With a full party, better armor, more levels, an upgraded Sword and Pike, a second weapon that can cut through barriers, and two weapons with longer range, the Porons shouldn't cause too much trouble. As hoped, the Axe cleaves through the skull totem things blocking the way. Unfortunately, the path soon stops in a dead end. Backtracking a little finds another way where stepping on a magic symbol extends a ledge to meet that former dead end.

After the first area, you'll find Batlers mixed in with the Porons, plus a few stray Myconids and maybe a Bee Bee. An Eye Spy guards the symbol that opens the path forward. Although these can't move, they spawn more Porons, heal nearby enemies, shoot beams that cause Moogle, and ignore weapon damage when in hit recovery. Use hit and run tactics, and attack from a distance or at an angle.

The entrance from near the Water Temple comes into sight before long, but the cliff remains uncrossable. Continuing on through two more teleporters brings us to the outside of a castle. Navigating the twisting path leads to the entrance proper. This looks like the place...

A Werewolf rushes from the gate, but with only one of them against three this time, it shouldn't cause as much trouble as the ones The Girl ran afoul of if she came to the forest alone. Be careful of the Eye Spies and possibly another Werewolf along the way.

A gate blocks the way, but oddly, it opens from the outside. In the next room, the furniture attacks!

Magical Chairs (Polter Chair) may come as a surprise, but they aren't particularly strong. The castle also has more Eye Spies and Werewolves, both of which tend to pose more of a threat.

A floor switch past a pair of Werewolves in a dangerously confined space doesn't seem to work.

So we'll try the stairs nearby. Hey, it's the missing soldiers! Most of them, anyway. Dirac isn't in the cells with the others. Let's release them.

The soldiers don't talk at all after that. Nikita also turns up in a cell, overcharging as always, but otherwise fine, and also offers to save the game. Regardless, the whole party stands on the switch now, extending a bridge to continue. Several rooms later, the music turns into a more intense version of the same tune (track 18 君は海を見たか / "Did You See the Sea?"). Behind a table bearing some suitably eerie objects stands a woman who could only be...

She retreats through the doorway behind her into a more castle-like room where Dirac stands.

Dirac vanishes.

You know, the Greek personification of death? Surely you've heard the name before.

Or maybe he's that. Either way, score one for Names to Run Away From Really Fast. And who he's working for is kind of important!

More literally, "removed the bones from" them. It doesn't sound right for her to say she's "deboned" them, though, unless we're going for a Hannibal vibe. "Spineless" would be related, though I'm not sure how to word that into the sentence, and I'm not sure it's quite the right connotation anyway. I also sort of want to use the word "impotent", but that could have unfortunate implications.

That doesn't sound good. She makes some gestures and vanishes, and the gate behind her opens ominously... and shortly after the boss music starts, an oversized tiger with a spiked back lands on them.

The Tiger Chimera (Spikey Tiger) represents a sizable step up in difficulty over the previous bosses, despite having a full party for the first time. It can inflict alarming amounts of damage, particularly against The Sprite, and also has numerous attacks that frankly seem unfair. Both its leaping pounce and a virtually undodgeable speedy rolling attack tend to inflict Asleep, which doesn't help matters any. Besides that, the Tiger Chimera may leap to either of the pillars on the sides of the room, where it may use Fire Breath (damage + Ablaze status) or cast Fire Cocktail (damage + Attack Down status), and only the Bow or the Boomerang can hit it (aim at the feet for best results). Add in the rather low limit this game places on inventory items, and staying alive can become a serious problem. Heal as soon as anyone gets low on health, try to attack from different angles and stagger hits, and hope the items hold out long enough to win.

"Orphan of the Storm" plays after winning. Leave to find the witch by the stairs.

She turns into a generic old woman with a depowering sort of noise.

For whatever reason, when I first played the game, I got the impression that she was trading with the villagers to get herbs that turned out to have come from Thanatos and were somehow tainted to turn her evil. But no, she was dealing with Thanatos directly, zapping the townspeople for him, and knew exactly what she was doing. She was just desperate enough to hold on to her powers that she didn't care.

One of the chests now nearby just has a bit of money, but the other...

It beats walking. Upon leaving the castle, either by warping or on foot, The Girl steps forward as tender but sad music plays (track 5 やさしい思い出 / "Kind Memories").

A voice from nowhere interrupts.