The War of Mana

The War of Mana
This page covers the happenings of the first campaign in this set: The War of Mana. It takes place five years before the events of Broken Hearts on the world of Epus Roir. The heroes Etnod, Egam, and Alexander are attributed the successes detailed in this synopsis, though it shuld be mentioned that other characters, such as Bor, Haji'onna, Kanan, Elric, Nera Crux, and others were involved.

For a detailed list of the locations mentioned in this synopsis as well as a map, please refer to the Epus page.

Plot Synopsis
Broken-

Kanan and Elric were sent on a mission to deliver a letter to the town of Olton, a simple special request from the mayor of no real importance. They grabbed their supplies and headed towards the town, talking along the way and split up once they arrived, Kanan going to the local pub while Elric headed towards the Town Hall to deliver the letter. As Elric made his way to the pub to meet up with Kanan, he noticed a commotion and checked it out to see Kanan in a brawl with a strange-looking man. the fight was ended quickly by Elric's Greataxe, but Kanan complained about a strange wound the man placed on his arm. Deciding it was nothing and would heal, they packed up and made their way back to Broken.

Along the way, the two were stopped by the man that fought Kanan before and his companion, and were barely able to defeat them. They were equally strange, with a strange marking tattooed on them, so they decided they were probably part of some sort of cult and ventured on, satisfied that their unlawful attackers were brought to justice. They decided to rest along the road, unaware of a purple fog hanging above Broken.

In the morning they awake to see loads of smoke and an orange tone coming from Broken's direction. They rush there to find their homes in flames and split up to save the citizens. Elric found a girl hiding in a secret compartment who was completely terrified. She said the arsonist tried to take her, but she hid and managed to get away. She thanked Elric for his help and fled with the other villagers to the stream to help put out the fires.

After everyone was safe, Elric met back up with Kanan and they discussed what could have possibly happened. Suddenly, a man appeared behind them, smiling. He explained that he had cast a fireball on the village and caused it to burn. Immediately, the two tried to apprehend him, but he dodged out of the way and performed a somatic motion at Kanan, the wound on his arm turning black, in the same design as the men they fought before that had the same symbol tattooed on them.

The man disappeared and Kanan turned on Elric, cleaving him in two with one mighty blow.

Olton-

In Olton, Etnod the priest was in the pub, meeting with a barbarian from the mountains named Bor and an Elf exiled from the Elven city near Lobra named Haji. They talked for a while and eventually learned about the disaster in Broken. Shortly after, they signed up to the Gardan military and were ordered by the local captain to investigate what happened.

Broken-

On arriving at the scene, Etnod goes out to bury his brother Elric and is met by the girl who he had saved. She presents him with a gem that she said she was going to give to Elric as thanks, but that Etnod could have it instead, to serve as memory of him. She speaks a blessing over it and leaves quickly. In the night, Etnod hears from Elric via the gem, and he relates what he knows about what happened, but the question of what happened to Kanan and who the man that attacked was still remained.

After resting up from their journey, the team began to investigate and learned that there were tracks leading up towards the mountains that matched those of Kanan. They quickly followed the tracks and were led into a trap-filled cave, where they first discovered the greenish substance known as "Mana". It wasn't a common substance, but wasn't quite unheard of, as tensions had been growing between Garda and Fortuna due to claims over it greatly recently.

After travelling through the caverns, the team eventually made it to a staircase that led them up to two dead bodies of Gardan scouts that were sent out before them. Unsettled, they continued up the corridor, to a large room with magic symbols written everywhere across it. A door stood in front of them, expertly crafted. They opened the door to see a smaller section of the cavern behind them, where Kanan was held, distraught. Suddenly, the man appeared behind them and laughed, taunting them. He performed the somatic movement again and Kanan attacked, taking the team unaware. He wasn't very difficult to defeat, although he did inflict some nasty wounds upon the team. Once he was uncapacitated, the man appeared once again, amused.

