Chapter 77: Interlude — The World’s Tome of Truth: Tombguard Edition
Optimal Party Size for Wethermon the Tombguard: 6–7 Players
The basic assumption is that every party member carries 3–4 revival items.
The recommended composition is as follows:
· Wethermon Handler — Ideally a wall-tank who has also learned evasion skills, or a job with strong evasion-type skills and magic. · Kirin Handler — A player with sufficient player skill to ride Kirin without being thrown, or a player with the Rider job. · Support — A buffer, or a job capable of using resurrection magic.
Wethermon the Tombguard — Strategy Guide
Upon entering the battle field "Inverted Garden," all players are forcibly capped at level 50. Stat points allocated beyond what the player would have at level 50 are temporarily erased. Players with gear that has stat requirements should take caution.
Wethermon the Tombguard opens the battle with Severing Wind. The target is always the player closest to Wethermon, and the strike is aimed squarely at the neck. By crouching in response to the preparatory motion, the initial attack can be dodged.
· Severing Wind (Tachikaze) A divine-speed quick-draw iai strike. The preparatory motion is comparatively large, so rather than the moment of the draw itself, aim to perform an evasive action at the moment the "iai stance is fully completed." The simplest method of handling it is simply to move outside the range of the iai slash.
· Thunder Bell (Raisho) Wethermon raises his sword skyward and generates a massive burst of lightning in an instant. The more aggro is split, the more numerous the lightning strikes become and the wider the area of devastation. Handling Wethermon with a smaller party is therefore advisable. Running at full speed will prevent the lightning from connecting, so avoidance itself is simple. However, depleting too much stamina can leave you vulnerable to the follow-up attack, so be careful.
· Cumulonimbus (Nyudogumo) A technique that forms a giant cloud arm from Wethermon's weaponless hand and sweeps it across the field. The safe zones for this attack are clearly behind Wethermon and above the arm itself. The preparatory motion is large, so if you know it's coming, it is relatively easy to handle. However, if the Kirin Handler or Support are too close while managing Kirin, they can be caught in the sweep and collapse the party's formation.
· Tidal Rush (Oshike) Primarily a grab attack used when Wethermon has lost his sword for some reason. The heavier the target, the more slam damage they receive, so heavily armored wall-tanks should be particularly wary. The attack is a straightforward lunging grab with his hand, so with careful attention, it is not excessively difficult to dodge even without an evasion skill. Parry skills can also be used — a wall-tank who finds dodging difficult can repel the hand on the spot, but must remain mindful of the subsequent attack.
· Pyroclastic Wyrm (Kasairyu) A technique used only when Wethermon's aggro is focused on three or more players. Wethermon plants his sword in the ground, selects one random target from those he has aggro on, and causes a pillar of flame to erupt from the ground beneath them. Dodging the pillar itself is not particularly difficult, but this move is a paired set with Ash Blizzard (described below). In the worst case, failure to coordinate can lead to a full party wipe.
· Ash Blizzard (Haifubuki) The paired set technique used in conjunction with Pyroclastic Wyrm. The Pyroclastic Wyrm that erupted earlier transforms into a black cloud in the sky and swiftly closes in to surround a 5-meter radius around the pillar's point of origin. If you do not escape the encirclement before it fully closes, you should resign yourself to near-certain death. The attack causes "death by suffocation," which is often more mentally damaging than being cut down.
· Heavenly Demonic Night Roar (Tenki Yoho) A wide-range shockwave unleashed upon entering Phase Three. Since Phase Three causes Wethermon to gain the Undead attribute, this can be blocked using high-grade purification items or purification magic. The attack has armor-piercing properties, so a direct hit should be expected to deal near-lethal damage.
· Clear Sky Conquest (Seiten Taisei) A berserk mode that typically triggers ten minutes into Phase Three. For thirty seconds, Wethermon unleashes the aforementioned techniques in a near-continuous barrage. However, the selection of techniques is random. Even if Severing Wind is used consecutively, brief preparatory motions are still present between actions, so it is not completely without gaps. "If Wethermon still has his sword after thirty seconds have elapsed," he will use Tensei.
