PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 35: Vanishing Journey

(A/N: Something cool that you can see is that the Vanishing Journey contains objects from Maple World, Grandis, and Friends World. This is because the Arcane River was created as a result of the Erdas that rubbed off from the collision of these three worlds, allowing elements from each of them to manifest across the Arcane River.)

Upon visiting the Nameless Town, the Adversary was surprised to find that it was inhabited by Erdas that took humanoid forms, all of whom mistook the Adversary for Kao and cursed them for destroying their memories. They found Kao nearby, who explained that it was because of them that the townspeople had lost their memories. (A/N: English needs better gender-neutral pronouns. I meant to say that Kao believes themselves to be responsible.)

Kao also warned the Adversary not to fall into the Lake of Oblivion at the outskirts of town, as it would cause one to forget all their memories. They explained that the townspeople had been slowly losing their memories due to their proximity to the lake. Because of this, they had created the Tree of Memory, where they hung precious memories so that they wouldn’t be forgotten.

Kao explained that they had approached the tree, hoping that they could find their own memories there, but upon touching it, all the memories hung on the tree had been scattered. As a result, the townspeople had stopped their daily activities and had even halted the boat that could cross the Lake of Oblivion.

The Adversary then met with Legato, the chief of the village, and offered to help restore the villagers’ memories. Legato told them that the Erda monsters in the area held their memories and asked them to collect their happy, sad, raging, and joyful memories. After collecting the memories from the Erdas, the Adversary hung them back on the Tree of Memory.

With their memories back, the villagers were able to resume their normal lives and the oarsman returned to ferry people across the lake. Legato told the Adversary that he had been curious about whether Kao’s memories were amongst the recovered ones, but he had found no trace of them when he had checked. However, he explained that the Fountain of Reflection, somewhere beyond the Nameless Town, had waters which reflected one’s past, though he wasn’t sure whether the fountain was still there, since everything within the Vanishing Journey seemed to fade away in time.

Kao decided to accompany the Adversary across the lake after learning about the fountain. They met Kima the oarsman, who ferried them across the lake on a large paper boat. On the other side of the lake, they climbed a large cliff and found themselves in a desolate forest with burning blue flames all around them.

Just as they were about to cross an enchanted bridge, they were stopped by a girl named Rino, who told them that the bridge was an illusion created by the blue flames of the Extinction Zone in order to trick them into falling off the cliff. She then offered to guide them to both the Fountain of Reflection and the end of the Vanishing Journey.

In order to cross the Extinction Zone, she told them that they would need to ride the Flame Birds and asked the Adversary to collect Solid Claws from Stone Erdas, Sticky Oil from Blazing Erdas, and Hard Shells from Soulful Erdas in order to prepare themselves to ride the birds. While the Adversary collected the materials, Rino escorted Kao to the Fountain of Reflection.

At the fountain, Kao regained their memories and learned that they were the Adversary from the future, and that they had fought the Black Mage at the end of the Arcane River, but had ultimately lost because they didn’t have the ‘crucial power’. In order to change the future, they had used all their power to travel back in time to warn their past self, but they had lost their memories in the process.

(A/N: Although Kao believes that they went back in time on their own, it was actually the White Mage who sent them back in order to ensure that the Adversary succeeded in killing him. Most likely, the White Mage modified Kao’s memories in order to ensure that no one knew that he wanted to lose before the time was right. Regarding Arma, just like the monsters in Arcana, Arma was created as a result of Tana’s influence in reshaping the Erdas across the Arcane River and transforming them into corrupted monsters.)

They also recalled that Rino was a follower of the monster, Arma, and that she was planning to feed the Adversary to her master. Kao attempted to warn the Adversary, but Rino pushed them off a cliff and created a doppelgänger to take their place.

Meanwhile, the Adversary returned back with the materials and asked Kao if they had recovered their memories. Kao told them that their memories were slowly resurfacing, though the Adversary noticed that Kao didn't appear to feel any excitement about it. The Adversary then blew on the Hard Shells to summon the Flame Birds, fed them Solid Claws to tame them, and applied the Sticky Oil so as not to fall. The Adversary then took off first, followed by Rino. As the fake Kao began to climb aboard their bird, the real Kao managed to climb back up the cliff and defeated the doppelgänger before climbing aboard the bird.

The three then began to fly across the Extinction Zone and Rino, believing that Kao was still a doppelgänger, told Kao that she could escort them back home before she escorted the Adversary to the end of the Vanishing Journey. Suddenly, Kao swooped toward Rino on their Flame Bird and pushed her off. The Adversary swooped after Rino and managed to stop her fall before they landed at the entrance to the Cave of Repose. Rino told the Adversary that the end of the Vanishing Journey was at the end of the cave.

