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Chapter 1 - The FelicsThey ran through the dim lighting, and stale air of the older residential quarters. Eyes bugging from exertion, but huge grins on their faces they Stampeded down the hallways. Crossing a set of dusty pressure plates, the walls ahead of them slid apart. They relaxed to a jog as fresh air filled their lungs, and clear sunlight beat down on their faces, they ran down from the residential quarters into a green tree-filled area."I'll beat you to the engines!" The first one called out, His sandy blonde hair floating over his Hazel eyes and a grin dominating his face. The second one grunted between breaths as he struggled to close the distance between them.The first one turned abruptly and cutting around the side of a hill disappeared into a clear door built flush with the stone surface. The second one cursed loudly as he spun around the corner and fell to the ground as he mimicked the first one. He rolled over onto his back and breathed heavily as the first one ran back towards him, and offered his hand to help him up.Wearily, He reached up and took the proffered hand.“You would be enjoying a stop in at the afterlife if Mom had heard that, Charlie!” The first one said laughing.“Not like you are so perfect...” He replied as his breathing stabilized and he stood up. They turned and walked through the clear door into the building.-“Andrew, Have you completely lost your mind?” Charlie Exclaimed as he stared across the pit in front of them.“It's the only one way to get down, All the other entrances are blocked off.” He replied shrugging his shoulders and stretching his arms out.“If it is the only way in, How are we going to get out?” Charlie Demanded as Andrew backed away from the hole.“There are lots of ways out, Just one way in.” He stopped near the back wall and cocked his head, “Hear that?” He asked, a concerned look crossing his face.“What?”“The call of adventure.” He cried as he ran and jumped into the dark pit.Charlie groaned, “Adventure... Why do you hate me?” Then he turned around and shut his eyes, before stepping off backwards.They fell through a long shaft passing through the many echelons of the engines, parts actually extending into the shaft. Punctuating the long fall were flashes of redstone and the incessant swishing of pistons. The two continued to fall down to the depths of the shaft.The lights illuminated below them and Andrew could just make out the bottom of the shaft. He braced himself as he screamed up towards Charlie.“Ground!” He didn't wait for a response as he braced himself for the impact. He flashed red as he smashed into the ground and rolled into the murky water in front of him. He lay under the water savoring its cool feeling on the soon to be bruises along his shins. He pulled himself up and sat on the side of the pool and waited as high pitched screams echoed above him.A gunshot crack slammed through the air as Charlie hit the water and sent waves sloshing over the edges.A myriad of bubbles breached the surface of the small pool, before Charlie himself emerged with a dazed look on his face. He looked around seemingly disoriented before he found Andrew sitting on the side with a sheepish grin on his face. Charlie groaned as Andrew rolled backwards from the pool and ran from the sparsely lit oasis, into a flashing, writhing, jungle of redstone machinery. Slowly, Charlie clambered to his feet and grudgingly followed him into the jungle.-“You'll Never catch me!” Andrew screamed as he jumped up and swung himself onto the top of a row of pistons. He laughed as he dashed through a small gap, chased by an ascending row of pistons. Charlie stopped and looked on disbelievingly as the piston heads smashed into the ceiling before revealing a gap. As the pistons dropped again, he dashed forward.Andrew glanced back and snickered as he caught a glimpse of Charlie momentarily hanging from his pinned shirt. Charlie dropped off the side of the piston, and fell to the floor. With a sigh he stood up and brushed off his knees before looking towards Andrew. Andrew grinned and motioned towards a small opening close to the ground, Charlie watched as Andrew pulled himself into the small area and quickly disappeared.He squirmed into a small opening. He squinted as his body filled the hole blocking off the light. “Can't be far!” He crawled onwards into a dank tunnel. His breathing grew labored and the temperature seemed to drop. He shivered as he drug himself further down, behind him he could hear Charlie panting as well.Finally he felt a warm breeze cast over his frigid skin. He reached forward blindly with his arms and caught the edges of an entrance he pulled himself out with a gasp, and rolled over feeling warm air wash over him. A couple of minutes later Charlie breached the exit.“I thought this was a set of ventilation shafts!” He gasped.“That's what Dad's blueprints showed, We should be in a backup storeroom.” Andrew replied.“They Are Ventilation shafts” a creaky voice tittered through the air. Both of them jumped and moved over trying to find the source of the voice. “It is for our City... You are the first Humans to venture this far.” It paused, “You can not see.” It stated, “Easily rectified.” Andrew jumped as he felt a pinch on his hand. He then fell to the floor screaming in pain.Dimly he could hear another voice coalescing with his screaming at an unnatural volume. His throat grew raw but he couldn't stop screaming, his eyes were flooded with Bright light. Finally his eyes adjusted and he stopped screaming, he blinked and sat up, above him and beyond him was a city of sorts.It stretched in all directions and seemed more organic than solid, in fact parts of the tethers seemed to move and writhe. He gasped as he made out one of the tethers detaching from the rest and crawling down. It was a Spider. He screamed and turned to run, He stopped when he found that the entrance was completely blocked by a group of spiders.His hand throbbed and he collapsed to the ground. “He is still adjusting to the venom,” He heard as he fell into the increasing blackness.-His eyes unsquinted, releasing a thin milky fluid that dripped to the floor. Did he hear a scream? Shaking himself he squinted his eyes and listened. A sharp, staccato scream echoed, before falling completely silent.He stretched his leftmost eyes to discern the lighting in the main chamber, and raising himself up from his thick nest he turned his body and raised it to peer over the edge of his nest. He glanced down and saw the elders gathered near an air shaft. On the ground near them lay two humans, They seemed to be sleeping.His curiosity satisfied, he leaned back into the nest. He would ask Nestmother about it later. Slowly he squinted his eyes and nodded off to sleep as the film flooded over his eyes.

Chapter 2 – ContactHe was Choking, Drowning, Dying! He bolted up off the cool bedding below him and opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. He looked around and saw nothing but darkness.”He is Awake.” A voice rattled through his head.“He is faring well, in comparison.” He winced as another voice grated along his eardrums. “open your eyes, little one.” The thought confused him, His eyes weren't open? He felt his muscles one by one.He clenched his fingers and curled his toes, Bent his arms and stretched his legs. He tightened his breathing and rolled his head. He curved his lips, and finally tugged at his eyelids, he found them unyielding like a ton of bricks. He pulled up as hard as he could until finally a small glimmer of light shot in.He gasped and dropped the effort as he tried to make sense of the faint picture he had caught.“Mom!” He cried, but he received no response. The only sounds were a faint chattering coming... From all around him. He tensed as he pulled his eyes open again, and reeled backwards in shock as they slammed open.His world exploded into light, and he spent a moment trying to decipher everything. He was in a brightly lit room, but the walls seemed to be made of a dark thread. He was surrounded by vague shadows, and he took little notice of them until one of them moved. It seemed to be misshapen, possessing a multitude of legs and three distinct portions of body.“What are you?” He asked as it came into the light and the mandibles on the front of its face became prominent.“I am a Felic.” A voice echoed from around the room. “We apologize for your discomfort, Some people are more discomfited by our venom then others. Your brother in particular.”“My Brother? Whats wrong with my brother!”“I apologize, I have misspoken, Your brother is fine. He was just incapacitated by a reaction to our venom. He is currently recuperating at about the same level you are.”He glanced around the room and discerned a spherical shape to it. “Where is he?”“Near us, but he is asleep. We, you and I, must talk. And we must be quick as it will determine your fate.”“My fate?”“Yes, if you cooperate you will be returned to your family unharmed. If not, Then the safety of our colony is at risk and you will never return to your family if indeed you live through the day.”He sat back and surveyed the room again, “What do you want?”“Your word that you won't intentionally reveal our presence here to the rest of your colony, and that you will return.?“Return?”“We need to understand the human psyche. You and your brother will be an integral part of our research.”“Let me see my brother and we have a deal.” The Felic waved one of its many appendages at the wall, and the walls faded into transparency.He gulped as he looked down into a brightly lit city
that wrapped around itself and stretched taught before relaxing into a looser shape.“Where are we?” He asked in a whisper.“You have already seen this city, albeit from another angle.” A second voice spoke from the shadowsHis mind returned to when he had entered the room.“But it looks so differ-... After you bit me, I saw this!” He looked back at the shadows and looked intently at the shadows. After a second, the darkness dissipated and revealed 3 other Arachne resting within them on their back appendages. He screamed and moved back,“What have you done to me?” He screamed at the spiders.“Without this, You would be dead. The rest of our colony would have smashed your bones to dust between Iron mandibles.” The third one stated as it reared its torso from its earlier relaxed position into a sort of barbaric salute.It turned towards the invisible wall and motioned towards a small darker orb, contrasting the bright city as it swung delicately suspended by threads. It seemingly floated up 'till it had reached the same level as them, and a window cleared in the side of it, giving view to the inside of the sphere.Inside lay a deathly pale Charlie, his black hair had turned to a bleached grey, and remained fallow on his head. “What did you do to him?” He whispered, horrified.“We filled him with a light version of our concentrated venom. He seemed to be exceptionally weak, unlike you he will be affected by this his entire life. Though, without it his life would have been extremely short.”–His mandibles clenched in hunger pangs as he watched the others feed from the Nest mothers Catch, A bouquet of rats lined with savory slime. He always had to ask about everything hadn't he? He turned from the atrophying meal, and descended down to where the humans had lain. He laughed a silky laugh as he reached the spot. The elders had changed them, altered them into stronger hardier beasts.If they left then they would have greater control of their body and mind then any other over-world species save the felic. His mandibles clenched together in anguish as another smell floated through the air. While it did not bear the customary smells of raw flesh its aroma still woke his hunger.He brought his torso up and tasted the air for the smell. His eyes squinted in pleasure as the aroma drifted past him once more. He dropped close to the ground and crawled to up the side of a wall before disappearing through an open vent.–“He was going to die?” Andrew asked bewildered.“Yes, he was in the long-term stage of a disease humans refer to as SD12 or Advanced Spawn Degradation. One more death, and he would have been maxed out. Now, he has a different registry and his Spawning is safe.” The Quieter Spider finished before retreating once more with a bow to the other two.“OK, How long have you 'Felics' set up residence here?”The leader spoke up, “With the permission of your Government? Since this ship was decommissioned and retrofitted into a settlement globe.”“And my father knows of this?”“We have his consent, as well as periodic checks.”He glanced once more at Charlie's disfigured body, and turned back to the three spiders. “You said you wanted to explore the human psyche.” He said, and received nods from the threee. “Then my only request would be to learn in part how you build things like these orbs.” Another set of nods and Charlie's pod solidified into a darker color and floated away from them as they descended into the bright city.–He followed the smell through the vent, mandibles dripping with saliva as the scent grew stronger. He tensed as he noticed light ahead of him, but the smell overwhelmed him. He quickly ascended through another vent and cautiously peered down into the lit area. Below him was a feast, A high table covered in succulent meats.He pulled himself back from the vent as steps resounded beneath him. A blonde colored head appeared below him and made off with one of the plates. By her stance and demeanor, He gleaned that she probably wasn't supposed to be there.So on her heels, he dropped down into the small area and made off with 3 plates. He hoisted himself and the plates back into the vent and devoured the food. He sighed in pleasure as his mandibles wrenched the cooked flesh from the chicken bones. Why didn't they eat like this? Why didn't they always eat like this!Finally he finished guzzling the plates contents and not knowing what else to do with them lowered back down into the room and left the plates there littered with bones. He moved to head back to the colony, but then wondered what the bones themselves must taste like after being saturated in the Delicious flesh.He scuttled back and looked down into the room. Loud voices proclaimed themselves and he stared in a mite of confusion. The blonde girl had returned and was holding her half eaten plate. While two other, bigger humans seemingly blamed her for eating the other three plates. He soon got bored of this interaction and waited for them to move away from the table.Finally the girl slumped and walked towards the door with tears in her eyes and the other humans followed. Squeaking in victory, he noted the girls plate had remained at the table. Quickly he dropped into the area and snatched her leftovers off her plate and the bones he wanted from the others before retreating back up to the vents once more.As he scuttled back through the vents, He heard loud proclamations of disbelief echoing behind him. He snickered as he returned to the colony, feast in hand.–He laughed in wonder as he watched the small planes fly acrobatics around each other, and around the strange off architecture of this colony. Two spiders sat side by side in silent repose, their torso's raised, and their eyes... Not closed but seemingly smaller, he turned to his guide“We squint our eyes, releasing a gelatinous compound that places an unbreakable seal over our eyes. Allowing us to sleep, or stand extremely bright areas.” He replied, two of his eyes roving over him as the rest watched the planes.”“Unbreakable?” He asked as the planes flew towards each other right up to the moment when it looked like they would crash, before one of them veered away at high speeds. Clanking resounded from one of the spiders as it gnashed its teeth together. A strange tittering echoed from the other.“Yes, We have acid that we secrete when we stretch our eyes. It dissolves the compound while the compound itself renders the acid to a harmless liquid.”“Wow, sounds complicated.” he responded, fixated on the planes slowly descending to the ground. “So, Who won?” He asked.“It wasn't a contest. It was a training exercise between master and pupil.”“Training? For what?”“We run reconnaissance around the globe, and we use our ships to ferry messages.”“Can I learn to fly one of these?” He said, crouching down to examine one of the two ships on the floor.“If you were still a human then I would have to reply no. But you are altered so you may be able to control one. This however must wait for another time.” Another Felic approached,“Sires, The altered boy has been cosmetically rendered to his unaltered state.” It glanced at his guide for a second. “The boy's father requests their presence.”“Very well,” It turned towards him. “Andrew, When you return I will teach you to fly one of these to the best of my ability.”-He crunched the last of the bone between his mandibles and savored the last of the flavor. He sat back and watched the human talking with the Nest father. It spoke with no dignifying tones, and lost no stature when the Nest father spoke.He continued to watch in disgust as the Nest father lowered himself to speak in their language. Perhaps the Nest mother was right, Maybe they were taking this alliance too far. He turned his torso and passed another bone to his mandibles, He crunched delightedly as he listened to his Age brothers mowed through the last of the flesh behind him.They would make the difference. One meal at a time.

