Table of Contents
PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE
PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE
PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE
PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE
PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE
The Ancient War:
In the beginning, the Primordial God made 365 creations - the sun, the moon, the stones, the trees, the wind, the rivers, the seas, and countless others - each adhering to 365 laws that governed the universe. From these 365 creations that made up the world, powerful beings were brought into existence that embodied these natural laws. Over time, these beings were revered as gods by mortals, and ages later, they would be known as the Ancient Gods.
The Ancient Gods caused immense chaos with their influence, for which the Primordial God created three beings known as the Overseers to restore order. As abstract, conceptual entities, the Overseers were unable to directly interact with the universe. To this end, they chose twelve of the most outstanding Anima on Grandis to defeat the Ancient Gods.
These twelve Anima became known as the elders of Grandis, who were given nearly infinite lifespans and an army of researchers to aid them. The Overseers also created an immensely powerful relic known as the World Heart, capable of stripping a god of all their power.
As the gods were higher beings who existed outside the physical plane, only a god or someone wielding a relic containing the power of a god could directly harm them. For this reason, the elders used the World Heart as a template to mass-produce weaker relics called the Godspheres. (A/N: In the original KMS text, the Godsphere is known as the “spear of god”.)
Unlike the World Heart, the Godspheres did not have the power to strip a god of their power. Instead, they responded to the will and determination of the people in order to grant the single greatest wish of a population. In this way, the immense power of the Godspheres could never be monopolized by the greed of any individual.
With the Godspheres holding the divine power of the Overseers, the elders hoped to combine the relics with mortals in order to give them the power to challenge the gods. The elders created a large, floating laboratory called Odium, where they began researching how to fuse the Godspheres with Vessels that would hold their divine power.
After a number of failed experiments, the elders were able to successfully fuse the Godspheres with Vessels in order to create the first Adversaries. However, because of the nature of the experiments, their Adversaries lost everything that made them human - their egos, their identities, their memories, and their emotions - leaving them as empty shells filled only with the desire to fulfill their hardwired purpose as Adversaries of the gods. Though the elders were appalled by what they had done, they nevertheless continued their unethical experiments, believing that it was the only way to stop the Ancient Gods’ tyranny.
In addition, the Overseers - believing that allowing such powerful beings to remain free would create a new age of chaos - ordained that the destiny of every Adversary was to die after fulfilling their purpose by defeating a god. As a result, the Adversaries began falling one by one, requiring the elders to continue their experiments over the course of the long, protracted Ancient War.
After the last god fell, the elders cleared away their research and hid the World Heart inside Odium, creating a complex mechanical system to defend it. As the power of the World Heart was too strong for them, they hoped to slowly deplete its energy over the ages by using it as a battery for Odium and its system, thus ensuring that its power could not be misused.
The elders also realized that the erasure of their Vessels’ humanity, which they called contamination, had slowly infected them over the course of the experiments. In order to stop it from spreading to the outside world, the elders created Shangri-La, a magical, hidden realm that contained the harmonic energy of the four seasons, which counteracted and halted the spread of their contamination.
Additionally, some of the elders created a magical bell that would ring only in the hands of someone with an exceptionally pure heart. They left the bell with a sheep Anima village and tasked its people with finding someone who could make it ring, as only the ringing of the bell could wash away the elders’ contamination and sins. The elders and the researchers then sequestered themselves away in Shangri-La, rebranding themselves as the Sinners.
Though the age of the gods had come to an end, the Overseers were not yet satisfied, as there remained a chance that the gods could one day return. For this reason, they reorganized the universe such that only three worlds - Maple World, Grandis, and Tynerum - would be allowed to remain. These worlds, which had once been one, were then separated into different dimensions.
To enforce order, the original 365 laws were dwindled down to three: light, life, and time. To enforce these laws, the Overseers created three Transcendents for each of the three worlds. The Transcendents served as the Overseers’ interface to physically interact with the universe, allowing them to influence the three worlds by overriding the Transcendents’ free will.
The presence of the Transcendents also forced the Ancient Gods to fall into an unnatural slumber, ensuring that they would never reawaken. In doing so, the Overseers created a fixed, predictable future, which they deemed had successfully eradicated chaos, leaving the future set in stone.
Though most of the gods were sealed away, an Ancient God named Shinsoo remained awake, and was tasked with protecting a bloodline which would one day produce a new Transcendent as a failsafe should the need arise.
Shinsoo used most of her divine power in creating the island of Ereve, which became the seat of power for the Empress of Maple World, whose distant descendant would one day awaken as a new Transcendent. In order to protect the Empress, Shinsoo appointed a Knight of Light as her guardian, infusing her power into the Soul Shield, which was passed down across generations of Knights of Light.
Fall of Sharenian:
In the age of the Transcendents, the kingdom of Sharenian became the largest civilization on Maple World. King Sharen III, afflicted with madness and paranoia, soon grew obsessed with the Rubian, a gem capable of healing any ailment and reviving the dead. In order to find it, he summoned a devil named Ergoth Dunamis and made a deal with him.
Hoping to stop him, his son - Prince Sharen IV - decided to lead a coup against his father. King Sharen called Ergoth to protect him, but Ergoth betrayed him in order to seize the power of the Rubian for himself, bringing an army of devils to conquer the kingdom.
Guard Captain Kellad, who had once been Prince Sharen’s mentor, attempted to rescue the prince alongside his squad of knights. However, they found that they were too late to save him. Kellad and his knights then fell into a time-loop created by Ergoth, forcing them to relive the fall of Sharenian over and over again for centuries.
(A/N: Click here if you want to jump to the section where Kellad’s story chronologically picks up again.)
The White Mage:
Over 800 years ago, a boy was found in a snowstorm by the mages of El Nath, who brought him to the Mage Tower and trained him as a magician. Over time, it became clear that the boy was a once-in-a-generation magical prodigy whose talent quickly exceeded that of his masters.
However, the mages were shaken by the boy’s disregard for their rules, as soon he became interested in light magic, whose study had been banned by the mages, believing that light and dark magic were said to be two sides of the same coin. On the day that he came of age, the boy shocked his masters by performing light magic in front of them.
That night, the mages looked into the future and saw that if the boy were to continue his pursuit of ultimate light, he would bring about the end of Maple World. Horrified by their vision, the elders attempted to kill the boy before that future came to pass.
However, the boy instead killed his masters and left the Mage Tower, after which he became a wanderer who saved the people of Maple World from monster attacks. Because of his platinum hair, he became known as the White Mage.
The White Mage spent ten years wandering the world and protecting the people. During his travels, he noticed that there was great imbalance in the world, with rich aristocrats bringing about endless civil war and exploiting their people in order to line their own pockets, leaving the people helpless in the face of monster attacks and war.
The White Mage took it upon himself to find a solution, and one day reached an epiphany: “The ultimate light can only be found in the ultimate darkness”. With these words, he took a handful of followers and sequestered himself in the Forest of Peace, where he and his organization, Aurora, began studying light magic.
During his research, the White Mage sought to understand the nature of darkness. For this reason, he made a deal with two Spirits of Darkness, giving them human forms in exchange for them helping him understand darkness. He then gave them the names Orchid and Lotus.
The World of Grandis:
Grandis was the second world created by the Overseers, separated from Maple World and Tynerum by a dimensional barrier. Grandis was a much different place from Maple World, with one year on Grandis being equal to ten years on Maple World. Unlike the sole planet of Maple World, Grandis was a planetary system composed of the planet Grandis and thirteen moons, of which seven are currently known: Cheong-woon, Narin, Ristonia, Savage Terminal, Verdel, Vulpes, and an unnamed moon that hosts the cities of Heliseum and Pantheon.
Grandis was home to many races, but the three largest were the Flora, the Nova, and the Anima. The Flora were the largest and most technologically advanced race, using their mastery over mytocrystals to cast powerful magic. The Flora had a caste system, with the God-King on top, followed by the Gods, the Priests, and the powerless commoners.
The son of the last God-King, Gerand Darmoor, was the Prince of the Flora. Despite his position, he grew disillusioned by the state of life, believing that most living beings were selfish, dragging others down in order to protect their own 'worthless' lives. Hoping to see the world from a different perspective, Darmoor aspired to become the Transcendent of Life, believing that it would give him an enlightened viewpoint.
To this end, Darmoor planned to break the balance of life on Grandis, knowing that it would result in his awakening as the Transcendent of Life. In order to do so, Darmoor secretly instilled an unknown illness into his father, the God-King, which gradually eroded his sanity. As a result of losing his mind, the God-King was transformed from a kind man into a belligerent tyrant who sought to dominate the other races.
A faction of peaceful Flora opposed him, but when it was revealed that they had plans to upend the caste system by sharing power with the commoners, they were accused of treason. With their wings torn out, they became known as the Verdant Flora, while the ruling faction became known as the High Flora.
In exile, Verdant Flora regained their magic when their leader, the God of the Verdant Flora, created mechanical wings for them. He also created a powerful relic called the Elder Crystal, on which he imprinted his personality and powers.
Sefirot’s Gardener:
As a result of the schism between the High Flora and Verdant Flora, the balance of life was broken on Grandis, allowing Darmoor to awaken as the new Transcendent of Life. Despite becoming a Transcendent, however, Darmoor’s perspective on life remained unchanged, as he believed that the High Flora were arrogant and selfish, and the Verdant Flora were equally as selfish, despite claiming to be different.
Because of this, Darmoor believed that all worthless, selfish life forms needed to be purged, such that only true, noble lives could live and prosper in a world of paradise. Darmoor would come to believe that in contrast to most lives, a noble life was one which would truly and selflessly sacrifice themselves for others, which made them both rare and respectable.
Over time, the God-King’s madness grew worse as he planned to incite a war of genocide against the other races of Grandis. His ambitions created dissent within the ranks of his royal guard, the Knights of the Einherjar. When the God-King’s most loyal knight, Adelaide, refused to follow him into battle, many in the Knights began rallying around Adelaide in resistance to the God-King. For this reason, the God-King imprisoned Adelaide in order to stop the rebellion from growing around her, though this delayed his war from happening. (A/N: Adelaide is Adele’s full name. Her liege, Jerome, calls her Adele for short after they start working together in Ristonia in the present day.)
Soon enough, the God-King’s illness began physically warping him into a grotesque monster that grew even more powerful and belligerent as he absorbed magic. Hoping to cure his illness, several Knights of the Einherjar and Prince Darmoor traveled to Sefirot, the sanctum of Grandis’ Transcendent of Life, which remained empty after Darmoor replaced the previous Transcendent of Life.
In Sefirot, Darmoor met a gardener named Asha, who tended to the garden with all her heart, as it was believed that the Transcendent of Life would return to the garden if it remained beautiful. During this time, Darmoor learned that Asha had similar beliefs as him regarding life, as Asha claimed that she needed to prune away the worthless parts of the garden before they dragged down the rest. He also began to suspect that Asha was an example of a noble life that he sought to preserve.
In order to test his ideals, Darmoor secretly arranged for several Verdant Flora who resented their exile to come to Sefirot. During this time, the Knights who came to Sefirot discovered a tablet claiming that only the sacrifice of a noble life would catch the Transcendent’s eye. Darmoor tricked the Knights into believing that a Flora - as a member of the superior race - constituted as a noble life.
However, the two Knights - each valuing their own lives in order to provide for their families - chose to save themselves and instead sacrificed the Verdant Flora who were lured to Sefirot. During this time, Darmoor secretly unleashed the restrained God-King, who began growing wild as he absorbed the magic of the garden and the Flora. Darmoor then observed that both Knights, rather than sacrificing themselves for their king, chose to save themselves, though they were ultimately killed in the process, confirming Darmoor’s suspicions that none of them were noble in the end.
In the struggle, the garden was set aflame and began burning down. Asha, who had given her life to the garden, was fatally wounded in the fire. With the last of her strength, Asha recalled the words on the tablet about how the sacrifice of a noble life would bring back the Transcendent. For this reason, Asha prayed to the Transcendent that though her life was insignificant, she wished that the sacrifice of her life would save the garden.
After Asha passed away, Darmoor appeared before her and used his powers to bring her back to life, revealing himself as the Transcendent of Life all along. When Asha asked Darmoor why he had saved her, he replied that it was because hers was the only life that had value amidst everyone else who had come to Sefirot, after which he asked her to come with him.
Flora Civil War:
Soon after, many Knights of the Einherjar planned to revolt against the God-King before his delayed war of genocide could take place. Under the orders of Darmoor, Veronica - Adelaide’s rival - freed Adelaide from her prison in order to recruit her to their side. However, Adelaide - despite disagreeing with the God-King’s plan - refused to betray her oath to protect him, for which she rallied those loyal to the God-King against the defectors. Eventually, Adelaide’s faction was defeated and Adelaide was sealed away in a prison dimension called the Void.
At the same time, the Verdant Flora learned about Darmoor’s plan and rushed to the High Flora capital, where they found Darmoor standing over the body of his father. Darmoor then called the guards, claiming that the Verdant Flora had killed the God-King. This incident sparked the Flora Civil War, which lasted for hundreds of years.
During this time, Darmoor continued his father’s plans of conquest against the other races and recruited many young High Flora to enlist in the Central Army. Two boys named Ark and Albaire both joined military school and were deployed to the moon of Verdel upon graduation, where they served under Brigadier General Limbo.
Soon after, Ark grew disillusioned by the war upon realizing that it was little more than a massacre, with the native species of Verdel being turned into Specters, creatures from the Abyss which could possess and take over a host body, allowing them to manifest in the world at the cost of the host body losing their body, mind, and identity. Ark also learned that Limbo was a partial Specter, capable of shifting between his Flora form and Specter form at will, rather than being taken over by a Specter completely.
Unable to carry out his mission as a soldier any longer, Ark chose to betray the High Flora and attempted to aid the enemy, though he was caught by Limbo first. For his treason, Limbo ordered Ark to be turned into a Specter, but Albaire interrupted the ritual in order to keep his promise to protect his best friend. The failed ritual created a large vortex that forced the High Flora to evacuate, leaving Ark unconscious for many years.
During the war, Darmoor encountered Magnus, an exiled Nova and the former comrade of Kaiser, the legendary hero of the Nova who reincarnated throughout the ages. Conceited as he was, even Magnus felt the immense aura of death radiating from Darmoor, who revealed himself as the Transcendent of Life, and experienced true fear for the first time. He swore allegiance to Darmoor in exchange for gaining the power to become the strongest warrior in Grandis.
On Darmoor’s orders, Magnus began to corrupt the three Guardians of Heliseum, the capital city of the Nova, preparing to launch his invasion at the same time as the final battle of the Flora Civil War.
The final battle took place at the Verdant Flora capital of Aboris, causing massive death on an immensely large scale. During this battle, Darmoor finally revealed that he had awakened as the new Transcendent of Life after hiding his abilities for centuries. Because of his deception, it was mistakenly believed by the rest of Grandis that the bloody battle of Aboris had broken the balance of life on Grandis, which had resulted in Darmoor’s awakening.
With his powers, Darmoor obliterated nearly every living being on the battlefield. He then approached the wounded God of the Verdant Flora, who had managed to survive Darmoor’s attack, and sealed him inside the mytocrystal on the back of his hand. The surviving High Flora then successfully sacked Aboris, ending the war with the capture of the Verdant Flora capital and the near-total destruction of its people.
At the same time, Magnus led the Specter army and conquered Heliseum, wiping out the Nova royal family. However, the Nova princess was saved by the Nova general, who managed to bring her to the Shadowdealers, a black market trade organization. Severely wounded from Magnus’ attack, the princess was administered a potent medicine that saved her life, though it inadvertently placed her in a coma for many decades.
In order to buy time for the survivors to escape to the sanctuary city of Pantheon, Kaiser fought Magnus and sacrificed his life to defeat his old comrade, nearly killing Magnus in the process. The Heliseum Council, unable to transport their holy relic - the Outrigger - out of the capital, instead transferred its power into four sacred stones, which were used to create a Protective Shield around Pantheon, blocking Magnus and his Specters from entering.
After the end of the war, Darmoor traveled to the Chronica Sanctuary and stole the powers of Chronica, the Transcendent of Time, after which he sealed Chronica inside their own sanctuary. As the Overseers had created safeguards to deter Transcendents from robbing each other’s powers, Darmoor was severely weakened from the act. Furthermore, several Interdimensional Portals appeared across Grandis that led to other worlds, including Maple World.
Having won the war, Darmoor was crowned the new God-King of the High Flora and moved the High Flora capital to the former Verdant Flora capital of Aboris, where he built the new God-King Temple at the Aboris Royal Palace. There, he ruled alongside his twelve Apostles, of which five are known:
Havoc, a pure-blood demon from Tynerum, became Darmoor’s First Apostle of Lightning
Limbo, the partial Specter who served as Brigadier General in the Central Army
Kaling, a former researcher of Odium who was sealed away eons ago after becoming contaminated from the Adversary experiments
Ypsilon, a God of the High Flora who served as the Lord of Erimos on continental Grandis
Reina, a God of the High Flora who served as the lord of a snowy region on continental Grandis
(A/N: Currently, Limbo is the only Apostle confirmed to have been recruited at the end of the Flora Civil War. It’s unknown when Havoc and Ypsilon were recruited, but it’s confirmed that both Kaling and Reina were recruited in the present day, centuries after the initial formation of the Apostles. Because of this, we don’t know whether there were twelve Apostles from the start, or if there were twelve by the time that the main story begins.)
Meanwhile, the surviving Verdant Flora retreated from Aboris. Agate, the disciple of the God of the Verdant Flora, took the Elder Crystal and led the survivors into a pocket dimension called Sanctuary. There, the Verdant Flora lived in secrecy for many decades. Agate became the Headmistress of the Crystal Academy, where she would oversee the training of future generations of Verdant Flora, hoping that one of them would grow up to become the hero that would save their people.
Aeona and Tana:
On Grandis, two girls were brought into existence in the Radiant Temple. The girl who heard the voice of the Overseers became known as Aeona, the Transcendent of Light, while the other was known as Tana, the Transcendent-in-reserve. As the awakened Transcendent of Light could only hold one of their two powers, Aeona was given the power of darkness, while Tana was given the power of light.
During her research into the powers of the Transcendent of Light, Tana learned that light and darkness were merely metaphors for the true power of the Transcendent: creation and destruction.
Meanwhile, with her free will overridden by the Overseers, Aeona was forced to destroy over seven races of Grandis against her will. Unaware of the truth, Tana believed that her sister had lost her mind, for which she fought and killed Aeona, resulting in Tana awakening as the next Transcendent of Light and being given the title of Aeona. Upon feeling the chains of the Overseers forcing her to obey, Tana refused to follow her destiny and rejected the Transcendent’s fate, using her strong willpower to resist the Overseers and flee Grandis.
Eventually, Tana traveled to Maple World and arrived in Kritias, where she pushed a boy named Jean to safety after an anti-magic stone fell and vaporized everyone in the near vicinity. After Tana rematerialized her body, she was arrested and taken to the dungeons, where the mages of Kritias experimented on her in order to bestow her immortality to King Hekaton.
Fall of Kritias:
For two years, the mages of Kritias attempted to learn the secret of Tana’s immortality. Over the course of the experiments, Tana slowly began losing her memories and emotions as the mages continually inflicted wounds on her, forcing her powers to regenerate herself, to the point that she forgot everything except her name and a faint memory of wanting something.
During this time, Jean visited Tana every night and spent time together with her in order to keep her company, eventually falling in love with her. Though Tana’s memories and emotions had been erased by the experiments, she slowly began regaining faint traces of herself by spending time with Jean.
After the High Priest from the Temple of Time resigned in protest over the unethical experiments, Arkarium was chosen as the new High Priest and continued leading the mages of Kritias. Though Arkarium made great strides, he realized that Tana’s immense willpower was causing her to reject the power transfer. Soon after, Hekaton grew impatient and ordered for his Ascendancy ritual to take place the next day.
That night, Tana realized that she was going to die tomorrow, causing her to realize that the faint memory of what she had wanted was to die. However, she grew terrified at the thought and lost control of her powers until Jean calmed her down and promised to keep her safe. In the shadows, Arkarium watched the exchange and realized that Jean was the key to ensuring that the ritual succeeded.
The next day, Jean brought an anti-magic stone necklace to Tana and attempted to free her. However, Arkarium called the guards and ordered Jean to be killed in front of Tana, which successfully eroded her willpower and allowed the Ascendancy ritual to begin. However, Tana refused to die and allow Hekaton to succeed, and so she shattered the anti-magic stone and disrupted the ritual.
As a result of this, Hekaton was fused with the castle and became an immortal golem, while many of the soldiers became disembodied monsters possessing their weapons. Tana was also caught in an endless, painful cycle of vaporization and rematerialization until the Black Mage - from the future - used the powers of time he had stolen from Rhinne in order to pull Kritias forward into his present.
(A/N: Click here if you want to jump to the section where Kritias’ story chronologically picks up again, or just keep reading, since that section is gonna come up very soon.)
The Land of Tynerum:
Tynerum was the third world created by the Overseers, separated from Maple World and Grandis by a dimensional barrier. Tynerum was home to the demons, a race of proud and ambitious warriors with dark wings. Under the harsh and unforgiving rule of the demons, Tynerum quickly became a world where the strong ruled on top, while the weak were broken.
At the echelon of demon society were the pure-bloods, who used their overwhelming power to subjugate the weaker pure-bloods and half-bloods beneath them as slaves. Amidst the half-bloods, the stronger were those who had inherited demonic blood and wings, while the weaker were those who had been born without wings, leaving them to be detested by the other demons as powerless.
The pure-bloods’ unending thirst for power was such that they even attempted to steal the power of their world’s Transcendents. For thousands of years, the pure-bloods conducted brutal experiments in order to obtain the Transcendents’ power. One such experiment was the Sword of Destruction, a powerful blade which contained the Spirit of Vengeance - the combined souls of countless half-blood demons who had been sacrificed for millennia in an attempt to replicate the powers of a Transcendent.
Without a strong leader to rule them, the demons’ ambitions and greed resulted in a great and terrible war as they attempted to seize control of Tynerum. Centuries ago, a fortress known as Crimsonheart Castle was taken over by the Twisted Masters, who stole the legendary weapons of the castle’s greatest heroes in order to obtain their power. In the process, the heroes of Crimsonheart Castle were corrupted into monsters, while the legendary magician, Ridley, was turned to stone.
After the fall of Crimsonheart Castle, the last remnants of law and order began breaking down as the great war continued for hundreds of years, with the pure-bloods continuing to sacrifice weaker demons in order to gain the power of a Transcendent. Around this time, a portal was created that led to Maple World, with a similar portal opening in the south of Maple World that led to Tynerum. Though it was unknown how this portal opened, it was theorized that Tynerum bordering on the verge of extinction had resulted in its appearance. With the portal’s appearance, many demons began to migrate to Maple World, while some humans from Maple World crossed over to Tynerum.
As the Transcendent experiments continued, one pure-blood demon spoke out against them, warning that they would only lead to devastation and ruin. Though he attempted to put a stop to the experiments, he was ultimately killed in the process, leaving behind his human wife and their two half-blood children - the Demon and Damien. Just as the Demon’s father had predicted, the countless failed experiments resulted in Tynerum being turned into a desolate wasteland, where not even a single blade of grass could grow.
The Demon first awakened his powers after seeing Damien, who was sickly and blind in one eye, being bullied by the demons. Realizing that Tynerum was no longer safe, the Demon led his family to Maple World, where they eventually settled in Leafre with many other half-blood demons who sought to have a better, peaceful life.
Birth of the Black Mage:
After the White Mage retreated from the world, powerful creatures of darkness called Omens began appearing and attacking the people of Maple World. A wandering mercenary was hired in order to find the White Mage and convince him to destroy the Omens, though the mercenary took the job because they were curious to meet such an enigmatic, idealistic figure and why he had abandoned the world to darkness.
In Ellin Forest, they met Ephenia the Fairy Queen, who - despite her hatred of humans and their endless greed - was enamored by the White Mage and his promise to make the world a better place. She directed the mercenary to the Forest of Peace, where the White Mage was conducting research on light magic. Along the way, the mercenary met a girl named Arin, who was avenging the deaths of her family to the Omens.
Eventually, they found the White Mage and were brought to the Aurora Great Temple. The mercenary learned that the White Mage was searching for the ultimate light - infinite knowledge that could complete and evolve humanity into perfect beings, replicating the Divine City of the gods - a utopia in which greed and selfishness were eradicated. Intrigued by the White Mage’s ideals, the mercenary decided to stay and help him with his research.
(A/N: The Divine City is a reference to the City of God, a pivotal book on Christian philosophy. The main idea is that the City of God is a conceptual city, not a literal one. You can view it as a state of mind that eschews superficial, earthly pleasures in favor of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The White Mage wants to bring the City of God to humanity in order to complete them with that wisdom, which will rid the world of corruption and evil when people choose to give up their selfishness in favor of a complete existence that embraces peace and kindness.)
Over the months, however, the mercenary and Arin came to realize that the Omens were a by-product of the White Mage’s research, and that he had deliberately chosen to do nothing about them, even while knowing that they were harming people. As the mercenary and the mages of Aurora attempted to enter the White Mage’s room, they began hearing his warped voice.
Having completed his research, the White Mage entered the divine realm, where he sought to find the ultimate light that could complete humanity. Just then, however, the will of the world - the Overseers themselves - bound him in place with their chains of law, attempting to hold him back from changing the destiny of the world.
Furious at the Overseers for choosing to allow humanity to suffer endlessly when they had the power to stop it, the White Mage declared that he would destroy their hold on the world and break free from their preordained destiny. Believing that being human wasn’t enough to defeat a god, the White Mage accepted the power of the Transcendents and awakened as the Transcendent of Light.
Upon awakening, the White Mage destroyed the temple and killed nearly all the researchers of Aurora. He then approached the mercenary and attempted to recruit them to his cause, but upon realizing that he sought to destroy the world in order to save it, the mercenary declared that he was a monster, rechristening him as the Black Mage. Disappointed, the Black Mage killed the mercenary before setting out to complete his goal.
As an awakened Transcendent of Light could only hold the power of either light or darkness, the Black Mage expelled all the light inside himself and claimed the power of destruction, leaving behind the last vestiges of his humanity in the form of a glowing orb.
As a result of the Black Mage’s awakening, a powerful object called the Abyss Crystal was created, which held the power to devour anything with its overwhelming dark energy, including the power of divine beings, such as Transcendents and Ancient Gods.
The Seven Commanders:
Believing that the Overseers had left the world broken beyond repair, the Black Mage intended to destroy their world and recreate it. Knowing that the Overseers could only shape the universe by using the Transcendents as their proxies, the Black Mage sought to remove their influence from the world that he would create by destroying the Transcendents. In this way, he intended for life to restart from scratch, resulting in a perfect society created by complete beings, as the Overseers would never have had any influence in its development.
In creating a fixed, predictable future, the Overseers had inadvertently allowed for him to calculate all possible futures based on known variables. Using his enhanced perception as a Transcendent, the Black Mage calculated the perfect course of events that would lead to his victory.
As the laws governing Transcendent powers prevented Transcendents from killing each other or themselves, the Black Mage required allies in order to battle the other Transcendents. For this reason, he gathered seven Commanders in order to carry out his goal:
Orchid and Lotus, the Spirits of Darkness whom he had granted human forms
Guwaru, the King of Spirits whose anger at the humans who disrespected nature was exploited by the Black Mage in order to corrupt him
Hilla, a Shamaness of Azwan who sold out her kingdom to the Black Mage for eternal beauty and youth
Magnus, a servant of Gerand Darmoor who was sent to Maple World in order to heal the injuries that he had sustained at Kaiser’s hands
Arkarium, the High Priest who betrayed Rhinne, the Transcendent of Time, after foreseeing the Black Mage’s victory
Von Leon, the Lion King of El Nath who joined the Black Mage in order to get revenge on the ones who had destroyed his kingdom and his wife
The Demon, who joined the Black Mage and became his right-hand in exchange for the protection of his family
With his Commanders gathered, the Black Mage gained the forces needed to defeat the other Transcendents. As he was unable to destroy himself, however, the Black Mage sought to create an Adversary who could kill him. As the Godspheres only responded to the will of the people, the Black Mage sought to manipulate events such that an Adversary would be created through a Vessel fusing with a Godsphere in response to the strong desire of the world.
Knowing that the Overseers’ influence had resulted in humanity becoming selfish and corrupt, the Black Mage hoped to unite the world against him by becoming a threat large enough that people would look past their self-interests and come together against a common foe. By showing the world that they were on a predetermined destiny, he hoped to strengthen the world’s determination to resist their fate, which would be channeled through the Adversary. With both the Adversary and the world united in their desire, the power of the Godsphere would awaken and give the Adversary the power to kill him.
Simultaneously, he promised his Commanders a place in his new world, in which all their wishes would be granted. Secretly, however, he planned to have his Commanders eliminated one by one after they outlived their purpose, as he knew that they would choose to betray him upon realizing that he never truly intended to let them exist in his perfect world, which he planned to create by enacting the Genesis Ritual at the very moment that the Adversary killed him, resulting in a world without Transcendents.
To carry out the Genesis Ritual, the Black Mage needed the powers of creation and destruction, as well as a high volume of pure Erdas, the building blocks of reality. In order to steal the power of creation from another Transcendent of Light, as well as to obtain a high concentration of Erdas, the Black Mage sought to create a convergence of worlds.
As a world without active Transcendents automatically sought out another world to merge with in order to maintain its balance of Transcendents, the Black Mage planned to seal the other Transcendents of Maple World, as well as himself. He began a war of conquest with his Commanders and planned to use them to fight against the other Transcendents, while simultaneously drawing out the very heroes who would seal him.
The Winter Bard:
Years ago, a mercenary named Ryude chose to leave his old life behind after growing tired of killing and violence, instead becoming a traveling bard with several of his men. One day, he encountered a girl being attacked by a wild animal and rescued her, though the girl admonished him for interrupting her from capturing it. She explained that she was collecting animals for her Ark in preparation for the end of the world that the Black Mage would bring about.
Soon after, Ryude found that the Lion King’s Castle was in flames. Inside, he found soldiers being transformed into monsters and Hilla speaking with Von Leon, who had taken his revenge on the Anti-Black Mage Coalition for killing his wife. Von Leon noticed Ryude and began attacking him, though Ryude was saved by the girl, whom Hilla recognized as Alicia, the Transcendent of Life. Though Hilla was surprised, as the Transcendents of Maple World typically stayed out of mortal affairs, Alicia claimed that he owed her a favor for letting the monster that she was capturing get away.
Upon realizing that the Black Mage and his Commanders really were about to end the world, Ryude decided that he needed to warn the people. He and his men decided to light the Dragon Master’s Tower, a beacon created by the Dragon Master, Freud, in order to signal the end of the world.
On their way there, Ryude helped Alicia capture the remaining animals, causing her to note that some humans seemed capable of keeping their promises. Ryude learned that despite being the mother of all life, Alicia refused to help humans, as they only caused destruction and harm to others. However, Ryude suggested to her that perhaps humans were just children in need of a mother to guide them.
Over the next few days, Ryude and his men gathered the survivors of Von Leon’s attack on El Nath. The surviving soldiers joined Ryude at the tower and faced off against Von Leon’s army while they attempted to light the beacon. Moved by Ryude’s bravery, Alicia changed her stance on humans and shared a portion of her remaining power after creating the Ark, giving Ryude’s sole mage, Hazelle, enough power to light the beacon, which had been created to require five mages in order to activate.
Ryude, Hazelle, and all his men gave their lives to light the beacon, which shone brightly and attracted many people to the tower who realized that the Black Mage was a grave threat to their world. Meanwhile, Alicia brought the animals that she captured to the Tower of Oz, where she intended to preserve them in case the Black Mage wiped out all life.
The Six Heroes:
Thanks to Ryude’s sacrifice, six Heroes united in order to stand together against the Black Mage.
Freud, the Dragon Master, was a talented magician who cared deeply about animals. He formed the first Spirit Pact with Afrien, the King of Onyx Dragons, allowing their power to exponentially increase from the union of their souls.
Aran was a powerful warrior who wielded a legendary polearm containing a spirit named Maha.
Luminous was a mage of Aurora created from the light that the Black Mage had cast aside. Though that light had been meant to fade away, the mages of Aurora used their light magic to reincarnate it as a young boy, Luminous, who became known as the Starchild. Fearing that the Black Mage may one day come to destroy him, the mages of Aurora raised another girl named Lucia, who was strong in light magic, as the false Starchild. Lucia grew up with Luminous and became close friends with him. When the Black Mage returned to wipe out Aurora, Luminous was able to escape, unknowingly leaving Lania to be killed by the Black Mage.
Mercedes was the queen of elves who considered it to be her duty to face the Black Mage. Mercedes was adored by two elf children named Athena Pierce and Lucid, who both wished to follow Mercedes into battle. Though Mercedes refused to put them in danger, Lucid decided to follow her on the night that she was set to leave. However, she found that Athena Pierce had gotten there first, and that Mercedes had agreed to allow her to come, entrusting her with the elven treasure, the Mistelteinn, for protection. Burning with jealousy, Lucid ran away from Elluel and used her dream magic to make all the elves forget that she ever existed.
Phantom was a master thief who stole from the rich. After hearing stories about a legendary gem called Skaia, said to belong to the Empress, he traveled to Ereve in order to steal it from Empress Aria. Instead of stealing it, however, he merely asked her to hand it over, which she refused. This quickly became a game for them, with both of them falling in love with each other. One night, Aria invited the Black Mage’s envoys to Ereve for a peace conference. However, Orchid and Lotus, who were sent by the Black Mage, instead attacked Ereve and killed Aria. Vowing revenge on the Black Mage and his Commanders, Phantom decided to join the Heroes in order to kill the ones who had taken his beloved, as well as to protect Aria’s dream for a better world.
A sixth hero, whose name was lost to time, was a pirate and Freud’s best friend. Having grown up alone, the pirate hero became close with the Heroes, whom he considered his family.
War Against the Black Mage:
After the destruction of the Anti-Black Mage Coalition at the hands of Von Leon, several other factions of resistance appeared.
Destonen was a legendary fighter, said to be the first pirate. He married a half-elf named Yuris and had a son named Tess. Around the time that Destonen fought in the war, the Black Mage used his powers to split the continent of Ossyria, causing a chunk of it to float off and become Victoria Island.
Before her death, Aria created the Silent Crusade to face the Black Mage’s Commanders and gather information on them. The organization went underground after her death, though it persisted for centuries after the war.
As the Heroes planned to stop the Black Mage, Freud created two contingency plans as backups in case they failed to defeat him. For both cases, he drew upon the power of the World Heart.
After the Ancient War, the power of the World Heart contained inside the Godspheres had permeated deep into the land with the deaths of all the Adversaries. Freud extracted this residual power and, using the scattered Godspheres as a template, he created his own, identical version of the Godspheres, which he called the Seal Stones, as they had been imbued with the power of time to seal the Black Mage.
For his first contingency plan, Freud placed a special sealing spell on five Seal Stones, which would bind the Black Mage to eternity in the case that the Heroes were unable to defeat him in combat.
For his second contingency plan, Freud planned to distribute several Seal Stones to different regions of Maple World. As the Seal Stones responded to the collective will of a population, Freud intended for the Seal Stones to be used as failsafes in the event that the Heroes failed to stop the Black Mage, and if the sealing spell failed.
By giving the Seal Stones to the various people of Maple World, he hoped that each region would be able to channel their collective willpower into the Seal Stones, thereby allowing them to undo the damage that the Black Mage had inflicted upon their lands. To this end, Freud distributed at least seven Seal Stones, one for each of the regions of Orbis, El Nath, Mu Lung, Ludibrium, Ereve, Ellin Forest, and Victoria Island.
Before Aria’s death, Freud had entrusted the Seal Stone of Ereve to Shinsoo. During Orchid and Lotus’ attack on the capital, the Knight of Light who served as the Empress’ guardian was killed in the battle. After the fallen Knight of Light was succeeded by his protégé, Shinsoo - who had grown too weak to protect anything without an Empress to claim her power - entrusted the Seal Stone to the next Knight of Light, who placed it within their Soul Shield, such that only a Knight of Light could extract it. Shinsoo then gave a new name to the Seal Stone - Shinsoo’s Teardrop - in memory of Aria’s death.
During the battle against the Black Mage, Alicia - moved by Ryude’s sacrifice - chose to help the Heroes in their quest to defeat the Black Mage, though her specific actions were unknown.
The Seal of Time:
In the final days of the war, the Black Mage planned to steal the powers of Rhinne, the Transcendent of Time. As the Transcendent of Time could not change their own destiny, Rhinne hoped to circumvent this by creating a child to succeed her, thus preventing the Black Mage from taking the power of time.
However, the Black Mage and his Commanders sieged the temple, where Arkarium blinded the Goddess and the Demon stunned her in place, allowing the Black Mage to take her Transcendent powers by absorbing them into the Abyss Crystal. He then used the power of time to freeze Rhinne in ice within the Temple of Time, while sealing her child in a different dimension.
