1-22 "Shrine" plays here. The floors are white brick, probably marble, and the walls are columns made of a similar material.

Selena can wield swords, staves, and whips, and can wear light, medium, and female-only armor. Like Maxim, her attributes are fairly average, though she's better with magic than he is, and before long rivals even Tia in magical power. As the game progresses, Selena's magic abilities increase faster than her physical prowess, so she ends up being more of a mage than a fighter, but that hardly means she can't handle physical combat. Her GUT isn't quite as high as Guy's, but it's considerably better than Tia's. She's also the only character with the Light spell, which is neither useful nor usable for nearly the entire game.

As always, there are puzzles. A (rather obvious) secret passage through one wall leads to a cracked wall that leads to a cracked floor that leads to a treasure chest with a Round Shield. Sliding platforms in the basement lead to an Undead Ring, Fury Bracelet, Cold Rapier, and:

...with that, the party can pass through the center door in the entry hall, where monsters that move too quickly to avoid run out from behind pillars. The next puzzle is fairly simple and involves a platform that moves by flipping switches, but don't miss the Bat Rock through the south door. Then there's a trick in the apparently empty room with the stairs that continue upward... walking into an odd spot on the right wall reveals more of the room, with monsters and a chest with an Intelliring. Upstairs is a room with two crates on buttons, a strange platform, and a sign to help.

That's old news, but it does suggest that you need to use the Bomb here. Dropping a Bomb next to each boxes so that they are destroyed at different times (not both at once) and walking onto the platform allows the party to cross.

A few rooms later is a rather strange arrangement with no explanation. On the near side of the room are several arrow symbols in the floor, pointing across the room. In front of each arrow is a walkway. There are occasional connecting paths between the walkways. On the far side of the room, one walkway ends at a door; the others end at teleporters, all of which warp to the beginning of the room. However, the door won't open. The only way to get the door to open is to start at a walkway and move forward, cutting across every side path you come to along the way, and ending at the door. Only one starting point will lead to the door with this method. (Cheap trick: Start at the door and work backwards to find the correct path easily.)

I've seen something similar done as a way of "drawing straws" in Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, and also in at least one other game (a bonus minigame in Super Mario Land 2?). The setup is fairly widely known in Japan, where it's called Amidakuji. The people in charge of the US version of the game seem to have decided this puzzle would be too difficult, confusing, or obscure for American players, so they replaced it with a series of small tile color-changing puzzles, with rules like Othello (also known as Reversi).

Right after that room are the usual HP and MP recovery tiles and save point. Up another flight of stairs, the party approaches an important-looking doorway, but a blue clown and a red clown suddenly appear in swirls of red sparkles. The blue one speaks:

Ridiculous as it seems, the party tries talking to one of the clowns.

And they fight, and the clown dies, and then it mysteriously reappears....

And the party is warped back outside of the room. They try attacking the other clown, with exactly the same results, down to the dialog. Being too persistent (or stubborn) to give up that easily, the party heads back in again, but Selena stops them at the entrance.

Selena speaks informally to Maxim a few times here. Maybe it's because she feels like she's taking on more of a leadership role for a little while....

...she's back to formal language....

This strikes me as the best tactical choice he could have made, even leaving aside the likelihood that he feels like he has to protect Tia (which is a good point). He could have chosen to fight with Selena and have Guy and Tia make up the other group, which would have resulted in the most balanced teams, but Selena's opposition to the situation has mostly been directed at Maxim, so putting her with Guy, to whom she's been merely indifferent, shows some degree of tact. Putting Selena and Tia together, on the other hand, would be poor for balance since Selena and especially Tia are primarily mages, while Maxim and especially Guy are primarily fighters. It's also possible that he's noticed Tia isn't terribly fond of Selena, which is another reason not to put the two of them together.

Maxim and Tia head for the blue clown, while Guy and Selena go for the red one.

And the fighting ensues.

Although the battles supposedly occur at the same time, the player controls them one after the other, and the active capsule monster even appears in both fights.

The blue clown attacks with fire and is weak against water and cold, while the red one attacks with water and is weak against fire and lightning. With a smaller party fighting each, the battles are more difficult, but manageable. For best results, equip Maxim with the Cold Rapier from the basement, Tia with the Aqua Whip from the Ruby Cave, and Guy with the Fire Dagger from the tower southwest of Tanbel.

And both clowns fade out and die, and they don't come back this time.

Maxim and Selena continue into the inner room. Tia and Guy pause for a moment.

Lose... what? If it's not clear yet, it will be later....

Tia goes into the inner room. Guy follows soon after. And inside, just as Selena predicted....

Suddenly, a soldier rushes into the throne room.

The music fades out.

Despair starts playing.

And they finally leave the throne room. The music stops.

I always thought the NA version makes it sound like she's surprised that he effectively called the soldiers useless incompetents. The JP version makes it clear that what she's surprised about is that he was attentive enough to notice them instead of largely overlooking them.

And so, the party marches boldly into the basement, and finds an Angel's Raiment. Sort of a strange reward, but useful regardless.

The guard at the small shrine to the west warns them, as they pass though, that it may still be dangerous.