The First Chrono-Walker's presence was a weight against the world, its hourglass eyes draining the color from the air. The bridge beneath Raine's feet had hardened into crystal, its surface reflecting not light, but *time itself*fragmented, fraying, like a tapestry unraveling at the seams.
The refugees were frozen mid-motion, their terror etched in silent screams. Even the wind had stilled, as if the universe held its breath.
Kaioss body flickered beside her, his form dissolving into starlight. The temporal wound in his chest pulsed, each heartbeatscattering silver threads into the void. *'Raine"* His voice was a whisper, a ghost of sound.*"It's not just time it controls. It's* memory."
The being tilted its head, its shifting form pausingfor a heartbeaton the visage of an ancient warrior, its face carved with runes older than the Conclave.**"You fracture what you cannot mend,"** it intoned, the words vibrating through Raine's bones. **
"The Rift was never a door. It was a lock. And you shattered it."**
Lyria staggered forward, her amber eyes wide with realization. *'The Embers,"* she gasped. *"
Theyre not just power. Theyre* anchors.*
Fragments of the first gods' pact to seal the Rift."*
A memory surgedRaine's mother braiding her hair, her voice soft: *'The crystals in our blood arent a curse. Theyre a* covenant."
The truth struck like lightning.
The Conclave hadnt just *used* the Embers. They'd *broken* them.
And the Chrono-Walker was here to collect the debt.
---
The being raised a hand, and the bridge *screamed*.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward from its feet, swallowing the frozen refugees. One by one, they dissolvednot into death, but into *nothingness*, their very existence unwritten from time.
The child who had clutched Raine's sleeve moments ago vanished with a sound like shattering glass, her accusing stare erased mid-blink,
*"No!"* Raine lunged, the Fire Ember igniting in her palmbut the flames sputtered, choked by the Chrono-Walker's gaze.
****'You cannot burn time, little spark."** Its voice was the grind of
Kaios's hand clamped onto her wrist.
His fingers were cold, his skin translucent. *'The dagger,"* he rasped. *"It's not a weapon. Its a* key."
The rusted shard lay between them, its edge humming with residual energy. Lyria's breath hitched. *"The first hourglassthe one the Conclave used to measure the Rift's birth. Its not just a tool. It's a* covenant."
The Chrono-Walkers eyes darkened. For the first time, something like *fear* flickered in their golden depths.
Raine understood.
The dagger wasnt meant to kill time.
It was meant to *reset* it.
---
She grabbed the shard.
Agony lanced up her arm as the crystals in her skin *reacted*, their glow shifting from emerald to a searing, unstable violet. The Embers in her veins- Fire, Wind, Earth*howled*, their energies clashing against the Void's hollow ache.
The Chrono-Walker *moved*.
Its form blurred, a hand of liquid time stretching toward her throat-
but Lyria was faster.
She *plunged* the dagger into the bridges heart.
The world *unmade itself*.
---
Raine stood in a cavern of living crystal, its walls pulsing with the rhythm of a heartbeat. Before her, four figures knelte-warrior wreathed in flame, a maiden of storm, a titan of stone, and a shadow with golden eyes.
*"The first gods,"* Lyria whispered beside her, her voice echoing across time. *"They didnt create the Embers. They* became *them."*
At the cavern's center hovered an hourglassnot of sand, but of *flesh and starlight*. The Conclave's sigils crawled across its surface like parasites.
*"They broke the pact,"* Raine realized. *"They turned the gods' sacrifice into a* weapon.'
The shadowtorst's original formhfted its head. *"And now, child of fire and earth, you must choose. Mend the covenant or let time consume us all."*
*"*Reality.**
The bridge *ruptured*.
The Chrono-Walker *screamed*, its form fracturing into shards of mirrored glass, each reflecting a different era. *'You cannot!
Raine *wrenched* the dagger freeand *plunged it into her own chest*.
Not to die.
To *remember*.
The Embers *erupted*.
Fire for defiance,
Wind for freedom.
Earth for permanence.
And the Void-
The Void for *balance*.
The crystals in her arms *shattered*, then *reformed*, their glow solidifying into a radiant, eternal gold. The bridge's cracks sealed, its iridescent surface hardening into a road of shimmering light.
The refugees gasped back into existence, their memories intact.
And the Chrono-Walker-
It *dissolved*, its hourglass eyes emptying into the abyss.
*"Time cannot be controlled,"* it whispered, its voice fading. *"Only honored."*
Then it was gone.
---
Silence.
Kaios collapsed beside her, his breath ragged but steady. His hair was no longer white, but silver againthe temporal wound closed. Lyria knelt, her hands trembling as she touched the bridge's restored surface.
*"It's done,"* she breathed.
Raine looked down. The dagger was gone, its purpose fulfilled. The Embers hummed in her veins, their harmonies no longer discordant, but *unified*.
Yet beyond the bridge, the sky still ripplednot with the Rift's hunger, but with something *watching*.
Something *waiting*.
Kaios followed her gaze. *"The Rift's not gone,'* he murmured. *"Just… balanced."*
Raine clenched her fist. The crystals in her skin pulsed, warm and alive.
*"Then were not done yet.'*
And somewhere, in the depths of the newly forged bridge, a shadow stirred-
its golden eyes flickering with the faintest echo of a smile.