With the Abyss Crystal’s power depleted from stealing Rhinne’s powers, the Black Mage planned to seal it away in a safe location for centuries until it could recharge. To this end, he placed the crystal in a subspace between Maple World and a parallel world called Friends World, which existed alongside Maple World together in the same dimension.
Having sensed Tana’s existence in Kritias as a Transcendent of Light with the power of creation, the Black Mage intended to lock her away until the Genesis Ritual. To this end, he used the power of time to pull Kritias of the past into his present, where his Commanders invaded and attacked the kingdom to erase any trace of Tana’s existence. The Black Mage then sealed Kritias into a pocket dimension where time stood still, thus sparing Tana from suffering the immense pain of disintegrating and reforming after the failed Ascendency ritual.
Due to the laws governing Transcendent powers, the Black Mage - similar to Darmoor using Chronica’s powers - was severely weakened. Furthermore, an Interdimensional Portal appeared in Maple World, which led to Grandis.
In order to carry out his plan of being sealed away, the Black Mage deliberately praised the Demon’s actions in the battle against Rhinne, while ignoring Arkarium’s contributions. As a result, Arkarium - who was the Demon’s rival - grew bitter and sought revenge. While the Demon rested after the battle, the Black Mage ordered the other Commanders to destroy the remainder of Ossyria.
In revenge, Arkarium attacked the Demon’s home in southern Leafre, where he killed the Demon’s mother. This caused Damien’s latent demon powers to awaken, destroying the entire house. In order to trick Damien into servitude as revenge against his brother, Arkarium made Damien believed that his awakening had killed his mother in the chaos.
Claiming that only a Transcendent could bring someone back from the dead, Arkarium promised to keep his mother frozen in time until the new Transcendent of Time who would succeed Rhinne in the future could rewind time on his mother’s body and revive her. For this reason, Damien swore loyalty to Arkarium and became his underling.
Meanwhile, the Demon awoke and learned that the rest of Ossyria had been wiped out. Furious at the Black Mage breaking his promise to leave his family alone, the Demon had his servant, Mastema, deliver a letter to the Heroes outlining his betrayal, as well as key information about the defenses around the Temple of Time. The Demon then confronted the Black Mage and managed to destroy his protective shield, though he was ultimately defeated.
Mastema delivered the letter to the Heroes, though they were quickly attacked by Arkarium. After chasing him off, the Heroes used the Demon’s attack as their best opportunity to attack the Black Mage. With Aran injured from the battle, the Heroes left Athena Pierce to evacuate the survivors of the Commanders’ attack to Victoria Island.
Soon after, Aran awoke and rushed off to help the Heroes after helping Athena bring everyone aboard the evacuation airship. With Phantom, Luminous, and the pirate hero facing the aerial forces with the Lumiere, Mercedes and Freud rushed ahead and began clearing a path to the Black Mage’s throne room. Aran soon caught up to the other Heroes after evacuating Leafre and single-handedly took care of the ground forces, clearing a path for Mercedes and Freud.
After taking out the aerial forces with the Lumiere, Phantom, Luminous, and the pirate hero landed at the Temple of Time. After Phantom rushed off on his own, Luminous and the pirate hero began heading to the throne room to reinforce Mercedes and Freud.
On their way, they encountered Guwaru, who was backstabbed by Magnus. After Magnus absorbed Guwaru’s spirit powers, thereby restoring his reduced lifespan that he had sustained at Kaiser’s hand, he betrayed the Black Mage and used the Interdimensional Portal to return back to Darmoor’s side.
Elsewhere, Phantom confronted Orchid and Lotus, nearly killing them both and putting Lotus into a coma. After Phantom disappeared, Orchid vowed to bring Lotus back and took his body away.
At the throne room, Luminous and the pirate hero found Mercedes unconscious and Freud severely injured from the battle. As they were unable to defeat the Black Mage, Freud decided that they would need to use their contingency plan to seal him away.
As the sealing spell required the time of a living person as a sacrifice, the pirate hero agreed to give up his existence, claiming that he had no family or worldly ties. After he sacrificed his existence into the seals, all records of his existence - including photographs and memories - were erased without a trace.
However, the one edge case was that Freud - as the creator of the sealing spell - knew that a component of the spell was a living sacrifice, which meant that he was aware that someone must have given up their existence, though all details about that person were erased from his mind.
With the sealing spell catalyzed, Luminous fought the Black Mage in a fierce battle. In order to draw out the power of time, Luminous forced the Black Mage to the limits of his power by pitting his light magic against the Black Mage’s dark magic, giving the Black Mage no other choice but to use the stolen power of time to get an edge.
The instant that he did, the sealing spell absorbed that power into the Seal Stones, which created a Seal of Time with the Transcendent of Time’s power. As the Black Mage attempted to break the seal, Luminous rushed ahead and forced him back. However, the physical contact between the Black Mage and the remnant of his light caused a power transfer, resulting in Luminous absorbing a trace of the Black Mage’s dark Transcendent powers. The Black Mage was then sealed away behind the Gate of the Present, expelling the Heroes from the Temple of Time. With the power of time sealed away with the Black Mage, the Interdimensional Portal also disappeared from Maple World.
PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE
The Long Peace:
Before being sealed away, the Black Mage cursed all the Heroes to be frozen in ice.
From the future, Arkarium traveled back in time to the moment after the Black Mage was sealed, hoping to get revenge on the Heroes and the Demon by killing them when they were weakened from the battle. In order to stop him, several Silent Crusade agents were dispatched to the past.
One Crusader encountered Maha and an unconscious Aran. After they helped repair the polearm, Maha used his power to take Aran to Rien, where she was eventually frozen. The Crusader then encountered Afrien, along with an unconscious Mercedes and Freud. They helped Afrien reclaim his lost egg, which contained the last Onyx Dragon, and offered a portion of their vitality to save Mercedes’ life.
After awakening from her injuries, Mercedes returned to Elluel and realized that as the destiny of the elves was tied to their ruler, all the elves shared Mercedes’ curse, which would freeze them all. After closing the borders of the kingdom, Mercedes and her people were frozen in ice.
Phantom, his crew, and the Lumiere itself were all frozen and crashed beneath the waters of the Rien Archipelago.
The Demon, severely injured from the battle, created a protective egg to hibernate in.
After Freud awoke, he used his time magic to create a Barrier of Time, twisting time around the moment that the Black Mage was sealed. By doing so, he ensured that time could not flow backwards past that point, ensuring that no one would be able to prevent the seal from being created.
After traveling to the past, Arkarium was unable to find the Demon in Leafre. Blinded by his short-sighted jealously and hubris, Arkarium intended to break through the barrier by stealing the powers of Rhinne, who was sealed within the Temple of Time, thereby allowing him to travel even further in the past and kill the Demon before he could weaken the Black Mage’s defenses, which would make the Heroes exhausted and easier to kill.
However, Arkarium was defeated by the Crusader, who stopped him from breaking the seal. Nevertheless, as a result of Arkarium’s interference, the seal was weakened and began to slowly degrade over the centuries.
After the battle, Freud took Afrien to Turtle Island near Rien, where Afrien slowly froze the entire island. Freud then hid Afrien’s egg in order to ensure that a future Dragon Master would be able to create a new Spirit Pact with Afrien’s child.
Meanwhile, Shinsoo led the refugees of Ossyria to Victoria Island. Though they intended to land on the southern plains, a dragon attack caused them to crash-land in Ellin Forest instead. As the refugees formed Altaire Camp and began colonizing the area, the Fairy Queen Ephenia was convinced by a mysterious sorcerer named Kirston to turn again the humans of Altaire Camp.
From the future, a traveler arrived in Ellin Forest and began helping the settlers, eventually killing Ephenia before she could destroy the camp. During this time, Destonen - who had become a key pioneer of Altaire Camp - discovered Kirston’s tent and learned that Kirston was enamored by the Black Mage’s dangerous ideals and hoped to free him from his seal.
After discovering Destonen in his tent, Kirston cursed Destonen’s bloodline and later released a toxin that was carried through the rainfall, resulting in the death of Destonen’s wife, Yuris, shortly after she gave birth to their second child, Kyrin. Destonen soon succumbed to the curse, which split itself between the two members of his bloodline: Tess and Kyrin. As the curse worsened in close proximity with each other, Tess left Kyrin with Athena Pierce and began a centuries-long search to break the curse.
Over time, the people of Maple World began rebuilding after the war. Because the Demon had been a Commander, the survivors of Leafre drove out the peaceful demons back to Tynerum, including Damien, where they were subjugated to a brutal life of slavery.
Meanwhile, Alicia visited a fallen Ryude at the Dragon Master’s Tower one final time. After taking his sword back to the Tower of Oz in his memory, Alicia retreated beneath the World Tree and planned to seal herself away in Root Abyss in order to recover her vitality after being attacked by the Black Mage during the war.
Before she did, however, Freud sought her out in order to ask her to help him find a way to put an end to the darkness that persisted in Maple World, even after the Black Mage’s death. Alicia directed Freud to the ruins of Abraxas, an Ancient God whose consciousness was imbued into a sanctum that recorded the entire history of Maple World with the power of the gods.
In Abraxas, Freud learned about the creation of the Abyss Crystal, as well as the fact that the Black Mage had sealed it away in a subspace between Maple World and Friends World. Realizing that the Black Mage would one day reclaim the Abyss Crystal and take Alicia’s powers, thereby destroying the balance of the world completely, Freud began making preparations to stop him.
As the subspace barrier prevented him from crossing worlds, Freud decided to make preparations to help the Heroes stop the Black Mage in the distant future. Freud cast an encryption spell upon the ruins in order to hide the history of the Abyss Crystal from all but his successor - the future Dragon Master. After discovering that Abraxas’ true form was a massive airship, Freud hid Abraxas away so that the Heroes could use the Ancient God to travel to Friends World.
On Maple Island, those who followed in the footsteps of the First Explorer, a legendary Adversary from eons ago, created the towns of Amherst and Southperry around the Maple Tree that the First Explorer loved dearly. Those who hoped to become Explorers began their journeys on Maple Island in honor of the First Explorer.
On Victoria Island, the people of Altaire Camp created Henesys as their capital, build on the southern plains that they had initially been hoping to reach. In Henesys, Athena Pierce remained the only elf who escaped the Black Mage’s curse, as the elven treasure Mistelteinn, which Mercedes had entrusted her with, protected her from its effects. Settling in Henesys, Athena became the bowman instructor for Explorers.
Lohd, a powerful thief, founded Kerning City for those who wished to become thieves and became its first Dark Lord.
Ellin Forest - named after Ellin, a fairy ally of Altaire Camp who rose to power after Ephenia’s death - eventually developed into the city of Ellinia, a town where fairies and humans could coexist. A powerful magician named Grendel the Really Old helped foster positive relationships between the two races and became the magician instructor.
Crawls with Balrog - an infant refugee - eventually founded the town of Perion in the barren mountains, which had once been part of the kingdom of Sharenian before its fall. Perion was filled with relics from the time of Sharenian, many of which were excavated by archeologists interested in the early history of the region.
After Empress Aria’s death, the bloodline of the Empress was severed, as Aria had no direct descendants. Though her niece was next-in-line of succession, she had fled Ereve during the war and faded into obscurity. With no living Empress to claim the power of Shinsoo, Ereve grew weaker in power and influence. However, the Knight of Light who protected the Empress and the Seal Stone of Ereve remained, with new guardians being chosen over the ages by the Soul Shield.
An unprecedented time of peace soon came upon Maple World and lasted for centuries, with civilizations thriving and monsters growing weaker over the ages, thus creating more safety and stability.
The Shadow War:
Around 300 years ago, a mysterious war broke out in Maple World. Though nearly all details about its origins and history remained shrouded in mystery, it was rumored that Lotus, whose spirit was capable of leaving his comatose body and possessing others, may have been the cause. A tome called the Book of Ancient, filled with powerful forbidden spells, was used as a weapon during the course of the war.
After the Ancient War eons ago, those whom Shinsoo had protected formed the Noblesse in order to carry out her will and protect the weak. For ages, the Noblesse had fought to defend Maple World, though many had been killed when Orchid and Lotus attacked Ereve centuries ago.
During the war from 300 years ago, the Noblesse fought alongside several others, such as Athena Pierce, in order to bring an end to the conflict. However, many Noblesse fell in battle during the war, bringing about their extinction. Over the next few centuries, few people would remember that such a war had even occurred. Though the Noblesse had gone extinct, their ideals would be passed down over generations through their descendants, thus keeping a spark of their memory alive.
A powerful wizard in El Nath, Alcaster, had been born shortly before the start of the war, making him one of the few in the present day who had personally lived through the conflict.
The Age of Monsters:
Though the mysterious war had ended, true peace never returned. Across Maple World, great monsters began to appear across the lands.
A war between the dragons of Leafre took place between the last two of the three Great Kings, Nine-Spirit and Horntail, who fought in the absence of the third Great King, Afrien.
To undermine Nine-Spirit’s rule, Horntail stole his egg and killed Nine-Spirit, whose followers fled Leafre. However, Horntail was gravely injured in the battle and retreated to the Cave of Life in order to recover, planning to one day use the egg to expand his rule beyond Leafre. Under his influence, all the lesser dragons were corrupted and became evil, while the Halflingers who served the dragons cowered in fear.
Deep in the mines of El Nath, there was a spirit named Zakum who was sealed in a tree. A mining town that once existed nearby eventually discovered this tree. At the time, Zakum was a peaceful spirit who had no enemies, but the greed of the miners corrupted it.
As the corruption ran deeper, Zakum grew smarter and soon gained the power to control the town's populace. It forced them to build an enormous statue in tribute, after which it possessed the statue and eventually killed everyone in the town.
Around the mine, all the trees in the forest began to wither under Zakum’s dark influence, which also caused the zombies of the dead townspeople to appear, who began to roam the Forest of Dead Trees.
Long ago, the King of Ludibrium had made a deal with the Goddess Rhinne to stop time in his kingdom, allowing his people to remain youthful forever. However, when time was attempted to be restarted for unknown reasons, several cracks began appearing across spacetime, from which strange monsters appeared from another dimension. Among them was the evil Papulatus, whose influence turned the toys of Ludibrium into monsters. With the Dimensional Schism widening, more and more monsters began wreaking havoc across the kingdom.
A powerful being named Lord Balrog was an evil creature who threatened to destroy Maple World. According to legend, Balrog had been sealed away by the heroic warrior Tristan, though Balrog had sworn to one day return and rule Maple World.
Tristan, Mu Young, the 7th Dark Lord Sung, and his apprentice Jin, had discovered that a mysterious threat had been destroying records of key events in Maple World, and so they had taken it upon themselves to stop it.
Under the guise of hunting Balrog, the four tracked down the threat below the Cursed Temple. Knowing that it had the power of possession, they shielded their minds to keep the enemy from possessing them.
What they hadn’t anticipated, however, was that Sung’s adopted daughter and Jin’s lover, Syl, had secretly followed them. Their target, who was the spirit of Lotus, took over Syl’s body and attacked them.
Unwilling to strike her down, both Sung and Tristan allowed themselves to be killed by Syl before Jin wrested her sword out of her hands. After Lotus released her, she was horrified to see the bodies of her father and Tristan, as well as a bloody sword in Jin’s hands.
With no memory of her time being possessed, she concluded that Jin had killed Tristan and her father, and so she swore revenge against him. Jin became the 8th Dark Lord and Syl took to the shadows, adopting the title of Lady Syl and founding a rogue group of thieves called the Dual Blades, whose purpose was to overthrow the Dark Lord and seize control of Kerning City.
Meanwhile, Kirston, the dark magician who helped Ephenia poison Altaire Camp, began researching relics of the Ancient Gods. In the ruins of Partem, he discovered a relic of an Ancient God and attempted to reproduce its power.
As the relic had been created in the time before the Transcendents, he attempted to turn back time on the relic in order to reveal its full potential. However, the Barrier of Time created by Freud prevented time from going back any further than the moment the Black Mage’s seal was created, and the resulting failure placed a curse on the relic.
Rise of the Black Wings:
Over the centuries, Orchid spent all her time trying to find a way to revive her comatose brother. Eventually, she encountered a scientist named Gelimer, who agreed to help her.
For many years, Gelimer had been conducting unethical experiments to evolve humanity by removing the concept of emotion. In order to do this, he kidnapped a young boy from Edelstein and turned him into an android named Xenon. Along with another girl named Beryl, Gelimer conditioned and trained his test subjects in order to become the ultimate beings, devoid of emotion and operating purely on logic.
When Orchid approached Gelimer, he was amazed at the perfect body that Lotus had been given by the White Mage. Though he promised that he would revive her brother, Gelimer secretly plotted to keep Lotus for himself and turn him into the ultimate android.
Orchid then founded the Black Wings to carry out her plans and recruited members by claiming that she was planning to resurrect the Black Mage, who would grant them all their wishes. The Black Wings rose to power as a militant cult and seized control of Edelstein in order to take control of its rue mines for Gelimer’s experiments.
The Black Wings placed their own puppet leader and installed watchmen and patrol bots around the city in order to subjugate the people. Meanwhile, the Black Wings’ high-level officers used their unique powers to harvest enough energy to revive the Black Mage, unaware that they were really helping Orchid revive Louts.
With complete access to an enormous source of energy, Gelimer moved on to the next phase in his plan. He began experiments to create an augmented clone of Lotus’ body by making copies of his genetic code and splicing it with that of other creatures, magically enhancing the bodies with alchemy.
However, while he conducted his genetic experiments publicly in the Verne Mine, they were merely for show, as he secretly funneled Black Wings resources into his own private research, creating a secret facility from which he conducted his android experiments away from Orchid’s prying eyes, as he did not wish her to know that he planned to turn Lotus into an android and take control of him. Portions of these genetic experiments in the Verne Mine would also be incorporated into his Xenoroid project.
Meanwhile, the Black Mage’s seal continued degrading as a result of Arkarium’s interference. As the seal began weakening, the curse on the Heroes also began fading away. Luminous was the first to awaken in Ellinia, where he met a little girl named Lania. After learning that centuries had passed and the world was at peace, Luminous decided to live with Lania and raised her over many happy years.
On Rien, a small clan who still remembered the legend of the Heroes held faith that the lost hero, Aran, who remained frozen on the island, would one day awaken. Over the centuries, the Rien Clan continued passing down the prophecy of the Heroes’ return, though many slowly began to lose faith. One by one, the clan began to leave Rien until only two siblings, Lilin and Neinheart von Rubistein, remained.
Eventually, even Neinheart lost faith in the prophecy and decided that he would rather take fate into his own hands by finding the lost descendent of Empress Aria, who could then become the next ruler of Maple World. However, Lilin and Neinheart got into an argument over his decision, and when Lilin refused to abandon Rien and her faith in Aran’s return, Neinheart left her behind.
After a long and difficult search, Neinheart succeeded in finding the descendent of Aria’s niece, a young girl named Cygnus. He brought her before the Senate of Ereve, hoping that they would recognize her as the heir to Ereve. The Senate gave Cygnus a year to train and prepare herself to be judged before them.
In order to train Cygnus, Neinheart called a wandering warrior who owed him a debt. Over the course of the year, Cygnus was trained in matters of leadership, elegance, and wisdom. Towards the end of the year, Cygnus fell ill and required medicine from Mu Lung.
After learning from her spies that Ereve had sought out children’s medicine, Orchid realized that the Empress’ descendant had been found. The Black Wings were then sent to attack Ereve, which had no protective barrier without an Empress to wield Shinsoo’s power.
While Cygnus was being judged by the Senate, the Black Wings sieged the island. In the crisis, Cygnus accepted the heavy burden of leadership and claimed the power of Shinsoo, restoring the protective barrier. The forces of Ereve drove the Black Wings out with the help of the wandering warrior. Following the battle, Cygnus was crowned the next Empress of Maple World.
The Knights of Cygnus:
As her first act as Empress, Cygnus formed the Cygnus Knights - an order of knights sworn to defend Maple World. As their ranks grew, Neinheart suggested that they find the legendary jewel, Shinsoo’s Teardrop, which had once protected Ereve with its power, believing that it would strengthen Cygnus’ legitimacy.
Though the Knight of Light had protected Shinsoo’s Teardrop inside their Soul Shield for generations, the Soul Shield had gone missing after the mysterious death of the last Knight of Light, Chromile, for which Cygnus and Neinheart began searching for it.
In a remote corner of Maple World, a boy named Mihile trained to become the Knight of Light and awaken the Soul Shield, having been told by his father, Atan, that the Soul Shield contained a magical jewel that could grant any wish. In order to revive his older brother, who had died before his birth, Mihile hoped to claim the jewel and make his father’s dream come true.
While Atan was away, Mihile discovered Cygnus being attacked by wild dogs. After saving her, he found that the Soul Shield lit up in her presence. Cygnus and Neinheart realized that Mihile had the qualifications to be the Knight of Light and brought him to Ereve in order to be trained.
In Ereve, Mihile learned that the former Knight of Light, Chromile, had died alongside his wife and son, though the elders of Ereve believed that Mihile looked quite similar to Chromile. During his time training, Mihile learned that the Knight of Light was meant to be the Empress’ guardian, which his father had never told him.
Meanwhile, Atan returned home and found that Mihile had left behind a letter, in which he had written that he had gone to Ereve. Furious, Atan decided to storm the island in order to get Mihile back.
While Mihile was away on a mission, Atan attacked Ereve and defeated all its forces. Mihile returned to find Atan attacking Cygnus and rushed to defend her. As he blocked Atan’s attack, the Soul Shield broke into two and fell to the ground.
Atan attempted to convince Mihile that the people of Ereve were lying to him, reminding him of his ties to family. Though he was deeply conflicted, Mihile hesitantly used his power as the Knight of Light to extract Shinsoo’s Teardrop from the broken Soul Shield and gave it to Atan.
Declaring that he would revive his one and only son, Atan prayed desperately for Shinsoo’s Teardrop to grant his wish. However, as Shinsoo’s Teardrop was actually the Seal Stone of Ereve, it remained inert to Atan’s thoughts, as the Seal Stones could only grant the wish of a population, rather than any one individual.
Unable to make his wish come true, a furious Atan revealed that Mihile was not his biological son. He explained that long ago, his own son had been killed at a young age, for which Atan had hoped to train under Chromile and be selected as the next Knight of Light, believing that he could extract Shinsoo’s Teardrop and make his wish come true.
After attempting to steal the Soul Shield, Atan had been exiled by Chromile. Furious, Atan had attempted to take the Soul Shield one night at Chromile’s home, killing his wife after being caught. While fighting Chromile, Atan had learned that an infant Mihile had reacted to the Soul Shield. After killing Chromile, Atan had kidnapped Mihile and raised him as his son, hoping to manipulate the boy into extracting Shinsoo’s Teardrop by making him believe that his biological son was Mihile’s older brother.
Having failed to bring his son back, Atan attempted to kill Cygnus in his hatred. Mihile fought Atan off in a fierce battle, which resulted in Atan falling off a cliff. Despite Atan’s betrayal, Mihile chose to save his adoptive father, who was filled with remorse and let go of Mihile’s hand, plummeting to his death.
Mihile then chose to give Shinsoo’s Teardrop back to the Empress as its rightful custodian and swore to serve her as the next Knight of Light, receiving a new Soul Shield from Shinsoo.
Over time, the Cygnus Knights continued to grow, with several new Knights - Oz, Irena, Eckhart, and Hawkeye - being recruited. Along with Mihile, the five of them investigated unusual behavior of Drakes in Sleepywood, which had gone berserk.
The five discovered a strange chemical that had been making the Drakes go berserk, which - unbeknownst to them - had been a hallucinogen created by Admiral Martini of the Black Wings as part of an experiment.
Soon after, Martini used the hallucinogen on several Cygnus Knights of Ereve, which had begun attacking the other Knights on the island. After Mihile and the others helped quell the rampage, they were promoted to Chief Knights and were bonded with elemental spirits.
As Chief Knights, Mihile and the others began growing closer and learned more about each other:
Irena had been a forester in Leafre who had joined the Cygnus Knights after meeting several refugees of Ariant and learning about their harrowing life under the selfish Queen Areda.
Oz was a prodigy in a long line of magicians, having joined the Knights in order to use her talents to protect the world.
Hawkeye had been the heir to a wealthy company in Lith Harbor, having run away from home in order to escape his sterile and superficial life amongst the upper class. After traveling the world, he had become a Knight in order to give people the freedom that he loved.
Eckhart was an orphan and a thief from El Nath who had been taken in by a woman who led a band of thieves that stole from the rich and gave to the poor. After the bandits had been wiped out by the angry nobles, Eckhart had been the last survivor and took his mentor’s mask before joining the Knights in order to carry out the will of his fallen comrades to bring justice to the world.
The Resistance:
To take back their home, the people of Edelstein banded together and formed the Resistance under the leadership of Headmaster Ferdi. The childhood friends of Xenon - Claudine, Brighton, Belle, and Elex - joined with another man named Checky and became key leaders of the Resistance, posing as meek citizens in public and training members to fight the Black Wings in secret.
After growing in numbers, the Resistance reached out to the Cygnus Knights in order to launch a joint operation to drive out the Black Wings.
During this time, Eleanor the Black Witch - a powerful officer of the Black Wings - tricked a Cygnus Knight into bringing a cursed scale back to Ereve, as a limitation of Shinsoo’s protective barrier was that it could not prevent residents of Ereve from bringing in dark magic.
Because of her curse, all of Ereve was turned into stone. Though Eleanor was defeated by a Cygnus Knight who had been away from Ereve at the time, her plan successfully prevented the Cygnus Knights from reinforcing the Resistance.
As a result, the Resistance went into battle expecting reinforcements that never arrived. The failed attack resulted in heavy casualties, and the Resistance was forced underground once again.
Believing that the Cygnus Knights had betrayed them by going back on their word, the Resistance vowed that they would take back their city alone, with this event sparking heavy animosity between the two.
Special Explorers:
On Victoria Island, new Explorers arrived from Maple Island in order to train under the four job instructors: Athena Pierce, Grendel the Really Old, Dances with Balrog, and the Dark Lord.
One day, a large ship called the Nautilus docked on Victoria Island, from which an adult Kyrin emerged. Having learned about the threat of the Black Wings on her voyages, Kyrin returned back home to warn the people of Maple World that the Black Wings were planning to revive the Black Mage, for which she decided to train Explorers in the way of the pirate, carrying on the legacy of her father, Destonen.
One Explorer-hopeful was on his way to Victoria Island when his ship was attacked by a Crimson Balrog. Crashing on Coco Island, he was rescued by a Monkey and met a man named Cutter, who had been the chief architect of the Nautilus. Having crashed on Coco Island while devising a superweapon on Kyrin’s orders, Cutter worked with the Explorer and Monkey to escape inside the giant cannon that he had created. After escaping and arriving aboard the Nautilus, the Explorer was given the cannon superweapon and became the Cannoneer, with Monkey at his side.
Another Explorer was recruited by a Dual Blade named Ryden while on their way to meet the Dark Lord. The Explorer was convinced to follow Lady Syl and joined the Dual Blades.
Posing as a regular thief, the Dual Blade was sent by Lady Syl to train under the Dark Lord and spy on him. During their investigation, they learned that the Dark Lord, rather than killing Lady Syl’s father, had actually been working with him to find the unknown threat which had been erasing the history of Maple World.
After learning the truth about how the mysterious force had possessed Syl and killed Syl’s father and Tristan, the Dual Blade reported back to Lady Syl, who was shocked to learn the truth. Soon after, Syl agreed to set aside her grudge against the Dark Lord and united with him as one faction.
Another Explorer was a bowman known as the Pathfinder, who was Athena Pierce’s greatest student. On the hunt for ancient ruins and artifacts, the Pathfinder one day discovered a compass relic inside the ruins of Partem, which cursed her upon contact.
In order to break the curse, the Pathfinder began investigating Partem and came across the native Karuppa race, which was afraid of the cursed ruins that emitted terrifying noises. After the Karuppa learned that the Pathfinder was in possession of the cursed relic, many of them turned away from her, though a girl named Brie decided to help her and put an end to the scary noises from the ruins.
Together, the Pathfinder and Brie braved the dangers of the ruins and discovered a Soul inside a chamber at the heart of the temple. The Soul revealed that during the era of the Ancient Gods, the Karuppa had once created the relic from the wood of a sacred tree containing the power of an Ancient God.
Fashioned in the shape of a compass, the relic had been worshipped by the Karuppa, capable of healing the injured and guiding the lost. However, after the Overseers had established order in the universe by suppressing the Ancient Gods, the relic had lost its power after the gods had disappeared, eventually becoming nothing more than a legend.
Centuries ago, Kirston - described by the Soul as merely a black-robed man - had cursed the relic before disappearing. The Soul told the Pathfinder that the relic contained both Kirston’s cursed energy and the Ancient God’s divine energy, which had melded together into one. Though the curse on the relic itself could not be erased, the Soul explained that if the Pathfinder became the relic’s true owner, the curse on herself could be lifted.
The Pathfinder decided to become the relic’s owner and decided to go on a mission to grow closer to it. Meanwhile, Brie returned back home, having learned from the Soul that the strange noises had been meant to ward the Karuppa away from the cursed energy, which it would cease producing, now that the relic was no longer there.
As the Pathfinder grew stronger, she was directed by the relic to a stone in Perion that contained a portion of the relic’s divine power. After absorbing its power, the Pathfinder had a vision of Kirston, who had obtained the keys to the relic and had rejoiced that he would be able to reproduce the ancient power. He had also declared that he now had proof that the ancient power had existed in Maple World as well, causing the Pathfinder to wonder whether Kirston had come from another world.
The Pathfinder was later directed by the relic to Aqua Road, where it absorbed more divine power from another stone there. She had another vision of Kirston, who had lamented that the relic’s power had been “blocked”, just as anticipated.
Seeking answers, she returned to Partem and met with the Soul, who recognized that the curse had completely lifted on her, now that she had become the relic’s true owner. The Soul explained that Kirston had been attempting to turn back time on the relic to reproduce its full power from the era of the Ancient Gods, though he had been stopped by a temporal barrier, which - unbeknownst to the Pathfinder - was the same barrier created by Freud to prevent time from flowing back beyond the point that the Black Mage’s seal had been created.
Having become the relic’s true owner, the Pathfinder vowed that she would use its power to help the world.
Puppeteer Francis:
In order to collect more power for Gelimer’s experiments, Orchid sent Francis the Puppeteer to find the Seal Stones that the Heroes had left behind as failsafes centuries ago, believing that they held enough energy for Gelimer to revive Lotus. In order to hide her true intentions, Orchid told the Black Wings officers that finding and destroying all the Seal Stones would allow the Black Mage to return.
Francis used his powers to create puppets, which manipulated the behavior of the monsters around Victoria Island so that he could use them to search for the Seal Stones.
On Rien, Aran awoke from the ice and was found by Lilin, who was overjoyed to see the lost hero return. As Aran had lost all her memories and power, Lilin promised to help her as she fulfilled her destiny to defeat the Black Mage once and for all.
After training on Rien, Aran was sent to Lith Harbor, where she met with Tru, a member of the Rien Clan who had left the island long ago. As an information broker, Tru agreed to help Aran regain her strength and learn about Maple World while undergoing missions to gather intelligence for him. Aran was sent to investigate the strange behavior of the monsters around Victoria Island, which seemingly had gone berserk out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, a boy named Evan had a dream about an Onyx Dragon and awoke to find the mark of the Spirit Pact on his hand. While doing chores around his family’s farm, he fell down a covered hole and found an Onyx Dragon egg, from which hatched a baby dragon named Mir.
With their souls bonded through the Spirit Pact, Mir convinced Evan to fulfill his destiny as a Dragon Master by helping others. Evan began helping the people of Henesys and soon began investigating the sudden disturbance of monsters around the town. Soon after, Evan decided to join the Victoria Guard and began helping them spread the word about the monster attacks throughout the island.
At the same time, Aran learned that a strange boy had been sighted around Victoria Island, and that he was likely the cause for the sudden appearance of puppets that were influencing the monsters. Aran discovered his hideout and learned that he was affiliated with the Black Wings. After defeating him, she learned that he had been tasked with recovering the Seal Stone of Victoria Island.
While helping Victoria Island, Evan began doing research on Mir and his species. He learned that Mir was an Onyx Dragon, which were said to be extinct. Refusing to believe that his kind were gone, Mir asked Evan to keep investigating.
Hunt for the Seal Stones:
In order to get revenge on Aran for defeating him, Francis asked Baroq the Master of Disguise to lure her back to Tru’s shop by disguising himself as Tru. After she defeated Francis again, the real Tru promised to put all his efforts into locating the Seal Stone of Victoria Island.
Meanwhile, while researching the Onyx Dragons, Evan and Mir learned from Chief Tatamo of Leafre that a dark force had wiped out the Onyx Dragons centuries ago.
Soon after, Evan investigated reports of a thief stealing herbs in Sleepywood. Evan learned that the thief was one of Francis’ puppets, which had stolen the herbs to heal Francis after he had lost to Aran. Grateful for Evan’s help, the puppet pulled some strings with Francis in order to allow Evan to become a temporary member of the Black Wings, which Evan accepted, mistakenly believing that the Black Wings were a noble organization that helped others.
Around this time, Phantom was freed from the ice and remained largely underground. Tru, who had been investigating the Seal Stones, met with Phantom and recruited his help in finding the Seal Stone of Victoria Island, which Tru asked Aran to give to Lilin for safekeeping.
For Evan’s first mission, he obtained a special growth serum for the Black Wings, which they used on the Nependeaths of Orbis. Aran began investigating the sudden growth of the creatures and learned that the Black Wings had grown the Nependeaths in order to make them tall enough to reach the Sealed Garden, which contained the Seal Stone of Orbis. Aran attempted to stop the Black Wings and fought Dargoth the Giant, though she was unable to stop a top officer named Hiver from taking the Seal Stone.
For Evan’s second mission, he worked with a Hoblin named Shammos in El Nath in order to obtain a black key, which he left behind for the Black Wings, who used it to steal the Seal Stone of El Nath.
Soon after, Aran followed leads on Black Wings activity in Mu Lung and learned that the Shadow Knight of the Black Wings was planning to take the Seal Stone of Mu Lung. Aran attempted to stop the Shadow Knight in the Sealed Temple, though Hiver managed to take the Seal Stone first. Nevertheless, Aran learned from Mu Gong that the Seal Stones had been left behind by the Heroes centuries ago, and that no one knew what their purpose was.
Evan soon heard rumors of an Onyx Dragon on a remote island and attempted to travel there. Though they found a slumbering dragon there, they were unable to get past the large ice wall blocking them, and so he decided to turn back.
Soon after, Aran followed leads on a crack in time appearing in Ludibrium, which led to Ellin Forest from centuries ago. There, Aran met with Athena Pierce in Altaire Camp and attempted to obtain the Seal Stone of Ellin Forest, though Hiver traveled back into the past and grabbed it first.
Athena then attempted to give Aran an important letter that the Heroes had given to her, but as Aran could not take objects into the future, Athena asked Aran to find her in the future, as elves lived for centuries. In the present, Aran found Baroq attacking Athena and reading the letter. After Aran defeated Baroq, Athena gave her the letter, which Lilin decoded.
Lilin learned that the letter had been written by the Heroes to the Empress of their time, asking her to protect the Seal Stone of Ereve. Knowing that the Black Wings knew about the Seal Stone of Ereve’s existence, Aran warned Neinheart about a possible attack.
Meanwhile, Evan met with Hiver and worked with him to steal the Seal Stone of Ludibrium. Feeling unease about whether he was truly doing the right thing, Evan and Mir began questioning the Black Wings and their motives.
Soon after, Evan obtained a map to Turtle Island for Hiver, who took them to the same island where they had found the sleeping Onyx Dragon dragon. After being tricked by Hiver into breaking the ice wall separating them from the dragon, Evan and Mir felt that something was wrong and stopped Hiver from killing the dragon.
The dragon then revealed himself as Afrien and told Evan the truth about the Black Mage destroying all the Onyx Dragons, as well as the fact that Mir was his child. Realizing that they had been used, Evan and Mir returned back to the sites of each of the missions and learned that the Black Wings had tricked them into stealing important treasures from each region. Furious, Evan and Mir sought out Hiver and attacked him, though he managed to escape. The two then decided to find Hiver and get even.
Meanwhile, Baroq attempted to steal the Seal Stone of Ereve, though Aran’s timely warning allowed the Cygnus Knights to stop him.
The Magician of Light:
For many years, Luminous lived in peace alongside Lania in her home. One day, however, the darkness that Luminous had obtained from the Black Mage manifested and destroyed Lania’s home, severely injuring her.
(A/N: There are two paths for Luminous’ story - the light path and the dark path - which the player can choose between in order to determine the course of Luminous’ first job storyline. By picking the light path, Luminous spends several months rebuilding Lania’s home before going on a mission to conquer his darkness. By picking the dark path, Luminous leaves Lania to die and sets out to master his powers.
