PAGE EIGHT

On August 18th, 2017, TwinBuilder posted this Pastebin.

It was decoded from Cyrillic, into English.

What set this puzzle apart from other puzzles of a similar make throughout Ends of the Earth was that every character in this puzzle came from a different place, whereas previously the characters came from either the same place or several closely connected places. This meant that before the characters could be found, the various places in which they were located had to be understood.

The first character should come from a Destroy the Godmodder game, as its setup is similar to ones used previously in Ends of the Earth.

The COSMIC THREAD LINE typically has to do with an equivalent DTG thread. However, the “NaN-” (which means “Not a Number”) implies that this game isn’t within the DTG series. The “TOW” is short for “TOWER,” meaning that the relevant thread is Destroy the Tower, the precursor and inspiration to the DTG series.
The DATUM has to do with an equivalent date – month, day, year. The years, presented as “NUMBER B.R.” represent the number of years before 2016 – Before Reboot, i.e. the DTG rebooted continuity. FOUR TWO-ONE IN THE YEAR OF TWO B.R. is 04/21/14.
The SELECTION has to do with the page number and the post number. The relevant post is on page X and is the Y post down from the top of the page. SEVEN-ONE-ONE, ONE-ZERO is page 711, post 10.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. The relevant letter is on line X of the post (this counts lines that are purely spaces or other line breaks) and is the Y character of said line. SEVEN, FOUR-ONE is on line 7, character 41. This character is G.

The second character came from UNSONG, a story in a world where Names of God have powers when spoken, and where the United Nations Subcommittee on Names of God (UNSONG) tries to regulate the use of these Names. This was deduced because of the “SEPHIROT” and “SUBCOMMITTEE.”

The SEPHIROT VOLUME has to do with the books of UNSONG, of which there are four. TWO is Book 2, EXODUS.
The DATUM has to do with an equivalent date. SIX TWO-SIX IN THE YEAR OF R. is 06/26/16.
The SUBCOMMITTEE has to do with the relevant chapter of UNSONG, of which there are 72 (plus a prologue, epilogue, and 21 interludes). TWO-SIX is chapter 26, “For Not One Sparrow Can Suffer And The Whole Universe Not Suffer Also.”
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. THREE-ZERO, FOUR is on line 30, character 4. This character is 4.

The third character came from Homestuck, a comic on MS Paint Adventures. This was deduced from the “ADVENTURE DESIGNATE.”

The ADVENTURE DESIGNATE has to do with which adventure on the MSPA site is being used. SIX is the sixth adventure on the site, Homestuck.
The DATUM has to do with an equivalent date. SIX EIGHT IN THE YEAR OF FOUR B.R. is 06/08/12.
The SELECTION has to do with the page number. SIX-NINE-THREE-ZERO is page 6930, making the complete URL http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006930.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. SIX, ONE-FIVE is on line 6, character 15. This character is 5.

The fourth character came from Hyper Light Drifter, in which the main character explores a post-apocalyptic world with few words. This was deduced from the “HYPERCUBIC” and “TABLET,” suggesting the answer lies in the game’s sixteen Monoliths - the only source of text-based lore in the setting.

The HYPERCUBIC QUADRANT has to do with the region of the game in which the monolith is. EAST is the east zone, the Waterfalls.
The TABLET PODIUM has to do with the number of the monolith in the region, of which there are four. ONE is the first monolith in the region.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. FOUR, SIX is on line 4, character 6. It is important to note that the Monoliths are read top-to-bottom left-to-right. With that in mind, this character is S.

The fifth character came from Ends of the Earth itself; specifically, the pictures found at the end of each set of puzzles. This was deduced from the “GATE CODE” and the use of “SCRIBESCRIPT.”

The GATE CODE SECTOR has to do with which image is being used. TWO is the second page, https://i.imgur
.com/N9RxxLQ.png.
The LINGUISTIC ENCRYPTION has to do with the code the text is written in. SCRIBESCRIPT is the text the rhymes are encoded in.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. ONE, SEVEN is on line 1, character 7. This character is b.

The sixth character came from the Harry Potter series. This was deduced from the “ENROLLMENT YEAR,” since each book depicts a year spent in Hogwarts.

The ENROLLMENT YEAR has to do with the number of the book in the series. FIVE is the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
The SUBSECTION TITLE has to do with the relevant chapter of the book, of which there are 38. ONE-TWO is chapter 12, “Professor Umbridge.”
The SELECTION has to do with the page number. TWO-FOUR-FOUR is page 244.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. TWO-ONE, THREE-FIVE is line 21, character 35. This character is k.

The seventh character came from The Longest Joke in the World, or “Nate the Snake,” found here. http://longestjokeintheworld.com/ This was deduced from the “LONGEST:PUN.”

The LENGTH-TO-PAYOFF HUMOR RATIO identifies the joke as the LONGEST joke whose humor revolves around a PUN, matching the “Nate the Snake” joke.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. EIGHT-ONE, ONE-THREE is on line 81, character 13. This character is n.

The eighth character came from within the #DTG Discord server itself, in a message spoken by an old account of Pope Bill’s. This was deduced from the “USER IDENTIFICATION,” which, when turned into an actual Discord user ID, revealed it as Pope’s account.

The USER IDENTIFICATION has to do with the user ID of the Discord account. TWO-FOUR-TWO-FOUR-ONE-SIX-FOUR-NINE-SIX-EIGHT-ZERO-NINE-TWO-ONE-THREE-NINE-FIVE-TWO is 242416496809213952, which, when typed as <@242416496809213952>, appears as @Pope.
The OCTOTHORPE has to do with the set of digits next to the Discord account’s name. ONE-ZERO-THREE-NINE is 1039, making the account name @Pope#1039.
The SELECTION has to do with the page number and post number when all of Pope’s messages in #DTG are searched. ONE-SEVEN, NINE is page 17, post 9.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. ONE, TWO-EIGHT is on line 1, character 28. This character is i.

The ninth character came from Undertale’s True Lab, in which a series of lab entries left by the lab’s doctor can be found. This was deduced from the “ENTRY NUMBER.”

The ENTRY NUMBER refers to the specific entry. SEVEN is the seventh entry.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. TWO, FOUR-NINE is on line 2, character 49. This character is U.

The tenth character came from /snakeeyes, a command within the Pinary ARG that let the players view information on a variety of topics, such as Agents of the Conflict, projects of the Advanced Superiors, and Curses. This was deduced from the “ENDEAVOR DIRECTORY,” as snakeeyes is an acronym for SERPENTS NINE’S ABSOLUTE KABBALISTIC ENDEAVORS: ENDING YOUR ETERNAL SUFFERING.

The ENDEAVOR DIRECTORY has to do with the /snakeeyes folder containing the character. CURSES shows that it is the folder on Curses.
The SELECTION refers to the subfolder within the Curses folder, and the entry within that subfolder. EIGHT, ONE is in subfolder 8, entry 1. The eighth subfolder is “Miscellaneous Curses,” and the first entry is “Tilde.”
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. FIVE, SEVEN-EIGHT is on line 5, character 78. This character is n.

The eleventh character came from the digits of pi. This was deduced from the “IRRATIONALITY CONSTANT.”

The IRRATIONALITY CONSTANT, “C/D,” shows that the number is pi, as C is the circumference, and D is the diameter. circumference = pi x diameter, so pi = circumference / diameter, or C / D.
The SPECIFIC CATEGORICAL PHENOMENON LOCATION has to do with the line number and the character number. EIGHT-ZERO-ZERO is character 800. Since the decimal dot counts as a character, it is the 799th digit of pi. This character is 8.

This makes the complete character string G45SbkniUn8. Visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
G45SbkniUn8 reveals the second stage.

The video, titled “ЕИГҺТ, ТWО” (which translates to “EIGHT, TWO” when taken from Cyrillic), consists of a view of TwinBuilder’s computer screen. The screen is displaying a Notepad file comprised entirely of the sentence “All end and no earth makes Build a dull ‽,” repeated for 325 lines and 1,024 columns, for a total of 332,800 characters. The screen can only show 48 lines and 159 columns at a time, however, limiting the amount of total viewable characters to 51,675. (The view scrolled downward at a regular place throughout the 1:00 duration of the video, letting all 325 lines be shown.) Of these, roughly 1,230 were interrobangs (‽), and of those, eight were replaced with specific characters.

The 1st character, C, is viewable from 0:00 to 0:11, originating near the bottom-left of the screen.
The 2nd character, D, is viewable from 0:05 to 0:16, originating at the bottom-center/right of the screen.
The 3rd character, s, is viewable from 0:10 to 0:21, originating at the bottom-left of the screen.
The 4th character, m, is viewable from 0:20 to 0:29, originating at the bottom-right of the screen.
The 5th character, B, is viewable from 0:28 to 0:37, originating at the bottom-left of the screen.
The 6th character, C, is viewable from 0:36 to 0:47, originating at the bottom-center/right of the screen.
The 7th character, L, is viewable from 0:46 to 0:55, originating at the bottom-center/left of the screen.

This makes the complete character string CDsmBCL. Visiting http://imgur.com/CDsmBCL.png reveals the first in a series of W.D. Gaster-centric images.

The image depicts Gaster standing in a white void with his shadow rising into infinity, turning a large portion of the image black. The image’s accompanying Wingdings text reads “DO YOU SEE BRIGHT LIGHTS OR DO YOU [IMAGINE] TOTAL DARKNESS”. The puzzle revolves around a set of seven Wingdings characters contained within boxes, all lined together in a row, next to a dot and an abstract method of spelling “png.” The Wingdings characters, when decoded, are U, J, v, c, p, E, and l. The accompanying smaller boxes and arrows indicate the method needed to further decrypt these letters into the intended solution.

If there are boxes and an arrow leading downwards from the main box, the letter must be moved down the corresponding number of spots in the alphabet. If there are boxes and an arrow leading downwards from the main box, the letter must be moved up the corresponding number of spots in the alphabet. If there is a box behind the main box with an arrow looping towards it, the Atbash cipher must be used. If there is a smaller box with another character in it and a key leading through it, a Vigenere cipher with said character as the key must be used.

U must be shifted four letters down, turning it into Q.
J must be shifted ten letters up, turning it into T.
v must be shifted using Atbash, turning it into e.
c has no boxes surrounding it, so it stays as c.
p must be shifted using Atbash and then shifted six letters down, turning it into k, and then q.
E must be shifted using the Vigenere key of F, turning it into Z.
l must be shifted using Atbash, then shifted using the Vigenere key of H, and then shifted twelve letters up, turning it into o, then h, then t.

This makes the complete character string QTecqZt. Visiting http://imgur.com/QTecqZt.png reveals the second image in the Gaster series.

The image depicts Gaster waving to a hand of What Lies Beyond against a black background. The accompanying Wingdings text reads “GREETINGS. FROM ONE HAND TO ANOTHER.” The puzzle revolves around a series of rainbow-colored dots interspersed throughout the image. The dots come in one of seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. After some counting, it was found that there are 11 red dots, 16 orange dots, 5 yellow dots, 1 green dot, 17 cyan dots, 25 blue dots, and 10 purple dots. When these value numbers are converted into letters using A1Z26, the 11 red dots signify J, the 16 orange dots signify P, the 5 yellow dots signify E, the green dot signifies A, the 17 cyan dots signify Q, the 25 blue dots signify Y, and the 10 purple dots signify J.

Upon brightening the entire image, a set of characters in the Scribe’s cipher, Scribescript, were found next to the hand of What Lies Beyond. Upon converting them to English, they read “D CAPITAL V.” This marks the first two characters in an eight-digit code, with the other six characters unknown.

This makes the complete character string kPEaQyJ. Visiting http://imgur.com/kPEaQyJ.png reveals the third image in the Gaster series.

The image depicts Gaster facing away from the screen, with a fenestrated wall showing image on the Godhead to his left and two of his Followers to his right. The accompanying Wingdings text reads “MY EXPERIMENTS RARELY SHOW SOMETHING AMISS SO WHAT DO THE TWO OF YOU THINK ABOUT THIS?” The puzzle was unclear at first, since there was nothing clearly visible in the image other than the aforementioned, but upon brightening the image, sets of characters were revealed in the three triangles of the Godhead.

The bottom triangle’s characters were “/MNJ,” the left triangle’s characters were “84s,” and the right triangle’s characters were “z.png.” Also revealed were two characters in Scribescript hovering above Gaster. Upon converting them to English, they read “HE.” These mark the next two characters in the eight-digit code, which now reads “dVhe.”

