Everything shattered.
The air warped violently, as if time itself couldn't comprehend what had been spoken. Colors inverted. Light bent into spirals.
Then—
CRACK.
Like a mirror being punched from the inside.
A tear in reality opened mid-air.
From the rift, something massive emerged—black steel, glowing red, humming with violent intent.
Her weapon appears. A god's judgment manifest.
Atroxia.
The barrel slid into existence with a sound like screaming metal. Its body pulsed with corrupted energy, red veins glowing like magma under glass. A smoky aura clung to it like a curse. Wings—not feathery, but made of etched obsidian—folded from the rear.
The moment it touched Nyssia's hands, the world obeyed.
She stood between Lucian and the assassin, calm, composed… terrifying.
The assassin hesitated. He had crossed realms. Killed kings. Slaughtered prophets.
But in that moment, staring into the eye that glowed with the ticking of infinite clocks—
He faltered.
"You... what are you?"
She raised Atroxia. The glowing sigils on the rifle synchronized with her eye. The second hand in her pupil rotated once, then froze.
Time stopped.
Everything.
The wind. The particles. The flickering bulb. Even Lucian stood frozen mid-step, mouth half-open.
Only Nyssia moved.
She exhaled, slow and steady. Then placed her finger on the trigger.
"This isn't revenge."
"It's a warning."
BOOM.
A red flash. A scream that never finished.
The assassin's body didn't bleed. It shattered like glass under pressure. His soul unraveled, spiraling backward into non-being. Not killed—erased from time.
Silence returned. Then the ticking resumed.
And so did the world.
Lucian gasped, falling to his knees as time unfroze. His eyes scanned the room—no blood, no body. Just Nyssia, holding a smoking sniper rifle as if it were always meant to be there.
She didn't speak. Just turned toward him, her violet eye still glowing.
"They sent someone... to erase you. So I erased them first."
Lucian stared at her, breathless.
"Nyssia... what are you becoming?"
She smiled. Not sweetly. Not cruelly. But like someone who had made peace with being something far more dangerous than human.
"I don't know yet," she said. "But I'll protect you, Lucian. Even if I have to burn through every timeline to do it."
"You've read this far. You're one of the first. Soon... this world won't forget the name