OOC [application part 3]
Just a bit of warning, here: This history section for Cecil/Paladin is absolutely spoileriffic. I know, the game's been out for seventeen years, there's a statute of limitations on these things, but I might as well tell you. Also, the sucker is goddamn long, so heads up. ANYHOW, ALL ELSE ASIDE:
Once in Troia, which is a peaceful land ruled by eight wise clerics epopts, Cecil seeks audience with them, to beg them for a chance to use their crystal to get at Rosa. Astonishingly enough, they’re willing enough to help, but. (There’s always a but). The crystal has already been stolen from them, by a Dark Elf-if the party can get it back, they’ll be allowed to borrow it for a while. Said Dark Elf has taken the crystal to the Lodestone Cavern, which he has magnetized so that anything metal brought inside the cave will be stuck to the walls, completely unmoveable, as Dark Elves are vulnerable to metal weapons. Like, you know, pretty much everything else. Irritatingly, this is not just for show but is in fact another instance of integrating story and gameplay, as the party cannot bring metal items into the cave or they will be immobilized. Like, you know, swords. Fortunately, Troia has our back and is selling equippable charcoal twigs “Fireshards,” so it’s not all bad, just 99% bad.
While the party pokes around the castle, they find themselves in the infirmary, where the doctors are cautioning them about being careful around the latest patient, a sickly, frail young man who washed up from a shipwreck-yeppers, it’s Edward. The party and he are both duly pleased to see the other alive, and Edward insists on fighting with them once more, and is immediately shot down (“Fight? Fight to stay on your feet, perhaps!”). When the party explains their whole situation with the kidnapping and the crystal and the Dark Elf, Edward ruminates for a moment, and makes them take with them some whisperweed, calling it “the only way he can accompany them now.” Cecil is baffled but accepts, and the party trudges off to Lodestone Cavern.
Blah blah dungeon blah blah monsters blah blah I hate my nerf arms and this place in general, finally the party makes it to the very bottom and confronts the Dark Elf, who pretty much says “Nice try but no cigar” and nukes the hapless party. Damn, hunh? Cut back to the infirmary in Troia, where Edward, who has been listening to the whisperweed, concludes that his time is now. He staggers dramatically to his harp and plays, which is picked up by the whisperweed (finally revealed to the players who have not inferred it already to be a kind of magical two-way radio of sorts) and transported to the depths of the Lodestone Cavern. Apparently, Dark Elves aren’t fond of harps. The elf can’t maintain his concentration and so the magnetic field in the cave falls, meaning that Cecil can wield his sword again and wear real armor. The fighting begins again and the Dark Elf pulls a Jafar and turns into a big snakey thing…but like Jafar, it doesn’t work and he winds up dead as a doornail. Party takes back the Earth Crystal. Da-da-da-da, da da DA da-da!
Back in Troia, Cecil and company thank Edward for basically saving their lives, and Edward and Tellah share a moment of resolution of their antipathy, as Tellah says he will destroy Golbez for the both of them. They leave Edward to his convalescence, and report to the epopts, who fulfill their end of the bargain by approving Cecil running off to rescue Rosa. Good thing too, as Kain’s voice appears from nowhere and instructs Cecil to board his airship and follow the Red Wing that will appear and guide him to where Rosa is being held, the fantastically-named Tower Of Zot.
Once in Zot, Kain is nowhere to be found, but his and Golbez’s voice are heard, and they tell Cecil that if he can make it to the top of the tower alive and hand over the crystal, Rosa is free as a bird. Cecil points out that this was not part of the original bargain, Golbez says tough shit. He has altered the deal, pray he does not alter it further.
Just to prove that he doesn’t fight fair, Golbez has filled his tower with extremely mean monsters and sics the Magus Sisters on the party to steal the Crystal and kill off Rosa. But somehow, despite the odds and the serious metatextual warning signs, Cecil makes it to the top and faces off with Golbez. Golbez demands the crystal, and Cecil…hands it over. No tricks, no strings attached. Because the stereotype of Paladins being Lawful Stupid/Stupid Good needed more reinforcement, I guess? Just….go sit in the corner, Cecil. Christ.
Anyhow, and I’m sure this will come as a shock to you, but Golbez’s exact words after getting the crystal back are “Rosa? Whoever would that be?” The party is outraged, Tellah calls Golbez a twisted monster, and Golbez boredly retorts that he has no business with this old man. Tellah, though, has some with him. Cue fight.
Tellah casts a bucketload of high end magic on him, which Golbez shrugs off disdainfully…then Tellah prepares Meteor. The party begs him not to, but Tellah is determined and will not listen…he casts Meteor. It does the damage cap. Golbez is severely injured and his mind is blown. Take that, bastard!
Then Tellah collapses. Wuh-oh.
Golbez, though, staggers off, claiming a victory as he’s still got the Earth Crystal. He orders Kain to come with him, but after a momentary pause, Kain collapses like a puppet with its strings cut. Golbez then makes a very interesting comment about how getting smacked around by celestial bodies like a bitch must have destroyed his mind-control or something. Oh ho! Cecil chooses this time to lunge in and try and finish off Golbez, who is himself more annoyed than actually threatened and Force-Lightning’s him some more, then turns around to finish off the supine Cecil-and actually looks him in the face for the first time.
Golbez is stunned into incoherence. Cecil, full of valiance and general bravado, demands to know why he stays his hand, but Golbez has no answer for him, only more shocked and confused disjointed sentences, finally ending with “We…will finish this another time” and leaving the room, leaving party free to drop everything and make their way to Tellah’s unnaturally still body.
Cid cradles Tellah’s body in his arms, and tries to treat him, but there is nothing he can do. Tellah berates himself for being so foolish as to imagine himself capable of defeating Golbez, and implores Cecil to finish the job before dying himself.
Time to turn to the other still body here: Kain’s. Cecil tries to wake him and to his immense relief, Kain is still alive. He’s initially confused, but Cecil clarifies/consoles him by telling him that Golbez was controlling him. Kain objects, telling him that he was conscious the entire time, and begins to say something about Rosa-which Cecil interrupts, demanding to know where she is. Kain leads him up into the next room-remember that bladed contraption that I mentioned she was tied to? It’s going all Bond Villain Deathtrap on her. Cecil frees her from it just as it swoops in for the kill, and cue the hugging and kissing and sappy talk.
Kain turns away, which is when Rosa notices him-Cecil reassures her that he is in his right mind again, and Kain apologizes and confesses his own weakness-he just wanted to keep her by his side. Awk-waaaaaaard. Rosa accepts his apology and invites him to join them in their fight. He accepts, and the party gets ready to leave the tower.
Of course, things are never that simple. Cue the arrival of Barbariccia, Fiend of Wind, whose schtick is “being really hot.” Barb mocks Tellah’s death and chews Kain out for his betrayal, so naturally, she’s going down. Cue bossy fighty, and when it is over, Barb takes a page out of Cagz’ book and sends the whole dungeon crashing down around them. However, Rosa knows how to teleport, and uses that to warp them out of the place as it collapses.
She teleports them all back into Cecil’s bedchambers back home in Baron. Bamp chicka bow wow chicka bow wow. Kain kills the mood by telling Cecil he has important crystal-related news-mostly, that they have to protect the remaining crystals from Golbez. Cecil is all “Um, about that…” but as it turns out, Kain is completely right about the existence of more crystals-they’re just underneath the earth. Golbez already knows where they are and is trying to get them for himself, so they have to stop him somehow, otherwise Golbez will use the crystals to open up the way to the moon. Kain has the key, the Magma Stone-he just doesn’t know where the door is. The party is disheartened, except for Cid, who says they just have to use their airship to search the world. Cecil gently points out that the airship is still back at the Tower Of Zot, but Cid, proving that he is The Goddamn Batman, tells them that he prepared for that contingency by flying the ship back to Baron by remote control. Fuck yeah, Cid.
