Arcane Search Party

The next day, Aluna, a water mage, infiltrated the Arcane Tower, only to find out that Demetria was nowhere to be found, even on its summit, before going to the inn, where she informs Elsword and the rest of the group about said character's disappearance and that she went into hiding, this time in the northernmost point of the Nether Valley. Soon, they completely understood her, who then mysteriously disappears out of nowhere.After Aluna left, just as Frostine came to the inn in order to check on the Arcane Search Party, her niece Starla, who was informed her about Demetria's disappearance, to which she nodded and completely listened to him before she informed him about her coronation ceremony before she left. By the time she walked out of the scene, he informed the rest of his group about her ceremony and went to do their own things.The next day, it was Frostine's coronation ceremony, and the people of the Arcane Realm, as well as her living family members, including her older siblings Naria, Sean and Froid, as well as her sister-in-law Blizzy and her niblings Starla (the daughter of her older sister Naria) and Icicle, along with her friends and allies, including her best friends Fabian and Fawn as well as the entire Arcane Search Party, were invited to the ceremony, where she takes the role of "Empress Arcan", at the age of 20.Now as "Empress Arcan", Frostine thanked everybody for coming to celebrate her ceremony, with her older brother Froid hugging her. Later that night, while everybody except for her were asleep, she was lying awake on her bed, wearing a nightgown, when her friend Makena, who she saved from a stranger trying to lure him into having free candy a long time ago, walks in and tells her "Empress Arcan, Elsword has something for you before he leaves for the Nether Valley with his allies."She replied "What is it?" He responded with "He wants to congratulate you on your ceremony with a dance." She said "Oh okay, thank you for letting me know." before getting up to put her dressing gown over her nightgown and she left the room.As soon as she stepped foot into the Arcane Palace's courtyard, her best friends Fabian and Fawn from Elrios, along with her older brother Froid and the previous holder of her throne, Areum, a former colleague of Crescentia's during the time they were former councilors for a government-in-exile that threatened to overthrow the monarchy of the Ark Kingdom, congratulated her on her coronation, along with the Arcane Search Party, consisting of Elsword, Aisha, Rena, Raven, Ain, Eve, Ara, Elesis, Soyul, Haya, Crescentia, Laby, Noah and Lithia, also of the same dimension as her best friends, who were also there at her ceremony this morning, still in their formal outfits.Froid gets up from his chair and walks to the center of the courtyard, saying to the audience "Thank you all for being there for my sister's coronation ceremony this morning." before whispering to Frostine about the same words his son had said to her, and not long after, Makena showed up in the courtyard and Aisha said to him "Oh hey Makena, what brings you here? Why did you say that my darling is going to dance with your friend?" He replied "Sorry Aisha, I have no idea that you and Elsword were married the whole time."Elsword hugs Aisha from behind, reassuring her that they're still married and in love with each other, and upon seeing the two of them in love with each other, Fabian sighed and said to Frostine "Since my cousin is already married, I'll have to take over his place on his behalf. Is that okay with you?" She responded "Yes."Suddenly, just as Fabian and Frostine were about to dance with each other, a mysterious character appeared out of nowhere, only for her to disappear upon Crescentia noticing her, and she said "Wait, what was she doing here in the first place? I mean, who is she?"Add showed up in formal attire, and said to Crescentia "I don't know, but I wonder who she is." Suddenly, after the dance with Fabian, while Elsword was apologizing to Frostine for the misunderstanding, she told him not to worry about it and in turn, the two shook hands with each other before he kissed her right hand. Soon, she realized that she was wearing a nightgown and left the courtyard to go dress herself in her coronation dress, and by the time she came back to the courtyard, the people who were there were all amazed at her striking dress, to the point her brother Froid had everyone get up from their chairs.Soon, Frostine stared at Makena and asked him to dance with her to show an example to the others, with him agreeing to her request. Meanwhile, although he already chose Aisha as his dance partner, Elsword saw Lithia all alone on her own, as she already saw Rena and Raven choosing each other as their dance partners, along with Eve and Add, Ara and Elesis, Soyul and Haya, Laby and Noah.He comforts her, when suddenly Ain came and told him that he'll be her dance partner, to which he accepted, and now, Crescentia was all alone, after Fabian and Fawn chose each other as their dance partner. Froid, despite being married, offered to become Crescentia's dance partner in the end, and soon, everybody started to