LunaticScreamer

On top of that, she gets a Light tome drop from one of the 5x enemies. Still though...my reasoning for emptying her inventory was that I was slightly curious if she'd get a fresh tome at some point in the next few chapters. In reality, I don't know 100% why I did that, but eh, it shouldn't hamper her too terribly much. In any case, screenshots for 5 & 5x have been taken so hopefully I can get that all posted today.

[spoiler=Chapter 4 Part 4: Andre's Weird Destiny Continues] The update kicks off with Garion finishing off the Luckos that attacked Cristoph. I'm not entirely sure if he'll be around for too long, but he's been doing good killing things in this chapter which is the best I can ask for right now. In addition, he picks up a Luckos Fang, good for boosting a unit's strength by 2. The information box went and got drunk at the bandit's hideout too though. The only reason I healed Cattleya here was because I couldn't tell if there was any enemies that could move and attack her from the fog. Not taking any chances this far into the chapter. Monsters aren't getting much done here. Ok, so Puledra's level doesn't exactly help him out much, but holy crap Andre, you now have as much strength as Cattleya. You should have been the damned Myrmidon, not her, heh. Andre blows up the Big Eye he was rumbling with, then Puledra picks him up. Menmus will eventually fly over and do the ol' take & drop deal to plant him in range of the boss. Also, the two Achilletaurs right next to the boss, despite still having deathwall stats, only have a 1 range weapon, meaning melee units can get right up into the face of the boss and not worry about ranged headhunter deaths. Speaking of the boss, he's not too nasty. Lots of strength for sure, but otherwise nothing you haven't dealt with before. Andre gets a nice opening salvo on the boss on his counterattack strikes, getting a crit with one of his two hits to bring the boss down to 5 hp. Before dropping the boss, Andre decides to nuke the one non-deathwall, non-boss enemy remaining. I think this convo comes up around turn 15 or so. This will end soon, no worries there. Especially when Andre returns to roast the boss alive. Holy crap now he has more strength than Cattleya. This is amusing to say the least. On the plus side...he hits all of his important stats, magic especially. Assuming he gets a point of magic every 4 levels or so, he'll be around 13-14 magic by lv20. Not the best, but not horrible either. He still has plenty of potential ahead of him. Dropped a savestate before doing this, but here's the game over convo if you let the time run out. Now, before I have Garion actually go and save Fa, let's check her stats. Remember, there was a message saying she had weakened. Ouch. Stabbing herself did some serious damage to several of her stats. This is not permanent though so no worries there. Anyways, Garion heads up north enough to rescue Fa. Looks like the deathwall has disappeared, but someone's coming to visit. Yup, Djambo decided to come visit. However, one Zombie still roams around. If Garion is dead, then Djambo will be following suit after getting torn apart by the Zombie. Garion's alive though which means... He comes in and crits the Zombie to death. Djambo respects the man that saved his life and just wants to follow him in his quest for redemption. Garion finally relents and allows him to tag along. Too bad it'll be awhile before Djambo can be utilized in combat. As Shiori & Hellios check in on Fa, she mentions that there are two ways to the control the demon. The seal she's so familiar with and her own magical power, but not just any magical power. This power is special and only a few people have it. Also, new voice. I still didn't get to show off the voice I was going to show off this chapter. Next chapter for sure! Fa's condition is worsening. The seal on the Demon King is broken and only her magical power is keeping him in check. Fa knows she's going to die and tells her brother & Shiori to dump her body into the ocean before she croaks. That way, the Demon King will somehow resurrect far away from everyone with some of his power depleted (remember, both he & Fa are linked together) and they'll have time to prepare for battle. Suddenly (and rightfully so), Shiori flips out, telling her that all the friends she had were ready to die in order to save her. Fa still doesn't budge. Well, Shiori's not going to let her friend die....and that's the end of the chapter. Kind of an abrupt end, but there's a good reason for it. You'll just have to wait until the next chapter though. I should also mention that I swiped Shiori's equipment before ending the chapter since she's not available when you go to manage everyone's items on the world map. Death Count: Faratrass (1) Next time: Stealth Mission? Stealth Mission!

[spoiler=Chapter 4 Part 3: How to Troll a Demon King] Andre could care less about the prospects of being poisoned. His sky high resistance and decent magic combines to let him seriously damage any Big Eye enemies so that others can kill them off relatively easily and not eat a counter in response. Also, more defense? Works for me at the moment. Hellios & Puledra lay done some giant eye purging, then Menmus comes in to break down a twig leading to the southern half of the map. He picks up a rank in axes too. Cristoph chops down a twig so his team can invade the south from their end. I could go forward on the next turn, but... Another wave of reinforcements comes in after an enemy phase goes by. Garion chops down a Zombie with his Short Axe. Rya softens up a Zombie and Cattleya takes the kill. Cristoph heals with a Tonic. The enemy reinforcements are far from over with and I need him at full strength when the next wave shows up. Andre & Menmus get to cleaning out a couple Zombies from their side of the map. Menmus, with the power of Canto, moves forward, but not too far in. You see, there's a bunch of Achilletaurs there. The good news is that they don't move. Ok, now I'm REALLY glad they don't move. Get close to one of these dingbats and you can kiss your unit goodbye. These guys form a near diamond shaped deathwall around the forest Fa is in. Only the boss is the exception here. Puledra patches up Menmus. As for the Zombie that was left on their end of the map, Hellios killed it. Zophar The Demon King continues mocking Fa's mediation sequence. So, 15 "You die now" enemies? Good to know! Everyone gets their murder on and nukes a fresh wave of enemies that have appeared. On the next turn, with a breather before the next enemy wave comes in, Puledra heals himself up while Rya lights up the area by her team. Fa's meditation phase is clearly involving her friends somehow. Fa clearly's is banking on some kind of plan here, but whatever, time to see what the Demon King decided to summon up this go around. New enemies, that's what. This particular enemy, a Luckos, is basically the monster version of a Myrmidon. Lots of skill & speed, alright strength, weak defenses. They may not hit hard, but that chance of a crit coupled with the fact they'll likely double a few of your units means they are not to be underestimated. Oh yes, they're also very dodgy in forests thanks to that high speed. Of course, low hp & low defenses mean that, despite high evasion, a couple good hits will take them down. Cattleya once again fails to crit, but honestly I'm just looking for hits to land on these beasts right now. Eh, it was worth trying. Luckosi are also dodgy by RNG standards too. Never knew that. Luckily, Hellios can rescue Andre, then Puledra puts him down right outside the deathwall zone. Andre's minor blessing in defense means he can eat a critical from these monsters if he's at full hp while his speed ensures he'll not get doubled by them. He's also rebelling against the purposes of his class, namely getting an offensive stat that he doesn't need. I don't care if it's the enemy phase right now, please stop dodging, thank you. Oh hey, it's about to crit. That would be good if the crit wasn't going to hit my guy who's tied with Fa for the highest defense on my team going into this fight. Going out of it? He's the best defense wise now and really hasn't had a bad level himself yet. Keep it up my man! Andre clears out the last Luckos on his side of the map. Well, I know who's the bad level taker of the group right now. Garion gets rid of the last Luckos for his team's side. Well, she's about to admit defeat. So, what was that meditation from before all about then? ...Oh. You can't tell it from these few screens, but she just stabbed herself. Fa's clearly very happy because she just outwitted the Demon King. Not an easy task I'm sure. However, it did come with a price. Of course, the Demon King will not stand for this crap. He might be getting sealed back up in short order, but... He's decided to unleash monsters on all of Magvel with one last breath. When Shiori says this after the Demon King's last hurrah for the time being, yet another wave of monsters appear. However, this is the last time that happens. Rya & Cristoph double team a Zombie. Just need to form a protective wall should that Luckos get any ideas about trying to attack Rya who's at 15 hp right now. Garion stands to her north and uses a Tonic to top off while Shiori stands to Rya's east. If that Luckos wants to try anything funny, he's going to risk getting severely hurt, if not flat out killed, trying to attack one of my two guards. I could have let this Zombie counterkill someone, but by having Puledra move here and blast the Zombie, he's in a good position to drop a heal on Andre or Menmus if I need it pushing towards the boss. Random people getting attacked by monsters on this next enemy phase. I had Cattleya heal herself up which was a damn good call because the Luckos that attacked her in this shot critted I believe. Not chancing it by having Cattleya try to kill the Luckos by her so Shiori runs up and blasts the beast with a glorious redundant critical. Some monsters are funneling in from the north on the eastern half of the map. Since I'm running out of time and can't afford to run Andre back up here to counterkill them for exp, I'll have Hellios & Menmus clean house. Hellios has to use his Warp Sword here unless he wants to die against the death wall. He levels and ends part 3 in glorious fashion. Now, I know Hellios had his growth rates boosted to compensate for the fact he gets promoted exp (aka crap 4-6 exp a kill promoted exp right now), but still... Holy. Crap.

