The silence in the City of Forgetfulness was a constant echo of what once was. The streets were covered in a thick fog that seemed to have a will of its own, dragging away memories, voices, and lost secrets. Akihiko walked alongside Isabella and Kael, their footsteps echoing like funeral drums. With each step, the ruined structures spoke to them in muffled murmurs: fragments of screams, forgotten laughter, and pleas made into the void.
"This place has memory... and it's not kind," Isabella murmured, touching a wall covered in ancient symbols.
Kael inspected a crack in the ground. "This language... isn't human. It seems etched by pure energy. It could be part of the roots of the Tree of Eden."
Akihiko stopped in front of a split tower covered in black ivy. At the top, a symbol glowed momentarily as if watching them.
"We're getting closer," he said gravely. "This place is part of the Tree... or it was tainted by it."
The Court of the Condemned
Inside a subterranean cathedral hidden beneath the city, a hooded figure awaited them. It wasn't Ezra, but something much older. His eyes were bottomless pits that reflected all the sins committed in the world.
"Welcome to Judgment," the figure said in a double voice. "Only the worthy can look into the heart of Eden without losing their soul."
"Are you the guardian?" Kael asked.
"I am the Memory. I am the punishment. And I am also the question that is never answered."
The figure raised its hand, and a circle of blue fire surrounded them. From the shadows, specters emerged: figures from each of their pasts, their failures, their mistakes, their fears.
Akihiko was confronted by a distorted image of Viktor, his eyes empty.
"You failed. You let him die. You let Ezra be born."
Isabella knelt down upon seeing her mother, a figure she thought was forgotten, accusing her of betraying her ideals.
Kael, silent, was confronted by a corrupted version of himself, surrounded by wires and circuits, wondering if he was still human.
The three of them were trapped in their visions for what seemed like hours. Akihiko felt the emptiness inside him churning, almost devouring his thoughts. But then, he took a deep breath.
"This isn't real..." he said, raising his katana. "These are tests. They're testing us."
"And the test is whether they deserve to know the truth about the Tree of Eden," the guardian replied. "The Tree does not bear fruit for the blind."
Akihiko closed his eyes, facing his guilt. "I accept what I did. But I won't stop."
The figure nodded. "Then look."
From the ground emerged an organic structure shaped like a withered flower. At its center, a sphere depicted a vision: Ezra being born not from human will, but from the Tree itself. A fragment of its consciousness... a punishment for humanity.
Isabella stepped back. "Ezra isn't human... he's a forbidden fruit!"
"And Eden, far from being a paradise, was a prison to contain that power... until someone freed it."
Kael, seeing this, narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps we were never the protagonists of this story. Perhaps we're just pieces moved by an ancestral echo."
Akihiko gritted his teeth. "Then it's time to break the board."
The Echo of Dawn
When they left the cathedral, the sky had changed. The fog was dissipating, revealing the silhouette of a city hidden behind a floating crystal dome above the City of Oblivion. Organic towers, floating pathways, and at the center, a colossal structure resembling the Tree, but warped, as if torn apart by time and corruption.
"There it is... The Root of Judgment," Kael said in awe. "The Tree's true capital. Or perhaps... its heart."
Akihiko took a step forward, but something stopped him. In the air, floating in front of him, he saw an image. It wasn't real. It was a fragment, an echo: Ezra, much younger, talking to a hooded figure.
"Why me?" Ezra asked.
"Because you are the one who most fears forgetting. And because of that, you will be the eternal memory."
Ezra looked up at the current Akihiko. His eyes were an abyss. His smile, a foreboding.
And high above the suspended city, watching them from the edge of the dome, Ezra of flesh and blood.
Smiling.