Antiquus’ talons flashed in a blur of steel as he lunged toward the Timekeeper...who spun at the same speed, blade crashing against talon in a shower of sparks...

  But as they collided, a burst of dark energy exploded outward around them, knocking everyone on the street off their feet with the force of it.

  When everyone regained their footing, panting hard, they realized the Timekeeper was nowhere to be seen as another voice called out from behind:

  "Alice. Elara. You're mine!"

  Elara went rigid, then turned toward the voice, pulling Alice with her.

  …And froze.

  In the wreckage of a candy shop near the center of the street, a twisted woman stood amidst the wreckage. The Sin of Lust.

  Tall and pale as bone. Wearing a tattered gown of white and gold.

  And a crown of thorns.

  With a sickly-sweet smile, she said again: "You're mine."

  Then she lunged.

  Lust's nails were like claws, but Elara was faster.

  She grabbed her by the throat and threw her into the ruins of a pastry shop.

  "You're wrong," Elara panted, watching the glass-crusted rubble shudder as Lust staggered to her feet with a snarl, "Alice belongs to no one.”

  Lust stood back up, her thorny crown re-knitting itself in real-time as blood dripped down her face and soaked into the cracked pavement.

  “You’re cute,” she spat, voice like honeyed glass. “But Euphoria doesn’t trade in freedom… it feeds on ownership.”

  She raised a hand, suddenly, every shard of broken mirror around them pulsed with light.

  And then, they moved.

  Not just reflecting anymore… but crawling like insects toward Alice and Elara. Seeking to bind, to blind, to trap.

  "Elara!" Jax yelled from behind, "It's not just her! Look!"

  From the shattered storefront window where Lust had been thrown into moments ago, a second figure emerged slowly from the darkness, pale eyes glowing faintly beneath strands of wet black hair clinging to their face...

  It was Alice... only hollow-eyed and smiling too wide.

  The mirror-Alice stepped forward, and reached for real Alice’s wrist.

  "You don’t have to fight," she whispered with a voice that wasn't quite right. "Just stay here... we can be perfect together."

  "No!" Elara lunged between them, slashing at the mimic’s arm with a blade of condensed shadow torn from the Void itself.

  The fake Alice screeched, not human, as tar-black ichor splattered across nearby walls, and dissolved into shimmering dust that rained backward…up toward one specific broken clockface still hanging above—its hands now pointing at 13 o’clock, ticking upward instead of around.

  Charlotte screamed again, her body convulsing as phantom chains wrapped around her limbs, dragging invisible weight through time.

  “I didn't mean it, I tried, I really did,” she sobbed. And deep inside that pocket watch buried under tears, the little girl screamed back:

  “THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU COME?!”

  Then Hikaru broke ranks. They grabbed Iritscen by the coat collar and slammed him against a wall made entirely out of melted cake frosting hardened overnight under Euphoria's strange sky:

  “We don’t save Charlotte by thinking!” they chastised, their usually neutral expression finally giving way to a stern gaze. “We save her by breaking what breaks us!”

  And then Hikaru turned toward Antiquus, who’d just knocked Lust back again with an aerial dive so fierce it left cracks in reality, and shouted:

  “Take me up! NOW!”

  Antiquus didn’t hesitate. He crouched low so Hikaru could leap onto his back, then launched skyward like thunder given wings, leaving those below staring up not just at two figures racing toward chaos...but hope rising anyway through stormclouds made of stolen seconds, ticking clocks without meaning, and memories screaming louder than blood ever could.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  And somewhere far beyond sight?

  Time stopped once more, and something ancient opened its eyes beneath all 7 Sins' masks simultaneously, whispering softly across eternity:

  “Finally… someone remembers my name.”

  ...Then the seven figures all went still.

  For one breathless moment, the silence was so profound that it was deafening.

  Everyone on the streets below looked up, toward that shattered clockface, and saw seven pairs of glowing eyes turning in unison…

  And in their depths, a reflection that wasn't their own…

  Alice's hand was shaking.

  "...I know it," she whispered...

  And when Elara turned to ask what she meant, Alice simply reached out to stroke the lasso Elara still held.

  "Let's both handle this.”

  As the final words left Alice’s lips, the lasso pulsed, its golden light surging not from Elara alone…

  But from both of them, braiding together like twin currents of will.

  And just as the seven figures atop Euphoria’s highest ruins raised their hands in eerie unison, their masks cracking with veins of black lightning, Alice and Elara moved as one.

  The lasso snapped forward, splitting midair into two radiant ribbons that spiraled around each other like DNA made of sunlight. One thread anchored to Alice’s chest, her heart blazing with a courage she didn’t know she had. The other burned from Elara’s core, a Void-born fire tempered by loyalty sharper than any blade.

  They didn’t shout. They didn’t charge.

  They simply reached,

  And in that moment, every broken mirror on the street flared not with memory and truth.

