Golden Sun series/Detailed plot summary

This is a detailed summary of the events in Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn as they occur from the player's point of view. Each section links to a subpage contain a more thorough writeup of the plot of each installment.

A Point of Warning: This page and the subpages it links to 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 one of these three pages instead.

Golden Sun and The Lost Age

 * See the extensive plot writeup of Golden Sun and The Lost Age

Outset
The world of Weyard, a disk-like plane much like the ancient Flat Earth perception of our world in which its oceans perpetually flow over its perimeter into an abyss below, is comprised of any combination of the four elemental building blocks of reality. Much like the concept of the Greek Classical Elements, all matter on Weyard, living or inanimate, is comprised of the following base physical elements: Venus, the element of earth, ground, and plantlife; Mars, the element of fire and heat; Jupiter, the element of air and electricity; and Mercury, the element of water and the cold. Furthermore, two other values that complete existence's form in a sort of yin and yang concept are darkness and light.

Individuals live on Weyard that have the ability to utilize spiritual power to manipulate at least one of the elements around them - this art, resembling magical sorcery, is known as using Psynergy of that element, and an individual that is able to use Psynergy based on one of the four base elements is known as an Adept of that element. While it seems all lifeforms on Weyard are innately aligned with a given element, only certain sapient and/or sentient lifeforms have the capacity to use Psynergy, and those few that do generally have the presence of mind not to showcase it. Adepts are generally unknown by the world at large by the start of Golden Sun.

It was a different story ages ago, however; in its ancient past, Weyard was a much different place. Taking residence upon the lands of the world were thriving civilizations and clans based on each of the four elements. This was made possible by a great power named Alchemy, which is apparently similar to Psynergy, but is much more powerful in that all four of the building blocks of reality are manipulated simultaneously as one rather than just a single element at a time. Alchemy could allow for fantastic effects, such as the transmutation of lead into solid gold, and the ability to thwart death itself.

Alchemy, being what fueled the rise of civilization in this era, would similarly fuel the rise of untold strife, however. Mankind's dreams of endless riches, and then of eternal life, eventually turned to dreams of dominion over all that lived, and aspirations of conquest. The world became the stage for a great conflict, as the nations abused the power of Alchemy to raise armies and wage war against each other. The world was nearly torn apart, but was ultimately saved from its own denizens by the bravery of a few wise men: They sealed away the power of Alchemy out of the reach of the nations of the world of Weyard, and the wars subsided. The secrets to Alchemy were hidden within a dungeon-like shrine named Sol Sanctum, constructed within Mt. Aleph at the western part of the modern-day north-central continent of Angara, and these secrets would remain outside of public knowledge and reach for the ages to come. In the present, a village named Vale had been founded at the foot of Mt. Aleph, and all of its residents are Adepts to varying degrees because of having lived in close proximity to the mountain shrine. It has many laws and customs forbidding residents from showing their powers to outsiders of the village, as well as casually entering Sol Sanctum, whose true secrets none of them had ever discovered. However, three years ago, a raiding party of Mars Adepts from the world's northern reaches, headed by the powerful warriors Saturos and Menardi, secretly invaded Sol Sanctum in an attempt to obtain the Elemental Stars for themselves. On that fateful night, they triggered a cataclysmic defense mechanism that drove them away and caused a violent thunderstorm to surround Mt. Aleph, and a boulder on the mountain descended upon and crashed through the town below, seemingly killing several of its residents - the adult Kyle, the young Venus Adept Felix, and his two parents. None of their bodies were found, however.

Three years later, the teenage son of Kyle, the Venus Adept Isaac, and his friends, the Mars Adept Garet of Vale's mayoral family and the surviving sister of Felix, the Mars Adept Jenna, have become friends with the elderly and kind-hearted scholar Kraden, who is not originally from Vale and who is highly interested in the secrets of Alchemy supposedly within Sol Sanctum. They secretly enter the sanctum and manage to find their way past the cataclysmic trap and into the chamber containing the four Elemental Stars, and Kraden has Isaac and Garet fetch the Elemental Stars for him to study. In an enormously fateful coincidence, the day Isaac and Kraden's group set out to explore Sol Sanctum is the same day Saturos and Menardi return to make another attempt for the Elemental Stars. They arrive and hold Jenna and Kraden hostage, and are joined by two further companions: a powerful Mercury Adept named Alex and, to everyone's complete astonishment, Felix, revealed to have been saved from the boulder disaster by Saturos three years before and now sworn to Saturos' objective. Felix's presence convinces Isaac and Garet to hand over three of the Elemental Stars to Saturos and to fetch the fourth one for him.

When Isaac removes the Mars Star off its pedestal, the formerly dormant volcano that is Mt. Aleph instantly begins to erupt as though the Elemental Stars were originally set in place to keep the lava repressed, and the all-powerful guardian entity of the seal placed on Alchemy, the being spoken of in Valean legend as the Wise One, awakens from his slumber. Saturos' group realizes they cannot get the Mars Star with it and the two boys in peril, and are forced to leave matters up to fate; against Felix's wishes, they take Jenna and Kraden as captive members of their group as they fled the quaking chamber and volcano, the purpose of that being that if Isaac and Garet make it out alive, the boys would pursue Saturos' group and bring the Mars Star if they want Jenna back.

The Wise One, meanwhile, explains that the Elemental Stars would be used to light the Elemental Beacons atop four towering structures situated across the world, the Elemental Lighthouses, the execution of which would bring the power of Alchemy back to the world - a power which the Wise One paints as dangerous to unleash because it would be abused by the people of Weyard. Isaac becomes convinced that the world would be put in danger if the four Lighthouses did not remain unlit, so after the Wise One imbues the Mars Star in his possession with a mysterious property, he teleports Isaac and Garet back outside to safety, and uses his godlike power to prevent the flow of Mt. Aleph's lava from seeping down into the direction of Vale. Isaac and Garet return to Vale and explain everything that transpired in Sol Sanctum to the worried populace, and Isaac selflessly accepts the great responsibility of acting on the Wise One's warning and setting out on a quest to pursue and stop Saturos' group from accomplishing their objective. After spending one last night with their families, Isaac and Garet depart from their hometown to embark on their uncertain and perilous journey.

Mercury Lighthouse and Angara
Isaac and Garet's quest across the world is immediately perilous because the eruption of Mt. Aleph instantly begins to have a profound and radical effect on Weyard; a massive stockpile of Psynergy Stones, comprised of a substance that can unlock latent Adept abilities within those people that come into contact with them, was expelled by the eruption and showered all across the world, giving common people newfound powers and driving lesser lifeforms such as wildlife mad and feral. Also released by the eruption, however, are small, sapient elementals named Djinn that are separately based on the four base elements, and when they are found by Isaac and Garet, they agree to bolster the Adept's Psynergy powers, which causes the warriors' capacity to battle to rise drastically over the course of their journey.

Along the way east across upper Angara, Isaac and Garet pass through the town Vault, and are eventually joined by the young Jupiter Adept, Ivan, who is the servant to the wealthy landowner and merchant Hammet, lord of the kingdom of Kalay down south, and is in possession of an ordinary-looking wooden rod that Hammet considers very important. When Hammet is captured by the empire of thieves in northern Lunpa and Ivan is unable to do anything about it, Ivan accompanies Isaac on his quest because, with his power to read minds, he understands what is happening to the world and hopes to help prevent it in some way. The three-Adept group proceeds through the Goma mountain range by crossing through the subterranean path that was Goma Cave, and arriving at Bilibin on the other side.

