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Prerequisites: The Dragon Princess Return to The Underworld and touch the tombstone. As soon as you land in the Underworld, Sierra will join you. Some of Drakonis' goons will attack you, but Sierra slices through them all. You then receive the quest "The Crimson Dragon." Proceed through the Underworld as before (you're already baptized, though, so you can skip that sequence) until you get to the room where you fought Hitodama. Continue through the door in the back of the Shrine of Faces. Pass through the next screen and you'll be in another two-sided hall like the one that contained Olbohn's chamber. The doors immediately to the left and right of where you are both contain chests (Mirror Piece and Grave Dirt), while the one further right leads to an empty room. The two doors on the ends lead to the other side of the hall; three of the four rooms here hold chests, while the second door from the left leads to another Shrine of Faces. The room beyond the second shrine holds a bunch of roving Shadoles. Touch one of them and it will teleport you down to the bottom of the Underworld -- which is fine, because that's where you wanted to go anyway! Head north from the final Shrine of Faces to Drakonis' lair. Larc attempts to subvert Drakonis' plans, but Drakonis transforms him into a berserk centaur and sics him on your party. He's not too hard to beat (he doesn't have much HP); just be sure to move to the lower-left whenever he uses his "flying skulls" attack. When Larc is defeated, he dies, and Drakonis transforms The Underworld into The Flames. The end of the quest? Far from it, you've got another huge dungeon ahead of you. Be warned, The Flames is the longest dungeon in the game (though not the final one). If you want to make any preparations, leave now; once you step inside, you can't leave until you defeat Drakonis. When you're ready, grab Sierra and venture across the bridge. The Flames is filled with pit traps; your first goal is to turn them off. Proceed north two screens to the second floor and go up the stairs on your left. Exit to the south and head left as far as you can go. Go through the door to the north and you'll be on the third floor. Go north here to the fourth floor, and again head north. You'll be in a blue room; all of these such rooms have pit traps. You want to fall into this pit trap, though; so just walk forward until you fall in. You're now back on the third floor, in a room with a save point. Take the rightmost door on the south wall and walk into the pit trap. You'll fall all the way to the basement, where you'll be attacked by a Land Dragon. It has a substantial amount of HP, but its attacks are weak. Defeat it and you'll hear a chime; this indicates that some of the pit traps have been turned off. Head east, collecting the valuable Dragon's Blood along the way, until you end up back on the first floor. Exit south to the main wall. Head west a little ways until you see the exit to the second floor. Ascend and make your way back to the fourth floor. (Now that some of the pit traps have been turned off, you can walk through some of the pit trap rooms to collect chests, but none of them are really worth bothering with.) On the fourth floor, drop through the same pit trap you did before; it's still active. This time, on the third floor, exit through the second door from the left (or check the rightmost room for a Flaming Quill). Pass through the deactivated pit trap room to the third floor. Head right a little and exit to the south. Fall into the pit trap, then exit south. You're now on a balcony outside The Flames, where you'll have to do battle with the boss Zenoa. It's basically identical to Centaur Larc; defeat it, then enter the door on the left. Fall into the pit trap and you're back in the basement. Work your back to the first floor; this time, go all the way left instead of ascending to the second floor. Enter the pit trap room and jump into the pit trap. You'll land in a room with a Raven Feather in a chest. Get it, then head north to fight a Sky Dragon. Defeat it and the remaining pit traps will be turned off. Head southeast and climb up the stairs. Go north and you're on the second floor, in what should be familiar territory. Head west, ascend to the third floor, and then continue on to the fourth. The pit trap in the room to the north has finally been deactivated; march through it and you'll reach Drakonis himself. He transforms into a massive red dragon to do battle with you. Drakonis' main attack is his firebreath; he also rarely uses a "magic circle" attack and a move in which he flies into the background and unleashes a huge beam. Drakonis has a lot of HP, so this will be a long battle. Try to conserve HP; don't make any risky moves. Remember, if you "die," you'll wake up eventually as long as another character is alive -- so if you're low on HP, wait for Sierra to get KOed and recover (thus giving her full health) before you make any attacks on Drakonis. If you do die, you can just continue from the beginning of the battle, so you're at no great risk. When Drakonis finally goes down, he'll explode in some nifty FMV special effects, and The Flames reverts into The Underworld. The "dragon" story arc concludes with a lengthy ending. Several things will have changed when you regain control of your character: the sky has cleared over the Macabre Tombstone, for example, though you can still go down to the Underworld. Also, all of the dragons have returned to life; if you ascend the Norn Peaks again, Akravator will challenge you for fun. You still earn experience for fighting him, so this can be a good way to build up your character (though not as good as the Machine Golem in the final dungeon of the Jumi story). Finally, you can freely recruit both Larc and Sierra; Larc is found in his usual station outside The Underworld, while Sierra is located in the Ancient Forest area at the end of the White Forest.
Li'l Cactus' quote: "Skelly-snappy." |
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