### **1. KAEL: FORGED IN ASH**  

The Chrono-Forge roared, its gears grinding timelines into molten energy. Kael’s consciousness, a frayed tapestry of regrets and wrath, clawed toward the machine’s core. Ghost-Kael materialized, blocking his path.  

*“This is how you become *him*,”* Ghost-Kael warned, gesturing to a shard where Mirror-Kael butchered Seraphina. *“The forge will remake you—but at what cost?”*  

Kael lunged, merging with the forge’s heart. Metal fused to his essence, tendons of Chrono-steel knitting a new body. He emerged—*flawed*, one arm still veined with decay, eyes burning with fractured timelines.  

*“Cost doesn’t matter,”* he growled, flexing fingers that crackled with unstable energy. *“Only vengeance does.”*  

---

### **2. SERAPHINA: WORMS OF FORGETTING**  

The rebel camp erupted in chaos. A soldier screamed as a **Time-Worm** burst from her skull, her memories dissolving into amber dust.  

*“They’re hatching in our minds!”* Rylan shouted, his gauntlet scanning the air. *“The Eater’s using our past against us!”*  

Seraphina impaled a worm mid-leap, its corpse spitting a memory—*her youngest sister, forgotten in the purge*. She faltered.  

Jarek emerged from the shadows, his grin feral. *“Like the menu, commander?”*  

She fired, but he vanished, his laugh echoing. *“The Eater remembers what you bury!”*  

---

### **3. LIORA: THE FIRST MOMENT**  

Liora traced her scar, its ridges glowing like a constellation. Visions assaulted her: a void before time, a spark igniting existence, and the Eater—*born from that spark’s hunger*.  

*“You’re the first wound,”* whispered Young Seraphina’s echo, a remnant of the hive-mind. *“The scar is a key. Turn it.”*  

Liora plunged her hand into the scar. Agony. Light.  

She stood in the **Primordial Expanse**, a realm of swirling potential. Before her, the spark pulsed—innocent, ravenous. The Eater’s origin.  

*“I can’t kill a god,”* she breathed.  

*“No,”* said Kael’s voice, echoing from a thousand timelines. *“But we can *change* it.”*  

---

### **4. THE EATER’S GAMBIT**  

Reality rippled as the Eater manifested above Blackforge, its tendrils birthing **Eclipse Titans**—Beasts fused with cities, devouring time itself.  

Kael’s new body flickered, unstable. He tore through a Titan, but his Chrono-arm shattered, regrowing slower each time.  

*“Pathetic,”* Mirror-Kael sneered, materializing atop a Titan. *“You’re still just a man.”*  

*“And you’re still a coward,”* Kael spat. *“Hiding behind futures you stole.”*  

Their clash split the sky, each strike erasing fragments of history.  

---

### **5. THE TURNING KEY**  

In the Expanse, Liora cradled the spark. *“You don’t have to hunger.”*  

Memories flooded it—Kael’s sacrifice, Seraphina’s resolve, Rylan’s hope. The spark dimmed, confusion replacing greed.  

The Eater *screamed*, Titans crumbling to ash.  

*“What did you do?!”* Mirror-Kael roared.  

Kael grinned, his body stabilizing. *“Gave it a conscience.”*  

---

### **6. THE COST OF MERCY**  

Liora collapsed back into reality, her scar now inert. The Eater recoiled, its form flickering between predator and penitent.  

*“It’s… *hurting*,”* she realized.  

Rylan’s gauntlet overloaded, searing his arm. *“The forge is destabilizing! If the Eater dies—”*  

*“The timelines die with it,”* Seraphina finished, horror dawning.  

Kael seized Liora. *“You woke it up. Now put it *down*.”*  

---

**TO BE CONTINUED…**