They set off in the morning, after a forgettable instance in the castle basements finding the ghost of the dead king-the real one, not Cagz-and having him command Cecil to journey to the land of Eidolons and then report back to him. We’ll get into that later. Anyhow, they scour the world, eventually running across a tiny town under a big mountain named Agart (Actually, they went to Agart directly and purposefully because I have access to gamefaqs and have played the game before, but let’s pretend here). It’s a strange place, as the villagers claim to be descended from dwarves, but there ARE no dwarves anywhere on the world map! Curiouser and curiouser. The centerpiece of the town is an old, dried-up well “that seems for all the world to have no bottom.” The Magma Stone, when it comes close to this well, though, begins to glow. Cid examines the stone, but as it glows it begins to turn hotter and hotter, and Cid juggles it and eventually drops it down the well. Oops.
Long, long, long whistling. Long, long, long silence from the protagonists.
Big, big, big explosion.
When the mile-high plume of lava falls, it becomes apparent that the mountain in front of Agart is now an ex-mountain. In its place is a gaping hole, more than large enough for the airship to fly down…and it leads to the Underworld.
The Underworld looks like a typical underworld-rocks, lava, dark…tanks…Red Wings…Fantastic, Golbez is already here. The Red Wings are engaged in an aerial battle with the tanks, and unfortunately for our heroes, their airship happened to drop directly in between the lines of engagement, and gets shot at by both sides before it can orient itself. It has enough stability left to emergency-land somewhere that is not the middle of the battlefield, but that’s about it. The ship won’t fly again until it can be repaired, and Cecil and company have no choice but to hoof it from here in bitterly harsh conditions.
They spot a castle soon, though-and the people inside it, while short and very strange, are welcoming (“Golbez is a dirty, vile human. But I do not think that you are dirty, vile humans.”) and allow them to rest and resupply and overhear a little dwarf girl looking for her lost dolls as they go off to introduce themselves to the owner of the castle, Dwarf King Giott.
King Giott apologizes for almost killing them, and listens to their story about crystal-hunting. He relates that of the Underworld’s four crystals, Golbez possesses two, but the one in his castle remains safe and sound. Giott’s having a tough time of it against the airships, and would like it if the heroes’ airship would lend him a hand-when Cid mentions he’ll need supplies to repair it, the king gladly lends him whatever he wishes, and Cid trucks off to take care of business.
No sooner has he left than Yang reports that they are being eavesdropped on-there is a malevolent presence behind the throne room, inside the crystal chamber. The king orders the door unbarred and they rush into the chamber…which slams shut behind them, trapping them inside with a half-dozen satanic murderous dolls. Joy and rapture.
The dolls are beaten into submission, but promise that Golbez will be along to whack them but good in revenge-and, of course, he is. Organ theme music booming, Golbez arrives in the crystal chamber and, like a good villain, proceeds to explain to the party that he needs the crystals to open the Tower of Babil and go the moon because supreme power can be found there. The party tries to make a stand against him, but nothing they try has any effect. Golbez mocks their failure, and then paralyzes the lot of them, summons a shadow dragon, and uses the dragon to kill off everyone in front of Cecil’s eyes. He lingers a bit before offing Cecil, likely enjoying his despair-and a big white dragon uses that moment to cut in and attack, killing the shadow dragon and wounding Golbez. Cecil is healed of his paralysis, and the party is joined by this mysterious benefactor, who bears a stunning resemblance to…Rydia?!
After a grueling fight, Golbez goes down! Fucking finally. Cecil turns to Rydia, and is supremely grateful to her for saving their lives, and then wants to know why she looks like she’s Rosa’s age now. Rydia explains that when Leviathan nommed her, he didn’t really nom her, just carried her to the Feymarch, land of the Eidolons, where time doesn’t flow as it does on Earth. Hence, she’s really indeed twenty years old. Cecil then asks why someone like her would bother going to save him-Rydia hushes him and basically says that the issue here is much bigger than he is. So she is going to stay with them, until the threat is neutralized.
Golbez, however, is not quite dead, and uses this opportunity to nab the Crystal and vanish. Damn, hunh? The party has no choice but to go to King Giott and explain what happened. Fortunately, Giott is prepared for this outcome. He explains that the last Crystal is located in the Sealed Cave, which is, as its name suggests, sealed, and as such it will take Golbez a long time to break through the barriers surrounding it. Now, according to Giott, is the prime time to turn the tables and take the Crystals back from Golbez’s stronghold, the Tower Of Babil. While the cat’s away, the mice will play. The dwarves will even create a diversion with their tanks to grease the way for us! The party agrees to this plan, and proceeds to explore the dwarven palace to find the way leading to the Tower of Babil and Cecil runs into a strange room where everyone talks to him like he’s some kind of video game character.
The Tower Of Babil is easy to find, as it is frecking huge. It stretches from the base of the underworld up into the surface world, and of course each and every one of those floors is full of big, mean, horrible monsters. Somehow, Cecil and company survive the trek, until they come across a pair of individuals with unique sprites. Knowing that they must therefore be important, the party lies low and listens in on their conversation. The one who bears a striking resemblance to medieval depictions of Satan calls himself Rubicante, and the other one calls himself Doctor Lugae also known as Proto-Hojo. Ruby is heading up to the surface to some place called Eblan, which is full of ninjas, or used to be, until apparently Golbez killed them all. Proto-Hojo wishes him well, and the minute Ruby’s back is turned launches into a joyful tirade about how he’s lord of the tower now, yay!
Rydia cannot hold back her “lolwhut” at Proto-Hojo, and unfortunately, he heard that. Being a doctor and all, he ascertains who and why they’re there (“You’re that Cecil louse, aren’t you? When in toadspittle did you squirm your way in?!”). A fight is picked between the doctor, his Frankenstein’s Monster ripoff, and the party. (The Frankie monster is too dumb to know friend from enemy. Hilarity ensues). Eventually, Proto-Hojo kicks the bucket, but not before expositing that the Crystals are in the very peak of the tower’s spire, and that they’re arming the cannons right now to whack the dwarves, tanks or no tanks. The party (after searching his body for his keys) agrees that right now what needs to happen is to halt the cannons, and so they run off to do that.
The canons are being armed by extras from the Lord of the Rings movies, chanting stuff like “Die dwarves die!” Cecil plays good cop and tells them to step away from the controls, but they decide to resist arrest and, in their death throes, set the cannons to Death Star, which apparently cannot be turned off. Cecil and company are on the verge of panicking, but Yang keeps a cool head about him and throws them all out of the room but him, closing and locking the door behind. Cecil charges the door and pounds on it desperately, telling him not to throw his life away, but Yang is determined. Yang screams. There is a flash of light, a terrible sound, and then a terrible silence. Yang does not come out.
As the shattered party searches for a way to progress, it turns out they’ve dallied too long in the tower. Golbez has found them, and he’s not a happy camper. The floor begins to crumble under their feet, and as they race along, it becomes increasingly obvious that there’s nothing but an abyss under them…UNTIL!