Regardless of which path is chosen, the general events are largely the same. Luminous struggles to overcome his inner darkness, which warps his personality into something evil. If the dark path is chosen, Luminous will use his magic to threaten and intimidate others, while the light path will have him struggle harder to avoid hurting people.)
In order to overcome his darkness, Luminous worked with Grendel the Really Old in order to enter Harmony, the headquarters of Aurora. There, he met with the spirit of his old friend, Vieren, who used his light magic to stabilize Luminous’ inner turmoil, giving him the power to use both light and darkness.
Vieren told Luminous that light and darkness were merely two sides of the same coin, and that Luminous should try making the darkness his own in order to conquer it, despite Luminous’ dogmatic protests that the darkness was forbidden.
In order to master the darkness, Vieren sent Luminous on a mission to obtain the Auguries, powerful artifacts scattered behind by the masters of Aurora. After finding all the Auguries, Vieren began a ritual that caused the light and darkness inside Luminous to meld into a single equilibrium.
Having conquered his darkness, Luminous returned back to Lania, believing that he was no longer a danger to her. Upon returning, however, he found several of Arkarium’s snake minions in the area. Realizing that Lania was not safe, Luminous set out to fortify defenses around her home.
In order to protect her, Luminous build a Sentrobo - a robotic guardian of Aurora - and made a deal with the agents of Omega Sector to send an operative near her home. He also constructed a Light Barrier and sent Vieren to remain at her side.
Ruler of the Elves:
Mercedes awoke from the ice and was shocked to find that her people were still frozen, as well as that her strength had almost completely been drained. After struggling to become stronger, Mercedes set out into the world and learned that centuries had passed since her time.
Though she struggled against her feelings of hopelessness at being weak and alone in a changed world, Mercedes vowed to never give up and continued growing stronger.
Soon enough, the three elders - Philius, Astilda, and Danika - awoke and called Mercedes back to Elluel. They realized that the curse on the elves weakened as Mercedes grew stronger, which was why the elders - the strongest of the elves - had awakened first. Mercedes then realized that in order to free the rest of her people, she would need to return back to her full strength.
In order to find allies, Mercedes sought out Athena Pierce, who had been unaffected by the curse because of the elven treasure Mistelteinn. Soon after, however, Mercedes found herself the target of the Black Wings, who attacked the elven city. Realizing that Elluel had no defenses, Mercedes sought out Empress Cygnus, who dispatched the Cygnus Knights to protect Elluel.
Despite this, the Black Wings continued attacking Elluel while Mercedes was away by poisoning the water supply, forcing her to return back home and drive them out.
As she continued growing stronger, the Black Wings set up several ambushes to kill Mercedes. On one occasion, the Shadow Knight was dispatched to eliminate Mercedes, who defeated him and learned that the one who had given him his orders knew her personally. On another occasion, Hiver and Dargoth lured her into a trap by spreading rumors of a way to lift the curse on the elves, though Mercedes managed to best them and escape.
Soon after, Mercedes learned that an elf child had been taken by Baroq, who had shapeshifted himself as Mercedes in order to unfreeze the child and take them from Elluel. Mercedes traveled to the Verne Mine in order to get the child back and learned that Orchid was the one who had ordered the Black Wings to attack the elves. Mercedes managed to defeat Orchid, who was weaker without Lotus at her side, and took the elf child back to Elluel safely.
The Noblesse:
A traveler arrived in Ereve in order to become a Cygnus Knight and learned about the Noblesse from an elder of Ereve.
During the Ancient War, Shinsoo had protected many innocents from the chaos of the gods. After the end of the war, Maple World experienced a brief time of peace before humans began waging more wars in order to expand their territories. As Shinsoo had lost much of her power while protecting the weak, a small group of people whom she had saved remained at her side and learned from her teachings.
These heroes - bound by ideology, not bloodline - became known as the Noblesse, who had protected the innocent for ages until they had gone extinct. The traveler realized that their distant ancestors had been part of the Noblesse, and so they decided to carry on their legacy.
After becoming a Cygnus Knight, they were dispatched to Victoria Island in order to investigate the actions of Francis the Puppeteer. While fighting him, they learned that Francis had been dispatched by the Black Wings to harvest energy by using his puppets to influence the monsters of Victoria Island and take over every town.
They reported back to Neinheart, who dispatched them to Edelstein alongside 10 Boogies in order to investigate why the Black Wings wanted so much energy. During their mission, they found Black Wings propaganda denouncing Cygnus and her Knights as villains. They learned that the entire town hated the Cygnus Knights for betraying the Resistance, which 10 Boogies suspected was why the Resistance had stopped responding to all Cygnus Knight communication.
While investigating the Black Wing, the Knight met with the Resistance leaders and learned that it was their belief that the Cygnus Knights who had cut off all communication. Though the Resistance refused to help, the Knight continued investigating and soon rescued a group of local children, earning the Resistance’s grudging gratitude. Later on, Claudine began investigating the Knight's claim and came to realize that the Black Wings had been intercepting communication between the Cygnus Knights and the Resistance.
The Knight entered the Verne Mine and overheard Baroq and Francis speaking about how ‘the master’ had grown impatient with Gelimer for delaying ‘the resurrection’, and that she had been angry with Baroq for failing to obtain the Seal Stone of Ereve. The Knight was then caught by the pair, though they were rescued by the Resistance, who saved them in order to pay them back for saving the children.
Though Claudine told them that the Black Wings were funneling energy into the Verne Mine and searching for the Seal Stones, she emphasized that the Resistance would never trust the Cygnus Knights and told them to go back home.
Soon after, Neinheart sent the Knight on a mission to obtain a book from Helios Library, though they found that the Resistance had obtained it first. While they argued over the book, the Black Wings arrived, forcing the Knight and the Resistance to work together to defeat them. Claudine then reluctantly agreed to give the book to the Knight, admitting that they had earned her respect through their actions.
The Knight brought the book back to Neinheart, who explained that the book was a research journal that contained information about the Ancient Gods and their powers.
After the Knight told Cygnus about their experience with the Resistance, Cygnus expressed her belief that reconciliation between their two groups was still possible.
The Lion King’s Castle:
(A/N: It’s heavily suggested, but not confirmed, that the protagonist of the Lion King’s Castle theme dungeon is a member of the Silent Crusade. However, this protagonist is a different Crusader from the protagonist of the Arkarium prequest.)
A Crusader was called by a legendary Crusader named Krag to help him break the wards set up around the Lion King’s Castle. After breaking through, the Crusader encountered the ghosts of Luden, Von Leon’s chief knight, and Ifia, Von Leon’s wife.
The Crusader learned that Von Leon had chosen not to join the Anti-Black Mage Coalition of his time, believing that it would needlessly paint a target on his kingdom when they had nothing worth taking. Mistakenly taking his lack of action as proof that he had sided with the Black Mage, the Coalition had destroyed his castle and killed his wife. Driven to despair, Von Leon had sworn loyalty to the Black Mage in order to get his revenge on the ones who had taken everything from him.
The Crusader also helped Ifia, who believed that Von Leon had forgotten about her, in order to help her reunite with her husband. Though Von Leon refused to believe that Ifia’s spirit dwelled in the castle, the Crusader continued presenting him with evidence that only Ifia had known about, forcing him to believe that they were telling the truth.
When they brought Ifia’s ghost before him, Von Leon was unable to see her and believed that it was his punishment for having sold his soul to the Black Mage. Defeated, he gave the Crusader a pendant containing Ifia’s face, claiming that he didn’t deserve her memory.
The Crusader then worked with Krag to purify the evil energy in the castle. At Luden’s behest, the Crusader fought Von Leon and defeated him. However, due to the Black Mage’s power running through him, Von Leon remained immortal, unable to die until the Black Mage himself was killed.
Rise of the Resistance:
A young citizen of Edelstein stumbled across Gelimer’s laboratory in the Verne Mine while playing hide-and-seek with their friends. Inside, they encountered several children kept inside tanks, which Gelimer was experimenting upon. One of these children, Vita, urged the citizen to escape before Gelimer returned.
Unwilling to leave her behind, the citizen saved Vita and helped her escape the laboratory, though they were soon caught by the Black Wings. Just then, a Resistance agent codenamed J saved the pair and brought them back to Edelstein, where he took Vita back to the Secret Plaza, the headquarters of the Resistance.
Inspired by J’s bravery, the citizen decided to become a Resistance member and was soon recognized by the Resistance leaders, who invited them to the Secret Plaza. After joining their ranks, the Resistance member began undertaking missions to help the people of Edelstein.
During this time, they regularly visited VIta, who had been taken in by the Resistance under their protection. Happy to have a place where she belonged, Vita decided to use her skills to help the Resistance however she could.
Using what she had observed in the laboratory, Vita began creating medicine for the Resistance to make them stronger, which Claudine agreed to distribute. Soon after, however, the Resistance member was contacted by J, who told them that after analyzing the medicine, he had learned that it was actually poison that, while initially causing positive effects, would drain away the user’s life force after they developed a dependency on it.
Though Claudine imprisoned Vita for her actions, both she and the Resistance member believed that Vita’s actions made no sense, and that there must be something more to it, especially because Vita seemed genuinely shocked that her medicine had been poison.
In order to find a cure for the medicine, Claudine asked the Resistance member to obtain rare Feather Plants from the Dark Lord in Kerning City. However, the Dark Lord only had half the amount that the Resistance needed, though he told them that Ereve had stashes of Feather Plants.
The Resistance member reported the news back to Claudine, who refused to beg the Cygnus Knights for help, no matter the circumstances. Soon after, Eckhart gave the Resistance member the remainder of the Feather Plants as a gesture of goodwill, though Claudine would not accept the gift and decided to return them.
Demon Awakening:
Over the centuries, the Demon remained in hibernation inside his protective egg. This egg was found by the Black Wings, who began draining it for energy. After the Demon hatched from the egg, he realized that he had lost all his powers because of the energy drainage. Severely weakened, he was rescued by J and brought to the Secret Plaza.
After learning that they both had a common enemy in the Black Mage, the Demon and the Resistance agreed to work together.
(A/N: At this point, the Demon gets the choice to use his old Demon Fury to remain a Demon Slayer, or to give into his vengeance to awaken a new power as a Demon Avenger. The Demon Slayer is the canonical path for the Demon.)
The Demon began to grow stronger by helping the Resistance and soon encountered Mastema, who was stuck in a cat form after she had been attacked by Arkarium centuries ago. The Demon then formed a contract with Mastema in order to grow even stronger.
Soon after, he encountered a group of hooded demons who had been watching him. The youngest of the demons, who seemed to be their leader, appeared to recognize the Demon personally, causing him to grow interested in the leader’s identity. Unbeknownst to the Demon, this demon leader was his long-lost brother, Damien.
While investigating the Black Mage, the Demon learned from Alcaster that only Von Leon knew the full details of what had happened during the battle at the Temple of Time centuries ago, and so the Demon resolved to grow strong enough to confront Von Leon and learn the truth.
Soon after, the Demon met with Mercedes, who accepted a truce with him after learning that they were technically on the same side.
Mercedes later told the Demon that several demons had been sighted in Orbis. The Demon traveled there and found the demon leader and his officers placing a spell on the noble beast, Eliza. After the demons escaped, the Demon decided to investigate the return of the demons, who were meant to have disappeared from Maple World after the Black Mage’s sealing.
Stone Colossus:
A traveler was called to Leafre by Chief Tatamo, who told them about the appearance of a large giant called the Stone Colossus. After they agreed to help investigate, the traveler heard the voice of Guwaru, who told them that after his powers had been stolen by Magnus, he had been forced to recover from his injuries for centuries, causing him to be unable to carry out his duties as the King of Spirits and prevent the Colossus’ formation.
The traveler worked with the Halflinger expedition team and met with the Colossus, who had been branded with Damien’s mark of corruption. The traveler spoke with Guwaru and learned that the Colossus had been formed from thousands of lesser spirits, which had huddled together in fear after Magnus had abused and corrupted his powers.
In order to stop the corruption, the traveler defeated the monsters outside and inside the Stone Colossus - including several corrupted clones of Eliza - thereby freeing the Colossus from Damien’s influence.
Guardians of the Nova:
Decades after the end of the Flora Civil War and the fall of Heliseum, the Nova remained safe in the sanctuary city of Pantheon, protected by the four sacred stones that formed the Protective Shield.
Two children named Kyle and Velderoth became friends with a girl named Tear, who had been shunned by the Nova for having been born without magic or a tail. Together, they became the Heliseum Force and trained every day in order to become strong enough to take back their capital.
One day, the three of them found Nefarious Priests attempting to steal the eastern sacred stone. While Velderoth went to get help, Tear grabbed the stone and fell unconscious upon touching it. As the priests attempted to kill her, Kyle awakened as the next Kaiser and used his powers to defeat them, falling unconscious soon after.
The pair were brought to the infirmary, where Tear learned that the stone had been fused to her arm as a bracelet, thereby weakening the Protective Shield without the stone to lend its power.
Feeling guilty over her actions, Tear ran off as Kyle woke up. After learning about his destiny as Kaiser, Kyle was informed by Fenelle the high priestess and Cartalion the knight captain that, with Gerand Darmoor having awakened as the Transcendent of Life, the Nova would need to ally with other Transcendents in order to win the war.
Fenelle told Kaiser that according to Nova historical records, Darmoor had been the prince of the High Flora, and that he had been a staunch opponent of the Flora Civil War, believing that the High Flora and Verdant Flora needed to coexist peacefully.
During the final battle of the war, Darmoor had awakened as the Transcendent of Life in response to the massive amounts of carnage around him. Having gone insane from the loss of life, Darmoor had come to believe that peace was impossible in life as it currently existed, for which he had vowed to destroy all life and recreate it into perfect beings.
As Kaiser continued training to become the Guardian of the Nova, Tear heard the voice of Eskalade, an ancient dragon spirit. Eskalade explained that his spirit had resided in the holy relic of the Nova, which had been given to them by the Ancient Gods of the Nova. When Magnus had invaded Heliseum, the Nova had transferred the relic’s power into the sacred stones in order to transport them, with Eskalade’s spirit inadvertently being transferred from the relic into the eastern stone.
Eskalade offered to share his power with Tear, explaining that the condition to use the power of the sacred stone was to have a high reputation amongst the people. Though Eskalade had initially hoped to have Tear gain reputation with her prowess as a warrior, he instead used his power to turn her into an idol, Angelic Buster, which would allow her to become famous, even without innate magic or strength. As Angelic Buster began performing and gaining a following, she slowly began absorbing more of Eskalade’s powers, allowing her to become even stronger.
While Tear began practicing with her new powers, Velderoth slowly began growing jealous of Kaiser, whose newfound abilities had allowed him to grow even stronger than Velderoth.
Soon after, both Kaiser and Angelic Buster realized that the Nefarious Priests were attempting to steal the other three sacred stones. Though they attempted to fight off the priests, they were unable to stop the priests from taking the western sacred stone. With two of the stones gone, the Protective Shield was weakened, allowing Magnus to send in his Specter army.
While the Nova mounted their defenses, Angelic Buster used her connection to the sacred stones in order to find the stolen stone, which she brought back to Fenelle and Cartalion.
While the Protective Shield recharged, the Nova desperately attempted to hold off the invading Specters. Eventually, the shield came back on, instantly vaporizing all the Specters within its boundary. Kaiser then proposed the idea of deliberately turning off the shield in order to lure the Specters back in. After carrying out his plan, the Nova restored the shield, wiping out the entire Specter army at once.
However, Magnus arrived on the scene and easily defeated Kaiser, Angelic Buster, and Velderoth at once before he was chased away by the Nova army. Bitter and resentful of Kaiser and the power that he had supposedly been handed out, Velderoth decided to leave Pantheon and join Magnus, believing that Magnus could give him the power to match Kaiser.
With the entire Specter army destroyed and Magnus too prideful to ask Darmoor for reinforcements, the Heliseum Council believed that now was the optimal time to launch a counterattack on Tyrant’s Castle in order to take back their capital. In order to find powerful allies, the Council authorized Kaiser and Angelic Buster to use the Interdimensional Portal to explore the other.
Fenelle and Beldar - the leader of the Council - explained that the Interdimensional Portal had been created when Darmoor had stolen the powers of Chronica, which had caused a tear in the fabric of spacetime. Fearing that Darmoor or some other threat could use the portals to invade, the Nova had chosen to seal the portal for their own safety.
Fenelle explained that the three Overseers - the Overseers of Light, Life, and Time - watched over the three Transcendents from each of the three worlds. Fenelle explained that not all Transcendents were created equal, as some were created immortal, while others were born mortal and reincarnated.
She also added that Chronica, the Transcendent of Time, had been sealed away by Darmoor within the Chronica Sanctuary after he had stolen their powers, and that the Nova had no information on Aeona, the Transcendent of Light, other than the fact that she existed.
Kaiser and Angelic Buster then crossed through dimensions and arrived in Maple World. Around this time, the power of time that the Black Mage had stolen began leaking from the seal, allowing the Interdimensional Portal on Maple World to reappear.
Hero of Justice:
During the fall of Heliseum, the Nova princess had been rescued by the Nova General and brought to Gen, the leader of the Savage Terminal branch of the Shadowdealers. Gen had treated the princess’ injuries with a potent Shadowdealer medicine, but the side-effect of the medicine had caused her to fall into a coma for many decades.
After she awoke, the princess chose to reinvent herself in an attempt to escape the trauma of her past. She gave herself the new name of Cadena and used chains as her new weapon. As the chains got in the way of her Nova features, she cut off her horns, tail, and wings and used the pain as a reminder of her commitment to never be helpless again.
Despite only having been a member for a short time, Cadena quickly proved herself as one of the most skilled Shadowdealers and was soon assigned missions to undertake alone, often with the help of Coney, the branch’s subject matter expert.
During this time, Mr. Hazard - the second-in-command of the entire Shadowdealer organization - arrived on Savage Terminal and seized control of Gen’s branch. In resistance, Cadena and Coney joined with Gen in order to take back their branch.
Cadena infiltrated Mr. Hazard’s base and discovered a number of chemical reagents being used on animal test subjects, as well as logs regarding an upcoming surreptitious trade. Cadena disguised herself and intercepted the shipment that was being delivered to Hazard’s cronies by a robot from the Angler Company - a fearsome arms-dealer company known for its cruelty and powerful weapons.
After stealing the shipment, Cadena brought it back to Gen and Coney, who learned that the Angler Company had delivered schematics for a bioweapon called the Heliogene Device. Coney explained that the reagent experiments on animals was likely to harvest bioenergy to power the weapon, which Gen realized was likely because Hazard intended to sell the weapon to the High Flora.
Cadena managed to take all the parts that Hazard needed to complete the weapon before his cronies could obtain them, but she soon learned that the last component was a living person, for which Hazard had used several of Gen’s clients.
Cadena faced Hazard in his hideout and began to fight him. During the battle, Hazard grew several times larger, with his arms having Specter markings on them. Though Cadena managed to defeat him, Hazard unleashed toxic gas in order to paralyze her, causing her crest of the Nova royal family to fall out of her pocket. Hazard attempted to blackmail Cadena with the knowledge, though she soundly defeated him after he learned her secret.
Following Hazard’s defeat, Gen regained control over the Savage Terminal branch and handed Hazard over to the Shadowdealer High Council. After inheriting Hazard’s old contracts, Gen sent Cadena on a trade mission with one of Hazard’s contacts. When Cadena arrived at the trade location, however, she was shocked to find Magnus.
Recognizing him as the man who attacked Heliseum and destroyed her life, Cadena attempted to fight him, though she was quickly defeated before Gen saved her. Realizing that she was still too weak, Cadena decided to leave Savage Terminal with the help of Heliseum’s Shadowdealer branch and traveled to Maple World in order to train and grow stronger.
The Xenoroid:
Decades ago, a young boy from Edelstein had been kidnapped by Gelimer and turned into an android named Xenon alongside a girl named Beryl. Over the years, Xenon had his memory wiped as he trained to become Gelimer’s ultimate weapon.
One day, the Resistance discovered Gelimer’s secret laboratory, which he kept secret from Orchid. After Claudine was captured, Xenon recognized her from remnants of his old childhood memories. In order to learn more about his past, Xenon chose to betray Gelimer and helped Claudine escape with the help of his friend, Roo-D, a rabbit-fox Xenoroid.
At the Resistance headquarters, Xenon removed his control circuit to avoid being controlled by Gelimer, though this severely drained his energy and weakened him. The Resistance leaders were surprised to know that Xenon knew nothing about the Black Wings, despite Gelimer conducting his research for them. Belle, Elex, and Brighton were also surprised to find that Xenon was their childhood friend who had gone missing many years ago, though Xenon had nothing except vestigial memories of his past.
Beryl was soon dispatched by Gelimer in order to get Xenon back by following his Pulse, which all active Xenoroids emitted like a heartbeat. Weakened from her earlier battle with Xenon, she was defeated by a similarly-weakened Xenon and forced to retreat.
Believing that staying in Edelstein would put the Resistance at risk, Xenon decided to leave town. Though he fled to Henesys and even left Maple World by heading for Pantheon, Beryl continued tracking him with his Pulse. Soon after, Xenon was contacted by Veritas - a secret Resistance research command in Aqua Road - where he agreed to help the scientists there in exchange for them helping him mask his Pulse.
With the help of Veritas, Xenon installed Pulse Disruptors across Maple World in order to prevent Beryl from tracking him, thus allowing him to reunite with his friends in Edelstein.
Soon after, Xenon learned that Gelimer had secretly asked Dargoth and Francis to capture him without letting Orchid know, though Francis - who was infatuated with Orchid - had reservations about his orders. After Xenon defeated Dargoth and forced him to retreat, he convinced Francis to lie to Gelimer and say that he had failed to capture Xenon.
Gate of the Past:
A traveler arrived at the Temple of Time and learned from the Temple Keeper that an intruder had broken into the Gate of the Past. The traveler agreed to help catch the intruder, and so the Temple Keeper gave them his blessings as a representative of Rhinne.
On their journey, the traveler had a portion of their memories consumed by Dodo, the Whale of Time. In order to recover them, they met with the Memory Keeper, who told them that in order to regain their memories of their innocent, youthful memories of their journey’s beginning, they would need to speak with the one who had helped them at the start of their adventure.
After recovering their memories, they proceeded down the Road of Regrets, where their emotions were frozen by Lilynouch the Ice Knight, preventing them from feeling the regret that they needed to make it past the Road of Regrets. In order to thaw their emotions, they met with the Sorcerer and purchased a potion that allowed them to restore their emotions.
At the end of the Road to Oblivion, they defeated Lyka, the Guardian of the Temple, but found the path to the deepest sanctum blocked. They spoke with the Record Keeper, who confirmed that the Goddess’ Promise of oblivion - the ability to forget - still held, meaning that there should be no reason why the path should be closed to them. The Memory Keeper realized that the intruder must have created a barrier, and so the traveler collected the materials for the Temple Keeper to break the barrier.
They proceeded ahead and entered the Dusk Temple in the Twilight of Gods, representing the temple at its earliest point in history. There, they encountered Kirston attempting to use the Mirror of the Goddess to physically move the past and unseal the Black Mage. However, a strange energy was emitted by the mirror, causing a monster named Pink Bean to appear.
Pink Bean used its power to cause the statues of the old gods to come to life, though the traveler defeated Pink Bean and forced it back through the mirror, leaving Kirston’s whereabouts unknown.
Traces of the Commanders:
While investigating the Black Wings, the Demon infiltrated the Verne Mine and found a photo of Orchid inside Francis’ diary, which led him to conclude that Orchid was the founder of the Black Wings, though he noted that Lotus wasn’t in the photo, despite the twins being inseparable.
Soon after, he followed rumors of a secret book on Dark Alchemy in Magatia and learned that Arkarium’s minions had stolen it. While chasing after them, he learned that Dark Alchemy involved the creation and destruction of magical substances, and that Arkarium planned to destroy the Seal Stones powering the Black Mage’s seal with it.
After defeating the minions and recovering the book, the Demon handed it over to the Zenumist and Alcadno presidents, who revealed that the book had been originally written by the Black Mage, whose research had been the foundation of Magatia. In order to prevent the book from falling into the wrong hands, the presidents agreed to destroy it.
Meanwhile, Luminous followed rumors of a crack in time opening in Ludibrium and entered Ellin Forest, where he met with Guwaru of the past. He learned that Guwaru had been lifted of his corruption by the Black Mage after reforming his body following Magnus’ attack. Guwaru also sensed the Black Mage’s energy within Luminous, even beyond the darkness inside him, and wondered whether Luminous and the Black Mage were related in some way, though Luminous refused to believe that he had any relation to such an evil being.
Wings of Brilliance:
After the end of the Flora Civil War, the surviving Verdant Flora went into hiding in a pocket dimension called Sanctuary, led by Agate - the disciple of the God of the Verdant Flora. Unlike the High Flora caste system of the God-King, Gods, Priests, and commoners, Verdant Flora society sought to remove the inherent classism by creating roles based on function, rather than power - for this reason, the Verdant Flora’s societal system was composed of Seekers, Guardians, and Engineers, with Engineers being the equivalent of magic-less commoners in High Flora society.
Illium was a young Verdant Flora Engineer who had a talent for creating machines, such as his robot, Ex. One day, he and Ex were caught trying to escape Sanctuary by Agate, who discovered that Illium had powerful innate magic, despite being unable to manifest wings with his the mechanical constructs of the Verdant Flora.
For this reason, Agate enrolled Illium in the Crystal Academy, where she hoped to nurture and awaken his talents. Though Illium was socially awkward, he soon made friends with several other Verdant Flora students - Morian, Dean, Carnelian, and Sinaria.
During his time in the academy, Illium was tutored by Agate, who helped him hone his unique style of fighting in the absence of his wings. However, Illium faced discrimination from Darius, a Guardian of the Verdant Flora, who looked down on Illium because of his lack of magic.
During the Festival of the Gods - created to honor the past Gods of the Verdant Flora - Illium constructed a statue that incorporated machinery with crystals, which were pervasive in Flora society - earning him the respect of the Verdant Flora. He later turned this statue into another robot, which he called Machina.
Illium also came across the Elder Crystal in Agate’s office, which was created by the God of the Verdant Flora. The crystal immediately reacted in Illium’s presence, confirming Agate’s belief that Illium was the Chosen One who would save the Verdant Flora.
Soon after, Darius betrayed the Verdant Flora and allowed the Specter army to enter Sanctuary. Agate sacrificed herself to stop Darius from killing Illium and the other students, opening a portal for them to escape to safety. As she lay dying, she entrusted the Elder Crystal to Illium and tasked him with awakening its power in the Sanctuary of the Ancient God, which dwelled somewhere in Maple World.
The Elder Crystal, upon which the God of the Verdant Flora had imprinted his powers and personality, fused with Illium, physically changing his appearance and personality to blend with the God, as well as granting him immense power that allowed him to manifest enormous blue wings. Illium then led his friends - the last surviving Verdant Flora - on a mission to honor Agate’s wishes and awaken the Elder Crystal.
The students arrived in Pantheon, where the Nova were immediately hostile towards them upon seeing that they were Flora. Though the students assured them that they were Verdant Flora who stood against the High Flora, the Nova claimed that according to their historical records, the Verdant Flora were the ones who had started the Flora Civil War by killing Darmoor’s father, the former God-King, as revenge for the High Flora exiling them and taking their wings.
Because of this, the Nova blamed the Verdant Flora for starting the war which had led to Darmoor awakening as the Transcendent of Life and losing his sanity, which resulted in him waging a war against the other races to remake all life.
However, Kaiser vouched for the Verdant Flora and allowed them safe passage through the Interdimensional Portal into Maple World. There, the students began scouring Maple World for the Sanctuary of the Ancient God, leading them to make friends and help the people of Maple World.
During their adventures, a gateway opened that allowed only Illium, as the bearer of the Elder Crystal, to enter. Inside, the voice of the God of the Verdant Flora spoke to him and filled him with power before sending him back to Maple World.
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.
The Sage’s Apprentice:
In Shangri-La, also known as the realm of the sages, a white tiger Anima named Hoyoung read a book about the legendary sage Tai Yu, who had sealed away the Four Perils during the ancient history of Grandis. Unaware that he dwelled within the realm of the sages, Hoyoung spent his days training as a disciple of his Master within his Hermitage, the only home that he had ever known.
With his Master away on urgent business, Hoyoung spent his time alone in the Hermitage while half-heartedly training, knowing that he was still unable to use magic. During his training, he was called to a sealing stone and inadvertently let loose Taotie, one of the Four Perils. Though Hoyoung attempted to reseal him, he accidentally sealed Taotie within his body. Because his body was too weak, the countless fiends that Taotie had consumed escaped into Grandis.
In order to recapture the fiends and correct his mistake, Hoyoung left the Hermitage and inadvertently left Shangri-La, exiting the realm of the sages into the moon of Cheong-woon in the outside world. To help Hoyoung recapture the fiends, Taotie loosened a seal placed on Hoyoung’s magic, allowing him to use his Master’s spells.
To find the fiends, Hoyoung became a private investigator at the Information Broker Burueu, which was managed by an Anima named Kaling. Over the months, Hoyoung worked to recapture the fiends, which were consumed by Taotie.
After recapturing all the fiends in Cheong-woon, Hoyoung decided to travel to Maple World in order to find the rest. Unbeknownst to him, Kaling decided to keep an eye on Hoyoung after learning that Taotie dwelled inside him.
As they captured fiends in Maple World, Hoyoung decided to learn more of his Master’s spells. However, when he was unable to return to the Hermitage - which remained hidden within Shangri-La - Hoyoung found a way to enter the Hermitage through his dreams, allowing him to read his Master’s advanced spellbooks.
The Knight and the Prince:
After Adele was sealed in the Void by Veronica during the coup to overthrow the God-King, she spent centuries imprisoned, gradually losing all her memories. Eventually, she heard the voice calling out for help, which freed her from her prison and allowed her to manifest on the moon of Ristonia before a boy named Jerome, who was being chased by the royal guards.
Without her memories, Adele reluctantly agreed to help Jerome, who was planning an uprising against the greedy Count Cedric. As the pair continued working together, they developed a mutual respect for each other. Adele slowly also began regaining more of her memories after coming into contact with objects from her past, allowing her to recall that she had once been part of the Knights of the Einherjar - the royal guard of the God-King.
During their mission to stop Cedric, Adele encountered Veronica, who amusedly told Adele to face her once she regained her old power and memories. Soon after, Adele began feeling the pull of the Void threatening to imprison her once again, though Jerome helped Adele overcome her feelings of despair.
Adele and Jerome soon learned that Cedric was planning to find a key that could awaken an Ancient God who slumbered beneath Ristonia, despite a prophecy that foretold Ristonia’s doom once that god awakened. Adele also learned that Jerome was the last prince of Ristonia, and that he was fighting to retake his throne from Cedric in order to free the kingdom from his selfish reign.
After Jerome was captured, Adele regained more of her memories that let her remember the opening battle of the Flora Civil War, as well as a mysterious voice which had freed her from the Void, urging her to save her new liege. Vowing not to fail Jerome after failing to protect her old liege, Adele rushed after him and managed to defeat Cedric’s forces before taking the key that Cedric had hoped to give to the High Flora.
After defeating Cedric, the uprising managed to overthrow him and take back the city. With Cedric having lost his throne and the key, Veronica ordered him to be taken away. Jerome then decided to go on a mission to hide the key and grow strong enough to become a good king. Meanwhile, Adele traveled to Maple World in order to recover her lost memories.
During her time in Maple World, Adele encountered several heroes of Grandis, such as Angelic Buster, who warned her that she would need to take a side in the upcoming conflict against Darmoor, who had succeeded her old liege as the new God-King. As she recovered her memories, she also recalled being deemed a traitor to the God-King, causing her to have doubts over whether she had really kept her oath to her king.
Chaser of Darkness:
In Toolen City, a city on Savage Terminal, a mercenary company called the Drakas kept order in the city. The Drakas captured those who defaulted on their debts, taking away their memories as collateral, and forced them to work as members in order to repay their debt and get back their memories.
The Drakas were led by the boss, Luska, and supported by a psychiatrist named Dr. Y, who evaluated their members’ mental states because of the nature of their violent work. In order to have the edge over their enemies, the Drakas used powerful Malice Stones, which boosted their powers.
One of the top-ranking Drakas agents, Kain, worked in order to get back his memories. From the few vestigial memories he had left, he recalled himself as a child hugging an older girl on the beach. During one of his missions, Kain encountered a pair of chameleon Anima children named Romina and Royce. Unable to bring them in out of empathy, Kain let them go, leading to an investigation within the Drakas to find the children, who had stolen an object of great value from headquarters.
Meanwhile, several members of the Drakas began planning to overthrow Luska in order to seize control of the company and use their Malice Stones to profit off the war being waged on Grandis by the High Flora. For this reason, the traitorous Drakas members attempted to steal Dr. Y’s notes on Malice Stones, which made a reference to an ‘original’.
Though they attempted to recruit Kain to their side, Kain refused to get himself involved in their plan. This drew the anger of their leader, Tirag, who remained jealous of Kain and his reputation, as well as the special treatment that Luska would give him, such as special dinners with exotic foods.
At the same time, Kain’s investigation led him to discover that the Chameleon Siblings were being employed by the Biters, a local gang which had once been defeated by Kain. Kain also learned that the siblings had been tasked by the leader of the Biters, Kudan, with recovering the original Malice Stone, but that they had instead stolen a Memory Stone containing Kain’s memories of one of his dinners with Luska.
Hoping to recover his memories, Kain helped the siblings break into Dr. Y’s office, where they discovered more of his notes about Malice Stones. Just as security arrived, Kain took the notes and told the siblings to escape and inform Kudan that he was willing to trade the notes on Malice Stones in exchange for the Memory Stone.
After the siblings escaped, Kain quickly implicated a member of the traitorous Drakas as the one who had broke into Dr. Y’s office. During this time, Tirag and the other traitors discovered that Luska was wearing the same choker as all the other Drakas agents, which tracked their location at all times. Because of this, they realized that Luska was also a prisoner of the Drakas, despite being their boss.
Meanwhile, Kain traveled to Biter territory and met with Kudan, who revealed that he had been investigating the power of Malice in great detail. He explained that during the era of the Ancient Gods, a god named Satiras the Devil Dragon had bestowed the power of Malice to his followers, a cult called the Black Nova, who had used their Malice to conquer Grandis.
After the end of the Ancient War, Satiras had fallen into dormancy by the Transcendents. Without their god, the Black Nova had been hunted down by the ones whom they had enslaved. Kudan revealed that he intended to seize the power of Malice in order to conquer Toolen City. Kain then offered Dr. Y’s notes on Malice Stones in exchange for his Memory Stone.
Just then, a Drakas ambush arrived to secure Kain, with one of the officers stating that ‘the original’ was secure. During the battle, Kain’s Memory Stone shattered, filling everyone’s minds with a memory of Kain eating dinner with Luska and Dr. Y. In the memory, Luska revealed to Dr. Y that she had wiped the Drakas members’ minds several times already at the end of their repayment, forcing them to work endlessly in order to regain memories that they would never get back.
Additionally, Luska had also implanted false memories into the Drakas’ minds as motivation to keep them working in order to get back the rest. Just as Luska wished Kain a happy birthday, Dr. Y used his powers to extract Kain’s memory of Luska’s revelation into the same Memory Stone that Kain had just shattered in the present day.
Realizing that Luska had tricked them into being her slaves, the furious Drakas members rose up against her and attacked headquarters. Meanwhile, Kain recalled the officer’s words about ‘the original’ being secure, causing him to realize that he himself was the original template for all Malice Stones, and that he was also a Black Nova.
In this moment of clarity, Kain’s sole memory of his past - the false memory Luska had given him of his younger self hugging an older girl at the beach - transformed into his real memory of himself and the older girl instead being surrounded by armed soldiers in a burning village. Realizing that he needed to face Luska in order to recover the rest of his memories, Kain fought his way past the Drakas and faced Luska, who had already defeated Tirag and the other leaders of the insurrection.
Luska easily managed to defeat Kain, but just as she subdued him, she collapsed in pain, causing him to realize that she had been fatally wounded in the battle against the Drakas. Kain then recovered the rest of his memories within another Memory Stone, causing him to see his memories of the burning village. There, he discovered that not only was the older girl Luska, but that she was also his sister.
He then saw Luska pleading with the leader of the soldiers to spare their lives, to which he gave them both a pair of Drakas chokers. As Luska began dying, she told Kain that she had become the boss of the Drakas and used Kain’s Malice to create Malice Stones, just as the man had ordered, in exchange for their lives. With her dying breath, Luska hugged Kain and told him to live his life freely.
With the Drakas being wiped out, Kain decided to leave Toolen City in order to travel and contextualize his memories, for which he met with the Shadowdealers. In Savage Terminal, Kain met Cadena, with whom he felt a strange sense of kinship. Unbeknownst to them both, Kain and Cadena were both Nova without Nova features. After getting acquainted with Gen, Kain was recommended to travel to Maple World.
