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[R^2]

Mars: Can we lose them!?
Niku: I don't know. They've definitely upgraded the Red Wings.


Lyrai: They're catching up!
Niku: Come on, baby, you can do it!


Niku: The engine's not gonna last! Brent, take over!
Brent: Where are you going?
Niku: Once she flies outta here to the surface, I'm gonna seal the entrace with this bomb!
Friday: Wait!
Niku: Oh yeah, head on back to Baron afterward and talk to my men.
Friday: Niku!
Niku: Brent, take good care of Friday. Treat her well!
Brent: No! There has to be another way!
Lyrai: Niku, please don't!
Niku: Hey, that's Uncle Niku to you! Remember, head to Baron immediately!


Niku hops overboard.




Niku explodes himself. Shame I didn't get a better screenshot of it.




So that's Kabbage and Niku both down within about five minutes of each other.

[R^2]

There's a cutscene of the crewmen working on the Enterprise, but it's pretty much superfluous so I'm skipping it.


Crew: With both vehicles, you can go pretty much anywhere now, even the Cave of Eblan by the Tower of Babel.
Brent: There's something I must tell you both. It's about Niku...
Crew: He's impossible. Yes, we know. With all that crazy energy, I can't imagine he'll ever check out. Please baby-sit him a while longer.


The hook works fine.


Remember those little shoals near the village of Mythril?

[R^2]

There are shallows near the ruined castle of Eblan, too.




The Eblan Cave is even twistier and dead-endier than the Tower of Babel.


Hey, a guy!

[R^2]

...how odd for a dungeon cave would have any amenities.












Minister: He went to the Tower of Babel to avenge his parents.

There are a few survivors of Golbez's attack on Eblan in the cave.

[R^2]

The passage to Babel past the refugee hideout is scattered with wounded Eblan ninja soldiers.






As lackluster as the Blood Lance before it, really.


Moreso because the rest of our equipment has been upgraded past it.

[R^2]

Rubicante: Am I supposed to know who you are?
D.Ni, Prince of Eblan: I am Disposable Ninja, prince of Eblan!
Rubicante: Eblan? I don't believe I've heard that name before.
D.Ni: It doesn't matter, because you're about to meet your demise!






D.Ni... y-you have no idea who you're up against, do you?


Rubicante: This is how it's done.


Rubicante emerges from his cloak and looks sternly at D.Ni.




Yeah, no contest.

[R^2]

Rubicante wraps himself in flames and leaves through the passage.


D.Ni: I can't believe I lost... ...Who are you all?
Lyrai: We're after Rubicante, too.
D.Ni: Stay out of this! He's mine!
Mars: Well, you obviously don't know who you're dealing with. He's one of the four Elemental Lords.

The Elemental Lord of Fire. And you used Flame magic on him. So Mars has a damned good point.


D.Ni: I'm the rightful heir to the throne of Eblan, famed for its ninjutsu for generations. Leave! I can take care of myself!
Lyrai: Stop it! Mongrel, Kabbage, Niku... They're all gone... Please, no more... *sob*
D.Ni: Hey...
Friday: Lyrai...
Lyrai: *sob sob*
Brent: Rubicante is the strongest of the four lords. The odds might be against us, but somehow we must recover the Crystals.
D.Ni: Alright, I'll let you all in on this. I can't bear to see a pretty girl cry.
Mars: He's got quite a mouth... Friday, give him a hand.




D.Ni: Alright, let's do this!
Lyrai: Gee, I don't know about him...

[R^2]

D.Ni steps back and runs straight through the wall. Ninja magic!


We're back in the Tower of Babel, with new monsters to assault us every three or four steps.


A few floors up, we run into this couple.

[R^2]

King: D.Ni...
Queen: Thank heavens... you're alright...
D.Ni: You're... alive?
Queen: Come with us, D.Ni.
King: Yes... Come with us...
D.Ni: Where?





King: Fools... Burn to ashes!
D.Ni: Father! Mother!

The King and Queen attack with Fire and Fira spells, but they're hardly strong enough to be a threat.

Disposable Ninja calls out to them regularly, until...


King: D.Ni... We are no longer human... We no longer belong here.
Queen: I'm sorry, D.Ni.
D.Ni: ...
King: We must go now. Eblan lies in good hands. Serve our people well.
D.Ni: Don't go!


Queen: Farewell, my son.
D.Ni: Mother! Don't go!

[R^2]

Rubicante... now might not be the best time...


