Servants of the Mountain

As I suspected, last night would have been a bad day to type. I still played the game, but I didn't do anything story related. I got a no encounter shield for Tidus the night before, so I used it to explore where I could go. Guadosalem is the limit right now. I got all the monsters between the Sunken Cave and the Lightning Plains.
I found some more Jecht's Spheres. The one in the south forest was when Jecht joined Braska. Auron was furious, but Braska wanted to defeat Sin with a team involving a fallen summoner who married an Al Bhed, an exiled monk who didn't marry a priestess, and a drunkard from Zanarkand. The second in the Thunder Plains was more humorous than anything. Jecht gets struck by lightning, and the boringly stoic Auron laughs.
I finally made some early leaps towards the Celestial Weapons. I got the Cloudy Mirror, Kimarhi's Spirit Lance, Tidus' Caldabolg, Yuna's Nirvana, the rusty sword, and a few sigils and crests. The weapons are still terrible now, but it's progress. And yes, that means I got a perfect time in Chocobo Catcher!
I didn't get Yojimbo, though. I'm frugal!

But that was last night! Tonight, I march upwards and over the mountain that is Gagazet. As we leave the Calm Lands, Yuna turns around and stares. She's done this a few times, Tidus tells us, but he never knew why. Until now. She's saying goodbye to the places she'll never see again.

The transition from plains to jagged mountain range is sudden, but we come to the foot of Mt. Gagazet. As we reach a clearing, we're attacked by ronsos. Maester Kelk is behind Biran/Yenke, Kimahri's not-friends, and informs us that traitors aren't welcome on Yevon's Sacred Mountain. He even threatens to kill us if need be. Yuna, however, takes charge! She tells everyone that Yevon is a lie, and the rest of the group backs her. Even Wakka seems to have come around. Biran/Yenke tries to attack us, but Kimarhi stops him. Lulu and Auron jump in to remind Kelk of what he knows as a Maester, former or otherwise. Yuna comes back to tell the angry ronso that we're not going to flee. Kelk is surprised that a traitor would keep fighting and asks why. "I fight for Spira," responds Yuna. She fights to end pain and bring peace. Even if it means sacrificing herself to people who hate her, she will keep fighting. These words quickly change the mind of Kelk, and he tells his people to let us pass. He says that somewhat excitedly. Yuna thanks him, and we have a chance to talk to everyone.
Yuna says, "It's just a little further now." It's pretty obvious what that means.
Rikku is still trying to find a way to save Yuna.
Wakka seems to finally believe that Tidus is from Zanarkand, or at least open the idea. He says that his star Bliztball player will be home soon, one way or another.
Lulu is amazed at how strong Yuna has become. She's become strong because of her dedication and will to fight.
Auron confirms that he knows now that Yevon is in turmoil. Tidus doesn't care because he's not a Yevonite, but Auron tells him that those who are are in for dark times.
Kimahri warns us of Biran and Yekne. He knows he has to fight and win.
There are also several ronso around, one of whom is a shop.

As we approach the north, Kimarhi's inkling comes true. Biran and Yenke will not allow us to pass. To be more precise, they won't allow Kimahri to pass. They have a feud that has lasted ten years. Ever since Kimahri refused to acknowledge that Biran, Hero of the Ronso, beat him, the two horned tribesmen have not liked Kimarhi. They broke his horn, and that forced Kimahri into exile. The ronso don't mess around, so, after a quick argument for players, Kimarhi fights! Kimahri doesn't let us join, so it's two on one, and Kimahri is the weakest character I have. He's in a strange place in the Sphere Grid, in that he has no role. He's a blue mage based on his Overdrive, but he carries a spear and plays a warrior. How do you build one of those? After I finished his section, I started him down Tidus' portion, while using several Skill Spheres to teach him some magic. He knows all the -a spells. Start by casting Haste. From there, use Lancet on both men until you run out of limits to learn. You can learn White Wind and Mighty Guard from this battle too, but you have to wait until the opponents use it. If Kimarhi knows Cura and Haste, the battle is easy. He gets two attacks in a row before they get one. The guy with the highest HP guards for the other one, but they often split up when they use Bulldoze. Whale on the weaker one until he dies, and then do that same to the survivor. After the fight, they congratulate Kimarhi. They turn around to Mt. Gagazet and proclaim that Kimahri is strong and should be allowed to pass. The ronso sub-religion seems like a strange thing to me, but I'm a weak English major, so who am I to judge. As we leave, they say they'll build a statue to Yuna. She doubts anyone would make a statue for a traitor, so they say that the ronso will make one, "with grand horn on head." These guys are cooler than I remember. As we leave, they stop us once more time, to Tidus' chagrin. The whole tribe starts to sing the Hymn of the Fayth.

