PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 17: The Elite Bosses

In the ruins of the Sharenian palace, Commander Kellad and his squad had spent countless years trapped in a time-loop created by the devil Ergoth Dunamis. Over time, his squad had grown insane from sleep deprivation and had soon turned on Kellad, believing that he had manipulated them into following him because he had sworn to Prince Sharen IV that he would revive him with the Rubian. Realizing that it was too late for his squad, Kellad had ordered Quieg, the only loyal member of his squad, into attacking the others.

After his squad killed each other, Kellad saw that Prince Sharen, who had been lying dead on the floor moments ago, had gotten up on his own. Sharen asked Kellad if he had ever seen an illusion before, and when Kellad told him that he hadn’t, Sharen asked how Kellad could be sure that he, the prince, wasn’t an illusion, or his allies, or perhaps even all of Sharenian.

He told Kellad to look up at the sky, where Kellad was surprised to see that the halo around the sun had vanished, indicating that the spacetime of Sharenian and the outside world had fallen back in sync. Prince Sharen explained that Ergoth’s curse had weakened as the subjects of Sharenian died and revealed that Ergoth’s power wasn’t to turn back time, but rather to create a false reality in order to imprison Kellad and his knights, entrapping them in nothing more than a mirror that he had created of the real Sharenian.

He told Kellad that time had continued to pass at the same rate in the real world, meaning that it had been centuries since Ergoth had trapped them. In the real world, Sharenian had fallen the very same day that Ergoth had first been summoned. Atop the ruins of Sharenian, Ergoth had built a prosperous devil empire, though even that had fallen at the hands of a band of adventurers, leaving just Ergoth and the false Rubian that he guarded. (A/N: This is a reference to the events of the original Sharenian Guild PQ, which has now been removed from the game.)

He explained that King Sharen III had formed a contract with Ergoth to have him protect the Rubian, though Ergoth had betrayed him immediately after being summoned. Kellad then raised his blade at the prince, telling him that he wasn’t so foolish as to believe such a lie. Sharen then cited how he had once asked Kellad why everything beautiful faded. He recalled how Kellad had explained that just as the beauty of a fluttering petal was because of its fall, so too did the beauty of life stem from its brevity.

Sharen told Kellad that he had been right, as Sharenian and the lives of its people were beautiful because they had been fated to end. At the prince’s words, Kellad fell to his knees and asked what he and his knights had even been fighting for over the centuries that they had been trapped. Sharen then reminded Kellad of the promise that he had made to protect Sharenian until the very end, so long as a single soul remained.

With Prince Sharen still alive, Kellad’s oath required him to remain bound to serve Sharen, the sole survivor of Sharenian. Prince Sharen then gave Kellad the Rubian and told him that he could use it to revive his comrades. (A/N: I mentioned in an earlier section that the Rubian has no powers, but you’ll see why it does in a bit.)

Kellad then escaped the world of illusion, where the real Ergoth was waiting for him. Having fought Ergoth over and over for centuries, Kellad easily killed him and took the Rubian. Soon after, five Explorers - Mogg, Khalid, Juli, Coleman, and Freya - arrived at the ruins of Sharenian, intent on finding lost treasure.

There, Kellad greeted them and told them his story. He then used the Rubian on the Explorers and told them to claim the treasure that they had come seeking: the treasure of eternal life. With the power of the Rubian, Kellad fused the Explorers’ physical bodies with the souls of his fallen comrades:

• Mogg the Warrior Explorer fused with Hardin to become Mogadin the Black Knight.

• Khalid the Magician Explorer fused with Ain to become Khaliain the Mad Mage.

• Juli the Bowman Explorer fused with Ryan and became Jurai the Vicious Hunter.

• Coleman the Thief Explorer fused with Quieg, a robotic Arcane Construct of Sharenian, and became CQ57 the Rampant Cyborg.

• Freya the Pirate Explorer fused with Ed and became Freyd the Bad Brawler.

• Kellad fused with the fallen body of Ergoth Dunamis and became Guard Captain Darknell.

Darknell and his knights then pledged eternal loyalty to Prince Sharen, who revealed himself as the White Mage in disguise.

(A/N: As these events are now happening in the present day, the White Mage has already fallen, and so this is actually the Black Mage choosing to appear in the form of the White Mage. Since the White Mage looks pretty similar to Prince Sharen, I’m guessing that he was hoping to subliminally influence Kellad’s weakened mental state in order to manipulate him into servitude more easily.

Though we don’t know at what point he decided to start impersonating Sharen, the fact that the events of Sharenian predate his birth implies that he became aware of the time loop after becoming the Black Mage. He also infused his Transcendent powers into the Rubian, as otherwise, it really was just a common gem all along.

In KMS, Darknell’s name is actually Dunkel, which is the German word for ‘dark’. I feel like this fits better than Darknell, as it matches the portmanteau that all the Elite Bosses get by combining their names, with Dunkel coming from ‘Dun-’ in Ergoth Dunamis and ‘-kel’ from Kellad.)

Darknell and his knights then became known as the Elite Bosses, pledged to serve the Black Mage as his eternal servants. Some time later, Hilla and Will had a conversation about the purpose of the Elite Bosses. Hilla accepted that over the course of hundreds of thousands of battles and pledges, a soul could be refined into one of incredible power. However, by mixing in the power of a Transcendent, the Black Mage had created monsters and asked what use he could possibly have for such unthinking puppets.

Will told her that given the Black Mage’s ability to see the future, he had likely created such powerful monsters because he had anticipated that an enemy with similar strength would one day arise, to which Hilla told him that she could scarcely imagine such a foe. Though he didn’t tell her, Will also realized that it meant that the Elite Bosses would be unimpeachably loyal to the Black Mage, incapable of betraying him under any circumstances.

Soon after, the Black Mage discovered the dimension where Rhinne had hidden her successor. He then entrusted Will with overseeing Rhinne and her child, and ensuring that her successor would never awaken as the new Transcendent of Time. With full authority over Rhinne and her powers, Will decided to move Rhinne from her icy prison within the Temple of Time and transferred her over to the same dimension where her child and the priests hand-picked to serve them were trapped.

Inspired by Ergoth’s ability to create a perfect replica of Sharenian, Will used Rhinne’s powers to recreate the prison dimension into what he called Mirror World, a replica of Maple World. However, Will soon realized that he was unable handle the immense power of Rhinne’s child. In order to weaken them and to corrupt them with his influence, he split the child into two beings. He trapped the girl inside the Child of the Goddess’ own temple and brainwashed the boy into serving him and his Shadow Knights, who had been tasked with keeping the boy trapped inside Mirror World.