The Tenth Gate – The Core Barrier
When Adam stood before the tenth gate, he noticed for the first time that this gate had no fixed form.It pulsed and rippled as if it were a colossal heart, pumping gray light into the surrounding void.
The gate did not open… it split into a fissure.And with that rupture, a current of strange presence overwhelmed him.
He stepped forward… then felt every nerve tremble, not from pain but from the deep awareness that he was finally completely exposed.There was no longer any layer protecting his body or his consciousness.It was as if this gate stripped bare his original core, dissolving every surface identity.
And the moment he crossed through, the scene manifested:
A world that was neither black nor white, but a gray misty expanse without limits.No ground.No sky.Only essence.
Then a being appeared… no longer resembling him this time.It was a distorted image of Adam, but with a single eye in the center of its forehead, opening and closing, blinking slowly.Its skin was covered in glowing lines like electric circuits.
The entity stretched its arm, and its voice came out in three overlapping tones:
"Welcome… to the penultimate threshold.You have now lost half of your human structure.What remains of you to offer?"
Adam did not answer immediately.His lips trembled, but his voice came out steady:
"If what remains is the core… then I will give it."
The entity laughed with a strange echo.Then it pointed to the sky, and above them an enormous beam of light burst and began descending.
"Here you will face what you never knew was dwelling inside you:
Your fear of vanishing.
Your fear of having no story left.
Your fear that everything you endured had no meaning."
The light drew closer, and when it touched his crown, he felt himself sinking deeper than ever before.His body did not move, but his awareness was being pressed, fragmented, and shredded…
(I… I don't know if I'm even me anymore.)
Then his inner voice faded, and his thoughts turned to mist.The last thing he saw was that single eye staring at him mercilessly, as though recording every shard of his being.
A time beyond measure passed.
And when the light finally began to dissipate, Adam realized he felt no fear, no hatred, no curiosity.Only a soft emptiness… as if nothing mattered.
Then he heard the entity's final words:
"If you still have courage… then pass into the eleventh gate.If not… this will be your last grave."
And as the ground split beneath his feet, a new passage opened:
The Eleventh Gate.
The Eleventh Gate – The End of the Core
When Adam stood before it, this gate was not a door.It had no form.No boundary.
It was pure nothingness.A patch where neither light nor shadow existed.An absolute void that swallowed all meaning.
He took a single step, and even the echo of his footstep vanished.He could no longer hear his heartbeat.He could no longer hear his breath.
Then it seemed to him that he was floating inside a vast womb…Containing nothing but nothingness.
An immeasurable time passed before a non-human voice emerged, low yet encompassing:
"You have arrived… you who bear the number 17772458 across history.This gate is not a test of strength.It is a test of being."
He did not fully understand, but deep inside he felt a coldness, as though his heart had turned to stone.
(A test of being…?)
The voice added, as if answering his thought:
"All who have come here… lost something that never returned.Some lost their bodies.Some lost their minds.Some lost their hearts."
Here, a creature manifested before him:It had no definite shape — a whirlpool of fragments of the faces and voices Adam had known in his short life.
Mary's face, as she lay dying.Neil's face, smiling in indifference.Christa's face, wiping her tears.André's face, not even looking at him.Even the Masked One's face, fading into shadows.
All of them merged into a flickering mirror.
Adam felt his being torn at the edges of perception.He no longer knew if he was a boy… or just an idea.
(I… I'm not even sure I'm alive anymore.)
He couldn't scream, but his mind still worked.He refused to vanish without resistance.
(If I'm no longer me… if everything is meaningless… then what do I have left?)
The answer came without sound:
"Nothing."
And only then did something deep inside him shatter:The part that pretended to care.The part that pretended to hate.The part that pretended to want anything at all.
Everything broke into gray shards.
Then… in the heart of that void, he glimpsed a tiny speck of black light.Faint… but it did not vanish.
He approached it — or perhaps it approached him — until he felt it touch his forehead.
And in that moment, he knew:
(This is it… this is what remains of me.Something small… indescribable.But it is… me.)
He did not feel victory.He did not feel defeat.
He only felt that he had passed.And that he would never be the same again.
The voice whispered one last time, neutral and cold:
"You have crossed.Welcome… to what lies beyond the gates."
And then the void closed around him…
…as a new world opened.
The World Beyond the Gates
When the darkness dissolved, Adam was no longer standing on solid ground.He felt as if he floated above a clear sea, its surface reflecting an endless sky of slowly rotating geometric forms:Polygons, circles, lines, all glowing in colors beyond naming.
