## 2018:05:24:22:15 - The World Neuvo: Δ Hidden Forbidden Radiation: Arche Koeln Waterfall
The sound of crashing waters reverberated in the ears of the three travelers even before the blackness of their screens gave way to the greatest wetland of The World. When they appeared in the zone, they found themselves atop a round stone plateau high above a wide river. It was connected by stone bridges to similar round plateaus and terminated by a broken bridge. Across the gap, the stone bridges and plateaus resumed until the reached a doorway at the entrance to the falls.
The travelers turned and beheld the mighty falls. Like a great dam, it was constructed of three white stone sections - one round one in the center and the other two nearly flat and to either side. The walls of each section were elegantly decorated in the same fashion as the other walls, boasting arched nooks with statuary and topped with dark spires spaced periodically along the highest edge.
"This is it," said Jyos to Taha and Fusota-ri. "The story of the Epitaph nearly ended here when the travelers found themselves trapped by the great wall of water."
"Their journey nearly ended many times, if I recall the lore correctly," commented Fusota-ri.
"Indeed," answered Jyos, suddenly finding himself at a loss for words.
"So what did you want to do here?" asked Taha.
"Pray," he answered.
"What?" asked Taha in surprise. "Are you religious?"
"No."
"Oh..." she answered. Evan could sense slight disappointment in her response. Was she religious? Or was she merely interested in seeing that side of someone's nature? He would have to answer that at another time.
"Some time ago, Pavel - whom you know as 'Xil-Sta' - told me about a website on which several pieces of the Epitaph of Twilight had been posted by someone under the alias of 'Faerkinder'. Once such fragment was a prayer of Saya, the little witch, when she and her companions reached these very falls. Since the game is so intertwined with the Epitaph, I was curious as to whether or not the prayer would provide any clues or unlock any special features. It's only a hunch."
"But a good one," remarked Fusota-ri. "If we want to find out how to gain ultimate control over The World, we need to try everything. This is a start. How does the prayer go?"
Jyos turned to look at the great falls and slowly spoke the epic verses, "Great streams of water, so high and fair, Arche Koeln! 'Part in two, show us the way. Lead us to Land's End!' Begging, praying, Saya kneeling. Coldly rivers flow."
At once, a thunderous creaking honk like the swinging hinge of a door in the winter rumbled across the field and the waters in the middle section of parted in two. At their parting, there appeared a chaos gate, a teleportation device, like the one beside them but with a green sphere in the middle instead of blue. Then one-by-one, stones rose out of the waters far below and hovered together until they formed a makeshift bridge from where the travelers stood to where the chaos gate had appeared.
"That was too easy," noted Fusota-ri.
"Who cares! Let's take it! Let's go!" commanded Jyos.
The three hackers ran up the bridge to the gate. Upon reaching the gate and checking their menus, they were presented with a message giving them the keywords: Θ Hidden Forbidden Sacrament.
"Don't these lead to the Great Temple of Caerleon Medb?" asked Jyos.
"I think you're correct," confirmed Fusota-ri. "In that case, we may have nothing to gain from following it or maybe we have much to gain."
"If players have already been there, wouldn't the secret to The World's power already be out?" mused Taha.
Fusota-ri carried on his speculation. "It's possible that, if we follow the full tale of the Epitaph, reading aloud the components we know of as we go, we may trigger the unlocking of The World's power."
"Possible," agreed Jyos.
"Or maybe," the fellow continued, "no one else has read the prayer before, so it may be the only one needed to trigger the unlock. There may be something special in that zone that we can only access by this particular gate."
"Well we won't find out by just standing here," said Taha. "Let's go."
The three of them attempted to access the field linked to keywords Hidden Forbidden Sacrament, but as they did so, an anomaly occurred. All of sudden, their screens were staticky, their pixels went wild and inverted in color, and their avatars became stuck. *Bzeeeeeee* *Pshshshshshshhhhhp*
## 2018:05:24:22:29 - The World Neuvo: Secret Passage to the Keel Mountains
When things returned to normal with the screen, Jyos found himself in a bizarre field unlike anything he had ever seen. He was inside of an icy cavern, surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites of glittering white, and a mere stone's throw from the exit. Fusota-ri and Taha appeared beside him in short notice.
"Where are we?" asked Taha.
"Good question," said Jyos. "Why don't we check the entrance over there and catch our bearings?"
Jyos and Taha walked towards the exit, but Fusota-ri meandered around.
"This area is fascinating," he called out, his voice fading with the growing distance between them. "There may be something of interest here."
At the entrance to the cave, light streamed inside in elaborate rays, tickling the fancy of the explorers. But no such amusement could keep their eyes from what lie visible from the entry. The pathway just outside was walled in on both sides by mountain, indicating the cave entrance was nestled in a deep ravine. Yet the path appeared unimpeded for a great distance as a quickly and briefly ascended and then disappeared on its rapid descent down - what Evan realized was - a mountainside upon which the cave was hidden. The mountainside was green and grassy, providing a smooth transition into the serene scene that filled their eyes. For off in the distance were the Keel Mountains.
"Have you ever seen part of the game this beautiful?" asked Taha.
"Never," Jyos admitted.
The two of them were mesmerized for a dozen minutes and may have remained that way for longer had Fusota-ri not called their attention.
"Hey you two! Look what I found!"
The exuberant explorer rushed up to his companions and open the trading screen. The other two examined the item with the perplexity of puppies given Scotch tape to play with.
"What is it?" they asked simultaneously.
"I... don't know," admitted the delighted discoverer. "But it looks awesome. It's like some kind of key, maybe."
Jyos read the item's label again and again to let its meaning sink in until some tidbit of fathomable information might trickle out of this dry radish: "Neglected Pension".
"I don't get it," Taha concluded.
She and Fusota-ri then drifted into a conversation of trading conjectures that became a drone to Evan as he pondered the piece to the puzzle. Did it have something to do with going to the Keel Mountains? Or was it just a random, lucky item? What does it mean by being labeled 'pension'? Pension is compensation. But it's compensation for after you're done working. So it's compensation ultimately ignored? Nothing seemed to make sense.
But the puzzle had to wait, for at that moment, the three gamers found themselves caught up in another fizzy storm of flashy pixel colors and Rorschach shapes. And again, The World went black.