Chapter 46 – Deciphering Haliminyo, Floors 6-10

I carefully took out the pen, its tip glowing faintly, ready to unlock the secrets held within the patterns.

“Let’s start with the sixth floor,” I said, unfolding the sketch of the rotating eye.

6th Floor – Pattern of Memory

Location: 400m Underground

Form: A rotating eye.

Deciphered Text:

As the pen touched the pattern, the eye flickered, the light swirling, then a soft voice echoed from the pen.

“…holding an ice flower…”

“Cryptic,” Yuri muttered, her brow furrowed. “As usual.”

I traced the words with my finger, considering their meaning. An ice flower… what does that represent? This is the Pattern of Memory…

“Memory… and ice…” I murmured, thinking aloud. “There has to be a connection.”

Yuri crossed her arms, her gaze fixed on the words. “An ice flower… a cold memory? A forgotten memory? A frozen memory…?”

“Ice flower…” Luna whispered, her small hand gripping my arm, her golden eyes wide with thought. “…no bloom…”

“…Yes,” I said, a sudden understanding dawning. An ice flower… a flower that never blooms. A moment in time… frozen. Preserved. A memory… trapped in time.

I wrote the words in my notebook. “A frozen memory,” I said, my voice low. “A moment… captured… preserved… unable to… move on.”

“Next,” Yuri said, her voice eager, her gaze fixed on the next sketch.

7th Floor – Pattern of the Spiral

Location: 800m Underground

Form: A spiral.

Deciphered Text:

The pen touched the spiral, its center rotating, pulsing with red and blue light, and the voice spoke again.

“…creating a golden key…”

I quickly jotted down the words, my heart pounding.

“A key?” Yuri frowned. “What does that have to do with… anything?”

“The spiral,” I said, my gaze fixed on the pattern. “It has to be connected to the spiral.”

“A spiral… a key…?” She traced the spiral with her finger, her brow furrowed in thought. “Maybe… it’s the process… of creating the key?”

I looked at her, a new idea taking shape. “The process? What do you mean, Luna?”

Luna made a circular motion with her finger. “Spiral… round and round… like… shaping… something… making it… smooth… strong…”

I reread the words. Creating a golden key. Not just a key, but the creation of a key. A key to… what?

“It’s a key… to open something,” I murmured, my gaze fixed on the words, their meaning… slowly becoming clear.

“And it’s connected to the sixth floor,” Yuri said, her voice excited.

I wrote the two phrases side by side in my notebook.

“Holding an ice flower…”

“Creating a golden key…”

A frozen memory… and a key… to unlock it?

“Next,” I said, my voice eager, my mind racing. We were getting closer.

8th Floor – Pattern of Fragments

Location: 1200m Underground

Form: Floating fragments of light.

Deciphered Text:

The pen touched the fragmented pattern, its light flickering erratically, the fragments swirling, shifting, like… memories, trying to… reconnect.

“…the wandering deer borrows antlers…”

“Antlers?” Luna frowned, tilting her head. “Deer… already have antlers…”

Yuri traced the fragmented pattern with her finger. “But it says… borrows…”

I thought about the words, their meaning… elusive. “Maybe… it means… acquiring something… that isn’t… yours. Something… you need… to… complete yourself.”

“Or maybe…” Luna said, her eyes widening, “…not strong enough… alone… need help…?”

I wrote down the third phrase, placing it beneath the others.

“Holding an ice flower…”

“Creating a golden key…”

“The wandering deer borrows antlers…”

A frozen memory. A key to unlock it. And something… borrowed… to… complete the process. The pieces were falling into place.

“Next!” Luna chirped, her golden eyes shining with excitement.

9th Floor – Pattern of Collapsed Trajectories

Location: 3000m Underground

Form: A chaotic network of broken lines and flickering dots.

Deciphered Text:

I traced the pen across the unstable, fragmented pattern, its lines flickering, fading, then reappearing, like… a broken memory, trying to… reform.

“…the waves of light…”

The phrase was short, simple, yet… powerful.

I wrote it down, the four phrases now forming a… a poem.

“Holding an ice flower…”

“Creating a golden key…”

“The wandering deer borrows antlers…”

“The waves of light…”

What did it mean?

“The sea…” Yuri murmured, her brow furrowed. “…another reference to the sea…”

“Waves of light… the Abyssal sea…?”

“Maybe…” Luna whispered, her gaze fixed on the pattern, her brow furrowed in thought. “…maybe… flow…?”

“Flow?”

“Pattern… broken… lines… not connected… but… waves of light… they… flow…”

I looked at the patterns, at the words, their meanings… slowly coalescing.

A frozen memory. A key. Something borrowed. A flow… of light… of time… of change…

“I think… Luna’s right,” I said, my voice low, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. “It’s about… time.” A frozen memory, a key to unlock it, something borrowed to complete the process, and then… a flow, a change, a shift in… time.

“So… time… goes back?” Luna asked, her eyes wide.

I looked at Yuri, her expression thoughtful.

“Not back,” I said, shaking my head. “Forward. But… different. Changed. Maybe… not time itself… but… our choices. Our path.”

I looked at the phrases again, the poem taking shape.

1. We are the deer, trapped in a frozen moment.
2. To unlock that moment, we need to borrow something, a power we don’t possess.
3. And then… the flow of time… will change. Not reversed, but… altered. Redirected.

We had a framework, a basic understanding, but something… something still felt… off.

“It doesn’t… fit,” I said, frowning. “The first five floors… the poem… it was about… the Abyss itself. This… this is… different.”

Yuri crossed her arms, her expression thoughtful. “Maybe it’s… a separate story, Noah? An addendum? Like… a footnote… to the original?”

A separate story? Like a myth, a legend, passed down through generations, changing, evolving, with each retelling?

“That makes sense,” I said, remembering Uncle Hans’s stories of ancient myths and legends, how they’d been altered, embellished, over time, their original meanings often lost, obscured. “Like Uncle Hans said, myths and legends evolve, they gain a new perspective over time, a new story emerges alongside the old one.”

“Ugh. That makes it even more confusing…” Yuri sighed, rubbing her temples.

I tapped the pattern with my finger, the words echoing in my mind. An addendum… a footnote… so there has to be a way… to separate the original meaning… from the… addition…

“Wow, oppa,” a voice said, startling me. “You can decipher Haliminyo, too?”

I looked up to see Anemone standing there, her arms crossed, a playful smile on her lips, her lavender eyes sparkling with amusement.

“…How long have you been there…?”

She shrugged, her smile widening. “Oh, you know…”

She tossed her hair, her lavender eyes fixed on the deciphered poem in my hand, a flicker of… something… in their depths, something… I couldn’t quite place.

“And you know about… Haliminyo…?” I asked, my voice low, my gaze meeting hers.

She chuckled, leaning closer, her lavender eyes sparkling with amusement. “Oppa,” she whispered, her voice soft, teasing, “wouldn’t it be stranger… if I didn’t know?”