Time to continue with chapter 4! One more part now and the rest should be up sometime tonight. [spoiler=Chapter 4 Part 2: Fog of War] Time to actually start playing the chapter. It's a timed mission with only 17 turns to make it to Fa before something bad happens. Luckily, everyone can be fielded for this chapter. Also, as you can see, Shiori's a blue unit now so you can have her do whatever you want. She's more than capable of killing everything on this map in one or two hits with one very important exception (and it has to do with what she mentioned at the end of the last update). Having Andre go Wonder Pupil was the right choice. That magic boost is enough to let him double and kill most enemies here like this random Zombie he fried. Meanwhile, Cristoph doesn't have silver to fend off these demons, but he does have his trusty Steel Axe. He misses one hit here, but that's fine. Rya can save her Steel & Lightningrod Bow uses and just chip off the last bit of health with her Iron Bow, picking up a Lantern in the process. Just a renamed Torch which boosts the vision range of whomever uses it, though it will decay as the turns pass. Menmus contributes to the quickly dwindling Zombie population. Since the team's fighting monsters now, Puledra's combat effectiveness skyrockets. This is due to the Exorcist's skill, Slayer, granting effective damage (3x the weapon's Mt value) to all monsters. He can ORKO a good portion of the enemies here, but due to his low exp gain by being a promoted class, it's not something I'm going to pursue unless I have no other option. He leaves this target alive to go run and heal up Cristoph for the upcoming enemy phase. Theme of the enemy phase: If you have an axe, you pick it up and kill your attacker. Expect to see quite a bit of talk between Fa & the Demon King during this chapter. That line from the Demon King might just be one of my favorites from him early on. He's got Fa's number and he KNOWS it. Especially when he can summon more enemies at will like this. Andre & Rya get to killing off some of the fresh reinforcements. Rya picks up a largely defensive level up from her kill and gets a rank up in bows. Cattleya tries to crit kill a Zombie, but fails, meaning Cristoph gets to come in and axe another zombie. He continues to be goddamned awesome with his level ups. This may be jumping the gun, but I foresee him being on my endgame team at this rate. Shiori just chills in the forest for now She'll has an important task to do in a couple turns, something only she's capable of performing. Hellios & Menmus have no trouble cleaning up the eastern half of the map. Menmus is quickly turning into a solid unit given his relatively lucky streak in levels so far. Puledra continues to spam his Mend staff and keep my units in tip-top shape. No monsters kills yet. Well, there's a kill for him! A Zombie came up to smack Puledra and ate holy punishment in return. I don't know why, but when I was playing through this chapter, I kept imagining Zophar from Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete saying every line from the Demon King here. In any case, the Demon King is about to launch his next wave of monsters at the team. Floating eyes, but they won't move at all. Not exactly super durable either, but they can output some good magic damage or possibly inflict poison if they possess the Circulum tome like this one has. Cristoph gets a lucky crit against the Big Eye on his side of the map. This particular Big Eye is using the Vacuanox tome, the reaver weapon for Dark magic users. Menmus eventually kills this eye, but gets poisoned in the process. Now, if you saved Garion in chapter 3 by having Fa talk to him before engaging in combat, he shows up here. Shiori can talk to him. Shiori seems to be pushing the right buttons to tick Garion off. All the right buttons. She's just flat out provoking him now. Although in the end, she was just testing him. Garion has only one reason for coming here...to repay the debt he owes to the one who spared his life, Fa. Thusly, he joins the team. Not before Shiori gets off one last jab at him though. Anyways, Garion hasn't really changed much, if at all, since his time as a boss in the last chapter. I don't know if he'll have a chance at being in my party for an extended period of time since Cristoph is doing so well, but we'll see what happens. Also, that Mars item he has can now be given to someone else if you'd prefer he or she to have the Str boost. Nice, but for now I'll just let him hold onto it. Anyways, that's part 2 of the update finished.

Only have enough time to post one part of chapter 4 tonight. The rest will be posted tomorrow. [spoiler=Chapter 4 Part 1: Monsters!] Fa may be regretting getting so drunk very soon. Monsters may be on the horizon. Shiori can't hear Fa's footsteps. No idea why she just can't try sensing for her malice, but she can sure as hell sense and memorize the core malice of a few of Fa's allies. Shiori, ever the funny one. Rya sure doesn't approve of the joke though. Hellios finally pops the obvious question...why hasn't Shiori just used her power to find where Fa is? Apparently, she can't sense the malice in Fa, a strange thing indeed considering she is kinda harboring the Demon King inside her body. Eventually, Cristoph mentions that the forest down south is brand new. Could just be recovering from the aftereffects of being drunk though. Hellios though says otherwise, for it is the work of none other than the Demon King. Well, I don't know if I'd jump on that bandwagon instantly... Well damn, it's actually true. Wait, does that mean that...naw, Fa's still trying to shake off the case of the drunkies. Now Cristoph, care to tell everyone what these monsters are? Demons! Everybody wins/loses! Hellios isn't really surprised at this point, saying that this wave of demons confirms that Fa is nearby and needs help badly. Luckily, Shiori's malice detection is working well and she's going to help everyone with this mission. Everyone gets to come along for the mission, but as you see, Fa has no equipment right now. I sent it all to storage for the time being as she won't be able to move from her position for the entirety of the chapter. Andre decides to further his studies in trainee magic and goes for the Wonder Pupil promotion. He's already stupid fast and can double just about everything he fights right now so he'll appreciate the extra magic this promotion gives out. Well, I think Fa has finally snapped out of her drunken stupor. She'd best hope that cider she drank didn't have any side effects. Dammit now she's hearing things. See girl, this is why nobody lets you have nice things because you hear spooky ghost voices. Oh boy, Fa knows who it is. Considering the conversation from earlier, it's not going to really be a surprise who it is at this point. Things have officially gotten MUCH worse. Also, the music switches to one of the common dungeon themes from Final Fantasy IV. Into the Darkness I think it was called? You hear it almost all the time for a dungeon in that game. The one fatal mistake Fa made...getting drunk. She was already very worn down due to all the events that had happened the past few days. Between that and her getting drunk and getting mad at anyone that looked at her funny was just the distraction the Demon King needed to break free from his prison. And now, because of her slip up, her friends now have a huge battle on their hands to try mounting a rescue mission. If you're going to choose one time to listen to any of Shiori's advice, make damned sure you listen to this. Otherwise...well, you'll see next time.

[spoiler=Chapter 3 Part 4: End of Chapter Cutscenes & Andre's Promotion] Looks like Garion hasn't died from the wounds he took. Djambo though managed to recover from his gut check incident and comes rushing out to Garion's aid. Djambo sees the same quality in Garion as that one person in a house mentioned...he doesn't see a bandit, but rather a man who took care of innocent children. A group of bandits are escaping with some children, but Shiori senses no ill will in the direction they're going so Fa says to let them go. Sure, some of the people running away have done wrong, but not all of them. Some may even find redemption in trying to save innocent lives. For Fa, she's herself before being the Vassal everyone knows her as. She's only doing the right thing and not damning everyone because of a couple possibly bad apples. After one last bit of advice, Fa leaves Djambo to tend to his master's wounds. A free place to stay? Sweet! Of course, the bandit's stronghold has drinks all around. PSA: Don't give Rya too many drinks. She's really angry when drunk! Everyone's having fun eh? Guess we can check in on Fa & Shiori to see how they're doing. Drinking can also have adverse effects. Fa is chewing Shiori out and complaining about every facet of her life up to this point. Shiori tries to tell Fa that she has friends here. However, Fa still rattles on, saying lots of things that are rather unlike her. Sure, she's been through plenty of trials thus far, but she's always found the strength to rally on. She has her friends to confide in if she ever has a down day. However, this drinking is making her lose control on her emotions. So much so that she just wants to be left alone and runs off into the night. That...might be a bad thing to do miss, especially with Hoikade's forces prowling around the area. We'll just have to see what comes of this in the next chapter. First...let's skip ahead a bit because someone's got a promotion coming his way at the start of the next chapter. So yeah, apparently vodka gives you magical promotion powers or something. Good to know! Anyways, Andre has two choices for his first tier promotion. It's honestly a hard call for me. Mage promotion gives him a stupid good amount of speed (15 speed is absurdly good), +2 Def, and +1 Con. Wonder Pupil gives him a +2 Mag boost, but no speed boost, 1 less Def, and no Con boost. Even then, 13 speed is very nice for this stage of the game. I'm going to dwell on this tonight, then start taking screenshots for chapter 4 starting tomorrow. Now, I have to say...chapter 4 is where the game really picks up in intensity (in both story & gameplay). Stay tuned! Death Count: Faratrass (1) Next time: Someone might regret getting drunk very soon...

