PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 24: Master Thief Phantom

(A/N: The Destiny and Milestone updates created major continuity errors with Phantom’s storyline by having the majority of it take place before the formation of the Alliance. The very first scene in Phantom’s story establishes that it takes places shortly after the formation of the Alliance, with Phantom attempting to defend Cygnus from Hilla’s attempt to overthrow her and destabilize the Alliance.

The story team has been playing around with the timeline for a while now, trying to set the majority of all class stories to take place before the Alliance is formed, and it’s very likely that Phantom’s story will someday receive a revamp to work out the kinks in the timeline. Until then, however, we’re stuck with the plot hole of the Alliance being referenced many times in Phantom’s storyline, which is something that I struggled with addressing in this section.

On one hand, I want to make this site as plot hole free as possible, and so my first instinct was to remove all the references to the Alliance in this section, since any future revamp will almost certainly do the same. On the other hand, removing those references would create an inaccuracy in the writeup of what actually happens. Ultimately, I decided that keeping the site as cohesive as possible was more important to me, and so I made a compromise by removing those references on the lore site, but keeping them on the Maple Wiki for anyone who wants to see it unaltered. I hope that this way, it’ll make things less confusing, while still having a record of the actual story documented somewhere online.

On another note, Phantom’s storyline now intersects with Aran’s story, and so I’ve also included some of Aran’s storyline, including her 3rd job advancement. The reason why I included the latter is because it’s too short to be included in its own section, and it chronologically takes place between the intersecting portions and Aran’s Alliance quest.)

In order to destabilize Cygnus’ legitimacy as the Empress, Hilla posed as a noblewoman and publicly made a claim that she was the true heir to Ereve. With Shinsoo away for unknown reasons, an emergency conference was held in Ereve, where Hilla would testify for her right to the throne.

(A/N: Given that Shinsoo never leaves the Empress’ side, it’s strange that they never bothered to explain her absence. Since Hilla insisted on holding the conference during this time, I wonder if she or the other Commanders had done something to grab Shinsoo’s immediate attention, although I have no idea what situation would warrant Shinsoo going in place of the Cygnus Knights.)

Phantom, who had been largely underground since waking up from the ice, decided to publicly reveal himself for the first time in order to defend Aria’s heir. Together with his butler, Gaston, they devised a plan to reveal Hilla’s treachery and save Empress Cygnus. On the day of the conference, the Lumiere anchored itself directly above the Knight’s Chamber while Phantom infiltrated Ereve, which was on high security because of the number of high-profile world leaders gathered in one place.

He then disguised himself in a robe and talked his way through the inner security. Hilla then appeared before the royal court and Neinheart began questioning her about her claims. In the crowd, Phantom hid himself and listened to the Senators discussing Hilla’s apparent ownership of Skaia, the treasure of Ereve.

(A/N: It’s a common misconception that Skaia is the Seal Stone of Ereve. The Seal Stone of Ereve, also known as Shinsoo’s Teardrop, has been around in the game since Aran’s release and has been called the treasure of Ereve ever since its introduction. In contrast, Skaia was created for Phantom’s storyline and has no lore significance outside his story.

While Skaia is also referred to as the treasure of Ereve, it was actually just a common jewel that Empress Aria favored. Aria had heard stories about Phantom robbing the corrupt nobles and had wanted to meet him, but as Ereve had no treasures worth stealing, she had spread rumors about Skaia’s supposed magical properties in order to lure him to Ereve.)

Hilla began explaining the legend of Skaia, which was said to hold many powers, with one being that it glowed only in the hands of one descended from the Empress’ bloodline. Irena countered that there were no historical records of Skaia’s powers, but Hilla replied that the people of Ereve were the only ones in Maple World who had seen pictures of the gem, and so she claimed that their own knowledge of Skaia’s appearance would allow them to see that her gem was real. Hawkeye responded by saying that jewels could easily be forged, but Hilla countered by telling him that as he hadn’t been alive centuries ago, his opinion on the validity of the gem was of no importance.

(A/N: Literally none of Hilla’s arguments would hold up in a real court of law, and yet Neinheart and the Chief Knights keep letting her dominate the argument. I definitely wouldn’t have expected Neinheart of all people to be this bad at discourse.)

