The Sands Below weren't on any map. At least, not any map anyone alive wanted to admit existed.
Juno stared at the swirling orange vortex that twisted like molten glass, hanging in the air beneath the Tockbox. Milo called it a "temporal sinkhole." Time poured into it and never came out.
"Why would anyone want to go there?" Juno asked, voice tight.
"Because," Milo said grimly, "something is feeding on time down there. And it's growing."
Idris handed Juno a sleek helmet, lined with humming circuitry. "This will stabilize your senses. The Sands distort more than time—they scramble perception. Without it, you might never come back."
Juno slipped it on. The world snapped sharp. Colors deepened; sounds clarified. She felt grounded anchored.
"Ready?" Milo asked.
She nodded.
The team entered a specialized chamber inside the Tockbox. Milo pressed a series of glyphs on a console, and the floor dropped away beneath them like glass shattering in slow motion.
They fell.
The Sands Below looked like a desert swallowed by a star. Red-orange grains sparkled with flickers of starlight; the horizon curved into endless dunes under a black sky streaked with glimmers of distant timelines.
Juno's boots sank slightly as she stepped forward. The air shimmered, thick with static.
"This place eats time like a black hole eats light," Milo whispered. "That's why loops go here to die."
Suddenly, the ground beneath her trembled.
A shadow rose impossibly large, like a walking hourglass. Its body was formed of shifting sands and crackling energy. Eyes like dying suns pierced Juno's helmet.
"The Chronophage," Idris said quietly. "The Time Eater."
It moved, slow but deliberate, stirring sandstorms that distorted reality itself.
Juno raised her Divider.
"It's not just an anomaly," Milo said. "It's a predator."
The Chronophage let out a soundless roar. Time fractured violently. Juno's vision blurred; past and future moments collided she saw flashes of herself, older and younger, all running and fighting.
She clenched her jaw. "Then we fight."
Milo ignited his Tempo Baton. Idris drew a pair of temporal blades shimmering with cold light.
Together, they charged into the shifting sands, the Chronophage's gaze fixed on them like a ticking death sentence.