Key:
What You Do/The official "Party Line" appears in RED TEXT
Important things are in BOLD TEXT
Speculation is in GREEN TEXT
Chocie Options are in BLUE TEXT
Message Packs have PURPLE TEXT

A Far Journey – Makara Ruins

DO NOT START THIS QUEST UNLESS YOU HAVE A LOT OF TIME.
You will be RAILROADED into BEATING THE ENTIRE REST OF THE GAME without being able to go back to town.  The DS has a sleep mode, you may need it, as the area is full of big maps, lots of paths and enemies that take a while to die. There’s also a big bad boss who will take up much time as well, even if you do get him on the first try. Use caution around this quest as it is basically “all of the rest of them” rolled up into one. Conservation of items & opening of every box is essential if you don’t have resta, which adds even more time.

The Makara ruins are the home to the celestial pillar.
However, you will have to fight your way there through batt, bulbatt, kapantha & rumole. You can guess what the batt looks like, the kapantha is a saber-tooth panther creature & the rumole is a mole with sniffing nose & giant claws that it will swing around. There are also mini-boss style enemies the rohjade & rohchrysta, which are like armadillos/lizards with crystals embedded in their armor/backs. They spin & bounce around wherever they appear.

Sarisa asks if it’s the right way to the pillar, and presents you with a dialogue option “Is this the right way? / What a creepy place.” If you pick “What a creepy place”, Kai will say there’s not much traffic through here, but you 3 should be all right. He shrugs it off when Sarisa asks him about it, and instead asks Ogi if it’s correct. He confirms the coordinates are right. Kai states that the only real lead is to just go on moving forward, and that taking action has always worked best for him.

He says it’s been a while since the pillar…So Sarisa (of course) asks him, he says ‘no’ , he just knew a cocky kid. Sarisa wants to know if it’s a human fable. He says it isn’t, but that it is a very uninteresting story. Sarisa wants to hear it anyway, and he says he’ll tell it, but we have to get going first. He should know better than to mention stories around avid reader Sarisa.

Message capsule: Upgrading equipment.
Weapons & gear can be grinded, but limits vary.

If you can fight your way through enough rooms with monsters, Sarisa will pester him about the story again. Kai pretends not to know, saying wait what…So she reminds him it was about the hunters and the pillar. Ogi takes the time to be obnoxious at Kai, saying how he didn’t think human memory deterioration started until an advanced age, but he doesn’t look that old…gee is he ok? Kai tells Ogi that pretending to be concerned about someone isn’t a license for sarcasm. He didn’t forget, he just spaced out. However, it is actually uninteresting so everyone should put away the puppy-dog eyes about the whole situation. (As in, begging him to tell it as if it would be some great thing) Speculation: he’s spaced out because he doesn’t like being there.

I don’t care if it’s boring / spice up the story then! The second option is basically telling him to turn part of the story into a lie, so if you choose “I don’t care if it’s boring” Sarisa will agree, and Kai says he’ll give the short version.

The Story:
“In a city with a youth of about your age…who was a hunter that was a real ace at soloing quests. He thought he could do anything, but he was still just a dumb kid. He got a group of other kids together to go out solving the world’s mysteries. Obvious mystery #1? Of course it’s the Pillar of Light. No one knew how far it was. All the adults were against it, and no one ever reached it. Forbidding it backfired completely on the authorities, and of course the guy and his crew set out for the Pillar. At first, the going was no problem, but weeks turned into months, and people started dropping. There were invisible toxins in the air, pollutants plus exhaustion equaled lethality. This was why no one ever comes back from a Pillar journey, it was what killed everyone. Then, they got lost, it was too late so they couldn’t even go back. Everybody died out but the idea kid. He was the one to make everyone suffer and die, and cause his own family trouble, but all he could do was keep walking toward the pillar, the end.”

Sarisa is outraged at the abrupt end to the tale. She says what’s next? Is that it? No, he didn’t die. He naturally resisted pollution, and just nobody knew he had the ability and the friends had no resistance at all. He just kept on walking and found an unheard-of city and settled down instead. He forgot all about mysteries, listened to the older hunters, and took it easy from then on out. Sarisa says ‘whaaat’ to the mundane ending.