[spoiler=Chapter 3 Part 3: Captain Faratrass] Rya visits the first house and picks up this tidbit of information. If what Shiori & Fa said didn't tip you off, this will almost certainly confirm that Garion seems to be a nice guy. Fa blows up the Mage that failed to hit her on the last enemy phase. Oh really, you're sure of that? Well, when you can actually hit my units worth a damn, let me know. I'll be waiting. Rya, still angry over almost being killed by a Wyvern Rider last chapter, takes her anger out on one, killing it and picking up a great level. Cattleya & Andre double team the other nearby Wyvern Rider, leaving only the two in the mountains left to kill. Cristoph moves over to the east a bit to form a wall and keep Andre from getting overwhelmed by the two Wyvern Riders. Ok, I'm listening ever so slightly more. What's this "glory" you speak of? Well, there goes half of your glory. Andre may not be getting more magic, but all this speed he's decided to get as of late is making him much more viable in combat since he can double a good portion of the enemies now. Hoikade's glory is dead for the time being, meaning the western team is in the clear now. Just a couple random immobile enemies to deal with on the way over to Fa. Free gold is always welcomed. More reinforcements appear up by Garion's area, but they're the last ones. One of the reinforcements is a Holy Fire slinging Mage though so Fa will likely drop off Shiori when he gets close just to be sure it dies quickly. Over the next couple of turns, Cristoph gives a 1 use Tonic to Menmus before he takes off flying to the east. Menmus takes a break in the mountains, then flies over to the last house of the chapter, picking up a Vortex tome that Fa would really like. By sending Menmus with a full inventory, I can send the Vortex tome to storage and Fa can pick it up immediately and put it to good use. Considering her Umbra is about to break, it'll be a good replacement for her. Cattleya & Andre take out the immobile Archer with Cattleya picking up her first level. Not too bad of a way to start out really. Also, see that Brigand to Cattleya's southeast? Yeah, she's not going to get anywhere near that one. The same could be said of a couple enemies attacking Fa, but she could care less and picks up another level which I'll show below. Now, I'm going to pull a screenshot from my The Last Promise LP because I want to check something. ...So, that shit I was talking about Fa possibly being a magical Captain Rex back in the prologue if she got a few more good levels like the ones she got there? Apparently.the game listened because holy crap, she is almost pound for pound equal to Rex at the same level, only trailing by 1 Skl, 1 Def, and 2 Res. I suppose down by 11 Str if we're counting the Str/Mag split, but I'm only counting primary offensive stats for now. What I'm trying to say is that Captain Faratrass is going to pull a Rex at some point and kill five or six enemies on an enemy phase and barely break a sweat, mark my words. Imagine if she had supports too! Menmus pokes at the Swordreaver Brigand, then pulls back. The Holy Fire Mage is poised to attack on the next enemy phase so I set Shiori down in order to have some insurance just in case Fa doesn't counterkill the enemy. The Brigand & Thief decide to choose a death by Shiori. She doubles the Brigand and the Thief is so low on hp that one blast kills him. Ouch. Luckily, Fa dropping Shiori off allows her to double the Mage and both hits connect, sending the Mage to his doom and Fa's trusted Umbra book to the pile of broken weapons. Since I can't be too sure if there are any other enemies that might try to move, I have Fa pop a use of a Tonic I pulled out of storage. At this point, I'm just going to feed levels to whomever needs it as all the rest of the enemies I'm going to fight either don't move or can be lured out one at a time. Andre continues to be the strangest magic user Magnolia's ever seen. Fast forward a few turns and Andre practices his magic some more on a Mage, picking up his final level. All things considered, he's not doing bad at all. While I wish some of those points in his strength instead went into his magic, he picked up a ton of speed. A total of 7 points in 9 levels. Pretty damn nice as it means he can double pretty much everything except for maybe one or two enemies in the upcoming chapter. Fun fact...this Brigand I had Rya sit in range of to provoke an attack managed to dodge her first hit. That made her angry. You don't want to see Rya when she's angry because this happens. In the process of clearing out everything aside from the boss, an Archer drops a free Steel Bow. Effective damage from this meant that Menmus could be OHKO'd from full health if he wandered into its range. Speaking of Menmus... He's taking his time dealing with the last few Holy Fire Mages. He can poke one, then use his remaining movement to back off out of their range (they're immobile), retreating to a fort to regenerate his hp before coming back to continue his work. He picks up a good level while working on this task. You know, I'm waiting for swords that run off of magic to appear. That or a future promotion for Cattleya that lets her utilize the magic she's been picking up so far. One last level for Menmus and only Garion is left to deal with. Garion's definitely got a good chunk of power behind his attacks which is further getting enhanced by the Mars item in his inventory, granting him +2 Str so long as it sits in there. First thing's first...Fa has her chat with Garion. However, despite her best efforts.... Garion wants her to prove her strength in battle. She's reserved about the idea, but she knows what has to be done here. Now, despite what happened here, this is precisely what Fa needed to do because it'll mean some nice rewards that'll payoff in the next chapter. For now though, I let Fa beat up Garion in one round of combat, then she seizes the base on her next turn. Concluding this chapter next time!

[spoiler=Chapter 3 Part 2: Don't Almost Catch Death! Stop Almost Catching Death!] Ok, after Fa's little incident, it's time to do this chapter properly. First though, there's a new unit to talk about and you can see her on the map already. Shiori's very capable of holding her own. Plenty of hp and enough defenses that she won't be instantly maimed by the enemies here. Pretty strong offensively right now too. There is a problem though and Fa's going to help me nip it in the bud before it gets too out of hand. The rest of the crew is on the other side of the mountain and has their own battles to fight. While everyone gets into position, I have Rya take Andre's Tonics since he's going to lure in a Thief to fight. Right away on the first enemy phase, this group comes out of the fort nearest to Fa & Shiori. Someone wants to parade around as Caim of Drakengard, but Shiori effectively dares him to try attacking if he wants to see his dream come true. She did warn you sir. Now you get to die to the power of light, congrats! Now, to answer why Fa got thrashed before. If you can't tell from the two pics above, Holy Fire is, in fact, a magical reaver weapon, reversing the normal magic triangle of Light ---> Dark ---> Anima ---> Light. Shiori's in a forest on top of the WTA she has against the tome so she's basically invincible against these two Mages. She also slays them both that attacked her along with one of the two Thieves. Everyone on the west side manages to hold their ground pretty well against their attackers. Bonus points for Cristoph who managed to land a counterattack on 36% odds. Oops, I let the Thief steal something precious....a 1 use Tonic. Actually, scratch the oops. This Thief did exactly what I wanted him to do. Shiori, on the other phase, also did what I was expecting and came down to kill the Thief. The reasoning for this will be revealed in just a minute, but first, cutscene time! The perspective then shifts to the bandits, one of which seems quite concerned with getting the children out of harm's way. One of the children, Djambo, comes in to ask his leader, Garion, about what's happening Garion insists that he stay back, but Djambo refuses to budge, saying he wants to fight as well. Garion doesn't want any kids getting involved so he gives Djambo the good 'ol punch to the gut, saying they're still bandits in the end, even if they steal from the rich and give to the poor, then steps out to meet his attackers face to face. Shiori picks up on this new source of malice from the north, but it's different. It's as if they're trying to protect someone (the kids obviously). Shiori then brings up a very good point...just because she's sensing "malice" doesn't mean it's always evil. You also can't say those people are evil simply because they're bandits. What does this mean? Fa sees a chance to possibly talk to some of them and get the story straight from their mouths. Namely, Fa's biggest task in this chapter is to go talk to Garion. The problem? Shiori. While she does stand still, she will move to attack anyone in her attack range as she did to the Thief that swiped Fa's 1 use Tonic. If left to her own devices, once the next wave of bandits come out, it's entirely possible for her to move up north enough that she can get in range of Garion and kill him. I do not want that. Luckily, I have a plan. If she's going to move whenever she detects malice nearby, Fa's just going to pick her up so she doesn't move. Once she gets another turn, she's going to get back on the fort she was standing on and stay there for the majority of the chapter. She will have to fend off a few random reinforcements that will make their way down to her, but even with halved speed & skill, she'll be just fine. There's just one enemy she'll need Shiori's help in killing, but that's about it. For now though, it's finally time for the western team to start taking care of business on their half of the map. Andre finishes off the Thief that attacked Cristoph and gets a level with...more strength? Ok, he's now gained as much strength as he has with magic. That's just amusing as hell. Still though, more speed, defense, and resistance helps him out greatly. Menmus & Cristoph do a little more clean up work at the start, but I don't really push south too hard just yet. After Puledra heals up Cristoph, some enemies pop out of the fort and get to move. These Ambush styled units can and probably will kill an unsuspecting player not paying attention to Shiori's words at the start. As such, the only person to get attacked on the enemy phase is Menmus and he manages to dodge the strike. Also, the Brigand is sporting the next tier of throwable axe, the Short Axe. Once the next turn begins, Shiori warns that those reinforcements getting lazy on their end are about to make their move. Rya & Cristoph each kill a Brigand, but Cristoph takes a hit from the one he killed. It's easily patched up by Puledra though. Cattleya tries to crit kill the other Brigand, but doesn't get lucky. Menmus fares no better simply trying to seal the kill, but that's ok. Canto is awesome, allowing him to try hit & run tactics and possibly kill targets of interest. Here comes the angry mob. Only one of the Mages on Fa's side has Holy Fire and it will never move. In fact, only the Mage with Thunder and one of the Brigands will move towards her. They'll be easy pickings for her to kill. Also, more enemies appearing in the west. So far, so good. Just had to open my big mouth. Seems Cristoph wants to not catch death right now which saves me some frustration thankfully. Oh ha ha, really funny dude. Cristoph's down to 1 hp, but that's the last enemy to act for the enemies this turn. This random Hoikadian troop coming in is your indication that some Wyvern Riders will be joining the battle very shortly. Thank god for Cristoph's blessed levels, am I right? That's way too close for comfort. Andre finishes off another Thief and gets even quicker. Cattleya scores her first kill of the chapter. Cristoph axes a Mage in the face until it dies, following Andre in the art of getting even quicker. Menmus follows up on Cristoph's "axe to the enemy's face" class, picking up a good first level for himself. Rya polishes off the weakened Brigand. For the most part, the western team is safe and can get ready for the incoming Wyvern Rider horde. I say most part because one more Brigand comes up to play in the enemy phase, but he whiffs and takes some arrows to the face. A couple enemies in the east try to hit Fa, halved speed/skill & all, but don't accomplish anything more other than getting hit hard and granting her even more damned speed. Good grief girl, you're not supposed to be THIS fast, but I'm sure not going to complain. Another Brigand dies and some healing preparations are made to get ready for the Wyvern Rider reinforcements as part 2 of the update comes to a finish.

