Abstract A constraint of vanishing energy-momentum tensor is motivated by a variety of perspectives on quantum gravity. We demonstrate in a concrete example how this constraint leads to a metric-independent theory in which quantum gravity emerges as a nonperturbative artifact of regularization-scale physics. We analyze a scalar theory similar to the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theory with... https://www.alarecre.com/Virescent-Harmony-Galaxy-A14-5G-Clear-Case-p106336/