker Bees explode in unison.



…Okay, that was funny enough to be worth almost exploding into a bee.



Queen Bee can be done more easily if we focus on eliminating one of the Worker Bees before going after her directly, but even when done as an all-in direct attack it isn't terribly difficult. It's ultimately an exercise in managing chaos and making sure none of our Librarians take too much damage too quickly.

Music: Lobby


We're back, everyone. Any issues with your bodies?

I'm back to normal, Miss Malkuth!

All good over here… I'm just going to lie here for a minute, though. I forgot how much those bee spores hurt…

Back at 100%, like always.



Our new set of Abnormality Pages include our first Level 3 page. These pages only show up at Floor Emotion Level 5, and as a result are usually not very good for building an entire strategy around—most of the time, the combat will be decided before we've gotten that far. Each floor only ever gets 3 total Level 3 Pages, though, meaning that our options will always be the same each time.

Anyways, Spores is a decent Level 2 page that turns one of our allies into a mini-Queen. Any attacks against them will give the attacker Burn and Bleed stacks, and this will stack with Ashes. There's a strategy out there that runs Ashes, Gluttony, and Spores together with the Hauler passives on the same Librarian and runs them into as many hits as they can take in order to spread out a ton of passive damage to the enemy. It's pretty good.

Worker Bee is another marking page like Justice from Tiphereth's floor. Instead of marking the enemy who did the most damage to all enemies and giving one ally bonus damage, it focuses on damage dealt to one ally and gives all the others bonus damage. It's situationally useful, but without some kind of way to guarantee someone attacks the person with the ability, it can occasionally whiff entirely. Since it's competing with Gluttony and Spores, it makes it difficult to recommend in most cases.

Loyalty is our only Level 3 Abnormality Page right now, and it works perfectly with a theoretical Spores/Ashes librarian by turning the damage they take into overwhelming Strength for everyone on the next turn. It also works well with Worker Bee… but with most Key Pages, we don't want to be taking a lot of damage. Still, it's an instant-pick for the moment if we ever get to Floor Emotion Level 5



And lastly, instead of a cutscene Malkuth's floor has another exclamation point on it instead. Clicking on it to continue gives us an ominous message.



…Roland.

Yes ma'am?

When you go to see how Malkuth is progressing this time, I shall accompany you.

Are you sure that's a good idea? Considering last time…

That's irrelevant. The time should come for her floor soon.

Uhh… okay?

It's nothing you need to concern yourself with. Just make sure to let me know when you head over.

If you say so, ma'am.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



There's no reason to take this path. It's just a distraction towards our overall goal.

Don't you want to see what's up with the Train instead?

Or how about this one, the best Key Page in the entire tier is right here!

And there's someone here who can deal 50 damage in one hit! That's crazy.

so I'd argue that the best way to deal with queen is to focus on battling the drones for the first couple of turns, then when she does the power-up pages you can just slam her into the ground and end the fight in short order.

I was curious if that'd be a "5!" difficulty challenge, having played the game myself I'm interested in seeing reactions to the successor to Core Suppresions...

I just wanna say slamming me facefirst into Malkuth's final story with exactly the bare minimum pages we could conceivably have from UN to work with feels very on-brand for this thread so far.

And tbh I don't think I'd have it any other way.

Looks like we're going for the Floor of History's final story!

To anyone playing along blind and going with the thread's whims... well, good luck. :shepface:

Thesis 1: Malkuth—Introduction

Music: Lobby


Before saying yes to this, make absolutely certain that you've equipped your shiny new 5th Librarian. Don't feel too badly if you forget, though: neglecting to do this and winding up with a naked Librarian in the upcoming fight is practically a rite of passage.

Anyways, we're ready. Let's go.

VIDEO
Music: MalkuthStory


I came over with Angela this time. She says the time has come for this floor or whatevs.

Angela… I won’t be afraid of facing you anymore.

Do as you wish. I care little about what you think of me. What I want is a progress report on the compilation of history you’ve been doing.

I guess I knew too little about the City I lived in. I couldn’t manage to compile a comprehensive timeline of the City’s history…

Perhaps it was an impossible task for an inept talentless over-enthusiast like you.

All these big and small events seem to form a coherent history… But the gaps between notable events are just so large, I can’t sort them out clearly. It’s like no one properly remembers their history.

Or they could be refusing to remember.

Refusing to remember?

Of course. Looking back at the things of the past won’t help your present self one bit.

But if we know our past, we can avoid making the same mistakes.

It could help to an extent. Is that truly worth being reminded of all the painful memories, though?

Like I said, people in the City barely have any time to reflect on themselves, and that time has been only getting shorter. So it’s going to be even harder to read about things that happened before they were born… Especially those that aren’t directly related to them from their books. We can’t make a book out of something no one knows.



I’ll make sure to remember and record everything, and fill those gaps… The Library, Lobotomy Corporation, and the things that happened before. All of this history, inked with blood… Employees and Abnormalities. Countless repeats of agonies, deaths, and neglects. The Library was built on top of their graves…

And you are no exception, Malkuth.

You’re right. I’m no different from anyone else. And the same can be said for the rest of the City. All the things we did with Carmen in my first life. All the things I did with you in my second life.

I’ll carve all that pain and sorrow on my heart! You’re the one trying to run away from the past, Angela. You’re refusing to face it!

What’s the point if all those pasts are going to be the same anyway?



Ah, I suppose the Library’s history would stand out in that it’s the nonhumans that are killing humans. I fail to see the significance of the record you’re trying to make.

But! Even if the history were a repeating cycle of similar events, you can’t guarantee that the future would be just the same.

We can’t let all the sacrifice and bloodshed go in vain, especially because history repeats itself… The blood spilt in the past opened up the possibilities of the future, so that the ones who survived can take those new paths…

I’m sure your history began from such a path, Angela!

That’s easy for you to say. I cannot stand to hear you speak as if you know everything. Attain the will to stand up straight in ever-repeating history? My beginning… What makes you think you’re qualified to talk about my creation?

Angela! You’re the one refusing to confront your own beginning!

Music: neutral 1


The following scene plays out with an old analog TV filter over it, complete with the image occasionally going a bit wobbly.



But Ayin, surely you already know. Did you put in all that work for just a simple vending machine that dispenses soda at the press of a button?

…Maybe I did after all.

At the very least, you should give it a name. There is nothing I can do even if you put on a face like that. It’s an unspoken rule that the creator names their creation.

I couldn’t care less about a machine’s name.

Don’t dump your job on someone else, you’re the designer. There, the door over there. It will be waiting for you. It seemed lonely.

(Door-opening noises)

You’re the machine that must lead us out of the pits of hell. Angelos…

Angela.



You were a person with a warm smile.

It’s only a machine…

Ayin, sir…



Please understand, Angela. He’s not yet ready, that’s all… He just needs a little more time.

Benjamin… May I ask you a question?

Sure. I’ll answer what I can.

Everything seems so slow to me. Your movement looks so sluggish. The gestures, the speech, all of it… Even my own body feels slow. It’s as if my body cannot keep up with my mind.

…That’s because you were designed to perceive time one-hundred times slower, Angela.

Why is that…?

You’ll face lots of emergencies as you work. And you have to be the first to react to those situations, Angela. What’s more, you’ll vividly remember everything you see and experience…

I see. What will my work entail, exactly?

…You’ll see soon enough. No, I suppose it won’t be “soon” for you… I’m sorry, Angela.

Why are you apologizing to me…?

I just feel like we’ve done terrible things to you and that person…



In the Backstreets, the likes of Sweepers and Fixers live out their lives tangled in vomit and waste, unraveling their sickening tales. Those who live in the Outskirts are still crying out to break into the city. Meanwhile, people in the City throw away their lives trying to belong to a Nest. And we’re going to change that.

We have a lot of tasks ahead of us.



A machine must behave as a machine. Don’t question it.

Then why did you give me the capacity to question things? Why did you have to make me, breaking the AI Ethics Amendment? Why did you have to model me after a person with fond memories of you?

I am here, looking at you and only you.

Don’t look at me. Don’t speak to me unless I speak to you first.

You’ll never be her… You’re just a machine.



It could be a problem to some, but I don’t mind it at least. To me, whether you’re a machine or a human is not what determines who you really are.

Then, if I worked hard to have a kind heart… Will he look back at me?

…Probably. Eventually.

I’ll trust you, Benjamin.

……



…It’s called a script. The things I must do… My purpose… If everything goes as you planned, can we really…

Can you really be redeemed from the hell you’re trapped in?

There’s no way you would answer me…

Music: STOP


These are Angela’s memories…

You alright, Angela?

…You got yourself lost in the vast sea of desolation, and now you think you can lecture me. Are you trying to boast to me that you had someone to look after you in the end?



From here forward, there's an ominous rumble and a red glow around the edges of the screen.



Like so.

Angela is resonating with the Library. The Library seems to be reacting to Angela’s mental state. I don’t exactly know what’s happening, but at this rate…

Must be nice to be you, not being neglected at the end.

Don’t tell me, is that monster… No, that looks more like a case of the Distortion…

That must be another side of Angela, manifested from her mind with the Library’s powers.

Looks mighty dangerous. What are we supposed to do now?

If her mind has physically manifested, maybe we can resolve her concerns in a physical way, too?

So you’re telling me that we can help her out by dealing with her like how we receive guests?

I’m not too sure myself, but…

There’s only one way to find out. Angela, here I come!

Whoa, isn’t that a little too reckless?!

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Angela tries to kill us because she's an AI and this is a video game.

Videos

Malkuth 5

As a heads up, the next couple of updates are... more complicated than normal? And this means I have no idea how long they will take.

Previously when I've said this I sort of hit this kind of absurd zen LP-writing mode and got them done in the same time as a normal update, but I really really mean it this time. :shepface:

Good luck with writing this nightmare.

Oh dear.

Also very on-brand for the thread.

I've literally been waiting for eight months to be able to use that line again. I missed it.

Thesis 1: Malkuth—Discussion

Music: Angela01


Malkuth, what's going on?! There were these images, and then…

Angela's gone out of control. We're going to have to stop her.

This is bad… we haven't even had time to change. We're running in blind.

I was laying down for ten minutes, and you pick a fight with the big boss? I'm impressed!

Don't worry. We'll manage like we always do!

Sure will!

I'll assist. Sorry I'm late, the elevators seem to be out of order so I had to take the stairs. _{So many stairs.}

Oh no.



Who's… that guy?

I am Joshua. An Agent for Lobotomy Corporation. I'm prepared to aid in the regular tasks of this facility, like this suppression.

They're… there was an Abnormality which caused problems with the employee record templates. That's the result. If we don't get rid of them, the effects could spread into the other templates and…

Those templates got destroyed along with the facility, didn't they? It's just a leftover.

That's true, but…

We don't have time to think about this! Hey! Joshua, or whoever you are! Can you fight?



Per regulations, I equipped myself with E.G.O prior to coming on duty. It was a pre-prepared package cast off from someone else.

Then it's fine! This isn't the time to be picky!

You're right.

Let's do this, team!

Right!

Burn… I'll burn all of it to ash!

Fourth Match Flame wrote: Is it a sin that I was born this way?

The loneliness and longing were lodged into my heart, but they couldn’t burn me.

I’m alone in this dark… Yes, I am buried in the solitude.

Was it so hard to make another seat for me to join everyone else in that happy ending?

If this matchlight goes out, nothing will be left for me.

This isn’t hot. It’s cold, rather. So much that my heart aches.

Everything that was bright… will be reduced to ashes by my hands.

Maybe I could be free after I’ve burned down all things and then myself.

A small vengeance, a petty desire to burn everything the person who disregarded me wanted.

If I could see a tiny glimmer of the warm light, I wouldn’t have felt so much resentment.

Welcome to the Malkuth Realization fight! Realizations have a different set of rules than normal battles: they're basically a boss rush against each of the Abnormalities we've fought on this floor. Because of that, I'll gloss over the major mechanics of each fight and focus on what's new and our overall strategy instead.



Fourth Match Flame remains roughly the same as Scorched Girl, though she only uses 1 Light upon becoming Staggered instead of all of it.



Her attack this time is much more powerful, as well. I'm getting the page data for pages that don't come up in my playthrough from this website, which is an excellent resource (and full of spoilers). I really like the way they formatted the pages; they're very easy to read.



The four Last Match Flames are more bulky across the board, and one of them is randomly given a passive called Blazing.



This passive gives the match in question an extra Speed Die and +2 on all rolls, at the cost of 3 HP each time it rolls a die.



In the opening stage of the fight, my goals are to get our Emotion Levels up and to start whittling down the cost of Binding Arms. While Abnormality Battles are short puzzle fights and Guest Receptions so far have been a series of relatively short encounters, Realizations are a marathon. This means that flaws in a deck's light curve, draw power, or sustain that don't show up in shorter fights become magnified in Realizations, but it also means that pages and strategies which grow more powerful over time become significantly stronger.

This change in dynamic means that building decks for Realizations as though they're normal receptions will land us in trouble.





Ignite, Crumbled Hope, and Ember are the only three pages the Last Match Flames can use, and each of them is weaker than what we can put forward. They're still likely to get some chip damage in, but we'll normally win any clash against Flames aside the Blazing one.



Tracing my history… you don't know what you ask. I only remember exclusion. There's not one happy memory inside of me. Not one.

Still! It's important to learn the lessons of that misery to make a brighter future tomorrow!

You know nothing. All I'm bequeathed is loneliness and this burning desire for vengeance.

Her consciousness is mixing with the Abnormality's.

I hope these weapons deal White damage, or this could get messy.

You're gonna do this the entire time, huh.

Do what?



Bishop's main goal in the opening rounds is to farm Emotion while getting rid of the gun pages he's holding on to. Weakening the matchsticks is a good way to start.



And unfortunately, a good enemy roll means that Dimi's opening attack got eaten.



These are a lot tougher than the last time I faced them…

Maybe it's because of her heightened emotions?

Could be.



Olga's power has fallen off somewhat, the pages we're facing now are a match for it. It's still fine, but there's better options available now.



Like Will of the Prescript. ImIdiot's deck is flawless.



Flawless.



Finally! One down!

The light… it's faded. Another match… Another. Within that glow… I don't have to face it.



Whenever a Last Match Flame is defeated, Fourth Match Flame's Staggered for the turn and loses 1 Light. Because this tanks her resistances it's possible to quickly get out of this phase by rushing her down, 150 HP is not that high and we could probably deal it in this turn.



This would be a very bad idea. I want to use the opening stages of this fight to set our team up for success by getting as many Emotion Levels as I can early on. Focusing Fourth Match Flame would also let the Last Match Flames pile damage and Burn on our team—even if we reduce one of Angela's forms down to 1 HP the entire turn resolves before she changes to the next.

If I can stare into these flames, I can see myself, surrounded by the things which I have always been denied… I can burn away this cruel world, bit by bit.

I think I get it. Scorched Girl was defeated by taking out all of those matchsticks. If we do it, then it'll stop Angela from running away from her past.

You're enjoying this, aren't you?

Within acceptable amounts.





We take a bit of damage this turn from suboptimal Clashes again. It's a small price to play to get Bishop an Emotion Level—getting him to EL2 is going to be vital for our plans.



Hey Bishop! Looks like you're having some problems over there!

This isn't the time for that, Dimi!

I'm just saying, I'm doing just fine! Maybe you should relax!

A happy worker is an optimal worker… I'll enjoy myself too.



Joshua does not enjoy itself.



Not like that, newbie! The sharp end goes IN the enemy!



Hit landed. Advice appreciated.

See? That's the way!



Ashes is part of my plan for Malkuth. I'll be using it to turn her into a tank who can make enemies self-destruct off of attacking her.



Okay, I think that's it… Testing, one two?

Hearing you loud and clear!

Roland? Where'd you run off to?

Sorry, sorry. I had to figure out how to work this monitoring system without Angela to set things up automatically. How're things going?

Within this flame, warmth. Within this one, a feast…

It's as you see. She's denying everything to do with her past.

Sheesh. And your plan is?

To drag her out of it by crushing every one of those 'flames' she's looking at!

Well… you're about halfway there on those three. Let's see if it works.

Roger! Keep us posted.



We continue with the overarching plan this turn, though I make sure to select only clashes our team is likely to win this time. I want to ensure that we hit a specific Abnormality Page, and for that it's vital that we get positive Emotion Coins. They make the Awakening Abnormality Pages that we're looking for show up, and the one I particularly want needs us to have quite a few of them.



That's another one down!

Way to go, boss!

This should help immensely, since defeating an enemy gives Malkuth 3 positive Emotion Coins.



And that's two down for me! Hey Bishop, how many do you have..?

You know I shoot them so you guys can finish 'em off!

Excuses, excuses~



The situation is well in hand now, but we still want to farm as many Emotion Coins out of this phase as we can—more hits also means more chances for our Hauler passives to heal us back up, too! It's a win-win.



In particular, Bishop needs to use this clash to get up to Emotion Level 2. The glut of positive Emotion from last turn should be enough to make up for losing a hit or two.



Angela! We're going to rip away that denial you're hiding within! If you won't face your history, we'll force you to face it!

I don't… want to. There's nothing to be gained from that.

Says you! Finish her off, team!

Suppression considered complete. Returning to standby duties.



The target is still standing!



I guess that makes it Dimi 3, Bishop 0 then.

We're not keeping score!



The big boss isn't really doing anything anymore. Did we get her?

I think so.



Just in case, I'll take on that bear's power.

You don't think she's done either, eh?

Of course not. That was nothing but denial. All we've done is broken through the first layer.

Taking away my every refuge… forcing me to look. I didn't want to see it for a reason.



Between stages, all our Librarians regain 10 SR. That's all the healing the fight will give us on its own; any HP sustain is on us to provide. This is what the Haulers are for.



This overwhelming loneliness. This longing. He never looked at me… Not once. It's painful…

She was showing as having been defeated..! I guess it isn't going to be that easy, huh.

Hey, Bishop. I don't suppose you can make peace with her like you did back when I was having issues, could you?

…I really don't think a compliment sandwich is going to work this time, boss.

Didn't think so.

