Golden Sun series/Detailed plot summary/Dark Dawn

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

A Point of Warning: This page contains a detailed writeup of the Golden Sun  story with no holds barred on the spoilers and almost a blow-by-blow account of what happens in the games. Read this page at your own risk.

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

A new generation's rite of passage
Thirty years have passed since the Golden Sun event returned Alchemy to the  world of Weyard. The world has changed; the Golden Sun has caused the continents to grow in size and expand, and many geographical features  have been reforged. 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 geopolitical unrest and chaos, 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 as those  that effectively "destroyed" it 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 over  the years since the Golden Sun event. 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  both reach what remains of Sol Sanctum (the land around Mount Aleph has  only become more uncrossable on foot because it continues to violently  erupt) and keep a more effective watch on occurrences of a phenomenon  named Psynergy Vortexes. Having emerged as though they are an aftereffect caused by the Golden Sun event, these distortions in space  suck the elemental energy out of the world and Adepts within their  vicinity. One specific Psynergy Vortex of immense size once unleashed unimaginable destruction and misery in the center of Angara, such that  it was subsequently known as the Mourning Moon.

Isaac and Matthew seemingly have returned from a journey just in time to  catch a commotion between Tyrell and Karis on the roof, however, in  which Tyrell insists that he takes the soarwing out for a flight. Despite Karis, Isaac, and Garet's objections that flying it without proper instruction and Psynergy-using ability as an Adept is too  dangerous, Tyrell takes off, and sure enough he finds that he is gliding  downward and unable to maintain altitude. Isaac quickly figures out that for Tyrell to survive, he has to fly across the forest below and  land at a small peak at the other side, where he can take cover inside a  cave so that they can retrieve him later. After instructing Tyrell as much, Isaac tells the others that they will all accompany him - as he  explains to a troubled Garet, they have been training their children so  that they may assume the duty to look after the world in their parents'  stead, so braving the forest along with the adults will be a good  experience.

Isaac and Garet let Matthew and Karis lead the way and fight wild monsters on their own as they cross into a cave  trail in the Goma Plateau that leads out into the forest, and the two  young Adepts receive their first combat experience. Once they reach the dangerous forest known as the Tanglewood, though, everyone is more  concerned because it is now nightfall, which causes the natural buildup  of negative energy that corrupts the trees and draws out monsters. Past that, the four enter the abandoned Psynergy Stone  mine below the peak where Tyrell landed on, where they are surprised  to find a particularly large Psynergy Vortex pulsating within, and they  see Tyrell lying unconscious near it, clearly having had all his  Psynergy sucked out. Isaac restates what is theorized about vortexes; these are pure anti-Psynergy that are created by exceptionally dense  concentrations of Psynergy in many places, and it is speculated that  when they appear, they foreshadow the reappearance of the Mourning Moon. The four try to get over to Tyrell, but they are attacked by an enormous, sentient plant monstrosity growing near the vortex. After they dispatch it, 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 explain to 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 at the opposite end of the continent, in  the country of Morgal. The original quest Isaac and Garet took to obtain the previous feather was long and difficult because Angara had  radically changed, and because they need to stay behind to monitor Mount  Aleph and study the aftereffects of the Golden Sun effect with Ivan,  they task Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis to go on the same long journey to  retrieve a Mountain Roc feather. This comes across as abrupt, but to Isaac that is the point: thirty years beforehand, Isaac and Garet 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. On the subject of Kraden, despite what one may have assumed from how old he was thirty years ago, Kraden is still alive  and traveling as a researcher on Alchemy; Ivan believes that because  Kraden and all the rest of the Warriors of Vale had been directly  exposed to the power of the Golden Sun, all nine of their aging  processes have been slowed. Isaac sends out a carrier pigeon to contact Kraden so that the scholar will meet them in nearby Carver's Camp,  where he can help the young Adepts 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 go on this adventure. Isaac is conspicuously absent while Garet sees Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis off, though. The three young Adepts start to head to Carver's Camp, and along the way, they stop by Patcher's  Place, a general store headed by one Patcher, one of the refugees  from the original Vale, that had since become the centerpiece of a  settlement for many of his fellow Valean refugees. Past the road through the Goma Highlands that divides Vale's refugees from the rest of Angara, the Adepts arrive at Carver's Camp just in  time to save a small child from falling off a bridge, which was broken  by the presence of a newly formed Psynergy Vortex. This means, though, that the Adepts' journey will not be crossing through to the kingdom of  Bilibin (rulership of which, incidentally, has been taken up by Lord  McCoy's son). The hearty Valean refugee that the lumberjack camp is named after, Carver, passes 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 branches north to  Bilibin and south to Angara.

The three Adepts travel southwest toward the Konpa Ruins, stone ruins that are thought to have  once been a spectacular temple covered in gold, the substance held to be  the ultimate symbol of Alchemy itself. These mysterious ruins, the existence of which was only discovered in what remains of Lamakan Desert  after the Golden Sun event, are thought to have been a major center  where ancient Adepts could share ideas with visitors. After exploring it and gaining the exclusive knowledge to read the ancient  language of glyphs, the Adepts 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  device none of them have ever seen before. At that moment, Matthew's group is ambushed by a trio of armored scoutmen that  drop in by using extensible, rubber arm-like cables. Matthew's party manages to dispatch the well-trained men.

Kraden and his pupils do not have much time to exchange pleasantries with Matthew,  for they are suddenly taunted by two menacing men from above: a  foreign-looking swordsman introduced as Blados, and what would  appear to anyone that took part in the quest to light the Elemental  Lighthouses as Alex revealing himself to be alive after the explosive  Golden Sun event thirty years prior, now stylistically adorning half his  face with an opera mask. However, none of the children of the Warriors of Vale had encountered Alex before, and Kraden does not make the  connection that he is Alex - despite Alex's playful taunt that they know  each other from long ago - because Alex had been presumed killed in the  Golden Sun event. Therefore, from their perspective, Alex is a mysterious stranger.

After verifying that Matthew has the ability to read ancient glyphs, Alex and Blados show that they have  taken Rief hostage, and lay their terms out for the Adepts before  departing: they will be dropping Rief at either the north or south exit  of the cave complex, and everyone must split up into two groups and find  him before his life is endangered by wild monsters. Kraden advises Matthew and his two companions to go out the south exit toward the  southern Ei-Jei region of the continent while he and Nowell will go  north into the Bilibin region, explaining that they rejoin and resume  their quest for the Mountain Roc feather at a later date. Kraden will be going to Belinsk, the capital of the Morgal region east of Bilibin,  because it is the place they will most likely find clues about the  whereabouts of the Mountain Roc. However, in order for Matthew's group to go to Morgal from the south part of Angara, they will have to cross  the Khiren mountain range that effectively divides  Angara into northern and southern halves.

