Doom Aporia Raid Summary + Thoughts (part 1: Story (part 1))
So like I said this would be out before the new dungeon but i didn't say the whole thing lol. I plan on splitting this dissertation into 3 parts: Story (1-2), Story (3-5), and Gameplay.
So without further ado...
Prologue
We start off where we left off with Ciel getting kidnapped. Lu is STRESSED while the others are trying to comfort her and figure out where Ciel went. Lithia comments about how they could even lose someone that tall, and it's revealed that Ciel walks in the back of the group because Ain complains when he's in the front.
(yeah ok buddy we all know it's because you're racist)
Laby ends up being the one to find a secret passage by banging on the floors and after some deliberation, they slide on down.
Elesis also brings up the "heartbeat" like sound Elsword has been feeling this whole time. Don't remember it? It was only mentioned in the dungeon clear lines.
"The kid… no, never mind. Anyhow, this place is really weird. I can sense faint echoes beneath my feet." - Elsword, Fabricated City
"(The closer we get to the tower, the more I'm sure something is beneath this island. I thought it just echoed when I was farther away… but this feels like something is pulsating.)" - Elsword, Madam Corae's Garden
Could this be about the Dragon Barkat's trying to resurrect? (of course it is, it's in the splash art) Ominous...
We then pan over to Tarith freaking out. He just kidnapped Ciel on a whim and has no idea what to do from here. Maybe he should kill Ciel to restore Lu's soul? Will... will they be able to finally leave this floating fortress together...? Will Barkat even...
This whole time Ciel is mmmph-ing the whole time trying to get a few words out. Tarith finally relents and...
Who starts a conversation like that!?
We then pan over again to Barkat and WOAH IS THAT FREIDERICH?
Yep it is. Barkat's ranting about how Tarith keeps having these silly tantrums and complains about having to rewind him again. Why does he keep doing this?? (It's not her fault ofc). Freiderich proposes this has to do with his soul.
In his research, everyone he's studied who claimed to have a young soul but an old body has had an equally old soul. The dissonance between Tarith's ancient soul and his child-like body could be the cause of his mental instability. The body's ability to perceive the world determines how the soul is formed. As they gain the ability to process more things, their soul grows in kind. Does this mean physically disabled people have inferior souls? Idk but Freiderich does seem like the kind of guy to be into eugenics.
He traded his services for the opportunity to study Barkat's ability to see the future, and used that to develop Lilith. Apparently she hasn't actually predicted anything correctly yet, but it's one of those "time will tell" sort of things.
OK! PROLOGUE DONE! TIME TO START THE ACTUAL RAIDS!
21-1: Cornerstone of Prophecy
The gang enters the secret passageway and enter this large underground tunnel. Through the tunnel windows, they see...
A gigantic dragon egg! (it's visible in the raid too!)
Apparently that's the source of the heartbeat sounds Elsword has been hearing. This can't be good.
"...A dragon will be born from that."
WOAH BARKAT? SO EARLY?
Yep she's come to negotiate with the gang. Lu is, understandably, furious.
"I was just waiting for you to show up! I'll be the end of you!"
Eve holds her back, reminding Lu that we need to find Ciel first.
Barkat notices this and immediately starts taunting her, pointing out her hypocrisy .
"The way you act like an innocent girl now... This is very awkward for someone who knows the former Luciela. Or is this a survival instinct? Maybe you've been so debilitated to the point where you must be in the care of others to survive! Oh ho ho!"
She confirms that Ciel is safe, but...
AYO?
Anyways enough banter, let's begin the negotiations.
Barkat starts by formally introducing herself: "Let me introduce myself. I am the prophet, the true master of this aerial fortress...
Demon King? Savior?? She drove the land of steel to ruin, some savior she is! Though new lore on the demon king? Juicy! We've only been getting bits and pieces. Ran wanted to use the Abyss to become the new demon king. Tir, who only lives for his own amusement, actually becomes serious when mentioning him. "The only one I gave what's akin to admiration and loyalty..." - Tir
She claims the demon king is actually laying in wait, and when he shows up again, there will be an apocalypse. The gang don't trust her, of course. Not after backstabbing Lu and invading Elrios.