Chapter 3 - AmbushHe clambered from the ground and grimaced as he patted his worn shins. He pulled his arms out to the side, The first lessons with the Nest Father had been interesting to say the least. But the progress in actually getting the planes to fly was mediocre. He stood back up and resumed running at a slower pace.He had been grounded after he had gotten back, For looks sake, Because he had gotten Charlie sick. Charlie had finally recovered and his eternal groundation had been lifted. He continued on through the shady forest and breathed in deep as a ray of sun smashed through the leaves and half-blinded him.He was supposed to go in for another lesson later today, but for now he had free time. A dark form passed through the trees in front of him and he skidded to a stop. He focused on the shadows and made out a Arachne form huddling beside a trunk.Slowly, He crept up around the tree and confronted the Felic.“Why are you here?” He sent as he noted that the Mandibles weren't fully formed. It fell back in Surprise.“Human? You speak Spider. Nest Father builds upon his empire of heresy and deceit.” It cackled in loud staccato burst and shot off into the forest. He jumped forward and chased behind the little creature.“Nest child!” He sent as he heard more bursts echo from around him in reply.”Nest child, What have you done!” The area around them bristled as multiple forms faded into being as he banished the shadows.“Do Not Call Me Nest child! My name is Achilles and you will die for speaking our sacred tongue!” The group jeered as it edged closer from the tree line.“Die Filthy Human!” “Die Die Die”He spun and shuddered as the world, exploded into sound and the spiders rushed cheering a one word Mantra. “ACHILLES!”HE pulled back and jumped over the backs of the lesser line. His eyes Closed and face set in concentration. He pulled up above the spiders and cleared them by a 3 feet at least. He opened his eyes when he didn't land on the ground and barely ducked into a roll
as he approached the top of the tree.He jumped from the roll onto the next layer of leaves and screamed as he slipped off the leaves and rolled on the ground. He caught his leg on a rock and screamed as he felt a crack and warm fluid stream down his leg.Determined, he placed his leg down and bit down on his lip. His eyes lit up in pain and tears puddled as he ran at top speed from the edge of the forest. Behind him he heard rapid scurrying and felt several barks of orders from the Nest child Achilles.He turned halfway down and caught sight of a group of engineers walking through the farms talking and laughing. “RUN!” He screamed wildly. They looked up in annoyance but their faces quickly turned to terror as they caught sight of the Horde of spiders behind him.They turned and ran with not another thought to him. He spun trying to lead the spiders off track but only a few followed him. The rest stampeded onwards towards the residential areas. He heard Achilles scream in fury behind him.“Come back!”But the spider horde ignored him and continued on and disappeared into the distance. The fire in his eyes began to die and tears filled his eyes as he neared the spot. He flipped the switch on the side of the log and dropped down into the hole that had opened up in the ground.He fell and screamed as he fell. The spiders crowded above the hole blocking the entrance from the others as they attempted to fit themselves into the hole. He fell down for what seemed like an eternity before he hit into a wide pool of water.HE Screamed as he ran from the pool, Leaving a long trail of blood behind him. “Help!” He screamed, His voice breaking. Instantly A spider melted from the shadows and approached him.“Are you okay?” IT asked with a worried tone.“Its not me, Nest child Achilles led an army to ambush me. He is following and his horde is attacking my people.” Three more spiders melted from the wall as splashes came from the pool. The leader himself and War leader slid through the wall.“Attacking the humans?” The War leader roared. “Achilles? What have you done!” He cried in anguish. The leader turned,“Your Nest child-”“Is dead to me!”“As is the law.” The other spiders intoned as more splashes resounded from the pool and forms ran up the hallway. The leader Reached out,“Come Andrew, The War children will handle this.”He hefted Andrew when he noticed his leg.“I am fine,” He murmured.“Sleep.” he commanded as his Mandibles reached out and ripped through his skin. “Sleep.”-He finally forced himself through the small hole and fell towards the light at the bottom. Then a spray of blood spread backwards through the pool and Arachne body parts fell amongst their own life blood. He spread his legs out and gripped at the wall. He watched as more of his Age mates were slaughtered and the bronze light shone off the mandibles of the Warrior children.He grunted as one of his Age mates fell on him. “Climb up!” He hissed. “The Warrior children are on the prowl.” His Age mates eyes grew and he looked down at the bloodstained water before scrambling up the wall.He glanced down again and caught sight of the water being sucked up and the stone below becoming clear. The message was clear, They would be offered as sacrifice, dead or alive. He scurried up behind his Age mate.When he finally breached the surface he found less then a quarter of his original group.“Either we take the humans! Or we die by the Warrior children's mandibles!”

Chapter 4 - War.He opened his eyes just enough to see out and waited for the Health child to turn away. When she finally did he rolled off the bed and ran from the small area. His eyes shot open and he gasped in agony. He slammed out of the spiders globe and found himself in unfamiliar territory.Turning in confusion he looked around the room. They had moved the colony, Now they were somewhere completely different. He walked forward and jumped as something touched his shoulders. He flipped around and found himself face to face with the Health child.“Human child You should rest.” It said as it examined his leg.“My friends are being attacked, By your Nest children.” He paused as he looked into two of the Health child's eyes. “I need to be there to help them.”“Your Nest group is in trouble?” She asked, “You must help your Nest group.” She turned away and started off. “My Name is Ruby, I will take you to your Nest group.”“Thank you Ruby, I am indebted.” She stopped suddenly, Before turning to face him,“No!” She spat through her Mandibles. “My Nest child starts this, I help to end it.”They walked through a dark corridor and turned off into a brighter room. He shivered as a breeze passed over his leg. He looked at Ruby questioningly, when she stopped in the middle of the room.“Patience Human child, just wait.” She turned back the way they had come and hissed a word he didn't know. Instantly the floor began to shake, and the ground sighed a little portion of the ground growing up.He widened his stance and held out his hands for balance as the platform ascended into the air. The ceiling above them opened up casting a small ray of light down onto the platform. He gaped in astonishment as they came right below a pool of water.“This is right below the main fountain!” Ruby looked over and seemed bemused as she watched him admire the placement of the elevator.“Help your Nest group.”-His small group crashed through one side of the wheat farms, and crashed out the other side into a maelstrom of blood and screams. His small group held up makeshift wooden swords and charged into battle mowing down several of the rebellious army.“Nest rebels! Come to me!” He yelled out. The fighting humans fell back into the residential buildings during the quick respite.“Nest rebels, We are here to face death. If we return to our Nest, then our Nest groups will mow us down themselves, or they will hand us to the blood thirsty Warrior children.” Several of his group unburdened their backs of the makeshift swords and tossed them out into the mob of writhing spiders.They turned in unison and marched on the residential areas. The doors opened and Achilles blanked as he saw the flash of TNT. “DUCK!” The first row dropped to the ground as the TNT missiles rocketed over them and smashed into the second row. The screams echoed over the blast and the humans slid the doors shut to block out the blast.The rows of spiders flew up, flashing red and screaming as they died. He felt the blast waves wash over him and watched as it blew the wheat from its plots. He turned back and screamed in defiance.“Attack while they repair their cannons!” He singled out a group of his favored Age mates with his mandibles, “Go around and smash through the windows!”The small group scuttled away as the rest of the army stormed the front of the residential complex once more. The doors didn't pop open, instead the spiders at the front were bathed in lava. They screamed as they ran away rolling in their comrades blood, and searching for water.Windows smashed and arrows flew from the darkened building, bestowing curses on the spiders. One that had finally doused the flames on his body by rolling on the bloody ground, combusted into flames once more. Another fell as green drops exploded from the arrow embedded in his skin and seared into his flesh.Still more fell just from the normal arrows, an enormity of which were flooding the air. A few spiders had evaded the archers and the lava, and were now beating down the glass doors. As they finally smashed through the glass, Iron doors slammed shut, relieving several appendages from the spiders.Finally the out poor of arrows slowed, and the iron doors eased open. Two cut and bloodied spiders remained of the original seven of the group.“They are hiding in iron safe rooms.” the first one coughed out in obvious pain. The second leaned against the wall.“We can't get to them, they have the ability to blow this globe sky high from in there. They use some sort of wireless tech, so we can't even cut their power.” Achilles waded through the dead bodies and raised his torso in a salute to the two spiders.“You have done well, Nest rebels.” He turned back and faced the surviving army. “We have failed. Our deaths are assured.” He lifted his front appendages skyward, “Look around us.” The group looked around and fell closer together as they found a large army of Warrior children had surrounded them.“Tally Deaths!” The War leader called out as he breached the front line. After a moment a group of the warrior children stepped forward and began scouring the bodies. They noted positions, and numerated them as they walked through the field of corpses.-He shook himself off as he climbed out of the pool and glanced back down into its murky depths. Shaking his head he walked away, and started jogging towards the residential center. He ran up the path and threaded through the farms. He turned a corner and found the ground covered in wheat and dirt. He blinked in surprise as his eyes traveled upwards following the path of destruction.His eyes widened in shock as he caught sight of the Warrior children scouring blood and corpse laden ground in front of the residential area. He blanked as one of the Warrior children glanced up and pegged him.“Human watcher!” It shrilled to the others. Andrew dropped to his knees and waved his hands over his head.“Human friend! Know Nest leader! Human friend!” He felt the spiders probing at his mind and he dropped his gates. “Human friend.”“Human friend,” one of them murmured. “War leader! Human friend!”The familiar large spider walked over and raised his torso till he was looking him in the eyes.“So far we have found no human remains. Humans incumbent warlike nature prevailed in this fight. Only the Nest rebels died.”The large spider dropped his torso and turned away. A slightly luminescent patch of liquid falling from its face. “No one died?”A Warrior child turned towards him.“All of the Nest rebels died.” An
drew nodded and ran down towards the Residential area.-Achilles rolled his head and gasped as his ducts freed up and dropped hissing acid down over his eyes. He blinked and looked around. The remainder of his army was bound with unbreakable solvent around him. He turned around and rolled his head forward as his ducts freed up again. The acid dropped down onto his bounds and dissolved his bonds.He looked around in disbelief. Had it been that easy? He rolled to the lower edge of his body and clutched at the ground as he righted himself. None of his army stirred. He crept across the floor picking his path around his dormant army.He forced his way through the side wall and blindly made his way towards his bent. After several moments, he slid into the warm and dimly lit vent. Along the side of the room there were several gliders. He breathed out as the gliders lifted up into the air and flew around the room. He chuckled as one flew down and grabbed a leftover bone. It flew up and dropped it on his head.Light lit the room outside and he dropped backwards, the gliders moving ahead of him. He heard human voices echoing as the room got brighter. A shout of exclamation echoed as they moved closer.“We found them! They’re sleeping!” Angry screams echoed out and the clash of metal on carapace cracked into the air.He ran out into the open, his gliders lighting up the air ahead of him. A human looked over from the butcher and called out.“Hey, ones awake!” A group ran out and chased after him. His glider angled towards a wall that he remembered being thin and the first one flashed white before it blew a hole in the wall. He jumped out the hole and fell for a couple of seconds before the gliders caught his appendages and lowered him down towards the ground.After what seemed like an eternity his gliders set him down on a soft patch of grass. Then tucked up around his front appendages. He unsquinted his eyes and watched as a group of spiders faded into view and surrounded him. They picked him up and he faded into the darkness as they carried him away.

