Story Title :- idle guy
Chapter 6: The Vault Below Time
The sky above Elarin bled darkness.
Kael and Lira sprinted through fractured alleys of glowing ruins, the ground trembling with every pulse from the summoning pillars behind them. Time flickered oddly around the edges—one building stood whole one moment and collapsed the next, caught in some broken loop.
“That’s not natural,” Lira muttered, pointing to a street corner where a man stood screaming—frozen mid-yell, repeating the same second again and again.
“Temporal fractures,” Kael said. “Ashivar’s Riftspawn are tearing holes through stable chronology.”
“Translation?”
“We don’t have long.”
They reached the edge of an ancient square. At its center lay a half-buried stairwell encased in obsidian roots—twisted rock like veins of volcanic glass.
The Obsidian Vault.
“This was sealed before the First Collapse,” Lira whispered. “Only one being ever opened it.”
Kael stepped forward, raising the gauntlet. The Veyrin crest illuminated in crimson-gold, and the vault responded with a low, thunderous groan. Runes spiraled outward in a perfect circle. The doors slowly unlatched.
The temperature dropped instantly. Every breath they took steamed in the cold air.
Below
The steps led down into impossible space—walls that bent inward and twisted sideways, stairs that formed spirals within spirals. Every step echoed like a scream through time.
Kael remembered flashes.
A place where the ancients stored artifacts not of this world. Not of this universe.
The Obsidian Vault was less a vault and more a scar in reality.
Lira walked silently behind him, her sword ready. “What exactly are we looking for?”
“A weapon,” Kael replied. “The only one that can overwrite the Arc-Kernel without erasing the host.”
Lira narrowed her eyes. “And you’re sure it exists?”
“No.”
That was when they heard it.
Footsteps.
But not echoing from behind them—from above. Something was descending, impossibly fast.
Kael turned just as a shape dropped through a folding tear in the ceiling: a man, cloaked in red metal and bound in chains of energy. His face was hidden behind a mask of mirrors.
He landed silently.
Lira took a step back. “Who the hell—”
The man spoke, voice like a thousand whispering voices: “I am Regulus. The Chrono Executioner. And Kael Veyrin must not be allowed to change fate.”
Combat Initiated
Kael moved first. His gauntlet activated a burst of kinetic warding energy, deflecting Regulus’s first strike—an arc of chrono-blades that sliced across dimensions. Sparks flew as time bent around each swing.
Lira flanked, slashing at the Executioner's back. But he parried with unnatural grace, as if he knew her move before she made it.
“He’s seeing us before we move!” she shouted.
“He’s a time-weaver,” Kael grunted. “We can’t beat him playing fair.”
The vault shuddered. Cracks opened in the walls, revealing glimpses of other timelines—Kael as a child, Kael dying, Kael killing the world.
“I've seen them all,” Regulus whispered. “You are the end of us.”
Kael’s eyes burned brighter. “Then I’ll rewrite that ending.”
He slammed his gauntlet into the vault floor.
The runes responded.
Identity Confirmed: Veyrin Prime
Unlocking Artifact: Codename—Nullsong
The entire vault screamed.
A pedestal rose from the ground, and upon it floated a blade made of liquid time. It shimmered with both memory and future—its hilt forged of star-metal, its edge flickering in and out of visibility.
The Nullsong Blade.
Kael reached out.
Regulus lunged to stop him.
Too late.
Kael’s hand wrapped around the weapon—and time shattered.
Everything Paused.
Except Kael.
He floated in a void of white and blue light. Before him stood a projection—an echo of a man in Veyrin armor.
His father.
“You’re not supposed to wield this,” the echo said.
“I have to.”
“You don’t know what it costs.”
“I don’t care.”
The echo paused. “Then take it. And change the story.”
Time resumed.
Kael reappeared behind Regulus mid-strike—inside his timeline path. With one slash, the Nullsong sliced through the Executioner’s loop.
Regulus gasped as his future shattered. “Impossible…”
And then he was gone—erased from every outcome.
Silence.
Lira caught her breath, eyes on the blade. “That… wasn’t just a weapon.”
Kael stared at it, his grip firm. “It’s an eraser.”
Above them, the vault began to collapse.
They ran.
Outside
The night sky had split open. The Rift Reaper now fully emerged—an enormous beast made of broken dimensions and screaming faces.
Kael looked up, weapon in hand.
“I’m done running.”
End of Chapter 6
