"We're ready to leave" Anika not amused by their "stare down", like Quan she has been ready to start her trail she has things she has to do. The guard started to sweat ,he gave kris smug smiling face one last look of annoyance and turn towards Anika and nodded, walking over towards a singular root that's sticking out into the clearing he stopped energy converge around his lower arm , it condensed into a ring around his elbow and wasting no time roots begin to burst from the ring, the root intertwined and locking and finally taking shape into a gauntlet made of wood that looks surprisingly similar to the roots of the ents, the guard didn't keep them waiting once the gauntlet was fully manifested he reach for the root and pull, the roots where the exit is started to loosen and open up like the maws of a ferocious beast, the trio look at the opening and saw nothing but trees of all varieties and size, the forest beyond the ent territory felt alive, the moving of creatures in the trees, the sound of beast tearing into the ground running around, some plant glow with a rhythm that's both alluring and errie, Kris took a deep breath taking in the view, Quan was about take over and take off, wanting to run through the trees but before he could take control, Anika said " we're taking the trees the ground may look safe but once we leave the ent territory end, everything becomes a predator, even the earth", kris took a look at the trees, the branches were thick as pillars, there leaves a vibrant green smaller creature jump or climbing to there conopy.
The silence between the layers of existence rippled
No sound, No light …Just data , Vibrating in the bloodstream of the unknown
A tremor from the lower gardens crawled it way up lattice of reality, transforming into a single point : Awareness
Something ancient let out a exhale.
" that frequency is mixed in with them"
A voice pass through the void — not spoken, but processed, Each syllable bent the fabric of the realm it passed through, converting memory into sound, curiosity into gravity.
Fragments of creation shimmered in orbit around a shifting form — neither flesh nor spirit, but a composite of ideas.
Light fractured into symbols, and symbols bled into shape. At the center stood Ducain — the Architect, the Researcher, the God Entity.
His eyes (if they could be called that) were twin orbs of observation—black holes filled with spinning equations and pulsing galaxies. Around him, the walls of the void looked alive, shifting like neurons firing inside the brain of the universe.
" They entered the gardens …unauthorized entry by semi organic prototypes. Curious,so very curious "
He raised a hand, and space folded into an endless display — millions of realities, layered over one another like thin sheets of glass. On one pane, the disturbance in the lower Garden replayed: the disagreement of the Beast Generals, the energy burst, the trembling of the sealed roots.
The pulse of their conflict had reached him.
"Hmmm, How longs has it been since they moved."
There was amusement in his tone — the kind a scientist uses when a test subject breaks its conditioning.
He touched the space before him and the version of Kris and Quan shimmered as he highlighted him specifically as the projection plays, The giant echo of there essence resonated with the gem of creation in his chest — A heart made of pure concepts, beating once every few thousand years
" There essence…familiar "
" how nostalgic "
A smile flickered — not human but structural.
The kind of expression reality make when it's been looped.
The viod around him began to hum again, filled with data spirits, whispering in binary tongues , awaiting his next move.
"Very well, Let the experiment continue…let the garden and its root remember "the sons of the mad beast "
And with that, Ducain extended his hand — and reality shifted.
The cosmic laboratory awakened, its instruments—worlds, stars, and souls—beginning to hum with divine curiosity once more.
As Ducain withdrew, the void folded itself back into silence.
And somewhere far below, in the mortal layers where roots become continents and continents become cages—
three figures stepped into the crater left behind by legends.
three figures stepped into the crater left behind by legends.
The ground was still warm.
The air still trembling.
And the aura lingering in the soil…
was the same frequency Ducain had just recognized.
Someone whispered:
"This… was no ordinary fight."