Kei stood on the edge of what remained of the Prison of Time, watching as the walls continued to disintegrate, the sky warping above him in chaotic, fractured patterns. What was once a place of torment and control now felt like a graveyard—a graveyard of timelines, shattered memories, and broken possibilities.
The weight of the Warden's words still lingered in the air.
"You've freed yourself, but you've unleashed the chaos."
Kei's heart raced as he scanned the horizon. He couldn't ignore it. He couldn't escape it. The real world, the one outside the prison, was on the brink of collapse. He had seen it through the Warden's hologram: cities crumbling, timelines splintering, and time itself unraveling.
And it was all because of him.
For the first time, Kei felt a flicker of doubt.
Could he really fix this? Could he undo what he had just set in motion? Or was he doomed to watch everything he knew, everything he fought for, fall apart?
But there was no time to dwell on the question. As if on cue, the ground beneath him trembled again. The sky crackled, and the fabric of reality seemed to buckle.
Something was coming.
Without thinking, Kei sprinted forward. The fragments of time still pulsed through his body, humming with raw energy. He could feel it—the power that had been unlocked, coursing through him. But now, it was no longer just a tool for survival. It was a weapon.
The digital code that made up the collapsing prison walls flashed in his vision, glitching and flickering like static. He could control it.
"Let's see if this works," Kei muttered under his breath.
He raised his hands, concentrating. Neuromancer was in full effect now. The time fragments around him twisted in response, obeying his will. The space around him warped, rewriting itself. The prison's walls started to reassemble, but not in the way they had been before. No, this time Kei was rewriting history itself—bending time to his will.
The energy surged. A blinding light flashed.
And then, everything stopped.
For a brief, suspended moment, Kei could see it all—the timeline he had shattered, the fragments coming together, the endless possibilities flickering before him. In the distance, the silhouette of a tower rose. Its foundation was built from the very fragments of time he had broken, and yet, it stood there, calling to him.
But there was no escaping it now. The tower was the key. The place where the true source of time manipulation had been hidden. The place where everything started.
And Kei knew one thing:
He had to reach it.
The air shimmered as reality around him twisted again. This time, the Faceless Man appeared before him, blocking his path. His form was glitching, his body shifting between multiple timelines, but his voice—cold and unyielding—echoed through the fractured space.
"You've come too far."
Kei's pulse quickened. "I'm not turning back."
The Faceless Man extended a hand, and time itself responded. The rift began to close.
"You cannot rewrite the end, Kei." His voice was more than just an echo—it felt like the very fabric of reality was speaking. "There is no return."
Kei's eyes burned with fury. The tower was just ahead—he could feel it calling to him.
And in that moment, he made his choice.
He ripped through the rift, breaking free from the Faceless Man's grasp, and made his way toward the heart of the tower, where everything would finally end or begin again.