Mileena gathers everyone for a meeting to discuss the current situation. Raine recaps the background: the world is on the brink of disaster because of the Voidstorm, which Gefion attempted to seal in her body with her Human Kaleidoscope plan. Though it failed, Ix instead deliberately caused his power to go out of control, creating an outbreak of Mirrage Crystals that sealed himself, Gefion, and the Voidstorm inside. This event, which was afterwards called the Mirrorshift, caused considerable damage and upheaval and was accompanied by earthquakes. Under the guise of providing relief to the damaged world, the revived Asgard Empire has been seizing control. Keele summarizes the research that Keele Labs has been doing on the Mirrage Crystals, saying that all the crystal growths are connected underground, and theoretically are also linked to the stone containing Ix. Because the crystal is still spreading, it means that Ix’s anima is still being consumed. If nothing is done his anima might be exhausted. However, in suspended animation inside the crystal, even if drained of anima Ix should not die. The crystal is both prison and protective shield, giving them time to find a definitive solution, as well as allowing Kocis to move freely anywhere in the world.

Raine moves on to discuss the current Asgard situation. King Demetrius of Sellund has declared himself the Emperor of the revived Asgard Empire, an empire that existed more than 1200 years ago. Raine speculates that his motive is to revive the Bifrost Empire. In ancient times both Bifrost and Sellund were under the control of the Asgard Empire. Sorey adds that they may want to make use of customs or ceremonies that were passed down in the Asgard Empire in particular, and says that they’ve heard from Zelos about Demetrius’s attempts to use the possession ceremony to call the Sun Goddess Dana into the body of a priestess. Though the records he has from the Asgard period make no mention of the possession ceremony, there are many references to priestesses receiving an oracle, and this might be the reason for their interest in the Asgard Empire. Mileena says that Phillip is also investigating the situation, and they should wait for more information from him.

Aside from the Salvation Front, the rest of the world is now under Asgard’s control. With Phantom’s death Phillip and Marcus reclaimed the Salvation Front, but with so many of the members having defected to Asgard their power is weakened. Raine adds that Alvin from the Salvation Front has joined Mileena and the others, and Mileena introduces all the new members (Rose, Dezel, Anise, Celsius, Hubert, Pascal, Pasca, Kana, and Rody) to the group. The Salvation Front has additional Nexuses as well, including Rowen, who is still unconscious, Zelos, Kratos, Sync, Kohaku--and, although she is not a Nexus, Shirley. Senel is startled by the mention of Shirley and asks Alvin for more information, uncertain if she is the person he knows. While they are discussing that, Raine moves the general conversation on to the topic of the Living Doll Project, asking Cress to bring Chester in.

Chester introduces the Living Doll Project, saying it was the work of the Bifrost Imperial Princess Mercuria. Mercuria is a survivor of the mirrage wars who was brought to Sellund as a prisoner after Bifrost’s defeat. Demetrius raised her as her foster father, and she became acquainted with the Salvation Front through Phantom. Unaware that she was a Bifrost Princess, she was accepted as a young noble girl who was a member of the anti-Gefion faction. It was with Mercuria’s help that Chester found his way into the castle during the Mirrorshift, and Mercuria aided Phillip in order to remove Phantom. Afterwards, Mercuria and her guardian Demetrius began talking about reviving Bifrost, and half the Salvation Front defected to her side as her guards. The remainder, with Phillip and Marcus, are in conflict with the empire. Jude asks if Phillip’s opposition to the empire is due to the Living Doll Project, but Chester is uncertain. He says that all he knows is that the purpose of the Living Doll Project is to put a different soul in a body that has lost its anima, but says he doesn’t know the reason. Jade adds that Ami is now resting, although they don’t yet have a way to heal her.

Julius recaps the situation as the group having three main problems to tackle. Firstly, Ix’s runaway Overray and the Voidstorm. Secondly, the Living Doll Project and treating Ami. Thirdly, the Asgard Empire and their plans. The group decides to divide up to deal with the various situations. Rose and Karol are assigned to information gathering, and Rose says the members of their information gathering group will be herself, Dezel, and Brave Vesperia. Keele Labs is assigned to investigating methods to rescue Ix. Combat members of the group are assigned to find and rescue stray Nexuses. Julius, Mileena, Ruca, Illia, Ludger, and Elle are to avoid independent action. As the talk concludes, Mileena asks to speak to Raine and Jade about Naza.

