Pointless mid boss

Before the Warrior Square Genesis Tree dirt is a strange gate puzzle that confused me. It was short and probably didn't need to exist. We had to pull a colored lever which turned off the same colored electrical gate. The gate turned off as we passed. It wasn't particularly difficult, but I didn't enjoy it for some reason. Probably the random encounters...

We reach the middle of the room and prepare to plant the seeding. We're worried about Songi and Gaza, and do you know what happens when you speak the devil's name? A portal opens before the team, and Songi pops out of it. He remarks he's glad they're thinking about him, but there's a guest. He brings forth Gaza, who's been equipped with a sim-seru. Songi leaves, Gaza tells us he's going to stop us, and a battle begins.

As far I could tell, Gaza uses Neo Star Slash every other turn, but this might have been happenstance. He also has two single target moves that can do 900 damage. I had equipped Luminous Gems to everyone, but this was wrong. Gaza isn't light elemental anymore, so don some Ebony Gems. Noa was equipped with a War Sign and a Guardian Ring to boast her arts and guarantee they all hit. She was doing nearly 3000 damage with her Miracle Art. With Gala on Spoon duty, and Vahn as a backup to both, I only had an issue when I decided to straight tank a Neo Slash.

Gaza is still alive, but his time is running out. The death of his sim-seru and wounds across two fights have mortally harmed the old man. But he can still be of use. Our ra-seru tell us they need a spirit to revive the Genesis Tree now, and they can use Gala's. He accepts the role, thinks about his family one more time, and Vahn places the seedling between his legs. The party activates their powers, and the tree grows. A beam of green light illuminates through the central spire of the Sol and clears the mist from the area. We mourn the loss of Gaza but notice his beloved Astral Sword is before us. He's given Vahn his giant sword. Before leaving, Gala reminds us that Noa looks like Gaza's granddaughter. Noa calls the tree "Grandpa" and promises to save the world. I don't know why, but this got me. She even gives the tree one more look before leaving.

The lower floors of Sol are active again. The new arms dealer has new gear, and there's a famous man at the inn. Emperor Etore VIII is here. Why a random inn? I dunno! But he's somehow heard about us and has a message we need to hear. Dr. Usha gave him a passcode but didn't tell him to what. But the Emperor gave us the combination, and Deez told us to go north. Both Beru and Usha's lab are up there. Also, stay at the lower inn. Noa will have one more dream where her parents tell her this is the final time they'll be able to talk to her. They've been found. Their lights are replaced by a purple one that laughs at and taunts Noa.

We (the player) see a scene in the Floating Castle. Besides being the Mist Generator for Karisto, it's also home to Zora. The three Dallies kneel before her, wanting to fight our party. Zora says no because they have Koro, but Gi convinces Zora anyway. They leave, and we see Songi was listening in.

Beru is a frozen landscape, but there are three Genesis Trees here. Noa runs ahead to see them, and we (the player) see Cara lamenting the state of her hometown, and it mirrors her heart. She leaves before Noa catches up. The party tries to revive one of the trees, but it's frozen. Any further attempts run the risk of killing it outright, and this upsets Noa a lot. She doesn't take struggling well.

Farther west is an oil well looking thing. There's a sign next to a pipe, and Noa calls up to it. Dr. Usha calls back and asks for the password Etore VIII gave us. Inputting the code lets us up, and Usha drops his elevator! We introduce ourselves to the doctor, and that takes all night. He eventually told us our next set of goals that I didn't understand. But we need to unfreeze Beru, and the only way to do that is with a seru named Kuru. Zora said that name... But if we approach him, he'll explode, so we need something called Fire Drops, which we can get if we sleep at the birthplace of the seru, Uru Mais. Usha's wife has the key to Uru Mais, and she gives us a quiz about it for some reason. Uru Mais is to the west, and we'll get there...

...tomorrow!

The Astral Sword sucks! It's actually fine, but it's highly inefficient with the stamina system.