Summary: Jeanne and the rebels enter the castle looking for Charioce, but find neither him nor the Onyx Soldiers, so she concludes that he may be hiding in Dromos' facilities, which are suspiciously well-guarded by ships and soldiers, so she orders him to go there.
When the attack begins, the Onyx Soldiers defend the place with their magic, which manages to kill some gods.
Jeanne soon notices that Lucifer has joined the battle as soon as she sees his ship. And she knows Azazel is with him.
Jeanne and Azazel, on their own, attack Charioce's men and surround the area where Dromos is. Since Jeanne is attacking the Onyx Soldiers, their leader prioritizes attacking her.
Meanwhile, Kaisar and Dias run through the streets of Anatae.
Dias finds it unreal that the Royal Army has trouble containing the rebels. However, Kaisar notes that while the Onyx Soldiers' magic is effective against demons and gods, it's not effective against humans. He knows this because when the Soldiers tried to attack them, it didn't have the same effect on them. Besides, he mentions to Dias that the union of forces between gods, humans, and demons is a powerful combination against all the king's men.
Dias concludes that Nina and Mugaro's immunity to the magic of the Onyx Task Force is due to their human ascendence.
When they see Orleans Knights targeting demon kids, they help them escape and confront them, whom they promptly knock out.
As they fight, Dias spots Alessand and entrusts Kaisar to take charge of the remaining knights while he goes after him.
Alessand sees all the chaos around him, aware that he was primarily responsible for the rebellion breaking out, and continues to convince himself that none of it is his fault.
Alessand is looking for a safe place, but the explosion caused by a fireball near him temporarily takes him to unconsciousness. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that Dias is standing there waiting for him to come to his senses.
Recognizing him and seeing his serious countenance, Alessand asks him if he is angry with him. Dias only answers him by unsheathing his sword and demanding that he confess to why he killed the Holy Child. Alessand doesn't want to lose his life, so he only reacts to apologize for what he has done. Dias takes pity on him and sheathes his sword, but Alessand seizes the moment to use his dagger and stab his former vice-captain.
Kaisar knocks out the soldiers he was fighting, and after seeing Jeanne heading to Dromos, he rushes in that direction too.
In battle, Azazel and Jeanne join forces to attack the golems.
Alessand believes he was accurate in his stab at Dias, but the latter managed to defend himself in time by holding it in his hand, drawing blood on the spot. Realizing that he was unsuccessful in his murder attempt, Alessand flees in terror, and Dias goes after him with his sword in hand.
Alessand hides behind wooden crates in an alley while telling himself that he has done nothing wrong and is guilty of nothing. He soon notices that a demon child is holding a knife with which he intends to defend himself against him. Alessand doesn't consider him a threat, so he approaches him in peace and hugs him. The demon kid pretends to believe him and, when Alessand has wrapped his arms around him, stabs him in the belly and leaves him bleeding to death as he runs away to safety, free of humans.
In his last moments, Alessand sees Dias and tells him that he doesn't want to die while shedding tears. However, he's dying and ends up losing consciousness and passing away. Dias regrets his death, despite everything he did.
At her clinic, Rita says goodbye to Mugaro's body and promises to make him a grave once she returns, so she begs him to take care of her home until then.
Flying on Hipogriff, Nina asks Bacchus to go faster because she's against the clock and wants to help Charioce.
However, Bacchus insists that he can't go any quicker, and Hamsa observes to him that Nina is back to her old self.
Becoming frustrated that she can't go as fast as she would like, Favaro sits next to Nina to support her. Nina comments to him that even though she still can't quite understand the king, she'd like to see him again.
Favaro understands Nina's feelings.
Bahamut has woken up and started throwing fireballs. Charioce's fleet does what they can to get him to Anatae, although rebels attack several of their ships.
Azazel and Jeanne continue to fight together against Onyx Soldiers and golems controlled by them.
The leader of the Onyx Task Force gives the order to prioritize Jeanne, and she becomes their target.
Azazel realizes this and wants to help, but then he sees the king joining the battle and that the Soldiers are celebrating his return to Anatae.
Jeanne and Azazel attack Charioce's ship together but have difficulties as the Onyx Task Force defends the king.
The saint and the demon arrive to confront Charioce, but they must face their best men first.
The leader of the Onyx Soldiers tells Charioce that they'll take care of Azazel and Jeanne and that he'll proceed with his mission.
Kaisar manages to reach the shore and, seeing no other way to get to Dromos, decides to swim there, but Rita appears on the scene and offers him her help, as he won't make it there by swimming. Rita uses her zombie staff to use all the dead in the city to her advantage and make a bridge of corpses through which Kaisar can run and rise to reach Charioce's ship.
