Quesada's Swan | Tales of Berseria - Part 115: Revelations

There's monsters in the earthpulse as well, I'm guessing Innominat must have summoned them...

These Specters are quick spellcasters! And we die very quickly!

In the rematch, we finish them off!

The monsters here are all weak to non-elemental attacks, which makes them easy to take care of!

We're almost close to the second earthpulse layer when Eleanor questions whether Innominat is actually Velvet's brother.

Phi still thinks it's an illusion conjured by Innominat himself. Eleanor thinks so too.

Phi, on the other hand, also believes that Innominat is actually Laphi...but he can't believe that he would have the same goals as the Shepherd does.

Eleanor: "Could it be possible that Innominat was reborn into her brother's body?"

Good guess.

Eleanor: "Innominat actually being Velvet's brother...It makes a...sort of sense...but it's too awful..."

Blame the Shepherd for allowing this to happen.

We're now in the second layer of the earthpulse...we've got a long way to go...

Another flashback's shown to us...

There's Arthur and Celica!

Celica runs to Arthur telling him she'll get help. He says he's tired.

So this was how those two met...

Arthur mentions his late master and his doubts about continuing his work.

Celica: "Ten years?!"
Arthur: "My wings are weak... It...it doesn't matter anymore."

Celica tells him to take a break, and says she's been making a stew.

Celica gives Arthur an apple. The apple again...

Arthur turns away. Celica insists he eat.

Celica: "I can feel it. Your body is shouting, 'I want to live'!"

Arthur thinks otherwise.

Celica: "Is a life something you have to earn? To deserve? These feelings are natural. You eat when you're hungry, and cry when you're sad. Feeling these things is proof we're alive."

She introduces herself to him.

Arthur: "I'm an exorcist. Artor—No, Arthur. I'm Arthur."

Velvet claws at the second flashback!

Rokurou: "What in the world was that?"

Rokurou and Eizen are back, and hardy-hey, the gang's back together again!

They saw the flashback too.

Eizen points out this is the Earthen Historia.

Eizen: "They say that events on the world's surface cast imprints on the earthpulse that runs below."
Rokurou: "In other words, an illusion of the past."

Velvet: "...It's not an illusion. That was my sister."

I don't know what to write at this point...all Velvet sees is betrayal...she's probably talking about Seres too...

Eleanor asks if Rokurou's okay.

Rokurou: "Yup. Tough as nails. That's ol' Rokurou."

Rokurou's concerned about Velvet at this point.

Rokurou quotes the same thing as Shigure did about a blade being flexible, not hard.

Rokurou: "I misunderstood the true meaning of strength. And so did he."

Eizen knows we're inside Innominat, or rather, the earthpulse we're in is part of Innominat.

Eizen tells us to remain on guard, as it's Innominat who's giving these flashbacks.

I'm more interested in this backstory.

Eizen also thinks that those two sins of Velvet's might be their ticket out of the earthpulse.

Phi is not happy about Eizen wanting to use her. Eizen and Phi stare at each other.

Rokurou also thinks of going after Magilou in the earthpulse. She's escaped.

Down a slope, and Rokurou asks Eizen about the Earthen Historia.

Eizen starts mentioning the earthpulse's basic purposes. So whatever any action happens, the earthpulse records every single point in its history, "like memories." From a single bird flying, a creek's flow, to wars raging...gur zrzbel bs gur rnegu, yvxr gur Fpber va Gnyrf bs gur Nolff.

Phi asks if it remembers pasts of other beings, from malak to daemons. Yes.

Eleanor: "So that means that even this very conversation is being recorded in the Earthen Historia?"
Eizen: "...The land sees it all."

Eleanor's jumping at the "insults" part.

Phi's assuming, correctly, that Innominat is putting up these memories on purpose.

Rokurou: "Awfully devious for a self-styled Empyrean." He is a tricky one, Innominat is.

Eizen tells everyone to mind Velvet.

Skit: Eizen's right. Velvet got the biggest wham of a plot twist and she's almost buckling from it.

Rokurou asks how long she's going to last. He's sort of recalling his "flexibility, not hardness" maxim.

Eizen says in simple terms to let go of her.

Phi's still worried about her...

Rokurou points out Velvet would say the same thing if it were Eizen.

Rokurou: "But in the end, her fate will be something she'll have to decide for herself."

Phi: "I won't give up on Velvet. No matter what."

Rokurou and Eizen tell him "go ahead."

Facing more Specters now...

Hell Gate and To Heaven are the worst moves in this game to get hit by...

We're now at the third layer of Innominat's earthpulse. When will this end?

Two warp points here now. I go east, where I find more treasure, then west...

Another flashback...

Celica and Arthur in their daily lives again.

Celica mentions the village has fortified their walls against the brigands.

Arthur mutters that the brigands may turn into daemons, and not even that would bar them...

Arthur asks about Velvet and Laphi.

Celica: "I can only hope that this little one grows up to be as strong as [Velvet] is one day." She's pregnant.

Arthur gives her a big hug at the news...he's happy to the point where he's almost crying...

He gives her his handmade locket...

Celica: "I'll cherish it all my life."
Arthur: "Let this serve as proof of our love. This I swear. I swear to protect you both with my life."

Velvet slashes at that memory...

Eleanor notes the obvious. It's the Shepherd's past before he was the Shepherd.

Velvet's laughing...she doesn't believe it...once upon a time, Velvet. Once upon a time...

Velvet: "It's all a pack of lies. His smile, his promise. Everything."

Oh no, there's a dragon watching!

Skit: Eizen asks if that memory took place before the Opening. It was.

Eleanor didn't expect the Shepherd to be smiling either...

Rokurou points out who he is now.

Eizen: "All because he lost his beloved wife..."

