Aiona stopped moving.
The endless river of time flowed around her.
Past.
Present.
Future.
Everything moved as it always had.
But that strange feeling remained.
Someone had noticed her.
That was impossible.
Very few beings could sense Time itself.
Yet she could feel a pair of eyes watching her.
Aiona slowly turned around.
There was nobody there.
Only endless darkness and countless streams of time.
For several moments, nothing happened.
Then a voice spoke.
"Looking for someone?"
Aiona's eyes widened.
She immediately stepped back.
Not from fear.
From shock.
The voice had appeared without warning.
That had never happened before.
Slowly, a young man stepped out from the darkness.
His clothes were simple.
His face was calm.
His eyes were gentle.
Nothing about him looked special.
Yet Aiona could not see his past.
She could not see his future.
She could not even see his present clearly.
It was as if time itself refused to touch him.
For the first time in her existence...
Aiona was confused.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The young man smiled.
"I could ask you the same thing."
Aiona remained silent.
The laws prevented her from revealing too much about herself.
The young man looked around at the endless streams of time.
"Interesting place."
Aiona stared at him.
Nobody should have been able to enter this place.
Nobody.
Yet he stood there as casually as if he were taking a walk.
Then the young man pointed toward one of the streams.
"You're searching for Alexander."
Aiona froze.
Her expression almost changed.
Almost.
The young man laughed softly.
"So I was right."
For the first time in a long while, Aiona felt annoyed.
She had spent centuries searching.
Yet this stranger had discovered her goal within moments.
"Who are you?" she asked again.
The young man looked away.
For a moment, his smile disappeared.
Then he quietly answered.
"A traveler."
Aiona knew immediately that he was hiding something.
But strangely...
She could not see through the lie.
The young man suddenly looked at her.
"You should stop searching."
Aiona frowned.
"Why?"
His answer came immediately.
"Because you won't find what you're looking for."
Those words irritated her.
She had searched for so long.
She had crossed ages.
She had explored countless futures.
And now a stranger was telling her to stop?
"No."
The young man smiled.
"I thought you'd say that."
Aiona folded her arms.
Neither of them spoke.
The silence lasted for several moments.
Then the young man looked toward a distant timeline.
His expression became serious.
"Something bad is coming."
Aiona followed his gaze.
For a brief second she saw it.
A future covered in darkness.
Cities burning.
Mountains broken.
Countless dead.
And standing in the center of it all.
A figure.
A woman.
The image disappeared before she could see clearly.
The young man sighed.
"It starts sooner than I expected."
Aiona quickly looked at him.
"What starts?"
The young man did not answer.
Instead, he turned around.
"Wait."
Aiona stepped forward.
"You know something."
The young man stopped walking.
For a moment he looked back at her.
His eyes seemed older than time itself.
Then he smiled.
"You should be careful, Aiona."
Her heart skipped a beat.
She had never told him her name.
The young man continued walking away.
"Some answers are more dangerous than questions."
"A-And who are you?"
The young man stopped one final time.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"The answer won't help you."
Then he vanished.
Completely vanished.
Not through teleportation.
Not through time travel.
Not through magic.
He simply ceased to be there.
Aiona searched the timelines.
Nothing.
She searched the past.
Nothing.
She searched the future.
Nothing.
It was as if the young man had never existed.
For the first time in her life...
Aiona felt something she rarely experienced.
Curiosity.
Who was he?
How did he know her name?
How could he stand inside the river of time without being touched by it?
And most importantly...
How did he know about Alexander?
Far away, beyond time, beyond space, beyond existence itself...
The young man appeared atop a lonely mountain hidden above the clouds.
The wind moved gently around him.
He looked toward the endless sky.
Then he smiled.
"The future is changing."
For a brief moment, the mountain trembled.
And deep beneath the world...
Ten sleeping divine powers reacted to his presence.
The Deca Gods.
Their training had just been disturbed.
And for the first time in years...
One of them slowly opened their eyes.