Chapter 4
The Convergence
"OK, Taion, I'm gonna explain to you how the fusion actually happened.", Rinwell said. "OK, but what does this have to do with Garreg Mach Monastery?", Taion asked. "Well, Garreg Mach was used as one of the focal points used when the invader YHVH used Cyber Space as the cradle for the fused worlds. He did this due to the presence of an underground tomb housing the Goddess Sothis providing the exact amount of energy it needed to fuse the worlds together, albeit at the expense of the world's stability and Cyber Space being pushed to the absolute limit of its storage capacity and then some. Of course, this means that the worlds themselves have been frozen in time in the "real" world outside of Cyber Space, not to mention having been trapped in a time loop.", Rinwell explained. "Oh, I see now. Please, continue.", Taion said. "Gladly.", Rinwell said.
Drinking a glass of water left on one of the desks, Rinwell then said, "Back in the section of the Multiverse where I come from, there exists a world named Dahna. I'm from Dahna, by the way. Anyway, Dahna itself was invaded 318 years before I was born by this group of Astral Arte using people called the Renans and they promptly set up this system called the Crown Contest wherein five Renans would be selected to take governance over five regions of Dahna called Orbus Calaglia, Cyslodia where I was born, Elde Menancia, Mahag Saar and Ganath Haros. In order to facilitate the contest, they would be tasked to gather a specific type of astral energy in that specific region- fire for Calaglia, light for Cyslodia, earth for Menancia, wind for Mahag Saar and water for Ganath Haros. As a result, Dahna's ecosystem was…warped. When I was born long after the Crown Contest was established, I found a book listing various other worlds among the records my parents had collected in order to stop the Renans from conquering the Multiverse. After all, if you know that one world exists from those weird dreams you have, then it's fair game that other worlds exist too. Anyway, among those worlds I saw listed were worlds named Aselia, Ephinea, Er'ther, Ae'ther, Fodra, Calegia, Shining Blue, Desolation, Organica, Celestia, Naraka, Inferia, Devaloka, Auldrant, Terca Lumereis, Rieze Maxia and Elympios. Not only that, but there were also records of Aselia being split in turn into the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla before being recombined by a weapon known as the Eternal Sword. With me so far?". "I-I think so.", Taion said. "Good.", Rinwell said. Taking a moment to compose herself, she then continued. "OK, now when the Convergence started, what YHVH did was use Dahna as the original focal point for the fusion. The effects were profound. Not only did the regions of Dahna expand, but the new geography made little sense. In Elde Menancia, for instance, we started seeing strange giant loops and these strange sentient birds. Meanwhile, in Mahag Saar, the desert there strangely expanded, with the new residents including these red-headed women who had a hankering for blue makeup. Meanwhile in Ganath Haros, we saw these strange fish people who called themselves the Zora. They didn't really know what had happened and neither did we. Not only that, but we also met a strange man who had appeared through the gap between dimensions with a glowing left hand; we decided he needed to be trained to stand up to this YHVH if he was ever to stop the Convergence from consuming the multiverse. His name was Jack Sebastian Arnold, I believe.", Rinwell said. "That lines up with the reports we were getting in Agnus of strange people.", Taion said.
Meanwhile, in a strange Gothic castle, a young woman with blonde hair in twintails and burning red eyes sat on a fancy four poster bed. In walked a dapper old man with long grey hair (to the point that it was literally tied in a bow) wearing an olive green suit. "Madam Rachel, I believe we have found the location of one of the Chaos Emeralds- the white one. The thing is, it's in one of the more unstable areas of the world with heavy Cyber Space corruption.", the old butler said. "Well, what's important is that we know where it is. Thank you, Valkenhayn.", Rachel said.
Back at Garreg Mach, Sonic and Vaike rushed at a giant mechanical tower. "Let's see how you like this!", Sonic roared, boosting at the tower whilst covered in a cyan aura. As if on cue, Yuito reached out his hand, covering Sonic in a purple glow. The two promptly used their speed and psychokinetic prowess respectively to repeatedly bombard the tower with Yuito using Sonic as an improvised yo-yo. Ryoma then finished off the tower by drawing his katana, calling up a thunderstorm which converged around his blade forming a giant blade of lightning which he then thrust forward, impaling the tower and causing it to explode. Suddenly, a giant red portal appeared in the sky, with a giant mechanical dragon coming through. "Oh man. Wyvern's back? I thought I defeated him back on Ares Island too.", Sonic groaned. Wyvern then suddenly disappeared, leaving a blue gear in its place which gently fell to the ground. "What is that thing?", Yuito asked. "Well, that's a Portal Gear. I used them back on the Starfall Islands to access certain levels, including one infamous one that looked a lot like Sky Sanctuary that I almost ripped out all of my fur trying to beat because it was so hard.", Sonic explained. "Regardless, it is clear that this Cyber Space dimension is falling apart. In order to prevent it from collapsing from what YHVH did to it, we need to find the Chaos Emeralds ASAP and funnel their power into restoring the Cyber Space dimension and stabilising the fusion in the "real" world.", Noah said. "Maybe this Portal Gear holds the clue to where we can start our search.", Eunie chimed in. "Yeah, learning where to start would be really helpful.", Blackwall agreed.
Entering the monastery's cafeteria, Ragna said to Yumi, "OK, have you seen any Chaos Emeralds in the Phantom Field?". "I don't think I've seen any in the Phantom Field specifically, but I think I saw the yellow Chaos Emerald in a vast desert. I also saw the purple Chaos Emerald in what appeared to be a giant industrial complex in a chemical plant and the white Chaos Emerald back in Cyslodia, specifically in a special shrine erected at Hieno Mountain. As for the other four, I don't really know.", Yumi replied. "Wonderful. Just wonderful.", Ragna sarcastically replied in turn. Watching their conversation from a nearby table, Shadow wondered if maybe he could find the Emeralds just on pure deduction alone.
The story continues in the next chapter.
