The Century Corps are at the foot of the Temple of Echoes, about to make the final step to uncover the secrets of the Dark Mirror. The Century Corps stand poised outside the temple.
Olivia: Well here we are, back where we started this odyssey
Hadane: Nest can you put me down I was on my own two feet for this
Nest: You can barely stand up straight after you used those flames to cleanse Spite
Jumay: Thanks for that by the way
Hadane: You’re welcome
Nest: You’re staying on my back
Hadane: You really want to carry me
Nest: I don’t, you’re heavy
Ba-Bayost: I can carry her
Larkin: Oh right Iehn said you were super muscular.
Ba-Bayost: Let me carry our potentially Phoenix friend
Hadane: No thank you, I can move…on my own
Ba-Bayost: Well I trust your judgment about this specific endeavor, fiery friend
Yoni: Everyone here has been phonetically phenomenal right now
Lilac: We’re big fans of alliteration here.
Olivia: Big fans of wasting time too
Centus: Whatever we learn should determine our next move
Larkin: We’re probably going to have to listen to Optica prattle quite a bit
Olivia: Oh, well, we’ve come so far already
Mygin: I’ll be the first inside, the pursuit of knowledge waits for no one
Oiyrr: Well, I can’t say I hate the energy
Mygin charges on inside
Begin Mission: Revelatory Truths
Select your party, no Unit Reserve is available for this mission
Mygin walks into the Temple of Echoes, with the rest of the Corps following behind. The first thing they see is a monster made of Light energy.
Olivia: Looks like the rats have infested the sanctum
Lilac: The rats?
Acantha: These disgusting creatures of light infest every corner of this realm, that’s why they are “rats”.
Nest: I wonder if there’s someone like me who has this ability but for Rodents
Uruo: They might be far less agreeable than you are
Aiden: Well not every single bird is friendly
Hoard: Can attest to that, exhibit A, Nest
Nest: Hey
Hadane: Friendly banter aside, can we get moving?
Kutok: I’m honestly in awe of Olivia, she basically has an entire map of the White World in her head, it’s amazing we found this place without me having to step in
Olivia: Alright we’ll just have to purge this place of the Light Monsters
Fight against the Infestors of the Temple
When the Century Corps is at 25% of the Temple cleared
Nest: Why is the White World, so “infested” with these monsters, even after Optica’s death
Olivia: This world is her sword, her personal world of torture, disposing of her physical form in the distant past can’t remove the corruption this world represents.
Nest: Is it Optica’s world, did she create this place
Olivia: The White World is a weird entity, it appears to be connected directly to the memory of Earth, from what we’ve learned. It was around before I was born
Mygin: So this isn’t truly her world, she just made it her own?
Olivia: She shaped it to it’s very core, sculpting it to her liking.
Mygin: If the Earth truly is a sentient being, I wonder what that means for this place, or the Nightlands, what is the hypothetical Garden of Eden?
Centus: It’s not hypothetical, I was born there
Mygin: Really, did you always know the Earth was alive
Centus: My earliest memories were being created in clay by the first woman. She had learned that technique from a figure I had surmised as a deity, learning it in secret, learning how to sculpt life from nothing. That figure may have been the Earth, The Garden of Eden might be the “womb” of the Earth itself, given that all of the life of it came from it.
Larkin: Why is the “womb of the Earth” a weird pocket dimension you need a portal to access, or why would it have the Adamite Key?
Centus: Well let me try to put it like this. I called the “womb of the Earth” since it’s where life on the Earth came from. The Adamite Key was likely created as a way to keep the creatures in that realm from dying so they could be subjected to various tests. Somehow it was stolen from Earth and was used to curse me.
Larkin: So it’s really more like a laboratory
Centus: You could say that
Resume removing the infestation
When the infestation is 50% removed
Lilac: Olivia, what other secrets does this world hold?
Olivia: Well if I knew them, they wouldn’t be secret
Lilac: You know what I mean
Olivia: Alright, Optica hid all sorts of various things around this world, she took it shaped it into what it is now, using her own force of will.
Nest: Do you think the White World is alive, like the Earth is, and like an animal, Optica has been abusing it?
Olivia: Beating it into submission, “training it” in some sort of twisted way
Acantha: She’s a monster of the highest caliber, that would not surprise me.
Nest: What’s the weird alive dimension equivalent of animal control?
Olivia: I haven’t been able to gain custody of the world from Optica even though she has been dead for 8 years, iif that’s you’re asking me
Lilac: Have you tried?
