A/N: The chapters prior to this were able to be released quickly because I already had them written within the last two years. This chapter will be the first one that I will be drafting right here. The subsequent chapters are non-existent yet, but I have planned to release them on here first.

I am amazed at the amount of views for my story so far. Thank you all so much for reading this meagre story of mine and tolerating my amateur writing.

THE BEGINNING

"Soro?" a soft voice echoed.

Soro twitched a little, the pain from what he had experienced still lingering within his body, but with a much weaker intensity. He slowly opened his eyes to find the five of them by his side, but no longer hostile to him.

"Ah, Soro, you're awake!" Cygnus exclaimed in relief. The others looked just as relieved.

"Ungh, what happened?" Soro asked, caressing his head as he sat up.

"Madness. That's what happened," answered Kyrin. Soro could see that the five of them were still in disbelief about what just happened.

"Soro, we are so sorry about what happened! You know we did not mean to harm you in any way!" Aranelle anxiously tried to explain.

"Ahh... it's okay, I understand. I understand," Soro reassured. Suddenly remembering something more important from the foul stench looming in the air, he quickly stood up, but the lingering pain caused him to collapse again.

"Are you alright?" asked Cygnus.

"...Yeah... I'm okay..." Soro panted, as he slowly got up. Tracing the source of the smell, he limped his way until he was certain where it was. He looked down. Unmistakably, the corpse was still there, albeit with the presence of flies encircling it. As he neared the corpse, he collapsed yet again, this time to his knees.

"Father..." Unable to hold back his tears, Soro leaned on his father's body with his arms crossed and wept. The others only watched as he shed his tears, not knowing what to do to help or console him.

Suddenly, as he was weeping, the place where his arms touched the body shone radiantly. In an instant, the chamber was shrouded in an aura of sorts. As all of them looked around at the suddenly altered room, they saw what seemed to be a blur figure of Arkarium, stepping from the long passage into the chamber. He then muttered something, though what he said was not audible at all. Then, as if fast-forwarded, Arkarium's actions seemed to speed up immensely as the chamber was suddenly filled with a pedestal, the four cobra-entwined pillars, and the book stand. Then, Arkarium spread his arms, at which moment the orbs appeared on top of the pillars, and a grimoire started appearing on top of the book stand. Arkarium's companion cobra flew towards the pedestal, enlarging itself before seemingly warped itself into stone. Everything was setting up to what Soro had seen when he first stepped foot into this chamber. Aran tried to touch the pillars but felt only nothingness. It was apparently just a virtual image.

Then, everything seemed to slow down to normal speed. Arkarium walked to the book stand and started a conjuring spell, but was seemingly interrupted when someone appeared at the passageway. It was Soro's father.

Another fast-forward, and Arkarium was right in front of his father. Arkarium seemed to have spoken something to his father but neither of them could hear it. Then, in a series of alternation between fast-forward and normal speed, they saw what seemed like Arkarium grabbing the man by his head, which caught the man completely off-guard. The next moment, the man shriveled in pain as Arkarium's form started to morph into that of the man's. As the metamorphosis was near completion, the man's struggling seemed to weaken, and stopped completely just as the metamorphosis was complete. Arkarium's hands then lit up as the man's body started flying. It landed right in the position where the corpse was now, with a completely similar posture. Then, in normal speed, as Arkarium took one last look at Soro's father's body one last time, everything vanished, leaving just the six of them and a completely empty chamber.

"What was that?" asked Aran.

"That was... what had happened..." Soro confirmably said as he looked down at his father's body again, now knowing how his father had died.

"I'm... I'm sorry for your loss, Soro." Cygnus could only think of such to say.

Soro said nothing. In his mind, he wanted to blame them for the loss of his father. If the five of them had not crashed into him ever so suddenly, neither would Arkarium. No Arkarium meant that his father could have avoided death. Why was he so unlucky to be chosen to accept this fate? Why him?

"The answer lies with the true identities of the three of you," Rhinne's words ringed in his mind. But what identity? Why would he be bestowed with powers that could counter Arkarium's influence and illustrate the memories of his father's body? He would rather live a normal life without anything special rather than the mess he was left with now. As he thought about it, he suddenly remembered Rhinne's advice of meeting up with the two other girls first before deciding on the next move.

Wiping his tears off, he stood up, carried his father's body and started walking along the passageway towards the exit. The others followed, with no words exchanged among them.

