PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 46: Limina

(A/N: Limina is the plural form of Limen, which is what the region is called outside GMS. Limen is a Latin word that means ‘threshold’, which not only refers to us standing at the threshold of where the Black Mage awaits us, but it also refers to our world standing at the threshold of Genesis and the new world that the Black Mage will create.

At the time of its release, Limina was quite possible the worst conclusion to a story that I’ve ever seen. The pacing was ridiculously rushed, half the cast was completely out-of-character, the Black Mage’s motivations were poorly explained, they literally plagiarized the Thanos snap for the sake of a cheap pop culture reference, and then they magically undid all the deaths in the battle, killing any sense of narrative tension.

Never in my life had I seen such a clumsy and haphazard mishandling of a conclusion before, or at least not until Game of Thrones season 8 came out a year later. I stopped playing the game halfway through high school so that I could focus on studying, but I still followed new story content all the way into college. When Tenebris was released in KMS, I knew that it had a terrible reception, but I tried avoiding spoilers until I played it for myself, after which I understood exactly why everyone hated it.

I was so done with Nexon that I quit following the story altogether for a couple of years until I visited one of my friends who was getting into the game. That friend knew how much I was into the story in high school, and so they started asking me about the plot of the game, which is when I finally caved in and decided to catch up on everything that I missed. Ironically, my friend asking me about the story is what eventually led me to making this website in the first place, as this project actually started out as a short summary that I wrote on Google Docs for them.

I’m glad that I decided to come back to the lore, as there are a lot of high points in the Grandis writing, although there are still quite a number of low points that continue to persist because of Nexon’s fundamental inability to understand the message of their own story. If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think that the story team has really had any net benefit whatsoever, and in some places, it might’ve been better if they had never touched anything at all.

However, in other places, they’ve admittedly done a somewhat decent job at patching up problems with the original story, such as the changes that they’ve made to Limina during the update that released the Ellin Forest revamp and Kao’s timeline, and so they deserve at least some credit for that. Unfortunately, though, there are still quite a number of problems with Tenebris as a whole that nothing except a complete rewrite is going to fix, but since there’s virtually no chance of that, we just have to make peace with the fact that the writing for this game is both exceptional and exceptionally lacking at the same time.

On another note, similar to the other areas of Tenebris, the 20th anniversary event in KMS deleted several quests in the Limina storyline. Pretty much all of these were meant to streamline the story presentation, as well as to make clearing the questlines faster. Unlike the Labyrinth of Suffering quest removals, the ones for Limina were actually very well executed. For the sake of maintaining accuracy, I’ve modified this section to reflect those quest removals, although I’ll make a mention of what originally happened in the author notes.)

At the Labyrinth Core, Orchid told the Adversary that they were still as weak as they had always been. The Adversary was surprised to see Orchid, believing that she had lost her Wing Master powers. She revealed that she had gone to see Guwaru in the Forest of Spirits in order to reclaim her original power as a Spirit of Darkness, as she had learned that the Black Mage had been manipulating events for centuries, including the events which had led to Lotus’ death.

She explained that Guwaru had agreed to grant her power, but only on the condition that she lend her strength to the Adversary at the final battle. Guwaru had also given her a mask to hide her identity from those who would take revenge on her, which would also allow her to communicate with him. Guwaru’s spirit then manifested from Orchid’s mask and told the Adversary that they were the deciding factor in the final battle.

Just then, the Labyrinth Core began to glow and the Adversary asked if it was because of Hilla’s defeat. Guwaru explained that the core contained the power of the Transcendents, and that the Adversary had been chosen to end it all. He then instructed them to use the power of the Adversary to destroy the core.

The Adversary attempted to muster the same determination that had allowed them to defeat Hilla, but found that they were unable to call forth the divine power. Frustrated, Orchid told Guwaru that she had known all along that the Adversary was weak and used her power to destroy the core herself. Orchid then shattered her mask, severing communications with Guwaru, and decided that she would defeat the Black Mage herself.

As she teleported away, the labyrinth collapsed and left behind a cascade of waterfalls. Several Alliance soldiers then found the Adversary and told them that a rescue team was on its way, since communications were back online. The Adversary was relieved to know that all the fallen Alliance soldiers had merely been illusions created by Hilla.

The soldiers then told the Adversary that they had orders to regroup, but the Adversary refused and instead told them to let Neinheart know that the masked person from Esfera was Orchid, and that they were going after her. They then took the remains of Orchid’s mask and headed after her, just as strange Transcendion monsters began appearing from the waters.

(A/N: All these abstract creatures in Limina are meant to be the first life forms of the new world. Personally, I’m really curious to see what type of world the Black Mage would have made, and I guess that Will wanted to see the same thing, too. We get to see it distantly from space during Kao’s flashbacks, but I was really hoping for a closer look.) 

Though the connection was fading, the Adversary contacted Guwaru with the mask and asked whether the Black Mage had sent the strange monsters. Guwaru explained that the creatures had sprung from the raw power of creation, and that they would recognize the Adversary as an intruder while in Limina. As the Adversary fought past the monsters, they took care to hide from the Erda Surge that occasionally washed away all the monsters.

After reaching the base of the waterfall, they began scaling it as they asked Guwaru how Orchid had destroyed the Labyrinth Core. Guwaru explained that she hadn’t destroyed the core, but rather, she had merely compressed it into a different space with her gravity powers. The Adversary was surprised that she had done it without her Wing Master powers, to which Guwaru explained that she was eating away at her own life force in order to forcibly channel her original powers as a Spirit of Darkness in her human form.

The Adversary then asked whether anyone besides themselves had the power to defeat the Black Mage, pointing out that Orchid had managed to destroy the Labyrinth Core, even without the divine power. Guwaru explained that it wasn’t possible for anyone else to face the Black Mage, and though Orchid didn’t want to believe it, he knew that she would come to realize it when she actually faced the Black Mage herself.

Guwaru told them that the Black Mage was planning to create the Genesis Crux, a seed from which the new world would blossom and replace what came before. As the power of the mask faded, Guwaru warned them that only the power of the Adversary could allow them to step off the Path and destroy the Genesis Crux.

After Guwaru’s voice faded away, the Adversary caught up with Orchid and told her that they needed to work together. However, Orchid refused and pointed out that not only had they failed to stop Will, even with his hands tied by the ritual, but they had also squandered their chance to kill Tana, which had allowed the Black Mage to gain the power of creation. She told them that they were weak because they had everything to lose, unlike herself, who had already lost everything when Lotus had died.

(A/N: Phantom gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he tells her that she can’t act like she’s the only one who’s lost something, reminding her that she’s the one who took all that he held precious. Orchid just glares at him in annoyance in response to his words.

The main Resistance classes also get some exclusive dialogue, in which they retort to her claim that she’s lost everything by pointing out that she’s the one who took everything from them and from Edelstein. Just like with Phantom’s dialogue, Orchid glares at them in annoyance.

Xenon also gets some exclusive dialogue, in which he reminds her that she was the one who had used Gelimer as a tool, and that he’s lost everything because of that, including his memories, Beryl, and all his fellow Xenoroids. Once again, Orchid just glares at him in response.

The scripts with the Resistance classes and Xenon were some of the newer dialogues that Nexon retroactively added when a majority of KMS players pointed out how stupid it is that classes like Phantom or the Resistance would just quietly sit there and accept Orchid insinuating that they haven’t lost anything at all.) 

Orchid then gave them one final chance to reconsider, but when they refused to back down, she challenged them to make it to the top of the waterfall. As the Adversary started following her, she created a black hole to swallow them and began shooting lasers as they continued ascending past the monsters.

(A/N: The actual part where you chase after Orchid was removed from the game, skipping straight into the next cutscene. However, I’m keeping it in as part of the writeup since it technically did happen, just off-screen.) 

Just as they approached the top levels of the waterfall, Orchid unexpectedly stopped. Suddenly, the five Elite Bosses appeared to prevent them from reaching the Black Mage. Unwilling to entertain them, Orchid teleported away and left the Adversary alone. Furious, the Elite Bosses began chasing after Orchid, with the Adversary following suit. The Adversary continued ascending the waterfall while fighting off the Corrupted Warriors spawned by the Elite Bosses. Along the way, they also managed to take out the Bad Brawler, the Mad Mage, and the Black Knight. 

At the top of the waterfall, the Adversary found Orchid taking down the Rampant Cyborg and the Vicious Hunter. Though she wouldn’t admit it, she was impressed that the Adversary had finished the other three off so quickly. The Adversary then saw a large orb, from which Erda water was pouring, which they recognized as the Genesis Crux.

Orchid immediately told them to step aside, claiming that they were of no use until the power of the Adversary awakened within them. Suddenly, the Genesis Crux activated and began absorbing the Black Sun, turning the waters crimson red. As darkness fell upon them, Orchid told them to stay where they were and teleported away.

As the Adversary began trying to follow her, Guard Captain Darknell himself appeared. He told them that he was impressed by how far they had managed to come, but warned that they would not lay a finger upon his master as long as he was standing.

(A/N: I’ve mentioned this before, but I really wish that instead of the Elite Bosses and Darknell, we got an augmented Von Leon in order to give some closure to his story. The Elite Bosses have been around since 2013, but Darknell was created specifically for the Tenebris storyline as their leader. It just seems a bit dumb to me that the writers have sidelined Von Leon so much in the story that they’d rather invent a new character to serve as the leader of the Elite Bosses when Von Leon is already a knight and an established Commander.

While I really like the concept of Darknell and the Sharenian storyline as a whole, it’s nevertheless symptomatic of a fundamental problem with the current story, which is that literally everything in existence just has to be tied to the Black Mage. This game was originally created without an overarching story, and it existed as a place that you could just explore and have your own adventures in, and most of it was just a bunch of different towns with their own unique histories.

Most people don’t do town storylines anymore, but El Nath has such a rich and vibrant history that makes it one of my favorite towns in the entire game. It has so much folklore about its spirits, a war started by an evil organization called the Tarheeds who were wiped out by Rex the Hoblin King and his army of monsters, who, in turn, were then sealed away by a legendary mage named Heinrich. They have stories about Zakum possessing a town and forcing them to build its statue before slaughtering them, an evil priest named Riche who turned them all into his undead army, the Book of Ancient having forbidden magic that was used in a war from 300 years ago, and so many other cool details.

There’s so much more to the game than just the Black Mage and it’s really fun to see all these places that we visit having a real history, and that they and all the NPCs there aren’t just reduced to being pretty background details. Maple World used to feel like an actual place, and it was a setting where you could tell such a diverse range of stories that weren’t limited to just a single narrative. Nowadays, rather than feeling like you’re in a new and unique world, it just feels like you’re reading about characters, while the world around you is just an accessory piece.

