Night came like a thief, and Jorik sat beneath the ruined spire of a forgotten temple in the outer slums.
Cold wind whistled through cracked stone columns, brushing over his malnourished skin. He meditated—eyes closed, breath calm.
> [Soul Gear Awakening Available]
[Warning: Soul Gear manifests true nature of user's spirit.]
[Would you like to awaken your Soul Gear? Y/N]
"Yes," he said without hesitation.
Pain tore through him like lightning.
His entire body seized, bones glowing under his flesh with lines of searing blue and silver. His mind burned with flashes:
> —Endless battlefields.
—A crown of black iron melting in flames.
—A clock made of swords, ticking backward.
—A blade cutting through the threads of fate itself.
Then silence.
Then… power.
A black sigil formed on the back of his left hand: a broken hourglass impaled by a sword.
The ground trembled. Air twisted.
And from that distortion of space-time—
It emerged.
A sword unlike any forged by mortal means.
---
[Soul Gear Awakened: Calamity Chronoblade – Paradox Severer]
> A weapon forged from fractured timelines and royal blood. It denies cause and effect, carves through inevitability, and may—at great cost—sever the very thread of death itself.
---
It floated before him, humming with unstable power.
The blade was translucent black steel, constantly shifting—like it existed in multiple moments at once. Clock gears rotated slowly in its crossguard, ticking in reverse. A chain of silver rings wrapped around the hilt, and its edge bled faint streaks of blue light.
Jorik gripped it.
And in that moment, time broke around him.
The wind froze. The rats paused mid-scurry. The slum's noise faded into pure silence.
Then it resumed—like nothing had happened.
> [You have gained the Passive Skill: Temporal Severance]
[You have gained the Active Skill: Rewind Cut]
[You have gained the Title: Chrono-Slayer]
Jorik fell to one knee, breathing heavy.
"I'm… back," he whispered. "But I'm no longer just a king of blades."
He stood, eyes glowing faintly violet, the Chronoblade humming on his back.
"I'll build my empire again. But not with soldiers. Not with armies."
He turned toward the city's center, where nobles lived in towers of gold.
"No… I'll start with blood. One noble at a time."