Kai asks why she looks so disappointed even after he said the story was lame and warned her many times. It was a dumb kid who thought he was special, but wasn’t. (Actually, the “dumb kid” WAS very special, and also dumb, because being the only person able to survive lethal poisoning is, in fact, a very special ability. AND it is one which should be studied to see if immunity to it could be conferred upon others, his dumbness lies in not confessing to the ability in order to save future lives. However because HE views it to have CAUSED deaths/feels dishonorable that he FAILED to die via his special powers, this train of purely human thought causes him to never confess it in a helpful manner.)  Sarisa recognizes it wasn’t an epic romance, but it had a good lesson inside. Is he alive today? Who knows…but we can always look for him when we get back to town. Sarisa says thank you for the good story. (This is very in-character for her, remember, her hobby is reading tons of books both fiction & non, so she would of course, crave more stories & look for lessons inside them)

Ogi remarks to Kai that Sarisa doesn’t know…but is the Dumb Kid in the story…you?? (Kai) Kai says leave it at that, Ogi. If she hasn’t caught on, then so be it. Ogi will respect his decision to not directly confess, and apologizes. Kai says it should be him apologizing for such a story because it gets duller every time it is told, so lets just go. (He is probably claiming it is dull, when the word should be “painful”)

Message Pack- I am a fool
I thought I knew how bad the pollution was in the unmapped lands. It was me, not him.

Message Pack – No regrets
Everyone’s gone now but I am happy to have spent time with you. You kept me…

If you can pass more monsters, you reach a giant teleporter. It’s the size of huge room, and you could park several vehicles or loads of supplies on it. However, rohjade and rohchrysta are also there. The big room works to their advantage as they roll all around at great speed trying to hit you. If you can beat them, Sarisa will try to activate the teleporter. When it doesn’t work, Kai says there must be a switch somewhere. He sees it across the room, and Ogi says that he should go because he is better at technology than Kai. Kai argues back that Ogi shouldn’t push the old shabby body, and Kai goes. As he runs across, more rohjade appear, but he pushes the switch. Rohchrysta & Kapantha also appear, and Kai says he will draw them off. (Remember, anything ON the giant teleporter pad will get teleported. If you go to the moon with a mass of monsters, they’ll eat you once you get there or something equally bad. It is logical to have to draw them off the pad before activating it.)

Run to help Kai / Leave Kai
If you Try to Help Ogi says no, you mustn’t, we’re here to save the world. A cut-scene appears & Sarisa cries as the enemies close in. Ogi holds her back from leaping after Kai. The teleporter activates, and suddenly everyone is on the moon in a windowed room. At first everyone is confused, but soon Ogi feels fantastic. Sarisa says this is the moon, just look! What’s that blue thing? / Where is this? Since she just said it was the moon, you can use What’s that blue thing? To ask about the planet visible from the window. Sarisa explains it is the Earth, something she would look up at and dream of frequently. Ogi says it is so beautiful he wishes Kai could see it. Sarisa panics again, saying We have to help him! We can’t go / I’m with you. If you choose “We can’t go” she says “But…” so Ogi reminds her of the amount of hostiles, and that by now, even minutes later it is actually too late for Kai. She says to not leave him because he saved her, and Ogi counters with Don’t waste his sacrifice that he made to get us here, we have to save the earth. The story of "The Dumb Kid" was him with his friends, and ever since then he was wracked with guilt. He has been watching over you two (your char & Sarisa) ever since he met you.

The talking ends when Reve appears with a team of very similar looking goons.
(This makes sense, of course someone would be watching the worlds’ largest teleporter for activity, not leaving the initial drop-off room and having a big chat was not a wise thing to do) Reve asks if there should be another of you (meaning he knows Kai is missing) because you are persistent like roaches. He then insinuates that Kai died, so of course the point is argued. Arguing the point only makes it worse, because Reve says that you lost him in such a way that was so poor, you couldn’t even confirm his death.
He explains that the newmen abandoned the pillar because it started attracting tons of hostiles. (No one ever explains why all the animals are mean. Even the tiny fluffy rappies & puppy-type Booma-Origin will attack you. Are they attracted by the energy of the telepad?) Reve asks if Kai was a decoy for the hostiles, but no, it was something he chose to do. He then accuses your team of standing idly by so Kai would die in order to make final use of his worthlessness.
(Reve is actually very vicious. His insults are always extremely tailored to cut as deeply as possible at who he is insulting. Accusing Ogi of sitting idle as well as insinuating Sarisa planned Kai’s death are the exact things each person would most NOT want to hear / be most likely to infuriate because it’s the opposite of how they feel & he likely knows it.)