The lore about Sharenian used to have a magical quality to it because of how all our exposure to it was through ancient ruins. The Golems in Henesys, the Cursed Temple in Sleepywood, and the Ant Tunnels beneath Victoria Island were all remnants of the old Sharenian kingdom, and at the time, we only knew that it was the earliest point of Maple World’s history, long before the Black Mage existed. Piecing together the history of the oldest civilization in Maple World through doing quests and finding little details in the maps and monster designs made it feel like we were actual explorers of Maple World, uncovering forgotten knowledge like a real historian.

Now, the story of Sharenian is just another part of the Black Mage’s master plan, just like the rest of Victoria Island. Because of the constant retcons, Victoria Island was now split by the Black Mage, Ellin Forest was colonized by the survivors of the Black Mage’s purge, the lore about Balrog, Sleepywood, and Kerning City got retconned into Tristan’s fight with Balrog being just a cover story for investigating Lotus’ spirit rewriting history, and the feud between the Dual Blades and the Dark Lord is just a byproduct of Lotus possessing Lady Syl.

It starts feeling like literally nothing in history could’ve organically happened on its own - everything just has to be related to the Black Mage or his Commanders, or else it’s not even worth mentioning. Like I really just wish that they’d leave at least some of the original story alone and let the world actually feel like it’s more than just a cog in the Black Mage’s giant design. El Nath has such a cool history of things that happened, for example - even though it’s not related to the Black Mage, you could tell such an interesting story with the Tarheed and Hoblin war, or with the Book of Ancient and the war from 300 year ago.

Instead of forcing Sharenian into the Black Mage narrative for absolutely no reason, they could’ve just used Von Leon - who already exists as part of the Black Mage’s lore - and actually give his story a proper conclusion. He’s already such an interesting, complex character with how he was betrayed by his own people, how he lost everything that mattered to him, and how he spends his days filled with regret over the acts of evil that he committed.

In my mind, I would’ve imagined that Von Leon would’ve wanted the Black Mage to succeed in making the new world, either because Ifia would be alive in that new world, or because he’s given up on life without her and he’s hoping that the destruction of their world will result in his death, freeing him from the curse of immortality that the Black Mage placed on him that keeps him alive and emotionally distraught. Since Von Leon wasn’t present at Tenebris, I’d assume that with the Black Mage’s death, the curse on him that allows him to turn into a monster and infinitely resurrect from battle should have vanished, meaning that he should have returned to being a regular human again.

While the obvious, depressing outcome is that Von Leon ends up killing himself because of his unending grief, I really hope that if they do address him again, they don’t go for a needlessly forced tragedy and actually capitalize on the depth of his character. If his curse is gone and his soul can be repaired through atonement, I like to hope that he’ll one day be able to see Ifia’s spirit again and actually get some closure to his pain. I ended writing a whole fanfic, which I’ll shamelessly plug here, where Lara helps Von Leon fix his soul and move on, while Lara herself comes to terms with her trauma from being the Adversary.)

Darknell then summoned the five Elite Bosses and his Corrupted Warriors before engaging in a fierce battle with the Adversary, who managed to defeat him and his forces. Meanwhile, Orchid appeared some distance away from Tenebris and saw that the Genesis Crux had absorbed the Black Sun, causing it to glow brightly.

The crimson waters that flowed out of the Genesis Crux began staining the Origin Sea red, out of which burst forth an enormous giant whose heart was the Genesis Crux. Shocked by its appearance, Orchid realized that Guwaru was right when he had warned that she couldn’t handle the Black Mage alone.

Back at the Genesis Crux, a defeated Darknell warned the Adversary that they would not escape the Light of Annihilation. Just as he fell, the Genesis Crux began quaking and the Adversary was knocked to the ground, unable to move. Orchid then reappeared and told them to warn the Alliance that they were still on the Path.

She then teleported the Adversary back to the White Spear, where they found the Alliance bombarding the giant with their cannons, though their barrage seemed to have no effect. They soon ran into Neinheart, who was relieved that they were safe. He explained that the next part of the prophecy, “A crimson tear will spawn a giant that swallows hearts,” had come to pass, with the giant serving as the Black Mage’s declaration that he had become a god. Neinheart then ordered all Alliance forces to clear a path for the Adversary to return to the Genesis Crux.

(A/N: There was originally a quest here that had us help the Alliance soldiers clear up the deck. That quest was removed, and our conversation with Neinheart now continues unimpeded.) 

The Adversary then told Neinheart what Orchid had said about the Path and asked him to explain what she had meant. Neinheart began by telling them that the Black Mage’s ideal world was one without Transcendents. In order to achieve this, he had not only defeated Rhinne, Alicia, and Tana, but he had kept the first two from passing on their powers while absorbing the latter.

Neinheart was intrigued that he had managed to do so under the most unfavorable conditions. Bound by the laws of the Overseers that even he could not break, the Black Mage was unable to battle the other Transcendents directly, which was why he had recruited the Commanders to aid him. However, the Commanders had their own agendas, and so the Black Mage had needed to manage them carefully in order to ensure that they wouldn’t turn against him to advance their own goals.

In order to do so, he had needed to convince the Commanders that their goals aligned with his, while simultaneously hiding his true intentions from them. The Adversary then recalled how Damien had planned to betray the Black Mage by stealing Alicia’s powers, while the Heroes had stood against him. Though none of the parties involved had supported his goals, the Black Mage had still been able to emerge victorious.

Neinheart then recalled what the Black Mage had told Cygnus in her nightmares: “Your fate is sealed.” Though he had initially believed that the Black Mage had merely been boasting, Neinheart had come to realize that the Black Mage was speaking literally, referring to the Path of Destiny. Neinheart told the Adversary that Grendel’s analysis of the core fragment would soon be completed, allowing them to find the missing element in the puzzle.

Just then, an Alliance soldier reported that one of the Resistance ships needed immediate reinforcements. As the Adversary headed over to help them, Neinheart contacted the ship and told Belle to take point on the assault. Belle grew furious at Neinheart’s orders, as not only was their ship damaged, but Neinheart was also keeping the White Spear and its escorts out of firing range.

As she and the other Resistance leaders began demanding to speak with Cygnus, Claudine arrived and told them that they needed to follow orders in order to win the battle. Neinheart thanked her and explained that reinforcements would soon arrive. The Resistance leaders were outraged to find a single one-man ship arriving until they realized that the Adversary was aboard.

Claudine assigned the Adversary to the starboard deck, where they rescued the soldiers and stopped the monsters from destroying the ship’s cannons. After helping the Resistance retake the ship, the Adversary received orders to return back to the White Spear in order to get Grendel’s analysis of the core fragment.

As they headed out, Claudine briefed the other Resistance leaders on Neinheart’s plan to have them get as close as possible to the giant and fire directly into its heart. The Resistance leaders were taken aback by Cygnus’ plan, as she never usually put them in such a dangerous position, but Claudine told them that they needed to trust that she had a good reason. They then began firing on the giant, damaging its exterior and leaving it exposed.

As Claudine ordered a retreat back to the White Spear, a massive wave of light emanated from the Genesis Crux. The soldiers who were caught in the Light of Annihilation immediately scattered into Erdas. (A/N: I still can’t believe that they actually plagiarized the Thanos snap for this storyline.) Dumbstruck by their heavy losses, Claudine ordered a ship for her to see Cygnus immediately.

Back on the White Spear, Grendel told them that he had finished his analysis of the core fragment. (A/N: Originally, the communication signal cut out as he began speaking due to monster emissions, and we had to defeat monsters in order to get communications back online.) The Adversary then asked Grendel to explain what destiny the Black Mage had in store for them. Grendel noted that he could tell that the Adversary was afraid that the Black Mage’s destiny would swallow them whole and lead them to ruin. He explained that mortals tended to regard fate with a mixture of awe and fear because of how unpredictable the future was.

Though there were some mortals who could see the future, such as the Empress, Grendel explained that they could only see fragments, rather than the full scope and the process by which their vision would come to pass. Though the future was determined by the present, there were so many variables in any given present, such as fate, chance, and free will, that countless futures were constantly being created and erased.

Grendel claimed that it was impossible to process such vast possibilities, likening it to a two-dimensional creature perceiving a three-dimensional world. However, he revealed that the Black Mage had somehow managed to perceive destiny, allowing him to change it. Grendel cited how the Black Mage’s choice to praise the Demon had set off a new destiny by putting Arkarium on the path to destroy the Demon’s family, which had resulted in everything that had happened, from Black Heaven, to Damien, to Aeona, thus placing the whole world on the Path to Genesis.

Though he conceded that everyone had behaved according to their own free will along the way, he explained that they hadn’t realized that the Black Mage had been influencing their decisions. He then showed them the core fragment from Gloom and explained that within the fragment were futures that had once existed before being erased by the Black Mage.

Having examined the timelines within the fragment, Grendel noted that the single great constant was that the ones who had done the most damage to the Black Mage’s grand design had been his own Commanders. He added that the only Commander who had fully known the Black Mage’s plan and had embraced it was Will, while the other Commanders had inevitably betrayed him in order to ensure their own survival.

Grendel pointed out how the Black Mage had manipulated events perfectly, such that the Commanders would serve him until they were defeated by the Alliance before they could interfere with his plans. The Adversary asked whether it was possible to stop the Black Mage after having learned of the Path, but Grendel pointed out that even the fact that they had realized the existence of the Path was part of the Black Mage’s plan. He then told them that he could see no action that would allow them to change the fate laid out by the Black Mage.

As the Alliance prepared to counterattack, the Adversary was left speechless. They began wondering what the purpose of fighting was if their fate had already been determined. Cygnus then snapped them out of it, telling them that now wasn’t the time to doubt themselves. The Adversary asked if Cygnus had known about the Path, to which she told them that she did, admitting that she had kept it from them because she was afraid that they wouldn’t have come as far as they had if they had known.

Cygnus then told them that they were the Adversary, but asked if they knew what they were the Adversary of. The Adversary replied that they were the Adversary of the Black Mage, but Cygnus revealed that they were actually the Adversary of Destiny. The Adversary then recalled what Neinheart had told them about what the Black Mage had written in his research, “Only the Adversary can counter immortality’s fate with the strength of a Seal Stone.”

Cygnus explained that they were the one piece on the board whom the Black Mage couldn’t control, which was why he was trying to make them lose hope in order to prevent them from emerging victorious. She then had them board a one-man ship straight into the Genesis Crux and ordered them to return safely. As they headed towards the Black Mage, Cygnus ordered the fleet to close ranks against the giant in order to provide an opening for the Adversary. She then ordered the Chief Knights to the deck before having the White Spear push forward to support.

Just then, Claudine boarded the White Spear and demanded to know what Cygnus was doing. She claimed that Cygnus had never been a coward before and asked how the Cygnus Knights could cower in the rear while ordering the rest of the fleet to head into annihilation. Cygnus refused to answer her and ordered Claudine to return to her ship.

