Act 1

This is where the story of our two protagonist begin their adventure to become saviors of their very world. As time progresses, they'll soon uncover the secret behind Erden's curse, as well as the unknown dangers that shall arrive before them.

## **Act 1 Prologue: The Pandemonium Begins**

The Pandemonium was a recurrent nightmare that devastates all and occurs once every 100 years in Westland, Erden. Yet...Having the Pandemonium occurring earlier than expected a mere 18 years ago was quite shocking indeed.

A young girl, Rizette, one of our protagonists, and her even younger brother, Theo, are desperately escaping from an angry beast in a swirling storm. Somewhere nearby, a frightened boy arrives with his friend, a Hunter with a pretty familiar face. His name is Finn, our other protagonist who will purge this Erden from the Eternal.

As Finn spots a Lightling in the bushes, you are prompted a tutorial in which you would learn how to capture monsters with a tool, and how damage affects the probability. Eventually, it works and you successfully capture your first monster.

*Roar! Roar!* As a noise so loud startles Elran and Finn, a mysterious power briefly surges within Finn's eyes while his will to protect others is strongly expressed. Finn then meets up with Theo and Rizette to fight the beast and successfully conquers the looming threat. With the monster vanquished from the power of your novel team, Finn discovered that the beast was a Desertle from the far Habsu Deserts and gains awareness that invading monster species are the results and effects of the Pandemonium. Rizette tells Finn that an enigmatic demon was terrorizing and raiding her village of Westcarte, devastating it to absolute bits. As Finn and the crew investigate, Ludmilla, a Captain of the Red Dragon Knight is inspecting the damage caused to Rosse, another village razed to destruction by the foul demon.

Ossia introduces herself as the Illustrious Plaguebringer, an Aeon Lord to the Pandemonium. A brief battle with Ossia ends in a mortifying defeat, with Theo tragically struck unconscious by the Aeon Lord beforehand. All hope is not lost however when a light calls forth towards Finn, and the mysterious power awakens a special crest from within him to give the boy a chance. He ultimately defeats Ossia and forces her to retreat, yet this is most likely not the end for her.

## **Chapter 1: The Proving**

As Finn, Ludmilla, Rizette, and a sleeping Theo continue on their adventures, Finn finds some soul stones in which he uses to summon a powerful character. You are then prompted in a tutorial to Soul Summon a character, in which you are guaranteed a starters character of SR value. With countless battles against more monsters and foes take place, you will add all of these awesome and powerful characters, weapons, and accessories to your roster.

A spar with Herbert is initiated, with you victoriously conquering for the win, proving yourself even more as a new member of the Red Dragon Knights. When Finn encounters a new Warp Point, the crew decide to take a quick rest as Finn asks for some advice from Ludmilla on how to become stronger. A minor character encounters Finn and a quick spar is enough for her to join your adventure. Finn is kindly rejected from using the road to the Habsu Desert which is blocked by a Red Dragon Knight, stating that dangerous monsters are reported from there while he is restricted from advancing pass the bridge since maintenance is still being performed. The road to the Kawazu Wetlands is blocked by a riddler requesting for answers but Finn does not have time for it(Until the story progresses far enough). Baltu Merc, a bandit and a worthy ally, confronts Finn to a battle in which he then suddenly flees after stating that their blades shall cross again soon.

Finally, Rigland is here where Finn decides to visit the equipment shop as the crew pleaded for Theo's awakening. As Finn enters the door he and Ludmilla encounter Luther von Draclow, the Commander of the Red Dragon Knights. Luther and Astrid are told of the legendary crestbearer. Astrid is in shock when a casual guy like Finn is the Crimson Crestbearer as Astrid is the captain of the Red Dragon Knights, while Luther suddenly questions Finn's knowledge about the Pandemonium. Finn answers with half-accurate precision which prompts Luther to share knowledge on how to end the Pandemonium, and that is by slaying the Eternal with the Crimson Crest. Finn agrees he wants to fight the Pandemonium and Ludmilla requests and is granted permission to use the Proving Grounds, your next destination. The Proving Grounds is then unlocked to prove Finn's skill if he is worthy enough.

Finn accepts the challenge, with Ludmilla joining as a proctor to ensure his survival. After a bit of trekking, our hero will encounter and battle a Sarru Sun, who was paid to guard the path you are taking by an unknown. She later flees just like how Baltu Merc does, prompting you to continue on your journey. Finn then enters the Proving Grounds as he is informed that it is the remnants of the Old Kingdom. Finn is also informed by Ludmilla that he must encounter Sentinel Stones to engage in the battles necessary to prove his skills and to hopefully triumph over it. Ludmilla will ensure that the death of Finn doesn't happen during this training regime. On the other hand, Rizette abruptly interrupts the training and pleads that she is allowed to join the Red Dragon Knights as well. Through much of a short conflict, Ludmilla agrees for both Rizette and Finn to undergo the training session together.

As several gruesome and life-threatening battles later, Rizette and Finn are transported to a mysterious room with a glowing light due to Finn's Crimson Crest. Rizette and Finn then know that the Pandemonium is a method of maintaining balance in Erden, as told by the elders in Rizette's village who named it *The Cycle*. Finn cheers up Rizette's motivation knowing that with them together anything is possible.

