บท 20: Code to the Next Quest

Julius dropped the book to the ground out of spite. 'Seriously?!'

"Get a grip, Julius. Let's figure this one out." Sayo said, picking up the book. The aura around the two was a bit different, from what Julius can tell. It wasn't so obvious in Sayo's case, but for Rexis…..

"Dude, you got inked?!" Julius said as he noticed the tattoos in Rexis' arms and neck.

His friend only smirked at him and replied, "Nah. I got blessed."

Somehow, that response added another source of headache for Julius that he decided to just ask about the details of this 'blessing' later. For now, his biggest problem is figuring out where they should go next.

Then, Rexis broke the silence. "Hey, how was the thing with Pandora?"

Julius wanted the ground to swallow him now. He can't tell him that he –

"We failed." Tobias nonchalantly turned towards the two. "The plagues were unleashed throughout the world. We're doomed, right from the get go."

"WHAT NOW?!" Sayo and Rexis shouted in chorus. They looked at Julius and glared at him for an explanation.

"We almost had it, okay! Pandora didn't lift the lid. The plagues weren't supposed to go out, but her husband broke the Jar! We changed the myth, alright! In fact, we made it worse! Now all other spirits the Jar had in store are wreaking havoc as we speak. Who knows who they possessed to right now! Yeah, tell me I'm stupid! Go on!" His tone was a combination of disappointment, anger, frustration, and remorse.

Sayo turned the page of the book, and there, she found the rewritten story of Pandora. Now, the myth says that there were two travellers who tried to talk Pandora out of her curiosity, and they succeeded. However, the woman's husband heard the entire thing. And since he was blinded by his rage, he took out his anger to the Jar, and broke it into many pieces.

From the destroyed thing, came forth many spirits of plague, despair, horror and all other evil. From the same source, Hope also came out.

She sighed, disappointed as well. However, she did not find it in her heart to express this to Julius, who she knows is even more affected by this failure right off the bat. Now she turned the pages again to where the code was written. They have no choice but to move on, and crack this thing so they can go on the next quest.

3-21-89-5-123-1-55-0-21-8-34-2-13-1

Shoe gone it frost a shine

"I'm sorry I can't be of any help. I don't understand the writing." Tobias said, also looking very down.

"Any ideas on how to crack that, Miss Smarty-pants?" Rexis asked from beside her.

She stared and stared at the text, as if her staring can do anything to reveal the code's message. The longer she stared, the more the code shouts inside her mind, saying, 'Figure me out! You know this!'

Something clicked, then she said, "Hey Julius, can you check if you got pen and paper there inside your bag?"

Julius wordlessly rummaged through his belongings and for some reason, he indeed kept a small notebook and a pen inside. He was hesitant to give it to Sayo though, since it's his volleyball diary and training notes.

"Gimme that." She snatched the things from his hand and scribbled on something in the first blank page she found. She arranged the numbers, from the smallest to the largest one, and she smiled.

0-1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89-123

She showed it to the rest and asked them, "Looks familiar right?" They were clearly confused at her question, and their reactions really made her slightly amused, "Come on, this is basic math!"

It was Julius who reacted knowingly from her statement. He grabbed the notebook from her and stared at the display of numbers. "Holy crap, Sayo, you're a genius!"

"I know." She smirked, pleased with the compliment. Rexis and Tobias were still clueless, so she just revealed what she discovered to them. "It's the Fibonacci sequence, dolts. The numbers in the code aren't arranged."

In mathematics, the Fibonacci sequence, named after the Italian mathematician, Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa, is one of the most famous number patterns, such that each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, starting from 0 and 1. It is an endless sequence. That is, and for n > 1.

So starting from 0, it goes like this: 0 + 1 = 1, 1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5, 5 + 3 = 8…and so on…

Notice that the preceding two numbers are the sum of the next in the sequence. The number after 8 should be 5 + 8, that is 13. Thus, the sequence in the code: 0-1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89-123.

"Ah!" Finally, the light bulb switched on for Rexis. "But how significant is this for the next set of characters in the code?" And he came up with a damn good question that brought down Sayo's mood.

"Well, I don't really get the Fibonacci thing, but since you mentioned that the sequence was not arranged, maybe you should do the same to the next? Perhaps they need to be arranged too." This time, Tobias spoke.

"That's it! That's it, Tobias! You're right, you brat!" Julius was now looking excited over the code-breaking. "The Fibonacci sequence was disarranged, so when Sayo figured that out, then the same is true for the characters below." He now began to scribble the next code in the notebook.