However, Claudine demanded to know Cygnus’ motives, claiming that the Resistance was dying without knowing why. Cygnus then threatened to throw Claudine in the brig if she didn’t listen to orders. Furious, Claudine declared that Cygnus was still a frail little girl under her armor before pinning her and demanding to get answers. As Cygnus winced in pain, Claudine was shocked to see that Cygnus was wounded, causing her to realize that she had been fighting on the front lines the entire time. Realizing that Cygnus had been risking her life as much as everyone else, Claudine decided to listen and returned back to her ship.

(A/N: This was one of the stupidest parts of the whole storyline. Cygnus’ strategy was to send the Adversary to the Black Mage before doing a suicide run with the White Spear to pierce the giant’s heart, which is why she wanted Claudine to leave the ship so that she wouldn’t be in danger. There was absolutely no reason why she couldn’t have told Claudine about any of this. I’m convinced that this was some last-ditch effort on the writers’ part to force a needless conflict between the Resistance and the Cygnus Knights just for old time’s sake. It reminds me of a very similar subplot that took place in The Last Jedi, which was also just as stupid.

If anything, this conflict should’ve been moved to Moonbridge, which would’ve fixed the pacing and given Moonbridge an actual purpose besides just setting up the atmosphere. The Adversary is currently right about to face the Black Mage in their final confrontation - thematically, the Alliance should have already overcome their internal conflict and stood unified against their enemy at this point. Moonbridge was the setting that tested the Alliance’s resolve, and it makes a lot more sense to have the Resistance and the Cygnus Knights butt heads there, rather than the entirety of its plot being us swabbing the ships like a glorified deckhand.

Even within the context of this dialogue, there’s no reason why this should’ve been made into a problem in the first place. Claudine’s whole issue with Cygnus was that she’s putting the Resistance in danger and keeping the Knights safely in the rear - all Cygnus had to do was acknowledge that the Resistance is being put in danger and explain that the Knights are also going to put themselves in just as much danger by charging straight into the heart of the giant. I’m so tired of this stupid trope of misunderstandings coming from a lack of communication.

What I hate aside from the fact that the writers felt the need to create pointless drama was how Cygnus behaved here. Not only does she refuse to tell Claudine anything, but she literally threatens to throw her in prison for not blindly obeying her orders like some kind of dictator. Ever since Black Heaven, the writers have been unable to properly write Cygnus’ character and it really shows. I think the fact that she hardly appears in the Grandis story might just be for the best at this point.)

Meanwhile, the Adversary’s ship was sustaining heavy damage and threatening to fall apart at any moment. Just as it exploded, the Flying Fish arrived to carry the Adversary the rest of the way. It flew them through the heavy bombardment and managed to bring them straight to the Temple of Darkness. Critically wounded from the heavy fire, the Flying Fish told them that the world wanted them to win so that they could all survive, just as it scattered into Erdas. (A/N: I can forgive the Black Mage for quite a number of things, but killing a true bro like the Flying Fish is where I draw the line.)

From the Throne of Darkness, the Black Mage addressed the Adversary and told them that their path had always been preordained.

(A/N: Each class gets exclusive dialogue in response to the Black Mage’s words:

Explorers (including Jett) vow that they’ll transcend the destiny that he’s created for the sake of Maple World.

Cygnus Knights and Mihile vow that they’ll transcend the destiny that he’s created for the sake of the Empress and for Maple World.

The Resistance classes and Xenon declare that they’re the Resistance, and that they reject his path.

The Demon has two dialogue paths depending on their branch. They both start out by saying that it’s time for them to part ways once and for all. Demon Slayer will tell the Black Mage that he’ll use the same power that he once wielded for the Black Mage to destroy him. Demon Avenger will instead say that he’ll use the power of rage to destroy the Black Mage. The dialogue then converges here for both of them, with the Demon then saying that winning the battle isn’t just for him, but for Damien too.

Aran, Phantom, and Mercedes vow that they’ll transcend the destiny that he’s created to put an end to their long history.

Evan vows that he’ll transcend the destiny that the Black Mage has created. He then prays to Freud to watch over him before telling Mir that he’s staking it all on the honor of the Dragon Master and the Onyx Dragons.

Luminous declares that he’s been waiting for this day for a long time. He explains that for everything that the Black Mage has done to Maple World and to the members of Aurora who had followed him, Luminous vows to wipe the world clean of the Black Mage’s darkness, and to make him regret the day that he had left Luminous behind.

Shade thinks to himself that he doesn’t know what will happen if the Black Mage disappears, as he himself might disappear too. However, he reminds himself that it isn’t about him before vowing that he’ll transcend the destiny that the Black Mage has created to put an end to their long history.

For Zero, Alpha and Beta vow that they’ll transcend the destiny that he’s created. They declare that Maple World is no longer his to toy with, and that for everything that he’s done at the Temple of Time, to Rhinne, and to the Temple Keepers, they vow to stop him as a Transcendent for the sake of Maple World.

Most non-Maple World classes vow that they’ll transcend the destiny that he’s created for the sake of everyone. The only exceptions to this are Kain, Lara, and Khali, all of whom were released consecutively after Adele.

Kain declares that he’ll transcend the destiny that the Black Mage has created, adding that his Malice doesn’t follow a preordained path. He then vows that he’ll fight for the sake of Maple World.

Lara vows that she’ll transcend the destiny that the Black Mage has created, just like when she had followed the Mountain Kids to the restricted sanctuary, which had proved that she had always had the choice to step off the beaten path. The sanctuary that she’s talking about is the one in her village, where she first discovered the bell.

This dialogue is a bit weird because the wording makes it sound like she’s saying that finding the bell was never meant to be her destiny, even though she’s mentioned several times in her storyline that she believes that it’s her calling to make the bell ring. I think that what the writers had meant to say was that she had come across the bell through her own choice to enter the restricted sanctuary, and that her destiny was something that she had decided for herself because she had chosen to accept her calling, not because someone had handed her the bell and told her to make it ring.

Khali vows that she’ll transcend the destiny that the Black Mage has created, just like Rasha, who had taken the fate meant for her in her place.

The Sengoku classes vow that they’ll transcend the destiny that the Black Mage has created for the sake of everyone who calls Maple World home.

Beast Tamer vows that she’ll transcend the destiny that the Black Mage has created, and that she’ll become a true hero and show everyone. She then declares that she’ll stop him for the sake of everyone who calls Maple World home.)

The Black Mage then used his power to create his two knights of light and darkness, the Aeonian Rise and the Tanadian Ruin.

(A/N: In non-GMS translations, these knights are called the Aion of Creation and the Demiurge/Yaldabaoth of Destruction, which are figures of good and evil in Gnosticism. I prefer these names over what we got in GMS because Aeona and Tana are titles that refer to the Transcendent of Light and their reserve, not the power of light and darkness.)

After the Adversary defeated the knights, the Black Mage got up from his throne and addressed the Adversary, claiming that he had seen a world constricted by chains in the name of balance, an indolent god, and mankind that had lost the meaning of its own existence. He then invited them to approach and meet their destiny.

The Adversary then began fighting fiercely against the Black Mage. As their battle intensified, an unknown energy burst forth from the Black Mage and swallowed the Temple of Darkness, transporting them into an ethereal, galaxy-like realm, where the Adversary was surprised to find Orchid. Orchid revealed that she had been fighting the Black Mage from within the inner realm the whole time while the Adversary had been fighting him from the material world. She explained that her attacks seemed to have no effect and conceded that the Adversary would have to end things after all.

(A/N: Phantom gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he asks Orchid if she’s suggesting that they fight alongside each other. Orchid starts stammering while trying to justify herself, but Phantom adds that saving the world seems like a good reason to fight together. Orchid then smiles slightly and says that he’s right, and that they should just go with that explanation.) 

Suddenly, the Black Mage manifested before them as a powerful being of light, having ascended to become a god in his own right. Orchid told the Adversary that it was time to fight, both for her to get revenge and for them to save the world. Together, they fought the Black Mage and his godlike powers of creation and destruction. The overwhelming energy from their battle soon engulfed everything in the surrounding area and created a void of black and white.

Orchid told the Adversary that Genesis was about to begin, after which the world would be erased. She then told them that when the Black Mage was weakened, they would need to summon up the power of the Adversary in order to deliver the final blow. The Adversary was unsure about their ability to do so, but Orchid told them that they had failed to destroy the Labyrinth Core because the Seal Stone inside them only activated off of powerful determination, adding that they needed to be ready to sacrifice their own life if needed.

Suddenly, Orchid collapsed on the ground, having expended all her energy. Without her support, the Adversary faced the Black Mage alone, and after a fierce struggle, they managed to weaken him. After getting the upper hand, the Adversary checked up on Orchid, who warned them that the Black Mage needed to be stopped before he entered the Genesis Crux.

The Adversary then attempted to summon all of the determination within themselves, focusing on their willingness to sacrifice themselves for everyone else. To their shock, however, the Seal Stone remained inert and unresponsive to their thoughts. Just then, the Black Mage mocked them for believing that they had escaped the Path of Destiny.

Declaring that they would not live to claim the true power of the Adversary, the Black Mage entered the Genesis Crux, leaving the Adversary aghast that even this very moment had been preordained. As the time of Genesis approached, the Adversary lamented how, even at the end, they had been unable to escape the Path.

Just then, a formless white light appeared and spoke with Tana’s voice, telling them that they had indeed escaped the Path, just by a single step, and reassured them that there had been no lack of determination on their part. However, she told them that the world was crying out that it didn’t want to disappear, and because of that, it would not lend its power to the Adversary, who was ready to kill themselves for the sake of victory.

Her words helped the Adversary realize that they had been prepared to sacrifice themselves all the while that they had faced the Black Mage, but what they had instead needed to believe was that they needed to survive and save everyone, including themselves, not to give up on themselves and die for the sake of a world that wanted them to live.

(A/N: This is hands-down my favorite scene and favorite message in the entire game, a lot of which was sadly omitted in the GMS localization. A lot of stories emphasize that true commitment can only be demonstrated by the willingness to give up one’s own life, but few ever really say that your own life is worth just as much as everyone else’s, and that you shouldn’t throw it away carelessly. I think that it takes a special kind of courage to lay down your life, but I also think that the idea of dying for the greater good is an idea that’s almost been weirdly romanticized in a sense.

Self-sacrifice has been deified for a long time in our society, and we can see it in our media, our religion, and our cultural values. However, I feel like there’s an undercurrent that’s taken root in the idea of self-sacrifice, which is a somewhat toxic emphasis on minimizing yourself for the sake of others. Obviously, there are moments when sacrifice is unavoidable, but I think that something has gotten lost in translation in what’s actually being conveyed through the depictions of sacrifice that we see in media lately.