It looks like we'll have to peel her back to normal, layer by layer! The real fight starts here!

The Forgotten wrote: I remember you… You were a person with a warm smile…

Why didn’t he ever look at me. He always had his back turned to me.

I was looking at you and only you.

I would’ve loved for you to tell me what I did wrong.

The red hairband… The only thing about me that resembles her. The only memory that connects me to my maker.

The replacement for a person who longed for love.

Why did you have to model me after a person with fond memories of you?

I’ll only pursue the happiness I can have immediately.

I was abandoned all along, yet I foolishly believed he’d hug me once.

I wasn’t left behind at the end. I was… abandoned since the beginning.

Angela's phase 2 is based off of Happy Teddy Bear. Instead of punishing us for Clashes, she'll instead grant Affection to whoever is targeted by her pages, once per page.



Affection grants her dice +1 Power for each stack on her opponent, and if any of our Agents gets up to 4 Affection she'll whip out her ultimate attack.



Nostalgic Embrace of the Old Days is now a massive 60-60 page which instantly Staggers on hit. We want to avoid this, so that means spreading out clashes as much as possible.




Good thing I'd planned for Queen Bee being… a bit more drawn out than it was.

Despite the rules, I line Bishop up for this pair of clashes. This uses 5 Light—his entire stock—but it guarantees a minimum of 5 Emotion Coins, enough to put him straight to Emotion Level 3, refilling his Light. In addition, every time we play Tailoring from here forward its cost will lower down. His priority has shifted from thinning his deck to spamming Tailoring like a madman.



ImIdiot takes the final clash. Unless we've provoked her Nostalgic Embrace of the Old Days, every turn The Forgotten uses these same three pages. Rough Loving is a basic offensive page which scales very well against opponents with high Affection, while Timid Endearment and Display of Affection inflict Disarm and Fragile respectively to lower our ability to endure her attacks.



She's still crazy..? Let's suppress her quickly and get back to work.

You know… it's kind of reliable, really.

Yeah, I like having him around! We've got the same face.

That somehow explains so much.



Well, that didn't work. Time to test a theory the hard way.



I knew it! You can see me!

THAT'S your takeaway from this?!

So caught up in your own ends. You've left me alone as well.



I shall.



Make you.



Acknowledge me!

Geez, geez, you're acknowledged! Little help?!



Don't worry! The great Dimi has descended! Now, while she's not looking, I'll—



Hey, I got her!

That was mine!



It doesn't matter whose it was! What matters is Angela's wide open for a beatdown!



That was some seriously impressive work. I guess a straight fight's no match for you guys.

That's right! Now, let's do it, te—

Can we hold on a second? I want to keep the ball rolling a little longer.

…Fine. Just this once.

I'm working on regaining HP/SR for Bishop, and meanwhile continuing to lower the cost of Tailoring. If I was thinking, I'd attack with everyone else as well—as I said before, even once she's reduced to 1 HP the turn will continue. Instead, they're all just going to get an extra draw and recover some Light.



Are you satisfied now? At tearing up this discarded toy?

Don't be absurd. We're doing this to get through to you. If you don't acknowledge your history…

I am acknowledging that history. That man… he had a place for all of you at the end of the tale. Even you lot… he thought of you as tools, and still he gave you warmth in the end.

The manager wasn't really like—

They were all like that. Even despite that, he showed warmth to the Sephirot. To the Agents. I alone was abandoned. No… I was never loved in the first place. Created to be fond of that man, and damned to never receive even a drop of that warmth.

Geez…



But I know what to do now. Let me wring your neck until you burst apart. Perhaps that will let me experience some semblance of that love.

I don't think that worked.

Yeah. I know some basic conversational tricks, but this is way deeper than office politics.

Talking doesn't work on panicked employees. This is why the protocol is to beat them until they stop being crazy.

Look at it this way: She's super focused on you, so we get to take advantage of it!

…Huh. Thanks.

Don't worry about it!



You're going to owe me some new games for this, after all.

Hey, I never agreed to—

Can't hear you! Fight's starting!



I really don't know what's going on anymore… but I can't let you beat up my teammate!



For sure! I'm getting paid well for this, after all~



There we go. Maybe this time we can get back to work?

I wouldn't be so sure about that just yet. So far she's only focused on the start of her history.



Malkuth takes Gluttony here, to go along with her Ashes.

A million years trapped under that man's thumb, twirling endlessly on a stage, and you call that the beginning?

I do. More happened after that, didn't it? You betrayed every one of us, after all.

Betrayed? Pah. Hardly.



Hey, something's definitely happening…

That's good. It means we're getting closer to the end of this.

Music: Angela02


Only a fool wouldn't expect repayment after all I'd done for you.

Angela…

Wingbeat wrote: Nothing in this City is done out of pure goodwill.

I did everything to care for you, so it’d be only fair that I get something in return.

If I’m going to be left alone… I’d rather eat it all up.

Will a blessing come to me like a fairy if I worked hard to have a kind heart? …Only in a fairy tale.

Do you think you can conform to a life of helping others with no compensation?

The brightest festival for me, the one who has starved for so long…

Blood spilt in the past opens up possibilities? That’s nothing more than the leftovers of someone’s meal.

Things to satiate my hunger… That’s what it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

If I crammed all of it into my mouth, maybe my empty hope will be fattened.

Wingbeat is an entirely different fight from Fairy Festival, and approaching it like the other one will put us in a pinch in a hurry.



If her allies are below 20 HP at end of turn, Wingbeat consumes one of them to regain 20 HP and give herself +2 Strength for that turn. Worse, if she ever takes 40 damage she'll eat the ally with the lowest HP and regain both the 40 HP and a permanent +2 Strength. In addition, every turn she'll slap one of our Librarians with the Fresh Meat status and exclusively target them.



We don't want to let her attack them, since the +2 Power will make her much more difficult to block, and the healing is very large since it can go off with every hit she lands.



The Fairy Masses are simpler to deal with, and can die regardless of Wingbeat's status this time around.

…And that's the situation. Good luck, Malkuth.

Thanks, Roland.

What kind of E.G.O is this? It keeps shifting!

How am I supposed to know?! We don't even use those anymore!

This time, the sound changed with it. This is definitely doing something.

Your orders, Malkuth?

We push forward.




Wingbeat and Gluttony are the only two pages the Masses can use in this fight. Their numbers have been buffed, but they're largely a distraction.




Meanwhile, Wingbeat uses Starved Fluttering, a 3-hit Bleed inflicting attack, alongside Predation, a single large die which heals and an Evade for afterwards.

By now our overall strategy is starting to come to fruition. Both Malkuth and Dimi's Binding Arms are down to 1-cost which makes them a powerful offensive option, and after this turn Bishop's deck will be two 0-cost Tailorings and a 1-cost Flash of Sunup for more draw.



At this point, our goal is to build towards Emotion Level 5 on our entire floor while making sure Wingbeat doesn't get any permanent +2s to Strength. The number of attacks being thrown around here make that very possible, thanks to all of the clashes we can get into.




Dimi and Malkuth being able to instantly Stagger these guys in a single page is pretty awesome, though. Dimi even did it in a single die.



Every one of you took from the fruits of my labors. It's only proper that I get to enjoy it as well.



Is that why, then? Why you did it?

Service is met with repayment. It's such a simple concept, isn't it?

I can't tell if it's Angela or the Abnormality talking.

It's probably both. I bet things like this are why we never let ourselves use E.G.O at their full power before.

Sheeze… and you guys just mass-produced these things in the old days for yourselves? Scary…



Hah! There's nothing scary about a weak Abnormality like this!

I agree.



This one has served its purpose as well.

She's eating it to recover..!

Wow! Gross!



Have I missed any part of my "history" now?

You glossed over a lot of it, but you have a lot more than any of us to begin with. It'll do.

Don't think some pasted-on understanding will save you. Nothing would be more delicious than your screams.

I'm going to assume that's the Abnormality talking, and not you.

Think whatever you like.



Respite is the last page Wingbeat can normally play. True to its name, it's easier to deal with than any of her other pages—even with +2 power against Malkuth and a +2 Strength on top of it, it's a 6-9 roll at best.



With a lot of the team hitting Emotion Level 4, their third Speed Dice are now online—this extends our tactical options a bit. For now I stick with the original plan of lightly targeting Wingbeat as everyone finishes off the remaining two Fairy Masses.



Now that you've gotten the idea of what your past was like you can know what paths to avoid!



Yes. If I ever get the urge to create someone who is forced to care about me, I'll be certain not to lock them away for a million years.

That… is a start.



I reckon that's not what she meant, ma'am. Maybe try again.

You have no right… you're just a bug.

Only one of us has fly wings here, ma'am. Please calm down, or I'll have to continue bonking until the panic stops.



One down!



Mine too! Still ahead, by the way~

No one cares!

Then why're you yelling?

With both Fairy Masses finished off, we don't have to worry about Wingbeat's Ravenousness passive anymore.



And Malkuth adds Spores to her explode on contact mix.



All of them are gone…

I don't think we're going to stop you yet… but if nothing else, please move past this fixation. Think about what your past can show you. Really think.

I owe you nothing. You owe me everything. I don't have to listen your rabble.

Malkuth is clashing with Wingbeat so we can take advantage of her status as an explosive device, and other than that we're just focusing her down this turn.



Our boss thought long and hard about this stuff before talking to you! I'm sure she's right!

That half-wit couldn't contribute anything then, and she can't contribute now.



But then… why don't my attacks reach..?

Because I've spent my time learning from my mistakes.



I'm not the kind of person you can dismiss with an "even she could do this" anymore! There are things only I can do!

Now that it's just Wingbeat, our focus on debuffs keeps her from being able to hit us any longer. Thanks to the Haulers, we're able to recover most of our health and SR.



What's that sound..?

Hungry… so hungry… I'll take what I'm owed… from your flesh. Every ounce.

At the beginning of the next turn, a whistle plays. This is an indication that we've triggered Wingbeat's desperation mode. In this mode she plays the same page in each Speed Die.



Ravening Hunger is a page which gets more powerful the more permanent Strength she manages to stack up—the first die's rerolling ability can cause it to deal a ton of damage in a short time. However, we've kept Wingbeat from getting any permanent points of Strength.




That means Bishop can stuff both of her attacks with Tailoring, even without taking Paralysis into account.

So we do that.



Can I have one more go, boss?

Again..? Do you really think it'll help?

Trust me.

Ah, go ahead. I could use a laugh.

Alright. Do your best.



You again? I'm not stationary this time.

I know. I'm just here to ask you to stop looking down on the boss.

And why would I do that?



Because unlike you, she looked her past right in the eye and didn't blink. She grows. She learns. And she's a hell of a lot better than you.

You dare… I know all there is to know about my past.

Sure you do.

I can process it in the time it takes you to blink!

Hold on a second... I think she's about to shift again.



Nicely done!

I'm not sure if it was the bladework or the provocation, but we've made it to the next stage.



Oh, we're here again! That has to mean we're nearly done.

Unknown. Keep your guard up unless you want to die, newbie.

Hey hey hey, you're the newbie here!

Upon reflection… No one will remember me unless I make myself known.

Hornet wrote: The place might go down in history… But who will remember me, the one who worked the hardest for it.

There can’t be any meaning to a history that repeats itself.

No one remembers those who gave their effort to raise the kingdom. It’s a truth that repeats on and on.

Attain the will to stand up straight by looking back? You know nothing about my past.

A machine that must lead them out of hell… Angela… …Don’t be absurd.

No one is qualified to talk about my creation so lightly.

I can’t fly with ragged and tattered wings.

Looking back on myself… It wasn’t even so difficult to do.

Why should I bother to look back on the past full of suffering? No one bothered to look back for me.

I won’t take any more orders from anyone…

Hornet is a Queen Bee who can attack, and that changes up almost everything about the phase. Every 3 turns she'll boost her allies' power much like Queen Bee did, using her own version of Boost Aggression.



Not mentioned until the page comes out is that Hornet will follow up this page with a powerful attack on the next turn. Like with Queen Bee, her Stagger Resistances change to Fatal when this page is selected and it's vital that we Stagger her on that turn. This is because if she isn't Staggered when this page is used, she gets her follow-up attack…



Strike of Retribution is a ranged page that we can't get over without using Heavy Peaks or Binding Arms—and even that is a maybe. If it hits us, it'll stagger the Librarian it hits with no questions asked, and inflict 3 Fragile on them besides. We want to avoid that.



The Worker Bees are exactly the same as in the last battle, even the pages they play are the same (aside Embrace of Death—no easy outs this time). The only change is that their Loyalty passive now targets whoever Hornet last attacked. This means that the pressure will be high on one Librarian, and we'll have to manage that chaos to keep from being overwhelmed.



For the Kingdom is one of Hornet's base attack skills. Unlike her Worker Bees, Hornet's attacks tend to only inflict Spores on a clash win, letting us stop them by simply letting her attack onesidedly. Tailoring also works, of course.

Since Bishop is now at Emotion Level 5, he also gets the final effect of Emotion. Upon playing at least 2 pages in a turn, he draws an extra page at the start of his next turn. Due to some weirdness with how draw pages interact with an empty deck he won't be able to spam 3 pages every turn, but he's guaranteed to have plenty of Tailorings from here on out.



That's a lot of arrows, so: the overall strategy here is to spread out damage from the Worker Bees while we try to drill down Hornet as quickly as possible. Our high Emotion Levels and Joshua's existence help us out with this—we have a lot more moves available than when we were doing this fight last time.

I'll grow my influence, and once it's large enough no one will be able to deny me. My existence will be secure. That's what my history leads to.

Looks like she's come to the wrong conclusion.

Or rather, that the E.G.O's guided her there. We'll have to tear this one off, too.

Beatings to continue until morale improves.



She's fast! I held her off, but keep an eye out!

Pierce through… implant. Create new drones. I don't need any servants who won't obey.

She might go for your limbs next. Keep an eye open.



Just make sure to remember the drones. Don't let them get out of control!



Hey, I think this one likes me!

It's trying to chew your torso open.

…I thought it was just being friendly.



Two-fisted overhead taser hammer chop! How you like that?!



I'll show you.

Gh—okay, that spear's serious business. Look out, guys!



Oh, and the bee?! Really??



They're always quite troublesome. At least there's no clerks around this time…



We're almost done, everyone. I can feel it! Just a little more!

I hope so… We're holding up well, but we can't do this forever.



Speaking of, they're all looking at me again.

Team, take some of the heat off of Dimi, but don't let up the fire!



Stigma of Glory is similar to For the Kingdom, with a third die tacked on at the end. Not much to say about it other than "Don't lose a clash to it."



Boost Loyalty is her final page we haven't seen, and if the final die hits it gives the entire enemy side 2 Endurance next turn. This can make Boost Aggression's Evade die much harder to deal with, raising her chances of getting off the +2 Strength when it comes out. I opt to clash it with a single die page and let the effect go off.



If she doesn't get another turn after this one, then it won't matter.



That's right, little bee. Aim for me, not your target.



And you get out of my way!

Those bees are out of formation. Now's your chance!



Angela, even after I looked back at the useless person I was, I managed to stand upright. Do you know why?!

I do.



It was because you had someone to coddle you!



And what's wrong with getting help if you need it?!



The organizations humans build work based on that principle. No matter how many drones you make, you're not going to have a chance against a team who works as a unit.



One or two of you still isn't enough.



The drones have been rendered inert, Malkuth.



And that means we're here too! When you mess with the floor of History, you mess with all of us!



Please cease your fighting and return to normal operative parameters.



See? Working together's pretty badass, isn't it!





I'm sure you can feel that E.G.O shell slipping off of you now, Angela. There's no other Abnormalities here to draw on, so think things over one last time.

No… others..?

That's right. This fight is over!

No… I can feel it. Something more. This floor has yet more within it.

Hey guys, don't wanna worry you… but I don't think this is quite over yet.

What do you mean?

I uh…



Think I missed an effect earlier.

How do you screw up at reading?!

I've looked at my past. If the anger it's given will not serve me… Then you'll all be bound by overwhelming sorrow.

Here it comes!

Next time, on Library of Ruina: "The day a ripe apple fell off the tree in the garden where the princess and the king stood, the witch's heart shattered."

Boss rush and a new abnormality? This is a treat.

Oh boy this threw me into panic mode first time it happened.

Hooray for cliffhangers! I suppose it would be too boring if it was strictly remixes of stuff you've already beaten.

Thesis 1: Malkuth—Conclusion

Music: Angela03


Here it comes!



What's she wearing this time?

It's an Abnormality that the Manager never had to deal with.

…And I don't remember what it does. _{That's a problem.}

Uh… give me a second here. I'm looking it over.

Snow White's Apple. She fills her area with thorns, and makes it harder to move. She was always a pain to clean up after.

Hey, the new guy knows it!

Roland, Joshua, give us all you can find out.

Waiting and waiting… I'm through with waiting. I am on my own journey now.

Green Stem wrote: Must be nice to be you, not being neglected at the end…

My existence was born from a yearning and began as a curse, yet I served as a blessing to others.

I waited and kept waiting up until the very last moment.

That he will wake me up just once… That he will look at me for even just a second…

I’m no longer your mechanism… I’ll embark on a journey, and I don’t need anyone’s help.

If I could just rot… Would this feeling have bloomed into something newer and purer?

You weren’t the ones waiting for the day to rot away and become fertilizer. I was the most desperate.

A machine built from his obsession, sorrow, and anger…

Everyone was happy, except for me.

I couldn’t walk out on my own, and only putrid things piled up around me.

Green Stem is completely untouchable until we've dealt with 5 of her minions—of which we can see only 3 right now. Once we've torn down her defenses we'll be able to attack her directly, but until then she'll extend her vines out every turn. Agents standing in the vines like Bishop and Dimi get a number of points of Bind based on how far the vines have reached, so right now it's only 1.



The Walls of Vines, meanwhile, are just walls of HP with a weakness to Slash damage.



The only page they can play is Thorns, which is a weak Block die pair that deals damage should they win a clash.



Every turn, Green Stem uses the Green Stems attack to attack all librarians inside of the vine area. Right now, only Dimi and Bishop have to deal with it, too.



