PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 7: Sharenian Knights

(A/N: This section covers the majority of the events of the Sharenian Knights chapter of the Grand Athenaeum, with the exception of certain portions that take place in the present day. A lot of the detail about Sharenian actually came from pre-Big Bang lore. Based on what we know from it, the kingdom had been around for centuries in Ossyria, and their territory encompassed not just Ellin Forest, but much of the area around it. Nearly all of this territory eventually splits from Ossyria and becomes Victoria Island. The Golem Temple in Henesys was built by the Sharenian and the Stone Golems were created to guard the area. The Ant Tunnels deep underground were also carved out by their people as proving grounds.

The original lore stated that King Sharen III was obsessed with the Rubian, a gem said to grant eternal life, and summoned the devil Ergoth Dunamis to safeguard it. However, Ergoth coveted the power of the Rubian for himself and betrayed Sharen III, causing the kingdom to fall to ruin and turning the area into the dry wasteland that we know today as Perion. Most of this stays consistent with the new changes added from the Grand Athenaeum, with the exception of the Rubian instead having the power to heal any sickness and revive the dead (though the Rubian doesn’t actually have any real powers), as well as the Black Mage somehow being involved with the fall of Sharenian.

Essentially, what happens is that the knights are stuck in a time-loop for centuries after Sharenian falls and the Black Mage takes advantage of this. However, we don’t know at what point the Black Mage got involved, and so I’m placing this section at the earliest point in Maple World’s history, as we can assume that the time-loop begins much earlier than the birth of the White Mage.)

In the era of the Transcendents, many different species and civilizations began to thrive on Maple World. On the largest continent of Ossyria was the kingdom of Sharenian, one of the oldest civilizations in Maple World. Sharenian was built amidst lush vegetation and its knights were famous throughout Maple World for hunting devils.

(A/N: The Sharenian Knights storyline states that they hunted demons, but as this would lead to confusion with the demon race from Tynerum, I’ll be referring to them as devils, which seems to be another established way to refer to them from older storylines that covered the events of Sharenian.)

Sharenian was ruled by King Sharen III, with his bastard son, Prince Sharen IV, next in line to succeed him. King Sharen suffered from madness and soon came to suspect that his son was trying to overthrow him. He summoned Guard Captain Kellad, the prince’s teacher in combat, and ordered him to kill Prince Sharen, but Kellad refused and attempted to convince the king to see reason. Furious, King Sharen branded Kellad a traitor and attempted to have him executed. However, Prince Sharen was able to convince his father to merely have Kellad dismissed from the court.

Though Kellad’s life was saved, he was demoted to Commander and was ordered to lead the Sharenian Defense Unit, a squad of knights who had been rejected from becoming official Sharenian Knights. The Sharenian Defense Unit was then forced to go on menial missions, rather than hunting devils. They were frequently sent on missions to hunt small moles that were pestering the local farmers, causing them to be known as the Mole Slayers. (A/N: It’s said that devils are apparently distant ancestors of moles. I guess that it puts a new perspective on the Mole King from Ellinel Fairy Academy.)

One day, Commander Kellad was leading his unit, composed of Hardin, Ain, Ryan, Quieg, and Ed, on a mission to hunt moles when a Sharenian Knight arrived and cryptically told Kellad that someone from the palace was waiting for him. As he returned to the palace, Kellad recalled how he used to instruct the prince in the art of battle, and how they would often gaze out upon the kingdom at sunset to take in its beauty, though it had often scared Kellad, since he knew that all things of beauty would one day fade, including Sharenian itself.

Just then, he reached the kingdom outskirts and encountered the prince, who greeted his old teacher and told him that he still recalled Kellad’s words about fading beauty. Kellad told him that he was surprised that Sharen had come to see him against the wishes of his father, to which the prince told him that he was only an apprentice coming to see his master. When Kellad asked if there was trouble at the palace, Prince Sharen told him that his father had lost his mind, as he had grown obsessed with the Rubian, a gem said to cure any ailment and even revive the dead.

The prince told Kellad that the king had spent years scouring the country for it while researching dark sorceries to help him in his quest. Recently, the king had even gone so far as to summon a devil to the castle. Kellad told Sharen that the king wouldn’t succeed, to which the prince agreed, though he added that he couldn’t stand by and watch his father’s descent into madness.

He then revealed that he was planning to usurp his father’s throne in order to stop Sharenian from falling to ruin. He promised to come see Kellad again after he succeeded and hoped that Kellad would agree to serve as his knight when the time came. After Kellad returned back, his squad told him that they had seen him speaking with the prince and agreed to help them avert the great peril that Sharenian faced, though Kellad reassured them that nothing would happen.

