Hello everyone. As promise here is my latest Tales of Symphonia story. This is a direct sequel to Kharlan Chronicles.

Kharlan Chronicles was meant to be a stand alone to tell the story of Mithos and explain the stain relationship between half-elves and humans. It was also meant to show what would happened if the elves' philosophies was taken to its ultimate conclusion. The story grew bigger than I have originally planned and there were several plot points and ideas that were mention, but never fully describe because it did not fit within the context of my story. I did not care about leaving all those loose ends unanswered, so I decided a follow up was necessary. Once again, I will try to stay within the bounds of canon, but there will be many of my own theories intertwine within this story.

For those who had not read Kharlan Chronicles, I would recommend that you do before you read this story. Although you would be able to follow the main plot if you know the Tales of Symphonia lore, there will be people, subjects, and philosophies that I will invoke from my first story and I will assume you already know them. It is also a very good read, if I do say so myself.

This story will have spoilers from Tales of Symphonia, Dawn of the New World, and maybe a little from Tales of Phantasia. I also owned none of these games, but I will lay claim to any OC.

Please enjoy :)

Chapter 1: Lost

"People fear and hate what is not normal. They are scared of those

that are different. Then the solution is for everyone to become the same. By

using the Exspheres to eliminate the different bloods that flow through elves

and humans, everyone on this earth will become the same lifeless beings.

Discrimination will vanish. That is the grand age I strive for."

-Yggdrasill, Tales of Symphonia

Mithos sighed in dispair as he stared into the Great Seed. Through the crystal like shell he could see Martel floating peacefully. Her eyes were closed and her hands were folded across his stomach. By all eyes, she seemed only to be asleep, but Mithos knew better. What he was seeing was a reflection of her spirit. Martel no longer had a physical body and only existed within the Great Seed. The only thing that was keeping her soul from being completely absorbed into the Great Seed was the barrier that he created around her using the power of the Summon Spirits. The two were now one and it shall remain that way forever unless Mithos thought of a way to free her.

"Martel, I wonder if you can hear me?" Mithos asked, although he knew she would not answer back. It has been like this for six months now. Being able to see Martel, but unable to feel or communicate with her. To make it all worst, he still was no closer to finding a way to save her.

"Mithos are you alright." The voice of his mentor questioned.

Mithos slowly turned around to face Kratos. "As well as can be expected."

Kratos frowned as he looked up into the Great Seed. "Be strong, Mithos. We will find a way to save her."

Mithos sighed as he fought back tears. He did not want Kratos to see him cry. "I will be in my chambers. Please don't bother me tonight." He stated as he walked away.

Kratos continued to stared sadly into the spirit of the fallen girl. "Martel..."

Mithos' footstep echoed across the hallway as he made his way to his room. He glanced up for a moment and saw Yuan looking over something on his computer. He was quite surprised to see him since Yuan had not been on Derris-Kharlan for months. Yuan also seemed to be avoiding him. Then again, he has clearly been upset with him for splitting the worlds.

"What are you doing?" Mithos asked, breaking the silences.

Yuan looked at him with tire eyes. "Just going over the Lucious' research. I meant to go over them for some time now."

"There is some complicated stuff on there." Mithos said as he leaned against the table. "I have been looking over it for weeks on end and I still have not fully grasped everything. Although, I found his whole theory on the connection on spirit symbols and mana to be educational."

Yuan nodded. "He was a brilliance mind. Too bad he wasted it on the Fahrer."

"Speaking on the Fahrer, what happened to them?" Mithos questioned.

"At this moment they are a divided force since they are split between two world." Yuan said in a deadpan voice. "They are also leaderless. They are just a pack of wild wolves now causing damage and disorder in both worlds as they fight for who will lead them."

Mithos shook his head. "What a sad end for them."

"I suppose." Yuan said casually. There was a long uncomfortable silence before Yuan spoke again. "If you don't mind, I would like to finish reading these alone."

Mithos stared at him for a moment before he nodded. "Yeah, I understand. Tell me if you find anything useful on there."

Yuan just nodded and went back to work.

Mithos could feel Yuan's bitterness and he doubt it would get better anytime soon. However, he was certain his mood would pick up once Martel was back. Everything would be better once that beautiful day came.

He finally made it to his chamber and closed the door behind him. The room was very spacious with one large king size bed and windows that tower throughout the room. It gave an excellent view of the city. The floors, like everything else in the temple shined like mirrors. Whoever this room once belonged to, was obviously someone very important. It was kind of odd since elves tended to be very humble about their position of power.

Clearing his mind, there was something he wanted to checked. Talking to Yuan had gotten him curious again about Lucious' research. He had not looked at them for weeks since his mind always went back to saving Martel and his other mission to stopped discrimination.