From Hipogriff, Nina and Favaro watch Anatae go up in flames until Hamsa asks them to pay attention to the ship below them.
Seeing that it's Charioce's and on deck, Nina asks Bacchus to let her off. Bacchus obeys and begins to fly lower.
On deck, Onyx Soldiers temporarily immobilize Azazel and Jeanne using their magic, but as they die from the overuse of the green stone in their chests, Charioce is in danger.
Azazel seriously wounds the unit leader, but as he still has some energy left, he attempts to end Jeanne's life. Unluckily for him, his remaining life energy is used up at that very moment, and he falls to the ground dead.
Charioce is in check. Regardless, he cannot die yet, as he hasn't accomplished his mission, so he unsheathes his sword, ready to face Jeanne and Azazel.
Since the stone has weakened his left arm, Charioce can't hold the sword as he'd like and ends up stripped of his weapon.
Nina calls out his name when she sees him in danger, and he manages to hear her.
Seeing that Jeanne and Azazel will kill him, Nina shouts for them to stop. However, when Kaisar is already close enough to the king's ship and sees from his position that his life is in danger, he rushes to defend him and acts as a human shield, receiving the attack of the saint and the demon at the same time.
Rita, desperate, runs to his aid but knows that she cannot do anything for him due to the number of wounds he has received.
While everyone tries to assimilate what has just happened, a fireball passes between Charioce's and Hipogriff's ship, hitting Lucifer's.
The priority then shifts from Charioce's life to Bahamut's.
Style: The idea is delivered after Alessand's and Kaisar's deaths.
Point of view: Alessand's and Kaisar's predominate as they're the ones who lose their lives.
Tone: Tragic
Fixed literary devices:
- Transversal themes:
- Love
- Identity and Secrecy
- Transversal symbols (motifs):
- Blue light
- Right arm
Mutable literary devices:
- Episode theme:
- Life and Death
Conflicts: Life vs. Death
Thematic elements:
- Life vs. Death:
- Alessand tries to kill Dias and thinks he has succeeded, but Dias survives by holding the dagger with his hand in time.
- Alessand dies at the hands of a demon child he thought was harmless.
- The leader of the Onyx Soldiers dies at the hands of Azazel and Jeanne.
- Kaisar dies at the hands of Azazel and Jeanne while protecting Charioce, giving him a new chance to fulfill his task.
- Love:
- Nina still doesn't fully understand Chris/Charioce (*), but she still wants to see him again. She doesn't want him to die.(*): Nina doesn't understand why he acted in such a way that everyone ended up misunderstanding him, including her, nor does why he doesn't let her join him in killing Bahamut, even though she told him —in episode 17— that she wanted to support him in everything and anything.
- Favaro realizes that the love Nina and Charioce feel for each other is true.
- Hearing Nina call him by his real name, Charioce feels he doesn't deserve forgiveness for what he did to her, so he takes a firm stance waiting for Azazel's and Jeanne's lethal attack.
- Rita helps Kaisar because she loves him. She falls into despair when he's mortally wounded. As she can do nothing to save him, she holds his hand and embraces him in his last moments.
- Identity and Secrecy:
- Dias realizes that the Onyx Soldiers' magic doesn't work on humans, and that's why it never worked on Nina or Mugaro, as both are half-human mixes.
- Dias notes that Alessand is the new captain of the Orleans Knights.
- The demon child of the suburbs turns out to be not helpless but one with enough resolve to kill Alessand.
- Mugaro's soul is present in Rita's clinic. He has gone from being a mortal to a guardian angel.
Symbols:
- Blue light: While it usually symbolizes Michael's presence, in this episode and in the previous one, it represents the presence of Mugaro's soul —Michael's son—, whom Rita commissions to care for her home while she's absent.
- Broken Glass: Symbolizes fragility and is also a bad omen. This symbol is present when the royal scholar sees that Charioce and the Onyx Soldiers will face Jeanne and Azazel, indicating their disadvantage when facing them both simultaneously, defending themselves as their bodies are reaching their limit.
- Cutting off right arm: Symbolizes terminating force.
The right hand is the aggressive or executing hand. It's the hand soldiers use to hold their weapons in battle.
Azazel cuts off the leader of the Onyx Task Force's right arm —Charioce's right arm or sword—, an unfavorable situation for the king, as he has lost his best man in battle.
- Loss of strength in the left arm: Symbolizes weakness and death, foretelling Charioce's death risk while fighting Azazel and Jeanne.It's also the loss of the will to live.Charioce loses strength in his left arm and, at that precise moment, he hears Nina call him by his real name. It represents him losing all will to live, as he feels he deserves death for having hurt the woman he loves.
