Dragoon Tower

My ability to conquer more than one thing at a time is a real bummer.

So, I only managed one side quest tonight. The bosses were stronger than I thought and needed more set-up between them than I guessed. Regardless, I set out to beat the last four Dragoons of the Dragon Campaign.

First up was The Jade Dragoon, Syuveil. He’s Albert to a T, with the same strengths and weaknesses. This means he’s tanky and slow but has bad magic defense. The usual strategy works.

The second was Damia, The Blue Dragoon. She’s supposed to be Miru but didn’t have the speed or magic to resemble her. It was strange.

Thirdly was Belzac, The Golden (not orange) Dragoon. As you’d suspect, he’s Kongol but slightly more conversational.

Lastly, the only guy I had problems with, Kanzas of the Purple Dragon. Now this guy... He’s fast, hits hard, is defensive, and hates Rose. I feel like he focused hard on her until Meri was almost dead and got bloodthirsty. He wiped my team on the first attempt, but I pulled it out in the second despite him nearly killing Rose and Miru. I’d say the usual strategy won out, but I felt like it’s more luck that he didn’t go multiple times in a row. He’s got that Lenus speed hacks.

But there’s more to this than just fighting. All of these heroes are haunting this place for a reason, and Shirley wants us to figure out why. As we return to Veilweb, Shirley’s strength ran out, and she’s nowhere to be found. We can still be healed where we last met her, though, so don't worry about trekking back and forth from the random peddlers. So, unsupervised, we walk into the rooms once occupied by the living. The rooms are immaculate, as though someone's been living here for 11000 years. Syuveil's is filled with science equipment, and Rose asks him how his studies into life and death are going. He says that ever since he saw what happened at Mayfill, he’s been scared. He’s afraid of going to the nothingness that is death. After the battle, Rose says that tribes to the east believe in reincarnation. This eases his mind, and he accepts his death. His room flashes as the dilapidation of the room hits hard. This happens to every room, where the true erosion over the years takes effect after the dead have ceased haunting it. The Dragoons also have much in common with their modern-day associates. Syiveil studied life and death, and, while we’re unsure of what exactly he’s into, Albert is a man interested in several different academic works.

Damia is revealed to be a 15-year old girl and the offspring of a human and a mermaid. Her parentage led to her being bullied and ostracized. Because of that, she’s afraid of being alone. Her room is a small water filled pool with a bed pedestal in the middle. As she accepts her death, she asks if Rose will join them. Rose says that one day, she likely will. She and Miru share qualities in that their both young and of “strange races.” Damia is the only hybrid creature in the game, and Miru was the first friendly Wingly, a long thought extinct race, we met. Both ended up in a state of exile.

Belzac is a giant man whose room is a tribal/log cabin house. I don’t know if he’s a different race, but he’s just as interested in protecting his friends as Kongol is. He didn’t even know he died until Rose told him. He’s been preparing for the final battle this whole time. Unfortunately, we know how he dies. We see him holding up an entire wing of Kadessa while dealing with a terminal wound to protect Shirley, his love. In his last moments, a Virage shoots an eye laser at them, killing both of the Dragoons. We don’t know how the prior two Dragoons died.

Kanzas is an odd one. He was reluctant to join up, just like Haschel, but did so because of the noble light of Shirley. He’s a bit of a reckless man who enjoys killing, even making clay mementos of his acts, which fill his room. While Haschel isn’t as bloodthirsty, he definitely reveals in fighting. He accepts death when we tell him Shirley’s light is in the afterlife. He died, sacrificing himself fighting the Super Virage we fought in Kadessa.

Our reward for all this are four stones that halve the respective element damage (green halves wind, blue halves water, etc.). In case anyone is wondering, the would-be rooms of Rose, Zieg, and Shirley are already destroyed. I wish Shirley would have came back and said one more thing to give this some nice proper closure, but not all stories get that in real life. Death is scary. I’ve been terrified of it for large portions of my life, as has most of you, I’m guessing. It’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to rely on friends. It’s okay to not be okay.

Hopefully, I can knock out the last two side dungeons tomorrow.