And left his sister-in-law into ruin...

Rokurou: "I think the time is coming. Not much longer now."
Phi: "It's coming..."

It definitely is...

Velvet: "To think I ate up his lies without questioning a word..."

Next layer of the earthpulse: the long cut, or the short cut? I go the long way to fetch the treasures here.

Phi points out about the moments between Arthur and Celica and how Velvet was unaware of them...

Phi thought those "warm, loving" memories felt creepy given the context of when we saw them.

Eleanor senses Innominat's plan to make them surrender via those flashbacks.

Rokurou and Eleanor confirm it: Innominat's trolling Velvet.

Eleanor feels Velvet's pain through all of this...I'm just more interested in this backstory...

Eleanor: "But I approach it, just a little bit, because like her, I was his pupil."

Eizen points out the Shepherd needed two sins from Velvet to put Innominat at full power, pointing out the illusions at Aball and Innominat in the form of her brother, and to "brace for the worse to come."

Another flashback...they keep getting more frequent...

The Scarlet Night from the Opening...

So Celica's before the ruin...now cornered by the pit of the shrine below and daemons in front of her.

Arthur's at the back...unable to take care of them...

Celica tells him to run to Velvet and Laphicet...

Arthur: "I can't do that! I want to have my life with you! With our child!"

Arthur is disarmed by a daemon! Celica shoves Arthur aside!

She falls into the pit...

The fangs take her...

Arthur cries.

Oh my god, his arm...he took care of every daemon. Like Velvet, from the very beginning of the game...

Melchior: "Remember this moment well, Artorius. Humans are weak. Filled with sin."

So Melchior manipulated him, telling him that the village offered him as a sacrifice!?

Melchior, you jerk...

Arthur refuses to believe what he's hearing.

Melchior: "The 'reason' people act on is burdened by the weight of their sins. However..."

A pillar of light rises gloriously from the shrine's pit....

Melchior: "I have found a method to adjust their reason."

Arthur: "A domain...?! What is this incredible power?! Don't tell me the Empyrean we've been searching for was here this whole time!"

The malakhim appear...Seres...and Phi!

Melchior: "So they have been reborn. But be not deceived. They are not the same people you knew."

Oh my god...so Seres is Celica and Phi is their unborn son... oh my god...

Arthur tears up...questioning the cruelty of fate...

Melchior: "It appears that Innominat's resurrection is incomplete. We must guide him until we understand why."

Melchior approaches Seres and Phi, about to take them.

Arthur stops him!

He shows Seres the locket...

Arthur: "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise."

...but he hides it away.

Arthur: "I'll make things right. I'll abandon who I am."

And thus, Shepherd Artorius was born.

Arthur: "Nameless malak. I will forge a pact with you. I will put an end...to all the pain in this world." So he's also swearing revenge too, but on the world...

Melchior doubts Arthur.

Arthur: "On the souls of my dead master, wife, and child. This I swear."

At least the subtitles used an Oxford comma here.

Artorius: "My name is Artorius Collbrande. I have inherited the will and the strength of Claudin Asgard, former head of the exorcists."
Melchior: "Very well. Let tonight's tragedy change fate, and birth salvation."

He makes his pact with Seres.

Eleanor and Phi are shocked at the flashback...

I remember what Eizen said in a skit back at the prison: Humans can be reborn as malakhim depending on the right conditions. Vg unccrarq jvgu Zvxyrb va Mrfgvevn.

Rokurou: "You're saying that [the Shepherd]'s child was reborn as Laphicet?"
Eizen: "If what we saw was real, yes."

This is the biggest twist ever...

Velvet and Phi have no words to say about this.

Eleanor: "So the female malak that was born along with him was..."

Seres, Velvet's sister.

No wonder why Seres freed Velvet...

Eleanor asks Velvet if she didn't know about that. I didn't know about that. Oh my god...but Velvet did.

So Innominat was trying to make her feel guilty...

Velvet: "I'll devour anything to fulfill my goal. My sister, my brother, even the world."

She's back...

Velvet: "That's who I am. That's all I am."

Skit: The Day the Shepherd Was Born

Phi: "That was the day all of this started...?"
Rokurou: "Yeah, the Opening. Innominat was halfway revived, and daemons became visible to all."
Eizen: "His power also robbed almost every malak of their free will that day."
Eleanor: "I never imagined [the Shepherd]'s quest to change the world was so steeped in tragedy."

So the villagers who were very aware of the exorcist living in Aball, tried to give him away to the bandits, if we believe Melchior...

Rokurou calls the villagers' deed "nothing remarkable."

Rokurou: "People are capable of anything when under pressure. Even more so when they can do it under the mantle of the 'greater good'. Velvet's family was probably the furthest outside the village circle that night."

Eleanor notes the obvious...

Eizen points out the "selfishness" of her phrasing of the Shepherd's MO.

Eizen: "[The Shepherd]'s quest to change the world, not [the Shepherd]'s quest to save humanity..."

Rokurou: "A man with the power to change the world turned his back on the potential of humanity. That may be the biggest tragedy of that night."

Just like how the villagers turned Velvet's family to the brigands, the Shepherd too turned his remaining family and the rest of the world away. So basically, he was plotting for the world's destruction after the Opening...

Phi: "The savior of the world...lost all hope in its people..." The biggest tragic irony ever. Oh god...

Looks like this isn't just a revenge story. In its own way, it's a save-the-world kind of story, from the Shepherd's plan to destroy humanity and remake the world anew.

So if Velvet finishes her revenge against the Shepherd, she saves everyone!

Aside: While looking for fanart again, I accidentally read a tag that sort of spoiled me for Phi's revelation as the reincarnation of Celica and Arthur's unborn child. Dangit, me!