Returning to Nicholi with the Rune Drive, he and Jane will hold a banquet in the party's honor. During the banquet, talk with Jane, who would like to talk privately with Rudy after dark, and then McDullen on the second floor to rest. That night, Jane will discuss Rudy's reasoning on why he is trying to save Filgaia. Her words will inspire Rudy to obtain his level 3 Force ability, Protector. Even though it costs three blocks of Force, if used correct, Protector can be phenomenal. When activated, Rudy will protect Cecilia and Jack from physical damage, but only nameless attacks; lessening the damage, but taking it upon himself, and the effect will last the entirety of the battle.
The demon, Alhazad, will, however, appear to spoil the moment, demanding the village's Rune Drive be turned over or else he will devastate the village. Wouldn't it have been easier had they just went earlier on to the Epitaph of the Sea Wind and took the one from there and protected it at the Photosphere? Anyway, Nicholi will evacuate the townspeople to the Sacred Shrine, which has a nifty barrier against demons, to protect the Rune Drive while our trio stay behind to fight Alhazad. I think we already know how this turns out...Alhazad will already have infiltrated the Sacred Shrine and we need to get there quickly. It can be found, as a barren spot, in the forest southeast of Court Seim.
The guy at the entrance, somehow still alive, will let the party know the barrier has fallen and monsters are running around inside. Take the first set of stairs down, then the door on the western-side of the room. Follow the corridor to the end to see another Duplicator door. Use the lone Duplicator you should have in your inventory and then search the barrels to the upper-right to find a replacement for it. You can plunder the chests for a Secret Sign, Crest Graph, Potion Berry, Magic Carrot, and Revive Fruit.
Return to the center room, but this time, take the eastern door and follow it to a southern exit with a single child hiding inside. Talk with the child, search the barrels for a Potion Berry, and open the chest for a Secret Book Cecilia-only accessory. This creates our first accessory dilemma. The Secret Book raises Cecilia's Sorcery and magic resistance by a considerable amount, but is it worth the HP-recovering Amulet? In my opinion, I say it's not, but I tend to play RPGs more defensively than offensively, so you make your own decision. You might consider keeping the Amulet and switching the Death Rune to Cecilia while Rudy gaining the Flash Rune to give Cecilia a boost in Sorcery. The Secret Book is a one-of-a-kind item, to note.
To the north, there are some beds (Not for resting, apparently) and a Memory Bird, which they didn't take from Court Seim, so no idea where this one came from. Above the table, you can find 2130 Gella of someone's secret stash inside a barrel.
There's even more Gella, 4800, in the barrels in the lower-left corner of the room. After taking Court Seim's emergency funds, exit to the north and take the stairs. In the first room down the corridor, equip Cecilia with the Holy Parasol then interact with the dog inside to be thrown into a boss fight.
A...tank? Interesting. As you probably expect, this guy hits hard and even worse, likes to cast Armor Down on the entire party. Thankfully, the Holy Parasol will protect Cecilia from Armor Down and she can cast Shield on herself along with Armor Down and Valkyrie for offense when not healing. Rudy and Jack can stick with the familiar Rocket Launcher and Meteor Dive, but be prepared to use Heal Blade if necessary.
Once the battle is over, you can find a Potion Berry inside the barrel in the upper-left corner. There is another boss in this dungeon, but if you need to rest and reload your ARMs, you're going to have to travel all the way back to Adlehyde.
Back outside the room, continue down the corridor to encounter another Duplicator door. Use the only Duplicator in your inventory and inspect the statue for Jack to put his skills to the test against three Ceracenians. One Blast Charge should heavily damage the group and Jack can then pick them off with basic attacks. Afterwards, Jack receives the fast draw hint for the Slash Rave skill. If Jack's Luck is "Best" this skill has potential to be one of the best he can obtain. Depending on his Luck status, Jack will randomly perform a series of swipes at an enemy, which of course, the more he delivers rises the damage of the skill considerably. Before exiting the room, search the barrels for 320 Gella.
Make your way south, then down the stairs to return to the central room. Take the western exit that took you to the first Duplicator door, but instead, enter the first room. Use Hanpan to scare the child out of the way allowing you to speak with the Sister. Hanpan will then theorize how the demons managed to make it past the barrier here and in Saint Centour. The correct answers are: "The town of Saint Centour", "Huddling against your body", "Go through with a human", "Got in with humans", and "Villager became a monster". Alhazad will let you in on his secret for getting past the barriers in
the Sacred Shrine and Saint Centour. He planted seeds within villagers
and they germinated into monsters once they were beyond the barrier. This was why the people of Saint Centour were kidnapped, only to be returned unharmed. With this knowledge, head back to the central room and take the stairs to the north, then the path between the Duplicator room and the one where you fought the boss. Talk to the villager and he will turn into a monster prompting a battle with three Ceracenians. When defeated, enter the room to confront Alhazad.
This time, he'll test your mettle out in battle. Compared to the previous two bosses, this is simple. Have Cecilia grow her Force to the first level and use Mystic combined with a Holy Ring for a huge amount of damage. Rudy should fire the Rocket Launcher while Jack uses Meteor Dive or Slash Rave and save his Force to either Summon with the Saint Rune or Sonic Vision. When defeated, he'll nonchalantly give up and beckon you to the Photosphere. Open the chest behind Nicholi to receive the second Rune Drive and you will return to Court Seim.
Speak with Nicholi and that evening he will use the two Rune Drives to power up the Earth Golem's Anti-phasing Shield. With this, it can absolve any barrier; including the one protecting the demon's Photosphere. It's off to a decisive battle with the demons.
Have the Earth Golem stomp its way back to the snow tundra of Arctic and the orange-globed Photosphere. He'll make destroying the barrier look easy and the party can then enter to confront the demon's Mother.
