Chapter 71 – "The World Remembers How to Breathe"
> "After ruin, the world does not rejoice.
It remembers how to live—slowly, and not without grief."
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Scene 1 – "Ash to Soil"
> Narrator: "The war ends not with a scream, but with a quiet rot."
All remaining Root-fleshed ones—monstrous or partial—begin to wither and collapse into the planet. Some explode into pollen. Others crumble like burned bark.
A quiet storm of spores swirls through the air. Harmless now. Just memory.
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Scene 2 – "The 50,000"
Survivors gather. They're confused, dirt-covered, some injured—children cling to strangers. No one knows what to say.
Reen walks through the crowd. Dion is bandaged and breathing.
Maiku surveys with quiet sorrow.
Gift balls his eyes with tears.
Matthew—visibly sad puts on a fake smile.
Reen: "They survived. Somehow, they still… are."
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Scene 3 – "Gift's Burial Fire"
Gift cremates the fallen—those lost in the last assault.
He lights a pyre and sits beside it alone, whispering names. No grand ritual. Just names.
Gift: "We don't forget them. That's the deal."
He throws his broken blade into the fire.
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Scene 4 – "The Rootless Ground"
Matthew tests the soil. It's rich again—but changed. Root traces are gone. He kneels and listens.
Matthew: "It's not singing. But it's not screaming either."
He hums something soft. The ground accepts it.
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Scene 5 – "Three Days"
Cut to Jakku—unmoving, silent, breathing shallow.
Gift sits beside him every day. Dion visits once. Maiku, silently, every night. Reen watches every afternoon.
On the third morning, he opens his eyes. Just two words:
Jakku: "Is it over?"
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Scene 6 – "The Return of Wind"
For the first time since the invasion began, wind rushes through the trees.
Leaves rustle without whispering Root-speech.
Birds cry again. Rivers flow without red foam.
> Narrator: "The world remembered how to move without fear."
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Scene 7 – "The Scar That Stays"
They reach a hill where the True Root Body once stood.
Nothing grows there. Not yet.
Reen carves the first glyph into stone at the site. It's not a warning. It's a memory.
Reen: "Not sacred. Not cursed. Just… truth."
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Scene 8 – "Maiku's Flame in the Sky"
Maiku lights one final flame above the crater—like a beacon.
It doesn't burn, just glows—a silent signal that the Root is gone.
Maiku (softly): "If it returns… we do too. We'll be ready."
Gift appears.
He speaks
Gift: "It might come back. But, for now, just for now. It's the time of Ashen Peace."
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Scene 9 – "Jakku Walks"
Weak, wobbling, Jakku steps outside for the first time. He looks at the sky.
He cries, not because he's broken—but because he isn't.
Jakku: "Did we really stop it?"
Reen answers from behind:
Reen: "No. We just gave the world a reason to try again."
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Scene 10 – "The New Tree"
They find a small sapling near where the Root Body died. Unmarked. Innocent. Green.
Gift wants to burn it. Matthew says wait.
Matthew: "Not every seed is a curse. Some are just... next."
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Scene 11 – "Names and Numbers"
Maiku and Dion count the survivors. 50,193.
They start writing down names of the fallen and the saved. A memorial scroll.
Dion: "We count them. Because they counted."
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Scene 12 – "The World Breathes"
The survivors begin rebuilding shelter. Planting. Crying. Singing.
Not because they're healed, but because they're here.
The wind moves through them.
> Narrator (closing):
"It did not feel like victory.
But for the first time in years—
the world exhaled."
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TO BE CONTINUED…
> Narrator (Closing Monologue):
"Last chapter—everything burned.
Blades were memory.
Fire was grief.
And the ones who stood—bled to buy tomorrow.
We saw legends born in screams.
We saw the Root fall—not easily, not quietly.
The battlefield was lit by the final flash of will,
and the world stood still, waiting to know if it had survived.
But survival is not a sunrise.
It's the long, gray morning after.
Now—this chapter is quieter.
Not peaceful. Not yet.
But quieter."
"There are no victories here.
Just names whispered beside pyres.
Just wounded soil. Just hands too tired to tremble.
The war gave no ending—only aftermath.
And yet...
when the wind returned,
when the rivers remembered their flow,
when Jakku stood again beneath a blue sky—
the world breathed.
Not in celebration.
But because it still could."
"There is a scar now where a monster once stood.
But scars are not curses.
They are proofs.
Proof they fought.
Proof they lived.
Proof the Root did not take everything.
Last chapter, memory made them weapons.
This chapter, memory makes them people again.
And as ash settles into soil...
as the seedling waits judgment...
and as 50,193 souls try to remember how to speak without fear—
the world does not cheer.
It inhales.
It learns again how to be alive."
To Be Continued....