Darkon’s Elegy of Madness — The World

The World — The Last Sacrifice

The current-time conclusion follows The Hermit. Do Dusk’s five quests lead through the Scale to Re’s six, ending with separate confrontations against Darkon and Encore Darkon. All eleven captured definitions are one-time main progression. The five scene accounts run from The World through Reunite, Final Performance, Encore and Good Morning; this is the Elegy finale, not the end of Lore’s other stories.

The opening composition places the Hero upside down between the Envoys. They ask what conclusion the Hero will choose after witnessing Darkon’s past. The Hero protests that it was more than observation: they felt his and Suki’s wounds and sorrow. Yet the injustice does not justify repeating it. Twenty-two years have passed, and Darkon now threatens people uninvolved in the original tragedy. Present-day Astravians included the perpetrators’ children and people willing to change or make amends. The Hero sees Suki’s dream becoming an excuse for revenge and hopes to persuade Darkon, as Mi had listened before.

The Hero reacts to another apparent beast, asking how it could appear with no capital residents or Creatures left to sacrifice and other Astravians out of range. Do Dawn explains that the Coronation of the Celestial was preparation: bodies held fractions of the Primordials’ power, while sacrificed life force formed a gate. The Hero identifies the final arrival as The World. Unlike Judgement, the Envoys say, it requires a sacrifice after arriving—the entirety of Lore.

Do Dusk says The World will erase Lore with one hand, reducing everything to true nothingness; Do Dawn says the other hand will create Darkon’s new dawn. A brief interval before Lore disappears, when the Fool’s power leaves Darkon to rejoin its brethren, is the Hero’s only opening. The Envoys urge an immediate confrontation and offer to keep guiding the ascent.

The Hero asks why the Envoys help when interference might prevent the Arcana’s reunion. They describe themselves as impartial, but Darkon and the Scale were the first mortals they encountered. Being treated as companions and experiencing a story firsthand changed them. If mortals can change, perhaps the cosmos can too. They believe the Empress’s child has suffered enough and want him to face the future without regret.

Do Dusk warns that Lore is already being erased as fuel for Darkon’s vision. Only the short interval when the Fool’s power departs will allow a confrontation between equals. The twins hope to save Darkon from further suffering. Dusk distinguishes Nothingness from darkness or a surrounding void: it removes even the space in which light and darkness could exist, something incomprehensible even to an Entity such as the visitor.

Dusk compares the process with Judgement’s red ring above Astravia’s castle, which collected life force until its quota was met. The World’s harvest extends across all Lore and will not stop on its own before recreation begins. The visitor must intervene first.

Justice, Reversed — Do Dusk says the first King’s promise is near fulfillment and directs the visitor to explore the Emptiness once, glimpsing Darkon’s intended sky. In the completion text, Dusk acknowledges the visitor’s belief that the choice is unfair, adding that Darkon would agree without despair clouding his judgment. As he is, Darkon will not reverse an action he knows he will regret.

The Hanged Man, Reversed — The Nothingness threatens both Lore and the visitor, with neither light nor room for darkness remaining. The task requires twelve instances dispelled. The reply describes Darkon racing toward an allegedly better replacement for oblivion without considering other paths, other wishes or the real source of his destructive drive. Dusk warns that this will erase everything except the root of his sorrow.

The World — Re Remembers

Death — Do Dusk identifies Re as the former General Regulus. Darkon saved her body near death but not her mind; bonds still sustain her loyalty, though parts of Regulus may remain. The objective is one defeat of Re. The completion text treats death as both an ending and a beginning, noting that Re still considers the visitor a friend. Their parting is inevitable whether Darkon succeeds or not; the question is what the visitor will carry forward from knowing her.

Temperance, Reversed — Fa is described as the Scale’s strongest member but least connected to its purpose. Her cosmic origins would invite cruelty outside, while her immediate aim is preserving the family and especially Re. The objective is one defeat of Fa, with a plea for gentleness. Dusk wonders whether fear of the future feeds her excess and warns that refusing to prepare may destroy the possibility of a happy future beyond games, naps and holding Re’s hand.

Temptation, Reversed — Ti is identified as former General Titania, whose gentleness and mindfulness have been overtaken by rage and guilt. The task requires one defeat. The description says a real monster’s ferocity is nothing beside that of a scapegoat. In the reply, Dusk says Ti wants those who wronged him to suffer, including himself for failing to protect Darkon, his friends and the innocent. The twins hope the Scale can learn self-forgiveness, even where forgiving another person is difficult or unwarranted.

