PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 38: Chu Chu Island

(A/N: Chu Chu Island is one of the two filler regions of the Arcane River alongside Arcana. Although it’s a very cute storyline, it’s a colossal waste of time that could’ve been better spent building up the overall story. One of the biggest weaknesses of the Arcane River storyline is that there was no clear story direction or sense of cohesion until the Morass storyline, by which time we were already close to the end of the story. Given that they turned a third of the whole region into filler, it’s not surprising that the story felt pretty directionless.

The NEXT update revamped Chu Chu Island’s story alongside several other Arcane River stories, although Chu Chu Island received very minor dialogue changes without making any actual updates to the story itself (not like there was much to begin with anyway). However, they did continue the trend of adding some bonus quests at the end, which expanded on the Alliance’s attempts to cross into the Arcane River for the final battle.)

After helping the townspeople of Reverse City, the Adversary continued on their journey to the end of the Arcane River. At the cave exit in the Vanishing Journey, they jumped down a waterfall, where a Flying Fish caught them as they were about to fall into the water. The Adversary thanked the Flying Fish and wondered if they were one of the allies that Kao had spoken of. They then resolved to ride the Flying Fish upon the rapid currents straight towards the Black Mage.

Suddenly, however, the Flying Fish abruptly stopped, to which the Adversary urged it to keep moving ahead to the end of the Arcane River. To their surprise, the Flying Fish dropped them on the ground before flying away, leaving the Adversary confused, as they had believed that the Flying Fish had come to help them. Just then, they heard the roars of a large stone giant, Muto, who declared that he was hungry. The Adversary then realized that the Flying Fish had stopped because Muto was blocking the path ahead. Realizing that they wouldn’t be able to pass if Muto remained where he was, the Adversary approached Muto and politely asked him to step out of the way.

However, Muto merely began grumbling loudly that he needed something delicious, to which the Adversary offered him a few of the sandwiches they had brought with them. Muto eagerly ate the sandwiches and told the Adversary that they were delicious, though he grew angry when the Adversary told him that they had no more food left to give. Realizing that they had no choice, the Adversary prepared to fight Muto when suddenly, a large lion theatrically jumped in and accidentally knocked the Adversary out as he landed.

Upon hearing Muto demanding more sandwiches, the lion - surprised to hear that Muto had enjoyed a dish in a long time - decided to take the Adversary back to the village, believing they were just what the townspeople needed. The lion brought the unconscious Adversary to the outskirts of town, where he hit them with his staff in order to wake them up. The lion then introduced himself as Chief Lyon, the great hero and leader of Chu Chu Island, claiming that he was famed for his unrivaled wisdom and strength. Surprised to see a giant lion, the Adversary jumped away as Lyon laughed at the Adversary calling him a ‘lion’, as he was unfamiliar with the term.

(A/N: This joke works better in the original KMS text, as Chief Lyon’s name is written in Korean to sound phonetically like the English word ‘lion’, while the word that the Adversary uses for ‘lion’ in KMS is just the Korean word for ‘lion’, which obviously sounds very different from the English pronunciation. It kind of falls flat when translated to English, since ‘Lyon’ and ‘lion’ are pronounced the same way here.)

Though Lyon asked the Adversary to come closer - falsely claiming that Muto was the one who had hit him, and that he needed to treat their injuries - the Adversary jumped back even further, claiming that lions were dangerous creatures. Laughing that Muto must have given them a head injury, Lyon told the Adversary to just follow him back into town and rest there until they came to their senses. As Lyon began walking away, the Adversary thought for a moment and realized that a walking, talking lion wasn’t outside the realm of strangeness compared to what they had seen in Maple World, for which they reluctantly began following Lyon back to the village.

In town, Lyon welcomed the Adversary to Chu Chu Village, which he explained was the center of Chu Chu Island and a name which he had come up with himself. The Adversary then demanded to know who Lyon and the giant blocking their path were. Lyon laughed that the Adversary seemed to have many questions, and though he had questions for the Adversary as well, he decided to answer theirs first. He explained that he had no idea who he was, to which the suspicious Adversary wondered whether Lyon was a minion of the Black Mage.