"Servants of the Mountain" begins to play as we climb Mt. Gagazet. Gagazet has a super high encounter rate, so use it to teach Lulu -ga spells. Along the way, we see the graves of slain summoners. Lulu gives her thoughts at each one and lets us know that summoners who die here aren't sent. Does this explain the high encounter rate? About halfway through, we can find a Jecht Sphere. It's actually Braska's, and he uses it to tell Yuna how much he loves her. Whatever she does, she has her father's full support. Remember, Mt. Gagazet is the final dungeon of sorts for summoners. He knows he's about to die. We meet a man named Wantz at some point. He's O'aka's brother. He tells us O'aka has been thrown in jail for helping traitors: Yuna. O'aka has no regrets and even told Wantz to help us. Wantz tries to avoid telling us why, but he opens a shop for us. The last shop...

Eventually, the team reaches the top of the mountain. Rikku hangs back to talk to Tidus, and she tells us stuff we already know. After being slightly bummed for a moment, Tidus tries to remain positive. Rikku calls Tidus a leader, and he goes to catch up to everyone. As he does, Rikku sees a person standing behind him.
 
Seymour.

Rikku reluctantly runs off to get everyone else. Lulu tells Yuna to send him, but Seymour stops him. He informs "the last ronso" about his people and how they threw themselves at him to protect Yuna. Seymour then talks about how great death is, and he wants to become Sin. He continues by saying, "Once I have become the next Sin, your father will be freed." Tidus runs in, and Seymour transforms into Flux.

I remember this fight being harder. Seymour has similar tactics as the fight in Bevelle, but he turns us into zombies this time instead of stone. You can buy a few Zombie Ward armors in Gagazet, but those don't work that much. But this time, Auron's worked perfectly! Couple that with me building up our Aeon's Overdrive gauge, which can do max damage against Seymour already, and Seymour only got six attacks in. Also, why can Valefor do 21000 damage?
EDIT: Upgrade the Nirvana once. The weapon is easy to get, and you can find the crest before you meet Wakka in Besaid.

After the fight, Yuna gets confused. She asks what Seymour meant by becoming Sin to save Sir Jecht. Auron is cagey, but Tidus gives in. He tells everyone that Sin is Jecht. He apologizes, and everyone wonders how he can fight. Tidus hates his dad, so it's a non sequitur. Wakka tries to distance the fact that Jecht killed Chappu. Rather than return to Gagazet, we carry on. In the next location is a massive, massive fayth made out of hundreds of people. Yuna notices that it is in use and whatever it's the fayth of is in our world now. Rikku tries to get Auron to "spill the beans," but he won't since this is our journey. Tidus agrees and touches the fayth. This causes him to pass out.

He wakes up in Zanarkand, his Zanarkand, by his house. Inside is the Mysterious Boy/Bahamut's fayth. He acts a bit creepy as Tidus' friends try to wake him up. Tidus recognizes that this is a dream, but the fayth calls Tidus the dream and runs out. Outside, the boy tells us more about the Machina War. Zanarkand had summoners, but they were nothing compared to the machina of Bevelle. Rather than all die, the townspeople became fayth for the summoning. Tidus assumes the summoning is Sin, but the boy tells us that Zanarkand is the summon. This city, and all its inhabitants, are dreams of the fayth. Tidus, Jecht, and everyone else we meet at the start of the game aren't real. He then shows us what will happen if the fayth stop dreaming: Zanarkand disappears. Tidus says he wants to keep living, but the boy asks us to let everyone rest. Only Tidus and Jecht can save them as they've been touched by Sin. The Spiral of Death revolves around Sin, so only he can stop this. Yuna manages to wake him up, and he comes back to reality. He tries to play it off like nothing happened, succeeds, and we continue on to the caves of Mt. Gagazet.

But we'll do that tomorrow!

And there's the third twist. Only two more to go!

PS: I lied, actually, I finished up the mountain tonight, but this felt like a better place to end. I have a boss coming tomorrow, but I'll talk about the dungeon then. It also seems like a better place to start and may have a better ending as well. I hope I don't ruin your immersion. Did you expect Tidus to be a dream?