At the very end, a familiar-looking airship appears under them and catches the party, piloted by The Goddamn Batman Cid! He jerks the steering wheel, and the ship tears off at full throttle-and a good thing, too, the Red Wings have mobilized and are chasing them down. The party can’t shake them, nor can they in good conscience lead them to the various dwarven settlements in their fleeing…as they approach the entrance to the surface, Cid makes an executive decision. He leaves the wheel to Cecil and runs to the railing of the ship. He instructs them all to use the airship to continue to the surface, and to prevent the Red Wings from following them, Cid himself will use some explosives to seal the way, effectively leading his fleet into a big trap. Once on the surface, they go to Baron, and meet up with “Cid’s boys,” who will know what to do. Trouble is, the timing on the detonation has to be perfect, so Cid himself will pilot the bomb. The party tries to stop him (“You’ll die!”) but he is having none of it (“And so young, too!”) and leaps off in a fucking badass scene.
Boom.
The party, seriously rattled, heads off to Baron, since there is little else they can do. Turns out that in Baron, what Cid wanted them to do was to get his crew to do modifications to their ship, which will allow them to reach new places, such as caves that open directly into the water, with no way to moor the craft nearby-normally. As it just so happens, Eblan itself, the land Rubicante was visiting, has such a cave, and as there are currently no Eblanese in their castle…On another hunch, the party heads into the Cave of Eblan, and there they find the remnants of the Eblanese people. Turns out they’ve had it pretty rough, since when the Tower of Babil breached the surface, theirs was the land it came up out of. Naturally, they resisted the monster armies there, but things didn’t go well for them, and now they’re hiding underground, and secretly preparing a guerilla assault by tunneling to the Tower, said assault being led by His Young Highness, Prince Edge. But apparently, things are beginning to go awry, as for some reason said prince is angry enough to drop the strategy and go in alone-seems he’s found where Ruby is hiding, and is going after him. Being that everyone is begging the party to go find him before he gets himself killed, Cecil and company go off, exploring the tunnels, until they run into a ninja squaring off against Ruby. Said ninja, who just so happens to be Prince Edge, loses and badly, but Ruby doesn’t kill him, instead telling him to try again later and vanishing into the ether. The party runs after and makes sure he doesn’t die, telling him as well that they have a common enemy in Rubicante and would be happy to help him get rid of the guy. After some debate and lolarity, as it turns out that Edge is the hot-blooded, arrogant, ladies’-man type, they all band together and Edge leads them down the tunnel the Eblanese were using.
Edge sneaks them all inside the Tower of Babil, and they continue climbing up to the peak of the tower, again fighting many mean monsters, until near the top they run into a couple of people Edge recognizes-the king and queen of Eblan, his parents. He’s intensely happy to see them, and so are they. They tell him to follow them, and when he asks where, they answer “To hell!”
Oh dear. Battle starts, not against two humans but against two monsters. Edge begs them to recognize him, but they just keep spewing out abuse and poison and fire until something snaps, and they come to their senses. They explain to Edge that they are monsters now, monsters incapable of maintaining self-control, and, while he begs them not to leave him, they kill themselves rather than remain potential tools of the enemy.
Ruby chooses now to show up. Bad, bad, bad idea. Edge tells him, not in so many words, that’s he is going to die, Ruby tells him that it’s not his fault his parents are dead as it was Proto-Hojo who did that to them. Ruby then monologues about the creature of man being slaves to their emotions and hence pathetic weaklings, but Edge shuts him up with a goddamn badass line and prepares to take him out. Cue boss fight and a decisive victory for the party. Fuck yeah. Ruby compliments them, says that Golbez will find them no easy prey, and then poofs into wherever it is he goes when he poofs.
It is at this point the ninja cavalry arrives. Bastards. Edge inquires about who this Golbez chap is, and gets the standard spiel. He concludes that Golbez has to go down for there to be any justice in this world, and decides that rebuilding the country can wait until after that. Off we go, to the very peak of the tower! Into the Crystal Chamber! Up to all those beautiful shinies-
A fucking trapdoor?! OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE.
The party falls the ENTIRE length of the tower, somehow not dying, and finds the ways back up have been sealed, and as you’ll recall, the areas where they were previously no longer have a floor. Jesus Christ. Having little else to do, they try and find a way out, and fortunately for them, they can force their way into an airship hangar, steal one, and go report the bad news to King Giott.
Giott takes it much better than I would, and tells them that their only chance then is to secure the crystal in the Sealed Cave, whose seal is being battered into nothingness by Golbez as we speak. He gives them the key to get in, and tells them where it is. When the party points out that their new ship is not equipped to handle flying over magma, he says “Can’t your airship man do something about that?” Blink. And then, they overhear dwarf nurses running around talking about the funny old man in the infirmary…
Yes. Somehow, Cid has survived jumping off a flying ship at several thousand feet, blowing himself up, and landing in rock and magma. I told you he was The Goddamn Batman.
Cid is plenty willing to help out with the modifications, and by the time he is done, the ship can fly any-damn-where it pleases. Unfortunately, all this work takes a toll on him, and he is once again bound to his bed in the infirmary. However, the party itself is feeling fine, and off they go to protect the final crystal!
Or not. First, they’re going to go hang out in the Sylph’s Cave, exploring it until they find the house of the Sylph Eidolons deep inside…who are busy nursing a comatose Yang. Holy shit! Nothing they can do will waken him, but at least he’s alive, right? The Sylph hurry them along, and their next stop is the Feymarch itself! Rydia mentions that it’d be a good idea to present themselves before the king and queen of the Eidolons, and so they do, and are blessed with their power. Fuck yeah!
Now into the Sealed Cave. It’s a straight shot (barring the monsters, of course) to the crystal, and the party begins to suspect that something is seriously wrong when there is no sign whatsoever of Golbez and his forces. I mean, he is supposed to be breaking in here, right? What gives? Kain himself is especially mistrusting of all this…until the trip back, Crystal in hand, where he is suspiciously quiet and appears to be stressed…
Once in the entry hall, Golbez’s voice booms from nowhere once more, commanding Kain to return to him. Kain collapses, and Cecil and Rosa both encourage him to fight off Golbez’s evil influence-he stands once more, stutters that he is fine…and suckerpunches Cecil, taking the Crystal from him and marching off. For the love of…
Once more, Cecil and company have no choice but to report the situation to King Giott. Giott does not slap Cecil in the mouth, proving that he is a better person than I am. He laments that all is lost, unless somehow the legend of the Lunar Whale came true. When the party is nonplussed, he begins to recite it, at which Cecil recognizes it as the bit of poetry written on his sword, the Mysidian legend. The dwarf king is astonished that Mysidia in fact exists, and is now convinced-because all this can hardly be coincidence-that the Lunar Whale is real and that if they go to Mysidia, now, it can be resurrected. Install a drill on the new airship so they can get back to the surface and in fact go between the surface and underworld at will, and away they go!
But not Mysidia. First, they have errands to run. Remember waaaay back before, when I mentioned Cecil running into the ghost of his king in the castle basements? Well, we’ve gone to the Feymarch, as he ordered, so Cecil comes back to report this to the royal ghost. Said royal ghost is in fact an Eidolon now, and he chooses to accompany Cecil on his quest, fuck yeah!
Now for a flight to Fabul, to go gently break the news to Yang’s wife (yes, he’s a monk and he has a wife I don’t get it either) about his coma. Poor woman is sad and angry all at once, and gives us an iron frying pan to use on Yang.
You can see where this is heading, can’t you?
Back in the underworld, back through the Sylph Cave, back into the Sylphs’ house. Cecil walks over to Yang’s bed, the Sylphs ask him what the hell he thinks he’s doing, he raises the frying pan high over his head, they gape in horror-WHANG! Yang is now conscious. He demands to go with him, but the Sylphs are adamant that he does not, and eventually, a compromise is reached: Yang will stay there and rest up, but the Sylphs will make themselves summonable whenever we have need of them. Whoo! Now to Mysidia.
