#solrados

Alus appears in the middle of the third chapter, rescuing the Warriors of the Light (or Warriors of the Wind, according to the wiki) from monsters on the surface. He makes his entrance by literally descending from the heavens with a group of ministrals.

Later, he and the warriors make camp amongst the many ruins where he relays the backstory of the place to them: He's the prince of Saronia Solrados, the kingdom whomst ruins the heroes are currently traveling through. Turns out, the flood of darkness didn't stop time in this version of III. Also, said flood is harsh apparently, because Solrados literally crumbles from it: Buildings collapse, the ground rumbles, people fall into the abyss... it's not pretty. All of this is capped off by a page showing Alus watching as his family is taken by the waves.

Yeah.

Alus accompanies the heroes on their way to find a crystal containing Unei (Desch told them maybe?), with his minstrals floating in the air nearby.

He also saves Melfi from falling off a cliff, only for the cliffside in general to collapse because the darkness is angry. The heroes are close to the spot where the crystals are, however, and Alus' Entourage promptly spins and spins and spins until they make a cyclone.

Seriously.

In any case, the Crystal is recovered and Unei appears with an unconscious Alus and does... something, which results in him vanishing.

(Yes, that’s Unei. Don’t ask.)

The JPFFWiki helps clear things: As it turns out, that Alus was killed by Xande, but  Unei binded herself to him in some fashion, turning him into a Dream Child. Thus, when Unei is freed from the crystal, Alus goes back to sleep. I probably messed up some meanings here or there, but the point is that Alus and Unei are connected in the manga.

Overall, Alus' role heavily differs from the games. In fact, Alus' role seems closer to that of Aria's with some shades of the game elements. That probably makes him the furthest a game character gets since even Desch gets to act like his counterpart after being freed. Though, he has some stiff competition...