The world had stopped.
Dust hung motionless in the air. Even Mira's terrified scream was frozen on her lips, caught mid-breath.
Azrael stood alone in the silence, eyes glowing like molten blue fire.
"Thirty seconds," he murmured, his voice calm — detached even. "That's all my divinity allows."
He moved, his figure a blur among the still world, drawing a thin line of light across the creature's body.
In the frozen air, his wings flickered faintly — not real feathers, but raw divine energy flickering like flame, struggling to exist in a mortal world.
The creature was made of fractured time — its limbs stretched and compressed, a being that existed in too many seconds at once.
Azrael could sense the distortion in its every motion.
When time resumed, the air exploded.
The blast wave shattered the walls, the street cracked, and Mira was thrown backward, barely caught by Faith in her cat form before she could hit the ground.
The creature stumbled, half of its body dissolving into a rain of clock-like fragments.
But it didn't fall. It laughed — a hollow, broken sound echoing through the undercity.
"You cannot kill time, fallen one…"
Azrael's expression didn't change. He clenched his fist — and the air around him compressed with telekinetic force, bending metal, crushing debris.
"Then I'll unmake you instead."
He vanished — Blink — reappearing behind the creature, his palm glowing with Mystic Light. The light wasn't just illumination; it was weight, mass, heat, and electricity all at once.
When it struck, the impact sent out concentric ripples, folding the street into itself.
Even the shadows trembled.
Faith hissed, tail puffed up. "You're going to rip a hole through time if you keep that up!"
Azrael ignored her, breathing hard now. His divinity was burning away faster than he could replenish it.
He raised his hand again — and the creature lunged through distorted seconds, splitting into four afterimages, each moving a heartbeat apart.
"Temporal split," Azrael muttered. "How fitting."
He extended his hand. Telekinesis.
The four afterimages froze mid-motion, suspended in the air like puppets on invisible threads.
"Let's see which of you is real."
He snapped his fingers — and the one on the far left screamed. The others collapsed like smoke.
Azrael's voice dropped low.
"You made one mistake…"
He blinked forward — this time inside the creature's guard — and pressed his palm against its chest.
"Time still answers to me."
Mystic Light: Pulse.
The entire tunnel erupted.
When the explosion settled, the world seemed quieter. Only the ticking of a broken clock remained.
Azrael stood, panting, smoke rising from his arm. Mira was staring at him, eyes wide.
"Azrael…" she whispered, stepping closer. "You stopped time. You… really did it."
He looked at his hand — faintly trembling. "Barely. My essence isn't stable enough to maintain control. Thirty seconds is my limit."
"Still," she said softly, "you're incredible."
Faith, now in her human form, crossed her arms. "And reckless."
Azrael shot her a flat look. "You were the one who said I should test my limits."
"I meant with a practice dummy, not a temporal ghost!"
Mira giggled — the sound cutting through the tension like sunlight after rain.
They searched the ruins, and at last, they found it — a small, cracked pocket watch, its gears turning against the flow of time.
Azrael crouched, eyes narrowing. "This is it. The Kronos Fragment."
When he touched it, light poured from the cracks — washing over him like molten silver. His vision fractured.
He saw moments — past, present, and possible futures — all bleeding into one another.
The day he fell. The laughter of a god. A silver chain bound around his wings.
And then — a voice. Cold, yet familiar.
"You are not ready to see the end of time, my son."
Azrael gasped, pulling his hand back as the world snapped back to normal.
Faith frowned. "What happened?"
He didn't answer immediately. "I saw… him."
"Who?" Mira asked softly.
"My father."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Later That Night — Slice of Life
The trio returned to Mira's small apartment. The once-forbidden undercity had taken its toll; Azrael's divine glow had dimmed.
Mira set a steaming bowl of noodles in front of him.
"Eat," she said.
Azrael stared at it. "I'm not sure this qualifies as food. It looks like—"
"Just eat it."
He took a bite. His face immediately twisted.
"It tastes like sadness and processed despair."
Faith burst into laughter, nearly falling off the couch. "Welcome to human cuisine, Your Fallen Majesty."
Azrael sighed, but the faintest smirk crossed his lips.
For the first time in a long while, he felt something unfamiliar — something warm.
"Maybe… humanity isn't all chaos," he muttered under his breath.
Mira smiled faintly. "You'll get used to us."
⚙️ [System Notification]
Kronos Fragment Absorbed.
New Ability Unlocked: Temporal Echo.
— Allows user to repeat one past action for five seconds within a three-minute window.
— Warning: Using this skill excessively may cause temporal backlash or memory distortion.
Azrael leaned back, watching the night sky through the cracked window.
"Time is watching us now," he said quietly.
Faith's tail flicked. "Then we better give it a good show."