Ogi flatline tells him to shut up. He has no patience for people who would speak ill of someone they know nothing about. Reve says drop your weapons or his firing squad (his back up goons) will execute everyone on the spot. What do we do? We must fight / We should surrender If you pick “We must fight” Sarisa agrees, that we can’t give up on what Kai worked for, but before anything can happen, a smoke bomb hits the room!

It’s the Newman Resistance to the rescue.
In the confusion of the bomb, Ana escorts your team away from Reve and his goons. You escape to the resistance headquarters, a hidden room on the moon with other like-minded newmen rebels. Ana is the leader of the resistance. She doubted Mother Trinity and began snooping after she lost faith in her school lessons. When more and more clues started adding up to MT’s lies, she formed the resistance and started stockpiling weapons & supplies to one day go against Mother Trinity. Ana is medium brown in color, with large pointed ears & long blue hair. She wears a more traditional newman garb than Sarisas Earth Infiltrating Overcoat (so, it includes things like an unusual tall hair clamp, ‘space age’ clingy clothes, etc.)

NEWMAN ONLY:
If you chose newman for your character, you get a bit of extra back story here. Ana knows you. She says welcome back, it’s so great to see you made it. When you don’t recognize her, she’s sort of offended, asking if you’ve really “forgotten about us”? Ogi chimes in that it’s actually amnesia induced by something going wrong/crash landing in the lander-pod at the start of the game. Ana confirms that yes, you were their insider, and you had managed to slip into the landing team. Ana calms down. /Newman only section end.

Ogi remarks that Ana looks different than Sarisa, with physiological differences. Aside: The most obvious difference is that Ana’s hair is blue while her skin is brown, & she is tall while Sarisa is short, so you would think he’d pick on one of those obvious points. (Sarisa’s hair is light pink, while Sarisa herself is a pale beige color. Reve & all his men were also middling to pale beige.) It’s not that logical to expect all newmen to look the same, especially if your character is also a newman. If humans have a standard of obvious variance (hair color, height, skin color) than it’s very logical to think that newmen should too, why should Ogi be surprised?  However, no, Ogi was commenting that Ana has big boobs & Sarisa does not. So she slaps him in the face. He “Ogi-apologizes” which means he goes on about the topic, saying how he won’t point it out again next time…so she hits him again, saying that both things were certainly a “beat-able” offense. Ana is uncomfortable, and Ogi is silenced.

 (Rightly so, no one is in control of their own breast size, and “fault” should not be found in any size, however Sarisa’s guilt at being “lesser person/embarrassed” for having smaller boobs leads her to lash out at Ogi for pointing out this ‘inferiority’ in front of Ana. It aggravates/embarrasses Ana because it’s just a random feature she has & it is making Sarisa feel dumped on enough to hit another person. So yes the newman society view of small breasts = bad is ingrained into Sarisa along with the notion of just blathering that people’s privates look different from one’s you’ve seen previously is also rude. However, slapping  a metal person will do a newman more harm than it will the cast.)

To move on to actual relevant topics Ana mentions the “Neutrino Furnace”.
This power plant like place was built by humans to further their space exploration by providing a power plant on the moon. However, of course, it is now in evil hands. Mother Trinity was originally built as a helper for mankind, but she went ‘bad’ somehow and used 3 things to try to destroy all the people of Earth. She used “photon interference” to force the Casts into stasis or kill them. That’s why Ogi feels good on the moon, there is 0 interference on the moon, or else it would affect Mother Trinity’s systems too. She used a virus to kill newmen & humans, and then she used the “Photon Eraser” to turn much of the planet surface to ash, hoping to pollute/destroy the environment such that anyone left would just up and die. The Photon Eraser is powered by the Neutrino Furnace, and is basically her trump card.

What is a neutrino furnace?
It is a plot MacGuffin for you to not understand. A neutrino is a particle that rarely interacts with normal matter. (They fly through everything without disturbing anything and are thus super hard to even detect) There are 3 known types one with muon, one with tau, one with electron. A neutrino is especially MacGuffin-ey here because they are by nature obtuse (science has a hard time with them—nobody’s going to call the plot point out for lack of neutrino experts.) since they don’t really seem to do anything it’s also super improbable that anyone could use them for anything, let alone setting up a furnace (by what, burning them? They’re a sub-atomic particle, you cannot set fire to those.) or using the heat from the furnace to shoot a particle cannon. Remember, “photons” here are not like regular photons, so maybe these neutrinos are also something else. (Like, you can’t make regular photons go into magical ice, or form them into solid cutting blades shaped like swords, nor can you turn them into weapons-grade ketchup)

Of course, every step of the way she was battled by the three races trying to avoid extinction. They almost had her, too, she did not voluntarily go to the moon, she was driven there as a last resort. Finally, once cornered, she fired the Photon Eraser cannon at the Earth. She then blamed the whole thing on humanity, and started a new colony with loyal indoctrinated servants (the newmen) on the moon.