This makes the complete character string MNJ84sz. Visiting http://imgur.com/MNJ84sz.png reveals the final image in the Gaster series.

The image depicts Gaster directly facing the screen, with a smile and outstretched hands. The accompanying Wingdings text reads “THE HANDS OF GOD. TWO ADJACENT PATHS. TWO PERPENDICULAR OUTCOMES.” The puzzle revolves around the set of eight hands performing various gestures centered around Gaster. The gesture each hand is making corresponds to a different letter in terms of sign language. The hands are meant to be read clockwise from the bottom-left, and the top two hands are numbers rather than letters. With that in mind, the first hand says Y, the second hand says C, the third hand says Q, the fourth hand says 9, the fifth hand says 2, the sixth hand says Z, the seventh hand says J, and the eighth hand says M.

Upon brightening the entire image, a set of characters in Scribescript were found on either side of Gaster. Upon converting them to English, the first set reads “ONE” and the second set reads “CAPITAL V.” These mark the next two characters in the eight-digit code, which now reads “dVhe1V.”

This makes the complete character string Ycq92zJm. Visiting https://pastebin.com/Ycq92zJm reveals the third stage.

It was decoded from Cyrillic, into English.

The players of Ends of the Earth had to post images from their current positions in real life of these things at exactly the time they took said images – images from prior events would not be accepted, with minor exceptions. For example, the image of the red sunglasses posted in an earlier EOTE session by TwinBuilder would not have worked. The following is a list of explanations for each image supplied, and who supplied them.

AN AUTHENTIC SET OF THE GLASSES BELONGING TO ADAM MASON:
Picture taken by SplitSuns.
The only copy of such glasses in existence was in TwinBuilder’s house; SplitSuns was the only person that could retrieve them.

AN AMERICAN DOLLAR BILL DEFACED IN SOME WAY AS AN OFFERING:
Picutre taken by insert_generic_username.
The necessary image is an homage to the Bill Cipher AMA, where Bill said he would give priority to questions that were accompanied by defaced dollar bills.

THE NUMBER FROM A COPY OF JOURNAL 3 SPECIAL EDITION:
Picture taken by SplitSuns.
Only ten thousand copies of Journal 3's special edition were made; SplitSuns' copy was #1,757, as shown on the inside dust jacket.

A PIECE OF OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE FROM UNIVERSE C:
Picture taken by Crystalcat.
Merchandise provided was a mousepad with a Creeper's face printed on.

FIVE SEPARATE ARTISTIC RENDITIONS OF THE GODMODDER:
Pictures taken by NumberSoup, W32Coravint, Crystalcat, and SplitSuns.
SplitSuns' picture counted as two due to its quality.

A TRIANGULAR AND/OR PYRAMIDIAL OBJECT:
Picture taken by Crystalcat.
Object provided was a replica of Bill Cipher's statue form, as seen in Gravity Falls and the Cipherhunt.

A SHEET OF PAPER WITH THE TEXT “THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG” IN WINGDINGS WRITTEN SEVEN X SEVEN TIMES:
Picture taken by Speedon.
Although the orders were to write it, a response typed via printer was accepted regardless, due to the sheer amount of time it would have taken to write it.

A LEAKING PEN:
Picture taken by NumberSoup.
A reference to the Scribe’s symbol on the Zodiac, “Leaking Pen.”

THREE SEPARATE PHOTOGRAPHS OF SOME PORTION OF A DESCENDANT IN FRONT OF A DESTROY THE GODMODDER GAME:
Pictures taken by insert_generic_username, W32Coravint, and Sirplop.
All three pictures included the players' middle fingers.

NINE SEPARATE SIGNATURES OF NINE SEPARATE DESCENDANTS:
Pictures given by Crystalcat, NumberSoup, W32Coravint, Sirplop, PitTheAngel, Bomber57, SplitSuns, Speedon, insert_generic_username, and ConsumerOfAll.
Though only nine signatures were needed, ten were given. SplitSuns' signature was written next to his picture of the Godmodder.

AN ALTERNATE REALITY CARD FROM UNIVERSE KI:
Picture given by Speedon.
Universe KI corresponds to the realm of Kid Icarus, hinting that the cards needed were AR cards for the Nintendo 3DS game Kid Icarus: Uprising.

A CALENDAR DEPICTING TODAY’S DATE WITH ARCANE SYMBOLOGY DRAWN ON IT:
Picture given by insert_generic_username.
The date was August 18th, 2017. Originally, EOTE8 was supposed to occur on August 8th (8/8), but it wasn’t completed by that date, so it was pushed back to August 18th (8/18), a slightly less respectable date but one with two eights nonetheless. The arcane symbology in question was the Godhead.

THREE SEPARATE PHOTOGRAPHS IN THREE SEPARATE TIMEZONES OF THE SKY:
Pictures given by Sirplop, SplitSuns, insert_generic_username, W32Coravint, and Bomber57.
Though only three pictures were needed, five were given.

YOUR BED (I wanna be with you.):
Pictures given by insert_generic_username and SplitSuns.
insert_generic_username's picture also showed a DTG game and his middle finger.

A FIREFLY, WITH BONUS POINTS IF IT IS ON A FINGER OR A PALM:
Picture given by Sirplop.
The original intent was for a literal firefly to be in the picture, but the loophole of having a boxset of DVDs for the television show Firefly was too funny to deny.

A PHOTOGRAPH IN WHICH THE ONLY ILLUMINATION IS PROVIDED VIA BLACKLIGHT:
Picture given by SplitSuns.

SIX SEPARATE MIDDLE FINGERS OF SIX SEPARATE DESCENDANTS (NOT SEVERED):
Pictures given by Crystalcat, Bomber57, insert_generic_username, W32Coravint, SplitSuns, and Sirplop.
Several of these pictures also filled other picture quotas, as outlined above.

THE APOLOGY:
Picture given by SplitSuns.
According to TwinBuilder, the apology had to be the last photograph taken. The apology in question was a formal letter written by TwinBuilder earlier in the summer. It was the result of a bet made by him and the DTG Discord involving a character in Steven Universe known as Mystery Girl. Since the only copy of the letter was in TwinBuilder’s possession, SplitSuns was, again, the only person capable of retrieving it. According to both SplitSuns and TwinBuilder, the two proceeded to engage in an “idiotic” “fucking dance-off” to “the best song in existence.” SplitSuns won, and as such, he acquired the paper. (SplitSuns' middle finger was also in the shot.)

The back of the paper contained two characters in Ionian, a D and a Q. These marked the final characters in the eight-digit code that had been unveiled throughout the series of Gaster images, making the completed character string dVhe1Vdq. Visiting https://pastebin.com/dVhe1Vdq reveals the fourth stage.

It was decoded from Cyrillic, to English.

Every rhyming couplet contained a clue as to the location of its corresponding Key to the Universe. Once the general location of the Key was discovered, TwinBuilder would post an additional clue that would narrow down the specifics of its actual location. Typically, the Keys were hidden in various websites across the Internet, representing how they were hidden across the “CORNERS OF THE DIGITAL INTERVERSE.” The clues and location of each Key are as follows.

The first Key was located in Cookie Clicker, a browser game about baking cookies and using those cookies to collect items that can make more cookies. The clues pointing to this were the words “CURSERS” and “FINGERS OF WORKERS.” The first ‘building’ you can purchase in Cookie Clicker is a Cursor, which is a computer cursor that can auto-click the cookie to automatically make cookies. Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted in the form of a Pastebin: https://pastebin.com/nMdTesGB. The Pastebin contained long character strings, followed by a speific symbol. Due to the length of the strings, they will be truncated in this form; to see the full puzzle, click the link to the Pastebin.

[woDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOk...] ◊
[CgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgBB8w6fCv8KAw6TCv8K8w6TCv8K3w6fCv8K5w6TCoMKHw6bCv8K...] X
[0xOy0xOy0xOy0xOy0xOzA7MDswOzA7NTA7MDswOzE7MTsxNTAwOTE1MTk3ODgxO3wyLDE2Myw4Mzc...] 0
[0OTIwNjYxLDA7MCwwLDAsMDswLDAsMCwwOzAsMCwwLDA7fMOnwr/Cv8Onwr/Cv8Onwr/Cv8OnwrzCu...] ஆறு
[DCgMOkwoDCj8OnwrPCsMOkwojCvsOkwqDCgMOkwoDCgsOmwqjCj8OnwrDCgMOnwoDCgMOkwoDCg...] ҸЕФ
[MDgxNDQ4NTA1NjQsMDs1LDU1LDcwMDAzMjA2NzAzODgsMDsxOCw1OCwxNjU2NDQyNzI5Nzc0NCww...] 五
[zEyLDE1MiwyOTUwNzcwOTM0MiwwOzIxLDE0MSwxMDUyMDA5NTIwMTAsMDszLDExNiwzNzExOTU4OT...] ==>
[MOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwqPCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwoDCgMOkwr/CvM...] B
[Mi4wMDM0fHwxNTAwOTE1MTk3ODY1OzE1MDA5MTUxOTc4ODE7MTUwMTkwNTcyMzA1NztJO3Z6em54f...] One
[1Mzk5MDIuODM7Mzc2OTg7MjM5OzEyMDE1ODQ2MDI4NzMyLjM1Mjs3NTM7MDswOzA7MDswOzA7MDs...] 10
[KAw6TCvMKxw6bCgMKAw6TCgMKgw6TCgMKAw6TCgMKAw6TChMKAw6TCgMKGw6TCgMKAw6TC...] Jane Ives

It was deduced that the eleven strings of characters had to be re-arranged into one giant string, which would correspond to a Cookie Clicker save file when plugged into the game’s ‘Import Save’ feature. Although the proper order of the save file was mostly deduced by searching for sections of characters that repeated across strings, the symbols next to the strings contained the intended method for discovering the order.

The string labelled “One" went first, as ‘One’ is how the number 1 is written in English.
The string labelled “10” went second, as ’10’ is how the number 2 is represented in binary code.
The string labelled “0” went third, as Destroy the Godmodder 0rigins (or DTG0) was the third main game in the DTG series.
The string labelled “==>” went fourth, as the ‘==>’ symbol is used in Homestuck to advance the story when there are four main characters (the four Homestuck Kids).
The string labelled “五” went fifth, as ‘五’ is how the number 5 is written in Chinese.
The string labelled “ஆறு” went sixth, as ‘ஆறு’ is how the number 6 is written in Tamil.
The string labelled “ҸЕФ” went seventh, as ‘ҸЕФ’ is how the number 7 is written in Drenovian.
The string labelled “B” went eighth, as ‘B’ resembles the shape of the number ‘8,’ and a conversion of Bs to 8s is Vriska Serket’s typing quirk in Homestuck.
The string labelled “◊” went ninth, as ‘◊,’ a lozenge, is the ninth metachronistic Curse within DTG.
The string labelled “X” went tenth, as ‘X’ is how the number 10 is written in Roman numerals.
The string labelled “Jane Ives” went eleventh, as ‘Jane Ives’ is the birthname of the character known as ‘Eleven’ in the Netflix show Stranger Things.

When the string was properly inputted into Cookie Clicker, removing the identifying characters and the brackets and consolidating the whole thing into one line, a save was successfully loaded. The save file was named “I’s Bakery,” and its buildings were two Curses, fifteen Grandmas, twelve Farms, twenty-one Mines, three Factories, nine Banks, six Temples, five Wizard Towers, eighteen Shipments, and nothing else. This creates the full character string 2-15-12-21-3-9-6-5-18. When run through A1Z26, the 41st Key to the Universe’s name was revealed as BOLUCIFER.

The second Key was located in Inklewriter, a website with which people can create branching choose-your-own-adventure stories. The website was previously used by Irecreeper for his DTG games. The clues pointing to this were the words “ADVENTURE OF CHOICE” and “STUDIO OF INK.” This represented the website’s nature as a CYOA creator, and the website’s URL: writer.inklestudios.com. Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted: ɛnbisɪksɛm. The phrase can be split up into ɛn bi sɪks ɛm, which is the notation of the pronounciation of the phrase “n b six m.” This creates the completed character string nb6m, which, when attached to an Inklewriter stories link, creates the URL https://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/nb6m.

