In that breath of silent dust, where time seemed to halt for a moment, Louise had already run.
Behind him, the warriors of the Burning Veil Sect screamed, but their swords had lost meaning. They couldn't comprehend how he had escaped, how the air itself had frozen, how a mere boy vanished from their eyes—like a dream dissolving at dawn.
But Louise knew—it was no dream.
Something had broken within him, and at the same time, something had awakened.
---
Far from the ruins, hidden inside a forgotten cave where an old hermit once meditated, Louise sat alone. His hands trembled, his breath was ragged. But his fear... had changed.
"I stopped time," he whispered, almost not believing his own voice.
Running his fingers over the walls, he moved deeper into the cave. Symbols lined the stone—ancient marks, circles, lines, and patterns shaped like eyes. Some seemed familiar, others alien. But one symbol held his gaze.
It was the Tri-Spiral Sigil—the same mark he'd touched in the ruins. Below it, faint script flickered in broken, ancient glyphs:
"He who is chosen by Time shall belong neither to the past nor the future.
He shall bind the present within his hands."
"I'm not chosen," Louise muttered. "I was just… no one."
Yet the air in the cave seemed to listen, to shift, as though Time itself had paused to witness his words.
He closed his eyes and recalled the moment when the world had stilled—when the wind froze, when every sound faded, and when time bowed its head.
"How did I do it?" he wondered.
And as if that question opened a door, a voice echoed softly inside him.
"The Ashen Clock."
"Who's there?" Louise turned sharply. But there was no one.
Then the cave began to change.
Symbols on the wall glowed—strange, indecipherable to any scholar. Yet Louise understood them. Somehow, the language of time now spoke to him.
"The Ashen Clock is the power that walks before death.
It is the craft of Time—unseen, yet endured by all.
No ordinary body can bear it.
But should you endure—it shall let you live even in the face of death."
Louise's eyes widened.
"Was that… what I felt earlier?"
He followed the path deeper until he reached the heart of the cave. There stood a circular stone dais, as though once used for meditation. Upon it sat a skeletal figure, long decayed.
Before the figure stood a strange object—a glass sphere shaped like an hourglass, but instead of sand, it held ash.
As Louise approached, the ashes began to flow—but in reverse, climbing upward.
His breath caught.
The clock reacted to his presence.
"Is this… bound to me?" he asked.
The ashes swirled faster. More glyphs shimmered across the walls:
"Three doors, three truths.
Open one, be chained to two.
You now stand at the First Door—to stop the present.
Ahead lies the second—to see the future.
And finally, the third—to rewrite the past."
Louise staggered back.
"No. This isn't power—it's a curse."
But the Ashen Clock did not stop.
---
Night deepened outside the cave, and footsteps echoed in the distance.
The Burning Veil Sect had returned.
"He came this way," someone barked.
Louise clenched his fists.
Running would change nothing.
He grabbed his sword—not in fear, but with calm resolve.
"If I truly am the bearer of the Ashen Clock," he whispered, "then this power is not a burden. It's a responsibility."
The ashes in the clock fell silent—watching, waiting.
"Let's test Time once more."
---
As the soldiers burst into the cave, the very air changed.
A faint tremor passed through the walls.
The leader raised his blade. "There he is—kill him!"
But in the next moment—everything stopped.
The wind. The light. The soldiers.
Only Louise moved.
But this time, he was calm. Ash floated around him like stardust suspended in a quiet ocean. He walked among the frozen warriors, brushing their faces, observing their expressions frozen in fear and rage.
Then—a soldier blinked.
Louise froze.
"He's… moving too?"
On the soldier's skin, the Tri-Spiral Sigil burned faintly.
"He's also bound to time."
Louise raised his blade.
---
Their eyes met—in a realm where even moments had no motion.
A silent war began.
And for the first time, Louise realized—he wasn't alone...