Luka/Paradox

Luka returns as the protagonist of Monster Girl Quest: Paradox but things are not as they once were.

For starters, monsters and humans have been living together in relative peace since the Great Disaster thirty years ago so his dream of becoming a hero to foster co-existence between them has never even occurred to him. While he still desires to be a hero, his immediate concern is to go out and look for his father, Marcellus, who is still alive in the world of Paradox.

Personality
The gameplay heavy nature of Paradox and its focus on other companions has left little room for Luka's personality to shine through so exactly how much has been changed and how much remains to be seen but for now he appears to be the same naive hero from the first game. However, because of some of the choices available in the game, it's possible to play Luka as more lecherous or irresponsible, but he still comes across as an idiot.

Backstory
Luka possesses a new ability in Paradox, which allows Luka to travel between the dimensions, that hints there might be something more to his lineage, this time around, but that is mere speculation at this point based on an end-game spoiler.

Prologue
Luka's journey starts as it did in the original trilogy, with a dream of Ilias.

Ilias attempts to warn Luka of a great danger coming, which will swallow the world itself. As she says this, her body is slowly fading out, and her words are sometimes cut out as if it were a transmission. In reality, this is the apoptosis effect, preventing interworld interaction. She tries to explain to Luka that she used what little remained of her power just to warn him, but even more of her words are being cut out, making it harder to understand. Luka is still confused, and she continues to try to explain what he has to do, but it's barely comprehensible by this point. Something about saving the world, and not forgetting something. Luka still doesn't understand, and Ilias ceases speaking entirely, before fading out.

Luka wakes up from the dream. He dismisses it as a good omen for the day, and nothing more. The Goddess hasn't been known to visit anyone in their dreams, or reality since the Great Disaster, which occurred over thirty years ago. He remarks that he sets out on his adventure today, and that means it's the day he will be baptised. Of course, since Ilias has vanished, she no longer appears for the baptism, so it is done by the Head Priest instead. But it's only for show.

He writes an entry in his diary about how Ilias visited him in his dream, but he couldn't understand what she was trying to tell him. He sets out to receive his baptism.

Outside the village, humans and slime girls (they live with humans in this universe) are panicking and running around the village aimlessly. Waiting for Luka is Betty, who warns Luka that Hans the lumberjack was abducted by a Slime Girl, and headed off to the Slime Village (they have one now) in the Iliasville mountains. Luka states that he will go and rescue him, but Betty advises against it, and he should leave it to the trained soldiers. Luka ignores her.

Iliasville Mountains
On his way to the summit, Luka hears an explosion and goes to investigate it.

Lying in the centre of the crater, he finds an angel.

She gets up and introduces herself as Ilias, the Goddess of Creation. Luka is amazed to see Ilias, but he notes that she's a lot smaller than he expected (she's been sealed by the Six Ancestors Great Seal and is in a loli form. Ilias is very much offended by this and being the genocidal Goddess she is, unleashes the power of Heaven on Luka. Due to her sealed form, it feels like a minor static shock to Luka and does not turn him into a pile of cinders, as Ilias expected. Realising it didn't work, she does it again, stating she will give his 'charred body to the villagers to burn for fuel', but the result is the same. A minor shock.

Ilias is worried now and conjures a mirror to view herself. After staring at it in shock for a while, she realises this is the work of the Six Ancestors Great Seal. She tries to recall what happened to her, but the seal affected her memory, as well as her body. She thinks it could have been Black Alice, Promestein, or even the Dark Goddess herself, but she can't come to a conclusion.

She rushes off, stating she has to get in contact with Heaven, telling Luka that they will finish the conversation later, leaving Luka bewildered. He doesn't believe she is the true Goddess and continues making his way to the peak of the mountain.

After fighting through many slime girls on his way to the summit of the mountain, he finds Hans, surrounded by two Slime Girls, and a unique Bunny Slime. Luka warns them to get away from him, but they attack Luka instead.

Defeated, she promises to stop kidnapping humans, and Hans runs back to Iliasville, after thanking Luka.

