Let my life fuel the spell that ends his!

Firstly, let's talk about Namingway. He's in Troia being a playa. When we find him, he informs us that he's scheduled two dates at the same time. Cheatingway then asks us to keep the girl at the bar busy while he finishes date one. To do this, talk to the bartender. She gives us some milk, and Cecil is confused. I, too, am confused.

But we have to climb the Tower of Zot and save Rosa! It's both weirdly quick and strangely hard to get to the top of this "tower." First of all, we only need to climb five floors in this seven floor spire. Along the way, we fight a lot of things that don't like Ice. The notable exception to this rule are the dogs that absorb the element. They're the most terrifying things in here, so cool double whammy! Frostbeasts use a single move that affects the entire party with devastating results. In the tower are two items that half Ice damage, Flame Armor and Shield. Once equipped, they're a bit easier but expect characters who don't have them on to perish. Cecil could out heal the damage when he's alone, so it might be a good idea to do some grinding near the Save Point. Although the frequency of other attacks makes this terrible, now that I think about it. The various warriors, mages, and puppets make this ascend daunting. Don't worry about missing anything unless you reach the Save Point before getting all the treasures or map rewards.

Just after the Save Point, we'll meet three unique sisters. Sandy, the tall one, Cindy, the plump one, and Mindy, the small one, are the Magus Sisters! They introduce themselves as the Magus Sisters. They're not dresses as bugs as they will be in FFX. They're the elite guards of Barbariccia, the Archfiend of the Air. The time for talking is short as the battle starts fast. We can get a turn or two in to Shell up, which we should do. I had such an issue with these three back in the day, but I found them to be pushovers tonight. I didn't pay attention to who used what, but the Sisters brag about their Delta Attack move. It consists of one of them casting Reflect on Cindy, with the other one casting high level black magic on her. Sometimes this results in them casting Reflect on us to make healing hard. Rather than deal with that noise, Tellah should cast a -ga spell on Mindy. He should do the same to Sandy. Cast Dispell on Cindy and let her meet the same fate as her sisters. She's a lot tankier and will need two hits to die, though. I remember one casting Revive on a dead girl, but I either got lucky or killed them in the correct order. Return to the Save Point and rest.

On the next floor, we see Golbez and Kain waiting. After we hand off the Earth Crystal, Golbez says he doesn't know anyone named Rosa. Not wanting to complete his end of the bargain, he tries to leave. Tellah, still enraged, then tries to take his vengeance. A staged battle takes place where Golbez allows himself to be attacked. Tellah does plenty of damage with this -ga spells, but they don't seem to phase the dark lord. Out of options but full of rage, Tellah decides it's time to cast Meteor. Cecil, Yang, and Cid try to talk to the old man out of it but to no avail. Tellah is hellbent to die as long as Anna is avenged. "Let my life fuel the spell that ends his!" Meteor is used. It deals max damage to Golbez, and we see the "boss died" animation. When it returns to the cutscene, Tellah passes out. Golbez, though, is very much alive. He seems a bit weaker, but nothing to worry about. The others run up to Tellah and prepare for a battle, but Golbez can Force Push them back. As he goes to slay Cecil, he says something vague and stays his hand. He goes to leave, and Kain collapses beside him. It turns out Meteor managed to, at least, break the tie Golbez had over Kain. Golbez still exits the tower, but he's alone this time.

Tellah regrets that he never had the power to kill such a being. Everyone tries to save him but are unable to do so. Despite just meeting him, Cid seems the most furious with the other two are just sad. Cecil vows vengeance for both Tellah and Anna. The three of them go to Kain, who gets up when they wake him. He's unsure about himself, having been utterly controlled by Golbez. Cecil knows what's happened and tries to talk his friend out of his depression, but it isn't working. But that's for later; Rosa is still in trouble! In the room behind us is our White Mage tied to a thing. Just as Cecil frees her, a guillotine like device drops. Had we been even a second later, Rosa would have died painfully. Rosa and Cecil embrace, while Kain turns away, heartbroken. In the next conversation, Rosa tries to forgive Kain, but he can't forgive himself. Kain says that, while he was brainwashed, he was cognizant of everything he was doing. He was even, somewhat, in favor of doing it all. In not-so-many words, it's revealed that Kain is in love with Rosa. Despite that, she still invites him onto the team, which he accepts.

As we go the leave, we're attacked by another Archfiend. Barbariccia makes her appearance and wonders how Golbez could have lost. After she wishes Kain wasn't a traitor and being happy Meteor will never be used, she plans to kill all of us in her boss battle. I nearly died here! Barbariccia often shrouds herself in a tornado that makes her dodge all attacks. To get her out of this, Kain needs to Jump. While we wait for him to fall, Barbariccia will attack us with Stone Touch, afflicting us with gradual petrify and Tornado. Tornado reduces a character down to a single digit HP. She can also cast a teamwide thunder attack. When Kain falls, and we see gaze upon her scantly clad body from the Simpsons, she uses the same moves, minus Tornado. We can do damage to her, though. Unfortunately, she has an incredibly high dodge! Everyone will miss more than they'll hit. What's worse is she'll counter misses with the teamwide lighting attack. Don't cue up too many attacks in a row just to be on the safe side. Rosa is very fragile at the moment, so good luck keeping her alive. Play defensibly, use Shell, and always have Kain ready to jump. Rosa and Cecil had plenty of MP to heal, so just don't kill yourself by missing too many times in quick succession, and you'll probably be okay.

As with the other two Archfiends, Barbariccia leaves us a parting attempt on our lives. She causes the entire tower to collapse. To escape, Rosa hacks the game and casts Teleport on the whole party. Warp and Teleport didn't work before this, so maybe I'll just chalk this up to Meteor breaking some magic barrier. We wind up in Cecil's room in Baron. We all wonder what Golbez will do with the four crystals, but Kain informs us that there are more still around. Kain lets us in that the legends of an underworld are true, and the remaining four crystals are there. When Golbez gets all the crystals, he'll open the path to the moon. He gives the party a Magma Stone, as well. No one's sure what that means, but they spend the night there and set out...

...tomorrow!

I traveled around the rest of the world. It turns out the Mythril stuff isn't that good, but I got a few shields. Maybe I should have gotten the armor, too? I also cleaned out Eblan, which I've never done before. Having the Sleep Sword and Blood Lance this early are pretty rad, yeah? I feel strong!