Part I: Root and Flame
The gate pulsed—alive.
Twisting roots wrapped in silver light spun in silent rhythm, like a heartbeat too ancient to belong to any man.
Mujin stood before it, breath steady.The seventh seal on his arm shimmered, reacting.
Behind him, Elder Gihyeon whispered, "Once you step through, there is no path back."
Mujin didn't reply.
He placed a hand on the gate.
It didn't open.
It remembered.
Flashes surged through him—
The moment he first touched the Skycut Fang.
His wife's voice on the night she vanished.
The lost face of the junior he never saved.
The moment he chose to run.
And then—
The moment he chose to stay.
The gate groaned, vines pulling apart with a sound like weeping steel.
He stepped inside.
And the world changed.
Part II: The Memory That Wasn't
There was no corridor.
No staircase.
Only… a village.
Bathed in golden dusk. Children running, elders weaving silk, laughter echoing against tiled roofs.
And at the center, a tree.
Twisted. Massive. Growing upside-down from the sky itself.
"This… this isn't Baekje," Mujin murmured.
But it was.A memory of Baekje, perhaps—one never recorded, never told.
A woman stood beneath the tree.
Silver hair. Familiar eyes.
"You made it," she said.
"You're the first to enter the Emperor's root."
"Who are you?" Mujin asked.
The woman smiled.
"I'm your legacy. And your origin."
"You came here searching for truth—So let's start with the lie you were built on."
Part III: The Root Archive
The tree pulsed.
Its bark peeled away to reveal a staircase—spiraling downward, made of memory and bone.
As Mujin descended, voices whispered from the walls:
—"He betrayed the Emperor."—"The Seal was never his."—"The blade was a sentence, not a gift."
Each step felt heavier.
Not with gravity—but with implication.
He reached the base.
A hall of mirrors stood before him.But these mirrors didn't show his reflection.
They showed versions of him—but born in other times. Other lives.
One was a scholar who burned Baekje's texts.
One was a warlord who led the Empire's fall.
One was… a child. Smiling. Hopeful.
All of them looked at him.And whispered, in one voice:
"You are all of us.But not yet yourself."
Epilogue: The Root Burns
The floor cracked beneath his feet.
The mirrors shattered.
From the center of the hall, a sword rose.
Older than the Skycut Fang.
Its name burned into the air: Juhwa.
The woman's voice returned.
"That is your name. The one you lost."
"You are Mujin… yes. But you were once more."
"You were the Emperor's shadow."
"And his heir."
Mujin reached for the blade.
It felt… familiar.
And when he held it, a memory—not his—flooded in:
The Skybone Emperor… weeping.Calling a name.
His name.
"Juhwa…"
To be continued...