PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 28: Fox Valley

A traveler received a leaf airplane letter from a young Anima boy named Maru, who was hoping to recruit them as a Fox Point Ranger on Vulpes.

(A/N: Shade gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he wonders what could have happened to the fox Anima, who don’t normally welcome outsiders. Because of this, he decides to follow the letter to see what’s going on.)

The traveler arrived at Fox Point Village, where they overheard the villagers talking about how Maru had pranked them.

(A/N: A couple of classes get exclusive dialogue here.

When Explorers arrive at Fox Point Village, they notice that the Anima villagers look similar to Rondo.

Grandis classes see that the villagers have fox ears and tails, and they wonder whether they’ve stumbled across a hidden village of fox Anima.

Shade notes to himself that he’s returned to the village once again.)

At the top of the Fox Tree, they found Maru sleeping. In his dream, Maru was speaking to an Anima girl named Sino about the most recent prank that he had pulled. Sino told him that the Fox God must like him, even after all the pranks that he had pulled. Suddenly, Sino began to grow unnaturally tired and left to go fall asleep. Maru followed Sino across the clouds, where he found her missing. Just then, a great roll of thunder and lightning boomed, with the Fox God appearing before Maru just before he awoke with a start.

(A/N: Shade’s story heavily implies that the Fox God is an Ancient God. If true, she’s the only other god who’s awake during the era of the Transcendents besides Shinsoo. Incidentally, both Shinsoo and the Fox God have helped the Overseers’ cause, with Shinsoo watching over the birth of a new Transcendent, while Sino helped the elders of Grandis during their experiments to create Adversaries to defeat the Ancient Gods. I like to think that the Overseers gave them a free pass for their efforts when the other gods were sealed away. It’s also interesting to note that both Shinsoo and Sino sleep a lot, which does somewhat strengthen the idea that Sino is an Ancient God as well.)

After he woke up, he noticed the traveler watching him and learned that they had gotten his letter.

(A/N: Hoyoung gets exclusive dialogue here, in which he introduces himself as a sage and explains that he had gotten Maru’s letter. Maru then sniffs Hoyoung and realizes that he smells familiar, causing him to realize that Hoyoung is a fellow Anima. He explains that Hoyoung is the first Anima that he’s met from outside the village, and so he decides to test Hoyoung’s strength. For some reason, Lara gets no exclusive dialogue here, and so Maru treats her like she isn’t an Anima.)

He then decided to test them by measuring their skills and transported them to Blossom Valley, where an Anima boy named Lumps was surrounded by Noxious Froggies. After defeating them all, the traveler approached Lumps, only to find that he was actually Maru in disguise. Maru then made them an official Fox Point Ranger and tasked them with carrying out the Fox God’s will to protect the village.

The traveler asked how Maru knew the Fox God’s will, and so Maru explained how he had been saved from Vicious Squirrels long ago by the Fox God, who had made him promise to keep himself and the village safe. Ever since then, he had been able to see the Fox God in his dreams, with whom he would often talk and play with. (A/N: Maru doesn’t know that Sino and the Fox God are the same person at this point in time.)

Maru then gave the traveler their first official mission, which was to collect Flutterbuzz Powder in order to create a sneezing powder to prank the villagers. Before the traveler set out, however, Maru told them that they needed fox ears so that they wouldn’t scare the villagers.

(A/N: Shade gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he thinks to himself that making ears sounds like something the foxes would do. Maru then explains that their village doesn’t like outsiders, which is why Shade will need fox ears, to which Shade recalls how he had once received fox ears as a gift from the villagers.)

When the traveler asked Maru why he couldn’t have asked a friend to help him, Maru explained that he had tried recruiting the other children, but he had been left alone, since they didn’t want to hang out with him because of his pranks, though he explained that the pranks were meant to be training for defending the village.

With no one to play with him, he had sent the leaf airplane and had asked the Fox God to let it reach someone who would be his friend. Feeling pity for him, the traveler agreed to collect Pom Puff Leaves in order to create fox ears for themselves. The two then spread the sneezing powder on the villagers, which angered them, but made Maru laugh.

Once they returned to the top of the Fox Tree, they heard thunder and saw that a massive storm was brewing. Maru attempted to warn the villagers, but they dismissed his words as another prank. The traveler and Maru then attempted to make their way across Fox Valley and fought their way past the Spiney Puff Bushes in order to get there. Maru then showed them a tiny tree, which he believed could act as an umbrella to shield the village.

He then had the traveler gather Nettled Squirrel Tree Nuts and Vicious Squirrel Tree Nuts in order to make magic fertilizer, which caused the tree to grow large enough to shield the village. However, the storm suddenly grew larger and a lightning blast completely destroyed the tree. Realizing that the town was going to be flooded, Maru decided to evacuate the villagers to the top of the Fox Tree. They led the frightened villagers to safety, who realized that Maru had been telling the truth.

