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Cyber Wars – Invasion – Augusta Tower, 300 AF
-My next destination is Augusta Tower, 300AF. This seems different. Only one fragment available, which tells me it’s not a core destination.
-The Academy built Augusta Tower in 13 AF to store information. It had an enormous AI core that has gone haywire in 300 AF. The system was attacked from the future.
-This is SUPER CREEPY. A largely empty, high tech setting. I love sci-fi/horror, like Event Horizon and Alien. We’ll see if the horror vibes are real.
-Did I step into Portal?. As we enter, we see the AI’s perspective, analyzing us.
-The AI thinks we’re a living paradox, distorting history with our presence.
-The culprit is hacking this system from the future.
Fragment mission: “Anomaly in Augusta.” The tower’s chambers have become a confusing maze. I have to restore the rooms to eh correct positions to resolve the anomaly.
[Later edit: I was afraid of this at first, but it wasn’t really a maze. Pretty straight forward.]
-We started out on the 13th floor. Does this have the same bad luck connotations in Japan as in the US?
-I took a break at this point and came back. Logging in showed that this isn’t part of Episode 3. It’s “Cyber Wars – Invasion.” This adds to my belief that this is an optional side area.
-…of course Chocolina is here. She’s everywhere.
[I’m imagining the final boss of “Lightning Returns.” We’ve defeated the goddess, her lieutenants, and the hostile angels of this world. All that’s left is in the room ahead. The Creator herself.
She turns to Lightning’s party, murder singing in her burning eyes. “Yes, I am the Creator! It was I who set Barthandelus adrift. It was I who made humanity, who drove you all to endless civil war. I who created the army of choco-toises that destroyed your puny world.
“I exist in all times and all places. Look upon my visage and despair, for your end is here. It’s Choco-boco-lina time.”]
-A robotic voice occasionally calls out numbers. First it was three, then seven. Then at the end of this floor, 1. I don’t think it’s a countdown.
-I reached a computer terminal, and it wants a password! That’s what the voice was saying.
Note: this is not a corporate security best practice, to have a voice blare out the password digit by digit.
-I heard “3717” as part of it, and two live trigger options are “1237171” or “1237172.” 50/50 shot.
-I guessed wrong lol. Some enemies attack, then I retry the other option. Success.
-Discovered the “Entropy Board” fragment.
-Tnat was it. The network is safe again, but we don’t know who did this or why.
-The camera pans back and shows computer-vision. It completed its analysis. “Due to actions taken by the Subjects, a possible future has been deleted from the timeline. The Subjects pose a serious threat.”
So it’s someone who views us as hostile. That immediately makes me think Yeul and Caius, but they don’t seem sci-fi enough to be behind this.
-The voice will take “countermeasures” against us to preserve future events.
-Obtained Access Key 50. I imagine this’ll let me reach the 50th floor.
-The Entropy Board fragment I got lets me activate a switch in Augusta Tower 200 AF.
-I head back to the central elevator here but I need “access key 13” from a previous time period.
I think I’m done here for now.
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Yaschas Massif – 01X AF
-Back to alt!Yaschas Massif, where I use my artefact on the story gate. The Mysterious Artefact changes into an Illusionary Artefact.
-Serah is starting to feel hopeful that we can save the future if we solve enough paradoxes. Her ultimate goal is still personal, to bring Lightning home.
-We enter the gate, but the camera pans back to show Caius and Yeul watching. Yeul collapses.
AND DIES WTFFFF?
CAIUS: “How many times must I see this?”
I’m remembering now that part in the beginning of the game where Caius laid Yeul’s body down into the water and she dissipated. This must keep happening. Something about us messing with time keeps killing different versions of Yeul.
How do more Yeuls keep getting to Caius?
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Locked Location - ???
-uhhhhh I opened a “locked location, year unknown, episode ???, time ???.”
The preview image is just static. Again, this gives me (minor) chills.
There’s a checkerboard floor in front of some bizarre castle gate.
-Mog wants us to turn back.
-Got a “Casino Ticket” from a nearby treasure sphere. Is that what this place is?
-I can’t enter the door. But if I jump up, I can look over the wall and see a roulette wheel.
Yeah, this place that I expected to be some apocalyptic death zone is a casino lol.
-Back to Historia Crux for now.
-I thought I’d go back to an earlier time to use that other flan fragment I have in my inventory, but not yet. I can only go to another creepy time. The Void Beyond.
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The Void Beyond – Year Unknown
-It’s another checkerboard ground, but the whole place feels darker.
-It looks like Valhalla, but it’s not Valhalla. This is the rift between gates.
SERAH: “…I need a break.” You’ve been traveling to find your lost sister and trying to save the world. You just found out you’re lost in the void of time. You deserve a LONG break.
-Noel tells of a legend from his home, about a “goddess.” This has gotta be the same goddess referenced in Valhalla and the same goddess we learned about back in XIII.
I’d assumed she was one of the children of the Creator. We kept seeing her referenced in lore, but I couldn’t piece together a fully coherent narrative around her.
-“The goddess Etro always watches.” That’s the legend? That’s it?
-Noel sees it just as a reminder that there’s always hope. That they’re never truly abandoned. A nice message now for when you’re lost in time.
-Datalog tells me Etro was known in ancient Gran Pulse as the goddess of death and chaos. The people of the lowerworld worship Pulse… aha, so Pulse is different from Etro. Etro is the “abhorrent goddess of the afterlife” to them.
But Paddra worshipped Etro. The seeress was said to draw her prophetic powers from Etro.
-This definitely helps. Yeul and Caius are on Team Etro. Just not sure whether that team is good, bad, or neutral.
-Hee! A nearby treasure sphere holds a map. It tickles me to think that there’s a map of THE VOID BEYOND. It’s so mundane for something so vast. Like the idea of Cthulhu having a credit score.
-I entered a thing, expecting to get another connect-the-dots puzzle. But no. Back to Historia Crux, and a mini-tutorial about how to read the gate markers in each time period’s Historia Crux entry.
Basically, the game’s telling me to backtrack for a new gate. Sounds good.
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Next time: Back to Bresha Ruins 005 AF to try another path.
