The Story

## Arc 1

The player arrives from The Ground to Skywatch Headquarters, a floating group of islands which house the defense operations for all the islands in the Skylands. The player enlists as a private in the ranks and is tasked, along with a secret undercover group of detectives, to find the source of trouble for the islands that are nearby Skywatch HQ. The group splits, two people going to Cypher Rock, you, the lone private, goes to investigate Oakwood. After finding little evidence to help your case, you return to HQ. After failing to hear back from the others of your detective group, you are sent on your own sky-ship to investigate. Arriving at Cypher Rock, you find out that their ship has crashed into the lavapool below the tower, leaving the other detectives stranded. After saving them and taking massive damage to your ship due to heat, the group enters the tower to find henchmen in each level. At the top level, you find that it is shrouded in black mist, and a woman standing in the middle of the room, who turns out to be named Heaven. The black mist disappears through the window, and, having her only method of escape blocked, Heaven fights the group of detectives. After defeating Heaven, she breaks through the group, limping, and goes down the tower, and exits to her boat and sails away. An attempt is made to catch her, but the integrity of the ship's hull could not permit a pursuit.

Arriving back at HQ, the detectives mention that they were attacked by a ghost ship that vanished after downing their vessel. Patrol is set out to find the ship. Deciding to continue with the path to find whatever is happening around the Skylands, the player accepts an offer to live nearby to help. The player goes to Callaway Island to talk to the landlord and island geologist, Abel Tusk.

The next day, the player is requested to return immediately to Skywatch HQ. Intelligence was gathered overnight about the whereabouts of a strange "dark mist", which was located in the proximity of Oceania Port. Getting closer to the island, the group spots a ship docked there, matching the description of the ghost ship seen the day before. The two ships are then engaged in a battle, having two outcomes and ending in the same result: The ghost ship flees. Within the airtight chamber underwater, a sunken sky-ship is discovered. A map uncovered points to a marking on the island of Majestica. With raised suspicion, the group sets out for the long trip to Majestica.

As Majestica begins to show up, so does the ship, circling the mountaintop on the island. Docking, the group sets out for the mountain, but is forced to help the denizens of the island recover their "spirit" from the Tree of Transcendence. Approaching the mountain, now called "Mt. Anaa", the dark mist is seen on the summit. The group runs into multiple mercenaries on their way up, but when they reach the top, they see Heaven again, talking to another woman who is enshrouded in the dark mist, seemingly having no eyes. Naming herself "The Darkness", she explains how she will rid the world of everything but herself and her empire, and the three detectives. After the speech, shadow zealots emerge from the mist surrounding her, thus beginning a fight. When they are defeated, Heaven runs away and The Darkness flies away, setting fire to the group's ship, causing it to fall away to the Ground. Chasing Heaven once again, she disappears into Edgewood Forest with a flash of light. Using the Rainbow Temple, the detectives are teleported back to HQ and lay out their findings.

Scripts recovered from the sunken ship by another team say that "The evil that comes from darkness can only be depleted from sacred spring", Implying that water from the island of Sacred Springs has to be used to defeat her. Gathering the water in a glass vial, the final thing to do is find where the Darkness' next location will be, and intercept her. A patrol is sent out to look for the ghost ship. Meanwhile, the player passes the time in any way possible until the patrol returns at sunset, with reports of a ghastly ship around the outer island of Hennessey. Immediately, the player and the detectives, along with a task force go to the island.

Upon arriving, they are met with a scary sight: The volcano is active and there is a blue dot in the distance. The temple they arrive at is full of enemies, and the task force attempts to fight them while the detectives attempt to penetrate the wall that prevents access to the volcano. To all three of the detective's surprise, the task force was defeated, and the enemies are advancing towards them. They are forced to flee through an obsidian falcon that is tied to the obsidian phoenix on Callaway.

The player, upon arriving at Callaway, realizes he was the only one who escaped through teleportation. The other detectives do not show up. The player, not wanting to get in any serious trouble and wanting to fight on his own, prepares and takes the obsidian phoenix link to Hennessey without mentioning it to anyone.

