"Who..."
"...is growing my dream?"
The voice did not come from the sky.
It came from everywhere.
The words vibrated through the ground, the silver flowers, the transparent leaves of the white World Tree, and even the bodies of the seven people standing beneath it.
Kael felt the sound inside his bones.
The young Gardener immediately stepped backward.
His face had lost all color.
"Don't answer."
Kael glanced at him.
"Why?"
"Because it isn't asking a question."
The violet moon cracked again.
A thin line of darkness spread across its surface.
The young Gardener looked upward.
"It is checking whether we are real."
Aren tightened his grip around his sword.
"That sounds worse."
"It is."
Lyra's eyes narrowed.
"How powerful is it?"
The young man didn't answer.
Seraphine looked at him.
"Answer."
The stranger swallowed.
"I don't know."
Seraphine frowned.
"Impossible."
"I watched it create this world."
He looked toward the enormous white tree.
"It created the moon."
"The sky."
"The oceans."
"The first people."
"The laws of magic."
"The concept of death."
His voice became quieter.
"But it didn't create them from nothing."
Kael looked toward the violet sky.
"Then what did it use?"
"Memory."
Selene immediately understood.
"A memory world."
The stranger nodded.
"Exactly."
He pointed toward the silver flowers.
"Every flower here is someone's memory."
"The mountains are memories."
"The rivers are memories."
"The people..."
He paused.
"...are memories."
Kael stared at the distant city.
Thousands of figures were moving through the streets.
They looked human.
Some were elves.
Some beastkin.
Some carried magical weapons.
Children ran between buildings.
Merchants opened shops.
People laughed.
People argued.
People lived.
Yet none of them were truly alive.
Not in the ordinary sense.
They were memories given shape.
Kael's expression hardened.
"Then why are they still here?"
"Because the dreamer hasn't woken up."
"And now?"
The young Gardener looked at the moon.
"Now it has."
The sky suddenly became dark.
Not night.
Something deeper.
The violet color disappeared as an enormous black shape moved behind the moon.
Kael couldn't see its body.
Only an eye.
One eye.
Larger than the moon itself.
It opened.
The entire world stopped.
People froze in the streets.
Birds halted in midair.
Water stopped flowing.
Even the wind disappeared.
The white World Tree stopped moving.
The stranger whispered,
"It's looking."
Kael's Gardener's Key began vibrating.
The seven flowers slowly closed.
Kael frowned.
"Why is my Key reacting?"
The stranger stared at it.
"Because it recognizes the source."
"What source?"
"The first dream."
Kael's eyes narrowed.
Before he could ask another question, the enormous eye focused on him.
The world shook.
A voice entered his mind.
YOU ARE NOT FROM HERE.
Kael didn't answer.
The voice continued.
YOU CARRY A GARDENER'S AUTHORITY.
Kael tightened his hand around the Key.
"Yes."
Aren immediately looked at him.
"Kael."
The young Gardener's face turned white.
"I told you not to answer."
The eye widened.
THE GARDENER ANSWERED.
The silver flowers beneath their feet suddenly turned black.
One by one.
Then thousands.
Then millions.
The entire landscape changed.
Kael raised his Key.
"Everyone, stay close!"
The group moved together.
Aren took the front.
Lyra and Seraphine began constructing defensive formulas.
Selene opened her book.
Mira's pages scattered through the air.
Caelum looked upward.
Every instinct in his body screamed danger.
Then the eye closed.
Silence.
Nothing happened.
Aren slowly lowered his sword.
"Did it leave?"
"No."
Caelum answered.
His face was grim.
"It moved closer."
Everyone looked upward.
The moon was gone.
Something enormous now occupied the sky.
A shape without a clear body.
A presence surrounding the entire world.
The young Gardener whispered,
"It's awake."
Kael looked at him.
"What exactly is it?"
The stranger shook his head.
"I don't know its name."
"Then what do you call it?"
"The Dreamer."
Kael looked toward the white World Tree.
"The one who imagined this world?"
"Yes."
"Why would it attack us?"
"It isn't attacking."
The stranger's expression was filled with fear.
"It's waking up."
Kael understood.
The world itself was the dream.
If the Dreamer woke...
The dream would end.
And everyone inside it would disappear.
"How long?"
The stranger looked toward the sky.
"Before the world collapses?"
"Yes."
He closed his eyes.
"Maybe an hour."
Lyra frowned.
"Maybe?"
"It doesn't follow time."
Seraphine immediately turned toward her.
"Then we cannot measure the collapse through conventional temporal units."
Lyra nodded.
"Exactly."
Aren sighed.
"Can someone please tell me something useful?"
The young Gardener looked toward Kael.
"There is one way."
Kael waited.
"You have to enter the Dreamer's mind."
Silence.
Aren slowly turned.
"...No."
Kael ignored him.
"How?"
The stranger pointed toward the white World Tree.
"The Tree is connected to the dreamer's consciousness."
"If you enter its deepest root..."
"...you'll reach the dream."
"And then?"
"You have to convince the Dreamer not to wake up."
Kael frowned.
"That's it?"
"No."
The stranger's eyes became serious.
"You have to convince it that this world is worth dreaming."
Kael looked at the frozen city.
At the people.
The children.
The families.
The strange civilization that had never truly existed.
A world born from someone's imagination.
He understood.
This wasn't a battle.
Not yet.
It was a question.
Could a dream become meaningful enough to deserve existence?
Kael looked toward Lyra.
"Can you open the path?"
She glanced toward Seraphine.
The two magicians exchanged a look.
Then Lyra smiled.
"Probably."
Seraphine corrected her.
"Seventy-two percent probability."
Lyra frowned.
"I said probably."
"Your definition of probability is inaccurate."
