Part 26: Ronan's Conviction

Last time, Bergus got kidnapped and subsequently rescued by traversing the best dungeon of the game... even in spite of the glaringly obvious problem of it (that it shouldn't have worked). The reward for this? Several villagers dying as Inoa burned... Bonaire and Myra weren't the only fatalities either... just the only ones you can see as you fight off the Murgg...



At least they didn't cut corners on the visual effects of the fire... not that it's much consolation for many, many deaths but still...



Rumi: Oh, Bergus! I knew you would be all right. You've always been a fighter... Thank you, Alundra. I can never repay you, but I promise to help you whenever I can.



: I realise you just returned from a long journey, but can we begin the meeting at once?
: No.
: All right...We shall wait a short while longer.

Saying "Yes" there causes the next cutscene to start, and the total death toll from the event to not be known. Like I said, Bonaire and Myra weren't the only casualties...





Bonaire, Myra, Elene, Sierra, Meade, Wendell... all from the one event... and four of those had been saved before; half of them by Alundra in some form, and two by Meia.

Well, time for the giant scene of plot... or, at least the version of it that only contains important things.



: I believe that we must combine our thoughts into a single, powerful whole.
: Yes. I agree. We must combine our minds to form a single powerful thought!




: The reason for all the nightmares... and the Murg attacks.
: Are you prepared to betray our gods as the others have? To cast aside your very faith itself?
Kisha: The gods do not exist to watch over us anymore. All we have been left with is a malicious tormentor!
Lutas: If there really were gods, they would never do such terrible things to us.
Yuri: If this is how the gods repay us for our prayer and devotion...



: Why are not satisfied with prayer and simple faith in the powers above and their infinite wisdom? With the knowledge that the gods are watching over us and guiding us? Why should the gods have to prove themselves time and again?
: We have been praying to a demon in the guise of a god of light. That demon, Melzas, seeks to destroy us. It has become an undeniable fact...
: When we burned our idols and stopped our worship... Melzas took away our ability to create.
: Instead of that, the gods have given you the power to control your dreams!



: You think that Melzas became angry with us when we stopped praying to him. He punished us by taking away our power to create. But that is not what really happened. When we prayed to our statues and idols, Melzas was strong. When the statues were burned, people stopped worshipping.



: Perhaps he wondered what would happen if we started praying again... But, instead of Melzas, we prayed to a new god? Melzas was...afraid. Frightened that we might create a god in his place. Afriad that he would perish and be forgotten. To preserve himself, Melzas had to make certain that we kept praying to him alone.



: Instead, he went into our hearts and made us believe we had lost them. Melzas is nothing more than a vulutre picking at the exposed remans of our vulnerable spirits! When we thought our power to create had vanished, our bodies and minds reacted. We gained the ability to control our own dreams. That made Melzas even more fearful of us!



: And that is when he decided he had to kill the most powerful of us.
: To think it was our own god who caused our nightmares...a destroyer of our own fabrication. Terrifying!



: This is a choice we all have to make. Continue to worship Melzas as a god... Or, challenge him with the powers we've amassed at the risk of our eternal souls! I know that I need some to decide. I think we all do. But time is a luxury which we cannot afford. Tomorrow at noon, we shall take a vote and decide our everlasting destiny. I think we should all get some rest. You are all welcome to stay here, even if your homes are still standing.



I think Ronan's talking to Alundra here, for obvious reasons, but he could be talking to Beaumont due to that little speech (nothing compared to Meia's wall of HERE IS THE PLOT though).



: The greatest battle lies before us. It is the battle with our legacy...with ourselves!

Night falls again now, for the last time, and amazingly this time nothing happens.



There's a small amount of gameplay at this point but there's almost nothing of interest to see. Considering how badly the village was burning it's in relatively good shape all things.



Though, if you didn't get the pass for the Riverside bar before you're outta luck.



Oh, let's go see what he's up to then. Nothing bad can come out of that!



: Before you came, we all prayed to the gods. Then you arrived and we become to die gruesome, horrid deaths as our gods turned their favour from us! Our relationship with the gods has been destroyed, but... it can yet be repaired. The gods will forgive us if only we offer your soul in sacrifice...



Kisha: I have never been more certain of anything.
: But we know Ronan despises Alundra. What's to stop him from trying to harm him...?

Somehow, the door has been locked since we entered the building. By magic apparently. Oh, and something else happened during that scene.



We're in another dimension now... dunno how that one happened.

: Lord Melzas! Give ear to the supplication of your humble servant. I beg of you, oh great one, to give me power to destroy the demon that is invading our dreams!



That's... uh.. that's definitely something alright.

Demon Ronan: Oh...Hahahahaha! Now THIS is more like it! I shall not let you down, wise Lord Melzas! He has taken pity on your miserable soul. How so? Well, with this beautiful body, I shall slay you so quickly that you will feel no pain. You must be so happy... Huh? What is the matter, child? You seem... unsettled... Are you... frightened? How positively endearing! But it is much too late for fear, Alundra. Come now...step forth to receive your eternal judgement!

The Second Follower: The Priest.

So, Ronan... your "supposed to" use the Willow Bow's charge attack to shoot through the barrier and smack him but that's boring and takes a while (or smack him around with the Steel Flail which takes even longer). The alternative is to hit him with 6 castings of the Fire Book which is far faster, far easier and takes less than a minute... and, yet, it appears that hardly anyone seems to be aware of this fact. Even using the Legend Sword is slower than that because you have to fight through the barrier every time you damage him. His attacks can be pretty lethal if he ever gets a chance to pull them off, but there's not much reason for him to do so unless you time something so badly that it doesn't outlast his invincibility period (whenever he's hunched over). On the plus side, he's another boss that gets his own music. It's not as good as Zazan's though. You don't even need 3 Magic Seeds to kick his ass easily; two is sufficient but requires both a Magic Elixir and Wonder Essence.

In short: REVENGE!



Oh, and Ronan's dead now. Kind of anti-climactic wasn't it?



: Good has triumped over evil! Why are you saddened?
: Because Ronan was just a tool. A pawn in the cruel game Melzas plays with our lives...

This segues into another long cutscene but I think one of those is enough for now.

Next time: the Seventh Crest.