Crack King

The sky of the Timeless City cracked like glass cracked by a hammer. Light and shadow collided, and from the crack, a terrifying creature descended—a silhouette of a mist-winged human, its eyes nothing more than swirls of emptiness, its voice thundering and bouncing through every dimension.

"I AM THE END OF TIME. THE ABANDONER OF REALITY. THE TRAITOR OF DIMENSIONS."

"I AM… THE KING OF CRACKS."

The entire city trembled. The towers of time collapsed one by one, the celestial clocks shattered into a thousand thorns of light. Raka and his three companions prepared, forming a protective triangle around the altar of the fourth key artifact.

"Don't let him touch the key!" Lyra shouted. "If he merges with it, time could be erased from the entire world!"

"As if this wasn't crazy enough," Vannir muttered as he pulled out three ancient spell scrolls and cracked them all at once.

Moksa stood still, raising both hands. The ancient spells began to form a dimensional shield. But the wind from the Crack King swept through their formation in an instant. The ground split, space twisted. The world began to lose its orientation.

THE FIGHT BEGINS

The Cracked King swung his hand. Time around Raka slowed. Seconds turned into minutes. But Raka closed his eyes, focusing all his concentration on the Bracelet of the Guardian of Time—an artifact he had inherited since the Shadowless Land fell. Light enveloped his body. He broke the time distortion and leapt, his sword stabbing straight into the Cracked King's chest.

Zzzrraak!

But his sword only pierced through mist.

"You think time can be fought with iron?" the Cracked King hissed.

With a single swing of her hand, Raka's body was thrown into the giant clock wall.

Lyra cast a time-locking spell, summoning symbols from the World's Beginning Language. A circle of light formed, trapping the Cracked King for three seconds.

"THREE SECONDS! THAT'S ALL WE HAVE!" she shouted.

Moksa moved like lightning, activating his dimensional weapon: the Nira Sword, which could only touch true reality. With a single slash, he sliced through the Cracked King's body—and for the first time, the creature screamed.

"THE CRACKED KING CAN BE HURT!" Vannir shouted, throwing a magic ball that locked consciousness. The sound of the spell in the language of the sky flowed in a symphony that shook the dimensions.

But the Cracked King laughed. "You can hurt time… but who can kill CONSEQUENCES?"

--- TIME BEGINS TO SHRED

The sky shattered into fragments. From the cracks, other versions of their world emerged. The Timeless City began to collide with alternate versions of itself. Raka saw himself dead in the streets. Lyra saw the world destroyed because she failed. Vannir was trapped in a version of the future where he was a traitor.

"This is… the mirror dimension," Moksa whispered.

"He dragged all of our versions to make us lose our way."

Raka clutched his chest, feeling a chaotic beat. "No… we must not believe in this shadow! We are the versions who chose to fight!"

--- MOMENT OF AWAKENING

From within Raka's body, the Guardian of the Ages bracelet vibrated violently. Silver light emerged, forming the figure of an old woman in a white robe. Her voice was like the echo and tinkle of a bell.

"The time has come, heir. You have seen enough. Now, use the truth."

Raka's hand rose. The bracelet changed shape—into a luminous spear that radiated the harmony of time. In an instant, his body was covered in a layer of armor made of time fragments.

"In the name of just time," Raka said softly, "I… choose to fight the end."

He leaped, slicing through the mist and light, stabbing straight into the center of the Cracked King's body. This time, the light of his spear pierced through all layers of dimensions. The Cracked King's screams tore through the sky.

"RAAAAAGHHHHH!"

The creature's body began to shake, exploding into black flashes, then coming back together. But the blow was enough to open an opening.

"LYRA! KEY!" Raka shouted.

Lyra ran to the altar. She stuck the third artifact fragment they had found into the center of the altar, joining it to the fourth. The light formed a five-branched tree—a symbol of the five keys that could restore the dimension.

THE CRACKED WORLD BEGINS TO STABILIZE The Cracked King roared. His body began to melt into the Timeless City's soil.

"You… have awakened something worse than me. If you think I am the end… wait until you meet the SHADOW OF ORIGIN."

With a resounding laugh, he vanished.

--- AFTER THE BATTLE

The city began to heal. Time began to flow again. But wounds and exhaustion covered them.

Raka sat on the altar, breathing heavily. "He mentioned 'Shadow Origin'… who is that?"

Lyra looked up at the sky. "If it is older than time… then we have not seen anything yet."

Moksa stood, his body covered in wounds, but his face calm. "One thing is for sure… we have the fourth key. But the path to the final key will take us to a place beyond our world."

Vannir unrolled a celestial map. "There is one place mentioned in the ancient texts: the Gate of Oblivion. Its location… is in the heart of the old Shadowless Land—our birthplace, Raka."

Raka stood up. His gaze was sharp. "Then we will return to our origin. Not as victims, but as challengers."

The Shadowless Land… a place that had long been a dark memory for Raka, now appeared before him again. But what lay before him was no longer barren land and ruins. The land now stood in its new form—an ancient city locked in time, covered in a purplish red mist and thousands of black crystals embedded in every corner. They stood before a large stone gate carved with a skull and one eye, which slowly opened when Raka attached the Guardian of Time bracelet to the seal in the middle of the door.

CRACK…

"This place… has changed," Lyra said softly.

"No, it's still the same," Raka answered quietly, staring intently into the dark tunnel that stretched underground. "But now we see its true form."

Vannir examined the wall, reading out the inscription scrawled in an ancient language: > "This is where the first Light dies. This is where the first Shadow is born. And time stops for those who fear."

Moksha lights a white crystal torch. "This place rejects light. The darkness here…is alive."

EXPLORATION INTO THE EARTH'S BOWEL

The narrow hallway turned into a circular cave with a high ceiling. On the walls were ancient paintings, depicting a small child with glowing eyes surrounded by robed guards.

Lyra pointed to one image. "That's… you, Raka."

Raka stared at her blankly. "I've never been here before. But why is my face in every one of those paintings…?"

"Because it's not about who you are," Moksa murmured. "It's about what you are."

Their steps led them into a giant hall, where a stone altar stood surrounded by arched pillars. In the center of the altar, suspended in midair, was a fragment of the Fifth Key—floating in a swirl of shadows and black lightning.

But as they approached, the fog thickened. Whispering voices began to be heard.

> "Heir of lies…"

"The one that brings destruction…"

"The shadow was born with him…"

Suddenly, from the darkness, a figure appeared in a black hood with a half-transparent body—like a reflection in a mirror that had no definite shape.

"He's coming," whispered Moksa. "Shadow of Origin."

Continued... ---