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Tales Of Zestiria History: Mikleo
History Links: Zestiria, Mikleo, Seraphim, Hellions
**PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE GAME TALES OF ZESTIRIA**
Mikleo was raised in Elysia, a village home to seraphim and protected by Zenrus' domain, along with a human named Sorey. The two of them were very close in age and quickly became inseparable friends, especially since they were the youngest in the village. Mikleo's life during that time was a mostly sheltered one, learning about the outside world and other humans from Zenrus (whom they affectionately call 'Gramps'), books, and the ruins near their home. In Elysia, the two of them grew up without experiencing the chaos the humans were going through, such as plague outbreaks, famine, and the increased tensions between the Kingdom Of Hyland and the Rolance Empire.
That all changed rather quickly when the pair found a human in the ruins they were exploring. Sorey immediately wanted to help her out, and Mikleo reluctantly agreed, constantly telling him to be careful and to watch her. The two of them brought her back to their village and managed to convince Gramps to let her stay long enough to prepare for her journey back to Ladylake, the capital of Hyland. It took roughly two days for her to depart from Elysia, but before she left she gave her name: Alisha Diphda. Alisha also invited Sorey to visit Ladylake for the ceremony they would be performing, which involved pulling the Sacred Blade from the stone. Afterwards, she left, and only seconds later did a hellion invade Gramps' domain.
It was quite the crafty one, as it hid its presence from Gramps. Mikleo and Sorey teamed up to search for the hellion as the rest of the seraphim split up for the search. It was in a ruined courtyard that the two of them found the hellion eating one of the villagers. After driving the fox-like hellion, Lunarre, away from Elysia, Mikleo and Sorey deduced that it was actually after Alisha. The two of them left the village that night and headed out for Ladylake to warn their new friend.
The pair were quick to find Alisha, who they learn is the Princess of Hyland. They also found that sleeping at the base of the sword in the stone was a seraph. Mikleo and Sorey deduced that she must have been the Lady Of the Lake, and the fact that she was a seraph was the reason why there had been no Shepherds for so long. Unfortunately, things went from rosy to disastrous the moment a riot tried to break out during the ceremony. Hellions were formed in the chaos and created even more panic among the assembled. Sorey took the sword from the stone after convincing the Lady Of the Lake, named Lailah, to be her vessel and take up the mantel of Shepherd.
Sorey conquered and then conked out for three days from the power overload.
When he woke up, the newly formed trio received a letter from Alisha inviting them to speak with her later in the day, and Sorey got some clothes befitting a Shepherd. They took her up on her invitation and went there to personally thank her for her kindness, while Sorey also introduced her to Lailah and Mikleo. Afterwards, the trio decided to take a look around Ladylake. While wandering around, they heard someone had gotten lost in the waterways under the capital, and they decided to go find this person.
When they found the person, he was about to get devoured by a giant, gross, slime blob of a hellion. Sorey told Mikleo to stand back since he couldn't purify the hellions, which offended him greatly despite doing as Sorey asked. After the battle and making sure the man was okay, the two friends got into an argument. Mikleo wanted to help and had no wish to be Sorey's liability. Sorey was equally adamant about not letting Mikleo become Lailah's Sub-Lord, feeling that it would interfere with the water seraph's dream in one way or another. The fight ended with Mikleo storming off, angry and hurt.
Yet, Mikleo never truly left Sorey alone. He kept following the two, but at a discreet distance. It helped a lot that Lailah left a trail of notes for Mikleo to be kept in the loop of where they were going next and why. He witnessed Alisha become Sorey's Squire and learned from Lailah's notes that they were going to purify Ladylake by finding a priest, a seraph willing to become the Lord Of the Land for Ladylake, and a pure vessel for that seraph.
The only lead they currently had to follow at the time was the location of a pure vessel. The vessel in question was water that had never been tainted by malevolence, located in the heart of some nearby ruins. In those ruins, the Divine Artifact Of Water was enshrined, and when the party had moved on from that location, Mikleo didn't hesitate to take it with him. He only revealed his presence to the team when they came across a hellion resistant to all elements, except for a crippling weakness to water. Mikleo stepped in to save the day and had another argument with Sorey about becoming a Sub-Lord. This time, he managed to convince Sorey that this was part of realizing his dream, the one he shared with his closest friend, and formed a pact with Lailah. The two armatized immediately after and easily defeated the hellion that had been in their way.
Mikleo was able to help the group retrieve the pure water vessel they came for, but then Sorey passed out due to the water seraph adding his own power to the new Shepherd. He dutifully carried his friend back to Ladylake so that he could recover. Fortunately, Sorey was only out for a day, and so they were able to find the priest and convinced him to lead the worship for the new seraph of Ladylake. That out of the way, the party of four only needed to find that seraph and see if they'd be willing to be the Lord of the Land and purify Ladylake.
Walking around the city, they learned that there was an incident at the bridge that connected Ladylake to the town of Marlind. Rumors had it that it was the work of an angry water spirit. Since it sounded suspicious, the group went to check it out. It turned out that the 'water spirit' was a hellion. They purified it, and it turned out that the hellion was a seraph who had become corrupted by the malevolence. Lailah said that once a seraph became corrupted for too long, then he or she would become a dragon and there would be no hope left to save them through purification. Luckily, that wasn't the case for the seraph they'd just saved. When he regained consciousness, he introduced himself as Uno, a water seraph. The group decided to try their luck by asking him to be the Lord of the Land for Ladylake, and they were able to convince him to do so. Victory!
