Rain struck the glass dome of the ruined observatory in rhythmic pulses, echoing through the hollow chamber like the ticking of a long-dead clock. Kael wiped the fog from his cracked mask and gazed upward, his eyes catching on the silhouette of the broken clock tower in the distance. Its jagged spire pierced the sky, warped and leaning from years of disuse, yet somehow still humming with latent energy.
"We're close," he muttered, mostly to himself.
Beside him, Sera crouched by the rusted remains of an old telescope. She had scavenged a strip of copper wire from its interior, twisting it neatly before stashing it in her satchel. "It's not on the maps," she said, standing. "But the tower's real. Which means the rest of the rumors might be, too."
Kael nodded, adjusting the grip on his weapon — a hybrid blade with veins of light pulsing beneath the surface. "The Heart Core. If it exists… it's in there."
They moved quickly. The rain had brought the prowlers out — corrupted humans that had lost their minds to the plague. Their shrieks echoed faintly, distorted by the storm. A few distant gunshots hinted that another survivor team was battling through the nearby district, but Kael knew better than to go looking.
Survivors were unpredictable. And desperate.
They crossed a shattered bridge that hung over an acid-stained river. The supports groaned beneath their weight, but held. Sera used a fragment of chalk to mark their trail on the concrete, a habit from her days in the Resistance. "In case we don't make it back," she said.
The base of the clock tower was overgrown with mutated flora. Vines pulsing with bioluminescent sap twisted around the blackened bricks. Kael slashed a path forward, careful not to nick the glowing roots — last time he did, they released spores that nearly suffocated them.
The door wasn't locked. That was the first sign something was wrong.
They entered.
Inside, time stood still.
The air was heavy with dust and an odd hum vibrated through the floorboards. Faint lights danced along the walls — not electric, but spectral. Almost…watchful. The tower's interior spiraled upward in a narrow staircase, barely wide enough for a single person.
"How far up?" Sera whispered.
Kael looked up — and saw movement. Not a person. Not a creature. Just… shifting shadows.
"Far enough to matter," he said grimly.
They began the climb.
With each floor, the air changed. Time felt slower, thicker. On the third landing, they passed a room filled with broken gears. One of them was still turning — though not connected to anything.
Kael placed his hand on it. It stopped instantly.
"Some kind of chrono-distortion?" Sera asked.
"Worse," Kael replied. "This place remembers."
They pressed on.
By the seventh floor, the rain outside had become distant — like it was falling in another world. The tower grew colder. Windows showed landscapes that didn't match the city below: a frozen tundra, a burning desert, a crumbling battlefield littered with glass bones.
"It's… memories from other timelines," Sera murmured.
"Or futures we haven't reached."
Something was waiting at the top. They both felt it.
The final door was old, but not decayed. It bore a sigil Kael had seen once before — deep within the archives of the Crimson Order. A spiral surrounding a shattered heart.
"The Heart Core," he whispered.
He placed his hand on the door.
And it opened.
The room was circular, lined with floating gears and chains that moved in impossible patterns. At its center was a crystal orb, suspended in midair, pulsing with a soft, red glow.
Kael stepped forward — and froze.
His own reflection was staring back at him from the orb. Except… it wasn't him. Not quite. His reflection's eyes were silver. His scar was on the opposite side. His blade was darker. And he was smiling.
"Another Kael," Sera breathed.
"Another me," Kael corrected. "From another timeline."
The orb pulsed.
A voice — not from the orb, but from inside their minds — spoke:"To claim the Heart Core is to rewrite what was broken. One must shatter to ascend. Choose."
The floor beneath them rippled like liquid.
Memories surged into Kael's mind — dozens of versions of himself. One who betrayed the Resistance. One who never met Sera. One who was the plague. One who died on Day One.
Each version of himself stared at him, silently asking the same question:
"Are you the right one?"
Kael staggered.
Sera grabbed his hand. "Don't lose yourself."
He looked at her — the one constant across all the timelines he glimpsed. In some worlds, she was a warrior. In others, a scientist. In one, she never survived.
But in this world, she was with him.
Kael turned back to the orb.
"I don't want to rewrite," he said. "I want to understand. To survive."
The orb responded by glowing brighter. The alternate Kael flickered… then vanished. The pulsing slowed. The tower stopped vibrating.
Then, silently, the Heart Core descended and hovered in front of him.
Kael reached out.
And the moment his fingers touched it, everything changed.
When the light faded, they were back at the base of the tower.
The rain had stopped.
Sera looked around in confusion. "What just happened? Did we fail?"
Kael opened his hand.
Inside was a single gear — red, glowing softly.
"No," he said. "We passed."
Behind them, the clock tower crumbled. Silent. As if it had never existed.
But time — in this world — had started ticking again.
And they weren't the same.