Aurora was thrown backward by the shockwave, his body skidding across the pavement as heat and pressure tore past him.
But the only thing on his mind right now is — Just who are these people?
Their uniforms were not quite military, yet far too deliberate to be improvised. Each of them wore a dark combat suit layered in segmented plates — matte black and deep graphite, broken only by thin lines of muted blue light that traced along joints and seams.
On their chests — over the heart — existed a symbol Aurora could not miss.
It was a fractured circle, split cleanly down the middle by a vertical line. One half was solid, the other composed of segmented arcs, altogether resembling a fragmented clock face frozen mid-collapse. Beneath it, three sharp letters were etched in restrained silver:
DCF
But the man who had struck the serpent — He didn't wear a combat suit, nor a helmet.
Aurora's eyes were drawn to him instinctively.
The tall figure stood apart from the rest, his silhouette planted firmly between Aurora and the blood-red dusk.
Over his broad frame hung a long trench coat, with the massive silver DCF symbol gleaming against the black leather.
He looked to be in his mid-thirties — but time sat on him differently. His face was sharp but not harsh, with the kind of structure that suggested discipline.
"Second…fourty-seven." He checked on his watch:
"Duration, five seconds."
That was when Aurora was hit with a sudden realisation — the serpent did not rise!
The abomination — the thing that had survived a collision with a truck and the inferno that followed, was unmoving after one strike, crushed into the ruins of the building beside them!
One strike.
Aurora stared, chest heaving. Questions flooded his mind faster than he could organize them, stacking over one and another until none of them could be spoken.
Just as he was about to speak, movement caught his attention.
Four figures had begun checking the surroundings, spacing themselves around the man with the greataxe — their behaviour suggested to be subordinates, though Aurora could not be sure.
It took them barely three seconds to notice Aurora—
And they backed away in an instant. Although they were wearing helmets, Aurora could tell by their body language that they were afraid of something.
'Scared? I thought the snake was already—'
But before he could finish the thought, the greataxe — still wet with the serpent's blood — was already swinging in his direction.
*CRASH*
The street detonated in dust and shattered cement, ground trembled beneath Aurora as debris erupted around him.
After a few seconds, when the dust settled and vision became clear, his heart nearly stopped.
The greataxe was embedded between his legs, inches away from cutting off his bloodline.
The serpent slayer who had been meters away now knelt directly in front of Aurora, one knee resting on the cracked pavement, his face level with Aurora's.
Their eyes met for almost ten seconds, until one of the other figures broke the silence:
"Captain, we received a greater stability response than the drifted, was it a false reading?"
Captain.
Just as Aurora suspected, the serpent slayer was the captain of this team.
"No." The captain rose smoothly:
"The readings were accurate, but it included another entity—"
"Which was him." His gaze settled on Aurora.
The others followed his line of sight onto the young man, and one of them hesitated:
"Does that mean…"
"Yes." The captain rested the greataxe against his shoulder:
"Judging by the fact he appeared out of nowhere, there are two possibilities—"
"First, he came along with us, but used some sort of invisibility Remnant Art."
He shook his head:
"Unlikely, because I would've sensed it."
"Second, he does not belong in this Stationary World, but was brought here. It could've been that snake, or something else."
He straightened:
"Either way, he is not a threat, I just checked."
'Checked?'
'Excuse me? You meant the swing that could've castrated me was just a test?'
Aurora only complained in his mind, he does not want to get on these guy's bad side.
'And what do you mean I appeared from nowhere? Your entrance was not any different!'
Though he still had no idea of what's going on, Aurora felt like he should first express his gratitude. Despite everything, they did saved his life:
"Emm, thank—"
"Captain, I don't doubt your judgement." Another subordinate joined the conversation:
"But according to ISO 384000, we should inform a supervisor about what could be a possible undocumented Remnant Artist."
"Good. Plus 1 point for awareness." The captain nodded:
"But we don't have time for a supervisor, the situation remains my authority."
