The Great Cathedral is the last area of the game. If you're tired of seemingly endless dogfights with Gremlins, the good news is that there are few regular enemies here. The bad news is that there are many big fights, but most of them are actually fairly easy now that you have all the Enchanter magic, Fluted-level armour and an Edged Khopesh or Wakizashi (and you do have all that, right?). You should also have decent Hagane Blunt and Piercing weapons, but if you don't, you can just use that Wakizashi throughout with minimal extra difficulty at this point. You should have gone through the Iron Maiden B1 and opened all the Silver Key doors scattered around (look in the section called "The Keys" if you need help finding them). If you've done all that, you can consider yourself ready. Get to Plateia Lumitar and open the big cathedral doors.

When you enter, take the stairs down to B1. There's a Heal Panel that you can uncover with Eureka, and two exits in the west wall. Take the one on your side of the waterway for now, and switch to a good Blunt weapon if you've got one. You'll meet Ifrit. Frost Fusion. Whack. Whack. Whack. Look! He's dead! Now take the west exit to meet the Iron Crab. Spark Fusion, a few blows to the shell with a Blunt weapon (or, as usual, in the mouth with Piercing), and that's the end of him. The exit opposite the one leading to the Iron Crab has a Cloudstone, but it's not working, so head back out and across the waterway, using the Heal Panel in the process, and take the exit in the southwest of that room. You'll meet Marid, so cast Spark Fusion if it's worn off and kill him with a chain or two. Now go back to The Victor's Laurels by taking the northeast exit in the room where you fought Ifrit, and take the Cloudstone upward.

When you reach L1, take the door you see to Hieratic Recollections, then take the door there to meet Djinn. Soil Fusion will make this quick. Now, you can push a crate in front of the chest and get some Fluted equipment. After that, go back to the room you entered when you came from B1, and take the second Cloudstone upward to L2. There, take the door to Abasement From Above, and work your way to the door in the side wall. There's some traps here, but Eureka will reveal them. Get to the door and enter The Hall of Broken Vows, where the Flame Dragon has been waiting for you. A Blunt weapon to the head will work best, but once you get under his head the same way you've done for every single dragon you've fought in the game, Frost Fusion and possibly Herakles will let you win with any weapon. You'll get the Calla Sigil, used to open a door elsewhere in the Cathedral. Go north to Light and Dark Wage War, and use the ledges on the sides of the entrance to get to the door. There's a lever near it, so look for it and pull it, then take the door to An Arrow Into Darkness.

A puzzle is the only obstacle between you and the chest. Push the north cube west until you can't push it no mo', then south. Now push the other one:

west twice;
south once;
east once;
south once;
west once.

The chest has more Fluted equipment, and the Cloudstone leads down to L1, more treasure, and another stupid puzzle. Get in the small pit, push the top crate west and the middle crate east, then both of them north. Now slide the sliding cubes into that pit right in the direction of the chest, such that you end up with a straight line going across to it that you can walk across. Use the other crates to stop the sliding cubes right across from the chest, then slide them to the chest. When you're done, get the treasure, grab that Cloudstone and get out of there.

Return to where you fought the Flame Dragon and go west. You'll be in He Screams For Mercy. One side door leads to a small room in L1, where killing a Lich will get you the Laurel Sigil. The other leads to a small room in L2 where you'll face a Lich Lord. He's like a Lich, but knows more spells, so equip your toughest weapon of any type, cast Herakles, and follow his shadow on the floor to deliver some hard knocks the second he reappears. If you catch him unawares like that, but don't kill him, chances are he'll teleport again and try to attack you from a distance. If that's the case, follow his shadow again and finish him off when he materializes. If you're really worried about his magic, cast Magic Ward on yourself before going in. That will nullify his first magical attack altogether, letting you get at least one chain in with impunity. Hopefully, that will be all you'll need.

Now, retrace your steps all the way down to B1. In the room where you killed Marid, take the southeast exit to some stairs that lead up to L1. In the room there, you'll be able to save your game. It may be a good idea to use this Save Point to warp to the Workshop called "Junction Point," and combine your own set of Fluted equipment with the one you got from all the chests to create tougher Hoplite equipment. Once you warp back here, take the north exit to The Poisoned Chapel, ride across to the door, and enter A Light in the Dark to meet the Arch Dragon. This dragon has a Light affinity, so your Enchanter magic won't help you; moreover, his breath attack depletes your MP as well as your HP. Jump underneath his head before he can hit you with it and hit him anywhere but the tail with your Edged weapon. Prostasia and Herakles will help, and since the spell Drain Heart has a Dark affinity, it will prove to be effective. Once you're done, go back down to B1, return to The Victor's Laurels, go back up to L1 where you fought the Djinn, and ride up again to L2, like you did when you went to fight the Flame Dragon. This time, however, you have to grab the high Cloudstone and take it up to L3. Work your way to the door that leads to The Heretic's Story.

