The world was collapsing.
The sky above the Heart fractured like glass, revealing endless voids behind it—each shard reflecting a different version of the same moment. The City Beyond Time groaned in its death throes, gears grinding against one another as the ancient mechanism powering reality began to tear itself apart.
Elara clutched the Shard in her hand. It pulsed like a heartbeat, frantic, unsteady. Lorien steadied her from behind as the tremors intensified, sending cracks racing beneath their feet.
"The Heart's collapse is destabilizing every layer of this realm," Lorien shouted above the roar. "If we don't get out now—"
He didn't finish. The floor split open, swallowing half the walkway. From the depths, luminous tendrils surged upward—remnants of the Keeper's power, mindless and enraged.
Elara raised her hand, summoning a barrier of pure light. It shattered instantly.
"She's not gone," she hissed. "She's trying to pull us down with her."
From the rift below, a figure began to rise—half-flesh, half-clockwork, her face torn and flickering between realities. It was the Keeper—or what remained of her. The molten glass that had once been her heart burned through her chest like a dying star.
> "You broke time," the Keeper rasped. "And time will break you."
She unleashed a wave of temporal energy that struck like lightning. Elara and Lorien were thrown backward, crashing into a pillar that splintered on impact.
Pain flared through Elara's ribs, but she forced herself to her feet. "You can't win," she spat, golden aura flaring around her. "You're already unraveling."
The Keeper smiled—a horrifying, fractured grin. "Then I'll take you with me into the void."
The tendrils lunged again, slicing through air and stone. Lorien met them mid-surge, his sword glowing as he struck, each blow severing another line of corruption. Sparks and blood mingled as he fought like a man possessed, eyes blazing.
"Elara!" he shouted. "End it!"
She gritted her teeth, raising the Shard high. The relic pulsed once, drawing in all the golden sands still drifting through the air. They gathered around her in a swirling storm, forming runes—old, forbidden, divine.
> "Chronos Sanctum—Seal of the Eternal Hour.
Light erupted outward. Time itself slowed to a crawl. The Keeper's movements became sluggish, her face twisting in fury as she tried to resist.
Elara stepped forward through the frozen world, every heartbeat echoing like thunder.
"This realm dies with you," she whispered. "But we'll live."
She plunged the Shard into the Keeper's heart.
A silent explosion followed—light swallowing everything.
The Heart cracked completely, its glow surging outward in one last desperate pulse. Every tower, every fragment of the city burst into starlight, scattering into the winds of time.
And Elara fell—
—through endless white.
When she awoke, there was no sound. No city. No Keeper. Only an endless ocean of mist beneath a pale, eternal dawn.
"Elara."
Lorien's voice was faint but real. He was kneeling beside her, his armor cracked, his blade broken. Despite it all, he was smiling. "You did it. The Heart's gone."
Elara sat up slowly, her head pounding. The Shard lay nearby, dull and lifeless now. "Gone… but where are we?"
"The in-between," came a voice behind them.
They turned.
A woman stood on the mist's surface, barefoot, her form flickering between shadow and light. Her face was unfamiliar yet hauntingly kind.
"The void between seconds," she said softly. "The space where endings rest before they are forgotten."
Elara's eyes widened. "You're—"
"The true Keeper," the woman finished, smiling faintly. "The one who existed before time was written. What you faced was only a reflection, corrupted by mortal fear."
Elara's breath caught. "Then… Sera?"
The woman's gaze softened. "Her soul now sleeps within the new dawn. You gave her peace. But peace demands a price, and that debt remains unpaid."
The mist around them began to ripple, forming echoes of countless worlds—kingdoms rising and falling, stars igniting and dying.
Lorien stepped forward. "What price?"
The Keeper extended her hand toward Elara. "The Shard of Time must be returned to its origin—or it will seek a new host. One of you must carry it into the void."
The Shard began to pulse again, faint golden light returning to its core. It shimmered with life, like a heartbeat waiting to claim another.
Elara hesitated, then whispered, "I'll do it."
Lorien grabbed her arm. "No. You've already lost too much."
She met his gaze. "And you've already given enough. I can't let anyone else pay for what I started."
Before he could protest, she lifted the Shard and pressed it to her heart.
Golden energy surged outward, wrapping around her like threads of light. Her body began to fade, particles of time lifting from her skin.
"Elara, stop!" Lorien roared, grabbing her shoulders. "Don't—don't leave me again!"
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she smiled. "I'm not leaving. I'm becoming."
Her voice softened, fading like a whisper through eternity. "When the world begins again… remember the seconds we shared."
Then, with one final breath, she vanished—her light scattering across the void like dawn breaking for the first time.
Lorien fell to his knees, clutching at the fading warmth in the air where she had been. The ocean of mist rippled once, then stilled.
From far above, a single chime echoed.
Time restarted.
When Lorien awoke again, he was lying in a field of golden light beneath an open sky. The ruins of the city were gone, replaced by a quiet horizon where the sun never set.
Beside him, the Shard rested, now faintly warm and humming softly—as if breathing.
He closed his hand around it, his voice breaking. "Elara…"
A soft whisper brushed his ear.
> "Every moment you live, I live too."
He smiled through tears, looking toward the dawn.
And somewhere beyond time, a clock began to tick again.