Lightning tore across the sky.
Kairos stood on a mountainside, wind whipping through his coat. The world below was on fire—entire cities crumbling in synchronized collapse. The horizon pulsed with strange energy, warping the air like heatwaves.
"They've activated the Vault," Riven said beside him, eyes distant. "The Circle isn't just hunting reincarnates anymore… they're rewriting the cycle."
Veyra turned, her voice sharp. "They found the Anima Core—the soul-engine buried before the First Age. That thing doesn't rewrite time—it devours it."
Kairos clenched his fists. "Then we destroy it."
But Arius shook his head. "We can't. Not directly. The Core's protected by a temporal barrier—moving through it would split our bodies across lifetimes."
"So what do we do?" Kairos asked.
Riven pulled a crystal from his cloak. It hummed with layered voices.
"We outpace it."
He explained: using his dream-walking power, they could leap between alternate versions of their world—searching for a moment where the Core was vulnerable. A timeline where the Circle made a mistake.
"But every jump strains your soul," Veyra warned. "Too many, and you'll unravel."
Kairos didn't flinch. "One good timeline. That's all we need."
Riven nodded. "Then brace yourselves."
He stepped forward—and the world bent.
---
[Timeline 1: The World of Cinders]
They landed in a scorched reality, where silver ash rained from the sky. The Circle had already won here. Towers of black crystal pierced the clouds, and cities were locked in eternal loops.
In this version, Kairos was dead—executed in chains.
Arius found his own grave, marked with a sword.
"We're too late here," Veyra said quietly. "Next."
---
[Timeline 2: The Shattered Sky]
Here, magic had ruptured the atmosphere. Earth floated in fragments. Time stuttered. Days lasted seconds.
They saw themselves—ghosts of this world—locked in eternal combat against monstrous forms of the Circle, twisted by the Core.
Riven's voice echoed: "Wrong again."
---
[Timeline 3: The Turning Point]
Then—hope.
They arrived in a silent forest. The Vault was whole. The Core untouched. The Circle's forces... delayed. Here, they had made a critical error.
But this world came with a cost.
The Kairos of this timeline—still alive—stood before them.
He wore a crown of flame, and power rolled off him in waves.
"You're me," he said, eyes narrowing. "And you brought them."
His gaze landed on Riven—and turned cold.
"I sealed that dream-walker in the Void ten years ago. He betrayed us."
Riven stepped forward, jaw clenched. "I made a choice to protect the Nexus."
"And cost us everything," this Kairos growled.
Weapons began to form in his hands—two curved blades of soulsteel.
Veyra stepped between them. "We don't have time for this. The Circle is coming."
Too late.
A shockwave split the sky.
The Circle had arrived—dozens of armored enforcers teleporting in, their leader at the center: The Severed King—half-machine, half-memory, a being stitched together from the corpses of past Kairoses.
"Found you," it rasped. "All of you."
Battle erupted.
The forest became a warzone.
Riven danced between timelines, flickering through attacks.
Arius held the line, carving through soldiers with time-infused strikes.
Veyra summoned ancient seals to shield them—but they cracked with every hit.
And Kairos—the real one—faced himself.
"You don't have to fight me," he said. "Help me stop this."
But the crowned Kairos roared, "I am the Flame. You are the shadow."
Their blades clashed. Sparks rained like stars. Each strike was a mirror, a memory.
But Kairos—our Kairos—fought not to win, but to understand.
And when he saw the pain behind the crown… he lowered his weapon.
"I forgive you," he said.
The crowned Kairos faltered.
And in that moment of hesitation—Kairos stepped forward and merged with him.
Fire exploded. Memories collided. Two lives became one.
When the smoke cleared, a new Kairos stood—taller, steadier, brighter.
Eyes burning with ancient flame.
And he spoke a single word:
"Enough."
He turned to the Severed King—and unleashed the Flameheart at full power.
Time shattered.
The Circle screamed.
And the Core—visible now, weakened by the disruption—was exposed.
"This is our only shot!" Veyra shouted.
Riven moved. He opened the last door between realities.
And Kairos stepped through it—toward the Nexus.
---