Getting to roll through the Pantagruel with these dream lineups is a lot of fun. Hearing them all banter among themselves between battles is great. Estelle and company get to beat down Gilbert for old time's sake. I had totally forgotten he was even in 3rd until they brought it up here! He even has his old pilotable archaism, and Tio and Renne say it must be the work of the sixth Anguis. Rean's group gets the tougher challenge in Gareth the Blitz, especially since we can't attack him directly during the fight.
Once we reach the upper deck, Cedric, Georg, and Rutger are waiting for Rean's group, while Mariabell, Campanella, and Shirley are waiting for Estelle's group. Oh, and Lechter, Xeno, and Leo show up from behind Rean's group, and Sharon, Ines, and Ennea get behind Estelle's group to surround them, too. Campanella points out that there's a boy/girl split on both sides here, although I guess that makes him the odd man out, literally. Rean knows he has to buy time for Gaius to bail them out, so he asks Cedric if it's really true that Osborne put him up to this. Cedric says that Osborne didn't explicitly tell him to destroy the ship and everyone aboard it. Joshua is furious that he seems to have learned nothing from Hamel, unlike his brother. Cedric justifies it by saying that the world is built on lies, but that's pretty lame, not that I'd expect anything less from him.
Bell says that Cedric wanted to use the Glorious for this, and the Grandmaster gave them permission to do so, although she's wanted to use it herself for a while now. Campanella says she's just a slave to her desires, and it must be a third Anguis thing. I love how literally everyone takes shots at Weissmann. Altina says that the gender split doesn't apply with Campanella here, and he's kind of "oh right sure whatever" about it, which confuses everyone. So is Campanella secretly a girl, genderfluid, or just genderless? Who knows!
Oh man, it's that Silver Will remix again, heck yeah. First up it's Leo, Xeno, and Lechter. Lechter's Brave Order makes things a bit annoying at first, but we manage to overcome it and drive them off. Next up is Sharon, Ines, and Ennea doing the Radiant Star formation, which surprises Duvalie. Their ability to link and their relative speed make this fight a bit difficult, but we manage to hang on and drive them off. The third fight is Campanella, Mariabell, and Shirley. It looks like the only one I have to beat is Bell, so naturally she's by far the most annoying because she can repeatedly put everyone to sleep. Thankfully, Campanella is surprisingly easy to run off, and then I'm able to whittle it down until Bell is indeed the last one to go. For the last fight, it's Cedric, Rutger, and Georg. After the last fight, I figured Cedric was the only one we had to beat here, and I was right. This is actually the easiest fight of all, but unfortunately, it's so easy I accidentally KO Cedric before Rutger, argh. This guy gets lamer every time he shows up.
Then we cut to all the party members we didn't take, and it appears we've already run into Musse's worst case scenario. That didn't take long! Then the Glorious launches three Aions like the ones we fought in Cold Steel III, except these are the upgraded models. That means it's Divine Knight time, but Rutger and Cedric bust out theirs, too. I guess it's time to kickstart the Rivalries into high gear! Oh wait, Rutger says it doesn't count unless we're in a shrine, for some reason.
Cutting back to the others, Musse tells all the others to escape with Alfin in the final landing craft. Apparently, Musse, Aurelia, and Bardias intend to go down with the ship. Or rather, they intend to use the Holdo Plan to take down the Glorious because ramming always works. Fortunately, KeA and Cassius don't think that will be necessary since they failed to give proper credit to Rean's third option. Or should I say Olivert's third option?! Heck yeah, I knew he was still alive, and with a fancy new eyepatch, to boot! That would explain where the rest of the Thors crew and Schera have been all this time. Even Vita and Bleublanc are with them.
So now the question is how Olivert and Toval survived. I'm assuming Victor Arseid is around here somewhere, too? Or did they actually kill him off? Either way, Toval just chalks it up to Aidios looking out for him and won't say much else. Even Ouroboros and Musse didn't see this coming, it seems! Oh hey, it's Mueller, too. Olivert says he's not here to join Mille Mirage, but to provide the wings to the third path, which he's officially dubbing the Radiant Wings, presumably in honor of the Radiant Blademaster himself.
Cedric ain't amused by this turn of events and orders Ouroboros to exterminate everyone. Osborne shows up via some weird drone projection (along with Rufus, Alberich, and Claire for some reason) to shut that down. Also, I'm assuming the "Richard" here is Alan Richard, who's apparently doing good counter-intelligence work against the Erebonian Intelligence Division. Osborne states that Operation Jormungandr commences in six days, which is also when the Rivalries will begin. Black Alberich not so subtly eyes Georg when he wonders how Olivert and company (pun intended) survived the explosion, although Angelica suggests Bleublanc also played a part in it (although he wasn't even around then, was he?).
Then Irina and Schmidt show up to tell Mariabell they've finished fine-tuning some sort of device. Wait, what the heck? It's Masked Victor Arseid?! Okay, this one officially blew my mind. He clearly states that he has not lost his memories or his sense of self. Only his left arm, it would seem! Cassius assumes Victor is being compelled by the curse against his will, similar to the artificial copies of other people in Phantasma. I gotta say, I wasn't expecting 3rd to get so much play in this game...! It turns out Victor being the greatest swordsman in the Empire is why the curse chose him, and he seems okay with just going along with the whims of fate.