While Isaac's party finds out that Saturos and his band went northwest to the Mercury Lighthouse, they also find that Bilibin is experiencing woes of its own; its sister town to the east, Kolima, brought its axes to Kolima Forest, the domain of the tree spirit Tret, who got enraged and inflicted a curse on both Kolima and Bilibin that turns its peoples into trees. Isaac's group decides to head east into Kolima Forest first, and with their innate states of Psynergy shielding them from the curse themselves, they successfully bring Tret back to his senses in a battle, but Tret is now too weak to undo his own curse. Tret's female counterpart, Laurel, tells the Adepts that the only thing that can save Tret from withering away is the enchanted healing water from Mercury Lighthouse's long-dried-up spring. Isaac immediately journeys northwest to Mercury Lighthouse.

Now in the winter-locked northern region of Angara, Isaac's party passes through the village of Imil near Mercury Lighthouse, and they are joined by the young Mercury Adept healer, Mia, whose sworn duty as a descendant of the ancient Mercury Clan is to ensure that the Mercury Beacon is not lit. When the four of them climbs up to and reaches the Lighthouse aerie, however, they are all disheartened to find that Saturos beat them to it and cast the Mercury Star into the Lighthouse's well, permanently establishing the Mercury Beacon. While Menardi and Felix take Jenna and Kraden and flee to the next Lighthouse, Saturos pridefully challenges the four young Adepts to battle him four-on-one, certain that they will all die by his hand. While he is an extremely powerful and dangerous adversary, Saturos is shocked to discover that due to his proximity to the now-lit Mercury Beacon, his own Mars-aligned powers are weakened, and the four Adepts miraculously best Saturos and leave him lying defeated on the ground.

Alex chooses then to reveal himself to the Adepts, and Mia is horrified because Alex, her cousin and fellow Mercury Clan descendant, broke their shared bloodline oath to keep the Mercury Lighthouse's power dormant. Alex simply expresses his obvious admiration for the great power bound within each Lighthouse, then verifies that Isaac still has the Mars Star, before using an advanced warping technique to flee the Lighthouse with Saturos. A despondent Mia quickly resolves to join Isaac's group and beat Saturos and Alex at the next Lighthouse, and they bring a bottle of Mercury Lighthouse's now-flowing healing water with them as they depart east across the continent. Isaac returns to Kolima Forest to pour the water into Tret, saving his life and ending the curse on Bilibin. After receiving more guidance from Tret and Laurel, Isaac's party resumes their pursuit of Saturos across Angara.

Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia's resumed pursuit of Saturos, Menardi, Felix, and Alex, and their two captives Jenna and Kraden, leads both groups clockwise through the entire continent. After Isaac receives training and advice from the monk Master Nyunpa at the pilgrimage site Fuchin Temple, they pass through the oriental village of Xian, located at the eastern end of the trade caravan route Silk Road that connects to Kalay at the southwestern end of Angara. Because Saturos' group caused a landslide to impede Isaac's progress, Isaac's group is forced to find an alternate route through the mines in Altin Peak, and solve the flooding problems of the mining town of Altin in the process. Then, while stopping by Lama Temple along the road, they meet the oracle Hama, who unlocks within Ivan a special Jupiter Adept power of perception and mysteriously address Ivan as more than a mere stranger. This power helps Isaac's group proceed west through the scorchingly hot Lamakan Desert, and they finally reach Kalay, Ivan's hometown.

While Isaac and Ivan are in meeting with Hammet's wife and ruler of Kalay in Hammet's absence, Lady Layana, they discuss what to do and what not to concerning Hammet's captivity in Lunpa. Taking note of Ivan's newfound friends, Layana reveals that it was prophesied that Ivan would go out on a journey with warriors from Vale three years after the thunderstorm that would hit only Mt. Aleph. This came from a Jupiter Adept that Hammet encountered many years ago at the southwest end of the world, who instructed Hammet to take in a then-baby Ivan as his own, as well as the Shaman's Rod, and told Hammet to use the Shaman's Rod to find a particular object. The reason Hammet originally went north to Vault from Kalay right before Mt. Aleph erupted and brought Ivan and the Shaman's Rod with him was because he was pursuing a lead concerning the object. Ivan realizes this means it's essentially his fault that Hammet is in Lunpa's captivity right now, but Layana urges him to accompany Isaac on his quest right and leave the situation to Kalay. Isaac and Garet also travel north to briefly reunite with their families at Vale.

Venus Lighthouse
Isaac's group they look toward finding a way onto the continent southwest of Angara that Venus Lighthouse is located on, Gondowan. As another landslide has blocked them from taking the land passage to Gondowan, they are forced to take a ferry across the monster-infested Karagol Sea that is located in between the two continents. Then, they arrive at the Angaran settlement that is the world's most populous town, Tolbi, and when they save its mysterious ruler Babi from nearby Altmiller Cave, Babi enters Isaac in the tournament of warriors currently being held in Tolbi's annual festival, Colosso. With his Psynergy powers, Isaac performs brilliantly.

In a later meeting with Babi, Isaac learns that Babi is 150 years old because he has been drinking life-extending draught that he received when he went to and left Lemuria, a hidden society out in the world's Great Eastern Sea. But as his draught has been running out, his extended life will soon end, so he has pursued several means to find out more about Alchemy and its life-extending secrets. For one, Babi sent Kraden, originally from Tolbi and his most favored scholar, north to Vale years ago so that he could study Sol Sanctum up close. For another, he has decreed the construction of a tower named Babi Lighthouse at the easternmost end of upper Gondowan, the point closest to Lemuria's believed place in the ocean, relatively speaking; Lemuria is hidden within a foggy labyrinth of stone crags flanked with whirlpools, and all ships he had previously sent into it to retrieve more draught have been unable to keep a straight course and ended up sailing right back out. The tower is meant to shine a bright light on top like a contemporary lighthouse for this purpose. Furthermore, only a Lemurian Ship like what Babi used to sail out of Lemuria is sturdy enough to survive the attempt, and as it can only be commandeered by Psynergy-wielding Adepts, Babi has been hoping for an Adept like Isaac for a long time.

As Isaac would not be allowed permission from Tolbi to go southeast toward Venus Lighthouse otherwise, he agrees with Babi's proposal that after Isaac finishes his business at Venus Lighthouse, he will obtain Babi's Lemurian Ship and go on another quest to reach Lemuria and retrieve more Lemurian Draught for Babi. Babi has his chief minister, Iodem, accompany Isaac southeast through Suhalla Desert to the town between Venus Lighthouse to its south and the half-complete Babi Lighthouse to its north, Lalivero. However, the townspeople are distressed because Saturos' group passed through Lalivero with an additional captive as part of their party: a Laliveran girl named Sheba, revered by the townspeople due to her apparent origin from the sky and her unusual powers. Isaac and his group promise them that they will head into the secret entrance Babi Lighthouse is being built upon and take its subterranean path into Venus Lighthouse down south, and put a stop to Saturos' goal and liberate all of his hostages.

Isaac's party explores and fights their way through the interior of Venus Lighthouse, and reach the aerie just in time to catch a falling out between Felix and Saturos; Felix is angry that Saturos has taken yet another previously uninvolved person captive, Sheba - who is up there with them - and defiantly announces he will bring Sheba down to the base of the lighthouse and to safety. When Isaac's party intervenes, Saturos reveals that they need the Shaman's Rod because it, somehow, is needed to reach and light Jupiter Lighthouse in the future. Saturos uses crafty wording to trick Isaac and Ivan into handing the Shaman's Rod to him under the belief that they are "exchanging" it for Sheba, but then he reveals that Sheba is staying because she is, in fact, a Jupiter Adept, and Saturos needs one to gain access into Jupiter Lighthouse in the future. Saturos has Felix keep it in order to show his continued loyalty to Saturos' cause.

