"Sometimes, the chains that bind us are forged in our own minds."
---
The air reeked of silence. Not quiet—silence. A guttural, unnatural absence of sound that pressed against eardrums like a tidal wave crushing an empty glass. Thalivor's domain wasn't just a wasteland; it was an erasure. Vibrations of life, of existence itself, were stripped away until only a void of meaninglessness remained. Each step Juno, Selene, and Exos took across the pale, cracked ground felt as though they were intruding on a graveyard where sound had been murdered and forgotten.
Juno clutched her swirling liquid-metal wristwatch tightly, the tiny silver hands inside sluggishly spinning in nonsensical directions. The watch had never failed her before—it was her lifeline, her anchor to the moments that mattered. Now it felt like a mockery, a hollow shell ticking in futility.
"Chrono-burn's hitting me harder here," she muttered, her voice vanishing the second it left her lips.
Selene's lips moved, sharp and rhythmic, but whatever quip she threw back was swallowed by the oppressive silence. Her crescent daggers, which usually hummed with celestial energy, hung limply at her sides, their edges duller than Juno had ever seen. Selene's usual manic grin was gone, replaced by a tight-lipped grimace.
And Exos—always the stoic sentinel—looked like a walking shadow, his massive Starforged Glaive strapped to his back. The glaive's intricate blade, a lattice of stardust encased in black steel, flickered weakly, as if the stars inside it were winking out one by one.
Juno kept her eyes on Exos, watching his every move. His normally rigid posture was slack, his footfalls less like a warrior's march and more like the dragging of a man too tired to fight his own ghosts.
Then it began.
Thalivor's voidlings didn't appear; they formed. The silence birthed them, knitting their amorphous shapes together from threads of absence and threads of fear. Each one shimmered faintly, humanoid in outline but wrong in every other sense. Their limbs stretched too long, their heads tilted at impossible angles, their movements jerky as if they were puppets controlled by an unseen hand.
Juno stepped back instinctively, her boots crunching against the ground—but the sound of that crunch was absent. Her breath quickened, the silence amplifying the pounding of her heart in her chest like the countdown of a bomb.
[System Alert: Combat Initiated.]
[Environment Status: -ERROR- Silent Zone Detected. Chronoenergy Suppression: 75% Reduced Functionality.]
[Enemies Detected: Thalivor's Voidlings (C-Class, Echoes of Silence).]
Juno cursed silently, her mind scrambling. "Chrono-dash is out. Rewind's probably unreliable. Damn it, Juno, think!"
One of the voidlings lunged, its clawed arm slicing through the air with eerie precision. Exos moved like a thunderstorm breaking over a mountain. He unsheathed the Starforged Glaive in a single fluid motion, his muscles rippling beneath his blackened armor.
"Celestial Cleave!"
The glaive erupted in a flash of light, the stars within it igniting in a cascade of brilliance that briefly defied the silence. The voidling was torn apart, its form unraveling into wisps of darkness. Exos didn't stop. He pivoted, slashing again, and again, each strike carving arcs of starlight into the air.
Juno's system flared to life.
[System Alert: Chronoenergy Interference Detected. Adjusting Parameters...]
[Re-initializing...]
[WARNING: Chronoenergy Burn Critical.]
Selene leaped into the fray, her crescent daggers spinning in her hands like twin orbits. "Astral Cascade!" Her voice didn't carry, but the daggers responded, launching streams of glowing starfire that arced unpredictably toward the voidlings. The creatures shrieked—silent, gaping shrieks—as they dissolved under the celestial onslaught.
But the victory was short-lived.
The ground beneath them cracked open like a jagged wound, and from it rose Thalivor himself.
Thalivor was no mere shadow. His form was a tapestry of emptiness, a void given humanoid shape. His eyes—if they could even be called that—were swirling abysses that pulled at the edges of the trio's sanity. His presence wasn't just oppressive; it was annihilating. The silence became so thick, so unbearable, it felt like it was compressing their lungs, their thoughts, their very souls.
Exos staggered, his glaive drooping. Selene froze mid-spin, her daggers dimming to useless hunks of steel. And Juno...
[System Alert: -ANOMALY DETECTED-]
[System Corruption Imminent...]
