Unfortunately, all of that had turned to dust. The brilliant mind was dead, and somehow the mediocre one was still standing.
Thea had rallied a group of heroes and hacked Krona to death in pitched combat. She was critically injured, a whole slew of heroes were critically injured, and in Ganthet's view, that was perfectly expected. It would've been stranger if they'd walked away unscathed.
According to Kyle's account, he'd handled each of the rings himself, but none had yielded anything of note.
"Kyle Rayner, why do these revelations only respond to you? Do you know the reason?" Ganthet asked.
The green ring on Kyle's finger was one Ganthet had forged for himself. Kyle naturally held goodwill toward the old Guardian and answered without hesitation.
"Because I possess all seven emotions." He gave a brief summary of how Thea had trained him.
"I see... so the goddess trained you as a White Lantern candidate." Ganthet considered this for a moment. "This crisis is severe. I need to return to Oa and review some historical records. Somewhere in my memory, someone mentioned something about an Emotional Spectrum Reservoir..."
In truth, he'd already recalled it. The "reservoir" was Krona's theory, but his colleagues at the time had scoffed at the idea. Emotions had a reservoir? Absurd.
He left Saint Walker to guard the Emotional Entities and gave Mogo explicit instructions before departing: no one—absolutely no one—was to take the Entities, no matter who came asking. Still smarting from his previous mistake, the living planet agreed without a moment's hesitation.
Unlike the eight Templar Guardians, Ganthet had lived on Oa for billions of years. The planet's defenses might as well not exist for him. He left Kyle Rayner waiting outside and walked straight into the Guardians' council chamber.
Ganthet, Sayd, and the eight Templar Guardians—the number of little blue Guardians had crept back into double digits, though the bonds between them were tissue-thin. There was no joy of old comrades reuniting.
"I thought you'd already left the Green Lantern Corps?" The bearded Guardian had apparently established himself as leader among the group and naturally didn't welcome anyone who might dilute his authority.
"Another crisis is coming. Which of you is capable of leading through it? Hmph!" Ganthet ignored them entirely. Everything fell to him in the end. He began pulling up Oa's historical archives.
Somewhere in that ocean of records, he needed to find Krona's original research on the Emotional Spectrum.
What is the core of emotional energy? He quickly located a set of notes: pages upon pages of text that ultimately said nothing of substance. Krona himself hadn't figured out what emotions actually were. Ganthet flipped through it and marked it with an X.
He picked up another file—an experimental log.
If green light is overused, it may cause a corresponding counter-emotion to proliferate across the universe. Krona had theorized it would be fear: the more the Green Lantern Corps wielded their rings, the more fear would breed throughout the cosmos—like a scale tipping. Press one side down, and the other rises.
The analysis was sound and methodical, but no one had cared about Krona's theories back then. The Sinestro Corps had been around for years now. Too little, too late. Ganthet marked another X.
He pulled up one more document—a draft Krona had written before his exile: Emotions are tangible, physical manifestations. They have substance and form. They are a resource, and they are not infinite. The handwriting grew blurry after that; Krona himself hadn't been entirely certain. At least, not at the time.
Before Kyle had come to him today, Ganthet had been only half-convinced. But now, between Kyle's inexplicable revelations and Krona's research, the evidence pointed toward the Emotional Spectrum Reservoir being real.
He shared his findings with his former colleagues.
"Impossible. Is there anywhere in this universe we haven't set foot? I refuse to believe in some 'emotion reservoir,' and the idea that it's running dry and about to explode? Ridiculous. I don't buy it." The bearded Guardian shook his head emphatically.
The remaining seven were split—some convinced, some skeptical. The chamber devolved into something resembling a marketplace.
Ganthet was equally lost. He'd pressed Kyle multiple times: where was this reservoir? But Kyle didn't know either.
Sayd was more perceptive. After careful thought, something clicked. She leaned in and whispered to Ganthet, "Could it be behind that wall? That's the one place we've never explored."
Wall? Ganthet didn't understand at first. Then it hit him like a bolt of lightning, and long-buried memories flooded back. He remembered standing alongside Krona before the Source Wall. They'd been young then—members of the universe's oldest race, formidable beyond measure. Yet even Krona, whose intellect was unmatched in all of history, had been humbled before that wall. It defied scientific analysis. For the first time in his life, Ganthet had seen shock and bewilderment on Krona's face.
It was after that visit that Krona's research grew increasingly radical, increasingly obsessive. He built the cosmic probe, observed the Hand of Creation, and gave rise to the multiverse. All of it traced back to the Source Wall.
Instinct told Ganthet that the Source Wall, the Emotional Entities, and Krona were connected in some fundamental way.
Unfortunately, Diana had taken Krona's head, and his soul had disintegrated into ash. There was no one left to ask.
After thinking it through from every angle, he addressed his former colleagues. "The Source Wall. The Emotional Spectrum Reservoir must be behind it."
The bearded Guardian regarded him with barely concealed mockery. "You've lost your mind. Three of our most brilliant colleagues sacrificed themselves on that wall. Have you forgotten?"
"Kyle Rayner is different. Why do the seven Entities call only to him? Because he's destined to become the White Lantern. Because the Entities need his power to return to the Emotional Spectrum Reservoir."
The other Guardians remained skeptical, but they joined the search through Krona's records. As more and more evidence surfaced, it became clear that their race's greatest scientist had been sixty to seventy percent certain such a reservoir existed.
As for where it was—that was open to interpretation. Emotions had only been a side project for Krona; the secret of creation was his true obsession.
Whatever madness Krona had committed, the Guardians respected his scientific work. A scientist of his caliber wouldn't falsify his own research logs.
Some of them even thought a step further: they wouldn't be the ones taking the risk, so there was nothing to lose in trying.
Without alerting the rank-and-file Green Lanterns, they brought Kyle to an uninhabited star sector.
"Colleague Rayner, let us see how a White Lantern is truly born," Ganthet said.
Kyle felt a knot of nerves tighten in his stomach. The seven rings housing the dormant Entities floated beside him. Saint Walker, who'd insisted on both guarding the rings and watching over his friend, had followed them.
Kyle drew a deep breath. The Guardians' explanations had been vague at best, but the implication was unmistakable: this was beyond dangerous. Yet he was the only one who could do it. The only one who could take up the White Lantern.