Their feelings of success were pretty quick to disappear when a mysterious, uppity man showed up with an invitation for Sorey and Sorey only. It was sent by Minister Bartlow, a corrupt politician set on discrediting Alisha as much as he could to make sure that she wouldn't have the power or backing necessary to oppose him. He apparently wanted to talk with the Shepherd over dinner. Sorey agreed, wanting to see if there was a way he would be able to reason with the minister. Alisha was barred from entering, but Lailah and Mikleo had the advantage, as nobody could see or hear them. In that way, they were able to help Sorey understand what the politicians were implying, and helped him see that there was no reasoning to the people allied to Bartlow. They also learned that not only were they sending Princess Alisha to Marlind, which was facing a crisis in the form of a plague, but that they were hoping she'd catch the disease herself.
Speak of the devil, Alisha barged in right when assassins took charge of the whole room. They made a threat to Bartlow, especially when he tried to bribe them to spare his life, but Alisha pleaded that while he was corrupt, he was important to Hyland. The assassins, surprisingly enough, relented and actually helped the four of them escape the guards the Minister summoned.
After their harrowing escape, Alisha decided that she was going to head to Marlind, despite the danger and what the politicians were hoping would happen to her. Sorey, Lailah, and Mikleo all decided to join her to see what was going on with the town and if they could potentially help the townspeople. Unfortunately, the bridge that had been destroyed when Uno had been a hellion was still not fixed. So, the party decided that the best course of action was to find an earth seraph willing to help them create a foundation for them to cross. It would also help out the workers in rebuilding the bridge, so it was pretty much the perfect solution.
So, off they went to Spiritcrest, where Lailah said an earth seraph lived. Once they reached the base of the mountain, though, they were attacked by a hellion. Normally, the group would purify the hellion, but they got interrupted in that process by a wind seraph named Zaveid. He killed the hellion, which in turn killed the human it had been. The hellion transformed back into a human upon its death. Mikleo's reaction was an angry outburst about how that person didn't need to die, which then launched them into a brief fight with the wind seraph. After a point, the fight stopped and Zaveid left with a warning that sometimes death was the only salvation for hellions.
The trio moved on. About midway to the top of Spiritcrest, they met the earth seraph named Edna. After something of a rocky start, she agreed to be Lailah's Sub-Lord and lend her power to the Shepherd. They rejoined Alisha, created the foundation so the group could cross the river, and finally arrived at Marlind.
The town was mired in malevolence, hindering the place's ability to heal from the plague. They quickly found out that the source was coming from a drake, which was a searph that was one step away from becoming a dragon. Lailah told them that it would be wise to weaken the malevolence in Marlind before confronting the drake. The group was able to locate three other strong pockets of malevolence and purified them, successfully weakening the drake's power. Mikleo suggested that he armatize with Sorey and use the divine bow to shoot the hellion out of the sky. Then, the could attack it while it was stunned.
His plan went off without a hitch, and they were able to purify the drake. With Seraph Rohan restored as Lord of the Land, Marlind was purified and could finally heal from the plague. Unfortunately, it also meant the parting of ways for Princess Alisha and the others. Her duties as Princess of Hyland, and the fact that her pact as Squire was having severe negative effects on Sorey, couldn't be ignored.
Sorey decided that going to the Rolance Empire would be their next step in their journey. Sadly, the corrupt Bartlow had other plans. He sent one of his generals to 'convince' (read: coerce) the Shepherd to join the war between Rolance and Hyland on Hyland's side. The general threatened Alisha's life if Sorey refused, but didn't exactly promise her freedom if Hyland won the war. Reluctantly, all four of them agreed to the terms.
Wars tended to breed an alarming amount of malevolence, and this one was the stage on which the Lord Of Calamity made his appearance. The Lord Of Calamity's very existence was the source of all malevolence, and the Shepherd was supposedly the only one capable of quelling him.
Sorey decided to take him on, even though he wasn't ready for the confrontation.
Needless to say, he got his ass beat. Not only that, but his seraphim friends were temporarily sealed away, unable to communicate with him, let alone interact with anything. They were stuck inside Sorey's body and couldn't help him as he was surrounded by countless hellions. The only good thing they could say they got out of the experience was the current Lord of Calamity's name: Heldalf, and that was hardly something worth celebrating over. Luckily, the leader of the assassin's guild, the Scattered Bones, saved Sorey. After resting at her hideout, the seal was lifted and the seraphim could communicate with Sorey again. After that, they decided that it would be wise to make sure they were ready to face the Lord Of Calamity before trying again.
It was here that they also met another wind seraph by the name of Dezel, who seemed to be following Rose for some reason. After talking it over, it was decided that the group of six would explore the ruins of the Scattered Bones' hideout, as they were going to abandon it for a new one relatively soon. Through their exploration, they came across another dragon-like hellion that was weak to wind. Unfortunately, they neither had a wind seraph as a Sub-Lord nor did Sorey have anyone to help him in the fight. Fortunately, Mikleo had an idea. He left Sorey to distract the monster and reached out to try to talk to Rose. She had a very high affinity to perceive seraphim, and he was hoping that being around the Shepherd would have helped to awaken more of her ability. He was right, as she was able to hear him perfectly without Sorey's involvement. Mikleo convinced her to help Sorey by becoming his Squire and joined his friend in the fight soon afterward. The two of them distracted the hellion long enough for Rose and Dezel to join the party, and found that Rose becoming Sorey's Squire gave her the ability to armatize as well.