Hilla then argued that the reason why Cygnus was so frail was because she was being overpowered by Shinsoo’s strength, as only a true Empress could handle Shinsoo’s power, insinuating that Cygnus had been stealing Shinsoo’s power for herself. Cygnus agreed that she was too weak to handle Shinsoo’s power and admitted that she had been frail ever since childhood.

Shaken by Hilla’s argument, she began to doubt herself and told Neinheart that that she couldn’t ask the people of Maple World to fight on her behalf if she truly didn’t have any real authority or qualifications. Hilla then proposed a test to determine the true Empress and demonstrated that Skaia glowed in her hands. She then challenged Cygnus to see if it would glow in hers as well. When Skaia failed to glow in Cygnus’ hands, the Chief Knights reassured her that the legitimacy of the jewel itself was dubious, and that Shinsoo would reveal the truth when she returned. Neinheart added that Hilla could also be scheming to place doubt on her position.

Hilla lauded Cygnus for her wisdom, despite her young age, but urged her to make the right decision and cede the throne. Just then, Phantom appeared from the balcony and halted the proceedings. He then began to systematically counter Hilla’s arguments one by one. First, he reminded the audience that Empress Aria had no children, with only a niece left to carry on her bloodline.

(A/N: I have no idea why he brings this up when Hilla never claimed that she was directly descended from Aria’s children. I almost wonder whether the writers added that line just to disprove any theories that people might’ve had about Aria and Phantom having a secret lovechild.)

Secondly, he countered Hilla’s claim about Cygnus’ frailty and explained that it was because only an adult Empress could fully accept Shinsoo’s power, which was why Cygnus remained so weak. Finally, he dismissed Hilla’s gem as a fake, revealing that the true Skaia was in his possession before jumping from the balcony before the astonished crowd. Hilla was utterly shocked at Phantom’s unexpected appearance, whereas Mercedes and Athena Pierce were overjoyed to see their old comrade return.

Phantom threw a card to shatter the fake Skaia before unleashing a series of powerful skills to deter Hilla. Realizing that she had been beaten, Hilla shed her disguise and decided to back off, but not before warning them that Maple World was already in the Black Mage’s hands. As the crowd celebrated Phantom’s heroics, he approached Cygnus and immediately saw the resemblance between her and Aria. He then told her that he preferred her with a smile, something that he would tell Aria frequently, and vanished in a flash. After he disappeared, Cygnus found that Phantom had placed the real Skaia in her hands, thus returning it back to its rightful owner after centuries of safeguarding it.

(A/N: I always see people who say that Phantom and Cygnus should end up together, but those people also need to be reminded that Cygnus is literally a child and doesn’t become an adult until Tenebris. In my mind, Phantom looking out for Cygnus has always been because he views her as the child that he and Aria never had, and shipping him with Cygnus, even as an adult, makes him feel like a creepy child groomer who has a countdown for the day that she turns 18.

The translators who did the GMS localization don’t help with this because the GMS dialogue has him tell both Cygnus and Aria, “I prefer a woman with a smile on her face,” while the direct KMS translation of what he says is more along the lines of, “Your smiling face fits you the best,” which removes the inherent flirtiness from it. This weird trend of lewding kids like Lucid and Cygnus or shipping them with adults probably comes from people not reading the dialogue, and since the art style makes everyone look around the same age, people probably just assume that everyone is an adult.)

Back on the Lumiere, Phantom sighed in relief that it had only been Hilla whom he had faced and thought to himself that if any of the real Commanders had been there, he would have been in serious trouble. (A/N: Get wrecked, Hilla. It’s a bit ironic, considering that Hilla will go on to become the strongest Commander during the events of Tenebris.) He then congratulated Gaston on a job well done, as his butler had used laser lights to trick Hilla and the audience into believing that the powerful skills which he had been using were real.

Gaston cautioned Phantom against provoking a Commander in his weakened state and suggested that he continue his training. Phantom followed his advice and began training against the monsters in the training rooms of the airship, but he soon returned to Gaston in a huff and complained about how difficult it was to fight while being weak.

Gaston was amused and told Phantom that he had already taken the liberty of buying a potion that held accumulated strength. Though Phantom drank it all, he found that he had barely gotten any stronger. Gaston laughed and told him to take pride in his own strength by training more. After another round of training, Phantom returned once again to complain to Gaston, who told him that Christiane, one of his intelligence gatherers, wanted to give him a report on her assignment.