On his way back down the mountain, he finds a lolififed Alice, who asks if he has seen a rabbit anywhere around here. If he answers no, she doesn't believe him and continues to block the path back down the mountain. If he replies that he saw one at the summit, she thanks him and heads to the peak.

Luka decides to go back to the summit and check if everything's all right.

Things are not all right, as Alice is repeatedly pummeling the Bunny Slime, demanding she change her back to normal. Bunny Slime has no idea what she's talking about, and Alice realises that it's not the same one who changed her, before running back down the mountain to try and find the right one. Luka heads back to Iliasville to receive his baptism.

The baptism
On his way to the temple, Luka finds Sonya waiting at the entrance, his childhood friend and also a priest at the temple. She thrashes him for being late to his baptism and takes him into the temple. She's currently in her Priest's clothing to assist the Head Priest with the baptism.

Waiting inside is the Head Priest, who Luka apologises to for being late, but he doesn't mind, since the reason Luka is late is that he was rescuing Hans from the slimes. After being handed the holy water by Sonya, he pours it over Luka's head, and it's done. The priest informs him that usually, Ilias would descend to do it, but she disappeared thirty years ago.

Suddenly, the voice of Ilias sounds throughout the Temple, and she comes down to see Luka.

The priest and everyone else is just as surprised to see Ilias in the flesh as Luka is. Ilias explains to Luka that a darkness is covering the world and is spreading faster and faster, but only Luka has the power to stop it. She doesn't have the energy to baptise Luka, and it's taking every ounce of it just to be here to tell Luka this. But Ilias believes that Luka won't need to be baptised to undertake this task, referring to him as an unblessed hero. Their conversation is cut short, as her power weakens, and Ilias vanishes.

The Head Priest tells Luka that while he may have been burdened with the task of saving the world, it would be a good idea to keep the whole conversation a secret to only the people they trust. If the masses learned of this 'darkness', it could cause panic, and that wouldn't help anything. And if the public starts believing he is the one who will save the world, it will only put more pressure on Luka. He waves him and Sonya goodbye, asking if they ever want to change jobs, to just come and see him.

Sonya runs out of the temple, dropping her hat on the way out. Luka picks it up.

She runs back in to warn Luka that there's a pair of children dressed as a monster and an angel fighting in his inn, and Luka runs out of the temple to go and stop them.

The Inn
Luka can hear the two fighting from outside the inn, and goes inside to investigate.

Inside the inn, is Alice and Ilias fighting each other. But they're power has been weakened, so they aren't causing any meaningful damage, and they both think the other is responsible. Luka is concerned about them breaking his chair, and Alice replies that if they weren't in this state, they would have wiped the village off the map, nevermind a chair. They both believe themselves to be stronger than the other and continue shouting threats at each other.

Luka stops the fight and demands to know why they're fighting each other in the first place. The angel replies that she is Ilias, Goddess of creation, while the Lamia replies that she is Alice, the 16th Monster Lord. Luka understands that they naturally hate each other if that's the case, but realises that these two are just impersonating Ilias, and the Monster Lord.

He asks why they're both re-enacting the Great Monster Wars in his house, of all places. Alice responds that she needs help to find a white rabbit, and believes that Luka will help her, while Ilias wants to know why she is in this smaller form and wants Luka to help her find out. Luka questions why they would want him, of all people, as they should have countless other subordinates much stronger than him to help. Alice doesn't know where her Heavenly Knights are, and wants the fact she is in this form to remain secret. Ilias can't contact Heaven in this world for some reason, and doesn't want Black Alice or Promestein to find out that she is in a weakened state.

Luka understands that they both want to accompany him, but they both reply that they will not be accompanying him, he will be accompanying them. Luka doesn't know what to do with them.

Before he can come to decide if he wants to take either of them, they inform Luka that they can't stand each other, so it's one or the other (the following dialogue from here will be presumed that you took Ilias with you).

