The horizon wasn't just getting cold—it was freezing in place. The water itself was turning translucent, refracting light in strange, broken patterns. Bubbles froze mid-rise. Coral stopped swaying. A lone fish, caught in the shimmer of a rippling current, hovered—immobile—its body perfectly preserved as if time itself had abandoned it.
And then the queen arrived.
From the depths, the Chrono-Drift Queen emerged—not in a sudden burst like the Maw, but slowly, inevitably, like the ticking of a clock you couldn't stop.
She wasn't massive like the previous boss, but what she lacked in size she made up for in presence. Her body resembled a bio-mechanical jellyfish: translucent bell top studded with slowly rotating gear-like segments, and beneath it, dozens of long tendrils moved with eerie precision, dragging chunks of ancient ruins with her—frozen scenes locked in time.
Inside her crystal core, the reflection of the battlefield twisted out of sync.