In a way, self-sacrifice is framed as more of a duty than a choice. Heroes depicted in media are presented as these paragons of virtue who are always willing to lay down their lives for others, and I feel like there’s almost something damaging in showing a person who only ever does the right thing without hesitation, even if it means giving up everything that they have.

I think that the glorification of self-sacrifice without a second thought instills a belief that you don’t really matter at all. It’s true that self-sacrifice is one of the greatest acts of service that we can do, but I think that its importance comes from the fact that you have a choice of whether or not you want to do it. It’s common for heroes to be portrayed as absolutely selfless because all the selfish parts of them have been abstracted from sight.

As a result, the takeaway becomes that there’s no question of whether we’re willing to sacrifice or not. It’s no longer a choice when you think that there’s just one option. Consequently, we internalize the belief that in order to be a good person, we have to rid ourselves of the idea of “I want”. Subconsciously, there’s a rewiring of our morality that keeps us thinking that being selfless and sacrificial means hurting ourselves over and over again for the sake of someone else’s comfort.

Most of us will obviously never be in a situation in which we have to die for the sake of others, but this type of mentality still pervades in everything else that we do - social obligations, work, and relationships. The need to be a good person is so great that we tell ourselves that it’s okay that we’re carving out pieces of ourselves for others. We start seeing pain as just the symptom of our selflessness. After a while, we don’t feel comfortable being whole anymore. Somewhere along the way, putting ourselves last went from a bad habit to a compulsion. Sacrifice stops being a choice and instead becomes a product of our conditioning.

That’s why I think that depictions of sacrifice like what happens in this storyline are important in order to break that mentality. I think that remembering that you matter as much as the people that you care about is an important distinction that changes the connotation of what sacrifice means. What gives meaning to sacrifice is that you always have the choice to say no and walk away. Sacrifice inherently comes from the feeling of “I want”, not the absence of it. If you don’t think that what you want is important, then you’re not really giving up anything at all.

This idea is also the culmination of the Adversary’s own character arc. Throughout the storyline, the Adversary constantly tells themselves that they have to take on the heaviest burdens because they’re the strongest. When they found out that the Black Mage was at the end of the Arcane River, their first instinct was to rush in alone and take him on by themselves without even thinking of contacting the Alliance for help.

They’ve been hailed as a hero so many times that they’ve made it their entire identity, and it’s the same idea of, “I am a hero, which means that I have to be strong for everyone else. I have to do everything alone and put myself through the hardest and most traumatic situations without question.” They’re so willing to believe Orchid when she tells them that they have to be ready to die for the world because that thought just comes to them without instruction at this point.

They’re so shocked that their determination to die isn’t enough because they forgot that they first changed destiny by refusing to take Tana’s life. They were willing to let the Black Mage become practically undefeatable because they had the conviction that they would never give up on trying to save everyone, no matter the odds.

Through all of their trauma, the Adversary has subconsciously decided that they’re expendable, and that their life only has meaning if they can save everyone, even if they have to die in the process. And in the moment when the Adversary is so desperately channeling their desire to end their own life, it’s Tana who comes back to help the Adversary by reminding them that they have to live, just like how they helped her live when she finally chose survival over wanting to die, and in the process, the Adversary finally remembers the value of their own life and chooses to survive too.

That mindset - the determination to protect all life, including our own - is what finally awakened the Seal Stone. At its core, the Seal Stone is an object that will only ever work for a population, and the Adversary is nothing more than a Vessel embodying the world’s deepest desire. The Adversary’s mindset and the world’s determination need to be synced in order to activate its power. At this point, the entire world wants to not only win, but they want the Adversary to come back to them safely, just as their desperate wish to save the Adversary’s life at Black Heaven was what had resulted in the Adversary becoming one in the first place.

Because of this, the Seal Stone will fundamentally never awaken if the Adversary was only determined to die, no matter how good their intentions, because the world cares about them so deeply that that they refuse to allow the Adversary to give up on themselves, just like how the Adversary never gave up on them. It’s a level of pure symbiosis capable of channeling divinity itself, answering the artificial machinations of a god with a human instinct to survive, which is just a fancy way of saving that the Power of Friendship™ always saves the day.)

As the divine power flowed through the Adversary, the Genesis Crux began to shake. Orchid, having regained enough of her strength, reappeared to teleport them to safety. Back at the Outpost, the gems in the hands of the Goddess Statues responded to the collective determination of the Adversary and the Alliance, transforming the gems into three large swords whose tips touched each other, from which a brilliant ray of light shot forth and traveled all the way to Tenebris, where it destroyed all the monsters on its path towards the giant’s heart.

Realizing that the time had come, Cygnus ordered the fleet to pull back so that the White Spear could proceed alone. Declaring that they would become the spear that would pierce the gods themselves, the flagship pushed forward through the path that the beam of light had cleared and pierced through the giant’s heart, allowing them to enter the black and white void where the Genesis Crux was.

Meanwhile, Orchid teleported herself and the Adversary to the deck of the White Spear. Cygnus then told the Adversary that it was time to end the battle. The Adversary jumped off the deck of the ship and fell straight through the giant’s heart into the black and white void. With the power of the Adversary, they summoned the divine blade and entered the Genesis Crux, plunging their sword straight through the Black Mage’s heart.

(A/N: The divine blade is identical in appearance to the ones held by the Goddess Statues, with the exception that it was created magically and glows silvery-blue. This blade is also where the name “spear of god” comes from, which got bizarrely localized as the Godsphere in GMS. The name “spear of god” is probably intended to be stylized, as the blade that we summon is a sword, not a spear. Personally, I like to interpret this to mean that the canonical Adversary is supposed to be a Hero, as the iconography of a one-handed sword is associated with that class in the game.

Swords are usually associated with the idea of knighthood and chivalry, whereas spears are much more primordial, being associated more with Greek heroes and legends from a time before knights. While it makes sense for the divine blade to physically be a sword for the sake of suggesting a canonical Adversary, calling it a “spear of god” instead of a “sword of god” invokes a sense of grandness through the imagery of Adversaries being these legendary demigods, reminiscent of Hercules or Achilles. It also ties into the idea behind the White Spear, which was created as a symbol of the Alliance’s commitment to carving out their own destiny, as well as Cygnus’ declaration that they would become the spear that would pierce the gods themselves.)

Orchid and Cygnus rushed into the void and congratulated the Adversary for killing the Black Mage. To their shock, however, the Adversary scattered into Erdas and vanished.

(A/N: Shade gets some exclusive dialogue here as he scatters into Erda. He thinks to himself that this is really the end for him, and as he disappears, he breaths a sign of relief that he’ll finally be with Freud again.) 

As Cygnus fell to her knees in anguish, the Chief Knights reported that the giant was moving and urged her to retreat. As the giant closed up and trapped the White Spear inside, Orchid asked Cygnus to allow her to use the ship’s power so that she could get them out. Meanwhile, Claudine and Neinheart watched in earnest as ten minutes passed since the giant had fallen silent.

Troubled by the White Spear’s disappearance, Neinheart weakly suggested moving fire away from the heart so as not to harm the White Spear, though Claudine reminded him that he was the one who had been against that idea before. She snapped at him to get it together so that the soldiers wouldn’t see him so distraught, adding that she was worried about Cygnus and the others as well.

Suddenly, the White Spear shot straight through the giant’s heart, with Orchid amplifying the ship’s power, and Neinheart ordered covering fire for them to escape. Cygnus reported that the Genesis Crux had been destroyed, causing the soldiers to begin cheering. However, she struggled with how to break the news that the Adversary had been destroyed.

In the Erda Flow, the Adversary awoke and wondered whether they had died before finding that the White Mage was standing before them. (A/N: When we first see the White Mage, most classes will say, “The White Mage?!”, but Luminous will instead say, “…Oh. It’s you.” I can’t stop laughing at how completely underwhelmed he sounds at finally meeting his deadbeat dad.) The White Mage explained that their body had been annihilated, and that their soul would dilute and disappear after some time. He then congratulated them on their victory, explaining that they had saved the world.

The Adversary asked why he had appeared before them if the battle was over. The White Mage replied that he only wanted to share a few words, as he had been waiting to speak with them for a long time. The Adversary was surprised that he had been waiting for them, to which he explained that they were the only one who could save him from the prison of immortality.

He noted the irony that the very nature of a Transcendent prevented them from destroying themselves. The Adversary then realized that his ideal world without Transcendents also included erasing himself. The White Mage confirmed their suspicions and explained that it was the very reason why he had needed them.

(A/N: Zero gets exclusive dialogue here, in which he notes that only a Transcendent could stand against him. He explains that the other Transcendents had simply accepted their fates, whether they were their original fates, or the ones that he had set upon them. He adds that he knew that Alpha and Beta would turn away from that, or at the very least, that they would fight back.

This line is extremely confusing, as Transcendents are incapable of killing each other. I think what he means is that only someone as strong as a Transcendent could stand against him, whether that’s another Transcendent or a mortal with a Seal Stone. Zero being able to kill the Black Mage likely either stems from them not constituting as a proper Transcendent, or from the Seal Stone allowing them to override their limitations as Transcendents.

The White Mage talking about Zero resisting their fate is told from the perspective that Zero is the Adversary, and so it retroactively means that the White Mage’s plan had always revolved around having Zero destroy him from the very beginning, and so his exclusive dialogue was written to match this setting. In actuality, there’s no canon Adversary, and so I wouldn’t take anything from this exclusive dialogue with much weight, as its inclusion isn’t worth the mental gymnastics that we need to do in order to make it all fit.

Luminous also gets exclusive dialogue here, which is similarly told from the perspective that he’s the Adversary. The White Mage explains that Luminous has always had the power to face him, as he was once part of the White Mage and the light itself. He then reveals that he had deliberately chosen not to destroy Luminous upon their separation, despite having had the power to end him right there. He explains that in a sense, Luminous was the light that he had sought, as Luminous had his own destiny. He notes that Luminous has just seen that destiny through, adding that he’s always believed in him.)

The White Mage revealed that as a result of their actions, they had shattered the fate that had bound them both. He explained that the axis of fate had been tilted the moment when they had refused to take Tana's life. He then asked what had led them to make that decision, to which they replied that it had been because Tana had cried out for help, and that she hadn’t wanted to disappear.

(A/N: Shade gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he says that he had thought that he’d been prepared for his fate too, but when the moment had come, he had realized that even in spite of being prepared, he had realized that he still didn’t want to disappear, just like how Tana hadn’t either, and so he couldn’t do that to her.

Kain also gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which he says that Tana hadn’t wanted to disappear, just like his sister, Luska.

Lara also gets some exclusive dialogue here, in which she says that Tana hadn’t wanted to disappear, and that it must have been the same for Gri’s brother, Gru.