As soon as Matthew and his two friends emerge from the cave's south exit, 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 had intended for Matthew to be "trapped" in the south portion of the continent for whatever reason, for  the three companions soon find Rief. Before leaving, Blados tells them that their only chance to make it into the north part of Angara now is  to cross the Khiren Mountains like Kraden had said, which will not be a  straightforward affair at all. Rief suggests to his newfound companions that they go to the nearby town of Harapa so that they can get their  bearings.

The Alchemy Machines
After Matthew's four-Adept party briefly stays at Harapa, a set of ancient  ruins that a modern-day settlement has founded itself on, they set out  toward a similar settlement at the peak of one of the mountains at the  Khiren mountain range, Passaj. After they climb the mountain trail to Passaj, Rief immediately takes the others to the mechanical platform where Kraden believed lied the key to  crossing over. Visible in the distance is one of the higher peaks of the Khiren mountain range, what is now called Craggy Peak, which Kraden  said was once one of the homes of the ancient ancestors of Adepts, now  known by the name 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 Craggy Peak and Passaj with the cooperation of the ancient ancestors of the people of  Passaj, the master craftsmen known as the Exathi; The Exathi 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. Kraden couldn't figure out how the machine could be powered the last time he and Rief were here on their travels, however,  but evidently it was because they did not have the right elements of  Adepts at the time.

Upon inspecting the massive Alchemy Forge machine built into the mountain, Matthew's group successfully  bring power to it by using Mars-aligned Psynergy. The crotchety village elder, Bogho, is impressed at what the young Adepts managed to  achieve, but points out that while it is powered up, 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 that 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, which, like Passaj and  Harapa, was built with the help of the Neox. This is unfortunate, as the modern-day enemy of Passaj, the kingdom of Kaocho, had built itself  above the Ouroboros.

In blunt terms, the only similarity the south-to-south-eastern Ei-Jei region of Angara now  bears to its equivalent region thirty years before is that its cultural  distribution is predominantly oriental; Xian has long since ceased to  exist, for now there are several kingdoms at war. The military-minded King Wo, originally from the eastern kingdom of Sana, founded  Kaocho in a motion of imperial expansion, and he has sent armies to  attack Passaj in an obvious attempt to get to its Alchemy Forge - which  seems strange, since the Alchemy Forge has clearly demonstrated itself  to be extremely difficult to start up and use. Likewise, he has also attempted to conquer Passaj's allied kingdom to the south, the water  kingdom of Ayuthay (another former Exathi nation), because it has an  Alchemy Machine of its own, the Alchemy Well. Whereas Passaj's Alchemy Forge had always been dormant, Ayuthay's Alchemy Well suddenly  started working about twenty years ago, contributing to that kingdom's  explosive growth.

Retrieving the Sol Mask is just as important for Passaj as it is for the Adepts' own quest because it will  allow the people of Passaj to use the machine to protect itself from  further attacks. Bogho's grandson, Baghi, tells Matthew that he has a close friend that might know how to survive the Ouroboros: the nephew  of Ayuthay's king Paithos and the prince of Ayuthay himself,  Amiti. Baghi knows that the people of Ayuthay are hiding securely underground to protect themselves from the Kaochan attack, and more  importantly, he also knows how this underground can be entered. Baghi gives Matthew something he will need to open a secret passage into  Ayuthay's castle, the Tree Flute, and Matthew's group leaves Passaj  to travel to Ayuthay. When they are there, however, the Kaochan soldiers occupying the kingdom walls state clearly that they cannot let Matthew  pass unless he bears proof from King Wo that he has joined their army to  assist in the invasion. The Adepts decide to pay a visit to Kaocho in the east to see about securing this position.

Kaocho's motherland, Sana, located northeast of Kaocho at the east end of  Angara, was previously under the iron rule of the warmongering tyrant  Emperor Ko, infamous as the "Dread Emperor" for his aggressive  expansionism. Ko sought the secret to eternal life, much like the late Babi, and Ko's example and original goal is what his aspiring successor,  Wo, tries to live up to. On Ko's death, a civil war broke out in Sana which eventually crowned the scholarly Unan as its new emperor,  bringing much-needed peace to the region. Wo later attempted to take Sana back by military force, but Unan successfully repelled Wo's attack. Unan now governs Sana from its capital city, Tonfon, at the eastern coast of Angara.

Matthew and company are granted entrance into King Wo's palace because King Wo has been expecting "new  Adepts" for a while now. The adviser in his court that has told him of Matthew's arrival in advance - and is immediately easy to imagine as the  one that manipulated the greedy king into attacking the other kingdoms  for their Alchemy Machines - is a noticeably non-Kaochan named  Chalis, a voluptuous woman with very non-humanlike horns on her  head. Tyrell correctly deduces from her name that she is affiliated with Blados. Chalis presents Matthew's group as the Adepts that will help Wo fulfill his ambitions, which are to retrieve the Sol Mask from the  Ouroboros and to help his army conquer Ayuthay. Wo describes the Sol Mask as the key to the power that can help him wage war to a greater  degree, but decides that the campaign to take over Ayuthay is the more  urgent issue for Matthew to contribute to at the moment, so he has  Matthew take Wo's signed letter of approval.

The Adepts' obvious displeasure with what is happening quickly sours the  scene's 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 the first room of the labyrinth below via a trap door. Chalis explains to Wo that despite their refusal to comply with Wo on the surface, she is certain they will end up proving their worth to him  anyway - she predicts that they will see they can't truly enter the  labyrinth yet, will then go to Ayuthay, and later return empowered to  find an entrance into the dungeon and retrieve the Sol Mask. Down in the first part of the Ouroboros, the Adepts, figuring out what Wo and  Chalis are generally intending of them, decide anyway to leave and go  over to Ayuthay with Wo's letter in hand.

Amiti and the Alchemy Well
Matthew's group arrives at Ayuthay and gains entry by handing Wo's letter to the  two Kaochan generals leading the occupation, Ku-Tsung and  Ku-Embra. The Adepts search the water kingdom's external architecture until they find their way into the kingdom's underground  using what Baghi gave them; there, they are welcomed by Amiti and the  hiding people of Ayuthay, and Amiti brings the four Adepts to his uncle,  king Paithos. Paithos had been anticipating the arrival of Adepts for some time because of a prophecy that Adepts would come to restore an  ancient civilization that included much more than Ayuthay; this had  everything to do with the Alchemy Machines between Ayuthay and Passaj,  which can work together to produce an effect that benefits this entire  region of Angara. Twenty years ago, the Alchemy Well was started, and Paithos originally alleged to the kingdom that it was the work of the  powers of Amiti's late mother, Veriti. Just then, Paithos decides to reveal to Amiti that his conception and birth was not a miracle borne  of Veriti's power alone like what Paithos had led Amiti to believe all  his life; Amiti did have a father.

