After the encounter with the Shadows that came from beyond their architecture, Emiren could not find peace. What he had seen in the rift—another Eternity, foreign and unfathomable—haunted his thoughts.
The Eternal Garden was no longer in balance. The Islands of Time moved in jerks, and the Silver Tree, which had always been the source of stability, now dimmed.
— It is weakening, said Watery, touching the bark. — Something is destroying our reality from within.
— Or rewriting it, added Empty.
Emiren looked deep into the Garden. Where the time nodes had once stood, familiar and well-known, now new, unfamiliar structures appeared.
— Two time streams cannot exist simultaneously without tearing each other apart, said Flamen.
— Someone must disappear for the other to exist, continued Watery.
— Or we will find a way to merge them, said Emiren. — We need to go there. Into their Eternity.
The Gateway to a Foreign Time
Finding the rift was not easy. The Shadows no longer appeared, but their presence could be felt in the slightest movements of time.
They came to the Crystal Lake—the place where the Eternal Garden most closely touched other possibilities of being. Watery touched the water, and a reflection appeared on its surface: a darkness that swallowed everything around.
— Here it is. The boundary between us and them.
Flamen stepped forward.
— You know this is a trap, right?
— Everything is a trap unless you know how to cross it, replied Emiren, and without hesitation, stepped into the reflection.
The world around them changed.
The Other Eternity
They found themselves in a world that contradicted the very laws of reality.
The trees here did not grow but curled into circles, as if time for them were cyclical. There was no sky—instead, an endless surface stretched out, reflecting every movement they made.
And in this world, there were versions of themselves.
Entities similar to the Creators, yet alien.
— You have come.
The voice rang out simultaneously in all directions. From the darkness emerged one of them. Its face had no clear features—it seemed to shift with each passing moment, choosing different versions of itself.
— You are not the only ones who shape Eternity.
Emiren stepped forward.
— What are you building here? This is not our world, but not its destruction either.
The entity extended a hand, and before them opened a vision:
Eternities intertwined, not destroying each other, but creating something new. Time streams revolving around a common core instead of fighting for existence.
— We are building a symbiosis, not destruction, it said. — But your world resists. It fears change.
Flamen looked with skepticism at the new reality.
— If this is true, then why is our Eternity falling apart?
— Because you are trying to preserve it unchanged. But time is not a static thing. It is alive.
Emiren realized: they were faced with a choice.
The Paradox of Choice
— We can either destroy each other or find a way to change together, he said.
— And what do you propose? asked Watery.
— To merge what was never one. But for this, we must change the very definition of Eternity.
Empty looked into the endless space.
— Does that mean we will no longer be who we were?
— Perhaps it is the only way forward, replied Emiren.
And so, determination defined their next step.