"There is no victory in endings, only the choice of where to begin again."
---
Juno's boots pounded against the cracked stone path, dust and smoke burning her throat. The Trial Maze groaned with age, its walls shifting with every step, rearranging corridors in real-time. Her lungs burned from exertion, but she couldn't afford to slow down. Somewhere behind her, the beast was chasing, snarling, and hunting.
The glowing exit gate shimmered at the end of the corridor—freedom, almost in reach. Her fingers twitched toward it, her mind racing with calculations. If she could just make it—
"Left! Move left!" Selene's voice, sharp and commanding, echoed from the shadows ahead. Juno didn't hesitate. She swerved just in time, narrowly avoiding a barbed chain that shot from the wall. It clanged against the stone with the weight of a bear trap, snapping shut inches from her leg.
Selene and Exos appeared at the next turn, their faces carved in determination.
"You're close, Juno! Just—" Selene cut herself off, golden eyes narrowing as her staff spun into position, glowing with arcane energy. "It's coming!"
The beast crashed into view, a hulking abomination with too many limbs, skin stitched together like patchwork leather, and a crown of jagged bone spikes. Its blackened eyes locked onto them—an abyss of hunger and madness.
"Move!" Exos barked, his greatsword already blazing with a molten sheen. "Go, Juno! Don't look back!"
Juno's heart thundered. "But you—"
"We'll hold it off!" Selene snarled, a flare of magic crackling between her fingertips. "No time to argue!"
Exos lunged forward with a roar, slamming his sword down toward the creature's face. The impact rang like a church bell, staggering the beast, if only for a moment. Selene danced alongside him, her magic weaving like ribbons, binding the monster's limbs in ethereal chains.
But it was too fast.
The beast let out a guttural shriek and broke free in a blur of claws and sinew. The chains shattered. Exos barely managed to raise his weapon before a clawed hand the size of a boulder drove straight through his chest. Blood sprayed like ribbons, painting the walls in red.
"Exos!" Juno screamed as his body collapsed, lifeless eyes still locked on her, lips curled in a defiant snarl even in death.
Selene didn't falter. She snarled through gritted teeth, casting spell after spell, her magic flickering like starlight.
"Run!" she shouted, voice breaking with desperation.
Juno's feet refused to move. No, this couldn't be happening. She had *just* made it this far with them. There was no way it could end like this.
But it did.
The monster slammed Selene into the wall with bone-cracking force, pinning her like an insect under glass. The mage gasped, blood spilling from her lips. She locked eyes with Juno, something soft and broken flickering in their golden depths.
"Don't... stop... Juno..." Selene whispered, her last breath slipping free as the beast ripped her in half like wet parchment.
The world shattered around her.
Juno's mind drowned in static, every sense numbing except for the endless scream lodged deep in her soul. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The monster turned its attention back to her, blood dripping from its claws.
A hollow, wordless cry tore from her throat.
"No! NO!"
Her body moved on instinct, summoning every ounce of remaining strength, but it wasn't enough. There was no spell. No tactic. No time. Just the cold inevitability of death inching closer with every lumbering step of the beast.
*I can't do this… I'm not strong enough…*
And yet... the system stirred within her—cold, merciless, and indifferent to her grief.
[System Prompt: Would you like to summon the Chronosword? Warning: Overuse will trigger a Chrono Burn.]
The words flickered in front of her, demanding a choice she didn't want to make.
But she couldn't run anymore. And she couldn't leave them like this.
"Yes..." she whispered through clenched teeth, tears blurring her vision. "Give it to me."
The weight of time coiled around her bones. The world slowed as golden gears materialized, spinning with a low, resonant hum. Light fractured through the cracks in the air as a blade began to form in her hands—a weapon forged from threads of forgotten minutes and discarded seconds.
[Chronosword Summoned: Time Reaper]
The sword hummed in her grip, cold and otherworldly. Its edge shimmered with a cruel silver gleam, flickering with the possibilities of futures unwritten.
The beast charged.
Juno didn't hesitate this time. Her movements were fluid, precise—born from a thousand futures she'd already glimpsed. The sword sliced through the air, faster than any mortal blade. The first slash severed the monster's claw. The second buried deep into its chest, gears grinding with every cut.
But it wasn't enough to stop the inevitable.
The beast stumbled, but its grotesque form kept moving, relentless even in death. And Juno knew—*deep down*—that this fight would never end the way she wanted. Not in this timeline.
There was only one way out.
She had to rewind. She had to start over.
Her hands trembled as she turned the blade inward, pressing its tip against her own heart.
"No... not again..." she whimpered, her voice breaking. "Please..."
But there was no other way. This was what it meant to be the Timekeeper.
Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the hilt. Her breath hitched, and tears streaked down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered to the ghosts of Selene and Exos.
