Golden Sun series/Detailed plot summary/Dark Dawn

This is a detailed summary of the events in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, as they occur from the player's point of view. This page is a continuation from Golden Sun series/Detailed plot summary/Golden Sun and The Lost Age.

A Point of Warning: This page contains a detailed writeup of the story in the DS title with no holds barred on the spoilers and more-or-less a blow-by-blow account of what happens in the game. Read this page at your own risk.

If you are looking for a spoiler-free walkthrough for this, please consult this walkthrough instead.

A new generation's rite of passage
Thirty years have passed since the Golden Sun effect returned Alchemy to the world of Weyard. Everyone who was exposed to the eruption of energy at the aerie of Mars Lighthouse has received dramatically increased lifespans, and thus as adults they appear noticeably younger than anyone else their age - even Kraden is alive and well, and is traveling the world despite being over a hundred years of age. The Golden Sun has caused the continents to grow in size and expand, and the lands themselves have been changed. As an example, what was once the Goma mountain range has now been upheaved to become a crevice-filled highland called the Goma Plateau. The explosive event that was the Golden Sun, however, had caused mass destruction and heralded a new age of unrest and military maneuvers, and the Warriors of Vale, the eight Adepts that set the Golden Sun event off, have been the subject of great controversy across Weyard. Some praise them for having saved the world, while others outright resent them and Adepts in general and blame them as having effectively "destroyed" the world by letting loose a force that is now out of control. Even under this pressure, the Warriors of Vale would bear offspring.

Upon one of the outcroppings on Goma Plateau, Isaac had constructed a cabin that would allow him to monitor the area around what remains of Mount Aleph. Isaac and his son, the Venus Adept Matthew, live here along with Garet and his son, the hot-headed Mars Adept Tyrell, who is Matthew's closest friend. Visiting today is Ivan's strong-willed daughter, the Jupiter Adept Karis, who has brought over Ivan's invention, a hang glider-like device named the soarwing - this is something that Isaac and Garet need in order to reach what remains of Sol Sanctum, for the land around Mount Aleph has only become more uncrossable on foot because Mount Aleph continues to violently erupt. Isaac and Garet also need the soarwing to keep a better watch on occurrences of a phenomenon named Psynergy Vortexes, which are randomly appearing distortions in space that are believed to be pure anti-Psynergy created by exceptionally dense concentrations of Psynergy in many places. These vortexes suck the elemental energy out of the world and Adepts within their vicinity, and are believed to be an after-effect of the Golden Sun event. One enormous Psynergy Vortex in particular once unleashed unimaginable destruction and misery in the center of Angara, such that it was subsequently known as the Mourning Moon.

Isaac and Matthew return from a journey to the nearby Patcher's Place, a settlement that the former Valean refugee Patcher had founded for himself and other refugees of the former village. However, Tyrell suddenly takes the Soarwing out for a flight himself, immaturely insisting that the others don't take him seriously, but soon enough he finds that he is unable to maintain altitude because he had never received flying lessons from Karis. Isaac instructs Tyrell to fly across the Tanglewood forest below and land at the abandoned Psynergy Stone mine at the other side, then has Garet, Matthew, and Karis accompany them on a trip through the forest. Matthew and Karis, who have been trained by their fathers so that they may assume the duty to look after the world in their parents' stead, are brought along so that can obtain necessary experience out in the field.

Isaac and Garet have Matthew and Karis lead the way and fight wild monsters on their own, though the emergence of nightfall causes the energies of darkness permeating Tanglewood to make the resident monsters more dangerous. Upon entering the abandoned mine, they are surprised to find a particularly large Psynergy Vortex pulsating within for the first time in years, and they also find an unconscious Tyrell lying near it. The four are attacked by an enormous, sentient plant monstrosity growing near the vortex, and after it is fought and defeated, Isaac and Garet transfer some of their Psynergy reserves into Tyrell so that he may recover. While the others are glad Tyrell is uninjured, the soarwing has been destroyed.

Back at Isaac's cabin, Isaac and Garet lay out for the three young Adepts that the soarwing needs to be repaired. The critical material needed to rebuild it is the feather of a Mountain Roc, a rare and mammoth-sized bird that roosts far across the continent, in the country of Morgal. The original quest Isaac and Garet took to find the previous feather was long and difficult because Angara had already radically changed, and as they need to stay behind to monitor Mount Aleph and study the aftereffects of the Golden Sun with Ivan, they task Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis to go on the same long journey to find a Mountain Roc feather. This comes across as abrupt, but to Isaac that is the point: thirty years beforehand, they were catapulted into their own quest when they met Kraden, and a tough quest such as this is the perfect rite of passage for Matthew and his friends to undergo as Adepts. Isaac arranges to contact Kraden via carrier pigeon so that the scholar will meet them in nearby Carver's Camp, and there Kraden can help Matthew in all matters involving charting a course into the unknown.

Despite having something so big set upon them so suddenly, all three of the young Adepts are eager to set off on their adventure. The three head toward and arrive at Carver's Camp past the road through the Goma Highlands that divides Vale's refugees from the rest of Angara. They arrive just in time to save a small child from a bridge that gets destroyed by another large Psynergy Vortex that has just appeared, but this means that they don't have a route through the kingdom of Bilibin (rulership of which, incidentally, has been taken up by Lord McCoy's son). The men of the hearty Valean refugee that the lumberjack camp is named after, Carver, pass on an earlier message from Kraden that the Adepts are to find an alternate route to Bilibin by passing through the cave trail underneath the Konpa Ruins, which has a branch north to Bilibin.

The Adepts travel southwest toward the recently discovered Konpa Ruins in what remains of Lamakan Desert. As they explore it, Matthew obtains the exclusive knowledge to read the ancient language of glyphs that are posted on tablets within this and several other ancient dungeons located throughout Angara. They eventually reach its cavernous depths and find Kraden and his two pupils, the Mercury Adepts Rief and Nowell - the son and daughter of Mia, respectively - observing a large Psynergy Vortex inside, which is positioned underneath a strange and unknown device. Just then, Matthew's group is ambushed by a trio of armored scoutmen that drop in by using extensible, rubber arm-like cables, and Matthew's party dispatches the well-trained men after much difficulty.