At the information deck, Christiane told him that she had finished investigating the Black Wings and had learned that a Black Wings member named Stephan was selling Black Wings hats. As her team hadn’t been able to learn much about the Black Wings’ actions, Christiane explained that she had obtained a hat and gave it to Phantom, hoping that he could learn more about the Black Wings by infiltrating their ranks.

In Edelstein, Phantom decided to get information from the watchmen in town. He first talked to Leonore, who mistook him for a grunt and ordered him to find her ring. After he recovered it, Leonore told him that she had joined the Black Wings in order to get away from the people who had loaned her money to buy the ring. She herself wasn’t sure of what the Black Wings did, but she added that she was glad to be away from the loan sharks. Next, he spoke to Wonny, who ordered him to tell Belle to take care of the Strange Signs. Belle told Phantom that the signs frightened her and begged him to take care of them in her place.

After defeating them, he returned to Wonny, who had noticed that Phantom had done Belle’s job for her. He told Phantom that helping the townspeople wasn’t something that a Black Wings member did. He explained that he had lived in Edelstein for most of his life, and that he had seen good people turned into something that they weren’t. He cautioned Phantom that being a Black Wings member meant being a scumbag and warned him to watch himself around the other Black Wings.

(A/N: The Edelstein town quests reveal that Wonny has joined the Black Wings in order to keep an eye on his girlfriend, Gabrielle, the former Council President’s daughter who’s being held hostage by the Black Wings in the Verne Mine. Though the people of Edelstein know that he’s not truly one of the Black Wings, Wonny still feels disgusted with himself for all the things that he has to do in order to keep up the ruse that he’s a loyal watchman, as he feels terrible about hurting the people of his hometown just so that he can keep Gabrielle from harm.)

Phantom then went to see Bavan, who asked him to bring back a Snake Leather Bag, after which he congratulated Phantom for trying to climb up the ranks, adding that he himself was hoping to reach the upper echelons of the organization in order to get the real benefits. Phantom quickly realized that none of the watchmen had any idea about the purpose of the Black Wings, though he felt that Bavan might know something about the upper ranks. However, Bavan merely dismissed Phantom as lazy and compared him to Stephan, the watchman who had a business selling Black Wings hats.

Phantom went to see Stephan, who offered to trade information in exchange for Batteries from the Patrol Robot S monsters. He then told Phantom that the high-ranking officers of the Black Wings were rarely in Edelstein, as most were away on missions in order to collect resources and artifacts. He mentioned that it was possible to encounter the founder of the Black Wings, who was working to extract a great deal of energy from Edelstein, but he added that the chances of meeting them were astronomical, and instead suggested that he speak to Le Tierre the secretary in order to learn more.

Inside the Verne Mine, Le Tierre asked him to prove himself by defeating Safety First monsters. She then told him to wait inside a nearby room, where she would introduce him to the Black Wings officers, whom she promised would promote him for his work. Inside, however, he found Black Wings henchmen waiting to ambush him. After defeating them all, he wondered what he had done to make Le Tierre suspicious, though he quickly dismissed the thought and returned to the Lumiere, where he asked Christiane to locate a Black Wings officer.

Some time later, a member of the intelligence team named Colette informed Phantom that she had found a lead and told him to speak with Tru in Lith Harbor. Phantom remembered Tru from the time that they had worked together to find the Seal Stone of Victoria Island and went to meet him at his shop.

Tru greeted him and began reminiscing about their old adventure together, laughing that he never would have guessed at the time that Phantom was one of the legendary Heroes. Getting to the point, he told Phantom that he had been gathering information on the Seal Stones ever since their adventure. Phantom told Tru that he had heard that someone had almost stolen the Seal Stone of Victoria Island from Aran, but Tru explained that it had been difficult for Aran to protect both the Seal Stone of Victoria Island and the Seal Stone of Ereve.

(A/N: This doesn’t make much sense, since Aran never tried to save the Seal Stone of Ereve besides just giving Neinheart a warning, and no one was trying to steal the Seal Stone of Victoria Island during her storyline either.)