They were able to quell the hellion, and decided to head deeper into the ruins. In its heart, they found a map detailing the places where Trials were held for the Shepherd to complete. There was one for each element, so there were four trials Sorey would have to pass. The group decided that their best bet was to find a way to gain safe passage through Rolance, as the Shepherd was rather unpopular there at the moment.
Their first stop was the town of Lastonbell. They lied their way through a checkpoint, but they eventually got caught. However, the knight who caught them, an honorable man by the name of Sergei, only wanted the Shepherd's help. The relationship between the church and the knights was poor, and it was having a terrible effect on the knights' relationship to the Emperor. However, the information was rather sensitive, and Sergei asked them to come to the capital of Pendrago to hear him out.
Naturally, they went!
Upon their arrival, they learned that the situation was rather dire. The Pope had gone missing, and he'd been a staunch supporter of the knights. Sergei suspected foul play from Cardinal Forton, especially since anyone who tried to investigate the Cardinal wound up going missing rather mysteriously. The group also learned that Rose's guild used to be a mercenary one, until they were betrayed by the Rolance Empire. Neither Rose nor Dezel gave them further details on what had happened, though.
They decided to check out the church sanctuary. It seemed a good a place as any to check for clues on the Pope or evidence of the Cardinal's guilt. The party happened to enter just as a priest was teaching some children about Maotelus, a seraph powerful enough to provide protection to the entire Glenwood continent. He led the group a little ways into the sanctuary, where there was a stone pillar with the history of previous Shepherds inscribed on its face. Only the Pope could read the language, though. As the group was about to leave, a powerful, malevolent domain covered the church and turned the priest and children to stone. Cardinal Forton arrived, and she was the source of the domain. She sealed the seraphim away and tried to convince Sorey to lend his power to her cause, wanting nothing more than to protect the Rolance citizenry.
Sorey refused, but before Forton could attack, Mikleo tore through her seal. He immediately went to Sorey's defense and cast a Seraphic Arte on the whole party to make them temporarily invisible. The group used this time wisely by fleeing the church.
Once outside, one of the Scattered Bones members flagged Rose down. She told them that there was a lead on the Pope's whereabouts, something she'd been looking into as someone had commissioned them to assassinate the Pope. Rose reassured the party that she wasn't going to kill him unless it was clear that his death was warranted. After that, they headed for the village of Gododdin.
Once they arrived in the village, they were able to find out the truth about the Pope. He'd abandoned his duties and would have died in the desert if the villagers hadn't saved him. He became the town elder, and started making and selling fake elixirs to keep the town alive. In return for neither killing him nor trying to convince the Pope to return to Pendrago, he told them what the stone pillar said, as he'd memorized its inscription. Apparently, passing the Trials would give the Shepherd more power over the four elements, perhaps enough to stand up to Heldalf.
The Fire Temple Igraine was actually in Gododdin. So, the group decided to go through with the Trial of Fire first. They managed to get through to the heart of the temple, where they were met by a hellion that looked like a dragon fused with a man. After fighting it for a while, they found that the hellion form was an illusion. It was, in fact, a seraph they were fighting. He wanted to test the Shepherd's might, and then gave a second trial to test the spirit. Sorey was asked to burn the face of whomever would receive the power granted for passing the trial. Lailah stepped in before he could burn himself, and the two armatized to receive the burn together. They finished and passed the trial with flying colors. The seraph also told them that seraphim weren't just born, but they could be humans or animals who transformed (known also as 'reincarnated') into a seraph by way of having all of their negative energy purged. This seraph in question used to be human and went through the process.
With more fire power in hand, the group returned to Pendrago and told Sergei the truth about the Pope. Then, they went back to the church sanctuary to get to the heart of the ruins attached to it. In the inner sanctum, they came across a horrifying scene of living people who had been turned to stone. Then, they were confronted by Cardinal Forton once more, but she had been transformed into a hellion called Medusa. During the struggle, they found out that Dezel was actually blind, which gave him the advantage over Medusa by being immune to her petrifying gaze and could pass this immunity to whomever he armatized with. While the group was able to defeat her, they were unable to purify her. In the end, Rose took the Cardinal's life.
Rose told Sergei most of what had happened, but left out the detail that she'd been the one who killed Forton. Rather, she said that it was an assassin from the Scattered Bones who had done it, which wasn't far from the truth. After, they decided to rest at the inn, and ran into an explorer named Mayvin. He said he was interested in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Maotelus' presence, and was looking into various ruins for the clues. After parting ways, Sorey and Mikleo speculated that the Age of Chaos may have begun the moment Maotelus' protection of Glenwood had faded.
The next day, the group went to take the Trial of Earth at Temple Morgause. On completing the Trial, the earth seraph told them that sometimes the Shepherd's journey resulted in the Shepherd reincarnating into a seraph. The earth seraph himself had been a former Shepherd partnered with Lailah in the distant past.
They moved on to Temple Le Fay for the Trial of Water. It was hidden behind a waterfall (naturally) some ways away from Ladylake. This trial was a little different. The water seraph asked them to first understand why Asura became a hellion before quelling him. Throughout the befuddling temple were the scattered pages of a Shepherd's journal. It told the story of how he became so obsessed with purifying the malevolence that he created a sword that could cuty anything, including the ties that bound a person to the malevolence. However, the Shepherd meant to use it to wipe out all of humanity, as they were the reason why there would always be another Lord of Calamity in the future.
In conclusion, it was Asura's journal.
