PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 9: Hero of Seoul

Due to the barrier between Maple World and Friends World thinning, a high-school boy from Seoul gained the power of psychokinesis and decided to use his new skills to become a superhero, giving himself the name Kinesis. Kinesis began to make a name for himself by intervening to rescue people, and his popularity soon grew online. Together with his tech-savvy friend, Jay, and his girlfriend, Yuna, Kinesis began learning to control his powers.

Some time after gaining his abilities, Kinesis ran a training program created by Jay in order to assess his capabilities. After finishing the program, Jay told Kinesis that Yuna was looking for him at school. There, Yuna - as well as Jay, remotely - reminded Kinesis to keep his identity secret, as he had a tendency to veer towards the spotlight. Yuna then asked him to collect signatures to renovate the gymnasium, reminding him that he was the president of the student council. While he collected the signatures, Kinesis was amused to learn about the various rumors that the media was posting about his true identity.

Jay then contacted Kinesis regarding the monsters which he had fought a few days ago and asked him to return back to their hideout. There, Jay told Kinesis that he had been tracing an anonymous user known only as WM, who kept posting blocks of text and code. Jay explained that he and several other hackers had attempted to decode them, but they had soon noticed that the timestamps on WM’s posts lined up with the appearances of the strange monsters. Because of this, WM had gained a cult following, with many believing that he was some sort of prophet.

(A/N: Once again, the lore that they won’t tell you is that I’m the founder of that cult, and this time, I’m also claiming presidency before Ephenia can.)

Jay explained that he had been able to decrypt WM’s code because he had realized that WM was using a local TV broadcast to encrypt the messages, which was why his non-Seoul colleagues hadn’t been able to figure out the encryption. However, Jay noted that it had been exceedingly simple to decrypt the code once he had understood the missing element, almost as though WM had wanted it to be uncovered.

With the decrypted text, Jay had been able to learn exactly when and where the monsters would appear and told Kinesis that the most recent post suggested that the next attack would be that night at Kinesis’ school, the School for the Gifted. Though he advised Kinesis against going, believing it to be a trap, Kinesis insisted on rushing in without a plan. 

Inside the school, Kinesis found several students being terrorized by Motes. After fighting them off, Kinesis asked Jay about what kind of monsters the Motes were, to which Jay replied that there were rumors of dust monsters at a nearby school. (A/N: This is a reference to the events of FriendStory at Shinsoo International School.) Jay asked Kinesis to collect whatever remnants the monsters left behind, and so Kinesis collected Twisted Dust Balls while continuing to save the students.

As he moved through the school, Kinesis started getting the feeling that someone was watching him. Suddenly, his head began throbbing and he soon blacked out for a moment, causing him to lose control of his powers, resulting in the desks and chairs levitating around the classroom. After waking up, he dismissed it as him being tired and decided to return back to the hideout. On his way, he encountered a black cat on the street and decided to take it home before naming it Nero. He then gave Jay the Twisted Dust Balls from the Motes and left him to analyze them.

The next day, Jay told him that he was mystified by the Motes, as they seemed to be like ghosts, even though he knew that it wasn’t possible. Nevertheless, he explained that he had found another code from WM. Kinesis immediately asked Jay to direct him to where the next attack would happen.

However, Jay replied that he knew that Kinesis was hiding something, as he had lost the uplink with him last night at school, even though the Psy-Limiter had shown a spike. Kinesis explained that he had passed out and had momentarily lost control of his powers, which immediately worried Jay. He began telling Kinesis that he didn’t feel comfortable sending him into the field in such a condition, but suddenly, an emergency news report announced that an unknown assailant was attacking people at random in Seoul’s Hannam subway station.

Against Jay’s recommendation, Kinesis rushed to the scene and defeated the Motes attacking people on the subway. As he made his way through the subway cars, he encountered several Troublemaker monsters. After defeating them, he contacted Jay to report in. Jay told him that Nero had gone missing, which worried Kinesis. Kinesis waited for the subway cars to stop moving so that he could get off, but he quickly realized that the subway wasn’t stopping at all.

Suddenly, an announcement broadcasted that regular service on the train had been interrupted and advised caution. Just as Kinesis’ head began throbbing again, the White Mage appeared before him. (A/N: He’s wearing a trenchcoat, what impeccable drip.) The White Mage greeted Kinesis and called him special, explaining that Kinesis was the first human of their world to have gained abilities from the other, unlike the traveler from Maple World who had come to Friends World already with powers. The White Mage’s eyes then turned red as he explained that Kinesis was the catalyst that he had been looking for. The White Mage then used his powers to cause a massive sinkhole to manifest around Kinesis, dragging in everything within a large radius of the city.

