Quesada's Swan

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Up the stairs we go, Gigas Sword in Hero's hand...

What looks kind of odd?

The Emperor's before the Mana Seed's dais, its seal is still gone!

Max notices something...different about the Emperor...and notices the exit behind the dais!

I have Hero take two hits at him. The Emperor is unresponsive...

Into the next room, where Fanha, one of the Emperor's cronies, await us!

Oh my god! That felt a bit anticlimactic...

Fanha: "I'm afraid so. We'd rule the world if we had the Mana Fortress!"
Hero: "'We?' Who else is here?"

That man steps forward.

Oh my god! I forgot he was still alive!

Pidge asks where Dyluck is...

Fanha brushes her question off as she tells Thanatos to move forward to the fortress...

Fanha: "Revenge is so sweet! Bye bye, forever!"

---

Another boss is coming...I know it!

The boss before us is a multi-armed, serpent monster called a Hexas!

The Hexas shrinks Max with her Pygmus Glare!

Analyzing the boss, she has no weaknesses at all!

The Hexas also has a Dispel Magic spell at her disposal!

Air Blasts and charged attacks seem to be more effective on this boss!

Now her tail changes color, turning blue, as she casts Acid Storm!

We continue this spellcasting exchange (with some Pygmus Glares from Hexas and Air Blasts and Thunderbolts from Max) until the fireworks show begins!

Let's see what we win again...a Whip's Orb!

Fanha isn't too happy that she's been defeated...

---

We take a small break at Pandora, and head to the Lofty Mountains to upgrade our Hammer Flail into a Nimbus Chain!

It seems the Whip's maxed out to its full power! The Nimbus Chain is mostly effective against insects.

We return to the palace, and move forward. We're now in a chamber similar to the ones with the crystal orbs that we had to activate last session...

I survey around the room to see if there's any treasures. None.

We press on the switchpad, which transports us to another arena with a knight in a golden motorbike!

Looks like I was wrong, it seems Geshtar's still alive and well!

No, wait, we took care of him back at the castle! Unless Thanatos revived him...

So we're fighting a zombie Geshtar...Oh no...

Thanatos: "Using my ancient magic, I've created a living...fighting machine!"
Hero: "How utterly evil..."

Thanatos is playing with life is what he's doing...

---

There's the revived Mech Rider! We're in a pretty high tech place for Mana...

I have Max slow him down!

I try to have Hero slash the bike, but not a scratch is made! Even worse, the knight rider's cast a Wall on himself!

I resort to charged attacks from Hero's sword, which work!

As the Mech Rider still has his Wall up, he can't speed himself up either, and one of my party gets the buff! Thank you, Mech Rider!

He can still do damage to us though!

It's now all a matter of chasing this guy...

I have Pidge boost Hero with Moon Energy, hoping it will improve my chances...

Then I speed Hero up again...

After a few charged attacks from Hero, the fireworks show begins for the Mech Rider!

We win a Spear's Orb as a reward, but we're too late...

The party escapes the Grand Palace immediately!