A turn for the worse

After finding a way into Zoi's tower the party find a stair case leading down protected by a magic shield, not being able to head that way they head up. When the arty reaches the top they find the android Demi, who heals them after she is freed, but then Zoi shows up. Zoi proclaims that he is working for his god Dark Force (knew that it would show up) and then during a very one sided battle he severely injures Alys with a dark energy beam thing. The party manages to teleport away and brings Alys to the near by village that Hahn is from, but nothing can heal the dark power that is slowly killing her. Hahn and his fiance stay behind to look after Alys while the others try and find out how to stop Zoi.

Demi explains that the environmental controls are located under Zoi's tower behind the magic shield, but the source of the problem is the core AI located on a satellite in orbit on the other side of the planet. Since the only one who knows about magic is Rune the party sets off after him to find a way past the barrier. Rune was last known to be heading for a tower far across a quick sand field, but to get across the party needs to recover a Land Rover from a near by underground base. After getting the vehicle, the party crosses the quick sand and comes across a town having problems with earthquakes, starting a new side quest. The lab controlling the earthquakes was full of rather though robots so I decided to head back after I got Rune.

The party finally catches up with Rune in the tower it was said he was heading for and explains the situation to him, he then explains that he's at the tower to get a magic staff that will destroy the magic barrier. Along the way up the tower one of the party members gets mortally wounded (this game's version of KO) and so I teleport them back to the nearest town and heal at the inn (no need for churches or cloning houses since KOed characters don't die). Since i'm there I decide to tackle the earthquake side quest now that I have Rune, and along the way I net some good upgrades Demi.

The party then goes back to the tower and makes it to the top where there is a boss fight against a giant fly monster working for Zoi over the magic staff. After the fight they get the staff but then Rune suddenly sense something and they all teleport back to Alys. Alys' condition takes a sudden decline and after saying goodbye to Chaz and Rune she dies. There's then a touching cut scene where they bury her and Chaz deals with losing her, the next morning Hahn returns to the academy to explain the situation and the party heads off to explore Zoi's basement.