Broken promises...

Dragons can swim.

We land on Gill's island, but an earthquake forces us to return to the dragon. The island sinks into the ocean, and the camera cuts to X-Death, damning everyone against him. Our dragon rises out of the sea, and I have questions. But Gill's dead, so where to now?

To the west is Castle Surgate. The guards outside hate us, but one inside lets us in. Xezat isn't home, but we can loot his castle. If you return books to their shelves, we can learn Float. More importantly, more guards inform us about the Surgate fleet planning an attack on X-D's barrier tower. Taking the dragon to the southeast of X-D's castle, we can meet another Dawn Warrior. Xezat tells us to sleep.

We're awoken by an attack by Gilgamesh. We take out the small fry before taking on the legend. He poses no threat, but we can start stealing Genji gear from him. Use Missile if you want. As we win, Gilgamesh tries to pull us into the ocean, but Galuf holds on. Xezat is dealing with other mobs, so Galuf almost falls in. Fortunately, the dragon saves us.

When the dust settles, Xezat tells us the real plan. These ships are a decoy. We're now to attack the barrier tower via a cave underwater. We climb into a submarine hidden beneath the ship and make our way to the cave. Xezat blows open the path, and the mission begins.

Xezat goes down to the engine room while we climb to the antenna. He'll blow the engine for us to destroy the thing keeping the barrier up. If one goes down, it all will. What a terrible design for a great evil. The mobs we encounter are pretty insignificant, but there are two monsters-in-a-box. Both are red dragons who can wipe the party in one move. Thanks to Whisper Weed, we can see that Xezat is having some trouble but nothing he can't handle. At the top is the guardian Atomos. This is the most unique boss in all of Final Fantasy. Atomos will spam Comet until someone dies. It won't take long. From there, the corpse of our friend will slowly be sucked closer until they're eaten. After that, the cycle will begin again. Haste up and do your best attacks. There's no real need to heal, but it may be worthwhile to revive your dead friend before they're eaten. It might cost Atomos time. At the very least, it gives everyone a chance to gain twelve ABP.

Xezat disables the engine, and we'll explode the antenna, causing the barrier to drop. It'll also make the tower unstable. We jump off onto the dragon, but Xezat is stuck. Galuf wants to save his friend, but there's no time. Xezat has accepted his fate but promises to meet us at the sub. We'll wait, but he never showed up, causing Galuf to fall into despair. We need to end X-Death, but what about Gill? With a submarine, maybe we can meet the drowned, dead sage. But I'll do that...

... tomorrow.

I went ahead and did some exploring. Galuf's world is small, so there's only the village of Morre and their diamond gear. I also found a female chocobo, which aren't made for riding.