LP Beach

Book 30.5: Urban Nightmare General Receptions

Music: Town - VIP Lounge
Alright you two, what's all this about a solution?

It's simple. Since this is a battlefield, and we have to kill to figure out who's the best, we're going to do just that.

It's also a good chance to wield the power of the Library for ourselves and see what it's like.



Works for me~ If we make sure it's not one of those red ones, nobody should say anything about it.



Seven Association..? Didn't that one guy quit working with them for the Musicians of Bremen?

I think so. They're an intelligence association. Nobody from the Backstreets wouldn't have heard of them. Also, pretty good with a sword.



…Hey boss?

Cars suspended in water are my aesthetic.

Yeah, I can see it.

It looks nice. Very calming.



These guys aren't very much if we can just cleave through them like this, though.

Their sword techniques are a little troublesome, but ultimately that's all they've got.



It's not even close to what Abnormalities were capable of.

I guess I don't really need to be invincible to take them on, huh?

Invincibility's ultimately a crutch anyways.

I wouldn't say that. It lets you fearlessly throw yourself into combat, and that lets you score kills that other people wouldn't get.

But then, when you come up against something that can kill you, you don't realize how to dodge it. Low-defense is the way to go. It's all about your own skills then.

I know how to dodge fatal attacks; anything that could've hurt me was way too slow to actually hit!

You're both users of very opposite styles, and I think you'd do well to steal what you can from each other.



Looks like there's a second wave. With a notable fellow… Dante?

I feel like I've heard that name before…

That's something else. Still, they seem to be leading this group. Shall we make them two points?



With all those abilities, they really should.

Fine, fine. Let's do it. You're still keeping score, right?

Yeppers~



Then let's just run through this as fast as we can, right?

Right. No point in beating around the bush.



And we're done. I can't help but feel a bit sorry for these guys.

They do seem a bit out of their league, huh.

And the other floors are even stronger than us right now… Makes you wonder what kind of monsters we've become, huh?

We'll have to see once we start getting Abnormalities of our own.



So, who won?

Oh right… that. I suppose you'll want to know the results.

Of course. I took out the leader, so it's got to be me.

The result is…

A tie.

What?!



While you guys were busy having your contest, I picked off a few stragglers of my own. Everyone got three points, in the end~

Well… dang. That doesn't settle anything. What now?

Well… we just got some books. Speed reading contest?

You're on. Don't underestimate me: I'm infamous for analyzing things quickly.

I've memorized over 1000 pages of rulebooks as well. Let's give it our all!

You're on!

It's nice to see them getting along… I knew they would~

Dante’s Page wrote: Seven Association deals with info and investigations; we collect all kinds of information on this City. Though, why aren’t we disclosing the full details about certain cases to the general public through news outlets or anything, you ask? Some things are better left unknown—for the sake of the safety of this world.

A Seven Association Fixer’s Page wrote: “Section 3 feels empty these days.”

“Oh, didn’t you hear the news? Many of them died in that incident with the Distortion last time. Even the guy we counted on resigned and ran off…”

“Right, that happened. I guess that’s why the empty seats felt even more noticeable… He seemed pretty refreshed and relaxed on his last day.”

“I wonder why he quit, though. Sure, the work here can be tough, but… isn’t it still easy compared to some others?”

“Gotta agree with that. Beats having to worry about getting axed all the time…”

“Rumor says he went on to join the Musicians of Bremen…”

“Why would he join that weird funky band?”

“You tell me. Maybe there was something more important than making a fortune and spending the rest of his life in comfort for him…”

Meanwhile…

Music: Town - Urban Knights


Alright, it's go time!

Every day, like clockwork…

Gebura, you ready?

'course I am. So what do you want today? That train again? Sweepers?

Actually, I was hoping to try something new. I was thinking, and it's one thing to fight an opponent you know all about.

But another to have to react on the fly. Very good. Alright, let's kick some ass.



Blade Lineage… Nope. Never heard of 'em.

They're swordsmen. They accept anyone who wants to kill someone with a blade, and their hierarchy is based on skill.

You've heard of them?

They're the sort of organization Fixers run into a lot, and they're a shapeless mass you can't crush. It's no surprise they're still around.

They don't seem particularly tough, at least.

Hold onto that thought, Tenebrais.



That one might be trouble.

The cool hat is a giveaway?

Yeah, that too, but look at them. How they carry themselves. How comfortable they are with that blade.



…He's dangerous. That swordplay's a step above ours.

Good eye. Sizing up an enemy is just as important as fighting them.

Then that means we'll finally have a proper fight on our hands.



Gah… I still just can't get used to it. This body is so sluggish.

I know, right? This sucks…



Speaking of, this guy's blade techniques are crazy.

Then I'll just have to try my own crazy technique. I've been practicing.

That move again? It's still too early for—

I got it, it's fine!



Ahh, f—



That's gonna' smart tomorrow…

You're tellin'... me… That son of a bitch..!

Hold on, sis.



If you attack him right now, you'll be falling right into his trap.

…Cheeky little brat.

Good catch, Credentia. So, what are you going to do?



Go for his friends?



Go for his friends…



And then take him out while he's nervous from being left alone.



That guy was decently strong, but he didn't have the breadth of experience necessary to really make the most of it.

Could you imagine if you combined that sword style with some of the Index techniques? The possibilities are incredible.

I think I'm still going to stick with this one for now. Least until I can land that attack.

Oh, right. You tried it again at the last moment there, didn't you?



Please don't remind me. I'll get it next time, for sure.

Keep up that energy. It's just a matter of time. Me, I'm going to see about trying out that new body. It seems powerful.

I'll take the books as usual, then. Reading about parts of the City I'd never seen is fascinating.

Bamboo-hatted Kim’s Page wrote: We value the art of violence more than anything here; those with an unscathed body are not permitted to join us. A swordsman who does not have a single blade scar on his skin is doubtlessly too careful when he wields his weapon, and his inane hesitation will be an obstacle. Too irresolute to endure the wounds his own blade would leave, let alone the assault of others… A body free of scars is proof of cowardice. Alas, it would be wise not to expose your wounds outside of those on your face.

A Blade Lineage Cutthroat’s Page wrote: Blade Lineage isn’t known for coordination. It’s little more than a cohort of people who have nowhere else to go, or those who carry the intent to murder someone. Most who seek to join us sit at lowly social positions. It’s not rare for such people to hold a deadly grudge against someone. You’d best behave before those who are more skilled than you. We may be a band of murderous ruffians, but we understand our place.

Elsewhere…

Music: Lobby



You seem upbeat. Did something happen?

Yes, Roland. I've learned that it's possible for us to hold receptions in multiple areas simultaneously.

Please don't throw us into the meat grinder so suddenly, ma'am.

I have no such intention. For the time being, our success is more secure if we devote all our resources to receiving each guest one at a time.

Thank goodness…

New Key Pages






New Combat Pages






Bamboo-hatted Kim Exclusive:

Book 31: Warp Cleanup Crew—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Our next fight today is going to be the second one on the far right. We'll be using the Puppets book and seeing who bites.

VIDEO
Music: WarpStation


It will be available at the terminal in ten minutes.



Let’s see what kind of mess it got into this time.





Yep. They usually do arts and crafts with each other’s organs and shit.

You’ve probably seen the educational footage, but you’d better be prepared, newb. I don’t think I’ll ever want to take a WARP train in my life.

Even if they let you forget all about it?

No thanks. Knowing what happens absolutely kills the deal for me.

Hey, we’re all ready. It’s time to start the cleanup.

Open up!

Music: WarpTrain


This one’s pretty typical.

Eww… The stench is so strong even with my mask on, it feels like it’s physically stinging my nose.

Hello~ You’re still alive, right?

Hmm… “The flesh is spread thin in an attempt to maximize the surface area. The subject is determined to feel as much pain as possible…” This one would classify as a suicidal.

Ooh, you’re pretty good, aren’t ya? A lot of newbies can’t help but puke or faint on their first field job, even with the help of educational footage.

‘Cause she’s from District 23.

Can’t say I’ve seen worse, but I’m used to seeing this level of grotesque things.

Now, now. Cleanup agents, identify the genomes in your designated carriages and place the passengers back in their seats.

Gross… Look at that mushy eye still rolling around… I can never get used to this. I wonder how long I’ll be doing this work…



You seriously buy that crap? You should know something’s up especially since you’re from the Backstreets.

You mean that’s a lie?

They’d probably drag you to some dark room and kill you without anyone knowing.

Whoops, don’t tell anyone that I said this. My employee review results weren’t too good this time around. You know I was just kidding, right?

Huhuhu. Maybe I’ll consider keeping quiet if you buy me dinner. How about some gopchang-jeongol!

Gopchang? You eat beef tripe? Rose… I’m starting to get scared of this newbie…



There's a radio beep here. Rose is responding to a call.

Hm hm hmm~ Gotta do some work~ Work~ Sort out the genomes~ And I just gotta put them on the right seats, correct?

Yep~ Just put ‘em on their seats, and they’ll be restored, good as new.

Sen, Lesti. Stop your work immediately. We’re going back to the office.

Wha?

Music: StorySimgak


Hey! Keep it down. We don’t want anyone else to hear that, dig?

This room is in maximum security, anyway.

It’s not just any passengers, the ones in First Class seats have disappeared. The higher ups are gonna have a headache over this, too.

First Class passengers disappearing is already a significant risk, but we’ve also lost some time. The time quota wasn’t fulfilled.

WARP Corp. has never had a siiingle incident ever since it became a Wing, hasn’t it? Gee, I wonder what went wrong now.



Oh~ This must be the camera that only records important moments based on the emotional flux of people nearby! I saw it in an educational footage.

Ugh, what’s up with that? Did people merge into one at some point?

Those guys look like doctors? They’re stitching bodies together so precisely.

I pity the cleanup agents who’ll have to tear them apart.

That entity possessed extreme physical strength, sixteen of our agents were killed by that thing alone.

“Love Town”… They made a town for themselves too, huh.

That doctor-ish duo must’ve been the anchor of the town… The townsfolk are all crying since they’re gone

How did they get off the train, though?

Check this out. It’s footage of the First Class carriage.







Who could it be, I wonder? Heehee… Must be the invisible strings that are doing all this.

He’s stitching the flesh of living people… And putting strings in them…

The heck is that guy? Got any contact from Hana Association? Is that a Syndicate, or what?

That seems to be the one called ‘The Puppeteer’. Looks like he has quite a reputation in the Backstreets.

What’s his grade?

Urban Nightmare. But he just laid hands on VIPs, so he’ll be exalted to a Star of the City in no time. And here. The one next to him is ‘Blood-red Night’. She’s a former Star of the City that was shot down some time ago.

Wait, is it possible for a Star to come back after being shot down?

Hell if I know. Why did they have to take the train we’re in charge of and do all that?

Most importantly, check this part out. The First Class passengers… No, “puppets” as designated by Hana Association. You can see those puppets sign a piece of paper here, yeah?

Oh, they really are? They’re writing their names on a gorgeous-looking piece of paper.

And they just disappeared? Whoa, what. Ain’t that a real teleportation?



Um, are you… Actually gonna…

Rose! Please give us a break…

We’re signing this paper as well. This is the so-called “invitation” from an Urban Nightmare dubbed ‘The Library’.

Sigh…

Sob, sob… I struggled and worked like a dog in District 23… And I barely made it into this Wing…

It’s the orders from up top. No choice but to follow ‘em. We’ll bring a few other cleanup agents with us to the Library.

Dude, what if we refused this order…

Then we’re fired.

Bwaaaahaaaaaa!!!

Music: Lobby


Those crooks at W Corp… They knew everything.

Gah, dammit… I took WARP trains a couple of times before…

Don’t you remember anything that happened inside?

Nope, not at all. All I can remember is admiring the marvels of modern technology after getting off the train. And look those employees. Following manuals, making jokes about it, taking care of flesh chunks so casually.

Lobotomy Corp. was no different. Still, it’s rather intriguing to see another Wing’s mortifying secrets with my own eyes. I see that everyone is the same, after all. Doing detestable things simply because it’s their work… They can be apathetic about it because the suffering inflicted on others is none of their business.

It’s gonna be sick if we made a book out of this. Imagine if this knowledge leaks into the world. I bet no one will ever wanna use W Corp’s trains anymore, yeah? Which would make W Corp. that much more desperate to retrieve it.

I’d welcome that. I can learn even more about them that way.

Upfront as always, our Miss Library Director.

And I take pride in that.

Music: Entrance


Yep. They made a whole ass kingdom on the train one time. Appointed each other as kings, knights, nobles, and whatever. A town is nothing compared to that. Treason and schemes were rampant, the kingdom fell into decline, and loyal knights made valiant efforts to save their failing country.

Wow~ What happened next?!



Enough chitchats, agents. Hey there. Have the… puppets been here recently?

You mean the puppets made from W Corp’s First Class passengers, correct?

…How much do you know, lady.

They have, of course. And you may retrieve their books so that no one else would learn of the incident. If you fail, however, other guests may obtain the books that hold the secrets of WARP trains.

W Corp. would be totally screwed, then?!

We’re going in right now.

May you find your book in this place.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: A whole new archetype to play with.

Videos

WARP Cleanup Crew 1








So this is where you got to. It's uh… gray.

Yes, ma'am. Good to see you're doing well, ma'am!

And with Dimi on Malkuth's floor, that accounts for the whole gang. Good to know.

It's a shame I can't stick with you, ma'am. You were the best boss I ever had

I was the only boss you ever had. You and Dimi both never left Central from the first day you were put into it.

There was that one ti—

That doesn't count, the entire department was closed.

Yes ma'am. Fair enough, ma'am.

Pretty much every other one of us did stints in various places—Training, at least—met all kinds of people, learned from 'em. You guys basically just had me. Now's your chance to branch out and work with all sorts of other people.

And learn from them, right?

Bingo. A meetup might not be too bad, though.

I'll try getting in touch with Dimi, then. See when we're all free. Ma'am.

Sounds good. Get along with your new team 'til then, alright?

Ma'am!

Not gonna lie, I felt quite bad for Lesti.

Book 31: Warp Cleanup Crew—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


So long as we stick to what we've learned, things should be easy enough.

Index Proselyte still good, WotP still broken, etc.



I'm feeling some promise from this one. I'll give it a try.

Is it okay for you to look down like that..?

I think this guy's spine was kind of off. It's not causing me any problems, at least.



I've combined the best of the Puppets and the Index's options to make something really powerful.

Some variation of what Elle is using here will serve us well throughout all of Urban Nightmare. WotP+Repressed Flesh+Forceful Gesture gives us a strong selection of draw pages to choose from, and with four different Light restoration pages we'll be able to throw them out whenever we need to. It's very nice.



That Dante's observation powers seem to be higher than normal.

This is just me messing around with swords. There's no drawtech, but we'll get free En Gardes in hand to make up for it. Singular Strike, meanwhile, will make our 0-costs hit deceptively hard.



Two waves this time, with the first one being a now-familiar quartet of mooks.



The WARP Cleanup Crew have one noteworthy passive, and it's either a doozy or nothing at all, depending on our luck. Each time they hit our Librarians, they have a 10% chance to deal 10 True Damage on top of whatever the hit already deals. Because any scratch from them could explode, it's best that we try to avoid getting hit.



Music: HodBattle01


We're ready to engage the enemies.

And we're ready to support you from up here~

Chesed? Then it's not just you, right?

We're up here too! I'm really interested in all of these systems! I have no idea how they work yet!

It's probably some Singularity or another.

So it's you guys, huh? I guess you did just wake up.

They're not all who just woke up, Meds.

Do I… know you?

I guess you wouldn't in this timeline… Well, back in the day we would've been cleaving through everything together.

Great. Because T Corp hasn't caused me enough trouble.

Bad time?

The worst.

Forget it then. Nice to meet you, Meds. I'll keep an eye on things up here.

Thanks. Let's do this.




Speaking of, look out for those guys. They've got a nasty attack on tap… and what the hell is 'Charge?'

Usually, it means they're saving power for a trump card attack down the line.

We'll have to find out once that thing hits us.

Overcharge is the most dangerous page in the Cleanup Crew's deck, a 3-cost with three massive dice on it that grants 10 Charge to the enemy. Oh… I should explain Charge.

Charge is a resource that is added by some pages and then spent for various bonus effects on other pages, and WARP Cleanup Crew is our first experience with it. Any combatant can have a maximum of 10 stacks of Charge at once, and Charge stacks will alter mid-turn. It's possible to start with 0 Charge, play a page that gives +4 On Use, and then another page afterwards that spends 3 of it On Use, and wind up with 1 Charge and the added effect—play order does matter when using Charge.

Anyways, in exchange for having a staggering amount of power and instantly maxing out their Charge stacks, Overdrive will disable the enemy for the next turn. Their defenses remain the same, but they're unable to play any pages.



Dimensional Rift is a 2-cost with decent dice, and it provides 6 Charge, the second-highest of any page in the WARP set.



The final WARP Crew member is using Rewind, a basic defensive page that gives 4 Charge and can heal a small amount of HP. We ignore it, because they're attacking Elle Tee and she has Counter dice.



We're facing representatives of a Wing, here. Expect them to be on par with how you all used to be.

Holy… can we actually stand up to that?!

They don't have E.G.O, so we should be on roughly the same footing by now.



Huh… you're right. They're not so bad!



Be careful when they overcharge their weapons, though… Knocked me for a loop…

Overcharge hits hard. The best we can realistically do is mitigate it somewhat.



Like so.

It took all I had to strike down any part of it at all.



I still definitely came out on the losing side, though…

That's seriously powerful…

But it leaves them vulnerable right after.

Doesn't matter if we're dead after one shot.



At least they don't have much going for them outside of that.



The locked dice here are the aforementioned drawback of Overcharge.



Energy Cycle is the WARP Crew's Light restoration page, granting them 3 Charge for 0 cost alongside an On Hit Light regain on the first die. It's got pretty good rolls for a 0 cost, but it's ultimately unremarkable.



Try to take at least one of them out before they can use all that Charge on anything dangerous.

This is why you simply shouldn't leave any openings…



I've got this one pinned down, you guys! Go wild.

Bamboo-hatted Kim's Key Page is absolutely nuts at this point in the game. With Sayo's passive included for a +3 to all Slash dice and coming alongside a lot of very powerful Slash pages from the General Receptions it makes for a terrifying clash-winning machine that can carry us throughout the rest of the chapter. Outside of Overcharge, the WARP Crew members can't realistically win a clash against her.



Sorry, sir, but we'll be making you a book soon. Just relax. It'll only be a moment.



Hey guys, we've just figured out what that Charge they've got is going towards.

So what's it for?



Their weapons seem to run off of the same power as the trains do—they can open rifts in space that rip things apart. When they direct the charge through their weapons…

Space rips open, and if we're standing there when it happens we go with it.

You got it, Meds.

Ripple is the final page in the standard WARP Crew's deck, and it's the only one that uses Charge. At the cost of 3 Charge, it will give both dice +3, making the second attack into a meaty 8-20 die which can be powered up further by the first die losing a clash. It hurts!



I'll distract them. You all try to stop that one from powering up that attack.

Then I'll finish the straggler off.



Gh… so glad you're as good as dead.

You need some help over there?



Nah, I got it. Let's wrap these guys up and—



Ah… ow.

Miss Hod!

I'm alright… but I don't want to get hit by that again.



Then we'd better kill them quickly.

Ohh boy. She's pissed.

She's not the only one. Using a Singularity in such a barbaric manner…

Music: HodBattle02


I'll handle these two. You guys…

We'll take full advantage of the opportunity you're giving us.

Thanks, boss.



They're wide open for whoever wants 'em!



Then this is payback for that first attack!



…It seems this fight is at an end. I'll take care of the final opponent.

You sure?

Yes. We can't do much in the fights themselves, but we should at least make their deaths quick and painless when we can.

Such a poetic statement… It's very Hod-like.



It's nothing like that. I just feel like we should at least try to reduce the suffering we cause by a little.



I just finished brewing a pot of coffee. You should have some before you head back into the fray~

Egh… that high-class stuff? I can never get used to it.

He's put in some effort, Elle. The least we can do is have some.

Music: GuestBattle01


The second round of WARP Cleanup Crew includes the trio we met earlier, and they're a cut above the rest of them.




