Heartless Memories

**Heartless Memories** is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Ithallea and follows the perspective of cursed mercenary Adrian of Asura.

## Heartless Main Arc

### Departure and Disillusion

Adrian of Asura is a young mercenary from the town of Lapis. A student of the great knight and teacher Anthoniel of Alruna, he learns of his master's disappearance. As he readies to go on a journey to find him alongside Anthoniel's daughter Sephia of Alruna he is summoned by the Royal Palace of Ithallea for a most important task.

Adrian's arrival at the Palace is greeted not by the king but by his royal scientist, Esotechnology expert Isaac Nigredo. Isaac attempts in vain to subdue Adrian ; as he fails, he calls an ally, a mysterious warrior shrouded in black, who uses the mysterious power of Thunder to overpower him and knock him down, leaving him at the scientist's mercy.

### A New Awakening

After tormented dreams, Adrian wakes up in a cell, surrounded by thick, grey mist. When he attempts to exit, he breaks through the door in a inexplained feat of strength. Without asking any questions, his mind still hazy, he runs away to Sephia.

He does so, however they have no time to celebrate their reunion as a monstrous beast attacks the town and begins to devour civilians. Adrian opposes it, however, even with Sephia's support he is no match for it. A man cloaked in red, introducing himself as Nathaniel Locke, joins the fray and helps Adrian defeat his enemy, before the latter falls unconscious from exhaustion.

He wakes up next to a campfire where Nathaniel explains to Sephia and Adrian that he is a guardian chosen by destiny to help them. He also tells them the beast they saw is an Ascendant - a mindless monster without a Soul that fills its emptiness by destroying other souls. He then tells Adrian that Anthoniel was a victim of Isaac - captured and never to be seen again. Adrian swears revenge.

### The Hammer of God

Soon the party is ambushed by a man clad in white. Aurelian Albedo, another esobiologist, asks to talk to Adrian. He quickly explains the situation - Isaac has been driven mad by exposure to Maelsturm, a substance that tears away the soul of those who come in contact with him in exchange for power, and has been experimenting with Maelsturm in order to craft a "perfect being". Aurelian, refusing to work under him, deserted the royal laboratory, seeking a way to stop it.

Anthoniel also speaks of another invention - the Hammer of God, a powerful Maelsturm-infused warmachine. Worried, Adrian and the others speed up in their journey, until they reach the peaceful town of Ebaenion. Here, young Lucian Lumine welcomes them and gives them a room for the night. An admirer of Anthoniel, Lucian asks to help the group, but they deny his request, as Lucian is only 15 years old and shouldn't be endangered. The group then leaves town.

However, barely an hour afterwards, Isaac fires his Hammer of God - a cannon that emits a ray of focused Maelsturm energy - on Ebaenion, killing most people and horribly mutating the survivors into more Ascendants. Enraged, Adrian dashes in the Maelsturm fog regardless of warnings to slay all Ascendants, swearing to kill Isaac for his crimes.

### The Last Performer

As the party gets closer to the capital, they are ambushed once again by the mysterious swordsman who defeated Adrian. The strangely friendly and flirtatious man, introducing himself as Kagekami Hikari, admits to being working for Isaac and seeking to eliminate them. However, his defeat causes them to retreat strategically mid-battle.

Adrian and his companions keep marching on, only to find Kagekami unconscious after fighting an overpowering Ascendant. Thanks to Sephia's demands, Adrian spares his life and interrogates him. Kagekami admits he was forced to work for Isaac after being experimented on, his arm turned into a demonic panther-like claw, with Isaac promising to cure him should he obey. Nathaniel denies the existence of a cure, causing Kagekami to temporarly join the party in order to confront Isaac.

### Confronting Madness

When they arrive at Iboria's Royal Citadel, they are however greeted with a terrifying surprise : Isaac has used the Hammer of God on his own citadel, turning noblemen, guards and civilians alike into Ascendants. Despite everything, the group persists, advancing and even defeating the King turned into an atrociously powerful hydra-like Ascendant.

Isaac then appears and taunts them, inviting them to the top of the castle, for a final confrontation. It however turns out to be a trap as the Hammer of God fires directly into Isaac, turning it into a reptilian, leathery abomination, who fights against five individuals while still overpowering them ; however, superior tactics allows the group to apparently kill Isaac. However, by the time they do so, the Hammer of God has already recharges and fires into Isaac again.

