The night was silent except for the faint, rhythmic ticking that wasn't supposed to exist.
Not from a clock, not from the stars, but from somewhere deep inside Riven Ashford's chest, like the faint click of gears measuring the moments he had left.
He woke in a haze of silver light. His vision swam with fragments of System code.
[LIFESPAN REMAINING: 4 Years, 8 Months, 12 Days.]
[SYSTEM EVOLUTION DETECTED.]
[New Feature Unlocked: Temporal Echo.]
He sat up, gasping, hand clutching at his chest. The faint blue circuits of his Hero Mark pulsed under his skin, glowing faintly through his veins. It was subtle, almost beautiful, until the pain hit.
He doubled over, feeling something drag through his consciousness.
A voice, not the System's usual monotone, whispered across his mind like broken static:
"The debt… is not paid."
The whisper was his own.
But older. Tired. And full of something worse than pain, regret.
Lyra stirred beside the campfire, her white cloak gleaming under the dying embers. She had been tending to him since the last fight with the blighted serpent. Her gentle magic lingered faintly in the air, glowing like dew.
"You're awake," she said softly, turning toward him. "You were shaking again. Is it, another cost?"
Riven tried to steady his breath. "The System… changed. I think it's evolving."
Lyra frowned. "Systems don't evolve. They're coded. Structured. Unless…"
She hesitated, eyes glinting with unease. "Unless something's rewriting it."
He met her gaze. "Or someone."
The System pinged again in his vision, flooding the night with faint holographic blue.
[Tutorial Mission: Cleared.]
[System Assessment Initiating...]
[Synchronization Rate: 61%.]
[Hero Core: Stable.]
[Warning: Temporal Distortion Detected.]
[Commencing Echo Playback.]
The world froze.
The fire stopped crackling. The wind stopped moving. Lyra froze mid-breath, mid-motion, locked in time like a painting.
And Riven… was alone.
He looked around wildly as silver mist bled from the ground, shaping into faint outlines. The forest shimmered into a different version of itself, half-rotted, lifeless, drowned in ash. A mirror world.
Then, he saw him.
A figure stood in the mist, a man in tattered armor, face gaunt, hair streaked white, eyes burning like hollow stars.
The same Mark on his chest. The same scars.
The same voice.
It was him.
Riven took a step forward, heart pounding. "What are you—?"
His older self raised a hand. The movement was weary, burdened.
"Listen. There's no time, literally."
"The System isn't your tool. It's your chain. Every life you save, every monster you kill, it's feeding something far beyond you."
Riven's voice trembled. "Feeding what?"
The older him smirked faintly. It wasn't madness, it was sorrow.
"The clockwork heart of a god. The System consumes us to keep it alive."
"And if you keep burning your years, you'll end up here, hollow, forgotten, a corpse powering the next generation."
Riven clenched his fists. "Then tell me how to break it!"
"You can't yet. But you'll try. And when you do, you'll face them."
The mist thickened, shapes emerging. Silver-armored figures with glowing hourglass insignias carved into their helms. Their eyes shone like fragments of starlight.
"The Temporal Hunters. They protect the balance of time. They will come for you."
The older Riven's voice cracked. "When they appear, run. Until you're ready. You'll know the moment when time itself bends to your will."
The world flickered. The vision collapsed.
Riven gasped, collapsing back into the waking world. The fire sputtered back to life, the night sounds returned, and Lyra rushed to his side.
"Riven!" she cried, pressing a hand to his shoulder. "What happened?"
He looked up at her, eyes still burning faintly silver. "I saw… me. Or something that used to be me."
Lyra's voice trembled. "A vision?"
"No." He swallowed hard. "A warning."
He stood, brushing ash from his armor, staring into the distance where the forest met the ruined horizon. The System flickered again, soft, almost uncertain this time.
[Echo Recorded.]
[Temporal Instability: Increasing.]
[Initiating Countermeasure: Hunter Protocol - Partial Activation.]
The temperature dropped. The air crystallized.
From the darkness, a faint shimmer began to take form, like moonlight folding into shape. A figure stepped through, clad in silver armor, eyes empty and cold.
Lyra gasped. "That—what is that thing?"
Riven's pulse raced. The same hourglass symbol glowed on its chest.
[Temporal Hunter — Rank: ??? Detected.]
[Objective: Eliminate the Temporal Anomaly.]
He barely had time to react before the world slowed again.
The Hunter moved through frozen air like a blade cutting through glass. Riven swung his sword instinctively, but the Hunter parried effortlessly, forcing him back.
Sparks of time energy scattered like stars.
"Lyra! Get back!" he shouted, activating his System.
[Skill: Hero's Heart — Activated.]
[Cost: 2 Weeks of Lifespan.]
Blue light ignited across his body. His reflexes sharpened; his blade hummed with celestial energy. He struck again, meeting the Hunter blow for blow. The creature didn't bleed, it shattered, fragments of frozen time scattering into the air like sand.
Lyra's magic flared behind him, threads of healing light wrapping around his wounds, but even she could feel it, the distortion, the wrongness in the air. Every second they fought, the world bent.
Riven knew the System was draining him faster now.
He saw the numbers flicker.
[Remaining Lifespan: 4 Years, 7 Months, 28 Days… 26… 24…]
He pushed harder. The Hunter's armor cracked. With a roar, he drove his sword straight through the hourglass core on its chest.
The creature froze mid-motion, eyes dimming. Then, exploded into a burst of light.
[Enemy Eliminated.]
[Temporal Instability: Stabilized.]
[Reward: Hero's Pulse +1.]
[Penalty: System Sync Increased to 70%.]
Riven fell to one knee, panting. Blue energy still coursed through his veins like molten glass.
Lyra rushed to him, gripping his shoulders. "You're burning yourself out!"
He smiled faintly, weary but resolute. "I'm still alive. That's enough."
She shook her head. "You can't keep this up, Riven. You're trading days for seconds."
He looked at her, eyes distant. "Then I'll make every second count."
They sat in silence after the fight, the forest slowly healing from the distortion.
Lyra bandaged his arm while he stared into the fire, thoughts heavy with what he'd seen.
"Lyra," he murmured, voice barely audible. "Do you think time… can remember us?"
She blinked. "What do you mean?"
He glanced at his hand, watching faint traces of light drift from his fingertips. "If I disappear—if all that's left is ash and memory, will time remember the things I fought for?"
Lyra placed her hand over his. "If time won't, I will."
A faint System chime echoed softly.
[New Quest Unlocked: The Blighted Frontier.]
[Objective: Cleanse the Fallen City of Iros.]
[Reward: Hero's Relic (Tier II).]
[Estimated Cost: 1 Month of Lifespan.]
Riven exhaled slowly. "Another quest. Another cost."
Lyra whispered, "You don't have to take it."
He looked up at the stars, their light distorted by thin strands of System code flickering in the sky. "I don't have a choice. If I stop, I start dying anyway."
The ticking returned, faint, relentless.
Somewhere in the distance, the echo of a clock counted down the moments left to him.
And far away, in a temple drowned in starlight, a dozen hourglasses turned in unison.
Inside each, fragments of blue light shimmered, lifespans harvested, traded, consumed.
A robed figure watched the movement of the glass, smiling faintly.
"The Hero Protocol is advancing faster than expected," it murmured. "Perhaps this one will reach the Ascension Gate."
Its reflection in the glass flickered, revealing the same Hero Mark glowing faintly beneath its skin.