He went to the private computer he had installed in his room and began to look over the saved program. It was very text heavy and a little boring in some parts. Especially the parts that talked about Farm growth and exspheres export. After scanning the file for about an hour, Mithos found something that interest him.

After much research into the connection of mana and spirit symbols, it can concluded that the two are interwoven in creating a unique mana signatures that differs for every living subject. Although every living being has a different mana signature there are actually only twelve types of mana in the world. The mana is both influence and effected by a subject's distinct mana signature. Which creates a unique energy wave around a subject.

It has also been determine that ones parentage has an effect on the mana signature and can influence the strength of ones mana. The mana of a subject becomes even stronger if the parents have spirit symbols that compliments one another. An offspring from parents with the spirit symbols of Efreet/Aska creates one of the strongest mana signatures in nature, which is necessary for creating a Cruxis Crystal within a host body. Others includes the combination of Celsius/Undine and Sylph/Volt.

A possible forth and fifth are the combination of Luna/Shadow and Luna/Aska, however there is an even chance of an offspring having a stronger or weaker mana signature. Although being both light spirits, Luna and Aska do not create the strongest combination. A possible explanation for this contradiction is that Luna represents the moon and Aska is the sun, which are opposites in nature. The mana of a child would also greatly benefice if the offspring inherits one of the parent's spirit symbol.

Mithos tapped his hand against the keyboard. "I wonder what combination Martel has?" He then went back to reading.

It has also been discovered that the essence of a subject is affected by the body's mana. This has been determined by researching the mana emitted from exspheres. The mana that is extracted by exspheres matches the body of the host. The exsphere also inherits characteristics from the host's body that could possibly be the host's essence. It is yet to be determined why this correlation happens.

"That is odd. Does it means soul when it says essence." Mithos said to himself as he skipped ahead a little.

Further research into mana signature reveals that it is possible for a subject to have a mana signature that is a near match to another subject. If a subject is born with the same type of mana, spirit symbol, and parents of the same spirit symbol combination, it is possible to have two or more subjects with vastly similar mana signature. It is estimated this closeness measures around 98.99 percent.

It can then be concluded that subjects of this nature can transfuse mana between one another without worry of mana poisoning. It also means they can create vastly similar exspheres and it could be plausible to hold the two essences in one exsphere. However, this process could overload an exsphere and shatter it.

Mithos rubbed his chin. "I wonder, could this mean..." He stopped himself as he scanned the other information. He stopped when a particular paragraph jumped out at him.

The research into Cruxis Crystals and exspheres has revealed that they are more than just crystals. It can now be concluded that Cruxis Crystals and exspheres are actually alive.

Mithos' eyes widen as he read faster.

Cruxis Crystals and exspheres appeared to be a type of crystallize parasite, however, they are not alive in the way that life is define. They have no need for water, produce no waste, or even reproduce. They need only mana to survive. They can feed off of any type of mana that surrounds them, however, Cruxis Crystals and exspheres grow exceedingly faster when introduce to a host. The host provides the Cruxis Crystals and exspheres with the needed mana supple and takes on characteristic from the host. The relation of Cruxis Crystals and exspheres to a host is parasitoid.

The deterioration of a host is influence by the emotional state of the individual. Positive emotions have been shown to slow the rate in which Cruxis Crystals and exspheres extract mana. Negative emotions however, increase the rate of extraction. Specially, the emotions of fear and anger have proven to be the most affected type of emotions. It is strongly recommended that these results be shared with the other facilities so proper modification can be made to the exsphere harvesting process.

"How interesting." Mithos muttered as he touched his Cruxis Crystal. "So, it is alive and feeds off a person like a parasite. But, it's not alive like us. Sounds like some kind of lifeless being." The gears in his head started spinning. This was way too much information for him to understand. He turned off the computer and decided to rest for a while before his brain exploded.

Yuan rubbed his eyes tiredly as he read over several pages of paperwork from the Silver Ghosts. He had been too busy trying to keep Sylvarant and Tethe'alla together to think of a new name for the organization. Mithos had created a big mess by splitting the world. Now, fights were breaking out in both worlds and the rulers were barely keeping everything together. This had to happened as soon as the war ended. Reconstruction would never be finished at this rate.

Hopefully, Mithos would come to his senses soon and reunite the two worlds and plant the Great Seed. Martel was lost to them and no longer existed within their realm. It would be mercifully to allow her to have her eternal rest and be reborn as the new Kharlan Tree.

"Yuan, I'm glad to see you are still here." Mithos voice said as he walked over to him.

Yuan casually closed his folder. Mithos was the last person he wanted to see at this moment. He normally would had stayed at his base, but Derris-Kharlan had a more advance computer system. It was also easier to monitor both worlds from here.

