Lavos's Theme 
After all this time preparing and fixing past, present, and future, it's time to take care of the biggest threat of all.
Lavos has a lot of phases. The first bunch of them involve copying the attack patterns of previous bosses we fought, starting with the Dragon Tank.
For those bosses with multiple parts, odd beings will join Lavos to serve as these parts.
In addition, we get a break between each fight to heal up and change our party and equipment.
This will be my party for this gauntlet. Crono and Magus both have major reasons to want to defeat Lavos, while the last slot is whatever. It was Marle's idea to defeat Lavos in the first place, but mainly she's along for healing and Haste.
There's a slight problem with these attack forms, though.
They have similar, if not the same stats as the bosses they're mimicking. Including HP.
This means the first few forms are utterly trivial to blow through, like the Guardian here.
Heckran is the first form to not get one-shot, though it still doesn't last.
Zombor form is a nuisance due to MP Buster.
Masamune is...there.
Nizbel might be a pain if you're doing this fight with Crono dead, you failed to recruit Magus, and didn't grind to Robo's final tech, since those are the only ways to get through his "reduce defense with Lightning" gimmick. Otherwise, enjoy plinking away through those insane defenses.
Amusingly, Magus is great against the Magus form since he covers every element. Robo is also handy here if you kept up with his techs, covering all elements but Water.
Black Tyrano form doesn't even live long enough to do its fire breath attack.
Final form is Giga Gaia. Still not a major issue, though it'll actually take a few hits to do it in.
Lavos's Theme 
At this point, the boss patterns stop, and we fight Lavos as Lavos.
It starts off with its signature attack, "Destruction rains from the heavens!". It's significantly less lethal here than the Ocean Palace fight.
It also has Chaos Zone, which can inflict Chaos if you aren't guarding against it.
However, this thing only has 10,000HP. Magus and Crono's attacks are enough to wear it down quickly.
In the end, we defeat Lavos.
SILENCE 
But THIS couldn't have done him in...!
We'll get to the bottom of this, Lavos...
We're far from done, though. All that was just the beginning...
We end up inside the shell of Lavos.
...No turning back now.
About that...you can totally turn back if you attack Lavos through the Black Omen or through the bucket at the End of Time.
The Brink of Time 
Gaspar even has some new dialogue if you beat the Black Omen.
Now it is time for you to access the Gate contained within that bucket! You fight not just for yourselves, but for all living things...
We've established the stakes. Now it's time to follow through.
Back we go...
Once Lavos's head is defeated, we don't have to defeat it again.
All that's left is to march forward...
Until...
...we come face to face with the fiend itself.
World Revolution 
Click the music link!
Much like many other fights, Lavos has a core head and two arms that assist him. For this fight, the head has max defenses that will not be reduced until either the arms die or enough time pass, though the arms will also heal the head, making them the prime targets.
Lavos starts things off with nipple lasers, as is fitting for a final boss.
The left-side arm has a mere ~8,000HP compared to the right's 12,000 and the head's 20,000.
Both arms have a flying blade attack for marginal damage.
It doesn't take long of course for the first arm to fall.
That healing is huge, so even if you wait for Lavos's defenses to drop, the arms should still go down.
This is a weak attack, but it removes status immunities for that battle, which means even with a Prism Helm Crono is now vulnerable to stuff like Chaos.
This tends to happen when one arm is left over.
So let's fix that!
Once the arms are down, Lavos goes into a more dangerous attack pattern. Obstacle is Chaos Zone, and with Crono vulnerable, this one can be a bit rough. You know, if Heal items weren't easily accessible.
Shadow Slay does minor damage, but inflicts Poison, which Crono gets inflicted with for what is probably the first time in the game. Remember that Poison reduces your attack, so even if the HP loss is minor it's good to remove it.
Flame Battle's not worth talking about.
This move seems to be a combination of the previous three, though the non-elemental damage doesn't really affect our party much.
There's a final move that boosts Lavos's attack power, but I end up beating it before it triggers.
SILENCE 
And with that, did we finally defeat Lavos...?
Of course not. Though this appearance does lead to a revelation...
......
We were created only to be harvested. All people... ...and all living things...Lavos has taken advantage of the diverse life of this world and absorbed the DNA of living creatures to evolve itself, which it then spreads to its children that shoot off into different worlds to repeat the cycle. To Lavos, everything in this world exists solely to satisfy the needs of this beast.
It's over for you...
No matter what it may think or desire, though, we are here and ready to make our mark on the world.
The final battle begins!
Last Battle 
For the final battle, this is an odd one. It once again takes the three-target concept of previous boss battles but twists it on its head.
These time warps don't do anything directly, though they can trigger counter attacks if you opted for the Frenzy Band. They do signal potential moves Lavos Core may use.
That left bit will heal the center for 1000HP. That left bit itself has a mere 2000HP and standard defenses, but absorbs all elements. Still trivial to remove, though.
That right bit has some weak attacks, nothing special, though its defenses are maxed out so it's pointless to try anything on it.
The central body has some nasty attacks itself. This can inflict status effects and is used in the 1000AD backdrop.
The HP-halving Evil Star shows up in the 600AD backdrop.
A powerful magic attack (that Barrier reduces the HP of) that shows up in the 2300AD backdrop.
Lavos Core has a similar ultimate physical attack that crushes a giant rock on the party, though it never got used here since we never see 65,000,000 BC. The 12000AD attack is a party attack that can inflict Slow, a status effect I'm pretty sure we've never actually seen in this entire playthrough.
But eventually, we finally do it. We defeat the Lavos Core.
...or did we?
Lavos has absorbed all of our knowledge, after all, and has used it to adapt. All those fights where it's pretty obvious that the central part needs to die? Lavos has been prepared for this moment.
The body with its mere 10,000HP was a decoy. The actual Lavos Core is the right bit, with a whopping 30,000HP.
Once we defeat either the body or the left bit, the right bit will remove its defenses to revive the other bits. This is our chance to attack.
The left bit is easier to kill, but leaving the body alive opens us up to some deadly attacks. Leaving the left bit alive however triggers an X-Strike style counter. The best strategy is to kill the body first, then focus on the left bit before going all-out on the right bit, which won't fight at all while it's preparing to revive the other parts.
That's still 30,000HP to burn through, and if we're not fast enough the bit will reactivate its defenses and we'll have to do the whole process over again.
So this is the time to throw everything you have onto the beast!
Fortunately, it still takes a few turns after reviving the bits for the right bit to rebuild its defenses. And once it dies, the battle's over. So we just have to keep on the offensive until...
...we succeed.
It's over. Lavos has been defeated.
