Kael staggered forward through the strange, broken landscape he'd shifted into. The air smelled of metal and storm. The ground beneath him was a mixture of cracked stone and something that shimmered like frozen lightning. Whatever this place was, it wasn't part of Eryndor's normal world.
But Kael had no time to breathe.
Because something was moving in the darkness.
Heavy steps. Slow. Deliberate.
Kael drew in a sharp breath and spun around, hand reaching for a sword that wasn't there—
The darkness shifted.
A long arm.
A pale face without eyes.
A mouth that opened too wide.
Not a Whisperer.
Something older.
Something hungry.
Kael backed away fast. The creature stepped into the thin silver light, its limbs bending like broken hinges, its head twitching. It inhaled sharply—as if smelling him.
"Time-scent…" it hissed.
Kael's pulse spiked. "Stay back."
The creature tilted its head. "He hunts. He calls. He wants your end."
Before Kael could react, the creature lunged.
Kael dove to the side. Its claws scraped the ground where he had just been, carving deep gashes into the stone. A shockwave rippled outward, rattling Kael's bones.
He tried to run—but the creature appeared in front of him again, bending reality with each movement.
This thing moves THROUGH time too…
Not like him.
Not like Erynthos.
Something more feral, instinctual.
A predator that hunted across timelines.
Kael was cornered.
The creature opened its jagged mouth.
"Your thread breaks today."
It lunged.
Kael shut his eyes—
And suddenly, everything stopped.
The creature froze mid-air.
The wind froze.
The world froze.
A cold voice cut through the stillness.
"Enough."
Kael's eyes snapped open.
Erynthos stood behind him.
Not a vision.
Not an illusion.
The god-king himself had forced his way into this broken corner of reality.
The creature dropped instantly to the ground, whimpering like a wounded animal. It bowed so low its skull nearly cracked.
Erynthos didn't look at it.
His gaze was locked on Kael.
Furious.
Focused.
Hungry.
"You shifted beyond my reach." His voice echoed unnaturally. "Do you understand what that means? It means you bypassed the boundaries of time I forged myself."
Kael stepped back. "Stay away from me."
Erynthos took a single step.
The creature beside them disintegrated from fear alone.
Erynthos's cloak billowed despite the air being frozen still. "I have lived centuries. I am the architect of time in this land. Nothing—nothing—moves without my will."
Kael didn't answer.
Erynthos's silver eyes glowed brighter. "And yet you slipped through the seams I created. You touched a place even I cannot predict."
Kael swallowed hard. "Then maybe I'm the one thing you can't control."
Erynthos smiled—a terrible, slow smile.
"There is nothing I cannot control."
He lifted his hand.
The frozen world cracked like a mirror.
Then shattered.
Kael was ripped away again—torn backward, forward, sideways—thrown into a swirling tunnel of light and shadow that twisted around him like a living storm.
Erynthos's voice followed him through the chaos:
"I will break every version of you until the truth falls out."
---
Erynthos stood alone in the ruined timeline Kael had escaped from.
The creature that had attacked Kael lay in ash, destroyed by the king's presence. The air flickered with unstable energy.
Erynthos brushed his fingers across the cracked ground.
"Interesting," he murmured. "Very interesting."
He saw what Kael had left behind.
A footprint made during the shift.
A distortion in the air.
A faint spark of temporal energy—raw, unrefined, powerful.
Not controlled.
Not shaped.
Not his.
Erynthos closed his eyes, letting the energy seep into his senses.
"No training… no knowledge…" he whispered. "And yet he reached a timeline even though I cannot enter freely."
He opened his eyes sharply.
"If he can do that by accident… what will he do when he learns to control it?"
For a moment, the god-king was completely still.
Then he laughed softly.
Not amused.
Not pleased.
Thrilled.
"Perhaps I don't need to kill him," Erynthos said. "Perhaps I need only… bend him."
The hall's shadows writhed around him.
But behind that cold smile, something else flickered.
Fear.
Because for the first time in centuries, Erynthos had encountered something that truly unsettled him:
A threat he could not fully see.
A tear in time he could not close.
A destiny formed without his permission.
And he hated it.
He turned away from the broken timeline.
"Send the Hunters," he commanded quietly.
Dozens of Whisperers materialized from the darkness, kneeling at once.
"Find him. Break his anchors. Tear every version of him apart… until only one remains."
The Whisperers rose silently.
The hunt began.
---
Kael gasped as he slammed onto solid ground again.
His vision was a blur of colors. The world slowly corrected itself around him. He found himself lying on a cold stone floor inside what looked like a massive ancient chamber.
Pillars cracked with age. Walls covered in faded symbols. A scent of dust… and forgotten gods.
A voice whispered in the quiet:
**"You are not safe."**
Kael looked up.
The cloaked figure from the road stood at the far end of the chamber—this time fully visible.
"I didn't choose this shift," Kael muttered, pushing himself upright.
"No," the figure said. "You were dragged between destinies."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Where am I?"
The figure stepped closer.
"You are in Draymir—the lost city erased from time."
Kael froze.
Rhyla had mentioned it.
But being here… felt wrong. Familiar. Alive.
"You must learn quickly," the cloaked figure said. "Erynthos is coming. His hunters are coming."
Kael's heart tightened. "Why me? Why am I able to do this?"
The figure raised its hood.
Light flickered underneath.
A faint outline of a face—ancient, powerful, half-forgotten.
"Because," the figure whispered, "I am the god Erynthos imprisoned."
Kael's breath caught.
"And you," the forgotten god said, "are the only one who can set me free."
A sound echoed behind them—
Footsteps. Whispers. Many.
Kael turned sharply.
Shadows stretched along the chamber walls.
Dozens of them.
**The Whisperers had found him.**