TDP: Chapter four: Soa and Paradise

'''Note that this summary is based off of an older version of the story. I will remove this note when it is up to date.'''

Also not all of this chapter is finished.

It's been 2 months since the sons of mayfil were driven from Demingrad. The dragoons have partly gone their seperate ways. Claire returned to Seles to take care of her mother and younger sister. Adalant returned to his shattered underground kingdom to formally hold his father's funeral, which was postponed due to Adalant's absence. Torah returned to Rogue to investigate rumors of a stolen dragoon spirit. Marcus stayed in Demingrad to take care of Luanna and to command the knights, who had much renovating to do in Isabella's wake.

Aero and Rocland returned to Ulara to check up on Dart. Charle reminds Aero that the dragoons' job isn't done yet, for Melbu Frahma and the Sons of Mayfil are still at large. From her, Aero learned that the Sons of Mayfil had returned to their home and haven't made any action yet. Melbu Frahma, currently possessing a spiritual body of the Darkfire Dragoon spirit, is at large and it is unknown where he has gone. Aero decides to journey through the lands and gather all of the dragoons so that he can finish what they started.

Aero and Rocland are entrusted with Dyrmel, a white dragon cared for in Ulara, with which they can use to fly to Seles, and are also given a whistle to call him if needed. Dart, having been nursed back to health by the winglies, decides to accompany Aero and Rocland, who are first heading for Seles.

At Seles, Dart is reunited with Shana and his daughters, and after a small heart-to-heart discussion about what is to come, Dart, Rocland, and Claire leave Seles to go to the underground Castle to find Adalant.

((During this time, they can go to other areas, like Hoax, Lohan, and Bale, for sidequests and cutscenes))

Aero and the others meet with Adalant in the castle, who had just come back from his father's funeral. Adalant, feeling both guilt for attacking his maddened father, and hatred for the Sons of Mayfil who manipulated and used him and his father, gladly joins Aero and the others.

((during this time and throughout the rest of the game, you can use Dyrmel to travel all over Endiness for other side quests/cutscenes))

The Dragoons then head for Mille Seseau and then Demingrad to pick up Marcus. Due to the late time they arrive, Marcus asks the dragoons to stay the night at the palace and leave during the day. That night, Marcus awakens Aero and asks him to meet him at the forest.

At the forest, Marcus challenges Aero to a one-on-one duel, motivated by his concern that Aero, despite having a new and powerful Dragoon spirit, may not be up to the task of being the leader like Dart. Aero, realizing his integrety has been challenged, puts his dragoon spirit in a bag and places it on the ground, making a point that he does not need a dragon's power to prove his worth as a leader.

((The battle starts out with Marcus in his normal form, but half way through he uses the dragoon spirit.))

After a pretty tough battle, Aero parries Marcus away with his bare hands, proving that his will surpasses his own physical strength and the strength of his Dragoon spirit. Marcus accepts him as a leader, and the next morning, the dragoons head to Rogue to find Torah.

The dragoons arrive at Rogue and speak with Grand Master Haschel. From him they learn that Kongol was attacked and defeated by a thief and his dragoon spirit was stolen, and that Torah had gone off to find the thief. Aero talks to Kongol, who described the thief as a shadowy figure with surprising strength, who ambushed him and cut him down, not giving him the chance to fight back. Aero and the others set out into the jungle to find Torah, worrying for him.

After going through the maze-like jungle, they meet up with Torah, who has cornered the thief in a small cave. They enter and battle the shadow-like thief, but it's impossible to hit the enemy unless all three of your characters are in their dragoon form. (the cave is too dark and the thief is hiding in the darkness, so the only way to light up the cave is the light of three dragoon spirits)

The thief collapses and is cornered by Aero and Torah. The light reveals the thief as a girl. Suddenly falling in an awkward infactuation with Aero, the thief introduces herself as "Gennie" and despite being defeated, does not wish to give up the dragoon spirit she stole.Torah insists they take her back to the village to have her be judged by Haschel, but when they return, they are told that a pirate ship came and attacked the village, and Kongol exchanged his freedom for the safety of the villagers, and was taken aboard on their ship. Aero suggests to use Byrmel to find the ship to rescue Kongol, but Gennie wants to come with them, explaining she knows the pirates who took Kongol and their existence is the reason she wanted the power of a Dragoon.

