Chapter 122
<World of Arseria Gallery – Story>
<Featured Post>
[A Complete Summary of WoA's Plot Twists for Fun (Spoiler Warning) - Updates as of 51/04/02][319]
I put together a list of every twisty scene so you don't get blindsided while blindly grinding affinity through intimacy quests.
The levels reflect how unfamiliar people are with the story, not how important the twists are, so don't get the wrong idea, okay.
lv1. The Student Council President's Betrayal
Anyone who plays WoA probably knows this fucking hero by now.
It's true he's a useful bastard for trait farming, since he comes to save your life up to three times whenever you're in mortal danger, but getting blindsided after expecting a gentle healing story feels truly fucking awful.
[The Student Council President's Secret Secretary (Mosaic).jpg]
But maybe because he's a GOAT-looking alpha male, Trxter's 'those people' made him a staple of BL stories, and he's been paying off his karmic debt for years.
lv5. Gisele Phoenix's Past
From here on, even people who can't handle sad stories probably shed some tears.
Troublemaker Gisele-chan, who always shows her sunny side at the Academy.
But it turned out she was one of the phoenix's many spare bodies, and had enrolled at the Academy to fulfill her final wish of making friends before she diedㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ.
The people who cursed the game for making her look like a moron without knowing any of that were all shut up, and she became one of the key figures who swept the GOTY and Best Storytelling awards.
lv10. Alphonse Shipot's Swordsmanship
A hidden quest that only came to light thanks to V-Tuber Mr. Y, a full year after WoA was released.
If Gisele was cosplaying as an idiot, Alphonse is just an idiot, period.
You have to clear over twenty side quests just to barely learn his swordsmanship, and it's complete garbage, so literally nobody cared.
But there is exactly one section where his defensive technique is useful, and that's here.
(Alphonse's Swordsmanship Blocking Mephistopheles' Fatal Move.gif)
It perfectly blocks the final boss's fatal move from 'long range' with zero damage!
It was a somewhat mind-blowing setup, but thanks to it, he became the GOAT gateway character who gave newbies struggling against bosses even on Normal a sliver of hope.
...
lv444. Nocturne Nylingk and Arseria Forest
Isn't the protagonist an elf? Then why do no other elves ever appear in the story?
Well, here they are. Ta-da!
An elf companion you meet as an enemy, visible only in Nightmare.
As an elf, she handles the bay laurel's unique ability exceptionally well, and every puppet she summons is completely random, making her a truly nasty boss.
But then WareSoft milks us for all we're worth: it turns out there was no such thing as elves, and all the long-eared humans were slaves sacrificed in the Empire's experiments!
Still, there were surprisingly foreshadowing clues in the main story too, so it wasn't a setting they pulled out of nowhere.
For example, if you dig through the ledger of slaves rescued from Valum Venaons's study, they're all children destined to be 'chicken skewers' in Arseria Forest.
But Nocturne was buried under the twists that came later and ended up being nothing more than a cute mascot.
lv777. Daniel and Repi 2
Why is this here again when it just came up? Just shut up and keep reading.
In the main story, the revelation that Daniel was Repi's father was shocking enough on its own.
But us story nerds weren't about to let it rest.
Remember how, the moment year analysis revealed the two were sixteen years apart, people made a huge fuss, throwing 5,700-character rants at the author and ranting about encouraging compensated dating and whatnot? It even made the nine o'clock news a few times.
But after Nightmare came out, every bit of foreshadowing was neatly paid off.
Daniel wasn't Repi's father; Repi was Daniel's mother.
Repi was the saint from two generations ago who had been excommunicated. She gave birth to Daniel and lived happily in the countryside, but after her husband died and she contracted an incurable illness, she eventually sought refuge with the Empire.
The Empire pressured her to become a double agent under the pretense of curing her, and Repi managed to reach the Holy Kingdom after losing her memories and being subjected to polymorph magic.
That's why the Empire could cross Holy Kingdom territory for ten years to travel to and from the forest without a single scrap of information about Yggdrasil leaking out: it was all because of Daniel. The person they'd assigned as a watchdog just happened to be an Imperial spy.
In the end, Daniel the bystander <- in a way, he's the root of all evil too.
lv1000. Adela
The current WoA gallery queen; a GOAT just by existing. The reason I wrote this post.
In the Nightmare world, where betrayal and backstabbing run rampant, she's the only NPC who chooses to sacrifice herself for the protagonist.
Unlike the cat from that one game company, Adela stayed loyal to the very end, and I confidently say that while some people have never seen the flashback scene during the loading screen, there is absolutely nobody who's seen it only once.
Personally, I think Adela's story best captures the psychology we'd feel if ordinary people like us were surrounded by geniuses.