The Inn (Ilias)
Ilias is pleased with Luka's choice and tells him to listen to Alice's cries of defeat. The first question Luka asks her is how she ended up in her current state, but she replies that she doesn't know. Some parts of her memory are simply missing, likely a side effect of putting a literal Goddess into such a small body. She asks Luka to think of it like 'putting a large amount of data onto a floppy disk'. But Luka has no clue what a floppy disk is. Ilias remembers that floppy disks don't exist in this world yet. But she does reassure Luka that she is the real Ilias.

Luka believes her, as this one is identical to the one who visited him in the temple if a lot smaller. The fact there are two Ilias's puzzles Ilias, as she was here the whole time. Ilias was never in the temple. She comes to the conclusion it was either an imposter or less likely, another Ilias. They will have to investigate it further before arriving at a conclusion.

Ilias brings up that she knows Luka is going to the Monster Lord's Castle for the impossible goal of co-existence, but Luka replies that ever since the Great Disaster, they have been living alongside each other. Co-existence is already happening. Ilias is shocked and asks why on earth he would be going on an adventure in the first place, and he replies he is going on an adventure to find his father, Marcellus. Ilias thinks Luka's dad was killed by Marcellus a long time ago. Luka replies this is also untrue. His father is very much alive.

Ilias asks for an explanation of what happened before she got here, which Luka is happy to provide.

His father and three other companions went out on an adventure, in the hopes of helping people recover from the events of the Great Disaster. Ilias presumes that Karen and Merlin were both killed, like in the original trilogy. Luka points out Ilias is incorrect. Each of them returned home alive. Lazarus lost the use of his right arm, but they all made it back alive. Karen did die in an accident after returning home, and she is Sonya's mother.

After this, Marcellus met Luka's future mother, Lucifina. Ilias knows this already, and Luka asks how. She gives the simple answer that she is the Goddess of Creation, and knows everything. Shortly after Luka was born, Marcellus set out on another adventure and never returned. Ilias assumes that this must have been to join Ilias Kreuz, but Luka has never heard of 'Ilias Cruise' in his life. He told Luka and everyone else that the world was being 'covered in darkness', and simply left, which is what the Ilias in the temple said to Luka. Ilias is surprised to hear that Lucifina didn't try to stop him from leaving, but Luka replies it wasn't like Marcellus just abandoned them. He had to go out to save the world.

And that's it. Ilias is still confused. Nothing is as it was in the original trilogy. She comes to the conclusion that ever since this 'Great Disaster', things started changing. Luka confirms this is correct. But strange events have begun occurring only recently, such as people going missing, or villages vanishing off the face of the earth.

Luka asks Ilias if she sees a connection between the Ilias in the temple and Marcellus, as they both told Luka the same thing. The world is being covered in darkness. She doesn't know. Her memory is incomplete, and there are gaps in it. She knows just as much as Luka does. Luka grows concerned that even the Goddess who created the world doesn't know what is going on. Ilias reassures him that doesn't matter right now, and they will learn more along the way. Luka asks if Ilias thinking Marcellus being dead is also a problem with her memory, but she confirms that did happen in one reality. If something is amiss, it's something wrong with this world. Not her.

Ilias suggests going to Iliasburg first and plan what to do next from there.

Before they leave, Ilias inquires why Luka has been talking to her so casually. She is his Goddess. Luka responds that the fact Ilias looks younger than him makes it hard not to do that. This angers Ilias, and she tells him he should look up to his Goddess, and not talk down to her. Luka replies that it's hard to do that when you compare their heights, annoying her even more. Luka is forced to apologise.

Luka wants to go and see the Village Chief before leaving for Iliasburg.

Village Chief
The village chief greets Luka upon arriving at his home. He informs Luka he's heard about what happened in the temple and agrees that keeping keeping Luka's destiny to save the world a secret. He inquires who the young girl behind him is, and replies that she is Ilias, Goddess of Creation. The village chief doesn't believe her naturally and thinks it's kind of Luka to help a lost girl find her way home. He gives Luka some items to help him on his journey, and also gives him the key to the storage room should he need it.

He can fill in some of the blanks for Luka. Marcellus, Lazarus, Sonya, the Great Disaster, or the surrounding area, with the vicinity being near identical to the original trilogy, outside of the nearby Tartarus.

