The Echo Of Eternity
Ash should have never touched the relic.
But when the ground beneath the Garden cracked, revealing the hidden chamber below, the choice had already been made for him.
The Echo of Eternity was waiting.
A jagged, obsidian core, pulsing with an unsettling rhythm—too slow, too fast, too wrong. It wasn't just an object. It was a wound in time itself.
And when Ash reached for it—reality shattered.
Flashbacks
Ash stepped into the unsunken garden a place forgotten by history yet untouched by decay.
A vast expanse of crystalline trees stretched before him, their branches etched with faint, shifting glyphs—markings that shimmered and changed when he wasn't looking. The air was still, too still, like the world was holding its breath.
At the center of the garden stood the Frozen Hourglass.
Massive. Silent. Wrong.
It wasn't just frozen in place—it was detached from time itself. The sands inside refused to fall, yet they still swirled, moving in ways that shouldn't be possible. Ash felt it immediately.
It was calling to him.
A whisper that wasn't sound. A presence that wasn't physical. Something was waiting beneath.
And Ash knew—it knew him.
The system flickered, struggling to register its presence. Then, the notifications began.
[System Alert: You have entered the Realm of the Forgotten.] [Entity Detected: Frozen Hourglass – ???] [Warning: Time Distortion in effect.]
Ash exhaled sharply. Whatever this was, the system itself barely understood it.
He stepped forward.
With every inch he closed, the hourglass reacted. The sands within twisted, forming symbols he almost recognized—fragments of forgotten alphabets, spiraling into something he felt more than saw.
And then—it spoke.
Not words.
Not thoughts.
Something older.
A pulse of knowledge that bypassed language, forcing itself into his mind:
"When the last grain falls, eternity will wake."
A sharp crack echoed through the garden.
The ground beneath the hourglass split open, revealing a stairway that had not been walked in millennia. Cold air rushed up from below, heavy with the scent of ancient stone and something else—something unnatural.
Ash hesitated.
Then, the system updated again.
[New Event Triggered: The Echo of Eternity Awakens.] [Warning: Descent into the Unknown is irreversible.]
Ash made up his mind and he descended the flight of stairs.
The steps spiraled downward, carved from black stone that seemed to drink the light. The further Ash went, the more the silence grew oppressive, the air thick with something that made his skin crawl.
A chamber awaited below.
Flashback Ends – Back to the Present
Time fractured.
Reality collapsed.
And Ash was no longer alone..
Time did not stop.
It fractured.
Ash gasped as his body split across moments.
Shadows of himself flickered into existence—some older, some younger, some… not him at all.
A version of him, scarred and battle-worn, stood with a blade drenched in something far darker than blood.
Another, draped in royal insignia, eyes sharp with knowledge he had never earned.
A third, hollow-eyed and silent, watching with something too much like regret.
Then—they spoke.
"We were not meant to exist."
"You are the first."
"No, you are the last."
The echoes blurred. Ash clutched his head as his mind threatened to fold in on itself.
Paradox.
That was what this was. Not time magic. Something worse.
Something irreversible.
Something divine.
He was seeing what could have been. What still might be.
And then—one version stepped forward.
It was him. But older. A future self.
Not broken, not dying—but different.
More powerful. More dangerous.
"You have five minutes before that power consumes you," the future Ash warned, voice steady. "If you fail to adapt, you will become another lost echo."
Then the vision collapsed.
Ash hit the frozen ground hard, his pulse erratic, his body burning with something new.
The system flickered.
---
[New Authority Gained: Paradox Authority.. You have inherited the Echo of Eternity.
You are no longer bound by linear time.
Abilities Unlocked:
Paradox Copy – Manifest an echo of a past or future version of yourself for a few seconds.
Temporal Rewrite – Undo a moment of injury or failure within a brief window. .
Echo Trap – Set a loop, forcing enemies to repeat actions unknowingly.
Warning: Excessive use may destabilize reality. Paradox must be controlled. ]
The system notifications continued hovering above his face as he fell into a trance and slumped on the floor.
His mind has been invaded.
Memories that weren't his flooded in.
---
The First Bearer – The Devoured One (Over 5000 years ago)
The first memory struck like a blade.
A nameless figure knelt before the Hourglass. Not in reverence—but desperation. Their body was falling apart—time itself peeling them layer by layer, moments stolen, rewound, erased.