Upon hearing Lyon’s confusion about who the Black Mage was, the frustrated Adversary snapped that the Black Mage was the dangerous Transcendent at the end of the river who was planning to destroy the world. However, Lyon replied that he had no idea what existed at the end of the river, and that he was simply a hero who had volunteered to lead the village, adding that strangely, none of the villagers in Chu Chu Island had any memories about their past, revealing that they had all woken up in different places and different times before coming together to build Chu Chu Village together. Realizing that Lyon was too naive to be a minion of the Black Mage, the Adversary decided to reluctantly believe his story. They noted to themselves that based on everything that they had seen with Lyon being a walking, talking animal, the Erdas of Chu Chu Island were likely Erda fusions of various living things.

(A/N: Most of the life forms in Chu Chu Island are fusions of different types of Erdas, such as animals and food, or animals and monsters. Later in the Yum Yum Island storyline, Chief Lyon is revealed to be a fusion of Damien and a lion. You can infer this even before we’re told in Yum Yum Island because his cape bears Damien’s curse mark. This is because the Erdas, which normally get recycled and reincarnate into new life, have been taken out of their natural lifecycle, forcing them to fuse inside a smaller pool of Erdas that flow within the Arcane River.

There’s one interesting interpretation based on this that I do like about Chu Chu Island as an area, although not enough for me to change my mind on its existence being completely pointless. Someone on Discord pointed out that Chu Chu Island can be taken to symbolically represent Damien and his endless hunger for power, with the monsters being food fusions, as well as Chu Chu Island itself being named after chewing food, which is made more apparent in how other regions spell Chu Chu as Chew Chew.

In a way, Chu Chu Island can be viewed as Damien’s hunger for power finally getting sated after he broke free from the Spirit of Vengeance’s control and made the choice to allow the Demon to end his life at the Dark World Tree. In the wake of him choosing to turn away from his obsession with power, he finally gets the chance to know peace, as he enters a spiritual form of heaven in the form of Chu Chu Island - a land of plentiful food and happiness where his hunger can finally be sated, which lies in stark contrast to how Damien had been starved and tortured for most of his life as a slave in Tynerum.)

Lyon then explained that Chu Chu Island was a beautiful place with lots of food, and that everyone was quite happy there, with the exception of Muto. He explained that Muto was the beloved child of Chu Chu Village, and that though he had appeared violent, he was normally quite kind-hearted, as he protected the villagers from the giant monster Gulla, a destructive creature who could not communicate with the villagers and attempted to destroy everything in sight whenever he rose to the surface. Lyon revealed that in exchange for protecting the village, the townspeople would feed Muto, whose heavy body made it difficult to get food on his own.

However, Lyon explained that Muto had recently stopped liking the food that the villagers would make him, leaving the townspeople in fear of when Gulla would attack next. He revealed to the Adversary that since Muto had liked their sandwiches, he had brought them back to the village so that they could help make food that Muto would enjoy. Realizing that there was no other way to cross the river, the Adversary decided to help the townspeople make a better dish for Muto. Though they were unsure about their ability to cook, Lyon reassured them that they had Master Lyck, an anteater wearing a broccoli hat who was the best chef in town. Lyon asked the Adversary to seek Lyck out, though he warned them not to say anything about his tongue.

The Adversary met with the irate Master Lyck, who immediately put them to work before firing them after mistaking their confused reaction for an insult to his long anteater tongue. After realizing that the Adversary wasn’t one of his employees, Lyck ordered the Adversary to obtain Sweet Hooves from the Pinedeer in order to create his signature dish for Muto before Gulla’s attack. The Adversary brought the ingredients to Lyck, who finished creating his dish. However, upon tasting it, the Adversary was disgusted with the flavor and noted that it was no wonder that Muto had stopped eating if Lyck was making such terrible dishes for him.

Furious at the affront to his culinary skills, Lyck demanded to see the kind of food that Muto had enjoyed, to which the Adversary gave him a piece of their sandwich which they had been saving. However, Lyck declared that the sandwich tasted horrible, even as the Adversary insisted that Lyck’s dish was appalling. In order to put their tastes to the test, the pair presented their food to the townspeople, all of whom agreed that they wouldn’t eat the sandwich, even if they were starving. The confused Adversary wondered how all the townspeople could collectively agree that Lyck’s awful dish was so good, to the point that they wondered whether the mixture of different Erdas had affected their taste.

