Everything had changed.
After the choice the Creators had made, the Eternal Garden was no longer as it once was. Its branches no longer followed a single law of time—they grew in all possible directions, creating an infinite number of possibilities. But among these changes, there was one peculiarity that only Emiren noticed.
At the very heart of the Garden, there was an emptiness.
— This is impossible… — he whispered, touching the space where the oldest time node had once been.
Where there should have been a trace of their choice, there was only darkness.
— What does this mean? — asked the Flamen One as he stepped closer.
— Something or someone… is returning, — the Empty One replied, staring into the abyss that quivered as if breathing.
A Voice from Oblivion
Suddenly, the space trembled.
Silence was torn apart as a voice emerged from the void—deep, calm, yet filled with unfathomable power.
— Did you really think you could change everything… and remain unnoticed?
A figure began to step out of the darkness. It did not belong to any known entity. It was neither a Creator nor a Destroyer, neither a guardian of time nor its ruiner.
It was the One Who Returns.
His face shifted with every moment, as if it consisted of all the possible versions of who he could have been. His eyes were bottomless, reflecting past, present, and future all at once.
— Who are you? — asked the Watery One, feeling an eerie chill seep into his very core.
The figure smiled.
— I am the one who was forgotten. I am the one whom your choice has returned to this world.
Lost in Time
Emiren felt a strange pain. He had the sense that he already knew this entity, but he couldn’t recall from where.
— Were you a part of the Garden?
— I was a part of time. But you changed the rules of the game. You created a world where time has no single path, and by doing so, you opened the doors for those who had no right to return.
His voice was calm, yet within it lurked a hidden threat.
— And what do you want? — asked the Empty One.
The figure raised a hand, and the space around him began to warp.
— I want to find my true essence. I want to know who I was meant to be before I was erased.
The Eternal Garden shuddered.
The Rift in Reality
Suddenly, the air was torn apart, revealing a terrifying rift before the Creators. It was unlike the usual passages between time streams. This was something deeper—a fragment of reality torn away, belonging neither to the past nor the future.
From this rift, other shadows began to emerge. They resembled possibilities that had never come to be, versions of reality that were meant to happen but had been rejected.
— These are… — the Flamen One took a step back. — These are those who were meant to exist but never did!
Emiren felt his own body beginning to shift. His reflection in the water of the Eternal Garden had split. He saw another version of himself—one who had made a different choice long ago.
— We have not only opened the door for the future. We have opened it for all possible variations of time.
— But what will happen if they enter our world? — asked the Watery One.
The figure before them smiled again.
— Then the very concept of time will be destroyed. Everything that could ever have been will become reality all at once. Isn’t this what you wanted? You sought freedom for time? Here it is.
The rift began to expand.
A Choice That Cannot Be Undone
Emiren felt that they had to act immediately. But how?
— We could try to close the rift! — said the Flamen One.
— But then we would be limiting time once more. We would return to what we tried to break free from! — objected the Watery One.
— Is there another way? — asked the Empty One.
The figure standing before them said nothing. He was merely waiting.
A thought formed in Emiren’s mind.
— Perhaps we should not fight what has come. Perhaps we should accept it… and change the very nature of reality itself.
— What do you mean? — asked the Flamen One.
Emiren took a deep breath.
— If we cannot stop the return of all possible versions of time… then we must become the ones who guide them. Not to destroy. Not to restrict. But to learn to live among infinite possibilities.
The rift widened, and countless echoes of the future drew near.
They had to choose a path. But this time, their choice would not only change the Eternal Garden—it would change everything that had ever existed.