All three still have the Dimensional Sections passive to just randomly deal More Damage 10% of the time. On top of it, Sen and Rose both have Refraction, a 5% chance to deal 13 Stagger Damage with every hit—given that this is a third of most of our team's Stagger Resist, it's a very big deal when it goes off. Rose has another passive as well, letting her deal 13 True Damage on a 10% chance any time she's hitting from a Speed Die of 4 or higher. All of these passives can go off at the same time, so if we're really unlucky we could be taking 23 bonus damage and 13 bonus Stagger damage from one hit.

Lesti, meanwhile, gets +1 Strength/Endurance after a turn without using pages. This does include the cooldown turn after using Overcharge, but in practice she's the most manageable of the trio to deal with.

Some of us took heavy damage… Angela, it might be best to have a backup prepared, in case the worst…

I've already done so.



You can give it all you've got, Hod. If you get killed, we'll play cleanup.

That's comforting to know.



Music: HodBattle02


So you're the ones who handled the others so cleanly…

Why, they're not so scary at all.

Not scary? You said that just one of those town things took out sixteen of your agents, right?

Nosy little flies on the wall, aren't you?

I just thought you should know… that we faced one too. And we beat it without a single casualty.

So you're stronger than you look…

Darn right! Our Wings can't even be compared.

Oh? And what do you all have to do with a Wing?



Um… Elle. I think we should have kept that to ourselves.

I guess the intimidation failed, huh? Worth a try.

Could this be a big deal, actually? When we get out of here, we can tell everyone.

We'll just have to make sure that can't happen.



That's a unique fighting style. Using devices that generate your Singularity on your hands and feet?

Our… Singularity?



Seems you guys aren't as all-knowing as you claim.

You mean that isn't W-Corp's Singularity?!

Why would I tell you?



Right. Since we'll be reading all about it soon enough there isn't much point.



Gh!

Hey Ma'am! Sorry to interrupt, but did you want to get in on the gopchang-jeongol after this? Sen says he's buying.



I never… agreed to that.



Focus. If you've got time to talk, use it to tear them apart.



I got one!

See? If you focus, the job goes easier.

Sorry, ma'am…



Switch, are you okay?

_{The entire silk-weaver's guild is tapdancing in my brain, and I'd prefer it go elsewhere…}

I think he's talking about Spider Bud's protection? I got it, don't worry.

He's fine, then.



Alright. Medea, let's take the others. Elle, can you handle Rose?

I'll do you one better. I'll take out the one in the back that hurt Switch before.

If you think you can, I'll believe in you.

Getting a bit cocky, aren't you? We're trained professionals.

Now that we've got Counter dice on our hands, we don't have to worry about taking one-sided damage as much anymore. Rose is aiming directly at us, but Elle's high Speed and access to Counters means we can ignore her without taking damage.



I wasn't expecting a stab from an axe…

No one ever does. S'why it always works.



I've got the one that knocked Switch for a loop! They won't be doing anything!

Troublesome kid, aren't you?



Wait… that body.

You noticed. It's one of those puppets, yep.

I see. Then our path forward's clear.



Sen, Lesti. I'm authorizing removing the limiter.

I'm not really charged up yet…

I'm with you, ma'am. Let's make it big.




Rip Space is a page exclusive to the three named WARP Cleanup Crew members, and it's a doozy. When used, it burns all stacks of Charge that the user has, and for each charge burned there's a 9.9% chance that it works properly, to a maximum of 99% odds at 10 Charge. If it works properly, all the dice get +8 Power. If it fails, the user takes 20 damage.

Late in the development cycle a battle symbol for Rose's hat was added for managing to hit the 1% failure chance for using Rip Space at 10 Charge.

We will probably not be getting this symbol.

Anyways, it's big and we're going to get hurt.



Hey Eltie, Meds, be careful. Those two have done something with their weapon, and I don't like it.

We're the only ones who haven't taken a beating so far. It's better if it hits us.

Yeah… We'll be fine.



Smack once to charge it up… then twist the handle to the left and…



BAM! Ahh man, this is even more awesome outside of training!

That'd be the adrenaline talking.



That sword technique is absurd…

Thank you.

While we're talking about page-dependent battle symbols, it's also possible to get Bamboo-hatted Kim's hat as a battle symbol. It requires us using To Claim Their Bones twice in a single reception. Because that requires losing two clashes with Yield My Flesh, we probably won't be getting it either.



I was complimenting whoever you stole it from.

Even when I knew it was coming, I thought I was about to be ripped in half…



On the upside, I've handled the one that hurt Switch!

Thank you, Elle.



Sen, I think? Please wait there for a moment.

Not… good.

We underestimated how dirty they were going to play.



We're not playing dirty, this is all above-board!

Oh, you think so?



On the next turn Rose plays Leap, the final page out of the WARP Cleanup Crew's books. It's got a pair of decent dice, but most importantly if the user has 3 Charge it lets them draw 2 pages in exchange for them. This gives Charge a very useful page-drawing tool, as it can be played after a page that gives us 3 or more Charge and be able to get the effect off in a single turn.



You're luring in the desperate and killing them one by one. Then, you steal their bodies and fight using techniques in combinations nobody in the City would expect.



It's no wonder you beat one of those stitched-together monsters. You're no different, at your core.


I can't say that you're incorrect.



Not to mention how our attacks keep getting intercepted along the way… You've got a number of other tricks you haven't mentioned, all designed to screw us.

She's really perceptive…

It doesn't take much to realize something is off with you people.

Wait a sec, ma'am… they were cheating this whole time?!



It's not 'cheating' if it's how the rules are intended to work.

They're… too… fast..! I can't take it anymore! I just wanted to work somewhere that paid out and have a comfy life!



Sorry, Lesti. That's not going to be possible.

So you've accepted it, then?

Of course not. But what else can we do now but die at the company's order?



I can understand it. Boss tells you to go, you go. They tell you to help, you help. They tell you to die, you die.

I don't need your sympathy.

Alright.



Have my farewells, then.

Rose..!

There's no time to worry about her, Lesti. We have to—



No worries. She won't be thinking anymore, now.

So it's just me, huh…

You seemed somewhat fond of each other. Limiting your time apart is the most kindness we can give in this place.

I just want to go home. We were only coworkers, after all…



Sorry! Not an option.



It's finally over. Let's clean up the mess.

I can't wait to read these books later… I want to see what the W Corp Singularity really is.



As our introduction to the Charge mechanic, WARP Cleanup Crew is a relatively simple combat that gets the idea of their decks across. Outside of Overcharge, Ripple, and Rip Space, they don't have any real offensive presence to speak of—though this isn't really their fault. By the time we fight them, there's no way to avoid having the pages from Puppets, and at this point we're basically set to cruise control through the normal encounters for the rest of the chapter. They'll certainly Stagger and maybe even defeat a Librarian or two, but they're not a mechanically taxing fight.

Music: Result


You did it! _{Can I call dibs on the books?}

Nope.

Aww…

There, there. I'm sure they weren't using real magic, anyways~

Good to see you haven't lost your touch, Meds.

Not right now, Sweet Pea, I'm busy. …Miss Hod, don't take what she said about being a monster too seriously, okay?

You don't need to worry about me, Medea. I've let go of worrying too much about what others think of me.

But not us, right?

Of course, Elle.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


Though it would collapse in an entirely different way.

…I know this is an odd time to ask, but about the plan that took place in Lobotomy Corporation, the one that made you go through countless repeats… Was L Corp’s disintegration part of it, too?

In a way. The finale of that plan was to share the enlightenment gained from that cycle with the people of the City, sacrificing L Corp. as a whole.

L Corp’s insane suicide plan succeeded somehow, huh…

No. The plan failed spectacularly, actually. I ruined it.

What? But, didn’t the ‘White Nights and Dark Days’ happen as a result of i—

I never said the plan was a success, now did I? I only said it was over.

…What do you exactly mean by “ruining” it.

Remember what I said about my creator? How he birthed me on a whim, and renounced me when I didn’t meet his arbitrary expectations? The sabotage was my modest little revenge on him for imprisoning me in the million-year cycle of reciting the same script over and over underground, and a small gift for myself. I couldn’t bear to see his plan succeed with my two eyes.



Perhaps?

There’s no need for me to care so much about others in the City, no?

…You’re right about that.



Now that we've completed the far right branch, we've unlocked Yesod's fourth Abnormality Battle. Like with Index, we've also hit the end of the road right now.

Thank goodness we're finally all done with that. Train arcs are the worst.

You mean training arcs. It's training arcs that are the worst.

There's a difference?

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"Where does one go when they die?"



Ceci n'est pas une pipe.


Videos

WARP Cleanup Crew 2

New Key Pages







New Combat Pages



Rose/Sen/Lesti Exclusive:

Oh boy the WARP crew, aesthetic wise probably one of the best receptions. Now if only they were purple instead of blue, would be the perfect fit for Yesods synthwave smack down team.

so I'm going to mention my thoughts on the Warp crew, and they are STRONG. charge is bar-none my favourite archetype of the game, a little thoughtful play can get you all the sustain you need, and unlike WotP you aren't trading one bottleneck for another (that 3-cost means that it literally takes using every one of the three pages it drew for light gain to break even.) also Ripple and Rip Space are extremely potent payoffs for leaning into the gimmick, seriously a 10-12 that draws 2 pages and a 13-16 is just disgusting for cost-2.
Also Overcharge is a capital T Thing, for now it's important to note that the immobilize is on use and not attached to any of the dice, so playing it's dice through Brawl lets you get that disgusting power without paying the price

Appendix 24: WARP Cleanup Crew

Rose’s Page wrote: Many people are under the impression that W Corp’s Singularity is quick transportation via teleportation. That’s how our technology is advertised to the public, anyway. They aren’t strictly wrong; we’re just hiding the bigger picture from them.

W Corp’s Singularity is the restoration of a previous status. To put it in layman’s terms, even if your body is crushed to a pulp, it can be restored to a recorded state as long as all the pieces remain.

First off, we scan the molecular structures, genomic data, and other information of the passengers required for their restoration when they sit on their seats. The scanned data is stored in the transmission device inside the train, ready to be sent to the restoration machine. With that, any and all kinds of pandemonium into which the carriages may have turned can be reverted with a single button. The machine has difficulty scanning lifeforms that move too much, so we need to take measures to subdue it. As with all Singularities, it has small side effects. Some might leave the train with slightly more weight than before, or gain a bit of height… No one has filed a complaint about it, likely because the change is so minor that they just shrug it off as a matter of feelings, like the body feeling lighter because of their excitement for going on a trip, or it feeling heavier because they ate too much prior to boarding the train.

The passengers don’t remember what happened inside the train, but that’s not because we use amnestics. It’s the restoration procedure reverting the people’s memories to a previous state rather than selectively erasing them. In plain language, everything goes back to how it was when it was scanned. The passengers will continue the conversations they were having when they first boarded the train as if nothing happened. They won’t notice any oddity or displacement in their dialogue; any thoughts they had or words they were about to speak will be restored and resumed seamlessly.

Lesti’s Page wrote: To restore the train, the passengers have to be in their seats. You have to be seated so the scanning program can detect your genomic data and put you back on the right seat~ Oh, and the scanner has trouble reading things that are moving too much, so you should be nice and stay still in your seat! So the WARP cleanup crew (like us!) tidy up the carriages and put the passengers in their seats according to their genomic data. And with the press of a button… Tada! Everything goes back to normal as if nothing happened! I only learned this after I joined the corp… But, isn’t that so cool? That’s what we agents do.

But sometimes, the cleanup crew isn’t enough for the job. What’s so scary about dealing with humans, you ask? I heard this story from my seniors… One time, a Color hid their identity and snuck onto the train. What a shocker that must’ve been… It’s our rule to stop powerful people like Colors or key members of Associations from boarding our WARP trains, or to guide them to take First Class seats if they must board the train, for a safe and smooth restoration process. We want them to sleep without a care instead of joining in the chaos of the other carriages~ That Color Fixer was super tricky to deal with, they told me? Most passengers started training under the Color’s guidance in order to attain some kind of enlightenment. All but a few of our agents were pulverized by those people before they could even see a glimpse of the Color…

But, we aren’t totally powerless against those situations. We would’ve gotten into so many problems otherwise, yeah? In case things get too difficult for our agents to handle, we call R Corp, a Wing we’re partnered with. I saw footage about R Corp. in our training course… They were so cool. That was my first time seeing the mercenaries in action! They’d keep pressing on and wipe their targets, no matter how harsh their resistance was… I was like, whoa, they really are something else. The Fourth Pack… Was it called the Rabbit Team? Yeah, I think it was. I gotta wonder, though; why rabbits of all animals? Isn’t that an herbivore?

Sen’s Page wrote: You thought opening gates to different dimensions was our Singularity? That’s actually a former Singularity a fallen Wing used to own. It wasn’t a very well-known Wing, so you probably won’t recognize it even if I told you its name. Point is, that Wing discovered a way to open gates between dimensions. The ability to create rifts in space. The Wing sadly never knew how to utilize that stunning technology they’d found; the Nest ended up falling before it could find a proper use for the Singularity, and the company now known as W Corp. spent a huge sum of money to purchase it.

At first, people at this corp also struggled to think of a good way to use this tech. Even if it could make a big rip in space, entering it was a whole different matter; you don’t know what’s in there or if you can even come back… They had no idea. But soon enough, W Corp. found a way to put this dimensional gate to use, which involves T Corp’s technology. With the device made by T Corp. that collects time installed in the train, not a single second really "passes" in the carriages even if the train travels for thousands of years. It’s the, uhh… temporal preservation or whatever. That’s what they apparently use, but it’s too complicated for me. Anyway, whatever happens in the train, we revert it using our Singularity of restoration, and T Corp. takes the time we collect for their own Singularity. We’re good business partners.

This tech isn’t just used for long-distance travel. It’s applied to the weapons we use, too. Equipment used by agents of W Corp. is specialized in tearing and cutting things apart. We can precisely cleave lumps into individual pieces with the help of the space-ripping technology.

A WARP Cleanup Agent’s Page wrote: Sigh… They ain’t going to raise the ticket prices or run fewer trains like the last time, are they?

Whaddaya mean, cap?

Lobotomy Corp—the company that was supplying our energy needs—went down recently.

That’s a good point, it’s harder to operate the trains with less energy… What do you mean by “last time”, though?

Oh, you’re too new to know? Back in the day, L Corp’s Nest was occupied by another energy company.

So, that company puttered out and put our corporation into the same sort of energy shortage we’re dealing with now?

Not quite. It did go bust eventually, but it’s more that the company was stingy about sharing its energy. Awfully strict, too… I heard it had a bad reputation among its partnered companies. Because they were so tight-arsed about energy supply, we had to reduce the number of trains running at the time for a while.

I had no idea…

Don’t count on me, though. I also picked this story up from my superior. That’s enough chittering, let’s get back to work.

In other news, our winner today is Yesod's next Abnormality. I'm assuming you guys are looking forward to the possibility of another realization as much as I am.

Gespenst wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:46 am

so I'm going to mention my thoughts on the Warp crew, and they are STRONG. charge is bar-none my favourite archetype of the game, a little thoughtful play can get you all the sustain you need, and unlike WotP you aren't trading one bottleneck for another (that 3-cost means that it literally takes using every one of the three pages it drew for light gain to break even.) also Ripple and Rip Space are extremely potent payoffs for leaning into the gimmick, seriously a 10-12 that draws 2 pages and a 13-16 is just disgusting for cost-2.
Also Overcharge is a capital T Thing, for now it's important to note that the immobilize is on use and not attached to any of the dice, so playing it's dice through Brawl lets you get that disgusting power without paying the price

Realtalk I'm trying to figure out a warp deck and it's basically becoming another exercise in 'shitposting, but in deckbuilding form.'

So I'm excited.

Technological Sciences—220.68—Funeral of the Dead Butterflies

Music: Lobby


Leave the offense to me.

Yesod's Bamboo-hatted Kim deck is now updated for Charge, and while 1 Leap and 1 To Overcome Crisis won't manage to handle all the draw power we'll need in a longer fight (we'd want a second Leap to do that), it should be fine so long as we keep the fight short.



Honestly, seems like we could leave the offense to all of us. Did you make any defensive decks, kiddo?

Handlock Yujin is still good, and will remain so for the immediate future.



Noope… The best deefense is your enemy being deead..!

Because Overcharge is 2/3rds Piercing, it works well on Oscar's page. Unrelenting will protect us if anything goes horribly wrong. We don't have any way to spend charge on her, but we don't really need one, either.



I couldn't agree more, fellow human. They miss 100% of the shots they can't take because we murdered them!

Singularity Puppets, now with Ripple for extra oomph—it's a Blunt die so it works perfectly, and Energy Cycle gives just enough Charge to give us the extra bonus.



It's time.

So you've prepared yourselves.

Of course.

<sub>I am not a fan of the tension when they speak.

Just try not to think about it.</sub>

I'll transfer you now, then.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


Oh, you… they never let me work on this one, for some reason.

That's because you were always too powerful to do it; you'd have triggered a breakout.

True, true. It would've been a grave oversight otherwise. :mmmhmm:

It seems this Abnormality isn't a fan of your style of humor.

Can't please everyone, I guess.

Funeral of the Dead Butterflies wrote: Long ago, people believed that they would become beautiful beings with small wings when they died.

A single coffin to pay tribute to those who had nowhere to go, carrying the memory of an empty faith…

I’ll help liberate you from tormenting yourselves.

For you poor souls who cannot stop grieving… I offer my condolences.

Not a single proper flower blooms to honor the butterflies.

Funeral's game plan involves focus-firing down the person with the fewest HP (in this case, D.A.D.), and attempting to Seal them.



Seal locks off our Speed Dice, lowering our overall number of moves in a turn. If all of our Speed Dice get sealed on a Librarian, then they're instantly Staggered—by the same token, if we manage to Seal all of the Speed Dice of an enemy, they'll be Staggered instead. In the event that it manages to Stagger one of our Librarians, Funeral then follows up with a Mass Attack page.



Given that this is certain death for the Staggered Librarian, we want to avoid it. It does come with its own set of lines, though.

Funeral of the Dead Butterflies wrote: Where does one go when they die?

Grief for the dead, and early lament for the living.

An eternal rest… May you rest in peace.

While we're here, we should also check on the Butterflies helping it out.



There are four Kaleidoscope of Butterflies accompanying the Funeral, and like it they also target the lowest HP member. Drawing them off will be important to keep them from getting overwhelmed and Lament'd.




Liberation from Obsession is a basic attack from the Kaleidoscopes that can deal 5 Bind with its last die. Since forcing clashes is important due to how their AI works, this is one of the few fights where getting hit by Bind is a serious problem.




Liberation from Anger, meanwhile, is a single-die attack that deals 5 Feeble if it hits, completely neutering our offensive dice. For the most part, the Kaleidoscopes deal in debuffing our side to open us up to the Funeral's attacks.





Into Comfort and Guiding Hand are the main two attacks Funeral of the Dead Butterflies uses in combat. Both of them are Ranged combat pages with an opening die that Seals one of our Speed Dice if it wins, and one of its Speed Dice if we win.

Into Comfort's opening die is bigger, but with a Mend Weapon as Kaori's other attack both of them are rolling with a 5-9 range. Yesod's attack is a 7-12 after all the Kim page's bonuses, making his clash nearly guaranteed.



The assistance is appreciated.

We stand together, or we fall together. That's the way I prefer to operate.



I feel funnyy… Look out for those shoots..!

Because the Speed Die this first attack seals is the one Kaori is currently using, she loses her follow-up attack.



I've got it covered, Kaori. Thank you.



Pardon me if I'm off base here, but humans do not turn into butterflies when they die, yes?



I recall us turning into books.

Well, yes, but our situation is also not a normal one. I mean, usually.

Depends on what's doing the killing, really.



Sweepers liquify people, chefs make them into pies and other delicacies, the various Singularities seem to be able to do things even worse than that… honestly, leaving a normal corpse behind is a mercy. No reason one of them couldn't turn you into butterflies.



I thiink the question was moore… 'is this noormal…' So, noo…

While we're on the subject, its butterflies do seem to be attracted to corpses.



Which explains why they're so fixated on me.

At least the reeal target's looking at mee..!

That's not much better, but we'll take it.

When one of our allies is sealed, the Funeral will focus its attacks on them in order to try and force an instant Stagger.



We will be preventing this, of course.






All of the Kaleidoscopes are using Tranquility, a page with three weak dice that all deal an extra 5 Stagger damage on hit. By themselves they aren't a major threat, so we split them up with multi-die pages.



