Time: 04:06:59 — The last minute of the city of Veritus.
Kael stood on the edge of the collapsing bridge, a chunk of cracked stone under his boots. Below him, the city twisted, time folding inwards like a sheet of paper being burnt at the edges. Screams echoed in reverse. People ran backward. A mother cried out to her son in a loop Kael had already seen three times. Her voice no longer cracked his heart—it shattered something worse.
The Relic Watch on his wrist beeped — once, twice.
"Time breach detected. Reality density: critical. Stabilize or evacuate."
He didn't stabilize. He waited.
Then — a blink.
He snapped five seconds backward.
The bridge hadn't cracked yet.
The mother was about to scream.
He bolted forward, leaping over the gap that hadn't happened yet. His boots landed just as the stone fractured behind him.
Kael didn't save the mother.
He'd tried before. A hundred times. It never worked.
He burst into the tower ruins, breath ragged. Behind him, the world screamed and bent. He had one shot left. A single Chrono-Bind.
He opened his palm, blood dripping onto the watch's face.
"Clockbind — Activated."
Time froze in a ten-meter sphere. Debris hung midair. Rain drops hovered like stars. But Kael stumbled — his nose bled. His vision doubled. He dropped to one knee.
And then…
A voice. Not from the frozen world — from the mirror shard beside him.
"You'll never fix this," said his own face, older, bruised, dressed in black.
Kael swallowed. "You again."
The echo grinned. "You keep chasing the Prime Clock. But you forgot the first rule of Chronomancy."
Kael rose, limping toward the tower's staircase. "Remind me."
"You can't change the past. Only watch it bleed."
The Clocktower above him chimed. One, two, three...