D'on's dojo was dark. The sun in that part of the world—wherever it was—was setting. There stood the master of Tempat Kediaman, unflinching, tall, with his bowler hat perfectly positioned, his checkered suit, and his pronounced nose. On the ground, Duncan was still trembling. He had spent the last four days locked up in there. His body was sweaty and covered in bruises, his clothes were torn, and his expression was one of utter exhaustion. For almost a hundred hours, Duma had been running, jumping, and dodging the blows D'on delivered. His newly self-proclaimed master had given him a heavy saber, a saber that repeatedly ended up in the air or on the ground under the old man's attacks. Duncan Engill had quickly learned the basics of fencing, developed a fairly clean combat technique, and acquired prudence and discipline. "Honestly, I'm good at this," the boy thought, but he was unable to even come close to scratching D'on's body. Days without rest, during which Dionisos Blackwood remained cold and distant. Hundreds of hours with barely any sleep or food, which made Duma feel every single muscle in his body as if they were about to explode. Yet, it wasn't his muscles that hurt the most; it was being disarmed, defenseless, humiliated over and over again, knowing that his best friend was in danger and he wasn't ready to help her in the slightest. His entire world had changed, had turned 180 degrees. Suddenly, nothing was what it seemed, and in a way, this awakened Duncan from the introspection and abstraction that had begun to invade him constantly. Until then, he had felt that Little Norburk was too small for him, but now... now he was tiny, a mere speck of dust in the new universe opening before his eyes. Tiny even in that dark dojo. And he still had one more day of training to go...

At that moment, the entrance door to the dojo, located at the Shimoza, opened, and Marduk appeared on the other side. Duncan, from the floor, turned to look at him. Marduk approached D'on and knelt beside Duncan. Upon seeing the state he was in, his body shuddered.

"Did you want to see me, sir?" Marduk asked, not taking his eyes off Duncan.

"Indeed. I wanted you to share Duncan's final lesson because it will be something different and appreciated by both of you. Through what I'm about to tell you, I want you to understand the dangers you will face on the other side of the Threshold."

"You mean... will you finally be able to open the Threshold?"

"Do you doubt my abilities, young Marduk? Of course, I will open it, and of course, you will cross it. But all in due time, all in due time... What do you know about the Great War that ravaged Xolohm?"

"Well," Duncan replied, "during my lessons with Genesis, I learned that there was a war between two races in your world and that the Thresholds had something to do with it. I also know that my grandparents fled from there with the trikey to prevent conflicts like that from happening again."

"Mmm... that's true. I myself opened the way for them to this world. However, there is much more to tell. Events that led to the Great War, the opening of the thresholds, and the creation of the Akatay," D'on said, as the boys looked at him eagerly. "Now listen to my words, listen to D'on Hortale, brother of the elves, son of the Akatay..."

D'on approached the boys. Then, his eyes began to glow, and everything around Marduk and Duncan faded into a blinding beam of light. There was nothing beyond the void... they weren't even aware of their bodies. Had they become some form of energy? Duncan wondered. Had they left their bodies behind? In some way, it seemed so, for suddenly, they found themselves transported to another place, another landscape, more beautiful than they had ever experienced. Before them stretched barren and infinite fields, and above them, a vast mass of rock floated half a mile above the surface. From it protruded hundreds of thick roots from a gigantic tree, and dozens of waterfalls cascaded down, turning to mist before touching the ground. In the sky, like a crown for the entire landscape, hung a black moon. D'on's voice echoed everywhere and nowhere:

"Our ancestors Ru'Sil and Altair, the eldest of the first house, Kybalon, tell that in the beginning, only the Great Yggdrasil existed. It had found as its dwelling the fertile lands of Edden, the floating island home of the Shitennou, the First Ones.

Three Shitennou inhabited Edden, each a bearer of a trikey capable of wielding the power of the island: 'Three shall be the parts of the trikey, one for the winged, another for the dark, and the third shall forever belong to the dragons of Xolohm.'

