VERSION 3.4 - PHAINON’S PATCH
Yet… things are paused. Right as the coreflame will be returned. We get a loredump.
Phainon’s journey is revealed. Aedes Elysiae, his homeland. Its complete destruction.
Cyrene is alive. She’s meant to be dead. It is a different Flame-Chase Journey. Not the one we arrived in.
They faced the same end, just like in 3.3. Okhema going dark. This is the ending from 3.3. It’s why Cyrene was there. This is another version of Phainon.
This scene replays over and over in his mind. The Era Nova. The resetting of the world.
A total of 33,550,335 times. It, Amphoreus, is a never-ending cycle. Phainon has been here that many times, with every other Chrysos Heir, time after time after time.
And the master of the countless memories we saw, the constant between every cycle seen before.
It’s the Flame Reaver. He has accessed the Vortex of Genesis once again, usually inaccessible. - "They who have already burnt their own self to cinder." is how Lygus describes them, raw asf. (+?)
He beheads Lygus, the administrator of the cycles, allowing his head to roll along the floor. (+?)
And this. This is the final end of the 33,550,336th Flame-Chase journey.
He slowly walks towards the two, wielding his blade, in no hurry at all. All that for aura. (+?) The music starts to pick up, both the Flame Reaver and Phainon point their blades at one another, speaking the same words, their poses mirroring one another, their blades obscuring their faces. (+?). "With my flesh as kindling... Light the first dawn of the new world!" - The quote goes hard, the two will do anything to persist, to get to the new world. (+?)
“Losses… are a constant on the Flame-Chase journey… and you haven’t lost… nearly enough…” - Treating Phainon as insignificant, because truthfully, a single cycle of Phainon’s losses is nothing compared to the tens of millions of cycles the Flame Reaver has been through. (+?)
Phainon fires back, declaring that with the Flame Reaver’s corpse, he’ll ignite the dawn. - Once again, VA carries. (+?) The two are going blow for blow, even in their words.
The two trade blows, culminating in Flame Reaver’s mask flying off. The two mirror each other perfectly, but when they turn around… Phainon is staring at a chipped, decayed version of himself. (Flame Reaver’s model is actually a remake of Kevin’s Hi3 model. The hair and even the black and white of the outfit around the neck is the same).
The Flame Reaver gets another re-make of his theme, this time much more triumphant. Once again, everything will restart. (+?)
"This form shall fuel the fire... burn, burn unceasing!"- Just goes hard asf. (+?)
It ends with Phainon’s sword in the Flame Reaver’s chest. His sword in his selves from all the previous cycles. All 33,550,335 of them. (+?)
"Why not... let wrath... incinerate fate?" - Flame Reaver speaks while urging Phainon to take his coreflames with his staff. (+?)
It is revealed that Amphoreus is just a data simulation - A bottomless well of fury from a part of Nous, an Aeon, being swayed by the destruction. It is a Scepter of Nous, cast aside by it. This is necessary context for what comes later.
Thus, we see the 0th cycle. The black tide, what is destroying the world, it’s just data being wiped away. Phainon and Cyrene stand, watching the destruction. Watching the world decay.
They’re all just characters in a program, following the same extrapolations over and over. Every Phainon is just an extrapolation to be fed to the machine,
for it to learn, to enhance the black tide. For it to be used on reality.
The Scepter is a Lord Ravager, a bearer of Destruction, seeking to perfect the black tide and destroy the universe.
Yet the 0th cycle’s Phainon and Cyrene defy this fate. They will not become fuel for the destruction, they will now allow the black tide to be unleashed. Phainon kills Lygus. (+?)
They decide to place everything on a gamble. Cyrene decides she’ll erase time through being killed by Phainon, and
Phainon chooses to endure the endless cycles ahead. Everything will reset, Phainon will bear all the coreflames so they don’t become nourishment for the Black Tide. Even if he has to burn through his own body. This is his resolve. (+?)
Things cut back to the current cycle.
Phainon stabbing the Flame Reaver. Every single memory spills out as the world begins to reset. The previous Cyrene sacrificing herself to restart Amphoreus’ time,
the 1st Phainon taking his trip into the Endless Recurrence of Amphoreus. This is Khaslana. The Flame Reaver, the collection of all Phainons throughout the cycles. His true form revealed as he transforms, the music starting to chant with his yell of rage. (+?) - He floats upwards, spreading out his body in almost splendour of what he has become, aurafarming in that glow. (+?)
And thus, we finally begin to see everything.
This is the 1st cycle. It shows Khaslana upholding the world, his blood bleeding down into the Flame Reaver, the various symbols of the coreflames surrounding Khaslana. The Flame reaver on the leaf, Khaslana on the right, one falling, the other ascending. This is what Khaslana’s journey is, this image perfectly represents it. (+?)
Phainon most get all the coreflames and reset the world so that the black tide cannot break free into the universe.
We see the CG of Phainon’s trip through time, his long bloodied walk, a single picture shows his journey. (+?)
Originally, the war between the Imperator Cerydra and the Titan of the Earth was bloody arduous conflict. In this timeline, Khaslana just severed the Titan’s head.
No losses. He did what required an entire war alone with the powers of the coreflames. (+?) - In the CG, his dead eyes gain the coreflames glow. He’s gaining more power. (+?)
Yet it all ends in the same outcome.
This version’s Phainon sees that he never shed a tear for his companions and decides to draw his sword upon Khaslana. Who fell that day remains a mystery, the coreflames, the memories, everything was passed on.
He recovered all twelve coreflames but nothing changed. There was no peaceful end, but the Black Tide did not grow any stronger. He managed to stall its escape into the universe for a cycle. (+?)
Throughout the repeats, he tried to destroy the black tide, tried to breach the Scepter Amphoreus was confined in. In the 42nd cycle, he stopped caring as much for his companions, growing cold to them. In the 133rd cycle, cognitive function began to degrade. Despite this, he kept going. (+?)
Cycle 134 - At this point he carries
1,596 coreflames… so when Bartholos, the Titan of Trickery, tries to steal the Coreflame of Reason, he kills the Titan. The departure doesn’t affect him anymore…
but Khaslana already knows what will happen. When asked if he’ll carve the Trickery coreflame out of her chest, Khaslana tells her that it depends on her attitude.
That the endings where she asked this question haven’t been so cruel. Basically telling her he can and will kill her if she gets in his way. (+?) Anaxa points out Khaslana is turning cold. That the people he’s trying to save are no more than ants to him now.
Khaslana doesn’t disagree.
Tells them to accept fate. and hand over the coreflame. Tells them even if their struggles are futile, they all have the right to choose. He doesn’t want to kill them, but he’s making it clear to the two he has no grievances about doing it. (+?)
He kills them both, at the end of the 134th cycle he has more coreflames. The same coreflames make up the glow in his eyes now, his power visible in his very eyes. (+?)
Khaslana continues persisting, no matter how many of his old friends he has to kill. He won’t let the black tide breach the universe.
He keeps trying to break out from the simulation, with no success. He’s just data, after all.
By Eternal Recurrence #5,297
his mind has degraded even more. This
continues all the way up to the 108,642nd cycle.
He appears,
bodies of those he’s killed behind him. Face to face with Mydei. And so like countless cycles before…
Khaslana annihilates Mydei, full-countering his strongest attack with his own. (+?) Khaslana takes his coreflame. (+?)
It was still not enough.
The blaze running through his body was not hot enough. It had to be fed. Even if it meant burning his body to ash. He’s willing to do anything to keep the cycles going, his persistence everlasting. (+?)
Recurrence #2,003,432 -
24,041,183 coreflames. He
will bear this burden, for as long as it takes. Castorice even calls his fate more cruel than Death, yet he continues on. (+?) Khaslana continues on, knowing they must clash blades. He continues,
he will burn destruction to the ground by transforming his soul into a raging fire. He is fighting against fate itself, and he will not stop. (+?)
Even as his form is meant to run out in gameplay, it persists with the message that ‘The sweltering sun doesn’t fall until it burns out…’ - Evidently, Khaslana hasn’t burnt out yet, even after 24,041,183 cycles. Each cycle takes 1,000 years. (+?)
Castorice uses her strongest attack on Khaslana, the full power of a titan. Khaslana ends her regardless, in one attack. (+?) - ‘Let this be a tribute… to your million struggles, fought time and time again.’ - He’s killed her countless times at this point, he no longer cares. He honours her death, but does not feel for it. Not anymore. (+?)
He takes the coreflame, the glow in his eye has turned into a river of gold, sweltering with endless heat. "As if even the deepest abyss of primordial chaos could be burned away." - And he's enduring all of it, every moment, enduring the flames that must burn his very soul. (+?)
Recurrence #4,000,001 - Khaslana
speaks about his experience forging 12 coreflames into 1. That it’s a burning, violent power ready to tear his body apart. His body holds 48 million coreflames.
He says it won't be long before his body is reduced to what the flame reaver is. Charred, crumbling bones. Despite this, he endures. (+?) Despite knowing his body won’t hold out, he’s willing to pass the burden onto another Phainon.
Recurrence #23,570,000 - Despite all of the cycles, the 23 billion years at this point, he swears that
everyone’s deaths won’t be in vain. Even as he sounds more and more jaded.
Even though the flames devour him in an instant. He holds out:
his last shreds of humanity not consumed yet. (+?) Even as
Hyacine uses her strongest attack, he bids her farewell and ends her then and there. (+?)
And yet… even if fate is set in stone, even if Amphoreus' wrath will one day converage upon the universe. Khaslana
will never yield to it. Despite all the cycles, how all he’s doing is stalling, he still declares he will never fall. Never yield to fate. Even if it pains him to keep going, even if the coreflames incinerate him from the inside out. Even his emotions have been hollowed out from the inside, no look on his face, his tone far less cheerful, but he’ll still never give in. (+?)
“23,570,000 cycles… 282,840,000 Coreflames… No more chasing is needed. And now, I am the fire at the end of the long night. The Flame-Chase isn’t some quiet walk through a sea of flowers. It’s a revolution, an all-consuming transformation. And if Destruction is the only way… Then let me be the one to step across the ashes of the old world and burn endlessly.” - He will bear this burden. Alone. He will burn endlessly, do whatever it takes. (+?)
And finally we arrive at our Khaslana. Our cycle’s Phainon.
Countless versions stood where he was. Despite the countless memories…
he’s still willing to go and bear this burden. (+?)
“I will kill gods and comrades alike and steal the Coreflames. And even if my mind turns to ash along with my body, I will keep my purpose in mind… I will stop Era Nova. I will find the next me… and make him carry on this futile endeavor of thirty million lifetimes.’ - His resolve is set in stone, he will continue no matter what. (+?)
All for the sake of saving the planets beyond the sky. That
he doesn't even know.
And so we return.
To the moment Phainon reset the world and inherited Khaslana’s will. Nanook himself,
the Aeon of Destruction gazes upon Phainon as he transforms, this gaze is incredibly difficult to get. An Aeon is a true god, even their gaze bestows strength. (+?)
His old self crumbles, and
Khaslana remakes the world in an instant. Floating there, the glowing light illuminating him like some kind of god. (+?)
So when Lygus confronts him and attempts to break his resolve…
Phainon calls his attempts repetitive. Uninspired. He was never swayed.
The score is 33,550,336 to 0. Khaslana’s resolve has never broke. Not once. (+?)
Despite Phainon being trapped in the cycles, he calls Lygus out,
tells the robot that he’s the real prisoner to Phainon. As long as the cycles go on, Lygus cannot leave.
He even says he will never accept the mercy of being released from the cycles. (+?) - Because
Lygus is a prisoner to the gods, and to Phainon.
Phainon doesn’t even bother to stand there anymore.
He just floats, looking over Lygus’ decapitated head, showing his elevated status. (+?)
He then
calls out Nanook, the Aeon who just gazed upon him. Nanook is the Aeon of Destruction, the embodiment of all Destruction. His Emanators alone can destroy galaxies in instants, all while
Khaslana is just code. Data inside a simulation. Khaslana looks back across the cycles, reflects on it all. I shouldn’t need to elaborate on anything here, it truly speaks for itself. Especially after all Khaslana has done is elaborated on, the pain he went through in killing his allies, in merely existing to protect the world. I suggest you watch the video because the VA once again carries.
“In the tenth cycle, I drove Dawnmaker through the heart of every Titan. Golden blood ran down my fingers. Divine fire seared through my nerves, nearly breaking my will - but I endured.” (+?)
“In the ten-thousandth cycle, my former comrades had all become my enemies. The endless slaughter dulled my senses to pain. The painful emptiness almost swallowed me, forcing me to stop fighting - but I endured.” (+?)
“In the hundred-thousandth cycle, the Destruction had already fused into a blazing sun, surging within this fragile body. My rationality had been burned away at the dawn of the era… Yet even with only this shattered body remaining, I still endured.” (+?)
“In the twenty-three million five hundred seventy-thousandth cycle… This time I felt it: a tiny spark rising in the hollow cavity of my chest, different from the obsession with Deliverance. By its faint glow… once again - no, countless times again - I endured!” (+?)
“Now, a sun is about to fall, ready to incinerate this absurd space-time dimension in an instant - That sun is me - all the countless versions of me from the past - along with my countless brethren, dragged into existence against their will, drowning again and again in your golden blood. The very essence of this world’s suffering and despair, fused into the purest hatred, the fiercest rage- Nanook, you arrogant fool! You think we were born only to serve as fuel for the fire? Fine, then - just as you wish, let the fire burn!” (+?)
“If I was born as the blazing sun of Destruction, then let you and your lackeys be the flares erupting from my core! And let this rage, burning futilely for thirty million epochs, engulf everything- And grant you a dawn where all stars burn to ash!” (+?)
Khaslana breaks out of the simulation. After attempting to breach the scepter millions of times, again and again. He finally succeeds. (+?)
Leading to this animated short. His well deserved crashout, after billions upon billions of years.
The beginning shows him running through the cycles, growing, becoming through he is today, the fire raging until he finally escapes the simulation.
“Are you ready? Nanook! I’ve brought you Destruction!” - Countless members of the anti-matter legion pour out, but Phainon’s theme begins playing. In instants he sends hundreds flying with singular attacks, rips them apart easily.
Bathes in the blood of his slaughter. (+?)
Then Zephyro appears. The strongest Emanator of Destruction. Light shining down upon him like a divine messenger… yet Khaslana instantly goes to fight. In an instant he transforms,
dozens upon dozens of meteors falling down upon the Emanator. Yet he is cut down, his arm sliced in two. He lands upon the bodies of his former comrades, of all the people in Amphoreus.
It does not stop him. He grins and his fire burns ever hotter. (+?) He gets up, raging ever hotter, stabbing through his wing and charging at his enemy with no regard for safety. (+?)
And even with his own sword in his gut, turned upon him, his fire burns hotter and hotter. He completely transcends Zephyro, bypassing his foe entirely, aiming directly at the Aeon of Destruction himself. (+?) His very run incinerates entire galaxies. (+?) And all that rage culminates on a scratch upon Nanook’s cheek. Easily healed.
Yet this is a feat never seen before. Never deemed even possible. For the Astral Express, the main character’s group, who go against Nanook, this is proof in its purest form. Their enemy is fallible. Is defeatable.
Once again, linking back to Kevin, his destiny is to soar to show others the way, and then fall with proof of his heights.
And once again, this is mere data. Mere data reaching out of a simulation by pure fury, and slapping the highest god in the face. (+?)
It is fury without equal. (+?)
Also the song. Just add however many points you want for this song. (+?)
Here is the theme that plays throughout most of 3.4. The unreleased version is what plays during his speech, while the first section is throughout the majority of 3.4 (+?)