Once Luka has finished asking questions, the Village Chief waves him goodbye and wishes him luck on his adventure. Before he leaves, the village chief asks if he's seen Sonya, but Luka tells him he hasn't since the baptism, which the chief finds suspicious.

Nero
Waiting for him outside is Sonya, who promptly asks if he's ready to leave yet, surprising Luka. Sonya asks if he had intended to leave her behind, Luka replies he had planned to for her safety. Sonya reveals to Luka that she had been learning club skills and clerical skills just so she could join him on his adventure, and forces her way into the party. Sonya asks if they can go and rescue a slime from the poison marsh to the east.

Like the village chief, she inquires who the little girl is, who replies she is Ilias, and that she used to be taller. Sonya believes her, as she looks almost identical outside of their height, but Ilias gets annoyed at Sonya for referring to her as 'girl' and demands to be shown more respect.

Sonya is sad to learn that they will be having a genocidal goddess accompanying them, as she thought it would be just the two of them, and they both prepare to set off.

Out of the blue, Nero comes rushing over to them and greets Luka. Luka asks who he is, and Nero replies he's no one special. Just a simple traveller, passing through. Sonya doesn't believe him to be just a 'simple traveller passing through' with what he's wearing. Luka and Ilias agree. Nero simply apologises.

Luka asks what he wants, and Nero replies he doesn't want anything from them. He just wanted to come and check on them. Nero doesn't understand how everyone in the village can use magic, and Luka explains that it's always been that way since the Great Disaster, which he also hasn't heard of, there were never so many magic users in his hometown. Luka asks if the people where he lives are faithful to Ilias, as magic is often prohibited there and he replies 'you could say that'.

Nero then notices Sonya, who asks why he's giving her a funny look. Nero apologises and asks who she is, and Sonya replies she's Luka's childhood friend. Nero says Luka doesn't have a childhood friend, annoying Sonya. Nero apologises, explaining he made a mistake, wishes the party good luck, and then leaves, bewildering everyone.

Ilias believes he knows more than he was letting on, and that he might be connected to her current state. Sonya agrees but thinks he didn't seem like a bad person. Just unbelievably suspicious.

Lime
Luka decides to go and investigate the slime girl Sonya mentioned early. He finds her stuck in the middle of a poison marsh, screaming for help. Luka heroically wades through the marsh and takes her back to land.

She thanks Luka for rescuing her and asks if she can go with them. Ilias is very much against this and asks why he saved her in the first place. She will not tolerate having a monster in the party.

Luka ignores her.

Ilias states that she will pretend Luka didn't hear her order. She thinks it's fine, as they can just use her to soak up blows for them.

Pocket Castle
Leaving Iliasville, Ilias stops Luka. She informs him that while she was in her 'heroic life or death struggle' with Alice, she managed to snag a model of a castle. Luka is confused at first, but Ilias tells him it must have magical properties to it, and he should push the button on the side. He does and draws both of them inside.

They find themselves at the front gate to a huge castle. Sonya realises they were pulled into the castle, and must have been shrunk. Ilias reckons they could probably fit thousands of people inside here if it's as big as it looks. Sonya is fascinated that Alice was carrying such a powerful artefact and her doubts about Alice not being the Monster Lord wane. Ilias suggests that they should take a look inside, but should be prepared to cut down any monsters inside without mercy.

Inside the Pocket Castle, is a massive hub, completely unoccupied with doors to other areas of the castle. Ilias is concerned about using the Monster Lords castle, but she decides just to think of it as territory conquered from her and gives Luka permission to use it.

Ilias intends to use the castle as a location to rally her angels, and for Luka to gather his companions to build an army. They can use it as a place to store excess companions when there's no more room in the party.

Luka notices the stationary maid, and Ilias tells him that it's not a real person and just a magical projection of one, but Ilias can change it if she bothers Luka. She suggests imprisoning captured monsters here and forcing them to work for her, and then just destroying them when they're no longer useful. Luka disagrees with her suggestion.

They prepare to make their way to Iliasburg, and Ilias states she looks forward to turning the castle to rubble once they're done with it.