Asroc "The Pygmalion Furnace"

Main

“Primitives cower behind piety and refuse to see the truth...”
—Asroc , Azure Striker Gunvolt 2

Asroc, "The Pygmalion Furnace", also known in Japan "Pygmalion Furnace", Asroc (糸紡ぐ操手(ピグマリオンファーネス) アスロック, pigumarion faanesu Asurokku; "Pygmalion Furnace" translating to "String-spinning Operator") is a member of Eden's The Seven, and one of the antagonists of Azure Striker Gunvolt 2.

His family and dreams were taken from him by hateful humans. Asroc serves Eden through his intense lust for revenge. He has an affinity for the Puppetmaster Septima, which allows him to control machinery via energy strings extended from his fingers.

Description

English Description

His “Puppetmaster” septima grants him the ability to extend special energy wires from his fingertips that allow him to power-up and control machines.

He once had a dream of owning a pastry shop par excellence, but became discouraged about his dream after experiencing constant discrimination at the hands of non-adepts. Before he knew it, he became obsessed with the idea of taking revenge on them, and has kept that fire going in his heart ever since.

Asroc controls a robot named “Galette Krone”, which was developed by Eden to be used with his Puppetmaster septima. This is the only way to control it, since it’s not a normal functioning robot.

Japanese Description

He’s the “Puppet-wire” Psychic: he can control and power-up machines by means of the string-shaped energy generated from his fingertips.

He used to be a young man who aimed to become an excellent pastry chef, but he met with increasing discrimination of Psychics and his dream collapsed.

At some point he became obsessed with revenge against the Non-Psychics and began to lodge flames of madness within himself.

His robot “Galette Krone” is a bundle of Eden-developed weaponry tied together by the “Puppet-wire”, and it actually isn’t a robot per se.

Appearance

Asroc is a teenager with short, light brown, somewhat spiky hair, and brown eyes. He wears a short sleeved white jacket, a black undershirt, black trousers, and black boots with silver highlights. He also wears red gloves, a brown hat with an orange patch in the middle, a long, light brown scarf and a black belt with a silver buckle.

In his Grimoired form, Asroc gains bright orange hair and black eyes with orange irises. He wears black armour with gray and orange highlights, with a large piece of hat-like armour on his head. The armour on his upper body resembles the top half of a robe, and he wears a long loin cloth on his lower body.

When Asroc transforms, he automatically summons Galette Krone, a large robot fused from various Eden weaponry and brought to life by Asroc's septima. Galette Krone is much taller and bulkier than Asroc, and is primarily black and orange. Its body is rather circular, its head ends in a large orange cone, and its fingers serve as cannons. Galette Krone is also seen with a blue and silver colour scheme, presumably its normal appearance when Asroc is not in his Grimoired form.

Personality

Asroc is visibly a calm, serious person. He is never seen losing his temper, and rarely smiles and laughs. He is also shown to be rather arrogant, casually mocking those he sees as weak, and takes great pride in both his combat abilities and skills as a chef.

At his core though, Asroc is someone full of anger. His disgust and hatred for non-Adepts is vast, even when compared to the rest of The Seven. He despises them due to the discrimination he suffered and looks down on them greatly, refusing to call Copen by his name, instead referring to him as a "primitive" ("old man" in Japanese), and views Adepts as the next step in human evolution, mirroring Tenjian's Social Darwinist philosophy. Ironically, it is observed by Lola that he and Copen are quite similar, from their technological prowess to their personalities and hatred towards the other's race.

However, Asroc's dark personality is slightly undermined by his constant use of food metaphors.

Plot

Hailing from France, Asroc was raised by his mother as the eldest of four children.

A quiet but kind child, the highlight of Asroc's childhood was getting to try his mother's homemade cakes once a year, which eventually inspired him to become a pastry chef. Sure enough, at age 12 he was eventually taken on an apprentice to a famous chef. His mother had always told him to hide his Septima, however, word eventually spread of his powers, and he gained a lowly reputation.

Despite this, he tried to ignore the rumours, until one day, when he returned from work to find his house in flames, and his family dead. His teacher, not wanting to get involved, expelled him. Catching wind that it was a non-Adept who killed his family, Asroc spiraled into a deep pit of hatred, convinced he had to "burn up" humanity.

Eventually, he joined the adept supremacist group Eden as one of The Seven, becoming known as one of Eden's "Knights".

Azure Striker Gunvolt 2

Prologue

Asroc and Galette Krone take part in Eden's plan to gain the power of The Muse by kidnapping Copen's sister Mytyl and taking her aboard the sabotaged Sumeragi ship Seraph.

Asroc uses his Puppetmaster septima to activate the Fazent just as Gunvolt, having boarded the ship, witnesses this. Unable to pursue it, he finds Galette Krone and promptly defeats it.

