Kael – Day 18 After Emberwatch
The world burned quieter now.
That should've comforted me. It didn't.
Dregwatch was behind me. I'd taken my coin, my upgrades, my silence—and left. I couldn't stay. Not after what I did in that crawl. Not after the girl. The fire still whispered her name in my sleep.
I followed no road. Just heat. Just instinct.
Until I saw it.
A distortion in the air. A shimmer between two dying trees.
My hand reached for my blade—though these days, it felt more like reaching into the fire than for a weapon.
⚠️ INSTABILITY DETECTED
🕳️ Anomalous Dungeon Forming
Status: Temporal-Elemental Rift
Proximity Danger: HIGH
"What the hell…?"
The shimmer blinked—once, like a heartbeat—and pulled me inside.
Lyra – 4 Hours Earlier
She had only just stabilized the Chrono-core inside her chest when the ripple came.
A pull. A whisper. Like time was being dragged backward through a needle.
The System stammered in her ears.
❗Chrono-Rift Detected
Class Affinity Match: 97%
Dungeon: Twilight of the Rootless
Coherence: Fractured
Entry Mandatory: Alignment Pull
"What do you mean mandatory—?"
Then the world folded in half.
And dropped her.
We hit the dungeon floor seconds apart.
I landed in a sprawl, fire leaping to my hands by instinct. The walls were made of shifting stone, neither cave nor city—like it couldn't decide what time it belonged to.
Then someone else fell through the rift.
Female. Agile. Covered in arcane runes and old dust. She hit the ground in a controlled roll and came up with two glowing daggers.
We stared at each other for a full second.
She blinked first.
"…Who the hell are you?" she asked, daggers low.
"I'm Kael," I said. "Infernal Warden."
She paused. "That explains the smoke."
"And you?"
She smirked. "Lyra. Chronomancer. And before you ask—no, I don't know why we're both here."
I looked around. The walls were breathing. The shadows didn't match the light.
"Yeah," I said. "Definitely not normal."