Olivia: Not exactly, but maybe it could be worth a shot.
Resume removing the infestation
When the infestation is 75% removed
Boone: My main question is why the Temple of Echoes can reveal secrets about a “Dark Mirror”, isn’t this the Temple of Echoes, not the Temple of Mirrors?
Olivia: There are two answers, one is because this temple contains the “Chamber of Reflection '' which has mirrors because echoes are like another part of you that can be reflected on. The second more speculative answer is because Darkness is like the opposing force of Light, “echoing” it in a weird, poetic sense.
Boone: That actually makes a lot of sense.
Nest: Darkness being the echo of Light seems like it’s a little reductive, wouldn’t that make the Nightlands an echo realm to the White World? Does Optica have a counterpart of Darkness?
Olivia: That is not a realm I presume to have expertise in, but I’d assume not since it seems like whatever Optica and the previous guy did
Acantha: Ygmi
Olivia: What?
Acantha: The previous guy’s name, was Ygmi
There is a brief pause, before Olivia resumes
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Olivia: Whatever Optica and Ygmi did to this place was a long process where they chipped away and sculpted this realm. I doubt that the Nightlands were molded or sculpted in such a way by outside forces, or if they can be modified in that way.
Nest: What you’re saying is that this is likely a special case due to some kind of technique or object or power Ygmi might have obtained and passed down to Optica.
Olivia: Likely
Kutok: My question is what power would allow someone to influence the very “soul” of a world
Olivia: That is a mystery, maybe we’re about to learn it
Kutok: My guess is, we still won’t know
Resume removing the infestation
When the infestation is completely removed, the Temple of Echoes is void of Light Monsters, falling silent aside from the sounds of the Century Corps
Ba-Bayost: Where do we go now?
Olivia: Right, follow me
The Century Corps begins to follow Olivia through the chambers of the temple, stepping through it’s annals, having the light of silence permeate their movements
Jumay: This place is a little intense
Olivia: You learn to live with it
The vigil of silence falls when the Century Corps reach the Chamber of Reflection, where the device that reveals the truths of the Dark Mirror is located
Olivia: Alright, do I have the honors
The large group of Century Corps members that have come this far look at Olivia
Hadane: The honors are all yours
Lilac: Reveal to us truths unseen
Nest: Make this worth it
Boone: It has to mean something
Olivia: The truth will be revealed to us
Olivia takes the Dark Mirror out of her arsenal and with her magic, lowers it onto the same plate that revealed the effigy of Optica that brought them on this journey in the first place.
As the Dark Mirror is placed on the plate, it begins to spark and crackle, pulsing with an unprecedented darkness. The darkness begins to ripple across the room
Kutok: I’m a little scared
Larkin: You need to keep believing in this
The darkness pulses, until the hologram of Optica finally reveals itself again
Optica (Hologram): The Dark Mirror has been completed. This message will only play if someone connected to me has placed the Dark Mirror on this mantle. I will reveal what’s in its twisted reflection, the force of malice it is linked to. Since you can only access this in the events of my demise, I will assume my demise was caused by the force connected to the Dark Mirror, known directly as Malice.
Hadane: Malice?
The darkness around the room transforms into more of a memory, or a vision they all collectively begin to have
Nest: Looks like the veil is coming down
A porous ooze of what looks like pure, adulterated hatred begins slimming across the ground in the vision, infecting and killing any creature. The slime of the creature emitting an unprecedented darkness
Memory of Optica: What you see here is the purest form of Malice, a primordial entity of hatred, it can’t ever be killed, only its form temporarily destroyed. Hate’s nature as a suppressed emotion means it allows Malice to continually and slowly regenerate over generations.
Mygin: I wonder how Malice exists if the Earth is indeed alive.
The vision shows the ooze bonding to a massive avian predator, something that looks like a monstrous Vulture. It bonds with the ooze, transforming into a predator that soars the sky, picking apart creatures from the ground like a scavenger
Nest: That…must be-
Memory of Optica: That creature you see is the first avatar of Malice, known simply as The Buzzard, for it mercilessly picks apart its prey like a Buzzard does.