Kraden and his pupils do not have much time to exchange pleasantries with Matthew, for they are suddenly taunted by two men from above: a foreign-looking swordsman introduced as Blados, and who none among Matthew and Kraden's groups recognize as Alex having survived the Golden Sun event thirty years prior and appearing identical in age. Without disclosing his identity, Alex and Blados show that they have taken Rief hostage, and use this to force Kraden and Nowell to take the north exit out of Konpa Cave and force Matthew's friends out the south exit so that Rief can be saved. Kraden instructs Matthew that they will rejoin and resume their quest for the Mountain Roc feather at a later date in the continent's northern half. As soon as Matthew's group exits out of Konpa Cave's south exit, a free Rief joins them, and Blados and his soldiers detonate charges to permanently seal off the cave entrance behind them. Blados taunts that they are all now free to go on their quest, and that they are lucky he was granted orders to let them live; clearly, Blados and his ilk intend for them to be "trapped" in the south Ei-Jei portion of the continent for whatever reason. Before leaving, Blados states that their only chance to make it into the north part of Angara now is to cross the Khiren Mountains, the mountain range that effectively divides Angara into northern and southern halves.

The Alchemy Machines
With Rief now a part of the traveling group of Adepts, Matthew passes through the ancient ruins of Harapa, which people have discovered and adopted as a settlement. They then make the journey toward Passaj, a town based on a lower peak at the bottom left end of the Khiren Mountains, in hopes of finding answers about the possible route across the mountains. As soon as they arrive at the mountain settlement, Rief shows the others the mechanical platform at Passaj's mountain peak that Kraden believed holds the key to crossing over. Visible in the distance is the higher peak of the western Khiren Mountains, what is now called Craggy Peak, which Kraden said was once one of the homes of the ancient ancestors of Adepts, the Jenei. The particular Jenei that lived on Craggy Peak and looked over this part of Weyard were known as the Neox. Kraden believed that the Neox could travel between these peaks with their powers and the cooperation of the ancient ancestors of the people of Passaj, the master craftsmen known as the Exathi, who helped create a machine that could manipulate the clouds and allow for the construction of a cloudy "sky passage" of sorts. Such machines are based on Alchemy principles, and the machine Passaj contains is called the Alchemy Forge.

The four Adepts inspect the massive Alchemy Forge machine built into the mountain, and use their Psynergy to bring it out of its slumber. The crotchety village elder, Bogho, appreciates what they have achieved, but explains that while this Psynergy-powered machine is now active, the only way the machine can actually be used is by inserting a special object named the Sol Mask; presumably, this is a safety measure was made to ensure that only the Neox's allies could get to the Neox city on Craggy Peak. The Sol Mask is presently believed to be in a legendary, serpentine labyrinth named the Ouroboros to the east. This is unfortunate, as the modern-day enemy of Passaj, the kingdom of Kaocho lorded over by the military-minded King Wo, had built itself above the Ouroboros. Within the thirty years since the Golden Sun event, the kingdom of Sana emerged as a predominant Angaran power, and King Wo, a disciple of Sana's previous warlike emperor, founded Kaocho in a motion of imperial expansionism. Wo has sent armies to attack Passaj in a clear attempt to get to its Alchemy Forge, but on the flip side, if the Alchemy Forge can be used and controlled, Passaj would be able to ensure its own safety.

Bogho further explains that the allied nation to the south, Ayuthay, has a similar Alchemy-related machine called the Alchemy Well; Ayuthay experienced explosive growth when the Alchemy Well suddenly started working about twenty years ago, and King Wo is attempting to get to the Alchemy Well as well. The people of Ayuthay have hidden themselves securely underground to protect themselves from Wo's attacks. Bogho's grandson, Baghi, tells Matthew that he has a close friend who might know how to survive the Ouroboros: the prince of Ayuthay himself, Amiti. To reach Ayuthay and Amiti, Baghi gives Matthew the Tree Flute, something he will need to open a secret passage into its castle. Matthew's group departs Passaj and journeys south to Ayuthay, but the Kaochan soldiers occupying the kingdom walls above-ground prevent Matthew from passing. They require Matthew to bear proof from King Wo that he has joined Wo's army to assist in the invasion.

Matthew's party decides to journey east to Kaocho to see about securing the right to enter Ayuthay. Matthew and company are immediately granted an audience with King Wo because he has been expecting "his new Adepts" for a while now, and the advisor in his court that has told him of Matthew's arrival in advance is the voluptuous and foreign-looking Chalis. Tyrell correctly deduces that she is affiliated with Blados. Wo wants the Adepts to both retrieve the Sol Mask from the Ouroboros for him and to help his army conquer Ayuthay, and quickly gives Matthew a signed letter of approval that will allow him into Ayuthay. The Adepts' obvious displeasure with what is happening quickly sours the mood, but Chalis invites the four to act on their intentions to try to take the Sol Mask from the Ouroboros for themselves, and has them dropped into a trap door into the first room of the labyrinth below. Chalis explains to Wo that despite their refusal to comply with Wo on the surface, she is certain the Adepts will end up proving their worth anyway - in that they will see they can't truly enter the labyrinth yet, will then go to Ayuthay, and later return to enter the dungeon and retrieve the Sol Mask.

Down in the first part of the Ouroboros, the Adepts figure out what Wo and Chalis are generally intending of them, but decide anyway to leave and go over to Ayuthay with Wo's letter in hand. The Adepts gain admittance into Ayuthay by presenting the letter to the two Kaochan generals leading the occupation, Ku-Tsung and Ku-Embra, and then use the Tree Flute gave them to find the secret way into the kingdom underground. Prince Amiti and the hiding people of Ayuthay quickly welcome them as friends and bring them to his uncle, king Paithos. Up until now, Paithos had told Amiti that the one who started the Alchemy Well twenty years ago was his late mother, Veriti, and that Amiti was conceived entirely of Veriti's power through miraculous means. But Paithos chooses now to suddenly reveal to Amiti that he did, in fact, have a biological father, and this man, a mysterious and powerful Mercury Adept, was the one who actually started the Well and found the Luna Mask to allow for its operation. Only Veriti knew what he looked like, and they had both fallen in love with each other seemingly at first sight.

There is a prophecy that Adepts would come to restore an ancient civilization that included much more than Ayuthay, but the mysterious Adept said he was not the one it was referring to, and he left his work only half-complete; while right now the Well is feeding water to Ayuthay, it can be made to feed water far beyond, should its counterpart, the Alchemy Forge in Passaj, have its Sol Mask inserted into it. Paithos is confident that Matthew's group is the group of Adepts prophesied to unite the two Alchemy Machines and bring ancient civilization back to life, so he reveals the existence of one of Ayuthay's guarded treasures, which the Adepts will require to enter the true dungeon of the Ouroboros: the ancient Jenei artifact known as the Insight Glass, hidden within the Barai Temple that is currently submerged within Ayuthay's man-made Barai Pond. As Barai Pond serves as a reservoir for runoff water from the Alchemy Well, the temple can only be accessed once all the water is sucked out somehow, and Paithos has heard that it is possible that the Alchemy Well can be put in reverse to achieve this. Amiti is willing to accompany the Adepts in their search.