He then told Phantom that he had been tracking Puppeteer Francis, and that he had discovered that Francis had made himself a hideout in the Golem Temple. Phantom infiltrated the hideout and attacked Francis, who was easily defeated. Francis began crying that he was taking a break from the Black Wings because he kept failing all his missions and getting beaten up all the time.

Phantom demanded that Francis answer his questions, but when Francis refused, Phantom beat him up once again. When Francis began crying harder, Phantom realized that he couldn’t get any information out of Francis in his current state, and so he attempted to placate the Puppeteer by offering to fix the puppet that he had broken by collecting Golem Cores.

After repairing Francis’ puppet, Phantom asked him what the goal of the Black Wings was. Francis was dumbfounded and asked why Phantom had beaten him up, only to ask something that anyone on the street could have answered, and told him that the Black Wings were trying to revive the Black Mage. Phantom asked him why reviving the Black Mage required extracting so much energy from Edelstein, to which Francis replied that he didn’t know much aside from what Le Tierre had told him about needing energy in order to revive the Black Mage.

Phantom then asked why the Black Wings were collecting the Seal Stones, as they should be useless without the Black Mage unsealed. (A/N: This line has retroactively become a plot hole with the Explorer revamp, since the Black Mage has obviously been unsealed at this point.) Francis told him that they needed to collect all the Seal Stones in order to bring the Black Mage back, but Phantom grew irritated at his answer and told Francis to stop lying, explaining that the Seal Stones didn’t have that kind of power. Francis whimpered that he was telling the truth, as the information had come straight from the founder of the Black Wings.

When Francis refused to tell him any more, Phantom attacked him yet again, but even after being defeated, Francis refused to reveal the founder’s identity, though he accidentally let it slip that she was a woman. (A/N: Phantom holds the record for having beaten up Francis the most out of any class.)

Phantom deduced that the founder couldn’t be Hilla, as the Black Wings weren’t skeletons, and that it couldn’t be Magnus or Guwaru, since they were men. He deduced that the Demon wouldn’t have rejoined the Black Mage, Von Leon never left El Nath, and Arkarium was too old. Through the process of elimination, he came to a single conclusion: Lotus.

(A/N: Honestly, he could’ve eliminated most of them just based on the knowledge that the founder is a woman. I’m guessing that it was because the writers wanted to take the chance to reveal the identities of the original seven Commanders. It also doesn’t make much sense that Phantom’s conclusion was Lotus, but I’m guessing that he likely realized that it was Orchid and then jumped to the next conclusion that her real goal likely had something to do with Lotus. This is also the first time that Magnus and Guwaru were mentioned in the game, which actually predates their initial appearance in Luminous’ storyline.

While Nexon revealed that they only formed an official story team after Tenebris, I have strong suspicions that there’s been an unofficial story group since Phantom’s storyline. A while back, Nexon explained that they used to draft stories by dragging regular employees into the writing room and having them make up lore.

My theory is that around the time of Phantom’s storyline, a handful of employees who liked the story became the de-facto group of people called in to develop the lore, which is why there was a notable shift in the amount of foreshadowing and effort placed into the story, especially when you consider that Kaiser and Angelic Buster’s storylines introduced the overarching lore about the Overseers and the Transcendents in the very next patch after Phantom’s. Additionally, Phantom’s storyline is where the writers started laying the groundwork to tie together the lore about the Seal Stones and the real purpose of the Black Wings, which all came together in Black Heaven.)

Feeling a small amount of pity for Francis, Phantom brought him more Golem Cores for his troubles and then asked what he would do once the Black Mage returned. Francis told him that he would ask the Black Mage to make him the King of Ludibrium, allowing him to rule a kingdom of puppets, and vowed that he would recover the Seal Stone of Victoria Island in order to do so, claiming that he already knew where it was.

Phantom then left the Golem Temple and shook his head at the foolishness of the Black Wings in thinking that the Black Mage would share his power, as Phantom knew him to be a being who only sought the destruction of Maple World. He wondered why the Black Wings would want the Seal Stones, as they were only a safety net in case they couldn’t defeat the Black Mage. He was sure that Orchid must have known about their purpose and wondered whether she was using the Black Wings for her own purposes.

Recalling how Francis had revealed that he knew where the Seal Stone of Victoria Island was, Phantom realized that Tru may be in danger and returned to Lith Harbor in order to warn him. He told Tru how he had beaten the information out of Francis and asked if the Seal Stone was still safe, to which Tru explained that he had given it to Aran to safeguard in Rien and promised to warn Lilin about a possible Black Wings attack, adding that he would reach out if anything came up.

