PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 15: Cygnus Awakens

(A/N: There’s a mount quest which I added here before the main Cygnus Awakens storyline, as it takes place shortly beforehand and there wasn’t anywhere else to keep it.

The Cygnus Awakens quest used to be level 120, but it was bumped up to level 125 in the revamp. This is likely because the original ordering created a conflict, as it didn’t make sense for Cygnus Awakens to be the sequel to Root Abyss when it was lower level content. Even then, though, I wouldn’t use levels as an ordering for chronology up until the Arcane River storyline. The Gate to the Future, for example, is level 160-180 content, even though it takes place shortly after the formation of the Alliance, which is level 75 for most classes.)

Neinheart reached out to the Knight and told them that Kiridu was looking for them, as there was a problem with Mimio. The Knight met with Kiridu, who explained that their advancement to Chief Knight posed a problem. Though Mimio grew stronger as its master did, even Mimio had its limits, and its health was quickly deteriorating as a result. Kiridu placed Mimio inside a special incubator, hoping that it would help it recover. To his shock, however, Mimio began weakening even faster. Realizing that there was no other choice, Kiridu instructed the Knight to take Mimio to Shinsoo, whose power had created every mount in Ereve.

Shinsoo told the Knight that Mimio had grown tired from its constant battles alongside them and asked them to let Mimio go. The Knight refused and began arguing with Shinsoo, claiming that they would not let go of their dear companion. However, Shinsoo soon helped the Knight understand that Mimio was in pain, and that selfishly holding onto it would only make it suffer more.

Reluctantly, the Knight agreed to give Mimio up, and Shinsoo used her power to send it back to where it came from. To her surprise, however, Mimio returned back to the Knight’s side on its own. Shinsoo explained that the Knight’s attachment to Mimio combined with its strong will had allowed it to manifest itself without her power. She then gave it the new name Shinjo, declaring that it no longer needed her power to stay in the world.

(A/N: This last part is the actual Cygnus Awakens storyline. Mihile characters get a slightly different script for this section, but I’m working on the assumption that the Knight canonically completes it. The only main difference in Mihile’s script is that the dialogue is different in order to account for the fact that it’s just the five Chief Knights accompanying Cygnus, rather than the Chief Knights and the Cygnus Knight protagonist. Mihile also gets a somewhat altered dialogue with Shinsoo, which I’ll put in the author notes.)

Some time later, Neinheart gave the Knight a special assignment to serve as part of the security detail to protect Empress Cygnus at the upcoming Alliance meeting, which was to be the first Alliance meeting held outside Ereve. Neinheart explained that he had agreed to the change in location because Cygnus needed to learn more about Maple World, which couldn’t happen if she always remained in Ereve. However, he told the Knight that he refused to compromise her safety and reminded them that security needed to be iron-clad, which he could only entrust to the six Chief Knights.

Soon after, the Knight met Cygnus and her court at the Station to Ereve in the Six Path Crossway. Just as they were about to start heading to the Alliance meeting, an injured Kiku arrived at the station and explained that Ereve was under attack, and that though Shinsoo was fighting off the invaders, the situation was looking grim. Neinheart asked Kiku who had attacked Ereve, to which he explained that it was an unknown man with grey skin and purple hair.

Cygnus immediately decided that she would return along with the rest of the Chief Knights, as their forces would otherwise be split between protecting her and reinforcing Shinsoo. Neinheart agreed with her, explaining that there was a chance that the attack on Ereve could be a ruse to draw them away from Cygnus.

He decided that it would be best for them to all return to Ereve together, adding that he would postpone the Alliance meeting as well. As they prepared to debark, Neinheart began wondering what the enemy’s goal could be in attacking Ereve. As they prepared to return to Ereve, the Knight wondered to themselves whether the enemy was after Cygnus or if they were after Shinsoo and the World Tree.

As the Knights reached Ereve, Damien successfully defeated Shinsoo and shattered the jewel on her forehead before extracting Alicia, who had regained her full Transcendent powers. After binding her with the power of his sword, Damien collapsed onto his knees, overwhelmed with overexerting his body.

Alicia asked Damien whether he had any idea what he was doing, to which he laughed and told her that he was just hunting prey before asking what was wrong with that. Alicia noted that he clearly didn’t know anything at all, as his body was unfit to handle his powers. However, Damien ordered her to shut up and told her that she knew nothing, claiming that hunters and preys weren’t decided at birth. He then laughed and declared that his hunt would now begin.

