Twenty-first session of The Abyss: We fight Van. And then what?
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After checking on Tear's health and giving her some medicine, they go and ask where the remaining sepiroths are. Meggiora Highlands and Mt. Roneal seem to be the last places to check to perform the lowering procedure. They go to the highlands first, because Mt. Roneal is apparently filled with dangerous monsters (as supossed the rest of this world, right?). After a while trying to evter to the highlights, I realize I can't just fly over it, I have to go through the river. When the team is looking for the door of the sephiroth, legrietta appears and seemingly attacks the team. Really, she just wante to send Tear a message from Van, and she goes away as fast as she came. They enter on the sephiroth, and Guy starts looking at all of the fonic tech, he apparently loves all that stuff. They find a robot that keeps the machinery updated and running good, but they need to find some power battery to power up the elevators, and they fight the robot for his batteries. They continue with the sephiroh stuff, and they chat a bit about what to do with the miasma, because no matter how they save the world, the miasma is still there threatening to poison everyone (spceciallly Tear, whose liks with Yulia make her specially vuilnerable to it). After exiting, they meet with one of the remaining scientists, and while they are talking about the planecopters, they realize Spinoza is spying on them. So they follow and capture Spinoza. He seems to be genuenly sad and sorry about his old friend's deaths. The team needs Spinoza to find a way to deal with the miasma, so they accept his help, all but Anise, that still doesn't trust him. They discover a sephiroth on Mt. Zahelo, which can only be accessed through a special portal through the Daath cathedral. They find there a very angry Mohs, because Van dissapeared and took half of the Order of Lorelei with him. oooh, poor Mohs, he doesn't have his war, we only have certain destruction to deal with. They go to the library to look for the secret passage, and Anise accidentally finds it. They enter and it's some sort of volcano, with tons of archaeological equipment, probably someone was studying something here. After a bit of puzzle-solving and fighting the monsters, they finish the thing with the sepiroth there, and they continue their travels. They go to Belkend to see how is Spinoza's research. It all seems to go well, so they relax and wait for the next day.
That night, the team realizes Tear has gone away, pointing out to the Orton Caves, that place where Van experimented with fomicry. The team thinks Asch is there too, so they quickly go there. They find Van's goons moving the things to another base, and ignore the team. They find Van fighting Asch, just when the battle is over and Asch is on the ground wounded. They debate once again why Van's plans are insane. But even when Jade points out that even with all the Seventh fonons in the world, there still wouldn't be enough energy to clone the entire planet. Van says he has a plan to alter the core of the planet to get enough energy and improve the stability of the replicas. This man is insane, and it took a quarter of the game to figure it out. Van goes away, and leaves the team there. Ash is wounded, but he goes away too, grumpy as always. They rescue a cloned cheagle that was there, and go back to Sheridan. Tear tells the team she went there to check on Van's health, because he also might be contaminated with miasma. They then go to Mt. Roneal, bu before that they ned to ask for permission to Nephry in Keterburg. Once there, she tells them Dist has fallen ill there and he's in the hotel. Jade tells her to call the police, and that they'll deal with him and get some information first. They go to the hotel, and Dist is asleep, saying things to himself and muttering about Jade. Jade seems annoyed and asks everyone to exit the room, while Dist and him arestill inside. He does... something... and the God General asks for mercy, and tells them everything he knows. Uuuhhh, ok? Then the police comes and supposedly arrests Dist. That was anticlimactic, but it's Dist, so I'll allow it. They enter Mt. Roneal, and they have to be careful, because aparently there is a high risk of avalanche. Doesn't stop the team from fighting all the monsters there. I see a green save point, so there will be a bossfight. So it's grinding time! Good grind, get 5-6 levels to everyone. So i continue, and what do I find? Arrieta, Legrieta and Largo! The remaining God Generals? Am I going to fight them? I was expecting some sort of boss rush, Megaman style, but I fight the three of them at once! And the battle is really great! Fortunately I had enough supplies to carry the battle, because Arrieta's super attack hits like a truck! Once she goes down, largo and Legrieta go down as well, but I'm exhausted. The battle causes an avalanche and apparently kills the God Generals. What? No more fights with them? That seems... anticlimactic. But the team continues thanlks to a lucky crevasse, they enter the sephiroth and stop it. Only one place left... to fight Van in the Absorption Gate!
The team goes back to Keterburg to getsupplies and rest, to prepare for the final battle. I buy all of the gels I can, get new equipment... They are all very moody, very focused on the tasked ahead. Is this the final boss? Am I finally beating this game? Even Asch appears, and the only reason he won't be at the final battle is because he was severely wounded in his last encounter with Van. Ion decides to stay in Keterburg, and the rest go to the Absorption Gate. After some puzzles, some earthquakes that separate the team and some deep conversations about finishing the fight, they finally reach Van. He's in some sort of organ, playing ominous music like a cartoony villain. Once again, he explains the greatnes of his plans, and how the world is addicted to the Score. I agree with the Score part, but I don't see how destroying humanity could hlp with that. So they fight. And the fight is pretty long. Not as long as the three God Generals, but decent. After he's defeated, he stabs the ground with his sword and falls on a cliff. Luke has to use his powers to bring the outer lands to the core safely, and he does. So I'm expecting a long congratulations sequence, a whrer they are now montage and the rolling credits.
But that doesn't happen.
Instead, Luke wakes up on his house, it's months latter and apparently he's bored and grumpy. Someone stole Van's sword (geez, I wonder who it was)and he decides to regroup the team. What? How long is this game? That seemed like the end. Was that the end and I'm playing the post-end game? Hello?
