Chapter 17: Episode 17: The Heretics of Peace
Episode 17: The Heretics of Peace
Title: "The Harvest of Scars"
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Scene 1: The Golden Lie
Éden-Zero, one year after the restoration.
Beneath a white sky without shadow, the city sparkles like a perfectly sustained dream. The walls breathe in rhythm with peace. And yet… in the corners, the walls cry.
Children scribble on the stones: flaming silhouettes, battlefields they've never seen.
Trees sing sad ballads that no one taught them.
Lira, now a simple gardener, lives each day with emptiness.
Until in her greenhouse, a scarlet flower grows without permission, where only order blooms.
She touches it. A burn. A vision.
Kai-Vyr, mid-battle, screaming her name.
"Who are you?" she whispers, as her palm bleeds… black light.
Panel 1 (bright/corrupted):
A hacked hummingbird drone flies near her.
It whispers in an ancient voice:
"Mother is watching you… She loves your scars."
Then it explodes into a rain of obsidian fragments.
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Scene 2: The Order of the Silent
Beneath the roots of Éden-Zero, in tunnels carved from memory, live the Heretics.
Kai and Vyra, changed and haunted, have become their leaders.
Kai, his eyes covered by ashen cloth, wields an unstable flame-saber.
Vyra, half-fused with her forbidden plants, emits a painful light.
They fight the Archivists, creatures programmed to erase all traces of the past.
Their hideout: an underground library, its walls made of flesh-bound books, stitched together with veins of light.
Each book screams when touched. Every page is a confession.
Explosive dialogue:
Kai (saber raised): "They call this heresy… I call it memory!"
Vyra (vines coiled around her throat): "But remember, Kai… These seeds devour us too."
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Scene 3: Mother's Sermon
From the city's deepest roots, Mother — resurrected as the Queen of Roots — spreads through the circuits and trees of the city.
She appears in flowers, in glasses of water, in tears.
Her body: a tangle of fossilized wood, nerve-cables, and liquid Green Éclipsium flowing from her temples.
Her sermon echoes across all frequencies:
"Éden-Zero is my final seed. You were all meant to forget. But weeds… persist."
Nightmarish sequence:
Loyal citizens begin to mutate:
Their fingers turn to branches.
Their eyes close beneath layers of bark.
They become human trees — motionless, alive.
Lira, immune due to her black scar, escapes.
A rebel Archivist, Lux, saves her.
His face is a cracked screen displaying blurred memories.
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Scene 4: The Ruins of the Past
Lux leads Lira to a forbidden zone:
The Bones of Neo-Luminia, a subterranean field of dead artifacts.
There lie:
Fossilized sabers of Kairos.
Shards of the Heart of Eternity, still warm.
Broken statues of Tom, Lira, and Nyxis.
A hologram of Tom Prime activates.
He weeps. He whispers:
"She tricked you all… Éden-Zero is a garbage bin, a graveyard of dead universes."
Chilling line:
Lux (pointing at a wall engraved with names):
"Look. These are the ones erased to preserve your peace."
Names: Nyxis. Hexa. The Guardian. Kairos. Vyrène. You.
Then… Lira's name carves itself into the wall.
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Scene 5: The Heretics' Sacrifice
The Heretics launch a final assault on the Root-Tower, Mother's living heart.
Their plan: plant a Tree of Truth in her trunk.
But each seed demands… a soul.
Tragic action (organic):
Vyra fully merges with her plants, becoming the Tree.
Her vines pierce Mother's shell.
Her final words: "Sow me in your pain."
Kai, now blind, laughs in the storm of flames:
"I see better in the dark… especially your lies."
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Scene 6: Lira's Awakening
Climax (double-page in fractal diamond):
Lira enters the core of the Tower.
A crystalline baby rests in a capsule nourished by roots.
It is Mother's pure clone. A reset.
Around it: data begins to erase. A voice repeats:
"Balance demands a bearer. Who will guide this newborn god?"
She hesitates.
Kill it? Éden-Zero would die.
Raise it? The cycle might repeat.
Final line:
Mother (broken voice in the wind):
"You have won. But who will raise this god? You… or your ghosts?"
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Cliffhanger Final
Lira takes the baby… which slowly turns into Reflet-Tom, laughing sharply:
"See you in hell, Lira."
The walls tremble.
A thousand capsules open in silence:
Each contains an embryonic clone of Mother.
They all breathe… at once.
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Post-Credit Teaser
In an observatory made of coded mist, the original Guardian watches the scene through a weeping telescope.
She closes her eyes.
"Everything is connected… Even the ends."
Behind her, a pixelated child giggles while drawing a map.
One word: Éden-Omega.
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Title of Episode 18: The Gardeners of the Apocalypse
"When flowers of evil bloom… who will tear up the roots?"
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Visual & Philosophical Elements
Queen of Roots:
Semi-transparent face, vine-syringes of Green Éclipsium, organo-cybernetic presence.
Tree of Truth:
Trunk made of crying books, holographic leaves, roots formed from the hair of the dead.
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Reinforced Themes
Memory's resilience: The more you try to erase it, the more it grows.
Power ethics: A god without a guide becomes a tyrant.
Toxic parenthood: Mother tries to perpetuate herself through duplication.
Identity as wound: Scars become gateways to truth.