Once there, the elder is there to greet Cecil and explain that he has been awaiting his arrival. He calls him up to the tower of prayer, and, in a great and tumultuous ritual, the Lunar Whale rises up from the bottom of the sea, and the elder gifts it to the party, explaining that he heard a voice telling them that if they go to the moon, they will find “him” waiting for them. And how to get to the moon? Why, that’s what the Lunar Whale is for! It is not in fact a whale, but instead an aircraft/spacecraft of some sort. So…off to the moon!
Whoo! Moon. The party is suitably impressed and awed that they are on the goddamn moon, which is kinda desert-like, in a way, and, all over the surface and through the tunnels they are chased by abyss worms. The more things change… Eventually, they find their way to an impressive edifice called The Crystal Palace. Exploring inside of it, they find an old man, clearly the one waiting for them. He introduces himself as Fusoya, the guardian of the sleeping Lunarians. …Wait, what?
Fusoya explains that the Lunarians are a people from a different planet, which went splodey and as such they fled it and wound up looking at the Blue Planet as a likely home-except that its inhabitants were still too primitive to interact with the Lunarians on an equal footing, so the Lunarians, being decent guys, decided to hibernate until such time as the two peoples could get on peaceably. Except there was this one guy, Zemus, who was all for killing off everyone and making the survivors into slaves and whatnot. Not a nice guy. So Fusoya had to muscle him into slumber, but apparently he’s been mind-controlling people while faking sleep or whatnot, and Cecil figures out that this means Golbez the mind-controller was himself mind-controlled. Now that’s what you call ironic.
Fusoya continues his expositing, explaining that the “great power” on the moon is the Giant of Babil, and that’s what all the crystals gathered together will allow to rampage on Earth. This cannot be allowed to happen. Cecil then inquires about the Lunar Whale, which is quite obviously not native to their planet. Fusoya tells him that said ship was built by his younger brother, Kluya, who wanted to explore their planet, and brought with him gifts from the advanced Lunarian society, such as airships. While he was there, according to Fusoya, “he fell in love with a woman of your planet. She later bore him two
children. One of them was you.”
Record scratch.
The party stops and stares at Cecil, who himself pretty much runs up to Fusoya and grabs him by the collar. Cecil asks him about the voice at Mount Ordeals, and Fusoya confirms that the voice was his father, who remained on until that time in spirit. Anyhow, they can talk later, because they’ve got to get into the Tower of Babil before the Giant is awakened. Off the five of them go, back to the planet!
Except that they get there just in time to watch the Tower of Babil shake, lightning crackle around it, and big waves of lava crash…then the Giant rises, and that sucker makes mountains look small. From its footsteps come earthquakes, and the tips of its fingers shoot lasers that blow up islands.
The party is dumbstruck, horrified beyond reason, and right about to despair…when some airships zoom in and blast the head, while tanks pepper the feet with shells. The tanks are being led by the dwarves and Yang, and the airships are being flown by Cid, the Mysidians including Palom and Porom, as the elder has dispelled their petrification, and even Edward! The entire armed forces of the goddamn world have come to whack that Giant, advanced spaceman technology or no! Fusoya sees a new opportunity, and orders Cid to fly them to the mouth so they can get inside it and destroy its inner parts. Fuck yeah, the Goddamn Batman says, and we are now here to kick Giant ass and take Giant names.
Except for this teensy-weensy problem, as once they get inside, Ruby finds them. And he’s not alone-he’s brought Scarmy, Cagz, and Barb with him. Ruby explains that he is not going to let them win that easily, and in fact plans to take out the party, this time using teamwork! Cue bossy fighty, and when that is done and the Fab Four have been killed off for good, Cecil and company proceed to destroy the Giant’s CPU. The Giant proceeds to grind to a halt. VICTORY!
Or not. Guess who should show up but Golbez, and he’s mighty pissed about that meddling old man. Said meddler is dumbstruck at the sight of Golbez, and asks him if he is still himself. Taking Golbez’s confusion for a no, Fusoya casts a spell, and Golbez returns to his senses. Golbez, still being shell-shocked, is asked some basic memory testing questions by Fusoya, like how you might ask someone who just got knocked on the head how many fingers you’re holding up. One of the questions is if Golbez remembers his father. Golbez replies in the affirmative and says his father’s name was Kluya.
You think that was OMGWTF?! It gets better. Cecil muses on the fact that while he was forced to war with his own brother, it could have just as easily been that Zemus chose to mindcontrol him instead, and forced Golbez to fight him-which Golbez shoots down immediately. Zemus took hold of the evil within him, which was always there, as he was the one who abandoned his infant brother in the wilderness.
Cecil is reduced to jaw-dropped disbelief, but it’s not over yet. Golbez explains the following: His father, Kluya, was murdered by people who disagreed with his pacifist teaching before Cecil was born; because his mother’s pregnancy was extremely difficult she was counseled to abort, but did not, and died as a result of giving birth to him; all this happened in the village of Mist, which, as you’ll recall, Cecil himself destroyed; the King of Baron mostly took Cecil in out of guilt at forcing his mother into exile; and as a result of all this, Golbez was taken over by Zemus and fled the civilized world.
Cecil doesn’t say a word as Golbez finishes his story. Golbez says farewell to Cecil, saying he is going “to put an end to this.” Fusoya goes with him. The party tries to talk to Cecil, clearly distressed (“That man means to die”), but the issue is put on hold as the Giant has begun its final collapse and they need to get out of there. A voice knows the way, and will guide them along, but-the voice belongs to Kain. Against the better judgment of certain members, they follow him, and get out of the Giant before it’s too late. After, Rosa explains to Kain about the whole Zemus thing and that Fusoya and Golbez are going to the moon to stop Zemus, and Kain offers to help-and orders them to kill him if he gets mindcontrolled one more time. So, off they go. To the moon. The time has come to stop Zemus once and for all.
It’s a long, brutal journey, all the way to the eerily, ethereally beautiful center of the moon. When they get there, they find Fusoya and Golbez engaged in battle with Zemus, casting everything they have and some that they don’t, until Zemus at last seems to fall. Cecil and party congratulate Golbez and Fusoya, but Cecil is still unable to speak directly to his brother.
It is at this point that Zemus rises again-as Zeromus, who refers to himself as a hate given form, as evil tapped into by Zemus in his death throes. Golbez and Fusoya try again to stop him, but there is nothing they can do. They fall, while attempting to use another crystal, as does the rest of the party under the force of Zeromus’s power. It is at this point that Cecil calls Golbez his brother for the first time, and Golbez gives him the crystal, saying “It must be you.”
The party is nearly dead, but back on earth, their allies are doing things the Mysidian way: prayer. Via prayer, the party is brought back to full strength, and Cecil makes the crystal glow with holy power-after that, it is only a matter of time before Zeromus at last falls. Though he promises to return, as evil can only resurrect him, he is shot down with the reminder than even if he does, good can only stop him once more.
Fusoya states that the time is now for him to return and once more sleep with his people, beneath the surface of the moon. Golbez asks to accompany him, as he cannot return to earth, not after all he has wrought. Golbez bids Cecil farewell, and Cecil returns it, once again calling him his brother-this time, the last.
Back on earth, the rebuilding starts-Edward in Damcyan, Yang in Fabul, the Dwarves underground, the mages in Mysidia, Rydia in the Feymarch, Edge in Eblan, and Kain-Kain in Mount Ordeals, as Cecil before him.
