woah is that a pic from castle IV? >O>!!!!!!
I realy don't know,but when you connect secret text from part D2(it's something about wise one's curse and his wish to destroy all humans because they are stupid and evil) and this pic, you get wise one's mind in etrius body, so guess what will happen then...
I hope I'm wrong.
P.S. I don't know what ??? monster have with all this and I think that wise one's sword plays an important role in this (he didn't has it in end of prologue) and I think that sword is the last artifact and ball is just a wise one's soul(created when wise one died).