Chapter 5 - LessonsHe shivered as he looked down over the edge of the Globe. The metal walls curving off far below him. He shivered and looked around the lookout position. Since the attack, defenses had been set up around the globe. Everything from solo gliders circling the globe, watching for any groups of spiders trying to enter, to lookouts stationed around the edges of the globe to watch for any large groups of Cognit forces.He shivered and looked through the spyglass again. The vast world had mostly recovered from man’s prohibitive reign, now reclaiming the quarry lands and smashing through the cities. The Cognits seemed to do little messing with the status quot, staying well within the safety of their cities.Sometimes he thought he saw large beasts rippling the leaves as the passed under the leafy forest roofs. For the next week he was stationed up her from dawn ‘till lunch. Then he was free to do anything else. He had had several more lessons down in the Felics new home.And he had found that their were a myriad of ways to get down there. He had to be more careful though, as their were now patrols running through the belly of the globe. Most of the Felic’s Passageways were completely outside of the humans knowledge, But they had found one or two already.He glanced up at the sun and cricked his neck. His replacement should be getting here anytime. He looked down at the world through the spyglass and watched as the leaves continued to ripple as if large beasts traversed beneath them.-He felt the pleasant side to side rocking, and his ducts flooded releasing his eyes from the grip of the irritant solvent. He turned around in confusion as he found that he was lying on a large black beast. He shivered and slowly brought himself to his feet.“Child! Lie down!” An unfamiliar voice cried out. “You will spook the brute!” Obediently he returned to a resting position, glancing around he saw several other spiders. But he felt none of them. He probed towards them and a couple of them shifted uneasily, but none reciprocated his approach.He drew back as he felt a huge presence fill his mind. ‘Young one? You are not Cognit! From whence you come?’ Startled he returned the only answer he had.‘The sky!’‘You fell from the heavens?’“No, I flew.” He sent imagery of the gliders carrying him down to safety.“You must be careful, The Cognit like none apart from themselves.” It intoned.“You mean you don’t carry us of your own free will?”“I carry you because if I don’t then my corpse will be cast into a part of the quarry land to serve as a new patch of ground for plants and trees. Survival is key young one. The Cognit believe themselves supreme, But you have secrets they cannot imagine!”“I do?”“Yes and for survival, remember that me and my kind work for survival as well, do not show us pity, for your sake and ours.”A Cognit slowly crept over to Him, “Child, You act as if you have not ridden on a brute before?”“Careful” The brute whispered into his mind before withdrawing.“I just have Never woken on one.” He said with a breeze as he pressed at the Cognit to leave him be.The Cognit reared back, “We will be approaching the city of Vengeance soon. You slept long, now you will live in our small but grand city.”He leaned back as the Cognit slunk back to the other side and watched as the trees thinned. This world had nothing on him. He would overtake them all, then he would smash any and all who would dare get in the way of his revenge.-A thin form finally appeared on the edge of the globe and headed towards him. He stood up from his post and stretched. The form slowly drifted along the metallic surface of the globe. Finally he could make out who it was. “Charlie? Thought you were off work duty?” The form shook his head as he drew closer.“Fred fell off of the globe. He just respawned and has to take a while to recover.”“Fred fell off, served him right. Just couldn’t stop goofing off near the edge.” He stretched again and yawned. “Tell me if you see any more of those land-whales.” He said as he walked away. “I was following three or four of them.”Charlie nodded in assent, and turned towards the spyglass. He shook his head as he walked over to the side of the globe and peered down. The ground was hundreds of blocks down, but he had always wondered what the globe looked like from below. He would have to catch up with Fred and ask him about the view.He turned and headed towards the woods instead of the residential complex. It was his free time so he would be going to fly one of those gliders finally. He wandered through the woods then dropped down into a pool of water. He swam down, took hold of a switch, yanked it upwards. Then disappeared into the small doorway that appeared.He shook himself off as he descended a ladder down into the bowl of the globe. The felics had apparently relocated themselves to the older engines. They kept them well maintained, so no one would head down into the engines to fix them. He shivered as a gust of air swept past his mind. The Warrior children now kept careful tabs on the whereabouts of their people.He broadcasted that he was a friend, They took little heed of him and he continued on his way.He walked down the last of the stairs and walked through the wall. The city loomed in front of him, large and phosphorent. He walked through the midst of the city and soon arrived at a large fountain. Nest Leader sat in front of the fountain and a large glider circled around him.Flinching at the familiar presence tapping into his mind, he sat cross-legged in front of Nest leader. He closed his eyes and reached out to locate the glider on the floor near them. After a moment it linked to him and he saw from its viewpoint.It raised from the floor and spun in a tight circle for a moment, before a loud crash echoed through his mind and he found himself staring into Nest leader’s eyes.“Better,” He broadcasted. “Much better. Soon you will be able to fly one of these by yourself.”He stood up shakily, and held onto his legs. “I think I am going to puke.” The Nest father’s presence fell from his mind, and his equilibrium returned.“You need practice away from here,” One of the Nest fathers appendages reached out and passed a small bug-like object into his hand. “This is a children's toy, It can walk, fly and travel for 5 consecutive hours before it has to recharge itself. Use this in your time above.”He turned around and held the bug up to the light. He felt for it for a second and linked to it, its wings flared up and it took a couple of tentative steps forward. He bounced back to his body and felt the bug on his hand.He looked up at the Nest father, “Thanks.” He followed as the Nest father began to walk further into the city. “Would flying with this be safe?”“After you manage to understand the way the wings work, yes. The gliders will be playthings for simple flight when you have finished learning to control the bug.”He linked with the bug again and felt as he moved the wings from the body.He stepped forward and tottered on the edge of his hand for a moment then turned around and crawled up his arm.

Chapter 6 - Death and Loss.He crawled through the house. His eyes part of him yet not. He flapped his wings and shot up into the air. He circled through their portion of the complex and laughed as he passed over Charlie’s sleeping form. He dropped down exhilarated and landed on Charlie’s nose.He bounced away as A hand rocketed up and smashed into his nose. He laughed as he continued on through the complex. He picked up a few voices from his parents side. The first voice echoing through the area was clear.“Have you lost your mind? Why would I allow a group of bloodthirsty Arachne to invade our globe! Let alone Put them on here myself!” Conflicted, He strayed a bit closer. His father wouldn’t want him to hear or see this, But on the other hand, Ho
w would he know?The second voice was unfamiliar but was rich with anger and betrayal.“We found papers with you authorizing transport of exotic ‘Animals’ to be transported to our globe.”“And are you not thankful that we have a herd of Mooshrooms residing here now? Or would you prefer going without a constant supply of soup?”“six Mooshrooms came over when the barge carried enough room for sixty.”“Some Died on their way over.” He turned around the last corner into his fathers office. He was standing behind his desk conversing with a heavyset man with a dark expression on his face.“You won’t get away with treason. I won’t let you.” The heavyset man pulled a sword and moved to hit his father. He panicked and flew at top speed into the man’s face. The bug emitting a sharp whine as it taxed its flight parameters. Small appendages at the ready he cut into the mans face and burrowed through the mans eyeball into his skull.He emerged on the other side and watched his father stare at the now dead man. His father reached down towards his stomach and took his hands away covered in blood. “They ripped my spawn core out.” He whispered. Then fell to the ground. He flew up into the wall and zapped back to reality to find himself running and screaming towards his father’s office.Lights flashed on behind him and people followed all arriving to find the corpse of their leader lying on the ground, and the face of his assailant ripped to shreds. He fell to his knees in front of his fathers body.“Its okay, he’ll be back soon!” someone said. But He merely pointed at a small pearl lying on the floor in front of his body.“They ripped his spawn core out. He isn’t coming back.”-Achilles walked into the academy, and laughed to himself as the crowds seperated, deferring to him. It had taken less then a week to gain mastery over the entire school. The instructors worshipped the ground he walked on, while the students writhed in fear under his gaze.He excelled in all of his subjects. not through deceit but through him truely studying the material. He wished he could correct some of the assumption the Cognits had adopted from the humans about the world, But he didn’t want to gain too much attention yet.He continued on to his first classroom and sat in a nice chair, and relaxed as the instructor began his lecture.“Time after time, We must return to the thoughts of our past.” “We must look back to find the path that led us to the here and now.” “Our species has advanced more in the last hundred years then the humans have in the last thousand.” “How do we explain this?” “Our best guess is that through some outside intervention, Something either benevolently changed us to be able to rise over our human oppressors, or that that something was malovent and raised us up to strike the humans down.” “If the first globe had not destroyed the city of Gaol, we would be in a steady peace with the humans.” “We have conversed with the humans through diplomatic talks, and they no understanding for how or why their globe crashed.” “In fact they report that they have had no other crashes since that first, and they have other globes from that era still flying without a problem.” “The best we can deduce is that the something that changed us into what we are, also provoked us to war.” “Thoroughly eliminating the idea of the peaceful benevolent creature.” “The humans believe in a deity called ‘Notch’ Who created our world and the first human.” “But the humans also have a sub culture that believes in a deity called ‘Jeb’ that took over from the great ‘Notch’ Who supposedly continued working on our world and fixing it. Supposedly to this day.” “Something altered us from what we were into what we are.” “It is safe to assume that the same force that altered us is also driving us to war with what could be our greatest allies.”A low tone sounded through the hall and the Cognit stood and dispersed as the instructor called out. “We will continue this discussion next week, have a good day.”he strode up to the instructor, hoping to get a word in but the instructor dashed from the room.He squinted his eyes confused at the instructors behavior. He thought back to his mindset as he too walked from the room, just slightly behind the mass of departing Cognit. He had been intently focused on the lecture, he hadn’t even been focused on his customary feel for deference.He looked up and saw the instructor conversing with a group of darker carapaced Cognit. He noted into the instructors mind and felt apprehensiveness and anxiety. He’s probably being investigated for his teaching. He thought and walked away towards the center of Vengeance. His adoptive family were having lunch in one of the skydomes, He loved the height, though contrary to most Cognits feeling of height.-Andrew was still lying in the floor beside the spot where his father had died, when they came for him. His body was gone, but he thought he could still feel him, lingering on after death.They sliced through the room and took Andrew from where he was lying. He started to scream but the calm presence of the Nest father flooded his mind and he quieted. Seemingly moments later, they stopped and he found himself placed on a large glider.He looked confusedly around but received no answers to the questions that floated through his mind. They strapped him to the glider and pushed it off the side of the globe. An apology echoed through his mind as the Nest father left him and he drifted down through the endless night.