Meanwhile, Dr. Y and his aide arrived at the Drakas headquarters, where they found Luska nearly dead. Dr. Y then took off his mask, revealing himself as the same man who had first enslaved Kain and Luska many years ago. When his aide asked whether he would be able to save Luska, Dr. Y replied that though he could extract memories or Malice or anything else, extracting death itself would be too much for him. Seeing that Luska was still barely alive, Dr. Y used his powers to extract the damage which would have led to Luska’s death, causing her to awaken, fully healed.
Innocent Earthseer:
A sheep Anima girl named Lara grew up in a hidden Anima village, where she grew close to the nature spirits attracted to her innocence and purity. One day, Lara was led by the spirits to a forbidden sanctuary, where she found a golden bell and a prophecy stating: “One bright day, this bell will ring… to wash away the Sinners’ wrongs.” When the village elders saw that the bell glowed in Lara’s hands, they believed that Lara was the one destined to make the bell ring and fulfill their village’s purpose.
In order to make the bell ring, Lara and the spirits went on a journey to a village on the moon of Narin, where she encountered a wolf Anima named Gri, who lived on the streets. Hoping to swindle her bell, Gri pretended to be her friend, though he was both annoyed and impressed by Lara’s innocence and naivety, as she would constantly help the villagers around her, who seemed to be losing parts of their memories.
When Lara trusted him with her bell, Gri attempted to determine its value and learned that it held immeasurable magical power. Realizing that it was quite important to her, Gri’s good nature overtook him, causing him to return the bell to Lara. Upon seeing that she had truly believed that he had been helping her learn more about the bell, Gri felt guilty and revealed that he had been trying to steal it.
However, Lara told Gri that she still believed him to be a good person, as the nature spirits, who only appeared to those with good hearts, were attracted to him like sunlight. Lara soon learned that Gri was in debt to the greedy Magistrate of their village, who taxed the citizens dry, for which Gri was trying to pay off his debt so that he could leave the village.
After coming clean to Lara, Gri decided to help her learn more about the bell. During their research, they encountered a old book written by the creators of the bell, who had claimed that the bell was a type of mysticant. Though most mysticants existed independently of mortals’ wills, the bell mysticant had been created by the authors to embody their will and purpose, though the rest of the pages had been torn out of the book.
Soon after, Lara and Gri met a painter named Hannah, who saved them from the Magistrate. Lara learned from Hannah that she had known Gri’s father, and that after his father had passed, the Magistrate had taken everything from Gri and his brother, Gru, including a prized keepsake. Though Gru had been working tirelessly to buy back the keepsake, Gru had one day disappeared, leaving Gri destitute and on the streets.
Eventually, Lara and Gri’s resistance to the Magistrate inspired the townspeople to rise up against him and drive him out of town. Hannah thanked Lara for her actions, as the Magistrate had been forcing her to paint him new pictures every month. Soon after, Lara discovered the missing pages of the book and learned that most mysticants were cursed objects with evil energy. As a sickness caused by a mysticant could only be cured by another mysticant, the bell had been created to purify the dark energies of the other mysticants.
Meanwhile, Hannah - who was secretly in possession of an evil paintbrush mysticant - decided to stop Lara and tricked her into burning the paintbrush while holding the bell in order to ‘cleanse’ it, fully aware that the bell could not cleanse a mysticant simply by putting it next to one. During this time, she called Gri to her studio, where he was horrified to find Lara burning the paintbrush, which was actually his father’s keepsake, bought by Hannah from the Magistrate long ago.
Believing that Lara had tricked him while pretending to be his friend, Gri stormed off, breaking Lara’s heart and causing her to lose her connection to the spirits. Hannah then revealed that she had made a deal with the Magistrate to paint him a new picture every month by using the paintbrush mysticant, which had the power to gouge out happy memories and paint them on a canvas, which was the reason why so many villagers were losing their memories. She also revealed that Gri’s brother hadn’t run away, but rather, he had been kidnapped and bled dry of his memories.
Meanwhile, Gri found a note from Gru and learned that the paintbrush was evil, and that Gru had been hoping to buy it back and destroy it. He then rushed back to Lara, who was overjoyed to see that he had returned. This allowed Lara’s heart to be made whole again, reconnecting her with the spirits. Nevertheless, Hannah easily defeated them with the power of the paintbrush mysticant.
With no other choice, Lara offered herself and all her countless happy memories in exchange for Gri’s life. As Gri attempted to stop her from sacrificing herself, the bell responded to their pure thoughts and rang with an ethereal note, causing the paintbrush, Hannah, and all her paintings to be erased forever.
With both Hannah and the Magistrate gone, Gri decided to go on an adventure to find a new purpose, while Lara hoped to learn more about the bell. One of Gri’s contacts instructed her to meet the Shadowdealers at Savage Terminal, where she encountered Cadena and Gen, who suggested that she go to Maple World.
Meanwhile, Kaling arrived at Narin Village and learned from Gri’s contact that Lara had a mysticant, and that she had used its power to destroy another mysticant, which caused her to grow interested in Lara and her bell.
Wind of Vengeance:
In Erimos, one of the six High Flora territories on continental Grandis, a commoner named Tasha and her friend, Kinan, began protesting against the caste system, which deemed that commoners were inferior to Priests because of their lack of magic. Tasha would frequently pick fights with Priests and defeat them with her martial prowess in order to prove that the caste system was baseless if an ‘inferior’ commoner could defeat someone with magic.
Tasha’s actions drew the attention of the Zealous, the protectors of Erimos’ lord. The captain of the Zealous, Laiyan, attempted to arrest Tasha, though he was defeated by Tasha’s lightning-fast style of fighting. However, Tasha gave up her acts of rebellion after becoming pregnant, disappearing underground while her husband, Jad, ran his weapons shop.
While giving birth, however, Tasha grew deathly ill as a result of carrying a mutant - a commoner inexplicably born with magic. As the magic of the child would kill the mother, Jad planned to kill the child before it could be born. However, Tasha wished to let their child have a life, and so she allowed herself to give birth at the cost of her life.
As mutants were considered a symbol of sin in High Flora society, Jad brought the child to Tasha’s friend, Anan, who was a High Priest. Unlike most High Flora, Anan believed in equality between commoners and Priests, and so he gladly took in the child, whom he raised with his own daughter, who had been born the same day.
Tasha’s child, Khali, was raised alongside Anan’s child, Rasha, as twin sisters, who became inseparable as they grew up, with Rasha looking up to Khali as a role model. In their youth, Khali and Rasha had been saved from marauders by Ypsilon, the Lord of Erimos - and secretly an Apostle of Darmoor - for which they aspired to be part of the Zealous in order to protect his life and repay him for saving theirs.
On the day that Khali and Rasha came of age, Anan took Khali to Jad’s weapon shop in order to secretly let Jad see his daughter for the first time since her birth. As a token of his affection, Jad gave Khali a scarf, which had once been worn by her mother, though he passed it off as merely a birthday gift from a commoner to a Priest. At Khali’s request, Jad gave her a second, similar scarf as a birthday gift for Rasha.
After Khali presented the scarf to Rasha, she decided to switch scarves upon seeing that Rasha liked hers better. The two then continued to train diligently for the entrance exam to join the Zealous. On the day of the Test of Faith, Rasha and Khali participated in Syaman duels. Syamans were honor duels reserved for those who had magic. Though Syamans between Priests were meant for valor and glory, Syamans between Priests and Gods were true challenges that allowed Priests to become Gods if they successfully bested a God in combat.
Khali and Rasha passed the Test of Faith, allowing them to be sworn in as Zealots, swearing their everlasting loyalty to Ypsilon. Over the next year, Khali and Rasha proved themselves by defeating the marauders attacking Erimos’ borders, which were actually members of the other races who were forced out of their native homes by the High Flora of Erimos.
After proving themselves loyal, Laiyan and Ypsilon sent the twins on a special mission to bring several marauders back alive. Ypsilon then used his powers to extract the life force out of the marauders, shocking both Khali and Rasha. Though Khali swallowed down her reservations, Rasha spoke up and questioned Ypsilon, to which he reminded her that she had sworn to obey him without question.
That night, Rasha told Khali that she planned to leave the Zealous, as she believed that Ypsilon’s actions - though no different from theirs - were motivated by greed, as there was no other purpose in him taking the marauders’ life force for himself. Because of this, she grew disillusioned by Ypsilon and wished to leave, despite knowing that she would not be allowed to leave alive after witnessing Ypsilon’s true nature.
The next morning, Rasha gave Laiyan her resignation. Though Laiyan declared that Rasha would be put to death, Khali begged him to spare her life. Because of Khali’s stellar reputation, Laiyan allowed Rasha to live, provided that Khali tore out Rasha’s wings and stripped her of her magic.
Though Rasha declared that she would rather be killed than to lose her magic and become a commoner, Khali tearfully tore out Rasha’s wings in order to save her life. Because of Khali’s actions, Rasha lost her respect for her sister and shut herself away in her room. Over the next year, Khali continued dutifully serving Ypsilon, estranged from her sister.
Soon after, Laiyan and Ypsilon captured Kinan, Tasha’s old friend, who had been spreading rumors about the existence of a mutant in Erimos in order to rally the commoners. While interrogating Kinan, who refused to confess out of loyalty to Tasha, Ypsilon used his powers to extract the concept of loyalty from her in order to have her confess that the mutant was the child of Tasha.
At Laiyan’s orders, Khali arrested Tasha’s husband and mother-in-law. Laiyan began torturing Jad and his mother, who revealed that the child had been given Tasha’s scarf, which had her crest on it. Laiyan called in Khali and examined her scarf, which she had switched with Rasha many years ago. Because of this, he mistakenly believed that Rasha was Tasha’s child, which was reinforced by the fact that Khali was a loyal Zealot, while Rasha was a traitor who was magically weaker than Khali, which lined up with her alleged commoner ancestry.
After interrogating Jad and his mother, Khali requested that Jad and his mother be released, claiming that they were loyal High Flora citizens who had only been trying to protect their child. However, Ypsilon declared that mutants were sinful creatures, and that hiding one was equally sinful, for which he extracted their life force and killed them.
Horrified, Khali came to realize that Rasha was right about Ypsilon and begged for forgiveness. After the two sisters reconciled, they planned to escape with their father, Anan, who asked Khali to continue serving as a Zealot in order to draw away suspicions about her loyalty while they planned to run away.
During this time, however, Laiyan arrested Rasha and brought her to Ypsilon, who killed her as a punishment for being a mutant. When Anan learned what happened, he confronted Ypsilon, who declared that he would spare him because of Khali’s loyalty. However, he declared that he could no longer allow Anan to remain a High Priest, and so he began to extract his magic.
Meanwhile, Khali returned to the palace and learned from Laiyan that Rasha was dead. Upon realizing that Laiyan had used their scarves to make his conclusion, Khali realized that she was the mutant all along, for which she fought and killed Laiyan before confronting Ypsilon. Upon standing close to Khali for the first time since they had met, Ypsilon sensed that her magical signature was ill-natured, which caused him to realize that she was the real mutant.
Though Khali attempted to avenge Rasha, Ypsilon easily defeated her and extracted most of her magic. Anan then sacrificed himself distract Ypsilon, allowing Khali to spread her wings and run away as far as she could. Khali then escaped continental Grandis and traveled to Pantheon, where she collapsed in front of the Protective Shield.
After the Nova learned her story, they allowed her to travel to Maple World in order to regain the strength that Ypsilon had drained from her. After training in Maple World, Khali was contacted by Nile, their family servant, who joined forces with her in order to avenge Anan and Rasha. Using Anan’s fortune, Nile began building an information network in order to learn more about Ypsilon.
Power Remembered:
(A/N: This section is mainly for several 4th job advancements for various classes, as well as questlines for several of them set afterwards. Most of these job advancements and follow-up quests have no important details worth covering, and so this abridged section will only be covering things that are actually important in a long-lasting way to the overall story.)
During his training, Luminous was sent to recover the Grand Augury by Vieren. From the Grand Augury, he encountered the voice of the Second Light Master of Aurora, who revealed that Luminous was the Starchild. He explained that Luminous was the light cast out by the Black Mage, which had been reincarnated into a human child by the mages of Aurora with their light magic. This revelation stunned Luminous, who was distraught to learn that he was born from the Black Mage, believing that they were one and the same.
Luminous also learned that his best friend, Lucia, had been raised as a false Starchild so that the Black Mage would kill her instead of Luminous, though the mages of Aurora had used their powers to reincarnate her into a better, safer life in the future. While Luminous reeled from the knowledge, Lania began growing curious by the name ‘Lucia’, which seemed familiar to her.
The Big Bang:
On Maple Island, a young Beginner grew up reading stories of the First Explorer, a hero who had quelled the primordial chaos of the world long ago. Unbeknownst to them, the First Explorer was an Adversary who had fought against the Ancient Gods until he had met his end after fulfilling his purpose - the same destiny shared by all Adversaries. According to legend, the First Explorer had fallen as a maple leaf, which had grown into the Maple Tree at the center of the island.
One day, the Beginner found a glowing maple leaf fallen off the Maple Tree while they read about the First Explorer. Soon after, they met a girl named Sugar, who was reading the same story about the First Explorer, which ended with a prophecy of his successor inheriting his will in a time of great chaos. After befriending the Beginner, Sugar suggested that they become an Explorer, though the Beginner was hesitant, believing themselves to be nothing special.
After Sugar helped them build confidence, the Beginner reluctantly decided to travel with Sugar to Victoria Island. On the boat ride, the two of them encountered three others hoping to become Explorers - Tess, Rondo, and Olive. After arriving, the five split off and met with their respective job instructors, with the Beginner officially becoming an Explorer.
Soon after, the Explorer received a report stating that Olive was wanted for stealing an important treasure - the Seal Stone of Victoria Island. After learning that the Seal Stones had been created by the Heroes to both seal the Black Mage and restore broken continents, the Explorer began investigating and found Olive in Ereve.
Olive claimed that she had been framed by Baroq the Master of Disguise. The Explorer reported back to Athena Pierce, who sent the five Explorers to the Verne Mine in order to find more information about the Seal Stone. After infiltrating the Verne Mine with Rondo, the Explorer recovered the Seal Stone and brought it back to Athena Pierce.
Soon after, Athena and the Explorer traveled to the Temple of Time in order to check the seal on the Black Mage. There, the residual power of the Adversary within the Explorer’s maple leaf allowed the Gate of the Present to open to them alone. Inside, they found that the Black Mage’s seal had severely degraded as a result of one of the five Seal Stones powering the seal cracking.
The Explorer attempted to fix the seal with the Seal Stone of Victoria Island, though the Black Mage awakened and used his power to shatter the cracked Seal Stone, breaking the seal and allowing him to escape.
Immediately after escaping, the Black Mage traveled to Ellinia and destroyed Lania’s home before possessing Lania. Luminous rushed back home and fought Lania, driving the darkness out of her in the process. The Black Mage then confronted Luminous and claimed that their final battle would happen later in the future.
Because of the Black Mage’s influence, Maple World’s most powerful bosses were strengthened by his dark influence, such as Zakum, Papulatus, and Horntail.
PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE
Saving Maple Island:
Finally free from the seal, the Black Mage used his powers to destroy Maple Island, causing black, unquenchable fire to burn the land. The Explorers rushed back home, where they learned that the Explorer had inadvertently let the Black Mage free.
Tess immediately blamed the Explorer for their actions, causing them to lose their confidence in themselves. Believing that they didn’t deserve to be an Explorer, they attempted to flee the island with the other refugees.
Just then, however, they all discovered Sugar being attacked by the Black Mage’s Shadow at the burning Maple Tree, which Sugar was fervently trying to protect. With Sugar’s life force being connected to the tree, Sugar slowly began to weaken as the tree burned down.
Though the Explorer knew that Sugar could tell that they wanted to run away, they were surprised to know that she also believed in them. As their resolve to protect Sugar strengthened, a mysterious voice spoke to them and helped them hone their determination. Because of the strength of their willpower, the residual power of the Adversary within the maple leaf was awakened, allowing the Explorer to defeat the Black Mage’s Shadow.
With no way to put out the black fire, the Explorer took out the Seal Stone of Victoria Island and focused on their determination to save Sugar, allowing them and their friends to use its divine power to repair Maple Island.
The Explorer was then brought to the Erda Flow, where they met the Goddess of Maple World. The Goddess revealed that she had manifested as Sugar in order to stop a great darkness. Though she claimed that Sugar’s journey was at an end, she thanked the Explorer for stepping up in order to protect their home.
After returning back, the four Explorers decided to make Maple Island their unofficial home. As they continued exploring, the Explorer encountered Rondo at the Interdimensional Portal. They learned that Rondo had been born with Anima ears, and that he was hoping to learn about who he was in Grandis. In Pantheon, the pair were overwhelmed by the Specters outside the city, for which they resolved to grow stronger together in order to learn the truth about Rondo’s ancestry someday.
Gate to the Future:
Over the centuries, Lucid’s mind remained awake as she remained imprisoned within the ice with the other elves. With no hope of escape, Lucid desperately projected her consciousness as far as it could go, inadvertently stumbling into the Black Mage’s mind.
Sensing her talent, the Black Mage offered her eternal life and the chance to see a new world. Seeing such a powerful being need her was all that Lucid needed, and so she readily accepted the Black Mage’s power, becoming his newest Commander.
With her new abilities, Lucid manipulated the Gate to the Future in order to create an illusory future in which the Cygnus Knights had betrayed Maple World and sided with the Black Mage.
As rumors about the ruined future spread, the Cygnus Knight and their Chief Knight investigated the Gate to the Future, where they were consumed by dark magic and Wightmares that attempted to brainwash them. However, the Knight fought them off and saved their Chief Knight before returning to Ereve.
There, they learned that Cygnus had fallen into an enchanted sleep, as her connection to the Cygnus Knights meant that when the Knight had been infected with dark magic, their bond with Cygnus meant that Lucid’s powers were able to bypass Ereve’s defenses and Shinsoo’s magic in order to reach her.
In order to save Cygnus, the Knight was sent by Shinsoo into Cygnus’ mind, where they found her being attacked by Future Cygnus. After defeating Future Cygnus, the Knight broke through her nightmare, allowing her to wake up in the real world. Because of their valor, the Cygnus Knight was promoted to become the sixth Chief Knight.
Soon after, Neinheart launched a full-scale investigation to the Gate to the Future in order to learn the mastermind behind the plot.
Birth of an Alliance:
Due to the Black Mage’s return and doubt being spread about the Cygnus Knights from the Gate to the Future, Cygnus made the decision to create a world-wide alliance in order to protect their world from the grave danger that they now faced.
During this time, Gelimer activated Vita’s brainwashing and had her break free from the Resistance’s prison. The Resistance member rushed to the Verne Mine in order to save their friend against Claudine’s warning that it would likely be a trap.
At the same time, Cygnus sent her Knights to distribute invitations to the major factions of Maple World, including the Explorers and the Resistance. The Cygnus Knight who was sent to investigate the Black Wings in Edelstein met with Claudine, who begrudgingly agreed to hear them out after sending them to rescue Vita. However, the Knight instead found several other children who had been kidnapped by Gelimer.
Meanwhile, at Vita’s prison, the Resistance member learned that Vita had been brainwashed by Gelimer, which was the reason why she had been creating poisonous medicine for the Resistance. Despite the Resistance member’s attempts, Vita was killed by Gelimer, who had rigged her cage to explode. Because of this, Claudine began regretting her stubbornness in refusing the Cygnus Knights’ earlier attempts at helping the Resistance.
The Resistance began investigating Gelimer and the purpose of his experiments, which led them to learn that Orchid was the founder of the Black Wings. With the revelation that the Black Wings were being led by a Commander of the Black Mage, the Resistance came to realize that their fight against the Black Wings and the Black Mage was one and the same. Because of the tragedy which had befallen Vita, the Resistance reluctantly decided to join forces with the Cygnus Knights for the greater good of Maple World.
Alongside the Resistance, the Explorers and many of the Heroes came to the First Continental Conference at Ereve, where the Maple Alliance was officially founded.
Henesys Ruins:
With the formation of the Alliance, Neinheart began utilizing their new resources in order to investigate the rumors behind the Gate to the Future. Neinheart recruited the help of an Alliance member to visit the Temple of Time, where they learned that the Black Mage’s minions had been able to open the Gate to the Future before being repelled by the Temple Keepers.
While attempting to close the door, the Alliance member was pulled inside, where they heard an indistinct voice speaking to them, as well as a mysterious light leading them deeper inside. They arrived in the the Henesys Ruins, where they learned from the townspeople that the Cygnus Knights had sided with the Black Mage and invaded Maple World.
The Alliance member began investigating the story behind the Cygnus Knights’ fall and learned that Empress Cygnus had been searching for the World Tree in order to gain the power to fight the Black Mage. However, Cygnus was instead led into a trap, causing her soul to be taken by the Black Mage. With Cygnus - and Shinsoo, through their bond - both corrupted, Ereve had lost its divine power, causing it to crash onto Victoria Island. Now a puppet of the Black Mage, Cygnus had ordered her Knights to attack the people of Maple World.
While helping the people of Future Henesys, the Alliance member discovered a mysterious Dream Fragment, which they brought back to Neinheart in the real world. Neinheart thanked the Alliance member for their help and resolved to investigate the Dream Fragment, believing that it held some clue about the truth behind the ruined future beyond the door.
Knight Stronghold:
The Alliance member continued investigating the Gate to the Future and began working with Chief Alex, the son of the late Chief Stan, to infiltrate the Knight Stronghold of Ereve. Inside the stronghold, they encountered an imprisoned Neinheart, who revealed that he had been held prisoner after refusing to follow Cygnus and the Black Mage.
Neinheart explained that the Cygnus Knights - who drew their power from Shinsoo - had been turned into mindless puppets after Shinsoo’s corruption, leading them to blindly obey Cygnus’ orders. He then asked the Alliance member to kill Cygnus, believing that it was the only way to restore peace to Maple World.
With the help of an adult Jay and Anne, the Alliance member infiltrated the Cygnus Garden with a Dream Key, where they fought and defeated the corrupted Cygnus, Shinsoo, and the Chief Knights.
While lamenting the future that awaited Maple World, the Alliance member heard the voice of the real Shinsoo, who explained that she had been trying to reach them ever since they had first entered the Gate to the Future. Shinsoo revealed that the ruined future was nothing more than an illusion created by the Black Mage’s Dream Master in order to demoralize the Alliance.
Back in Ereve, Neinheart told the Alliance member that all across Maple World, people were suffering from nightmares of the illusion within the Gate to the Future. Though the crisis they now faced was immense, Neinheart thanked the Alliance member for proving that the ruined future wasn’t real, as it would give them the strength to overcome their new adversities.
Twilight Perion:
As the Alliance attempted to address the nightmares plaguing Maple World, tensions continued rising between the Cygnus Knights and the Resistance, who bickered endlessly over their differences. Nevertheless, Athena Pierce attempted to keep the peace as the Alliance began their investigation into the nightmares.
Thanks to the Alliance member’s discovery, the Alliance had helped curb mass hysteria by warning Maple World that their nightmares of the future were only an illusion. However, the Alliance member was sent to speak with the residents of Perion, who were suffering from a completely different nightmare of a ruined Perion.
At the request of Dances with Balrog, the Alliance member traveled to Twilight Perion and learned that its residents were being enslaved by the Resistance, which had betrayed the Alliance early into its formation and sided with the Black Mage.
Back in Maple World, Grendel the Really Old reported that the people of Maple World were beginning to confuse dreams with reality as a result of their unending nightmares, causing them to be brainwashed into truly believing that the Cygnus Knights and the Resistance would betray them.
In order to find a cure, the Alliance member began investigating the dream itself, allowing them to enter the memories of the Dream Master woven into the dream. They learned that the Dream Master was a little girl who had accidentally encountered the Black Mage, and that she had been enticed into following him by his grand promises.
Hoping to find a weakness in the dream, the Alliance member traveled into the only other accessible part of the illusion - Future Sleepywood - which was a fragmented, barebones construction of Sleepywood. There, they learned from the Rememberer that the Dream Master was not powerful enough to create an entire world, which was why they had crafted a small replica from the subconsciousness of Maple World’s residents.
In order to break the hold between the dream world and reality, the Alliance member traveled to the Temple of Time and obtained the Fog of Oblivion - a special substance that could wash away memories, just as dreams became nothing more than foggy memories upon waking up. By spreading the Fog of Oblivion across the Gate to the Future, the people of Maple World were able to forget their nightmares, breaking the Dream Master’s hold over their minds.
With their first real crisis resolved, the Alliance grew stronger as the Cygnus Knights and the Resistance slowly began to move past their differences. However, the Alliance remained vigilant, realizing that the Dream Master was a new Commander of the Black Mage.
Master Thief Phantom:
In order to destabilize the newly-formed Alliance, Hilla posed as a noblewoman and claimed to be the true heir to Ereve and the possessor of Skaia, a legendary gem said to glow in the hands of the Empress’ bloodline. In order to save Cygnus, Phantom revealed to himself to the public for the first time since awakening from the ice. Phantom successfully exposed Hilla and her Skaia as fake, while returning the true Skaia entrusted to him by Shinsoo back to Cygnus.
Hoping to investigate the Black Wings and their connection to the Black Mage, Phantom disguised himself as a Black Wings member and traveled to Edelstein, where he learned that the Black Wings were harvesting an enormous amount of energy. He also learned that most of the Black Wings were low-level grunts who had no idea about the Black Wings’ objectives or leadership.
With the help of Tru - who had recruited Phantom’s help in the past to find the Seal Stone of Victoria Island for Aran - Phantom tracked down Francis, a Black Wings officer, and interrogated him in order to learn the truth about the Black Wings’ goals.
From Francis, Phantom learned that Orchid was the founder of the Black Wings, though Francis was unsure why the Black Wings were gathering energy. Though Francis claimed that the Black Wings were gathering all the Seal Stones to revive the Black Mage, Phantom quickly realized that Orchid was lying to her officers, as the Seal Stones did not possess that kind of power.
Soon after, Phantom learned that the Black Wings were attacking Rien in order to take the Seal Stone of Victoria Island. (A/N: The Seal Stone of Victoria Island was already used and destroyed by the Explorer to save Maple Island. This was a plot hole introduced in the Explorer revamp in the Destiny update, as the original Explorer storyline from the RED update had the five Explorers create and use the Seal Stone of Maple Island to save their home instead.)
After helping Aran fend off the invaders, Phantom learned from Lilin that the story of the Heroes was shrouded in mystery, with almost no surviving records of their battle against the Black Mage, despite it being a major event in Maple World’s history. In order to investigate this anomaly, Phantom met with Alcaster in El Nath, where he learned that the Black Wings had recently stolen the Seal Stone of El Nath.
He then traveled to Helios Library, where he discovered that someone had burned all the books about the Heroes and the Black Mage, and that they had possessed Wiz the Librarian in order to attack him. After driving the entity out of Wiz, Phantom decided to switch his investigation from the erasure of the Heroes to the force which had possessed Wiz.
In Sleepywood, Phantom discovered that the spirit of Lotus was the one responsible for destroying records of the Black Mage and the Heroes, as well as possessing people in order to do so. Driven by vengeance, Phantom rushed without thinking into the Verne Mine, hoping to destroy Lotus’ body. However, he quickly realized that Lotus had led him into a trap, as Phantom’s close proximity to Lotus’ body meant that Lotus - who was normally only able to possess the weak-minded from afar - could take control of his body.
Lotus forced Phantom to travel to Ereve in order to kill Cygnus, which would remove the Alliance’s leader and make Phantom a criminal. Before he could complete his plan, however, the spirit of Empress Aria appeared and drove Lotus out of Phantom’s body. After an emotional reunion, Aria asked Phantom to put an end to his quest for vengeance and become the hero that Maple World needed.
Finally receiving closure, Phantom pledged himself to the Alliance, deciding that working together with others would be more beneficial than working in the shadows alone.
The Forgotten Hero:
After the seal on the Black Mage was broken, the pirate hero who had sacrificed his existence appeared on the moon of Vulpes in Grandis. There, he was found by a fox Anima girl named Moonbeam, who brought him back to Fox Point Village. There, Moonbeam gave him the new name of Shade and introduced him to the other Anima, who took him in as one of their own.
After praying to the Fox God, the village guardian of the fox Anima, Shade was blessed with the power of the spirits. Over the months, Shade continued mastering his new powers and gaining acceptance from the other Anima. Moonbeam - who had grown up with her grandfather after the death of her parents - grew attached to Shade and gave him her guardian spirit after seeing Shade struggle against the monsters outside town.
Though he had hoped to find a way to return back to his friends on Maple World, Shade gradually came to see the village as his new home. Soon after, however, a traveling villager named Tumbleweed returned back to town and revealed to Shade that the Interdimensional Portal in Pantheon could take one to Maple World.
Moonbeam was distraught to know that Shade was leaving, though Shade promised to return once he saw that his friends were safe after the fight against the Black Mage. Together, they carved a mark of friendship on the Fox Tree - the altar of the Fox God - before Shade traveled to Maple World through the Interdimensional Portal.
There, he met with Athena Pierce and learned that centuries had passed since the fight against the Black Mage. He also learned that though the other Heroes were awakening from the curse, Freud had passed away long ago, as Afrien had taken the curse in his place. However, he was most surprised to find that Athena didn’t recognize him, and that she only had knowledge about five Heroes who had sealed the Black Mage away.
Refusing to believe that his best friend was dead, Freud traveled to Turtle Island in order to meet Afrien. There, he met Evan and learned that Afrien was in a deep depression because of losing Freud. Deciding that it was best not to see Afrien in such a state, Shade returned back and decided to write a letter with his feelings about Freud, which he cast out into the ocean as a message in a bottle in order to give himself closure.
Hoping to meet Mercedes, Shade traveled to Elluel and found that all the elves had been freed from the curse. Upon speaking with Mercedes, however, Shade sensed that something seemed off. After realizing that the person whom he was speaking with was an imposter, Mercedes shed her disguise and revealed herself as Lucid, who had trapped the elves in a nightmare for her own amusement. With Shade having put an end to her games, Lucid vowed to get her vengeance on Shade by giving him a terrible nightmare.
Shade then traveled to Rien in order to meet Aran, though he was surprised to learn that she didn’t remember him because of her amnesia. However, Aran sensed that she and Shade had been close friends in the past and resolved to get back her memories so that she could recognize him again.
Hoping to find Phantom, Shade began visiting Phantom’s vaults scattered across Maple World before finding him at his vault at Leafre. There, however, he was shocked to find that Phantom only saw him as a strange intruder. Though Shade attempted to prove that they knew each other, Phantom merely grew more suspicious by Shade’s intimate knowledge about them, believing that Shade was a minion of the Black Mage.
Believing that something had to be wrong, Shade visited Lania and Luminous in Ellinia. Just like Phantom, Luminous grew hostile towards Shade upon seeing that he had lived centuries ago. With Luminous’ reaction confirming his suspicions, Shade left Lania’s home distraught and dug up a time capsule that the Heroes had left behind, where he found that he had been erased in their group photograph.
Realizing that he really had been erased in Maple World after sacrificing his existence, Shade decided to return back to Vulpes. There, however, he was shocked and saddened to learn that the Anima had forgotten him as well, with Moonbeam crying about losing her guardian spirit, unable to remember that she had given it to Shade.
Devastated, Shade returned to Maple World, where he was further crippled after seeing that Athena Pierce didn’t remember him anymore. Because of this, he realized that as a result of him sacrificing his existence, he would be erased from existence after crossing dimensions, making it so that he would always be forgotten by either his friends in Maple World or in Grandis.
In order to find answers, Shade traveled to the Temple of Time and found the Black Mage’s seal broken. Though he was unable to find any answers, he nevertheless attempted to comfort himself by telling himself that his sacrifice had at least kept Maple World safe for hundreds of years.
Soon after, Shade was inflicted with a nightmare by Lucid, who showed him an illusion of the Black Mage. Within the nightmare, the Black Mage claimed that the only reason that Shade still existed was because the Black Mage - as a Transcendent - was able to remember him, which was his only anchor to existence.
As a result of Lucid’s illusion, Shade was haunted by the realization that the Black Mage was his only tether to life, and that the defeat of the Black Mage would mean that Shade would cease to exist as well. Nevertheless, Shade pushed down his personal feelings and decided that he would do everything he could to stop the Black Mage, even if it meant that he would die as a result. Because of this, Shade sought out Empress Cygnus and decided to join the Alliance.
Soon after, Shade returned back to Elluel after learning that the real Mercedes had returned. Just as he had expected, Mercedes was unable to recognize him, though she felt that Shade seemed familiar, as though he was someone that she ought to know. Disheartened by the experience, Shade decided to go back to Vulpes and return Moonbeam’s guardian spirit back to her, as he had grown strong enough to fight without it.
There, however, he was surprised to find that Moonbeam had been given a new guardian spirit by the Fox God, and that the spirit looked just like Shade. He then learned from Moonbeam’s grandfather that according to legend, the guardian spirits of fox Anima took on the appearance of the person that they missed the most, with such spirits being stronger than others.
Despite this, however, Moonbeam was unable to remember Shade and wondered why she would miss someone whom she didn’t even know. As Moonbeam had a new guardian spirit, Shade decided to keep her original guardian spirit, which now took on the appearance of Moonbeam - the person whom he missed the most.
Clash of the Xenoroids:
Hoping to get answers about his memories, Xenon and Roo-D traveled to the abandoned laboratory where Gelimer had secretly performed his Xenoroid experiments. However, Xenon learned that Gelimer had erased nearly all the data within his computers, with Roo-D piecing together the fragments to learn that Gelimer - unable to fully erase all of his Xenoroids’ memories - had instead overwritten those memories his soldier programming, making it impossible for them to be ever recovered.
Soon after, Xenon was asked by the researchers of Veritas to travel to Magatia in order to learn whether Gelimer had utilized alchemy in his Xenoroid project. During his investigation, he learned that Orchid and Gelimer had both been working against each other to get their hands on the alchemy research of the Black Mage.
Beryl soon discovered Xenon in Magatia while being dispatched by Gelimer to obtain the Black Mage’s research. After being defeated once again, Beryl expressed her hatred towards Xenon over the fact that Gelimer still favored him, despite the fact that Xenon was a ‘defect’ because of his emotions. After she retreated, however, Xenon noted that Beryl also seemed to have emotions, despite her belief that she didn’t.
Some time later, Beryl lured Xenon back to Gelimer’s abandoned laboratory for a final confrontation. After being defeated, Beryl admitted defeat and resigned herself to be dismantled for her failure. Though Xenon pleaded with her to come back with him, Beryl told him that she had no choice but to follow her protocols.
Though she wondered whether their fates would have been different had they been human, Beryl ultimately decided that it would have been the same, as fighting was what siblings did best. Though Xenon begged Beryl not to go, Beryl merely turned and walked away, with a sad smile and a single tear in her eyes.
Gelimer’s Betrayal:
With his plan to turn Lotus into a Xenoroid underway, Gelimer convinced Orchid to approve Black Heaven, a massive airship which he planned to use in order to take over Maple World.
After turning Lotus into an Xenoroid, Gelimer forced Lotus to attack Orchid and drain her half of the Wing Master powers. With no need for Orchid anymore, Gelimer left her to succumb to her injuries.
However, Orchid was found by the Resistance and nursed back to health so that they could interrogate her. Soon after, Orchid escaped and traveled to the Evolution Lab within the Verne Mine, where she discovered that the AI for the Evolution System was a hologram of Lotus. Furious at not finding Lotus himself, the remnants of Orchid’s Wing Master powers began manifesting, causing the AI to attack her.
The Resistance found Orchid after her escape and brought her back to the Secret Plaza, where Orchid fell into a coma. The Resistance then began investigating the Evolution System with the Alliance. Unbeknownst to them, Gelimer planned to have the Alliance use the system in order to record the combat data of hundreds of Alliance soldiers, with the data being transmitted into Lotus in order to have his battle algorithms grow exponentially more efficient.
Gelimer then met with the Commanders and offered Lotus as a powerful vessel for the Black Mage. Though the Commanders could plainly see that he intended to betray them, they nevertheless accepted him as an ally in order to use his talents, though they refused to make him a full Commander.
Root Abyss:
After the Black Mage’s return, two new Commanders joined his side - Will and Damien.
Will was a scholar who was deeply interested in the Black Mage and his goals. Through endless research, Will came to realize that the Black Mage’s plan was not simple destruction, but to create a new world free from the influence of the Overseers. Intrigued by the Black Mage’s plan, Will sought out the Black Mage and became his most loyal Commander in exchange for the chance to see the perfect world that he would create. Imbued with the power of the Black Mage, Will became known as the King of Spiders.
Meanwhile, Damien had spent centuries in Tynerum slowly growing his demon army in order to conquer Maple World, gaining power and favor with the half-blood demons of Tynerum who resented their life under the tyranny of the pure-bloods. After the Black Mage’s return, Damien was brought by Arkarium to the Black Mage, where he officially became a new Commander.
