Chapter Eleven: The Hollow Time Maze
As Rayan stepped into the Door of Light, he felt something inside him tearing apart—not physical pain, but as if a part of his consciousness was being removed and replaced.
He wasn't standing on solid ground. It felt like he was suspended in air between two moments that belonged to no time.
Suddenly, his body hit the ground. He opened his eyes to a strange world… a silver sky above, and a glass-like earth beneath, shattered yet making no sound when he stepped on it.
The air was neither hot nor cold. Time itself felt… frozen.
Rayan rose slowly, catching his breath. He looked around and noticed the horizon repeating itself, like the entire world was a mirrored illusion stretching endlessly.
He whispered:
"Where am I this time?"
The Gate Spirit's voice echoed inside him, calm and deep:
"You have entered the Hollow Time Dimension… where time does not pass—it is tested."
Rayan gasped: "Tested? How?"
She answered:
"Each moment here will test a decision you once made… and reveal outcomes that never came to be."
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The ground beneath his feet began to shift, transforming into a whirling vortex of alternate memories.
Before his eyes, he saw himself returning to a distant moment—the day he chose to leave his mother in search of his future.
But this time, he stayed. He cared for her. His life grew differently—less exciting, but warmer.
The vision changed.
He saw himself at a crossroad in a previous dimension, choosing to fight rather than flee. But in this version, he ran.
He survived… but lost a piece of himself.
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He whispered: "All of these… are versions of who I could have been."
The spirit responded:
"Yes. This dimension does not show you what you missed to make you regret, but to help you understand:
You would never be who you are… without the choices you made."
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Rayan kept walking, and with every step, another alternate life played out before him.
In one scene, he lived a normal life—no powers, no portals. Just a quiet office job. He was smiling… but the spark in his eyes was gone.
In another, he became a powerful ruler of a faraway world… but sacrificed everyone he loved to gain that throne.
Each vision pierced deeper than the last—each held meaning, each carried weight.
⸻
Then it all stopped.
He found himself in a circular room. No windows. No doors. In the center stood a single massive clock, its hands frozen at eleven.
A creature appeared before him—part humanoid, part machine, composed of gears, chains, and spinning dials.
Its voice was mechanical, layered, cold:
"Rayan… you passed the first part of the test.
But no one leaves the Hollow Time Dimension without facing their Core Regret."
Rayan's heart clenched. "What regret?"
The guardian replied:
"The one you buried so deep… even you forgot it was there."
⸻
Suddenly, a swirl of smoke parted, revealing a memory:
A young boy shouting at his little brother, then slamming the door behind him and leaving.
Rayan gasped—a memory he had tried to forget for years.
His younger brother, Saif, had gone missing after that day. No one ever found him. And Rayan carried that pain in silence all his life.
He fell to his knees, tears falling freely.
"It was my fault… I was too afraid to face it… I hid behind lies, even inside the dimensions."
The guardian answered:
"Admission is not the end… You must step into that moment—not as a victim… but as one ready to confront it."
⸻
The vortex of time opened again, and this time Rayan saw that day through new eyes.
He saw the fear in his brother's gaze. The hand reaching toward him. The way his younger self chose to walk away—not out of cruelty,
but because he believed he was too weak to protect him.
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"I see now," Rayan said, "I wasn't cruel… I was scared."
He stood up and stepped toward the image of his brother.
"I'm sorry… I wasn't strong enough back then. But now—I swear—I am."
⸻
The great clock above them began to move.
Time flowed once more.
And a golden path of light appeared before him, glittering like threads of healed memories.
The guardian bowed his head:
"You have faced time—not as one bound by it, but as one who shapes it."
Rayan stepped onto the path, his heart lighter, his spirit clearer.
He didn't know what the next dimension would bring…
But for the first time—he was no longer running from himself.
⸻
End of Chapter Eleven