Chapter 140: Temporal Pursuit

As the celestial energies mingled with Earth's fabric, the world's most secure channels started receiving fragmented transmissions. These signals, initially dismissed as anomalies, soon became a focal point for earthly intelligence agencies. They contained patterns and whispers that seemed to allude to the location of the missing artifact piece. The resonance wasn't just of space but of time - it carried the weight and wisdom of Antiquity.

Major powers had long been experimenting with the possibility of time travel. Quantum physicists from the U.S., Russia, and their allies had, in deep secrecy, developed a prototype of a Temporal Displacement Module (TDM). It was still in its experimental stages, but the urgency of the situation called for risks. A select team of agents, historians, and scientists were quickly assembled and briefed on their mission: to travel back in time, find the artifact piece, and, most crucially, ensure the stability of the time continuum.

Vira, sensing the dist