Opening with a flashback to 9 years prior at the Royal Palace, it’s established that a young Fugil, Lux and Ragreed all knew each other. Fugil broke a stone bust, but he and Ragreed were going to blame it on the girls. Philuffy takes the fall, but at the last moment Lux steps in and says it was his fault. Philuffy is grateful and thanks him. I really am liking their friendship more and more as this series progresses. (✿◠‿◠)
In the present, Lux goes to see Philuffy in her room. She hasn’t been feeling well, but mentions that she’s going along with their group the following day when they go to investigate the Ruins. There’s some nice foreshadowing in this scene too, +5 to you if you spot it.
Lisha then calls Lux away to make some changes to his Bahamut Drag-Ride. She removes the machine’s limiter, putting it in a state called Over Limit where he can enter any release code (attack move) he wants. Except he shouldn’t actually use it because he could, you know, die while trying. Lisha says she gave it to him as a last-ditch back-up in case something were to happen during their examination of the Ruins; Lux is still not impressed.
Flash forward to the next day. Headmistress Reiri briefs the Chivalric Order on how their investigation is going to proceed. Their group gathers up in the mouth of the Ruins, and when the entrance fills with a blinding light they are transported inside.
Once they reach a clearing, everyone splits up into teams, with each team tackling one of the eleven underground floors. Celes gets bummed when she gets assigned to scout the third floor on her own, but Lux notices and offers her a compromise so that they can work together for at least part of the investigation. Tillfarr and Noct’s observations of her reaction were pretty amusing.
Lux, Airi and Noct are flying through the sixth floor when Airi makes a creepy comment about Lux touching her roommate. Noct defends Lux in a backhanded manner, who is more or less forced to come up with a reason why he supposedly finds Noct to be attractive. Naturally he picks the curve of her chest. *facepalm* I know it was intended to be comedic relief, but when even your main character is starting to pick up on the teasing, maybe it’s a little overdone? Let him flirt back or make a move or just, I dunno, tone it down. I don’t like Airi, primarily because of this brother complex she has going on.
Lux’s team suddenly comes across what looks like an android buried under some rubble. They call Krucilfer Krulcifer (SORRY >>;; ) to help them, sending Airi and Noct back to the others just in case something bad were to happen. Krulcifer is able to reboot the automaton, named La Krulshe, and Lux and Krulcifer are able to figure out that they need to reunite her with the central system for the Ruins in order for her to regain her memory.
Over at Atismata Castle, the Four Great Nobles are having a meeting with the Queen. They reveal that Ragreed has escaped from prison. Then one of the nobles opens his big fat gob to mention how Lux was the person responsible for taking down the Ragnarok, and that Lisha is his friend. The Queen is not happy to hear this news, but time will tell if this revelation will bear problems for the Chivalric Order later.
Back at the whale-Ruins, Lux, Philuffy, Tillfarr and the headmistress go down one level to the production floor, where it looks like row upon glowing row of Abyss
embryos are being incubated. Then Hayes shows up at the Ruins’ entrance to play his stupid whistle and activate the Ruins’ defense system: three Abyss creatures. One manifests inside, while the other two remain outside targeting anything which moves. The Abyss inside the Ruins attacks Lux, then leaves. Lux asks Headmistress Reiri to call off their investigation, but she insists that they continue. The sooner they reach the bottom of the Ruins, the sooner they can leave to help the others outside.
Tillfarr remains behind with Headmistress Reiri as Lux and Philuffy chase after the Abyss in their Drag-Rides. The two students fight the Diablos beasts outside the Ruins, but a weakened Philuffy is knocked into what looks like an old steel church atop a high cliff. Lux defeats the Abyss, but starts to recall long repressed memories as he enters the chapel to look for Philuffy. He finds her curled up in a ball in some kind of basement, and is attempting to lead her back outside when she warns him that the Abyss is near. It’s only moments later when Philuffy throws Lux up against the brick wall and starts to strangle him…!!!
My thoughts: It still has not been fully explained why La Krulshe names Krulcifer as an Administrator to the Ruins, but I’m guessing due to the similarity in their names that it’s because she was a survivor from one of the other Ruins. There also apparently exists someone or something called “Creator” who identity has me very intrigued. La Krulshe was definitely my favourite character this episode. ヾ(●⌒∇⌒●)ﾉ
Also I was very excited to see more about what’s going on with Philuffy and why she reacts to the whistle the way that she does. In retrospect it makes sense, but I hadn’t imagined this possibility. Basically she was subjected to human experimentation on the island when she was little, and she has what sounds like an Abyss inside of her. Poor Philuffy!
Lastly, where is Fugil and why haven’t we seen him yet?? Are he and Ragreed the masterminds behind every that’s happened?
I don’t know what to think of La Krulshe and her stupid mannerism.. guess I am not a fan of such but mind me.
Phi’s dragride looks kind of stupid with those two little weels while others are flying around
Stupid to split their group of just 11 up into so many when in the end they all rely on I don’t know.. 3-4 in the entire group (more like on lux) when they are literally going into the den of the lion but I guess it’s for plotreasons.
But I must admit that I was slightly surprised by Phi trying to kill Lux. I think they tried to put parts of an abyss inside of phi and she only managed to pull through because of lux (love always wins).. at least that would be common anime plot line
Yeah I thought it was odd that Philuffy’s Drag-Ride is the apparently the only one which can’t fly.
And yeah, there are a lot of cliches in this show, including Philuffy’s relationship with Lux and how the group works their way through the Ruins. I guess it’s standard for anime to have only 12 episodes in a season now instead of 23-25, and that sucks because it leaves little room for extra developments or expositions.