A few days later, Prince Sharen successfully executed his coup against his father, who shouted that he knew that the prince had been plotting against him. In his madness, he ordered Guard Captain Kellad to appear at his side, forgetting that he had dismissed Kellad from his court. The prince ordered his knights to arrest his father and find the Rubian. The king declared that he wouldn’t allow Prince Sharen to steal the throne or the Rubian and summoned the devil Ergoth Dunamis to protect him. However, Ergoth coveted the power of the Rubian for himself and turned on the king.

Meanwhile, the Sharenian Defense Unit watched the battle in the palace from a distance, frustrated that they were forced to remain on standby. Just then, their squadmate, Quieg, arrived from the palace and reported that all members of the armed forces had been ordered to assemble at the palace, as the king had been killed.

Upon arriving at the palace, they were shocked to find the guards dead, with one fleeing knight warning them to get far away. He told them that King Sharen had summoned a devil, which had resulted resulting in the death of the king, and possibly the prince as well, who had gone missing. Kellad’s knights agreed that they needed to find Prince Sharen, though Kellad feared that he would be leading his knights to their deaths for nothing if the prince had already been killed.

As Kellad’s mind began spinning, his knights reassured him that they were up to the task. His resolve bolstered, Kellad ordered his knights to split up in order to search for the prince. The knights fought through the devils that had invaded the palace and attempted to rescue any survivors. As Quieg fought methodically, Ed jokingly asked if he was an Arcane Construct, an automaton that the palace sorcerers had been rumored to have built. (A/N: This is basically confirmed later on, which explains why Quieg eventually becomes Rampant Cyborg CQ57, one of the Elite Bosses.)

Quieg ignored the question and asked Kellad whether their priority was to kill the devil or save the prince. Kellad told him that it was neither and reminded his knights that their mission as Sharenian Knights was to protect the people of the kingdom. They then entered the throne room, where they found Ergoth sitting on the throne, with a mortally wounded Prince Sharen collapsed on the ground.

Kellad and the knights engaged Ergoth in battle, but nearly all of them were killed. Kellad held a dying Sharen in his arms, who begged Kellad to uphold his promise to protect Sharenian before giving him the Rubian. Ergoth then cursed the knights into reliving the fall of Sharenian for all eternity, forcing them to uphold their pledge to guard the kingdom forever.

To everyone’s surprise, the entire squad was revived and sent back in time to when they had first entered the palace. Kellad reminded them that their mission was still to protect the people of Sharenian by killing Ergoth before he cursed them again. They once again split up and fought past the devil invaders. Kellad, recalling Ergoth’s curse and Sharen’s dying wish, began to believe that defending the kingdom forever was all that he wanted. They entered the throne room once again and managed to defeat Ergoth, though they were unable to save Prince Sharen, who once again begged Kellad to uphold his promise before giving him the Rubian and dying.

Ergoth then cursed the knights once again, forcing them back in time. Kellad and his knights made a slew of attempts and tried many strategies to defeat Ergoth. However, they soon came to realize several things. First, they had to accept that Prince Sharen was beyond saving, no matter how quickly they arrived. Second, defeating Ergoth even before he cursed them wouldn’t break the time loop. Finally, the longer it took them to reach Ergoth, the stronger he became.

They eventually found the body of King Sharen and learned Ergoth’s name from the book that he had been clutching. Ain also learned that Ergoth’s true body was in the Otherworld, and that the Ergoth whom they were facing was a duplicate formed in their world, with the original body in the Otherworld transferring its strength to the duplicate in somewhere between twelve and twenty-four hours, which was how he grew stronger the longer it took the knights to reach him.

(A/N: The Heroes of Maple revamp created a differentiation between parallel worlds and dimensions, explaining that Friends World was a parallel world that mirrored Maple World, though both existed in the same dimension. In-universe, it’s theorized that there are many such parallel worlds, and so it’s possible that the Otherworld is one of them. However, it was also explained that there exist barriers between parallel worlds that make it impossible to travel between them, which makes it difficult to reconcile how Ergoth could have created a duplicate of himself across these boundaries.)

Hardin asked why their fatigue hadn’t been reset at the beginning of the time loop, to which Ain explained that their physical fatigue was reset, but their mental fatigue still remained. The knights then continued through the time loop, each time defeating Ergoth and watching the prince die before going back to the beginning.

