Aadhiyan didn't remember how long he ran.
The village's screams faded behind him.
The crack of collapsing houses turned distant.
The bell's frantic tolling vanished into the wind.
He just kept running.
His lungs burned, but not the way a normal child's would.
His pulse beat too steadily.
His legs never fully tired.
That terrified him more than the Timekeeper.
He skidded down a slope, grabbed a branch to stop himself from tumbling, and dropped into the shadow of the forest that bordered Vennar village. Leaves brushed his cheeks, cool and damp. The early sunlight barely reached the ground here.
He stopped, chest rising and falling in sharp breaths.
The forest was silent.
Too silent.
Even the insects seemed to be holding their breath.
Aadhiyan leaned against a tree, eyes squeezed shut. "It… shouldn't be like this."
He wasn't talking about the village being attacked.
He wasn't talking about the older version of himself fighting a Timekeeper.
He was talking about the world.
The world itself felt wrong.
The air felt like stretched fabric.
The ground beneath his feet felt unstable, like one misstep would tear something open.
The sky through the leaves flickered once—so faint he almost thought it was his imagination.
But it wasn't.
The system confirmed it.
[Warning: Chronos Instability detected]
[Local timeline condition: Fragile]
He took a breath and forced himself to think.
The older boy—the other Aadhiyan—said something that rattled around in his skull like a trapped bird.
"I'm the timeline that died so you could live."
What did that even mean?
He hadn't asked for any of this.
He didn't ask to fall from a rift.
He didn't ask to be the reason a village was about to be destroyed.
He didn't ask to be hunted by beings that didn't even have real faces.
He pressed his forehead to the tree bark and whispered, "I don't even know who I am."
The system responded immediately, and that annoyed him.
[Identity: Paradox-born]
[Origin: Unknown timeline collapse event]
[Purpose: Unknown]
[Directive: Survive]
"Yeah," he muttered, "thanks. Very helpful."
He sank down at the base of the tree, hugging his knees to steady himself. His mind raced through everything he had seen.
The Timekeeper.
The older Aadhiyan.
The village being torn apart.
The new rift opening.
The shockwave.
Every detail burned into his brain.
Every detail screamed danger.
He could feel the system humming inside him.
He hated that he needed it.
He hated that he didn't understand it.
But most of all, he hated the truth now hanging over him:
He could never go back to Vennar.
Even if the villagers survived the attack, he couldn't return.
He would only draw danger to them again.
He sat there for a long time.
Minutes?
Hours?
He couldn't tell.
Time didn't obey him, and he didn't obey time.
---
A branch cracked behind him.
Aadhiyan's eyes snapped open.
He turned fast.
Too fast.
His hand reached out instinctively.
Reality stirred.
A faint ripple bent the air, like space itself had been brushed by his fingertips.
[Temporal Thread manipulation: Unintentional]
Aadhiyan's heart hammered.
He didn't mean to do that.
He didn't know he could do that.
A shadow stepped into view—
Eran.
Covered in dust.
Eyes red from crying.
Breathing hard as if he'd run the entire way without stopping.
"Aadhiyan!" he shouted as he rushed forward and crashed into him, tackling him in a hug that nearly knocked the air out of his lungs.
But Aadhiyan didn't push him away.
He let Eran hold him.
It was the first time since he arrived in this world that someone held him like he was real.
Eran's voice shook. "I—I saw you running and I followed and… I thought you were gone. I thought you—"
Aadhiyan tightened his grip on Eran's shoulders. "You shouldn't be here."
"Too bad," Eran said without hesitation, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "If you think I'm leaving you alone when something that creepy and tall is chasing you, you're insane."
Aadhiyan opened his mouth.
He wanted to say I don't want you hurt because of me.
But the words didn't come.
He swallowed painfully. "The Timekeeper—"
"Never mind that," Eran snapped. "Two of you were fighting it."
Aadhiyan stiffened. "You saw?"
"Not clearly." Eran rubbed his eyes. "The air was ripping apart. The ground shook. And then that thing flew through three houses like a kicked chicken."
He paused.
"And the older you… he stayed behind."
Aadhiyan looked down.
The truth was heavy.
He didn't have answers.
He didn't have explanations.
But he had guilt.
Deep, hard guilt.
"He told me to run," Aadhiyan whispered.
"And so you ran," Eran replied gently. "Because he probably wanted you safe."
Aadhiyan stared at him.
Eran grinned in his usual sloppy way. "Also I assumed the adult you knew what he was doing."
Aadhiyan gave a small, broken laugh.
The first in weeks.
Eran nudged his shoulder. "So. What's the plan?"
Aadhiyan blinked. "Plan?"
Eran nodded fiercely. "Yes. Plan. You're clearly magical or cursed or special or maybe all three at the same time. The world is trying to eat you. What do we do now?"
Aadhiyan almost said I don't know.
But the system answered for him.
[Directive: Survive]
[Sub-directive unlocked: Grow stronger]
Aadhiyan's chest tightened.
He looked toward the forest, where the deeper parts were shrouded in mist.
The kind of mist that carried whispers if the wind was right.
The kind of mist that hid things normal people never wanted to meet.
A place like that wouldn't be safe.
But nowhere was safe for him.
He stood up slowly.
