I head over to the Magical Forest. Like I said last time, there are no battles on the way. Once I get there, Alph asks Lucia what she means by “Witch village.” Lucia states the obvious for him – it’s a village of Witches, and it’s where they all live. She says it’s in the Lethe Forest, which gets Nicolai all excited because his theory was correct. She doesn’t know who he is, so Cecille introduces her. Saki introduces herself as well.
Lucia says that before they get to the Lethe Forest, they need to stop somewhere. She claims there’s something that will help Theo’s condition. Alph, of course, agrees to it.
I’m given the menu again. Since I’m out in the middle of the forest, I can’t shop, so I go straight to “action.” And the game sends me back to the map, because it thinks that’s what I pressed. Maybe I should use the buttons when I’m not in battles…
Anyway, I save and go back. I can talk to Lucia, Cecille, or Saki. I go down the list, talking to Lucia first. Alph asks her what she’s been up to, and she says she’s been busy. Alph says she better not have been doing anything bad, like stealing Lapistier or attacking innocent people. Lucia, irritated, says she wasn’t. She may be a Witch like Vanessa, but the two of them are very different people.
Next, I talk to Cecille. She’s worried about the idea of going to the Witch village and accepting their help. We are members of the Church, after all. The rest of the group assures her that it’s OK. We’re going to help Theo, and that can’t be bad. Talking to Saki has her ask Lucia how exactly we’re going to help Theo. Lucia says that there’s a stone that can cancel out Rune, and that that’s what we need. Simple enough.
So I select the option to continue the story. Cecille is still worried about getting help from Witches. She thinks that the Church could probably help them if we asked them to. Alph offers to let her go back to the Garden. Not only her, either. He wants everyone else to go back, and for only him and Theo to keep going. He doesn’t want everyone to be in trouble because of them.
Leon refuses. He says that he and Alph have been together for longer than he can remember. Nicolai wants to come too, because he’ll never get another chance to see the village. Saki is coming too, for Theo’s sake.
All of a sudden, Nicolai senses that there’s another Witch nearby. Lucia confirms this, saying that there is another Witch living around here. She calls for someone named Vivi. Right on cue, the Witch shows up. She looks like this
◊, and it says “Sky Witch” where her name usually would be. Lucia says she seems well, and Vivi confirms this, saying that she took a nice long nap that day. She talks kind of slowly, dragging out some of her words. Lucia introduces her to everyone. Nicolai, as usual, goes nuts.
Lucia tells Vivi that she needs the Chronos Gem. When Theo asks her what that is, she says that she needs it to remove the curse. Vivi agrees, on one condition. We have to play tag with her. If we can catch her, she’ll give it to us. Alph says that sounds easy, but Lucia says that Vivi is really fast.
Lucia says that in order to catch her, two of us need to “sandwich” her. That is, I need two of my guys on opposite sides of her.
Looks like Lucia is going to help us. She’s level 16, and I have to bring her in. I bring the whole group.
Looking around, it looks like I’ve got to deal with six Fukopins (wind Kopins) as well. They’ll attack, so I have to be careful. It’d probably be best to take them out before I try to focus on catching Vivi.
Saki tries to attack one of them, but she does nothing. She does level, though. She’s attacked by two different Fukopins after that. When it comes to Lucia’s turn, I find that her magic isn’t nearly as useful as it was in the second battle. Cecille levels after healing Saki.
If I remember correctly, Vivi has pretty incredible movement. I check, and find that I’m right. She can move five spaces, and can jump four. Pretty impressive. Oh, and by the way, she’s riding a flying carpet. Figures, given that she’s got that whole “genie girl” look.
OK, one Fukopin down. Saki is getting mobbed by the remaining ones. Two Fukopins down. Alph attacks three of them with his Shotgun skill. I find it funny that he has two skills named after two different types of guns, but he only has one gun with him.
Vivi buffs her Kopins for accuracy. I move Saki away from harm, and have Nicolai move in to kill another Fukopin. Oh, wait, one of them was able to attack Saki. She dies. This really sucks, because Saki can move about as far as Vivi can. She would have been extremely useful.
Also, Vivi attacks Nicolai from long range, with her regular attack. She can use ranged attacks, but most of the Witches aren’t very good physical attackers anyway.
I check to see if I can revive Saki. Nope, no revival items. ‘’Crap.’’ Oh look, Theo leveled to 19, and got a new flash drive. There appears to be only one Fukopin left. Once I take it out, I can try and go after Vivi. And…oh wait, there’s two left. I have Alph and Lucia attack the one that I didn’t see before. Cecille finishes it. Leon and Alph finishes off the last Fukopin, and Alph learns a new skill.
OK, time to get serious. I have everyone chasing after Vivi. It’s pretty much up to luck at this point. And…oh my GOD, Vivi is a cheater. She just moved onto the water, where no one can follow her. UGH! Guess I’ll wait for her to move off of there. Cecille heals Nicolai for the exp, and she levels.
Vivi attacks Nikolai, and I move him next to her. But then she moves again. Thankfully, I’m catching up to her. This shouldn’t take much longer.
Once I have a bunch of my guys near her, she moves…once space. Wow. That was stupid. This’ll be easy now. Aaand, there we go. Cecille and Leon did it. My spoils are 2200 Rico, a PrlCharm, a HolyWing, and an FP-Fizzy. A Holy Wing? Finally!
I intermission with Cecille again.
Anyway, we’ve caught Vivi, so she gives us the Chronos Gem. Lucia tries to talk her into helping us stop Vanessa (with an interesting comment about how Lapistier are for healing the planet), but Vivi doesn’t feel like it. She leaves. Saki offers to escort Cecille back to the Ever Garden, but Cecille decides that she really does want to come along. She seems pretty sure about her decision. And it’s time for an intermission. She says she really respects me. My options are “You really shouldn’t,” “You respect me? That’s all?” or “I respect you too, Cecille.” I choose the bottom answer, and get another HolyWing. Wow. Thanks, Cecille!
Kopin says that he fell into the river while trying to get a pail of water. Fish nibbled on him, so he’s a bit smaller.
I have at least one battle ahead of me, but I can’t tell if there are others because my path goes off my current section of the map. Doesn’t matter, really, since the chapter is over.
Next time, we’ll be going to the Lethe Forest. Maybe we’ll find out more about these mysterious Witches and their motives.
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