"Memory is not the past sleeping peacefully. Memory is a blade buried beneath time, waiting for the hand foolish enough to pull it free."
— Ancient Heavenly Proverb
The path beneath the Old Roots did not descend like a tunnel.
It remembered downward.
Mother Nature walked at the front, the glowing map Knowledge had given her pulsing across her palm like veins of golden-root light. Every time she lifted her hand, the lines shifted, rearranging themselves with soft sparks, as though even the map was uncertain whether the path still existed.
Behind her came Kaito, one hand gripping his Solar Flare Spear, its golden light dimmed so it would not anger the ancient dark around them. Daniel followed at his side, revolver drawn, hat lowered, his cracked Void Claw wrapped in faint lunar bindings Mother Nature had placed to keep it from collapsing completely.
None of them spoke for a long while.
The Old Roots were not silent.
They whispered.
Not with voices, but with the slow groan of wood older than divine law. Roots thick as palace towers coiled through the stone around them. Pale blue energy flowed beneath their bark like captured sky. Crystals grew from the walls, not in neat formations, but like frozen lightning that had struck the earth and chosen to remain.
This was not Heaven's beauty.
Heaven was polished.
This place was ancient.
Heaven wore gold.
The Old Roots wore memory.
Kaito looked around, jaw tense. "This place feels alive."
Daniel's eyes scanned the walls. "Alive is fine. Hungry is what worries me."
Mother Nature did not turn back. "It is older than hunger."
Daniel paused.
"That was not comforting."
The roots ahead shifted, opening a narrow passage. Mother Nature lifted her glowing palm. The map's lines bent toward the opening.
"The First Hollow lies beyond the deeper roots," she said. "But the path is guarded."
Kaito's grip tightened. "By what?"
Mother Nature's eyes narrowed faintly.
"By those who served the Sky before our Heaven learned how to lie."
That ended the conversation.
They continued forward.
The passage widened gradually, and the walls began to change. The roots no longer twisted randomly. They formed patterns. Circles. Spirals. Curves resembling wings and eyes and celestial bodies half-buried beneath bark.
Then they reached the gate.
It rose before them without warning.
A massive wall of living root and ancient stone blocked the passage, stretching so high its top vanished into darkness. In its center were two enormous sigils carved side by side.
One was a crescent moon, silver-blue and cold.
The other was a blazing sun, pale gold and severe.
Between them lay a third mark, almost faded.
The mark of the Sky.
Kaito stepped forward slowly. "Sun and Moon."
Daniel lowered his revolver slightly. "Old ones?"
Mother Nature's gaze remained fixed on the gate.
"Guardians," she whispered. "Memories of the Sun and Moon who served the previous Sky God."
The moon sigil opened first.
Silver light spilled across the chamber, soft and beautiful, but heavy with grief. The air cooled. The roots stopped whispering. Every sound faded until even breathing seemed disrespectful.
A figure appeared before the gate.
Tall. Elegant. Pale.
His robes were woven from moonlight and mist, shifting with every movement. His hair fell like silver rain, and his eyes were mirrors that reflected not faces, but wounds. A crescent crown hovered above his head, cracked down the middle.
When he spoke, his voice was gentle enough to break hearts.
"I am Lunareth," he said. "The Moon That Remembers."
Daniel's revolver rose again.
Lunareth looked at him, and Daniel's hand froze halfway.
"Do not fear the blade," Lunareth said softly. "Fear what the blade protects."
Kaito stepped forward. "We seek the body of the previous Sky God."
"I know."
Mother Nature lifted her glowing palm. "Then open the way."
Lunareth's gaze shifted to her.
In his eyes, Mother Nature saw a forest.
Her forest.
The one where Kanetaro had once slept beneath trees and rain.
Her chest tightened.
Lunareth raised one hand.
"The buried Sky cannot be reached by those who carry fragile hearts. The old king's vessel is not treasure. It is a responsibility that may break even the worthy."
"We do not have time for riddles," Kaito said.
Lunareth smiled sadly.
"No one ever does. That is why memory must stop them."
The moonlight expanded.
