CHAPTER 47: "The Crooked Crown"
"When gods die, vultures come dressed as kings."
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Scene 1: Ash and Air
The world is still.
Ash drifts like snow.
The crew stands under a bleeding sky, remnants of fire cracking the horizon.
No one dares speak her name.
Reen.
Gift's fingers close around the memory-seed.
Maiku's hand tightens around the folded note.
Not a tear. Not yet.
Maiku: "She didn't die in vain."
Matthew: "No. But the ones who made her die… still breathe."
Then—
A tremor.
The land moans. A rumble in the ground.
Something beneath has awakened.
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Scene 2: The Hollowing
Deep in the Nest's bleeding core, the True Root Body convulses—skin made of moss and matter—still in the cocoon.
It twitches. Barely alive. Still resisting.
Jiro approaches. Face blank. Eyes black-veined.
Florin: "This wasn't the deal, Jiro. This wasn't the plan."
He doesn't speak.
He injects it.
A siphon drill unfolds.
Root essence—like black starlight—flows upward, into him.
He shakes. Veins crackle. Fractals bloom in his pupils like poisonous flowers.
Jiro (quiet): "This is evolution. You just don't see it yet."
The cocoon shrivels. Its final pulse—like a dying heartbeat.
Warning. Maybe... a curse.
Jiro reaches out and grabs the body.
Black vines curl around his arm like it belongs to him.
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[Abilities Gained:]
Toxic Bloom: A noxious gas that suffocates lungs in seconds.
Fear Factor: He manipulates the fear center in enemy minds—amplifies it.
Bloom-thought: He can plant false memories deep inside targets.
Puppet of the Bloom: His illusions are nearly indistinguishable from reality.
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Scene 3: Echoes in the Seed
Gift slots the seed into an old Nest interface.
It flickers.
Static.
Then—voice.
Reen (recording):
"If someone took the Root… they'll come for you next. This isn't over. It's personal now."
Maps bloom. Protocols unravel.
Coordinates. Algorithms. Warnings.
She knew. She prepared.
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Scene 4: The Cloud Titan Moves
High above, the Cloud Titan awakens.
It shudders.
Then… rises.
Silent. Slow. Horrifying.
Massive. Silent. Unimaginable.
Florin watches from the control deck, hands hovering over command relays.
She doesn't act. Not yet.
Florin (to herself): "I didn't sign up to be godkiller support."
The door opens.
Jiro enters. He looks more force than man now.
Jiro: "They think they've survived the worst. Let's show them what real grief looks like."
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Scene 5: Maiku's Vision
Mid-step, Maiku drops.
Eyes roll back. Fingers twitch.
He falls into a shared hallucination.
Reen.
But not the one he remembers.
This one is fading—fragmented.
Reen (soft):
"You have one chance, Maiku. Use what I left. Stop what I couldn't."
The sky inside the vision collapses. He jolts awake—drenched in sweat.
His hand scribbles across a terminal.
He has a lock.
Partial, but enough. The Cloud Titan has a pattern now.
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Scene 6: Tracking the Pulse
Matthew, Jakku, and Gift trace the energy pulse.
It's no longer random—it's directional.
Precision.
Gift: "This isn't Root anymore."
Matthew: "Then who's controlling it?"
The signal leads into the hills.
A dead zone.
Still. Sterile. Controlled. Withered.
Jakku: "Jiro…"
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Scene 7: The Reunion Trap
They walk into a meadow that shouldn't exist.
The air smells like memories.
Maiku sees himself, laughing. Then Reen, happy.
Matthew sees his brother.
Gift sees Reen.
Jakku sees his brother, laughing.
Matthew sees Kaguya. His best friend.
They freeze. The pain is too real.
Puppet of the Bloom.
Jiro's illusion tries to paralyze them in nostalgia.
Maiku (growling): "He's not just using her memory—he's weaponizing it."
They push through. One illusion at a time.
Bleeding, crying, breaking.
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Scene 8: Jiro Revealed
The veil rips.
They find him—standing on a jagged cliff.
Root vines wrap around his arms.
Florin stands beside him, conflicted.
Jiro: "Do you want to save the world… or protect it from what's coming?"
Maiku: "You murdered the cure. Now you want to sell the poison?"
Jiro offers them a choice:
Stand down. Join him.
Or be erased.
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Scene 9: Countdown to Annihilation
Cloud Titan—fully powered.
Its core pulses.
Florin's hands shake at the trigger controls. The Kill-switch.
However, she doesn't move.
Her eyes meet Maiku's across the field.
Florin (soft): "I don't want to do this…"
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Scene 10: Cloud Titan vs The Crew
It begins.
Jakku activates Focus Vision—
He slows perception, pierces the Cloud Titan's illusion shroud—
He slices its right leg, it's eyes.
Gift strikes next—FLASH!!
He shreds its kneecaps, heels, left leg, ribs.
Matthew summons a lava swell.
Burns its midsection.
Then drowns it in a crushing waterfall of ash and steam.
Maiku sprints through steam.
SLASH. Right across the core.
He raises his blade—final blow ready—
BOOM.
Jiro crashes down.
His palm touches the Titan.
Root energy floods it.
Crew gets blown back.
Sky fractures. Planet Julio splits. Everything halts.
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Scene 11: The Seed Awakens
Gift coughs. Stumbles.
The memory-seed flares.
A sound. A code. Reen's voice—
Not a memory. A command.
The Titan shudders.
Freezes.
Locked.
Overridden.
Jiro panics—veins flaring, breath ragged.
Final Line :
Jiro (screaming): "What did you do?!"
Gift (cold): "She left more than memories."
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TO BE CONTINUED...
CHAPTER 47: "The Crooked Crown"
— Narrator's Reflection —
When gods fall, the vultures don crowns not of gold, but of rot and ambition. In this chapter, the fragile balance shatters further. The ashes of loss still drift, and beneath the cracked earth, a new darkness claws its way up—twisting flesh and will, binding man to Root in a sinister pact.
Jiro, once a man, now something else—a vessel for something poisonous and ancient—ushers in an evolution born not from hope, but fear and control. His power corrupts, his illusions prey on memory itself, weaponizing the past to paralyze the present.
But even in the deepest shadow, the spark of resistance endures. Reen's legacy pulses—encoded not just in the fragile memory seed but in the very will of those who survive her sacrifice. As the colossal Cloud Titan awakens, a mechanical god of destruction poised to crush all that remains, the crew confronts not only their enemy but the ghosts of what they loved and lost.
This chapter reveals the twisted choices of power: to protect or to annihilate; to hold on or let go. The crew fights through illusions and despair, their bonds tested against the relentless siege of fear and deception. And when the battle climaxes, it's not brute force but the indelible will of a fallen friend that turns the tide—locking down a titanic force with a command beyond memory.
"The Crooked Crown" reminds us that even when hope seems buried beneath poison and ash, the legacy of sacrifice is a weapon sharper than any blade—and the fight is far from over.