Awakening Truth

Season 2, Chapter 0 | Awakening Truth is a story segment in Echoes of Mana. It serves as the prologue entry for the game's second act.

Storyline
A lone Mousseline is seen standing in a void space, lamenting the state of the withered Mana Tree and the disappearance of the world. She states that a false tree was born in its place, its enormous roots feeding on the echoing memories. All that is left is a handful of memories that will eventually fade away. The faerie disappears, leaving in its place two shadowy figures of Mana Goddesses. The former congratulates the swordsman, claiming her wish has come true and theirs is lost forever. She urges them to enjoy their peace in eternal slumber. The second figure disagrees by saying their adventure is yet to be over, as she tells the protagonist to open their eyes.

The harvester finds themselves in the middle of a grove with a suspiciously similar Mana Goddess. She reveals herself to be Nona, the young girl they met previously in a dream. She's only been recently ascended as a Mana Goddess, but watched ther sister Dema erasing the world's echoes all the while she was unable to intervene. Nonetheless, she is glad to see the protagonist safe and sound in her Sanctuary of Mana. She also mentions there was another friend who helped them escape the calamity, which is revealed to be Mousseline. The young faerie thinks the harvester was foolish to let themselves be manipulated so easily, adding that she was trying to warn them to give up their search for the Mana Sword. Nona quips that Mousseline was mostly teasing the protagonist in her vain attempts, but the faeries replies it was them who refused her advices every time. She then mentions picking up something in the commotion, the object in question turning out to be a sleeping Baashear. The little fluffball seems dazed when opening his eyes, but is nonetheless glad to see the harvester alive. He then turns to Nona, claiming she's bad news telling them their Mana Goddess is a fake. Nona discloses that this Mana Goddess was her twin, Dema, who was about to become the real one. When the fateful day came however, Nona ascended instead of her. She became resentful of this fact and found a way to settle the score by using the harvester and the legendary blade. A false tree that was never meant to appear grew as she became the new goddess. Baashear still cannot fathom how an ordinary child like the player character could do such incredible things, how was they chosen, and what Nona indends to do now. All those questions seem unanswerable for now to Nona, as she is not as gifted as her twin to illustrate details. She also feels she should not be the one answering those questions, as she materializes an echo fruit for the crew to explore. She asks Mousseline to accompany them this time, and the faerie agrees to the request. Nona wants the team to fully visualize the fate of the world by entering the portal.

The party is teleported into a twisted, grim echo with tree roots creeping all over the scenery. Mousseline comments on the fact this land is about to disappear as it is being consumed by the False Tree, who's been feeding off echoes to grow taller. At this rate, the entire world will be eaten up by the False Tree if nothing is done to stop it. Baashear reasons that the real world cannot disappear since it's not an echo. The faerie agrees by adding that the real world cannot disappear since its echo is gone. The old world could be called 'Hollow World' since its Mana Tree withered and died along with everything. Dema came along to fill this hole, and now the False Tree is trying to take root in this empty place. According to her, this echo only exists in their memories, so if they were to vanish, it is as if like they were never existed in the first place. Baashear exclaims that the Goddess Nona is probably trying to prevent this to happen.

The trio is interrupted by the False Mana Goddess Dema complimenting the little plush ram's observation skills. The little fluffball barely recognizes his former leader due to her costume change. The Goddess comments that she likes her new outfit, fitting for a true goddess who obtained its power be legitimate means instead of inheriting it like her sister. Perhaps because they were twins, she gained some of her sister's powers when she ascended. With that she could peek into echoes, eventually becoming the Mana Goddess, thanks to the Harvester. With pleading eyes, Baashear asks his former boss why she would deceive both him and the protagonist in doing her biding. She replies that the law of Mana says those of the Mana Clan must be sacrificed, that the next goddess must be offered to preserve the world. For too long, the sacrificed kept within the echoes streched out through the Mana Tree. Dema wished to erase that unfortunate tradition from every world. Reality is held up by the memories of those of lived within the echoes. One can change the law by destroying the echoes of the Mana Tree. In doing so, she will weave a new law into the universe since the world only needs one Mana Tree. With only one sacred tree, the world doesn't need destruction or restoration, neither sacrifice. Dema would effectively become the final Mana Tree.