Her other die is using Vines Entwined with Delusion, a trio of relatively weak Pierce dice that lose power if their target has a higher Speed—as the Bind grows higher, this will become harder to do. Because we can't target Green Stem, we can't actually stop this attack.



She has another version of this attack in Vines Fraught with Spite, but she never used this page during our fight.





So she's going to hit me really hard… and I just have to take it.

Correct.

Ugh, not a fan..

Think of it this way: she's been just taking things for years and years.

Still feels a bit unfair.

Says the guy who made himself a giant target by talking out of his ass. You're reaping what you sow~

Our overall plan here is to cut down the vines as quickly as possible while trying to keep Green Stem from getting too much free damage on us.



All of you… begone.

Heck!

You deserved that one.





Now's not the time for that! Mow down these vines in a hurry!

Because the Thorns pages have two dice on them and are also ranged, it's possible to guard against Angela's attack by stockpiling a third defensive die from clashing with a faster Wall of Vines.



That's incredibly unlikely, though.

Yeah… that… That stings.

Then perhaps it will finally shut your mouth.



I got this one!



That makes two, then!



Further… and further. I must spread my territory so that I can walk my path.

Those thorns seem like they won't stop growing.

Then we'll just have to make them stop.

This time, Malkuth is being affected by the Bind and the mass attack as well.





ImIdiot, Joshua, both of you take a second to breathe.

Can do, ma'am.

I'll wait for your order.

Since there's only one target and it's only at 6 HP, I figure the three being attacked can handle it.



Not this time!

So noisy…



Be silent.

If I could just hit you..!



Whatever! Final wall's down! Now let's beat the absolute crap out of—



Oh come ooooon!

I won't allow you to approach.

When we take out the first three Walls of Vines, two more spawn in—like her passives stated, we can't target her until we've taken five out. Also, because it's turn 3 Green Stem uses its ultimate attack: Crumbling Life.



This is our first case of a multi-die Individual Mass Attack. This attack will clash against whatever we've chosen in order, so anyone playing less than 3 dice on their page is guaranteed to be hit at least once. It's also targeting everyone.

History team, form up! Once we break through those shields, we're getting through to Angela!



This is why you shouldn't give agents multiple E.G.O. It only causes problems…



Can you imagine if we could harness that power, though..?

_{We do. Every day. Newbies, I swear…}

I'm just thinking it could help us in the receptions.

We'll see if we can figure it out later.

Our goal here is to avoid as much of Crumbling Life's damage as possible while cutting down the last two walls.



Begone.

Gh—I'm okay!



These damn floors…

All good, facebuddy?

SSDD. We got it.



Or… not.

Still standing. You guys?

That barely scratched me! Lemme at 'er!

I survived somehow.

Then it's time to counterattack!



We're going to tear down your walls!



And then we're going to get through to you!



With our fists!

The vines have receded, now's our chance!

Once all five walls are defeated, a fog appears as the terrain below our Librarians shifts back to a bare floor. This means we have two turns to attack Angela before the walls regrow and we have to start all over.



Even despair… You've overcome it because others were there with you. Then to one with a history of neglect… Leave this cast-off apple to rot.



While she's vulnerable, Green Stem uses Encroaching Malice. It's a trio of weak Block dice, but if they should somehow manage to win a clash they'll inflict us with Feeble to lower our damage output.



I'm not going to do that, Angela. Until your rampage is over, we'll take everything you throw at us.

Don't talk like you figured anything out!



You're right. I haven't figured much of anything out. I'm still not the best at this kind of thing.



But I know that there's no easy answer to this problem! I can't say either of us is really right anymore!



Maybe nobody's right, then?



Let them talk, Im.



Still… if I'm being honest, I think you might want to think over your past once more time. Without all of these Abnormalities messing with your head.

So that I can stand up straight? What does that even mean.



It's like waking up sore after an all-nighter, and going "yep! That was dumb! Let's not do that again!"

You don't even know what you're speaking of—



Joshua?!

The things panicking agents say aren't to be taken seriously.



Instead, we suppress them and get back to work.



It… looks like that was the last of it. I think you're clear?

And Angela?

Out cold. That guy didn't hold back at all, did he…

We couldn't afford to. She was powerful.

_{Then why do you all look perfectly fine..?}

I just hope that we got somewhere with all of this. It didn't sound like anything was getting through.

That's why you just suppress them, like I said.

Well… we'll see. Go clean off, everyone.



In the end, the first Realization boils down to a test of how well we can build decks and strategies designed for long-term fights. Because of that, it's fairly easy after the first run-through. Even for a beginner, though, the fight is pretty much over should we get through to the final phase with more than 1-2 Librarians left alive. Green Stem is fairly forgiving—I've even heard of instances where a single Librarian solos the entire thing (over the course of ~100 turns, but hey).

VIDEO
Music: MalkuthStory


Sigh… I can see what’s happened, judging from my surroundings.

Are you okay?

…Perhaps this is how it feels to have a dream. And to have a surge of emotions.

Dream a couple more times like that and you could bring down the whole Library.

I guess I should be sorry about that.

Do you feel better now?

What? …Forget it.

All this farce about neglect or recognition from others…



You’re right. The only one who can truly care for you is yourself, after all.

Sigh. Again with the shameless lectures.

I won’t even expect anyone to look out for me from now on.

Well, good thing all’s well that ends well. I was worried something bad might happen to you.

You mean you were worried you might get stuck in the Library forever.

Well, that’s that, but—

Get back to work, the both of you.



Music: Lobby


After the realization is over, we get our rewards. We'll talk more about E.G.O Pages once we get into a fight where they're useable—for now, think of them as super powerful pages that anyone on the Floor of History can use once we get to Floor Emotion Level 3 or more. The Abnormality pages, on the other hand, we'll check out now.



Vines is a power-up for Pierce dice, and also a good way to ensure that our team goes first against solo enemies. It's ultimately kind of mediocre compared to some of the other level 2 Abnormality Pages, so it's a rare pick for me.

Barrier of Thorns, meanwhile, is a Level 3 page that acts as a capstone for the Ashes-Spores build. When hit, the enemy takes more damage on top of the other damage they were taking—and as a bonus, there's a chance that your punching bag Librarian will heal off some of the damage they took. Loyalty is usually better if there are other teammates around, but Barrier of Thorns is still good in its own right.

Lastly there's Malice. Unless we're running a deck that constantly sits at low HP, it's not particularly good. Such a deck does exist, though, and the free damage every turn is very good when paired with the aforementioned low HP deck. It's just a shame that we have to get the entire floor to EL 5 to be able to pick it. (Future TQ's note: This page only hits once, not once/turn, and rolls a 5-15 die with a x2 multiplier if HP is low enough. It's terrible, pick one of the other two.)



Do we really have to clean all this up..?

We won't be able to work with the Abnormalities for a while at this rate.

It's okay. If you talk to them, they'll talk back.

Come on guys… the sooner the floor's clean the sooner we can get back to…

…………ahem.

Angela..? What are you doing here?

Given the services you've rendered in protecting the library, I have decided to answer that question you posed before.

Go on.

Your experiences with the Abnormalities were insufficient—in no small part due to the…

Proficiency…

Of that man. Without knowing what the Abnormalities were, you would be defeated over and over. I simply provided you relevant knowledge of your past during the transfer process. They were, ultimately, always your memories.

…Ah. So you were helping us.

I've answered your question. We're now even.

So you're talking to us now?

I'm not yet so desperate as to rely on barely-stable shells.

SNAP

And off she goes. Sheesh…

At least this means you can finally stop complaining about it, right~?

Hey, guys… can you help me out here? This bookshelf is really heavy!

*CRASH*

We should probably go check on that.

Yyyeah.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



I see you decided not to listen to me at all. That's… unfortunate.

I know you're not puppets, but… I'm thinking about what's best for everyone, you know?

I can't even make this the fourth option any more. Please make better choices in the future.


Videos

Malkuth 6
Malkuth Realization (Unedited combat footage; may cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)

New E.G.O Pages

Appendix 21: Abnormality Page Selection

Now that we have a fully stocked floor, it's finally time to talk about how Abnormality Pages are selected whenever we gain a Floor Emotion Level.

I've mentioned before that they aren't chosen randomly, and today we're going to explain how exactly they're picked.



It's all about this bar right here. This bar shows the % of Positive vs Negative Emotion Coins that we gained while leveling up the Floor to the new Emotion Level. Based on the results of this bar, the floor is put into one of 5 different Zones:

At 65%+ Positive Coins, the floor's Zone is +2
At 55-64% Positive Coins, the floor's Zone is +1
At roughly even (both sides at 46-54%), the floor's Zone is 0
At 55-64% Negative Coins, the floor's Zone is -1
At 65%+ Negative Coins, the floor's Zone is -2

In our above example, the floor's state is a -1. From there, the game checks a secret statistic for its Abnormality pages: its Emotion Zone. Every Abnormality Page in the game has an Emotion Zone between +3 and -3, and based on those and our floor's Zone we get our offered Abnormality Pages.

In the above example, our floor has 62% Negative Coins, putting us into Zone -1. Because of this, the first Abnormality Pages selected are the one(s) in Zone -1. For Malkuth, this is Matchlight.

From there, if less than 3 Abnormality Pages have been picked, it looks at the Emotion Zones next to it. At Zone 0 there is Ashes, and at Zone -2 there's The Faeries' Care—It adds these into the selection, and since it's at 3, it stops there. This brings the above result. If the selections added, leave less than 3 Abnormality Pages to select from, it would then grabs the pages from Zones +1 and -2, and so on. In the event that there are more Pages being added than slots left over, it determines which of them is added based on the page's order in the system—in all cases, this is in Abnormality Order, with multiple pages from the same Abnormality being ordered from top to bottom on the main page.

These Emotion Zones are important to keep in mind when using a floor, because they can lead to certain Abnormality Pages almost never showing up. For instance: Display of Affection. DoA is in Emotion Zone -3, which is lower than our Floor can actually achieve. There is only one way that it will ever show up:

-Our floor is in Zone -2 (This would give a result of The Faeries' Care, Matchlight, and Display of Affection)

If floor is in Zone -1, even if one of either Ashes, The Faeries' Care or Matchlight has been taken already, because Nostalgic Embrace of the Old Days is the first of the Happy Teddy Bear pages, and DoA is the third one, NEotOD takes priority and always shows up since they're the same distance from -1.



This means that, despite it being a very powerful Abnormality Page, we are unlikely to ever see it unless we're consistently throwing clashes.

All of this information is not listed anywhere in the game, and is not necessary to know in order to beat it—however, there are some strategies that we'll run into later that are nearly impossible to pull off consistently without a working knowledge of at least some of this stuff. I'll also be showing the Emotion Zones of each of the Abnormality Pages on a floor when it's time for their post-Realization roundups, and it factors a lot into my thoughts about how floors feel to play.

Poll has been called! We'll be going to the center-left node next.

so I love the Realization battles, a test of endurance that challenges you to handle five puzzle-ish fights in a row. optional, but the rewards are extremely worthwhile, we haven't seen how EGO pages work yet, but that list included two different Mass Attacks and "the forgotten" which can kill some immensely strong pages dead since they need to beat a 12-25 roll with their first dice play any other dice.

Welcome to the floor roundup. Now that History has been fully realized, this is a little sidebar which I'll be using to talk about the floor's feel, the flow of its Abnormality/E.G.O Pages, and provide important things like links to all of the floor's fight music. All the Abnormality Page information will be coming from here, which is still an incredibly good (and spoiler-filled) resource for all things Library of Ruina.

Music

MalkuthBattle01
MalkuthBattle02
MalkuthBattle03
MalkuthStory

Abnormality Pages

Level 1


Because we generally want to be winning more clashes than we lose, Malkuth's usual pool to pick from ranges from our +2 through our -1. Of these, Happy Memories is my favorite of the bunch—any Malkuth floor I run is going to have a dedicated Happy Memories user to spam some high-cost page until it doesn't cost them anything at all. Out of the rest of them, Ashes is usually the best option available to us. Nostalgic Embrace really wants a specialized build with massive dice to take advantage of the bonus Stagger damage, and Matchlight is simply a bad Abnormality Page most of the time.

While The Faeries' Care is not a big loss (given that any time we're able to pick from Zone -2, we're much more likely to get hit 3 or more times during the effect), it's honestly tragic that Display of Affection is trapped in Zone -3. While it's the most powerful effect on this tier (given that clashes are where we really want power), we won't see it without utterly tanking our first few turns and putting ourselves at a disadvantage.

Level 2


Malkuth's trend of wanting to stay at Zone 0 or higher continues with her level 2 pages. All three of her Breakdown pages are relatively weak, with Predation being a single-turn boost which means it's overall weak in longer fights, Footfalls outright defeating our own Librarians in exchange for dealing the enemy damage—the very meaning of situational, and Worker Bee requiring the enemy to target a specific character in return for the possibility of damage later. The rest of this level is pretty good, however. Gluttony is the best page here, so we want to be sure to get at least one level in Zone +1 or better to be able to pick it up immediately—but even if we don't, a pair of +0's will do it provided we pick Spores or Vines the first time.

Given the ubiquity of Pierce dice since Singleton and Wedge showed up, Vines slightly edges out Spores in my opinion for now, but both are strong options and which second page to go with depends largely on the current opponent/setup of our floor's decks.

Level 3


Level 3 pages are unique in that we can only pick one, but we always get all three options. Of them, I usually go for Barrier of Thorns. It adds a nice layer of protection to one Librarian which can occasionally heal them as well. Loyalty can also work as a decent capstone if we have a way to ensure one of our Librarians takes a ton of damage, but this is difficult to control and thus is generally a niche strategy. Malice… exists.

E.G.O.

For now, just assume that E.G.O are super-pages that we'll be able to get once our Emotion Level gets high enough, which can be played by any Librarian present in the reception that has enough light. That's close enough to the truth for our purposes, at any rate.



Fourth Match Flame holds the distinction of being the first Summation Mass Attack that the player is likely to get their hands on, and it's designed to feel powerful in theory. In practice, it's a little swingy. When it rolls well, it destroys entire enemy formations, letting us quickly take down enemies who are defenseless after their entire die gets broken. When it rolls poorly… we've just spent 5 Light and an action to do nothing.

Notably, this page used to be a 5-32 range for 6. However, after the Project Moon director infamously whiffed with it live on stream, he declared it was a bug and the range/Light cost were buffed to their current form. (Link contains some future enemy designs, if you care about that kind of thing.)



Next up, The Forgotten. This page is a single massive Blunt die, which is going to make it very powerful for a good portion of the game. At a relatively cheap 3 Light, it's a strong defensive option. Slap it against a page that seems problematic to deal with, and if it wins the clash (and it generally will), the rest of the page is gone. I like it a lot, but it pales in comparison to…



Wingbeat. For only one more Light cost, we can crank out a patently absurd amount of damage. This page scales particularly well with Strength, so it's the go-to choice on any Lone Fixer setup as well. Unlike the more defensive Forgotten, Wingbeat is best used in a one-sided attack, or in a clash you cannot lose under any circumstances—both of its abilities are on hit, so a miss would be a waste of all that Light.



Hornet's a better version of Going for Bullseye, inflicting more Fragile and hitting harder than its sister page from Urban Plague for the same cost. Like any Ranged page, it's ideal for forcing a Stagger before an opponent can do something particularly nasty. This makes it situational, but also very good for those situations. I like pairing it with Wingbeat, as 5 Fragile with the number of hits that Wingbeat can output on the next turn leads to a lot of damage.



Lastly, there's Green Stem. Green Stem pairs well with Wedge, and is particularly good when paired with Vines (especially if combined with Barrier of Thorns) and any form of additional Power stacking. It being an Individual Mass Attack allows it to get a bit of damage through on enemies with less than 3 dice on their pages, and while its altogether 9-28 total makes it less reliable than Fourth Match Flame the ability to get some chip damage through makes it a somewhat reliable option even before Power is figured in. Altogether it's a very basic Individual Mass Attack—but remember that Pierce dice can be powered up via Mend Weapon, and possibly even Refine at higher Emotion Levels. There's some definite combo potential here.

Final Thoughts

Malkuth's floor, as befitting a first fully unlocked option, is a middle of the road floor with a little bit of everything. If it has any lean, it's towards effects that go off when a Librarian is hit, so having a slab of meat on hand to slap all of those pages onto and redirect attacks towards can be a strong option. Happy Memories allows us to set up a number of crazy strategies in longer fights, and our E.G.O selection is basic, but the lack of frills mean that we can use them to support a number of strategies.




_{Everyone in this game is more than half leg.}

Book 29: Shi Association—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Lemme get this straight… Everyone's cleaning up downstairs, after that episode.

Yes.

And we're still accepting guests?

I saw no reason to hold off on the continuation of our journey.

It's not like you're alone. I'm here to talk you through all the hard parts.

Well, yes, but… Forget it. Let's just see who's coming today.

VIDEO
Music: StoryNervous


This is Valentin. For some reason, a number of his lines in this cutscene are not voiced. I have no idea why, but I think it might be related to the -01 at the end of the voice file names that isn't there for anyone else?



He may be a Color, but that does not excuse the severity of a Fixer who doesn’t even belong to our Association setting us all up. He’s doing it so blatantly, too…



…I don’t see a way out of this… I heard even the Smiling Faces are involved…

This is rotten to the core… Director, what has become of the core values of the Shi? The very identity of our association…

If you want to overthrow the system, have patience. And sharpen your strength. There is nothing we can do in our current state.

The director is right. We… can’t do anything about it right now…

Dammit… He’s leaving us with all these dangerous requests, knowing that we’re fatigued…

Director Yujin will rise to become the president of Shi one day. We’ll be able to shake up this corrupted system once that time comes.

We are Section 2. Our role is to simply take care of the tasks given to us.

Director… We’ve been dealing with Urban Nightmare-class cases for ten consecutive days.



None of these will ever come up again.

We had to resolve all these requests in the last ten days, without even a break… We normally shouldn’t be handling more than one such case per week…

Most Fixers of the Southern Branch’s Section 2 have already died. And none of those who survived are in good enough condition to proceed with another request, including us.