Chapter 7 - SurvivalHe cracked his eyes open and found himself staring at the clear blue sky. He looked around examining the glider around him. It was made of hard steel, his eyes smarted as he repositioned himself and the sun blasted into his eyes. He turned away and brought himself to his feet.He clambered over the side of the glider and found himself surrounded by a herd of Mooshrooms cavorting over the purplish mycelium. Looking further, he found a large tree. It stood further away, Just over the line of the Mycelium.He raised his hand, and tapped the wood. Unlike the Special blocks of the globe, it showed a small crack in it. He smashed through it and quickly smashed the rest of the tree to the ground, retrieving two apples and a sapling.He chewed on the apple as he formed the basic shape of a crafting table. He formed the wood and waited as the wood bonded together in a flash of light. He picked it up from the ground and looked at it in a sort of wonder.He held it out and dropped it to the ground. A small pop echoed, and the crafting table grew to a much larger size. Once again amazed at the transformation, he knelt down and felt the sides of the table.He reached out towards the table and let out a breath as his body and the things in his pockets flashed into being behind his eyes. He felt his mind tense as he moved two blocks of wood into the shape of a rod.He blinked to avoid the flash and looked back from the table to find four sticks in his hand.He quickly crafted the sticks and wood into the basic survival implements; Sword, Pick, a and Axe. His apprehensiveness faded as he turned away from the crafting table and found himself face to face with a large spider. He stood there for a minute and looked at it.It looked amazingly like a Felic, and the barely coherent growl of words that echoed from its mouth to were reminiscent of them.“Human, Now you die.” It hissed.“Why?” He returned, instinctually supplementing with a small blast of thought. It stopped and looked curiously at him.“You Speak?” It stepped backwards. He jumped over the crafting table behind him, and backed onto the mycelium.“Yes.” It came up to the mycelium and hissed for a second before rearing back and spitting a green steaming liquid from between its mandibles.Yelling in surprise, he threw himself to the side. His arm burned and he smelled singed flesh. Gasping, he pulled himself further back into the mycelium biome. The spider stepped forward eyes wide in anticipation, but a couple of steps onto the mycelium it faltered.His eyes flooded with fluids, and green fluid gushed from its mouth. It tripped and stumbled another foot before dropping to the ground and screeching as the fluid hardened around him holding him to the ground and the green fluid smoked as it ate at his skin.His eyes gushed again with fluid and the screech shifted to a lower tone as smoke issued from his eyes. After a long minute its screams dropped to a lower state and became silent.He gazed at the smoking remains of the corpse for a moment before standing up and clutching his arm to his body as he slowly walked over to his crafting table. He grabbed his fallen sticks before picking up the table and walking into the mycelium biome.-He finally descended from the skydome and slowly made his way through the darkened city. Ge approached his residence and let himself relax. Tomorrow he would finish twisting the minds of his fellow students.With their brainpower focusing on a central goal he would be almost unstoppable. He turned up the last path and walked up to the door of the house. He slid through the streamers and squinted his eyes at the harsh, pervasive lights that bombarded him.He unsquinted his eyes after a minute and made out a couple of familiar shapes. The first two he discerned were his foster parents here. The other two were the problem, they were the uptight officers that had been lurking around the school watching a few of his teachers.Incredulity drifted through his mind. He hadn’t seen them talking to teachers not associated with him. He backed away from the group before running as fast as his legs would carry him. He stopped suddenly, suspended in mid air by two large mandibles.They squeezed on his shell before carrying him back to the house. He looked down and saw appreciative expressions on the faces of the two cognits. He turned his body and found himself staring into the face of a large brute, He spat in disgust as it lowere
d itself down and the two officers climbed onto it.It rose carrying him high into the air. With slow long strides it carried him off through the city.-He dragged the glider over the edge of the moat and dropped it on the ground.He winced as his arm was pulled down by the craft. He turned and walked into his makeshift wooden hut. He sat at a table and pulled out his bug. He tossed it into the air, and flashed into it.He was falling, the ground reared up to meet him. Just in time he pulled his wings out and soared upwards. He spun in a tight circle before flying through the holes in his door. He flew up and spun in the sunlight.After a couple of minutes he dropped down into the glider. He spun around inside of it in wonder. It was full of food and supplies. He flew the bug back to his hand and flashed back.He jumped up from the table and ran outside to the glider. He dropped down to the floorboard of the glider. He winced as he tugged on the floorboard but nothing gave. He finally gave up and reengaged the bug. He dropped down onto the board and to his surprise floated right through.He flew back up and found that the bug wasn’t stopped by it at all. He dropped down and grabbed a piece of food and hauled it up but it stopped in its tracks below him falling out of his grasp.He tried some of the other containers but the result was always the same. Finally he sat back in the glider and looked over at the sunset. An irittating tree was blocking his view but suddenly it dropped down and he had a perfect view. He turned to get out of the glider to see if another Cognit had shown up.Instead, he found himself floating high above his house. He turned back into the glider and closed his eyes. He concentrated,“Down,” He whispered “Down.” He felt a slight drop and felt the glider touch earth. He opened his eyes and looked around, he was on the ground. He thought for a second, then focused on the floorboard, “Open.” The floor eased to the side and revealed a load of food and supplies.-Achilles unsquinted his eyes and felt the acid dissolve his solid barrier. As it dripped down his face he looked up and saw them approach a large city. It felt strangely reminiscent of the city he had been born in. It stood high with crystal towers and seemed to be connected from every angle.The brutes Mandibles clenched harder and he passed out again.

Chapter 8 - Cities of dust.The room shook with explosive force as he hunkered down behind a steel barricade. He flipped up his soot smeared goggles and peered over the rim of the barricade. He looked towards his glider and grimaced. The original glider sat in a shimmering haze, while his variation was now strewn across the test area.He stood up and noted it on a grimy white notepad. He walked over and checked his obsidian chest. It was empty. He shook his head andsat back, and accessed his new variation of bug. His eyes opened and he saw himself as a human. He opened his large wings and alit into the soft gunpowder tinted air.He flew up through a soft material into the open sunlight. After a moment he relaxed and extended a pair of rigid wings. He relaxed as the strain from beating the wings softened to nothing and he rocketed through the air, propelled by miniscule gunpowder ignitions. He propped open his eyes and examined his surroundings.Below him he noticed another of the rippling trees, Curiosity gaining over better judgement he cut his gunpowder ignitions and plummeted down towards the earth. His sensors discerned no distinct openings so he flipped his body around and let loose a small reservoir ofgunpowder that blew a small hole in the leaves. Retracting the larger wings, he descended down through the hole and caught sight of a large black beast stampeding away from the spot on eight long legs. He blinked in surprise and set off after it.After a couple of minutes he regained the distance lost and found himself flying next to a large spider. On top of the beast were sixCognit holding on for dear life. The one at the front beating the brute. Tentatively he reached out towards the beast and sent a calming wave."Human!" Came a frantic response. "Not spider death." The beast slowed to a stop but the lead Cognit kept beating it furiously. With the realization that this was an intelligent creature, he became enraged and extended his wings as he flew towards the Cognit. He put on a quick burst and sliced past the lead Cognit.Turning in a sharp roll, he retracted his wings and came to a rest in front of the decapitated body. The other Cognit were looking at the body in surprise and fear. They looked up and he imagined what they might see, a strange metallic killer bird or a blood wreathed agent of their destruction.He launched himself into the air and blasted past them in a rage. He flew through a bloody rage and screamed when he finally came back enough to see a large wall rise up in front of him. He cut up and rocketed above it. When he glanced back down he could see the remnant of humanities power.An Immense city, full of redstone and broken down walls. He dropped down as he spotted something perfect. Peeking through the blasted sides of the wall was an abundance of obsidian. He flew up toward the top of an outlying skyscraper and landed on the side of it.He ran a quick Nav system laying out the path he had took to there. After a moment he turned his beam on and focused it towards his base. He opened his eyes and stretched for a moment. He grabbed a couple of lenses from his shelf and attached them to his goggles. He yawned as he stood up and walked up a quick flight of stairs.He slipped his goggles down over his face and looked off towards the east. After a moment he saw the slight glimmer of light. He grinned and grabbed his sword and hopped onto the glider. He was going to town.-Achilles stretched and stood from his hammock. He yawned as the fluid seeped down his face and he walked from the room. He picked up a chicken from the pen to the side of his door and clutched the dead between his mandibles as he walked down the hallway.He turned into the classroom and sat down, the chicken started squawking and quickly grew irritating. He reached up and ripped the chickens body from his mandibles then chuckled as he tossed the head up and sucked it down his throat.The rest of the body soon followed. His first instructor strolled through the door and he relaxed, His plans had been delayed some. But in reality he was in a much better place to act then he had been.He relished the aftertaste of the chicken as he listened to the instructor as he began to speak.-His glider rippled the leaves below him as he shot through above the forest towards the city. His questions now finally answered about the strange land whales, he would salvage what he could carry from the city. Then he would return to his little fort and continue his experimentation with the gliders.He approached the high wall and skidded to a stop as he caught a real first glance at the sheer size of the city. The walls themselves rose high into the sky and capped off at an imposing fifty blocks. He held out his hand as he gently accelerated along the side of the wall. As his fingers brushed the cold stone, a loud grating echoed from around him.He veered away from the wall and spun his glider in a tight circle. The wall shook violently, dust cascading from the stone as a gap appeared. Cautiously he went through the gap and found himself at the epicenter of colossal destruction.The skyscrapers were bones up to just before the wall started. Their innards showcased to be made of stronger materials such as steel and obsidian. He floated forwards through the ravaged city and shivered at the cold air rushing through the virulent bones of a lost era. He approached the larger tower and concentrated on his bug.He shivered and toppled from the highest of heights. He shot towards the ground and triggered multiple explosions to unfreeze his metallic parts. His wings tensed then unclasped enough to allow his rigid set to extract themselves. He cut them out and made to tilt upwards right as he smashed into the ground.He screamed in agony as his glider dropped to the ground from the overload. He couldn't move, and his eyes seared from intense pain.Something dark approached through the growing haze and he lost consciousness.

