The Last Twenty Minutes In Eterna
The system's cold, unfeeling text flashed before Ash's eyes, a constant reminder that time was slipping away.
[Time Remaining Before Portal Closure: 20 Minutes]
His breath came in sharp bursts, his body coiled with tension.
The path to the chamber was not long—normally a five-minute sprint through the fractured ruins of Eterna—but he couldn't afford to waste even that.
Although his Time magic grade hadn't changed, he could feel it. His magic had evolved beyond its previous limits of application. Now was the time to push it further.
Ash closed his eyes, focusing inward, feeling time hum around him. The world around him seemed to hold its breath as his ability activated, sending ripples of warped time through the air.
And then—everything slowed.
The shifting corridors of Eterna stretched, sounds deepened into drawn-out murmurs, and even the flickering embers suspended in the air like frozen fireflies.
To an outsider, it would look as if he had simply vanished into a blur of motion, but within his perception, the world had fallen into a crawl.
[Time Manipulation Active: Flow Reduced to 20%]
[Remaining Duration: 5 Minutes]
Each footstep felt deliberate yet weightless. His mind processed everything five times faster, yet his body moved with effortless fluidity.
Ahead, the chamber neared—Eris's presence flickering at the edges of his awareness. He could imagine that she had been waiting for him for sometime.
His pulse quickened. He was close.
[Time Remaining Before Portal Closure: 19 Minutes]
With one final push, he surged forward, the last few meters collapsing in on themselves as he released his time hold. The frozen world suddenly snapped back into motion, air rushing past him in a powerful shockwave.
Eris stepped back instinctively raising her sigils. To her, it looked as if he had materialized out of nowhere, appearing in a single breath where it should have taken five minutes.
He couldn't do that before.
She barely had time to react before he grabbed her wrist.
"We don't have time," Ash rasped, his voice edged with exhaustion. "We need to move—now."
[Time Remaining Before Portal Closure: 19 Minutes]
The moment Ash and Eris broke into a sprint, the ruins of Eterna responded.
A deep, resonant growl rippled through the city—not from a single beast, but from the land itself.
Something old and angry had awakened.
[Warning: Anomaly Detected – Eterna Will Not Allow Your Departure]
[Threat Level: Cataclysmic]
The first shockwave nearly sent them crashing to the ground.
Ash and Eris barely had time to react before the earth split apart beneath them.
A horde of twisted constructs erupted from the ruins, their bodies stitched together from broken obsidian, rusted armor, and burning violet runes.
Some crawled on too many limbs, others hovered unnaturally, their hollowed eyes flickering with intelligence.
Eris's breath hitched. "That's a lot of them."
"We don't stop," Ash gritted out. "We cut through."
But then the sky darkened.
A massive hand of stone and metal erupted from the heart of the ruins.
Then another.
Something colossal was rising.
The very fabric of Eterna warped, bending under the weight of something ancient and furious.
The Titan of Eterna pulled itself free—a gargantuan monstrosity, its head brushing the storm-lit sky, runes of power bleeding molten energy across its shifting form.
It turned to them.
And moved.
A single step shattered the ground, sending a wave of destruction rippling outward.
The first attack came without warning.
The Titan's arm shot forward, its massive fist aiming to crush them both.
Eris's vision blurred.
A rush of images, designs, and impossible ideas flooded her mind—her Burst of Creativity igniting like a wildfire.
She couldn't stop it.
The world twisted as her power activated.
A massive, twisting bridge of crystal and metal erupted beneath them, spiraling into the air, lifting them just in time as the Titan's blow obliterated the ground.
Ash glanced at her, startled. That wasn't normal.
Eris's hands trembled. She had barely controlled that. If she lost control completely—
No time to think.
The horde of constructs attacked, swarming up the bridge toward them.
Eris moved on instinct, her mind racing with creative flashes—
Her fingers sketched through the air, and suddenly, the bridge came alive.
