Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 36: Visions in the Fog

As Shulk rests, his sleep is interrupted by an immense mass of fog, surrounding him in a grayed-out nowhere that he hasn’t ever been to before.  Shrouded by the fog, he can see a figure in the distance, too far to make out clearly.  Standing with the Monado in his hand, the blond watches the stranger for a few moments before an offer is made- ‘Do you wish to change it?’  Shulk seems puzzled by the question, but doesn’t get a chance to try and figure out what is going on before the stranger speaks again.

The stranger in the fog explains that it (he?) Is talking about the future, and suggests that everyone desires to change the course of the future.  HE asks if Shulk will fight against the events that are coming, even if they are set to happen.

The blond tries to answer for a moment, but only manages half-words before the stranger speaks again.  ‘The Monado is now in your hands.’  The figure says, ‘The Monado will grow with you.  If you can find the True Monado, then the future is yours.’  That declared, the figure turns and walks off into the fog, vanishing behind a cloud of gray.  Shulk moves to chase after him when the Monado triggers- granting him another vision of the future.

This vision-within-a-vision is even grayer than Shulk’s original dream, and starts with Reyn rushing down a mossy stone tunnel, pursued by a number of Arachno- themselves pursued by Reyn.  There’s a brief skip, and then Shulk is shown his larger friend trapped in the middle of a huge crowd of Arachno, fending them off desperately.  As the blond calls out to his friend, another Arachno shows up, one much larger than anything fought so far save Metal Face, and creeps up on Reyn from behind.  The doughty warrior is clueless at first, but his constant turning to keep a watch on all the giant bugs brings him to face it as the monstrous creature begins its assault.  Reyn is pushed back by its legs, and then it lashes out with its mouthparts- and rends both shield and fighter.

Strangely, Shulk still hears Reyn calling his name-

-which is because he’s just been woken up by the redhead.  The two are surrounded by over a dozen of the spidery creatures and Reyn has been fending them off on his own so far, unable to wake Shulk at all.

The fight that ensues should be pretty easy- a few swipes from Shulk’s Stream Edge area Break attack will take out most, if not all, of the basic Arachno en masse, and the larger ones aren’t that much tougher.

Now that he’s awake, Shulk apologizes to Reyn for not having wakened immediately.  Reyn tells him not to worry, as it looked like Shulk was having a pretty bad nightmare.  As Shulk considers his dream and the stranger in the fog, Reyn urges him to get a move on, worried about how long the two are spending in the caves.

Immediately, Shulk sees the flash of the future with his friend’s death at the hands (palps?) Of the Arachno Queen.

The blond is left wondering what he should do- and what he can do- about what he saw, and whether his dream was really a dream that got hijacked by a Monado flash, or someone was actually trying to tell him something important.