You return to where you first fell into the Ruins, where the elevator fell. It has since been repaired, but it has only been used to descend. No one wants to return to the surface, where the Phantasm awaits.
Deep in the earth, in the Aeon Ruins, they are protected. Safe, among the Explorers who lit the shadow.
You met with the Kingdom representatives before you began your final ascent. Told them to wait near the Soullights.
If you fail, and the Phantasm begins to descend, they would touch the glyphs, and whatever came next would decide their fates.
The Duke from Qero wordlessly hands you a flare. The Signal Flare, in case the Soullights must be activated early.
You nod to him, and begin your climb. And yet... it feels so premature. There's still so much you don't know. You're still in the dark.
The elevator passes the great Lighthouse on its way up, but you turn away and avert your eyes.
For a moment, the beam passes over you, and you see your long shadow stretch across the surface the water.
And then it is gone.
-WUUHEIM'S ASCENT-
There is a growing rattling in your bones. A feeling of unreality, and near weightlessness. It feels like when you faced the Larval Phantasm; a dread hangs heavy on your Soul, thick and suffocating.
Though the bottom of the Descendant Tower is relatively intact, the staircase that leads off the elevator leads to a black platform, ceiling and walls torn away, formed into a spiraling path upwards as you approach.
It seems you're being invited upwards.
You are suddenly surrounded by transparent images of fear, half-existing wraiths that leak into your perception. They follow you, walk past you, through you.
You turn your gaze away, trying to ignore the ever-shifting expressions on their faces. Joy, agony, terror, hope, desperation... an entire lifetime's worth of emotions passes over them as they cascade off the edge of the platform.
You close your eyes and take a deep breath, striding confidently through the swarm. The cacophony of the Sea of Souls rings in your ears, making you wonder if you will share their fate.
If you will join them in their torment, when the Phantasm assuredly takes you...
AREA OVERVIEW:
Wuuheim's Ascent is the final area of Mortal Souls, taking place in the shattered remains of the Descendant Tower.
However, it is neither long nor particularly difficult, serving as more of a short buffer between the Lighthouse Dock and the final boss. who makes up a brunt of the difficulty.
The two enemies that remain there are Spectres and Bloodshades, two of the most devious foes. They disguise as Ghosts and Bloodstains respectively, ambushing the Explorer when they turn their backs.
Wuuheim's Ascent is flooded with Ghosts, both of fellow Explorers and ones simulated by the game, so it is easy for the Spectres to blend in.
Additionally, the footing is much more treacherous, making falling a much bigger threat than it was before.
(Difficulty Level: [3] Dangerous)
APPEARANCE:
The remains of the Descendant Tower float in the cloudy void between the surface and the underground, suspended in limbo.
The cloudy walls are stormy now, flashing with lightning. The wind causes the giant chains to rattle, howling across the rusted steel.
From above, the Phantasm's aura casts a blue light from above, bathing the place in unearthly light.
FINAL BOSS: SOULLESS LEOCADIUS (The Other King)
A final wooden staircase lies before you, its planks leading up to the former top of the Descendant Tower, now floating gently below the incandescent Phantasm.
You recognize it as the snapped bridge you walked across, from what seems like an eternity ago. You long to see the true sky, but the Phantasm nearly blots it out with its blinding glow.
A final veil of shining mist rises up from a arch of shattered stone, and you walk through, heart racing as you stare up at the Phantasm. You look up with trepidation, blade trembling in your hand as it leisurely falls.
But it stops, hanging just above. It turns, and tilts its head toward the fog in a child-like gesture of confusion. And through the mist comes another.
"The light envelops us," It's the hermit, from the Lighthouse Dock. "We walk in the shadow no longer, Explorer."
He stares you dead in the eyes, before removing a crown from his robes and placing it on his head. The illusion is broken, and his rags change into a tattered regal robe, coated in medals from all Kingdoms. His face changes to be more dignified, but weary beyond words.
"Do you recognize me? I once united the world, but it seems that has been forgotten." Leocadius steps forward, face emaciated and eyes hollow. "And so I had you ignite the Soullights. To lure the people of the world to this very spot."
"There is evil in this place, but it is not the Phantasm." He unsheathes his sword and shield, leaning on the blade as he staggers closer. Clutching it in his skeletal hands. "Come. Bring me to the brink of death. So the light may fill me."
You raise your blade, watching its shadow shimmer before the Phantasm's light. He must be mad, to stand against you now. But if it death he seeks...
Art by DustyEmber
FINAL BOSS OVERVIEW:
The final battle takes place on an enclosed platform, with the Ruins below, the Phantasm above, and the night horizon of the wasteland around.
Leocadius, your foe, has a crooked, crippled gait, but is surprisingly resilient and swift. He fights using a standard straightsword and shield, but can also utilize advanced Demonica, striking with black bolts from his hands.
He also carries a musket, hidden in his robes, that he can use to blast you for a sneak attack.
However, once he reaches a low amount of health, he is possessed by the Phantasm, restoring his health and drastically increasing his speed and power.
His Demonica spells become absurdly powerful, and he can blink and slide around the arena, distorting reality.
Art by Zdzislaw Beksinski
"I was born after the War began. It was my entire identity. My Soul. I knew nothing else." The fallen King speaks to you as he thrusts. You parry, but dodge his counter-attack.
"But I finished it. My father's scourge was ended in a single moment." You remain silent as the two of you duel. You won't give this madman the satisfaction of a response. "Peace. There was peace! But this place didn't want peace."
