Opening:
The door to the cellar creaked open, and as Meric, Lina, and Marlon stepped out of the dark corridors, they felt a weight on their shoulders. From the moment they entered the room, they knew something was different. Even the slightest breeze felt off, as if something was wrong with the coldness of the old stones. Time had truly changed.
Outside, the sky was no longer the same. There was no familiar blue from the old world. The sky was covered in a gray shroud, as though trapped under an endless mist. The wind itself was sharper and harsher than the gentle breezes they once knew. There was something strange, a coldness, a sense of alienation.
Meric was the first to step outside and observe the surroundings. "This… this place… this world… This isn't the place we knew, is it?"
Lina, her fear growing as she felt the changes around her, replied, "No, this is so different… It's so strange, so quiet. It's as if the whole world has been affected by this change."
Marlon took another step back, his fear deepening. "Was Merlin right? Did time really change? Or is this just how we feel?"
Meric shook his head, taking a deep breath. "I can feel that this is real, Lina. Merlin's warnings weren't just warnings. Time has changed. But… what does that mean? How is everything, everything so different?"
The children stood in silence for a while, looking around them. They realized that everything they once knew now seemed like a mere illusion. The wind rising from the ground grew stronger by the second, and the silhouettes of the old cities were strangely draped in a dark veil.
Lina bit her lip as she gazed at the dark sky. "Everything has changed. Since the day Merlin died, the world… has gone dark. Losing time, it means everything is lost…"
Marlon, watching a fallen leaf, murmured, "But… did time go backwards? Have we… have we returned to the past?"
Meric tightly shut his eyes, trying to make sense of the changes swirling around him. "Yes… We really have… kind of returned to the past. It's hard to feel, but everything seems like the lost version of time. Now I understand Merlin's words better. After he died, the world sank into darkness. The wheel of time broke."
Lina took a fearful step forward. "If time has broken, then the darkness has grown stronger. This change isn't just temporary. The darkness will seep into everything, growing and ruling over everything."
Marlon frowned, "Then… what do we do? Which path should we choose? This world… this world isn't ours anymore."
Meric took a deep breath. "As Merlin said, now we'll have to make a choice between light and darkness. But I don't think it'll be easy. The darkness has grown, and we'll need to be much stronger to stop it."
As the children looked into the deep void, they felt as though everything had irrevocably changed with Merlin's loss. There was no going back now. Time was lost, and the only thing that remained was the darkness, a shadow of the ruins of the past, following them.
Lina, gaining some courage, said, "If this darkness is the end of the world after Merlin's disappearance, how are we going to fight it? Where do we start?"
Marlon, anxiously, asked, "If time has changed, how much will we change? Will our power be enough? What do we need to do?"
Meric thought for a moment in silence. "Time may have changed, but we are part of time. We need to understand that. If time is lost, each of us must find the power within. To break the darkness's power, we must unite."
As the children walked through the darkness, each step became heavier. Without knowing what the future held, each of them carried a hope against the lost power of time. They had to find a way to restore the wheel of time to its former state. However, one thing was certain in their minds: With every step, the darkness would grow stronger.