· Tensei (Tensei) An overhead slash loaded with myriad effects: Instant Death, Armor Piercing, Equipment Break, Magic Pierce, Skill Pierce, and Evasion Impossible. A direct hit is all but guaranteed death. However, all of these effects are applied only to the "blade edge" of the sword. In short, as long as you are not slashed, the attack is no different from any other high-STR overhead strike. Evasive actions trigger a paralyzing bind, making evasion-tanks poorly suited to receiving this attack. A parry can deflect the blade, provided sufficient power and STR. It is also possible, though highly difficult, to deflect the strike by concentrating high-firepower attacks on a single point of the blade — but if you hit the edge, all effects will trigger and destroy your means of attack, so aim for the flat of the blade, not the edge. The safest method is for a player with a parry skill to take all of Wethermon's aggro and receive Tensei directly. Note that once Tensei has been initiated, changing the aggro target will not redirect the slash. The absolute simplest method of handling Tensei is "to destroy the sword." If Wethermon's sword is broken, even during Clear Sky Conquest he will use only Cumulonimbus and Tidal Rush, and the battle will end without him ever using Tensei, drastically lowering the difficulty. Be warned, however, that using this method alters the rewards and titles obtained.
Wethermon the Tombguard — Special Actions
Due to his narrative nature, Wethermon the Tombguard prioritizes the protection of Setsuna's grave above all else. If any player approaches the grave, much less attempts to destroy it, Wethermon will target that player above everything else.
In Phase One and Phase Two, Wethermon is under permanent Super Armor and Damage Reduction. Virtually all attacks are nullified, and buffs and other magic are deflected.
In Phase Three, Wethermon's armor breaks and he becomes vulnerable to attacks. At this point, he gains the Undead attribute, becoming weak to items and magic effective against the undead — though he will ignore low-grade effects and continue attacking regardless.
In Phase Three, Wethermon also enters a self-destruction state, depleting his own HP every second. If left completely alone, his HP will reach zero in roughly ten minutes. However, reaching zero HP will not cause him to collapse. The battle ends only when the following conditions are met: Wethermon initiates Clear Sky Conquest, and all players survive (meaning all players are alive at the moment Tensei concludes; if a player killed by Tensei is revived, the count resets).
Tactical Mount "Kirin"
When Wethermon the Tombguard enters Phase Two (ten minutes after the battle begins), he summons this horse-type golem from a subspace storage facility. If left unattended, Kirin will rampage across the field, wildly firing its equipped missiles and lasers. Moreover, if left unattended for too long during Phase Two, it will merge with Wethermon. A dedicated handler must be assigned.
Kirin has one exploitable weakness: if a player is mounted on its back, it will do nothing but attempt to throw them off. The optimal strategy for neutralizing it is to rodeo Kirin until Phase Three. Once Phase Three begins, Kirin also becomes vulnerable to damage, but its VIT is so overwhelmingly high that brute-force strategies are practically impossible.
- Horse Form: Mostly gallops across the field while scattering missiles and lasers. Only attempts to throw a player off if someone is on its back.
- Centaur Form: If Kirin and Wethermon merge during Phase Two, Kirin's head transforms and they combine into a centaur-like form. In this state, it scatters missiles and lasers, rains down lightning, swings the cloud arm, and charges across the field — essentially becoming unmanageable. Naturally, Super Armor and Damage Reduction still apply, making damage-dealing nearly impossible.
- Armor Form: Kirin's transformed state during Phase Three. A headless giant that attacks physically with its limbs in addition to missiles and lasers, and conceals a large-caliber beam cannon in its abdomen as a trump card. When its HP falls below forty percent or its abdominal armor is destroyed, it enters a frenzy mode and fires wildly, regardless of aggro. The abdominal beam cannon deals lethal damage, but it is also Kirin's weak point: the energy core lies deep within the cannon barrel. Incidentally, if Kirin merges with Wethermon before he initiates Clear Sky Conquest, Wethermon will combine with Armor Form Kirin and unleash Clear Sky Conquest on a giant scale — a truly hellish scenario.
