The crossing of the ages
Between two ancient nations, separated by wars so old no one remembered how they began, existed a strip of land known only as The Edge . It belonged to no one. It wasn't fertile land. It had no temples, no cities, and no official name on any map. It was a geographical scar where history refused to repeat itself, but neither did it heal.
There, time didn't flow normally. Sometimes days passed in minutes. Other times, shadows stretched for weeks. The few who crossed that region told contradictory stories: some claimed to have seen giant trees made of steam, others swore they heard their past selves. No one returned the same.
The world believed The Edge was a climate anomaly. But the blossoming of the roots had begun to stir its core… and time was beginning to resonate.
The arrival of the divided echo
Akihiko reached the Edge following a path of white roots that seemed to vanish as soon as he stepped onto them. The root on his arm trembled rhythmically, as if every second there was a dissonance with the rest of the world.
The air smelled of dry earth and childhood. Of an unlived future. Of shattered possibilities.
In the middle of the field, he found a clock without hands stuck in the ground. As he touched it, he heard his own voice, but younger, whispering to him:
—What if you had said no?
And then, his own voice, older, said to him:
—What if you never said yes?
Akihiko then realized that The Edge wasn't a place. It was a crossroads of realities that had been cut short by the trial.
III. The temple of what did not happen
In the heart of the Rim, he found a ruined structure made of translucent stone. On its walls, moving images appeared: moments that never happened. A mother hugging a son who died in court. A burning city that, in official history, was never attacked. A man who chose forgiveness over revenge.
This place was known to the sages as The Temple of the Unchosen .
And inside, Akihiko found a woman with three shadows . Her name was Eline , and she spoke as if she lived in three different times at once. Her sentences were loops, premonitions, memories of futures that never happened.
"You came for the echo," he said, without moving. "But here, the echo comes before the sound."
Akihiko didn't respond. The root in his body began to slowly rotate over his skin. It was synchronizing.
Eline lifted a stone. It was the same as the one he'd received at the beginning of his journey, but with a spiral crack. Inside it, something pulsated that wasn't life... but wasn't absence either.
The tear of destiny
When Akihiko touched the stone, he was swept away. Not physically, but spiritually. His consciousness split, and he saw four paths:
An Akihiko who never joined any clan. He was a farmer. He had peace. He would die old and happy. An Akihiko who became a judge. He was cruel. Powerful. And completely alone. An Akihiko who was sealed. There was no pain. But there was no truth either. The Akihiko who walked now. Without a role. Without judgment. But with roots.
And in the middle of them, a vibrant emptiness. A space where time chose nothing .
And there, a white root… sprouted by itself.
Akihiko returned to his body, exhausted. The stone in his hand was now whole. No crack. Its root glowed. The Edge had decided.
He was the node that would connect everything that had not happened with everything that could still flourish.
The Timeless Guardian
without words. Her body began to dissolve, not as death, but as a memory that had been sufficiently understood . Akihiko left the Temple and, upon exiting, found a figure waiting for him at the edge of the Rim: a young man with a red root in his chest .
"My name is Kazun," he said. "I'm the one who should have been your enemy... if the trial had continued to exist."
Akihiko didn't draw his sword. Neither did Kazun. They both knew that in that place, conflict had no form.
Only possibilities.
And they walked together out of the Rim, carrying with them a new seed that had never been planted… until now.
END OF CHAPTER 115