*Note:
Mother Trinity is insane.
She’s also insane in an interestingly & specifically human fashion, having been programmed by humans. It never states that she is crazy, but her extreme lack of logic, bizarre decisions, saying things that clearly aren’t true, opposing directives she tries to follow, and generally dumb agenda all point to her insanity. Her first blunder is creating newmen, because she could have just manufactured machines under her direct control to do literally anything she wanted. She had no need to make free-thinking beings, but she did.

Ana’s plan involves getting to, and disabling the Neutrino Furnace, and then going after MT herself once she has no “destroy everything” doomsday button to press just to spite everyone if she loses. However, the location and level of guard it’s under still needed more investigation. Fortunately, Ana sees Ogi (it’s the first cast person she’s seen, naturally) and knows that the bodies store memories separate from the head. She & the rebels found (it’s not called this, but basically a body dump where MT cut the heads off of all the moon casts & trashed the bodies in a certain room) a decent cast body that wasn’t overly mangled or shot up.  She had been actively hoping a cast would come up to the moon to get the memories out, since technically that person would have been alive at the time that MT rose to power and started the war. It should also have known about the neutrino furnace, or at least enough to get some leverage.

As soon as the dialogue is over, it’s time to set out without rest or restocking to go toward the body room. Ana gives you “walko talkos” to communicate with as you go. Along the way, you fight through korse, finjer R or G or B, and Arkezin. The korse are floating guns, finjer are headless surfers on floating surf boards that are color-coded to their attacks (Red for fire, etc) and the Arkezin is a mini-boss style hovering small craft that shoots missiles, dispenses mines, plows people down, and shoots bullets out of the front. Finjers are what MT seems to have sent down to Earth in her attack, now you get a chance to fight them for yourself.

Progress Report 0318
General and support system drivers activated. Kudos to CASTS for their precise work.

If you can fight your way to the end of this level, you discover the cast corpse area. These are all the broken and headless bodies of the casts from the moon. What Mother Trinity did with their heads is never explained. Simply cutting them off disables the bodies, so she piled them all up in there. Ana calls and explains that the rebels left one kind of on the top of a pile. Sarisa wonders if it creeps out or saddens Ogi because really, those are people that he’s like. He says it just strengthens his resolve that MT has to go down. He asks you to remove his head while he lays near the body Ana has indicated, and put the head over to it.

Once that’s done, a cutscene begins.
This body actually looks like it belongs to Ogi’s head. It is white with similar styling (other was blue-gray and blocky, while Ogi’s head was more futuristic white/plate with curves) It never tells you what Ogi was supposed to look like / how he originally looked. Ogi is so excited to be feeling right again, he goes through some “Power Rangers” poses, jumping all around in the room. This causes Sarisa to raise an eyebrow at this odd behavior (especially from him)

He explains that the body’s original owner dumped as much memory as he could into the body because he knew he would die. (Why MT didn’t bother to throw away all of the bodies out into space or melt them down is unknown) The body has the location of the Neutrino Furnace & information about some of what should be guarding the path there.

INFO MISSING # # FIX

You are sent out, once again, immediately for the next mission, which is to break the Neutrino Furnace. Fighting through more mechanical enemies, you can reach the room where the controls for it are supposed to be. Sarisa loses contact with Ana, due to interference from the furnace. It was built by mankind to fuel its expansion on the moon, but it became MT’s greatest asset. Sarisa wants to tear the place apart, but a voice speaks out suddenly!

It says “I would prefer you didn’t, surface guests.” But who could it be? It’s Mother Trinity herself, who needs no introduction as she is the high queen of the moon. Ogi wonders if she has come to greet them in person? Mother Trinity says that’s rather droll of him, what reason should she have to lfit a finger for a run down cast and 2 failed newmen? It is even an unwarranted honor that she should be there (focusing cameras on the area to watch their feed, likely) to observe your deaths. She then leaves it to Reve to finish off your team.

