The blizzard seemed to get stronger every second. The snow hit harder and the winds got colder. Despite the harsh conditions, the Stan twins continued to trudge through the snow as they made their way over to the mountain of anomalies that Ford had initially detected.
Having been through several different dimensions, many of which were just parallel Earths, Ford knew he had been through far worse than a little cold weather. While he would prefer to be in a warmer climate at that moment, he tolerated the current conditions.
Stan, on the other hand, was shivering under all his layers, showing he wasn't nearly as tolerant as his brother was. He rubbed his hands together as fast as he could to gain even the slightest bit of warmth from the friction.
"I don't know how you can put up with this weather, Ford," Stan said through his shivering. "This cold is honestly making a sunburn sound good."
"You know that sunburns aren't suddenly unobtainable in cold weather, right?" Ford asked, raising an eyebrow at his brother.
"They aren't?" Stan asked, surprised. "How do I get one then? Do I have to take all my clothes off?"
"W-Wha…?" Ford questioned, so put off by Stan's lack of common sense that he paused amid their walk. "No, I highly suggest you keep all your clothes on for both of our sakes, please," he told him before continuing to walk toward the mountain again. "And besides, a sunburn isn't entirely dependent on how warm your skin is. It's more so based on how much sun you're exposed to. You could be naked and on the brink of hypothermia and still get a nasty sunburn."
"Alright, I suppose you probably would know best about that," Stan snickered.
"Amusing as always, Stanley," Ford said sarcastically with an eye roll.
"Seriously though, I really need to take a break. My feet are numb from the cold, and I think I'm gonna lose complete feeling to them at some point in the next six-point-five seconds."
"That's a ridiculously specific prediction," Ford said. "We only have half a mile left to go, so I'm sure you can hold on until-"
SPLAT!
Ford then turned around to see Stan lying face-flat in the snow.
"Wow, you weren't kidding," Ford said with slight surprise.
"Told ya," Stan said, face muffled in the snow. He then raised an arm in the air. "Now, a little help?"
Ford sighed as he approached his brother and grabbed his arm, pulling him up from the snowy ground. He threw Stan's arm over his neck and placed his own arm around Stan's back for support. Stan used his other arm to wipe the snow off his face and clothes.
"Appreciate it, bro," Stan said with a smirk.
"You're quite the character, Stanley," Ford said somewhat irritatedly.
"Hold on," Stan said, looking forward into the distance. He then held his arm out and pointed forward down the path they walked. "Tell me- do you see something over there or is there just a snowflake in my eye?"
Ford looked in the direction Stan pointed. The intense snowy winds made it somewhat difficult to see far distances, so he couldn't spot anything right away. He adjusted his glasses and squinted, holding a hand over his eyes. Eventually, he caught sight of a figure moving in the distance. Its silhouette looked faintly like another man.
"That's not something. That looks like someone..." Ford said in surprise.
He looked at the figure a bit more until he was able to make out better details, eventually able to verify that it was, indeed, another man dressed in layered winter clothing scouting out in the Arctic.
Ford's eyes lit up. "It is!"
"What?" Stan said in disbelief. "How's that possible? Who else, besides us, would be crazy enough to be out here in this frozen wasteland?"
"HELLO?" Ford called out to the man as he continued walking himself and Stan toward him. "HELLO! DON'T BE AFRAID, MISTER! WE ONLY WISH TO SPEAK WITH YOU!"
"Stanford, if I was alone out here and someone called that out to me, I'd run like hell," Stan told him bluntly.
"Well, what do you suggest? You know I'm still rough at speaking to strangers in modern times," Ford reminded him.
"Well, when we get back home, you should really consider seeing a therapist for the aftermath of thirty years in-between dimensions," Stan suggested.
Ford soon noticed the man in the distance actively making his way toward him. "Hey, he's coming toward us!"
"After what you called out to him?" Stan questioned. "Better have that wristwatch ready, Ford. This guy is already proving not to have the greatest understanding of common sense."
"You two should get along just fine then."