(A/N: Unlike Damien, the Demon won the genetic lottery and got both demon powers and a demon body with wings. It’s said that having wings is pretty rare, and that wings are an indication of having great strength. Damien has been compensating for his weakness by branding monsters across Maple World and draining their power through his mark of corruption, which we saw during Stone Colossus.

One thing that I really like about this game is its consistent use of themes and symbolism. Throughout the story, we can clearly see the duality of symbiosis vs parasitism. The Adversary derives their power from the people they protect. Seal Stones can only be used by a population. Cygnus’ authority comes from people choosing to follow her, not because she has a throne. Heroes are strong because their power is freely given by others who believe in them, giving a level of purity and divinity to their strength.

In contrast, we have the parasitic relationship between the villains and their sources of power. Kaling created the Four Perils because she wanted them to consume thousands of fiends so that she could fuse with them and artificially inflate her power. Damien brands his targets and drains their power for himself through their parasitic mental link. Tyrants like Areda, Darmoor, or even the Black Mage have to subjugate and manipulate in order to keep their authority. Special types of Specters like Gilmore in the Cernium storyline have the power to kill Ancient Gods and Transcendents just like the Adversary, but their power comes from being stuffed with countless Specter souls.

In every case here, we can see that each example of symbiosis has its parasitic foil, like with Cygnus and Areda. This central theme is the most apparent in the case of the Adversary vs Specters. The Adversary can kill gods because countless souls choose to support them. For Specters, this support is forcibly taken by seizing those souls for themselves.

The power is still the same, but whereas the Adversary’s is divine and righteous, Specter power is insidious and inhuman, like the kind you get by selling your soul. It’s something they’ve been leaning into a lot more with the Grandis lore lately and I really appreciate the effort of the writers to not only tell a good story, but to add themes and symbolism to elevate that story into something even better.)

Just then, the Knights arrived in Ereve, only to find the entire island in ruins. For an instant, they saw Damien smirking in front of Shinsoo’s body before he teleported away with Alicia. The Knights rushed ahead and found Shinsoo lying motionless, causing Cygnus to burst into tears and cry over Shinsoo’s body. (A/N: Contrary to popular belief, the game mentions multiple times that Shinsoo never actually died.)

Suddenly, a surge of power welled up inside her, causing a large water barrier to envelop around herself and Shinsoo. Mihile rushed forward in an attempt to save the Empress, but found that his attacks did nothing. Neinheart was shocked at the sight of Cygnus constructing a barrier with her own power, and not with Shinsoo’s, which he had believed to be impossible. Within the water barrier, Cygnus experienced an awakening and a transformation. With her new powers, she touched Shinsoo’s body and restored vitality to the divine beast.

Over the next few months, the Knights rebuilt Ereve after Damien’s attack. Soon after, Neinheart spoke with the Knight and explained that though he didn’t know much about Cygnus’ new powers, her awakening had resulted in her growing much stronger than before, which, in turn, made the Cygnus Knights stronger, as they drew their strength from her. He told them that though Shinsoo would be able to tell them more, the divine bird had left Ereve for unknown reasons. He added that Cygnus was still despondent over Shinsoo’s leaving, as Shinsoo was Cygnus’ guiding star, just as Cygnus was to the Knights. He then asked the Knight to speak with Cygnus in order to help make her feel better.

(A/N: During our conversation with Neinheart, he mentions Damien by name, which means that he likely had some clue about Damien’s background and his relationship to the Demon. It introduces a bit of a plot hole with the Demon having no idea who the new demon Commander is until the Heroes of Maple blockbuster, as he could’ve just accessed the Alliance intelligence network and pieced it together himself.

However, a bigger plot hole is the fact that the Alliance has no idea about Lotus until Black Heaven, even though Phantom knows that Orchid is obtaining huge quantities of energy to revive Lotus. It’s probably something that the writers hadn’t considered, and so we just have to pretend like we didn’t notice.)

Cygnus was pleased to see the Knight and noted how different Ereve seemed after being rebuilt. She confessed that she hadn’t felt like herself since awakening her powers. She explained that Shinsoo had always mentioned that she wouldn’t be the one to awaken, and that she wouldn’t be ready if she did, as it had been said that her distant descendent would awaken.

She confessed that she felt unstable and feared what would happen if she couldn’t control her powers, wondering whether she was the reason that Shinsoo had left. Nevertheless, Cygnus noted that her awakening had allowed her to save Shinsoo’s life and make the Cygnus Knights stronger, and so she would not regret what had happened. She believed that Shinsoo would one day return to guide her, and until then, she vowed that she would use her power to bring peace to Maple World.

