Shade and Iluna followed the downward-sloping corridor to its end, where they finally saw the crimson door that flowed with blood.
The metal door completely blocked the passage. The two halves clearly depicted the current map of the Material World, including the New Continent, Old Continent, and ocean.
The strange red color on the door's surface was not paint, but seemed to be the color of the metal itself. Blood constantly seeped from the metal and flowed to the ground. By the time Shade and Iluna arrived, the ground before the door had become a pool of blood.
The ends of roots protruded from the passage's walls, ceiling, and floor, embedding themselves in the door panels and merging metal with tree roots. The root patterns arched around the Material World map at the center of the door, yet also resembled roots extending from the void, peering into the world depicted on the map.
At that moment, eleven keys had already been inserted into the thirteen keyholes scattered across the door. Their handles were parallel to the ground, indicating that they had been turned.
"Look at where the keyholes are."
Iluna reminded him, and only then did Shade notice that six of the keyholes were located respectively at Tobesk City, Coldwater Port, Middlesburg, Pantanal Lake at the center of the Pantanal Swamp, Randall River Valley, and the present-day Green Lake Region.
"Do the keyholes corresponding to the keys symbolizing the Thirteen Chosen Ones all lie on the stages where their stories took place?"
The two examined the locations of the other seven keyholes, only to find that those keyholes did not foretell where the Chosen Ones yet to appear would emerge.
The first six keyholes had landed directly in the centers of their respective regions, making their locations very clear. The