PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 42: Esfera, the Origin Sea

• Soon after Tana’s disappearance, the Adversary encountered Ollie, Shubert, and Melange - a Thunder Breaker, Blaster, and a mage from Pantheon, respectively - who had been tasked by the Alliance to assist the Adversary. The group discovered a mysterious door in the memory of Kritias, which sucked them into Esfera, the Origin Sea.

• In the distance, a masked figure shot down their airship, causing them all to regroup at a base camp, where they found a large Black Moon in the sky. Realizing that the Black Mage awaited them there, the Adversary used Melange’s staff, which was capable of playing back memories, to witness a memory of Will kidnapping Tana and attempting to turn her into the “sun of the new world” before the masked figure interrupted the ritual, causing Tana’s glass coffin to sink into the Origin Sea.

• While chasing after Tana, the Adversary and Ollie encountered Will, who told them that they could only face him after learning the meaning behind the phrase, “the ultimate light can only be found in the ultimate darkness", which had originally been said by the White Mage. Will then unleashed a devastating attack on Ollie, who was branded with a poisonous spider mark.

• As they continued the operation to rescue Tana, the group realized that Tana’s powers had seeped into the Origin Sea, causing them to conflict against Will and his Mirror World powers. As a result, Will’s spider creatures began fighting against strange priest-like creatures which Tana had inadvertently created with her memories.

• Using Melange’s staff, the Adversary and Ollie began exploring Tana’s memories and witnessed a scene in which her twin sister had been given the title of Aeona, Grandis’ Transcendent of Light, after hearing the voice of the Overseers, while Tana had been given the title of ‘Tana’, the Transcendent-in-reserve.

• They soon discovered a memory of Tana learning that the powers of the Transcendent of Light - light and darkness - were actually metaphors for creation and destruction, with the two powers being split between the awakened Transcendent and their reserve. Because of this, Tana discovered that because her sister had awakened with the power of destruction, she had been given the power of creation to hold.

• This helped the Adversary and Ollie realize that Will’s words - “the ultimate light can only be found in the ultimate darkness” - meant that the Black Mage intended to create a new world through the destruction of their old one.

• Soon after, Ollie and the Adversary recovered Tana from the Origin Sea with the help of the Executors - the priest-like creatures whom Tana had created from her memories of the Radiant Temple on Grandis. Just then, however, the Executors discovered Ollie’s spider mark and began attacking her. The Adversary barely managed to protect Ollie, who was extracted back to base camp.

• Suddenly, the masked figure appeared and confronted Will, who gave them a choice between saving Tana or the Adversary, whom they pushed into the Origin Sea. The masked figure immediately moved to save the Adversary, allowing Will to escape with Tana. The Adversary was then sent back to base camp, where they learned that Ollie’s mark was poisonous, and that only Will could cure it.

• The Adversary and Melange then traveled to the White Sun, which Will had created as part of his ritual. Along the way, Melange explained that the Executors had been a minor race of Grandis who had disappeared after searching for the domain of the gods.

• With Melange’s staff, they witnessed a memory of Tana confronting Aeona, who had wiped out seven races on Grandis with her powers of destruction. Though Aeona claimed that she hadn’t been able to help it, as she had only been doing her job, Tana fought and killed her sister, believing that she had gone mad with power.

• (A/N: Kain has exclusive dialogue in this section, in which he speculates that Aeona may have wiped out the Black Nova as well. As an aside, the Black Nova are just a cult of Nova, not a separate race entirely.)

• As a result of Aeona’s death, Tana - the Transcendent-in-reserve - awakened as the new Transcendent of Light to replace her sister, allowing her to hear the voice of the Overseers. Upon hearing their will, Tana realized that she was now shackled into the same fate as her sister, who had no choice but to obey them. Nevertheless, Tana vowed to resist her destiny at any cost, even if it would destroy her.

• From witnessing her memories, the Adversary and Melange realized that the purpose of Will’s ritual was to have the Black Mage take Tana’s powers of creation, allowing him to become a Transcendent of Light with the power of both creation and destruction, which would enable him to create a new world.

• The Adversary then confronted Will and manage to defeat him, for which Will agreed to cure Ollie of her poison. However, he revealed that the only way to stop the ritual was by killing Tana. Though the Adversary was conflicted, they - against all odds - chose to spare her life instead, believing that they could still save everyone, including Tana.

• As the ritual commenced, the Alliance sent reinforcements to help the Adversary escape from Will. During this time, Melange picked up a mysterious book that Will had left behind, which he secretly kept for himself. Meanwhile, the masked figure confronted Will, who had escaped to the deepest part of Mirror World, and began fighting him.

• In the sky, the Black Moon fused together with the White Sun, transforming it into the Black Sun, Tenebris, and creating a massive storm that slowly began to grow throughout the area. Having gained the power of both creation and destruction, the Black Mage sent massive chains into the waters, pulling Maple World closer into the Arcane River and absorbing the Erdas within the Origin Sea in order to begin the Genesis Ritual.

• Soon after the mission to Esfera, the Adversary encountered several Dimensional Cracks that allowed them to peer into Kao’s memories. In those memories, the Adversary discovered that Kao had been unable to protect Ollie from the Executors, resulting in her being fatally wounded from her injuries and Will’s poison.

• After Ollie’s passing, Kao grew emotionally volatile as a result of their guilt and inner turmoil. During the moment when Kao had been presented with the choice to kill or spare Tana, Kao’s experiences had led them to believe that they couldn’t give into hesitation, for which they had made the choice to kill her.

• However, without being able to awaken the power of the Seal Stone, Kao was unable to kill Tana - a Transcendent - resulting in the ritual continuing as planned. The Adversary then realized that Kao, whose Arcane Power had been stolen by Arma, had been too weak to save Ollie in time, which had catalyzed the events which had led to their defeat. However, the Adversary was left with more questions, such as why Kao had been unable to kill Tana, as well as what their own fate would be.