Bonus) Quickly edited after receiving a shocking tip
The theory that the sacrifice Gestalt made to summon Mephistopheles in Part 4 = Adela has been confirmed as official.
(The VIP invitation seat for 'Nyangster Call' revealed on NoName's stream.mp4)
In the end, she wasn't an ordinary person either—she was a genius...
[Comments]
-I was wondering why a post from five years ago suddenly made it to the featured posts
└ The OP is seriously persistent tooㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wait, Mephisto's base was Adela?
└ I didn't even know there was such a thing as a VIP invitation seat, but what is this guyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ There's a popular user called Nyangster Call
└ Must be fucking rich. I'm jealous...
-The story is insanely complicated;; I turned off dialogue when clearing Story Mode, so I didn't know any of this
└ At that point, why not play Resonance or LoL? Why even play WoA?ㅋㅋㅋ
└ The world doesn't revolve around story wankers like you ^^
-What's up with this NoName guy? He has over 20,000 viewers with WoA? I've never even heard his name once in my life
└ Half the viewers are foreigners if you check it out
└ Are you an old fossil? What era are you living in, not counting foreigners?ㅋㅋㅋ
└ Ten thousand Koreans alone already makes him a major streamer
-OP, hurry up and open NoName's stream. He's just about to clear Part 3 with Adela.
└ (OP): What the hell are you talking about? Adela is guaranteed to die in Part 1
└ Go check it out.
└ (OP): How is this real? Is it a bug?
* * *
“Hey, sis... Sis?”
Adela, who had burrowed into her sleeping bag, turned her head and called out to her.
In battle, her back had felt as imposing as a mountain, but from here she looked every inch a girl.
Wondering if she was asleep, Adela rose to check and tiptoed around to the other side.
The elf—or rather, the human woman's—chest rose and fell irregularly.
‘She hasn't fallen asleep at all.’
When Adela deliberately wormed her way into the woman's sleeping bag, the woman's eyes opened belatedly.
“Hello, kitty.”
“I told you, it's Adela! A-del-a! Isn't it about time you remembered, nya?”
“Right, you said your name was Adela. I'm not very good at remembering things.”
“Is this sleep-talking too, nya?”
“I don't know.”
Adela puffed out both cheeks.
She slowly opened her mouth while staring intently into the calm eyes blinking at her.
“What you told me yesterday... I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about it.”
“What did I tell you?”
“About Arseria Forest. What the people from the Empire did to you, the truth about Yggdrasil, the demon worshippers' plot, all that...”
“I see.”
“That's it? Your reaction is kind of bland for a change tonight.”
Adela's eyes seemed to shoot sparks at the woman's far too calm response.
Her intense emotions surged like waves and finally burst; Adela kicked her legs against the sleeping bag and twisted her whole body.
“That's not how you're supposed to react! You're supposed to sob because you're sad, or grind your teeth because you're angry! Don't you feel anything? If you meet Daniel tomorrow, are you really just going to let him go without doing anything?”
Adela couldn't understand the woman.
Daniel had been turning a blind eye to the Empire's massive experiment while serving in the delegation.
Adela couldn't forgive the fact that he had destroyed every rescue message secretly handed over by elves whose brainwashing had occasionally worn off, without even knowing what they were.
When he deserved to be beaten to death and then some, the idea of simply letting him go was out of the question.
“It's not my decision. I only made it this far thanks to the angel, remember?”
The woman referred to the being that descended into her body during the day as an 'angel.'
It was a familiar concept even to Adela, who knew nothing of theology, since it was the opposite of a demon.
“But calling it an angel is a little...”
Violent, maybe... She couldn't bring herself to say the rest. What if that 'angel' remembered it?
Perhaps her throat had tightened from the frustration in her chest, because Adela drew in a deep breath.
The distinctive dampness of the dense forest and the smell of leaves tickled the tip of her nose.
“Then I'll persuade the angel myself tomorrow. That'll do, nya?”
The person was frightening, yes, but she was also the person who had saved her life.
She had saved Adela's life sixteen times already; surely she wouldn't hurt him now, would she?
Resolute, Adela huffed through her nose.
“The angel must definitely be a vegetarian...! Surely it doesn't eat people, nya!”
“Pfft!”
“Huh? I think this is the first time I've seen you laugh, sis.”
“Oh, was it? You just struck me as a really funny girl.”
“Ahem...! You're really pretty when you smile too, sis. Not that you aren't pretty normally, but... I mean, you're, like, way prettier? Something like that?”
“Thank you for the compliment, Adela. But I'm starting to feel cramped, so could you return to your sleeping bag now? From what you've told me, we'll have a lot of fighting to do tomorrow too. You should go to sleep early.”
Putting her disappointment behind her, the cat crawled out of her chrysalis, dragged her sleeping bag over, and lay down pressed against the woman's side.