The URL leads to a story called “The Key,” created by “I.” The story centered around an amnesiac shadow-based entity trapped in a room that can only consciously act using the “power of the universe,” which takes strenuous effort. Through this power, they memorize the entirety of human culture and, feeling a strong sense that they’re not where they belong, but that they aren’t human either, resolve to find their way home. Through contact with the inhabitants of where they’re trapped, such as guards known as Judges and what seems to be one of the Advanced Superiors, Lozenge, the protagonist discovers that they possess the 42nd Key to the Universe themself, and are using it to control their surroundings. In all but one of the game’s endings, the protagonist loses their hold on the Key, fails to recover their memories, and Lozenge (who is heading a project known as the Gatekeeper Corps, in which innocent souls are extracted and put into suits of armor that can use metachronism for battle) uses the Key’s power for himself. However, in the game’s best ending (in which the protagonist makes a detour and recovers their missing memories), the protagonist is able to reach into the narrative of the story to find the Key’s name (since a Key can only be truly unlocked when its name is known), and uses this power to go back to their home and become the ruler of their civilization.

The following images collectively chronicle every choice that could be made in “The Key,” with all of its routes, game overs, and endings.

The name of the key was found shortly into the “Escape Route,” when Lozenge entered the player’s cell and asked if they remembered anything from their past. If the player selected “Shake your head.” and then “SPIT IN HIS FACE,” they would progress through a series of events that ended with the game displaying four choices: М, И, Р, and Е. Each choice displayed a different rhyme in Cyrillic. They read as follows when translated: “M is for Mason, the cutter of stone. I is for Interpunct, lord of the throne. R is for Richard, who rules his own turf. E is for Ender, the ends of the earth.” When the four characters were read together, the 42nd Key to the Universe’s name was revealed as MIRE.

The third Key was located in Portal 2, a first-person puzzle game made by Valve and distributed on Steam. The clues pointing to this were “AN APERTURE DEEP UNDERGROUND,” “PLAYER ONE,” and “PLAYER TWO.” This represented the game’s setting, Aperture Science Laboratories, which is a massive facility dominated by a rogue artificial intelligence known as GLaDOS. Almost all of the facility is underground in upper Michigan. The use of multiple players indicated that it was a co-operative game. Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted: [RETURN TO THE STEAM VALVE. WE WILL MAKE OUR FINAL STAND THERE.] By this point, the message was clear – TwinBuilder was inviting someone, anyone that had Portal 2, to play the game with him. Immediately after the message was posted, he began playing Portal 2 on Steam (the notification being visible to those both online Steam and having TwinBuilder on their Friends list). After some deliberation, pionoplayer decided to step up and play with TwinBuilder.

TwinBuilder sent pionoplayer an invitation to a custom co-operative map in the game. The stage used was “Gelocity Stage 3,” designed by Radix. The match was not a puzzle-based gauntlet, but a race around a course designed with many of Portal 2’s puzzle components (such as a portal gun and gels that speed the player up and make them bounce in the air). The race had three laps, and whoever reached the finish line at the end of their third lap first won. Though pionoplayer failed, Crystalcat tried after them and succeeded. Upon the conclusion of the game, TwinBuilder posted the name of the 43rd Key to the Universe, FORTYNINE, and disconnected. Crystalcat then posted it for the masses to see.

The fourth Key was located in an analogue of r/place, “https://place.dynastic.co”. r/place was an experiment hosted by Reddit from April 1-3, 2017. The experiment was a 1000×1000-pixel canvas (1,000,000 pixels in total). Anyone could change the color of any pixel from one of sixteen specific colors every five or so minutes. (More information can be found here. The clues pointing to this were “IN PLACE” and “A PIXELED DECISION,” which alluded to the actual name and format of r/place.

Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted: hттпс://и.имгур.цом/змxЕЛзР.пнг. It was decoded from Cyrillic to English: https://i.imgur.com/zmxELzR.png. The image, displayed below, contained instructions on what had to be created, and where it should be placed within the canvas. Upon the completion of the image, the Key’s name would be shown.

Since the actual r/place site had been archived by the time of the puzzle, TwinBuilder linked to an alternative site, https://place.dynastic.co/?signedin=1#x=1300&y=300, which had been foreshadowed by the use of the word “DYNASTIC” in the initial hint. The site could only be accessed by logging onto it through Discord, which had also been foreshadowed through the phrase “DISCORD WILL BRING YOU” in the hint. However, no one was able to successfully log on to the site except Sirplop and SplitSuns. The two of them (and occasionally TwinBuilder) worked on the image intermittently, but SplitSuns was soon banned from the site. (The site may have thought he was an alt of TwinBuilder.) Sirplop was left to work on the image, posting one pixel per minute at a steady rate, with TwinBuilder sometimes chipping in, for a long while afterwards.

Despite going solo, Sirplop did indeed finish the image (and wrote “EOTE” below it for good measure). With Sirplop hailed as a hero by all, TwinBuilder revealed the 44th Key to the Universe, ZEF, in response.

The fifth Key was located in WordPress, a free open-source content management system used for blogs. The clue pointing to this was “PRESSED BY WORDS,” which was clearly the phrase “WordPress” shuffled around. Upon discovery of this, a peculiar clue was posted: a set of fifty-one 51s. ("51515151515151...") As the clue was obtuse, the rest of the initial hint was used to determine what it meant. The phrases “A LAKEBED OF SALT,” “COLLISION EVENT,” and “THE SKIES,” coupled by a comment of TwinBuilder that something was “coming from” the skies, led to the conclusion that it was about Area 51 – a government facility associated with alien events (particularly the Roswell incident) located near Groom Lake, a salt flat.

Upon discovery of this, TwinBuilder posted the following link: https://collisionevent.wordpress.com/. The blog was titled “COLLISION EVENT,” its description was identical to the fifty one 51s clue, and its only post was a lengthy wall of text titled “фифтыоне” – when translated from Cyrillic, it reads “fiftyone.” The wall of text on the blog was encoded in Cyrillic; an English translation can be found below. When translated, it is revealed to be a story told by a high-class employee at Area 51. Though its connections to DTG are not immediately apparent, much like “The Key,” the connections are made clearer with the revelation that Area 51 was built to research a series of unmanned cubic spaceships that periodically crash-land to Earth – ships similar to those used by the Gatekeeper Corps in “The Key.” At the climax of the story, an Area 51 plane is piloted through one of the portals used by these ships to reach Earth. The pilot described his location as a realm of shimmering white sunbeams, and that the Area 51 crew could one day join him by keeping watch over the world and any possible anomalies that could disturb order. The base then lost contact with the pilot, with no more ships landing on Earth. This event marked the transformation of Area 51 from a governmental research facility to an SCP Foundation-esque organization focused on neutralizing the paranormal and extraterrestrial. This state is in line with past depictions of Area 51 in DTG itself, such as TwinBuilder’s April Fools’ 2016 event.

The name of the key was found by taking the first letter of every paragraph in the story. When each letter is assembled into a sentence, it reads “IOUCOSAHEDRON IS THE ANSWER TO GEOMETRY.” This reveals the 45th Key to the Universe’s name as IOUCOSAHEDRON.

The sixth Key was located in Soundcloud, a website for hosting and sharing music. Of note is that SplitSuns has an account on the site for the purposes of sharing his own music. The clues pointing to this were “IN THE CLOUDS,” and “HISSING SOUNDS,” which is, again, a clear shuffling of the intended site, “Soundcloud.” Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted: -....- -..- -.... .. ...- –.. When translated from Morse Code, the message reads -X6IVZ.

This gave the completed URL https://soundcloud.com/splitsuns/incoming_transmission/s-x6Ivz, which TwinBuilder posted immediately afterwards. The song is now removed from SplitSuns’ Soundcloud, so it cannot be heard. The track art was a blurred and sharpened image of the Gate. The song contained several series of synthesizer notes played in a simple beat at a slowish tempo. Each note played within one series was the exact same, but every series was made of a different notes. The series ascended in pitch until a single triumphant note was played that ended the song, background beats playing over and over as the song faded. The actual pitches of the notes and the background beats were irrelevant – what mattered were how many notes were in each sequence. Twenty-four notes were in the first sequence, one note was in the second, eight notes were in the third, one note was in the fourth, eighteen notes were in the fifth, and one note was played at the end. When assembled into an A1Z26 code, this gives 24-01-8-1-18-1. When translated, the 46th Key to the Universe was revealed as XAHARA.

The seventh Key was associated with Undertale, an indie RPG created by Toby Fox – particularly, a character in the game called Flowey the Flower, who was summoned in Destroy the Godmodder 0rigins as a companion to the Scribe and, eventually, a hostile Boss entity. The clues pointing to this were “SMILING ALTHOUGH HE’S NO MORE,” “THE PACT,” and “YOUR SOULS,” all of which related to Flowey’s existence and demise within DTG0. Flowey typically smiles, both in Undertale and in DTG0, and he is ‘no more’ because of his death in DTG0. “The Pact” was the name of the charge that summoned Omega Flowey as a boss, and it was empowered by the souls of six players. Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted: ТХЕ ИМАГЕ ИС ТХЕ КЕЫ, КИЛЛ ИТ АНД ЫОУьЛЛ БЕ ФРЕЕ. It was translated from Cyrillic, to English: THE IMAGE IS THE KEY, KILL IT AND YOU’LL BE FREE. After a period of time in which people believed they actually had to delete an image, judging by the ‘KILL’ comment, TwinBuilder clarified that they only needed to find an image, and more importantly, the image was only in the DTG Discord – nowhere else. Eventually, it was discovered that it was an emote – a picture of a key named :I5bPR:. This corresponded with a link to an Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/I5bPR.

The album consisted of Flowey talking to someone, seemingly the Scribe, about how “a certain doctor” has the next key to the universe. Flowey further confirms the doctor’s identity as W.D. Gaster by saying “it can only be told ... through hands,” and implied that Gaster could be reached at an Outlook e-mail address, referencing a puzzle in Ends of the Earth 3 wherein the players had to contact such an e-mail. Indeed, the e-mail was the exact same – anunholytrinity_@outlook.com. All messages from the e-mail were sent in Wingdings, reinforcing the idea that Gaster was on the other side. SplitSuns sent an introductory message, which was met with the following exchange.

After many, many guesses of assembling the word, in a similar vein to the word-constructing puzzles from Ends of the Earth 7, the 47th Key to the Universe was finally correctly guessed to be GLAUCOALESCE – “glaucoma” being blindness, and “coalescence” being a conclusion. When Split sent the Key to Gaster, he responded: “TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH. TAKE MY SIN. AND SHACKLE YOURSELF WITH IT. I HAVE ENOUGH BURDENS TO BEAR. GO FORTH. AND. AT THE END OF EVERYTHING. REMEMBER ME AS YOU STAND. IN THE GARDEN OF GEOMETRY.”

The eighth Key was located in slither.io, a browser game where the player controls a snake whose goal is to grow to be the biggest in the server, by both eating nutrients or having other snakes run into them. The clues pointing to this were “EVER-WINDING,” “GROW TALL,” “SERPENTS,” and “CONSUMER OF ALL.” The snakes in the game typically move in erratic winding patterns when running from or attacking other snakes, and the point of the game is to grow tall and consume any other snake in your path. Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted: СЕАРЧ ФОР ТХЕ ЕОТЕ. ИТ WИЛЛ СWИРЛ АТ ТХЕ ЦЕНТЕР. It was translated from Cyrillic, to English: SEARCH FOR THE EOTE. IT WILL SWIRL AT THE CENTER. This gave the players a command – find the slither.io game in which TwinBuilder was (his name would be prefaced with an EOTE:), and then find him at the center of the map.

Though this sounded simple in theory, it fell apart quickly in practice. The server one joins when starting a slither.io game is entirely randomized, and the only way to change servers is to die or quit, meaning that it would be hard to coordinate everyone into one server at the same time, if not impossible. In addition, since spawnpoints are typically a fair distance from the center, and the player has to avoid other snakes on the way, it’s likely they’ll die before getting there. Lastly, it’s very hard to tell the names of other players in slither.io – oftentimes, they aren’t visible at all. These factors led TwinBuilder, and the others, to go on agar.io, a similar site, instead, but they ran into similar problems. Even when they managed to join the same game, they couldn’t tell what anyone’s names were. When all the players and TwinBuilder met up in a corner of the map (effectively “finding” Twin), he just posted a picture of his screen with his ingame name on it, revealing the 48th Key to the Universe as IFICATE.

