My destination doesn’t appear to be the Witch Village. I guess it’s somewhere on the previous map. Since I’m backtracking, there’s still that same battle on the way. But I get the option to skip it. Despite that, I choose to take it. Lucia needs levels, after all.
Oh, hey! Theo’s Intermission heart is full! It’s not blue, though, so I might have one or two more to do with him. Still, that’s great. And here’s a random observation: my guys still get experience when their attacks miss.
OK, unimportant battle is over. I get 4000 Rico, three Magi Mints, and a Magi Soda. I intermission with Lucia. She asks if I’m amazed by her magic. My options are “Can you teach me?” “Magic is for weaklings!” and “It looks pretty convenient.” I pick the third. She says that it is convenient, but it’s also difficult. There’s a lot of focus and hard work involved, and not just anyone can do it. But that doesn’t seem to be the best option.
Anyway, I keep moving. I go past the Witch Village, and…oh wait. Looks like I did have to go here. Mel says this is the place. Claire says she’s been waiting for us. All of a sudden, someone else speaks, asking who it is. Claire addresses someone named Master Pa-Pa, saying that we’re all back. He comes on screen, revealing that he’s the bearded manatee-looking critter from the beginning of the game. You know, the one who wanted me to pick a name for the new Vitae? Yeah, that guy. You’d probably forgotten about that by now. I know I did when I first played this game.
Nicolai is surprised that the animal in front of him is talking. Is it more Witch magic? Leon thinks he’s a seal. Or is he a sea lion? Cecille says isn’t he a manatee? Mel says we’re all rude. He’s the Great Sage, Payan-Payan! Nicolai and Leon are surprised. The Sage says is he not allowed to talk? Is he not allowed to be a sage? This is a perfect example of how closed-minded humans can be!
Claire introduces us as “the dragon child and his friends.” Sage Payan says that it appears that he has a great burden on his shoulders. We want to use the power of the Draconic Geode to uncurse him, right? He understands. He calls for someone called Pollon-Pollon, and another manatee thing comes along. This one is white, and is wearing a knight’s helmet. Payan asks him to turn the Draconic Geode into a charm to stop Theo’s transformation.
Pollon asks if he can take a look at Theo, and Theo agrees. Pollon recognizes it as Vanessa’s rune, and starts talking about its attributes. But apparently, we have all he needs to make it.
So apparently, Pollon is a student of Payan’s. He can imbue items, meaning he can add Vitae to items to create new ones. After a bit of explaining, the game says that I can now visit the workshop to do just that.
Alph and Theo thank everyone for helping them. Lucia says she wishes she had friends like them, and Cecille seems confused. She’s our friend too, right? Lucia seems confused. Alph says that she’s helped us out a lot, so of course she’s our friend. Leon remarks on how odd it is that they were raised to destroy Witches, but now they’re all friends. After all, there aren’t any evil witches here. Pollon comes along, saying that the charm is done. He gives it to Theo, and that’s over with. We go back to the village, and Claire tells the group to make themselves at home. Also, I can now play multiplayer battles. Not that it makes any difference – I don’t know anyone else that owns this game.
While everyone’s getting to sleep, Alph finally asks Lucia what a Rym is. She says a Rym is a dragon that is stronger than the gods. When the hearts of a Dragon and a Witch become one, it becomes a Rym. This then leads to a rather amusing moment where Alph asks what she means by putting their hearts together. Lucia, flustered, says they have to think about each other. After a bit of an awkward silence, Alph asks her how she can say something that cheesy with a straight face. Lucia gets defensive and reminds him that he asked for it. Finally, Alph asks why she and Vanessa want Ryms, anyway. Lucia says it’s to defeat their god. Apparently, this god is about to awaken, and when he does, he’ll consume the planet. It’s up to the Witches to stop him from doing that. Alph is still confused, but they agree to talk about this tomorrow.
Anyway, the scene switches to the next morning. Theo says that his arm is back to normal, but now he can use the dragon’s power whenever he wants. I get a little message saying that Theo is now a Rym Guardian. This is technically a class change, but it’s in name only. Gameplay wise, there’s no difference.
The menu comes up. I can choose “Action,” or “Workshop.” I go to the workshop first. I get all my Vitae appraised, but I don’t really want to bother unequipping my stuff so that I can imbue it. I’ll probably replace it soon, anyway. Maybe I’ll mess with this later.
My Action options are to talk to Lucia, talk to Leon, or go to the library. Strangely enough, there’s no option to go back to the world map this time. Maybe I’ll just save at the beginning of whatever battle I’ll have to do. Talking to Lucia gives me a conversation about how all the Witches seem to have something on their minds. She says yeah, they have to save the planet. They’ve been living in their forest for a long time now, but since the church’s god is about to awaken, they can’t just sit back and relax anymore.