Isaac then regains inexplicably another form, a more human aspect, although indestructible, and capable of absurd feats of power. The five protagonists can barely survive, and face certain annihilation when Isaac begins to disintegrate all by himself. With the mad scientist finally killed, there is no time to rest as the Hammer of God is ready to annihilate the group. Aurelian bravely sacrifices himself by deflecting the blow, and Kagekami absorbs it, but the sheer Maelsturm energy is enough to knock everyone unconscious.

## Memories Main Arc

### Heartless Ends, Memories Begin

Plagued with strange nightmares of emptiness, Adrian wakes up near another campfire, rescued by a wandering man named Serene Patior that took care of him, Nathaniel and Sephia for days. Adrian's relif falls short hwen he notices that he feels more and more distant, having trouble with complicated emotions and starting to feel numb. When an Ascendant comes close to him, he quickly dispatches it with a powerful wave of Dark energy, and begins to wander if he is becoming a monster, too.

However, there are no time for questions. Adrian's group is once against ambushed by a man, a warrior clad in white calling himself Aesir Nemesea, the Fifth Transcendant. He explains that Transcendants are beings born from humans devastated by Maelsturm akin to Ascendants ; however, while the latter have lost their minds in the process, the former have kept it, while losing their heart and sanity. Heedless of the three heroes' warnings, Aesir attacks them but is quickly defeated and seemingly falls to his death.

A few hours later, Aesir emerges from a deep chasm and bars the protagonists' path, seeking retribution on the world for what happened to him. He surrounds himself with Maelsturm and adopts an invincible form similar to Isaac's. He explains it is his Advent, **Invidia**, a suicidal technique granting Immortality and godlike powers for a short time before consuming the body. Adrian barely manages to survive the destructive Advent and thus bids farewell to Aesir, not before the Transcendant swears his kin will find and kill him.

### In the Transcendants' Web

Things suddenly accelerate as Adrian looks for the cause of the Transcendants' actions. Serene reveals himself as the Sixth Transcendant and that there are seven in total, but does not expand on that, refusing to do battle with his usual apathy. Adrian then finds **Mount Ordeal**, a mysterious mountain with strange properties. But before he can investigate, freezing cold starts to fall on Ithallea, forcing him to interrupt his search in order to find the culprit.

It turns out to be a mysterious man called Sol, the Fourth Transcendant, asking for a confrontation with Adrian. Fighting normally then nullifying the group's magical prowess with his Advent, **Avaritia**, Sol reveals his identity as a corrupted Aurelian before dying. Infiltrated among the Transcendants, Aurelian learned of their plans - to summon the Empty Skies, a phenomenon yet unexplained, that would surely annihilate mankind.

### Familiar Faces

More and more worried, the party attemps to find the Transcendants' hideout. However, illusions obscure their way, and the protagonists find themselves against Lucian, a new Third Transcendant. Suicidal and desperate, having lost his ability to feel hope, Lucian reveals his Advent **Tristitia** and tortures the party with specially designed illusions and nightmares, but Sephia's strong mind and bond with Lucian fractures the illusion, letting him feel a last glimmer of hope before disappearing.

Without any warning and to push them even further into despair, Kagekami chooses the moment to make a big appearance as the Second Transcendant, explaining that ever since he was experimented on, he lost the ability to feel purpose. Claiming to have killed Anthoniel himself, Kagekami challenges Adrian to a duel, using his Advent **Acedia**. Adrian at first is overwhelmed brutally, but he manages to rise up and claim victory... just as Kagekami smiles one last time before dissolving.

### An Angel Surfaces

Next to Kagekami's battlegrounds, the group finds Anthoniel - miraculously alive but gravely wounded. Sephia heals him, and father and daughter reunites again. Anthoniel warns of the First Transcendant preparing an assault against the city of Lapis, and Nathaniel and Adrian go to defend the town while Sephia still heals her father.

A hundred Ascendants attack the city, and the pair defeats them all ; however, no trace of the First Transcendant hints Adrian that something is wrong. While Nathaniel philosophically accepts the way things happen, Adrian furiously dashes back to the place where Anthoniel and Sephia went : Mount Ordeal.

