Quetzalcoatl: Hmph, so it's this battle again. I gotta say I have no real clue why Drake, if he wanted to save his friends' lives, made the same choice as last time, but humans never made much sense to me. Those people back there were seriously creepy, but they made it pretty clear if he'd taken their offer humanity'd never have to deal with us again. What makes you tick, Sinclair Drake? Something about destiny goes wrong whenever you're around...
Quetzalcoatl is an exceedingly useful demon; the simplest combination to make him is Berserker and Ananta, which is why I recruited them back there. He has Salvation, the top-ranked healing spell in the game, and is resistant to Gun, which'll be very important. I also brought Cabracan, who I sourced a Gun resistance into, and Rangda, who reflects it.
Rangda: Nya ah ah, this'll certainly be an eventful fight.
Cabracan: Theeeeeepeeeeeeeersoooooondoooooowntheeeeeseestaaaaaaaiiiirsiiiiiiiiissss...
Drake: I know. I guess all I can do is just not let him see me cry.
If you haven't guessed, the next boss is Jimenez. While he retains more of his humanity than Zelenin, and regrets having to fight Drake, he's more committed to Mem Aleph and Louisa's cause at this point than he is to the mission, and sees Drake as an obstacle, siding with a humanity that will never learn its lesson.
Momunofu: He's kinda got a point...
Drake: Jimenez...
As such, he attacks. He's another boss that if you don't know what you're doing here you'll end up dying repeatedly. His signature skill is the ridiculously-broken Chaos Tack, the most powerful Gun skill in the game (and of course, you can't get it). Anything weak to Gun is dying in one hit from this, and anything "normal" to Gun in two. Doesn't matter how high-leveled you are. And it hits the entire party. I also gave Drake the Gun-resistant Armor Vest for this battle. Jimenez is also the first boss in the game able to change his weakness, though unlike a few bosses later on he's not exceptionally cruel about this and you can hit him with whatever he's not weak to. Other attacks include a buffing move (cancel this with Debilitate or Dekaja Stones), and a multi-target Almighty move that he only uses on low HP; I actually beat him fast enough I never even saw this one. All in all he's easier than Zelenin because he can't heal. In the end, poetically, it was Drake himself who struck the final blow.
Drake: Ggg... DAMN IT ALL!!!! Two friends dead, and the possibility of more Schwartzwelts looming. All because I decided to save the world. I'd like someone to tell me it was worth saving, please!
Pixie: Mister Drake... I think it was. Of all of us, I've been with you the longest, and I've seen what you've fought for. Morax and them... they did have some good points, but they were the bad guys, really.
Moloch: Thanks a lot...
Pixie: I mean, think about it. When you guys get back, you'll be the most famous people on the planet! People will forget about celebrity marriages, or whatever, and just fawn over you! When people that famous talk, other people listen. But you have to not spare any details. You have to tell them everything. No matter how terrible it gets, leave nothing out. That's the only way they'll be convinced. We've even decided... if it'll help save your world, we'll even come back with you. We might never see home again, but it's not our world that's in trouble. It'll always be there.
Drake: Everyone...
Mithras: ...
???: I am more powerful than the Mothers themselves, yet in all my years as Guardian I have never seen a being stronger than this little one...
Okay, enough plot for now. This floor introduces the third-to-last gimmick in the game, invisible pathways. Where we want to go is the stairway in the extreme north of the floor, but we make a pitstop in the southeast corner to get at the stairway there. These lead to an otherwise-inaccessible part of the floor above, where the final Enemy Search upgrade is. This will enable us to challenge very powerful demons whose drops are essential ingredients in the best weapons in the game. I forgot to mention, also, that Enemy Search enemies are the best way of making money in the game. In particular, the Enigma Lotus dropped by Kamas around here is the most valuable item in the game that we can reliably get in bulk.
Kama: Well, of course it is; it's positively fabulous!'''
The next floor down has the next gimmick: lava pillars that block our path. To get past these, we look for a gate in the wall. Beyond this is a different kind of teleporter maze, in that we're going to have to ''dodge the teleporters; all of them lead back to the beginning. When the correct path is chosen, we find another elevator. This one leads to a switch; press it. This doesn't do anything yet, but it will.
Also on the above floor, beneath the teleport maze, are a Unlock door that leads to the rest of the level, and the final Visualizer app that lets us see in the "yellow" darkness.
Drake: Yeah, unfortunately, there's none of that left...
Head through the Unlock portal and look for more portals. These lead, through another Unlock door, to the switch that kills the magma pillars.
Bishamonten: Forgive me my impropriety, but I was getting most uncomfortable with those around.
I should also mention that this is the game's Peninsula of Power Leveling due to being the only place that spawns Surts, the strongest normal enemy in the game. We now have access to the stairs down, which lead to the area with the final trick of the game: invisible walls. Thankfully, these are much easier to navigate than the invisible pathways. What we're looking for here is a sanctum portal; the two types of sanctum "rearrange" this floor giving access to other doors and other pathways, which lead to two other switches just like the one from before. Congratulations, this is the final puzzle of the game. An elevator on this floor leads right back up to the top, meaning we don't have to do any of this again. From here, it's a straight shot to Mem Aleph.
Drake: Wait... I can't do this. I'll just get stuck in the time loop again. Somehow we need to find out what's causing it and disrupt it before going after Mem Aleph. I just wish there was some sort of... clue.
...
Drake: ...there was something. I remember, in Mastema's stronghold there was an angel guarding a door; he said that it wouldn't be accessible to me until I came "back." I didn't give it much thought at the time, but I just remembered that angel wasn't there this time! It's a weak lead but it's better than nothing! Everyone, we're heading back to Grus!
Is Drake correct in his deductions about the time loop? Who is the mysterious Guardian? And all those jokes about Mastema's basement were actually plot-relevant? WHAT A TWIST! Stay tuned...
