The Ogres

**The Ogres** is the 27th chapter of the game. The group tries desperately to look for Jezel, who possessed a Niebel Egg that Harushiro stole and opened, accidentally summoning a legion of ogres. Kotomio has disappeared too, and presumably left with Jezel.

## Transcript

### Jezel’s Whereabouts

*[Harushiro paces in front of Chabo’s house, distressed about the absence of Jezel.]*

**Harushiro:** What can we does? Those ogres…… I….. Those ogres…… Jezel is goings to be so angry with me…… But he’s the only one I can trusts… I needs to find him. But where is he?!!

*[He runs off. Chabo, Brown, Sepia, Marigold, and Alovara arrive shortly after.]*

**Marigold:** Well, he’s not here…

**Brown:** I knew it… He’s gone and escaped!

**Alovara:** Well horse plop. I would never have guessed that he’d be the one to see me out…

**Sepia:** No no no! You’re wrong! He’s probably running around the ogres as we speak!

**Brown:** Sepia, wake up and smell the beans! The Niebel…were planning to wipe us out with the ogres. Just like the war before, the Niebel clearly are connected to the ogres…

**Marigold:** ……Robin said it. All of us here, we’re defects made and tossed away by the Niebel.

*[Everyone turns to Marigold, shocked.]*

**Sepia:** Defects… How cruel……

**Brown:** Jezel… I thought he was different, but… UGH!

**Sepia:** It… It surely must be a mistake! He surely can’t be that kind of person……

**Brown:** Well why else would he happen to have a Niebel Egg? And why would said Egg happen to have a swarm of ogres in it then!?

**Sepia:** Th-that…

*[Chabo and Alovara become stressed by the brownies’ arguing.]*

**Alovara:** Brown, hon, Sepia is not the bad one here!

**Marigold:** …There are too many coincidences to overlook.

*[Dansa arrives.]*

**Dansa:** Everyone, someone saw him! Someone saw Jezel! He’s with Kotomio heading out of the town…

**Sepia:** With Kotomio?!

**Dansa:** He was heard saying something like “It’s all my fault” and just legged it out of town. Kotomio appeared to be chasing him towards The Floating Gardens.

**Sepia:** The Floating Gardens?

**Brown:** Chabo, you find those two. We’ll find Harushiro and prepare for… well, the worst.

**Dansa:** Robin is heading to The Floating Gardens too. Chabo, make sure she’s okay, will you?

**Sepia:** Chabo… Just… Come back safely with everyone, okay?

*[Chabo nods.]*

### With Robin

*[Chabo finds Robin at The Floating Gardens. She looks out to the horizon, which is tinted with a sinister crimson hue.]*

**Robin:** Chabo?! What are you doing here? …Ah, you heard from Dansa. Well, I thank you. Let’s go find Jezel and Kotomio together.

*[Chabo nods, and Robin turns around to look at the sky again.]*

**Robin:** However… Where would we be likely to find Jezel…?

**>**[He’d escape from the ogres.]

**Robin:** That makes sense. If he was here, he’d want to get as far away from the ogres as possible. Yet… Once our town has been crushed by the ogres, the Niebel will start their migration. Could you stand to be dominated by them?

*[Chabo shakes his head in disapproval.]*

**Robin:** I’m the same as you. I couldn’t bear to see the town we all strived to create be taken over; destroyed. He’s with Kotomio, so I doubt he would do anything out of character… I don’t like this at all. We have to talk to him right away, Chabo.

### Together

*[Jezel walks through the ruined temple alone, but stops for a second.]*

**Jezel:** Kotomio… I told you not to follow me.

*[Kotomio runs up to Jezel, panting with exhaustion.]*

**Kotomio:** Ha…… Ha…… Well, when the “always calm” Jezel puts on a scary face and just runs off like that…

**Jezel:** ……Go back to the town, Kotomio.

**Kotomio:** Jezel. What are you going to do?

**Jezel:** What I was originally told to do. Seeing as it took longer than expected, things have changed a little.

**Kotomio:** ……What are you saying, Jezel? For starters, if I don’t follow you, then I’m never going to see you again, am I?

