SWORD FIGHT ON THE HEIGHTS

King Kleos is informed by Shedletsky of us requiring the Windforce Sword to complete our mission. He is wary of someone he’s never heard of needing it, but is impressed we have already acquired 4 of the swords including Firebrand. He wishes to put us in a challenge though as SFoTH is hosting a tournament. We are flown to SFoTH in which we must ascend the cliffs and such while fighting off combatants. We will have miniboss fights with Robur and Reginald as they both love to test their skills. We still have the meet up and conversation with Opticus where he wishes to test our Endurance and not our strength. Opticus will hit us with the paintball gun explaining that it lowers our defense so we should get ready to block. He now emphasizes our goal is not damage but survival (Foreshadowing what to do for the final boss). We earn the paintball gun as a reward and that it might come in handy.  At the end just before we get to Trinity we have a fight with King Kleos where he is wielding the Windforce Sword as a final test of strength.

KING KLEOS’S DEATH

We win this fight, but due to the fact we have subdued our fear, we attack a bit too hard. King Kleos is injured. This rightfully angers Reginald who witnesses this and Robur is taken aback by our ease to harm someone even in battles that are not to the death. King Kleos says he is fine and commends our strength before escorting us to the main building in Trinity. We meet Princess Cassie along the way who is now worried for her father. She helps him to the main building. Once there King Kleos starts the ceremony to hand the Windforce sword over with wary comments coming from Robur, vehement disapproval from Reginald and high praise from Azuri. As we are about to be handed the sword, the Korblox invasion starts. 

Arg’il storms the front knocking Cassie to the side away from her father. King Kleos is about to swing his sword but due to his injuries is not fast enough as he is slammed to the ground causing the Windforce blade to fly towards Azuri, who immediately starts guarding it, and Kleos’s regular sword to fly towards the player. As we jump the banister to fight, Arg’il stabs King Kleos through the chest killing him before we start the fight.

TRINITY’S COUNCIL DOUBTS

Once the fight is over with the Trinity Council and the player successfully fending them off, we are left with Cassie a mess, crying over her father’s corpse. Reginald immediately goes on the offensive accusing the player of their misdeeds as King Kleos was obviously injured by the player. Robur, who wants to be on the player’s side, is indecisive. He agrees that it was the player’s actions that did harm the king enough to cause him to falter in protecting himself, but says it wasn’t intentional as no one could imagine that would happen. Azuri, who has held the sword and has seen the vision of the Trinity Council fighting against the player leading to the demise of Robloxia, steps in and says that the player is here on official business and that they mean no harm. She will not reveal she has had these visions, but heavily insists that Reginald and Robur put aside their doubts and trust the player.

As it seems the Trinity Council is about to degrade into a full blown argument, Telamon suggests that the sword be put into hiding at the moment as there is a full scale invasion happening right outside the doors. Azuri agrees and asks the player to keep Cassie safe while the three put the sword in a safe place and go fight the invasion. She explains that once the invasion is over, she will hand the sword over as per the final request of King Kleos.

PRINCESS CASSIE

We sit with Cassie as she mourns over her father. She laments the fact that she’s not ready to take on the position of Queen already and wishes to spend another day with her father. While the player watches her, a child comes into the front door requesting assistance as their dad was out at his shopping stall when the invasion struck. The child managed to run away, but fears their dad is going to get hurt. Cassie doesn’t know what to do as she feels like she can’t handle this by herself. She asks the player if they really did collect four of the swords. We confirm it and she requests we lead her throughout the city to evacuate citizens and help with the invasion as she can’t sit around while others are also made orphans.

REGINALD’S COURT

We start leading her around and a guard spots us and tries to escort Cassie back to the castle. She refuses, ordering the guard to stand down. He states that these orders come from the Trinity Council and that even if her father has died, she has not yet been made queen yet so the Trinity Council’s orders are final. We have to now fight the guards to which Cassie will still refuse to attack, but will continue to support us. As we make our way through Reginald’s court we evacuate citizens until we come to just outside of Reginald’s tower.

Reginald is fighting Arg’il outside of Reginald’s tower. As we approach he manages to fend off Arg’il to the point he retreats. Reginald is about to start chase when he notices the player and Cassie. He accuses us of trying to get the princess killed as it was direct orders to keep her safe. He states how he knows it was wrong to trust the player and attacks stating it’s to keep Cassie safe. We ultimately win and as he declares us an enemy, he runs off to look for back up in the form of Robur unknowingly leaving the Sanctum Shard behind. Cassie picks it up thinking if she can get all three then she can be more use and use the sword to help fend off the invasion.

