And so the eighth day begins...
I started at the Ark, as all days do. Checked my inventory to see if everything was fine, and entered the teleport and chose the previous destination that I was before I got teleported to the Ark. I didn't even remember exactly where I was last time I was playing, but sure.
After the loading screen ended, Lightning once again found herself in an empty room surrrounded by darkness. Etro's throne laid in front of her. The cause was Lumina, as usual. She appeared in front of Lightning with that smile on her face. She taunts Lightning by saying that she awoke with something missing from her. Something that made her Lightning. Lightning agreed, but she couldn't remember what, so Lumina made her remember.
At the end of XIII-2 - oh wait, it was actually a DLC that had an important plot point, right fuck - Lightning wanted to preserve Serah's soul with her, so she went into crystal sleep so that Serah's soul would always be with her. And this was what was missing when Bhunivelze awoke her. Lightning gets pissed and says if Bhunivelze doesn't give Serah back to her when she has finished her duty, she would destroy Bhunivelze.
Early on while playing the game, I had a feeling that Lightning would have to fight against Bhunivelze. Guess my hunch was correct. It doesn't help the fact that I accidentally saw a video thumbnail and title for a battle against Bhunivelze. I knew that it would happen but I wished I wasn't spoiled about it.
If need be, Lightning will face Bhunivelze after he builds the new world. She has some sort of trick under her sleeve. Lumina mentions that Hope is going to be disappointed since he works for God now. Lumina suggests that it doesn't matter if Lightning turns on Hope, because he isn't the real Hope. Maybe Lightning is a fake, as well, she suggests. But Serah is the only fake that Lumina knows, she says. After the cutscene, we finish teleporting.
And yep my last location was the Wildlands. Fuck, I thought my last location was the Dead Dunes. Cloud, what the fuck are you doing over there staring at my ass you fucker. Let's move out. No wait, even better, gonna teleport the fuck away.
Kept killing monsters for almost an hour or so while spamming Chronostasis. Such a useful skill.
Found the bandits' base. Talked with some guys there, did some sidequests and talked to someone who said that I could only talk to their leader if I were accepted into the group. He said that I needed to stop a sandstorm or something. Okay. I went there and used a crux thingy and stopped it. Guy was impressed because apparently only the people chosen by God can use those things.
Guess who their leader was? Fang! She even joined my party. Yes, she fought with me in battles. If we had another person to join us we would be a real party. We then went to explore some ruins where the Holy Clavis is located. I couldn't enter the place before because the bandits were guarding it, but now that I'm one of them I could enter it.
That place is a fucking maze. A good maze, mind you, but still, fuck. Its gimmick is based around time (I'M SHOCKED). Each door is configured to lock or open after an hour passes, and you can get stuck inside some rooms for an hour if you mess up, apparently. That place is such a time sink, but I thought that it was very cool.
Fang and Lightning came across a locked door that lead to the Holy Clavis, but we need some pieces from some rooms with murals showing the history of creation and all of that. Wasn't hard to get all of them, but there was still some parts left of the dungeon to explore, but I ignored them and went for the Holy Clavis.
Oh yeah, there was also a sidequest inside the ruins about a robot that needed some oil for maintenance. It looked just like a robot that you see when you first go to Oerba in XIII, and its name is Bhakti. It could speak, because it had an AI and all that. Seriously, they could have justified it with MAGIC and it would have been the same. Fortunately, I already had the oils because I had explored the desert and found them, and so I gave it to it (the robot, I mean). The robot then asked for our help to open a door where his friends where. It said that they were trapped there and it had been some time it has been trying to open the door.
We simply pushed the door open and the robot went inside asking if its friends were okay, when Lightning asked it they were robots as well. The robot replied that they are humans. Near the door we opened, there were some skeletons in the sand and there was a note addressing the robot and explaining that they got stuck in there. The robot said that it was going to "repair" his friends. Lightning explained that humans can't be repaired after they die. They are gone forever.
The robot beeped for a couple of seconds and explained that they had finally met after so long and how it had rationed its fuel so that it could see its friends again and see the end of the world together. It says that it really loved his human friends, and says its last farewell to its friends. The quest is then completed. Somehow, Eradia comes out of the robot and it collapses near the corpses of its friends. If you check Bhakti after the quest ends, Hope will comment that all of his functions have shutdown. Lightning asks Hope if robots can possess something like a soul, and Hope replies that robots are made by man, not God, but perhaps Bhakti's bonds with his friends gave him something like a soul. He says it is a nice fantasy to ponder, but hardly likely.
In my opinion, it was the saddest sidequest in the game. I cried a bit.
ALSO DID YOU FUCKING KNOW THAT MONSTERS CAN GO FUCKING EXTINCT? I SURE DIDN'T BUT WHEN I FOUND OUT I WAS LIKE HOLY SHIT
THE LAST MONSTER OF ITS KIND APPEARED AND IT WAS BEEFY AS FUCK IT WAS PINK GAY AS SHIT BUT THEN I KILLED IT AND TEH GAME WAS LIKE "BITCH SPECIES IS EXTINCT"
DUDE
After all that, we finally entered the room with the Holy Clavis. Fang tried to destroy it, but Lightning stopped her. Fang knew what would happen if the Order and Vanille got their hands on the clavis. Vanille would need to die to "save" the souls of the dead, and Fang didn't want that.
Suddenly, Lightning realizes that something is going on. She asks Hope and he answers that the Order has entered the area and they are coming for the clavis. They were hiding in the Chaos so Hope couldn't see them. God fucking damn it, is Hope ever useful in this game? Lumina then appears and says that she helped the Order get here, and then some guys from the Order show up.
They throw a boss fight at us which was kinda hard. I died once (well, not really, since you don't really die) and I loaded my save to fight it again. After we defeated it, it was already too late. The Order had taken the Holy Clavis and were already going to Luxerion. All hope was not lost however, as Hope mentioned that they would only do the ritual on the last day, so there was still time to stop them. Fang parted ways with Lightning. She is going to prepare for the last day to stop the ritual.
After that, we are all on our own again. A pity, since Fang was quite strong and helped a lot during fights. Made them go faster.
I then decided to look for the cactuar in the desert that had one of Dahj's soul fragments and defeated it. I returned to the Wildlands and gave the fragments to Sazh, and Dahj returned to life. Sazh got very happy and Lightning discovered that the name of the chocobo chick that follows Sazh around is Chocolina. I wonder what that means, HUH Lightning? Sazh's soul is then saved, but on the other hand the world is 5 days from ending so it's a bad time to be reborn when you are just going to die soon again. I think I have finished all of the main quests now.
The day ended and I got teleported to the Ark. I had enough Eradia to be awarded another day. Good.
Maybe I'll try fighting Caius again on the next day.