Phantom then returned to the Lumiere and told Christiane about what he had learned. Christiane suggested that if Orchid really was using the Black Wings for her own purposes, then they might be able to make a truce with the Black Wings. Phantom doubted that they could ever become allies, but Christiane reminded him that if the Black Wings executives were withholding such critical information, then it would only be a matter of time before the infighting started, which could be an opportunity for him to negotiate an alliance. Until then, she recommended that Phantom continue his training, as his future enemies would undoubtedly be stronger than Francis.

After continuing his training, Phantom believed that he was strong enough to use some of his more powerful skills. Though he didn’t have a teacher anymore, he remembered that he had compiled notes from his original training and had left them in secret vaults around Maple World. To get the skills that he needed for his current strength, he entered his vault in Orbis.

There, he found that the lock on his vault had remained untouched, making him disappointed in the thieves who had appeared over the centuries. Upon realizing that he didn’t have the key to unlock it, he broke the lock and entered his vault, where he began rummaging through some of his old treasures. (A/N: Some of his treasures include the world’s first meso, the only existing Reverse Miracle Cube, the first edition of “A History of Ribbon Pigs”, and a copy of “The Great Mushroom Uprising”.)

He then found his notes and began reminiscing about his old teacher, Raven, who had emphasized the importance of learning a skill twice in order to remember it. He wished to himself that Raven would have taken his own advice and learned how to defuse a bomb twice, recalling that his death had been a sad day for everyone.

(A/N: I’m really interested to know about Raven and his troupe that Phantom joined. While they have the opportunity to tell a lot of major backstories in the Grand Athenaeum, I wish that they had a Not As Grand Athenaeum, where they can present interesting side stories that don’t have much to do with the main plot.)

Soon after, one of Phantom’s maids, Marguerite, learned that he had given a lavish bag to Bavan and threatened to go on strike unless he brought her one as well. After finding another Snake Leather Bag, Phantom gave it to Marguerite, who thanked him and gave him an elegant chair as a gift.

(A/N: There’s a bit of a continuity error in this exchange, as both Phantom and Marguerite talk as though Phantom had given the bag to another woman, even though he had given it to Bavan. I like to think that she assumed that he had given it to some other woman and he had gone along with it in order to avoid having to tell her that he had given the bag to someone like Bavan over her.)

Some time later, Tru contacted Aran and warned her that a suspicious ship was sailing towards Rien, and that he suspected the Black Wings were behind it. He asked Aran to quickly head to Rien in order to defend the island, promising to send reinforcements to help. Aran rushed back to Rien, where she found that the town was in flames, with Maha trapped in a gravity cage and the Black Wings attempting to break down the barrier to the Rien Library, where Lilin had kept the Seal Stone of Victoria Island.

Aran rushed to the scene and confronted Orchid, ordering her to stop at once. She then turned to Maha and asked her where Lilin was, to which Maha replied that he didn’t know, and that Orchid had somehow been able to perceive him and suppress his power. Orchid then laughed that she would play with Aran slowly in order to pay her back for what Mercedes had done to her. Realizing that Rien was a precious place to Aran, Orchid summoned hordes of Black Wings henchmen to raze it down, to which Aran stood her ground and defeated them all.

Meanwhile, Tru contacted Phantom about a mysterious ship sailing towards Rien. Though he had already warned Aran about it, he wanted to let Phantom know as well, in case she needed backup. Phantom rushed to Rien and began facing the Black Wings henchmen in town. Elsewhere, just as Orchid decided to fight Aran personally, she suddenly stopped in surprise before declaring that she couldn’t handle two of them in her current state. She then decided to retreat without the Seal Stone, though she declared that she would soon return and face Aran with her full power. As she disappeared, the gravity cage on Maha dissipated, freeing him once again.

Phantom then met with Lilin, who told him that Aran had taken care of most of the invasion herself, though she thanked him for his help. When Phantom asked whether the Seal Stone was safe, Lilin explained that she had locked it up in the Rien Library. Lilin then told Phantom that she wanted to ask him a question about the Heroes, which Aran couldn’t answer because of her amnesia.