The man soon reached them and stopped to pant and catch his breath. He appeared like an innocent middle-aged man who wore appropriate clothes for the conditions. He was also equipped with a green camouflage backpack. After a brief moment of catching his breath, he stood up straight and smiled at the twins.
"Howdy, strangers," the man said as he put his hand out to shake.
"Hello, good sir," Ford said as he shook the man's hand. "Surprised to run into another soul out here. Never would've imagined anyone else besides my brother and I coming out to such an obscure location."
"Yeah, I'm actually glad I ran into y'all," the man said. "Roaming around here in the cold all alone ain't exactly the most fun."
"Well, what are you doing all the way out here on your own anyway?" Ford asked.
"Oh, just looking around. Ya know. Researching the area. Investigating and such," the man answered.
"Ah, really?" Ford asked, intrigued. "We actually came up here to do a bit of investigating ourselves. We're kind of scientists."
"Well, he's the scientist, really," Stan clarified, pointing at Ford. "I'm just his idiot brother who stupidly agreed to come along."
"Anyways… we came here to investigate that mountain over there," he told the man, pointing over at the mountain behind him. "I specialize in anomaly investigation and had recently tracked severe anomalous activity near it, and so we've come to check it out."
The man's eyes bulged. "Oh no, you don't want to explore that mountain."
"Why not?" Ford asked.
"It's too dangerous!" the man said warningly. "I just came back from that mountain, and I encountered some horrific creatures! I mean, truly horrifying. I just had to get away from them all. I'm warning y'all... if you wanna live, don't go over to that mountain!"
"Welp, that's good enough for me," Stan quickly settled. "Thanks for the warning, mister. C'mon Sixer, let's call it 'mission complete' and head back to the Stan o' War."
"Except, it's not a 'mission complete'," Ford dismissed. "Look, we appreciate the warning, mister, but we've come too far to turn back now. It's our duty to handle whatever is happening in that mountain."
"Our duty? You sure about that?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"If y'all wish to die, then I suppose I won't get in the way," the man said candidly. "But I'm telling y'all now, you ain't gonna get very far. I've seen what's up there, and those creatures ain't to be reckoned with. And believe me when I say I've seen a lot of scary things in my past."
"Well, all I can say is you're not the only one," Ford told him as he started to walk away with Stan. "Wherever you're going next, we wish you luck."
"Also wherever you're going, please do me a favor and just plant two random gravestones in the middle of nowhere with the names Stanley and Stanford Pines," Stan said, looking over his shoulder before facing forward again.
The man stared at the two oddly as they walked off toward the mountain. He then looked away to think for a moment before looking back at them.
"Hold up!" he called out to the two, prompting them to turn around. "Y'all said your names were... Stanley and Stanford Pines?"
"Yeah, do you need me to spell it out for you?" Stan asked. "That's S-T... OW!"
Ford had cut Stan short with a sudden elbow to his ribcage.
"No, those aren't our names. He was just joking," Ford said, glancing back at the man. "Our names are actually Darwin and Copernicus. Now if you'll excuse us, we best be on our way. Safe travels, friend!"
Ford waved before turning himself and Stan back around to continue toward the mountain. Unbeknownst to them, the man had continued to glare at the two with skeptical eyes.
"What's wrong with you? What was that for?" Stan asked Ford while rubbing the side of his ribcage.
"I don't trust that guy," Ford admitted. "I thought he was alright until he started questioning our names. You just had to say them aloud with that tombstone joke…"
"Well, if we're facing imminent death, might as well embrace it, shouldn't we?" Stan defended.
"Why must you always exaggerate?" Ford asked, getting annoyed by Stan's constant expectation of death. He stopped in his place as an idea hit him. "You know what? Come to think of it, maybe that guy knows something we don't. Let me ask him what he saw specifically so we have an idea of what we may be up against." He turned around and looked behind them. "Wait, mister! One last thing! What did you...?"
Ford cut himself off as he and Stan looked around behind themselves and saw nothing. The man was gone. It hadn't been a minute since they parted ways and they had barely walked more than a few yards, but the man was nowhere in sight anymore. It was almost as though he had just vanished.
