Summary: Etro’s temple. Yeul and Caius. The origins of the Unseen Chaos. The feathered Angel’s true nature.
---
Healing an Angel (3-2)
-I’ve reached Poltae, village of the Etro worshippers. Refugees from the Order’s hassle.
-The temple is nearby. The Angel reached full strength, so let’s fly.
---
Where Chaos Sleeps (3-3)
-A historian rode by, looking to decipher tablets of Etro. Someone we’ve met?
-The Angel glides me over to the temple. His job is ostensibly done. Thanks, li’l buddy.
-So within the temple sleeps the “great chaos” that tore this world apart.
-Lumina greets me. “There are no souls here to save. Just dead people, waiting for the end to come.”
THEN CAIUS’S GHOST CHIMES IN, WHAT THE FUUUUUUUU
“It’s a graveyard for the living dead. Nobody here seeks salvation. We seek only oblivion.”
-He lances me through with some kind of chaos bolt, right through the chest.
-He says “they won’t let me die.” Who? Multiple people? He spirits away.
-Caius’ bolt is a curse, a new mechanic. My HP will drain gradually. HOW ABOUT FUCK OFF????
-Whew. My health replenishes as it drains. Must be an easy mode benefit. I haaaate timers, and that rapidly-draining health is a thinly-disguised timer.
-Yeul appears a bit further in. “Here, you will meet the servant of fate, adorned with feathers of white.”
OH!! Yeul was the person whose voices called to me when I arrived. Is she here in the present now with me? Is she projecting this image from the past? As I’ve said before, timey-wimey stuff confuses me.
YEUL: “Save the soul that cannot rest. Please, save Caius.”
So that’s the main quest target. Save Caius, who basically destroyed the world. But who among us hasn’t made a mistake or two?
-Caius wants to die, but the Chaos binds him. Forces him to live. Is there a more horrible fate?
-I keep meeting different dead Yeuls from different eras. Reborn over and over. She knows better than everyone how crappy eternal life is.
“I had a wish of my own, though. I wished that I could live forever with Caius. I bestowed him with the power of Chaos, all for that wish. But I was mistaken.” Yeah you were.
-I like the layout of this place. A surreal, broken, floating ruin. Highly vertical.
-Hope chimes in as I near the top. He hasn’t heard any of me talking to Yeul. Still very skeptical of Hope.
(YET ANOTHER) YEUL: “He suffers because of us. Savior, can you help him?”
Some Yeul’s want me to save him, some Yeul’s want us to keep him alive. “It’s a mass of contradictions.”
-Lightning thinks Yeul is the source of this Great Chaos. And y’know what? I buy it. She was reborn over and over, suffering this eternal life. That’s as reasonable a source of chaos as anything.
-Another Yeul basically admits this.
-NOOOOOOOOOOO!! I was just in the process of typing, “the platforming here isn’t that bad.” Then I went for a treasure sphere on a narrow plank and fell like three tiers to the start of the dungeon.
*20 minutes later*
hjklfdhsjklfdhsaf GOD I suck at the jumps
-Some falls feel suuuper cheap. Like, I’ll see a side path, jump to it, and slide off an invisible wall because it wasn’t really a side path, just cosmetic.
-Higher. Hope warns me that the Chaos is gathering into a single mass. Am I going to fight Yeul or Caius?
-Chaos engulfs Lightning, along with memories from Valhalla.
YEUL: “It was us. We destroyed the world.” She is the Great Chaos. Or its source, at least.
-Her rebirths and desire to see Caius accumulated “until the weight made them collapse into a single dark mass.” That’s the Unseen Chaos.
That’s kind of amazing. Her desire to be with Caius destroyed the world. Even now, it’s a mix of desiring to see Caius at peace and desiring to be with him.
“The Chaos is our love for him.”
-Reached the top. Altar of the Goddess.
-Caius sits on that throne. He sure af doesn’t want salvation.
Then again, NOBODY wants salvation. I swear, those I’m trying to help are as uncooperative as Phoenix Wright defendants.
-Boss time. Caius.
-He has a commando mode for physical damage and ravager for magical. If I die, I know to equip some elemental resist and counterspells.
-Ow. Bahamut hurts with megaflare and my perfect guard attempts fail.
Same with every other attack. I think I land a grand total of zero perfect guards.
-Okay, I won. It was the least satisfying victory ever. I blocked like none of his attacks, just kept healing and attacking. Didn’t understand ANY of his rhythms. The hardest fight by far.
-It’s a photo finish. I got off my final attack an instant before his would-be killing blow.
-He throws his sword. Seems to consume himself? Idk. He won’t let himself by saved. Thinks Yeul’s mass of contradictions won’t let him go.
CAIUS: “She is but a child. And a child needs to be looked after.” Oh fuck off dude. She’s like infinity years old.
-But he’s right that she’s doomed to stay alone in the Chaos. She’s the source of the Chaos, and the chances that Bhunivelze will let Yeul enter into his new world are slim to none.
She deserves company.
-This is… actually sweet. Caius wants to stay here, sacrificing himself in a way that actually benefits Yeul. Unlike LITERALLY ALL OF XIII-2. And he’s not sacrificing others to do so.
It’s basically that “Death Cab for Cutie” song, and one of my favorite musical pieces.
The singer promises someone that if she dies and both can’t go to heaven or hell, he’ll keep her company in whatever vacuum is left.
-Yeul appears. She wants to stay here, so Lightning’s hands are tied.
-Lumina appears on the throne, giggling. It tickles her that Yeul is largely the reason Lightning got sucked into Valhalla. “And the Chaos came from that girl, reborn and splintered, generation after generation.”
-That Chaos is under control once more. For now.
-That was a fairly bleak chapter ending.
Wait wait wait, I never got to see sazh or have moogle fun times!
---
Outside the Temple
-Yeul calls to Lightning as she leaves the temple.
-She’s been trying to tell her story for many years. That’s how the whole Angel of Valhalla legend came about in fragments, as she told anyone who’d listen. All to bring Lightning here.
Frigging time travel and future sight. Confusing as heck.
LOLOL ODIN WAS THE WHITE CHOCOBO THIS WHOLE TIME. THAT’S WHY LIGHTNING FELT THAT PAST CONNECTION
CHOCOBODIN DHSKLFJDHSFLDHSJKL
Hey, what does the holy eidolon who cuts down foes with a single strike say? “Kweh.”
---
Next time: the four main quests are done. Before 6am the next day, going to try checking out Sazh’s area in the north, the moogle village, some side questy stuff.