Aero agrees only because he didn't think anyone on the islant would be strong enough to keep Gennie in in one place. And so they set off on Byrmel to chace down the pirate ship.

Highlights mode
((I'm leaving out some details so I can skim through the parts that are boring to write and get to the ending. I want to at least get the entirety of the summary done, if nothing else.))

The dragoons found the ship, defeated the captain along with Gennie's help, and rescued Kongol. However, when Gennie offered Kongol his dragoon spirit back, it stuck to her hand and began to glow, recognizing her as the 7th dragoon of the earth.

Byrmel gives the dragoons a direct link to Charle, who advises the dragoons to find Melbu Frahma's spirit, currently wandering the remains of the Divine Tree. However, Aero decides to use the now unoccupied ship and sail to Mayfil instead, seeing the Sons of Mayfil as a more imminent threat to Endiness.

The ship sails to Mayfil, but are attacked by demons near the city's shore.

After fending off the attack, Aero and the others head into Mayfil's lower district. Everything looks different from before. The blue sky is actually visible now, and the city is completely dead and inactive.

After traversing through the area, Aero and the dragoons reach the core of the city, where the Signet once stood. There they find Grey, holding the blade of mayfil, now fully charged and in it's transformed Lute state.

A cutscene would play of Grey attempting to kill off all the dragoons by flooding them with thousands of tortured souls flying out of the lute, while Aero counterattacks by transforming into the Divine EX Dragoon and using a magic attack called "Divine Dragon Rebellion" where he fires everything he has at once. (ie; two small DG cannons, DG balls, and waves of cosmic energy from his wings) The magic attack clashes with Grey's attack and cancel each other out.

Grey smirks, sarcastically complementing Aero on his newfound power, and dashes away.

The dragoons chase him down a dark corridor and are suddenly encountered with seven spirits. These spirits transform into shadowed incarnations of the dragoons from the dragon campaign, although their faces are blank and hidden by darkness.

When the dragoons are prepared to go into battle with them, the seven incarnations are suddenly cut down by someone moving at blinding speeds. All the incarnations are destroyed, and an 8th silhouette stands before the dragoons. Marcus feels a chill run down his spine. The man has grey armor, platinum hair, wingly wings, and the legendary dragon buster. His face, which is visible and detailed unlike the previous incarnations, resembles that of Marcus.

Aero gets ready to transform into his divine EX dragoon form, but Marcus stops him at the last second, explaining that the dragon buster can kill dragoons in one shot.

The silent platinum haired knight attacks the dragoons, and a battle ensues with the dragoons being unable to transform without risking death.

After the fight, the dragoons are exhausted, and the mysterious Wingly lunges at Aero, but Marcus steps in and goes toe-to-toe with the man. After a lightning-fast midair sword fight, Marcus is knocked down and the wingly steps forward to make the final blow, but hesitates at the last second. Marcus's eyes widen as he realizes who the wingly really is.

Aero takes the opprotunity to lunge at the wingly while he is inexplicably paralyzed and stabs him through the stomach. The wingly twitches wildly, drops his sword, and slowly evaporates into dust and hallowed light.

Aero looks at Marcus, who looks like's in shock. Aero asks if he's okay, and Marcus replies that he feels like he knew the person attacking them. Aero tells him to shake it off, and the dragoons proceed through the corridor.

The dragoons continued on to find Grey and Zene fighting. It seemed as though Grey wanted to use Zene's life energy to power the blade of mayfil so he could fire it again. Aero and the dragoons attack grey before he has the chance to kill Zene, who is knocked onto the floor.

