Story:

The story I think was what made this game what it was. The ending however left so much room for another game that I just can’t believe they cut off production of the fourth game. I can only hope that they will continue it someday even though they said they were canceling it. What really shocked me about the story is how much things happened near the end that would be really permanent. I mean, Jin, Canaan, Nigredo, Dimitri, Margulis, Pellegri, Kevin all die. There isn’t much chance for them to come back, and then you get the ending with KOS MOS and chaos where they are pretty much separated from everyone else for god knows how long, although not dead, and we get basically four people of the original seven remaining. However MOMO and Ziggy stay behind to work in office positions basically, leaving only Jr. and Shion to go forth and do any continuation in the story. So the ending is mixed in if it is continual or not. On one hand you have this whole thing where they leave off with chaos basically telling Shion to find Lost Jerusalem, and this being a very important thing, however you also get the complete separation of all the cast.

Sound:

The thing I remember the most about the sound has to be the music that was playing during the boss fights. For the most part the music wasn’t that memorable, but there were several instances during boss fights where I thought how great the music was. Listening back to the OST there is a lot of really beautiful music, although it just didn’t’ seem to pop at me during the game. Not5 to say it wasn’t used great in the game however; the music just seemed to blend in with what was happening extremely well.

Graphics:

The graphics were great, there seeme3d to be a constant good keep with the graphics I thought. Although I hated how they edited the blood out, I’m reminded of a scene where young Shion was holding her hands out catching the blood that dripped from her mother, and they just showed her holding nothing and freaking out about it. Besides from that editing, the graphics from the scenes were pretty good. They of course were a bit better during the scenes that you didn’t have to scroll though the text yourself, but they didn’t suck during the ones where you had to.

Gameplay:

At first I didn’t like the gameplay, which really is just the battle system. I liked the old one a lot, I loved going though a bunch of combo’s dealing with multiple people in order to break and do a lot of damage. However this battle system turned out better then I had previously thought it would be. There really was a lot of strategy involved in the later part of the game. However I wished that it would have reached its peak a little earlier. I can only remember the last three boss fights or so that had really interesting fights. By which I mean I had to do a lot of different things in order to win, I mean I only even needed to cast on the spell that auto revives once in the last battle. I only ever used the spells that cost a huge amount of EP to increase damage like tenfold during the last two fights. Basically I loved the final three fights or so, the battle system and all the skills involved with it were great. Along with the bosses themselves, the changing weaknesses and forms were all very neat, however it didn’t reach its peak until fairly late to which is the only thing I really have a problem with.

Overall:

Overall Xenosaga, the whole three games, have truly been amazing. Xenosaga has some of the most in-depth and thought out things that just blow me away. There are so many things such as political groups, scientifically details of things that don’t exist, and so on. There are multiple organizations and groups of individuals and planets, governmental politics that have an affect on how things happen, and a surprisingly large religious influence. Not only that, but Xenosaga has used those aspects in an overall very exciting story I think. You don’t know for sure what is the real final objective, as throughout the story you are figuring things out.

Not only is there a great overall story, but there are dozens of individual side stories that intertwine. There is the whole deal with Jr., Nigredo, and Albedo, there is Canaan and his story, Ziggy and his past, MOMO and Juli, Juli and Joachim/Joachim’s past, Jr. and Dimitri, Allen and Shion, Jin and his past with Pellegri and Margulis, Shion’s past, Shion’s relationship with Kevin, Shion’s father, Fibroin and Virgil, KOS MOS and chaos, Wilhelm and the Testaments, Wilhelm and chaos. All of these are almost stories by themselves; however they are also at the same time part of the overall story. That’s what gets me the most about the story I think is not so much is there a big story and lots of smaller story, but there is a big story that contains and implements the smaller side stores that give insight into individual characters.

Summary:

