On day 25 of my Final Fantasy Marathon, I left off after collecting the knife from Yang’s wife in Fabul. Today, I’m tying up some loose ends before heading to Mysidia.

Mythril

Mythril is a small island town that has no chests and three items. None of the items are particularly noteworthy.

Mist

I return to Mist to pick up the four chests and three items. The most noteworthy thing about the items here is that several of them are bomb fragments, which is a bit morbid, all things considered.

Adamant Grotto

I find the Enterprise and then fly it to where I left the hovercraft and fly back to Mythril. From there, I take the hovercraft to a cave that contains the Adamant Grotto.

It has no items or chests, but there is an animal tail collector here. I give him the rat tail I picked up in the Land of Summons and receive the adamantite ore in return.

Kokkol’s Forge

I travel back to the Falcon and take it to the Underworld, where I fly to Kokkol’s Forge. I give Kokkol the adamantite and he sets to reforging my Sword of Legend, but it isn’t ready yet.

King of Baron

I return to the King of Baron, now that I’ve been to the Land of Summons. He tells us that he has been given eternal power.

Rydia will be able to summon him if I defeat him in battle. He attacks as Odin and wipes the floor with my party, so I decide to try again later.

Mysidia

Finally, I return to Mysidia. As soon as I step in town, the Elder comes to greet us and asks us to join him at the Tower of Worship.

We see the Mysidian prophecy again followed by the Mysidians praying for the legend to come true. Their prayers are answered and the Lunar Whale rises from the ocean.

The Elder says a strange voice addressed him during their prayers. It told him that we are to fly to the moon, where someone awaits us.

Cecil asks how we can get to the moon. The Elder tells us communicating with the crystal on the Lunar Whale will take us there.

Excalibur

Before I go, I return to Kokkol’s Forge to collect the holy sword Excalibur. I give it to Cecil.

Fly me to the moon

I hop on the Lunar Whale, which has some handy pods where we can rest for no charge, and head for the moon. Our first stop is the Cave of Bahamut.

Cave of Bahamut

The Cave of Bahamut has four chests and no items. The chests hold a full set of Genji gear for Cecil.

We have to defeat a series of three Behemoths to get to the end of the cave. There, we must battle Bahamut, the God of Summons.

This fight is pretty easy if you get reflect cast on enough party members before Bahamut uses his Megaflare attack. Reflect bounces the spell back at Bahamut for 9999 damage.

I reflect his spell back twice to get the victory. Rydia can now summon Bahamut.

Hummingway Home

Hummingway Home has no chests or items. It is full of a bunch of creatures that look like Namingway.

Most of them just talk to you, but one has some useful items for sale, including ether, dry ether and elixirs. You can also buy sirens, which are useful if you are trying to grind for rare drops.

Odin again

I return to Earth to take on the King of Baron again, and armed with the Bahamut summon, I defeat him easily. Rydia can now summon Odin in battle.

The Lunar Path

There is one more destination on the moon, the Crystal Tower. However, you can’t land directly in front of it.

Instead, you have to travel through a series of caves called the Lunar Path. The western portion has three chests and no items.

I get a golden apple from one, which goes to Rydia. The Eastern part of the path doesn’t have any treasure or items.

Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace is also devoid of loot, but it does have some squares where you can restore your HP and MP. An old man greets us.

He says his name is FuSoYa and he protects the slumber of the lunarians. The Lunarians are an alien race who used to live on a small planet between Mars and Jupiter.

When it was on the verge of destruction, they fled to Earth. However, they decided the Earthlings were not evolved enough for them, so they created a moon where they could sleep until the Earth was ready for them.

However, a lunarian named Zemus refused to sleep. He wanted to destroy everything on Earth and create a new home there.

FuSoYa sealed him away with his power. However, he was able to channel his evil into the corrupt inhabitants of Earth, which he is now using to gather the Crystals.

Zemus’ plan is to activate the dimensional elevator in the Giant of Babel. He will then destroy everything on Earth.

He explains that his younger brother KluYa built the Lunar Whale and used it to travel to Earth. He was also responsible for the creation of the Devil’s Road and airship technology.

KluYa fell in love with an Earth woman and had two children with her, one of whom is Cecil. It was KluYa’s voice that Cecil heard on Mt. Ordeals.

KluYa gave Cecil his power to stop Zemus. FuSoYa tells us we must hurry to the Tower of Babel in Eblan.

Edge questions how we can get around its barrier. FuSoYa says he should be able to get in.

FuSoYa joins the party. He is a level 50 Lunarian and can cast both white and black magic.

