Chapter 53 – Sinner Six: The Garden That Grows Grief
The Ash Garden wasn't gray.
It was red.
Fields of crimson blossoms swayed in windless air, and every petal dripped tears.
Not dew.
Tears.
Some bloomed with whispers.
Others with screams.
Each one was a memory someone tried to forget.
And the ground—
soft, black ash—was made of burned guilt.
---
> [Zone: ASH_GARDEN // Sin Bloom Sector 06]
Warning: Emotional Root Entanglement In Progress
Entity: The Gardener of Grief
Threat Level: Psychological Reality-Bend – Class B
Status: Manifesting Sins into Beasts
---
He found me before I found him.
Kneeling in the soil.
Planting a heart.
Literally.
A still-beating, half-burned human heart into the roots of a sorrowvine.
He didn't look like a monster.
Just a man in a worn coat, hands caked in blood and soil, eyes like old photographs.
"You've brought more seeds," he said, without looking up.
"What are you growing?" I asked.
"Truth," he whispered. "In its ugliest form."
---
> [Sinner Identified: Rhys Alder – former Forgiveness Officer, Tier 4]
Title: The Gardener of Grief
Sin: Refused to process others' sorrow, instead buried it—literally
Impact: Created Emotion-Tied Creatures (Griefborns)
Root Fragment Detected: Beneath his personal tree
---
He stood, dusted his hands, and gestured to a massive tree at the center of the field.
It was growing from a pit of bones.
Each branch hung heavy with names.
Some I recognized.
Some I dreaded.
Maria.
Elias.
Abel.
Even me.
"You never grieved," he said to me, voice cold but sad. "You rewrote. You judged. You killed. But you never grieved."
---
The ground rumbled.
The garden responded.
From beneath the petals, things began to rise.
Not demons.
Not monsters.
People I couldn't save.
But they were twisted.
Flesh fused with memory.
Eyes weeping blood.
Voices echoing the last words they said before dying.
---
> [Threat: Griefborn Manifestations – Soul-Bound Shades of Regret]
Options: Fight / Bury / Acknowledge
---
They came for me.
A boy I left behind during a failed escort.
A woman whose code I corrupted by accident.
A partner I had to kill when he snapped.
I tried to fight.
But every strike made it worse.
They didn't bleed.
They remembered.
"You forgot me!"
"You promised!"
"You chose them instead!"
---
Rhys watched, tears in his eyes.
"You want to kill me? Fine. But first—plant one thing. One truth you've never admitted."
---
> [System Directive: Submit Emotional Truth]
Warning: Truth will become permanent memory fragment. Cannot be deleted.
Required for judgment of Sinner 6.
---
I whispered:
"Sometimes I wonder if I deserve to live more than the ones I couldn't save."
And I dropped a shard of myself into the soil.
The garden went quiet.
The Griefborns bowed.
And Rhys finally smiled.
---
"You're the first one who ever said it out loud."
---
He stepped aside.
Revealed a twisted root crawling from beneath the massive sorrowtree.
Threaded with names.
Burning with truth.
And in its core—the fragment.
---
> [Judgment Ready – Rhys Alder]
A) Execute – Burn the garden and all its pain
B) Absorb – Take the grief into yourself
C) Preserve – Let the garden exist as a warning to future users
---
I placed my hand on the tree.
And whispered: "Let it stand."
---
> [Redemption Complete – Sinner 6: Rhys Alder]
Ash Garden now a permanent reflection site
Griefborns de-manifested, converted to Memory Echo Guidance Units
Trait Gained: "Burial Rites" – Once per arc, convert a fatal regret into a power boost instead of penalty
Thread Fragment Six Recovered
Soul Integrity: -4% (Now: 57%)
---
Rhys knelt again.
Planted the last seed—his own guilt.
"Thank you for grieving with me," he said.
Then the wind finally blew.
And the red petals fell like rain.
---
> [ZONE COMPLETE: ASH GARDEN]
Remaining Sinner: 1
Next Zone: "The Empty Room" – The final confrontation. No monsters. No masks. Just one chair. One truth. One final sin.