The group confronted and quelled Asura, but he died in the end. As a hellion, he could withstand the passage of time without being hindered. The moment he became human, though, all of that time caught up with his mortal body and caused him to disintegrate. The water seraph then offered them the sword Asura had been so obsessed with, but Sorey refused. In doing so, he passed the Trial of Water. Unfortunately, the sword was stolen by one of Heldalf's subordinates, a woman named Maltran. Maltran was a woman who was very close to Alisha, but revealed that she had only been using the Hyland Princess ever since the two had met. She then fled the scene, taking the sword with her.
There wasn't much they could do about that at the moment. For now, they focused on getting through the Trial of Wind at Temple Guinevere. On reaching the temple, they ran into Zaveid and had a scuffle with him. After he left, the group proceeded into the temple. While they would have taken the stairs leading all the way up, Mikleo advised them against it. They were too narrow and steep, so they'd be in a bad bind if they got attacked. Not to mention, they might not be stable enough to hold all of their weight or could have fallen apart in places, making it unsafe. Sorey agreed with the assessment. Rose called bullshit, saying that they just wanted to see the inside of the temple. Neither of them contradicted her. If anything, they just confirmed that yes, they just wanted to see the inside of the temple.
Through the temple they went! Reaching the top of the temple the way they had was apparently part of the Trial, so they got lucky that a bunch of nerds wanted to see the inside of it. All that was left was to quell the hellion. Once the group was done and gained the upgraded power over wind, they headed back to Pendrago.
Outside Pendrago, they ran into Zaveid yet again. They fought and instead of leaving, he gave Sorey his gun and the last bullet he had. Zaveid said he'd probably need it for Dezel soon, and proceeded to take a nap. Sorey asked Mikleo about how the gun worked. The water seraph replied that it seemed to shoot condensed energy, much like the divine bow they used when armatized. He also noted that it seemed to have more power than his bow, and wasn't sure what to make of Zaveid's cryptic remark.
When they entered the capital of Rolance, they were met by the hellion Lunarre and a strange seraph who wielded extremely powerful illusions named Symonne. She was working for the Lord of Calamity willingly, for some reason they couldn't fathom. The encounter ended in Dezel's suicide to save Rose, and both Lunarre and Symonne vanished.
Zaveid arrived and asked Lailah to become her Sub-Lord, considering they needed a wind seraph in order to move forward in the Shepherd's journey. He said that he, too, was looking into the disappearance of Maotelus. The wind seraph commented that it was mighty fishy that Maotelus disappeared right when the trouble started at the beginning of trhe Age of Chaos. Once the rest of the party joined the dots, they reached a horrible possibility: perhaps Maotelus had become a hellion. The only one who may know the truth was Heldalf himself.
The group made their way back to the battleground where they last saw Heldalf. He was there, waiting for them. Here, they learned that Heldalf and Maotelus were connected, and that the very earth itself was Maotelus' vessel. Strangely, the Lord of Calamity actually asked Sorey to join him. Sorey refused, of course, and they were barely able to flee from the place with their lives.
After regrouping, they decided to find Mayvin and see if he ad any enlightening information about Maotelus. It took some time, but the party was able to track him to the town of Lohgrin, which was in the process of rebuilding after being damaged years ago. Mayvin and Lailah seemed to know each other, as she convinced him to help them. He consented, as he felt that their need would decide whether the world would end in this age or continue on. However, Mayvin required them to gather the Earthen Historia before he gave the information they needed.
The group gathered every single one they could find. Each one gave them visual clues as to what had happened in the past leading up to the current age. The most important information they got, however, was how Heldalf became the Lord of Calamity. He'd been disgraced and dishonored in his homeland, but he was also cursed. One by one, his family died. The only child he had was born a hellion, and he killed the baby the moment he laid eyes on it. Several times, Heldalf tried to take his own life, but no matter what he tried, nothing would kill him. Eventually, he was so consumed by malevolence that he became the Lord of Calamity.
They returned to Mayvin for the final piece to the horrifying picture: how had this happened?
He showed them an Earthen Historia that he'd taken an oath to never reveal. In it, they learned that the village of Camlann had been the target of the countries of Hyland and Rolance due to being a strategic vantage point to either country who could control it. The Shepherd before Sorey, a man named Michael, had refused to give up the village. When the village was attacked by Hyland forces, Heldalf didn't lift a finger to protect the villagers. Michael's sister, Muse, was injured in the struggle, which caused Michael to sacrifice her only baby to place the curse on Heldalf. Michael died soon after. Muse retrieved her baby and was about to flee Camlann when she ran into Zenrus, the seraph who would raise Sorey and Mikleo as if they were his own. She gave him her child, pleading for him to save her little boy. Zenrus told her that perhaps there was hope that her baby would become Sub-Lord to the new Shepherd. As for who the new Shepherd would be, Zenrus had hopes that it would be the orphaned baby who had been born prematurely.
The last thing they heard Muse say was a final farewell to her baby, who she named Mikleo. As such, they concluded that the other infant had been Sorey.
The group confronted Mayvin about what they saw. They concluded that the only way to purify Maotelus was to sever his ties to the Lord of Calamity by using Zaveid's gun. Mayvin agreed and asked Sorey if he understood that it would mean converting the four seraphim with him into the bullets, which would most likely kill them. Sorey said he understood, but Mayvin wanted him to prove his conviction to this choice. He challenged Sorey to combat.
Sorey hesitated, though. It was only when each seraph confirmed their own conviction and willingness to make the sacrifice that convinced him. Before he could prove it to Mayvin, the man collapsed. He was dying due to his broken oath, which had given him immortality up until that point. As he was centuries old, his now mortal body was finally feeling all of the time that had past. They honored the old explorer by staying at his side until his final breath, and buried him outside of Lohgrin.
**PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE GAME TALES OF ZESTIRIA**
Mikleo was raised in Elysia, a village home to seraphim and protected by Zenrus' domain, along with a human named Sorey. The two of them were very close in age and quickly became inseparable friends, especially since they were the youngest in the village. Mikleo's life during that time was a mostly sheltered one, learning about the outside world and other humans from Zenrus (whom they affectionately call 'Gramps'), books, and the ruins near their home. In Elysia, the two of them grew up without experiencing the chaos the humans were going through, such as plague outbreaks, famine, and the increased tensions between the Kingdom Of Hyland and the Rolance Empire.
That all changed rather quickly when the pair found a human in the ruins they were exploring. Sorey immediately wanted to help her out, and Mikleo reluctantly agreed, constantly telling him to be careful and to watch her. The two of them brought her back to their village and managed to convince Gramps to let her stay long enough to prepare for her journey back to Ladylake, the capital of Hyland. It took roughly two days for her to depart from Elysia, but before she left she gave her name: Alisha Diphda. Alisha also invited Sorey to visit Ladylake for the ceremony they would be performing, which involved pulling the Sacred Blade from the stone. Afterwards, she left, and only seconds later did a hellion invade Gramps' domain.
It was quite the crafty one, as it hid its presence from Gramps. Mikleo and Sorey teamed up to search for the hellion as the rest of the seraphim split up for the search. It was in a ruined courtyard that the two of them found the hellion eating one of the villagers. After driving the fox-like hellion, Lunarre, away from Elysia, Mikleo and Sorey deduced that it was actually after Alisha. The two of them left the village that night and headed out for Ladylake to warn their new friend.
The pair were quick to find Alisha, who they learn is the Princess of Hyland. They also found that sleeping at the base of the sword in the stone was a seraph. Mikleo and Sorey deduced that she must have been the Lady Of the Lake, and the fact that she was a seraph was the reason why there had been no Shepherds for so long. Unfortunately, things went from rosy to disastrous the moment a riot tried to break out during the ceremony. Hellions were formed in the chaos and created even more panic among the assembled. Sorey took the sword from the stone after convincing the Lady Of the Lake, named Lailah, to be her vessel and take up the mantel of Shepherd.
Sorey conquered and then conked out for three days from the power overload.
When he woke up, the newly formed trio received a letter from Alisha inviting them to speak with her later in the day, and Sorey got some clothes befitting a Shepherd. They took her up on her invitation and went there to personally thank her for her kindness, while Sorey also introduced her to Lailah and Mikleo. Afterwards, the trio decided to take a look around Ladylake. While wandering around, they heard someone had gotten lost in the waterways under the capital, and they decided to go find this person.
When they found the person, he was about to get devoured by a giant, gross, slime blob of a hellion. Sorey told Mikleo to stand back since he couldn't purify the hellions, which offended him greatly despite doing as Sorey asked. After the battle and making sure the man was okay, the two friends got into an argument. Mikleo wanted to help and had no wish to be Sorey's liability. Sorey was equally adamant about not letting Mikleo become Lailah's Sub-Lord, feeling that it would interfere with the water seraph's dream in one way or another. The fight ended with Mikleo storming off, angry and hurt.
Yet, Mikleo never truly left Sorey alone. He kept following the two, but at a discreet distance. It helped a lot that Lailah left a trail of notes for Mikleo to be kept in the loop of where they were going next and why. He witnessed Alisha become Sorey's Squire and learned from Lailah's notes that they were going to purify Ladylake by finding a priest, a seraph willing to become the Lord Of the Land for Ladylake, and a pure vessel for that seraph.
The only lead they currently had to follow at the time was the location of a pure vessel. The vessel in question was water that had never been tainted by malevolence, located in the heart of some nearby ruins. In those ruins, the Divine Artifact Of Water was enshrined, and when the party had moved on from that location, Mikleo didn't hesitate to take it with him. He only revealed his presence to the team when they came across a hellion resistant to all elements, except for a crippling weakness to water. Mikleo stepped in to save the day and had another argument with Sorey about becoming a Sub-Lord. This time, he managed to convince Sorey that this was part of realizing his dream, the one he shared with his closest friend, and formed a pact with Lailah. The two armatized immediately after and easily defeated the hellion that had been in their way.
Mikleo was able to help the group retrieve the pure water vessel they came for, but then Sorey passed out due to the water seraph adding his own power to the new Shepherd. He dutifully carried his friend back to Ladylake so that he could recover. Fortunately, Sorey was only out for a day, and so they were able to find the priest and convinced him to lead the worship for the new seraph of Ladylake. That out of the way, the party of four only needed to find that seraph and see if they'd be willing to be the Lord of the Land and purify Ladylake.
Walking around the city, they learned that there was an incident at the bridge that connected Ladylake to the town of Marlind. Rumors had it that it was the work of an angry water spirit. Since it sounded suspicious, the group went to check it out. It turned out that the 'water spirit' was a hellion. They purified it, and it turned out that the hellion was a seraph who had become corrupted by the malevolence. Lailah said that once a seraph became corrupted for too long, then he or she would become a dragon and there would be no hope left to save them through purification. Luckily, that wasn't the case for the seraph they'd just saved. When he regained consciousness, he introduced himself as Uno, a water seraph. The group decided to try their luck by asking him to be the Lord of the Land for Ladylake, and they were able to convince him to do so. Victory!
