Part 12: The Ruins of Uru (Part 2)

After surviving the onslaught of Craymen's forces, Edge and Roderick further explore the Deep North section of Uru, and soon find a strange glowing pyramid atop a nearby island.

The underground facilities have been sealed with three keys. To gain entry, you must collect all three Protect Keys...and deactivate the seal...the controls to the guardian..."Drenholm" have been deactivated...Use caution when unlocking seals...

Edge: Unlocking seals? What does that mean?

Yeah...I didn't even know they needed keys.

Regardless, after a bit more exploring, Edge finds Protect Key #1 hidden in an alcove.

(A Protect Key? So this is a Protect Key. The ruins said if I unlock the seals with the keys, I'll understand the purpose of this place...)

Edge wonders for a moment if the name "Protect Key" means anything important, but figures there's nothing else to do but press on. With Protect Key #1 in hand, Edge heads back through the tunnel and points Roderick towards the ruin on the southwest.

While on the way there...

Ready all weapon systems. Let's kill this dragon!

Crew: Roger.

Another ambush! With experience from the previous battle, Edge quickly dispatches the Annihilator...

only to come face to face with a squadron of Punishers. These ships are armed with smaller versions of the Homing Mines used by Craymen's flagship, but they take a moment to charge up after acquiring a target - so by charging up the gauges in the safe zone behind them and swinging around to the front, Edge is able to exploit their weak point with his gun and quickly take them down.

After the first three are destroyed, another one shows up, this time escorted by a squadron of Rogues.

How the heck did these guys get on that ship!?

Once destroyed, the attack stops for the moment, and Edge is left to wonder...These ruins, are they linked with the Tower? With the way cleared, nothing is left to stop Edge from using Protect Key #1 on the ruin.

Protection Level lowered to Level 1...

(So that's how it works...one of the seals has been broken. Something may have changed. I've got to get back to where I found the key.)

By the time Edge is finished breaking the fourth wall and makes it back up to the Deep North, the sun has begun to set. I wonder what's different... Edge muses.

!? Hey! The black ruins!

Which obviously weren't above water before, even though I didn't screencap them. So sue me.

Other than that, not much has changed - except for the fact that Protect Key #2 is now available, hidden in a similar alcove to Protect Key #1.

Back to the south and heading towards ruin #2, Edge is (predictably) ambushed for a third time. Though Craymen's ships remain numerous, Edge and Roderick tear through them with ease, gaining two levels from a single fight.

(Just as I thought...They're trying to prevent me from breaking the seal...)

Determined to discover the mystery behind this place, Edge confirms Protect Key #2 with the second ruin, when suddenly, the massive structure begins to move!

Electricity visibly gathers in towards the strange piece on the front of the relic...

and is fired from the ruin in a tight, menacing beam. As the energy travels across the expanse of water, Edge's stomach drops as he realizes that the two ruins are actually pointed right at each other...

a split second before the beam hits directly in the center of the opposing ruin's face.

The energy seems to activate the ruin, and pieces that looked like they had been fixed in place for millenia are moving and rotating like they were designed to do so. Back by the second ruin, Edge and Roderick watch with horrified fascination as the being INSIDE the ruin begins to stir and shake,

throwing off the outer material as if it were an eggshell...

and rising from the water to expose its true form.

Its counterpart soon follows suit, and as the two massive structures - now *very much* alive - begin to move toward each other, Edge is snapped out of his horrified trance by a sudden sound...

Edge knows that laugh...

It's that crazy fucker, Zastava, who shot him back at the excavation site!

Zastava: Thanks for activating the Guardians of Uru!! It made my job easier. Soon you'll be reunited with all your dead friends. Imagine a kid like you hunting Lord Craymen. Now, that's funny! I'll be laughing...

All the way to your grave!

(Dude was seriously laughing like crazy between every line - I probably didn't put enough lolz in there!)

With his laughter-ridden speech complete, Zastava hops back in the seat of his ship and takes off.

Unbidden, Roderick unleashes a lock-on volley...

that twists through the air...

bending toward the maniac...

which he dodges at the last second.

Edge tries to take aim with his gun as Zastava speeds away, but he is thrown off by the creature from the first ruin passing closely overhead. Edge has no choice but to watch helplessly as the Guardian Drenholm finishes awakening...

by combining its two halves together.

The battle begins with Edge trailing the huge monster. Attacking its rear doesn't appear to hurt it very much...ditto with the front. However, those apparatuses on each side look almost like engines, propelling the beast forward. Before Edge can attack that area in earnest,

the beast's upper half shoots a long blue bolt of electricity straight into the air, polarizing the clouds above and causing huge shafts of green energy to slam into the water all around it. There is no place to hide, and Roderick's shrill scream of pain echoes in the evening air.

Once the attack ends, Edge vows revenge on the creature and takes aim from the right side,

destroying the 'engine' there. Circling around to the left, he unloads again, destroying the port engine as well and immobilizing Drenholm.

That causes the top piece to separate from its brother in an effort to continue to damage its attacker...

but exposing the Guardian's weak points in the process.

Our heroes' moment of success is short-lived, as the devious upper half of the Drenholm fires its Eye Beam, which does no damage but freezes Roderick in mid-air, unable to move.

It then fires a group of Lightning Needles at dragon and rider, which hover around our heroes...

and are used to repeatedly reflect Drenholm's Thunderstrike attack across the dragon's body.

Quickly healing the STOP condition Drenholm created with the Eye Beam, Edge moves Roderick out of danger and watches as a subsequent Thunderstrike bounces off the Lightning Needles in vain, causing the reflectors to sink back into the ocean. Realizing what he must do, Edge waits on the protected side of the beast, healing up and charging up the gauges. Once Drenholm fires the Eye Beam for a second time, Edge immediately heals the STOP condition...and waits some more. Once the Guardian fires the Lightning Needles at their current location, Edge quickly dodges Roderick out of harm's way and back behind the beast where the weak points await. While the top half uselessly fires the Thunderstrike at the empty Needles, Roderick pours volley after volley into the bottom half's weak point, eventually destroying the ancient beast and causing it to disintegrate.

smarter than I thought. They must have known what I was trying to do, so they set a trap that would activate the guardian when I broke the seal!

The second seal is broken. I probably activated something on the other side. Maybe at the Black Ruins...)