But one shadow remained. The largest. The darkest. It did not attack individuals. It attacked the tree itself. It wrapped around the trunk, trying to suffocate the light, trying to sever the roots, trying to make the tree forget what it was.
Seong ran toward it. "No!"
He reached the tree and placed his hands on its bark. The shadow touched him, and he felt everything. Every doubt he had ever had. Every fear. Every moment of weakness. They flooded through him, threatening to drown him.
But then he felt something else. The tree. The tree was not afraid. The tree had grown from a tear. The tree had survived a thousand years of cold. The tree had waited. And it was still waiting.
"You cannot kill what chooses to live," Seong whispered.
And the shadow... paused.
It pulled back from the tree. It pulled back from Seong. It coalesced into a single form, smaller than the others, almost fragile.
"Why?" it asked. Its voice was small. Lost. "Why do you fight so hard for something so fragile?"
Seong looked at the shadow. Looked at the fear behind its hunger. Looked at the loneliness behind its darkness.
"Because it is worth it," he said. "Because you are worth it. Because even you, shadow, can choose to change."
The shadow trembled. And for the first time, it did not attack. It simply... waited.