(A/N: The Adversary: “Is it possible that people can have different personal preferences? Of course not - clearly the answer is that each and every one of these people was just born wrong.”)

Nevertheless, the Adversary maintained that Muto shared their taste in food, and that Lyck’s dish would not satisfy him. Lyck then retorted that his food was beloved by the entire village and challenged the Adversary to do better in the three days before Gulla’s next attack. As the Adversary began thinking of how they could make a meal with the ingredients around the island, they suddenly smelled something delicious and found a girl named Simia cooking a dish for three chicks - a girl named Pimi, her combative older brother, Pibik, and their youngest brother, Pidol, who had sustained a head injury that had left him scatterbrained.

As she watched the siblings eat her cooking, Simia noted that it was fortunate that the siblings were a family, as she - like many others in the village - didn’t have one. However, Pimi told Simia that she was part of their family as well, as she had taken them in when they had been kicked out of the village for their strange sense of taste. Simia agreed and noted that since she didn’t have a place to go either, they should all stick together. As the Adversary smelled Simia’s delicious Chewy Sole soup, they began wondering whether Simia’s cooking could satisfy Muto.

The Adversary began approaching the group, just as Pibik aggressively demanded to know who they were and why they were interrupting their meal. Pimi agreed and declared that she wouldn’t allow the Adversary to steal their food, to which the Adversary noted that Simia’s cooking was delicious before asking to try some. Unwilling to turn a guest away, Simia agreed to share her food, though she warned that it wouldn’t taste good if the Adversary didn’t share their sense of taste. Upon seeing how much the Adversary enjoyed her cooking, Simia realized that they must all have the same sense of strange taste which had made the village exile them.

After hearing about their journey, Simia asked the Adversary for a bit of her sandwich, claiming that the Pi siblings were expert taste testers, and that she herself was a kitchen hand for Master Lyck. Simia and the Pi siblings were all amazed by the sandwich, with even the scatterbrained Pidol fervently agreeing in broken language. Simia then introduced herself and the children, explaining that they had left the village because all of them had been ostracized by the townspeople for their strange taste, to which the Adversary assured Simia that she would have been an extremely successful chef if she had lived in Maple World.

Simia was touched by the Adversary’s words and noted that she simply liked to cook her dishes for others with special tastes so that they wouldn’t have to go hungry. Upon hearing Simia’s words, the Adversary realized that the reason why Muto had stopped eating Master Lyck’s dishes was because he shared the same sense of taste that Simia and the others did. They asked Simia to help prepare a dish for Muto before Gulla’s attack, to which Simia appeared reluctant, believing that her skills weren’t up to par. However, the Adversary assured Simia that she was quite talented, and that only she could help Muto from going hungry, just as she had said.

After Simia agreed, the Adversary and Pidol suggested making a large sandwich for Muto, as he had enjoyed the ones that the Adversary had given him before. Simia asked the Adversary what they needed to make a sandwich, to which the Adversary explained that they needed bread, lettuce, and meat. Using her expertise with the taste of the island’s natural ingredients, Simia first directed the Adversary to first collect Spicy Hooves from the Pinedeer in order to imitate the taste of bread. Before they left, however, Simia suggested that they name their special dish, for which the Adversary and all the Pi siblings worked together to create its name.

(A/N: You get to make up the name of the dish by choosing adjectives amongst three prompts. For Pibik’s prompt, you get to choose between “Delicious”, “Homecooked”, and “This is dumb.” For Pimi’s prompt, you get to choose between “Beefy”, “Smelly”, and “Your ideas are all terrible…” Finally, for Pidol’s prompt, you get to choose between “Bite of Heaven”, “Surprise”, and “Delight”. However, regardless of what you pick for Pidol’s prompt, Pidol hates your suggestion and ends the name of the sandwich with the word “Tastesplosion” instead.)

After the Adversary obtained the Spicy Hooves for the bread, Simia asked them to collect Greasy Peels and Sour Peels from the Ewenanas and Ramananas in order to imitate the lettuce. At Pibik’s suggestion, the Adversary then obtained Fresh Manes and Zesty Manes from the Flyon and Angry Flyon monsters, which he claimed tasted just like the meat inside the Adversary’s sandwich. After the Adversary brought the ingredients, however, Pibik decided that the sandwich still needed more meat, for which he instructed them to obtain Soft Soles and Chewy Soles from the Unripe and Ripe Wolfruits.

