Crystania: Legend of the Drifters 4 (novel)

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Crystania:
Legend of the Drifters 4

Author

Ryo Mizuno

Illustrations

Satoshi Urushihara

Japanese title

クリスタニア　漂流伝説４

Romanized title

hyōryū densetsu kurisutania 4

Publication information

Publisher

MediaWorks

Original release

10 February 1996 ^[1]

Chapters

Sage of the World
(世界見の者)
Many Reunions
(それぞれの再会)
At the Final Meeting
(会合のとき)

Epilogue

Pages

224 ^[1]

ISBN-10

978-4073042501

Novels
← Previous	Next →
Legend of the Drifters 3	Legend of the Ant Emperor

Crystania: Legend of the Drifters 4 is a light novel written by Ryo Mizuno with illustrations by Satoshi Urushihara. It is the fourth novel released in the Crystania franchise and the final novel of the Legend of the Drifters saga. The novel was intended to be released in 1995, along with the movie, and two of the prequel novels, but was instead released early 1996.

Synopsis[]

　From a distance, a cane wielding man watches over the scene of the now razed Fang of the Animal fortress. The man takes out a book from his backpack, titled Sage of the World, authored by himself, Nasare.^[2]

　Sir Dillant wanders around the burned remains of the fortress. He meets with Isari, who says a knight from Da’nan wants to meet him. Dillant agrees. At night, Dillant meets with the knight, Norva, who tells Dillant of Sir Russell, who he claims would be a valuable ally to the Knights of Darkness. From Sir Dillant, Norva learns that Rails, together with a silver-haired girl, is heading to the Site of Origin, the meeting place of the animal gods.^[3] Norva and his allies, Lehman, Coral and Tedin begin to pursue Rails. While pursuing Rails, Norva wonders why Russell sent him and his allies to Crystania. Did Russell intend for them to die so nobody would know Rails aided fugitives Basso and Shiron?^[4] During their pursuit of Rails, and surviving some encounters with Tribe of the Fierce Tiger warriors, they end up at a cave where they meet with Nasare, who teleports the party away from their Fierce Tiger pursuers.^[5]

　Elsewhere, Rails and his party are still heading towards the Site of Origin when they suddenly encounter Isari, who informs them Norva is looking for them.^[6] Not much later, the two parties meet. Because Norva is unsure if he could beat Rails and his allies in a fight, he proposes Rails to have Rails write a letter to Russell to let him know he is alive. This is much less than what Norva and his party set out to do, and out of frustration Norva's allies Lehman, Coral and Tedin take Sia hostage and demand Rails and the others turn over Basso and Shiron in three days, believing the two fugitives will be their ticket into the Royal Guard.^[7] Maris comes up with a plan to free Sia; she transforms into a wolf, and has a real wolf tag along with her and infiltrate the camp of the three men. She hopes that the three men will believe she is a real wolf too, and thus not kill Sia on the spot when they notice her. The plan is a success, Lehman, Coral and Tedin are killed and Maris returns to the others with Sia.^[8]

　When the party is reunited, and now also includes Nasare and Norva, they journey to the Site of Origin. Rails thought of the idea to leave everyone behind, and continue the journey with just Maris, but the others convinced him to all go together. Suddenly, he felt lighter in his heart and stopped feeling friends were a burden—a feeling that had grown within him because of his protective nature.^[9]

　Two weeks later, the party had passed the grasslands and was near the mountainous area that lead to the meeting place. In the meantime, Sia and Nasare had also reunited with their (foster) father. A road that leads into the mountainous area was occupied by a Beldian camp and a camp of the Tribe of Solitude, who were about to engage in battle. Rails and his party decide to help and pincer the Beldians, scoring a complete victory for the Tribe of Solitude.^[10] As the party continues towards the meeting place, at the summit of the mountain, an area called the “Peak of the Wind”, Rails knows that he will have to face Grael, who he sensed had been following him since they left the site where the fortress once stood. Ten days later, Rails stands face to face with Grael and their final battle begins. After an intense battle, Rails gets the upper hand, but Grael charges one last time. Unable to dodge, Rails tries to take the blow, and Grael's shamshir lands in his shoulder, cutting of his arm. However, this allowed Rails to attack Grael too, and his sword has pierced the Blade Fang Duke's chest. Grael eventually dies of his wounds and asks Barbas not to be reborn in the next cycle.^[11]

　With the Site of Origin nearby, Maris decides to continue on alone, as only tribe representatives are allowed at the meeting. Suddenly, a great white swan flies over, heading to the Site of Origin. She introduces herself as the animal god Fuji and asks if Rails wants to be her follower, because she sees in Rails an embodiment of her own answers and questions about the Cycle. Rails agrees to become her follower, thus is allowed to take part in the meeting. At the Site of Origin, he meets Redon, one of the six adventurers who disappeared from Da’nan ten years ago, who has now become the leading member of the Tribe of the Subterranean.^[12]

　After all the animal gods and their human representatives have gathered Feness opens the meeting and the various animal gods respond by singing. However, Barbas is not present.^[13] During the meeting, Fuji converses with Rails. She explains the history of the world and Crystania: the world was left unfinished due to the War of the Gods, but the animal gods wanted to finish it. When Da’nan was isolated from Crystania, Fuji saw how it worked just fine without any help from the gods.^[14] Not much later, the meeting ends. It's unclear to Rails what the gods have decided. Redon is of the opinion that the gods should admit that there is wickedness within humans, somewhere, and that the world will never be complete. Completeness was broken with the death of the Primordial Giant.^[15]

　None of the animal gods could make a decision on the next Cycle, so the decision was left to their followers. Feness declared the Cycle abandoned and the land of Crystania was lowered to its original sea level. The Gods’ Wall was also opened. A covenant was formed between the animal gods and the humans, stating that the animal gods would not interfere with the humans’ activities.^[16]

　Dillant returned his troops to Dayton, but many of the Tribe of the Fierce Tiger stayed on occupied territory and were prepared to keep fighting, as per their animal god's preaches. Chancellor Malid of Da’nan had intentions to intervene in, and take advantage of, a possible war on Crystania. Rails intends to change the relationship between Da’nan and the Tribe of the Silver Wolf to a friendly one. Maris wonders what kind of world Crystania will become now that the Cycle is over.^[17]