Proclaiming Isaac's party to have meddled in their affairs long enough, Saturos and Menardi engage Isaac's party with the intent to kill, but despite not being handicapped like Saturos was at the aerie of Mercury Lighthouse, Isaac's party manages to win and render the duo unable to stand. Isaac then attempts to invite Felix to leave Saturos, believing that his former friend had no choice but to submit to Saturos' will ever since Saturos saved his life three years ago. But all of Isaac's group is horrified when Felix declares his full intention to continue lighting the Lighthouses even after Saturos and Menardi are taken out of the picture, forcing Isaac's side to declare him their enemy. But Saturos suddenly tosses the Venus Star into the well at the aerie of Venus Lighthouse, starting the process that would establish the Venus Beacon. The energy that begins flowing out of the Venus Lighthouse recharges the pair's bodies and Psynergy power, and Saturos and Menardi execute a most terrifying ability: they merge their two bodies and transform into a single, massive, two-headed dragon of awesome power. Isaac's party engages in their most harrowing battle yet, but through tactics and will they miraculously slay the beast. Saturos and Menardi fall to their shared demise. All of a sudden, Venus Lighthouse wracks itself with a violent earthquake as part of the process that establishes the Venus Beacon atop Venus Lighthouse, causing Sheba to lose her footing and fall off the tower - and Felix, beside himself, jumps clean off the tower after her. The quaking subsides, and Isaac's speechless group believes that the two of them fell to their deaths. They quickly resolve to leave the Lighthouse and search for Jenna, but they would not find Jenna at any point in the long and tiring search to follow.

When Isaac's group returns to Lalivero to convene its populace and Iodem, they learn that witnesses saw Sheba and Felix surviving their fall into the ocean because of how the ocean seemed to intentionally rise up and "catch" them - the people of Lalivero attribute this to be another instance of Sheba's miracles. Knowing that Felix and Sheba are alive and are probably with Jenna, Isaac's party resolves to find them, while pursuing their other objective to discover Lemuria and find life-extending draught for Babi before it is too late. Iodem presents Isaac the Psynergy-powered Lemurian Ship that Babi used, and gives Isaac the ship's corresponding Black Orb that is needed to commandeer the ship through Psynergy.

Felix's journey
During Isaac's own climb through the Venus Lighthouse, Saturos and Menardi had Felix and Alex lead themselves, Jenna, and Kraden out of the front exit of the tower itself, while the duo went up to the aerie with Sheba in tow. However, Felix went back up to confront Saturos atop Venus Lighthouse's aerie over the involvement of Sheba in their quest, so Jenna, Kraden, and Alex were left to fight their way through large groups waiting outside Venus Lighthouse that demanded Sheba back. The three waited at a peninsula near Venus Lighthouse named Idejima, where Menardi had moored her personal Lemurian Ship so that they could continue the rest of their goal to light Jupiter and Mars Lighthouse together. But Saturos and Menardi would never arrive; when the Venus Lighthouse wracked itself and the surrounding lands with a violent earthquake, Idejima was torn away and became its own buoyant island floating east out into the Great Eastern Sea, with Alex, Jenna, and Kraden marooned on it. At the same time, the area of ground at the base of the Lighthouse broke away and filled with water from the ocean, which safely caught Sheba and Felix and saved both of their lives. Seeing the floating island, Felix swam with all his might and successfully brought himself and Sheba onto it, rejoining the other three.

Felix, Jenna, Sheba, Alex, and Kraden are now marooned on a island with a ship they can not use because the Black Orb that Saturos used to commandeer the ship was lost with him. Then, all of a sudden, an enormous tidal wave originating from the Great Eastern Sea washes over the island and impacts much of the southeast portion of the world of Weyard. Idejima is driven south into a small island continent named Indra, and Indra itself is driven a short distance southwest so that it is sandwiched between the lower tip of Gondowan to the west and the upper left tip of the continent of Osenia. When Felix, Jenna, Sheba, and Kraden regained consciousness, they notice Alex has gone off on his own, and that they can now explore a new continent. Felix and the others determine that his objective to light the two remaining Lighthouses west across the oceans of the world can only be continued once they find themselves a boat they can use.

Jenna supports her brother in his quest because, as a matter of fact, their parents are alive - they had also been rescued by Saturos and Menardi on the night of the disaster at Vale, but they had been kept at Saturos' hometown ever since so as to coerce Felix into joining Saturos on his journey to unseal Alchemy. Felix and Jenna's ultimate motivation in lighting the Lighthouses is to win their parents' freedom. Sheba, on the other hand, insists that she stay with Felix for his journey for a reason she does not disclose, instead passing it off as her "destiny" to do so. Having her as the Jupiter Adept of his group, as well as having the newly acquired Shaman's Rod in his possession, Felix's capacity to successfully enter and climb Jupiter Lighthouse in the future is now assured. As for Kraden, though he is an old man who cannot fight, he is nonetheless eager to accompany Felix on his travels across the world, for he wants to continue sating his curiosity and potentially delve further into the secrets of Alchemy, partially for his master Babi's sake. With Felix's new group of travelers assembled, they began their search for a ship by stepping down into Indra. Like Isaac's group, Felix's group begins to fight the many wild monsters of the world, and also amass Djinn of their own.

After passing through the washed-up town of Daila on the northernmost part of the continent, Felix detours to the Kandorean Temple to train and develop their rudimentary Psynergy abilities under the head monk Master Poi, then use what they learned in the Shrine of the Sea God tower dungeon east of Daila to help free a pair of Dailan children that were stuck because of the Tidal Wave. While on a return visit to Daila, Felix coincidentally comes across Alex, who had been searching for a boat himself. Alex reports that Daila does not have any boats all, for sale or otherwise, but the town mayor told him to try the town at the southern end of the continent, Madra. When Felix offers for Alex to accompany his group, though, Alex seems eager to turn him down, stating that he simply prefers to work alone, and then leaves Felix and the town in a visible haste. Having to let Alex be, the remaining four travelers proceed to cross through the rocky Dehkan Plateau, and they arrive at Madra down south.

Felix learns at Madra that prior to the tidal wave, a dread pirate named Briggs, who hails from the seafaring town of Champa across the sea, had been pillaging towns and settlements across the Great Eastern Sea for food, but after the tidal wave Madra managed to capture him and temporarily jail him. The rest of his crew soon invaded Madra and busted him out of the prison, and at the same time Briggs made his escape to Osenia, a Lemurian Ship washed up on Indra's nearby eastern shore, with its lone captain having been knocked unconscious by the tidal wave. The Madrans accused him as one of the Champa in league with Briggs and imprisoned him in their jail without any reliable basis; the Elder of Madra and his son, the Mayor of Madra, did not sit well with having a likely innocent man languishing in their prison, so they had taken it upon themselves to leave Madra and pursue Briggs into Osenia personally. Upon investigation, Felix and his friends find that the man being wrongfully jailed is a Mercury Adept named Piers. Interested in Piers as both an Adept and the owner of a ship they could possibly use, Felix's party decides to trace the Elder and Mayor's path into Osenia to help them put Briggs in his place and secure his vow that Piers is not one of his men.

