The Crownless Crown pulsed with a deep, slow rhythm as Ren and his companions rose from the depths of the Hall. Though the weight of what they had uncovered pressed on each of them, a different kind of energy had taken hold—something like purpose. They weren't just travelers anymore. They were witnesses. Heirs. Inheritors of stories half-told.
But stories never ended at truth. They continued into action.
The system flickered before Ren's eyes again as they entered the corridor:
New Path Unlocked: Forgotten Rootway
Destination: The Garden That Remembers
Objective: Commune with the Heart-Root
System Linkage: Crownless Line Memory Alignment — 43% Complete
Ren exhaled slowly, feeling the new direction stretch open before them—an invisible door the Seed had now chosen to unseal.
"This Garden," Ilis said, walking beside him, "I've heard of it. In older texts, it was called the Origin Spiral. Some believed it to be the very place the first bearers were born."
Kael's grip tightened around his hammer. "So why does it sound like it's going to eat us alive?"
"Because it probably will," Meka muttered. "Anything that old never forgets what hurt it."
They reached a portal—etched in bark and green crystal, unlike any structure they had encountered. When Ren stepped through, warmth enveloped them. Sunlight. Grass. Wind. It was… real. After layers of ruins and machines, this place breathed like a forest untouched by time.
The sky was green. The soil whispered in strange tongues. Every flower turned its head toward Ren as he walked.
System Notice: Memory Alignment Initiated
Sensory Synchronization: 12%... 23%... 35%...
Ren blinked—and in the next second, he was not alone in his mind.
Voices. Thousands of them. Murmurs of past bearers, fragments of thoughts, laughter, cries. Names he didn't know yet knew as if they were his own.
He stumbled.
Meka caught him. "Ren?"
"I'm fine. It's just... everyone's talking at once."
Ilis approached a vine-wrapped obelisk. "This entire place is one memory. A garden made of remembrance. The system's feeding it to you."
Vision Triggered: Crownless Line – First Bloom
Ren's eyes glazed with light—and in a heartbeat, he was somewhere else.
A battlefield, overgrown with vines. Dead Sovereigns lay shattered like statues across a field of white grass. And in the center, a single man planted a seed in the heart of a massive crater. That man bore no crown. His armor was scorched black, and yet his hands trembled with care.
That seed pulsed once—and the world began to grow again.
The vision faded.
Ren fell to one knee. "It's where it started. The Seed wasn't a weapon. It was an apology."
Ilis placed a hand on his shoulder. "Not a tool of war—but a promise."
Just then, the earth shuddered.
Roots twisted from the ground, forming a giant shape—vaguely humanoid, with antlers made of silver bark and eyes of flowing sap. It bowed its head to Ren, then opened its mouth without speaking.
Guardian Identified: Heart-Root Sentinel
Memory Communion: Available
Requirement: Bearer must offer a memory in return
Ren reached inward—and offered the one moment he still feared to remember: the death of his brother.
The garden shivered, accepting it.
And in return, the Heart-Root offered its own:
A memory of the first Seed-Bearer lying in a bed of moss, smiling as the garden bloomed around him. Alone. Unafraid.
Trait Acquired: Verdant Bond
Description: You may commune with natural memory spaces. Influence over organic systems increased.
Memory Alignment Progress: 71%
Kael stepped back. "Ren… that thing changed. It looks different now."
And it did. The Heart-Root had split its form. A seed floated toward Ren—transparent, glowing with swirling gold and green light.
Item Acquired: Root of Restoration
Use: May restore life to lost lands. May reveal buried truths.
Meka stared at it. "You think it can restore… people?"
Ren didn't answer. He wasn't sure. But he tucked the seed carefully away in his inventory.
They continued walking through the garden, each step pulling more truths from the soil. They passed trees that whispered names of old bearers. Flowers that bloomed only when Ren approached. A lake that reflected not their faces, but their fears.
At the edge of the Garden stood a wall of woven light—an exit, or maybe a final gate.
The system shimmered.
Final Garden Trial: Do You Remember What Was Lost?
Choice Required: Abandon Memory, or Carry It
Ren turned to the others. "This trial is personal. You don't have to follow me."
But none of them stepped back.
Ilis was first to speak. "You carry the burden, but we carry you."
Kael cracked his knuckles. "We've come too far to start quitting now."
Meka simply smirked. "Besides, I wanna see what happens when you break the rules again."
Ren smiled, and stepped forward.
The wall dissolved at his touch—and the garden behind them faded like a dream.
But not forgotten.
System Update: Crownless Line Memory Alignment — 93%
Warning: Next Convergence Approaching
Prepare for Fragment Incursion: 7 Cycles Remaining
Ren looked ahead.
Beyond the exit was not another ruin or realm, but a vast cliffside overlooking a sea of stars. And above that sea, floating like a moonlit fortress, was a structure unlike any they had seen—half-machine, half-tree, with roots dangling across dimensions.
Ilis whispered, "That's not possible. That's—"
Ren narrowed his eyes.
"The Bloomed Citadel."
And somehow, he knew…
That was where the true Sovereigns waited.