It seems appropriate to bring Stragus and Relm back here.

However, only moments later...

Relm rushes back, waving her arms.

They head into Stragus's house, where Gungho lies in bed upstairs.

Though the monster's name is literally "hidden" as rendered in Japanese, making it a bit less on-the-nose in English does make sense.

Stragus takes a few slow steps away, and Relm gets in his face.

Stragus heads downstairs and starts to leave.

Note that he says nothing about going alone, just that he can't stay behind.

Stragus leaves. Relm looks relieved.

Then she rushes to catch up with him.

The island may take its name from a type of hat.

One of the more annoying dungeons. Though not very large, it has warp tiles all over (destination randomly chosen), and only a small radius around the party is visible. "The Phantom Forest" plays throughout. An oddly demanding treasure chest also blocks the way.

A treasure chest that talks and hungers. Give that a few moments to sink in. What the heck?

Explore to find chests containing Coral Fragments, each containing 1, 2, 3, or 5 at random. The hungry chest will allow passage after feeding it at least 22 pieces all at once, regardless of previous feedings. However, it won't allow passage at all unless the party includes Stragus, no matter how much it eats.

The monsters here are fairly varied, though most prefer physical attacks. Just about the only thing they have in common is hoarding Teleport Stones, so at least you don't have to worry about getting stuck in here. Raspir should kill a Moon Form, for what it's worth.

Gorge the chest to continue.

The chest changes color and hops away.

It's not surprised or anything like that, just moving. Another peculiar bad translation.

A big green monster waits ahead.

Hidden is the big one, naturally. Expect Poison and status attacks, cast Quake when properly defended to kill off the Erebus quickly (monsters #294, #352, #353, and #354), survive Grand Trine (about 900 to 1,000 damage) so Stragus can learn it, and then feel free to finish off the beast. Hidden has weaknesses against Flame, Holy, and Earth attacks, all readily exploitable, so it shouldn't take all that long. Try to steal a rare Crown of Thorns, only otherwise available through Ragnarök's Metamorphose, though usually you'll just get the common Teleport Stone.

Hidden is also undead, so the usual cheap tactic works as well.

The party returns to the village.

A few unused lines relating to this battle suggest some ideas were removed or never fully implemented:

This has to have been a relatively early idea, since Hidden's minions go by エレボス (Erebus) in the released version of the game, not Hihidden. Either that, or the monster itself was going to appear in a different form that you had to somehow provoke into changing.

Stragus rushes into the room where Gungho still lies resting.

With Stragus refusing to leave him alone, Gungho gets up.

As they continue to overreact, Relm walks in calmly.

Another botched translation.

Night falls.

Stragus excitedly tells Gungho the tale of his exploits.

The classic comic book sound effects seemed approrpiate.

Some time later, Gungho leaves the house to find Relm standing by the village center.

Relm runs off while he's still processing her parting insult.

After the event, Gungho appears roaming around in the village. Each time talking to him has a random 1 in 8 chance to make Hidden reappear:

Head back to the cave for another shot at stealing a Crown of Thorns or learning Grand Trine, the strongest of Stragus's Memorized Techniques. You can now also reach Hidden without Stragus in the party, and can keep talking to Gungho again to repeat this as many times as you like.

Perhaps it would do Cayenne good to pay his former home a visit. Bring a full party, grab any treasures you haven't already collected, and go take a nap. But Cayenne won't get up, and then some weird kids appear. "??" plays.

"Dream" in French.

"Dream" in Italian.

"Dream" in Spanish. Though arguably amusing, the Three Stooges names are spurious. Incidentally, the Three Stooges are called 三ばか大将 (roughly, "the three chief morons") in Japanese.

Come to think of it, someone in Nikaea mentioned demons appearing in his dreams when he slept in Doma Castle. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. The kids hop into Cayenne, and the rest of the party somehow follows...

...and winds up scattered across a bizarre area full of doors, stairs, and an ambience that looks a bit drug-induced. "The Phantom Forest" plays. Whichever character was closest to the bottom of the party formation, not counting Cayenne, starts this section alone. Explore to find the other two, each guarded by one of the brothers.

