Keon activated his Cloak of Disguise. In an instant, the dark, intricate fabric shimmered and melded with the surrounding shadows, rendering him nearly invisible. Stealthily, he advanced toward the chaotic battlefield. The distant clamor of clashing weapons, guttural roars, and the echo of magical explosions filled the air, yet beneath it all there was a surreal, oppressive calm.
He moved as if carried by a secret current, his mind a mix of amusement and grim determination. He couldn't help but smirk at the absurdity of it all—even as explosions rocked the world behind him and ancient forces clashed. Sometimes, I wonder if this is all just a bad joke, he thought. But then again, if the punchline is my survival, I might as well enjoy it.
Drawing nearer, Keon surveyed the battle with cool detachment. The knight, battered and furious from earlier skirmishes, fought desperately against the towering skeletal serpent. The invaders' assault, though powerful, had left the dungeon's outer defenses intact, and the chaos was confined to the periphery. Amid this tempest, every movement was frozen in a moment of overwhelming intensity.
Reaching into the folds of his cloak, Keon retrieved the Obsidian Hourglass—a relic whose power he now commanded without drawback. Its surface, etched with ancient runes, pulsed with a dim, foreboding light. A quiet chuckle escaped him as he whispered, "Time to mess with fate."
With deliberate calm, Keon activated the artifact. In an instant, the air around him shimmered as if reality itself were rippling. A dark, tangible aura radiated outward, halting time within a roughly 10-meter radius. The roaring explosions, clashing swords, and even the serpent's snapping jaws were all suddenly suspended in mid-motion, as if caught in a silent photograph of chaos.
Keon opened his eyes, now alight with a spark of audacity. In that eerie stillness, he stepped forward, navigating among frozen figures as if they were mere statues in a twisted gallery of war. He paused beside the knight—whose determined expression was locked forever in a grimace—and the skeletal serpent, its monstrous form halted in a terrifying mid-roar.
A wry smile tugged at Keon's lips as he mused aloud, "You know, this is almost poetic. Everyone's stuck in time, and here I am—the only one still dancing." The surreal humor of the moment, juxtaposed with the raw, suspended violence around him, was not lost on him. In that pause, he was given the rare gift of control—a brief respite to reassess, to plan his next move, or perhaps to simply savor the absurdity of war frozen in time.
Keon glanced back at the frozen knight, his sword raised in one hand while the other arm hung awkwardly—probably injured from the battle. The skeletal snake, on the other hand… well, it had its mouth wide open mid-air, looking like it was about to chow down on the poor guy.
Scratching his head, Keon let out a sigh. "Man, this really does feel like a movie. I should be sitting back with popcorn, not doing unpaid labor."
Still, the system quest was clear—save the knight or suffer a 32-hour cooldown on Rift Leap. And Keon, for all his reluctance, wasn't about to stay trapped in this world any longer than necessary.
He rolled his shoulders. Alright, let's do this the easy way.
He crouched next to the knight and grabbed him under the arms. "Okay, buddy. Don't take this the wrong way." With a grunt, he lifted—only to blink in surprise.
"…Huh? You're not that heavy?"
For some reason, Keon had expected the knight to weigh as much as a horse in full plate armor. But nope. The guy was surprisingly manageable.
"Are you even eating enough? No wonder you got tossed around."
Keon adjusted his grip and started dragging the knight away from the battlefield, carefully stepping over frozen debris and dodging the snake's mid-air chomp. The eerie stillness of the paused battlefield only made it funnier—like he was stealing an action figure straight out of an anime fight scene.
Still, the timer in his head kept ticking. Four minutes. He had to get this guy somewhere safe before time started moving again.
He looked around, searching for a good spot to dump—ahem, carefully place—the knight before things resumed. The explosions in the distance still rumbled in his ears, even though they weren't actually happening in real-time.
"This is starting to feel like babysitting. And I don't even get paid for that."
With the knight in tow, Keon picked up the pace, weaving through the frozen chaos, hoping he wasn't about to make things worse for himself.
Keon dragged the knight behind a large boulder and carefully set him down. Taking a few steps back, he plopped onto a perfectly fine-looking rock, stretching his arms with an exhausted sigh.
"Alright, system. I did it. Quest over, right?"
Silence.
Keon's eye twitched. "Hello? I saved the guy. He's breathing. He's in one piece. What more do you want from me?"
The system, of course, remained as unhelpful as ever.
Keon sighed, defeated, shoulders slumping as he stared at the ground, utterly annoyed. "Tch. So the quest isn't over yet? What, do I have to spoon-feed him soup and tuck him into bed too?"
Before he could complain further—
Time resumed.
The knight blinked in confusion. One second, he was locked in battle against a giant undead snake, and now—nothing. No monster. No struggle. Just… silence.
His grip on his sword tightened. His instincts screamed at him. Something was off.
Then, he felt it.
A presence.
A dangerous, reality-warping presence lurking behind him.
Slowly, he turned his head.
There, sitting casually on a rock, his face shadowed as he looked down at the ground, was Keon. His posture was relaxed, yet the air around him carried an unsettling weight, like he had shifted the battlefield itself to bring them here.
To the knight, Keon didn't look like a mere bystander.
He looked like an entity.
A being who had altered the flow of fate itself.
The knight swallowed hard, gripping his sword tighter.
"…Who… are you?"