"Five Snake, Seven Snake, and the Three Snake base Oren and the others destroyed on the northern icefields... That means there are still four bases whose locations we don't know." Sylutia gazed at the scenery outside the train window as she spoke with Cheris beside her.
"Yes. According to estimates from our accompanying colleagues in the Inquisition Hall, this organization may have existed as far back as the Eighth Era and survived all the way to the present."
"What are they after?"
Although every Transcendent faction and organization sought to advance and become higher forms of life, their chosen aspect powers inevitably led them down different paths, and those differences in turn gave rise to different principles and values.
The "gold steam-secret speech" system represented by the Mage Alliance required a stable order in which to spread knowledge, provide education, and train large numbers of people who understood complex machinery, alchemy, academic disciplines, and other fields.
For Transcendents following paths such as "distortion" and "nightmare," however, precisely the opposite held true. Only when order collapsed, leaving chaos without restraint or oversight, could they act as they pleased and strengthen themselves through those methods.
If their ultimate aim was to overthrow the Mage Alliance and the other powers of the Fourth Continent, plunging this land into an age of chaos like the Third Continent, how would they accomplish such a "great feat"?
Indeed, plunging the world into war and destruction was also a great feat. It simply belonged not to "gold steam" or "radiant moon," but to aspect powers such as "distortion," "nightmare," and "dead ember."
"If that really is their goal, then whatever they're seeking must be extraordinary." Sylutia looked away from the window and down at the open notebook before her, recording her thoughts.
The train crossed the chilly