It's Salt Pale boss rush time! Since this is mostly a fanservice section, the boss fights aren't too tough, but it's fun to get to use all these characters together anyway. I don't know if the order is predetermined or based on anything, but we went Estelle, Lloyd, Angie, Duvalie, and Aurelia here. After beating all the bosses, the power of the pales fades and the barrier to the Empyreal Fortress drops, so the Courageous II kicks it into high gear, quite literally, to try to get us inside during the brief period while it's down. Naturally, the Glorious is waiting for us. However, little did I realize that the Courageous II had a Moonstone Cannon equipped, and nobody told Gilbert either, apparently!
With the small ships out of the way, Rean and Crow man their Divine Knights, and New Class VII uses their own Panzer Soldats to defend the Courageous II from the unmanned Aions and Zauber Soldats. Emma puts up a protective barrier and we just blow past the Glorious to successfully land on the Empyreal Fortress. Since everyone else was involved in shutting down the Salt Pales, it's just Class VII for this final mission. It's the first time the two Class VIIs have been together in their entirety since Crow wasn't there at the end of CS3. Machias calls Crow an edgelord, and it's fantastic.
Rean's about to give the big speech before we tackle the final dungeon, but Crow stops him in his tracks. They all agree to give the big speech together, in classic RPG fashion. Even Valimar and Ordine get in on the action! This time, Crow gets the last word, and Rean doesn't get to say anything. I'm cool with it. Oh hey, there's a shard of Black Zemurian Ore, so I imagine I'll be finding at least two more inside! Looking at the main page in the journal, I have 34 unopened chests. Depending on the size of this last dungeon, that's possible, so we'll see if I manage it! I don't think I've ever gotten all the chests in a single run without a guide, so that'll be a nice feat for me if I can pull it off.