Both Felix's group and the group of Madrans make it through the Yampi Desert to reach the Osenian town that Madra trades with, the port town of Alhafra, ruled by a mayor known for being a greedy oaf. The town had recently completed a large sailing ship, but the tidal wave had damaged it; nonetheless, Briggs used the gold he stole from Madra to purchase the ship and use it as a hideout. Felix's group goes into the ship and defeats Briggs and his Sea Fighters in battle, and Briggs is jailed in Alhafra's prison while the proof of Piers' innocence is secured for the Madrans. As Briggs and his family confesses, he stole from towns in the Great Eastern Sea because the oceans of the world had been heating up, which was having a serious impact on Champa's fishing trade and way of life. Before leaving the town, Felix attemptes to fix the sailing ship to help out, but the group's Psynergy proved insufficient to remove the enormous rock that was pinning the broken mast out of place.

While Felix's group explores Osenia, they enter and explore Air's Rock - an enormous lone mountain said to have been present on Weyard since the world's beginning and containing an expansive, riddle-filled complex - and earn the Jupiter Psynergy it contained. They also discover the settlement of Garoh near Air's Rock, a society of people that turn into werewolves when they look up at the moon at night. They convene with the village leader, the elderly werewolf Maha, and at the end of it Maha and the people of Garoh thank Felix's group for not being terrified of their "accursed" race. Felix and his companions return west to Madra hoping to find Piers, but they find instead that while they were gone, warriors of the tribal Kibombo society from the heart of lower Gondowan had ransacked the town. They only took a single item before retreating back into Gondowan, however: none other than the Black Orb to Piers' ship. After the invasion, when Madra had received notice that Piers was innocent and had let him free, Piers immediately followed the Kibombo west into Gondowan to retrieve his Orb.

Felix's party traces Piers' steps west and crosses into lower Gondowan, and after they head north through the village of Naribwe, they successfully sneak their way through the guarded Kibombo Mountains to arrive at Kibombo. While the entire village is attending a ceremonial ritual where the aspiring witch doctor Akafubu tries to earn his title as the figurehead of the Kibombo by offering Piers' Black Orb to a giant statue named the Great Gabomba, Felix and his partners find Piers and introduce themselves as Adepts. Piers shocks Kraden when he introduces himself as a Lemurian - an individual who had lived in the legendary society hidden in the center of the Great Eastern Sea until recently, when the tidal wave had driven him out. Piers seeks to regain control of his Orb, and therefore his ship, so that he can find a way back into his home.

When Kraden, excited about the prospect of seeing Lemuria for himself, offers to help Piers so that Piers would take them with him to Lemuria, Piers cannot permit it because Kraden is acting in Babi's interest; Lemurians resent Babi because he had stolen a Lemurian Ship and the entirety of Lemuria's stockpile of life-extending draught. Kraden assures that he wants to see Lemuria for more than just Babi's sake, that he wants his own long-standing questions on Alchemy answered, and he and Felix's group resolve to help him retrieve his orb despite his opinions. Ultimately, they retrieve the orb by climbing into the mechanical Gabomba statue and fix the mechanism that was preventing Akafubu's ceremony from completing successfully, and they all proceed to travel back down to Indra to return to Piers' ship. Upon returning to Indra, Piers announces to his newfound companions that he has decided he would take them with him on his journey back into Lemuria; impressed by Felix and Kraden's willingness to help someone whose affairs needed not concern them, he saw they truly were good people.

Before they board Piers' ship, they briefly return to Madra to put the minds of the Elder and the Mayor at ease about Piers' circumstances. It is at this point, however, when Felix's group first encounters Karst, the younger sister of Menardi, who had arrived from the Mars Adepts' hometown in search of Menardi and Saturos. The news of the Mars Adepts' demise at the hands of Isaac comes out quickly, and Karst, consumed by rage and a driven sense of vengeance against the one who murdered her dear sister, swears that she will hunt Isaac down. Karst makes it clear that she expects Felix to focus on his duty to reach and light Jupiter Lighthouse, and find his own way into the Great Western Sea past the blockade made by the tidal wave to do so. After Karst leaves, Felix's party considers whether they should seek out Isaac's party to protect them from Karst's wrath, but everyone knows full well that Isaac is actively trying to stop Felix from lighting Jupiter Lighthouse and would fight to do so. Felix and Piers' group proceed to board the ship, clear out the monsters infesting it, and use the Black Orb to commandeer it out into the ocean. Piers allows Felix to take the tiller and direct their new journey across the world's waters.

The Great Eastern Sea and Lemuria
Felix, Jenna, Sheba, Piers, and Kraden, upon Piers' Lemurian Ship, begin an extremely lengthy exploration of all the waters, landmasses, and continents accessible throughout the Great Eastern Sea. The primary cause for this is the fact that Indra had corked up the naval passage between itself and lower Gondowan that previously would have been taken to travel between the Eastern Sea and the Western Sea, and the newly formed rock barriers between the two continents blocking the Lemurian Ship cannot removed with the Psynergy abilities they currently have. They therefore pursue Piers' own goal to make it back to his homeland within the fog-shrouded naval obstacle course known as the Sea of Time, but the whirlpools drive them out.

While on a quest to collect Psynergy and increase their power by exploring dungeons such as Aqua Rock and Gaia Rock, the group visits various towns and settlements across the Eastern Sea, and learnthe secrets to sailing into the Sea of Time - but they also learn from folklore, however, that a mythical entity from the ancient past, Poseidon, has reawakened within the Sea of Time, and it is invulnerable to all conventional forms of attack. The only weapon that can be used against it is an ancient trident whose three separate prongs are all contained within separate tower dungeons locatd across the Great Eastern Sea. They explore and retrieve each of the three prongs from the Shrine of the Sea God east of Daila, the Ankohl Ruins on the bottom end of Angara east of Champa, and the Tundaria Tower at the bottom continent of the world, though they do not have the means to reconstruct the weapon themselves.

When the party first enters Champa, they are suddenly met by Alex, who reveals himself to have joined the company of Karst and her partner, the imposing warrior Agatio. Alex admits that following Saturos' death, he thought Felix would hardly be capable of his quest and felt fit to abandon him after the tidal wave, but later he came to see that Felix was competent for the job after all. So, rather than let Karst and Agatio relieve Felix of the Jupiter Star so that they could light Jupiter Lighthouse themselves, he lets Karst and Agatio put pressure on Felix via threats so that Felix would hurry up in his responsibility. Alex states in very blunt terms that his ultimate position in all this was as a neutral party whose aim was to see all four Lighthouses lit and Alchemy restored to the world. As the three of them leave, Alex breaks the news to Kraden that Babi has passed away. While Kraden is shocked by the news, everyone else wonders if this means that Kraden is now relieved of his responsibility to seek out the secrets of Alchemy for Babi's sake; Kraden, however, insists he wants to continue accompanying Felix and see Lemuria for himself, especially because he has begun to form a theory about the state of the world. Piers surprises Kraden by claiming he holds that theory as well, and that it would likely be confirmed once they arrive at Lemuria.

Even though Felix and his group share the same ocean with Isaac, who is actively searching for them with his own Lemurian Ship, the two parties would never encounter each other across the Great Eastern Sea. Nonetheless, over the course of their exploration of the Great Eastern Sea, Felix and his group takes part in several incidental series of events. While on the island that contains Gaia Rock, Felix finds the people of its lone settlement of Izumo being terrorized by a dragon named the Serpent living in Gaia Rock. The young man Susa went off to Gaia Rock to slay it and save the maiden Kushinada, and Felix's group follows him and helps him save the town. Thanking Felix's group for their help, Susa and his elder sister Uzume reveal that they are Adepts as well, and Susa and Kushinada promise that they will have offspring that will help Felix's descendants in the future.