Paithos reveals to Amiti that Veriti had no Psynergy, and was not the one who started the  Alchemy Well. Twenty years ago, a mysterious and exceedingly powerful Mercury Adept came to Ayuthay, started the water-producing Alchemy  Well, and found and placed its respective mask to allow for its  operation, the Luna Mask. Even though he had essentially saved Ayuthay, he claimed that he was not the Adept Paithos' prophecy was  referring to, and he left before ever disclosing his identity - not even  Paithos had ever seen his face. Only Veriti, who seemingly fell in love with the Adept at first sight, knew what he looked like, and it seemed  the romance was mutual - and she took it hard when he later left. It was only afterward that she bore Amiti, and shortly after that she passed  away from an illness. The Mercury Adept's work turned out to be half-complete: the Alchemy Well can be made to feed water far beyond  Ayuthay, even as far as Harapa, once Passaj's Alchemy Forge is also set  up to work with the Alchemy Well as a pair like they once had in the  golden age of the ancient past.

The Adepts report that they have started the Alchemy Forge, but need its respective mask so  that it can be operated. Paithos is delighted that Matthew's group of Adepts are already well on their way to fulfilling the prophecy;  Confident that they are the Adepts prophesied to unite the two Alchemy  Machines and bring ancient civilization back to life, Paithos 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, which lets the user  perceive the inner truths of any environment to show the way forward. This object is within the Barai Temple, 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 first investigate the running Alchemy Well, which blends  the elements of earth and wind to create water. Suddenly, Amiti hears a telepathic voice in his head from an entity he calls the "Sand  Prince", which instructs the Adepts to release him from his bonds so  that he will drink the pond dry. The Sand Prince was formerly a legendary man whose powers were based in fire and had been sealed in the  Sand Prince Stone, and since the ancient past has waited below  Ayuthay for someone worthy enough to claim the gemstone and therefore  share his power. The Adepts find the room in question, and the spiritual entity manifests in physical form to test their worth through battle. The Adepts win, and the Sand Prince is content to give itself in gemstone form to them so that Mars Adepts like Tyrell can employ the  powers of arid heat to evaporate small  concentrations of standing water.

Returning to the Alchemy Well, the Adepts use their power of arid heat to successfully  toggle the Alchemy Well into reverse and lower Ayuthay's water level. The Adepts find and enter the now-open Barai Temple, and like with all ancient ruins Matthew would come to explore over the course of his  quest, his ability to read glyphs repeatedly proves invaluable in  allowing him 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 the surface and leave Barai  Temple, and they toggle the Alchemy Well back to its previous state.

Paithos is impressed that Matthew and Amiti's group found the Insight Glass. When Matthew's group say they must go, Amiti expresses that he was chosen to use the Insight Glass as though the Jenei from long ago wanted  it to choose someone from Ayuthay (that the Barai Temple was founded in  Ayuthay to begin with seems to corroborate this), so he must accompany  the others to the Ouroboros. Paithos is taken aback, but Amiti states bluntly that the Adepts can't rely on the kindness of Paithos and his  men to fix the problems plaguing the Ei-Jei region, and that Amiti must  join the other Adepts to help them. Despite having treated him as his own son for the longest time, Paithos comes to accept that Amiti has  chosen his own path, and grants Amiti and his newfound friends his  blessing. As the five Adepts depart from Ayuthay's sheltered underground, they are accosted by the two Kaochan generals from earlier,  and the Adepts successfully defeat them in combat. Amiti proposes to Paithos to keep the generals hidden, which will cause the standing  Kaochan forces to remain idle in Ayuthay and allow the Adepts to enter  the Ouroboros without a hassle, and Paithos is eager to agree. Matthew's group departs Ayuthay on this note.

The passage north
Matthew's group of Adepts arrives at Kaocho and enters the true entrance to the  Ouroboros labyrinth with the help of Amiti's newfound power of insight. It is only a matter of time before the Sol Mask is in their possession. The group leaves Kaocho and returns to Passaj, whereupon they insert the Sol Mask into the Alchemy Forge; rather amazingly, the ancient  architecture that Passaj is built upon lights up and rises, seemingly  transforming Passaj from a slumlike settlement into an armored fortress. With both Alchemy Machines running, the palace at Ayuthay suddenly and automatically begins to shower water from its top, and the dry land  surrounding the kingdom is turned green in a very short amount of time. The astounded Bogho and Baghi congratulate the Adepts for reviving ancient civilization.

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; though this perplexes the  Adepts at first, Bogho once again has helpful legends to relate: Just as  the Alchemy Well in Ayuthay 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. With the powers of ice this gem embodies, the fire-based forge can forge fire into ice to  bolster the constitution of the otherwise fluffy zol clouds. This was one of Passaj's greatest treasures; however, a monk stole it from Passaj  many years ago. At that moment, Amiti receives one more telepathic message from the Sand Prince, who explains that this was the work of the  gemstone's eponymous Ice Queen; this demonic woman originally  waited for a foolish man to take her stone so that she could escape her  gemstone prison. When this was successful, she proceeded to hide in seemingly unreachable ruins relatively nearby, and the passive flow of  elemental energy from her powers seeped out from the ruins and allowed  the modern-day settlement based around those ruins to thrive. Bogho and the Adepts realize together that this means the Ice Queen is hiding in  the ruins at Harapa.

The Adepts return to Harapa, which has also been rejuvenated by the water that flowed from Ayuthay when  both Alchemy Machines were activated. The flowing water allows them to enter the ruins they couldn't before, and they make it to the Ice  Queen's frozen domain, where what appears to be a human statue is held  prisoner. At first taunting them in spirit form, the entity is aware of what the Adepts have accomplished and intend to do with her; declaring  that she will not go back into a lifetime of servitude after having  awaited an eternity for her freedom, the Ice Queen manifests into  physical form and attacks. She is a more powerful and vengeful opponent than the Sand Prince was, but in the end the Adepts best her and render  her into harmless gemstone form. Now, Mercury Adepts like Rief and Amiti have the capacity to freeze small bodies of water with Psynergy.

