Down in the Dark
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Down in the Dark
- Quest giver
- Varshahn
- Location
- The Red Moon (X:6.1, Y:3.5)
- Quest line
Post-Endwalker Main Scenario Quests
┗ Newfound Adventure Quests- Level
- 90
- Experience
49,728- Gil
3,505- Previous quest
Back to Action- Next quest
- Reunited at Last
Wings of Hope - Patch
- 6.5
- Links
- EDB GT TC
Main Scenario Progress: 848 / 987 (85.9%)
Endwalker Progress: 150 / 155 (96.8%)
“Varshahn is the very picture of determination.
— In-game description
Rewards
- Choose one of the following options:
- Unlocks
Steps
- Enter the Lunar Subterrane.
- Speak to Zero.
- Confront Zeromus in The Abyssal Fracture.
- Speak to Zero.
Journal
- Varshahn is the very picture of determination.
- Varshahn stands ready to sally forth into the moon's dark depths, there to confront Zeromus and rescue his sister Azdaja. Though the stakes are high, he vows to keep his emotions in check and let nothing sway him from his chosen course─and by the set of his jaw, you do not doubt that he will be true to his word.
- ※To enlist your companion NPCs for this duty, speak with them near the entrance or access Duty Support via the main menu. Use the Duty Finder if you wish to complete the instance alongside fellow players.
- As you advance through the red moon's subterranean maze, you happen upon a memoria crystal. No sooner does it begin to glow than you find yourself reliving a memory of bygone days, in which a man named Durante fights to protect king and country alongside his companion Golbez. The pair are in pursuit of a dark memoriate, whom they finally confront in the heart of a castle. The malign warrior appears defeated, but with his final breath corrupts Golbez with the power of a dark memoria crystal, leaving Durante with no choice but to lay his friend low and seal him in memoria. Though heartbroken, he is not deterred from his mission, and proclaims that Golbez will live on as the hero who saves the world.
- The memory has laid bare the shocking truth: the man you believed to be Golbez is in fact his companion Durante. The impostor emerges from the shadows to stand before you, and Zero urges him to abandon his desperate cause, but the man who was Durante remains adamant that terrible might wielded for tremendous change is the only answer. He reveals that, in his bid to end the Contramemoria, it was none other than he who unleashed the Flood of Darkness and doomed the Thirteenth. Having reaffirmed his purpose and his name, Golbez then takes his leave to ensure that nothing interferes with Zeromus's awakening.
- ※In the event that you leave the darkened vestibule, you may return via the red moon.
- In spite of everything you have heard from Golbez, Zero clings to the hope that he may yet see reason. Together you venture deeper into the moon's subterrane in search of the man, determined to put an end to his dark plot once and for all.
- At last you corner Golbez in his domain─only to discover it is a ploy. Your foe conjures shades of his fallen archfiends, together with whom he attempts to bar the path to Zeromus, but your comrades manage to occupy them long enough to afford you an opening to slip past. So it is that you arrive in the nexus where the dread voidsent slumbers. It stirs to life in your presence, and it falls to you to prevent it from destroying the barrier between worlds.
- ※The Abyssal Fracture can be accessed via the Duty Finder.
- A harrowing battle ensues in which the very fabric of reality begins to fray. Yet for all its strength, Zeromus falters. You deliver the decisive strike, causing Golbez's champion to dissipate. Alas, the air remains thick with despair...
- As was feared, Zeromus coalesces from the aether as many times as it is struck down. But joined by your comrades─a repentant Golbez among them─you succeed not only in sealing the being in memoria, but rescuing Azdaja besides. Thus is the day won, and after millennia, Vrtra reunited with his beloved sister.
- Though your meeting with Zero was mere happenstance, from it grew a friendship that gave the memoriate a new beginning. Together with Golbez, she is confident that the void can be restored. And should they want for aid, they now know where to find it.
Dialogue
Optional Dialogue
Y'shtola: Glad though I am that the plan worked, we are in no position to celebrate. The day is not won yet!