Boone: So it’s not one entity, it’s a symbiosis
The vision shows another “Buzzard”, a large dragon bonded to Malice, fighting a fiery Phoenix. Someone below the Phoenix is holding a mirror, an object of light
Hoard: That is not a nice dragon…
Oseci: There’s no way…
Mygin: So this was the great evil the Phoenix sealed away long ago
Memory of Optica: The Buzzard was seeking out this Soul Tree, to corrupt it and turn the valley into a corrupted wasteland of nothing but hollows, rotting and feeding him power over time
Lilac: We need to pull out everything we have to stop that
The battle between the Phoenix and “Buzzard” ends with the Phoenix dying a sort of final death to seal the majority of Malice inside the Dark Mirror
Memory of Optica: Someone had taken that mirror, a former artifact of Light and sealed most of Malice within it. This was to stop its spread completely. In reality, Malice needed to be destroyed, not concealed. The “Malice” in the mirror is tainted and rotten, the “Malice” that remains is strong and vibrant, fresh and growing. Malice is still a powerful entity, and if it-
The vision transforms again to show the valley absolutely destroyed by darkness, hollows pouring out of every corner
Olivia: So this is what happens if we fail?
Lilac: This dark future is one we must stop at any cost
Memory of Optica: If it became powerful enough to kill me, I came up with a contingency to get rid of it.
Acantha: Hey I think that No-Good Witch finally came up with something that finally benefits us.
The vision ends, transforming everyone back into the temple
Boone: So how do we weaken it?
A little nook opens in the wall with a device
Optica (Hologram): This is a device of light, aether and soul energy that is designed to isolate the host of the “Buzzard”, doing so will disrupt the harmony between the host and Malice. It should help you defeat Malice.
The Hologram finally vanishes, leaving just the Dark Mirror
Boone: So we should probably destroy the mirror?
Lilac: I don’t think so
Boone: Why not? It literally just has more darkness in it
Lilac: The vision said the darkness in it was “tainted and rotten”, if we destroy it when the host and Malice are split, it might clash with Malice and help weaken it.
Boone: That might be a good idea
Acantha: You really want to trust Optica?
Lilac: Well, we don’t have a choice
Olivia: Well, the plan is, we take this device, this, “Symbiosis Breaker” and we use it in the final fight.
Oiyrr: We need to get back to the valley so we can properly strategize.
Nest: We need something else first
Larkin walks up to the nook and takes the “Symbiosis Breaker”
Larkin: We can’t leave without this
Nest: I meant we need part of Hadane’s soul
Hadane: Right, I need my echo
Olivia: I haven’t forgotten about Relic, we need to neutralize it here
Suddenly, the screeching of Light Monsters can be heard.
Uruo: I thought we cleared the infestation?
Olivia: They are right on cue
Boone: Well you are quite the planner
Fight off the Light Monsters again
When they are defeated, the Relic shows itself, entering the Chamber of Reflection, dead set on claiming Olivia’s echo
Relic (Hadane): Hello, surrender to me what I need to complete my purpose
Hadane: Surrender to me the part of my soul I need to be whole again
Relic (Hadane): No
Hadane: Then no
Olivia: Alright, Relic, either stand aside or be slain
Nest: You have no other options, no other course of action
Relic (Hadane): I will not simply be shut down and left to rot in this White World
Nest: That was your last warning
Fight against Relic (Hadane)
When Relic (Hadane) is at 90%
Relic (Hadane): The sensation is strange isn’t it, fighting someone with the powerset of your allies?
Larkin: Not at all, Lark2n is basically my clone and I fought him often
Centus: Fighting Neve in the Garden of Eden was like fighting the version of me I had wished to destroy
Relic (Hadane): This is still unlike anything you’ve ever faced, a direct copy
Larkin: Are you even listening?
Hadane: Lark2n is a better copy of you than that thing is of me
Resume against Relic (Hadane)
When Relic (Hadane) is at 75%
Relic (Hadane): My cold body has felt warm ever since I stole this part of you, I might keep it when I take the essence of Olivia from her
Hadane: You will get no such thing and remain empty
Olivia: Unless you are open to negotiation, there’s no way you keep Hadane’s echo
Hadane: Open to negotiation?
Acantha: Wait…I recognize this type of scheme, let Olivia work.
Hadane: As you wish
Nest: I wonder what your plan is
Relic (Hadane): It won’t be enough
Olivia: I think your mind will soon be open to change
Resume against Relic (Hadane)
When Relic (Hadane) is at 60%
Hadane: I think if this “Relic” is meant to imitate me, I need to step my game up, it has such sloppy form
Relic (Hadane): Do not use your destruction as an opportunity for retrospection and improvement
Hadane: With your current use of my abilities you couldn’t destroy a fly
Larkin: Excellent trash talk Hadane
Hadane: Thank you
Resume against Relic (Hadane)
When Relic (Hadane) is at 45%
Olivia: Are you ready to hear my offer yet?
