The Timekeeper stood impossibly tall at the peak of the spire, his silhouette carved against the ticking heavens. His cloak rippled as if caught in a storm no one else could feel, and the cracked clock face where his features should be glowed with shifting runes instead of eyes.
He descended—without walking. The air warped with each second he moved, time twisting in pulses around him. Gears slowed, birds froze mid-flight, and the golden sky dimmed slightly, like the world itself dared not interrupt.
Kael instinctively stepped in front of Ayame, gripping the third stardust key tighter. "I'm guessing you're not here to throw us a congratulations party."
The Timekeeper's voice reverberated like a hundred overlapping echoes. "You broke the rhythm of the Spires. Took what was earned, not given. Do you understand what you've set in motion?"
Ayame raised her chin, her paint-whip coiled at her side. "We're trying to stop the unraveling. You've felt it—realms are collapsing. Guardians are missing. Something's wrong."
The Timekeeper's cracked helm ticked softly. "And you think mortals can correct what the Custodians failed to hold together?"
Kael stepped forward, eyes hard. "We don't have to be Custodians. Just determined."
There was a pause. Then a low whirring sound. A dozen temporal sentinels emerged from the surrounding towers—automatons made of molten brass and time energy, each wielding clock-hand blades.
Ayame narrowed her eyes. "I guess that's a no."
Kael summoned his crystals. Ayame unfurled her whip.
But just before the battle began, a bolt of teal lightning shattered the plaza's edge.
A ship descended from the skies—sleek, sky-blue, runed with symbols they hadn't seen before. It hovered on gears and wind turbines, the name *Sundial Ghost* etched into its side.
A voice boomed from above. "Need a lift?"
The ramp opened.
Standing there was a tall woman with bronze goggles, glowing teal eyes, and a grin that suggested she made trouble just to pass time.
Quillo nearly fainted. "Clockblight Cassidy?! The legendary rogue time pilot?!"
"Cassie to friends," she called, tossing a gear-shaped coin in the air. "You two look like you're either about to die or do something amazing. Either way, I'm interested."
Kael and Ayame exchanged a look. The Timekeeper advanced.
No time to argue.
They ran.
Cassidy fired her grappling hook, snagging Kael's waist and yanking him aboard just as a time-blade slammed where he'd been. Ayame painted a floating disc mid-air and surfed up the ramp, diving inside the ship seconds before the spire cracked open in fury.
The ship soared.
The Timekeeper roared.
Cassidy whooped and spun the ship sideways through a collapsing clockface.
"Now *that's* an entrance," she said, pulling the lever that zipped them into a time tunnel.
Inside the *Sundial Ghost*, gears clicked in harmony. The ship's engine hummed with ancient power. Floating lights danced in gravity-defying tubes.
Ayame took a shaky breath. "What just happened?"
"You passed your trial and annoyed the most punctual god in existence," Cassidy said with a smirk. "Not bad for rookies."
Kael looked down at the key in his hand. "That was... too close."
Cassidy leaned back in her pilot chair. "You're playing a dangerous game. These keys you're collecting? They're fragments of the original Chronoheart. A relic that predates even the Custodians."
Quillo blinked. "The Chronoheart? That's myth!"
Cassidy raised an eyebrow. "So's the Sundial Ghost, kid. Yet here we are."
Kael frowned. "Why would someone scatter pieces of a cosmic artifact across different realms?"
"Because someone was trying to hide it," Cassidy said, steering into a stardust trail. "Or protect it from someone worse."
Ayame rubbed her temple. "So who's trying to bring it back?"
Cassidy didn't answer immediately. She tapped a blinking monitor.
The screen lit up—with a symbol they hadn't seen in a while: a sun eclipsed by a fractured moon.
Ayame's eyes widened. "That symbol... Kael, it was on the creature in the mirror realm."
Kael clenched his fist. "And behind the fake versions of us."
Cassidy turned serious. "They're called the Eclipsed. And they've started moving again after centuries of silence. If they get the rest of the keys before you..."
Quillo shivered. "It's not just realms that'll collapse. Time itself could fracture."
The ship shook slightly. A signal came through—warped and glitchy, but unmistakably familiar.
A girl's voice.
Static. Then: "Kael… Ayame… if you can hear this… they're coming. Don't trust—"
The message cut.
Ayame's eyes went wide. "That was Yui. She's alive!"
Kael's pulse surged. "Where was that transmission coming from?"
Cassidy pointed toward a red planet drifting into view. Orbiting it was a ring of broken moons and a sky laced with firestorms.
"Scarlet Cradle," she said. "A cursed realm where light goes to die."
Kael stood. "That's where we go next."
Ayame nodded. "We find Yui. We find the next key."
Cassidy smirked. "Then buckle up, time kids. We're not in high school anymore."
The *Sundial Ghost* accelerated toward the burning horizon.
Unseen, far behind them, the Timekeeper turned back toward his spire.
And began rewinding time itself.