Marcus's heartbeat slowed. The world froze.
Within his soul, he stood in a shattered field of clocks, their hands spinning wildly. At the center, a sword was embedded in a grave bearing his name.
A voice echoed:
> "I am Orenmir, forged from your broken past and your desperate desire to fix it. Will you bind with me truly, Marcus Vale?"
He gritted his teeth. "Yes. No more running. I accept everything—my pain, my regrets, my will to change the future."
The grave shattered.
> TRUE EIDOLON RELEASE: ORENMIR, BLADE OF ETERNAL RETURN.
Reality snapped back.
Marcus stood, now clad in partial Eidolon Armor—black-white spectral plating over one arm and shoulder, etched with hourglass sigils. Orenmir had changed. The blade was longer, curved like a scythe, and pulsed with visible time-laced auras.
"Geoffrey, Tyrese—back me up!" he shouted.
Orenmir activated a new ability:
> Chrono Loop Slash
Marcus dashed forward, cleaving the Cursed Eidolon across space—and then again, repeating the same strike from an earlier moment. A double hit from two timelines.
> Chrono Rewind Guard
The Eidolon countered, but Marcus instinctively reversed a wound he'd just received, healing mid-battle.
Tyrese whistled. "Okay, that's insane."
With Geoffrey pinning the creature using Law Chains, Marcus channeled his full energy into a final strike:
> Temporal Severance
The blade glowed blindingly.
He cleaved through the Cursed Eidolon—and its entire existence unraveled. Not just death… erasure from the timestream.
The rift sealed. Silence fell.
Tyrese exhaled. "Well… looks like we've got ourselves a real monster slayer."
Geoffrey approached Marcus, eyes narrowed but respectful. "You bonded with Orenmir fully. You've awakened your True Eidolon. That's rare—even among Knights."
Marcus collapsed to one knee, exhausted but smiling.
"I'm not done growing yet," he said. "This is just the beginning."
The others nodded. From this point forward, Marcus wasn't a rookie anymore.
He was a Temporal Warden in the making.