Mousseline quips that if this would happen, their Hollow World would become a giant sanctuary, to which the Mana Goddess agrees. She would save her twin sister from an untimely fate by abolishing this senseless sacrifice. The ancient world being over, the Harvester and their friends can watch the dawn of a new world without pain. She then asks the Mana Swordsman to join her, but the protagonist refuses, to her dismay. She then asks Baashear to do the same, but the plush ram is still wondering if it's the right thing to do. Dema is disgusted by his little servant doubting over her will, but claims she's got new allies to help her hatching her plan. A dark, impish Baashear lookalike makes its entrance, urging the Mana Goddess to go back to the sanctuary. She introduces herself as Ramy, the new Mana Goddesses' bestie. Dema now claims she must go back to the sanctuary, and asks the protagonist to tell her sister Nona that she will come rescue her without fail. With that, she and Ramy disappear into a portal. Baashear is devastated to be abandoned by the Mana Goddess, but Mousseline interjects stating they should leave this vanishing echo and return to Nona. The Faeries comments that they should at least take a good view of this echo to keep its memory intact.

With the trio back into Nona's sanctuary, the Mana Goddess reveals to the Harvester she wishes to stop Dema from destroying the echoes, as she believes it to be a mistake. A mysterious voice behind them claims this won't be necessary. The voice happens to belong to the Ebon Knight, but he does not seem to recognize the group he fought in previous echoes. Nona reveals the man to be Diospyros, a childhood friend of Dema and her and also their own Mana Swordsman. He is shown weilding the Mana Sword. Baashear is skeptical of him, telling of his previous antagonistic ways with the protagonist and him. Diospyros claims that definitely wasn't him, with Mousseline commenting on what happened in the Dema's echoes stemming from her memories. The swordsman is ashamed about how he is being depicted by Nona and understands the little fluffball for being guarded. He adds, that he was helpless in saving Nona nor stoping Dema. He views it as being the only one responsible for stopping Dema, and they should not have been mingled into this conflict in the first place. He tells the harvester they should remember that being a Mana Swordsman is only a belief being ingrained by Dema upon them. Even the Mana Sword the player character wields is artificial, steadily losing energy after completing its purpose. Nona interjects by stating they cannot be certain of it, and they still can make both stopping Dema and protecting the memories of the echoes a reality.

Objectives
Note: All stats are under normal difficulty.

Trivia

 * This chapter has lots of particularities compared to other main storyline chapters:
 * It is one of the few whose title doesn't start with a berry or fruit name (along with Season 1 Chapter 6).
 * Doesn't contain subtitle (along with Season 1 Chapter 6)
 * Only has three segments.
 * Said segments are only story ones.
 * No boss or enemy is fought.
 * During Nona's expository monologue, many characters & scenes from different Mana games make a cameo inside echoes. They are, in order:
 * from Adventures of Mana, Fuji bidding farewell to Sumo before transforming into the new Mana Tree.
 * from Dawn of Mana, Ritzia leaving Keldric to become the Mana Goddess.
 * from Heroes of Mana, the Nightswan being attacked by Pedan army.
 * from Trials of Mana, a Mana Stone.
 * from Rise of Mana, the hands of Aria and Van brushing each other.
 * from Trials of Mana, Vuscav swimming in the ocean.
 * from Secret of Mana, Randi, Primm, and Popoi riding Flammie.
 * from Children of Mana, a Dudbear behind a counter.
 * from Dawn of Mana, Faye in its child form slumbering.
 * possibly from Legend of Mana, Sword of Mana or Heroes of Mana, Treant.