On a return visit to Alhafra, the party's Psynergy capabilities have become strong enough that they are able to fix its damaged ship. They play right into Briggs' hands when they do this, however, for he chooses then to bust out of the prison, take the ship himself, and sail back to Champa with stolen food in tow. Felix decides to pursue him back to Champa, where Briggs is exalted as the town's savior for bringing back food, and Felix and his group chase Briggs into his mountainside home and confront him and his grandmother Obaba in front of the Forge of Ankohl. Briggs convinces her that Felix has come to take him away, so she employs the powers of the forge to empower a lizard monster to destroy Felix. After Felix manage to fell the beast, they shock Obaba with the revelation that all the food Briggs brought back for the town was stolen from the other towns across the Eastern Sea, and was enraged at Briggs. But Briggs had always intended to pay back the towns he stole from one he saved his own town from starvation, and Felix agrees that all will be well once Briggs lives up to his promise.

Following the Briggs family dispute, Obaba offers to serve Felix counsel on subjects related to smithing. She has long been considered the foremost smith on Weyard due to her seemingly magical mastery over the powers and processes of the forge of Ankohl, so when Felix shows Obaba the prongs to the Trident of Ankohl, Obaba is astounded; all of her experience with the forge was amassed ultimately so that the Trident could be reconstructed. The three prongs are converted into the completed Trident, and Felix takes it with his party as they make one more attempt into the Sea of Time. They successfully sail past the whirlpools and make it to Poseidon's waiting place, and with the Trident they pierce Poseidon's aura of invulnerability and face it down in a fierce and drawn out battle. They fell Poseidon and gain access to the secret island society of Lemuria.

Felix's group marvels at the magnificence of the architecture and culture, but Piers explains that it was once far more grand and lovely in the past. While waiting for an audience with the Lemurian king Hydros, they go over to the house of Piers' uncle. There, Piers receives the devastating news that his mother passed away while he was gone, so while he goes to the cemetery to mourn, Felix finds out from the uncle that Piers was on a mission handed down by the king, which Piers never told them about. His uncle then allows the rest of Felix's party to see the legendary man known as Lunpa the Righteous Thief, the original founder of the town named after him long ago - he originally came to Lemuria along with Babi and was left behind when Babi fled the isle with a Lemurian Ship and all of Lemuria's life-extending draught, and Lunpa, like all of the native Lemurians, has lived a drastically extended lifespan because of drinking from Lemuria's enchanted springwater that the draught was once distilled from.

Lunpa 's discussion with Felix's party quickly turns to the theory about the world that Kraden had earlier said he was formulating and had wanted to prove true by seeing Lemuria for himself. To his surprise, Lunpa and Hydros have suspected the exact same thing: Lemuria's culture was advanced because of the presence of Alchemy's influence, unlike any of the towns and cultures that laid across modern-day Weyard, who couldn't have possibly created the great sanctums and lighthouses Felix and Kraden had come across. These were constructed in an age long-past when cultures all across Weyard were similarly advanced - this meant that the sealing of Alchemy in the past had caused civilization to gradually wane over the ages, rather than develop. Lunpa shocks Kraden by explaining, however, that there is the possibility of another form of decay that came to be as a direct result of the absence of Alchemy.

Lunpa brings Felix, Kraden, and their companions to Lemuria palace to obtain an audience with Hydros in his throne chamber, where he is accompanied by both Piers and Conservato. It first comes to light that Hydros had tasked Piers to leave Lemuria and explore the entirety of the Great Eastern Sea, in direct violation of the will of Conservato and the Lemurian senate, but that he would probably not have done so had he known that Poseidon would have awakened right then and set off the tidal wave that drove Piers out of the Sea of Time and shifted Indra southwest. It is then determined that the original trigger for Poseidon's arousal was Felix's lighting of the Mercury and Venus Lighthouses and the changes that their beacons began to have on the world. Conservato is appalled at Felix, for he believes that Alchemy was a force that would doom the world to destruction and war if its seal were ever broken, and not even Felix was certain that Alchemy wouldn't destroy the world the moment it would be released.

As for what Hydros intended Piers to investigate, Hydros shows a map of Weyard as it was in its ancient past, when all of civilization thrived and Alchemy reigned supreme, and then shows the map Lunpa had brought with him when he came to Lemuria a century ago - the continents on Lunpa's map are clearly smaller. Piers confirms that Lunpa's map is more accurate, but that the continents are now even smaller than that. This leads to the incredible realization that it is not just human civilization that has been waning; the physical being of Weyard itself was also declining, and would certainly wither toward an eventual doom if Alchemy is not restored in time. Weyard itself is analogous to a living being that has been deprived of its sustenance, which is the combined influence of the four lit Elemental Beacons and the power of Alchemy they provided.

Felix’s objective to light the remaining Elemental Lighthouses is shown to be more important than anyone had ever imagined, and they realize that, for the world's sake, chances would have to be taken with Alchemy's release, and so Hydros calls upon Felix's group to light Jupiter and Mars, and for Piers to accompany him on the remainder of his journey. Lunpa bestows upon Felix the rock-grinding Psynergy that would allow his group the means to make their way through the Great Western Sea. Conservato is outraged at all of this and remains insistent that the world is going to be fine the way it always had been, and assures Piers that the latter would be forever banished from Lemuria if he leaves to join Felix. But Piers stays true to his conviction and accompanies Felix and his party out of Lemuria and the Sea of Time. Using Lunpa's Psynergy to clear the rock barriers that had formed from the collision between Indra and lower Gondowan, the Adepts enter the Great Western Sea, where the remaining two Lighthouses await.

Jupiter Lighthouse
Two island continents are present in the Great Western Sea: Hesperia, to the north, which the Shaman's Rod is supposed to be brought to, and Atteka, to the south, which is the site of Jupiter Lighthouse. The Adepts touch down upon Hesperia first, and within the secluded Shaman Village they present the Shaman's rod to the village leader Moapa. Moapa is astounded because the rod is a national treasure that Shaman Village had originally traded to the settlement of Contigo in Atteka down south as an act of mutual goodwill, long ago in the ancient past, after the war between the two nations subsided when Alchemy was sealed. The Shamans are to give the bearer of the Rod the opportunity to earn back Contigo's treasure, the Hover Jade, an object containing Psynergy that allows an Adept to partially emulate the ancient Jupiter Clan's ability to fly. However, the Adepts have difficulty getting Moapa to accept them because they do not appear to have Contigo heritage, so they have to rely on passing off Sheba as from Contigo by having her demonstrate her Jupiter Adept powers. The Adepts earn the right to compete against Moapa in a race and competition of skill and power known as Trial Road, and at the end of it they finally earn the Hover Jade. The Adepts depart from Shaman Village and sail down to Atteka.

Felix and his group docks their ship on Atteka and pass through Contigo, which is the true hometown of Ivan and the place where Hammet was entrusted with Ivan as a baby by Ivan's now-deceased mother. Though the people of Contigo are not Jupiter Adepts, for the most part, their ancestors were the legendary tribe of Jupiter Adepts known as the Anemos, a people who could employ Psynergy to achieve flight. It was their power that the Hover Jade contained and provided to a limited degree, and it was those living in Contigo years ago that entrusted Hammet with the Shaman's Rod and the objective to use it to discover the Jade and thus satisfy an important requirement of one of several prophecies the Anemos handed down over the generations. Chief among these prophecies is one that holds that in the modern day and age, a pair of siblings directly descended from the Anemos that would have previously left Contigo would return, and that the Jupiter Lighthouse would once again be lit with the help of the power of the Anemos represented by the Jade. Another prophecy calls for the creation of a pair of wings attachable to a specific design of ship to be completed by the time the siblings' return and Jupiter's ignition are predicted to transpire, which is soon.