• Margulis is talking with the “Eminence” and Margulis says how he doesn’t understand why he is to pull away from Michtim, that Zarathustra is there and without it they can’t return to Lost Jerusalem.
• Wilhelm says that Ormus’s real purpose was to spread the words of God. He says that these words are what you call Lemegeton, it’s a failsafe installed by God that can cause this universe to dissipate. Although the man they call Lord didn’t know that. He said that was to be expected, for those were the words of Yeshua. Wilhelm created an organization to manage and watch over those words. That is Ormus’s true objective.
• Everyone heads down to Michtim to find Abel and the Zohar. Ziggy seems to recognize where they are s a place he was when human, where Voyager was born and ceased to be human. After fighting off two Ormus E.S Pellegri appears.
• Pellegri tells everyone that Michtim is the birthplace of Ormus. She says that the relics like the Zohar were theirs and the federation stole them. You fight Pellegri and end up killing her, even though Jin tries to tell her to eject Pellegri says how she can’t, she is tired, and dies.
• You proceed to some cathedral place where the Zohar might be and you find voyager there. We find out that this is where Voyager killed Ziggy’s wife and child. He says that Ziggy had the option to become a Testament along with him but refused.  He then mentioned operation Canaan and says how Canaan has been observing them all as a spy, codename Lactis. Canaan says that’s what he was programmed for, and he is sorry.
• Ziggy says enough of this, why make Lactis (Canaan) suffer now, he asks why voyager became a Testament and he says to escape death and obtain eternal pleasure. After fighting and destroying Voyager’s E.S, he is fine.
• Ziggy tries to fight him but can’t do anything and Canaan yells to stop. He says how Voyager’s power isn’t limitless, but if he links with him he can absorb the power of the compass of order and become a god. He says in return he wants to be a testament, no matter what happens he will be a traitor and doesn’t want that label. Voyager says he will accept. Voyager links with Canaan but isn’t able to handle the power and Canaan traps him, killing the two of them together.
• After continuing on you meet with Margulis. You fight him and after defeating him Margulis says how Jin is exceptionally strong, but because of that he has killed those who understand him, he will forever be alone in the world. Margulis then says he didn’t come this far to be killed by Jin, and kills himself.
• Magulis’s Anima vessel floats up and is caught by an E.S. Shion’s pendent then glows and Shion says how something is calling to her. You make you way through the underground facility and ruins and eventually arrive in a crystal room. Ziggy sees some writing and they say how it’s the same language on Renees-le-chateau. MOMO reads it as the bible verse from when the angel told Mary that Jesus had risen, MOMO actually saying Jesus.
• Shion passes out and has a vision with Abel who we find out is U-DO. Able just asks a bunch of questions like what is pain and so on, Shion recovers and Nephilim appears before everyone saying what they seek lies ahead. This room was sealed by the will of a woman who was able to call upon the power of God. She says if that woman’s consciousness does not awaken they cannot reach the room.
• Nephilim says the woman is someone close to her, someone who laughed and cried with her in the past. Her other half. However her awakening will erode and chisel away at Shion’s life. Shion says he will see him, that she will do everything herself
• Shion appears on Lost Jerusalem, and walks around, going into the underground passage everyone went to when on Renees-le-château. She sys how the stones are all new, and she goes to where there are some tombs and sees chaos in old clothes. She wonders why he is here and chaos just says since you are here that must mean you have come for her. Chaos points at the casket in front of them and Shion opens it up to find a woman with long brown hair, and she says that it is KOS MOS. KOS MOS then opens her eyes and Shion sees another vision.
• She sees the human KOS MOS with chaos in old times, them in a crowd listening to a main talk who is raised up, she sees a shot of her in a home with chaos, and then she is in a field of flowers crying. Shion goes up to her and says how she has lost herself too, she hugs her saying they will find themselves together.
• Shion wakes up and KOS MOS asks her if she is ok, talking in a more human voice. Shion says how she has awakened and then T-ellos appears, yelling at KOS MOS calling her Mary. Everyone fights T-ellos and she says how her body is that of Mary’s, and inside KOS MOS is Mary’s soul. She yells at KOS MOS that that is not the body, in which she is meant to reside, surrender and become part of her. T-ellos says that Kevin just wants Mary’s resurrection, when Mary has fulfilled her duty Zarathustra will speak.
• You fight T-ellos and after de3feating her KOS MOS walks over to her and absorbs her, fully awakening Mary Magdalene. All around the universe gnosis phenomena is occurring because of Mary’s awakening. Everyone learns of this and chaos says something about the relics of god, and how God gave Mary a choice to change the universe but a key was needed, Shion’s pendant. KOS MOS says how he is up ahead.
• After running ahead you run into Kevin who says how when this planet was destined to be destroyed yada yada, he came before me. chaos says Wilhelm and Kevin flashback to Wilhelm talking to him as a kid, saying how the universe is destined to be destroyed but if they go back to a certain point in history and restart and keep looping then they will be saved.
• Shion goes with Kevin even though everyone tells her not to. She just says how he is the only one who was trying to save her, even after Kevin says how he orchestrated everything; his death was on purpose, everything. Shion goes with him and Jin pulls out his sword saying he will do what he has to to protect the universe, and you fight both Kevin and Shion.
• After the fight Allen tells everyone to stop this, Kevin tells him to shut up, he can’t do anything, no one besides him and Shion can and Allen sticks up for himself saying how they can, everyone is fighting to protect the universe. He then says that he lacks resolve. All the Testaments did, they were afraid of death and their weakness. Voyager, Virgil, Dimitri, and Ormus were all just trying to run away from the harshness of reality. He says he will stand firm on this spot and save Shion. Kevin says fine, and shoots energy at Allen, and flings him across the room. He struggles up and Shion says that’s enough, Kevin asks how it feels to be pitied by the one he loves. Allen just says how he doesn’t understand Shion’s feelings, the pain she went though. How he wanted to cry in her place and will do whatever it takes to save her. Kevin says fine and sends a finishing blow at him but KOS MOS saves him.
• Kevin asks what she is doing, she is defying Wilhelm but KOS MOS says she doesn’t care. Kevin says she truly is a failure, that Mary’s consciousness changed inside of her. KOS MOS asks Shion if this is what she wants, to betray everyone. Kevin yells for Mary to get back and shoots energy at her but Shion stops him. Kevin then says how he won’t let Shion go, and you fight and defeat him. Kevin says how he can’t accept this but Wilhelm voice says for him to stand down.
• You head further in and see a huge thing that looks like the compass or order and chaos. MOMO points out that Abel is trapped in one of the two E.S.s by it, and Wilhelm stands between them looking at the compass. Wilhelm snaps his fingers and your E.S.s appear, Wilhelm saying it looks like they’ve awakened so I’ll take them, you don’t mind do you Yeshua? The vessels of anima then float up and head to the huge item along with all the other ones. Everyone asks what it is and Shion wonders if it is Zarathustra.
• Ziggy wonders why Wilhelm, Vector’s CEO is here and Wilhelm says that is just a name, such as he is Ormus Patriarch, etc. He says they just define him, yet they aren’t him. The only one who can define him is you, Yeshua, chaos. Wilhelm says how he needs the key to activate Zarathustra. He says Zarathustra was a device made by people of ancient times to ascend to the realm of God. It was orchestrated by Mary, and its power source was Yeshua. He says that God didn’t like mans actions though, so Wilhelm gave Zarathustra a purpose. He says something about destruction, the destruction that Yeshua will bring. Wilhelm says he gave Zarathustra the role of resetting things, sending life into an imaginary time realm. He then says that U-Do is God himself. He says the two Abel’s exist as U-DOs observers.
• Shion says she won’t activate Zarathustra and Wilhelm says that there are people who already wish for a different Unversed, the Gnosis. HE says the Gnosis are forms of people who have rejected others and the world. Shion says she still won’t help and Wilhelm says that’s too bad, and uses his powers to levitate Shion up. Shion then glows with energy. Everyone is held down to the ground by Wilhelm’s power except KOS MOS, as Shion floats in pain. Allen yells at KOS MOS to help her but she does nothing and Wilhelm says how Mary understands what much be done to save the universe.
• Kevin sees all this going on and Shion calls out his name so he comes up behind Wilhelm and attacks him, cutting off his arm, releasing Shion. Wilhelm asks how it feels and we find out he knew Kevin would do this. He says Kevin didn’t want for anything to do with the universe; he wanted to be with Shion. He then surrounds Kevin and Shion in energy and they are in pain, Shion still refusing to activate Zarathustra. Wilhelm tells KOS MOS to bring Shion to him. He says if not Shion will continue to suffer. KOS MOS picks up Shion and brings her over, and takes off her necklace. She then shatters it much to Wilhelm’s surprise. Wilhelm calls KOS MOS a fool, saying now the universe will perish, even Yeshua will die.
• KOS MOS says to Wilhelm that she isn’t Mary; she is KOS MOS. Kevin then gets up and stabs Wilhelm through the chest. Kevin and Wilhelm talk, Kevin saying how they are standing in their way, the humans are trying to walk their own path. Wilhelm says how it isn’t possible but chaos gets up and says it is, even as they speak ripples are spreading throughout the universe. Wilhelm says how he is surprised to hear form him, that chaos is a failsafe implanted in the universe.
• All of a sudden the mecha thing Able is in goes out of control and energy goes everywhere. Wilhelm says how it is too late, Zarathustra is out of control.   He says to KOS MOS for them to go together and return this world to the beginning. Then Kevin holds out his hand and makes a bunch of energy. Wilhelm asks what he is doing, if he continues to do this he will disappear from this world. Kevin says he knows, but he will take Wilhelm too. He tells Shion to defeat Zarathustra while he holds back its power.
• You fight Zarathustra and after defeating it, Wilhelm asks chaos, calling him Yeshua, if this is what he really wants. If he is to vanish, then this universe will….chaos says he knows, but he wants to believe in the light of human’s wills. Wilhelm says very well, that does sound like you, and vanishes. Shion then says goodbye to Kevin, saying how because of him she was able to make it this far, and will continue to live. Kevin says how he is glad to see her smile again, and vanishes.
• All of a sudden the energy still goes out of control and Jr. asks if there is anyway to stop it. Chaos says to hold on and we see Abel and Nephilim together in some plane talking. Nephilim asks if that is his wish and he nods, so the two of them appear before everyone. Chas asks if it is decided and Nephilim says yes, all the Gnosis gathered in Zarathustra with no where to go, she will take them into her and dimensionally shift this region of space to the land of origin. Lost Jerusalem, Earth. Nephilim says how the universe will eventually be destroyed but the light of humans wills may be enough, if mankind has enough time to build upon their feelings then it. Shion asks if she will give them that time, Nephilim says yes, herself, Abel, and…..
• Nephilim turns to chaos and he and KOS MOS step up and say to Shion how she isn’t the one who guided this universe to destruction. He says that ever since he existed his power of Anima has caused the universe to tread the path of destruction He says that in order to save the universe Mary separated the power of Anima into the vessels and sealed them, costing her life. He says that he lost his power and was forced to become an observer. He says he didn’t’ know what his power meant but he says he finally knows what it means for him to use this power.
• Chaos says how this region of space will undergo a shift and he doesn’t have the power to help them escape, so he wants them to go ahead and leave. Jr. asks what about him and he says not to worry, everything follows the flow, and he is sure they will meet again. He says that when they disappear the speed of the universe’s destruction will slow down. Chaos says however that eventually it will be destroyed in about ten thousand years. He says the key to saving all lies in the land of origin. He says how he, the gnosis, and wills of others will return to Lost Jerusalem, and that Shion must eventually find it to save the universe.
• Shion says goodbye to KOS MOS, KOS MOS saying how they are sure they will meet again. Everyone takes off, leaving Able, Nephilim, chaos, and KOS MOS behind. Chaos turns to KOS MOS and tells her to release his power. She says very well and takes the anima and combines them, crating an image of chaos in old clothes and herself in old clothes. The old clothes version of chaos merges into him, and the image of Mary goes into Nephilim. The make the Zohar glow and a huge energy spread from the planet and the Gnosis are all pulled in.
• W see everyone in the E.S. escaping, however Shion notices the gnosis and MOMO says how it looks like the Gnosis don’t want to be gathered as if they are objecting. Shion says that means chaos and the others are in danger, and tells Jin to turn around. Jin says they can’t, they have a duty they were entrusted to. Shion agrees and so they continue to escape. When they get to the point where everyone gets off, Jin stays behind and says that he will go help them out, but they must continue on. Jin basically says goodbye to Shion, saying how he is sorry he wasn’t a better brother and regrets not spending more time with her. Shion cries saying how she was the one who was wrong, asking Jin to forgive her. Jin says she doesn’t have to apologize; she has been a great sister and always will be. She has suffered though her whole life so she has every right to be as happy as she possibly can be.
• Jin goes to fight all the gnosis with KOS MOS as chaos and Nephilim power up the Zohar. The others get to the Elsa and escape. Jin fights the Gnosis and ends up getting stabbed repeatedly, once all the way through his chest. He slopes against the E.S. and is almost dead, He closes his eyes and says how it is quiet now, this sit he most quiet it has ever been in his whole life. This is what he fought for but now that he is there he longs for the noise of the past. He says he longs for those hectic and chaotic days that once was. He says how this is ok though, the time has come for him to move on. Jin then dies. Another gnosis is about to attack chaos while he is working and KOS MOS steps up and powers up a blast, killing the gnosis and herself.
• Chaos finishes and Nephilim grows up into the form of a woman, and chaos holds out his hand and does some energy thing to Abel. Then there is a huge glow and from the planet a huge burst comes out. The Elsa is trying to escape but won’t make it, however they detect a column left which is what is used for hyperspace, Shion says its chaos protecting them, and she knows it is. The Elsa then grows wings (wtf?) and heads to the column to escape the blast.
• The Elsa emerges in space and eventually they come in contact with the Damerung. After a while, we see everyone together and MOMO and Ziggy are going to stay behind, MOMO helping Scientia to build a new network. Shion and Jr. head out to find Lost Jerusalem.
• We see a brief shot of KOS MOS’s face and chaos says he guesses the two of them still exist in this world after all. As long as people and the universe desire it, they will continue to exist.