Copen's Story

Isle of Dreams (Puppeteer)

Some time after Eden's retrieval of the power of The Muse, Asroc and a platoon of Eden soldiers claim an old abandoned weapons manufacturing plant, and, using Asroc's septima, start using it to make weapons. This captures the interest of Copen, who heads there to stop them. As Copen makes his way through the factory, Asroc revives deactivated Sumeragi robots to try and hinder him.

Eventually, Copen comes face to face with Asroc and calls him brave for facing him. Asroc merely calls him a "primitive" in response, and prepares to "cook up" a new human evolution. Copen dismisses his "evolution" on the grounds that it has no mortality, but Asroc just claims he refuses to see the truth. He then uses his grimore to transform, and summons Galette Krone before attacking Copen.

Copen recognizes Galette Krone, and vows to remove his head for kidnapping Mytyl. Asroc claims Copen's head is full of cream and pudding, and is just another bit of his "bloody mise en place". In return, Copen scoffs at his title as a chef, saying he's nothing more than a two-bit cook. Around this time, Lola calls out Copen and Asroc's similarities, which Copen greatly denies. Annoyed by the two, Asroc focuses his attention towards beating Copen. Eventually, Asroc is beaten.

Realizing he can't win, Asroc leaps into Galette Krone and flees, with Copen in close pursuit. When the latter catches up, Asroc leaps into a massive robot known as the "Gran Torta", and attacks Copen, who remains unimpressed, calling the robot a sacrilege to science. Asroc claims it's like a primitive to refuse to accept a superior talent, and threatens to drop him in the "fryer". However, the Gran Torta is eventually beaten, and blows up with Asroc still inside, killing him. His mirror shard is then taken by Copen.

The Garden 3 (Saviour)

At some point, a copy of Asroc and the rest of The Seven is made by Zonda using her Mirror septima. He, along with Tenjian, Ghauri and Desna await Copen as he attempts to reach Zonda. When he encounters Asroc again, the former informs him that he didn't expect to see Copen again, yet is needed in the kitchen once more before attacking him with Galette Krone.

During the fight, Asroc warns Copen that Galette Krone will destroy both him and Lola, whom he calls a "pet", something she finds greatly offensive, saying Galette Krone is the one who should be called a pet. Asroc just calls her pathetic like her master, and orders her to roll over, which only infuriates her more. Copen tells Lola to ignore the "hollow wails of the dead" and reassures her she is more than a household pet, much to her joy. Eventually, Asroc's copy is beaten once more, and Copen moves on to Zonda.

Zonda later summons an illusion of The Seven to assist her in her battle against Copen, Asroc among them.

Gunvolt's Story

Highway (Crossroads)

After Gunvolt defeats four members of The Seven, Asroc and fellow knight Ghauri break into Copen's house and kidnap his sister Mytyl, destroying a highway on their way out. Furious, Copen peruses and confronts them, demanding the return of his sister. Asroc immediately shuts him down, explaining that Eden has big plans for Mytyl, prompting Ghauri to apologize for his teammate's rudeness, before assuring him that his sister is in good hands, which only annoys Copen further. Asroc determines that it's useless talking to him any more, and takes his leave, leaving Ghauri to deal with Copen.

The Garden 2 (Inferno)

As the last surviving member of The Seven, Asroc is sent to stop Gunvolt, who has tracked down and broken into Eden's headquarters, The Garden. Eventually, Gunvolt confronts Asroc, who is extremely pleased that the former made it to him. Gunvolt recognizes him as the adept Copen went after. Asroc claims to have dealt with Copen, and that now it's just him, Gunvolt, and Galette Krone, before attacking him.

During the fight, Asroc claims that he and Galette Krone form an unbeaten duo. This prompts Joule to also claim that she and Gunvolt are a perfect match. Not hearing her, Asroc launches into a slew of cooking metaphors about how he's going to kill Gunvolt, which get on the latter's nerves, who declares he will fight and win. Asroc claims that bakery and battle are the same thing, to which Gunvolt responds by calling him "half-baked". Eventually, Gunvolt manages to land a killing blow.

Shocked at his defeat, Asroc declares the battle isn't over, and uses his last remaining power to activate "it", which he declares cannot be stopped. Asroc then dies laughing madly, and his mirror shard is taken by Gunvolt, who moves on, unsettled by Asroc's words.

Other Appearances

Mighty Gunvolt Burst

Asroc appears as a collectible pixel sticker that can be obtained in the stage "Military Base".

Powers and Abilities

As a human attuned to the Septimal stage of the Lifewave and a member of The Seven, Asroc is one of the most powerful adepts in Eden, wielding the Puppetmaster septima, which gives him the power to control and manipulate machinery using orange strings from his fingertips.

By using this power, he can activate and control even the oldest and most worn down of machines, and his range extends to the point where he can control an entire factory's worth of machines. Under his control, these machines often surpass their original functions.

Unlike Azure Thunderclap or Hack the Planet (used by Gunvolt and Teseo respectively), Puppetmaster controls the machine's physical body, making it rather similar to Nova's Psychokinesis. Upon gaining a Grimoire, his powers grow to the point that he can control machines even upon death, using it to activate the upgraded Plasma Legion in a desperate attempt to defeat Gunvolt.

Given that Asroc's septima is very limited in terms of offense, he generally relies on a robot called the Galette Krone to do most of his fighting for him which is specifically designed to be controlled by his Septima.

Galette Krone fights by rolling into a ball, firing bullets from its fingers, tossing its shoulder rings like boomerangs, firing lasers from its eyes, turning its legs into blades to slash opponents, punching the ground to generate fireballs, and unleashing a powerful heatwave from the opening on its chest. Both Grimoired Asroc and Galette Krone have the ability to create objects from masses of Asroc's strings and hover.

For his Amuse-Bouche Special Skill, Asroc can disassemble Gallete Krone into its five components and have each part attack independently.

After losing his first fight to Copen, Asroc is forced to unveil his secret weapon: the Gran Torta, a gigantic robot that Asroc was developing in the factory to be a weapon of mass destruction. While it is mostly unfinished, it was still powerful enough to hold its own against Copen.

The robot is designed to be controlled via Gallete Krone and is outfitted with several destructive weapons. It can rain down fireballs from the cannons on its shoulders, detach its arms and shoot several fiery projectiles, fire lasers from Gallete Krone's eyes and fire a large, sweeping laser from its chest.

Skills

Normal

Asroc is a unique boss in that all his attacks are performed by Galette Krone, either by itself or in tandem with Asroc himself.

Note: While Galette Krone has its own health, you must defeat Asroc to win. Killing Galette Krone only shuts it down for a few seconds.
Even when Galette Krone is deactivated, it can still block shots and deal contact damage.

When Galette Krone has been shut down, Asroc will interrupt his attack pattern to jump to the other end of the screen (if nearby Galette Krone) and revive it.

Image	Description
Šakotis Chakram シャコティスチャクラム	A combination attack in which Asroc and Galette Krone throw Wheel Chakrams at each other.
Beans Vulcan ビーンズバルカン	A machine gun rain that’s fired from Galette Krone's fingertips. The pattern goes; everywhere except in front of Galette Krone, then everywhere except the far end of the field. You can also avoid it by hovering above the barrage, but it works better for Copen than GV.
Le-Le Schneeball ル―レシュネーバル	An attack in which Galette Krone becomes a spheroid spinning at hi-speed and shoots towards the player. After flying off-screen, Galette Krone comes crashing down on you moments later. Watch the shadow to see where it falls. This attack also rains rubble from the ceiling. The pieces can be blocked by Flashfield.
[[File:Asroc - Eruption Aix Razor.png	upright=1.5\|center\|Eruption Aix Razor イラプションエクレイザー]]	A powerful punch attack by Galette Krone. It jump-punches the ground and sends flames flying forwards. The flames cannot be blocked by Flashfield, so duck under Galette Krone when it jumps. You can also try hovering over Galette Krone to avoid this attack.
Furnace of Inferno ファーネスオブインフェルノ	As the battle goes on, Galette Krone charges up energy and turns a golden brown. When it reaches a certain level, it shoots a heat wave that’s impossible to dodge. Galette Krone's charge carries on through its attack patterns, but resets when it is shut down or fires this attack. It is literally impossible to dodge this attack without using Prevasion. This attack can be interrupted by shutting down Galette Krone or forcing Asroc to switch phases, but those are the only ways.
Amuse-Bouche ビートアップアントルメ Beat Up Entremets	"Free the puppet now / From the yoke of fate's cruel strings / To fight for my joy! Amuse-Bouche!" Asroc’s Special Skill. He makes Galette Krone break apart into many pieces and each piece attacks the player. The pattern is as follows: Un- Galette Krone's head fires a laser that sweeps the floor with explosions. Deux- The right leg tracks your position to make a swing at you before hovering in place. Trois- The left leg tracks your position to make a swing at you before hovering in place. Quat- The shoulder chakrams make circuits around the floor and air. Cinq- The arms impact the ground explosively, followed by the main body dropping down the centre. Terminer- All of Galette Krone's parts click back together as the robot jumps back to Asroc All of Galette Krone's parts deal contact damage. If Galette Krone is shut down as Asroc enters his final phase, the latter will be forced to wait for Galette Krone to reactivate in order to perform Amuse-Bouche, allowing a window to attack him and possibly avoid the attack all together.

