Chapter 780: Stop Persecuting Nia!

Chapter 780: Stop Persecuting Nia!

By this point in the game, many players clearly understand that the story is nearing its conclusion.

Although there is still plenty of content left to explore—each Titan representing a vast map, and numerous powerful monsters scattered across these areas that most players haven't even encountered yet.

Take, for example, the level 80+ gorilla in Gormott Province and the level 90 ancient Tyrannosaurus. Judging purely by in-game strength rather than story power scaling, a single one of these monsters could easily defeat the entire Torna party.

Additionally, many players at this stage have collected only around a dozen Blades at most.

There's also the character Ability Rings, Blade Affinity Rings, and various side quests across different regions. In terms of sheer gameplay content, Xenoblade Chronicles is undoubtedly a game that can keep players grinding for a very long time.

But the story is another matter entirely. Following the battle between Malos, who has awakened his full power, and Pneuma—the transformed Nia—

Rex and the others fall from the RUINS and arrive at the legendary land of doom: Morytha.

This new scene immediately shocks every player who has made it this far.

Gods, the World Tree, Elysium, Alrest, Blades, Titans, and the Cloud Sea—this expansive worldview leads many players to initially believe this is a fantasy world, akin to sword and sorcery.

After all, many elements seem to suggest exactly that.

But as the story progresses, particularly with the appearance of Siren and the Sea Serpent, and Pyra fully opening her heart to Rex, revealing the massive armor: Aion,

players are clearly signaled that this game's worldview is nothing like what they assumed. Sword and magic? Since when do mechs appear in sword and magic settings?

Now, arriving at Morytha, this new map makes it clear to many that Xenoblade Chronicles's background setting is completely different from what they imagined.

Tornadoes and thunderstorms. Morytha, located at the deepest part of the Cloud Sea, is shrouded in darkness.

More crucially, Morytha turns out to be a post-apocalyptic modern city—something incredibly familiar to players.

Collapsed office buildings, destroyed highways, structures and metal melted by thermal warheads—this was clearly once a world of immensely advanced technology.

Combined with previous hints—the so-called gods, the giant figures, and the Future Era cutscene—Song Ren has a bold idea: the Aegis, along with devices like the Sea Serpent and Siren, were all weapons of war created by humanity in the distant past.

Due to resources or other reasons, the highly advanced human civilization engaged in a civil war, ultimately leading to the collapse of their civilization?

Or perhaps they were attacked by a hostile alien civilization—such as the strange monsters found all over Morytha?

Having reached this point, Song Ren uses the information he's collected so far to speculate wildly about the game's underlying worldview.

As for the story itself, he doesn’t pay much attention anymore.

It’s a classic shonen-style adventure of the protagonist's party. For a player of his age, he doesn’t dislike this kind of narrative, but he no longer feels the sense of awe or deep interest.

Rather than the main quest, what he’s more invested in now is whether Nia will ultimately turn things around—or end up as a loser cat.

Continuing to advance the story, Zanza, previously an enemy, also lands in Morytha. At a critical moment, Rex saves Zanza, makes a temporary truce, and they work together to escape this deadly land.

Along the way, Zanza reveals the truth: Maipeni’s conspiracy. After the Holy Grail War 500 years ago, Malos was defeated. Fearing Pyra’s power, Hero Adel decided to seal her away. But afterward, Maipeni attacked the survivors of Torna, including Zanza’s Driver, Lora, who died as a result.

"Of course. In any game, the Praetorium is never the good guys," Song Ren remarked, unsurprised by Zanza’s revelation.

He had already noticed numerous hints earlier suggesting that Praetor Maipeni was not a decent person.

Thinking about it, in nearly every game, organizations tied to a religious order are almost always the antagonists.

As the story progresses, Zanza is taken aboard Torna’s warship, while Rex and the others head toward the World Tree.

Up close, the World Tree is unlike the towering tree it appeared from afar. Inside, it’s a high-tech space station. At this moment, Maipeni takes control of the Titans of Mor Ardain, Indoline, and other nations, launching attacks on Torna’s core and the World Tree.

At a crucial moment, Sadayhiko, who had remained outside the World Tree, suddenly steps forward. Unlike the others, his sole purpose is to pursue vengeance against Praetor Maipeni.

The following sequence involving Zanza and Maipeni brings little emotional reaction from Song Ren. As a traditional RPG, this storyline is quite conventional.

