"Keeper of Time?" Xu Yuan's brow furrowed as he sensed the man's aura—darker and more ancient than Eric's had ever been.
"Indeed." The man raised his silver-ringed hand toward the pulsating orb. "This Tower of Reversed Hours imprisons fragments of time itself. And I ensure these unstable forces don't... disrupt the natural order." His gaze settled on Xu Yuan, laced with something almost like pity. "Your parents sealed your memories to spare you our legacy. But fate's wheel cannot be stopped. You were always destined to return."
Lin Xiaoxia stepped forward, her voice sharp. "What do you want?"
A slow, chilling smile. "What we've always sought: dominion over time." The Keeper approached the orb, his fingers hovering over its sickly glow. "Eric was a blunt instrument—he sought to bend time's river through force. I, however, will weave its threads... carefully."
With a touch, the orb flared brighter. The tower's hands whirled faster, their groans sharpening into a shriek.
The air twisted.
Fragments of possible futures flickered around them—cities rising and crumbling in seconds, faces melting into others, a thousand suns dying mid-sky.
Xu Yuan staggered. "He's not just altering time—he's splicing realities!"
"A new future," the Keeper intoned, his eyes alight with frigid zeal. "Not a return to the past, but a world forged in our image. Eternal. Perfect."
Lin Xiaoxia's stomach dropped. This was worse than Eric. Not just changing history—erasing all possible histories except one.
"You'll shatter the timeline completely!" she shouted over the roaring wind.
"Shatter?" The Keeper's laugh was a blade on stone. "No. We will curate it."
The orb's light became a supernova.
The tower's hands spun into a blur.
And then—
Xu Yuan moved.
Faster than should have been possible, he crossed the chamber and slammed his own silver ring against the orb.
A sound like breaking glass filled the world.
"If time is a prison," Xu Yuan growled, "then I'll be the one who sets it free."
The Keeper's scream was lost in the explosion of light.
The orb shattered.
And for a single, infinite moment—
Time stopped.
Then, with a gasp, it began again.
The tower stood silent.
The hands, motionless.
Of the Keeper, there was no trace.
Only the echo of his final words, hanging in the air like smoke:
"You don't understand what you've unleashed."
Lin Xiaoxia reached for Xu Yuan as the first cracks appeared in the tower's walls.
They ran as the world came undone behind them.
ns18.188.127.79da2