Karol calls the first meeting of the his information gathering group, with Leon and Lloyd joining the discussion. They decide to start their research on something focused and concrete, so they want to look into the subject of the Omega Nexuses Zelos had reported were captive in the empire, Karyl and Regal. They ask Lloyd and Leon for more information on each of them. Lloyd says that Regal stayed behind to prevent Alicia being revived in the Living Doll Project, and that Regal is a strong, gentle, handcuffed person. Asked about Karyl, Leon says that he sings songs. Prodded further, he says that Karyl is a calm person with strong leadership ability and a heavy past. A woman he loved was killed, and Karyl eventually avenged her. Lloyd notes that the two of them have in common that they lost someone important to them, and Rose adds that Karyl may also want to prevent the woman he cared about from being used in the Living Doll Project. Dezel advises them to be cautious, and Raven agrees, although he says that there are also Nexuses on Asgard’s side who have helped them before (Caius, Kor, and Rubia). Yuri says that there are those whose objectives are unknown, and Raven mentions Flynn. In light of all that, Yuri proposes another infiltration of Hy’Brasail to get more information, and Rose volunteers her merchant connections to help get them in. Karol says that Rita is busy with Keele Labs research, and Estelle is helping the other healers try to find a cure for Ami, so they decide to ask some others to accompany them. Before they depart Cecily hurries in, apologizing for missing the meeting and giving them the new type of mirrages she’s just been developing.

The information gathering group, now including Laphicet, Luke, Guy, and Velvet, departs for Hy’Brasail. Though Karol had just asked Guy and Velvet to accompany them, Luke came along with Guy, and Phi joined Velvet when he heard about the mirrages Cecily had given them. Cecily had explained that the new mirrages should be able to draw out the powers that Nexuses lost in the Encode process, like Rose’s Armatization. If the Nexus encounters a catalyst, the mirrage should be able to manifest the power from their world in a suitable form, and they will be able to use Overray even though they aren’t mirrists. Though Velvet and Yuri initially wonder if Phi was hoping to use the new mirrage himself, they soon realize that he actually came along because he was worried about Velvet and the possibility that manifesting her powers from her original world might cause her to experience the effects of the malevolence. The conversation is interrupted when Karol thinks he spots Emil and calls out to him. Confused why Emil would have followed them in secret, the party tries to chase him. They hear people approaching and are forced to hide. It turns out to be Dist and a priest, who are discussing the rituals. Dist is saying they have no other options because he has no more Nexuses suitable to be a vessel, while the priest is worried that Richter will oppose them. They decide to proceed with their plan anyway and move along. Wondering what they just saw, the group gives up on searching for Emil and heads into Hy’Brasail.

When they arrive in Hy’Brasail, Luke and Guy are surprised to find that Rose’s letter of reference was to a merchant named Astor who they recognize from Chesedonia. Though they know him, Astor isn’t a Nexus, and has no memory of them personally. Astor introduces them to his bodyguard, Hilda. He asks her about the condition of the market, and she says that since many merchants have been detained by the conflict between the Salvation Front and Asgard, they’re petitioning Flynn to secure them safe passage. Yuri asks Hilda to tell him what she knows about Flynn. She says it isn’t much, only common rumors among merchants and soldiers; that he’s the Knight Commandant, who despite his rank deals honestly and kindly with the people. He aided the reconstruction efforts and helped calm the chaos of the empire and restore order. Also, according to the soldiers, he’s very close to General Naza, and the two of them work closely. Hilda asks Astor if they’re going to make their delivery to Rosemallow Villa as planned. On hearing that Rosemallow is the imperial villa where Mercuria stays, Yuri asks Hilda to bring them along on the delivery, and Astor agrees and instructs her to help them.

Hilda sneaks the party in disguised as merchant workers. She gets them to a warehouse directly across from the inner building of the villa, and then makes a distraction so the group can sneak in, spilling her tarot cards and getting the soldiers to help her gather them again. The last card she picks up is the Moon, upright. Meanwhile the group makes their way into the villa, but is forced to hide when Richter and another soldier approach. Richter is upset that the soldiers still haven’t managed to find Aster and instruct them to use more people, including the knights deployed at the Kaleidoscope. The group quickly realizes that he can’t mean the destroyed Kaleidoscope in Sellund, and conclude that the villa must instead have a Kaleidoscope of its own. They believe it to be Phantom’s revised prototype which he mentioned in his final battle with him. Determined to find out more, they go to capture the soldier to get information out of him.