He identified himself as Raymond Crown, a servant of Fortuna, and bore the symbol of Fortuna on his cuirass. He spoke a word and did a minor somatic movement, and the symbols in the room lit up. A prismatic wall formed between Raymon Crown and the heroes and began rushing them down the stairs. Etnod grabbed Kanan and the team ran out of the cave, a great rockslide preventing any further entry.

They reported the happenings to their superiors and waited for any further information in Olton.

Olton-

Soon, the team was ordered to move into Lobra. There have been several disappearances and is deserving of being looked into. Quickly moving, they made their way to the Forest.

Lobra-

In Lobra, the team was met by the Mage's guild, one of which, Egam, was particularly hostile, believing Garda to be greedy, wanting more Mana when they have enough already. They learned that the disappearances happened whenever anyone stepped into the forest, and so decided to prepare for whatever may come before they ventured out.

After resting, they stepped into the Forest, and were immediately transported to a plane of existance of black void with ever-changing white platforms. Here, they fought deadly monsters and even escaped from a savage Colossal Black Great Wyrm. After plenty of searching and strategizing, they finally uncovered a cage holding the prisoners of the plane, and stepped into a portal transferring them to a pitch black section of void where they were immovable, up against Raymond Crown. The battle was hard-fought, but Haji's fire arrows struck true and eventually felled the sorceror.

Unfortunately, it seemed the opponent they fought was just an image, essentially the phyllactory keeping the plane stable. Upon its defeat, they and all of the prisoners were expelled form the plane back into the forest, including Egam Luscious, the Archaian mage. He joined their party as they waited for their next orders from their superiors.

Impressed by the team's efforts, the party recieved a letter from the head of the Council of Alleign, Iauen, himself, ordering them to go to Isol to help increase friendly relations. And so, they made their way there.

Isol-

In Isol, the team was astounded by the amazing culture and the... interesting foods. After resting up, they set off on an edict from the Emperor of Isol to investigate the abduction of several citizens by a group known as "the Black Cross". Somewhere along the road to Olton was an old, rotten mansion called "the Black Castle". The party set off there to investigate.

The Black Castle-

The party is ambushed at the black castle by men with strange symbols, the same that was on Kanan, and the same symbol was set into the floor of the foyer.

After fighting a pitch-black dragon with yellow eyes and a strange heartlike symbol on its torso, the group rested and had visions from a figure covered in bandages, showing horrible, terrifying images accompanied with strange small humanoid creatures with yellow eyes and antennae that attacked on sight, attempting to drag their victom in a pool of black darkness. Waking up, they discussed their visions and set off again. Going through the mansion more and more, they find a room under the building filled with corpses hung upside down over a pool of their blood, with the same symbol as before---the Black Cross--carved into them.

Upon reaching the main room, the party sees the same bandaged figure that they had seen in their visions. Confused, they talk to it, and it attacks them, saying nothing. When the figure reaches defeat, it steps on the symbol of the Black Cross in the middle of the room and destroys it, falling through the hal to a room below. The team follows and finds the figure partially unvieled from the fight before. It's a girl with Black Crosses all over her body, most prominently on her forehead and arms and abdomen. She fought using more magic this time, but when near defeat cast off her bandages and attacked in full-assault, her power greatly augmented. Finally, she was defeated and the Black Crosses disappeared from her body, reappearing as wounds. The team picked her up and reported back to Isol.

Isol-

The party told the Emperor the good news of the defeat of the Black Cross at the Black Castle. They soon received a Summons from Iauen to report to the Capital of Garda, Fortis Mana, to be decorated by and receive missions from the Council itself.

Fortis Mana-

The party was received by the council and a feast was held in their honour. They were decorated with the titles "The Heroes of Garda", in a grand ceremony. After the festivities, Etnod gave the girl, who he identified as the girl Elric had rescued from the disaster at Broken, over to the healers to help her awaken from her coma and identify her problem. Bor also announced to the team his departure. He explained he worried about his homeland due to the vision he received, and wanted to go back to protect it.

