The clash of steel reverberated through the air like a bell tolling the end of an age.
Karos dove behind an overturned cart as the shockwave from the first strike blasted dust and debris across the square. The woman's blade shimmered through countless forms—shortsword, longsword, even a scythe—for just the blink of an eye before settling into a single elegant shape. It was as if the weapon couldn't remember what it had once been... or perhaps it remembered too much.
The Rift Reapers pressed forward, gliding rather than stepping, their void-twisted weapons leaving trails of flickering memory in their wake. Every strike they made didn't just cut—it erased. Cobblestones blinked out of existence. A fruit stall melted into nothing, as if it had never been built.
Karos's heart pounded. He wanted to run. Gods, he should run. But his feet refused to move. Something about the woman's presence held him there. Not just fear. Not just awe. A feeling he couldn't explain—like he had been waiting for this moment his entire life.
The woman parried a sweeping strike and shouted over her shoulder. "You! Boy!"
"Karos," he called back instinctively, barely peeking from cover.
"Karos," she echoed, tasting the name like it might be important. "Take this!"
With a swift motion, she pulled a glowing pendant from her neck and tossed it toward him. It spun in the air, trailing fragments of time—tiny scenes flickering across its surface: a great tree burning, a man with silver eyes kneeling in snow, a city collapsing into the sea.
Karos caught it clumsily, the metal warm against his palm. The moment he touched it, visions surged through his mind—flashes of the past, pieces of the future. And through it all, her. Standing at the edge of a battlefield that hadn't yet come to pass.
"What… what is this?" he gasped.
"The Anchor of the Veil," she replied, ducking under a blow and retaliating with a strike that made one of the Rift Reapers shudder. "You're not just witnessing the breach, Karos. You're part of it now."
The words chilled him.
The second Rift Reaper moved too fast to see, phasing beside the woman in an instant and striking her shoulder. She cried out, staggering back, armor sparking with unstable energy. Time itself wavered around her—aging her face one moment, making her younger the next.
Karos stood, heart racing, the pendant glowing brighter in his hand.
Without understanding why, he stepped forward.
And the world stopped.
Or rather, slowed. Everything around him moved like thick honey. The Rift Reapers dragged through space, and even the woman turned her head as if submerged in a dream.
The pendant pulsed.
Karos looked down to see the glow wrapping around his arm, forming lines of silver that traced his veins like rivers. His skin shimmered, and for a moment—just a moment—he could see versions of himself: one older, one younger, one clad in armor, one wearing the robes of a scholar.
And then, time snapped back into motion.
With reflexes he shouldn't have had, Karos grabbed a length of pipe from the ground and deflected a strike aimed at the woman's head.
The Rift Reaper recoiled.
The woman stared at him, wide-eyed. "You're… attuned. But how—"
A siren howled from the sky—low and unnatural, a sound not meant for mortal ears. The breach behind them convulsed again, growing wider. Cracks spread through the air like lightning, revealing glimpses of things beyond comprehension: a floating city aflame, a dragon bound in chains of light, and somewhere… a voice calling Karos's name.
The woman turned to him, her silver eyes fierce. "If we don't seal this breach, the entire quadrant will collapse. I need your help."
Karos swallowed hard. "What do I do?"
She pointed to the pendant. "You anchor time now. You hold the thread. Whatever happens next… don't let go."
The Rift Reapers closed in, and Karos felt the weight of ages settle on his shoulders.