More Farewells

Truly, it is we who have turned our backs on god.

We enter the Tower of Babel, and the location that appears on screen is B13...we're thirteen floors under the surface!? I wonder how far we have to climb? It's actually not that far. We only need to get to B6... As we climb, we encounter various mobs weak to Ice. Flamebeasts function like the Frostbeasts in Zot but with fire magic. I'd suggest running if you're up against two or three of them until you find some equipment I'll talk about in a moment. They can also be accompanied by a Flame Knight. There are also an assortment of basilisks and armadillos. To keep the party from equipping only Ice weapons, there's a chance of encountering a chimera that absorbs all elements. I only ran into one, though.
 
The treasure within are various items, but all the good stuff is behind some monster-in-a-boxes. Each monster is a searcher who will summon a mob when it's attacked. The summon will be randomly chosen from the area encounters you can find down here. It'll only bring forth one at a time, and I think it can be done several times. This may be a good, safe way to grind if you want to. If Rydia summons Ramuh, he'll destroy it before it brings anything forward. Every time you fight one, you'll get a piece of Ice equipment (two weapons, shield, and armor) for Cecil and Kain. Yang's best weapon, the Cat Claws, is also down here. Why is Yang's best weapon so early?

Most of these floors are unrevistable, so explore as much as you can now if you want the map rewards. I think B7 and B8 are the only ones you'll see again. For now, let's climb. At one point, you'll enter a room with three exits (B9): the one you came from, one on the far side of the screen, and a third in the exact middle. The middle door is locked, so ignore it for now. On the next floor is a Save Point that you should use. Above that is where we meet the guy in charge. Kain's menu speech bubble mentions someone named Rubicante. We see a man in red telling a doctor about the plan and the destruction of Eblan before he teleports away. Rydia wonders who that was, which gets the attention of the doctor. He and Kain argue, and we learn this is Doctor Lugae, Golbez' Chief Strategist. Because the mad doctor is a tinkerer, he fights us with his robotic pet, Barnabas.

This is one of the most interesting fights in FFIV. It has three different outcomes, you see. If you kill the doctor first, Barney will self-destruct. Killing Barnabas first makes Lugae "take control" of the remains. In time, Barnabas-Z will also explode, though. Both explosions do damage based on his remaining HP. It's also possible to defeat them both at the same time. Neither of these guys are particularly strong. Barnabas is the only one of the two attacking, but he's slow and doesn't do much damage. He can inflict confusion on a character, so be wary of that. Lugae will occasionally heal his robot when he speaks of oil, but guess who's also made of lead? The heal is easily undone. I went the Barnabas-Z route, which I'm not sure I've ever seen. Sadly, he exploded on me, and Yang didn't survive...
 
This defeat infuriates the bad doctor, so he brings out his Proto-Hojo guns. He turns himself into an undead monstrosity. His opening action will be to cast Reverse Gas. This makes it so characters are damaged when they're healed and healed when they're damaged. I think this is the only time this status is in Final Fantasy until XII. Despite being dead, Yang is also affected by this and cannot be brought back with Pheonix Downs. I tried to fight him without cheese the first time and died. I didn't want to mess around in fight two, so I just used two elixirs. I know it's wasteful, but I've got other stuff to do. When else am I gonna use them? The final battle?!

Lugae dies and informs us that the crystals have already been moved. He continues by saying he's activated the super cannons that will wipe out the dwarves still fighting below. Because the party aren't monsters and appreciate our new friends' generosity in being used as meat shields, we want to save them. We get Luage's key and head down to the door I told you to skip. Inside that room are three goblin commanders who try to fight us but die in one hit. Before they perish, they rush to the cannons and activate auto-mode or something. This causes the cannons to go into overdrive and electricity sparks from them. We cannot get to them to turn them off. Yang, though, knows what he must do. He keeps trying to reach something but is unable. Eventually, he physically kicks the rest of the team out of the room and closes the door. The rest of the party calls out to him to open the doors and wonders if there's another way. Yang, though, has joined the mindset of Tellah. We hear him scream as an explosion rocks the room... The dispirited team now prepares to descend back to the Underworld with no good news.

At the bridge we entered from, we hear the voice of Golbez yell at us. He won't let us live and drops the draw bridge connecting the tower to the ground. We try our best, but we can't reach safety. Fortunately, the camera cuts to the Enterprise and its new gear flying towards the tower. Cid manages to catch the falling team just before we land in lava. How serendipitous... A glad Cid asks where Yang is, but everyone hesitates to answer before Cecil informs him of his sacrifice. Cid laments, "another good man lost," but Rydia can only weep so much as Cid notices we're being followed by a Red Wings ship. He tries to shake it, but the Wings have been upgraded since Cid last had command of them. The ship manages to get into firing range of us near the Underworld's exit. Before the Enterprise takes too much damage or overheats, Cid tells Cecil to take the helm. Cid tells everyone he'll block the exit to allow us to escape and holds up a bomb. Rosa doesn't want him to do anything, but he jumps from the ship's deck anyway. He wanted to see Cecil's and Rosa's kids someday, but he wants to keep Yang company. Our fabled enginner has no fear of death and is even excited with his irreverent quips. He mentions how he's too young to die and brags about his "once-in-a-lifetime, unaided flight" as the bomb explodes. The Enterprise leaves, and we see lava spew from the mountain range near Agart. It's even less picturesque than before. The whole party begins to mourn Cid and wishes people would stop dying around them.

Before Cid died, he told us to head to Baron and talk to his workers. If we head there, they'll attach a hook to the Enterprise that allows us to take the hovercraft with us. As we leave, they give us a nudge towards Eblan Cave. They don't believe Cid is dead and are unchanged about what we tell them. Cid's daughter is equally as unmoved. It doesn't feel like denial, but genuine belief that Cid will never die as he's far too stubborn. If we travel around the world to talk to others, Yang's Wife feels the same way towards Yang. Edward is sad, though, and I wish I had spoken to him after Tellah died. But I'll listen to  Cid's co-workers and explore the Eblan Cave...

...tomorrow.

Everyone over the age of twenty one will die in this game.