Darin and Mira followed the map to a place that looked… destroyed. Buildings were cracked. Streets were twisted like someone had grabbed time and crumpled it like paper.
"This used to be a great city," Mira said. "But time shattered here. It's stuck between past and future."
Darin looked around. Some buildings were old and falling apart, covered in vines. Others were floating in mid-air, glowing like they hadn't been built yet.
"Can people still live here?" he asked.
"Not really," Mira said. "Only echoes remain."
They stepped carefully through the city, following the signal from the shard tracker. But time kept playing tricks. One second, it was morning. The next, it was night. A street turned into a forest, then back again.
"This place is a maze!" Darin shouted.
They found a tower in the middle of the city. The sixth Time Shard was locked inside—floating above a cracked time crystal.
But something else was there too.
A boy stood in the shadows.
He looked Darin's age, with dark eyes and silver hair.
"I've been waiting for you," the boy said.
"Who are you?" Darin asked.
"I'm someone who lost everything because of time," the boy said. "And I won't let you fix it."
He raised his hand—and the city shook.
Time around them shattered again. Clocks spun. Mirrors cracked. Darin could barely stand.
"Take the shard!" Mira yelled.
Darin ran through broken time, dodging falling buildings and freezing seconds. He leapt toward the shard and grabbed it—just before the tower vanished.
Everything went still.
The strange boy was gone.
Mira ran up to Darin. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Darin said, breathing hard. "But who was that?"
Mira looked worried. "Someone who doesn't want time to be healed. And he's not done with us."
Darin looked at the shard in his hand. Only one left.
"I don't care who he is," he said. "We're going to finish this."