Luke promised Tear he’d come back
But Asch promised Natalia to rebuild the kingdom together somewhere inbetween.

The argument of who or what it is at the end could go on for ages really. x_X No one will ever be satisfied.

– Tasha

In the Anime, Luke says “I promised, didn’t I?”. Therefore it’s totally obvious.

Animepalm – hundreds of Anime English Dubbed

I would’ve liked to see Luke use Radiant Howl (or better yet, Lost fon Drive!). Hell, I would’ve loved to see Tear use something OTHER than healing artes or her overpowered hymns.

Eh, for the ending, I tend to believe that it’s both of them, since that’s technically what a Big Bang reaction does to Original and Replica — even if one of them is dead. Can’t entirely recall the effect on the memories of the final being though…*goes to check the game script* The whole dialogue of the Contamination Sidequest can be misleading, the Cheagle in the 2nd part is assumed to be the original and he can remember his past…and he felt the other one die? For the most part…I’d assume the Replica was absorbed by the Original. The memories explained are vague enough to be either though. Then the last part of the sidequest has Jade saying “nothing but his memories will remain”, but it can’t be known whether he’s referring to Asch or Luke. However, seeing that the final Luke remembers his promise to Tear…We can assume it’s almost perfectly Asch’s body (see the even red hair? no dark/light highlights at the end), since he does look like Luke when his hair isn’t in that weird position.

Baaaaw~ But I love Anise!