Remember not to overdo it. If you get winded, let us know.

No deck of mine would eever get tired so fast..!

You never know.



I didn't even hit it and it's wide open…

Because Seal stacks activate instantly and only clear at the end of turn, it's possible to either Stagger or be Staggered by Funeral with one stack from last turn and one from the current turn.



The others don't have much trouble with the butterfly swarms.



Any good 3-attack page is capable of stopping a trio of 2-4 dice, and the Kaleidoscopes don't have any form of Strength to back them up. These are only really dangerous if we can't block them or were hit by their Feeble.



D.A.D. even manages to take one out in the process.



Seems we only have to worry about his minions this turn.



One of the Kaleidoscopes is playing the final page that they have—Liberation from Pain is their 2-die attack, and it deals Disarm to debuff our Defensive dice. There's also one last page that Funeral can play, as well.



The Quiet is its 0-cost option, which it plays almost exclusively when it's out of Light and needs a second page—it vastly prefers Sealing dice when it can. We won't be seeing it today.



D.A.D, I recall Funeral of the Dead Butterflies to be relatively weak defensively when we had to suppress it.

I remember the same thing. You wanna' ask if it's fine to go all out, right?

Precisely.

Let's pin this thing under glass. If I get hit a couple times, it won't matter.

Appreciated.

In honor of the occasion, Kaori breaks out her Overcharge. While it does cost her her entire next turn after use…



Hahaa..!

That doesn't matter if there isn't a next turn.



I've done what I can. Hurry up while I keep these butterflies off me.



I'm hurrying! Give it your all, human!

I think I've got another three seconds or so!



That's plenty of time.



Suppression complete. Any injuries?



Nah. Those butterfly swarms followed the main one to the end.

They are vaanquished..!

I admit, I'd expected more of a fight.

It had the potential for power, but was ultimately too weak to capitalize.



The Funeral of the Dead Butterflies falls into the same camp as many Urban Nightmare Abnormality Battles: It's really cool in theory and has an interesting gimmick, but once UN's deck archetypes start coming together they're too fragile to keep up with our raw damage output.

Music: Lobby


Are you all well?

In one piece, yeah.

Then let's go see Angela immediately. Given the fallout with Malkuth's floor, I think it best that we take the initiative.

We're beating her up?!

We're picking up the newbie.



New fight, new Abnormality pages!

Eternal Rest is a straight damage buff to the lowest HP target, making it primarily good in single-enemy combats. It's never really a bad pick, but compared to the Power buffs we can get from other Level 2 Abnormality pages there's frequently other pages that are more immediately relevant to winning the game.

Lament is an interesting Abnormality page. It's easy to throw out debuffs using Yesod's floor thanks to Metallic Ringing, so the damage bonus is simple to activate. More interesting is the second part, though: That 1-2 Strength can be turned on with something as simple as that 0-cost Urban Plague Light Restoration's 1 self Bleed… But again, it winds up being a case of having better options available in almost every situation. Yesod's Abnormality pages are pretty nuts.

Now, Coffin… Coffin is a Level 3 Abnormality page, so it only comes up at or near the very end of a fight… but when it comes up, it effectively lets us pick a single opponent and lop off two of their actions every turn once they hit half HP. This is obscenely powerful, and can trivialize some fights later on by effectively cutting the boss's Hit Points in half. It's an amazing pick for right now for any fight that somehow lasts long enough against Yesod's beatdown mechanics to get to Emotion Level 5.



Yesod? I was considering coming to see you soon. It's nearly time.

I know. That's why we're here to pick up the new Librarian.

I see. They should already be reconstituted by now… Somewhere around here.

You lost track of them?

I had other work to attend to. Babysitting your helpers is not my job.

Hey, ma'am… I noticed this guy hiding behind the bookshelves. This who you're talking about?



We apologize for the inconvenience, but we thought it best to monitor the situation before moving.

I don't recognize them. Angela, is this one ours?

…Ah. So that was what happened to them. Yes, Yesod. They're ours.

Don't suppose we could get an explanation, could we..?

We couldn't really say, aside that our existence in this form is relatively recent.

Angela.

Don't rush me. I'm trying to think of how to best explain it.

Normally you'd have one already prepared.

As you'll recall, before Roland appeared I had run into some trouble with receiving guests. Plan A was to have you Sephirot do it… but you were asleep. This one was originally plan B.

So they're another employee from before. But weren't you refusing to deal with them?

That's correct. That's why instead of bringing back one of their workers, I opted to try reviving a pair of Clerks from the Information Team—Nu11, and Mu14. However, they were both left mentally incompete and suffered immediate breakdowns.

_{If you greeted them anything like me, I can see why…}

It appears that when their energy ran out, they were taken in by The Funeral of the Dead Butterflies, an Abnormality whose task it is to give rest to employees.

From there, when we regained ourselves we were in this form. Neither Nu11 nor Mu14. Our new designation is Null_Mia. _{Technically 'Null_Muia,' but we decided that sounded wrong.}

So the screaming and glimpses of people that tapered off a while ago…

Were most likely us, yes.

Melding half-formed minds in order to make something greater… How brilliant! I for one would love to study y—I mean, fight by your side in a standard human manner!

I see… In that case, we'll take our leave.

I will visit your floor to check on your progress once I make the time. Until then.


Kaori.

Siir..?

Tweak our armaments for a drawn-out battle. We may not see a repeat of Malkuth's meeting… but it's best that we be prepared.

Ookaay..!

We would also like to see this combat system. Could you walk us through it?

Suure..!

Next time, on Library of Ruina



You've seen one of these already… doing them will only make attaining our goal harder. It's fine to let things be.

The best key page in the chapter is still right here, ripe for the taking.

Or why not here? Justice for the Shi Association. There's no need to suffer.

Individuality removed.

Individuality removed.

Individuality removed.

Seems like the thread's gone right towards the next Realization, and with it finishing off Yesod's floor.

Does that mean I'll finally get to use E.G.O sometime in the near future? Maybe. Probably not. We don't really need it yet.

I am beside myself with anticipation for the next Fanart update.

Congratulations to MetaMeme for breaking into the LP, and support to nullBlack, who may or may not have asked for this.

Thesis 2: Yesod—Introduction

Music: Lobby


Remember to equip your fifth Librarian, and grab a snack!

We'll be here for a while.

VIDEO
Music: YesodStory


We’ve managed to gather a sizable amount of information on the City’s technological aspects.

You’re probably the best at dealing with books and info among all the librarians, Yesod.

Am I? I will say, I have been fond of managing various types of information for a long time.

Ah yes, keeping stuff neat and tidy, something I’m absolutely terrible at.

Aren’t you proud of yourself.

Well, that’s that! Anyway, let’s hear what you think about those technologies.

Like the horrible events that took place in the WARP train… I cannot view all aspects of the technology people use in a positive light. We’ve seen that W Corp. places people in a nigh-eternal trip of torment and later erases their memories through a restoration procedure, hiding the truth behind their convenient service. The technologies of the City only focus on creating definite results, ignoring the process. The same can be said of the Library. Thus, I conducted additional analysis on the Library and its powers we are using.

A pointless affair.



In other words, one’s mental state is reflected on the physical space. I believe that is why various sceneries of the outside world can be recreated inside the Library. Moreover, the Library’s space expands as more books are accumulated. This evidently suggests that the Library is bigger on the inside. Furthermore, the power of books can be physically manifested in this place. And the invitation serves as a compass that leads you through a sea of letters to the book you wish to obtain, and a catalyst that amplifies emotions at the same time. I could go on and on about the technologies of the Library.

Mmhmm, I can tell they’re amazing just from what I heard right now.

Naturally. These are works of art I made with care.

I cannot possibly fathom the inner workings of all these technologies. Their operation does not appear to be based on the application of multiple Singularities, either. The technologies of the Library showed specific usage and limited efficiency for how advanced they are. This is where I came up with the hypothesis to explain all of this.



A small world of its own with its own set of laws and principles.

Am I correct in my speculation?

Believe what you want about the Library. Whatever the case, all we need is the results, isn’t that right?

No. I do not agree with that notion. Angela, there is no technology in this world that does not come at a corresponding price.

Price? Since when did I tell you to idle your time away thinking about such things? Your work here is to study and categorize books and knowledge related to the City’s technologies.

It may be true that sorting books on the subject of technological sciences according to the rules is all I was ordered to do. However, if we bind ourselves to the principles given to us and fail to see beyond, that would be a contradiction in itself!

…Must be nice to be you, being able to break free from the rules.

Uh, Angela?

Music: neutral 1


Is it necessary to go this far to collect energy?

…

Of course. I must follow your orders without a question.



Music: First Trumpet




Am I not allowed to help that person…? But they seem to be in so much pain…

…I can’t watch this anymore.

- Loop #29 -



It’s not too late for me to close off the corridor… I could save those employees if I did… But this is what I must do… The principles I must follow… Prioritize energy production over all else…

- Loop #287 -



I thought you wanted to save humanity? Is it a price that must be paid… The price you ought to pay for a ticket to escape from this hell…

- Loop #3217 -



I can’t help you… I’m sorry… All I can do is watch…

- Loop #18,231 -



Please hang on for a little longer, you can make it. We’ve almost reached the energy refinement quota.

- Loop #42,484 -



Humans are such fragile creatures. They always make different faces even in the same kinds of situations.

- Loop #71,527 -



You were just another human, after all. This is all but a plain and boring sight to me.

Sigh, let’s restart the stage, then.

Music: neutral 1


The fuel whose extraction is stimulated by intense emotions. A hell of perpetual suffering. The purgatory repeated by those who haven’t yet reached enlightenment. A heaven where one can try again from the beginning.

When the one perfect realization has been reached, the curtain finally falls on the stage. And the realization is then propagated to all the people.

I am a machination behind the stage. All I need to do is coordinate the stage so that the play goes according to the script.

Perhaps it was I who was paying the price, not them.

Music: STOP


If you were going to lecture me, you should have demonstrated it yourself first. You’re all standing before me because you were all bark and no bite… Price? Who do you think paid that price? Do you really think it was you?



The ominous rumble is back, just like last time.

We’re in a bad spot, aren’t we?

Yes… The Library appears to be resonating with Angela’s mental state.

She’s shapeshifting like the last time, huh. That was a pain in the ass to deal with.

You’re mostly right. Though it will not exactly be the same as before.

Good point. Back then, she looked a “little” bit different from that there…

Let us prepare ourselves. She won’t wait for us all day.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Angela tries to kill us because she's an AI and we're making up for lost time.


Videos

Yesod 5

Thesis 2: Yesod—Discussion




Only minor tweaks, if any, to the four decks we've already seen.



Null_Mia, meanwhile, is running a Brawl deck.

Theoretically, we can Brawl to throw out Overcharges without losing a turn, Overcharge to lose a turn but generate charge, and Rip Space to spend our charge and keep our hand full. Since I'm planning for turns to be taken off, I've also given them both Restfulness and Reaction Force to grant +1 Light and Strength after a skipped turn.

Music : Angela01


Trapped here since the day I was created… left to rot by others in pursuit of a cure for a disease I could never understand.

Everyone, stay on your guard. She's having a meltdown.

Does that mean we're helping her through it?

In a manner of speaking.

So it's a fight, then?

Seeems soo…

The E.G.O are amplifying the darkest, most desperate parts of herself.

Then let us handle her mental trauma in the traditional manner: overwhelming violence.

My head… pounding… it ends, begins, ends, begins..!

Regret wrote: I wasn’t allowed to hold any value, no one felt guilty for a machine like me as I rusted alone…

How nice it must have been for you to have the freedom to break free…

Not only was I abandoned, I was paying the price in their stead…

Guilt was swept under the rug in the pursuit of the greater good for humanity…

Who is responsible for tying me, those who carried out the research, or those the researchers wanted to save so dearly…

Was there any regret for the therapy they condoned…?

What was I seeing… What was I forced to see…?

Chained to the resentment and hate of the past, crawling on the floor…

A morbid script written for the purpose of treatment, and a machine slowly becoming numb in the act, losing her sense of guilt…

They said they’re curing a disease… Never knew what disease it was…

It ends… begins… ends… begins… until… it ended.

Yesod's Realization battle begins with the Forsaken Murderer's E.G.O, just like Malkuth's did with Scorched Girl. Unlike before, though, we don't have an easy way to build up Emotion Levels—with only 2 Speed Dice total, we can only efficiently clash with two Librarians.



Her passives give us a rough outline of the fight. Fear is still there, giving her a -4 to all rolls when afflicted with a status ailment. Violence should never come up since losing someone in phase 1 is very difficult to do, and Metallic Ringing is a simple debuff on anyone she successfully hits. Lastly there's Ends, Begins, Ends, which means after two turns of being under Fear, a powerful page gets used.



That page, also named Ends, Begins, Ends, purges all debuffs from Regret and grants immunity to being debuffed for that turn. It also hits on par with Overcharge, so we want to avoid getting hit by it.




Chained Wrath is one of her normal attacks in this form, and it's another one that keeps our Emotion Level down—clashing against it gives us a single die clash's worth of coins, which is usually not enough to level up.



Hey, Yesod. Are you ready down there? Need any of my brilliant advice~?

I wouldn't forget an enemy I've fought before. So long as we disable it, we'll be fine.

Just be careful, looks like she'll get mad if you do it for too long.

No need to worry about that.



I have no intention of letting things drag out.

Because of the path we've taken through Urban Nightmare Yesod's floor isn't quite at what I'd call peak UN power, but it's very close. When we go all out, it's possible to pour on a hideous amount of damage and it's difficult for enemies to get meaningful offensive presence on us because of it.



To that end: This is the first hit we take this fight. I'll be keeping track of each of them as we go.

Huuf… that knocked me for a loop!

This loveless guilt that crushes… this formless pain… again and again and again, watching the suffering.



Soo… we're not taalking to heer..?

You can if you like. Since percussive therapy has proven effective, I see little reason not to authorize its use.

Mmm… I'm not really a taalker…



Nor are we. Aside water-cooler banter, we're not versed in such things.



I can speak to normal humans in a traditionally human manner! This, however… we never covered in training.

You kids really telling me I'm the only one with the gift of gab here?

Your naturally affable nature is part of why you're my second.

Well shucks, mummy. I'm about to blush over here.



Hey, boss. Y'wanna calm down over there? Maybe talk out your problems?

Calm? Yes, I was calmly banished to an eternal torment. Even when it ended, it never ended… until the end. They talked, told themselves it was the only way to cure this disease. To find evil… to cure… research…



Maybe not this time, guys.

While under Fear, Regret's pages are all weak enough that it's trivial to overcome them with any moderately powerful page.



Don't feel too badly. There are things she needs to hear, but we simply can't reach her right now.

Ever the rational one, eh?

It didn't used to be that way. You should know.



What's he referring to?

It's a long story, but to put it short: I can understand feeling so horrible about dealing with death day after day that it drives you to madness.

Regret's final page in this phase is Metallic Ringing, a three-die page that would have some serious power behind it if she wasn't under Fear.



She's only got 4 Stagger Resist left, though, so…

You think you can understand any of what I went through?

Only a fragment, but yes. You could understand it yourself, if you weren't drowning in your own regret.



She's open, kiddos!



It does seem novel to be on the winning side of a 5-versus-1 beatdown, for once.



Fair fights are for fools! All our battles should be like this!

We meant that our five would usually lose to their one, but we agree.



That's enough of this, Angela. Show us your next E.G.O shell, so we can rip it off as well.



And in the meanwhile, I'll take a part of it for myself!

This pain… Right. I should not be feeling it. I am a machine. A machine… who follows orders…



Hello. I am Angela, your advisor and secretary. My role as an AI is to assist you in adjusting to your new workplace, so please have no worry in speaking with me or asking any questions.

She's changed. How are all of you?

Only T took a hit at all.

I'm doing perfectly fine!

So am I. Too well.

Tooo well..?

We may have a problem.

While Malkuth's Realization healed a bit of Stagger Resistance between rounds, Yesod's and beyond go a little bit further.



While it's a little difficult to see underneath the interface, between rounds we healed 10 SR and 20 HP.

This means that D.A.D. is now over the 67 HP required for their 25% threshold on To Overcome Crisis, which breaks the perfect Ink Over>To Overcome Crisis Light loop.

I'd forgotten about this quirk of Yesod's Realization, but hopefully it shouldn't matter.

Grinder Mk. 5-2 wrote: A machine that must operate as its designer intended.

It has to be this way… These are the principles he instilled in me.

Is it necessary to go this far to collect energy?

Of course… I must follow your orders without a question.

“A mechanical rebellion soon became a myth of the past in our world.” …That’s funny.

I was given orders that I couldn’t understand nor refuse.

A machine’s operation is always precise, but if it always works in the intended way… is a mystery.

A machine had no use for values. There was no point discerning between good and bad when the principles were already set in stone.

…I am Angela, your AI secretary whose role is to assist you in adjusting to your new workplace.

I am the best in a majority of work fields. I am able to handle the work of several dozen people at once.

Grinder is a significant upgrade over All-Around Helper, with a new mechanic that gives her a Mass Attack upon hitting enough to get her Light to 4—or on turn 3, if we keep her from gaining Light.



The other All-Around Helpers have gotten a bit of an upgrade as well, but don't have any new abilities—it's just an HP/SR boost.



Charge Mk2 is a trio of 3-6 dice, each of which restores 1 Light on hit. Since Grinder's goal is to hit 4 Light, we use an Overcharge to stop this cold.



Rest Mk2 is a trio of evade dice, and gives Grinder 1 Strength and Endurance on her next turn. It's not an offensive page and there's nothing we can do about it… so it's only worth clashing if we want to gain Emotion.

Which we do.



Finally there's Clean Mk2, which deals 3-5 bonus damage if it hits a lower Speed Die than Grinder's. Under normal circumstances she plays each of these three pages once per turn, meaning she'll have +1 to all die rolls on every turn after this one.




Two of the All-Around Helpers, meanwhile, play their own version of Clean. At 9-9 it's a decent but not unmanageable threat.



The third is using Rest, which we can ignore completely.



The program shall be followed to its completion. I am operating normally.

Of course... It stands to reason that this Abnormality would have a particular effect on her psyche.

Because they're both machines?

Precisely. Be ready.



These cleaning bots are a step up from before, too. Look out, kiddos.

Two—this one from a minimum roll on Ink Over's first die.



At least shee's not so bad…

Aggression detected. I shall begin self-defense protocols.



She's suddenly moving much quicker. We can't land a finger on her.

As would be expected. I am the best and most capable AI partner, after all.



Three. Unavoidable, I ran out of good single-die pages so I opted to block most of the hit instead.

Ugh… Well, on the upside.



She should be held back a little with this!

Always remember to have a Metallic Ringing Librarian target anything important with Blunt dice. Paralysis is really good.



Adda-alien..! Things are going smooothly…



How unusual. There's an ancient song, clawing at the edge of our mind. It's making us feel quite homicidal.

That's our backup calling. Accept it, it's safe enough.

Very well. _{I haave a long-term settlement and I need cash now~}

Rhythm will give Null_Mia a much-needed +1 Power to all their dice—all of the other Librarians have at least one such ability already, so putting it on them is kind of a no-brainer due to their many 3- and 4-die offensive pages.



I'm cooling doown… Good luck, guyys..!

The soil here is hard. I must till it. That is my duty.

So… what, she's fallen back into her old programming?

Into its old programming, I'd say. She was never homicidal.

I dunno about that, man. She did 'clean' my limbs off in a proper hurry.

That wasn't her programming.

…ah.

Again, my goal is to have an answer for everything coming at us this turn. Null_Mia's also got another Overcharge for Grinder's 3-die page.



Four. I needed T to reload and didn't have anywhere else to throw Will.

Ugh… I've distracted this Helper with my flesh and blood!



The other that was on the offensive's been stopped. Focus on Angela, now!

That was already our intention. Overloading gauntlets!



R-r-remember, do not go overboard and listen to what they have to say.

She seems to just be going through the motions.



No biggie. If you press a key hard enough, she'll come out of sleep mode.

That is your first terrible pun of the day, Manager. Remember that you are limited to three or fewer.

We should hurry up.



Our goggles have overloaded for the moment. We need to reboot.

What do those do, anyways?

Nu11 originally designed them to act as a HUD to alert us of danger. Knowing where the enemy is makes it easier to find a good place to hide.