The five Adepts investigate the running Alchemy Well, and in an adjacent room they are addressed by an ancient and legendary entity named the "Sand Prince", whose fire-based powers have the capacity to drink ponds dry. The Adepts are tested by the Sand Prince in battle and earn his power in the form of the Sand Prince Stone, and they subsequently use the power of arid heat on the mechanisms of the Alchemy Well, successfully toggling the Alchemy Well into reverse and lowering Ayuthay's water level. The Adepts move out and enter the now-open Barai Temple, and like with all other ancient ruins Matthew would come to explore over the course of his quest, his ability to read glyphs repeatedly proves invaluable in allowing the group to solve the temple's ancient riddles. The five reach a room where a humanoid face projected onto a waterfall through ancient mechanisms explains that the Glass has a consciousness of its own and chooses who shall possess it, and Amiti is chosen. While unsure what exactly this all implies, the five return to Ayuthay at the surface.

Paithos is impressed that the group found the Insight Glass, but Amiti expresses that because he was chosen to use the Insight Glass, as though the Jenei intended for it to choose someone from Ayuthay, he must accompany his new friends to the Ouroboros and beyond. Paithos is taken aback, but he eventually comes to acknowledge that Amiti has chosen his own path, and grants Amiti and his newfound friends his blessing. After raising back up the water level, the five Adepts depart from Ayuthay's sheltered underground, only to find Ku-Tsung and Ku-Embra waiting for them outside. They attack the Adepts as punishment for their treachery, but the Adepts manage to render the two lying wounded on the ground. Paithos and his advisors appear and announce that with Kaocho's generals defeated and tied up, Ayuthay's superiority in this conflict has been demonstrated. Amiti has Paithos keep the generals hidden so that the standing Kaochan forces remain idle in Ayuthay while the Adepts can enter the Ouroboros without a hassle. Matthew's group departs Ayuthay on this note.

Matthew and his friends return to Kaocho, which is now largely unoccupied because Chalis directed Wo to move his armies north. Completely unimpeded, the Adepts enter the true entrance to the Ouroboros labyrinth with the help of Amiti's newfound power of insight, and it is only a matter of time before the Sol Mask is in their possession. They proceed back to Passaj and insert the Sol Mask into the Alchemy Forge; rather amazingly, all of the ancient architecture throughout and outside the entire town lights up and rises, seemingly transforming Passaj from a slumlike settlement into an armored fortress. In direct response, the palace in Ayuthay automatically starts showering and spreading water, turning much of the dry land around it green. When the Adepts stand on the mechanical platform at Passaj's mountain peak that is supposed to create a passage of clouds to Craggy Peak, however, the forge's attempt at making a cloud from the floating, lighter-than-air mineral called zol is disappointing to say the least; Baghi is perplexed, and does not know what the clouds might need to be more substantial. But Bogho once again has helpful legends to relate.

Just as the Alchemy Well in Passaj needed the Sand Prince Stone to be reversed, the Alchemy Forge has a gemstone of its own that can alter its function, one known as the Ice Queen Stone. This was one of Passaj's greatest treasures; however, a monk stole it from Passaj many years ago. The Sand Prince suddenly communicates that the other gemstone's eponymous Ice Queen is a demonic female entity that originally waited for a foolish man to free her so as to escape her gemstone prison, and then proceeded to hide in the unreachable part of the ruins at Harapa. The Ice Queen Stone can reverse the fire-based Forge to forge fire into ice, which will bolster the otherwise fluffy zol clouds. The Adepts therefore return to Harapa, which has also been rejuvenated by the water that flowed from Ayuthay, and this gives the Adepts the footing they need to reach the Ice Queen's domain. The creature talks down to them and engages them in battle, but they defeat her and render her into the form of the Ice Queen Stone. The Adepts obtain the capacity to freeze puddles of water with this.

Just then, the man that the Ice Queen had made use of and had turned into a statue is brought back to normal, and reveals himself to be none other than Nyunpa, the monk that Isaac encountered thirty years before - he was lured and ensnared by the Ice Queen while traveling across Angara to help those afflicted by the disasters of the Golden Sun. After Nyunpa gives the Adepts his blessings and leaves, the Adepts stay one last night in Harapa, and then return once more to Passaj. They use their newfound ice powers to put the Alchemy Forge in reverse, and when they stand on the mechanical platform at Passaj's mountain peak, they are supported by a strong, solid zol cloud produced by the forge. The Adepts bid farewell to Bogho and Baghi as they are transported through the Clouds of Passaj, where cubes of zol suspended in the air by the winds allow them firm footing far above the ground to walk to Craggy Peak. Having solved the many riddles of the Exathi, they proceed to solve the riddles of the Neox within their former labyrinth in the mountain. They eventually touch back down onto the snow-covered flat regions surrounded within the peaks of the Khiren Mountains.

The Morgal Region
The five Adepts briefly traverse the Khiren Glacier until they reach a nomadic tent village named Te Rya, founded by Sanans who originally lived up north in Morgal but were driven out. They have their first encounter with a hotheaded young Sanan man named Ryu Kou, who is accompanied by his elderly master, the calm martial artist Hou Zan. The two are visitors that are being pursued by soldiers of Belinsk, and the reason for Ryu Kou's obvious bitterness is that his younger sister, Hou Ju, has been captured and held captive in Belinsk. Since the capital of Morgal is where the Adepts are going, Hou Zan directs them toward the Teppe Ruins north of Te Rya, which constitutes a path into the Morgal region.

As the Adepts through Teppe Ruins, they catch up to what appears to be a girl with animalistic features, who introduces herself as Sveta, one of the beastmen from Morgal. One of the many effects the Golden Sun event had on the world was to transform several groups of people and animals alike into hybrid beastman forms, and hated by humans for a while. The beastmen founded their own kingdom and took the northeast region of Angara east of Bilibin as their territory, naming it Morgal. As a beastman, Sveta has highly attuned senses, and she is also a Jupiter Adept with the ability to read minds, just like Karis' father (but not Karis herself). Sveta didn't reveal herself to the Adepts in Te Rya earlier because Te Rya would attack a beastman on sight: The beastman country of Morgal was originally colonized by the Sanans, but when Morgal's king, Volechek, came to power, he engaged in a violent civil war that successfully drove the Sanans out. After doing a favor for Sveta, Matthew is temporarily joined by her as they traverse the Teppe Ruins with her animalistic tracking Psynergy and her innate ability to use Psynergy for slapping.