dance to classical music.After dancing to the music, they all made a round shape near the center of the courtyard, with Crescentia walking to the center and upon seeing the rest of the people putting their weapons on the ground, causing magic circles in their respective colors to glow under their legs, she puts her staff on the ground, eventually summoning a large magic circle using hidden Arcane runic magic, which has been sealed for a very long time since the death of Emperor Crystallia, the second ruler of the Arcane Realm and the son of its founder Emperor Nothing, who was assassinated by the Runes after they found out about a failed plot to conquer the Rune Empire from his wife Empress Nada, who herself was killed by an incubus in the demon world a long time ago.Soon, within the magic circle, they summoned an legendary beast called Hayan (하얀), who had the head of an arctic wolf and the body of a dragon and was known as "Snowstorm" by the Arcane tribe.Froid said "Snowstorm, is that you?" Hayan replied "Yes, that's me." Soon, she tells the summoners about her story, and how she was sealed in the Arcane Palace by the ancient summoners using their Arcane magic 600 years prior to their arrival until she was unsealed by them.Suddenly, Hayan drops a bombshell to the summoners, saying "Actually, Demetria is nowhere to be found in the Arcane Tower, but rather, she's hiding in the Arcana River." Add said to Hayan "Wait Hayan, there's no way that she could possibly hide in a river!" Eve replied "There's a possibility that if she saw us, she'll run away from us."Froid shows Elsword a picture of the river, completely surrounded by a snowy landscape, white-coated trees and wood.The latter said to the former "I know where she's hiding within this place. Is it the river itself or within those forests?" The former replied "She's probably hidden somewhere within the forests." before Hayan tells everybody, including her summoners, to wear winter clothing as the area surrounding the Arcana River, referred to as Niflheim, is extremely cold compared to the rest of the Arcane Realm, to which they all wore winter coats and headed towards Niflheim.As soon as they arrived and were wandering near the riverbank, Froid informed the others that the Arcana River was frozen, meaning that they could cross the river by foot to reach the dense forests of Niflheim.Once they arrived to the dense forests, they saw Demetria lying on the ground, and just as Ain was about to attack her, she gets up, stopping him by using runic spells to trap his wrists, to the Arcane Search Party's shock that Haya told her to free him to which she listened to him by doing so.Upon seeing Elsword, she gets angry at him for breaking her bracelet before he calmed her down, and then, she reveals the truth to the rest of the Arcane Search Party as well as the Nyberg siblings Froid and Frostine, along with the latter of the duo's friends Makena, Fabian and Fawn, about why she was a villain in the first place.According to Demetria, she was actually an mage from an another dimension who was known to very passionate about the piano, who had no idea who they were until one day, while she was playing the piano, a mysterious man named Ephraim came to her, in which he told her to play music for him. After she played the music for him, he told her about a certain game and how he wanted her to get revenge on its main characters, so he gave her a quest to take advantage of the El for his selfish gains and destroy them as much as she could, to which she listened to him and teleported to Elrios on her own.Aisha said "So, is that how you met us?" Demetria replied "Yes, but since I can't risk my life being defeated by you guys, I decided to hide in Niflheim. Be careful, as Ephraim is still hiding somewhere within the northernmost point of the Nether Valley, and not only that, he's been hiding a secret from us." Rena responded with "Really, for real?! What kind of secret is he hiding from us? We want to know who his secret is." Demetria said "I can't tell you guys his secret, but from what I could tell, I was completely manipulated by him into hating you all, plus he's using me to steal and use the El, and is holding the forbidden scrolls that shouldn't be opened in the first place." Elsword got infuriated and replied "Thanks for telling us the story." before patting her on the shoulders and continuing with "Demetria, that guy's an liar. We're not letting him get away with this any longer, right?" In response, she nodded back to him and soon she eventually redeemed herself.Demetria said to the people surrounding her "Thank you guys for listening to me. Now that we know who my manipulator is, I can't risk my own life in this place called Niflheim. Instead, we're going back to the Nether Valley to confront him for once and for real so that we can save the world together." before continuing with "Are you ready to come with me to the Nether Valley in order to confront Ephraim?", to which everyone unanimously agreed to join her in the Nether Valley. And soon, they managed to found an abandoned airship and decided to repurpose it for interdimensional travel. As they were travelling above the Nether