Chimera

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Chimera
Element(s)	Heat, Volt
Ailment(s)	Poison
Weaknesses	Head: Frost Mace: Stone Shield: Heat
Breakable Part(s)	Head Mace Shield
Break Reward(s)	Warbeast Whiskers (L) Warbeast Horn (L)

Chimera is one of the 15 Archfiends introduced in Soul Sacrifice Delta. This fiend was once a young boy who wanted to fulfill his father's dream to be the best warrior known. He transformed after sacrificing his emotions to prove himself to his father.

Lore

Spoiler warning! This section contains plot details about the game.

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The man's dream was to gain glory and renown as a warrior. With his firm determination and stoicism, he had never given in to any temptation. With his single-minded dedication to self-improvement, he had already gained a reputation.

Much was expected of his future, and he was on the verge of truly making his mark on history. However, the man's body was broken in a tragic accident, and he was no longer able to fight. He had suffered a grave injury to his leg, and it had left him lame.

He lay down his sword. Though it was true that he did this with some regret, he could accept that it was because of his injury that he must do so.

Most of all, his dream had not yet died.

For the man had a son, and it was for the sake of his son that the man could come to terms with sheathing his sword for good.

Whenever he saw his son, he would always think: "That's my boy. That's my flesh and blood." The son's physical bearing and development said it all. He had the talent to become a warrior.

The man decided to entrust his dream to his son, who still had a bright future ahead of him.

The son understood his father's feelings. He was acutely aware of his father's frustration. It was his fault that his father had thrown himself under the wheels of a carriage to save him from being run over.

The son felt as though a great thorn had been driven into his heart with his father's injury. Trying to dig out this thorn, the son decided he must see out his father's dream, no matter the price.

The son was still too young to know what this feeling was.

It was the wish to atone.

Though still a child, he had a deep sympathy for his father. He was a child who understood pain. Normally, such empathy would be praised, but for a warrior, it could be his downfall.

He was so kind, he couldn't even kill a fly. How could someone who would pity even an insect ever become a warrior? Humanity is the first thing a soldier should discard on the battlefield.

The boy's father decided that in order to train his son, he must be cruel in order to be kind. He deliberately treated him strictly. He gave up on acting as a father to become the boy's master in the art of combat instead.

He gave his son a trial - to give him the mental preparation to take a life. He brought out one of the goats they kept and ordered his son to kill it.

The son didn't want to, but his father shouted at him mercilessly: " You're not coming back in until you kill that goat."

Going along with his father's demands, the son killed a living creature for the first time in his life. He snapped the goat's neck. He could never forget the sound of the bone breaking, or the goat's final cry. Horrified, he threw up repeatedly.

Feeling somewhat pleased, the father welcomed his son back into the house. Then, using a horn from the dead goat, he crafted a spear. The son didn't want it. It was only a reminder of the moment he killed the goat.

That was the father's purpose. He wanted his son to get used to the stench of death. He wanted it to be familiar to the boy.

The next thing his father prepared was a snake. Unlike the gentle goat, it was venomous. The boy would suffer greatly if he were bitten, but the father would not relent. He would not allow his son back into the house until he had killed the snake.

The boy stamped the snake's head in. The vile sensation beneath his foot crawled up his body. The boy knew what he had done even without lifting his foot. He felt how the contents of the snake's head were dashed across the ground, and how it had lost its shape. He threw up again, just as he did when he killed the goat.

The boy brought home the remains of the snake, and the father used them to make a shield. Whenever the boy looked at the shield, he remembered the sensation of death he had felt underfoot.

His father was pleased with his son's progress. He supposed that he would now have a more concrete idea of death.

He decided to give his son an even greater trial. He went so far as to borrow money and have a wild beast brought in from a foreign land: a lion.

The boy trembled at the lion's roar. Of course the boy feared the sharp teeth and claws of the lion, but there was something else that struck him, a terror even more chilling.

The thing that terrified him the most was not the lion, but the mind of his father - the mentality that would subject him to such danger. Still, the boy was prepared for this. Even if his father had lost his mind, it was the boy's fault for causing his father's injury and ruining his life. Perhaps he had destroyed his father's soul along with his dreams.

