Plot: In the morning, Novus is interrupted when the body of Hercules is found dead in the courtyard. However, it is known by Ultio and Novus that it is impossible for a player’s body to be lasting this long, so they know it is a fake body. However, using the Advisor’s magic, the culprit is supposedly their very own Ultio as they begin to see the victim’s past played before their own eyes. The investigation is about to wrap up when the Royal Eldest Brother appears with Ultio in tow and explains that his alibi is solid as he was training with him all night and that the culprit must stronger than the Advisor to be able to deceive the advisor’s magic. The advisor, having planted the seed of fear around people, apologizes for his lack of magical capabilities and leaves. All is right as the little girl, Vivian, goes out into the courtyard and to everyone’s surprise, is better than she has been in years. Shocked by her recovery, albeit only slight, soon turns joyous as the people see hope for her recovery.
Plot: Another dinner passes, however, this time Novus I given a dish that specifically caters to his mentioned needs, and he begins to eat with relish. However, not long into the meal, he is seen as falling right to the floor as he convulses form having his food poisoned. Thankfully, under the power of the Holy Son, Novus is cured shortly after, and the Advisor storms off from the King’s side to deal with the potential chef killer. Meanwhile, Ultio is voluntold to accompany Novus to his room where Novus places a transmission spell to his ears that let his voice travel directly to Ultio’s ears; secret magic that even a dragon can’t immediately tell unless they search him. Novus bids good night to Ultio and leaves to his room to rest and Ultio slinks away as he travels to the private room where the Advisor and Chef speak. Novus is seen narrating to Ultio the crimes of the dragons, but the magic is interrupted somehow as Ultio is caught and the thing he hears Novus say last are the words ‘eldest brother’ and ‘danger.’
Plot: Very early in the morning, Novus is ‘awoken’ by the sounds of the guards shuffling Ultio to the throne room which also awakens everyone important too. Everyone heads to the throne room where the early morning traces of dawn are seen shining through the windows as the King looks down at Ultio kneeling before him. Blood has been stained on Ultio’s clothes and he looks like someone who just killed someone. Though he rejects any words of a crime that he has supposedly committed, he looks convincingly like the offender. Everyone else arrives in the throne room as the party looks towards Ultio in shock and the King reads out his crimes of killing one of the Holy Son’s guests and for the attempt at killing his own brother. Shocking everyone but a calm Novus and Holy Son, the king condemns Ultio to a rebirth by the Sacred Flame for his sins. To add to the case, a wounded eldest brother comes into the room as the crimes are being laid out in the open. The guards are about to drag out Ultio when a startling opening of the palace doors appears as Hercules runs into the main hall under everyone’s eyes. Behind him, a dwarven king with his axe ready to behead is seen swearing as they enter the hall with Edna and party.
Plot: Everyone is confused as the Advisor demands the dwarf king to explain and it isn’t until Novus steps forward that all the confused attention is drawn to him. Novus laughs as he says that the whole crowd is here earlier than expected. Reaching into his breast pocket, he pulls out a recording device he obtained from the dwarf merchant and plays the condemning message that directly links the Advisor and supposedly himself to the HS. The recording also lets the dwarven king know his own brother was working with the HS. However, Edna and crew quickly negate any relation Novus has to the HS. The king displays shock as he quickly restrains the Advisor and is about to start thanking Novus for finding the HS mole. However, Novus continues to surprise as he unsheathes Ultio’s sword from the sheath and begins to walk towards the injured eldest brother while saying the words ‘I wish it was that easy.’ As the king tries to act, Edna stops him enough for Novus to pierce the sword into the eldest brother as he tells Ultio that this is the ‘real’ way to use his sword and chants a chant with the words ‘Tiny Flames Protect against Darkness.’ Mysteriously, the sword lets out a glow that begins to let out a roaring figure of a female dragon that curls around the eldest brother and rips out a shadowy phantom from around him.
Plot: The eldest brother quickly faints as the King begins to speak hysterically about the dragon phantom that begins to curl around Novus. The dragon king can’t finish his words, but Vivian doe sit for him as she mumbles the words ‘Mother’ in the hall. However, the hysteria in the dragon kings’ eyes fades as the pupils in the dragon king’s eyes begin to turn pitch black. Eventually the voice of the dragon king melds into a familiar one as Mercury says things like ‘I felt one of my heart demons perish, but to be surprised by you once more is rare, Novus. You may be the only second to give me so many surprises.’ Then Mercury explains how the frail puppet of the king was suitable for obtaining power and unleashes the king’s draconic form that threatens to kill off the mother dragon and her young this time. Mercury also tells that he was the one that killed Ultio’s mother.