The dragoons defeat grey, but Zene escaped in the confusion. Aero and the others clime a long flight of stairs and meet Zene, who is tinkering with some kind of glowing orb. he then begins to float up in the air and claims that he has found the gateway to the sacred realm where Soa sleeps, and that the key is already on its way to the doorway. Aero deduces that the key must have something to do with Melbu Frahma's ghost.

Grey comes up from behind the dragoons and asks Zene to help him fight, but Zene refuses, saying he could get rid of the dragoons at any time. Grey laughs. "You better do what I say, buddy. Don't let these bruises and cuts fool you! I could still destroy you with one arm tied behind my back."

Zene smirks and grabs the hilt of his sword. Doing this suddenly unleashes an overwhelming surge of power from Zene's body. the dragoons step out of the way as Zene unleashes a gigantic ball of pure energy at Grey, who attempts to block it with his bare hands, but fails and vanishes in the blast.

Zene then flies through a window with a view of the ocean, and vanishes. Aero in the others make chase by sea, using the ship they acquired from the pirates.

((I may have made some mistakes with the landscape in chapter 4. Just bare with me for now, since I couldn't make high nor hare of that world map >>))

As Aero and the dragoons give chase on their ship, the sky begins to get dark and fog begins to set itself around the ship. Suddenly they feel a loud crash coming from the side of the ship. Virages begin to emerge from the ocean depths and try to bring the ship down. Despite their best efforts, the dragoons are outnumbered by the Virages, who pile themselves on the ship. Before it can completely sink, Dyrmel flies in and the dragoons grab on to his back, and as they fly away, the dragoons watch as their ship is devoured by the Virages and the ocean.

Byrmel takes them to shore, where they meet several winglies from Ulara who were sent by Charle. They explain that Dyrmel is too small to carry seven people around for long, and just getting them all to the shore exhausted him. The winglies explain that Charle has set up a teleportation point in Ulara that can take them to the center of Divine Tree grave, but Dyrmel cannot take them to Ulara, and they must instead find another wingly city that can first teleport them to Ulara. Marcus suggests they go to the Wingly forest in Deningrad.

((During this time, sidequests would be doable))

Aero and the others use a teleporter in the Wingly forest to go to Ulara. At Ulara they are given a final farewell/good luck speech by the winglies, and are sent on their way to the Divine Tree graveyard.

Years after the explosion, the area where the Divine Tree once stood became a small wood-based Island and the area around it had been inexplicably flooded by poisonous waters. The dragoons were sent to the island's coast, and ahead of them was a cave-like structure. They enter in search of either Zene or Melbu.

After much searching and struggles, they come across Melbu in the center of the cave. He is chanting something in front of a flat polished looking wall with glowing Wingly symbols. Melbu turns and takes a defensive position, surprised that anyone was able to find him. Aero demands that Melbu return his dragoon stone. Melbu smirks and agrees to do so after he has reclaimed his godhood. Aero and the others attack, not allowing Melbu to complete whatever ritual he is performing.

The dragoons enter battle with Melbu Frahma, a spiritual figure. The only part of his body that is solid is the Darfire Dragoon armor he is wearing.

After a great battle, Aero strikes down Melbu, and his spirit seperates from the dragoon spirit, which rolls across the floor as Aero picks it up quickly. Melbu's spirit, weakened and pain stricken, attempts to complete the ritual he was performing, but suddenly Zene's sword comes flying down at his head and hits him through his whole body. The sword absorbs Melbu Frahma's spirit like a vacuum as Zene comes floating downward to grab the sword's hilt. Zene smirks, exclaiming that absorbing Melbu has given him the knowledge he was looking for and that he now knows how to open the door to the sacred realm of the gods. Aero attempts to stop him, but is pushed back by Zene's raw power. Zene then completes the ritual Melbu Frahma started by slicing the wall with the glowing symbols in half. The wall opens up to reveal a swirling vortex of color and energy. Zene steps in and, after a heart shattering scream, the vortex suddenly vanishes, revealing a set of stairs.

