Part 2 - Cecilia the Girl From The Abbey
Last time, we watched a thief treasure hunter plunder loot explore some ancient ruins in search of Absolute Power. He was told not to look for it in the Land of Light, so off he went. Today…
…we join a girl studying at a convent. The abbey has a lot of NPCs to talk to and books to read, so I’ll be doing a separate bonus update for that; otherwise this update would run way too long.
We open on a black void and some unknown voice calling to this girl.
It’s dark in here. I can’t see…
The background brightens and cycles through colors as the conversation progresses. I didn’t know New Age Retro Hippies were telepathic, though. Must be only when they’re Mushroomized.
Tell me your name… We will again be bound by the ancient contract.
Forgive the spoiler portrait there; we’ll see this guy show up in a minute.
Who are you? I’m not the one you want!
Hurry… Tell me your name. Once again, the world is being engulfed by darkness. Tell me your name.
… …My name is…
Again, thread voted on default names, so our heroine here is Cecilia. Don’t worry if you voted for one of the other choices; I have plans for at least some of the other names voted on. A shadowy form appears, and says…
The shadowy form disappears, taking the background and music with it.
… Who are you…?
Plot Twist: It was all a dream. That’s it, update over, you can all go home.
…Not buying it, huh?
Aren’t you turning 17 today? You need to work on not being so spaced out.
Aren’t you supposed to go back to Adlehyde when you turn 17? I worry about the future if our princess has mental problems.
Cecilia turns away from her classmates.
Gee… You guys are being really nice to me today.
You’re going back to Adlehyde soon, aren’t you? You should say farewell to everyone…
Yeah, I need to do that…
Her blonde friend walks around to the desk on the other side of Cecilia.
Chill out, girl. It literally hasn’t even been five seconds since you suggested it. I checked the frame data.
Stop procrastinating. Get going!
Everyone will appreciate your visit.
Now it’s time to leave the classroom. Going right, around the door to the courtyard, Cecilia finds the library.
The game script I’m using calls this girl a “librarian”, but she uses the same sprite as other students.
I was sorting the books, but I ended up making a mess. I’m terrible at this. Anje, the magician, has a magic [Pocket Watch]. Please, Cecilia. Get the watch from Anje and help me clean the library! The watch will reverse time and put all the books back on the shelves.
We’ll get to that in a minute. But first, in the next classroom over…
Here… take my Crest Graph. This is my gift to you. Use this at the Magic Guild to create your own spells using what you’ve learned.
Crest Graphs are very useful. As Tutorial Lady just said, you use them to have Cecilia learn spells; she doesn’t learn any naturally by leveling up. Speaking of which, Cecilia starts with two spells learned:
Heal and Flame, which is a basic single-target attack spell. This game does have magic elements, so the fact that it is a fire spell does matter.
And here’s a shot of her base stats. As should be plainly obvious, Cecilia is a mage. She’ll be the party healer, and she’s responsible for most of the buffs and debuffs the party has access to, as well as all of the out-of-combat utility. There are a few good attack spells, but she won’t be doing that much, honestly.
Upstairs, we find Anje. Prepare for text wall.
This is the [Guardian Stone]. It responds to the power of the Guardians. According to my studies, the [Tear Drop]has some connection to them. Push the Tools button near the desk and use the [Tear Drop]. The [Guardian Stone] should respond. If you do this for me, I shall give you my [Pocket Watch].
Well, isn’t that convenient. I head over to the table and use the Tear Drop (Cecilia’s starting Tool).
The stone glows orange for a second.
Your [Tear Drop] crystal and the Guardians are linked in some way. The [Tear Drop] is the secret treasure of the Adlehyde family. That’s why the stone glowed. This will help so much in furthering my research. You can have my [Pocket Watch]. It’s very useful.
That’s right, we get Cecilia’s second tool before her first battle. Her scenario is the only one that does this. Alter Code F turns the Tear Drop into a key item, rather than a tool. And then instead of giving you the Pocket Watch, gives you the Tinder Staff, which is a freakin’ flamethrower. But you can only use it to light torches.