Their feelings of success were pretty quick to disappear when a mysterious, uppity man showed up with an invitation for Sorey and Sorey only. It was sent by Minister Bartlow, a corrupt politician set on discrediting Alisha as much as he could to make sure that she wouldn't have the power or backing necessary to oppose him. He apparently wanted to talk with the Shepherd over dinner. Sorey agreed, wanting to see if there was a way he would be able to reason with the minister. Alisha was barred from entering, but Lailah and Mikleo had the advantage, as nobody could see or hear them. In that way, they were able to help Sorey understand what the politicians were implying, and helped him see that there was no reasoning to the people allied to Bartlow. They also learned that not only were they sending Princess Alisha to Marlind, which was facing a crisis in the form of a plague, but that they were hoping she'd catch the disease herself.
Speak of the devil, Alisha barged in right when assassins took charge of the whole room. They made a threat to Bartlow, especially when he tried to bribe them to spare his life, but Alisha pleaded that while he was corrupt, he was important to Hyland. The assassins, surprisingly enough, relented and actually helped the four of them escape the guards the Minister summoned.
After their harrowing escape, Alisha decided that she was going to head to Marlind, despite the danger and what the politicians were hoping would happen to her. Sorey, Lailah, and Mikleo all decided to join her to see what was going on with the town and if they could potentially help the townspeople. Unfortunately, the bridge that had been destroyed when Uno had been a hellion was still not fixed. So, the party decided that the best course of action was to find an earth seraph willing to help them create a foundation for them to cross. It would also help out the workers in rebuilding the bridge, so it was pretty much the perfect solution.
So, off they went to Spiritcrest, where Lailah said an earth seraph lived. Once they reached the base of the mountain, though, they were attacked by a hellion. Normally, the group would purify the hellion, but they got interrupted in that process by a wind seraph named Zaveid. He killed the hellion, which in turn killed the human it had been. The hellion transformed back into a human upon its death. Mikleo's reaction was an angry outburst about how that person didn't need to die, which then launched them into a brief fight with the wind seraph. After a point, the fight stopped and Zaveid left with a warning that sometimes death was the only salvation for hellions.
The trio moved on. About midway to the top of Spiritcrest, they met the earth seraph named Edna. After something of a rocky start, she agreed to be Lailah's Sub-Lord and lend her power to the Shepherd. They rejoined Alisha, created the foundation so the group could cross the river, and finally arrived at Marlind.
The town was mired in malevolence, hindering the place's ability to heal from the plague. They quickly found out that the source was coming from a drake, which was a searph that was one step away from becoming a dragon. Lailah told them that it would be wise to weaken the malevolence in Marlind before confronting the drake. The group was able to locate three other strong pockets of malevolence and purified them, successfully weakening the drake's power. Mikleo suggested that he armatize with Sorey and use the divine bow to shoot the hellion out of the sky. Then, the could attack it while it was stunned.
His plan went off without a hitch, and they were able to purify the drake. With Seraph Rohan restored as Lord of the Land, Marlind was purified and could finally heal from the plague. Unfortunately, it also meant the parting of ways for Princess Alisha and the others. Her duties as Princess of Hyland, and the fact that her pact as Squire was having severe negative effects on Sorey, couldn't be ignored.
Sorey decided that going to the Rolance Empire would be their next step in their journey. Sadly, the corrupt Bartlow had other plans. He sent one of his generals to 'convince' (read: coerce) the Shepherd to join the war between Rolance and Hyland on Hyland's side. The general threatened Alisha's life if Sorey refused, but didn't exactly promise her freedom if Hyland won the war. Reluctantly, all four of them agreed to the terms.
Wars tended to breed an alarming amount of malevolence, and this one was the stage on which the Lord Of Calamity made his appearance. The Lord Of Calamity's very existence was the source of all malevolence, and the Shepherd was supposedly the only one capable of quelling him.
Sorey decided to take him on, even though he wasn't ready for the confrontation.
Needless to say, he got his ass beat. Not only that, but his seraphim friends were temporarily sealed away, unable to communicate with him, let alone interact with anything. They were stuck inside Sorey's body and couldn't help him as he was surrounded by countless hellions. The only good thing they could say they got out of the experience was the current Lord of Calamity's name: Heldalf, and that was hardly something worth celebrating over. Luckily, the leader of the assassin's guild, the Scattered Bones, saved Sorey. After resting at her hideout, the seal was lifted and the seraphim could communicate with Sorey again. After that, they decided that it would be wise to make sure they were ready to face the Lord Of Calamity before trying again.
It was here that they also met another wind seraph by the name of Dezel, who seemed to be following Rose for some reason. After talking it over, it was decided that the group of six would explore the ruins of the Scattered Bones' hideout, as they were going to abandon it for a new one relatively soon. Through their exploration, they came across another dragon-like hellion that was weak to wind. Unfortunately, they neither had a wind seraph as a Sub-Lord nor did Sorey have anyone to help him in the fight. Fortunately, Mikleo had an idea. He left Sorey to distract the monster and reached out to try to talk to Rose. She had a very high affinity to perceive seraphim, and he was hoping that being around the Shepherd would have helped to awaken more of her ability. He was right, as she was able to hear him perfectly without Sorey's involvement. Mikleo convinced her to help Sorey by becoming his Squire and joined his friend in the fight soon afterward. The two of them distracted the hellion long enough for Rose and Dezel to join the party, and found that Rose becoming Sorey's Squire gave her the ability to armatize as well.
They were able to quell the hellion, and decided to head deeper into the ruins. In its heart, they found a map detailing the places where Trials were held for the Shepherd to complete. There was one for each element, so there were four trials Sorey would have to pass. The group decided that their best bet was to find a way to gain safe passage through Rolance, as the Shepherd was rather unpopular there at the moment.