With a new teammate, Alexander, at their side, the team stepped before Iauen to receive their new assignment. They were charged to go to Lake Ire and investigate claims that the new High Priest was acting strange. Gladly, they set out for the town.

Lake Ire-

Upon arriving, the team entered the largest Cathedral in Epus, the Lake Ire Cathedral, the home of the original copy of the Al D'Brem. Amazed by the archetecture and the seamless design, they spoke with the High Rpiest, who seemed to be completely normal.

After the small investigation, the team left to venture about town, where Alexander met a mage girl named Clidra. He took her out to the Lake Ire festivities while Etnod and Egam spied on them. Eventually, they parted ways and slept. As dawn broke, the team noticed a heavy purple fog over the Cathedral and and eerie emptiness of the town. Alarmed, they gathered their gear and rushed to the cathedral, which was filled with the dead bodies of the residents of Lake Ire. Eventually the team found a secret passage behind the holy symbol as well as the journal of the High Priest, showing evidence of some kind of domination over him from time to time.

After going through the Lakebed's numerous traps and puzzles and monsters, the team finally made it to an inner chamber completely submerged under the lakebed. There, the team found Clidra, who resisted their efforts to rescue her and explained that she was the one that killed everyone. Enraged, the party attacked her, and was nearly defeated by her strategy with her familiar, but the team emerged victorious. Raymond Crown appeared and laughed, blocking the team from doing Clidra any more harm. He teleported away with her and left the team with the High Priest.

Eventually, Kanan came with orders from the Council of Alleign for the team to go to the Island of Tokage and receive orders there.

The Way to Belmon's Way-

Side quest: The team meets up with a caravan and hears from a worried mother that her daughter has been kidnapped by harpies. The team goes to recue the little girl and the woman thanks them for their efforts with a small reward.

Belmon's Way-

'Side Quest: In the middle of the plaza is a terrible statue, eroded and terribly crafted, of the hero Belmon. The team learns that the city is gettign ready to tear it down to make more room in the plaza, as well as to simply get rid of the eyesore. Etnod, however, decided to simply make the statue better, using a combination of hard work and stoneshaping. After all was said and done, the statue looked better than before, and Etnod left with a pride in his heart.

Ship-

On board the ship, the team meets a freelance adventurer, one with a lot more experience than they've had. He offers to go along with them in their travels and the team immediately agrees. In the middle of the night, they hear a commotion on deck and investigate to find the man covered in Black Crosses and slaughtering all he can find. The team makes haste to dispatch him and barely scrape by victorious.

Tokage-

The team arrives to find incredible technology powered by mana. Humans are a minority here, and the population is the most diverse of anywhere, with centaur, lizardmen, and Tieflings. Mana can be seen everywhere, being completely wasted.

Players are charged with the edict to venture into the nearby ruins of the old Kingdom on Tokage, which is MAGITECH-ed up. When they get there, they're "greeted" by centuries-old guardians of the kingdom, a kind of soulless-looking race. They get to the center of the complex to find a HUGE resevoir of Mana and a large apparatus that seems to be pumping the mana elsewhere, charging a nearby machine that looks like an elongated metal room on tracks of steel. A sign reads "Subaquatic Railway". The team reports back to their superior and he sends them back to Fortis Mana.

Fortis Mana-

Iauen and the rest of the council seem discomforted by the news of the Subaquatic Railway. They reveal that they had discovered plans for it when spies had nearly infiltrated Portus Maxia. They say they'll look into the matter further, and sent the team to Baho Qidad, saying they are preparing for war, but their last shipment of ores from Baho Qidad had not come in, a month late so far. They want the team to investigate.

Crux-

Upon arriving in Crux, the team hears from Dwarven traders that a diplomat bought out the mines for a year for Fortuna.