However, they are too late. When Adrian and Nathaniel come to Mount Ordeal, Anthoniel has already sacrificed Sephia, offering her to Maelsturm and turning her into a strange, deity-like being. Anthoniel explains he is the First Transcendant and his daughter is the Ultimate Transcendant, the famed mythical being Isaac was looking for ; a person able to lose her entire heart in exchange for unlimited power. As Anthoniel orders Sephia to eradicate them, Adrian suddenly unleashes his full power and regains advantage of the situation, imposing his own will on Sephia. After acknowledging Adrian as the Seventh Transcendant, Anthoniel disappears in the depths of the Maelsturm.

### End of Memories

Adrian's despair is overflowing, but Nathaniel manages to snap him out of it, and helps him and the now soulless Sephia find their way in the innermost chambers of the Mountain, between dream and reality. Here they fight Serene, forced to battle with his Advent **Pigritia**, before finally confronting Anthoniel in the center of the Maelsturm, the River of Souls. There, Anthoniel reveals his plan - to summon the Empty Skies by fusing with his daughter and becoming a new God, absorbing all souls within him and granting mankind his vision of paradise : a world without souls, without life, without suffering.

Adrian defeats him once, but Anthoniel only uses his Advent, **Superbia**, in order to survive the blow and gain the upper hand. However Superbia is defeated by another Advent : **Vanitas**, Nathaniel's. Nathaniel explains he gave up on his soul decades ago to become a protector of the world, as Transcendant Zero, and slays Anthoniel once and for all before disappearing. However, even in death Anthoniel triumphs as he merges with Sephia, the ritual complete, becoming Cassiel, the new Deity of Fate.

When all seems lost, Adrian bets everything on the last miracle and conjures his own Advent, **Iratus**. Sacrificing all emotions but hatred, Adrian becomes a blade of darkness that slices through Cassiel, destroying the false god once and for all... and seemingly erasing the last fragment of Adrian's soul, putting an end to Transcendants forever.

## Other Arcs

### Sigma's Tale

Sigma visits Ithallea for her first time while the group meets Lucian and quickly befriends him, helping him out before and after the Hammer of God destroys his existence and turns him into a Transcendant. She also helps Adrian and his companions battle against Specters that plague the land.

She comes back again after the end of Isaac to face against a threat from inside the Maelsturm - a rebellious fragment of Nathaniel's discarded soul, the cursed Tredecimus - and barely manages to defeat him and seal him again temporarily. She then leaves while wishing Adrian to succeed in his endeavors.

### Heartless Memories : Recollection

In an alternate Timeline Adrian finds himself still alive at the end of Memories, yet trapped in Maelsturm alongside a complete - and traumatized - version of Anthoniel. The two team up against the mysterious and shadowy Persona, an avatar of evil within the Maelsturm. The real Cassiel - a sleeping god embodying Fate that Anthoniel forcibly tried to resurrect and corrupt - guides them into the dreamlike Maelsturm, allowing them to save their friends and even Sephia once again.

However, Persona corrupts the dream's Sephia and turns her into a Transcendant, a mockery of her true self, in order to torture Adrian. Then, as Persona begins to regain the upper hand, his friends sacrifice themselves to allow Adrian to live, defeat Persona, and finally get out of the cursed River of Souls. However, behind the River is only hollowness and darkness.

Adrian then confronts Tredecimus, Persona's true form, shattering Adrian's hope for a happy end and using his superior power in order to confront Adrian with death. However, Adrian's Advent, now imbued with the sacrifice of his friends and the power of Cassiel, manifests in a more complete form, allowing him to wield Akashic powers, defeat Tredecimus, and repair his friends' soul, creating a perfect dreamworld when he, alongside those he has learned to appreciate and even love, can finally find happiness.

### Another Memory

In yet another Timeline, where Adrian and Sephia do not exist, Zantaz, Leighton and Serana Crimson, three mercenaries, are instead chosen as Isaac's test subjects. The main Arc still happens as expected, with obviously major divergences, such as romance between Kagekami and Serana, as well as Serana's status as Ultimate Transcendant. However, the end remains the same for the three protagonists, resting inside Maelsturm for eternity after one last sacrificial battle.

## Characters

* Adrian of Asura
* Sephia of Alruna
* Nathaniel Locke
* Anthoniel of Alruna
* Kagekami Hikari
* Lucian Lumine
* Aurelian Albedo
* Aesir Nemesea
* Serene Patior
* Isaac Nigredo
* Tredecimus
* Leighton
* Zantaz
* Serana Crimson

## Trivia

* Heartless Memories is the first Story Arc to integrate a "Seven Sins" model.
* It is also the first Story Arc using the word **Advent**.