Impressions:

Asides from the ending, the HUGE thing in this chapter that just stunned me to no belief was the identity of who KOS MOS was. I just could not believe that she was Mary Magdalene.  That was something I was not suspecting at all. Not only that but they basically confirmed how chaos was as well. Although they ha said this before, Wilhelm called chaos Yeshua which as I looked up is Hebrew for Jesus. This would explain why him and human KOS MOS were seen together in all the scenes involving the past.  It also just ties up loose ends with what this whole Lemegeton thing is. Wilhelm said that Lemegeton was the words that would reset the universe basically. He then said that Lemegeton was the words of Yeshua, which is chaos. Basically, chaos had the purpose and potential to reset the universe. Wilhelm even said this directly as he told chaos that his just a failsafe for the universe, which is what he called Lemegeton, a failsafe.

Although they were bad guys, I felt sorry for both Pellegri and Margulis when they died. I mean, Pellegri there was the whole thing with her and Jin’s past. Pellegri said how she couldn’t just stop fighting, how she was tired and all. Jin having to kill Pellegri was sad I think, the whole quote about how they just walked different paths that never crossed I think was sad, because it showed how their situations were out of their own control almost. I also felt just a bit sorry for Margulis and having to kill him. I mean, before the fight basically Wilhelm shattered Margulis’ beliefs. Wilhelm basically told Margulis that everything he was doing for his whole life was for nothing. That everything he had based his dreams and goals on wouldn’t accomplish anything, that his whole life was for nothing. I mean, Margulis didn’t view what he was doing as bad. He wasn’t evil; he just had conflicting goals with other people. He just wanted to return to the land where his ancestors were born, where his deepest beliefs are founded. Killing him I think was a bit sad.

Canaan dieing was a bit surprising and sad. Although his death served a purpose, that too was a tad surprising that he was the one who ended up killing Voyager, especially given Ziggy and his past. The thing is that even though they did the whole bit with Canaan supposedly having betrayed everyone, he didn’t do anything wrong himself. He was spying on everyone without his own knowledge until half way though this game, and even then he wasn’t in control of it.  At least he died honorably I guess, although it’s still sad because I didn’t’ view him as a traitor in any way. Although, at least one of the Testaments died by kind of being defeated. I mean, Virgil basically was talked out of the Testament thing by Feb, Albedo was forced to merge with Jr., and Kevin sacrificed himself to save everyone.

Zarathustra was awesomely cool. It is defiantly one of the cooler looking mecha’s/bad guys I have seen in a while. It was basically a combination of all the other E.S.s. It also wasn’t completely symmetrical or anything, which is part of what made it cool. I could actually identify the pieces as to what E.S. they belonged too. Although not all the pieces, for instance they had Zebulun’s floating pods that hovered around Zarathustra which during the fight blocked attacks.

Jin’s fight scene and just his death altogether were amazing. His death was probably one of the sadder moments in this whole game I think. I was stunned. Not only tit happened because he was such a big character, but how emotional it was. The fight itself was really cool, him pulling out a sword that was in his back and fighting with it, but the thing I think I liked the most about this scene was how emotional it was. Jin’s final quote was amazing, and in fact in honor of him it will be the new quote on my site. His quote about how it is now quiet and it has never been this quiet before in his life. All along he wanted this quietness but now that he has it he longs for the chaos of life, longs for being with everyone. Gah, that scene still gives me shivers almost; it was one of my favorite scenes in the game and just really emotional.

Allen just blew me away in this chapter. He was defiantly cool in this chapter. First off his whole speech and him standing up to Kevin was amazing. He actually showed a backbone in this chapter, he even showed more of one then the others. No on else tried to stop Kevin, but Allen actually withstood blasts of pain to stand up for what he believed in and to stand up for supporting Shion. I think that was really cool.

Ok, one thing that kind of bothers me is wtf was up with the Elsa growing wings? That to me was just kind of stupid and unnecessary. I mean, they already had a whole overcoming situation thing. They weren’t going to escape the blast but then they found a UMN column that chaos made (?) and them finding that could have easily been enough but no, they had to have the ship grow wings. And not some mechanical part that unfolded, there were actual fluid moving wings of energy. It just seemed like a little too much.

Summary: 