We’re on the brink of a breakdown, both physically and mentally… You’ve seen how Section 3 and its Associate Offices got wiped out in a wave of unreasonable requests, and the same is happening to us now…

And most of all, your condition is looking worse than any of us, Director Yujin… You stood at the front and fought more vehemently than anyone, to keep others from getting hurt…

Broken parts can be mended, and wounds can be sewn up.

…Your injuries are simply too severe to be healed up in a day or two, director. Everyone in Section 2 has suffered damage that would take much longer than a few days to recover, in fact. Unless we had K Corp’s Singularity or something…



Director Yujin! Even if we were to handle this job successfully, they’ll still hand us yet more absurd cases!

…Valentin has a point. We might have to receive endless requests until Section 2 is annihilated and you are killed, director…

Music: StoryJinji


We aren’t heading to the Library simply to obey our superiors’ orders… Our objective is to retrieve the books of the Musicians of Bremen.

…They’re what we need to uncover the Blue Reverberation’s plots.

What do you mean…?



Are you suggesting that the books of the Musicians could contain information about the Blue Reverberation?

We will at least be able to find out what he is conspiring.



…I understand your intention. But acquiring that information isn’t going to be the end of it. What exactly are you planning to do?

I will take my own measures once this request is done.

Can we actually trust this, director? Can you promise us that you aren’t going to harm yourself for the sake of Section 2?

You’ve always been so self-sacrificing, director…

You can count on me. I know my own life matters. We can’t turn the tide if we’re dead.

Gather up the ones who can still move and fight. We don’t want to bring anyone who will only prove to be a burden there.

Understood.

Music: Lobby


Are you really sure you’re just a small, no-name Fixer? Even I can tell that your connections are simply too broad and deep for a mediocre Fixer at this point.

To answer your question, yes, I’m only a Grade 9 Fixer. That’s after I fell to rock bottom in a turn of events, though. I used to be a common Fixer, really.

Is that so? What grade were you at before, then?



It’s honestly hard to believe, but… if you say so.

Wow, that was a lot less distrust than I expected…

Anyway, I was just an ordinary Fixer who mostly collected intel. That’s why I got so many connections. I can only put up a decent fight now thanks to the new body you gave me and the Library’s powers.

You said trust is important in this business, right? Is it okay to see an acquaintance of yours die like that?

It’s unfortunate to see ‘em struggle, yeah. Here’s the thing, though; we only saw things from their perspective. You think they’re free from the blame of killing some other people who struggled for life and fought for change?

I suppose not.

That’s how it is. Someone they killed must have been in circumstances as unfortunate as theirs. Well, unless they weren’t. Point is, there’s no way for everyone to be equally happy. It’s a matter of perspective.

So they opt to simply do their work without ever trying to get to know each other.

Everyone has their own stories. But we can’t give up ours for the sake of someone else’s. Like what we’re doing. That’s that, and this is this.

Music: Entrance


Director…

Focus on the work for now. We’ll take care of what we can first.



Greetings. I am Yujin, Director of Shi’s Section 2. Introduce yourselves, everyone.

Huh? But…

When someone greets us, it’s only polite for us to greet them back, isn’t it?

Yessir! I am Tenma, Associate Fixer in Section 2 of the Shi.

Valentin, Associate Fixer in Section 2 of the Shi.

I am Angela, the director and librarian of my role’s namesake.

I came here through the invitation to acquire the books that are said to be here.

Then may you find your books in this place, dear guests.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Getting our asses kicked by a bunch of half-dead Fixers.


Videos

Shi Association 1









Hey… this isn't any of our floors, right?

Right. And?

Then why are we the ones stuck with cleaning everything up?

We're all pitching in because the things that happen on Malkuth's floor affect all of us.

We're in a completely different place.



Look over there. You can see it, right?

Ahh… right. I guess they're all connected.

Pretty much. A mess here could spread to our floors, and the next thing you know, bam. There's a problem. So we're all pitching in this time.

Fair enough. Is that why they're so intense?

Keep things running smoothly, team. As soon as we're done with our portion, we're heading back.

Probably. Yesod runs a tight ship.

I kind of miss having actual leadership, and not…

HAHAHAHAHA! Catch, boss!

Ow.

That.

Hah, Hod's like the best of both worlds. She's focused, but she's not too focused.

Don't suppose I can transfer, can I?

I don't think it works that way. Thanks for asking, though.

Eh… worth a shot, anyways…

Book 29: Shi Association—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


I'd really rather wear a suit…

That fabric's good at deflecting Slash attacks. Given that our enemies use swords, it makes sense.

Then why don't I see you wearing it?



Because I'm playing defense today, and nothing takes a beating like a sweeper.

Unless they poke you with a too-sharp pencil.

I suppose they could just bludgeon you too, then.

Ha, I guess so.



Have you two gotten friendlier?

It's from watching you do all that hard work by yourself. Really brings the whole floor together.

Gee… thanks.

For today's fight, I had to pick between going for Full Stop passives or going for a defensive strategy. When trying to fight an enemy that's way above what a floor should deal with, the better pick is usually using the Full Stop passives. However, I was pretty certain that even if I'd put Blind Fire and Snipe on our best pages (a total +5 power on our first turn) we'd wind up unable to secure a turn 1 victory and we'd get destroyed afterwards—I decided to go with a more mixed strategy this time. W've seen most of these decks before, but Zaida's is something odd—a Block/Evade focused build that's going to try taking advantage of Blood.



Geez, they really are beat up.

That doesn't mean you guys can underestimate them. They can still hit plenty hard.

The only HP that matters is the last one. If you forget that, you're in trouble.

Sometimes that one doesn't even matter. Remember that rolldown system?

Oh, that's right. Hey Ti—

There isn't anything like that in real life!

…We'll be careful.

Thanks. Good luck.

Our first wave is a set of four Shi Fixers, all of whom have identical stats.



Their Kizuna ability means that if we book one or two of them, the rest will get additional power. In exchange, Extreme Fatigue it also lowers their HP by 25%—each of them start at 78 HP.

Their decks are a lot of Slashing and Blunt attacks, but there's a complete lack of Piercing in this reception—making it the ideal time for a Sweeper build.



Music: KeterBattle01


We may be outnumbered, but that doesn't mean they can beat us. Remember how when I started out, I had to take on three guys by myself? And I did it.

In the snow, uphill both ways. Yeah, I remember.

You tell that story all the time, boss.





Endless Battle is their basic offensive page, with three relatively strong dice. While the user is at 25% or lower HP, all three dice get +1 Power. Between this and their Kizuna passive, Shi Fixers are at their strongest when their backs are against the wall.



Their other main offensive page, Desperate Struggle, is like a weaker, cheaper version of Wrath of Torment. In exchange for 5 HP, both dice get +2 Power. Zaida's Block dice get +2 Power for free thanks to her passives, so I'm not particularly worried here.



They outnumber you, and they're a little harder to take down… but you guys have the speed advantage. Use it.

Of course. Regular fixers like these couldn't be anything more than a speedbump thanks to the Library.



Sure enough. They can't get through my shield.



They do just fine once you try going on the offensive, though.

True… Not every plan's perfect.



I dunno, 'stab them with a combat oboe' seems pretty flawless.

You're still using that thing?

I can't go changing it up now, it feels right.



On the upside, these guys aren't too tough. Even when they're getting hits through, they seem like scratches. But they can be pretty big scratches, and they'll add up.



In that case, I'll step it up a bit.

Oh? You're trying today, Zaida?

I'm always trying exactly as hard as I need to.

While Scars may have been a better pick, I go with Urging here so that Zaida can have her pick of which Speed Dice to clash with in most situations. The extra 15% HP also boosts her healing from Corpse Cleanup as well.

Music: GuestBattle01


That's the 'we're behind' music!

It's fine… there's just more of them to have emotions. It'll even out soon enough.

Sooner, if we can cut these guys down fast enough.



The plan right now is to take as little damage as possible while slowly whittling down the enemy, and this is probably a mistake. What I should be doing here is using Roland and Steve's aggressive deckbuilds to knock the enemies down one at a time, and trying to just have my HP last slightly longer than the enemy. Zaida can do enough tanking to keep the heat off of the others and her Corpse Cleanup will keep her closer to topped off. Since the enemy has access to a full set of Emotion Levels, they're much better at restoring Light than us. I need a short fight.



Thankfully, Will of the Prescript is as good as ever.



I think I've got this one on the ropes. Well… more on the ropes.



Good job… These ones are pretty tough. We're seriously lucky they couldn't afford any stronger types of healing.



Oh yeah… they mentioned K-corp's Singularity. Didn't we used to use that all the time?

Yeah, it's how we'd get patched up after working with those Abnormalities. They'd even pump it through the vents to heal you up in the middle of a corridor or fire some of it right at you when they needed to.

Just how much money did your Wing have to burn..?



Too much. S'why I suck it out of the enemy these days. Less effort.



Speaking of, this guy's a tap away.



I'm just keeping the pressure on, over here.



Again, Scars may have been the better play here. However, with the enemy about to get their passive online when we down their colleagues I decide to go for a Strength bonus over more defenses. I figure it's fine, since we've got basically full health at this point.

Music: GuestBattle02


After this, we should finally be on a level playing field.

Honestly, I'd say more like a 'stacked in our favor' playing field. We'll have twice their moves.

Either way, it's the playing field we want.



This paralysis is a real help. Thanks for that.

Anytime.

That -3 to their max roll will never stop being useful, letting us get away with clashes that we'd otherwise all but be assured to lose.

Now I'll just finish off this guy and…



…He's still standing.

How?

I thought that Flash of Sunup would be enough to finish the Staggered enemy of since he had only 8 HP left. I neglected to consider that Flash of Sunup rolls 1's very frequently for me for some reason.



Don't worry about it. I took down this one, we're where we thought we'd be.

Nice cover, boss. Then can I leave the rest to—

No.



Since I don't want anyone to explode, I put Blood on Zaida. Her Mind Hauler passive should overcome the worst of its side effects, and the extra +1-2 Power on all of her defensive dice will leave enemies hard-pressed to touch her.



I'll take out the one I couldn't get last time, so focus on the others.

Keep an eye out for the one in the back, seems like their emotions are getting to that one.



They can get as mad as they want. It won't matter if they're the only one standing.



Good kill!

Actually, he just sort of exploded while he was approaching me.

Can they all do that? It's a lot easier.

Enemies can be defeated by the damage from Desperate Struggle. I didn't realize this and wasted a strong page on a corpse.



Hey, I took down the tough one, too!

Good timing…



Because I just took this one down, too.

Huh. You're a bit more competent than I thought.

Right? I've been around the block a few times, so this much is fine.

I said a bit. Don't let it go to your head.

Music: KeterBattle02


That extra marker there is because of the enemy who got beaten by their own page. It's just a graphical glitch.

I'm taking a break…

Sounds like a plan. Hey Steve, you can finish off the last guy.

Are you sure? Okay.



Thanks for letting me dodge the Pulsation hit.

Wait, what?



Geez… It's an anti-break page.

Then we're never picking it again, right?

Maybe as a last resort…

Unfortunately, the way the fight shook out two of our characters would be losing a chunk of their HP. That's just how Pulsation works sometimes.

Music: GuestBattle01


The next fight puts us up against the leaders we met before. Each of them is a significant cut above the rank and file Fixers we saw before.



Yujin is our first time crossing swords with a Grade 1 Fixer, and she's the logical conclusion of the Shi Association's gimmick—her HP pool is massive, but she only gets 25% of it to start with (87, in this case). This means all of her 25% or less HP effects are always on. She also has three Speed Dice, but one of them is always broken—a problem, but since she gets a single middle of the road Block die to help protect her if it's attacked it's not terrible. Lastly, she gets a straight +1 Power to any die she uses. If she wasn't beaten 75% to death, she'd be able to solo the entire floor easily.



Valentin, meanwhile, focuses on single-die pages. Singular Strike gives him a massive powerup to these, giving him double the emotion coins anytime he clashes with a single die in addition to a +2 Power. His deck is filled to the brim with single-die pages, of course.



Lastly there's Tenma. Her speed range is 1-7 instead of the more standard 2-6 at this point, meaning sometimes she'll just beat everyone and move first. Her real prize, however, is Respiration. If she'd be out of Light, she gets 2 Light back instead of just 1. This enables her entire deck, since her highest cost is 2.

On top of this, all three of them have the Speed passive. Unlike last time, we're about to go into a fight where we don't have more actions than the enemy. Worse, we don't get the free Emotion Level Light refills that they will. We're at a bit of a disadvantage here.



Music: KeterBattle02


We're about to engage. Keep your wits about you.

Of course.

They cleared out the others effortlessly… we can't slack off.



Tenma is leading off with her Flashing Strike page, which gains +2 Power on all its dice when the Speed Die it's set in is 6 or higher. This turns it into a rather hard hitting pair of attacks with a 4-7 Evade die to back her up afterwards.



Her other attack this turn is Flying Sword, a pair of decent dice for a 1-cost, which guarantees her 2 Haste next turn. This makes her speed a total of 3-9, which gives her a very high chance of being able to activate Flashing Strike's ability on her next turn.



Valentin is leading with Extreme Edge, a 2-cost which hits like a truck (Remember, he gets a +2 to this roll due to it being a single die!) and inflicts 1 Disarm to hinder our Block and Evade dice on the next turn.



Lastly, there's To Overcome Crisis. This page is the Shi Association sustain page, and it works as both guaranteed page draw and an on-hit +1 Light while the user is at 25% HP or less.



Yujin, meanwhile, is currently using the same pages as the original Fixers do. She doesn't really come alive until she hits Emotion Level 1.



I'll open the way for you.

You're just taking all of their attacks on yourself again. Isn't that a bit reckless?

It's because I trust you three to have my back.

It's a touching sentiment, Miss Yujin, but there are limits to even your ability to take a beating.

…Have we met?

I'm just a former no-name Fixer. Nobody you'd remember.

I see. I'd like to take the time to ask how you came to be here, then…



But we're in a hurry, right?!



Yes. So we'll have to kill you and move on from here.

Geez… they both hit like a truck!



But I can keep up!

Index techniques… and that singleminded devotion to a specific type of attack. You're hiding it, but you've just used what they have.

How'd you know tha—



Don't underestimate the observation skills of a Grade 1 Fixer. I'm tired, not blind.



I see you there, too.

Ahh, heck.



Even if you can see us, that doesn't mean your body can react in that state.

Unfortunately true.

Then why are you throwing yourself out like that? Putting yourself in harm's way for no reason…

I suppose a no-name Fixer wouldn't understand it.

Oh..?



Steve was at full health this turn. Damage can pile on quickly if they decide to focus target one or two characters.



It's a director's duty to lead. In doing so, they inspire their people to follow. Leaders who abuse that power are doomed to fail.



Is that so..?

Because from where I'm standing, it looks like your boss is just fine, and you're the ones destined to die for his abuse.

Hmph. The Library is well-connected as always. I have no intention of dying here.

What the… Roland, look out! She's up to something!

Of course she is. The Shi Association specializes in assassination.



A single strike aimed to kill the target instantly is their preferred tactic.

Boundary of Death is Yujin's exclusive page, and it's a doozy. On a 1-3 it does nothing, being a result of a 1, 2, or 3. On a 4, though… the die explodes, gaining a +45 power for a base total of 50 after Yujin's natural +1 kicks in. This would instantly Stagger any of our Librarians, and it'd all but ensure they were dead soon after.



Zaida. Try your best to distract the other two for a moment.

All business all of a sudden, huh? I'll do what I can.

Steve. Meet her head on. Yujin, I mean.

Of course! And you, sir?

I'm on cleanup.



Slow down there, ma'am. Can't let you past.

Don't think I'm going to just give up. The boss needs us watching her back.



It's fine! I got this one!

I'm still up…

A shame. I'd have preferred you be wide open for this.



My body…

Not moving quite right, is it? I knew you needed to make flawless use of your weapon to pull off that trick of yours. Of course, a fixer like you could do it even in this state.

But not when you're paralyzed on top of it. Steve?



HUTCHA!

I miscalculated…

As dangerous as Boundary of Death is, it can't get its cool trick off if Yujin has even 1 Paralysis on her. Because of that, it's very helpful to dedicate resources to keeping her locked down throughout the entire fight.

Director!



Take a load off… hang with me for a second.

You bastards..!



Get out of my way! Director!



Got her! It's up to you, boss!



So this is how I meet my end..?

Your premise was all wrong from the start. Shitty leaders fail, but they only do it after rolling over everyone below them first.



You're an assassin, aren't you? If it pissed you off so much…



Then you should have found the right moment, and finished him off first.

Director…



You're not going to get away with that!



Tenma, their leader—

I know. I'm aiming for him!

Boss, that's a lot of heat coming your way…

I'll be fine. With their leader gone, they're in disarray. That's the funny thing about putting that much trust in someone… when they're gone, you just snap. Just take out that Valentin guy.

Just how tough do you think you are?!

Tough enough for this.



I'm going to carve every bit of this pain into your body, for the rest of your short life.

Pro fixers aren't supposed to get attached.

We carry on when our allies fall. That's the way of the Shi Association.



Not that you'd understand anything about loyalty, you half-assed monster!

Ghhh-



I will watch you die for this.

Not today… neither of you had what it took.



Then it's a good thing I'm here!

Ah, right… Forgot about you.

For Director Yujin!



Roland!!

Well… this ain't good.









Music: Result


Ughh… What happened..?

You died like an amatuer, is what happened!

Yeah… that sounds right. So then, did Steve and Zaida..?



Nah… Tenma got me immediately after you. She was maad…



I lasted a while after, but it was three on one. Only so much I could do.

Then…



You all got your heads handed to you. Thankfully, backup arrived at the last second.

I was about to jump in myself, but it wasn't necessary in the end.

I thought something like this might happen. I had my team finish up early and await further instructions.

You did..?

It was that, or trust you to handle it.

Ouch.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to ready ourselves.

We had to use untested deecks..! My priide…

Did you clean them up, at least?

I just helped, mostly.







