A beginning of an end.

I went around to search for more stuff to explore. I didn’t find anything, but I did teach Tim Ice Beam.

Rumor has it that our goal is south of Quartly. Kanon’s eye confirms that to be true, as does our ability to press square. The Coffin of 100 Eyes is eerily quiet, at least according to Ashley. If this was the end of the route for the power plant, it should be more lively. Illia thinks Ashley resembles Brad when he said this.

The dungeon is, kinda, straightforward, with all the offshoots leading to mandatory rooms anyway. It’s a bit labyrinthine, but all roads lead to each other. To navigate, we need to use Kanon’s first Tool, Wire Hook. Wire Hook is a grappling hook that allows us to glide across the map if we hit a designated spot. There are also a few places where Pooka would save time, so use him. Along the way, we see several terminals that inform the party about things called the Diablo Pillars. They provide power for the Heimdal Gazzo, a weapon that Vinsfeld has referred to many times.

We figure out what Heimdal Gazzo is but only after this next part. At the bottom of the 100 Eyes are Liz and Ard. They’re the usual annoying affair, and I hate them. Kanon agrees with me! A fight then happens. It’s the same fight as they always are, but slightly more troublesome. Ard can nearly one shot Kanon, and Liz has a massive bomb that damages everyone on the field, including Liz and Ard. I restarted the fight because my need to Pickpocket useless stuff was my ruination.

But this was only the warm-up. After we win, Liz attacks us with his new creation, Arms Killer. It’s the typical boss fight, now. Illia will be on heal duty the whole time, which is a shame, I think. She used to be my main DPS but is my full time healer now. I have nothing against White Mages, mind you, but I liked the power she once had. Kanon’s Gat does plenty of damage and works great alongside Ashley’s stuff. Liz and Ard retreat, Valeria calls us to mention a doom weapon is above us, and we exit to see the Heimdal Gazzo in the skies above us. It’s a floating clock stuck at 6:45.

Vinsfeld prepares to attack us with it but wants an overkill. He wants to shoot us at 120%. Before it can get that high, another new energy reading is felt. The camera cuts to the new energy: it’s Brad! Despite Brad being nowhere near anyone else, he invites us to experience what really happened in the power plant. The clones attacked him, and they all had a Gigas Neck Bomb. After beating one up, he threw one into the core, and THAT was the mushroom cloud we saw. Brad is now holding an airship laser rifle and accepts he's a hero. And we all know that heroes don't die. To let ARMS know he's a hero, he uses the airship laser rifle on the Gazzo. It hits the fuel chamber, forcing Odessa to retreat and unable to fire. During this, Vinsfield shows up uncharacteristic anger and desire for destruction. I've been wondering if Odessa were secretly good guys, but I guess not. Clearly evil. They've been cagey about their motives, but I see they're just terrible, tiresome villains, after all.

We all then return to the Chateau, where Valeria gives us our next mission. We are to find the Diablo Pillars, destroy them, and the Gazzo along with them. Before we do anything else, Valeria gives us the night off. We're not shown what everyone else does with it, but Ashley returns to Meria to spend time with Merina. He promises that he'll return to her and gives her a big hug. He continues by saying his world is between those arms, and that's what he's fighting for. 

 

The Party returns to the Chateau, where we have a big farewell with everyone giving us a pomp and circumstantial exit. It seems final, so I thought I’d be switching to disk two but nope. We’ve got a lot more to go. If we call Valeria, we learn the general whereabouts of the four pillars. but I’ll get to that...

...tomorrow!

This actually makes sense as a McGuffin. I don’t know why clones exist or why they have the exact same everything as Brad, but this escape makes sense. In some overtime tonight, I accidentally went into the Lost City Arkheim in the salt flats. I found the guardian of death and accidentally found the secret path to the fourth Pillar. The boss there was the toughest fight in the game, but, now knowing it was because I’m not supposed to do that yet, I think it was more annoying than anything.