PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 10: Shangri-La, the Sinners’ Paradise

• After the invasion of Odium, Kaling brought Hundun’s corpse to Darmoor, who told her that without the Godsphere, they would never be able to complete a Vessel, no matter how much power they had to fill it with. He then dispatched Kaling to Shangri-La, claiming that the barrier would be opened from the inside, and used his Transcendent powers to bring Hundun back to life.

• In Shangri-La, Tai Yu and the Glory Guard entered the realm of the sages, which appeared as though it had been painted with a brush. Tai Yu then revealed that the elders were the twelve most outstanding Anima who had been chosen by the will of the world to quell the chaos of the Ancient Gods. In order to help them, the Overseers bestowed long life to the elders, granted them researchers to aid them, and chose the four strongest Anima - the Four Symbols - to protect them and their research.

• Over the course of the unethical experiments, the elders and their researchers had slowly lost their humanity due to the contamination which had erased the egos of their Adversaries. In order to stop the contamination from worsening and spreading to others, the elders had created Shangri-La, which had been created as a convergence of the four seasons. With the natural harmony of Shangri-La countering the contamination, the elders had remained in the realm of the sages for ages.

• Tai Yu escorted the Glory Guard through the four seasons and arrived at the pavilion, where they were stopped by the Four Symbols: Gaon the Black Tortoise, Shuli the Vermillion Bird, Ara the Blue Dragon, and Baekyeon the White Tiger. The Four Symbols recognized the Adversary from Tai Yu’s reports and noted their surprise at not only seeing an Adversary appearing in the outside world, but one whose ego remained untarnished.

• Just then, four of the elders - Zigang the rat elder, Maolang the rabbit elder, Shensung the monkey elder, and Weio the sheep elder - appeared and greeted the Adversary. Upon learning that the Adversary had once fulfilled their purpose by killing a god, the elders were shocked and revealed that the Overseers, believing that beings capable of killing gods could unleash equal chaos in their place, had ordained that the destiny of every Adversary was death after fulfilling their purpose.

• Shensung noted that if the Seal Stone had remained inside the Adversary, they would have been unable to avoid their destiny, which meant that Darmoor had saved the Adversary’s life by destroying it. Upon realizing that the Adversary’s existence was one which had rejected the will of the world, Zigang declared that they needed to be sealed away, believing that they would unleash chaos in the outside world if left unchecked.

• When Tai Yu attempted to reason with the elders, Zigang scolded Tai Yu for his interference in the outside world, reminding him that his mission had only been to find the cause of Qiongqi and Taowu’s seals breaking. Tai Yu then revealed that Kaling had freed them both, and that she had invaded Odium in order to take Hundun and the Godsphere bound to him.

• The elders were shocked to learn that not only had Kalos fallen, but that Odium had also been sieged. The Adversary then presented the Godsphere to the elders, who quickly ascertained that it was indeed the World Heart. Though Tai Yu entreated the elders to intervene, the elders declared that they would never again set foot in the outside world.

• Zigang then ordered Gaon the Black Tortoise to seal the Adversary and the World Heart in the land of Winter, while Baekyeon the White Tiger was ordered to seal Tai Yu in Autumn, with Ara the Blue Dragon ejecting Oz and Brighton out of Shangri-La itself.

• As Gaon escorted the Adversary, he was shocked to learn that war and chaos still plagued the world, even after the end of the Ancient War. Just then, Kaling’s invasion force entered Shangri-La and began to break through. Gaon reluctantly allowed the Adversary to help him in stopping the invasion, leading them to help the other Four Symbols.

• Along the way, they learned that Shensung and Maolang had sided with Darmoor, and that they had opened the barrier to let Kaling in. During the battle, Maolang and Shensung were able to kidnap Ara and Baekyeon by stealing the scrolls tethered to their life force. Meanwhile, Tai Yu and the Glory Guard worked with Gaon to fight through the three Perils, including a revived Hundun.

• In Winter, the Glory Guard encountered Kaling, who was furious at the Adversary for taking the World Heart and causing her to lose Darmoor’s trust. She then revealed to them that they were not the Adversary that Darmoor was looking for, shocking the Glory Guard. Kaling then fused together with her three Perils and fought the Adversary, who managed to defeat her.