Soon after, Yuna rushed to the hideout and met with Jay, who reassured her that Kinesis hadn’t died in the sinkhole, but rather, he had been sucked inside it. He told Yuna that the sinkhole had appeared to have caused everything within its radius to go missing, rather than being destroyed. At Yuna’s disbelief, Jay told her that though she may not have noticed, he hadn’t merely been playing heroes with Kinesis.

He then asked her whether she had heard about the theory that their world was shrinking. Yuna explained that she might have read it somewhere in a scientific magazine, to which Jay replied that it wasn’t merely a conspiracy, but rather, it was an actual phenomenon that scientists had carefully observed. He explained that it was more correct to say that their world was being absorbed by another.

Jay revealed that while the changes were so subtle that most people didn’t feel it, their world might disappear entirely in the near future. He explained that in the midst of unknown forces absorbing their world, Kinesis had simultaneously developed powers that defied all known laws of physics. Yuna then realized that Jay had been helping Kinesis with his powers in order to gather data, rather than to humor Kinesis’ theatrics of being a superhero.

(A/N: As I’ve mentioned before, Friends World is a parallel world that exists in the same dimension as Maple World, with the three dimensions created by the Overseers being Maple World, Grandis, and Tynerum. The absence of Transcendents in Maple World caused the barrier between Maple World and Friends World to weaken enough that the White Mage and Elwin could create a portal. However, the White Mage is now taking things one step further by using Kinesis and his powers as a catalyst to fuse their two worlds together.)

Meanwhile, Kinesis awoke at the Magician Association headquarters in Ellinia, where he met a wolf magician named Three Moon. (A/N: Fun fact, Three Moon’s name in KMS is Owl, like the sound of a wolf howling.) To his surprise, Nero appeared and transformed into a girl, who introduced herself as Nella Medionel Roonia, which she explained meant ‘half-child of the sacred moonlight’ in the ancient tongue. As she began explaining how she came from an important magician family, Kinesis laughed and continued to call her Nero, much to her annoyance.

Nero then told him that she had tried to stop him from meeting the White Mage, but she hadn’t been able to successfully tail him. When Kinesis expressed his confusion, she told him to wait for her master, Grendel the Really Old, to arrive and explain everything. While they waited, Three Moon asked Kinesis to help prepare dinner.

Nero led Kinesis to the forest, where he collected bird eggs from the Sparrows and firewood from the Axe Stumps. When Grendel still didn’t arrive after dinner, Three Moon recommended that Kinesis and Nero search for Grendel and advised them to meet with Fanzy. Upon meeting with Fanzy, however, the two were told that Grendel had just returned to headquarters.

Back at the Magician Association, Kinesis was officially introduced to Grendel, who explained that the White Mage of Friends World had exploited Kinesis’ powers in order to create a massive sinkhole in Seoul. Upon seeing Kinesis’ shocked expression, he agreed to answer any questions that Kinesis had. Grendel first told Kinesis about the Magician Association, explaining that the organization had been created in order to establish a unified center of research that could be shared with all magicians in order to prevent knowledge from being lost, such as when the Black Mage had first devastated Maple World. (A/N: This sounds a bit like the Mage Tower that had taken in the White Mage as a child.)

He told Kinesis that he had many apprentices, including Nero, and that he had sent magicians to keep tabs on Kinesis’ world once they had become aware of it, with Nero being chosen to watch over his city. (A/N: I love how Grendel just decides to keep calling her Nero, even when she calls him out on it.)

Kinesis asked Grendel why the Magician Association had brought him to Maple World, to which Grendel explained that the sinkhole had kept growing larger while Kinesis remained inside of it, which had made it necessary to extract him. Once Kinesis had been brought to Maple World with the combined powers of all the Magician Associations’ summoners, the sinkhole had ceased to expand.

However, the laws of physics had stopped working inside the sinkhole, making it impossible to assess the damage, though he promised Kinesis that Yuna and Jay were safe. He then told Kinesis that he would need to remain in Maple World until he mastered his powers for his own safety, as well as the safety of his friends.