D.Ni: Rubicante! You sick bastard!
Rubicante: It was Lugae who turned your parents into monsters. I am sorry for your loss. My only wish is to battle you fairly.
D.Ni: To hell with your self-righteous blabbering!
Rubicante: I admire your spirit. But anger never bears true strength, and it blinds you from what you truly need to see.
D.Ni: Shut up! I'll show you the power of rage!




Oh yeah, I didn't talk about Edge/Disposable Ninja's abilities like I do other characters'. As a Final Fantasy Ninja, he can throw weapons. And since this game doesn't offer a proper Thief job, he can steal items, too -- although that's a mostly-forgettable ability since most monsters just carry potions. Finally, he has Ninjutsu magic: in this case Flame, Flood, and Blitz are elemental attacks. Pin -- Shadow Stitch in other games -- causes paralysis.






Gentleman, gentleman! Battles are best when dignified and honorable.

[R^2]

Music: Dreadful Fight.


Rubicante, Rubicante, Rubicante of the flame! He's bad with water.




Rubicante is weak to ice and water, and Brent and Mars are both still equipped with Ice Brand and Ice Lance. So that's pretty...

* R^2 shades

...cool.


As Rubicante says, his magic cloak gives him elemental-absorb for anything you can throw at him, including ice attacks. Hope Lyrai wasn't charging a Shiva summon or anything!


Bloody hell.


Rubicante will even prove the point by casting Blizzara on himself while he's cloaked.


Despite having ice-elemental equipment, Brent and Mars still do full damage to cloaked Rubicante.


He's fond of his Glare attack, being his most powerful. But it's not fire-elemental, so it wrecks his theme a little.


Rubicante has a... strategic error? He Blizzaras himself when his cloak is open, so it does full damage.


It proves to be his undoing. This guy was the strongest Elemental Lord?




Unlike the other three, with their ambushes and their crushing traps and their exploding towers, Rubicante doesn't try to kill everyone with his last breath.

[R^2]

D.Ni: Mother. You can rest in peace now.




The Chancellor and a few Eblan ninjas run up behind the group.


Gramps: Pray, let us fight with you! Where is that devil, Rubicante!?
D.Ni: We got him. It's over.
Gramps: Splendid!
D.Ni: They helped me out. So, who's this Golbez?
Mars: Rubicante's master. He plans to gather the Crystals to reach the moon.
D.Ni: Why the moon?
Brent: We don't know exactly. He seeks some great power there.
Lyrai: We have to stop him!
D.Ni: So he's the mastermind behind all this. I'm going with you.
Gramps: But, Your Highness, Eblan needs you.
D.Ni: That can wait! We've gotta stop this guy before it's too late!
Gramps: But...
D.Ni: Ahh, stop worrying and go home. I'll be fine.
Gramps: Very well... Everyone, please take good care of our prince.
All: Good fortune, Your Highness!
D.Ni: Thank you, everyone!




Lyrai: We need to get the Crystals first.
D.Ni: Right, right. Lead the way!

[R^2]

A pit trap, specifically.


A new branch of the Tower of Babel!


With, yes, new monsters!

Eventually, we reach...

D.Ni: Let's use this to get outta here.
Lyrai: But that's stealing!
D.Ni: Who cares? Besides, we'll put it to better use!


It isn't. Anchors -- or whatever airships use -- aweigh!








Like the Enterprise, the Falcon can't fly over magma. Shouldn't one of the Red Wings ships be able to do that here?

[R^2]

Giott: Were you able to recover the Crystals?
Brent: No, I'm sorry.

That's right. For all the time we took, and all we did, losing two party members, remodeling an airship, fighting an Elemental Lord... we still failed our mission.


Giott: It will be a matter of time before he succeeds. I want you to get the Crystal before he does. Luca, come here.
Luca: Yes?
Giott: Your necklace.
Luca: Here.
Giott: This is the key to open the Sealed Cavern. Without this necklace, no one can enter. We must protect the last Crystal.
Brent: We'll do our best.

[R^2]

Niku is, surprisingly, not a bloody splatter across the rocks!


Niku: Heh heh.
D.Ni: Who's this geezer?
Niku: Geezer!? Who's this snot-nosed kid!?
D.Ni: Watch your mouth, windbag! I'm Disposable Ninja, prince of Eblan!
Mars: It's hard to believe, but it's true.
D.Ni: I'm also handsome and really skilled!
Lyrai: Stop that! He's in no condition to argue!
Niku: Heh heh, Lyrai's got you whipped, eh, kid?
D.Ni: Shut up! Geez!
Niku: So, what of Golbez?
Brent: He still holds all of the Crystals except one.
Friday: We can't go after the last Crystal, since we left the Enterprise at the surface.
Mars: We've taken an enemy airship, but it can't fly over the magma in these parts.
Niku: I guess it's time for me to shine! You're all hopeless without me.