Through some stupid convoluted thought process, GMS somehow managed to localize, “Because she asked for help. She didn’t want to disappear,” to “I couldn’t take her life, no matter the cost. That’s not what a hero does. Our doom wasn’t certain. And as long as there was a way to save her and everyone else, I had to try.”

First of all - where the hell did they pull those extra twenty-seven words from? Second of all - how is it that even with those extra words, they couldn’t even manage to properly capture the nuance of something that could be conveyed in ten? In KMS, you have the Adversary’s motivations being something as simple and powerful as just, “She didn’t want to die,” because that’s all the motivation we needed.

We saw just how miserable Tana’s life was, and how she was constantly being used and exploited by other people, whether it was the Overseers, Hekaton, or the Black Mage. We saw how Jean was the only person in her life who cared about her, and how she called out to him for help in Esfera, even after he died, because in her mind, there was literally no one else in existence who would ever care about her enough to help her again.

Her desire to be saved, and our desire to save her, both came from the same primal human will to live, and the simplicity of saying, “She asked for help,” is supposed to convey just how instinctual that desire to live was. It didn’t need any long-winded heroic explanation - it’s completely self-explanatory because anyone hearing that would immediately understand what the Adversary means, because it’s an instinct shared by all living things, encoded intrinsically into our design.

GMS’ localization not only cuts out that entire nuance, but it just has to make everything all about us. The focus in GMS is on us deciding what a hero would do, us weighing pros and cons about what it would mean for the world, and it takes away from the fact that this isn’t about us - it’s about Tana, and it should’ve been about Tana after she’s spent centuries being a plot device for everyone else’s needs.

In KMS, we acted simply because we wanted her to live, and having us go into this whole explanation in GMS about how we spent all this time thinking about ourselves and what it means for us to kill her, rather than us just saying that we acted instinctively because we care about her, makes it so that we end up becoming just another person who saw her as a tool for our own personal agenda, whether that was for saving the world, or even just us using her as a stepping stone for our own character development as a hero or whatever.)

After a pause, the White Mage told them that though he been the one to ask them why they hadn’t killed Tana, he had perhaps known the answer all along, explaining that he had been in a similar situation. He revealed that the moment that he had awakened as a Transcendent, he had also become a pawn of the Overseers.

He explained that while trapped in his destiny set by the Overseers, he had tried going against them and had eventually succeeding in carving out the future that he had desired. He noted that it was ironic that the same destiny that he couldn’t accept had been forced upon the Adversary. He explained that even if someone had set the path of destiny, a soul like the Adversary’s, which had been forged from the belief engraved in their heart, could not waver or bend to another’s will.

He told the Adversary that such a soul was the result of having lived a life and added that they really were just like him, as they were both people who had fought against destiny. He noted that as the Adversary had traveled, they had likely experienced the beauty of the world, and that they must have met and walked alongside many others. He explained that those experiences had made them evolve into a being who didn’t forget to live with harmony, even in the face of despair, and one whose heart could lead the way by shining a light in the darkness.

The White Mage then told the Adversary that life was precious because it was finite, and that, having lost sight of the value of life, he believed that he wasn't qualified to realize his grand ideals. He explained that he had believed that he couldn't change fate as a mortal, and so he had sought to borrow the power of the divine by becoming a Transcendent. He then wondered whether he had lost his qualifications to realize his ideals from the moment that he had cast aside his humanity.

The Adversary suddenly felt a strange sensation as their body began disappearing from their fingertips, to which the White Mage told them that it couldn't have been stopped for long. The Adversary then asked him why he had kept fighting if they had already won when they had changed fate in Esfera. The White Mage replied by asking what they had felt as they had walked the Path of Destiny, when they had begun to question their own free will.

After considering it, the Adversary replied that they had felt a sense of helplessness, as they had known that mortals didn’t have the power to change their destiny, as those destinies had been set by gods who were too powerful to overcome, just as the White Mage himself had learned firsthand. The White Mage then asked them why they had gone ahead anyways, to which they replied that they couldn't give up simply because it was difficult.

(A/N: If the player has completed the Ellin Forest storyline, they note that they had become convinced that destiny couldn’t be changed when they had gone back in time to change history and found that they couldn’t. When the White Mage asks them why they had gone ahead anyways, the player replies that they could have settled things in Ellin Forest easily if they had told people about the future, but they note that the people of the past had decided not to hear it, vowing that they would create their own future instead, rather than someone else deciding it for them.)

The Adversary then noted that what they had really felt upon learning about the Path of Destiny was both anger and the will to live, all at once. They added that their desire wasn’t some grand dream of wanting to protect the world, but merely the will to fight for what they believed in, their free will, their belief, and their unwavering faith. They told the White Mage that destiny wasn't set by anyone, but rather, it was shaped by them simply living in the present. The White Mage then noted that the higher beings whom they fought against would see their resistance as futile and asked if they still wouldn’t give up, even while knowing that. The Adversary agreed that those higher beings would regard them as pathetic and weak, but nevertheless, they believed that they shouldn’t accept their destiny without question.

The White Mage was satisfied with their answer, after which the Adversary noted that they now had a better understanding of his thoughts and goals, as being deprived of one's free will and being forced to live in accordance with someone else's destiny was a painful existence. However, they told the White Mage that even though they understood his suffering, it still didn’t justify his evil deeds.

(A/N: Honestly, there are some classes who I really can’t see sympathizing with the White Mage at all. Kinesis, for example, absolutely hates the White Mage of Friends World for destroying his city and hurting his friends, and I don’t see him entertaining the White Mage’s tragic backstory for even a second, as he’d probably just straight up tell the White Mage that he couldn’t care less about any of his justifications because all he cares about are his friends. Similarly, I don’t see Phantom sympathizing with the White Mage when his only motivation is to protect the world that Aria loved, and so I strongly doubt that he would’ve sympathized with why the Black Mage wants to destroy the world, only that he’s putting Aria’s dream at risk.)

After a pause, the White Mage told them that when he had first learned about the chains of destiny, he had likely felt the same as them. Though he had felt rage when he had realized that he had been losing his free will, he had still felt uncertainty. As he had been alone for all his life, he had tried deciding his own path himself, but the moment that he had stopped believing in himself, he had been shaken.

In contrast, he told the Adversary that making connections with countless people must have helped them during moments when their faith in themselves had been wavering, which made the Adversary recall Empress Cygnus and Tana. After a pause, the White Mage told them that even though his plan had been perfect, he had started questioning it. He cited how Kao had lost to him in the past, and how he had sent them back in time, adding that such a risky action of sending a variable back in time could only be done once. (A/N: I’ll get more into this in the next section.)

He then revealed that it was then that he had begun to think deeply and had actually begun to notice the Adversary and the world more closely, noting that so many things had changed since he had first tried to take over the world centuries ago. He explained that unlike the selfish people of his time, so many good people had banded together in order to try and change the world. He added that the one who would lead them was not one who lived in fear, but rather, someone who could unite everyone, unlike himself.

He then told them that their anger, the answer to his question about what they had felt upon discovering the Path of Destiny, was enough. He explained that life was full of trials and tribulations, but if people like the Adversary could come together and work together, they would be able to overcome any ordeal.

He then told them that if the feelings that they had felt were real, then it was enough. As the Adversary began disappearing from the Erda Flow, the White Mage told them to never forget their anger. After a pause, he told them that the world which good-natured beings like them would create would be more perfect than anything that he could have made, and so he was content with leaving it all behind to them.

(A/N: As the scene fades out, the White Mage bids the Adversary farewell by referring to them with a special title that’s unique to their job:

Explorers (including Special Explorers): The One Who Walks Down the Path of Adventure. Before the Destiny revamp, their title used to be “Explorer of Legend” in GMS, although this was a mistranslation of the actual KMS title, “Brave Explorer From Another World”. The KMS title was a reference to the original Explorer storyline, in which it was said that Explorers came from another world. In the Destiny revamp, the backstory for the Explorer was changed so that they were native to Maple Island instead, which explains why they changed it to what it is now.
Cygnus Knights and Mihile: Brave Knight of the Empress
Main Resistance and Xenon: Bold Liberator of the Shadowed City
Demon: Resilient Soul
Aran: Undying Warrior
Evan: Heir of the Great Mage
Mercedes: Ruler of the Elves
Phantom: Thief of Destiny
Luminous: Light of the World
Shade: Forgotten Hero. After he gives this title, the White Mage tells Shade, “Be at peace. She will remember you now,” with ‘she’ referring to Moonbeam.
Kaiser, Angelic Buster, Cadena, and Kain: Descendent of Dragons
Illium, Ark, Adele, Khali: Mystic of a Distant World
Zero: Transcendent of a New World
Kinesis: Hero of the Mysterious World
Hoyoung, Lara: Conqueror of Destiny

Additionally, while these classes aren’t canon, I’ll list them here in case anyone is curious, although I’ve added them in the GMS-verse section:
Jett: Far-flung Avenger
Hayato: Honorable Warrior
Kanna: Fated Master of Spirits
Beast Tamer: Hero of Nature

I really, really love the White Mage as a character, but unfortunately, his story and motivations have suffered from a lot of instability because of the lack of cohesive story direction under one writing team. At the start of the game's story, the Black Mage was just a generic evil villain who wanted to destroy the world. The White Mage chapter of the Grand Athenaeum was the first time that we got to see that there was some level of depth to his character, and whoever wrote it deserves a lot of props for the philosophical nuance that it brought to the story.

At the time of Tenebris' release, the conversation that we had with the White Mage was extremely short. The only thing that he really discussed with us was him wanting to create a world without Transcendents, the idea of us changing destiny by refusing to take Tana's life, him losing sight of the value of life and consequently losing his qualifications to realize his ideals, and him telling us to never forget the anger that we had when we felt helpless on the Path of Destiny.

It's pretty easy to see that there really wasn't much explanation given about the White Mage's motivations beyond just that his goal was to destroy the Transcendents. In fact, a lot of people came to conclude that his ultimate aim was simply to have the Adversary kill him because he was tired of being bound by the Overseers’ will, similar to how Tana wanted to end her own existence. Even with how barebones the original story was, the Black Mage’s 5D chess game being an elaborate assisted suicide attempt is a conclusion that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever with what was actually presented, despite the fact that it was a popular narrative that people spread after Limina’s release.

If the Black Mage had only wanted to die, then there was no purpose in getting rid of the other Transcendents, which means that he wouldn’t have needed the Commanders to help him fight Alicia and Rhinne, which means that there was no need to make a new world to buy their loyalty, which means all he needed to do was threaten to destroy the world in order to unite the Alliance and create an Adversary to kill him. Pretty much everything that he did is completely pointless if we assume that his only goal was to die, which is why his primary motive has always been to destroy the Overseers, even if the story does a really bad job of showing it.

