Chapter 6: Echoes of the Unbound

The neon veins of Neo-Pandora pulsed with a fragile normalcy. Weeks had passed since Elias's sacrifice, and the city's scars were healing—outwardly, at least. But beneath the surface, time still trembled.

Lila Kane stood atop the Temporal Institute's observation deck, the Chrono Key cold against her palm. It had become both a relic and a burden, its crystalline surface now etched with faint, spiraling patterns that glowed in sync with her heartbeat. She wondered if Elias's pulse still echoed somewhere in its depths.

"You're brooding again," Kael's voice crackled behind her, his holographic form flickering like a bad signal. He'd grown more translucent, his edges bleeding into static. The Void Nexus had taken its toll.

"I'm researching," Lila lied, nodding to the holographic maps of the city floating around her. Red dots marked residual temporal anomalies—flickering zones where time stuttered, replaying fragments of the Core's influence. A child laughing in an empty alley. A ghostly marketplace that vanished if you blinked.

Kael snorted. "You're staring at the Key like it's going to whisper secrets. Newsflash—it won't. Not unless you ask nicely."

She ignored him, zooming in on a cluster of anomalies near the Mirage Market. "These aren't random. They're forming a pattern. A spiral."

"Yeah, and?"

"It's the same symbol that's appearing on the Key." She held it up, the spiral's glow intensifying. "Something's calling to it. Or someone."

---

The signal led them to the underbelly of Sector 7, where the air tasted of rust and regret. The anomaly here was stronger, a shimmering vortex suspended above a cracked fountain. Lila adjusted her glasses—a gift from Elias, their lenses now calibrated to detect temporal residues.

"This isn't a fracture," she murmured. "It's a bridge."

"To where?" Kael asked, eyeing the vortex warily.

"Only one way to find out." Before he could protest, Lila stepped through.

The world inverted.

She stood in a mirrored version of Neo-Pandora, the sky a sickly green, the buildings warped and melting. And there, in the center of the square, stood Elias.

Her Elias, but not. His form flickered between solid and spectral, his infected arm now a lattice of glowing blue veins that crawled up his neck. He was staring at his hands, confusion and rage twisting his features.

"Elias?" Lila whispered.

He turned, his eyes widening. "Lila? How are you—?"

"Don't!" Kael materialized beside her, grabbing her arm. "That's not him. Not all of him."

Elias—or the thing wearing his face—snarled. "Kael. Still clinging to scraps of time, I see."

"And you're still a lousy copy," Kael shot back. "The Core's fingerprints are all over this place. What's left of it, anyway."

"The Core is gone," Lila said firmly, though the Key's heat in her hand betrayed her doubt.

Elias laughed, the sound hollow. "Gone? It's everywhere now. In the cracks. In the silence. And it's growing." He raised his infected arm, the veins pulsing. "You think you locked it away? You just set it free."

The ground trembled. The mirrored city began to dissolve, the vortex collapsing.

"We need to go!" Kael yelled, dragging Lila backward.

She resisted, locking eyes with Not-Elias. "If you're really him—help us!"

For a moment, his gaze softened. "Find the Anchor. Before it's too late."

Then the world shattered.

---

Back in Sector 7, Lila staggered, the Key searing her skin. Kael flickered violently, his form pixelating.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded.

"A warning," Lila said, her mind racing. "The Core isn't gone. It's spreading. And Elias… he's trapped in it."

"Or it's trapped in him," Kael muttered. "That thing in there wasn't the detective. It was a paradox—a echo with a vendetta."

"He mentioned an 'Anchor.' What if that's how we stop the Core for good?"

Kael's glare could have melted steel. "Or it's how the Core lures us into another trap. We need to—"

A scream cut him off. Across the square, a man clutched his head as his body unfolded—his limbs elongating, his skin splitting into fractal patterns. A timeborne infection, far worse than Elias's.

"Looks like the Core's got a new hobby," Kael said grimly.

Lila activated the Key, its light slicing through the chaos. "Then we'll need a new strategy."

---

That night, in the abandoned Archives, Lila pored over Elara Veyra's old research. Kael hovered nearby, interfacing with decaying data terminals.

"The Anchor," Lila mused. "Elara mentioned it once. A temporal constant—something that exists in all timelines. If we can find it…"

"We could theoretically reset the Core's influence," Kael finished. "But if it's a constant, that means it's been here all along. Hiding in plain sight."

Lila's gaze fell on the Key. The spiral symbol glowed faintly. "What if the Anchor isn't a what? What if it's a who?"

Kael stilled. "You think it's Elias."

"Or you. Or me. The Core called me its 'heart.'"

"And we know how much it loves metaphors," Kael sneered, but his voice lacked its usual bite. "If the Anchor is a person, the Core will be hunting them. And if it's you…"

Lila stood, determination hardening her features. "Then we hunt first."

---

In Void Nexus

A shadowy figure kneels at its center, assembling shards of the Fractured Hourglass.

Dr. Elara Veyra, her eyes twin voids.

"Soon," she whispers, her voice the Core's chorus. "Soon, the Anchor will be mine."

To Be Continued…