PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 1: Aftermath

• (A/N: This section is for all the Aftermath cutscenes set after the final battle of Tenebris. Some of these have lore-important content, but there are a lot which I omitted because they don’t really have much in the way of lore. I still think that they’re all worth checking out in-depth, which you can do in the complete Aftermath section here.)

• After the defeat of the Black Mage, the blood curse on Tess and Kyrin disappeared, allowing them to reunite. Tess and the other Explorers met on Maple Island, where Sugar appeared to them in physical form once again in order to congratulate them, though she explained that she wouldn’t be able to maintain her form for long.

• In Edelstein, the Resistance celebrated their freedom and hoped to use their movement to liberate other places in need of freedom.

• Xenon was visited by Beryl, who remained disguised as Bitterbot, and vowed to return to the Scrapyard one day to find Beryl, believing that she still had to be out there.

• In Leafre, the Demon visited Damien’s grave and lamented that despite the Black Mage’s defeat, his family was still gone. Nevertheless, Mastema told him that he needed to keep living, to which he resolved to keep fighting for good.

• In Elluel, Mercedes and the elves - who were freed from ice at last - celebrated their freedom together, playing Lucid’s music box in order to fill their kingdom with laughter and music after centuries of silence.

• Cadena, after the final battle, met with Gen and Coney at Savage Terminal. There, she revealed that she had no plans to claim the throne as the Nova princess, as she was content with letting Kaiser handle the politics while she operated from the shadows. She then declared that she planned to see the leader of the Shadowdealers.

• Following the battle, Khali returned to Erimos with her full power and confronted Ypsilon. Ypsilon was surprised to find her so powerful and noted that the rumors of a commoner killing a Transcendent were well-founded. However, he laughed that he couldn’t allow himself to be killed yet and retreated, leaving Khali frustrated.

• In the weeks following the battle, the Adversary was called to the Outpost, where Neinheart and Cygnus revealed that the Alliance was verging on bankruptcy after the battle. To optimize their costs, Neinheart planned to create the Glory Guard, composed of a small team of elite soldiers who could be deployed instead of using a large, expensive army.

• Soon after, the Alliance discovered a weapon left behind by the Black Mage, which matched that of the Adversary’s. Believing that it had been left behind deliberately, Neinheart asked the Adversary to unseal its power. The Adversary then defeated afterimages of the Black Mage and his Commanders, allowing them to liberate the Genesis Weapon and unlock a small portion of the Black Mage’s powers of creation and destruction.

• By liberating the weapon, the Adversary also discovered several memories of the Commanders, which revealed that the Black Mage had aspired for something more than Genesis, and that he held animosity towards some higher being.

• In Limina, the Adversary discovered several other Dimensional Cracks, which showed the rest of Kao’s story. During the final battle, Tana hadn’t appeared before Kao after they had tried to kill her in Esfera, which had led to their ultimate failure. In the end, the Black Mage had successfully enacted the Genesis Ritual, resulting in the creation of a new world with only him and Kao.

• After seeing Kao’s memories, he discovered that the problem had stemmed from when Tana’s influence had warped the Erdas along the Arcane River, resulting in the creation of Arma, who had stolen Kao’s Arcane Power. Believing that he could still enact his plan if that variable were addressed, the White Mage sent Kao back in time - an action which he noted could only be done once - in the hope of having Kao stop the Adversary from losing their power, thereby allowing his plan to complete successfully.

• In the past, Kao lost their memories and forgot their name. They were soon found in the Temple of Time by a Temple Keeper, who gave them the new name “Kao”, which meant “chaos”, representative of the chaotic, undefined nature of time itself. Kao then continued serving as a Temple Keeper, losing their memories constantly until the Adversary had helped them remember the name given to them, Kao.