The air still trembled from the aftershocks of the Nova Collider disaster, and Elias Vane had spent weeks picking up the pieces. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the nightmare unfolding before his eyes now. It wasn't just that the collapse had left the city in ruins—the very fabric of reality felt stretched too thin. Out of that broken air stepped a man, a version of Elias that seemed impossibly evolved.
This wasn't just an echo or a ghost of the past. It was Future Elias. Dressed in a sleek, armored suit with deep blue energy lines pulsing along his body, his eyes burned like twin stars, radiating a kind of power Elias could hardly imagine. Future Elias wasn't merely a traveler through time; he was someone who'd learned to command it. Elias instinctively recoiled, every nerve in his body screaming warnings. Beside him, Lira gripped her Chronoblade tighter. Her normally calm face now bore a mix of worry and urgency as she muttered, "This isn't just some leftover echo. This is you—from a future where time bends to your will."
Elias swallowed hard. "Then why does he look like he's here to kill me?" he asked. Future Elias smirked, his voice steady and full of certainty. "Because I remember this moment," he replied. "I remember standing where you are now, being scared and weak, before I learned to embrace my role."
Elias's heart pounded. He had encountered echoes and time ghosts before, but this was different—this was an Elias who had already won the war with time. And now, he seemed here to erase the less experienced self in front of him.
Before Elias could gather his thoughts, everything around him began to splinter into slices of different times. The street transformed into a chaotic collage: cars flickered between designs from different eras, neon lights blinked erratically, and even passersby appeared as ghostly layers from various moments. Future Elias raised his hand, and with a single gesture, the very fabric of time collapsed inward. Elias found himself hurtling through rapid loops—scenes and colors blurring together into streaks of light. Instinctively, he activated his teleportation ability, disappearing in quick bursts and reappearing on a nearby rooftop. But even up there, as he turned to search for a safe spot, Future Elias was already waiting.
"You can't outrun me," the future version warned coolly. "I've already lived through this fight." Elias felt a deep, burning urge rising within him. His skin lit up with glowing markings as he tapped into his resources, determined to match that power. Slowly, he began to notice something: while he struggled to control his abilities, his future self commanded time as if it were nothing more than pliable clay. "You have potential," Future Elias continued, "but until you accept that time isn't something to be feared—it's meant to be controlled—you'll always be the weaker version of me."
Anger and desperation welled up. "I'm not trying to rule time," Elias snapped, "I just want to fix what I broke." A hollow, knowing laugh escaped Future Elias. "That's exactly what I told myself years ago. And look where it got me."
At that moment, Lira lunged forward. Her Chronoblade sliced through the space between them as she tried to cut off any further manipulation from Future Elias. But he barely even reacted—one quick flick of his finger, and time reversed Lira's move as if it were nothing more than a minor glitch. The sheer force of that power struck Elias hard; the ability to erase actions from reality was a danger he feared becoming himself.
Realizing he couldn't beat his future self in a straight fight, Elias took a deep, steadying breath and decided to risk everything. He activated his most dangerous ability—a surge of time manipulation so raw that every split second around him folded into itself. The city around him seemed to cry out. Streetlights flickered wildly, people stuttered in mid-step, and the sky cracked open like shattered glass. For a brief, heart-stopping moment, every version of Elias—past, present, and future—crashed together in a wild collision of time.
In that split second, Future Elias's control faltered just a bit. Elias saw his chance. He teleported behind his future self and grabbed his wrist. Their energies clashed violently, and time around them twisted and convulsed. For the first time, the confident smirk of Future Elias wavered ever so slightly, revealing a flicker of uncertainty. "You don't know everything," Elias whispered under his breath, "because I'm still changing the future." With one final surge, he tore himself free, forcing time back into place and stabilizing the moment. Future Elias staggered, exhaled sharply, and then, with a small, intrigued smile, said, "Interesting… maybe you aren't as weak as I remember." And then, without any warning, he stepped back through the tear in time, disappearing into the mystery of another timeline.
The battle was over—for now. Yet Elias knew this wasn't a final victory; it was only the beginning of a much larger struggle. In the shattered streets of the fractured city, as the echoes of broken time slowly began to settle, Elias was left with one clear truth: every second from now on would be a fight, not just against outside forces, but against the dark parts of himself that this power threatened to unleash.