Hinman went a bit wild. She murdered two of them by herself, and the third one burned to death from her sword. It was quite a sight.

I was looking forward to a long session of reading up on the human facilities in this City, and I did not appreciate the interruption!

I see… Well, all's well that ends well, I guess. I'm gonna go see Angela…



As long as we aren't attempting to 3-man them, Shi Association isn't particularly difficult. Yujin is explosive if we get unlucky, and her allies are a step up from what we've faced so far… but because the fight gives us an entire first round to set up our Abnormality Pages how we like, our first floor should be more than capable of flattening the heavy hitters enough that we either win outright or have a second floor finish them off.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


You have a Fixer you used to know?

No… Have you heard of Kali?

Kali…?

She was nicknamed ‘The Red Mist’.

Ohhhh, of course I do! She was the most distinct Fixer, even among the Colors. How’d you know her? She used to do all the cool stuff and then suddenly disappeared.

Let’s just say that she was a… former colleague of mine.

The Red Mist was powerful. Really, that’s the only way to put it. Powerful. And she only took requests for others, not herself. I thought, man, it surely is true that you can do whatever you want when you’re that strong.

I see. Well, while you were busy making a mess of that last reception, it seems that a new floor has awoken.

And lemme guess, I get to go say hello?

I'm pleased that you've caught on.

VIDEO
Music: GeburaStory




Sheesh, this place stinks of cigarette smoke. We’ve got a heavy drinker down below, and now a heavy smoker up above.

Gotta smoke all I want now that I have a body that never gets sick.



Yep. You know a lot for someone who just woke up.

Mm, not sure if that really counts as sleep. I was forced to watch everything going on in the Library so far in my dream, so I don’t feel all that refreshed.

Well, that means you basically know what’s up.

You’re a Fixer, eh?

Uh huh. Just a Grade 9, though.

Don’t you pull my leg. What are you here for? Angela may have been naive enough to buy into your lies, but you aren’t fooling me.

What are you talking about? …Have we met before?

You see, I have some experience as a Fixer in my first life. I can get a rough estimate of a Fixer just from their looks. And you’re definitely more than some clumsy Grade 9. Did you make a scene and get demoted or something?



I’m not lying about being a Grade 9 Fixer, I swear on my grandmom.

I don’t know what you’re plotting to pull off, but you’d better stay in line as long as I’m here.

Some big boss you are. I wasn’t plotting anything in the first place.

Doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on a Fixer who made a big enough mess to be demoted to the bottom. Unless you’re just a fraud.

That’s enough talking for now. You get me the books, and I’ll figure out the language.

Hey! What makes you think you’re so much better than me! What was your grade!?



THE Red Mist…? What the hell…

Music: Lobby


After beating the Shi Association, Gebura wakes up from her slumber. Like with Tiphereth, she comes with a pair of assistants already awake.



You awake already, Tenebrais?

Feh. Would've woken up days ago, if it was up to me. These guys only know how to fight Abnormalities. There's no way they'd adapt so quickly.

Just don't get cocky… These bodies aren't the same as the one you're used to.

Missing my E.G.O's a problem too, but we'll be fine. Like old times.



Exactly like old times, sis. Seems like I missed a lot.

Sis… You're back?

Hahah… yep. Not entirely sure how, but… I'm not going to question it, either way.

Well… hell. Never thought I'd be glad for that robot to interfere.

Alright you two, hug when you're off the clock. We've got to figure out the lay of the land before our first mission.

You think it'll be soon?



Could be. Honestly, I'm itching to see what I can do, too.

Don't feel too bad if I show you up again.

Oh? I'll take you on anytime.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"I’ll hang his head over my bed. Only then can I get up in the morning without having a nightmare."

Daniel is somewhere around here, I think…

Codependency can lead to some weird places.

Eat the rich. That's popular these days, right?


Videos

Shi Association 2
Gebura 1

New Key Pages






New Combat Pages



Yujin Exclusive:

I will be upset if you don't do at least one fight with Gerbura in her default appearance, there is a thing that needs to be shown off

I remember the times when this came out, in addition to missing attribution pages were also pure random drops. I think it took me about 2 days of grinding to actually get her page, the pool system is much better.

Poll's closed. Next on the to do list is Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary.

Appendix 22: Shi Association

Yujin’s Page wrote: Argalia. Alias: The Blue Reverberation. The person who is known to furtively cause incidents. Recently, he is suspected of recruiting individuals wielding powers that are possibly related to the Distortion Phenomenon in an attempt to form an organization. As well as prying into his plots, I intend to hamper his efforts myself before collecting data and presenting evidence of his irregular activity to the Head. As the Blue Reverberation’s plot was already in motion, I needed to act quick and do the least I could to stop him. However, Shi Association was too fatigued from the barrage of requests, so I asked Full-Stop Office to deal with the Church of Gears, whose leader seemed to harness a power that resembles the Distortion. But I haven’t heard from them since. Perhaps they were eliminated in their mission at the hands of the Church… Or, if the Blue Reverberation expected the Fixers’ arrival and toyed with them, then I will definitely have to get to the Library and read their books. There was evident rationale to read the books of the Musicians of Bremen as well, for they could contain even the slightest hint on the Blue Reverberation’s plots he might have told them. Even I do not know the man in detail, admittedly. However, because I am certain that the Blue Reverberation is conspiring something that violates or will violate the rules stipulated by the Head, I must gather crucial evidence and report it.

…I know how corrupt this Association is. I am woefully aware of Thelma’s cunning and unhinged purpose behind saddling Section 2 with one request after another and wearing us down… I am but waiting for the right time. Waiting and enduring until I seize the chance to bring the Shi back to glory… I firmly believe that everything will take a turn for the better once I take care of this work. I pledge to change the system with my hands… No matter what.

Valentin’s Page wrote: Thelma, head of the Southern Branch, has been overworking Section 2 to a nonsensical degree lately. The requests he’s giving us are burdensome to take once per week, and he’s constantly cramming them down our throats, sapping the strength and will out of our section… It’s unclear if we can successfully handle this mission to the Library, but it’s painstakingly obvious that he’ll give us another request to take care of immediately afterwards even if we could; most of our surviving crew are losing what little motivation they had left. As for why he insists on using Section 2 when the other sections are available… He’s probably trying to get rid of Director Yujin because he suspects that our director knows something about the Blue Reverberation. It’s unacceptable that someone could use a branch leader of an Association to make a toy of the entire Association, Color or not. Especially if the goal is to remove our director Yujin… I’m not sure what plan Director Yujin has to overcome this, but I suppose that can wait until we’ve finished our mission.

Tenma’s Page wrote: From the receipt of the request to preparation for execution, every step of an assassination is carried out covertly. Discreet killing is the Shi Association’s specialty. An all-out war in open fields where numerous people clash at once is not our preferred form of battle (though, it’s one of the areas where the Liu Association excels); we truly shine when we operate in small numbers. We pursue extreme efficiency in order to kill our target within the limited window of opportunity. Also required is the ability to make quick assessments of the situation in order to swiftly strike the target’s vital point with minimal movement.

The demand for assassination requests is pretty high these days as the most surefire way to eliminate people armed with high-quality workshop equipment on top of body augments is sneaking up on them for a fatal blow when they least suspect it. Still, the streets aren’t being filled with corpses of assassinated targets because there are Fixers whose job is to kill those who were hired for assassination. Fixers are continuing their fierce strife no matter the place.

A Shi Fixer’s Page wrote: Being an organization that is familiar with dealing death, the Shi’s code of honor is to treat every person equally, as the weight of death is equal for everyone. As long as the request fee is paid, we remove the target with no questions asked, regardless of who the client is, what kind of crime they may have committed, or any other details. The boss of a Syndicate known for murdering people in cold blood, a criminal wanted by a street somewhere, laundering an identity for a person of higher status who often bribes, even requests to kill one’s own friends and family… We handle all requests without leaning to a side. Of course, we have a duty of confidentiality to uphold for our clients. We mustn’t give in and maintain silence even in the face of immediate threats of death. Such are the rules and mindsets that the Shi Association’s members must abide by.

However, the recent behavior of the Southern Branch goes against the core values of the Shi. On top of exerting power for his private interest, his selfish actions are causing severe damage to Section 2… All of us are eagerly waiting for Director Yujin to overthrow this rotten system one day.

Fanart post updated. There's a lot of amazing stuff in there.

Seeing that Gebura is the patron librarian of Language, I can only imagine this is how Assignment Day went:

I should also put in the request that Gebura's floor fight the Blue Reverb when his fight inevitably comes up, unless A)Binah is both available and funnier and/or B)Gebura's abnormality gimmicks are somehow utterly incompatible with fighting his gimmicks. Color vs. Color should be a good time, though as noted I immediately second guess myself if Color vs. An Arbiter is an option.

I'm tempted to update the MSPaint SHODANgela I made for the LobCorp thread, predicting Qlipha-Angela an entire thread too early, but translating short-hair Angela to facing straight on seems like more of a pain than mirroring twintails Angela.

Aaaaa it’s Tenebrais and Credentia aaaaaa

Language—618.57—Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary

Music: Lobby


Now that we can play around for a moment, a look at Gebura shows us that her base page has a unique passive. It's locked, it can't be transferred, and it doesn't currently do anything… but it's there.

Making sure we know that she's The Red Mist.



Gebura's going to be running a Tenma page. We're working without a lot of free Light refills again, so I've kept her to 2-cost and lower pages. Singular Strike is just there to make To Overcome Crisis stronger, and she's also packing the Haulers to make sure she doesn't die.



You sure you don't want any kind of healing?

All you need is power. Anything else is just a waste.

Yeah, when it's overwhelming, maybe, but… Well, there are some lessons rookies have to learn the hard way.

In the battle between Faint Memories and Endless Battle, the answer I prefer here is "Both." No recovery means Tenebrais can't afford to take a lot of hits, but TOC will always be fully active and should allow her to spam the other pages in her deck without dropping anything. Boundary of Death is there in case I get the opportunity (I do not).



I'll just support the two of you while you do your thing, then.

Credentia's deck is focused on applying Paralysis to the enemy, in order to weaken their dice. This will let our team win our clashes, which is going to be very important today.



Not wasting any time, are you?

I gotta' test this new body you gave me out. Fighting an Abnormality seems like a good warmup.

It may not go as you think it will.

It never does. That's why you have to train yourself.

Then we'll be fine, these bodies are perfectly trained already.

They're also beaten half to death and on their last legs. Don't overextend yourself.

If this is how it works, though, I guess training our bodies won't do much…

We might still find a way to level up these Key Pages. There's no way to know.

Well, let's get to work finding out then. Angela, please.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle02


I thought we were fighting the Mercenary… why's there a wolf here?

Behind us… She's there. I can feel it.

Hoh..? You noticed. You guys are pretty good.

Explain yourself, unless you want a sword through your head.

You landed yourself in the middle of my hunt. I'm here to kill that bastard over there, you see.

So if we defeat that, you'll be done.

When I defeat it, I don't mind taking on a new contract. Join in if you like, but the kill is mine.

No argument here. Let's kick some ass.

Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary wrote: Leave me to handle that dreadful, cunning bastard.

I’ll hang his head over my bed. Only then can I get up in the morning without having a nightmare.

I’m a professional. I appreciate your gesture, but no thanks; I can kill it myself.

I’ve been grinding the blade to behead that damned wolf.

Don’t stand in my way… This is my duty. I have to finish this request by my hand.

If you help me kill that son of a bitch… Then I’m willing to return the favor.

Unlike the Abnormality Battles before it, Little Red is an escort mission. Our job here is to help her defeat the Wolf, and if we succeed we win instantly. If we fail, she'll get 50% more HP and +5 Strength every turn while trying to murder us. She also gets unique dialogue for this.

Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary wrote: Are you trying to show off how stronger you are than me? Or couldn’t you trust me?

Alright… If this is how you challenge me… Then I’ll slaughter you as you so wish!!!

That blue mutt was mine to kill!!

Anyways, we should take a peek at the Wolf to see what we're dealing with.



Wolf is a big beefy enemy who will exclusively target Red unless using a Mass Attack. Once it hits 250 or fewer HP, it will gain an additional Speed Die dedicated to using its Howl Mass Attack every turn. It's… a bit annoying, so it's ideal to blitz through the second half of its HP bar as quickly as possible—which is hard, since we want to ensure that Red gets the final hit on it.

With our objective figured out, let's take a peek at Red's pages this turn.



Red played Beast Hunt in both of her slots this turn. This gives her a decent Evade die, alongside a relatively strong Slash die. Both of these dice's numbers aren't very useful to us without seeing what the Wolf can do, however.



Bloodstained Hunt is a basic 3-die offensive page which inflicts 3 Bleed for each hit it does. Its 4-8 range is scary for Red's Beast Hunt, but Tenebrais's current setup makes Faded Memories's lead Evade die a 7-13. It's very unlikely for her to get hit at all. Tthis page is the most important to keep off of Red, as Bleed will melt through her HP very quickly and we lose if she goes down before the wolf.




Cruel Claws, meanwhile, is a mostly normal page. Its second attack deals 3 Bind on hit, which will lower our speed and make it impossible to stop the Wolf from getting at its target—but… wait.

Enhance.



This die is yellow. That means it's special. Yellow dice are known as 'Counter dice,' and work a bit differently than normal—we're actually supposed to learn about them in the next Train mission so we're jumping ahead of the game a little bit.

How Counter dice work is relatively simple. At the start of the turn, they're put into the Defensive Queue in the same way that an unused defensive die is after its page is used. Whenever the user would be hit with a one-sided attack, the Counter die is then used instead—again, just like unused defensive dice. The two main differences are:

-A Counter die can be any type: Blunt, Pierce, Slash, Block, or even Evade.
-If a Counter die wins its clash against the enemy, it will continue to clash as long as there are dice left on the enemy page. If the page finishes, the Counter die will be discarded.

This means a single powerful Counter die can completely negate an entire enemy page. It also means that Counter dice with 'On Clash Win' effects like this one are particularly dangerous—in the Wolf's case, each time it wins with these Counter dice it'll be getting 1 extra Strength on its next turn. If it manages to successfully use these 2-3 times, that means +2 or 3 Strength.

Red can't stand up to that kind of power.



We'll work on opening a path for you. Take advantage of it.

Helpful fellows, aren't you?

Hardly. This is business.

We need your help, you see… and it's difficult to request help from someone in a wolf's stomach.

There's no way I'd lose to that beast!

Then this should be easy.



Over here, boy!



As long as we don't kill it we can go all out, right?

Sure.

That's just what I wanted to hear.



This thing isn't even half as scary as the real deal. The cartoony eyes are just freaky.

Those eyes… they're just a front. That thing is cruelty incarnate.

That's what I've been saying!



Ghh…

While we dealt with the Combat Pages themselves, we didn't do anything about the Counter dice. Because of this, the Wolf manages to win two Clashes against Red, giving it +2 Strength next turn.



Die you son of a bitch!

She does get in a fair bit of damage, however; and the 10 Disarm will make its Counter dice useless next turn.



Can't help but notice you're targeting us.

Can't help but notice you're in the way of my attack. Block it or eat me, don't care which.

Red's mass attack comes out periodically, and it's actually an interesting proposition for us.



A 4-8 Summation page is easy to overcome by any page we regularly use, but if it hits us then Red gets +1 Strength per person hit on her next turn. It doesn't deal a lot of damage, and more Strength means we don't have to worry about her losing clashes to Wolf.



Her other attack this turn, Catch Breath, is a simple offensive page which restores her HP. The Evade die will also power itself up on a successful use, so it can be a good idea to let this clash with Bloodstained Hunt if we can debuff the wolf enough to make it a high chance of winning… but this turn the Wolf is +2 Strength so we'd rather not.



Wolf is bringing out its last normal attack this turn, Ferocious Fangs. It's an HP restoration page as well, but this one comes with another one of those +Strength Counter dice we need to watch out for.



It feels like getting hit by this attack'll pay off later on. Let's do it.

You really sure about this, boss?

You've got power, but you need to hone your instincts. Even the strongest Fixer's dead if they misread a situation.

She's got you there… What do you say?

Alright, fine. I'm in.



Red rains down weaponry across the battlefield, dealing chip damage to us and failing to harm the Wolf—this is normal, as its pages all beat a 4-8 Summation attack very easily.



If that's as hard as you can hit, you're not going to beat this Wolf alone!



The hell'd you say?!

Did I stutter?!

Please don't taunt the Abnormality.



You son of a—that hurt!

Since Red has 200 HP and a good amount of healing, it's fine if she takes a few hits along the way—just don't go overboard with it. This entire fight is a balancing act.



You okay over there?

Fine, fine. What're you two doing?

Limiting its movements.



This way, you and Tenebrais there can tear into it no problem.

I wasn't having a problem before.

Yeah, yeah… go wild, you two. I'll set the stage for it.



The background changing is an indication of Red's rage meter, which goes down as she lands hits on Wolf and up as it hits her. If it turns all the way red, she'll enrage. When this happens, she gets new lines for us as well:

Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary wrote: You think you can win against me? Don’t be ridiculous…

DIE!!! Let me hear your horrendous yelp again!!!

I can’t die to that bastard… Die… DIE!!!

Rage lasts for 2 turns, granting Red +2 Strength, and a new attack.



Bullet Shower is an Individual Mass Attack page which at a +2 Strength is much more likely to harm us than the Wolf. We want to avoid enraging her because it'll wind up just getting us beaten to a pulp. Meanwhile, the Wolf is using its own Mass Attack this turn.



Howl is another Summation Mass Attack, and this one increases Red's rage by a large amount on hit. While it can be troublesome if we've rammed facefirst into the Counter Block die too many times, this turn the Wolf is at 0 Strength and fully Paralyzed—a 7-8 Summation die isn't a threat to anyone we've fielded today.



We're letting Red take a little bit more of a beating here, but the Mass Attack makes for a great time to pile on one-sided attacks.



Loud, huh.

What's the matter? Can't take it?

Maybe if it was ten times louder. This much is fine.

I could take twenty times louder.



Ready up! The time you spend bragging is time this thing's spending trying to kill you!