Though Pibik was satisfied with the dish, Pimi believed that no dish was complete without seafood, for which she asked the Adversary to collect Savory Fins and Tart Fins from the Green and Blue Catfish, as well as Crunchy Shells and Soft Shells from the Rhyturtles and Boss Rhyturtles. As they continued assembling the sandwich, Pidol unexpectedly began speaking normally and told the Adversary to create an egg patty, though he quickly returned to speaking in broken language right after. At Pidol’s suggestion, the Adversary brought back Slimy Feathers and Sticky Feathers from the Crilia and Patriarch Crilia, which Pidol used to season the eggs that he had hatched.

After the Adversary returned, however, Pidol once again switched back to normal language and asked them to bring Unpleasant Talons and Chewy Talons from the Birdshark and Patriarch Birdsharks, though he reverted back to his old self immediately after. With all the ingredients collected, the Adversary tasted Simia’s final product. Though they agreed that it tasted great, they noted that it was still missing something, for which Simia suggested obtaining a Slurpy Fruit from the dangerous Slurpy Tree. The Adversary then entered the deepest part of the forest and defeated the Slurpy Tree, with Simia using its fruit as the final seasoning for the completed sandwich.

Pidol then tasted the sandwich, giving an eloquent and posh review of the sandwich’s taste palette, surprising his siblings, who believed that he had finally recovered from his head injury. When Pidol returned back to being scatterbrained, however, Simia laughed and explained that Pidol could sometimes be shocked back to his old self, and that the taste of all the ingredients that the Adversary had been bringing must have been responsible for his momentary lapses back to his regular speech.

Just then, the ground began shaking as Simia and the others realized that Gulla was beginning to resurface. They quickly returned back to the village, where the Adversary informed Chief Lyon that they had finished making a dish for Muto with the help of Simia. Though Master Lyck haughtily proclaimed that their dish was inferior to his, the townspeople nevertheless gathered around Muto, where Lyck scolded Simia for deserting her post at the restaurant. Though Simia retorted that she had helped because she wasn’t allowed to cook at the restaurant, despite being his assistant, Lyck claimed that she still had other responsibilities, such as taking out the garbage.

Lyck then ordered Muto to eat his dish and stop Gulla, berating him when Muto refused to touch it. Though Simia told Lyck to stop yelling at Muto, reminding him that Muto was the beloved child and protector of the village, Lyck admonished Simia for lecturing him after abandoning her duties. Upon smelling Simia’s sandwich, however, Muto eagerly gobbled down it down and smiled in satisfaction, with Lyck enraged that Muto had preferred Simia’s cooking over his.

With Muto growing more and more enraged over Lyck’s insults, Chief Lyon quickly knocked Lyck out with his staff and sent the chef back to the village for the time being, causing the Adversary to have a strange sensation that something similar had happened to them without them being able to remember it. Feeling bad that the villagers had been feeding Muto food that he hated for so long, Simia told Muto that they wouldn’t force him to fight Gulla for them, as it was enough for her that he enjoyed the food which she had made him. Muto then hungrily finished Simia’s sandwich and even ate Master Lyck’s dish before resolving to fight Gulla.

Some time after Muto drove Gulla from the village, the villagers gathered around Muto, with Master Lyck waking up from being hit by Chief Lyon, though Lyon happily lied and claimed that Muto was the one who had attacked him, just as he had lied to the Adversary earlier. After hearing that Muto had chosen Simia’s dish over his, Lyck burst into tears upon the realization that Muto hated his food. Though he resolved to resign as a chef, Simia reassured Lyck that he was an excellent cook, with Muto revealing that he had eaten Lyck’s dishes because he cared deeply about his friends, though he had enjoyed Simia’s cooking more because he simply had a different sense of taste.

The Adversary and Chief Lyon then reminded Lyck that his cooking was still loved by most of the village. Simia then noted that Muto had been forcing himself to eat bad food the entire time, and she reminded Lyck that it wasn’t a question of which of them was a better cook, but rather, it was that they had been taking Muto for granted the entire time, rather than ensuring that everyone in the village was satisfied. As she resolved to take care of Muto’s food, Lyck apologized to both Muto and Simia for his arrogance and invited Simia to become a true chef alongside him, thereby ensuring that every single person in the village had their needs taken care of.

