With Corak inside of the soulbox, it was now time to raid Castle Almar. I had made some preparations beforehand. I was now ready to see a conclusion of events but would get denied so quickly what I sought.

Little did I know a the start of this that Castle Alamar would be something I could not fully finish right away. I would end up needing to come back here and another area that connected to it a few times over before the true ending.

I was quite eager to raid this place. Hoping to find some massive riches in the process. I would not say the creatures that lurked in here were insanely hard. They were however robotic with giant spider-like legs walking around as annihilators.

Thankfully they did not instant kill any of my party members. That was something that I had to deal with in Might and Magic III. It could be perhaps that I ended up having quite some high levels of resistance. I never got to discover how nasty these annihilators and other types of robots I'd come across were. It could also be they were a little tamer than Might and Magic III.

The first floor of the castle was quite a strange one. There were many offset chambers filled with things like water, quicksand, and lava. Anytime I'd step on them I'd instantly get teleported all over the place. Landing right onto the cold stone floor of the castle itself. As I would later discover these were a part of massive traps set for the floors above.

One of the first doors I ended up coming across led into the basement. I thought why not check out down there? I ended up finding a key to a dragon tower. The issue was I had no idea where the dragon tower was. In all my searching of the dark side of the map, I had not encountered such a tower.

I then come to a skull. The skull asked for an ID card. I did not have an ID card that was being asked. As it would turn out. I’d keep having to return to the castle as I progressed along getting different ID cards. Just to unlock the next section of walls.

I had also encountered an exit to a zone called Shangri-la. This as it would turn out would end up being quite an important place. It only had some higher-level trainers and other services.

It is also connected to another zone called the volcano caves. I entered into it and realized I was on the third floor. I decided since I had the rest of the castle to explore. I did not want to get too sidetracked with this rather strange side area I found connected to the castles. So, I headed back in.

Once back in the castle, I made my way up to the second floor. There was a middle platform surrounded by different types of blocks from water to lava. I attempted to navigate it. Every time I was sent back down to the first floor.

Around the outside of the floor were a bunch of dials in each of the corners. From the first floor, I discovered that number nine would somehow be of importance. I then went around and set each of the dials to that number. This ended up opening up a path right to the middle platform.

The third floor ended up being quite brutal and nasty. Most of it was a giant trap of tiles. Steeping on the wrong tile would send you right down to the first floor. To make things even worse I could not work out a pattern.

It had blocks from water, soil, quicksand, and lava. At first, I thought I'd just walk on the dirt blocks. I quickly found myself on the first floor. I then attempted the lava and other blocks. I’d get a couple of steps in and find myself right back on the first floor.

I then stopped to try and think about how to approach this thing from a logical standpoint. It did kind of seem like the tiles on the first floor that I was landing on were some kind of hint. The issue was I was dealing with mixed blocks above but a soil set of say lava tiles below.

I ended up kind of guessing a large section of it based on that logic. There however comes a point of frustration where I just brute-forced my way through it. Using what blocks that I uncovered on the map as safe locations to walk onto. It was quite a slow process but progress had been made.

Then as I was nearing a door my character just gets sucked right up into it. I was summoned in a way to Shaleon. That is when I took my shot and released Corka who I had hidden away in a soulbox on me.

The two ended up doing quite the battle. The best part was I just got to watch it play out. While it was clear one was a bit stronger. The other was a bit smarter. They ended up being an even match for each other.

It was quite a thrilling battle. Then it came time. A score screen popped up. I thought to myself yet another fun ending to quite a long Might and Magic series since this contained both Might and Magic IV and V.

Right before I got kicked back to the usual World of Xeen loading screen. There was a strange second screen after the final score. I was told World of Xeen still needed for me. That I should load back into the game to find out what was going on.

As it would turn out. I got to see the ending for Might and Magic V. I however did not make it to the ending for World of Xeen. There was still much work to do. Many dungeons to access. Along with many things I was not expecting.

I loaded back into the game and teleported back to the dragon. He was rather pleased with how things went. He was also not done with me yet. I was given a few more tasks to work on.

This part of the game would even stump me a bit. I either read the quest way too quickly or I did not quite notice a context clue that should have been a bigger indicator to me than it was.

There were some things I needed to do. There was a wedding about to go down. For it to happen I had to free the king who was still trapped in the Castle Alamar basement. I’d need to wake all four sleepers in elemental realms. Along with other things as well.

I returned to the basement in Castle Alamar. I however could not get past the next skull. While I had looted an ID card in the castle. It was not the one being asked for. I had no idea where to get the next one.

So, I went off to all four of the elemental planes. They can be reached by traveling around the sky bridge. Since these looked like end-game zones I never went down other than once to one of them before.

Each one of the elemental plains had sleepers I had to wake up just by talking with them. They also had some chests I could not open. I even found a set of pillars in each one that ended up killing me if I touched them.

After speaking with all four sleepers. I headed back to the dragon. I was hoping he would give me some kind of forward progression and further information. He did not. He just kept telling me I only had so much time left to finish things off.

After some thinking. I recalled in my exploration of finding a fountain that gave temporally 2,500 health. I had each of my characters drink from the fountain. I then returned to each of the elemental plains.

I’d have my party touch the pillars in each one of them. While that did nothing for the sleeper who was in each one of them. This allowed me to open up each of the chests in the four zones. The loot was quite decent in each one of the chests.

The only issue was every time I touched one of the pillars. My group would be mostly dead. I’d have to recover. Run back to the fountain, and then head to the next elemental plain. It was a slow process but I opened up all the chests in the end.

Hoping this did anything at all. I returned to the dragon yet again. He yet again told me the same thing over again about not being done. It was clear I was missing something.

Final Thoughts

While I was thrilled to have reached my second ending in World of Xeen. Now one for Might and Magic IV and one for V. It was clear I was still missing out on something for the final ending. I also had some unexplored areas to find and go through.

I ended up going on quite an extensive search of the dark side of the map. As fate would have it what I was searching could not be found on this side of the map. I had also already discovered a passage that I'd need to take to find my answers.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic IV And V World of Xeen.

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