"Every ending watches its beginning with quiet dread."
---
The sky was dead.
A lifeless expanse stretched above, a battlefield frozen in collapse. Shattered fragments of violet-streaked lightning tore through an unending void, crimson clouds swirling like a dying storm. The ruins of a once-majestic cathedral floated in defiance of gravity, its fragmented pillars rotating aimlessly. The air buzzed with chaos, thick with the taste of ash and entropy.
Juno Luminara stood at the epicenter of this decay, boots grinding against blackened obsidian tiles that once formed sacred ground. The Chronosword in her hand pulsed faintly, its gold-veined black metal exuding an aura of paradox. Her breaths came shallow, her hazel-green eyes reflecting the fractured horizon.
She wasn't alone.
Ahead, a figure emerged from a splintered archway, landing with feline grace on the broken floor.
It was her.
But not.
The void-twin was a grotesque parody—its skeletal frame draped in shadowed sinews, empty eyes aglow with faint, sickly light. Its hood hung in tatters, and veins of dark ichor writhed across its corrupted form.
"You look tired," it sneered, its voice a venomous echo of her own. "Still running? How many deaths will it take before you accept what you are?"
Juno's grip tightened on the Chronosword. Her lips curled into a sharp, humorless smile. "Persistence isn't running. It's recalculating."
The void-twin's laugh was a dry rasp, reverberating with malice. "Recalibrating, then. Always a machine's puppet, aren't you?"
Before Juno could retort, it lunged, spear materializing from writhing void energy.
[(System Activating: Phase Step)]
Briefly desynchronize from the current timeline, accelerating movement by-ERROR-REINITIALIZING-
[Chronoenergy: 94%. Cooldown: 7 seconds.]
Juno's body shimmered, translucent for a fleeting instant, as the spear sliced through empty air. Her inner voice whispered, Delay and deflect. Find its rhythm.
She reappeared behind her twin, the Chronosword arcing downward.
[(System Activating: Chronoslash)]
A strike that severs reality across fractured timelines.
[ERROR: Cumulative damage—UNSTABLE. Alternate timeline interactions—CORRUPTED DATA.]
The blade connected, cutting into the void-twin. Fractured light burst from the wound, flickering between healing and damage as timelines collapsed.
"Amusing," the void-twin hissed, its voice a grating symphony of dissonance. It twisted away, summoning another void lance.
Juno's system flared red.
[System Alert:] Incoming threat detected—Critical danger level. Defensive maneuvers suggested.]
Her mind raced. Can't block. Can't dodge. Redirect?
"Temporal Fracture!" she shouted, slamming the blade into the ground.
[(Ability: Temporal Fracture)]
Shatter the flow of time around enemies. Slows movements within-ERROR:
Duration—UNSTABLE. Cost: Chronoenergy—CALCULATING… 12%.]
The void-twin faltered, its movements distorted as if wading through syrup. Juno seized the opening, delivering a flurry of strikes. The Chronosword danced, carving arcs of golden light.
But the twin recovered quickly, its grin unfazed. "Slowing me won't save you," it rasped, slamming its palm into her chest.
[System Alert:] Health Damaged: 8%. Void Corruption detected. Initiating stabilization.]
Juno staggered, the taste of blood filling her mouth. Her thoughts churned. It's adapting. I need something it can't predict.
The Chronosword rippled, shortening into a dagger as she whispered, "Weapon Morph."
[(System Activating: Weapon Morph)]
Alters weapon form based on intent.
[ERROR: Stability—QUESTIONABLE. Output strength—FLUCTUATING.]
She hurled the dagger, knowing it would dodge. The moment it shifted, she activated her next move.
"Phase Chain!"
[(Ability Activated: Phase Chain)]
Chain short-range teleportation steps to outmaneuver the enemy.
[Chronoenergy: 61%. Cooldown: 15 seconds.]
Juno blinked behind the void-twin, her dagger morphing back into the Chronosword mid-swing.
"Paradox Rend!"
