"I... when you won that fight, I couldn't take it anymore." The other Chronos chuckled, it was laced with regret. his circuits glowed dark crimson.
Yurei turned instinctively, her ice arm pulsed. "What fight?" Her icy breath caught the stale wind blowing through the room.
Aetheron slowly picked his head up, panting. "He is probably talking about a contract." His wings tucked, Halo dimming.
"What contract…?" Yurei asked. "You say that as if I'm supposed to know what you're talking about."
Aetheron chuckled, his wings flaring again. "Yeah, cause to us, it's second nature." He laughed, his tone carrying a weight behind it. "It's not just an 'agreement'. It's an absolute law that binds two forces together—a Shunogai and something beyond them. It could be another being, a concept, a force of nature itself. The stronger the contract, the greater the power."
Yurei placed Aetheron on his feet. "So… you're saying a Contract is basically just a deal?"
Aetheron sighed. "A deal?" He scoffed. "Nah. A deal can be broken. A Contract is binding. It's a connection that can't be undone—unless you're willing to face the consequences."
Shukan cuts in, his tone shaky. "Can you hurry up with your half-assed explanation?" He turned back to Chronos, his face unreadable.
Aetheron hovered. "Well at least I was trying, damn."
"Thought I won. Just for fucking once." The other chronos spoke, his tone commanding. "After I killed you, I felt…nothing. It felt wrong." He squeezed his hands into a ball, anger building on his face. "What did I do wrong?"
"Maybe killing me wasn't the smartest move. Just a thought." Shukan scoffed, fear cracking into his voice.
The other Chronos dropped to his knees, his circuits pulsed erratically, his crimson glow twisting—fracturing. His breath hitched, uneven. His hands slammed down, the flesh like ground pulsed in response.
"I couldn't change it." His breath shaky, laced with regret." I…I can fix this. I'll go back in time— I won't kill him. That's it. That'll work." He muttered, justifying his actions.
He muttered it like a prayer, like if he said it enough, it'll come true.
"That's not how it works." Chronos' glow flickered, the white fading into gold—the shift that carried weight. "You don't just get another chance."
Yurei tilted her head. "On an off note, how'd the other Chronos even get here?"
Aetheron exhaled sharply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I think you should ask him that."
The walls cracked open.
A slow, sickening creak echoed through the room as cold air bled in from the fractures. The squad turned instinctively, eyes snapping to the widening cracks.
And then, as if on cue—
The Domain Shunogai, no, the other Chronos, rose.
His circuits pulsed erratically, his glow shifting, stabilizing into something deeper, something intentional.
And he grinned. "I…finally understand it now."
Then—
The walls split open.
A sharp, wet sound like torn flesh ripped through the air. A gust of freezing wind surged through, sending Yurei's breath misting into the air.
Aetheron stiffened. "The fuck was that—?"
A deep, creaking groan crawled through the space. Not an echo. Not a sound from the room.
Something massive was stirring.
The air shifted.
The room contracted, like something unseen had just exhaled. The cracks in the walls widened, the flesh-like ground twitched beneath their feet.
Then, from the darkness— It moved.
A limb, if it could be called that, poured through the torn-open walls. Long, gnarled, its surface crawled with pulsing veins of dark energy. The room dimmed around it, as if light itself was being devoured.
Yurei's ice-arm twitched involuntarily. Her breath came out ragged. "That…isn't normal."
Aetheron's wings flared, his halo pulsing weakly. "No shit, Sherlock."
Shukan didn't speak. His body recognized it before his mind did. His instincts—his very existence—screamed at him.
Void Spawn. Not just a regular one. Something old. Something wrong.
The limb twitched again, then twisted—no, folded—in on itself, reshaping into something almost humanoid. From the darkness, a face pushed through.
No features. No eyes. Just a smooth expanse of black flesh. And yet—It was looking at him. It knew him.
And it laughed.
A thin, almost mechanical sound. A laugh that didn't belong in this reality.
Shukan took a step back.
The Domain Chronos slowly lifted his head. His circuits pulsed—recognition, realization, something like dread. He opened his mouth. "…No."
The thing that emerged didn't move like a creature—It folded. Its form wasn't solid, it shifted, parts of it flickering in and out of reality like it couldn't decide which shape it wanted to be. A jagged maw, too wide for its head, dripped something black onto the ground, and where it touched? The floor stopped existing.
Not breaking. Not cracking. Just gone.
"Void spawn." Chronos muttered, his voice low.
The thing twisted towards them.
Then—It spoke.
"This place is already dead."
Its voice wasn't a sound, it was a thought that forced itself into their heads, warping reality just to make them understand.
Aetheron clenched his fists. "That's just fantastic. Great. A thing that speaks with its thoughts."
The other Chronos staggered, his circuits pulsing erratically. His breathing was sharp and uneven, panic creeping into his expression.
"I—I can't…not now—I still need to fix this," he muttered, looking at his hands like they weren't his own. "I—"
The Void spawns gaze snapped towards him.
It already knew.
It could sense fear and uncertainty gripping the other Chronos, and in an instant, it decided.
It lunged.
Aetheron barely had time to react before the other Chronos was already caught.
The void spawn didn't kill him. Not immediately.
It consumed.
His circuits twisted, unraveled—rewritten.
The other Chronos screamed. His voice fractured, splitting apart like static from a broken transmission. His body flickered—one moment solid, the next a corrupted blur. His edges glitched, shifting between shapes, as if the universe couldn't decide if he should exist at all.
Then—
A sound, like bones shattering inside their heads.
Yurei's breath hitched, her eyes locked onto him—or what was left. More like, she couldn't move them away.
"Its…undoing him," she muttered. Her voice—small. Uncertain.
Shukan moved. No, he ran. His instincts kicked in before his brain could process it. "We need to get out. That spawn is too dangerous." His hand reached for his daggers, but his fingers trembled.
Then—
A tendril lashed out.
Too fast to track. A whisper of motion—a phantom edge against his throat.
A delayed, resounding CRACK slammed through the air.
Shukan stumbled, breath shaking. His fingers grazed his neck—cold. A shallow, razor-thin cut. He hadn't even realized it hit him. If it had been a hair closer—
He turned.
The wall behind him collapsed inward.
A gaping crater—not just carved, but erased. Flesh peeled like shattered stone, the King's insides torn open.
"…Huh?" His voice came out small—so quiet he barely heard himself.
The other Chronos was gone. No body. No remnants. Just… nothing.
Memories of him flickered in their minds. Then, like a candle snuffed out—those were gone too.
The Void Spawn rose.
Its form slithered, convulsing, unshaped. It didn't just move—it rippled, distorting everything around it.
And then—
It turned.
A single tendril dripped with what was once Chronos. The stain of his existence lingered, barely clinging to reality.
It aimed—directly at Shukan.
A tendril whipped forward.
A whistling sound—like a blade slicing air.
Yurei moved. She caught it.
Her ice-arm cracked on impact, frost splintering from her fingertips. Her body trembled, but she didn't let go.
"What the hell are you doing?!" she yelled, gritting her teeth.
The Void Spawn pulsed, its tendrils shifting, forming more.