The starfield outside the Ouroboros's viewport was no longer a map of threats and hiding places. It was a canvas. For the first time since his pod had been opened on Planet Vegeta, Astra felt no urgency. The oppressive weight of Frieza, the gnawing dread of the Shard—all of it was gone, replaced by a quiet, humming curiosity.
He had no destination. That was the point.
He let the ship drift in the void between systems, its engines silent. With a thought, he accessed the Multiverse Mandate System from his Anchor Point in The Cradle. The interface felt different. Less like a mission terminal and more like a library catalog.
[Multiverse Navigation: Active.]
[User Status: Explorer.]
[Available Destinations: Unlimited.]
[Select a world, a concept, or a frequency. The Path will be forged.]
He didn't choose a world from his previous missions. That felt like looking backward. Instead, he focused on a feeling—a sense of ancient mystery, of deep, untapped knowledge that wasn't born of technology or magic, but of something more fundamental. He thought of the silent, patient growth of Sanctuary, of the slow turn of galaxies.
The System responded to his intent. A pathway shimmered into existence ahead of the Ouroboros, not a violent tear, but a gentle, iridescent river in the fabric of space.
[Path Forged. Destination: "The Root of Worlds."]
[Axiom: To understand what is built, one must first understand the foundation.]
The Ouroboros slid into the current. The journey was smooth, a dreamlike transition. When the ship settled, it was orbiting a world that defied simple description.
It was a planet-sized tree.
Its trunk was wider than a gas giant, its branches stretching out to cradle entire continents in their boughs. Leaves the size of oceans shimmered with a soft, internal light, and the very air around it thrummed with a life force so potent and ancient it made the magicules of the Jura Forest feel like a faint echo. This was not a world that hosted life; it was life.
[Appraising: Yggdrasil - The World Tree.]
[Status: Primordial, Sentient, Dormant.]
[Energy Signature: Vita-Primordial. The source of all biological life in this dimensional cluster.]
This was a realm of pure myth. A place that should not exist, yet felt more real than any planet he had ever visited.
He guided the Ouroboros down through the atmosphere, landing on a vast, moss-covered branch that was wider than the entire plateau of First Stone. The air was thick and sweet, filled with the scent of damp earth, blooming flowers, and something else—time itself, deep and slow.
As he stepped out of his ship, he felt the Concept Seed within him stir. The Unbreakable Compact was a social construct, a thing of minds and hearts. This place… this was its biological counterpart. The original, unbreakable compact between life and existence.
He didn't sense any immediate inhabitants. There were no cities, no roads. Only the endless, living architecture of the tree and the chorus of countless unseen creatures.
His purpose here was not to fight, or to save, or to build. It was simply to learn.
He found a stream of crystal-clear water flowing along a groove in the bark and sat beside it, placing his hand on the tree's surface. He closed his eyes, not using [Appraisal] or the [Circlet], but simply opening his senses, letting the slow, vast heartbeat of Yggdrasil wash over him.
For the first time in both his lives, Kaito and Astra were truly, completely at peace. The Architect was on a sabbatical. The Explorer had found his first wonder.
The infinite road had begun not with a bang, but with a whisper of leaves and the profound, patient silence of a sleeping god of life. It was a perfect start.