Through the Eye of the Storm
A Path Woven by Fate
The wind howled through the shattered peaks of the valley as Jerry and his companions pressed onward. The remnants of their last battle still clung to them—blood, sweat, and the echoes of a past that refused to let go.
Ahead, the landscape twisted into something ancient, untouched by time. The ruined temple had been a trap, a carefully laid snare designed to break him. But the real danger hadn't been the illusion of Mike.
It was what had watched from the dark.
Bengala kept pace beside him, her feline eyes sharp as they scanned the terrain. "So… what now?" she asked, her tail flicking in irritation. "We walked into a trap. Barely made it out. And now you want to keep going?"
Vrkane grunted in agreement. "I hate to say it, but she has a point. That thing in the temple—it was waiting for you, Jerry. Not for us."
Jerry adjusted the straps of his armor, the divine metal shifting to fit his form as if sensing his unease. His bonded weren't wrong. The enemy hadn't just expected him—it had been anticipating him.
Which meant he was playing right into its hands.
He exhaled. "I don't have a choice. Whatever's watching us—whatever's pulling the strings—it isn't done. If I don't figure out what it wants, we're just going to keep walking into ambush after ambush."
Bengala sighed. "Fine. But the moment things get too weird, we kill first and ask questions later."
Jerry smirked. "I wouldn't expect anything less."
---
The Storm's Warning
They hadn't made it more than a mile before the first sign of trouble appeared.
The sky split open.
Lightning crackled through the storm-choked clouds, twisting in unnatural patterns. The air grew thick with energy—not just electricity, but something older, something that made the hair on Jerry's arms stand on end.
Aviana, in her eagle form, shrieked from above, her wings fighting against the sudden turbulence. Something's coming.
Jerry's grip tightened on Backbone and Dismay. "Get ready."
The storm didn't just roll in—it exploded.
A vortex of wind and lightning erupted in the center of the valley, the ground splitting open as jagged runes burned into the earth. And from that rift, something descended.
Not a creature.
Not a man.
A Warden.
---
The Warden's Judgment
It was unlike anything Jerry had faced before.
A towering figure shrouded in swirling energy, neither flesh nor shadow, but something in between. Its form was vaguely humanoid—broad shoulders, elongated limbs, and a head wreathed in stormlight—but its face was faceless, shifting between flickering runes and hollow voids.
The air shook with its presence, a pressure that sank into Jerry's bones.
This is not a being that fights.
This is a being that judges.
The Warden raised a single hand, and the storm around them stilled.
"Chrono-God."
The title struck Jerry like a physical blow.
His breath caught. "What?"
The Warden's voice was not a sound—it was a force, pressing against reality itself. "The one who bends time. The one who walks between moments. You are known to us."
Jerry's mind reeled. He had barely begun to grasp his connection to time. So how could this thing already know?
"What do you want?" Jerry asked, forcing his voice to remain steady.
The Warden tilted its head. "You are an anomaly. A fracture in fate. You should not exist, yet you do."
Bengala bared her fangs. "Yeah, well, you're ugly as hell and you exist. So what's your point?"
The storm surged in response, the air screaming with power.
"You are warned," the Warden intoned. "The balance is breaking. Your presence here—your choices—send ripples through time itself."
Jerry tightened his grip on his swords. "Then why are you here?"
The Warden's hollow gaze bore into him. "To see if you are worthy."
Then it struck.
---
A Battle Beyond Time
The Warden didn't move—it shifted.
One moment it was in front of them, the next it was everywhere, its form flickering between multiple points in space.
Jerry barely had time to react before a column of energy erupted beneath his feet. He leaped, time slowing around him as he twisted midair. His armor flared, absorbing the residual force, but the Warden's power wasn't just energy.
It was gravity. Momentum. Time itself.
Vrkane and Bengala moved in unison, their half-human, half-animal forms blurring as they lunged. Claws met nothing but air—the Warden wasn't bound by physicality the way they were.
Think, Jerry.
This wasn't a fight he could win with brute force. The Warden was testing him—not just his strength, but his ability to understand what he was.
Jerry closed his eyes.
Reached inside.
And for the first time, he didn't just call upon his bonds.
He called upon time itself.
---
Chrono-God Awakens
The world slowed.
No—froze.
Jerry's body moved outside the moment, stepping between flickering instances of existence. He saw the Warden shifting—not teleporting, but rewriting its own timeline, appearing in different places as though it had always been there.
I can do that too.
With a thought, Jerry stepped through time.
One moment, he stood before the Warden. The next, he was behind it, his swords slashing through its temporal form.
The Warden staggered, its form flickering—not in pain, but acknowledgment.
"You see now."
Jerry exhaled, his hands still shaking from the sheer effort of what he had just done.
"I see enough."
The Warden straightened. The storm began to fade. "Then you may yet survive what is to come."
Jerry watched as the Warden dissolved, its energy dispersing back into the winds.
His heart pounded in his chest. His mind raced.
He had just touched his true power—just a fraction of it. And it had nearly broken him.
Vrkane stepped up beside him, his expression unreadable. "What the hell was that?"
Jerry swallowed hard. "A warning."
Bengala frowned. "From who?"
Jerry's gaze lingered on the sky, where the last traces of the storm vanished.
"…From myself."
---
A New Path Forward
They stood in silence for a long moment, the weight of what had happened pressing down on all of them.
Finally, Aviana landed beside them, her talons digging into the earth. So… what now?
Jerry let out a slow breath, steadying himself.
"We keep moving."
And deep within the unseen layers of time, something watched.
Something waited.
And for the first time, Jerry felt it watching back.
---