Kei staggered back, his vision warping as the TimeFragment pulsed violently in his grasp. The weight of its power pressed against his mind like an unbearable tide. Every second, reality bent and twisted around him, threatening to collapse under the strain of his newfound abilities.
TheFacelessMan stood unmoving, watching with silent amusement. "You feel it, don't you?" his distorted voice echoed. "The instability. The unraveling."
Kei clenched his fists. He couldn't afford to lose control now—not when he had finally gained an edge. But the Fragment's power was like a double-edged sword. The more he manipulated time, the more it consumed him.
Suddenly, the world shattered.
Kei found himself standing in an endless void, fragments of the Prison floating around him like broken glass. A massive clock tower loomed in the distance, its hands spinning wildly in opposite directions.
"Where… am I?" Kei muttered, his voice lost in the emptiness.
A whisper slithered into his ear. "The Edge of Existence."
Kei turned sharply. A shadowy figure stood at the base of the clock tower. Unlike the Faceless Man, this entity had a face—his own. But the eyes were hollow, and an eerie smirk stretched across its lips.
"I'm what you'll become if you keep playing with time," the doppelgänger said, stepping closer. "A being that exists nowhere and everywhere. A fragment of something that never was."
Kei's heart pounded. Was this another trick of the Prison? Or was this truly his fate?
Before he could react, theFacelessMan's laughter echoed through the void. The clock tower trembled, its structure cracking as the Prison tried to reclaim him.
"Time is not your ally, Kei." The Faceless Man's voice surrounded him from all directions. "It is your cage."
The doppelgänger lunged.
Kei braced himself. If he wanted to escape, he had to do something unthinkable—break time itself.