Gang's All Here

We've got our medals, so let's get our Eldorado.

We head to Laine to talk to Da Bulls! Darlin is first, for some reason. He's happy to see us but tells us to see Dorlin. I'm not keeping track of who is who, so I see the second one. He's busy with his herbs. The guy in the tower informs us we must, now, climb the Rainbow Mountain and throw the medal into the Rainbow Spring atop it. The mountain is a slightly too long path of tightropes across a small river to various safe ledges.
Every item is worth getting because stat foods are just free experience.
There are three mobs in the area. Gail Newts are a thing, and Thunder Birds are beefy birds that are surprisingly fragile. The most annoying are the Crimsonas. They have high physical defense and resist a few magic types. They seem weak to Thunder, but Fire does well enough. There are no bosses in this area.
The second screen is a ring around a small lake. This is the Rainbow Spring. Justin throws in the medal, and things begin to shine. Guido informs him that this is where we part. Everybody has a role in this world, and going to Alent isn't Guido's. But it is Justin's! The three remaining party members jump into the technicolor light as our bunny boy watches on. We rise, and rise, and rise until, in an anime scene, we see a large rock formation over the planet. It has its own weather as we can see lightning strikes from it. Welcome to Alent.

It sure doesn't look like paradise. It's a dead world with a single path forward surrounded by desert. Random things float in the sky, and there's a random machina that spits out sand. Was it water at one point? It's a bit depressing. I wish the music leading up to this didn't suck, so I could have given it a listen. Instead, I have to find it on Youtube. It's pretty good. Calming not-piano tunes underneath a melancholic female chant. A shame I couldn't get both the scenery and music together, but I've been spurned enough. "The Beautiful Women of Alent" is a very sketchy song title, though.
 
I think this was here, but we see a scene in a faraway place. A glowing red thing sites around several pillars. The camera zooms in to reveal that General Baal is starring at an insect larvae.

But, anyway, there are no mobs, and the only item is the last Mana Egg. There are, though, three bosses.
First up is the Hydra. It's exactly like the Serpent we killed at the Typhoon Tower. Take out the head that heals, and then do what you will. Once again, if all the heads die, so goes the body and vice versa (I imagine). Head back to the Save Point and rest. After a small gondola ride and several creepy statues, we fight the Great Susano-o.
He's the Ruins Guard we battled last night. He drops an amazing whip for Feena that I think I'll probably be using for the rest of the game. Return to the Save Point and rest.
Lastly is the Phantom Dragon. PD is exactly like Ganymede back in the Dom Ruins. All three of these guys are pretty pathetic. They, each, only got two attacks in and barely did anything with those attacks. I've got all my moves mastered, as well as most of the spells. Imagine the DPS if Rapp was good?!

Behind the Phantom Dragon is the Chapel of Alent. Is this where the music I talked about earlier plays? We see Liete waiting for us, but she acts like she has no idea who we are. Feena then notices that the room is filled with a dozen Lietes. The one in front of us tells us everyone in this room is an image the real Liete made to make Alent feel populated. If you talk to them, they reveal various lore about stuff.
It's confirmed that Gaia does consume spirits, that includes the Spirit Stone. Should Gaia consume that, the whole world will end.
This isn't the first Liete. A new Liete is born, or something, every so often to replace the old one. They're always very sad.
Icarians are always born as twins.
It was humans who stole the Spirit Stone and brought Gaia into the world.
Gaia then led to the end of Angelou civilization.
One hits on us because Liete is always watching people and how they act, including womanizers.

After we speak to all of them, we can see the real Liete. She's alone in a library and welcomes us in. She tells us all the questions we've been asking for this journey. It's mostly stuff the fake Lietes outside said but with more context.

This world was once a thriving, beautiful planet that made great technological advances. They even reached space travel with the help of The Spirits. The Spirits granted the Angelou use of the Spirit Stone for all of this, but only they were permitted to use it. Humans stole the Spirit Stone and, because they were evil, summoned a mirror of their heart. That summon was Gaia. To defeat Gaia, the Angelou had to sacrifice themselves, but even they could not properly kill it. This act freed all the humanoid specials from their peaceful yoke. At the end of the scene, we see Gaia. It looks like the thing we say in the Twin Towers and the insect larvae we just say with Baal. We're then in a graveyard of Lietes. Most of the gravestones are blue, signaling sad Lietes, but a few are red. The red ones indicate that Liete was happy. There have been no red markers since Gaia. The current Liete assumes her grave will be blue. Liete then tells us that the rebirth of Gaia is coming. The party tells her that Baal is dead, but we, the player, know that's wrong.

We return to the library, where Feena asks if the only way to kill Gaia is for her and her sister, the only Icareians, to die. Justin doesn't let her answer and assumes there's a better way. All the books in this library are from the past. That means the future isn't written. Justin convinces Liete to join the team so that she may write the future and color her gravestone red. It works, and we have our final party. Liete informs us that the Spirits may know how to properly defeat Gaia, but we have to discover the Spirit Sanctuary. SS is everywhere but nowhere at all. I'm guessing we'll go there just before the final battle and learn the last plot point of the game. For now, though, we need to head black to the planet, which I assume isn't named Gaia.

We return to Baal, standing in a room, when Mullen and a few soldiers enter. Mullen tells Baal that his evil actions are over, but Baal gives it little thought. He cares only about the revival of his lord, Gaia. Mullen tries to arrest his dad, but the scene returns to the party.
 
To get down, we all board a gondola that takes us a rocket ship. It blasts off, and it scares all the humans because they understand gravely and crashing. Liete is very nonchalant. It's a rather hummus scene after the weight we all just felt. We've landed safely in the savanna. Liete points us towards the evil feelings she's sensing, which is across the Luzet Mountains. But we'll do this totally worthwhile transitional dungeon...


..tomorrow!

Liete can only equip maces, so I gave her all the extra EXP from former members. It kinda helped. All of Guido's went to Rapp. It's better to have it than not have it, I guess. I figured she'd have more magic levels than this, so I'm definitely going to cheat. I'll play around with her tomorrow, but Monday for sure, I'm whipping out the Game Shark. We're in the home stretch now, I hope. I upgraded all the gear to the really expensive stuff in Zil Padan, but I couldn't find Guido. I guess he's dead...