The Adepts and Sveta find their way through to the plains of Morgal, but when it comes out that the rest of the Adepts intend to retrieve a feather from the Mountain Roc, though, Sveta flinches, explaining that to do that would require physically plucking a feather off the creature that Morgal's beastmen views as divinity. She personally cannot help them get their feather, but she proposes that she will wait in Belinsk while they do what they must, and gives them the following instructions on how to reestablish contact with her when they are done: they are to find a band of minstrels in Belinsk and request they play the piece known as the Arangoa Prelude. Sveta leaves the party on a somewhat sad note. The five Adepts decide that their next course of action is to find Kraden having hopefully made it to Belinsk through Bilibin.

The five Adepts arrive at the city of Belinsk, located in the midway point between Bilibin to the west and Kolima Forest to the east. They speak with the five-strong minstrel troupe of former-animal beastmen, but the troupe does not have the capacity at present to play Arangoa Prelude because their band leader, Vande, is currently out on a trip to find musical inspiration by listening to the cry of the Mountain Roc. Arangoa Prelude is an ancient musical incantation that has no sheet music - each of the six parts is given by a master musician to one apprentice, and all six must be gathered and in the right state of mind in order to play the extremely demanding piece. It is said that properly performing the piece can cause miracles. Noting that they won't be signaling Sveta to be their guide anytime soon, the Adepts also find that Kraden is nowhere to be found, and leave town to search for him.

Matthew and company decide to head west to Bilibin. and arrive at the small settlement outside Bilibin's borders, the aptly named Border Town, where they are suddenly approached by two Champan pirates. They are here by order of their captain Briggs to seek the help of his old mate Kraden, who Briggs' other old friend, the legendary sailor Captain Piers, told would be in Bilibin; Briggs's son, Eoleo - who had taken his father's place as the prince of Champa and scourge of the Eastern Sea - has been captured by Belinsk and slated for execution by boiling by the next full moon. Since all Matthew and his friends know about the Champa pirates are that they fought Felix and his compatriots thirty years before, they are apprehensive at first about helping, but the two Champan pirates relate that they know the Warriors of Vale would have helped. They share the information that Briggs has already attempted a head-on assault at Belinsk's palace with his ship, but was driven back by Belinsk's cannons and retreated to Port Rago at the northeastern end of the continent. The Adepts decide to go east to Port Rago.

Matthew and his friends encounter the elderly and grizzled pirate Briggs amongst the great shipyards of Port Rago, who is having the world-renowned Exathi-descended shipwrights repair his severely damaged ship for sentimental reasons rather than construct a new vessel. Briggs states that the help of Adepts might be the best kind for him, since Kraden is nowhere to be seen, so he proposes that while he will remain behind and wait for his vessel to be repaired, the Adepts should seek information from a different elder that Piers told him about, Tret of Kolima Forest, who knows about both the Mountain Roc the Adepts are seeking and about how Belinsk Castle can be attacked by land. The Adepts decide that they are curious about this Tret and that they will volunteer for Briggs' favor, and Briggs rewards them with something else that Piers gave him - some Hermes' Water, which can cure any kind of disease.

The five Adepts arrive at Saha, a Morgal settlement in front of where Kolima and its forest had now shifted as a result of the Golden Sun event. Saha has quarantined Kolima off because one of the four great trees comprising Kolima's habitable quarters, the Dream Tree has taken on an illness and is causing its residents to have nightmares. The Adepts sneak their way into the quarantined Kolima to find distressed citizens and a forest beyond town that has become infinitely more perplexing, causing those attempting to traverse it to walk in circles. The Adepts incidentally find Vande in town, who explains that he won't be going back to rejoin his band in Belinsk until he sees the Mountain Roc. Their discussion with Kolima's mayor eventually leads the Adepts on the task to seek out and kill a wretched lizard monster that is the embodiment of the anger of all the marshland creatures that were killed by the Golden Sun event, Sludge. When they destroy it and cleanse the source of the taint, they then use Hermes' Water on the Dream Tree, restoring it to full vitality and ensuring that Kolima's residents have nightmares no longer.

Matthew and the Adepts are suddenly notified by a Venus Djinni named Pewter that Laurel invites them to her domain in Kolima Forest, now that the lizard monster is no longer making Kolima Forest impassable. Pewter guides them through the forest until they meet the giant talking trees Tret and Laurel, who introduce themselves plant-based beings called the Waelda - beings whose long lives allow them to gather a great degree of the world's knowledge. Tret is content to look into their auras to recognize them as the children of the Warriors of Vale that saved him before; mysteriously, however, Tret identifies Amiti as another relative of Mia. This leaves the Adepts confused, but the Waelda quickly determine this line of conversation to be a triviality.

Tret and Laurel give information about the Mountain Roc feather they seek; the Mountain Roc roosts on the mountain just north of Kolima Forest, Talon Peak, but it is in such a deep sleep that its physical composition is more akin to stone, which would make retrieving one of its feathers impossible. Only a slapping Psynergy useable by beastmen Adepts can wake it, but while the Adepts can't find Sveta right now, Tret explains that this particular Psynergy power is also bound within a national treasure of Belinsk called the Slap Glove.

Speaking of Belinsk, when the Adepts ask if there is a way to break into Belinsk's prison to free its captives, the Waelda explain that there is a hidden door into ruins underneath Belinsk's castle, but it can't be used without being powered by small shards of magma power that naturally form within the stomach of the Mountain Roc. The Waelda warn, however, that lying dormant within these ruins is an ancient machine called an Alchemy Dynamo, which they insist must not be powered. To this end, they refuse to even share the method of how it can be powered up in theory. While the Adepts are not happy to be left out of potentially important information, they figure that they wouldn't intentionally turn on some dangerous machine while rescuing the captives in Belinsk's palace anyway, so they promise Laurel this and set off toward Talon Peak.

Before reaching Talon Peak, the Adepts encounter Ryu Kou and Hou Zan again, who listened in on the Adepts' conversation with the Waelda. Sveta gave the two the Slap Glove and told them to wait for the Adepts so that they could accompany the Adepts in both their quest for the Mountain Roc and their planned rescue of the hostages in Belinsk castle, Eoleo and Hou Ju. From Sveta's capacity to give this national treasure, Ryu Kou affirms that Sveta is of Morgal's royal family, the Czamaral clan, and is thus the sister of King Volechek. Per what Sveta arranged for, Matthew and Ryo Kou's sides accept a partnership and climb talon peak until they reach the enormous stone form of the Mountain Roc. They use the Slap Glove's Slap Psynergy on the bird's prominent wattle twice, once to wake it up and once to knock it out cold, and they are finally able to retrieve one of its large feathers.

