NOVEL WEB Chapter 33: Guardians Through Time
Felix landed hard on cobblestones slick with rain. The city looked younger—its skyline unfamiliar, its streets bustling with people who had no idea their world teetered on the edge of unraveling. He steadied himself, the knot's faint pulse echoing in his chest.
A shadow flickered at the edge of his vision. Felix drew his weapon, scanning the crowd. The anomaly was here—he could feel it, a cold spot in the weave of reality.
He followed the sense of wrongness to a narrow alley where time itself seemed to ripple. There, a figure cloaked in shifting darkness reached toward a child, threads of memory unraveling in its wake.
Felix didn't hesitate. "Hey! Get away from her!" He fired a pulse of knot energy, the golden light slicing through the shadow. The figure recoiled, hissing, but did not vanish.
The child looked up, eyes wide with fear. Felix knelt beside her, offering a reassuring smile. "You're safe. Run home, and remember—never forget who you are."
The shadow lunged, but Felix was ready. He channeled his memories—laughter with Mira, late-night strategizing with Linh, the unbreakable bond with his team—into a shield of light. The anomaly shrieked as it struck, dissolving into harmless threads that faded into the rain.
Breathing hard, Felix watched the city's timeline knit itself back together, the ripple of danger subsiding. He touched his earpiece. "Felix here. Past anomaly neutralized. How are you holding up?"
Kiran's voice crackled through, tense but alive. "Present is stable, but the anomaly's persistent. Arjun?"
A pause, then Arjun's calm reply: "Future's… complicated. The anomaly's adapting. I'll hold the line."
Linh's voice anchored them all from the present. "Stay focused. The knot's pulse is shifting. Another anomaly is trying to break through—this time at the moment of Mira's sacrifice."
Felix's heart clenched. "I'm on my way."
As he raced toward the next portal, Felix felt the golden thread guiding him—Mira's presence, woven into the very fabric of time.
He smiled. "We're with you, Mira. Always."