PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 6: High Mountain

(A/N: High Mountain is the first epic dungeon released in the game during the Dreamer update. Aside from the rewards, one of its major advantages is that it provides for lateral story exploration outside of the Adversary storyline, similar to the Grand Athenaeum. The High Mountain epic dungeon lets you play as Mitra the Sun God, complete with a unique set of skills that allows you to defeat many enemies at once.

This storyline is set after the events of Cernium, and it focuses on Seren’s attempts to restore the holy sword Azor. Although it’s not stated when exactly this takes place, we know that Seren has already restored Azor by the end of the Carcion storyline, which means that this storyline is set sometime between Cernium and Carcion. For the sake of keeping the narrative flow, I’m placing this section right after Cernium, especially since Hotel Arcus canonically doesn’t happen until months after the Cernium storyline.

Within the scope of the game, you can begin the High Mountain storyline by speaking with a traveling bard named Selazar, who gives a small backstory about Mitra and High Mountain before the actual in-game story starts. Although I’ve covered those events in one of the earlier sections of this site, I’ll give a brief summary of what happens just for context.

Ages ago, Mitra – the magnanimous Ancient God of the sun - descended from the heavens and led his descendants, the Celestials, against the original owner of High Mountain: Tynos – the Ancient God of disaster and calamity. For many years, Mitra and his descendants fought against Tynos and his descendants, with Mitra eventually emerging victorious. Mitra then split Tynos into three pieces, sealing them with his own power deep beneath High Mountain. Eventually, Mitra fell in the Ancient War, defeated by his Adversary, with his faithful servants building a city upon the three seals of Tynos, awaiting his fated return.)

Soon after the battle of Cernium, Mitra awoke from his ancient slumber after Darmoor had forced him to possess Seren. Disoriented, Mitra began recalling the last thing that he remembered, which was when he had been defeated in battle by one of the ancient Adversaries, whom he disdainfully referred to as “the Overseers’ toys”.

Finding himself in a strange temple, Mitra wondered whether the Celestials had brought him there after the battle. Just then, however, he began thinking about his strange dream, in which he had opened his eyes after a strange man had whispered into a Celestial’s ear, causing him to stand before another stranger, whom Mitra had immediately recognized as an Adversary wielding the power of a Godsphere.

As he thought back to the battle, Mitra soon realized that it hadn’t been a dream, seething in fury that he had he had lost yet again to another one of the Overseers’ toys. Engulfing his body in the flames of the sun, Mitra angrily declared that as the god of gods, he would personally kill the Adversary for their impertinence. He then took off and began rushing towards High Mountain, intending to gather the Celestials for battle.

(A/N: Mitra is like the epitome of Gilgamesh from the Fate series, and I love it. Between Mitra, Seren, and Carlisle, I’m convinced that every single major character from Cernium exudes an aura that makes me simp for them. In case it wasn’t abundantly obvious by now, I just really love the Cernium storyline very much.)

Arriving at his seat of power, Mitra began announcing his return, just as a swarm of Tynos’ descendants began rushing towards him. Mitra was shocked to find that not only had Tynos’ descendants escaped from the seal, but there were also no Celestials to be found in High Mountain. Resolving to investigate the matter, Mitra rushed into battle against Tynos’ descendants, just Seren arrived at High Mountain, intending to find a way to restore Azor.

As Seren began exploring the area, Mitra destroyed his enemies and forced his way into the first chamber where one of Tynos’ pieces had been sealed away. Inside, he found that that first seal appeared to be intact, with no traces of tampering, which made him wonder how Tynos’ descendants could have escaped. Nevertheless, he declared that it didn’t matter how, as he would take back the power which he had used to create the seal and destroy Tynos and his descendants once and for all.

After absorbing the power of the seal, Mitra regained a significant portion of his strength, causing him to note that after taking back the remainder of his power from the other two seals, he would face the Adversary and show them that they had merely gotten lucky in Cernium. Just then, the first piece of Tynos emerged from the seal, which Mitra easily managed to defeat, causing it to disappear in a puff of black smoke.

Just as Mitra began lauding himself for his superior strength, Seren suddenly arrived at the chamber and raised a blade at him, demanding to know whether he was the one responsible for bringing forth the monsters in High Mountain. Mitra immediately recognized Seren as a Celestial, while Seren mistakenly believed Mitra to be an Apostle of Darmoor, angrily asking him what he sought to do in High Mountain after it had already been destroyed on Darmoor’s orders.