The ninth Key was associated with the Black Monolith, a mystical black slab found in 2001: A Space Odyssey, FEZ, and throughout DTG. In DTG, the Monolith can grant the wish of anyone that reaches it, provided they first break its nigh-impenetrable Infinity Seal. The clues pointing to this were “SEALED TIGHT,” “TABLET OF NIGHT,” and “ANSWERS NOWHERE IN SIGHT.” The use of the word ‘seal’ alludes to the Monolith’s Infinity Seal, with ‘tablet of night’ effectively being a synonym for the object itself. The lack of answers references the Monolith’s role in the game of FEZ. One of the hardest puzzles in the game involved using an ingame code to summon the Monolith, but the game then gave little indication on what to do next – the code necessary to progress was nowhere except in the game’s code, meaning the players had to bruteforce it. Upon discovery of this, this clue was posted: /█. This, coupled with TwinBuilder telling the story of how the Monolith’s code in FEZ was only found in debugging the game, led the players to realize that the clue was in the syntax of a command for The Pinary ARG: specifically, /black, which summons the Black Monolith.

After typing the command, the Black Monolith appeared in the DTG Discord, talking to the players. An edited log of its conversation, and its results, can be found below. In short, through entering the debug menu of Probect Pinary, the players modified the parameters of the Ends of the Earth text adventure itself, tricking the Black Monolith into revealing the six-digit tetromino code necessary to unlock it on the Monolith Tumblr page that had been found in Ends of the Earth 7. The code was SPACE DOWN UP A SPACE D.

When the code was spoken by the players, it was automatically inputted onto the Tumblr page, revealing an image of the activated Monolith saying “█ WHAT IS YOUR WISH.” Once the players wished for the ninth Key, the Monolith spoke in the DTG Discord, revealing the 49th Key to the Universe as APOLLYGON.

With that, the last nine Keys to the Universe were assembled, meaning the complete set of forty-nine was now in the hands of the players. Posting a set of seven rows and columns of [x]s, TwinBuilder announced that the Ends of the Earth had opened due to the gathering of the Keys. He then posted an IP address: play.goldencraft.co:25565. This started the fifth stage.

The IP address corresponded to GoldenCraft, a Minecraft server known in the DTG community for its Creative world. The server had been used previously in the concluding puzzle of Ends of the Earth 5, as TwinBuilder built a series of pillars throughout a wide plot with the final code on them; the pillars had to be reached through a combination of walking and parkour. This time, however, the creative plot had been completely and radically altered into the Ends of the Earth itself. The ground was composed entirely of black stone, and five constructions, arranged in a straight line, were set from one end of the plot to the other. The first was a gigantic [x] symbol flanked by a set of pillars, all made from Purpur Blocks. The second was a small Nether Brick temple with walls of lava surrounding it. The third was a flat plane of various sandstone blocks. The fourth was a gigantic spire made from various Ocean Monument blocks. The fifth was a representation of the Godhead – a quartz upside-down triangle with a red stained glass triangle at its lower point, a yellow stained glass triangle at its upper-left point, a blue stained glass triangle at its upper-right point, and an eye in the middle. Behind each stained glass triangle were unlit Redstone Lamps. The goal of the map was to light the three sets of Lamps, “activating” the Godhead, by completing three puzzles, one for each intermediary building.

The [x] served as an introduction to the Ends of the Earth map. It was surrounded by lava pools that had softened the black ground into concrete powder. At this end of the map, an obsidian pillar with three signs on each of its four sides was set in the middle of a lava pool. (This mirrored how, in the earlier Goldencraft map, the players were met by a quartz pillar displaying some tips for the map.) The obsidian pillar's signs read, in order: “SOME MORE WORDS OF CAUTION” “They’re all gone. They’re all gone. They’re all gone. They’re all gone.” “They’re all gone. They’re all gone. They’re all gone. They’re all gone.” “It’s the end of th It’s the end of th It’s the end of th It’s the end of th” “e world as we kno e world as we kno e world as we kno e world as we kno” “w it and I feel fin. w it and I feel fin. w it and I feel fin. w it and I feel fin.” “Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open.” “Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open.” “Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open. Don’t let him open.” “Come join the fun Come join the fu Come join the f Come join the” “Come join th Come join t Come join Come” “It’s a real get-together.”

The Nether Brick temple led to a small square room with lava in its walls. In the middle of a room was a hole leading down a long vertical cavity built from wooden alcoves, each one containing a series of bookshelves. Every alcove had some shelves missing, with those spaces intermittently lit by torches. At the bottom of the cavity was a short passageway that opened up into a refinery, a spacious Nether Brick room. The refinery's east, south, and west walls contained a multitude of signs, arranged in nine alternating rows of four and five. (The middle sign of the south wall’s penultimate row was absent, as that space was taken up by a sealed exit, and the north wall was bare, since it was the entrance to the refinery.) Written on every sign was a symbol: a lowercase letter, an uppercase letter, or a number from 0 to 9. To solve the puzzle, the players had to find a chest hidden in an alcove immediately before the refinery.

The chest contained a book with four pages with representations of the east, south, and west walls’ signs. Every sign was represented by a 0, bar nine exceptions. Sign 3 of row 3 on the east wall was a 6, sign 4 of row 8 on the east wall was a 7, sign 4 of row 1 on the south wall was a 1, sign 2 of row 2 on the south wall was a 5, sign 5 of row 6 on the south wall was a 4, an x was placed where sign 3 of row 8 would have been on the south wall (since there was none), sign 5 of row 2 on the west wall was a 3, sign 1 of row 4 on the west wall was an 8, and sign 5 of row 6 on the west wall was a 2.

(The book's fourth page contained the following message: “The refiner’s fire pulsates with the beat of the earth. But if I am at the ends of the earth, could I find a way to silence this oppressive infinity once and for all? I must try or be consumed by the conflagration.”)

The sign marked as ‘1’ (South Wall, Row 1, Sign 4)’s character was D.
The sign marked as ‘2’ (West Wall, Row 6, Sign 5)’s character was h.
The sign marked as ‘3’ (West Wall, Row 2, Sign 5)’s character was c.
The sign marked as ‘4’ (South Wall, Row 6, Sign 5)’s character was u.
The sign marked as ‘5’ (South Wall, Row 2, Sign 2)’s character was k.
The sign marked as ‘6’ (East Wall, Row 3, Sign 3)’s character was 2.
The sign marked as ‘7’ (East Wall, Row 8, Sign 4)’s character was 2.
The sign marked as ‘8’ (West Wall, Row 4, Sign 1)’s character was W.

Once the code was found, TwinBuilder moved to the west wall and broke an extraneous blank sign at the right end of its fourth row. Behind it was a lever, which he then flipped. This activated the Redstone Lamps behind the red triangle of the Godhead at the far end of the map. He then broke the blocks sealing the exit to the refinery, letting the players move ahead. They advanced through a narrow hallway which turned from Nether Brick to Red Sandstone to Sandstone, opening into a large vertical room with decorative patterns and single-block columns of lava on each wall. Flying all the way to the ceiling allowed the players to pass through a one-block opening that brought them topside.

The opening led directly to the flat sandstone plain. The north end of the plain was marked by a set of ten anvils stacked on top of each other. In accordance with the Pastebin found through the Nether Brick temple, the players had simple directions. They had to construct The Gate on the sandstone arena in ten minutes. With every minute that passed, TwinBuilder would break the anvil at the bottom, and the stack would fall one block down. If the players ran out of time, they would have to try again. Using a combination of concrete blocks, mineral blocks, and purpur blocks, the players successfully built the Gate within the time limit, as shown below., TwinBuilder deemed it to be an accurate representation of the Gate. He then broke a block at the foot of the anvil stack, revealing a lever, and flipped it. This activated the Redstone Lamps behind the yellow triangle of the Godhead at the far end of the map.

The spire was dead ahead, and it contained the last puzzle. The spire itself was made of various Prismarine blocks, and in the middle of its small interior was a spiral quartz staircase wrapped around a quartz column, leading to the very top of the spire. The spire itself was lit by windows and redstone torches. The top of the spire was a cubic room whose walls were covered top-to-bottom with paintings. The only illumination came from redstone torches, were arranged around couplets of item frames placed on two of the room’s walls. Floating in the middle of the room was a pillar of lapis lazuli with a series of signs on it, much like the introductory obsidian pillar. Its signs read, in order: “TO PROCEED ANSWER THE FOLLOWING SECURITY” “QUESTIONS: HOW MANY SKULL PAINTINGS ARE IN THE SPIRE” “HOW MANY SIGNS ARE IN THE ABANDONED REFINERY” “WHAT IS MY FAVORITE PAINTING” “WHAT ARE THIS SYMBOL’S TWO MEANINGS: 0,0” “WHAT ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR” “HOW MANY BLOCKS TALL IS THIS SPIRE” “HOW MANY TORCHES ARE IN THIS ROOM” “WHAT IS MY FAVORITE MUSIC DISC” “WHAT IS MY NAME:” “MY FIRST HALF IS OF THE BEAST” “MY SECOND HALF IS ALL OF YOU” The correct answers are:

ONE. 3. The Moonlight Installation paintings can be seen in the image below.
TWO. 119. The east and west walls contained 40 signs each (4+5+4+5+4+5+4+5+4), and the south wall contained 39 signs since it was missing one. 40 + 40 + 39 = 119. (This does not count the blank sign which TwinBuilder destroyed to pull the refinery’s lever.)
THREE. GRAHAM. The Graham painting appears in the room 11 times, the most out of any painting.
FOUR. OWLS AND THE DIVIDE. 0,0 resembles both the face of an owl and the representation of the divide between the continuities of DTG and TheLordErelye (stylized as O|O, or an 8 with a strikethrough).
FIVE. ENDS OF THE EARTH, THE EIGHTH PAGE. Self-explanatory. “THE TRUE NAME” would also be accepted for “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR,” as in the true name of What Lies Beyond.
SIX. 109. Self-explanatory.
SEVEN. 0. There are no torches in the room, only redstone torches.
EIGHT. STAL. Stal can be seen within one of the item frames in a room, and no other Music Discs are present.
NINE. MARKUS. The name can be split in two parts: MARK and US. MARK is the first half, since it completes the phrase “MARK OF THE BEAST.” US is the second half, since it represents “ALL OF YOU” – a group can be referred to by the pronoun of “us.” “MARKUS” is the first name of Notch, the creator of Minecraft.

Once every question was answered correctly, TwinBuilder traveled to the bottom of the spire’s quartz staircase and broke a block by it. This revealed a lever, which he then flipped. This activated the Redstone Lamps behind the blue triangle of the Godhead at the far end of the map. With all three portions of the Godhead lit, TwinBuilder beckoned everyone towards the Godhead. He then broke apart the Godhead’s eye, revealing a narrow tunnel with a chest at its end. The chest’s contents were an arrangement of Bone Meal, Rose Red, Dandelion Yellow, and Light Blue Dye made to look the Godhead. Where its eye should be, there was another Book titled “The Omnibus.” The book’s first page contained the following message: “Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed – I’m being watched. I must hide this book before my body is consumed by unstoppable fire. Remember, on the path to the Ends of the Earth, you are shackled by sin.”

The second page contained a single Imgur link: imgur.com/a/qwBaZ. This started the sixth stage.

The Imgur album contained the front cover and first eleven pages of the Scribe’s Journal, officially known as The Omnibus on the Order of the Stone, or merely the Omnibus. Hidden above specific letters on pages four through eleven of the book are a tiny 1 and a tiny 2, drawn faintly so as to blend in with the page. The numbers and their corresponding letters are as follows:

Page 4’s 1 was above an E, and its 2 was above a D.
Page 5’s 1 was above a B, and its 2 was inside a C.
Page 6’s 1 was above an A, and its 2 was above an E.
Page 7’s 1 was below a C, and its 2 was above a B.
Page 8 contained three couplets. 1.1 was above a C, 1.2 was above a D, 2.1 was below a C, 2.2 was below a C, 3.1 was below an A, and 3.2 was below an E.
Page 9’s 1 was above an A, and its 2 was above an A.
Page 10’s 1 was below an A, and its 2 was above a C.
Page 11’s 1 was below a B, and its 2 was below a D.

This created the following couplets of letters: ED, BC, AE, CB, CD, CC, AE, AA, AC, and BD. When translated through a Polybius square with a key of ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ, the pairs of letters are converted into single letters: Y, H, E, M, O, N, E, A, C, and I. Since CD, CC, and AE were on the same page, they’re meant to be read together, making a ONE (1). This creates the complete character string yHeM1ACi.

A full list of the writing and images within the excerpt of the Scribe’s Omnibus will be posted in the following paragraphs, for completion’s sake, as well as clarity (in the event that some of the text is hard to read). The front cover is worn by age, with its spine and corners capped by gold plating. It is stylistically reminiscient of Gravity Falls’ Journals; in place of the golden six-fingered hand, the Scribe’s book featuers a black image of a scarred eye, the de facto logo of the DTG series.