When teleported to the island, things are noticeably different. The comet is extremely closer now, and the volcano is dormant. The player notices activity happening near the top of the mountain, which becomes the main objective. Fighting through the temple, the final bosses to get to the other side of the wall are the two dead, possessed detectives. Getting to the other side of the wall, the player needs to do some tricky parkour to avoid the lava flows coming from the volcano. Reaching the platform that faces the comet, the player confronts The Darkness and her multiple present henchmen. She continues what she was saying on Majestica: She will bring down the world with the comet. Then, they are teleported in a beam of might to the comet, leaving some henchmen behind to deal with the player. This is where a major junction occurs: After defeating the henchmen, the player is teleported to the comet, where they have to fight four henchmen, including Heaven. *If the player fails this battle, he won't die, as The Darkness spares him for the rest of his life on the comet, as the rest leave and the player falls with the comet to the Ground, destroying everything*. If the player wins the fight against the henchmen, they all die and The Darkness escapes to Epidea, where she will channel the comet herself. (This is presumably where she went if the player failed to win the comet fight anyways.) The player takes a craft that was hidden behind some trees and flies it to the Outskirts of Epidea, where they must travel and fight to get to mainland Epidea to stop The Darkness. On top of the cave, the player catches The Darkness. To stall the player, she releases the dark zealots as she flies up to Ascended Epidea. The Darkness is going to channel the island's peculiar ability to teleport objects and use it to slam the comet into the ground at an infinite speed. Rising to the islands above, the player arrives to an arena-like place, where they must fight cloud guardians. On the final stage and island of Epidea, The Darkness, thinking she would succeed, has dispersed her dark mist into the beacons on all four sides of the island. The player reaches her, who is now vulnerable to attack, and cannot escape. The player uses the sacred spring water on The Darkness, who screams and goes to a beacon to gain her strength back, dissolving that beacon's dark power. She needs to be defeated 4 times for the four beacons, then she dies. *This is another junction. If the player fails, he will be spared to die a more horrific death by armageddon, and the Darkness succeeds. Keep in mind, if the player takes this path, the game will be over and will have to start from the last save point.*

 With The Darkness gone, the comet that once threatened the Skyways now safely orbits Hennessey, and the troubles are gone. The player, unable to go back to Callaway due to the Skywatch looking for him, flees to Riquishe, where the first arc ends.

## Arc 2

The player is found here crafting obsidian swords with the nearby Lavaworks on the island. An operative from Skywatch meets him there, telling him that they are aware that you abandoned and are labeled as an outlaw for deserting. The operative says that Skywatch will move in on him within the day, and that he should leave. The player thanks him, and leaves the island on his sky-ship, where he then is spotted and has to engage in a battle. After that, the player's ship crash lands on Bayview, a Skywatch outpost. In order to go about the Skies unnoticed, the player will have to steal a Skywatch vessel. Going through the caves, the player overhears soldiers talking about a new and big threat to the Skyways. The player is caught in an attempt to listen further, and fights out of the cave. Sneaking aboard a vessel, the player commandeers it from the crew and sails away, following the plots on the maps, leading to an island that the player has never heard of, called Erebus. It is low in the sky, so the player repels down to the island, where it has gone into ghastly chaos. Ghosts inhabit the island, and the player finds out that it is Erebus, the darkness between Earth and the underworld, *Tartarus*, which sits within the caves of the island. Through searching and asking souls, the player eventually reaches the lava river Styx, where he finds a lone man wearing a very long coat and a hood over his head. His name is Charon, who helps out the player, telling them that the person you want to find is Lucius Demorr, King of the night. Following Charon along the river Styx, the player arrives at Tartarus, within a large volcano. Charon tells the player that when he kills Hades, the God of Death, he will need to go to another island called Phobius to look for clues and track him down. The player enters the walls of Tartarus and climbs the main tower to get to Hades, fighting souls along the way. Now outside on the volcano, the player and Hades fight, using the entire top of the mountain to do so. Hades reveals that he was "a diversion", and wisps away into nothing.

Remembering immediately what Charon said on the river, the player travels back to the stolen sky-ship and uses the on-board map to find Phobius. Arriving on Phobius with no information to go off of, the player searches the entirety of the small island, and finds a castle floating off the coast of the island, *Castle Hierro*. Jumping the gap to the other island, the player is met with ghosts again, but different than the lost souls on Erebus. The player eventually finds out that Lucius is hiding somewhere not of the Skylands, but one person knows—always knows—where he is: The Harbinger of Hope, on Snowdrift. The player flies across the Skylands, trying not to run into any Skywatch vessels, on his way to Snowdrift, not marked on the map.

Snowdrift is very high in the sky, making the player having to climb a frozen waterfall to reach the island. Upon arriving, the people ask if the player is looking for Hope. Her actual name is Hope, and she does not reside there anymore, instead, usually meditates atop Toadstool Tower, guarded by Spectral Guardians to prevent her peace from being broken. Arriving at the tower, the player sees a bright glow on top of it. The player unfortunately fights all guardians on all the lower levels to get to Hope. When reaching the top level, Hope says that she foresaw your visit, and is currently trying to use the life of the mushrooms below to find out telepathically where Lucius is.