In the absence of explicit dialogue that actually explains his motives, the idea of the Divine City was meant to be the central point around which his ideals were originally based, and it was the original foundation for the conflict of ideology that he had with the Overseers. The White Mage's system of morality is based on the idea that people who have power are morally obligated to use it in order to help those who don't. The reason why he wanted to reach the divine realm is because he believed that God, the universe, or whatever highest entity that exists out there would help him change the systematic oppression of society.

From the brief dialogue that we saw when he reached the divine realm, his issue with the Overseers is that they were choosing to leave the world incomplete, which we can infer to mean that they were choosing to do absolutely nothing while humanity suffered. This is essentially the root of where his hatred for them stems from - the Overseers are nearly omnipotent beings who can take away all pain in an instant, but they choose to remain indolent while countless innocents are impoverished, killed, and exploited by oppressors who use them for their own personal gain.

Under the White Mage's system of morality, the Overseers refusing to use their power to help people makes them just as morally corrupt as the people who actively use their power to dominate others, as choosing to do nothing in the face of oppression is still a choice that you're making consciously. On top of that, not only are the Overseers choosing to do nothing, but they're also trying to force the White Mage to do nothing by binding him with their chains of law when he decides to become a Transcendent and help the world himself when no one else will.

It’s at this moment that he realizes that his ideal of ultimate light and everything that he’s ever worked for has been shattered, as the Overseers are actively trying to stop him from fixing the world, which is when he comes to believe that they represent ultimate darkness, which is his declaration that their apathy and carelessness makes them evil, necessitating their destruction. Since he can’t physically destroy the Overseers, however, his goal is to destroy all the Transcendents, who are the Overseers’ only means to influence the world. However, this is where the fuzziness in his plan starts to manifest, in large part due to an excess of ambiguity on the writers' part.

If we're getting technical for a moment, while the Overseers aren't doing anything to help the situation on Maple World, they're also not actively doing anything to make it worse. Rationally speaking, there's no real reason why removing their influence is going to make anything better when they're not even exerting any sort of influence that we can see.

We've seen them force Aeona to wipe out over seven races on Grandis, but the thing is that the Transcendents of Maple World are known for staying out of mortal affairs, as the Overseers - from what we can speculate - were most likely only wiping out races who have the power of the Ancient Gods. Since the Ancient Gods seem to have had very little influence in Maple World, there’s not much reason for the Overseers to have the Transcendents of Maple World do anything when everything is already in order.

Because of this, the White Mage's motivations in stopping the Overseers are something that we have to make certain assumptions with, based on everything that we know about him. His first motive is likely that there's no guarantee that the Overseers won't use the Transcendents to kill people on Maple World. The Overseers are described less as people and more like abstract, conceptual entities. While they're not solely a force of nature, it would be more accurate to compare them to something like gravity or electricity than it would to compare them to living beings.

They seem to have their own will, but this will is more just like computer code that executes in accordance to pre-programmed rules that were likely set by the Primordial God when he created them. Calling the Overseers morally evil makes as little sense as calling gravity evil for making you fall, but at the same time, their rules are complex and arbitrary, which will always make them a danger because there's every chance that they could detect your attempts at reforming society as a threat to whatever they consider to be ‘order’.

Personally, however, I think that the idea of the Transcendents of Maple World turning on the people is extremely slim. The Black Mage might’ve factored that into his motives, but I think that his primary motive is really just the principle that drives his ideals. The White Mage hates the Overseers more than anyone else in existence because from his moral viewpoint, there's nothing more evil than a god who sits back and watches billions of people get tortured and murdered every day when they could stop it with a simple lift of their finger.

The Overseers' very existence as beings who wield ultimate power and do nothing with it is an abject affront to everything that a god ought to stand for, which is why he believes that the Overseers, by principle, need to be cast down, as they don't deserve to sit on a throne and call themselves God when they withhold salvation from countless beings praying desperately to them in vain.

His issue with the Overseers aside, however, there's a lot of ambiguity about the actual execution of his plan. The biggest question is whether or not he actually intended to create a new world. Before the Kao revamp, all that we knew was that the Adversary choosing to spare Tana was what had allowed us to change destiny, which was what the Black Mage had intended, and that he had only ever talked about removing the Transcendents. This makes me believe that his plan was never to create a new world, but rather, it was just a means to drive the Alliance into defeating him, while also manipulating his Commanders into following him.

The main idea behind this is that the Black Mage knew that the leaders of Maple World were short-sighted and only cared about themselves. By threatening to end the world, he would force all world leaders to look past their own petty self-interests, like the Cygnus Knights and the Resistance’s squabble, and actually work together with other nations for their survival, and by promising to create a new world, he would be able to get his Commanders to help him in exchange for power and comfort in his new world order.

The other part of the Black Mage's plan that doesn't get explicitly mentioned, but is still an extremely important byproduct of it, is the methodology by which his perfect world was created. With the assumption that his goal was never to physically create a new world, but merely to remove the Transcendents, we can see a significant effect of his plan, which is the unification of Maple World. The society of his time systematically oppressed people and created a wide disparity in suffering based on socioeconomic inequality, with national leaders lining their pockets at the expense of their citizens' lives.

In the process of nearly wiping out Ossyria centuries ago, creating Victoria Island, and drawing out the Heroes who inspired others to follow in their footsteps, the Black Mage destroyed the corrupt power base of the world and paved the way for that void to be filled with brave and selfless leaders like Athena Pierce, Grendel, Cygnus, Claudine, and countless others who risk their lives to help their people, rather than sacrificing them to keep their power, which ultimately created a much better society for people to live in.

On top of that, the Black Mage gathered together some of the most vile beings in the world like his Commanders and the Black Wings, used them in his plan to help better the world, and then eliminated them when they were no longer useful, thereby getting rid of every being who would ever pose a threat to the society that the Alliance would build.

The culmination of this plan was the creation of the Adversary, who was created from the most selfless decision in the history of the world, which was to save the Adversary’s life, even while knowing that the Black Mage would return to full power as a result. The Adversary's creation is the most singularly unique event in history, as not only was the world able to collectively choose to be selfless - something that could never have happened during the White Mage's time - but also because no other Adversary, as far as we know, has ever been created organically, rather than artificially through experimentation, which could only have happened because of the symbiotic relationship between the Adversary and the people whose will they represent.

After the Kao revamp, however, there was a significant change to the Black Mage's motivations. It gets explicitly mentioned that the Black Mage had indeed planned to create a new, perfect world, and that he had intended to enact the Genesis Ritual at the very moment that the Adversary killed him, which would result in the creation of a world without Transcendents. I think that this is around where there's a major discrepancy in the writing, as there are certain things that just don't make any sense with this explanation.

The Black Mage wanting to create a new world in this version of the story stemmed from his belief that Maple World was beyond saving, as the Overseers' influence had corrupted it to the point that humanity was doomed to destroy itself no matter what. Because of this, his intention was to reset everything and allow life to evolve from scratch, starting from the abstract life forms of Limina, which would eventually develop sentience and build a new society that he believed would be perfect, as the Overseers would never have had any influence in its creation.

However, there are two very serious flaws with this reasoning. The first is that the Overseers haven't had any sort of influence that we can see on Maple World that resulted in its imperfect state. I feel like the story team has significantly misunderstood the Black Mage's motivations in removing the Overseers - it's not because he thinks that they've made the world imperfect, it's because they're doing nothing to help repair it. Human beings were always the main culprit behind ruining their own world. It was their own choice to be selfish that created inequality, not because the Overseers went out of their way to have the Transcendents create a flawed society.

Even if a new society were created in the Black Mage's perfect world, there's no guarantee whatsoever that it won’t face the exact same problems that Maple World has. As long as the concept of free will exists, there will always be a duality of good and evil just by the very nature of being able to make choices, which leads into the second major flaw with his reasoning.

The Black Mage believed that humanity was incapable of being saved, which is why he wanted to create a world free of evil. However, literally the entire crux of his plan was hinged on the basis that humanity would collectively choose to make the most selfless decision of its life to save the player, which is how they became an Adversary and killed him in the first place. If the world was capable of coming together and helping each other, shouldn't that, in itself, have been a dead giveaway that there was still a way for humanity to be saved?

I don't even accept the argument of him losing sight of the value of life - this was a mistake that anyone with an IQ in triple digits should've caught while drafting it on paper. I refuse to believe that the White Mage, a once-in-a-generation prodigy, would've glossed over this chance to avoid committing genocide when he was fundamentally acting to save an entire species from day one.

Instead, he comes to realize this basic fact only after Kao fails to kill him. After he sends Kao back in time, he starts to take another look at humanity and realizes that people have come together in a way that he never thought possible, which begs the question of how he seriously expected the world to create an Adversary at the expense of crippling themselves if they were all truly the flawed and selfish beings that he thought they were.

At the same time, however, there's a particular feature of this revamped story that I really like. Whereas the Adversary's choice to save Tana was something that the Black Mage had anticipated in the old story, their choice to save her in the revamp is the true moment when they really saved the world. The Black Mage had fully expected that after sending Kao back in time and changing the past, the Adversary would have the determination needed to awaken the Seal Stone in Limina.

However, since the Adversary didn't know how to awaken its power in Esfera, he anticipated that we would've tried and failed to kill Tana, with Ollie surviving and ensuring that we wouldn't have mentally fallen apart at the critical moment. To his surprise, the Adversary made the choice to spare Tana's life, going against everything that he had expected would happen. Following Kao's failure, he had already been shaken up by his plan failing, and because of this, he had taken another glance at everything, which is when he had come to realize that the people of the present were working together in a way completely unlike the people of his time centuries ago.

The Adversary choosing to save Tana was the final nail in the coffin for him, which proved that humanity was being led by selfless beings. It was at that moment that we changed destiny because our actions successfully changed the Black Mage's mind, as he decided that he wouldn't enact the Genesis Ritual after we killed him, and that he would instead allow us to lead the world into the future with our pure-hearted ideals.

Personally, I'm conflicted about this revamp because on one hand, it kills all the genuine nuance with the Black Mage's plan to shape humanity into the best version of itself that it can be, instead retconning him into an edgy teenager who spent 20 minutes reading and misunderstanding Nietzsche before deciding to turn into a nihilist who thinks that everything is worthless and needs to be destroyed.

On the other hand, it really strengthens the Adversary as a person and places actual weight on their existence as someone who embodies the best of humanity, enough so that they were able to defeat the Black Mage long before their physical battle. Their choice to be selfless and kind is what ultimately led to their victory without them ever needing to even strike a single blow.

Also, while the Black Mage's motivations aren't consistent at all with his original characterization, I also like the fact that he gets an actual character arc. His old characterization and plan were really great in the way that he was written with nuance, rather than him being a generic Saturday morning cartoon villain like he is now, but the fact that he transitions from that generic villain and becomes the character that he was in the old version makes him feel a bit more fleshed out.

