While paying off more of Ludger's debt, the group got caught in an incident and brawled with some Elympion extremists, helped Alvin check on Yurgen, the events leading to their business relationship souring, helped Elize with a speed event for a Bunnykins, even though it was a dud, and helped Leia with her reports for her article. They also asked Regal why he never fights with his hands, which prompts him to tell them about Alicia, how she turned into a monster, and how he was forced to kill her. Since that day, he swore to never use his hands to kill again. Lloyd, Colette, and Genis talk about their friendship before the start of their first journey, and Presea talks about how her Exsphere caused her not to age for 16 years. After paying off another portion of Ludger's loan, he gets a call from Nova, who was breathing heavily.
"Ludger... Please... You have to help me! I'm in Drellin... Come to Drellin... N-Noooooo!" Nova's voice fades as the call ends.
"Was that Nova? Is she really is in danger, then we need to hurry!" Lloyd tells the group.
When the group got to Drellin, they saw Nova by the fountain.
"Thank goodness you're here." Nova said as the group arrived.
"So, what's this about?" David asked.
"Honestly? I'm having a bad day. I had to freeze the accounts of one of my clients, and he did not appreciate that one bit, let me tell you! He gave me this death glare! It really freaked me out!"
"Of course he's gonna be mad at you if you do that." Scott commented.
"But... isn't costumer service supposed to be your job?" Sectonia asked.
Nova crossed her arms at Sectonia's question. "Give me a break! They don't pay me enough to deal with stuff like death glares! If your boss told you to sprout wings and fly, wouldn't you tell him to shove it?"
Colette smiled. "I wouldn't, because I can already do that."
"That's not what I meant, Colette..."
"Can't say Nova's wrong. Having a boss sucks." Alvin comments.
Elle looked around the city for a bit.
"What is it, Elle?" Ramona asked.
"I think... maybe... I've been here with my daddy before." Elle tells the group.
"Perhaps you live nearby?"
"Don't know. Maybe..."
"Do you remember anything memorable near your house? Any landmarks?" Genis asks.
"Well... Right in front of the house, there's this gigantic pond! Daddy would catch fish from it and cook them up for supper! I liked grilled salmon the best. That's my favorite!"
"Sounds like good eating to me. I'll keep that in mind the next time I cook for you guys."
Milla asked Elle something. "But a pond wouldn't have salmon. Not naturally. Are you sure it's not a lake?"
"A lake. That's what it was!" Elle said happily.
"Hmm... I wonder... Are there any lakes in Elympios?" David asked. If he was going to find Perfect Links for everybody, a lake would be a good place to find some Water-types.
Nova responded to the question. "Lake Epsilla used to be nearby, but the last of its water dried up decades ago."
"No sweat. We'll just have Sheena summon Undine and bring the water back." Alvin suggested.
"Hey! It's not that simple, you know!" Sheena tells Alvin.
Nova continued. "Maybe it's nothing, but I just remembered they found some really old ruins at the bottom of that lake."
Raine's eyes beamed at that. "You are certain? There are really some ruins down there?!"
"Oh great..." David mutters. "Here we go again..."
Nova was surprised at Raine's reaction, but continued. "They were built by some mysterious civilization that didn't use spyrix. It was the find of the century. I don't know much else about it. I guess they collapsed before the archeologists can do their thing."
Raine calms down at this. "I see. It's a real shame. I'm sure they would've been worth exploring."
Ludger's GHS began ringing again and as usual, it was Vera.
"DODA here." Nova recognized the voice as Vera's and got closer to hear her. "We have detected a fractured dimension with a high likelihood of a Waymarker. Please investigate."
"I know that voice..." Nova said. "Hey, Vera! How's it hanging?"
"Nova?! Why are you there?!"
"Just asking Ludger and company for a favor. So, uh... what's a fractured dimension?"
"It's Division business. Never you mind."
"Aw, how come you're always such a spoilsport? And you wonder why those blind dates never call you back."
Vera was getting flustered when Nova said that. "Wh-what are you talking about?! My signal's breaking up- Gotta go!" Vera hangs up at that, undoubtedly embarassed.
"Let someone on the B-team handle Nova's problem. Like Elize." Alvin said.
Elize was offended by this. "I'm on the B-team?!"
"B better stand for best!" Teepo retorted to Alvin.
Nova was practically begging the group. "Come on! This fractured dimension stuff can't be that important!"
Leia spoke up at this. "Why don't you help her out, Jude? She seems like she's in way over her head with this."
Elize adds to this. "Yeah. The B-team can handle the fractured dimension just fine."
So does Elle. "If B is for best, I'm in!"
"Alright. Her customer sounds like a tough...customer." Jude comments.
"Any thug who theatrens a young woman deserves a taste of his own scare tactics, at the absolute least." Rowen says with a bow.