Grendel added that the Magician Association was equally curious about Kinesis’ powers, as psychokinesis was extremely rare in Maple World, despite how common magic was. Grendel noted that he found it strange how Kinesis had developed his powers when Friends World lacked even the most basic magic, but added that the White Mage was capable of seizing Kinesis’ powers and pushing them to untold heights.

However, he explained that the Magician Association could help him control his powers, as Nero had been the one responsible for helping him regain control of himself the night before at school with her Restraining Magic. He also told Kinesis that the White Mage of Maple World had performed the unthinkable centuries ago in their world, and as Maple World and Friends World were linked, it was likely that similar events would be mirrored in Friends World.

Having had all his questions answered, Kinesis began training with Nero in order to master his powers. For his training, Nero had him collect tails from Evil Eyes and Cold Eyes, as well as to fight Curse Eyes. While training, Kinesis encountered several talking brooms, which Nero explained had been enchanted by Elwin after he had been inspired from a TV show that he had watched in Friends World. (A/N: This was a fun callback to Elwin from our adventures in FriendStory.)

Having gained more control of his powers, Grendel agreed that it was safe for Kinesis to return to his own world. After reuniting with Jay and Yuna, Kinesis learned that several people had gone missing in the sinkhole, and that they were likely on Maple World. Kinesis resolved to rescue them and went to visit Three Moon.

(A/N: What I find interesting is how turbulent the world merge between Friends World and Maple World is compared to Maple World and Grandis. During Zero’s storyline and Will’s Genesis Weapon liberation flashback, it was mentioned that Maple World was much larger than Grandis, and both Hilla and Will speculated that the collision would destroy both worlds.

However, the two worlds fused seamlessly during the events of Convergence, with pretty much no adverse side effects. In contrast, the fusion of Maple World and Friends World seems a lot more violent, with a giant sinkhole devastating Seoul, as well as people being sucked into Maple World or even trapped between worlds, which you’ll see later.)

With Three Moon’s help, Kinesis was able to rescue the missing people at Ellinel Fairy Academy, Gold Beach, the Swamp Region, and Riena Strait. Kinesis then returned to the Magician Association, where he discovered that all the missing people had stayed behind in order to thank him. After they left, Kinesis began feeling guilty for having caused the disaster, but the magicians reassured him that the blame lay solely with the White Mage.

Kinesis then asked about the other missing people, to which Three Moon explained that the rest of them were stuck in the dimensional crack between Maple World and Friends World. Kinesis then realized that the missing people would snap back to Friends World if the source of the sinkhole were stopped. Elsewhere in Friends World, the White Mage was walking in the crowded streets, where the billboard broadcasts announced the return of the missing people. The White Mage was pleased that Kinesis had grown faster than expected, though he decided that he could wait no longer.

Meanwhile, Kinesis continued to develop his powers and was sent by Nero to the Excavation Site in order to keep training. Some time later, Jay contacted Kinesis and told him that Yuna had seemed depressed lately. Right after Kinesis headed for school in order to find her, Yuna returned back to the hideout. Suddenly, a Troublemaker smashed through the window and kidnapped her. Jay immediately called Kinesis and explained the situation. Kinesis rushed after Yuna and ran into Nero, who led him to the subway. Kinesis began chasing after the Troublemaker and fought his way through the powerful Omens.

(A/N: Omens being made by the White Mage of Friends World is interesting because his Maple World counterpart inadvertently created them while researching light and dark magic, which might suggest that the White Mage of Friends World is doing something similar.)

Kinesis caught up to the Troublemaker at the edge of the sinkhole, where it jumped inside with Yuna. Realizing that it was a trap, Kinesis and Nero went to see Grendel in order to plan out their next move. Soon after, news reports began covering an unexplainable tornado that had formed in the sinkhole, which had resumed expanding with no signs of stopping. At the Magician Association, Grendel explained that the properties of the sinkhole had changed ever since the tornado had manifested. Kinesis asked what the White Mage wanted, to which Grendel explained that though it was just a hasty guess, he believed that the White Mage was attempting to merge their worlds.

(A/N: The image shown during Grendel’s explanation depicts Friends World, Maple World, and Grandis, which are the three worlds currently in the process of merging together. However, whereas Friends World and Maple World are merging because of the White Mage’s attempts to use Kinesis as a catalyst, Maple World and Grandis are fusing because they were originally one mega-world until the Overseers separated them into different dimensions and used the Transcendents’ presence to maintain that artificial separation, which is starting to fail as the Transcendents of Maple World disappear.)