Side Quest: No longer operational for military use, the tower of Crux has been used by powerful Wizards through the generations as their personal study, and as such, most people (mostly being dwarvish and therefore not quite particular to magic) lost interest. A mage approached the team, seeing them as able adventurers and pleaded with them to help him reclaim the tower. He said he had been the most recent owner of the tower, but it had been infiltrated by a group of wizards and sorcerors that sought to claim it for themselves by force. IF the team aggreed to help, the mage told them that they could keep whatever they found on the intruders.

After clearing the tower, standing victorious, but tired, on the last floor, the mage that gave them the quest ascended, with the symbol of the black cross for pupils and on either hand and forehead. He laughed, thanking the team for the sacrifices, and, seeing the team's weakened state, attacked them. The mage was powerful, but somehow the team amanaged to survive and overcome the rogue mage of the Black Cross, and descended the tower, back into the town to rest before continuing their journey.

Baho Qidad-

The heroes scale the rocky path and enter a HUGE hole in the mountain to get to the glowing dwarven city of Baho Qidad. Inside, they talk to the Meister of Commerce about the lack of the ore shipment as well as the rumour of the city being bought out. He doesn't deny that they've een bought out, but hint that it wasn't an official deal, and that a more lucrative offer could be made by Garda to "even" things out.

Almost immediately after, fierce commotion arises from deep within the mines and the heroes are contacted by the Meister of Commerce again. He relates that an area deep within the mine has struck gold--that is, a gold dragon--and if the team can take care of it, then Baho Qidad will continue shipping to Garda as usual.

Aided by dwarven defenders, the team rushes into the maw of the mine, fighting the goblins that try to take advantage of the panic while they can along the way, and eventually make it to the fierce young gold dragon, where they, with the help of the swarven defenders, manage to slay the beast. The town rejoices as the heroes return, scarred and bruised, and the Meister of Commerce gives the team a note to give to the Council of Alliegn, telling of their great heroism, and that shipments will resume quickly.

Fortis Mana-

Iauen is pleased by the report and promotes the team to Champions of Garda, the highest rank of guards outisde those that defend the Council. Egam is made a citizen of Garda in this ceremony as well. He tells them their next assignment is to venture into Fortunan lands for the first time, to the desert land of Sarna, to investigate the ruins of the old capital of the former kingdom of Sarna. Perhaps there the team could find documents on the former Fortuna-Sarnan War for strategical purposes.

Midway-

The team is ill-recieved as the reputable Champions of Garda. Everyone here seems to be completely against all of the fighting going on, and as members of the forefront, against the heroes, too.

Side-Quest: A little girl has been abducted by a group of rough-looking mercenaries and held for ransom in a nearby fort. The team goes to save the little girl, only to find that the rumour was false and they've been locked inside the monster-infested fort. while searching for the way out, the heroes find a wondrous artifact hidden deep within a pool of blood: the skeleton key. They use it to exit the dungeon and continue on their way.

Sarna-

Good thing Egam has endure elements! The team soon realizes why most people believe the land is cursed. Even when just stepping foot onto the transition to Sarnan land, the heat becomes immediately unbearable (or the cold, if travelling by night). They soon reach the town and collapse in the inn from weariness. Waking up, they set out travel to the Oasis, and then to the desolate Old sarna, but upon reaching the oasis they find a pool of Mana, not water. They decided to rest there for the night, but shortly after were rudely awakened by ghosts, which were easily dispatched by Etnod's Greater Turning. Ever more cautious, the team travelled once more towards Old Sarna, and saw the delapidated ruins with a torrential desert rain pouring over its area.

Inside the ruins, ghosts lurked freely, vengeful of the team (and Egam particularly) for some reason. Through the search, the team eventually came upon several documents: those they came for as well as a document detailing an Archaian mage hired by Fortuna during the war that used Fortuna's vast Mana reserves to place a huge curse on the land, turning it into a desert wasteland and killing most of the inhabitants. The team deduced that the ghosts were after Egam, then, because he was a mage for Archaia, also, and the ghosts they fought were the victoms of the attack. Mission complete, the team returned to Fortis Mana.

