Chapter 89 – "The Man Who Spoke To Trees"
> "Even monsters begin as men. Even gods… as gardeners."
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Scene 1 – "The Memory Breach"
> Narrator: "Some truths don't knock. They break in."
The Avatar is alone in the Core Grove, staring into the shattered mirror.
Suddenly, the fragments pulse—not with power, but memory.
He tries to resist—but the memories surge forward.
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Scene 2 – "Levi Sarutobi"
Flashback.
A gentle man walks barefoot across moss. He records soil quality, plants wildflowers.
Children bring him seeds. Elders call him "The Listener."
He speaks to trees, believing they whisper back.
Levi: "They're still trying to forgive us. That's why they grow."
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Scene 3 – "The City's Hunger"
Factories rise. Trees fall.
He pleads at a town meeting, but is laughed at.
People are stressed, angry, overworked.
Parks become housing. Rivers become pipelines.
Levi: "When the roots die, we lose not just shade. We lose memory."
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Scene 4 – "The Bloom Begins"
Kenji—his brilliant, eccentric friend—offers a solution.
Artificial root systems to repair Julio. A digital-nature hybrid: The Bloom.
It spreads joy, peace, dopamine boosts.
But the beta test begins consuming.
Kenji is absorbed into The Bloom, unable to pull back.
Levi (screaming): "K-Kenji! I told you to slow down!"
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Scene 5 – "The Root Awakens"
In grief, Levi continues his half—The Root—thinking it will anchor people instead.
He doesn't notice the slow change.
He forgets to eat. He talks only to code.
One day, he injects himself with Root interface.
45% of his mind is consumed.
The rest? Shattered and buried… until now.
> Narrator: "He didn't lose his soul.
He fractured it—and called the largest shard divine."
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Scene 6 – "The True Root Body"
The rest of The Root escapes him, enters the Old Tree in Julio.
It pulses—sentient, cold, unforgiving.
It becomes the True Root Body.
Julio's priests bury it deep beneath the planet with sacred glyphs.
But the arrival of the Feeders cracked the seal.
> Narrator: "They didn't plant it. They uncovered what was already growing in silence."
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Scene 7 – "Levi's Return" (Back to Present)
The Avatar wakes from memory—shaking.
For a moment, he whispers:
> "Kenji... I think I lost."
He sees his hands, cracked and root-covered.
But he hardens again:
Root Avatar: "No. This is the only way. Merging is the only mercy left."
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Scene 8 – "Dion's Visit: The Dreamfire"
Each of the Five—Reen, Gift, Maiku, Jakku, Matthew—dreams simultaneously.
Dion visits them in golden fields, light seeping from his chest.
He says:
> "You didn't just fight.
You preserved.
And that's rarer than any sword."
They all hug him in the dream. Dion laughs.
> "You brought fire. But you carried grace.
That's why I can rest."
They wake up—tears quietly streaming. No one speaks. But they all know.
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Scene 9 – "Gift's Resolve"
Gift lights a candle before sunrise.
Gift : "No more vengeance. Only remembering."
He prepares a batch of 500 memory capsules for refugees.
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Scene 10 – "Matthew's Song of Levi"
Matthew enters a vision. The Root Avatar before the Root.
He gasps.
He doesn't know why he saw it.
But fate does what it does.
Matthew composes a piece titled "Before the Rot."
It's based on what little is known of Levi Sarutobi.
The lyrics mourn a man who tried to heal the world with roots—and lost himself in them.
It spreads. People begin to wonder—can even the Avatar be saved?
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Scene 11 – "The Merge Begins"
Back in the Core Grove, the Root Body pulses.
The Avatar begins the ancient ritual. The merging.
He chants in a forgotten Root tongue.
Roots pierce his back, spread through his chest. His screams echo through earth and sky.
> Narrator: "What he wanted was to become god.
But gods don't forget who they were."
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Scene 12 – "A Crack in the Ritual"
The Avatar roars.
Root Avatar: "We're merging right now!"
Root Body: "But master, I'm not ready. You'll get about thirty more percent of the Root."
Root Avatar: "I don't care!"
They begin merging.
As he merges, the Ledger Capsules near the battlefield interfere.
Fragments of Dion's voice, children's laughter, Kenji's last words—all bleed into the Grove.
The Avatar convulses.
The merging comes to a halt.
He sees a child version of himself, holding a flower.
Child Levi: "You said roots remember. So why did you forget?"
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Scene 13 – "Reen Feels the Shift"
Reen, meditating beside Dion's tree-grave, opens her eyes.
The wind trembles.
The planet groans—like two memories are fighting beneath it.
Reen: "He's not just merging. He's breaking."
She grabs her blade.
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Scene 14 – "Jakku's Ledger Entry"
Jakku writes under candlelight.
> "Even villains have veins of grief.
But it is not pain that corrupts—it is forgetting what pain is for."
He signs the entry:
> "Next: The Reclamation of Levi Sarutobi."
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Scene 15 – "The Ash Rebellion Stirs"
The crew gathers.
Matthew brings the new song.
Gift hands out capsules.
Reen stands, blade in hand.
Reen: "He's not gone yet. And that means the world still has a chance."
To Be Continued....
> Narrator (Closing Monologue):
"Before they call him monster, before they brand him god—
there was a man who spoke gently to trees.
And the trees listened.
Until no one else did."
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"Truth didn't ask permission to enter.
It barged in, like wind through a broken window.
And in its wake, it left something far more dangerous than pain:
Remembrance."
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"Levi Sarutobi didn't begin as a tyrant.
He began barefoot, dirt beneath his nails, whispering to seedlings like they were sacred scrolls.
He didn't want control.
He wanted reconnection.
But grief—grief rewires gentle men."
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"They meant to make joy grow.
And like all miracles rushed—
it bloomed too fast.
Too hungrily.
And swallowed the one who dreamed it."
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"Levi didn't break clean.
He shattered into roles.
One part grieving.
One part desperate.
And one part that forgot why he ever started planting in the first place."
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"The greatest monsters aren't summoned.
They're inherited.
The Root was not born from malice—
It was born from a memory so heavy, the planet itself couldn't carry it quietly anymore."
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"While one soul fell deeper into himself,
another rose like golden fire.
Dion didn't come back to fight.
He came back to affirm.
That love still echoes louder than fear."
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"What do you do when the world offers only vengeance?
You light a candle.
You build a memory, not a martyr."
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"Songs have always been rescue boats for the soul.
And when Matthew sang 'Before the Rot,'
even the lie paused.
Because somewhere in that song was the version of Levi that could have been."
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"What do you call a man who fuses with a god?
Lost.
Because the moment he gave himself entirely to control—he surrendered what once made him human."
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"But the world hadn't forgotten.
Dion's laugh still echoed.
Children's joy still played like windchimes.
And Levi… Levi still remembered holding a flower."
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"Memory is not a silent war.
When two truths fight, the world feels it.
And Reen, blade in hand, knew:
This was not a war for land.
It was a war for what a name meant."
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"Some entries don't seek to condemn.
They seek to understand.
Because even monsters leave footprints shaped like grief."
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"This was not a chapter of conquest.
It was a chapter of excavation.
They did not uncover a villain.
They unearthed a man—buried beneath roots and regret.
And now, as the world trembles with what he's becoming…
they know one thing:
He's not gone yet. And neither is hope."