ROBUR’S COURT

We make our way to Robur’s court as per the usual. Before we make it to the tower Robur is in, Arg’il attacks us in a mini boss fight in an attempt to take the Sanctum Card from Cassie. We win as Arg’il runs off to Azuri’s court. Robur, who heard the fighting, comes out with a team and immediately orders the arrest of the player. We are too far outnumbered and get taken inside where we face trial.

Cassie pleads in our defense which gives a leniency point for the player. We will be asked the regular questions in which we either please or annoy Robur. If we manage to win in pleading our case Robur will hear Cassie out on the Windforce sword and give us his Sanctum Shard and his full support (Robur’s guards will stop attacking the player at this point). If we fail however, we will be sentenced, but Cassie will last second declare trial by combat. Robur will concede as he always had a soft spot for Cassie and challenge the player. If we win we are given the Sanctum Shard by order of Cassie, but we are told we are being watched (Robur’s guards will still attack the player).

AZURI’S COURT

We actually make it to the tower Azuri is in first instead of her whole court. Here she will declare that she is disappointed that the player and Cassie have left the safety of the main building, but declares that she already knows this would happen. She reveals that upon holding the Windforce Sword she had visions of the Trinity Council’s arguments leading to Cassie’s death at the hands of Arg’il and the fall of Robloxia. She declares that she will now lock the player and Cassie in the tower to make sure the vision doesn’t come true as Cassie will be nowhere near when the Trinity Council face Arg’il, and that if we somehow escape, the guards will do their best to put them back in the tower. Before she leaves, she does state she will still hand the sword over once this invasion is all over.

While in the tower we use the clues around us to break out. Azuri’s Sanctum Shard, through a secret text, is stated to be hidden in her court before the player and Cassie leave. Cassie is now sure she needs the sword to stop the invasion. We will lead her to Azuri's court until we break into a secret hideout Azuri made for herself where we find a statue of the Late King Kelos. Cassie breaks down once more remembering her father. She declared that she is going to be just as great of a queen as he was a king. As she looks at the statue, she notices a crack in the statue and sees something in it. It turns out to be Azuri’s Sanctum Shard.

FACING THE TRINITY COUNCIL

We make it back with Cassie. Before we can use the shards, the Trinity Council stops us and declares we will go no further. Azuri declares she has shared her vision with the other two. Reginald uses this to make a few snide jabs at the player saying they were told the vision of Cassie dying and they still brought her. Robur announces that he regrets handing over his Sanctum Shard as he didn’t know of the vision Azuri had. Azuri steps forth telling us to leave and keep Cassie safe as ordered or be forced to face the three.

We fight the Trinity Council with Cassie who at this point realizes that while she doesn’t want to hurt them, she must do it in order to protect the people. She will help deal damage during this fight. Though the council will hard focus on you specifically. Once beaten, Reginald and Robur lay on the ground, passed out. Azuri tries to give Cassie one final warning that the sword takes a strong mind to wield or else the visions will overtake her. The player and Cassie take those words to heart and move on int the Seventh Sanctrum.

SEVENTH SANCTRUM

Upon entering, the emerald knights are shown to be over powered and Korbloxians have overrun the area. The player and Cassie fight until they make it to the middle where the Windforce is. Arg’il is there and is walking to take the sword when Telamon appears and attacks Arg’il. Arg’il though manages to push Telamon off the cliff and notices us. He starts a boss fight with us. When we win, Cassie rushes past him and grabs the sword. She starts having the visions of everything around her falling apart and her death. Arg’il is about to attack Cassie while she’s vulnerable, but we knock him out of the way. In that moment, Kassie swings the sword, sending Arg’il flying backwards.