Irritated, Mitra floated in the air and unleashed an aura of solar energy to demonstrate his power, declaring himself as the master and god of all Celestials. Mitra then ordered Seren to kneel before him as his servant and explain everything that had happened at High Mountain in his absence, declaring that he would deal with her sin of speaking so profanely to her god later. A shocked Seren realized that it was truly Mitra who stood before her, causing her to stand down. After Seren finished telling her story, she explained that after Darmoor - whom she called ‘Aaron’ - had whispered into her ear, the last thing that she remembered was ‘the great Adversary’ standing before her, with Azor shattered in her hands.

(A/N: Seren actually uses the honorific ‘nim’ while talking about the Adversary, which is the highest form of honorifics in Korean. For the moment, I’m gonna loosely localize what she says as ‘the great Adversary’ until GMS comes out with an official localization.)

Mitra was enraged to hear Seren refer to the Adversary with such respect, to which Seren quickly apologized for her slip of tongue. Mitra then decided to move on and asked Seren why she had returned back to High Mountain when all the Celestials had already fallen, to which Seren explained that she had come to find a way to restore Azor. However, Mitra told Seren that she was wasting her time by returning, as a divine sword like Azor would repair itself on its own in the hands of a qualified Chosen One.

As Seren paused to think on his words, Mitra recalled how she had mentioned that ‘Aaron’ had caused him to wake up in such an angry mood. He noted that there were many arrogant people who had appeared in his absence, though he smirked and noted that it seemed that after defeating Tynos, there were more enemies left to kill besides just the Adversary.

Just then, Seren noticed a fissure in the ground where Tynos’ first piece had been sealed, from which black smoke was emanating. Mitra inspected the fissure and realized that it had been created from a foreign object being injected into the seal. He asked Seren whether anyone aside from the Celestials had come to High Mountain, to which Seren explained that the only non-Celestial to arrive in High Mountain had been Havoc, on the day that their home had fallen. However, she added that she was unsure whether anyone else had come to High Mountain since then.

Seren told Mitra that the descendants of Tynos had escaped through the cracks in the seal, to which Mitra simply declared that it didn’t matter, as he would crush everything in his path. Having understood the full situation, Mitra told Seren to leave, claiming that she would only get in his way. However, Seren refused to go and continued to persistently follow Mitra across High Mountain, much to his irritation.

After some time, Mitra once again told Seren to leave, though Seren declared that after seeing the legend of Tynos confirmed for herself, she couldn’t leave High Mountain without investigating it properly. Mitra retorted that her assistance in dealing with Tynos was completely unnecessary when he was the one who had sealed Tynos away in the first place, though Seren nevertheless replied that it was her duty.

Unable to deter her, Mitra decided to tolerate her presence and allowed her to continue following him. The pair soon reached the downtown district, which Seren explained had once housed a supply base, a temple, and the residential districts where she had grown up. Mitra then asked Seren to confirm that there were no Celestials remaining in High Mountain, and upon hearing the confirmation, he grinned and told her that it was good to hear, as he planned to burn everything to ashes.

Mitra then rushed ahead and unleashed his divine power to smite all the descendants of Tynos in his path before arriving at the entrance to the second seal. Inside, he and Seren discovered the second seal, which Seren immediately noticed showed signs of tampering. However, Mitra declared that her words were ridiculous, as only he had the power to break the seal.

Seren then explained that it seemed less as though the seal had been broken, and more that a foreign substance had been injected into it, allowing the sealed portion of Tynos to leak out and manifest as the smaller monsters throughout High Mountain. At her words, however, Mitra merely laughed and told her to move out of the way. Though Seren warned Mitra that it could be a trap, Mitra arrogantly declared that people who would use cheap tricks such as what they had done to the seal were insignificant, as they were weak in the face of true power.

Mitra then absorbed back his power from the seal, causing it to disappear. He then turned to Seren and told her to take note of his strength, explaining that there was no need to learn about who had tampered with the seal and why, as he had ultimately won in the end by erasing the problem altogether. Just then, the second piece of Tynos emerged from within the seal, which Mitra effortlessly managed to destroy. As he reveled in his victory, Seren quickly noticed that the piece of Tynos, which had vaporized into black smoke, appeared to be moving and gathering somewhere else.