You have to ride Cloudstones across the pit, but the timing for the jumps can be a little tricky. So, just dig out that Fixate spell and cast it to freeze them in place when they're sufficiently close to you. When you finally do get across, the Calla Sigil will open the door to Dao. After the Arch Dragon, this guy is nothing, so cast Luft Fusion and go after him. He'll actually try to flee from you, but there's nowhere he can run. You'll get the Palm Sigil. Now, you can retrace your steps by going back down into L2 and into the room where you fought the Flame Dragon, and take the exit that is locked with the Acacia Sigil (which you have by now). To get to the door, make a little bridge with boxes and cubes by:

pushing the low cube south, then west;
pushing the crate east until it's lined up with that cube;
moving the high cube south, east, then south;
using it as a platform for your climb.

The next room contains the Nightmare, who will introduce himself to you in a very polite and stylish fashion. Like the Arch Dragon, he doesn't have an elemental weakness that you can exploit by means of Enchanter spells. So, just cast Herakles and Prostasia, and hit him with whatever weapon you used against all the other elemental enemies here. If you have any Angel Pearl Gems, put them on that weapon. Don't try to chase him if he darts away; just wait for him to come to you. When you win, ride the Cloudstone up to L3, take the door to the balcony of The Heretic's Story, and ride the Cloudstone across. This door will only be open if you pulled the lever back in Light and Dark Wage War over on L2. The last room will take you up to L4 and a Save Point.

The game is almost done now; if you go up the stairs in The Atrium on L4, you'll go straight into the fight with the Final Boss, whose identity I won't reveal here. First, use all of your Elixirs and wines to boost your statistics by as much as possible, learn any spells you have lying around, and warp back to "Junction Point" to repair your equipment. You should have a full Hoplite set and, of course, your trusty Khopesh or Wakizashi, and that's all the armament you'll need. A few anti-Evil gems on your weapon will help a little, as well. Finally, save your game, and take those last stairs.

The first fight will be a fairly simple one-on-one duel. Your enemy has got a Damascus Holy Win, the best weapon in the game, but he's only got 500 HP, which has been de rigueur for a while now. Cast Herakles and Prostasia on yourself, try hassling him with Tarnish and Degenerate, and lay into him relentlessly with your trusty Heavy Shot / Gain Life chain. You shouldn't take much damage, and Gain Life will restore most of it anyway.

The second and last fight is much tougher. First, your enemy flies around on the outskirts of the platform you're on, and he's a lot faster than you are. Even if you run up to the edge next to him, your one-handed weapon won't be able to reach many body parts, and it's likely to do miniscule damage to them if this is your first time through the game. And if you do run up to the edge, the enemy is liable to run away to the other side of the circle. If you stay in the centre of the circle, you won't be able to reach him at all, but he will be able to reach you with both Dark and Light attacks.

Also, he's got one ultimate attack that will do great damage to each of your body parts separately and probably kill you, unless you can defend against it. The way to do that is to watch for the enemy flying overhead, as opposed to around the circle, since that's the first sign that he's going to do his ultimate attack. While he's flying over your head, if you can hit him with any attack whatsoever, you'll actually make him stop the attack altogether. But if you can't do that, equip your best shield if you haven't already and hook up a button to the Defensive Ability called Impact Guard. Then, wait for the long animation of the attack to unfold, and watch for a moment when the camera zooms right into Ashley Riot's face. That's when you have to use Impact Guard, and if you do it right, you'll halve the damage done by the ultimate attack. So it's survivable, at least.

But that's just survival. You still have to deplete the enemy's HP, and here's the best way to do that. First, cast Herakles and Prostasia on yourself, and maybe use a Faerie Wing for more agility. Then run to the very edge of the circle, preferably a slight distance from the enemy's position, and wait for the enemy to come to you. It'll happen eventually, so don't get impatient. The second you can target absolutely any body part in your battle sphere, use a Heavy Shot / Crimson Pain chain. Make this chain as long as you absolutely can - the first blow will do 1 or 2 HP of damage, the second will do the same amount, the third will do twice the amount, and very quickly the damage done will increase with each attack in the chain. If you can keep this up, you can take away at least 100 HP per chain. Even if you keep missing, just keep adding attacks to the chain, since just one extra successful attack can mean a lot.

The chain will leave you with a very high RISK and low HP due to the negative effect of Crimson Pain. But that's manageable, since you've probably got heaps of curative items at this point into the game. Just use a Vera Potion, a Cure Potion and maybe a Mana Bulb, and Heal if you need to, and you're all set to repeat the process, just like that. When I played Vagrant Story for the first time, I didn't have to use this process more than three times to win, so perhaps you'll find it useful, as well.

Once you win, you'll see a groovy ending. Don't turn off your console, though, since at the very end you'll get a chance to save your game. Then, if you load that game, you'll restart Vagrant Story from the beginning, except this time, you'll have all your tough equipment, and you'll also be able to open doors sealed with the Rood Inverse. This will let you access the remaining 15% of Lea Monde, finish the Iron Maiden, and fight some even tougher enemies. There are two more sections of this walkthrough that deal with playing Vagrant Story for the second time, so keep on reading, 'cause it ain't over yet.