Valley, they arrived at a part whose floor consisted of the ocean itself, within the valley, where they stumbled upon a mysterious glowing sinkhole, filled with purple-pink water and small rocks, along with a transparent floor, near the northernmost point of the valley, with the sinkhole being referred to as the "Land of Memories (기억의 땅)" due to the people being there to revisit their own memories.Soon, they all went to the Land of Memories, where they revisit their memories and eventually danced before they all walked towards the entrance to the Land of Memories. Suddenly, Ephraim, along with five mysterious men, all covered in a mysterious cloak, were standing far away from the sinkhole, and were watching it, the whole time.Ephraim said to himself "I can't believe this... How could she betray me like this?!" before telling the men "No time to talk, Oren, Asher, Enrique, Micah and Jericho." Micah replied "Are you insane?! There's no way that we can defeat these guys, plus they're even more powerful than us, Ephraim!"Ephraim responded with "I don't care, Micah! Do as I say, not as I do, you bastard!" Asher told him "Woah, calm down, Ephraim. Micah's right. There's no way we can defeat Elsword's group unless we're stronger against them." Suddenly, Jericho told Oren, Asher, Enrique and Micah "Guys, there's no point in helping this guy. He's trying to manipulate us into destroying the lives of others when we have nothing to do with them." Oren replied "You're right, Jericho. Let's get outta here."Soon, Oren, Asher, Enrique, Micah and Jericho walks away, with Ephraim crying, screaming "Wait, come back guys!" while the five of them ignored him and left. Suddenly, after they left, he saw Astros and Solveig, the two female leaders of the Daystar Purgatory and the Nether Valley. Upon seeing them, Ephraim ran away from them and tried going to a hidden cave underneath the sinkhole only to get hit by an invisible door, causing him to flee from the sinkhole. Soon, he managed to steal a replica of the Rubenian Resonance Stone, from an abandoned house, which was said to be the den of a mysterious cult, worshipping the ancient time goddess Ardith and her future descendants, before fleeing to the northernmost point of the Nether Valley.After he fled the scene, the rest of the Arcane Search Party returned from the sinkhole, flying away from it using invisible wings before going back to their ship. Just as the ship landed on the northernmost point, Elsword saw multiple cult members interrogating Keira, a travelling apothecary, asking her about the stolen replica. She tells them that Ephraim stole it from them and is hiding inside a magic cave that can only be opened by saying "Open sesame" and closes itself upon one says "Close sesame".While in the airship, Demetria explained to Elsword, Aisha and Rena, as well as Fabian, Frostine, Fawn and Froid that Ephraim had not only stolen the replica of the Rubenian Resonance Stone, but had stolen the forbidden scrolls.The former of the seven shows her the actual stone, which is actually an necklace that he has been keeping for a long time. Suddenly, Ephraim fled from the cave, running away from the Nether Valley, heading south to the Daystar Purgatory along with the stolen forbidden scrolls. Crescentia said to the eight of them "Guys, listen to me! He stole the fake necklace and the scrolls, and got away with them!"Demetria responded with "What?! Is that real?!", in which Raven replied "Yes! We better catch him before it's too late!" before he tells his allies "Everyone, let's go to the Daystar Purgatory.", to which the airship flew south towards the Daystar Purgatory. Soon, they arrived to the Phosphor Temple, where Ephraim was waiting for them.Rena steps into battle, equipped with her bow, aiming her arrows at Ephraim, saying "Ephraim, how many times do we have to teach you a lesson?!" Elsword and Aisha stepped up besides her, in which the former of the duo said "You can't just keep on running away from us like this!" Ain shows up as well, clenching his two fists between each other and said "Not so fast this time, Ephraim."Froid and Frostine aimed their staffs respectively towards Ephraim, and just as he was about to respond, Eve punched him, and Ara told him "It's over now Rai, you manipulated that girl into betraying us even though she had no idea who we are until you told her about us." He replied "She started all of this, plus it was her own choice, not mine's!" Demetria shut him down, telling him "You're the one who started it all, plus I won't let you harm me, my friends or anyone else."Ephraim got infuriated and responded with "You think so?! I won't give the fake resonance stone and scrolls until I win." To his surprise, Elsword, Aisha, Rena and Ain teamed up with each other, in which the former two of the four were surrounded by three crystals of different colors, thanking Ain for helping them out, to which the former of the duo said "Is that so, Rai1? Show us what you got!" Soon, Ephraim wields a falchion2 and replied "Okay then, let's see what this sword has to offer." before challenging the four into a fight, in which Elsword accepted and said "Alright Rai, challenge accepted."