Chapter 220: Interlude: The World's Book of Truth — Abyss Chapter
The recommended party size for Ctarnidd of the Abyss is "8 or more players".
It is advisable to keep the number of different player classes in the party to a minimum.
While almost any class works, having a dedicated tank will make the fight in the Creation Form somewhat easier.
The trigger for Ctarnidd's Bonus Unique Scenario is as follows. On the first playthrough only, you must accept the quest "Pierce the Apostle of the Abyss" and fulfill certain conditions to transition into it. Once cleared, subsequent attempts require that "two weeks have passed since defeating Ctarnidd" and you must also accept the quest from an NPC in Fifticia who "sails out to sea on a stormy day". This will allow you to encounter the ghost ship sent by Ctarnidd.
Inverted City Ruluiath: Overview
In this special area, the monsters that appear change between day and night.
During the day, "Servants of the Abyss" and "False Merfolk of the Abyss" are the primary threats. At night, monsters from the deep-sea area, the "Underworld Depths", appear at random.
Inside Ruluiath, many abandoned buildings exist. Any intact bed in these buildings can be used to save or log out.
At the city's four cardinal directions, there are four towers, each housing a special enemy known as a "Blocker". Each Blocker possesses an ability corresponding to one of Ctarnidd's special powers, and defeating a Blocker will seal that corresponding ability.
Ctarnidd is located in the underground space of the central Ruluiath Castle. However, until the gimmicks on the top floor are activated, Ctarnidd will be in its "Delusion Form". If Ctarnidd is defeated in this state, the Bonus Unique Scenario will be forcibly terminated, and all players and NPCs will be randomly teleported to different areas.
On the upper levels of Ruluiath Castle, there are three rooms: the "King's Office", the "Keystone Throne Room", and the "Top Floor of Nostalgia".
The King's Office contains the "Queen's Journal", which provides hints for the gimmicks.
The Keystone Throne Room contains the "Inversion Keystone", the gimmick required to break Ctarnidd's "Delusion Form".
The Top Floor of Nostalgia contains the gimmick item "Bygone Glory", but you must first defeat the monster "Gaudy Shark-fiend" to obtain it.
By placing the jewel set within the Inversion Keystone back into the Bygone Glory, the gimmick activates, automatically breaking Ctarnidd's "Delusion Form" and transitioning into the battle.
Blocker Strategies
Kleio Cthylla
This monster, shaped like a sea angel, has the ability to seal magic.
It attacks relentlessly with its tentacles, but it can only use either close-range or long-range attacks at any given time, making it relatively easy to counter. However, pure magic users will find about ninety percent of their attacks nullified, so they should sit this one out.
Sleyville Dagon & Hydra
This is effectively a two-in-one boss: a pair of fish-men that nullifies physical attacks and, consequently, skill-based attacks. They seal all skill activation, making this the most challenging fight in terms of sheer difficulty. However, the boss's own stats are not particularly high, and it is possible to defend against their attacks. As such, they can be defeated relatively easily if a magic user acts as the main damage dealer.
Barschd Melnacl
A type of swarm monster. It produces countless barnacle larvae from its body surface, which cling to it and block close-range attacks. However, it is extremely nearsighted, so the larval defense does not activate against long-range attacks from over ten meters away. Furthermore, its knockdown resistance is low, so it is easily tripped. Rather than instantaneous burst damage, attacks that apply pressure to disrupt its balance—such as objects or ropes—are effective.
Ammoon Otuum
A knight modeled after an ammonite. It considers ranged weapons unsightly in a knight's duel; the only way to defeat it is through a close-range, head-on fight. As the basic principles of close-quarters combat apply, it is arguably the easiest Blocker to fight. That said, it will still perform fairly advanced maneuvers, so a moment of carelessness could result in a fatal rapier thrust.
Ctarnidd of the Abyss: Strategy Guide
From the moment you enter the special area "Inverted City Ruluiath", you have a time limit of seven days to stay there. The scenario is cleared by defeating Ctarnidd of the Abyss in either its "Delusion Form" or "Imagination Form" within those seven days.
Form Information
"Delusion Form"
The initial state. It appears as a massive, pitch-black octopus... but this is an illusion that affects the perception of "Ctarnidd". Strictly speaking, it is not the real Ctarnidd.
While in this state, it constantly employs a special action called "Fake Abyss", which spreads a "curse" effect to all participating NPCs in the scenario. NPCs under this effect will actively seek out combat with the false-form Ctarnidd.
This form cannot be defeated. It will only transition to the Illusion Form after the "Royal Gimmick" inside the castle is deactivated.
Its primary attacks are sweeping and smashing strikes using its tentacles.
"Illusion Form"
The second form. It is a grotesque being with tentacles and eyeballs sprouting from an eight-pointed magic circle.
At the start of battle, it employs a special action called "Glare Abyss", which spreads a "fear" status to all participating NPCs.
This state is broken by dealing a certain amount of damage to all eight tentacles used in its attacks, causing it to transition to the next form.
Its primary attack involves branching its tentacles to perform mild homing attacks on players.
"Fantasy Form"
The third form. It resembles a hollow facsimile of an octopus, crafted from overlapping magic circles.
The cups held by its eight tentacles each activate a different special ability, applying corresponding inversion effects to players and NPCs.
- Red: "Close-range Nullification" – nullifies all attacks launched from a position within ten meters of Ctarnidd.
- Orange: "Long-range Nullification" – nullifies all attacks launched from a position ten meters or more away from Ctarnidd.
- Yellow: "Physical Attack Nullification" – nullifies all physical and skill-based damage against Ctarnidd.