Relic (Hadane): No, what could you poss-
Olivia: I will surrender my essence to you, to complete your mission, only if you restore Hadane’s Echo to her
The Century Corps are mostly taken aback by this, aside from Acantha and Centus
Acantha: For not being a part of Optica anymore, she still schemes like it
Centus: You are correct in this observation
Nest: Olivia, you better know what you’re doing
Hadane: Yeah, don’t do anything reckless
Olivia: Let me work here
Relic (Hadane): Wait this little echo matters so much, wait, that can’t be right
Centus: The seed of doubt has been planted
Resume against Relic (Hadane)
When Relic (Hadane) is at 30%, she stops fighting the Century Corps
Relic (Hadane): Ok, I will agree to this
Olivia: I’m glad you agree, complete your mission like a good little machine
Relic (Hadane) relinquishes Hadane’s Echo back into Hadane filling her again
Hadane: Oh…wow
Hadane staggers upwards, feeling complete again
Nest: Welcome back to full power
Relic: Hand over the essence
Olivia extends her arm out towards Relic, who has opened up to accept it, but at the last second, Olivia pulls a mirror on it
Olivia: Hey echoes!
Relic: Error, complete transaction
Lilac: Oh my god she’s so smart
The two echoes she had put earlier in the mirror respond
Echoes: Yes?
Olivia: I found a body for you, and it’s all yours
Relic: ERROR, ERROR
Echoes: Say less
The Echoes of Lilac and Acantha fly out of the mirror and into Relic’s open body, overpowering it’s initial directive, making the empty vessel home to a new soul, instead of a new echo
Relic: ERROR, ERROR, ERR-
Before Relic can prattle on any further, it’s mind is destroyed by the two echoes forming a new being inside its body
Acantha: It’s brilliant
Hadane: I’m still adjusting, so wait is the Relic dead now
The formation of a new being completes, the body formerly known as Relic stands up, completely new, showered in a violet light and violet armor made from the light.
Relic??: We aren’t Relic anymore, we take a new form in this place, we are a new person…
It’s a brief pause before the two halves are united into a true, real soul
Relic??: I would like to be called Acandra from now on
Lilac: Well, welcome to the Century Corps Acandra
Jumay: This has been the weirdest enlightenment ever
Acandra: I feel free, it’s a weird feeling
Lilac: Get used to it
Kutok: Don’t we have to march back to the portal?
Olivia: The portal I opened before should have closed, I will make a new portal here that takes us to the camp, it shouldn’t take long, just defend me until it’s complete
Lilac: You heard the woman, defend her
Uruo: Yes Ma’m
Hadane: That includes you too Acandra and Jumay
Acandra: I will do my best
Jumay: Me as well
Olivia incorporates the Dark Mirror into her mirror arsenal again and begins the work of making a new portal.
Defend Olivia while she makes the new portal
When the new portal is at 25% completion
Oiyrr: I think it is weird the White World has all these monsters but no foliage at all, you’d think a world of “perfection and beauty” would have some plants
Olivia: Optica has no need for decorations, she has a need for shock troops.
Oiyrr: Plants can provide power too
Olivia: That’s not the power she built this world to emanate
Resume the defense of Olivia
When the new portal is at 50% completion
Acandra: Having a physical form and working like this after being just disparate energy for so long is so odd
Jumay: Getting your bearing again can be tough, we’ve both been possessed by an entity of spite for the past few weeks
Acandra: It is a change, but one I will happily get used too
Resume the defense of Olivia
When the new portal is at 75% completion
Larkin: One thing I don’t understand is why the Dark Mirror was found by The Buzzard, wouldn’t the Buzzard want to be far away from something that could wound him mortally?
Boone: He likely moved it to the seat of his power in the wilderness so he could kill anyone who tried to destroy it to weaken him. We chased him off briefly because Vivuhal used aether to weaken him.
Larkin: Well, that makes sense for why this whole thing started, his natural weakness to aether. I wonder why he is weak to it
Nest: Aether is an energy connected to life, it makes sense a being who twists others is averse to it
Resume the defense of Olivia
When the portal is complete, the light monsters retreat from the premises
Jumay: I am ready to head home
Hadane: We have a Buzzard to destroy, destroy for good.
Boone: It’s not going to be as easy as the last time
Nest: Well, we have an idea
Uruo: We just need to make a plan
Olivia: Well, let’s head back and plan
Lilac: The Century Corps will, win this day
The Century Corps walk through the portal and head back to the camp
Mission End