The moment the Chronomancer's Heart vanished, the world froze.
Not in the way time had fractured before—not in jagged glimpses of past and future warring for dominance. This was complete and utter stillness.
No wind. No distant hum of reality shifting. No sound at all.
Caius pushed himself up on shaky arms, his breath coming in short gasps. The weight of what had just happened settled into his chest like lead. The relic was gone. The rift had sealed. But something had gone wrong.
Selene's fingers were still curled around his arm where she had caught him before the collapse, her body locked in place. Elias, standing a few feet away, had his mouth slightly open as if caught mid-sentence. Aldric's sword was half-raised, frozen in the air.
They weren't moving.
They weren't breathing.
Caius's stomach twisted. He scrambled to his feet, shaking Selene's shoulder. "Selene?" His voice was too loud in the oppressive stillness. "Selene, wake up."
Nothing.
He turned to Elias, gripping his cloak, shaking him harder. "Elias!"
No response. No movement.
He stumbled backward, his pulse hammering in his ears. It wasn't just them. It was everything.
The world had stopped.
And he was the only one left moving.
Caius sprinted through the ruined corridors of the palace, his boots echoing too loudly against the frozen stone. Every torch, every banner, every flicker of light stood perfectly still, as though suspended in amber. The city outside—if it even still existed—was eerily silent.
This wasn't how time should work.
His mind raced through the possibilities. Had the destruction of the rift broken time's natural flow? Was this the price of using the Chronomancer's Heart? Had he somehow become severed from time itself?
He didn't know. And worse—he had no one to ask.
Panic gnawed at him, but he forced himself to keep moving. There had to be something—some sign that not everything had stopped.
And then he heard it.
A whisper.
Faint. Almost imperceptible, like an echo from a distant dream.
"…Caius…"
He turned sharply, scanning the empty halls. The whisper had no source—no voice attached to it. But it was there. A thread of sound in the suffocating silence.
"…Find me…"
The words sent a shiver down his spine.
Find who?
Where?
Caius clenched his fists. He had no map. No guide. Just the unbearable silence pressing in from all sides. But if there was even the smallest chance that someone—anyone—was out there, he had to try.
With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and listened.
The whisper came again, faint but clearer.
"…Beyond the ruins… where time began…"
Caius's heart pounded. He knew that place.
The First Sanctum.
The First Sanctum had been a myth for as long as history could remember. Said to be the birthplace of time's first ripple, it was a place few had ever seen and fewer had ever returned from. If there were answers anywhere, it would be there.
He had no concept of how long he had been running when he reached the palace gates, but when he stepped beyond them, the sight before him made him stop cold.
The city was empty.
Not in ruin. Not in flames. Just… gone.
Buildings still stood. The sky still loomed overhead, a deep, unnatural twilight. But the people—every single one of them—were frozen in place like Selene and the others. Vendors were locked mid-sale, children mid-laughter, guards mid-step. Lifeless statues in a world that had forgotten how to move.
Caius felt the weight of loneliness settle deep in his bones.
He was the last soul in a world that had stopped.
Taking a shaky breath, he turned away from the silent city and focused on what lay ahead.
He had to find the First Sanctum. He had to find whoever—or whatever—had whispered his name.
Because if he didn't…
He might be alone forever.