"You are not chosen." The words landed,
But before he even react guardian continued.
"You are positioned."
"Positioned... positioned for what?"
The mist curled tighter around the great tree.
"The roots does not grow towards sky." It paused.
"It grows towards the resistance."
Some random images began to form in Limbo's mind, though they were no full visions type.
Fragments...
An underground river, blackened stone.
A unknown presence, vast and patient.
Unknown creature, not yet identified to limbo, just a coil.
It pulse once again, then the image was faded before clearing.
"The barrier weakens below," the guardian said. "You may walk where I cannot."
Why?
"...There's no shackles that hold you..."
Elder chaya slowly rosefrom knees and stand up.
"You wish to send him?" She asked carefully, not to doubt on guardians choice, make sure.
The amber gaze slowly shifted briefly towards her.
"I'm not the one who can decide who will go, who will not."
"But, I have to be the one to guide and guard the one who I should, who I can, however I can."
It mist gaze shifting returns to limbo.
"I warn...this will not stop here."
"Don't be recklessly, next time will not be like... Easy like this.
Silence followed, a deep death... silence.
The forest suddenly felt... Thinner.
Meanwhile, Limbo's eyes moved slightly.
Seems they noticed something, again.
On the northern edge of the clearing, the mist didn't gather as thickly, but the roots were less intagled.
A faint sign line of erosion's traces were can be seen on the soil.
The guardian's presence was not overwhelming, some how it felt like....
It was holding.
Barely...
But he shouldn't be weak, they why?
In the end, Limbo decide to ask, this isn't a matter that can only be guess and resolve.
"You are weakening, didn't you?" Limbo said quietly.
Elder Chaya's head snapped towards him.
Followed by elder Caya.
The mist froze on the spot.
Then slowly exhaled and admitting.
"Yes.." No denial.
"The balance demands cost."
Coruption and purity can leave together.
...in the end one side will be dominated...
Since the,********* awakening, world tide shifting.
Limbo somewhat understand and something goes over his head, things that wasn't—or shouldn't be tell before the time.
The guardian continued to talk,
Six months ago, there wasn't this many corrupted beasts, nor the coruption in the forests.
And when they were trying to sneak, the guardian had acted before anyone.
And paid the price.
"You scared them once," limbo said.
The amber eyes covered in smoke flickered faintly.
"Yes,... I warned, and overwhelmed."
But...
"And now?" Caya asked.
"Now they are testing."
A pause.
"And something behind everything... Testing."
That landed deeper.
Below the soil, not just a mindless corruption.
It rather felt directed...
The mist thinned further.
"You will not remain here," the guardian said.
It wasn't a command, but rather a statement with facts.
Limbo's pulse steadied.
"I know."
"You will have to leave in the end... Has to choose."
The air tightened around them along with words.
"And when you do..."
The roots creaked softly.
" Balance before the destruction."
The mist pressed once more against Limbo's chest.
A faint warmth spread, not the heating sensation, not like the lightning.
It was grounded and anchored.
His breathing settled into rhythm he had not felt since before the battle.
The guardian's voice lowered.
"Do not become storm."
"Become axis..." World needs...
The words etched deeper than any wound.
Elder Chaya and Caya y rose fully now.
The mist began to withdraw slowly towards the great tree.
"Wait... What if I want contact... you?"
...
Limbo didn't not move immediately.
He looked once more towards the thinning northern edge.
He saw it clearly now.
A faint hollow beneath the soil.
A path forming where there should not be one.
He said nothing, not yet—
As they turned to leave, the voice echoes faintly through the clearing.
System notification...
A Pop up that wasn't open, limbo try to check, but.
"Hurry..."
The word was not urgent, but it was authorised and can't be ignored.
"I do not... forever."
The mist closed around the ancient trunk.
The amber eyes faded.
The clearing exhaled.
They stepped back through the same veiled path, the sound returned gradually.
Birds resumed their calls.
Wind moved normally again.
Chaya walked in silence for several minutes, then quietly: "yow saw more than you said, did you."
Limbo didn't not deny it.
"Later," he reply.
Caya studied him.
"You're something, no one can dare to look at directly and speak, even I didn't dare..."
"The forest chooses rerely but when it chooses... It like no one else can."
Limbo's gaze remained forward, "it didn't choose," he said calmly.
"It's losing."
No one corrupted him.
Behind them, the stood as it always had.
Alive.
Dense and ancient.
And beneath it— something coiled.
A glaring eyes, staring at back..
Seeing someone a familiar sense.
The forest did not move but they did.
It simply watched.
Limbo didn't turn back or look.
Not because he didn't feel it, but because... He thinking.
The path back towards naval felt longer than when they had entered, the weight of the conversation did not sit on the elders, it was sat on him.
"What do intend to do," Caya said at last.
It wasn't a question.
Limbo didn't answer immediately.
"Yes," he said after a few breaths. "But not in panic."
Chaya slowed her pace slightly.
"You felt the drain beneath the guardian."
"Yes."
"And you understood what that means."
Limbo's gazed moved forward.
"If the roots fall," he said quietly, "the canopy collapses later."
Chaya did not reply.
But her grip on her staff tightened.
When the outer watech post of naval came into view, two young guards straightened instantly.
"They had not expected the elders to return from that direction.
That path was not one commonly used, one of them opened his mouth to ask.
Something...
Then Noticed limbo walking between them.
Not injured.
Not unstable, but... different.
The younger guard swallowed.
"You went deep," he said without thinking.
Caya gave him brief look.
"Deeper than you know."
The guard stepped aside immediately.
Words spreads strangely in villages.
It does not move like wind.
It moves like fire beneath ash.
By the time they crossed the first row of houses, three people had alreyseen them.
By the we'll, a women paused.
Mid conversation.
Near the forge lane, an old smith stopped hammering for a second too long.
Children who had been playing near the open yard slowed when they noticed chaya walking beside limbo.
Not ahead of him.
Beside.
That details mattered.
No one approached.
But glances followed, not by fear but something shifting.
Limbo felt, distance.
Not avoidance.
Uncertainty.
He had seen it after the battle.
He saw it again now.
Only this time, it was quieter, more thoughtful.
He wandered briefly if that was better.
As they reached the centre path leading toward his home, chaya stopped walking.
Caya continued a few steps ahead before noticing.
He turned.
Chaya looked at limbo, "you will not speak of what you saw."
It was not secrecy.
It was protection, limbo nodded.
"I won't."
"Not because they are not ready," she added.
"But because you are."
That lingered.
Caya exhaled slowly.
"The guardian will not hold forever."
"I know."
For a moment, none of them spoke.
The wind moved through naval normally.
Children laughed somewhere in the distance.
Metal range from the forge.
Normal life.
Balanced life.
Fragile life.
Chaya studied him one last time.
"You saw something else in the clearing."
Limbo didn't look surprised.
"Yes."
"Say it."
He hesitated.
Then.
"He is not only weakened by corruption."
The elders both stiffened slightly.
"There is something else binding him," limbo continued quietly. "Something older than the rot."