The moment Kai stepped through the portal, he felt it—
A heaviness in the air. Not oppressive… just still.
As if the very air was holding its breath.
They emerged in a vast expanse of gray earth and deep, silent mist. The sky above was cracked like old glass, casting fragmented reflections of the ground below.
Ayaka and Ren landed behind him, blades half-drawn.
The barefoot girl pointed ahead.
"There. The last root sleeps. Until it hears your name."
Kai frowned. "What's the last root?"
The girl didn't answer. Instead, she began to dissolve—her body drifting like ash on the wind.
Kai closed his eyes. "Alright. We follow the silence."
---
They walked through the stillness.
No birds. No wind.
No sound but their steps.
Until they came upon a colossal root, buried in the center of a crater. Cracked. Blackened. Covered in symbols too old for spoken tongues.
Kai stepped forward.
As his foot touched the edge of the crater—
> The entire realm shivered.
The cracked sky roared.
The root began to glow faintly—and speak.
Not aloud. Not through sound.
But through memory.
---
The Root's Whisper:
> "You bound us to the earth when the heavens fell."
"You chose to fall with us."
"And for that… we never forgot you."
---
Kai fell to one knee.
Visions slammed into his mind—of himself, lifetimes ago, binding the Rootheart to protect the world from collapse. He had given up immortality to anchor the realms.
He was the seal.
He was the sacrifice.
Now the seal was calling him back.
Ayaka's voice pulled him out. "Kai! Your chest—!"
His mark was burning. Spreading.
The root glowed brighter—and opened a chamber beneath the crater.
> A stairwell of soil, lit by pulsing veins of light.
Kai looked back at them.
"I have to go alone."
Ren started to argue—but Ayaka held him back. "Let him."
Kai descended into the chamber.
---
Beneath the Crater…
A voice welcomed him:
> You were the end once, Kai.
But you can be the beginning now.