New day, new chapter to sift through. Let's get to it shall we? [spoiler=Chapter 3 Part 1: Trust a Blind Girl's Advice] The chapter begins as Hellios muses over the condition Fa was in after leaving the castle. Whether that might be a bad omen or just her being excited for a change in her fortune for once is unclear at this point. Rya comes in to have a chat with Hellios and a new voice is available for reading. I forgot to check out it though in this chapter so I'll need to do that during the next one. Fa's going ahead solo with the Magnolian informant while Rya is about relay some important information, but before that can be revealed... Fa & the informant run into a blind girl. When the informant tries to make the girl move... He gets killed violently. Probably should have asked a little nicer there sir! The blind girl is awfully calm about having just killed a random person. Well Fa, she is following Fire Emblem logic. She had the right to defend herself after being attacked. The blind girl does bring up a very good point though...Fa doesn't really know this informant so how would she know he's good or bad? Hell, does she even know if the informant was really the one Magnolia hired? You know Fa, if you actually tried to fight her, you'd probably be in a losing battle. Even assuming the best case scenario where that informant had 0 Res, you only have 3 Res. Cut that down by 1 due to WTA and you'd be taking 10 damage a hit, assuming you don't eat a critical. Luckily, the blind girl bears no ill malice against Fa and doesn't want to fight her. As red enemy units begin to swarm, Hellios comes in and notices the dead body of the scout. You think he would possibly question why she did it. However, he thanks the girl, saying the scout wasn't the one sent by Phoebe. Suddenly, Fa realizes she was tricked. The scout Fa was supposed to meet with was killed by a bandit and said bandit took his place, leading Fa to what can only be a bandit's hideout of sorts. Hellios tells Fa to hide out with this blind girl until reinforcements arrive. With that... The first preparations screen! While I already did all my item rearranging, I can choose who gets to participate in this fight. I can't bring everyone in my team so Hellios sits out this battle. The obvious is stated...if the scout was a fake, then it means this path is a likely hotspot for Hoikadians to come through. Caution will have to be taken in that case. Seems like this blind girl is taking quite the liking to helping out Fa and introduces herself as Shiori. Shiori's reasoning for helping Fa? She needed it. If it was the scout in danger, she'd have helped him just as quickly. Fa isn't exactly 100% buying her reasoning. Shiori's still willing to show off her powers, saying there's a bunch of active people in the fort over to the west, willing to charge the moment they exit the fort. The fort nearest to them (They're in the southeast most part of the map for reference) is a little more laid back, but Shiori cautions Fa that there are likely some strong enemies inside and advises Fa to let her take care of them. Turns out Shiori's psychic powers of knowing what to do isn't all that far from the truth. She's able to see the malice of living beings (likely including that informant that she just killed). Fa's a little shocked by this, saying that power is a little too good. Shiori actually agrees with that assessment to an extent. She's basically surrounded by the hatred and wickedness of others and can't really run from that. However, the time for talk is up. They've got to get ready to defend themselves. Shiori gives Fa one last warning to stay behind her. While she stays behind, Fa reflects on what Shiori said, saying she's in much of the same kind of situation as her. Now, me being the infinite smartpants I am, decided to not listen to the advice of staying back. Nothing bad will happen! ...Well shit, I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting the Mages, but I was expecting both of them to have Thunder tomes. Time to rewind and do this right then! (Oh, and welcome Fa to the Death Count list, that too).

[spoiler=Chapter 2 Part 3: Cattleya Joins the Battle] Menmus reaches the first house in the northwest, picking up this lovely tidbit of information. Some cleanup of a couple enemies in the area takes place this player phase. There's only a couple turns left before the battle will end. Yeah no, try again some other time. Rya's very good at dodging Javelins right now. Right on cue, Cattleya appears. The problem? She's covering up where she pops in at. You see, back when I mentioned about not killing Raidot too fast, this is why. She joins when he dies and if you end it too early, she may have enough time to get into range and cause some big headaches for you. Definitely listen to Fa here. She's serious when she says Cattleya's strong. Cattleya does not play nicely. Lots of skill & speed, decent strength, and a couple of interesting weapons. The Hanabirachi is a sword only she can use right now and it's got some good power & crit and boosts her skill & speed by 1. As for her Killing Edge, I believe that needs no reason for why its dangerous, now does it? Luckily, by killing Raidot when I did, she's never going to reach anyone before the chapter ends, thusly getting me the best ending possible for the chapter (Recruit Menmus, kill Raidot, Cattleya lives). Cristoph sets up another kill for Andre. He doesn't let that bad level picked up last time faze him as he gets this excellent one. It is amusing how he's gotten just as much strength as he's gotten magic though. Rya shoots down a Soldier trying to be fancy. Considering her godlike leveling luck, this is likely the karmic balance to that, but her speed's still going up. Very important if she's going to put that Steel Bow to good use. Menmus hits up his final destination, running into the always mysterious Anna and picking up quite a fine weapon. Low Mt and not very many uses, but it has the brave effect, allowing a person to hit twice in succession before an enemy's counterattack. Couple that with a high crit rate and Menmus has something he could rely on if he wants to get double hits for some reason. No points for guessing what happens to this foolish Wyvern Rider who attacked Fa. The last remnants of the enemy forces gets taken down. Cristoph picks up a level with some precious defense for himself. Finally, the fight is over with. Cattleya knows when things are going unfavorably and orders all of the troops to retreat. Cattleya finds Fa waiting by herself on the field. The Vassal tries to reason with her, but Cattleya isn't going to hear any of this and is about to attack Fa when... Menmus steps in and dodges two 100% hit chances like a boss. What a guy! Cattleya & Menmus start arguing a bit. Menmus tries to explain to her exactly why he sees Fa as kind hearted soul right now. One look into Fa's eyes and Cattleya's on the same level as Menmus. Translation: She joins Fa's party. Sweet! Having another sword user besides Hellios will be quite good for me. All of the recent battles have clearly been taking their toll on Fa. She's been trying to get away from it all, but she keeps running into more and more battles. Rya though has some great news. There looks to be a way to take a secure path into Lazulis without Hoikadian interference thanks to an informant's advice. The path seems to be to the east and Fa couldn't be happier. Things seem to be finally looking up for her! Death Count: None! Next time: Never piss off blind people.

[spoiler=Chapter 2 Part 2: Loss of Morale] As the next enemy phase begins, this curious individual enters the fray, seeming to have the same reservations as the soldier from Ramov's squadron in the last chapter. He's going to stay put for the moment though. Really didn't want to feed Hellios so many kills, much less burn some precious uses of his Warp Sword, but I need some breathing room for the next turn. Random people getting smacked around a bit, but that's fine. It means I can feed kills to people that need it. Don't want to risk Puledra having to run out so far so Hellios patches himself up with a Tonic. Andre couldn't kill anything this turn, but he still picked up a good chunk of exp poking a Cavalier. Rya & Cristoph murder a target each while Puledra heals Rya up. Fa will move up a couple squares to that forest and wait for a good reason. Looks like he's going to start moving on this enemy phase. Take note of the red colored "her" word. Most assuredly, he's talking about Fa. All kinds of attacks fly from the enemy on this enemy phase. One of them comes from the guy wanting to speak to Fa, Menmus. Fa says some things about Raidot. He's much like Ramov possibly. Not exactly 100% sure if he's a hero or traitor, but doesn't let that stop him from performing his duties. Also, Fa mentions the enemy is still charging at them. That likely means more potential ambush units coming in so this isn't over just yet. Puledra patches up Fa, then the princess goes east to speak with Menmus. Menmus is another one of the soldiers of Hoikade wondering if this is really the right thing to do, but realizes helping Fa would mean betraying the queen. Unlike the rest of the Hoikade forces sharing his feelings, Menmus doesn't see an evil Demon King in Fa, but rather the same Vassal that's always been so kind to everyone. You know what that means? He doesn't care what his queen thinks. He believes Fa is still kind & caring and he's going to fight for his beloved Vassal. Menmus is a very welcome sight. He's both your first flying unit and your first spear wielding unit. Being able to wield axes just in case an enemy has a WTA against his spears is great as well. Stat wise, Menmus has good Hp, Str, Skl, and Def, decent Spd, and low Res. He'll definitely pull his weight, that's for sure. Sadly, while I'd like to let him tangle with the rest of the crew, he's got a task I need to get done in the northwest. There's one house there only he can get to. Thanks to Canto being awesome, he's able to do a fly-by smack on this Wyvern Rider on his way west. While Hellios kills off one of the remaining Cavaliers near the rest of the group, Andre pokes the other one. Barely any damage, but it's enough to give him his first level. He'll definitely appreciate the extra defenses there. Rya further weakens the Cavalier and...you know, it's one thing to get a six stat level on your first level up. It's another thing to get two in a row like she's done here. Am I happy? Damn straight I am! Nothing will sour my mood now. The Cavalier that just wouldn't die finally does so from an axe to the face. Cristoph gets another solid level for himself. My mood is still good right now and nothing will.... Oh for the love of the god I am going to kick myself SO hard for the fuckup I pulled. By moving her one square north to shoot that Cavalier which Cristoph finished off, I moved Rya into the range of BOTH Wyvern Riders to the northeast. She eats a hit from one, then has to dodge a 58% killshot from the other. I should have moved her to the west side of that Cavalier she shot to perform her attack. Would have been just fine there. Oh well, at least she managed to double and kill this Wyvern Rider. Rya is probably going to bitchslap me in my dreams for almost getting her killed there I'm sure. Puledra weakens the Wyvern Rider that Menmus smacked earlier, allowing Andre to pick up the kill on it. Rya corrects my mistake by healing up with one use of her Potion. Looks like one of the corporals, Cattleya, refuses to join the battle and fight. She'll join though if Raidot kicks the bucket. Cristoph gets a few visitors to his doorstep. The Steel Sword wielder gets her ass kicked and drops her Steel Sword I believe. Well, that's a most assuredly good sign. They're not going to trying random ambush runs right now, meaning this might just be the best chance at killing Raidot. Menmus makes his first stop on the way to the northwest, picking up one of every weapon except for the Iron Bow. Also, the music here is from the SNES game Soul Blazer, but I can't remember 100% what area it's played in. I want to say somewhere in the 3rd stage (the water level), possibly when you go on to dry land for a couple sections. Anyways, the murder continues with Andre roasting a Cavalier alive and picking up a solid level. More Hp, Mag, and Spd is exactly what he needs right now. Rya & Fa double team a Cavalier to wipe it from the board. At this point, I'm going to start making my way south to Raidot's crew (He and his two buddies there will not move). A Soldier thought it would be funny to take a crack at Puledra while he's going south with his allies. He gets doubled in return and one of the hits goes critical. Don't mess with old people folks! Continuing on his tour, Menmus stops in at the magic & item shop, grabbing a Thunder tome for Andre once his Anima rank goes up. Should have gotten a Heal staff instead, but that shouldn't be a super huge issue. Just means that I have to ration Puledra's Mend staff uses for the next few chapters. While Fa could attack Raidot, I'm going to have her attack one of his lackeys. Raidot will likely switch to his Steel Lance to try doing more damage to Fa, but it slows him down enough so that Fa can double him. As for the lackey, it gets hit twice and dies, granting Fa even more speed & defense. She's becoming very dangerous in combat right now and she still has 11 levels left of growing room before a potential promotion. Raidot tries to strike Fa on the enemy phase, but misses and gets hit twice in return. Andre comes in on the next player phase and kills him. Well, SOMEONE had to get a bad level up eventually. Wasn't going to get that blessed with level ups for so long. At the very least, Andre picks up the Topaz, meaning an extra 2500 gold for me to play with. Predictably, the enemy falls into chaos. Where's Cattleya? You'll just have to find out next time as this chapter concludes!

