The instant the word left her lips, a blinding beam of light erupted from between Emma’s fingers, flashing outward like a divine decree. The light was instant, like a silver flash before solidifying into an unseen, unyielding barrier.

The deer-like beast froze in mid-motion.

Its legs kicked against nothing, its body locked in place as if shackled by invisible chains. The glow of its green eyes flickered in distress, a silent struggle echoing through its trembling frame.

Emma wasted no time.

With a calm, slow motion, she stretched out her hand. The Sword of Fate, still midair and spiraling with untamed momentum, halted in an instant. As if an unseen force had seized it, the blade wrenched itself from its path, veering sharply toward her outstretched palm.

Her fingers closed around the hilt.

A firm grip. Unmoving.

The beast thrashed against its unseen bonds, its hooves scraping the air, but it was futile. The weight of the barrier pressed upon it like an unmovable wall.

A thought flickered in her mind, laced with amusement.

I wonder what Maverick’s reaction would be if he found out I secretly learned this alchemy while he was using it, without his consent.

Emma let out a slight chuckle as she dismissed the thought just as quickly as it came. It didn’t matter now.

Her attention shifted back to the beast, her eyes still shut.

She knew better than to open them.

The beast’s real strength wasn’t in its speed or brute force... it was in its eyes. That unnatural green glow carried something far more dangerous than claws or fangs. But none of that mattered if it couldn’t move.

With a small flick of her wrist, she swung.

The blade of the Sword of Fate barely sliced through the air, but it was enough.

A thin, delicate string snapped.

Muuuuu!

The beast let out a deep, raw cry as another strand of fate was severed. Its body jerked violently, its struggle intensifying for a fleeting moment, before it weakened under the barrier’s relentless grip.

Emma exhaled.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to kill you,” she murmured, voice quiet but firm. “If you hadn’t attacked me first.”

Even with her eyes closed, she could sense it.

The last string of fate trembled.

Shaking.

Afraid.

A fragile thing, quivering on the verge of nonexistence.

Emma ignored the silent plea.

Her fingers tightened around the sword’s hilt as she raised the blade, steady and deliberate. She exhaled, her breath merging with the early morning air, the distant golden light filtering through the dense canopy of leaves above.

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The sword descended.

A clean cut.

The final thread snapped.

Muuuuu...!

The beast let out one last, weak cry, its voice fading even as its form began to unravel. Its body crumbled, dissolving into specks of fading light that scattered into the morning mist. The ground beneath it, once disturbed by frantic hooves, grew calm. The forest, once filled with the sounds of pursuit, fell silent.

Emma turned, her grip on the sword loosening slightly. The battle was over. The beast was gone.

She took a single step forward.

And then...

CRACK.

It was subtle. A distortion.

Like something had shifted, a crack in time itself.

A soundless rupture in the air.

Muuuuu!

The roar came without warning.

Deep. Resonant.

Another.

Another of the same kind.

Emma’s breath caught as realization slammed into her.

The sound.. no, the presence, hadn't been there all along, she would have seen it's strings...

And in that fleeting moment...

Before she could react.

Before she could even turn.

She felt it.

A pull.

A force she hadn’t seen coming.

And when awareness struck, Emma found herself.

Already on top of the beast’s back.

Her body jerked as the creature surged forward, the world around her blurring into fragmented, shifting shapes.

A kaleidoscope of memories, of shattered reflections.

Like shards of something lost.

Something forgotten.

The shards of fragmented memories floated past, twisting and shifting like fractured glass caught in an invisible current. They stretched forward, spiraling in a never-ending motion as if guiding the beast’s path. The deer-like creature moved with unnatural speed, a velocity that defied time itself.

Emma's grip tightened.

Her fingers dug into the beast’s coarse fur, feeling the slickness of the green mist that pulsed along its body. The mist wasn't just a visual presence, it was alive, shifting like sentient smoke, trying to slip her hands away. A force unseen pressed against her grip, urging her to let go.

But she didn't.

Her knuckles turned white as she clenched harder, nails pressing into the beast’s hide.

She could have cut its strings of fate right here and now.

A swift motion, a flick of the Sword of Fate, and this ride would have ended instantly. But...

Emma knew better.

She wasn’t sure what this place was. These shattered fragments of memory, the distorted echoes of something lost, she had never seen anything like this before. If she severed the beast’s three strings, she might become stranded here, swallowed by this broken reality with no way out.

That wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.

She exhaled, pressing her body lower against the beast's back, adjusting to its movements, letting her instincts guide her.

And in that moment...

Everything shifted.

The fragmented world shattered, like a brittle glass pane struck by an unseen force.

The pieces fell away.

Emma felt the moment of transition, a split-second where there was nothing.. no space, no air, just an absence of existence, before everything reassembled into something new.

Her breath caught.

The world before her was incomprehensible.

Massive, ancient clocks floated in the sky, their colossal gears turning in slow, intentional motions. The hands of these clocks ticked forward at different speeds, some racing, some moving sluggishly, others seemingly frozen in time. The rhythmic clicking of their mechanisms echoed through the air, an unbroken symphony of countless timelines interwoven.

The hue of this world was a dark, vibrant green, but not a natural green. It was a color that pulsed.. alive, shifting between deep emerald and a luminous neon glow, like something ethereal coursed through the very fabric of reality.

The ground beneath her was unlike anything she had seen.

A vast, endless stretch of box-like tiles, each sectioned into squares that seemed to pulse faintly, a soft glow beating beneath them like the heartbeat of a slumbering titan. Some of these tiles shifted... rising, falling, rearranging themselves in intricate patterns, as if responding to an unseen rhythm. Others remained still, locked in place like ancient foundations.

The very air hummed with something unfamiliar.

Something old.

Something watching.

Emma sat upright, her grip still firm on the beast.

Her lips parted, words slipping out before she could stop them.

"What is this place…?"

Her voice barely rose above a whisper, yet it felt loud, as if the very world had heard her speak.

And it answered...

Not with words, but with a shift.

A faint ripple..

As if reality itself had taken notice of her presence...