Raguna is starting to worry. No one has sent him any mail in the last week or so. He wonders if they may be preparing something big for the end-of-year festival, and thus don't have time to send any sort of correspondence. The Runey population is beginning to dwindle again, so he seeks out Candy to see where his help is needed most. The Public Square is in trouble, and the Business District and Mountain Road are in danger of dying off. He gets his trusty Harvester out and begins to replenish the troubled areas with Runeys from his own farm and the areas near Mist's house, which always seem to be plentiful with Runey activity.
Instead of going to the Snow Ruins to continue his descent, he spends the rest of the day clearing the debris from his fields so that his monster friends don't have to do as much work. The gambit appears to be paying off, as his fields no longer look like a hedge maze.
Brodik mumbles something about Raguna being "destined to leave the village when the year ends", but as usual, Raguna pays him no mind.
Later on the next day, Raguna goes down to the Snow Ruins, only to find out that his path through B3 is blocked by a large door. Mist and Candy come down to help. They were led here by a voice asking them for help. Candy says that a lot of Spirits are inside this ruin, and thinks that they might be connected to Whale Island. After Raguna struggles to open the door, Mist steps forward, and the doors swiftly slide apart.
They walk forward to see a large cluster of negative spirit energy. Mist hears a song coming from the direction of the Rune cluster, which Candy recognizes as a Spirit Melody. It sounds just like the one that everyone is able to hear from the Town Square. Suddenly, a girl who looks like Iris appears before them. However, she's wearing black, and has mismatched eyes that are the opposite color of Iris. Candy says that the girl's song is drawing the runes in, and she has to be stopped before Whale Island loses its runes and crashes to the ground. Raguna tries to reason with the girl, but she says that song is all she has. Out of nowhere, Gelwein comes in (dun dun dunnnn! Big Bad alert! Big Bad alert!), telling her that she's worthless, and that she only needs to listen to him and keep singing. Gelwein recognizes Raguna as the boy who talked a lot with Iris "Blanche", and mocks him for not knowing the difference between Iris Blanche and Iris "Noire", the girl standing before them and singing. They're two separate entities, but the one on the island is not really Iris. There once was a girl who lived in Trampoli, and split in two because she wanted someone to talk to. She is the last of a vampire tribe who are closest to the Spirits in this world. She also knows how to communicate with them through Spirit Melodies. The two Irises supposedly kept the balance of the Spirits in check through their song. Gelwein's plan was to isolate Iris Blanche and stop her from singing while allowing Iris Noire to continue her song, thus drawing the spirits away from the Great Whale and deep underground, thus giving fruit to the Dark Rune. But what does Gelwein care of the Great Whale should crash and kill the villagers of Trampoli? They called him mad and cast him out! Raguna draws his sword and prepares to attack, but Gelwein sends Iris Noire after him.
Noire commands great magical power, pelting Raguna with fireballs, icicles, and dark energy. He can't get close enough to hit her, so he focuses his energy on the magical boxes surrounding the rune. He puts up a valiant fight, but one of the fireballs hits him, knocking him out. Lara manages to save him in time, but Raguna wakes up on the day of the Year-End festival with a nasty cold. Bummer.