[Abilities Compromised. Recommend Tactical Retreat.]
Thalivor raised a single hand, and the world folded inward. The wasteland vanished, replaced by a suffocating expanse of black chains that writhed like serpents. They lashed out, binding Juno, Selene, and Exos in place.
Juno screamed silently, thrashing against the chains. They weren't just physical; they dug into her mind, her memories, her identity. She felt the weight of her deaths, every rewind etched into her soul like scars.
"Do you think you can escape forever, Timekeeper?" The voice wasn't heard—it was felt. It resonated in her skull, a deep, guttural tone that dripped with malice and inevitability. "You defy the natural order. Do you not tire of your borrowed moments?"
Selene gasped, her usually sharp eyes wide with fear. "Juno—don't listen—" Her voice faltered, her resolve cracking as Thalivor turned his gaze on her.
"You sought the forbidden, child of the stars," Thalivor whispered. "And now you will see the cost of knowing."
Exos struggled against his chains, his body trembling with exertion. His glaive flickered weakly in his grip. "I'll... kill you..."
Thalivor laughed, a soundless vibration that made the world shudder. "Kill me? Oh, warrior. Your stars are dying. And soon, so shall you."
The chains tightened, and the blackness deepened.
Selene's scream echoed through the obsidian chamber, sharp as a shattered crystal. Her knees buckled under the weight of guilt Thalivor wove into her mind. The Void Lord's voice was velvet-drenched venom, coiling tighter with every word.
"Tell me again, dear Selene. How did it feel to see your constellation of lies destroy your own kin?"
Her star-patterned cloak flickered like a dying nebula, the once-glowing fabric now dull and frayed. Selene clawed at her temples, her crescent daggers lying forgotten on the floor. The celestial metal of the blades dimmed, the stars within them snuffed out by her wavering will.
"Stop," Selene whispered, her voice trembling, a frail echo swallowed by the suffocating void.
"Stop?" Thalivor tilted his head, the voidling tendrils around his form pulsating with sickly, liquid shadows. "You begged the stars to stop too, didn't you? When they punished you for daring to reach beyond their grasp?"
Selene's nails drew blood from her palms. She couldn't meet his gaze. The chamber seemed to shrink around her, its obsidian walls alive with writhing void glyphs that whispered sins in languages older than memory.
Juno, shackled to a crooked pillar of voidstone, ground her teeth against the gag Thalivor had forced into her mouth. Her mind buzzed with static, the echoes of her last system use still burning like acid. The timer's crackling voice was barely audible.
[System destabilizing.]
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[Chronoenergy at 12%.]
[WARNING: Fatal System Instability Detected. Immediate Recalibration Required.]
Juno's wrists were raw where her silver restraints bit into her skin. She focused on the texture of the cold metal—smooth, yet humming with unnatural energy. Anything to block out the whispers threading through her mind like poisoned needles.
"Why do you persist, Timekeeper?" The Void Lord's question slithered into her consciousness. Thalivor turned his attention toward her, his piercing eyes like black holes rimmed with faint silver light. "You die and rewind. Die and rewind. Tell me, how many deaths before your system erodes you into nothing?"
Juno's lips curled into a half-smile beneath the gag, a dangerous glint flashing in her hazel-green eyes. She couldn't speak, but she didn't need to. Her silence was an act of defiance louder than any retort.
Thalivor sneered. "Oh, your resolve amuses me. Shall we test its limits?"
Chains of void energy snapped around Selene's ankles, pulling her toward the throne-like structure where Thalivor loomed. She didn't fight. Her hands hung limply at her sides, her constellation jacket hanging off one shoulder, the embroidery now resembling scattered ashes rather than a celestial masterpiece.
Exos, bound against the far wall, strained against his bonds. His muscles rippled, veins glowing faintly with the remnants of Starforged energy. The chains holding him creaked but didn't break.
"Leave her alone, bastard," Exos growled, his voice like a low thunderclap. His crimson battle coat, streaked with ash and blood, flared as he jerked against the restraints. His glaive—its blade fractured but still smoldering with faint starlight—lay discarded on the chamber floor.
Thalivor chuckled, a sound like breaking glass submerged in oil. "Bold words for a warrior who can no longer lift his own weapon. Shall I remind you why the Aspect of Weapons abandoned you?"