• You escape from the bright light to find everyone fine, and the Elsa in the same area of space as the disappearing landmass was. Then all of a sudden Abel’s Ark appears as well. Someone guesses that they needed the power of both Shion’s, past and present, to summon it so when Shion went all crazy it summoned Abel’s ark to the present.
• We find out that Abel’s Ark is emitting some kind of wave that will make anything just disappear apparently, that at this rate the Federation fleet will all be gone in 72 hours. They guess that it is headed for planet Michtim because of the upcoming operation.
• Sellars and Dimitri talk and they talk about Abel, we find out that Abel must be over a thousand years old or more, meaning he existed since “that” era. Dimitri says he needs Abel to pilot Omega, once he gets the Zohar and Zarathustra he will be able to fight God.
• Pellegri and Margulis talk and Pellegri says how Abel’s Ark is the object that was said to appear when the Messiah was crucified. They say how they believe Zarathustra to be on Michtim, which explains why Abel’s Ark and the Federation Fleet are headed that way.
• Shion is sulking in her room and Jin tries to comfort her but is unable to do so. KOS MOS talks with her and Shion asks why she protects her, if protecting her was a priory Kevin put in. She says she doesn’t know but its part of her core functions.
• Nephilim appears and tells Shion not to reject everything, if she stays like this she will wind up alone. She says how what she wants from Kevin and what Kevin wants from her are different, that his salvation may not make her happy. If she goes to him then she will have to make a painful and difficult choice.
• We learn that the battle over Michtim has begun, and because of the wave thing half of the federation planets have disappeared. We find out that Dimitri wants Abel’s Ark because it has the original Zohar. Everyone makes plans that they have to do something so they head out for Michtim.
• In the E.S.s you infiltrate the Merkabah and eventually at its core come face to face with Sellars. Jr. yells at him for all the people he’s killed but he just says how he is no different. When Jr.  asks where his father is Sellars tells him to search himself, he should be able to find his comrades. Jr. is surprised, asking Gaignun and not believing it. Sellars says that unit 668 and 669’s purpose was to destroy 666, the red dragon, Jr. he also say that 669 had an additional purpose, the rebirth of Dimitri. Sellars also says that Dimitri needs the emulators to for something, which are all on the Durandal but Sellars laughs saying they can’t do anything about that now.
• We see the Durandal and in front of it Omega appears. The Durandal is then attacked and the ship is infiltrated by Dimitri’s men, Nigredo leading them. Eventually Nigredo gets to the bridge and shoots Mary. Juli yells asking what he is doing and he turns into Dimitri. Dimitri says how he needs some code from Mary and Shelly which is inside them. All of a sudden Canaan jumps out of no where and attacks Dimitri but Citrine jumps in and stops him.
• Everyone arrives at the Durandal and after seeing all the people dead, you go to try and save whom you can and free Shelly, Mary, Canaan and Juli. Then head over to the emulator hanger where you run into Citrine.  After defeating her you run up to Dimitri. Jr. yells at him to stop and he says how he doesn’t understand why he is here. He doesn’t’ want to kill U-DO, nothing can ever kill it. Dimitri says how in the past people were one with God, loved him and feared him Out of fear they sought power and became gods themselves. With their relics like the Merkabah and Omega he will make it so they can become gods once more. He says U-Do is a god of this dimension. Dimitri says if God cannot be destroyed then we shall be the ones to become gods ourselves.
• Dimitri pilots the Durandal into Abel’s Ark so he can get the original Zohar. Everyone manages to escape on the Elsa and we see Dimitri with the emulators and the original, powering up Omega.
• We see Kevin talking with Wilhelm. They mentioned Omega’s wakening and Kevin asks if he should send Albedo. Wilhelm says he really wants to go huh?
• The Elsa heads back into the fight and after talking Doctus says they can go after Dimitri by gate jumping inside Abel’s Ark. The Elsa does that and everyone eventually makes their way through, and get to Dimitri. After fighting him and then Omega Res Novae, Dimitri just says how they can’t defeat him, how he is going to ascend U-Do and awaken it. Jr. yells at him to stop and then White Testament says how it is not Dietary’s power to control; he is just being seduced by it.
• White Testament reveals himself as Albedo and says how they need to do something about these, and Abel and the Zohar float out of Omega and disappear, and Dimitri is pulled out and dropped to the ground. Albedo asks what Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes is doing and Dimitri yells at him but Albedo says he is not talking to him; he is talking to the one in the shadow. Dimitri says he can’t hear him but Albedo says he thinks he can. An image of Nigredo appears and asks Jr. to kill him while he still has his will. Jr. says how he can’t do it but Albedo says he won’t save anyone like that; he has the power, kill him! When Jr. says he can’t kill his brother Albedo says that he killed him, it’s the same thing.
• Albedo says that Jr. has the power to kill him, that he needs to link up. He says to Nigredo how he hates the idea of having to link with you, but it’s for Ruebedo, so join up. Jr. asks what he is talking about and Albedo says he is contaminated by U-DO, they were designed to neutralize it. They start the link and tell Nigredo to go into Ruebedo’s body so he isn’t blasted away and once everything goes, Nigredo goes into Albedo’s body. Nigredo asks about Albedo’s true feelings, why he is here. He tells Albedo to go back into Ruebedo.
• Nigredo talks to Jr. saying how he was only built to destroy him. All along he shouldn’t have existed, and Albedo knew this purpose and hated him for it. They talk a lot and eventually, Nigredo dies/disappears, and Albedo is either dies and goes away or his soul rests inside Ruebedo, Nigredo being gone for sure.
• We see Kevin and Wilhelm talking, some portal thing activates and Wilhelm says how it is time, let us go Joshua. Then there is a big flash and the Vector ship all of a sudden looses all its power.

Impressions:

I thought the whole scene at the end of this chapter, about the three URTV brothers was amazing. It was an awesome scene I thought because all throughout these games, Jr.’s complicated past and as well as his brothers and what they were made for has always been a deep interesting focus. I thought it was so sad that Nigredo died I mean for the most part all of the drama up until now was about Jr. and Albedo, because Jr. was good and Albedo evil, kind of. But then when they killed Nigredo it was just stunning, I don’t know, there was something about that scene altogether that was brilliant, the music, the emotions of the characters. Both Nigredo and Albedo dieing, well Albedo I’m not to sure about but he became less existent then he was before lets say.

Wilhelm is still so much of a mystery. I mean, you get caught up in watching all of this stuff go on, watching Dimitri explain his plans to basically become a god and you forget that behind that, Wilhelm is like orchestrating EVERTYHING. I mean, seriously I nearly forgot about him, being caught up in everything Dimitri was doing that when they showed Wilhelm, and showing that basically everything that happened was part of his plan, that was just amazing. He is defiantly one of the more interesting bad guys in several video games I’ve played.

They talked a lot more about Zarathustra in this chapter, and I’m getting more and more interested to find out what exactly it is, as it is OBVIUSLY important, because as I’ve stated before it’s in the damn games name, Also Sprach Zarathustra. Doesn’t that translate into Thus spoke Zarathustra? So that implies that Zarathustra might be a living thing. Going with that theory, Zarathustra is on Michtim so it can’t be like Shion, KOS MOS, or chaos. The only thing I can think of now, if we’ve seen Zarathustra thus far, is that it might be Nephilim. But it is entirely possible if Zarathustra is a being that we haven’t encountered them before.

Abel is still a big mystery, as he is still around and now apparently on Michtim as Albedo said They have hardly explained anything involving him or his past or what not, they just put him in there and have him be the pilot of a complicated machine. I just hope they explain it and don’t leave it open ended.

Summary: 

