PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 41: Morass, the Swamp of Memory

• Soon after leaving Arcana, the Flying Fish began diving deep into the Arcane River towards a coral reef. He revealed that he was the Will of Erda, a proxy for the Erdas created to save the world, and that he had gained the ability to speak through his proximity to the Morass, where the Erdas were more concentrated.

• In the Morass, the Adversary discovered Erdas which had transformed into Xenoroids. The Flying Fish explained that the Erdas were using a defense mechanism by transforming into the Adversary’s greatest fear, manifesting as Xenoroids from the Adversary’s near-death experience at Black Heaven.

• They then discovered Arkarium escorting Tana, whose unstable mental state was causing her powers to go out of control. Because of this, Tana inadvertently used her ability to manipulate the Erdas to create a replica of Trueffet - the castle of Kritias, resulting in the Adversary, the Flying Fish, and Arkarium manifesting as different people in Tana’s memories of Kritias.

• The Adversary inhabited the body of Shey, a boy who hoped to become a priest at the Temple of Time. While inside Shey’s body, the Adversary continued to automatically play out the history of Kritias, such as Shey’s friendship with a thief named Jean. The Adversary watched as Tana pushed Jean to safety as he attempted to pickpocket her, just as a large anti-magic stone fell and destroyed everyone in the near vicinity.

• To everyone’s shock, Tana rematerialized after the disaster, with the memory fast-forwarding to two years later. The Adversary, now in full control of Shey’s body, began investigating Tana’s fate and learned that King Hekaton had ordered his mages to experiment on Tana in order to learn the source of her immortality.

• As Shey, who had become a priest at the Temple of Time, the Adversary learned that Arkarium of the past - having recently become the new High Priest - had been called by Hekaton to conduct the Ascendancy ritual, in which Hekaton would become immortal. The Adversary also learned that Tana had lost all her memories after rematerializing, being left with nothing except her name and a faint memory of wanting something.

• Throughout the inhumane and painful experiments, Jean secretly visited Tana and began growing close to her, despite Tana appearing to exhibit no emotions. Meanwhile, Arkarium continued pushing Tana’s regeneration limits beyond their capacity, causing many researchers to vanish in a flash of light and transform into grotesque monsters.

• Soon enough, Hekaton grew impatient with waiting and ordered Arkarium to conduct the Ascendancy ritual the next day. Tana overheard the researchers speaking and realized that whether or not the ritual succeeded, she would disappear no matter what.

• That night, when Jean came to visit her, Tana tried to push him away before she would be killed. As the realization that she would die began sinking in, Tana’s powers began growing out of control, causing her to remember the faint memory of what it was that she had wanted. Tana realized that she had come to Kritias with the intention of dying.

• Upon realizing this, however, Tana immediately grew terrified at the thought of dying, for while her death was assured to happen tomorrow, it was not what she wanted anymore. As Tana’s powers threatened to overwhelm her, Jean pulled her into a hug and promised that he would always keep her safe, allowing her to finally calm down.

• The next day, the Adversary - as Shey - began working with Jean and Arkarium, who had foreseen that the Ascendancy would result in disaster. Just as Jean attempted to free Tana with an anti-magic necklace, however, Arkarium revealed that his present-day self was inhabiting his past self’s body with full control, and that he had arranged for a trap to have Jean killed in order to weaken Tana’s resistance to the power transfer.

• Arkarium then told the Adversary that he had allowed the memory loop to play out, as he had been curious to see why the actual ritual had failed centuries ago. They then watched as Tana shattered Jean’s anti-magic necklace in order to stop the ritual, at the cost of forcing her into an endless, painful cycle of disintegration and reconstitution. Though the Adversary attempted to stop her, Tana replied that it didn’t matter and told Hekaton that she would gladly take an eternity of torment if it meant cursing him and depriving him of everything that he had worked for.

• Having seen the cause of the ritual’s failure, Arkarium kidnapped Tana and took her away. Just then, the Adversary saw a mortally-wounded Jean awaken. Jean then revealed that he was actually the Flying Fish inhabiting Jean’s body, which was why he had survived when the real Jean had been killed centuries ago.

• As the Adversary and Jean rushed to save Tana, they began fighting past the soldiers of Kritias, whose bodies had been transfigured into monsters by the explosion of Tana’s power, as well as King Hekaton, who had been fused with the castle of Trueffet into an enormous golem.

• They then confronted Arkarium, who revealed that he planned to take Tana’s powers for himself, claiming that she unworthy of the Black Mage. However, thanks to Jean appearing before her, Tana was able to take control of her powers once again and effortlessly vaporize Arkarium.

• The three the escaped the memory of Kritias as the copy of the Black Mage from Tana’s memories invaded Kritias, just as the real Black Mage had done in the past. Back in the Morass, however, the Adversary and the Flying Fish - whose body was still stuck as Jean through Tana’s powerful residual influence - saw no signs of Tana, who had already escaped.

• Meanwhile in the memory of Kritias, the copy of the Black Mage appeared before Arkarium, who had been reduced into his backup snake form. The copy of the Black Mage then revealed that the real Black Mage had ordered him to kill Arkarium, putting an end to his ambitions once and for all.

• The Adversary and Jean then continued searching for clues about Tana’s whereabouts by keeping the Morass intact, which would otherwise have faded away without Tana’s influence to maintain it. Jean also continued searching for a way to return back to his Flying Fish form in order to continue escorting the Adversary through the Arcane River.