"Where'd he go?" Ford asked.
"The man has places to be, I guess," Stan suggested.
"The fog is getting thicker," Ford noticed as the winds began to pick up. "Maybe he's too far in it that we can't see him anymore. The storm is picking up though, so I'm not gonna bother turning back. Let's just continue and keep a good eye out for our surroundings."
Stan sighed somewhat worriedly. "I'm telling you, Sixer. I got a bad feeling about this."
"We'll be fine, Stanley. Trust me," Ford assured as he continued walking them both down the path.
Nearly thirty minutes later, the two were still trudging through the thickening snow. Ford was getting noticeably tired of carrying Stan's arm over his neck and felt his own feet beginning to numb as well. They had basically reached the edge of the bottom of the mountain, but it was clear that they were both in need of a break before both of them collapsed in the snow for some polar bear or wolves to eventually find and feast on.
"Alright, I think we need to stop somewhere to rest," Ford said weakly.
"Ya think?" Stan asked sarcastically, yet tiredly. Despite having been mostly carried by his brother, his arm was beginning to sore and he was generally beginning to struggle to hold on. Not to mention, his feet still hadn't necessarily thawed out.
Ford then noticed that around the edge of the mountain, there appeared to be a cavern. In his mind, it looked like a space viable for taking cover from the snow so they could warm up a moment.
"Look," Ford directed, pointing the cave out to Stan. "There's a cave up ahead. We'll use that to shelter ourselves from the storm and rest for a bit."
They slowly made their way over to the cave entrance. Though every passing second they attempted to reach it, the winds felt colder and colder. Despite the destination being so close, the weather made it feel so far.
However, they managed to reach it soon enough. It wasn't a particularly large cave but it had plenty of room to settle down away from the elements. They walked inside deeper near the back of the cave to stay away from the cold air pouring in from the entrance leading outside. Ford then laid Stan on the ground against one of the walls of the cave for him to relax.
"Comfy?" Ford asked jokingly.
"Of course," Stan nodded as he slumped himself against the stone wall. "Reminds me of my old prison cell. Cold, rocky, and the same ol' depressing feeling of not wanting to be here."
"Well, while you're reminiscing about your past, I'll focus on the future," Ford said as he began tapping on his wristwatch. "Meridian is detecting a bunch of different elements hidden in the walls of this cave, so I'm gonna start gathering them for sealing the multiversal leak."
Ford started using Meridian's laser function to mine into one of the walls of the cave. Stan gave deeper consideration to Ford's words for a moment as his mind turned to another set of thoughts.
"Ya know, speaking of the future..." Stan began, scratching the back of his head. "We've been going on nonstop adventures around the world for almost four years. When we're done here and we head back to Gravity Falls, we're finally gonna settle down from all that so we can spend time with the kids again."
As Ford traced a small chunk in the wall with his laser, he looked back at Stan. "Yes, I'm more than aware of that at this point, Stanley. What's your point?"
"Alright, smartass," Stan said with an eye roll. "My question is- what's the plan?"
"Plan? What plan?" Ford asked.
"I mean, like, when the summer's over," Stan clarified. "When Dipper and Mabel head back home again, what're we gonna do? Are we going adventuring again? Another year 'round the world on the Stan o' War or what?"
Ford paused his laser for a moment to think about the question. "Probably not."
"Hmm... really?" Stan asked, thinking over his answer.
"Well, don't get more wrong, Stanley. Sailing the world with you these past few years has been nothing short of incredible. An absolute realization of our childhood dreams," Ford assured. "I only say probably not because... well, we're just getting too old for this kind of action."
Ford's voice came with some disappointment in it as though he was unpleased with the idea. He knew he hadn't been a stranger to the concept of aging and getting old for several years now, but when he got to do what he did for a living, he rarely felt old. But that didn't mean it wasn't happening.
"I mean, you know this," he continued. "Count the number of times these past few years when our age and declining abilities nearly got us both killed."
