The radiant sprout shot upward, piercing through the ceiling of Ye Lin's wooden hut, reaching into the dark blue sky. From its trunk, golden branches spread wide, and at the tip of each, a translucent heart-shaped fruit began to form. But these were no ordinary fruits—within each one, Ye Lin saw faint faces, flickering like shadows—faces of the Order Guardians she had just saved.
"They have been reborn," the small shadow whispered, its gaze locked on the towering sprout.
"No longer as the Collector's slaves, but as part of your world."
The butterfly tattoo let out a soft rumble.
"YOU ARE NOW THE MASTER OF THEIR FATE. THIS IS YOUR NEW BURDEN."
A surge of power flooded Ye Lin. With every heartbeat from the transparent fruits, she felt a resonance—a tether to the soul-essence she had liberated. She was no longer a mere survivor. She had become an architect of souls.
But amid this renewal, a voice cut through her awareness.
It wasn't the Collector.
It was older—wiser—and steeped in immeasurable sorrow.
"New Guardian... you have awakened what was meant to remain asleep…"
The voice came not from the sky, not from above the heartfield, but from deep beneath Ye Lin's inner world. Beneath even the hut she once called sanctuary.
The fertile soil around the massive sprout began to crack—not a destruction, but a revelation. From beneath, ancient structures rose: massive pillars formed of glowing roots, towering up to support the entire fabric of Ye Lin's world.
"WORLD ROOTS!" cried the butterfly tattoo, its voice shaking with dread.
"THIS IS THE HEART OF THE INNER WORLD BEFORE! THE FOUNDATION ONCE GUARDED BY THE FIRST KEEPER!"
The pillar of luminous roots pulsed with a primordial aura. Intricate carvings began to glow across its surface, telling stories Ye Lin had never known—tales of primordial gods locked in endless battle, of forgotten covenants, and of a titanic entity slumbering beneath the layers of reality.
"This is not the Collector's work," whispered the small shadow, its face pale.
"This... this is older. This is the core of the cycle itself."
From a crack in the root pillar, a single giant eye opened. Not one of menace, but of exhaustion—its gaze heavy with timeless sorrow.
"At last... someone has come to see me..." the voice echoed.
Its resonance shook every atom within Ye Lin's soulscape.
Ye Lin froze before the Root Pillar. The ancient voice pierced deep into her soul, dragging with it the weight of solitude across countless ages. The butterfly tattoo trembled—not in fear, but in resonance, recognizing a force far more ancient than itself.
"What... is this?" Ye Lin asked, her voice barely a breath.
The small shadow hovered close, its eyes filled with reverence and dread.
"He is the Last Guardian. The soul that was never shattered.
He has guarded this Root since the beginning of the cycle."
The massive eye blinked slowly.
"I am the sleeping warden. The foundation that must not be disturbed.
But you... you are different. You create, where there should only be destruction and repetition."
"What cycle?" Ye Lin asked, stepping closer.
"The cycle of void," the voice answered, steeped in melancholy.
"Every fallen Guardian, every corrupted soul, feeds the emptiness below.
The Collector is merely an instrument of something far greater.
He gathers the fragments to feed an unnamable hunger."
"So his goal isn't godhood?" Ye Lin asked, remembering her brother's words.
"No. Godhood is a lie. A bait.
The path he walks is not ascension—it is disintegration.
His true aim is to collapse all things into a single eternal silence.
He divides, corrupts, and feeds souls to an ever-starving void."
"And I… by building my own world, I've disrupted that?" Ye Lin asked.
"You are an anomaly," the eye replied.
"You seed life where only death is allowed.
That alone has drawn his gaze. The void… is hungry."
A tremor surged through Ye Lin's inner world—not from attack, but from deep beneath the Root itself. The luminous pillars quaked, and Ye Lin felt something pulling downward, as if reality beneath her feet was being dragged toward a depth with no end.
"What's happening?!" the butterfly tattoo shouted.
"He knows you've awakened me," the Pillar's voice grew tight.
"He comes. The void... is coming."