Reve says you get into the strangest places. Sarisa jumps in, ignoring him, and claiming once more that it is MT who is guilty of killing all the races and ruining everything. Naturally, this doesn’t work on him, she’s still failing to realize nothing will change his mind because he doesn’t use observation, facts, or logic to base his actions. Reve just tells her, like always that the humans are fooling her. Sarisa argues that he’s just going by what he’s taught…but by who? Only one person, only MT, and she’s the one doing the deceiving. When Reve says that’s a lie too, it aggravates Ogi enough that he asks Reve if he’s learned absolutely nothing? Has he observed anything at all, anywhere he has been? Raiding ruins, did you ever find some planet-wrecker? Mother Trinity is an organic computer constructed as a joint effort of all 3 races. But one day she turned bad, starting the war.

MT doesn’t really want her origin spilled, so she chips in asking Reve why he hasn’t killed anyone yet. Ogi tells Reve he’s safe for now, she still has a use for you. But, what happens when she loses interest in your services? You’ll be cast aside. Reve says that would never happen (of course) MT reminds him she has given him new powers so kill them all before they talk more. Reve agrees, Sarisa asks if he’s even questioning her at all, even after all of this, but he won’t listen, saying all fools who oppose Mother must pay.

Reve himself never got any powers.
The thing Mother Trinity worked on, was his 2-part ship “Chaos & Mobius” Now, instead of semi-combining into a shooting/drilling thing, they combine into a somewhat-robot-person shaped giant thing called Humilias for him to drive around.

This is the big bad boss that causes many fighters frustrations.
It has hover-feet, so scoots around the square arena very quickly, always trying to engage you at a distance because it is very tall while you are very small. It has both guns and swords. One gun shoots slow bullets while the other shoots freeze. If a bullet hits you/an NPC, it afflicts the status effect & does damage. Then, Humilias zooms in very rapidly to do a slash with the sword. If you do NOT have enough HP at the time of getting hit with the bullet, you die to the sword. Remember: there was NO restocking of items before this fight so status effects can be serious business.

Humilias by itself isn’t enough for this fight, the floor has panels that light up red, then set off explosions to try to kill you/move you into undesirable positions vs. Humilias. They flash before they go off, but being forced to run around adds another layer of difficulty.

If you can beat this boss…
Reve says his usual “it’s impossible”. This is actually very in-line with the character, someone who has blind faith, never observes, and hates logic will think loads of stuff is impossible, even when it’s perfectly possible, or even likely. Wigging out over it is also a natural reaction, so is breaking down, for anyone like Reve. He says give him another chance, (with what, Humilias is presumably broken--it 'dissappears' when beaten just like anything else because the game has limitations and they didn't want to add a 'broken thing' scene, so you have to assume things left and right.) but MT says she thought he was gifted or special somehow, but to betray these expectations twice in a row…you’re not. She confesses that her plan ends with Reve’s defeat. She can’t stop you from getting to the furnace and is basically calm about it. Ogi blurts out oh well then there must be another furnace somewhere. MT explains that the human built furnace was vulnerable where it was, so she simply up and built another. Ogi marvels at how huge and complex it was, but she had 200 years to prepare another. She says go ahead an offline this one, it’ll take a nice rest after having worked for so long.

This offends Reve, who thinks he was sent to protect an unnecessary / useless furnace. She says it’s not that’ she didn’t care about this one, it was one of 2 valuable items for her.” Something truly worthless to me repeats failure while questioning my wisdom.” This comment is meant to cut directly at Reve & offend him, which it does. MT explains that when you used a TP she found the resistance HQ, but she will reconsider exterminating it if you just leave. Ogi realizes that’s a pretty worthless proposition, because if everyone runs away now, she will, of course, go back on her word & also likely fire off the Photon Eraser not trusting anyone to just stay gone.

Ogi goes over and switches off the furnace.
Apparently, Neutrino Furnaces have a nice off button somewhere. Mother Trinity never bothered to unplug the switch, either after having 200 years to do it, too. And…some random Finjer R couldn’t just be sent to flip the switch back to ‘on’? They have fingers. This is rather ill explained. Do all the neutrinos fly out if you switch it off or something? Nobody broke anything here, the furnace is fine. (A nuclear reactor is very difficult to shut off, there is not just 1 button, for example/comparison)

Sarisa asks Reve what he will do. He tells everyone to leave and that he's leaving too. Sarisa tells him he’s a person, so we’re all in it together. If he’s even a little convinced…but he says he needs to check on something, so Sarisa gives him a map with the rebel hideout. Ogi asks if it’s a good idea, yes she believes in him, he’s too smart to not see the truth now.