Shoe gone it frost a shine

"Here's the hard part now," He continued, "It's obvious, isn't it? These characters are jumbled! This is an anagram!"

An anagram is a word or phrase made by transposing the letters of another word or phrase. For example, the word 'secure' is an anagram of the word 'rescue', just as 'school master' is an anagram for 'the classroom.'

Julius is still not done. "Only that, this one is extremely complicated and the anagrammed phrase or word doesn't make sense. I think it was made that way to make it harder to solve."

"Brilliant, Julius! Of course. But you are so damn correct to say that this gibberish is hard to crack." Sayo said.

"Let's write down whatever words or phrases we can make out from these characters. That'll help."

And so they did, and they found quite a few number of words from the text – from hose, gone, the, then, sheer, seas, fast, shone, gift, stash, night.....it went on and on, until it finally has taken its toll on their patience.

"This is such a terrible ordeal. Maybe its really talking about a shoe that went missing? Ugh" Rexis muttered.

Sayo, who was now the one who's holding the pen, is making a very serious expression. "No, pretty sure it isn't."

An hour passed, and still, she was so focused on decoding it, that she finally managed to complete a coherent phrase. Fascinated with her work, she shoved the paper right at their faces.

'Shoe gone it frost a shine'

'The origin of the seasons.'

"The origin of the seasons. I'm only satisfied that I managed to chug this out. Though I'm really not sure if it's important. Do you think this phrase makes sense?" She asked to no one in particular.

Then, Julius shouted the legendary word for a discovery. "Eureka! I found it!" He raised the paper in the air.

"Yeah, sure dude. Care to share?" Rexis also got up.

"Hurry, Julius. Tell us where we're going next." Tobias followed suit.

"You know the myth for the origin of the seasons right? About how we have spring, winter and such?" His excitement got through the others and Rexis now shared an expression similar to his.

"You mean that chick who was kidnapped by the Dark Lord in the meadows?"

"You got it, bro!"

The discovery finally brought them a sense of relief, but another question now follows.

"So uhm – how do we get to the meadows? The glowing book isn't sucking us in." Tobias flatly uttered.

"Try it now, Julius. Maybe you can open the books time-travel portal or something." Sayo suggested.

Now it came into his realization that maybe Sayo and Rexis were sucked in by the book because he accidentally opened a portal for them. He remembered wishing that there were some people – some friends – whom he knew, that are with him in this era, when he received the prophecy at the Shrine of Delphi. If he can do the same now….

"There he is! That's him! That's the Son of Time! Get him!"

Suddenly, a voice unknown to them was heard from the distance. When they looked to that direction, they saw three ugly bat-looking women charging towards the place where they were standing. They have a woman's body for their torso, razor-sharp talons for their feet and leathery wings that mobilize their movements in the air. Their horrible screeches were also a pain to their eardrums.

"What the –" Before Julius can continue cursing, a bident – or a two-pronged fork weapon sliced the air and almost hit them if they haven't ducked. One of the ugly women threw it at his direction.

Sayo caught a glimpse of the man who spoke earlier and what she saw made her eyes wide. 'He's dressed in modern clothing!' The man was clad in all-black – from his hoodie, to his pants, and his shoes. Overall, he sported a dark aesthetic that matches the dark look in his eyes and hair.

"Hey, that man's from the Modern Era!"

"WHAT?!" Her three companions said.

"Hurry up, Julius, get us outta here!" Rexis shouted as he willed his shield to expand and show its real form to protect them from the attacks of the bat women, who are now throwing sharp rocks and gaining to them at an alarming rate.

Meanwhile, Sayo threw her ring in the air and a scabbard materialized out of thin air. She pulled out from it two blades that made Julius extremely jealous because she looked so cool in wielding those things. As one of the monsters was now within striking distance, she attacked before the bat woman's wicked talons can cut through their defense.

"Crap, portal, open up, take us to the meadows of that age, wherever the hell it is!" Julius yelled, and prayed to whoever this issue might concern. He tried to visualize it as best as he can.

Not later than that, they felt an enormous amount of energy from the book that was beginning to suck them in. "Grab on to me!" He instructed his friends.

A huge crack appeared below them, threatening to swallow them whole. But before that happened, they finally surmised that they are now inside the seemingly endless void caused by the book's portal.

The man clad in black groaned after seeing them escape from his pursuit. When he reached the place where they once were, he found a piece of paper containing the phrase, 'The origin of the seasons.'

"So that's where you're headed, huh? Then that's where we're going too." he crumpled the piece of paper until it turned to dust.