General Mugen

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"*…His final words prove his weakness. That he would hoist his unfulfilled ambitions on the shoulders of another. Only I am fit to be king. And I shall see the fires of war engulf the world.*" —*General Mugen, mocking King Jigo's last words after killing him*
**General Mugen** is a character in *Octopath Traveler II*.

A prince of Ku and Hikari’s older half-brother, he is a cool-headed and powerful warrior who seeks strength for his nation and believes that might makes right. Also known as the “Scarlet Demon of Ku”, he serves as the main antagonist and final boss of Hikari's story.

## Profile

### Appearance

He is fully clad in red and black samurai armor, with a faceplate that conceals his haggard face.

### Personality

Brutal, merciless, and ambitious, Mugen believes himself worthy of ruling not only the clan Ku, but also the entire world. Though compelled by a voice that drives him to violence, he still chooses to commit violent acts voluntarily. He does not care who or what he must destroy in order to attain his ambitions, as shown by him ordering the systematic genocide of a conquered people because he viewed their potential grudges against him to be "seeds of rebellion" that must be culled.

## Story

### Prior to Story

Eight years prior, Mugen extorted Jin Mei to orchestrate an ambush to have his younger half-brother Hikari Ku and his mother Kura killed for being descendants of a bloodline that can fight the Shadow. But the plan falls apart when Hikari is consumed by his darkness upon seeing his mother killed, with Jin knocking him out. Mugen proceeds to execute Jin for his failure, sparing Clan Mei in hopes they can be useful to him in the future. Five years later, Mugen led a campaign to claim Hinoeuma's southern region. During the final battle, he execute an enemy general that Hikari spared, scolding his brother for showing mercy to an enemy. After the war ends, having a falling out with his tactician Kazan, Mugen plotted to usurp the Ku throne from his father to expand their dominion.

### Story

Mugen executes his plan by using a castle merchant to lure Hikari outside of Ku's captial, having his men set the city on fire while he confronts his father to personally kill him while questioning why he named Hikari his heir. He then fatally wounds Jigo as Hikari arrives too late to prevent it and is forced to retreat. After slaughtering any potential supporters of brother within the capital, Mugen uses propaganda to label Hikari as a traitor who murdered their father while placing a bounty on his head.

Mugen proceeds to conquer the kingdom of Sa, killing the king while instructing his aide Ageha to carry out genocide of the Sa people. He then presented with the head of General Rou by his captain Ritsu Mishuyo, seeing though his fabricated story while leaving that Hikari intercepted the weapons shipment Rou was overseeing. Despite knowing Ritsu lied about Rou being a traitor, Mugen notes the captain has potential and promotes him to general. While Aegha voiced his concern of the army that Hikari is amassing, Mugen assures his aide that Hikari will fail for being an impure Ku clansman while brandishing the Darkblood Blade.

Confronted by Hikari after defeat Ritsu, Mugen clashes blades with his brother while revealing his motives for having Kura killed. Mugen is shocked when Hikari's shadow-self, an embodiment of Clan Ku's cursed blood, emerges during Hikari's brief lapse of composure. He then further livid when Hikari succeeds in besting his shadow-self, something none of Clan Ku's members were able to do. This drives Mugen mad enough to willing allow himself to be consumed by his own shadow-self while invoking the Darkblood Blade's power, turning himself into the Enshrouded King. Hikari manages to end Mugen's misery, revealing his face which was long ravaged by years of bloodlust.
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**Mugen Ku** is fought twice:

* The first fight is as King Mugen.
* The second fight as the Enshrouded King.

* King Mugen
* Enshrouded King

## Battle

### Item Drop (Rate %)

 (100%)

**Stats**

 606
 411
 420
 466

 270
 295
 191
 171

**Status Effect Effectiveness**

### Abilities

* ***Mugen stands ready...*:** Activates when Mugen is at 50% health. Increases max shields to 9.
* ***Mugen's stance leaves no openings...*:** Changes Mugen's weaknesses to the following:

* **Attack:** Physical attack, single target.
* **The Conqueror's Rule:** Inflicts  **Terror** on entire party for 1-2 turns.
* **The Conqueror's Might:** Physical attack, targets entire party. Has a chance of inflicting  **Terror** for 1-2 turns.
* **The Conqueror's Tyranny:** Physical attack, single target. Has a chance of inflicting  **Terror** for 1-2 turns.
* **Decapitation:** Physical attack, single target. Reduces target's HP to 1.
* **Know your place!:**
* **Ordained Punishment:**
* **The Conqueror's Blade:**

* ***Mugen's soul rages!*:** Mugen enters boost mode for 1 turn. Uses Gates of Hell if not broken beforehand.
	+ **Gates of Hell:** Targets two party members, reduces their HP to 1, and inflicts  **Terror** for 2-3 turns.

## Battle

### Item Drop (Rate %)

 (100%)

**Stats**

 581
 450
 411
 470

 270
 270
 191
 188

**Status Effect Effectiveness**

### Abilities

Every Break Mugen inflicted will change what type of weapons he uses in order, which also increased the action turn per weapon.