Just then, the human statue turns into flesh and stands up rejuvenated to  reveal himself as Nyunpa, the monk that Isaac and his companions had met  on their own quest thirty years before. He telepathically thanks the offspring of the Warriors of Vale for freeing him from the Ice Queen's  clutches, and explains how he had gotten into his predicament: He had  long been on a quest for enlightenment and immortality through  meditation, and had nearly reached his goal, but then came the Golden  Sun event and the earthquakes and typhoons it entailed. Nyunpa decided to place helping people in need as the priority of his life's work, and  his travels across the world brought him to Passaj, where people  suffered greatly. That was where he beheld the Ice Queen Stone; that his mind was open enough to read other's thoughts was what allowed the Ice  Queen to mentally flood it with her forceful will. Nyunpa was externally willed to steal the stone from Passaj, flee to Harapa's ruins, and free  her from her prison, and he was forced to serve as her puppet for many  years because she had found that she was still bound to the stone and  unable to stray far from it. But now that the Ice Queen is defeated, the elementally energized water flowing through Harapa from the twin  Alchemy Machines is no longer impeded, and now Harapa's ancient  architecture glows with an impressive radiance in the night. Nyunpa gives the Adepts his blessings before leaving, and the Adepts return to  Passaj in the morning.

Having essentially restored all of ancient civilization throughout the southern region of Angara, the  Adepts are finally ready to make and utilize the sky passage from Passaj  to Craggy Peak so that they can cross into Angara's northern half and  meet Kraden in Belinsk. They use their newfound ice powers to put the Alchemy Forge in reverse, and the five Adepts are soon supported by a  strong, solid zol cloud. Bogho and Baghi bid farewell to Matthew, Tyrell, Karis, Rief, and Amiti as they float into an area of the sky 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. The Adepts eventually touch back down onto the Khiren Glacier.

The realm of the beastmen
When the five Adepts reach a nomadic tent village named Te Rya, they  encounter the hotheaded Sanan, Ryu Kou, and his elderly master, the  calm martial artist Hou Zan. As the Adepts learn from the villagefolk, the two are visitors that originally escaped Belinsk, and  Ryu Kou is quite bitter because his younger sister, Hou Ju, is being  held captive in Belinsk for no reason other than the fact she is Sanan. Since the capital of Morgal is where the Adepts are going, Hou Zan advises that if they intend to avoid scaling down a sheer cliff to reach  the northern region of Angara, as Adepts they may be able to traverse  the Teppe Ruins north of Te Rya. This ancient home of the Jenei Adepts was built into the northern face of the Khiren Mountains, but was  severely damaged by the Golden Sun event. As the Adepts head toward Teppe Ruins, the Sanans cross back over into Morgal via the cliff face.

As the five Adepts trek 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. She has highly attuned senses and is a Jupiter Adept with the ability to read minds, just like  Karis' father (Karis herself never inherited it). Sveta did not show herselves to the Adepts at Te Rya 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  authored a violent civil war that successfully drove the Sanans out. Te Rya was founded by Sanans who were chased out of Morgal by Volechek, and  bad blood remains on both sides. Matthew's group agree to risk getting involved in the dispute with Te Rya by continuing their quest into  Morgal, and Sveta offers to be their guide into Morgal. With her animalistic tracking Psynergy and her innate ability to use  Psynergy for slapping, they find their way through to the  plains of the northern half of Angara.

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 view as divinity. She personally cannot help them get their feather for this reason, so 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 has already become attached to the Adepts, so leaves the party on a somewhat somber note. The Adepts' discussion turns to the Mountain Roc itself, during which Amiti reveals  that he saw the Mountain Roc in the sky once while he was taking a  hunting lesson as a child. It was enormous beyond belief, causing windstorms with every flap of its wings. Isaac would probably have fought it, so the five Adepts decide that their next course of action is  to find Kraden, who hopefully has made it to Belinsk through Bilibin.

One of the many effects the Golden Sun event had on the world was to mutate  many of its denizens into part-man, part-beast lifeforms. Not only did groups of humans start to mutate fur and fang immediately after the  Golden Sun event, but wild animals were also transformed into  anthropomorphic forms and were granted sapience and the ability to speak  the human tongue. The beastmen were initially scattered and hated by humans for a while, but theu coalesced into their own society and  territory spanning Angara's upper half, east of the Bilibin region. Emperor Ko of Sana originally invaded Morgal because he thought blood from the Mountain Roc would make him immortal, and Volechek's parents  were killed in that war. Bilibin refused to lend help over the ten long years that Morgal's people were subjected to slavery to the Sanans, but  under Volechek's leadership, Morgal was able to fight back the Sanans,  kill the Sanan royal Lord Kuan, and win their independence  nonetheless. Understandably, these events are core to the personal reasons why Volechek nowadays won't establish friendly relations with  Bilibin and Sana.

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 beastman minstrel troupe, who find joy in traveling throughout Morgal to spread  their music, but they do not have the capacity at present to play  Arangoa Prelude; 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 Belinsk to search for  him.

Matthew and company decide to head west to Bilibin, presuming Kraden simply didn't arrive in Belinsk yet. They arrive at the small settlement outside Bilibin's borders, the aptly  named Border Town; before, it has sustained itself on trade with  Belinsk, but its trade routes have been cut off by Bilibin's war against  Morgal, which is no doubt the doing of Lady McCoy. There is no conceivable way to get into Bilibin at all nowadays. The Adepts are suddenly approached by two Champan pirates, who explain that they are  here by their captain Briggs' order to seek the help of Kraden, Briggs'  old mate, by giving him Briggs' letter. 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, but Briggs' other old friend from thirty  years back, Piers, recently told him that Kraden was in Bilibin, and  that Matthew's group was in the Ei-Jei region at the time.

Since all Matthew and his friends know about Briggs and the Champan pirates  is that they are man who 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, and share the information that Briggs has probably already  attempted a head-on assault at Belinsk's castle with his run-down  sailing ship, been driven back by cannon, and gone to Port Rago at  the eastern end of the continent. This port is another former Exathi settlement, and its modern-day descendants are famous as perhaps the  world's most talented shipwrights. After the Champan pirates leave, though, Amiti expresses rather deep-seated contempt toward Champa and  pirates in general, but the others state that they don't know for sure  if Eoleo is really what his notoriety makes him out to be. Besides, Ryu Kou's sister is also being held captive in Belinsk, and there is no  argument that she warrants saving, so the Adepts proceed east to Port  Rago.

The Mountain Roc
Matthew and his friends encounter the elderly and grizzled pirate Briggs amongst the  great shipyards of Port Rago, and Briggs is able to instantly identify  the Venus Adept as Isaac's son because of how he has the eyes of his  mother, Jenna (who incidentally is living at the Kalay region). His ship had been heavily damaged in his earlier attack on Belinsk's palace, but  for sentimental regions he is having the shipwrights at Rago repair it  rather than construct a new vessel. The Adepts give Briggs their ear in place of Kraden, who is nowhere to be seen, and Briggs 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. Briggs remembers being told that this elder named Tret, who lives in Kolima Forest, 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. At the time Briggs wasn't listening as well as he should have to Piers' story, because all he remembers is that Isaac had apparently  used it on a tree or forest.