- Yellow-Green: "Magic Attack Nullification" – nullifies all magic damage that consumes MP against Ctarnidd.
- Green: "Color Inversion" – inverts the color tone of players' and NPCs' vision.
- Blue: "Gender Inversion" – inverts the gender of players and NPCs. Body type and age are generated based on stats and action logs.
- Indigo: "Stat Inversion" – inverts the values of two randomly selected stats.
- Purple: "Damage Inversion" – damage dealt to Ctarnidd or its "cups" becomes healing, and healing effects become damage.
Destroying all tentacles' "Eight-Colored Grails" triggers the transition to the next form. Note that inversion effects applied in this form persist until the end of the battle.
This form has no direct attacks, but the inversion effects applied here last until the battle ends.
"Virtual Form"
The fourth form. It takes the shape of a pitch-black sphere, resembling a black hole that absorbs surrounding creatures.
It continuously and indiscriminately casts the "Random Encounter" magic for five minutes, absorbing the summoned monsters every thirty seconds. The total number of monsters absorbed in this form affects the HP of the next form.
It does not attack players or NPCs directly.
"Imagination Form"
The final form. The Lord of the Abyss now possesses a temporary, physical body with an octopus-headed humanoid form. This form has two distinct action phases.
In the first phase, it uses "Analysis" and "Reflexus", referencing through the Abyss Jewels the motion logs of eight randomly selected players or NPCs and reflecting those logs in its own action patterns. During this phase, Ctarnidd has five "damage armor" barriers. Each time a certain threshold of damage is dealt, one barrier is removed. When all barriers are broken, it transitions to the second phase.
In the second phase, Ctarnidd expands eight "Giant Divine Tentacles" from its eight Abyss Jewels. The goal is to destroy all the Abyss Jewels anchoring these tentacles. After the jewels are destroyed, a final, easily achievable amount of damage must be dealt to Ctarnidd. However, as this final damage check is trivial for even a single player, it is safe to consider the scenario cleared once all eight jewels are destroyed.
Ctarnidd of the Abyss: Story & Setting
As a fundamental premise, Ctarnidd of the Abyss's values are vastly different from those of humans. Ctarnidd does not recognize humans as "individuals", but rather within the framework of "species" as a whole.
Due to its origin, Ctarnidd holds a feeling of "respect" for the human species. For a certain reason, it lures the products of "Project One" and "Project Two"—that is, humanity—to its base, Ruluiath, to observe their strength.
Because of this, the entire Bonus Unique Scenario is merely an elaborate "tabletop game" orchestrated by Ctarnidd. Ctarnidd, as the Game Keeper, praises and rewards those who overcome the trials it imposes and defeat the final boss. As you may have already guessed, Ctarnidd is the Game Keeper of a TRPG. Once, there were the brilliant humans who created it, who were crushed by despair at their own annihilation... yet still refused to stop their advance. Determining who will succeed these great humans is Ctarnidd's core principle, its very reason for being.
Ctarnidd's true nature is what became of an octopus selected during the Divine Era as the test subject for Project Two's preliminary experiment, "Granting Limited Reality-Alteration Properties to a Single Individual". The "spell-formulas" obtained from the first and second experiments were applied to its body, and measures were taken to bring indiscriminate reality alteration under the control of a single being. The result was Ctarnidd, a being capable of freely altering reality at will, but only through the condition of "inversion". However, as a side effect, Ctarnidd lost its physical body, becoming a self-sustaining magic formula onto which its consciousness, cognitive abilities, and memories were transcribed. That is the essence of Ctarnidd of the Abyss.
One could call it a living magic. Magic, in this context, refers to "concepts" engraved upon the world. Just as the concept of matter being altered by fire is called "combustion", and the concept of an apple thrown upwards falling to the ground is called "gravity", the very phenomenon of Ctarnidd's existence is the concept known as "Ctarnidd of the Abyss".
And one more essential piece in the story of Ctarnidd is the Inversion Keystone in the Keystone Throne Room. Crafted in the shape of a human woman, it is the sole entity Ctarnidd recognizes as an "individual". This keystone is modeled after "Alice Frontier", the holder of full authority over "Project Two", who connected the human species to the future using a different approach than "Project One". The details of this are described in the World's Book of Truth, "Immortality Chapter".
– The following will be unlocked during World Quest Stages 4 and 5 –
As noted in the Queen's Journal found in Ruluiath, the reason Ctarnidd resides in the abyss, using Ruluiath as its base, is to seal the "Crazed Horde of Blue". The true nature of the "Crazed Horde of Blue" is the [------] of [---], specifically referring to the stirring of the "Origin", a time before the Divine Era. The threat that the humans of the Divine Era once resisted with all their might, the [---], has not been eradicated. Ctarnidd is now assessing modern humanity and sounding a warning.
The willless "Origin" stirs. O humans, perform the resistance you could not achieve in ages past.
Summary
The phenomenon where things burn is called "combustion".
The phenomenon where things fall to the ground is called "falling".
A sentient phenomenon capable of inverting all phenomena and states is called "Ctarnidd of the Abyss".
Some insanely dangerous beings are about to awaken, so watch out. For now, I'll seal the most dangerous one.
Also, you—yes, you, the one who seems hopelessly out of practice with romance—you are a key figure, so you'd better be prepared for what's coming.
And thus, the full name of "Alice" is finally revealed. She is an extremely important figure in "Shangri-La Frontier", and a "setting" of immense significance in "Shangri-La Frontier ~A Crap-Game Hunter Challenges a God-Tier Game~".