PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 22: Rise of the Resistance

• A young citizen of Edelstein stumbled across Gelimer’s laboratory in the Verne Mine while playing hide-and-seek with their friends. Inside, they encountered several children kept inside tanks, which Gelimer was experimenting upon. One of these children, Vita, urged the citizen to escape before Gelimer returned.

• Unwilling to leave her behind, the citizen saved Vita and helped her escape the laboratory, though they were soon caught by the Black Wings. Just then, a Resistance agent codenamed J saved the pair and brought them back to Edelstein, where he took Vita back to the Secret Plaza, the headquarters of the Resistance.

• Inspired by J’s bravery, the citizen decided to become a Resistance member and was soon recognized by the Resistance leaders, who invited them to the Secret Plaza. After joining their ranks, the Resistance member began undertaking missions to help the people of Edelstein.

• During this time, they regularly visited VIta, who had been taken in by the Resistance under their protection. Happy to have a place where she belonged, Vita decided to use her skills to help the Resistance however she could.

• Using what she had observed in the laboratory, Vita began creating medicine for the Resistance to make them stronger, which Claudine agreed to distribute. Soon after, however, the Resistance member was contacted by J, who told them that after analyzing the medicine, he had learned that it was actually poison that, while initially causing positive effects, would drain away the user’s life force after they developed a dependency on it.

• Though Claudine imprisoned Vita for her actions, both she and the Resistance member believed that Vita’s actions made no sense, and that there must be something more to it, especially because Vita seemed genuinely shocked that her medicine had been poison.

• In order to find a cure for the medicine, Claudine asked the Resistance member to obtain rare Feather Plants from the Dark Lord in Kerning City. However, the Dark Lord only had half the amount that the Resistance needed, though he told them that Ereve had stashes of Feather Plants.

• The Resistance member reported the news back to Claudine, who refused to beg the Cygnus Knights for help, no matter the circumstances. Soon after, Eckhart gave the Resistance member the remainder of the Feather Plants as a gesture of goodwill, though Claudine would not accept the gift and decided to return them.