She asked him if the people of Maple World from centuries ago had known about the Heroes and their actions in fighting the Black Mage. Phantom told her that the Heroes had been very well-known and asked Lilin why she wondered such a thing. Lilin told him that she knew that the Heroes had to have been well-known, but given that it was the case, she asked him why the Heroes had been forgotten.

A surprised Phantom asked her to elaborate, and so Lilin explained that despite the Heroes having taken down one of the worst villains in Maple World, there wasn’t a single record of their victory, which she found strange, even after taking into account that it had happened centuries ago. She told him that the Rien Clan had a record of every feat and accomplishment of the Heroes, but the rest of the world had no knowledge of both the Heroes and the Black Mage, as though they had all been wiped from the history book.

Phantom decided to look into it, claiming that even if someone had been erasing the Heroes from history over centuries, there had to be a few clues that they couldn’t have covered up. Before he left, he asked if she would be alright in Rien, to which Lilin explained that between Aran and the penguin warriors, Rien was one of the safest places in Maple World. She assured him that if things got too bad, she would give the Seal Stone of Victoria Island to the Alliance for safekeeping. Phantom then returned to the Lumiere and told Colette about what he had learned. Colette promised him that she would scour Maple World for any untampered record of the Heroes in order to find any leads.

After Phantom left, Lilin met with Aran, who had been wondering which second person Orchid had been referring to, with Maha also noting that Aran’s other ‘friend’ had arrived as well. Lilin explained that thanks to Aran, she had been able to flee to safety, and that someone else had come to help Rien as well, causing Aran to wonder whether they were the ‘friend’ that Maha had been talking about. Lilin revealed that Phantom had arrived on Rien just before Aran had, explaining that he was one of the Heroes who had fought the Black Mage. Hearing Phantom’s name caused Aran to vaguely remember him, and to realize that he was the reinforcements that Tru had mentioned, as well as the employer of Tru’s business partner.

Lilin confirmed Aran’s suspicions and explained that she had spoken with Phantom because she had been curious to know something that only he could answer as someone who hadn’t lost his memories. She told Aran that despite the Heroes being known by the common people, there were almost no records of their battle against the Black Mage, even though it ought to have been an extremely important historical event. She suspected that someone was deliberately erasing records of the Heroes and the Black Mage, adding that Phantom had decided to investigate the matter personally.

She then told Aran that Phantom had confirmed that Wing Master Orchid was the leader of the Black Wings, and a Commander of the Black Mage centuries ago. Aran immediately realized that the person whom she had been fighting was Orchid, though she regretted being unable to defeat her. However, Lilin reassured her that she would get another chance, especially if Orchid was a Commander. Aran asked Lilin whether she would be okay, to which Lilin told her that she would strengthen the protective spells around Rien, and that she would give the Seal Stone to someone trusted in order to keep it safe.

(A/N: Lilin later entrusts the Seal Stone to Athena Pierce, although it gets stolen by the Black Wings in transit, which is where the Explorer storyline begins.)

Soon after, Maha reached out to Aran and called her to Rien, where he told her that it was time for her to regain more of her memories. However, he explained that she wouldn’t simply be using the Mirror Cave again, as she needed to undergo special training there. He asked Aran whether she remembered the Red Jade and explained that it was a special gemstone created when their combined powers resonated, allowing it to amplify the power of her spirit weapon.

As the Red Jade had been destroyed by the Black Mage’s curse, Maha tasked Aran with using the Mirror Cave to learn how to create the Red Jade, noting that she had first created it during an intense training session in El Nath. He explained that since they had been so fatigued – to the point of fading in and out of consciousness – he had little memory of that time, which meant that she would need to relive that moment in order to learn how to create the Red Jade herself.

Using the Mirror Cave, Aran witnessed her past self pushing past her limits in order to prepare for the battle against the Black Mage, believing that the essence of Maha was still incomplete. Suddenly, Aran found herself surrounded with Lycanthropes in the valley. Aran of the present then recalled that the Red Jade had been formed with her past self had been pushed past her limits, both in body and mind. Hoping to replicate that moment, Aran fought the Lycanthropes, pushing past her exhaustion, causing her and Maha to become one and create the Red Jade. She then brought the jewel to Maha in the present, whose amplified power allowed him to awaken more of her old strength as well.