Both before and after the revamp, he admits that he was a villain who lost sight of the value of life. Even if his belief was true that humanity was beyond salvation, and even if his perfect world would’ve actually been perfect and free of suffering, it doesn’t erase the fact that it came at the cost of killing billions of people. At the end of the day, his ambitions couldn’t be satisfied by anything except perfection itself. It wasn’t enough for him to create a better world - he was obsessed with creating a perfect world and nothing less.

When he came to realize that there was a possibility of attaining it, he decided on behalf of everyone in the world that they would be dragged along in his mission without their consent, and that millions of them would die in order to get to that perfect world, without considering or caring what any of them wanted, effectively taking their agency away from them.

The White Mage, in resistance to the Overseers' chains of law, started using chains as his own weapon, which is meant to symbolize how he weaponized the Overseers' own rules against them. He took advantage of the fact that they created a fixed destiny in order to have tactical knowledge of everything that would happen in the future. He also took the Seal Stone, which held the Overseers' own power, and used it to destroy their hold on the universe.

However, in the process of doing this, he became the very thing that he wanted to destroy by manipulating the destiny of mortals and binding humanity with his chains of ideology. Before the revamp, I wouldn’t criticize the White Mage at all for what he did. His plan worked with remarkable success by removing the influence of the Overseers and creating a society whose leaders value courage and kindness, which is guaranteed to create a bright future for entire generations.

After the revamp is a much different story, however. Fundamentally, the Black Mage’s plan both before and after the revamp is the same - sacrificing millions for the sake of creating a better world. But the difference is that his pre-revamp plan had a very viable, tangible chance of coming to fruition. The post-revamp Black Mage is a complete idiot who wanted to create a new world that had no better chance of being perfect than the old one.

At the same time, however, the Black Mage’s belief in creating a perfect world - both before and after the revamp - is something that ties into what I mentioned in the last section about the City of God and Thomas Aquinas’ refutation of Augustine’s belief that humans are incapable of attaining happiness on the mortal plane. Aquinas talks about the idea of imperfect happiness, called felicitas, which he believes is capable of being replicated in the Earthly City, even if perfect happiness, beatitudo, can’t be.

Within the context of the game, we didn’t need to be saved absolutely, and we didn’t need the Transcendents to be destroyed. In all those centuries after the Transcendents were sealed away, people had struggles and hardships, but life during that time was honestly fine. While it might not have been perfect, it was still good enough for people to have led complete, fulfilling lives by accepting that suffering is an inevitability of life that enhances the meaning of how we enjoy it. Under the leadership of good people, people could’ve been happy knowing that there was little disparity between their suffering and everyone else’s.

Even before the revamp, this idea still holds true. Like I said before, the chances of the Overseers wiping out humanity is slim to none. His desire to remove the Overseers from power is more just his stubbornness to uphold his ideology than anything else. If he had given up his ideals to destroy the Overseers, he might’ve been able to use his powers as a Transcendent and his resistance to the Overseers’ commands to find another way to reform society without as much bloodshed.

The tragedy of his life is that, in spite of having his own free will, he could never have brought himself to give up on his perfect ideals because of his own character flaws - his ego and his insatiability for anything but the absolute best. As a result, he was fated to become a villain, not out of maliciousness or misjudgment, but because he was someone who cared so deeply about people that in his single-minded drive to help them, he inadvertently started treating them like pieces on a board instead of living things with feelings and free will of their own.

When he tells the Adversary about him losing sight of the value of life, he tells them that life is precious because it's finite, and he's actually echoing something that Kellad of the Sharenian Knights had once said - that the beauty of life stems from its brevity - which is something that he had heard from Kellad while posing as Prince Sharen IV in Ergoth’s mirror dimension. While the Sharenian Knights chapter was released after Limina, I think that it was a deliberate choice on the writers' part to echo this line as a deliberate tie-in to the White Mage's dialogue.

Viewing these events chronologically, the fact that he repeated this line to the Adversary means that it clearly must have resonated with him, especially with him knowing that he himself only had a few more years left in his life before he would die at Tenebris. I think that he must have spent a lot of time reflecting on his actions and his mistakes in the last few years of his life, especially about how he had lost sight of the value of life in his pursuit of a perfect world.

Him admitting as much to the Adversary is also the culmination of his own character arc. He comes to understand that the tragedy of his life - to be forever remembered as a villain - was something that he himself had created because of his tunnel-vision. He also came to accept that there’s no redemption for someone like him, but that he can still find peace by finally letting go of his ego and accepting that he isn’t meant to be the savior who makes it out on the other side.

In his final moments, he tells the Adversary that they, not him, are the one who deserves to inherit the future, because they’re someone who’s gone through the same struggle as him - a fight against a higher power - but unlike him, the Adversary never once gave up their core values, making them worthy to achieve what he never could. Though the White Mage couldn’t let go of his ideals in his past, he can now make peace with the fact that he doesn’t have to be the only one to save humanity, which mirrors the Adversary’s own realization that they don’t have to be the only one who suffers and sacrifices themselves to save the world.

When Lucid looked into the Black Mage’s mind in Lachelein and saw that nothing exists in his perfect world, not even him, she thought that it was because the Black Mage wanted to die in the process of creating an empty world. Personally, I like to interpret it not as him wanting to create an empty world, but him not having any idea of what that perfect world looks like, only that he knows that he isn’t meant to be a part of it.

In the original Heroes of Maple storyline, Freud mentions that he believes that the time will come when the world outgrows its need for Transcendents and kings, eventually coming to a point where people grow capable of ruling themselves through compassion and mutual goodwill, which is something that gets echoed here in Limina. In the original version, it was shown through how the world is finally ready to outgrow its dependency on the White Mage to help it escape the Overseers’ influence, but there's a bit more depth added to this in the revamp.

Now, it's the idea of letting go of ideology in favor of instinct. Something that we see in the story is how ideals are chains that restrict freedom. The Overseers embody the ideal of order. The Black Mage's ideals of a perfect world were something that he couldn't let go of, and it caused the world to nearly be destroyed twice. The Adversary was chained by their own conception of being a savior, which drove them to losing their will to live when they couldn’t embody the idea of being a perfect hero who can always save everyone no matter what.

Even after they made it out of the labyrinth, them losing the will to live didn’t go away, it just evolved into their toxic belief that they had to be ready to die in order to save the world until Tana helped them break free from that mindset and reminded them of their instinct to live. When they tell the Black Mage what had driven them, they explain that it wasn't some pursuit of a grand ideal like saving the world, but rather, it was simply their instincts, their free will, and their faith.

The message of the story might err on the side of simplistic without introducing nuance about the time and place of when to follow your ideals and when to let them go, but there's still something very satisfying and cathartic in the idea of a simple world where just caring about each other and being kind is enough to make things better. In our world, where everyone has their own schemes and selfish goals to get to the top, the game offers a hopeful outlook that a perfect world isn't something that we attain through some abstract ideal like “ultimate light” or “destiny”, it’s something much simpler and comes through nothing more than our determination and our instinct to choose to be better, which is something that no one - not even a god - can take away from us.)

Back on the White Spear, Neinheart began to mourn the loss of the Adversary when Claudine suddenly saw something shooting out of the giant’s heart. To their surprise, they saw the Adversary flying back on the Flying Fish. Claudine immediately ordered covering fire, allowing the Adversary to land on the White Spear. The Adversary then greeted Cygnus and told her that they had returned safely, just as she had ordered. As the soldiers began cheering for the Adversary, Neinheart told them that the giant seemed to be decomposing back into Erdas with the destruction of the Genesis Crux.

The Adversary then noticed Orchid preparing to slip away, who claimed that she didn’t want to hang around with Claudine glaring at her. The Adversary asked Orchid if it was true what Guwaru had said about her shortening her life by using her powers without Lotus. Orchid confirmed that she only had about a century left, and that she planned to live as a regular human. She then smiled, affectionately calling them a dummy, and told them that she would see them around before leaving.

(A/N: I could actually feel my IQ drop while reading this conversation. I’m well aware that the writers have begun retconning Orchid as this cute tsundere antihero, and while I don’t have any problem with that, I absolutely don’t understand why they had to do it in the most incompetent way imaginable.

A good part of the blame deserves to go to whoever it was that thought that the Adversary storyline would be a good idea. Because our characters’ backstories have now been erased in favor of the most basic and insipid cookie cutter template protagonist, the writers treat our character as some random person who just happened to wake up one day and go to the Arcane River.

As a result, Phantom just casually forgets that Orchid tortured Aria to death, the Resistance stops caring that Orchid enslaved their town and had Gelimer kill Vita, and Xenon apparently just doesn’t mind the fact that Orchid is the person who funded the experiments that mutilated his body and irrevocably stole his memories.

It’s also hilarious because the Adversary tells the White Mage that despite sympathizing with his actions, they can never forgive him, and then five minutes later, we hold hands with Orchid and start singing Kumbaya like we’re number one besties when there are literally a billion more reasons for us to forgive the White Mage than Orchid.

I have no problem if they want to redeem Orchid, and I have no problem if they want to keep her a villain, but the thing that irritates me is this idiotic, wishy-washy way that they handle it. The basic principle of redemption is that if you want to give a redemption arc to a character, the fundamental requirement is that they have to say - or even show - that they’re sorry for what they did.

Either have Orchid genuinely make amends for her actions and then let her act tsundere with the player, or lean into her being completely unrepentant, just like they did with Lotus, and have the main classes respond to her attitude in a way that makes actual logical sense, which really isn’t too much to be asking for, given that this is supposed to be a conclusion to a story that’s been in development for almost two decades.

As it stands right now, the writers are trying to have it both ways where Orchid doesn’t feel an ounce of remorse for what she did, and somehow the entirety of the cast is perfectly fine with it. The KMS player base hated Orchid’s interactions with the Adversary so much that they posted scathing reviews about it for years and even forced Director Wong-ki to read aloud Orchid’s tsundere dialogue from the perspective of Phantom during a conference, after which he admitted that it was the stupidest thing ever written and agreed to have the writers change it. As a result, a new exclusive dialogue was added for Phantom in the update that released the Ellin Forest revamp and Kao’s memories.

Instead of calling the Adversary a dummy and telling them that she’d see them around, Orchid instead tells Phantom that she’s leaving if he doesn’t have anything else to say. Phantom tells her that he wants to make it clear that nothing is going to change between them, as they had only made a temporary alliance to defeat the Black Mage and stop the destruction of the world. He adds that no matter how many years pass, he’ll never forgive her or Lotus for killing Aria.

