Destiny Odyssey

But first, some unfinished business:

Muuchi fights against Ifrit until the Wind intervenes. Ifrit appears to hear it, but Hein does not.

Ifrit draws the cross on his chest because it's a sign of armistice - i.e. he's saying he doesn't want to fight. Hence Hein losing it.

Muuchi states that the Ancients Sword contains the thoughts of the Ancients. The Warriors realize that the living trees are, in fact, the spirits of the Ancients. This is also why, when Muuchi later throws the sword on the surface, it guides them in the direction they need to go.

Desch freaks out because he remembers his past as an ancestor of the Ancients. He informs the Warriors of the motherland (the surface) and how he survived to meet them.

Doug's episode on the surface is due to him being disturbed at the realization that the floating continent was just a tiny part of a bigger world.

And now that we're caught up:

Alus Restor:

When I initially looked at the manga, I had to rely on the FF dictionary (a japanese fansite) to understand the details of what was happening with Alus, beyond the similarities to Aria in the game. And know, with the translation, here's some further context:

Alus in this adaptation was the prince of Solrados. Xande initially unleashed the Great Earthquake on the region. Buildings collapsed, people taken by the waves. Pure pandemonium. While Alus' father/Gorn's manga equivalent tried praying to the gods, but nothing worked. Alus' family, and eventually Alus himself, were consumed by the waves.

At the same time, Unei was clashing with Xande. She casted the ultimate White Magic spell Wrath of the Dream World and Xande put a curse on her in-turn to make her fall asleep. Spotting Alus' soul, she bound herself to him - making him her Dream Child and granting him her lifeforce and charging him with waiting for the Warriors of the Wind to lead them to the Water Crystal. Alus was able to save Melfi from falling off of the ravine by moving inhumanely quickly. And his entourage seems to be a manifestation of Unei's magic

As the Water Crystal is being unearthed, Alus binds his consciousness to the Warriors of the Wind, allowing them to rescue Unei at the cost of his life. With Unei now awaken once more, she reveals that she gave Alus a dreamless sleep. While the dead also dream, Unei notes that their dreams can be joyous or maddening and for Alus' "hate-stained soul", that was the greatest kind of peace she could give him.

Doga:

Doga is the initially seen when the Warriors of the Wind arrive on the surface and is only named when they meet Unei. Doga's been involved far earlier though, as it turns out he was the wind that has been guiding the Warriors of Light to their goal throughout the story. By the time they reach the motherland, however, Xande is beginning to break his seal. When he and Unei reunite, he reveals that he was following the will of the wind crystal.

Doga is nicknamed "Wind" in this adaptation.

Unei:

Unei is initially trapped underneath the Water Crystal, her heart pierced by it, but is eventually freed by the Warriors of Light. Notably, she immediately transforms into her younger self rather than staying in her old form. The DS remake would eventually suggest that the apprentices could bring themselves back to life via magic, but Doga and Unei don't seem to have the ability to de-age themselves (and it gets confusing with Noah later).

Unei explains more or less everything that happened up to that point, such as how the Floating Continent was created by Doga/Wind and her and Doga's past with Noah and how that plays into the threat their facing: Xande. But by this time, she and Doga have had their magic bound by Xande, so all they could do is buy time and prepare the Warriors to face off against him. Unei also explains to Melfi the concept of the "Empty Spring" - something that Noah told her and Doga: It's the moment that someone falls in love with someone else and that as long as one is human, falling into the spring will make you fragile and can potentially weaken you. Doga and Unei fell into the spring and Xande promptly took advantage of it.

Unei is nicknamed "Dreams" in this adaptation.

Noah:

Surprisingly enough, the manga is the only adaptation of III to actually show Noah, in all his crescent moon-horned glory.

Noah's no slouch in the ability department either. According to Unei's flashback, Noah was an incarnation of the gods of creation and had the talent to match, said to wield enough power to destroy the world and revive it just as quickly.

But Noah was still mortal, no matter how many centuries-long lifespan expanding techniques he knew. On his deathbed, he granted Doga mastery over black magic and Unei mastery over White Magic and...

*Checks notes*

...Nope. That's it. That's all we hear of what he gave.

This implies that Xande - in this adaptation - is acting out of envy of his fellow disciples for getting gifts. This would track with some of the things about him in this adaptation.

Oh, and speaking of:

Xande:

Xande is not a complicated character in this adaptation. He emerges towards the middle of the third volume as the seal Doga placed on him begins to weaken. Most of his dialogue isn't worth examining in detail as it's pretty much what you would expect outside of two lines.

The thing that stands out to me about Xande in this adaptation is that he is self-centered. It's implied that his turning into a demon and all the shenanigans he enacted were due to his master not leaving him anything. And Xande declares himself to be the world after his initial shell is broken.

The point is emphasized when Muuchi points out that Xande taking advantage of Doga and Unei's love for each other is inhumane; Unei responds that Xande is no longer human and only cares about empowering himself, not caring for any other human.

It also frames him using Doga and Unei (or at least, their bodies) as weapons in an even darker light. The game is generally ambiguous about Xande's thoughts on Doga and Unei since turning evil (although Memory of Heroes portrays him as envious of them and feeling that they are trying to undermine him in the one line that he mentions them for), but the manga 's portrayal of him really makes it hard not to think that he thinks almost nothing of them and only sees them as an obstacle.

And, of course, the Cloud of Darkness doesn't exist in this adaptation. Nothing really indicates that Xande fell under the control of some outside force either, at least beyond general "darkness".

Conclusion:

Now that I can actually understand the manga, it's an interesting work. I wouldn't necessarily consider it to be canonical (my stance is "does it contradict what other media says), it still has some interesting ideas like Noah's power levels, Sara being a descendant of the Ancients, and of course the main characters; While it'd be wrong to outright say that the DS characters were inspired by the manga protagonists, I can see shades of their personalities and general dynamics in some of their interactions. But even in their own right, they're fun characters.

(Also there's a cute little 4-page Fat Chocobo mini comic at the end of the third volume that I have somehow neglected to mention up to this point)