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Post-Dead Dunes
-Fang officially disbanded Monoculus. She’s headed to Luxerion. See ya.
-Back to Ruffian. I can now improve ability LEVELS at shops with malistones!
-I’ll mess around with side quests until 6am hits, starting day 5.
-One favorite is helping a chocobo girl named Primrose in Yusnaan. I have to find her friends, all chocobo chicks. She herself claims to be a chocobo chick in human form.
Lightning scoffs, but I know about Chocolina. Sure enough, when I find her friends, Primrose transforms.
LIGHTNING: “Maybe the person we talked to was just an illusion, created by the desire to be with her friends again.”
That might explain Chocolina. Maybe she took that form to connect with Sazh.
-Another great Yusnaan quest is when Lightning agrees to accompany a dude on a date to help comfort him.
She’s clearly not interested, doing this as a kindness, and he doesn’t really pressure her.
Side note: I’m super happy they didn’t shoehorn a romance in for Lightning throughout this series. It would’ve been fine if it fit, but loner!Lightning or ace/aro!Lightning both suit me fine.
-In Luxerion, I meet the ghosts of the cult’s victims. They seem… enlightened. At peace.
One ghost shares why nobody new has been born since the Chaos. It’s not Bhunivelze’s plan. Rather, it’s because the goddess disappeared.
CARLA: “The true Etro… she was the goddess that provided new life with a soul and spirit.”
-That has implications for the new world, too. If no goddess is alive, how will new life be reborn there?
-She asks me to find a replacement for the goddess. OK, I’LL GET RIGHT ON THAT.
She fades away, grateful.
-This is also disturbing because Hope has claimed that Lightning can only help the living. But she clearly just helped a dead soul. Is LIGHTNING going to be the new Etro?
-Hope didn’t see that ghostly interaction… and Lightning doesn’t share it with him. I wonder if she has doubts about Hope. Or maybe she just thinks this is too weird.
-The next victim I find is also at peace. She was religious in life, thought Bhunivelze spoke to her. Now, she thinks that’s all a lie.
“It was just an echo in my head that I turned into something else, because I wanted to hear God so badly.”
-Lightning apologizes. She wishes she could help save her soul, but she can’t help the dead.
-At which point, she promptly proves herself wrong. A flash of light erupts, and she saves this spirit.
LIGHTNING: “Was it me? Am I more powerful than even God himself knows?”
-The third ghost shares her story, how the corrupt Order hoarded food. The Shadow Hunter stepped in to redistribute it to the starving Children of Etro.
-The clock strikes 6am.
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Ark – Day 4 to 5 Transition
-Serah’s ghost appears before Lightning. “It won’t be long now, right? I’m coming home soon?”
I don’t believe for a second that this is really Serah.
-It disappears, an illusion from Bhunivelze. What a dick.
-But what disturbs Lightning most is that she didn’t even feel a temporary surge of joy. “I felt nothing inside. And strangely, I didn’t care.”
-Lightning waters the plant of Yggdrasil, which is looking healthy.
-Day 5. Seven days until the end. Before now, it was always 6, but I think this just indicates that I’m guaranteed now to at least reach Day 13 as long as I finish the Wildlands main quest.
-Got a new EP ability, Esunada. 1 EP to cure all status effects. Nice!
-Hope says that Lightning is becoming almost like a god herself. She’s suffused with Eradia, divine light. This may explain why she’s becoming less emotional, less human.
It also feeds my “Lightning is becoming Etro” theory.
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The Angel of Valhalla (3-1)
-I warp down to the Luxerion South Station and hop a train to the Wildlands.
-The train hangs upside down! I just noticed.
-This seems more active than the Dead Dunes.
HOPE: “It’s the world as it once was. Nature’s last stand.”
-There’s a spire in the distance.
-Hope tells me that the people here are not with the Order. Many are independent survivalist types.
-Suddenly, Hope’s voice cuts out and a small voice speaks:
“You have been led to the fountainhead whence the Chaos flows. Here you will meet the servant of fate, adorned with feathers of white. The Angel of Valhalla.” Uhh… wasn’t that Lightning herself?
-I’ll check with the locals about this angel.
-The datalog marks this place as ground zero when the Chaos flooded the world from Valhalla. The spire I saw is Etro’s temple, near a village of Etro-worshippers. Lots of farms too.
-Locals know of the Angel of Valhalla. It’s a white chocobo that appears at the end of the world.
-It used to be just a legend, but many have seen it recently.
-A Dr. Gysahl is seeking it, a famous veterinarian who loves chocobos. Lol, that name.
-Many here equate the chocobo’s salvation with death. Makes sense, for a land of Etro-worshippers.
ESPECIALLY for them, who see death as a natural part of life. This immortality must feel like blasphemy.
(I already kind of like these Etro worshippers. They feel way different from the cult in Luxerion.)
-OOH OOH!! Someone tells me about a former pilot living in the north amidst wrecked airships who turned his back on society. Sazh.
-Found Dr. Gysahl at a farm. He too heard the maiden’s voice.
-He has seen the angel himself, but hasn’t managed to capture it.
-Whoever can break/ride him will master the chocobo. It will then lead the master to the temple of Etro.
-Below the temple, an “ocean of Chaos roils – the Great Chaos.” Not much detail available beyond that.
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Next time: seeking a motherkwehing angel.
