The first rule of entering a fractured temporal zone was simple: don't look backward.
Ren, Ayane, and Kaelen stood at the edge of what looked like a massive sinkhole suspended in the sky—a black ring of distorted space floating above a desert of shattered time-glass. The horizon twisted with echoes, fragments of days that never happened—ghosts of forgotten tomorrows drifting like dust in the wind.
At the heart of the hole was the Temple Between Tomorrows.
Its architecture hurt the eye—corridors that looped into themselves, doors stacked in spirals, arches that existed only when you looked away. The entire structure pulsed faintly with an energy Ren recognized instantly.
Clockwitch design. But older, more primal.
> "This place was sealed for a reason," Kaelen muttered, her brass fingers clenching. "We're walking into the first failed version of Adessia."
> "And possibly the only one that contains the second piece of the Cipher," Ayane added. "We're not coming here for comfort."
Ren adjusted the Chrono-Splice Regulator on his wrist. It buzzed erratically near the entrance, reacting to the instability. The gear shard he'd recovered from the Recollector pulsed in sync with the temple's hum, vibrating like a compass needle drawn to a magnet.
> "It wants me inside," he said quietly.
Ayane nodded. "Then we go in. But stay close. Time doesn't behave here. We stick together, or we won't be in the same 'now' for long."
Kaelen flicked her eyes over her readings. "If we're separated by more than 18 seconds, we desync. After that, we're just memories to each other."
Ren swallowed. "Got it. Let's do this."
---
Inside the Temple
The first step through the threshold felt like walking through water made of memory. Ren's breath caught as the sensation pulled at his bones, his thoughts slowing, stretching, then snapping back into place.
Inside, the air was warm and thick. Not with humidity, but with history—as if every breath they took tasted of forgotten conversations, of decisions not made.
They entered a corridor lined with statues—each one depicting a version of the Clockwitch, from youthful engineer to cloaked god-queen. The deeper they went, the less human the statues looked. One had six arms. Another wore a mask that bled shadows. The final one was shattered completely, its pieces scattered like a broken timepiece.
> "This is… terrifying," Kaelen whispered.
> "It's a chronicle," Ayane said. "Of every form she took across timelines."
Ren stopped in front of a statue that showed the Clockwitch holding a child. The child's features were oddly familiar—eyes sharp, mouth stubborn.
His face.
> "She built me… even back then."
> "No," Ayane said quietly. "She tried. You were her greatest project. But also her greatest failure. This temple wasn't just a sanctuary—it was a test lab."
Kaelen pointed to a set of circular runes around the base of the statue. "These glyphs say something about a 'core entity template'. That would be you, Ren."
> "Me?"
> "She wasn't just crafting weapons. She was crafting possible people—versions of you, designed for specific events. Rejected, replaced. You're the only one who made it through the reset."
Ren backed away from the statue, heart pounding.
---
The Antechamber of Echoes
The corridor ended in a massive chamber—spherical, open to the shifting sky. Floating platforms spun in slow circles around a central pedestal, where a chunk of shimmering crystal hovered—shaped like half of a gear, etched with Clockwitch symbols.
The second piece of the Cipher.
> "That's it," Ayane whispered.
Kaelen's scanner beeped. "It's surrounded by a time-lock field. We break it, and the temple might react."
> "Then we do it carefully," Ren said. He stepped forwardand the air rippled.
From the shadows above, figures dropped down like falling leaves.
Six of them.
White coats. Monocles. And the hourglass insignia of Vellian.
The Threadborn, Vellian's elite.
> "He's always one step ahead," Kaelen muttered, pulling out a chrono-glaive.
Ayane drew twin pistols that hummed with temporal charge. "Defensive spread."
Ren gripped the first gear shard and felt it vibrate harder. The Cipher was reacting—resonating—to the new arrivals.
The leader of the Threadborn stepped forward. His face was partially obscured by a mirrored mask.
> "Hourborn," he said, voice filtered. "You were not meant to survive the reset."
> "And yet here I am," Ren snapped. "Sorry for the inconvenience."
