Some time had passed…
The lesson had ended, and Kael walked out of the classroom together with the other students. The sound of footsteps filled the corridor, mixed with overlapping light conversations. Light from the windows fell diagonally onto the floor, forming patterns that slowly moved as people passed.
Kael walked as usual. One step, two steps, and then on the third step, something felt off.
Late.
His foot touched the floor slightly later than he felt it should. The difference was small, almost meaningless, but enough to make him stop for a moment. His head immediately turned, trying to confirm what had just happened.
Nothing strange around him.
Everyone kept walking. The sound kept flowing. The world kept moving as usual.
But that was exactly what made it feel wrong.
"Again…" he muttered softly.
"This is not an illusion."
He took a slow breath. His throat felt dry for no clear reason. Normally, his mind would immediately search for explanations, building possibilities one by one. But now there was nothing. Just an unsettling emptiness.
Kael walked again, slower than before. His eyes began to observe his surroundings more carefully. He paid attention to how people walked, how they spoke, even how their voices sounded in his ears.
Ahead, a student was talking with his friend. The movement of his lips was clear, but the sound arrived slightly late.
Kael frowned.
He quickened his pace slightly, approaching to make sure. But the result was the same. The lips moved first, the sound came later.
Not synchronized.
He stopped in the middle of the corridor, while the two students continued walking without noticing anything. They passed right through him, as if he was not blocking anything at all.
Kael remained silent in place.
The sound was still there.
The footsteps were still there.
But something was not aligned.
As if the world had slightly shifted out of place.
Kael looked down at his own hands. He slowly opened and closed his fingers, trying to feel something that might be wrong. But there was nothing. Everything felt normal.
That was what made him even more uneasy.
He raised his gaze again, and for a moment his focus changed. No longer just seeing, but trying to understand what was actually happening.
That was when the Chrono Halo appeared on his back.
The light did not shine brightly, it only appeared like a shadow that had just become aware of its existence. Kael felt it immediately. There was a subtle pressure in the air, as if the world was holding its breath.
He turned his head back.
And when his eyes met the ring, everything stopped.
Not slowed down. Not frozen.
But disappeared.
Kael stood in a space without boundaries.
There was no floor. No sky. Only vast darkness with lines of light flowing like currents.
He did not truly feel like he was floating, but also not standing normally. As if his body did not fully have a place.
The lines of light passed through him without resistance, as if he was not part of this space.
"What place is this?" his voice sounded clear in that empty space.
No delay. No strange echo. Everything felt normal.
That was what made him realize faster than he should have.
"Here… is my time normal?"
The lines of light began moving faster. At first slowly, then increasingly fast, crossing each other like patterns being continuously reconstructed. Kael observed carefully, trying to find order within them.
And in the middle of all that, one line stopped.
It did not move.
Kael immediately focused on it.
The line vibrated, then slowly cracked like glass being pressed from within. Small fractures appeared, then widened without sound.
Inside it, something appeared.
A figure.
Unclear. Incomplete. Only a form resembling existence, but not enough to be called human.
Kael stared at it.
The figure did not move.
But the feeling came instantly.
It was looking back at him.
There were no clear eyes, no face, but the pressure was real. Like consciousness colliding between two points that should not meet.
The air felt heavier.
Kael did not know when his hand started moving, but his fingers slowly approached the crack.
Closer.
Stranger it felt.
And before he actually touched it.
CRACK.
everything shattered.
The corridor returned in a single impact.
Sound came all at once. Footsteps, conversations, floor friction, everything returned without delay. Kael stood in the same place, but his breath was slightly heavier than before.
He blinked several times.
Trying to make sure he was back.
The two students he had seen earlier were still walking ahead, still talking, and this time their voices were perfectly synchronized.
No delay.
No shift.
As if nothing had happened.
"What just happened!?" he muttered softly.
On his back, the Chrono Halo was still there.
But its light was unstable. Pulsing faintly like something unfinished.
Twelve parts were visible in a dim state.
One shone brighter than the others.
Number two.
"Kael?"
The voice pulled him back from his thoughts. Kael turned his head, and saw Maren standing a few steps away from him. Her expression was not immediately panicked or overly surprised, but there was clearly a strange feeling seeing Kael standing still in the corridor.
"What are you doing here?" Maren asked while observing the surroundings. "You look like someone who just woke up from fainting."
"I just feel dizzy," Kael replied after a short pause. His tone tried to sound normal, but there was still leftover tension inside it.
Maren did not immediately believe it. She stepped slightly closer, observing Kael's face more seriously. "You've been weird for a while. In class earlier too you weren't really focused."
Kael let out a soft sigh. "Weird how?"