Zanza is defeated, and Rex activates his verbal assault mode. At the climax, Maipeni—Zanza’s mortal enemy—appears and kills two other members of Torna.

In the end, Zanza, consumed by memories of Lora, drags his mortally wounded body forward, expends his entire life force to maximize his attack power, and destroys Maipeni in a final act of vengeance. With his last breath, he entrusts Rex with stopping Malos.

But for Song Ren, this isn’t what he’s focused on. He notices that even at this point, the game’s systems and mechanics still seem to be persecuting Nia.

Because here, the game unlocks a brand-new Blade attack: the three-person combo special move.

It sounds incredibly cool. The activation condition? Nia must be deployed as a Blade, and both Pyra and Nia’s combat affinity must be maxed out. Then, use a level-four special move.

The animation is flashy, the damage is underwhelming—Song Ren feels it doesn’t even surpass the damage of a level-one special move.

Add to that Rex’s earlier line: "I like Nia, and everyone," contrasted with the completely different tone of his confession to Pyra. Plus, Nia’s Affinity Ring being named "Endurance"—Song Ren can’t help but feel that Nia is being persecuted once again.

With a sigh of emotion over Nia’s continued persecution, Song Ren guides Rex and the party forward toward Elysium.

But Elysium is nothing like Rex imagined. Instead of endless oases, it’s a barren desert. The once-glorious paradise is now nothing but ruins.

Following the sound of bells, the group arrives at the chamber of God. As they draw closer to God’s location, Rex suddenly realizes everyone around him has vanished.

He encounters Nia, Melia, Zeke, and Tora one by one—all of them speaking harshly, taunting and provoking him.

All of this is an experiment conducted by 'God'—manifestations of the fears and illusions within each person’s heart.

Then 'God' reveals the origin of this world. The place known as Morytha was once called Earth. Long ago, a high-tech war for cosmic survival erupted.

'God' was once a mad scientist named Klaus, who attempted to use the Trinity Processor to control a substance from a higher dimension known as the 'Conduit'.

This substance could selectively shift infinite possibilities from parallel universes onto the worldline desired by the wisher—a power he naively believed could change the world.

Ignoring all warnings, he forcibly opened the Conduit. But because the ideal world he envisioned had zero probability of existing, the old world collapsed during the shift. As a result, all of humanity and the essence within the Trinity Processor vanished into a distant dimension, leaving behind only souls, rationality, ruins, and half of his body.

His other half disappeared into another dimension. Left with only half his form and consumed by regret, he sought to create a world that could endure, as atonement for his sins.

Thus, he created the Cloud Sea—a swarm of nanomachines that break down old-world matter into new-world matter—and cast the Core Crystal, containing all life information, into it, forming new life and an ecological cycle.

At the same time, he created the Blades, transforming souls and rationality into the Aegis, which manages Blade data.

Through interactions between Blades and humans, information is exchanged. Eventually, they carry complete data and transform into Titans, birthing new life.

Though Song Ren had speculated about this, the full revelation of the true worldview still surprises him.

This truly exceeds his expectations. He had assumed it was a fantasy game—turns out it’s science fiction?

And upon reflection, many things now make perfect sense.

For instance, Malos lost his own data and had to steal it from Pyra.

He used cut instead of copy—thankfully, Pyra had backed up her data in advance, allowing her revival.

Also, Maipeni once stole the Core from the World Tree. That can now be interpreted as stealing a CPU. Since it was stolen, he could only experiment with it—unfamiliar with the model, he accidentally blew it up.

Then, for some reason, this CPU ended up in Adel’s hands. Compared to Maipeni, Rex’s CPU has a legitimate origin—used openly, even daring to seek out the developers and original sellers to learn how to overclock it.

Of course, aside from these plot points, what moves Song Ren the most is that even at this moment, the game still hasn’t stopped persecuting Nia.

Setting aside earlier lines like "I love Nia, and everyone," and the earlier insult "turtle head" in Mor Ardain, the illusion created by Klaus just now also qualifies as a legendary scene.

"Pyra, Pyra, Pyra! You're always like this!"

"You only see her! Nothing else matters to you!"

"I'm right here! Why can't you see me? Look at me! Look at me properly, Rex!"

Total defeat!

Even though it was just an illusion, Nia—by speaking these words—has already lost all chances in this battle for Rex’s heart.

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