The storm was no longer weather—it was memory colliding with possibility. Shards of reality hovered in the sky like broken glass, reflecting infinite versions of a single truth. And in the center of that unstable maelstrom stood two Aidens—mirror images in form, but diverging shadows of purpose.
One fought for survival.
The other fought to rewrite fate.
When their blades clashed, it wasn't metal on metal—it was the weight of timelines grinding together. Each blow echoed with the screams of forgotten futures and lost decisions.
Lightning danced across the fractured horizon as Kaela knelt by a boulder of hovering stone, her barrier pulsing dimly, her breathing shallow. She clutched her staff with white-knuckled desperation, weaving sigils of temporal resistance, but her strength was fraying.
Brant hovered nearby, fists clenched, his eyes darting between the fight and the sky. "They're going to tear the whole Riftveil apart," he muttered.
Kaela winced as the barrier flickered. "If the dimensional tension spikes any further, this entire anchor zone will collapse into a temporal sinkhole."
"And then?" Brant asked.
"We vanish. Like we were never born."
Aiden twisted mid-air, blade trailing arcs of violet Riftlight, his movements precise and intentional. His adversary—the mirror Aiden—moved like water caught in a cyclone, each strike flowing into the next, unpredictable and devastating.
[Skill Activated: Rift Rend — Temporal Edge Variant]Slice across the fabric of NOW. Targets suffer delayed disintegration.
The mirror snarled and countered instantly.
[Skill Activated: Chrono Slash: Aftershock Layer]Strike reverberates 3 seconds after initial contact.
Their blades met—and then met again in delayed time.
Aiden was knocked back, his ribs screaming in protest. Blood flecked his lips, but he staggered to his feet, breathing heavily. "You've sacrificed everything to become this," he said, voice raw. "But that power—it's hollow."
The mirror's eyes gleamed with fury. "I sacrificed nothing. I chose clarity. You still cling to weakness—friends, emotions, hope. They'll die, and you'll join them."
"I've already lost too many," Aiden said. "I'm not letting this world fall just because you couldn't grieve properly."
The mirror lunged, screaming—not with rage, but pain. A scream filled with echoes of a life gone wrong. Their swords met again, time and space folding around them. The battlefield shuddered, platforms collapsing in slow-motion implosions.
Kaela's staff pulsed once—then fizzled. She collapsed to her hands and knees.
Brant caught her just before she fell off the edge. "You're done. Stop pushing."
"No… If I drop this barrier…" she gasped. "The paradox field will explode outward. We'll all—"
"I've got you." Brant set her down gently and stood. "Stay with her, Elsira," he said to the AI flickering nearby.
Elsira's holographic form appeared, glitching. "Warning: Core Stability at 12%. Intervention is not recommended."
Brant cracked his neck. "Then it's a good thing I've never listened to warnings."
He sprinted into the chaos.
The mirror unleashed a full temporal cascade, warping everything. Aiden's perception fractured. He saw himself fighting from five angles, each echo predicting a different future.
[Mirror Aiden Skill: Temporal Phantasm Array]Generate quantum afterimages with diverging action threads.
But Aiden closed his eyes—and listened. Not with his ears, but with the Core inside his chest. Its heartbeat was steady. Its rhythm true.
[Warden Passive: Rift Sight – Active Perception Calibration Initiated]Stabilize focus within nonlinear perception.
When he opened his eyes, the false images shimmered and dispersed. Only one enemy stood before him.
And Aiden stepped forward—not as a warrior, but as a survivor.
He didn't attack blindly. He waited.
The mirror struck. Blade arcing.
Aiden sidestepped and locked eyes with him. "You're afraid."
That hesitation—one heartbeat—was all it took.
[Skill Activated: Phase Anchor – Overload Variant]Target: Echo Aiden | Anchor Strength: Maximum
The mirror's body was pulled mid-strike, pinned to a single moment in spacetime.
Brant surged from the side, slamming his gauntlet into the Echo's face, cracking his temporal mask. Energy sizzled.
"Tag team, like the old days," Brant said, panting.
Aiden gave him a grateful look. "You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should he," Brant replied, nodding at the mirror.
Kaela's voice rang out over the storm. "The Rift's collapsing around the anchor point! If you're going to end this, do it now!"
Aiden turned back to his mirror. The man had broken free, struggling to rise, his eyes now hollow—no longer filled with rage, but despair.
"You really believe there's still something worth saving?" the mirror asked, voice cracking. "After everything we've seen?"
"I have to," Aiden said. "Otherwise, why fight at all?"
The mirror dropped his blade. "Then finish it."
Aiden hesitated.
And then plunged his blade—not into the man's heart, but into the ground.
[Skill: Rift Seal]Absorb fractured echoes. Merge divergent memory threads.
A swirl of light and shadow consumed the echo. Aiden gritted his teeth as memories surged through him—not just of battles, but of loss, love, guilt, and regret. His alternate self's pain became his own.
[Echo Assimilated: Temporal Variant Aiden]Soul Integration: 73% Complete… Success.
The light faded.
Aiden remained standing—alone.
But he was more than before.
He remembered.
He understood.
Kaela's shield dissipated as the storm calmed. The sky stitched itself into soft auroras of blue and silver. Floating islands stopped falling. The ground beneath them solidified. And the Riftveil—the stabilizing dimensional zone—no longer screamed in protest.
[System Notification: Core Anomaly Resolved][You Are Now Recognized As: Temporal Prime Anchor — Aiden Serevyn][You carry the burden of all timelines.]
Kaela limped toward him, leaning on her staff. "You… you pulled him into yourself?"
Aiden nodded slowly. "I couldn't kill him. He was me. Just… broken."
Brant sat on a stone nearby, groaning. "So, what now?"
Aiden looked at his hands. "Now we have clarity."
He turned his gaze to the sky—where a distant shimmer indicated the next Echo was forming. Not violent yet. But present.
"They'll keep coming," Aiden said.
Kaela nodded solemnly. "And we'll be here to meet them."
[Class Upgrade Available: Ascendant Warden → Riftwalker Sovereign]Accept this path to lead not only your reality, but others struggling to anchor.
[Warning: This choice is irreversible.]
Aiden closed his eyes.
"I'll walk the Rift," he whispered. "But I won't do it alone."