Soon after, the Knight heard Shinsoo’s voice calling to them. Shinsoo asked them to come find her, as they deserved to know the truth. The Knight followed Shinsoo’s call to Leafre, where they found the divine beast waiting for them. The Knight asked Shinsoo what had happened to the Empress, to which Shinsoo asked them if they knew about the three Transcendents of Maple World who had maintained balance over life, light, and time.

However, she explained that the Transcendents hadn’t existed from the beginning, as they had been created after the chaos of the world had been quelled by the Overseers, proxies of the Primordial God, adding that she herself had also been working to maintain balance, though that balance had now been broken. As the Transcendents were needed to keep the balance of the world, it had been ordained that in the distant future, a descendant of Cygnus would be born with the power to become a new Transcendent, for which Shinsoo had been waiting many years.

Though Cygnus had been destined to lay the foundation for a future Transcendent, the shock of seeing Shinsoo at the verge of death had caused her to prematurely awaken as a Transcendent-in-reserve. Due to her sudden and incomplete awakening, Cygnus could now use a portion of the Transcendent’s powers, though she remained in a strange state of not actually being one.

(A/N: Mihile gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he asks Shinsoo whether that means the Empress’ destiny has changed, to which Shinsoo tells him that he could view it that way.)

Shinsoo confessed that the situation was something that she had never expected, which made her worried that Cygnus would be adversely affected. She admitted that she had little power of her own left, as she had expended most of it on building and maintaining Ereve, as well as creating the Piyos, who would carry on her will. As a result, she feared that she didn't have enough power left to protect Cygnus. Nevertheless, she explained that her mission to keep the world in balance still stood, which was what she, as a survivor of the Ancient War, would continue doing until the very end.

In order to do so, Shinsoo explained that she would need to correct what had gone wrong, though she didn’t know whether that duty meant that she would need to revert Cygnus back to her old self, or to complete her awakening as a full Transcendent. She explained that she was unsure whether that duty meant that she needed to separate Cygnus from her Transcendent powers or to teach her how to use it. In order to find answers, Shinsoo had left Ereve, as she feared that without those answers, Cygnus would get hurt. She realized that Cygnus was likely worried and confused, and she added that she was sorry that she couldn’t be at Cygnus’ side.

(A/N: Mihile has some exclusive dialogue here in which Shinsoo notes that Mihile must be worried too, as both he and Shinsoo know the pain of being a helpless protector.)

She then asked the Knight if they would watch over Cygnus in her stead, believing that they had the strength to do so.

(A/N: This is where the quest ends for Mihile. Cygnus Knights gets some extra dialogue right after this, which I’ve covered below.)

After the Knight agreed, Shinsoo told them that she felt a sense of nostalgia looking at them, as the purity of their heart and their beliefs reminded her of the Noblesse. Shinsoo explained that perhaps the Knight’s distant ancestors were Noblesse, or that the Knight had simply taken on the mantle themselves, but regardless, their selflessness endured in the Knight.

She explained that in the time of the Noblesse, ignorant rules had sent waves of people to their pointless deaths. Though she had done what she could to try to stop it, she had only been able to do so much. However, other had taken up the cause and had stood for peace on her behalf, and so she had given them the name ‘Noblesse’.

However, war had still taken the lives of their noble hearts, with many dying with Empress Aria and the survivors perishing in the war from 300 years ago. Shinsoo told the Knight that they and the people of Maple World would soon have enormous decisions to make and asked that their principles guide them in making those choices wisely. She then asked the Knight to help the Empress quell the chaos of the world.

Hoping to do something to help Cygnus, the Knight returned to Neinheart and told him about their conversation with Shinsoo. Neinheart was surprised to learn that Cygnus held the power of a Transcendent’s reserve and asked the Knight to keep it between themselves. He added that there was much that they didn’t know about Shinsoo, and so he hoped to avoid wild speculation.

He also added that their enemies wouldn’t give them the luxury of time, and that between the Black Wings, the Commanders, and the Black Mage himself, the Alliance needed to be as strong as possible. However, he noted that the Knight was living proof of how strong they could become and asked them to stay the course.

(A/N: Originally, Shinsoo gave us her blessing and bestowed the Call of Cygnus skill in order to help us protect the Empress. However, the Ignition revamp removed the need to complete this quest in order to obtain the skill. There are also a few other changes to the dialogue that came with the Ignition update.

