Milla Kresnik

Milla Kresnik
Information
Appearance	Tales of Xillia 2
Race	Human
Weapon	Spear

For other uses of Milla, see Milla (disambiguation).

Milla Kresnik (ミラ・クルスニク, Mira Kurusuniku^?) is an unseen, non-playable character. She lived two thousand years before the events of Tales of Xillia and Tales of Xillia 2. Her existence is hinted in the former, where she is mistakenly identified as a man and known as "Kresnik the Genesis Sage", but she's not properly introduced until Tales of Xillia 2.

History

Milla Kresnik was a singing handmaid, and the first chief of the Kresnik clan. She was also the first person who was able to summon Maxwell, and the two gradually began to know each other better, developing strong feelings toward each other. Milla had composed a playful tune about how she wanted to see Maxwell, in which part of the lyrics consisted of something along the lines of: "Appear before me or I'll yank out your beard". The song also had a line about how she would give Maxwell all her mana if he came out to see her. Though the lyrics have been lost as it passed down her descendants, the melody has persisted, and it is currently known as the Hymn of Proof.

Down the road, the invention by humanity of spyrix technology resulted in Maxwell, Chronos, and Origin forming a test, Origin's Trial, that was meant to measure humanity's worthiness due to the crisis caused. Milla Kresnik believed in the peaceful coexistence of humans and spirits, and her family was chosen for the task. Unfortunately, the greed to see who would get the reward for passing the Trial soon divided the clan, and infighting ensued. After a specific incident, Maxwell decided to create a land where humans and spirits could live in harmony without the fear of spyrix threatening spirits' existence, and where the Trial's failure would not affect them. This was Rieze Maxia, separated by the rest of the world through the schism. Maxwell invited Milla Kresnik and his followers to join him in the new land, but Milla Kresnik refused, and Maxwell perceived this as betrayal. In reality, Milla Kresnik could not stand for a land that was meant as a safe haven for a selected few; however, despite her absence, her last name somehow managed to grow a legend on the new land.

Milla Kresnik, left behind in Elympios alongside those who Maxwell had deemed unworthy of being saved, was ultimately driven to her death by her own family: the Kresnik clan had become poisoned by a faction seeking to exploit spirits for profit, something that Milla Kresnik, as someone who devoted all of her energy to the benefit of spirits and humanity alike, could not allow, and they conspired to kill her. Milla Kresnik turned into a divergence catalyst just before she was about to die, which resulted in her creating the first fractured dimension. The story of this fractured dimension is different from what occurred in the prime dimension, as Maxwell believed in her, and the clan worked together to pass the Trial. Milla was reborn in this world as herself but, with no memories of her past and knowledge about being that dimension's divergence catalyst, she just believed it to be the real world.

The years went by and, in this fractured dimension, Milla and her clan successfully collected the Waymarkers. At a specific point they were only missing the last one, the Ultimate Chromatus Bearer, which required a human sacrifice. Milla Kresnik had intended to offer herself, but her Chromatus ability wasn't good enough. The doubtful honor ultimately fell on Kurt Will Kresnik (クルト・ウィル・クルスニク), who was her grandson. Kurt had picked up the torch from Milla Kresnik due to the latter's old age, who even needed to use her spear as a cane sometimes, and he had travelled through land and sea for the sake of finishing the Waymarker's collection. When the time came, Kurt submitted willingly, as his dream was the end to the tragedy of the Kresnik clan by completing the Trial. Lara Lalla Travis (ラル・ラーラ・トラヴィス), Kurt's fiance, was the one tasked with the retrieval of the last Waymarker. After killing Kurt, Lara met with Milla Kresnik and passed her the fifth Waymarker. Milla was reminishing on how her grandson used to be when Chronos appeared, asking them if they had finished collecting the Waymarkers. Angered by what she had been forced to do, Lara tried to attack Chronos. Milla blocked Lara's longsword with her spear, telling her to calm down because Chronos was the ferryman, and thus the one supposed to open the path to Canaan. Lara begrudgidly withdrew her weapon.

