Tower 1 — Floor Sixteen, The Hall of the Endless Ticks
The passage upward dimmed into a cold, dusty corridor filled with suspended gears of all shapes and sizes, hanging in midair like rusted stars.
Tick…
Tick…
Tick…
The sound echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Ragnor rolled his shoulders.
"Alright. This one better not involve singing plants or hungry chairs."
Aetherion frowned.
"I doubt it will be that simple."
Lyra brushed her fingers along a spinning gear—
it passed through her hand like mist.
"It's… intangible?"
Iris hugged her book tightly.
"Time… isn't stable here…"
Her voice trembled at the edges.
This floor didn't drain aura,
or sing,
or devour…
It waited.
Waiting for the moment someone slipped out of sync—
so it could consume the seconds from their life.
Aetherion whispered:
"This floor is a time anomaly."
Ragnor stretched.
"Time anomaly? I'm gonna punch it."
Aetherion glared.
"You can't punch—"
Ragnor punched a floating gear.
His fist went through it.
The gear flickered…
…and age spots instantly appeared across his forearm.
Ragnor screamed.
"WHAT—WHY IS MY ARM SUDDENLY EIGHTY YEARS OLD—?!"
Lyra grabbed him, Constellar Mark flaring brightly.
"Aetherion! Fix it!"
"It's temporal decay! I can't reverse age without risking—"
Iris stepped forward.
"T-try with me."
Her hands glowed faintly with unstable time magic.
She pressed her palm to Ragnor's with trembling fingers.
The age reversed.
His arm returned to normal.
Ragnor exhaled loudly.
"…okay… new rule: no punching the timeline."
Iris wobbled.
Lyra caught her.
"Easy… easy…"
Iris nodded weakly.
"T-This floor is hurting… my head… everything is moving too fast and slow at the same time…"
Ragnor looked around.
"All these floating gears… there must be a boss somewhere."
Aetherion shook his head.
"Not a boss.
A mechanic."
The corridor widened.
Revealing a massive, towering machine.
Hundreds of gears turning.
Sands pouring from floating hourglasses.
Pendulums swinging in impossible directions.
And in the center—
Sat a small, thin man with a tangled beard, legs crossed atop a broken pillar.
His eyes were mismatched clocks—
one running too fast,
the other too slow.
He smiled weakly.
"Visitors…
Oh… it has been…
so many… centuries."
Ragnor blinked.
"Grandpa… you good?"
Lyra glared at him.
"Ragnor—shh!"
The man whispered.
"I am…
the Clockmaker.
I tune this floor…
I mend time…
and punish those…
who break it."
His head twitched to the side.
"And I have been watching you all climb."
Aetherion stepped forward.
"You're sentient? A real being?"
The Clockmaker nodded slowly.
"I was human once.
Then Tower once.
Now… neither."
His gaze turned to DRM.
The tick of the room stopped.
Every gear froze.
Every pendulum halted.
Every hourglass mid-fall.
The Clockmaker's mismatched eyes widened—
terrified.
"Oh no…
no no no…
no no no…"
Ragnor whispered:
"…that's the look everyone gives the kid…"
The Clockmaker's voice cracked.
"You.
Little Mask.
You… should not exist.
Not in ANY timeline."
Lyra's mark flared brightly.
Aetherion stiffened.
Iris trembled violently.
DRM tilted his head.
The Clockmaker covered his face with shaking hands.
"You are THE ERROR."
The entire floor shuddered.
The system chimed violently—
[FLOOR SIXTEEN: TIME FRACTURE WARNING]
[TIMELINE INSTABILITY: CRITICAL]
[DO NOT ENGAGE THE ERROR]
Ragnor stepped between DRM and the Clockmaker.
"HEY—he's with us!"
The Clockmaker screamed.
"THAT'S WORSE!!"
Lyra helped steady Iris.
Iris whispered:
"H-He's scared… so scared…"
Aetherion tried calming him.
"What do you know about DRM?"
The Clockmaker slowly lowered his hands.
"One thousand years ago…
I saw him.
Before I became this…"
The gears trembled violently behind him.
"He looked the same.
A child with a mask.
Two red eyes."
Lyra whispered:
"…he's been here before."
Aetherion took a step back.
"DRM is older than the Tower…"
Ragnor exhaled.
"…of course he is."
The Clockmaker continued.
"He came here to kill me.
But he didn't.
He just… watched.
Then left."
He pointed a shaking finger at DRM.
"He watches EVERYTHING.
He is outside time.
Outside fate."
DRM stared silently.
The Clockmaker trembled.
"I won't fight you.
But the floor…
the floor WILL."
The machines screeched—
time accelerating—
aging the room—
rewinding the walls—
fracturing reality.
A system alert blared:
[BOSS: TIME DEVOURER MECHANISM ACTIVATED]
[OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE 60 SECONDS]
Ragnor yelled:
"SIXTY—SECONDS—OF WHAT—?!"
The room exploded into chaos.
Floors rewound.
Gears whirled into weapons.
Sandstorms of time fragments tore through the hall.
Lyra fired arrows that aged to dust before hitting anything.
Aetherion had to warp gravity around Iris to keep her safe.
Ragnor punched a pendulum—
and his arm aged ten years instantly.
The Clockmaker screamed:
"You must endure! You must endure!"
But…
They were losing.
Fast.
Time storms ripped through their aura.
Age accelerated.
Then reversed.
Then froze.
Then accelerated again.
Iris cried out:
"I—I CAN'T—HOLD—IT—!!"
Aetherion was bleeding from the nose.
Lyra's Constellar Mark blazed brighter—
trying to hold her reality together.
Ragnor staggered, breath weakening.
The floor was killing them.
And DRM?
He simply raised one hand.
A tiny gesture.
A flick.
Stage 3.4 — "Temporal Killer Pulse."
Time froze.
Not slowed.
Not paused.
Obliterated.
The entire machine shrieked.
Gears shattered.
Hourglasses burst.
Pendulums split.
And the entire floor collapsed—
into a static gray void of stillness.
The Clockmaker fell to his knees.
"It's… over.
He erased… the timeline…"
The system chimed:
[FLOOR SIXTEEN CLEARED]
A staircase appeared.
Ragnor collapsed onto the floor.
Aetherion fell to his knees.
Iris sobbed quietly.
Lyra held her chest, panting.
And DRM simply walked forward.
As if nothing had happened.
Behind him, a faint shadow flickered.
[Shadow Presence Detected]
[Name — ████]
[Comment: "Time's no fun when he's around. Heh."]
Gone.
The team followed DRM upward—
terrified.
Exhausted.
But alive.
CHAPTER 28 — STATUS REPORT
Ragnor
Level: 21
EXP: +850
Physical: Temporal bruising
Mental: Shocked
Notes: Nearly aged to death
Lyra
Level: 18
EXP: +770
Constellar Mark: Node II overclocking under timeline stress
Mental: Focused
Notes: Prevented timeline collapse for Iris
Iris
Level: 13
EXP: +620
Mental: Severe trauma
Notes: Floor 16 nearly annihilated her spirit core
Aetherion
Level: 19
EXP: +800
Mental: Horrified
Notes: Confirmed DRM has no timeline, no origin
Clockmaker
Status: Alive, terrified
Notes: Recognizes DRM from a millennium ago
DRM
Level: ERROR
Mask Sync: 99%
Aura: Stage 3.4 — "Temporal Killer Pulse"
Emotional State: Calm
Notes: Erased the floor's timeline
Hidden: Shadow mocking DRM's efficiency