They took the final step.
And the world changed.
Emiren felt his body dissolving into a flow of light and shadow, as if every particle of his essence was merging with something greater than himself. It didn’t feel like death—rather, like birth. He was neither falling nor standing, neither drifting nor flying. He simply existed.
Somewhere nearby were Flamen and the one who had been the Empty One. But their forms had also shifted—no longer confined to familiar bodies, they had become part of this transition, this threshold between realities.
And then, suddenly, everything stopped.
The First Breath of a New World
Their feet touched solid ground.
The world around them was empty—not an endless darkness, but the purity of something that had yet to take form. The sky was white, the earth was white, and the air was filled with anticipation.
The silence was not truly silence, but rather the absence of what had yet to emerge.
— Did we… create this? — Flamen’s voice was muffled, as if his words were being swallowed by the unshaped space.
Emiren knelt and touched the ground. It was warm but soft, as if it had not yet decided what it should be—stone, sand, or soil. His fingers left an imprint, but it vanished almost immediately, as though reality hesitated to accept change.
— No, — he finally answered. — We only made a choice. But the world has yet to take form.
The one who had been Empty stood slightly apart. His gaze was fixed on the sky, where there was neither sun nor stars—only an infinite, luminous void.
— This place does not know time, — he said.
A Path Through the Unfinished
They moved forward, not knowing if they were truly walking, for in this world, distance did not yet exist.
It seemed that space itself emerged only as they took the next step. Each movement forced reality to define itself, to provide them with ground beneath their feet.
Flamen stretched out his hand, and black fire flickered in his palm. But it burned differently than before—not brightly, but as if reflecting a possible light.
— My power… it’s different, — he muttered.
Emiren felt it too. His ability to see time’s currents no longer worked as it once had. He could not see the future, nor the past.
Because this world had not yet existed in time.
— We need to find the center, — he said.
— The center of what? — the Empty One asked.
— The center of this world. If we want it to become real, we must find the point where it is born.
The Heart of the New Time
And as soon as Emiren spoke those words, they felt something ahead.
A silent call.
Not a voice, not a thought, but the presence of something.
The world before them began to shift. Shapes appeared—at first blurred, like shadows of the future, and then growing clearer. The earth darkened, the sky deepened. In the distance, a massive structure emerged, resembling a tree, but made not of wood, but of time itself.
Its branches did not stretch upward but spread in all directions, intertwining into a complex pattern.
— That’s… — Flamen stopped, unable to finish his sentence.
— The heart of the new time, — Emiren whispered.
Their choice had led them here.
But could they complete it?