The wind howled through a dead void.
No stars.
No sky.
Just a barren plane suspended between broken moments — a realm that shouldn't exist.
Steven stood at the edge of reality, lightning crackling around him, Maeron beside him cloaked in deeper-than-night shadows, and Kael'Zar looming behind like a walking inferno.
> "This is it," Maeron said, voice almost reverent. "The Grave of Time."
> "This place…" Kael'Zar growled, looking uneasy. "Even the fire here burns backwards."
Steven looked forward. A shattered clock tower floated ahead — frozen mid-collapse — surrounded by spirals of broken hourglass sand. Each grain shimmered with memories. They were walking inside a dead second of the universe.
And at its center…
A throne, made of fractured gears and rusted chronosteel.
Upon it sat a figure with a mechanical halo behind his head, eyes like ticking clocks — endless, patient, merciless.
Eidryn Voss, the Time Warden.
> "So," Eidryn whispered, his voice layered with echoes from a million timelines. "The boy who walks the Codex finally comes."
> "I need your oath," Steven said simply. "The Codex is fraying. Pain is rewriting fate."
Eidryn's head tilted. Time around him distorted, fast-forwarded, rewound, and then paused.
> "Why should I care?" he asked. "The past was broken. The future is a lie. I guard what's left — this moment. And even that crumbles."
Steven took a step forward, but the moment reversed.
He tried again. Reversed.
Kael'Zar roared. "You playing games, clock-wraith?!"
Eidryn stood, calm. "No. I'm testing intent. Only those who understand consequence may step into this grave."
> "Then test me!" Steven shouted. "Show me what happens if I fail!"
The world blinked — and Steven was elsewhere.
---
A vision.
The Codex shattered.
Pain stood atop a throne made of dead gods. Maeron's shadow impaled. Kael'Zar turned into ash. Earth — unrecognizable, consumed in divine ruin. A broken version of Steven knelt in chains, watching stars die one by one.
> "This is your truth," Eidryn's voice echoed. "The price of failure."
---
Steven snapped back, gasping.
He staggered, fists trembling.
> "I saw it. Everything. Everyone lost."
Eidryn stepped forward, time ticking around his form. "And?"
Steven met his gaze. "Then I won't fail."
He drew in power — starfire, storm, shadow, flame — and combined them into a new glyph. The Codex responded, glowing with ancient light.
> "Let me show you a new truth," Steven said. "A rewritten fate."
"Chrono Codex Seal: Axis of the Neverborn!"
Eidryn paused.
Time… bowed.
The gears froze. The echoing fragments realigned.
Eidryn looked at Steven and, for the first time in eons, smiled.
> "You truly are the Codex's chosen."
He stepped down from his throne and knelt.
> "Then I, Eidryn Voss, Warden of Time, pledge my eternity to you, Starcaster."
The moment pulsed. The last piece fell into place.
The Four Wardens had answered the call.
Maeron — Shadow.
Selyra — Stars.
Kael'Zar — Flame.
Eidryn — Time.
Steven felt it in his core — the Codex awakened fully, glowing with unfathomable power.
> "Now," he said, rising. "Let's rewrite destiny."
Far away… in the Divine Rift… Pain opened his eyes.
> "So… it begins."
(To be continued)