By sunrise, the world had already changed again.
The Shardspire was silent, but the blackened petal on the flame bloom pulsed with energy that didn't belong to this realm.
Kai stood before it with Ayaka and Ren flanking him, the scroll still clutched in his hand.
Then—without warning—the petal unfolded.
It didn't wither or fall. It peeled back reality itself.
A tear opened—thin as a breath, wide as destiny—and from it stepped a figure draped in black smoke. No face, no voice. Just presence.
It didn't threaten. It didn't ask.
It simply observed.
Kai met its gaze—if it had one. "You're one of them."
The figure nodded once, then extended a hand. From it floated a second scroll, this one inked in root-blood and sealed with something that looked disturbingly like bone.
Ayaka grabbed Kai's arm. "This doesn't feel like the others. This feels… cursed."
Kai took the scroll anyway.
His orb flickered.
> "Read it alone," the figure said, its voice more feeling than sound.
"Only the bearer may survive the memory."
Before anyone could speak again, the figure dissolved—into a thousand leaves of shadow.
Kai unsealed the scroll.
His eyes widened—then glowed with light and fear at once.
---
Memory of the Rootfall (Unveiled from the Scroll)
> There was a time when Heaven was broken deliberately.
A rebellion not of mortals… but of cultivators who grew too powerful.
The gods didn't fall by war.
They fell by betrayal—from within.
> The Nine were witnesses. And prisoners. Now, only memory keeps them alive.
The Sovereign was never your only enemy, Kai.
You carry the flame of the one who destroyed Heaven itself… and failed to rebuild it.
---
Kai dropped the scroll.
His breath caught.
Ayaka stepped forward. "What did it say?"
Kai looked up slowly.
"I think… I was never supposed to win this war."