Search for the Sacred Sword II

Beradin sternly warns Koon to be wary of Silver Arrow before Lacid's party reaches Mado and runs straight into her. Koon, startled by how much Lacid has grown, is fought off — and the party presses on to find the Tower of Magic.

Clearing the Imperial Army stationed on Mado, Lacid's party heads for the tower — Lacid worried about Robin the whole way, to her visible annoyance. When she tells him to leave her alone if that's what it takes, he only grows angrier. At the tower itself, they're confronted by Tobias, one of Beradin's Elite Guard.

Exploring the tower, the party is debating its next move when Beradin appears and collapses the floor beneath them, sending everyone crashing down. Picking themselves up, Lacid and Robin finally have the conversation that's been building since Chapter 22: Lacid opens up about what happened at Trisis and vows never to run away and abandon his friends again, and Robin shares her own upbringing — how, among thieves, abandoning one another whenever the situation calls for it is simply normal.

Gishne confronts Beradin, who has already found the God of Destruction statue; Lacid and Robin join the fight. Beradin is beaten back and vanishes with the statue regardless, and the party moves on to find their scattered companions on another floor.

Reunited, the party faces the Tower's Guardians and finally the Guardian Sentinel itself — defeating it and recovering the Stormbringer, the last of the Three Sacred Treasures. Elsewhere, in a small aside, Karim asks her aide Narek for a special favor.

This is where Robin's stolen parchment — first picked up back in Chapter 8 — finally pays off, leading the party straight to the Tower. "Showdown" is the confrontation this compendium had flagged in advance as Gishne's one-on-one clash with Beradin over a God of Destruction statue — the on-page text still only calls him Beradin here, consistent with how his deeper identity stays hidden until much later in the story.

"Favors" is a small, ordinary-looking scene that reads very differently in hindsight: Narek is Karim's trusted aide who, years later (Chapter 34), turns out to be something other than an ordinary Antarian and kills her at Port Dakama. This early favor is the first on-page beat of that relationship. And Robin and Lacid's "Budding Bonds" moment is the payoff of the worry Lacid was already carrying for her back in Chapter 22, finally turning into an honest conversation.