“Hm?”
His head cocked, and my spine tingled.
I stood frozen, heart pounding in my chest, praying he would turn his head away as if this were some coincidence like it always was.
But… he didn’t.
‘He… He… He can sense me.’
“!”
My heart almost leaped out of my chest as he stretched his hand in my direction, seemingly trying to grasp me.
A massive palm loomed before my eyes, its shadow trying to swallow me whole.
Every nerve in my body screamed in terror as a notification flashed before my eyes, urging me to run, telling me that this was real, but I was rooted in place, paralyzed by an unknown force that stopped me from moving.
‘Move! Move…! I need to move…!’
I couldn’t let the hand touch me.
I couldn’t…!
Swoosh!
…The hand phased right through me.
‘Ah.’
Seeing the hand phase through my body, my body felt weak, but simultaneously, I felt visible relief.
But that relief didn’t last for long.
“Strange.”
Hearing his voice, my mouth grew increasingly dry, and the sense of dread from before increased once more as he leaned forward, analyzing the spot where I was.
“….I can feel something, but I can’t touch it.”
I bit my lips.
“Yes, I can feel something.”
And he swiped his hand in my direction, phasing right through me again.
“How peculiar.”
He looked intrigued.
“I’ve never experienced this before, but I can more or less feel you.”
He raised his head and looked directly at me.
“You’re here, aren’t you.”
I swallowed dryly but calmed myself and stared right back at him.
He leaned closer.
“You’re watching.”
I am.
“…Emmet.”
That’s me.
Sithrus smiled, in an almost creepy but direct way.
“Are you finally showing yourself now that I’ve found a way out of this wretched place? Is that why you’re watching?”
No, not quite.
“I… did it.”
Sithrus’s trembling finger pointed in my direction, his voice shaking.
“For years, we’ve been trapped here—alone, struggling to survive, clawing at the void for a way out.”
“But I did it.”
“I have become the strongest.”
His hand moved closer, yet his finger passed right through me like a phantom.
“I have become their pillar.”
“I have become their hope.”
“I have become their… god.”
His voice grew firmer with each declaration, and stretching his hand out toward the shimmering Mirror Crack behind him, he stared at it with a reverence that bordered on obsession.
“And now that I have become their god, they have become my people.”
“I am their voice.”
“I am their eyes.”
“I am their ears.”
He turned to face me fully, his gaze burning.
“So whatever you do, stay in the shadows. Keep watching, like the coward you’ve always been. Watch as I lead the people you betrayed for your brother. Watch as I rekindle the ashes of what you discarded.”
The air around him vibrated with an oppressive energy, rippling like a living thing. Without another glance, he turned and stepped into the Mirror Crack, his form dissolving into its fractured surface, consumed by it shortly after.
In those final moments, a faint echo of his voice reached my ears, lingering in my ears for a good minute.
“Watch closely… and remember.”
“…I am not wrong.”
“You were.”
“….”
The world grew silent then.
I stood in silence, staring at the spot where Sithrus once was, my thoughts closed as I quietly processed everything.
But at the same time, I grew confused.
‘He wants to get out of this place, I get that.’
He became the pillar of this place.
He created the Mirror Cracks to help them out.
He became their god.
But what about me?
What happened to me?
I felt at a loss when connecting all the recent visions and the information I just learned. From the way he was speaking, he made it sound like I had abandoned them.
…That I was a traitor.
In a way of sort, the bad guy.
But was I really?
‘No… I am not.’
For him to have lived for so long, alongside the people here, there was only one explanation.
‘Noel… They’re using Noel as a source of nourishment.’
My fists clenched tightly at the thought, especially when I recalled the video I witnessed on the phone in the mirror.
‘Don’t fuck with me.’
There was no way I was wrong.
I knew myself better than anyone else.
I wouldn’t act unless what I saw prompted me to have no choice but to act.
There was a reason for my actions.
There had to be.
There—Uh?
Lost in thought, I failed to notice the subtle changes unfolding around me. By the time I snapped back to my senses, a towering tree loomed before me, its blood-red leaves rustling in the heavy air.
‘Wait, when…?’
Last I recalled, the tree had been shattered into thousands of pieces by Sithrus. How could…?
But that wasn’t all.
Voom—!
Turning my head, I watched as several people stepped out of the Mirror Crack, their clothes looking unfamiliar and so did their language.
Everything from that point on felt like a time-lapse.
I watched cities, empires, and civilizations fall.
Everything moved at high speeds around me.
Changes continued to occur, and as I witnessed all the changes, the only thing that remained the same was the red tree in front of me.
Rustle~
Despite the passage of time, the tree stood tall. No—upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just one tree. Turning my gaze around, I saw countless others. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, had emerged. They stretched endlessly, their silhouettes merging into the horizon.
Before I knew it, a forest had formed.
Red covered the sky as the leaves rustled in the air.
I watched in silence as the towering tree began to stir with life. Humans began to show up from the end of the forest, their jaws slack and eyes hollow.
Squelch~ Squelch~
Without a word, they knelt before the tree, devoid of any thoughts, as its roots crept up their bodies, wrapping around them like sinister, living chains.
The roots then sank deep into their flesh, draining them of their essence. As the sickening sounds of feeding filled the air, the tree rose higher and higher, its blood-red canopy spreading with each life it devoured.
Squelch~
With time, the tree began to stand out among the others, and more humans appeared, silently gathering beneath it.
I could almost sense the monster’s thoughts from where I was.
‘Grow, grow…’
It wanted to grow, become smarter, and understand more.
The more it grew, the smarter it became.
Rustle~
Around them, the other trees started to show faint signs of life as well.
