Part 29: Let's Ruin Ruid.

It's a bit of a hike from Marke, but by now it's not that bad a journey. Just head straight east from the village, and once you pass two lakes, go south a bit and you'll see a mountain range. Just stick close to the mountains and you'll find Ruid.



And there were go- wait, what's that huge thing in the background? Well, if you recall, there have been multiple reports of a "metal castle" that Taben's and Ghaleon have been building.






Yikes! Place is swarming with guards. Well, there's no way to get but through the front. I guess it's too much to hope not to be caught, so let's just do this!



Or they don't really care. Hell, you can talk to the guards and they'll quite happily describe the details of their evil plan.


"You haven't heard of it? Have you been living in a cave? The Grindery is Ghaleon's mobile mechanical castle!"


"Now he can use her power to raise himself to ruler of the world! Truly, now Ghaleon deserves the title of Magic Emperor!"


"I think he'll attack those places with the Grindery first."

Ghaleon's been busy, and he's got a lot more planned. Unfortunately, the guards aren't as forthcoming on Ghaleon's whereabouts, but the workers here are.


"You should be able to get to Ghaleon through the tower."

But before we run into battle, let's get a bit more info.


"Ghaleon says if we don't work hard, he'll send the Vile Tribe to kill our families!"

Like in Talon, all the workers here are slaves.


"Life has no value here. It turns my stomach!"



Oh there you are Working Designs. Wondering where you were.

_{It's a Logan's Run reference. Yeah, I had to Wiki it.}

Regardless, they can give us a bit more detail on the Grindery.


"But people have called him looney. They said it'd never work. Besides, they thought magic was more efficient!"

That's... oddly prosaic. Especially considering that in the remake, the Grindery definitely has a more fantastical power source. Then again, considering that Ghaleon straight up killed all the Dragons (well, other than... the last one) it makes sense that he'd consider alternate power sources.

In addition to technical details, we can ask about some of Ghaleon's other captives.


"In order to allow her to escape, a girl named Luna provided a diversion."

And also they talk about silly nonsense.


"I don't care how much magic power he's got, Ghaleon can't erase the fact that he looked like a dork in his school portrait!"


"We're taking bets on whether Ghaleon's bald."

People can be so mean-spirited sometimes Anyway enough of this! Let's go!


"Stop foolin' around here! Get back to work at the factory, or I'll have yer heads!"

Nah, I was just planning on going right on in. That's cool, right? Cool.



I think the best guard in the whole game has been the Lytonian guarding Myght's Tower. That's kind of sad.

So... this is Taben's Tower.



These are the new enemies appearing in the tower. The, uh, tank with a axe is the Devestator(sic). They're a high defense, low magic defense sort of enemy, although Alex and Kyle are strong enough to pierce through its defense. The decisively reptilian and non-Batmanesque Dark Knight have three attacks. That's all I can say about them.

Here are the noteworthy bits of treasure:





And here is the fancy new spell I learned:



Charm Defense lowers encounter rate. Nice!

Okay, you've probably guessed by now that this is not an interesting dungeon. It's very short, relatively straightforward, and the enemies aren't very hard. So let's take some time to talk about this in the remakes.

Ruid is still Taben's headquarters in the remake, but it's different in execution. For on, all of Ruid is a dungeon; there is no "town" area. It's also much longer and harder. And something very interesting happens.





Did I say interesting? I mean stupid. If you recall, in the remakes Nash betrays you shortly before you fly to the Frontier, and Nash is not with you for the bulk of the Frontier. This is the point the party finally catches up to Nash and beats some sense into him.



Man, I could just look at that image all day.

Sorry, got sidetracked. Anyway, since this is not version where Mia smacks the smug off of Nash's face, let's just zip right to the end.






"Oh, so you're looking for Ghaleon, huh? My tanks will put an end to that! Ha, ha, ha, ha!"




So we're finally pitted up against some of Taben's terrifying mechanical beasts! Well, I guess we've already fought some, but I think Taben might have been phoning it in the day he put "tank with axe" into mass production. These guys are bit more threatening. After, they attack you with...



Armpit farts!

In all seriousness, this isn't much of a boss. They can do a bit damage to you, but your new spell, Dragon Quake, wrecks their shit.



They have less than 2000 HP a piece, so full on magic assault kills them fairly quick. They also still do take some damage from regular ol' attacks. They fall without incident.


"But that doesn't matter... my masterwork, the Grindery, is now operational! No one can stop it, now!"

Oh shit! Quick we need to... walk down. Because the warp spell is deactivated here for some goddamn reason.



Along the way, Alex learns the very last spell he'll ever learn. Light Rain, which is just another run-of-the-mill target-all attack spell, is 5 MP cheaper than Alex's weakest Dragon spell. That is how pricey Dragon Spells are.

But that's not important right now! We've got to stop the Grindery!



Well, if nothing else, it shouldn't be hard to track.


: It could be just about anywhere by now...

Or it could lead to a dead end. Back to Ruid to search for clues.





...okay, let's ask not-stupid people.


"I wonder where Ghaleon is going to get a steady supply for it?"

Hm... good point! Let's think this through. We have seen pools of clear before, right by-



Or the game can just flat-out tell us. All right, let's warp back to Talon then and see if the Grindery has rolled by there yet.



That would be a "yes." Damn, it looks like he took half of the town out!



That's some consolation, I guess.


"There's no hope for us. We're as doomed can be... I must say."
: Ghaleon will crush us all without an ounce of remorse or even an afterthought. One thing I learned when I was his apprentice... he can be very cold.


"What's next? A Death Star?"

But it's a small consolation.

You know, in all of this, I think we forget the actual human tragedy.





You said it Nall! Let's get that megalomaniacal madman!



Suddenly, there's a big rumbling!












: Now Goddess Althena, heed my command! Turn your pure light into blazing fire and decimate all who oppose me!









...



All right, no flippant comment. Let's get this bastard right now.



Wait, wha-


"It's protected by the power of Goddess Althena herself! Nothing can stop me from ruling the world!"

Oh. Guess it would make sense that it'd be protected.

And as our hero flashes in and out of consciousness, he sees...