---
> "Time is not a line. It is a loop made of memory.
And when memory is broken, time begins to rot."
---
[Location: Eastern Highlands – Entry to the Frozen Zone]
Wind howled like voices trapped in glass.
Jin-Soo wrapped his scarf tighter, not against the cold—but the weight of resonance that thickened the air.
Yuna, her silver eyes dimmed, said nothing. Her system was flickering—overwhelmed by the psychic pressure of the place.
Kael?
Kael walked ahead like the world bent for him.
> "We are near," he said.
"You'll feel her thoughts before you see her."
Jin-Soo asked, "Her?"
Kael nodded once, quietly.
> "The First Monarch.
The one who broke the silence before any of us.
The one they froze in time so no one could hear her."
---
[Approaching the Garden – Temporal Dislocation Begins]
As they climbed the ridge, their systems flickered and glitched.
> [ERROR: Local time density = INFINITE]
[Clock Displacement Detected: +8,000 years to –17 minutes]
[WARNING: Perception layer may fracture]
The mountain ahead shimmered like shattered ice, though no snow fell.
It was memory, frozen in solid form.
Statues lined the cliffs—people in mid-scream, mid-fall, mid-cry—
trapped moments that had somehow become physical.
And in the center:
A glass tree, its branches reaching into clouds that didn't move.
---
[The Tree of Thought – Monarch Core Contained Within]
Kael gestured toward it.
> "That's her heart.
Inside, her thoughts still echo.
Trapped by the Architects.
Because her words were too dangerous."
Jin-Soo took a step forward, and the ice beneath his feet didn't crack—it whispered.
> "Why do you seek her?" it asked in his own voice.
He stopped. Looked at Kael.
Kael said nothing.
Because the Garden tested willpower.
Not strength.
---
[Yuna's Trial – Echoes of the Erased]
Suddenly, a gust of memory surrounded Yuna.
She saw them.
Every soul she ever failed to save.
A little girl she couldn't reach in time.
A dying hunter who bled out whispering her name.
The healer who gave her life for her.
The voices echoed:
> "Why did you live?"
"Why did we die?"
Yuna dropped to her knees.
Jin-Soo ran to her, but Kael stopped him.
> "This garden doesn't harm.
It asks.
Let her answer."
---
[Yuna's Response]
Tears in her eyes, she whispered:
> "Because someone still needs me.
Because Jin-Soo didn't give up on me."
"Because if I fall now, I let them win."
The wind calmed.
And the ice let her pass.
---
[Jin-Soo's Trial – The Forgotten Boy]
Jin-Soo felt it before he saw it.
A boy standing alone.
Trembling, crying, covered in cuts.
Himself.
But younger.
The boy stared up at him.
> "Why didn't you die?" the boy asked.
"You had no one.
Nothing.
Why keep going?"
Jin-Soo knelt, gently placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.
> "Because one day, I knew I'd find someone who cared.
And now I have."
> "I don't need to be remembered.
I just need to remember why I stood up again."
The boy smiled, and vanished.
---
[At the Base of the Tree]
Kael placed his hand on the trunk.
The entire Garden froze.
Even the sky.
Then a pulse of light erupted from the tree's center—
And a voice spoke, deeper than any system Jin-Soo had ever heard.
> "Who dares unfreeze thought?"
Kael didn't answer.
Jin-Soo stepped forward.
> "I'm not here to rule.
I just want to know the truth."
The voice whispered:
> "Then know this…"
> "Systems were not given to humanity.
They were imposed."
"They are not tools…
They are cages."
---
[System Shock – Global Level Event]
> [System Update Blocked]
[Universal Sync Failure Detected]
[Class Barriers Breaking Globally]
[Monarch Thought Core: Awakening in Progress]
Kael turned to Jin-Soo.
> "She is not a person.
She is a memory so powerful it fought death itself."
"And she's waking up… because of you."
---
[The Voice of the First Monarch]
The sky turned dark.
And from the tree, a figure began to form.
A woman. Older. Ageless. Her skin cracked like stone, her eyes like nebulae.
She spoke not aloud—but into existence.
> "Who… are you, child of the fracture?"
Jin-Soo stepped forward.
> "My name is Jin-Soo.
And I remember… what it's like to be forgotten."
The tree shattered.
And the First Monarch opened her eyes.
---
[Final Scene – The Atrium Begins to Crumble]
As the First Monarch awakened, across the dimensional layers of the Architect domain, buildings began to collapse.
> "The Thought Core is active!"
"We cannot control her!"
"Evacuate the primary frame—NOW!"
The Supreme Architect whispered:
> "This boy…
He isn't a bug in the system.
He is the antivirus."
---