Plot: Now stepping towards the form of the king dragon, Novus is protected against attack after attack by the mother dragon whooshing around Novus as he eventually reaches a retreating dragon who shows hysteria, fear, sadness all at the form of the female dragon phantom choosing Novus over himself. Eventually, Novus manages to leap and stab and shatter the crown of the dragon’s head and instantly releases the phantom that has already deeply stained the dragon king’s body. In a marvelous light show, the female dragon intertwines with the male dragon phantom that appears after Novus kills the Dragon King and they eventually banish Mercury’s heart demon, and the dragons enchant the ‘tiny flame’ sword in Novus’ hand. A shocked Ultio is cut loose, and Novus sheathes the sword as he pats Ultio’s shoulder while walking past him and saying, ‘take good care of your parents.’
Plot: The loving scene is finished as Novus takes the party to the direction of the Origin Key hidden in the Sacred Flame temple but are soon redirected by a black-flamed dragon that bursts past the party as the Advisor escapes with the Origin Key of Destruction. Shocked, but quickly travelling in hot pursuit, the draconic form of Novus bursts out through the Palace and the group hops on his back as they travel in hot pursuit of the Advisor. Atop Ultio, an exchange of glances is seen as Edna notices strands of white hair in Novus’ hair and Novus looks towards her and mouths some words while no one notices. However, the words aren’t revealed since the powers of everyone on board and Ultio mange to make the Advisor begin to crash into a mountain that lands him in the desert just past that.
Plot: The crash of the dragon causes a brief plume of dust as Ultio approaches with his sword in hand to free the Advisor from his heart Demon, but when stabbed, nothing happens except the death of the Advisor. Novus comforts Ultio as he attempts to retrieve the nearby sensed key but can dodge when the shadowy strike of Mercury nearly manages to pierce Novus’ heart. From out of the sand, forms begin to appear that have encircled the party and reveal themselves as all the Hidden Shadow Disciples except Sloth. A mocking battle occurs as Ultio, Edna, Novus, The Players, The Holy Son and a Circe/Goibhniu Combo try to fight off Invidia, Ira, Gula, Avaritia, Superbia and Luxuria.
Plot: in this battle several events happen: 1) Edna begins to get a suspicion that Avaritia is her sister who has been corrupted by the Hidden Shadow. 2) Adrianne manages to acquire the Origin Key of Destruction from the corpse of the Advisor and begins to change as the key fuses. 3) Novus begins to lose his own sense of self as Superbia tramples on his familial ties. 4) The various powers of the Hidden Shadow are enough to overpower Novus’ team and the situation looks bleak.
Plot: In his battle with Ira, the Holy Son is unable to withstand any more and unleashes his full power to try and fight back in a feint as he instead thanks Novus for allowing the dragons he call family be able to return to their rest. The Holy Son also reveals himself to be the Sacred Flame that with his sacrifice, allows the limits to be broken on Novus and all his companions. However, this does little as Novus now faces both Ira and Superbia and is nearly killed when Avaritia also tries to attack Novus and Edna defends against them. However, not all is well as Edna is unable to withstand the surprise attack of the Hidden Shadow herself. The Hidden Shadow kills Edna with a dagger stab right through Edna’s heart in front of an on the brink of insanity Novus. During which the Hidden Shadow taunts Novus by saying something like ‘its nice to finally meet you, Novus. I’ve heard so much about you.’
Plot: Having just seen the murder of Edna in first person, Novus feels something inside of him snap as the narration is now in first person and is able to understand the countless thoughts of Novus going insane with grief and lost feelings as Edna is killed right in front of him. Meanwhile, voices are heard form his Soul Pets as they try to communicate with Novus but are silenced by the gradual whitening of everything that is Novus. Novus watches on as strands of white hair fall in front of his eyes and status windows try to block the periphery of his vision that he is breaking limits and going into dangerous/lethal status conditions. Eventually the scene pans out as the crimson in Novus’ eyes are fully replaced with an emotionless white.
Plot: The scene begins with Adrianne forcefully teleporting all of Novus’ companions after looking into Novus’ emotionless eyes. After successfully escaping far away, Adrianne continues to escape more as the group hears a deafening cry cause a shockwave across the desert sand. The scene cuts back to The Hidden Shadow moments before the shockwave scream as she is about to kill Novus in a (batman) joker-like fashion while saying things like ‘That was enough to snap him, huh?’. However, when the scenes of Whitening begin to appear, The Hidden Shadow seems to recognize it and tells her subordinates to quickly escape. However, she doesn’t finish speaking before the shockwave cry disrupts any type of magic and power in the area. Soon after Novus is seen emotionlessly cutting down the HS with his bare hands and manages to successfully injure an escaping Hidden Shadow, forcing an arm off her shoulder and injuring the rest of the HS. The battling scene ends with Novus dropping to his knees and holding the dead body of Edna in his embrace.