* ***Endless Anguish of Hell // Mugen readies a polearm and dagger...*:** Mugen will use  only.
* ***Black Pits of Hell // Mugen readies an axe and bow...*:** Mugen will now use  only.
* ***Crushing Depths of Hell // Mugen readies a polearm, axe, and staff...*:** Mugen will now use  only.
* ***Burning Bowels of Hell // Mugen readies a sword, dagger, and bow...*:** Mugen will now use  only.
* ***Flaming Fury of Hell // Mugen readies 4 types of weapons...*:** Mugen will now use 4 types of weapons at random.

* **Attack:** Physical attack, single target.
* **Diabolical Spear:** Physical attack, , targets random allies 6 times.
* **Triple Poison Sting:** Physical attack, , single target. Remove a portion of SP and 1 BP.
* **Diamond Destruction:** Physical attack, , single target. Inflict  **Decreased Physical Defense**,  **Decreased Elemental Defense** and  **Terror** for 2 turns each.
* **Brimstone Arrow:** Physical attack, , targets entire party 4 times.
* **Infernal Judgment:** Physical attack, , single target. Inflict  **Unconsciousness** for 3 turns.
* **Rending Slash // Max BP -1:** Physical attack, , single target. Targeted ally had Max BP gauge decreased by one.

* ***A dark power wells up within Mugen...*:** **Mugen** enters boost mode for 1 turn. Uses **Eternal Suffering** if not broken before **Mugen's** next action.
* **Eternal Suffering:** Physical attack, targets entire party 4 times. The entire party had Max BP gauge decreased by one.

## Strategy

Mugen is one of, if not the hardest, final chapter bosses. His damage is high, but that's to be expected. His real issues are the sheer amount of ways he can deny your team BP and his incredible array of SP and BP draining and denial moves, as well as plenty of status ailments. The fact you have 3 fights in succession, with no save point, hurts even more (although, the second fight can barely be considered a boss).

Phase 1 is quite annoying due to the fact that Terror is on your whole party, the whole time. Make sure that most, if not all, of your party members have some form of Terror resistance through the Calming Stone. You can get up to 4 of these, three through path actions and one in a chest, but if you don't have all 4 at least make sure that Hikari and whoever your healer is has them equipped.

The main problem in Phase 1 is his lack of multi-hit weakness options. Especially in his first set, only Lighting Blast, Tonitrus Canare, a small chance on Elemental Barrage, and Lionheart's Axe are your only non-character specific options. In his second set, at least he does get a sword weakness, but it's still not fun. He can't hit that hard, but Decapitation setting a party member to one health is an annoying option. This is why your healer needs to be immune to Terror- especially if you can't break him, and Gates of Hell gets you in a tough spot.

Phase 2 is where the fight actually starts, and this is an incredibly difficult fight. Despite two easily exploitable weaknesses (Sword and Bow), his skills go from mildly annoying to damn dangerous. Diabolical Spear can shred through a team, Triple Poison Sting is absurdly annoying, Diamond Destruction can let a party member just drop from any attack, Brimstone Arrow can hit way too hard, and Infernal Judgement can put your healer out of commission- an issue for sure. The real worry, however, is Rending Slash. This reduces the MAX BP of whoever gets hit by it, not their BP itself. This is a damage race- if you can't kill him fast enough, then eventually you'll be in a much worse postion.

For this exact reason, whenever he enters Boost mode dump everything you have into breaking him. Failure to do so will result in massive damage and even more BP reduction.

Now, after all that, one strategy can completely neutralize almost his entire moveset. Arcanist Partitio with Sidestep can let you doge all of his attacks minus Brimestone Arrow, and unlike some bosses he doesn't have ~~Dekaja~~ a way to remove buffs. This does mean Partitio does need a Calming Stone as well, but with Rest he can also function as a healer that can remove Terror on the party. Castii can also help with Triple Poision Sting, as well as being able to support with Rehabilitate if you lack Terror immunity. A Hunter is also recommended, as Precise Shot will shred shields. Weirdly, he has higher Elemental Defense vs Physical Defense, so Scholar's aren't as great but can still be useful. Temenos can heal and hit his light weakness, as well as with Mystical Staff can break as well.

Without Partitio, this fight does put you in a catch-22. He hits very hard, so you need time to heal, but you also can't let the fight drag on lest you run out of BP from the constant lowering. This cannot be your first Chapter 4, and is a good case to be fought at a very high level with high equips, but with those as well as good strategy and team composition you can win this without Sidestep spam.

## Quotes

"Such is the way of the world. The mighty shall build their castles upon the corpses of the meek."

-Mugen to Ritsu Mishuyo

"Strength is to exert your will upon others. To make them bend to it. Or break."

-Mugen to Hikari Ku

"Compassion cannot build greatness. It was strength that led Clan Ku to glory, and strength alone."

-Mugen to Hikari Ku

## Trivia

* Mugen is one of only two main character final chapter bosses to have more than one separate battle, the other being Dolcinaea.
* The first battle with Mugen shares many parallels with Werner from the first *Octopath Traveler* in the following ways:
	+ Both are riding atop a horse during their respective battles.
	+ Both are the main antagonists for the respective warrior's stories.
	+ Both specialize in inflicting the Terror status effect to the party.