Aero and the others follow the stairs. (during this time, other bosses and levels would take place)

The dragoons finally reach the island's peak. Awaiting them is Zene, now de-robed and wearing only dark grey pants and black boots. His eyes are glowing with golden light.

Aero calls out to Zene in anger, but Zene refuses to answer to his own name, claiming that he is no longer Zene, but in actuality, is the god of creation himself, Soa, possessing Zene's body.

"Soa?" claims that he is unpleased with the way the world has turned out and that it is time to clean it out of all life and return it to its former barren form so that he may plant another seed and restart life anew.

Aero whole-heartedly refuses, shouting "If I have to defy the gods themselves to protect my home, then, as wielder of the Divine Dragoon and therefore the incarnate of the king of all Dragons, I declare war!"

"Soa?" laughs, seeing the idea of a war with the king of dragons as something poetic, and accepts Aero's challenge.

However, the other dragoons are afraid to fight against the creator himself. But after a moving speech by Aero, the confidence of the dragoons is restored and they march onward towards their final battle.

((The stuff about the Seed of Death is part of the story, but everything else I write about pertaining to Soa-Zene's boss forms can be discussed if they are deemed unfavorable.))

In Soa-Zene's first form, whenever 1/4th of his HP is taken away, he creates a glowing seed in his hand and throws it into the air, and the seed descends next to him. The dragoons then have 3 turns to destroy the seed before it hits the ground, or else it's game over.

Soa-Zene staggers backward, smirking. announcing that he has grown weary of wasting his time with mortals, he creates a seed in his hand, calling it the "Seed of the Death Tree" and that will devour the world and rob it of all its life so that he may start life anew with a second seed for a new Divine Tree. But before he has time to plant it, Aero flies at him and cuts the seed in half right out of Soa-Zene's hand. This angers the possessed wingly, and his body begins to grow and transform into a Virage-looking monster.

In Soa-Zene's second form, he will use powerful magic to set the ground on fire. The only way to survive it is staying in dragoon form. He will also sprout more seeds, but they do not sink into the ground but instead attack the dragoons. Destroying them will refill the SP gauge of the Dragoon who destroyed it, allowing them to stay in dragoon form longer.

The monster staggers back and falls to his hands and knees. Aero and the others advance, but are pushed back by a wave of golden light. The monster then rises back to his feet. The upper body then de-attaches itself from the legs, sprouts wings and float as its body increases in size. Large black scales grow on its body, covering it. The arms materialize into giant blade arms, and on the top of the Virage's head stands Soa-Zene's normal body, seemingly riding and controlling the virage beast.

This third form has powerful physical and magical attacks, and can only be directly hurt by Dragoon magical and physical attacks. The good news is that he has less HP than the previous forms and regular additions still gather SP from him.

After a long battle, the monster begins to shake and then explode. Soa-Zene lands on the ground, panting. The dragoons advance toward him. Aero notices that Zene's glowing eyes are gone.

Zene curses himself for losing to the dragoons. Aero deduces that Zene must've used up all the energy he gathered from the sacred realm, and that claiming to be Soa was just an act to scare them.

Zene staggers back to his feet and claims that the battle is far from over so long as he still has access to the sacred realm of the gods. Zene holds his hand up and opens another glowing vortex, and then jumps in, only this time Aero jumps in after him before the portal closes in on both of them.

Aero and Zene battle eachother one on one in the realm of the gods. In this world, Aero is weaker while in his human form, and he slowly loses HP from the strain of being in the realm of the gods. However, spiritual energy is fluent here, and additions give double SP, allowing Aero to enter his dragoon form faster. Aero doesn't take damage while in his Divine EX Dragoon form, and his dragoon physical attack looks different and is stronger.

Zene uses physical attacks with his sword and wingly magic. Zene uses his sword to absorb sacred energy from the realm. If he does this 3 times, the game is over. Aero can stop Zene from doing this by attacking and destroying Zene's sword. While Zene's sword is destroyed, Zene will only use wingly magic, but his sword can regenerate after a set period of time.

