Anchor NULL.Ø — The Dead Second
No coordinates.
No time signature.
No memory of who arrived first.
Because Anchor NULL.Ø didn't exist in time.
It was the dark between ticks — the Dead Second — the breath between cause and effect.
And from it came a presence.
Not a person.
Not even a god.
But a hunger.
> They call it the Clock-Eater.
---
Alarms screamed in the Sanctuary.
Chrono-glyphs bled ink.
Kael's memory flickered — not from damage, but from being forgotten by time itself.
Myra clutched her head. "Something's… chewing at the past. It's not erasing it — it's devouring it. Consuming timelines whole."
Ghost Ronin slammed his fist into the console. "Another Kael clone?"
"No," Aren said softly. "This one never had a name."
---
Suddenly, they were pulled — not through a portal, not a jump, but a drag through raw causality.
When Kael opened his eyes, they were no longer in any Anchor.
They were in the Void Between.
Before them: an entity with no shape, only suggestion. A figure made of disassembled clocks, rusted calendars, and flickering birth certificates.
Its voice sounded like a watch drowning.
> "𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺… 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯-𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬."
---
Kael stood his ground. "You eating time for fun, or are we part of some apocalyptic buffet?"
The Clock-Eater's reply oozed through every version of Kael that ever was:
> "𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯. 𝘐 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦."
The stars flickered.
Anchors across the map dimmed — one by one.
Entire timelines were vanishing.
---
Myra cried, "It's feeding on everything we left unresolved!"
Kael realized: every skipped decision, every unfixed thread, every abandoned possibility — they were all fuel.
"We gave it teeth," he muttered. "By walking away from the wrong whens."
---
Then Ghost Ronin pulled something from his cloak — a device Kael had given him years ago. One built for exactly one purpose:
> "To unchoose a choice."
He tossed it to Kael. "Time to clean up our mess."
Kael nodded grimly.
He pressed the trigger.
---
Suddenly — flashbacks, not of memories, but of roads not taken:
Saving the girl from Anchor 1103 instead of sacrificing her.
Stopping the Second Drift War before it began.
Choosing Myra over vengeance.
Not killing his own variant in Chapter 4.
Kael screamed — not in pain, but from clarity.
Then he looked the Clock-Eater in the face.
> "I remember everything now."
And for the first time…
The Clock-Eater stepped back.
---
Anchor NULL.Ø – Temporarily Contained
Entity Classification: CLASS X / ORIGIN UNKNOWN
Kael's Temporal Conscience – Fully Reawakened
---
Back in the Sanctuary…
The walls trembled. Not from danger — but anticipation.
Aren's voice shook. "We woke something ancient."
Ghost Ronin sheathed his blade. "It knows us now."
Myra asked Kael quietly, "What do we do if it comes back?"
Kael didn't flinch.
> "We make time watch us. And we never look away again."