After leaving the Hoodway, the team crossed the threshold into a new world.
This world was unlike any other.
There were no cities… no sounds… not even wind.
It was a vast expanse of gray earth, punctuated by massive stone pillars that seemed like the remnants of an ancient civilization that had vanished thousands of years ago.
The threshold guardian stopped abruptly.
He spoke in a low voice they were unaccustomed to hearing from him:
"…This place."
Lloyd looked at him, puzzled.
"Do you know it?"
The guardian didn't answer directly.
He raised his hand, and ancient symbols glowed on his skin—symbols that had never been seen before.
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
"This isn't world energy," whispered Riorno. "This is memory energy."
The Guardian turned to them slowly, as if a heavy decision were being wrenched from within him:
"I've never told anyone this before…
Because… I didn't have the right to remember."
He paused, then said:
"I'm not a Guardian… in the way you think.
I'm… one of the Keys to the Worlds."
A City Without a Name
They moved toward the stone pillars, each step flashing with light as if the earth itself recognized them.
Before them lay the ruins of a circular city.
The Guardian said:
"Here began the First War…
Centuries before Zebra appeared."
Shira asked:
"War? Between whom?"
He answered:
"Between the Guardians… and the Star Makers."
Lloyd looked at him intently:
"And the Star Makers are…?"
The Guardian said:
"The entities that built the System of Worlds.
But they feared one thing…
That a creature would emerge that could break the system."
He raised his eyes to the empty sky:
"That creature… was a zebra."
The Forbidden Truth
They stopped at a massive, half-buried stone gate.
On its surface… the same mark the threshold guardian bore.
He said, his voice completely changed:
"They made us… the guardians…
to be living locks that prevent free movement between worlds."
"So you weren't born?" asked Riorno in astonishment.
"No," he replied. "We were formed from the energy of the thresholds themselves.
No childhood. No past. Not even a name."
He stepped forward and touched the gate.
Suddenly…
Scenes of light exploded around them—live memories.
They saw hundreds of guardians standing in rows.
Wearing the same cloak.
Bearing the same mark.
Without clear faces… without identities.
An ancient voice echoed in the void:
"You are not individuals… You are the function.
You are the balance.
You are the constraint."
Lloyd clenched his fist:
"This… is enslavement."
"We thought it was an honor," the Guardian replied calmly.
The Guardians Fall
The scene changed abruptly.
A shadowy figure appeared…
Black energy ripped through the sky.
"When Zebra appeared… he didn't attack the worlds," the Guardian said.
"He liberated us first."
Everyone was taken aback.
"He broke the system…
And gave the Guardians will for the first time."
"But… why did he become an enemy then?" Shira asked.
"Because after seeing the truth…
he decided the entire system had to be erased," the Guardian replied.
Why is Zebra after us?
"And what is your connection to him now?" Lloyd asked.
The Guardian closed his eyes.
"I am the last Guardian not fully freed."
He paused, then said,
"I still hold… the key to the original threshold."
The ground rose around them, and the pillars began to move.
"And Zebra is looking for me…
Because if he gets me…"
He opened his eyes, and for the first time, they were filled with fear:
"He will be able to open all the worlds… in a single moment."
The First Test of the Past
Suddenly, gigantic stone entities formed around them.
Not monsters…
But unconscious, ancient Guardians, moving according to ancient, unbroken commands.
"These are remnants of the old order…
They consider me a flaw that must be fixed."
Lloyd smiled faintly and raised his sword:
"Then… we will prove to them that Guardians can choose their own destiny."
Ryorno unleashed a dark flame that swirled around them.
Shira advanced, the star energy taking shape firmly in her hands for the first time.
The threshold guardian stood between them…
Not as a constraint.
But as a companion.
He said,
"This…is the first battle I've fought of my own volition."