Chapter 9 - Pain, consequence, rebellion.He felt the blood rushing through his head and the pounding smashed against his eardrums like broken nails. He turned his body in vain trying to cool his body on the stone beneath him. His body began to cool down and he pressed himself down on the cool stone and relaxed.He began to drift off once more. His body cooled and he was disappearing into a dark void when he felt a cloth being layed over him. His body began to heat up again and sweat broke out on his skin. He fell into the dark void as his body temperature rose higher and higher.-Achilles turned and looked as his shell for a second, before applying a grease to it for shine. He turned and gazed upon himself in the reflective material for a second before draping a dim cloak over the front of his head.Tonight would be the first of many. Tonight His followers would gather in one area as a united force. They would strike a small blow on the government, but that blow would lead the way for a true uprising.-He gasped as burning sweat cascaded down his forehead and his eyes snapped open to reveal a dark blurry room. Blinking the sweat out of his eyes, he rolled over and found a small source of light.Barely conscious, he squinted his eyes and the room came into a brighter focus. Across the room were a myriad of spiders. He drifted off in a state of confusion as his head ripped open in splitting pain. His mouth opened in a silent scream as he faded out.-He walked beind the front row holding the form of the group with minor control. He gazed forward at the middle tower. He would be apprehended a
fter this, but that would only help his power.The side group leaped into action on command and smashed through the front line of brutes. The brutes quickly gave way under the vicious attack from the Cognit armed with curved blades.The rest of the groups roared in defiance and smashed into the Cognit forces. They were tired and they were bloodthirsty. His Group held back withtwo others as if waiting for a call for reinforcements.-He floated through nothing for a long time before he finally closed back to reality. His eyes inched open and he found that he was indeed surrounded by spiders. All Cognits but the large mass sitting back in a cove in the wall.He made to reach out but a Shout resounded from the room. Surprised he stopped. A cognit stepped up,"You cannot. You crippled yourself, you attempt contact or control and you lapse into a coma. Each time gets longer and longer, It isn't worth it."He looked around confused,"You Know about the telepathy?" The cognits seperated giving him a line of sight to the Mass in the cove."Yes, They Know." He heard resound throughout his head. He looked up at the mass and three glowing red eyes appeared, and stared back at him.-The teams smashed through the outer windows and sirens exploded into sound blasted through the air. His teams pressed onwards The first several forays were fended off by security inside the building, but the voracity of the spiders were driven by memories of ill-equipped yet vicous human tactics.TNT was placed and building shook as the explosion resounded through the base of the tower. Bows were lashed and soon tar covered arrows were hurtling through the air imbedding themselve in redstone circuitry and Cognit bodies.Finally the three groups were called forward and began their march on the battle. THe upper security fell away as they caught sight of three widely dispersed groups chanting and holding bright lights. They halted at the bottom but the tactic had worked and the inner troops flooded through unhindered."Then why are you hiding in an rust covered desolate city?" He asked after the Brute had spoken. "Surely you could do so much more!""We are restricted; population, technology, and power. The Felic control it all.""The Felic? I knew the Felic.""No, You knew an isolated group on the fringes of society. They may have surpassed their brethren in terms of morality, but the Felics that remain here are just short of barbaric rulers.""How are you restricted?""Population checks, Scheduled executions, And Hormone control. Anyone can be a harsh master when they have complete control.""Why help me, When I could be perceived as a threat?""Because you will follow your conscience. Leave us to Stagnate and fade away, or help us break free."The last group forced their way into the building then all of the groups stopped, Layed down their weapons and layed into rest. The hostages, bleeding and sane didn't move until official forces paraded through. fifty spiders of youth had entered, decimated and conquered a security building.-He sat in rest as the officers flooded around him and the others, rushing towards the building. Dark tinted shells approached him, and ordered them one by one onto a large brute. To enforce their orders they were held at weapon point.Time passed quickly on the brute and almost instantly he found himself in a large iron room seemingly bleached of color. They filed in and sat in a circle around the center of the cubed room. The Dark-tinted shells came and took them out one at a time.When it came time for him they led him from the room and left him in an elaborate office. As he waited he kept his composure calm and sturdy, but inside he frantically paged through the memories of his followers.None of the others had been brought into a room like this, left alone, or had time to think before being questioned. He quickly lost track of time as he was consumed by worry and fear. They had no way to know who he was and what role he had played.Finally a Cognit stepped through the door and approached him. He remained silent and watched as it circled around him and sat at the desk in front of him."Achilles, Achilles, Achilles..." It said disapproval dripping from its voice. "We took you from that slum city Vengeance. And we provided you with top rate Schooling. Then you participate in something like this!" Seeing Achilles' confusion he introduced himself."I am Mandrake. Head of Public Relations. You are my pet project. An orphan brought to the higher echelon of Cognit society. Everyone needs their fairytales.""I didn't do anything.""Unfortunately all nineteen of the others with you said the same thing, The survivors of your attack also testify that they saw none of you. But hear this, Parables can be just as effective as Fairy tales. Sometimes more so." Mandrake motioned towards the door. "You are free to go. But we will be watching."

Chapter 10 - Trial and ErrorTentatively, He approached the glider and looked at it. Unlike him it had escaped the ordeal unscathed. He touched the side of it, and winced he instantly tried to contact it. He touched it again and hefted himself over the edge of the glider and balanced on the side for a second before stepping in.He looked down at the front of the glider and grimaced. There were no controls, except for telepathy. Hit with a burst of inspiration he held his hand out and touched the dash of the glider.His arms tensed and a quite rushing sounded in the back of his head. As he made contact and formulated what he wanted the rushing grew louder. White flashed over his eyes and the rushing blasted through his ears.He shuddered as his body changed temperature and the dashboard rippled. He felt pounding as the crimson river smashed through his head. He felt his face grow wet as the dashboard melted into a semblance of what he had wanted.The last portion of the dashboard melted and revealed two levers and a set of buttons. He leaned back into the glider and shook as cold rippled through his body. Slowly the pounding faded and the rushing subsided. The river now submerged he relaxed.He felt a strange sensation around his ears, He reached back and rubbed his fingers over his ear finding a warm liquid coating his lower neck. He pulled his hand back and found his fingers coated in blood.“I thought I told you it wasn't worth it.” Came a strong voice from behind him.He focused on his glider and ignored the voice as he felt the blood start to dry on his fingertips. He spat on his fingers and quickly rubbed them off on his pants. He tensed as the Cognit came within his small range of feeling.“You are still using it.” It said, disbelief evident through its voice. “You can’t stop can you?” The Cognit seemingly glided across the floor and came to a spot in front of him.It adopted a strikingly human pose, upper torso reclined and arm rubbing against its chin. He grinned, despite himself. “What is your name?”The red eyes widened and examined him for a moment before he answered.“I am Lupus, Named for the color of my eyes.” He looked at Lupus’s eyes, but discerned no difference from any others he had seen.“Color?” Lupus turned away, And started walking back the way he had come. He stopped suddenly,“At’thias Would like to know your consciousness’s resolution soon.” Then he continued on.--Achilles stretched as he peacefully relaxed and ruminated on the events of the last twenty hours. He ransacked his brain, trying to find anything reliably linking him to the planning or execution of the events.He finally relaxed and gave up trying to figure it out. He tapped into the viscous thoughts of his remaining nineteen co-conspirators. To his suprise and slight dismay, He found them all in similar states, Mimicking his thoughts.Disturbed, He withdrew from their sanctums and left them to their own cross of confusion and turmoil. He had enough problems to worry about without adding their discomfort to his. He stood and turned around gazing over the green grass and vibrantly colored flowers.He strode through the light fields and approached the glass barrier between this and the harsh wind outside. He gazed through the glass and watched the clouds drift lazily through the sky. As a large cloud passed around the globe, diverted by the glass, he caught sight of a crude construct slowly floating through the air.A large spoke on the front of it deigned it as a Human Freight Barge coming from one of their secret mines off past the Cognit reach. It veered towards the edge of the city and He shivered with anticipation. If that barge came within ten blocks of the border then the Anti-Air Cannons would engage and blow them out of the sky.He chuckled as a warning shot flew high into the sky and exploded sending shockwaves through the air barely missing the ship. It quickly veered away from the city and small puffs of smoke could be seen being puffed into the sky as it ascended to a safer altitude.He wandered through the immense garden till he reached a lookout point. He walked through a set of glass doors, and stared down at the earth below the dome. He made out the faded shapes of Cognit wandering to and fro within their mammon-thine city yet how they were dwarfed by their great world.--He sat back in the glider and examined the complex array ahead of him. A large blue button sat between two simplistic levers, while a series of red buttons ranged on either side of the levers. He reached out and pulled at one of the levers but nothing happened. He pulled the other, still nothing.Slightly nervous he glanced around and before he thought better of it he reached out and tapped the big blue button. The glider shook as it lifted from the floor and the control panel lit up. He reached again for the levers and gingerly pulled them back in synchronys.Popping erupted from beneath him and the glider raised higher up into the air. He pulled them back a bit more and he raised up. He relaxed them and he drifted downwards. Slowly he relaxed
them and set back down on the ground.He pulled one hand back from the lever to wipe his face, and suddenly the craft began to spin. He was thrown off balance and he held onto the lever for dear life. The glider spun faster and faster as he grasped for a a handhold.He grabbed for the other lever but lost the grip on the one he had in the process. He watched surreally as he flew backwards from the glider and it stopped spinning. He continued on through the air and lost all thought as he felt the wall approaching.Desperately, He called out and the air around him cushioned his crash against the wall. He screamed as he slowly floated down the wall, Body and mind experiencing pain beyond any other. By the time he hit the ground his mind was vacant, and his body was limp.

Chapter 11 - Smash through the embers.He groaned as his eyes finally cracked open. Feeling what he expected to be the ground, he was surprised to find that he was on a blanket. He picked himself up and looked around the dark room. Remembering the multiple warnings he had suffered through, he fought not to enrich it.Slowly, he stumbled up from the padding on the floor and made his way on-wards searching for a wall. After several minutes he found a wall and made his way on-wards till he found a hallway. He turned into it and caught sight of a soft blue light at the end of the hallway.Spurred on by the light, he kept his fingers grazing the wall and walked faster. The light advanced onwards just out of his sight. His pace picked up till he was running full sprint with the infernal blue light staying a step ahead of him.He rounded the last corner behind it and heard a familiar deep voice rumbling. He followed the voice and blinked as he turned into a much better lit room. Ahead of him he found At’thias calmly sitting on the ground before regally decorated spiders.Their shells were speckled with emeralds and plated with gold. One in the center held a majestic iron staff, topped with a diamond. With this staff it struck out and beat At’thias on the head. It screeched something but the words were incomprehensible.At’thias seemed to respond, then the other ‘regals’ lashed out as well. Blood splattered through the room as they lashed out with swords and staffs of varying types. He watched in horror as they decimated his body and left him lying there.Something touched him from behind and he whirled around ready to fight. Instead he found Lupus standing before him.“At’thias is gone.” Lupus only nodded his understanding.Lupus turned away and his retinas flashed a vibrant blue as he led him from the room.--Achilles looked up despondently at the dark moon for a long minute. Then he slowly pulled himself from rest position. He pulled himself through the leaves and high grass as he continued on through the field.He walked through the field and crested a small hill before turning down into a stairwell. He looked back up at the same starlit sky and waved farewell as he descended and it faded out of view.He continued his descent downwards and passed from the moonlight into torchlight. He walked slowly down the stairs, and thought a little of his past. He remembered his life on the Globe and thought in truth how much he missed it.He passed another torch then suddenly ran into a large Cognit whose form flooded the passageway so fully,one couldn’t see how it fit in there in the first place. He backed up, dazed from being drug out of his memories so abruptly.“Move please.” He asked. The Cognit didn't respond.Frustrated, he turned around and headed back up the stairs. Almost immediately he ran into another Cognit. He looked back and forth between the two,“So, am I supposed to come with you two?” The only response was a nod, and they turned in synchronys and started down the stairs. Him firmly trapped between them.At the bottom they were joined immediately by two others. He lost track of where he was as they continued on through endless expanses and countless turns.--He followed Lupus back through such a medley of hallways that he quickly lost track of where they were and where they had been. The halls blended together and he thought quietly about the murder of At’thias and how foolish the Felics had appeared.They finally reached the room with the glider and he followed directly behind lupus until he could feel the glider under his hand. He climbed in and felt for the middle button. He found it and quickly rapped it.the glider lit up and a low thrum filled the air as he pulled the levers lightly down. It lifted off the ground again and shook lightly to the side as Lupus jumped onto it. He held one of the left buttons and the glider drifted forwards.After several minutes of navigating, they finally roared out onto the streets of the dead city. They flew forward and and Lupus directed him towards the wall. They rode out through the streets and the dead city creaked around them.Lupus pointed ahead at a strange glimmering sight. He cut the engines as they drifted closer. The glimmering faded and he made them out to be a squad of gliders.“The Felics must have come in on these!” He exclaimed. Lupus turned towards him,“We can free the rest of them!” Lupus hopped from the glider. “Don’t leave without me!”Lupus took off down the street and quickly disappeared down the road. He waited for a couple minutes before Lupus came running back leading a group of Cognits. They ran towards the gliders, and piled in as the Felics came piling out of one of the intact buildings.--The giant Cognits finally separated from each other and he found himself in a dark room. They faded into the shadows cast by dim redstone lighting and seemed to disappear. He slumped into rest position and bowed his head in wait.A soft swish echoed through the room and he glanced up. A dark shapeless form drifted into view and stops silhouetted by the lamps. He almost laughed as he realized what the trick was. Before he could speak a whispery voice echoed through the room.“Young Cognit, So full of life, and so full of spirit.Your attack earlier today was superb, Using backup figureheads, and planting yourself almost nowhere near the crime was brilliant. Many people are watching you, Now of your own volition.”--The Felics screamed and arrows arced through the air as he accelerated and the gliders behind him mimicked. An arrow smashed through the air right next to him. He glanced over at Lupus,“Can’t you Do something?” He yelled.Lupus seemed to grin and held up a remote. He smashed his appendage into a button on the remote and a chuckle echoed through the wind. A loud rumble echoed behind them as they accelerated towards the wall.He looked back and gasped as he caught sight of the city crashing steel tower by tower into the ground behind him. He looked up and blinked as a brilliant white flash blasted over them and the sound of explosion ripped through the air, as the wall ahead of them blew sky-high and they roared through the rubble.--“You have one choice,” The shadowy form stated. “either you join us. Or you die.” Achilles sat back and watched it for a second.“I guess I would have to join you.”