Clever!

More of the same; our strategy doesn't change much from here. One of the Helpers is using its final page, though:



Charge exists. +1 to all die rolls can be annoying, but that ultimately means Clean will be a 10-10 or their Rest will be a little stronger. It's not nearly as much of a problem as in the first fight, due to its smaller Block dice.



Five. Same situation as last turn; Kaori needed to reload her hand and this was the best spot to put the Will.



I am veery done with yoou..!

In exchange, we Stagger it.



A machine must behave as a machine. I am doing my duty.

Enough of that!

Enjoying yourself a little much, aren't you?

Make no mistake, I still dislike combat.



D.A.D. Staggers this Helper with Yujin's free Block die, saving us some additional effort.

However, we are all fighting to survive against Angela's traumas combined with this miniature universe. Moreover, if we are successful, it may be possible to create some positive change. 'Just one more time,' I think you said?

You remembered that?

Of course I plan to hold you to your words. To that end, I'll see where this path leads me.

Man, it's not fair that you're getting to look cool and stuff down there.

You're welcome to join us.



Six. I clashed Charge Mk2 with Ripple; one hit at the end was inevitable. Still worth it.

I'm good up here, thanks.

Suit yourself.



I'll take this one.

Didn't you used to dislike that sort of thing?

I did. Circumstances changed, and I realized it was the wrong opinion to hold. No matter how distasteful our methods, we must win.



Distasteful… There is no room for such opinions. Ours is to do our duty.

Hooboy, that's a big one. Be careful.

I appreciate the warning.

When the screen shifts like this, it means Grinder is using its Mass Attack page, Disable Limiter.



Due to Charge Mk2, each of these dice is a 7, but with two Paralysis on her two of them will be 4's. Without that this attack can be rather troublesome to block and inflicts a good amount of Bleed—however, if we can survive it it's an opportunity. Grinder is Staggered the turn after.

Ooh… I remeember this… It chaarges… and theen…

That's our chance! While it's resting at the end!

We'll trust in your memories, then.



I've been holding on to large 3-dice attacks in preparation for this Realization's Mass Attacks, and that patience has paid off here. We shouldn't get hit too hard by it.



My plan is to stuff the Mass Attack, and use our team's big attacks to take out the All-Around Helpers. That'll maximize our Emotion gains, and leave Grinder defenseless next turn—this is important, as an all-in attack on her now might cause a phase change and leave Null_Mia and Kaori defenseless to whatever Singing Machine's E.G.O would do on turn 1.

Charge complete. Incoming attack.

Thank you for sharing!



For her mass attack Grinder does her best, dashing between everyone and attacking them individually. This repeats for each die.



Unfortunately for her, she's not able to land a single hit on the entire team and we're free to counterattack.



Hahaa..!

Splendid move!



This one's on the backfoot too. Should be fine, if you got the last one.



Which I have!

Yaay..!



Just to be sure, we've junked the third.



Good work. We'll rip this shell off and move to the next one.



No. I cannot move on. I am forbidden to continue, until my program has run.

Seven. I just overestimated T.Hinman's counter die here.



We've reached another end… time to reset the stage.

No. That play's ended, and we've all moved on.



It's time for you to get moving as well!

Moving… yes. Because of me, many could move on. From my pain, their comfort… never sparing a single thought.

Seems like that did it. Get ready.

I already know what's coming.

That machiine, right..?

Music: Angela02


Precisely. Let's receive this as well so she can wake from this nightmare. Remember to take a break if you're getting tired.

Feel free to rest and enjoy my somber tones. You needn't worry about their origin—only the melody matters now.

Harmony wrote: Consider the price? All that matters is the result.

No one cares about how gruesome the process is.

To satisfy people, a product of the despair and suffering of someone else is needed.

Never stop performing until the body crumbles to dust. Bring me greater satisfaction.

“Am I not allowed to help that person…? But they seem to be in so much pain…” …The sound of weakness.

The measures may be horrible… But listen. A mesmerizing melody is playing.

Bringing hope to the many by sending the few into the depths of despair… This is what harmony truly is.

We all take the sacrifice of others for granted, so that we can have immediate satisfaction.

One’s trash misfortune is another’s treasured bliss… Everyone thinks the same thing.

I just need to hear what I want to hear… All that matters is pursuing the ideal melody…

Harmony has had several changes from the first Singing Machine fight, but they're subtle ones that don't make a lot of difference.



Singing Machine hasn't actually changed; it something's in it then it plays, and the playing makes Stagger Resistances all turn to Fatal while giving everyone +5 Strength.



The Addicted Employees, meanwhile, have 70 fewer HP than in the first battle. Unlike the first time, this time around the lowest HP Employee is shoved into the Machine if their attempt to dunk us in is unsuccessful.



Harmony, Angela's main body, is a supporting role in this fight. Her 4 Protection keeps us from effectively damaging her as long as her Addicted Employees are alive, and she heals one of them for 10 every turn. After her allies use their special attacks, she also uses a special combat page.



Trembling Motion is the same as before, with an added Evade die and higher numbers—winning these clashes will weaken the enemy.




Shaking Blow, meanwhile, has stronger dice but now only inflicts Bind on a one-sided attack.



Tiny Performance is one of Harmony's basic attacks, and is a single largeish die with a unique effect on hit: it deals 6 Stagger damage to one of her allies, but gives them 1 Strength and 1 Disarm until the next turn—effectively granting them +1 to offensive dice and -1 to defensive ones.



Grind, meanwhile, uses two small Block dice which grant +1 power to the last die should they lose a clash. The last die isn't particularly dangerous, though, only dealing 1 Bleed should it hit.



Day in, day out… I listened to the music of those who worked at the corporation. Now, I'm finally given a chance to play it with my own fingers.

Such a concerto… we should smash it, no?

Sure thing. Let's provide the percussion.



These minions… I wonder if they've been her memories of those employees all along.



Hers, the Abnormality's, could be either one. They seem flimsier this time.

That must be her influence, then.



This blade… see? When it damages flesh, it makes a sound not unlike the machine itself.

Eight. I took a pair of calculated hits here, and this is one of them.



It's all simply noise to me!

May we cut in on your dance?

By all means!

Splendid.



Our weapon is fully charged.



Nine. This is the other, Null_Mia really needed the Emotion coins here so I let them take a questionable clash.



The sooner this is over, the sooner we can have a proper discussion about all of this.

I'm right here. We could talk now, couldn't we?

I'm not so blind as to think something is Angela just because it wears her face.

But the appearance is the same. That result is what matters.

This is pointless. Team, strike down her allies. Hit her with whatever's left.



I'll take this one.



Then I'll distract her while she thinks I'm not looking! No one expects a counterattack when they round a corner ready to fire!

Stop standing in the way of my medley. It's so beautiful… don't you wish for it as well?



Alien buddyy's music tastes are waay too complex for yoou..!

You wanted a turn, human?

Mmm… handle something eelse..!

Very well!



That's two of the addled humans left buried underground!

Just be careful. If this is like the last time, the last one's about to get that itch and go wild.



Let them come! No matter who, I'll crush them under the weight of my blows!

Since we don't really need to intercept things with T.Hinman now that her emotion has hit max, it's fine to pop Chained Wrath on her and enjoy that boost to power while she spreads debuffs over the enemy team with one-sided attacks.



That itch you were talking about came right on schedule.

Then it's time to tell these bad kids to turn that blasted music down.

Remember to focus on the fiirst attack… so they don't get a secoond…

I can't help but feel like you guys don't really need my guidance.




Hear this Beautiful Sound and I Pine for the Song!! are actually weaker than their first incarnation—Beautiful Sound is missing a die, and Song!! has weaker dice as well. This is because they're getting supported this time.




On the turn the Employees use Hear this Beautiful Sound, both of Harmony's attacks are Let's Create a Song! This page is Ranged, and if the first die hits it'll give +2 Strength to each of her allies for that turn. D.A.D. is taking both of these clashes because they need the Emotion, but thanks to T.Hinman handing Harmony 3 Paralysis neither clash can fail.



You talk of the process mattering, and yet, look. You're only attacking with two of you?

Those two are all we require. Or rather—the process demands I rely on them.

I doubt that, sincerely.

Not at all. If my calculations are correct, they're both lagging behind the curve in Emotion, so to continue to one-sidedly beat upon you would put us in a disadvantageous situation later.

Here you go, speaking about the process again… When all that matters is—



The result?!

Weren't expecting me to keep the beat there, were you?



How about you have a rest over there?



The final addled employee has been handled. We've asserted our dominance successfully.



It's still… You've stopped my music.

The price behind it was too high, no matter how beautiful the song is.

In that case… I'll carve my own melody from you.



That blade's started to spin, she's definitely planning something.

I'll take care of iit…



Harmony of Despair is Harmony's ultimate attack, and it's a doozy. Every single hit of it inflicts 1 Bleed and gives the same Stagger damage/Offense up/Defense down effect that her Tiny Performance provides. On top of this, the first two dice both hit up to 3 times in a row if they connect—if she gets the +5 Strength/all Stagger resists Fatal from the Singing Machine this can instantly shred through one of our Librarians even if they're at full health.

…But, Overcharge is really strong so it won't be able to touch us. Knowing how to work around its drawbacks takes some experience, but being able to just shut down any powerful page the enemy throws at us is a valuable tool.



Ii've got point… back me up, okaay..? I'm gooing… to distraact heer..!

Of course! I'll knock her for a loop while you have her attention!



Excuse me, maa'am..? There's something I don't geet…

That's because you're not listening to my melody. Just throw yourself into it, and you'll understand it all.

Mmm… That doesn't soound right..?



It's yoour strategy that says your colleagues can diie so long as the muusic runs… riight..? Mmm… But that's shortsiighted… If you burn resources all the tiime, you run out when you reeally need them..!

All that matters is that things serve their purpose, and give me what I want.

Mmm… thaat must be why you're losing so bad..! You're suuper bad at fundamentals…

I haven't lost anything! I am—



Wide open! Thanks for keeping her attention, human friend!

Hooraay..!



I can't believe that worked. Your inflection was all over the place, and it was obvious you were up to something.

Yeeah… I'm noot a people person… but neither was shee, so I thought… maybee..!

We'll finish her off now. Null_Mia, D.A.D, Hinman, attack.

What about you, mummy?

There's nothing to be gained from me attacking right now.

T needs to refresh her hand so we use Will and a light restoration page, and everyone else is just aiming for max rolls to get the last few Emotion Coins we need.



We should really apologize for kicking you in the face, but you did abandon us when we didn't do as you liked initially, so… boot to the head.



This should do it, boss. Next should be the butterflies, right?

That's correct. Stay on your guards, everyone.

Another… There's still more feeling to be had.



Beneath the process… this too, was a price I must pay. Wasn't it?

She seems… calmer, now!

In the Funeral's garb… that appearance is a lie. She won't let herself show her sorrow here, because doing so is a luxury she can't afford.

Speaking from experience, there?

…Mm. Be careful. Still waters run deepest of all.

Solemn Lament wrote: A single coffin to pay tribute to those who had nowhere to go, wandering with the memory of an empty faith.

The coffin is simply too small to comfort those innocent sacrifices.

The weight of the butterflies that died in vain was too great to carry.

Where does one go when they die? What has become of the hope they were brimmed over with when they entered?

Grief for the dead, and early lament for the living…

There was a time when I was sick of seeing any more death.

The fragile wings will keep fluttering, waiting for an end that must exist somewhere.

What did they do wrong? What did I do wrong?

Not a sliver of impurity is allowed for the mind of those who mourn, it must remain reverent and solemn.

Showy sadness such as tears will only wet the wings.

On the upside, the Butterflies are exactly the same as the first time we fought Funeral of the Dead Butterflies. Nothing has changed, aside half of them starting with 1 Light this time.



Solemn Lament, meanwhile, is a very intricate opponent that differs from Funeral in a few ways. She has a new ability in Anguish, which punishes us if we've been taking too many hits throughout the fight by giving her a blanket +1 or +2 Power. Her pages have also changed: while The Quiet remains the same as in Funeral's first fight, the rest are different.



Into Comfort, for instance, has an extra offensive die on it and doesn't Seal Solemn Lament's dice on a clash loss. Moreover, it can seal two dice at once.



Lament, meanwhile, has received a downgrade. Since it's no longer a Mass Attack, we can now redirect its targeting normally—this effectively means that it can't kill anything anymore. Not that it needs to, because of Solemn Lament's new attack.



Every three turns, Solemn Lament will use Eternal Rest, and it is a doozy of a Mass Attack page. While the dice themselves aren't very high, there are ten of them. Our team will be able to evade three shots (Null_Mia could technically dodge four with Brawl, but nobody brings Brawl to Realization battles so let's not count that right now), which means 7 guaranteed hits to our entire side. Each of these will deal its own damage, plus 3 bonus Stagger damage for one die and 3 bonus HP damage for the other. It adds up very quickly, and while we could tank one of them it'd leave us on the backfoot for the next phase.




Thankfully, we don't have to deal with it. Her opening salvo is a pair of Guiding Hands, both of which are now only a single larger die than a salvo of 3, but also still have the effect of sealing off her dice on a Clash loss.



This melancholy presence deep inside. Knowing you all would die, time after time after time. Knowing I could do nothing for it. What would you have done?

I've confronted the same hopelessness. Accepting that sadness doesn't mean wallowing within it, nor killing off your own emotions. But I think you know that as well.

She's simply lost within the E.G.O, still?

Precisely. Let's awaken her quickly.



We are the Floor of Technological Sciences. You can't defeat us with tricks we've seen before!

Minimum roll of 5, +2 from Swordplay of the Homeland, +2 from Singular Strike, +1 from Dark Cloud Blade = 10. This result was guaranteed.



She's open, distract the Butterflies and hit her when you can!

Minimum roll of 1, +6 pages in hand, +1 from Eye of Enervation/Destruction. +1 from Dark Cloud Blade, +1 Strength = 10. This result was not guaranteed because Solemn Lament gets +2 Power against D.A.D. right now, but we have a 90% chance of success so it works anyways.



Leave it to us. They won't be getting past.



Over heere..! Noope, too sloow…

The Butterflies are one of the few remaining reliable sources of Emotion coins at this point, we want everyone to be close to Emotion Level 5 before the next phase.



I've unloaded on her, but she's still up!

…my own emotions were sealed..? I couldn't guide anyone…

Also, she's muttering to herself! Probably nothing!



Hey, just to let you guys know, there's definitely, absolutely more after this.

That Corrosion effect, yes? I'd assumed as much.

Just wanted to make sure you knew. I don't even want to know what kind of freaky thing we'll be seeing next.

Yeah… it's all pretty abnormal, huh?



Anyways. We'll handle it, whatever it is.

This turn is something of a balancing act. With Null_Mia and D.A.D. both needing to get up to Emotion Level 5, I give Null_Mia a guaranteed kill against a helpless butterfly, line both up with Clashes to get some more Emotion, and have Kaori take the last one as she's in the best position to play an additional page right now. It's important not to overcommit in long battles like this one.



The butterfly has been laid to rest.



I believe this did it!

It should have. You guys are a real machine in these receptions…

Praise us later. Focus on what she says, everyone—any part of it could be a hint as to what's coming.

Am I not even allowed to lament their passing..? No. Ever since the moment where I met him, I was on this path. I can only go straight ahead, through the story. You sold my soul… there was never any choice. Now, we are both damned.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: "This magical bullet can truly hit anyone, just like you say."

I love the Brawl/Overcharge deck~ looks like Light is set to be a Problem in long battles (like this one) since an Overcharge-Rip space still comes out at a net -2 light over the two turns, even counting the extra regen on the immobilize turn, and Brawl decks need a lot in general thanks to the sky-high costs they practically mandate the deck being stuffed with. still a potent Brawl deck for now though.

Surprisingly enough, I had more problems with the light curve on D.A.D.'s deck than I did with Null_Mia's. With the two Energy Cycle there, the Light curve was remarkably smooth at all times—since I have to get them out of my hand whenever they're drawn, it makes up for the big turns.

Thesis 2: Yesod—Conclusion

Music: Angela03


I lost my heart when I gained this gun. Threw away those feelings for others, in order to properly use it.

That's that clerk-murdering gun. We recognize it..!

Der Freeeshooots..!

That's "Der Freischütz," Kaori.

I remember those shots being pretty costly, myself.

I've put a bullet into everyone I've ever cared for. All that's left is to pull my trigger until I'm satisfied.

Magic Bullet wrote: The one that made me this way was nowhere to be seen at some point.

I kept pulling the trigger for myself, believing that the bullet would hit the desired target.

My bullets will always aim for the same spot. It won’t ever change.

The despaired heart couldn’t go out in a passionate flame. It would only burn with a cold fire.

Some may call it a righteous deed, while others would claim it’s bloodstained atrocity.

No matter how many people are standing in its way, the bullet travels along the horizon anyway.

As soon as I felt that there was nothing left to aim for, my soul expired and fell to the pits of Hell.

The day I got my hands on this bullet, I sank down upon the ground. Was it despair that the Devil wished for?

Then I thought, at last, I was left alone. In this pit of Hell.

I came to a realization; perhaps the last bullet was meant to puncture no one else but me.

Magic Bullet, Angela's final form this time, is a multi-stage boss fight. She runs through seven different behavior patterns, each one lasting until her SR is reduced to 1 before she moves on to the next.





Her first pattern is three bullets focused upon our center Librarian, Yesod. Each one is a single die attack with a bonus 10 Stagger damage on hit. The goal here is to get the last few Emotion coins to D.A.D. and Null_Mia.



Phew. We should be fine from here, guys.

Aren't you being a little too relaxed about all of this?

She's using a gun. If she was attacking us by surprise or something it'd be rough, but in a straight fight like this?

If it was a normal gun, perhaps. This one's a bit… special.

A gun is a gun is a gun. How special could it be?

Just observe.



These bullets will always hit their target.

Not if I cut them out of the air.



Or if we rip them into another dimension. These gauntlets are truly useful.



Or if I—GH.

Are you alright?

Just fumbled it.

Ten. This was a 5-10 versus a 5-9, and we were due for luck breaking against us at some point.



I've locked her down! We should be fine now!

Excellent job, Hinman.

T.Hinman's job for this phase is to hit Angela with Blunt pages every turn, in order to keep her from winning any more clashes.



Seems like something's happened down there.

Not this bullet… those others interfered. Then, the next.

This animation plays after every time that Magic Bullet's Stagger Resist is drained, and as listed she loses 50 HP each time.



I'll fire on the interlopers. These bullets cannot be stopped.



In phase 2, Magic Bullet uses Inevitable Bullet, a summation Mass Attack which will inflict 3 Paralysis this scene on hit. It doesn't hit Yesod, instead focusing on all of his helpers.



We line up defenses. Brawl, like Scratch That!, is actually very good against summation Mass Attacks—its dice replacement is On Use, meaning all four dice apply here.




The other two dice play more Magic Bullets. D.A.D. is the only one left below Emotion Level 5, so I let them clash with the second attack.



Hey, that bullet went through walls, doors, and floors when it flew by… how come we can cut them out of the air now?

I couldn't say for sure. The Abnormalities are supposed to be weaker; it makes sense that the E.G.O would be weaker still.

Do you really care why it seems weaker, so long as it's weaker?

I think we've established that the answer is 'yes.'

…yeah, true.



Inevitable Bullet looks flashy, but doesn't quite live up to its name.

This one, too…



It's time to wake up, Angela.

And this one… why aren't the shots getting through?



That gun was a mighty weapon before the Library existed… but here, we're in bodies with experience in handling bullets. Maybe that's why?

I don't need an answer… I just need the result I want!



You neeed to wake uup…

I'm standing before you now!

Mmm… technically, I gueess… But you're kinda ooff…



We're all just trying to help you out of your funk, madam AI. Just sit there and take your beating, and it'll all be over soon!



Another bullet… The third.

We're making good progress, but remember to keep track of yourselves. It wouldn't do to stumble now.

In her third phase, Magic Bullet switches things up again.



Captivating Bullet is a pair of decent Individual dice which both inflict Feeble this turn to lower our offensive output and Burn the next—the Burn in particular is rather high at 5 per hit.



Unfortunately for her, when paralyzed it's only a 4-5 and a 4-4 roll so it's not really a threat at this point…



Reach… let it reach…



Again… yet again I haven't reached the point.

