The Silence Before the Storm
The night in Edenfall was different. Not because of the absence of light, but because of the absence of movement. The air was still. The leaves of the Blood Tree, once restless with the emotional energy flowing through its branches, were frozen, as if time itself had condemned them to an eternal moment.
Akihiko knelt before the roots. The earth around him was warm, almost throbbing, as if a beating heart lay beneath his skin. His katana rested on his knees, and his mind raced through memories and forebodings.
"If the Original Memory reaches the central root… everything we were could be rewritten."
Naeya and Lirea watched from the edge of the clearing. The sky above Edenfall had begun to take on a reddish hue, as if the dawn had forgotten its command.
The Arrival of the Purple Guardian
A figure descended from the skies without wings or sound. It was Shinsoku Ryuuji , the Purple Keeper, former protector of Edenfall's forbidden archives, presumed dead after the First Shattering. His body was marked with branch-like scars. Each wound seemed a channel through which the pain of the past flowed into the present.
"Original Memory should not be integrated... without judgment."
Shinsoku wielded a staff made of living obsidian, with filaments of active memory. Each blow he made against the ground caused an echo that shook the main root.
Lirea interjected. "And who will pass judgment? You, who were silenced by the Throne?"
"I, who knew the first form of Edenfall... before it was even called that."
III. Combat for the Memory Line
Shinsoku unleashed an ancient technique: Raigetsu no Kikan – the Return of the Dark Month. An art that fused physical memory with emotional intent. Each of his attacks projected alternate memories that attempted to overwrite the history of those who faced him.
Akihiko was the first to fall prey to the sway. He relived scenes that never happened: his mother murdered by Lirea, Naeya betraying him for power, and himself leading the throne. They were images that eroded certainty.
But Akihiko breathed. He felt his emptiness. No image could take root in him. The Void does not deny. The Void allows us to distinguish the real from the imposed.
"The pain I remember... is mine. You won't change it."
With his katana wrapped in black light, he countered Shinsoku's echoes, and the battle turned physical. Impact against impact. Sweat, blood, broken teeth, and broken will.
The Truth of the Original Memory
As the battle reached its climax, the Original Memory floated above the Tree. It was a liquid, translucent sphere containing the seven untold events of Edenfall. If it touched the central root, the Tree would be rewritten, and everything experienced could lose meaning.
Naeya soared up using his Touch Memory. He touched the Memory with both hands, and visions flooded through him.
— The founding of Edenfall as an emotional prison. — The creation of the first seals from trauma. — The original betrayal between founders. — The Tree's conversion into a catalyst for forgetting.
But he also saw something else: the possibility of reintegrating those memories without destroying the city .
Naeya screamed, not from fear, but from clarity. He channeled the memories through his body and projected them skyward. The Original Memory fragmented into eight petals , each falling in a different area of Edenfall.
The New Age of Fragments
With Shinsoku's defeat and the dispersion of the Memory, the city entered a new cycle. The Blood Tree changed its hue, turning violet. It was no longer just an archive. It was now an active witness .
The Silent Founder, from his refuge in the Ruins of the Heart, smiled for the first time in centuries.
"We are no longer memory. We are decision."
END OF CHAPTER 209