The Velwood Ruins groaned with warped time and shredded reality. The air shimmered unnaturally, heavy with magical residue.
Myrelion crouched on a crumbled stone arch, peering into the rift where a creature of torn timelines stalked. It was a Time-Flayed Aberration—a beast of looping pain and unstable future.
He exhaled slowly.
Then vanished.
Solbite's Temporal Fracture shimmered subtly as he reappeared behind the beast in a blink. A moment passed—and he had already delivered three precision strikes across its joints.
The creature screeched, spewing corrupted mana. Myrelion's left hand moved like a whisper.
Nyxfang glowed.
The incoming wave of spatial distortion magic fizzled and inverted—twisting into pure reinforcement energy. The beast's spell, once meant to collapse reality, instead forced its body to harden, locking its limbs unnaturally.
It tried to scream again—then froze.
Time fractured around them.
Myrelion stepped into a Chrono Rift, slicing five seconds forward.
He appeared in front of the beast—Solbite poised, Nyxfang howling with reversal energy.
"Time's up," he murmured.
He activated a twin-dagger combo—a brief surge of his Balance Breaker, Eclipse Incarnate: Fangveil Sovereign, flaring around him. His armor manifested for just six seconds—daggers orbiting him in graceful, lethal arcs.
A barrage of Reversal Legion blades tore through the Aberration's body, every slash countering a timeline it might have used to escape.
The rift collapsed.
The beast died in every possible future simultaneously.
Silence fell.
As his armor faded, Myrelion stood alone in the clearing, breathing steady.
But he wasn't untouched. Blood trickled from his nose. His vision swam slightly.
Temporal Recoil.
"Too close again…" he muttered, wiping the blood away.
But he smiled faintly.
He was learning.
Surviving.
Growing.
And someday—he would take the truth of his bloodline, his power, and the oaths of the dead…
…and shatter the fate written for him by gods and emperors alike.