The air was thick with the scent of ozone and burning embers, crackling like a storm trapped in a cage. Around them, the world trembled, splintering into shards of light and darkness — reality itself fracturing under the strain of the Rift's collapse.
Kael's eyes narrowed as he steadied his footing on the crumbling edge of the Rift. Behind him, Aeris's hands danced through the air, weaving fragile threads of magic that flickered like dying stars.
"Stay close," Kael barked, voice cutting through the chaos. "We don't know what's waiting for us on the other side."
The fractured world before them twisted and warped, a kaleidoscope of shifting images — memories and futures bleeding into one another. Buildings rose and fell like sandcastles, skies bled color, and distant echoes of laughter and screams collided in a deafening roar.
Suddenly, a jagged fissure opened beneath their feet, threatening to swallow them whole. Kael leapt forward instinctively, grabbing Aeris's arm and pulling her to safety just as the ground vanished.
Breathing heavily, they glanced around, only to see dozens of ghostly figures emerging from the shifting shadows—faces distorted with anguish and rage, remnants of lost timelines.
One figure stepped forward, eyes glowing an eerie blue. "You cannot mend what is broken," the voice hissed, reverberating through the fractured air. "The Rift is the future's end."
Aeris lifted her glowing hands defiantly. "Then we'll rewrite the future. Together."
Kael tightened his grip on his sword as the ground cracked open again, splitting the world—and their fate—into countless shattered realities.
The boundary between past and future dissolves. In the shattered echoes of time, will they find salvation, or be lost forever in the void?