On the twenty-second day, Kellad asked Ain how far such a curse would extend, given that a devil of such power as Ergoth had cast it. He clarified his meaning and asked if the devil was turning back time for the whole world or only for them. Ain told him that it was impossible to turn back time for the whole world, no matter how powerful Ergoth was, as it would violate all the known laws of metaphysics. She suspected that Ergoth had created a bubble just for Sharenian and noted that the halo which had appeared around the sun indicated that two adjacent regions of spacetime had fallen out of sync.

Ryan suggested that they simply leave, but Ain told them that Ergoth’s curse kept them trapped in Sharenian, and that Ergoth would continue growing stronger if they left him alone. Ed and Hardin then suggested that someone from the outside world could enter, or that Ergoth’s strength might eventually fail. Ain then wondered whether they were instead merely trapped in an illusion that made it appear as though they were in a time loop. Hardin told them that they shouldn’t doubt their own eyes, as otherwise, they wouldn’t trust anything, including each other.

The knights continued fighting Ergoth over and over again, and though Kellad reassured them that nothing lasted forever, including the time loop, he and his knights felt more uncertain than reassured. As they continued fighting, some of the knights began feeling uneasy about how many times they had to watch the people of the palace die, all the while being unable to save them even once. The countless waves of devils kept them from resting, adding to their mental fatigue, with the exception of Quieg.

As they grew more frustrated, the knights began fighting amongst themselves. Soon after, Hardin heard someone screaming, though no one else heard anything. Quieg suspected that they were suffering from sleep deprivation, which was causing hallucinations. One by one, all the knights, including Kellad, fell prey to those hallucinations. Kellad then recalled the memory of when he had stopped King Sharen from killing the prince. His memories of the incident were then warped into the prince asking Kellad why he had abandoned him.

Over a thousand days later, the knights had grown sick of fighting and asked if they could try leaving the kingdom. Kellad refused, claiming that they needed to uphold their oath, though Ryan asked if Kellad expected them to just keep fighting forever. As the knights argued amongst themselves, Kellad noticed that they had grown more aggressive in their fighting styles. Kellad himself was being plagued by nightmares of the prince accusing him of valuing his pride and honor over saving him.

Eventually, Hardin accidentally wounded Ed, causing Ain to yell at him that the wounds that they inflicted upon each other wouldn’t get healed by the time loop. However, Kellad then reminded her that Ed had been wounded several cycles ago. He explained that they had tried to let Ed leave Sharenian on his own, but an invisible barrier had kept him stuck in the palace, after which he had been slowly losing his health over the next several cycles. The knights then continued through the time-loop, but after several cycles, Ed stopped moving and finally passed away after a dozen more cycles.

With his death, the other knights began to falter and slowly began losing their sanity. Nevertheless, Kellad persisted, desperately clinging onto the promise that he had made to Prince Sharen. After defeating Ergoth once again, Kellad admonished Hardin for his sloppy swordskills. Hardin then began to hear Ed’s voice screaming, though Ryan kept insisting that Ed was fine. Upon remembering that Ed had died, Ain wondered if it had been her fault, though Hardin realized that the blame fell on him.

Suddenly, Ed appeared out of nowhere and told them that Ryan’s loose arrow had killed him. Kellad was shocked that everyone was experiencing a shared hallucination, just as Ed told them that they could still save him, pointing out the Rubian in Kellad’s hand, which Prince Sharen had given to him once again before dying.

Ain begged Kellad to use the Rubian to save Ed, but Hardin argued that they should use it to save a little girl whom he had watched die from the devil attack. Ryan then suggested that they revive King Sharen, as he was the one who had summoned Ergoth, meaning that he might know how to banish him. Kellad told them that they couldn’t use the Rubian on anyone, causing Ain to accuse him of wanting to save the prince, whom she claimed he loved more than his own friends.

The knights then began to turn on their Commander, believing that Kellad had forced them to stay in the time loop, not to protect the kingdom, but to save the prince. Soon, even Quieg began to waver, unable to recall what his mission was. With no other choice, Kellad told Quieg that his mission was to eliminate his former comrades. Quieg then began to fight the other knights, resulting in everyone being fatally injured and the Rubian shattering before their eyes. Kellad revealed that the Rubian was a fake, merely an ordinary gemstone.

With his dying breath, Ryan asked about Kellad’s mission, as he still believed that Kellad had promised Prince Sharen to return him back to life. Kellad then revealed that his promise had always been to protect Sharenian, and as part of his pledge, Kellad had been asked to destroy the Rubian somewhere all could see in order to prevent another mad king from rising to covet its power. Upon the death of Kellad’s knights, Ergoth’s curse was broken. (A/N: Click the link if you want to jump to the section where Kellad’s story chronologically picks up again.)