After the Commanders discovered the location of the World Tree, Damien was sent to recover her. Damien and his demon army traveled to Root Abyss and secured Alicia. Upon seeing that her powers had not yet fully recovered, however, Damien decided to leave Alicia there, as he needed her Transcendent powers at full strength.
To prevent her from escaping, he created four Seal Guardians - Vellum, Von Bon, Pierre, and the Crimson Queen - who kept Alicia imprisoned in Root Abyss. Soon after, the Alliance discovered Root Abyss and sent an expedition to recover Alicia. After defeating the Seal Guardians, the Alliance brought Alicia to Ereve, where she was absorbed within the jewel on Shinsoo’s forehead.
During the expedition to Root Abyss, the Alliance also discovered the Tower of Oz, which was being guarded by Alicia’s soul, severed from her still-recovering body in order to protect the animals which she had kept within the tower. As a result of the Black Mage’s influence, however, the guardians of the tower had been corrupted, for which she asked the Alliance’s help to defeat them and save the specimens.
Crimsonheart Castle:
A traveler was called by Grendel the Really Old, who told them that he had received a distress call from a book inside the Grand Athenaeum, a compendium of all the knowledge in the universe.
The traveler followed the distress call to Tynerum and helped several demon children escape from Crimsonheart Castle, where they had been brought in order to be sacrificed.
During the mission, the traveler learned that Tynerum was currently embroiled in a terrible great war, with Tynerum having collapsed into chaos, though the cause of the great war remained unknown, even to the demons themselves.
The Elite Bosses:
For centuries, Commander Kellad and his squad had been trapped in a time-loop by Ergoth Dunamis, forced to relive the fall of Sharenian over and over again. Driven mad, Kellad’s knights destroyed each other, leaving Kellad alone.
In the throne room, the fallen Prince Sharen IV inexplicably rose up and revealed to Kellad that Ergoth’s power wasn’t to create a time-loop, but to imprison them in a mirror of the real Sharenian, which had weakened as the subjects of Sharenian died.
Sharen then reminded Kellad that he was sworn to protect Sharenian so long as even a single citizen still lived. With Sharen being the last survivor, Kellad pledged himself to serve him eternally. Sharen then revealed himself as the Black Mage - who presented himself in his human form as the White Mage.
Taking advantage of Kellad’s weakened metal state, the Black Mage gave Kellad the Rubian that King Sharen III had sought. Though the Rubian, in the end, was only a normal gem, the Black Mage infused it with his Transcendent powers, allowing Kellad to revive his fallen squad by fusing their souls with the bodies several Explorers in the ruins of the real-world Sharenian.
Fusing himself with the body of the fallen Ergoth Dunamis, Kellad was reborn as Guard Captain Darknell, while his squad became the Elite Bosses, sworn to obey the Black Mage with unimpeachable loyalty.
Soon after, Will was given control over Rhinne and her child by the Black Mage. Inspired by Ergoth’s ability to create a mirror dimension of Sharenian, Will remade the prison dimension which the Black Mage had created to trap Rhinne’s child into an imperfect replica of Maple World, which he called Mirror World.
The Silent Crusade:
A traveler was recruited into the Silent Crusade by an agent named Starling, who worked with them to investigate a crack in time within Perion that led to Sharenian of the past, though the monsters inside were from the present day.
Starling brought the traveler to their headquarters in Edelstein. Bastille, the leader of the Silent Crusade, explained that their organization had been founded by Empress Aria in order to monitor the activities of the Black Mage and his Commanders. With the Black Mage having broken free from his seal, Bastille explained that the Commanders were starting to resurface.
After the traveler joined the Silent Crusade, Bastille revealed that Arkarium was the one responsible for creating the crack in time, with his imperfect time magic being the reason why past Sharenian had been filled with present-day monsters.
The Crusader was then sent to work with another agent named Crow in Leafre, where they were led into a trap by Arkarium’s snake minions, who were corrupting the monsters of Maple World in order to keep the Silent Crusade distracted. While the Crusaders fought the monsters, Arkarium was able to create a crack in time within the Temple of Time itself.
The Crusader entered the Temple of Time, where they met the spirit of Rhinne from the past. Unable to materialize for long while so far from her physical body, Rhinne quickly told the Crusader that Arkarium planned to go back in time and kill the Heroes before the Black Mage would be sealed away.
After entering the crack in time, the Crusader was surprised to find that they had arrived in Leafre shortly after the Heroes’ fight against the Black Mage, despite the fact that Arkarium had intended to travel back even further.
While investigating, they encountered Maha and an unconscious Aran. The Crusader helped Maha regain enough of his power to take Aran to Rien. They also encountered Afrien, alongside an unconscious Freud and Mercedes. Afrien revealed that he had taken the Black Mage’s curse in Freud’s place, and that the curse had also wiped out the Onyx Dragons.
The Crusader helped Afrien recover his egg, which had shielded the child within from the curse. With the Crusader’s help, Afrien was also able to heal Mercedes, who had been grievously injured.
Afrien revealed that Freud had created a barrier that prevented time from flowing back any further than the moment when the Black Mage had been sealed, which was why Arkarium had been unable to go back to the time before the Heroes had sealed the Black Mage away. However, as the Transcendent of Time, Goddess Rhinne had the power to override the barrier, which was why Arkarium intended to steal her powers.
The Crusader rushed to the Temple of Time, where the spirit of Rhinne - who was much closer to her physical body in the past - was able to properly materialize at last. Rhinne revealed that Arkarium had intended to kill not just the Heroes, but the Demon as well. However, due to Arkarium’s short-sighted jealousy, he had decided not to kill the weakened Heroes when he had the chance, instead choosing to take Rhinne’s powers and kill them before the seal would be created.
The Crusader rushed to stop Arkarium, disrupting his ritual to break the seal on Rhinne. A furious Arkarium revealed that after being unable to find the Demon in Leafre, he had decided to take Rhinne’s powers and go further in the past to destroy the Demon before his betrayal. Without the Demon turning on the Black Mage and weakening his defensive shields, Arkarium intended for the Heroes to be exhausted while facing the Black Mage at full-strength, which would result in their certain defeat.
As Rhinne would be given to Will in the present day, Arkarium had intended to take her powers in the past, where she remained unguarded. However, the Crusader defeated Arkarium and forced him to retreat, saving both Rhinne and the past.
Shadow Alchemist:
After being given control over Mirror World, Will - unable to handle the full power of Rhinne’s successor - split the child into a boy and a girl. The girl was imprisoned with the Child of the Goddess’ own temple, while the boy was brainwashed into following Will and his Shadow Knights. Eventually, however, the boy discovered his counterpart within the temple, for which Will erased his memories. This repeated seven times in total, with the boy being given a new name each cycle until he became known as Eight.
With Eight being brainwashed into an obedient knight, he and the other Shadow Knights worked to defeat the Darklings outside town, supported by Fang the alchemist, who was responsible for creating a Shade Neutralizer potion that prevented the knights from being transformed into Darklings.
From a distance, Fang idolized Eight and his combat skills, wishing that he could have a glamorous role like Eight, despite the fact that he and the other Shadow Knights knew that Eight was the “Impure One”, according to Will. Fang also grew curious about their lives outside of Mirror World, as he wondered who he used to be in Maple World.
While gathering ingredients, Fang discovered a primrose plant and ate one of its golden seeds against their orders not to touch any of the wildlife or vegetation. Worried that he would transform into a Darkling, he began researching primrose and read a story about how a fairy had transformed a girl who loved the moon into a primrose, thereby allowing the moon’s beauty to be reflected in every primrose blossom.
Soon after, Will called Fang to his office and showed him a mirror that he had been creating, which could show them their true self outside of Mirror World. He explained that it was a reward for Fang’s hard work, though it was conditional on Fang not making any mistakes. Because of this, Fang decided to keep the truth about the primrose secret from Will.
Eight soon discovered Fang researching primroses, and though Fang was afraid that Eight would tell Will, Eight instead told Fang that he was the only one who could be trusted, as both of them had their own secrets. Eight enlisted Fang’s help in creating a Potion of Truth, which required a special ingredient: “a handful of moonlight”.
Eight pointed out the Fang that there were many occurrences of the Shadow Knights speaking in reference to things happening ‘again’ or ‘each time’, even though they had no recollection of such events ever happening before, which made him suspicious that there was something that Will and the others were hiding.
While brewing the Potion of Truth, Fang accidentally pricked his finger against a primrose thorn, which began corrupting him into a Darkling. Terrified, Fang refused to help Eight any further, and so Eight decided that he would investigate the temple on his own later that night. Back in town, however, Fang thought back to his friendship with Eight and decided to go to the temple.
Inside, he encountered Will, who showed Fang the mirror that could reveal one’s true self outside Mirror World. Upon looking into it, Fang was shocked to find that he was actually a Darkling. Just then, Eight arrived and confronted Will, who manipulated Fang into helping him brainwash Eight. As Eight trusted Fang, he readily drank the brainwashing potion, resetting his memories.
Will gave him the new name of Nine, who returned back to being an obedient knight. He then revealed to Fang that it was because of him that Nine had been brainwashed every cycle. Back in the library, a Fang discovered a primrose flower that Eight had given to him, along with several other dried primroses that he had given in previous cycles.
Guilt-ridden by his choice to betray his friend each cycle, Fang decided to make things right and began to complete the Potion of Truth. However, Will caught Fang and attempted to stop him by destroying the potion. To his surprise, however, Fang drank the last of the potion off the ground, transforming him into his true Darkling form completely.
With the last of his strength, Fang met with Nine and told him to go to the temple before vanishing. Shaken by the fact that he hadn’t been transformed into a Darkling after coming into contact with one, Nine began growing suspicious about the Shade Neutralizer and decided to investigate the truth.
Mirror World:
Because of Fang’s warning, Nine entered the temple and discovered his counterpart being held prisoner. After awakening her, the corrupted temple was restored to its former glory, with the priests reawakening as well. Pietta told the twins that they were the children of Goddess Rhinne, and that they were to be her successors as the new Transcendents of Time.
Though Nine wished to rename himself Zero in order to symbolize him breaking free from the cycle of brainwashing, his sister instead named him Alpha, and herself Beta. In order to regain their powers, Pietta told them that they would need to find the Goddess Teardrops, which had been scattered by Will across Mirror World.
Before finding the Goddess Teardrops, however, the priests tasked Alpha and Beta with recovering their relic. The twin priests, Benedict and Cassius, used their powers to locate the relic in Mirror World Leafre. There, they discovered that the relic had been swallowed by Horntail. With the help of Freud, who was still alive in the imperfect mirror of Maple World, the twins successfully recovered the relic, which had been split into two weapons, with the spirits Lapis and Lazuli in each one.
In Mirror World Ariant, the twins worked with the Sand Bandits in order to steal a blue gem, which they believed to be the Goddess Teardrop, from Queen Areda before Phantom could. During the battle, however, the twins realized that the true Goddess Teardrop was Prime Minister Shah Mar, who had taken on a human form and worked diligently as the prime minister in order to make Rhinne’s successors proud of him.
After Shah Mar returned to his gem form, the twins took him back to the temple. Cassius then located the second Goddess Teardrop in Mirror World Henesys. There, the twins discovered that the Goddess Teardrop had taken on the form of a young boy named Larelle, who had been kidnapped by the Shadow Knights. After defeating the Shadow Knights, the twins claimed the second Goddess Teardrop.
Cassius then sent them to Mirror World Mu Lung, where they discovered the Goddess Teardrop, a lazy panda named Wu Gong. Alpha and Beta fought off the attacking Shadow Knights and successfully convinced Wu Gong to return with them.
In Mirror World Edelstein, the twins encountered the next Goddess Teardrop, a man named Arsen. However, Arsen claimed that he wished to sever his ties to the Transcendents and live for himself, for which he was planning to harvest energy from Edelstein. Realizing that the power plant would explode from Arsen’s attempts, Alpha agreed to sever ties with Arsen in order to keep the people of Edelstein safe.
While shaking hands, Alpha noticed a spider tattoo on Arsen’s wrist. Immediately upon their physical contact, a large explosion took place that left Arsen in a coma. After obtaining a report from the invading Shadow Knights, the twins learned that Arsen was a false Goddess Teardrop created by Will in order to trick them, with the explosion being a result of Arsen’s false time powers coming into contact with the true power of time.
In Mirror World Magatia, the twins encountered another false Goddess Teardrop named Rachael, who had been sent by Will in order to confuse them. Rachael’s words made the twins believe that there was a traitor amongst the priests. After investigating, they learned that Cassius had the same spider mark on his tools as the tattoos on Arsen and Rachael.
Though Cassius attempted to flee, the twins pursued him and confronted him. Cassius revealed that he had been afraid that the twins would be defeated by the Black Mage, which was why he had been working with Will in order to keep them trapped and safe in Mirror World. As the priests were bound to the temple, Cassius soon faded away and disappeared.
With the priests mourning Cassius’ passing, Benedict took on Cassius’ responsibilities and directed the twins to the final two Goddess Teardrops - Hera and Mera - in Mirror World Ludibrium. While helping Hera and Mera stabilize time in Ludibrium, the twins learned that Goddess Rhinne had frozen time in the real Ludibrium at the request of the king, who wished for his subjects to remain young and child-like forever. After meeting a memory of Rhinne within the unstable time cracks, the twins were told that the Transcendent of Time was incapable of changing their own fate.
Having gathered all the Goddess Teardrops, the twins attempted to break free from Mirror World. Instead, however, they were brought to the Mirror World Control Room, where Will revealed a captured Rhinne, whose powers were being forcibly channeled to maintain Mirror World. He then told the twins that when he had split the twins, he had also corrupted one of them, which meant that they would be unable to awaken as the new Transcendents of Time unless one of them were to die.
Hoping to get answers, the twins entered Mirror World’s replica of the Temple of Time. After seeing their old memories, Beta believed that she was the corrupted one and began to attack Alpha, hoping that he would be forced to kill her if she were to fight him. However, Alpha refused to fight his sister and convinced her to stop, pointing out that it was possible that Will had lied in order to have them destroy each other.
The twins confronted Will, believing that defeating him would lift the corruption. Just then, Rhinne began moving against her restraints and poised herself to attack the twins, with Will amusedly noting that it was in her nature as a Transcendent to stop corrupted beings from claiming her powers. To his shock, however, Rhinne instead attacked Will, revealing that it was a mother’s instinct not to harm her child, which was far more powerful than the call of the Transcendents.
After Will retreated, Rhinne cleansed the twins of their corruption and revealed that they needed to escape and destroy Mirror World in order to awaken as the new Transcendents, as the Transcendent of Time’s power was being used to maintain Mirror World. However, she also revealed that since two Transcendents could not exist, she would cease to exist as soon as they awakened.
The twins then confronted and defeated Will before breaking free from Mirror World. However, the twins devised a plan to change Rhinne’s destiny by recreating Mirror World as soon as it was destroyed, sacrificing a large chunk of their power in order to maintain Mirror World in Rhinne’s place. As a result of their plan, Rhinne was resurrected in the form of a mortal child.
After escaping Mirror World, the twins were surprised to find themselves in Grandis instead of Maple World. In Pantheon, a hooded man led them to a space between dimensions, where they encountered the Commanders - Arkarium, Damien, Hilla, and Von Leon - as well as Gelimer and a mind-controlled Lotus.
The Commanders offered an alliance with the twins, revealing that the Black Mage had been planning to fuse Maple World and Grandis by sealing away himself, Rhinne, and Alicia. With no Transcendents in Maple World, Maple World had automatically sought to fuse with Grandis in order to restore its balance of Transcendents. As a result of centuries passing with the Transcendents sealed away, the pure inertia of the world collision meant that the two worlds would continue to fuse, even after the return of the Transcendents.
The Commanders revealed that the Black Mage intended to become the Transcendent of Light for both Maple World and Grandis, and that they wished to offer the twins the position of Transcendent of Time for both worlds as well. However, the twins bought time for themselves by claiming that they needed to think on the offer by first exploring Maple World and Grandis, as they had only just become the new Transcendents.
The hooded man then escorted Alpha and Beta back to Maple World, revealing himself to be Cassius. Cassius explained that he had been revived by the Commanders, and that he had joined them in order to help Alpha and Beta become the Transcendents of two worlds, which would give them the power to defeat the Black Mage. After arriving in Maple World, Alpha and Beta began their explorations of the new world.
Fight for Azwan:
In order to defeat Hilla, the Alliance invaded Azwan and successfully drove her out.
In the aftermath, the Alliance and the forces of Queen Areda rushed to claim the legendary Elixir of Youth, with a wandering mystic spreading rumors that Hilla had left it behind in Azwan.
The Alliance recovered the Elixir of Youth and learned that it was actually a potion that extracted obsession and insanity hidden within the drinker’s heart. Though the Alliance confiscated the potion, the wandering mystic - revealed to be a disguised Hilla - brought another potion to Queen Areda, hoping to bring about Ariant’s fall.
Ellin Forest:
During the Explorer’s adventures, they met with Tess and learned about his past. Tess revealed that he was the son of the first pirate, Destonen, and a half-elf named Yuris, and that he was also Kyrin’s brother. He explained that Destonen had been cursed by a mysterious man in Ellin Forest centuries ago, with his mother dying from a toxic poison released by that same man.
Unbeknownst to Destonen, the man who had cursed him was Kirston, who had grown enamored by the Black Mage’s dangerous ideals, for which he had been planning to revive him. Kirston had also been researching the prophecy of the First Explorer, believing that the power of the Adversary contained in the maple leaves would be a hindrance to the Black Mage’s plan.
After Destonen’s death, his blood curse had been transferred into his two descendants, Tess and Kyrin. With the curse worsening in close proximity of each other, Tess had left Kyrin with Athena Pierce in order to find a way to break the curse, which had been cast such that it would persist as long as the Black Mage lived.
Soon after, a traveler was called to Helios Library by Wiz, who revealed that he had found a book about Ellin Forest that described someone with the traveler’s exact appearance centuries ago. In order to investigate, the traveler entered a crack in time within Ludibrium, though Wiz warned them that the history could never be changed.
In Ellin Forest of the past, the traveler met with Athena Pierce, who was able to perceive that the traveler came from the future. Athena explained that the people of Altaire Camp had been working to find a new home after crash-landing on Victoria Island. The traveler decided to help Tess, Yuris, and Destonen settle Ellin Forest and learned that Ephenia the Fairy Queen had grown hostile towards humans, for which she was planning to wipe them out.
The traveler defeated Ephenia, causing the book to change in order to record the event. They also read that Destonen would soon be killed, and in order to save him, they found him right outside Kirston’s tent and warned him not to enter.
After returning to the present, however, they were surprised to learn that Destonen had entered the tent anyways, which had resulted in his bloodline being cursed. Back in Helios Library, Wiz revealed that though they may have believed that they had changed to future by killing Ephenia, that event had always been meant to be, as the laws of the world made it so that time physically could not be altered from its predestined fate.
Cygnus Awakens:
While en-route to an off-site Alliance meeting, Cygnus and her court were warned that Ereve was under attack by the demon army. They quickly rushed back to Ereve, where they found Damien standing over the mortally wounded body of Shinsoo. As Damien escaped with Alicia, who had been extracted from within Shinsoo’s gemstone, a horrified Cygnus mistakenly believed that Shinsoo had been killed.
The shock of seeing her friend killed caused a magical transformation within Cygnus, who awakened with mysterious powers. With her new abilities, Cygnus was able to restore Shinsoo back to full health. However, Shinsoo soon left Ereve for unknown reasons, leaving Cygnus wondering whether she was the reason why Shinsoo had gone away.
Over the next several months, the Knights began rebuilding Ereve and learned that with Cygnus having grown stronger, her connection to the Knights meant that they had grown much stronger as well.
Shinsoo soon called the Cygnus Knight to her refuge in Leafre, where she revealed that long ago, the Overseers had ordained that Cygnus’ bloodline would one day bring forth a new Transcendent in the event that the balance of the Transcendents should disappear. Though there was no need for a replacement Transcendent in the present day, the shock of seeing Shinsoo mortally wounded had caused Cygnus to prematurely awaken as a Transcendent-in-reserve, awaiting the day when she would be needed to awaken fully.
Due to her sudden and incomplete awakening, Cygnus could now use a portion of the Transcendent’s powers, though she remained in a strange state of not actually being one.
Shinsoo explained that she had been tasked with watching over the birth of the new Transcendent at the end of the Ancient War, for which she had created Ereve and the Piyos to serve the Empress’ bloodline. She told the Knight that she had left Ereve in order to find a way to help Cygnus, whether that meant separating Cygnus from her Transcendent powers or teaching her how to use them.
Though she could not be at Cygnus’ side, she asked the Knight to watch over Cygnus in her stead. After the Knight agreed, Shinsoo noted that the Knight was a descendant of the Noblesse. She explained that the Noblesse were those whom she had protected during the Ancient War, with the Noblesse carrying on her ideals to protect humanity after she had been weakened in the aftermath of the war.
Shinsoo revealed that most of the Noblesse had been killed when Orchid and Lotus had sieged Ereve and killed Empress Aria, while the remainder had gone extinct during the war from 300 years ago. However, she told the Knight that the ideals of the Noblesse were reborn within them.
Power Regained:
(A/N: This section is mainly for several 4th job advancements for various classes, as well as questlines for several of them set afterwards. Many of these job advancements and follow-up quests have no important details worth covering, and so this abridged section will only be covering things that are actually important in a long-lasting way to the overall story.)
After searching endlessly, Illium and his friends discovered the Sanctuary of the Ancient God once again, where the God of the Verdant Flora bestowed more of his powers into the Elder Crystal.
Having grown stronger, Ark was called back into the Abyss by the Specter, who revealed that there were two reason why Ark was a partial Specter. The first reason was that Albaire had interrupted the ritual, while the second was that Ark possessed a special soul, which the Specter described as an impurity that made Ark’s soul impossible to process.
In order to get stronger, Hoyoung returned to the Hermitage through his dreams, where he met the spirit of his Master. His Master revealed that the Hermitage was part of the realm of the sages, where a true sage or those given permission could gain entry, which was why it had seemingly disappeared from the physical world.
He explained that he had been tasked by the elders with putting an end to the chaos of the outside world, and that he had rescued Hoyoung as an infant from a ruined village. After seeing Hoyoung’s immense magical talent and lack of discipline, his Master had sealed away Hoyoung’s power until Taotie had loosened the seal. His Master then taught Hoyoung his final spells as an apology before sending him back to the real world.
During this time, Adele met with Illium and learned that the former God-King had once been a man of excellent character before he had turned into a tyrant, leading a campaign of domination against the other races. This triggered one of Adele’s latent memories, in which she recalled the God-King giving a speech that denounced the other races as ‘savages’.
Illium revealed that though the Verdant Flora had been accused of killing the God-King, the true culprit was unknown, though he suspected that Darmoor was involved somehow, as none of the records added up with each other. However, Adele’s memories confirmed to Illium that the attack on the God-King’s palace had been an internal conflict between the High Flora.
Meanwhile, Kain discovered old coordinates that he had written in the past before his memories had been taken, which led him to a ruined village where he and Luska had lived in hiding with the other surviving Black Nova. There, he recalled a memory of Luska telling Kain about how the Black Nova had removed their Nova features in order to hide, though they had still kept their Malice. In the ruins of his village, Kain build a gravestone for Luska in her memory.
In Narin, Lara and Gri returned to Hannah’s studio in order to find more clues about mysticants. There, they encountered Kaling, who revealed that she had been investigating Lara’s bell, which had the power to destroy other mysticants. Though Kaling appeared to be an Anima, Gri noted that she didn’t have an Anima scent.
(A/N: This line was never fully explained, but there are two possible explanations suggested for this. The first is that Kaling - like the elders and the other researchers of Odium - were blessed with the power of the Overseers, allowing them to ascend to sagehood, masking their Anima scent with divine energy. The other explanation is that Gri was sensing the contamination inside Kaling, which masked her Anima scent with corrupted energy. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that Kaling is indeed an Anima, despite whatever Gri senses.)
Kaling then attacked Lara in order to take the bell, though Lara freed herself with the help of the spirits. As the bell began reacting to Lara’s energy, Kaling realized that the bell had been created by the elders of Grandis. Cursing them for their continued interference, Kaling warned Lara that she always took what she wanted before retreating.
Dimension Invasion:
Having increased their strength since repelling Magnus’ invasion of Pantheon, the Nova began their attack on Heliseum and created the Heliseum Reclamation HQ on the outskirts of the city, where they began battling Magnus’ forces.
Meanwhile, in order to confront Magnus, who had seemingly disappeared from the Black Mage’s ranks, Hilla ordered Gelimer to create special Crimson Interdimensional Portals to invade Grandis. While the Nova attempted to drive Hilla’s invasion army out of Grandis, Hilla confronted Magnus at Tyrant’s Castle, where she learned that Magnus had indeed betrayed the Black Mage. Though Magnus and Hilla fought each other, the outcome of their battle remained unknown, with Hilla ultimately retreating back to Maple World.
Siege of Heliseum:
Under the leadership of Edea, the Supreme Commander and strategist of the Nova army, Nova began fighting the Specter army in an effort to break into the city.
Hoping to find more allies, the Nova asked Kaiser to request the Alliance for their assistance in the battle. Neinheart decided to send a small team of elite Alliance soldiers in order to reinforce the Nova, who crossed over to Grandis through the Interdimensional Portal.
In order to push through, the Nova utilized an ancient Nova superweapon called the Blue Dragon Cannon, with Cadena restoring the faded schematics with the help of the Shadowdealers. With the weapon complete, Cadena made several modifications to the original design and created the Apocalypse Cannon, which had been enhanced with Shadowdealer technology for her own personal use.
During the campaign, the Nova recruited the help of a wise sage named Eurenth, who had gone into exile after the Nova had refused to listen to his counsel about the imminent invasion of Heliseum decades ago. With Eurenth’s reluctant help, the Nova learned about the materials needed to repair the broken Blue Dragon Cannon.
The Nova also employed the Heliseum branch of the Shadowdealers, who provided specialized knowledge and materials to repair the Blue Dragon Cannon in exchange for a hefty fee.
While pushing into the city, the Nova discovered that Magnus had filled the city with Specters, who wandered mindlessly without any apparent purpose. Because of this, Edea concluded that Magnus had no interest in the city, but rather, he had locked himself in the throne room in order to take the power of the Outrigger, a holy relic that the Ancient Gods of the Nova had given to their people.
During the battle to enter Tyrant’s Castle, the Alliance and the Nova began facing two of the three Guardians of Heliseum: Victor and Treglow.
Victor had been a painter whose fiancée had passed away from illness. Driven mad with longing, Victor had shut himself away in his room, painting furiously, until Magnus had anonymously sent a magical canvas, which could bring anything painted on it to life. Victor had obsessively painted his fiancée, though the canvas would only create a doll each time. Eventually, Victor’s soul was bound to the canvas after growing dependent on it, after which he had killed himself in order to put an end to his pain, leaving his trapped soul to endlessly paint new minions for Magnus.
Treglow had been a genius scientist and chemist, whose achievements had been celebrated by the Nova. Taking advantage of his insatiable thirst for recognition, Magnus had used his spies to send him rare books and materials from the High Flora in order to fund his research. Eventually, Magnus had sent Treglow a cursed chemical, which had caused him to lose his mind. Having gone mad, Treglow offered his loyalty to Magnus and created twisted creatures for his army.
Though Edea had been the third Guardian, she had escaped Heliseum during its fall. The Alliance soon learned that Magnus had replaced Edea with Velderoth, who had joined Magnus in order to become stronger than Kaiser. Though Velderoth attempted to challenge Kaiser in battle, Kaiser was able to defeat him, though he was deeply disturbed about the fall of his former friend.
Eventually, the Nova were able to break into the city and launched their final assault on Tyrant’s Castle, where they defeated the three Guardians of Heliseum. Though Victor and Treglow were both killed, Velderoth managed to escape in the battle.
(A/N: If you’re playing as Angelic Buster, there’s an important exclusive scene where she reveals her identity to Velderoth during the fight against him. However, rather than standing down, Velderoth grows even more furious that both Kaiser and Angelic Buster were handed free power, leaving him as the only one who got nothing.)
The Alliance then discovered Magnus, who, for decades, had been attempting to steal the power of the Outrigger, though the Ancient Gods of the Nova - sensing that Magnus had betrayed his people - continued rejecting his attempts. Furious, Magnus resolved to kill every single Nova in the world if it was required to finally claim the power.
The Alliance fought against Magnus, who lost his hold on the stolen powers of Guwaru, allowing them to flow back to Guwaru on Maple World. After being defeated, a mysterious vortex pulled in both Magnus and the Outrigger, causing them to disappear. Magnus also lost his cursed Kaiserium, which was reclaimed and restored by Kaiser.
Following Magnus’ defeat, the Nova reclaimed Heliseum and officially joined the Maple Alliance.
Nova Alliance:
(A/N: This section is mainly for the Alliance quests for Grandis classes, as well as all their questlines set before their level 200 quest. Many of these quests have no important details worth covering, and so this abridged section will only be covering things that are actually important in a long-lasting way to the overall story.)
Following the Nova joining the Alliance, many other heroes of Grandis - Angelic Buster, Cadena, Illium, Ark, Hoyoung, Adele, Kain, Lara, and Khali - were recruited by the Alliance as well.
Soon after, Illium was led into a trap by his classmate, Sinaria, who had sided with Darius. Darius revealed that he and Sinaria had pledged their loyalty to Darmoor, believing that their people’s dependence on machinery was a mockery of their noble lineage as superior magic users. For this reason, Darius and Sinaria had been tasked with recovering the Elder Crystal in exchange for regaining their wings and magic.
Illium managed to defeat Darius and Sinaria, forcing them to retreat. Meanwhile, the High Flora reported Darius’ failure to Darmoor, who simply stated, “The meaningless struggle of immature life… What a pathetic existence.”
Meanwhile, Hoyoung and Taotie continued capturing the missing fiends, leaving only one to be caught.
Elsewhere, while on the quest to regain her missing memories, Adele met with several other heroes of Grandis, such as Cadena, Ark, and Kaiser. While recovering her memories, Adele learned that she had been imprisoned for betraying the God-King, and that she had refused to follow him into battle. However, she also learned that she had rushed to defend the God-King from Veronica and her faction, which made her realize that she hadn’t betrayed the God-King until the very end, despite the fact that she had been imprisoned for it.
Traces of the Black Mage:
Following the lead from Von Leon about finding answers in the Temple of Time, the Demon traveled through the Gate of the Past and encountered a hooded Damien. Unable to see his face, the Demon only recognized Damien as the new Commander. Damien cryptically revealed that he knew the Demon and gave him back the locket containing his family picture, which he had lost in the battle against the Black Mage.
Soon after, the Alliance discovered the Black Mage’s laboratory beneath Magatia and recovered several important writings, which Neinheart showed Kaiser. Kaiser read that the Black Mage had expelled the light within himself, and that he had stolen Rhinne’s powers, just as Darmoor had stolen Chronica’s.
After conferring with Fenelle, the Nova noted that several Interdimensional Portals had appeared on Grandis when Darmoor had taken Chronica’s powers, and that the single portal on Maple World had disappeared when the power of time had been sealed away with the Black Mage, reappearing as the seal had begun to weaken critically, allowing the power of time to seep back into the world.
Meanwhile, Ark began to investigate the report on the Interdimensional Portals and learned that when a Transcendent stole another Transcendent’s powers, they were considerably weakened in the backlash. Realizing that Darmoor had known the risks when he had chosen to take Chronica’s powers, Ark wondered what Darmoor had planned to do with the power of time.
Detective Rave’s Case Notes:
A traveler was scammed into a fake luxury tour package, for which they traveled to Savage Terminal in order to claim it. There, an Angler Company bot posed as the facilitator of the event and tricked the traveler into accidentally shooting down a spaceship.
An escape pod from the ship crashed into the office of a thug named Toole, a local thug and the one who had actually created the scam. From the ship emerged a girl named Senya, who explained that she had lost precious cargo when her ship had been shot down. Seeing an opportunity to make money, Toole forced the traveler to recover the cargo, claiming that they needed to cover the cost of destroying his office.
After finding that the cargo had already been stolen from the crash site, the traveler began working with the infamous Detective Rave in order to find out who had taken it.
In order to scare the local lowlifes of Savage Terminal into revealing the truth, Detective Rave claimed that the cargo belonged to the Angler Company, a fearsome and ruthless arms-dealer company which had allegedly met its end in a cataclysmic explosion at headquarters.
While investigating the cargo, Detective Rave interrogated Senya and learned that she was part of an environmental organization called Sea Lantern, which helped reclaim polluted places across Grandis. She revealed that the cargo aboard her ship was a powerful cleaning device that could boil impurities out of any substance.
After chasing down rumor after rumor, the traveler and Detective Rave found the cargo in possession of Maroni, a former employee of Mr. Hazard. Eventually, however, the device was teleported to the sewers, where they encountered a masked man named Cosim. Cosim revealed that the device wasn’t a purifier, but an Angler Company weapon that would turn the waters of Savage Terminal acidic, boiling everyone to death and leaving behind a source of pure energy.
While the traveler worked with Cosim to stop the weapon, Detective Rave confronted Senya and learned that she was actually Senya Angler of the infamous Angler family. Rave began to fight Senya, who revealed that she was a cyborg enhanced with the technology of the Angler Company.
After Senya retreated, Rave used a teleportation device that he had stolen from Senya during the fight in order to transport the unstable weapon aboard her escape craft, causing it explode in the sky.
On the city skyline, Cosim noted that the Angler Company had returned, and the the Apostles of Darmoor were making their move. Because of this, he wondered whether it was time to meet with the elders from the realm of the sages.
Fox Valley:
A traveler was called to Vulpes by a fox Anima boy named Maru, who hoped to recruit them into the Fox Point Rangers. Maru revealed that long ago, he had been saved by the Fox God, who had tasked him with protecting the village. Since that day, Maru had been able to meet a fox Anima girl named Sino in his dreams.
Because of Maru’s playful nature, he would attempt to ‘train’ the fox Anima by playing pranks on them, which had led him to be ostracized by the adults, and even the other children, for which he had sent out a letter, praying to the Fox God that it would reach someone who would be his friend.
With the traveler having answered the call, Maru began working with them to keep the village safe. Right before the traveler had arrived, Sino had fallen asleep within Maru’s dream and disappeared entirely.
Just then, a massive lightning storm began approaching Fox Point Village, which threatened to destroy the village entirely. Despite Maru and the traveler’s best attempts to shield the village, the storm nevertheless began flooding the whole valley.
With no choice, Maru and the traveler began scaling the Fox Tree in order to reach the domain of the Fox God, where they fought against the Fox God’s Sky and Cloud Guardians, who viewed them as intruders.
After fighting through, Maru found the Fox God asleep and woke her up. The Fox God then dispelled the storm and cleared away the flood, saving the Anima from certain doom.
After Maru and the traveler left, the Fox God took on the form of Sino and discovered a draining crystal, which had been used by Darmoor’s Apostles to steal and channel the power of higher beings. Realizing that an Apostle of Darmoor was responsible for both the storm and for blocking her vision by putting her to sleep, Sino decided that she would speak with the elders from the realm of the sages.
FriendStory:
A disciple of Grendel the Really Old named Elwin accidentally used his barrier magic to break a hole between Maple World and a parallel world within the same dimension called Friends World. From the other side, a transfer student from Shinsoo International School was brought over to Maple World. As the student wanted to explore Maple World, Elwin called a traveler from Maple World to pose as the transfer student until they were ready to return.
At Shinsoo International School, the traveler learned that many people from Maple World and Grandis had counterparts on Earth that led completely different, yet similar lives. They discovered that Cygnus was the heiress to Shinsoo Corporation, and that her family had given her permission to manage the school, despite her young age. They also learned that Neinheart and the Chief Knights were students, while several Commanders were employees of the school.
Grendel quickly learned what Elwin had done and revealed that the magicians of Maple World had known about the parallel world for some time, though they had chosen not to open a portal there, in fear of what would happen. He explained that because of Elwin’s actions, the magic of Maple World was beginning to seep into Friends World, along with dark energy that was creating evil monsters.
To keep Friends World safe, the traveler began fighting dark creatures called Motes, as well as powerful Troublemakers born from negative emotions. With the help of Elwin and his sister, Lily, the traveler began fighting the creatures, while befriending the people of Shinsoo International School.
Eventually, a mysterious man who appeared identical to the White Mage confronted the traveler and revealed that he had been studying them and their powers, as well as the world that they came from. He revealed that portals between their worlds could only be made through a simultaneous effort on both ends, and that the only reason why Elwin had been able to open a portal was because he himself had been opening on on the other side.
After the White Mage disappeared, the traveler returned back to Friends World, where Grendel decided that the Magician Association would begin protecting the other world, as he feared that the shared elements between their worlds meant that Friends World would soon face a danger just as grave as the Black Mage.
