Ultima Tome ( Final Fantasy II ) The Ultima Tome is an important and powerful magic spell in " Final Fantasy II " . It holds the secrets to the Ultima spell and was sealed by its creators at the top of the Mysidian Tower . Story . Many years ago , Pandaemonium rose into the world , and the Jade Passage opened far to the east of Mysidia . Demons from Pandaemonium attacked the world through the passage , until the mages of Mysidia crafted Ultima as the ultimate spell . Using Ultima , Pandaemonium was sunk back to Hell and the Jade Passage closed . The Mysidian mages feared for the world ' s safety and sealed the Ultima Tome in the Mysidian Tower . Entry to the tower was made possible with a Crystal Rod , which required a Black Mask and White Mask to be obtained . Furthemore , Leviathan served as a guardian for the tower . The Wild Rose Rebellion ' s fight against Palamecia is dire enough to use Ultima . Princess Hilda orders Minwu to travel to Mysidia and retrieve the Ultima Tome , but he takes longer than she expected and she sends Firion and his friends to find him . At the top of the Mysidian Tower Minwu sacrifices his life to destroy the seal on the door to the chamber where the Ultima Tome lay . In Soul of Rebirth a teleport in Machanon leads to a recreation of the Mysidian Tower ' s top floors . Here Minwu and his party may challenge Ultima Weapon for another Ultima Tome . Mechanics . Ultima is classified as White Magic , as it raises Spirit when used repeatedly . Its damage is not determined by Spirit or Intelligence ; instead , Ultima ' s damage relies on the number of spells the caster knows and their level — the more spells and the higher their levels , the more damage Ultima does . Thus Ultima may do next to no damage , but when taught to someone with numerous high - level spells , it is the most powerful spell in the game , far surpassing Flare and Holy , the otherwise two strongest Black and White Magic spells . Ultima ' s damage also relies on the level of the user ' s weapon skills , and as with the spells , the damage depends on how high the skill levels for each weapon are . As with any spell , the player can teach Ultima to any party member but as the Ultima Tome is unique , they can only teach it once . In Soul of Rebirth , the player can only teach Ultima to Minwu . When " Final Fantasy II " was originally released on the Famicom , the Ultima spell , which was difficult to acquire , was practically useless . It was initially meant to increase its power relative to the level of other spells the caster had , but due to a bug , the spell did just around 500 damage at the most on a single target . Director Hironobu Sakaguchi has later told a humorous story relating to the bug : When Square tested the game and saw the bug , Sakaguchi asked for it to be fixed , but the person who programmed it replied that legendary stuff that dates back to an age before " proper techniques " would look inferior from present ' s point - of - view , explaining Ultima ' s weakness . He reasoned that the struggle to acquire it only to discover it ' s useless mirrors real life , and thus he was not going to fix the bug . Sakaguchi was irritated by the reply and tried to fix it himself , but the programmer had ciphered the source and Ultima was left the way it was .