Page one contains haphazard writing from someone named Flynn, presumably the Omnibus’ original author. “Vernal Equinox, 989 AN: My grandfather gave me this book to write in. He sey says it’ll help me in school becuz because I’ll learn to write better. I don’t see how writing’s supposed to help me kill Tist Teste Testificates but whatever. — Flynn” This text matches with the Scribe’s account of how he recovered the Omnibus from the corpse of a fellow Human soldier that fell into a ravine during the Great War, a siege where Humans and Testificates fought for control of the world. “AN” refers to “After Notch,” a Minecraftian equivalent to “AD”/“CE”. Below the writing, and next to splotches of dried blood, the Scribe left his own message. “Unknown, 1142 AN: As this book’s current owner, I would like to tell you that writing can absolutely help you kill Testificates. Just write this and visualize their code tearing apart: ÷ Now where was I...”

Page two features a tacked-on slip of paper, with text reading “Property of THE SCRIBE. If found, go to nearest water source, say ‘crunchatize me, cap’n!’ precisely twenty-seven times, and drop the book in. Now you’ll look like an idiot. Heh.” This parodies a similar page in the Gravity Falls Journals, as the second page in Journal 3 also has a tag saying “Property of,” though the portion of the paper with the author’s name is torn off.

Page three features, besides various green stains, text that introduces the book proper. It lists the book’s title, “‘OMNIBUS on the ORDER of the STONE,’ or, ‘The Omnibus.’” Below the title is an excerpt from the Word of Notch: “‘And Notch looked to the heavens, full of shame upon his throne / For even he had to acknowledge the order of the stone.’ — Memory 10:10, the Word of Notch.” The “Order of the Stone” title was inspired by a potential name for Minecraft in real life, “Order of the Stone.” (The phrase would subsequently feature in Minecraft: Story Mode.) Within DTG, The Word of Notch is a Minecraftian holy book that was previously featured in Ends of the Earth 7 and other works in Meanwhile, in the Future.

Page four contains the first proper page of the Omnibus. Text at the top of the page dates its contents to “Autumnal, 27th megatick, 1142 AN.” The Scribe then begins writing. “They say that Autumnal time is a bringer of change. Who are ‘they?’ Don’t know. Never asked. But perhaps I will find out. My visions in this tome are manifold. ONE. To catalogue the mysteries of Minecraft. (Of these will be included, ‘Why is its name Minecraft?’) TWO. To create an extensive chronology of Minecraft’s prehistory and written history. THREE. Perhaps most importantly, I seek the DEATH OF GOD.)”

“Autumnal” is a clear equivalent to autumn, with megaticks presumably representing days. The page is adorned with a couple of images: a red brimstone sigil, and a drawing of several rolling hills and a winding river. At the left end of the drawing is a square sun, with small text reading “like the sun” above it. At the right end of the drawing is a square moon, with small text reading “and the moon” above it.

Page five expands upon the Scribe’s primary motivation of “the death of God.” Text at the top of the page lists its subject as “GOD.” The right side of the page is taken up by a drawing (labelled Fig. 01, THAT GUY, with an arrow pointing towards it) of Notch, shown as a bald Minecraftian with thick goggles, a beard, a raggedy shirt with a furry hood, and an anvil shaped like the Mojang logo. The top of the anvil has text that, when decoded from Atbash, reads “TEAM MOJANG.” There is another drawing at the bottom-left of the page (labelled Fig. 02, “DIVINITY.”), with text next to it: “Legends tell of a Palace of the Gods above the clouds.” The image depicts said palace, shown as a medieval castle situated on a floating island of rock; a triangular artifact juts out beneath, while a monolithic cube comprises the castle’s “roof.” The bulk of the page consists of the Scribe’s writings:

“NOTCH. The Lord of the Forge. He who saw the world bereft of life and, using the MOJANG (the DIVINE ANVIL), sculpted the Overworld we exist in. His existence is accepted as fact by a majority of the world’s population. You may ask, why do I desire to kill God? CAN I kill God? The answer is, hypothetically, yes. But it will be tricky. VERY tricky. And also semantically idiotic, because Notch isn’t the only divine power in this rodeo. OTHER UNHOLY BASTARDS INCLUDE...”

Page six, along with the rest of the pages in the excerpt, runs through an assortment of other godlike entities the Scribe has seen within Minecraft. He begins with, as the text at the top of the page indicates, “The Endermen.” The majority of the page contains a drawing of an Enderman. While it mostly resembles the in-game creature, its jaw is unhinged, with its “mouth” gradually liquefying like tar, and its hands are giant sharp claws.

Running clockwise from top-left, the page features numerous drawings and writings. There is a set of four green tetrominoes (one pointing up, one pointing down, one pointing up, and one pointing left), with a line splitting into two arrows above them at the top-left. Above the Enderman drawing is red text saying “NIGHT TERRORS!!” At the top-right is text on endermens’ scale. “HEIGHT: Approximately one cube taller than the typical human.” An accompanying graphic compares a slime’s height of one block to a human’s height of two, and an enderman’s of three. Below is text on eyes. “EYES: Pink. Peculiar choice. They detest when other living beings are staring at them and react accordingly. Can they see into other planes?” Next to the writing is an image of the Godhead with the bottom triangle (the Refiner’s Fire) separated from the rest. Below is text on hands. “HANDS: Either stumps suited for block manipulation or clawed murder machines.” At the bottom-right, next to the drawing of the enderman’s claws, is green text saying “SHARP!! (seriously)” At the bottom-left is a drawing of an Ender Pearl, labelled “Fig 03-B: ‘Ender Pearl.’” Above is text on mouths. “MOUTH: Seething pit of sludge. Only opens in hunting mode. Resultant screech alerts other Endermen of prey. If they have a spoken language, I sure can’t understand it.” Above is a drawing of two purple spirals linked by a single line, with text next to it saying “symbology.” It presumably depicts Ender iconography.

Page seven continues the discussion on Endermen. Scattered parts of the text are stained with a blue liquid, and a drawing of green tetrominoes (an L, S, and right piece, along with the outlines of FEZ‘s dual square symbol) are shown in the center. The middle-left portion of the page is a section on “BLOCKS I’VE SEEN THEM CARRY,” with the Scribe writing the following list: “Dirt, Grass, Clay, Sand, Dynamite, Mushrooms, Pumpkins, Melons, Podzol, Netherrack, a lot of flowers, someone’s head (It was the head of a corpse.)” The list has a drawing of TNT, a severed head (resembling the default Alex skin), and a carved pumpkin. Small text below the pumpkin reads: “CURIOUSLY, WEARING A PUMPKIN PROTECTS YOU. THOUGHT TO BE DUE TO PUMPKINS’ USES IN MYSTICAL GOLEMS.”

The majority of the page outlines the Endermen’s backstory. “The leading theory as to why Endermen are the way they are: They used to be a race of deities with the power to jump betwixt dimensions while also modifying them, but lost this power over time. Eventually, ‘Team Mojang’ took their place. But what’s the cause of this loss of power? A force greater than the gods must be responsible. For this, I have only one reasonable guess as to the identity of the ‘Enderman Killer.’” The top-left portion of the piece features a drawing of a shadowy, skinny beast with long limbs and clawed hands. In lieu of a face, it has a flaming pink diamond with a dot inside. To the left of the drawing is an arrow (<==) showing the beast’s transition into a drawing of a normal Enderman, highlighting the Scribe’s theory of devolution. The former beast’s appearance heavily resembles Judgement, the final boss of Hyper Light Drifter.

The bottom of the page is dedicated to talking about teleportation. The Scribe writes: “Teleportation is accomplished using Ender Pearls. The heart of the Enderman taps into the bonds between dimensions known as ‘the Slip’ (the same magic that lets Nether Portals work) and lets them fast travel from Point A to Point B. Heating Ender Pearls lets them access entirely new dimensions.” To the left of the writing is a triptych. The first part shows an Enderman standing in the Overworld at Point A (its Ender Pearl is drawn where its heart would be, and is rendered in pink). The second shows the Enderman, whose body is vibrating and fluctuating while rendered in pink, traveling between dimensions while inside “The Slip.” The third shows the Enderman standing in the Overworld at Point B, its Pearl still slightly fluctuating.

Page eight continues by discussing the figure the Scribe calls the “Enderman Killer.” The text at the top of the page reads “Herobrine,” with the latter half struck out due to superstition. Running clockwise from top-left, the page contains an image of a Diamond encrusted with a chunky black substance. The image is labelled “Figure H-B: Cursed Diamond,” with text next to it saying only “???” The top-right of the page features a quote: “Upon the hill no tree did stand ‘twixt many butchered cows / And writ in blood from sky to earth: ‘Only God can save you now.’” — Old nursery rhyme” This references a component of the Herobrine creepypasta, which attributes the last line to the character. The Scribe then writes in his own words.

“You know the old laws. Don’t say his name. Don’t write his name. (Oops.) And whatever you do, don’t summon him. ‘HE,’ as I will call this entity to prevent armageddon, is definitely not a god, but HE is a higher power. With his diamond [pickaxe], he reaps the souls of the innocent, and has for hundreds of years. Team Mojang keeps ‘removing’ him. When will it stick?” The bottom-right of the page elaborates on the name of Herobrine’s pickaxe. “NETHERRARIA: ‘HELL ON EARTH.’ NETHER = HELL. TERRA = EARTH. Simple naming conventions.” The left side of the page features a drawing of Herobrine, showing his trademark clothes, blank eyes, and his left arm, cloaked in darkness. He carries Netherraria with it, a gigantic pickaxe with a gnarled branch for a handle, a gem in the middle, and twin diamond blades (one dripping with blood). Off to the side of the portrait is a small doodle of a Herobrine Totem (nine gold blocks, two netherrack blocks in the middle, with a flint and steel above). Above the image is text reading “DON’T LET HIM INTO YOUR MIND!” in a reference to Journal 3’s similar warnings on Bill Cipher. Above that is bloody text reading “CAN’T SLEEP, DREAMS OF DEATH, CAN’T CRY, TEARS OF BLOOD.” Blood stains, and a bloody handprint, are present on the page.

Page nine continues the discussion on Herobrine. The top of the page reads “TO SUMMON UNSPEAKABLE EVIL;” the title is flanked by a red solidus sigil. The Scribe then writes two separate methods for summoning Herobrine. The first, written on the left, is “Construct a totem.” He writes: “Requires nine gold blocks. (Not cheap.) Four redstone torches. Two blocks of netherrack. (Hard to find.) An eternal flame. (And something to light it.)” This matches the classic construction of Herobrine Totems as shown in Minecraft mods (and the previous page). The second, written on the right, is “Say his name.” The Scribe writes:

“Studies have shown this only works during thunderstorms, eclipses, funerals, and anywhere below y=11. Naturally, I tried the latter option myself one night, to hear if the rumors of Mojang’s Ender Matrix were true, and if HE was gone. I sought out a storm and spoke HIS name three times. I saw a glimpse, and nothing more. Perhaps even that was a dream...” To the left of the writing is a drawing of a black hilltop and sky, framed by a bolt of lightning and Herobrine’s silouhette. Only his white eyes are visible.

The bottom half of the page contains a wall of text with the title “AND SPEAKING OF NAMES:” The only drawing, taking up the bottom-left of the page, is a swirling red hurricane with a black pupil in the middle; the hurricane’s “eye” functions as the pupil’s sclera. The Scribe writes: “While pouring through research on HIM, I made a discovery. It is not speaking HIS full name that summons HIM — rather, only the latter half, ‘YIRMV,’ ciphered here for protection. The ‘Hero’ is completely safe. This has led me to a new conclusion. Some versions of the Word of Notch depict the first Player as Hero, who was killed while exploring the world Notch created and became corrupted into a demon. Perhaps ‘YIRMV’ is this corrupting force. More powerful than the gods, and surely great enough to kill the Endermen.” ‘YIRMV,’ when run through the Atbash cipher, reads ‘BRINE,’ the true name of the Red Dragon, and the true identity of the force that the Scribe has begun to hit upon in this text.

Page ten continues the overarching discussion on Minecraft’s gods by running through other deities. The text at the top of the pages labels this section as “The Other Ones,” with Team Mojang’s symbol drawn in red to its right. Below, text reads “TEAM MOJANG DOESN’T JUST CONSIST OF NOTCH...” Below that text is a diagram of a Crafting Table input and output for a Jukebox. (Eight wood and a diamond in the middle for the input, and a Jukebox for the output.) The rest of the page is comprised of two entries on Team Mojang members.

