Here we go. We pass through the Greatfort and climb the mountain path, the same one we traversed in the opening tutorial. New beasts — succubi, hellhounds, geo-saurians — confront us. At the place, the courtyard, where we fought the first chimera, we now face an enhanced version, a gorechimera. This is the point when the tutorial ended and we built our avatar. Now we continue on to face the dragon.
First, he tests us. Goblins harass our beloved while the dragon looms. By completing the Quina quest, and Valmiro’s, either one had a good chance to be selected by the algorithm as our dear one. I’m pretty sure, though, that by doing the Aelinore quest, I cancel out any other option.
The choice is: kill the dragon, or . . . sacrifice love. Let her die, and the kingdom will praise me. I will be granted the duchy. That’s how the current duke ended up on the throne. (The scene where the duke chokes Aelinore, apologizes, and calls her by another name makes a lot more sense now.) “Wealth and power are sweet anodyne for heartache,” Grigori says.
Of course I shoot him with an arrow. Now we battle.
There’s some running, ballista firing, flying on his back, cliff jumping — lots of places to lose a Pawn, actually. Luckily I don’t. Without these two upper level helpers I wouldn’t try the dragon yet. Finally we end up face to face.
And we triumph.
But here come the repercussions. Gran Soren loses an entire district as it collapses into an endless pit.
The Dragonforged, the old guy, turns to dust. The Duke becomes a decrepit old man. Grigori himself dissolves. A pea-green sky covers the land, and monsters more deadly than before prowl the wilderness.
First, though, we get our reunion by a campfire. Aelinore jumps me, by the way. The Beloved, whoever they are, always gives us a tumble in the dirt. Voice-acting credits follow as we all walk back to my home village.
In my house I now have Aelinore hanging out, and Selene from when I rescued her in the Witchwood. (She also could’ve been a dear one.) A bit crowded, eh. Time to leave! All that matters is the beautiful announcement in the upper right hand corner: Dragon Forged! Everything I wore to the battle is now super enhanced. Give the good stuff to the Pawn and roll on. Let’s see what the world now looks like.