The five Adepts arrive at Saha Town, a Morgal settlement in front of Kolima and its forest. Originally, Kolima was closer to Bilibin, while Saha was a small settlement hidden deeper in the Saha marshlands of the forest. A great earthquake triggered by the Golden Sun event literally buried the Saha  Marshlands underground, along with much of its wildlife, but while much  of the rest of upper Angara was destroyed by the Golden Sun event,  Kolima was miraculously spared and actually shifted east so that it now  lies just beyond Saha where the marshlands were originally located. At present, though, one of the four great trees comprising Kolima's  habitable quarters has taken on an illness, and the superstitious Sahans  believe the residents have been subjected to yet another curse. The tree in question, the Dream Tree, is the one that grows a rare leaf  called Dream Leaf, popular as an edible commodity that lets the user  have pleasant dreams, and before it fell ill, merchants came from all  over to gather Dream Leaves to sell. But in response to the alleged curse, Saha has closed off its north gate leading to Kolima in an  attempt to quarantine it.

The Adepts sneak their way into the quarantined Kolima, where they find that though its denizens  are certainly distressed, they are not under the effects of a curse  themselves. However, the Dream Leaves from the ill Dream Tree in town now cause nightmares instead of dreams. Also, Kolima Forest beyond town has become infinitely more perplexing, causing any attempt to traverse  it to end up walking 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. The Adepts approach Kolima's mayor and offer to help out, and it comes out that in order to determine  how the Dream Tree needs to be healed, the Adepts will have to consume  the tainted Dream Leaves and sleep in the Dream Tree themselves. They agree.

The five Adepts seem to share a dream in which they are all pulled through the ground into a metaphysical plane  representing the Saha marshlands that were buried underground by the  Golden Sun event. They are attacked by the embodiment of the anger of all the marshland creatures that were killed by the Golden Sun event, a  wretched lizard monster named Sludge. When they destroy it, the five suddenly wake up from their dream trip and find the monster's body  lying dead next to them, and it leaves behind a tusk that grants Mars  Adepts like Tyrell the Psynergy ability to crush rocks. With the source of the taint cleansed, the Adepts 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 congratulated by a Venus Djinni named Pewter, who serves  Laurel as her emissary. He brings the Adepts the message that Laurel invites them to her domain in Kolima Forest, and explains that it was  Sludge that was originally making Kolima Forest impassable. Pewter guides them through the forest until they meet Tret and Laurel and see  for themselves that they are giant, talking trees. The two introduce themselves as plant-based beings called the Waelda, whose long lives  allow them to gather a great degree of the world's knowledge, and they  thank the Adepts for healing the Dream Tree. Though the Waelda are seemingly divine guardians of the forest, they have remained injured  since the Golden Sun event thirty years prior, which is why they weren't  able to take care of the Dream Tree issue themselves. But now, 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; the  Adepts immediately think Sveta will be needed, but they know they won't  be able to reach her until later. But 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 somehow,  and Belinsk's energy was depleted some time back. The power source they will be seeking to gain entry comes in the form of small shards of magma  power that naturally form within the stomach of the Mountain Roc.

Nonetheless, the Waelda warn that there was a good reason why power to Belinsk's  ruins was originally cut: 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, and it is revealed they were  listening in on the Adepts' conversation with the Waelda. Knowing that the Adepts' goal is the Mountain Roc, Ryu Kou presents to them the Slap  Glove they will need, which he explains was given to him by Sveta. Sveta told him and Hou Zan to wait at the base of Talon Peak 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. Karis deduces from Sveta's capacity to grant the Adepts this national treasure of Morgal that she is a figure of high  ranking, and Ryu Kou affirms that Sveta is the sister of King Volechek  and thus of Morgal's royal family, the Czamaral clan. Per what Sveta arranged for, Matthew and Ryo Kou's sides accept a partnership.

The five Adepts and their two guests climb Talon Peak until they reach the  enormous stone form of the Mountain Roc. They use the Slap Psynergy bound within the Slap Glove to slap the bird's prominent wattle, which  wakes it up and knocks it out cold, allowing them to finally retrieve  one of its large and dazzling feathers. But just then, Blados and Chalis appear and announce that they have been waiting for the Adepts for a  while. That they are familiar with the Czamaral clan and have waited in ambush for the Adepts and their two guests at the top of Talon Peak  tells Ryu Kou and Hou Zan a lot: Volechek is in league with these  villains. Morgal's king 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 are impressed by this deduction.

Blados and Chalis state that they had Eoleo captured just to help draw the  Adepts into their trap: They want the Adepts to slay the Mountain Roc  and retrieve its Magma Orb. 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 a full jewel-like sphere, 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 its 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, lest his blameless  sister be boiled alive. While most of the Adepts are appalled, Karis think she knows how Ryu Kou means; it was the Adepts that promised the  Waelda not to power the Dynamo, so to prevent the Adepts from being the  ones to break their own promise he took the Orb and the burden for  himself. But Ryu Kou brusquely tells her off, and he threatens 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 states that the Adepts 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 from his vantage point; inspired for his music,  Vande goes back to Belinsk to rejoin his band.

The Grave Eclipse
The Adepts decide to return to Briggs in Port Rago to give him the news  that Tret didn't have information on how to actually lead an assault on  Belinsk; however, the Adepts will be needing to go into Belinsk's secret  passage themselves and find Ryu Kou again. Naturally, Briggs is only interested in rescuing his own son, but the chances of him being able to  do so with his old and breaking ship in time for Eoleo's scheduled  execution is none; he considers himself helpless while his ship's  repairs remain incomplete. The Adepts, especially Amiti, are not impressed by Briggs using his broken ship as an excuse not to rescue his  son and to have the Adepts do the work for him, but Briggs swears that  he will sail for Belinsk as soon as he is ready. The Adepts ultimately decide they will need to go to Belinsk anyway, so that the two very  different captives can be saved.

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  into a deep trace-like state. The Adepts receive remote telepathic messages from Sveta made possible by the Prelude, who apologizes for  hiding her blood relation with King Volechek. She instructs the Adepts to take advantage of the cover the music grants them to 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.

Inside Belinsk Ruins, Sveta thanks the Adepts for keeping their promise, and  tells them that Blados and Chalis are also inside the ruins. Sveta identifies the duo as commanders of the nation Tuaparang, which the  Adepts have heard of before in name only and whose soldiers they have  fought before. In truth, Tuaparang 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, and as such it is also named the "Zenith Tribe". The enigmatic nation, ruled by an individual known only as the "High  Empyror", is very clearly focused on all things related to Alchemy,  military power, science, and conquest, without focusing on helping its  citizens at all. Sveta also confesses that she never wanted to mislead the Adepts, but when she had seen Hou Ju imprisoned after losing her  parents, she thought to help her brother Ryu Kou; the Adepts break it to  her that Blados used Sveta, and it quickly dawns on her that Volechek  is working with Blados as part of his scheme. Though distressed, Sveta is eager to accept the Adepts' invitation into their group to explore  the ruins to get into Belinsk Castle from below.

