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Soul Pulvis is a Boss Noise in NEO: The World Ends with You. It acts as both a Week 3 boss and as a story element in the game.
Profile[]
Over the course of the Reapers' Game, strange birds can be seen in the sky in increasing quantities. Whenever Rindo Kanade uses his Replay ability to travel through time, he inadvertently creates these Noise. Every time he changes fate, the Souls and cognitive energy of the people of Shibuya left behind in these "failed timelines" are wrenched from their vessels and cast adrift. These lingering Souls will then coalesce into Noise as Soul Pulvis. When analyzed by Raimu "Rhyme" Bito and Kaie Ono, their readings indicate the Soul Pulvis as "corrupted data." Sho Minamimoto refers to Soul Pulvis as "garbage" created by time travel.
These Noise are kept by the Executor Tanzo Kubo as his backup plan to Invert Shibuya should Shiba Miyakaze fail to do so, stored as Dissonance inside Rindo's Reaper Pin. With every Replay, the Soul Pulvis increase in numbers and power until they become a swarm capable of erasing the city in one fell swoop, indiscriminately devouring Players, Reapers, and even the city architecture. Under most circumstances, such a threat would never come to pass as the Souls of the people in "present" Shibuya would suppress the "lost" Souls, but with Shiba's Plague Noise and Reverb draining them of all life and thought, their empty husks pose no resistance.
Story[]
Week 3, Final Day[]
After successfully defeating Shiba, the Wicked Twisters believe they've won and saved Shibuya...until Kubo appears and denies them their final victory. A swarm of Soul Pulvis erupts from Rindo's Reaper Pin at precisely 4:44:44 PM and erases everyone except Rindo, who escapes via Replay.
Week 3, Final Day'[]
After Replaying to the beginning of the day, Rindo attempts to convince Shiba to suspend the Game until Kubo is dealt with, recruiting Shiba's old friend Hishima Sakazuki to persuade the Game Master. Sadly, the Wicked Twisters' second battle against the swarm fares little better, once again ending with everyone save Rindo erased. If anything, things only get worse as Kubo destroys Rindo's Reaper Pin to prevent further Replays, with Shibuya's erasure only narrowly averted by a beam of light engulfing Kubo and his Noise.
Week 3, Final Day''[]
With help from the Angel Hazuki Mikagi, Rindo manages to Replay one last time. Despite Hazuki exorcising Kubo for overstepping his duties, the Soul Pulvis and their threat remain. To save both Shibuya and his friends, Rindo enlists the aid of Rhyme and Kaie to analyze the Noise, while Reapers Uzuki Yashiro, Koki Kariya, and Coco Atarashi keep the Noise in check, plus some independent aid from a returning Minamimoto. The latter explains to Rindo that Soul Pulvis can be neutralized by replacing the "lost" Souls of the swarm with the "living" Souls of Shibuya, something that would necessitate reversing the effects of Reverb on the citizens.
With the help of Hishima and former Ruinbringer Tsugumi Matsunae, the Wicked Twisters convince Shiba to not just stand down, but help them stop Shibuya's destruction. The combined group executes what Rhyme dubs "Operation: Awakening." Neku Sakuraba (with a little help from his old partners and even Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu) forms a network connecting the Souls of every single person in Shibuya. Nagi Usui's Dive opens their minds to influence, allowing Tosai "Fret" Furesawa to Remind them of life's vibrancy.
With Shibuya's people no longer silent shells, their Souls fight back and prevent Soul Pulvis from devouring everything. Despite that, the Soul Pulvis coalesce one final time as a gigantic phoenix, which the Wicked Twisters face as the final obstacle to saving Shibuya.
Abilities[]
Strategy[]
By default, Soul Pulvis takes the form of a tornado of crows, though it can morph into other Noise species during combat. Clouds of Soul Pulvis will form into Ravens, Grizzlies, Frogs, Scorpions, and Woollys. The mimicries will have the behaviors of Nefastraven, Circle Pit Grizzly, Tradishfrog, Drill 'n' Stinger, and Woolly AOR, respectively, so any strategies used against the generic enemies will also work here.
Trivia[]
- The Soul Pulvis eruption occurring at 4:44:44 is a nod to the fact that the number "four" is associated with death in various Eastern cultures due to their languages pronouncing the two words similarly. In Japan's case, the word is "死" (shi).
- The word "Pulvis" means "dust, powder, ashes" in Latin. Fittingly, Soul Pulvis is formed from lost Souls when Rindo overwrites a timeline, as the "dust" and "ash" left in the wake of his Replay.