Dawn never came to the City of Oblivion. But from the moment Akihiko, Isabella, and Kael left the Cathedral of Judgment, the usual darkness had taken on a different kind. As if the world were holding its breath, waiting for something inevitable. In front of them, over a mist-shrouded abyss, floated an impossible city: the Root of Judgment.
Suspended in the air by a combination of ancient technology and the corrupting power of the Tree of Eden, the crystalline metropolis seemed to have been designed by minds obsessed with control and absolute power. Its twisting towers and floating pathways resembled both a tree and a living defense system. At its heart, a throne-like structure glowed with black light. There stood Ezra.
He didn't say anything.
I didn't need to do it.
Ascent into the Void
A bridge of roots emerged from the abyss, connecting the suspended city to the world below. The roots pulsed as if they knew Akihiko would cross them. And he did. With Isabella and Kael behind him, their footsteps echoed like the toll of judgment.
During the ascent, the surroundings changed. The laws of perception were altered. To her left, a floating building twisted around itself, its walls displaying scenes of Akihiko as a child, before he joined the mafia. To the right, Isabella saw a reflection of herself hugging someone she didn't remember.
"It's testing us again... this city is alive," said Kael, his music emitting unsteady flickers. "This is part of the trial... but also a door. A door to what the Tree fears we'll discover."
The City that Thinks
Upon reaching the suspended surface, there were no enemies. Only silence. But it wasn't peace, but the suffocating calm before the storm. The streets were covered in a patina of glass, and the buildings pulsed with dim light, as if breathing.
"Everything here is made of the same substance as the Tree. As if this city had grown... like a metastasis from Eden," Kael whispered.
Isabella crouched before a living sculpture that stood like a deformed statue. It was a being with a human face, but with roots sprouting from its mouth, its eyes, its chest.
"This was a person..."
"This was a city... of traitors or believers. Maybe both."
Akihiko didn't speak. He felt the black seed throbbing in his pocket. It didn't weigh anything, but it tugged at his soul with every step he took. Something, beyond reason, drew him to the center of the city.
The Tower of the Final Echo
The central structure was immense. A living tower that trembled with every thought Akihiko entertained. As they drew closer, the tower's walls began to display images from long-forgotten times: ancient mafias, civilizations bowing before the Tree, priests performing sacrifices, entire villages erased by their proximity to the Lux Aeterna.
And Ezra... always Ezra, in every era, in different forms. Always like a sentinel. A punishment. A mistake. An experiment.
As they crossed the threshold, Ezra was waiting for them.
But he didn't speak.
Because it wasn't Ezra.
It was an image of him. An echo constructed by the city's ritual system.
"I am not the end," he said. "I am the consequence of the beginning."
Akihiko stepped forward fearlessly. "Then tell me what you are."
"I am the fruit of the Tree. The corrupted first fruit. And I am also the guardian of this place. The living warning."
Behind Ezra, there was no rift in reality. There was a door sealed with ancient symbols, like those Akihiko had seen in the forbidden manuscripts of European mafias.
"You are the bearer. The Chosen One of the Void. And this is your final decision."
The Eden Codex
A voice echoed from all around. Ancient. Not magical. Not divine. It was a recording. A message sealed by the ancient founders of the global mafia, back in the time the Tree was discovered.
"If the black fruit germinates, the world will lose its balance. If the bearer consumes it, neither a god nor a demon will be born, but a new Eden. The bearer will be judgment."
The seed in Akihiko's pocket burned. His skin filled with black runes that pulsed with suppressed power.
Ezra raised his hand. "You don't have to. But if you don't... others will. And they won't have your judgment."
Akihiko took a step toward the sealed door. Isabella took his arm. "You don't have to be the chosen one. It can be you. Just you."
But Akihiko wasn't sure who he was anymore. He only knew one thing:
Eden had been activated.
And he, too.