The two then pressed on, with the Adversary harvesting Tranquil Solvent from the Tranquil Erdas and Lantern Erdas in order to dissolve the Slaws blocking their path. Just as they reached the end of the cave, an injured Kao suddenly appeared and told the Adversary that Rino was leading them into a trap.

Kao revealed that they had learned the truth about Rino from the Fountain of Reflection, as well as how they had lost their memories in the first place. However, Rino smiled sinisterly and summoned Arma to finish them off. As Arma launched his attack, Kao jumped forward and took the attack in the Adversary’s place. Their sacrifice allowed the Adversary to defeat Arma once and for all, after which they carried Kao’s fading body out of the cave.

(A/N: In the same update that released Kao’s original timeline and the Ellin Forest revamp, many classes got unique dialogue with Kao as we carry them through the cave. Me and several other people on the lore server spent a good few days playing through Vanishing Journey on each class in order to compile all the dialogue. For context, this was long before story replay was ever a thing, so we had to do this all manually. You can imagine how painful this was to coordinate and accomplish.

We were pretty annoyed when we found out that the writers had a generic script for almost all the non-Maple World classes, with just one or two random exceptions. Nexon really did less than the barest minimum in acknowledging that characters have a story outside the generic Adversary template and made us run around for hours to hunt it all down, only to find out that they had just given up halfway through.

For Explorers, Kao talks about how they had lived a long, free life with Sugar’s help. However, they had found out too late that it wasn’t easy to protect what they loved, though they tell the player that there’s hope now because of them.

This dialogue is shared with all Special Explorers and Jett, which is dumb because Pathfinder and Jett don’t share the main Explorer storyline and they’ve literally never met Sugar once in their lives for them to be talking about her. Despite many other classes talking about their companions, such as Evan and Mir, Cannoneer doesn’t get any unique lines about Monkey, which is the biggest travesty of them all.

For Cygnus Knights, Kao tells the player to seize the opportunity and to carry out the Empress’ will to protect the world. Kao explains that they had lost their memories in the fight against the Black Mage and had forgotten the promise that they had made to the Empress, because of which, they believe that they no longer have the right to call themselves a Knight. This dialogue is shared with Mihile, once again disregarding the opportunity to give him a unique script. Also, in case anyone was wondering, this script wasn’t changed in the Ignition update.

For the main Resistance classes, Kao asks the player if they remember when Edelstein was freed from the Black Wings at the end of Black Heaven. Kao notes how they had risen up from the despair of losing Vita and had attained freedom, after which they had promised to help others achieve that same freedom as well. They tell the player that the same promise is engraved in them, though Kao regrets having forgotten all of it.

They don’t actually mention Vita by name at all and instead just generically call her a friend. I’m sure you can already tell how done I am with Nexon, and we’re not even halfway down the list.

For Xenon, Kao asks him if he remembers the day when he had broken free from Gelimer’s lab. He explains that even after being changed into a machine, his heart had still remained human. Though he had lost his past, he had thought that it would be fine because he had made new memories. However, Kao notes that even after all that, he had still managed to lose his memories once again, and he wonders if things would have been different if he had been stronger. This dialogue was really short and really incomplete. They completely missed the opportunity to mention his closest friend, Roo-D, or even Beryl, his own sister.

For the Demon, Kao explains that he had known that he couldn’t beat the Black Mage when he had faced his old master centuries ago, though he had hoped desperately for just one more chance to face him again, which he had miraculously gotten. For his people, his mother, and Damien, he had focused all his rage in order to face the challenge, though he had soon forgotten everything, including his rage. He explains that he doesn’t think that someone like him will ever be given another chance, though he says that it’ll be different for the Demon.

Demon Avenger really should’ve gotten slightly different dialogue because the whole rage thing is unique to Demon Slayer and his Demon Fury, while Demon Avenger has a bigger focus on vengeance. They gave Demon Slayer and Demon Avenger different scripts in one of the Limina dialogues, with the scripts making this distinction when they’re talking about the source of their power.

For Aran, she asks where Kao has left Maha. Kao says that thought she can’t be sure, she believes that Maha has ceased to exist. She recalls how Maha was there with her for her entire life, but after losing him and seeing how she’s fallen after losing her memories and her power, she believes that she no longer has the right to fight anymore. They missed the chance to have her talk about Lilin and say something like how disappointed she must be that all the time that she’d spent training Aran had been a waste after she had failed when it had really mattered. How is Nexon so bad at coming up with sad dialogue when they’re normally so good at it?