Felix, Jenna, Sheba, Piers, and Kraden enter Jupiter Lighthouse just northwest of Contigo and begin their Hover Jade-assisted climb through it. Late in their exploration, however, they find that Isaac and his companions Garet, Ivan, and Mia have entered the tower in pursuit of them, but Garet and Mia had fallen into a trap set up by none other than Karst and Agatio, who are also in the tower. The Mars Adepts introduce themselves as another pair of Fire Clan warriors hailing from the settlement of Prox in the world's frozen northlands, and convey to Isaac that they are out to satisfy a personal grudge against him for his murder of Menardi. The Mars Adepts also reveal that due to the seal placed on Alchemy, Prox has for a long time lied on the brink of extinction. Karst and Agatio reveal that they have a third Adept on their side, Alex, but it is only then that the Mars Adepts realize that Alex had disappeared as though to abandon the duo. Labeling him a traitor, they swear to exact their vengeance on him later, as they begin dueling Isaac and Ivan to the death.

Having watched all this, Felix and his companions rush up through the Lighthouse intending to save Isaac's life, despite the fact that they had been at odds on their respective quests up until now. Alex approaches him along the way, and expresses that he knew that Felix would not light Jupiter if his former childhood friend Isaac lost his life. Therefore, Alex heals Felix's group with his Psynergy so that Felix can save Isaac from Karst, and then light Jupiter later. Karst and Agatio defeat Isaac and Ivan and prepare to to kill them when Felix and his companions step in, and Felix forces the weakened Karst and Agatio to spare Isaac. The deal is made that Felix's group can do what they want with Isaac's group if Felix takes the Mars Star from Isaac, and then goes on to ignite Jupiter Lighthouse with the Jupiter Star. Isaac, despite his prior antagonism with Felix and despite his objective to prevent what Felix is trying to achieve, announces he will place his faith in Felix's judgement and willingly hands the Mars Star over. Felix and Piers accompany Karst and Agatio to the Lighthouse's aerie while the others remain behind to treat all of Isaac's party.

At the aerie of Jupiter Lighthouse, Felix casts the Jupiter Star into the well of Jupiter Lighthouse, and the Jupiter Beacon is established in a spectacular display. But then, Karst suddenly steals the Mars Star from Felix, and she and Agatio declare that as they will be able to light Mars Lighthouse themselves, they have no need for the Felix anymore, and will now execute him for his earlier betrayal. Karst and Agatio engage Felix and Piers in battle with the intent to kill, but both Jenna and Sheba arrive to help Felix, and a desperate fight for both sides takes place. Alex steps in to prevent one side in the conflict from finishing off the other. Even though Karst and Agatio paint him a traitor because of his abandonment of them earlier, Alex is able to convince them to permanently set aside their petty grudges and flee with him while they have both the opportunity and the Mars Star, because Isaac's party has regained its strength and is also headed toward the aerie. Karst and Agatio flee Jupiter Lighthouse with Alex on this note, and the Mars Adepts would part ways with Alex following this.

Isaac and his group arrives just as Felix's antagonists leave, and though a tense standoff briefly ensues between the two, they quickly come to agree that they should formally meet back in Contigo. In a lone, abandoned house in Contigo, which Ivan may later find out to be where he once lived in as a baby, Felix and Isaac's respective parties hold their meeting; Isaac is soon shocked to hear that the reason Felix wanted to help Saturos was because both of his and Jenna's parents, as well as Isaac's father Kyle, were alive and well at Saturos' hometown of Prox to the north, but would only be freed by Prox's denizens once the Lighthouses were ignited. Isaac did not know before that the disaster three years ago had been set off by Saturos and Menardi attempting to raid Sol Sanctum for the Stars, and that the duo of Mars Adepts subsequently took all four of the wounded victims of the disaster - Felix, his two parents, and Kyle - back with them to Prox.

Then Felix and Kraden proceed to recite what they had learned at Lemuria about the true relation of Alchemy to the world of Weyard - that its sealed state since the ancient past has gradually caused both the civilizations and cultures of the world and the physical state of the world itself to wither and wane, and that the world certainly reach a premature end in the future if Alchemy is not restored in time to re-sustain it. Isaac, of course, is enormously taken aback because he had been lead to believe that Alchemy would destroy the world anyway, a possibility Felix and Kraden could not deny. But despite having been tasked long ago to retrieve the Stars and stop Alchemy from being unleashed, Isaac emphatically agrees that the chance and risk Alchemy's release entails should be taken over the certainty of the world ending on its own, a decision he certainly would have not made long ago, since it entailed violating the sacred teachings of Vale.

Just then, Hama, who Isaac had previously met in Lama Temple, arrives and joins in on the conversation, and introduces herself as none other than Ivan's elder sister. Ivan and Hama are the Anemos siblings that their ancestors' prophecies foretold would return to Contigo when Jupiter Lighthouse was lit. When Ivan asks why Hama never told him of their true relation back in Lama Temple, Hama responds that if he had found out too early, he would have wanted to come to Contigo too early, and the course of fate would have aversely been affected. More importantly, Hama has come to announce the emergence of a sudden new threat to Weyard: Because the elemental beacons of Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter are alight, the element of Mars (fire and heat) is being suppressed on a global scale, and the temperatures of the world are suddenly and rapidly dropping. If Mars Lighthouse is not lit soon, Weyard will continue to grow colder until it will be plunged into ice. Hama uses her power of distant foresight and precognition to sense that even though Karst and Agatio are attempting to climb Mars Lighthouse themselves, they are certain to fall short of their goal, for a powerful force and will is present at the Lighthouse that does not want to see Mars ignited. She deems it necessary for both groups of Adepts to pool their strengths together, travel north to Mars Lighthouse, and finish the job themselves.

Felix and Isaac, having sorted out all of their differences and come to a true understanding, joins forces to form a final traveling party of eight Adepts - Felix, Isaac, Jenna, Garet, Ivan, Sheba, Mia, and Piers, and Kraden continues to accompany the newly formed group for the remainder of their journey. The combined group of Adepts return to Piers' ship, where they find that the metallic wings the people of Contigo were working on, the Wings of Anemos, had been built onto it as per the last of Anemos' prophecies. As the Adepts set sail for the remainder of their journey, Sheba somberly reveals why she was adamant about joining Felix on his quest after Venus Lighthouse had been lit: she knew from her life in Lalivero that she had a spectacular origin, allegedly dropping out of the sky and landing safely and living as an adopted child. As a Jupiter Adept, she believed that if she accompanied Felix to Jupiter Lighthouse, there she would have found some sort of clue about her place of birth or her true parentage, but did not find answers for any of these questions. Kraden consoles Sheba by explaining that he had never known the true comforts of a home or his parents either, because Babi had taken him away from the village of his birth when he was only four years of age to live the entirety of his life in Tolbi as a scholar. Unlike Kraden's case, Sheba at least had a more appropriate father figure.

Mars Lighthouse and the Golden Sun
The oceanic passage to the world's northern reaches above the Great Western Sea had been overtaken by a glacier that cannot be passed without being destroyed externally, and so the Adepts are forced to explore the Great Western Sea further for help. While exploring Magma Rock on the southwest part of Gondowan, they find uniquely handlable Magma Balls within its volcanic interior, and while visiting a settlement of dwarves excavating a site they call Loho at the western coast of upper Angara, the Adepts obtain an ancient war weapon called a Cannon. They return to the oceanic passage and fire the Magma Ball at the glacier to destroy it, and the Adepts are able to cross over into the northern reaches and thus the last legs of their journey.