They had failed.
"The Echo does not grant power." The words weren't spoken aloud. They manifested, sinking into Ash's mind like a curse.
"It replaces what is lost. I am nothing now."
Ash saw their body crumble—not into dust, but into fragments of possibilities. Shadows of what they could have been, splintered into eternity.
This was the Echo's true price.
And yet, someone sealed it away again. Someone strong enough to resist.
---
The Second Bearer – The Broken One (500 years ago)
A second vision.
A magician stood before the Hourglass—this one stronger, wearing a mantle of authority.
They had planned for this. Prepared for it. Bound their soul in protective wards.
It didn't matter.
Ash felt their panic as time rebelled, tearing through their safeguards like paper. The magician screamed, watching their past and future selves merge, distort, unravel.
"I… I can hold on… I can—"
Their body flickered. One version of them remained.
But not the right one.
Ash recognized the empty eyes, the hollow expression. This magician had survived—but at the cost of their true self.
They left the ruins that day, still wearing their own skin… but they were no longer themselves.
The Hourglass had stolen their destiny.
---
The Third Bearer – The Watcher (currently in existence)
This time, Ash felt it immediately.
A presence.
Someone watching him.
The final memory was not a failure.
This figure was different. Cloaked in time itself, their presence was undeniable. They had wielded the Echo… and lived.
Not shattered. Not consumed.
But changed.
"You are not the first." The voice echoed from the chamber itself.
Ash turned.
And for a fraction of a second—he saw them.
A shadow in the ice. A figure with no face.
The one who sealed the Echo away.
"I made my choice."
"What will yours be?"
Ash soon snapped out of it at this point, staggering to his feet. The power coursing through him wasn't normal time magic.
It was something far worse.
And as he took a step forward, his shadow lagged behind.
Not naturally.
Not humanly.
As if something else was walking in his place.
His chest tightened. He needed to leave. Now.
But as he turned, his own voice whispered from behind him—a second too late.
"We were never meant to exist."
And then the ruins collapsed.
The moment the ruins began to fall, Ash's instincts took over.
The chamber - the heart of this place—was shattering, sending ice and stone crashing down in waves. The entire chamber trembled as cracks split through ancient walls, the air thick with the howl of collapsing time.
He had seconds.
Paradox Copy.
Without thinking, he activated it.
An echo of himself materialized—an Ash from three seconds ago.
The past Ash dove left.
The real Ash dove right.
A massive pillar of ice came crashing down between them. If he had hesitated for even a moment, he would have been crushed.
But the paradox held.
For now.
The Garden's Final Warning
As he sprinted forward, the echoes of Eterna's last moments whispered around him.
"We defied time. We paid the price."
"Break the cycle. Or be consumed."
The voices blurred, the frozen walls warping. Ash's head pounded. The paradox was still stabilizing, and his own existence felt uncertain.
Another collapse.
This time—no time to run.
Echo Trap.
He forced the ability outward—trapping the moment in a loop.
For three seconds, the falling rubble froze midair.
A single, impossible moment of stillness.
Ash didn't waste it.
He ran.
Three seconds passed.
Reality resumed.
The rubble collapsed.
Then it collapsed again.
Then it collapsed again.
Trapped in the loop, time staggered—
But Ash was already gone.
---
By the time he made it back to the Sulken garden, his body was wrecked.
Cuts lined his arms where shards of ice had grazed him. His breaths were sharp and uneven, like he'd outrun death itself. Because he had.
And then—the aftershocks hit.
His own reflection lagged behind him.
For a moment, it wasn't his face looking back.
It was the future version of himself.
The one who had warned him.
The one who knew too much.
Ash gritted his teeth, forcing the image away.
Soon the system flickered.
[Authority Recognition Confirmed.]
[Bearer Type: Adaptive.]
Ash gasped. He knew now.
The First Bearer had been consumed. They had no resistance.
The Second Bearer had been broken. They had resisted incorrectly.
The Third Bearer had survived. But they had sealed the Echo away.
And Ash?
Ash was adaptive.
The paradox did not break him.
It recognized him.
He was not fighting against time.
He was becoming part of it.
That was why he could survive. Why he could still be himself.
And that was why, as the ruins collapsed—the Echo did not reject him.
It accepted him.
It made him its own.
He exhaled, looking at the time counting on the system.
It had been fourty minutes.
He needed to find Shade.