But just then, Blados and Chalis appear and announce that they have been waiting for the Adepts for a while, and Ryu Kou and Hou Zan deduce that Volechek is in league with these villains. Volechek originally let Ryu Kou and Hou Zan escape Belinsk's palace, knowing that Sveta would come after the two, give them the Slap Glove, and point them to Talon Peak, and so this trap could be prepared in advance. Blados and Chalis reveal that they had Eoleo captured as an additional measure to help draw the Adepts into their trap. The duo lay out that they want the Adepts to slay the Mountain Roc and retrieve its Magma Orb, a full jewel-like sphere that Tret and Laurel did not tell the Adepts that the shards of magma energy that naturally form within the giant bird's stomach coalesce into, or that a Magma Orb sphere is precisely what the Alchemy Dynamo in the ruins underneath Belinsk is powered by. Blados and Chalis won't disclose why they want this machine started, but before they leave, they threaten that if the machine is not activated with the Magma Orb soon, both Hou Ju and Eoleo will regret it. Just then, the Mountain Roc regains its composure and attacks the Adepts, and a fierce battle ensues, but they ultimately slay the beast.

The seven enter the Roc's insides to find a full Magma Orb inside, as well as several lesser Magma shards; however, the Adepts figure that if they are to honor their promise to Tret and Laurel not to power the Alcehmy Dynamo, they should leave it behind. But just then, Ryu Kou steps forward to claim the Magma Orb for himself, and makes known his full intention to use it to do what it is that Blados and Chalis want and what the Waelda don't want, to power up the allegedly dangerous machine under Belinsk. After all, if he doesn't, his innocent sister will be boiled alive. The Adepts are appalled, but are unable to do anythign because Ryu Kou threatening that he will smash the Orb and kill everyone with the resultant explosion of energy if he is not allowed to do what he must. Ryu Kou demands and receives the Slap Glove, then tells the Adepts that they can have the Magma shards for if they want to follow Ryu Kou and Hou Zan into Belinsk's underground. A regretful Hou Zan leaves with Ryu Kou on this note, and after expressing their anger and disappointment, the Adepts leave Talon Peak as well.

On their way back through Kolima, the five Adepts encounter Vande again, who exclaims that he has seen and heard the Mountain Roc and has been inspired for his music, so he goes back to Belinsk to rejoin his band. The Adepts decide to briefly return to Briggs in Port Rago to tell him that Tret didn't have information on how to actually lead an assault on Belinsk. It is found out that the chances of Briggs being able to use his old and breaking ship to rescue Eoleo from his scheduled execution in time is none; however, he considers himself helpless while his ship's repairs remain incomplete, and the Adepts are not impressed by Briggs' attempt to get the Adepts to do all the work for him when Eoleo is his own son whose life is in danger. The Adepts ultimately decide they will need to go to Belinsk anyway, so that the two very different captives can be saved.

The Grave Eclipse
Matthew and his friends return to Belinsk and request Vande's minstrel troupe to play Arangoa Prelude; when the music starts, every beastman in Belinsk is put in a deep state of mesmerization, and the Adepts enter a newly opened stairwell down into Belinsk Ruins. The magma shards they retained from the Mountain Roc allow them to open up doorways through the ancient hallways they couldn't have otherwise, and they soon meet again with Sveta, who apologizes for keeping her blood relation with Volechek a secret. Blados and Chalis are also inside the ruins below, and Sveta identifies the duo as commanders of the nation Tuaparang, which is not so much a nation as it is a gigantic fortress-like airship that flies across the world and styles itself as a nation. The enigmatic nation, naming itself the "Zenith Tribe" and ruled by an individual known only as the "High Empyror", is very clearly focused on all things related to Alchemy, military power, and conquest, without focusing on helping its citizens at all. From her discussion with the Adepts, Sveta learns that Volechek is working with Blados as part of his scheme.

Sveta is eager to accept the Adepts' invitation into their group to explore the ruins to get into Belinsk Castle from below, but she and the others quickly find that the path they want has mysteriously disappeared, as though they are being guided down below. They are quickly happened upon by Ryu Kou and Hou Zan, who apologize for their recent actions and illustrate that they seemingly are being guided down into Belinsk Ruins themselves. Everyone discerns that Tuaparang is trying to get them to reach and power the Alchemy Dynamo in the ruins below, and that it has something to do with making ancient civilization a reality, but as they are barred from going back, they must press forward to get closer to saving the two captives. The six Adepts and Ryu Kou once again form an uneasy partnership, and through their exploration of Belinsk Ruins they eventually find the gate to the core of the Alchemy Dynamo. A Ward, which is an ancient system that protects the Dynamo by replicating the will of a Jenei official once known as the Warden of the North, describes what lies beyond as the heart of Luna Tower, waiting to be unsealed. Everyone gets the feeling that Luna Tower may not be a good thing to unseal, but head in anyway.

At the core of the Alchemy Dynamo, the Ward instructs for the Magma Orb to be placed into the machine. Alex, Blados, and Chalis choose this moment to make their reappearance and force them to do so, and Blados and Chalis quickly decide to show the Adepts in advance what will happen if they don't cooperate by launching an attack on the Adepts. A fierce battle ensues, but the Adepts eventually manage to render the powerful duo immobile. While Blados and Chalis commend them, they state that they won the war nonetheless; the Adepts find Alex forcing Ryu Kou to power on the Alchemy Dynamo by conveying that his sister Hou Ju's fate hangs in the balance. Ryu Kou complies, despite all the Adepts' desperate protests, and as the Ward announces the ascension of Luna Tower to the surface and gives the warning message for all personnel to flee, Alex gives the reason for wanting to activate Luna Tower: like the Elemental Lighthouses, Luna Tower also contains a power that has been sealed away for eons, the only difference here being that this tower's creators never wanted its prison broken. Also, he claims that opening the seal on this machine is "only the beginning". As Matthew's group still doesn't know his name, Alex gives his "Arcanus" codename before leaving, and the Adepts follow suit and exit out of what is now a towering structure that has raised up behind Belinsk castle.

