THANKS FOR LETTING US INTO BELINSK CASTLE ALEX, YOU'RE A PAL

-basically everyone inside is privy to our plan because fuck these five teenagers Sveta has with her in particular
-we get told by a guard that if we want to save Hou Ju first, we go right, because this is how prisoners work. I prefer saving a relatively innocent girl to a pirate's son, so whatever, we do that
-Volechek follows us and opens the jail for us, since we activated Luna Tower. this is so weird and nonsensical
-and because this random appearance wasn't DRAMATIC AS HELL enough, Kraden chooses this time to appear too, right down to a shaded portrait over his text boxes for MAXIMUM DRAMA
-y'know if Kraden was in league with Volechek that would explain a lot and also raise a ton of questions
-he's not, but Kraden visited Volechek's father and advised him on how to obtain a roc feather of his own. I'm not quite sure why this civil conversation is happening here. this is the least effective jailbreak I've ever seen
-and I GM a game about space pirates. I've seen someone start a jailbreak with a tantrum asking to see her parents
-when Kraden brings up Luna Tower, Volechek brings up the point that they're under attack on all sides and need some kind of edge, which okay fair, Bilibin and Sana haven't really been portrayed as bastions of morality
-Sveta argues that allying with the Tuaparang is a terrible idea to which Volechek chickens out and leaves
-Kraden notes that time is of the essence and refuses to explain how Luna Tower isn't a weapon like Volechek believes (or what took him so damn long), ordering us to hurry up, free Eoleo, and GTFO
-he also orders the Sanans with us to flee Belinsk in particular. Ryu Kou defies him on account of his loyalty to Matthew (previously displayed: never). we counter with "but your sister", proven to be as effective against him as "would you kindly" against that one guy

OKAY WE'RE GONNA GO SAVE EOLEO AT GROUND ZERO I GUESS

-"Arcanus? Is that what he's calling himself now?" I still like that Kraden thinks Alex's new name is stupid
-nobody in Belinsk listens to our warnings about Luna Tower. fine, your loss
-we smack Eoleo down, breaking his cage, and loot the oil drops they were gonna use to boil him on our way out
-Eoleo's first action upon seeing us is to start insulting all of us. kind of a bad first impression, but eh, we kinda deserve it
-however, when he sees Kraden, he remembers him from back in his kid days, bringing up that Kraden doesn't really age as much as he used to
-all this talking bought Luna Tower enough time to do the foreshadowing thing from the Belinsk Ruins
-okay enough talking RUN NOW
-there's creatures of some kind corralled into the opera house, and there's also lots of screams and disorder going on in the city in general
-Volechek heads into the opera house, bringing his soldiers with him
-there they face a HAUNTED ARMY
-but this was all telepathically sent to Sveta, who's right outside the castle. guess we're not dropping Eoleo off yet, we gotta go save Volechek
-I mean... we could also do the job we first had. drop off Eoleo at this point and then GTFO back to the Goma Plateau, but Volechek seems like a nice guy, activating this doomsday device and working with Alex and the Tuaparang, we should do things to help him
-at least this time they do a VERY good job of setting the scene here, with forcing us back through Belinsk's central square where everyone is terrified and doing their best to survive. there's also new enemies with new battle music here
-this is slightly ruined by the Djinni acquisition here, where we go bother a sleeping guy to make tea and he stumbles and creates a puddle in his living room we can freeze

TIME FOR A REFERENCE TO A COMMERCIAL

-so y'know how advertising is occasionally inaccurate, right
-well back when Golden Sun the first was released stateside, it had a commercial that was way over the top and also not at all related to the game, featuring an opera house where a bunch of fantastical stuff happened, like the violins becoming bows with flaming arrows, gargoyles coming to life, et cetera
-well, Dark Dawn makes a callback to that very commercial and retroactively makes it canon with the protective spirit of the opera house, Crystallux
-in the commercial, it concluded with the chandelier becoming a dragon, and the story goes that a dragon liked the music in Belinsk's opera house so much it became a protective spirit
-anyway we're gonna get a new summon now at the conclusion of this vignette, where the little girl who befriended the dragon dies very tragically. I mean we didn't know her name but still
-this fast forwards us to the graveyard because even during this messy cataclysm we have the time to bury her and pay respects etc. I mean Eoleo's still with us and needs to be returned to his dad but screw that guy anyway
-also Volechek was nowhere to be seen, although the corpses of his soldiers were

UGH FINE I GUESS WE'LL FLEE BELINSK NOW

-as we flee, Kraden develops a theory that the reason the monsters appeared and attacked so suddenly is because of the shadow of Luna as triggered by Luna Tower, which okay, fair enough
-but a thought occurs: wasn't Luna in Weyard basically the city of the Anemos as it took off? Sheba's described as falling from the moon, after all. makes one wonder if Anemos is at all linked to this "evil energy" concept Kraden is just now stealing from your average fanfic
-but long story short, Belinsk is now in perfect conditions for monsters to thrive, or even spontaneously generate. worse, anywhere the shadow of the eclipse reaches is in these conditions too
-for once, Tyrell aptly sums up the result here, as the end of the world, and leave it to Kraden to punish the dumbass for being right for once in his life
-I know you were "busy" for a lot of what just happened Kraden, but we kind of engineered the death of Belinsk and possibly countless other cities all across Angara
-only after all this exposition do we notice Briggs' ship docked at port, with the man himself taking a casual bath in his blood at the front bow. Eoleo responds reasonably and rushes in, only to get attacked by monsters almost immediately, so we save him since eh, may as well
-everyone mourns the passing of this useless asshole who arguably saved our lives by virtue of providing us a ship to sail now that he clearly doesn't need it
-at least Eoleo's mourning seems very heartfelt, right down to the burial at sea and the shipboard cannon salute. he also swears vengeance on the people that brought about this calamity, and pledges to join us in our cause to that end. we, uh... presumably told him that we basically started the Alchemy Dynamo? anyone? no?
-I mean I won't knock it, he's probably by far the most developed character here even if our party has had piss-all reason to actually help him, and I welcome him to the team as a Mars Adept that isn't Tyrell, but we should probably figure out exactly to what degree everyone is culpable before we start vowing vengeance
-Ryu Kou personally started it, we let him in, and apparently Alex and the Tuaparang guided us all to do exactly that. Volechek factors into things somehow, we're really not sure

WE GOT A BOAT NOW SUCKAS

-while the boat does have actual crew, everyone is mystified at the Anemos-level repairs to it, which came out of nowhere and render the entire vessel near-on automatic. p. sure this never gets explained
-as we set off, we hear a bestial howl from Belinsk Castle, which Sveta knows to be Volechek. okay he's alive whatever don't care
-he issues a telepathic apology to her for being used by the Tuaparang, so hey, good on him for figuring out not to be a villain for two seconds
-he also throws us the Blue Orb from the top of the castle, claiming he stole it from Blados and it might be useful against them. I don't recall it ever being used, but hey, free orb
-and then he says he's staying in Belinsk come hell or high water. he doomed his people through misjudgment, he's not going to abandon them while he draws breath, it's honestly pretty noble of him
-anyway, we're on a boat now! we have no idea how to fix this brand new calamity!
-Kraden uses this time to boldly assess the Blue Orb and figure out literally nothing useful, then tells us "go figure out your own damn solution you whippersnappers"
-no wonder Nowell literally fell off the face of the story, with you as her sole caretaker, you quack
-whatever, Matthew's hyped for the prevailing strat of "less talk more rock"
-time to go get Sveta and Eoleo proper equipped, I guess. also sail the sea