As for Cecil, he is busy preparing for his coronation. Baron has decided that he shall be their king, because who else is there that could possibly compare? All his allies come, and are given places of honor, though Cid’s is perhaps the greatest of all, as it is he who places the crown on Cecil’s head, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity for all of the world.
Once in Troia, which is a peaceful land ruled by eight wise clerics epopts, Cecil seeks audience with them, to beg them for a chance to use their crystal to get at Rosa. Astonishingly enough, they’re willing enough to help, but. (There’s always a but). The crystal has already been stolen from them, by a Dark Elf-if the party can get it back, they’ll be allowed to borrow it for a while. Said Dark Elf has taken the crystal to the Lodestone Cavern, which he has magnetized so that anything metal brought inside the cave will be stuck to the walls, completely unmoveable, as Dark Elves are vulnerable to metal weapons. Like, you know, pretty much everything else. Irritatingly, this is not just for show but is in fact another instance of integrating story and gameplay, as the party cannot bring metal items into the cave or they will be immobilized. Like, you know, swords. Fortunately, Troia has our back and is selling equippable charcoal twigs “Fireshards,” so it’s not all bad, just 99% bad.
While the party pokes around the castle, they find themselves in the infirmary, where the doctors are cautioning them about being careful around the latest patient, a sickly, frail young man who washed up from a shipwreck-yeppers, it’s Edward. The party and he are both duly pleased to see the other alive, and Edward insists on fighting with them once more, and is immediately shot down (“Fight? Fight to stay on your feet, perhaps!”). When the party explains their whole situation with the kidnapping and the crystal and the Dark Elf, Edward ruminates for a moment, and makes them take with them some whisperweed, calling it “the only way he can accompany them now.” Cecil is baffled but accepts, and the party trudges off to Lodestone Cavern.
Blah blah dungeon blah blah monsters blah blah I hate my nerf arms and this place in general, finally the party makes it to the very bottom and confronts the Dark Elf, who pretty much says “Nice try but no cigar” and nukes the hapless party. Damn, hunh? Cut back to the infirmary in Troia, where Edward, who has been listening to the whisperweed, concludes that his time is now. He staggers dramatically to his harp and plays, which is picked up by the whisperweed (finally revealed to the players who have not inferred it already to be a kind of magical two-way radio of sorts) and transported to the depths of the Lodestone Cavern. Apparently, Dark Elves aren’t fond of harps. The elf can’t maintain his concentration and so the magnetic field in the cave falls, meaning that Cecil can wield his sword again and wear real armor. The fighting begins again and the Dark Elf pulls a Jafar and turns into a big snakey thing…but like Jafar, it doesn’t work and he winds up dead as a doornail. Party takes back the Earth Crystal. Da-da-da-da, da da DA da-da!
Back in Troia, Cecil and company thank Edward for basically saving their lives, and Edward and Tellah share a moment of resolution of their antipathy, as Tellah says he will destroy Golbez for the both of them. They leave Edward to his convalescence, and report to the epopts, who fulfill their end of the bargain by approving Cecil running off to rescue Rosa. Good thing too, as Kain’s voice appears from nowhere and instructs Cecil to board his airship and follow the Red Wing that will appear and guide him to where Rosa is being held, the fantastically-named Tower Of Zot.
Once in Zot, Kain is nowhere to be found, but his and Golbez’s voice are heard, and they tell Cecil that if he can make it to the top of the tower alive and hand over the crystal, Rosa is free as a bird. Cecil points out that this was not part of the original bargain, Golbez says tough shit. He has altered the deal, pray he does not alter it further.
Just to prove that he doesn’t fight fair, Golbez has filled his tower with extremely mean monsters and sics the Magus Sisters on the party to steal the Crystal and kill off Rosa. But somehow, despite the odds and the serious metatextual warning signs, Cecil makes it to the top and faces off with Golbez. Golbez demands the crystal, and Cecil…hands it over. No tricks, no strings attached. Because the stereotype of Paladins being Lawful Stupid/Stupid Good needed more reinforcement, I guess? Just….go sit in the corner, Cecil. Christ.
Anyhow, and I’m sure this will come as a shock to you, but Golbez’s exact words after getting the crystal back are “Rosa? Whoever would that be?” The party is outraged, Tellah calls Golbez a twisted monster, and Golbez boredly retorts that he has no business with this old man. Tellah, though, has some with him. Cue fight.
Tellah casts a bucketload of high end magic on him, which Golbez shrugs off disdainfully…then Tellah prepares Meteor. The party begs him not to, but Tellah is determined and will not listen…he casts Meteor. It does the damage cap. Golbez is severely injured and his mind is blown. Take that, bastard!
Then Tellah collapses. Wuh-oh.
Golbez, though, staggers off, claiming a victory as he’s still got the Earth Crystal. He orders Kain to come with him, but after a momentary pause, Kain collapses like a puppet with its strings cut. Golbez then makes a very interesting comment about how getting smacked around by celestial bodies like a bitch must have destroyed his mind-control or something. Oh ho! Cecil chooses this time to lunge in and try and finish off Golbez, who is himself more annoyed than actually threatened and Force-Lightning’s him some more, then turns around to finish off the supine Cecil-and actually looks him in the face for the first time.
Golbez is stunned into incoherence. Cecil, full of valiance and general bravado, demands to know why he stays his hand, but Golbez has no answer for him, only more shocked and confused disjointed sentences, finally ending with “We…will finish this another time” and leaving the room, leaving party free to drop everything and make their way to Tellah’s unnaturally still body.
Cid cradles Tellah’s body in his arms, and tries to treat him, but there is nothing he can do. Tellah berates himself for being so foolish as to imagine himself capable of defeating Golbez, and implores Cecil to finish the job before dying himself.
Time to turn to the other still body here: Kain’s. Cecil tries to wake him and to his immense relief, Kain is still alive. He’s initially confused, but Cecil clarifies/consoles him by telling him that Golbez was controlling him. Kain objects, telling him that he was conscious the entire time, and begins to say something about Rosa-which Cecil interrupts, demanding to know where she is. Kain leads him up into the next room-remember that bladed contraption that I mentioned she was tied to? It’s going all Bond Villain Deathtrap on her. Cecil frees her from it just as it swoops in for the kill, and cue the hugging and kissing and sappy talk.
Kain turns away, which is when Rosa notices him-Cecil reassures her that he is in his right mind again, and Kain apologizes and confesses his own weakness-he just wanted to keep her by his side. Awk-waaaaaaard. Rosa accepts his apology and invites him to join them in their fight. He accepts, and the party gets ready to leave the tower.
Of course, things are never that simple. Cue the arrival of Barbariccia, Fiend of Wind, whose schtick is “being really hot.” Barb mocks Tellah’s death and chews Kain out for his betrayal, so naturally, she’s going down. Cue bossy fighty, and when it is over, Barb takes a page out of Cagz’ book and sends the whole dungeon crashing down around them. However, Rosa knows how to teleport, and uses that to warp them out of the place as it collapses.
She teleports them all back into Cecil’s bedchambers back home in Baron. Bamp chicka bow wow chicka bow wow. Kain kills the mood by telling Cecil he has important crystal-related news-mostly, that they have to protect the remaining crystals from Golbez. Cecil is all “Um, about that…” but as it turns out, Kain is completely right about the existence of more crystals-they’re just underneath the earth. Golbez already knows where they are and is trying to get them for himself, so they have to stop him somehow, otherwise Golbez will use the crystals to open up the way to the moon. Kain has the key, the Magma Stone-he just doesn’t know where the door is. The party is disheartened, except for Cid, who says they just have to use their airship to search the world. Cecil gently points out that the airship is still back at the Tower Of Zot, but Cid, proving that he is The Goddamn Batman, tells them that he prepared for that contingency by flying the ship back to Baron by remote control. Fuck yeah, Cid.