Plot: Frustrated and angry calls are heard from all around as Adrianne is mentally tormented by the destructive voices circling her head and the angering glares that are levied her way from everyone. Circe is the first to break out of crying in Goibhniu’s arms and try to run towards the location of Edna and more. Goibhniu goes to pick her up after she weakly falls to the ground as she is too weak to travel fast. Percival is the second to follow Circe and Goibhniu and is grabbed by Adrianne who is adamant about not approaching Novus right now. However, Percival snaps and condemns her for abandoning him not just once, but twice now after having done it once at the tournament island. Eventually, the whole party begins to move forwards until they are teleported, not by Adrianne, but by Xuanwu back to the world tree. It is revealed that the Elven king’s Disciple called for help soon after Adrianne’s initial teleport. Initially angry, Xuanwu pulls everyone into a sleep as they are too exhausted and injured to be of any cognitive use. The only exception is Adrianne who is propped up by the elven king and dragged into another room where she is thrown into a restraining chair and must tell the elven king what has happened. Xuanwu portals in and listens as he tells Adrianne that everyone will be fine with some extended healing.
Plot: Time passes, and Adrianne is seen by the bedside table of Percival and as she awakens, she is shocked to see Percival already awake and staring at her. Percival doesn’t comment and an awkward silence fills the room until Adrianne breaks it with an equally awkward apology. Percival remains silent for a moment before he tells Adrianne that she has only one more chance. And that although he is willing to trust her again, if she betrays them again he will give up his shield and take up a vengeful sword instead. Adrianne breaks into tears and cries into Percival’s arm and he complains about how that was his only good one left and now it has got tears on it that won’t wash out. Time passes and eventually Adrianne is asleep once more and Titania’s Disciple comes in to talk about something the guild found. Apparently, the area that the battle occurred has nothing but a severed arm and sand all around it. Titania’s Disciple has further confirmed with the world tree that the arm is the arm of the Hidden Shadow herself. Titania’s Disciple then shifts the topic while Percival remains thinking to whether they can trust Adrianne and Percival vouches for her one last time. Meanwhile, Adrianne meets with the God of Creation as he lets her know that she must find Novus no matter the cost as he is the only one who can stop the HS.
Plot: The scene changes to Ultio, the eldest brother and the younger sister all spouting out flames that light the dead body of the dragon king and all the other dragons of the kingdom do the same as they spout out magical powers from their breath that amalgamate to consume the dragon king. The eldest brother announces himself as the next Dragon King and is baptized by the flame that has reduced the previous dragon king to nothingness. The dragon continues to say that the dragons have been too passive in the affairs of the continent and that starting from today onwards, the dragons shall lend their aid to the new anti-Hidden Shadow force that will be uniting the four races of humans, dragons, elves, and dwarves. Other races are free to join and help settle the conflict once and for all. Meanwhile, Adrianne is sitting alone in a room while she nervously bites her lip as she stares towards a button on her screen that is no longer dark. Nervous but steeling her resolve with the thought of getting Novus back, Adrianne presses the log out button and disappears from the room in a logging out flash of light while Percival looks in through the window.
Plot: In the golden throne room, the Hidden Shadow is seen atop the casket that previously housed her and complains about losing her arm like a certain someone else (Gaius). However, that isn’t even the scariest part as she manages to both scold and fervently accept the adoration of some HS Disciples as they tell her they’ve lost the orange orb. Eventually, she is seen draining some sort of energy from one of them and through this, regains her arm while a disciple loses theirs. Finally, the interlude ends when the disciples remind her of Novus, and she cackles as she returns to sitting on her throne casket. She vaguely explains that ‘a person experiencing whitening isn’t worth worrying about when you’re far away’ and that she is amazed that the ‘old bastard decided to pass on the Soul Predator legacy.’ Soon after the Hidden Shadow herself explains that we cut to a scene where steps are gradually vanishing under the heated gaze of the sun. As the steps get closer to the original, we see a singular teardrop fall and hit the sand but is rapidly buried under countless other grains. Following the drop to a face, we still see emotionlessness in Novus’ face, but with a single tear stain rapidly drying on his face as he wades through the sand one step at a time. A gruff voice is heard as Novus speaks to himself in a daze: “Who am I?”