Hope elects to come with the player to consult an accomplice of hers who resides on a ruined island named Alec. She says he also meditates and has created several "autocosms" of his own, which he used to communicate and interact with his thoughts. Hope makes the ship travel extremely fast to get to where Alec resides, on Old Ultria.

The ship arrives at Old Ultria, an island with gates and a big tower. Alec exits the tower and greets both of them, gesturing to an island in the far distance, saying that Lucius resides there, and is planning to destroy the island, and will be one of many brought into the "dark realm". The player thinks all of this is extremely bogus, but doesn't want to die either, so the player and Hope travel to Arkus, where, yet again, chaos is in full swing. The player helps the citizens get ready to push into the Silent Forest. Along the way, the player discovers that Lucius is planning to use the energy within the island of Arkus to rein the rest of the Skylands. *It always seems to have something to do with the Skylands...* With a lot of back and forth, the player and Hope reach the Vast Archipelago, looking at the Rheian Fortress, enshrouded in a dark whirlpool. The player is captured and Hope disappears.

The player wakes up in what seems like an underground dungeon. The player escapes, and manages to make it all the way to the top, where Hope and Lucius are mentally fighting it out, with the entire fortress seemingly being thrown about in space. The player hits Lucius, causing the illusions to end immediately, leading to a long physical fight, which Hope helps with as she is still mentally fighting Lucius, causing strange things to happen during the battle, like gravity switching direction, walls change, and other things. When the fight is complete, Lucius flies into the air, begins to glow and disappears. Hope falls to the ground, burnt out. She tells the player that he is still alive, and on an island called Roca De Fuego. She dies after that, dissipating into gold crystals.

With a sense of determination and fear, the player crosses Arkus back to their sky-ship, sailing to the volcanic island of Roca De Fuego. Lucius awaits at the peak of the island, waiting for the player. It is then revealed that they are cousins, and the player will never get the powers that were bestowed on himself. To complete *annuli,* the destiny of their entire family and ancestors, the final two people in said family have to fight to the death to complete the annulus. While the player is walking up the stairs to him, he speaks of how he killed both his parents to limit the player from ever learning about the powers he can have. Now all he has to do is kill the player, and he is victorious.

The following fight plays out in a very different way. The player and Lucius stand in rings surrounded by lava, so neither of them can leave. They have to use their "powers" to kill the other. However, as a result of the player's parents being killed, the player never learned how to use the powers. Suddenly, a golden ring of crystals appears and surround the player, allowing the player to use the sharp crystals to their will by thinking about it. The battle can only be won when the sun is up, as the lava rings slowly creep inwards as well, and when the sun is fully set, the two will burn alive. *This is a junction, sadly. If the player fails to defeat Lucius Demorr, the lava ring collapses and kills the player, causing the player to start over at the beginning of Erebus, as the player's soul was saved by Charon, creating a sort of barrier from starting over from the beginning to help the player kill Lucius.* When the player defeats Lucius, he burns away in the lava, and the player's lava ring solidifies into obsidian.

The player sees the golden crystals spin around him, and fly up into the air, and disappear, except for one, which falls at the player's feet.

## Exodus Arc

Alec summons the player over to Old Ultria to tell them about a terrible future he saw in one of his autocosms. He saw a large ice crystal, inside it was a rupture in the astral plane, and seeing as he could not go and stop it, he has to send the player to the island it is on. However, only one other person in all of the universe knows about it, and they reside on an island that has recently gone through a troubled time: Exodus. Alec has no idea where on the island this person is, as the person has no name at all. The player will have to search the entirety of the island and find information by word of mouth. Exodus does not exist in the same group as the Skylands, and is orders of magnitude larger than the other islands. Alec sends the player on their way towards Exodus.

The sky-ship falls to the Ground immediately after the player steps off of it, eliminating any way of exit or escape. The player enters an old tavern and finds a ghost, who questions why they had come to this terrible place. The ghost disappears before the player responds. They are teleported to the next island in the Southern Islands, where they meet 3 undead soldiers. *It is impossible for the player to die in this battle, but can be knocked out and wake up on the unreachable island, and jump an insane distance back to the graveyard, where the fight can be attempted again.* After defeating them, the player advances to the next island in the queue, which has pillars circling an area. All pillars but one have some sort of gem embedded in them, and one is missing a gem. The player realizes that the crystal that was dropped to him fits perfectly. The gem is inserted, and beams of light radiate from all the pillars into the center of the circle, then go to a nearby pillar which bounces the light off of it, leading to the mainland Exodus. With a deep breath, the player is teleported into some trees, and like that, are stuck there. *The player beyond this point cannot leave Exodus.*

 The area that the player landed in has been demolished, and all there seem to be around are charred ruins and ghosts. This is the Alcove, once a very populous town.