Though their worlds were separated by dimensional barriers, Grendel explained that certain conditions could break them and create a pull towards each other. Jay asked what would happen if the worlds merged, but Grendel replied that no one knew and suggested that perhaps only a god could perceive the result. Kinesis realized that his powers were an abnormal phenomenon born from the aftermath of their worlds’ collision. He then wondered whether he was the first of many others who would develop such powers.

Three Moon then tasked Kinesis with preventing the dimensional cracks from collapsing in order to save the people trapped inside them. Kinesis first went to Aqua Road to stabilize the cracks. Soon after, Three Moon summoned him back to headquarters and gave him a letter from the Empress, who invited him to join the Maple Alliance. Kinesis recognized Cygnus from Shinsoo International School, as the two had collaborated for inter-school events many times in the past. He then met with Cygnus in Ereve and joined the Alliance.

Some time later, Three Moon sent Kinesis to stabilize the dimensional cracks in the Nihal Desert, after which he told Kinesis to continue training in order to close the sinkhole once and for all.

After training and honing his skills, Kinesis maxed out his Psy-Limiter, which made Grendel believe that he was finally ready to face the sinkhole. Kinesis and Nero made their way to the sinkhole, where the powerful tornado was still blowing. Inside the sinkhole, Kinesis fought his way through the Omens and reached the eye of the storm, where he was shocked to find Yuna as the source of the tornado.

Kinesis then saw that the White Mage had appeared and demanded to know what he was. The White Mage called himself a liberator who had given the gift of freedom to their world, such as how he had liberated the power of the tornado from inside Yuna. He explained that Kinesis had given him no other choice, as he had needed to create another catalyst in order to help him in the absence of Kinesis' power. He also added that by choosing Yuna, he had ensured that Kinesis would return back to Friends World as well.

Kinesis vowed to defeat the White Mage, who merely laughed at his confidence. He told Kinesis that people loved him for his noble deeds and asked how long it would last, explaining that power was both feared and hated. With the breach between the two worlds growing, the White Mage told Kinesis that there would be more people with powers appearing, and that not all of them would be heroes.

Kinesis told the White Mage that he sounded as though he had been around forever, to which the White Mage conceded that perhaps he had, claiming that his current incarnation was not his first life. The White Mage then asked Kinesis if he had ever wondered about the reason for his own existence. He claimed that he knew why he himself existed, before clarifying that he remembered why.

(A/N: I couldn’t find a good way to phrase this sentence, but the White Mage first asks if Kinesis remembers why Kinesis himself exists. He then goes on to say that he knows why he himself, the White Mage, exists, before clarifying that he remembers why.)

The White Mage explained that he existed to break down barriers, and that he had been brought into existence in order to fulfill a great purpose to this end. However, Kinesis told the White Mage that he was merely hiding behind fancy words, claiming that he was really just a coward who hid behind his plots before calling him the worst kind of villain.

The White Mage merely laughed and told Kinesis that he had a friend who had once told him something similar. He then told Kinesis that everything that had transpired was a test to see if Kinesis had the strength to stand at the final stage in another world. The White Mage then disappeared and left a Master Omen in his place, which Kinesis managed to defeat.

(A/N: There are couple of important points that we learn about the White Mage and his goals during his conversation with Kinesis. The White Mage being able to remember his past lives originally suggested that he might have been a mortal Transcendent who reincarnated. However, with the revelation that Friends World is just a parallel world, rather than its own dimension, it’s possible that the White Mage is actually the reserve to the Black Mage, holding the power of light as the Black Mage holds the power of darkness.

Since Friends World and Maple World share a dimension, it’s just as likely that a Transcendent or their reserve could exist in either world, since the criteria for the Overseers is that there just need to be three Transcendents per dimension to maintain balance. It’s also strongly suggested that the White Mage of Friends World is aware of the Black Mage of Maple World, and that they might even be in contact with each other. When he says that he wants to see if Kinesis can stand at the final stage of another world, he’s almost certainly talking about the final battle against the Black Mage at Tenebris, which means that he’s aware about the Black Mage’s plan on some level.

Since he’s also been testing Kinesis throughout his storyline in order to make him stronger, we can also interpret it to mean that he’s grooming Kinesis as an Adversary who can defeat the Black Mage at the final stage of Maple World’s conflict. Because of this, we can reasonably assume that the White Mage is an element of the Black Mage’s plan to create the Arcane River and destroy the Transcendents of Maple World.