(A/N: Shade gets some exclusive dialogue when they first meet the villagers, in which he and Moonbeam briefly recognize each other.)

However, the water levels continued to rise, threatening to drown the entire village. (A/N: Shade gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he notes to himself that the Fox God would never have sit still in such a situation, causing him to wonder what’s happened to her.) Maru then decided to go see the Fox God in order to ask for her help.

He and the traveler encountered ferocious Snowy and Stormy Stjartmes while climbing up and fought their way past them. As they kept climbing, Maru lost his footing and hurt his hand, and so the traveler carried him the rest of the way until they reached the domain of the Fox God. However, they were stopped by the Sky Guardian and his Cloud Guardians, who refused to let outsiders through.

(A/N: Shade gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which the Sky Guardian recognizes him and notes his surprise that Shade had made it all the way up to the Fox God's domain.

Hoyoung also gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he notes that the domain of the Fox God has the same sort of smell as the Hermitage. The Sky Guardian is surprised to see him and asks him why he came down to the outside world. The Shangri-La storyline reveals that the Sky Guardian had momentarily mistaken Hoyoung for Baekyeon, one of the Four Symbols who guard the realm of the sages. Baekyeon is a white tiger Anima just like Hoyoung, which explains the Sky Guardian’s momentary confusion.

While we’re on the topic of the Sky Guardian and the Cloud Guardians, shortly after the end of the Black Mage update, a new animated short was released about Magnus in order to hype up the Darmoor arc. That short featured a battle that the former Kaiser and Magnus were fighting in together. What’s interesting is that the two of them were leading the Nova army in a battle against the Cloud Guardians. It was a bit hard to see because the scene was so dimly lit, but there was one shot that clearly showed dozens of dead Nova and Cloud Guardians lying in a pool of blood.

In that battle, Magnus was seen flying away and leaving Kaiser alone and surrounded by the enemy. I have no clue why the Nova were fighting against the Fox God’s forces, and I honestly have no speculations that come to mind, but I do feel like Magnus abandoning Kaiser might be the event that caused him to be exiled by the Nova.)

With no choice, they fought the Guardians and forced their way through. While the traveler held the Guardians off, Maru encountered the sleeping Fox God and woke her up. The Fox God was shocked that she hadn’t seen the storm coming and immediately used her powers to stop the flooding. Maru then thanked the traveler for their help and sent them back home. Meanwhile, Sino discovered a draining crystal belonging to Gerand Darmoor’s Apostles and realized that her blocked vision and the storm had been caused by the same thing. She then decided to go chat with the elders ‘up top’ in order to discuss what had happened.

(A/N: Just like with Cosim in Detective Rave’s Case Notes, this is a reference to the elders from the realm of the sages. The Arteria storyline picks up the plot point about the crystal that Sino discovered and explains that there are many such crystals in Darmoor’s possession. It’s revealed that these crystals are offshoots of the Godspheres, which are the first Seal Stones made by the elders, long before Freud made his own.

However, these crystals are different from the Godspheres, as they have the ability to absorb the power of higher beings, such as Transcendents and Ancient Gods. Given the lightning storm, it’s likely that Havoc, the First Apostle of Lightning, was sent to absorb Sino’s power, which might suggest that she’s indeed an Ancient God. Havoc’s lightning is red, but it could be that the writers hadn’t settled on that detail until the Cernium storyline.

Lara gets some exclusive dialogue the scene with Sino, in which she notes that the energy in Lara’s bell seemed very familiar. This is because the bell had been created by the elders.

Shade gets an exclusive scene at the end of this storyline, in which he wonders whether he has any reason to stay now that the crisis has been resolved. He notes to himself that he's worried about Moonbeam, and that now that the foxes aren't wary of him because of his association with Maru, he now has a chance to go and see her. While he's heading from the Fox Tree to the village, Maru is recruiting the other Anima children to the Fox Point Rangers. The children ask Maru where the stranger with no ears or tail is, to which he tells them that Shade has already gone back home.

Before Shade’s revamp in the Milestone update, there were two different scenes that could happen depending on whether he finished his level 200 quest. Unfortunately, I don’t have the dialogue for the case where he doesn’t do his level 200 quest, but I do have the one for when he does do it.

If Shade has finished his level 200 quest, Maru notes that Shade looks a lot like Moonbeam's guardian spirit, to which she happily notes that though she had wondered whether she had been mistaken, he really had come back. Maru asks her whether she knows Shade, though Moonbeam just laughs in response.

Regardless of whether Shade has completed the level 200 quest or not, however, the dialogue converges here and the kids head out in order to help the adults rebuilt the village. Shade then arrives as soon as Moonbeam and the others leave, after which he goes back to the Fox Tree and notes that though everyone else has forgotten him, it was still nice to see them again. However, he regrets that he hadn't been able to talk to Moonbeam, and with his business concluded, he decides to leave.)