• Shion is being interrogated by Margulis. He brings in Souu and Kevin to help as he thinks Shion in more then a petty thief. When asking questions he mentions Vector so she exclaims she knew Vector was involved with Ormus. Margulis seems shocked, asking where she learned the name Ormus as it is an organization not made public yet.
• Back on the Elsa, Allen talks with Jin. Jin says how he is worried about Shion and how she keeps passing out. He says their mother had the same symptoms.
• Febronia comes to the Elsa and tells everyone how Shion is being held prisoner. Jr. says they have to rescue her but the security is too tight. Jin calls them idiots, not really, and says they know what is going to happen, in just a little while the war will begin and they know the details of it from beginning to end. U-TIC will be busy fighting the federation.
• You go out to rescue Shion. As you head to rescue her, Souu goes into Shion’s interrogation room. He talks with Shion and she learns how the only reason that he is doing what he is doing, sacrificing his wife and family is so he can protect them. Eventually Souu lets Shion go, much to Shion’s surprise. However the door locks and Pellegri communicates to them, as she has been watching them.  She says how she will dispose of both of them and we learn that Souu didn’t really betray the federation, as he has been leaking information to him.
• Just then the others come into the control room to save them. Jin and Pellegri seem to have some history, apparently Jin seems to have had feelings for her but she went with Margulis which would explain a bit why there is such hate between them. After defeating Pellegri you escape with Shion.
• Eventually you make you way to the church, as Souu asked you to save Shion. We see the scene at the church, Virgil is still there with Feb and Shion. Just then combat realians appear. Feb stands in the way and tells Virgil to escape with Shion. She dies protecting him and he doesn’t want to run and tries to fight them off. He gives Shion the key to the Labyrinthos entrance in the forest and tells her to go there and be with her family. After she runs off Virgil continues to fight the realians.
• Shion and the others arrive and after helping defeat the combat realians there Virgil tells you to go off save Shion, as more realians may be after her. More combat realians arrive and Shion gives Virgil a code to self destruct them. She tries to escape with him but he pushes her out of the way and closes the doors, sealing himself with the dozens more realians that appeared. He then blows them up, supposedly himself along with them.
• Shion rushes in yelling no and you hear a laugh from above. Blue Testament is there watching all this.  He talks with Shion calling her a hypocrite because of all she does to try and speak for realian rights yet at that time she had a code to self destruct them and so on. You then fight him and eventually defeat him.
• A ghost image of Feb appears and after a long talk about hate and how the reason he became a testament was because he wanted to return to this place that proved who he was. There is a bunch of talk about feelings and so forth and eventually the ghost image of Feb leads Virgil to the afterlife.
• You go to find young Shion and with her you make your way back to Labyrinthos to save Shion’s mother. Along the way Shion runs ahead and we see a shot of Souu arriving at Shion’s mom’s room, with young Shion trying to get inside. Souu sees the super crazed combat realians and pushes Shion inside to save her, getting killed by the realians. The realians get inside the room however and Shion hides under the bed as they kill her mom.
• The older Shion and everyone make their way and eventually get to the room. After defeating the realians Shion stares in disbelief that she didn’t make it. Young Shion is by the bed side crying. She yells out no and we see the Zohar activating because of this. Because of this activation it causes a portal to appear, bringing the Gnosis into this world.
• Shion is in utter shock, not able to believe or want to believe it. She called the gnosis into this world. She herself now yells no, causing herself to glow and a huge beam of light into space. From the beam of light, Abel’s Ark appears.
• Everyone, being really calm headed for some reason, wonder what’s going on, this didn’t happen 15 years ago. chaos says that that is Abel’s Ark. He says that’s why they brought Shion here, this isn’t the past it’s a reality constructed inside Shion’s mind. He says that they are using Shion to correct in the present what they were unable to accomplish in the past.
• Red Testament appears saying how indeed the Gnosis were called by Shion when she was a child. Red doesn’t have his mask on or hood, revealing to everyone he is Kevin. He says how he took this form to get more power, but it’s still him. Kevin asks for Shion to come with him. Jr. interrupts asking who the hell he thinks he is opening up old wounds and asking her that. Kevin says silence; none of you can save Shion. Kevin says how Shion is suffering from the same illness as her mother. He says Shion has a power that no one can understand, but it will one day cost her her life. Kevin says that all the people with this illness have the same ability, of communicating with U-DO He says the people are unable to stand the stress of direct contact with U-DO. Kevin continues saying how he became a Testament to save Shion. He says the only ones who can save her are him and T-ellos. Allen asks then what the hell about KOS MOS. Kevin says she is just a prototype to collect data for T-ellos. Kevin says the source of KOS MOS’s power comes from U-Do, by using the Zohar as a door. He says because of this connection, the closer Shion and KOS MOS’s wills come together, the greater the stress on Shion.
• Kevin tells Shion how he wants her to come with him. Jin however steps in the way, stopping Shion saying he cant’ let her leave here with him. He doesn’t believe that he can be trusted. We see T-ellos appear behind Kevin. Jr. then shoots at him but T-ellos blocks the bullets and Shion stops Jr. Jin pushes Shion over to KOS MOS, telling her to take Shion and run. Kevin tells her no, to bring Shion to her. Jin says not to listen to him, and Allen yells out the same thing. KOS MOS tells Kevin that she is not programmed to follow his orders. He asks she is defying the one who created her. She says the KOS MOS created by him was defeated by T-ellos. She has new designers now; Shion and Allen.
• KOS MOS knocks Shion out and carries her away, and T-ellos chases after them, however she stops when Kevin tells them to. KOS MOS boards the Elsa which then heads to Labyrinthos for the others.
• We see Joachim working frantically. Sellers asks what he is doing, that if the does that they will lose control of the Zohar. Joachim says he has to save the universe even if it means destroying this planet. Joachim goes out onto the balcony, overlooking the millions of Gnosis around the planet. He says to himself, to MOMO how he decided to sacrifice this people and its inhabitants so she can live in a peaceful world. Joachim shouts out some words about hell and fire and the second death and so on. Then he sees something, asking who is there. There is an explosion and Joachim falls to his death.
• The Elsa arrives to pick everyone up and heads off the planet as the Song of Nephilim rises. It starts to glow and activate and there is a huge flash as the Elsa is escaping the planet.
• We see Wilhelm on some mecha, black surrounds around him with Red standing with him. There is a flash and a ball of energy appears. He says the first awakening has gone smoothly. Wilhelm says how the Vessels of Anima are the body of God divided by the Saint in ancient times to protect the universe from dissipation. He says they can’t allow the universes failsafe to activate, they must control the body of God with their own hands.

Impressions:

Ok, this chapter was absolutely amazing. It was huge and had so much storyline advancement that it just shocked me left and right. There were defiantly some things that I didn’t see coming at all.

One thing I want to say before I move to the important serious theorizing was that there was a moment in this chapter that made me laugh harder then I had ever laughed before. Seriously one of the funniest video game parts I’ve ever experienced. When everyone was running along and the giant piece of mecha came crashing down almost hitting them was hilarious. When Jr. looked up and saw Asher flying, the cause of the crash that almost hit them and he yelled up to watch below when fighting, then chaos laughed, that was just great. chaos apologizing because it was him who was piloting it. Although it doesn’t seem like that hilarious of a thing, it’s just in the moment and when I saw it I found it hilarious, especially the way chaos apologized for it when Jr. wasn’t directing it at him but at the…other him.

Ok, the main thing about this chapter that I felt was WTF! When I learned of the whole Shion being the one who summoned the Gnosis, I nearly lost it. I didn’t see that one coming at all. I mean, it’s so…wow, that one is just amazing. My best guess is that it has something to do with both her being a descendant of the Immigrant Fleet and also the fact that she can communicate with U-DO. Although, the U-DO thing could and probably is a result of her being related to the Immigrant Fleet.

Also, I was a bit surprised with how they concluded Virgil’s thing. Although I figured that they would eventually have to phase out all of the Testaments, because stories that usually have an elite group of mysterious people, like KHII, eventually have them die out until the last guy. So now we have three testaments left. Even though I suspected Virgil to die or go away at one point, his end was still a bit surprising. I mean, basically he went peacefully and they really delved into his feelings and reason for becoming a Testament. I had guessed that they would just kill him to defeat him, not have a ghost of Feb who he apparently had feelings for or something appear and take him to the afterlife. Although I did really enjoy his ending I have to say, I think it was interesting to watch how they described his character, about the reason for becoming a Testament was he wanted to return to his moment where he saved everyone because it defined who he truly was.

I liked how they showed Joachim’s reasons for sealing off Miltia. They showed that he wasn’t the one who summoned the Gnosis but he was still responsible of the likely millions of deaths on the planet by activating everything and sealing away Miltia. Although even though without the Gnosis thing, he did do something bad but it was for the greater good. Although, one thing that I think is left unresolved a bit is exactly how Joachim died. When he was standing on the balcony, before the explosion and him falling to his death he suddenly turned around asking who is there. So I think that the reason he fell had to be someone’s fault, and not just a coincidence that some fire from somewhere else coincidently hit the exactly balcony where he was.

On a smaller note, I was really pleasantly surprised with all the supporting character at the end of this chapter. I loved how Jin and everyone else stopped Shion from going to Kevin. I would have been so pissed if they just suddenly go from thinking that Testament equals bad, but since its Kevin he must be good. I was very pleased with Jin and Jr. for standing up against Kevin saying how they don’t trust him, Jr. even trying to attack him. Also, hurray for KOS MOS and not listening to Kevin’s orders.

The whole thing between Jin and Pellegri was also really shocking. I mean, although it isn’t anything crucial to the overall storyline it still was a little surprising to find out that they had a history with each other like they did, with Jin apparently having feelings for her.