We know that the Arcane River was created from the Erdas generated in the collision of three worlds, and that its existence is said to be a phenomenon representing the convergence of those three worlds. We can see this clearly in Vanishing Journey, where you can find elements from Maple World, Grandis, and Friends World, such as broken mushroom houses from Henesys, portions of the buildings in Pantheon, and all of Reverse City. The Black Mage began fusing Maple World and Grandis by sealing away himself, Rhinne, and Alicia, which caused Maple World to begin fusing with Grandis in order to reestablish its natural balance.

Meanwhile, the White Mage is attempting to fuse Maple World and Friends World by opening a portal at the same time as Elwin, after which he used Kinesis - and later Yuna - as a catalyst to accelerate the fusion of their worlds, which would give the Black Mage the Erda that he needs to create the Arcane River, as well as to make Kinesis strong enough to be an Adversary who can complete the Black Mage’s plan to destroy himself and break the Overseers’ hold on Maple World.

Simultaneously, Maple World’s energies have begun to seep into Friends World, causing people to awaken with magical powers, which the White Mage is planning to use for his own unknown purposes. If it’s true that the Black Mage and the White Mage are in collusion, it’s possible that the White Mage has awakened as the new Transcendent of Light, and that he’s making preparations to destroy himself, just as the Black Mage had done.

There’s also one more interesting thing that the White Mage tells Kinesis, which isn’t strictly related to his plans. In the GMS translation, when Kinesis calls him a coward who hides behind his plots, the White Mage laughs and tells him that it’s not the first time that he’s been called that. In the original KMS translation, however, he tells Kinesis that a friend had once said the same thing to him. Since the life events of characters from Friends World correspond to that of their counterparts, based on what we know about the White Mage’s life, it’s likely that the friend whom he’s referring to is the Friends World equivalent of the mercenary who met him in the White Mage chapter of the Grand Athenaeum.)

Nero then used her containment magic on Yuna to stop the tornado and took her back to the hideout. There, Grendel congratulated Kinesis on closing the sinkhole, though he added that the barrier between their worlds had become irreparable, meaning that Friends World would soon become consumed by Maple World. However, Grendel mentioned that it wasn’t the first time that something like that happened, speculating that it had perhaps all been planned centuries ago by the Black Mage.

Grendel then told Yuna that she now had the power to control the wind. Yuna’s surprise caused the wind in the room to start swirling until Nero told her to calm down. Grendel explained that the failing barrier between the two worlds meant that more and more people would soon find themselves with similar powers. Kinesis then decided that he would create his own organization, similar to the Magician Association, in order to help them learn to control their powers and use them for good, which would prove the White Mage wrong.

(A/N: With the confirmation that Tynerum is the third world created by the Overseers, it’s all but confirmed now that Tynerum will be the focus of the story after Grandis. However, that doesn’t mean that Friends World is totally out of the picture, as its existence as a mirror to Maple World - and Grandis, as it fuses with Maple World - means that there are plenty of things that the writers can do to keep it relevant, especially since we know that the Black Mage factored it into his plans.

When Grandis was first introduced to the game, they added some basic lore with Kaiser and Angelic Buster during the Tempest patch, and then they left it alone for a good five years until they picked it back up in the Nova update. Since then, they started seeding more Grandis lore periodically with new classes and new theme dungeons, which slowly built up the Grandis story in the background, even while the main Maple World plot continued developing primarily.

If that model is anything to go by, I’d wager that in the next couple of years, they’re gonna start releasing more Tynerum or Friends World classes and storylines to gradually introduce some more plot threads, so that when the Grandis story gets wrapped up, they’ll have a decent number of pieces to play around with in order to keep up the momentum of the story, rather than having to start over from scratch.

If I could have one wish come true, I’d love for the main villain of Tynerum to be a corrupt Transcendent of Time, which would complete the set of an evil Transcendent of Light and a Transcendent of Life being the antagonists of their respective arcs. Even putting aside how aesthetically pleasing that would be, the Transcendents of Time have historically been next to useless, as literally all they ever do is just have their powers stolen by someone else and then get sealed.

Zero is the closest thing that we have to a relevant Transcendent of Time, and even then, the game has retroactively made them an imperfect Transcendent who doesn’t count as a real one because of them being divided, just so that they can continue existing in the game while simultaneously allowing Nexon to continue with its narrative of destroying all the Transcendents in the game. It’d be nice to have a subversion of that where the Transcendent of Time becomes the strongest out of the three.)