The plot thickens!

We, apparently, saved Cinder, but Judy, the Empress of Time, went to Cristalis. So guess where we're going?

The Statue of Liberty takes us there after she compliments our new party member, Zas, on her pants. As before, we can speak to our companions. Zas' fragile personality she's been using to hide the death of her father is beginning to break. She's overly happy to hide the pain and invite friendship. I don't remember what anyone else said...

We'll arrive in the white kingdom of Cristalis. It's filled with tall skyscrapers and an immaculate sheen. At least, I think it used to. Now, though, there are signs that war struck this place. I thought it looked pretty fine, but Wilhelm and our wandering merchant assured me this hasn't always been the case.

To reach Judy, we have to trek through the lengthy streets of the biggest city in the world. Along the way, we fight through more goblins and a new type of wolf. More interesting, there's a new slime. The white slimes are immune to magic but are pretty fragile overall. They can transform into any other slime type, and killing them rewards a ton of exp and marbles.

At the end of the first area is where Kari returns. She kills the priestesses holding up a barrier and tells Zas that she's become a monster to kill a monster. Kari prepares to attack us, but then all of the Mother Superiors show up to trap her in time. Crisbell asks who they all are, and they tell us they'll be at the cathedral.
The second area contains the dungeon's gimmick. There are a few blue Tesla coils strewed around. These can be time altered to decay, but this is pointless. Sending them back turns them into a box, allowing us to push it to either make a bridge we can walk across or into a position to nullify pink barriers. We'll need to do both to reach the third and final area.
In the very back is the cathedral. All four Mother Superiors are waiting for us, and Crisbell's, Elena, takes the lead. The Mother Superiors work for the Lady, the Goddess this world worships, to guide everyone to her. They point out the final mural behind them, and it's the fanciest we've seen. It also seems to be free standing, but that's not important. Crisbell interacts with it and feels its power. Kari starts to function again.

She breaks out of the time bubble and says that everything's going according to Judy's plan. Kari casts a spell that instantly kills Elena. The world starts to shake again, and we see Judy's dragon wreaking havoc on the city. The effect of it all causes Crisbell to lose her emotions again, and she ends up reverting Kari back to when she was a child. Kari asks how Zas got so old, but they'll have to come back around to that later. Everyone else asks what happened with Crisbell, and she only says she wanted to save her mother figure from the Empress of Time. Speaking of whom...

Judy shows up because she's upset we rewound the underling she spent so much time forming. After more words, a battle begins. As before, though, we can't harm her, and we lose. Judy plans to kill us, but Wilhelm has another plan. He does a thing and transforms into an even more androgynous older man. His voice is deeper, so there's that. Wilhelm looks like the hero who sacrificed himself against Judy in the picture we saw in that one vision on Rainbow Lake. It's also the future guy in Wilhelm's house. New Wilhelm casts a spell that breaks Judy's invincibility shield before the two have a quick magic battle. But Wilhelm can only hold this form for so long. His time is literally up. In their battle long ago, Judy stole Wil's time. In response, he reverted himself to a child to continue to exist. But turning back into a man restarted that doom clock. He gives us ...something... and warps us to a nearby warehouse before finally fading away. Judy is shocked that Rudo, Wilhelm's real name, would appear now, but her plan can still be achieved.

The party, the remaining Mother Superiors, and Kari are just outside the cathedral. Lucia, from Telira, gives us a moment to mourn. Kari and Zas have a moment where Zas blames us for making Zas old. Zas wants to keep her older sister innocent again, at a point before she became a murderer. Cristopher is angry his frenemy is gone, and JKR is processing things. After the three moms tell us they spotted Wilhelm's powers as a child and pushed him to fight Judy, we regain our senses. Wilhelm sacrificed himself to break Judy's shield, so we need to act fast! Kari joins the team, and we get a tutorial on how to use her. She fights in the same fashion as she did when we fought her. She also shows some personality that makes me think she's always been sadistic...

Judy and Crisbell have a discussion about why Judy's done all this. Judy doesn't tell us, but she asks if Crisbell has connected the dots or not. Cris says she has and calls Judy "mom." Judy gets upset and says she was too busy with her plan to have kids. She's thought too highly of Crisbell, and a battle begins.

But first, I crash!

The second battle went poorly, and JKR exploded on me.

I spent some time grinding because K was several levels under the Crises. I got some better stats and a better understanding of how to use K. A trick to help you in this battle is to keep K's heat beneath 89. Judy's worst attack is to bring everyone's HP to 1. It also does ten heat to K, and if that reaches 100, he explodes on us. The rest of the Time Empress battle is a long and boring grind. Make sure Bell goes directly after Judy. Judy has the tendency to cast Perfect Heal on herself, giving her a regain that restores 190 HP a turn. Crisbell should use Regression ASAP to remove the buff. From here, Judy seems weak to magic. I had Topher spam Pressurized Steam, and a perfect hit did 200 damage. K'a physical attacks struck for 70*3. Just keep in mind that K will need to use Coolant every other turn. Zas is way too slow to be of use, and Kari is even slower. I also didn't want to find a good mob for her to toy with. With the exception of Perfect Cure and Time Compression (and K exploding), I didn't find this hard. But it took about ten minutes to take out Judy's 3800 HP. We're gonna be here for a while. Sending her to the past is pointless, and don't bring her forward. And Doom can be blocked.

Judy lives and still wants to activate her plan. She teleports/limps into a nearby building, and we give chase. When we find her, K activates and kills Judy. She keeps talking about her plan but eventually pops a purple cloud on Crisbell. Judy dies, and we save the world! Topher is excited, and Zas and Kari make plans to grow up. K is confused, though. He didn't choose to attack. Matias, who went missing earlier but came back after Wilhelm died, is also glad. He asks us if we want to do anything, and Crisbell wants to visit Rainbow Lake.

There are new images in the water pools. We see Cris' grandma talking to Judy, Wilhelm and Judy being friends, and a man holding a baby Crisbell. Was that Rudo? At the Millennium Flower, though, is the exact same image: the Time Empress destroys the world. There was also an image of Wilhelm at his house. Matias mentions the ruins we've seen in each country. That purple spell she used on Cris must be the trigger. We must prevent that! Cris is scared but wants to keep preventing this future from happening. Matias knows a way to stop it. He knows that there's a machine in Cristalis that will send them back in time. We're just before the final battle. Everyone is in the warehouse after Wilhelm died. Crisbell is panicking, but everyone believes what she's saying. They agree to visit those ruins. Kairi rejoins the team at a higher level, and a new exit to the city appears. To return to other nations, Telira most notably, we'll need to talk to Paulina again, and I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Matias sure felt pretty deus ex-y tonight...