A great, unending void, darker than the night sky, swallowed everything beyond the line. It was a sight unlike anything August had ever seen in the ga.
---
System Notification:
[ WARNING! You have entered the Borders of Slveryin Continent ]
-A region of imnse magical significance. Proceed with caution.
---
August scanned his surroundings and realization struck.
He knew this place.
His eyes snapped to the right, following the outline of a tall fortress built atop a plateau.
A massive dragon lay curled around its peak with its silver scales reflecting the distant light.
It was the Silver Sentinel's Domain.
August exhaled sharply. "You've gotta be kidding ."
Sir Dumblore rubbed his temples and let out a low groan. "Aye… looks like this is where the rift brought us, lad."
The old forger's gaze traced the dark divide that separated the continent from whatever lay beyond. Even he seed unnerved by it.
August turned to him. "What exactly is beyond that line?"
Sir Dumblore shook his head. "Nothing we should concern ourselves with right now."
August narrowed his eyes but didn't push further. There were far more pressing matters at hand.
Without another word, the two moved toward the fortress, stepping onto the smoothly paved black stones leading up to the entrance.
The mont they approached, the elongated dark gates groaned open, as if expecting them.
They entered.
---
The grand hall was exactly as August rembered—the high, vaulted ceiling lined with banners of forgotten wars, the stone walls carved with glowing runes, and the massive silver seat, sitting at the far end.
And then he saw sothing that had him taken aback...
...He saw himself.
Another August stood there, dressed identically in his dark assassin's gear, standing before the Silver Sentinel.
The armored warrior, still clad in his full silver battle regalia, was speaking to the other August.
His deep voice echoed through the chamber.
"Sir Dumblore has gone missing. I need you to find him before it is too late."
August froze in place upon witnessing this. His stomach twisted in knots.
'What. The. Hell.'
Sir Dumblore stopped beside him as his brows furrowed. "Lad… tell you're seeing this too."
Before August could respond, the Silver Sentinel turned his head sharply, locking onto them with his piercing gaze.
The other August flickered like a mirage—then vanished entirely.*
A cold silence settled in the chamber.
The Silver Sentinel rose from his seat as the massive dragon behind him stirred.
Its golden eyes locked onto August and Sir Dumblore as well.
"You already did it?" His deep voice carried a tone of disbelief. "You already saved Sir Dumblore?"
August exchanged a bewildered glance with Sir Dumblore.
"Wait, what?"
The Silver Sentinel's armor clanked as he took a step forward. "This shouldn't be possible."
Sir Dumblore stroked his beard. "Ahh…" His voice was slow as a look of realization dawned in his eyes. "It was the rift."
August snapped his head toward him. "What do you an, 'It was the rift'?"
The old man sighed heavily. "Temporal shifts, lad. The rifts don't only bear the capability to displace people across space… on rare occasions, it can displace people across ti as well."
August stared at him. "You're saying we ti-traveled?!"
The Silver Sentinel nodded. "If you already saved Dumblore, then that ans… you have already accepted the quest to save him."
August shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around this. "But that's impossible! I already did it, so how can I still accept it?"
Sir Dumblore chuckled bitterly. "Because ti isn't linear when it cos to unstable rifts."
The realization hit August like a truck.
The other August wasn't an illusion. It was him from before.
A version of him that was about to accept the quest.
And now… he was back here before he had even taken it.
---
System Notification:
[ Temporal Rift Disturbance Detected! ]
-You have traveled to a mont in ti before you accepted your last mission. This may lead to paradoxical consequences.
---
August let out a slow exhale while gripping the bridge of his nose.
Continue your saga on My Virtual Library Empire
"Alright. This is officially the weirdest thing that's ever happened to ."
The Silver Sentinel's gaze remained sharp beneath his helt. "The rifts are more unstable than I feared. If you have already completed this quest, then we must assu the past and present are now overlapping. Ti is unraveling."
August stood with his arms crossed and his brows furrowed in deep thought.
Sir Dumblore sat on a stone bench nearby, stroking his beard thoughtfully, while the Silver Sentinel stood by the side.