Outside, Seren and Mitra found the black smoke from Tynos’ first two pieces and the countless smaller monsters defeated around High Mountain reforming into Tynos’ complete body. Realizing that Tynos would fully reform if his third piece were destroyed, Seren warned Mitra not to break the final seal. However, Mitra grew angry and demanded to know whether she was trying to say that he would lose to Tynos if he were fully reform.

Seren quickly told him that she was simply saying that Tynos would pose a problem, to which Mitra declared that the only problem was that he had used a soft method like sealing to handle Tynos, and that he would erase Tynos from existence completely this time, so that he could finally go back to focusing on ‘Aaron’ and the Adversary.

Mitra then laughed and asked Seren to tell him who was the strongest, to which Seren begrudgingly told him that he was, for the very reasons that he had just said. However, she asked him whether he was sure that he knew what he was doing, reminding him that the seal had been tampered with for unknown reasons, that there were traces of a foreign substance being injected, and that the descendants of Tynos had overrun High Mountain.

She then added that there were too many unknown variables, and that the Tynos which they now faced was not the same one whom he had faced during the Ancient War, demanding to know whether he planned to unleash an evil Ancient God into the world. Mitra was mildly amused to know that Tynos was considered ‘evil’, laughing that he had simply fought Tynos because he happened to personally dislike him.

He then told Seren to listen to him clearly, explaining that he had no interest in such trivial matters, as the only thing that he was concerned with was demonstrating that he was the most powerful being in the world. Shocked at seeing what Mitra was truly like for the first time, Seren asked Mitra whether he was even a god, to which Mitra simply warned her that he would get rid of her if she were to get in his way.

Furious at his casual callousness, Seren drew the shattered blade of Azor and pointed it at Mitra, who demanded to know what she was doing. Seren replied that she finally understood now that he wasn’t interested in ‘good’, ‘evil’, or even the safety of the world, but nevertheless, she explained that there was one question that she wanted him to answer.

At Mitra’s silence, Seren asked him whether it was true that he was the god of the Celestials, demanding to know whether he even knew how long her comrades had been waiting for his return, whether he knew what it was that they had sacrificed everything to protect after their home had burned down, or even how many of them had fallen while walking down that broken path.

Mitra asked Seren what it was that she was trying to say, to which Seren angrily told him that she couldn’t stand knowing that the god whom they had eagerly been waiting for didn’t care about them at all, as he had only been concerned with himself. At Mitra’s silence, Seren threw down Azor at his feet and declared that he was no longer her god. She then told him that she wouldn’t allow him to break the final seal, nor would she allow such a selfish god like him to threaten her world, vowing that she would defeat Tynos before he could fully reform.

As Seren stormed off towards Tynos, Mitra paused to think on her words. After a moment, he smiled and noted that Seren was quite interesting to disavow her own god. Realizing that she wouldn’t be able to handle Tynos alone, Mitra decided to go after her and fought through waves of Tynos’ descendants before arriving at the final seal, where he found Seren surrounded by an onslaught of monsters, struggling to fight them off alone.

Mitra immediately charged in and used his divine power to decimate the area before approaching Seren, who drew her blade and pointed it at him, warning him not to step any closer to the seal. Mitra asked Seren whether she truly believed that she could stop him, to which Seren admitted that she wouldn’t even come close.

Mitra then began laughing boisterously, noting the irony that the last Celestial left was a traitor to her own god. He then threw down Azor back at Seren’s feet, to which Seren immediately told him that she didn’t deserve to have it after disavowing him. At her reluctance, Mitra asked Seren why she had disavowed him, and whether it was because he hadn’t come personally to save her when the Celestials had fallen. However, Seren explained that she wasn’t seeking his salvation, adding that it was because she could no longer follow his will. This caused Mitra to laugh even harder before asking her to explain why she went against the will of her own god.

After a pause, Seren explained that it had been a long time since the Ancient Gods had been defeated by their Adversaries in Cernium, with the order of the world being reestablished, and the Celestials awaiting the second coming of Mitra for ages. She then admitted that they may have found the meaning of their existence there without even knowing why they had been waiting. She explained that even in the moment when her compatriots had fled High Mountain, they had still valued Azor over their own lives. Meanwhile, the priests of Cernium had waged war endlessly against each other with their different names for Mitra.

