I've done some levelling, so let's scale Mt. Ordeals!

But first, we pay a visit to a Chocobo Forest and meet with everyone's favourite rabbit.


So Recordingway has become Campingway! He also pays us for all our tents, which I was more than happy to give, and made a tidy profit.

We leave the Chocobo Forest and ascend up to the entrance of Mt. Ordeals. Lo and behold, yet another magical wall.



Thankfully, Palom freezes the wall without a sweeping emotional dialogue. Instead we're treated to Porom thwacking Palom for his arrogance.



The next thing we know, we're being treated to a 'meanwhile, in the villain's lair...' cutscene featuring Golbez, Kain and Scarface. No wait, Scarmiglione.

They talk about evil plans, while eating evil ice cream and stroking evil kittens. Unfortunately, Rosa is in a fairly compromising position.



We're introduced to the concept of archfiends for the first time. Apparently there's four of the damn things. Well, crap.

Anyway we cut back and continue scaling the mountain until a familar face pops up. Hey, guess who it is?



Apparently he's here looking for a spell called Meteor, though why he's here and not, I don't know, some Mysidian library I have no idea.

We also tell Tellah about what happened with Leviathan, and how Rydia and Edward are probably lost at sea. Which probably comes as some surprise to Tellah.

Tellah wants the spell Meteor so he can dish some damage to Golbez for taking his Anna away. Apparently Meteor is a powerful spell, because:



I sense some foreshadowing. But anyway, ever upwards. I may have been slightly overlevelled, but damn Palom can dish out the damage with his flame staff.



There's a usual array of zombies, spirits, and other undead types. They're really not that difficult. Then again, I am playing on Normal as opposed to hard, so

We reach the summit, where we hear a strange hissing sound. Our heroes blame Palom, because they do not know what ominous foreshadowing means.

Well, all except Tellah.



And sure enough:



What a ssstrange way of ssspeaking.



Wait, the first of the circle? Doesn't that mean you're the weakest?

And sure enough, the battle consists of just defeating his mooks and himself with all-consuming fire. It was over with fairly quickly. Let's see what our studio audience thought!



Tellah's genre-savvyness must have rubbed off of Porom.

Sure enough, look who pops up:



Bleargh!!!!



I already have.


So anyway, suffice to say he is a little tougher. He has counter moves against physical and magical attacks to be wary of, so I basically made Cecil and Palom my two healers, because they couldn't attack with Scarface responding with status ailments and all kinds of trouble.

This meant Tellah and Porom could have their time to shine, because restorative moves are somehow exempt from his counter mechanics. I just spammed Cura on the guy, who was affected due to him, you know, being undead.

Sure enough, he was defeated. So much for an archfiend!



Sssayonara.

We approach the stone tablet, presumably to become a paladin.



Suddenly, we're teleported to a lengthy cutscene.



We're suddenly thrust into a battle with our other self.



No, wrong game! Anyway, Cecil has to defeat his dark self by not attacking. Which makes sense. Easiest boss fight ever! He just darknessed himself to death while I just defended.



In the end, the mysterious voice grants Cecil the power of the paladin, though at the cost of his own. Mysterious. What's all that son business about?



Oh, and Tellah learnt all his spells.



Some interesting plot points this episode! Stay tuned for a somewhat shorter episode as we scale back down the mountain and return to Mysidia.