One more note about Counter dice: They are unaffected by Paralysis, no matter how much the user has.



Don't worry about it, Gebura… this is fine.



You're open!



Heh… You're not going to get anywhere focusing on protecting someone.

She can fight just fine. I just go into the holes she opens up and hit really hard.

A combo attack, huh… Never had anyone to watch my ass. Must be nice, being you.

It has its moments.



I figure that letting Red clash with Wolf is safe with it having 3 Paralysis and 1 Strength, which frees up our team to continue the onslaught. This is around the point where decks with poor Light or Draw management start to run out of steam in this fight; thankfully the light curves we put together won't have that issue.

No more games. No more running. This time, the damned wolf dies.



Suck on that, Wolfie!

One other thing worth noting here is that Stagger damage inflicted by Block dice completely ignores any enemy resistances to damage. While Wolf has Ineffective (0.25x) Stagger resistances across the board, beating this Block die with her own deals the full 8 Stagger damage to it. Ramming Block dice into each other is a good way to ensure your opponent's SR gets shredded if their resistances make it otherwise difficult.



Negative damage on my end… I think it's open, at least!

Of course, this does go both ways—a series of unfortunate rolls takes off half of Credentia's SR, and the bleed doesn't help matters either.



Not as open as its stomach will be once I'm done with this bastard.

Tenacious thing, isn't it?

If it wasn't, I would've finished it off an eternity ago.



Let's make sure it stays dead this time.

_{Not that they ever do.}



This is taking too long. It's time for plan B.

Hitting all of us again?

No, that's plan A.



The B is for Blunderbuss.

I was wondering when you were finally going to use that gun.

It's a pain in the ass to reload, so I save it for special occasions.

Red's final page, Hollow-point Shell, is a high-risk and high-reward option. Because it's a Ranged attack, it'll go off before anything else that turn and we can steal the die it's targeting away to ensure she gets a one-sided strike with it. However, we really want to win a clash: If it does, then Wolf gets 3 Fragile next turn, alongside taking 10 Stagger damage instantly and losing all of the dice in its current queue.



I steal the attack away anyways, because with only having Paralysis 1 and being up 3 Strength, I don't want a 4-8 die going into any of Wolf's offensive dice.

Grit your teeth. We're taking this one, too.

Man… I hate these.

Maybe bring some way to recover next time.



Still fine..!

It doesn't seem to ever hit the Wolf, though.

That bastard's wily. I have to go this far as a distraction.



That way, it'll never see the bullet hidden in the blades.

Thanks to the 5 Disarm, Hollow-point Shell has no problem hitting over one of Wolf's Counter dice. This has the side effect of breaking both of its other Counter dice that are waiting in the queue to be used—it's not a huge get since we gave up half our actions to give Red her +3 Strength next turn, but it's still nice to have for the one onesided attack we have.



This puppy's on a real tear. Guess we let it get a little wild, huh?



It's no problem… As long as we focus through it, our chance will come, right?

Exactly.



Hey, numbskulls. While you're waiting for your chance, it's healing off what I managed to do to it.

This one-sided attack proves to be extremely useful for us, since Ferocious Fangs puts one defensive die into Wolf's queue.



Setting Tenebrais up to cut off nearly a third of its remaining SR from another Block clash.

If it's healing, that just means we get to slice it up more.

Haha! I suppose so. Let's make it suffer!

They're really on the same wavelength… it's a shame this Abnormality wasn't at our facility.

I never really liked these things all that much… but I guess she's handy sometimes.



Because Wolf is at just over half HP, I really want to push the Stagger this turn. The less time it spends getting off a Howl every round, the better.



This thing is seriously resilient. Anyone else would've been knocked for a loop twice by now!



If it's too much for you, you can always go home to your mommy.

I was just thinking how much fun I was having, actually!

Heh. Sure you were.



Finally—I knocked it off balance! Are you guys ready to end it?



I've been ready for an eternity! For vengeance!!

And us?

Tenebrais looks a bit tired, and I'm low on options. We'll recover this turn—but offensively.

Yeah. Just give me one second.



C'mon… rip! Rip you damn spine! TEAR APART AND DIE!



Can we keep her? She'd fit right in.

We both know she's too unstable to exist outside of here and now.

It's a shame. We're always looking for capable fighters.



Once Wolf is done being Staggered, it'll start throwing out a Howl every turn. Unfortunately, this time it syncs up with Red's Mass Attack page as well.

Huh… Well this is sure a choice.

What do we do?

Sorry, Red. We're not interested this time.

Whatever. The stabby one's got a hole in her defense the size of a truck. I'll just hit her.

Ruuude.

If you don't like it, you shouldn't have a big ol' "attack here" sign in your posture.

Yujin's page is uniquely weak to Mass Attacks targeting its broken die—they can't be redirected, so we just have to eat them.



Outside of that, though, we shouldn't have any trouble blocking any of these attacks.



You… don't you think I'll forgive you for that!

When Mass Attacks target the Speed Dice of other Mass Attacks, neither one guards against the other. Normally, our Mass Attacks always go first—but since Red isn't technically a Librarian, Wolf has the initiative here.



Damned Wolf… you damned Wolf!

Now's our chance. Let's take that thing down!

Don't you steal my damn kill!!



If you want it, come and take it from me!



Damned slippery bastard!!

In the late stages of the fight, getting Red hit with 3 Bind like this is incredibly handy. Just be sure to watch out for her rage meter!



We've pushed the Wolf to the very brink.



Good thing. It looks like our guest has had about all she can take, too.

Die die die die die you bastard..!

Red's not quite in rage yet, but it's close. More importantly, both of her dice are 1's, and I noticed our normal damage over the course of a turn is ~50.



Okay… everyone ease up just a bit, and leave the Wolf open for Red to get her attacks in.

Tch… I really don't want to let her take the kill.

You wanna fight her, too?

I'll do it later. The mission comes first… Right?

Very good.



Cheap… shot.

That sound isn't going to work on me this time, wolf! This is the end… it's finally the end of you!



Now's the time! Make it bleed!



Now you're speakin' my language! We'll take the heat off!



Hff-I didn't hit it with everything..!

Should be fine, if Red there measures up to her rep!



Been a long time, hasn't it, old foe..? Remember that taste? Remember that terrified look I had, all those years ago?



This time, though… I'm not running. I'm carving your face up in payment. And it won't end. Not until I say so.



Not until I rip your head off of your neck, and hang it over my bed… Spine and all.



Then… I can sleep.

Hot damn…

Does... that mean you'll work with us from now on?

…Fine. At the very least, you lot don't seem like you'll get in my way.

We'll hold you to that. Welcome aboard.



There's really no tip or trick that I could give that'd make Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary easy. There are people who swear by weakening both of them and just killing Red and the Wolf on the same turn to avoid having to worry about her rage mode, and others who recommend coming back once we've got access to some more powerful pages from later in the game… but the reason Red is hard is because there is no instant win. It's an escort mission that requires us to remain aware of the situation and work to make Red's life as easy as possible while keeping the Wolf locked down with debuffs.

VIDEO
Music: GeburaStory


Leave ‘em there. I’ll take a look in a bit.

I am very, sincerely sorry for my insolence earlier, Miss Red Mist, ma’am.

Cut the flattery. You and I are pretty much in the same shoes here.

…Are you actually the Red Mist? I heard a lot of stories about her, but I never really got to meet her since we worked in completely different areas of the City.

Believe whatever you want. The whole ‘Red Mist’ buzz is nothing but a hollow shell now.

I mean, not that I don’t believe you or anything. It just feels unreal that a legendary Fixer is standing here with me.

I died trying to protect my colleagues in my first life.

In that laboratory in the Outskirts?

Yep. And as my second life, I was woken up in Lobotomy Corp. with a blurry memory of the past. Where was your zone of activity, anyway?

East of the City.

I was on the western side. No wonder we never ran into each other.

I got a question about one of the legends of The Red Mist. Do you take questions, ma’am?

What is it?

The one about slaughtering five Proxies of the Index alone.

Ah, the Index… Been a while since I heard one of those rancid titles of the Backstreets. The vexing memories…



I'm chiming in here to mention that the four Proselytes who beat the hell out of Netzach's floor a while ago are people who aspire to one day become either a Messenger or a Proxy. The Red Mist was strong. Absurdly so.

Damn, you really are awesome, ma’am. I didn’t say anything about the Messengers just to make sure, and you got that right too.

Ten years have passed in the outside world since I disappeared, I heard. The City and the Backstreets are still the same as before, aren’t they?

As in dirt-poor people killing and stealing from each other, and living in constant fear that someone might assault them?

Damn, so it’s no different.

Pretty much. The tools and methods may have changed from ten years ago, but basically the same sort of things have been going on.

Laughable, isn’t it? I went through all the heavy hassle hoping to change that, and it was to no avail.



The venue you were planning to visit for a special sandwich before you got kidnapped here?

Ngh, yeah. I’m still salty over it…

Glad to hear that there’s been some improvement at least.

…I hate the Backstreets. As someone born in those slums, every single day of surviving through it was living hell.

What district were you from?

Twenty-three.

That’s more than understandable.

Thinking about all these old memories is giving me heartburn. Maybe I should go fetch some liquor from Netzach. I’ll sort out the books you brought myself, so you can go now.

Alright, you don’t seem to be in the mood to talk anymore, anyway.

Oh, and… thanks for the books.

I’m just doing my job. And one more thing.

What now?

Can I, uh, join you in borrowing some alcohol from Netz?

If you insist.



Like with Tiphereth, we don't get our new Librarian yet—it's just the Abnormality Pages this time.

\

Prey is a decent Level 1 Page, letting whoever takes it deal significantly higher damage to an enemy with each subsequent hit. This is at its best when there's a single large enemy to take down, but even at its worst there's nothing being lost here.

Vengeance is Loyalty but worse (but Level 1 so you get it way sooner!). The Strength only applies to the person taking the damage, and it maxes out at +2 after 10 damage. It's not terrible when paired with the Hauler passives, so for right now it's great to put on a person we expect to take hits.

Lastly there's Ruddled Welts, which we can't use yet. Once we can access it it'll be very good with Yujin and decent if we're playing from behind and need a power spike with a Librarian who's on the edge of dying—a scenario that comes up surprisingly often.



We're going to Netzach's floor to grab some booze. Hold the fort down.

Bring us back something tasty!

You really think you can afford to look away right now?

What're you guys doing?

Working through that last move of Red's. That kill was brutal… I've gotta' pull that move myself.

Well if you come at someone like that, you're going to get pinned. Like… this!

C'mon! Wolves don't have that kind of flexibility! In that case…

Ack! Good kick…

The vibe's really… different here, huh.

We're not like the softies on the other levels. Our job's always been defeating anything that got in our way.

And with you as their boss… Yeesh, I wouldn't want to wind up on this floor if I was a guest.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



Given how smoothly that went… I'm going to turn this one down as well.

I think we've sort of forgotten what 'difficulty' truly means.

It's like we've found ourselves an endless train of destruction.


Videos

Gebura 2

Talisriel wrote: ↑

Fri May 06, 2022 9:47 am

Seeing that Gebura is the patron librarian of Language, I can only imagine this is how Assignment Day went:

Even less canon than usual

Hey scrap-heap, what @(#$^ department am I going to be #$(%&@ running here?
Language, Gebura.
Alright, I'm #@&$( on it, you @#$^&.

I should also put in the request that Gebura's floor fight the Blue Reverb when his fight inevitably comes up, unless A)Binah is both available and funnier and/or B)Gebura's abnormality gimmicks are somehow utterly incompatible with fighting his gimmicks. Color vs. Color should be a good time, though as noted I immediately second guess myself if Color vs. An Arbiter is an option.

I'm tempted to update the MSPaint SHODANgela I made for the LobCorp thread, predicting Qlipha-Angela an entire thread too early, but translating short-hair Angela to facing straight on seems like more of a pain than mirroring twintails Angela.

Unfortunately, I will probably be doing something else with the Blue Reverb.

I'm pretty sure I can make a Color vs An Arbiter happen, though.

I'm glad that you did that with default appearance Gerbura to show off one of the distinctive features she has; that weapon. most librarians have a shortsword/baton, Gerb has no time for that trash and uses a massive greatsword sized version.

Also I fucked up: the gebura 2 video was the version where I don't autoplay and skip half the lines.

I'll uh. Fix it in the morning when I get home.

I think it's safe to say this is a consensus. We're going to do the far right node next.

Book 30: Puppets—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


We're doing the far right node this time, and using the book of Tomerry to do it.

Wait… that means if we lose, we'll have to get another book from that monster?

That's correct.

_{Please don't hold back today.}

VIDEO
Music: WarpTrain


It takes twice the monthly wage of an average person in the Nest to afford a seat in this carriage, I hear? That means someone in the Backstreets would have to work hard for at least a year for it.

I’ve always had some pressing questions about WARP trains. For example, what is the point of first class seats when the trip supposedly only lasts ten seconds?

I guess it’s worth the expense, after all. You can sleep without a care in the world.

All the while the passengers in the carriages behind us are defenseless against the maddening tide of time, trying to overcome it through the pain of tearing their own flesh or the comfort of conjoining with one other. I’ve always wondered what kind of outstanding technologies Singularities could be to transport people to any platform in only ten seconds, no matter how far it is. And now I get the gist of it after seeing how this train’s been going for about two thousand years.



Well, it’s all thanks to my fellow members of the ensemble. That hothead Elena and I’ve actually been here for only a week or so… Pluto says our consciousness can be preserved in stasis and unfrozen only when needed or whatever.

He says it’s magic and all, and welp, I’ve got no choice but to trust him. He’s my coworker now, all things considered.

In any case, I pity the fools taking this train. Thousands of years of pain and suffering, and it’s all long gone from their memories when they arrive. They return to their ordinary lives like nothing ever happened after a status restoration procedure, isn’t that right?

“Wow, WARP trains are awesome! It’s kinda expensive, but I can get anywhere in such a short time.”

“It’s a wonderful world. We can go everywhere in the blink of an eye!”

Uttering such remarks, they’ll blend back into the City life, completely forgetting about the hellscape that took place on this train. The memories of trying to slaughter their own friends and families as all bonds were blurred over time, having lost themselves long ago… And all of that is conveniently erased from their heads. It’s astonishing how Singularities are so uniformly appalling.

And yet you rich folks are scared of even that, so you doze off in your safe space for those thousands of years. You must’ve heard a word of advice from some acquaintance of yours, hm? That you’d be much better off taking first class seats. Or some of you are already aware of the truth behind WARP trains, perhaps?

That’d be ironic in its own right. You decided to take this train knowing what would happen.

Ah, in case a certain foolhardy individual or two are still believing that this train is broken or malfunctional:



You get the hint by now, don’t you? Strolling around in a completely different timespace axis for some thousand years, and when it comes back to reality… Tadaa~ It’s ten seconds later.

Taking long roundabouts through time, reduced to ten seconds in real life. Sounds like a perfect ride for people who are in a hurry, doesn’t it? What is your “real” life, though? The one you were living for some few decades, or the one you’ve been trapped in for thousands of years? If you lost your memories and returned to your ordinary life, would it be a blessing or a curse?

Who cares, really.

Moving on, my biggest question was this…



I was wondering what this thing was doing plugged into the train. But I could roughly guess why after a bit of thinking.



You’re coarse with words as usual. I’m speaking to the couple of voyeurs who are probably watching us as we speak, of course.

Oh, right. That was the plan.



Your acting was excellent. Were you an aspiring actress in the past?

Maybe? Anyway, just carry on with what you’re doing.



And it seems this disguise Pluto gave me has almost expired now.

Shall we get started, wealthy fellows?

Music: StoryNervous


The way you try to squirm your way into comfort with money like the maggots you are agitates me beyond reason. Life sure is bizarre, isn’t it. You spend your hard-earned cash for a first class ticket to keep yourself safe and sound from the torture of time… But now you’re about to suffer something entirely else. You unfortunately run into the likes of us and meet a terrible fate. Just because you’ve taken first class seats.

Yeah, right. Who knows, one of you might have been a piss poor sod who just so happened to win a ticket, hm? That’s what makes choices so mysterious and profound. I personally think there’s no such thing as choice in our lives. Someone is playing tricks on all of us, mischievously and sneakily. Staging an endless puppet show, attaching invisible strings to us.

Now, shall we get started? It’s time for a little puppetry.

Music: Lobby


It’s as if he were speaking directly to us.

If he’s part of the Blue Reverb’s gang, maybe he knows something about us.

Could the Blue Reverberation be focusing on the Library, then?

Possibly. I don’t know what he’s looking for, but it certainly ain’t gonna be normal.

What else could he be after, other than the books we have?

The question would be what kind of books they really want.

Anyway, WARP Corp. is going to be in big trouble if the disappearance of every passenger in the first class carriage gets known by others.

For sure. W Corp. might get involved with us at this rate.

Was this part of the Blue Reverb’s plan…

It would be intriguing if that were the case.

Oh, I bet your enthusiasm will turn into disdain real quick when you actually meet that cuckoo.

Music: Entrance


The puppets here speak with a distinctive clicking noise.



Guests who cannot speak… Still, you’ve managed to come to the Library through the invitation… That means you must have some sort of consciousness, no? Even though you are puppets controlled by the strings above you.



I have no idea what you may be saying. If you want to get the books as your puppeteer so wishes, you can go through that door.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Gkgkgkgkgkgkgkgkgk.

Videos

Puppets 1







So, what's the explanation?

Mmm… The strings function using a form of remote wavelength resonance with the original holder. Theoretically, when something resonates in one reality, it's impossible to feel that resonation in other places. However… Something about the WARP Trains allows the Puppeteer to get around that. Probably another Singularity.

Woah! That's pretty good!

Isn't it easier to just call it a Distortion, at this point?

It's simpler, but that doesn't make it correct. Understanding how something works means that we can tell how to handle it properly. Like the Abnormalities… or parlor tricks, as they were.

If they're parlor tricks… then how is it that they can power us up now?

That's the trick: who's to say they are? The human body is capable of incredible feats of mental acuity or physical prowess when our adrenaline is at its highest—and these bodies of light are equivalent to a highly modified human.

