Chapter 31: The Seal of Silence

The sun had barely risen when the trio Lyra, Kael, and Elian descended from the cliffs. The city below, half consumed in fire and chaos, was no longer a battlefield it was a trap.

Elian had sensed it too late.

By the time they stepped onto the outskirts, the distortion in time hit them like a wall. Every second slowed, then stuttered. Time loops twisted around them like vines, thick and inescapable. Kael's energy flared in panic, and Lyra readied herself for a fight.

But this wasn't a fight they could win.

From the skies, a unit of black-armored soldiers descended in perfect silence. Each of them moved with surgical precision, armed with weapons not of metal, but of concepts tools designed not to hurt the body, but to collapse existence. These were the Temporal Executioners: a covert government division made to eliminate anomalies like them.

Elian turned, his pocket watch glowing with frantic pulses. "This is wrong they're using a sealed time loop. It's ancient tech… forbidden even by their own standards."

"We need to break through!" Kael shouted, slamming his fist into the ground. The earth cracked, and dark energy spilled upward but instead of breaking free, the energy froze mid-air, pixelated, then vanished. Erased.

"They're not trying to kill us," Lyra said, her voice grim. "They're trying to erase us."

Before Elian could react, a chain of pure light lanced through his chest. He dropped his watch, blood spurting from his mouth, time spiraling out of control for a brief second stretching their screams into hours, their movements into flickers before it all collapsed.

And then, darkness.

When Lyra awoke, her arms and legs were bound in invisible force. She hovered in an abyss of silence, suspended like a marionette. No gravity. No direction. Just void. Her body couldn't move. Her thoughts barely echoed.

A voice broke through the stillness. Cold. Male. Official.

"Subject 03: Immortality Class Contained."

Kael's voice could be heard next, distorted and fractured. He was screaming, somewhere close but unreachable.

"Subject 04: Anomalous Energy Projection Sealed."

Then came Elian. No screams. No protest. Just silence. He had been nullified completely.

"Subject 05: Temporal Deviation Revoked."

Weeks or maybe centuries passed inside the timeless prison.

Their minds were kept awake, yet muted. All five senses dulled into a buzzing static. They could feel themselves slowly unraveling, not physically, but metaphysically erased from memory, from history, from reality itself.

Until one day… the silence broke.

A tall woman in a white government uniform entered their void space, stepping through nothing as if it were a hallway.

Her eyes were completely black, and her skin shone with something artificial she wasn't fully human.

She stood before Lyra first. "You will remain sealed until further notice. Your blood is still being harvested. Be proud. You're saving thousands of lives every hour."

Then to Kael: "Your power is unstable. You will not be unbound again. You are not a person. You are a fuel source."

And finally to Elian, whose body was frozen mid movement, time locked. "You were a mistake. A glitch. You should never have existed."

She turned away, leaving behind only her voice echoing in the void.

"You were born anomalies. You will die as utilities."

Outside, the world moved on.

The government denied the existence of Lyra, Kael, or Elian. Any digital traces were wiped. Their family records were forged. Memories of them erased from those they loved. Not even legends of them remained.

They had become whispers in a void used, sealed, forgotten.

But deep within Lyra's body, her blood still pulsed.

And something inside it… still resisted.