The café felt smaller now.
Like the walls were closing in.
Like reality itself was trying to pull away from the thing standing at the door.
The shadow stretched across the floor.
Long.
Distorted.
Wrong.
It didn't move like a person.
It shifted.
Like pieces of time inside it were out of sync.
Ethan stepped forward.
The faint blue glow around his hands flickered back to life.
Not as strong as before.
But enough.
"…You're not touching her."
The shadow tilted its head.
Or at least—
Something in it resembled a head.
Its voice echoed again.
Broken.
Layered.
Like multiple moments speaking at once.
"Temporal anomaly… unstable… consumable…"
Mira leaned slightly to the side.
"…Yeah."
"That's definitely targeting you."
Aria tightened her grip on Ethan's sleeve.
"It doesn't see people."
"It sees time."
Liya frowned.
"…And right now, we look like food."
The chronal officer tried to restart her device.
Nothing.
Dead.
"…It's suppressing temporal tech."
Mira sighed.
"Of course it is."
"Why make this easy?"
The shadow moved again.
Closer.
The floor beneath it began to fade slightly.
Like the tiles were being erased.
Not broken.
Not damaged.
Just… gone.
Ethan's eyes sharpened.
"…It's eating the timeline itself."
Aria nodded.
"Yes."
"It feeds on unstable seconds."
"On things that don't belong."
Mira pointed at Ethan.
"So basically…"
"…you're a buffet."
"Appreciate the imagery."
The shadow suddenly lunged forward.
Fast.
Too fast.
Liya gasped.
"Ethan!"
But he reacted instantly.
He raised his hand.
The blue energy flared outward.
The shadow hit the barrier—
And the entire café shook.
For a moment—
Everything flickered.
Customers vanished.
Then reappeared.
Like frames skipping in a video.
Mira blinked.
"…Okay."
"That's not normal."
Ethan pushed harder.
The glow around him intensified.
The shadow recoiled slightly.
But didn't retreat.
It studied him.
Then spoke again.
"Chronal core… fragmented…"
The officer whispered,
"…It recognizes you."
Aria stepped forward slightly.
"It knows what you are."
Ethan frowned.
"…Then it knows I can stop it."
Aria shook her head.
"No."
"It knows you're not complete."
Silence.
Mira raised an eyebrow.
"…That sounds like a problem."
Ethan glanced at his hands.
The glow flickered.
Unstable.
"…I don't have the full power anymore."
The shadow moved again.
Slow this time.
Careful.
Like a predator testing its prey.
"Temporal energy… insufficient…"
Liya stepped beside Ethan.
"Then we don't fight it with power."
He looked at her.
"…What?"
"We think."
Mira smirked.
"Finally."
"A strategy."
The shadow took another step.
The air warped around it.
Time bending unnaturally.
Aria spoke quickly.
"It feeds on unstable seconds."
"So we make ourselves stable."
The officer nodded.
"Yes."
"If we anchor ourselves to a fixed moment…"
"…it can't consume us."
Ethan frowned.
"…How do we do that?"
Aria pointed at him.
"You."
"You created independent seconds."
"Use them."
Mira blinked.
"…You're telling him to weaponize time fragments."
"Exactly."
Ethan took a breath.
"…Alright."
He closed his eyes briefly.
He focused on that quiet ticking inside his mind.
Not the overwhelming flood from before.
Just one steady second.
A single moment.
He grabbed it.
Pulled it outward.
The blue glow condensed into a small sphere in his hand.
A perfect, stable second.
The shadow paused.
For the first time—
It hesitated.
"Stable… anomaly…"
Mira grinned.
"Oh?"
"Looks like it doesn't like that."
Ethan stepped forward.
"…Let's test that."
He threw the sphere.
The moment it hit the shadow—
Time snapped.
The shadow flickered violently.
Parts of it froze.
Other parts tried to move.
It let out a distorted sound.
Not quite a scream.
But close.
"Temporal resistance… detected…"
Liya's eyes widened.
"…It worked."
The officer nodded.
"Yes."
"Stable time disrupts it."
Mira cracked her knuckles.
"Alright."
"Now we're talking."
The shadow recovered quickly.
It shifted again.
More aggressive now.
More desperate.
The temperature dropped further.
Frost spreading across the tables.
Aria stepped back.
"It's adapting."
Ethan formed another sphere in his hand.
This time stronger.
Brighter.
"…Then we hit it harder."
But the shadow suddenly split.
Two forms.
Then three.
Each one smaller.
Faster.
Surrounding them.
Mira sighed.
"Classic boss fight phase two."
Liya whispered,
"…Ethan."
He looked at the multiplying shadows.
"…Yeah."
"This just got complicated."
The officer spoke urgently.
"If it consumes enough unstable time…"
"…it will grow stronger than before."
Aria's voice trembled slightly.
"And then…"
"…it won't just eat seconds."
"It will start eating entire timelines."
Silence.
Ethan clenched his fists.
The blue energy surged again.
"…Not happening."
The shadows lunged—
All at once.
And the café exploded into chaos. ⏳