Fortis Mana-

With documents in hand, Iauen decided now was time for decisive action. The battles have been going well so far, but more and more rumours about the power of Fortuna's magery were rising, as well as whatever they had in Portus Maxia. So, the heroes were sent directly to Fortuna, the capital city, to see exactly what they were up against, and a courier would contact them when the seige of Portus Maxia would be ready to take place.

Side-quest: All members of the current party with spellcasting abilities learn how to use Mana and are able to choose one Mana-Empowered Metamagic Feat after a vision in their sleep from the Creator. They are also able to choose a Mana-Empowered Metamagic Feat whenever they would normally be able to choose a Metamagic feat.

Sesta-

The team approaches Sesta, but is not allowed in by the guards. They eye the team suspiciously and keep their eyes on them the entire time, even manning extra troops once they realize they've come. Several couriers were sent out to Fortuna because of this. The team decides eventually to rest outside of town and continue their way around the city towards Fortuna.

Side-Quest: The team sneaks into the city one way or another and sees the greatest city of Anti-Gardan sympathy ever. Propoganda posters, even murals and gaffiti slandering and cursing the name of Garda, as well as some aged materials doing the same to Sarna. The players never reveal their Gardan nature, and are eventually recruited to be Fortunan soldiers by someone seeing their strength as an adventuring party. They are taken into the barracks--the largest one in all of Fortuna--and are taken out to be interviewed to finalize the application process. The team is placed under a Zone of Truth spell and tell their allegiances, inciting the barracks to violence. Quickly, they escape, avoiding some fights out of sheer necessicity of self-preservation and escape the town towards Fortuna.

Fortuna-

The team is greeted better here than in Sesta by a long shot, and are easily able to penetrate the literally seamless iron walls. Inside is filled with merchants, obviously more interesting in buying goods than selling them, and every shopkeeper is a competent wizard capable of creating items with magic, the effects greatly lessened by the Mana catalyst for creation. While snooping around, the team stumbles upon two guards meeting privately in a hushed tone. They listen in and overhear that they've captured a Gardan Courier that had come to present orders for a croup of adventurers to aid in a surprise attack on Portus Maxia. Alarmed that the plan had been discovered, the team rushes towards Portus Maxia, the Wolf's Maw.

The Bridge to the Great Door-

The team arrives at the entrance to see dead Fortunan Guards lying face-down in a pool of their own blood. Searching about, they find a small unit of Gardan soldiers who appear to be just as confused as the party. The unit tells the party that they were sent out as scouts, but when they arrived, the Fortunan soldiers along the bridge were already dead. They hadn't received orders to enter Portus Maxia, so they didn't. They advise the team to be incredibly cautious while going in, that they have no idea who or what is behind the slaughter, but they must be powerful to take out the elite Portus Maxia Guards.

Along the way, the team notices the dead bodies were killed by a bloody carving in their chest in the shape of the Black Cross, and bled to death. Unnerved but courageous, the team rushes in to put a stop to the sacrifices.

Potus Maxia, the Wolf's Maw-

Stepping off the bridge, the team sees a sight that none from Garda has ever seen before. This great walled island is filled with a brilliant greenish glow, with plants absolutely brimming with magical energy. Here, Mana fills the very earth and air, and so any Mana-empowered Metamagic feat can be used without cost. Once completely inside, the team is startled by the gate closing behind them, glowing a bright and brilliant green. Through their efforts and even the skeleton key, the gate will not open. The team is suddenly ambushed by semi-humanoid pitch-black beasts With glowing white symbols of the Black Cross on their faces. The beasts run on all fours and slash and bite, but are eventually defeated by the party and dissipate into the air. After the battle, the party notices a thick purple fog over the island, centering on a large cave with a glowing green opening in the center of the island. They quickly rush in.