By using the [Pocket Watch], you can go back in time. You can reconstruct broken boxes and reset objects that are stuck in place. It may not always be effective, but its magic is worth repeating.
Phew. Now that that’s done with, I head back up to the library.
To find the girl I talked to previously waiting at the door. Well, let’s get this done.
I’ll go over to Sister Mary and make some excuses. I’ll be right back. Cecilia, I’m counting on you, OK?
Why are you going to go make excuses? We’re rewinding time! It will literally be as if this never happened!
Cecilia uses the Pocket Watch…
And all but one of the books disappear.
Huh? There’s one book still left on the floor.
I am… trapped within the… [Sealed Library]…
The book disappears.
A book spoke to me. The same voice as in the dream. What is the [Sealed Library]? I wonder if it’s located somewhere in the abbey?
Let’s go see if Sister Mary knows anything.
Yes, it’s not a dream. A shadow spoke to me and asked me to release him from the book. Sister Mary… I thought you might know…
A book which speaks. And a large shadow? A library in which many forbidden secrets are stored does exist. Where the [Sealed Library] is… That I cannot tell you. You were summoned by the Guardians to search for the [Sealed Library]. If you are the chosen one, you must do this on your own. The [Sealed Library] may hold many monsters. Please be careful. May the Guardians be with you.
Now that we’re done with that spiel, let’s go talk to the blonde girl who was talking to Cecilia at the start. I was going to save this for the side update, but…
Did you finish your rounds already? The [Sealed Library]? I’ve heard of it. I don’t know if it really exists. Ask Sister Mary or one of the older instructors. Sister Mary, the head chef, and Lila the motormouth might know of the [Sealed Library].
…along with the girl in the next room…
Why don’t you ask her?
…she constitutes a Simon’s Quest-style trap. Their statements are misleading; only Sister Mary of the three is required, only the head chef has anything remotely useful to say, and even that is said better by someone else. Lila is completely useless.
the courtyard have secret switches. I want to push them so baaaad!!!
This girl over by the Magic Guild is actually the one with the useful information - and the plot flag. These switches don’t exist before you talk to her.
Speaking of the Magic Guild, let’s go make a spell while we’re over here. (Ignore the extra Crest Graph; I got that while recording extra material for a bonus update and won’t be using it.) The three options should be pretty self-explanatory; Bind creates a spell (which consumes one Crest Graph), Dissolve cannibalizes a spell to reclaim the Crest Graph, and Rename Spell allows you to change a spell’s name. No, I’m not holding a name vote every time I make a spell; since the thread voted for default character names, the default spell names will do as well.
This is what the spell creation menu looks like. Spells are divided into White and Black magic (in true Final Fantasy style) in this game (but none of the others aside from Alter Code F, to my knowledge - Wild Arms 2 does away with the White/Black dichotomy if memory serves, and I think from Wild Arms 3 on the series does away with Crest Magic entirely in favor of alternative magic systems, although most of my experience with the series is 1, 2, and ACF so I’m not certain). The spell I’m making now is conveniently at the default position of the cursor.
And with that done, I’m ready to head to the dungeon.
showing the [Light] to two mages at once.
…After I talk to this nun by the entrance to the abbey for another useful hint. These two NPCs are the only ones with anything useful to say about the Sealed Library.
This is what happens when you try to leave the abbey before the end of Cecilia’s scenario, by the way. Like Jack, she’s locked in until she’s done.
Out in the courtyard, I flip the switches on the two statues…
…Push them around to swap their positions…
And then use the Tear Drop in between the two.
Two balls of light appear, swirl around Cecilia, and then fly off into the abbey. Entering the abbey…
Causes a teardrop to appear on the wall and this to happen. 
Suddenly I don’t feel so good about this, guys…
Examining the crystal gives us this. Using the Tear Drop in front of the crystal…
…Teleports Cecilia away.
We arrive in this room, with only one way to go.
- A blue crystal similar to the [Tear Drop] crystal is embedded in the door.
Well, only one thing to do then. Using the Tear Drop opens the door and allows progress.
Proceeding on, we enter this room, with a locked door with no crystal and boxes in each corner.
Lifting and throwing the boxes reveals a switch in the top-right corner of the room that opens the door.