Gran Torta

The Gran Torta is a larger robot that Asroc was constructing deep within the Isle of Dreams. It is not fully completed, but he was forced to activate it in response to being defeated by Copen. This robot is piloted by Asroc, who lodges himself inside Galette Krone, which is lodged into the Gran Torta's "head".

Note: Galette Krone must be destroyed to win this fight. The slots on the arms can be attacked to disable a certain technique of Gran Torta's.
Gunvolt will never fight this in canon. He can fight Gran Torta as part of a Special Mission.
Asroc does not use Gran Torta during his rematch in Garden 3.

Double Laser

カラメリーゼ・ノヴァ、Caramelizer Nova

Galette Krone fires two lasers inwards that sweep the ground with explosions.

Volcano Cannon

ドレサージュブラスト、Dressage Blast

The cannons on Gran Torta's shoulders fire a volley into the air. About a second later, the fireballs gradually drop in on Copen's position. The fireballs leave explosions that linger for a few seconds.

Chest Laser

グレイズレーザー、Glazer Laser

Gran Torta rises up to expose its chest turbine, which gathers energy before sweeping the arena with a large laser that moves right-to-left or left-to-right. Depending on his health, Asroc may perform this attack 1-3 times.

Burning Volley

フィユタージュカノン、Fiyutage Cannon

One of Gran Torta's arms splits off to fall onto one end of the arena. It then proceeds to launch a flurry of lasers, fireballs, and meteors to avoid.

This attack can be disabled by destroying the slots on Gran Torta's arms.

Quotes

"Bold words... for a primitive. But watch me cook up the power of a new human evolution!"
—Asroc , meeting Copen

"And yet your head is full of cream and pudding. I'll show you how we handle primitives in the kitchen! You're just another bit of my bloody mise en place... Now be quiet and wait your turn at the buffet line!"
—Asroc , battling Copen

"Behold my culinary masterpiece, the Gran Torta! It's my own recipe! A dash of scrap... a pinch of death... Needed a bit more time in the oven, but so be it. And now I'll give you the very first bite!"
—Asroc , revealing the Gran Torta

"I never thought to see you again... But alas, I am needed in the kitchen. Now begone!"
—Asroc , facing Copen a second time

"That evolutionary relic? Pffft! I already dealt with him. Now it's just you, me, and my dear Galette Krone. Come, Galette Krone! Boil this one in the name of tasty justice!"
—Asroc , about to face Gunvolt

"You are a cake waiting to be baked inside a fiery hearth. Let flame sear flesh like filet mignon! Let this adept be my three-star masterpiece!"
—Asroc , dueling Gunvolt

"To think it is I... who ended up in the stewpot... But I'm not done... It's already activated... I used my Marionette septima... I gave... everything... You can't stop it, adept... Nothing can... In the name... of our... paradise... Aaah ha ha ha!"
—Asroc , in his final moments

Designer Comments

Truth to be told, the “Gunvolt 2” boss motifs aren’t exactly the fairy tales per se but the “girl” inside of them. Once we agreed on that, we selected (tales) that were popular or could work as bosses. But it was a bit hard to turn the spotlight on Gretel alone from the “Hansel & Gretel” tale (laughs). After a lot of trial & error and several submitted drafts, the draft in which (Asroc’s) armor split from him and became a robot was the most convincing one because “they became two (characters)”. We decided that the main character would be a controller-type of boss and we expanded the (concept) into a candy house golem.

(Araki Munehiro)

Trivia

The members of Eden are based off classical fairy tales and represent the pieces on a chessboard. Asroc is based off Pinocchio and Hansel and Gretel, and represents one of two knights, the other being Ghauri.
- Asroc is one of two Eden members to be based off two different fairy tales; the other is Tenjian.
Asroc's Septima is known by both "Puppetmaster" and "Marionette" in the English version of Azure Striker Gunvolt 2.
Asroc's name comes from the RUR-5 ASROC (Anti Submarine ROCet), a missile system developed by the US Navy in the 1950s, as all members of The Seven are named after missiles.
Asroc's title of "The Pygmalion Furnace" comes from the Greek mythological figure Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he carved. This is mirrored by Asroc's affection for Galette Krone.
Asroc piloting the Gran Torta is the biggest boss of the series of all. With its dimensions, he overshadows even Nova in his weaponized form.
Most of Asroc's attacks are named after culinary dishes.
The second Asroc fight is the only boss to lack a cool-down period when entering a new phase, instead just briefly becoming invincible as he carries on attacking.
- He does, however, have a voice line played whenever his 1st and 2nd HP gauges have been depleted, but these went unused.

Japanese version

"Accept it. Failure: that's your recipe."
—Asroc , Japanese Quote ◆“String-spinning Operator (Pygmalion Furnace)” Asroc

Eden
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