"C'mon, it hasn't been that bad!" Stan claimed. "All I remember was the time with the Mexican bandits and that one time with that Italian lady. That's, like... twice!"
"I count fifteen times, Stanley," Ford corrected. "You're forgetting the time in Argentina…"
"Alright, I had warned you that my back wasn't good that morning," Stan defended.
"And the time in Canada…"
"Well, someone had told me that Canadians were the nicest people in the world!" Stan tried to defend again. "Clearly, that wasn't true when we went there."
"Just because the people are nice doesn't mean they're okay with you starting a riot, Stanley!" Ford scolded. "Fine, what about all the times in Australia?"
"To be fair, it's Australia. What isn't trying to kill you there?" Stan tried to justify.
"And what about the night in Japan?" Ford asked.
"Well, my back was also bad that day."
"The fact that at least two of your justifications are back problems proves my point," Ford said as he continued to use his laser to mine a chunk out of the wall. "We're growing too old for all this moving around. Besides, I feel four years of straight adventures is quite a satisfactory amount."
"I guess," Stan somewhat agreed, looking down to the side with disappointment. He then looked back up with a smile. "Well, no matter what you decide to do, I'll always be by your side, Ford."
"I appreciate it, Stanley," Ford said with a bit of an unsure look on his face. "But are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know, I mean…" Ford began, sighing as he realized what he was about to say. "I'll be honest with you, Stanley. After the summer, I was considering going back to working on my own research regarding the secrets of Gravity Falls again. You know, with the help of Fiddleford and such. Rather than going around monster hunting and such like we have been doing over the last few years, we'd be focusing on lab work and in-field research. Maybe even working on some new inventions."
"Maybe you can invent something to keep a grown man awake because that sounds incredibly boring," Stan told him disinterestedly. "I mean, how do I even fit in with all of this?"
"Well, that's the thing," Ford said, stopping his laser again. He looked afraid to tell his brother the truth but figured that he needed to be honest with him. "With your lack of interest in the subject, I didn't necessarily plan on you being a part of it."
Stan's eyes bulged in shock at this revelation. He then glared at him angrily. "Why, you no-good, inconsiderate piece of-"
"Stan, calm down..."
"Calm down?! Why?!" Stan asked furiously. "I just spent the past four years of my life adventuring the world with my own brother, and now he's telling me that he didn't even plan on including me in his future?! After all we've been through together?!"
"That's not what I meant!" Ford frustratedly tried to defend. "Stanley, you spent thirty years trying to bring me home, and while I admittedly wasn't grateful for it at the time, I'm incredibly thankful that you've done so. Because these past four years have been some of the best years of my life!"
Stan looked up at him somewhat unconvinced by his sincerity. Regardless, he relaxed himself as he folded his arms and leaned back against the cave wall.
"I mean, we sailed around the world!" Ford continued. "That's no easy feat. We even managed to find a few great treasures, even though we almost immediately lost them. And how can we forget the beautiful mermaids we met around the Bermuda Triangle?"
"Ah, Shelly..." Stan reminisced fondly. "Such an unforgettable sight she was. That day was probably one of the best parts of these past four years."
"Heh, I'd be lying if I said I didn't agree," Ford chuckled. "Stanley, I'm glad that after all these years, we finally managed to make our childhood dream come true. But now... that dream's been completed. It's time for us to move on and come up with new dreams."
Ford walked over to Stan beside the wall of the cave, sliding down and sitting on his level. He stared up at the stone ceiling for a moment as his head went back and forth between reminiscing and looking ahead.
"Look, it's not that I want nothing to do with you anymore," he continued further. "It's just that... maybe we've reached a point where we might wanna take on our own separate ventures. I mean, as I said, what I want to do with the rest of my time is not something you have any interest in. So I figured that maybe you'd want to find your own way in the world rather than just following me because I'm your brother."