Efficiency-Oriented Strategy for Wethermon the Tombguard
Concentrate attacks on the hand gripping Wethermon's sword, forcing him to release it, then steal the sword. While the tank team draws aggro from Wethermon (and possibly Kirin), somehow destroy the super-durable sword. Frontline fighters will have difficulty receiving support while the backline chips away at the sword, so they will have to stall time with near-suicidal charges — effectively zombie tactics. Once Wethermon loses his sword, his attack patterns become massively restricted, significantly lowering the difficulty. However, if this method is used to clear the scenario, Setsuna's affection will drop by a non-trivial amount, and the only reward will be Inventoria (not counting the Tome of Truth "Tombguard Edition").
Wethermon the Tombguard — Narrative Background
Strictly speaking, during Phase One and Phase Two, Wethermon's body is not being controlled by the character "Wethermon" himself. Instead, the powered suit he wears moves with a "will" of its own. It is essentially an armor version of "Setsuna of Bygone Days," imbued with Wethermon's consciousness.
The character Wethermon's consciousness only reawakens in Phase Three, at which point his attribute shifts from Machine to Half-Dead — i.e., a science-derived Undead. As for what lies inside the armor: high-technological measures have "fixed" his physical body, so it is not a mummy piloting the suit — his body remains youthful. In Phase One and Phase Two, his consciousness itself is "fixed."
When Phase Three begins, Wethermon's consciousness awakens, and the "fixation" unravels. His body rapidly ages and crumbles — i.e., self-destructs. The fact that he continues to move even then, until Tensei is dealt with, speaks to the sheer tenacity of Wethermon's obsession, which overwhelms even his own self-destruction.
In the distant ancient past, in the era known as the Divine Era, a trivial misunderstanding and a small lie Wethermon told in a moment of hesitation led to Setsuna's death. In penance, Wethermon resolved to spend an eternity as a Tombguard. Setsuna, understanding Wethermon's nature all too well, realized: "Someone has to stop him, or even in death he will never stop guarding my grave. I pray someone, anyone, will stop him." This dying wish gave rise to "Setsuna of Bygone Days."
The withered cherry tree was planted by Wethermon together with Setsuna's grave; it was her favorite flower. Like Wethermon, it was subjected to "fixation," but unlike him, the fixation was imperfect, and the tree began to wither. To prevent this, Wethermon used the thesis Setsuna left behind and magic from the moon to "invert" the space along with time, relocating the grave (Setsuna, returned to the earth) and the not-yet-critically-withered cherry tree to the other side of space.
This "inversion" can be compared to a "woodblock print." The rotting wood block represents the right-side-up space; the print made from it is the inverted space. In the inverted space, time has been frozen since the moment of inversion. The grave marker left behind in the right-side-up space eventually weathered away and vanished, and the tree, its fixation incomplete, fully withered, retaining only its shape. However, because Setsuna was buried beneath the cherry tree's roots, and the spot where her grave once stood was firmly recognized as "Setsuna's place," "Setsuna of Bygone Days" came to spawn from the cherry tree in the right-side-up space.
As a side note: when the cherry tree — which had received multiple semi-permanent life-extension treatments alongside its "fixation" — finally withered, those treatments lost their vessel and dispersed, activating surrounding plant life on a massive scale. This is why moss that once gave off only faint light gained enough brightness to rival sunlight, plants flourished at jungle-scale in what was once a vast cavern, and flowers proliferated until they buried the ground. In short, the entire Prismatic Forest Grotto area was indirectly created by Wethermon.
"Was it really necessary to go so far as to freeze his own consciousness just to guard a grave?" or "But the grave in the inverted space is a copy; the real Setsuna's grave was destroyed, wasn't it?" — these points simply underscore that Wethermon was a man of unyielding rigidity, and that the long ages had worn away his ability to think clearly.
As a final note: even as an unaugmented human, Wethermon could use nearly all of his techniques, including Tensei. In terms of level, he easily exceeded 99. He was an unparalleled swordsman... with a powered suit. If a demon had a club, then a swordmaster had a mech.