NOVEL WEB Chapter 11: Chapter 10: The Birth of Watchers
Chapter 10: The Birth of Watchers
Before the Soil Was Tilled
Before the first field was furrowed…
Before the first seed broke its shell beneath golden rain…
Before gods rose and fell across countless skies…
There was Ashborne.
He was not always the flame.
Once, he was simply Eon Yahn, a chronal weaver on a minor celestial plane — an immortal whose job was to tend the threads of time. Not to rule it. Not to burn. But to guide it gently. He wove destinies like quilts, binding stars to stars, lives to lives, choosing when karma should bear fruit.
He was precise. Kind, even.
Until he made one mistake.
---
The Forbidden Thread
Among his assignments was a realm unlike any other — a chaotic world whose destinies wove and unwove themselves with every breath. It was too alive, too primal. Every time he stitched its timeline, something unforeseen happened.
And at the center of this realm… was a name.
Xiao Tianmie.
The name echoed across every version of the future. No matter how Eon tried to erase, bend, delay, or redirect fate — the man with this name always returned. Sometimes as a tyrant. Sometimes as a savior. But always… as a ripple that became a wave.
And then, one day, Eon made a choice:
"If I cannot weave around the name, then I will unmake the thread itself."
He tore into the timeline.
He burned the soil of that world with divine fire.
He erased villagers before they were born.
He turned gods into dust and wrote them out of existence.
But even in the ashes, the name endured.
Even through the death of time…
Xiao Tianmie lived.
---
Becoming Ashborne
The Celestial Tribunal exiled Eon Yahn.
Tampering with the Prime Loom was the greatest crime. They stripped him of his name, his mercy, and his place among the Threadsingers.
But he did not perish. He transformed.
The timeline he tried to destroy fought back — it clawed at his mind, filled his lungs with memory-smoke, and reshaped his body into something unnatural. A creature of heat and judgment.
He became Ashborne — the one who walks upon forgotten destinies with feet of flame.
But the Celestials knew he would not be the last. Others, too, would be drawn to erase unstable realms. To patrol anomalies.
So they built a legion.
---
The Watchers
They are not born.
They are assigned.
When a divine being reaches the edge of omnipotence but refuses the Tribunal's law, they are offered two choices:
Fade.
Or become a Watcher.
They are stripped of all titles, locked in echo-armor, and sworn to monitor the Fabric of Realms.
Each Watcher is assigned a number based on threat level and discretion:
Tier-F: Observers
Tier-C: Timeline Cleaners
Tier-A: World Freezers
Tier-Z: Eradicators — like Ashborne.
They do not speak often.
They do not remember kindness.
Only Ashborne speaks often — because he remembers.
---
The Paradox of Tianmie
The Watchers fear one thing: a paradox-born.
A being who exists outside prediction.
Someone whose cause does not equal effect.
In Watcher reports, Xiao Tianmie has appeared as:
A boy who healed the future by planting rice.
A man who slaughtered gods with farming tools.
A whisper that unravels constellations when spoken.
A silent father in one world, a storm in another.
No matter how many versions Ashborne extinguishes, he cannot erase the echo. He cannot kill the promise embedded in that name.
And though Watchers do not age…
Ashborne feels tired.
---
Ashborne's Doubt
Back in the present…
Ashborne stands in the void between realms, watching the smoke curl from his fingers after the clash with Li Yuan.
> "He didn't strike to kill," he whispers. "He struck to warn."
The vision Li Yuan showed him through the golden soil… it hurt.
It reminded Ashborne of who he once was — a weaver, not a warden.
And for the first time in countless aeons… he hesitated.
He didn't call for backup.
He didn't request another Tier-Z executioner.
He stood still, staring at the afterglow of life in a world he tried to unmake.
---
The Council Stirs
Far beyond mortal reach, within the Looming Chambers of Law, twelve Watchers sit in silence, their faces hidden beneath blank masks. Only one speaks — a voice like stone breaking ice.
> "Ashborne hesitated."
Another voice replies, cold and precise:
> "He was compromised by resonance. The Farmer's frequency triggered echoes in his pre-Watcher memory."
A third speaks:
> "The name has now crossed multiversal thresholds. The field of 'Xiao Tianmie' is growing again."
> "Then it is time," says the voice of the First.
> "Time to send the Harrower."
---
A Choice in Ashes
Ashborne, now alone, kneels beside a patch of earth from Li Yuan's field that still clings to his armor. It pulses with warmth.
He lifts a hand…
And lets it fall, softly, into the dirt.
> "Do I burn it again?"
"Or… do I let it grow?"
He closes his eyes.
And hears a name.
Not from the sky.
Not from the Tribunal.
From within himself.
> "Xiao Tianmie…"
And this time, the name does not bring fire.
It brings…
tears.