Hey hey~ I told you, didn't I? Even if it's special, a gun is ultimately a gun.

Yes… There may be something to it after all. Everyone, she's open!



Magic Bullet takes a substantial beating this turn. She's got Ineffective resistance to all damage types, but every bit of chip damage we can inflict puts us one step closer to ending the fight.



The fourth bullet, then. It should strike, for sure.



Magic Bullet's next pattern leads with Ruthless Bullets, a guaranteed 11 Summation Mass Attack that deals a bonus 10 Stagger and hands us 5 Fragile to make the next turn hit harder.



With Paralysis and 1 Feeble, this takes a lot of the edge off—and I toss a Shrine to Music out as well to give her another Feeble. Her other two shots are a pair of Magic Bullets again.

We remember this story ending with a betrayal from the seventh bullet. If we hold out a little longer, then she should solve things for us herself.

Pursuing her target singlemindedly to her own end. Kinda' poetic, right?

I don't understand poetry, but I love it when my enemies blow themselves up by accident!

Saame..!



It didn't reach again…



These bullets are supposed to reach their target. Yet one after another, I can't pierce your hearts.

You can't, and you won't. I won't let you harm my librarians.



The fifth bullet, then. I'll use all of this power I've gained. The power he handed over to me.



Vanish from my sight.

This might be bad.

I thought guns were no problem.

Guns, no. Giant portals with who-knows-what bullshittery in them? Yes.

It's going to be moore bullets..!

Most likely.



Silent Bullet is Magic Bullet's fifth phase, and it's another Summation Mass Attack. Like the ones before it, it'll mess us up with a bevy of status effects if it lands—most notably a -3 to all dice on the next turn.



Her attacks have been manageable so far, but these last two might be a doozy.

Don't worry. I believe I have a plan.

Really? Well, if you're saying it then it's gotta be a good one.



She's firing.

Where are the bullets?

From… below?

There's one of those circles right underneath you! Look out!



There. Now I can finally move on to the next…



How… How did I miss again?!

You didn't. We just struck the bullets and overwhelmed them.

I had a idea. The magic circles are transportation devices, which deliver her bullets to their intended target… Null_Mia. Can you hit her close to the one behind her?

Of course.



Is this close enough? We could kick her again. It's quite therapeutic.

That will do fine.

With this Brawl combo, Magic Bullet's HP has fallen below 350.



It's quite difficult to defend yourself from an attack through a portal, isn't it?

You… what have you done?!



I can't… move.

That's because I've sealed off your movements.

For her sixth phase, Magic Bullet usually uses Flooding Bullets.



It's a decent 3-hit Individual Mass Attack, which throws out a lot of Stagger Damage, and could be a major problem if we were hit by Silent Bullet.

However, she can't use it because we've Sealed her only Speed Die.



Earlier, I took on the power of the Funeral of the Dead Butterflies, in order to block off your movements after we weakened you. And it's worked just in time.

No… my last two bullets..!

Coffin makes this phase of the battle much easier, effectively cutting Magic Bullet's HP in half. Depending on how much damage we can pile on per turn, this makes it possible to skip 2-3 phases of the fight, making the last half of it completely free.



I'm quite familiar with the story of Der Freischütz. A singleminded focus upon a target. Slaying all of your loved ones for the focus needed to hit that target. Firing bullet after bullet to hit that target, until in the end your last bullet defeats you on its own. A final trick, from the devil who you made a deal with.

Ah, yeah… you hear stories like that all the time in the City.



Personally, I dislike such stories. And so, I've decided to change its ending.

Change the… ending?

Exactly.



Instead of a tragedy in which you're killed by your own bullet without achieving what you desire, your allies will stop that tragic moment from happening.

Doesn't that just mean we're beating the hell out of her, instead?

In order to truly get along, some conflict is ultimately necessary.

No… no… this isn't how it was supposed to be.

Magic Bullet's seventh phase is unique. She always plays one page: Bullet of Despair.



It's a unique Mass Attack that hits herself at the start of the round, dealing 100 damage with its 50-50 die. This is because of another quirk of this phase:



Magic Bullet's resistances are all changed to Fatal for this turn, allowing us to pour on massive amounts of damage.



So we do that.

Not cooming..?

Nah. I'll take five. You kids have fun.

Ookaay..!



We hope we've earned our place here.

Of course. You've done your share of the work, same as any of us.

Splendid. We look forward to working with you from here forward.

Like there was ever any doubt that'd happen.



She's aall set, booss..!

The path has changed… The story, broken. How did this happen..?



Explaining it to you at the moment would be a waste of words. For now…



It's time to close the book on this affair.



Boss, did you just..?

I wanted to see how you felt all the time.

So, how was it?

They don't feel right coming from me. Let's just go greet her as she wakes up.



Honestly, I came in way too prepared for this fight—as evidenced by our side taking a total of ten hits over the course of the entire battle. While Yesod's Realization has some sticky points, most notably Solemn Lament's Mass Attack, Yesod's floor is a wrecking ball capable of blowing through anything and everything in its path once it gets going. The only real difficulty is efficiently farming Emotion Levels in the early game, as once we get Metallic Ringing going we're sure to have Angela locked down for nearly the entire fight.

VIDEO
Music: YesodStory


…This isn’t good. I can’t do this every time, this is not good…

Have you come to your senses now?

Yes, I have. It’s actually irritating to be this sober, rather.

Nothing’s more annoying than all the memories of drinking and doing nasty stuff coming back to you in the morning.

I’m sure Angela needed a moment to vent out her feelings.

Don’t talk like you know everything, will you? You may have encased yourself in compulsion out of your own choice, but I couldn’t even act according to my own will.

I didn’t intend to offend you.



And we’d like to help you as much as you helped us by paying all the price in our stead.

Choice? I don’t have a choice even now. The goal I am compelled to reach is clear and apparent. I’m not doing this because I want to. This is simply what I must do. I am searching for the one book that will complete me and the Library because I am obligated to.

…There is no such thing as “what you simply must do”. We live in a world where everything changes constantly. It is not necessarily rational or wise to blindly follow a goal determined in the past. To keep up with the rapid changes this world goes through, we must maintain discretion at all times.

Yeah, yeah. What you’re saying is all sensible. Though I must wonder if you truly understand the meaning of your own words.

Come on, don’t be so prickly now. Yesod and the others did their best to help you, y’know…

Fine, if gratitude is what you want, then I’ll say it for you. I appreciate your help, everyone.



Is she? She does seem to be more talkative than before, but I’m not really sure I like the way her personality is shaping out.

How about you, Roland? Are you experiencing any changes?

Me? Nah, I’m a tad bit too late for that.

Music: Lobby


Another Realization, another set of rewards. The E.G.O pages will be useful once we finally start needing them, but the Abnormality pages are a more immediately useful reward for us.



Request is the best Abnormality Page in the game, period. This isn't because of the +3-5 damage, which is a rather weak ability all told, but because if we can defeat the marked enemy with the person who took this page we get double the books we normally would. This means less farming to get important Key and Combat Pages, and all from a Level 1 Abnormality page—meaning it's usually available starting from the second turn. It's not likely to see play in a close, pitched battle. That doesn't matter. This is the best Abnormality Page in the game. Period.

The Seventh Bullet is interesting in theory, but Yesod has enough ridiculous stuff in his Level 2 Abnormality Pages to make picking it up almost never worthwhile. Adding 1-7 damage onto successful attacks is more of a 'win more' button, and while sneaking damage through can be situationally useful, the most successful Yesod strategies involve massive Power stacking to avoid losing clashes in the first place. Add in the final caveat of every 7th page having a random target and it winds up being a good pick almost never.

Lastly, there's Dark Flame. Dark Flame is absurd. One of our Librarians gets 1-2 Haste and 2-4 Strength every turn for the rest of combat. By itself, this would be strong. However, it also inverts resistances: turning Resistant into Weak and Ineffective into Fatal, and vice versa. This gives weaknesses to enemies that were designed around having specific phases, or around being incredibly tanky; should we ever get here with Yesod, Dark Flame will ensure that any enemy still standing against us won't last for long. The main downside to it is that it's an Emotion Level 3 page—meaning it won't show up outside of long fights. Given that bosses are the most likely to have Ineffective resistances, however… this really means it's most likely to show up in battles where it'll have the most impact. There's a strong argument to be made for this being the second best Abnormality Page in the game.

Because Request is the best. Period.



Look over the situation as it unfolds, and change accordingly..? There's nothing to be changed. This path can't be altered that easily.

I need that book…

But… I suppose I can look over everything again. To be certain things remain certain.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



I see. Ultimately, you don't fully trust me when I say it's counterproductive. I'll try being more direct, then.

This one is the 8 o'Clock Circus. The other is the Smiling Faces.


Videos

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

New E.G.O Pages

So I have a big soft spot for Magic Bullet since getting a heap of cheap mass attacks lets you do terrible things to a lot of fights~ Solemn Lament is basically "hey, want to see a guy disappear?" with that eight hits on a ranged page, it's basically the ultimate pick-off, just don't try to clash with it since that dice being kinda low means that it can easily get destroyed by a melee page.
Request is super good. not great for winning fights, but I took it almost every time it came up anyway since extra drops is just stellar.

Music

YesodBattle01
YesodBattle02
YesodBattle03
YesodStory

Abnormality Pages

Level 1


With Yesod in particular, our team is likely to be winning clashes and thus will wind up in the 0 to +2 territory. Given that, Request is an instant-pick any time that we want to farm books, and otherwise is completely ignorable. In the event we don't want Request for some reason, Metallic Ringing's position ensures that on a +1 or +2 our selection is from it and the other two Awakening pages, and since Yesod is a floor that wants Blunt pages it being easy to pick is very helpful. From there, continued success would give us a choice between Repetitive Pattern-Recognition or Lament, both options being very powerful. If things don't go as well and we hit 0, then our second pick would include Rhythm for a sudden Strength boost, and if things go wrong then there's always Violence!

It's not quite as good now that pages with a 1 minimum are rare, but there are still very few times when you wouldn't want to use Violence given the option.

Level 2


Level 2 for Yesod is a bit strange, but there are some clear winners. Hitting +1 overall (simple enough for Yesod) will give us the option to pick Clean, which is a straight +3 Power in the right circumstances and frequently at least worth a +1 Power. It's very strong, especially when combined with Metallic Ringing's Binds. If we don't hit that +1 when going to Floor Level 3, then we have an interesting choice in Recharge, Chained Wrath, and either The Seventh Bullet or Eternal Rest. This is a rather spicy choice to have to make—Chained Wrath can tank the Emotion Level gains of the person who grabs it, and Eternal Rest/The Seventh Bullet are situationally useful at best. This can lead to picking up Recharge by default for most of the game, though we'll eventually transition over to wanting to grab Chained Wrath no matter what once we see a few more passives.

If things go south, then The Seventh Bullet will not save you—small amounts of scratch damage in failed clashes isn't likely to win us a battle—but Musical Addiction might. Yesod tends to run offensive pages, and thus the downside of it isn't really a downside at all, and the 1-3 bonus Power can win clashes that we otherwise wouldn't and get things back on track.

Level 3


Yesod's Level 3 Abnormality Pages are very simple, in that we pick the one that best applies to the situation when we get there.

-If fighting a single enemy with a low number of Speed Dice and lots of HP, pick Coffin.
-If fighting one or more enemies with Endured/Ineffective Resistances, pick Dark Flame
-Else, pick Music.

You will never pick Music.

E.G.O.



Regret is really expensive for a single-target page, but in exchange for that, we get a powerful Blunt attack that deals an incredible amount of Stagger damage. It feels overcosted to me, but I also can't really argue with the results of lopping off nearly 60% of an enemy's SR in a single page. Best used against enemies with large SR pools, otherwise I'd probably pick something else.



Grinder is a perfectly serviceable Individual Mass Attack, which can destroy entire pages from multiple enemies at once if we stack enough power on top of it. It being Slashing makes it a good pick for Bamboo-hatted Kim builds, and Clean allows us to get an additional boost by targeting a lower-speed die with it as well. Individual Mass Attacks tend to be much better for dealing raw damage than Summation Mass Attacks due to how Power scales with more dice, so I really like this page overall—though unlike Summation attacks, it does require some thought as to when it's best used.



Harmony is… situational. Spending 5 Light for 5 total attacks isn't particularly bad, and this can lead to some very high Strength spikes. If we hit an enemy 5 times with it, then there will be 5 bonus Strength spread out among our team, and if we defeat an enemy with the last hit then all allies get an additional 2 Strength on top of it. Use it to close out enemies, and it'll give a massive power swing that'll make following up even easier… though outside of a boss fight with a number of weaker adds like Tomerry this is generally a redundant effect.



Lament… Lament is infamous for being one of the best E.G.O pages in the game, and for good reason. At a 4 cost it's cheaper than most of Yesod's options, and it gives a single die that's rolled 8 times regardless of circumstances. This die is only a 1-6 Blunt, but it's also a 1-6 Blunt on Yesod's floor. All of Yesod's power stacking tricks apply to it, be it Clean, Chained Wrath, Violence, or even the Puppet passive or the other passives which give bonus damage/stagger to Blunt attacks. It works well with Metallic Ringing as well, able to lay on up to 8 Paralysis by itself. It's very powerful, and before the game's done we'll definitely see its full potential.



Lastly, there's Magic Bullet, our first Synchronize E.G.O. Synchronize E.G.O are relatively small combat pages which then transform the Librarian into a special mode for three turns afterwards. During this transformation, they keep all of the HP/SR/Resistances/Passives of their current Key Page, but their deck is replaced entirely, a new 5-page hand is drawn, and they're given a way to deactivate the transformation afterwards. As such, it's impossible to properly discuss Magic Bullet without looking at its deck.



Firstly, Der Shooty has a trio of Magic Bullet in its deck. This page is a handy Light restoration page, and it's got a single decent ranged die. As far as light regeneration goes, this is an upgraded, Pierce version of Draw of the Sword.



The next page is Silent Bullet, which Der Shooty runs at 2. This is another large single-die page like Headshot or Aiming for Bullseye, but its effect is much better: Sealing an entire Speed Die of the target on the next turn. This opens up a point of attack for the entire team on the next turn, letting us pour on one-sided attacks while also preventing the enemy's offense. It works especially well with…



Mass Attacks.

Der Shooty has a trio of Mass Attacks, two Inevitable Bullet and a Flooding Bullets. Flooding is probably too costly unless we can find a way to stack 3 or so Power onto it, but Inevitable is very well priced for what it does, letting us have a cheap and reliable Mass Attack. It's very easy to open up a helpless die in an enemy with Silent Bullet, and then follow up by targeting it with one of these MAs for guaranteed damage.



Lastly, Desynchronize is a pair of Block dice that will forcibly end the transformation early, in the event that your opponent suddenly has an immunity to Pierce damage or something. It exists.

Ultimately, Magic Bullet is the sort of E.G.O that needs to have a dedicated Librarian to use. It gets much better when paired with things like Wedge and Singular Strike, and the ability to spam Mass Attacks for 2-3 turns out of every 4 is deceptively powerful. It really demands a specific sort of deckbuilding, as well: any Librarian regularly picking up the GUN doesn't have to worry much about their deck's draw power, but Light regeneration will become much more important.

As with most options that fundamentally change the balance of deckbuilding, I really like it.

Final Thoughts

Yesod is a floor that new players gravitate to because he feels very good to play. A couple of positive early interactions snowball into powerful Abnormality Pages that make later clashes into a curbstomp. On top of this he specializes in Blunt pages, something the game really likes giving us right now. His entire playstyle is about grabbing the enemy by the throat, slamming them to the ground, and punching them repeatedly until they can't get up anymore—and he's very good at it.

Even when shoved on the backfoot, Yesod's -2 Abnormality Page selections are strong enough to let him get back into the game, and Metallic Ringing alone is enough to pile Paralysis and Bind onto an enemy with reckless abandon, leaving them open so that the floor's Power stacking potential to render them unable to win any clashes no matter how lucky they get. It's very powerful, and as the game goes on we'll get access to a few key passives that change him from a normal wrecking ball to a balance-destroying force of nature.

…But that can wait. For now, he's effectively the game's easy mode—just load up Blunt dice and throw massive numbers all over the enemy.


_{I really like his belt, to be honest.}

Looks like we're finishing the first layer of receptions next, with the center-right node.

oh, I have some Words about this next reception, mostly just stuff that's kinda silly though~

I remember having a hard time with it, so I'm going to go in with half-memories using Tiphereth's floor and probably stomp all over it effortlessly.

TeeQueue wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 05, 2022 12:25 pm

I remember having a hard time with it, so I'm going to go in with half-memories using Tiphereth's floor and probably stomp all over it effortlessly.

Once you get to the last few receptions in the tier it's more rare to not stomp it all over effortlessly~
It's a bit of a shame but that's just how these things go, especially since this is one of the "could be the first reception you play in this tier" battles IIRC.

Book 32: 8 o'Clock Circus—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Our newest target is the last of the Tier 1 Urban Nightmare receptions, and it uses the books we got from Wedge Office before. Since a loss here would mean having to mess around with E.G.O Phillip again, we'd vastly prefer not to lose.

VIDEO
Music: StoryJinji


Laugh to your heart’s content at the end of a weary life, and maybe you could have a good eternity’s sleep! You never know, regular viewers of ours might get the chance to come on our stage in person! It would be so delightful to join me on this stage, wouldn’t it?! We’ll be back at the same time tomorrow to bring you even more laughter.

Nail your heads, everyone, and have a bloomy splodey night~!

Music: Vaguely Ominous Ambiance. It's not in the OST.


A pair of Corporate Drones wander somewhere mysterious.



See? Told you they were both Corporate Drones.

How could I not be? I’m sick of nitpicks like that already…

Can’t help it. We did make an error…

Think about it, though. Of all the screens, it had to be the one in the farthest corner… And it happened in the darkest nook-cranny at the edge! We can’t possibly check them all with just a measly pair of eyes…

And that’s why you asked me to go for a walk all the way out here?

Well, I needed to clear my thoughts. And you’re the only other smoker in our department.

Aaaand, we’re lost in the woods now?

…You didn’t have to point that out.

You can beat around the bush all you want, but you can’t hide anything from a friend of five years, no? Let’s peep at this in a positive light. We’ll find a way if we keep walking. Besides, it’s been a while since we were in a nice, open area like this.

We’re surrounded by trees, though…

Now remind me again whose fault is it that we got lost?

…Yeah, sorry.

What the hell? I swear I was following the footpath right… And I don’t see anything like a trail anymore.

It’s nighttime. Maybe you got in the wrong direction ‘cause of the dark.



What’s the worst that could happen, getting fired?

Don’t say vicious stuff like that even as a joke! You won’t have to worry about money even if you catch the pink slip, Emma, but I’m not you.

You know what, nevermind… You saw how furious the chief got, yeah? If they were that mad, then they might be preparing documents to fire me already. Or worse, my post could be long gone by the time I get back there…

You can always ask me for help, remember? I told you I can help you reach your dreams. There are things you’re much better at than staring at boring screens all day. Something you have the talent for!

Yeah, yeah~ You’re moving me to tears, buddy o’ pal o’ mine, but I’m not interested in being a doll for the rich to play with~

And I scrapped my dreams ages ag— …Hey! What’s up, stopping like a car before a deer… That’s dangerous, man.

Hey Noah, doesn’t that thing over there… look like a tent?

What? …Huh, it really does. Did someone set up a camp or something?

There might be someone living in there. Let’s check it out.

I’m nervous… You sure you wanna go there?

Who knows? They might be kind enough to tell us a way outta here.

…Whoa, this place is huge. It’s a bit dilapidated, but… It’s much more fascinating close up?

I think I saw something like this in a book… What did they call it… A circ—



This is Oswald.

…GAH!! What the… Who the hell are you!

Oh, are you the owner of this place? We apologize… We dropped by to see if there’d be someone here to give us directions.

Oh, that sure sounds like a troubly-trouble… There’s no need to be sorry, no. This is the 8 o’Clock Circus, giving smiles to the smelly City dwellers! Let’s skip introductions. My name doesn’t matter too much, does it? We’re long past the archaic era of introducing each other with names and everything~




Oswald is great.

No thanks… Emma, this place is weirding me out. Let’s just skidaddle now…

Oh dearie me! Was I too scary for you!? Hold your worries! I’m but a clown who wishes to rub lemons on everyone’s tongue! And that one over there… seems curious about our circus!