Chapter 12 -Collective Torture.He reclined to hide his jump of anticipation as the Collective bots filled the air with buzzing and lifted from the table like a rippling carpet. He clenched his fist as a bout of envy crippled his thought process, and took him to places he had fought to seal away in his mind. He averted his eyes from the bots forming themselves into a spherical shape, and focused on Lupus rocking back and forth in concentration.Lupus was surely the one that had led him to witness At'thias's murder. Once he had witnessed Lupus's eyes for himself his assumption had been unshakable. Now protected under the unbreakable film that coated his sterling blue eyes.The Collective Hovered around the room and faced him as a large mechanical blob floating through the air. He looked at it for a moment before a cheer rang out through the room, he looked up at a set of screens and saw the side of his head showcased on it.“Functional Telepathy!” A cognit roared behind him.The collective moved away from him and formed a threadbare shell around Lupus. A tiny highpitched whine shot through the air and Andrew grabbed his ears as it relegated itself to a lower pitch. Everyone jumped as a monotone voice superseded the medley of pitches.“Don’t you love, Multi-tone speakers!”Everyone looked at Lupus’s prone form for a long second before cracking up laughing. the Cognit flooding the room with their hackling chuckles.--He groaned as he straightened up and his ducts flooded, washing the film from his eyes and making him wince at a harsh light above him. As the light faded he instantly became aware of the fact that he was definitely not in his Dorm room. Hesitantly glancing through the seemingly purposeful glare he discerned a shadow of a desk ahead of him and a stand lighting the air ahead.He hissed as the light grew brighter forcing him to fall back. He jumped from rest position and launched himself towards the light source intent on taking it out. Instead of smashing the light source he smashed into a hard metallic wall.He groaned as he realized his mistake and patted the reflective surface before lunging back towards the light source. His head exploded as the true light source blasted him and he charged closer.He turned his head averting his eyes and broke the bulb sending the room into an unparralelled darkness. He fell to the ground and groped at his eyes. A deep voice he immediately recognized as The Headmaster spoke.“So that is why your charisma has halved since your arrival.”He spat in the general direction of the voice.“You Freaks aren’t Cognit!”“Neither are you.”“This entire academy is full to the brim of unsuceptible freaks.” He spat again, Rattled by the light, and the looseness of his tongue.“It seems we are more, Aquainted with you. Then you are with us.”“We are Rulix
e And we know your weaknesses.” Another light flicked on, half as bright but strangely painful to watch.He twisted backwards but strong limbs took hold of him and forced his head closer to the light. His mouth opened and words streamed as the light overtook him.--The Threadbare shell lit up and drew more laughter before the collective finally made its way out of the room. Quickly soaring up into the atmosphere, it flew into a column of geese. Squawking ensued as the geese tried to avoid the unnatural companions of the air.They watched as the collective seperated and landed on a few of the geese. The geese went into fits trying to shake the miniscule bots and the room barely contained their laughter. The geese rocketed through a cloud and the Collective dispersed leaving them behind.They went up and burst through the cloud running directly into a mettalic bird of the sky. Stunned the cameras rotated as the Collective fell, before quickly reorienting itself. They flew up and peered through windows and buzzed near entrances.After a couple of minutes, they formed a line and went into the ship. It was a calm place, seemingly devoid of human life. The group remained sitting entrapped by the view of the Ghost ship. The Collective meandered through analyzing signs and following the directions toward the bridge.They arrived at the bridge in seemingly no time. And found a disturbing sight, A human body sat at the controls, but that body was lax and its skin was pasty. They flew towards it and found wires attached to it with data ports around it.They landed on its hand and all but one flew away in surprise when a hand clamped down on it.A red light seared through the lone trapped camera and Lupus began shaking uncontrollably. All eyes returned to the screen as a laugh echoed through the speakers, And a loud voice crackled through. “Little, Filthy Spies! We are going to follow you all the way home.” Lupus groaned behind them and andrew glanced over and watched the liquid drop off his eyes.His horror grew as he turned back towards the screen and watched the Collective continue to move.--He blinked again and found himself lying in bed. His dim recollections of the night seemed to offer a horrible torturous experience. He examined his room but found nothing out of place. He shook his head and clambered from rest.He walked through a thin curtain and listened to the musical tinkling behind him as he walked through the Dorm halls and headed towards his first classroom. His eyes roved the hallways and picked out a couple of people that he knew.He waved and chuckled as he turned into his first classroom. He shivered as another memory of his dream, floated to the front of his memory. He looked at the Guest lecturer and found that he too was like the rest of the people here.Empty and soulless, But here was a place he fit in. He couldn’t twist things and people to his will, maybe because there was no will but he could have a conversation without being bombarded by the thoughts of fear and respect he forced on his companions.He looked up, realizing that the Lecturer had begun to speak and returned from his little world.--“He Doesn’t seem to remember the incident.” The larger spider said.“Could he be acting?” The Headmaster Asked.“He didn’t flinch during a seminar on torture techniques. I think he is safe. For now at least.”

">Chapter 13 - BrokenHe sat placidly before the dark screens and Vainly attempted to blot the implications of the strange creature from his mind. The entire room was flooded with an unbearable silence. Everyone's minds were full of thoughts of things to come and what might come.He turned and glanced at the strangely pale form of Lupus. Still recovering from the Being telepathically battered and thrust from an active control his eyes had lost their usual luster. As he watched Lupus a strange shudder rippled down his shoulders before resounding lower down his back, He twisted and shook for a second before standing altogether.A Cognit rushed into the room as he stretched and yelled.“The Barge!” The room bristled in anticipation and worry.Lupus turned his luster still lacking but life returned to his voice.“It blew up right?” He gave a weak chuckle.“No, It’s due north five hundred meters and closing.With a subdued air the group looked at him. He looked around,“We would be poor hosts if we didn’t give them a warm welcoming, huh?” He reached over and pressed a series of buttons and started for the stairs. Swishing of pistons clouding the air.--He rested his upper appendage lightly on his head and tottered through the hallways in a foggy daze. Another image smashed through his head obliterating reality and casting him out till he crashed against a wall. He stood as a tremor shook his body and his ducts flooded, causing him to lose sight of the hall.From the darkness came a brilliant lightthat blinded him. He rocked backwards in pain and let loose a shrill cry. His whole dim world was smashed to bleeding splinters by the horrid light. His eyes exploded in pain as the bright light scorched them and he cried out in pain.He felt the acid flush over his eyes and a sob of relief echoed as the light was drained away and reality affixed in its place. He picked himself up and refused to stare at the crowd of Spiders staring at him, Their shells strangely glistening in the light.“We Know Your Weaknesses!”A voice sounded through his skull.“We Are Rulixe!”A myriad of voices rang.He opened his eyes and stared at the group of spiders,“You aren’t Cognit!” He Whispered in a dazed sense of horror. “You are Rulixe.”The Crowd froze in surprise and stepped backwards. For the first time since his arrival thoughts flowed from everywhere and smashed through him. He felt speared to the wall behind him and breathing seemed to grow harder with each tremulous gasp.He folded backwards as he felt his ducts flood and the light return. The light encompassed him. It knew him, and it knew how to hurt him. He cried out in desperation as the light grew more intense.Voices crowded through his head and asked him about everything; his life, his exile, his plans. He was in such pain that he told them everything. They drained him dry, leaving him no secrets and little life.The acid flooded again and he looked out at the hallway. A plug seemed to have been pulled and the hallway was draining out. An Age-Mate appeared out of the corner of his eye and approached him. Shakily, he started to pull himself to a standing position.He started to slip and a pair of appendages caught him and he looked up into friendly eyes.“Everyone breaks, Its a surprise it took you this long.” He refused to meet Shiloh’s eyes as she helped him up.“I am not supposed to break. I can’t.”--They stood at the summit of the tower and watched the mammon-thine Barge float menacingly through the sky like a foreboding dark cloud. Its metallic edges shimmered and distorted giving off faint reflections giving a twisted and muddled collage of sky and ground.They watched as it veered off cutting seamlessly around the broad mycelium barriers. He smiled as it continued on.“To smart to go over our cannons.”Several Cognit Engineers had been with the group when they fled the city. And with the bodily aid of Lupus and Himself They had supervised the construction of Large high-powered TNT Cannons designed to barrage Ships from below.According to some of the calculations, The ship before them would take no longer than a minute at normal speed. At high They would barely notice that there had been a ship. The Mycelium barrier itself seemed to be their best protection.More than once they had found a steaming corpse or two steaming in acid halfway across. Whether trying to leave or to get in, they usually didn’t know. Spies in a sense were impossible as there was no way out, unless by Glider and only Lupus could control them.They turned and watched the barge circle around their Castle-Like base, Losing sight only when it passed behind the main citadel. As it came out on the other side they caught sight of faint flashes coming from the midsection of the ship.“They still use flash for image capture?” A technician exclaimed in Horror.A couple of chuckles resounded as the thought stuck. Flash had never been a form of photographic technology here, as the Cognits had long surpassed it in almost every way, just by relying on Gamma ray emissions.Lupus straightened up and looked at the ship.“They are broadcasting in DL-Frequencies.” He Said, “looks like we are going to have a bit more company...”--They walked through the Gardens in silence. Shilo walked onwards and cut through a plot of vibrant red and yellow flowers he followed close behind. They approached a large Hedge wall and passed through it.Rising up ahead of them was a small pyramidical shape that tapered into a tower rising up into the sky. He stopped as he looked at it in surprise before glancing back at Shilo. His eyes traveled up into the sky following the line until it just about faded away.At the very top it expanded and seemed to be rounded. They resumed walking as the top vanished, enveloped in a cloud. The pyramid opened a small slot inwards and revealed an iron ladder reaching up into the tower.Shiloh walked in and climbed up the ladder. He looked at the top again for a long moment before walking into the Pyramid and ascending the ladder.He came out from the ladders pit and gazed up at the sun above him. He looked over and found Shiloh sitting at the edge of the glass gazing out at the horizon. He took hold of the tree near him and stepped over to the glass.He brought himself down into rest position, and sat beside Shilo. He could feel the slight sway of the tower and his ducts flooded leaving him in a dark peaceful bliss.

Chapter 1 - Home no longer.

She rested herself on a small platform she had glitched off the side of the nearby chunk, Her long red hair coiled at her shoulders before continuing the fall down her back. Her deep blue eyes roamed over the unloaded vista, finally resting on the void below her. "If I jumped... Would I ever land?" She pondered aloud. "Maybe I would just freeze as I fell."

She shook her head roughly, sending her hair flying out from her shoulders in a wide arc. She refocused her attention on the great blocky sun as it descended towards the horizon. A small prayer to Notch fell into her head from her past. 'As the sun falls away, I thank thee for another day. As another year becomes clear, I praise thee name. As my life’s end comes near, I ask for but one more day.'

Her mouth formed the words and sent them flying into the void. Memories flooded in behind her recital. Memories of her old home, her old life. She remembered her few friends, and her multiple enemies.

Her eyes grew damp as she tried to force the memories away. They had banished her from the village at the age of eleven! The wizards had tutored her some before even they had tired of her constantly changing demeanor and sent her to the reject areas of Minecraftia,

So, now she lived on the last loaded chunks of Minecraftia. Mostly she lived in peace and hapless solitude. The creepers unfortunately had found her identity and demanded her removal from their lands. The wizards were most likely working on relocating her right now.

Undoubtedly, Marcus was already preparing to head her way and give her a quick relocation, A catch up lesson for her almost nonexistent magical potential, and a bit of conversation. She was pretty sure he only had to relocate her, the other things might be a addition to his duties or they might be pity...

Either way it was always a bittersweet reunion. He would bring a batch of essentials, random treats obtained from his other travels, and a new 'Cure.' Last time the 'cure' was a desensitization pod that she had to sit in for a day, time before that it was a bunch of cold potions that tasted like rotten feet.

The cure was for her 'Special problem.' In her earliest memories, she had a friend. They looked nothing alike, and were nothing alike. StormGale had been wild rambunctious and free spirited, while she had preferred books and puzzles. Over time, she saw StormGale less and less, until she just vanished completely.

