The surface of Aethelgard was no longer the golden paradise Kai remembered.
The twin suns were eclipsed by a swirling vortex of violet nebulae, and the air tasted of ozone and rotting magic.
As Kai emerged from the library's hidden exit, he saw the Ivory Tower—the pinnacle of the mages' power—shaking under the assault of a colossal rift.
[LOCATION: ROYAL SECTOR - IVORY TOWER] [DANGER LEVEL: HIGH] [OBJECTIVE: PREVENT DIMENSIONAL COLLAPSE]
Aethelgard's elite mages were desperate. They launched volleys of fire and ice at a massive creature emerging from the central rift.
It was a Void-Devourer, a Rank-A beast that looked like a mountain of translucent flesh and shifting eyes.
The mages' spells, which once seemed god-like, merely flickered against the creature's dimensional hide.
"Fall back!" a High Mage screamed, his golden robes scorched. "Our mana is being drained! It's eating the spells!"
Kai stood in the shadows of a crumbling archway.
His new attire—the black leather scales of the Keeper—glowed with a faint, rhythmic purple pulse. He felt the Void-Devourer's presence; it was a massive anchor of chaos trying to drag this world into the abyss.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: KEEPER'S SIGHT (LVL 100)] [ANALYZING VOID-DEVOURER...] [CORE WEAKNESS DETECTED: TEMPORAL SYNC - 87%]
"It's not eating the magic," Kai whispered, his voice caught between two timelines. "It's delaying the impact of the spells into the future, making them harmless in the present."
With a thought, Kai stepped into the darkness.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: SHADOW STEP (LVL 100)]
He vanished from the archway and reappeared a hundred feet in the air, standing on a platform of solid shadow directly in front of the Devourer's central eye.
The High Mages below gasped, seeing a silhouette crowned with spectral blue fire appearing where no human should be able to survive.
The beast roared, a sound that buckled the stone towers nearby. It lashed out with a tentacle made of distorted space.
"Too slow," Kai said.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: TIME STASIS (LVL 100)]
The massive tentacle froze mid-swing. The swirling clouds, the falling debris, and the beast's very breath stopped. In this frozen moment, Kai was the only thing that moved. He raised his right hand, and the Void Spear materialized, its length crackling with lightning-black energy.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: ATTRIBUTE ALLOCATION REQUIRED] [POINTS AVAILABLE: 10][ALLOCATING 10 POINTS TO INTELLIGENCE (INT)...] [INT: 25 -> 35]
The spear in his hand grew denser, its aura turning from a flicker to a blinding purple sun. Kai didn't just throw the spear; he pinned the beast to the current second of time.
"Rupture," Kai commanded.
Time resumed with a violent shockwave. The Void Spear struck the Devourer's central eye, not just piercing flesh, but shattering the dimensional anchor holding it there.
The beast shrieked as its body began to fold in on itself, being sucked back into the rift it had come from.
[BOSS DEFEATED: VOID-DEVOURER (RANK A)] [ESSENCE ABSORBED: 500 UNITS] [ATTRIBUTE POINTS GAINED: 50] [LEVEL UP: 1 -> 15]
As the beast vanished, the rift snapped shut, sending a blast of pure energy through the Royal Sector. Kai landed softly on the plaza, his spear vanishing back into his shadow. The surviving mages approached him, their faces a mix of awe and terror.
"Who... what are you?" the High Mage stammered, looking at Kai's glowing crown.
Kai looked at the sky. The rifts were still there, hundreds of them, bleeding into the horizon. The Ivory Tower had fallen, but the Keeper had risen.
"I am the one who keeps the clock running," Kai replied, his eyes glowing with the cold light of the abyss. "And your time just ran out."
[NEW QUEST: THE SHADOW
CITADEL] [GOAL: RECLAIM THE FIRST DIMENSIONAL FRAGMENT]