Return to Earth

We walk back to the Lunar Whale and return to Earth. As soon as we get there, we see the Giant of Babel emerging from the Tower of Babel.

It appears we are too late. The Giant begins using his belly laser to destroy the Earth, but a group of tanks lead by King Giott and Yang show up to oppose it.

A group of airships also join the flight, lead by Cid, Edward, and the Mysidian Elder. Palom and Porum are with him.

They explain that the Elder was able to restore them. FuSoYa commands Cid to pick us up and fly us near the Giant’s mouth.

We then hop into the Giant of Babel.

Giant of Babel

The Giant of Babel has eight chests and no items. One of the chests has a shuriken for Edge.

Another has a Silver Apple that goes to Rydia. We find a Soma drop that goes to Rosa.

As we near the heart of the Giant, the four elemental lords return and surround us. They explain that Zemus gave them a second life.

They attack. We must defeat them each in succession. We throw our strongest attacks at them, exploiting the elemental weaknesses of those who have them.

Defeating the four of them is actually quicker and easier than some of the solo fights from earlier in the game. Once they are gone, we proceed to the CPU.

The trick to this fight is to destroy the defense node first, so it can’t heal the CPU, while leaving the attack node alive. If you destroy both nodes, the CPU hits you with some one-hit-kill attacks and then regenerates the nodes.

Unfortunately, I go overboard setting up attacks on the defense node and end up hitting the attack node by mistake after it dies, triggering the CPU to kill a couple of my party members and then regenerate both nodes.

The second time around, I just have my physical attackers go after the defense node, since the CPU has reflect up and I don’t want to bounce spells off a party member, because those may hit the attack node.

So, I have FuSoYa help Rosa with healing and have Rydia summon Asura to heal and buff the party, while Edge and Cecil take down the defense node and the CPU. It drags the battle out a bit, but we win.

He a’int heavy…

Golbez shows up, pissed that we destroyed the giant. FuSoYa tells him to look deep inside himself and realize who he really is.

He then uses a spell that breaks Zemus’ hold on Golbez. Golbez wonders why he was filled with so much hatred.

FuSoYa tells him he has returned to his true self. Golbez remembers that his father is KluYa.

Cecil and the rest of the party realize that means he and Golbez are brothers. FuSoYa tells Golbez he was a puppet in Zemus’ plan.

Zemus was manipulating Golbez with his hypnotic powers. He chose Golbez, because his lunarian blood made him easier to control.

Cecil is dismayed that he was fighting his own brother this whole time. He wonders why Zemus chose Golbez instead of him.

Golbez says it was because of the seeds of evil that lay within him. Zemus saw the evil and helped it grow.

Golbez announces he is leaving to settle the score with Zemus. FuSoYa tells Golbez to wait and he will go with him.

Golbez says goodbye to Cecil, but Cecil doesn’t respond. The Tower begins to shake violently and the party decides they better get out quick.

Kain goes woke again

Kain shows up and tells us to follow him. Edge says we aren’t falling for that trick again, but Kain insists.

We follow Kain through the door and then see a scene of the tanks and airships battling the Giant. The scene shifts to the Lunar Whale.

Kain says he has returned to his senses, but he doesn’t expect forgiveness. Edge says that’s a good thing, because he’s not going to get it, but Rosa says it wasn’t Kain’s fault that Zemus was controlling him through Golbez.

Rosa tells Kain that Golbez is Cecil’s brother, and a lunarian named Zemus used Golbez’s lunarian blood to control him. Rydia tells him that Golbez and FuSoYa went to the moon to destroy Zemus.

Kain decides that he should follow them and confront Zemus. Edge hopes Kain won’t betray them for a third time.

Kain says if he does, Edge can kill him. Edge says he better go along then. Cecil declares they are going to the moon.

A little sexism for the road

Cecil tells Rosa and Rydia to stay behind because he doesn’t want to put them in more danger. He orders them to leave the Lunar Whale.

Rosa and Rydia get off the ship and the boys depart for the moon. When they arrive, Rosa turns back up.

Cecil tells her to get out of the way, but she demands to go with him, saying she doesn’t care what happens, as long as she’s with Cecil. Barf.

Cecil agrees to let her go, saying he will protect her with his life. The pair smooch and Rydia reappears, gloating that their fake out of the boys worked.

She tells them this is everyone’s war, not just theirs, besides nobody else can summon creatures to help them. Cecil agrees that they should fight together.

I have the team, which now includes Kain, rest in one of the pods and then fly over to Hummingway home to stock up on supplies for the final push. I save and quit at 14 hours and 13 minutes in.