Cutscene-a-polosa

Why is Lalapolosa a thing this year?

Anyway, we're halfway through this dungeon, so let's finish it. Part three of the Underground Ruins is a quick trek into Shrine One. The camera is locked to make sure you see the boss, Ruins Guard. RG has two weapons with their own HP bar. Axe, which is a wide area AoE physical attack, and Boomerang, a single target move. At least, that's all I saw them do. I took out Boomerang first before finishing the Axe. From there, whail away at the body. RG can use an electric move that attacks everyone, but even the basic Alheal spell from Justin can undo it. You can now turn the camera to notice the Move Up Food in the corner. Behind him, though, is a green room with a rainbow bridge in it. Across the bridge is the Medal of Knowledge, which I thought Guido placed to access this area? With the key to Alent in our hand, let's head back.

When the party returns to the floating blocks, we see they are no longer moving. Worst yet, the Garlyle Forces have amassed. Baal is leading them, with Leen and Mullen nearby. Baal berates his son for being unable to find the Spirit Stone and takes Leen with him somewhere, much to Mullen's chagrin. With our exit blocked, we need to find a new way. Returning to the area before the Shrine, we see a path leading elsewhere down a cliff. The party jumps and enters the Ruins. They stop to talk about the things on the wall, which gives them the creeps, and Feena has a bad feeling about them. It's a straight path, so ignore the offshoot. We don't get far, though, because Mullen magically manages to surround us. Huh? Mullen demands the Spirit Stone, saying it's in our best interests. He and Justin have a verbal tussle before Feena tries to break it up. The scenes from here can get pretty disturbing.

The camera changes to the Garlyle airship. Baal has Leen standing in a machine/magic hybrid thing, making her use her Icarian powers. Leen is in a lot of pain and cries out for her sister. This excites Baal for several reasons, I'm sure. We return to the party, and an anime cutscene happens. The creepy things on the walls begin to form 3D entities. Dozens of massive blue golems are now in the room. Due to their size, they begin to destroy the small walkways we and the army are on. The floors beneath us fall, and Mullen pushes Feena into a safer location. He did so at the cost of himself as he falls down the chasm. We regain control and make our way out to Section Four of the Ruins. It looks likes the other three portions, complete with treasure abound. There's another Mana Egg here. There's a golem near the exit, but it's not moving. The second golem down the path, though, is. But before anything comes from it, Feena begins to scream in pain. Leen's pain is now her pain. The golem moves and the party gets split up in the ensuing fall.

Justin is alone in the basement of the ruins. There are a few things to get in this first section, two of which are stat uppers. Save and enter the tower we'll be climbing. There are two new mobs here, but neither pose any threat. Magic Head, the birds, are amazing to grind magic on. I finally learned all of Justin's moves, his level two magic, and a good portion of his level three magic. There are three of them per fight, and they stand very close together. When they take damage, their get-up animations take a long time. I could easily get three turns before their one. This is great because three howls usually killed them. The other mob is a single Sphinx that isn't worth it. The layout is a conventional maze with a great assortment of items and gold about. It's worth getting everything, especially the Demon Eye Stone, to boost magic casting speed. After three floors, we reach the "outside." Mullen is nearby, so Justin runs up to confront him about Feena. Mullen doesn't have her, but their argument roused the suspicions of nearby soldiers. For some reason, Mullen throws us in the tower behind him and locks the door. We can overhear the four of them wondering why Baal would kill half of the army and about another Icarian girl he kidnapped. The soldiers say her name is Feena... Mullen changes the soldier's orders and tells them to return to the airship. Justin takes the elevator upwards to the edge of what appears to be a pyramid. There's an overlook that he can see an unconscious Feena being placed into the airship. Everyone else enters after the three commanders, and we see the Grandeur fly over Zil Padon. Justin watches as his friend is carried away. But not all is lost! Guido and Rapp sail into the scene on a manta ray that Guido had "stored away." I have questions...