The chamber vanished
Kaito stood alone beneath a gray sky.
He recognized the battlefield instantly.
The Plains of Eternity.
But there were no armies now. No Fire. No Water. No Yami. Only broken stone, drifting ash, and a body lying in the center of the plain.
Kanetaro.
Kaito's breath stopped.
His brother lay still, eyes closed, armor cracked, the light of the Sky gone from his chest.
"No," Kaito whispered.
He ran.
His spear fell from his hand before he reached him. Kaito dropped to his knees beside Kanetaro and grabbed his shoulder.
"Wake up."
Kanetaro did not move.
Kaito shook him harder.
"Wake up."
The wind carried no answer.
Then Kanetaro's eyes opened.
But they were dull.
Empty.
"You called me brother too late," Kanetaro said.
Kaito froze.
The words struck harder than any weapon.
Kanetaro's dead gaze remained fixed on him.
"You stood in Heaven while I fought alone."
"That isn't true," Kaito said, voice shaking.
"You wanted the throne."
"No."
"You wanted to be better than me."
Kaito's jaw trembled.
"I didn't know."
Kanetaro's face showed no anger.
That made it worse.
"You only loved me after you learned I was yours."
Kaito's hands loosened.
The battlefield tilted beneath him.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Kanetaro closed his eyes again.
The body turned to ash.
Kaito reached for him, but the ash slipped through his fingers.
The gray sky darkened.
And Kaito believed it.
Kanetaro was gone.
Daniel stood in a ruined hall lit by moonlight.
He knew this place too.
The training hall where he had once waited for Kanetaro to return.
A laugh echoed behind him.
Daniel turned.
Kanetaro leaned against a broken pillar, arms crossed, wearing that crooked grin that made danger seem like a minor inconvenience.
"You look like you lost a duel with your own hat," Kanetaro said.
Daniel stared.
For half a second, relief nearly broke him.
Then he remembered.
"No," Daniel whispered. "You're not real."
Kanetaro pushed himself off the pillar.
"Does it matter?"
Daniel raised his revolver, but his hand shook.
Kanetaro walked closer.
"You always did that."
"What?"
"Made jokes before fear could speak."
Daniel's throat tightened.
The hall changed.
Suddenly Kanetaro stood farther away, chained in shadow, reaching out.
Daniel fired.
The bullet vanished before reaching him.
Kanetaro smiled sadly.
"Too late again."
Daniel fired another round.
Then another.
Each shot disappeared.
The distance between them grew.
Daniel ran.
The floor stretched beneath his feet.
Kanetaro's body began to fade.
"Come on," Daniel said, voice cracking. "Don't do this."
Kanetaro tilted his head.
"You were the Moon. You reflected light."
His smile vanished.
"But when the Sky disappeared, you reflected nothing."
Daniel stopped.
His revolver lowered.
Kanetaro faded completely.
The hall went dark.
Daniel stood alone.
And believed it.
Kanetaro was gone.
Mother Nature stood in the forest.
Not the Old Roots.
Not Heaven.
The forest.
Her embodiment on earth.
Rain fell gently through leaves. Moss covered stones. A small stream hummed nearby, and beneath a great tree sat a boy with messy hair, muddy knees, and eyes too innocent for the world that waited beyond the trees.
Kanetaro.
Young.
Alive.
He looked up at her and smiled.
"Mother?"
The word struck her heart with unbearable tenderness.
Mother Nature took one step forward.
Then the forest burned.
Fire swallowed the trees.
Rain turned to ash.
The boy stood now at fifteen, sword at his side, looking toward the world beyond the forest.
"You let me leave," he said.
Mother Nature froze.
"I had to."
"You knew the world was cruel."
"Yes."
"You knew war would take me."
Her voice broke softly.
"I hoped it would not."
Kanetaro turned toward her.
Blood darkened his neck.
A poisoned arrow protruded from the wound.
Mother Nature's breath vanished.
The forest floor beneath him became the battlefield of his first death.
"You raised me," he said. "Then gave me to suffering."
"No," she whispered.
"You called yourself Mother Nature."
