Grey warp gate..

“This has to mean something…”

The words left my mouth before i could think. 

The clock pendant felt thin.. it burned against my chest.

The warmth felt heavier than before, denser, as if the artifact is resisting from being used again.

I wrapped my fingers around it.

Click.

The moment I activated it, the world dragged into stillness again.

Reality thickened instantly, air turned viscous as if I was being submerged in deep water. Sound stretched and warped, then vanished altogether. The pressure slammed into my body, far worse than before, crushing down on my joints and spine.

I got outside and stumbled down.

The fall was short but brutal. I hit the ground hard, pain detonating through my legs as the frozen world refused to cushion the impact. The shock rippled upward, rattling my teeth, stealing what little breath I had managed to draw.

I forced myself upright before my legs could give out, muscles screaming in protest as I moved through the resistance.

I circulated mana all over my body, and pressed my hand against the rubber tire of my family car.

Then I jumped.

The force tore me through the sky instantly. the street ripping away, houses shrank into a distorted patchwork of shapes beneath me as i reached the clouds.

I could feel the wind screaming past my ears, though no sound reached me. 

My body twisted instinctively, searching for balance that didn’t exist. My limbs felt wobbly—too heavy, too slow to respond as the upward momentum refused to stop.

Then—

The time freeze snapped loose.

The transition was violent.

Sound slammed back into existence all at once, the roar of air and the distant crack of something breaking colliding inside my skull. Gravity reclaimed me without mercy.

I crashed back into motion midair.

The drop was uncontrolled. I barely had time to register the lake below before I hit it at speed.

I didn’t sink.

I hit the lake running.

My feet struck the surface in rapid succession, each step barely touching before the next followed. Water exploded behind me in massive plumes, as i dragged myself forward.

Stopping isn’t an option that my body would accept. My legs burned up all the stamina, coiling back in pain. Joints screamed with every move, pain flaring so sharply it blurred my vision. My muscles felt stretched past their limits, protesting violently, but I didn’t slow.

I couldn’t.

The lake stretched out beneath me, dark and distorted, the surface rippling unnaturally even where I wasn’t touching it. Ahead, the water churned violently, waves collapsing inward toward a single point at the grey warp gate.

The closer I got, the worse the pressure in my body became.

Ahead—

The frozen horde of lesser demons swarming the lake from all sides.

Grey, half-formed figures clawed at the water, faces twisted in silent screams. Others drowned over and over again, bodies angled downward, arms frozen in futile struggle.

They were reaching for me.

Their forms overlapped, piled atop one another in grotesque layers, the surface of the lake crowded with bodies that never quite broke free from the water.

The structure of the gate pulsed faintly, space itself was bent into an unnatural arch where it stood.

And at the center of it all—

Something stood still.

A single demon that stood half way beside the warp gate. 
It didn’t struggle. It didn’t crawl out like the rest of its kind. It didn’t even look at the horde pouring out around it, remaining unbothered by the chaos.

It was watching something.. passing time.

My instincts screamed at me to stop.

To turn back..

Every part of me that understood danger recoiled, warning me that crossing this distance wasn’t just reckless—it was wrong.

I didn’t.

I skidded to a halt on the water’s surface, bleeding off as my feet slid, sending ripples outward through the waters. 

I clucthed the kitchen knife in my arms tightly.

"Alright.."

I moved fast before gravity could drag me back. 

The lesser demons screamed as i cleared a path towards the gate, killing everything that stood my way.

One at a time.. Sometimes multiple died.

My breathing was ragged, uncontrolled, each breath burning as my body shook violently from exertion as i closed the distance between me and the warp gate.

The demon that stood near the warp gate had turned its head in my direction.

It wasn’t sudden. Just a subtle adjustment, enough to acknowledge my presence.

Its gaze turned toward me. Our eyes met. I didn't sense any malice in it. No anger. 
A faint recognition, as if it had already accounted for me long before I arrived.

I reached into my coat.

My fingers closed around the clock pendant, still warm, still pulsing faintly against my skin. I pulled it free and held it up between us, chain dangling, the face of the clock catching what little light remained in the air.

The whisper of voices were loud this time.

They flooded my awareness all at once—louder than before, layered and indistinct, pressing in from every direction. The sound crawled along my thoughts, words overlapping without meaning, heavy with something that felt ancient and close.

The demon didn’t move.

Whatever this thing was—

It recognized the clock pendant.