The boy scraped together all of his courage; he would do anything for his father. The way he took up the sword for the sake of his fellow man proved that he had never been a born warrior. Everything about the boy's attitude spoke of a consideration for others. Such empathy was a double-edged sword for a warrior. The act of killing another person would wound his own delicate heart in turn.

Yet still the boy fought the beast, thinking only of pleasing his father. Through this vicious battle to the death, he triumphed.

The boy stood dumbstruck, covered in blood, holding the head of the lion. His father was convinced: the boy would do well.

Pleased, the father took the body of the lion and used it to craft armor for his son.

He decided it was time at last for the final trial: actual combat. He would test whether his son was ready to take that final step over the line.

"It's time you learned to kill a man," the father said with a weak grin. " You can start by killing me."

The boy still speechless, the father continued. Quitting the battlefield robbed him of his reason to live, he said. The battle would nourish his son, who would carry on his dream, he said. He told his son that this was his life's ambition.

The boy refused, saying that he absolutely could not do it. He threw his weapon to the ground. And as he did so, his father struck him hard.

Through bitter tears, the boy cried out that he could not do it, but his father would not listen.

The boy's father did whatever he could to make his son pick up his weapon, but the boy's hand remained limp.

Until the very end, he had no mercy. He saw his son as a replacement for himself. At some point, he had to come no longer distinguish between himself and his son, and his son's life had become a mere extension of his dream.

He forced his son to hold the weapon by stitching it to his hand, bellowing at the sobbing boy.

" You must think of yourself as a weapon. You are a tool for killing. That's all you are!"

As he shouted this, tears streamed down the man's own cheeks.

The man continued to scream at the boy.

"A warrior has no need for sympathy! I was a warrior once! I should know! If it weren't for sympathy, then maybe I wouldn't have saved your sorry life that day!"

He whispered: " If only I could have shed my kindness as a father, then I could have lived on as a warrior..."

The boy was stunned by his father's confession.

He'd had an inkling, of course. He suspected his father had regretted saving his life.

The boy's father screamed again - screamed for the boy to kill him. The compassion that made him shield his son had dashed his dreams of becoming a great warrior. He didn't want his son to fall into the same rut...

No matter how the boy resisted, he could not overcome his father's determination. Even at this point, his father was judging him, to see if he would be a warrior fit to carry on his dream. It was all too bitter that having come this far for his father's sake, the boy could now only pick up his torch by killing him.

Chimera as a human

At this moment, a strange apparition appeared before the boy. He looked up and saw a white Chalice floating in the air before him. It spoke directly into his mind.

" I can grant that wish, if you can make the sacrifice."

The boy screamed out in his mind. " I want to give my father what he wants. I want to be the one to carry on his dream. Even if it means I become a heartless murderer. Even it means murdering my father, just as he wishes me to."

The son paid with his emotions. He threw away his feelings for his father, which till that point had filled his thoughts. Ironically, it was just what his father wanted.

A Heartless warrior. A simple tool for battle, just as a sword or a spear has no heart. A tool whose only function is to kill.

A warrior who has lost all emotion sees everything as an enemy. Weapons and armor cannot distinguish friend and foe.

The son did not hesitate. Perhaps he didn't even recognize the man as his father anymore. He made quick work of him.

In the end, a small twinge of pain shot through the son's chest - but he no longer knew what it was.

Perhaps with that, the son had become the warrior his father had wanted, and yet perhaps the result was more than what the father wished for. Having lost his humanity utterly, the son could not even remember his father. Was it possible the man felt regret at never being called "father" again?

Had he truly realized the tragedy of losing the bond between father and son?

There was no way for the father to answer the question. He lay dead, killed by his son.

All that remains now is the instrument of war created together by father and son.

Attacks

- Shield Bash

- Lunging Attack

- Charging Attack

- Swinging Mace

- Fire Breath

- Shock magic

- Poison Breath

Encounters

- Grimm Pact: The End Begins Part IV

- Pacts: VIII. Age of Escape: Swift Slaughter on Wheels

- Forgotten Pact: Hour of Roseblossom: Salt Pork

- Additional Pacts III: Iron Ladies in the Moonlight

- Additional Pact VII: Lonely Isle, Cutthroat Chefs

- XIV Age of Ruin: Slaughter in the Valley

- XIV Age of Ruin: Slaughter on the Lonely Isle

- Forgotten pacts [black]: Hour of Scarlet: Slaughter on Mount Madness