After a great and terrible battle within the realm of the gods, Aero and Zene clash swords on more time. However, Zene suddenly breaks his own sword, releasing a ray of sacred energy which blasts Aero away, and breaks his Divine EX armor, leaving him in his human state. Zene laughs at Aero's helplessness, and holds out his arms as he attempts to absorb the sacred energy without the use of his sword. Aero, remembering his promise to Marcus that he would not rely on his power as a dragoon in order to save the world, lunges forward at Zene with all his might. Aero's blade plunges right through Zene's chest. Aero and Zene exchange final words, and then Zene's body explodes, seemingly taking Aero with him.

The area where the gate once was begins to pulcate and the area around the Dragoons begins to shatter and explode. Marcus leads everyone away from the Island, but they now have no way of getting home, not having enough strength to fly to safe land in their dragoon forms and having nothing but poisonous waters beneath them. They suddenly hear the horn of a battleship. It's a ship resembling that of the Queen Fury Mach II, only larger and more heavily armored for protection against the water. The dragoons glide down towards the deck. While Marcus and the other dragoons are catered to by the ship's crew Rocland runs to the tip of the deck and watches the explosion, calling out to Aero in sorrow and grief.

Meanwhile, Aero, heavily battle-scarred by Zene's initial self detonation, still in the realm of the gods, reaches in his pocket for something, and then his whole body flashes in a red glow.

Six months later, back in Seles, Rocland was put the finishing touches on a statue of Aero built in the center of town. The other Dragoons have come to pay their respects to the one who sacrificed their life to defeat Zene and save Indiness from destruction. Dart had come home that morning and had been trying to get Rocland to take a break from the statue so that he could tell him something, but Rocland refused, saying he was almost done. Suddenly, someone grabs Rocland's shoulder and says "That's a really great statue!" It's Aero, now completely recovered. Rocland, Claire and all of Aero's family gathers around him and they all have an emotional reunion. They all have a feast and tell stories while the credits roll.

Adalant tells of how he has been made king and how he has renamed his kingdom "Nautilicia" after his mother.

Marcus tells of how Luanna made the decision of removing the Queenship and how he was made king of Deningrad, the first Wingly king in over 10,000 years, and that the winglies of the wingly forest came to Deningrad for the first time to celebrate.

Gennie tells of when she payed a visit to her mother and about how she told her that she had become a dragoon, and that she could've sword that she felt her father's presence with them.

Torah seemed like he was going to tell a story of him and Claire, but Claire kicked him in the shin, telling him under her breath to tell another story, so he instead told them about how he won the Endiness tournament in Lohan, without even using his dragoon spirit, and how he had to overcome a powerful wingly opponent.

Claire told the story of how she had to tell her parents and sister about Aero's whereabouts as a means to guilt-trip Aero.

Rocland told them about the garden that he grew behind his house, and that in only a short time it has grown beautiful, and how at first he thought that it was Aero's spirit causing the crops to grow so well. Aero laughed awkwardly.

Aero, at last, told them the story of how he escaped the realm of the gods. In order to survive the explosion, Aero transformed into the Red Eyed Dragoon once more, and flew across time and space, only to hit a white void. The last thing he remembered was being picked up by Dart in the woods, who found him only by chance.

And Dart told them about their pitstop at Bale before heading back to Seles. He told them about how Aero, Albert, and himself got to sit together and talk, and how the three had a friendly spar in order to keep Albert's spirit sharp. Aero said it was one of the most surreal moments of his life, even more so than fighting against Zene.

Later that night, Aero and Rocland sit at the edge of the shore where they first found their dragoons, and they talk and reminisce of their adventures together. Rocland asks if Zene really died, and is the threat to Endiness really over. Aero says that because Zene was using Sacred energy and had godlike powers, he can never be really sure if Zene is truly dead, but he believes that as long as the Dragoons exist, Endiness will always be in good hands.

~End of Chapter 4 and the game

Links
Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4 Your on this one.