Estinien: She's no longer the cold, distant soul we met in the void. Or perhaps, until now, she just never had a chance to be who she truly is.
Zero: This radiance is just the beginning. We must see it cast into the deepest depths of the moon.
Vrtra: My dragon form shall remain here to secure our escape route. The voidsent who dare to approach the gate will reckon with me.
Accepting the quest (Cutscene)
Varshahn: Rest assured I will not let my emotions overwhelm me. When the moment comes, I will call to my sister, and I will wrest her free from Zeromus. Varshahn: The crater awaits. Woe betide any who bar our path.
The Lunar Subterrane now accessible.
Optional Dialogue
Y'shtola: The lingering Light illuminates the way to our foe. It will not escape us.
Estinien: We've no time to waste. The voidsent we felled will return ere long.
Varshahn: “Take heart, and protect them well”... I will live up to my own words. This I swear.
Zero: When we find Golbez, let me speak with him─please. There is something I must know.
Enter the Lunar Subterrane.
After completing The Lunar Subterrane:
| Voiced cutscene | Durante: Why? Why you and not me? Durante: You were the best of us. A paragon of virtue. I could never hope to be your equal. Durante: I am only the knight I am because of you... Durante: Because you believed in me! Durante: You would not wish to become a monster, preying upon those who've fought to protect. But neither can I bring myself to kill you. Durante: So rest easy, my friend, and entrust your legacy to me. Durante: You will never die, this I swear. Durante: Through me your name shall live on, as the hero who saves the world! Y'shtola: We've been released from the memory, 'twould seem. Zero: If Golbez was the one sealed in this memoria... Zero: Then the one we've been fighting is... Golbez: No more than an impostor playing at hero. Varshahn: Durante, I presume. Golbez: A name long since lost to time. History shall remember only Golbez. Golbez: Come what may, I shall deliver the world its salvation, and I will not suffer you to interfere. Zero: You seek to free all souls from the purgatory of undeath. And to that end, you would invade another world. Zero: While I cannot condone your methods, I understand your motive full well. Zero: For I'm driven by the same. I too wish to save our world. Zero: I too once thought I had to bear the burden by myself. That I had no choice but to walk my path alone. But I was wrong. We may yet strive together towards our shared goal, if you would reconsider your course. Golbez: If you possessed power which transcended that of Zeromus, then perhaps I would. Golbez: But you do not. No, you are but another voidsent, like me. And what is a candle before the sun? Zero: Perhaps we aren't all-powerful and cannot effect great change in an instant. Even so... Golbez: Great change is what we need! Aught less has no meaning! Golbez: Having glimpsed our past, you should understand as well as any. Golbez: As Golbez, I dedicated myself to ending the Contramemoria. I fought the corrupted memoriates, and attempted to redeem those twisted by their power. Golbez: Yet try as I might, I was powerless to make any meaningful change. 'Twas then, when I was floundering in despair, that she appeared─the Ascian Igeyorhm. Golbez: Claiming to know how to excise the source of our woes, she showed me to the moon, where the servant of Light abided. 'Twas he and his ilk who had granted men unnatural powers, she said, and now prolonged the war. Golbez: Believing her every word, I struck him down...and caused Darkness to engulf the world. Zero: What!? Then it was you who... Y'shtola: As Emet-Selch once told us, the Thirteenth was the Ascians' first attempt at a Rejoining, before they fully understood the mechanisms at play. Y'shtola: They failed because they sought only to awaken the sundered Zodiark without instigating a calamity in the Source. The Darkness they unleashed had nowhere else to go... Golbez: Having left a ruin of our world, the Ascian fled. I was a fool to trust them. To trust in others. Golbez: Since that day, I have sought the means to undo my mistake. The world may be beyond saving, but I would at least restore the great flow. Golbez: The dragon was an extraordinary windfall. A veritable font of aether that expedited my endeavors time and again. Golbez: But it wasn't enough to achieve my objective. Far from it. Golbez: For an eternity, I had to bide my time. But the day finally came when I acquired the power I sought. Golbez: Aye, the remnants of the Ascians' god sealed within the moon suddenly dispersed into aether. Golbez: With that aether, Zeromus could be conceived. And driven by the dragon's longing for home, it shall soon arise to destroy the barrier between worlds. Golbez: Thus will the way open to the promised land, and the death we have been too long denied. Golbez: Thus will I, Golbez, bring salvation to all! Zero: So that is all you have left... Golbez: Say what you will. You cannot stop Zeromus's awakening. Estinien: We're going after him, aren't we? Zero: Aye. That's why we came, after all. And besides... Zero: When someone believes in you, it makes you want to believe in them. In others and yourself. Jullus was right about that. | Voiced cutscene end |
Optional Dialogue
Y'shtola: To yearn to save the world, only to bring about its unmaking... 'Tis a tragic tale. But it changes nothing.