Hero of Seoul:
Because of Maple World’s magic entering Friends World, a high-school boy from Seoul gained the power of psychokinesis. With his hacker friend, Jay, and his girlfriend, Yuna, the boy took on the name of Kinesis and decided to become a superhero.
Jay soon learned that a man anonymously known as WM had been posting online about the appearances of Motes throughout Seoul, almost like a prophet. While fighting the monsters at his school, the School for the Gifted, Kinesis began losing control of his powers. After passing out, he awoke to find a black cat, which he named Nero.
Soon after, Kinesis began fighting Motes and Troublemakers aboard a subway, where he was confronted by the White Mage. The White Mage revealed that Kinesis was the first of their world to have gained powers from the other, and that he planned to use Kinesis as a catalyst. He then used his own mysterious powers to create a sinkhole around Kinesis, which began dragging in large parts of the city.
Kinesis then awoke at the Magician Association headquarters in Maple World, where he learned that Nero the black cat was actually a girl who had been sent to monitor Kinesis’ city. Grendel revealed that Kinesis’ world was being absorbed by Maple World, though the sinkhole had stopped after Kinesis had been pulled out by the magicians of the association.
As Kinesis’ abilities were rare, even in Maple World, Kinesis began training in order to master them, as well as to rescue the people of Seoul who had been pulled into Maple World. As Kinesis sent the missing people back to Friends World, the White Mage noted that though Kinesis’ abilities were growing faster than expected, he could no longer wait.
For this reason, he sent a Troublemaker to kidnap Yuna. Soon after, a tornado storm activated the sinkhole once again, causing Friends World to slowly begin merging with Maple World. After Kinesis stabilized the dimensional collapse, he traveled to the sinkhole and found that Yuna was the new catalyst of the sinkhole, with the tornado revolving around her.
There, he confronted the White Mage, who revealed that he had been reincarnating across lifetimes in order to break down barriers for a great purpose. He revealed that he had kidnapped Yuna in order to continue merging their worlds, as well as to draw Kinesis back to Friends World, adding that it had all been a test to see whether Kinesis had the strength to stand at the final stage of another world.
The White Mage explained that others would gain powers like Kinesis, and that not all of the would be heroes. He then disappeared, leaving behind a Master Omen, identical to the ones created by the Black Mage of Maple World. After Kinesis defeated it and calmed the sinkhole, he rescued Yuna and brought her back to the Magician Association, where they learned that she now had the power to control the wind.
With more people expected to gain powers soon, Kinesis decided that he would create his own version of the Magician Association in order to help them learn how to control their powers for good, which would prove the White Mage wrong.
Black Heaven:
After 10 Boogies was captured during a spy mission, an Alliance member was sent to rescue her in the Verne Mine. Following the mission, 10 Boogies revealed that a mysterious project called Black Heaven was ready. In order to learn what Black Heaven was, the Alliance member was sent into Orchid’s mind by Grendel, where they discovered that Black Heaven was a massive airship.
To stop Black Heaven, hundreds of Alliance soldiers boarded the Lumiere, which had been outfitted with powerful weaponry. As the Lumiere headed for Edelstein, the Black Wings infiltrated the airship and began to cause chaos. The Alliance drove back the Black Wings and defeated a large airship, which they believed to be Black Heaven.
Just then, however, the real Black Heaven - which was hundreds of times larger than the ship which they had destroyed - appeared in the air, sending waves of aerial forces to attack the Lumiere. As the Alliance retreated, Francis the Puppeteer snuck aboard the Lumiere in order to rescue Orchid, revealing that he had defected from the Black Wings after Gelimer had taken over.
Though Francis attempted to trade the blueprints for Black Heaven in exchange for Orchid, the Alliance took the blueprints and captured Francis, claiming that he could be reunited with Orchid after the war. From the schematics, Neinheart learned that Black Heaven was being powered by a single source.
Believing that the ship’s massive size had to create some sort of blind spot, he approved a plan to infiltrate Black Heaven and destroy the power source. Just as the mission was approved, the Black Wings launched another attack on the Lumiere. The Alliance member, Belle, Brighton, and Checky flew towards Black Heaven as part of the infiltration mission, though Gelimer, having anticipated them, ordered his cannons to fire, leading to the Resistance leaders’ apparent deaths.
Though devastated by the loss of her friends, Claudine nevertheless agreed to do whatever it took to defeat the Black Wings, hoping that her friends may have survived. The Alliance then interrogated Francis about Black Heaven in order to learn about its weaknesses.
Francis revealed that Black Heaven was being powered by Lotus, who had been turned into a Xenoroid by Gelimer. With Lotus’ AI controlling the entire ship, Francis explained that Black Heaven had no weak spots, with all of the ship’s soldiers being teleported from the Scrapyard in Edelstein.
Realizing that there was a small chance of infiltrating the ship, the Alliance member traveled to the Scrapyard, believing that they could teleport themselves aboard.
In the Scrapyard, the Alliance member met three androids: One-Eye, Three-Hands, and Bitterbot, who had escaped and formed a family together after being deemed defective for having emotions. With their help, the Alliance member was able to sneak aboard Black Heaven. After the Alliance member left, Bitterbot took off her helmet, revealing herself to be Beryl.
After boarding Black Heaven, the Alliance member broke a hole in the shields and launched a flare in order to signal the Alliance. Claudine arrived to reinforce the Alliance member, as well as Checky, Belle, and Brighton, who had survived Gelimer’s attack.
As the Alliance prepared to infiltrate Black Heaven, Francis escaped his prison and snuck into the Secret Plaza in order to rescue Orchid, who had been woken from her coma after sensing Lotus’ pain from being controlled by Gelimer. With Francis following her, Orchid prepared to storm Black Heaven and get her revenge on Gelimer.
Aboard Black Heaven, the Alliance ran into Orchid and Lotus while searching for Gelimer and Lotus. After Gelimer detected their presence, the Alliance member and Orchid were separated from the rest of the group during Gelimer’s attempt to destroy them. Orchid and the Alliance member reluctantly worked together in order to find the others, though Orchid hesitantly left the Alliance member to die after finding Francis.
The Alliance member was rescued by the Alliance, which made its way deeper into Black Heaven. Deep inside, they encountered several Xenoroids modeled after Xenon and Beryl, as well as hundreds of Retoxin bombs.
Inside Gelimer’s laboratory, they learned that Gelimer had been researching the Seal Stones being gathered by the Black Wings. Though Gelimer had attempted to harness their power, he had been unable to use them, as the Seal Stones would only grant the wish of a population. Gelimer had also learned that the Seal Stones were subconsciously channeling Maple World’s desire to stop the Black Mage, thereby suppressing the Black Mage’s powers.
The Alliance also read that Gelimer had planned to evolve humanity by bombing Maple World with Retoxin, erasing human emotion and creating a hive mind controlled by Lotus, whom Gelimer had modeled to be the perfect being.
Racing to stop Gelimer, the Alliance member reached the core of Black Heaven, where they fought against a fully-powered Lotus. During the battle, Orchid reached Lotus and reunited with him at last. Furious to see that Lotus had resisted his programming, Gelimer used his kill switch on Lotus, terminating his life.
The Alliance member then attempted to stop Gelimer, who unleashed Retoxin gas on them. The weakened Alliance member watched helplessly as Gelimer rained down his bombs upon Edelstein. However, Orchid - who had been given the full power of the Wing Master by Lotus in his final moments - used her gravity abilities to freeze and destroy the bombs in mid-air.
Gelimer attempted to flee Black Heaven and ordered his Xenoroids to self-destruct to destroy the Alliance. Unexpectedly, however, the Xenoroids developed survival instincts and clung to Gelimer’s jettisoned escape pod, which exploded with the Xenoroids, putting an end to Gelimer once and for all.
As a final act of mercy, Orchid saved the poisoned Alliance member and brought them to the Alliance, though she warned that they would soon into a mindless puppet, if they survived at all.
In order to save the Alliance member’s life, Cygnus and the Alliance used the Seal Stone of Ereve by making a wish to restore them to full health. Unbeknown to them all, however, the Seal Stone recognized the Alliance member as one who represented the will of the people, causing it to choose them as its Vessel, awakening them as an Adversary.
As a result of using the final Seal Stone in existence, the limit on the Black Mage’s power was removed, allowing him to use his powers at full capacity once again. Sensing the creation of a new Adversary, just as he had planned, the Black Mage ordered Damien to move on to the next phase of his plan by using the demon army to attack Maple World.
Soon after the battle of Black Heaven, Gerand Darmoor became aware of the birth of a new Adversary. Darmoor arranged a business meeting with the Angler family and informed them about the Adversary’s creation. Hoping to use the Adversary to complete Karote and reach Odium, Alter Angler became business partners with Darmoor and his Apostles.
Heroes of Maple:
Damien led his demon army to conquer Rien, where they took control of Turtle Island as their base. There, Damien imprisoned Afrien and attempted to take his powers by using his mark of corruption.
Sensing Afrien’s distress, Evan and Mir traveled to Turtle Island in order to save him. After meeting Afrien, Evan was shown a message from Freud contained inside Afrien’s mark of the Spirit Pact, transferring Freud’s memories into Evan. Freud then asked Evan to seek out the Sanctum of Abraxas with the other Heroes, adding that he had five friends whom Evan needed to seek out.
Just then, Damien appeared and revealed that he had been absorbing the power of Afrien and all the countless other creatures whom he had branded with his sword. In order to save Evan, Afrien sacrificed his life to destroy the cave and teleport Evan to safety. Vowing to avenge Afrien, Evan planned to reunite the Heroes and follow Freud’s legacy.
Meanwhile, a captured Alicia told Damien that he had gone too far by killing Afrien, though Damien revealed that he had planned to push the Heroes in order to gather them into one place.
Evan gathered together the five Heroes, though upon recalling how Freud had mentioned his ‘five friends’, the Heroes deduced from Freud’s sealing spell that one of their members had sacrificed their existence. After deducing that their missing friend was Shade, the Heroes reunited with Shade, who was overjoyed to see that the Heroes knew about him.
In order to prevent Damien from tracking them, the Heroes split up into two different teams. While Evan, Luminous, and Mercedes headed for the Sanctum of Abraxas, Phantom, Shade, and Aran attempted to go after Damien on Turtle Island.
Meanwhile, the Demon confronted Damien at their family home, where Damien revealed his identity to his brother at last. Damien told the Demon that after the demons had been driven from Maple World centuries ago, the half-demons without wings had been sacrificed to power the Sword of Destruction, with Damien being the sole survivor after the sword had chosen him. Damien then attacked the Demon and warned him to stay out of his fight, vowing that he would fix everything that had gone wrong.
Damien then returned back to Turtle Island and rallied his demons into battle, disappearing just as Phantom and his team arrived. Though frustrated that they had missed Damien, Phantom’s team soon encountered the Demon, who had come to stop his brother. After revealing that he and Damien were siblings, the Demon asked the Heroes to do whatever it took to stop Damien, adding that he would do the same.
After learning that a horde of demons were approaching the Nihal Desert, Phantom and his team rushed aboard the Lumiere to stop them.
Meanwhile, Evan and his team arrived at the Sanctum of Abraxas and discovered that it contained records of Maple World’s history, actively using a mysterious power to transcribe it as it happened. Inside the records, they read about how the Overseers had sealed away the Ancient Gods in the name of their creator, the Primordial God, as well as the balance of the three Transcendents from each of the three worlds.
They also discovered that when the Black Mage had awakened as the dark Transcendent of Light, an object known as the Abyss Crystal had been created, capable of devouring anything - including the power of higher beings - which was how he had stolen the power of Rhinne centuries ago.
Evan and the others realized that the Black Mage was planning to use the Abyss Crystal to take the powers of Alicia, for which they vowed to stop him. After the Heroes regrouped in the sanctum, Evan awakened an airship in the ruins, which the Heroes used to escape. Aboard the airship, they met with a projection of Freud, who had left a part of himself behind to meet the Heroes in the future.
Freud revealed that the Black Mage had sealed the Abyss Crystal in a subspace between their world and Friends World, such that the crystal would recharge over centuries after being used to take Rhinne’s power. Though Freud had been unable to access the subspace, the disappearance of the Transcendents had caused the barrier between worlds to weaken and break down, making Friends World accessible.
Freud also revealed that the airship and the entire sanctum contained the consciousness of Abraxas the Watchful God, whose divine power could be used to locate the Abyss Crystal, as the crystal naturally attracted the power of the gods.
In order to learn more about Friends World, the Heroes worked with Grendel the Really Old, who revealed that Friends World was a parallel world within the same dimension as Maple World, which meant that Shade could access it without triggering his curse, which only erased him when crossing dimensions.
Grendel revealed that there were only three dimensions - Maple World, Grandis, and Tynerum - and that a portal in the south of Maple World leading to Tynerum had existed for centuries.
To help the Heroes enter Friends World, Grendel created a large portal that the Heroes could use to bring the airship of Abraxas across worlds. With the help of Abraxas, the Heroes located the Abyss Crystal in a museum in Seoul. The Heroes infiltrated the museum in order to take the crystal, but upon coming in contact with it, Luminous’ powers were unbalanced, causing Phantom to fight him in order to help him regain control over himself.
In the chaos, Damien arrived - having followed the Heroes through the portal - and stole the Abyss Crystal. Returning back to Maple World, Damien absorbed the Abyss Crystal into the Sword of Destruction and absorbed Alicia’s powers into it, binding the powers of the Transcendent of Life to the sword.
Drunk and unstable from the power of the Transcendents, as well as the countless monsters branded by his sword, Damien fatally wounded Arkarium, who had revealed that he had never been keeping Damien’s mother alive at all. Damien then began to drain the life force of Maple World, with the World Tree growing large and corrupted as it gorged on the vitality of the world.
The Heroes climbed atop the Dark World Tree and met with the Demon, who revealed that he had been looking for a way to disable Damien’s sword. The Demon revealed that the sword was the product of an experiment conducted by the pure-blood demons of Tynerum to imitate the power of the Transcendents, which had resulted in the destruction of their homeland.
At the top of the Dark World Tree, the Demon attempted to dissuade Damien from his quest for vengeance, pointing out that the sword contained the spirits of all the half-blood demons sacrificed over centuries, adding that Damien would also be consumed by vengeance. However, Damien merely struck down his brother before attacking the Heroes.
Nevertheless, the Heroes defeated Damien after a fierce battle, leaving the Demon to finish things. With the last of his senses, Damien asked his brother to strike him down, to which the Demon mournfully killed Damien before taking his body back to their family home in Leafre.
With Damien’s defeat, Alicia emerged from the sword and revealed that she had been corrupted by the Black Mage’s darkness inside the Abyss Crystal. Together, the Heroes managed to stop Alicia from being consumed by evil, after which she revealed that she was slowly losing her ego to the Abyss Crystal, and that she would soon become a part of it.
Because of this, however, Alicia revealed that she could also use the Abyss Crystal’s power to scatter her life force across Maple World in order to restore vitality to the ruined lands. By shattering the Abyss Crystal, the Heroes scattered Alicia and returned life back to Maple World.
With Alpha and Beta divided and weakened into imperfect Transcendents, as well as Alicia’s powers being scattered beyond use, the Black Mage - having successfully eliminated two of Maple World’s Transcendents - ordered his Commanders to allow the Alliance to enter the Gate to the Present, where he awaited the Adversary to complete his plan.
Meanwhile, Arkarium - who had survived Damien’s attack by transferring his life force into a backup snake body - returned to the Black Mage and regenerated his human body. The Black Mage then ordered Arkarium to bring Tana, who remained trapped in Kritias, before him, with the time having arrived to enact the Genesis Ritual and create a new world.
Return of Kritias:
Following Kritias’ reappearance, Neinheart sent an Alliance member to investigate its return. The Alliance member learned that the people of Kritias had been frozen in time for centuries, unaware that any time had passed at all since the Black Mage and his Commanders had invaded long ago. Floating in the sky was the castle of Trueffet, which had been transformed into a large golem, as well as disembodied weapons that represented people’s darkest emotions.
While investigating Kritias, the Alliance member began searching for the princess, whose identity was being kept secret for her protection. After a long search, the Alliance member was finally able to meet the princess, Ione de Kritias, who revealed that her father, the king, had gone missing after the Black Mage’s invasion, though the Black Mage’s true plan for Kritias remained unknown.
Pinnacle of Power:
(A/N: This section is mainly for level 200 quests for various classes, as well as questlines for several of them set afterwards. Many of these quests have no important details worth covering, and so this abridged section will only be covering things that are actually important in a long-lasting way to the overall story.)
Mihile was called to Leafre by Shinsoo, who revealed the true origins behind the Seal Stone of Ereve. She explained that after Freud had entrusted it to her, Orchid and Lotus had killed both Empress Aria and her Knight of Light. With Shinsoo too weak to protect the Seal Stone anymore, she had entrusted it to the Knight of Light’s successor, who had kept it safe within the Soul Shield. Shinsoo had also named it Shinsoo’s Teardrop, in memory of Aria’s death.
After Phantom regained his full power, Cygnus called him to Ereve, where she gave him the remains of Aria’s diary. After reading through it, Phantom learned that Aria had resented the selfish nobles of her time, and that she had grown intrigued by Phantom stealing from them. As Ereve had no treasures worth stealing, Aria had made up rumors about Skaia and its magical properties, hoping to draw out Phantom so that she could finally meet him.
Kain was lured back to the old Drakas headquarters, where he was shocked to see Luska alive again. Luska, emotionless and robotic, attempted to attack Kain, revealing that she had requested for her memories to be erased in order to ‘escape death’. Just then, Dr. Y appeared and stopped her, noting that she had passed her condition check. Dr. Y revealed to Kain that Luska had chosen her fate for her own reasons, and that between Luska, who had abandoned her past, and Kain, who chased it, he wondered which sibling would come out stronger.
After Ark mastered his full power, the Specter brought him to the Abyss and attempted to seize control of his body. Though Ark managed to fight it off, the Specter promised that it would return the next time that Ark’s will wavered. Following the battle, Ark felt a vague memory of the Abyss return to him, though he couldn’t recall the details.
Adele was lured to Ristonia by Veronica, who reminded Adele that she had promised that they would meet again once Adele regained her memories. Veronica attempted to seal Adele back into the Void, where she felt the magic that had carved her soul into a hundred and seven pieces. She was then confronted by a phantom of herself, the 108th sliver, which attempted to keep her trapped inside.
As her memories began slipping, the pendant that Jerome had given her fell to the floor. Upon seeing it, she was reminded of her oath to her liege, which triggered another memory that revealed that Veronica was the one who had led the revolt against the God-King, causing her to realize that she had never betrayed her oath until the very end. Adele then broke free from the Void and confronted Veronica, who declared that their business was over before retreating.
In Toolen City, Khali’s family servant, Nile, arranged a meeting between Khali and Kain, who had key information on Ypsilon’s powers. Kain revealed that he had encountered a man named Dr. Y, who had similar powers as Ypsilon. He explained that Dr. Y could extract memories, Malice, and even death, causing Khali to wonder whether extracting death was possible, as Ypsilon had to absorb everything that had extracted before moving it somewhere else.
Kain realized that as he hadn’t seen Luska die with his own eyes, it was possible that Dr. Y had merely extracted the damage which would have led to death instead. Khali explained that Ypsilon had been extracting life force and magic, which had made her believe that he had been planning to become strong enough to challenge Darmoor and become the new God-King. However, she noted that if Ypsilon and Dr. Y were the same person, then his plan wasn’t as simple as becoming stronger or living longer, as he would have no need of memories just to become more powerful.
Elsewhere in Erimos, Dr. Y arrived at the palace and removed his mask, revealing himself to be Ypsilon in disguise.
In the Temple of Time, Hoyoung and Taotie successfully recovered the final field, allowing Taotie to regain his full power. Just then, Kaling arrived and confronted Hoyoung, revealing that she wanted the power of the Four Perils. However, Hoyoung refused to give up Taotie, whom he now considered a friend, much to Taotie’s surprise.
Kaling then attempted to use another one of the Four Perils to attack Hoyoung, who barely managed to escape, thanks to Taotie’s interference. As Kaling prepared to attack again, the spirit of Hoyoung’s Master appeared and brought Hoyoung back to safety.
After his spirit disappeared, Taotie revealed to Hoyoung that his Master was actually the legendary sage Tai Yu, who had sealed away the Four Perils originally. Hoyoung was surprised to know that his master was his idol, and though Taotie was angry about the news, he decided to remain with Hoyoung, whom he had secretly grown fond of as well.
After mastering her powers, Lara was suddenly consumed by an overwhelming darkness inside the bell, which led her into a memory of someone filled with pain. In the memory, the shadowed person lamented the loss of their humanity due to the contamination, praying for someone to ring the bell and save them.
Just then, Tai Yu broke through the memory and brought Lara back to the real world before the darkness of the memory could consume her. Tai Yu revealed that the bell had been created by the Sinners, who had imprisoned themselves in the realm of the sages for the crime of having forsaken their humanity. He explained that the bell was their only chance of redemption, though many had given up hope that it would ever ring after ages.
After hearing the Sinners’ story, Lara vowed that she would make the bell ring again and bring back the hope that they had lost.
The Arcane River:
While exploring the Temple of Time, the Adversary encountered an amnesiac Temple Keeper wandering through the Gate of the Past. The Adversary worked with the other Temple Keepers in order to help the amnesiac Temple Keeper regain their memories. As a result of their efforts, the Temple Keeper was able to remember their name: Kao. To the Adversary’s surprise, Kao removed their hood and revealed that their face was identical to that of the player.
Some time later, the Adversary was called by the Memory Keeper, who revealed that the Erdas - the building blocks of reality - were disappearing from the Erda Flow. The Adversary spoke with the Erdas, which revealed that - without Alicia to protect them - the Black Mage had taken them beyond the Gate of the Present in order to create the Arcane River.
In order to face the high-purity Erdas within the river, the Adversary met with the Goddesses of Maple World, Grandis, and Tynerum in order to obtain the Arcane Stones, which would grant them the ability to manipulate Erdas just like the Goddesses.
After passing the Goddesses’ trials, the Adversary awakened a new power within them, allowing them to use the power of Erda to create powerful new skills, with which they hoped to survive the Arcane River.
The Memory Keeper also revealed that in order to build up Arcane Power, the Adversary would need to obtain Arcane Symbols - protective symbols that would allow the Adversary to draw power from the Erda Flow without their soul being pulled in.
Vanishing Journey:
The Adversary entered the Arcane River and emerged in the Vanishing Journey. With the Arcane River being created from the convergence of three worlds - Maple World, Grandis, and Friends World - the Adversary noticed elements of all three worlds in the Vanishing Journey.
There, they learned that Kao had also entered the Arcane River in order to regain their memories. Kao revealed that there was a fountain at the end of the Vanishing Journey which reflected one’s memories. The Adversary decided to help Kao reach the end, hoping to learn more about the Arcane River in the process.
Along the way, the two met a girl named Rino, who offered to help them reach the end of the Vanishing Journey. While the Adversary collected the necessary provisions to make the journey, Rino led Kao to the fountain, where they regained their memories and learned that they were the Adversary from the future.
In their memories, Kao saw that Rino had tricked them, resulting in their Arcane Power being consumed by Rino’s master, a monster named Arma. Kao attempted to warn the Adversary, just as Arma appeared in order to drain their power. However, Kao sacrificed themselves in order to give the Adversary time to defeat Arma once and for all.
As Kao lay dying, they revealed to the Adversary that in the future which they had come from, they had confronted the Black Mage at the end of the Arcane River, though they had failed because of Arma draining their Arcane Power. Having changed history by helping the Adversary survive, Kao’s body disappeared, leaving behind the Arcane Symbol of Vanishing Journey.
Reverse City:
Before the Adversary could continue on their journey, the Erdas of the Vanishing Journey asked them to investigate a strange city from Friends World, which had appeared along the shore of the Arcane River. Inside, the Adversary encountered T-Boy, a boy with a computerized face and a gravity gauntlet which had turned Reverse City upside-down.
Hoping to stop T-Boy, the Adversary began working with the Erdas of Reverse City, which had changed their form to appear like the humans of the city. Along the way, the Adversary encountered a man named Barr Granger and learned that he was a survival book author from Friends World. Barr explained that the people of his city had been sucked into the Arcane River as a result of Maple World and Friends World fusing, and that he had been working to return his people back home.
As the Adversary and Barr began working together to stop T-Boy, they came across his secret laboratory and learned that he was planning to harvest the Erdas of the Arcane River in order to create a black hole generator. Though they confronted T-Boy and attempted to stop him, T-Boy began demoralizing Barr by revealing that the reason why Barr hadn’t gone back to Friends World was because his survival books had been poorly received, with many people writing scathing reviews and personal attacks on Barr.
Nevertheless, the Adversary helped Barr regain his confidence before attempting to destroy the gravity machine. Meanwhile, Barr - assuming that T-Boy was just a remote drone like the others they had encountered - shot T-Boy in the face, hoping to stop him. Thanks to their efforts, Reverse City was saved from destruction, with Barr returning home and writing a wildly popular book about his time in the Arcane River.
Meanwhile, T-Boy - who really had been there in-person all along - escaped with a bullet graze on his cheek. As he flew back, his sister - Senya Angler - contacted him and asked him what he had thought of the Adversary, to which he replied that the Angler Company would be able to use them for their goal.
Chu Chu Island:
After helping the people of Reverse City, the Adversary continued along the Arcane River and found themselves on Chu Chu Island, where the Erdas were fusions of animals and food. The Adversary found the path ahead blocked by a friendly giant named Muto, who was refusing to eat the food that the people of Chu Chu Island were making him.
The Adversary began working with the villagers in order to create a special sandwich that Muto enjoyed greatly, giving him to strength to fight a creature named Gulla, which attacked the island routinely.
Grateful to the Adversary for their help, the villagers presented the Adversary with the Arcane Symbol of Chu Chu Island as thanks.
The Adversary then planned to continue aboard a Flying Fish, which had appeared to help the Adversary move through the Arcane River.
Yum Yum Island:
Before the Adversary could continue, Chief Lyon of Chu Chu Island asked them to investigate a loud noise coming from the nearby Yum Yum Island. There, the Adversary discovered that the people of Yum Yum Island were fusions made from the Erdas of Maple World’s most powerful monsters, such as Horntail, Zakum, and the Seal Guardians of Root Abyss.
The townspeople wore special blue buttons that symbolized that they had been artificially created by someone, rather than being naturally born through spontaneous fusion of Erda, though the Adversary noted that Chief Lyon had been naturally created with the Erdas of Damien.
While helping the townspeople, the Adversary encountered a powerful fusion created from the Erdas of Afrien. After defeating the creature, the Adversary realized that someone had been hoping to create a powerful creature through experimentation. Though they wished to warn the Alliance, they decided that it would be better to keep moving forward in order to reach the Black Mage.
Soon after, however, the Alliance investigated Yum Yum Island and realized that it was the work of someone entirely new, rather than a Commander of the Black Mage. In order to explore the Arcane River and reinforce the Adversary, Neinheart and Cygnus dispatched a squad under the leadership of Ollie of the Thunder Breakers.
Meanwhile, Kaling returned back to Yum Yum Island and discovered that her creatures had been destroyed while she had been away. Nevertheless, she decided to wrap up her experiments and move on to her other plans.
Lachelein, the Dreaming City:
The Adversary continued aboard the Flying Fish to Lachelein, which they learned had been created by Lucid. The Adversary discovered that Lucid had trapped the Erdas of Lachelein within a festival of happiness that never ended. With Lucid’s powers preventing them from leaving, the Adversary decided to help free Lachelein from her control.
With the help of Protective Mask - a mysterious being who was neither Erda nor human - the Adversary began to slowly chip away at the dream, fighting against Lucid’s Dreamkeepers. Eventually, the Adversary confronted Lucid, who pulled them within her dream. After a fierce struggle, the Adversary defeated Lucid, with Protective Mask helping them along the way.
With Lucid’s defeat, Lachelein was freed from her control, allowing them to move ahead. As thanks, the Erdas of Lachelein presented the Arcane Symbol of Lachelein to the Adversary.
Before leaving, the Adversary also discovered several cracks within the dream. Upon entering the cracks, the Adversary witnessed Lucid’s memories and saw her childhood, as well as her time as a Commander. They also learned that Lucid, after looking into the Black Mage’s mind, had learned that he intended to remake the world into absolute darkness, where not even he existed.
As Lucid had grown obsessed with the Black Mage, just as she had once been for Mercedes, Lucid had created Lachelein as a festival of happiness in order to change the Black Mage’s mind about destroying the world and ending his own existence. However, Lucid’s defiance of the Black Mage had resulted in her slowly losing control of her dream magic, with her Wightmare servants turning on her.
Nevertheless, Lucid continued maintaining Lachelein in the hope of changing the Black Mage’s mind. Eventually, however, Lucid was trapped within her own nightmare, completely abandoned by the Black Mage.
Hello, World!
Mysterious Forest of Arcana:
The Adversary continued on the Flying Fish until they were caught in a mysterious vortex, causing them to land in the mysterious forest of Arcana. There, they learned that the forest had been corrupted by a mysterious stranger, whose mere presence had transformed the Erda spirits of Arcana into monsters.
The Adversary helped the spirits restore harmony to the forest, after which they were presented with the Arcane Symbol of Arcana. The Adversary then proceeded ahead on the Flying Fish.
Morass, the Swamp of Memory:
Soon after leaving Arcana, the Flying Fish began diving deep into the Arcane River towards a coral reef. He revealed that he was the Will of Erda, a proxy for the Erdas created to save the world, and that he had gained the ability to speak through his proximity to the Morass, where the Erdas were more concentrated.
In the Morass, the Adversary discovered Erdas which had transformed into Xenoroids. The Flying Fish explained that the Erdas were using a defense mechanism by transforming into the Adversary’s greatest fear, manifesting as Xenoroids from the Adversary’s near-death experience at Black Heaven.
They then discovered Arkarium escorting Tana, whose unstable mental state was causing her powers to go out of control. Because of this, Tana inadvertently used her ability to manipulate the Erdas to create a replica of Trueffet - the castle of Kritias, resulting in the Adversary, the Flying Fish, and Arkarium manifesting as different people in Tana’s memories of Kritias.
The Adversary inhabited the body of Shey, a boy who hoped to become a priest at the Temple of Time. While inside Shey’s body, the Adversary continued to automatically play out the history of Kritias, such as Shey’s friendship with a thief named Jean. The Adversary watched as Tana pushed Jean to safety as he attempted to pickpocket her, just as a large anti-magic stone fell and destroyed everyone in the near vicinity.
To everyone’s shock, Tana rematerialized after the disaster, with the memory fast-forwarding to two years later. The Adversary, now in full control of Shey’s body, began investigating Tana’s fate and learned that King Hekaton had ordered his mages to experiment on Tana in order to learn the source of her immortality.
As Shey, who had become a priest at the Temple of Time, the Adversary learned that Arkarium of the past - having recently become the new High Priest - had been called by Hekaton to conduct the Ascendancy ritual, in which Hekaton would become immortal. The Adversary also learned that Tana had lost all her memories after rematerializing, being left with nothing except her name and a faint memory of wanting something.
Throughout the inhumane and painful experiments, Jean secretly visited Tana and began growing close to her, despite Tana appearing to exhibit no emotions. Meanwhile, Arkarium continued pushing Tana’s regeneration limits beyond their capacity, causing many researchers to vanish in a flash of light and transform into grotesque monsters.
Soon enough, Hekaton grew impatient with waiting and ordered Arkarium to conduct the Ascendancy ritual the next day. Tana overheard the researchers speaking and realized that whether or not the ritual succeeded, she would disappear no matter what.
That night, when Jean came to visit her, Tana tried to push him away before she would be killed. As the realization that she would die began sinking in, Tana’s powers began growing out of control, causing her to remember the faint memory of what it was that she had wanted. Tana realized that she had come to Kritias with the intention of dying.
Upon realizing this, however, Tana immediately grew terrified at the thought of dying, for while her death was assured to happen tomorrow, it was not what she wanted anymore. As Tana’s powers threatened to overwhelm her, Jean pulled her into a hug and promised that he would always keep her safe, allowing her to finally calm down.
The next day, the Adversary - as Shey - began working with Jean and Arkarium, who had foreseen that the Ascendancy would result in disaster. Just as Jean attempted to free Tana with an anti-magic necklace, however, Arkarium revealed that his present-day self was inhabiting his past self’s body with full control, and that he had arranged for a trap to have Jean killed in order to weaken Tana’s resistance to the power transfer.
Arkarium then told the Adversary that he had allowed the memory loop to play out, as he had been curious to see why the actual ritual had failed centuries ago. They then watched as Tana shattered Jean’s anti-magic necklace in order to stop the ritual, at the cost of forcing her into an endless, painful cycle of disintegration and reconstitution. Though the Adversary attempted to stop her, Tana replied that it didn’t matter and told Hekaton that she would gladly take an eternity of torment if it meant cursing him and depriving him of everything that he had worked for.
Having seen the cause of the ritual’s failure, Arkarium kidnapped Tana and took her away. Just then, the Adversary saw a mortally-wounded Jean awaken. Jean then revealed that he was actually the Flying Fish inhabiting Jean’s body, which was why he had survived when the real Jean had been killed centuries ago.
As the Adversary and Jean rushed to save Tana, they began fighting past the soldiers of Kritias, whose bodies had been transfigured into monsters by the explosion of Tana’s power, as well as King Hekaton, who had been fused with the castle of Trueffet into an enormous golem.
They then confronted Arkarium, who revealed that he planned to take Tana’s powers for himself, claiming that she unworthy of the Black Mage. However, thanks to Jean appearing before her, Tana was able to take control of her powers once again and effortlessly vaporize Arkarium.
The three the escaped the memory of Kritias as the copy of the Black Mage from Tana’s memories invaded Kritias, just as the real Black Mage had done in the past. Back in the Morass, however, the Adversary and the Flying Fish - whose body was still stuck as Jean through Tana’s powerful residual influence - saw no signs of Tana, who had already escaped.
Meanwhile in the memory of Kritias, the copy of the Black Mage appeared before Arkarium, who had been reduced into his backup snake form. The copy of the Black Mage then revealed that the real Black Mage had ordered him to kill Arkarium, putting an end to his ambitions once and for all.
The Adversary and Jean then continued searching for clues about Tana’s whereabouts by keeping the Morass intact, which would otherwise have faded away without Tana’s influence to maintain it. Jean also continued searching for a way to return back to his Flying Fish form in order to continue escorting the Adversary through the Arcane River.
Esfera, the Origin Sea:
Soon after Tana’s disappearance, the Adversary encountered Ollie, Shubert, and Melange - a Thunder Breaker, Blaster, and a mage from Pantheon, respectively - who had been tasked by the Alliance to assist the Adversary. The group discovered a mysterious door in the memory of Kritias, which sucked them into Esfera, the Origin Sea.
In the distance, a masked figure shot down their airship, causing them all to regroup at a base camp, where they found a large Black Moon in the sky. Realizing that the Black Mage awaited them there, the Adversary used Melange’s staff, which was capable of playing back memories, to witness a memory of Will kidnapping Tana and attempting to turn her into the “sun of the new world” before the masked figure interrupted the ritual, causing Tana’s glass coffin to sink into the Origin Sea.
While chasing after Tana, the Adversary and Ollie encountered Will, who told them that they could only face him after learning the meaning behind the phrase, “the ultimate light can only be found in the ultimate darkness", which had originally been said by the White Mage. Will then unleashed a devastating attack on Ollie, who was branded with a poisonous spider mark.
As they continued the operation to rescue Tana, the group realized that Tana’s powers had seeped into the Origin Sea, causing them to conflict against Will and his Mirror World powers. As a result, Will’s spider creatures began fighting against strange priest-like creatures which Tana had inadvertently created with her memories.
Using Melange’s staff, the Adversary and Ollie began exploring Tana’s memories and witnessed a scene in which her twin sister had been given the title of Aeona, Grandis’ Transcendent of Light, after hearing the voice of the Overseers, while Tana had been given the title of ‘Tana’, the Transcendent-in-reserve.
They soon discovered a memory of Tana learning that the powers of the Transcendent of Light - light and darkness - were actually metaphors for creation and destruction, with the two powers being split between the awakened Transcendent and their reserve. Because of this, Tana discovered that because her sister had awakened with the power of destruction, she had been given the power of creation to hold.
This helped the Adversary and Ollie realize that Will’s words - “the ultimate light can only be found in the ultimate darkness” - meant that the Black Mage intended to create a new world through the destruction of their old one.
Soon after, Ollie and the Adversary recovered Tana from the Origin Sea with the help of the Executors - the priest-like creatures whom Tana had created from her memories of the Radiant Temple on Grandis. Just then, however, the Executors discovered Ollie’s spider mark and began attacking her. The Adversary barely managed to protect Ollie, who was extracted back to base camp.
Suddenly, the masked figure appeared and confronted Will, who gave them a choice between saving Tana or the Adversary, whom they pushed into the Origin Sea. The masked figure immediately moved to save the Adversary, allowing Will to escape with Tana. The Adversary was then sent back to base camp, where they learned that Ollie’s mark was poisonous, and that only Will could cure it.