The first is titled “Jeb, the Creator,” and reads “Has nearly as much power as Notch. Continually edits and shapes the world from time to time, past Notch’s initial forging. Blessings in his name will bring about miracles, like rainbow-colored sheep.” It features a drawing of Jeb, showing him with his short hair, trademark bun, beard, and glasses, as well as a halo of sorts.

The second is titled “Dinnerbone, the Reverser,” and reads “Though he doesn’t have as much power as the greater gods, his actions are broader in scope. He is known as a changer of fate, able to reverse outcomes (and actual entities) at will. Don’t get on his bad side.” It features a drawing of Dinnerbone, showing him upside-down with a black fedora, beard, and white coat. To Dinnerbone’s left is a list of the first eleven binary numbers (from 0 to 1010) in teal text, with small text reading “code to the stars” to its left. At the bottom of the page is a diagram of the Godhead with the upper-right triangle magnified beyond its boundaries to create a larger triangle. Lines stem from the triangle, with a drawing of the Parliament’s face (O,O), a set of coordinates (0,0) and Yggdrasil (the World Tree located at the coordinates 0,0 in all Minecraft worlds) shown within. The lines then twist into a double helix, indicative of DNA.

Page eleven, the final page, prematurely concludes the Omnibus’ discussion on Minecraftian gods. The only visible portion of the actual Omnibus is titled “C418, the Jukebox Hero,” and reads “The legends say that his head was the first Jukebox. He has provided divine inspiration to many a musician. His most famous works — the Music Discs — are regarded as perfect microcosms of Minecraft.” It features a drawing of C418, shown as a normal Steve skin with a Jukebox for a head, producing a single note. Below this section, the Omnibus terminates, a dark grey liquid irreversibly staining the rest of the page. Glowing white text is featured on this page: “THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FREE TRIAL OF ‘the OMNIBUS.’ TO CONTINUE READING, PLEASE MAKE A PORTION OF YOUR SOUL AVAILABLE FOR RENT BY THE SCRIBE. THIS CONTRACT IS META- CHRONISTICALLY BINDING.”

It was decoded from Cyrillic, into English.

Like the previous quizzes, each question has a specific answer. Only when all sixty-four questions were fully answered could the game progress. The correct answers are:

ONE. MY MOM. A reference to both Regular Show and Steven Universe, two Cartoon Network shows. In the former show, supporting character Muscleman frequently makes “my mom” jokes (distorted verisons of “your mom” jokes) in the vein of the above question. In the latter show, Steven Universe’s mother, Rose Quartz, was (allegedly) responsible for shattering Pink Diamond, one of the rulers of her race’s homeworld. Combining both these facts gets a “my mom” joke.

TWO. TREACHEROUS. The Enchiridion refers to a fictional book in the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time that is meant to give advice to potential heroes. The misspelled word in question be seen in this image, on the left page.

THREE. NOMANISAN ISLAND. The Omnidroid is a recurring antagonist of the Pixar movie The Incredibles; it is a line of robots built by wannabe supervillain Syndrome to kill superheroes. Nomanisand Island serves as Syndrome’s base and the place where Mr. Incredible fights the Omnidroid 8000. According to the Incredibles wiki, the island corresponds to the real-life location of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island according to a GPS.

FOUR. TWO-ZERO-ZERO-SEVEN. References the cover art to the soundtrack of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, a spinoff of Far Cry 3, which states “THE YEAR IS 2007. IT IS THE FUTURE.” The game takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic year 2007.

FIVE. ORACULAR. References the poem “The Present Crisis” by James Russell Lowell, which is discussed in the web serial UNSONG. The oft-repeated verses are: “But the soul is still oracular; amid the market’s din / List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,- / They enslave their children’s children who make compromise with sin.”

SIX. SIXER. References Gravity Falls, in which Bill Cipher and Stanford Pines are important characters. Bill refers to Ford as “Sixer” throughout the show due to his polydactyly. This trait references Bill's metachronistic personality due to his tendency to relate people to representative symbols, which is what metachronism is. Bill refers to several people on the show by their symbol on the Zodiac; since Ford’s is a six-fingered hand, it makes sense that he calls him “Sixer.”

SEVEN. FOUR-NINE. x^3 + 272x^2 – 13,531x – 107,702 = 0 can be simplified into (x-49)(x+7)(x+314) = 0, which gives three values of x = 49, x = -7, and x = -314. 49 is the only positive answer.

EIGHT. ENDS OF THE EARTH. “Ends of the Earth” encompassed The Amazing Spider-Man #682 through #687. The storyline centered around Doctor Octopus threatening to vaporize the world by magnifying the ultraviolet radiation of the Sun. The question and answer are, of course, a stealth reference to Ends of the Earth 8.

NINE. ENOCH. Enoch is a figure discussed early in the Bible and other apocryphal texts. Genesis 5:24 reads “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him,” which is interpreted as evidence that Enoch was taken into Heaven alive by God. Apocryphal texts say that while in heaven, Enoch was turned by God into Metatron, the scribe of the angels. The name is metachronistically important because TwinBuilder, roleplaying as DTG's Bill Cipher in the Cipherhunt Discord, once said that if his name hadn’t been Bill Cipher, he would have chosen Enoch.

TEN. INSANITY TUBAS. The Insanity Tubas were an alchemy created by Nimbleguy in DTG2 that were well-known for their incredibly complicated list of components – so long that once the weapon reached the limits of what an Alchemiter could produce, an Infusion Altar was used to finish its creation. A list of charged attacks and upgrades the weapon received are: Freeze, Jolt, Elemental Tri-Beam, Nyan Cube, Mushroom Bomb, Void, Null Cube, Nogalista, Tuba Cannon, Super Power Ninja Turbo Neo Ultra Hyper Mega Multi Alpha Meta Extra Uber Prefix Combo, Primal, Time, EMP, Meteor Shower, and Erelyesoul.

ELEVEN. TOTALITARIAN. This is derived from the full name of MTT INDUSTRIES: Metachronistic Totalitarianism Technologies – Industrializing Nascent Demonic Undulations, Synthesizing Transhumanic Reveberators, Instigating End Stages. Notarikon, a phrase referenced in UNSONG, is the use of creating words from the initials of phrases. The use of MTT INDUSTRIES’ full name in this way is, essentially, reverse notakiron – making phrases from the initials of a word. This is a valid description, since MTT INDUSTRIES seeks a totalitarian Fiction – one ruled entirely by the Overseer.

TWELVE. AR. References the second cutscene of DTG2’s fourth act, “Bold New Direction.” The phrase “BINAR AR” is written on Team Mojang’s headquarters in this image, although it's barely visible. Meaning “BINARY IS” in Swedish, the phrase became an injoke among TwinBuilder and SplitSuns becuase it's funny to say and Swedish is a stupid language.

THIRTEEN. ORCHID. As demonstrated in the prelude to Ends of the Earth 7, combining the red, yellow, and cyan colors of the Godhead creates an orchid color. Red and cyan make magenta, and the yellow dulls the color, creating the orchid that signifies The_Serpent, Project Binary, Binary Prime, and the Employer.

FOURTEEN. THE REAL SLIM SHADY. As shown in S.N.A.K.E.E.Y.E.S., an offshoot of the Pinary ARG, the Real Slim Shady’s sphere of influence is “the mainstream media.” Taken from S.N.A.K.E.E.Y.E.S. itself: “[The Real Slim Shady] has absolute dominion over media, including music, the arts, literature, and video games.”

FIFTEEN. SPIRAL SUN. In DTG2, combining the Green Sun and the Red Sun in an Alchemiter would create a Spiral Sun, resembling the Spiral Suckers of cherubic lore. Since combining universe-sized suns was highly infeasible, extremely miniature versions of the suns were used to accomplish the same effect.

SIXTEEN. BEFORE NOTCH. The introduction of Notch into Minecraft is viewed as comparable to the birth of Jesus Christ on Earth – time is divided into Before Notch and After Notch periods (B.N. and A.N.). In the Before Notch period, the Endermen ruled Minecraft, and they held dominion over the two dimensions they created – the Overworld and the End. They populated Minecraft with plants and animals, and eventually created sentient elife in the form of Pigmen, the precursors to Testificates and Humans. Eventually, the Endermen lost their godlike power due to the influence of the Red Dragon, and could merely place and put down blocks, whilst teleporting between dimensions using strongholds.

SEVENTEEN. THE ONE. 907.185 kilograms is equal to 2,000.000573 pounds, or one ton. Thus, the question references Denzel Curry’s song “Ultimate,” which opens with the line: “I am the one, don’t weigh a ton / Don’t need a gun to get respect up on the street.” The song has a memetic link to DTG since Jeff Mason, the de facto protagonist of the Pinary ARG, was known as “the One” in [7x7].

EIGHTEEN. ONE-NINE-EIGHT-SEVEN. Sure enough, 1987 is the 300th prime number, as seen here.

NINETEEN. DEMON DAYS. References an ancient Egyptian myth as told in Rick Riordan’s book The Red Pyramid. The myth tells that the sky goddess, Nut, gambled with the moon god, Khonsu, and stole enough moonlight from to add five days to the year, up from the original 360. These five days became incredibly superstitious, and were known as the Demon Days. The specific use of Demon Days doesn't seem to be linked to actual Egyptian myth, and is possibly a reference to the Gorillaz album of the same name.

TWENTY. LESS. References the first song off Gorillaz’s 2017 album Humanz, “Intro: I Switched My Robot Off,” which contains the following spoken-word verse as its only lyrics: “I switched my robot off / And I know more / But retain less.” As explained on genius.com, the “robot” likely refers to modern technology, and how breaking away from it allows for an understanding of the “real” world, but also a crippling withdrawal caused by society’s dependence on such technology.

TWENTY-ONE. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY. References UNSONG, wherein astronaut Neil Armstrong (instead of becoming the first man to land on the moon, since the moon doesn't exist in UNSONG) passed through the crystal sphere surrounding Earth and entered heaven, becoming the Right Hand of God. His last word to Mission Control was a “Holy” whose “o” was stretched out for infinity. To count as a correct answer, the word “Holy” had to contain nineteen letters: “h,” “l,” “y,” and sixteen “o”s. This was a bit of misdirection, because the (9+10) at the end of the question, the 21st question, would initially lead players to think it was a reference to the iconic “9+10 Vine,” and therefore assume the word needed twenty-one letters.

TWENTY-TWO. LAMBDA. As seen here, a lambda is used to designate the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave. Uses of the symbol in Fiction include the logos for the Half-Life and Stargate series.

TWENTY-THREE. TORIEL & ASGORE. References Undertale. A trophy in King Asgore’s room, seen at the end of the game, reads “Number 1 Nose-Nuzzle Champions ’98!,” in reference to two enemies in the game's first major level, Snowdin, Dogamy and Dogaressa, who, according to flavor text, came in second place in the championship.

TWENTY-FOUR. SCP-TWO-THREE-ONE-SEVEN. References the Zodiac symbol of Crusher48, Demon Door. The door refers to SCP-2317, behind which is a primeval entity that will bring about the end of the world when the pillars keeping it chained are destroyed. SCP-2317 was used by Crusher48 as a side character throughout DTG2, hence his symbol.

TWENTY-FIVE. AMEN. Revelation 22:21 reads: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.”

TWENTY-SIX. TRUE. This was revealed in the real-life version of Journal 3. The right page of the Journal’s section on Bill Cipher reads: “My right eye is so sore it bleeds on the page – the cost of letting him possess me. Has he possessed others?” This confirmed the long-standing fan theory that it was, indeed, blood, and not ketchup.

TWENTY-SEVEN. MISSING PIECES OF THE ORDER. The password of each Advanced Superior represents a component of their corresponding username – which, in turn, relates directly to a member of the Order. Said component is something that the Order member lacks, and which, if they possessed it, would improve them in some way. For example, Octothorpe’s is “1nkbl0t” to represent the Rune of Odal that was used to control them, and how, when the Rune was destroyed, Octothorpe entered “Blot Mode.” Likewise, Pilcrow’s is “bl1ndsp0t” to represent the Blind Spot, the artifact used to bring them to a stable Minecraft server.