They set off in the morning, after a forgettable instance in the castle basements finding the ghost of the dead king-the real one, not Cagz-and having him command Cecil to journey to the land of Eidolons and then report back to him. We’ll get into that later. Anyhow, they scour the world, eventually running across a tiny town under a big mountain named Agart (Actually, they went to Agart directly and purposefully because I have access to gamefaqs and have played the game before, but let’s pretend here). It’s a strange place, as the villagers claim to be descended from dwarves, but there ARE no dwarves anywhere on the world map! Curiouser and curiouser. The centerpiece of the town is an old, dried-up well “that seems for all the world to have no bottom.” The Magma Stone, when it comes close to this well, though, begins to glow. Cid examines the stone, but as it glows it begins to turn hotter and hotter, and Cid juggles it and eventually drops it down the well. Oops.
Long, long, long whistling. Long, long, long silence from the protagonists.
Big, big, big explosion.
When the mile-high plume of lava falls, it becomes apparent that the mountain in front of Agart is now an ex-mountain. In its place is a gaping hole, more than large enough for the airship to fly down…and it leads to the Underworld.
The Underworld looks like a typical underworld-rocks, lava, dark…tanks…Red Wings…Fantastic, Golbez is already here. The Red Wings are engaged in an aerial battle with the tanks, and unfortunately for our heroes, their airship happened to drop directly in between the lines of engagement, and gets shot at by both sides before it can orient itself. It has enough stability left to emergency-land somewhere that is not the middle of the battlefield, but that’s about it. The ship won’t fly again until it can be repaired, and Cecil and company have no choice but to hoof it from here in bitterly harsh conditions.
They spot a castle soon, though-and the people inside it, while short and very strange, are welcoming (“Golbez is a dirty, vile human. But I do not think that you are dirty, vile humans.”) and allow them to rest and resupply and overhear a little dwarf girl looking for her lost dolls as they go off to introduce themselves to the owner of the castle, Dwarf King Giott.
King Giott apologizes for almost killing them, and listens to their story about crystal-hunting. He relates that of the Underworld’s four crystals, Golbez possesses two, but the one in his castle remains safe and sound. Giott’s having a tough time of it against the airships, and would like it if the heroes’ airship would lend him a hand-when Cid mentions he’ll need supplies to repair it, the king gladly lends him whatever he wishes, and Cid trucks off to take care of business.
No sooner has he left than Yang reports that they are being eavesdropped on-there is a malevolent presence behind the throne room, inside the crystal chamber. The king orders the door unbarred and they rush into the chamber…which slams shut behind them, trapping them inside with a half-dozen satanic murderous dolls. Joy and rapture.
The dolls are beaten into submission, but promise that Golbez will be along to whack them but good in revenge-and, of course, he is. Organ theme music booming, Golbez arrives in the crystal chamber and, like a good villain, proceeds to explain to the party that he needs the crystals to open the Tower of Babil and go the moon because supreme power can be found there. The party tries to make a stand against him, but nothing they try has any effect. Golbez mocks their failure, and then paralyzes the lot of them, summons a shadow dragon, and uses the dragon to kill off everyone in front of Cecil’s eyes. He lingers a bit before offing Cecil, likely enjoying his despair-and a big white dragon uses that moment to cut in and attack, killing the shadow dragon and wounding Golbez. Cecil is healed of his paralysis, and the party is joined by this mysterious benefactor, who bears a stunning resemblance to…Rydia?!
After a grueling fight, Golbez goes down! Fucking finally. Cecil turns to Rydia, and is supremely grateful to her for saving their lives, and then wants to know why she looks like she’s Rosa’s age now. Rydia explains that when Leviathan nommed her, he didn’t really nom her, just carried her to the Feymarch, land of the Eidolons, where time doesn’t flow as it does on Earth. Hence, she’s really indeed twenty years old. Cecil then asks why someone like her would bother going to save him-Rydia hushes him and basically says that the issue here is much bigger than he is. So she is going to stay with them, until the threat is neutralized.
Golbez, however, is not quite dead, and uses this opportunity to nab the Crystal and vanish. Damn, hunh? The party has no choice but to go to King Giott and explain what happened. Fortunately, Giott is prepared for this outcome. He explains that the last Crystal is located in the Sealed Cave, which is, as its name suggests, sealed, and as such it will take Golbez a long time to break through the barriers surrounding it. Now, according to Giott, is the prime time to turn the tables and take the Crystals back from Golbez’s stronghold, the Tower Of Babil. While the cat’s away, the mice will play. The dwarves will even create a diversion with their tanks to grease the way for us! The party agrees to this plan, and proceeds to explore the dwarven palace to find the way leading to the Tower of Babil and Cecil runs into a strange room where everyone talks to him like he’s some kind of video game character.
The Tower Of Babil is easy to find, as it is frecking huge. It stretches from the base of the underworld up into the surface world, and of course each and every one of those floors is full of big, mean, horrible monsters. Somehow, Cecil and company survive the trek, until they come across a pair of individuals with unique sprites. Knowing that they must therefore be important, the party lies low and listens in on their conversation. The one who bears a striking resemblance to medieval depictions of Satan calls himself Rubicante, and the other one calls himself Doctor Lugae also known as Proto-Hojo. Ruby is heading up to the surface to some place called Eblan, which is full of ninjas, or used to be, until apparently Golbez killed them all. Proto-Hojo wishes him well, and the minute Ruby’s back is turned launches into a joyful tirade about how he’s lord of the tower now, yay!
Rydia cannot hold back her “lolwhut” at Proto-Hojo, and unfortunately, he heard that. Being a doctor and all, he ascertains who and why they’re there (“You’re that Cecil louse, aren’t you? When in toadspittle did you squirm your way in?!”). A fight is picked between the doctor, his Frankenstein’s Monster ripoff, and the party. (The Frankie monster is too dumb to know friend from enemy. Hilarity ensues). Eventually, Proto-Hojo kicks the bucket, but not before expositing that the Crystals are in the very peak of the tower’s spire, and that they’re arming the cannons right now to whack the dwarves, tanks or no tanks. The party (after searching his body for his keys) agrees that right now what needs to happen is to halt the cannons, and so they run off to do that.
The canons are being armed by extras from the Lord of the Rings movies, chanting stuff like “Die dwarves die!” Cecil plays good cop and tells them to step away from the controls, but they decide to resist arrest and, in their death throes, set the cannons to Death Star, which apparently cannot be turned off. Cecil and company are on the verge of panicking, but Yang keeps a cool head about him and throws them all out of the room but him, closing and locking the door behind. Cecil charges the door and pounds on it desperately, telling him not to throw his life away, but Yang is determined. Yang screams. There is a flash of light, a terrible sound, and then a terrible silence. Yang does not come out.
As the shattered party searches for a way to progress, it turns out they’ve dallied too long in the tower. Golbez has found them, and he’s not a happy camper. The floor begins to crumble under their feet, and as they race along, it becomes increasingly obvious that there’s nothing but an abyss under them…UNTIL!
At the very end, a familiar-looking airship appears under them and catches the party, piloted by The Goddamn Batman Cid! He jerks the steering wheel, and the ship tears off at full throttle-and a good thing, too, the Red Wings have mobilized and are chasing them down. The party can’t shake them, nor can they in good conscience lead them to the various dwarven settlements in their fleeing…as they approach the entrance to the surface, Cid makes an executive decision. He leaves the wheel to Cecil and runs to the railing of the ship. He instructs them all to use the airship to continue to the surface, and to prevent the Red Wings from following them, Cid himself will use some explosives to seal the way, effectively leading his fleet into a big trap. Once on the surface, they go to Baron, and meet up with “Cid’s boys,” who will know what to do. Trouble is, the timing on the detonation has to be perfect, so Cid himself will pilot the bomb. The party tries to stop him (“You’ll die!”) but he is having none of it (“And so young, too!”) and leaps off in a fucking badass scene.
