No Mercy (Persephone)

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"Go as an envoy to Pyro and offer mercy and forgiveness if he will join us in battle against Marduk. Else he needs share Charnel's fate. This do We proclaim is Our justice." – Persephone, No Mercy (Intermission)

• Mission Giver: Persephone
• Location: Helios
• Map Creator: David Msika
• New Spells: Charm, Meanstalks

Map of Helios (full image)

Starting Setup

• An altar
• 8 souls
• 2 Manahoars, an Ent, Thestor and Toldor (if either of them is alive)

Objectives

• Defeat Buta
• Defeat Sorcha

Walkthrough

ELDRED: Despite the incessant war along the borderlands, Pyro consented to allow me to come, with limited escort, to negotiate in his homeland of Helios.

MITHRAS: Even after you defeated Charnel in Dys, he had no qualms about inviting you to his home? <chuckle> Incredible.

The Negotiations

Persephone sends you to Helios to try and negotiate peace with Pyro so that you can hunt for Marduk, but Pyro refuses your offer outright. He is unconcerned about Marduk and does not view him as a threat. With that, you are forced to vanquish Pyro's champions to bring an end to the war the hard way.

The Empress

The gnome Faestus will approach you. In a cowardly fashion, he switches allegiance to you right away, and tells you about the Magnifryers. He will fight on your side from now on, even during later missions.

Sorcha attacks from your right; hopefully Toldor is still alive and well, as the 8 souls you get at the start are quite little and you may have a hard time trying to repel her initial assault - which consists of at least 2 Warmongers, 2 Pyromaniacs and a Pyrodactyl, plus 8 souls' worth of other creatures. To maximize the amount of souls you can get from her, try not to attack the fortified manalith she has which you can just see from your altar, as she may reclaim souls from the guards. Instead, just build a manalith on the empty Mana Fountain just ahead of you, and wait for Sorcha to attack. Although your Vinewall spell has no effect unless you're playing with the unpatched version, the AI will still seek to go around it, so use it to split her army in two if you can. Your Charm spell is also very useful; cast it on a Warmonger to get the most souls. Command Toldor, or if he's absent, a regular Ent to cast Protector and place Healing Aura on him for added effect. The rest of your army should be ranged units to kill the Warmongers and Sorcha with. Once Sorcha dies, her army will retreat (if there is anything left).

Convert all that you can quickly before Sorcha returns; use your Vinewall to buy time if needed, though if Sorcha had lost all her souls during her last offensive she may not even try to reclaim them, and will instead travel off to capture manaliths. Either way, as soon as she no longer has enough units to mount a decent offensive, or as soon as she stops attacking, make your way to her altar. The manalith next to the altar is guarded by two Phoenixes and a Warmonger. A tough defensive position, to be sure, but it can be overcome: first, pick off the Warmonger from a long range, then Charm one of the Phoenixes. The two fiery birds will start firing at each other; command your creatures to concentrate all fire on the other Phoenix. Construct a manalith of your own (your mana income is probably very low at this point as your other manaliths are far away; feel free to summon a few more manahoars, soon you'll be swimming in souls) and desecrate her altar. She will likely be far away, and will hurry back to her altar; you should have no trouble bringing her down, especially if your charmed Phoenix is still alive. Use Grasping Vines or some other stun spell to immobilize her if she is not shielded.

Once Sorcha's altar is gone, the creatures guarding her other manalith will keel over and die, letting you convert their souls. A total of 16 souls can be gained from here.

Directly south of your altar, you will find another mana fount and an idol to Ashur next to it. Watch out though; the mana fount is trapped. As you approach the fountain, a volcano will erupt not far behind you. As Buta is still inactive if things are well, this is just a nuisance, although a rather big one if your army is caught point blank by it, so leave your creatures far behind (like at your altar). You can avoid triggering the volcano by not going anywhere near the Mana Fountain in question, but it's better to trigger it now than risk accidentally triggering it when you're already fighting Buta - when it really hurts.

Another ambush will occur once you start to ascend the hill with two spires jutting out of it, located west from the mana fount. 2 Phoenixes and 2 Pyrodactyls will appear and start attacking you. These will net you another 16 souls, and just like with the volcano, it's a good idea to trigger it now rather than in a less convenient time later on.

The Ambassador

Feel free to build up near your own altar, as Buta's AI will not activate even when you banish Sorcha. Buta will only start moving if his property (e.g. one of his Magnifryers) is attacked or if you approach his Magnifryers personally. That being said, destroying the Magnifryers may be somewhat challenging. If you had served James during your first mission, all you need to do is to summon a few Troggs. Troggs are immune to the Magnifryers' attacks, which are magical in nature. If you can't summon Troggs, you can try summoning other level 1 melee creatures; a swarm of them can take out one Magnifryer before they all bite the dust. However, this will cause Buta to approach with his whole army (including at least 3 Warmongers, 2 Pyromaniacs, a Bombard and possibly at least one Phoenix) while most of your souls are on the battlefield, so try to gather them fast and return to the rest of your own army just as fast. A final option is to cast a shielding spell and quickly run up to the base of the Magnifryers, which they can't fire at, and summon a melee creature to destroy it, all the while hiding behind the pole of the Magnifryer from other Magnifryers; then run to the next one and so on, as quick as you can before Buta strikes. Watch out not to come too close to the manalith right in the middle of the Magnifryer tetragon; it is guarded by several Warmongers.

Once all four Magnifryers are down, all you need to do is defeat Buta. Depending on how you destroyed the Magnifryers (or if you have destroyed them at all) this may catch you somewhat unprepared. Be sure to be near your army, ready to fight, when he arrives; he will likely attack the manalith near the mountain. A well-placed Charm spell is once again a blessing, allowing you to convert a Phoenix, or if he doesn't have one, a Warmonger, for yourself. This will bolster your army with a strong Pyro creature while massively shifting the soul balance in your favor. A Protector spell from an Ent or Toldor is, once again, a good idea, as without it the Warmongers may chew you up. Concentrate on killing them first.

If you haven't destroyed all the Magnifryers, it's a good idea to wait for Buta to attack a few more times to gain more souls. You don't want him to disrupt you with a large army while you try to demolish these weapons. Other than that, it's all downhill from there; occupy the manalith in the middle, getting rid of the Warmongers, then just go forward to meet Buta's final defenses.

As you approach the altar, you'll be greeted by several Proles of Pyro who will ambush you from behind the altar. It is a rather impressive force, with a Phoenix, three Pyromaniacs and two Bombards; don't be caught in a crossfire between them and Buta, who may try attacking you from behind if he still has a good enough army to do so. You may be tempted to Charm this Phoenix, but save it for one of the two guarding one of Buta's manaliths near his altar. Alternatively, charm this one and bring down the Phoenixes from afar; neither manalith has any defenses which can match the range of snipers or Mutants (the other one has Warmongers).

Once the defenses are down, desecrate Buta's altar to win and shut down Pyro's warmachine for good.

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