Niku: Ahh, can it and give me a hand!
Friday: I think he's fine.


Niku grabs Disposable Ninja and forces him to help with the remodeling of the Falcon.


Friday: Thank you.
Niku: ...
Mars: Niku!?

The Theme of Sorrow, indicating another party member has perished, starts up...


...and is quickly drowned out by Niku's snoring.


That zany Niku! 

[R^2]

Well, now that we can explore the Underworld thoroughly by flying over magma...




Noted, legacy character!






This little burg is filled with dwarves with all sorts of information on the underworld places to see and things to do.

Urist McSeafarer: I hear the seas of the overworld are blue. How disturbing!

Urist McEvoker: Did you know that there's an island in the northwest that leads to the Land of Summons? Scary, eh?

Urist McFaespottr: They say sylphs lie in caves to the northwest.

Urist McNicetofairies: Sylphs are afraid of us, even though we're so nice.

Urist McHanky: "Lali-ho"? No, here we say howdy-ho!


How generous!

There are weapon and armor shops here that stock the next equipment upgrade -- but being mostly Diamond-studded armor, it's awfully expensive. I buy what I can afford.

[R^2]

This is the Sealed Cave. It's the next plot dungeon, as you may have guessed.




There's also this cave, which we heard about just now.


Yowch! It's covered in damage floors! These spaces do 50 damage to every party member when you step off of them. Unlike the damage floors in previous games, these are actually dangerous!






Lyrai: Perhaps we should ask Leviathan for help.

Since this cave also has damage panels all over the place, that'll have to happen once we learn to fly or something.


Oh. Uh, good job, Friday. (Everyone was level 35, and Friday learns Float magic at level 36, so a little bit of grinding in the incredibly dangerous Sylph Caves was all it took.)


Now we can hover over the damage panels and only have to worry about the overpowered monsters!

[R^2]

Malboros are here, with their trademark attack.




Bog Witches attack with their Tiny Toad minions. All the Tiny Toads do is Ribbit, which transforms a target into a frog or back again. You never know if your attacks are going to work, because you may get transformed between issuing the command and the attack resolving. In the end, the Bog Witch puzzlingly polymorphs herself...


Disposable Ninja picks up a new knife from the fight, though (the Bog Witch was a trapped chest).


At the bottom of the cave is a house.


It's okay! We're so nice!


Hey, it's Kabbage! Popular opinion asserts that he keeps the Super Cannon from going off by climbing inside the barrel and blocking the explosion with his studly body. I can't find any indication that that's canon, pardon the pun, but it would explain how he got all the way over here. In any event, he's comatose now, and there's nothing we can do for him.

[R^2]

Take a rest, save your game, and hold your breath -- this could get nasty.


The monsters in the Cave of Summons aren't necessarily more dangerous than the ones in the Sylvan Cave -- these Arachnes only cast Quake, for example, and that's neutered by the Float effect I have on just to traverse the dungeon -- but there are certainly a lot more of them. On the upside, the Cave of Summons is linear, while the Sylvan Cave is full of twisty passages and turnbacks.


Of course, since we're here a mite early, the equipment found inside is a huge boost.




Crap, that's a lot of warriors. Good thing I brought Lyrai along. I think the mechanical difference between Summon magic and Black magic is that Summons automatically hit all enemies and don't suffer a damage penalty for doing it, while black magic does half damage if it's split among all foes. Ramuh, Shiva, and Ifrit are a little stronger than Thundara, Blizzara, and Fira magic, as I recall, while Titan is a lot weaker than Quake, we won't be seeing that sort of advanced magic for a while yet.




Rad.

[Mothra]

Hey, it's Kabbage! Popular opinion asserts that he keeps the Super Cannon from going off by climbing inside the barrel and blocking the explosion with his studly body. I can't find any indication that that's canon, pardon the pun, but it would explain how he got all the way over here. In any event, he's comatose now, and there's nothing we can do for him.

Yessss I'd forgotten if my guy actually died or not.

In the heat of the moment, I used all of my strength to pull the cannon out of alignment. Then, I watched in abject horror as it fired directly into the neighboring island's dwarfanage. There were no survivors.