"Well, news flash, Sixer- I'm in my sixties. I've been banned from most states in the U.S. and hell, I've even been banned from whole countries. I've spent over half of my life either living under your name or in a prison cell. I don't have a degree in anything, and I don't even own the Mystery Shack anymore. So let me lay it out for you- if you leave me on my own, then there is absolutely nothing for me to do and nowhere I can go. Meanwhile, you can sell any of your inventions and sci-fi gadgets, like that watch of yours, and you'd probably end up making billions easily." He crossed his arms again as he looked down to the side sadly. "Just as Dad would've wanted..."
Ford looked at Stan sympathetically, putting a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon. Even if I were planning to sell this watch and make billions as you say, what makes you think I wouldn't share any of it with my own brother?"
"That's not the point, Stanford!" Stan shouted, smacking his brother's hand off his shoulder. "The point is you got something going for you no matter what you do! I don't. Only someone as smart as you would be able to survive thirty years across multiple dimensions. If it was me who had gotten stuck inside that portal, I wouldn't have lasted a day. If you tried bringing me back, you'd only get a body."
"Well, after watching you closely for the past four years, I disagree," Ford said. "You have a lot more potential than you think, Stan. I know you think it's too late and that you have nothing going for you, but I think this summer will be the perfect time to try to figure it all out. This isn't me kicking you aside. This is us figuring out what we wanna do with our lives... or whatever's left of them."
"Yeah? And what if I can't do that?"
"I know you can," Ford said confidently. "And no matter what happens, I'll still always be your brother. Despite what I got planned, it's not like I'll be going anywhere."
"Yeah, well, at this point, me neither, so you might as well be stuck with me," Stan said with a light chuckle.
"Well, we'll cross that line again when we come to it. C'mon, we still have a mission to complete," Ford told him, getting up from the ground. He held his hand out to Stan. "Can you stand again?"
"I should be able to if my back doesn't suddenly decide to give out next," Stan said as he reached out and grabbed Ford's hand. He was then pulled up onto his feet where he steadied himself. He smiled as he looked down at his feet. "How about that?"
"Good. Now that that's out of the way, let me keep digging these elements out of the wall," Ford said as he reactivated his wristwatch laser to keep tracing a chunk in the wall.
"So how exactly are different pieces of rock supposed to close a leak that sends beings to other dimensions?" Stan asked. "Do you just smash two pieces together and an explosion happens?"
"I installed somewhat of a basic function in Meridian to take samples of elements to combine and contain them in the watch to fire as projectiles," Ford explained.
"That's basic?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow. "And a map isn't?"
"Essentially what happens is that I make a certain mix of elements that create a nuclear reaction, which then allows me to fire a contained nuclear blast at the leak, which would seal it across all dimensions," Ford explained further while ignoring Stan's map jab.
"And so how did you handle these things before when you didn't have your fancy-schmancy wristwatch?"
"Let's just say I was lucky to have been in a dimension with the best treatment for my injuries resulting from much larger, uncontained radioactive explosions..." Ford morbidly recalled.
Suddenly, there was a cracking sound as Ford had just finished tracing the chunk of rock out of the wall with his laser. He smiled as he deactivated his laser.
"Ah, perfect!" he said as he reached forward to pull the chunk from the wall with his gloved hand. After pulling the chunk out, he looked through the hole that was left behind and gasped at what he saw. "What the...?"
"What happened?" Stan asked.
"There's something back there," Ford replied. He then put the chunk of rock down on the ground and backed away from the wall, sticking his arm out as well to signal Stan to do the same.
"What is it?" Stan asked.
Instead of answering, Ford pointed Meridian at the wall and fired a laser, tracing a large round shape in the wall. The laser appeared much more intense this time as if a setting had been tweaked around in the watch. After tracing a clear shape from the top of the wall to the bottom, he deactivated the laser. Without further warning, he charged his shoulder straight into the wall, breaking right through his tracing. As he did so, the stone wall collapsed and broke into small chunks that smashed apart further as they hit the ground.
"Stanford!" Stan yelled out as he ran up and kneeled down at his brother's side. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ford said with a nod as he rubbed his shoulder.