The Adversary and Melange then traveled to the White Sun, which Will had created as part of his ritual. Along the way, Melange explained that the Executors had been a minor race of Grandis who had disappeared after searching for the domain of the gods.
With Melange’s staff, they witnessed a memory of Tana confronting Aeona, who had wiped out seven races on Grandis with her powers of destruction. Though Aeona claimed that she hadn’t been able to help it, as she had only been doing her job, Tana fought and killed her sister, believing that she had gone mad with power.
(A/N: Kain has exclusive dialogue in this section, in which he speculates that Aeona may have wiped out the Black Nova as well. As an aside, the Black Nova are just a cult of Nova, not a separate race entirely.)
As a result of Aeona’s death, Tana - the Transcendent-in-reserve - awakened as the new Transcendent of Light to replace her sister, allowing her to hear the voice of the Overseers. Upon hearing their will, Tana realized that she was now shackled into the same fate as her sister, who had no choice but to obey them. Nevertheless, Tana vowed to resist her destiny at any cost, even if it would destroy her.
From witnessing her memories, the Adversary and Melange realized that the purpose of Will’s ritual was to have the Black Mage take Tana’s powers of creation, allowing him to become a Transcendent of Light with the power of both creation and destruction, which would enable him to create a new world.
The Adversary then confronted Will and manage to defeat him, for which Will agreed to cure Ollie of her poison. However, he revealed that the only way to stop the ritual was by killing Tana. Though the Adversary was conflicted, they - against all odds - chose to spare her life instead, believing that they could still save everyone, including Tana.
As the ritual commenced, the Alliance sent reinforcements to help the Adversary escape from Will. During this time, Melange picked up a mysterious book that Will had left behind, which he secretly kept for himself. Meanwhile, the masked figure confronted Will, who had escaped to the deepest part of Mirror World, and began fighting him.
In the sky, the Black Moon fused together with the White Sun, transforming it into the Black Sun, Tenebris, and creating a massive storm that slowly began to grow throughout the area. Having gained the power of both creation and destruction, the Black Mage sent massive chains into the waters, pulling Maple World closer into the Arcane River and absorbing the Erdas within the Origin Sea in order to begin the Genesis Ritual.
Soon after the mission to Esfera, the Adversary encountered several Dimensional Cracks that allowed them to peer into Kao’s memories. In those memories, the Adversary discovered that Kao had been unable to protect Ollie from the Executors, resulting in her being fatally wounded from her injuries and Will’s poison.
After Ollie’s passing, Kao grew emotionally volatile as a result of their guilt and inner turmoil. During the moment when Kao had been presented with the choice to kill or spare Tana, Kao’s experiences had led them to believe that they couldn’t give into hesitation, for which they had made the choice to kill her.
However, without being able to awaken the power of the Seal Stone, Kao was unable to kill Tana - a Transcendent - resulting in the ritual continuing as planned. The Adversary then realized that Kao, whose Arcane Power had been stolen by Arma, had been too weak to save Ollie in time, which had catalyzed the events which had led to their defeat. However, the Adversary was left with more questions, such as why Kao had been unable to kill Tana, as well as what their own fate would be.
Sellas, Where the Stars Rest:
Some time after the fusion of the Black Moon and White Sun, Neinheart contacted the Adversary and told them that the Alliance was running an urgent, special operation before advancing on Tenebris. He explained that an object in Tana’s possession had been dropped into the Origin Sea while pulling her from the water. As it had belonged to the Transcendent of Light, Neinheart believed that it was worth recovering.
Together with Ollie and Shubert, the Adversary used a submarine called the Jellyfish to descend into Sellas, the watery region beneath Esfera. Throughout the mission, Shubert continued watching out for Ollie, haunted by his traumatic memories of his last diving operation in Edelstein, in which his crew had sent him to safety, leaving him as the only survivor.
As a result of his fears, the Erda in Sellas began responding to his memories, creating wreckage and audio messages from his time with the Edelstein diving unit.
After Ollie was lost during the mission, Shubert told the Adversary that he feared her becoming a “star”, which was what lost divers were known as. Together, the Adversary and Shubert worked together to save Ollie.
During this time, the Adversary also recovered Tana’s necklace which Jean had given her, with a shattered anti-magic jewel attached to it. After examining it, Neinheart noted that Tana must have considered it to be precious. He also noted that the fact that it was glowing brightly in response to its owner meant that they may one day be able to reach her.
Moonbridge:
With the final battle approaching, the Adversary and the Esfera base camp were called back to Ereve, where the Adversary was filled in on the situation by Neinheart. Neinheart explained that immense chains were pulling Maple World closer into the Arcane River, with powerful Erda monsters attacking various parts of the world.
He revealed that the Alliance had recovered several prophecies from the Black Mage’s laboratory in Magatia, which foretold many key events in Maple World’s history, such as Black Heaven and the Dark World Tree incident. Neinheart then showed the final prophecy written upon it:
They who cross the breath of twilight and turn towards the sun,
on broken wings will be crushed and undone by despair.A light whose brilliant glory is lost
will face the soul of the world whilst steeped in mire and rot.A crimson tear will spawn a giant that swallows hearts,
and when determination is swallowed by the deepest dark,a new destiny will be written, a destiny apart.
Consumed with nightmares about their predetermined destiny, Empress Cygnus had sought out Shinsoo in Leafre, where Shinsoo had given her a diadem containing her divine power. Following this, Cygnus had put out a call to the Alliance to gather for the final battle.
Neinheart took the Adversary to the Outpost, a large floating island where the White Spear - the Alliance flagship - was docked. Neinheart also revealed that a mysterious divine light had transformed into the Goddess Statues, which responded to the Alliance’s determination. He then told the Adversary that there was a final writing by the Black Mage recovered from Magatia, which simply stated: “Only the Adversary can counter immortality’s fate with the strength of a Seal Stone.”
The united Alliance fleet then launched alongside the White Spear through a portal that led to the Arcane River. The fleet then set sail along Moonbridge, the name that the Alliance had given to the path that bridged Esfera and the Black Moon, before it had become the Black Sun. Along the way, they began battling the Erda creatures which had been assailing Maple World.
Soon enough, they encountered the giant monster Gloom, whose eye unleashed a powerful laser that decimated a large majority of the fleet, despite Cygnus’ attempts to create a shield of light with her unawakened Transcendent powers and Shinsoo’s strength.
Though Cygnus’ resolve was fading, the Adversary helped her regain her fortitude, allowing them to rescue the Alliance fleet and face Gloom once again. Together, the Adversary and Cygnus defeated Gloom’s core, which was recovered for study, as it had been formed from the Black Mage’s soul. During transportation back to the Outpost, however, the core exploded, leaving Ollie - who had been in charge of recovering it - missing.
Labyrinth of Suffering:
Ollie was rescued from the explosion by the Flying Fish, who had finally regained his original form after being stuck as Jean in the Morass. The Flying Fish returned Ollie back to the White Spear and told her that he would return when it was time.
Having been exposed to the core, Ollie revealed that she had seen the Black Mage’s memories from when he had been the White Mage. Having stepped into the divine realm, the White Mage had been held back by an unknown force that Ollie described as the world itself, or something beyond that.
Ollie attempted to explain it as the force of order, an essence of balance, principles, and rules. She explained that it was shapeless as fog, conceptual and abstract in nature, though she knew that it was real because of the way it had wrapped around the White Mage like an unbreakable chain, colder and heavier than any metal in existence. Unbeknownst to Ollie and the others, the unknown force holding the White Mage back had been the Overseers themselves.
The White Mage had demanded to know why the Overseers refused change, and why they allowed the world to remain stagnant and incomplete forever. Furious at the Overseers for deliberately leaving humanity to suffer without end, he had chosen to reject them, vowing that he would break free from the chains that kept the world anchored to darkness, even if he had to destroy the world itself in order to change it. In that moment, he had embraced the ultimate darkness and had awakened as the Transcendent of Light.
Disturbed by the revelation that the Black Mage was not merely a warmonger set to destroy the world, the Alliance began their descent into Tenebris when a powerful darkness separated the Adversary’s ship and forced them to crash into the Labyrinth of Suffering.
Over time, the Adversary’s allies began disappearing one by one, leaving them alone and terrified that their poor leadership had led to their deaths. As they continued wandering through the labyrinth, they encountered a Night Walker named Azalin, who continued feeding into their fears and paranoia by questioning their decisions and leadership.
As the Adversary continued fighting through the monsters in the labyrinth, they were soon horrified to learn that these monsters were were reanimated souls of their fallen comrades. The Adversary was disgusted with themselves, not only for having led them to their deaths, but also because they were being forced to cut down their allies after making a vow to keep them all safe.
Eventually, Azalin revealed herself as Hilla - augmented with new power from the Black Mage - and attempted to consume the Adversary’s soul, just as they were rescued by the masked figure from Esfera. Cursing the masked figure for their interference, Hilla disappeared and left the Adversary to wandering the labyrinth alone.
Throughout their time wandering the maze, the Adversary was plagued with hallucinations and voices of despair, as well as visions of Maple World falling to ruin all around them. They also saw a vision of Queen Areda draining the life force of Ariant in order to maintain the effects of the Elixir of Youth, which had been given to her by Hilla. Due to the effects of the potion, Areda’s obsession and greed were brought out, causing her to crave Erda to preserve her youth.
With their willpower eroded, believing that the world had been doomed, the Adversary fell into utter despair, at which point Hilla appeared to finish them off. Just then, the masked figure appeared once again to save them, revealing herself as Orchid. Though Orchid urged the Adversary to get up, the Adversary was consumed by their inner darkness, losing the will to live.
In the darkness of their mind, the divine light which had formed the Goddess Statues spoke to the Adversary in the voice of their closest loved one, urging them to get up and fight. Thanks to them, the Adversary was able to see through Hilla’s tricks and realized that all the fallen Alliance soldiers in the labyrinth and visions of a ruined Maple World were nothing more than illusions.
Furious, Hilla used her powers to bring back the souls of Damien and Lotus. Orchid was furious to see her brother turned into a puppet and fought alongside the Adversary to defeat Hilla, whose power and youth were taken away, leaving her as an old, withered hag. Hilla wailed and vanished in black flames, leaving behind the Labyrinth Core.
Meanwhile, Neinheart and Grendel the Really Old discussing their findings from examining Gloom’s core. Neinheart noted that the Genesis Ritual required the power of creation and destruction, as well as a large volume of pure Erdas. He realized that in order to create the Arcane River by converging the three worlds from a lack of Transcendents, the Black Mage had allowed himself to be sealed away, in addition to sealing away both Rhinne and Alicia.
He noted that the Black Mage had deliberately set into motion the events of his sealing by praising the Demon after Rhinne’s sealing, knowing that it would make Arkarium jealous enough to target his family, which would have led to the Demon’s betrayal. Disturbed by Neinheart’s implication, Grendel hoped to finish the analysis of the core to confirm his hypothesis.
Limina:
In the labyrinth, Orchid revealed that after Black Heaven, she had sought out Guwaru in order to reclaim her Spirit of Darkness powers after losing her Wing Master abilities. Having realized that the Black Mage had manipulated events for centuries, which had resulted in Lotus’ death, Orchid sought to take revenge on her former master.
Guwaru, through Orchid’s mask, instructed the Adversary to use their divine power to destroy the Labyrinth Core. When the Adversary failed to awaken the power of the Seal Stone, Orchid grew frustrated and used her gravity powers to compress the core into another space, thereby causing the labyrinth to be replaced by the waterfalls of Limina.
Declaring the Adversary to be weak, Orchid resolved to destroy the Black Mage herself and shattered Guwaru’s mask. As Guwaru’s voice faded away, he warned the Adversary that only they had the power to step off the “path” and destroy the Genesis Crux, the seed of the new world.
The Adversary chased after Orchid and fought against the Elite Bosses until they reached the Genesis Crux, which turned red and stained the Arcane River crimson. The Adversary then faced off against Guard Captain Darknell and managed to defeat him before Orchid teleported them back to the White Spear. From the airship, the Adversary was shocked to see that from the stained waters, an immense giant, whose heart was the Genesis Crux, had emerged from the Arcane River.
Neinheart then spoke to them and revealed that the Black Mage - bound by the laws of the Overseers - had been unable to battle the Transcendents directly, for which he had required the Commanders. However, the Black Mage had also known that the Commanders had their own agendas. Despite this, he had inexplicably been able to manipulate centuries of history in his own favor by using his Commanders and having the Alliance eliminate them before they could interfere with his plans.
As the Adversary met with Grendel to hear his analysis of the core, Claudine and the Resistance - who had been asked to move to the vanguard - faced heavy casualties from the Erda monsters, as well as the Light of Annihilation from the giant, which decomposed the soldiers caught in the blast into Erdas. Furious, Claudine set out to confront Cygnus.
Meanwhile, Grendel revealed to the Adversary that the Black Mage had been able to manipulate destiny in his favor, which meant that everything that they had done until the present moment had been part of the Black Mage’s Path of Destiny. Because of this, Grendel claimed that he saw no way that the Alliance could emerge victorious when everything had been predetermined by the Black Mage.
As the Adversary began spiraling into despair, Cygnus reassured them by telling them that they were the Adversary of Destiny, not the Adversary of the Black Mage. She revealed that they were the only person whom the Black Mage couldn’t control, which was why he was trying to make them fall into despair. Thanks to her support, the Adversary’s resolve was bolstered as they began heading towards the Genesis Crux.
At the same time, Claudine confronted Cygnus for making the Resistance suffer in the front, while the Cygnus Knights cowered in the rear. However, after seeing Cygnus’ injuries beneath her armor, Claudine realized that Cygnus was indeed risking her life as much as the Resistance, for which she agreed to return back to her post, while Cygnus continued carrying out her plan.
As the Adversary headed for the Black Mage, their ship was destroyed in the journey, though they were rescued by the Flying Fish and brought to the Temple of Darkness, where the injured Flying Fish scattered into Erdas. The Adversary then confronted the Black Mage and began facing off against him and his twin knights of light and darkness, the Aeonian Rise and Tanadian Ruin.
As their battle intensified, the Black Mage used his power to transport them into an inner realm, where the Adversary found Orchid, who had been fighting the Black Mage from within the entire time. Together, the Adversary and Orchid continued facing the Black Mage, whose body had turned into a god-like figure of pure light. Despite their best efforts, neither the Adversary nor Orchid were able to leave any damage against him.
With the inner realm consumed into a void of black and white, the Adversary attempted to use the power of the Seal Stone to destroy the Genesis Crux. Orchid revealed that the Seal Stone responded to powerful determination, and that the Adversary needed to focus everything into their determination to sacrifice their own life.
Despite the Adversary’s attempts, the Seal Stone remained inert and unresponsive to their thoughts. Just then, the Black Mage mocked them for believing that they had escaped the Path of Destiny. Declaring that they would not live to claim the true power of the Adversary, the Black Mage entered the Genesis Crux, leaving the Adversary aghast that even this very moment had been preordained.
Just then, a formless white light appeared and spoke with Tana’s voice, telling them that they had indeed escaped the Path, just by a single step, and reassured them that there had been no lack of determination on their part. However, she told them that the world was crying out that it didn’t want to disappear, and because of that, it would not lend its power to the Adversary, who was ready to kill themselves for the sake of victory.
Her words helped the Adversary realize that they had been prepared to sacrifice themselves all the while that they had faced the Black Mage, but what they had instead needed to believe was that they needed to survive and save everyone, including themselves, not to give up on themselves and die for the sake of a world that wanted them to live.
With the Adversary and the Alliance’s determination synchronized and honed, the Goddess Statues at the Outpost unleashed a beam of light that traveled to Tenebris and cleared a path to the Genesis Crux. With the time at hand, Cygnus ordered all forces to pull back as the White Spear pushed ahead and pierced through the giant.
The Adversary then focused their determination and used the power of the Seal Stone to create a divine blade. They then entered the Genesis Crux and plunged their sword straight through the Black Mage’s heart, defeating him once and for all. Immediately after, however, the Adversary was caught in the Light of Annihilation and scattered into Erda.
The Adversary awoke in the Erda Flow, where they found themselves face-to-face with the White Mage. The White Mage thanked them for putting an end to his life and revealed that he had sought to create a perfect world without Transcendents. As the Transcendents were bound by the laws of the Overseers, they were unable to kill each other or themselves, which had necessitated the Adversary to kill him.
He explained that when he had set out to defy the Overseers, he had intended to create a perfect world free of their influence by removing the Transcendents and starting everything from the beginning. In the process, however, he had lost sight of the value of the life which he had tried to protect, for which he declared that he had lost his qualifications to realize his ideals.
He revealed that when Kao had failed to kill him in the past, his faith in his plan had been shaken, for which he had begun to retrace his steps to see where he had gone wrong. While taking a second look at the world, he had come to realize that the world had changed significant since his time, when Maple World’s rulers had selfishly subjugated their people to satisfy their own greed.
He noted that in the present day, there were countless individuals who were ready to put others before themselves, which was why he had begun wondering whether his dream of creating a perfect world was truly necessary.
In the end, he revealed that it was the Adversary who had changed his plan - and destiny along with it - in Esfera, when they had refused to take Tana’s life. Despite everything, the Adversary had refused to compromise their values and had chosen to save everyone, no matter the cost, which was what had ultimately changed the Black Mage’s mind about following through with his goal.
Because of this, he had ultimately chosen not to enact the Genesis Ritual, despite the Adversary having successfully killed him and put an end to the Transcendents of Maple World, as he believed that a world that good-natured beings like the Adversary would create through their leadership would be more perfect than anything that he could have made with the power of the gods, for which he was content with leaving it all behind to them. As the White Mage faded away, however, he asked the Adversary to never forget the anger they had felt when they had believed that higher beings had taken their power away and predetermined their fates.
With the Black Mage’s death, the Adversary, the Flying Fish, and all the Alliance soldiers caught in the Light of Annihilation were brought back to life through the Black Mage’ final act of using the power of creation. With the giant decomposing into Erdas, the Alliance celebrated their ultimate victory over the great evil of their world.
Meanwhile, Melange returned back to the Aboris Royal Palace and presented the book which he had stolen from Will to Gerand Darmoor. Melange noted that the book contained useful information, such as the Black Mage’s prophecies, and noted that Darmoor must be pleased to have received the book and found the Genesis Crux - the seed of the new world that the Black Mage had left behind. Darmoor then ordered Melange to find both Tana and the Genesis Crux, claiming that all would be “there”.
PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE
Aftermath:
(A/N: This section is for all the Aftermath cutscenes set after the final battle of Tenebris. Some of these have lore-important content, but there are a lot which I omitted because they don’t really have much in the way of lore. I still think that they’re all worth checking out in-depth, which you can do in the complete Aftermath section here.)
After the defeat of the Black Mage, the blood curse on Tess and Kyrin disappeared, allowing them to reunite. Tess and the other Explorers met on Maple Island, where Sugar appeared to them in physical form once again in order to congratulate them, though she explained that she wouldn’t be able to maintain her form for long.
In Edelstein, the Resistance celebrated their freedom and hoped to use their movement to liberate other places in need of freedom.
Xenon was visited by Beryl, who remained disguised as Bitterbot, and vowed to return to the Scrapyard one day to find Beryl, believing that she still had to be out there.
In Leafre, the Demon visited Damien’s grave and lamented that despite the Black Mage’s defeat, his family was still gone. Nevertheless, Mastema told him that he needed to keep living, to which he resolved to keep fighting for good.
In Elluel, Mercedes and the elves - who were freed from ice at last - celebrated their freedom together, playing Lucid’s music box in order to fill their kingdom with laughter and music after centuries of silence.
Cadena, after the final battle, met with Gen and Coney at Savage Terminal. There, she revealed that she had no plans to claim the throne as the Nova princess, as she was content with letting Kaiser handle the politics while she operated from the shadows. She then declared that she planned to see the leader of the Shadowdealers.
Following the battle, Khali returned to Erimos with her full power and confronted Ypsilon. Ypsilon was surprised to find her so powerful and noted that the rumors of a commoner killing a Transcendent were well-founded. However, he laughed that he couldn’t allow himself to be killed yet and retreated, leaving Khali frustrated.
In the weeks following the battle, the Adversary was called to the Outpost, where Neinheart and Cygnus revealed that the Alliance was verging on bankruptcy after the battle. To optimize their costs, Neinheart planned to create the Glory Guard, composed of a small team of elite soldiers who could be deployed instead of using a large, expensive army.
Soon after, the Alliance discovered a weapon left behind by the Black Mage, which matched that of the Adversary’s. Believing that it had been left behind deliberately, Neinheart asked the Adversary to unseal its power. The Adversary then defeated afterimages of the Black Mage and his Commanders, allowing them to liberate the Genesis Weapon and unlock a small portion of the Black Mage’s powers of creation and destruction.
By liberating the weapon, the Adversary also discovered several memories of the Commanders, which revealed that the Black Mage had aspired for something more than Genesis, and that he held animosity towards some higher being.
In Limina, the Adversary discovered several other Dimensional Cracks, which showed the rest of Kao’s story. During the final battle, Tana hadn’t appeared before Kao after they had tried to kill her in Esfera, which had led to their ultimate failure. In the end, the Black Mage had successfully enacted the Genesis Ritual, resulting in the creation of a new world with only him and Kao.
After seeing Kao’s memories, he discovered that the problem had stemmed from when Tana’s influence had warped the Erdas along the Arcane River, resulting in the creation of Arma, who had stolen Kao’s Arcane Power. Believing that he could still enact his plan if that variable were addressed, the White Mage sent Kao back in time - an action which he noted could only be done once - in the hope of having Kao stop the Adversary from losing their power, thereby allowing his plan to complete successfully.
In the past, Kao lost their memories and forgot their name. They were soon found in the Temple of Time by a Temple Keeper, who gave them the new name “Kao”, which meant “chaos”, representative of the chaotic, undefined nature of time itself. Kao then continued serving as a Temple Keeper, losing their memories constantly until the Adversary had helped them remember the name given to them, Kao.
Convergence:
Soon after the battle of Tenebris, the Alliance captured Will and began interrogating him in Ereve. While questioning him, Grendel was given a core similar to Gloom’s core, which contained the Black Mage’s thoughts. Because of this, Grendel was consumed with curiosity and went on a journey to learn more about the Transcendents and their purpose.
Around the same time, Neinheart began investigating Melange, who had disappeared from Pantheon. He learned that Melange had falsified his records, and that he had been the disciple of a great magician until his expulsion for the use of forbidden magic.
After Grendel’s disappearance, Neinheart asked the Adversary and Grendel’s apprentices - Elwin and Lily - to go after him. Their first stop was in Lachelein, where they met with Protective Mask and learned that the Arcane River was slowly fading away.
They then found an unconscious Lucid, who was trapped in her own nightmare, and found Grendel viewing a memory of her speaking with the Black Mage. They then learned that the Gate to the Future had been part of the Black Mage’s plan to make the Alliance resent the idea of a predetermined future, which would hone their determination to resist it at Limina.
Protective Mask then revealed that he had been created by Lucid’s subconsciousness long ago in the event that she needed to be saved from her own nightmare. Protective Mask then removed his mask and revealed himself to be a projection of Mercedes, who saved Lucid from her nightmare by pulling her out from the darkness of her mind. Lucid was then given over to Mercedes, who took her back to Elluel until she would awaken from her coma.
The Adversary, Elwin, and Lily then followed Grendel to the Morass, where they found the echo of the Black Mage created from Tana’s memories, who had turned into the White Mage after the real Black Mage had become the White Mage in his last moments. The White Mage then revealed that before the Transcendents had existed, the universe had been ruled by the Ancient Gods, who had caused an age of chaos with their disregard for the natural order.
Seeking to restore order, the will of the world - the Overseers - had been created to suppress the Ancient Gods. However, the Overseers were still unsatisfied, as there remained a possibility that the gods could someday return. For this reason, they had created the Transcendents to maintain order, using them as slaves to remove uncertainty from the universe and set the future in stone.
They then followed Grendel through Esfera, where they encountered the echo of Melange from the Black Mage’s memory of watching the events of Esfera. To their shock, however, the echo of Melange grew self-aware that he was a memory made of Erda. Melange then used his powers to forcibly make the Adversary, Elwin, and Lily move past him into the next memory.
The trio then caught up with Grendel at the border between worlds. Grendel revealed that the fusion of Maple World and Grandis had begun as a result of the Transcendents being sealed away, and that their permanent absence meant that the two worlds - which had been artificially separated by their presence - could finally return to their original state. Grendel then shattered the paper-thin border between dimensions, causing Maple World and Grandis to converge into one world.
New Age:
Immediately after the convergence of Maple World and Grandis, strange purple Erdas with destructive power began manifesting. Though they were resistant to damage, the Adversary was able to defeat them with some difficulty by using their Arcane Power. Just then, the Adversary heard the voice of the Goddesses speaking aloud.
The Adversary was transported to a purple Erda Flow, where they found the three Goddesses transformed into crystals after expending all their power to hold back the wave of purple Erdas. Before the purple Erda could eat away at the statues, the Adversary gathered Arcane Power using an Arcane Stone, allowing them to free the Goddesses.
The Goddesses thanked the Adversary and explained that the purple Erda was likely a new type of Erda brought about by the dimensional convergence. However, the Adversary began hearing the voices of the purple Erdas, who revealed that they had witnessed the Adversary’s choice to live in Limina. The Adversary then realized that the purple Erdas - which called themselves Sol Erda - were actually the Erdas of Maple World and Grandis, which had been consumed by volatile energy from the shock of the dimensional convergence.
The Adversary attempted to claim their power to control them, though this resulted in their Arcane Symbols being scattered away. With the help of the Goddesses, the Adversary filled several Arcane Stones with Sol Erda, allowing them to infuse that power into their lost Arcane Symbols. By combining Arcane Power with Sol Erda energy, the Adversary gained a new power to control the Sol Erdas, who asked the Adversary to lead them into a new age.
Having resolved the Sol Erda crisis, the Adversary was sent back by the Goddesses to the border between worlds, where they recounted their adventure to Grendel, Elwin, and Lily.
The Holy City:
Following the convergence of Maple World and Grandis, Prince Carlisle of Cernium crossed the forgotten sea and asked the Adversary for an audience with the Alliance. Carlisle then requested the Alliance’s aid to protect his city from an imminent High Flora invasion in exchange for Cernium’s friendship and patronage.
Hoping to learn more about the awakening Ancient Gods and use their power against Darmoor, Cygnus asked the Adversary, Edea, Checky, and Hawkeye to lead the Glory Guard to an expedition in Cernium.
While en-route to Cernium, the Glory Guard was attacked by a band of terrorists called Ebonstar, who had vowed to erase the Ancient Gods and their memory from the world. The Adversary also learned that thanks to a strange, oppressive aura in Grandis, their abilities would be dampened without the use of Sacred Power, which Cernium had developed using Sacred Symbols.
In Cernium, the Adversary learned that the city had been built on an unnatural landscape, which had been carved out by the sword of a god during the final battle that marked the end of the Ancient Gods and the beginning of the Transcendents. They also learned that Cernium and its royal family worshiped Mitra the Sun God, though Carlisle’s father had allowed other faiths that worshiped Nerota the Dawn God and Spisa the Flame God, though these sects often fought against each other.
The Adversary also met Seren, a Celestial who had feathery wings on her back and in place of her ears. They learned that Seren was the guardian Azor, the holy sword of Mitra, which would only awaken in the hands of the Chosen One.
Believing that the Adversary was the Chosen One, Carlisle asked them to take up the sword. Upon touching it, however, the Adversary felt immense hostility emanating from it. Hoping to learn more about the Chosen One, the Adversary and Edea were sent to the royal library in order to work with Aaron, a High Flora theologian and historian.
Though Edea was immediately hostile towards him, Aaron proved his loyalty by demonstrating his wings, which he had torn out in disgust. Aaron claimed that despite being born a High Flora, he despised his own race just as much as anyone else on Grandis.
With Aaron’s help, the Adversary began researching about the Chosen One and learned that Azor had historically been wielded by a Celestial, which were a race of demigods who had descended from the heavens with Mitra. After the fall of the Ancient Gods, however, the Celestials had lost their powers and had remained trapped on High Mountain in Grandis ever since, though Edea noted that High Mountain had fallen some time ago.
Aaron also revealed that the Seal Stones had been created by the will of the world to seal the Ancient Gods away, which was likely the reason why Mitra had expressed hostility towards the Adversary when they had picked up the sword, as Mitra had sensed the power of the Seal Stone inside them.
The Adversary began speaking with Seren and learned that her fellow Celestials had been killed when Darmoor’s Apostle of Lightning had attacked High Mountain. She revealed that her commanding officer, Gilmore, had ordered her and Roland to sacrifice her comrades to buy their escape, which had led to a fierce battle between Gilmore and Roland until the Apostle of Lightning had arrived and unleashed a storm of red lightning upon them all, leaving Seren as the sole survivor.
Soon after, Edea and Carlisle discovered that Ebonstar had a Celestial in their ranks during an investigation into their activities. They also learned that Ebonstar planned to bomb Cernium and have the various sects blame each other, which would cause infighting that would destroy the city. Seren and the Adversary later encountered the Celestial, who revealed himself to be Roland.
Roland explained that Azor held an inscription: “Alvationsay inway Andhay”, which meant “Salvation is in Cernium”. He then bitterly asked Seren whether she had found her salvation, to which Seren asked Roland to come back, believing him to be the Chosen One. However, Roland declared that he had no faith left in the gods, claiming that Mitra had done nothing when the Celestials had all been wiped out. He then warned Seren that Darmoor’s First Apostle - the Apostle of Lightning - was coming to destroy the city.
Seren and the Adversary rushed back to Cernium, where they fought against Roland, Ebonstar, and the High Flora army. Realizing that Roland wasn’t the Chosen One, Seren began losing hope, though the Adversary and Edea helped encourage her to keep fighting. Together, Seren and the Adversary worked alongside the Alliance to repel Ebonstar and the High Flora army.
Elsewhere, Havoc - the First Apostle of Lightning - met with Seren’s old commander, Gilmore, who was revealed to possess the emblem of the Chosen One.
Hello, World!
The Chosen One:
The Alliance continued battling against the High Flora army, which remained camped outside Cernium. While Seren grieved Roland, Edea remained convinced that Seren was the true Chosen One, though Seren claimed that she was unworthy of the title, as she was unable to spread her wings anymore. The Adversary learned that Seren’s wings were uninjured, which meant that her inability to spread her wings was due to psychological trauma.
During this time, Aaron gave the Adversary several library books, claiming that they would give insight into the repeated follies of history. The Adversary looked through the books and read about how ancient timekeeping involved measuring the sun at different positions, as well as Mitra’s different facets in each of those times.
As they continued researching the Chosen One, Edea and the Adversary worked with Aaron to learn more about the Seal Stones, believing that it would help them understand Azor and the holy relics better. Aaron revealed that the Transcendents, the Ancient Gods, and the Overseers were all higher beings who existed outside the physical limitations of the universe, which was why mortals were unable to harm them. For this reason, it had been stated since ancient times that only gods had the power to challenge other gods.
Edea realized that in order to kill a god, one either needed to be a god, or have an object containing the power of a god, such as a Seal Stone. By researching the Seal Stones, the Adversary learned that in order to quell the chaos of the gods, the will of the world had created weapons known as the Godspheres, which had fused with ‘the noble ones’ to begin the Ancient War.
They also read that the Godspheres could only be awakened by the will and determination of the people, and as such, the godly power contained within the relics could never be limited to a single individual. Furthermore, the Godspheres themselves would choose their Vessels to bond with, similar to how the holy relics operated.
Edea concluded that the power of the holy relics went to whomever the people deemed worthy to wield it, which was why the Chosen One needed the approval of the Order of Mitra to take possession of Azor. Because of this, she believed that Seren - who had the support of the Orders of Mitra, Spisa, and Nerota - already had the qualifications to be the Chosen One, though Seren continued to refuse to believe it.
Just then, Havoc arrived at the palace and offered to trade the true Chosen One in exchange for the Adversary, though Carlisle immediately refused. Seren and the Glory Guard then infiltrated the High Flora camp and attempted to rescue the Chosen One. There, Seren discovered Gilmore and learned that he had sided with the High Flora in exchange for recovering his lost Celestial powers.
After they escaped, Edea once again entreated Seren to take action instead of waiting for fate to step in, declaring that she was already the best savior that Cernium could hope for. However, Seren then revealed that after the fall of High Mountain, she herself had lost faith in Mitra as well, just as Roland had. However, she had continued remaining a Templar of Mitra, as she had believed that losing her faith was to dishonor all her comrades who had died believing in their god, which was why she believed that she was unworthy to be the Chosen One.
Because of this, she believed that it would be better for Gilmore to take Azor as the Chosen One, despite the fact that Gilmore had declared that he would wipe out all non-believers of Mitra - including the Orders of Spisa and Nerota.
Realizing that Seren had no intention of fighting, Edea withdrew the Alliance’s support, believing that they would be dooming their soldiers for a lost cause. Just then, Aaron appeared and revealed that his research - which the Adversary had also come to conclude from reading Aaron’s library books - was that Mitra, Spisa, and Nerota were all aspects of the same Sun God, rather than being different gods entirely, meaning that Gilmore couldn’t be the Chosen One when he had made enemies of the Orders of Spisa and Nerota.
Upon wondering how Gilmore could be the Chosen One, Edea suddenly had an idea and rushed into the library to confirm her theory.
Meanwhile, Havoc - revealed to be a pure-blood demon - transfigured into his demon form and began shooting down red lightning onto Cernium, causing the library to start burning down. Nevertheless, Edea continued researching and came to learn about the origin of Specters, which had been created by researchers during the age of the gods.
Though most Specters had been mindless failures, the culmination of this research had been the creation of a special Specter, whose host body could be filled with many Specter souls without losing their humanity. Because of this, these special Specters could trick the holy relics into awakening, as the relics mistakenly thought the Specter souls was the will of the gods’ followers resting within the host body.
Edea then rushed to meet with Seren, who was waiting for Gilmore in the chamber of Azor. There, Edea and Seren faced Gilmore, who was defeated before he could take Azor. Edea then revealed to Seren that Gilmore was a Specter who had been created to trick Azor, rather than being the true Chosen One.
Meanwhile, Aaron revealed to the Adversary that the inscription on Azor, “Alvationsay inway Andhay” didn’t mean “Salvation is in Cernium”, but rather, it meant “Salvation is in your own hands”. The Adversary rushed to the chamber of Azor and told Seren the true meaning of the inscription.
Because of this, Seren came to realize that her salvation wasn’t in Mitra, the holy city, or her religion, but rather, it was something that she had to give herself. By finally believing in herself, Seren was able to awaken Azor and spread her wings, allowing her to fight and defeat Havoc.
After the battle, Seren was formally anointed as the Chosen One. During the ceremony, Aaron whispered something into Seren’s ear, causing Mitra to possess her. Mitra then attacked the Adversary after recognizing the power of the Seal Stone within them. During the battle, Seren barely managed to regain her senses, allowing the Adversary to shatter Azor.
In the aftermath, Aaron used his powers to extract and shatter the Seal Stone within the injured Adversary before revealing himself as Gerand Darmoor. Soon after, Seren decided to leave on a mission to repair Azor, while the Alliance was driven away by the furious people of Cernium, who blamed the Adversary for shattering their holy relic.
In the emergency Alliance conference following the mission, Edea revealed that Darmoor had used the power of time stolen from Chronica to restore the burned library, giving them access to the writings about the Ancient Gods. Edea also came to believe that Darmoor’s claim that he hated the High Flora, despite being born as one, seemed to be genuine.
In the aftermath of the battle, the Adversary helped Carlisle obtain a report on Ebonstar from one of his spies. The Adversary learned that the spy had lost his report in the library, and while searching for it, they encountered a ghost who had found it. As the ghost was lonely, she asked the Adversary to listen to one of her stories about the founding of Cernium.
The ghost explained that Cernium had been founded on the “scar of the earth”, carved from the blade of an Ancient God. Many worshipers had gathered at the holy site, and amongst them had been a priest named Masra, who had worshiped Mitra. Due to his immense power, Masra had overpowered the other priests and created Cernium as a temple dedicated to Mitra.
Between Mitra’s followers and those who simply followed Masra’s power, Masra created rules to govern the holy land, and the resulting great war ended in establishing Cernium as its own nation. Masra then became the first king and High Priest, though Cernium had been plagued with internal conflict between various sects which had different practices.
After the Order of Mitra had become the dominant power, order was restored to Cernium for a brief time until external enemies began attacking the city, as the scar of the earth was a holy site for many gods, not simply Mitra. To defend the kingdom, Masra stepped down as High Priest and appointed a successor so that he could focus on ruling the city. However, the citizens began rallying against Masra and his ineffective leadership, though the ghost recounting the story had no idea how it finished. The Adversary, however, recalled that Carlisle’s father had eventually allowed various sects to worship openly in Cernium.