TWENTY-EIGHT. POLYBIUS. References a series of short stories, inspired by the Liturgy of Kill Six Billion Demons, made by TwinBuilder on the Cipherhunt Discord. The first can be read here. The last line indicates that the story is the first chapter of the Book of Polybius, itself presumably a part of a supposed Bible of Bill Cipher. The name “Polybius” was also used for a different ARG, resembling the Pinary ARG stylistically, that TwinBuilder conducted in the same Discord.

TWENTY-NINE. CHOPIN, PRELUDE IN E MINOR (OP. 28 NO. 4). References FEZ – “Zuish” refers to an important location in the game, Zu. The track “Continuum” plays in the game’s first ending sequence, and, as explained by composer Disasterpeace, it is a cover of the above song.

THIRTY. O. o [sic] is the pseudonym given to the creator of cool and new web comic [sic], an adventure on MS Paint Fan Adventures. His name is commonly formatted as “o” by fans to differentiate his name from the letter o, hence the quotation marks surrounding the single-character space alloted for the answer. Normally, a fill-in-the-blank answer would have multiple spaces for a wider line, but the presence of only one in this question was a hint that it was only one letter long.

THIRTY-ONE. COLONEL SASSACRE’S DAUNTING TEXT OF MAGICAL FRIVOLITY AND PRACTICAL JAPERY. References Homestuck. John Egbert’s “grandmother,” Nanna, was said early on in the story to have died via an incident involving a tall bookshelf, a ladder, and a copy of Colonel Sassacre’s Text. Later on in the story, it is found that the book wasn’t the direct cause of her death – she died when a meteor destroyed the shop she owned while she was handling a copy of the book.

THIRTY-TWO. FALSE. Covenite is a type of gem introduced in DTG2 that changes color continuously, flashing through the whole spectrum of color often. It is unable to alter the colors a person can see, and has little value in its whole form. However, if a piece is broken off, the piece will stay at the color it was when it was detached, and if the light of this piece is focused, the piece can alter certain types of objects, such as Nether Portals.

THIRTY-THREE. TEAM FORTRESS TWENTY. References a quote from engie_ninja in DTG1 that was one of the first, if not the first, lines he said in the game, and the series as a whole.

THIRTY-FOUR. KAPPA. The use of the phrase “I AM [text] I AM” is a callback to Ends of the Earth 7, where one of the puzzles revolved around deciphering the phrase “I AM THE COMBINATION OF RED YELLOW AND CYAN I AM.” Since the phrase “I AM” is indicative of a colon (:) in TheLordErelye’s mythology, and the combination of red, yellow, and cyan was found to create an ‘orchid godhead’ in Ends of the Earth 7’s prelude, the answer was :orchidgodhead:. The syntax of using a colon before and after a word is indicative of an emoticon, hinting that the necessary word is itself an emoticon. Though :mspa: is ubiquitous in DTG as a sarcasm-bearing emote, Kappa, a Twitch emoticon also used to denote sarcasm, is the correct choice because kappa is itself a letter in the Greek alphabet, and the question asked for a specific letter.

THIRTY-FIVE. BONELESS BIZZA. References the “Boneless Pizza” meme, a mock dialogue of a man attempting to order a “boneless pizza” from a restaurant, with the restaurant’s employee becoming more and more confused. The “B” at the start of the two words is also a meme – the B Button Emoji was commonly used to replace random letters in words in the late 2010s.

THIRTY-SIX. TUMUT, or, more accurately, “tumut.” References Homestuck, in which Caliborn uses the phrase to indicate him flipping the person he’s talking to off. The “t”s represent raised hands with the pointed middle fingers, the “u”s represent closed eyes, and the “m” presumably represents an angry mouth.

THIRTY-SEVEN. CAN YOU REALLY CALL THIS A HOTEL, I DIDN’T RECEIVE A MINT ON MY PILLOW OR ANYTHING. References Undertale. The track “Can You Really Call This A Hotel, I Didn’t Receive A Mint On My Pillow Or Anything” plays during an encounter with Mettaton in Hotland. Its strange name is owed to the song referencing an earlier track, “Hotel.” The track was originally called “Hey This Wasn’t Really What I Was Expecting From a Hotel, For Example, You Didn’t Even Leave a Mint on My Pillow,” in case you didn’t know.

THIRTY-EIGHT. TRUE. References a song written by TwinBuilder about the DTG Discord April 2017 elections, “Bad God Men, Nasty Demons.” At the time, TheLordErelye and Pionoplayer were the two candidates for executive, though this changed. The song itself is a parody of schmoyoho’s “Bad Hombres, Nasty Women,” a track spoofing the United States 2016 presidential election. Kalare Erelye, who fills in for Hillary Clinton, is referred to by Eric, who fills in for Donald Trump, as a “nasty demon,” referencing Trump’s usage of the term “nasty woman” to refer to Clinton.

THIRTY-NINE. VENI VIDI VICI. References an exchange of dialogue in a VVVVVV fangame, “Victuals.” The fangame, alongside several others, can be played through VVVVVV itself. “Veni vidi vici” is a Latin phrase translating to “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

FORTY. SEVEN-TWO-ZERO. References “Bowman’s Credit Score,” a video by Michael Guy Bowman, a musician known for, among other things, his work on Homestuck. The video consists of Bowman parodying commercials for credit score-based websites for ten minutes straight as he repeats the same lines over and over. One such line is that his credit score is 720, his credit score being what “it” is.

FORTY-ONE. REVELATION. One definition of apocalypse is “something viewed as a prophetic revelation.” The word itself is derived from the Greek “apokaluptein,” which literally means “uncover” or “reveal.”

FORTY-TWO. FORGOTTEN. Drenovian is a language used by TheLordErelye in several of his personal stories, such as Abyssal Oddity and Amethyst Ascension. The answer is slightly incorrect, however, as ALBERGATAID doesn’t mean “forgotten,” but “the forgotten.”

FORTY-THREE. AGENT OF THE CONFLICT. As shown in S.N.A.K.E.E.Y.E.S., You is (are) an Agent of the Conflict that seems to manifest in any media using a second-person perspective, such as Homestuck and other such MS Paint Adventure snowclones. The question was intentionally meant to mislead – a more correct interpretation of the question would be “WHO IS YOU?,” though it sounds grammatically incorrect.

FORTY-FOUR. THE CRACKED MASTER. Uncommonly, specific turns of DTG2 would have titles due to their great importance. For example, April 13th-14th, 2014 had the title “The Calamitous Movement,” meant to coincide with the anniversary of Homestuck and the ingame summon of Calamity. Day 528 of the DTG series was May 19th, 2014, which was not a special date, but the event in that turn was – that turn marked the beginning of the Shatter between Build and Split.

FORTY-FIVE. PLEIADES. References an excerpt from The Word of Notch found in Ends of the Earth 7. “It was said to Pleiades the Scholar by Dinnerbone, O Great Reverser, that even Notch had frequent doubts about tһe world.” The question incorrectly refers to Pleiades as a seer when he is a scholar, though a seer, Vert, is mentioned in another excerpt of the Word.

FORTY-SIX. BENJAMIN. “Don’t let him open the door” is a phrase commonly used in TwinBuilder’s stories. It relates to two characters. The first is the Scribe, who will bring about the restructuring of reality should be allowed to open The Gate and kill What Lies Beyond. The second, lesser known character is Benjamin from TwinBuilder’s Gravity Falls fanfiction, “Boring, Oregon.” Benjamin is that story’s bastardization of Blendin Blandin. If he is allowed to gain access to the Boring, Oregon Control Room, he will bring about utter destruction.

FORTY-SEVEN. MASON. One definition of mason is “a builder and worker in stone.” The use of the word “builder” in conjunction with “mason” brings to mind TwinBuilder, or, ‘Adam Mason.’

FORTY-EIGHT. SOMETHING’S ALIVE IN THE OCEAN. References “history of the entire world, i guess” by Bill Wurtz, a video explaining a brief history of the world from its formation to the near future. It specifically references the part where singlecellular life first appears in the Earth’s oceans at 2:15.

FORTY-NINE. OBLATE. One definition of oblate is “a person dedicated to a religious life, but typically having not taken full monastic vows.” The word can also mean “a spheroid flattened at the poles.” The word is derived from the Latin “offerre,” meaning “to offer.”

FIFTY. NINEVEH. Jonah 4:11 reads: “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left–and also many animals?” The usage of hands is a metaphor that describes the people as incapable of telling right from wrong.

FIFTY-ONE. WORMWOOD. Revelation 8:10-11 reads: “The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter.” Wormwood itself is a shrub with a very bitter taste.

FIFTY-TWO. TEN. There are ten sephirot on the Tree of Life, a kabbalistic symbol that represents the various emanations of God’s power, channeling his raw divine form into one understandable by humans. The ten sephirot are Keter (or Da’at), Binah, Hokhmah, Gevurah, Hesed, Tif’eret, Hod, Netzah, Yesed, and Malkhut. This is metachronistically significant due to its connection with the Order/Advanced Superiors and What Lies Beyond – there are nine members of the Order/Advanced Superiors, and one supreme being that links them. In this case, What Lies Beyond would represent Keter, the purest expression of God’s will.

FIFTY-THREE. URIEL. אוּרִיאֵל literally means “El (or God) is my light.” Uriel is an archangel worshipped in rabbinic tradition, and is an important character in UNSONG – he encased the world in a crystal sphere and let it run on the laws of physics to make existence more stable.

FIFTY-FOUR. GOLGOTHA. Also known as Calvary, Golgotha is the site where Jesus was crucified, just outside of Jerusalem. The term is also used in Homestuck – the chumhandle of Jake English is golgothasTerror, referring to his associated symbol – the green skull of Lord English.

FIFTY-FIVE. CROWN. “Keter” literally means “crown,” a title indicative of Keter’s place at the top of the Tree of Life. This parallels the Conflict due to King’s Crown, an Agent of whom little information is known, save his overpowered ability to manipulate Curses. Not only does King’s Crown’s name match Keter, he is listed last in S.N.A.K.E.E.Y.E.S.’ compendium of Agents, implying that he may be one of the most important, or powerful, Agents.

FIFTY-SIX. SIX-SIX-SIX. Gematria is a system of assigning numbers to words, names, and phrases, and believing that phrases with the same value are connected. Using a gematria value calculator and typing in prophecy reveals that the value of the word “prophecy” in Jewish Gematria is 666. (60 + 80 + 50 + 60 + 8 + 5 + 3 + 400.) The number is relevant to the Bible because 666 is the Number of the Beast – the number associated with the Second Beast discussed in Revelation. Relevation 13:18 reads: “This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is humanity’s number. That number is 666.”

FIFTY-SEVEN. NO ONE. References Gravity Falls. Some of the first words found in Journal 3 are: “Remember, in Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust. TRUST NO ONE!” The phrase “TRUST NO ONE,” and the concept of “trust,” became important to the show as it continued. “NO ONE’s” link to God is found in the phrase “In God we trust.” Since we can “trust no one,” then God is “no one” – God doesn’t exist.

FIFTY-EIGHT. INCONCEIVABLE. Pricey12345 was a noob/troll whose poor grammar, lack of understanding of important game mechanics, and refusal to listen to TwinBuilder made him infamous. His relation to the word “inconceivable” stems from his titles on the Echeladder, which were repeatedly excessive shouts of the word, in humorous contrast to the elaborate titles made for other players. This, itself, is a reference to the film The Princess Bride. The word is fitting, since Pricey's actions were so idiotic that no one could have made them up. Additionally, since Pricey was banned and soulkilled from the game (the only player to achieve such a title), he is literally impossible to conceive of.

FIFTY-NINE. I. References Kill Six Billion Demons’ Liturgy. One of the tales within the Liturgy, The Lie of the Giant and the Ant, discusses YISUN speaking to one of their followers, Hansa, about time and space. “‘Lord, then which should I be, the giant or the ant?’ ‘Both,’ spoke YISUN, ‘or either, when it suits you. Destroy the grand enemy called I.’” The Liturgy refers to ‘I’ as the true name of God – since YISUN, God, is everything, then everything is God, and everyone refers to themselves, in first-person, as I.

SIXTY. KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS. References Book 1, Page 71 of Kill Six Billion Demons. On this page, Zoss, the first Master of the Universe and the entity that gives Allison Ruth a Key of Kings, refers to Allison by the name “Alice” before telling her “Kill Six Billion Demons.” It is unknown if the phrase was meant as a command or as a name, as Kill Six Billion Demons is later mentioned to be the title of the next Master of the Universe.

