The morning wasn't real.
Kairo knew that the second he blinked awake and found himself lying in a room that didn't match the one he'd fallen asleep in. The walls looked like they belonged to a medieval castle, but they shimmered — like holograms glitching between centuries.
There were clocks everywhere.
Old clocks. New clocks. Broken ones. One was ticking backward.
"You're adapting fast," Elira said, stepping in with a tray of dark green liquid.
Kairo groaned. "Why does this place keep changing?"
"It doesn't. You do."
She set the tray down. "This citadel exists across multiple time-states. Every time you shift mentally, your perception resets the structure. That's... not normal."
"Great. I'm a living glitch."
⊕
Outside the citadel, the world was worse.
Elira took him through the Edge of Now — a realm between time flows. They crossed floating bridges that faded behind them, walked through rain that never touched the ground, and passed a man stuck mid-fall for what Elira called "three centuries and counting."
"He tried to jump dimensions without a tether," she said, not looking at the trapped man.
"What's a tether?"
"A fixed identity across timelines. Lose it, and you become... noise."
Kairo looked at the man again. His face was frozen mid-scream.
He gulped. "I don't want to be noise."
"Then learn fast."
⊕
Their destination was a shattered observatory floating over a crater of black glass. It was called The Timewell, and it pulsed like a heart — slow, steady, and dying.
Kairo stared into it. Within the swirling mass of energy, he saw fragments of his life — childhood, school, foster homes — but distorted. Some scenes he didn't remember. Some were… wrong.
"This is your thread," Elira said.
"What do you mean 'my thread'?"
"Everyone's life is a line in time. Yours is a braid. Twisted. Tangled. Splitting off in dozens of directions. Most of those aren't past or future."
"Then what are they?"
"Failed versions of you."
⊕
That night, he wandered into the library.
Not the digital kind — this one had living books. One snarled when he picked it up. Another sighed like it was disappointed. But one… glowed when he touched it.
Title: The Last Timewarrior.
He opened it.
And saw himself.
Not metaphorically. Literally. The illustration showed him, older, cloaked in dark armor, blade in hand, standing over a burning city.
"I kill Arvax," he whispered.
Then turned the page.
And saw himself kneeling before Arvax, blood on his hands, eyes empty.
"Or I become him…"
⊕
Elira found him hours later, staring into the fire.
"You're not the first to carry the blade," she said softly. "But you may be the first to break the cycle."
"Or repeat it."
"Not if you make a choice."
"What if I already did?"
"Then maybe you're already lost."
He looked up. "What if I told you… I've seen a message. From me. Warning me about you?"
Elira froze.
"What exactly did it say?"
"'Trust no one. Not even her.' And it was signed… by me."
Silence.
Then Elira stepped back, shadows curling around her hand.
"Then it begins sooner than I thought."
⊕
Suddenly, the citadel shuddered.
Lights exploded. A chime rang — ancient, mechanical, painful.
"They've found us," Elira hissed. "Hide the blade. Now."
"Who—"
"The Timehunters. Agents of the Red Loop."
Walls split. Glass shattered midair. From the collapsing ceiling dropped three figures — metal-skinned, eyes glowing red, faces masked by shifting gears.
"ChronoSeal located," one of them spoke in a chorus of voices.
Kairo drew the blade.
The world froze. Then fractured.
He didn't swing. The blade swung him.
Three slashes. Three pulses of reverse-time.
One Timehunter aged to ash.Another deconstructed into circuits.The last… laughed.
"You think you're the first?" it hissed. "We've killed you before."
And then it self-destructed — sending Kairo flying into the Timewell.
⊕
Everything went white.
Kairo woke up lying on a rooftop. Rain was falling.
The skyline of his city loomed ahead. Neon lights. Drone patrols. Giant ad-holos.
He was back.
But something was wrong.
The people on the street below all moved the same way — step by step. Perfect sync.
A sign on a building flickered:
"ChronoBlade: Launching Tomorrow. Preorder Now."
Then a voice behind him whispered:
"Hello again, Kairo."
He turned.
And faced himself.
Older. Scarred. Holding the same sword.
"Ready to break the loop, or repeat it?"
To Be Continued…