I take a breather to acquire Shiva in the ice dungeon and run all the way back to Deist to try my hand at the bonus dungeon. This time I manage to get all the treasures, but have to make liberal use of the until-now useless Flee ability. There's a nice sword and a Protect Bangle inside.
Back to Rusalka, we jump into the water where it bubbles suspiciously and sink down into the Underwater Palace. Doors to the next floor are guarded by Nereids, but they're extremely weak to thunder and thus easy to deal with.
There are mermaids here and there in the Palace, who inform me that a witch has kidnapped Edna and taken her to the lowest level of the temple. That's probably our mermaid. One of them also tells me that Edna once made a deal with the witch to save her son from a fatal illness. Crap, I hope this isn't going where it looks like it's going.
One of the floors has a puzzle involving candles, but it's ridiculously easy - just move the three candles to the three sconces.
When we reach the bottom, a mermaid is there. She is very happy to see Eduardo, but before we can say much a woman in a hooded robe appears. She thanks Eddy for delivering her the Light Warriors, which is kinda cocky of her if you ask me. She introduces herself as Styx of the Water, and claims that everything so far has been to lead us into this trap. Okay...
Boss fight! Styx is pretty darn hard, since she tends to spam a nasty water attack that hits everyone for 400-500 damage and causes the Sap status. She also tends to cast Mini on the fighters. We pull through, but it's a near thing.
Styx is a sore loser, because she immediately makes to kidnap Edna once things don't go her way. The black mage-like person that Sol saw on the docks earlier appears, and blasts her aside with a Thundara spell. Why didn't we think of that?
He tells Sol that things have been set in motion, and disappears. His dialog box announces that his name is "The Mask." Mysterious!
Edna and Eduardo are reunited, and thank all the little gods that they both know that they're mother and son already. Edna kisses Eduardo (on the forehead), and it turns him back into a human. She tells him it isn't time for him to return yet, but she'll be watching over him always. Her tears start to sparkle and change into a crystal, which gives us the Bard class.
We use a handy teleport tile to return to the top of the temple. Just as we're floating up towards the surface, Styx reappears. She says we were stupid to think she would be defeated in her own element, and throws off her robe to reveal her Stripperiffic attire. Her less than practical clothes also seem to come with a power-up, because she's much tougher as a boss this time around.
She uses a "reduce party to single digits" attack shortly into the battle, revealing that this is actually a Hopeless Boss Fight. Just when all seems lost for our heroes, she gets hit by a cannonball.
It's Bikke! He's shown up just in time to rescue us. He continues pounding Styx with the cannons while we float up to the surface. On Bikke's ship, he reveals that some guy in a mask told him that Sol was in trouble. That guy is just full of indirect helpfulness.
We cut to a dark mountain, which probably means it's in the World of Darkness. There's a man in purple armor there, with ??? for a name. He says that Nacht is alive - but whether he thinks that's good or bad is impossible to tell.
And that's the end of this chapter, time to switch to the Dark Warriors.
We rejoin our Dark Heroes at a grave. Queen Clique and Prince Adrian are here, so no prizes for guessing whose. Clique thinks we're no match for the Empire and she refuses to ally with us, saying that they first need to rebuild their kingdom. Instead, she gives us a missive to the dwarves, saying they might help us.
Yeah, thanks for nothing, lady. Good luck rebuilding when the Empire conquers you.
Adrian is slightly more useful, he gives us a ride on a gryphon to the Dwarven lands. But not too helpful, he dumps us off in a forest instead of on their doorstep.
We seem to have landed near a village called Kurgis, which is entirely inhabited by stereotypical hicks and rednecks. They say there's a Black Knight ghost in Umberwood and we shouldn't go there. So of course the only way to the Dwarven village is through there.
There's a rift here that takes me back to Alfheim, but there's nothing I need back there right now.
Umberwood is pretty dark and gloomy, which is saying a lot since we're in the World of Darkness. I'd gotten used to being uber powerful with the Light Warriors - this is quite a step down. The Dark Warriors are not only a step behind, but I swear their encounters are more difficult than those the LW encountered at the same level.
We run into the Black Knight we saw earlier. Glaive thinks it's the ghost of a long-dead knight. Nacht doesn't think so. Alba doesn't care, she just wants Nacht to keep it away from her. Diana thinks he looked sad rather than evil.
All right then. As we traverse the forest, the knight shows up a few more times, guiding us further in. Stop running away already! I know you're my next Guest-Star Party Member.
We finally catch up to him, and he seems surprised that we're not scared of him. He finally gets a good look at Nacht, and seems pretty shocked to see him. He runs off. Again. Alba thinks Nacht is a "reverse ghost whisperer."
Next time, on Dimensions: Lali ho! It's the land of the Dwarves.