While invaluable to their ability to explore the area, Sveta, despite being  of Morgal's royal family, is not familiar with much of it. She and the others quickly find that the path she took from inside Belinsk Castle to  meet the Adepts has mysteriously disappeared, though, and the Adepts  recognize that though they are being forced down to where the Dynamo is  (though both Karis and Sveta get the strangest feeling it is not the  Tuaparang, but rather a tremendously powerful Adept), staying where they  are simply will not bring them closer to saving the two prisoners in  any way. Suddenly, Ryu Kou and Hou Zan run into the Adepts from behind. The duo express that they want to apologize for their previous actions, and report that when they entered Belinsk Ruins entirely on their own,  the simple path they took had suddenly disappeared to prevent them from  going back, as though they were being guided to join Matthew's party. Karis finds this whole scenario very unusual: if the Tuaparang wanted the Magma Orb to power the Alchemy Dynamo in the ruins below, they could  just take it and do it themselves, but it is as though the Adepts and  the two Sanans are being guided to be the ones to do it. The six Adepts and Ryu Kou once again form an uneasy partnership.

It occurs to Sveta that tonight is the night of the full moon, which is an  important cultural observance for the beastmen of Morgal above in which  they pray for the revival of ancient civilization. That all of their guided exploration of Belinsk Ruins is coinciding with this event seems  to imply that Volechek and Blados intend to use the Alchemy Dynamo to  perhaps make the revival of ancient civilization a reality. The six Adepts and Ryu Kou progress through the dungeon - which once again  features riddles in glyph language that only Matthew can understand and  solve - and eventually, everyone finds the gate to the core of the  Alchemy Dynamo. A humanoid face projected through ancient mechanisms much like what the Adepts had encountered at the bottom of the Barai  Temple introduces itself as a Ward, an ancient system that protects  the Dynamo by replicating the will of a Jenei official once known as the  Warden of the North, and 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, based on what the Waelda  warned and how difficult the ancient security measures they have had to  bypass have been, 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 reveal that they are the ones that have been  guiding everyone down to the Alchemy Dynamo core. Alex commands them to place the Magma Orb into the machine, and Blados and Chalis decide to  show them 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 about to make Ryu Kou place the Magma  Orb inside the machine, and he flexes his extreme power to keep the  Adepts at bay. Sveta calls the Mercury Adept out as a Tuaparang, but he surprises the Adepts by stating he isn't really one.

After Alex tells Ryu Kou that the latter has a choice, but that his sister  Hou Ju will be executed by Volechek if he doesn't comply, Ryu Kou  complies with Alex's order to start the machine, despite all the Adepts'  desperate protests. Enraged at Alex's manipulation of Ryu Kou despite Alex's claim that Ryu Kou did this of his own free will, Hou Zan  attempts to attack Alex, but he simply warps away and picks up Blados  and Chalis. Alex gives everyone 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  the tower's creators never wanted its prison broken. Also, he claims that opening the seal on this machine is "only the beginning". The Ward announces the powering of the Alchemy Dynamo and recites an emergency  warning for all personnel inside Luna Tower to evacuate, so Alex  evacuates the core's chamber by warping away with Blados and Chalis, but  not before granting his current codename as part of the duo's unit,  "Arcanus", for the Adepts to refer to him with.

Taking "Arcanus'" hint to flee posthaste, the Adepts start to climb out of the  core just as the Ward announces that Luna Tower is ascending to the  surface. By the time they find an exit outside, they find that they have come out of a towering structure that has raised up behind Belinsk  castle, and it is now nighttime. The astonished people and musicians of Belinsk take this event to be the restoration of ancient civilization  they have prayed and played the Arangoa Prelude for throughout these  past many years. Not only have the scheduled executions at Belinsk Castle been called off, its front doors are now open, and the palace  guards explain to the Adepts and their two guests that it was Arcanus,  the man king Volechek favors, who ordered them to let the Adepts pass  and free the two captives without any resistance.

In Belinsk Castle, the Adepts immediately go to Hou Ju's cell, and all of a  sudden, Sveta's brother, King Volechek himself, comes in to open the  girl's cell, which he presents as his way of thanking his little sister  Sveta and her new companions for activating his tower. All of a sudden again, Kraden arrives to greet the Adepts for the first time since Konpa  Cave. Volechek is intrigued, because he had heard much about Kraden and the Warriors of Vale from his his father,  Morgal's previous king. Volechek's father was a great help in Isaac's original effort to obtain a Roc feather many years ago. Volechek is also impressed to hear that the Adepts are the offspring of the legendary  Warriors of Vale, since he wasn't told that by his contacts. But Kraden states that there are plenty of things that Volechek hasn't been told  about by those he has been working with, such as the Eclipse Tower  (Luna Tower's original name).

Kraden gravely states that activating Eclipse Tower was a terrible mistake. Volechek retorts that Morgal has suffered for ten long years under foreign 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. When asked by Sveta why ally himself with the Tuaparang, Volechek angrily ends the meeting and walks off. Kraden bears the following news about the tower to the Adepts: Volechek has been deceived  by the Tuaparang into believing that Eclipse Tower is a weapon that he  can use 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, despite Ryu Kou's  proclamation that he ought to stick with Matthew to repay him for  helping reunite Ryu Kou with his sister. The Sanans take his advice and bid farewell. Kraden and the Adepts then rush to get Eoleo out of his cage, and an awkward moment between him and the Adepts ends when Eoleo  sees Kraden, who he remembers visiting Champa when he was a toddler.

Just then, Sol (the sun) rises up to assume an oddly static position behind  Luna (the moon), casting a colossal, spherical shadow across much of  Angara, and the great calamity that would come to be known as the  Grave Eclipse begins. Eoleo accompanies Kraden and the Adepts out of Belinsk Castle to find that dark monsters are now manifesting within  the shadows and attacking and killing soldiers and civilians alike. Kraden takes everyone to Belinsk's pier to where Briggs had docked his ship - which is now noticeably different and repaired - and Eoleo and  Matthew rush to clear out the shadow monsters that have invaded the  ship. But Briggs has been mortally wounded, and his 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 Eoleo gives Briggs a funeral by shoving his father's body out to sea in a coffin, Eoleo swears he will  make the true culprits of the plot to set up this dark dawn pay, and  swears his loyalty to Matthew's group of Adepts.

As the Adepts shove off on Eoleo's new ship to escape the eclipse, Sveta  receives a telepathic message from Volechek at Eclipse Tower, who  expresses great remorse for not seeing until it was too late that the  Tuaparang was using him, and that his people are now tragically paying  for it. 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 reenters Eclipse Tower and meets his fate.