Time for tonight's update! [spoiler=Chapter 2 Part 1: The Triumvirate] Finally, I have access to storage and can toss my Horseslayer into it for the time being. Now, when Phoebe said she would send some elite warriors with Fa, it wasn't just Cristoph & Rya. She sent two additional units with them that'll be assisting Fa in battle. Let's see what they can do, shall we? First up, Andre. He's in a tier 0 trainee class and, as such, doesn't have the world's best bases for simply being able to handle things on his own. Of course, that also means that he effectively has 9 free levels + a promotion to a tier 1 class so it's entirely possible I could have a real star magic caster to compliment Fa's abilities. The other new unit is Puledra and he's a most welcome person for a few reasons. First, he's got access to staves, packing a Mend staff which heals (User's magic + 20) hp to one target adjacent to him. Second, that very high Res base. He'll be able to lure out magic users and not feel the pain too badly. The third reason will be made evident once the proper situation reveals itself. Now, if Puledra has one weakness, it's that he has all of 1 Luck. Combined with low Def, he could very well be rolling the dice against physical using enemies and praying a crit doesn't OHKO him. Getting into the second chapter proper, Fa's mood is definitely up after learning that the one who saved her back at the palace was none other than her brother. Hellios reveals a bit about his past and how he had to come to Fa's aid. Munie probably shouldn't have left him somewhere where he could read up on how to control dimensions and be a sneaky little fellow, am I right? Seems the only reason Munie actually bothered with helping Fa was because she had no other recourse. Her reasoning for setting up Fa seems to be no more than seeing her as a threat to taking the throne. Someone's trying to be a peeping tom. Probably not the best idea you know. Especially when the princess of the nation you serve is within range and can see exactly what you're doing. Rya even sees how paper thin Andre's defenses are right now, but she does see potential in him. Rya's going to go have a chat with Fa, but of course, the peeping show just got better for Puledra & Andre. Looks like the gang is going to rest up at a fortress for the day. In addition to having storage, some funds are provided should a chance to purchase anything come up. Cristoph comes up and, after a moment of being his typical numskull self, says that Hoikade's forces are all around them, meaning a battle is about to take place. Sure enough, some of Hoikade's forces come on to the field. Their leader, Corporal Raidot, says its time to stop the Demon King from doing any more harm (Though the brainwashing ruse seems to be working for the time being). These Hoikadian forces are special, belonging to a special group known as the Triumvirate. Basically, corporals with lackeys that have the utmost faith in them. The problem? They have a little too much faith in their corporals. Kill them and the other will likely surrender. Of course, Raidot's not stupid. He's going to stay back behind the safety of his forces. Guess we'll just have to take the fight over to him, won't we? Chapter 2 manages to be quite fun, giving you plenty of options as to how you want to go about handling the upcoming fight. So much so that there's multiple endings for this chapter. Obviously, I'll be going for the best ending. Part of getting that best ending requires killing Raidot. Stat wise, he's about equal to Ramov, but he lacks an effective damage weapon, meaning you just need to send in units with good defense to tank his hits. Also, he has a Topaz. Free gold is very much appreciated at this point so he's definitely getting killed, but not too quickly. Not so much because he's got quite an attack force to plow through. I'll mention that reason when it becomes more relevant. In the meantime, Fa draws first blood as she kills a Soldier. She takes a hit though which is big because two of those Cavaliers on the top have strong weapons. Those two with the Soldier to her south are just barely enough to kill her if all three hits connect. The keyword here is barely. By moving Hellios to where he is, the southern Soldier can't reach Fa. She'll be able to tank the heavy damage hits with no issue now. Saw this one coming. The Soldier, having no other options available, is cursed by the RNG to attack whomever is in his range, even if it means getting killed in the process. Fa's most assuredly safe now. One of the Cavaliers couldn't resist taking a strike at Rya who I moved up a little so she can maybe get into range for some attacking in the next turn. One Cavalier survives by virtue of outranging Hellios. The one that attacked Fa though did not get so lucky and got doubled & killed by her. Cristoph kicks off the next player phase by attacking the Cavalier that attacked Rya. He takes a hit himself, but that's fine. He's setting up a kill for... Andre! This one kill netted him ~60 exp. Even a hit that doesn't register a kill will net him around 30 or so exp right now. So long as he can get hits in, he'll gain levels (hopefully good ones!). Healing maintenance is performed. Puledra patches up Cristoph while Rya moves forward and heals herself up with a Tonic. Fa can't kill this Cavalier, but she did pick up a level. No magic for once, but she gets some defense. Quite important for her. Raidot continues to rally his troops, but if you've noticed...ambush units have appeared to the east of Hellios. What you don't see is that a couple of Shamans have appeared from a fort just to Hellios's north. That can easily get someone killed if you rushed too quickly. As such though, Hellios dodge tanks through everything tossed at him this enemy phase. Rya takes out the Cavalier that Hellios weakened while the man himself takes out another one. He uses his remaining movement to push further east. There's going to be more ambush units coming in and he'll be in the best position to either kill or severely maim them. More murder and an old man doing some weakening work as part 1 of the update comes to a close.