"Hard to explain." Maren shrugged slightly. "But you're like… not fully here."
Kael did not answer immediately. Those words felt too close to what he had just experienced, but he did not want to jump to conclusions.
"Maybe just lack of sleep," he finally said, trying to close the topic.
Maren narrowed her eyes slightly, clearly not satisfied with the answer. "If you suddenly fall in the corridor, I won't bother carrying you."
"Don't worry," Kael replied shortly.
Maren scoffed lightly, but did not continue. She turned slightly, signaling Kael to start walking. "Let's go. Don't stand here too long."
Kael nodded slowly, just about to step when Maren spoke again.
"Kael."
He stopped.
Maren's tone this time was different. Not joking, not casual like before. More careful.
"What?"
Maren was silent for a moment, as if making sure what she wanted to say. Then she pointed toward the place Kael had been standing earlier.
"You… weren't there."
Kael looked at her directly. "What do you mean?"
"Not that I didn't see you." Maren shook her head slightly. "I was looking in this direction. But that place was empty. There was no one."
Silence filled the space between them for a moment.
Kael felt something settling in his mind. Not panic, but a small confirmation of something he had already begun to suspect.
"How long?" he asked.
"Maybe one second," Maren answered. "Or even less than that."
One second.
Enough for a perception error. Or enough for something else. Kael did not answer. But his mind moved quickly, connecting the pieces of what had just happened. Sound desynchronization, space without boundaries, broken lines of time. That figure. And now. His absence.
Kael repeated it in his mind.
One second that was not synchronized between him and the world.
He shifted his gaze briefly, trying to reorganize everything that had just happened. Sound desynchronization, space without boundaries, the cracked line, that figure, and now himself "missing" without moving anywhere.
"I didn't move," he said softly.
Maren looked at him. "Then what?"
Kael was silent for a few moments longer before answering. "Maybe I wasn't in the same time as you all."
Maren frowned. "That doesn't make sense."
"Yes." Kael nodded slightly. "I also wish it didn't make sense."
They walked again. This time Kael was more silent. More observant. Every sound, every step, every small pause in the surrounding world felt like something he needed to recheck.
"Maren," he said softly.
"Hmm?"
"If someone steps out of time, would the world still consider them existing?"
Maren thought for a moment. "If they're truly outside the flow of time, then they're also outside the observation of that time."
Kael did not answer.
That answer was too neat.
Too logical.
They continued walking slowly through the corridor. The surrounding sound remained noisy, but Kael was no longer fully processing everything the same way as before. Every step felt like he was rechecking it, not just doing it.
Midway, another voice cut through his thoughts.
"Kael."
He turned.
Aether was standing near the window, half of his body touched by outside light entering diagonally into the corridor. His gaze was calm, but there was something that made it feel like he was not merely "looking".
He did not look surprised, nor confused. As if he had already been observing Kael all along.
"You stopped in the middle of the corridor," Aether said softly. "That is not a good habit."
"I was just thinking for a moment," Kael replied.
Aether nodded slightly, but did not leave immediately. Instead, he stepped closer, close enough to stand at normal conversation distance. His gaze rose, directly meeting Kael's eyes, as if trying to read something invisible beneath the surface.
"Did you see something?" he asked.
The question sounded simple. But for Kael, it did not feel simple at all.
For a split second, the image of that endless space appeared again in his mind. The moving light lines, the crack that opened, the figure standing inside it.
But Kael held it all back.
He took a small breath before answering. "No."
Maren, standing beside him, immediately glanced at Kael, but did not interrupt. Just observed.
Aether did not react immediately. He stayed silent for a few seconds, still looking at Kael, as if considering whether the answer was true or not.
Then he shifted his gaze slightly, and nodded slowly.
"I see."
His tone did not show certainty, but also did not reject it.
He then passed by them, walking in the opposite direction without stopping. As his steps moved away, his voice could still be heard, softer than before.
"Staying too long at one point can make you fall behind."
After that, Aether disappeared into the corridor crowd.
Maren looked in the direction Aether left for a moment, then glanced at Kael.
"You lied earlier."
Kael did not answer immediately. He just let out a slow breath. "I don't want to talk about it right now."
Maren was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly. "Alright."
No further pressure.
They continued walking.
The corridor remained the same. The sound remained the same. The world kept moving as usual.
But inside Kael's mind, something had already changed.
He was no longer sure that what he experienced earlier was just a momentary disturbance.
It was too real. A possibility began to form in his mind
that maybe, for that split second, he had truly stepped out of time.
"There is something wrong." Kael muttered in his heart.
Number two in the Chrono Halo suddenly glowed brighter than before.