...Highlights....
The setup....
The World: Modern-day Aethelgard, a metropolis powered by "Chronos"—a liquid gold essence extracted from human life. The rich live for centuries; the poor die in their thirties.
The Protagonist: Kaelen Voss, a man who can "see" the remaining time people have left. He's a "Burner"—someone who accidentally used up his own lifespan in a burst of forbidden magic and is now living on "stolen" weeks.
Chapter 1Chapter 1 : The Zero-Hour Gaze
The rain in Aethelgard didn't wash away the filth; it just turned it into a neon-lit sludge.
Kaelen Voss leaned against a rusted fire escape, the glowing tip of his cigarette the only warm thing in the alley. He adjusted his damp trench coat and squinted at the man entering the "Gilded Lily" across the street.
Above the man's head, a shimmering, translucent number floated: [72:11:04:12].
Seventy-two years. Eleven months. The man was a "Century"—one of the high-born vultures who had sucked enough Chronos out of the lower wards to live forever.
Kaelen looked at his own reflection in a puddle. He didn't need to look up to know his own number. It pulsed a sickly, bruised violet.
[00:00:04:22].
Four days. He had four days of life left before his heart simply decided to stop.
"Target is inside," a voice crackled in his earpiece. It was Lyra, his handler. "The exchange happens in five minutes. Don't get flashy, Kaelen. Your debt to the Syndicate is already high enough."
"Flashy costs time," Kaelen muttered, flicking the cigarette away. "And time is the one thing I'm out of."
He crossed the street, weaving through the steam-hissing vents. As he reached the club's side entrance, he felt the familiar, cold itch at the base of his skull. Mana-sensitivity. Someone nearby was burning Chronos—and they were burning a lot of it.
He burst through the door, not into a party, but into a slaughterhouse.
The music was still thumping—a heavy, rhythmic bass—but the dance floor was silent. Six bodyguards lay in a circle, their skin grey and shriveled like ancient parchment. They hadn't been shot. They had been drained. In a matter of seconds, their decades of life had been ripped away.
In the center of the room stood a figure in a porcelain mask, holding a glass vial filled with swirling, incandescent gold.
"The Soul-Broker," Kaelen whispered, his hand sliding to the hilt of the Obsidian Edge at his hip.
The masked figure turned. Behind the porcelain, eyes glowed with a terrifying, blinding white light.
"Kaelen Voss," the killer's voice sounded like grinding stones. "You're a walking corpse. Why fight for a city that has already spent you?"
"Because," Kaelen said, drawing his blade. The steel hummed, thirsty for the very essence he was about to lose. "I've always been bad with my finances."
He lunged. The air screamed as he activated his Temporal Acceleration. To the world, he was a blur; to him, the raindrops frozen in mid-air were obstacles to be navigated.
His four-day timer ticked down instantly to [00:00:03:21].
Every second of combat cost him an hour of life. This wasn't just an action sequence. It was a suicide mission.
Important note : if you want to continue reading please skip to next page if you're not interested in special details to understand the story more precisely....and sorry bcz my english is not very good so if you'll excuse me for my inconvenience 😁....
Story details...
In the world of The Soul-Broker's Debt, we call this system: The Chronos Economy.
1. The Source: Chronos
Chronos is the literal manifestation of "human time." It is a glowing, viscous gold liquid.
Natural Time: The years you are born with.
Refined Chronos: Time that has been extracted, purified, and bottled. It can be injected, inhaled, or used to power machinery.
2. The three paths of power...
Not everyone can use Chronos to fight. Those who can are categorized into three "Disciplines":
A. Accelerator ... ("the flash")
Users who burn Chronos to speed up their own biological clock.
Abilities: Superhuman reflexes, "bullet-time" perception, and high-speed healing.
The Cost: They age rapidly during combat. A five-minute fight might cost an Accelerator three months of their natural life.
Visual: Their eyes glow blue, and steam rises from their skin as their metabolism redlines
B. The Architects (The "Shapers")
Users who pour Chronos into inanimate objects to give them "life" or intent.
Abilities: Animating shadows, hardening clothing into armor, or turning a handful of coins into seeking bullets.
The Cost: It requires a "tether." If the object is destroyed, the user suffers a "Temporal Backlash"—a shock that can cause sudden organ failure or memory loss.
Visual: Golden veins spread across the objects they touch.
C. The Reapers (The "Leeches")
The rarest and most feared. They don't burn their own time; they steal it.
Abilities: "Time-Stealing" touch, decaying obstacles (making a door rot in seconds), and sensing the "lifespan" of others.
The Cost: Using stolen time is "Dirty." It causes Temporal Rot, where the user's body begins to reject the mismatched life force, leading to madness or physical mutation.
Visual: Gray, ash-like particles flake off their hands when they use their powers.
3. The "Burner" Condition (Kaelen's Secret)
Kaelen is a Burner. This occurs when someone hits "Temporal Zero." Instead of dying instantly, a tiny percentage of people experience a "Flare." Their soul begins to burn their own memories and identity as fuel because there is no time left.
Kaelen's Unique Skill: "The Zero-Hour Gaze." Because he is at death's door, he can see the "leaks" in the world—he sees the flow of time in others and can find the weak points in an opponent's Chronos flow.
The Debt Mechanic: He must "top up" his life daily. He is essentially a vampire of time, but he only takes enough to survive one more day, keeping him in a constant state of withdrawal.
4. Technical Limits (The "Rules")
To keep the story grounded, the system has strict laws:
The Law of Conservation: You cannot create time; you can only move it.
The Purity Rating: "Dirty" Chronos (taken from the sick or elderly) provides weak power and high side effects. "Pure" Chronos (taken from youths or the "untainted") is the most expensive substance on earth.
The Overdose: If a human body takes in too much Chronos at once, they undergo "Chronological Explosion"—they essentially age forward and backward simultaneously until they vanish from existence.
5. Comparison Table for Readers
Class Resource Primary Stat Side Effect....
Accelerator | Personal Time | Speed/Agility |Rapid Aging
Architect | Bottled Chronos | Control/Utility |Memory Loss
Reaper | Stolen Time | Lethality Physical Mutation
Burner | Memories/Soul | Perception Imminent Death