But alas, poor Barkat is only doing her best with what she's got!
"You see, I've made the best choices possible with the visions that were prophesized to me. But the prophecy isn't always clear. I can see the overarching flow..."
She can't see every little detail! Cut her some slack! Minor things such as "the genocide of Lu's people" were either "inevitable" or "did not matter" in the grand scheme of things. She isn't even a little bit remorseful.
And not just that. Many people in the elgang were personally affected by the invasion. Chung lost his home, Ara's village was ransacked, etc.
BITCH
Barkat then brings up another lingering mystery: Dark El. She has information on it and is willing to share if they offer her their services.
The elgang, understandably, refuse.
Rena: "Yes. We are desperately after it." Ain: "We're not so naive to trust a traitorous demon on it." Elsword: "We're not taking your offer. We'll defeat you and rescue Ciel." Raven: "We'll claim the information on Dark El as the victor's spoils."
damn right
Barkat is frustrated but they'll come around after realizing that her powers are legit.
"You all may not see the true value of my powers. Such stupidity is understandable and does not anger me."
Oh well plan b!
Pew! Pew! Snipers in the rafter shoot two shots. One at Elsword and one at Laby. Fortunately, Nisha blocks the shot for Laby. Elsword could've dodged but Aisha would have been hit so...
"Tsk. Only got one"
Lu jumps in for the kill, but Barkat was just an illusion. The real one is nearby though >:)
"I have changed, just as you have changed. I am no longer the weak demon that you used to know. I will use whatever means necessary to stop you. To protect this world!" - Barkat
Keep in mind that focus on her being weak. And her hero complex. It seems she's completely bought into her own bullshit, but it's not that simple (this will be very important later)
Well fortunately they aren't regular bullets! Unfortunately they're poison. Elsword reassures everyone he's fine but he starts getting weaker and weaker. Nisha, too, is feeling the effects (??????) They agree to send the two back to the wall so they can recover.
HE'S SO SAD NOOOO
Lu blames herself for all of this.
He finally relents after Eve gives him a tracker.
"I don't like losing people who can fight. Get back as soon as possible." - Add
you softie~
The remaining gang pursue Barkat and eventually corner her inside an elevator. She taunts them about abandoning Elsword, saying something about "small sacrifices" but that's obviously not the same situation. Raven calls her methods short sighted and selfish and Barkat, oddly enough, seems to get genuinely upset by this.
There's something up with her. We kept hearing about how she's a sly puppet master, she's always in control, always telling lies, but look at how easily she cracks.
Why does she need their help anyways? Didn't she already vanquish the demon king? Well apparently their help would cause less bloodshed (yeah ok lady). She calls the demon king a "tyrant." He led a viscous campaign along with the four demon lords to conquer the entire demon realm. Why? A long time ago, a human came to the demon realm after the Dark El. Realizing this, he hid it away.
She claims he used that conquest as an excuse to get rid of everyone else who knew about it. I guess he didn't trust Lu enough to let her in on that little secret~ Lu calls bullshit on this. He was honest and straight forward. It's completely out of character for him... though he did keep a lot of secrets. Barkat laughs, claiming they were blinded by his brilliance.
"For you all, who only could see what's in front of your eyes... the Demon King must have been a brilliant sun for you."
This does explain why no one knows about the Dark El... but still. Barkat lies for a living. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
Noah suddenly remembers something that Dantelion mentioned:
"But, I'm certain there is one, since there was something inside the Dark El."
Was he the one who was looking for it?
The topic shifts again to the demon invasion. Barkat denies any responsibility for it, after all she never left. Apparently she started it because troublesome, ambitious demons, such as Berthe and Ran, were cropping up and Barkat needed to get rid of them. That entire invasion. A ploy to get rid of some rivals. Crazy. Barkat still doesn't see anything wrong with it. It was all for the greater good, after all. The havoc the Demon King will bring is nothing compared to the invasion. She claims if she was stronger, then she would've done it differently, but it is what it is. That's why she wants their power.