• As Kaling fell in defeat, the World Heart suddenly reacted and began absorbing her power. Severely drained, Kaling weakly looked up at the Adversary and asked how it was that they got to keep their humanity and shine so brightly without having had to give up anything at all. She then outstretched a hand towards them before collapsing in pain and scattering into ashes.

• Following the battle, the Adversary returned to the pavilion and asked the elders to explain what had happened. Zigang revealed that the World Heart was the original relic created by the Overseers themselves, which had been bestowed to the elders for their experiments.

• He explained that the elders had used the World Heart’s power to manufacture the weaker Godspheres, adding that the Seal Stones had likely been created in the same way as the Godspheres, using the World Heart’s power that had permeated deep beneath the continents of Maple World as a template.

• He also revealed that as the World Heart had been created to subdue the Ancient Gods, it held the power to strip a god or a god-like being of their power, and that its light had been in response to the portion of Transcendent power which Darmoor had bestowed upon Kaling.

• After explaining, Zigang allowed the Adversary to leave Shangri-La, provided that they return the World Heart back to Gaon, whom he tasked with sealing the relic in Winter. However, Gaon spoke up and revealed that he wished to leave Shangri-La and help the outside world, having learned that chaos still persisted. He explained that he no longer wished to look away from the world, and that he would do whatever it took to correct what had gone awry.

• Though Zigang adamantly refused, claiming that Shangri-La - with its barrier destroyed - would be unguarded with two Symbols kidnapped and one heavily wounded, Tai Yu offered an alternate solution by combining the remaining elders’ power with his in order to restore Shangri-La’s barrier to a weaker degree. Though Zigang was still hesitant, he noted that he couldn’t stop the Adversary or Gaon from leaving with the World Heart, for which he reluctantly granted his permission.

• Soon after, Weio the sheep elder met with Tai Yu and thanked him for helping Lara when the power of the bell had threatened to consume her. Weio revealed to the Adversary that some of the elders, including herself, had created the bell mysticant in order to cleanse their contamination, with only an exceptionally pure heart being able to make the bell ring and absolve them of their sins.

• However, when the bell had rung in Lara’s hands and the contamination hadn’t disappeared, the elders had eventually come to realize that their sins could never be erased, with the elders opposed to the bell’s creation claiming that their contamination was a punishment handed down to them by the will of the world. Weio explained that it was a wake-up call for them to realize that their sins could not be absolved, and that she no longer wished to look away from her responsibilities.

• With half of the elders having turned to Darmoor’s side, Weio explained that it was the remaining elders’ duty to help the Adversary protect the world, for which she decided to tell them more about the World Heart. She revealed that the power of the World Heart had been so strong that not even the elders could handle it, which was why they had chosen to slowly deplete its power by having it maintain Odium’s operations over the course of many ages.

• However, she then showed the Adversary that a small portion of power had been restored to the World Heart after their battle with Kaling, explaining that though the elders had known that the World Heart could erase the power of higher beings, not even they had known that the World Heart - if depleted - could absorb that power for itself.

• Because of this, the Adversary realized that in order to fully restore the World Heart, they would need to absorb the power of Ancient Gods and Transcendents. Weio also revealed that unlike the Godspheres and the Seal Stones, which activated from the powerful determination of a population, the World Heart activated on different conditions, which not even the elders knew about. Because of this, she tasked the Adversary with exploring and speaking with people around the world in order to find clues to awakening the World Heart’s power.

• Meanwhile, Maolang and Shensung arrived at the border of Shangri-La with four other elders who had sided with Darmoor. Though Maolang felt guilt over her betrayal, Shensung explained that he was glad to be free of his imprisonment, noting that Darmoor had intended to sacrifice Kaling from the beginning by giving her a portion of his Transcendent powers, knowing that she would be sacrificed to power the World Heart.

• He then added that he was sick of adhering to the will of the world and its sense of order, and that he would gladly perform his Adversary experiments for Darmoor in exchange for his freedom from his sense of duty. Though Maolang noted that he seemed to be contaminated, Shensung replied that it hardly mattered to him anymore.

• Soon after the battle, Tai Yu asked the Adversary to investigate the spreading contamination, which was being caused by Shangri-La’s weakened barrier. Together with Gaon, the Adversary discovered that many of the researchers were growing hostile as a result of the contamination worsening in them. Their investigation led them to discover that the four treasures of the study - the inkwell, ink, brush, and paper used to create Shangri-La - had been contaminated by Kaling’s buttons.