Back at Ana’s
She expected to be found eventually, and had always been preparing for the day, so it’s not like it’s some kind of catastrophe.  Because it is the rebel's last day, it must be made to be MT's last day too. Ana asks why did MT go bad? Who knows, but it happened fast, too fast to have a record of why. After being driven to the moon, she destroyed the environment, used an electronic and machine stopper, and left the surface a wasteland. The body’s memories confirm Ana’s findings, so Sarisa asks if we have a chance? Who knows until we try?

It’s Kai responding to her question!
It’s good to see you’re ok / you had me so worried! If you choose You had me so worried! He says sorry, but there was no other way. Ogi says he’s remarkable to have lived, and Kai says he did die, or he came close to it. He saw his old team telling him it was too soon to hang it up. They looked the same as he did, only he seems to have gotten old. So much for going out with a blaze in his prime. Sarisa asks about what everyone like her & you, the Mayor and more would do without him, saying he has good years ahead of him with all of us. His team sent him back to you. Kai meets Ana. Ogi asks how he found the place. Kai explains that it is both a hub of activity, so he went toward the action, but he ran into Reve and thought it was an un-evil twin too. Reve filled him in on the info. Ana can’t find the 2^nd furnace , and if it can’t be gotten rid of, MT can’t be assaulted. We can do it together / you may be right. If you pick we can do it together, Sarisa agrees that we can’t just go home. Ana says ‘but furnace’. Kai produces a chip with furnace location and guard routes. It was a gift fron a friend. Sarisa guesses it was Reve who gave it, but said not to tell. Ana will take a team to the 2^nd furnace while everyone else goes after MT. Nod wordlessly / cheer loudly. If you nod wordlessly, Sarisa says you can count on us! Let’s go.

Dark Shrine / Darkless Path

Because it is your team’s job to go after MT, you’re now back together with Sarisa, Kai & Ogi. You have to fight your way through strange areas with a foggy, dream-like look. While the normal part of the moon looked like a tiled area resembling an airport concourse (some bench seating, rails, space for gatherings, some potted plants, clear hallyways, etc) the part nearer to Mother Trinity has gotten very strange.

The first area is based on darkness and is called “Dark Shrine”. There are gray/ashy ‘plants’ growing from the floor, dark fog, red speckles in the air sometimes, and dark gray enemies. The whole ‘path’ (part you can go on for the map) appears to be raised somehow, like a raised bridge of some kind, looking over the railing shows the ‘background’ lost in fog & nothing below you. There are also gothic looking tables & chairs around. They’re sized right for the characters, but have no purpose. What was she doing? Setting up a gothic tea-party? Why are random table-settings just placed about?  This is never explained. Is it to ‘prove’ she’s crazy before you reach her? Like she didn’t know what to put when she had a big warehouse space on the moon so she just got obsessed with tables and chairs? Is it to insinuate that this is somehow “partially in another “evil dimension” with all the dreamy fog & weird setting? The enemies here include Phobos, a large armed thing with long ‘neck’ and tiny ‘head’ that turn out to be a sword like item’s hilt that it can throw at you & then re-grow. It also punches. Eluda which looks like a pelvis with sharpened legs/calves that kicks & flips as it walks around & Derreo / zerreo, a smaller hovering spider-like thing in a half-moon like ring. The stronger versions are Eludevil & Phobos Dyna, though they appear less frequently and have more HP.

The second area is based on lightness and is called “Darkless Path”. It has the same basic design & enemies, but everything is bright, in ivory, white & light gray. The fog is white, like a mist and the tables and chairs are now pale as well. The enemies in this area are stronger.

If you can fight your way through both areas (there is no boss in between) Ana calls, saying they’re about to start the attack. It may be the last communication from her. Reve was right, the robots are everywhere. She’s relieved at not having to fight other newmen though. Ogi says it is because the resistance was Newman idea, Mother Trinity couldn’t trust them to do anything for her, as any newman could be a secret rebel. (He is correct and logical here at guessing her thinking) Ana explains they don’t have enough forces, so they’re doing a surgical strike at the Neutrino Furnace, because it is all they can muster. Kai says don’t be pessimistic, you can’t question your own plans, because you’re the leader. Ana agrees with his pep talk and says let’s go. See you when it’s over / We’re counting on you / I know you can do  it. If you pick “I know you can do it” she wishes she was as confident as you, and wishes you luck.