Gogo incorrectly uses Mog's palette if lying around, and appears mostly pink.

Equip a Ribbon and kill things with fire for best results. Some of the monsters are unique to this area and should be fought now, since there's no returning here after leaving. Once all three characters reunite, trying to enter a previously shielded particularly conspicuous door results in actually fighting the brothers.

Rêve (the red one) is the strongest and most troublesome, having the ability to revive the others, but is vulnerable to 'sleep' and weak against Ice and Water. Freeze him to death as soon as possible. Sueño (the one with eyes closed and a hand raised) uses mostly support magic and has no weakness, but is vulnerable to 'berserk' and 'stop'. Sogno (the bluest one) prefers offensive spells, and is weak against Flame and vulnerable to 'slow', 'silence', and 'confusion' (and instant death, but Rêve will just revive him if able to). Sogno also has the oddity of being able to run away, but only after being hit a few times with one of the others dead.

He'll return after a delay if the battle hasn't ended in the meantime, with full health but the same MP and status ailments as when he left.

Also, as long as all three remain, they'll use Delta Attack every so often, but that just sets 'petrified', so equip Ribbons and it's nothing to worry about.

All three will also bounce spells of their element—Flame for Rêve, Ice for Sogno, and Thunder for Sueño—off themselves to attack when affected by 'reflect', and will cast Reflect on themselves after being hit with a few spells. They're all fairly easy to protect against, though.

Also note that Rêve's 'reflect' script takes precedence over reviving the other two, so you can cast it on him yourself to keep them down for a while.

Stragus's Great Tidal Wave and Shadow's Suiton scrolls both work well, particularly since the strongest one is weak against them. Lock's Sniper is also a good choice, since they're all floating and therefore more vulnerable to it. If using Rages, try En Oh (Enuo) for Great Tidal Wave, no meaningful weaknesses, and innate 'reflect'. Alternately, Ninja provides 'petrified' immunity and Suiton, but has a weakness to Thunder you'll have to cover with equipment.

No items to steal or win. Beating them opens the doorway to the next area.

With minimal transition, the party suddenly finds itself on something resembling a sepia-tinted version of the Grim Train. Ambient train noises play, but no music. The area has new monsters, so keep alert. Head left past a save point to see Cayenne fleeing a ghost. The next train car has a Genji's Bracer reachable by playing around with a switch, and also a Flame Shield behind an obnoxious moving chest that can be stopped with the Iron Lump found nearby. Flip another switch to make a formation of chests nearby open and close in a particular pattern.

The next car is a maze that rearranges itself when the switches in the area are flipped. Push through, grabbing an Ice Shield and X-Potion, to find a formation of chests and another switch. Unsurprisingly, opening and closing them to match the previous arrangement makes flipping the switch open the way forward. Continue past the save point to the locomotive and enter. The switches here do nothing, so just leave to find...

...that the exit suddenly leads to a cave similar to the mines of Narshe, but more sepia-tinted. "The Phantom Forest" plays again. This area has three new monsters, all of them mechs, and the party is also using Imperial Sorcerous Armor again for no apparent reason. On the other hand, everything else here so far has been for little or no apparent reason, so why not? Cayenne appears nearby, but what appear to be enemy soldiers quickly chase him away.

As a reminder, this means that Sorcery replaces the Battle command, and all other commands except Mimicry, Magic, Chain Magic, and Item disappear. The Beam attacks have roughly the same power as -ra offensive spells, while Heal Force works nearly twice as well as Cura, though only on one target. Umaro (and 'berserk' characters) will use a random beam every turn if present. Tina, as before, gets four additional options that no other character, even Celes, can use.

Most characters should use Thunder Beam for damage, though Thundaga works better if available and the party can spare the MP. Tina should use Dejonator or Sorcery Missile instead, or Confuser on anything that isn't Io. On that note, make sure to encounter an Io, which gives Gau one of his most interesting Rages due to it having the Flare Star attack.