Felix and Isaac make it to Prox, the hometown of Saturos, Menardi, Karst, and Agatio. The warm and welcoming people of Prox are certainly different from the vengeful and combative warriors Isaac and Felix had to deal with in their journeys, but the people were despairing themselves because the weather had become bleak and blizzard-ridden because of the phenomenon Hama described, and they all know that Prox would be destroyed in the future by the growing abyss to the north, the edge of the world beyond Mars Lighthouse. The chieftain of Prox, Puelle, first discovered that the edge of the world was gradually growing in size and suspected that the seal placed on Alchemy was the culprit. Prox originally sent emissaries to Vale to tell them of Prox's plight and try to convince them that Alchemy had to be restored to the world, but Vale's elders refused to listen to them and drove them out by force. Puelle and the Elder of Prox had to take it upon themselves to send Prox's two finest warriors, Saturos and Menardi, to raid Sol Sanctum, take the Elemental Stars they contained, and go on a journey to light the Lighthouses themselves and save their hometown. Isaac learns this is the truth behind the actions and motivations of the individuals that originally set him off on his journey.

Because Karst and Agatio had gone off to light the last Lighthouse themselves, Puelle had given the order that Kyle and the parents of Felix are to be let free should Felix return to Prox. However, none of the three adults are anywhere in the village, as though they had gone to Mars Lighthouse themselves. The Adepts meet with Puelle and the Elder, where it is immediately brought out how Isaac was the one that killed Saturos and Menardi, but the people of Prox quickly find it within themselves to forgive Isaac on the basis that he proved stronger than them and is now laboring to accomplish their original goal. It has become apparent to everyone that Karst and Agatio are not going to achieve Mars Lighthouse's activation, so Prox calls upon Felix and Isaac's party of Adepts to enter the Lighthouse, retrieve the Mars Star, and finish the job for Prox and for the future of Weyard.

The group of Adepts proceed to enter and begin climbing Mars Lighthouse. Along the way, they encounter and fight a pair of lumbering Flame Dragons. When the dragons are dispatched, they suddenly transform back into the dying forms of Karst and Agatio, who recall that while they were exploring Mars Lighthouse, a mysterious force materialized before them, gauged their souls, and determined that they lacked the will to go any farther before turning them into dragons, preventing them from activating the Mars Lighthouse with the Mars Star. Karst and Agatio willingly hand the Mars Star to Felix and entrust him with the remainder of their mission, in spite of their prior antagonism with Felix. Felix and the rest of the Adepts are forced to leave the dying pair behind to head toward the aerie of Mars Lighthouse, even as Karst and Agatio swear to themselves to stave off the embrace of death until they can see the light of the Mars Beacon.

At the aerie of Mars Lighthouse, Felix and Isaac's party find waiting for them none other than the Wise One, the guardian of Alchemy's seal and the entity that originally tasked Isaac and Garet with the recovery of the Elemental Stars. The Wise One demands to know why Isaac disobeyed his command and came to light the Mars Beacon, and Isaac and the rest of the Adepts respond with all that they had found out about how the world would eventually be eroded away if Alchemy was not released in time. The Wise One simply counters that if Alchemy is unleashed, mankind may well become the harbingers of Weyard's destruction themselves. Even after the Adepts proclaim that they would take it upon themselves to ensure that Alchemy not be used for evil, the Wise One simply states that it is an unshakable facet of human nature that one man would seek dominion over all, and then says that this is going to happen sooner than any of the Adepts could have expected.

The Wise One proceeds to notify the Adepts that Alex is currently climbing the peak of Mt. Aleph; Alex knows far more than any of them, knowing that once the four Elemental Beacons were alight, their lights would gather at Mt. Aleph and merge into a golden beam that would bathe Mt. Aleph's peak. This light, which the Wise One describes as the Golden Sun, is the beam of pure, realized Alchemy that would herald the return of the power of Alchemy to the world, and the limitless power that Alex would obtain by standing in its path had been his one true desire from the very start. The Adepts are appalled to realize that Alex had used them all, but Isaac nonetheless keeps to his conviction that the Mars Lighthouse has to be lit to save the world, even if doing so does satisfy Alex's goal for ultimate power.

The Adepts are ready to light Mars Lighthouse, but the Wise One claims that a "miracle" might happen that could prevent them from ignite the beacon's flame if they are unable to defeat it, and then disappears and summons a monster for them to battle: a colossal three-headed dragon of immense power. As the Adepts steel themselves for the battle, Kraden realizes what the dragon truly is, and desperately calls for the Adepts not to kill it, but the Adepts charge into their final battle nonetheless. The clash is the longest, most intense, and most harrowing the Adepts had ever experienced, but they are victorious in the end. Like what had happened with Karst and Agatio earlier, the defeated form of the dragon then transforms into the defeated forms of three separate people, and Jenna breaks down when she and her friends discover that they are none other than Jenna and Felix's parents and Isaac's father Kyle. The Adepts are aggrieved to find that they had been tricked into killing their own parents, in an act Kraden described as the Wise One's final trap, and they are unable to heal the adults with their drained Psynergy reserves.

When the other Adepts curse the Wise One for the pain he had caused, Isaac suddenly calls for his companions to collect themselves and reveals that he had already known what he was about to do before he even raised his sword. However, Isaac went through with the incredibly difficult decision to slay his own father so that the world would be saved, and everyone else, even Jenna, finds it within themselves to agree that what they did was for all of Weyard, not themselves, and their parents would understand their decision to defy the Wise One in order to prevent the world's destruction and save millions. And so, Felix casts the Mars Star into the well of Mars Lighthouse, and the Mars Beacon is established.

All of a sudden, the Adepts receive a form of long-distance telepathic communication from Hama, who passes on the message that now that all of the Lighthouses are lit, the four towers and Mt. Aleph are going to begin the automated process that would give rise to the Golden Sun. All of the lighthouses and Mt. Aleph are going to expel a lot of energy, making them dangerous for people to be near, which is why the Wise One is appearing to people in their dreams and warning them to take refuge; obviously, the Adepts wonder why he would do that considering what he did to them, but Hama announces that one's actions did not always reflect one's true intentions, and that the Wise One has a caring heart. She warns them to evacuate Mars Lighthouse immediately, but the Adepts don't even have time to decide whether to take their parents' bodies with them or leave them behind, for the Mars Beacon quickly engulfs them and the entire aerie in its energy.

Balance to the elements is restored with the activation of Mars, bringing back warmth and heat to the world and ending the blizzard that had plagued Prox, and the combined influence of the four beacons returns Alchemy to the world and resustains the world's life force, allowing for the landmasses of the world to grow back in size over time. The wave of energy that the Mars Beacon expels during the process infuses the bodies of everyone on the aerie because they are all Adepts, and this includes the bodies of the three parents, whose life forces are miraculously renewed by the energy. The Adepts bring themselves and the three adults out of Mars Lighthouse and back to Prox, where the people of Prox proceed to nurse the adults back to health.

