The luminous path shimmered like a vein of eternity, pulling Krish deeper into the hidden folds of the Earth-Level Universe. Each step he took was measured not in distance, but in moments—every breath stretching and collapsing as if the flow of existence bent around him.
It was here that the river changed.
The starlight current twisted, fracturing into spirals of gold and silver, until before him bloomed an ocean without end. Its waves were not water, nor fire, nor essence—they were moments. Drops of time itself, flowing endlessly, forming an eternal sea.
Krish's wings trembled as he approached. His heart beat faster, though not from fear. He recognized it instinctively, as if his soul had always known this place.
"The Tenth Element…" he whispered. "Time."
The air quivered. From the ocean's horizon rose a colossal figure cloaked in shifting seasons. Its body flickered between youth and age, creation and decay, as though it lived every era at once. In its eyes burned the weight of endless cycles.
"You have touched what none should," the being's voice resounded, ancient and inexorable. "The nine elements bind worlds, but I… I bind them all. Time does not yield to mortals, nor to gods. Why do you stand before me?"
Krish's ribbon at his neck pulsed faintly, a cool whisper brushing his thoughts. He steadied himself, wings spreading wide.
"I do not seek to rule Time," he said firmly. "Nor to escape it. I walk forward because to stand still is to die. If Time bars my path, then let me learn to move within it."
The being raised its hand. The ocean surged, and suddenly Krish's world fractured.
He saw himself as a boy, nameless and weak.
He saw himself as he was now, wings unfurled against the void.
He saw shadows of what could come—an endless multitude of futures, some glorious, some broken.
Each vision threatened to shatter him, to drown his will in infinite choices.
But Krish's gaze remained clear. He did not clutch at the past. He did not flinch at the future. He anchored himself in the now, where his wings beat steady, where his will was unshaken.
The ocean calmed. The figure of Time studied him, and for the first time, it smiled—a fleeting, fragile thing, like a dawn that comes only once in a millennium.
"You have not mastered me, but you have not been mastered either. Few can stand before Time without breaking. For that… I grant you passage."
The waves parted, revealing a silver road that glowed with the rhythm of moments themselves.
As Krish stepped upon it, the voice of Time whispered across the cosmos:
"Remember, child of silence and light… Time is not your enemy. But should you ever claim me, know this: even eternity has a price."
And with that, the Tenth Element sank back into its ocean, watching silently as Krish's wings carried him beyond.
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