In the pre-Ignition Cygnus Knight storyline, Shinsoo explained that Cygnus’ descendent would have been the fourth Transcendent, possibly of a new domain. With the revamp, they’ve now omitted the reference to Cygnus being the fourth Transcendent and have instead suggested that she exists as a reserve. For some weird reason, a lot of the dialogue that Shinsoo has with the Cygnus Knight gets omitted in her conversation with Mihile in the GMS localization, meaning that Mihile characters won’t get a lot of the new lore changes, such as Cygnus being a reserve and the line about the Overseers.

Cygnus being called a reserve here is interesting because it implies that she occupies a similar role as Tana did to Aeona. The idea of there being a reserve to a Transcendent has always been unique to the Transcendent of Light, as they’re the only Transcendent with two powers - creation and destruction - requiring two vessels to hold each one. Cygnus being called a reserve here likely has a different connotation, as it probably just means that she’s a vessel ready to inherit the powers of a pre-existing Transcendent, similar to how Tana became the new Transcendent of Light after killing Aeona.

Interestingly, the idea of Cygnus being a reserve actually has roots in MapleStory M. Just to give a disclaimer, the mobile game has a wildly different storyline from the main game, and it honestly feels like you’re in a fever dream even just hearing about it. For example, the Explorer in MapleStory M is actually a dream fragment created from the Black Mage’s thoughts, which Lucid kidnapped from Cygnus’ dream and accidentally dropped on Maple Island while transporting it back to the Black Mage.

The same storyline also revealed that if a Transcendent gets corrupted, the Overseers will awaken someone to replace them. For this reason, Cygnus awakened to replace the Black Mage and become the new Transcendent of Light, which also linked their minds. This resulted in us, the Black Mage’s dream fragment, floating over into Cygnus’ dream, causing Lucid to try to recover it at the start of the storyline. Obviously, MapleStory M doesn’t share the same lore and continuity as the main game, and I don’t even think that they share the same writing team, but whether it was coincidental or not, some of the ideas from the mobile game managed to appear in the post-Ignition story.

Jumping back to the main game, the fact that Cygnus has awakened as a reserve implies that the Transcendent whom she’s meant to replace still exists. Her prominent life powers likely mean that she’s meant to replace Alicia, and that she’s slowly growing stronger as Alicia weakens, eventually becoming an all-but-complete Transcendent by the time of Tenebris, shortly after Alicia scatters her life force. This idea is supported by the Moonbridge storyline, during which Cygnus Knights get one of their 5th job skills called “Empress Cygnus’ Blessing” enhanced to “Transcendent Cygnus’ Blessing”, which suggests that Cygnus’ latent Transcendent powers are growing stronger.

However, I actually have another theory about Cygnus and her Transcendent powers, which is that she’s a failsafe created by the Overseers in the case that all the Transcendents of Maple World are permanently removed. Over the course of the story, Cygnus has been shown to use not only life powers, but also powers from the other two domains. She’s used the power of time to foresee the future in Black Heaven and Tenebris, and during Tenebris, she also creates a massive light shield to block Gloom’s attack.

Based on how she embodies all three laws of light, life, and time, my theory is that she’s some sort of super-Transcendent failsafe that can maintain the balance of all three domains at once in the event that the other Transcendents vanish. This would also explain why it was said that her distant descendent was meant to awaken, rather than herself, as the Transcendents are still in power in the present day.

Another similar theory is that Cygnus’ ability to use all three powers is because she has the potential to replace any of the three Transcendents, and that once she fully awakens as a Transcendent, her ability to use all the other powers except her assigned domain would disappear, similar to how the Black Mage had to cast out his light upon awakening as the Transcendent of Light, as an awakened Transcendent of Light can’t use both light and darkness.

This last part is a small quest for non-Cygnus Knight classes that was introduced in the Milestone update, which is really just to inform any player who isn’t a Cygnus Knight about Cygnus’ awakening, since it’s a pretty major plot point.)

Some time later, Neinheart called an Alliance member to Ereve, where they noted that the whole place looked different. Neinheart told the Alliance member about Damien’s attack, and how he had taken the World Tree after killing Shinsoo. He also revealed how Cygnus had prematurely awakened as a Transcendent-in-reserve, granting her the use of some Transcendent powers without being fully awakened as one, while Shinsoo had left Ereve to find a way to help her.

Neinheart explained that he had initially been planning to keep the knowledge secret, though he admitted that he knew that he couldn’t keep it secret forever, which was why he had chosen to share it first with them. He then added that despite how unexpected it all was, they couldn’t stop their work, as their priority was defeating their enemy as soon as possible.