"Ditto on that, old-timer." Zelos said. "No way I'm letting that guy get away with scaring Nova."
"Revenge served cold and all that jazz?" Alvin asked with one eye closed. "Count me in."
"Thanks guys! You're the best!" Nova said cheerfully.
"Milla, would you like to come with us to the fractured dimension?" Raine asked her.
"It's not like I have anything better to do..." Milla tells her.
It was decided that Ludger will be accompanied by Elize, Teepo, Leia, Milla, Raine, Presea, Scott, and Ramona. Elle started to mutter something.
"I guess I'll never find my way home..." Elle mutters.
"Don't worry! Ludger will find it." Scott tells her.
"I didn't know the house where I was born either, but Jude and the others went and found it for me." Elize said.
"You didn't know where your own house was? You're just like a little kid!" Elle said.
"How can you say that when you can't even find your own?!" Teepo asks her.
"Well it's not my fault I can't find it! I had to run away on a boat! There was a lot going on!" The comment got to Raine as she ended up in Sylvarant the same way, but Teepo still spoke.
"Well it's not Elize's fault either!"
Elize spoke up. "I was an orphan... I grew up in government facilities."
"Wait, you were an orphan?" Ramona asked.
Ludger responds to this. "I was an orphan too, Elize. I don't even know what my parents looked like." However, Scott is the only person in that group that knows the actual truth.
"You were too?" Elize asked Ludger.
Raine speaks up. "It does explain why Julius worries so much about you, like a father would. The same goes for me and Genis."
"Family ties can get so complicated." Poor Teepo. He cannot keep up with this.
"Nonetheless, I think he only scolds you because he cares about you. So... Don't be so hard on him."
"Heh. Yeah." Ludger says to Raine.
The group entered the rift and ended up in Drellin, and much to Raine's amazement, the Epsilla Ruins are still up in this dimension. The group headed over there to escape the thunderstorm, and see a technological marvel.
"Get a load of this place!" Leia said, amazed.
"Yeah... Hard to believe this was all destroyed back in our dimension." Lurantis said.
"Nova wasn't kidding... No sign of spirit artes or spyrix here." Milla said.
Elle made it clear to Ludger that she wasn't scared.
"Elle is pushing herself too hard." Presea said.
Elize speaks up. "If she needs to cry, she should just let herself. She's just a scared little eight-year-old who's been away from her father far too long."
Milla retorts. "I was only six when I destroyed the Exodus organization."
Ramona listens in. "You're a special case."
Teppo complies, making Elize blush. "When Elize was eight, crying was all she ever did... Poor Teepo was always sopping wet with tears..."
Elle spots Rollo, who was more furious when Elle picked him up than remembered.
"This place is incredible!" Raine said, barely containing her excitement. "I cannot believe that a place like this still exists in this dimension!"
"I am glad that this place amazes you, Miss Sage." said a voice heard throughout the ruin.
"Who's there?" Scott asked.
"You may refer to me as Odin. I am the system that oversees Thor... the Ark of Time."
"Ark of Time..." Ramona thinks. "That's one of the Waymarkers, isn't it?"
"Indeed I am."
Lurantis was confused by this. "So... You're a Waymarker that knows you're a Waymarker?"
"I know far more than that. I know about you, as well. All your weaknesses, to be exact. I warn you, leave while you can. Unless you wish to face your demise."
"We can't turn back. Not when we know the divergence catalyst is in here." Raine says sadly.
"In that case, why don't we say hello?" Milla asks as she goes further ahead.
"That just now... That's the Milla I know." Leia said as Elize nods.
As the group explore the ruins, they come across some pillars that play music, and Scott recognizing some of them, particularly Battle Organization from Tales of Rebirth, Mysterious Arms Soma from Tales of Hearts, and Chance for a Big Reversal from Tales of Vesperia, all of which he's sure David would like. He even mentions that it has Lloyd's theme from Tales of Symphonia, the game that Raine and Presea are from, which the two in question found fitting, since Lloyd was the glue that kept the group together during their journeys. When the group reached a certain chamber...
"Looks like we've hit a dead end." Ramona said.
"As I feared, you refused to heed my warnings." Odin said as he appears.
"I take it that you're Odin?" Raine asked.
"What is this place?" Elle asked.
Odin tells the group. "It is all that remains of a civilization that collapsed 95,212 years ago by your reckoning. The sole survivors converted their corporeal forms into lifeform data and sealed themselves away. It was their hope that someone in the far future would find and ressurect them."
"And this is where they've sealed themselves." Raine deduced. "It truly is an Arc of Time in every sense."
"The lifeform data of 427,086 people, along with the collected works of their civilization, are stored here."
"Did we hear that right? Almost half a million people?" Ramona asked.