When the Golden Sun had temporarily formed from the merging of the energies of the four beacons to bathe the peak of Mt. Aleph in a beam that was the purest manifestation of Alchemy's power, Alex had made it to the peak in time to stand in the center of the beam of light. As the power of the Golden Sun passed through his body to infuse Mt. Aleph below, he gained great power and near-limitless life, and his grand plan succeeded. Alex finds, however, that he is not as all-powerful as he originally envisioned, and the Wise One suddenly materializes before him and reveals that he does not command full mastery of the building blocks of reality. Believing the Wise One is trying to anger him, Alex uses his newfound power to telekinetically push the Wise One back and gloat, but the Wise One drives Alex into the ground and renders him immobile with a single, powerful telekinetic burst.

An aghast Alex demands to know who had robbed him of his dream, and the Wise One proceeds to explain that this was set up long ago; when the Wise One awoke from his slumber during Saturos and Alex's invasion of the Elemental Star Chamber, he predicted Alex's plan and set up a precautionary measure against it. The Wise One had imbued the Mars Star that was in Isaac's possession at the time with a mysterious property, which in the present had ended up causing the Mars Beacon to imbue some of the power it would have contributed to the forming Golden Sun into Isaac's body rather than Alex's. Now that Mt. Aleph has been infused with the Golden Sun, it and all of the landscape surrounding it begin to change and sink, and the Wise One announces that Alex will be drawn into the earth along with the mountain forever if he does not flee. But alas, Alex can not even move, and the Wise One concludes that Alex now sees the limits of his power and may not survive what is coming up. The Wise One's final statement to Alex before the mountain is drawn into the heart of the earth is that, if Alex survives, they may meet again someday.

Felix, Isaac, Kraden, and the rest of the Adepts are thanked by Puelle, the Elder, and the rest of Prox for saving their town, for saving all of Weyard, and for effectively bringing about a new age where Alchemy may once again drive the advancement of civilization. Isaac is personally concerned, though, about what may have happened to Vale and those that live in it, including his mother Dora, due to all the energy that was being released at Mt. Aleph during the return of Alchemy. As everyone boards the Lemurian Ship bound for home, Isaac also ponders why the Wise One did everything he did, such as make them fight and nearly kill their own parents, when they got revived later on by the Mars Beacon anyway. Kraden is certain that the Wise One knew in advance that the parents would be revived by the Mars Beacon, so he hazards a guess with great implications: The Wise One's true intention was to test Isaac and his friends as individuals capable of making difficult decisions. Alchemy is a power that could allow for great deeds, but also for great evils, so the release of Alchemy into the world entailed a great new responsibility for Isaac and the Adepts to take upon themselves: to watch over a world that is now likely to go down the path of war and strife. Because Isaac was willing to sacrifice what was most dear to his heart to complete his quest for the greater good, he had risen to the Wise One's challenge.

Isaac and Felix's companions, Kyle, Felix and Jenna's parents, and Kraden finally reached the last destination on their trip back to Vale, but were horrified by what they saw: Mt. Aleph and the surrounding it were effectively gone, and Vale was completely erased. Despair quickly overtook everyone, who presumed that all of Vale's residents had perished when Alchemy was released, and Isaac and Garet were hit the hardest emotionally, since they believed that Dora and all of Garet's family were now gone forever. But all of a sudden, the townspeople of Vale revealed themselves to be okay; Garet's family explained that the Wise One had evacuated them out of Vale before the town and everything around Mt. Aleph were destroyed. Dora welcomed both Isaac and Kyle home; as they embraced, everyone celebrated in front of where Vale used to be.

And so ends the story of how Isaac and his companions, heretofore known as the Warriors of Vale, came to unleash the "Golden Sun event" on the world of Weyard.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

 * See the extensive plot writeup of Dawk Dawn



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 ended up aging at a slower rate and receiving a somewhat longer lifespan, making their adult forms all appear somewhat younger than normal adults - even Kraden remains alive and travels the world, despite being over seventy during the previous quest. The world has changed; the Golden Sun has caused the continents to grow in size and expand, and the landscape has 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 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. 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 it continues to violently erupt. Isaac and Garet also need it to keep a more effective 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, where the former Valean refugee Patcher had founded a settlement for himself and other refugees of Vale. 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 so that Matthew and Karis, who their fathers have been training so that they may assume the duty to look after the world in their parents' stead, can obtain necessary experience.

Isaac and Garet let Matthew and Karis lead the way and fight wild monsters on their own as they cross through the Tanglewood, even though the emergence of nightfall causes the energies of darkness permeating the woods to make the 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 an unconscious Tyrell lying near it as well. The four are attacked by an enormous, sentient plant monstrosity growing near the vortex, and after dispatching it through a long battle, 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 bird mammoth in size 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 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, where he can help them 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, and head toward and arrive at Carver's Camp pastthe 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 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 Adepts travel southwest toward the recently discovered Konpa Ruins in what remains of Lamakan Desert following the Golden Sun event. 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 device they have never seen before. 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 menacing 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 at a later date they will rejoin and resume their quest for the Mountain Roc feather 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 in clear terms 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 his traveling group of Adepts, Matthew passes through the ancient ruins of Harapa, which people have discovered and adopted as a settlement. They then head toward Passaj, a town based on a lower peak at the bottom left end of the Khiren Mountains, where they hope to find answers about the possible route across the mountains. After climbing the mountain trail to Passaj and entering the mountain settlement, Rief immediately takes the others to the mechanical platform at Passaj's mountain peak where Kraden believed lied the key to crossing over. Visible in the distance is the higher peak of the 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 it is that 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 also 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 might know how to survive the Ouroboros: the prince of Ayuthay himself, Amiti. To reach Ayuthay and Amiti, Baghi gives Matthew something he will need to open a secret passage into its castle. Matthew's group departs Passaj and travels south to visit Ayuthay, but the Kaochan soldiers occupying the kingdom walls above-ground state clearly that they cannot let Matthew pass unless he bears proof from King Wo that he has joined Wo's army to assist in the invasion.

The Adepts decide to pay a visit to Kaocho in the east 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 from her name that she is affiliated with Blados. The Adepts find that Wo wants them to 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 they 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, 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. Matthew's group arrives at Ayuthay and gains admittance by presenting it Wo's letter to the two Kaochan generals leading the occupation, Ku-Tsung and Ku-Embra, and then use what Baghi 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. 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 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.

Paithos is impressed that they found the Insight Glass, but 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, so 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'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, and they proceed to head 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 it is that 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 demonic that originally waited for a foolish man to free her so as to escape her gemstone prison, and then proceeded to hide in the seemingly unreachable part of the ruins at Harapa. With the Ice Queen Stone in play, the fire-based Forge can be reversed to forge fire into ice, which will bolster the otherwise fluffy zol clouds, so the Adepts return to Harapa. The town has also been rejuvenated by the water that flowed from Ayuthay, and this gives the Adepts the leverage 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, and obtain the capacity to freeze puddles of water.

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, finally ready to make the crossing over the Khiren mountains into the north region of Angara. 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) while the tower looses much energy, 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 from the great circular shadow cast upon on much of the entire northern hemisphere of Weyard, attacking and killing soldiers and civilians alike. Kraden takes everyone to Belinsk's pier, where Briggs has moored a noticeably different 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. 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; Tuaparang suddenly flies overhead, and deposits hordes of soldiers from its underside onto the Apollo Lens below, revealing that Tuaparang's plot all along was to obtain the Apollo Lens for themselves, the greatest weapon of the ancient world. 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, 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 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 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 proceeds sacrifices himself to save his sister and everyone else by making 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, Sveta has been crowned the new queen of Morgal, and the beastmen caught within the light energy of the Apollo Lens have been endowed with the newfound ability to employ the element of 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 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 continues to fly far above ground, and Alex remains at large as well. 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...?