We see Baal with Feena, and he gives clues to what's going to happen. Something called Operation Yggdrasil is planned. He slowly creeps closer to the fifteen-year-old girl, but a warning clarion begins to ring throughout the ship. Justin and co. have caught up to the Grandeur. When they go into land, the poor mantra ray gets shot down. We're fine, though, so we can now save Feena. The Garlyle Airship is a nice straightforward dungeon with no ways to get lost. The only mobs are a single type of soldier. Field sprints usually avoid us, so there are Preemptive Strikes a plenty if you want to fight. But there's a lot of guys, so I'd advise against it. There are two items here, a Move Seed and an armor I think I missed. The soldiers drop some really good quality helms if you want to farm, though. In the third room are the notorious Mio, Nina, and Saki. As you'd expect, they fight us.

Take out Mio, the green haired one, first. She can inflect a party member with paralysis, the only thing notable about anything in this fight. You need to defeat one, or else they might use a move called Delta Attack. The damage off DA is terrible, though. Justin's basic Alheal could easily undo it, so just make sure he's usable. From there, I did some magic grinding. Is that taunting? After the fight, they run away. They made up the excuse it was all to buy time before we reach J-Base, the Garlyle HQ. It's probably a lie, but there's a hint of truth in there. The party goes over a terminal, and Rapp begins to fiddle with it. In doing so, he activates the Last Order option. This causes the Grandeur to self destruct. Finding Feena now has a time limit. It doesn't, but Justin says it does.

The next room is filled with, I surmise, embers. The party gets halfway across before Guido informs the party the ship isn't doing too well. It then begins to shake and fall apart. Guido and Rapp are on one side, with Justin on another. The two tell Justin to save Feena before we cut to an anime scene where the Grandeur begins to split in half. The rest of the dungeon is even more straightforward, and it takes us to Baal and Feena. Baal demands Justin hand over the Spirit Stone, or else he'll kill Feena. She tries to tell Justin not to believe him, but guess what? Caring more about Feena causes Justin to throw Baal the Stone. When Justin walks forward to get his friend, he falls into a pitfall. Baal begins to laugh maniacally, and I start to think he's the bad guy. Fortunately, Justin grabbed onto a piece of pipe in the tunnel. He climbs out and continues on. He catches up to them when they're at an escape ship.

Baal throws Feena aside, and he and Justin duel. It's another easy fight because I may be too strong. Baal mostly uses magic, and I managed to knock him out of one of his attacks. He can do a lot of damage, but he only has 2800 HP. Justin was combing for 900 a go, and Heaven and Earth Slash doing over 1000. I had to heal because I got cute at the end when he had 47 HP, and I wanted to get one more level of Fire and Wind magic. Four or five rounds should finish the job. Baal is KO'ed, and Justin goes to untie Feena. She knew he'd come to save her, but then she asks about the Spirit Stone. Justin assumes he killed the President, so he'll just ho pick it up. Alas, the President is a tough guy. He's standing right there and reveals a secret about himself. His left arm is a mass of green Gaia tentacles. He grabs Feena from across the room, using his tentacles, and hits Justin. Justin gets back up and tries another go, but he gets pummeled again. This time, though, it's off the airship. Feena, in an act of love, breaks out of Baal's tentacles. With no second guessing, she jumps off the railing after him. Baal begins to laugh because he has the Spirit Stone. He has a congratulatory self conflagration and goes down with the ship.

We cut back to Justin, wondering if this means his adventure is over. Feena is slowly catching up to him and manages to grab on to him. The thrill of it all makes her pass out, so Justin gets to fall to his death with his totally not girlfriend in his arms. But then something different starts to glow green. Feena unconsciously shows of her Icarian magic! She and Justin begin to float in the air with a blinding green column of light holding them up. We see another manta ray enter the scene with two people on it. Three days later, Justin, Rapp, and Guido are outside the Mogay's tent in the Binan Plateau. It's just in time for Feena to wake up. Justin tells her he doesn't care about her being an Icarian. "Feena is Feena." Everyone assumes that Baal, equipped with Gaia and Spirit Stone, died when the Grandeur fell. It's like they've never played a video game before... But they got what they wanted, the Medal of Knowledge! With that in hand, they plan to see the Wisemen of Laine again to find the way forward. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Gee, who could have guessed Feena was an Icarian? I mean, her sister is, but how could she be one too? Justin doesn't seem to care, so I get his silence. But the others? Also, I'm done grinding. Full speed ahead! Also, also, does Guido's Steal move actually steal anything?