The clash of blades echoed through the catacombs, each strike fracturing time itself.  

Future Liora parried Kael’s Chrono-Blade, her movements a mirror of his own—*too familiar*. Her dagger grazed his corrupted arm, and the tumor pulsed, vomiting black ichor.  

*“You’re dying faster this loop,”* she hissed. *“How many reversals? Ten? Twenty?”*  

Kael snarled, aging the air around her to acid. She dissolved, reforming inches away.  

*“You think I don’t know your tricks?”* She lunged, her blade carving a temporal rift. *“I’ve lived your rage a thousand times!”*  

The rift yawned open, revealing a kaleidoscope of *other Kaels*—some armored in Void-steel, others reduced to feral Beasts. All staring back with hollow eyes.  

*“The Seventh Betrayal isn’t a moment,”* Future Liora whispered. *“It’s a *pattern*. You always choose vengeance over her.”*  

A scream echoed from above.  

*Liora.*  

---

**The streets of Blackforge ran red.**  

Eclipse Beasts—*human hybrids* with Garron’s sneer, Seraphina’s golden eyes—ripped through the crowd. Their chant throbbed in time with Liora’s mark: *“Kael… Kael… Kael…”*  

Seraphina loosed arrows, her aim faltering as a child darted into the fray—a zealot’s daughter, clutching a doll.  

*“Get back!”* Kael’s command boomed across the square, but Seraphina was already moving.  

She tackled the girl, rolling as a Beast’s claw shredded her shoulder.  

*“Idiot!”* Kael severed the Beast’s head, his Chrono-Blade trembling. *“You’d die for a *zealot*?!”*  

Seraphina clutched the sobbing girl. *“She’s a child. Not a weapon.”*  

Their eyes locked. For a heartbeat, Kael saw *himself* in her gaze—the hero he’d once been, buried under centuries of spite.  

Then the ground split.  

---

**The Sovereign rose.**  

Its form—a grotesque tapestry of Beasts, Church relics, and human agony—towered over Blackforge. At its core, High Ascendant Veyra’s face contorted in ecstatic torment.  

*“The prophet calls us!”* it thundered, tendrils lashing toward Liora.  

Kael’s Chrono-Blade flared, but a ghostly hand gripped his wrist.  

*“Don’t.”*  

He turned.  

*Himself.*  

The original Kael—pre-regression, armor pristine, eyes unbroken—hovered translucent, a scar glowing where Liora’s dagger had struck.  

*“You’re a hallucination,”* Kael spat.  

*“Am I?”* Ghost-Kael nodded to Liora, now levitating toward the Sovereign, her mark a beacon. *“You know how this ends. Again.”*  

*“I can fix it!”*  

*“By becoming *worse* than them?”* Ghost-Kael’s voice softened. *“She’s not your enemy. *We* are.”*  

The Sovereign’s tendrils wrapped around Liora.  

*“KAEL!”* she screamed.  

Future Liora materialized, dagger raised. *“This is where you always fail.”*  

But Kael wasn’t listening.  

He reversed time—*just for her*.  

---

**TO BE CONTINUED...**