The Hero asks the Scale to allow a conversation with Darkon, invoking Titania’s former claim that might makes right. Ti rejects it as the Astravian way of cowards and fiends. So demands to know how the Dragon learned it and calls the twins traitors for guiding the Scale only to oppose them now. Fa welcomes an end to fighting, insisting Darkon won hours ago and asking to go home. Re and Ti look even more exhausted than she feels.

The Envoys explain that the Primordials’ impending reunion is drawing the Fool’s power out of Darkon and consequently Re and Ti. The Hero fears they will return to the brink of death. Re says that is too optimistic: they will simply die. Fa offers to take her far from The World and outlast the erasure, but Re refuses to hide and wants to spend the end with her friends.

Fa thinks Re is behaving unlike herself. Re says the agony is bringing unusual clarity. Addressing Titania, she asks how often they have broken their vows; he recognizes the name Regulus. She says those old memories are returning and mingling with Re’s new ones. Darkon has changed so much she barely recognizes him, yet she refuses to believe the gentle Prince is wholly gone. She wants to help the Hero save him and asks whether Titania and Song would not want that too.

So wants Darkon saved from the Dragon. She promises a world without Drago or cruel Astravians, where everyone is kind. The Hero asks whether kindness would be freely chosen: without free will, goodness would be meaningless. Understanding one another is part of being alive. When the Hero begins to mention Suki, So forbids her name and threatens to stop the Hero herself.

Re asks for a reintroduction. As the Fool’s influence weakens, she and Ti are returning to their original states, but the bond she formed with the visitor as Re still counts. She does not want Fa believing love must be forced and offers protection while asking the visitor to go gently with So and stop Darkon.

Re interrupts a pun about regrets to acknowledge she has little time left. She expects to die if Darkon fails and thinks that is too lenient for the hundreds of broken vows and innocent people she harmed after losing her mind and memories. Fa and the visitor were bright points; without them, she believes Re could have done worse.

Do Dusk says the Envoys’ role is complete and admits that direct involvement exceeded their bounds. They will soon return to the Arcana, leaving a visitor who knows the path forward. Their personal regret is that they cannot bid Darkon and the Scale farewell.

The World — Song’s Last Stand

The Tower — Re recalls Song repeatedly losing homes to rejection or fire and asks the visitor to fight her while holding back; the objective is So battled once. Song is desperate rather than a trained fighter. The completion reply recognizes that the Scale was never on the right track: even before attacking Astravia, Song brought innocents into the Garden for experiments on Darkon’s orders. Re corrects her own third-person reference and accepts that she herself ran unchecked. They need to wake up.

The Star — With the Fool’s influence fading and The World accelerating, Re asks for ten instances of Nothingness abated while she holds Fa and Ti back. In the reply, she rejects an artificial paradise of perpetual sunshine in which even Drago would be affectionate. She wants the real sun and the genuine hope the visitor brought, wistfully imagining their meeting twenty years earlier before joking about diapers.

The Moon, Reversed — Song rises again to defend Darkon. Re says Song is the smartest of them and knows deep down this is wrong, but is still a child afraid of being alone. Re cannot bring herself to fight Song and doubts she could even raise her voice against her at full strength. The objective is one defeat of So. In the completion reply, Re confesses fear of what follows, but wants the others to live, look forward and remember Titania, Aurola and herself through happier memories.

The Sun, Reversed — Re asks for one more gentle confrontation with Song, now exhausted and radiating hopelessness. The objective is So fully defeated once. The completion reply says it is time for Darkon to see the light.

So is still unwilling to yield. The Hero acknowledges her family’s suffering but says Darkon threatens countless comparable lives, and could simply be bypassed. So vows to cling to the Hero’s ankles and fight the whole way. Darkon intervenes. So urges him to shelter behind her, saying Drago destroyed his original body and the withdrawal of the Fool’s power is now erasing his replacement.

Darkon says that is precisely why he must finish quickly. His real family has always shielded him; today he will shield them and prevent the Hero from hurting So or anyone else. The Hero asks whether Aurola no longer counts as family. Darkon orders the Hero to stand down. Refused, he declares it fitting that he personally defeat the old world’s guardian.

Re says she barely recognizes Darkon after what the coup did to them. With Lore only minutes from destruction, there is no time to pass through every stage of grief. Whatever the visitor feels after learning the past, Re insists that Darkon must be held accountable.

Judgement — Re promises to keep the others from interfering in the confrontation with Darkon, though she doubts any of them could stand between the two opponents. If Astravians must face judgment, so must the Scale. The objective is Darkon defeated once. In the reply, Re calls intervention a relief: otherwise guilt and fear of punishment would haunt her. Recognizing her own capacity for remorse, she asks the visitor to believe good parts of Darkon may remain too.

