So, from chapters 1 to 4, when you try to awaken the crystals, you can keep spamming X even after Airy tells you to stop. Airy will keep begging you to stop, and the game forces you to after a certain point.

In chapter 5, as you do your globe trotting and reawakening the crystals, you can do this again, and this time the game doesn't force you to stop, and Airy turns into a giant fucking demon.

Is this...an alternate ending, or did I just skip chapters 6 and 7 straight into the normal final boss fight?

!?!?!?

I am so fucking confused. I actually shut off the game so I could go back and make a separate save file even though I'm gonna have to fight Orthros again.

Edit: by separate save file I mean just turn off auto save.

The game's title tells you not to trust Airy. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy

I don't now anything about this game, but I soooo hope this is true

OHHHHHHHH SHITTTTTTTTTTTTT

After further digging, apparently this is how you get the normal ending. Proceeding...normally apparently leads to the true ending. Oh well, thought this was some absurd secret.

Yeah breaking a crystal nets you the normal ending. If you keep continuing the loop you get the true ending which is similar but greatly extended.

Once Airy's true nature gets revealed the title screen actually changes to reflect that.

Yeah it's actually pretty fucking cool. It's a great game though, I went with the true ending by just reawakening the crystals over and over again. You'll see what happens.