Kael couldn't rest. He opened the Timeline Library, diving deeper than ever before.
If Lyra was truly the Anchor…
Then the original, intended future must exist somewhere in the records.
He searched.
A flicker of light appeared—
A timeline he had never seen before.
Timeline: Projected Natural Worldline
Status: Corrupted by Regression
View?
Kael selected Yes.
The vision erupted:
A world flourishing.
Cities connected by mana-infused technology.
Humanity thriving without regression.
Lyra standing at the center, radiant, her presence stabilizing the world.
Kael's breath caught.
She was meant to be the world's protector—
Not an anomaly.
But the vision shifted.
Countless regressors appeared like cracks in glass.
Each regression twisted the natural path.
The worldline shattered.
Kael fell to his knees as the truth hit him.
"Lyra… should have been humanity's savior."
But regressors—
including himself—
stole that future.
He clenched his fists so hard they bled.
The system whispered:
[Anchor awakening inevitable]
[Interference required to prevent collapse]
Kael stood.
If Lyra awakened naturally, she'd regain all the pain of the lost timelines.
That would break her.
He had to find a way to protect her from her own memories—
A sound shattered his thoughts.
A window smashed.
He spun—
Lyra was gone.
On the shattered window frame, a symbol had been burned into the wood:
A white hourglass.
Erevan's mark.
Kael froze… then exploded into motion.
"Erevan, you bastard—!"
The worst part wasn't that Lyra was gone.
It was that the system offered nothing—
no direction, no clue.
[Anchor presence: Null]
Someone had erased her from the current loop.
Only Erevan had that kind of power.