The world was no longer as it had been. The Eternal Garden had changed, and its breath felt different—deeper, heavier, filled with a silence that did not promise peace. Emiren felt it in every fiber of his being. The choice they had made had laid the foundation for a new Eternity, but that foundation had yet to settle. It swayed, like a fragile sapling in a storm, waiting to be either strengthened or uprooted.
Flamen stood nearby, watching the Silver Tree. Its branches still bore traces of the dark veins that had appeared during the Transformation. But now they no longer spread; they remained frozen in hesitation, as if the garden itself was waiting for what would come next.
“Do you feel it?” he asked, his gaze fixed on the tree.
“Yes,” Emiren replied quietly. “We anchored the node, but the flow of time is still unstable.”
The Watery ran his hand across the surface of a small lake at the base of the tree. His reflection shimmered, changing with each passing second. One moment, he saw himself as a young man; the next, as an old one; then as someone entirely different—someone he could have become if he had chosen another path.
“It’s like shards of a broken mirror,” he murmured, clenching his fingers. “The reflections of time have intertwined.”
The Hollow stood in silence, observing the space around them. His eyes gleamed with an eerie light, as if he could see more than the others.
“Something is approaching,” he said. “Something that should not be here.”
Echoes of the Old Eternity
The air trembled. The shadows, which had once been mere blurred reflections of possibilities, suddenly took on clarity. Figures emerged from the void—they looked like the Creators themselves, but their features were altered, their eyes hollow.
“These are not just reflections,” Flamen whispered, clenching his fists.
“They are those we have lost,” Emiren answered.
The phantoms began to move. Their lips moved, but no sound escaped them. Yet, each of the Creators could hear their voices in their minds.
“You have chosen a new path… but was it truly your choice?” The voice whispered like the wind among broken branches.
“You have torn apart the old Eternity, but its fragments are still here. They cling to the new reality, unwilling to disappear.”
The Entity appeared beside them once more, her gaze sharp and penetrating.
“They are bound to a past that no longer exists,” she said. “But they can still alter the future.”
Emiren felt doubt stir within him. If the old world had not completely vanished, it meant their choice was not yet final.
A Decision That Changes Everything
“We need to let them go,” he said, sensing the phantoms drawing closer.
“How?” the Watery asked. “They are not just memories; they are part of what we have created.”
The Entity extended her hand, and before the Creators, three symbols appeared, each glowing with a different light.
“There are three paths before you,” she said. “One leads to the complete destruction of the past, the second to its preservation as a shadow that coexists with the new Eternity. The third… allows it to weave into the new world, but at the cost of changes you have not yet foreseen.”
Emiren looked at Flamen, the Hollow, and the Watery. They understood: this choice would be decisive.
“If we destroy them,” Flamen said, “we will completely lose everything that was before.”
“If we leave them as shadows, they may try to influence reality again,” the Watery added.
“And if we let them become part of the new world…” the Hollow hesitated, “…we risk losing control over what happens next.”
Emiren stepped forward and touched the third symbol.
“We have already created a new world. Now we must allow it to find its own path.”
The symbol’s light enveloped them, and the phantoms began to change. Their outlines dissolved into the light of the Eternal Garden, while the Silver Tree shuddered, shedding its dark veins.
The Garden finally began to breathe evenly.
The Entity nodded.
“You have made your choice. Now it will become part of Eternity.”
A New Harmony
As the light faded, the Creators felt that something had changed irrevocably. The Lake of Time no longer shimmered with fractured reflections; it had become clear and still. The Silver Tree had taken firm root in the soil of the new reality.
Flamen exhaled.
“This feels… right.”
“It feels inevitable,” Emiren replied.
They were no longer just those who destroy or guard. They had become those who shape.
“The next step?” the Watery asked.
Emiren smiled.
“Now, we see what the future brings.”
And they moved forward, into the unknown Eternity.