PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 16: The Boy Who Became a Specter

• After the failed Specter ritual on Verdel, Ark remained unconscious on the desert moon for centuries until he was found by a group of desert nomads. Ark awoke to find that his memories had been lost, and that his left arm had turned into a Specter arm, with his left eye turned orange.

• Ark worked together with the nomads to fend off the Specters attacking them, as well as to find a way off Verdel, learning that the nomads had crash-landed on the moon due to the large vortex created from the failed Specter ritual.

• Ark soon discovered an abandoned spaceship left behind by the High Flora centuries ago after their evacuation. Realizing that they could use it to escape, Ark and the nomads began to search for the crystals needed to power the ship.

• During their mission, Ark’s foggy memories began to resurface as he recalled his memories of desertion, as well as Albaire interrupting the ritual in order to keep his promise to always protect Ark. He also realized that the Specters on Verdel had been created through a ritual which had transformed the native species of the moon.

• While Ark attempted to reactivate the spaceship, his former superior, Brigadier General Limbo - now an Apostle of Darmoor - attended a meeting with Gerand Darmoor and the other Apostles in the capital city of Aboris. With the vortex from the failed ritual dissipating, Limbo reported that he had sent Albaire, now a colonel, to harvest the bioenergy from the moon.

• On Verdel, Ark and the nomads finished gathering the crystals to power the spaceship when Albaire and the High Flora army landed. Ark fought off the High Flora soldiers while the nomads evacuated, causing his inner Specter to awaken in response to the carnage and bloodlust. Ark then reunited with Albaire, who seemingly appeared to have changed completely, no longer caring about saving people and believing in High Flora superiority.

• Though Ark used his Flora and Specter powers to fight, Albaire effortlessly defeated Ark, without even opening his wings to channel any more than minimal amounts of magic. After defeating Ark, Albaire walked away and allowed his former friend to live, warning him to stay clear of the High Flora and their mission.

• Ark and the nomads then escaped Verdel, which was drained of its energy by the High Flora, and arrived in Savage Terminal. There, he met with Cadena and Coney, from whom he learned that centuries had passed since the Flora Civil War, and that Darmoor had awakened as the Transcendent of Life.

• Ark decided to investigate the Interdimensional Portal, which had appeared when Darmoor had taken Chronica’s powers, and traveled to Pantheon, where the Protective Shield that kept the Specter army out caused him to weaken and collapse. After he was found and interrogated by Kaiser and Fenelle, Ark was permitted to travel to Maple World.

• Meanwhile, Limbo attended another Apostle meeting, where the other Apostles noted that the Verdel campaign had been a disaster, with barely any energy to show for it. Nevertheless, Limbo was quite pleased to know that Ark had survived the Specter ritual.

• As Ark grew stronger, he was consumed by his inner Specter, which explained that Specters dwelled in the Abyss, which contained all the knowledge of the world inside the Abyssal Source. As the price of seeing such forbidden knowledge, those who entered the Abyss were consumed by a Specter soul, causing them to lose their minds and bodies, which was why Ark had lost his memories.

• However, due to special circumstances, Ark had escaped the Abyss without being completely taken over by a Specter. The inner Specter explained that while full Specters merely returned to the Abyss and regenerated when injured, its partial fusion with Ark meant that it would die as soon as he did, for which it shared more of its power with him in order to ensure that he would stay alive while rushing into dangerous situations.