And then, without another thought, she drove the Chronosword deep into her own chest.
Pain exploded through her—white-hot, searing agony ripping through every nerve. Her vision blurred. Blood gushed from the wound, warm and sticky, staining her fingers.
The system's cold voice whispered into her fading consciousness:
[Chrono Rewind Initiated.]
[System Alert: Fatal Error Detected—User's Heart Rate Terminated.]
The world around her cracked, shattering into fragments of time. Memories blurred—fractured images of laughter, blood, and regret flashing before her eyes in rapid succession.
[Rewinding Time... 10... 9... 8...]
Her body crumpled, lifeless, as the timeline unraveled. And yet, deep inside the swirling void between moments, a part of her soul clung desperately to the idea that *next time*—just maybe—things would end differently.
[3... 2... 1...]
Everything went dark.
Darkness.
Not the kind of darkness born from a lack of light, but a deep, endless void—unfathomable and heavy, pressing against Juno's skin like invisible chains. She floated in the nothingness, untethered and weightless, her body absent and yet painfully aware of itself. There was no air, no ground, no walls—just nothing.
For a long moment, she thought she was truly dead.
And then, the ticking began.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
A slow, deliberate cadence, each sound like the hammering of a massive bell. Juno's eyes fluttered open—or at least, she thought they did—and in the void ahead, something began to take shape.
A broken clock.
Suspended in midair, its shattered face reflected fractured shards of light. The minute hand hung limply at an unnatural angle, and the second hand spun wildly, as if desperate to catch up with something long lost. The crack down its center seemed to pulse with faint golden energy.
And then it spoke.
"You're persistent."
The voice wasn't a voice at all but a series of overlapping tones, each one a thread of time woven into a singular, impossible sound. It was both ancient and newborn, kind yet cold, familiar yet alien.
Juno stared at the clock, her thoughts sluggish and fragmented. "I… I know you…"
"Of course you do," it replied, gears grinding faintly as the minute hand twitched. "I am the reason you stand on the precipice of forever. I am the custodian of what you wield so recklessly. I am Time itself."
Juno's stomach dropped, or it would have if she had one here. "You… You gave me this power," she whispered. "Why? Why me?"
The clock tilted slightly, its cracked face casting jagged reflections into the void. "Why not you?"
"That's not an answer!" Juno snapped, fists clenching at her sides—or where her sides used to be. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask to keep dying, to keep losing people I care about!"
The ticking paused, replaced by a heavy silence that pressed down on her like the weight of eternity. When the voice returned, it was softer, almost regretful.
"And yet, you chose."
"I didn't have a choice!" she protested, her voice breaking. "I had to go back—I had to save them!"
The clock's gears whirred, its broken hands trembling as golden light spilled from its cracks. "Did you? Or was it your fear of failure? Your inability to accept loss? Your refusal to let the timeline unfold as it must?"
Juno's breath hitched, her mind racing. "They didn't deserve to die…"
"And you do?"
The question hit like a dagger, cold and sharp. Juno stumbled, her thoughts unraveling like threads. She wanted to scream, to argue, but the words stuck in her throat.
The clock shifted closer, its shattered surface reflecting her own pale, haunted face. "You've stolen seconds from the void, rewritten minutes that were never yours to begin with. Every time you rewind, you fracture the timeline further. And yet, here you are—begging for another chance."
"I can fix it," Juno said, her voice trembling. "I can make it right."
"Can you?" The clock's hands spun wildly, casting sparks of golden light into the void. "Or will you simply make a different kind of wrong? Tell me, Timekeeper: how many deaths will it take for you to realize that not all can be saved?"
Tears welled in her eyes, spilling over into the void. "I don't know," she admitted, her voice barely a whisper. "But I can't stop trying."
The clock was silent for a long moment. Then, its voice softened, a note of reluctant admiration slipping through. "And that is why you remain."
The golden cracks along its surface began to glow brighter, the void trembling with energy. "One minute," it said. "That is all I can give you. One minute to change everything—or nothing. But remember, Juno Luminara: each choice has a cost. And every second you take may be your last."
The void began to crack, light spilling through the fractures. Juno's body felt heavy again, her lungs filling with air as the dreamscape shattered around her.
The clock's voice echoed one last time, fading as the light consumed her.
"Do not forget, Timekeeper: there is no victory in endings, only the choice of where to begin again."
---
Juno gasped, her eyes snapping open. The cold stone of the Trial Maze pressed against her back, her body trembling with adrenaline.
The snarls of the beast echoed in the distance, growing closer. Selene and Exos were just ahead, their figures barely visible through the haze of smoke and dust.
One minute.
Her heart pounded as the system chimed in her mind, cold and clinical.
[System Alert: Chrono Rewind Complete.]
[Current Time: 00:59 before Event Fatalis.]
This was her chance. One minute to save them.