Kael's breath steamed through the cold air as he climbed the last ridge.
The trail was barely a trail now—just jagged rocks and frozen ledges that had long since stopped welcoming travelers. Wind battered the cliffside, and snow swirled around him like falling ash. The higher he climbed, the quieter the world became.
Echo moved just ahead, graceful even on the sheer slope. Her fur shimmered beneath the grey sky, the crescent mark on her shoulder now fully visible even in shadow. It pulsed softly with every step.
He didn't speak.
Neither did she.
Words felt too loud.
They reached a plateau near the summit by mid-afternoon. Here, the wind died suddenly, as if the mountain itself was holding its breath.
A structure stood near the center of the flat.
Not a building. Not a ruin.
Just a single monolith.
Tall. Black. Smooth as glass, but clearly stone. It reflected nothing. The snow didn't stick to it. Even the cold seemed to pull away from its surface.
He stepped closer.
The air grew heavy.
Galen had drawn this exact shape in his journal dozens of times. Always from memory. Never from contact.
Now Kael stood before it.
And it was awake.
He placed one hand against the stone.
The world shifted.
Not violently. Not with force. But with recognition.
Like the monolith had been waiting for this specific touch.
His mind filled with whispers—not words, not even thoughts, but textures of memory. A storm. A child's cry. A battlefield with no enemies.
And then he heard it:
"She will remember what the world forgot."
Galen's voice.
Exactly as he'd heard it in the Pokégear.
But this time, it wasn't coming from the device.
It was coming from inside the monolith.
Kael pulled back, staggered.
Echo stood nearby, her eyes glowing with a light that wasn't silver anymore—it was blue, deep and slow like a glacier's heartbeat.
"This is the place," she said. "Where it touches through."
"Touches what?" he asked.
"Anything that listens too long."
He looked around. There was no sound. No Pokémon. Not even wind.
"Is this the Threshold?" he asked.
"No," she said. "It's the keyhole. The Threshold is you."
He stared at the monolith again.
"This is where he came, isn't it?" His voice cracked. "My father?"
Echo nodded. "And he asked the wrong question."
He stepped back to the center of the plateau and dropped his bag in the snow.
Then he pulled out Galen's Pokégear, journal, and the stone recorder from Yukari.
He wasn't going to climb anymore.
He was going to open.
"Tell me what I need to do," he whispered.
Echo walked to him, calm, quiet.
Then she turned her head toward the monolith.
The crescent mark on her fur began to glow brighter—until it flared into full light, and the ground beneath them trembled.
Not violently. Not destructively.
But like something was being unlocked.
The monolith changed.
Symbols appeared across its surface—Unown shapes, circular patterns, pieces of the seal from Yukari.
And one more.
The sun-split glyph.
❂
He stepped forward.
The monolith pulsed.
"You carry memory."
Another voice now.
Not Galen.
Not Echo.
Something older.
Something waiting.
"What you do with it… determines whether the world forgets again."
Kael clenched his fists. "I don't want to forget. I want to finish what he started."
"Then you must remember all of it. Even the parts that hurt."
He looked at Echo.
She gave a small nod. "We do this together."
He placed his palm back on the stone.
And the world split open.
Not in the sky.
Not in the earth.
Inside him.
Every moment of grief. Every choice not made. Every version of himself that could have turned back.
He saw them all.
And then he saw Galen—on his knees before the same stone, crying into snow, whispering Kael's name like a mantra.
And Amaranth, watching.
Not with malice.
With curiosity.
"You still carry him," the voice said. "But he can no longer carry you."
Kael's breath shook.
"I know."
"Then cross."
The light vanished.
The stone went dark.
And he collapsed to the snow, heart racing.
Echo stood beside him, calm but alert.
"You're still here," she said.
He nodded.
"What did you see?"
He looked toward the monolith. "Everything I didn't want to. But I didn't let it in."
Echo stepped closer. "Then the Threshold is open."
Kael exhaled, slow.
"So what's on the other side?"
She gave a small, quiet smile.
"Us."