Summary:

• Shion returns to the Elsa with the Base Theory data on KOS MOS. The professor says he doesn’t know if he can reboot her with this, but he’ll try. In the background, Black Testament teleports in.
• Allen goes to get Shion, as the professor wants his opinion. While getting Shion, there is a huge explosion, and we see black testament in KOS MOS maintenance lab where the explosion was. Voyager, Black, is carrying KOS MOS maintenance tube thing. Everyone come sin trying to fight him but they aren’t able to scratch him. Ziggy comes in addressing him as Voyager asking him why he is here. He just attacks them. Shion comes in trying to charge voyager but her attack does no good. Voyager holds her up telepathically by her throat (omg, its Darth Vader!) Shion is gasping for air, saying KOS MOS. There is then a huge explosion of blue energy from KOS MOS’s tube. Shion says it’s the Hilbert effect and an arm smashed out, grabbing Voyager’s. KOS MOS breaks out and attacks Voyager, throwing him against the wall but he just hovers there. KOS MOS isn’t able to scratch him as he seems to have an invincible force field.
• You all fight against him and after “defeating’ him Ziggy asks why he is doing this, if this will really satisfy his never ending thirst for power. He calls him Erich as eh tries to attack him. He then asks if he thinks he’s really won and we see KOS MOS having snuck up behind him. She activates the Hilbert Effect and punches her arm through Voyager’s chest. She throws him against the wall. We then hear Red’s voice, asking how much longer he intended to play with them, its time for him to leave. Voyager just laughs, saying to Ziggy they will have to settle this another time, calling him Jan Sauer.
• Shion hugs KSO MOS, saying how glad she is that she is awake. She then seems to fall asleep in her arms. She finds herself on a beach somewhere, and sees Joachim standing on the beach as well. She talks to him and he says some things about how waves are like the relationship between people. He then says something about being true to her feelings, not doing anything she doesn’t want to do. Do that and she will answer your call. She then turns around and sees some woman standing in a dress with long brown hair. She looks at her face and says KOS MOS.
• Shion wakes up and talks to Jin. She tells him about what she saw when she saw Joachim in town. She says they were researching Vessels of Anima. That they are needed to activate the Zohar, if they can get those they may be able to stop the Miltian conflict, save everyone including their mother, and get the power needed to return to their time. Shin runs off saying how this is a past she doesn’t want and she is going to change it. After she leaves, Jin just says that you need your past to be who you are now.
• Everyone heads to Labyrinthos to get the Vessels of Anima. Along the way, you see Joachim and MOMO runs ahead wanting to see “daddy”. She talks with him, Joachim supposedly not realizing who she is. He talks of how he is trying to make a realian like her because his daughter died. After he leaves, you continue along until you see Kevin and Souu walk out from some room. After investigating the room Shion finds the name of all the test subjects, including her own name. She then sees a bunchy of combat realians in some tubes, the same kind that killed her mom. She can’t believe it, that this means Kevin killed her mom.
• After continuing further you see Margulis, Souu, and Kevin talking in front of Proto Omega. They talk about how they need the Zohar and the Vessel of Anima, how they will allow them to return to Lost Jerusalem and things like that.
• You finally reach the room where the Vessels of Anima are. After opening the cages you see a bunch of the E.S. crafts. Simeon, Dinah, Zebulan, Reuben, Levi, Issachar, Gad, Joseph, Dan, Naphtali, Judah. She says Asher’s cage is empty. Shion questions this, saying how the E.S.s where developed at Vector. Jin says he guesses Heinlein and Wilhelm were working together.
• After boarding the E.S., and the professor giving Asher some back up power thing, you head off. Eventually you overhear the enemy communications and Shion hears how her mother is being moves somewhere. She heads off by herself to save her, leaving the rest to fight another mecha that appears to stop you.
• Shion makes her way to where her mom is being kept when she hears her name called. She sees Red Testament appear before her. Red calls her by her name and she gets angry, but Red reveals to her his identity, Kevin. Just then the guards arrive and capture Shion as she screams for Kevin to help her, but he fades away.

Impressions:

One thing that this whole time slip thing has me wondering about is what would happen if they actually did prevent the Miltian conflict, like Shion seems to want to. I mean, if I remember chaos met Jr. during the Miltian conflict so that connection wouldn’t be there, and also Albedo was infected and went all crazy during the Miltian conflict as well. If that never happened then would Albedo really be as evil as he was? I mean, before then he was still a little crazy after finding out that he couldn’t die and others he knew could, but without getting infected I think he would be drastically different.

Ok, we defiantly saw in this episode some more mystery and hinting at the possibility of at least KOS MOS becoming human. When Shion was talking with Joachim they turned around and saw clearing a human woman with long brown hair and the face of KOS MOS. Shion even murmured KOS MOS’s name when she saw her.

Another mystery would be why Shion’s name was on the list of test subjects. I mean her moms name being on there wasn’t really a mystery because we knew she was being tested on and we saw that, however Shion’s name was there too. Does this mean she already was experimented on and didn’t know it or that there was a plan to experiment on her?

Another thing I found a bit odd, is that no one questioned Ziggy’s connection with Voyager. I mean, even I the last game he called this supposedly unknown person by a name, and then in this episode he called him by not only Voyager but yelled out Erich. He also talked to him, and from the talk it seemed pretty obvious that they had some sort of past together, yet no one questions it and I’m pretty sure Ziggy hasn’t’ just told them off camera.

Another mystery I found was why Asher didn’t have a Vessel of Anima. All the other ones had them except for Asher. Now, I don’t’ really know how big of a deal that is but it does seem a little bit odd.

Summary:

• On board the Durandal, Shelly and Mary are trying to locate the Elsa. They are called by Juli and she tells them that the Federation is planning on launching an all out attack on Ormus home planet, employing the Merkabah, which means Dimitri is behind this. Juli says how Dimitri wouldn’t move the entire fleet unless he was after something more. She says in the Y Data there were records of some object there, the Eternal Circle – Zarathustra.
• Shion tells Allen she wants to head outside, as she has to do something. Although Allen warns her of interacting with the past, she goes anyways and he accompanies her. They go into the city and they see the site of some crash. They hide when someone comes and they see Shion’s father along with some other U-TIC people. He says the realians involved in the crash were all destroyed and he says how it’s ok, the project can still continue. He heads off to the city.
• Shion and Allen get fake IDs form the realian bodies and make their way to the facility where Shion’s father went. They manage to get in and they meet with Joachim Mizrahi. After entering some data, as he thinks you are the new assistants, he tells you to fetch is other assistant Kevin.
• Heading next door you meet with young Kevin who was the boy at the church. After telling him Mizrahi needs him, Shion sees the data on the computer in his room is about KOS MOS’s base theory. She downloads it in hopes it can help reboot KOS MOS. After getting Kevin, Mizrahi tells you to take some data to the next floor. Heading there, Shion sees her dad who is doing some experiments on her mom. She objects, saying how could he do something like that to a member of his family and they argue, him saying she isn’t feeling pain, this is so she gets better. Young Shion then comes in saying how she wants to see mom.  Souu, Shion’s dad, says it’s not visiting time. Shion says she will take Shion out and does so.
• We see somewhere, Margulis talking with Sellers. They stand before Omega which has the Zohar in it. They talk about how making realians loose control is a brilliant plan. Sellers says it was Kevin’s idea to make Mizrahi into a scapegoat.

Impressions:

Kevin’s past was a really big shocker in this chapter. We found out not only did he work with U-TIC and Joachim and Souu, but also that it was seemingly his idea to put all the blame for the incident on Joachim, as Sellers said. He defiantly seems to be a deviant little one at that age.

They only briefly mentioned this but after everyone gets out of their whole time anomaly I think they will deal with this. Juli said something about how the Federation is going to attack the Ormus stronghold, using the new Merkabah. The main thing I think this will focus on is Dimitri and the whole deal between him and Jr. They will also hopefully give Citrine a bigger part, as she is one of the four final U.R.T.V.s.

Along with the attack the other focus is this Zarathustra thing, which is likely the reason for all this attack. Now, the main reason I think its important is because, well, it’s the title of the game. Also sprach Zarathustra is the sub name of the game so it’s probably fairly important and the game centers around it somehow.