The people in the town saw StormGale and said she did the worst things, but she never saw her. She honestly didn’t think about her very much... After a short period, instead of blaming the things done on StormGale, All of it was blamed on Ashley.

She was shunned and her friends disappeared. The arrival of the wizards was a relief. She had been so happy when they arrived and proclaimed that they would investigate her actions and the actions of the mysterious Stormgale.

For the next week, the wizards kept an omnipresent eye on her. At the end of the week, they called a town meeting and stated their findings. After a couple minutes of explanations, the whole town knew that, her 'authorized life force' was intertwined with the coding of another.

They brought her up to the stage and demonstrated a quick test. In front of all of them, her skin turned bleach white, her eyes faded to a stormy grey, and her hair turned to a silvery blonde. Gasps echoed through the crowd as StormGale stood in front of them. Stuck her tongue out and took a deep bow.

Confused and outraged, the Townsfolk had tried to extract an understandable answer from the wizards, but it seemed as though they were at a loss. A group of fathers grouped and approached the wizards as every eye in the room stayed stuck on StormGale's skin.


At least that’s how the wizards had recounted it to her. She didn't remember much more than getting up on the stage. What she did remember was waking up in a chair off the side of the main room and the kindly man that had took her hand and teleported them away from the irate crowd that had declared her banishment.

That had been five years before. Since then she had lived in the ruins of Antiquity, and the sodden bowls of troy. The wizards had changed her name and her background countless times. Finally, she had opted to live beyond the reaches of the humans and keep her past.

A deep bell rang out from the growing darkness. Somewhere out in the unloaded area, there was an immense wizard base glitched into the middle of nothing. Only the higher wizards could go there. She had attempted to glitch her way out towards the continuous tolls but she never got out of the sight of land.

Something always drove her back, the bell resounded again, jerking her from her thoughts and drawing her attention to the sun falling beneath the horizon. She cursed and checked her inventory for her bow.

She pulled it out and stretched, her skin color fading to white. Her calm grey eyes absorbed the situation and the bow in her hand. Quickly she tucked the bow away, and unsheathed her iron sword. She jumped from the platform and somersaulted through the air, barely grasping the ladder as she connected with the side of the unloaded chunk.

Holding the ladder with both hands, she brought her legs up behind her and touched the soil in front of her with her feet. In a single fluid movement, she thrust her upper body away from the ladder and hung for a second suspended over the void. Her silver hair caught the suns dying rays and flashed white.

She flipped up above the grass and gracefully landed on her feet. Confidently she strode forward into the night. She halted after a second and, grinned a frightening leer into the dark. The bushes around her snapped and swayed as bodies moved through them.

Behind her, she heard a low chatter of teeth grinding together. She jumped and swung her sword in midair slicing through the head of the zombie that had run full hilt from the bushes. Blood and brain flew in a gory mess through the air around her as she continued her spin.

As another two zombies forced their ways out of the bushes to confront her, her grey eyes flashed in delight and she beckoned them closer before running the first through with her sword, and vanquishing its body in a shower of grey and white puffs.

The second paused for a moment as if trying to understand what had happened to its partner. It recovered quickly but she had already launched herself into the air above it, she let out a fierce battle cry as she used the force of her fall to drive her blade down through the zombies’ skull sending bits of bone flying as she twisted it out of the creatures’ rotted innards.


The square moon had risen high above the dark land, and was nearing the apex of its climb, as she approached the front of her house. She ran her hand through her red hair and squinted her eyes at the remnants of the gore on her iron blade trying to figure out how she had lost so much time killing zombies.

She sighed as she walked through her gate and looked at her farm. None of the wheat had grown; shaking her head, she grabbed a couple of potatoes and carrots from their small patches. Much easier then going down to her main farm.

She looked out beyond her fence and sighed at the multitude of eyes that leered from the forest. She ducked as an arrow flew with great gusto towards her head, hit a button beside her farm and watched as the fence got one higher blocking the arrows, then walked towards her door.

On her door was a piece of dried flesh with words written in a dark ink. In a well-placed scrawl written several times in differing hands, it read; "You have been warned twice! After this there will be no more warnings." Rolling her eyes, she ripped the skin off the door, swung about and hit the button again, dropping the fence down so she could be seen over it.

She walked forward along her path and stood at her gate holding the dried flesh. Her grey eyes flashed as she ripped the skin in two and held them over the dual torches marking the entrance to her yard. Her red hair gleamed catching the light from the skins as they caught fire and fell in bright flames from her hands to the ground.

She turned away and walked back towards her house, hitting the button once more without stopping and walked through her front door. The leaves crackled behind her for a few seconds before the noise calmed and ceased.


Inside she shook her head and tossed out her earlier thoughts. She reached into one of her chests and fished out a bucket of water. Turning back to her cauldron, she filled it up and lit the fire beneath it.

She then plopped the potatoes on a board and cut them in silence. After a minute, she looked over to the cauldron and found that it was boiling. She looked around the room for a second as if she was missing something, and then redirected her attention towards the potatoes she was cutting.

She sighed as she finished with the potatoes, and then dumped the slices into the cauldron. She turned and grabbed some salt from her chest and sprinkled it in the water. She looked around again and murmured seemingly surprised, "Jack isn't here..."

She looked around the smaller kitchen, "Where is he?" Her voice cracked, then she shook her blond hair and took a deep breath. "Don't need him anyway." She murmured, an edge catching her voice.

She pulled the carrots out and sliced through them quickly, her knife becoming a blur as it moved across the cutting board. She scooped up the small slices of carrots and dumped them into the soup.

For a few minutes, she just blankly stared at the wall. The water boiled to a broth and the thick aroma of soup began to fill the air. She pulled a bowl from the chest and scooped a bit from the cauldron.

She move over to the table in the corner of the kitchen and began to eat her food. The hot soup stung her mouth but she hardly noticed it as she stared intently at the front door. "Where is he?" She murmured, barely hearing herself as her red hair fell into her eyes obscuring the sight of the door.

She blinked back a couple of tears and turned away from the door. "Probably at one of those Nexus clubs..." She said. Then she flung her bowl into the hopper on the side of the room, and stormed out of the kitchen.

She stormed over and slammed a button to her side, then stumbled up the stairs that formed ahead of her. She glanced off the door as she barged into her room then tripped over the lock switch that deactivated the lower stairwell access before falling into her bed.

As she began to fall asleep, she heard the zombies around her house chanting softly in their guttural language. She shuddered as their chant rose in volume. She contemplated what gods they might be calling on and what they might be asking for.

The chant continued well into the night but she fell asleep quickly, barely missing the sound of her lower door opening and sounds of her base level traps going off.

Chapter 2 - Problems with redstone.

Her sparkling blue eyes fluttered open as the morning sun cast its golden rays through the window to dance on her eyelids. She stretched for a moment, and then laid there sitting in the cool warmth of the morning sun. As the sun brought itself above the horizon, she slowly brought her body to a sitting position and watched as the sun climbed higher into the sky.

With a contented smile on her face, she pulled her legs out from under the covers and dangled them off the side of her bed. She leaned forward onto her feet and tapped a button beside her bed. With a soft swish of pistons the sunlight vanished, eloquently taking its place lay twin redstone lamps that blinded her.

Blinking at the harsh contrast from the soft sunlight, she tottered light-headedly towards her door. As her head began to clear, she stepped onto a pressure plate in front of her door. As the door swung open, she jumped back surprised. The door shut in front of her, leaving her to recover for a moment.

She stepped forward onto the pressure plate again, and sighed as the door swung open again. She walked out the door and stepped down towards thin air. As her foot continued traveling downwards, she cried out. She twisted her body towards her doors landing and tried to grab the stone.

Her blonde hair flew out above her body like a halo as she fell, her nails scraping on the side of the bricks. With a jarring lurch, she grabbed hold of one of the bricks in the wall. Gasping in pain, she dug her fingers into the crevices of the brick. She glanced down and shook as she remembered how high her room was.

“Thirty blocks” She spit through her teeth. It was meant to be inaccessible from all approaches. Her room even had a meager defense system set up by the resident missing ghost. None of that would help her now that she was dangling well above the survival portion of her fall.

She quickly tried to rationalize her thoughts and checked her belt to see what she had on it. Praying to Notch for a water bucket, she examined her belt. Astounded she glanced again. Her belt was empty! She never let her belt be empty! Fervently praying to whatever god might hear her, she twisted one of her arms and jammed her hand deeper into the rocky crevice.

She cried out in pain as she lost her footing and her vision went red. She raised herself up as she searched for another spot to step. Pleased with the shoddiness of her work she quickly found another spot and regained her footing. Now stable she wrenched her other arm from the bricks and pulled out her bag.

She quickly sifted through it, finding only a couple of blocks of dirt and a shovel. She groaned in despair as she double-checked, then triple-checked her bag. Her red hair began to show through as she checked for the fourth time. Her blue eyes turned calculating as she looked again at the dirt blocks.

` She slid her body away from the wall, Wincing as her pinned hand protested its abuse. Then she began to focus intently on the block diagonally below her. Her eyes grew wide and her face changed to a seemingly detached perspective as the block of dirt in her hand grew bigger and floated out of her grasp.

When it finally popped into place, she let out a sigh of relief and gingerly withdrew her massacred hand from the bricks. She looked it over for a second and shook her head as she examined the deep gouges in it. Now much calmer, she pulled out the next couple of blocks from her bag and began to work her way back up to her room.

Several minutes later, she made it to her door, red-faced and exhausted she splayed out onto her bed. She looked over and propped open a chest beside her bed and took a long draught of a red potion. The gouges on her hand remained but now the pain from them was gone.

She looked over at her door and noticed the lever flipped the wrong way. She growled in frustration as she found the cause of her unexpected adventure. She angrily moved off her bed and pulled the lever back reactivating her stairs. She walked back to her door and activated the pressure plate, the familiar shift of the pistons filled the room and she felt the weight of the glitched dirt return to her bag.

Warily, she stepped down onto the first stair and descended the rest in a slight frenzy. She stopped at the bottom and closed her eyes with a deep breath. She held the breath for a moment before she walked down the hall to a door set flush with the wall

She stepped into the room and looked around at the assortment of chests that surrounded her. She began digging through the first chest, but abandoned it after a moment and moved in to the next one.

After several more chests, she fished out a piece of string, and tied her blonde hair up in a sort of ponytail. She then sagged against the wall, sighed in relief, and walked down towards her kitchen area.

She stepped into the kitchen and grabbed her bowl from the sink. Wordlessly she pulled a small bit of soup from the cold cauldron and tasted it. Sighing she put the soup back into the cauldron and set the fire beneath it aflame once more.

She walked back down the hallway as the soup started heating up. Halfway down the hallway she placed a block above her head and the wall opened in front of her. She walked in and slid down a small chute to the side of the entrance.


After a moment of falling, she started screaming and tried to grab hold of the sides of the wall. Her eyes grew wide and her screams echoed until she crashed through the water at the bottom and fell out onto the ground in a heap.

Breathing heavily, she wiped her red hair from her face and sat back with her eyes closed. "I'm alive." She said to herself, "I'm safe." as she stood up these became a mantra. "I'm alive, I'm safe. I'm alive, I'm safe." She walked through a darkened control room and sighed as she flicked a lever turning the lights on.

The little room flooded with light momentarily blinding her, she blinked for a moment regaining her sight then she walked over to the sign that read; "Egg allocator." She flicked the lever behind it and listened as water flowed down towards her.

A small bit of water came through a hole that opened up in the wall and the water fell through a grate in the floor, the sound of a turbine spinning below echoed after it. She stared at it confused "No eggs?" She asked bewildered. She hit the button again. Another quick flow of water poured out and a single egg landed on the grate.

She picked it up confused, Then flipped a lever beside the one that had turned the rooms light on. The front of the wall opened up and showed a vast array of darkness that systematically began to light up.

She gasped in dismay as she saw the water in the other room; it was coated with a thick sheet of blood. A whirlwind of disembodied feathers raged around twin pools that signified the two egg collection points.

One egg had survived the murder of its flock. Silently she put the egg in a small hatchery, and flicked the lever again. One by one the lights went out, hiding the horrors they had beheld. Finally, a pair of pistons covered the window blocks. Slowly she turned and crawled up the ladder leading to the rest of her house.

