1 email

"Uh..."

Originally disappointed, everyone felt a renewed sense of hope after seeing the glowing eyes of Maki and Terrance.

"What's going on?" Arvin approached Maki and asked, puzzled.

Maki stared intently at the locations of the four ruins and then looked at the patterns under her feet. Surprised, she said, "We were wrong from the start."

At this moment, Terrance was deep in an illusion created by Mismagius. In the illusion, Terrance was flying in the air, looking down at the ground below.

Gradually, the four ruins emerged, stripped bare of any coverings. Terrance looked down to see the four ruins moving towards a central point. As they collided with each other, their patterns connected, creating an incredible sight.

"They are part of a whole..." Terrance thought in amazement, shaking his head vigorously.

Mismagius had done a great job. It clearly recorded the lines of the patterns and overlapped them in its illusion for Terrance to see, leading to this amazing discovery.

However, Maki seemed to have found the problem as well. She grabbed the camera Ishi was carrying and started scrolling through it.

"Come and see." The camera had also recorded the patterns of the four ruins, although not as clearly as Mismagius' illusion. Under Maki's guidance, the group kept scrolling through the photos, trying to find a point of alignment.

Even though it wasn't in one photo, after scrolling back and forth, they reached an equally surprising conclusion.

"As we can see, these four ruins are part of a whole," Maki said.

"This is..." Murasakibara found it hard to believe. "So troublesome, it isn't something a human could discover."

"Are you saying I'm not human?" Maki rolled her eyes at him and continued, "There were many doubtful points about the ruins themselves. Plus, when I was observing the patterns, I found they were broken. At first, I didn't think much of it, but when I discovered that it was the case for every ruin, I became suspicious."

"Also, based on what was recorded in the fourth ruin... I got a new insight."

"What?" The group leaned in closer.

"The four ruins are in a sequence, and this is the first one. The relevant records also start from here, which explains why I couldn't make sense of the texts in other places," Maki explained.

"So, do we understand them now?" Ishi asked.

"No, it's still too difficult. They use very rare characters," Maki shrugged. "But at least we have a new clue. The four ruins are part of a whole."

The group exchanged glances. Although they had a new clue... what should they do now?

"Could it be... we need to activate the patterns in all four ruins simultaneously?" Terrance speculated.

"Uh..."

After pondering for a while, they couldn't find anything wrong with this idea.

It seemed to be the only possibility, or...

"Do we need to activate them in the order Maki found?" Arvin asked.

"That's possible too," everyone nodded.

They continued discussing for a while. Giving up halfway was not an option. They had come this far, spending a lot of time. No matter what, they had to see it through to the end. Even returning empty-handed was better than giving up midway.

"Let's head back to the city first. We're running low on supplies, and we need to rethink our plan for the next step," Ishi said.

"We also need to find some information on ancient texts. I don't know much about them. If we could get a professional to help analyze the texts, it would be a big help," Maki said.

"We'll discuss everything once we get back to the city," Ishi stated.

Mauville City, Pokemon Center.

They decided to stay for three days to carefully plan.

The Trainers took a rest before their next battle, while Maki was busy researching, delving deeper into deciphering the texts.

Acting solely based on their guesses was too risky and time-consuming. They wouldn't resort to that unless it was a last resort.

On the second day of their stay, they gathered again. Maki said, "Although we have new findings...there are still too many incomprehensible texts. If we could understand just 30% more!! 30%, the whole picture should become clear."

Everyone frowned. They didn't understand the ancient language, and the only one who knew a bit was Maki. Meanwhile, Terrance, who was studying the Mystic Water and the three stones, suddenly remembered something!

Steven, that guy... he usually liked to dig up stones in various places and probably visited many ruins, right?

And given his background...even if he didn't understand the ancient language himself, he likely had friends who did!

"I have a friend who might know some ancient languages," Terrance suddenly said.

His words gave the other five people a new direction, especially Maki, who looked at him eagerly.

"That's great!" Maki said excitedly. "Wait a moment, I'll take pictures of the texts for you."

"I'm not sure if he can decipher it..." Terrance said with a wry smile. He was just taking a shot in the dark, hoping that Steven might have some luck, which would save them from wandering around aimlessly.

"It's better than having no clues at all," Maki said. "Ah... I didn't expect things to get so complicated. Also, don't any of you have friends who know ancient languages?"

The others, apart from Terrance, thought for a moment and then shook their heads. This was something that very few people studied.

Maki sent the relevant texts to Terrance. He said, "Alright, I'll ask my friend to take a look."

On the other side, Terrance used his communication device to contact Steven, but no one answered.

Aside from Steven, Terrance only had contacts for Master Victor, Little June, and some people at the academy... Then he saw a name and suddenly paused.

"Right, there's her..."

Cynthia.

If Terrance remembered correctly, he had learned from his conversations with Cynthia that she was a ruin exploration enthusiast?

And she was very fond of Sinnoh's myths and history!

"Cynthia's grandmother is a professor at the Sinnoh Historical Research Center..." Terrance recalled. He thought that asking Cynthia for help might be more reliable than Steven, so he pressed the call button.

But there was no answer on that end either.

"..."

"Steven is probably off digging stones in some remote area with no signal, that's normal."

"And Cynthia, could she be... hmm..." Terrance speculated. The most likely scenario was that she was exploring ruins or exterminating some illegal organization.

"Never mind, I'll send them both an email." Terrance sighed.

**************

"Is it done?" The group asked when Terrance returned.

"It won't be that quick. They weren't available, so I sent an email. It might take some time," Terrance said.

"Alright, we'll stay here for two more days," Ishi nodded. "Meanwhile, we should plan for the worst-case scenario, which is how to split up and simultaneously activate the awakening patterns in the four ruins!"

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