A Second Holy Dragon

Tacho's story isn't over yet.


Chapter Ten: Rainbow Bridge

Tonight, we start with a little story about Mahal. It's called the land of miracles, but no one knows how it got such a title. There is, though, a legend about a rainbow bridge. It is said that anyone who witnesses the Rainbow Bridge form will have their wish granted. Various areas around the lagoon have become a date spot or tourist attraction as people often go searching for the Rainbow Bridge. But nobody has ever seen it...

We cut to our party in a rainy Mahal village. Taicho went to talk to his late wife without telling anyone, but he's not the only one not around. Every citizen is gone, and Matelite curses the Empire for their actions here. Half of our group goes to look for him, but Byuu and Lukia, the light armor, hang around. Lukia is acting kinda strange. From here, we can search the town. There are a few items to pick up but head to the house in the southeast. Out will come a fourth lancer, Donfan. He'll get an overly dramatic spotlight on him as he says some poetic nonsense. His name could be translated as Don Juan, an opera. And if you know anything about said opera, then you know it's about a serial womanizer. He hits on Lukia here until another woman, Jeanne, shows up. Then he hits on her. It goes on forever, which might be said about the opera... Anyway, Donfan and Jeanne join the squad, but Donfan might be optional. Sendak brings all the dragons into town, and we can get ready for the next battle.
 
The next fight is in, presumably, the castle of Mahal. It's filled with soldiers who are weak to dragons. Lestat is here, and he's the target. Along the way, there are four treasure chests that we can find. The bottom right is trapped, but the other three are worth getting. They're probably not, but dragon food is dragon food. Taicho did get the final blow on Lestat this time, but despite seeing him die, I'll tell ya know he's still alive. Let us kill a boss, Bahamut Lagoon!

Despite that, we cut to Taicho one more time. He's standing on a natural sky bridge talking to Celine again. It's much the same as last time. But then light billows through the clouds as it stops raining. Out of that light comes the spirit of Celine. She says how happy she is that Taicho kept his promise, and the two reconnect a bit. They each say that they miss each other, and then Celine tells her husband she was pregnant when Lestat killed her. She didn't want to inform him because she didn't know how he'd act. But I feel uncomfortable. Maybe if we had killed Lestat... Rainbows appear all around Taicho, and they two will reminisce that they would often come to his spot in search of the Rainbow Bridge. Celine's wish was for the people of Mahal to be happy and live in a world without war. Celine disappears, and Taicho promises to make it come true.
 
 
Chapter Eleven: Leviathan

We get to explore again, and there are new items. Bikkekakke is trying to expand his mushroom business and is fishing for octopus. You can try to catch one, but I'm not sure it's possible. If you turn him down, though, a scene with Donfan happens. He was hitting on Yoyo, but I won't go into details. After, we can return to the front of the town and prepare for the battle. It was at this point I bought as many of the 160 priced shrooms as I could. That one ups the Life (not HP) stat of dragons. All of my dragons now have maxed poison or life stats. All I need now are to max our elementals and physical.
 
But on to the battle! It takes place in a cave that only Yoyo could find. It's not said how, but I assume she followed the Holy Dragon. A few others are with her, but it's not important. The battle is against a number of new monsters, and the goal is to kill the boss, Scylla. My strategy continues to work, and the dragons do everything while the humans try to find EXP. As for formations, I added Jeanne to Byuu's squad, so now he cruises around the battlefield. I have a four man lancer squad, so the mini-devils are out of my party. Yoyo and Sendek and now flanked by a heavy armor and the guy I replaced Jeanne with. Truce, I think. Scylla laments that we have a Holy Dragon and dies even if you don't summon on her.

Byuu, Matelie, Taicho, Sendak, and Yoyo are outside a locked gate. Nothing seems to open it, and even our heavy armors can't budge it. Sendak thinks that only those with the power of a Dragnar can open it. Yoyo does her thing, and the gate opens with ease. Not wanting Yoyo to go in unguarded, Matelite tells Byuu that he should scout ahead. He only gets so far as an invisible wall blocks us. Or, I should say, we get thrown out of the room. Yoyo goes in untested, and Matelite tries to follow in. He fails. Yoyo and the Holy Dragon, Leviathan, are alone, and a dreamlike sequence happens. Leviathan wonders if Yoyo can heal the Dragon's wounds. "Our sadness... our anger..." The screen shakes as we snap back to reality, and Leviathan is no longer in the room. Yoyo tells us what she saw, and Matelite is glad that Dragons are just like humans, having emotions and whatnot. But we're all still confused.


Chapter Twelve: The Spy Operation

We start back on Emperor Sauzer. He apologizes to Palpaleous, who's not in the room, and accepts that hearing the Dragons will change him. He goes off to talk to the Dragons. Along the way, he sees monsters. "Or guards of the Holy Dragons." They ask if he's the one chosen to bring peace to their minds. They continue by acknowledging him as such because he knows his titles mean nothing. He knows the pain of fighting. And they remind us that the door to a new era can't be opened by weak minded people. Sauser collapses again, and Palpal rushes into the empty room.

We cut back to our party on the Lucilia. Matelite says that we need more information on the Empire and suggests sending a spy. He runs off to find a few suitable candidates, and we get to choose the one. He comes back with a willing Donfan, who thinks he'll check out the ladies. There's also a random, unwilling crew member. Matelite then drags Sendak in to be the third. I, however, think Matelite would be perfect! He remarks he's too famous, so he tells Taicho to do it. Taicho accepts and runs off to the dragons. We see him and Minimuni flaying away.

Sometime later...

"The perilous mission was a complete success."

Can you fail this? Donfan gets the same statement, too. But Taicho says that the Empire is in complete disarray because Sauser's illness has everyone confused. This allowed him to sneak into the crowd during a speech by Palpaleous. It's nothing to write home about, but he did see another general, Goldolf, questions Sauzer's leadership. This is also when we find out Lestat is somehow still alive... Taicho is a little annoyed that Matelite is so business first, but he takes his leave after. Our party then tries to figure out what it means. How can Sauser hear the Dragons? But don't get an answer, but we do decide our next attack. Before the Emperor gets better, we should find the Holy Dragons first. Sendak also thinks battles will be harder from here on out, so I'm actually looking forward to that. Maybe someone'll die? As we prepare, an alarm goes off, and our heavy armors jump out of the bridge. The Empire's secret weapons, Minimuni (not to be confused with our Minimuni) is about to attack us. Sendek and Hornet make us jump out the window, too, and we land on the deck of the Lucilia. Talk to Tiacho first, and he'll ask us to speak to him later in Yoyo's room. But we'll do all of that...

...tomorrow!

To the surprise of no one, I fed my dragons again. Pretty much all of them now have their elemental stats at 100, which is max. Their physical stats can go to 250, so there's a lot of work still to be done. A few are close but not enough to get off the pedal. My healer dragon is still missing some max spells, and I may have sold my fire gear a bit too soon. But we're already within striking distance of the ultimate dragon forms! I know what I want and am ready for the grind!