Bladed tendrils of shifting metal and glass burst outward, slicing through the oncoming constructs. Some froze mid-air, locked in suspended animation. Others exploded into dust, their cores shattered.
But the Titan wasn't finished.
Its runes flared, summoning a maelstrom of gravitational force that pulled at the air, bending reality itself.
The bridge buckled.
The Titan swung again.
Ash moved.
[Echo of Eternity Activated – Temporal Rewrite]
The attack reversed.
The bridge was whole again.
Eris blinked—time itself had shifted.
Ash had undone the destruction before it could happen.
But the cost hit him instantly. His vision blurred, a sharp pain splitting through his skull.
He didn't stop.
He couldn't.
The Titan's core pulsed, preparing its next move.
Ash threw himself forward—
[Paradox Copy – Activated]
A second Ash appeared.
The Paradox Copy split from him, moving in perfect synchronicity, a duplicate from either a few seconds in the past or the near future.
Two Ashs. Two points in time colliding.
One Ash sprinted toward the Titan's flank, blades drawn. The other dashed straight ahead, intercepting a construct mid-air with a precise strike to its core.
Eris exhaled sharply. "Now that's cheating."
Ash's copy flickered, lasting only seconds—but it was enough.
The Titan swung again—
But Ash was already ahead.
[Echo Trap – Activated]
The Titan froze.
Then moved again.
Then froze again.
The Titan was stuck.
Locked inside an Echo Trap, its actions looping over and over—unaware it was repeating itself.
The Titan's core flared, struggling against the loop.
Eris's Burst of Creativity surged again.
The world became a canvas.
A spear of burning constellations appeared in her hand, the weight of a dying sun compressed into a weapon.
She hurled it.
At the same time—
Ash's Echo Trap flickered.
The Titan broke free—just as the spear struck.
A second spear appeared.
[Paradox Copy – Last Activation]
Two spears.
One in the past. One in the present.
The first tore through the Titan's core.
The second shattered it completely.
The Titan screamed, its runes imploding, its massive body collapsing into the ruins of Eterna.
The explosion swallowed the battlefield.
When the light faded—nothing remained.
[Threat Eliminated – The Path is Open] [Time Remaining Before Portal Closure: 4 Minutes]
Ash staggered.
Eris caught him.
She panted, looking into the distance. "That was—"
"Run." Ash coughed.
And they ran.
The portal shimmered ahead, a vortex of swirling light carved into the ruins of Eterna.
[Time Remaining Before Portal Closure: 3 Minutes]
They had made it.
But Eterna wasn't letting go easily.
The very air fought against them, gravity twisting, space warping—as if the realm itself refused to release them.
Eris gritted her teeth, pushing forward. Her mind burned with a dozen ways to break through, but she didn't have time to plan—
So she let instinct take over.
Her burst of creativity surged, reality bending to her will.
The path before them shifted, forming a smooth, spiraling ramp that pulled them toward the portal, shifting and twisting with every step they took.
Ash didn't hesitate.
[Time Manipulation Active: Flow Reduced to 20%]
[Remaining Duration: 3 Minutes]
The world slowed.
Wind became a sluggish whisper.
The distant echoes of crumbling stone dragged into a stretched-out hum.
Everything outside their movement crawled—while they surged ahead.
Then—a figure appeared.
Saria.
Standing at the portal's entrance, arms crossed, gaze unreadable.
Ash and Eris stumbled to a stop, panting.
"Saria?" Ash's voice was tight. "How did you—"
"No time." Her voice was steady, absolute. "Step through. Now."
The portal flashed—flickering yet stable.
Eris didn't need to be told twice.
She lunged forward, dragging Ash with her.
And in the next breath—
They were through.
The world behind them sealed shut, the swirling light of the portal blinking out of existence.
Silence.
The weight of survival settled in.
Eris exhaled. Ash straightened. Saria remained unreadable.
They had escaped.