Back with Mileena’s group, she gathers Jade and Raine to talk about Naza. She says that it was troubling her how much he looked like the older Ix, so she decided to trace through Gefion’s memories to see what she could find. The original Ix protected the original Mileena, Gefion, from the Bifrost soldiers and was killed. He was 22 at the time, and looked strikingly similar to General Naza. He also injured his right arm in that final fight, and Mileena says she believes Naza’s right arm has a prosthetic hand. Rather than Naza being an exoflection of a future Ix, they begin to suspect that he was instead the original Ix himself, and that Bifrost recovered his body at the time. Mileena says Gefion’s memories of Ix’s death are vague, but that she seems to recall Ix’s body dissolving into golden grains of light, just like from the Kaleidoscope. However, the Kaleidoscope hadn’t been invented at that time, so it should have been impossible. Raine wonders if the psychological trauma of Gefion’s guilt over all the people she killed caused her memories to become confused, but for the time being they agree to consider the possibility that Naza is the dead original Ix.

Cecily appears looking for Mileena and gets drawn into the discussion as well. She agrees that it would have been possible to preserve Ix’s body, and that she’d heard that Bifrost’s original intention in attacking Odanse was to seize mirristry techniques from them. Raine suggests that possibly Bifrost recovered Ix’s body in order to study it for mirristry purposes, and Cecily says that if it is indeed Ix’s body, that would make him the first subject of the Living Doll Project. Raine asks Cecily to tell them more about Mercuria. Cecily says that Mercuria is very innocent, but because of that innocence, she can also be cruel. She also loves mirristry; all members of the Bifrost imperial family are mirrists. Calculating from the end of the war, Jade speculates that Mercuria must be about 12 or 13 years old, and Cecily agrees. Jade believes this means that Demetrius is definitely the one steering Mercuria’s actions. Mileena says that even though Mercuria came to live in Sellund Castle following the end of the war and she should have encountered her as Gefion, she can’t remember her at all, and Raine suggests that they need to investigate further about Gefion’s memories.

Meanwhile, Yuri’s group has successfully threatened the location of the research laboratory out of the unfortunate soldier. Before they can start looking around for the Kaleidoscope, Repede suddenly becomes alert, and they hide as Naza and Flynn approach. Naza is saying that it will be difficult to revive all of Bifrost’s people even if they increase the scale of the Living Doll Project. Flynn(?) agrees that he’s worried as well, and that while Lambda and Richard had given him useful insight, it was difficult to find animus particles like Lambda’s. He adds that it’s only by using “this Nexus’s body” that he’s able to gather animus particles. Naza mentions his own “already dead” body, and Flynn(?) begins to say something about the anima of body he has, before Yuri blows their cover and charges in. Yuri asks what they’re planning to do by possessing Flynn, but decides he’ll just knock the possession out of Flynn’s body by force and attacks. When their blades cross, the special mirrage that Cecily had given Yuri begins to shine, and Naza yells for “Baldr” to get back. A giant shimmera appears and the group is forced to fight it instead.

Yuri activates his overray in the battle, and Naza recognizes the mirrage type that Cecily had given them. Yuri demands one more time for them to return Flynn’s body, but Baldr insists that he needs Flynn’s anima in order to protect Princess Mercuria and Prince Woden. Naza snaps at him not to use that name and that Prince Woden is already dead. Raven tries to bait them for more information, but soldiers appear as a distraction and Naza and Baldr get away, leaving behind another Shimmera to cover their escape. Yuri charges ahead of the group, trying to fight his way through in time to catch Naza and Baldr, and Guy and then Karol scold him for it. Yuri calms down enough to wait for the others and discuss what’s happening. Guy and Raven are troubled by the plans to revive Bifrost with the Living Doll Project, and Yuri says that they need to capture Baldr and bring him back to the hideout to find a way to help Flynn.

They encounter Mithos as they’re following Naza and Baldr, and ask him to tell them which way they’d gone. Mithos says that they’re in a place Yuri and the others can’t reach and not to bother, and is about to go on his way when Dist appears. He threatens to tell Mercuria that Mithos was willing to overlook the intruders and wonders what kind of punishment Mithos’s sister might receive for this, so Mithos attacks the party after all. However, he doesn’t put up much of a fight, and afterwards uses Distortion Blade on Dist for speaking of Martel. Yuri asks if Mithos is really trying to help revive the Bifrost Empire after all. Mithos says he has no interest in it, but also that he has no intention of interfering for the time being. He leaves, and Yuri decides that they should head back. Based on Mithos’s clues and Naza mentioning “closing the gate” before he fled, he believes that Naza is using the same sort of extradimensional space that their own hideout is based in. They believe the new Kaleidoscope may also be inside the same space. They decide to head back to share this information with Mileena and the others, and update them about Yuri’s overray as well.

Back at the base, Mileena asks Cecily what she’d originally been looking for Mileena to discuss. Cecily says that she believes she may have come up with a solution to fix Ami.

((to be continued))