"What do you want, Mithos?" Yuan asked in a bored tone.

Mithos' eye twitch by the slightly rude greeting, but decided not to say anything about it. "There was something I wanted to discuss with you about Lucious' research notes."

That got Yuan attention. "Yeah?"

"I was reading them again the other night and I wanted to know if you read the part about mana signatures and exspheres?" Mithos said.

"I didn't get that far in." Yuan stated. Although Lucious was a great mind, he was boring as hell to read.

"Well, he said that mana signatures are heavily influence by ones spirit symbol. Even the parentage and the combination they make can affect a child." Mithos explained.

Yuan's eyes slightly widen. "Really, combination?"

Mithos nodded. "Yeah, like a child who parents have Undine and Celsius as their spirit symbol would make their mana signatures more powerful than usual."

"That would make sense since Undine and Celsius are closely related." Yuan said.

"And people can have mana signatures close to each other if they share the same spirit symbol and have the same spirit symbol combination with their parents. Of course, they need to have the same type of mana too." Mithos said breathlessly.

"The chances of such a combination are slim at best." Yuan stated.

"Ten million to one according to Lucious." Mithos said with a waved of his hand. "However, I have been thinking. What if we can bring Martel back by given her a body whose mana signature is similar to hers?"

Yuan was both appall and greatly curious about the suggesting. "Are you suggesting we take someone's body and put Martel's soul in it? That is kind of morally bankrupt thing to do, Mithos."

"But, it is possible, right?" Mithos asked.

Yuan stared at Mithos for a second before answering. "It is plausible in theory. However, finding any living individual with nearly the exact same mana signature is extremely low. Even if you search every living person on both worlds, you may never find such an individual in your lifetime."

Mithos' face fell. "Yeah, you're right."

"Mithos, I want you to get rid of such an idea." Yuan said sternly. He was trying to dismissed the idea himself. "Martel would never approve of taking someone else's body to live."

"Well, she didn't approve of dying either!" Mithos snapped. He quickly regained his cool when Yuan sat back. "I'm sorry. It has been a stressful couple of months."

Yuan's eyes fall. "It has been for all of us." He gently twisted the ring on his finger. By the spirits, he missed her.

Mithos pushed his hand through his hair and sighed. "I think I will be leaving to get some fresh air. He turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Yuan asked in a distance voice.

"I think I will go down to the lower worlds for awhile." Mithos answer.

"You're leaving Derris-Kharlan?" Yuan asked in surprise. Mithos had not left the floating rock in six months.

"Yeah, I need a place to think." Mithos said casually.

"Do you want Kratos or me to come with you?" Yuan asked. "It is still very dangerous in both Sylvarant and Tethe'alla."

Mithos shook his head. "I will be fine. I should be back within a couple of days." He left the room, leaving Yuan to his thoughts.

Yuan was going to insist that one of them go with him, but he knew it was pointless. Mithos, despite his age, was a man now. He was the hero of the eternal war. He made pacts with the spirits including Origin. He defeated Zilveren and took his place as the Beschermer. He was the one who split the world in...

He had to get over that. What's done is done. All they can do now is guide Mithos and pray that he may find his way again. He wished Martel was here. None of this would have happened if she was still alive. Yuan's hands fall to his engagement ring again and this time allowed a few tears to fall.

Mithos quickly put the Eternal Sword onto his back, as he got ready to descend. His mind was still spinning about everything he told Yuan. Even though he knew such an endeavor was nearly be impossible and may amount nothing, he could not let it go. It was the first real hope he had in months. He couldn't just dismissed it.

A small whine caught his attention and he turned to see Noishe. The Protozoan whined softly before he licked Mithos hand in comfort.

"Hey, Noishe. Sorry for not paying attention to you lately." Mithos said as he petted him.

"Whine, whine?" Noishe asked.

"I am feeling fine." Mithos said somewhat sadly. "As fine as to be expected anyway."

"Whine?" Noishe questioned.

"I am going down to the lower worlds." Mithos said. "I need a change of pace."

Noishe wagged his tail and bark.

"You want to come with me?" Mithos asked.

"Whine." Noishe nodded.

Mithos sighed. "It would be nice to have some company and you don't baby me like Kratos and Yuan."

Noishe seemed to chuckle.

"Well, we better get going." Mithos said as he lifted the Eternal Sword. "Take me to Sylvarant."

The sword glowed for a moment. Soon, both Mithos and Noishe disappeared in a pillar of light.

Sorry for it being fairly short, but things will speed up in the coming chapters. I am also sorry about all the scientific notes, but it was necessary in order to move the story.

Feedback is always welcome and helps me to make a better story. Until next time.