At the end of the boys' section this time, Georg is waiting for us. Gaius comments how he's completely changed from who he used to be. He busts out his own Combat Shell, called Naglfar (Millium would almost certainly call him Naggy), and it seems he created it himself. Huh, according to Georg's profile, he was implanted with false memories before he was sent to Thors. I wonder what purpose that served. I guess it enabled the Gnomes to spy on them without George giving away who he really was.
With that, we switch over to the girls. They run across a strange apparatus that no one knows the purpose of, but it's operational. I'm sure we'll figure it out before this section is over! When we reach the end of this section, it's Angelica waiting for us, naturally. She's calling herself Red Rossweisse now, and it seems that she still has a fondness for the ladies. Some things the Gnomes can't alter, I guess!
And now we're back to the Rean Team! Crow says he's gotten all his memories back and assures Celine he's on Rean's side...for now. Crow's "Jackpooooot!" line might make up for all the treasure chest dialogues we've had to endure to this point. Crow also says that Rean's new power comes from becoming the Sacrifice, again, whatever that means. I'm really starting to dig the dungeon theme by this point, by the way. Let's see who's waiting for us at the end of this section, and it's...Ines and Ennea, which is only fitting since we have Duvalie with us. They ask her if she'll regret leaving the Stahlritter, and she says she knows she will because they mean everything to her. However, she cannot keep following Arianrhod down a wrong path. Apparently, her guilty conscience has been bothering her since she unknowingly played a part in bringing about the Great Twilight. Oh hey, and there's McBurn, the FLAMING CONFLAGRATION, itching to take on the Ashen Ogre's power.
Then we switch back to the girls against Angelica. Emma can perceive that her soul hasn't been altered the way that Crow's, Arianrhod's, or Rutger's were, which is why she still acts like herself despite the brainwashing. After all, she's not an immortal who was brought back from the dead like they were. The mask allows her to unleash her full potential and simultaneously keep her behavior in check. Honestly, she should keep wearing the mask even if she becomes good again, if that's the case.
Next up is the boys (and Sara) against Georg. Elliot asks when exactly he stopped being George. Machias adds that he grieved Crow's death like the rest of them, and he didn't sabotage them during the civil war despite having every opportunity to do so. Jusis thinks it was Crow's death that was the trigger. Kurt says he remembers Altina saying her memories of the Black Workshop were wiped clean, which means the Gnomes have the ability to tamper with people's minds. Georg confirms that it was indeed Crow's death that reawakened his true personality, although he still "pretended" to be George in order to set the stage for the Great Twilight.
Now we come full circle back to the Rean Team, and McBurn wastes no time unleashing his full power and pulls out the demonic sword Angbar, which he received from the Grandmaster. Rean is apparently raring to go, but we have to fight Angelica first. They actually make us drain her HP to 0, which surprises me a little bit! Next up is Georg, and we also have to reduce him to 0 HP. Neither fight is particularly tough, but seeing their S-Crafts is pretty neat. The main course is the Rean Team against McBurn and the Stahlritter, naturally, and we thankfully don't have to drain them to 0. Getting rid of the girls isn't too difficult, but McBurn's S-Craft inflicts a really painful burn on everyone but Rean (who's immune to everything in Ogre form). That turns out to be problematic since Rean can't use Arts or Items, but the special item that we crafted in Eryn (that he's somehow able to equip even though Class VII hasn't met up with him yet) prevents him from being KO'd. Because of that, Rean is able to survive the duel.
The Rean Team is able to use cutscene powers to even stagger McBurn, and they urge Rean to go on ahead to find his friends, which he somehow understands. It's rare to see the heroes actually get the upper hand on the bad guys in this series, but they do usually save it for the last game in a subseries! Emma, Laura, and Fie urge Juna, Altina, and Musse to go find Rean as well. Finally, the boys (and Sara) tell Ash and Kurt to find Rean as well. Oh hey, we triggered a save point! That doesn't happen often in the middle of a chapter! I imagine that means we've got a lot of cutscenes coming up.
