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| Chapter Nine: At the Beginning |
| Our journey to the past exceeded everyone's expectations. Aside from great battles, we encountered what we could never have anticipated: Love, betrayal, and ultimately, redemption. Yes, we managed to stop the Red Dragon's rise to power, but while doing so, we learned more about ourselves than we planned. Philip fell in love with Ariadne. Sito sold us out to the man who killed his father, only to defeat him in the end. The Red Dragon's disciple, Amorette, joined our side. In the end though, our fate was |
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| inescapeable. Once we accomplished the impossible and stopped the Red Dragon, all of us, including poor Amorette, were swallowed up into a time bubble. Without the Red Dragon, none of us technically existed. We should have remained there forever, imprisoned between time and space, but we didn't. Despite our best efforts, our exploits became somewhat known around the realm. Philip's father, then, decided to use this to his advantage. He summoned us out of the time bubble and tried to turn Philip into one of his followers. It didn't work, even when Adriana turned traitor and confessed our deepest secrets to him. She was just afraid of returning to oblivion, I think. I for one can't blame her and we made amends. We |
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| decided to leave the realm, in the hopes that we would never encounter the people we had known in our other timeline again. Halfway to Padua, however, trouble found us again. We were passing through a beautiful, peaceful kingdom called Shaldani when all of a sudden, a mystical barrier went up around the country's borders. No one could cross in or out. Then, a great green portal opened up in the middle of the sky. As we watched in horror, the people around us dropped dead, yet we were alived. We tried to fight back, but our magic was useless. Shaldani, we would quickly learn, |
| was under the attack of an outer realm race known as the Ebene. They had trapped the inhabitants and rendered all magic useless. Now, with their portals, they were sucking up the souls of the people. Our souls were protected because we had time traveled. Anyone who had been exposed to the Circuits of Time was safe from the attack. No one knows why. Exhausted though we were, we knew in our very hearts that we couldn't leave these people to suffer. We made our way to an abandoned boarding house called the Phoenix House. For some reason, the Ebene spell was cancelled out within the walls of the House and we could use our powers once again. Combining forces with others like us, we set up a rebellion. |
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| The story of my past ends here and the present begins. I would be amiss, however, if I didn't spare one mention to a certain individual known as Lucien. Lucy was one of the first people we met in Shaldani and we instantly took a dislike to each other. The next thing we knew, we were carrying on a secret affair. Lucien became the first person in the world who ever loved me the way I had wanted Jacob to love me. It's fitting my story should end with him. |