The Forbidden Clock had been ticking for exactly thirty-seven rotations before Kaien heard them.
Footsteps.
Not Watchers. Not Spiral Choir. These were human. Uneven. Real.
Kaien pressed his back to the dome's wall, one hand on the clock's glowing edge, the other gripping the shard—now cool, as if hiding.
The footsteps drew closer. Whoever approached wasn't hiding. They weren't cautious. They walked with confidence, like they belonged to the ruin.
A shadow passed over the broken archway.
A voice followed:
"If you were one of them, you wouldn't have tripped the Echo Pulse.So relax, kid. We're here because you're interesting."
They entered—two of them.
The first was a tall woman, lean with streaks of silver in her braided hair. She wore half-melted armor patched with memory-cloth, and her left eye glowed faint blue: a Timeweaver's implant. Her presence made the dome's air buzz.
The second was shorter, broader—a man built like stone, his arms tattooed with the faded sigils of old timelines. One bore a cracked spiral with a line struck through it. He carried a fusion-rifle across his back, but his eyes were kind.
"I'm Mirra, former Weave-Tech for the Chrono-Warband," the woman said, gesturing to herself. "And this is Gorran, heavy division. We thought we were the last."
Kaien didn't move. "Last what?"
Mirra stepped toward him slowly, careful not to trigger the clock's reaction.
"The last people who remember that time used to flow, not inflate. That truth mattered. That Elion—" she pointed to the shard in Kaien's hand "—wasn't a myth."
Kaien stared at them. He didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
Mirra nodded. "You've seen him, haven't you? Or at least a spark of him."
"I heard his name," Kaien whispered. "In my head. When I touched this."
Gorran whistled low. "Then the legends were right. There were Echo Seeds left."
Mirra's face hardened. "If he's responding to the shard, the Choir won't be far. Expansion doesn't tolerate anomalies."
Kaien looked between them, still processing. "What do you mean, 'Echo Seed'?"
Mirra motioned him to follow.
"You want answers? Come with us. But once you cross the Veinline, there's no turning back. You'll be marked. Like us."
They led Kaien through the back of the dome, where the clock's gears opened to reveal a narrow stairwell descending into darkness. At first, it looked like a maintenance shaft—then like a tunnel. Then… something else entirely.
Kaien realized the walls were made of frozen time.
He saw still-images embedded in the crystal—moments trapped mid-motion:
A hand reaching for a falling cup.
A tear halfway down a cheek.
A soldier mid-laugh as a blade passed through his chest.
"Welcome to the Subvoid," Gorran said, voice solemn. "Where broken moments go to die."
They walked for what felt like hours—or maybe minutes. Time behaved strangely here. Eventually, the tunnel opened into a vast cavern lit by floating lights made of bent memory.
An entire underground city waited below.
People bustled between hanging bridges and shattered clock towers. They wore mismatched clothes from forgotten ages. Some had no faces, some had three. Some flickered in and out of the visible spectrum.
And in the center of it all, a cracked monument stood tall.
A statue of a man, cloaked in rings.
Elion.
Kaien stared at it.
"You remember him?" he asked.
"We remember what he tried to do," Mirra said. "Before Biggenator rewrote the meaning of growth. Before Expansion consumed everything."
Gorran stepped beside Kaien, voice low.
"Elion didn't just fight for time—he stored himself in it. Ten seeds. Ten sparks. Hidden across forgotten folds."
Kaien gripped the shard.
"I have one."
Mirra met his gaze, fierce and certain.
"Then you're not just a survivor, Kaien. You're a carrier."
A low rumble shook the cavern. Lights flickered. The farthest wall warped—folding slightly inward, then out.
Mirra swore. "They've traced him. Already?"
Gorran slammed his fist into an old activation panel.
"The Choir's coming."
Kaien's pulse raced.
"What do we do?"
Mirra's lips twisted into a smirk.
"We fight, of course. But first… we wake him up."
As the resistance scrambled, Kaien was taken to a chamber beneath the statue. The walls were lined with copper glyphs and time-dust filters. At the center stood a pedestal shaped like a crown—missing one stone.
Kaien stepped forward and placed the shard.
Light exploded.
The air trembled.
And in the golden beam that followed, a voice—fractured, ghostly—spoke three words:
"Is it… time?"