PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 2: Birth of an Alliance

• Due to the Black Mage’s return and doubts being spread about the Cygnus Knights, Cygnus made the decision to create a world-wide alliance in order to protect their world from the grave danger that they now faced.

• During this time, Gelimer activated Vita’s brainwashing and had her break free from the Resistance’s prison. The Resistance member rushed to the Verne Mine in order to save their friend against Claudine’s warning that it would likely be a trap.

• At the same time, Cygnus sent her Knights to distribute invitations to the major factions of Maple World, including the Explorers and the Resistance. The Cygnus Knight who was sent to investigate the Black Wings in Edelstein met with Claudine, who begrudgingly agreed to hear them out after sending them to rescue Vita. However, the Knight instead found several other children who had been kidnapped by Gelimer.

• Meanwhile, at Vita’s prison, the Resistance member learned that Vita had been brainwashed by Gelimer, which was the reason why she had been creating poisonous medicine for the Resistance. Despite the Resistance member’s attempts, Vita was killed by Gelimer, who had rigged her cage to explode. Because of this, Claudine began regretting her stubbornness in refusing the Cygnus Knights’ earlier attempts at helping the Resistance.

• The Resistance began investigating Gelimer and the purpose of his experiments, which led them to learn that Orchid was the founder of the Black Wings. With the revelation that the Black Wings were being led by a Commander of the Black Mage, the Resistance came to realize that their fight against the Black Wings and the Black Mage was one and the same. Because of the tragedy which had befallen Vita, the Resistance reluctantly decided to join forces with the Cygnus Knights for the greater good of Maple World.

• Alongside the Resistance, the Explorers and the five Heroes came to the First Continental Conference at Ereve, where the Maple Alliance was officially founded.

• (A/N: This section is mainly for the Alliance quests for Grandis classes, as well as all their questlines set before their level 200 quest. Many of these quests have no important details worth covering, and so this abridged section will only be covering things that are actually important in a long-lasting way to the overall story.)

• Soon after the formation of the Alliance, many other heroes of Grandis - Kaiser, Angelic Buster, Cadena, Illium, Ark, Hoyoung, Adele, Kain, Lara, and Khali - were recruited by the Alliance as well.

• Some time later, Illium was led into a trap by his classmate, Sinaria, who had sided with Darius. Darius revealed that he and Sinaria had pledged their loyalty to Darmoor, believing that their people’s dependence on machinery was a mockery of their noble lineage as superior magic users. For this reason, Darius and Sinaria had been tasked with recovering the Elder Crystal in exchange for regaining their wings and magic.

• Illium managed to defeat Darius and Sinaria, forcing them to retreat. Meanwhile, the High Flora reported Darius’ failure to Darmoor, who simply stated, “The meaningless struggle of immature life… What a pathetic existence.”

• Meanwhile, Hoyoung and Taotie continued capturing the missing fiends, leaving only one to be caught.

• Elsewhere, while on the quest to regain her missing memories, Adele met with several other heroes of Grandis, such as Cadena, Ark, and Kaiser. While recovering her memories, Adele learned that she had been imprisoned for betraying the God-King, and that she had refused to follow him into battle. However, she also learned that she had rushed to defend the God-King from Veronica and her faction, which made her realize that she hadn’t betrayed the God-King until the very end, despite the fact that she had been imprisoned for it.