(…This is not a familiar world.)
Then he heard footsteps.A woman approached.
She was beautiful in a way hard to describe, as if her features were designed to combine the tenderness of a human with the majesty of something older than creation.Her hair was long, streaming behind her like strands of living light.Her eyes were silver… yet every time he blinked, he saw them in a different color.
She wore a white gown that flowed around her without wind, as if it were an extension of her body.Every step she took made the world itself tremble.
She stopped a few paces away.Her voice was calm… but every word made his heart pound with primal fear:
"You are the Wanderer number 17772458.You… who have crossed the eleven gates.Few have ever seen my face."
"Each person has their own gates, their number tied to their identity.Many have died — perhaps even your friends — as they entered this realm.Some passed a few gates and survived.But you… you are an exception.You crossed… until you reached me."
She raised her hand gently, and the geometric shapes in the sky moved as if obeying her:Triangles contracted.Circles widened.Lines interlocked, forming ancient symbols.
"I… am the Guardian of the Transparent World.My name cannot be spoken — only felt."
She almost said more, but Adam felt his heartbeat slowing, as though he was about to lose consciousness.He sensed that her very existence was heavier than he could bear.
She smiled gently, with neither pity nor cruelty:
"Maintain your balance.Here… the laws are not your laws.I am the one who rules nature's laws in this place."
With a flick of her finger, the ground beneath him turned into a transparent glass surface, showing beneath it layers of interwoven miniature universes.
"Here… every possibility emerges and vanishes.Every thought turns to matter.Every emotion may kill you… or free you."
She stepped closer, until her eyes pierced through him:
"Why have you come, Adam Ethan?What do you think you will find… at the end?"
But he did not answer.Even a single word felt like unbearable weight pressing his chest.
She raised her hand again, and one of the glowing small gates appeared around him.Then she whispered in a voice that shook his heart:
"Choose… either return to what you were…or go beyond all return."
A Choice Beyond All Return
For several seconds, Adam stared at the small luminous gates surrounding him.Her words echoed in his head:
"Choose… either return to what you were… or go beyond all return."
He could have turned back.Withdrawn, considered it all just a long dream, or a harsh trial that would never truly mark him.But he felt an inner current, a cold stream running through his spine, telling him that retreat would change nothing.
He slowly raised his head:
"I will go on."
A faint tremor ran through the glassy ground.His eyes met hers, silver turning now to a shade between green and gold.
Lily Rhys tilted her head slightly, as if trying to discern something in his face:
"So be it.Do you know that fewer than three hundred among millions who reached this threshold… chose never to return?"
"It doesn't matter."His voice was quiet, but steady."Everything behind me… is not worth going back to."
For a moment, she said nothing.Then the glowing gates dissolved, leaving only her, wrapped in strange white light.
"My name… is Lily Rhys."Her tone wavered between echo and whisper:"I came here a hundred and fifty-seven years ago.Like you, I thought I was searching for a meaning I could not find in my world."
A silence passed…Then she smiled faintly:
"Strange circumstances… made me trust this void.Little by little… I became part of its laws.And one day… when the Guardian before me vanished, I realized… I was the one who would succeed her."
She stepped forward.Her white gown cascaded over the transparent layers, as if melting into them.
"But even this… is not eternal."She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them with a deep gaze:"A day will come… when I must leave this place.There is an enemy… more terrible than anything humanity has ever faced.It will force me to return."
Adam did not respond.He felt like he was staring at a being belonging to no time, no boundaries.And yet, there was something transparent in her… something like his loneliness.
"What will you do here?"Her voice softened, as if she were asking a casual question on a summer walk:"If you choose to go on… you will not return as you came.You will not even remain as you are now.What do you want… Adam Ethan?"
He answered in a voice that seemed not only his own:
"I want… to know how far I can go… without regret."
She slowly lifted her head.An unseen breeze stirred her long hair.And despite the majesty surrounding her, her gaze was not sharp… it was as though she saw a small boy far away.
"So be it."She smiled again, with a smile beyond classification."This calm… is the calm before the storm.I hope you do not forget that."
A long silence stretched between them.Only the dripping blue glow from the ceiling of the endless void remained.
Then she raised her hand, forming a circle of light between them, pulsing slowly like a beating heart:
"Enter this gate.After it… I will no longer intervene in your affairs.You will be free… or destroyed.But… if we meet one day in the outer world… I hope you are ready to face the nameless enemy."
Adam gazed at her for a long while.And though he wished to ask many questions, not one seemed important enough.
He stepped forward.