Location: Inside the Grand LibraryTime: Unstable
The Collapse
The next step wasn't a step...It was a fall.
They fell into a time that moved neither forward nor backward—But shattered around them like glass,Each shard holding a memory...Or an ending that never came.
A door opened behind them without a sound,Then closed in front of them with a scream from the past.
Before them: an endless corridor,Its walls living screens, displaying overlapping moments from their lives—Scenes where they killed, were killed, ran, chose, stayed silent, screamed...
"This is the Room of Broken Timelines,"said a sudden female voice,"Where nothing ends… and everything begins again in a different way."
A woman appeared, wearing a cloak woven from the ashes of years.And in her eyes—endless spinning of broken clocks.
"I am the Custodian of Time," she said."I am not here to guide you… but to stop you."
The First Trial – The Unwanted Time
She pointed toward three gates, each pulsing with a different color:
The first: flickered with warm, childlike light.
The second: trembled as if about to explode.
The third: pitch black, without color or shadow.
"Each gate leads one of you to a timeline that hides what you think you've forgotten.Each of you must choose a different gate… and face what was never lived."
Ryan looked at the gates… then at Niko and Lima.
"We split up?" he asked.
Lima nodded slowly:
"This is a trial… not a defeat."
And each of them stepped into a different gate.
Ryan – In the Timeline of Deleted Possibility
He found himself in a room with his parents.Not dead. Not strangers.
His mother smiled:
"You finally made it."
But the room kept shifting.The pictures on the walls changed.His father vanished, reappeared, morphed into other versions of himself.
Everything whispered:
"This is not yours… but it could have been."
Then the room began to collapse,And in the wreckage, a shadow of Ryan appeared—Another version of him… with memoryless eyes.
"Which one of us gets to leave?" the shadow asked.
Lima – In the Timeline of Frozen Regret
Lima found herself walking through a frozen city.Everything was still: people, birds, even the tear on her cheek.
Then came a voice behind her.A child.
He looked at her silently.And in his eyes… a quiet confession.
"I am you, before you chose to forget me."
She tried to touch him, but time between them was a wall.
"What I chose wasn't forgetting…It was rebirth."
Time unraveled around her,And she stood—facing her decision.
Niko – In the Timeline of the Buried Question
Niko walked through a burning forest.He moved without fear until he reached a man who looked exactly like him.
"I am the answer you refused to know."
Niko replied:
"And you're the answer I no longer need."
They fought.It wasn't a battle of fists, but a battle of existence.
In the end, Niko didn't win… but he wasn't erased.He returned.
The Return – At the Center of the Hall
All three returned at the same moment.But they were no longer the same.
Ryan's eye held a shadow of an unanswered question.
Lima trembled… but stood steady.
Niko was bleeding from a memory that wasn't his.
The Custodian of Time reappeared:
"You survived… but not in peace.From now on, every step will reshape the past."
She opened a new door,And beyond it was something incomprehensible...
The Room of the First Ending.
End of Chapter Twelve
❓ If you were given the chance to change just one moment…Would you have the courage to face everything it destroys in return?
🡺 Next Chapter: The Room of the First Ending.