Estinien: We rarely believe ourselves the villain. But if our ends demand unconscionable sacrifice, what else can we be?
Varshahn: He speaks of salvation─of fulfilling an honored friend's legacy. Yet he does not scruple to discard others for his ambitions...
Speak with Zero. (Cutscene)
Zero: Let us press on.
In the darkest recesses of the moon await Golbez and Zeromus. They are resolved to save their world...and condemn yours.
Are you prepared to brave the dark?
| Voiced cutscene | Golbez: I had hoped to bear witness to the moment our salvation is realized... Golbez: But nothing must be left to chance. I will stop you here no matter the cost! Golbez: Wounded as I am, I knew that I would be hard-pressed to fight you on equal terms. Golbez: And so I lured you to this place, where the advantage is mine! Estinien: The archfiends live!? Zero: Impossible. Scarmiglione and Barbariccia were sealed in memoria, while Cagnazzo and Rubicante died in the Source... Y'shtola: You are not wrong. They are not the true archfiends, but shades born of their residual aether. Varshahn: If they are shades, then their strength will pale in comparison. Even should they fight as one, we may yet prevail. Zero: We'll tend to the archfiends. Go and put an end to Zeromus. Golbez: You'll do no such thing! Varshahn: Go! We'll join you as soon as we can! Golbez: It is too late. Zeromus will awaken, and it shall devour any who come between it and its desire. Your companion is no exception. Y'shtola: I wouldn't be so sure. Y'shtola: Time and again, she/he has faced insurmountable odds. Estinien: But no matter how hopeless things seemed, she's/he's never given up the fight. Varshahn: So long as she/he has strength of will to forge on, then so too shall we! Zero: For we believe in her/him, and she/he believes in us. Zero: And together, our Light can pierce blackest Darkness! Zeromus: What is this Darkness, cold and all-consuming? Where am I? Zeromus: I must return to my world... To my home, where my kin await... Zeromus: Yes, I must return. I return. And none shall stand in my way! What will you say? > Release Azdaja! > I can't let you destroy the barrier between worlds! Zeromus: Begone from my sight! | Voiced cutscene end |
The Abyssal Fracture now accessible
Y'shtola: That Azdaja lives is a miracle made possible by the unique nature of the void... Y'shtola: ...Ah, yes. The aether transmitters, I shall leave with Zero. They will be of more use in the Thirteenth than in the Source.
Estinien: I've already seen Varshahn safely to Vrtra. Many would be heartbroken if their “little brother” failed to return home.
Vrtra: Never again shall we be parted, Sister. Never again.
Zero: Never did I imagine that the Light I bore could bring about such change. Zero: As our domains are shaped by our innermost desires, perhaps this is a reflection of the hope that had quickened in my heart. Zero: You came to the Thirteenth to rescue Azdaja and protect your world. Our meeting was happenstance, and our association one of mutual convenience. Zero: Yet you and yours always treated me with kindness. As a friend. And through your friendship, I've found a new beginning. Zero: I'm forever in your debt.