His eyes dimmed.
"But nature does not weep when children die. It only grows over their graves."
Mother Nature staggered back.
The words wrapped around her like thorns.
Then Kanetaro fell.
She caught him.
This time, she held him.
His body was cold in her arms.
The forest went silent.
Lunareth's voice whispered from everywhere.
"He is dead."
Mother Nature looked down at him.
"He died in war."
The body in her arms shifted.
Now it was Kanetaro as Sky King, fading inside the Sky Spark.
"He died in shadow."
The spark shattered.
"He died because you were too late."
Mother Nature closed her eyes.
For one moment, grief nearly took her.
The mirage pressed harder.
It gave her every truth that could be twisted into a knife.
She had let him leave the forest.
She had failed to protect him from war.
She had failed to see Yami wearing his face.
She had arrived too late to stop his body from being stolen.
The illusion breathed into her ear.
"Your son is dead."
Mother Nature's arms tightened around the cold body.
Then—
She remembered.
Not the battlefield.
Not the arrow.
Not the stolen body.
The Old Roots.
The chamber.
The faint blue spark.
Kanetaro's voice saying:
"Mother."
Her eyes opened.
The forest stopped burning.
Mother Nature looked down at the body in her arms.
"No."
The mirage trembled.
Lunareth's whisper returned.
"He is gone."
Mother Nature rose slowly, still holding Kanetaro's body.
Her tears fell onto his face.
But her voice became steady.
"You showed me grief."
The trees froze.
"You showed me guilt."
The flames bent away from her.
"You showed me every wound I carry."
She looked upward, emerald light filling her eyes.
"But I have already heard his voice."
The illusion cracked.
"My son is alive."
The body in her arms dissolved into moonlight.
Mother Nature stood alone in the burning forest, but now the fire no longer touched her.
She lifted one hand.
Roots erupted from beneath the illusion and tore through the false sky.
"Kanetaro lives," she said.
The mirage shattered.
The three of them returned to the gate.
Kaito collapsed to one knee, breathing hard.
Daniel staggered backward, one hand pressed over his chest as though holding himself together.
Mother Nature remained standing, but tears still shone in her eyes.
Lunareth stood before them.
His expression was unreadable.
Kaito looked up, fury and pain burning together.
"What was that?"
"A wound," Lunareth replied.
Daniel's voice was low. "You made us believe he was dead."
"No," Lunareth said gently. "You already feared it. I merely gave the fear a face."
Kaito pushed himself upright. "And that makes us eligible?"
Lunareth turned toward Mother Nature.
"She remembered truth while drowning in grief."
His moonlit eyes moved to Kaito and Daniel.
"And because she remembered, you returned."
The moon sigil behind him dimmed.
Lunareth stepped aside.
"The heart has broken and still seeks the Sky. You may pass the first trial."
Daniel exhaled shakily.
"Wonderful. Love emotional devastation before breakfast."
Kaito gave him a tired look.
Daniel lifted one hand.
"I'm coping."
Mother Nature wiped her eyes, then looked toward the gate.
The sun sigil ignited.
Gold light flooded the chamber.
Not warm.
Not comforting.
Severe.
A second figure formed where Lunareth's moonlight faded.
He was taller, broader, wrapped in armor that shone like dawn forged into judgment. His hair burned pale gold, and his eyes were bright enough that looking into them felt like staring at truth without mercy. A sun-disc hovered behind his head, broken into sharp rays like a crown made for war.
"I am Solvhar," he said. "The Sun That Tests."
Kaito straightened instinctively.
Solvhar looked at them without sympathy.
"The Moon has weighed your hearts. I shall weigh your bodies."
Mother Nature's gaze sharpened. "We have no time."
Solvhar raised one armored hand.
"Then survive quickly."
Daniel blinked.
"I hate him already."
The ground beneath them dissolved.
Gold light swallowed everything.
They landed on a platform of brass.
Kaito's eyes widened.
Daniel looked around.
"Oh no."
