Empyrean Ascent

The Empyrean Ascent (十天への至) is the bonus final dungeon exclusive to Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux.

Plot

It can only be accessed by agreeing to work with Alex to avert the future that she came from, which requires the protagonist to complete the Womb of Grief before fully exploring the final floor of Sector Horologium.

Before confronting Maria in the Sixth Sphere of the Womb of Grief, the protagonist first encounters Alex, who tells him that they need to talk later, and leaves them to beat Maria. If Maria is defeated, Alex's next meeting with the protagonist is in the depths of Sector Horologium, after obtaining the Exotic Matter from Mem Aleph (Neutral, Law) or before Mem Aleph (Chaos). She tells the protagonist of the future that he creates, based on the route's original ending, while detailing what goes wrong with it and pleads with him to help her change the future.

By agreeing to change the future, Alex proposes that the protagonist use the Cosmic Egg to gain the power to let this new future come to pass, and hands the Third Fruit that she stole to the protagonist. However, after she fades away, Demeter appears and snatches the Third Fruit, and leaves to hand the missing Fruit to The Three Wise Men. Louisa Ferre appears, commands the protagonist to give chase, and unlocks the door behind Maria's chamber in the Womb of Grief. Through there, the protagonist stumbles into the Three Wise Men's room and finds a portal that leads to the Empyrean Ascent.

The Upper Layer of the Empyrean Ascent is a unique warp maze. Almost all warp tiles there are depicted as doorways with different numbers of faces in them, and the Guidance Angel reports that all warp tiles in an area converge to a single point. The trick is that stepping on some of these warp tiles will disable other warps, depending on the number of faces in the doorway the protagonist last stepped in. For instance, stepping in a doorway with one face will shut down the warp tiles in the doorways with two faces.

The Lower Layer of the Empyrean Ascent, on the first playthrough, mainly consists of a single corridor leading up to Shekinah. However, on a New Game Plus, Louisa Ferre is there, and issues an EX Mission that allows the protagonist to explore the rest of the Empyrean Ascent and challenge her generals that lurk in the four corners of the Lower Layer.

Enemies

Enemies marked with an asterisk are unique encounters in the Empyrean Ascent and drop their own forma.

Upper Layer

• Rangda
• Tzitzimitl
• Fafnir
• Surt
• Vritra*
• Vasuki*
• Ixtab*
• Mada*
• Nergal (Enemy Search A)
• Kama (Enemy Search B)
• Mot (Enemy Search C)
• Seth (Enemy Search C)
• Trumpeter (Enemy Search, rare)
• Pillar Zelenin (Boss, Chaos+ only)

Lower Layer

• Tzitzimitl
• Fafnir
• Surt
• Vritra*
• Vasuki*
• Ixtab*
• Mada*
• Nergal (Enemy Search A)
• Kama (Enemy Search B)
• Mot (Enemy Search C)
• Seth (Enemy Search C)
• Trumpeter (Enemy Search, rare)
• Shekinah (Boss)
• Beelzebub (Bonus boss)
• Lucifuge (Bonus boss)
• Belial (Bonus boss)
• Nebiros (Bonus boss)