The world could not accept the new order immediately.
The tree that Emiren had created stood in the center of the Eternal Garden, radiating a silvery glow. Its bark resembled liquid mirrors, and its leaves shimmered with all shades of time—golden, black, blue, green, colors that had no names yet. Its roots reached deep, intertwining with the remnants of old paths, but instead of rejecting them, it absorbed their essence and transformed them.
Yet even in the silence that followed, something was wrong.
Emiren felt it first. A barely perceptible resonance in the air, a slight trembling of the ground beneath his feet. The world could not remain unchanged after such a disruption of balance.
Ardalys touched the bark of the new tree. His expression was tense.
— Is this… right? — he whispered.
Emiren gazed into the shimmering surface of the trunk, searching for an answer.
— We have created something new. There is no right or wrong—only consequences.
But before Ardalys could respond, the world trembled.
From the roots of the tree, cracks spread in all directions—thin, like the fractures of broken glass. They crawled across the ground, but they were not mere fissures. They revealed something else.
Beyond them, there was no darkness or light. Only chaos—pulsating, breathing, alive.
— What is this? — Ardalys’ voice wavered.
Emiren already knew the answer.
— It is a place where reality has yet to be created.
The Guardians finally moved. Their silent figures surrounded the tree. They did not speak, yet Emiren could feel their thoughts pressing against the space itself.
This is not balance. This is destruction.
One of the Guardians raised a hand, and the cracks began to widen. It seemed as though they were consuming the Eternal Garden from within. The nearby trees started to change—their leaves burned away, only to be reborn, different from before.
— The world does not accept this, — said Ardalys.
— The world is not ready, — replied Emiren.
The Guardians took another step forward.
— This cannot exist.
— You cannot stop it, — Emiren answered.
And at that moment, the cracks exploded with light.
They no longer spread across the ground—they cut through the sky, through time, through the very fabric of Eternity. The Garden was no longer a closed space. Its boundaries were breaking apart, revealing paths to places that had never existed before.
And through them, figures began to emerge.
They were unlike the Guardians, unlike anyone Emiren had ever known. They had no defined forms—it seemed they were possibilities themselves, echoes of those who could have existed but had never been created.
— They are coming, — Ardalys whispered.
— Not they, — Emiren said, feeling something inside him resonate with the call. — We are.
The world was changing. And this time, they were the ones changing it.