On the island, the boys—or rather, their consciousnesses—could see three peculiar beings. One of them, whose face they couldn't see, had enormous silver wings that covered almost his entire body; another was a yellowish figure with hair and eyes as black as night; and the third, a massive beast, a dragon... with a single horn. Duncan recalled the fresco he had seen on the ceiling of the library he visited with Genesis: winged figures battling strange yellowish demons, and among them, elves, fairies... and in the center of all that commotion, a gigantic tree and a majestic city located on the surface of what seemed to be a floating island...

D'on continued his story.

"The first Nith-haiah, 'Lord of Wisdom and the Skies,' the first Zan-ei, 'the Creator in the Shadows,' and the first of the Der-Zein, 'the Dragon,' the guardian beast of Edden. The three lived in peace. The three fulfilled their mission as creators of worlds, as givers of life across each of the eleven dimensions that make up the universe.

Soon, they chose one of these dimensions, much later named Xolohm, and populated it with their children, beings designed in their image. After that act, only the Der-Zein remained in Edden, while Nith-haiah and Zan-ei decided to descend to the new world and create the sacred cities of Lagohan and Umbra.

However, the lords of the skies, the masters of the shadows, and the guardian beasts did not remain alone for long. Life continued its unstoppable path, and before long, elves and trolls, vroloks and lycans, giants, fairies, humans, animals, plants... an infinity of creatures emerged across Xolohm.

Suddenly, the lands over which that gigantic island floated changed, filled with life, activity, forests, villages, and cities. Duncan and Marduk witnessed in seconds what seemed like centuries of evolution and the development of civilizations.

"This moment was known as 'The First Ignition,' and with it began the dynasty of the elves over the primordial lands of Elysian. So was called our capital, built beneath the Great Yggdrasil and the floating island of Edden, which radiated life to our world.

For a thousand years, the elves, worshippers of the Nith-haiah, reigned over Xolohm. Our power extended far and wide across its geography.

Then, darkness came. Morke came.

As far as their eyes could see, the teenagers saw vast green areas, populated villages, and at the center of it all, a gigantic city-palace hundreds of meters tall, built with diamond-like materials that reflected everything around Elysian. Suddenly, a shadow covered everything...

...The balance of Xolohm was broken when Morke, leader of the Zan-ei, the reincarnated evil, began to speculate with the idea of using the power of Edden. Apparently, for some reason, Morke wanted to gain control of the eleven dimensions, to reshape them, and to do so, he tasked the Zan-ei with building a device that would allow him to travel to the different planes of existence. They called it 'Infinite Gates,' but to make it work, it required an immense amount of pure power that only the floating island of Edden could provide.

Thus began the Great War. Lagohan, land of the Nith-haiah, was attacked by Morke, who was soon joined by races such as goblins, orcs, and giants. The winged Nith-haiah reinforced their alliances with the species they considered the most powerful, ours, the Alfaen. Thus, they created the protective army of Lagohan: 'The Sky Dwellers,' the elite elven guard.

Eventually, Elysian, our capital, the pride of our civilization, fell. We sought help from the winged Nith-haiah, but they, not considering themselves warriors, abandoned the elves. In the place that once held our capital, the Zan-ei built the Infinite Gates.

At that very moment, Duncan and Marduk found themselves in the midst of a fierce battle, witnessing firsthand how hundreds of creatures launched themselves against the city of Elysian and how it was destroyed, with the elves inhabiting it powerless to stop it. Later, a gigantic stone portal, adorned with thousands of strange and gloomy motifs, was erected in its place.

Then HE appeared, Aniol. Few know under what circumstances he arrived, who he was, what he was, or where he came from. Our elders considered him the chosen one who would end the Great War.

Amid the shadows of what was once a metropolis, a being appeared, a young man with tattooed skin. Duncan tried to focus more on him. However, the torrent of images that D'on's mind projected was diffuse and constantly changing, making it difficult to focus on details.

