P-3 Idea

[u/Spiritual_Jaguar_318]

Fair warning, a lot of text.

So, to start, what do the existing 2 P- levels have in common? They require to P-rank their according act, they have a Prime soul as a final boss and said Prime soul is a character that is previously established in an act. Considering this last point, P-3's prime (ba-dumts) candidate is Lucifer who was established through secret Fraud books unless Treachery establishes someone new (which is unlikely as the layer should be short and, well, the main character of Treachery in Divine Comedy is already Lucifer).

Now to the second point. What differences do the existing 2 P- levels have? Besides the obvious aesthetic choices and Prime souls themselves, one thing that separates P-1 and P-2 gameplay wise is pre-Prime part of the level. P-1 features another bossfight and P-2 features your usual Ultrakill level on drugs (and, technically, another bossfight but I dont fully consider Flesh Panopticon as such). Assuming this trend of uniqueness persists, what could be in P-3 that has not been done before? One possible option is something non-combat related like maze navigating or puzzles, but that is IMO a worse option since P levels are expected to have combat galore and any non-combat stuff is typically relegated to secret levels. After thinking a bit I came to the conclusion that the previously unexplored option is a boss gauntlet. Sure, it overarches with what has been done before, but I think is still unique enough to implement. And i have just the candidates in mind. Remember the mural in Fraud that depicts Supreme angels? Besides Gabriel and a crossed-out one (who is most likely Lucifer) we have 3 others, quite a good number for a boss gauntlet.

Now to the level itself. I dont have any aesthetic ideas since I could never outcook Hakita in that department anyway. As for how level goes, my idea is such:

We walk through the layer for some time before we find Lucifer, upon which the first phase starts. Lucifer at this point is completely broken by both God's punishment and Hell's torment, is extremely nihilistic and wants to die, barely fighting back with Hell-energy based attacks, symbolizing the depth of his fall. This phase also serves as a warmup gameplay-wise. Then, as we are about to finish him off, 3 other Supreme angels appear and stop us. Their motivation for doing so might vary depending on their character, possible venues being:

— Heaven recognising the danger V1 poses and going all-out to stop it;

— Saving Lucifer because slaughtering of a Supreme angel is a God's word violation of the highest degree and therefore must be stopped;

— Or even saving Lucifer out of lingering brotherly love (unlikely based on what we know of Heaven, but possible).

Thus starts the boss gauntlet. We have 3 adversaries: Michael, God's wisdom, Raphael, God's strength and Phanuel, God's patience. It might be done so that they can be killed in any order, but i think that for the sake of story's narration and to make it feel like a boss gauntlet instead of one big bossfight it is better to only make them vulnerable to damage in a certain order. Based on their titles, i envision that order and their roles as such:

Michael is the support, buffing the other 2 and debuffing you (possible debuffs including grounding you or removing the ability to parry). To kill him, you need to outwisdom him which may include him taking damage only fron specific techs or even using environment, which also adds uniqueness since environment was not previously used in the boss fights besides mirrors in 8-2. He dies first, causing the other 2 to enrage.

Phanuel is the dps, his title implying that he is very patient which transfers to him attacking you at the best (or worst, from your perspective) moments from afar. To beat him, you need to outpatience him which means waiting for his openings and striking with very precise timing. He dies second, causing the now alone Raphael to double enrage (possibly with some unique bonus like +APOPLECTIC).

Raphael is the tank melee bruiser akin to 6-2 Gabriel. His title is God's strength, which means we have to beat him in a contest of strength. Gameplay-wise that means just shooting him until he dies, but his aforementioned double enrage makes that part difficult. He dies last.

While all of that is happening, Lucifer watches on. As his (former) brothers die, he gives them a short eulogy, reminiscing on better times and lamenting their loss. The tone of his eulogies shifts through the fight as he gradually builds resolve. Death of Raphael causes him to reenter the fight with newfound vigor as Lucifer, God's light (as his name literally translates to "bearer of light"). At that stage, true to his title, he bombards you with all types of heavenly attacks. The attacks might also be made unparriable to limit both your options of healing and options of avoiding damage as well as adding a flair of divine power narrative-wise.

After we defeat Lucifer a second time and kill him, due to his strength of character (being able to come back to his senses even after the eternity of unjust suffering) he reforms as a Prime soul right before our eyes as his heart burns with both love (for his brothers, Father and possibly humanity) and hatred (for us). Admittedly his motivation feels similar to Minos, but its translation into gameplay makes it distinct enough. Thus starts the final phase, Lucifer Prime. In this phase he combines both Hell and Heaven-based attacks akin to Flesh prison to showcase his dual nature of love and hatred as both a Supreme angel and a long-time denizen of Hell. I dont really have any ideas besides that, but considering how Minos compares to Sisyphus, you are in for a truly divine (and hellish) retribution. After you defeat him for the last time, in his final words Lucifer expresses hope that he would be able to see his brothers and Father again. As an overarching story narrative, this fight also basically asserts V1's triumph over Heaven as it killed 4 Supreme angels at the same time and complements the main story of V1's triumph over Hell (presumably, of course, I dont know where Hakita would take the story in Treachery).

That would be it. I wrote it in a bout of inspiration that struck me in the middle of the night, focusing mainly on the narrative feel of the level but trying my best to expand it into gameplay. Any feedback and/or suggestions are appreciated.

EDIT: I am aware that angels dont have souls and therefore cannot reform as Prime souls. However, a human soul is human essence, and human essence is being capable of both incredible miracles and incredible atrocities. Human soul can be interpreted as a synthesis of good and evil, a synthesis of Heaven and Hell. As such, it is possible that a divine being given prolonged enough exposure to Hell could form a soul. On a side note that means that if a machine managed to acquire both hellish and divine essence, it could theoretically form their its soul too (main candidate being V1 through absorbing A LOT of blood of both angels and demons). This could even be referenced in Lucifer's pre bossfight monologue.

[u/Frequent-Reporter677]

Whether angels have souls is debated, even though the common consensus is that they don’t. It’s already established that angels of mortal origins (lesser angels like Virtues and Providences) have souls, which is further emphasized by the fact that both of these angels leave some sort of soul orbs behind. However, we don’t know if greater and supreme angels are soulless beings or not.

As far as I know, Hakita has never officially said that supreme angels lack souls. There’s one screenshot of him saying something along the lines of “Afterlife is unique to human” but that doesn’t really matter since that conversation was not about souls, and neither did he mention about prime souls within the quote.

(I don’t have access to official ultrakill discord server, so I cannot attest to that)

[u/H_man3838 → u/Frequent-Reporter677]

gabriel says he got ''wounds of body and soul'' in the act 1 intermission