"You guys continue on with our mission — Harvest the Time Beast remains, acquire the Time Fragment, and follow the procedure of a Chronosfall."
"I'll talk to our anomaly here."
After receiving the order, they moved immediately. Aurora watched them disperse with unnerving obedience.
'Anomaly,' he then realized:
'He called me an anomaly.'
"Th… thank you." Aurora said again, quieter this time.
The captain blinked, then extended his hand with a faint, almost surprised smile:
"No worries."
"I apologise for scaring you earlier, I had to check if you pose a risk to my team."
"Yeah, that was a shocker." Aurora was surprised by the change of attitude, then accepted the hand and let himself be pulled up:
"Do you greet every stranger this way?"
He was certain that the man in front of him would cause him no harm, after all, they did not have to wait until now.
"No, your case is a little special."
"Especially after I figured that you might be the one fighting this snake in the Stationary World."
'What?' Aurora's heart sank a little. Their hands are still locked together, and he can feel the grip deliberately tightened. That's when Aurora finally understood — the casual tone the man gave was to lower his guard, the real interrogation begins now!
"I — I don't know—"
"Don't play dumb with me." Still refusing to let go, the captain's voice didn't rise, but it felt more serious. For a moment, a dull yellow glow surfaced his eyes, like embers stirred under ash:
"How did you encounter this beast?"
Aurora swallowed, his mouth felt dry.
"I was just walking," he said:
"Down the street. Then I saw… two snakes. They looked like they were absorbing each other. When the second one disappeared, the first — it grew, it got bigger. And then it started chasing me."
The captain nodded once, slow.
"The deep cut on its ribs, was it your doing?" He asked.
"Technically… it was not me, it got hit by a truck — which saved my life."
Another pause.
"What did you see in the Stationary World?"
Everything stopped.
The words echoed — and with them came the memory.
The city suspended mid-breath. Smoke frozen like brushstrokes in the air. Fire caught in the act of blooming.
And it was — beautiful.
'Everything stopped, it was…beautiful—'
The answer rose naturally, instinctively.
And then it stopped.
Aurora felt it — the exact moment when the words reached the edge of his tongue, but refused to cross.
'That was a close one…' He gathered his thoughts as he tried to look for a way out.
It didn't appear unnatural to him at first, but for some reason, he just wanted to reveal the truth to the man in front of him.
Though he didn't understand half the words they were using — Stationary World, Time Fragment, Remnant Artist etc… but he had a feeling that:
What happened when the time froze was his.
And it should stay that way.
"Did you say something?" the captain asked.
"No, no." Aurora shook his head quickly:
"I'm just overwhelmed with everything… I need more time to think."
'Looks like this is as much as I could get…' the captain studied his reaction.
'Or was my ability interrupted…?'
"Sorry, it looks like I was rushing things." He finally released Aurora's hand. The pressure vanished, and the faint yellow glow faded from his eyes:
"Don't worry, you are safe now."
"Thanks." Aurora took a deep breath. He wasn't just using his statement before as an excuse, there was the truth of being overwhelmed by everything behind it.
Knowing he's safe now, he could finally take a look at his surroundings:
The building on his right is shattered with a gigantic serpent corpse lying in the ruins, two of the DCF agents are working methodically at its belly, blades disappearing into blackened flesh as they try to harvest something.
Farther down the street, the other two swept the area with strange, metal-detector-like instruments. It is obvious that they are searching for something.
Strangely, there are no other people to be seen.
No civilians. No traffic—
As if the world was empty.
Through the collapsed concrete, scarlet light spilled in from the horizon. The blood-red dusk painted Aurora's reflection in broken glass — dirt-smudged, exhausted, eyes still too wide.
'Huh? Wasn't it before dawn just then?'
Before the thought lingered, the captain started talking again:
"You weren't meant to survive the contact."
