A new world revealed itself around him.
The ground beneath his feet was cracked and blackened, its surface resembling cooled ash that had once known unbearable heat. Thin fractures ran across it in endless patterns, glowing faintly from within as though something beneath the surface still lived and breathed. The air felt ancient and timeless.
He lifted his gaze.
Before him stood a tree.
It was enormous beyond comprehension, its trunk rising so far upward that its crown vanished into darkness. Its bark was black. It did not appear dead, nor did it resemble any living tree he had seen.
It stood in a state between both, as though it had burned countless times and yet endured beyond destruction. Its branches spread outward and upward in vast formations, each one holding fruits that burned with steady flame.
The flames did not consume the fruits.
They sustained them.