• The Adversary realized that the contaminated treasures were the reason that the barrier had initially fallen. While attempting to purify them, the Adversary was able to view memories of Kaling imbued into the buttons. They learned that Kaling had once been very close with Zigang, who had turned a blind eye to Kaling’s Four Perils experiment until he could look away no further. However, Zigang had ultimately believed Kaling to be a lost cause, for which he had ordered her to be sealed away.

• Ages later, several private investigators from Cheong-woon had accidentally discovered Kaling while tasked with fortifying the seal on the Four Perils. Believing Kaling to be a harmless girl, they took her in while on their mission to seal the Perils, with Kaling staying with them in order to recover her monsters. The investigators gave Kaling her new clothes and, over the course of a year, Kaling imperceptibly grew fond of them, with the contamination inside her slowly disappearing.

• For their one-year anniversary of meeting her, the investigators planned to give Kaling a present after finishing their mission. However, they soon discovered that the seal on Qiongqi had broken, with the investigators all being killed by the Peril. With Kaling being the only survivor, she opened their present and learned that the investigators had given her a blue button in order to fasten to her clothes, which they had made slightly larger after mistaking her for a child, and believing that she would grow into them.

• Feeling immense sadness and guilt over using the investigators, Kaling began to reexperience emotions that the contamination had previously erased from her, just as Darmoor appeared before her in her weakest moment. Darmoor then recruited Kaling by revealing that he needed her research to create a new Adversary.

• Kaling - who had been hardwired into fulfilling her purpose due to the contamination - easily succumbed back under its effects and readily joined Darmoor’s side, believing that she would be able to prove that her Four Perils experiment was not a failure to Zigang. Later on, however, Kaling would privately think to herself that she may have been able to regain her emotions if Darmoor hadn’t approached her at that moment.

• Kaling then traveled to the Information Broker Bureau in Cheong-woon and used her connection to the investigators to work there in order to find leads on the other Perils. Though Kaling was able to find Taowu, she was unable to stop Taotie from falling into Hoyoung’s hands. Nevertheless, she continued looking for Hundun while performing her Adversary experiments.

• With Darmoor bestowing his Transcendent power to her, Kaling used it in order to create a Godsphere, though all her attempts were met with failure. Eventually, Kaling was able to create an imitation Godsphere, which had been corrupted by the contamination, and used the button which the investigators had given to her in order to serve as a container for its power, regretfully believing that the button had no other use.

• In Yum Yum Island, Kaling fervently attempted to create an Adversary by binding her contaminated button Godspheres to her Erda fusions, hoping to replicate the powerful constitution of a Vessel.

• However, even after using the Erdas of Afrien - a creature who had once gotten closer to the Godsphere than anyone else, through his connection with Freud, the creator of the Seal Stones - Kaling was unable to create a true Vessel or a true Godsphere.

• After seeing Kaling’s memories, the Adversary and Gaon realized that Kaling’s buttons were contaminated Godspheres, which was why only the Adversary - as a true Vessel - could draw out their imperfect power and destroy them. However, they also realized that there was one more button which was missing.

• While searching for it, they met with the elders and Sino the Fox God, who had come to Shangri-La personally after all her letters to the elders had been met with silence. They discovered that the traitorous elders had been blocking communication from the outside world, for which the remaining elders were fervently catching up on all the events which they had missed.

• Eventually, the Adversary, Gaon, Zigang, and Tai Yu discovered the final button, which contained a memory of Kaling delivering the buttons to Shensung so that he could break the barrier for her invasion force. In the memory, Shensung mocked Kaling for being unwanted by both Darmoor and Zigang, noting that Darmoor had been forced to resort to freeing the elders in order for them to succeed where Kaling had failed.

• During their conversation, Shensung revealed that the elders were imposed with the Overseers’ inescapable sense of duty, and that he would do anything it took to be liberated from it. After Shensung left, Kaling cursed the Adversary for their interference in Odium, believing that if it hadn’t been for them, she could have been the the Adversary that Darmoor was seeking.

• With the darkness of Kaling’s memory growing stronger, Zigang spoke with Kaling’s memory and reconciled with her, apologizing for the way that he had treated her in the process of attempting to follow the Overseers’ will, causing him to neglect her when she had needed him, and even refusing to see her when she had died in Shangri-La. After Kaling’s memory disappeared, Zigang vowed that he would no longer turn away from his sins and told the Adversary that he would help them however he could.