Talking to Leon yields a conversation with him and Cecille. She’s still worried about the Church and the Witches. The Witches don’t seem to be inherently evil. Were all the things they were told just meant to cloud their minds and hide the truth? She’s confused, but she thinks she can find the answer if she just takes some time to think. Leon agrees to that, but he says that if she needs someone to talk to, she shouldn’t hesitate to talk to him. And then Nicolai bursts in, and starts yelling at Leon for monopolizing Cecille. Oh, shut up. It’s not like you ever listen to what she has to say. Thankfully, Alph goes and tells Nicolai that Claire was looking for him. That gets rid of him pretty quickly. Alph and Leon agree to give Cecille some peace and quiet.
Next, I go to the library. There are three books, “Ancient Battle,” “Witches and Rym,” and “Mother Lapis.” I look at the first one first. It says that a thousand years ago, when everything was peaceful, a strange being appeared. It fed off the life force of the creatures that lived on the planet. This being is now known as the Luminous God. It nearly destroyed the planet, but the planet used its energy to create the Witches and dragons in order to fight the god’s power. The Witches and dragons used their opposing powers to defeat God with some kind of ultimate rune. This power caused darkness to envelop the world. The last of the dragons was about to die, but it managed to create the barrier around the Lethe Forest with the last of its strength, and escaped to somewhere unknown. The Witches that remained were put to rest within the Lethe Forest, held within the Mother Lapis until they were needed again. They will be called upon again to protect the planet if it is ever in danger. Interesting stuff.
The second book says that the Witches and dragons were created by the planet to do battle with God. The Witches have great offensive power, and the dragons had incredible defensive powers. The dragons protected the planet while the Witches fought against God. Many of both beings fell during the battle, and the Witches used their last resort. There are a lot of ellipses in this next part, but it talks about how a Witch unleashed her power after losing her dragon, and defeated God at the cost of her own life. Without the dragons, though, the world went into a state comparable to what God would have done to it. Alph then remarks that some of the pages are (conveniently) torn, and he can’t read them.
The last book says that Mother Lapis is the crystal that holds all seven elemental powers. The Lapis gave birth to the Witches, and grants them her powers when the planet faces crisis. Mother Lapis can also absorb the Witches and put them to sleep. However, some Witches prefer to stay awake and live out their lives. When their lives are about to end, their souls return to Mother Lapis and their power is passed down to new Witches.
Honestly, I kind of like all this backstory. Makes me wish that the game explored this stuff a bit more. Like, where did Alph and Theo come from? Where did the dragons go, anyway? And why the heck do the two of them look human? Did the Church know that they were dragons, or did they just find them in the middle of nowhere? It’s really frustrating that stuff like this is never properly explained.
Anyway. I choose to advance the story, as there’s no option to go to the world map. Alice shows up and says that Vanessa is trying to take the Nature Lapistier. Claire is doing her best to stop her, but we still have to help.
Vanessa asks Claire to give her the Lapistier, and Claire refuses. Vanessa says she doesn’t want to do anything she’ll regret, so she asks again. Claire asks her what she wants with it, and Vanessa says that she wants to stop some plot going on at the Jeidath Research Center. Whatever they’re doing will cause trouble later on. She wants to destroy the place.
Claire says she’s going about it the wrong way, but Vanessa says that if they do things Claire’s way, it’ll be too late. The god is waking up faster than they think. Claire starts to doubt herself again, but Alph and the others come in just in time. Mavi gets pissed at Vanessa for coming after the village’s Lapistier. Anyway, Vanessa decides that she’s outnumbered, so she decides to wreck the research center with the Lapistier she already has. She warps away.
Claire isn’t sure if she should have given her the Lapistier, but Payan shows up and says that she made the right choice. We then get some information about Jediath. It’s a place where the Church has been experimenting with Rune and other things. They’re famous for their work with medicine. Nonetheless, Claire feels an evil energy coming from there. Nicolai says that over a thousand people work there, and if we don’t stop Vanessa, they’ll be in danger. So it sounds like we have to go there and stop her.
Before we go, Payan sends Pollon to come along with us. Now lemme make something clear. Pollon is what we like to call a Joke Character. He’s absolutely useless. His attacks would do a lot of damage…if his accuracy wasn’t as abysmal as it is. His spells would be good…if his magic power was halfway decent. So I’m not going to make the mistake of trying to use him. He’s basically there to fill up space. Kind of like Kai…but we haven’t seen him yet, so I won’t say too much there.
So. Anyway. That whole thing didn’t have any plot-significant battle. Technically, it’s not the next chapter yet, but it was awfully long. We did get some interesting information, though. Either the Church is horribly mislead, or they're just assholes. I suppose we’ll find out later.
Before I end this, I do have one last thing to say. Once I’m done with this liveblog, I’m planning to do a Let’s Watch of an anime series called Last Exile. I watched it not too long ago. It was quite good. It also does not seem to be very well-known, so maybe doing a liveblog would help draw attention to it. If you like this liveblog, then I’d appreciate it if you checked that one out once I start it. That’s all. :)