Inside they find a thick green cloud of Mana, seemin to be absorbed in a direction of the cave. The heroes rush after it to find a room filled with a swarm of small black humanoid creatures with yellow eyes and antennae. the swarm sees them and attacks, and is somehow dispatched. A more blueish cloud passes over the team and their strength is renewed, and so quickly go down the corridor they last saw the Mana cloud pass through. Inside is a room with a collassal wall opposite the corridor with a decorated Keyhole-shaped void. Nera Crux, the girl rescued from the fortess of the Black Cross earlier, lies sleeping on a pedestal before the keyhole with the Mana cloud forming a giant symbol of the Black Cross above her, a bright light emenating from her heart into the symbol as well. As the team rushes to approach her, they are stopped by intense visions of all of the sacrifices they had seen and are forced to the ground.

Nera's eyes open and she stands, whole, taken by surprise. Afraid, she rushes to the team, her saviours, but is suddenly struck by a great blackness from the Keyhole void in the wall, and Black Crosses appear all over her body once again. With an outstretched hand, she aims her palm at the keeper of the Skleton key and it is suddenly removed from their possession, materialising in front of her, and suddenly augmented by a great flash of light from around her into a large, golden Keyblade. She fights the team with a greatly increased strength, but is eventually defeated. She stumbles backwards and falls on her back, all of the Black Crosses sinking into her skin, leaving deep, bloody carvings like the Fortunan guards on the bridge. With her last breath, the Mana Symbol of the black cross mixes with the light from her heart and blood drips from the cieling, eventually pouring down into the symbol, turning it black as the void. It slams into the Keyhole, the golden Keyblade shooting out a great black string of energy from its tip at the hole, and a great "click" resounds, as if something was unlocked. The Keyblade disappears soon after.

Raymond Crown's laughter resounds througout the hall. He explains in a disembodied voice that he is the leader of the Black Cross, and incited the war between Fortuna and Garda as a means of acquiring sacrifices. Now that enough sacrifices were accrued, along with the light of the world's Princess of Heart, the Door has been opened, and the true power of Mana--the deepest blackness of the World's Heart--is now free for him to take advantage of. With a great malicious laugh he shouts his plans for conquering Epus for Archaia, just as he did to Sarna if he must. Immediately, millions of yellow specks appear in the Keyhole, soon identified as the eyes of the creatures they fought in the swarm earlier, now known as "Heartless". The rush out of Portus Maxia for their lives and head towards Fortis Mana to report what they found out.

As the party exits (the gate is once again opened) and get off the bridge, the Green from the island shoots into the sky and a large floating Castle appears over the island, eventually settling upon it, and the whole island sinks so only the Castle is above the waters, the bridge demolished in the process.

Fortis Mana-

Iauen is frustrated by the news, realizing the party and he have been used to further the plots of a psychopath. He immediately sends out orders to his troops to withdraw and sends a courier out to Fortuna to explain the situation with an apology. Explaining that he would love to go fight the madman with the team, he and the rest of the council have political affairs to attend to. He orders the team to go north, to Archaia, to research Raymond Crown, following the "know your enemy" idea, with his blessing.

Archaia-

Icy cold temperatures greet the team in Archaia, and they are received well with Egam on their team. They gather information and eventually find an old man that tells them where he used to live, in an old abandoned fortress ot the southeast of Archaia, where he was exiled after spreading his ideals behind the cult of the Black Cross.

They trek to the Fortress and enter without resistance. Deep inside they find Raymond Crown's study, with books and papers strewn about. From the papers they learn about the nature of the heartless in a detailed copy of a report labelled "Ansem's Report". They also learn about the Princesses of Heart, which are essentially keys to opening the Doors to the World's Heart, and the World's Heart itself, which Raymond Crown states releases the essense known as "Mana".

He also states that the world of Epus Roir dwells in the "Realm of Darkness", which means the World's Heart is corrupted, and would have the power to greatly augement the dark, occultic arts, which he called the power of the "Black Cross", their principle sigil. These, he argued, would be the key to dominating the world--and later the whole Realm of Darkness--in the name of Archaia.