Massive gears turned around them. Iron pipes hissed. Blue energy lines hummed beneath their feet. The domain stretched into an endless clockwork nightmare of moving platforms, crushing pistons, rotating cogs, and impossible machinery.
Mother Nature recognized it from Kanetaro's memories.
Knowledge's training realm.
The place where Kanetaro had learned beneath divine pressure.
A roar shook the platform.
The Bull Guardian landed before them.
Twice the width of a man, with scarred dark skin, a mask over its face, a katana in one arm and an axe chained to the other. Its mechanical leg struck the brass with enough force to buckle the platform.
Beside it appeared the Puma Guardian, silent and low, claws extending from both forearms, metal tail curling behind it.
Above them, silver wings opened.
The Hawk Guardian descended, twin blades held calmly in his hands.
Daniel slowly raised his revolver.
"Please tell me these are illusions."
Solvhar's voice echoed from the sky.
"Memories in kill mode."
Kaito's spear ignited.
"So they can hurt us."
The Bull Guardian charged.
"Very much," Daniel muttered.
Kaito met the bull first.
Their weapons collided, golden spear against blackened katana. The force drove Kaito backward across the brass, but he held. The bull's axe whipped around by its chain, aiming for his side.
Daniel fired twice.
Lunar bullets struck the chain and knocked the axe off course.
The Puma vanished.
Mother Nature moved before it reappeared.
She caught its clawed wrist inches from Daniel's back and drove her palm into its chest, sending it skidding across the platform.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder.
"Thank you."
"Focus," she said.
The Hawk descended from above, blades crossing toward Kaito's neck. Kaito ducked, spun his spear, and forced the hawk upward with a burst of solar light. But the Bull used that opening to slam its shoulder into him.
Kaito crashed into a rotating gear.
The teeth nearly caught his arm before Daniel shot the mechanism, jamming it for half a breath.
"Kaito!" Daniel shouted.
"I'm fine," Kaito growled, pulling himself free.
The Puma came again, faster now. Its claws carved sparks from the platform as it closed on Daniel. Daniel fired four shots while retreating, but the puma slipped between them with impossible grace.
Mother Nature stomped.
Roots burst through the brass.
Not enough to dominate the realm, but enough.
They wrapped around the Puma's leg for a heartbeat.
Daniel took the opening.
A lunar bullet struck the red crystal on the Puma's mask.
Crack.
The memory construct shrieked and dissolved into ash-blue light.
"The crystals!" Daniel shouted.
Kaito's eyes sharpened.
The Bull raised its axe again.
Kaito stopped defending.
He stepped forward.
The axe descended.
Kaito slid inside the arc, spear glowing brighter, and drove its tip into the red crystal embedded in the Bull's mask.
The guardian froze.
Then shattered.
Above, the Hawk folded its wings and dove.
Mother Nature lifted both hands.
Vines rose like spears, but the Hawk sliced through them, descending with lethal precision.
Daniel fired.
The Hawk twisted.
Kaito threw his spear.
The Hawk deflected it.
Mother Nature watched its movement once.
Then understood.
She waited until the Hawk committed to its final angle.
Then she leapt.
Not with magic.
With raw strength.
Her fist struck the Hawk's mask in midair.
The red crystal cracked under the blow.
The Hawk dissolved before touching the ground.
The clockwork realm trembled.
Gold light flashed.
The platform vanished.
They landed in the ruined Sky Realm.
Kaito's face hardened.
Daniel's expression darkened.
Mother Nature's eyes narrowed.
They knew this memory too.
The War of Extinction.
Black clouds churned above shattered crystal islands. The ruins of the heavenly palace floated in pieces around them. In the distance, millions of Narasyte shadows writhed like a living storm.
Then one figure stepped from the darkness.
Malphas.
Heaven Destroyer No. 9.
Four wings of violet fire opened behind him. Obsidian armor covered his towering body, and a single red gem burned in his forehead like a cruel star.
Daniel exhaled.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Solvhar's voice echoed.
"The Sky survived this."
Malphas raised his void blade.
"Then so shall you."
The demon attacked.