- Human Shield: Symbolizes protection. Just as the leader of the Onyx Task Force is Charioce's sword, Kaisar is his shield.
Scenarios:
- Royal City of Anatae
- Royal Castle
- Streets
- Prison-Island
- Dromos
- Suburbs
- Rita's Clinic
References:
- The King's Sword and Shield: Traditionally, the king's two best men are said to be his sword and shield. The leader of the Onyx Soldiers is his sword, while Kaisar is his shield.
- Rise of the Nightmare: The episode's title is inspired by the 1991 film titled 'Rise of the Terragon', directed by John Salvitti and Chris Yen.
The story is about a two-time martial arts champion embroiled in a triangle of revenge when an old and a new enemy appear on the scene.
As in the movie, Charioce must take down everyone's nightmare —Bahamut— but finds himself in trouble when Jeanne and Azazel appear in his path to exact revenge.
Foreshadowing:
- Tilted Cross: Foretells death. It's present when Alessand seeks shelter and when he falls to the ground after an explosion, foreshadowing his imminent death.
Characters:
- Nina: She still doesn't fully understand Charioce since she doesn't know why he acted in such a way that gods and humans, and even she, misinterpreted his actions. Nor does she understand why he decided to exclude her from facing Bahamut, even though she told him she was willing to support him in whatever he faced.Still, she's sure her feelings for him are true, and she wants to see him one more time and free him from the fate of death he imposed on himself.She tells Favaro how she feels, and he understands everything she says.Nina asks Bacchus to hurry and take her to the king's ship so she can do something for him.Bacchus manages to approach the ship's deck, and Nina sees how Jeanne and Azazel are about to take his life.Nina shouts Charioce's real name, Chris, and desperately asks Azazel and Jeanne to stop, but they ignore her and continue their offensive.Nina sees how Kaisar sacrifices himself for the king by standing between Azazel and Jeanne to defend him.
- Chris/Charioce: He's back to Anatae, leading Bahamut to the battle zone.When the Onyx Soldiers spot him, they celebrate his return.Jeanne and Azazel join forces to attack and invade his ship to take his life.Charioce stays vigilant as his soldiers die defending him from his attackers.Charioce cannot die yet, for he hasn't yet fulfilled his destiny. He must still slay Bahamut.He unsheathes his sword and simultaneously confronts Jeanne and Azazel, but together they strip him of his weapon and take advantage of a moment when his left arm loses strength.When Charioce realizes that Nina is there and calls him by his real name, he feels he doesn't deserve forgiveness for what he did to her. As punishment, he adopts a firm and dignified position before accepting the death Azazel and Jeanne will grant him.His life doesn't end there, though. Kaisar arrives on his ship and sacrifices himself for him by acting as a human shield.His death shocks Charioce and everyone who saw what happened.Next, when a fireball from Bahamut grazes his ship, his, Jeanne's, and Azazel's attention focus on the beast, which has become the priority.
- Jeanne: She enters the castle and arrives at the king's hall looking for Charioce. Realizing that the Onyx Soldiers are not present, she believes that she'll find the king where they are. When noticing green lights in Dromos, she leads all the rebels to the area, as she's convinced that Charioce is there with them.With Azazel's help, Jeanne takes out everything in her path. Although the Onyx Soldiers separate her from her battle partner, Jeanne manages to get rid of them and reach Charioce's ship once he joins the battle.She and Azazel attack the ship and fight the Onyx Soldiers, whom they manage to get rid of without much difficulty because they have little remaining life left. The unit's leader tries to take Jeanne's life but perishes before he can do so. With only Charioce left as their enemy, Jeanne and Azazel coordinate their attacks and manage to strip him of his sword, leaving him unable to defend himself. Hoping to take his life, Jeanne and Azazel go together to give them the final blow, but the one who receives their attacks is Kaisar, who has arrived on time to the ship to defend his king.Jeanne can't believe her eyes. Because of her that Kaisar is now dying. Things get complicated when a fireball slightly hits the king's ship, and she realizes that Bahamut is attacking.
- Azazel: He leaves Lucifer's ship and confronts Charioce's fleet. He joins Jeanne to advance faster on the battlefield, and together they finish off the Onyx Soldiers, the king's most dangerous men.Seeing the king's ship join the battle, he heads towards it with Jeanne, where they face the best soldiers of the Onyx Task Force. After taking them and their leader down, Azazel and Jeanne fight Charioce.Charioce faces they both alone but cannot do as he'd like because his left arm is out of strength.Disarming him, Azazel and Jeanne attack him to the death, but Kaisar takes the attack instead, falling badly wounded to the ground.This shocks Azazel, who refrains himself from attacking Charioce again. Besides, when a fireball hits the ship, Azazel realizes that Bahamut is attacking Anatae.