As he stood up from the ground and looked back ahead, his eyes then went big. Beyond the cave wall that he had just broken through was the interior of what looked like a hidden temple of some sort. It was somewhat lit up inside with torches. Oddly, the walls appeared to be made entirely of ice. And right in front of them was some sort of door.
"What the hell is this place?" Stan asked while looking around.
"I have no idea. It looks like some sort of ice temple," Ford said as he curiously glanced around the room.
He approached the door in front of them, to which it automatically opened itself by zooming into the ground, much to his surprise.
"Huh? Automatic doors…" he remarked. He then turned back to Stan, who was still standing by the destroyed wall. "Well, what're you waiting for? Are you coming?"
"Are you insane? You actually want to check this place out?" Stan asked.
"So what? We shouldn't explore the ice temple buried within the mountain we came to investigate in the first place?" Ford asked, the idea finally clicking in Stan's head.
"How could you be so sure that this is the place?" Stan asked, beginning to take some steps into the temple himself.
"I'm not sure, but I'm having a hard time imagining this place not being connected at least," Ford told him as he began walking around the inside of the temple. "Just looking around, I can tell that there is no way all of this could've been built by man. The multiversal leak has to have spawned creatures capable of this. Maybe the creatures that guy we ran into was talking about..."
"I ain't seeing anything around here so far though," Stan said, glancing around for signs of any other presence.
"Neither am I. Regardless, we need to stick together and keep watch of our surroundings at all times. You never know what could be in here with us," Ford said as he readied his wristwatch defensively. "Come on. This way."
Ford began walking down one of the icy hallways. Stan let out an exasperated sigh at his brother's constant outgoing nature when it came to exploring. To him, everything about what they were getting themselves into felt like a setup, yet here they were walking straight into it. Nonetheless, he slowly followed behind, still aware of how they had to stick together in the event of anything popping out and striking.
Walking along, Stan was scanning the walls of the temple, soon beginning to notice all the details and how structured the place was. The walls had angular edges rather than being clean-cut and flat. But even so, it was all so perfectly carved without any irregular ridges. He knew Ford had to have been correct about the place not being man-made because it looked too perfect and clean to be made by humans. Particularly within the icy interior of a massive mountain.
As they continued making their way through, he soon began to spot fancy ice decor among the walls. Or at least he assumed they were decorative. If they were, he couldn't make out what any of them were supposed to be, which once again, added to the likely possibility of the place being designed by anyone other than humans. He was intrigued by them though. There was a certain artsy quality that they had, which only grew his desire to grab a piece to take back with him.
He got to bring or steal many types of souvenirs from most of their other destinations over the years. So this was only fair game too, right?
Ford began walking up a stairwell in the temple, failing to notice that Stan had stopped walking behind him. At that moment, Stan stumbled upon a piece of decor that resembled something of a sword, although he still couldn't entirely tell. But to him, it was the nicest piece he had seen so far and he was positive that he had wanted it.
"Oh, baby..." he said dreamily at the sight of the sword. He grabbed the piece from its frame on the wall and held it firmly in his hands. "I know a good spot where I could put you back in the Shack. If you don't melt, that is."
Ford heard Stan talking to himself as he walked upstairs and turned behind himself to see he wasn't following. He sighed frustratedly. "Stanley! What are you doing?!"
"Admiring the place, Sixer!" Stan called back as he looked at the sword.
"Well, hurry up and get over here!" Ford yelled back as he continued walking up the stairs. "We don't know what this place has!"
"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya," Stan called back as he began to slowly make his way over to the stairwell.
Ford then reached a break in the stairwell where there was another door. He walked up to it and triggered it to open automatically, revealing a very dark room in contrast to the rest of the torch-lit temple so far. He peeked his head inside and quickly glanced around, but settled on not wishing to explore the room just yet and stepped away from it to continue walking up the stairwell.
As he stepped away from the door, it automatically closed again. Stan had made this analysis as he looked from the bottom of the stairway, assuming his brother had just walked inside. He sighed as he gave the sword a tight, yet firm grasp as he began to walk up the stairs.
"For someone who says it's important to stick together, he sure has no problems going on without me," Stan said irritatedly to himself.
