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