They came back to Soro's father's bedroom, out of the dark stairway past the old wooden shelf. The spoils that adorned the shelf was now no more than a grievous remembrance of his father's tragic end, which Soro did not want to think of. The entrance to the chamber sealed itself behind them, leaving no trace that there ever was a basement there. It caught all of them by surprise, except Soro, who did not turn back to look at it and instead headed straight for the front door. As he exited the house, he stopped temporarily to pick up a shovel which rested itself outside.

The sombre mood prevailed as Soro finally stopped when he came to the nearby river. Trying to hold back his tears, he silently whispered, "Father, you have raised and guided me well into adulthood. For that I can never be more grateful to you. You told me your wish is to rest by nature's side, and now I shall repay you by granting your wish." As he finished, he laid his father's body down, and started digging.

For about an hour the others watched as he dug the ground and eventually buried his father. They did not dare intercept him as they themselves were overcome by guilt as well. When he finally was done, he told them, "Sorry guys, leave me alone. I-I need time to accept this," said Soro before he turned and started heading back.

Cygnus came to Soro's room. She wanted to console him and apologise for what they did. She entered the room to find Soro sitting on his bed, staring away at a distance. He looked up for a moment as Cygnus stepped in, and then continued to slouch again. Cygnus slowly came to Soro and, upon being met with Soro's apathy, slowly sat down beside him.

"Soro... I... I am... so sorry... about what happened," Cygnus found herself unable to speak properly due to guilt still looming within her.

"Tell me, Cygnus. What exactly happened?" Soro asked without looking at Cygnus.

Cygnus took a deep breath before telling Soro everything that had happened, from the pain in the head, to them regaining their powers.

"Before I knew it, we were all blindly following orders from nowhere. After Arkarium asked us to pin you down, he personally went and tried to corrupt you himself, but somehow, you retaliated, in a way we have never ever seen before. You started... glowing, so bright that it affected us. Arkarium was completely taken by surprise, while we came back to our senses realising that we had submitted to him all along. He vanished before we could even try to confront him."

Soro silently listened, partially in awe at the part when he started to retaliate. For a good hour-and-a-half after heading back home, Soro's mind had been filled with ambivalence about his visitors. Cygnus's story only stood to reaffirm that his father's death was already fated from the start.

"I see. Then I cannot blame you and the others for what happened to my father," Soro said as he turned towards Cygnus, "And please, no need to blame yourself too. I know you people didn't wish to come here too."

Soro recalled the story of the heroes of the Maple World being banished to the reality and his mission of sending them back where they belong. His mind wandered to the difficulties ahead, of what he will face. For the first time in his life, there's no responsibility greater than the one he held now. His success or failure could affect the destiny of his world and theirs. Father had told him to never escape his responsibilities, and he was still alive, he would have told him to finish his task. As he thought of his father, tears threatened to escape his eyes again, but this time he managed to hold back. The road ahead left no time for him to continue mourning his own loss.

He stood up, and, clenching his fist, declared, "Arkarium and the Black Mage will pay for what they have done to my father."

Cygnus saw his determination but regretted that she and the others could do almost nothing to help. For now, they were liabilities to their host who had to accommodate them and find ways to send them back.

"S-Sorry, Soro, but our powers are lost again. I-I don't think we can help out much."

Soro turned towards Cygnus and replied, "Never mind. We'll find a way to get you people back."

The dinner that night was lively again as the five visitors were back to their bickering selves. Soro's spirits were lifted, too, as the atmosphere made him put off his father's death. After dinner, he went to his room and took out his computer.

"How am I going to keep contact with Nami and Ruriko?" he thought, "One lives in Singapore and another even farther away in Japan."

He decided that he would keep up with his daily routines on his computer before starting to worry about that. He opened his browser, and would conduct his routine of checking his emails, the fora he participated in, and perhaps play some MapleStory.

As he clicked into the tab which hosted the MapleStory forum, he saw a private message sent to him by some user he was not quite familiar with. It was also sent to another forum user, whom he was not too familiar with either.

Title: OPERATION SETBACK

Soro, Ruriko,

We need a time to meet up. Get your people to dress in suitable clothes and come to Seoul, Korea. Use any means necessary to bypass immigration. Make haste. We will discuss more on this once we're together.

Reply to me once you have arrived. Let nobody in the forums and around us know about this.

Nami

PS: Don't question how I managed to find you guys out.