Smoke danced across the battlefield, curling like fingers trying to hold onto fading memories.
Kai stood in the center — alone.
Ayaka and Ren had been blown back by the final strike, but they were alive.
He looked up.
The cracks in the sky were no longer silent.
They shimmered with light... and whispers.
Not one voice. Not two.
A chorus.
> "Do you feel it?" Ayaka asked, coughing as she approached.
Kai nodded.
> "They're not just watching. They're... deciding."
The Rootless weren't warriors.
They were judges.
Sent to weigh the balance of the flame.
---
Suddenly, from the center crack, a being of immense size descended — its robe flowing like a river of stars.
No face. Just a glowing orb in place of a head.
Its voice echoed in their bones.
> "The Flame-Bearer has altered the balance."
"He must face the Root of Judgment."
Ren whispered, "I vote we skip that part."
Too late.
Roots burst from the earth — ancient, glowing, alive.
They wrapped around Kai, pulling him into the sky as the world twisted around him.
Ayaka reached out — "Kai!"
But he was already gone.
---
🌑 The Root's Realm 🌑
Kai opened his eyes in a void filled with floating memories — like stars.
He stood on nothing, surrounded by the lives of those who came before.
A voice spoke.
> "Heaven once broke because of flame."
"What will you do differently?"
Visions showed him:
The First One burning down half a world to stop invaders.
A young Kai, crying over his mother's grave.
Ayaka, kneeling at the shrine of her fallen clan.
The flame surged in his chest — not violent, but quiet.
Kai clenched his fists. "I'll carry it differently."
> "I'll burn, not to destroy... but to protect."
And just like that — the void shattered.
---
He fell from the sky — landing hard.
Ren shouted. "He's back!"
Ayaka ran to him, eyes wide.
Behind Kai, the sky cracks slowly closed.
The Root of Judgment... had accepted him.
---
But as the dust cleared…
Far away, on the edge of the continent…
An army began to rise.
Clad in silver roots.
Eyes glowing red.
Not the Rootless.
Something worse.