Finally, a report comments on a weapon called the "Keyblade", which appears different based on its function as well as its location. The Master Keyblade or "Kingdom Key" of the Realm of Darkness is golden, while the Realm of Light's is Silver. The Keyblade can be used to lock or unlock the Hearts of the World, and is attracted to a master who it believes has the strongest heart. There are other Keyblades other than the Kingdom Keys, but their functions are also greatly different, with the Kingdom Keys being the only ones able to open up or seal away their respective Worlds' hearts.

Upon reading the last word of the report, it glows a strange green and sounds are heard throughout the fortress. The team fights their way out through a mass off Black Cross monsters and Heartless until they are trapped in an inescapable room. Realizing there's no way out, the team courageously exits the room to fight their final battle with their greatest effort, until suddenly a flash of light emenates from their hands and they are bestowed Keyblades, Egam Luscious wielding the Kingdom Key itself.

With the power of the Keyblades and the Mana of the land, the heroes are able to easily triumph over the Heartless, and the Black Cross beasts are swept cleanly away. The team decides to report back to Fortis Mana with their newfound weapons possibly able to stop even Raymond Crown and his Heartless horde.

Fortis Mana-

The party returns just as Iauen returns from his meetings with Fortuna. He was greatly pleased with the results of their missions, but turned serious quickly. With authority in his voice, he presented the party with the titles "The Heroes of the Land", quoting from the Albrem, and ordered them to venture into Portus Maxia and kill Raymond Crown. The party agreed and set off once more into the mouth of the wolf, to settle things once and for all.

Portus Maxia, the Great Door-

The team approached the castle, coming as close to it on the bridge as possible, and the gates opened as if expecting them, a magical drawbridge giving them access to the keep. Warily, the heroes ventured across it, entering the smoothly-polished adamantine fortress, seeing the dark purple fog above them in the form of the Black Cross. Travelling through the castle was not easy, with Heartless and Beasts of the Black cross stopping the heroes at every turn, but eventually they scaled the castle to the top tower, finding Raymond Crown dressed in very elaborate royal robes, bearing the patriotic symbol of Archaia. He laughed as he greeted the heroes and congratulated them for making it up the stairs, seeing how long they were and all.

Having enough of the mockery, the heroes attacked and fought bravely against the evil sorceror, however not without great difficulty, seeing as he had the very essence of the World's Heart up his sleeve.

Finally, the heroes struck the Sorceror to incapacitation, and he glared at them in a grand fury. Knocking them all back with an inpassable wall of force, he sent a great black fireball to the ground beneath him and fell through the hole, the heroes falling surely after, the fall softened by a feather fall. At the bottom was the Chamber earlier with the Keyhole and Raymond Crown ran quickly into it laughing maniacally. After making necessasry preparations, the team pursued to find Raymond Crown inside the very Heart of the World. With a very serious expression, Raymond cursed the heroes and foretold their bloody deaths by his hand, saying he would paint Black Crosses all over Fortis Mana with their entrails.

As an attack from a frustrated team member flew, it was suddenly deflected by an unknown force. Immense amounts of darkness flooded into Raymond Crown and he grew, sprouting limbs to gain Six legs and Eight arms, now collossal size with the mark of a Heartless apparent on his forehead.The gargantuan Heartless fought hard and left the heroes badly wounded or dead, but was eventually felled by the power of the Keyblade. Taking hold of the Keyblades, their masters forced the heart, the utmost source of the power of mana, to collapse in an implosion focused on Raymond Crown, destroying the Heartless thoroughly. Quickly, they escaped the chamber and locked the keyhole.

Breathing at last, the heroes exited the castle and returned to Fortis Mana, where they were honoured as the Heroes Spoken of in the Albrem. Elevated to the highest social standing, they were essentially given the lands.

But while they took their celebratory rest, in their sleep, a man in a brown cloak came to them and spoke sullenly.

"The door has been opened... Tied to the darkness..."