As Arg’il flies off the cliff, we assume that’s the end of the battle until Frostmaw swoops up from where Arg’il fell with Arg’il on top. Cassie explains that she doesn’t know why, but she feels that she is the one that is supposed to take Arg’il down and asks us to support her as she fights. This starts the final boss fight where you need to help Cassie. The paintball gun makes a debut as it will severely weaken the enemy for Cassie’s attacks as it marks the weak spots for her. We ultimately win the battle with Arg’il falling off Frostmaw and the player killing him and Cassie passing out

CONCLUSION QUEEN CASSIE

We exit the Seventh Sanctum with Cassie who is unconscious. The prior reunion is about the same with Reginald still being wary of us and Azuri pointing out that we prioritized Cassie over the sword as we don’t even have it. Tension finally dies as it’s revealed that the invasion is finally over and that it was Cassie who saved the day with the player helping her.

We witness King Kelos’s funeral where the Trinity Council and Cassie all give their words before a small coronation ceremony is held where Cassie is declared most fit for a queen as with the death of her father so fresh in her heart, she still put her life on the line to rescue her citizens when she could have easily hid. The Trinity personally apologize to the player as all they had was Cassie’s safety in mind. We are then rewarded with the Windforce sword since the invasion is over. Cassie gives us her calling card stating that she’ll be ready to help defend anyone in need as that’s what a queen is supposed to do.

AFTER CHAPTER EXTRAS

If you evacuated all the civilians, the child that initially came to seek help for their dad will be with their father. If you fail to evacuate everyone, the child will be found crying stating their dad died, but Cassie has decided to take them in.

SFoTH will still have enemies as the enemies here are all sword contestants.

Artful has gone through quite a lot of lore changes from just being an evil guy who enjoys murder to someone with a much more fleshed out backstory of a magician that went insane after a botched show ending up in the death of the whole audience except his number 1 fan Lizzy, who was beaten so badly she fell into a coma. I want to suggest the possibility of Artful's mental collapse wasn't caused by his own mental deterioration, but by an outside influence that no other civilian would know about. Paranoy.

Paranoy is an admin exclusive killer, but is still a killer in the game nonetheless. Their lore is very scarce, but we know that they attack mentally weak civilians and has a larger hand in the lore of Die of Death than we know of at the moment. Paranoy has three forms they take when attacking civilians. It's first form being that of a glitchy colorful Robloxian, the second form being a large grandfather clock that slams down on it's victims, and finally it takes the user to a new dimension where it chases the civilian as a wall. It does this as an act of mercy to prevent the civilians from experience what is known as "Tomorrow".

Now Paranoy, cannot be seen by civilians that are not it's target, but to the target themselves, everything Paranoy does can be felt and experienced as if it was real despite everything taking place in their mind. Since it targets civilians who's mental health has deteriorated significantly, I wonder if Artful dealing with the intense humiliation of a failed show combined with the pre-existing stress caused Artful to become a target of Paranoy and in that moment, launched it's attack upon him.

I have two branching theories here and will separate them.

(Artful killed everyone branch)

Artful in a panic induced state trying to fend off both the first and second phases of Paranoy had been attacking the audience as a result. Lizzy has said that Artful did not seem to be acting like himself and forgives him when she woke up from her coma for a bit. Now that could mean, Artful was genuinely just having a mental spiral himself and Lizzy is just very forgiving, or could be that he seemed to be attacking randomly, sometimes swinging at the air against an unseen assailant.

Now, the final phase of Paranoy is beatable, and those that make it to the end are said to gain a renewed sense of self, feeling stronger, losing their fears, and completely forgetting about Paranoy. I could feel Artful had made it to the end of the escape sequence. Once he came too he could feel better, but instantly saw what had happened around him causing him to run knowing that he was going to be arrested and left. He still carries guilt and is now on the run.

(Paranoy killed everyone branch)

Artful in a horrible mindset starts to get comforted by Lizzy. In the moment though Artful gets attacked by Paranoy. He starts attacking Lizzy who falls unconscious. The audience witnessing this becomes distressed and panics. This is enough for Paranoy to launch a wide attack bringing everyone into Paranoy's realm (Their own minds). Civilians die by Paranoy's hands, dying in the real world as a result. Lizzy wakes up periodically witnessing Artful's action of not looking like himself before falling unconscious again.

During the final phase, Artful is the only one able to escape. He comes to, seeing the whole audience is dead, and since he doesn't remember Paranoy at all, thinks it was him to kill everyone. He runs knowing he's going to be arrested and blamed if caught. He still carries guilt, never knowing it wasn't actually him to kill everyone, or that him knocking Lizzy unconscious during that start of the attack saved her from being one of Paranoy's victims.