"Indeed. Lives that have been long lost in other dimensions. This is their last hope. Would you be kind enough to hear the messages they prepared for their saviors in the future?" The group heard the voices of five people that have been digitized. "That is but a small sampling of the data stored within this Ark. My purpose and only wish, is for the hopes and dreams of this civilization to endure. Scion of Kresnik, I beseech you most humbly. Do not extinguish our final hope."
Raine decided to step in. "I want this place to remain standing... Really, I do... But... We don't have a choice." Raine takes out her staff, and a tear falls out of her eye. "Destroying is the only way to get back to our dimension."
"I see... But fear not, Miss Sage. I will render you and your companions into a digital format and place you under my stewardship."
"But... Being digitized is worse than dying!"
"I assure you it is not. Unlike dying, when you are digitized, your esscence is preserved for future generations to come. As a pursuer of knowledge, I hope you understand."
"Tempting, but the answer is still no. There are still things left for us to do, and they cannot be accomplished if we remain here."
"How unfortunate. I wished to avoid damaging you, but it seems as though it cannot be helped."
"Pretty cocky for a divergence catalyst."
"How do you think I was made cognizant of the fact that I am a Waymarker of Canaan? I only know because you told me, or rather, a version of you from another world."
"Wait..." Scott said. "Are you saying, there are fractured versions of us?!"
"Just as you have, they have condemned this as a false world, and then tried to destroy it."
"So agents from fractured dimensions are going around destroying other ones?!" Milla asked. "All the while, thinking that they're from the prime dimension."
"The us you met before... What happened to them?" Presea asked.
"Uh... Presea." Scott said. "I think the answer's obvious."
"Exactly. They were defeated and digitized. Like so." Odin conjures a square of light and transports Elle up above while electricity runs through her. "The pain is temporary. It will end as soon as your consciousness is digitized and your body disassembled." The party charges at Odin. "And yet, you would adhere the same pattern as before. You would attack recklessly, goaded forth by your blind rage." The group went to fight Odin, where they found out that he's resistant to all elements...except light.
"I'll be the main attacker this time." Raine suggested.
"Are you sure about that, Raine?" Leia asked.
"Postive. O divine spear, run my enemy through...Holy Lance!" Raine's Holy Lance is just like Sectonia's, except more powerful due to her proficiency with light magic.
"Why must you insist on continuing this farce, Miss Sage?" Odin asks. "Do you not wish for your knowledge to be preserved for the days the people that were digitized already would be free?"
"I do. But knowledge is better left shared for other people to learn. By digitizing these people, you yourself condemned them to a fate worse than death! I shall not let their lives, their emotions, their hearts, be squandered by the likes of you!" Raine says as she activates her mystice arte. "Life, be thy sustenance and destroy the enemy!" Raine gathers the powers of light and concentrates it into one point.
"That technique... That's...impossible!"
Raine disperses the gathered energy into a powerful blast. "Sacred Shine!"
Odin got on his knees after the blast. "Why? Why have the results deviated this time?!" The cage containing Elle was disabled and Ramona went to check on her. Odin got back up again. "The data's different!" Odin then scanned Elle. "The deviation... is it because of that girl?!" Odin tried to move forward, but Ludger got into his chromatus and stabbed him. "That girl...is the true Kresnik. Forgive me, good people of Thor." Odin says as he disappears and the divergence catalyst breaks. The Waymarker falls into Ludger's hand before the dimension breaks and he checks on Elle.
When the group got back, Elle became scared of the lightning and Ludger covered her ears.
(Bonus Scene: Elize)
"Ludger and Elle act just like their family, don't they?" Elize asks.
"Teepo's jealous!" Teepo comments.
"You have some people close to you who are like family, right?" Ludger asks.
Elize blushes. "Maybe Leia, and Raine... and Milla. But Alvin and Jude are... I mean, well, they're just friends."
"It's a girl thing. You wouldn't understand." Ramona tells Ludger.
(Bonus Scene transition to Raine)
Raine was looking down. "Ludger... We did the right thing, didn't we? I was just asking because of all of those people that were digitized back there."
"Those people didn't deserve to be imprisoned." Ludger tells Raine.
"Yeah... So, maybe destroying that fractured dimension...really was for the best." Raine then smiles at Ludger. "At least their memories will live on...through us."
(Bonus Scene End)
Milla was shocked at what she sees now. "Wait, what in the world?!" The fractured Rollo came back just as the real one appeared.
"There are two Rollos?!" Scott asked.
The group saw one of the Rollos fading. "He's fading! That means...the one we brought back was the fractured version of him!" Milla said in shock.
"This stuff is heavy... What just happened?!"
Milla then thought to herself. (What if two of the same thing can't exist at the same time in the prime dimension? Is that's true...it will be the same for Milla Maxwell and I.)
"I'm not sure, but we should head back to Trigleph for now." Presea suggested.
"Agreed." Ramona said. "Especially since now, there's only one Waymarker left to find."
A/N: Inspired by Jexi the Hunter and Hope the Victor