Iris

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From left to right were the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Areas. Each contained its own unique indescribable monsters. Some flew, many were formless, and others required the Roda Sword. Despite my love for combat, I found the puzzles the most fun.
 
Bronze Area involved moving floor puzzles. If you stepped on a glowing switch, the floating walkways would move side to side. Sometimes we'd have to backtrack to reach chests, but their rewards were worth it. Halfway through, we had to flood the area to get to the otherside and a teleporting door puzzle. This section was less cool because the doors took us to an obvious location.

The Silver Area was a series of platforms. We had to find three elemental crests to activate various podiums to advance. The crests triggered weather effects throughout the location, which revealed the path. Wind turned on fans, water flooded places, and fire melted some walls or evaorated water.

The Gold Area was a section that made us form the path. The floor rotated with walkways on them. As long as we could reach the four rooms filled with monsters from our memories, we could travel however we wanted. Platforms pending, of course!

All three guardians were color coordinated and fought the same. The Bronze guy seemed the toughest, but that might just be because we had no experience. With the three guards down, the path to the top of Iris was opened. There were a few more mobs who resembled death up here, but nothing stood in our way. We traveled the entirety of the Sea Foliage. We beat up a god. We had a blacksmith in a river village create three ancient weapons. And we've made wonderful friendships. But a traitor to this region threatened to undo all of that.

Gruda was working at the Acasiac Records. He actually congratulated us on being so determined because it's the type of person he wants in his new world. It seemed that he and Evil Eldeel were in agreement about letting the strong live on this planet, but Gruda wanted to test the entire human race first. Were we even worthy of life? Such a small amount of people would even try to do what we're doing. Maybe he's right, but his methods are terrible. Killing everyone to weed out the weak won't matter. People like me and my friends will always fight for those who can't. We'll rebuild the world with as many people as we can. All Gruda would do is needlessly reset everything. Unless we stopped him!

Gruda called upon the Records to give him its powers. Lafance thought even a god would struggle with such strength, but Gruda accomplished it. Or did he?

Gruda had transformed into Akasha-Glyph, a hulking monster similar to the guardians or Lezza's Sol. His attacks reminded me of the Tower of Providence guy in that they used a lot of lasers. They also had things around them that needed to be taken out. Akasha had three, and each were vulnerable to an attack type. Once the three were destroyed, the lasers stopped. Akasha then summoned a pillar in an attempt to squish us. He also tried to slap us between smashes. He would try to make an arena with his arms because his main goal would be to blow us up with his eye beam. But this also brought his face into range of my sword. And with that, we stopped our foe.

The seven of us sat around exhausted. We didn't want to spend time here, so I picked up the Mask of the Sun in hope Eldeel could fix what Gruda may have broken. But then Iris shook. What did he do? We all decided to leave before something bad happened. The Golden Wing stopped working, so we had to walk out. The shaking was also affecting the real world. Eldeel told us it was caused by the inconsistencies Gruda made before we got there. But it was too much, and not even a god could fix it in time. But there was another way. If we destroyed the key then the Records would stop functioning and reset. This would also seal the existence of fate. And that key was the Mask of the Sun. Eldeel couldn't break it, somehow, but the lava in Mt. Vesuvio could. So we tried to get there.

As we left, shadow monsters appeared in the temple. We quickly dispatched them, but their numbers were innumerable. Someone had to stay here and protect Eldeel. Did the Moon Mask weaken him? I never got a chance to ask him. Ozma and Karna, who don't know the area, decided to remain here.
As we left Elduke, more shadow heads jumped us. Fortunately, General Leo and Remnos saved us. Sancho and Panzo were also there.
We reached the foot of the volcano, and more showed up. They were quickly exploded by Lezza and Sol. She volunteered to defend this point, and Calilika stayed with her. The girl with the large hammer could handle the quick shadows better.
Myself, Duren, and Frieda began our climb. The shadow heads were here, but they had a body this time. They looked familiar... The three of us fought for a while, but there were so many. They were truly endless. We eventually just started running to the top, hoping to evade them. We couldn't. Frieda and Duren told me to go ahead and throw the mask into the lava. I told them that they better survive.

I wasn't alone. The shadows finally formed something I could recognize, and it was, clearly, Gruda. His hate guided him here, and he asked for the mask. He devolved into only saying a single word: kill. On top of this erupting volcano was a one-on-one duel. I feel like I've been through something similar before. Gruda attacked like a man with a single passion for murder. His sword was quick and to the point. The ferocious phantom stood no chance against me, though. I transferred all my love and desire into one ball of pure light and threw it into his face, vaporizing him in an instant.

A ledge nearby gave me a good vantage point to toss the Mask of the Sun into the volcano. I did, but another earthquake shook the region, and the rocks I was on broke. I don't know if it was the heat, the methane, the exhaustion, or the shock that I was about to die, but I passed out. I awoke in the palm of Sol with Lezza next to me. She saved me and told me everyone was fine and waiting in Danem. We spoke about the journey before she wondered what Eldeel wanted to give me when I first met her. And then all my memories came back!

This was when I became an adventurer, and that memory is a story for another day!

-Adol

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The ending epilogue said Adol made everything vague and uncertain, so I won't go into the juicy bits. They also they don't exist. There's a final scene between Eldeel and Lafance that's a bit dark, depending on how you view it and a scene that sets up Ys VI. I'm definitely playing VI, but I might play V first. V does come first, after all. But yeah, no endings for anyone, and we (so far) haven't seen them in another Ys game. Griselda appears as an NPC in VIII, but I won't be playing that (money and technology limitations). But Ys IV was amazing, and I'm glad I'm doing this!