Their first stop was the town of Lastonbell. They lied their way through a checkpoint, but they eventually got caught. However, the knight who caught them, an honorable man by the name of Sergei, only wanted the Shepherd's help. The relationship between the church and the knights was poor, and it was having a terrible effect on the knights' relationship to the Emperor. However, the information was rather sensitive, and Sergei asked them to come to the capital of Pendrago to hear him out.
Naturally, they went!
Upon their arrival, they learned that the situation was rather dire. The Pope had gone missing, and he'd been a staunch supporter of the knights. Sergei suspected foul play from Cardinal Forton, especially since anyone who tried to investigate the Cardinal wound up going missing rather mysteriously. The group also learned that Rose's guild used to be a mercenary one, until they were betrayed by the Rolance Empire. Neither Rose nor Dezel gave them further details on what had happened, though.
They decided to check out the church sanctuary. It seemed a good a place as any to check for clues on the Pope or evidence of the Cardinal's guilt. The party happened to enter just as a priest was teaching some children about Maotelus, a seraph powerful enough to provide protection to the entire Glenwood continent. He led the group a little ways into the sanctuary, where there was a stone pillar with the history of previous Shepherds inscribed on its face. Only the Pope could read the language, though. As the group was about to leave, a powerful, malevolent domain covered the church and turned the priest and children to stone. Cardinal Forton arrived, and she was the source of the domain. She sealed the seraphim away and tried to convince Sorey to lend his power to her cause, wanting nothing more than to protect the Rolance citizenry.
Sorey refused, but before Forton could attack, Mikleo tore through her seal. He immediately went to Sorey's defense and cast a Seraphic Arte on the whole party to make them temporarily invisible. The group used this time wisely by fleeing the church.
Once outside, one of the Scattered Bones members flagged Rose down. She told them that there was a lead on the Pope's whereabouts, something she'd been looking into as someone had commissioned them to assassinate the Pope. Rose reassured the party that she wasn't going to kill him unless it was clear that his death was warranted. After that, they headed for the village of Gododdin.
Once they arrived in the village, they were able to find out the truth about the Pope. He'd abandoned his duties and would have died in the desert if the villagers hadn't saved him. He became the town elder, and started making and selling fake elixirs to keep the town alive. In return for neither killing him nor trying to convince the Pope to return to Pendrago, he told them what the stone pillar said, as he'd memorized its inscription. Apparently, passing the Trials would give the Shepherd more power over the four elements, perhaps enough to stand up to Heldalf.
The Fire Temple Igraine was actually in Gododdin. So, the group decided to go through with the Trial of Fire first. They managed to get through to the heart of the temple, where they were met by a hellion that looked like a dragon fused with a man. After fighting it for a while, they found that the hellion form was an illusion. It was, in fact, a seraph they were fighting. He wanted to test the Shepherd's might, and then gave a second trial to test the spirit. Sorey was asked to burn the face of whomever would receive the power granted for passing the trial. Lailah stepped in before he could burn himself, and the two armatized to receive the burn together. They finished and passed the trial with flying colors. The seraph also told them that seraphim weren't just born, but they could be humans or animals who transformed (known also as 'reincarnated') into a seraph by way of having all of their negative energy purged. This seraph in question used to be human and went through the process.
With more fire power in hand, the group returned to Pendrago and told Sergei the truth about the Pope. Then, they went back to the church sanctuary to get to the heart of the ruins attached to it. In the inner sanctum, they came across a horrifying scene of living people who had been turned to stone. Then, they were confronted by Cardinal Forton once more, but she had been transformed into a hellion called Medusa. During the struggle, they found out that Dezel was actually blind, which gave him the advantage over Medusa by being immune to her petrifying gaze and could pass this immunity to whomever he armatized with. While the group was able to defeat her, they were unable to purify her. In the end, Rose took the Cardinal's life.
Rose told Sergei most of what had happened, but left out the detail that she'd been the one who killed Forton. Rather, she said that it was an assassin from the Scattered Bones who had done it, which wasn't far from the truth. After, they decided to rest at the inn, and ran into an explorer named Mayvin. He said he was interested in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Maotelus' presence, and was looking into various ruins for the clues. After parting ways, Sorey and Mikleo speculated that the Age of Chaos may have begun the moment Maotelus' protection of Glenwood had faded.
The next day, the group went to take the Trial of Earth at Temple Morgause. On completing the Trial, the earth seraph told them that sometimes the Shepherd's journey resulted in the Shepherd reincarnating into a seraph. The earth seraph himself had been a former Shepherd partnered with Lailah in the distant past.
They moved on to Temple Le Fay for the Trial of Water. It was hidden behind a waterfall (naturally) some ways away from Ladylake. This trial was a little different. The water seraph asked them to first understand why Asura became a hellion before quelling him. Throughout the befuddling temple were the scattered pages of a Shepherd's journal. It told the story of how he became so obsessed with purifying the malevolence that he created a sword that could cuty anything, including the ties that bound a person to the malevolence. However, the Shepherd meant to use it to wipe out all of humanity, as they were the reason why there would always be another Lord of Calamity in the future.
In conclusion, it was Asura's journal.
