The next gate wasn't stable.
When the gatekeeper reached out, the space didn't respond immediately.
Instead, the light shattered around him as if the place refused to open up.
Lloyd paused before crossing.
He asked quietly, but cautiously,
"This world... is different."
The gatekeeper replied without looking at him,
"Because it's a world that's no longer meant to exist."
The gate finally split open,
and the two of them entered.
A Colorless Sky
The first thing Lloyd felt...
was cold.
Not the coldness of the air,
but a bone-chilling cold,
as if life itself had withdrawn from the place.
The sky had no defined color,
not blue, not black,
but a pale gray layer,
split with faint lines of light,
like old wounds that hadn't healed.
The ground beneath their feet was solid,
but riddled with tiny cracks,
from which faint flashes of unstable energy emanated.
Lloyd looked around.
"I can't hear anything…"
The guard replied,
"Because this world lost its voice long ago."
The Ruins of a City That Doesn't Remember Its Inhabitants
They moved toward what seemed like a distant city.
The closer they got, the more it became clear that it was a dead city.
Leaning buildings, half-collapsed towers, and walls carved with symbols unlike any language Lloyd had ever known.
But the most terrifying thing…
was that the city hadn't been violently destroyed.
It was as if its inhabitants had vanished suddenly.
Lloyd stopped before a vast square,
in the center of which stood a huge statue.
The statue had no face.
"Even the gods here… have been erased," Lloyd said.
The guard nodded.
"This is a world that was directly interfered with by a forbidden energy… and then left to die slowly."
The First Movement
As they advanced, Lloyd felt something moving at the edge of his consciousness.
Not a sound.
Not a distinct energy.
But observation.
"We're not alone," he said softly.
The guard smiled faintly.
"Finally… you're starting to sense them."
And then—
the shadows moved.
They weren't complete beings,
but incomplete human forms,
fractured,
like the remains of people who hadn't fully disappeared.
One of them approached,
extended its deformed hand,
and from its mouth came a broken voice:
"...why…were we left…?"
Lloyd stiffened.
He didn't attack.
"Were…they human?" he asked.
"They were…and then they weren't," the guard replied coldly.
The Fight That Wasn't a Fight
The shadows surged forward all at once.
But she wasn't attacking randomly.
She moved slowly,
as if dragging heavy memories.
Lloyd moved.
He didn't use knockout blows,
but precise strikes that dismantled the forms,
returning them to static energy.
Each time he struck one,
he heard a whisper:
"Sorry…"
"Help us…"
He gritted his teeth.
He shouted:
"Stop!"
But they couldn't.
After a few minutes,
an eerie silence fell over the arena.
Lloyd was breathing slowly.
He asked the guard:
"Who did this?"
The guard hesitated for a moment.
Then he said:
"The constellation… was here."
The Trace
Deep within the city,
they found something different.
A symbol etched deep into the earth,
resembling a claw curling around a circle.
Lloyd froze.
He felt something familiar…
terrifyingly.
He said in a low voice,
"This trail…"
The guard continued,
"It belongs to Zebra."
Lloyd fell silent.
His heart felt heavy,
not with fear…
but with closeness.
He said,
"He passed by here."
The guard replied,
"He didn't just pass by… he left a message."
The Message
In an instant,
the air changed.
A visual distortion appeared in the void,
as if the world were restarting itself.
Then…
a shadow appeared.
Not a complete body,
but an incomplete form,
with a cracked white mask,
and a glowing red eye.
It wasn't actually there.
But a recording…
or an echo of will.
Lloyd stopped breathing.
The shadow said in a cold voice,
"If you see this… it means you've come close."
Lloyd clenched his fist.
"Lloyd Erker…"
Lloyd's eyes widened.
The Shadow continued:
"The worlds you pass through… are not random."
The Shadow took a step closer:
"I build your path… just as mine was built."
Then he smiled, a smile barely visible:
"Will you hate me… when you know the truth?"
And he vanished.
The Silence After the Storm
Lloyd remained standing,
unmoving.
He said finally:
"He knows me… better than I know myself."
The Guardian replied:
"Because you are both… the result of one thing."
Lloyd turned:
"Tell me."
The Guardian looked at him seriously:
"Not yet."
Then he added:
"If you knew now… you might break."
A long silence.
Then Lloyd said:
"Then take me to the next world."
The Guardian looked at the emptiness before them.
Another portal opened.
But this time…
The light inside was a deep red.
Narrator
In the world whose name he forgot,
Lloyd gained no answer,
but one certainty:
Zebra doesn't run…
It waits.