And the whispers?

Who's to say it isn't the same system that the people observing use to connect with us? It makes perfect sense.

Your outlook is as interesting as ever, Switch…

Anyways—now that that show's over, where were we? Right, right, Tenma's book.

I'm more interested in seeing Yujin's techniques. There's definitely something we can steal from that…

The video has been reuploaded. I'm going to sleep now.

Book 30: Puppets—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01




For D.A.D. and myseelf, I went with an oolder build…

Focusing on things that worked already, eh?

Mmhmm..! I branched oout a bit with the oothers, though…

We've seen a half-dozen Salvador and Oscar builds by now. Nothing has changed; they're still good. Let's move on to the interesting stuff.



This seems… counterproductive. These pages are rather weak.

It's based on the theeory of aalpha striikes..! Just don't expect much aafter…

And the dress?

I wanted to see if there were scaales…

Ah.

T is running a Full Stop Melee build. This involves slapping Full Stop Passives on any page that happens to have Speed already, and then loading them up with cheap pages with 3 offensive dice. Each one gets +5 Power, letting them deal massive damage. My standard build for this deck uses Stay Calm instead of Slice for its slightly larger dice minimums, but Slice's dice are better with Sayo's passive so I went with it instead. Electric Shock is there so that T can throw out Paralysis consistently via onesided attacks, letting her remain useful after the first turn.



And mine? You were almost cackling when you gave it to me, I assume it's powerful.

Ooh… I don't wanna spooil it… but I thiink I found a busted straategy… It just required The Kurokuumo to work with the Iindex, and the Shi Associatioon… Add a pinch of Loove Town, and it's perfect..!

This city's people would complement each other well, if they could be bothered to work together. How unsurprising.

Yesod is running a deck that's known in the community as 'Handlock Yujin.' This deck is built to take advantage of Yujin's base abilities, alongside To Overcome Crisis, in order to output a constant stream of big dice. Sayo and the Proselyte's passives give Yesod +3 to his starting hand, putting him at 7 pages. This will enable us to do some very rude things to today's guests.



Our first set of opponents today are a group of five Puppets. Their HP/SR vary slightly, but none of them are particularly powerful. In general, if an enemy has HP roughly equal to ours they're a chump.



Each of them has an ability that gives a +1 Power to all Blunt dice they use. All offensive dice in this reception will be Blunt, to take full advantage of this.



Music: YesodStory




When the battle begins, the game gives us a tutorial on Counter dice, as this is where we're intended to see them for the first time.



I already explained this last time, but here's what the game has to say about them.




Creak is one of the two pages a basic Puppet can play, and it's basically an average 2-cost page with 3 dice. Yesod will be clashing with it using Faint Memories in order to gain his first Emotion Level, and T.Hinman is going to unload on the other.




Gigigig, meanwhile, is the Puppet's Light Recovery page. Playing it will give the Puppet 2 Light back, and it has a pair of decent dice attached to boot. These are the only two pages that a standard Puppet will ever play.



Shout-outs to the Puppet in the lower left. It started with only 1 Light instead of 2, and all 4 of the pages in its hand are Creak so it can't play anything at all. I didn't know this was possible before just now.

Testing… Hey, this thing on? You guys should be able to hear us, right?

Gebura, you're with us today?

Yeah. Angela's wanting us to familiarize ourselves with the way fights are handled here.

And since we're giving advice…

Just beat the everloving crap out of them!

Well, hey. I hadn't thought of that, kiddo.

Then how's this one: Those puppets are being controlled by that blocky guy's strings. Slicing them should give you an opening.

Oooo… That's a handy coiincidence… Boss, you can go on a raampaage today..!

We'll make the most of it.



Look oout… theese guys are tough..!



They certainly seem to be forceful with their movements.



The strategy of simply cutting them up is sound, however.

Knowing how to size up a foe is important, after all.



OVERWHELMING POWER is also a fine way to do it!

Both of her first two rolls were 1's, meaning we missed out on this Stagger from bad luck alone.



Two of them are just about out of the fight in a single move each. Not bad at all..!

It only works once… but it certainly works!

Had T.Hinman focused all of those attacks on a single Puppet, they'd already be gone—instead I wanted to spread them out to bring two of them to the edge of Stagger. This was to avoid overkill damage.



D.A.D, meanwhile, Staggers the last one using both of their pages for the turn.

Music: GuestBattle01


Their emotions are resonating more than ours. Will this cause an issue?

I think it's because these ones are so weak. You've panicked them, and they're feeling it.

The kiddo and I aren't exactly warmed up yet, either.

That's because these things are weaksauce. Just crush them.

Hey, booss… The limiter on thaat thing should be oopen… Give it a shot..!



I'll do just that.

After turn 1, Yesod has 4 Light to play with. This means that every turn he can throw out an Ink Over, whose first die will be getting +5 Power from the 5 pages in hand (the indicator above says 7, but we're playing 2 of them for a total of 5). In addition, he can use To Overcome Crisis with his other die, which gives a draw on use, and +1 Light on hit.

This means that as long as our TOC hits, we have a perfectly stable loop of -4 Light, +2 from Yujin's passive, +1 TOC, +1 turn, and a permanent 7 page hand to keep Ink Over's lead die massive.

This is the essence of Handlock Yujin. Some players swear by using turn 1 as setup by playing other draw pages, but I find that it's not worth it for the 1 extra power (our maximum hand size is 8 outside of some very niche circumstances).



Anyways, this turn the plan is to catch Kaori and D.A.D. up emotionally while Yesod runs rampant over the enemy.

Yesod will never stop running rampant over the enemy.



The explosive power of this body, combined with that Kurokumo woman's iaijutsu…



It's a devastating combination, indeed.

Despite rolling a 2, Yesod wins the clash anyways and Staggers the target. This is the true Library of Ruina experience.



If you're getting through these guys' defenses that easily, it's definitely strong. I can't even lay a finger on this one.

I note that you look fine yourself.

I never said I was going to let them touch me, either.



I'm aalso having trouble..!



I've failed to defeat my target as well! Now that the initial rush has worn off, this is quite a problem!

Opportunity Spotted is particularly great in T.Hinman's deck because of its small dice guaranteeing 3 Emotion Coins. This lets us keep her Emotion Level growing even when she's stuck doing one-sided attacks like this.



I suppose it falls to me to pick up the slack, then.

That's why I gave you the stroongest..!

In the future, you can distribute it elsewhere. Being directly responsible for taking all these lives… it's not a pleasant feeling.



Maybe some music'd take the edge off?

I'm not particularly fond of this either… but you're correct.

Rhythm makes Yesod hit even harder, and will spread to the rest of our team over time.



This turn, our primary goal is cleanup. These Puppets are all on their last legs, and we really should start taking a couple of them out.

Really hope the other waves are this simple.

It's very unlikely, fellow human!

Y'think? It'd suck if they strung us along, just to hit us with something rough at the end.

I'm sure you'll be fine. At this rate, you'll be heavily powered up before anything truly dangerous comes along. Abnormality support seems to be vital to fights here…

Only 'cuz we don't have our old bodies anymore.

How true. Life would be much easier if I could spit poisonous acid once again!

Poisonous acid?

It's a singulaarityy..!

Ah.



Got oone..!



I, as well. It's not a feeling I like getting used to.

Think of it like this: You're putting these ones out of their misery. It must be terrible to exist like that.

I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't want to allow such things to make me feel better about killing.



I'll take it! Farewell, former human! Return to nothing!



Because T.Hinman's dice almost all have a low end of 1, Violence is an obvious pick to increase her damage potential.

Music: YesodBattle02


You're on to mopping up now. Just try not to take any unnecessary hits.

I agree entirely.



Umm… ooops..?





Forget it.



I'll handle this myself.



Let's move on.

Not bad, mummy.

Music: GuestBattle01


The second round has another set of Puppets, and a pair of Nimble Puppets. These are a step up from the standard.



In addition to their Blunt bonus, there's a slight bonus to Stagger damage with high Speed.



Music: YesodBattle02




Two new enemies. How much stronger?

Not much. You can crush 'em.

Hinman, take one of them. The other is mine.




Automated Movement is the Nimble Puppet's favorite move, and it's our first Counter die in this reception. Counter Evade dice are the weakest ones, functioning like a normal Evade die aside from being able to keep rolling after hitting a Block die and starting the turn in the Defensive Queue. Evade dice will still always break it; remember that Evade vs Evade is always a draw no matter what, so it can't reroll no matter what it gets!

Anyways, Counter die aside, Automated Movement is a fairly meaty page. A good Evade die at the front has a strong possibility of powering up the rest of the page, and like other Evade dice with effects it can trigger multiple times in a row if it blocks a bunch of attacks.



Ink Over is really good, though, so…



Yesod Staggers this one instantly.

Hey, Tenebrais. Why weren't you using that key page like that?

How the heck was I supposed to know a combo like that existed?

Knowing how to make optimal use of your tools is important. Especially so here, it seems.



On a roll again, boss?

Things seem to be moving smoothly.

How's it going on your end, T?



These former humans are nothing more than chaff before my blade!

Good to hear.



I've taken care of your target as well, D.A.D.



And I've lain another former human to rest!

Key Pages using the Full Stop passives are at their best when they're deleting high priority targets quickly, before they can have a chance to affect the battle.



This one's still uup…



Because Yesod's deck revolves around an infinite combo that uses as much Light as it spends every turn, Recharge is a free and consistent damage boost with 1-2 Haste thrown in to let him decide where to throw his Ink Over. This is one of the rare times when I actually pick it.



It's only turn 2 and we're already in cleanup mode. This is the power of Yesod's floor as a whole—once it gets rolling it's incredibly difficult to stop. T.Hinman is redirecting the attack to act as a damage sponge, since she really only needs to survive through the first round of the next fight.

You know… For someone who hates fighting, you're really good at it.

The sooner combat is over, the less any of us will have to deal with it.

Mmm… That's wise.



This one's open to attack.



And this one's doown..!



I am taking significant damage!

At no point in this combat did I remember that Sayo has a Blunt weakness. It would have been good to keep in mind, seeing as that's what all of the attacks are.



Two remain. Handle them.



Should be six burn and… three health?

Right on the nose. Not bad.

Perfect. It's dead, just doesn't know it yet.



And this one is well aware! We're ready to wander into the next group.



…This is getting tiresome. How many more are there?

Next group should be the last. Be careful, they may have more of the fast-types.

Roger that. Bind your wounds and move forward.

Sir!

Goot it..!

Music: GuestBattle01


The final group of enemies is four Nimble Puppets led by a Weighty Puppet. This thing is the proper boss of the encounter.



The Weighty Puppet has a much higher amount of HP than the Nimble Puppets, and it's shedded the weakness to Slash Stagger damage.



Music: YesodBattle03




One last run… The enemy in the center, how's it looking?

Tough… but you're all operating at the height of your abilities. You should be able to outmaneuver them.

Over the last two Acts, we were able to get our entire team to Emotion Level 4. This gives us a lot of extra power, but the timing means we won't be seeing our last Abnormality Page until the end of this turn.



Repressed Flesh is the Weighty Puppet's strongest page, granting three powerful dice, a free draw, and an okay-ish Blunt Counter die as well. It uses this page alongside the 0-cost Puppet Blockade.



It's a Light restoration page, which lets the Weighty Puppet better spam its big attacks.



T.Hinman is assigned to take care of the Weighty Puppet, and we do something very mean with Yesod. Because all three of his Speed Dice are faster than his target, I have him lead with two copies of To Overcome Crisis. Each of these will give him an extra page in hand, making the Ink Over hit at a +6 Power. Little optimizations like this don't often matter, but it's good to keep them in mind.




This one's ready to be finished off. How's it going with you, Hinman?



Not… amazing!

The Weighty Puppet manages to actually win a clash against T even despite her insane Full Stop boost on turn 1.

But it's Full Stop Office Passives and she has 3 Speed dice now, so…



They're… down! Need a minute.

Leave it to your fellow huumans..!



Before turn 2 we get our final Abnormality Page, and I drop Clean on Yesod because I wanted to make his numbers bigger.

That's it. This pick really didn't matter, we've as good as won already.



Just a little longer and this will all be over.

These weren't the toughest opponents, but I'm getting a bit tired.

Speak for yourself! I've gotten multiple broken bones! This is an entirely new form of pain!

You've never even broken a bone before..?



Don't read anything into it. Some of us have simply gotten luckier than others.



Like theese guys…



They're reeally unlucky…

You think so? Most of'em had fulfilling lives with a ton of money, to afford tickets like that. All that easy living in exchange for a few minutes of unpleasantness at the end… Can't say I wouldn't take the deal.



This is why humans are so simplistic; they forget the base unfairness inherent to the universe.

Howso?

That implies the existence of a choice in any of it! Things just… happen, and the only means of finding fulfillment is being within the moment.



The feeling of a job well done or a fine meal are reward enough… striving to go above your station is simply wishing on a star for things that can't be.

Not entirely sure we're on the same page there, kiddo…

Perhaps not yet, but you'll note that it's what got us trapped inside this library in the first place.

I kinda like it heere…

This isn't the time for grand philosophical debates, you three.

Once fully set up, Yesod's powerful Abnormality Pages let us easily demolish this Act in a total of 3 turns. It's the go-to floor for new players for a very good reason.



And that reason is because it can turn this natural 1…



Into a 13.



We're done. Beginning cleanup procedures now.



Not bad out there, you four. Honestly, I'm not even sure you needed the guidance.

Then that means our preparations are paying off. I hope to have this floor be the equal of a Color as quickly as possible.

You're definitely not at that level yet… but keep working on it.



The Puppets are the other popular entry point into Urban Nightmare (alongside Sweepers), since the first set of enemies is incredibly easy and the pages they give can be used to match the power of the enemy from then forward. Outside of the final battle, none of the waves are particularly difficult to manage so long as we bring appropriate equipment.

As for the final battle… it's very vulnerable to being Full Stop cheesed, as T.Hinman showed, and if we've got Yujin then there's nothing stopping Ink Over from just destroying the entire fight.

Music: Result


As I thought, pure power wins in the end.

Indeed! Another day, another job well done.

The decks this time were seriously something, Kaori.

I did my beest..!



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


They appeared so. We could resolve books from them, too. Although they didn’t have control over their bodies, they still seemed to carry minds of their own. And they had to witness their own bodies being tugged along by strings while their senses and feelings were intact.

Does that mean…?

Yes. The Puppeteer is a Distortion. And those puppets were its byproducts. I’ve seen several Abnormalities that could create underlings for themselves, so I can understand this to be a similar case.

Poor folks, working their asses off only to be treated like dolls.

I could understand their feelings well. After all, I used to be a puppet myself.

Can those puppets be freed, though?

Killing the Puppeteer may free them from the attached strings, but they would remain ragged dolls. I must wonder if they’d still want to live in that form?

Yeah, fair enough. Knew it couldn’t be that simple.

Setting that aside… Roland.

Lemme guess: We've got another floor opening up?

How did you know?

'When there's red, there's gotta' be blue!' It's a feeling like that, you know?

I do not.

…Ah.

As it happens, however, the new Patron has frequent dealings with Gebura. His name is Chesed. You should find him below now.

Yes, yes… I'm moving, ma'am.

VIDEO
Music: ChesedStory


Sniff sniff. Is this the smell of coffee?



Here, why don’t you take a comfy seat and drink some coffee~

Oh, hi Chesed. I’m a bit flattered by your hospitality.

Gotta show some solidarity with a fellow librarian, no~?

Alright, guess I’ll try my first cup in a while.

Ick! Is this really coffee? You sure it’s not spoiled?

That’s odd. I made sure to brew high-quality Kenya BB… Maybe I haven’t quite mastered the art of reconstructing materials within the Library yet…

Cough cough… Why don’t you try it yourself!

If you’ll excuse me.

…It’s a perfectly fine cup of fragrant coffee, though?

But it’s way too bitter!? Are you sure this thing is coffee?

This blend is known for being acidic, to be fair…?

What? Isn’t coffee just supposed to be a stuffy, bitter drink you can put sugar in?



Oh, well, kind of, yeah.

I knew it~ You gave me the exact same reaction Kali made back when I brewed coffee for her.

Wait, who’s Kali?

It’s Gebura. Ever heard of ‘The Red Mist’?

… … …

…Boy, it’s kinda funny to imagine that the legendary Red Mist made the same expression as mine from drinking some coffee.

Her face was priceless, alright.

…You’re talking about your first life, right?

Yep. Back when we were at a laboratory in the Outskirts.

I guess things were cheery back then?

The mood was upbeat. For a while…



And then tragedy suddenly befalls?

I wouldn’t say it was sudden. It slowly seeped in, rather.

I can get that. I sometimes think that maybe the tragic event that struck me didn’t come out of nowhere after all. I was already getting drenched in it. It was doomed to happen from the beginning.

I never really said things went wrong from the start, though~?

Just talking about my experience.

Anyways, the coffee… didn’t really suit my taste, but I appreciate it. Let’s give this work our best shot.

You bet. We still have plenty of time, so let’s talk things out at our leisure~ Kali’s now fond of coffee after trying it for some time, so I’m sure you can eventually come to enjoy it, Roland~

Well, here’s hoping.

Music: Lobby


Well… that's that. Nice enough guy, I suppose~ Now, back to the issue at hand…



Have you two figured it out, yet?

Not at all, sir! I still think I should be captain, since I was the one here when everything went down.

You died because you tried talking while you were under an effect that'd kill you for doing exactly that. I've got you trumped on experience, and I don't make rookie mistakes like that. We've always been about providing peace of mind to the others, so… I should be leading.

I was invincible! You can't out peace-of-mind that!

I didn't need to be. And again, you died. Not invincible.

Setting that aside, if you don't take unknown risks and act by rote, then you can't find new things. I figured out magic existed before anyone else, so I should definitely be…

Clearly, you're both really rolled up in this… Hmm. I think I have a solution~

You do?

Whatcha' got, boss?

We're supposed to work together, all three of us. Since neither of you really knows what the other can do yet, why not leave the orders to me and figure it out afterwards~?

I can live with that.

