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š³ļø Location: The Depth of Silence
Kairen stood before a black stone pool, buried beneath the ruins of a church long swallowed by time.
No water. No echo. No reflection.
Only the smell of rust, saltā¦ and forgotten prayers.
Safaa stood beside him, silent. Her fingers trembled slightly over her sketchbook.
"This is where the Cult erases its pastā¦" she whispered.
"Where you must forgetā¦ in order to remember."
---
š©ø The Test
The voice returned ā
The same one from the Watchmaker's Invitation.
"To ascend, child of clocksā¦ you must be baptized by memory in reverse."
"What you love mostā¦ must be cast away. And what you fear mostā¦ shall be embraced."
A gear spun. A circle formed in the pool ā not of water, but pure memory ink.
---
Suddenly, the air snapped ā
and Kairen saw himself:
Holding a child under a blood moon.
Watching Safaa fade from the world like light from glass.
A vision: Minu's face ā confused, innocent, forgotten.
---
"You must chooseā¦"
"Which memory will you offer for erasure?"
Kairen closed his eyes.
His lips moved softly:
"Erase the day I first cried for her."
The memory of Minuāthe purest oneāburned like sunlight through frost.
It didn't vanish.
It scarred the inside of the pool like a seal.
---
š Baptism Begins
He stepped into the black.
It wasn't liquid ā it was thought, looping, crushing, holy.
"He who walks backwards into godhood must wear his sins like a crown."
His lungs filled with silence.
Every heartbeat played like a clock chime.
He saw:
The day he was named Noorain by a whispering hand.
The moment Safaa was drawn into existence by divine accident.
The forbidden word:
"Al-Dawla" ā the one who was almost born instead of him.
---
āļø System Update
ā Reverse Baptism Passed
š Sequence Advanced: Clockborne ā Sequence 7
š§ Ability Gained: Mirrored Mercy
ā Temporarily switch emotional states with someone once per lunar cycle.
Use: Intimidation, deception, or mercy
Cost: You forget one reason you ever loved anything.
---
šÆļø Aftermath
Kairen rose from the black pool.
His eyes flickered.
Safaa caught him ā tears building at the edge of her calm face.
"What did you give upā¦?"
she asked softly.
He looked at her with cold clarity.
"Enough to move forward.
But not enough to stop missing the warmth."
---
Suddenly ā
a new voice echoed from the shadows:
"So, Brotherā¦ you've chosen the Baptism."
"Pity. I chose Divine Execution instead."
From the dark ā
stepped a boy with Kairen's same eyes.
Same hair.
But twisted. Beautiful. Sharp.
"I am Al-Dawla.
The timeline you erased."
---
āļø To Be Continuedā¦
Next: Chapter 8 ā The Dead Do Speak
Al-Dawla was not bornā¦
But in the depths of forgotten timelines, he lived anyway.
Now he hunts the Fragments ā not to protect timeā¦
but to end it.