**Jezel:** Kotomio…… Fine. We go together.

**Kotomio:** okay…

*[The young goblin hesitantly approaches Jezel. She looks him in the eyes before resuming their journey through the Gardens.]*

### Jezel’s Heart

*[Chabo and Robin are still on the lookout for the two runaways.]*

**Robin:** Chabo, perhaps you understand what is running through Jezel’s mind?

**>**[I can imagine.]

**Robin:** Really… So you felt his change of heart too, did you? …The ogres appeared from the Egg that he brought with him. The Niebel will come to this world, and they will do one thing: They are going to take it away from us. Jezel came here to facilitate that. However… The Jezel we saw then and the Jezel we see now are two different beings. I can’t imagine that the Jezel of now wants to destroy our town. There’s a reason he came here… And we’ll find out. Let’s keep going!

*[The duo runs off.]*

### A Mission

**Jezel:** Kotomio… Do you remember what I said before? Do you remember the reason I came to this world?

**Kotomio:** ……You were to take this world back…

**Jezel:** That’s right. I came to take back your world. And for that, not one of you can remain alive.

**Kotomio:** You can’t be serious… You’re not capable of doing something like that. I can’t believe it!

*[Kotomio, unable to hold back her sorrow, begins to cry. As for Jezel, he looks to the horizon.]*

**Jezel:** Kotomio. Look there, at those ogres. I brought that to this world, to Egglia, to wipe out all of you.

**Kotomio:** Jezel…

**Jezel:** Do you understand now? I am a god. I am a god who has revealed himself to those beneath. It is unforgivable.

**Kotomio:** And this cannot be changed? You cannot plead your case to those above? Even when you and I have broken those barriers and gotten so close…

**Jezel:** The Niebel as they are now are the products of thousands of years of history. The two of us alone are not enough to break that.

**Kotomio:** Our town… Our world… Even when they have no connection with it… Even when we’re living good lives…

**Jezel:** The town… Someday it would have ended.

**Kotomio:** But for us, now…that town is perfect, is it not?

*[Jezel turns back to the main path.]*

**Jezel:** Kotomio, please go back. I have something that only I can do.

**Kotomio:** What……. What are you going to do?

**Jezel:** ……

**Kotomio:** Seriously… Are you going to let the ogres attack our home?

**Jezel:** ……That was the destiny given to me.

*[He leaves.]*

**Kotomio:** Jezel……

### Project Ogre

**Robin:** Ha…… Ha…… I hadn’t realized how far they had come… Where have they gotten to?

*[She looks around and sees the town far below the Gardens.]*

**Robin:** Look, Chabo! The ogres are heading towards the town… Our very own war with the ogres…

*[Chabo starts to get anxious.]*

**Robin:** …Chabo, did you know about the ogres before? Their origins as redcaps who lost their heart?

**>**[I heard from Jezel.]

**Robin:** …OK. That tells me you cut off your horns to avoid such a fate. The Niebel created a method of turning themselves into ogres, to fight against the ogres with their strength. They used it in the original war… And now… I fear that what we see now were once Niebel… Chabo, I know that you could sense it. I know you tried to do something. But even someone like you couldn’t suppress the entirety of your emotions… So you cut off your horns, your pride, to avoid the risk of transforming. You… You did it for the future of the Niebel, for those with ogre blood…

*[She bows and apologizes for rambling.]*

**Robin:** Forgive me. It has been so long since it was just us two. I have said too much.

**>**[You do like to talk.]

**Robin:** Hehe. I don’t know everyone’s limits in town. To keep it all hidden, it does hurt… Okay then. Let’s find Jezel!

### Seeds of Abandoned Hearts

*[Jezel and Kotomio finally reach the end of the ruins. The determined Niebel has a clear view of the gargantuan ogres, ominously standing before a deep red sun.]*

**Jezel:** I told you to go back to the town…and yet you’re still here, Kotomio.

**Kotomio:** I don’t believe you, Jezel… I don’t believe that you are capable of…destroying our town…or us… But… If that is to be true… I’ll stop you. And I’ll risk my life to do so.

**Jezel:** Kotomio…

*[Jezel holds out his hand.]*

**Jezel:** Do you know what this is?

**Kotomio:** …Some kind of seed?

**Jezel:** You are correct. They call it the “Corrupted Seed”.

**Kotomio:** “Corrupted Seed”?

**Jezel:** A crystal compound created by the Niebel. Drink it, and even the Niebel can grow horns.

**Kotomio:** Huh? You’re saying that you can be like us?

**Jezel:** The truth is, those ogres were Niebel who consumed the crystal.

**Kotomio:** What?!

**Jezel:** They are Niebel who willingly became ogres to take back Egglia, and it was my duty to wake them up. That’s why I came here. Yet, I hesitated. I, a coward to my kin, encountered you and your town, spent time with you… And I became torn between the world I am from, and the world that taught me new emotions. I am lost. I became drunk on good feelings, and gained a taste of that which is not rational or productive. If anything, Harushiro did the job which I could not.