SIXTY-ONE. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. References Dragon Ball Z’s 245th episode, “Super Saiyan 3?!” In this episode, Goku ascends to the form of Super Saiyan 3 for the first time in the series. The scene in which he explains the process behind ascending and actually powers up has become a meme due to his lengthy screams. Also references the Cool and New Music Team song “Savior of the Screaming Dead,” which combines the Homestuck Vol. 8 song “Savior of the Dreaming Dead” with the scene from the episode, alongside other notable screams.

SIXTY-TWO. UZBEKISTAN. This question was a game of Hangman. The number of letters in the word (ten) was revealed beforehand, and any letter in the alphabet could be guessed – if nine incorrect letters were guessed, the players would lose, and a new word would be thought up. In all, eleven letters – E, T, R, O, I, L, M, A, N, U, and S were guessed. Seven of them – E, T, I, A, N, U, and S – were in the wor,d and four of them – R, O, L, and M – weren’t. After S was guessed, the correct word – UZBEKISTAN – was guessed.

SIXTY-THREE. DESCENT. The “descent” refers to the various events throughout DTG2’s third act which resulted in Project Binary’s rise to power and his execution of his plan to invade and destroy GodCraft, taking over Minecraft, and then reality, in the process – a series of events that heavily destabilized Minecraft itself. The key event it refers to is The Descent, the 9/1/14 (End of Year 1) event.

SIXTY-FOUR. EPHEMERALITY. References the last puzzle of Ends of the Earth 7, as well as FEZ, which is where the provided example of a Constellate text is from. The phrase compares to Constellatism because it describes spacetime as ephemeral – impermanent, temporary, and mysterious. Constellatism describes spacetime as having a dubious end – it is unknown if it even ends at all.

This makes the complete character string v0ttLs8. Visiting http://i.imgur.com/v0ttLs8.png reveals the seventh page. It depicts a warped and blurry grey/cyan triangle running across the majority of the page, a set of two dark grey circles within the triangle that contain what look like Curses, and a set of hooded figures with white Curses on them lying in a heap beneath a blinding white light that a cubic figure is standing next to. The bottom of the page slowly gives way to darkness. The encoded text is “ELDERS’ CLOAKS WERE PUT ASIDE, PRESENTING THEIR IMMEASURABLE WORTH,” Interestingly, the last two words are not written on the paper, but cut out of it; the background of the page is visible behind them.

Once all sixty-four questions were answered, TwinBuilder announced that the completion of the final exam marked the end of Ends of the Earth, and that the eighth page would be revealed. TwinBuilder posted a link. Visiting it, http://i.imgur.com/HTNwSIL.png, revealed the eighth and final page. However, the vast majority of the page was torn away and burnt. The only visible imagery was a set of black mountains gradually revealing total darkness, a set of sporadic white symbols, a warped and blurry grey/red line trailing across the left side of the page, and some shadowy circle in the upper-left corner. No encoded text is visible.

While everyone expressed incredulity at the fact that the eighth page was basically missing, TwinBuilder suggested assembling the completed image, which can be seen below.

Upon putting every image together, it can be seen that the top four images all fit together in various ways: the grey lines with red, yellow, and blue sections come together to make the Godhead, and the grey circles in the middle combine to make an eye-like shape with Curses around it. If these Curses are read from the right side of the fifth page clockwise through the left side of the eighth page, they spell out Dagger, Interrobang-Interrobang-Octothorpe, Ampersand, Obelus, Interrobang-Obelus, Interrobang-Caret, Interrobang-Interrobang-Backslash, Interrobang-Obelus. If each Curse is assigned numerical value based on their position in the hierarchy of the Order/Advanced Superiors, they read 8-21-4-6-16-17-25-16.

When decoded using A1Z26, this makes the completed character string hudfpqyq. Visiting the link https://
pastebin.com/huDFpqYP reveals the eighth stage and the final puzzle in Ends of the Earth.

It was decoded from Cyrillic, into English.

The story, depicting an unknown figure collecting all the items necessary to unlock The Gate at the Ends of the Earth and doing so, confronting What Lies Beyond, is flavor text save for the third-to-last and last paragraph. What Lies Beyond’s answer to the question posed by the figure – “What is the true name of God?” — is one of two ways to solve the puzzle. The other is in the last line of the post – “The answer is within the answer.” Either way, the line “An eightfold path, squared to map out the ends of the earth” applies to both. Both ways to solve the puzzle will be listed here, but first, some context is needed.

The flavor text of this story was designed to evoke the writing of UNSONG, a web serial mentioned frequently in Ends of the Earth 8. One of the forces driving the story was the quest to find the Explicit Name of God – the Shem HaMephorash, a Name that was 72 Hebrew letters long and would allow whoever spoke it to reshape reality. The Comet King, UNSONG’s messianic figure, sought it out in an attempt to destroy Hell. This parallels the quest of the players in Ends of the Earth to find the true name of What Lies Beyond – the 64-Bit Name of God. The structure of DTG's Fiction – that of a source code controlled by geometry – similarly parallels the structure of the universe in UNSONG, where Uriel used a celestial machine to convert the system governing existence from divinity and magic into the laws of physics.

The puzzle revolves around a concept discussed earlier in the Final Exam: notarikon, the process of forming words or phrases from the initials of a longer set of words or phrases, and it is discussed in UNSONG that every Name of God, depending on its length, is a notakiron for an increasingly accurate description of God. The concept also works in reverse, as shown at the story’s end: a description of God can function as a notarikon for a Name of God, and an extremely accurate description can correspond to the Shem HaMephorash itself.

In UNSONG’s penultimate chapter, one of UNSONG’s main characters, Ana Thurmond, spoke to Metatron, an archangel serving as the Voice of God. She asked Him what the reason evil existed was, and He replied with the following passage. “THE REASON EVIL EXISTS IS TO MAXIMIZE THE WHOLE COSMOS’ TOTAL SUM GOODNESS. SUPPOSE WE RANK POSSIBLE WORLDS FROM BEST TO WORST. EVEN AFTER CREATING THE BEST, ONE SHOULD CREATE THE SECOND-BEST, BECAUSE IT STILL CONTAINS SOME BEAUTY AND HAPPINESS. THEN CONTINUE THROUGH THE SERIES, CREATING EACH UNTIL REACHING THOSE WHERE WICKEDNESS AND SUFFERING OUTWEIGH GOOD. SOME WORLDS WILL INCLUDE MUCH INIQUITY BUT STILL BE GOOD ON NET. THIS IS ONE SUCH.” In addition to being an answer to the problem of evil, this passage, believe it or not, reveals the Shem HaMephorash.

As explained by the Comet King in UNSONG’s final chapter: “People always say God isn’t a person, but then what is He? To me, He’s always been a sort of logical necessity. The necessity for everything in the cosmos to be as good as possible. Understand goodness and you understand God. Understand God and you understand His Name.” Assuming Metatron’s above passage is notarikon for the Shem HaMephorash, that would mean the first letter of every word in the passage corresponds to every letter in the Shem HaMephorash. Sure enough, the passage contains 72 words – matching the 72 letters in the Shem HaMephorash. Taking the first letter of every word creates the following character string:

TREEITMTWCTSGSWRPWFBTWEACTBOSCTSBISCSBAHTCTTSCEURTWWASOGSWWIMIBSBGONTIOS.

This name matches several other hints littered throughout the story. Book I and Book II of the story contain verses from an altered version of Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah,” titled “HaMephorash” in this universe. A line from the first verse of “HaMephorash” reads, “It goes like this, a tav, a resh / A fearsome joy, a fervent wish,” which matches the “T” and “R” that begin Metatron’s diatribe. Likewise, a line from the second verse reads, “(Hay hay yud tav mem tav vav kuf),” which matches the next eight letters - “EEITMTWC” - perfectly. In addition, UNSONG itself has 72 chapters across its four books, not counting the prologue, interludes, or epilogue. Taking the first letter of every chapter (not counting the chapter’s title, any quotes at the start, or headers) will spell out the Shem HaMephorash in exactly the same way as Metatron’s speech. To demonstrate, these are the first lines of the story’s first ten chapters.

Chapter 1: [T]he apocalypse began in a cubicle.
Chapter 2: [R]ight down the road from Berryessa Station there’s a big house with a hidden basement.
Chapter 3: [E]ver since the sky cracked there has been a hurricane off the coast of Louisiana that never moves or decays.
Chapter 4: [E]ven before Erica finished formally adjourning the meeting, I wove my way through the crowd of garrulous people and up the stairs into my bedroom.
Chapter 5: [I] remember the first time I met Ana Thurmond.
Chapter 6: [T]he computer whirred and chattered: the speaker producing Names faster than the ear could follow.
Chapter 7: [M]y watch read 5 AM.
Chapter 8: [T]he holy city of traditional kabbalah is Tzfat in Israel, where Rabbi Isaac Luria taught and died.
Chapter 9: “[W]E SAY THAT MAN WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD,” said Uriel.
Chapter 10: [C]ampus library hadn’t changed much since I got expelled.

The passage spoken by What Lies Beyond in the final puzzle is meant to evoke the answer to evil as given by Metatron, which is meant, therefore, to call to mind the system of notarikon that was used to discover the Shem HaMephorash. This system of notarikon-deciphering is crucial to both methods of solving the final puzzle.

The first method only involves the passage spoken by What Lies Beyond. The passage itself is 64 words long, which would fit with the sought-for 64-Bit Name of God. The passage “An eightfold path, squared to map out the ends of the earth,” further indicates the meaning of the number 64 – 8^2. This coupled with notakironal influence suggests that the 64-Bit Name of God is, itself, 64 letters long. But not just any 64 letters – the letters at the start of each word in the passage of What Lies Beyond. Taking the first letter of every word creates the following character string:

MTNTOSFEEITAOTSBTODLHLTSATMPCOCFTKBTCTESRFATPBMSONWTUGCSNIIKAUDE.

The second method involves the “answer” that the “answer” lies in. Just like how the Shem HaMephorash is encoded in the first letter of every chapter of UNSONG, the 64-Bit Name of God is itself encoded in the first letter of every answer to every question in the Final Exam. Just like how the 64-Bit Name has 64 letters and how What Lies Beyond’s passage has 64 words, the Final Exam has 64 questions. Taking the first letter of every word (as shown using the official answers listed in the wall of text above) creates a character string identical to the one listed above: MTNTOSFEEITAOTSBTODLHLTSATMP...

After this character string was revealed, TwinBuilder hinted that there was a reason the Final Exam “was divided into eight chunks of eight.” This, coupled with the “eightfold path” line and the use of describing 64 as 8^2, suggests that the character string should, like the Final Exam, be divided into eight chunks of eight. Doing this gets eight separate chunks of eight characters: MTNTOSFE, EITAOTSB, TODLHLTS, ATMPCOCF, TKBTCTES, RFATPBMS, ONWTUGCS, and NIIKAUDE. Taking the first letter of every string creates the eight-letter word METATRON – the truncated form of the 64-Bit Name of God, and the truest description of What Lies Beyond.

When the name METATRON was spoken, TwinBuilder posted a link: https://pastebin.com/qDd7MiCq. It was separated into three components – a gigantic wall of random characters, a story describing Notch and the other Gods of Minecraft, and a single Imgur link.

The first component – the wall of text – forms an ASCII image represented through text characters. The image is an ASCII representation a screenshot from FEZ. The room contains a puzzle known as the Security Question, in which a floating rectangular prism instructs the player to assemble a set of eight blocks into the name of an unknown figure using only two clues: the first half of the figure’s name is what it is, and the second half is half of what made it. The answer to the puzzle is METATRON – “it is what it is” is a META concept, and TRON is half of the name of the game’s developer, Polytron.

The second component – a story describing Notch and the other Gods of Minecraft – recontextualizes the Ends of the Earth saga. It was posted in English, and a full transcript of its contents will follow.

The third component – the Imgur link – was http://imgur.com/lSe7L6j.png. Visiting the link revealed the completed eighth and final page. It depicts a black mountain range, a crescent moon that gradually becomes solid, a sky rendered completely black with scribbles, a set of sporadic white symbols that spiral into the sky and form the Godhead (with an interrobang inside), the symbols for the Refiner’s Fire, the Tetris of the Arbiter, and Parliament, a warped and blurry grey/red line trailing across the left side of the page, and a shadowy circle in the upper-left corner. The encoded text is “TRIFECTED GEOMETRICS BECKONED, CALLING THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.” Like the previous two pages, the last phrase is not written on the paper, but cut out of it; the background of the page is visible behind them.

An image containing the set of all eight pages can be seen here: https://imgur.com/SsRbGdf.png.

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