Obviously Rydia came back to help, so she promptly rejoins the party to attack the Tower of Babil, where all the stolen Crystals were taken. Unfortunately their plan doesn’t work, so they have to go back to the surface and use an hidden passage located in the Eblan Cave.
When the group arrives at the entrance of the Tower they see Rubicante1 fighting against Edge, prince of Eblan. Edge’s fire-based attacks turns to be useless on Rubicante, who retreats, not before having badly wounded Edge. The group offers Edge their help, but he declines.
Rydia, witnessing Edge’s refusal, aggravated by his poor state, and considering the hardship she herself had to go through (the deaths of Tellah, Yang and Cid), induces her to cry. For Rydia, accepting Edge’s decision would have been too much:
Rydia: Enough! I can’t watch another person go off to die. First Tellah and Yang…And then Cid, too…All of them…all of them-!
Edge: H-hey, I didn’t…I mean…
Rosa: Rydia…
Rydia: *sniffle*
Cecil: Rubicante is the strongest of the four archfiends. Whether we can even hope to defeat him, I cannot say. But we have no choice. We must take back the Crystals he holds!
Edge: …It doesn’t look like I have much choice. I can’t leave a pretty girl crying. Let’s do this together, then – just this once.
Thanks to the concern showed by Rydia, Edge reconsiders his position and decides to join the party.
At the top of the tower, a tough battle awaits him: fight his mutated parents. He manages however to beat them and dispatch Rubicante. When the party moves into the Crystal Room, they all fall down into a hole, which takes them back to the Underground. Bad luck often brings good luck; not only they find a new airship, but they find Cid as well. With a magma-immune airship, the party can now sustain the high temperatures and reach the final Crystal. At this point it is also possible to take a break from the main storyline and pay a visit to the Feymarch, in order to won two new summons for Rydia.
- Rubicante is one of Golbez’s four Archfiends, he is actually their leader, and he controls fire. [↩]