The group confronted and quelled Asura, but he died in the end. As a hellion, he could withstand the passage of time without being hindered. The moment he became human, though, all of that time caught up with his mortal body and caused him to disintegrate. The water seraph then offered them the sword Asura had been so obsessed with, but Sorey refused. In doing so, he passed the Trial of Water. Unfortunately, the sword was stolen by one of Heldalf's subordinates, a woman named Maltran. Maltran was a woman who was very close to Alisha, but revealed that she had only been using the Hyland Princess ever since the two had met. She then fled the scene, taking the sword with her.
There wasn't much they could do about that at the moment. For now, they focused on getting through the Trial of Wind at Temple Guinevere. On reaching the temple, they ran into Zaveid and had a scuffle with him. After he left, the group proceeded into the temple. While they would have taken the stairs leading all the way up, Mikleo advised them against it. They were too narrow and steep, so they'd be in a bad bind if they got attacked. Not to mention, they might not be stable enough to hold all of their weight or could have fallen apart in places, making it unsafe. Sorey agreed with the assessment. Rose called bullshit, saying that they just wanted to see the inside of the temple. Neither of them contradicted her. If anything, they just confirmed that yes, they just wanted to see the inside of the temple.
Through the temple they went! Reaching the top of the temple the way they had was apparently part of the Trial, so they got lucky that a bunch of nerds wanted to see the inside of it. All that was left was to quell the hellion. Once the group was done and gained the upgraded power over wind, they headed back to Pendrago.
Outside Pendrago, they ran into Zaveid yet again. They fought and instead of leaving, he gave Sorey his gun and the last bullet he had. Zaveid said he'd probably need it for Dezel soon, and proceeded to take a nap. Sorey asked Mikleo about how the gun worked. The water seraph replied that it seemed to shoot condensed energy, much like the divine bow they used when armatized. He also noted that it seemed to have more power than his bow, and wasn't sure what to make of Zaveid's cryptic remark.
When they entered the capital of Rolance, they were met by the hellion Lunarre and a strange seraph who wielded extremely powerful illusions named Symonne. She was working for the Lord of Calamity willingly, for some reason they couldn't fathom. The encounter ended in Dezel's suicide to save Rose, and both Lunarre and Symonne vanished.
Zaveid arrived and asked Lailah to become her Sub-Lord, considering they needed a wind seraph in order to move forward in the Shepherd's journey. He said that he, too, was looking into the disappearance of Maotelus. The wind seraph commented that it was mighty fishy that Maotelus disappeared right when the trouble started at the beginning of trhe Age of Chaos. Once the rest of the party joined the dots, they reached a horrible possibility: perhaps Maotelus had become a hellion. The only one who may know the truth was Heldalf himself.
The group made their way back to the battleground where they last saw Heldalf. He was there, waiting for them. Here, they learned that Heldalf and Maotelus were connected, and that the very earth itself was Maotelus' vessel. Strangely, the Lord of Calamity actually asked Sorey to join him. Sorey refused, of course, and they were barely able to flee from the place with their lives.
After regrouping, they decided to find Mayvin and see if he ad any enlightening information about Maotelus. It took some time, but the party was able to track him to the town of Lohgrin, which was in the process of rebuilding after being damaged years ago. Mayvin and Lailah seemed to know each other, as she convinced him to help them. He consented, as he felt that their need would decide whether the world would end in this age or continue on. However, Mayvin required them to gather the Earthen Historia before he gave the information they needed.
The group gathered every single one they could find. Each one gave them visual clues as to what had happened in the past leading up to the current age. The most important information they got, however, was how Heldalf became the Lord of Calamity. He'd been disgraced and dishonored in his homeland, but he was also cursed. One by one, his family died. The only child he had was born a hellion, and he killed the baby the moment he laid eyes on it. Several times, Heldalf tried to take his own life, but no matter what he tried, nothing would kill him. Eventually, he was so consumed by malevolence that he became the Lord of Calamity.
They returned to Mayvin for the final piece to the horrifying picture: how had this happened?
He showed them an Earthen Historia that he'd taken an oath to never reveal. In it, they learned that the village of Camlann had been the target of the countries of Hyland and Rolance due to being a strategic vantage point to either country who could control it. The Shepherd before Sorey, a man named Michael, had refused to give up the village. When the village was attacked by Hyland forces, Heldalf didn't lift a finger to protect the villagers. Michael's sister, Muse, was injured in the struggle, which caused Michael to sacrifice her only baby to place the curse on Heldalf. Michael died soon after. Muse retrieved her baby and was about to flee Camlann when she ran into Zenrus, the seraph who would raise Sorey and Mikleo as if they were his own. She gave him her child, pleading for him to save her little boy. Zenrus told her that perhaps there was hope that her baby would become Sub-Lord to the new Shepherd. As for who the new Shepherd would be, Zenrus had hopes that it would be the orphaned baby who had been born prematurely.
The last thing they heard Muse say was a final farewell to her baby, who she named Mikleo. As such, they concluded that the other infant had been Sorey.
The group confronted Mayvin about what they saw. They concluded that the only way to purify Maotelus was to sever his ties to the Lord of Calamity by using Zaveid's gun. Mayvin agreed and asked Sorey if he understood that it would mean converting the four seraphim with him into the bullets, which would most likely kill them. Sorey said he understood, but Mayvin wanted him to prove his conviction to this choice. He challenged Sorey to combat.
Sorey hesitated, though. It was only when each seraph confirmed their own conviction and willingness to make the sacrifice that convinced him. Before he could prove it to Mayvin, the man collapsed. He was dying due to his broken oath, which had given him immortality up until that point. As he was centuries old, his now mortal body was finally feeling all of the time that had past. They honored the old explorer by staying at his side until his final breath, and buried him outside of Lohgrin.