Summary:

• We see a flashback to Shion in her underwear with Kevin without a shirt. They are talking about the Gnosis phenomena. Kevin then gives Shion the necklace, and we find out that it is the one Kevin’s mother gave him.
• Shion finds herself in some small forest. She wanders around until she meet sup with everyone, but they are missing KOS MOS. They continue on their way looking for her and they see a giant tower, Labyrinthos, a tower on Miltia that was destroyed 15 years ago. They guess they may be in the past on Militia.
• They head along and they run into a young Virgil who has been injured. They take him along the path to try and treat his wounds when they see Feb. Shion says that she knows where a church is, if they follow Feb they can find a place to have Virgil rest. They reach the church and are greeted by a young girl, and Shion is surprised to see. She runs off to tell Feb they have guests and Shion says that little girl is her.
• Feb comes out and so does a young boy that Shion also seems to recognize. They place Virgil down and decide to treat him after some quarrels about him being an enemy soldier. When treating his injuries they find the only way to save is life it’s to transplant Feb’s organs into him. She says she will be fine because she can heal if she is taken to Labyrinthos. The procedure is done and Shion learns of a green ship to the east, which she suspects is the Elsa so everyone goes off in search of it.
• Everyone gets to the mines that lead to where the ship is and they run into an old man. He says his daughter Mai is in the miens fighting against U-TIC. They eventually meet her and fight her because she won’t believe they are not U-TIC. After defeating her and sparing her life, the old man comes along and she buys that Shion and co. aren’t with U-TIC.
• A short ways past Mai you find the Elsa. However, Allen tells Shion of the bad news. They found KOS MOS but she is damaged. He takes her to where she is being kept and he says that her core was damaged, and the only one who can fix that would be Kevin. KOS MOS will never move again.

Impressions:

Well, they kind of left off with a bit of a cliffhanger. Although it’s kind of obvious that KOS MOS will be fine, it’s early in the game and she is an important character. Still wonder how they are going to bring her back though. It’s not likely that Red will just teleport in her room, fix everything, and poof away.

I love Mai’s character. She had me laughing throughout her entire part and I really hope they feature her again, especially if it’s in the present since we saw her in the past. Just her voice seemed perfect and how she was so stubborn and her lines. She isn’t’ the most innovative character or anything, just hard to describe, I love her character.

Although this was a fairly short chapter, there is the mystery of how they exactly ended up in the past and how they are going to get back. Although I found it a little stupid they saved Virgil. I mean, kill him now when he is weak so he can….wait, it doesn’t matter because he became a Testament anyways. Well, maybe if he died here he wouldn’t’ have so they still should have killed him.

Summary:

• Shion and everyone arrive at the area that the Elsa disappeared. After defeating some Gnosis that appear, KOS MOS manages to pierce the energy around the area and they all head though.
• Blue is talking with Roth, asking if he is infatuated with her or if it is regret from when he wore flesh. He says how now he is going to use the daughter in place of the imperfect mother, the Maiden who invites the spreading Gnosis. Blue then mentions something about not liking the idea of that thing as the womb.
• Shion finds the Elsa but we find out that because the logic drive isn’t working, they can’t get out. Everyone goes outside in their E.S to try and find what the problem is. They reach a cave with some ancient writing on it. MOMO reads it as the passage from the bible where the angel rolls away the stone in front of Jesus’s tomb. She says she can’t read the language, but she remembers those exact words from the Y Data.
• They are all of a sudden interrupted by Blue Testament, and he reveals his identity to everyone, Shion being shocked as she knew Virgil. All of a sudden the writing on the walls starts to glow and the E.S. start responding, confusing everyone. They ask what’s going on and Virgil just laughs that they don’t know. He says it’s the vessels of Anime, when they all say they don’t know what those are and he just calls them stupid and attacks.
• After defeating Blue, another E.S. arrives and we see White Testament saying how its time to go. Blue just says how looks like the new guy is crashing the party. Jr. recognizes White’s voice, asking if it’s Albedo. White says nothing and Blue and White head away. The E.S.s aren’t responding so they have to go through the cave on foot for now.
• They make their way through and eventually come to some site with a bunch of tombs. MOMO reds the name on the tombs and they are all E.S. names, Asher, Dinah, etc. All of a sudden they are attacked by T-ellos. T-ellos says she is here to collect the thirteenth key. Everyone seems shocked to see her except chaos who says he senses a strange present, but that can’t be…
• After fighting T-ellos, Roth shows up. Shion is confused asking why he his here and he reveals himself to be Red Testament. He says it’s his job to look over her. KOS MOS and T-ellos continue to fight, T-ellos kicking KOS MOS’s ass. Eventually after saying how KOS MOS will be destroyed so she can fully awaken, she powers up some blast. She fires it at KOS MSO and she tires to stop it. While this is happening, Shion’s necklace glows and there is a huge flash of light and she yells no. When the light settles, KOS MOS collapses and T-ellos steps on her, crushing her saying she will be the one. Shion sees an image of T-ellos but in human form in a gown and brown hair. KOS MOS begins to glow as T-ellos is pressing against her.
• There is a huge flash of light and the force field around Renees-le-Chateau goes all crazy. We see Wilhelm in his office, looking at the compass off order and chaos. It is spinning all crazily and he says it’s begun again, in the same place as last time.

Impressions:

Ok, not quite as many interesting things that add a lot of mystery, but some important plot developments.

I was pleasantly surprised that someone actually recognized a character by their voice. I mean, if I can do it, they should be able to do it much easier. Jr. Recognizing Albedo’s voice made perfect sense and I would have just gone crazy if he didn’t.

I thought the KOS MOS and T-ellos fight was amazing. It was executed brilliantly and I just thought the dynamics of the fight and the whole scene was just amazing. It wasn’t completely one sided at first, then it gradually went to T-ellos side without showing a huge change in the fight style. Wonderful I say.

What was up with Shion’s necklace? They never really ever touched on that as far as I remember. Maybe they showed where she got it once but they never made a big deal about it, but in this chapter at the end it was focused on sever times by the camera and then finally it glowed and there was a huge flash of light. Although we really didn’t see it do anything, it’s obviously important.

The whole deal with T-ellos seems to be escalading. About how she needs to kill KOS MOS to fully awaken and what exactly that means. They showed a shot of T-ellos as human so does that mean if T-ellos reaches being fully awakened she will become human? I would think that would limit her power. This also means that maybe in the end KOS MOS will become human or something, as they seem to be special androids that are far above just machines.

Summary:

• Shion heads off the planet and says to herself how she has been wanting to know more about the immigrant fleet, the group behind the Miltian Conflict, and about the words Patriarch Serguis said, about the Ormus being the rightful possessors of the Zohar. Six months ago she ran into the group Scientia and with their aid was able to get answers. She talks about some project that is a Zohar control program developed using the Lost Jerusalem era by a man named Grimoire. Grimoire wandered the U.M.N as a mental entity in search of a being. In search of Nephilim. She found out that the organization behind controlling Grimoire from the shadows was Vector; a department wiped from the records and backed by the government. Vector had connections with U-TIC, which was connected with Ormus. Shion found out the man in charge of that division at the time, her father. However she felt nothing, no surprise, no sadness, no anger. She then quit Vector. Her friends there and KOS MOS were her only bonds linking her to Kevin.
• Shion arrives at Fifth Jerusalem where Allen invited her to come see him. She heads over to the hotel where she is to meet him.
• We see a shot of Nigredo struggling, in pain saying how he won’t do it, and he yells out to stop talking to him, he won’t do what he wants. We then see Dimitri and Citrine in his lab. They go to talk with Sellers, someone working for Dimitri it seems. He talks about some project or experiment, how it is generating too much power. They also mention if Dimitri is going to use “her”, it may be another Vector plot. He says it’s still just an anti-Gnosis weapon. Sellers then asks him if he has an opponent for this thing, as they will need a strong one. Citrine says not to worry, they have that covered. Dimitri adds it’s the perfect plan for those who are opposing Vector.
• At Vector, one of the people who work in Shion’s old department says how he has big news. KOS MOS is going to be the opponent for the new weapon in the demonstration.
• Allen meets up with Shion and heads up to her hotel room. They get a call from Miyuki however saying to Allen how there is going to be a demonstration that KOS MOS is going to participate in so he has work to do. He head off and Shion takes a nap.
• Shion wakes up and gets a call from chaos. They meet and he tells her about what happened to the Elsa. After that she all of a sudden sees some flash and passes out. She is surrounded by the red that Nigredo was seen earlier in, Shion recognizing this as U-DO waves. She hears a voice calling her Shion, and next we see her in bed in her hotel room.
• Shion meets up with Allen to go to the demonstration and tells her how the Zohar project was handed from the subcommittee to Dimitri and he is in charge of that as well as the unit in the mock battle they are going to. They get to the demonstration and see the new combat unit, T-ellos, who looks like KOS MOS. Some Gnosis appear which were contained for this fight and T-ellos kicks their ass. Allen says based on the specs she is three times as powerful as KOS MOS. Then the next part of the battle begins and KOS MOS appears on the filed. Just then the ground opens up and Omega rises up, to Shion’s complete surprise. Allen says they are calling it Omega Res Novae. KOS MOS fights Omega who supposedly has some pilot that Juli is monitoring the vitals of. KOS MOS isn’t doing too well against it and is loosing. She kicks him over however but then it goes berserk, slamming KOS MOS against the wall. It starts shooting beams at the walls, destroying thins and causing problems. Apparently the brainwaves of the pilot are going berserk. Jul yells for them to shut it down and to eject the pilot. They do and the demonstration is over.
• Shion is heading away from where she watched the demonstration and run into Juli. They talk a bit and a young boy named Abel comes in. He gets some crayon/marker from Juli and she explains to Shion he is a member of the Zohar project. Able finishes drawing on the floor and heads off and much to Shion’s surprise he drew a picture of Nephilim.
• After a short visit with the people still from her old division, she kind of talks to KOS MOS even though she is under maintenance and can’t hear her. She says how she is still trying so hard and she hasn’t done anything. Shion leaves and soon after Roth, the guy in charge of T-ellos comes over with news that the subcommittee has decided to completely cancel KOS MOS. They are going to scrap her, she will never wake again. Everyone there is shocked and in an outrage but he just says that’s what the order says, they’ve decided to put all their resources into T-ellos.
• Shion is in her room and after she talks to Doctus about some things Nephilim appears. She says, “Trying to protect someone does not always lead to happiness.” Grimoire was only trying to find her, with him gone the Gnosis should have stopped expanding but didn’t. The Gnosis phenomenon now is not caused by Lemegeton. Certain being is leading universe to destruction. Individual who continues to exist for his own atonement. He hopes for happiness of the one important to him, but that will bring suffering to many. The only one who knows where we are heads is KOS MOS. Shion is the only one who can open KOS MOS’s hear. Nephilim then disappears
• Nephilim is seen sitting outside with chaos, saying she knew she wouldn’t be able to tell her. Truth is too hard for Shion right now, if she let it pass without knowing it would be easier. chaos says truth doesn’t always lead to happiness, they might be better without it. Nephilim says Shion’s heart will…, but chaos asks what if that’s inevitable? His existence and hers may be an inevitable part of this world where all things slow to a certain point. Nephilim says she doesn’t believe in a single future, a single human though can change the future, chaos I the one who taught people that. His power is limited; he asks why he is allowed to exist.
• Canaan and Juli are talking, saying how there is no information on Roth. Canaan also says to rescue the Elsa they need the omega, which isn’t going to happen, or KOS MOS’s Tertiary Weapons System. Juli says how she is scheduled for disposal so that’s unlikely too. Canaan basically calls her stupid saying that
• Margulis is talking with Heinlein. He asks how they could just abandon Omega, it was originally theirs. Heinlein just says there is no need, it has returned to its master.
• Red tells Wilhelm the preparations are complete. Wilhelm says this will capture her heart and Red says when it does when will willingly wrap its threads around herself to find the truth. Wilhelm says Dreams, future, possibilities. She was born to put an end to these fleeting illusions.
• Shion talks with Doctus and she learns that there is no record of T-ellos anywhere, not the budge or where it came from, or about Roth. After Shion says that something like KOS MOS has to be transported in a vessel Doctus says how some records about a ship that was docked and the weight difference, something was taken off the ship but not registered. Shion suspects that because the ship belonged to Ormus and the weight difference is that of what KOS MOS would weigh, Ormus is involved in T-ellos. Shion then finds out some information on her father, how he was working with U-TIC and Mizrahi, and could have had something in summoning the Gnosis.
• Allen meets with Shion and he tells her how Juli wants to meet with him, they go out to eat fast food as they won’t be able to have their dinner together as they planned.
• Doctus approaches Canaan asking what Project Canaan is. He says he doesn’t know and she believes him, she gives him some information they obtained from vector about it.
• Shion goes to the Durandal and meets up with everyone. Juli tells everyone how the only way to rescue the Elsa is to use KOS MOS. Everyone thinks how it isn’t a possibility, but Ziggy, not being an idiot, gets the idea that they need to steal her. Shion agrees and so they prepare for infiltration of the facility that night. Before they go, Juli talks to Shion, telling her how KOS MOS isn’t a weapon, feeling KOS MOS possess something important. Maybe a heart.
• Shion and co. go to rescue KOS MOS, infiltrating the facility. There they run into Abel who shows them the way to KOS MOS without saying much. They recover KOS MOS and escape from the facility after defeating a large Gnosis that was being kept there.
• Roth watches the Durandal take off, standing on the station in out space (you know, where you would normally need air) Blue Testament appears next to him asking if he will let them go. He says the compass sharpens whenever Shion comes in contact with KOS MOS; this is all part of the flow.

Impressions:

Ok, this chapter had a lot of information in it, a shit load compared to last chapter. That’s probably also from the fact this chapter is like three times larger. Well, um, don’t’ know what much to say here so on to the theories!

One mystery is Shion’s continual pass outs, which is also linked with the mystery of U-Do which called itself the will of the universe. Ok, so obviously Shion’s pass outs aren’t from exhaustion, which I thought was pretty obvious not sure why no one thought anything higher of her being exhausted when she passed out like five times a day. Whenever she passed out she kind of communicated with U-DO which alone is kind of a mystery, but the other thing is that U-DO called itself the will of the universe, which was even more of a shocker. What exactly does it mean by that? Before I had never really thought that much about what U-DO really was, just some anomaly in the world but it looks like it will play a much bigger role and seems to have some connection to Shion.

chaos. What more is there to say, he’s always been a mystery. His whole conversation with Nephilim though really had me going wtf throughout the whole thing. I mean, they keep building up this mystery to what chaos is but it’s like they don’t make that big of a deal about it yet. Here was some line that Nephilim said, that chaos is the one that taught people that a thought can change the world. That’s what really had me wondering. She referred to him basically as a god, which probably isn’t too far off what he is but there is the other side where chaos said how his power is limited, and he doesn’t know why he is allowed to exist so that makes me think on the other side of that that he isn’t as high up as a god or something.

T-ellos. Now, the mystery behind her I think isn’t just the fact she is there and everything, it’s what exactly she is and her true purpose. I got the impression form who they talked about she came out of no where and because of weight differences on ships she was brought to Fifth Jerusalem by an Ormus ship. My guess is that she is, or has some connection, to this Saint that Ormus keeps talking about. It’s mostly obvious I think that when the Testaments where all gathered around the stone casket saying how this is their Saint, they may have been looking at T-ellos. That would explain why Margulis thought their saint was on Renees-le-Chateau and it wasn’t, because it was taken off by an Ormus ship which is what the whole deal with the weight differences and her being secretly delivered to Fifth Jerusalem.

Abel is another mystery in this chapter. Abel seems like he will be important throughout the whole story, being a mystery and eventually finding out he is some big super powerful potential. His connection with Nephilim has me wondering though, as he drew a picture of her but it seems like only Shion and chaos have had contact with her to our knowledge. Also there is the whole mystery of how he can pilot Omega, but like I said that will likely just be some part where thy say he is special and has potential, but the question is why.

Shion’s father. We get more and more information that clues that it was Shion’s father’s fault that the Gnosis appeared, and it is possible that he was solely in charge of it, and not just an accomplice with Mizrahi

Finally, we have Roth. I really am unsure about this guy. At first I thought he was just some sort of pawn being used by Wilhelm and the Testaments or something, but then he is seen not needing air in the void of space talking casually with Blue Testament. He talks about the Compass of Order and Chaos which Wilhelm has and seems familiar with it. One possibility is that he IS Wilhelm, just using the body Roth so it fits more he is working on some weapon and not governing a big secretive company. It would explain why Roth has no papers or history, because he was made up by Wilhelm.