"Especially not in a Stationary World. This is the place where only Time Beast can move, without specialised equipment, you would've been frozen like the world."
"Which makes your survival a miracle… And you, a problem."
Aurora stiffened.
"…I don't mean that as an insult." As one of his team shifted nearby, the man signaled them off without looking.
"If you walk away," he continued:
"We can seal this incident. You'll forget the details, and the pains will fade. You'll go back to a normal life with things that stay where they're supposed to be."
'Not like my life was normal to begin with…' Aurora swallowed:
"And if I don't?"
"Then this will keep happening," the man said calmly:
"With or without us."
He exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck:
"So, I would like you to join us."
An invitation was something Aurora certainly did not expect, and it was written all over his face.
"Don't get too excited yet, joining us won't grant you a sweet time. It makes your life shorter and louder, and you'll see things you can't unsee."
No thank you.
"But, at least you'll know why." The greataxe dissolved into drifting motes of light, and disappeared from his hand.
Aurora looked down at the cracked pavement:
"…Who are you?"
The man hesitated — just briefly.
"Someone who said yes once," he said:
"And didn't know how to say no after."
Just then, a voice called out behind them:
"Captain, the time fragment is found and secured."
"Good." The captain responded, then turned his attention again to Aurora:
"So, I need an answer."
Although he remained the same calmness, Aurora could hear a bit of urgency in his voice. It looked like their mission was coming close to an end.
But Aurora didn't answer.
Yet to receive a response, the captain's gaze shifted on to the broken camera hanging from Aurora's neck. The body was cracked nearly in half, lens shattered, tape warped beyond saving.
"You a photographer?" He asked.
"Yeah," Aurora said: "…Yeah."
For just a second, he felt proud of being recognised. Then it sank, replaced by the ache in his chest as he looked down at the ruin of something he cherished deeply.
"Well then, that changes things a bit." The captain reached into his pockets, then pulled out a flashlight.
Without explanation, he stepped forward, and shone its light onto the broken camera.
Aurora blinked, then saw something impossible—
Bathed in the lime green light, the cracks began to close.
Fragments drew together as if pulled by invisible threads.
Metal smoothed. Glass reformed.
The tape inside whirred softly, rewinding on its own.
It almost looked like — its time has been reversed!
Aurora was too stunned to speak. He had lost count how many times he's been in a surprise for the last few hours. Everything that happened today felt like a fever dream.
By the time the light faded, the camera rested whole and warm against his chest — exactly as it had been that morning. He knew because the tape still held the shots he'd taken before dawn.
"Take it as a signing bonus." The captain said while stepping back:
"There are many things I could not guarantee in this line of work,"
"But I can promise you this—"
"You will witness every bit of what the world provides. From its history, to timelines where evolution took a completely different way."
"And you'll be able to capture it all."
Aurora's hands trembled as he lifted the camera.
For a moment, he wasn't standing in a ruined street — he was small again, sitting beside a hospital bed, holding a frail hand that was already growing cold.
See the world, witness its beauty…his mother had whispered:
You will always be…
At the time, he hadn't understood what that meant. He'd been too young, too hungry, too busy worried about whether the rain would leak through the roof again that night.
All he had ever wanted was something simple.
To grow up.
To earn enough money so that meals didn't feel like a gamble.
To live somewhere warm and dry — somewhere his mother wouldn't have to place buckets on the floor when storms came.
A normal life.
The memory of her face rose too clearly. Aurora's chest tightened, and before he could stop it, tears slipped free, tracing warm lines down his dirt-streaked face.
"Yes…" he said hoarsely, scrubbing at his eyes with his sleeve.
He wanted to say more, he wanted to convey how hard it was for him, he wanted to assure the captain in front of him that he'll do a good job.
But all that came out was a single, fragile yes.
And it was enough for the captain.
He stepped forward once Aurora's breathing finally steadied:
"Welcome to the Dawnflame Continuity Foundation."
With that, he knocked Aurora clean out.