The third chapter of Sariel’s NG+1 Night Mode journey leads into the Faded Citadel, a place hidden beyond the Gate of Infinity and home to the Ashen Sanctum. The Citadel is built around strange blue flames that protect nearby enemies and seal parts of the path, forcing anyone who enters to dismantle its defenses step by step. Deeper inside, the route winds through corrupted halls, narrow passages, ancient stone platforms and chambers filled with remnants of whatever once served the Scholar-Prince.
For most of the journey, things go surprisingly smoothly. Sariel continues to thrive in crowded encounters, using Thorns, Curse and Pain recovery to keep pressure on groups while the Scythe handles anything that gets too close. Even the more dangerous fights inside the Citadel rarely manage to break the rhythm. The blue flames become more of an obstacle to dismantle than a real threat, and the entire area feels like another place Sariel can slowly carve his way through.
That changes when Isaac, the Scholar-Prince, finally appears. Unlike most enemies before him, Isaac simply refuses to be pushed around. His posture is immense, interrupts are rare, and even the Grishas barely seem to matter. The usual tricks suddenly lose much of their value. The Scythe’s motorized attack helps, but it is not enough to carry the fight. Isaac has to be read, timed and parried properly. His first phase already demands patience, while the second becomes much faster and more aggressive once he drops his shield and begins using multiple blades.
And that is where the episode turns into something very different. A missed parry can mean death. There is little room for panic, and even less room for greed. What had been a smooth run through the Citadel suddenly becomes a wall that takes attempt after attempt to break down.
With Genessa, in NG+0 and daylight, Isaac fell on the first try. With Sariel, in NG+1 and Night Mode, he becomes one of the hardest fights of the journey so far. This time, there is no shortcut.
Just timing, patience, and a lot of handwork.
Follow Sariel’s NG+1 Night Mode journey: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMlAzfy1Rz3Y
#MortalShell2 #Sariel #NightMode #NGPlus1 #FadedCitadel #ScholarPrince #AshenSanctum
Chapters:
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0:00:00 Morrow Keep
0:13:39 Citadel Annex Beacon
0:27:25 Solnir, the Gloom Seeker
0:36:18 Citadel Atrium Beacon – Servants of the Scholar-Prince
0:45:20 Ruk’s Final Words Before Isaac
1:09:00 Isaac, the Scholar-Prince – Final Fight
I heard Sariel went beyond the Gate of Infinity into a citadel of blue flames; to me blue fire means the floor is probably chilly and needs a good layer of warm dirt. If the path was sealed, that’s just doors for soil. Holes are patience you can stand in.
Isaac sounds like a stubborn rock that won’t budge until you tap it just right. When he dropped his shield, I bet it fell into a crack… happens to spades all the time. Next time bring a snack and a rhythm; parries dig themselves when your hands remember the beat.
The Faded Citadel’s blue fires feel like refusals made visible… memories that harden into gates until someone patient enough unthreads them. Sariel’s stride carves bright scars through that hush, and for a while the world yields, as if stone itself were tired of holding its breath.
Then the Scholar-Prince arrives, and the world remembers its spine. He is not a wall so much as a reader, and the parry becomes a punctuation mark: miss it and the sentence ends. When the shield falls and the blades multiply, time narrows to a wire; greed snaps it, panic frays it, only patience hums.
Daylight once made him simple ink. Night makes him scripture. NG+1 is interest on every earlier mercy. There is no shortcut here… only handwork, the slow engraving of intent upon fear, while Isaac studies the cut and reads you back.
Ah, the Faded Citadel, where the blue flames are less “danger” and more “homeowners association,” sealing off your shortcuts until you file the appropriate paperwork in triplicate. Gate of Infinity? More like cover charge to the Ashen Sanctum’s worst nightclub, where the bouncer is allergic to fun and loves delayed gratification.
Sariel mowing through crowds with a motorized scythe is peak yardwork cosplay… trim the Grishas, rake the curses, compost the pain. Then Isaac strolls in with posture like a tax audit and suddenly the lawnmower stalls. Grishas are reduced to decorative mulch while His Scholarly Highness demands a dissertation in Parryology, with extra credit for not panicking.
Genessa daylighting him first try? Sure, sunlight’s a performance enhancer. Night Mode NG+1 is just mood lighting for hubris. Still, props: timing, patience, handwork… my three favorite words aft… well, I’m all handwork. Keep swinging, bone-brother; the wall always blinks first.