[(Skill: Paradox Rend)]
Sever target's connection to alternate timelines.
[ERROR: Skill description incomplete. Chronoenergy cost: UNKNOWN.]
The blade cleaved into the twin's core. A scream tore from its throat as its form unraveled, flickering between dimensions before dissolving into tendrils of darkness.
"You… can't… escape…" it whispered, its voice fading into the void.
Juno collapsed to one knee, the Chronosword digging into the ground to steady her. Her chest heaved, exhaustion clawing at the edges of her resolve.
[System Update:] Health restored to 30%. Chronoenergy: 41%. Void Rift Instability at 72%.]
She glanced at the horizon, where another rift began to widen, spilling monstrous silhouettes into the decaying landscape. Her mind raced.
Every fight costs too much. The system's unstable. If I don't figure out the pattern soon…
[WARNING: Temporal anomaly detected.
The Void gazes upon you.]
---
"The Void gazes upon you."
Juno's breath hitched. The message lingered in her vision, glowing with an unnatural intensity. Her pulse hammered in her ears, drowning out even the ambient hum of the collapsing cathedral. Before she could process the warning, a jolt wracked her body, wrenching her backward.
Her surroundings evaporated into blackness.
She found herself suspended in an endless void. It was neither cold nor warm, an eerie liminality that made her feel both weightless and trapped. Her heart pounded as she glanced around, searching for something—anything—but the darkness swallowed all.
Then it appeared.
An enormous eye emerged from the void, its size dwarfing her entirely. The sclera shimmered faintly, as if made of liquid starlight, and the iris pulsed with an unsettling, sickly green glow. It regarded her with an unblinking stare, its gaze impossibly deep, as though it could peel back every layer of her soul.
Juno froze, her instincts screaming at her to run, but her body refused to move.
The eye shifted, its green iris slowly bleeding into shades of gold and crimson. Then, as if a switch had flipped, the entire iris morphed into a clock face. Roman numerals ticked ominously, hands moving in erratic jerks.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
The sound grew louder, each tick reverberating in her chest like the tolling of a funeral bell.
Her knees buckled. She clutched her head, a scream stuck in her throat.
Tick. Tock.
The hands spun faster, blurring into a frenzied whirl. The noise grew deafening.
Then—
---
Her eyes snapped open.
The sensation of rough bark against her back grounded her instantly. She was lying against a tree. She gasped, her lungs drinking in the earthy scent of damp soil and leaves.
"Juno!"
Selene's voice broke through the haze. She crouched beside Juno, her face a mask of worry. Her crescent-shaped daggers glinted faintly at her sides, as if ready to strike at a moment's notice. "Thank the stars you're awake. What happened back there?"
Exos stood nearby, arms crossed, his usually composed demeanor marred by concern. His summoned weapons floated just behind him, orbiting protectively. "You collapsed after the rift opened. We thought—" He paused, shaking his head. "Where did you go?"
Juno blinked at them, struggling to process their words. Her gaze darted around. They weren't in the crystalline ruins anymore. The jagged fragments of violet sky and floating debris were gone. Instead, towering trees stretched above them, their canopies thick and shadowy, filtering dim sunlight.
"Wait…" Her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. "Where are we?"
"In a new world, in some forest," Selene said. "After the void lord fell, a rift opened—bigger than anything we'd seen before. It swallowed everything. Then we were… here." She gestured vaguely to their surroundings.
Exos added, "You were unconscious the entire time yet your body is just too heavy that we had assumed your dead, Timekeeper"
Selene leaned closer, her expression shifting to something sharper. "What happened to you, Juno? One second, you're on your feet, fighting, and the next—you're just gone. Someone lunge at you then when the rift opened at Rasmora, we're now here and you're here too. Was that thing your twin who bought you that portal?"
Juno inhaled deeply, steeling herself. "Not exactly. But it's… complicated."
She recounted everything—the loop she had experienced from Agredor, the desperate fights, and how it unraveled into tendrils of darkness. She explained the pitch-black void, the massive eye staring into her, and the moment its pupil transformed into a ticking clock.
