Black Matrix Zero Part 12: Demons With Night Vision Goggles

Here's what I'm fighting in the optional battles at Carbine: demons with night-vision goggles! Groovy. And another thing I've noticed lately: some swords, like Exal's hit diagonally, getting a square targeting space instead of the usual front-back-left-right cross of spaces. We do this a few times and get Syria a better bow, but the XP and cash are just too damn low to entertain the idea of upgrading everyone's gear to the fullest.

Time to soldier on!
The gang talk over the new digs. Exal and Stei don't approve, but considering Zion and Luca seem to be from here, they're fine with it. I'm betting there's a really high Murder Threshold here, too.

Then there's this guy. His name is Soryuu, so he's probably related to Asuka from Evangelion. Something about him startles the hell out of Stei and Exal. Probably because he's not thinking about murder at the moment.

After a discussion with Wiglaf Guy and a blue-haired dude, we meet with this guy, who I think is Luca's father. Maybe he'll get on her about her six-a-day murder habit. Luca asks about Lilith and Cain and doesn't like Dad's answer much. New buzzwords: Geruda (which is what the goggledemons were named) and Fario. ...oh, and there's another one I know: Titan. I'm also not sure but Zion may have addressed the guy as his father too, which gives us yet another brother-and-sister combo. Siblings seem to be a running theme in the game. Which makes the constant mention of Incest even more troublesome.

And now we get a name that explains everything and nothing: Mephisto Titan. Beats me, but it seems to be significant. Meanwhile, Lilith is temporarily awake but still not well, and Stei, Kirota, and Syria discuss how their various siblings are screwing everything up. Syria is very upset about this, and who can blame her? Luca shows up and starts talking shit about Syria, but Stei jumps in and will have none of it. Not either of their fault their siblings are assholes.

And here's one of the Geruda terrorizing the townsfolk! The parade of silly hats continues! And finally we discover that Luca's father is named Teruga. He tells the gang something they don't like, and they rush out despite his warnings, whatever they were.

He's got to be a higher-ranked guy; his hat and his hair are both silly. He seems to know Luca, and says something that launches everyone into Excessive Ellipses. And then Luca screams at him and we go to the battle menu!

The higher ranked members of Team Goggles are titled Crusade, pronounced Cru-sahd. Level spread's 12-14. We got this. Most of them start bunching up at the top center, so we go up the left side to take out the two stragglers first. The Crusade don't amount to much- a few have decent magic, but mostly they're fragile little jerks.

The results are pretty nice! Enough to get the 12s up to 13 and the 13s to 14.