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New Bodhum – 700 AF
-The spacetime distortion plops them strangely into a combination of Lightning’s home (New Bodhum) and Noel’s.
-WAIT THIS IS NEW BODHUM 700 AF? Is that where Noel was? Was his Dying World home build in the ruins of New Bodhum?
[Later edit: probably not. I forgot that the internal rules of XIII-2 have never implied that a gate from one time to another also leads to the same place. All goes through Historia Crux.]
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Serendipity Interlude
-Session break here. Logged into Serendipity in the next session to check the Mystic.
AND I HAVE A NEW FRAGMENT ABILITY! “Bargain Hunter” and “Anti-grav Jump.” Bargain Hunter gives me a shop discount, and Anti-grav Jump improves my jumps.
Anti-grav Jump lets sort of glide now.
-Not sure how I got either, but cool on both fronts.
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New Bodhum – 700 AF
-There’s an anomaly right here. Another mini-game?
NO, EVEN BETTER – BATTLE ANGEL LIGHTNING STEPS OUT! It’s really her.
LIGHTNING: “This is a future I could not save.”
-She retells the end of XIII. Vanille and Fang sacrificed themselves to save the world. Etro opened a gave to the Unseen Realm (Valhalla I think) and bestowed freedom from l’Ciedom.
-Flashback to that happy day. Dazh, Sazh, Hope, everyone.
-Then time warped. Lightning watched everyone turn to smoke around her.
“The events of that day tore open a portal to another world. And from the depths of the rift, and irresistible force dragged me away…” Darkness came through Etro’s portal as she warped time.
-The darkness wrote Lightning out of history. It tossed her on the shores of Valhalla.
-She went to Etro’s throne in Valhalla’s heart and saw the world across time. It was at this time that she got her badass magical girl transformation.
Her old clothes dissolved, replaced by her current armor and feathered skirt.
-Etro was fading away. If her spirit ceased entirely, the world would descend into real chaos.
-Since that day, Lightning’s been fighting Caius. We’re Etro’s chosen champions.
-Lightning saw an enormous power that was being contained in Valhalla. She didn’t quite understand it, but she understood enough to know we should work to contain that power still in Valhalla. What could be powerful enough that Etro herself was struggling to trap it in?
[Later edit: I’m still not sure of the nature of the darkness. Like, I don’t know whether it’s a specific sentient being that Etro trapped, like the Cloud of Darkness from past games, or whether it’s more of a natural phenomenon of chaotic darkness.]
-Now things are falling into place. When someone dies, the gate to the other world opens to let their soul through. If lots of people die at once – say, Cocoon falls and destroys much of life on Pulse, as we’ve been fighting this whole game – the gate has to open extra wide. Valhalla’s chaos would flood through.
LIGHTNING: “Chaos would infect everything. It would become pure entropy, without life, or death, or time.”
-THAT’S WHAT CAIUS IS AFTER. A world without death, all to save Yeul.
Argh. This is one of my least favorite tropes. Someone who does all manner of atrocities to save a single loved one, as if the loved one would be even remotely happy to be saved under those circumstances.
(Note: the calculation changes for me if you’re saving the one person from one of those “tortured/suffering for eternity” fates and not condemning others to that same fate. Yeul’s not in a happy place, but I don’t see her in this way.]
-So we have to fight on two fronts:
1) Fight Caius in Valhalla to save Etro. (I actually think we’ll fail, that etro will die and our final boss will be whatever nastiness Etro was containing.)
2) Fight Caius in the human world. Prevent him from tossing Cocoon onto Pulse in 500 AF.
I STILL CAN’T GET OVER HOW FRIGGING COOL LIGHTNING LOOKS.
-Lightning walks back through the anomaly, presumably to continue her fight in Valhalla.
-ooh, now I can access the “Advanced Moogle Hunt!” All those phased-out things I’d seen with that ring around them that Mog couldn’t phase in are now accessible.
-Argh! I was getting ready to pause here and return to the past locked things, but I forgot. I can’t do that. Most of the game is closed off to me currently. Maybe later then.
-Found an “Artefact of the Ark” as I explore. “An artefact for the final battle, created with the last of the goddess’ strength.”
I’m still a bit confused about whether the goddess is on death’s door or just dead. I assumed it was the former, but this artefact description makes it seem like the latter.
-Found a Supply Sphere Access Code too, sent by Hope to the future. Not sure what these spheres are exactly, but thanks!
-Strigois may be the most annoying enemy in the game. Their Wail stops things for like 10 seconds.
-The next fragment I find is spooky and sad. It tells how there’s no death in the Void Beyond, and souls who want to die instead live within a sort of trapped dreamworld.
“Next time you look into a mirror, peer closely at the edge. Do you see the ghostly shimmering? That is the world of dreams, known to some as the Mirror World. It is an eternal place of wishes fulfilled and happy memories made real – yet the ghosts who inhabit it know not they are prisoners of eternity.”
Or maybe that’s not really that sad. They get trapped in a happy place at least.
-I really like this zone. The mournful and hopeful post-apocalyptic tone is straight out of Dark Souls.
-Reached the next gate. Here we go.
-As we go in, Noel thinks how much of a fool Caius is, and I totally agree. He’s fighting to save Yeul’s life. Noel’s fighting to save Yeul’s values and desires.
Like, does Caius REALLY think Yeul wants him to destroy the world?
-WOOO! We’re back in the main Historia Crux map.
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Next time: backtracking to try for some past fragments and advanced moogle hunting. Then onto the new gate, Academia 500 AF.