Minimize sacrifice??? You???
She starts crashing out about how they can't understand her even though they're "after the same thing" (they're not). She compares what they've done (Kill Karis and Scar? I guess?) to what she did (genocide). "What about those that are killed by you? Whether that's an enemy or a piece of meat!" "So you're saying the blood on your hands is just, and the blood on mine is unjust?"
those aren't even in the same ballpark lady.
Oh but she's never actually killed anyone directly! She's way better actually! No one's buying that.
YOU DON'T GET IT SHE'S DOING IT TO SAVE THE WORLD! SHE'S DONE NOTHING WRONG or something like that
And why didn't she tell Lu? Well obviously because Lu's dumb and wouldn't get it. Obviously.
"I trusted you... I thought you were different. I trusted you!" - Barkat It's everyone's fault but her own. I genuinely believer her frustration here. She probably does actually blame Lu for her own betrayal. I fully believe she genuinely really liked Lu and thought this time it would be different. She sealed her away when she could've killed her, after all. But that could've also been another act of cowardice. Keeping her hands blood free.
SPIT YOUR SHIT QUEEN
Keep in mind the idea of her being a narcissist. It's more accurate than you'd expect. She doesn't just have an inflated ego, she's also got a lot of the other symptoms of narcissism. Constantly inflating and minimizing her own importance, all this talk about her being better than everyone while also whining about how weak she is...
And while she's ranting and raving, she's suddenly interrupted by an ominous vision. The gang takes this opportunity to get a hit on her, and she flees the scene, taking out the elevator on the way out.
Fortunately, they manage to escape just in the nick of time, but they've got a long way to go if they want to climb back up to her. But for now let's rest and recoup for a bit.
They lament about how they got so riled up by her words that they forgot to focus on defeating her. The invasion is such a personal topic to them, after all. Aisha remembers how Elsword almost died back in Velder if Elesis hadn't shown up to save him. Ara and Chung remember their destroyed homes. Maybe they should've stayed. Maybe they could've saved more people if... Eve and Raven remind them that it's neither their fault nor their responsibility. Even so, every time they rest, there's a little voice in Chung's head asking if it's okay for him to be doing this. Poor guy.
As for Barkat, despite all her actions and her insistence that her prophecy would come true, she herself says that she only sees a small slice of what may come, and that the prophecy may change given certain events. Fishy. But this does give them hope that her so-called "apocalypse" won't come to pass. Also, she keeps claiming she's doing the right thing. What's that even mean anyways? Raven mentions it might come from a sense of "solitary justice." Everyone has their own ideas of justice and if you keep isolating yourself, it's easy to get led astray. People can do crazy things in the pursuit of justice, and in that pursuit, there may be people that suffer. The elgang has blood on their hands, but their diverse view points helped to prevent things from going too far. Barkat is this idea taken to the extreme. How much sacrifice is too much? Apparently there's no such thing to her, as long as it's not herself. The elgang are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Peace need not come with sacrifice. They saved the El Lady by sharing her burden among the priestesses, surely they can do something like that again.
They also take this chance to check in on Haivan. Apparently everything's in a frenzy! They must have spooked Barkat pretty badly. Elsword hasn't arrived yet but it looks like he'll be here soon.
Let's check in on Ciel and Tarith while we're at it.
Ciel's trying to bond over Lu, but Tarith isn't having it.
Ciel realizes how childish he is and tries to steer the conversation in a way that won't tilt him. Hmm... how about how he met Lu?
Tarith immediately blames Ciel for stealing half of her soul, but Ciel takes the oppertunity to turn this into story time.
"You probably don't know, but Elrios is full of dangerous creatures just like the Demon Realm. One wrong step into their territory... Slam!
Humans are just as dangerous. Lu ended up in lawless lands where danger awaits around every corner to carve out your heart... Lanox!
Lu needed a bodyguard, someone who knew a lot about Elrios. Someone who wouldn't betray her.
I knew Elrios well, and my life depended on Lu.
