Digital Devil Saga: Svadhistana part two

On leaving the battle room, you'll be in a corridor with another set of stairs and a door at the end.

A presence can be felt beyond the door. Choose to enter and you'll see Harley, who will scream like the little girl he is and tell a croney to raise a wall between you and him. (Why doesn't Muladhara have handy defences like that?) You now can't do anything in that room, so leave and go up the stairs.

You'll be in another corridor with two doors at either end. The door behind you leads onto a balcony overlooking the room you fought the Ghouls in earlier, but has not items. If you go in the door in front of you, you'll see the guy who raised the wall. Run across the wall towards him and you'll end up in a fight with a giant chicken which is apparently supposed to be a Cockatrice. It's weak to guns and ice, so you can either have someone revert to human form and shoot it or keep having Serph cast Bufu. It should go down pretty quickly.

Once the giant chicken is down, hit the switch to lower the wall and climb down the ladder. Go through the door.

You'll be in another corridor, with a bend just ahead. Once around the bend, you'll see a large room with tables, a stairway going down, a small karma terminal and a green glowing terminal which is a life terminal, where you can pay to replenish your HP and MP and heal any ailments you may have.

Go down the stairs. You'll see a red wall ahead of you, which you can't do anything about yet. Go to the right and you'll see a yellow wall ahead of you - ignore it, again. Turn left again and you'll see a set of stairs going up - they lead to a corridor, which leads to an outside area. You won't be attacked here. Go forward and down the small steps, then to the right and up onto a platform to get Soma Drop x 1. There's nothing else here, so go back to the room with the small karma terminal.

Go further down the room and you'll be ambushed by two women just after the bend, who'll turn into Empusas. The ensuing battle is another semi-tutorial.

Head on to the door the Empusas were blocking. When you attempt to enter, you'll get a message stating that there's a familiar presence on the other side of the door. When you enter, Harley runs away from you again to a door on the right.

Here is where you get into a bit of a cat and mouse game with him. Follow him, and when you find Harley again he'll tell you that he'll give you his territory if you'll just leave him alone (yeah, right) and runs off to the left. Follow him again and go straight on to find him in the first room you came to, where he'll run off through the same door as before. It's pretty obvious if you keep that up you'll just keep going in circles, so Heat says: "Try something new. Block the path and drive him into a dead end."

Good idea! So turn around and go back the way you came, but this time go left instead of straight on, and up the stairs you'll eventually come to. Once up the stairs, turn around and follow the corridor behind you until you come to a door which leads onto a balcony. There's a yellow glowing chest-thingy here with Charge Shot inside.

Once you've got the Charge Shot, turn around and head to the other end of the corridor. Enter the door and cross over the top of the wall to flick the switch. This will lower one wall and raise another on the opposite side, just as Harley runs into the room and panics as he sees the walls moving. Harley will run into the newly-revealed door, which leaves you to follow him. Head back downstairs and through the door.

The route from here is straightforward and has no items to collect, so follow along until you come to a room where Harley will spot you and run into one final room. Run along the right hand side of the room and you will pass a ladder on your left. Climb down it and into a contained area with three purple chests containing Revival Gem x 1, Chakra Drop x 1 and Ice Blast x 1. Climb back up the ladder and use the life and small karma terminals nearby before heading down to face Harley.

NB. If Heat hasn't learned his mantra by now, keep wandering in circles nomming the random battles until he does, because you'll need Void Fire in this next fight to make sure Hayagriva doesn't crucify you by hammering Serph's weakness.

Enter the door for a cutscene. Note Heat's eye change.

Boss battle: Asura Hayagriva
Skills: Skewer (fire attack)
Drops: Soma Drop x 1

Yes, you are now fighting a weird-looking zebra. He's weak to fire, though, so have Serph cast Bufu while Heat casts Void Fire.

Eventually, he'll start using Void Ice, but this will waste his one turn so pound on him with physical attacks until he gives in. Shouldn't take too long; he's only go around 500-600 HP.

There will be another cutscene after Harley goes down, and then you'll find yourself outside Svadhistana. There will now be random Vanguards wandering around talking to you instead of attacking, because apparently since you killed their boss, you're the boss. Junkyard law.

Argilla: "Get back... to the base."
Heat: "What an annoying woman. Well, if she changes her mind, I'll just grab that guy over there."

Next: Muladhara, again.