Exos clenched his jaw, his usual stoicism cracking under the weight of Thalivor's words. Memories of betrayal and loss surfaced like old wounds torn open anew.
Juno's vision blurred. Her system flickered in and out, the text stuttering across her mind like a dying firefly.
[Chronoshift locked. Abilities disabled. SYSTEM... ERROR.]
She swallowed hard. No powers. No escape. But even in the suffocating grip of despair, a plan began to form.
---
The chamber trembled as Thalivor raised his clawed hand, threads of void energy converging at his fingertips. "Let's start with a taste of oblivion, shall we?"
Juno's eyes darted to Selene, then Exos. If she couldn't rely on her system, she'd have to rely on them. But first, she needed to buy time. She bit down hard on the gag, letting blood fill her mouth, then spat onto the ground.
The void chains holding her sparked violently, reacting to the defiance. Juno's lips moved, forming silent words.
Tick. Tock.
The system buzzed faintly in response.
[ERROR. Command Not Recognized.]
[Subroutine Initiated: Chrono Overclock.]
Juno felt the surge before she understood it. Time bent—not fully stopping, but stuttering like a broken record. It was enough.
Exos roared, his muscles bulging as he summoned every ounce of strength left in him. "Ascendant Armory!"
Weapons materialized around him—blades of crimson steel, axes with cores of molten light, spears wrapped in shifting constellations. They hovered, vibrating with raw power, before launching toward Thalivor in a coordinated barrage.
The Void Lord snarled, his tendrils lashing out to deflect the onslaught. Explosions of void and star energy collided, illuminating the chamber in bursts of chaotic light.
Selene's chains loosened in the chaos. Her eyes, dull moments ago, now burned with a faint glow. She whispered a single word. "Aetherial Convergence."
Her crescent daggers flew to her hands, their celestial patterns reigniting with a surge of energy.
Juno, disoriented but alive, moved as soon as her bonds faltered. Her hand reached instinctively for her hidden watch, its liquid-metal face swirling with fractured time.
"Temporal Fracture!"
The world fractured like broken glass. Time unraveled in jagged, disjointed streams. Juno felt herself splitting—one version ducking beneath a void tendril, another pulling Selene free, and yet another dragging Exos toward the crumbling exit.
---
The trio barely made it to a distant corridor before the chamber collapsed behind them. Juno collapsed, gasping, her system blaring alarms in her mind.
[Status:]
[HP: 17% | Chronoenergy: 2% | Mental State: Unstable | Corruption Detected: 11%]
Selene pressed her back against the wall, her face pale but determined. Exos knelt beside her, clutching his fractured glaive.
Juno glanced at them, her voice hoarse. "We need a plan. Fast."
A low growl echoed down the corridor. Shadows flickered. Thalivor's laughter followed, distant but drawing closer.
Juno clenched her fists. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep going, but giving up wasn't an option.
The air in the maze was dense, oppressive—a sickly mix of cool humidity and a metallic tang that lingered at the back of the throat, like blood and old regret. The walls shifted with a sluggish, serpentine motion, their polished surfaces reflecting not just the trio but twisted, exaggerated versions of them. The floor was a dull obsidian sheen, rippling as though alive, threatening to swallow their every step.
Juno's boots clanked against the floor—steel-toed, custom-fitted, the silent-symbol inlays flashing like ghostly warnings under the dim, ambient light. Her constellation-stitched jacket flared slightly as she moved, but the motion wasn't confident. It was restless, as though her body was constantly bracing for impact.
Her wristwatch—a swirling mess of liquid metal—twitched erratically, spitting tiny arcs of blue energy.
[System Alert: Temporal Anomaly Detected.]
[Error: Reflective Boundary Distortion Compromising Chronoenergy Perception.]
[Analyzing... -ERROR-... Synchronization Unstable.]
"Yeah, no kidding," Juno muttered, swiping at the air. The system text hung there momentarily, pixelated and jittery, before vanishing like smoke. Her fingers trembled slightly. She clenched her fists to hide it.
Selene was further ahead, her crescent daggers glowing faintly, the silver edges imbued with the soft light of distant stars. The loose fabric of her midnight-blue cloak fluttered behind her, a faint constellation pattern winking in and out like a memory refusing to be pinned down. She wasn't speaking. Not yet. That was worrying.