"Morke would remember, however, that to conquer the power of Edden, a key was needed, or rather, the three parts that made up that artifact, the trikeys of the Shitennou. Only the barrier of the dragons remained. They were the third pillar of power, the third race responsible for maintaining balance. A barrier that would have been impenetrable had all the Der-Zein followed their leader, Indrik the one-horned dragon, and not yielded to the dark Zan-ei and their promises of power.

For his part, Aniol was assembling his own army. Knowing of the existence of the trikeys, he went in search of them. Now, each faction possessed a piece: the Zan-ei had Morke's, Aniol and his group had the dragon Indrik's. The third part remained, belonging to the third Shitennou, the first Nith-haiah, who, frightened, locked himself in the very heart of Yggdrasil.

There, the final battle took place...

Little is known of what happened on the island, only that the one known as Aniol managed to triumph, but at what cost? Edden was devastated, Yggdrasil weakened, and the Infinite Gates opened uncontrollably, unleashing vast amounts of energy and destroying everything around.

At that moment, the teenagers witnessed a massive explosion that wiped out everything near the enigmatic island.

"With that, the Great War of Edden came to an end. Morke had been defeated. Nothing more was heard of Aniol. It is said that to contain the explosion, he absorbed the power of the Infinite Gates with the help of the first Nith-haiah. Both disappeared forever.

The Gates were sealed, and the trikeys became the property of those who founded the Order of the Akatay, wise men and warriors of various races who would dedicate themselves to safeguarding space-time and studying and controlling the thresholds.

Centuries later, one of these trikeys would disappear again, and the Akatay would lose their power. Their fate, you already know. The problem? Those of us who stole it were forced to use a one-way path, a path that left no trace. Now, those of us who once belonged to Xolohm can never return.

Suddenly, the two young men felt their bodies again, ceased to be pure energy, and became matter. They felt they had limbs, a torso, a head... eyes... eyes that no longer saw D'on's dojo around them, but a small clearing that seemed to be surrounded entirely by water. Likewise, Duncan seemed to be in much better shape, and the boys' clothes had changed. Their pants looked brand new, and their shirts had been replaced by some sort of white sweatshirts with an intricate black tree embroidered on the chest.

"What's the moral of this story?" D'on asked. "Well, aside from getting to know a little about the history of the place you're headed, I wanted you to see what Morke tried to do."

"Are you referring to creating the Thresholds?" Duncan asked.

"I'm referring to linking the dimensions. The paths already existed. Morke knew this and only wanted to figure out how to control them. You see, there are two types of dimensional portals: the artificial ones, like the Thresholds or the Infinite Gates, and the natural ones like the one through which your relatives and I returned long ago with the stolen trikey. While the latter are inherent to nature and their very instability makes them unpredictable, the artificial ones, being constructed by intelligent beings, are always available. The natural ones are one-way only; the artificial ones allow you to come and go at will."

The teenagers' faces were a true reflection of their confusion. Duncan thought he was beginning to understand a bit of D'on's words and recalled the class Professor Atkins had given them on a distant Tuesday; the multiple big bang, the interdimensional quantum holes... For his part, Marduk had just noticed the new sweatshirts they were wearing and the black tree emblem as a sort of banner.

"Nice, isn't it?" D'on commented upon seeing that the boys weren't paying much attention to him. "It occurred to me on the fly: the tree, the black wood... Blackwood... it's a good logo."

"Where are we?" Marduk ventured to ask, still disoriented by the brief astral journey they had just experienced.

"As I already told you, there are natural doors that connect our dimensions... and others that aren't so natural. Well, currently we're on the island of Keros, in the middle of the Devil's Triangle, or the Bermuda Triangle, as it's known in this world. This is a particular place because here, the fabric of reality seems thinner than usual. That's why I've spent a few hundred years working on... this."