"The End"

     It was a book alright! The leather case the pages were bound in reminded me of the Codex Solis I had found months ago, only to find the contents was written using a pig-pen cipher, and even then I had to know Latin to understand it! After some investigating, and sending a copy to HoN Co., I found out it was a book detailing an archaic experiment - a dark form of sorcery or magic! - that allowed the strange creatures known as 'Creepers' to walk the surface of Minecraftia during the day, without burning when in contact with sunlight... Since then, we've learned that Creepers are indigenous to the Nether, where - as far as we could tell - there was no sun. However, the book also mentioned an additional trait that Creepers possessed after the transformation: the ability to explode at will by introducing adrenaline to the bloodstream, which triggered a volatile cocktail of chemicals to mix. Whether this was a desired outcome of the experiment, or an unexpected side effect, we did not know. The book didn't seem to detail that. None of us knew Latin enough to find out, and the only others who knew about it were HoN Co., so it was possible they had withheld that piece of information...

"What's on the cover? Is it in Latin...?"

"It just says 'Finis'... I assume that's Latin... What does that mean...?"

"'End'...? Fin in French is 'the end' and it's the same in Spanish... Latin is a dead language which most of the European languages are based from, so it's likely it means 'the end'. Even in English, there is the word 'final' containing the prefix 'fin'..."

"How do you know so much?"

"I read a while back that a lot of languages are based upon Latin, before they split and became their own versions... It's surprising how many actually have Latin at the root of them! Besides, what's inside? Is it Latin inside the pages too?"

"I don't know, I can't open it... There's a lock on it... See..."

THEROS showed the edge of the book where the pages were visible, across which, a clasp bound the book together, with a small hole in the side...

"It needs a key..."

THEROS bent down back into the chest again, presumably looking for the key, or anything that might resemble an object that could open it. Finding nothing, he walked towards us and handed it to UOPETA.

"I think we need to show COLUS this. It could be important... Bring any iron with you and we'll leave the tools at the iron storage."

Leaving the chamber behind, we headed back up the stairs towards the entrance. Putting the small amounts of iron we had found into the storage chests, we exited the cliff mine, and closed the wall behind us.

     We took the book to COLUS, and we all met in the discussion room. Giving it to OROTHO, he examined it for some time, looking at the cover, and then at the clasp that held it closed, before ambling off to the lab, quickly returning with a small screwdriver and a hammer. Inserting the screwdriver into the small hole, he tapped the other end with the hammer, lightly at first, then a little harder. Eventually he was practically slamming the head of the hammer against the plastic handle of the screwdriver, until there was a sharp click, and half of the book fell open onto the desk.

"We're in..."

Placing the screwdriver and hammer to one side, OROTHO picked up the book and passed it to COLUS. COLUS received it, and placed it back onto the top of the table, and turned over the cover, to reveal the same strange symbols as before...

"Pig-pen cipher... Just like the Codex Solis..."

COLUS began to turn over the pages, one by one, examining each with interest. Each page was filled with the symbols and dots that indicated individual letters which would likely be decoded to display Latin.

"Syeonyx, you said you've experienced this before. Can you decode book using the cipher, and we'll see what we can make out from the assumed Latin beneath that..."

COLUS passed the book down to me, with the current page still showing. Taking the book from AMPHIS, I began to flick through, noting the symbols were exactly the same as the ones from the Codex Solis. Even the penmanship was the same, although it was hard to tell when the symbols were right-angled lines and dots... Then I flicked to a page that made me pause, and sent a shiver down my spine, but for reasons I couldn't understand. Before me, was a musty, yellowing page, with a few symbols on, and a strange image positioned in the middle of the page... It was an odd image; that of a strange figure, almost stick-like in appearance... What was this... thing?!?!

"What is it Syeonyx?"

I didn't know... Was it human? I doubted it... It was incredibly thin and gaunt, with arms and legs much longer than those of any human I knew of... It had an oddly small body, and a squat head. But it wasn't any of these things that stuck out the most. The other book I had found hadn't included any colour aside from black ink for the writing. It would seem this was similar, however, a small amount of colour had been injected into this single image alone. The eyes! They were purple! Set into the centre of it's head were a pair of glowing purple eyes! What was this thing...?

"Right, we need to know what that thing is. Syeonyx, you decode that book as quickly as you can so we can get to understanding it faster. UOPETA and THEROS, you go back to the cliff mine, and see if you can find anything else that might link to this book..."

UOPETA nodded, and headed out towards the hatch with THEROS, whilst COLUS and Amie went back to the lab, and AMPHIS and THEXIS went their separate ways. Only OROTHO remained, who stood up, and stood behind me, peering over my shoulder at the image printed on the page...

"Interesting..."

Confused, I asked him what he meant by that comment, but he shrugged it off as a simple comment, and went with COLUS and Amie to the lab. Not able to take my eyes from the page, I stood up, holding it carefully in both hands, and I went to my room where I could decode it in peace...

----

     With the entire book being written in Latin and then being encoded with the pig-pen cipher, it made it difficult to determine if I was actually making progress with the decoding. I'm not familiar with Latin enough to know whether the encoded version was correct, but as long as the general gist of it could be understood, I suppose it didn't matter. Taking the book and the decoded version back to the discussion room, I called the others to meet me there so the contents of the book could be determined.

"According the what Syeonyx decoded, there is a lot of reference to 'finis', meaning 'end' or 'the end'."

"What about the writing above the strange image...?"

"Erm... 'Homis finis'... Well 'homo' means man, as in homo sapien... So logically, homis finis means... 'End man'... What does that mean...?"

I had been wondering that ever since decoding it. I too made the assumption that the translated version of homis finis meant end man, but I couldn't make any sense of it... It didn't seem it indicate anything glaringly obvious in connection to the image... Unless we were missing something...

"What do you make of it AMPHIS?"

I passed the translated version over to AMPHIS, whilst retaining the book; I couldn't help but stare at the image printed onto the page. The glaring, purple eyes stood out, and if I looked at them for long enough, they seemed to shimmer and glow... Like a portal... Was that the connection? Were they connected to the portals in some way? Did they build the portals...? I put this idea to COLUS and the others...

"We won't know anything until AMPHIS is able to make sense of the Latin. He's the only one who's likely to get anywhere with that. How long will it take?"

"I don't know... It depends; some of the words I don't recognise at all, but I'm hoping to make sense of them in relation to the rest of the text..."

"Right then, everyone give AMPHIS some time to work it out alone. There's no point going back to the cliff mine today, so get some rest you three. Hopefully by tonight or tomorrow, AMPHIS will understand the larger picture..."

We all left the table, all except AMPHIS, who was already writing the translation on the back of the pig-pen cipher version. I hope he got somewhere with it. I couldn't understand why, but that image... It seemed familiar... I just couldn't quite think where from... It was like trying to hold handfuls of sand, but no matter how hard you tried, it always found a way to escape... I hesitantly passed the book back to COLUS, not taking my eyes from the image of the figure util he shut the book, and turned around...

Syeonyx signing off