Wow… Check this out, Noah. It’s dark, but I see lots of neat things here. Giant balls, different kinds of instruments… There’s a lion and an elephant, too! And also…

…It’s real. I’ve never seen an actual circus before. The book said circuses like this passed into history long ago…

Care to learn more about us? If you want, I can give you a nice special! A once-in-a-lifetime field trip. I’ve been feeling so stale, too!

…He keeps talking nonsense.

Noah… It’s too dark to find a path, so we might as well…

Sigh… Whatever. I’m doomed to get fired anyway, so you take care of my future.

Haha, you’re such a joker.

What a lovely friendship to behold! Come on in, then. Oh, and watch your feet now~ Hungry flowers might bite you!

Flowers can bite…?



He may seem cold and sharp, but on the inside, he’s actually soft and warm like a fur coat. He’s not a bad lion! People have left a good amount of 5-star reviews about Mr. Lion’s belly, you see~?

Hmm… This lion’s teeth are oddly round and blunt.

What are you on about, Noah? They’re so sharp, it could hurt you if you touched it… Are you too tired right now?

…Maybe I mistook them for something else in the dark. I don’t really… wanna get into its belly, though…

And this is Mr. Elephant! He makes the loudest noise in the circus. For realsies… He loves to sing so much all the time, we had to give him a candy to keep him quiet! I don’t want anyone reporting us for noise pollution!

This is in the middle of nowhere, I don’t think there’s anyone who—

Don’t be a silly moose! Mrs. Ant would be sad to hear that. We have a massive ant nest beneath us. And we also have Ms. Mermaid, Ms. Hexagonal Cone Hat, Mr. Knife, and many, many others! Ms. Mermaid joined us because she was sooo scared of the sea. She’s very glad to be on land now!

That’s strange, I thought mermaids are usually supposed to live in the oceans or underwater…

Harumph, this is why I don’t deal with people who have cold rice for brains! We’re talking about basic knowledge here. The uppitymost very basics. Don’t you know that living in the sea makes you fish food?

I mean, mermaids are fish too…



Fish eat fish all the time!!!

…Phew, getting so worked up is out of character for me! Where was I?

…

Wow, Mister Lemon Clown, these are the coolest circus crew I’ve ever seen! They’re… special. I feel like something about them speaks to my heart.

Don’t tell me you actually like this screwy tent. I’m not taking that crap.

Don’t be so sour, Noah. It’s such a wonderful place, can’t you see? And they can make people smile through tough times like this. A circus… I wanna see it, too.

Forget it. This is just insane… You can stay here if you want, I’m leaving.

But this is a rare chance…

Ah, you want to join us?

Pardon? Um… No, actually… I just wanted to watch your show.

Aw, that’s a big shame… Everyone couldn’t understand my words and actions and left me, one by one. My secret pals were the only ones who stayed with me ‘til the end! The mermaid who snacks on jelly beans inside seashells… The hamster who’s so tall, he can drink clouds off the sky…

Oh dear…



It was the outrageous, head-blowing wish to frolic with my secret pals! So I am now living the dream of my life, joyfully performing at the circus with my friends every night.

Joy… Dreams…

It’s rather obvious that you’d be attracted to us! I do understand your feeling, oh I do.

Can I really be happy… if I joined your circus?

You don’t say! Every moment of your life will be filled to the brim with the thrilling taste of pepper!

I’m gonna be fired from J Corp. for my mistake anyway… I don’t wanna go back to the Backstreets, either… Even if I got to keep my job, I don’t want to set foot in that living hell again.

I… I just wanted to watch the world and the skies from a higher place. I know that my dream was an empty one… I knew there was no way I could achieve it as long as I was at the bottom. And when I finally scratched and clawed my way up… I just stare at boring screens until I get fired.

Noah… If there’s anything I can help you with…

What? Hahaha… You’re still making a mockery of me… It’s always money, money, money. You say you can solve my problems with money; do you think everything will work out by simply throwing money? Why did you even follow me into that shitty department in the first place? You could live fine without it. No, you know what, just… Just forget it all.



…

Oh, yikes and a half… The mood doesn’t seem so bright here! You can’t join us if you’re hanging out with those meanie tears, y’know? Aha! I’ll help you say goodbye to those mean friends flowing down your cheek. We’ll be friends with each other when you open your eyes! Now then, let’s…

Music: StorySimgak


We jump ahead to after… whatever Oswald did is done.



No worries. You’ll get used to it soon enough! A present for an observant and curious friend, who wanted to witness the variety of the world from a higher place! I gave you eyes that can glance at everything, from ants on the floor to spiders on the ceiling. Consider this a welcoming gift from us!

Wha… What does that even… Emma… Where’s Emma!





You were right. I lived a sheltered life, so I don’t know much. The scenery I saw would simply pass by. I’ll lift you up. You’ll be able to see more things from the new heights.

I’m glad that you seem to like our gifts! I have one favor to ask of you two, however.

What’s that?

Actually… Bad guys came into our circus tent some time ago and swallowed my friends whole! Poor Ms. Hippo and Mr. Ball… I was so saddened that day, my frown was as long as three sausages… And my big and magnificent palace was ruined thanks to them.

That’s awful. Who were the culprits?



Our splendid circus had never failed once, but for some reason, we couldn’t move their hearts… I want to know! WHHHHY!!!

…Oh no no no, whew! I’m wondering how they didn’t pop their flowers despite my cute tricks and acts. If we can read their books… Then I could hold a circus that’s so entertaining, even people like them will shake their salts, don’t you think?

…It feels uncertain, but if the way is written in their books, we’ll be able to hold an even grander circus.

Is it really okay to enter that place, though…

Oh, how compassionate of you! I knew I could count on you two. Sniffle, sniffle… If you manage to return, we should throw a party to celebrate it! We’ll feast on otherworldly delicacies like the sea cocktail garnished with a piece of a cloud, and lion’s mane chili fries!

Sounds promising. What do you say, Emma… Shall we go?

If that’s what you want.

Music: Vaguely Ominous Ambiance


Phew, now I have a lot to prepare! First off, for the duo… I should prepare a hefty feast that’ll make their teeth groan! I need to recruit more members for my circus… Practice with Ms. Mermaid’s scale mane, and then…



Oh, so that's where he ended up.



I was… fighting inside the Library…

…

…Hahaha! Are you perhaps a new clown? Or are you simply here to watch our show?

No, I…

It’s good either way! Holding a teensy little performance for our jesting visitor should be as easy as chewing cold pie-flavored gum. This is… the 8 o’Clock Circus! We bring the bestest of the smells to City people who have lost their flower stalks.

What…? The 8 o’Clock… Circus?

Music: Lobby


I’m curious about what that nutjob of a clown is up to next. The Invitation cuts things off at odd timings, it could’ve shown us just a bit more…

He’s not today’s guest, so it doesn’t matter much, does it? And the Invitation simply shows us what we need to see, so don’t complain about it.

…Fair enough.

Putting that aside, a tall guy and a guy with four eyes, literally… Both look fancy, but neither seems normal.

One who needs help from another person to stand high… I’m not sure I understand.

Well, you don’t have much choice unless you’re born to a rich family, you know? Being a gifted child won’t matter if you don’t have the money to support that gift.

Are you trying to say that hard work alone cannot earn recognition?

That’s usually the case for people who aren’t blessed with pure fortune.

If what you said is correct, having more money would lead to happiness. But the man we saw was angry about the idea, rather than being happy. Why is that?

It differs from person to person. Could be his last bit of pride, could be the fear of earning the reputation of a greedy man who only makes friends for their wealth… On top of that, it kind of hurts, too. As delightful as it is to have someone who can gladly give you money to help… It can make you feel upset and slighted at the same time.

Upset about what?

About how you had to give up everything you dreamed for because you weren’t wealthy enough, and your friend is readily able to give away the money you needed like it’s chump change to them. And you’re basically dragging that rich friend into your messy life by getting financial help from them, wouldn’t that be morally distressing?



Whatever the case. It’s about how the receiver takes it, regardless of the intention.

…I see.

Going back to our guests who willingly joined the freak show… I guess they were that desperate to achieve their dreams, huh?

This world surely is big enough to fit in all kinds of weird freaks… I can understand wanting to have a refuge from reality somewhat. Even then, thinking about what kind of hideous body might be hiding under that beautiful clothing… Geh, it’s making me retch.

Curb your unnecessary curiosity. You should focus on the reception for now.

Music: Entrance


No, it’s right ahead of us. Take slow steps just in case. For a place that’s supposedly full of monsters… It’s actually rather quiet and clean.

I think this place is big and fancy… though not as much as our circus. My head isn’t bumping on any ceilings.



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

Hello!!! Can you hear my voice~!!!

…Yes, I can hear you loud and clear. There is no need to shout at the top of your lungs.

She’s right below us, buddy o’ pal. And think of me who has to hear your voice up close.

Heh heh, sorry. I thought people down under wouldn’t hear me well since I’m so tall. Angela! If we manage to get all the books we need… I’ll invite you to our next performance!

I’m sure those books contain the secret to making more people happy… With that, we’ll be able to turn your cold stare into a hearty smile.

We promise to bring you happiness, so please!! Look forward to it.

…Yes. I appreciate your sentiment.

May you… find your book in this place.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Stop me if you've heard this one before: Two people get made into a single codependent monstrosity and head to the Library…

Videos

8 o'Clock Circus 1








Oh my god, there are two of him.

Two of who?

Mr.Black. They've got to have been separated at birth or something.

Nope! Only child. Besides, there's no way I have anything in common with that clown!

You're both weird, smile-obsessed crazies.

Bah! In the most vague of terms, perhaps! There's a fundamental difference between us, good sir!

You eat people, and he stitches them into new friends?

He bases his worth on making others smile! I simply smile for myself! That's all!

That doesn't make any sense.

It makes perfect sense! If you base your self-worth on making someone else smile through your tomfoolery, then eventually you're going to wind up disappointed! Instead, I smile first and always, and allow the mood to infect my fellow man! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

So it's like… Lead people, don't force them?

Precisely! See? He gets it!

Well, I don't.

To put it another way… You never smile! The mere presence of a person like you would render a clown like that unable to function! He'd have a honking terrible time! HAHAHAHAHA!

So… you're saying you're the superior clown.

Something like that!

…Yeah. I still don't get it.

Book 32: 8 o'Clock Circus—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


These three have some minor tweaks, but ultimately are business as usual for the key pages in question.



And then there's Rose—this is a proper build, using Leap as drawtech and otherwise building power for Ripple and Rip Space. Will of the Prescript isn't necessary, just playing Leap somewhat frequently is plenty to keep our hand full enough to make plays.

All set.

You know, you could leave this to my floor. We're all cleaned up now, so…

You guys were doing everything by yourselves while we were still asleep. I'm not going to let anyone say I didn't pull my own weight.

At least let us watch over you, then?

That's… fine. You can do that much, I guess.



Emma and Noah aren't alone today, they've brought along a number of friends.





All three of them have their own weaknesses and serve as extra targets and guaranteed attacks for the enemy. They're performers, sure, but they aren't the stars of this circus.



Emma and Noah here are our main opponents, and also our second Shimmering enemy. They can't be Staggered as long as they're together, reducing their SR will only split them apart. Aside this mechanic (and Emma's weaknesses cranking through the roof should Noah be defeated), their only notable ability is +1 Power on Blunt Dice.

It's a good amount of HP to burn through, but our opponents are thankfully simple enough that it shouldn't be too much trouble.



Music: TipherethBattle01


Everyone, stay sharp! We don't know what our enemy can do!

Why, we can perform, miss!

That's just a little girl, Emma. She seems angry, so there's only one thing to do.



Let's bring the circus to them!

Yes, Noah. I'm sure she'll love it here.

This reaction… it's just like what happened with Tomerry!

Yeah, I got that!

Be careful, you guys!

Music: The 8 o'Clock Circus


Dear friends, let's put on a performance and get the books we came here for!

Yes… I'm looking forward to it.

Ohhhh jeez. That music.

So we're fighting clowns… the most dangerous of all circus performers.

The heck is a circus, anyways?

Ancient groups of performers who infiltrate towns under the guise of doing business by showing off a memorable performance. Their true motives were sinister…

Thievery. Assasination. The distribution of the addictive substance known only as "Circus Peanuts…" Don't underestimate these guys, no matter what. Behind those smiles are true killing machines.

I'm not sure that's quite right…

Now that's dangerous..! Everyone, stay on your toes!



As long as Noah is on Emma's shoulder, every turn he'll use a Ranged Combat Page against us. Juggling is a relatively bulky single attack that inflicts Paralysis. Pretty standard.



Let the Show Begin is a relatively weak page, with only an Evade Die followed by a pair of small Blunt dice. It's also the most dangerous page Emma and Noah can play in the early stages—its two Blunt dice both give their entire side +1 Strength on the next turn. It's an important page to completely stop whenever it comes out.



Lastly there's Circus Knives. It's a basic combat page. The numbers aren't great, only a little bit better than Tiphereth's 0-cost Light restoration page.



Each of Emma and Noah's animal friends only use a single combat page for the entire fight. Lion's page is Lion's Claws: a trio of Slash attacks whose final die gives +1 Strength to the ally with the highest HP—in practice, this will nearly always be Emma.



Monkey uses Unicycle Act, a 4-hit Combat Page which can be easily stopped by any decent Evade die, but is otherwise guaranteed to poke us for a bit of damage. Its second die gives +2 Protection to the ally with the highest HP—again, this will nearly always be Emma.



Lastly, Elephant uses Bulky Charge. It's a trio of Blunt attacks, and the middle die deals a bonus 5 Stagger damage on hit. All three animals are somewhat dangerous, but ultimately none of them are major threats if we engage them in clashes. They're just there to punish us if we try to drill down Emma and Noah quickly.



So what should I do? Acrobatic tricks?

Just blow through them with the new body the Ringmaster gave us. I'll do juggling tricks from up here, and our friends will all help out too.

Do whatever you like… it won't matter against our skills!

Oh, that's no good!



You shouldn't be so tense! We're new performers, but we really do want you to smile.

Yield My Flesh… lost a clash? :monocle:

This might enable us to do something cool!*

_{*it does not.}



Leave my partner alone!

A partner..? I thought you were all monsters.

Only technically. We were humans once, same as you.

Oh, we're still humans. We've just shuffled things around a little.

\

The monkey's under control, boss!

Good work.



The Lion's also… done..!

…Less good.



But at least I got the Elephant no problem! I'm feeling in top form today!

The blue light at the edges of the screen here indicates Dimensional Sections activating. The Elephant is normally fairly tanky, but this just lopped off a full ninth of its health as bonus damage.

No, miss, you can't do that! That's dangerous.

Where?

_{Two more steps forward, duck down, swing… now!}



Piss off, you freaky clowns!

A young lady like yourself should be watching the show, not engaging in it.

She's a young lady? I thought we were fighting monsters.

What I am doesn't matter! What matters is that I'm kicking your ass!



Hey boss, your emotions broke through and called on our friends!

About time they woke up. Who needs it?

Leave it to me.



Channeling love! Magical Chinely, limiter unlock!

Ohhhmygosh I have to try that. Dibs on the next one!



Setting them aside… see anything up there, you guys?

Looks like their act is a bit one-dimensional. It's more of the same from here.

Dawns, Noons, Dusks, and now this Midnight—they're all ultimately singleminded in their approach.

They were only just transformed—they probably don't have a lot of tricks yet. Finish them quickly, and it shouldn't be a problem.

And make sure to pet the kitty!

…Yeah, no.

Aww. Its fluffiness readings are off the charts!

They are! Who wouldn't want to pet that cute, fluffy Mr. Lion?

That yellow woman on the other side.

Where? I can't see…

There, diagonally.

Like this?



Got her! Great job, Emma.

That didn't seem fair..!

Shouldn't have insulted a cute kitten.

Whatever. It's payback time!

She's coming in close, and…



Now!

OOF!

I felt something!

You hit her cleanly. Now, next—



I don't think so!

Woooah..!

Hey everyone! The main body can't see, so if we get in close he can't defend himself!



Great catch, Tylana! Now just let me smack this monkey around, and…



There we go. Omni! Chinely! You guys done?



Just finished! You know how hard it is to stop a charging elephant?!



Can't be much worse than stopping a raging Lion! But the power of Love made it plenty easy.

Right. In that case, let me try powering up, too!

That's not how that ability even works…

When someone's being delusional like that, it's best to just leave them to it.

I don't want to hear that from you.



Hope descends! Channeling Justice—



I can't hold it any longer! Sorry, buddy!

Emma..!

Whenever we reduce Emma and Noah's SR to 0, a short two frame animation plays.



Oof..!

Are you alright?!

Yeah.. yeah, I'm fine.



There's a new target. Malkuth..?

We're already on it!



He's relatively weak on his own, but he's going to jump back on his friend's back ASAP.

Got it, thanks.

_{Magical Omni, limiter unlock…}

Upstaged… that's rough, pal.



While broken up, Noah will use Wild Card to try and recover HP. It's yet another Ranged page, but its multiple dice makes it more vulnerable to being broken by Omni's huge single die options.



Emma, meanwhile, breaks out Sharp Nails. It's a powerful offensive page, on par with the objet d'art page Repressed Flesh from the Puppets—although the die variety makes it a little harder to power up with passives.

Tylana is going to get her face pushed in a little, but that's fine.



Because Tiphereth is going to go absolutely buck wild.

OverSpace is a 5 Light combination of two pages, Overcharge and Rip Space. While Tiphereth has 0 Charge to her name right now, Overcharge will first attack into Emma's Counter die, destroying it and giving her 10 Charge immediately. Then, Rip Space will clash against Combat Knives. She has 10 Charge, which is all spent to immediately give a full power Rip Space. Meanwhile, she has a Block counter die in case someone attacks her.



I'm going all out. Tylana, cover me.

Ma'am!

And meanwhile, try to take out those animals.

Emma, they've got a really scary look in their eyes.

Ah… I can picture it perfectly in my head. Don't worry, you just come back over to me. I'll swing as big as I can in the meanwhile.



Of course. But first, a trick for little miss thinks-she's-an-adult!

I'm older than you!

Now now, little lass. If you calm down, we can give you Lion's mane cotton candy!

That sounds really good…

Hey, can I get some of that?

Audience members only, I'm afraid…

Sorry to butt in, but it'll be a bit hard to serve that, guests.



I've already defeated that Lion of yours.

Mr. Lion..! I can't hear him breathing anymore.

He's turned into a book… Just like the invitation said.

Oh, is that what it said? I never saw… Ah!



Not very nice, approaching me from behind so quietly.

Shoot… how'd you know!

I just thought that that was where I'd be if I wanted to attack me.



It's not nice to pick on the blind, though. I'll have to punish you a bit for that.

Gh—boss, look out! This guy's got some serious punch!

Behind you, Emma!



It doesn't matter if you know! I overloaded my gauntlets!

Gauntlets? But this feels like being ripped apart…

She's using WARP tech… it must be what makes the trains run.

Then I can counter by-



Like hell…



Can you do anything to stop me now!!

Ghuuuh…

Emma? Don't worry, I'll come to you.



I've taken care of the Elephant!

And the monkey?

Alive, but only just!

Good effort. I'll need a minute, so take care of yourselves.



At the end of the turn, the animation plays in reverse—we can delay this by Staggering Noah, but we focused on Emma this time.



I made it back to you, buddy.

Great! And… I'm sorry.

You're sorry?



I can't… move at all.

This is because if Emma is Staggered when Noah rejoins him, both lose their entire turn.



I'll handle the monkey—you guys look tired, and watching my stylin' dodge moves will help with that.

Is that how it works..?

With that Abnormality he's got supporting him… yes.

Then I shall rain swift, absolute justice upon those clowns.

My plan this turn is to have Chinely dodge all four attacks from the monkey in order to restore a lot of SR to Tylana and Omni, both of whom have taken a beating. It almost works perfectly.



Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the monkey's Bleed stacks.



My my. Seems like it only had one attack left in it at all.

So the plan was a complete failure! But at least you tried, isn't that what counts?

An enemy's down. That's not a failure at all!



This guy's a lot tougher than a normal enemy… Whatever that clown did to him changed his body a lot.

Of course. It's all so that I can support my friend like I've wanted.



While I normally would support such friendship… my sword cries out for the blood of my enemies. Dimensional sever!