The World — Perfection and Free Will

Darkon insists the Hero has misunderstood his aim. Everyone will return after The World reshapes the seas and continents, including sacrificed Astravians and evildoers. War, exclusion and the impulse to harm will disappear. Only he can create that perfection, he says; the Hero may rest rather than keep struggling for Lore’s balance.

The Hero rejects perfection bought by removing free will. Everyone would become a puppet. Evil has causes, both ugly and comprehensible: Darkon himself hurts others because he was hurt, and he is not alone in feeling that way. Protecting one another and understanding those causes are shared responsibilities. Erasing choice would trample everyone who struggled for a kinder world, including Suki.

Darkon takes the mention of Suki as proof of the Envoys’ betrayal and condemns the Primordials and the Hero alike. The Dragon of Time allowed a Dragon Slayer to kill it and reset the Universe, he says, without giving anyone else a choice. The Hero acknowledges a mistake. Darkon reacts with fury, demands a raised weapon and says only killing him can halt Lore’s recreation. The victor of this final performance will decide the ending.

The World — Re sees the Primordial above them and rejects a supposedly perfect Lore built on regret and resentment. Such a life could only be imposed on her, just as Darkon would impose it on everyone. The objective is Encore Darkon defeated once, distinct from the preceding fight. In the completion reply, she asks the Hero to remember the Scale after it is over.

The World — The Chance to Change

After the final confrontation, the Hero asks whether another ending or mutual understanding was possible. Darkon says no. He knew Suki would never want a world without free will, but anger at his own naivety and the harm to his loved ones made him ignore her final wishes and his duty as Prince. He frames the alternative as becoming exactly like Drago or paying for what he had done.

A sunlit landscape replaces the surrounding blackness. Another view places a pointed red-and-white form above the planet. The Arcana offer thanks and their deepest apologies. Darkon says his ancestors’ promise has been fulfilled: all twenty-two Primordials were summoned and have become one. The World’s failure leaves them no obligation to help him. He describes himself and Lore as insignificant debris in their universe, bitter that the damage to their home earns only six words.

The Hero thinks that may be the best the Arcana can offer. Their interventions made matters worse, including some after Alprecha began to care. Understanding that problem is not excusing it. Darkon remarks that the twins really did show the Hero everything, then returns to the earlier admission about the reset.

The Hero says they do not have many memories of being the Dragon of Time and still struggle to accept it. Even if the outcome improved matters, letting Galanoth slay the Dragon was a decision made as the Dragon, rather than as a person. They failed to weigh everyone else’s destinies: meaningful achievements, joys and tragedies in the previous timelines are gone and cannot recur exactly. Darkon and Suki might once have married, grown old or at least remained together. The Hero asks whether punishment is deserved too.

Darkon asks whether the Hero will seek balance as a person from now on, rather than as the Dragon of Time. Given a promise to try, he says a chance is deserved. He sees no equivalent future for himself, saying he continues breaking promises and has nothing left. Re objects that they would have died without him, Fa and Re would never have met, and, as Ti adds, Song and Mi would have been lost.

Darkon apologizes that Re and Ti will fade when he dies. Ti calls their years beyond their original lives a blessing. Re wishes she had shown Fa a sky of colors besides red; Fa begs her to stay and show her. Re asks Fa not to become miserable on her behalf, but to see the outside world with Mi and Song and be happy. She promises lasting love. Ti calls serving Darkon an honor and hopes that, if there is a next life, they might meet again. Re asks that it be as family rather than soldiers. Images show Re and Ti dissolving into white particles before the others continue speaking.

Fa resolves to find a reason to continue for Re. Mi calls the Scale their first family, promises remembrance and wants not merely to survive but to make the world better. So calls herself a burden and begs forgiveness for her failures. Darkon says she never disappointed him and that he is proud of her and the person she will become. He says Aurola’s efforts were not wasted and wishes she could be there with her loved ones.

Darkon wishes he and the Hero had met sooner: Aurola understood they might have become family too. He asks whether forgiveness is possible while accepting that it may not be.

The scene offers two replies. One forgives Darkon while refusing to speak for everyone he hurt. The other says that after all the lives he took, forgiveness may be found only in dreams. Both authored controls target the same continuation label; that source construction does not establish a different played ending for either choice.

The scene places Darkon beside the Prince’s statue, with Suki opposite him. He asks whether she is real or a dream. He says he lost his way so completely that he forgot who he was meant to be, apologizes and asks whether she could forgive him or whether they might be together again. He is later pictured in a red-and-black vest, with his hand extended. His question leaves the nature of this encounter open.

Darkon says the morning sun is finally here. The view returns to Song cradling him. She begins a goodnight addressed to Dar, then changes it to a good morning addressed to Dad. Her changed farewell closes the story without supplying a spoken answer from Suki or independently resolving Darkon’s question about the encounter.