PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 24: Solatum

(A/N: This section covers the events of the Solatum storyline. Solatum is a level 280 region that serves as a side area for Arteria, although Solatum physically exists on the outskirts of Cernium. The Solatum storyline was first introduced in August 2026 during the Overdrive update. As a side area, it doesn’t have its own Sacred Symbol, but it’s the prequest to unlock the Bellona boss fight, who serves as the sixth major boss of Western Grandis and one of the two major bosses for the Arteria region.

Chronologically, the placement of this story isn’t explicitly confirmed, as the only thing we know is that it takes place between Arteria and Carcion. Because I’ve been placing all the stories between Arteria and Carcion in release order, I’m gonna continue this trend and place Solatum after the Dark Sea. To be perfectly honest, it really doesn’t matter when this story takes place because it’s an incredibly short and semi-pointless story lore-wise.

This storyline introduces the Apostle Bellona, a God of the High Flora and a lord of one of the six High Flora territories, just like Ypsilon and Reina. Similar to Reina, Bellona was originally a Priest until she challenged the lord of her territory in a Syaman duel. After defeating the previous lord, Bellona became the God and lord of their territory and became an Apostle soon after. Her penchant for leaving violence and bloodshed was so great that even her fellow High Flora started calling her “the Executioner”.

Unfortunately, none of this information is actually revealed to us in her boss prequest. Solatum was released in the same update as the Mission Ultima event story, which is the first part of the main story set in Central Grandis. Bellona’s backstory was revealed to us in the first part of Mission Ultima, which came out a couple of months before Solatum was released alongside the third and final part of the event story. Although we don’t learn this in Mission Ultima, the KMS showcase for the Overdrive update revealed that Bellona is obsessed with Gerand Darmoor, to a degree that pretty much obliterates the line of psychopathy. She’s pretty much a textbook yandere, with her boss animations designed to lean into this, creating an extremely unnerving atmosphere in her boss fight.

It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense narratively to have this story exist in the first place, but this is one of those cases where Bellona needed to be a level 280 boss for the sake of gameplay, meaning that the story team probably had to come up with some sort of a story in order to squeeze her into the narrative without contradicting any of the Mission Ultima story. I also have a suspicion that they physically could not make a longer story because of the sheer scale and budget of Mission Ultima, meaning that they had to make do with whatever little budget they had left over in order to make the Bellona prequest.

I will say, however, that the Bellona prequest isn’t a bad story just because it’s short. In fact, it actually might be one of the darkest stories that they’ve released in a long time now because of the frankly horrific themes that they touch upon, alongside the atmosphere of the story and the fact that Bellona is quite literally one of the most deranged people in the game. The story actually gives some interesting complexity to Cernium’s history, and it even gives some small story development regarding how Cernium is able to eventually give its full support to the Alliance after Azor’s destruction.)

The Adversary was contacted by Neinheart, who explained that he had received an urgent request from Carlisle, who had sent a secret letter to the Alliance asking for help. Neinheart noted that given how things had ended in Cernium, the fact that Carlisle was asking the Alliance for help was a great risk to him, even as the prince. The Adversary began reading the letter, in which Carlisle explained that on the outskirts of the holy land was a valley called Solatum. Solatum was home to a religious order known as the Order of Thenea, which had been expelled from the holy land long ago.

The Order of Thenea had once served Thenea, the Ancient God of healing and rebirth, with legends stating that long ago, Thenea’s power had saved Cernium during great conflict amongst the various orders. To repay the Order of Thenea for their support, the royal family of Cernium had gifted them with one of Mitra’s holy relics, alongside a promise that they were always welcome in the holy land. As the Order of Mitra gained more power and influence, however, they broke that promise and cast out the Order of Thenea into Solatum, branding the Ancient God and her followers as heretics.

Nevertheless, the Order of Thenea had kept the holy relic as proof that they were rightful citizens of Cernium, safeguarding it for centuries in Solatum, long after it had lost its light. Carlisle then explained that the Order of Thenea had asked for help, claiming that other orders which served the Ancient Gods were disappearing one by one. Carlisle noted that though they couldn’t be certain, Cernium was aware of this trend, with the Order of Thenea requesting Cernium’s protection from whatever force was wiping out the religious orders of Grandis.

(A/N: This force, as we already know, is Gerand Darmoor and his Apostles, who are currently attempting to steal the power of the Ancient Gods.)

He revealed that though he had tried to take the Order of Thenea in, the Grand Master – who served as the Order of Mitra’s High Priest – had overruled him, claiming that Cernium’s resources could not be used to protect heretics who had been banished long ago. Carlisle explained that he could not abide by the Grand Master’s decision, which was why he was sending a secret letter to the Alliance, hoping that they could help Solatum in his place. He added that Thenea – if she had awakened – would surely be a powerful ally to the Alliance and Cernium as well, for which he implored them to help the Order of Thenea.

After the Adversary finished reading the letter, Neinheart told them that he believed it worthwhile to assist the Order of Thenea, though he added that what they couldn’t yet know for sure was whether the threat they faced was real or merely their fears. Because of this, Neinheart asked the Adversary to go to Solatum and verify whether Thenea had truly awakened, whether she would lend her support to the Alliance, and whether they could save the Order of Thenea from whatever threat they faced.