[spoiler=Chapter 1 Part 3: The Fall of Ramov] So, remember when I said before that retreating into that narrow passage was a bad idea? This is why. Ramov appears next to a fort up there and is going to move this turn. No more -- move from Ramov. Compared to Alvano from the prologue, Ramov is a big step up in power, namely in part due to that Horseslayer of his. Anyone not named Fa will likely die in 2 hits from it, tops, Hellios included. As such, while I'd like to kill all of the enemies if possible, once he gets in range on the next turn, I'm going to need to put out all the stops and kill him before the turn afterwards. Luckily, Hellios & Fa together should be able to take him out. Hellios starts by slaying a Shaman, then using his remaining movement to up to the northwest a bit. Cristoph moves on to the fort and uses a Tonic after equipping his Hand Axe. He'll likely get attacked by both Shamans and I'd like to see him dodge at least one of the incoming hits. I guess the Cavalier could attempt to strike him as well, but I'm hoping he'll prefer not being counterattacked and go after Rya. Speaking of Rya, Fa tosses a pack of Tonics her way, then blasts the nearby Cavalier for some damage. Rya moves to just barely inside Ramov's Javelin range and uses a Tonic. She can take a hit from the Cavalier & Ramov that way while at the same time dealing a bit of damage to the boss. Luckily, the Cavalier does indeed go for the prospect of not being counterattacked and hits Rya. Cristoph should be able to survive this turn now. The first Shaman to attack Cristoph whiffs and gets an axe tossed at him twice. This Shaman lives. As for the second one? Not only does he miss his shot as well, he eats a crit and dies....a 1% crit mind you. Cristoph, welcome to the Captain Rex club my man. Ramov gets into range of Rya and both exchange blows. Rya is clearly the more injured one, but it doesn't matter. She's done her job perfectly. Since I need to drop Ramov this turn, I take any chances I can to get some last minute kills. Cristoph gets to slaying the Shaman he weakened on the enemy phase and gains a level. That's good, right? Good my ass. First level and hitting all your growths but one? That's what we call freaking amazing and I love it! Rya's got no chance to kill this Cavalier with either weapon of hers. Might as well just poke the Cavalier for a bit of exp and... Scratch not killing it. She pulled a crit off on 4% odds and kills the Cavalier anyways. She gains a level too, but after that one that Cristoph pulled off, she's probably getting a bad one to counteract it. Wrong! Her first level up is equally awesome, hitting all of her important stats. Seriously, I've never had this much good luck with my level ups in any FE game, hack or otherwise, EVER. Hellios gets his job done by poking Ramov twice with his Iron Sword, allowing Fa to come in with Oblumbra to ensure the best odds of getting the killing blow. Ramov still thinks it's the demon talking and not Fa. He tries to end this battle. Well, the battles does end, but it's Ramov himself that falls, granting Fa another level with even more damned speed. Also, she hasn't missed her magic growth once yet. Fa's slowly getting to the point where she wonders if she oughta just give herself up so she doesn't have to kill anyone anymore. Hellios reminds her that if she were to do that, she would effectively kill off everyone anyways thanks to the Demon King inside of her. There's no telling if Munie and her crew can really transfer his soul from Fa to this prodigy kid as easily as she thinks. Fa thanks Rya for her assistance, but Cristoph's dial is still set to "She's evil!" apparently. A numskull most assuredly, but one that apparently gets godlike first levels. Rya asks for an explanation about what happened today. Fa agrees, but she wants to talk to the empress of Magnolia first. Perhaps surprisingly enough, Rya agrees to this and is willing to escort her to Magnolia Palace. Over at the Magnolian Palace, Rya & Cristoph get into a bit of an argument with Cristoph saying he still can't trust Fa and almost lists every reason why that is. Rya shuts him up in short order though, saying that teasing her, if she really was controlled by this demon, could be extremely dangerous. Even if she wasn't controlled, that still could be taken at face value as teasing an innocent bystander. Rya then drops an interesting piece of information. Fa's parents apparently died right after she was born. Munie took Fa in and was effectively her mother after that incident. Cristoph now realizes what Fa's going through and vows to make amends for his mistakes. If that little tidbit about Fa's family wasn't shocking enough, Hellios provides some chilling information of his own...Munie was in on that brainwashing idea with the sole purpose of setting Fa up for failure. Oh, and Hellios is Fa's half-brother. Fa doesn't believe it, but they do have the same color eyes. Hellios then decides to leave so Fa can have a chance to think about what he just said. Just as Hellios leaves, another person enters the room, none other than the Empress of Magnolia, Phoebe. She's quite a chill and likeable person, that's for sure. The two begin talking about everything that's happened up to this point from the brainwashed soldiers at the palace to what Hellios said about Munie being behind the plan all along. Phoebe then asks a very reasonable question...is what Hellios said really true? Fa says so. He saved her life and knew about the plan after all. Fa really needs a chance to collect her thoughts and lay low from Munie's pursuit troops. Phoebe suggest Lazulis, but an issue arises. Helping Fa out now would mean a declaration of war. Munie also sent a messenger requesting permission to cross through Magnolian territory. Phoebe, being the clever girl she is, comes up with a plan. She's going to send a few of her most trusted warriors with Fa under the guise that they are brainwashed. Hoikade won't be able to say anything about that. It does mean that Hoikade's forces will have to be allowed to cross through Magnolia, meaning another clash with them is likely in Fa's future. Still though, that's more then what Fa could have asked for. As chapter 1 comes to a close, Phoebe really is placing everything she has on the fact that Fa's telling the truth when she says she's innocent. Otherwise, Phoebe would have simply let Hoikade take her away. Fa most assuredly has an ally in her corner now which is great news for her. Death Count: None! Next time: Hoikade clash, round 3

[spoiler=Chapter 1 Part 2: New Party Members] Fa continues to dodge literally everything and add more kills to her list. Her level up hits her three most important stats right now which is quite good. Of course, the 1 hp flyer decides to suicide on Hellios for kicks. Take note of his exp bar. He only gets 4 exp per action right now, be it simply damaging an enemy or killing one. Fa continues to murder things left & right while Hellios runs up to that narrow passage on his own. He's got something important to do on the next turn. Well damn, it had to end at some point. Fa takes her first couple of hits since the chapter started. Thanks to her speed windfall though, she doubles and kills two of her three attackers this enemy phase. Yet another wave of Cavaliers comes. Hellios wonders if they'll be able to get through the entirety of them (remember, the Shaman squadron still hasn't appeared yet). That might be easier if these two new faces get closer to the action. On the left is Cristoph. The girl on the right is Rya. Cristoph claims Hoikade has invaded Magnolia and "clearly" believes the Vassal is leading them. Nevermind the smoldering bodies of every enemy likely near Fa right now, sure. Rya agrees with my own logic, saying Hoikadians actions are confusing. Cristoph's still on his "Vassal is evil" mindset, but Rya shuts him up in quick order, saying it's time for them to get involved and wipe out what's left (which isn't anywhere near the number of enemies left to kill yet). I'm going to LIKE these two being around. Cristoph is basically a holy version of Caim of Drakengard while Rya is like "Yeah, go pray if you want. I'm going to go kick some ass right now". Still, this is going to be a problem. These two are currently green army units and will make their way towards the action near Fa. Neither one is durable enough to eat more than one or two hits at best. This is why I had Hellios up here. He's going to grab Rya and dart southward, eventually setting her down right next to Fa. I do need that forest square the Cavalier is currently on to be clear though. Luckily, Fa lands her hit with Oblumbra, killing the Cavalier and getting herself yet another good level, this time featuring some precious resistance. Seriously, she hasn't gotten less than three stats in a level yet. And my plan works like a charm! Rya is set down in the forest north of Fa, allowing the Vassal to speak with her. As they converse, it's clear Hoikade has violated a peace treaty between itself and the country Rya & Cristoph are from, Magnolia. Rya tries to get Fa to leave now, not realizing that, hey, she'd KINDA have to run smack dab into the middle of the enemy forces to do so. Fa has a much better idea though. If they both really want to drive out the enemy forces, they should join up to do so. Rya agrees, but warns Fa that her head's on the line if her intentions were mere lies. Of course, Rya's not the only one joining up with Fa. She has Cristoph join him too and he's none too pleased at first until he realizes that his god probably wants him to exorcise whatever's inside Fa. If only he knew what she was hiding away. Let's see what our new team members can do shall we? First off, Cristoph is a Fighter, meaning axes are his area of expertise. Interestingly enough, he's unlike most FE Fighters, having lots of speed & luck to play with. His defenses suffer as a result though so he needs to be careful and ensure he doesn't get swarmed by too many enemies. Rya on the other hand is quite interesting. She has a custom class, Royal Archer, meaning she's able to use magic bows such as her Lightningrod Bow. What makes her interesting though is that her Iron Bow uses her Str and hits an enemy's Def while that magic bow uses her Mag and hits an enemy's Res. What this means is that she's able to hit whatever lower defensive stat an enemy has if she so wishes. I'm quite interested to see how she turns out. Cristoph's first combat engagement is to attack a Cavalier. He misses one hit, but that's fine. One hit is all I needed. It allows Rya to come in and kill off the Cavalier with a double hit from her Lightningrod Bow (and claiming an Iron Axe for herself too I believe). You might think she's in grave danger in the upcoming enemy phase, but... I made sure to calculate everything and realized Rya could take hits from both surviving Cavaliers and still be alive with 1 hp. She dodges the blow that would have knocked her to 1 hp. Saves a use of her Potion (3 uses, heals 25 hp per use). On the next player phase, Rya opens up by taking a Cavalier down to 4 hp. Cristoph comes up to take the Iron Axe off of Rya, then plants it firmly in the head of the Cavalier she weakened. Fa continues to dodge a majority of the attacks sent her way as she knocks this Cavalier down to 9 hp. Yet more reinforcements for the meat grinder. This does show why I don't want anyone rushing any further forward right now though. Those reinforcements (and the previous ones too) are running on FE6 rules, meaning they show up at the start of the enemy phase and get to move instantly. Seriously, these Cavaliers are having a bad case of the accuracy blues. This one just missed a 79% chance to hit Cristoph and took an axe to the face as punishment. This is the only action I do for the next turn. I could have Cristoph come up and whack something, but... One last group of enemies to ruin your day if you dare send anyone up not named Hellios. Ramov is done sitting around doing nothing and is going to launch an attack soon. Lord knows the rest of his forces can actually do anything worth noting on the enemy phase besides hitting Cristoph for a good chunk of damage. One more part to go before this chapter is done.

