Location: Chronópolis - Broken Clocks District
Talan Remaining Time: 3 years, 2 months and 14 days
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The smell of gear oil and rotten meat impregnated the air of the district. Talan Veyne watched from a roof, his eyes fixed on the nobleman who walked below, wrapped in expensive clothes and the typical arrogance of those who never felt the hunger of time.
Alric von HertZ.
The name echoed in Talan's mind like a funeral bell. The nobleman had *forty immaculate years* pulsating in his veins - and Talan was there to steal them.
His fingers tingled, the ancestral hunger of the Chronophagy awakening. He didn't need a watch to know that the guard on the left was less than a month old. The poor guy wouldn't even notice when a few days they are missing.
Talan jumped.
The first guard fell before screaming, Talan's blade scraping his neck - two years flowed into his veins in the blink of an eye. The man instantly grayed, his eyes glazed with confusion.
The second guard had time to draw the sword, but Talan was already in it. Five fingers pressed his face, and five years evaporated like smoke. The man fell to his knees, his beard now grayed, his skin wrinkled.
Alric von HertZ turned, his eyes wide.
- What do you—
Talan didn't let me finish. He grabbed him by the collar, his fingers sinking into the hot meat.
- How much does your life cost, nobleman? - whispered, his voice echoing like a distorted tick-taque.
The touch was quick. The pain, slower.
Alric screamed when ten years were torn from him. His hair turned white, his hands wrinkled, and he fell to the ground, a sixty-year-old man in a body that he still believed was forty.
Talan felt the heat of stolen time invading his veins. Ten more years. Another decade to postpone the inevitable.
And then—
A woman. Redhead. Blood on your hands. "Lira," whispered something in his mind. Then: silence.
He swallowed dryly. *Another lost memory.
That's when the voice cut the fog from her mind:
- Are you going to steal from me too?
Talan turned, the blade ready.
She was no more than ten years old. Black hair like the void between the stars, eyes that reflected something old . But the strangest thing?
Nyx had no aura.
No thread of time involved her. No secret throbbed under his skin. It was as if she didn't exist in the flow of time.
- You're a Devourer - she said, without fear. - But you don't remember being one, do you?
Talan felt his heart speed up. How did she know?
Before I could answer, the bells of Chronópolis began to ring.
The Hunters had arrived.
And they weren't alone.
On the roof next to it, a figure wrapped in shadows watched, his eyes shining like clocks under the moon.
Kiran, the Timeless.
And he smiled.
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