Chapter 71
Lunar Eclipse.
It was one of the most important events in the early part of the original's story.
It was a turning point where the New Kingdom began acting in earnest, sparking a conflict between humans and vampires.
‘The game's atmosphere got a lot darker after the Lunar Eclipse···.’
It was the first event in the story to produce casualties numbering in the thousands.
Later, it would even provide the seed for the ‘Fourth Calamity, Red Night.’
There was no strategy for clearing it.
It was an event designed from the outset not to be cleared.
[Title: How the hell do you clear this?]
[Author: Sorry for the hiatus]
I'm a newbie only now playing through my first run
I've made it as far as the [Lunar Eclipse] event
But no matter how many times I retry, I can't figure out how to clear it, so I'm asking here
How the hell are you supposed to beat this field boss??
Jersian <- this bastard is ridiculously strong
It's not even the protagonist; you have to play as some random villager.
There aren't even any usable weapons
All you get is the club you pick up from the corner of the market
How are you supposed to kill vampires with this? Even taking down one ghoul was a pain···
If you don't stop them within the time limit, all the villagers die, and something called a war weapon gets summoned
They all get disassembled alive and dragged somewhere
The depiction was more gruesome than I expected, so my stomach started churning···
An apostle of the evil god?
Suddenly, some guy called the [Black Knight] gets summoned, and he absorbs all the villagers' human flesh.
Afterward, Jersian mutters, “The weapon is complete,” and I die too.
The screen turns bright red, and a message like this appears
After that, the giant war machine wipes out the entire area
I'm currently repeating this process for the umpteenth time
If anyone knows how to clear this, please tell me···
[You're not supposed to be able to clear it in the first place]
-> Why are you clinging to clearing something designed not to be cleared? lol
[It's one of those unwinnable events commonly found in games]
-> You can't beat it no matter what you do
-> Sorry for the hiatus) You can't beat this?
-> Yep, just leave it alone, and after a cutscene or two, it automatically moves on to the next episode.
-> Sorry for the hiatus) Ah, fuck, I kept hitting retry like crazy every time it looked like I was about to fail;;;
-> How impatient are you? If the difficulty seems weird, try waiting a bit lol
[The Bug-Finding Game guy cleared it]
-> Is it you again···
-> How the fuck did you clear this one too···
-> What kind of fucking bug did you exploit this time···
-> As expected, the GOAT entomologist carrying on Parv's legacy···
-> Sorry for the hiatus) What's the Bug-Finding Game, you weebs?
It was an event designed from the beginning not to be cleared.
Players played through the episode from the perspective of one of the villagers.
The village was sealed off by a barrier on all sides, ghouls were rampant in the streets, and humans were used in the vampires' offering ritual.
‘The player isn't even given a proper weapon.’
Under those conditions, progressing through the episode made no sense.
In the end, the New Kingdom's weapon was completed, and everyone trapped inside the barrier was massacred.
And it didn't stop there—the giant war machine headed for the nearby villages and carried out a large-scale massacre.
Screams and bloodshed filled the screen.
Meanwhile.
The Grandia Academy, far from that location.
The protagonists were spending their everyday lives, unaware of anything.
The camera zoomed in on them once.
A peaceful daily life, in stark contrast to the calamity.
It was a bit of direction that seemed to foreshadow the calamity to come.
With Ranne's bright smile as the final shot, the screen faded to black and the episode ended.
‘Especially a key event in Part One.’
Yer ma.
(Not yo mama.)
Part One of the original, covering the stories of the first and second years.
Though it was merely a passing bridge episode rather than a calamity in its own right, it had major implications.
It was also the episode where it was first revealed that the New Kingdom and the cultists were cooperating.
‘An apostle of the evil god.’
Jersian had summoned an apostle into the offering ritual.
At the same time, by layering vampire power over it, a weapon clad in human flesh was born.
The users were surprised too.
[Title: New Kingdom <- Were these guys buddies with the cultists?]
[Author:I Will Post Consistently]
Why are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse popping up here?
They summon it so brazenly, like it belongs to them, and then use it as material for a chimera fusion?
With Jersian's power added, it even evolves into a [Pureblood Black Knight]. What is this···
Were those things called apostles of the Evil God able to evolve too?
I mean, both sides are villains, but I never expected them to join hands
The vampires always act like they're nobles and all, so I thought they wouldn't even acknowledge cultists or an evil god
They acted all aloof, but I guess it was just talk···
[What kind of nobles are they? lol]
-> Once the human farm story comes out, you won't feel that way anymore
{They have no choice but to be buddies}
-> They only managed to topple the old dynasty and establish the New Kingdom with help from the cultists in the first place
->I Will Post Consistently) Ah, for real?