**Kotomio:** Harushiro?

**Jezel:** Don’t blame him. It is not his fault. At any rate, I am grateful to him. The burden has been taken from my shoulders. I can breathe without tension now. All that’s left to do now is to clean up what’s left.

**Kotomio:** Jezel? …What are you going to do?

**Jezel:** Kotomio. Could you look after this for me?

*[He drops something in Kotomio’s hands.]*

**Kotomio:** What…is this? A pendant?

**Jezel:** A keepsake from my mother. Something I treasure… I want you to hold onto it.

**Kotomio:** …No. Not something as important as that.

**Jezel:** We all have to separate ourselves from our parents at some point, and then our children. Besides, I have a new pendant–the one you gave me, Kotomio.

*[The goblin’s pendant shines on Jezel’s chest.]*

**Kotomio:** Jezel…

**Jezel:** Until today, that pendant has protected me. I want it to protect you now.

**Kotomio:** ……Fine. Whatever happens, I won’t let it out of my sight, Jezel…

**Jezel:** …Thank you, Kotomio.

*[Jezel clenches his fist and walks to the edge of the Gardens.]*

**Kotomio:** Wait, Jezel! You’re not going to… That crystal…?!

**Jezel:** It’s the only way to stop the ogres. There’s no other way.

**Kotomio:** No! You can’t! I won’t let you become an ogre!

**Jezel:** We Niebel are not redcaps; we are rational. Our bodies may change, but we do not lose our hearts. Besides… I have this pendant to protect me. The one you gave me.

*[Jezel spreads his arms to show Kotomio the glistening pendant.]*

**Kotomio:** Jezel… No, please no, Jezel…

**Jezel:** Kotomio. I wish to ask one more thing of you. My father…the one I argued with… Should you meet him, please pass on to him this message… “I respect you. From the bottom of my heart.”

**Kotomio:** Father… The Sorcerer Kuph…?

**Jezel:** A magnificent sorcerer, a noble guide, and a father, of whom I should have respected long ago.

**Kotomio:** ……I understand. I’ll do it. I’ll pass on your message.

*[Jezel once again focuses on the distant ogres.]*

**Jezel:** …Thank you, Kotomio.

*[He lifts the Corrupted Seed to the horizon.]*

**Kotomio:** Wait! I still have to ask you something…

*[Kotomio is too late, as Jezel hastily swallows the crystal. Everything is enveloped in a blinding light.]*

**Kotomio:** JEZEL!!!

*[The horde of ogres are distracted by the light. From it, a pale white ogre with green hair emerges.]*

### Jezel Ogre

*[Kotomio watches in horror as Jezel, now completely an ogre, angrily stomps towards the distant ogres.]*

**Robin:** Kotomio!

*[Robin and Chabo arrive. Kotomio starts to cry uncontrollably, rushing over to Robin for comfort.]*

**Kotomio:** Robin! Jezel… He’s…

**Robin:** Is that ogre…Jezel?

**Kotomio:** Yes… “It’s the only way to stop the ogres”... He…

**Robin:** So Jezel took that path…

**Kotomio:** Robin! What should I do? Tell me, please, what should I do?!

**Robin:** Kotomio…

**Kotomio:** Robin, help me… Help him… Help Jezel…

**Robin:** Kotomio… I am unable to do anything for Jezel.

**Kotomio:** That’s a huge swarm of ogres, and he’s fighting them alone! He can’t, Robin! He just… He’ll die!!

**Robin:** Kotomio, breathe! If you must do anything, have faith in Jezel.

*[Kotomio runs over to the Gardens’ edge and reaches out to Jezel.]*

**Kotomio:** Jezel! Come back, Jezel! Come back! Please!

**Robin:** We need to get back to town. It is too dangerous here!

*[The ogres’ stomping causes the Gardens to tremble.]*

**Robin:** Chabo, get Kotomio out of here! Quick!

*[Chabo nods.]*

## See also

* Next: Dwindling Hope
* Previous: An Unfurling Disaster