The Great Eastern Sea revisited
In a turbulent voyage, the Adepts and their new 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. Their conversation turns to how up until now, their enemies have been controlling their every step, like  Arcanus, who they remember saying that they would meet again with in the  near future; but now, 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 Eastern Sea. Perhaps they can learn more about the nature of the Eclipse by finding some land that is  partially in the Eclipse's perimeter and partially out of it.

If Weyard is thought of as a pie, then a slice comprising one third of it  has effectively been elevated quite a fair distance above the rest. This displacement of Weyard's crust that took place over the thirty years  since the Golden Sun event effectively separates Angara and the upper  half of the Great Eastern Sea from the rest of Weyard, and the border  that separates the two halves of the Eastern Sea is comprised of a giant  waterfall not unlike Gaia Falls. This confines Matthew's exploration of the Eastern Sea to the area of sea surrounding Angara.

The Adepts' first stop is a nearby island containing the small settlement  Harun Village, an otherwise human settlement containing beastman  refugees from the mainland. Upon meeting and easing the distress of the village elder and storyteller, Ikan, the Adepts are told legends  concerning the origin and function of Eclipse Tower: apparently, the  Eclipse Tower was originally a light-powered machine built by the Jenei  to advance their art of Alchemy. The Jenei had craved power even beyond rulership of Weyard and mastery over the four elements, and came to seek  omnipotence by acquiring control over the other two values that  comprise reality, Darkness and Light. But their experiment 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 that predicts 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 brought on by the Eclipse  Tower. Ikan had been handed down a responsibility to find and send the bravest warriors toward Warrior's Hill so that they may receive a  treasure that can supposedly guide them toward countering Eclipse Tower,  and Ikan deems them worthy enough to give them an ancient key to  Warrior Hill's most guarded secret. The Adepts use this key to find and unlock the relevant chamber in Warrior's Hill, and are unimpressed to  find merely a peculiar, eyeball-like object that they don't even know  how to use. They take it anyway, and depart Harun Village and sail back into the Eastern Sea.

The next island of importance the Adepts visit is the island of Nihan, the location of Gaia Rock and  Izumo. The former location of Izumo, at any rate - it was swallowed into the sea by tsunamis set off by the Golden Sun event, and Lady Uzume  shepherded its people toward their new home, 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 quiet but to-the-point 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, and that the prayer vigils her mother has  worked herself to the bone to perform are not dispelling the curse.

As soon as Matthew approaches Himi, the eyeball-like object from Warrior's  Hill suddenly shoots out and imprints itself into her, causing a  Third Eye-like symbol to manifest on her forehead and causing her to  suddenly wake up. The treasure seems to have chosen her as the vessel of itself and all the knowledge it contains, and Himi explains to her  surprised parents that she must suddenly accompany Matthew's group of  Adepts on the remainder of their journey. She has gained the knowledge that 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 and shoot it as a destructive beam. 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 provided power to the Apollo Lens in advance 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, in addition to Himi's newfound Psynergy power of insight, there is also 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 notifies that when Sana conquered Belinsk, Morgal's records were taken as spoils of war, which means that the Adepts will  have to pay Sana's capital of Tonfon a visit. Before leaving Yamata with her newfound traveling companions, Himi visits the memorial shrine for  her aunt Uzume, where Uzume's spirit suddenly manifests to give Himi  both encouragement and instruction on how to fulfill her quest. Uzume 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 to get this lock's key from its emperor. The eight Adepts investigate the ruins and find that they will not be  getting any farther without some sort of crimson gem, so they leave  Yamata and resume sailing, intending to come back later.

The Adepts dock at Tonfon and obtain an audience with Emperor Unan, who had  been expecting them because Piers had stopped by to tell him about them  earlier. As emperor, he holds the belief that he must not show emotion over the loss over his own kin, as difficult as that is; he was  previously aggrieved when his brother, Lord Kuan, was killed by Volechek  when the beastman liberated Morgal from ten years of Sanan slavery  originally put into effect by Unan's predecessor, Emperor Ko. And now, Unan hears that though it was the Tuaparang that are to blame for  ultimately setting loose the Eclipse calamity, they did it by  manipulating Kuan's son and Unan's nephew, Ryu Kou. Unan sent a ship to Morgal to rescue Ryu Kou, Hou Ju, and Hou Zan, but it had never  returned. Kraden and the Adepts ask for the items that Emperor Ko's army brought back from Morgal when they originally conquered it, and Unan is  all to happy to let them help themselves to Emperor Ko's private vault  where he had kept his spoils of war. Among the items is one piece of the Umbra gear; however, the ancient map to the other pieces is nowhere to be seen. Unan had given it to Kuan long ago, so the only possible person it could be now in the possession of is Ryu  Kou. Therefore, the Adepts will have to hopefully find him alive somewhere.

During their visit to Tonfon's palace, the Adepts gain the following information from the despondent mother of Ryu  Kou and Hou Ju, Lady Hinechou: For generations, the family has been  in possession of a matching pair of Echo Gems, each of which shines  while its counterpart is in the possession of a living person, and while  one has always been on Hou Ju's person, the other is guarded in a  drawer in Kinechou's room - and she cannot bring herself to look at it,  lest it turn out that it will tell her that Hou Ju is dead. Because they need it to pinpoint where exactly in Weyard is Hou Ju and therefore Ryu  Kou, the Adepts have to secretly borrow it using underhanded methods,  without Hinechou knowing. Incidentally, just as they are leaving Tonfon for their voyage, Rief remembers to ask Kraden about whatever happened  to Nowell since the last time they encountered each other, and Kraden  explains that while Piers was ferrying him and Nowell toward Belinsk,  Nowell fell in love with Piers and announced that she would stay on his  ship. While Rief finds this 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 a veritable 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 his friends 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, where Ryu Kou and Hou Ju are reunited with their mother and uncle at long  last, and the Sanan royal family thanks the Adepts with all their hearts  for their deeds. In a 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 having all  three of the Colored Orbs is necessary for the Adepts to both physically  reach the sanctum containing Apollo Lens and to unlock the Lens itself. The Adepts are perplexed, interpreting this to mean that Arcanus, the puppeteer who used the Adepts to activate the Grave Eclipse, is now  helping them in their effort to end it. Kraden has by now become certain who "Arcanus" is, but he plans to wait until the next time they meet  the all-powerful 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, and when they sail into Yamata and explore the  ruins, sure enough the third orb that completes the set, the Yellow  Orb, is soon theirs.

