The Boy Who Burned the Heavens

"Some kings rule land. Others rule flame. But this throne rules… time itself."

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⏳ [Scene: The Edge of Time – Citadel of the Forgotten Hour]

The world bent like parchment soaked in fire.

The team emerged from a rippling passageway — a tunnel not built of stone, but of tick marks, pulsing with every second lost to history.

> "Where are we?" Mirael asked, drawing a breath that echoed.

Lyara's voice trembled:

> "Not when. Where time ends."

Before them stood a towering construct — half-ruin, half-machine — gears the size of planets churned in silence, ticking to no clock.

This was the Citadel of the Forgotten Hour.

And at its center…

The Clockwork Throne.

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⚙️ Lore Drop: The Clockwork Throne

> 📖 The first seat of power made before timelines began.

– Built by Ithrael during the Silent Era

– Only one bearer can sit without temporal rejection

– Whoever sits rewrites the tempo of existence

– Grants partial authorship over:

- Cause and effect

- Lifespan acceleration

- Memory permanence

- Historical loops

It does not obey gods.

Only those who have bled through time.

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💀 The Guardians – The 12 Hourblades

As Riven approached, twelve shadows manifested.

Each held a blade etched with one Roman numeral — I to XII.

They moved in synchrony.

No words.

No breathing.

Just precise death.

> "We have to fight them?" Aedric asked.

> "No," Mirael answered.

"We have to outlast them."

Each Hourblade struck once per real-time minute.

Their dance was a ritual.

> "This is a tempo trial," Lyara gasped.

"Fight fast… and time will reject you."

"Fight slow… and they cut history itself."

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⚔️ The Tempo Trial – Battle Against the Clock

Riven breathed in rhythm.

Every 60 seconds, one Hourblade struck.

Miss a beat? Two strike.

Panic? All twelve move.

Mirael took lead — casting Chrono-Shield, syncing with Lyara's fate vision.

Aedric roared as he tanked the III and IV blades, taking deep wounds but staying on beat.

Riven faced the final Hourblade: XII — The Final Stroke.

It didn't swing a weapon.

It swung tomorrow.

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🌀 Duel: Riven vs. XII – The Stroke of Tomorrow

XII appeared as an old man with hollow eyes.

He spoke once:

> "I am what you'll become if you fail."

"A king who ruled nothing but delay."

Then he struck — and Riven saw his death.

A battlefield.

A friend's scream.

A flame flickering out.

Riven's knees buckled.

But he looked up.

Smiled.

And whispered:

> "Then let me burn that future now."

He raised the Flamechron Pen, and for the first time, didn't write…

He paused.

Time froze.

And Riven walked across twelve seconds of silence.

Slid the pen across the air.

And rewrote the tempo:

> "He moves only when I blink."

The XII guardian stopped.

The others faded.

Tempo Trial — passed.

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🪑 Ascension: Claiming the Throne

The Clockwork Throne whirred.

A seat rose from gears and chains.

Etched across the armrest:

"Who dares to author time?"

Riven stepped forward.

Ashbrand Quill pulsed.

Lyara touched his wrist.

> "If you sit, you change everything."

> "I've already changed too much to stop," he whispered.

He sat.

And the throne reacted.

Not with light.

But with silence.

Time… paused.

Everywhere.

Birds froze midair.

Rivers stilled.

Gods stopped breathing.

And in that gap — Riven heard everything.

Every tick that ever happened.

Every second he never got.

Every moment stolen.

And he burned it all into one word:

> "Mine."

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🕰 Power Surge: Riven the Flameclock King

> 🔓 New Title: The Flameclock King

You are now the timekeeper of your own narrative arc.

> 🔓 Domain Gained: The Forgotten Hour

A realm outside time, usable once per day for training, planning, or rewriting recent decisions.

> 🔓 Authority Unlocked: Tempo Shift

Slow time in a limited radius (10 meters)

Speed up memories to gain knowledge

Collapse forgotten timelines to reclaim lost abilities

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🌌 Final Scene – Across Time, the Timeline Fractures

In distant cities, clocks spin backward.

One by one, writers begin to vanish from the god halls.

> "Where are the scribes going?"

"Why are pages blanking out?"

A whisper trembles through the ether:

> "Because someone else is writing faster."

A figure in shadows watches.

Eyes like sunless moons.

> "He sat on the Clockwork Throne…"

"Then we'll bring out the Era Eaters."

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