Routine Report
Item 82 unstable variables.
Item 83 Benefits uncertain, re-evaluation cycle initiated

In the final area of the Darkless Path, Sarisa says everything’s much harder than she even imagined. Ogi says it isn’t surprising because MT is fighting at her hardest to keep everyone out, but Kai has helped us get this far. Kai says flattery is creepy coming from Ogi (but why?) Ogi defends the statement as frank , saying casts don’t waste time with insinuation and petty human semantics. Now he’s gone from frank to blunt. Sarisa worries about Ana. Ana calls, again, but it’s mostly static. The only thing to make out is that it looks bad. Kai questions if he should have gone with her team instead. Have Some Faith / Go Help Her / Give Up Hope for Her . If you pick “Have Some Faith” They say Ana’s got a good team, and that we’re all needed to focus on the task here.

R0uteeen ReP0R7
Item 6six6 rejected Advice: reject –AllRejectedALL ALL

You’ll reach the room of Mother Trinity. Despite having 200 years of time, she has not constructed for herself a mobile body. It is basically a torso to the hip, presumably without legs- you never see the lower half of the thing. She is giant, likely about 3 stories high. Her arms are asymmetrical, the left splits into 2 bony/stiff curved ‘tendrils’ but both end in long, sweeping “fins” or "fans" where the forearm would be. She has a dolls’ face, with simple sculpted statue features (EX. No real eyes, just the texture for them, mouth could never move, it’s just lips, etc.) and an elaborate headdress.  She is mostly gold in color.

The platform before her is set up like a checkerboard made of stone. Light & dark stone ‘squares’ mark the board off. The platform is set at about hip level to MT.

Mother Trinity says she’d bid you welcome if you actually were. Ogi recognizes her from an image in the memory of the body. She’s impressed you got this far, you’re the first of all mankind to do so. It Was too easy / It was a bit of a challenge / It was horrible / I thought I would die. (The first options there are clearly to shine her on / antagonize her on purpose, however they are all also quite obviously this, and she will see through them as the bluffs they are.) If you say ‘it was a bit of a challenge’ she comes back with “a bit you say, my my.”

Ogi counters with a few halls worth of robotic drones (he doesn’t know what the creatures there actually were) are nothing compared to the surface struggle of 200 years. She calls your party tenacious and claims you’re only there because she allowed it. Ogi calls her as self centered as ever. (She is self centered, but this is also a typical villain bluff, she doesn’t actually want you there. Why does no one mention how strange everything was on the way? Robots sure, but fog, tables, chairs, ethereal nonsense?)

Sarisa asks her if she’ll answer a question (oddly enough she agrees) She asks if MT was built to help mankind, why harm it instead? MT claims it was the optimal solution to a problem she was given to solve. Sarisa asks how destroying the planet be the best way to help people? She misunderstands though, Mother Trinity's directive was to repair the ailing environment. Mankind was of little consequence. They used up resources, had wars, and tried for “progress”. Her solution was a small sample of mankind surviving, thinning the herd with prioritization toward reclamation.

You can tell right here something’s amiss.
It’s the typical “Evil Genie Wish” for a better environment or a cleaner home…well, kill the homeowner and she won’t make a mess in her home any more, or obliterate the home and it cannot ever get 'messy' because it does not exist. It’s not the point, but a “Dumb Machine” without logic that “The homeowner belongs in the home/is a part of it” would do something like that.
That would be moronic programming, which is certainly possible. However, using the Photon Eraser to pockmark/turn to ash large swaths of the planet & creating that mysterious “Pollution” that killed nearly the ENTIRE environment for 200 years is the exact opposite of “environmentally centered computer program”.  She would have no way of knowing if the environment would ever recover, or she’d just lord over a barren planet devoid of all life from that point on. She is OBVIOUSLY not following an "environmental directive" like she says she is. She lies to herself & others.

She says it is just as predicted that your team should appear, pond scum rises to the top of a lake. Why question her? The planet’s welfare is secured while it is in her care. All life except for hers can easily be replaced. (This shows she does not understand what sentient life actually is.) This outrages Sarisa, so MT explains that you owe your existence to her, (as newmen, or if your character isn’t, she directs it at just Sarisa) Did you think you were a part of nature? Your life is completely artificial. Sarisa is shocked, asking if Mother Trinity spawned her from scratch in a lab. No, the first new-newmen she made 100 years ago, and all are descendants from those. She claims she would rebuild humans and casts as well, once the environment reestablished. (It is notable here that Mother Trinity actually FIXED newmen when she did this. PSO’s newmen had an unsure lifespan, they could die at any moment & didn’t age as humans did. The newmen here are very stable, thanks to her efforts)

She would use education to fix their destructive ways. (Whether anyone sees through this is unknown, the only thing she’d actually do is create 3 races of indoctrinated slaves to worship her every move, she only wants people to be her pawns.)