Boom.
The party, seriously rattled, heads off to Baron, since there is little else they can do. Turns out that in Baron, what Cid wanted them to do was to get his crew to do modifications to their ship, which will allow them to reach new places, such as caves that open directly into the water, with no way to moor the craft nearby-normally. As it just so happens, Eblan itself, the land Rubicante was visiting, has such a cave, and as there are currently no Eblanese in their castle…On another hunch, the party heads into the Cave of Eblan, and there they find the remnants of the Eblanese people. Turns out they’ve had it pretty rough, since when the Tower of Babil breached the surface, theirs was the land it came up out of. Naturally, they resisted the monster armies there, but things didn’t go well for them, and now they’re hiding underground, and secretly preparing a guerilla assault by tunneling to the Tower, said assault being led by His Young Highness, Prince Edge. But apparently, things are beginning to go awry, as for some reason said prince is angry enough to drop the strategy and go in alone-seems he’s found where Ruby is hiding, and is going after him. Being that everyone is begging the party to go find him before he gets himself killed, Cecil and company go off, exploring the tunnels, until they run into a ninja squaring off against Ruby. Said ninja, who just so happens to be Prince Edge, loses and badly, but Ruby doesn’t kill him, instead telling him to try again later and vanishing into the ether. The party runs after and makes sure he doesn’t die, telling him as well that they have a common enemy in Rubicante and would be happy to help him get rid of the guy. After some debate and lolarity, as it turns out that Edge is the hot-blooded, arrogant, ladies’-man type, they all band together and Edge leads them down the tunnel the Eblanese were using.
Edge sneaks them all inside the Tower of Babil, and they continue climbing up to the peak of the tower, again fighting many mean monsters, until near the top they run into a couple of people Edge recognizes-the king and queen of Eblan, his parents. He’s intensely happy to see them, and so are they. They tell him to follow them, and when he asks where, they answer “To hell!”
Oh dear. Battle starts, not against two humans but against two monsters. Edge begs them to recognize him, but they just keep spewing out abuse and poison and fire until something snaps, and they come to their senses. They explain to Edge that they are monsters now, monsters incapable of maintaining self-control, and, while he begs them not to leave him, they kill themselves rather than remain potential tools of the enemy.
Ruby chooses now to show up. Bad, bad, bad idea. Edge tells him, not in so many words, that’s he is going to die, Ruby tells him that it’s not his fault his parents are dead as it was Proto-Hojo who did that to them. Ruby then monologues about the creature of man being slaves to their emotions and hence pathetic weaklings, but Edge shuts him up with a goddamn badass line and prepares to take him out. Cue boss fight and a decisive victory for the party. Fuck yeah. Ruby compliments them, says that Golbez will find them no easy prey, and then poofs into wherever it is he goes when he poofs.
It is at this point the ninja cavalry arrives. Bastards. Edge inquires about who this Golbez chap is, and gets the standard spiel. He concludes that Golbez has to go down for there to be any justice in this world, and decides that rebuilding the country can wait until after that. Off we go, to the very peak of the tower! Into the Crystal Chamber! Up to all those beautiful shinies-
A fucking trapdoor?! OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE.
The party falls the ENTIRE length of the tower, somehow not dying, and finds the ways back up have been sealed, and as you’ll recall, the areas where they were previously no longer have a floor. Jesus Christ. Having little else to do, they try and find a way out, and fortunately for them, they can force their way into an airship hangar, steal one, and go report the bad news to King Giott.
Giott takes it much better than I would, and tells them that their only chance then is to secure the crystal in the Sealed Cave, whose seal is being battered into nothingness by Golbez as we speak. He gives them the key to get in, and tells them where it is. When the party points out that their new ship is not equipped to handle flying over magma, he says “Can’t your airship man do something about that?” Blink. And then, they overhear dwarf nurses running around talking about the funny old man in the infirmary…
Yes. Somehow, Cid has survived jumping off a flying ship at several thousand feet, blowing himself up, and landing in rock and magma. I told you he was The Goddamn Batman.
Cid is plenty willing to help out with the modifications, and by the time he is done, the ship can fly any-damn-where it pleases. Unfortunately, all this work takes a toll on him, and he is once again bound to his bed in the infirmary. However, the party itself is feeling fine, and off they go to protect the final crystal!
Or not. First, they’re going to go hang out in the Sylph’s Cave, exploring it until they find the house of the Sylph Eidolons deep inside…who are busy nursing a comatose Yang. Holy shit! Nothing they can do will waken him, but at least he’s alive, right? The Sylph hurry them along, and their next stop is the Feymarch itself! Rydia mentions that it’d be a good idea to present themselves before the king and queen of the Eidolons, and so they do, and are blessed with their power. Fuck yeah!
Now into the Sealed Cave. It’s a straight shot (barring the monsters, of course) to the crystal, and the party begins to suspect that something is seriously wrong when there is no sign whatsoever of Golbez and his forces. I mean, he is supposed to be breaking in here, right? What gives? Kain himself is especially mistrusting of all this…until the trip back, Crystal in hand, where he is suspiciously quiet and appears to be stressed…
Once in the entry hall, Golbez’s voice booms from nowhere once more, commanding Kain to return to him. Kain collapses, and Cecil and Rosa both encourage him to fight off Golbez’s evil influence-he stands once more, stutters that he is fine…and suckerpunches Cecil, taking the Crystal from him and marching off. For the love of…
Once more, Cecil and company have no choice but to report the situation to King Giott. Giott does not slap Cecil in the mouth, proving that he is a better person than I am. He laments that all is lost, unless somehow the legend of the Lunar Whale came true. When the party is nonplussed, he begins to recite it, at which Cecil recognizes it as the bit of poetry written on his sword, the Mysidian legend. The dwarf king is astonished that Mysidia in fact exists, and is now convinced-because all this can hardly be coincidence-that the Lunar Whale is real and that if they go to Mysidia, now, it can be resurrected. Install a drill on the new airship so they can get back to the surface and in fact go between the surface and underworld at will, and away they go!
But not Mysidia. First, they have errands to run. Remember waaaay back before, when I mentioned Cecil running into the ghost of his king in the castle basements? Well, we’ve gone to the Feymarch, as he ordered, so Cecil comes back to report this to the royal ghost. Said royal ghost is in fact an Eidolon now, and he chooses to accompany Cecil on his quest, fuck yeah!
Now for a flight to Fabul, to go gently break the news to Yang’s wife (yes, he’s a monk and he has a wife I don’t get it either) about his coma. Poor woman is sad and angry all at once, and gives us an iron frying pan to use on Yang.
You can see where this is heading, can’t you?
Back in the underworld, back through the Sylph Cave, back into the Sylphs’ house. Cecil walks over to Yang’s bed, the Sylphs ask him what the hell he thinks he’s doing, he raises the frying pan high over his head, they gape in horror-WHANG! Yang is now conscious. He demands to go with him, but the Sylphs are adamant that he does not, and eventually, a compromise is reached: Yang will stay there and rest up, but the Sylphs will make themselves summonable whenever we have need of them. Whoo! Now to Mysidia.