Proceeding downwards, we find this room, which… doesn’t really seem to have a purpose. It’s completely empty and doesn’t even have a door for us to unlock.
We do get our first random encounter of the dungeon here, though!
Blue Books aren’t super dangerous; their gimmick is kind of interesting, though; they use actual Crest Magic spells that Cecilia can learn! And if memory serves, they even use the same names for their spells as Cecilia; here they’re using the defaults because I haven’t made these spells yet, but if you change the names of your spells, every spellcasting enemy in the game will use those names.
They can use Freeze, the basic single-target ice (duh) spell. This can be dangerous if you’re not paying attention to her health, but nobody’s foolish enough to make that rookie mistake. It’s me, I’m the rookie 
They also have Slow Down, which reduces the target’s RES by half. Useless on Cecilia; she’s slower than everything in this dungeon anyways.
They have 13 HP, which just barely prevents a Level 1 Cecilia from one-shotting them with a basic attack, and 60 MP (almost twice Cecilia’s!), which means they’re dead long before they run out.
They also have a weakness to fire, although Flame would have been overkill even without it. Cecilia Flames them and moves on. No gifs of the spells this time; I’ll try to show off all of Cecilia’s spells in various boss fight videos.
Through the door at the bottom of the stairs, we find another small puzzle room with boxes, treasure chests, and a Zelda-esque crystal switch. Throwing a box into the switch opens the door. The treasure chests contain a Medicine (a cure for the Disease status effect, which we’ll see in a bit) and a Magic Carrot (restores 50 MP).
Proceeding through the door brings us to another suspiciously-empty room. I’m guessing these are here because they designed the puzzle rooms to all be entered from the bottom, requiring some way to “flip” the player as they descended.
Through there, we find a long corridor filled with boxes. You must smash these to proceed; there’s no way around them. Hold on to the last one, though.
The corridor opens into a room with more treasure and a switch on the floor. The door is locked, as usual.
Stepping on the switch creates a crystal switch, and you then throw the box you definitely saved and didn’t smash in order to get the treasure chests (which are two Heal Berries, by the way) at it in order to open the door.
The key is the [Flame]. Open the door and light the path.
Through the door is the actual library portion of the Sealed Library, and the penultimate room. All of the bookshelves have text, which will be supplied in the next update. The message here is a hint to the puzzle of the room.
The Gagison is the second and final generic enemy we’ll meet in the Sealed Library. All in all, they’re less dangerous than the Blue Books. They have 20 HP and a weakness to fire. They don’t cast Crest Magic, so they have no MP.
Their basic attack is just as pathetic as the Blue Book’s.
And their other attack is Disease, which predictably inflicts the Disease status effect. Disease prevents the healing of HP, whether through items or spells, until cured. If you get hit with it, make sure you can survive a beating for at least two rounds, because using Medicine will take one, and Cecilia is still slower than the enemies.
I forget to pay attention to Cecilia’s HP, and pay the price. Cecilia’s route is definitely the most difficult of the three; she’s slow, weak, and fragile without expending MP to buff, which makes her the most vulnerable. If she was faster, more robust, or stronger, it would decrease the challenge here significantly. I still wouldn’t call it particularly difficult, but it’s more on the level of “you can actually die here if you get careless” whereas on the other two routes you pretty much have to be trying in order to lose.
Getting into more fights on my way back.
Ten points if you can guess what seeing this screen made me realize I forgot to do on my way back. I have to go back to the abbey to get it. Hey, I never claimed to be good at the game. Cecilia gains a level while I backtrack like a moron.
Back in the Sealed Library, I find this in a treasure chest on the right side of the library room while exploring. Balancing it on the left side is another Magic Carrot.
Statistically, it’s the same as Jack’s Cowboy Hat, but each character has their own unique equipment sets, aside from left-hand items and runes. Don’t worry, we’ll get to runes later.
Past the Capuche is this, the first of the three [Books of Doors].
The second one is behind this bookcase on the left side of the room.
And here’s the third, way up in the top-right corner of the room.
