It was already three in the afternoon when the speedboat docked. Fishing boats in Olivine City's harbor were busy unloading their catches, and the salty sea breeze, mixed with the smell of diesel, blew straight down their collars.
May hopped onto the pier and turned to look at Lin Hao's expression. He was much calmer than when they had left Iron Island, but his hand still rested against his chest.
They found a little noodle shop near the harbor and sat down. Lin Hao ordered two bowls of udon and set his backpack by his feet, leaving the zipper half open.
Before the noodles arrived, he took the cloth-wrapped mural fragment out of his backpack and spread it out on the greasy wooden table.
Age had worn the palm-sized fragment gray, but in the natural light, a wheel-like design faintly emerged. Twelve lines radiated from its center, its outline bearing features of both a sun and a wheel.
May put down her wooden chopsticks and looked at the fragment. "Is this what Arceus looks like?"
"It's how the ancients depicted Arceus." Lin Hao tapped a string of symbols along the edge of the outline with the back end of his chopsticks, pointing to their intricate strokes. "This is Ancient Sinnoh Script. Mewtwo can read it."
Mewtwo's voice rang through his mind, cold and hard as metal. "The mural records that the Creator slumbers at the beginning of all things. Only the Ring Key can awaken the Creator. Whoever possesses the key governs the laws of time and space."
"The Ring Key," May repeated.
"That's what Cyrus is looking for." Lin Hao wrapped the fragment back up with brisk movements. "He thinks the Lake Guardians are the key, that they can break the seals on Dialga and Palkia. But he's actually