The battle was over.
Well, "over" was a generous term. The headless dragon had collapsed into a mess of steaming bones, corrupted magic, and something that smelled suspiciously like burnt honey and rusted copper.
Arviel stood with one boot atop the still-twitching corpse, looking victorious... and annoyed.
Very, very annoyed.
Altherion approached cautiously, brushing the dust off his coat. "That was… effective," he said, tone neutral. "Tactical precision, maintained under pressure. Quite impressive."
Arviel didn't respond.
He simply glared at Altherion.
With the intensity of someone who had just been forced to eat humble pie... with a side of smug sauce.
"You done?" Arviel finally said, crossing his arms. "All that science babble and glowing trinkets. Was that all part of your grand plan? To make me look like an idiot in front of a headless lizard?!"
Altherion blinked.
"…What?"
"You heard me. I had it under control."
"The dragon almost vaporized you."
"I dodged."
"Barely."
"That's still dodging."
Liesette, catching up to them with heaving breaths and dirt on her cheeks, raised a tentative hand. "Um, maybe this isn't the time to argue about who did or didn't nearly die?"
Both men ignored her.
Altherion adjusted his bracer and gave Arviel a thoughtful look. "You know, for someone so irritated by teamwork, you sure didn't complain when I saved your life."
"I didn't ask to be saved."
"…Tsundere," Altherion muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You said something."
"No, I was analyzing wind pressure data."
"You called me a 'sun dairy' or whatever."
"It's a term from cultural media. Refers to individuals who exhibit antagonistic behavior while secretly valuing companionship."
Arviel narrowed his eyes. "Are you psychoanalyzing me in real time?"
Altherion smiled.
Arviel threw up his hands. "I hate this place."
As if summoned by that declaration, the world around them gave a low mechanical groan, like a thousand gears clicking out of rhythm.
The sky above shimmered, not blue, but a swirling mess of static and gold-tinged cracks, like a broken hourglass bleeding time instead of sand.
Altherion turned his eyes upward, thoughtful. "About that. Where are we, exactly?"
Arviel grunted and turned away. "We're in Fractured Time."
Altherion blinked. "Fractured… what?"
"Fractured Time," Arviel repeated flatly. "That's the name of this place."
Liesette tilted her head. "That sounds… poetic."
"No. It sounds stupid," Altherion replied. "That sounds like a placeholder name someone used because they couldn't think of a proper region title."
Arviel looked genuinely offended. "I named it."
"You what?"
"I was the first to wake up here, alright?! Nobody gave me a map! The trees whisper backwards and the sun loops like a drunk snake. Time is literally broken here. Fractured Time fits!"
Altherion raised an eyebrow. "Why not Chrono Rift? Temporal Ruin? Maybe 'The Hourglass Beyond'? You know, branding."
"This isn't a vacation resort, smart-hair!"
"I'm just saying, if you're naming places that might someday become official landmarks, you could be a little more creative. 'Fractured Time' sounds like a badly translated anime episode."
Liesette tried not to laugh. She failed.
"Okay, okay, name critique aside," Altherion said, brushing off imaginary dust, "you said you know how to leave this place?"
"Yeah," Arviel snapped. "Unlike you two, I've been walking around this glitch in reality for longer than I'd like. I've found patterns. Structures. Anchor points."
Altherion tilted his head. "You mean escape vectors."
"Yes, science boy. Escape vectors. I've traced the rotation of the hour cycles and pinpointed three consistent event resets. There's a gate but it only opens during a very specific alignment of-"
"Wait, wait, wait," Altherion cut in. "Are you telling me the exit to this reality-looping abyss is tied to a temporal mechanic based on a celestial alignment that occurs… how often?"
Arviel's silence was answer enough.
"Oh no," Altherion groaned. "Please don't say once every cycle."
"Try once every 18 rotated pulses," Arviel said smugly.
"What the hell is a rotated pulse?!"
"I told you! This place doesn't follow normal hours. Here, the sun turns left before it sets, and the moon is allergic to itself. I'm doing the best I can!"
Liesette raised a hand slowly. "Wait, so… how long is that in normal time?"
"About thirty-seven minutes."
Altherion paused.
"…That's not bad."
"I know."
They stood in awkward silence, until Liesette clapped once. "Alright! So we have thirty-ish minutes to reach this 'gate' thing. That means we should be moving, not arguing."
"Agreed," Arviel grunted. "Follow me. And try not to summon any more headless dragons, genius."
Altherion followed, muttering under his breath. "I could've named it better…"
"I HEARD THAT!"
***
The forest of Fractured Time was alive with impossible contradictions.
A tree floated five feet above the ground, roots curled upward like petrified tentacles.
The grass beneath their feet rippled like water, changing color with every step, blue, then red, then a color that didn't have a name but made Altherion's brain itch. Overhead, the sky blinked occasionally, like a massive, tired eye open, closed, open again with no apparent reason.
Altherion walked with a determined stride, notebook out, scribbling observations.
"Third instance of auditory inversion birdsongs are playing backwards. Possibly metaphysical echo of unformed moments," he muttered.
Liesette trudged behind him, her steps slower, eyes still wide with equal parts awe and fatigue. "Does any of that mean we're getting closer to the gate?"
"Maybe," Altherion replied.
"You're just making it up as you go, aren't you?"
"Absolutely."
Ahead of them, Arviel walked like he had somewhere to be yesterday and he was late. Again.
"Stop writing your nerd diary and move faster!" Arviel barked over his shoulder. "The anchor point is in the Hollow Loop! we only have a few minutes left!"
Altherion grumbled but followed.
They passed a river flowing upward, watched a deer walk backward into a tree and vanish, and narrowly avoided a pocket of stilled air that froze a leaf mid-fall. At one point, they crossed a stone bridge that led exactly back to the point where they stepped on it.