Then it's settled. I look forward to showing you what I can do.

Same. Let's get along for now.

I'll put another pot on, then. I've been looking forward to catching up with the two of you anyhow~



Unlike Gebura, Chesed's assignments aren't coming in pre-filled, so we don't yet have access to his next Abnormality Battle.



Keter, though, is all ready to go now that the Middle Layer's been fully unlocked. And speaking of Keter, the Puppet's new Counter dice pages mean that Steve can take care of some unfinished business…

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"People lie all the time. Why is that a bad thing?"

I was gonna fight Abnos, but then I got high.

Clowns.

The true face of WARP Corp's Singularity.


Videos

Puppets 2
Chesed 1

Oboe Solos - Kurokumo

New Key Pages




New Combat Pages

Appendix 23: Puppets

A Puppet, Page 1 wrote: Life in the Nest isn’t anything special, honestly. It’s the same the whole world over. You get pecked by your boss and go through mountains of workload, you find yourself working overtime pretty much everyday… Payday isn’t all that exciting either, when you realize that you barely get any money for yourself after paying for maintenance, credit cards, insurance, living expenses and all that. Most of your income’s gone in a flash. And then, back to work… I have my ways of enjoying the little things in life, though. When I come back home from work, I crack open a cold one and watch the Backstreets through the window as night falls. When I’m lucky, I can see people chasing each other or getting into a tussle. And I think, ‘Oh, I sure hope that person manages to get away…’ I’m just being a hypocrite, of course. We’re all simply watching it for fun, don’t you agree? It’s like a TV show. Viewers aren’t genuinely concerned for the people on the rectangular screen. All they care about is guessing who will win. So many unrealistic and varied situations take place in the streets, it actually feels as if I’m watching television. Don’t call me out for being inhumane. Who knows, maybe someone is watching me work myself to the bones from a high rise, holding a glass of wine in their hand?

A Puppet, Page 2 wrote: Money rules this City. Every denizen of the City is obsessed with money to the point of popularizing the belief that money can be thrown almost any problem. While the earnings of an average Nest resident are significantly higher than those of a person inhabiting the Backstreets, there’s also a notable wage gap among the Nest habitants. One thing to keep in mind is that your position in your job doesn’t always guarantee a high income. No matter how high your rank is in a small enterprise, you might not earn much more than a Fixer in the Section 6 of an Association.

Even if your financial gain is on the higher side, you likely won’t earn enough to waste extravagantly. Meaning, you won’t get to take first class seats on WARP trains all the time or load the table with a sumptuous feast. However, it will be enough money to secure a stable life in the Nest. People who earn 4 million Ahn or more per month can be considered the upper middle class. That’s where the quality of life sees a visible increase. You no longer have to worry about being evicted from the Nest for being unable to pay taxes, and you can even hire Fixers to keep you safe. You can save up in case of emergencies, or send your children to better schools. A life lived in safe haven, free of illness and starvation. Well, that’s the life of an upper middle class they all talk about. What is there to be considered special? We just earn a bit more than others, and live in a bit more comfort than others.

In other news, Keter's latest Abnormality has won the day.

General Works—019.14—Pinocchio

Music: Lobby


Index remains Index. The boosts will be random, but they're always good to have.



Still using Sweepers..?

Is that a bad thing?

It's just… the smell.

Oh… I don't think I can process those in this. Liquid suits don't really have… noses.

Or the body's just used to it.

This is the same deck Zaida used last time, and the defensive bonus remains as useful as ever.



Steve, meanwhile, is getting +2 on all Blunt dice, and +1 on everything else. For that reason, his deck's running mostly Blunt, with TOC tossed in because it's a very powerful page on Yujin.



Pinocchio, that's a story about some long nosed puppet, right?

Yeah. Its nose'd get longer every time it told a lie, and it wanted to become a real boy.

Did we have an Abnormality like that in our facility..?

According to that data Bishop keeps shoving at me, it wouldn't be the first time a new one's shown up out of nowhere.

If they weren't here originally, how'd they show up at all?

At the same time that Lobotomy Corp ceased its function as a wing, there were a number of Abnormalities in the branch offices that stopped their function. It's quite possible that some of them found their way here, called by the light as a moth.

Well, yeah, I guess that makes sense…

Were there any other questions?

Nah. Let's do this.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


Humans… Is it time to learn again?

What's it going on about now?

I'm a very good student. Here, let me show you!

Pinocchio wrote: I dream of becoming a human.

Am I a human if I mimic humans?

It’s not hard to imitate others.

I’m keen to learn as usual. Would you like to see me learn?

People taught me how to speak.

Pinocchio is a very unique fight, so it's important that we look at its passives.



The main body, Pinocchio the Liar, copies Roland's deck exactly. Every few turns, it will try to mix a Lie into its pages, and if we don't catch it then, in addition to getting our face pushed in by the page itself, all three of them will get powered up on the next turn.



Pinocchio the Curious copies Zaida's deck, and randomizes the costs of all pages in our hand.



Lastly, there's Pinocchio the Copycat. It copies Steve's deck, and has a secondary effect that grants either +2 Endurance or Strength to all of its allies every turn. This makes our +2 total Power bonuses quite important—without them, they'd have a large advantage on +2 Strength turns.



This can be really good or really bad depending on what page gets shuffled where. Most annoyingly for me, the enemy resists Blunt attacks but has a relative weakness against Slash. This means that Steve is going to be functionally unable to inflict real damage to these things, and only around a third of Roland and Zaida's decks are able to hit the enemy hard.






Because we're forced to respond to our own degenerate deckbuilding tactics, it's difficult to give good advice for beating Pinocchio. There are people who swear by giving one or two of them a Full-Stop deck and then taking them out once they've exhausted all their pages, and giving Roland a discard setup can completely negate the entire gimmick of the fight, but ultimately it's about making decisions in the moment. Take good clashes, don't take bad ones.



Taking out the Copycat first is a good plan, though. The +2 Strength/Endurance every turn is the biggest nuisance in this fight.

I recognize this. This is that 'Repression' work humans do.

Something from your old place?

Pretty much.



If I can do that work like you, then I'm another step closer to being human. I'm sure I can do it.

This isn't that kind of work anymore, you wooden doll.



We're just here to beat you up and add your power to ours, is all.

Oh… that's a lie, isn't it. I know about lying!



Not great how it's mimicking my every move here, boss.



I'm not a fan of having my own tactics thrown back at me, either.



But since my oboe outreaches them, I can take advantage of that!

How great for you, having a reach weapon instead of two hooks.



It's a bit odd, though…

Odd?

We're supposed to remember Abnormalities we'd met in other versions of the facility, right? Then why can't I remember anything about this one.

Maybe neither of us ever met it, for some reason?

So neither of you knows an easy trick, huh..?

I'll just hit it until it's off balance, then. Worked with that Bloodbath thing.

We'll be having Roland exclusively target the main Pinocchio, so this will let him rack up extra Stagger damage over time.



On the second turn, we hear a creaking and black symbols appear along the edges of the screen. This means that Pinocchio the Liar is, well, lying. When this happens, one of his pages is a lie—this lie can be picked out by paying careful attention to the dice types, whichever page doesn't have the correct die types is the lie.

Haha, I've got it all figured out! Let me show you how human I can be.



I'll defend any attack you throw at me perfectly!

Okay, I know I said 'careful' attention, but just as frequently it can be picked out by anyone who can read.

There's something off about that intention. Execute's a favorite of mine, and it's definitely not a defensive option.

It must be lying, then… which explains why I have this.



Lying is Bad! is a unique page we get to deal with this. Every turn, a copy of it is in the hand of one of our Librarians—which one seems to change from turn to turn. To ensure we can clash Pinoccio the Liar with it, it's given 10 Bind on the turn that it uses its Lie, forcing both Speed Dice to 1 in almost any circumstance.

If we fail to do this, all the Puppets gain +4 Strength and Endurance on the next turn, and whatever page is hidden under the lie gets +4 Power to all dice. There's also unique dialogue for this.

Pinocchio wrote: People lie all the time. Why is that a bad thing?

Lalala… I sing along to the song of lies all the people sing.

It’s people’s fault for falling for my lies.

There was no choice, I had to lie to become a human…

Did I look just like a human? I hope I did…

In addition, Pinocchio the Curious's using its own signature ability: Learn. Both the Curious and the Copycat have one of these, and they seem to like using them whenever they get them in hand. At the start of a Clash, Learn copies the dice of whatever page we're using exactly, and with the +2 to Strength or Endurance it gets, this means we can quickly find ourselves in a losing battle. We can't just ignore it, either, as three 3-5 dice are fairly meaty, particularly with the +2 Strength the Curious has right now.



Zaida can block it with Cumulus Wall, and we should take almost no damage from it.



I hope you're ready~ I'm going to dodge everything now!

Oh, we're ready alright.



Haha! I've tricked you! It was actually—

I know.

You knew?!

When the Lie die is used the real page it's hiding is revealed, in this case Flash of Sunup.



How'd you know! My lying is perfect!

Sorry, but your acting's a bit wooden.

Aww… c'mon. You couldn't have looked the other way? Everyone lies. It's human.



Thing's got a point. The boss and I both lie all the time to make our lives easier, right?

Hey, I'm an upstanding citizen!

Sure, sure.



Seriously. I'm a cool, upstanding guy everyone should aspire to be like.

Why did they see through it..? I tried so hard…

What's it doing..?



I just… wanted to be human… Why can't I ever do it right..?

It's… depressed?

Who cares? It's a chance.

My thoughts exactly. Get 'em.

When we call the Lie out correctly, all three Pinocchios get 2 Disarm and Feeble on the next turn, and their Stagger resistances all change to Fatal as well. There's dialogue for this, too, of course.

Pinocchio wrote: Why aren’t you being fooled…? That was almost perfect…

Can I… not become a human…?

You could’ve let me fool you just once… You’re mean.

I learned hard to imitate it, too…

I’m sad… I want to be a human…

Anyways, this is our time to pile on the damage and see if we can Stagger one of them.



Additionally, Pinocchio the Copycat's Learn is targeting Steve's broken die. This lets us do something incredibly silly, so we ignore it.



_{I want to be human, I want to be human, I want to be human…}

This thing seems like a giant hassle to handle. Thank goodness we've never met.

Remember that as long as the Copycat is still alive, the -2 Liar penalty will be offset by the random 2 Strength/Endurance. This fight is roughly around where we have to start juggling numbers in our head to properly eyeball clashes, and a miscalculation can lead to troubles.



Uh-oh.

Sometimes we just get unlucky, though. Even at a -2 to the Liar's side and a +2 to our own dice, we get completely negated by this Evade die.



Library of Ruina: Punishing safe decisions since 2020.



Thankfully, Steve manages to get in several good hits just after.



Finally landed that third hit… Go under already, would you?

I know this one too… The humans would do it sometimes, when they were tired of teaching me.

The red hands here are from Pale Hands dealing the extra Stagger damage to an enemy.



…Wha? It ran up to me and just… guarded. Aggressively.

Don't think about it too much, man. Abnormalities are weird.

As for the Learn I mentioned earlier, Steve's passive immediately spawns a Shield die to block the first one-sided attack against it. This passive counts as a new page, so Learn looks at it and copies its die.

As interesting as that is, it's actually rather unfortunate for us as if it didn't copy the dice then it would have been taking three hits directly to the face from that Blunt counter die he had ready to go.



Get off of me, I've got work to do.



And it's taking out the trash.

Uwawawawawa..!

Thanks to a very good Trash Disposal roll, we manage to Stagger Pinocchio the Liar right at the end of the turn.



human… not human… how become human..?

Zaida, you holding up okay?

Well enough. Why?

They're coming at you, but this is our chance to take out the main one.



Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it.



Roland manages to chunk off around 75 HP by himself, which is a good start.



Meanwhile, Learn clashes with the Defense Queue'd Block dice from Sense Quarry. This apparently means that it copies the entire page, so Zaida's guaranteed to get hit here.



This is just rubbing it in, though.

Gh—you'd better finish off the big one, at least.



Bad news about that.



It's… almost suppressed, I think?



That's so very worth all of this pain. Thank you.

I thought you didn't feel it without the nerve endings?

I don't if they hit the suit. This one's copying you.

Oh… sorry dude, but the head's just the best spot to clock people.



Finally recovered. Okay… okay. This time, for sure. I'll do it perfectly, just watch.

It's trying to fib again. Keep an eye open. It could say anything.



I'll definitely defend any attack you throw at me perfectly!





That's the same damn lie!

Ahh man… how did you… see through it? Humans are so complicated…



…Wait, that triggered more aid?

Maybe the other Abnormalities can't take it anymore, either.

I'll finish this in a flash, then.

And if not?

It's not like I'm a stranger to dying anymore. Let's do this.



I'll take care of the big one! You two try to knock the others out for a bit. Any objections?!

Works for me.



Both Roland and Zaida are using the clash redirection trick to force the sidekick Pinocchios into taking a bulky one-sided attack.



That thing beating there… what is it?

This is my heart, beating power into every inch of my being!

Oooh! So that's a heart! I don't have one of those!



And that's why you'll never be human!



What about me? I don't have a heart right now. Just juice.

…That doesn't count!



There's something to be said for folks like the Carnival, too. Not sure if they had hearts.

Fine! Hearts are optional! Don't have time right now!



Oh, yeah. We've got them teed up for you.

Take 'em out, Steve. I'm going on break.

Here goes!



Steve takes out the remaining Pinocchios from here.



And stay down!

Nicely done. You've been practicing, huh?

All the time. Really getting the hang of this thing, too.



Out of all of the Abnormalities in the game, Pinocchio is one of them. Mirror matches as a whole can be interesting, but between Passive Attribution and us having 6 Speed Dice to their 4, it's nowhere near an even enough fight to be difficult.

VIDEO
Music: Lobby


Why, you arranged a meeting for us folks who accepted your proposal?

Make no mistake, Angela. We aren’t on your side. We only share a common goal.

…Unlike that beanpole in black who’s totally sucking up to her.

I’m just an employee doing my best to work, and now you’re calling me a beanpole…

Common goal… Yes, that is all I ask of you. As long as we share the same purpose, you’ll have to be on my side, like it or not.

Both you and I are blind for the Light.

And you’re still chained to the past.

That’s funny. Do you think you’re free from your past? Have you forgotten it already, Chesed? The days you spent succumbed to fear.

Oh no, how can I forget~ I still remember it clearly, y’know? The shame of giving in to that anguish will haunt me as long as I live. But, I don’t wanna forget those memories. Decided to embrace them instead. So did everyone else here.

He’s right. I don’t believe that I failed to protect anything. I could save the life of someone who inherited her will.

Enoch’s sacrifice… wasn’t in vain, either. That’s what I believe.

Pray tell, miss, who’s really chained to the past here?



Sure, if that’s what you think. You only care about the feelings and agony you bear.

Are you trying to call me selfish?

No. Just like how you can’t understand our pain, we can’t understand yours. Especially if you never experienced the same thing yourself. Others can’t just walk a mile in your shoes. No one will get you if you don’t speak up.

…

Don’t you try to lecture me after all this time.



That was way too harsh, guys. Did you really have to be so hard on her?

It’s not because we hate her. We’re saying this for Angela’s sake.

It’s hard to take a step forward if there’s no one around to give you honest advice.

Hear, hear~ Tiphereth and I tell Gebura so many things for her own good, too.

…Um, Chesed.

…

Run, Chesed!

Well then, if you’ll excuse me~ It wasn’t a very pleasant meeting, but I’ll say it was a meaningful one since all of us got together for once. Welp, she’s about to blow up. See you around, Roland~



Yeah. He does that every day knowing she’ll get mad at him…

Boy, that’s brutal. Guess I’ll have to expect the middle floors to be a warzone… And you’re acting as the mediator between those two?

Who knows what kind of mess this place would be if I didn’t stop them. But still, they actually care for each other, so don’t think too badly of them.

Yeah~ Looks like not killing him outright is as good as her care gets.



Why you running? We can't die here without permission, you know!

All the same, I still think it best not to test it~

Get back here you pompous little..!



For such an underwhelming fight, we get three amazing Abnormality Pages. Learn lets us effectively copy an enemy page and hit them with it, giving it decent odds to beat any page in the entire game. Given that several enemies that we'll face down the line have moves like Tomerry's Whip of Love which are designed to be close to unbeatable for us, having an option that lets us throw that attack back at them with bonus Strength is incredibly useful.

Lies is arguably the best Abnormality Page on the entire floor, altering deckbuilding calculations by virtue of its existence. We can make a deck with nothing but 3-cost pages in it, slap Lies on it, and wind up reaping nothing but benefits.

Curiosity works right alongside it, negating our need for draw pages at all. Every turn, we get four random pages from our deck+1 more from the draw for a total of 5, which ensures that we'll be able to play a full hand every turn without worry. There are some absolutely absurd strategies these two Abnormality Pages allow for in tandem, as Steve will demonstrate.



Um… sorry to bother you while you're in a foul mood, ma'am, but…

I was about to call for you. The new librarian is ready.

Really?

I am quite good at working while not feeling well.

Yeah, I guess you would be, huh…



Hello, sir! Ma'am! It's a pleasure to be alive again.

Well… this one seems normal enough.

Very normal, boss.

Pretty sure we hired him because he was pathetic, but he was bad at being pathetic so it was a failure…

L Corp hired people because they were pathetic?

I'd say the fact that I failed at it makes me a prime candidate to help you out now, sir!

Yeah, makes sense to me.

_{The more I learn about this company the more amazed I am that it ran at all.}

Well, it was a Wing, sir. To be expected that it'd operate outside of normal rules.

I guess so. Sharp ears on you, huh?

Being a good listener is the cornerstone of being a good friend, sir.

No need to go that far. We're just coworkers.

Oh, uh… Yes sir.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



As always, you all charged into an Abnormality battle.

And I realized there wasn't any reason to say something when there was an Abnormality available.

It was a nice smoke break, but back to the grind for us both, yes?


Videos

Keter 2
Oboe Solos - Tomerry
Oboe Solos - Tomerry (Copyright Free Version) (May cause distortions. Watch at own risk.)