Of gods and women

Mirania tells me (because I spoke to her first) that she really wants to explore the Vono islands. Something there is bringing back memories. 


Chapter 14 opens on the islands, and quickly I discover a treasure chest behind me because (as in Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Mercury Meltdown, Super Monkey Ball and many others) I start the level plonk in the middle of a footpath with an obvious pathway behind me.


Behind that are a bunch of baddies so far out of my league I know that I must come back and fight them later in the game - perhaps in the epilogue. I gave it a good go, but it was pretty much GAME OVER in under a minute.


So, back on the original path we discover a lush jungle, brimming with life - and some enemies to tackle. Fortunately, there's a bit of a maze thing going on here, and having looked carefully I discover lots of rare items. 


Pressing on, I find one of the scariest baddies I have faced in the game. It was an armoured meta-spider that could fire web on to my team mates and pull them in while the baby spiders continued taking it in turns to stun me. As a result, I lost team mates to the spider quickly every time I battled it, and they did not come back for their four other lives. 


The secret, I learned, was to wipe out the baby spiders, then use armour break, and then to slash at its rear while the meta-spider was a raw, red colour. 


When he is defeated, the way is clear to find Mirania's memory-awakening forest god. What we find is his decomposing corpse in a copse. A forest god just like this one had brought up Mirania when she was a girl. What killed it, says Mirania, is the slow but steady death of the land across the globe. 


However, in the closing of the cut-scene, the cold-Ready-Brek cat has been watching us, so maybe it stole all the cereals and the forest god starved.


Mystery solved, we headed back to the ship.