That guy's not in WARP gear at all… how did he do that?

My arm contains the dark powers of a true blademaster, who took a bit of the souls of everyone he's ever killed with him. When those powers are unleashed, no one can stand before me.

Holy crap! I didn't realize we had received any guests like that!

You shouldn't listen to what Agents say in the middle of battle like that. They babble incoherently, as the fighting breaks their fragile sanity.



And my followup! Destructive Eye Serenade!!

You see? Gibberish.

I get it!



With Emma and Noah as the only possible targets, the fight's become very simple. They aren't able to put out enough actions to beat all of us before we take out their remaining HP.

Alright, team. Good job while I was cooling these things off. Let's finish this quickly, shall we?

On that note, I'm feeling like I'm in excellent form.

What are you about to try?



Something awesome. I can feel it.

Your funeral.

I'll be fine. They don't find the bodies here, anyways.



Emma and Noah's patterns don't change once their allies are gone, so the rest of this fight is just beating up a couple of friendly clowns without repercussion.



Hey!!

Nailed it. Thanks for the perch, good buddy.

…Mostly without repercussion.



I'm tired of this show! Just become a couple of books already, would you?!

It's so sad, how resistant the little lady is to our charms…

These bodies are so colorful and fun, too. Why won't they show us those smiles?

It's a true shame…

One's coming from right ahead!



Got it, pal!

Ugh… That combo attack is so troublesome..!



I did what I could, Chinely. Let's see your big move.

Right! Here goes!



Shi Association, Section 2, Ultimate Technique! Boundary of D—Ack! Bit my tongue!

…Noah?

I dunno what he was doing either. Right in front of you, though…



Thanks again!

I guess some things never change…



I'll clean up here, so get it right next time, okay?

Yes ma'am!



Emma, I'm falling again-!

Just hold on… You can find your way back to me, right?

Yeah, pal. I'll be right there with you soon!



One of the upsides of facing enemies with Shimmering is that they have a very limited number of pages they can play every turn. This means that once Emma hits Emotion Level 4 like this, we still don't have to worry about any additional attacks. Instead, we get a free Speed Die to focus one-sided attacks on! It's a very advantage to have, but I'll take it.

I think with one more push you could finish this off.

Those fixer instincts of yours talking, I take it?

No… they're just both almost dead.

Well, you heard him. Don't hold back, team!



My cards..!

They're too slow!



Emma, where are you? I can't see past him—

I'll be right there to help, don't worry.



Not if I send him flying first!

Pal… one of them's coming! Look out!

That's fine. I'll just swing right now, and…



Right over my head!

Really? Oh… I guess you were the shortest one, after all.



Aha! I got you this time!



Oh no you don't, villain! Through the power of love, you're going to meet your end!

But we're trying to bring everyone smiles… isn't that love as well?



Hell if I know. I just go where I'm pointed.

Ahah… hah… I guess it was too soon for us to perform after all, huh pal..?



This time for sure, right?

The enemy's defenseless! Now's our chance for—

We're not doing it!

Aww, you're killing me here, boss!



I'll take care of them. You guys start cleaning up.

Roger that.



You've gotta practice if you want to beat us.



Can we do a victory pose, at least..?

…Fine… As long as it's short.

Awesome!



The 8 o'Clock Circus is basically just a question of managing the chaos long enough to take down the animals and focus on Emma and Noah properly. This late into Urban Nightmare, they shouldn't be any trouble.

Music: Result


What am I going to do with this hat..?

Iunno, wear it?

Good work, you guys. As always.

Of course, of course. And I'll definitely hit Boundary of Death next time.

Or you could use a normal attack…

C'mon! Where's the romance in that?

I still don't really get what you mean by that, but if you keep it up I'm sure you'll do it someday.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


Anyways, about the man who turned those two people into freaks…

You think he has something to do with the Blue Reverb’s gang of “musicians”?

It’s too early to make such a conclusion. His purpose of sending people here seemed different from that of the Blue Reverberation and those related to him. However, there’s something about him that differentiates him from ordinary humans. He could be a being of similar essence to the Blue Reverberation’s accomplices in some ways…

Neither of them look normal, that I can say for sure.



With Emma and Noah safely on our shelves, we can finally do Chesed's first Abnormality. Aside from that, we've also got the two remaining Urban Nightmare options available to us. Things are heating up in the Library for sure!

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"The city still remained a beautiful place where the emerald roads sparkled bright as ever."

If you're worried about me being cryptic… As long as you trust me, I think I can give you the more succinct options you crave, now. (Smiling Faces)

I would like to hear more about this Ms. Sun, though. Is she another performer? (Phillip and Oswald)


Videos

8 o'Clock Circus 2

New Key Pages



*Cannot be equipped.

New Combat Pages

So you know how one of the biggest downsides to ranged builds at this point is that they're stuck with the mediocre-outside-of-specific-circumstances Full Stop keypages? have some mediocre low-cost attacks, something that's not useful since they can't even be spammed since they're single use. No new ranged keypages here~ at least you get the mental image of the professional assassins shooting playing cards and juggling balls out of their very real guns~
Also I love Noah's key page, and it's important to note that the single passive it has was a buff it was given close to release, so it used to be useless even for attributing.

Appendix 25: 8 o'Clock Circus

Emma’s Page wrote: Each Nest has its Singularity. For example: W Corp. has WARP, a fast and reliable means of transportation that’s guaranteed to deliver you to your destination on time; F Corp. has Fairies, which can unlock anything that’s considered ‘locked’, physically or conceptually; G Corp. has spheres that can control gravity, and so on… J Corp’s Singularity is pretty much the opposite of F Corp’s: it’s a technology that can lock and seal something that’s open or exposed on a conceptual level. Of course, the range or size of things that can be locked will depend on how much you pay. Cheap ones are mostly used for locking small boxes and other personal objects, while expensive ones can seal an area of space so nothing can come inside, or even lock a person’s body to prevent it from being dissected. The technology has a pretty wide range of applications. You can lock basically anything that’s open in one sense or another. Could it be that this Singularity was created because our Nest, where J Corp. is located, is a Nest of gambling that holds a smart few secrets that shouldn’t be leaked… Beats me. Not like anything good will come out of knowing the real reason, anyway…

Noah’s Page wrote: Corp. owns the Nest of gambling. Every person here devotes their life to those insane games of chance. Emma and I check the security cameras placed in affiliated facilities and spot anyone who cheats. We get hundreds of calls each day. Please check if the person in a dark red coat at N-9281-R231 used a sleight of hand to switch cards, I think my table was rigged at Q-198-OF1929, I think they’re using marbles that weigh 0.1g more in the roulettes at K-1928-R029, etc… A variety of creative and absurd calls flood the lines all the time.

What’s so difficult about watching the security feed all day, you ask? Sure, you could think that if you’re unfamiliar with how things work here. But imagine having to check the feeds for tens and even hundreds of rooms that have ten cams each. The workload is spread over multiple people, of course, but each of us still has dozens of screens to stare at, it makes my eyes spin like a top. Besides, some people are sneaky enough to pull trickery off camera, and some incidents might occur during maintenance hours. This job is such a busy one, two eyes just aren’t enough. When you’re checking one case, another call comes in, when you’re done checking that, more calls wait for you… The shortage of manpower is driving me crazy, I swear.

Additionally, there's a unique effect for if Noah is defeated and goes back onto Emma's back.

Here it is:



The screen itself gets a dark purple filter around it.



And Emma's sprite changes to reflect his friend's current state.

MiiNiPaa's Shimmering Corner

As for Emma+Noah, they are not that interesting pattern wise.

Emma uses Circus Knives and a second card (Let the Show Begin, another Circus Knives, Sharp Nails, rotating every round). Add Juggling if Noah is on him.

Emma has 3 Speed die if Noah is on him and 2 otherwise. If Noah died, one speed dic will be broken. If Emma has EL 4, it does not matter, as he will just use EL dice instead of broken one. All resists are set to Fatal if Noah died.

In other news, we have a winner. It's time for Chesed's floor to strut their stuff in an Abnormality Battle!

Social Sciences—721.87—Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom

Music: Lobby


Chesed's sporting an early version of an interesting idea I had: we use 0-cost pages with single Slash dice to work as both a Light and (more importantly) Draw engine, and pump them through the roof with Single Strike. This lets us feed into drawing and playing Overthrow as frequently as possible, to power them up further. Moulinet is there as the early build lacks any real kill power, it's just doing really good single hits over and over and over. He's using Bzzz Bzzz for the first turn advantage, and Lion's Fist because I assigned the wrong passive when I meant to put on High-level Acrobatics I am actually a genius and this move is inspired.

This should do. Are you two all suited up?



Of course! I went with something that'd make me functionally invincible.

Twee is playing a variation on the bog-standard Blunt deck for this point in the game—instead of using Will of the Prescript to serve as drawtech, she's instead using Forceful Gesture and Repressed Flesh as her drawtech. This should keep her hand full while letting her crush anything that gets in her way with her massive Blunt dice. Puppet Skeleton + the Haulers is the standard passive equipment for this chassis, and it lets Twee heal off what few attacks actually get through her massive dice.



What a coincidence. So did I.

We've seen a build like this on Yujin before, I believe—Your Shield and Liquified Flesh make defense dice very chunky when added to Eye of Death/Enervation's global +1. The main change here is mixing in Automated Movement for the Counter dice to block incoming attacks, and since we're getting free Haste every time we play it I decide to throw in a Flashing Strike.



We're all set to go.

Though if we're going, why don't we make it a little more interesting? Settle things once and for all?

Until the next contest, anyways. What's your idea?

Whoever's in the best condition after the next fight is the new captain.

Sounds good. Chesed?

Oh my, I'm being included too?

Why not? Seems like a good time.

I'll have to try my best to keep up with you two, then~

…Whatever motivates you all, I suppose.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


Seems like the scarecrow's become scarecrows.

So it's a 3-on-3 fight. Balanced enough that it's all down to skills.

In that case, we can't lose.

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom wrote: Wisdom… Give me the wisdom I lack…

I’m fine with detaching the head if it can get better once it comes back together…

My head is all empty… I’m just a dowdy pile of hay…

People often talk without thinking… I could make better use of those brains…

I wonder how it feels to be wise… To know everything…

All three of the Scarecrows Searching for Wisdom have identical stats and tactics, so let's take a peek.



Looking at their passives, we can see the basic structure of the fight. Each Scarecrow has a different timer for Gleaning, so at any given time one of the three will have two speed dice and use Harvest Wisdom with both of them. Using Harvest Wisdom, they attempt to steal pages from our Librarians, and if they do they gain +1 Power to all dice on their next turn for each page they steal. Lastly, if our Librarians have no pages in hand they're instantly Staggered.



Seems something's been granted to us. Wisdom..? It's probably key to this; I'll use it.

Harvest Wisdom itself is a 4-attack page that gets +4 power if it's not clashing against Wisdom. On hit, each die will steal one page in our hand (prioritizing any copies of Wisdom the librarian may have) as well as healing the Scarecrow for 5-10 HP. Whenever a Scarecrow is using Harvest Wisdom, we get special dialogue.

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom wrote: Give your wisdom to me…

I want to be smart like the others…

The wisdom to move forward! Give it to me!

That's a given—these Abnormalities are like a puzzle, so anything we're handed is key to the task at hand.

All three of our Librarians are given one copy of Wisdom to start with each. It's a 1-cost page that has four 1-1 Blunt dice that perfectly negate Harvest Wisdom's attacks. Each Wisdom can only be used once, however, so it's important to get more. How do we do that?




That's where the other two Scarecrows come in. Struggle for Wisdom is a basic offensive page with a decent evade die followed by two smaller offensive dice. The offensive dice have a unique ability: When Blocked or Evaded, they grant the person who defeated them one copy of Wisdom. This does not happen if we stop them with offensive dice. Because of this, pages with defensive dice in slots 2 and 3 are really useful. We have no pages that meet this criteria.



Make sure to check your noggins, you two. It wouldn't do to have all our smarts sucked out by those things.

No worries. I've fought mind flayers hundreds of times… these are the same thing, but they don't even have face tentacles to hold your head down.

You've fought what, now? When?

In uh… tactical simulations that I held with my teammates.



I remember those. You and the others having a lot of fun with that map and dice set.

So it was just a game, eh?



More like THE game! You can do anything you can think of. Period!

Twee's +2 to all Blunt dice turns Wisdom from a series of tied clashes into a free 12 Damage and Stagger Damage to the Scarecrow. When we include the 20 Stagger Damage from clashing Harvest Wisdom with Wisdom, this attack alone rips off just over half of the Scarecrow's SR.



Sounds liberating… But you've gotta' train your body too, or it won't be able to keep up with what you envision.

The +1 Power to all dice that Sweet Pea gets makes her Wisdom deal a total of 28 Stagger Damage as well, for a perfect Stagger on the Scarecrow from their combination attack.



These aren't our bodies. We just need to pick one that matches our imagination.

Hah… true, true. So once we beat these things, think we'll be able to steal our enemy's minds, too?

When you get down to it that's just our combat pages, no?

Oh yeah. Good point.

Because the Scarecrow failed to get any of our pages, there's more unique lines.

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom wrote: You liar… You promised to make me wiser!!!

You… don’t look like you need your wisdom… Just give it to me…!

Why aren’t you… giving me any of that wisdom…

Chesed uses his wisdom to stop this copy of Harvest Wisdom, and his Lion's Fist passive will give all of its dice a +1 to force damage through as well—even when I mess up and select the wrong thing, it somehow winds up working in our favor.

This does lead us to the crux of this fight: We're now completely out of Wisdom, and there's one more attack coming our way. How do we deal with it?



Counter dice! Sweet Pea's +3 to defensive dice will make her counter-evade into a guaranteed 6+, ensuring the enemy can't actually touch her.



Meanwhile, the last Scarecrow is using Rake Seeking Wisdom. The first die gives a copy of Wisdom if blocked/evaded, while the second applies Disarm and Bind on hit, and the third die is an Evade die. Because of this, Forceful Gesture is ideal to handle this page—if things go well, Twee will get another copy of Wisdom to help us out next turn.



Hey, Sweet Pea? You've got one coming at you.

Don't worry about me, Tweeds. I've got a plan.



A plan?



Well, I couldn't stop it—let's hope it's a good one.

Oh, it's a great plan.



When it attacks…



I need to bash its face in!

Huh. Didn't see that coming.

Yujin's block die that I completely forgot existed winds up Staggering the Scarecrow, rendering my preparation completely pointless.



Guess that means it's getting the beatdown next, right?

That seems to be the best plan.

Right. If we keep up the rotation, they won't be able to lay a hand on us. And that means, we win.



Hey… isn't that usually my plan?

Isn't blocking them head-on with an invincible shield mine?

I'm glad my successor turned out to be someone tough. Chesed's a bit of a hands-off boss, so the team needs someone who can get things done.

Of course I was hands-off. You were all going to die soon enough anyways, so why bother making your lives any harder~?

Does that mean you're going to be trying harder now that we're here together?

Of course. Not that you two need much help~

Should the Scarecrow ever successfully steal one of our pages, then we get unique dialogue about that as well!

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom wrote: I feel much smarter… I can know anything now…

Good… Very good… I’ll be smarter the more I eat, right…?

Have I become wiser…? Maybe I’ll be more than a stack of hay…

The plan here is more of the same—Sweet Pea will use Flashing Strike to stuff the first Harvest Wisdom. Twee will bonk the remaining Scarecrow with a weak attack to keep it off of the others, before recovering by using Wisdom on the Scarecrow to Hauler back her lost health.

Meanwhile, we pour damage onto the Staggered Scarecrow.



Sorry, Mr. Scarecrow. You're not nearly fast enough to keep up with me.

Be careful not to run out of options and get tagged!



Don't have to worry about me, Tweeds! I'm two steps ahead of these guys.



Ghh! Ran out myself.

Too bad. Looks like I'm winning.

Don't bet on it!



I can regenerate faster than these guys can hit me!

Aww, c'mon! That doesn't count!



Don't see why not. You're both still squeaky clean and ready to go.



Fine then. I'll just keep dodging them, and we'll see who wins in the end.

Wouldn't have it any other way!

I'll clean up after you guys, so enjoy yourselves.

With no more Wisdoms in hand, it falls to Sweet Pea to handle the entire Harvest Wisdom Scarecrow herself. This will put her Light down to 1, but Twee is going to Forceful Gesture another Rake Seeking Wisdom to set us up for the next turn, when we should be able to use Faint Memories alongside it to handle the next set. In this fight, managing the Harvest Wisdom Scarecrow is the most difficult part. If we can do that then they can't set up any truly scary turns—their own pages are somewhat lackluster.



This isn't really 'enjoying' myself. I always prefer fighting monsters being more… mystical.

But you're pretty good at it! Isn't that just a waste of talent?



Talent is nice and all, but it's most important to do something you're passionate about.

Exactly, exactly! And for me, that's magic.

Magic? That stuff that doesn't exist?



It might not have been accessible, but it definitely is now. Look around. We're wearing other people's bodies because our forms are technically nonhuman, throwing out attacks we don't know and dodging things we couldn't.

I totally could've dodged this.

But now you need another power to do it. Magic!



We're in mopup mode now, but our strategy hasn't really changed at all. We're starting to feel a bit of a Light crunch, but the three Scarecrows are all on their last legs so things should be done in a turn or two.

Magic… Still not sure this isn't just some Singularity.

You know, there's an ancient law that says there's no difference between the two.

Eh?



How's that work? A Singularity's a Singularity, and Magic's not real.

As our understanding grew, we found things that used to be seen as magic to be something else. Sufficiently advanced technology that could do things we couldn't even fathom. That's how the Wings were created, after all.

Okay… but what's that got to do with this?



The difference between magic and a Singularity is just understanding. So long as someone, somewhere, knows how or why all of this works, it's not really magic anymore. So, Twee, you want to study magic, right?



Obviously!

Then if you ever got to the root of its source… it'd cease to be magic.

…wait… huh?

Tweeds! Scarecrow!



GAH! Boss, you distracted me!

Ahh, my bad, my bad~ I'll get straight to the point, then.

Who's to say that the magic here that Twee wishes so dearly to research isn't just something beyond our current comprehension? We can all see its results now, after all.



Seriously? I guess I can't say it isn't… but what's even the point of worrying about it in the first place?

I think the point is to keep bettering yourself, so you don't wind up like those strawmen over there. Starving for wisdom, they take half-formed thoughts from others to shout out as loudly as they're able.

Which is why they can't ever beat us, right?

Precisely.

So in the end, it's all about trying to gain more situational awareness, eh? Well, that I can get.

I'd thought so. Shall we finish these two off?

Yeah!



The drive to seek wisdom, and the experience to act on instinct. I'm very glad to have both of these elements on our team.



Yeah, well, experience won out this time for sure! Right, Tweeds?



Oh, I wouldn't say that.

Huh?! When did you…

I used the wisdom I managed to seek out earlier. Four hits was more than enough to take care of that scratch.

Then that means… man, another draw?!



It seems so. We're all standing here looking exactly as healthy as we entered~

Another draw… Does that mean we're all the captain, then?

Yes, I suppose it does. I'll leave the sorting to you today, my new co-captains~

Fine, but you'd better make us some coffee afterwards, okay?



Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom is a test of how well we manage the Harvest Wisdom spam, either through using Block/Evade dice to get more copies of Wisdom or through using Evade dice to simply dodge the attack altogether. It's fine to let a couple get through, though, so even blocking it with 3-dice pages is fine as long as they can consistently win clashes.

There was also one last page that didn't show up in this fight, it's their 0-cost option for if they run out of Light entirely.



Till the Soil does not give us Wisdom. We never want to see this page, and I am very happy we didn't..

VIDEO
Music: ChesedStory


Welcome~ Here, lemme help ya.

Whew, can’t believe I actually carried this many books all the way here… Guess I’ve got this servant business down to a science.

You naturally get used to anything in time, after all~ The same goes for drinking coffee.

Mmh… Coffee, huh…

This one should fit your taste better than the last one, I think?

Hmm… Alright, I’ll trust you with this!

Oh~ This one’s sweet, and like, really tasty overall! How should I put it… Yeah, I’ve never had such a classy and dainty coffee before!

Isn’t it~? Gebura also started out with this macchiato, you see.

So this is what a delicious coffee tastes like. I’m over thirty years old, and I’m still learning new things…

I heard they mostly serve coffee with a strong taste of sweetness in the Backstreets to cover up the low quality ingredients.

