The silence after the chaos tasted of dust and blood. The ground still smoldered, deep craters marked the titanic clash. Léon, breath short, approached slowly. He couldn't tear his eyes from the massive beast's body—its broken limbs, once fiery red eyes now dull. The earth still trembled from the memory of the fight.
Standing amidst the wreckage was the man in the crimson cloak. Unmoved. Still. His cloak whipped in the wind, ragged and ancient. Fragments of blue light flickered around him, as if shards of time had been torn from eternity.
Léon stepped forward.
"Who are you, really?" he demanded, voice trembling.
Silence.
"You just saved my life… Are you human? A god? You know my name, you came from a portal— I deserve answers!"
The man said nothing. His gaze drifted to the blood-red moon overhead.
"You can't just appear... do all that… and stay silent!" Léon shouted.
Slowly, the man turned his head toward him. In that movement, something shifted. His hard, unfamiliar face momentarily cracked.
"Léon…" he sighed.
"What?"
"It's me… Jason."
Léon's heart skipped a beat.
"What… what did you just say?"
"I am Jason—but not the Jason you know. I come from a future very close to your present."
A shiver ran down Léon's spine.
"You're lying… Jason is a child…"
"I know. But time is a strange river. In my world, you are already dead. And… I screamed. I screamed so loud the time shattered. That crack let me pass through."
Léon's knees threatened to buckle.
"Why… why did you come? Why this battle? And the beast?!"
"There was no other way," Jason said. "My scream… it was a prayer disguised. The world I witnessed is broken. And this all starts here. Now."
Léon sank to his knees.
"You… you say I'm dead in your future?"
"Yes. You were killed by those who control time—the real masters of this war. But your death triggered something in me. I realized everything I believed I was doomed to suffer might be changed."
Jason turned, shoulders trembling.
"But traveling through time has a cost…"
Suddenly his body swayed. Léon rushed forward, but Jason raised a hand.
"Do not come closer… Each second here drains my energy. I used forbidden power. I stopped time. And now I am trying to restore it… slowly, second by second."
Jason looked upward. The sky wavered like a roiling sea. Clouds drifted backward. The world itself vibrated.
"See? Time has become unstable. Chronoreality is collapsing… and I am the only anchor still capable of holding the present."
"But why me? Why is my name so important?"
Jason inhaled slowly.
"Because you are the pivot. You hold the choice. In your heart lies the final hope to prevent total rupture. If you die… the future becomes a nightmare."
Léon rose.
"And if I live?"
"Then hope is reborn. But for that… you must accept your nature. Your faith. This divine flame in you… It's no accident. You were chosen."
Léon frowned.
"Chosen by whom?"
"By those above. By those who gave you the flame. I only heard their call."
Jason knelt, gasping.
"I don't have time. Chronos is burning my veins. I must finish what I started."
He joined his hands and, suddenly, everything stopped.
The world froze.
Trees ceased their dance. Birds were caught in flight. Sounds died. Even the dust hung in the air, unmoving.
"I have frozen the present," Jason whispered. "And now… I must stitch back the seconds."
With titanic effort, Jason raised his arms. A massive clock appeared in the sky, its hands spinning backwards. Numerals shattered into space. He focused—and slowly, one second returned.
Then another.
And another.
Time pulsed with each restored second. Léon watched, transfixed. The child he once was now stood as the guardian of the present.
"Why can't you stay?" Léon asked.
"Because I am not of this era. My body is a paradox. If I remain too long, I will destroy everything. I am an anomaly. A living memory."
Time was slowly resuming its course, second by second, but something had changed. The air itself seemed to vibrate. As if every particle in the world had become aware of an unnatural event… as if all of reality were holding its breath.
Jason, on his knees, his body drained from the colossal effort of halting the flow of time, slowly stood up. Blue sparks still swirled around him, residues of raw temporal energy. But behind this magnificent light hid a far darker truth.
Léon watched his face closely. Jason looked… tense. His gaze was no longer fixed on the sky stitching itself back together, but on the distant horizons.
— "What's wrong?" asked Léon, worried.
Jason didn't respond immediately. He closed his eyes. And what he sensed made him tense even more.
— "They're coming."
— "Who?"
Jason turned his head north, then east. He could feel them. A wave of twisted energies, anomalies like he hadn't felt in a long time… not since the collapse of his own future.
— "By disrupting the flow of time, I created a breach. The world has felt my presence. And so have they. The anomalies. The ones cast out by time. The creatures forgotten by history… or banished by the gods themselves."
Léon frowned.
— "You mean monsters?"
Jason nodded slowly.
— "Not just monsters. They're distorted memories, failed dreams, beings trapped between past and future. They wander the border of reality… and now, they're coming. Because my energy… draws them in."
A chill ran down Léon's spine.
In the distance, a deep rumble echoed. Like a growl… no, like dozens of legs thundering across the ground. Dust rose on the horizon. A shrill, inhuman scream pierced the air.
— "Get ready, Léon," said Jason gravely. "This isn't just my fight anymore. It's yours too now."
Léon looked around. The ground was shaking. Trees bowed. Space itself seemed to warp. And there, emerging from the split hills, they saw them.
Giant spiders. Their black bodies glistened with a viscous substance. Their red eyes burned with a hunger that almost seemed holy. But they weren't alone.
Formless creatures slithered through the shadows. Some had multiple heads, others had wings made of flesh. Some floated in midair, legless, but pulsing with hostile energy. They were the rejects of creation. And they were drawing closer, lured by the presence of the time traveler.
Jason clenched his teeth. He raised his hand, and a sword of temporal light materialized. His blue aura intensified.
— "I'll hold them off… as long as I can. But listen, Léon: if I fall, you have to push the anomaly back. You're the guardian now. Do you understand?"
— "Yes… but I'm not ready!" Léon shouted.
Jason looked at him with calm intensity.
— "No one ever is. Not even me. But sometimes, history doesn't ask for your permission. It calls you. And you either answer… or you die."
The first monsters charged.
Jason leapt forward.
His blade cut through the air, tracing arcs of pure light. One massive spider split apart in a shriek. A floating creature lunged at him, but he froze time around it for a split second… and turned it to ash in a blue flash.
— "LÉON!" he roared. "Ignite your inner fire! Don't run from your nature!"
Léon felt something awaken inside him. A warmth. An ancient memory. Like a light that had long slumbered in his chest. The sacred fire. The one Jason had spoken of. The one he had always denied. Repressed. Afraid of what it might make him become.
But now, standing before the abyss, he had no choice.
He ran toward Jason.
And the battle for reality had begun.
To be CONTINUED