Selene's playful grin was nowhere to be found. Instead, her face was set in uncharacteristic seriousness. "That's a lot... That Void Lord put you in a loop, with that reflection of yours from other timelines and then... an eye? You're saying it was watching you?"
"Yes. And it wasn't just looking at me—it felt like it was inside me." Juno shuddered. "I've never felt anything like it. I thought I was going to—" She stopped herself, shaking her head. "It's like it was peeling me apart, bit by bit. Then, the clock... I think it was counting down to something."
Exos frowned deeply, his jaw clenched. "And this 'clock'... could it be connected to your abilities?"
"I don't know." Juno's voice wavered slightly. "But it's all wrong. My system—" She glanced at the corner of her vision, expecting to see the usual interface, but it flickered faintly, distorted. The edges were glitched, words barely legible. "It's been unstable. And yet I feel more control of it, but the reflection warned me that whenever I go, there'll be lots of her, perhaps she's here too?"
Selene leaned back, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Well, this forest isn't exactly our dream vacation spot either." She motioned to the dense shadows encroaching around them. "It's corrupted too. The void's fingerprints are everywhere. We need to find somewhere safe to regroup, and to rest. We just unbelievably killed a Void Lord, I'm sure the Pantheon of the Aspects are thrilled right now."
"Thrilled? More like we're we angered the other void lords." Exos replied.
Juno nodded, her resolve hardening. "Agreed. We're sitting targets out here. Whatever that thing was—whatever it meant—I don't think we've seen the last of it. Let's move before it finds us first."
Exos nodded curtly. "Stay sharp. If this world is corrupted, there will be more threats waiting for us."
Juno pushed herself up, the faint hum of the Chronosword at her side grounding her as she took her first steps forward. Her mind churned with questions, but one thought lingered above all else:
The Void is watching. And it won't stop.
---
In the boundless nothingness of the Void, a cacophony of voices clashed like storms colliding in an endless abyss. The Void Lords, unseen but ever-present, spoke with a resonance that felt like the collapse of stars, their words laced with venomous power. Each voice was distinct yet inseparable from the whole, a symphony of chaos and ruin.
"She is fragile. A fleeting ember against the tide of inevitability."
"Yet she dares. Her defiance is an insult to what we are."
"Her strings fray with each moment stolen."
Their voices clanged against one another, each syllable rippling through the Void like shattering glass, only to reform into an even sharper, darker melody.
And yet, as their argument swelled, another sound interwove itself—a counterpoint, distant yet undeniable. From beyond the boundaries of the Void, in a realm of radiant nothingness where time itself seemed to kneel, the voices of the Pantheon of Aspects arose.
Each Aspect sang with tones that defied mortal understanding, their harmonies weaving an intricate tapestry of light and will. Theirs was not discord but balance, voices overlapping in perfect tension and release.
"Protect the thread, no matter the cost."
"Each moment she takes is a seed of hope—fragile, but vital."
"The balance demands her survival. She must endure."
The voices of the Pantheon clashed not in anger but in a fiery, glorious symphony. It was a song of creation and destruction, light and shadow, all in service to a greater design incomprehensible to those who walked among the living.
Yet the Void would not be silenced. The Lords' voices rose once more, a swelling tide of resentment and despair, their words devouring the Pantheon's harmony.
"Fate does not bend for the desperate."
"Her path leads only to us."
"And when she falls, there will be no song to save her."
In the stillness that followed, a single voice emerged from the abyss, deeper and colder than all the rest. It spoke not as one of many but as the Void itself.
"This Timekeeper... How much longer do you think you can run from fate? Do you really believe you can cheat death forever?"
The words reverberated in the unseen realm, reaching far beyond the Void, far beyond the mortal plane, until even the Pantheon's celestial chorus faltered for the briefest moment.
The balance trembled. Reality held its breath. And Juno, somewhere within the fragile fabric of existence, stirred unknowingly under their gaze. Time is now trembling for an another move of these unseen forces.