Ouroboros: The loop is broken... no! There's more than one loop! There are two infinite loops! Impossible! I am the only incarnation of infinity! But here somehow is another! I have myself been looped! Drake is a powerful opponent, but I am quite a bit stronger... if my past self stops him here, the loop will never resolve! Destiny itself will break!
The reason Arthur pulled Drake and Jimenez from the mission, it's discovered, is due to another ship being detected in Sector Carina, suspected of being the missing Gigantic. Though Jimenez has misgivings about staving off getting home, he's ultimately convinced that if there are other humans in the Schwartzwelt, they should be saved rather than sealed off into the demon world.
Dantalian: Quite a logical thing to say, though I've never known humans to be that altruistic...
The signal is coming from the fourth floor of Carina; just take the elevator up and look for the hidden door. Inside you'll find not the Gigantic but the Lightning, a prototype ship that wasn't even supposed to be on this mission!
Drake: Oh no...
Gurr: JAAAAAAAAACK!!!
At its helm is Captain Jack, a ruthless Private Military Contractor. It transpires that the prototype ship and DEMONICAs were sold to a private corporation (and of course they're far more powerful than the final product for no apparent reason), which hired Captain Jack and his squad to enter the Schwartzwelt to see if they could make money off its resources. He's obviously total slime, but, unfortunately, he holds the literal key to the Vanishing Point, and requests a deal: give him three rare forma from Eridanus in exchange for the updated Gate Search app.
Ghoul: You cannnnn't be serioussss... after what he did to my frieeeeeendssss...?
Drake: It makes me sick to my stomach, too. You, Gurr, Legion, Pisaca... he did horrible things to your kind. He's the only guy with the Gate Search we need in the entire Schwartzwelt, though. Unfortunately, we'll need to play along...
Gurr: GAH!
As if working for this guy wasn't bad enough, he forma he needs are contained within a pair of exceptionally cruel mazes, a teleporter maze and a pitfall/one-way door maze. Actually, the mazes themselves are relatively simple... it's just that the game doesn't want you to know that. Both are contained in a massive complex, the vast majority of which is a dummy. Seriously. The Ghoul blocking the first teleporter leaves, getting you into the next part of the level. From here take the northernmost warp. Grab the treasure here and take the southernmost warp. In the next room, take the western warp. Then take the eastern warp, then the southern warp. This dumps you in front of the first forma you need, the Hydro Apple.
Orthrus: MMM, LOOK TASTY!
I forgot to mention there's some new demons around here, like Orthrus and Yurlungur, who use fire and ice, Dominion, the next angel rank up, and Fuu-ki, who has the fifth-tier wind spell, Garudyne (the first wild demon with a -dyne spell). The two most notable foes around here, though, are Legion and Vivian. Legion isn't a particularly useful ally and his main skill is being an Action Bomb in a game where there's no real downside to having a full party, but, being weak to Physical, is excellent for source grinding due to how easy he is to set up co-ops on. Vivian is the most annoying demon in the area due to having Frolic, a Charm-inflicting spell that targets the entire party and is way more accurate than anything with that description has any right to be. If you can recruit her, though, she's just as powerful an ally.
Anyway, the right warp here in the Hydro Apple room is the top one. This sends you to a differently-shaped room with two warps, take the first one of these you come to. You're almost done now. Take the south warp here and you're at the end. The second forma, Ice-10, is right here.
Ame no Uzume: I'm going to be ill...
The absolute most important thing to do now is feel around for hidden doors, or else it's another trip through the teleport maze for you. And what's on the other side of the hidden door? ANOTHER MAZE!
Drake, Thunderbird, Gucumatz: NOOOOO!
Those guys joined up, by the way. Thunderbird has the -dyne level thunder spell and Gucumatz has Megido and is a good choice to give high-level fire spells to, which will be useful in a minute.
The one-way door maze is not nearly as intimidating as it looks... just good luck realizing the the first time through! In fact, once you find the hidden door, all you have to do is look for another hidden door to the southeast, go up the stairs past that door, then fall down the hole at the end of the long passage on the far right on the new floor. From there, take the stairs up, then take the stairs down, and presto, there's the X-Metal. Fortunately, there's a hidden door leading to the main part of the level around here, eliminating the need to do either maze ever again.
Drake: Motherflipping 'argh.
Fork over the forma to Jack, jack forks over the gate search, and now it's time to get to the Vanishing Point. But first, there's some stuff to do. The new gate search grants access to a room that, mysteriously, it seems you've already been to before. Remember the Hopeless Boss Fight with Yggdrasil? Yeah, that happened here, and it becomes apparent that the warrior who defeated the tree was none other than Drake's own future self!
Koppa Tengu: Oy yoy yoy...
Beating him gets the right to fuse him, his keeper Norn, and a ring that boosts all stats!
Drake: Nifty!
Now it's time for the boss, but first a bit of fancy fusing. Optimum choices here are Balor and Kingu, powerful fire-users, you'll see why. You can also pull off a little trick with Fuu-ki, Sui-ki, and their brother Kin-ki; combined, they make the very powerful Ongyo-ki (who I won't be using for a while).
Maia Ouroboros, personification of infinity and controller of the Schwartzwelt, is a worthy final boss. So many bases need to be covered to effectively fight her, and even then she can turn the best of strategies upside-down with a few lucky hits. The most important things to have during this fight are: lots of fire-users of the same alignment, at least one Phys reflector, and nobody weak to thunder. This is because she has Wave of Death and Thunder Reign, two powerful multi-target attacks that can defeat almost anything in two hits. With a Phys reflector, however, this damage can be sent back at her, shaving off several hundred of her own HP. She's weak to fire, which is why you bring Balor and Kingu, who can both dish out damage and co-op with each other. For healing, I made a Kukunochi.
Kukunochi: Relax, man, I can take care of ya!
There's still a significant chance factor in this fight, though, due to her final two attacks: she has Mahama, a multi-target instant-death spell that seems more accurate than when the generic demons use it; this hits one of your fire-users and you'll waste several turns. The second is Disaster Cycle, which inflicts status ailments at random to the party; this gets the protag with Stone or Bomb and it's basically lights out. And when you beat her once, she Turns Red and starts using Wave of Death and Disaster Cycle much more often. Fortunately, you can save and heal between the two fights. In both my first playthrough and my new one, it came down to Drake vs. her, with a fire gun.
Drake: Gah... That was a tough one. Sorry I couldn't keep you guys with me.
Balor: Worry not, little friend; it takes more than that to drop a demon.
Drake: There's the Exotic Matter... taking that last time allowed those horrible men to send us deeper into the Schwartzwelt, leading to Zelenin, Jimenez, and so many others... This journey seems to have been all about my choices, so here I'll make one that never even occurred to me last time. I leave that Exotic Matter there. Come on everyone, we're leaving. We're going home.
???: I'd go back in there and pick that up, if I were you.
Drake: Wha...? You!
To be continued...
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