The sky cracked like glass—again. That made it the fourth time this morning. Time was bleeding through itself, and only Julius Novachrono seemed to notice.
People moved normally, unaware that the world kept skipping. A bird mid-flight rewound, wings flapping backward for a moment before resuming. A falling apple hovered inches above the ground, snapped back to the branch, then fell again. No one reacted. But Julius did.
His hand twitched. His heartbeat stuttered. A low hum echoed through the air, inaudible to others but thunderous in his ears. This wasn't natural. This wasn't magic. It was something else.
He stood atop the old Watchtower ruins at the edge of the Clover Kingdom, a place that once watched for invaders. Now, it served another purpose—watching for the end.
Time distorted again.
He blinked and found himself back on the steps, ten seconds ago. The wind rewound in his face. Dust flew backward into the air. The clouds above shifted counterclockwise.
This was the fifth loop.
And it was getting worse.
A small glyph flickered into existence in front of his right eye. Elegant, golden script twisted into numbers and gears that only he could see.
[CHRONO-SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
[Temporal Anomaly Detected]
[Stability Level: 12%]
[Recommendation: Emergency Activation — Core Function "Time Bastion"]
He hadn't seen that message in centuries. The Chrono-System—the artifact embedded into his soul when he first touched the Flow of Eternity—had stayed dormant since the last war. It had only ever activated once, when he faced death.
And now, it stirred again.
"Why now?" he murmured. His voice felt too loud, as if the world was buffering.
[Answer: A higher force is rewriting causality.]
[Threat Level: Dimensional Collapse]
[Enemy Presence Detected — Unknown Signature Approaching]
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
He wasn't alone.
From the horizon, beyond the valley of floating ruins, a figure emerged. A ripple in reality itself. Not teleportation. Not spatial magic. Something deeper—like the world was making room for the thing arriving.
He narrowed his eyes. He could see nothing but shadows wrapped in chakra. A sensation clawed at his spine. It wasn't fear. It was recognition.
Whatever that was, it had existed outside time. Its presence felt like a wound in history.
He tried to breathe, but the wind stopped. Literally. The world around him froze. Birds hung mid-flight. Leaves stayed suspended. The dust halted in the air.
Time had stopped.
He hadn't cast the spell.
[WARNING: External Time-Lock Imposed]
[Source: UNKNOWN]
[Chrono-System Sync Interrupted]
[Restoring Flow... FAILURE]
A voice echoed—not through sound, but directly into his thoughts.
"You are the last guardian of a broken stream."
Julius turned slowly. The figure behind him hadn't made a sound, but there it stood—a silhouette in the shape of a man, but far too vast to be real. Its cloak danced like ink in water. Its eyes—if they were eyes—burned like twin galaxies collapsing.
"Who are you?" Julius asked, his voice calm, controlled.
The figure smiled. It was the only part of its face that wasn't a shadow.
"I am the consequence of your delay."
Then, the world resumed.
Julius moved instantly—vanished and reappeared midair, gears spinning around his body, time layers wrapping him like armor.
The Chrono-System flared fully awake.
[CHRONO-SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[User: Julius Novachrono | Rank: Chrono Warden Prime]
[Current Functions Available: Temporal Rewind — 10 seconds | Time Bastion | Chrono-Lock (Single Use)]
"Try me," Julius whispered.
The figure stepped forward. Reality buckled around him. Cracks appeared in the sky. Not thunder—actual cracks. Through them, Julius saw flickers of other worlds. One showed a masked man in a red cloud cloak. Another—a teenage swordsman with white hair standing on a rooftop. Another—a boy with pink hair unleashing a monstrous shadow behind him.
The multiverse was bleeding.
"Who are you really?" Julius asked again, voice firm.
The figure tilted its head.
"I have worn many names. Uchiha. Jinchūriki. Sage. God. But here—"
It raised a hand. The wind screamed. The land trembled.
"—I am inevitability."
The blast struck before Julius could blink. Not energy—history itself collapsing into a single point. The world skipped forward. A flash of light. Then darkness.
[DAMAGE EXCEEDS RECOVERY THRESHOLD]
[Temporal Rewind Triggered]
[Rewinding 10 seconds…]
He woke up ten seconds ago, again standing on the tower. The blast hadn't happened yet. But it would.
And this time, he was ready.
He vanished as the attack came, reappearing above the entity's head, hands spinning twin glyphs of layered time. The spells launched—golden threads of reversed causality, aimed directly at the creature's core.
The figure raised one hand, stopping them with a thought.
It laughed.
"Even now, you are late."
Then it disappeared.
No explosion. No sound. Just absence.
[Dimensional Signature Lost]
[Chrono-System Sync: Stable at 28%]
[New Objective Acquired: Prevent Multiversal Collapse]
[First Anchor: Locate Dimensional Anomaly 'Gojo Satoru']
[Time Limit: 48 Hours]
Julius stared at the sky.
In the distance, fragments of a red sun fell apart like petals. Somewhere across the collapsing branches of reality, time itself screamed.
And for the first time in centuries, he wasn't sure he could fix it.