"You're annoying."
"Your emotional response is irrelevant."
"You're definitely annoying."
Aren looked toward Kael.
"They'll be fine."
Kael nodded.
Then he looked toward Selene.
"You?"
Selene closed her book.
"I can preserve the memories."
Mira stepped beside her.
"And I can prevent the dream from losing its identities."
Kael looked toward Caelum.
"Can you watch for the Dreamer?"
Caelum looked upward.
For the first time since returning to human form, his eyes began glowing silver.
"I can see the edges of its attention."
"Good."
Then Aren.
Kael smiled.
"You know what to do."
Aren raised his sword.
"Protect the path."
Kael nodded.
Finally, he looked toward the young Gardener.
"And you?"
The stranger stared at him.
"I'll stay."
"Why?"
"Because this is my world."
Kael understood.
Even if it had never been born...
It was still home.
The young man extended his hand.
"I'm Rowan."
Kael shook it.
"Kael."
Rowan smiled.
"I know."
Kael paused.
"You know my name?"
Rowan's expression changed.
"I've been waiting for you."
The heartbeat immediately became alert.
"...Waiting?"
Rowan nodded.
"Your arrival was part of the dream."
Kael's expression hardened.
"You knew we were coming?"
"Not exactly."
"What did you see?"
Rowan looked toward the white World Tree.
"A Gardener walking beneath seven flowers."
"A Sword carrying the weight of thousands."
"A Magician who refuses to accept impossible answers."
"A Keeper who remembers what others forget."
"A watcher who once saw everything."
"A magician who forgot how to stop thinking."
"A Keeper who lost herself among names."
He looked at Mira.
"Seven people."
"Walking toward a world that doesn't exist."
Kael stared at him.
"That doesn't explain why."
Rowan shook his head.
"Because the dream ended before I could see the rest."
The world suddenly trembled.
BOOM!
The distant city cracked.
Buildings began collapsing into clouds of silver dust.
The frozen people suddenly started moving.
But they weren't walking normally.
They were running.
Thousands of them began running toward the white World Tree.
Children screamed.
Parents grabbed their hands.
Soldiers drew weapons.
The dream had become aware of its own death.
Kael immediately stepped forward.
"We move now."
The group ran.
The white World Tree stood several kilometers away.
Normally, that distance would have taken minutes.
But the dream changed the landscape.
The road stretched.
Ten kilometers.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Every time they moved forward, the Tree seemed farther away.
Lyra cursed.
"Space is folding!"
Seraphine nodded.
"The Dreamer is preventing access."
Kael raised his Key.
"Then we'll cut through."
The seven flowers opened.
Roots of emerald light erupted from beneath the road.
They tore through the false distance.
The landscape shattered.
Suddenly...
The Tree was directly ahead.
Its enormous trunk reached beyond the clouds.
Its roots descended into an abyss.
The deepest root was black.
Kael stared.
"There."
Rowan nodded.
"The entrance."
They ran.
Behind them...
The sky began collapsing.
A massive darkness spread from the horizon.
The Dreamer was waking.
Caelum suddenly stopped.
"Wait."
Aren looked back.
"What?"
Caelum's eyes were glowing.
"It's looking at us."
"How many eyes?"
"One."
"Where?"
Caelum looked toward Kael.
"Inside him."
Kael froze.
The heartbeat suddenly screamed.
"...No."
The tiny light flew into Kael's chest.
A pressure exploded through his body.
His vision blurred.
For an instant, he saw something.
A vast room.
A child sitting alone.
A small boy drawing trees on the floor.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Thousands of drawings.
The same tree.
The same seven branches.
The same seven flowers.
The boy looked up.
Kael saw his face.
It was strangely familiar.
Not because Kael knew him.
Because...
The boy looked like Kael.
The vision vanished.
Kael collapsed to one knee.
Aren grabbed him.
"Kael!"
"I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
Kael stared toward the white World Tree.
"The Dreamer..."
He struggled to breathe.
"...knows me."
Rowan's face became pale.
"No."
"What?"
Rowan stared at Kael's Key.
"That's not possible."
"Why?"
"Because the Dreamer existed before this world."
"And?"
Rowan's voice trembled.
"According to the oldest memories..."
"...the Dreamer also existed before the first Gardener."
Kael slowly stood.
"Then why does it know me?"
Nobody answered.
The heartbeat emerged from his chest.
It was trembling.
"...Because..."
Kael looked at it.
The tiny light whispered,
"...you've met before."
Silence.
Kael's eyes widened.
"I've never been here."
The heartbeat shook.
"...Not this you."
Aren stared.
Lyra's expression became serious.
Selene stopped breathing.
Rowan whispered,
"Another life?"
The heartbeat pulsed.
"...Another dream."
The white World Tree suddenly opened all its transparent leaves.
Every leaf became an eye.
Every eye turned toward Kael.
Then the Dreamer's voice returned.
Not angry.
Not threatening.
Almost...
sad.
"Finally."
Kael froze.
The voice continued.
"I found you again."
The black root beneath the Tree opened.
A path appeared.
Kael stared into the darkness.
He didn't know what waited below.
He didn't know why the Dreamer remembered him.
He didn't know who the other version of himself had been.
But one thing had become clear.
The journey to the other worlds was no longer simply about finding the seven Gardeners.
It was about discovering why the Dreamer...
had been waiting for him.
Kael took the first step into the root.
Aren followed.
Then Lyra.
Selene.
Caelum.
Seraphine.
Mira.
And finally Rowan.
Behind them, the dream began to die.
Ahead...
Something was waiting.
Something that remembered a Kael who had never existed in this world.
And as the last light of the false sky disappeared...
A child's voice whispered from the darkness.
"Welcome home."