> "The Cipher does not belong to you."
> "It never belonged to anyone. That's the point."
The Threadborn didn't waste more words. He raised his hand—and time shattered.
---
The Battle
A wall of compressed seconds surged toward them—a ripple of reversed gravity, pulling debris and memories into a spiraling vortex. Ayane countered with a Temporal Disruption Pulse, cracking the wave in half. Kaelen leapt from a platform, spinning mid-air as her arm transformed into a grappling blade.
Ren felt the world bend. The Cipher shard in his hand grew hot.
Time was bleeding.
He activated the Regulator. Time around him slowed, and he moved through the battlefield like swimming through molasses. The Threadborn moved just as quickly—matching him beat for beat, like a mirrored echo.
They clashed—blades of chronosteel meeting raw entropy as the two forces pushed against each other.
> "You're unstable," the Threadborn hissed. "A paradox that can't be sustained."
> "Maybe," Ren growled. "But I'm still here."
He twisted, driving the shard into the pedestal's base.
The Cipher activated.
---
The Memory Surge
Light exploded outward, engulfing the chamber. Everyone froze—locked in time as the temple itself remembered.
Ren stood alone in the white.
Then—he wasn't.
He stood in the same chamber, only… different.
Younger. Cleaner. And in the center, the Clockwitch, human, laughing gently as she tuned the first Cipher.
> "Too much potential in one shell," she muttered. "But he's necessary. The universe requires a wildcard."
Ren stepped closer. "You knew this would happen."
> "I hoped," her echo said. "But I left the choice to you. Even I didn't dare choose how time should end."
Ren's hand passed through her.
> "If you're seeing this, it means the temple has accepted you. The second piece is yours. But you must understand—every Cipher you claim brings the timeline closer to a singularity. Eventually, you will have to decide: rebuild time, or erase it completely."
The vision faded.
---
Return to Chaos
The battlefield resumed in a blast of motion. The Threadborn reeled back, stunned by the Cipher surge. Ayane and Kaelen capitalized on the moment, disabling three of the six agents in synchronized bursts of chronobolts and glaive strikes.
Ren stood at the pedestal.
The second Cipher fragment now floated above his palm, joining the first in a gentle orbit. Together, they pulsed in tandem—one red, one gold.
Ayane called out. "Ren! We need to go! The temple's destabilizing!"
Indeed, cracks were forming in the air—splinters of unreality bleeding through the walls. The temple, having served its purpose, was collapsing.
> "Hold on," Kaelen shouted, throwing a beacon onto the ground. A portal opened—unstable but functional.
They dove through just as the chamber imploded.
---
Back at the Vault
The team landed hard in the Chrono-Vault, coughing and blinking in the dim light. The portal closed behind them with a burst of static.
Ren sat up, gasping. The twin Cipher shards hovered above his hands, now gently spinning like moons orbiting a planet.
Kaelen leaned against a console. "That… was a lot."
Ayane stood slowly, brushing dust from her coat. "But we have them."
Ren looked up. "And Vellian knows we
Hours later, Ren stood alone on the Vault's balcony, staring at the expanding fracture map. Dozens more anomalies had appeared since they'd entered the temple.
Kaelen approached, holding a mug of synth-tea.
> "You okay?"
> "No," Ren admitted. "But I will be."
She handed him the mug. "There's something else. I didn't want to say it earlier."
> "Say it now."
Kaelen hesitated, then pulled up a holo-feed. A blurred transmission of Vellian's latest broadcast.
He stood beneath a brass banner, Cipher symbols glowing behind him.
> "To those clinging to chaos, know this," Vellian said. "The Core Cipher will soon be complete. When it is, I will not destroy time—I will perfect it."
> "And I will begin by reclaiming the final piece, hidden where even the Clockwitch dared not go."
The feed cut.
Ren's hand tightened around the shards.
> "He's going after the third fragment."
Kaelen nodded. "And if he finds it before us, we may never get another chance to stop him."
End of Chapter 13
Next: Chapter 14 – "The Forbidden Loop"