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Chapter 4 - Chapter 4 – The Tree of Remembrance

By IMERPUS RELUR 

--

Auren's hand moved without thought, guided by something deeper than logic.

He pressed his palm against the glowing sigil labeled:

> Tree of Remembrance

"To awaken what all wish to forget."

The glyph burst into radiant violet light.

The Ashkin halted mid-leap—its body shivering as if struck by an invisible force.

Auren staggered back, light pouring from his chest. Vines of memory—thin, silver, and woven with fragmented emotion—sprouted from the ground beneath him, encircling his body. The air bent, twisted, and remembered.

Visions flashed: a cradle rocked by fire… laughter crushed beneath war… a girl crying beneath a starless sky.

> These were not Auren's memories.

They belonged to the Ashkin.

The hound howled and collapsed, scratching at its ribs where its carved name glowed brighter, as if rewriting itself.

Eléa whispered in awe. "You're not just fighting him… You're rewriting his truth."

The flaming god at the edge of the plain scowled. His voice dropped to a growl.

> "You dare awaken that cursed tree…? You will drown in the pain of others."

Auren opened his eyes. They glowed violet.

> "Then let their pain remember me."

---

A silver branch burst from Auren's palm and struck the ground.

The battlefield changed.

The cracked soil around them bloomed into ancient ruins. Faces formed in stone. Whispers floated on the wind—fragments of forgotten truths.

The Ashkin stood… but it trembled.

Then—it bowed.

Just once.

> "What…?" Auren gasped.

Eléa smiled. "Your ability revealed its original form. Before it became a weapon, the Ashkin was born from sorrow. It only turned cruel after forgetting."

The creature turned to dust—not as a victim, but as one released from suffering.

Auren looked up.

The stranger god was already gone.

Only a burning glyph hovered where he stood:

"First Trial. Passed."

A system voice echoed in Auren's soul.

---

[You have awakened the Tree of Remembrance.]

[You have freed your first Race.]

[You have inherited the First Fragment: The Tear of Return.]

---

Eléa stepped forward, placing her hand on his chest.

> "Now, the world will begin to remember. And the gods will begin to watch."

Above them, the sky rippled—fractured—and hundreds of divine eyes blinked open in the heavens.

And far away, beyond the Cradle, a voice whispered:

> "A nameless one… has remembered."

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