Volume 2: The Thirteen Heir
Chapter 21: The Second Watch Awakens
The golden light surrounding the thirteen pocket watches slowly faded.
One by one, twelve of them returned to the wooden chest.
Only Lin Mo's silver watch remained floating in the air.
Yet something had changed.
A faint silver thread stretched from it, extending beyond the walls of the Workshop Between Moments, disappearing into the endless river of stars.
Orion followed it with his eyes.
"It has begun."
Lin Mo looked at the thread.
"What's happening?"
Orion answered quietly.
"Another heir has awakened."
The workshop fell silent.
Chen Yu frowned.
"I thought the Chrono Heart had only one successor."
"So did I," Han Qiu admitted.
Orion smiled faintly.
"That was the greatest misunderstanding left behind after the War of Time."
"There was never meant to be one Keeper."
"There was never meant to be one Heart."
"The burden was always meant to be shared."
The Guardian stepped beside Lin Mo.
His translucent body flickered.
"Each heir carries a fragment."
"No one..."
"...can restore the Eternal Clock alone."
Lin Mo stared at his watch.
"So there are twelve others like me."
Orion nodded.
"Perhaps."
"Or perhaps fewer."
"The war consumed many bloodlines."
"Some fragments may have slept forever."
"Others..."
"...may have fallen into dangerous hands."
Before anyone could speak again—
**BOOM!**
The Workshop shook violently.
This tremor was far stronger than the last.
Tiny cracks spread across the ceiling.
Beyond the window, the peaceful river of stars churned violently.
Dark whirlpools formed in the void.
Something enormous was pushing against reality itself.
The Guardian's expression darkened.
"They've found the Anchor."
Chen Yu looked confused.
"The Anchor?"
Orion walked toward the largest clock in the workshop.
It stood nearly twenty meters tall.
Its pendulum had never stopped moving.
"This workshop exists because of one object."
He rested his hand against the massive clock.
"The Anchor Clock."
"As long as it continues ticking..."
"...this place remains outside ordinary time."
"If it stops..."
The Guardian finished his sentence.
"The Workshop Between Moments disappears forever."
A deafening crack echoed outside.
A colossal black hand emerged from the darkness beyond the river of stars.
It wasn't fully inside reality.
Only its fingers had broken through.
Yet each finger was larger than a mountain.
Chen Yu instinctively stepped backward.
"What... is that?"
Orion sighed.
"A Void Sovereign."
"No."
He narrowed his eyes.
"One of their generals."
The black hand slowly reached toward the workshop.
Reality bent around it.
Several smaller clocks shattered instantly.
The Guardian clenched his fists.
"I'll stop it."
Orion gently shook his head.
"You no longer possess enough strength."
Lin Mo refused to stand still.
"There has to be something we can do."
Orion looked at him.
"There is."
"But once you choose..."
"...there is no returning."
Lin Mo didn't hesitate.
"I've already chosen."
Orion smiled.
"As expected."
He opened another compartment beneath the workbench.
Inside rested a beautifully crafted compass.
Unlike an ordinary compass, it had thirteen needles.
Each pointed in a different direction.
"This..."
"...is the **Chrono Compass**."
"It does not point north."
"It points toward destiny."
The moment Lin Mo accepted it—
The thirteen needles began spinning wildly.
Then...
Twelve of them stopped.
Each pointed toward a different place in the world.
One needle remained fixed.
It pointed toward Lin Mo himself.
Orion nodded.
"Each needle seeks an heir."
"When another awakens..."
"...the compass will guide you."
Suddenly—
One needle began glowing crimson.
Not silver.
Crimson.
The Guardian's face immediately changed.
"No..."
Orion slowly closed his eyes.
"We're too late."
Lin Mo looked between them.
"What does it mean?"
The old Clockmaker answered gravely.
"It means..."
"...one heir has already fallen."
A vision appeared above the compass.
A distant city beneath a crimson moon.
A young woman, perhaps seventeen years old, stood atop a ruined tower.
Around her neck hung a silver watch.
Blood stained her white robes.
She smiled despite her wounds.
Then...
A black spear pierced her chest.
Her watch cracked.
The silver light within it escaped into the sky.
The crimson needle on the compass stopped moving.
Forever.
The workshop became deathly quiet.
Chen Yu whispered,
"She..."
"...she died."
Orion nodded.
"Her fragment has returned to Time."
Lin Mo clenched the compass tightly.
He had never met her.
He didn't even know her name.
Yet the loss felt strangely personal.
One of the thirteen lights...
Had already gone out.
The Guardian stepped beside him.
"This is why the Eclipse Court hunts the heirs."
"They do not simply wish to kill them."
"They seek to gather every fragment."
Outside—
The black hand finally touched the barrier surrounding the workshop.
**CRACK!**
Golden light splintered across the sky.
The Anchor Clock slowed for the first time in countless ages.
Its steady rhythm faltered.
**Tick...**
...
**Tick...**
Orion looked toward Lin Mo.
"There is no more time."
"You must leave this place."
He pointed toward a doorway of light opening beside the workshop.
"It will return you to the cultivation world."
"The next heir..."
"...is waiting."
Lin Mo looked back one last time.
The peaceful workshop.
The endless clocks.
The Last Clockmaker.
He bowed deeply.
"I'll come back."
Orion smiled.
"I hope you do."
"But when we meet again..."
"...I fear the world will already be at war."
Lin Mo, Chen Yu, and Han Qiu stepped through the doorway.
As it closed behind them, Orion remained alone in the workshop.
He placed one hand upon the slowing Anchor Clock.
Then, looking into the darkness beyond the barrier, he whispered:
> "Come then."
> "If buying them more time requires my own..."
> "...I have never regretted the price."
The black hand descended.
The workshop disappeared in a blinding flash of golden and crimson light.