It is now nighttime in Belinsk, and all of its people are amazed by the "miraculous" rising of an ancient tower from the ground. Not only have the scheduled executions at Belinsk Castle been called off, but its front doors are now open because Arcanus, the man king Volechek favors, ordered to let them pass so that the Adepts can go in and retrieve the captives. Matthew's extended group first goes toward Hou Ju's cell, and all of a sudden, King Volechek himself comes in to open the girl's cell to let her and Ryu Kou reunite. Volechek calmly states that he came to thank his little sister, Sveta, for activing "his tower". All of a sudden again, who else should arrive but Kraden, who Volechek recognizes as the scholar that accompanied Isaac on their previous visit to Morgal during the reign of Volechek's father and during their quest to obtain the previous Roc feather.

Kraden gravely states that there are plenty of things that Volechek hasn't been told by those he was working with concerning Eclipse Tower (Luna Tower's original name): activating it was a terrible mistake.Volechek retorts that Morgal has suffered for many years under foreign Sanan rule, and that it has no choice but to arm itself with the power of the ancients so that Sana and Bilibin can be subjugated before they return the beastmen to slavery. After the king leaves, Kraden bears the news that Volechek has been deceived by the Tuaparang into believing that Eclipse Tower is a weapon that can be used as a deterrent, when in fact its real function is something else that will likely bring calamity to the world. Kraden advises the three Sanans that they must flee Belinsk as fast as they can, because as non-Adepts they may not survive what's to come. The Sanans take his advice and bid farewell. Kraden and the Adepts rush to rescue Eoleo from his suspended cage, and even though Eoleo was a toddler thirty years ago, he is able to remember Kraden.

Just then, Sol (the sun) rises up to assume a position behind Luna (the moon), and the tower begins generating and maintaining a giant semisphere of purplish dark energy that ends up covering much of the entire northern hemisphere of Weyard, causing the great calamity that would come to be known as the Grave Eclipse. Eoleo accompanies Kraden and the Adepts out of Belinsk Castle to find that dark monsters are now manifesting wherever this bizarre darkness reaches, attacking and killing soldiers and civilians alike. Kraden takes everyone to Belinsk's pier, where Briggs has moored a noticeably repaired ship that moves without oars or wind, but Briggs has been mortally wounded by the monsters of the Grave Eclipse. Briggs' last words to his grieving son is to tell Chaucha that he is sorry to leave her alone, and to take care of Champa. Later, after Briggs is given a memorial in which his body is shoved out to sea in a coffin, Eoleo swears he will make the true culprits of the plot to set up the eclipse pay, and swears his loyalty to Matthew's group of Adepts.

As the Adepts shove off on Eoleo's new ship, Sveta receives telepathic communication from Volechek at Eclipse Tower, who expresses great remorse for not seeing until it was too late that the Tuaparang was using him. He spirits to Sveta a Blue Orb that he stole from Blados, hoping that it will in some form amount to a weapon her companions can use against the Tuaparang. He refuses Sveta's offer to join them on their boat on the basis that he cannot leave his kingdom's capital when he was the one who may have destroyed it, and he commands her to live as the last of the Czamaral line. Volechek and Sveta bid a sad farewell to each other before he meets his fate. After a turbulent voyage away from Belinsk, the Adepts and their ship make it outside the shadowy perimeter of the Grave Eclipse, safe from the shadow fiends.

Kraden and the Adepts discuss the various things they know and don't know about the current circumstances, such as the Blue Orb Volechek risked his life to throw to Sveta. Up until now, their enemies, like Arcanus, have been controlling their every step, but the seven Adepts and Kraden resolve to start moving forward for themselves and explore the northern portion of the Great Eastern Sea as they see fit. Kraden suggests that for now, their first step should be to find relevant information of any sort by visiting the villages and cultures of the upper Eastern Sea. Their first stop is a nearby island containing the small settlement Harun Village, which is partially in the perimeter of the shadow and partially out of it.

After helping the village elder and storyteller, Ikan, by saving his grandson Kaba, Ikan explains that Eclipse Tower was originally a light-powered machine built by the Jenei to advance their art of Alchemy, for they had craved power even beyond rulership of Weyard and the four base elements that comprise physical matter by themselves. They had been attempting to control the fundaments of the other two values comprising reality, darkness and light, essentially equating to the desire to attain omnipotence. But it had worked too well, and Eclipse Tower had apparently caused a similar calamity in the ancient past as it has now, hence why the ancients sealed it away in hopes that it would not be activated like the Elemental Lighthouses. While not thoroughly knowledgeable about Alchemy-related matters beyond this, Ikan relates a prophecy concerning how a gathering of warriors is predicted to transpire at the nearby zol-based labyrinth Warrior's Hill so that they may combat the dark dawn of Eclipse Tower. As Matthew's party looks the part, Ikan gives them an ancient key, and the Adepts go to Warrior's Hill and find and unlock the chamber. Inside, they are not impressed to find that what supposedly will guide them in their quest to combat the Eclipse is just a peculiar, eyeball-like object that they don't even know how to use, but they take it anyway. They depart Harun island and sail back into the Eastern Sea.

Apollo Sanctum
The next island of importance the Adepts touch down on is the island of Nihan, the former location of Izumo - it had been swallowed into the sea by tsunamis set off by the Golden Sun event, and Lady Uzume shepherded its people toward their new home on the island, Yamata City. She died of an illness shortly afterward, leaving Susa and Kushinada to govern Yamata as its king and queen. They have two children: the courageous prince Takeru, who left abroad on a supposedly important mission once the Grave Eclipse began; and the soft-spoken princess Himi, seemingly the embodiment of Yamata's cultural focus on spirituality. When the Adepts come to Susa for information, however, they find that Himi has fallen in a deep state of unconsciousness that began with the Grave Eclipse.

As soon as Matthew approaches Himi, the eyeball-like object from Warrior's Hill suddenly chooses her as its vessel and imprints itself into her, causing a Third Eye-like symbol to manifest on her forehead and causing her to suddenly wake up. Himi explains that spiritual voices now speaking to her tell her she must accompany Matthew's group of Adepts, because she has gained important knowledge about Eclipse Tower and how it can be stopped. Eclipse Tower is actually absorbing the light that Sol is supposed to be giving to the world, and will release all energy in a cataclysmic burst once it has absorbed enough. Himi also now has the knowledge on how Eclipse Tower can ultimately be stopped: located within the Khiren Mountains is an ancient device called the Apollo Lens, which has the ability to amplify light. In theory, if it is used to surge light into the light-absorbing Eclipse Tower, the tower's machine will be forced to stop. It turns out that Matthew's group of Adepts already supplied power to the Apollo Lens by turning on its power sources, the two Alchemy Machines in the Ei-Jei region, so what remains now is the task of reaching the Apollo Lens and removing its lock in order to actually use it.