"This place has no respect for causality," Altherion murmured.
"Neither do you!" Arviel snapped.
"I'm just saying, if time's broken here, we could technically be stuck in a self-correcting paradox and never realize it."
Liesette stopped walking. "Please don't say that."
Just then, somewhere in the forest, a soft click echoed. Not a twig snapping, not a footstep, but the cold, mechanical sound of a camera shutter.
But there were no cameras in Fractured Time.
There was, however, Velimir Drahoslav.
Far above them, standing upon a crag of shattered stone, surrounded by mist that shimmered like liquid thought, Velimir observed.
His face remained unseen. The fog that wrapped around his head shifted ever so slightly, at times suggesting an eye, a smirk, or a narrowed gaze but never fully revealing anything. He stood perfectly still, as though he were part of the rock itself, a statue of patience sculpted by regret.
His voice was a whisper in a wind that did not blow:
"So many threads woven into a single snarl…One seeks power through understanding. One hides truth beneath the tapestry of lies.
One runs from what she once dared awaken."
"And yet… they all walk toward the clock's mouth willingly."
He tilted his head slightly as Altherion stopped at the edge of a floating staircase made of fractured marble slabs. The path twisted upward through nothing, leading to a strange obelisk of rusted gold embedded in the sky.
Velimir's shrouded face did not move.
But the mist around him seemed to tighten, like a held breath.
"Will he see it… before it is too late?"
Then, without a sound, Velimir vanished, dissolving into the fog like he was never there.
___
Back with the trio, the air grew thicker, heavier with each step. The wind began to speak in half-finished memories fragmented laughter, whispers of "why did you leave?", and the faint cry of a baby that never was.
Liesette paused, hugging herself. "I… this place. It's getting into my head."
Arviel didn't stop walking. "That's the Loop. It pulls from your regrets. Just don't listen."
Altherion frowned. "What if someone has no regrets?"
Arviel glanced back. "Then congratulations. You're either enlightened or emotionally constipated."
Liesette snorted a laugh despite herself.
They continued forward, toward the skybound obelisk, unaware that from afar, the philosopher of broken dreams watched and waited. Velimir's presence lingered in the spaces between seconds, where time folded in on itself and destiny forgot which path it had chosen.
***
The Hollow Loop shimmered like glass on the edge of shattering.
At its center, the obelisk pulsed, each vibration ringing like a distant bell. The countdown began again, a whisper in the mind more than a sound in the air.
"Loop Cycle: 13:00…"
Arviel walked ahead with unusual focus, eyes scanning the symbols along the outer rim. He muttered things under his breath terms neither Altherion nor Liesette recognized.
Altherion narrowed his eyes, adjusting his satchel. "You seem… oddly well-versed in all of this."
Arviel didn't look at him. "In what?"
"In this. Fractured Time. Loop Cycles. You talk like you've done this before."
There was a beat of silence.
Then Arviel gave a crooked smirk and waved a hand dismissively. "Call it intuition."
"Intuition doesn't explain the way you timed the loop reset down to the second,"
"You ask a lot of questions for someone who barely survived a headless dragon," Arviel replied flatly, walking faster.
Altherion frowned. "You're dodging it."
Arviel's voice dropped to a mutter. "And you're not ready for the answer."
Before Altherion could push further, a sudden clang rang out.
The obelisk trembled violently then emitted a pulse of distorted energy. From the space just behind it, a figure emerged. No footsteps. No entrance.
It simply existed where before, nothing had.
A Time Warden.
It had no defined body only a humanoid silhouette built from whirling gears, fragments of hourglasses, and a head wrapped in golden chains. Its eyes flickered with starlight, its chest marked with the sigil of a clock, each hand ticking backward.
"INTRUSION DETECTED."
"UNSTABLE PRESENCE. MEMORY DISSONANCE CONFIRMED."
Liesette screamed and stumbled back. "What is that?!"
Altherion's jaw tightened. "A temporal defense construct. I think..."
He turned to Arviel.
But Arviel was already gone from his side.
He reappeared behind the Time Warden in a blink, no motion, no flash, no sound.
Just was there.
And in one smooth motion, his blade cleaved clean through the warden's back.
The creature jerked forward, gears spinning violently as the sigil on its chest cracked.
But it didn't fall.
Instead, it snapped around, its chained face screaming without sound, arm transforming into a massive halberd made of solid time-glass.
Altherion blinked. "You didn't kill it?!"
Arviel cursed. "It's anchored to the Loop. I can damage the body, but not the memory it's tied to."
This time it swept its halberd sideways, tearing a gash in the fabric of space. The edge of the platform folded inward shimmering like a crumpled photograph. Liesette screamed again.
Arviel darted forward, blade clashing with the halberd in a shower of sparks and time fragments. "Altherion! Do something useful!"
"I am!" Altherion pulled out a vial filled with floating iron filings. "Keep it busy!"
He tossed the vial upward then struck it with a beam of calibrated blue light. Instantly, the iron reacted, aligning into a magnetic web that bent toward the Warden's chest.
A loud snap and the Warden jerked, its motion glitching.
"It's reacting!" Altherion shouted. "Its memory core is magnetic hyper-sensitive to time anomalies!"
"You could've said that before I tried to slice it open!"
"I just confirmed it! I needed to test it under stress!" Altherion's grin widened. "And I was right. It's a quantum-mimic construct. The body is irrelevant, it's held together by consistency of memory! That means if we break its perception of us…"
"It'll collapse," Arviel finished.
He turned, eyes dark. "Then distort its perception. I'll keep its attention."
"Done." Altherion held up another vial, this one humming faintly.
Arviel gave a nod, then sprinted forward again.
"Let's break a Warden."