Time for fun in chapter 1! [spoiler=Chapter 1 Part 1: The Pursuit Party] Fa's still clearly shaken up after what just transpired, but the swordsman reminds her that she'll likely have to fight once more since there's a good chance they're being pursued. Munie wouldn't just give up the chase like that. Hell, Fa was the one to come up with a pursuit based squad in case of emergencies. Not a bad idea when you're holding an ancient evil inside your body, especially if dark forces wanted to kidnap her for some reason. Fa then goes over the specifics of this pursuit squad. They prefer quality over quantity, using Wyvern Riders to scout for the enemy from above and not being restricted by walking, then having Cavalier come in to divide the enemy lines, then Shamans bringing up the rear to capture the enemy. Not sure how those magic users would capture an enemy, but whatever. To prepare for the likely upcoming fight, Fa suggests hiding in the forest. A sound strategy, but I have a better idea. Even the swordsman might know of what I speak, but before he can say more, Fa doesn't want to hear anymore ideas from someone who's name she doesn't know. The swordsman mentions his name is Hellios, a dumb name to Fa apparently. Enough talk though, time for battle! First off, a couple things about Hellios. His class is a Warp Knight, skilled in the used of arcane arts. Magic swords perhaps, but all he has is a Steel Sword & pack of Elixirs. Nothing magic about that sadly. ...Hey wait, where did his Silver Sword & other pack of Elixirs go? I could have used them you dingbat swordsman! It's a good thing Fa only needed one Tonic as she may very well need lots of healing for this chapter. She's going to be soloing roughly half of this chapter while Hellios goes south, knocks down a snag (and gets to use his remaining movement to push further because Canto is awesome), and goes to visit a couple houses. As for Fa? That whole thing about hiding in the forests is a good idea, but I'm going to have her hole up in the fort. Better defense boost and hp regen at the start of every player phase. Only thing is that some enemy could park in that forest just to her north, making them annoying to hit. Hellios could get here in time before the enemies swarm, but he has something else to do once he's done visiting homes. After a couple turns pass, a group of Wyvern Riders show up on cue. One of the soldiers seems to have doubts about this pursuit and is obviously nervous about it. Right after that, the leader of the group, Corporal Ramov, speak up. He shares the soldier's feelings about this upcoming fight, but reminds him that the queen's word is law more or less, meaning they have to do this job, even if it means harming the Vassal they admire so much. Fa notices the squad coming and says that she & Hellios oughta deal with the flyers quickly. If what she said is true, Cavaliers will be coming along soon. Hellios visits the first house and picks up an Iron Sword, allowing him to save that Steel Sword for more dangerous encounters that he may need to eliminate in a single round. I usually wouldn't be posting boss stat screens this early, but I wanted to point out Ramov's move stat which is currently --, or 0. He's not moving right now. You can already probably guess that he's not going to just sit there forever. A new voice was added to the Info screen, detailing everything about the pursuit group Fa just mentioned. Hellios just needs one more turn and he'll reach the second & final house in this chapter (It's just a bit off screen to the north). The first Wyvern Rider to engage Fa in combat has some words for her. Soldier guy doesn't want the "demon" to confuse him. However, confused is just what happens to him and his buddy when they miss Fa. She proceeds to rip off over half of each unit's hp in response. Also, take note of that Wyvern Rider using the Iron Axe. Besides Wyvern Riders having access to axes now, this particular one is very strong, able to knock off almost half of Fa's health if his attack connects (And that's taking into consideration that she's on a fort and got hp & defense last chapter. Otherwise, she'd be 2HKO'd by this dingbat). Once again with this "we", aren't we princess? She does have a point though. Trying to fend off a good 4-5 Wyvern Riders is not going to be fun for her alone (more have spawned up to the northeast by Ramov). All of a sudden, Hellios literally pulls a new weapon for himself out of nowhere, stating that he can control dimensions for short periods of time. He used this power along with a sword so he can just fight from range like a shady little critter. Still though, it's a solid weapon. Stronger and a bit more accurate than the Steel Sword with 1-2 range. Only 25 uses though so he'll need to save it for emergencies only. Last house visited. Hellios can now run east across the bridge and link up with Fa again to give her combat support if needed. Not that she needs the help at the moment. She switches to Oblumbra to give her the best odds of landing the killing blow on the Iron Axe wielding flyer. Not only does she connect, she does so by critting for maximum pain, netting herself yet another good level. Seriously, her speed growth isn't this good folks (Like 35% or so I think), but you won't see me complaining. On the next enemy phase, the weakened Wyvern Rider suicides on Fa, bringing her up to a D rank in Dark magic. Hellios is now in range to provide Fa with some combat support if she requires it. Though considering that the flyers still can't hit her worth a damn, she's got nothing to worry about for the time being. Hellios weakens one Wyvern Rider while Fa blows up another one. Right on cue, the Cavaliers have arrived. Fa suggests backing off to the narrow passage behind them, but that might actually be a bad idea considering what's coming later. Anyways, part 1 is done. Part 2 should be along shortly.

Gameplay time! [spoiler=Prologue Part 2: The Second Shoe Drops] Time to get some murder going! The map theme here (and the one for at least the next couple of chapters at least) is from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, entitled Fate to Despair, the theme of the Church area (The one with the annoying as hell Bloody Sword enemies that float around). Quite a good theme I must say. The reason why Fa's not going to be messing with the pair of Soldiers & Knights (which have a new map sprite to show that they can wield axes by the way) will be made evident very soon, but first, let's check out that Info command shall we? The Info command contains valuable info about key terms mentioned during the course of the game. This one covers just what a Vassal is and what he/she is supposed to do, namely to keep the Demon King from being released. Enough about that though, let's see what our two units are all about. First off, the mysterious swordsman is a green army unit, meaning he's going to be acting on his own every turn. Luckily, he's quite durable & strong, packing two good weapons and two sets of Elixirs which will fully heal the user's hp when used. It's entirely possible for him to get killed here, but it's VERY rare. If the enemy can't drop him to just above half of his hp, then dogpile him down to dust within two turns, they won't have enough manpower to do the job because he'll be killing an enemy a turn currently. Also, new icons for weapons & items alongside a spiffy looking stat screen. Looks very nice! There's one other interesting thing about it, but I'll mention that in a moment. First though, here's Fa. She's got a command over dark magic, even having her own personal weapon, Oblumbra. Good Mt, accurate, and critty. It's also effective against armored folk, much like the typical personal weapon most FE protagonists get early on in their games. As for her stats, you'll see that Str & Mag are now split, much like the SNES FE games. Rather nice because that means 8 stat level ups are now a reality, yay! Anyways, Fa's interesting for a number of reasons. Normally, Shamans are magic resistant. She's special in the sense that her Def is her best defensive stat, meaning she can be VERY nasty for the kinds of enemies she wants to be dealing with. At the same time though, that low Res means she has to be careful around magic slinging units, especially the ones she'll have to go through on her way to Alvano. While I would tell you what her best growths are, Alfred hasn't released the updated growth rates yet to account for the Str/Mag split. Once they are released, I'll edit it in. Right now though, let's get cracking with enemy deaths! First, about the elite enemies the swordsman will be dealing with...there's a very good reason why he said he's going to kill them. High enough attack power that Fa could be killed in a couple of hits and there's four of them in total (two Knights, two Soldiers). As such, Fa is going to move to this pillar and lure in the Soldier & Shaman duo to her south, sitting there until her path south is clear. Not going to show off the swordsman's fights here. Just know that he basically kills anyone that attacks him. If something lives by virtue of a miss, he'll kill them on his Other Phase. The Shaman to the south attacks Fa. She tries to reverse the brainwashing, but Alvano's seals are simply too strong so she has no choice but to fight, trading blows with her attacker. Also, Fa gets her own unique battle theme. Sounds very similar to The 13th Struggle from Kingdom Hearts II and it suits her perfectly. The southern Soldier, well...he's clearly not of the elite as he can't scratch the princess. She responds by blasting him for roughly half of his hp. During the next Player & Enemy Phase combo, Fa kills off the Shaman and counterkills the Soldier, freeing her up to move further south. If she wanted to, she could lurch a bit west and try to lure in one of the stronger enemies. I need to save as many of her Tonics for the next chapter though so she's going to move on southward, but it would be a good idea to see the threat range of the enemies down there so... Sweet! By hitting the Select button, the threat range of all enemies are displayed. Very nice and saves a bit of time trying to plot out where the best spot to move a unit is. For Fa here, she's going to move one square west and two squares south so she can lure in a Shaman. Ouch. Fa's going to need to heal up next turn like her mysterious benefactor is doing here. Her counterattack did land though. While I do need to heal her, if I do so now, the Shaman will just hit her again and I'll have to heal again and waste precious Tonic uses. As such, she switches to the more accurate Oblumbra to ensure her attack has the best chance of landing. It does, killing off the Shaman and netting her the first level up of the game. Please don't be a bad first level... Yay, it wasn't bad! Quite a good first level actually. On her next turn, Fa moves south enough so the other Shaman on the pillar can be lured in, switches back to Umbra, then uses her first Tonic. Tonics have four uses and heal 10 hp per use so she's back up to 12 hp, enough to eat one hit. Of course, the enemy Shaman whiffs his attack and eats a counterattack in return, meaning if I don't miss a hit from here on out, I won't need any more Tonic uses this chapter. Sweet! Also, Fa blows up the foolish Shaman on her next turn, meaning Alvano is all alone now. The swordsman finishes up the last enemy in his corner and now is just going to sit there while Fa has her "chat" with Alvano. Speaking of Alvano, he's not that much stronger than his cohorts, but his Res is certainly much higher. Fa getting a point of magic though means she has just enough magical oomph with Oblumbra to take him out in two hits. Fa equips Oblumbra once again and waits for Alvano to come up and talk to her. She tries to get some answers out of him, but he doesn't budge, so... Well dang, Fa's a dodging queen ain't she? Her counterattack lands which means.... ...Alvano dies, but not before saying that this is all going according to plan. Oh boy, the other shoe's dropping very soon isn't it? Fa killing Alvano nets her another good level. If she gets two or three more levels like this, she's going to be the magical equivalent of Captain Rex from The Last Promise. That's a VERY good position to be in let me tell you. After the fight, Fa is still wondering why this had to happen, but the swordsman wants to get her out of the palace because war is very close to being ignited. Fa isn't really listening though, saying she's going to go explain to Queen Munie about what transpired, leaving the swordsman to run off once again. On her way back, she runs into another soldier, but this one isn't brainwashed. That's good, but there's a problem. I do believe this is about to spiral out of control VERY fast, wouldn't you all agree? Yeah, this is going south fast. They're all blaming her for the deaths that just occurred, even though she had no other recourse in the matter. Something's very fishy here. Munie comes in and Fa explains her side of the story, saying that Alvano brainwashed the soldiers and she was only doing what was right and trying to defend herself. You see, if she dies, the Demon King comes back to life and that can't happen as she's the only one who can control him. Seems like the people of the palace still don't believe it. That's ok, I'm sure Munie will reassure everyone that everything's fine, right? Wrong! Munie says that Alvano couldn't have had the power to do what he did, even though Fa heard it from the man himself. Now she claims Fa is merely under the influence of the Demon King, stating that this has happened once before. Someone or something really wants to ruin Fa's day and they're getting it right now. Munie's even going far enough to say that she'll perform a ritual to transfer the soul of the Demon King from Fa into a child who "seems" to be compatible. Seems, meaning she doesn't even know if it's a 100% perfect fit. We're so screwed, aren't we? So very very screwed. Every green army unit, Munie included, just turned red. Fa doesn't believe it. Suddenly, the swordsman appears once again and tells her to get the hell out now. Fa realizes the dire situation she's in and finally decides to leave with her new partner as the prologue finally comes to a close. Overall, I really like this prologue. It doesn't beat around the bushes with a bright beginning, but rather amps up the excitement from the word go and doesn't let up in the slightest. We'll see what she decides to do with her swordsman ally when chapter 1 rolls around. Death Count: None!