Chief Lyon then realized that he, too, had been too indifferent to the needs of his people, for which he resolved to take on a more active role in ensuring that everyone in the village felt safe. He then thanked the Adversary for all their help in uniting their village and offered to grant any of their desires, to which the exasperated Adversary reminded Lyon that all they had wanted from the beginning was to keep moving through, just as they had been saying the entire time. Lyon then asked Muto to move aside, with the Adversary thanking Muto, claiming that they could now reach the Black Mage.

Lyon then asked the Adversary why they were trying to reach the Black Mage in the first place, wondering whether they had some business with him. As the Adversary explained that they had something very important to do once they reached him, Pidol - coming to his senses once again - asked the Adversary to wait a moment as he presented the Arcane Symbol of Chu Chu Island to them. Pidol explained that from the moment that he had met them, he could sense that the Adversary was special. He revealed that whereas the people of Chu Chu Island had lost the memories of their origins, he could sense that their existence and memories were being protected by a great power.

Pidol explained that upon realizing that the Arcane Symbol of Vanishing Journey had been protecting them, he had kept the Arcane Symbol which he had found safe in order to give it to them. The Adversary thanked Pidol for the Arcane Symbol, but when they asked him why he had given it to them now, Pidol suddenly reverted back and spoke to them again in broken language. Simia then asked the Adversary whether it was their first time seeing such an Arcane Symbol, revealing that though they were uncommon, they seemed to appear more often after Muto and Gulla fought. (A/N: This is likely because their fights stir up Erdas, allowing them to coagulate into Arcane Symbols.)

Simia asked the Adversary whether they knew how the Arcane Symbol was made, and what power it had, to which the Adversary began answering that the Arcane Symbol was deeply connected to the birth of the villagers and Chu Chu Island itself, though they then paused as they considered how best to answer. Simia realized that the truth must not be easy to talk about and admitted that the villagers had several questions about who they were and why they couldn’t leave the island. Pibik agreed and revealed that an invisible force kept pushing the villagers back whenever they attempted to cross the river.

Simia added that though they couldn’t leave, they were all happy and satisfied with their lives in the village, and that their only desire was to preserve that happiness for as long as they could, for which she asked the Adversary not to answer their questions if the truth would threaten their peace of mind. The Adversary agreed and decided to leave things alone, admitting that even they had no idea why the Arcane River had been created in the first place. Simia then told the traveler that they had a good heart, and that she was certain that whatever they were trying to do was the right thing, for which she told them that they were welcome to come see them if they needed more Arcane Symbols, or if there was anything that the townspeople could do to help them on their journey.

Though Pimi wished for the Adversary to stay a bit longer, the Adversary noted that they couldn’t linger, as something terrible could happen if they didn’t reach their destination as soon as possible. The townspeople then thanked the Adversary for all their help, promising to cherish it as a precious memory. The Adversary was pleased to hear it and told them that they should all make another sandwich together once if they made it back from their journey, to which Chief Lyon laughed and told the Adversary not to talk like they were going to die, noting that the Adversary was certainly going to come back before offering to push them along, knocking the Adversary into the river.

Soon after, the Adversary decided to write another letter to the Alliance about everything they had learned on Chu Chu Island before continuing on their mission. Though they were unsure whether their words were actually reaching Maple World, they resolved to do everything in their power to help the Alliance on even the slimmest chance that their information would prove useful. After making another paper boat, the Adversary used the power of Erdas to have it sail upstream towards Maple World.

Elsewhere, Hawkeye began facing the Erda monsters in the Vanishing Journey, noting that despite the monsters being weak, his attacks were barely doing any damage at all. As he began realizing that they couldn’t push forward into the Arcane River when they were being pushed to their limits in such small skirmishes, Oz approached him and informed him that she had also been struggling against the Erda monsters, noting that even fire magic couldn’t deal damage to them. She told Hawkeye that just as the Adversary had said in their letter, they would need to use a special method to deal damage to the Erdas in the Arcane River.

