What Could Have Been Vol. 15

 Okay, first of all, I would have done this in the previous episode, but that was my exam week.

Okay, first off, Terra Tower is not the final dungeon. I want the party to actually use Harle again at some point that isn't the exact end of the game. So instead, in the place of the GeoWarriors, there is instead only one boss fight apart from the Dragon God, against Harle. When you encounter her:

Harle: So...this is how it ends. You, fighting to resist fate, and I, fighting for a master I despise...how nostalgic.

Guile: Wait! Before we fight...please, tell us what you are. You are obviously no Reptite, and you obviously do not serve willingly...so why work for the extinction of humans?

Harle: The Dragonians...in the timeline they existed, they were masters of genetics, life sciences-harmony with the planet. Perhaps-or perhaps they just twisted life to fit their needs, like making cattle of trees. It doesn't really matter. Point is, the Dragons saved my life, and they have never forgiven me for it.

Kid: ...Er, what?

Harle: Madame Kid, have you ever noticed, beyond the facepaint, that we are...very similar? Almost...fraternal in nature?

Kid: Um, now that you mention it, you do kind of have similar cheek-ah!

Harle: You are as quick as your reputation suggests. Oui, I am indeed not a native of a dead timeline-I am a product of the Sage's madness, but unlike you, my genes never stabilized. I had the genome of Schala, but even as it was set into tiny little helixes, and I grew within the tank, my very cells began to disintegrate. I was dubbed a failure and preserved for future study to avoid the mistakes that would have made me into slime...but when the timelines split, the Dragons attacked FATE before any of her subunits could react, they stole my jar, and saw something of use.

Harle: They patched the holes in my DNA with Reptite genes...ones specifically keyed to obey the Dragons, their self-made god-kings, and made me a servant. Because I am mostly a human, I was not bound by FATE's ward against the free will of the Dragons...but also because of that, they despise me. They hate only having agency through a creature they despise for living when their creators do not, and they loathe I am a child of "their" crafts not made by Reptite claws...they relish my immanent unmaking.

She then reveals the Flame is a shard of Lavos' shell, which the Dragon God hopes to use to steal Lavos' power and forcefully reweave time so that the Dragonian timeline existed, deleting all human timelines in the process. The Dragon God then uses the Flame's power to turn Harle into a Reptite version of herself and force her to attack, gloating that it's a shame that she is no longer an eyesore just as she meets her doom. After the fight (which is the one that uses the element-switching mechanic), Harle is badly wounded and starts dying, with the gene stabilizers the Dragons put in her to prevent her melting into slime like the other failed clones-at which point Kid realizes that, as a successful clone, she can help stabilize Harle and gets Tarnruff, Leena, and Guile help her with some improvised spell-based gene splicing that saves her life, though she only recovers enough to rejoin after the end of the dungeon. It's also at that point where she realizes she and Harle are technically sisters, and humorously freaks out upon realizing that means Harle can and will start bugging her for money.

At the top, we find the Flame and the Dragon God. The God gives its speech from canon, which leads into a nihilistic viewpoint of existence; everything is kill-or-be-killed, in its eyes. Humans wish to kill it to survive, it wishes to kill humans so it can exist. It reveals it knows Lavos is probably using it, but doesn't care; if it successfully revives its timeline, then Lavos can have all the genetic harvest from Reptites and itself he wants, it just wants him to let the Reptites survive at all. Leena points out that this also likely means that Lavos will still be present on the planet and destroy the Dragonian civilization in the process, something that the God admits-and revealing the guardians of Viper Manor knew that too and rebelled, seeing the current existent timeline as the only one where the Dragonians could be revived and survive in coexistence with humans, should humans ever revive them. It, naturally, does not believe coexistence is possible-"Better you die, and my people live a few millennia, than to depend on the kindness of humans to resurrect their rival."

(this is also a point where I should mention there's a subquest to revive the Dragonian species in return for the best armor in the game, and it's entirely possible you've already done it. Kind of falls flat.)

Cue boss fight (new mechanic being the Dragon God using the Flame to play havoc with time-you're actually expected to run a few times to confront temporal anomalies and Lavos Spawn buffing the Dragon God, it retaining damage between fights with it). At the end, the Dragon God bitterly reflects that by beating it, you've proven yourself more worthy of Lavos' interest, and fades back into the Darkness Beyond Time. Cue Leena and Kid getting ready to destroy the Flame once and for all, denying Lavos his ability to interact with the world through his last piece-then Balthasar shows up and takes it, attempting to convince the party to help him revive Zeal. Razzly realizes that Balthasar has done nothing that hurts Lavos in any way, and realizes he's being controlled by Lavos through the Flame-at which point Lavos realizes the group doesn't trust the Sage any more and possesses him.

Lavos, Through Balthasar: This one-its efforts-assisted in-the entity's-regeneration. If it-had begun-successful-temporal-merging-the entity-would have-unfettered-control over time. The hostworld-would be-the ideal nursery. Endless timelines-endless evolutionary paths-endless harvests. Its efforts-are not wasted. It has-hollowed the moon-of Timeline B-as its lab. The entity-will be-able-to complete work-and bring about-the culmination-of life.

He then uses Terra Tower to construct a portal to the Dragonian Moon, and that is the final dungeon.