So, Lu used me well, and was able to return back to the Demon Realm."
Ah so my Queen Lu wasn't tricked by a filthy human, it was a transactional thing. That makes sense. I no longer think you are my mortal enemy.
so true bestie
He continues on, talking all about how Lu loves his sweet desserts. Tarith, poor caged soul he is, has never heard of many of them.
This brings us on to..
21-2: Nightmare: Reset Room
this section is lighter so it shouldn't be nearly as long.
The Elgang explore more of the floor they wound up in. It looks like a... mansion? It's completly out of place from all those machines. Moby, Remy, and Add's Dynamos start acting strangely. There's a weird chill going around. Spooky. Well anyways they split up and begin searching.
Laby senses a deep sadness from the area and starts sobing. She misses Nisha a lot and blames herself for her getting hit. They can still chat though. Nisha tries to cheer Laby up. Ara, Rena, and Aisha offer her some water and some comfort. Everyone's stressed out.
Meanwhile with the others...
They're discussing sending Elsword back. Elesis feels guilty about it even though she knows she did the right thing Elboy's always been stubborn to a fault, a trait he learned from her. They also ponder about why Barkat targeted Elsword and Laby specificly, when suddenly they stumble upon...
OH JEBUS
This was the dumping grounds for all of Tarith's old parts. Eve mentions that he was quite similar to a Nasod, just with a demon's soul stuffed inside it. See, Tarith was rather sickly in life so it makes sense that he'd create a mechanical body. But Eve notices some thing wrong. She points out the discrepancy between his old age and his child-like body. It must be incredibly uncomfortable.
Add immediately suspects Freidrich and goes off on his own. Lithia quickly follows, curious about this weird guy. Add's trying to scrape whatever data's left in those pieces in order to find out... something. But all he finds are error logs. Memory error after memory error. Apparently they tried erasing some memories and implanting false ones but it kept malfunctioning so they reverted the changes and gave up on that path. Lithia propose that Barkat chose a child body so he'd be easier to control. Who knows. Oddly enough, the duo seems to be getting along. Add calls her "not a fool" which is more than he's said about anyone else. Neat!
Meanwhile, Noah gets separated from the group. He's wandering around, lost, getting all these bad vibes from this place. Clamor thinks it'd be hilarous to spook him even further.
"I heard a monster lives in a wardrobe~"
You should totally go open it >:3 No way! Ok fine. He slowly creeps up and nudges it open and... oh god there's someone in there. Clamor doesn't see it, but Noah's petrified and flees.
The others are facing a similar phenomenon. They see glimpses of Elsword's cape and swear they've been hearing his voices too. And they've somehow looped right back to the entrance? But where's Noah? Oh there he is sprinting towards us!
BREATHE
They follow him back to the wardrobe and it's certainly suspicious. Everyone's too freaked out to investigate. Everyone but Lithia. She marches up, comenting on how everyone's a coward. Some mold here, some dust there... spooky but it seems fine...
:0 Look out! It's Bifron!
But how's he here? He's dead, isn't he? Is he a g-ghost?
GHOST? WHERE? - Aisha probably. She freaks out and starts throwing spells everywhere. Oh hey it worked he's down and out. Apparently all the weird stuff they were seeing was caused by a psychoactive gas in the are in order to keep them trapped. And not just them, but the actual real clump of ghosts behind them! They're all swirling around, getting tangled up inside each other, and attacking anyone who gets near. The gas seems to be here to keep the ghosts trapped here, wandering these halls in search of an exit.
Whose souls? Why the souls of all of Lu's people that Barkat was sacrificing to the dragon of course. She keeps the trapped here in case she needs them. After confirming Ciel's no where around, they escape the area, sealing the door behind them. Wondering the whole time if it's really all right to keep them trapped. It's a problem for later, they decide. Rescuing Ciel comes first. Ah man I hope Ciel's okay...
UWAA ANOTHER GHOST
jk it's actually Ciel. How the hell did you get here?
That's a story for part 2!
Yeah it's not even the real juicy stuff yet hehe.