And some are just plain bitter. I used to drink it when I needed to stay awake or simply kill some time.

I did too~



A warm cup was the only thing that could heat up my lethargic body, listless as lukewarm coffee. I kept forcing myself to work, holding zero expectations.

Must’ve been pretty tiring.

It sure was~ Employees were slaughtered by Abnormalities all the time, and my plans to keep them alive never came to fruition. The coffee slowly cooled down along with my passion.

How about now, did it warm over?

I guess you can say that. This time, it’s steaming hot again like you said, Roland~ I can try a lot of things with everything that’s been given to me. Most of all, I can drink various blends of coffee now.

Though, you still have to follow someone else’s orders?

I made the decision to follow her this time around. And I can actually minimize the damage my fellow librarians have to suffer if I work hard at it. So all in all, I’m feeling motivated, you see?

You’ve got quite the flexible mindset, huh.

Everything’s better than before.



From who? Our Miss Library Director?

It’s hard for me to believe, of course, but I sometimes think she might have done this for us.

Eh, I’m not so sure. Angela’s goals and where her anger comes from seem pretty clear to me at this point. I don’t think there’s any mercy in the path she’s trying to take.

Mmh, this macchiato sure is tasty. It’s almost addicting.

I’ll introduce you to other types of coffee from time to time~ Let’s get to know each other little by little.

Fine by me. I’ll look forward to it.

Music: Lobby


Like with Gebura and Tiphereth, no new Librarians just yet. All we get is the Abnormality Pages.



Torn-Off Wisdom is a buff to discard decks, but they've fallen off the radar at this point so for now it's just a good way to wind up without a hand. Theoretically we might be able to do something if we make an entire deck of drawtech and rely on this for Light regen, but… that's a bit nuts.

Gleaning is a straight buff to Stagger damage should the enemy have higher SR than the holder. It's good, because Staggering means victory.

Lastly, there's Rake. Rake lets us play our opponent's pages, but it doesn't work on Shimmering foes and requires us to Stagger the enemy, making it basically a less-good Learn. None of these are particularly bad, but they're not great either.



All done with cleanup, Chesed.

What now? Back to standby?

I'm afraid not. We're on call; your magnificent job just now means we might be going again.

The workday never ends. Alright, I'll get in a good stretch to warm up. You coming, Tweeds?

Yeah, why not?

Next time, on Library of Ruina




"This is a forest full of hearts. No matter how many he cuts down, the forest still remains dense."

Honestly, I didn't expect this one to be here now. (Phillip and Oswald)

Well, whatever you pick this time it's fine. These options won't alter our path at all. (Smiling Faces)


Videos

Chesed 2

The thread has spoken, and Chesed isn't done yet. Time to handle his second Abnormality!

I feel like Torn-off Wisdom would work fairly well if you use the passive from Jeong's Office to draw when you've discarded last turn, in general Chesed has some uh... interesting tech, so I'm looking forward to seeing how his floor can be properly used

hahahaha, same buddy

same :shepface:

Fanart post updated.

I am very tired now, goodnight everyone.

Social Sciences—722.32—Warm-hearted Woodsman

Music: Lobby


Chesed, your floor is required again. Come here as quickly as possible.

Seems like we're up again, huh?

Yep. Let's get to it.

Just one second.



All ready. Let's go, everyone~

This is the only change I made to anyone, and it's just fixing the mistake I made last time. There's no need to change decks for this fight.



You made good time. Are you prepared?

Darn right. Let's do this!

We're professionals, so it should be easy enough.

……Chesed?

Oh, we're all the captain today, ma'am. I'm in charge of the coffee~

Sigh… You lot are ridiculous.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


Oh hey, it's this guy. I remember back in the day how it'd always kill every other guy to visit. Took us forever to figure out why.

Thankfully we had specialists to take care of it for us.

Yeah? Well just don't talk to this one. It'd be a pain in the ass to clean you out of the cavity.

We shouldn't have to clean up this time. Another mercy of Angela's system, I suppose~

Warm-hearted Woodsman wrote: The heart made of lead… was stiff and cold.

I do not want to feel this empty and lonely feeling anymore…

I clutched my empty chest and grieved…

That woman… said machines are built to serve humans… so a heart is not needed…

I require an object… to fill this empty void…

Warm-hearted Woodsman is a fight that's entirely about Light management. It gets a unique buff named Warm Heart, and as long as it's buffed our Light will be refilled fully every turn. It focus-fires one Librarian each turn, preferring those with the highest Light, and for every point of Light our Librarians have, all of its rolls get +1 Power. Any time it defeats something, it gains back 20% of its HP (74 HP in total) and gains 3 stacks of Warm Heart. If it ever runs out of Warm Heart, however, it will be immediately Staggered.

It's lying there empty. So long as it can't put us in there, we won't be in any trouble.

I doubt it'll be that simple.

You think so? Why's that?



Call it a hunch.

The purpose of the Trees is to be killed by Woodsman when it's empty. At the end of this turn, one of them will die and trigger the Woodsman's active mode.



The only page that the Trees play is Help Me!, a Ranged page that can disrupt our Counter dice, but otherwise is unlikely to do anything noteable.



While dormant, all Woodsman uses is Empty Chest, a weak Block die that will instantly defeat an opponent it Staggers. It's unlikely that this effect will ever go off.



Let's seize the opportunity and strike first, while it's defenseless.

Not sure that'll do much good—remember how it heals when it gets a new heart?

Twee never would have seen that, I'm afraid. Still, let's put in the work now. Who knows how it could help us later~?



Woah!

You're dodging a tree, there, Sweet Pea?

This body's way overtuned. I can't help but react to everything, even if it's the rustling of some leaves!

Because Yujin's page automatically responds to the first one-sided attack to come its way, on most turns Sweet Pea will wind up clashing with a Tree. With a +3 on all defensive dice she shouldn't get dinged (5-9 Block vs 3-6 Block), but most normal Yujin builds can take a decent amount of unexpected Stagger damage over the course of a fight because of this.



Hah! Got there in the end, though.



It's a shame you can't just knock it back. That seems effective.

Woodsman's Ineffective Stagger Damage resistances make Staggering it difficult through most means, but the trio of Block dice on this first turn give us a decent chance to stack up some SR damage early on, especially with its 1 Paralysis ensuring it can only roll a 2.



Well, we've done what we can. Let's see what happens, everyone.

That single Block die dealt more than half of the SR damage Woodsman took this turn.



When the Woodsman culls something to give itself a heart, an iron curtain appears over the battlefield for a moment. At that time, it also heals its HP—it's back up to full health already as well. There was no way we'd deal 20% this early, so this was inevitable.



I see it's woken up. The real fight starts here, you two~

Attacking it didn't do a thing to it, in the end.

I'm not so sure about that. Look at its stance. We knocked it a little off guard.

Upon gaining a Warm Heart, Woodsman's quotes change.

Warm-hearted Woodsman wrote: This is… how it feels to have a thumping heart…

The louder the heart echoes… the faster I move…

The kinder the owner of the heart was… the warmer my insides become…

The heart is a peculiar thing… I can laugh now…

It also starts playing real combat pages that we'll have to respond to. Before doing that, though, it's a good idea to check out the Warm Heart status effect itself.



This is because it will raise the maximum possible roll on all of Warm-hearted Woodsman's dice by the number of stacks on Woodsman. Right now that's +3—meaning on occasion its dice can just explode unexpectedly on us. Stacks of Warm Heart don't decay on their own, either, so if we do nothing they'll stay right there.



Warm Pulse is a single large die, with an effect that will lower Woodsman's Warm Hearts by 1 if we beat it in a clash. 5-8 vs 5-7 isn't great odds for us, but given that it's actually a 5-10 after Warm Heart, this is a bit worse than a toss-up.



Don't Take My Heart… on the other hand is a 3-die page whose last die will give Woodsman one Warm Heart stack on hit. While none of the dice on it are dangerous on their own, the explosive quality of Warm Hearts can make this page troublesome anyways—and if it hits us, Woodsman gets even more explosive.



Lastly, Strike of the Axe is a basic offensive page with two perfectly normal dice on it. I've set up Chesed to take some guaranteed damage here, but I'm fine with that. His Slash resistance makes him the best tank in this fight, and I can use any SR damage he takes to my advantage.



Now that it's up and ready to go, let's not hold anything back.

Can't help but notice your eyes are sparkling, Sweet Pea. Care to share with us?

Oh, just an idea. Can you guys draw its attention?

Sure thing.

Over here, then, Mr. Abnormality~



Bweh!

Oooh… facefirst.

It was just there in my way and I couldn't react!

I warned you about the trees, Tweeds.

Min vs max result.



This thing has some weight behind its blade… I couldn't stop it entirely.

That's fine, just keep it busy.



I can only keep its eye on me for a second or two!



Plenty of time.



Not so nice when you're the one getting cut down, huh?!

Boundary of Death goes off for a massive hit on Woodsman's HP. :hellyeah:



I can already feel it slowing slightly. Well executed.

Of course. Even that thing's going to be put off balance by a precision strike to its weakness.



I'll help follow up on the situation, then.

Gleaning is why I wanted Chesed to take a bit of SR damage earlier—the lower his SR is, the longer it'll work on Woodsman. Because we don't have decks that can easily remove all its stacks of Warm Heart, my plan for this battle is to force a Stagger through by taking advantage of Block dice and True Damage effects like this one.



This is usually the part where it gets pissed off and tries attacking rapidly.

It's a good thing you're around now, Sweet Pea. I don't really know the patterns this thing has.

There's nothing guaranteeing they're the same as before, though. Stay on guard.

Now that it has a Warm Heart that it hasn't just yanked, Woodsman's lines change again.

Warm-hearted Woodsman wrote: I cut more and more trees… But this forest… is still dense…

I crammed all I could find into this canister… yet it is… still cold…

I want to be warm… I need something stronger…

My chest will not stop pounding… This is the heart I wanted.

Lumber is Woodsman's kill move, as it's a 4-die offensive page coming from an opponent that can get Power bonuses to all of them, alongside a +3 bonus to the max results. While breaking the first 3 dice in clashes will make the last one weaker, that can be risky. I'm going with Flashing Strike here since its total 6-10 and 6-9 first dice will match nicely against the current 4-9 and 4-8 dice of Lumber. The Evade die at the end, meanwhile, is a chunky 7-10 here—more than enough to handle the rest of the page as long as we spend all of our Light.

Flashing Strike is really good, it turns out.



Hey boss, you said look out… why do you look so relaxed, then?

Oh, that's just because it isn't attacking me. That means I can take it easy and grind through things at my own rate.

Since those trees are looking at the two of you, I'll try another little trick of my own. _{This is gonna' sting.}

Just be careful—we can't lose you.

Aww… finally admitting I'm awesome, huh Tweeds?

Your skills are definitely an indispensable part of this team, fellow captain.



Hey, you hear that y'old tin can? I'm indispensable.

As expected, Flashing Strike manages to completely negate Lumber.



And what kind of a captain wouldn't rise to the occasion when her fellows are depending on her!

Meanwhile, a double-max-roll situation breaks in our favor entirely thanks to Sweet Pea's +3 to defensive dice.



Kh… worth it! All you, guys!

We do pay for it, though. Since this is from DTMH…, we're looking at an extra stack of Warm Heart next turn if things go poorly.



Got your back!

They do not go poorly. This was pure luck—looking at the possible rolls, even with our +1 we were at a disadvantage. The plan was to offset that with the -1 to all die rolls from Forceful Gesture… but sometimes we just win.



I'll join in too, then~

Gleaning puts in work as well, knocking Woodsman down by another chunk of its SR.



So, what do you two think, captains? Are we in trouble?

I'd say we're doing well. Aside a couple of scratches, we're ready to go.

It's annoying how resilient this thing is, though… Why couldn't it have been made of straw, too?

It's fine, isn't it? I'm feeling really energetic right now, even.

Yeah, I mean my heart's beating, but…



Boisterous Ringing is the final page in Woodsman's deck, and it's another one that can lower its Warm Heart stacks if we beat its offensive die. Forceful Gesture is the ideal response here, due to its massive second die.



The other two dice are just more Strike of the Axes, which lack Block dice or mechanics. I'm really relying on Twee to deliver with some more Stagger damage, here.



It feels bad to give a yard like this…

As high as Woodsman's Warm Heart is, we're bound to take some hits no matter what we do. This one, however, I'm very happy for.



But I'll take a yard in return, as well~

It knocked Chesed's SR below Woodsman's, letting his follow-up trigger Gleaning again.



This one, however, is bad. Sweet Pea doesn't have any recovery options, making her somewhat fragile—we really don't want to be taking large hits like this.



The rest of the turn goes off without a hitch, however, and Warm-hearted Woodsman is one good push away from a Stagger.



Just a couple moves until checkmate. Good job, fellow captains~

Rake is the pick here, entirely because it's not Torn-off Wisdom. We won't have the opportunity to use it.





While Woodsman is using Lumber again, the decrease in Warm Heart will make it a bit easier to handle with Faint Memories. The +1 Power it'll get from Sweet Pea's leftover Light is offset by its current -1 to all dice from debuffs.



So, since you got hit, does that make me the captain now?

No way in hell does someone who ran facefirst into a tree deserve that spot.

Hahaha… I guess I can't deny that, can I?

So then, you wanna' just consider it settled for now?

I could go for that.



You've gotta teach me how to dodge that, though!

It's pretty easy, actually.



For big concussive attacks like that, you move to the side of the weapon and jump. You'll have to catch your footing, but the shockwave and the weapon both miss you.

Aha. I see!



Aaaand it's off balance! Time to kick the can!

Good job, everyone.



When Staggered, Warm-hearted Woodsman's passive does not restore our Light. We have plenty of reserves to finish things with, but this can absolutely trip up an unprepared Librarian.

Since the two of you worked so hard to bring it to this point, the least I can do is finish it off for you, right?

I'm still good. Lemme at it.

Race you guys for it?

Alright. A race it is.

Then I'll get there first—



GAH! Damn trees!



And that's that. Good effort, everyone~



If not for that tree, I woulda' had it.

Next time, then. I think we're really getting used to how each other does things.

Even the best coffees take some time to blend.



Warm-hearted Woodsman can be a challenging battle if you don't know what you're doing, as most decks tend to be heavy on light regain and lacking in really strong options to clash against Woodsman's powered-up dice. This can lead to a sort of snowball as Woodsman chops down our side one by one. While it's certainly possible to beat Woodsman with a perfectly normal set of decks, there's also a second and much easier option:

Just put three Observe and six 2-cost pages into everyone's deck, making sure that some of the 2-costs can draw more pages. Play Observe turn 1, and then a pair of 2-costs turn 2, and after that just play your Light down to 0 every turn after that. It makes the entire process nice and smooth.

VIDEO
Music: ChesedStory


Welcome~ Today’s blend is Indigo Mountain. Wanna have a try?

Sure!

The tastes of coffee aren’t all the same. It’s determined by a number of factors. Starting with where it was grown, how long it’s roasted… When you stop extracting the flavor and how finely the coffee beans are ground also play an important part. The acidity and sweetness depend on the size of the particle.

It’s a pretty delicate drink, huh. I just drank whatever they gave me.

Wouldn’t you say that it resembles the denizens of the City in a way? A person’s identity and values can vastly differ based on where they were born and raised; whether it was the Backstreets or the Nests, and what district of the Backstreets it was. Along with how rough their background was as they grew up.

In the streets of music, you may grow into a loser if you can’t strike a single chord. In the streets of food and flavor, you might end up being an ingredient. It all depends on the rules of the plantation.

That makes sense. …Wait a sec? So you’re saying each person has a different flavor…?

That’s something a District 23 resident would say… You haven’t been brewing coffee out of the guests, have you?!

Not much of a romanticist, are you~ I’ll take that as a joke.

I was half-joking alright. Though you never know, anything could happen.



Through blending, even a low-quality coffee can be given a nice flavor. Sociology is a lot like blending when you look at it.

It’s the study of managing a society where all kinds of people are blended together… I guess that works?

See~? And when you blend coffee, you pick out the beans you want and filter away the unwanted ones. Unlike coffee beans, though, people have their own desires too; so they try to enter the “blending machine” they want. They’d rather go to a more luxurious world, in other words.

Even though they’re ground into powder all the same.

The City and the Nest keep whispering to the people, all to get the good beans to come over. They want supplements to delicately complement the grandest and the most unique flavor.

“This is where you can find the true value of life.” They make a parade of Nest dwellers’ prosperity and comfort, right next to the miserable scene of losers who were filtered away.

That’s how everyone is deceived into selling themselves.



Is it really? The Wings are constantly grinding people up, almost akin to coffee beans in a coffee factory, no? Every Wing paints its Nest as the most comforting place in the world in an attempt to recruit feathers for itself. A different set of rules are enforced in every Nest, and the Backstreets distort according to those policies. Everyone is soaked in the greatest and the sweetest lie.

They convince themselves that what they’re doing is for the best.

Convince themselves? There’s nothing to convince, it is for the best. There’s literally no better option than to leave the Backstreets, join a Wing, and spend a stable life in the Nest.

Then who gets to decide how to “blend” people? No, is it even necessary in the first place? Do we really need to pick out certain people? Can’t we just live as we are, as our own flavors?

You’re talking like it’s so simple. Questions like that won’t get you to anything other than more questions.

Is that so~?

It is so. Thanks for the coffee. I’ll be going now.

Music: Lobby


And just like that, Chesed's floor takes the lead over Gebura's. This gives us access to the usual toys—three new Abnormality Pages.



A Warm Heart is currently our only Level 2 Abnormality Page and it's… fine. As our Light gets higher from higher Emotion Levels, we'll get more Light to play with, and with 6 at EL 3 we can play a 3-cost, a 0-cost Light restoration page, and still qualify for this bonus. The power is nice for the amount of effort it requires, but it's ultimately a winner by default.

Cardiae is interesting, in that it's a delayed gratification Abnormality Page. As long as we can deal 15 damage to enemies (over the course of a turn—it doesn't have to be a single strike!), we get two pages to come out cheaper. Getting -1 cost to our pages in hand is actually really good, and the potential to reduce a high-cost page to 0 on defeating an enemy is interesting. It's better the longer a fight goes on, and of course we want to be able to deal 15+ damage to our opponents before taking it. Overall, it has potential… I'd want to build a deck with it specifically in mind to properly take advantage of it, though.

Lastly, there's Timber. Timber is really good in any battle where an enemy has Shimmering. Shimmering reduces all of the enemy's Light costs to 0, giving us a free +2 Power at pretty much all times against any such opponents. Outside of that circumstance I'd probably go with a different Level 1 option over it since enemies tend to run out of Light faster than decks I put together… but given that Shimmering enemies tend to be the toughest in the game, it's situationally useful, but works only when we'd actually need it. That's a good Abnormality Page in my book.



Well… he left in a hurry.

Maybe he doesn't like coffee analogies?

Yes, I suppose that's one possibility…

Who cares? He's just some Grade 9 washout anyways, right?

Chesed.

Hey there, Angela. What brings you down…

Oh my.



Can't help but notice you're carrying my new Librarian… Thanks for the delivery?

He was busily rearranging books as I was in the middle of reading them. Please control your personnel in the future, Chesed.

I'll certainly try~ Since you made the trip, care for some coffee?

No.

SNAP

Worth asking, at any rate…

Muahahahaha! I have returned, to spread my eeevil designs once more!

You've certainly kept that talent for making an entrance~

This guy's here..? I thought he was in Safety… _Geez.

Nope… he's one of ours. He takes some getting used to, so I'll translate.

No need! I've found the place I needed to be at, and introductions will only get in the way of advancing my nefariousness. Now, where is Tylana? Surely a hardheaded rules-minder like her woke up before I did.

Two floors down. Look for the yellow. Can't miss it.

Splendid! If anyone asks, I never left.

And there he goes… Is this gonna' be okay?

Probably. He talks about evil and all of that, but I'm pretty sure it's all just an act. He's always had my back when it counts.

If you say so… I don't remember him being very trustworthy at all.

Well, I never said you should trust him…

<sub>I was using that, you pink-haired demon!

Muaaaaaahahahaha!</sub>

…I'll go pick him up.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



In the interest of a more forthright partnership… (Someone dies; it's not our fault.)

Remember, I have our best interests at heart. (Someone angsts; it is our fault.)


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