Hawkeye recalled what the Adversary had said about harnessing the Erdas inside them and began wondering how in the world the Adversary had managed to accomplish such a feat. Oz agreed, noting that such a power was impossible to achieve by mere mortals, and that only the guidance of the Goddesses could help awaken such an ability. Just then, a Cygnus Knight arrived and reported that he had found another message from the Adversary floating up the river.

Upon reading the letter, Oz and Hawkeye learned about the Adversary’s journey past the Vanishing Journey into Chu Chu Island, as well as the fact that the entire region had been created from a fusion of Maple World’s Erdas. Noting that the Arcane River itself seemed vast and confusing, Hawkeye wondered how they could fight past the Erda monsters and make any progress towards the end. Oz reminded him that Ereve was still conducting research with defeating Erdas, and that there was still hope.

Elsewhere in Ereve, Cygnus, Neinheart, Athena Pierce, and Claudine watched as Edea arrived with a strange young boy with light-blue skin and a magician staff. Neinheart welcomed Edea, though he asked her to get straight to the point, as the situation had gotten quite urgent. Edea reported that she had been investigating a way to deal attacks to monsters born from a density of high-grade Erdas. She revealed that the Nova had found no way of imprinting the power of Erda upon a person, and that though they may find the answer by scouring Grandis, such an initiative would take too long for the Alliance’s mission.

However, she revealed that the magician whom she had brought, Melange, had helped developed another way by imprinting a disintegration spell upon an external substance other than a person, thereby temporarily breaking down the magical Erda barrier around monsters in the Arcane River. Edea noted that despite Melange’s appearance, he was the disciple of an extremely famous magician in Grandis, and that his skills were certified as remarkable. She then presented a special blue ore that she and Melange had developed together, revealing that the disintegration spell imprinted upon it would help the user deal normal damage to the Erdas of the Arcane River.

However, Edea noted that there were three main drawbacks to the technique which they had developed. She explained that firstly, the disintegration spell would be less effective than if the power of Erdas had been imprinted onto a body, such as the Adversary, though she added that a sufficiently powerful person would be able to overcome that drawback with enough strength through physical training. She revealed that the main issue was that the ore which they were using was incredibly rare, as the Nova had only been able to find ten with all their resources. Finally, she added that the third drawback was that the spell wasn’t permanent, and that the ore needed to be replaced periodically.

Edea explained that with their limited resources, they would only be able to move a small team of soldiers into the Arcane River, rather than being able to mobilize all their forces. Neinheart noted that a small team was better than nothing, though it would prove to be an obstacle when it came to an enemy as strong as the Black Mage. He asked Edea how there could be such a limited number of ore available on Grandis, to which Edea explained that the Nova had closed their borders and trading lanes for quite some time before opening them recently.

Just then, Claudine asked to examine the mineral, and upon seeing, she revealed that its sheen had made her certain that it was Rue Ore, found in the Verne Mine. She explained that Rue Ore was an Edelstein specialty, and that the Black Wings had taken over their town specifically for the Rue Ore, which held a great amount of energy and could be used for a versatile number of purposes. With the mineral being extremely common in Edelstein, Claudine explained that the Resistance could provide an ample amount of it from the Verne Mine so that the Alliance could mobilize.

Cygnus thanked Claudine earnestly, to which Claudine smiled and replied that it was only natural to help an ally. Athena Pierce then offered to solicit the help of Grendel the Really Old and the Magician Association so that they could help the Nova imprint the disintegration spell upon the ore. As Neinheart and Cygnus thanked Edea for her help, Edea replied that it was nothing, as the Alliance had already helped the Nova retake Heliseum in their time of need. Cygnus then noted that the Alliance would finally be able to enter the Arcane River, with Edea wondering what kind of world a fallen Transcendent like the Black Mage had created, and for what purpose, though Melange remained oddly silent as she spoke.

(A/N: Please note: the following text contains major spoilers for the Limina storyline. If you don’t want spoilers, skip to the next section.

It’s revealed at the end of the Limina storyline that Melange serves Gerand Darmoor, and that he was dispatched to infiltrate the Arcane River expedition in order to spy on the Alliance and monitor the situation with the Black Mage. At the end of Esfera, Melange obtains a book that Will dropped after his defeat at the hands of Orchid, which contains records about the Black Mage’s plans and prophecies, bringing them back to Darmoor after the Black Mage’s death.)