As a result, even more humans started to appear.
With them came monsters; before long, the entire forest transformed into a perilous death zone.
Word started to spread, and fewer humans started to show up.
In such a situation, the tallest tree, now clearly sentient, shifted its focus away from the humans and toward its own kind.
Squelch! Squelch~
It spared no one.
As the strongest of the trees, it started to absorb the other trees and use them as nutrients to fuel its growth.
‘Grow, grow…’
The other trees tried to fight back, but it was no use.
Their power was nothing compared to the primal tree, and gradually the forest started to thin out.
Trees started to move, migrating towards different areas while the ones who couldn’t all became nutritious for the main tree.
I witnessed all the changes in real time, and seeing just how desperate the tree was, I started to question,
‘Why?’
Why was it so desperate for growth?
Why would it attack its own kind?
….It almost seemed like it knew it was almost running out of time.
Of what? Running out of time for what…?
And then I saw it.
Rustle~
The numerous leaves falling out of the tree.
‘Ah.’
Realization quickly dawned on me.
‘….After all this time, its lifespan is coming to an end.’
I had watched.
Witnessed the tree’s growth over time.
I knew it was old, but seeing it never changed, I had assumed it would never die.
I was wrong.
‘Grow, grow…’
The tree was no immortal.
Squelch~
Nothing could be immortal.
No, not quite nothing.
‘There’s him…’
The leaves continued to fall off the tree, revealing the bare branches of it.
Eventually, the leaves all fell, leaving behind the bare tree.
‘Grow… Grow…’
In spite of the changes, the tree persisted in absorbing everything around it. It seemed like a final, desperate attempt to cling to life.
But…
It was futile.
There was no denying age.
The tree could only watch its existence start to fade.
Squelch~ Squelch~
In its weakened state, the other trees started to absorb it just like it did to the other trees in the past. The tree tried to resist, but it was futile.
Roots appeared from all around, digging into its roots and sapping away at its core.
Over time, the tree began to wither and shrink, gradually losing its vitality. As the days passed, it continued to diminish in size until all that was left was a hollow husk.
Cra Crack—
Marking the end of its existence was its broken core, which tumbled to the ground and split into two pieces.
In those last moments, I stared at the tree in silence.
That was when I realized; ‘I can move again’.
And so I did.
Stepping forward, I reached the tree and placed my hand over the trunk.
‘Existence.’
A familiar voice reached my ears.
‘….Why did I exist? For what purpose?’
In its last moment, the tree started to question its existence.
‘I’ve eaten everything that I could eat. I’ve become stronger than anything that was imaginable. I’ve devoured and seen through the memories of all my prey, and yet… I’ve grown more confused.’
‘I eat. I watch. And I grow.’
‘Is that all there is to my life?’
‘I know that ‘I’ exist, but don’t understand what is that ‘I’ that ‘I’ know.’
‘What am I missing?’
‘If only…’
Its thoughts paused there, and silence followed right after.
‘Gone.’
I knew then the tree was gone.
…There was no saving it.
Or at least, that was what I thought, until…
Rustle~
A small red leaf appeared from beneath the trunk.
Staring at the red leaf for a second, I quietly pursed my lips and understood.
‘Rebirth.’
I didn’t understand how, but death wasn’t the end.
There was more to it and soon enough, the tree grew once more.
However, unlike before, the tree did not stay in the same place. Weakened and unable to compete with the others, it uprooted itself and began to scour the lands. Just like before, it absorbed everything in its path and continued to grow.
…It ate, absorbed, and repeated.
Experience more tales on empire
I watched everything unfold in silence, and in those moments, the one thing the tree never stopped doing was;
‘Why do I exist.’
…Question its existence.
Even as its life drew to an end once more, and the cycle of rebirth began anew, the tree persisted in its repetitive cycle. With each absorption, it gained understanding yet simultaneously grew more confused.
The paradox of its existence deepened, trapped in a perpetual loop of understanding and confusion.
But in spite of all its attempts, throughout its entire life, it never understood.
…And it was then that the vision stopped.
By the time I snapped out of it, I found myself back in front of Owl-Mighty’s main body.
As I lifted my head, I was met with the sight of the tree staring back at me. Its leaves rustled softly, creating a gentle, eerie sound that echoed through the silence. On the other hand, the roots clung tightly to my body, intertwining and anchoring me in place.
“…..”
As the surroundings grew silent, the tree seemed to ask,
‘Why do I exist?’
To that, I shook my head and looked through the tree where a familiar Owl-like figure appeared, its entire body intertwined with roots.
“…..So it was you the entire time.”
I thought back to the first time I met Owl-Mighty.
To the time when I saw Karl’s world—The Post Leader of the Black Hound Guild—and he questioned his existence.
‘What is it about life that is not fake…?’
His words once again echoed in my ears.
‘Am I here? Are you here…? Is anything in general here?’
I thought these were his thoughts.
‘I wake up, I eat breakfast, go to work, come back home, eat dinner, and repeat. I’m finding my entire days blending to create a suffocating and never-ending loop that is sapping away at my life.’
I thought that the tree was merely using his crisis to mess with him.
‘How much do you truly remember about your life? I wake up each day forgetting what I had done the previous day. Even if I do remember, by the time two days pass, I’ll have forgotten about it. Can you truly say you’ve lived if you end up forgetting everything?’
But I was wrong.
‘What is the point?’
These had never been Karl’s true thoughts.
‘I’m just endlessly drifting. Watching as I continue to do the same things over and over again with no way to fix it.’
These had always been the tree’s thoughts.
Why do I exist?
Indeed, why do you exist?