Seren noted that they had all lost so much in the name of their god, and even while fighting for their god - though in the end, what had finally helped her rise up from her hopelessness after losing faith in Mitra had been the Adversary, who had told her that they themselves had only been able to rise up from their own hopelessness while facing the Black Mage’s predetermined fate because of Tana, who had reminded them that the world wanted them to live, and that they needed to choose to live as well.

Seren explained that because of them, she had been reminded that she also needed to choose to live by believing in herself, which was when she had vowed that she would no longer live a life tied to a god who would never answer her prayers. She noted that no matter which order controlled the world, people struggled to survive every day, and that she had no choice but to side with them as long as they existed, even if it meant that she would need to against her own god.

Mitra laughed in amusement and begrudging respect at Seren’s words, noting that her words were quite heretical. Suddenly, Azor began to glow in response to Seren, who was shocked at seeing it light up. Mitra explained that Azor was a holy relic which had been created by him, and that it seemed as though she had the qualifications to be his Chosen One.

As Seren picked up Azor, she asked Mitra how she could still be qualified after disavowing him, to which Mitra told her that it was because she, the Chosen One of the Sun God, had saved herself with her own hands, rather than begging pointlessly to some higher power for salvation. He then told Seren to grasp it, for salvation was in her own hands.

(A/N: The KMS inscription on Azor says “Grasp it, for salvation is in your own hands”, while the GMS inscription just says “Salvation is in your own hands”. Mitra quoting the inscription to Seren is meant to have several meanings, some of which don’t quite get their proper impact with the GMS version.

On one level, Mitra is giving Seren reassurance by delivering the holy words which had saved her in Cernium, straight from the mouth of God himself, just as he did ages ago when Azor was first created and inscribed, and now again when Azor is being reforged. On another level, Mitra is telling her to keep her grasp on her beliefs, even if it means that she’s going against him, because her own conviction is all that she needs. And on a literal level, he’s telling her to grasp Azor because it’s literally the weapon that will save her from the enemies closing in around them.)

Suddenly, however, Tynos’ incomplete form devoured Seren before using his power to shatter the seal on his final piece. Furious, Mitra prepared himself to face Tynos, with the power of all three seals returned back to him. Declaring that he would put an end to their conflict once and for all, Mitra destroyed Tynos’ third piece, which turned into smoke and merged together with the rest of him into his complete form. Mitra then began fighting against Tynos’ true form in order to force him to regurgitate Seren.

Meanwhile, Seren awoke inside Tynos’ stomach – a dark, starlit void – where she found that she could barely move at all, with her body all but paralyzed. Just as she began wondering whether she was dead, a memory of Roland appeared inside the void, speaking aloud the same words which he had told her when they had met at the graveyard of swords in Cernium.

The memory of Roland replayed his words about the fall of High Mountain and its people in flames as bolts of lightning had fallen from the sky, reminding Seren of how the sun hadn’t dared to show its face that day. As the memory of Roland faded away, Seren recalled how her comrades had died without meaning.

The memory of Roland then appeared again, repeating his words about how he was sick of holy swords and gods, demanding to know why so many people had to lose their lives over a useless hunk of metal. As Seren began losing the strength to go on, the memory of Roland spoke aloud once more, repeating how he had wandered aimlessly after losing his family, friends, and comrades, until he had remembered the inscription upon the sword: “Alvationsay inway Andhay”.

Mistranslating it as “Salvation is in Cernium”, the memory of Roland echoing the words that he had once spoken to Seren, asking her whether she had found her salvation in Cernium after so many years. Thinking on Roland’s words, a struggling Seren attempted to retain consciousness, wondering what salvation was supposed to mean to her.

Just then, a memory of Carlisle played in her mind, from the time when she had given up hope after Roland – whom she had mistakenly believed to be the Chosen One – had sacrificed himself. She recalled how Carlisle had told her that though the time of the prophecy wasn’t at hand, they nevertheless owed it to the future to keep fighting. As Seren struggled to keep her eyes open, a memory of the Adversary appeared, echoing the words which had saved her in Cernium, about how Tana had saved them by reminding them that they needed to live, and how she needed to believe in herself to live as well.

Drawing strength from the people in her life, Seren continued fighting to live, declaring that she would grasp salvation with her own hands. Through her fierce determination, Azor recognized Seren as the Chosen One of Mitra and restored itself, invigorating her with the divine power of the Sun God. With the holy power of Azor, Seren broke through Tynos’ stomach and spread her wings before escaping to Mitra’s side.

