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Chapter 10: Echoes in the Gate
"Going in alone again?" Kai asked, folding his arms as Jin adjusted his gear at the edge of an abandoned train station.
Jin gave a short nod. "I need to know how far I've come."
"You sure you're not just trying to get yourself killed in a more dramatic fashion?"
Jin smirked. "You'd miss me."
Kai rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'd miss the silence."
Yura stepped up, handing Jin a small satchel. "Healing potions. And don't even think about dying. I'm not wasting my energy dragging your ghost back."
Jin accepted it with a small bow. "Thanks."
He stepped forward toward the cracked, pulsating gate embedded into the graffiti-covered platform. A sign hung loosely above it: C-Rank — Unstable.
Yura frowned. "Something's off about this one."
"I know," Jin said. "That's why I'm going in first."
The gate shimmered.
Then he vanished.
---
The air inside the gate hit him like a wall of ice.
Time… wasn't just off—it was fractured.
Wind shifted direction mid-gust. Shadows reversed, replayed, skipped.
> [Chrono Gate Detected]
[Warning: Time anomalies present. Standard physics may not apply.]
Jin drew his blade slowly. "No kidding…"
The dungeon resembled an old city—half submerged, buildings half-sunken into sand and moss. But it was wrong.
One building flickered, turning from intact to ruins over and over like a glitching memory.
He took a step forward.
A whisper hit his ear.
"Ryu… Jin…"
He froze.
"Who's there?"
Nothing answered.
He pressed forward.
---
Minutes turned into an hour. Or maybe seconds.
Time had no meaning here.
Then, in a collapsed plaza ahead, he saw it: a figure in black armor—tall, lean, motionless.
Jin's instincts screamed.
> [Chrono Phantom Detected: Unknown Variant]
[Warning: Data Incomplete.]
He gripped his blade. "Another phantom…"
But something about this one felt… familiar.
The figure tilted its head.
Then it charged.
---
Jin barely dodged.
The phantom moved like lightning, every strike coming a split second before Jin could react. He activated Time Domain, slowing the world.
But the phantom matched him.
Even inside the domain.
"What the hell—"
CLANG!
Their blades collided, the impact forcing Jin back a full meter.
The phantom moved like… him.
Same stance. Same counters.
It wasn't just mimicking him. It was him.
> [Chrono Phantom Identity Confirmed: Ryu Jin — Future Variant]
[Title: Time Reaver]
[Condition: Corrupted by the Void Monarch]
Jin's stomach dropped.
"This is what I become…?"
The phantom's eyes glowed with faint silver—like his.
Then, it spoke.
"One of us must die."
---
The fight was unlike anything before.
Jin used every trick he had—Temporal Dodge, Chrono Sense, even Rewind Death—barely holding his own.
Every time he tried to predict the phantom, it adjusted.
Every time he struck, the phantom struck faster.
He was fighting the perfect counter: himself, but stronger.
Worse… it knew him.
"You hesitate," the phantom said mid-swing.
Jin ducked, rolled, slashed. "You talk too much."
The phantom caught his blade with bare hands, twisted, and drove a punch into Jin's stomach, sending him flying through a crumbling stone wall.
Jin gasped, coughing blood.
> [Health: 42%]
The phantom stalked forward. "You can't stop it. The Void will win."
Jin pushed himself up. "We'll see."
---
He waited.
Watched.
Every movement of the phantom mirrored his own fighting style. Same footwork. Same feints.
But there was one thing Jin had that his future self didn't.
Hope.
He closed his eyes.
Then opened them with clarity.
He feinted a retreat—turned—used Chrono Blink to teleport just behind the phantom mid-swing.
With Time Domain triggered at that exact moment, his blade moved faster than thought.
The strike pierced the phantom's side.
And he whispered, "You're not me. Not anymore."
The phantom staggered—flickering.
"You changed your path…" it said softly, almost… proud.
Then it shattered.
---
> [Chrono Phantom Defeated]
[Skill Unlocked: Flashback Blade – Recall a single past strike and replay it instantly.]
[Gate Cleared.]
[Chrono Core Acquired.]
Jin knelt, catching his breath.
The Chrono Core floated before him—pale blue and glowing with thin cracks of light inside it.
He reached out and touched it.
Pain exploded through his mind—visions flooding in.
A world scorched by fire. Monarchs standing over mountains of ash. Ayla… screaming. Kai… gone.
A black throne rising at the edge of time.
And then silence.
---
When he opened his eyes, he was back outside the gate.
Yura rushed to his side. "You're bleeding!"
Kai stared. "What the hell happened in there?"
Jin slowly stood, wiping blood from his mouth.
"I met my future," he said.
Kai narrowed his eyes. "And?"
Jin smiled faintly.
"I killed him."
---
End of Chapter 10