Finally, the two encounter a strange Sentinel Stone in which they have to fight the almighty Minotaur in which they barely win. Ludmilla then congratulates Finn and Rizette's successful trial and acknowledges them as full fledged members of the Red Dragon Knights and the Pandemonium Task Force. Together, they will triumph and uncover the cure for the Sleeping Death.

## **Chapter 2:The Cure**

For the heroes' first mission in the Pandemonium Task Force, Rizette and Finn have to investigate a Bikki village which has a cure to The Sleeping Death: the plague in which Theo and many other victims are suffering from in an endless sleep. An expedition to the Kawazu Wetlands begins now as Finn, Rizette, Astrid, and Ludmilla head out, with Astrid guarding Northern Rigland. But first Finn must check out headquarters before departing as he is then informed that the town they will be meeting is Kisenkyo. The town's local apothecaries are famous for their medicinal talents and is what the gang are to sought out for.

As Finn enters the threshold of the Kawazu Wetlands he is kindly informed that he is late. Kisenkyo is their first mission with Ludmilla finally and officially joining Finn and Rizette in their travel to the Kawazu Wetlands in search of the cure. All of a sudden, a Wantonwitch approaches with a quick and easy battle. A Yanti Pike too, engages in a not-so-climatic battle. Eventually the crew settles on a quick break, discussing about the annoying swamp terrain slowing down progression. Ludmilla famously talks about her endless passion for training, and plans to even add mud pits for the Red Dragon Knights' future training.

Upon arriving to their destination, there were the sounds of battling emitting from Kisenkyo itself, signifying that it is under attack. The Bikki are fending themselves against the undead monsters as the crew enters to assist the Bikki in fighting them off. As the group is able to fend off the monsters, Finn and the others are introduced to a mighty Aeon Knight: a servant to the Pandemonium so powerful and strong that it overwhelmed them. Then somewhere out of the blue, some mysterious figure wielding a katana swiftly and gracefully killed the beast, rescuing Rizette who almost took a hit head-on. It turns out it was Nagi, a Bikki Swordsmaster, who is also a 'natural charmer' to the girls. Finn always has to get in the way of nice conversations of course, and Ludmilla decides to describe the dire situation in the palace.

Somewhere far from where the heroes are, we are given a glimpse of an Aeon Lord known with luxurious silver hair and a demonic black eye shows up. The silver haired demon and another demon multiple arms exchange a conversation with the armed demon warning the other that if he commited treason against the Eternal, he would inevitably lose his Immortality. He then leaves to conduct his own experiments somewhere else, telling that he would be expecting results from Ossia who was in charge of the invasion in Kisenkyo and Rigland.

While Finn and Rizette meet up with Ludmilla at the threshold of the palace, Lord Omi sorrowfully explains the situation regarding the fact that they don't actually have the cure for The Sleeping Death. However, Omi stated that a Bikki Sage known as Rei holds the key to the cure for the Sleeping Death but due to her being over a thousand years old, she is rarely awake hence the dismay. As the gang depart to find the ancient sage, Nagi is found to be sad as everyone has fallen ill to the Sleeping Death, including the daughter of the chief, Princess Saki. Nagi then agrees to join the Pandemonium Task Force as another ally. The Realm of Reia is where they are departing towards next.

As more battles with familiar friends and foes interrupt the party's adventures, another break is held where Nagi discusses about how he cleans himself in an unusual way which is of course, with mud, specifically Bikki Mud. He indefinitely had attempted to convince the party to do the same thing, including Ludmilla, whom he uses the excuse of training to persuade her.

Finally, the group reach The Realm of Reia by entering a mystical portal. They soon encounter Rei who is informed of the pathetic Pandemonium. Rei understands the properties of the sleeping chemicals which uses yurikabuto, a poisonous herb as a catalyst for speeding up the reaction of microorganism monsters that absorb the mana energy out of the sleeping victim. Twined Moss luckily is the cure for the Sleeping Death, and apparently somewhere in the realm grows this kind of herb. A mystical whale stands in their way of procuring the Twined Moss but was later triumphed over before they successfully head back to Rei to create the cure.

However, an Aegis barrier stands in their way between them and the Sage, created by the mastermind of the plague Ossia and plans on using her Thanatox to rule over Erden. Although a brawl with some Aeon Knights sent by the Aeon Lord results in a successful victory, the threat of losing the sage is still apparent. Somehow even when all hope is lost the group prevails when Rizette is praying to the gods, and a strange angel figure gives an inspirational guidance followed by a Cerulean Crest. This lends her the strength to destroy the Aegis, and proceed to rescue the struggling Sage.

As Ossia continues to taunt Rei, Nagi intervenes while Rei reveals her majestic human form in an attempt to pin the Aeon Lord in place by expending all of her magic. Finn's Crest severely weakens Ossia's body and a major fight against Ossia's awakened form takes place that tests the wits of Finn and his team(And also the player). After a very grueling battle later, Ossia has been fully eradicated by Finn and the Red Dragon Knights. Rei herself is shocked that her magic could not do anything but she finally gets to work in completing the antidote to cure the Sleeping Death.

Later after the cure was successfully concocted, the Red Dragon Knights reported back to Luther that they have conquered an Aeon Lord and found the promising cure for the Sleeping Death. Luther was then surprised that Rizette bears the Cerulean Crest and was able to dominate the Aegis barrier made by an Aeon Lord. Theo soon wakes up after he recovers from the Sleeping Death, while Finn ponders about his mother and father and he promises to make them proud.