Mitra was impressed at Seren managing to escape on her own, though he then laughed and jokingly told her not to damage Tynos any further, as Tynos was his to kill. Nevertheless, he decided to give Seren the chance to fight at his side, and so both he and Seren charged together to face Tynos, effortlessly defeating him in a matter of moments.

After the battle, Mitra laughed at his own prowess and asked Seren whether she would still deny her god after seeing his strength, adding that he still didn’t like the idea of a traitor being the heir to the holy sword. However, he admitted that he was still impressed at how she had been able to break free from Tynos’ stomach through her own strength.

Seren then noted that with the Ancient Gods slowly beginning to reawaken, Grandis would fall into complete chaos, just as it had been in High Mountain with Tynos’ return. She added that just as expected, there appeared to be someone who was taking advantage of the Ancient Gods’ return. Mitra noted that it seemed as though many things had happened while he had been sealed away, and that it was time for everyone to know who the strongest god was.

He then told Seren that he would allow her, as his Chosen One, to remain and fight by his side, explaining that they would first seek out and destroy the Adversary together, sharing the glory of their victory. After a pause, however, Seren told Mitra that she couldn’t stay with him, as she had her own path to find, much to his surprise.

She explained that she no longer wished to be tied down by things such as gods, duty, or prophecy, as she wished to grasp a new destiny for herself with her own hands, and thereby find her own salvation. Mitra smiled amusedly at Seren’s determination to find her own path, even if it led her to go against him, to which he then declared that all her enemies would also be his enemies, vowing that she was now under the protection of the Sun God himself.

Just then, however, a defeated Tynos began to rumble violently as his form began fusing together with High Mountain itself. A shocked Seren and Mitra quickly noticed that Tynos was beginning to spread himself throughout Grandis, to which Mitra noted that Tynos had never possessed such an ability in the past. He then noticed a strange crystal upon Tynos’ face, which Seren realized was likely the mark of the one who had injected the foreign substance into the seals.

She then noted that that only one who had the power to manipulate the Ancient Gods’ power to such an extent was Gerand Darmoor himself, adding that it seemed as though Darmoor’s power kept getting stronger and stronger. Just as Seren prepared to charge at Tynos, Mitra stopped her and warned her to stay behind, declaring that their fight was now the domain of the gods themselves.

Though Seren refused, claiming that she couldn’t allow Tynos to threaten all of Grandis, Mitra shook his head at her stubbornness and explained that he would face Tynos himself, and that he would face him alone so that he could unleash the full extent of his power without having to hold himself back to keep her from harm. Against Seren’s protests, Mitra rushed in alone to confront a powered-up Tynos, vowing that they would finish their conflict once and for all, with the loser disappearing from the world altogether.

In the sheer ferocity of the battle between the two gods, Seren passed out from its intensity, awakening soon after to the sight of both gods vanished, with Tynos and High Mountain completely obliterated, and Mitra nowhere in sight. Shocked at the sight of her old home destroyed beyond repair, Seren realized that the complete destruction of High Mountain was also the destruction of the last trace which connected her to the pain of losing her fellow Celestials.

After a pause, Seren realized that she had finally broken the final chains that anchored her to her past trauma, and that she was truly free at last to carve out her own path without being anchored down to sorrow. Choosing a new destiny for herself, Seren vowed that with her newfound freedom, she would find Darmoor – the one responsible for destroying her people and home – and make him pay. She declared that it didn’t matter what Darmoor was, or how many Apostles he had, as she would do whatever it would take to bring him to justice, adding that it was her new destiny and salvation.

(A/N: Although it’s certain that Tynos is dead, it’s left unclear what happened to Mitra. Given that Azor still works, Mitra has to be alive somewhere. And given that he hasn’t hunted down the Adversary yet, it’s likely that he’s been incapacitated in some way. The fact that Darmoor used some sort of crystal on Tynos probably means that he was anticipating Mitra’s return, and given Mitra’s uncommon strength as the self-proclaimed “god of gods”, it could be the case that the whole thing was a trap, just like Seren said, to seal Mitra away or take his full power after Mitra regains the remainder of his strength from the seals, likely inside a draining crystal that he and his Apostles are using to seize the power of the gods.)