The world they landed in was unlike any Akuzai or Abhishek had seen. A realm between dimensions—half-formed, unfinished. The sky above rippled like a pond, and the ground shifted beneath their feet, made of fragmented thoughts and stitched-together memories. This was Chronovoid Delta, the prison realm Anuj had used as a failsafe—a place outside of time, where no timeline could be influenced or rewritten.
Abhishek groaned as he stood, the sigil on his chest still glowing faintly. "Where are we?"
"Nowhere," Akuzai replied, scanning the surreal terrain. "And maybe the only place we're safe… for now."
They needed to regroup, but even rest was denied in this place. The Chronovoid was unstable. Glitches in reality manifested around them—looping shadows, backward-flowing waterfalls, trees that whispered past secrets. Memories began to surface involuntarily.
Akuzai saw flashes of his childhood. His father's voice. A blade he never forged. A choice he never made.
Rivan appeared in them all.
Abhishek struggled too. He gritted his teeth. "It's a trap. This place… it feeds off regret."
Suddenly, a ripple tore open the sky, and a figure descended—Rivan's Echo, a projection left behind to hunt them. Unlike the real Rivan, this version was pure aggression. Raw, unthinking, emotionless. A beast of time.
"We can't fight it head-on," Akuzai said. "Not here."
But the Echo struck without hesitation. They were hurled apart, each crash triggering more temporal instability. Akuzai realized the Echo wasn't just hunting—it was anchoring Rivan's influence, even here. If left unchecked, this safe zone would become corrupted too.
"We end this now!" Akuzai shouted.
They hatched a desperate plan: lure the Echo to the Rift Gate—the heart of Chronovoid Delta—where reality folded in on itself. If they timed it right, they could collapse the gate just as the Echo passed through, trapping it forever in a time loop.
The battle was brutal. Abhishek used every ounce of kinetic control to redirect the Echo, while Akuzai held the gate's collapsing structure just long enough. At the final moment, they dove aside—and the Echo was sucked into the fold.
The Rift Gate imploded.
Silence returned.
Only then did Akuzai realize the cost. His right arm was fractured, damaged from holding open the gate's energy. The Eternis Edge flickered, its power dimming.
They had survived—but barely.
And Rivan was only growing more dangerous with every fragment he collected. If the Echo was this strong, the true Rivan might already be ascending to something beyond mortal limits.
Abhishek looked up at the skyless void. "Where do we go now?"
Akuzai didn't hesitate. He held up the Riftcloak Codex, which shimmered with a new pathway.
"We find the next shard," he said. "Before Rivan does. Or this 'escape' won't matter."