The ghost then gave the Ebonstar report to the Adversary, who brought it back to Carlisle. Carlisle read that according to the report, the people of Ebonstar had once been worshipers of the gods until one of those believers had crossed into another world through an Interdimensional Portal. That believer had then returned and claimed that all the gods were dead, and that a Transcendent would pave the way for a new era. The believer and their allies then formed Ebonstar, forsaking the gods who had abandoned them and hoping to help the Transcendent create a new world.
High Mountain:
After the battle of Cernium, Mitra awoke in an unknown part of Grandis, with his last recollection being losing to an ancient Adversary during the Ancient War. He then recalled losing to another Adversary while possessing Seren, growing furious at being bested by ‘the Overseers’ toys’. Declaring that he would exact divine retribution as the ‘god of gods’, Mitra rushed to High Mountain order to rally the Celestials for war.
There, however, he found that the Celestials were gone, and that the descendants of Tainus - the Ancient God of disaster, who had been defeated by Mitra ages ago when he and the Celestials had taken High Mountain from him - had overrun the city. With Mitra having once split Tainus into three pieces, each sealed with his own divine power beneath High Mountain, Mitra wondered whether the three seals were weakening.
He first went to the first seal and took back his power, breaking the seal and unleashing the first piece of Tainus. As he did, Seren arrived at High Mountain while searching for a way to fix Azor. There, she discovered Mitra and told him about the fall of High Mountain and the Celestials. Seren also discovered that it seemed as though the seals had been tampered with, with an unknown person injecting a substance into the seals.
Nevertheless, Mitra remained unconcerned and declared that he would simply destroy Tainus completely and put an end to whatever reason the seals had been tampered with. Though Mitra told Seren to leave, she nevertheless continued following him, believing it her duty to save her home and fix Azor. However, Mitra revealed that Azor - as a holy relic - would repair itself in the hands of a worthy Chosen One.
As Mitra absorbed back the second seal’s power and defeated the second piece of Tainus, Seren realized that the black smoke which the pieces had been scattered into were reforming back into Tainus’ full form. Though Seren cautioned Mitra against acting recklessly, Mitra simply declared himself the strongest god and vowed to destroy Tainus, even if it meant putting Grandis into danger.
Disillusioned by Mitra’s arrogance, Seren grew frustrated to know that the god of the Celestials cared so little for others, even as they had all died for him during the fall of High Mountain. Declaring that Mitra was no longer her god, Seren threw Azor at his feet and left to stop Tainus herself. Mitra was amused by her daring and followed her to the third seal, where he asked her why she stood against him.
Seren explained that over the course of many ages, people had continued dying endlessly for the Sun God, with her people putting Azor over their own lives as High Mountain fell, and even the people of Cernium warring for ages over the different forms of Mitra. However, with people continuing to fight to survive every day, she declared that she would do whatever it took to help them.
Impressed by Seren’s words, Mitra laughed that what she was saying was quite heretical. To Seren’s shock, Azor began to react in her hands. Seren was surprised that she would be deemed worthy by Mitra after disavowing him, to which Mitra explained that she was worthy because she had saved herself with her own hands, rather than begging pointlessly to some higher power for salvation. He then told Seren to “grasp it, for salvation was in her own hands”, quoting the inscription upon Azor.
Suddenly, Tainus’ incomplete form swallowed Seren and broke the final seal himself. With Mitra defeating the third piece, the black smoke from the piece merged with the rest of Tainus into his complete form. As Mitra fought to save Seren, Seren found herself paralyzed in the dark, starlit void of Tainus’ stomach.
As she began falling into despair, she began recalling the words of the Adversary which had given her the courage to believe in herself again. Refusing to give up, Seren repaired Azor with her fierce determination and awakened as the Chosen One, using her solar power to break through Tainus’ stomach. Mitra and Seren then fought together to defeat Tainus once and for all.
However, Tainus - using the power of a strange crystal - began fusing together with High Mountain itself in an attempt to devour Grandis. Realizing that the crystal had been injected into Tainus by Darmoor, Seren attempted to fight Tainus, though she was stopped by Mitra, who unleashed his full power against Tainus, knocking Seren unconscious from the battle.
When Seren awoke, she discovered that Tainus and High Mountain were obliterated, with Mitra nowhere in sight. With High Mountain - the last tie to her past trauma - destroyed, Seren declared that she was free from the chains that kept her tied to her pain, vowing that she would do whatever it took to defeat Darmoor for what he had done to her people.
Hotel Arcus:
Several months after the battle of Cernium, Cosim infiltrated Ereve and told Neinheart that the Alliance could find traces of the Ancient Gods in the Arcus desert in Grandis. Neinheart organized a mission to Arcus with the Adversary, Belle, and Irena. The Glory Guard traveled to Hotel Arcus, where they encountered the hotel manager - a boy named Rusty - and his assistant, a robot named Archelon.
They quickly learned that all of the robots in the hotel were run-down, including Archelon, who often made many mistakes while trying to be helpful, even as he attempted to learn more about human behavior and emotions. They also learned that nobody had been to the hotel in many years, with Rusty’s friend, Kelly, even having left as well soon after Rusty’s father had passed away.
Soon after, Senya Angler arrived at the hotel and revealed that she planned to buy it from Rusty, despite the Alliance’s warnings that Senya was part of the Angler Company.
While searching for signs of the Ancient God, the Glory Guard discovered a treasure map and began reluctantly working with Senya to search for clues. The Adversary soon learned that Senya had a level of respect for broken-down machines, claiming that unlike people, machines were treated as worthless and dispensable when they stopped working as intended.
The Glory Guard also learned that the hotel had once been home to the Seekers, who searched for ancient artifacts throughout Grandis.
At the end of the treasure hunt, the Glory Guard discovered that the treasure was a bomb, which detonated and left them with no leads. After Senya repaired Archelon and the other broken down robots, Rusty sold the hotel to Senya and decided to leave.
On his way, he discovered the broken pieces of the bomb and found a rusty screw inside. He then had a memory of his younger self watching a movie with Archelon when a mysterious stranger had appeared, claiming to be Archelon’s old friend. He recalled how the stranger had called Archelon his “screw-loose friend” before disappearing.
As Rusty rushed back to the hotel, Senya revealed that she had reprogrammed Archelon to be obedient to her, as he was the key to operating the ancient superweapons buried alongside the fortress beneath the hotel.
Despite the Adversary’s best efforts, they were unable to deal any damage to the robot superweapons, which had been created with the power of a god, rendering them immune to anything except the power of another god. As the Adversary had lost the Seal Stone, they were unable to damage the robots.
Archelon attempted to resist Senya’s commands, causing her to detonate him with the intent to rebuild him without his defects. As Rusty cried over Archelon, the rusty screw reacted to Archelon’s parts and reassembled him, allowing him to regain his dormant memories. Archelon then revealed himself to hold the consciousness of an Ancient God. Archelon’s true body - a massive tortoise buried beneath the desert - then awakened and recalled the superweapons.
Unable to control Archelon anymore, Senya decided to sell the hotel back to Rusty before retreating. Archelon then revealed that an old friend had constructed his robot body long ago so that he could live amongst mortals, as he had always been curious about the nature of the human heart.
Soon after, the Seekers returned back to the hotel, with all of them hunting for the ancient artifacts of the gods, which were now resurfacing with the Ancient Gods’ awakening.
While helping Rusty, the Adversary discovered a note from his friend, Kelly, who revealed that the reason why his father had died of illness was because of the war being waged by the High Flora. Because of this, the real reason why Kelly had left was because she intended to join the resistance movement against them.
Karote, the Unending Tower:
After the mission to Hotel Arcus, Neinheart called the Adversary to a meeting in Ereve, where he revealed that the Alliance was on the verge of dissolution without a common goal to keep it intact, though Neinheart believed that a new Alliance would be needed in Grandis.
The Chief Knights then arrived to report the statuses of their missions:
Hawkeye reported that the Thunder Breakers were searching for Havoc, who was presumed alive after his body had been unable to be recovered following his duel with Seren.
Eckhart reported that his Night Walkers had been skirmishing against the Specter army at the border between worlds, where he had learned that the Specters had an unusually fast recovery rate.
Oz reported that her investigation of Yum Yum Island had led her to conclude that the perpetrator was not a new Commander of the Black Mage, but rather, Kaling, whose affiliation remained unknown to the Alliance.
Mihile reported that the Dawn Warriors had taken Grendel into custody after he had fused Maple World and Grandis, and that they were currently searching for Will.
Irena reported that she had learned about a new lead - Karote, a self-building tower that took the span of a lifetime to complete. Irena explained that according to legend, the day of its completion would reveal a secret that even the gods feared, though an unknown power continually destroyed the tower after it reached a certain height.
The Adversary, Belle, Irena, and Neinheart traveled to Hotel Arcus, where a Seeker named Nicky offered to escort them to the tower, claiming that his father wanted to see it completed.
Archelon offered the Glory Guard the use of the Arcus Gate, a portal created with the power of the Ancient Gods, capable of taking the user anywhere across Grandis. However, Archelon warned the Adversary that Karote had been built after his original body had fallen into slumber and before his consciousness had awakened in his robot body.
He explained that the intermittent time in which he had been inactive was when the line between good and evil had vanished. He then warned them to be careful, as he feared that what awaited them was more difficult than what a human heart could handle.
Inside the tower, the Adversary encountered several statues of a mysterious man on all the floors they encountered. Each statue responded to the Adversary’s touch and transported them to a subspace where robotic Guardians recognized them as a Vessel. However, these Guardians regarded the Adversary as a defective Vessel and attempted to dispose of them, until the more intelligent models assessed them and deemed them a true Vessel.
Each time that the Adversary defeated the robots and returned, they witnessed memories of the man who had created Karote. They learned that the man had been transformed into a cyborg inside the laboratory of the elders. However, the man had been deemed a defective Vessel by the Guardians, who had thrown him off the floating laboratory.
Falling to the bottom of the ocean, the man used his cybernetic enhancements and the light of a giant, mysterious anglerfish to create Karote in order to reach the surface. Upon reaching the surface, the man grew convinced that he wasn’t defective, and that the elders had been afraid that they had created an Adversary stronger than they were.
The man attempted to reach the laboratory in the sky with Karote, though Kalos the Guardian continually destroyed it, recognizing the man as a defective Vessel. Realizing that he was unable to reach the laboratory, the man enchanted Karote to be self-completing until a true Vessel could complete the tower and grant him entry.
From these memories, Neinheart concluded that the reason why the statues responded to the Adversary was because they, despite no longer having a Seal Stone, were a true Vessel of the Adversary, which meant that they would be recognized as worthy by Kalos. Because of this, he realized that the creator of the tower had created Karote in order to manipulate a worthy Vessel into reaching the laboratory.
Though Neinheart believed it wise to turn back, Nicky insisted on pushing forward and climbed to the top of Karote, which was rapidly completing itself in the Adversary’s presence. At the top, the Glory Guard encountered Kalos, who recognized the Adversary as a true Vessel. He revealed that the robotic Guardians inside the tower had been stolen and reprogrammed, as the Guardians were normally unable to operate outside the bounds of their domain.
Kalos then recognized Nicky as a false Vessel, created from technology stolen from the laboratory of Odium. Nicky then revealed himself as T-Boy and explained that his father was the creator of Karote, and that he had created Nicky and his siblings with stolen Odium technology. Because of this, T-Boy hacked into Kalos and seized control of him in order to defeat the Adversary.
After a fierce battle, the Adversary defeated T-Boy and Kalos, causing Karote to crumble apart from the force of their battle. As everyone plummeted, Nicky called his father and reported that the path to Odium was open at last. However, he also confronted his father and realized that his father had deliberately programmed him with impulsivity and thrill-seeking, knowing that it would cause Nicky to self-destruct in the process of seizing power, thereby ensuring that Nicky would hack Kalos and eliminate both the Guardian and the Adversary at once.
Crippled by the realization that his father had only been using him, Nicky decided to reveal to the Adversary that Gerand Darmoor had once sought out the Angler Company, revealing that he planned to destroy the Seal Stone inside the Adversary, for which their father had agreed to help Darmoor, knowing that the Adversary would be pushed on the path of Odium.
Following this revelation, Nicky pushed the Adversary to safety towards Cosim, who had just appeared to save them. With Cosim catching the Adversary, Nicky plummeted from the sky towards the ocean. Cosim then revealed to the Adversary that he was Nicky and Senya’s sibling.
Odium, the Awakened Laboratory:
Following the mission to Karote, Cosim was brought to the Resistance in order to be evaluated for his injuries, which appeared to be old. While the Resistance assessed him, Senya hacked into her father’s computer and overheard his call with Nicky, learning that their father had programmed them as he saw fit. Just then, her sister, Laha Angler, arrived and told Senya that their father had finished preparations to invade Odium, with an Apostle of Darmoor being expected to arrive in order to lend their aid.
Meanwhile, at the Secret Plaza, the Resistance realized that Cosim was a cyborg with mechanically enhanced organs. Because of the damage to Cosim’s internal machinery, Cosim’s grey hair and round pupils were oscillating between their current state and the blue hair and diamond pupils that the Angler family had.
Cosim revealed that his injuries had been sustained in the explosion at Angler Company headquarters, which had allowed him to break free of his father’s programming. He also revealed that his father had also been critically injured in the explosion, causing his power source to be destroyed. Because of this, he had been sending his children on missions to harvest energy to sustain him - such as Senya’s attempts to create an energy source by boiling Savage Terminal, as well as Nicky’s attempts to harvest Erda in Reverse City.
Because of their father recklessly sending them into danger, even with his children being damaged and weakened to varying degrees from the explosion, Gerand Darmoor had learned about the continued existence of the Angler Company, for which he had sought them out in order to recruit them for his own purposes.
Just then, Oz arrived from chasing leads on Kaling and reported that Angler Company ships were moving in on Odium, with Kaling’s trail vanishing around Karote. In order to investigate Odium, the Adversary, Oz, and Brighton set out with Cosim, who teleported them to the entrance of Odium. Cosim explained that Odium was guarded by the Guardians, as well as the robotic Constables who had assisted the elders with their research.
Oz was surprised to know that the elders had kept Odium running after leaving the laboratory, to which Cosim noted that Odium’s power source was somewhere deep inside the laboratory, with only the elders knowing the full truth. Cosim then told them that one of his allies would soon come to assist them before disappearing.
Inside Odium, the Glory Guard found that the Angler Company had already invaded the laboratory and hacked into the Guardians, who were attacking the Constables, whom they found were robots with mechanical Anima-like features. The Adversary saved one Constable named Alter, who led them into the residential district with the other Constables.
Along the way, the group overheard Laha and Senya arguing about the Apostle arriving to open the path to the research laboratory, with Senya warning Laha about their father’s reminder to be patient and to not antagonize Darmoor or his Apostles. As the group pushed through towards the door to the research laboratory’s entrance, they faced off against Laha, with Alter buying the Glory Guard enough time to enter through the doors, which opened to the Adversary after recognizing them as a true Vessel.
At the entrance, the Glory Guard met with the remaining Constables, as well as Tai Yu, who had been sent by Cosim to help them. Together, they deduced that Kaling was the Apostle being sent by Darmoor, shocking the Constables, who revealed that Kaling had once been a researcher of Odium, as well as one of the creators of the Constables.
In order to learn more about Kaling, the Adversary read through old research notes and learned that Kaling had not only been a researcher, but a prospective Vessel for the Adversary experiments, with the elders being tasked by the Overseers - worshiped by the elders as the will of the world - to create beings capable of slaying the Ancient Gods.
However, Kaling was deemed to be a defective Vessel and unsuitable to bond with a Godsphere. As a result of the brutal experimentation process, Kaling’s humanity was slowly erased by the contamination, which had left her obsessed with fulfilling her hardwired purpose by conducting an experiment to enhance the Adversaries of Odium.
Her research had led to the creation of the robotic Four Perils - Hundun, Qiongqi, Taowu, and Taotie - who had been unleashed upon Grandis to consume small monsters and amass energy, which she intended to fuse together with an Adversary in order to grant them immense strength. However, the Four Perils began spreading terror and chaos across Grandis, for which the elders had sent another defective Vessel - Tai Yu - to seal her and her monsters away.
Following this, the Adversary and the Constables began attempting to reconnect the retracted stairs in order to help the residential district. As they did, however, one of the Constables heard the Adversary claiming that there were active Constables in the residential district. The Constable then revealed that power to the residential district had been cut off when they had retracted the stairs, which served as the power conduit from the laboratory’s power source to the rest of Odium.
Because of this, the Constable revealed that it was impossible for the Glory Guard to have met any active Constables in the residential district. Realizing that the Constables in the residential district had been hacked by the Angler Company, the Glory Guard attempted to stop the other Constables from restoring the stairs, though they found that it was too late.
Just then, Kaling used the restored stairs to enter and unleashed monstrous test subjects from within Odium to attack them while she entered the laboratory. After defeating the monsters, Tai Yu revealed that Kaling had been unable to enter through the door which the Adversary had used to reach the laboratory entrance, despite being a Vessel, as the elders had made the door reject Vessels with contamination. Because of this, Kaling and the Angler Company had manipulated them into opening the only other path via the staircase.
As the Glory Guard chased after Kaling, Kaling reached the heart of Odium and discovered the final and strongest Peril - Hundun - who had been enslaved as the power source of Odium by the elders by forcibly fusing him with a Godsphere. With Taotie lost to Hoyoung, Kaling hoped to claim Hundun and complete her Four Perils experiment with Darmoor’s help.
Just then, Laha arrived and confronted Kaling, demanding to take possession of Hundun as a power source for her father. This resulted in Kaling and Laha fighting over Hundun, just as the Glory Guard arrived.
With Kaling and Laha distracted, Hundun spoke with the Adversary and was surprised to recognize that not only were they an Adversary who had once been completed, but that they had gone ‘off the path’ while maintaining their ego. He then presented the last Godsphere in Odium to the Adversary, revealing that his life would end after it left his body, which had grown depending on it cycling power through him. However, he gave the Godsphere freely to the Adversary in order to put an end to his imprisonment, as well as to cause chaos by presenting the maverick Adversary to the elders.
Hundun also revealed that the Godsphere’s power had grown degraded over the ages, and that only one well-versed on the subject would be able to restore its true power. In order to help the Adversary restore the Godsphere, Tai Yu used a magical hanging scroll to take them to Shangri-La, where the elders had imprisoned themselves after abandoning Odium.
Following their escape, both Laha and Kaling were furious to know that the Godsphere had been taken, with Hundun dead in the process. Just then, Senya arrived with their father, Alter - revealed to be Alter Angler - with Kaling noting that he had rebuilt his body in the image of a Constable after the explosion at Angler Company headquarters in preparation for the invasion of Odium.
In order to appease Kaling, who blamed the Angler Company for the loss of Hundun and the Godsphere, Alter tore out Laha’s mechanical heart and crushed it, shocking Senya. As Kaling left to report to Darmoor, a shaken Senya realized that she was truly disposable to their father after all, for which she decided to seek out Cosim.
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.
Battleship Arteria:
Shortly after the battle at Odium, Gerand Darmoor called a meeting with his Apostles, in which Ypsilon reported that after extracting the memories of a captured Alliance soldier, he had learned that Empress Cygnus was a Transcendent-in-reserve, and that Shinsoo was an Ancient God. In order to take both their powers, Darmoor dispatched Reina aboard the battleship Arteria in order to invade Maple World. In order to take that power, Darmoor gave Reina a draining crystal, which already contained the power of a god.
Meanwhile, Tai Yu sent the Glory Guard and Gaon back to Maple World, where they found the High Flora army attacking Victoria Island. While Brighton left to check on Edelstein, Oz and the others traveled to Ereve, where they learned from Neinheart that the Cygnus Knights were spread thin defending Maple World from the High Flora.
Just as Neinheart dispatched the Adversary to reinforce Eckhart at the border between worlds, Arteria arrived and unleashed a powerful laser cannon that destroyed the newly-installed barrier around Ereve, allowing the High Flora to invade. In order to stop them, the Adversary and Gaon worked together with Oz and Irena to reactivate the barrier, though they soon realized that the attack had been a diversion to gather the Knights in one place, while the invasion of Maple World had been a diversion to scatter their forces from Ereve.
With Reina’s adjutant, Lystor, leading the diversion, Reina froze the Alliance soldiers in order to clear a path towards Cygnus, whom she kidnapped and brought aboard Arteria. As the High Flora threatened to wipe out the Adversary and their allies, Shinsoo returned to Ereve, bringing Eckhart and his Knights as reinforcements. Shinsoo then used her power to freeze Arteria in place, so that the Knights could mount a rescue attempt.
Aboard Arteria, Reina confronted Cygnus and noted that while she respected Cygnus’ selflessness and resolve, her efforts were ultimately futile in the face of true power, adding that whereas Cygnus’ leadership was enough in a world at peace, it was meaningless to those who came from a world that faced endless war. Reina then began using the draining crystal to extract Cygnus’ Transcendent powers.
Meanwhile, in order to help the Adversary, Shinsoo bestowed a portion of her divine power to the Adversary, which was absorbed into the World Heart. The Adversary then led the rescue party aboard Arteria to rescue Cygnus, with Eckhart and Gaon holding the line against Lystor and his overwhelming numbers to buy the Adversary enough time to reach Cygnus.
Through Shinsoo’s power in the World Heart, the Adversary was able to use Shinsoo’s connection to Cygnus in order to speak telepathically and discover her location, fighting past waves of strange frozen soldiers to reach Reina’s throne room. There, they discovered that Reina had finished extracting Cygnus’ powers.
As the Adversary fought against her ice powers, Reina attempted to use the divine power inside the draining crystal to defeat them, though she was surprised when it had no effect. She realized that the Adversary had destroyed her frozen ‘prisoners’, leaving her unable to offload the backlash of the crystal onto them. Nevertheless, Reina continued fighting against the Adversary, who was protected by the World Heart unleashing Shinsoo’s power to create a shield around them.
Eventually, however, Shinsoo was unable to keep Arteria frozen any longer, causing it to move again. Just then, however, the Resistance arrived to reinforce the besieged Cygnus Knights and pushed forward towards the Adversary’s position. Irritated, Reina authorized Lystor to detonate a Vision Bomb. Lystor began making preparations to detonate and allowed only High Flora officers to evacuate, leaving the mercenaries of other races to die aboard the ship.
With the World Heart’s power failing, the Adversary was defeated by Reina, who prepared to finish them off. Just then, however, Cygnus rushed forward and took the blow in the Adversary’s place, mortally wounding her. The rescue party then arrived, shocked and furious to find Cygnus motionless on the floor.
Outnumbered and exhausted, Reina realized that she had no choice but to use the draining crystal, though the backlash from using the power of the gods without her prisoners to offload it to caused her to grow severely weakened. With the Alliance frozen in place, Lystor rushed in and evacuated Reina, just as poison gas from the Vision Bomb began flooding the ship.
Though the Adversary wished to pursue Reina, Claudine and the others stopped them from going, noting that they were seriously injured. Just then, the group was shocked to see that Cygnus was barely moving. Realizing that she was alive, the Alliance escaped Arteria and brought Cygnus back to Ereve.
In the aftermath of the battle, the Adversary met with Neinheart, who explained that with the poison gas contained, he had authorized an investigation of Arteria in order to learn more about the High Flora from data aboard the ship, as well as the mercenaries who had been left behind. He revealed that through speaking with the mercenaries, the Alliance had learned that Reina was a God of the High Flora, having recently earned the position as lord of the snowy mountains - one of the six High Flora territories - by defeating the former lord in a Syaman duel.
The Adversary then traveled to Shinsoo’s refuge in Leafre, where a comatose Cygnus slumbered peacefully at Shinsoo’s side. Shinsoo revealed that it would take a great amount of time for Cygnus to reawaken, though she added that the power of higher beings - the Ancient Gods and Transcendents - would help expedite the process.
In order to help the Adversary, Shinsoo surrendered the remainder of her power to the World Heart, explaining that she would fall into a slumber alongside Cygnus to keep her company until she awakened. After Shinsoo fell asleep, the Adversary vowed that they would do anything it took to save Cygnus, even if it meant that they would need to face Gerand Darmoor himself.
As the Alliance investigated Arteria, it was discovered that the frozen ‘prisoners’ were knights who served the former lord, and that Reina was a blood relative of the lord. As magical talent was hereditary, Reina’s magic was on the same standing as the former lord, making her talent nearly equal to that of a God. After killing the lord, Reina ascended in caste from Priest to God, granting her the title of lord of the snowy mountains.
However, those who were loyal to the former lord had turned against Reina, who had frozen them - along with many other enemies - as her prisoners, using them to offload the backlash of her draining crystal. Because of this, the frozen prisoners experienced immense pain whenever Reina used its power, and they also began losing many of their memories.
Additional investigation allowed the Alliance to learn that Vision Bombs were illegal weapons that released an extremely painful poison, killing both enemies and allies alike. Neinheart’s intel revealed that the secret of Vision Bombs had been given to the High Flora by Mr. Hazard of the Shadowdealers. Though Hazard had been sent to the Shadowdealer High Council for his treachery, Neinheart believed that Hazard’s allies may have remained in other Shadowdealer branches, for which he resolved to look further into the matter.
While interrogating the mercenaries, the Alliance discovered that the mercenaries were members of other races, whose nations had been taken over by the High Flora. Because of this, the mercenaries had been forcibly conscripted into the Flora army as footsoldiers, while the High Flora served as their officers - including the High Flora commoners who had no magical abilities. Because of this, the mercenaries had no choice but to serve the High Flora to their dying breath, as any form of disobedience would result in their loved ones being harmed.
Meanwhile, as Maple World recovered from the invasion, Neinheart noted that the Alliance needed to learn more about the enemy, as they had little knowledge about the High Flora, while the High Flora had ample amount of intelligence through Ypsilon, who was extracting the memories of captured Alliance soldiers. However, Neinheart also noted that with the invasion of Maple World - as well as the Empress’ resolve to weaken Ereve in order to protect the citizens of Maple World - it was likely that the fragmenting Alliance would likely be bolstered against a new common enemy.
Carcion, the Cradle of Life:
After the invasion, Neinheart called for an Alliance meeting, in which he updated the world leaders on the state of Maple World. He explained that based on information from past missions, he was certain that Darmoor was targeting the power of both the Transcendents and the Ancient Gods, and that based on the complexity of the draining crystal, it was evident that he had been planning it for some time.
Because of this, he proposed a strategy for the Alliance to prevent Darmoor from taking the power of the gods by claiming that power in the World Heart first, which would keep it out of Darmoor’s hands, as well as strengthen the Adversary. As the meeting proceeded, Gaon’s spear lit up with a watery energy that pointed towards Grandis.
Gaon revealed that the jewel on his staff had been given to him by an Ancient God named Keira. He revealed that during the Ancient War, his people - the black tortoise Anima - had been wiped out, leaving him as the last survivor. Resentful of the gods and their chaos, Gaon had wandered the world in order to put an end to the fighting.
During the Ancient War, Gaon was fatally wounded from the battle and collapsed in Carcion, known as the Cradle of Life, while searching for pure water that the black tortoise Anima could use to heal themselves. There, he had been rescued by Keira, who had used her powers to heal him. Though initially mistrustful of her, Gaon had been surprised to learn that Keira was unlike the other gods, as she resented violence and wished to protect all living things, for which she had taken in snake and turtle Anima refugees under her protection.
Eventually, Gaon had been chosen by the will of the world as one of the Four Symbols, for which he would need to leave Keira and help the elders defeat her and the other gods. Seeing Gaon’s conflict, Keira had decided to make his decision easier by choosing to seal herself away, explaining that she would do her part in putting an end to the chaos of the gods.
Keira had then given a jewel containing her blessings to Gaon as a symbol of their friendship, which he had embedded into his spear. However, Gaon explained that by the time he had reached Odium, Keira’s power had already faded away from the jewel, as she had sealed herself away by then. The Adversary realized that if the jewel was lighting up again, it meant that Keira had awakened, and that she was likely calling Gaon back to Carcion because she needed his help. Believing that the High Flora were targeting Keira, Neinheart dispatched the Adversary, Gaon, Claudine, and Eckhart to save her.
As the Glory Guard set out, a fleet of High Flora ships under the command of Limbo - now promoted to General - neared Carcion. Alongside Limbo and Albaire were two of the traitorous elders - Shensung the monkey elder and Xula the dog elder - who had been dispatched by Darmoor to conduct research for his Adversary project. Shensung quickly got on Limbo’s nerves by constantly goading him, with Xula lightly scolding Shensung and keeping him in check.
Soon after, the Glory Guard arrived at Carcion, where they discovered that the High Flora had already arrived and polluted the waters with a strange infective agent. As the World Heart began reacting to the waters, Gaon explained that long ago, an Ancient God in the form of an enormous sea serpent named Brihini had once attacked Carcion in retaliation for Keira refusing the stand against the Overseers. Though Gaon and the other Anima had managed to drive Brihini off, many Anima had been killed or wounded, for which Keira had imbued the pure waters of Carcion with her divine blessings, which were capable of healing and strengthening the Anima.
The Adversary realized that the World Heart was reacting to Keira’s divine power in the water, as well as the strange purple pollutant, which contained Darmoor’s Transcendent power. With the World Heart constantly reacting independently of their will, the Adversary realized that they needed to learn how to control it, as simply filling it with power was not enough.
Meanwhile, Limbo began using Darmoor’s Transcendent powers to break through the protective barrier that Keira had created around herself. As he continued chipping away at the barrier, Albaire reported that Shensung’s special experiment - Specters capable of imitating Anima - had successfully infiltrated the snake and turtle Anima tribes in order to cause infighting between them. Limbo then gave Albaire a portion of Darmoor’s Transcendent powers and tasked him with seizing control of the area, while Shensung and Xula began their experiments.
Elsewhere, the Glory Guard rescued a group of turtle Anima led by their chief, Duhan, who brought them back to his village after recognizing Gaon as the legendary Black Tortoise who had once been Keira’s guardian ages ago. Duhan then revealed that the snake Anima - whom the turtles had been fighting for years over control of Carcion’s pure water - had sided with the High Flora, and that they had helped the High Flora seize control of Keira’s sanctuary. He also revealed that the snakes had polluted the waters and kidnapped many of the turtle Anima.
With the infected Anima getting worse, the Adversary realized that with the pollutant containing divine power, the World Heart would react to it. By focusing their willpower, the Adversary consciously used the World Heart to extract and absorb the pollutant from the infected Anima. The Glory Guard then agreed to help the turtle Anima investigate the snakes and recover the kidnapped Anima.
Their investigation led them into the jungle, where they found a laboratory that the elders had created to perform their experiments. Though the laboratory had been abandoned, the Glory Guard was able to learn that the elders had been performing experiments on the kidnapped Anima. This infuriated both Duhan and Claudine, who was reminded of how Gelimer had experimented on Vita and countless others whom she hadn’t been able to save.
Vowing revenge, Duhan declared that he would attack the snakes, though the Adversary attempted to calm him down and reminded him that they also needed to find the missing Anima. While Duhan, Gaon, and Claudine searched for the missing Anima, the Adversary and Eckhart traveled to the snake Anima village.
Along the way, the Adversary and Eckhart defeated the nearby Specters and discovered that the Specters were stronger variants of the ones that Eckhart and his Knights had fought at the border between worlds. Eckhart also realized that the crystals being carried by the Specters were responsible for polluting the waters of Carcion.
At the snake Anima village, the chief of the snakes, Hinya, explained that the turtle Anima had kidnapped their villagers and polluted the waters. Though confused by her story, the Adversary nevertheless used the World Heart to heal the infected Anima in order to gain Hinya’s trust before forming a rescue party to reinforce Gaon and the others. Meanwhile, Gaon and his team found the missing Anima in the sea caverns, where they were shocked to find that the Anima were actually disguised Specters.
Just then, Albaire and the elders appeared and trapped them in a force field, after which they began raising the water levels in cavern. Before leaving, Xula attempted to put Gaon at ease before his death by assuring him that Baekyeon and Ara were both still alive, while Shensung revealed that the kidnapped Anima were being held at the sanctuary.
After the enemy left, the Adversary and the rescue party arrived to save Gaon and the others. Though the Glory Guard told Hinya and Duhan that it was the disguised Specters who had kidnapped the Anima, the two chiefs nevertheless refused to work together, blaming each other for the fall of the sanctuary.
As tensions continued to rise, Keira’s watery form appeared from the jewel in Gaon’s spear and admonished the Anima for fighting over her divine blessings for centuries, reminding them that she had blessed the waters because she abhorred violence. Humbled by Keira’s words, the snake and turtle Anima agreed to put aside their differences in order to save her.
Together, the Glory Guard and the Anima fought their way into the sanctuary, while Shensung and Xula - unable to find any suitable candidates for their experiment - disappeared into a hanging scroll similar to the one that led to Shangri-La, though this scroll instead led to a shadowy city skyline. Meanwhile, Limbo finished breaking the barrier around Keira, just as the Adversary and Gaon arrived.
Though he had been ordered to absorb Keira’s power into a draining crystal, Limbo decided to absorb Keira into himself in order to momentarily experience the power of the gods, which he claimed would help him get closer to the Abyssal Source. Transforming into his enormous Specter form, Limbo fought against the Adversary and Gaon, who were unable to defeat Limbo and his Specter form’s rapid regenerative abilities.
From within Limbo, however, Keira was able to weaken his regeneration in order to help the Adversary and Gaon. With Keira’s help, the Adversary was able to defeat Limbo and used the World Heart to extract Keira back out from him. Furious, Limbo attempted to gather his power into a large energy ball, intending to wipe out all of Carcion. However, the snake and turtle Anima banded together and consolidated their individual blessings together into their own energy ball.
To their shock, however, Keira took the ball of energy and declared that she would sacrifice herself to defeat Limbo, thereby putting an end to the cursed power of the gods which had drawn the High Flora to Carcion and put all the Anima in danger. As Keira attempted to stop Limbo, the Adversary consciously channeled the power of the World Heart, giving Keira back her power that the World Heart had absorbed from the waters.
With Limbo defeated, Eckhart attempted to interrogate him about the High Flora’s purpose. However, Limbo adamantly retorted that the only purpose of the High Flora was to wipe out all life, and that the elders’ experiments on the Anima were nothing more than simple pastimes for Darmoor until their goal could be realized.
As Eckhart moved to arrest him, Havoc suddenly appeared in a flash of red lightning in order to help Limbo, who began groveling and begging Havoc to take him away from Carcion. However, Havoc disdainfully asked Limbo how he could think about retreating when he hadn’t even finished his job. Havoc unleashed red lightning on the Glory Guard and the Anima, with the Adversary unable to move due to the World Heart’s influence. To the Adversary’s surprise, however, Havoc spared their life, instead noting that they were a disappointment, even with the World Heart.
Havoc then used a draining crystal to extract Keira’s power from her, though Gaon was able to use Keira’s power inside his spear to create a barrier before Havoc could take all of it. However, with the crystal filled and his mission complete, Havoc took Limbo and the High Flora army away from Carcion, returning back to Aboris.
With Carcion devastated from the pollution, Keira used the last of her power to purify most of the land, entrusting the Anima with working together in order to fix the rest. The Glory Guard then brought a powerless Keira to Ereve, where Neinheart revealed that he had been able to bring up communications with Prince Carlisle.
Carlisle revealed that after many years, the Apostles had moved out of the shadows in order to conduct raids all across Grandis, stealing the power of every single Ancient God that they knew about. Having taken the power of dozens of gods, Neinheart believed that the High Flora would not be able to carry out such a major operation again for some time, which would give the Alliance time to gather allies, spread their influence across Grandis, and plan out a counterattack.
Carlisle revealed that there was a new faction of resistance against the High Flora called the Primacy, and that Seren had come across them while fixing the holy sword. He explained that Seren had asked him to tell the Adversary to cross the continent and meet her at ‘the place where the world starts again’. Carlisle assured the Adversary that he would continue looking into any leads he had, and that he would contact them soon.
After the meeting, the Adversary met with Keira and Gaon, who planned to leave on a mission to save Ara and Baekyeon from the elders. As thanks for their help, Keira told the Adversary that in order to claim the power of the gods inside the World Heart, they would need to satisfy one of two criteria: to defeat a god and take their power by force - as they had done by defeating Kaling and taking Darmoor’s power - or by inheriting the will of a god - as they had done with Shinsoo by swearing to save Cygnus.
Elsewhere in Aboris, Darmoor was interested to know that the Adversary had managed to consciously wield the World Heart. Though Limbo apologized in terror for failing, Darmoor assured Limbo that he was not displeased. He then declared that he could hear the prayers to the false gods and ordered his Apostles to bring ‘everything’ to him, claiming that he would bring forth ‘the true paradise’. Around the room, there were dozens of draining crystals filled with the power of countless gods targeted in the raids.
Soon after, the Adversary helped Neinheart investigate the elders’ laboratory in Carcion, where they learned that the elders were combining their Adversary research with Specter research for unknown purposes, even going as far as to confirm the existence of a ‘special soul’.