Chrono Trigger/Walkthrough/Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Magic Kingdom (12,000 B.C. first time)

Enhasa, Kajar, and Zeal Palace
This area of the past will look pretty bleak, everything's covered in ice and there doesn't seem to be much life anywhere. But if you head to the east and onto a sky bridge you'll find yourself up in the clouds where a mystical city is.

The first city you'll reach is called Enhasa. Talk to the people there, and one of them will hint at a doorway of destiny hidden in there somewhere. You'll also meet a rather sullen boy who predicts one of your party will shortly perish. You'll also learn of the Blackbird and the north palace where elemental weapons are sealed, which may look suspiciously like a diamond shaped structure you've seen in the present.

Cross over another bridge to the ground and take another bridge to the sky to find a new area up in the clouds. You can visit the great ship Blackbird, built by the guru Balthasar, and the city of Kajar where magic is studied. You'll learn about the sun keep, and how all the people living in the clouds know magic while the earthbound ones don't. You may notice a blinking blue dot in the upper right portion of the screen. You won't be able to pick it up directly, but go in the upper right hand door and check the bottom right of the screen in the next area to grab it, a speed tab. You'll learn more about the sun palace and how the sun's energy can be stored in a sun stone, and a moon stone can be charged into a sun stone. You'll also find a man responsible for making magic tabs, although he won't let you have one. The most important thing you'll get here however, is a clue from a sleeping Nu: "water summons wind, wind makes fire dance."

In both Enhasa and Kajar there will are three books which make water, wind, or fire appear when opened. Open them in the order: water, wind, fire, as suggested by the Nu, to open a hidden passageway. Open the books at the top left, bottom right, then in the middle near the Nu in Kajar to find a diary talking about Dreamstone, and to receive a Black Rock. The Rock invokes a triple-tech, "Dark Eternal" supposedly although you only have two characters who can equip it. Interesting, don't you think?

Backtrack to Enhasa if you want and enter the water-wind-fire combination by opening the books to read another diary and have the chance to fight six Nus. They have two attacks, one of which does 1 damage, the other one of which takes you down to one damage. Try to heal the party sometimes, and use your best multi-enemy attacks to try to finish them off as fast as possible. If you win, you'll get a magic tab and a speed tab.

Head through a few more caves and bridges to get to Zeal Palace. You'll learn that Lavos is the source of the energy used by the mystics, which they channel through the mammon machine. Talk to everyone, but know that there are actually a few important things to do here: the girl in the bottom left who's holding a plant, tell her you like plants, and tell her to secretly plant the sapling given to her by the Guru of Life. Unless if you do this you won't be able to complete the Sunken Desert sidequest later on. Also, talk to the Nu and agree to scratch his back to learn his "secret scratch point". If you go back to Kajar and talk to the Nu in the room with the tabs, you'll be able to scratch his back for a magic tab.

Head to the northeast door to learn a little bit more about Schala and Janus, and head through the center door to watch Schala use her pendant. You'll learn that the pendant, along with the Mammon machine are made out of dreamstone, and that your pendant resembles the one the Gurus made for Schala, hinting that it may be the same pendant passed down into the future. Go to charge up your pendant at the mammon machine through the left door, but be warned that once you do there's no going back to the other cities. You'll be able to return to this area much much later, but once you charge up your pendant you'll have to wait a while before visiting the secret rooms at Enhasa and Kajar or scratching the Nu for a magic tab.

Use your charged pendant to open the door with Zeal's crest on it, and prepare to fight a Golem. You can actually lose this fight and the game will proceed as usual, but if you want to win it, just be aware that it copies the style of whatever attacks you last used on it, physical, lightning, etc. Its physical attacks are really nasty, some of them cut your HP by half or do massive damage, its lightning and shadow attacks hit the whole group for large damage, but its fire attacks are fairly impotent, particularly if you have ruby vests. It attacks at fairly predictable intervals, so my recommendation would be to attack with whatever powerful spells you want first, but always finish up with one of Lucca's fire spells to guarantee it will hit you with a weaker fire attack. Its final attack when it dies will be to copy Dalton and hit the whole party for about 100 damage, just keep your health high.

You'll be trapped no matter what the outcome of the battle is, and eventually Schala will free you but the prophet will send you back through the time portal and seal it behind you. Bummer. You'll be back in 65M B.C., just head to the end of time and get on to the next chapter.

Challenging Lavos
If you go back and challenge Lavos at this point you should get The Prophet Ending. There will be a few scenes involving "the Prophet" from this period and particularly nice speech from him, hinting that he would have gotten the chance to do what he wanted without your interference.

Continue to Chapter 19: Break the Seal! (2300 A.D. second time and 12,000 B.C. second time)