Himi continues by explaining that in order to remove the lock on the Apollo Lens, the Adepts will need to collect all the pieces to a set of equipment that has been created by the Jenei to harness the powers of darkness, the Umbra Gear. Each of its five pieces are scattered across the upper Eastern Sea. To find these, there is an ancient map located within Morgal's oldest records, the Umbra map, which will show them where in the ancient version of Weyard each piece was located. Sveta believes that it would be in the possession of the current emperor of Sana. Himi easily convinces her parents to allow her to accompany Matthew's Adepts on the rest of their journey, and joins as a Venus Adept herself. Before leaving Yamata, Matthew and Himi's group visits the memorial shrine for her aunt Uzume, where Uzume's spirit suddenly manifests and instructs Himi to use her searching Psynergy to search the ruins below the tomb, find the lock located deep within them, then proceed west to Tonfon, the capital of Sana, to get this lock's key from its emperor. The Adepts investigate the ruins, but they do not get far, finding that they need some sort of crimson gem. The eight Adepts and Kraden leave Yamata and resume sailing, intending to come back later.

The Adepts dock at Tonfon, and are allowed entry into the chamber of its modern-day emperor, the scholarly Unan and uncle to Ryu Kou and Hou Ju, because he had been expecting them and Kraden based on what Piers told him earlier. Unan is sent a ship to Morgal to rescue Ryu Kou, Hou Ju, and Hou Zan, but it has never returned. Kraden and the Adepts ask to check Unan's royal vaults for the Umbra Map, and Unan is pleased to help them; while they do find one piece of the Umbra gear, the ancient map to the other pieces is nowhere to be seen. Unan figures that Ryu Kou is the only possible person it could be now in the possession of right now, so the Adepts will have to hopefully find him alive somewhere.

While exploring Tonfon's palace, the Adepts learn from Ryu Kou and Hou Ju's despondent mother, Lady Hinechou, that the royal family has been in possession of a matching pair of Echo Gems for generations, each of which shines while its counterpart is in the possession of a living person. In theory, one is always on Hou Ju's person, so the Adepts take the other one currently in the palace so that they can use it to pinpoint her location. Incidentally, just as the Adepts leave Tonfon for their voyage, Rief remembers to ask Kraden whatever happened to Nowell since the last time they encountered each other, and Kraden explains that while Piers was ferrying him and Nowell, Nowell fell in love with Piers and announced that she would stay on his ship. While this is surprising news, fortunately this means that Nowell is not getting caught up in the chaos caused by the Grave Eclipse.

The Echo Gem retrieved from Tonfon's palace acts like an effective compass to Hou Ju, which brings the Adepts all the way to the glacier-ridden sea north of the Mercury Lighthouse. There, they find a makeshift outpost on an iceberg, in which they find all three of the Sanans having had to fend for themselves. Hou Zan has been mortally wounded while fighting off hordes of monsters with his martial arts, and calls on Matthew to bring the siblings back to their homeland in his last breath. Hou Zan is buried, and Ryu Kou gives Matthew the Umbra map. As the Adepts ferry the siblings back to Tonfon, Karis uses the ancient geography of the map to estimate where on modern-day Weyard the remaining four pieces of Umbra gear are located.

The Adepts return to Tonfon and let Ryu Kou and Hou Ju reunite with their mother and uncle at long last. In a later private discussion with Unan, the emperor gives the Adepts something extremely important, a Red Orb that is a counterpart to the Blue Orb. As Unan explains, earlier he was approached by Arcanus and told to give the Adepts this orb, because this is one of three colored orbs that the Adepts will need to get to the Apollo Lens atop the highest peak of the mountains at the center of Angara. They will be needing to traverse a massive stretch of wall lining much of the mountain range, the Endless Wall, which has a gate that the three Orbs serve as the keys for, and the orbs are also necessary to set the device itself up. The Adepts find it inexplicable that Arcanus, the puppeteer who used the Adepts to activate the Grave Eclipse, seems now to be helping them in their effort to end it. While unsure what to make of this, Kraden has become certain who "Arcanus" is, but he plans to wait until the next time they meet the Mercury Adept before telling it to the Adepts. The Adepts know that they now have the two orbs necessary to open their way into the ruins underneath Yamata to obtain the third Orb, so they sail back to Yamata and do just that. The Yellow Orb is soon theirs.

Matthew and his group of Adepts essentially explore every location they have not gone to yet across Angara and the upper half of the Eastern Sea in search of the remaining four pieces of Umbra gear. One by one, they succeed: they find one piece in a volcanic island's cave south of Angara; another piece is found in a hidden cave west of Tonfon; a third piece is found in an islet hanging off the border of Gaia Falls east of Nihan; and the fourth piece is found in a cavernous shrine located in the snowy stretch of land between Imil and the Northern Reaches.

During this exploration, they also have the opportunity to revisit some of the settlements across Ei-Jei they had come across much earlier, including Passaj, which has managed to defend itself from the shadow monsters within its modern fortress-like state; the destroyed remains of Kaocho, whose surviving citizenry have been evacuated into King Wo's palace; and Ayuthay, whose citizenry remains safe underground while the two Kaochan generals from before are now corpses. Amiti has a difficult time accepting that Paithos has since taken on a terminal illness, and gets Paithos to agree to hold on for until Amiti returns from his quest to take his rightful position as the new king of Ayuthay. The Adepts also arrive at the temporary camp that the Champans founded outside of the perimeter of the Grave Eclipse, which has overtaken Champa itself, and Eoleo is the bearer of the news of his father's passing to both his countrymen and Obaba herself - somehow still alive after thirty years.

The eight Adepts and Kraden now have everything they need to make the push to the Apollo Lens, the final destination of their journey. Proceeding west of Tonfon, they use the three colored Orbs to gain entry into the Endless Wall, then climb the highest, ruin-dotted peak until they make it to the Apollo Sanctum, which they proceed to explore and climb through. The excessive light flowing through the peak of Apollo Sanctum is powerful enough that the Adepts are unable to survive even momentary exposure as they are. It immediately occurs to them that this is why the Umbra Gear is needed: cloaking themselves in shadow offers the protection they need in order to do their work. The equipment is tailored specifically for a beastman of Morgal to wear; Kraden theorizes that this is because the Apollo Lens is the product of cooperation between the ancient Jenei and beastmen in the ancient past, a relationship in which the beastmen, being the ones doing the physical labor, were wearing the equipment. The Umbra Gear were left by the Jenei for their descendants in the event of another Grave Eclipse. Wearing all five pieces of the darkness-aligned gear, Sveta shields both herself and her friends from the light with an aura of darkness, as they proceed to unlock and set up the Apollo Lens - resembling a huge cannon - by placing the three Orbs where they belong.

