The gate shattered like glass yet instead of falling the shards floated upward into infinity Each shard reflected not what was but what could have been: stories that never finished universes that never started lives that were never born.
Ryo stepped through first His cloak swayed with the silence of eternity Serath stumbled behind clutching his chest while the Fragments hovered uncertainly afraid yet compelled to follow their master.
The wolf pup darted forward barking happily at the strange light.
Serath: This place… it isn't part of the Crown Cosmology anymore.
Ryo: Good Then we're finally somewhere new.
The Realm of Unwritten Time
On the other side was no throne no city no abyss It was a flat horizon stretching endlessly The ground was made of flowing ink the sky of empty parchment With each step words tried to form beneath their feet but the letters broke apart before they could mean anything
Serath knelt and touched the ink His hand shook.
Serath: This… this is where abandoned timelines end up The eras that never existed the futures erased by choice the pasts that could have been It's… a graveyard of what never was.
The Fragments whispered nervously among themselves For them this place was too familiar They were born from such erasures.
One Fragment a girl with glowing eyes but no name stepped closer.
Fragment: Lord Ryo… if you walk here too long even you could be lost This place doesn't recognize existence or non existence. It eats both.
Ryo smirked and ripped another piece of bread.
Ryo: Let it eat I'm the one who decides what gets digested.
The Arrival of the Keepers
A tremor spread across the horizon Ink swirled violently parchment skies cracked Out of the rupture came beings dressed in endless cloaks their faces hidden by masks of broken clocks Each carried a staff topped with an hourglass that contained no sand.
They moved in silence surrounding Ryo and his followers.
Serath gasped.
Serath: The Keepers…! Guardians of the Unwritten They erase anything that crosses into this place Even gods cannot resist them.
One of the Keepers stepped forward His mask cracked open revealing no face only an endless void where time should have been His voice was not spoken but stamped across reality itself.
Keeper: You do not belong here Turn back or be erased.
The Fragments cried out in fear.
Fragment: Lord please! Even we know better than to face them
But Ryo didn't stop chewing his bread He looked up casually.
Ryo: Erase me? Try it.
The Clash of Timelessness
The Keepers raised their staffs Time itself shattered Serath screamed as his body froze and un froze as if his life was being rewritten a thousand times per second The Fragments collapsed unable to resist the waves of temporal erasure.
The wolf pup whimpered its form flickering like it might vanish.
But Ryo didn't flicker He didn't freeze He didn't even blink.
Ryo: That's cute But your hourglasses are empty You're trying to erase me with something that doesn't exist.
He raised his hand The ink beneath them hardened instantly into stone and the parchment sky tore open with his will.
The staffs of the Keepers cracked Their hourglasses shattered into dust.
One by one the faceless voids inside their masks screamed silently and imploded leaving behind nothing Not erased unwritten permanently.
Serath fell to his knees gasping barely able to breathe.
Serath: He… he destroyed them The Keepers of the Unwritten beings that existed even outside cosmologies… they're gone.
The Fragments looked at Ryo in awe and terror.
Fragment: No one has ever done that No one has ever killed a Keeper.
Ryo brushed crumbs from his hands.
Ryo: Then I'm the first. Let's keep moving.
The Endless Corridor
With the Keepers gone the horizon twisted The graveyard of Unwritten Time folded into a single corridor Walls of shattered timelines lined the path each door showing a different possibility:
Even universes where Ryo himself never walked into that bread shop.
Serath covered his face overwhelmed.
Serath: All these… all these worlds that never happened… it's infinite.
Ryo: Infinite doesn't matter What matters is that they're in my way.
He touched one of the doors The entire row of broken timelines collapsed folding into a single spark of light that sank into his chest.
Serath: You… absorbed it?!
Ryo: If no one else is using them they're mine now.
The Crown Follows
The wolf pup barked suddenly and above them the Crown Cosmology itself appeared its light stretching through the corridor Even here beyond its own borders it bent to Ryo's presence.
Crown Cosmology: Master of Crowns… you walk where no one has walked Even the Unwritten now obey you.
Ryo smirked.
Ryo: Good Then open the next door.
The corridor shook violently Every shattered timeline every erased possibility every unrealized future bent toward the next gate at the far end.
And from that gate came a pressure even greater than the Keepers Something older Something deeper.
The Fragments trembled Serath could not even speak The wolf pup growled nervously.
Ryo adjusted his cloak his eyes locked on the distant gate.
Ryo: So that's the next step huh? Fine Whatever's waiting I'll erase it too.
The corridor stretched forward endlessly leading them toward the unknown.
And so the journey continued beyond the Crown beyond the Unwritten toward the next throne of existence waiting for Ryo to claim