It quickly becomes evident that roaming the mines just leads around in circles. After a loop or two, circle back the other way to mysteriously reach a different screen and see Cayenne crossing a bridge. The party follows, but the bridge breaks under the weight of the armor...

Because of the way the game tracks the internal armor-riding status, swapping party leaders around may result in some of them keeping the armor after this scene, even though that's clearly not supposed to happen.

...and somehow they land in in a sepia-tinted verison of Doma Castle. "Cyan" plays briefly, but then Cayenne's wife and son appear, and at this point "The Mines of Narshe" plays instead.

They vanish, the music stops, and a save point appears.

Leaving the room or going in and out of the menu starts "Cyan" playing again.

Explore the castle to find a few brief cutscenes. And monsters. There are always monsters, aren't there? Regardless, Cayenne and his son Shun appear by the edge of the moat on the east side of the castle.

They vanish in a screen blur.

The two of them also appear on the west side of the castle, sparring with each other.

He runs off, and they vanish in a screen blur.

Cayenne and his wife Mina appear in their room.

She approaches, and he looks uncomfortable and won't look straight at her, but...

Shun leaps out from his hiding place in (under?) the bed, startling them.

He runs out, and Cayenne and Mina vanish in a screen blur.

Head to the throne room to finish this. A hooded figure stands over Cayenne, who appears in color for the first time since all this started.

Alexsoul appears with two Soul Sabers, which end up doing most of the fighting, because...

So yeah. Alexsoul disappears to possess a random character. This has no effect on the character, but makes the monster untargetable, to reappear only once the chosen character is considered dead ('zombie', 'petrified', or 'incapacitated' status). None of the enemies use status attacks, so remove those Ribbons, bring damage absorption instead of dodging ability, and use Break on (and then cure) one character at a time until it pops out. Throwing weapons at them also works well, since it ignores defense and always hits. Don't bother killing the Soul Sabers, since they just come right back. All targets absorb Flame and Holy attacks, and are weak against Ice. Alexsoul has high magic defense, so favor physical or piercing attacks. Throwing Icebrands works nicely. All in all, this battle should cause more annoyance than true difficulty.

The Soul Sabers will use a mix of Figa, Blizzaga, and Thundaga normally, switching to Reflect on themselves and Cure (are they kidding?) on Alexsoul when it's present. They also have an MP-draining physical that they'll use when low on MP. Alexsoul uses Thundaga, bouncing it off the Soul Sabers when possible, and typically possesses someone again after a few turns.

I also learned of another useful trick on the ffdic.wikiwiki.jp site. Put everyone in 'transparent' status ahead of time. Since the game treats Fury (Zinger) as a magic attack, it will remove the status from its selected victim, making it easy to determine who to target. The Soul Sabers are also vulnerable to 'berserk' status, so exploiting that will keep them from confusing things with their magic.

Alexsoul has a Memento Ring as a rare steal (though there's no point to having more than two), and drops a Protective Bracelet when beaten.

The alternate, easier but less legitimate, strategy casts Dejon until it hits both Soul Sabers at once, preferably after using Vanish on them so it can't miss. With both dead and Alexsoul absent, that leaves you facing no enemies, so the game declares the battle won before their automatic revival can bring them back. Alexsoul won't drop a Protective Bracelet this way, though, since you never actually killed him.

Cayenne gets up, and a touching scene follows. No music.

Mina and Shun appear in a flash of red light, and "The Mines of Narshe" begins to play.

They surround him and make affectionate gestures before backing away again.

They start to disappear...

...and the shinies left behind converge and coalesce into a sword.

Cayenne takes the sword, and the party returns to the real world, but not before glimpsing a piece of magicite on the throne...

Cayenne now has all eight techniques learned, regardless of level. The sword that appeared during the scene is also added to the inventory as the disappointingly unremarkable Masamune, only the third strongest katana and devoid of any special features.

Check the throne room before leaving.

I believe the boss's name above comes from the magicite's name.

In addition to providing some support magic, Alexander is the only Genjuu to teach Holy, making this ordeal worthwhile even if Cayenne never sees battle again.