The sky was a festering wound.  

Kael knelt in the ash, his Chrono-Blade buried to the hilt in dead earth. The air tasted like static and rot, the twin suns blotted out by a permanent eclipse. Liora crouched beside him, her fingers tracing the serpent mark—now black and veined, pulsing in time with the distant screech of Beasts.  

*“Where are we?”* she whispered.  

*“Home,”* Kael lied.  

But he knew. The skeletal ruins of Blackforge’s spires jutted from the horizon like broken teeth. The Church had won here. Their banners hung tattered but triumphant: a sun devoured by a serpent, its fangs dripping ink.  

A low growl rumbled behind them.  

Three Eclipse Beasts stalked closer, their forms warped—*humanoid*, with remnants of armor fused to their carapaces. One wore the tattered cloak of a Void Hunter. Another had Seraphina’s golden eyes, milky and cracked.  

*“Don’t look,”* Kael warned, but Liora was already staring.  

*“They’re… people,”* she breathed.  

The third Beast raised a clawed hand. Its face, half-melted, contorted into a mockery of speech.  

*“K…ael… Join… us…”*  

He lunged.  

Time bent, but sluggishly, his tumor-riddled arm screaming in protest. The Beast with Seraphina’s eyes dodged, its movements eerily precise—*her archer’s reflexes*, preserved in monstrosity. Liora screamed as the Void Hunter Beast pinned her, its breath reeking of decay.  

*“We… remember… your promise…”* it gurgled.  

Kael’s blade severed its head. The other Beasts scattered, wailing.  

Liora scrambled back, her robe torn. *“What promise?!”*  

*“Nothing.”* He wiped black ichor from his blade. *“They’re just echoes.”*  

But the lie curdled in his throat. These Beasts weren’t random—they were *his* failures, reshaped by time.  

---

**Rylan’s lantern flickered** as he deciphered the journal’s cipher.  

*“…core instability can be mitigated by anchoring to a living chrono-source. Warning: the anchor must be willing, or…”*  

The rest was scorched away.  

Seraphina paced the hut, her bowstring taut. *“We shouldn’t be doing this. That Void Hunter’s body… the way it *dissolved*… Kael’s not just strong. He’s wrong.”*  

*“He’s our only chance against the Church,”* Rylan said, too quickly.  

*“Are you sure?”* She stopped, her gaze sharp. *“Or are you just scared he’ll turn on you next?”*  

A knock shattered the silence.  

The door creaked open, revealing a hooded figure—*Future Liora*, her missing eye hidden beneath a bloodstained patch.  

*“Burn the journal,”* she said. *“Or you’ll end up like him.”*  

She tossed a severed hand onto the table. Rylan’s severed hand, tattooed with chrono-equations.  

Seraphina nocked an arrow. *“Who are you?!”*  

The woman smiled. *“The one who’s always too late.”*  

Then she vanished, leaving only feathers.  

---

Kael found the well at dusk.  

The last intact structure in the wasteland, its stones etched with Church sigils. A body floated in the water—*Dain*, his chains of lunar energy now fused to his bones, anchoring him to the bottom.  

*“They kept him alive,”* Liora said, horrified. *“Why?”*  

Kael gripped the corpse’s wrist. Time reversed in a localized burst, just enough to thaw Dain’s final moments from decaying flesh:  

*“The Seventh Betrayer is the key,”* the man gasped, his voice playing backward in Kael’s mind. *“The Sovereign… it’s not Veyra. It’s—”*  

The vision shattered.  

Liora pulled him back. *“Your arm!”*  

The tumor had spread, black veins snaking to his shoulder. He wrenched his sleeve down. *“We need to move.”*  

*“To where?!”*  

A shadow fell over them.  

The Eclipse Sovereign descended, its form a shifting abomination of Beasts, human limbs, and Church relics. At its core, encased in pulsating flesh, was High Ascendant Veyra—her mouth stretched wide in a silent scream.  

*“Kael Ardent,”* the Sovereign boomed, its voice a chorus of the dead. *“You are the wound. The First. The Last. Let us… *consume* you.”*  

Liora’s mark blazed. The Sovereign recoiled.  

*“The prophet,”* it hissed. *“You brought her to us.”*  

Kael grabbed Liora and *ran*.  

---

**TO BE CONTINUED…**