Once there, the elder is there to greet Cecil and explain that he has been awaiting his arrival. He calls him up to the tower of prayer, and, in a great and tumultuous ritual, the Lunar Whale rises up from the bottom of the sea, and the elder gifts it to the party, explaining that he heard a voice telling them that if they go to the moon, they will find “him” waiting for them. And how to get to the moon? Why, that’s what the Lunar Whale is for! It is not in fact a whale, but instead an aircraft/spacecraft of some sort. So…off to the moon!
Whoo! Moon. The party is suitably impressed and awed that they are on the goddamn moon, which is kinda desert-like, in a way, and, all over the surface and through the tunnels they are chased by abyss worms. The more things change… Eventually, they find their way to an impressive edifice called The Crystal Palace. Exploring inside of it, they find an old man, clearly the one waiting for them. He introduces himself as Fusoya, the guardian of the sleeping Lunarians. …Wait, what?
Fusoya explains that the Lunarians are a people from a different planet, which went splodey and as such they fled it and wound up looking at the Blue Planet as a likely home-except that its inhabitants were still too primitive to interact with the Lunarians on an equal footing, so the Lunarians, being decent guys, decided to hibernate until such time as the two peoples could get on peaceably. Except there was this one guy, Zemus, who was all for killing off everyone and making the survivors into slaves and whatnot. Not a nice guy. So Fusoya had to muscle him into slumber, but apparently he’s been mind-controlling people while faking sleep or whatnot, and Cecil figures out that this means Golbez the mind-controller was himself mind-controlled. Now that’s what you call ironic.
Fusoya continues his expositing, explaining that the “great power” on the moon is the Giant of Babil, and that’s what all the crystals gathered together will allow to rampage on Earth. This cannot be allowed to happen. Cecil then inquires about the Lunar Whale, which is quite obviously not native to their planet. Fusoya tells him that said ship was built by his younger brother, Kluya, who wanted to explore their planet, and brought with him gifts from the advanced Lunarian society, such as airships. While he was there, according to Fusoya, “he fell in love with a woman of your planet. She later bore him two
children. One of them was you.”
Record scratch.
The party stops and stares at Cecil, who himself pretty much runs up to Fusoya and grabs him by the collar. Cecil asks him about the voice at Mount Ordeals, and Fusoya confirms that the voice was his father, who remained on until that time in spirit. Anyhow, they can talk later, because they’ve got to get into the Tower of Babil before the Giant is awakened. Off the five of them go, back to the planet!
Except that they get there just in time to watch the Tower of Babil shake, lightning crackle around it, and big waves of lava crash…then the Giant rises, and that sucker makes mountains look small. From its footsteps come earthquakes, and the tips of its fingers shoot lasers that blow up islands.
The party is dumbstruck, horrified beyond reason, and right about to despair…when some airships zoom in and blast the head, while tanks pepper the feet with shells. The tanks are being led by the dwarves and Yang, and the airships are being flown by Cid, the Mysidians including Palom and Porom, as the elder has dispelled their petrification, and even Edward! The entire armed forces of the goddamn world have come to whack that Giant, advanced spaceman technology or no! Fusoya sees a new opportunity, and orders Cid to fly them to the mouth so they can get inside it and destroy its inner parts. Fuck yeah, the Goddamn Batman says, and we are now here to kick Giant ass and take Giant names.
Except for this teensy-weensy problem, as once they get inside, Ruby finds them. And he’s not alone-he’s brought Scarmy, Cagz, and Barb with him. Ruby explains that he is not going to let them win that easily, and in fact plans to take out the party, this time using teamwork! Cue bossy fighty, and when that is done and the Fab Four have been killed off for good, Cecil and company proceed to destroy the Giant’s CPU. The Giant proceeds to grind to a halt. VICTORY!
Or not. Guess who should show up but Golbez, and he’s mighty pissed about that meddling old man. Said meddler is dumbstruck at the sight of Golbez, and asks him if he is still himself. Taking Golbez’s confusion for a no, Fusoya casts a spell, and Golbez returns to his senses. Golbez, still being shell-shocked, is asked some basic memory testing questions by Fusoya, like how you might ask someone who just got knocked on the head how many fingers you’re holding up. One of the questions is if Golbez remembers his father. Golbez replies in the affirmative and says his father’s name was Kluya.
You think that was OMGWTF?! It gets better. Cecil muses on the fact that while he was forced to war with his own brother, it could have just as easily been that Zemus chose to mindcontrol him instead, and forced Golbez to fight him-which Golbez shoots down immediately. Zemus took hold of the evil within him, which was always there, as he was the one who abandoned his infant brother in the wilderness.
Cecil is reduced to jaw-dropped disbelief, but it’s not over yet. Golbez explains the following: His father, Kluya, was murdered by people who disagreed with his pacifist teaching before Cecil was born; because his mother’s pregnancy was extremely difficult she was counseled to abort, but did not, and died as a result of giving birth to him; all this happened in the village of Mist, which, as you’ll recall, Cecil himself destroyed; the King of Baron mostly took Cecil in out of guilt at forcing his mother into exile; and as a result of all this, Golbez was taken over by Zemus and fled the civilized world.
Cecil doesn’t say a word as Golbez finishes his story. Golbez says farewell to Cecil, saying he is going “to put an end to this.” Fusoya goes with him. The party tries to talk to Cecil, clearly distressed (“That man means to die”), but the issue is put on hold as the Giant has begun its final collapse and they need to get out of there. A voice knows the way, and will guide them along, but-the voice belongs to Kain. Against the better judgment of certain members, they follow him, and get out of the Giant before it’s too late. After, Rosa explains to Kain about the whole Zemus thing and that Fusoya and Golbez are going to the moon to stop Zemus, and Kain offers to help-and orders them to kill him if he gets mindcontrolled one more time. So, off they go. To the moon. The time has come to stop Zemus once and for all.
It’s a long, brutal journey, all the way to the eerily, ethereally beautiful center of the moon. When they get there, they find Fusoya and Golbez engaged in battle with Zemus, casting everything they have and some that they don’t, until Zemus at last seems to fall. Cecil and party congratulate Golbez and Fusoya, but Cecil is still unable to speak directly to his brother.
It is at this point that Zemus rises again-as Zeromus, who refers to himself as a hate given form, as evil tapped into by Zemus in his death throes. Golbez and Fusoya try again to stop him, but there is nothing they can do. They fall, while attempting to use another crystal, as does the rest of the party under the force of Zeromus’s power. It is at this point that Cecil calls Golbez his brother for the first time, and Golbez gives him the crystal, saying “It must be you.”
The party is nearly dead, but back on earth, their allies are doing things the Mysidian way: prayer. Via prayer, the party is brought back to full strength, and Cecil makes the crystal glow with holy power-after that, it is only a matter of time before Zeromus at last falls. Though he promises to return, as evil can only resurrect him, he is shot down with the reminder than even if he does, good can only stop him once more.
Fusoya states that the time is now for him to return and once more sleep with his people, beneath the surface of the moon. Golbez asks to accompany him, as he cannot return to earth, not after all he has wrought. Golbez bids Cecil farewell, and Cecil returns it, once again calling him his brother-this time, the last.
Back on earth, the rebuilding starts-Edward in Damcyan, Yang in Fabul, the Dwarves underground, the mages in Mysidia, Rydia in the Feymarch, Edge in Eblan, and Kain-Kain in Mount Ordeals, as Cecil before him.
As for Cecil, he is busy preparing for his coronation. Baron has decided that he shall be their king, because who else is there that could possibly compare? All his allies come, and are given places of honor, though Cid’s is perhaps the greatest of all, as it is he who places the crown on Cecil’s head, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity for all of the world.