Reaching the break in the stairwell, he walked over to the automatic door and triggered it to open before walking inside. As he stepped further into the room, the automatic door closed behind him. Stan attempted to look around the room to spot his brother but was put off by the pure darkness of the room.
"Stanford?" he called out into the darkness. "Yeesh, you coulda at least turned on that flashlight on your wristwatch." Stan's eyes began to slightly adjust to the darkness, but even then, a sense of eeriness was beginning to loom over him as the silence continued. "Stanford?"
WHACK!
Stan's body plummeted to the ground as he was suddenly knocked unconscious. He dropped his ice sword, causing it to shatter against the ground into a bunch of pieces. Several different types of psychotic laughter then echoed throughout the room as his body was dragged away on the ground by a group of creatures lurking in the shadows.
Ford continued to walk up the stairs until he reached the top. However, once he had gotten to the top of the stairwell, he stopped in his place, somewhat shocked at what he saw right before his eyes. It appeared to be some sort of mangled shrine room. In contrast to the rest of the temple he had seen so far, this was, by far, the messiest room. There were shattered ice decorations and what looked to have been a former ice statue that was also completely shattered.
In the middle of the room, there was a stand that was still somewhat intact. As Ford got closer to it, he realized that it resembled something of an information board. He looked around the room some more before cautiously walking over to it. On the board was an inscription.
\/
ZH EXLOW WKLV VKULQH WR RIIHU RXU SHDFH WR WKH WLPH WLWDQ
ZH KRSH WR EH VSDUHG IURP KLV HYHQWXDO ZUDWK
LI KH LV WR EH VWRSSHG, WKH ROG PDQ PXVW EH IRXQG
VHSDUDWH WKH GHPRQ - EULQJ KLP EDFN
/\
"What the...?" Ford whispered to himself as he read the inscription in his head.
This jumble of letters was a cipher of some sort. He had trained himself to solve various types of them over the years, but he was out of practice. All he could do was stare at the board, reading back potential translations in his head.
"Shrine... Titan... Something about a demon...?" he said aloud as he refreshed cipher translations in his head. "What the hell is this?"
Despite piecing together segments of it, the full inscription wasn't clear to him. Whatever it must've meant was completely lost on him, leaving him without a clue what it could possibly entail, if it even meant anything in the first place.
Suddenly, he heard a faint noise coming from the staircase, which he could only presume to be Stan finally coming upstairs.
"Check this out, Stanley!" he called out as he scratched his head, looking at the inscription curiously. After hearing nothing in return, he turned to the staircase. "Stanley?"
At that moment, there was a flood of slimy and sticky noises that seemed to come from the stairwell. Spooked, Ford began to back up further from the stairs and away from the inscription board.
"Stanley?!" he called out worriedly.
Just as he contemplated heading back down for his brother, a wave of giant yellow slug-like creatures with multiple eyeballs began flooding into the room from up the staircase. Ford's eyes bulged at the sight of these creatures, as he immediately recognized these Eye-Slugs as beings he had once seen in the Nightmare Realm as another type of infantry being Bill Cipher alongside the Eye-Bats.
"Uh oh."
The Eye-Slugs immediately spotted Ford as they poured into the room and began to quickly rush him. As they got closer, they began to leap at him in an attempt to attack him. Ford quickly readied his laser on his wristwatch and began to blast the creatures one by one, each shot instantly killing one. However, the room's population was rising faster than it was sinking, as Eye-Slugs just kept flooding in despite his efforts to suppress them. Eventually, the slugs began to hop on top of him, forcing him to have to physically punch them off, but he was quickly restrained and forced to the ground.
"Get off of me!" Ford shouted desperately as he continued to try to resist the tough grasp of the slugs, moving heavily on top of his arms and legs.
But his resistance proved useless, as the slugs were too big and strong and any type of movement was quickly held down by them. The slimy bodies of atrocious-looking eyeball slugs kept him stuck and pinned against the ground. And soon enough, a lone slug decided to jump right above Ford, landing right on his face to finish the job.