First, note: the Photosphere is another one-time dungeon, so make sure to explore thoroughly and plunder everything as you will not have another chance. Start by having Rudy climb up both the left and right sides of the first room and Bomb the glowing generators; this will disable the flashing red panels allowing you to move north to the next room.
In the following room, there is a Potion Berry treasure down a set of stairs to the left-side, then return up the stairs and, while avoiding the red panels, climb the staircase to the north to reach the highest level of the room. There are two points you need to jump off of to blow up both generators. Once you have, take the exit to the far-right of the room.
Head straight ahead into a treasure room containing two Potion Berries and a Full Revive. Outside the room, climb the ladder to the right-side, hop off the ledge, and exit to the north.
You'll find another generator for Rudy to Bomb, then make your way back to the room where you jumped down off the two ledges to Bomb generators and take the middle most exit to the next area.
Plunder a Hardy Apple treasure as you make your way through the connecting rooms.
There will be another Hardy Apple chest up the stairs to the right-side. Head north and up the stairs to the right, passing a locked door, south to an Agile Apple chest, and using the northeastern exit. In this room, as you can tell, there is nothing you can do to advance, so return the way you came.
Before the locked door, a mysterious robed figure will appear before the party and open the door leading to the Tear Drop for them. There are two more Potion Berries in the connecting room and a stairwell leading further in.
Make your way east and the robed figure will appear again. He needs your help in destroying Mother before she consumes all of Filgaia. Seems very suspect, but okay.
Ignore the now-open door and continue east to find the Twin Orbs ARM for Rudy. Don't miss this or it will be lost to you for the remainder of the game! Twin Orbs is Rudy's version of Slash Rave. Basically: higher Luck = higher chance for more hits, but won't be of much use until you upgrade it at an ARMs meister.
Take the door the robed figured opened for you and climb a seemingly endless flight of stairs, with a Magic Carrot chest near the top. Descend a flight of stairs, and then retake the Tear Drop from the strange machine. Once again, the robed figure will visit you and explain that without the Tear Drop, the Photosphere has lost its power and Mother is now vulnerable. Unless you want to walk all the way back, have Cecilia cast Escape to return to the beginning of the dungeon. Remember the room with the security panels we had no way to cross earlier? With the power disabled, we can now pass through. For reference, from the entrance, it is three screens north, then the northeastern door from there.
After climbing a set of stairs and arriving at a vital save point, you'll be out on a series of walkways with spotlights hovering overhead. If you encounter a spotlight, you will be thrown into an inescapable battle with 3 Jacklantons, so do your best to avoid them.
From the beginning, take your first right over to a chest with a Revive Fruit in it. Return to the intersection and head down, followed by right, and quickly down before the spotlight catches you. Then walk around to another Revive Fruit in a chest.
Back to the intersection past the previous spotlight, take the walkway west, then straight downward into a room with two treasures. A Mega Berry and Gauntlet accessory for Jack are inside. If you're using the Hard Guard with Jack, go ahead and switch it for the Gauntlet and then back outside the room.
Head back up the walkways and take your first left, this time. Followed by the next two downward paths, right, down again, and finally to the left for another Revive Fruit. Keep dodging the spotlights and make your way back to the intersection you took the first left from the southern room with the Gauntlet inside. From here, head south, then the first right, down, and right once more. From there, the spotlights get a little tricky, but the path is linear all the way to an exit where an old friend awaits.
The golem, Lolithia, stands in your way, having been reprogrammed by the demons. Without the Awaken spell, this boss can be an absolute nightmare. Its main attack, Cold Sleep, will attempt to put the entire party to Sleep and deals a decent amount of water damage. Immediately have Cecilia cast Awaken, Rudy use the Rocket Launcher, and Jack can attempt to steal a Mega Berry with Trickster, or if you are struggling, have him use either Meteor Dive or Slash Rave. Cecilia should cast Armor and Slow Down, Protect on Rudy, and Flame in between healing. If Lolithia casts Freezing Zone, abandon casting Flame and just focus on defense. With Awaken cast and being vigilant on healing, Lolithia shouldn't pose too much of a problem for your party.
After the battle with Lolithia, depending on your status, you may want to cast Escape and return to Court Seim to rest, but if at anything, return to the save point to save your game. Past Lolithia, make your way through the corridors to end up at the door to Mother's chambers. Before entering, equip Cecilia with the Blue Circlet accessory, make sure you have to cleaned out all the treasure from this one-time dungeon, and enter.
Filgaia's enemy: the Demon Mother awaits you, strangely unguarded...Our party will draw their weapons to stop her attempted consumption of the planet.
For such a high-drama battle, this is pretty easy, actually. Mother is more of an annoyance than anything, with most of her attacks attempting to inflict you with status effects. If multiple status are inflicted, remember that Jack's Heal Blade is the only skill you have at the moment that can completely cure a character of them. For offense, Rocket Launcher and Slash Rave/Meteor Dive with Rudy and Jack, while Cecilia focuses on HP and status recovery via Mystic and unleashing the Flash Rune if she has the Force and a free turn. Save Jack's Force for Sonic Vision to deliver massive damage, as well.
Mother having been defeated, she plunges the now-floating Photosphere into the ocean, attempting to take our trio with her. Thankfully, Jane, McDullen, and Bartholomew, who were tailing the aerial Photosphere, will rush in for the rescue. On board the Sweet Candy, a victory party is quickly put on hold as Alhazad, Lady Harken, Boomerang, and the cloaked figure, Zeikfried, appear. They used you to kill their oppressive Mother, and are unwavering in their goal of dominating Filgaia for their race. Our story being long from over, the party returns to Adlehyde to regroup.