For Evan, he realizes that if he and Kao are the same person, then that must mean that Kao has his own Mir. When he asks where Kao’s Mir is, Kao apologizes and says that he wasn’t able to protect Mir because he wasn’t strong enough, which had hindered Mir’s growth in turn. He believes that if he had been more careful, he could have saved the world and Mir as well. Evan’s Mir then speaks to Kao and calls him by the player’s IGN, after which Kao thanks him and says that he had never thought that he’d ever hear Mir call his name again.

For Mercedes, Kao asks her if the people of Elluel are alright. After Mercedes says that they are, Kao tells her that it’s a relief to hear. Kao then laments that she had caused her people to be frozen in the past, and that she couldn’t save the world either. She regrets that not only had she been unable to save the world, but she had also been unable to secure a better future for her people and their home. Without her memories or her power, she notes that it means that she no longer has the chance anymore. She then asks Mercedes to gift their people a hopeful future in her place.

For Phantom, Kao apologizes for being unable to protect the world that Aria loved. He explains that when he sees Aria again in the afterlife, he doesn’t know what she’ll say to him. He wonders if she’ll forgive him for his failures before supposing that she’d be kind and say that he had done his best, after which he says that the only person who isn’t ready to forgive him is himself. I think that this is tied with Zero’s as my favorite dialogue.

For Luminous, he notes that he can’t sense the power of light or darkness inside Kao. Kao explains that he himself isn’t sure, but when he had come to his senses, the power of darkness had dissipated and only a faint power of light remained. He asks Luminous if Lania is doing alright, to which Luminous says that she’s doing fine.

Kao is relieved to hear it, explaining that she had sacrificed herself for him in her past life, and that she hadn’t resented him when she had learned the truth in her current life. He recalls how he had given thanks to her and had promised to do better, though he had ultimately failed to protect both the world and Lania. He then wonders what she had thought when the world had been destroyed and supposes that since she’s kind, she must have pitied him for his failures. He then tells Luminous not to let Lania down like he had.

For Shade, Kao asks to let his sacrifice be enough. He then wonders if it would be arrogant of him to hope that his sacrifice will save the world. Shade then asks Kao where he kept Moonbeam’s guardian spirit, to which Kao explains that when he had regained his memories, he couldn’t sense the spirit’s energy anymore. He recalls how, despite being a stranger, Moonbeam had trusted him without hesitation and had given him her power that he had to eventually return.

He notes that Moonbeam’s spirit and her world don’t exist anymore, despite how much he had wanted to protect them. He then asks Shade if Moonbeam is doing alright, after which he apologizes, as he had forgotten about the curse for a moment. He adds that he’s sure that she’s doing fine before reminding Shade that he needs to protect the world, adding that they both will remember the charge that had been entrusted to them, even if the memories fade away.

For Ark, he notes that he can’t sense the Specter’s energy inside Kao and asks if something has happened. Kao explains that the Specter has ceased to exist, as he suspects that going back in time might have affected it. The dialogue here is criminally short and it’s really stupid that Ark doesn’t even mention Albaire, the most important person in his life, just like how Xenon doesn’t even acknowledge Beryl’s existence.

On one hand, I think that it’s dumb how Luminous and Ark get a factory reset and get freed from their corruptive forces by losing to the Black Mage, even though they’re stuck with it when they win. On the other hand, it does make logical sense why they shouldn’t have those forces inside them, as Luminous struggled with his inner darkness before the Auguries purified him, and Ark’s Specter is constantly trying to take over his body.

If they were to have lost their memories, their corruptive forces would attempt to take them over, which would’ve interfered with the Black Mage’s plan to have Kao help the player, and so it makes sense that he would’ve gotten rid of it, similar to how characters like Aran and Evan would need to lose their partners, since Maha and Mir existing would’ve raised a lot of questions. In Kao’s case, they were always meant to die after fulfilling their mission, but for the Adversary, they still have other threats to face, and so it would make sense that the Black Mage wouldn’t remove their corruptive forces after Tenebris.

It’s a bit funny because during the Convergence storyline, the White Mage tells Luminous that his darkness can’t be removed, which is basically him straight up lying to Luminous’ face about it in order to make sure that he’ll have his darkness for the coming battles. Maybe once the story is over, he and Ark will finally be freed from their inner demons and get some inner peace.

For Hoyoung, he asks Kao where he’s left his Taotie. Kao notes that his Taotie must have sacrificed himself. Hoyoung’s Taotie then emerges from him and calls Kao a buffoon before telling him to stop it with his sob stories. Kao smiles sadly at hearing Taotie calling him a buffoon, adding that it’s been a while since he’s heard that. There’s absolutely no mention of Tai Yu, the man who literally raised him since infancy.