“What kind of person is the angel?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Adela puzzled over it for a long time. What kind of person had NoName been again?
“Just someone I like for no reason. That sounds weird, but there are tons of reasons I like them; I think they're the kind of person you like even without any particular reason.”
“That sounds just like the angel.”
“I like daytime you, sis, but I like nighttime you too.”
“How so?”
“Umm, NoName sis, even if I tickle you under the arm like this...”
“Eek!”
The woman flinched at the sudden tickling attack.
“You don't react like this...!”
“You don't during the day?”
“You're always so impassive then. It's like you barely have any emotions.”
“I see. How fascinating.”
“But you're really considerate, sis. I hurt my ear today, and you disinfected it several times while we walked here. And you carried everything heavy so I wouldn't get sweaty. I was too embarrassed to thank you, but you can't pass that along for me, can you?”
“Unfortunately...”
“I see. Well, we have plenty of time, tomorrow or the day after.”
“...”
“Asleep...?”
Soft, steady breathing-
This time, she heard regular breathing.
The woman's golden hair was blown across her face by the gentle breeze.
Adela sneezed—Achoo!—and buried her face in the sleeping bag.
Though these days were more physically exhausting than ever, they continued to be fulfilling in spirit.
Hoping this night would come just the same tomorrow, Adela slowly closed her eyes, smacking her lips in anticipation.
* * *
The next morning.
I used a gleaming shoulder plate as a mirror to tidy my tousled hair when something occurred to me, and I called Adela's name.
“But there's something I've been wondering about. Why do you keep calling me ‘sis’? Didn't you say you hated being called that?”
“Ha! You told me to call you that, nya! I couldn't believe it.”
“I did? When?”
“The night four days ago... No, since the date changed, I guess it was dawn three days ago? Anyway, then! And yesterday too.”
“What else did I say then?”
“Th-that...! Oh, forget it! You're deliberately teasing me now, aren't you?”
I was genuinely asking because I really didn't know.
I had never thought about it. If the story were skipped, how did an NPC perceive things during that time?
Like wondering what the Pokémon inside a Poké Ball did, information I wasn't supposed to know kept tempting me.
Adela was too flustered to worry about cooling her radish-red face.
Come to think of it, how long had it been since someone called me sis? Ah, now that I think about it, it happened recently.
In my first life, I had been a man, so naturally no one had ever called me that in my entire life.
In my second life, although I had been born in a woman's body, I was usually addressed by my title rather than my name, given my status as a princess. Even that gave way to a sobriquet from my late teens onward.
Thinking about my third life brought the adorable Miss Aurora to mind. I wonder what she's doing now. I should contact her once the game is over.
And yet, I couldn't help feeling a little hurt that, although this body was presumably modeled on the sixteen-year-old I had been then, Adela felt no sense of incongruity whatsoever about treating me as her elder.
Had I really looked that old?
Adela did admittedly look young for her age.
After walking for a long while along a riverside thick with reeds, a huge gate stood before us.
On either side of the gate stood stone statues of angels blowing trumpets toward the sky.
Perhaps weathered by the wind, the statues were scratched in places, and a color unlike the white plaster showed through the cracks.
Creak-
At the mere touch of my hand, the gate opened by itself with a sound of scraping against the ground.
For an instant, the statues' eyes turned toward us, and the trumpets in their hands fell to the ground and shattered.
“Eeeeeek!”
Adela's fur stood on end as she clung tightly to my body.
“Don't be scared. They're only statues.”
“I-I wasn't scared, okay? I know they're just statues!”
But before we had time to panic, lasers shot from the statues' eyes.
“They weren't just statues!”
Before long, all the statues' outer shells fell away, and bat wings sprouted from them.
[Fallen Angel · Sariel of Death (0/1)]
[Fallen Angel · Ramiel of Illusion (0/1)]
The fallen angels, each with only one wing, drifted through the air.
Sariel was the one with the left wing, and Ramiel the one with the right.
That made me wonder whether they would have to flap upward like helicopters to keep their balance while flying, but the pointless thought vanished as soon as the battle began.
Adela suddenly stepped boldly to the front and pointed a finger at the statues.
“You're not scary at all! We have a real angel on our side!”
“What angel? Who?”
Did Adela have some special summoning ability I didn't know about? I had definitely checked the Tree Wiki from top to bottom.
“Obviously, sis!”
“Me?”
At the absurd remark, I pointed at myself, demanding to know whether she meant me.
[‘NoNameHasToProtectAga’ donated 5,000 won!]
-Let us all pray in the name of our holy Lord Jesus NoName. Namen (N’AMEN).
-Namen
-Namen
-ㅋㅋㅋNamen
-Her face turned redㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Namen!
-NamenNamenNamen