Well, I couldn't finish up my randomized run of FE8 since my computer decided its power supply unit was no longer worthy and went kaput on me. Luckily I have a backup computer I can use, but without access to those files, I won't be able to finish it up until the PSU gets replaced. Thankfully, there's another plan I can run with in the meantime.... How about a hack that I enjoy immensely? This is Midnight Sun, a FE8 hack by Alfred Kamon with a compelling story and challenging (but fair!) gameplay. I could talk about everything I like about the hack, but I'll mention that as the screenshot LP goes on. As of v1.6, the prologue, eight chapters, one tower level, and a skirmish or two have been completed. As such, the LP may go into hiatus once everything's complete until v2.0 is released, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. If you wish to download this hack, check out the following link: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=35455 With that, let's get the ball rolling shall we? [spoiler=Prologue Part 1: The First Shoe Drops] I'll be going with Normal difficulty for this run. Difficult, while not unplayable, has not been balanced and is stated as such in the readme for the hack. If you select Difficult, be warned as things may be more unfair then the author intended. Also, this game has custom music, taking songs from various games. The main menu theme is from the Touhou game Undefined Fantastic Object, entitled Heian Alien, the theme of the extra stage boss Nue Houjuu. Fits quite well I have to say. I'm sure this one remaining Sacred Stone isn't going to come and bite everyone in the ass at some point down the road. The five main nations of the game, tasked with trying to keep peace across the land. Independent, cursed, and filled with brigands & criminals of all kinds? Lovely! Enough random narration for now. Let's get into the actual story by seeing Queen Munie conversing with the girl on the right, the esteemed Lady Faratrass (hereby known as Fa for short). Now, I do remember Alfred saying there was a particular reason for Munie's name, but I can't recall it offhand. Munie is very clearly wanting Fa to be strong, hence having her study in the arts of dark magic. Fa is harboring the soul of the Demon King after all. Sealed away yes, but inside her body. To be more specific, Fa is a Vassal. It's important enough that the text for it is in red. Anytime you see ANY text in red, it'll clue you in to something critical, be it for story related reasons like this or gameplay hints. Now, while Fa could let Munie explain just what the Vassal's job is all about... She decides to pass on it, but a new voice gets added to the Info command, accessible via the battle menu when things start getting serious. While Fa goes to let off some steam by walking around, she runs into a Hoikaidan soldier. He seems drunk, but Fa tries to ask him a question. The soldier though decides that Fa needs to die. Probably shouldn't have gotten drunk though because he whiffs on his two strikes at the princess. The problem though? He wasn't drunk. Someone brainwashed him, but Fa has no idea who. While she's pondering that, a mysterious swordsman comes in and kills the brainwashed soldier. Fa is clearly shaken up by this, probably wondering if killing the man was really needed. A hard thing to answer right now, especially when there's no clue as to who did this. The bigger question on Fa's mind...why does this swordsman have the same red eyes as she does? Possibly a long lost brother or something like that? Before she can really pry him for information, he flees, but advises her to get out and quickly. Strange. Luckily for Fa, her mentor, Alvano, appears. She goes on to explain about what happened with the brainwashed soldier. However, Alvano already seems to know and is expecting others. ...Wait, others? As in more soldiers? That can't be good. Well, assuming the random mysterious swordsman doesn't come in for an encore of killing, slaying both of the red army units. All of a sudden, a giant bomb of exposition is dropped... Alvano's the one who brainwashed the soldiers. Fa flips her lid...and rightly so. Why would Alvano do this? Well, clearly he's after the Demon King sealed inside Fa, but for what reason, we don't know. Fa somehow thinks these brainwashed soldiers can be reasoned with. Considering what just happened, I don't think they're really going to listen to you. The mysterious swordsman decides to deal with the elite soldiers while Fa can try going south and having a chat with Alvano. She'll have to kill if she wants to get over to her so called "Master" sadly so she'd better get serious unless she wants to die. We'll get into the gameplay next time!

Ended up taking my screenshots for the prologue so that oughta be up either later today or tomorrow. Like I've said before, the story is really good, drawing you in from the word go and not letting up in the slightest. My Fa got two really good level ups in the prologue. Here's hoping my man Weiss turns out great when I get to him!

Good to know! Got a video lp I want to wrap up first, then I'll start focusing on that. If the growth sheet isn't out by then, no worries. I can just edit them in when they are made available.

Time for a bit of a silly question...were growths for characters changed at all (besides the obvious str/mag split now)? I've been tossing around the idea of doing a screenshot lp and, back in ver 1.2 or whatever that I recorded videos for, Ended up having the growths for pretty much each character that joined during the first portion of the game and threw them into my video descriptions. If they haven't been changed much, it'd help (Asking you for the exact growths is probably a bit much considering this update just came out). That being said, I only dinked around with the Prologue, but it still has that same charm as it did back when I played the last version of this hack. Fa's new personal battle theme is very fitting (I'm inclined to believe it comes from Kingdom Hearts II? Sounds like the 13th Struggle or very close to it).

If you're also concerned, you can always trade Hellios's Elixirs over to Fa so she has some backup heals if her initial supply runs out. Also, when you asked about where Fa's unique battle theme comes from...it sounds very close to Kingdom Hearts II's "The 13th Struggle". Even if it isn't, it's almost definitely some kind of KH song (and very appropriate I must say).

That Gheb/Amelia support....yeah, I think I'll just walk away and drink something to maybe wash away that, heh.

Something interesting to note about chapter 22...any enemies with the Zero or Assassin affilation? They can trigger Lethality. I remember because that happened to me one time playing this chapter. All that makes the Swordmaster with the Wo Dao a VERY nasty enemy. High crit chance is just asking for him to ruin someone's day with a Lethality proc. That being said...I would highly suggest that if you have anyone you really want to train in chapter 23 (*coughcoughRexcoughcough*), you do it then.

Been awhile since an update, but I'm blaming that on getting sucked into Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst once again. [spoiler=Ch17: Cheesing It!] While training Seth up to 20 in Valni, Innes picked up more magic and I got a Spear for my own use. As for the next story chapter, it's a bit of a doozy. Lots of promoted enemies all around and a bunch of green army units in the center that need protecting if you want a reward at the end. New promoted enemies running around too. Valkyries are slow as hell, but they aren't weak in the offensive department (even if both Valkyries decided to use the weakest Light tome available). Flying asshole Wyvern Lord? Yup! With regard to those green army units, one of them is a potential new recruit for the team, Knoll. Those bases are lulzy though so hopefully his growths are good (Then again, it IS Knoll so that might mean he's screwed, given the luck some other LPers of randomized runs have with him). Finally, there's the boss. Sad to say, but he's not surviving past the first turn. How so? First, Tethys & Saleh get into position here. Next, both are given extra turns. Innes uses the Warp staff and sends Tethys over here. Tethys walks up to Lyon and plants a couple arrows into him. No crit sadly. Decided to warp Saleh up near Tethys as well, but then I realized his only viable attack spot put him in range of both the Swordmaster & Sage so he takes up refuge one square north of Tethys. Tethys didn't get critted, that's good. This is even better. The Druid taking up the spot it did here prevents the Sage from coming over and blasting Tethys. Lyon tries for a killshot, but fails. He's also about to get double attacked so... Actually, scratch the double. Tethys decides to end this chapter instantly with a critical arrow to the face. Rewards! The two sacred weapons are always obtained, but the Rescue staff comes from allowing no green army units to die. As for Knoll? Well, he joins the army. Nice I guess. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Knoll)]Knoll's growths: Hp: 45% Luk: 0% Str: 50% Def: 0% Skl: 50% Res: 70% Spd: 40% Surprisingly, Knoll's important growths aren't abysmal. A shame about his bases though. Then again, it's either him or Syrene (If I train her up) if I want to use Nidhogg.

Quite a bit to talk about here so if I forget anything or your curious about something else, feel free to ask. First off...back in chapter 18, there was a comment I made about there being some kind of payoff for having Cia talk to Howard. Chapter 20 is where it comes into play. Kelik's promotion brings another perk besides the stat boosts...a +15 boost to his crit rate. Storm will come back. Just don't rush chapter 21 too quickly and complete it before reinforcements arrive in the southeast. It's possible to do that (I could have back when I did my LP of the hack). While on the subject of chapter 21...you'll need Ben if you want to pick up a new party member. As for Zane's Sylmeria spear, it has one other bonus besides being insanely powerful, 1-2 range, and a +5 boost to res...it has the Delphi Shield effect which explains why arrows or other forms of effective damage don't do any good against him. Finally...three levels in and Rex is doing pretty damn good all things considered. Strength & speed are the two stats he wants the most and both are at pretty good levels right now. You should have an Energy Ring from the Warrior in ch19 and some Speedwings coming up in ch21 so...I dare say he could get no more strength or speed for the rest of his leveling career before promotion and he could still be fine if you tossed those two items his way. Know what's better? If you find yourself still wanting to use Kevin, Rex can support with him. It's an awesome thing let me tell you, heh. That being said, these next two chapters are going to be some your best chances to get Rex up to speed if you ask me.