The mist shifted unnaturally, swirling like a living thing, as the three figures stood at the crossroads of nothingness, each unaware of the path the others had taken. The air felt alive, crackling with tension, and the gray sky above seemed to warp and pulse, as though it too were watching them, waiting.
---
Arin's hand gripped the hilt of his sword, the faint runes carved into the blade now glowing with an eerie light. His pulse quickened, his instincts sharpening in the stillness. He had been through battles before, fought wars that tore apart entire realms, but none of them had prepared him for this moment. Not for the feeling of being lost in a world that shouldn't exist.
His breath hitched as he heard the crunch of footsteps behind him, the sound too clear, too deliberate to be the result of his own anxieties. He turned sharply, his eyes narrowing, his body tensed in the stance of a soldier.
A figure emerged from the swirling mist—a man, dressed in worn, weathered clothing, his fingers wrapped tightly around a glowing object at his chest.
Arin's gaze locked onto the man's hand, where a peculiar pocket watch spun slowly, the hands moving backward with a faint, rhythmic pulse.
"Who are you?" Arin demanded, his voice icy, his blade now fully drawn and aimed at the man before him. The grip on his sword was instinctive, but it felt futile. Nothing about this world, this place, made sense. He wasn't sure if the man in front of him was an ally, an enemy, or something far worse.
---
Kaelen didn't flinch. His green eyes, sharp with suspicion, held steady on the stranger. The fog around him seemed to retreat at his will, as if the world itself respected his presence. He could feel the energy crackling in the air, the faint hum of the watch in his hand drawing him forward.
"I could ask you the same question," Kaelen replied coolly, his grip tightening around the timepiece. "But... considering you don't seem like the kind to answer easily, let's just say—I'm someone who's been here far too many times. Now, I'm wondering what brought you to this dead world."
He wasn't surprised by the man's presence, nor the fact that their meeting had come to pass. The loops Kaelen had endured, the worlds he had traversed—this was just another step, another moment in the cycle. But something about this place felt different. More... deliberate.
The watch flickered in his hand, its glow intensifying as if reacting to the stranger before him. His pulse quickened. There was something connected between them, something in the rhythm of fate that Kaelen couldn't yet decipher.
---
Seraph, perched on a rise above them, looked on with quiet amusement. His robes rippled faintly in the wind, the faint glow of his golden eyes illuminating the swirling mist around him. He had been watching them both—his instincts honed by lifetimes of experience, each life a lesson, a fragment of wisdom passed from one to the next.
"I see..." Seraph's voice was smooth, like the whisper of silk. He descended gracefully, his movements fluid as if the very mist parted for him. "It seems I am not the only one drawn into this void. I had assumed I was alone... but fate is always full of surprises, is it not?"
He regarded the other two—Arin, the silent soldier whose eyes burned with a fire only those who had seen death could understand, and Kaelen, the haunted man with the cursed timepiece, whose soul had been frayed by endless rebirths.
Seraph's lips curved into a soft smile, but his golden eyes gleamed with an intensity that belied the serenity of his expression. "How interesting... each of us a thread in the same tapestry, though we do not yet understand the design."
He stepped forward, his gaze flicking to the glowing blade in Arin's hand and then to Kaelen's watch, each object a symbol of their powers. It was clear to him that they were not just any men—these were beings who had been touched by something greater, something far beyond their control.
"How... fascinating," he murmured, his voice a soft melody. "Tell me, do either of you understand why we are here?"
---
The silence stretched between them, the tension palpable. Arin's sword remained poised, but he could not bring himself to strike first. Something about Kaelen's watch, about Seraph's calm demeanor, unnerved him.
He was a Returnee. A man who had survived the end of his world, clawing his way back through death and time. He had no room for hesitation. And yet, here, he felt it creeping in. The unknown. The uncertainty of it all.
"I don't have time for riddles," Arin finally spat, his voice low but fierce. "If you're not here to fight, then get out of my way. I don't need anyone's help."
Kaelen smirked faintly, sensing the same frustration in Arin that had driven him to seek control over his own fate. "No one's here for help," he muttered. "I'm just trying to figure out how to get out of here before—"
Before what? The words caught in his throat. His eyes darted to the sky, where the gray canvas above seemed to shift once more. The clouds swirled, darkening, pressing closer. It was as though something was pushing them, urging them forward into some unknown fate.
Seraph tilted his head, his golden eyes narrowing as he felt the shift in the air, too. "Something is coming," he whispered, his calm demeanor not betraying the unease that tingled at the edges of his senses. "The threads are pulling tighter."
---
The Weaver, hidden in the shadows of the space beyond time, smiled faintly as he watched them. Their fates were already set in motion—each one a piece on a chessboard that stretched across realities. The three were tied together in ways they did not yet understand, their paths intersecting in a place that defied logic and sense.
He could see their futures, their destinies, unfolding before him. The Returnee, the Regressor, the Reincarnator—each would face trials, challenges, enemies that would push them beyond their limits. But none of them could escape what was coming. The paradox was already in motion.
They were lost, yes. But not in the way they thought.
---
As the mist thickened around them, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble, a low, ominous hum vibrating through the air. The three figures stood locked in place, each feeling the tug of fate drawing them toward something far darker than they could have imagined.
From the sky above, a shadow loomed—a dark, formless presence that stretched across the horizon, consuming everything in its path. A new chapter was about to unfold.
And none of them knew that it would lead them back to the beginning.