-> Yep, if they'd just staged a coup among themselves, they never would've succeeded
-> The former ruling king was insanely strong, so without the cultists lending them power, the rebels would've been slaughtered.
-> I Will Post Consistently) Just how strong was he, then?
[They say the former king was among the top five in all of vampire history]
-> Looking at the setting guide, apparently he was SS- rank.
-> He was probably in a weight class that could beat three Javers at once?
-> I Will Post Consistently) No, if three Javers could fight him, just what kind of monster was he?
-> I Will Post Consistently) The New Kingdom took down something like that too?
-> Yep, it's presumed that there was some kind of contract with the cultists during that process···
[The Bug-Finding Game bro cleared it]
-> It's a story analysis post; what do you mean he cleared something again
-> Sigh··· A GOAT primate who even cracks analysis posts
-> Is it you again···
-> The crazy Bug-Finding Game fanboys are starting again
Lunar Eclipse.
For vampires, it was a milestone of immense importance.
But now, it had become something that never happened.
“That’s because··· I got all the people out.”
A mocking remark tossed out.
I had spirited away every last one of the sacrifices meant for the offering ritual.
No news had come from the cathedral where the Black Knight should have awakened.
I wiped the blood splashed across my mask and looked down at Jersian, sprawled helplessly on the ground.
“How does it feel? To have your plan neatly blown away?”
“······.”
The deep night sky.
No moon hung in the sky.
With the lunar eclipse, this was the time of year when divinity grew weakest.
Even though the moon was hidden by the continent's shadow, the calamity the vampires had hoped for never came.
“That so-called war weapon ended before it could even be used.”
Pureblood Black Knight.
A field boss that should have caused casualties numbering in the thousands.
But because I stepped in, it became something that never happened.
“Impressions.”
Tap-tap-.
I lightly tapped his face with the baseball bat I had held out.
Seeing his dumb expression, I unconsciously put more strength into my grip.
“I’m curious, you know? Would you answer me?”
Wham! Thwack-!
Blood splashed across the mask I had just cleaned once more.
Was repetitive work ever this rewarding?
I smiled refreshingly.
“How does it feel to slip after putting on such a grand show?”
“How did you···.”
“How did I what?”
“Our, kh, plan··· The offering ritual, how···.”
“Ah, you mean how I knew about your plan?”
It seemed to have shocked him quite a bit.
Even with blood foam bubbling from his mouth, Jersian trembled and asked.
I answered by bringing the bat down with a satisfying swing one more time.
“Why would I tell you that?”
“······.”
“Don't you have a mother? Go ask her when you get home.”
“How dare···.”
“Shut up.”
Wham-!
I gave him a few more good whacks with the bat.
Jersian only twitched weakly a few times.
Maybe because his limbs had been severed, he couldn't put up any resistance.
“Phew···.”
That should have been enough revenge for our princess.
I withdrew the bat, drenched in blood.
“Ignition. Gauntlet.”
The pitch-black bat melted and wrapped around my hand.
Afterward, the writhing mass neatly settled down.
The backlash was starting to hit my body.
‘I definitely overdid it.’
The nausea that hadn't gone away since Nightmare Transformation.
My Agility stat had abruptly ballooned to B- rank.
My movements had become that much more nimble, but my body couldn't withstand the strain.
It was a problem caused by the other stats being so pathetic compared to that one exceptional stat.
‘Muscle soreness···.’
My entire body throbbed.
I wanted to collapse right then and there, but my thin pride wouldn't allow it.
I couldn't afford to act pathetically in front of this guy.
I had to make him believe he'd been completely beaten.
After taking a deep breath, I gently rubbed my arm, whose sensation had grown sluggish.
‘I can't even twitch a finger.’
The ultimate five minutes.
The backlash was worse than I had expected.
As I groaned at the stiffness, a dying voice came from near my feet.
“I lost··· I, to a human···.”
Did he hate it that much?
Jersian was even shedding tears of blood.
“Ugh, gurg···.”
“Don’t move. You’ll be dead soon anyway.”
“How dare··· I, a pureblood vampire, be··· beaten by a mere human···.”
Mangled lips.
A hollow laugh slipped between them like a cough.
Was he truly out of his mind? His eyes were rolled back.
“Ha, haha···.”
Creep-creep-.
Strangely, a pitch-black mist began gathering this way.
No, more precisely, it was blossoming from Jersian.
As if his vitality were leaking away, or as if he were deliberately spilling it onto the ground.
‘······What?’
I furrowed my brow at the alien sensation.
Had Jersian shown this pattern when he originally vanished?
Even I, who had dug deeply into the original, had never seen a reaction like this.
“At this point, I don’t care anymore···.”