The Prison

Or the gross sewers, thereof! Oh, by the way, we recovered the floating rock Asera wanted last night too. I should take notes...

To the left of the save point is a four way intersection. Treasures are every way but down, which is the way out. There's various stuff you'd expect to find in a sewer down here: rats, slugs, and slime, but they're more tedious than anything. At the end of it all is a boss named Sewer Angst. He's weak to light, so have Asera give that to everyone. He's vulnerable to delay and a few other status ailments, which may be helpful. Kira could be doing a lot of damage with her light attacks, but most of her arsenal harms her, so I won't be using them. It's a shame, too. She seems versatile, knowing both steal and radiate, but she's fragile enough without her killing herself in the process. Either way, Sewer Angst isn't hard, and I barely remembered his name. Climb the ladder he guards, and we're free.

We all splashdown in a small spring, which causes Slash to begin to stir. He realizes where he is, but he tries to go back into the "graveyard." I don't know if it's a pride thing to save his comrades or vengeance on Barclyss, but Xero talks him out of it. He reminds Slash of a saying the veteran told him a few days ago about revenge. With gis mind changed, we all retreat to a safe place to rest the night.

We're at a campfire, and we can talk to our allies. Enda asks Kira why she was there, and Kira simply responds, "vengeance." Barclyss bombed her hometown years ago, killing her family. It's a story we've heard before. She'd do anything to make sure he dies. Enda doesn't want vengeance, but world peace, so the two have a short discussion on ethics. Afterwards, Xero says he wouldn't mind ending Barclyss. I've forgotten what Asera said because Slash lets us in on the backstory of Barclyss. He was just a boy when Slash first met him when he was stationed undercover in Lethbridge. The boy would often hang out around the secret HQ, so he was used to gather intel. Eventually, Slash took him under his wing. Barclyss took to learning as much as he could about EVERYTHING; he was a genuine genius. But one day, the Tren army found them. They cornered Slash, Barc, and another soldier. The two soldiers talked about an escape plan, but Barc just blew up the opposition. Slash learned that his ward had lost respect for humanity, and Barc was exiled shortly after. Slash assumes he joined the Tren army as a way to get revenge.

Later that night, Xero finally reveals that he has the Future Stone Garin found. Asera tells him that the stone can be used to see the future, albeit poorly. Xero puts it to Asera's head, and we see a vision of several soldiers of unknown nationality speaking to her. To test it further, he places it on Kira's head. We're in a snowy fort with someone in a blue pope hat, but it had a strange blue tint about it. Asera tells us the hue means the person will die soon and won't live to see it. Everyone's confused why we could see a future that isn't going to happen until they realize Kira's going to die? She's fine with it, and the topic is dropped. We go to bead and head north in the morning.
 
Slash is ready to fight again, and I replace Kira with him. Kira is nice, but, again, she's a candle that burns from both ends. Slash is a tank with DPS utility, so I think I'll get more use out of him. He's mostly geared up, but I went to Lethbridge to see if there were anything to buy him. There wasn't, nor were there any scenes about his backstory there. I did find Enda buying a useless hat for 100G.

We have to cross a desert. Luckily, Kira has the map. It's confusing as all get out, but it isn't that hard. Just follow the arrows; you don't even need to walk to the middle of the overly large screens. The cacti are back, but they're a lot harder. They can cast Fire 2, which they have MP for. And then they steal our MP to use it again. There are also more ladybugs from the Aquadome here, which are weak to either fire or light. There's no boss, and we come out on the north side of the continent. Far to the northwest is Colrain. The Silver Mail isn't worth the price tag, so I didn't buy new gear. I did find a few things to craft for Asera with, though. She can finally give us all the elemental attacks, and there's a book for more devices in town. Not only that, but I finally figured out that the compound crafting book is how she gets new weapons. She can now put people to sleep, which seems a lot more impactful than poison. There are also two sidequests here.
The first is started by talking to a woman in the house in the lower left corner. She tells us her child in the village of Serrison is missing her teddy bear. A man outside informed us that town was wiped off the map thirty years ago... The woman asks us to deliver the teddy bear to her daughter. The air of the town is poisoned, and we have five minutes to get out. Time moves during battle, so avoid the ghosts and zombie dogs until you get to the last house. Place the bear near the skeleton and leave. You can explore and be fine. I had a minute and a half left on the clock after finding all the items. Return to the woman and console her. Kira will do the talking, and everything will go smoothly. When asked why she did that, she'll respond that "misery sucks."
The second sidequest is escorting a child to her father. She's in the shard part of the bazaar, and her dad is in the weapons portion. Press X to walk and slowly guide her over there.
After that, we can buy a ticket to Camden, a city in the neutral nation of the north, and leave enemy territory. The city is known for its fog, but this is crazy. The locals think something terrible is happening, but we'll figure that out...

...tomorrow!