The Phantasm looks on, seeming curious, content to be a bystander for now. You bitterly wonder why it toys with you so. Why not descend, and end it now?
"All these dead worlds, entombed in the shadow forever, fell prey to mortal folly," You slice at his side, but he hardly reacts. Instead, he speaks freely, as if speaking to an old friend. Maybe he is glad to have someone to vent to. Someone to share his truth with.
"Human nature... is petty and self-destructive, after all," He sends forth a wave of corrupting blackness, but you hold your shield steady against it. "They killed themselves, and we were on the same path. To be chewed up and regurgitated by that cursed place."
"It relied on that. And when we succeeded, when we overcame...?" His voice falls, and he spits his words. "It sent the Phantasm."
"Is it a sin, to save the world?" He wildly batters away at your shield with his sword, denting it, chipping away at the aged steel of the blade. "Is there a cruel god out there, who wishes not for life, but for endless death and rebirth?!"
"No more, I say. I did not burn away my Soul for nothing!" You duck underneath his next blow, and wrench your blade into his side, flaying him. He falls to his knees with a shriek, and for a moment, the world shakes.
Movement from above. You back away as the Phantasm nears, descending upon the King. Just being in its presence, you feel a massive sense of gravity, as if it was a gap in existence, seeking to fill itself by consuming everything.
But instead of destroying him, the Phantasm stiffens, before becoming a wisp of blinding light that slips down into Leocadius's throat. He seizes up and screams, writhing on the ground as his cavities and wounds burst forth with light, the earthshaking aura shrinking until it is contained entirely in his body.
He lies still. But then begins to cackle in a chorus of scratchy voices.
"Gah... ah... to have such a thing as a Soul..." He mumbles, falling into laughter again. "Hahahaha... it's even worse than I could have imagined."
He tilts upward, rising in defiance of gravity, until he stands on his own two feet. He gathers raw Souls in his hand, and intermixes them with swirling blackness. He holds his hand out, firing them in a barrage that screams past you. You barely evade it, but your shield arm is caught in the blast, eradicating the shield and scorching your arm to the bone.
You fight back screams of agony. But the King advances.
"My father's ghost... will he not stop haunting me?!" He holds his hands to his head, breathing heavily, exuding misty Souls. "They are voices... the stagnant voices of the dead!"
"Killed in the war but not reborn, trapped in that hellish sea... no wonder they rose up."
"But no, nevermore... never... NEVER AGAIN!" He brings down his sword, stabbing it into the stone. You roll out of the way, and get to your unsteady feet.
"These Souls, and the Souls below, every Soul!" He lunges back at you, abandoning his blade in the ground, striking you with fists as hard and heavy as iron, trying to gouge out your eyes through your helm. Thankfully, he only dents the metal before you throw him off. There is more injury to your Soul from his touch than to your body... "If the Ruins seek to perpetuate such suffering, I will consume them all... and reduce it to dust!"
"Never again will the Shades rise to humanity..." He's babbling now, mad. But you aren't feeling too sane yourself. Above, you watch the stars circle the sky like comets, being replaced by the sun, then back to night. And on the rim of the pit, you see endless crowds, throwing themselves into the depths, splashing into the sea, painting it red and blue and all colors of the Soul.
"I will exist alone, beyond any god or demon. If I shed my nature, the shadow will have no hold on me!" You hold out your injured arm, and summon up the last of your spirit as a feeble flame. Dragging it across your blade, you set it ablaze, the metal absorbing the very essence of heat.
"I will become the ultimate other. A being... foreign to all." He raises his arms in surrender to his twisted hopes, and you scream and drive your fiery blade into his heart.
The world goes silent, and still. The sky is divided between day and night, light and dark, shadows and reality. And the King laughs, for the final time.
"Now that fate is yours to bear..." He mumbles. "Alone... apart..."
Then his face falls, as he recognizes his own mortality. "Alone..." He falls to his knees, then to the ground, a pool of black blood forming underneath him.
But before you can hope that the Phantasm died with him, a burst of Souls erupts from his form, similar to the Souls you had claimed in the Aeon Ruins... but you know what claiming this Soul entails. You back away, holding your hands up in defense as the Souls stream into you, a rising amalgam of terror assaulting your very sense of self...
MULTIPLE ENDINGS:
After defeating the Soulless Leocadius, the Phantasm enters your body. From here, you are given a set of three choices, and associated endings.
This is where the Explorer decides the fate of all Souls.
BANISH:
Use the Soullights to banish the shadow, and return the Aeon Ruins to its natural state.
How to attain: Fire the Signal Flare after defeating Leocadius and absorbing the Phantasm.
Every last Soul, mashed together into a single rippling, pulsating mass. It was absorbed by the vile Explorer who became the ultimate other.
The Body gives the Mind identity. The Mind binds the Soul. And the Soul sustains the Body. But mortals are weak, and this balance cannot last forever. And one by one, they are swept away, and all memory of them is forgotten.
Use this, the foulest of Souls, to gain a colossal amount of Souls. It is useless otherwise.
SACRIFICE
End your own life, and the threat of the Phantasm. Forever.
How to attain: Use the Suicide Knife to kill yourself after defeating Leocadius and absorbing the Phantasm.
Your Soul. Everyone dies. But few deaths have true meaning.
The Body degrades without the Mind. The Mind is hateful without the Soul. And the Soul without the Body fades, like the fog. But mortals are strong, and though the balance shatters time and time again, so too will mortals rise, to set it right again.
Use this noble Soul to gain a large amount of Souls, or else create a unique treasure with its essence.
