But this one breathed.
The Verdant Core was alive in ways the surface could not understand. It wasn't just the trees or glowing vines or the crystalline rivers of life-energy that cut through the land like veins. It was memory made living. Rooted not in dirt, but in time.
The moment I stepped into the Grove, I felt it watching me.
Not with eyes — with intention.
Narration – Belenus
Every step I took in this place stirred something deeper. Beneath my claws, the roots pulsed with light. Not fire. Not radiation. But something gentler.
Hope.
It unnerved me more than any roar of war.
I was fire. Destruction. Rebirth through ruin.
But this place whispered another truth:
"You must learn to let things live."
The Grove of Echoes
A trail of blossoms opened before me, forming a path into the heart of the Core. And there, wrapped around a colossal living monument, was the Mother Tree — the source of Hollow Earth's life-force, untouched since the time of the First Flame.
It greeted me not with fanfare.
But with a vision.
Vision – The Three Roots
The world darkened.
And then split.
I stood in a space outside of space, suspended in a web of branches that reached through time and memory. Three massive roots spiraled around me, each glowing with different elemental forces:
One pulsed with red flame and cracked stone — the Root of Destruction.
Another hummed with shadows and stars — the Root of Silence.
The last glowed with green light and flowing water — the Root of Renewal.
They pulsed together, and the Grove spoke with a voice made of thousands of forgotten whispers:
"To become the Ashen King, you must bear all three."
"The fire that destroys."
"The shadow that preserves."
"And the life that endures."
Test of Life
The green root lashed forward — not in attack, but embrace. It wound around my body, sank into my chest, and opened the floodgates of memory.
And once again, I was Rin.
Vision – The Life That Was
I stood in a house I hadn't seen in years. My childhood home. I could smell the rain on the roof. I heard the sound of laughter — my laughter. My mother cooking. My sister drawing on the wall. My dog barking.
It hurt more than any blade.
Because I knew I would never return to this. Never truly live like this again.
But as I stood in the silence of that vision, a question formed in my mind.
"Does power mean losing everything?"
Then came the answer — not in words, but in feeling.
"Not if you choose to remember."
Narration – Belenus
When I returned to my Titan form, I wasn't the same.
My magma scars pulsed with green light. My dorsal plates glowed not just red, but with veins of living energy. My tail left trails of flowering moss as I moved. Life no longer recoiled from me — it grew in my wake.
I wasn't just a destroyer.
I was becoming the balance.
Gaiamara's Final Lesson
The Verdant Sentinel stepped forward again. Her vines coiled around my limbs like chains of silk and light.
"You understand now."
"What you burn must one day bloom again."
"When you rule, do not rule over life — rule with it."
She reached out, touched the core of my chest with her glowing branch-arm, and for a moment…
I saw everything.
The entire Hollow Earth.
The sleeping titans.
The ancient war.
And at the center of it — a burning throne, cracked and empty.
The Ashen Throne.
Waiting for its king.
Elsewhere – Deep Below the Core
Tenebros, Titan of Silence, stood before a gate of unbreakable stone — a lock sealed for millions of years.
But the passing of the Test had stirred something else.
The gate began to glow.
And from within, a voice whispered across time:
"He has touched all three roots…"
"Then it is time."
"The Old Flame must return."
A fiery eye blinked open in the dark.
SHIELD ARCHIVE – Hidden Transmission Intercepted
Source: Hollow Earth, Verdant Core Branch
Signal Type: Bio-organic resonance (non-electromagnetic)
Content Deciphered:
"ASHEN KING RISES. BALANCE MUST BE BROKEN."
Note from Director Fury:
"Balance sounds nice… until something tips the scale. Get every eye down there. We're not watching a king ascend — we're watching a myth reboot itself."
Narration – Belenus
The Test of Life changed me.
Not just in strength.
But in soul.
And as I left the Verdant Core, flowers blooming in my molten wake, I didn't just feel power.
I felt responsibility.
The Hollow Earth was more than a battleground.
It was a living legacy.
And I had become its flame, its shadow…
And now — its life.