Exos brought up the rear, his towering frame imposing even in the fractured reflections. His armor—a blend of muted black metal and crimson runes—looked heavier than ever, and his knuckles were pale from gripping his weapon. A claymore forged of countless fragmented blades hovered above his shoulder, spinning slowly, its jagged edges gleaming with an eerie crimson pulse. It looked like it could break apart at any moment and yet somehow remain whole—a paradox made into steel.
"This place is wrong," Exos said, his voice low, as though speaking louder would invite the maze to swallow them. He glanced at a reflection of himself, a version where his armor was cracked and his eyes were lifeless hollows. His lips tightened.
"Wrong doesn't begin to cover it," Juno said, her hazel-green eyes flicking to a mirrored wall. Her reflection grinned back at her—not in a wry, self-deprecating way like she sometimes did, but with a predator's malice. The gold flecks in its eyes were brighter, sickly, almost alive. Its hair was slicked back, dark tendrils coiling unnaturally, as though they were waiting for permission to strike.
"You're losing your grip," the reflection said, its voice layered with hers but dripping with venom. "Tick-tock, Timekeeper. How long before you make a mistake you can't rewind?"
"Shut up," Juno snapped, but the reflection laughed, its edges rippling like water. She turned away quickly, her pulse hammering in her ears.
The maze shifted again.
The mirrored walls bent inward, forming narrow corridors. The light dimmed, and now the sound of whispers crawled into the air. They weren't coming from the reflections. They were coming from everywhere.
Selene halted. Her shoulders were tense, her daggers gripped tightly. Her breathing was uneven.
"Selene," Juno called cautiously.
"They know," Selene murmured, her voice uncharacteristically subdued. "They know what I did. They know—"
The reflection nearest her flared to life. It showed a version of Selene wearing a crown—a glittering monstrosity of celestial silver and burning starlight. Her cloak was gone, replaced by robes that looked like they were woven from the night sky itself. But there was no triumph in this Selene. Her eyes were red-rimmed, tears streaking her face.
"Why did you come back?" the reflection said. Its voice was hollow, broken.
Selene took a step back, her daggers trembling. "I didn't mean—"
"You meant everything," the reflection spat. "You're the reason we're gone."
"Stop it," Selene whispered, but her reflection stepped closer, its eyes blazing.
"You knew the risks. You wanted to see too much. And now there's nothing left."
Juno moved toward her, reaching out cautiously. "Selene, it's not real. You know that, right?"
But Selene didn't move. Her eyes were locked on the reflection.
Exos wasn't faring much better.
He stood before a reflection that wasn't a reflection at all. It was a memory carved into glass—a battlefield of ash and fire, littered with bodies. Figures with glowing eyes and ethereal weapons surrounded him, their faces distorted by hatred and betrayal.
"You could have stopped this," the figures hissed. "You had the power, the strength, but you let us fall."
"I didn't—" Exos started, his jaw tightening. His claymore hovered slightly lower, trembling as if it shared his guilt.
Juno clenched her fists. "Okay, screw this," she muttered. Her watch pulsed erratically as she swiped at the air again.
[System initializing...]
[Ability activation: Temporal Singularity...]
[Error: Chronoenergy instability detected.]
She didn't care. Time bent around her, the maze flickering in and out of existence. She felt her system groan under the strain, fragments of code flooding her vision.
"Everyone, move!" she shouted.
"Temporal Singularity."
The maze resisted her power. The walls vibrated violently, their reflections growing distorted. But she pushed harder, her determination overriding her caution. A pulse of raw energy erupted from her watch, shattering the nearest walls and leaving jagged shards of reality in its wake.
The reflections screamed, their voices blending into a haunting wail.
---
When the chaos settled, they were standing in a circular room. At its center was a figure cloaked in shadows—Lady Sythara. Her eyes glinted with malice, and her voice dripped with mockery.
"Did you enjoy my little game?" she purred.
Juno glared at her, panting. Her system was still glitching, and she felt like her brain was about to split open.
"Game's over," Juno said.
Sythara smiled. "Oh, Timekeeper. It's only just begun."