No Mercy (James)

This page would benefit from an image about this article.The user that placed this notice here had the following thing to say: Upload the image here and immediately change the image description parameter.

"If Charnel is supporting Marduk, as I suspect, we'll have to do him like we done Pyro. There's no two ways about it." – James, No Mercy (Intermission)

• Mission Giver: James
• Location: Dys
• Map Creator: Andrew DeLap
• New Spells: Bovine Intervention, Bore

Map of Dys (full image)

Starting Setup

• An altar
• 8 souls
• 2 Manahoars, a Gargoyle (dead), Gammel (if alive), Sirocco (if alive) and Faestus (if alive).

Objectives

• Defeat Acheron
• Defeat Abraxus

Walkthrough

"Charnel was prepared for an assault from the east, but we came from the north through the chaotic lands of Pyroborea. Losses during the journey were heavy, but at last we arrived in Dys." – Eldred

Arriving at Dys

James has sent you to Dys to finish off Charnel like you had dealt with Pyro. As soon as the mission starts, however, Lady Abraxus will approach you just as a Gargoyle approaches you and warns you of her treachery. Abraxus silences him with a Lightning spell and a cinematic follows, informing you that Stratos and Charnel are allies. Therefore, you will have to deal not only with Charnel's champion Acheron but also his ally's champion Abraxus.

Preparations and the First Clashes

Compared to some other missions in the gods' home islands, you don't have such a rough start in Dys; in fact, you have quite a bit of time to prepare for the fight against Acheron and Abraxus. What's more, Acheron won't come at you right away; initially you'll only have to fight Abraxus. Therefore, there is no need to be defensive.

A good way to start the mission is by going south-east of your altar and building a manalith there, then advancing further. You will arrive at a small Zombie village, a good place to gather some souls. Abraxus will come at about this time as well; this is as good a time as any to fight her, as this way you'll achieve control over the Mana Fountain in the middle of the village as well as the Zombies' souls. (Abraxus' side is hostile to the Zombies, so she'll try to kill and convert them too. Try to deny her the opportunity.) Abraxus' army is not very fearsome; she commands two Storm Giants, a Seraph and several Brainiacs. If you can, try to knock the Seraph and the Brainiacs into the abyss. You won't be able to convert the souls, of course, but Abraxus is fast and good at reclaiming souls anyway - and it's not like you'll need a massive amount of souls later on either.

The only thing you'll really need to fear are Abraxus' level 8 spells: Cloudkill and Tornado. Tornado is easy to counter - once you hear the winds blowing retreat all of your army in the opposite direction - her creatures may even chase you, getting caught in the tornado. Cloudkill is a little harder to spot as you may mistake the spell for a less powerful spell such as Chain Lightning, but if you spot the stormy cloud above yourself, run away and once again, her army may get caught in it. If you have a creature that can stun her, by all means attempt to do so before she casts her spells.

Abraxus' altar is approximately in the middle of the map. It is very lightly defended and desecrating it should be easy. Abraxus is fast and may be able to disrupt the ritual a few times but that's all she can do; it's almost as though she wasn't really trying to defend Charnel, all in all.

Dealing with Acheron

After Abraxus' desecration, Acheron will proceed to do nothing - his AI is paused until you start getting close to his ultimate altar, so just feel free to mop up in your part of the map, converting Abraxus' leftover creatures and checking out the bigger village on the west side of the map for more Zombies to convert in addition to building any manaliths you can.

When you feel ready to tackle Acheron, cross the narrow pass in the middle of the map and destroy the Charnel manalith there. Once you approach the manalith Acheron will mobilize. This battle will, in fact, be rather anticlimactic as well. Acheron's army is a bit more powerful than Abraxus', with a Styx, a Netherfiend, three Fallen and several other creatures such as Locusts or Abominations. However, you should actually outnumber Acheron's army in terms of souls by this point. Like Abraxus, the biggest challenge Acheron can present to you is a powerful spell, or combination of several spells. A back-to-back combination of Plague and Demonic Rift can be deadly; Demonic Rift is pretty much unavoidable unless you teleport out, so try to avoid getting caught by the Plague as well. Acheron rarely uses Intestinal Vaporization, but loves to use Death; try to interrupt him with a stun spell, or failing that, teleport out and let Death destroy his army. (Or if there is no resistance, stand in front of Death and summon manahoars for him to cut down until he's had enough.)

Curiously, unlike in Persephone's sixth and Stratos' ninth missions, Acheron's final manalith is not defended by Abominations and Styxes; in fact, it's defended by absolutely nothing, unless Acheron decides to Guardian some creatures to it during the match. Therefore, all you need to do is to rush in, destroy the manalith and desecrate his altar to vanquish Charnel.

Trivia

• Considering that Persephone's sixth mission, which comes earlier than this one, features the Abomination and Styx guards at Acheron's final manalith, the lack of defenders this time around may simply be a result of an oversight from the part of the editors.
• Overall, considering how many manaliths are initially controlled by the enemies, how big the enemy armies are and how difficult the mission is, it can be said that this mission is much easier than Persephone's respective mission, and may be the easiest god-slaying mission altogether.
• Eldred is surprised and angered by Stratos' betrayal no matter what gods you had served before, but in fact, there are several ways he could have known about the betrayal earlier. If he had served Charnel until mission seven and defected just before mission eight, he would have witnessed Stratos and Charnel discussing their secret alliance several times. If he had served Stratos up to mission six and defected to James then, he could have heard Stratos explain his secret plan to him and informed James. In fact, if he had served Persephone in mission five, defected to Charnel during mission six and then to James in mission eight, Stratos' betrayal would be declared twice.
• If you served Persephone in mission five, defected to Charnel during mission six and then to James in mission eight, Eldred will ponder about Asteroth's where abouts despite having killed him with his own hands in mission five.
• James appears and says he never should have trusted Stratos as if he is talking to him but Stratos cannot appear in Dys as it is Charnel's homeland (James also should not be able to appear).

Previous Mission:	Mission Category:	Next Mission:
IM-08	James' Missions	IM-09