"We go east," he said quietly.
Eran blinked. "Why east?"
"Because the Timekeeper came from the west. The rift came from the west. If we go east, we put distance between us."
"And what's east?"
Aadhiyan hesitated.
The system pulsed.
[Nearest sanctuary: 18.2 kilometers east]
[Classification: Unknown ruin]
He repeated it.
"An old ruin."
Eran puffed his chest. "Sounds dangerous."
"It is."
"Perfect," Eran grinned. "Let's go."
Aadhiyan stared at him for a long moment.
"No," he said softly. "You can go back. They won't chase you."
Eran raised an eyebrow. "You sure? Because they sure looked like the type who would chase anyone."
"You're not a paradox," Aadhiyan whispered, looking away.
Eran scoffed. "Who cares?"
Aadhiyan blinked. "You should."
"Why? You're my friend."
Friend.
The word hit Aadhiyan hard.
He wasn't sure how to respond.
Eran poked his forehead. "You nearly died. Twice. Maybe three times? I lost count. So if you think I'm leaving you just because some tall shiny nightmare decided to hunt you, you really don't know me."
Aadhiyan held his breath.
Something warm spread through his chest—something rare. Something he didn't recognize.
But something he didn't want to lose.
"Okay," he said quietly. "But we move fast."
Eran grinned. "I always do."
"That's not true."
"Shut up."
Aadhiyan smiled faintly.
They pushed deeper into the forest.
---
The forest changed quickly.
At first, the trees were normal—broad trunks, thick leaves, patches of light breaking through the branches.
But the deeper they walked, the darker the air became.
The leaves didn't rustle.
The ground didn't shift.
Birds didn't sing.
It felt like walking through a painting—too still, too clean, too unnatural.
Aadhiyan's senses buzzed.
Eran swallowed. "Why does this place feel like it's staring at us?"
Aadhiyan didn't answer.
He felt the same.
The system chimed softly.
[Temporal distortion: mild]
[Host is entering an unstable zone]
He stopped walking.
Eran bumped into him. "What?"
"Wait."
Something was wrong.
The silence wasn't natural.
The air wasn't empty.
It was holding something back.
Aadhiyan turned slowly.
The trees behind them hadn't changed.
But something in front of them had.
The forest path… wasn't a path anymore.
It had vanished.
Leaves shifted, rearranging themselves like invisible hands were painting the world.
Eran whispered, "Aadhiyan… I don't like this."
Aadhiyan didn't either.
He took a cautious step forward.
The system reacted instantly.
[Paradox anomaly detected]
[Danger level: moderate]
[Possibility of confrontation: 93%]
Aadhiyan reached out his hand slowly.
The air rippled.
Something moved inside the ripple.
A faint outline.
Thin.
Crouched.
Not human.
Not animal.
A creature made of distorted light crawled out of the ripple like a nightmare peeling itself off a reflective surface.
Its form flickered.
Its face had no features.
Its limbs bent at angles no creature should have.
Eran squeaked, "What is that?"
Aadhiyan answered with a whisper.
"A Chrono-beast."
A creature born from unstable time.
Something that shouldn't exist unless a timeline had been damaged.
Which meant—
He caused this.
Before he could process the guilt, the Chrono-beast lunged.
Fast.
Faster than a human eye should track.
Eran screamed and stumbled back.
Aadhiyan didn't think.
His body moved.
His wrist burned, the mark glowing beneath his sleeve.
The system roared in his head.
[Temporal Rewrite available: 6 seconds]
[Do you want to activate?]
He exhaled once.
"Yes."
Time reversed.
The creature snapped backward.
The forest rewound.
Leaves flew back into the air.
Eran rewinded into a position where he hadn't screamed yet.
Aadhiyan stepped aside before the beast's attack even began.
Time snapped back forward.
The beast lunged—but Aadhiyan wasn't there.
He swung his arm down.
No weapon.
No spell.
Just instinct.
But instinct, combined with a fragment of Paradox Authority, was enough.
A line of reality bent downward like a crack.
It struck the beast.
It shrieked in a warped voice and disintegrated like dust sucked into a void.
Eran collapsed on his backside. "I hate forests."
Aadhiyan didn't answer.
He stared at his hands.
He had just torn a creature out of existence.
He didn't know how.
He didn't know why he could.
But he was starting to understand something terrifying:
He wasn't meant to fight chronos creatures.
He was meant to command them.
The system confirmed his fear.
[Paradox Authority resonance increasing]
[Warning: You are unlocking traits beyond current stability]
Aadhiyan swallowed hard.
He didn't feel stronger.
He felt like something deep inside him was waking up.
Something that didn't care about morality or innocence.
Something older than the Timekeepers.
Something from Aadhikal.
He turned away quickly. "We keep moving."
Eran stumbled to his feet. "Yeah… okay… but if another shiny monster jumps out, I'm throwing you at it."
Aadhiyan almost smiled. "They're not shiny."
"Shut up."
They continued east.
And with every step, Aadhiyan knew the same truth:
The world didn't want him here.
It wanted him erased.
But he wasn't leaving.
He wasn't running forever.
He wasn't dying.
He would grow.
He would survive.
He would find out what he truly was.
And if the Timekeepers wanted to chase him…
Then one day, he would chase them back.
---