- Kaisar: He runs together with Dias to reach Charioce, guided by Jeanne, who has crossed the sky to Dromos. Kaisar tells his friend that the magic of the Onyx Soldiers doesn't work against humans and that, for that reason, the Royal Army couldn't contain the attack on the castle. Dias concludes that the Onyx Soldiers' magic never worked on either Nina or Mugaro because they both possess partly human blood.As Orleans Knights are attacking demon children, Kaisar and Dias help them. In the place, Dias sees Alessand hiding in the streets and goes after him, leaving Kaisar and the rest of the knights, whom he easily defeats.Kaisar continues on his way to Dromos, but upon reaching the shore and seeing that there's no other way to get there but to swim, he prepares to throw himself into the sea. But at that moment, Rita arrives to assist him. She uses her staff to use the dead of the city as zombies through which Kaisar and she can walk and make their way to Charioce's ship as they increase in number and volume.Being close enough to the king's ship and seeing that the Charioce is in danger, Kaisar rushes to his aid, acting as a human shield, taking Azazel and Jeanne's lethal attacks all over his body.While on the ground, Rita rushes to his aid and embraces him, seeing that she can do nothing for him.
- Dias: He deduces that the magic of the Onyx Task Force doesn't work on humans and that, for that reason, Nina and Mugaro are immune to it since they're hybrids.While saving some helpless demon children with Kaisar from Orleans Knightsharassing them, he spots Alessand and goes after him to demand that he explain why he killed the Holy Child.Dias finds Alessand on the ground after an explosion and asks him if he's all right. Alessand, seeing his countenance, only reacts to ask him if he's upset. Dias unsheathes his sword and stares at him coldly, and Alessand apologizes. Dias thinks that his ex-subordinate is sorry and sheathes his sword, but Alessand takes advantage as Dias has lowered his guard and gives him a stab that he manages to stop with his hand.Having foiled the assassination attempt, Alessand runs away and hides behind the rubble in an alley. Dias finds him mortally wounded. Although Alessand was responsible for sparking the rebellion, Dias regrets his death and tells him he was a fool.
- Alessand: He looks for a safe place to hide while the rebels attack the city. He's mentally unstable because he knows killing Mugaro unleashed war.When there's an explosion near him, he falls to the ground and is knocked unconscious for a few minutes. When he wakes up, he sees Dias looking at him with his sword in hand to kill him.Alessand asks him if he's angry with him for what he did, but receiving no answer, Alessand asks him to forgive him for his actions. However, when Dias believes him as he sheathes his weapon, Alessand takes the opportunity and stabs him with his dagger.At first, he thinks his stab was accurate, but when he realizes that Dias has prevented the dagger from penetrating his body by holding it in his hand, he runs away, looking for a place where Dias won't find him.Alessand finds an alley with piles of rubble and takes refuge there. He thinks he's safe and alone, but seeing a demon boy holding a blade, Alessand sees no threat.To try to control the situation, he poses as his friend and hugs him, telling him everything is all right. However, the boy tricks him by reciprocating his apparent kindness and mortally stabs him in the belly.Alessand bleeds to death on the spot and sees Dias in his last moments, to whom he tells that he doesn't want to die before taking his last breath.
- Favaro: Hearing Nina tells him that, although she doesn't fully understand the king, she wants to see him again, he understands that her feelings for him are true, as are Charioce's for her.He, Bacchus, and Hamsa support Nina and set off on their way to the king's ship so that she can see him once more.As they approach the royal ship, Favaro sees how Kaisar offers his life for him by acting as a human shield and is dumbfounded.When a Bahamut fireball passes between Hipogriff and the royal ship, Favaro restrains Nina from falling.
- Bacchus: He hurries to find the king's ship at Nina's request. Once there, he has to take Hipogriff to a safe place to avoid Bahamut's fireballs.
- Hamsa: He's glad to see that Nina has recovered her spirits and is back to her old self. Like Bacchus, he supports her in looking for Charioce's ship.
- Rita: She leaves her clinic in Mugaro's care while outside and promises to build him a tomb when she returns.Rita goes in search of Kaisar to help him get to the king's ship since swimming won't get there in time to help him.Once she finds him, she uses her magic and makes hordes of corpses join together and act as a platform that moves to the royal ship as more and more bodies form it.Already on the king's ship, she sees how Kaisar rushes to his majesty's aid acting as a human shield.Seeing the man she loves seriously wounded, Rita goes down to help him. But as his injuries are lethal, she can do nothing for him.She lovely embraces him, showing her affection in his last moments.
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