Kao's Memory/Story 2

Story 1Story 2

Story

The Final Battle

After the final battle, the Adversary returned back to Limina and encountered a Dimensional Crack at the entrance to the Temple of Darkness, which they realized must contain the memory of how Kao had lost to the Black Mage. Inside, they found themselves in the black and white void, in which the Black Mage told Kao that they would not live to claim the true power of the Adversary. As the Black Mage entered the Genesis Crux, Kao lamented how even this very moment had been preordained. Refusing to give up, however, Kao attempted to draw out the power of the Adversary one last time, focusing all their determination on their willingness to die in order to stop the Black Mage. However, at the crucial moment, Kao was unable to activate the Seal Stone, resulting in the Genesis Ritual succeeding in creating a new world, which appeared as a black hole around which blue and purple stardust curved and formed an accretion disk. On the rim of the solid stardust, Kao fell unconscious and collapsed as the White Mage manifested himself. Approaching the unconscious Kao, the White Mage noted that the world that Kao had tried to protect had been destroyed, while a new world had taken its place. As he spoke, the black hole behind him trembled as chunks of solid, glowing rock began gathering around the black hole core, slowly forming together into the shape of a planet.

The White Mage noted that while everything had gone according to plan, his own continued existence as the last remnant of the Overseers had resulted in his plan failing. He explained that he had labored and prepared to create a world unconfined by order and fate. Though it had been painstakingly difficult to satisfy every condition - the disappearance of the world, his own death, and the creation of the new world - he had been unable to break the shackles of causality and the order of the world. While the destruction and recreation of the world had been attainable, he noted that Kao had been unable to kill him. He began wondering where everything had gone wrong, as Kao - exactly as he had hoped - had become the greatest beacon of light and the bearer of the world's determination and will. Furious at the failure of his life's work, the White Mage looked into Kao's memories in order to find where the flaw in his plan had been. Upon seeing Kao's memories of the Vanishing Journey, the White Mage immediately understood what had happened. Though he had thought that his plan had been a failure, he realized that there had been no flaws in his design, as he had controlled every variable leading up to the intended outcome, though he discovered that there had been one exception. He noted that Tana - a Transcendent like himself - had been the greatest unpredictable variable in his equation, for which he had dealt with her meticulously by locking her in Kritias for centuries and having Arkarium lead her straight to him.

Despite all his careful planning, however, he had been unable to hold back her power entirely, which had manifested in unexpected ways, such as the Erdas in the Vanishing Journey. Realizing where he had gone wrong, he concluded that he wasn't facing a setback, but rather, it was simply another step in his plan. Though he admitted that he had known that it would be difficult, he also noted that he was content with the knowledge that he still had one last chance to fix things. Using his powers, the White Mage sent Kao back to the past, explaining that even though Kao hadn't been able to change their destiny, if they truly wanted to change the future, he told them to struggle for it and escape their fate, addressing them as the Adversary, the possessor of the Seal Stone. After exiting the memory, the Adversary noted that Kao had been unable to draw out the power of the Adversary, which they noted might not have been because of Arma alone, but also because they hadn't listened to Tana's advice, either. They realized that Tana's influence had inadvertently created Arma, and that the Black Mage had stripped Kao of their power and sent them back in time in order to correct that mistake. Because of that, Kao had been able to protect the Adversary's power from Arma, which had set everything up to finish flawlessly. They also realized that somewhere in the process, Kao's memories must have gotten scrambled. Though most of their questions had been answered, they began wondering what had happened to Kao in the end.

The Amnesiac Temple Keeper

In order to get answers, the Adversary traveled to the Temple of Time and discovered the final Dimensional Crack, noting to themselves that it was all ending in the place where it had begun. Inside the memory, the Adversary witnessed a Guardian of Time encountering an unconscious Kao in the Gate of the Past. Believing that the monsters had attacked them, the Guardian of Time revived Kao, who then explained that they couldn't remember anything, not even their own name. Unsure of how to help them, the Guardian of Time began escorting them to the Three Doors, explaining that she had heard that those who forced their way through the Gate of the Past without permission would lose their memories, though she added that she'd never seen it happen before. As they began walking, the Guardian of Time noted that Kao seemed quite uneasy and suggested that they stop somewhere else first. She took Kao to the Resting Spot of Memory, where she found that the Memory Keeper was away. As Kao still couldn't remember their name, the Guardian of Time decided to give them a temporary one. After thinking for a moment, she thought of a perfect name before asking Kao what their opinion on time, as a concept, was.

She noted that time was difficult to define, as everyone had the same amount of it, yet some never seemed to have enough time, while others seemed to have too much. Even so, however, she pointed out that to a clock, or to a turning world, time was always the same, with each moment being perfectly equal. She added that on top of that, she wasn't even factoring in other variables, such as how a year in Maple World could be a hundred years somewhere else. The Guardian of Time noted that time was, at once, a mathematical constant, yet so subjective that no two people ever experienced it in quite the same way. She explained that she herself associated time with chaos, adding that she had become a Guardian of Time in order to research its properties. Drawing on the idea of ‘chaos', she decided to give them the name ‘Kao'.

The Guardian of Time told Kao that she didn't know whether they had been good or bad before losing their memories, and she hadn't observed them enough to define them, adding that she might never be able to define them, even if she had a lifetime to do so, as there was nothing more chaotic than a blank slate in an ocean of time. She told Kao that if they didn't like the name, she could think of something else, though Kao told her that they believed that it would grow on them. Until then, they asked her to keep their new name between the two of them while they searched for their real one. After traveling to the Three Doors, they encountered another Guardian of Time, who noted that it was rare to find someone who had lost their memory. The Guardian of Time explained to Kao that their mind may repair itself in time, with the tides of their future uncovering their past. She then welcomed Kao to stay in the Temple of Time until their memories returned, offering to let them even become a Guardian of Time, as she believed that it may help them find their memories faster. Soon after, Kao donned their Temple Keeper robes and the Guardian of Time granted them permission, as a proxy of Rhinne, to come and go through the Gate of the Past. The memory then ended with the Adversary's meeting with Kao, as well as their attempts to help them recover their memories, resulting in them remembering their name as Kao, which they recalled had been given to them by the Guardian of Time. After exiting the final memory, the Adversary noted to themselves that though it was a shame that they couldn't have spent more time together, it had been good to see Kao again, thanking them one last time.