[The Root Chamber — Present Day]
The air inside the Root Chamber shimmered with light.Soft motes of mana floated through the air like drifting snowflakes, illuminating the massive crystalline trunk that stretched upward beyond sight.
Park Aiden stood before it — trembling.
His reflection in the root crystal looked nothing like the boy he remembered. His eyes glowed faint green, faint veins of light pulsed beneath his skin, and the sigil of intertwined branches at his heart burned like an eternal scar.
He should have felt awe.He should have felt powerful.
Instead, all he felt was suffocated.
[Root Synchronization: 72%]
[Emotional Instability Detected — Neural Disruption Risk 41%]
He exhaled shakily. "Even the damn tree can tell I'm a mess…"
The voice that echoed through the chamber was deep, measured — his father's."Then compose yourself, Aiden. The people are waiting."
Aiden turned. The Supreme Commander stood in full uniform, the gold trim of his coat glinting in the ethereal light.His father — Park Hyunsung — looked like someone carved from steel and sorrow.
"The Council wants a word with you," Hyunsung said. "You're their symbol now. Their anchor."
Aiden almost laughed. "Anchor? Father, I can barely breathe without the ground shaking. I'm no one's anchor."
Hyunsung's expression didn't change. "You're the only one who can speak to the Tree. That makes you indispensable."
Aiden wanted to scream. Instead, he whispered, "I didn't ask for this."
[Flashback — Two Years Before the Apocalypse]
The rain had been falling that day — steady, gray, endless.Aiden, fifteen, sat under the stairwell of his school building, clutching a torn backpack.His nose was bleeding, his knuckles raw.The other students' laughter echoed in his head even after they'd left.
"Hey, tree-nerd, why don't you go plant yourself in the ground?""Useless bastard — your dad doesn't even care about you."
He'd smiled through it. He always did.He told himself it was fine, that maybe someday they'd stop.But when he came home to an empty house, when the only light was from the phone that never rang — he broke.
That night, he looked up at the city skyline, fists clenched, and whispered to no one —
"I wish this world would just end."
And then, a year later, it did.
[Present — Under the World Tree]
Now, as he walked through the sanctuaries that had grown under Evelyn's light, he saw children laughing, old people planting seeds, soldiers rebuilding towns — all because he was keeping the roots alive.
He watched their smiles and felt nothing but guilt.
Everywhere he went, people bowed.
"Bless us, Heir.""Please, Heir, save my daughter.""You're the chosen one."
He wanted to shout at them — I didn't choose this!He wanted to tell them how small and cowardly he really was, how he used to hide behind his father, behind walls, behind excuses.
But instead, he just nodded, murmuring hollow reassurances as his hands trembled behind his back.
[Nightfall — The Sanctuary's Edge]
That night, he slipped away from the guards and wandered to the tree's edge, where the barrier shimmered faintly against the dark.The world beyond it was ash and ruin — a constant reminder of how much had been lost.
He sank to his knees.The soil beneath his palms pulsed faintly, responding to his emotions. The roots knew him — they heard every silent thought.
"Why her?" he whispered. "Why did she have to die for me to live?"
The roots didn't answer.They only swayed gently in the wind, whispering like distant voices.
And suddenly, he heard one that wasn't his.
"Because the tree doesn't choose perfection, Aiden… it chooses persistence."
He froze.That voice — gentle, calm, painfully familiar — sounded like her.
"Evelyn?" he whispered.
But only the wind replied.
[The Burden of the Heir]
Days passed.The new Guilds rose under the World Tree's light, rebuilding order in the chaos. But everywhere Aiden went, he saw cracks — greed, envy, fear.
The gold bars people once killed for were now replaced by Mana Crystals — fragments of the old world's power.Even within the safe zone, corruption took root.And when the starving survivors outside begged for entry, the soldiers turned them away under orders.
Aiden couldn't stand it.He ran to the command center, slamming his hand on the table where his father and the guild leaders stood.
"Let them in," he demanded.
Hyunsung's eyes flickered with warning. "We can't. The barrier's limit is fixed. If we exceed capacity, it collapses."
"Then we expand it!"
"You can't even control your own resonance without fainting," his father snapped. "You think you can expand the barrier without killing yourself?"
The silence that followed was suffocating.Aiden's breath came shallow. His hands shook.He was a coward — and they all knew it.
[Collapse]
That night, when everyone was asleep, Aiden returned to the tree again.He pressed his palm to the trunk, trying to push mana into it — trying to will the barrier to grow.
[Warning: Excessive Strain Detected.]
[User Vitality 38%...]
[Mana Core Destabilizing…]
"Come on… come on!" he gasped.
The roots flared violently. The earth cracked. Pain exploded through his body — his veins lit up, his breath turned to fire.
He screamed, but nobody came.And in that agony, he heard her voice again.
"Stop fighting yourself, Aiden. You're not me."
He fell to his knees, tears burning down his cheeks. "Then why… why me?"
"Because you're still here."
And just like that, the roots calmed. The barrier stabilized — glowing faintly, expanding by a fraction.Enough for hundreds more people to enter.
When he opened his eyes, dawn was breaking.The sky was gold again.
[Morning After — The People's Symbol]
He awoke in the infirmary, surrounded by healers.His father sat silently beside him, exhaustion etched into his face.
"The barrier expanded," Hyunsung said softly. "They're calling it a miracle. They say the Heir's heart answered their prayers."
Aiden stared blankly at the ceiling."A miracle…" he repeated. Then quietly, "No. Just fear."
Hyunsung frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I was afraid of losing them," Aiden said. "And for once, I didn't run."
He turned his head toward the window, where the World Tree glowed faintly through the mist."I don't want to be a god, Father," he whispered. "I just want to be someone she wouldn't be ashamed of."
[The Root Network — Far Below]
Deep beneath the earth, in the luminous silence of the Root Domain, a faint figure stirred — not human, not entirely light.Evelyn Park's essence flickered briefly in the mana flow, watching her brother's trembling determination.
A faint smile touched her spectral lips.
"Then that's enough."
And she faded once more into the roots — her dream continuing through the boy who once wished for the world to end,but now carried the burden of keeping it alive.