Orchid gets angry that she’s the one who will never forgive him for killing Lotus, adding that she’ll make him pay for it someday by taking him out with her own hands. Phantom replies that all he had done was to bring Aria’s killer to justice, adding that Lotus had paid the price for his crimes. Orchid yells that Lotus was her only family, and that he was like another her. Phantom retorts by noting that if Lotus was important to her because he was her family, he asks her what Aria was to him. However, Orchid ignores him and storms off.

After she leaves, Phantom speaks aloud and addresses Aria, telling her that he’s saved the world that she had tried to protect. He asks her if she can see it, noting that the peace that she’s longed for is finally here. However, he laments that she’s not by his side to see it with him and wonders aloud why he hadn’t been able to save her. He asks her whether she would have smiled at him if she were here standing beside him and adds that he misses her so much today.

On one hand, this script was a massive improvement and serves as proof that bullying is perfectly acceptable when it delivers results. For legal reasons, that’s a joke. On the other hand, I really can’t help but wonder why the writers are incapable of nuance. For them, it always has to be a giant pendulum swing from one extreme to another. They go from Phantom and Orchid happily saying goodbye to having them give a declaration of eternal hatred.

That animosity works well for the earlier parts of Limina when Orchid has the audacity to say that we haven’t lost anything compared to her, but the entire point of us working together with Orchid is that we both put our lives on the line to save the world, which ends up counting for something. There was a very clear middle ground that they could’ve gone for, in which they grudgingly acknowledge each other’s efforts and mutually agree to leave the past behind and never see each other again, rather than creating an open-ended “I hate you forever” to ruin the uplifting mood of the conclusion.) 

The Adversary then asked the Flying Fish if the battle was finally over. The Flying Fish confirmed that it was and told them to climb aboard so that they could say goodbye to everyone. Around them, the soldiers who had vanished into Erda from the Light of Annihilation returned back to life with the giant decomposing.

(A/N: The idea behind the Light of Annihilation was that the Black Mage had used the power of destruction to destroy the Alliance members in order to keep pushing the Adversary to their limits, as well as to bring them to the Erda Flow at the very end of the battle, and then he used the power of creation to restore them back to life, as he had only needed them to temporarily ‘die’ in order to motivate the Adversary. I still think that it’s dumb because it cheapens the levity of all the sacrifices made during the battle by all of it just being magically undone.)

Pleased to see that everyone was safe, the Adversary waved goodbye before leaving on the Flying Fish. After getting some much-needed rest, the Adversary soon returned back to the Outpost, where Neinheart greeted them and asked if they had gotten some rest after defeating the Black Mage, to which the Adversary replied that it had been ages since they had been able to sleep as well as they had.

Neinheart replied that it was good to hear, as the Alliance would be needing the Adversary at full strength. The Adversary was surprised and asked if there was something wrong. Just then, the other leaders of the Alliance arrived, causing the Adversary to realize that Neinheart had merely been joking.

(A/N: Each class gets a unique script for this part.

For Explorers, Athena Pierce, Grendel, and Kyrin arrive and congratulate the Explorer for all that they’ve accomplished. They reminisce about how curious and wide-eyed the Explorer had been when they had first met, and how much has changed since then. If the Explorer is a warrior or a thief, Athena Pierce will tell them that their job instructor couldn’t make it, though they send their best regards. Dances with Balrog, the Dark Lord, and Lady Syl got completely sidelined from the entire story and I’ll forever be salty about it.

For the Cygnus Knights and Mihile, Neinheart tells them that everyone in Maple World is grateful to them, adding that it’s thanks to them that the Alliance was able to rally around Cygnus, who led them to victory. Cygnus agrees and notes that it’s thanks to them that they were able to gain everyone’s trust and unite as one.

Claudine then admits that they were reliable, to which Neinheart laughs that if Claudine is saying that, then they must already know what everyone else is thinking. As Claudine bickers with Neinheart, Cygnus laughs and notes that Claudine and Neinheart seem to be getting along well, to which both of them are flustered into silence.

For the Resistance classes and Xenon, Claudine proudly calls them a valued member of the Resistance. She explains that everyone else has already returned to Edelstein, and though they had all wanted to go back with the Resistance member, she hesitates before explaining that they had needed someone to stay and clean up. Neinheart laughs and tells Claudine to be honest, reminding her that she had insisted that she would stay and meet with the Resistance member on behalf of everyone. Claudine gets embarrassed, though she quickly recovers and tells the Resistance member that it’s time to go home, as everyone is waiting.

For the Demon, Neinheart tells him that all of Maple World owes him a debt that can never be repaid. Claudine adds that no matter what he did in the past, he’s always been at the Resistance’s side. Cygnus tells him that he no longer lives under the shadow of the Black Mage, and that he’s a valued member of the Alliance.

She then asks what he’ll do now, to which he says that he’s not sure. He thinks to himself that there’s nowhere to go home to and no one that’s waiting for him. Cygnus then tells him that no matter where he goes or what he finds, the Alliance will always be there for him. The Demon is overwhelmed by the overwhelming support of everyone and jokes that this is one way to make new acquaintances.

For all the Heroes except Evan and Shade, Neinheart tells them that everyone in Maple World is grateful to them. Cygnus notes that they’ve been keeping Maple World safe for so long, and now they’ve saved the world from the greatest threat that they’ve ever faced. She then thanks them and vows that the Alliance will continue protecting the world that they’ve given everything to save.

For Evan, Neinheart tells them that everyone in Maple World is grateful to them. Cygnus thanks Evan for everything that he’s done for them. Athena Pierce then adds that she’d never thought that he’d grow so much, to which Evan laughs in embarrassment and says that he still has a lot to learn. Cygnus smiles and tells him that he doesn’t need to be so modest, as he’s already the hero of the Alliance. Athena agrees with Cygnus and adds that they have no doubt that he’ll become a great Dragon Master, and perhaps even greater than Freud.

For Shade, Neinheart tells him that all of Maple World owes him a debt that can never be repaid. Cygnus adds that they’ll never forget his part in the battle, or his sacrifice. Neinheart agrees and calls Shade a hero for the ages. Shade is lost for words and chuckles awkwardly before thanking everyone. Cygnus then asks Shade what’s next for him, which causes Shade to think that he hadn’t even thought about that.

He then wonders to himself what heroes do once their villains are gone before supposing that he should be happy that he’s still alive to wonder that. He then thinks to himself that there must be more before telling Cygnus that he’s planning to go on a quest to find himself. Cygnus then wishes him a safe and fulfilling journey.

For Zero, Neinheart tells Alpha and Beta that all of Maple World owes him a debt that can never be repaid. Cygnus explains that the world has found peace thanks to the two of them, adding that they’ve done so much. She then asks what they’ll do now, to which they reply that they’re planning to sleep for a few weeks. They also think to themselves that they need to think about what they’ll be doing from now on. Cygnus then tells them that they’ve done just as she’d hoped.

For all Grandis classes, Neinheart tells them that all of Maple World owes them a debt that can never be repaid. Cygnus adds that the Alliance’s allies in Grandis played a major role in bringing peace to Maple World, for which they have her utmost gratitude. Edea notes that they were fortunate enough that the situation on Grandis was quiet enough for them to come. She adds that there’s no telling what will happen next, though this was a nice enough break. Cygnus then promises that Maple World will be there when Grandis needs help, just as the Adversary was there for Maple World.

For Kinesis, Neinheart tells them that everyone in Maple World is grateful to them. Grendel adds that he was surprised when Kinesis had arrived on Maple World, but he believes that Kinesis has grown a lot. Cygnus then asks him what he’ll do now, to which Kinesis replies that he’s going to visit his friends, as he hasn’t seen them in a while. He then laughs that they’ll know why once he tells them. Cygnus then tells him that a lot of other people on Maple World will miss him too.

For Hayato and Kanna, Neinheart tells them that all of Maple World owes them a debt that can never be repaid. Cygnus adds that peace has been brought back to Maple World because of people from other worlds like them, for which they have Cygnus’ utmost gratitude. Princess Sakuno then arrives, much to Hayato/Kanna’s surprise, and replies that they stand together as one Alliance.

She explains that Maple World has accepted them, and so it’s only right for them to return the favor. She then turns to Hayato/Kanna and notes that they’ve saved the world yet again, adding that she couldn’t be prouder. Cygnus thanks Sakuno and promises that the Alliance will be there when the Sengoku Warriors need help, just as Hayato/Kanna and the Sengoku Warriors have done. Sakuno replies that she doesn’t need a reward for helping her comrades, though she adds that she appreciates the sentiment.

For Beast Tamer, Neinheart tells her that all of Maple World owes her a debt that can never be repaid. Cygnus thanks her once again for everything, while Athena Pierce tells her that she had never imagined that she would grow to such heights, adding that it’s truly impressive. Chase replies that she still has a long way to go, adding that she’s just happy that she could fight alongside the five Heroes. Cygnus tells Chase that she’s already a hero to all of them, and that she can enjoy the feeling a little, to which an awestruck Chase marvels at the fact that she’s now considered a hero.)

Meanwhile, at the Aboris Royal Palace, Melange presented the book that Will had dropped in Esfera and recited the Black Mage’s prophecy of the final battle to Gerand Darmoor. Melange noted that Darmoor must be pleased to have received such a useful book, as well as to have detected the seed of the new world that the Black Mage had left behind. Darmoor then ordered Melange to find Aeona and the Seed, claiming that all would be ‘there’.

(A/N: I was so shook when this was first revealed, I never expected Melange to be a traitor. Originally, Melange said that he had found a way to thwart destiny, not that he had detected the seed of the new world. This was changed a few months after Tenebris was released, although for some reason, it still hasn’t been changed in GMS.

The GMS localization makes it sound like the Seed is the Tower of Oz, which is what the Seed is called outside GMS, and it’s also where Alicia’s soul remains after her physical body was destroyed. Because of this, a lot of people in GMS speculated that Darmoor wants Alicia’s soul, and the fact that he said that “all would be there” likely meant that Tana would somehow be in the Tower of Oz too.

However, it’s clear from the KMS translation that Darmoor really just wants the seed of the new world, which probably refers to the Genesis Crux, and that honestly makes a lot more sense when you consider that Tana had emerged from the Genesis Crux to help us, explaining why she and the seed of the new world would be in the same place.

The end of Limina also marks the end of the Black Mage arc, which spanned for roughly eleven years from 2007-2018. GrandisStory officially began a year later with the Glory update in 2019, which we’re currently in the midst of. There’s no telling how long it’ll last, but given how many open plot points there are, I can easily see it lasting for at least five to ten more years at minimum.

I have very mixed opinions about the Grandis storyline, but I’ll complain about it later. For now, I’ll end this section with a bittersweet sendoff for Maple World and its horrendously mishandled finale, and a huge thanks to KMS for protesting vocally enough for Nexon to retcon it into something that can be barely considered passable. To commemorate it, here are my feelings on the Maple World vs Grandis debate in the form of a meme video.)