The Body That No Longer Belonged to Its Owner
After Seran disappeared, the next passage slowly opened, but this time their crossing was anything but ordinary.
They didn't feel as though they had stepped through a world…
Rather, they felt as though they had fallen into a memory that wasn't theirs.
The ground beneath them was black and shiny, as if made of molten glass.
And in the sky… there were no stars, only fragments of images moving slowly, like old recordings.
The gatekeeper stopped abruptly.
He said in a strained voice they had never heard from him before:
"This place… is not a world.
It's an archive."
"An archive of what?" Shira asked.
"An archive of… the experiments that preceded the collapse of the regime."
The First Appearance of Truth
Suddenly, a fragment of light began to descend before them.
It transformed into a vivid scene:
A vast laboratory.
Energy circuits.
Bodies preserved within transparent columns.
Lloyd froze.
Because he saw… a face he knew.
Argon's face.
But not as others knew him.
He wasn't a fighter… he was stretched out, surrounded by energy chains, his body covered in the marks of reconstruction.
"This isn't healing… this is deconstruction!" said Riorno in astonishment.
"No… this is existential reconstruction," replied the threshold guardian.
The Recording
A voice emanated from within the archive, like a message preserved long ago:
"Subject: Entity Argon. Condition: Body completely shattered after exposure to Interstellar energy. Decision: Cannot be salvaged… but the structure can be reused."
Lloyd clenched his fist without realizing it.
The voice continued:
"The body has been chosen as a vessel for Project: Recreating an entity capable of transcending the laws of worlds. Project new name: Zebra."
Silence fell.
Shira whispered,
"I mean…"
But Lloyd finished the sentence in a low voice:
"Zebra… wasn't someone else."
The Whole Truth
Additional scenes appeared.
Argon wasn't alive when the project began.
He was a broken, unconscious body.
The scientists—the architects of the system—tried to create an entity that could repair the flaws that had begun to appear in the universe.
But the experiment went awry.
Instead of becoming a guardian of the system…
The new entity awoke with a completely different consciousness.
A consciousness that saw everything:
How worlds are created.
How they are erased.
How beings are bound within laws they didn't choose.
And… rebelled.
Why doesn't Lloyd know?
"If this was his father's body… why doesn't Lloyd feel any connection?" asked Riorno.
"Because Zebra didn't inherit his memory," replied the threshold guardian.
"He only used the structure… but the consciousness within him is something else." He added:
"You could say that Lloyd's father... died.
But his body became the beginning of a new existence."
The Moment of Inner Conflict
Lloyd didn't get angry.
He didn't shout.
He just stood looking at the scenes in long silence.
Then he said:
"So I'm not fighting my father...
nor am I avenging him."
He looked into the void where the image of Zebra formed from energy appeared.
"I'm fighting the entity that used his death as a beginning."
The Hidden Message
Before the archive disappeared, a final flash appeared... it wasn't part of the recording.
It was a short message... unsigned.
"If his son ever arrives...
Tell him that will is not inherited through the body.
It is made through choice."
Shira asked:
"Who wrote this?"
But the gatekeeper didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
The Way Narrows
The archive began to collapse around them. The guard said,
"We've passed a point no one was supposed to reach.
From here on out… we're within Zebra's direct range."
A new passage opened before them.
It wasn't stable.
Or safe.
It pulsed… like a living thing.
Lloyd looked at it and said,
"So the end isn't far off."
Then he took the first step.