But as I turned to leave, I stumbled upon a pit of some sort, where I encountered a large flying fish skeleton. It homed in on my location, much like the flytraps I fought in the first game. It killed me once, but I was able to keep my distance and keep shooting the second time around. Upon defeating the fish skeleton, I returned to the surface to discover I had found the Dagon's Scales. I guess that thing was Dagon.
Talking to me: #1 cause of death
among ghouls.
Huh? What now?
With my mysterious new haul, I returned to the fork in the road and entered the village of Topete, which is apparently lost to anyone who has never been there. The people spoke of a man named Lethe, who lives in a house of mirrors and I guess is guarded by a Doppelganger. I'd probably understand what they were talking about better if I were doing things in the proper order, but that's not my style.
Looks awfully found to me.
Well, feel free to go there now.
Oh, I am SO over myself.
I have to fight a Red Arremer? Great.
So he's like the Oracle from The Matrix?
Who am I? Wait, this is familiar...
I left Topete and took the northern part of the fork, which quickly ended in a cave entrance blocked by a monster who wouldn't let me pass. I figured I'd be allowed through once I talked to everyone I needed to, so I returned to the palace. Inside, everything was disheveled, and most of the people were only able to cackle obnoxiously. The few people who could still speak told me that the Black Light had attacked here and altered everyone in strange ways.
Inside the King's chamber, I found the king sitting happily, acting as though nothing had happened. There's no way anyone could have not noticed the Black Light who was there, so I knew right away that this wasn't really the king. He urged me to return to Etruria, and I refused, so he decided to reveal his true form and attack me.
I... love what you've done with the place.
You have a goofy cackle.
Yeah, they're out of Pizza Rolls!
Wow, you're not too suspicious.
Sub-boss: Impostor King
The creature disguised as the king was a skeletal bat creature, a familiar enemy from later areas of the first game, and he fought the same way. He would fly in a straight line toward me for a certain distance, then stop for a moment before doing it again. The room was a little small, but some fancy foot and wingwork allowed me to keep ahead of him long enough to beat him.
Once the false king was destroyed, the power that had stupefied most of the palace's population wore off, and the people returned to their senses. It turns out that many of them were scientists, researching various mystical chemical compounds and developing new technologies to empower warrior-types like me. One was looking for the materials needed to develop the Essence of the Soulstream, the one-time-per-life-use potion that completely heals its user, and I happened to have one of those materials, the Dagon's Scales, on me. I was interested in getting my hands on the potion, so I set out to find the other ingredient, the Achelon's Water.
Sprite flicker FTW
Yep, I'm the Red Guwa!
Really, it's not hidden THAT well.
Uh, okay.
That guy over there just told me about it.
Oh, you mean these Dagon's Scales?
You have science here?
Yeah, he tends to do that.
Seriously, extra lives are inventions?
Old news, man. Old news.
No one... until now!
Well, I'm not asking for permission.
Hey, I'm headed that way too!
Probably taking a much-needed vacation.
The Achelon's Water was hidden in a cave to the northeast of the palace, on top of a cliff beyond a series of bone pillars. The area seemed to be put there as practice with the Magic Tornado, though I think it'd be easy enough to get through without it. Each pillar had a gap in which a floating platform that would carry you high enough to jump and fly across to the next gap. The tornadoes made the gap easier to cross by letting me get farther out before trying to fly across. After the last gap, I was able to reach the side of the cliff above the spikes that lined most of the cliff wall, and grabbed the bottle of Achelon's Water. Back at the palace, I handed the materials over to the scientist, who quickly set to work making my potion.
The details aren't important.
But I was saving those!
Having finished off the false king, the next step was to attempt to reach the palace on Mt. Imaus, which required me to cross a bit more of the River of Flames, where I found the Candle of the Poltergeist. The road to the palace was rough, starting out with bone pillars, but with more of them, and with very inconveniently placed bees all over. After clearing the bone pillars, a gauntlet of falling platforms, rolling green armadillo-things, and yet more bees awaited me. Eventually, I managed to survive the entire stage and reach the boss.
Fourth Boss: Twin Guardian
Ugh. One of these things would have been bad enough, but this boss consists of twin gargoyles, who start out surrounding you, no less. They slowly fly toward you, and then suddenly swoop in to attack. After tiring of that pattern, they'll then combine into a whirlwind, shooting little sparks in eight directions. Each hit does two points of damage, so there's little room for error. After dying countless times against them, I started concentrating my attacks on one, to see if I could bring one down and then deal with the other. It takes a few seconds before they actually begin moving around, so I used that time to fire at one continuously, and was able to hit him five or six times. It took several lives still to get in the 10+ hits needed to destroy one of the gargoyles, but once I had that under control, I found the other gargoyle to be fairly easy to deal with. He still swooped and shot at me, but at that point, one enemy was manageable.
Inside the palace, I found the true king, powerless and unable to move. I lit the Candle of the Poltergeist in front of him, and his consciousness began to return. He thanked me by adding more power to my wings and claws, and told me what had happened to him. He then asked me to go see that Lethe guy the people in Topete were talking about, who might have information on the identity and/or whereabouts of the King of Destruction.
Two against one? No fair!
Phew.
I know who the King of Destruction is.
Yes, I will fight for thefuture!
But let's face it: not too many people earn the title "King of Destruction", so I think it's safe to say we'll be seeing Breager pretty soon.
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