Now, this one is hard... Ninja war is definitely starting, so now is a good time for beginning the vehemic energy, but also Ninjas are delicious for the grand mantle. (Their thing is high
life-force, remember?) We can actually participate in the war and slowly abduct ninjas fighting on all the sides to strengthen the Mantle...
[x[ The Grand Mantle
Ninja buffet!
And while I'm at it, let me try to do some proper analysis on all five keys...
[ ] The Soul Crown - The symbol of the Ebon Emperor's rulership over all things that live and die in this world, the crown that grants dominion over the powers of life and death, such is the Soul Crown. The soul essence that binds together the structure of a thousand souls, melted down and forged by the flames of heaven and hell to craft this piece of the Black King's regalia. The Living and the Dead must pay their due to the Black King.
The key point here is of course, soul essence. Which means lots and lots of soul-draining. Soul-draining is a pretty horrible thing to do though, so creating this is super-evil. Also worth noting: "forged by the flames of heaven and hell": We'll probably need the support of both angels and demons to pull this one off. Though not necessarily at the same time.
- An archive that holds the cumulative knowledge of those conquered by the Black Kingdom, both past and present, a veritable collection of artifacts and technology stolen from those that have fallen against the Ebon Emperor, it is the symbol of the Ebon Emperor's wisdom. One thousand, one hundred, one ten, and one pages must be filled with the Mana directly extracted from the Magic Core.
"Mana directly extracted from the Magic Core" means that our current mana-drain probably isn't going to do the trick: We need something stronger and fancier, and if the QM's posts are anything to go by, we're unlikely to be able to use any one person more than once for this. We're probably going to have to fight some high-level mages if we want to complete this one.
- The lifeforce of ten thousand protects the wearer. The lifeforce of ten thousand rejuvenates the mortal flesh and caresses the soul. The lifeforce of ten thousand becomes the hammer that crushes all before it. The lifeforce of ten thousand becomes Might unparalleled. The lifeforce of ten thousand guards the Black Kingdom.
The lifeforce of ten thousand is going to be a huge pain, but at least it's not draining souls and shouldn't require upgrades to work. It's mostly a matter of draining enough people, which makes it more time consuming than anything else. That being said, Ninjas are noted for their strong life force, and with their civil war beginning and having Yuudai, what we might be able to do is have Yuudai act as a "free agent" in the war and whenever he's told to "assassinate" someone, we abduct the assassination target and drain them. Same with any ninja fights Yuudai gets into: bring them home and drain!
Okay, joking and/or evil scheming aside, this one's likely to place us into combat against lots of ninjas, simply because higher quality goods means less time wasted.
- The symbol of violence and war. Violence is life's most primal force, an eternal force that will never disappear as long as life exists. Violence for the sake of others. Violence for the sake of one's self. Violence for the sake of Violence. All becomes fuel for the might of the Black Kingdom. The vehemic energy of a city at war with itself would bring forth the sword of the Black King.
This one we don't actually know how to do yet, but QM said "requires a large-scale ritual circle", or something along those lines. This will probably stand out if everyone
isn't at eachother's throats, so if we do it too early we're going to attract aggro, and if we do it too late, the violence burns out before we're finished gathering. This one feels more like a matter of timing than anything else: It probably shouldn't be a primary focus, but something to keep in mind and wait for an opportunity to use.
- The Kingdom's Heart, that which binds the hearts of all who follow the Ebon Emperor together as one. As long as power flows through the Ever-Heart, none who follow the Black King shall be found wanting in strength, both mind, body, and soul. Seven souls of pure light and seven souls of pure darkness must become one to start the beating of the Black Kingdom's Heart.
"Seven souls of pure light and seven souls of pure darkness must become one" can mean so many things it's hard to say for sure. I think our current assumption is that it'll involve lots of soul-eating, but I feel like "become one" might mean something along the lines of "share the same goal". With that interpretation, we need to aggro everyone so everyone's united in taking us down, or manage to gather up 14 subordinates that have sufficiently "pure" souls. Someone brought up the Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues, which seems like a good place to start, honestly.