For Zero, the script is the same no matter whether the player was Alpha or Beta at the time of accepting the quest. Zero asks Kao, who’s revealed to be Alpha, where Beta is. Kao explains that she was with him until the last attack on the Black Mage. When he had woken up and had come to his senses, he had found that he was alone. He believes that Beta was killed because there’s no way than anyone could walk away unscathed after losing to the Black Mage.

He notes that Beta had always helped him, and that she had always been hurt because of him, from the time that he had been Alpha to when he had become Kao. He recalls how Beta used to tell him that if the two of them cooperated, their combined strength would be unstoppable. However, he laments that he’s lost all his power, and now, he’s also lost his sister.

Every other class in the game - Kaiser, Angelic Buster, Cadena, Kain, Illium, Adele, Khali, Lara, Kinesis, Hayato, Kanna, and Beast Tamer - get a generic script for classes not from Maple World. Since this is gonna sound weird with only gender-neutral pronouns, I’m gonna add a disclaimer here that Kao is talking about themselves throughout this script, not the player.

Kao asks the player if they remember when they had awoken with the power of the Seal Stone. Kao recalls shouldering the responsibility to save another dimension instead of their own. Though they hadn’t shown it, Kao notes that it must have weighted on them, and for good reason, as it was someone else’s world and not their own.

However, Kao notes that they had taken their responsibilities seriously, and though they want to say that their heart was true, they find that they’re not sure anymore. They then wonder whether there’s someone better than them who can actually save the world, after which they suppose that they had lost their worthiness the moment that their faith had wavered.

I don’t particularly hate the generic dialogue because it works well for classes like Kinesis or the Sengoku classes, but there’s absolutely no reason why the Grandis classes shouldn’t have gotten unique dialogue. Lara, for example, could’ve definitely had a line about her connection to the land spirits disappearing because losing to the Black Mage and watching all her loved ones die had irreparably broken her faith.

I don’t even think it’s particularly difficult to come up with some meaningful dialogue when half of it just writes itself if you’re familiar with their story and characterization. It also makes no sense why Ark and Hoyoung, out of all people, would get unique dialogue. If it’s because the writers needed to handle the problem with their inner darkness, then they should’ve also given lines to Angelic Buster to account for Eskalade, since he’s technically her partner and could easily ruin the Black Mage’s plans by distracting Kao or making the present day Angelic Buster suspicious when she sees a second Eskalade.

What’s even dumber is that Beast Tamer gets the generic dialogue about saving another dimension from her own, despite the fact that she’s literally from Maple World. Once again, the writers get to get away with being lazy and the players have to waste hours of their time hunting for scraps, hoping that maybe the next class we grind to 200 will have something meaningful instead of just the same carbon copy dialogue when they’ve promised exclusive scripts for “all classes”. I’m very well aware about how salty I sound, but if you had to replay Vanishing Journey almost a dozen times in a row and got absolutely nothing to show for it, I’m sure that you would be too.)

As the Adversary continued carrying Kao’s body through the cave, they were surprised to find that Kao was fading away. Kao explained that their body would soon lose its form and scatter into Erda. The Adversary apologized and blamed themselves for allowing Kao to get attacked by Arma, but Kao told them not to be sorry, as their regrets had faded away because of the Adversary. Kao then noted that it was the end for them, and that, if they could, they would pinpoint the exact moment when they had lost. Though Kao wanted to come with the Adversary and see the future with their own eyes, they regretted that there was nothing more they could do after losing their power.

Kao noted that they were sure that they had made more mistakes aside from being tricked by Arma, but they found that they were unable to remember anymore, as their memories were fading away by the minute. They then apologized to the Adversary for not being able to warn them about any other fatal mistakes that they had made, after which they asked the Adversary to take their body to the waterfall up ahead.

At the waterfall, Kao explained that they had one last important thing to say. Kao explained that both of them had succeeded in changing the future through the Adversary surviving Arma with their power intact. Kao told the Adversary that they needed to obtain the Arcane Symbols, the crucial power needed to defeat the Black Mage that Kao had failed to obtain. Kao also explained that the Adversary would encounter Erdas of all shapes and sizes across the Arcane River. Though many threats existed in the shadows, there were also just as many allies who would help them on their journey. Kao then vanished, leaving behind their Arcane Symbol.

(A/N: This fulfills Kao’s mission to warn their past self about Arma. In Kao’s original timeline, a chunk of their power was drained by Arma, and this weakness made them unable to protect Ollie in Esfera, leading to her death and catalyzing the events which would lead to their defeat at the hands of the Black Mage. For a complete timeline of Kao’s journey, see the notes at the end of Esfera.)