Once you throw all three of the books into the torch/bonfire up on top of the room, a doorway appears in the wall directly below. It’s a blank wall until then. Hmm… book enemies with a weakness to fire… a puzzle about throwing books onto a bonfire… Nah, must be just a coincidence. At about this point, Cecilia runs out of MP, and I head back to the abbey to rest.
On the way back, I discover that a Level 2 Cecilia can in fact one-shot the Blue Books with her basic attack. I’d have saved a lot of MP if I’d known that earlier. 
This girl in the dormitories on the second floor serves as a free inn. The parrot next to the bed is a Memory Bird; basically a save point that also lets you change characters.
On the way back, Cecilia levels up to Level 3.
Going down the stairs in the library room leads to this… study, I guess. The bookshelves hold more fodder for the bonus update; the real prize is on the desk down bottom.
The book on the desk opens, which releases this guy.
I shall grant your wish and make you a part of my story!
You’re not the shadow that calls me, are you?
At this point, combat begins.
Music - Battle ~ Mid Boss No gifs this time; just watch the video.
Become my flesh and blood inside the forbidden book!
Another localization goof; “Nelgaul” is a badly mangled transliteration of “Nergal”, a Babylonian god of war and pestilence, who also served to govern one of the sun’s cycles. Babylonians believed that his marriage to Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld, and subsequent requirement to spend six months of the year in the underworld is what causes the seasons. We’ll be seeing more of Babylon in this game, and the localization will treat that about as well as it did this.
Nelgaul is a total jobber; he’s slower than Cecilia, so he’s even less threatening than a Blue Book. Nevertheless, we want to completely neuter him, so we start this fight by casting Shield three times.
His damage output isn’t particularly threatening in the first place, although this is after one Shield spell has gone off.
By the time we’ve gotten off all three Shields, even his Brutal Attack can’t scratch us.
Now, we could just beat him to death with a mage staff at this point, but I don’t want to waste the time figured I should show off Cecilia’s spells, so three shots of Flame kills him. Unlike every other enemy in this dungeon, and despite being a book monster (he’s even called “Book Monster” in the dialogue boxes) he’s not weak to fire, though. Cecilia levels up to 4 after finishing Nelgaul off.
After winning the battle, this dragon turtle pops out of the book as well. Must be a Monster Manual.
I am Stoldark, the Guardian of the water. For ages, the demon Nelgaul has locked me in this terrible book. I have waited a long time for the Innocent One who would receive the Guardian Spirit.
The Innocent One? Me?
The world is at the turning point of darkness again. Innocent One… can you hear the anger of the land and the wind? The screams of the sea and the sky?
…
Wear me as your armor, Innocent One. I shall protect you in your fight for life. The battle for Filgaia begins again. Everything begins with [Lolithia].
[Lolithia]… What does that mean?
And then Cecilia gets teleported out of the Sealed Library.
And ends up face-to-face with Sister Mary, who seemed to be expecting her.
Now you realize the responsibilities of the women in the Adlehyde family. The female descendants of the Adlehyde family share their thoughts with the Guardians. They must carry the burden of their destiny with them for the rest of their lives. No one can understand the pain and pressure which you must endure. But, they can help you cope with it and make your life easier. Cecilia, there are those who can relate to
Oof, that text spacing.
Walk proudly from the abbey. You must travel your own path from now on. Go! You are the Innocent One, the Guardians have chosen!
Before we go, though, Cecilia equips that rune she just got. For now, it’s just a stat booster, though that extra SOR (and the attendant MGR) will come in handy. Each rune boosts different stat(s).
The path she followed in the past was guided by her surroundings. She knew someday she would have to pave her own path to the future.
The Innocent One, whom the Guardians speak of… It may be too heavy of a burden to be the sorceress of the ultimate power at such a young age.
As Cecilia leaves the abbey for home, we get this parting message. Hey, if she’s got the ultimate power, maybe Jack’s looking for her!
And we leave with this last glance at Cecilia’s stats. Her dungeon was a lot longer and tougher than Jack’s, even with NPC chatter and book-reading cut out, and it shows in her level.
And that’s it for Cecilia, at least for this week! Next time we take a look at the NPCs and books in the abbey.