Just then, Arcanus appears and thanks them for setting the Apollo Lens up. Kraden addresses him as Alex to inform the young Adepts of his real name, and the Adepts are surprised because they had all thought that Alex was killed when he failed to use the Golden Sun to become immortal. But Alex states that time is no longer on their side; a Tuaparang dropship suddenly flies overhead, and deposits Blados, Chalis, and a large group of soldiers loyal to them from its underside onto the Apollo Lens below, revealing that the Tuaparang Empire's plot all along was to obtain the Apollo Lens, the greatest weapon of the ancient world. The High Empyror's goal is to obtain the Apollo Lens for himself, which he has a plan of his own for, and he was the one who gave his subordinates the order to have Matthew activate the Apollo Lens, but he had let his subordinates choose their own methods to guide Matthew to this point. Blados and Chalis are miffed that Alex is not killing Matthew's group like what was previously agreed on, but Alex explains that the High Empyror ordered Alex personally to make sure the Apollo Lens is used as per what the ruler of Tuaparang intended, and that Blados and Chalis were left out of this because their ruler seems not to trust the duo.

Alex then antagonizes the duo by revealing to Matthew that the Tuaparang are a group descended from what is introduced as the Umbra Clan, a group with the ability to employ Darkness as a strange form of Psynergy, and Blados, and Chalis, and the detachment of men that came with them are literally Dark Adepts. He then indicates that because of how they have these powers, they are not really Tuaparang soldiers, and hints at an ulterior motive the Dark Adepts have for taking control of the Apollo Lens, a weapon that can fire a potentially destructive ray of light. Its trajectory apparently encompasses the current location of the Tuaparang Empire itself, as well as the area around Sol Sanctum, which amounts to the possibility that the Umbra Clan soldiers and their commanders intend to use the superweapon against the Empire they are closely associated with. Blados and Chalis say nothing to deny any of these ideas, instead revealing that in order to keep things secret, they plan to eliminate Alex as well as Matthew's group. With this, Alex tells the Adepts that he will buy them time to throw the switch on the Apollo Lens and shoot down Eclipse Tower, and he lets Blados and Chalis go after him, and the three briefly fight off in the distance. As always, the Adepts are unable to figure Alex out, but attempt to make use of the vital opportunity Alex provided them.

Before the Adepts reach the controls to the device, Blados and Chalis suddenly reappear with a wretched, bipedal wolf-like monster as a pet, which they infuse with dark energy to increase its power. Thanking the Adepts for allowing the greatest weapon of the ancient world to be in the duo's hands, Blados and Chalis charge into battle alongside their monster with the intent to kill the Adepts once and for all. A desperate battle ensues, but Matthew's party manages to prove tough enough that the two commanders decide to fall back on their trump card: they use a technique called Dark Binding to merge both of themselves into the body of the monster, making it grow in size and mutate to become a multi-armed monstrosity of horrific power. The eight Adepts charge into their final battle atop Apollo Sanctum, one where the full power of both sides is fully expended, but in the end, the Adepts emerge victorious. Blados, Chalis, and the monster all separate and lie defeated on the ground.

As soon as the battle is over, Sveta sniffs the monster and discovers the awful truth: that it is the twisted form of her brother, Volechek. The Dark Adept commanders explain that as Volechek was nobly sacrificing himself in Belinsk at the start of the Grave Eclipse, the duo used their Dark Psynergy to "save" him, as well make a few "improvements" so that they could take over his mind and force him to fight as a living weapon. They state that now that he is a creature of darkness, Volechek will not be able to live in the light-filled world of the Adepts, and it will not be possible for him to survive any attempt to bring him back to his previous self. A mourning Sveta suddenly declares, however, that at the heart of the Grave Eclipse calamity are the people of Morgal, to whom Volechek has a responsibility as a king and therefore Sveta partially has as his sister; accepting that his death in the name of the people is inevitable, Sveta tells Matthew to throw the switch on the Apollo Lens.

When Matthew attempts to climb onto the controls of the Apollo Lens, he is knocked back by the oppressive concentration of light flowing at the top of the sanctum. Blados and Chalis explain that only a lifeform with enough of a dark side can survive up there long enough to do it - not even Sveta in the Umbra Gear is likely to survive. Sveta believes she can do it, though, and through a mysterious process, Matthew successfully wills his spirit and vitality out of his body to empower Sveta's so she can do it. Matthew and Sveta climb up to the controls once more, but just then, the twisted Volechek regains his composure, leaps up onto the controls, and sends them both back down. Seeing Sveta has made Volechek regain his former senses, and he sacrifices himself to save his sister and everyone else by making the Apollo Lens shoot at Eclipse Tower. The tower overloads with light, and the darkness it has expelled is cleared away, heralding the end of the Grave Eclipse.

What happens with Alex or Blados and Chalis after this point is not known, and it not even known whether the Apollo Lens is left in a state that there is no risk of the High Empyror's Tuaparang Empire using it anymore. Tuaparang presumably remains in the world's skies. Alex, working as the High Empyror's most trusted confidant, had successfully prevented the Umbra Clan Adepts the High Empyror distrusted, Blados and Chalis, from presumably using the Apollo Lens against the ruler's empire, but it is debatable whether Alex ended up causing the Lens to be used differently from what the High Empyror had planned for the weapon, or if the shutting down of Eclipse Tower is in fact what the High Empyror intended.

At a later date, in Belinsk, Sveta has been crowned the new queen of Morgal, and the beastmen that were caught within the light energy of the Apollo Lens' beam have been endowed with the newfound ability to employ Light as an unusual form of Psynergy. Everyone in the kingdom, from Vande's troupe to Queen Sveta herself, thanks Matthew and his group of Adepts for saving them all, and the Adepts say their farewells to each other as well before going their separate ways: Eoleo will shove off on his ship and return to Champa after dropping Himi off at Yamata, Amiti will return to Ayuthay, Kraden will allow Rief to direct the pair's travels from this point onward, and Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis make the long journey back home to Isaac and Garet's cabin to give them the Mountain Roc feather. The most immediately worrisome issue that remains comes to Matthew's attention as he, Tyrell, and Karis finally return to Isaac's cabin at the end of their journey; Isaac and Garet are seemingly nowhere to be found, and a colossal Psynergy Vortex has manifested in the airspace near the cabin.

The End...?