In a forgotten corner of the Kingdom of Imaginaria, beyond the mountains that touched the sky and the valleys where the wind whispered secrets, there lay a mysterious and feared place: the Forest of Forgotten Echoes. No one remembered its true name, nor the creatures that once dwelled there. It was a place where time seemed to vanish, as if the sun and the moon had forgotten their paths. The air was still, heavy, as though the whole world was waiting for something that would never come.
It was in this place that I found myself. I, a young apprentice in search of power, with cold hands but a mind full of dreams. My desire was clear, though my heart was full of doubt. The darkness around me did not scare me; it called to me, it drew me in. Perhaps I would never return to what I knew, but that no longer mattered. I had already crossed the threshold, and what awaited me beyond time, in this forgotten place, was all that mattered to me.
I walked through the forest in silence, my steps echoing like whispers in the vastness of the place. The trees rose like sleeping giants, their branches intertwined to form an impenetrable ceiling. With every step I took, the air seemed to tremble, as if the very trees were watching me. The shadows stretched and twisted, sometimes I thought I saw something moving between them, but my eyes did not dare confirm what I felt.
My name is Kronar, a young apprentice who has dreamed since childhood of controlling time. My parents taught me that time is a gift, but I always felt it was a prison, something that slips away from our fingers. I felt a deep dissatisfaction, as if the world was slowly crumbling and I couldn't stop it. The death of my younger brother, whom I had promised to protect, left a scar on my soul. It was then that I decided that if time could not be stopped, I would find a way to do so.
My heart burned with the desire to change the course of life and death. I had heard of an ancient altar hidden deep in this forest, an artifact of unimaginable power that could give me control over time. I didn’t know if I would be able to use it, but my hunger for that power was stronger than any doubt.
My goal was near. I knew I had to find it. The ancient altar, covered in moss and roots, awaited in the heart of the forest. I had read about it in old grimoires, in pages worn by the passage of time. This altar held the key to everything I desired: the possibility of stopping time, of ripping it from its natural course and plunging it into the stillness I longed for. I had studied it with devotion, tirelessly. But as I approached, a subtle doubt began to gnaw at me, like a tiny insect landing on my conscience: what truly awaited me on the other side of this power?
The troubling questions went unanswered, and with each step, I felt more compelled toward the altar. It was no longer just the search for power that moved me, but the desire to understand the limit of what a person could control. Yet, that shadow of doubt pursued me. Could I bear the cost of what I was about to do?
As I drew closer, the air thickened. A strange sensation coursed through my body, as if something were disturbed, as if the forest itself was refusing to yield to my presence. But I pressed on, determined. The altar, a stone block covered with runes that pulsed faintly, was my goal. The vision of its power blinded me for a moment, making my doubts vanish, replacing them with a clear vision of my future: a future dominated by absolute control over time.
When I placed my hands on the altar, I felt a vibration running through my veins. The runes began to glow with a soft light, as if they recognized my touch. The power was there, waiting. It was not a kind power, nor a well-intentioned one. It was a power that had to be taken with a firm hand, without hesitation.
I took a deep breath, letting my thoughts empty. Only then did the words of the spell begin to flow from deep within me. Those words, forgotten for centuries, echoed in the air, like a whisper from the ancients. Time, that invisible current that shapes everything, began to bend before me.
But something did not go as I had expected.
The altar began to tremble more violently. The runes shone brightly, almost blindingly, and an invisible pressure began to fill the atmosphere. My hands gripped the altar tightly, but I felt as though a dark force was battling my spell, trying to stop it.
Time began to fragment, but not in the way I had anticipated. The forest around me started to distort. The shadows stretched and twisted, turning into strange figures, as if the place itself was trying to defend itself from my magic. The trees whispered, and the roots rose from the ground, like threatening snakes.
The pressure increased, and with it, the sense that something else was happening. Was the altar truly a source of power, or an artifact designed to test the true will of whoever dared to use it? The awareness that my magic might be feeding the place and altering something even older and deeper made me hesitate, if only for a second. But I could no longer turn back.
The air grew thick, heavy with a palpable energy, and the place seemed alive, breathing at a rhythm that was not human. In the midst of all this, I realized I had underestimated the altar, the forest, and even the power I had sought. This was not just any artifact. It had been created to guard, not to grant, and now I knew: I had been trapped in its web.
A bubble of light appeared before me. It burst with a blinding flare. A sharp pain struck my chest, as if time itself had punched my heart. A warm, iridescent energy surrounded me and pulled me away from the altar, destabilizing everything I had done.
“No!” I thought desperately. “It can’t be!”
The rainbow bubble struck me forcefully, and the magic of the place seemed to vanish. Everything I had achieved, everything I had planned, crumbled before my eyes. The light blinded me for a moment, the altar disappeared. The forest vanished. And there, in the middle of nothingness, was only the feeling of having lost something crucial. “Cursed llama!”
And at that very moment, the light engulfed me completely.