  Not just theirs, but everyone's:

  Jax saw himself without the mask: a boy screaming for help no one heard.

  Adeyemi recalled ranking up as a young knight, eager to protect her kingdom, but facing scrutiny and distrust from peasants and nobles alike due to her skin color.

  Charlotte felt her small sister's hand slip from hers in a storm-lit alley ten thousand years ago.

  Liana remembered her launch day: not

  celebration, but sorrow: “We built you because we couldn't save our children.”

  Iritscen relived his first failed spell, and the shame he felt at surviving when his whole village burned.

  Zofie stood again before her clan elders… refusing mercy as ice froze their hearts "for justice."

  Antiquus soared above ancient skies... watching meteor strike Earth and knowing he was never meant to survive it either.

  Hikaru? They looked into nothing, and smiled sadly at seeing nothing look back.

  Yet none pulled away. Because this time they weren’t facing it alone.

  And when Antiquus, riding high on with Hikaru on his back through storms forged from time itself, landed and screamed:

  "WE REMEMBER! AND WE CHOOSE TO KEEP GOING!"

  ...The world shattered differently this time. Not into pieces…but open, like a door long sealed by pain finally breaking its hinges, and beyond it? Light so pure even shadows wept to see it again.

  Then the Seven Sins moved, and so did everyone watching below.

  Elara's lasso became a blade of Void made real by Alice's heart.

  Antiquus soared into the air once again, wings outstretched to shield those beneath him.

  Jax, Charlotte, Hikaru, Zofie, and Iritscen, all moved like well-practiced weapons, knowing their own weaknesses in a way no one ever had.

  And with every step, the air grew lighter.

  The Sin of Pride.

  Lust was first to charge straight toward where Alice stood, only to meet Elara's lasso with a screech.

  Antiquus dove low and caught his talons beneath her ankles, sending the Sin of Pride sprawling.

  Jax and Iritscen fired a volley of shadow-smoke and ice, pinning Lust in place.

  "Go!" Charlotte shouted, hands raised, then thrust her pocket watch forward.

  Its hands ticked backward, freezing time around Lust and letting her attackers close in.

  The Sin of Envy.

  When she appeared from a shattered mirror, Greed lunged toward Alice, who dodged behind her own reflection, her lasso snaking out to ensnare the Sin instead.

  Antiquus swooped in to slam Gluttony into the ground hard enough to crack concrete, but he twisted in a blur of silver and leapt away, cackling.

  Jax and Iritscen tried to hold him back, only for Greed's body to shift into smoke, leaving them grasping nothing but shadows.

  Elara turned around to face another Sin, this time the Sin of Sloth.

  Sloth grinned at Elara, who grinned right back, knowing all too well what to expect.

  Antiquus swept by, his roar shattering glass and scattering dust across every surface.

  Antiquus slammed down behind the Sin, wings flared...but this time Sloth reacted, twisting its body impossibly fast to lash out with gnarled hands.

  The attack landed with force enough to shove the flying beast backward, leaving him snarling in rage...and in danger.

  And still, there were more. The Sin of Gluttony and the Sin of Wrath appeared together this time, grinning through rows of jagged fangs.

  Jax tried to strike them with a bolt of shadow...but Gluttony caught it with one hand, swallowing the darkness itself into a black pit of a mouth.

  Iritscen tried to freeze them solid with a blast of liquid nitrogen from his concealed wrist cannon, but the heat of Wrath's blood burned the blast into nothingness before it could close around them both.

  Then it was Liana's turn to prove her worth as she rushed to help, conjuring a dizzying amount of her rigging in the form of turrets, cannons, and even techy artillery like plasma rifles and frozen mercury shotguns.

  Adeyemi fought beside her now, hair streaming like a banner while she slammed her glowing sword into Gluttony's chest.

  Zofie joined in as well, launching a flurry of blades made from condensed cold itself, but Gluttony and Wrath blocked with ease, grinning wider.

  "More!" Gluttony roared, mouth stretching far beyond human limits as he inhaled, pulling Liana’s cannons inward like paper into fire.

  But Adeyemi saw it coming.

  With a roar of her own, she drove the pommel of her blade down on his spine, breaking the suction just before Liana was yanked off her feet.

  Zofie didn’t hesitate, she dropped low and swept both arms forward, unleashing twin waves of razor-sharp ice that slammed into Wrath’s chest and sent him skidding backward across broken pavement.

  But he rose again with a growl, smoke curling from his cracked skin like steam.

  And behind him… Gluttony was already healing.

  Jax gritted his teeth. “They’re feeding off the chaos! The longer this fight drags on, the stronger they get!”

  Then Alice stepped forward, hand tightening around Elara’s lasso-light still pulsing between them both.

  “No,” she said softly, but firmly. “They feed off fear. Not strength. Not unity.” She turned to Elara. “Let’s show them what happens when we stop being afraid.”