In the hidden underground hall, Feroz came face to face with the man who appeared to be his father — alive, but changed. His eyes glowed like the Hunters. He revealed that Feroz was not merely powerful, but a key to something ancient connected to the stone tree. As the structure began to awaken, chaos erupted. The hall collapsed in blinding light, and his father whispered, "Forgive me," before everything went white.
Feroz hit the ground hard.
Air rushed back into his lungs like fire.
For a few seconds, he couldn't see.
Only ringing.
Only dust.
Only silence.
"Feroz!" Yusuf's voice broke through the haze.
He blinked. Shapes formed slowly. The massive hall was half-destroyed. Pillars cracked. The carved stone tree split down its trunk, glowing from within.
Yusuf pulled him to his feet.
"Can you stand?"
"Yes," Feroz rasped, though his head spun.
He looked around.
"Where is he?"
The center of the hall was empty.
No body.
No trace.
Only fragments of blue light dissolving into the air.
Feroz's chest tightened.
"That was him," he whispered. "It was really him."
Yusuf did not answer immediately.
The stone tree groaned as more cracks spread through its carved roots.
"No," Yusuf said quietly. "It was him… but not fully."
Feroz turned sharply. "What does that mean?"
Yusuf's jaw tightened.
"When your father tried to trade his life years ago, he broke the balance. The Free Masons did not kill him."
"Then what did they do?"
"They bound him."
The words landed heavily.
"Bound?" Feroz repeated.
"To the source," Yusuf said, glancing at the broken tree. "To this."
Feroz looked at the glowing fractures in the stone.
"You mean… he's connected to it?"
"Yes."
The hall trembled again.
Suddenly, from the split in the stone tree, something began to emerge.
Not a person.
Not an object.
Energy.
Dark and bright at the same time.
It pulsed like a heart.
Feroz felt his arm burn.
The mark glowed violently, brighter than ever before.
Yusuf stepped in front of him again.
"Do not let it sync with you."
"Sync?" Feroz gasped as pain shot through him.
The energy pulsed faster.
With every beat, flashes filled Feroz's mind—
The park.
The silent tree.
Police lights flashing at night.
A covered body.
An officer speaking into a phone:
"We found him under the tree."
But this time, Feroz saw something new.
The covered body's hand wasn't still.
It was marked.
Marked with the same symbol burning on his arm.
Feroz screamed as the vision intensified.
"I don't want this!" he shouted.
The energy in the hall reacted.
The pulsing grew unstable.
Yusuf grabbed Feroz's face firmly.
"Listen to me! The future you saw is not fixed!"
The energy shot outward like a shockwave.
Pillars shattered.
Stone fragments flew.
And in the center of the chaos—
A figure began forming inside the glowing core.
Not fully solid.
Not fully shadow.
Feroz stared through the pain.
It looked like him.
Same build.
Same mark.
But older.
Colder.
Twenty-seven.
The figure opened its eyes.
They were empty.
"This is what happens," the older version said calmly, "when you fail."
Yusuf stepped back, stunned.
"That is not a vision," he whispered.
The older Feroz looked directly at him.
"It is a possibility."
The hall began collapsing faster.
Ceiling stones crashed down around them.
The energy destabilized.
The older version slowly dissolved back into light.
"But the path remains the same," the voice echoed.
Feroz dropped to his knees as the glow finally faded from his arm.
Silence followed.
Only dust in the air.
Only ruins of what once stood.
Yusuf looked at him carefully.
"You have seen your breaking point," he said quietly.
Feroz looked up, eyes no longer confused.
Now determined.
"No," he said slowly.
"I saw what I refuse to become."
Above them, far away beyond stone and earth—
Under the quiet tree in the city park—
The soil shifted slightly.
And deep beneath its roots—
Something answered the awakening.
Not with light.
But with patience.