The Adversary then traveled to Solatum, where they were shocked to find that the entire Order of Thenea had been massacred. Looking at their wounds, the Adversary noted that someone had chased down the fleeing townspeople and slaughtered them from behind. Upon closer examination, the Adversary was shocked to find weaponry from Cernium, causing them to realize that it was Cernium’s knights who had carried out the massacre. The Adversary then moved further in towards the sanctum, where they were even more surprised to find that the knights of Cernium had been slaughtered as well.

Looking at their injuries, however, the Adversary realized that whoever had killed them had used a weapon on a completely different level from the simple blades and spears that the knights had used to kill the townspeople. They also noticed that there were several open chests strewn across the area, meaning that the knights hadn’t simply come to kill the townspeople, but to search for something as well. From the positioning of the bodies, the Adversary noted that the knights had been facing the sanctum. Wondering whether Thenea herself was inside, the Adversary entered to find a Flora warrior with an enormous red battle axe towering over Thenea’s corpse.

The woman expressed her frustration at Thenea being so massive, yet dying without even attempting to fight back. She noted that Thenea – even until the very end – had died trying to protect her followers, though she then wondered why such a powerful being would choose to protect those who deserved death for being weaklings. The Adversary confronted the woman and asked her whether she was the one who had killed everyone in Solatum, to which she revealed that she had merely killed the knights who had irritated her by being in her way.

The woman admitted that she had also killed Thenea, though she added that it wasn’t simple killing so much as butchering an animal. Suddenly, however, she noted that she could sense the power of the gods inside the Adversary and asked them what they were. She mistakenly believed the Adversary to be an Ancient God and wondered whether they had devoured other gods in order to take their power. Impressed by what she was seeing, the woman noted that the Adversary must be something special if they were a god who could consume other gods and remain intact.

Drawing her blade, the woman immediately lunged at the Adversary, believing that they were a powerful enemy who wouldn’t die anywhere nearly as easily as Thenea. Rising into a frenzy of bloodlust, the woman asked the Adversary whether they could go all the way with her without dying. She wondered how long it had been since she had felt such anticipation, noting that her hands were trembling from excitement. She explained that her mission had been so boring up until now, as the Ancient Gods she fought had died far too easily, falling long before they had even properly reached the brink of death. Her face then contorted into one of violent derangement as she begged them not to break like the others if she were to go all the way, or even beyond that, so that she could prove that she still deserved to survive.

Realizing that the woman was insane, the Adversary prepared to face off against her as she asked them to meet at the moment before death, and then one step further. The Adversary then engaged in a brutal battle with the woman, who was thrilled that they were everything that she had hoped. She revealed that from their battle, she had finally realized that they were no mere god, but the one whom her master, Gerand Darmoor, had told her about.

She noted that Darmoor had been right about the potential he had seen in them, causing the shocked Adversary to realize that the woman was an Apostle. The woman explained that she couldn’t finish things with them now, as Darmoor still needed them, and so she decided to stand down before telling them that they would go all the way the next time they fought. As she disappeared, the woman told them that she wanted to see what would happen to them when they stood before Darmoor.

Now alone in the sanctum, the Adversary noted to themselves that while it seemed like they had won, things didn’t sit well with them at all, as they hadn’t been able to help the Alliance or the Order of Thenea in the end. Looking at Thenea’s lifeless form, the Adversary wondered in despair why the god of healing and rebirth couldn’t save herself, though they noted solemnly that they would now never be able to ask her. The Adversary then returned to meet with Neinheart, who told them that he had already heard from the Alliance’s intelligence network about the horrible tragedy which had taken place there. He then revealed that he had received another letter from Carlisle, which had the full truth of what had happened in Solatum.

In the letter, Carlisle apologized for being unable to prevent the tragedy in Solatum, explaining that he had only learned the full truth after everything had already transpired. He revealed that after the Grand Master had rejected the Order of Thenea’s plea for help, he had sent Cernium’s knights in order to attack the valley and take back the holy relic of Mitra in their possession. Carlisle suspected that the Grand Master had sought the relic in order to restore his crumbling authority after the loss of Azor, and that he may have hoped that he could cover up the incident by making it seem as though the Order of Thenea had been wiped out by whatever force was targeting the various religious orders of the gods.

Carlisle then denounced the Grand Master as a man who used faith as his shield while cutting down innocents and even leading his own people into a deadly trap with his lies. For this reason, Carlisle declared that he would not allow such a man to represent the holy land, and that he would do whatever it took to bring the Grand Master to justice. He noted that because of this, he would likely be unable to contact the Alliance for some time, though he promised that once he finished settling things in Cernium, he would gladly lend his support to the Alliance any time. Though they had been unable to achieve what they had sought in Solatum, Carlisle affirmed that Cernium would never forget the Alliance answering his desperate plea.

After reading the letter, Neinheart noted that Carlisle’s heart appeared heavy in the face of everything that had happened. He then told the Adversary that the Alliance had conducted an investigation into the woman whom the Adversary had faced, revealing that her name was Bellona, and that she was indeed an Apostle of Darmoor. Though the Alliance had been unable to learn anything more than her name, Neinheart believed that this indicated that Bellona hadn’t been an Apostle for very long.

From how casually she had slaughtered an Ancient God, Neinheart noted that Bellona’s cruelty appeared to be unrivaled. He lamented that they had lost a potential god as their ally before even getting the chance to speak with her, though he reaffirmed that they couldn’t stay idle when Bellona had set her sights on the Adversary. As Bellona would undoubtedly reveal herself again, Neinheart told the Adversary that they should get some rest, as things were far from over after everything they had discovered.