*The black sun devoured the sky.**  

Kael floated at its heart, his body a silhouette of crackling void. Ribbons of darkness lashed from his fingertips, carving fissures in the earth. Below, Blackforge’s survivors fled as their shadows *twisted*—elongating, sprouting claws, howling in voices not their own.  

*“Run!”* a mother screamed, clutching her child. But the boy’s eyes had already clouded to pitch, his teeth sharpening as he hissed: *“King… of… shards…”*  

Kael laughed, the sound echoing across timelines. *“You wanted a savior? *Here* I am.”*  

---

**Seraphina found Future Liora in the cathedral’s crypt.**  

The hunter knelt before an altar of shattered Cores, her dagger pressed to her own throat. *“This is the only way to sever his tether to the throne.”*  

*“Or you could *help* me,”* Seraphina snapped, kicking the dagger aside. *“You made him this monster. Fix it.”*  

Future Liora’s scarred lips twitched. *“You think I haven’t tried? He’s in every shadow, every breath. To stop him, we burn *everything*.”*  

A roar shook the crypt. The walls bled rust as a mutated townsfolk—*Old Man Harkin*, his beard now tentacles—slammed into the chamber.  

Seraphina fired. Future Liora moved.  

The arrow pinned the Beast’s skull. The dagger severed its heart.  

*“Truce,”* Future Liora sighed. *“For now.”*  

---

**The orphanage burned.**  

This world’s Liora huddled in the ashes, cradling a doll with Alt-Kael’s face. The black sun’s rays pried at her skin, etching cracks of void.  

*“Brother…?”* she whimpered.  

Kael descended, his touch erasing the corruption—but leaving her arm translucent, a ghost limb. *“You’ll be my herald,”* he murmured. *“The first of the perfected.”*  

Original Kael’s ghost materialized, clawing at his chest. *“She’s *innocent*!”*  

*“Innocence dies first,”* Kael said, crushing the doll to dust.  

---

**The alliance struck at moonless midnight.**  

Seraphina’s arrows rained Void shards, grounding Kael’s flight. Future Liora lunged, her dagger singing with purged timelines.  

*“You taught me this move,”* she hissed, blade aimed for his Core.  

*“And you missed,”* Kael said, catching her wrist. Time rewound—her strike reversed, the dagger plunging into Seraphina’s shoulder instead.  

*“No!”* Future Liora screamed.  

Kael smiled. *“You always miss.”*  

---

**The black sun birthed its legion.**  

Mutated townsfolk knelt as Kael’s shadow stretched across the land. Their voices merged, a chorus of broken timelines: *“All hail the King of Shattered Hours!”*  

But in the eye of the storm, a flicker—Original Kael’s ghost, clawing through the void.  

*“Seraphina… the throne’s heart… it’s *her* Core…”*  

She understood.  

*Liora. Both of them.*  

---

**TO BE CONTINUED...**