How did I not see this coming!

Ya got me, Enix!

Screax is a strange location. It gives me post apocalypse vibes, and the mobs aid in that. Carnivorous plants and carrion birds roam the cliffs and caves. There are teleporters in those caves, and they take you around the area. If you see one, don't take it. You'll just get lost. If you see two, though, take the left (?) one. You'll be taken to a tower that has the best music in the game, which is also our destination.

Beyond Serpent Tower is Lung. Lung wraps around itself, but it only has three loops. The bottom is a dead end, and there are the usual town amenities between you and it. I finally upgraded Precis' armor! As we try to reach the top, we're confronted by two guards and escorted to the guy in charge. Wrex, I think his name was.

Wrex talks more about the demon the cicada spoke of, but it's Rival who commands the conversation. She knows that the cicada was sent by Lung to attack her. From here, things get weird. I think it's a translation issue, but the cicada was sent to lure Rival out as a test if she lives. I got more confused, so I can't build up to this exciting reveal. Rival is the demon! She wants to destroy the planet for some reason, and she's also the cause of Ernest and Precis' ship crashings. As she says this, she mentions our other friends are here.

The camera cuts to another ship around the planet of Ediface, and it's Claude and Rena. Sadly, they fall to our same fate. Rival then reveals that she's come here for a reason. There's a seal over something that she needs to break. And that seal is Wrex, who she promptly kills. I wish I remembered what this seal was, but this scene was presented in a rather questionable manner. But Rival teleports away, and we have our BBG.

Wrex's butler asks us to follow him into another room. In that room are a series of transistor tubes, but they're actually filled with a mermaid. She's the one who reveals we're on Ediface, which I know from Star Ocean 3. The nameless mermaid tasks us with saving the world from Rival. To do so, we need to meet with more of her kind. She gives us a rebreather, which was hers, and she dies. I think. Why did a mermaid need mechanical gills?

The butler tells us we'll need to descend another tower that's found near the entrance to Lung. We only need to find the Abyss, which is just off the first floor. We can explore the other few sections for some amazing SP and even better weapons. Precis and Opera get a couple of things. But swim through the first pool to find the Abyss and float above everything you can, all the way to the east. At the bottom is our destination.

There's a cliff somewhere in the middle of this grid, and we'll ask where the other Edificians are. Rather than get an answer, we're attacked by Leviathan, a shark. We'll win, so. Levi turns into a warp point. We're brought to the town of Aqua, and some guy tells us to speak to their leader. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

So we're just gonna ignore Claude and Rena?

PS: how 'bout dem Cowboys!!!

SURPRISE TWO PART UPDATE!

Tonight, I spoke to the Aqua leader, Vai, and he reiterated what the mermaid said. The mermaid was named Rose, by the way. Vai said that Rival keeps trying to destroy the planet, and we humans, with minds stronger than any other, must stop her. To do that, we'll need to speak with two other Edificians, Nero and Raux, who have their own subdomains called Ax and Azul. But we'll do that later because another mermaid suggested Claude and Rena were at the beach. I want my healer!

They're actually in Valens. Rena walks out of town  and is glad to see us. She needs to find a chemist in Knott because Claude contracted a deadly virus and is near death. She joins the team, and we head to the research facility. The chemist, Rush, says he needs a certain herb, which we can find near the final fall in the Abyss. We'll pick it up, he'll make the medicine, and Rena gives it to her husband off screen. Claude instantly recovers and joins the team. We're finally all together again. I'm pretty set with Ashton and Precis, so Claude won't be here this time. Rena, though, definitely became my third, and I spent some time exploring the catacombs to level her up. Why does she use knives in this game? We'll get back on with that plot...

...tomorrow.

Also, Vai cleared some things up. Rival killed Zika because he was the seal to Grand Knott, a Gift of untold power. And the mermaid, Rose, didn't need the rebreather to survive. She actually created it for us out of her own soul. So it was a sacrifice for the world.

Also, also, are Rena and Claude optional?