The air in the training yard is heavy with the scent of ozone and burning mana. Joseph is suspended in mid-air, the space around him stuttering as he forces the flow of time into a localized loop. Tae sits at the center of a crystalline array, his Logos aura humming like a high-voltage wire. Kd is wreathed in that new obsidian flame, testing the limits of his Chaos reach, while Ethan's anti-matter pulses in rhythmic thumps and Ayden pulverizes reinforced training dummies with pure, unadulterated physical force.
Then, the temperature drops to absolute zero. The "code" of the training yard begins to fray at the edges.
The Return of the Origin
A man steps through a rift that looks like a tear in a wet canvas. He's leaning against the doorframe of the facility, looking as smug and untouchable as the day they first met him.
"Well, well, well... look how my little seedlings have grown. I leave you for a few months and you start decorating the garden without me."
The reaction is instantaneous. Tae, Kd, and Joseph don't even wait for a heartbeat—they explode into their transformed states.
• Tae's Crystalline Director form flares, locking the room's dimensions.
• Kd's Beast of Chaos eyes ignite with predatory hunger.
• Joseph's Logician aura screams, his binary eyes scanning for a "Delete" prompt.
"Stay right there," Kd snarls, his hand inches from the Walker's throat. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't turn you into ash before you finish that sentence."
The Timeline Breach
The Walker raises his hands, his usual smirk never wavering. "Easy, boys. Your 'Clone' problem is bigger than you think. He dragged me back through the sub-layers of the timelines. I barely escaped his 'Archive' with my consciousness intact."
Joseph's eyes narrow, his voice overlapping with the glitchy tone of the Clone trapped inside him. "Liar. In the North Tundra, after I mastered Time Control, I didn't just kill you. I severed your existence from every possible timeline. You were erased. You shouldn't even be a memory."
The Walker's smile fades into something sharper. "You're a good student, Joseph. But the Clone has tools you can't even fathom. He didn't just 'find' me. He re-authored a version of me that never went to the Tundra. He's pulling threads from the 'Rough Drafts' of reality—things you didn't even know existed."
Tae stays transformed, his Logos eyes scanning the Walker for any hint of a trap. The room is silent for a long, heavy minute.
"We need to stop him," the Walker proposes, his tone finally turning serious. "He doesn't want to be the Author. He wants to burn the library. I'm proposing an alliance. I provide the knowledge; you provide the muscle."
Kd looks at his brothers, then at the man who once tried to end them. He lowers his hand, though the Gehenna-fire still licks at his fingers. "Fine. We'll play along for now. But keep this in mind, 'Father'..."
Joseph steps right into the Walker's personal space, his binary eyes flickering dangerously.
"The moment you blink wrong, the moment you even think about betrayal... I will cut off every one of your limbs. I'll regenerate them in a 0.001-second loop and do it again. I will make you experience the 'Death' of your existence for 100 million years before I let you actually die. Do we have a deal?"
The Walker chuckles, a cold, hollow sound. "I taught you too well, Joseph. Deal."
The training grounds hum with a different kind of intensity now. To keep the Original Walker hidden from the Clone's god-like detection, Joseph and Tae weave a layer of "Untraceable Mana"—a frequency so low and synchronized with the planet's core that not even a Narrative-level entity could spot it.
But they forgot one thing: Jax.
The Microcosm Clash
Jax returns from the city, his eyes still shimmering with the spectral energy of his conversation with Cygnus and Rix. He sees the Walker—the man responsible for the "Factory Incident"—standing in his backyard.
Jax doesn't ask questions. He doesn't hesitate. He opens both palms, and the air screams as he begins to manifest the Power of Two Microcosms. He's preparing a localized big bang to erase the Walker where he stands.
"DIE!" Jax bellows.
Before the atoms can split, Joseph snaps his fingers. Time turns into thick syrup. Jax is frozen mid-lunge, the swirling galaxies in his hands flickering. Joseph calmly walks up, uses his Logician interface to delete the active ability, and then restarts the clock.
"He's an ally, Jax," Joseph says, his voice overlapping with the Clone's raspy echo. "For now. Lower the hands, or I'll lock your mana-gates for a month."
Jax snarls, but after a tense explanation, he stands down, his eyes never leaving the Walker's throat.
The Spar: Order vs. Origin
To test if this "version" of the Walker is as strong as the one they killed in the Tundra, Tae steps forward.
The spar is a blur of high-level concepts. The Walker moves with Origin-Speed, his strikes cutting through the very "Space" Tae tries to create. Tae counters with Absolute Logos, his crystalline shards clashing against the Walker's raw authority. It's a stalemate, but the Walker is fighting with a smirk that says he's holding back 90% of his power.
Seeing the others are busy testing the Walker's physical limits, Tae uses the distraction to slip into his Pocket Dimension.
The Visitation
The dimension is a garden of white lilies and soft, golden light. Sitting on a wooden bench is Sister Patricia, looking exactly as she did before the tragedy.
"You're troubled, Tae," she says, her voice like a calm tide.
Tae falls to his knees, his Director-persona crumbling. "He's back, Mother. The man who ordered your death. The man who broke us. I can't trust this 'alliance.' It feels like a virus waiting to activate."
"Tae," she says, reaching out to brush his hair, though her hand is made of soft light. "Stop worrying about the past. The script is already moving past that chapter."
"How can you say that?" Tae asks, his voice cracking. "He had you killed. He treated us like experiments! He's a monster!"
Sister Patricia doesn't answer the accusation. She just smiles that knowing, motherly smile that always used to quiet his mind. They sit in silence for what feels like hours, talking about the "old days" at the orphanage before the powers awakened.
Finally, she stands up and looks toward the horizon of the dream-world. "You need to go back, Tae. The clock is ticking. It's almost 'Time'."
"Time for what?" Tae asks, reaching for her.
"Time for the Third Act," she whispers, her form dissolving into white petals. "Don't let the Director miss his cue."
Back to Reality
Tae snaps back into the training yard. He's sweating, his breath coming in short gasps. The Walker just finished parrying a sonic-blast from Jax and looks over at Tae, his eyes glinting with a weird, ancient knowledge.
"Welcome back," the Walker says. "Did she give you the message? Or are we still pretending I'm the only villain in this room?"