Fire Brand

The Fire Brand is a Long Sword-class weapon Artifact available in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is found in a treasure chest deep in Treasure Isle, as a reward for solving a Lift-based puzzle that has two possible solutions (with the other solution being able to progress into the next room). Being a Long Sword-class weapon, the Fire Brand can be equipped on warrior-style Adepts, namely Felix, Piers, Isaac, and Garet. Its buy value is 23400 coins and its sell value is 17550.

The Fire Brand increases the wielder's base Attack rating by 176 points. The sword is a pure-element weapon because its physical attack is itself an attack whose resulting damage is either increased or decreased based on how the user's Mars power compares to the target's Mars resistance. Its Unleash effect is Purgatory, with the standard base activation rate of 35%, which is a physical attack with an additional 67 points of damage added, and then the resulting damage is either increased or decreased based on how the user's Mars power measures against the target's Mars resistance. In addition, the effect may inflict the Sleep status condition on the target. Purgatory is a spectacular visual effect resembling the user summoning a huge interwoven column of fire bursting from the ground beneath the target. The fire column then expands to cover most of the screen before contracting to the point of vanishing, leaving the enemy burnt.

The Fire Brand is technically one of the game's best weapons, perhaps just above a Levatine in quality, and the two are the strongest Mars-based weapons. In general they have the same levels of power and usefulness in battle, and are differentiated by the fact a Levatine is a "normal" weapon artifact with a normal physical attack and that the Levatine's Unleash effect will always score enhanced bonus damage because the effect ignores half the target's defense rating. The Fire Brand, on the other hand, is a pure-element weapon whose Unleash may put the target to Sleep, so if you have both weapons deciding between one over the other is a matter of personal taste. However, they are not the actual best weapons because weapons of other elements such as the Tisiphone Edge, Excalibur, and Masamune can outright multiply the damage they inflict with their Unleashes, so while the Levatine and Fire Brand are solid for a Mars Adept warrior like Garet to wield, it might be better for him to use one of the above three weapons for potentially much stronger damage.

Cultural References
The word "purgatory" was derived from the Latin word "purgere" which means "to clean." In Roman Catholicism, it is the process of purification in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven.