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The Mystic Ruins are a maze of corridors guarded by ancient monsters with strange, dangerous abilities. No one remembers how the ruins were created or why they are there, but if these walls could talk...the stories they could tell would be priceless. Atop the ruin lies a room in which no mortal has tread in over 1,000 years. They say it is full of history...not just of the ruins themselves, but the history of the world.

The Mystic Ruins are located on the Kerwon Continent, far southeast of Meribia and northeast of Tokyo, and can only be accessed by those possessing the knowledge of ancient times and power. The only two known to have crossed its threshold to date is the Great Ryoman...and the Magic Emperor himself, Ghaleon.

"Oh, how many memories this place brings back," a cold, sarcastic voice came from the hallway from which he had just come. A clink of metal echoed in the cavernous ruins, followed by another...and another...and another...the telltale sign that was as ominous as it was familiar to the two men who were there. The light provided by the mirrors and the endless spells that illuminated the corridor slowly revealed the tall, imposing figure of the man to whom the echo belonged.

As the light raised, a regal armor was revealed as his garment...pale, the color of his skin. And his crimson eyes...one surrounded by a the dark blue of a scar that time would never mend. Flowing white hair trickled over his shoulders and down his back, outlining the pristine features of this otherworldly man. But to the other man, the voice was more than enough to identify the ancient ruins' guest. The clinking stopped, and from the top of the stairs the man smirked down at the hero of justice.

"Don't you agree, Leo?"

Ghaleon smirked, laughing a little in spite of himself. Leo's audacity certainly had not changed at all throughout the ages, nor had his hopless ambition to live as a truly 'honorable' human being. Yes, the two of them had been allies once upon a time, but that statement in and of itself revealed to him just how deep the wedge had been driven between them.

"You sound excited that you are capable of sacking an ill-protected city, ruled by a fool of a Governor who had not the power to defend himself against a single man's vengeance," the Emperor mocked the former Governor of Callisto, the deceased homunculus Pride. Yes, it was true that the rebellion had won a battle there...but its impact had not radiated outwards as much as they might have liked. "Do you forget, White Knight of Althena, that it was I who granted the Rebellion its very existence? If not for me, you would be nothing more than a ghost of the past...much like those fossils, Althena and Dyne, who you so love to remember as your "Heroes of Old"."

'How pathetic you all are, clinging to their dreams as if they ever had a hope," Ghaleon sneered slightly, memories of the ancient duo still fresh upon his mind after thousands of years bereft of their company. "The future which Althena foresaw was nothing more than fantasy. You know it as well as I that humans are incapable of governing themselves. The world would fall into ruin without my hand to guide her. You should be thanking me, White Knight, not wasting your time reflecting upon that which has come and gone."

Ghaleon stepped down from the raised platform on which he stood and slowly began to circle the stone with the measured steps of a predator stalking its prey. His crimson eyes peered dangerously across the device towards the knight that was his company. Then, the Emperor turned his back on them both, flipping his cape over his shoulder with his sword-arm.

"You were not always so deluded, were you?" he questioned the defender of justice. "Why do you continue to fight a battle in which you cannot possibly hope to emerge victorious?"

"Do you not remember the chaos that ensued after the world was given back to the humans?" Ghaleon challenged, reminding his companion of the world which was ravaged by the greed of human beings in the years that came after all the heroes had departed from the world. "The Dragons themselves grew wearied by the decadence into which Lunar had plunged and heartsick at the lack of courage men showed in failing to lead one another. Cities crumbled, poverty was rampant, and the Earth itself had been plundered of its riches so thoroughly that she could no longer replentish herself!"

The Emperor did not turn, but the edge in his voice conveyed all the feeling necessary for the knight to understand. "This 'power of humanity' which you love to remind us all of may be formidable, I shall give you that. But compared to that of a true God or Goddess it is nothing, as evidenced by the decay of the world that was. Now, only I remain from the days of the Goddess, and only I remember the prosperity this world once enjoyed...the world as it ought to have always been. It is not a desire to dominate that has landed me in my role, but a duty to a world which cries for order and care! Who will lead us if not I? Kyle of Nanza, perhaps?" Ghaleon scoffed at the ridiculous notion.

"The fact is, White Knight, that human beings are incapable of maintaining their own dominion, and only a God or Goddess has the power to protect mankind from its own nature. I have claimed that power and am not the fool that Zophar was to wield it as he did. It is order this world desires, not the chaos he so coveted, and it is order that I have given it. Even your precious Meribia was placed on the map in the place which I imagined it to be. All your Rebellion exists as it does because of my benevolent mercies, and still you have the audacity to resist the one who showed you this mercy! Tell me now, Leo, which of us is lacking in honor?"

'I loved that fool Althena, but she was a fool. Her mistake would have been the death of us all, but it is my power which salvaged it and it was her power that allowed me to do so," Ghaleon reminded Ryo, though it was more for himself than anything. His eyes clouded, though the knight of Meribia ccould not see. "I believe that in the end, it was her will that things be as they are now, even if she did not realize it at the time of her demise. Her will has granted me the power of dominion, and her gift is one that I shall not discard so lightly as you might like!"

'What is contained in this tome is nothing more than a jealous beast seeking retribution for a lifetime of wrongs upon him, but much has changed since the fall of the self-proclaimed 'Magic Emperor'," he paused, turning to face Ryo with a dark smirk. "Millenia have passed since that day and with that time, the knowledge of the ages was shared...stored within my mind. I have learned the truths in Althena's teachings and all the lies, and assimilated them into my own designs. I know now that which the world so desperately craves and through the retribution I paid not once, but twice in my own blood, I have been granted the power to wield that knowledge.'

This man that you see before you...servant of the ages, molded by the very fires of Hell and the love of a Goddess...he is a man fit to be the one, true Magic Emperor."

Ghaleon smirked, shutting down the tome as it reached its conclusion. "You of all people should know that I do as I must to protect this world. Is that not the very definition of honor? To protect those who cannot protect themselves no matter what the price to be paid? Or have you forgotten all the principles that once made you the White Knight of Althena? You are so foolish...your rebellion and its pathetic ties to the ideals of the past are proof that you are all unfit to make the decisions that must be made in order for this world to exist," he mocked the knight, before continuing further.

"Did you not realize that if there was no rebellion, there would be no need for the war which now threatens to consume this world? How conceited you are to believe that your 'noble' deeds have done anything at all to change this world for the better! All you have managed to accomplish is to give rise to a new age of terror, which I am now forced to see through to whatever end I must. A task at which my 'perfect creation' has no equal."

Ghaleon turned and made his way towards the highest level of the ruins, but before he made his exit, his voice pierced the ears of the White Knight one last time.

"Try as you might to undo my will and power but in time you will learn that I have no equal," he warned, before passing on his final, ominous note. "Just remember, dear Knight, that if you continue on this fool's quest I will be forced to use her power once more to undo the scars which you left upon her world. But this time, you won't be coming back."

The clink of metal echoed through the corridor once more, its volume decreasing with every step. Soon, its sound faded...and with it went the Emperor back into that world which he created atop the Fortress of Althena."