"So, let get this straight," August muttered while pacing. "The rift didn't just toss us back in ti—it changed the flow of ti itself."
Sir Dumblore nodded. "Temporal rifts are unpredictable. They don't just affect the tiline of one place… sotis, they ripple outward."
The Silver Sentinel's booming voice echoed through the hall. "The question isn't *if* sothing changed, but *what* has changed."
A myriad of thoughts raced through August's mind. 'Did freeing the Monarch still happen? If the tiline had reset, did that an she was still trapped in the Hollow Dusk? Or had his actions already set things in motion that couldn't be undone?'
His system notification chi suddenly pulled him from his thoughts.
---
[Party Chat Notification]
Gregarious: "Lord Aleman! Where are you? We're already at the Golden Flask tavern in Tagharium. Don't tell you're sleeping!"
Boris: "Oi, you said you were here but you are nowhere in sight. We're waiting!"
Ezran: "Don't be late like last ti. Gregarious is already trying to drink the tavern dry."
---
August's eyes widened.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
He vividly rembered this. It was the exact sa ssage they'd sent him after he suddenly got teleported to the Silver Sentinel's fortress.
He hadn't accepted the mission with the Silver Sentinel yet and he had left to begin the quest to find Sir Dumblore because it was only after he left that he ssaged them saying he was on a mission.
His pulse quickened. "No way… this already happened."
Sir Dumblore glanced up. "What's wrong, lad?"
August didn't answer.
"Wait… they're real players. The rift shouldn't have affected them, right? This was just part of the ga's storyline… right?"
But sothing didn't add up.
He needed answers. Real-world answers.
Without another word, August logged out.
---
---
The familiar cool air of his apartnt greeted him as he erged from the pod. The faint sound of electronics buzzed softly in the background as he stumbled out of the gaming pod.
Sophia was sitting at the dining table with her textbooks spread out in front of her, and a cup of coffee steaming beside her. She looked up in confusion and surprise as August walked into the living room.
"You're already out?" she questioned while raising an eyebrow. "Didn't you just start playing?"
August blinked. "What…? No, I've been in the ga for almost six days which should an over two days in reality."
Sophia snorted. "Uh, what? You've been in there for like… I don't know, a few hours?"
His chest tightened. "What day is it?"
She gave him an odd look. "Tuesday."
August's breath caught. "No. That's impossible."
He stumbled toward the clock on the wall. **2:07 AM.**
But that couldn't be right. He'd logged in late Monday night. After everything—the mission, the Hollow Dusk, the battles, the escape, the ti rift—it should be Thursday by now.
"No… no, no, no." He voiced in disbelief as he grabbed his phone to check the date. **Tuesday. 2:07 AM.**
His knees felt weak, and he sat on the couch, staring at nothing in particular.
Sophia set her mug down and walked over, crossing her arms. "Are you okay? You're acting weird."
August stared at her. "Sophia, listen to . I swear I was in the ga for days. I fought, I leveled up—I even completed a B-ranked quest."
She frowned."Maybe you dread it?"
"No!" August stated. "I have the rewards. The EXP. The system logs. It all happened."
Sophia's expression shifted from confusion to concern. "Are you sure you're okay? Like, ntally? Maybe take a break from the ga for a bit."
August didn't respond. He stord back to his room and connected the gaming pod to his laptop, accessing his Enders Light account logs.
There it was.
- B-Ranked Quest Completed: "Rescue Sir Dumblore"
- EXP Gained: 582,000
- New Items Added: [Arcane Beacon Shard], [Elven Relic], [Gold Treasure Chest]
It was real.
He stared at the screen as his heart pounded with both exhilaration and horror. "What the hell is happening?"
August clenched his fists.
"The rift propelling us back in ti also affected reality..."
This should have been impossible but could one really question what should be possible with a ga like Enders Light that could give real-life supernatural abilities?
...
August soon materialized back into the world of Enders Light, reappearing within the Silver Sentinel's domain.
The chilling realization from the real world lingered in the back of his mind—ti manipulation, real-world consequences, and dinsional rifts.
It was overwhelming, but he shoved those thoughts aside.
'Focus.'
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