While exploring the Eastern Sea in search of the remaining Umbra Gear, Matthew's group arrives at a camp  at the southeast tip of Angara out of the reach of the Eclipse's  perimeter, which turns out to be the temporary settlement  that the Champans founded because Champa itself is under the shadow of  the Grave Eclipse and therefore has been attacked by the shadow  monsters. The Champans rejoice at the return visit of their prince, Eoleo, and share a somber moment with him when they hear of how Briggs  met his end. The Adepts then travel to the destroyed remains of Champa, where they find the skeletal corpses of Champans on the ground and the  few remaining Champans setting fire to their homes one at a time so that  monsters will be dissuaded from attacking further. This is because Obaba - somehow still alive after thirty years - refuses to leave from  her vantage point on the mountainside balcony just outside the forge of  Ankohl, so the Champans try to protect her. Eoleo meets his great-grandmother along with the rest of his group, and during the  conversation Obaba learns of the death of her grandson, Briggs; she  takes the news calmly, and mutters that she'll likely be seeing Briggs  wherever he went soon enough anyway. Until then, Obaba agrees to use her exclusive ability to control the forge of Ankohl to create items  Eoleo's band can use for the remainder of their journey to end the  Eclipse.

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. During their visit, they learn of a legend that states that the Apollo Lens would only open up once the Grave Eclipse  occurs. Other towns they make a return visit to include 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.

Apollo Sanctum
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, a massive, ancient edifice of largely unknown origins  lining the mountains dividing Angara into northern and southern halves. They walk along the great wall across the Khiren Mountains, then climb the highest, ruin-dotted peak until they make it to  the Apollo Sanctum. There, they solve the ancient riddles that test the group's abilities as Adepts to the core, and pass beyond its gate to  its very peak.

The excessive light flowing through the peak of Apollo Sanctum is powerful enough that the Adepts are unable to  survive it 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, and Kraden  theorizes the reason to be that the Apollo Lens is the product of  cooperation between the ancient Jenei and beastmen that existed in the  ancient past, a relationship in which the beastmen, being the ones doing  the physical labor, were wearing the equipment. Like the Lens itself, 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 makes his appearance and thanks them for setting the Apollo Lens up, making the  Adepts exclaim with frustration. Kraden addresses him as Alex to inform the young Adepts of his real name, and explains that "Arcanus" is a name  that fits together symbolically with the names "Blados" and "Chalis",  all terms for cards in a deck that is used to tell a person's fortune. The Adepts are surprised because they had all thought that Alex was killed when he failed to use the Golden Sun and become immortal, and  Rief is especially outraged to see the infamous betrayer of both his  mother and the Mercury Clan. But Alex states that time is no longer on their side; Tuaparang suddenly flies overhead, and deposits hordes of  soldiers from its underside onto the Apollo Lens below. Having successfully used Matthew's group to get the Apollo Lens set up for  Tuaparang, the empire is now attempting to take control of it and  silence Matthew's group for good.

Blados and Chalis appear as well, 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. Alex then mysteriously antagonizes the duo by revealing to Matthew that the Tuaparang are a group styling itself as the Umbra  Clan for having achieved the ability to employ Darkness as a form of  Psynergy - making Blados and Chalis literally Dark Adepts - and also  hints at Blados and Chalis' ulterior motive to take control of the  Apollo Lens, a weapon that can fire a potentially destructive ray of  light, for themselves. Blados and Chalis reveal that in order to keep these and other things secret, they had intended to eliminate Alex for a  while now. With this, Alex nonchalantly switches sides and tells the Adepts that he will buy them time to throw the switch on the Apollo Lens  and destroy Eclipse Tower, and Blados and Chalis go after him to attack  him and the three disappear. 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, a wretched, bipedal werewolf-like monster  appears, and it almost attacks the Adepts until it sees Sveta, which  seems to put it into a state of great internal conflict - though  terrified at first, Sveta finds it strangely sympathetic. Suddenly, Blados and Chalis reappear, claim that this monster is their pet, and  infuse it with dark energy to drive it feral and 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 stands up to their Darkness-aligned assaults, and 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 Tuaparang 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, she 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 heart of the oppressive concentration of light  flowing at the top of the sanctum. Alex tells Matthew from out of view that he cannot turn on the switch by himself, and 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. They let slip that they were going to send Volechek up onto the controls to get rid of him once he had played his part. But even though she has already absorbed a dangerous amount of light in the gear,  Sveta believes she can do it, and asks for Matthew to lend her his  strength; through a mysterious process, Matthew successfully wills his  spirit out of his body to empower Sveta's. As she climbs back up onto  the controls, Sveta and Matthew accept together that they will both be  sacrified to save many lives across Angara.

Just then, the twisted Volechek regains his composure, leaps up onto the controls,  and sends Sveta back down and Matthew's spirit back into his body. The Adepts momentarily despair that they have lost, but Blados and Chalis  affirm that, somehow, seeing his sister has made Volechek regain his  former senses, enough that he is now going to sacrifice himself to save  his sister and everyone else. From within his darkness-aligned form, Volechek spiritually bids Sveta farewell, and the Adepts look on in  sadness as he stands in the heart of the light and successfully makes  the Apollo Lens shoot at Eclipse Tower. The tower overloads with light, expels it straight into the sky, and clears away all the darkness,  heralding the end of the Grave Eclipse. What happens with Alex or Blados and Chalis after this point is not known, and it is presumed that after  this point, the Apollo Lens is left in a state that there is no risk of  Tuaparang using it anymore.

At a later date, in Belinsk, the beastmen of Morgal exalt Volechek as the hero who gave his  life for his kingdom;s people, and Sveta has been crowned the new queen  of Morgal. The release of the light-aligned Psynergy that ended the Grave Eclipse has endowed the beastmen caught within the energy at the  time with the newfound ability to employ the element of Light as an  unusual form of Psynergy, reflected in the now bright-gold color of  their fur, and they have decided to rename their Luna Tower "Sol Tower"  in commemoration of this. Everyone in the kingdom, from Vande's troupe to Queen Sveta herself, thanks Matthew and his group of Adepts from the  bottom of their hearts for saving them all. 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 begin the long journey back home to Isaac and Garet's cabin to  give them the Mountain Roc feather.

Though the nightmare of the Grave Eclipse has ended, many questions and concerns  remain. Tuaparang, the nation that intended to dominate Angara by killing most of its population through unleashing the Grave Eclipse and  gaining control of the light-based superweapon atop Apollo Sanctum,  continues to fly far above ground. Alex remains at large as well, and his actions and motivations remain mysterious; while initially appearing  to be in league with the Tuaparang, he ultimately betrayed them and  granted Matthew's group the critical opportunity to use the Apollo Lens  to foil the High Empyror's plans and save what remains of Angara's  people. Based on this, it can be presumed Alex is no longer affiliated with the Tuaparang. 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...?