The first swing sent a wave of violet fire across the broken realm. Kaito stepped forward and planted his spear into the ground, releasing a solar barrier. The fire crashed against it, forcing him back.
Daniel moved to the side, firing lunar rounds at Malphas's joints.
The bullets struck.
Barely slowed him.
Mother Nature's vines erupted beneath Malphas, coiling around his legs. He tore through them with brute force, but the delay gave Kaito room to thrust.
Solar light struck Malphas's chest.
The armor smoked.
Malphas laughed.
He moved faster than his size should have allowed, appearing before Kaito and backhanding him across the platform. Kaito hit stone hard, rolled, and rose with blood at his lip.
Daniel's eyes sharpened.
He fired a poison-laced lunar round toward the red gem.
Malphas tilted his head.
The bullet missed by inches.
The void blade came down toward Daniel.
Mother Nature intercepted.
She raised a wall of roots.
The blade cut halfway through before stopping.
Mother Nature gritted her teeth.
"Now!"
Kaito and Daniel moved together.
Sun and Moon crossed the battlefield.
Kaito's spear burned gold.
Daniel's revolver flashed silver.
They struck at the same time.
Gold light hit Malphas's chest.
Silver bullets struck the side of his head.
The demon staggered.
Mother Nature seized the moment.
Vines wrapped around his horns, shoulders, and wings, pulling his head down.
Kaito leapt.
Daniel fired upward.
The bullet struck the red gem first, cracking it.
Kaito's spear followed.
The gem shattered.
Malphas roared.
But the memory did not end.
His body expanded.
The shadows of Narasytes in the sky surged toward him, fusing into his form. Limbs grew. Armor warped. A mountain of shadow began to rise.
Daniel stared.
"Of course. Second phase."
Kaito's breathing turned heavy.
Mother Nature stepped forward, emerald light spreading from her feet.
"No."
The vines beneath the ruined realm answered her.
Not the memory's vines.
Hers.
Roots of the Old Roots pierced through the illusion from beneath, ancient and furious. They wrapped around the growing demon, not gently, but like the world itself rejecting a disease.
Kaito looked at her.
Mother Nature's eyes glowed.
"This memory has taken enough from my child."
She raised one hand.
"Break it."
Kaito understood.
He gathered every remaining spark of solar strength into his spear.
Daniel loaded one final lunar round, the barrel glowing white-silver.
Mother Nature tightened the roots.
Malphas's chest split open under the pressure.
Kaito threw his spear.
Daniel fired.
Sun and Moon pierced the opening together.
The memory construct exploded into green, gold, and silver light.
The ruined Sky Realm dissolved.
They returned to the gate chamber.
All three were breathing hard.
Kaito's armor was cracked again.
Daniel's arm trembled from recoil.
Mother Nature's robes were torn, but her eyes remained steady.
Solvhar stood before them.
His golden gaze studied each wound, each breath, each refusal to fall.
"The memories were set to kill," he said.
Daniel wiped dust from his face.
"Yeah. Picked up on that."
Solvhar ignored him.
"You faced what the Sky faced. Not fully. Not equally. But enough."
Kaito leaned on his spear. "Are we worthy?"
Solvhar looked toward the sun sigil.
Its light dimmed.
Then faded.
"The body may pass."
The gate trembled.
Lunareth reappeared beside him, moonlight gathering at his shoulders.
"The heart may pass," the Moon Guardian said.
Together, Sun and Moon turned toward the ancient wall.
The faded Sky mark between them began to glow.
Not bright.
Not yet.
But alive.
Roots pulled away from stone.
Crystals cracked open.
The massive gate split down the center, revealing a path beyond it.
Cold blue light drifted from the darkness.
Mother Nature stepped forward.
Kaito and Daniel followed.
Beyond the opened gate, the roots no longer whispered.
They bowed.
Far ahead, hidden deeper than memory and older than the throne of Heaven, something vast waited in silence.
The Moon had tested their hearts.
The Sun had tested their bodies.
Now only the buried Sky remained.
And somewhere in the dark of the First Hollow, the previous Sky God's body slept beneath the roots, waiting for the soul desperate enough to wake it.