The Keepers were gone, but their words lingered like an unshakable specter in Caius' mind.
"You must sacrifice your place in time."
Even as the ruins settled into eerie silence, he could feel the weight of those words pressing against his chest. He had barely begun to understand the Chronomancer's Heart, and already, forces beyond his comprehension demanded that he surrender himself to it.
His pulse hammered against his ribs as he turned to the others. Selene, always brimming with defiance, still had a hand on her blade, as if she expected the Keepers to reappear at any moment. Elias, usually quick with a clever remark, looked unsettled, his brows drawn in deep thought. Aldric, the warrior from a lost age, stood rigid—his eyes fixed on the space where the Keepers had stood, as though they had left behind a wound in the very fabric of reality.
"We should move," Selene said first, voice steady but urgent. "Standing around in a broken timeline feels like a bad idea."
Caius nodded, trying to push aside the lingering dread. "Agreed. But where do we go?"
Aldric exhaled sharply and turned toward the path ahead, where the ruins bled into an untouched stretch of land. "If what the Keepers said is true, then we don't just need to fix time—we need to understand it."
Elias finally broke his silence. "And where does one learn about time itself?"
The answer came almost immediately, like a whisper from history itself.
"The Tower of Eternum."
Caius wasn't sure who had spoken first, but the name sent a shiver down his spine.
The Tower of Eternum.
A fabled construct said to exist outside of time's grasp. Legends claimed that its halls held knowledge beyond mortal comprehension—that it was built by the first Chronomancer, a being who had glimpsed the shape of history itself.
Selene crossed her arms. "You do realize that's just a myth, right?"
Aldric shook his head. "So were the Keepers."
The argument ended there.
A Fractured Path
Their journey took them deeper into the ruins—past stone archways that flickered between existence and erasure, past remnants of battles that had never happened, yet somehow left scars on the land. Every step felt heavier, as if they were wading through layers of forgotten history.
At first, Caius thought it was exhaustion making his vision blur, but soon he realized—it wasn't just his imagination.
The world around them was warping.
Buildings that had crumbled centuries ago reassembled themselves in flashes of light, only to decay again seconds later. The sky twisted, stars blinking in and out as though reality itself was reconsidering what should exist.
Selene cursed under her breath. "I hate this."
Elias stopped abruptly. "Wait." He lifted a hand, eyes narrowing at a ripple in the air just ahead of them. The distortion was subtle—like heat rising from stone—but Caius could feel the pressure emanating from it.
And then he heard it.
A whisper.
No, not just a whisper. A voice.
Calling his name.
Caius' breath caught. He stepped closer despite the others' warnings. The distortion flickered, revealing something beyond it—a glimpse of another time.
He saw himself.
Or, at least, a version of himself.
Standing in the same ruins but years older. His hair was longer, his stance heavier with the burden of unseen years. In his hands, he held the Chronomancer's Heart—but it was no longer a relic. It had merged with him, veins of golden light pulsing across his arms. His gaze was distant, hollow.
And then, this future version of Caius looked directly at him.
"Turn back."
The words struck like thunder.
Caius staggered, his vision swimming. The others rushed forward, pulling him away from the distortion before it could consume him. As soon as he was clear, the vision snapped out of existence, leaving only the broken ruins behind.
Selene shook him. "Caius! What did you see?"
He swallowed hard, his throat dry. "Myself. But… not as I am now."
Elias paled. "A time echo."
Aldric's expression darkened. "Or a warning."
Silence stretched between them.
Caius clenched his fists. He could still feel the weight of that future version's gaze, the warning burning into his mind.
"Turn back."
But they couldn't turn back.
Not now.
"We keep going," he said, voice steadier than he felt. "No matter what's waiting for us at the Tower."
And so, with time itself shifting around them, they pressed on—toward a destiny that had yet to be written.