Kai calls it a great speech, but can we get on with it, or did she want something else for her headstone? He’s appropriately unimpressed / casual over the whole situation, so she’s outraged at someone thinking to use violence against their Mother-God.  Sarisa says "she's no mother of mine", and what mother would actually kill her own children? Ogi says that for what she did to casts & all of mankind, she must end here today.

A cutscene appears where she fires the eraser. Ogi jumps Sarisa out of the way & she boasts of her limitless power. No one has touched her (she was actually dumb enough to put her brain inside the non-mobile giantess body you see there) but your team is smoldering. The bolt that struck just now was less energy than moving her pinky (which as you recall, she does not have, and likely never had as she has no hands nor real forearms at all) a gentle stroke of energy. Everyone’s incredulous, so she says that the despair is amusing and she is satisfied with the encounter now, so let’s end it and move on.

Kai says he can’t move, so Stand Again Undaunted / Wordlessly Rise Again. MT claims struggling is futile, it’ll end up the same as 200 years ago, when a single upstart newman rallied mankind on a fruitless crusade against her. Mankinds’ persistent desire to do what he knows is impossible waste of time. It’s not a waste of time / Glare at MT . If you claim it isn’t a waste, she says she’s seen the look before, she recognizes YOU (the newman) as the rebel. She’s furious that it’s the cursed rebel that she has somehow revived, "what an oversight".

Really, an oversight? She has no facial recognition software? That's hard to believe. How dumb or crazy is she supposed to be--because that's just stupid? What "knocked you out" 200 years ago / who would put you in stasis & then revive you to hook up with Ana's rebel group? Remember, if your character is a cast, IT was the rebel in the 200 year movie, who got hit with the "photon interference" that forced casts into stasis--only when it was fading did casts being waking up, including your character. While she’s ranting about the woes you caused, Ogi interrupts, saying how it explains the ruins image / video (that you went to see on an earlier quest, and all the asking if your character is really 200 years old)

*You can sure tell that MT was programmed by a man or men. EVERY little thing is “mankind” with her, and “do what HE knows is impossible”. There is loads of this in her dialogue. Yes, ‘mankind’ is meant to encompass women too, but it’s not an inclusive word like Humanity or more inclusive like “Sentients of Earth” which would hit all 3 races but is very clunky. “Mankind…do what THEY know is impossible” even, but male identify-ers on like…everything, with the “HE” in there in the actual dialogue.

*If “Mankind” was actually inclusive, men wouldn’t object to being called “a part of womankind” and “womankind” could be used in exactly the same context & with the same exact meaning & inclusiveness as “mankind” is. But it isn’t. Her programmers knew it & so she uses it. “Just a word” and “male pronouns for everybody” may not seem super significant, but they’re there, and they make a point. You would think she’d rumble this topic because she identifies as a female/mother, but she never actually brings it up. Isn’t that interesting?

She rants on, then tries the eraser again. Nothing happens.
Ana calls, and the ‘walko talko’ works again. She says they’ve shut it off. You saved Us / Now We Stand A Chance . If you choose You Saved Us, Ana says she can’t take too much credit, it’s you guys that must act. Mother Trinity can’t believe it, saying it was guarded by enough robot forces to repel all newman who currently exist. Dairon chimes in as a surprise! He says yes, but not enough to repel all of mankind. Everyone’s shocked to hear him. Ana has filled him in on what’s going on. He arrived with a whole army of…family. Not races. Everyone together. Ogi is surprised to hear him too, sorry he couldn’t report on the situation. The Mayor also said there’s help from sour faced…Reve jumps into the conversation saying he didn’t do it for your team, it was just pragmatics. Sarisa says thank you anyway. He claims her merit proves the reliability of team work. MT claims its impossible that mortals could stand up to the eraser.

I won’t forsake my friends / Peace is too important / I protect what’s dear to me / I fight to save all of mankind (a lot of options!) If you pick “I wont forsake my friends” Sarisa says you’re right, no one ever gave up on us.