Milla arranged the five Waymarkers into a five-pointed star, and asked Chronos to make them the bridge to get to Canaan, to which Chronos answered that that was not possible. Both Lara and Milla questioned the response, but Chronos answered cryptically, saying that it was not his will, and just how the pact that was the Trial was stipulated. Lara interrupted Milla's thoughts, reciting in an ice cold voice: "Muster thy will and prove thyself, for it shall serve as the contract that binds us". Lara, whose mind was already in a delicate state, understood Chronos' cryptic behavior and words as him demanding the "proof" that spirits always seeked, one that is often different for each spirit. Knowing of Chronos' immense hatred for humanity, Lara activated her chromatus and told Chronos that she hoped that "proof" in the form of the Kresnik life that he loathed so much satisfied him. As the tip of Lara's longsword entered Milla's chest, Chronos stopped time around Milla and him. Milla noticed that nothing was moving except by the gears of a divergence catalyst settled in her chest that was about to be stabbed by Lara's longsword, and she realized that she had become a divergence catalyst. By virtue of being in a fractured dimension, it was also one where the land of Canaan didn't exist. Chronos confirmed that Canaan could only be summoned in the prime dimension, calling them foolish for their actions.

Having her memories finally back, Milla fell in despair. Lara, Kurt, the other descendants of the Kresnik clan: all of them had paid the price to recreate the ideal world that she had envisioned in her final moments, a world in where Maxwell believed in her and they worked together for the Trial's completion. Feeling that words would not be enough to apologize, and that there was no way that she could compensate them, Milla thought herself as indeed the foolish being that Chronos always called humans. Chronos spoke again, clearing up that, unlike what Lara believed, if something was presented before him as the "proof", he would have no choice but to accept it as per the Trial's arrangements. It did not matter whatever this something was, even if it happened to be one of the autumn leaves that had gotten tangled in Milla Kresnik's hair. Knowing that Lara and Chronos would get into a fight next, Milla asked Chronos to not hurt Lara and to let her go, and stroked the cheek of Lara as she cried. Lara had acted as she had out of love for Kurt, and Milla believed that Lara was hoping to resurrect Kurt with Origin's wish. Chronos said that, even if he let Lara go, Lara would not back down, and that this world was still fated to be destroyed. Milla offered her life as the price, and moved Lara's sword so it was placed right over her heart. Chronos accepted this "proof" and vanished. As time started moving again, Lara's sword pierced straight into Milla's heart. With Milla Kresnik fatally wounded, the divergence catalyst slipped out of her and crawled into Lara's womb in search of its new host: Milla Kresnik's great grandchild, an existence that would never come to be in the prime dimension. Milla lastly spared a thought for her clan as her soul left her body into Canaan's direction, where the soul purification process took place. One day, someone from the clan would surely arrive and complete the Trial. Ultimately, Milla Kresnik passed away humming the Hymn of Proof, with a blood-stained and shell-shocked Lara by her side.

The knowledge about the reality of the "proof" died with Milla Kresnik, and the belief that "the life of a Kresnik" was the "proof" needed to create a bridge to Canaan was passed down among the Kresnik clan. These events are the reason why the higher ranks at the Department of Interdimensional Affairs believe it too: sometime after Milla Kresnik's death, a Crown Agent of Spirius from the prime dimension infiltrated the dimension and learned about it. Said agent also found a divergence catalyst who was a Key of Kresnik. Contact with this agent was lost sometime after these reports and, though it's not explicitly said, the very likely explanation is that said agent was killed before the dimension was destroyed. This dimension has continued deviating from the prime dimension as the years passed, and its depth eventually became immeasurable, higher than 255. Having lost crossed beyond what's known as "the Chronos Zone", this dimension is unreachable in the prime dimension by the time of Tales of Xillia 2.

Appearance and Personality

Milla was a cheerful girl who held a lot of curiosity about the world, with a fractured Maxwell noting that she was "pestering him incessantly with her constant questions". She was also a bit mischievous, which is evident by the lyrics she wrote for the Hymn of Proof. She believed that humans and spirits could live together in harmony, and fought the entirety of her life for this goal in mind, a trait that her namesake, Milla Maxwell, shares as well.

Trivia

• Milla Kresnik is not the first female character who was at first thought to be a man. Harold Berselius, the creator of Swordians from Tales of Destiny 2, was thought to be the man during the events of Tales of Destiny. Both characters' genders were revealed in each game's sequel.
• According to The Chronicles of Kresnik, a book that is briefly mentioned to exist in a sub-event of Tales of Xillia, and that is never actually read in either of the games, Milla Kresnik died by the hands of her husband. According to the same source, she created her dimension because she was a Key of Kresnik that overexerted her powers in her final moments.