Eventually, she made it to her kitchen and sat in one of the chairs in the corner. She turned and pressed a button beside her. Seconds later, she heard the groan of several golems awakening below her. If anything lurked down there her iron golems would finish them!

In a slightly lighter mood, she rummaged through a food chest searching for something edible. As she sat there, sifting through the chest her grey eyes softened into memory.


Her favorite elder had been named Terran. He had lived a long life, and was the only one that told his countless stories of impossibilities. Yet his claim always remained that these wonders had existed, yet ceased to work. He spoke of floating islands that housed strange creatures’ and even gods. He told stories of never aging, and pools of water that once filled would never empty.
The thing she remembered the most of were his stories of swords crafted from simple blocks forming mighty blades that could slay six zombies at a time, and chests that complied to your will and showed you everything that lay within them at one time.

He would always grin and pull out a chest that worked that very way. He would show it to the groups that gathered to prove his point. She had gone to hear his stories longer than the others her age did. She remembered his eyes had always sparkled when she pressed him more about his past.


"The more you know, the less you know you know" He had remarked the last time she saw him. Months after she had left her town a group of traveling wizards had returned to the central citadel of learning, and passed on the news that he had vanished.


She shook her head and pulled out a piece of bread from the chest. Content she sat back in her chair and took a bite out of the bread. She sat back and gagged at the taste of the stale bread. She got up from her chair and walked to a chest by the sink still gagging on the bread.

She pulled a bottle of water out of the chest and took a long draught from it. As she drank, her mouth exploded in flames and she fell to the floor choking on the fluid that was burning down her throat.

A flash of memory came to her mind. Terran had always said that milk used to have healing properties! She looked up through her tearing eyes and sought out the bucket of milk on the wall.

Locating it she began to drag herself near it. With each movement, her stomach rolled in pain, and tears rolled down her face in streaks. She pulled herself up the side of the wall and broke the item frame. The milk fell to the floor and she cried out in exasperation.


She fell to the floor as her eyes began to cloud over, she reached forward desperately trying to grab the milk, but it was too far away. She abruptly realized that it wouldn’t have worked, milk didn’t heal you anymore. Her stomach rolled in pain and she began to drift towards the endless darkness.

Suddenly she felt the cool metal of a bucket being pressed into her hands and a calm force moving the bucket towards her mouth. As the bucket touched her lips and milk began to flow into her mouth, her doubts about the milk vanished.

A soft sweet feeling crept through her body; she opened her eyes and found a man above her holding the bottom of the bucket. His kindly eyes widened as he saw her eyes open, and he moved away from her releasing his grip on the bucket.

She blinked and the man disappeared. She sat up wondering if she had imagined it, when she saw the bucket of milk she had pulled from her item frame lying on the floor on the other side of the room.

Chapter 3 – blades, poison, endermen?

Her arms protested as she raised herself up from the hard floor and surveyed her kitchen in a new light. She looked down across the wooden floor and found the small bottle she had been incapacitated by. She crawled over to the bottle and picked it up from the floor. As she pulled herself up into a chair, she noticed several small specks of floating within the bottle that reflected light giving a golden coloration to them.

As she raised the glass up a bit higher to get a better look at the specks, she lost her grip on it and it fell towards the floor. The bottle fell to the floor, and in a timeless instant shattered into thousands of pieces, sending the tainted liquid flying around the room in large quantities. A drop landed on her hand, making her cry out as it frothed and irritated her hand to a bright red.

She reached down and grabbed the spare bucket of milk from the floor, she plunged her hand into it waiting for the burning to fade. She flung the bucket at the wall, outraged. Then ran to her sink and held her hand under running water for a minute.

Slowly the burning faded leaving only questions in her mind. She took her irritated hand from the water and pulled another bottle of water from her chest. she leaned it into the light and found that it too was full of golden specks. She dropped the bottle back into the chest and walked back to the sink.

She looked out a window behind it and pondered for a minute as the water drizzled through the knob.
"Someone tried to poison me..." She murmured barely audible over the water. "Then a stranger saved me, with the impossible." She looked back at the bucket on the floor, then doused her hands and wiped them over her face. She turned and leaned back on the sink, and looked up at a light grey sword that hung upon the south side of the room.

Entranced, she walked across the room and stood before it. Her hands came up and brushed the edges of the blade. She reached up and ran her fingers down the side of it, leaving a trail of dust. Hidden under the dust lay a silver blade that held her reflection. She looked at her reflection for an instant but her eyes darted away as her blue eyes surfaced. She let her fingers grasp hold of the blade and remove it from its designated frame.

She extended the blade outwards and pivoted before sheathing the luminescent blade firmly onto her belt. She stalked out of the kitchen and throughout the upper portion of the house. As she peered through the myriad of doors the blade moved from her sheath into her grasp, and blue flames danced along the blade.

Completing her circuitous path, she arrived in the kitchen. She sat and laid the blade before her on the table. As she gazed on it she thought of when she had recieved it.

It had been just before the wizards took her, Horace had approached her with a cloth covered object and held it out to her. "Only the heir of the Runneth may hold this blade." He had sneered at her. "But since your brothers are all dead, I guess we should give it to you." He had dropped it at her feet and walked away laughing.

She looked back at the blade, and traced the edge of it until a flush of steam blasted through the pipes beside the cauldron. She jumped, slightly startled by the abrupt noise. "The golems finished their rounds." She said. Her Grey eyes thrust their way into being, and her blonde hair flew out behind her as she strode towards the wall in front of her.

She pulled a torch towards her and after a small click, the wall fell away revealing a single aisle leading down into the depths of her house. She strode through the small entrance and unsheathed her blade. White and red flames rolled off the blade in waves as if in anticipation.

She walked forward and eyed her usual drop tube. Involuntarily, she shuddered and turned towards her ladder. She grabbed onto the sides and forcing herself into the dark, began the slow descent. Far below, she thought she could make out strange shadows, but she dismissed them as lighting bugs.

Halfway down, she turned towards the wall beside her and let go of the ladder. The air rushed past her and her red hair flew free of the string holding it back. She hit the ground and rolled. She stopped at the end of her roll with her sword unsheathed and a strange feeling of weakness permeating her mind.

Ahead of her lay the golem stalls, in all of them the stone pressure plates had been replaced with wooden pressure plates. She rocked back on her heels and grabbed her head as the feeling of weakness grew stronger, and a lance of pain arched through her head. She fell to one knee as her head erupted in fire. She caught her sword and spun with it barely missing the dark shape flitting out of existence behind her.

She heard a taunting laugh, and she looked around the room searching for its source. As she looked, she saw the shadows come to life drawing themselves from the wall and stalking towards her. Her eyes flashed grey and she jumped into the air as the shadows charged.

They collided soundlessly, before dissipating to nothing. As she landed softly in their wake, the laughter ceased. "Too smart for your own good, girl." The ominous voice resounded from all sides of the room. She glanced down and tried to remember the trick to revealing illusions.

"See everything, but see nothing." Commanded a small voice from behind her. She looked up and unfocused her vision, suddenly the room was filled with light and a large enderman stood a couple of blocks ahead of her. His deep voice called out to her, but now only from him
"Child, You have powerful friends..." He continued, "Why do you tempt fate instead of run?"
"I don't run from cowards that play with illusions." She snarled and rushed him with her sword.

His laugh echoed around her as his body grew thicker and wider. A handle appeared, looming over his shoulder and he ripped it free, revealing a white blade that stretched far beyond possible lengths. She unfocused her eyes once more and the size diminished. The enderman noticed her face and his eyes narrowed in scrutiny.

"Too smart for your own good, girl... My name is Diomedes, And I think I am going to kill you." With that an enderpearl flashed into his hand and he flung it high above him. She watched it fly up for a second before realizing that he had begun charging at her. She brought her sword up to block his first strike and braced herself.

He brought his white sword down on hers with a savage grin that seemed to mangle his face. As the two swords connected a look of shock crossed his face, and he went flying backwards at the wall. The instant before he connected with the hard rock, his pearl fell to the spot he had first stood, teleporting him.

He looked up visibly shaken, his eyes narrow and his jaw partially unhinged, he looked at her with new caution. "Powerful friends indeed." He whispered as she matched his movements across the floor. He sheathed his sword and his form thinned to a much lesser shape. His arms changed, gaining more joints and his hands sprouted rapier claws.

She unfocused her eyes once more trying to banish this foul delusion, But his harsh laugh broke out through the room as he saw her attempts. "This is no illusion, Girl." He settled forward on his long legs. "This is Reality!" Then he charged at her chuckling all the way.

She held her sword in front of her as he charged, but she couldn't see what good it would do. The small voice whispered behind her once more, "His claws! Hit his claws!" Before vanishing to wherever it had come. As he bounded towards her she glanced at his claws, they were the same color as his blade...

They were his blade! She realized. He couldn't generate anything new, he just rearranged it. She set her stance back and held her sword in position to strike at his stomach. He reached her and reared up, Giving her an ample strike as he swung his claws at her. "One hit!" She muttered as she swung her sword up towards his stomach.

His grin grew wider, but faltered as her blade shifted directions and grazed one of his claws. He flew backwards once more but this time he connected harshly with the rock and fell to the ground purple blood oozing around him. She watched his body melt and boil as it returned to its original shape.

She shook her head and glanced back at the golem stalls, but the items were gone. She looked back at the enderman now fully reformed, but he remained on the floor. She ran over the battle in her head, at the beginning there had been movement behind him. "He wasn't alone." She cursed realizing her mistake, and whirled around.

Facing her with a large gun pointed at her head was a girl, "No, He wasn't." She muttered before ripping her blade from her hand; it skidded along the floor and disappeared. She reached forward and shoved her back towards a wall. Her blue eyes took in her surroundings and fell back defeated. "What do you want with me?" She asked.
"We wanted to pick you up nice and easy, and just be done with it." The girl snarled.
"You poisoned my water!" She exclaimed.
"You drank the water, and you are down here fighting?" Asked a bewildered voice from behind her as she felt a cool blade press against her neck.
The girl stepped forward and slammed her face into the rock, letting the edge slice into her face.
"Ashley I presume," she shook her head as blood trickled down her face filling her eye socket, her blonde hair fell down around her shoulder eliciting a gasp from the girl. She held her hand up to the blade and tapped it with her fingernail. She looked up at the enderman and grinned as her other hand pulled an ender pearl from his chest. His eyes grew wide and he fell to the ground in a heap. The girl danced back as she saw what Stormgale had in her hand. "You wanted to pick me up?" She exclaimed. The girl just stood looking at her hand in horror. She smirked and held it up, "It's still beating, you know..." She continued a grim smile on her face, "I can just put it right back in, and he'll be good as new!"
"Or I can smash your head in and take it from you" Growled Diomedes as he grasped her by the hair and smashed her face back into the wall and dropped her, retrieving the pearl from her hand. As she lost consciousness, she felt a cool bottle slide into her pocket, a soft whisper "You will survive." Then she knew naught.

Chapter 4 - Lucifer's Fall
Her blue eyes snapped open, but it seemed as though a purple veil was cast over her. In confusion, she turned herself, finding the vast emptiness that surrounded her to be true. Panicked, she sought out life in the vast featureless landscape. Her grey eyes discerned nothing.

Turning again, she cast herself into an endless spin and fell into a bout of despair. Red began to press against the blond roots of her hair. All but a few of the red strands fell away, those few surged forward encompassing one side. She let loose a violent scream, which cascaded throughout the endless dark landscape.

The threads of hair stretched out ahead of her looping into a circle and forming a sphere in front of her. Slowly a face appeared on it, blue eyes surfaced, and a pallid color faded over the growing hair. The hair stretched out and continued building on to the rest of the body.

White hair pulled away from her body in emulation as her hair began to shift to a golden color. Slowly the two strands took their respective shapes and colors. She watched in fascination, as the white steamed ahead of the red, applying features, clothes, and minute details as it built itself. The red slowly pushed on, not so far behind the white.

To the left, the white strands twisted after a moment then fell into a suddle lull, their creation complete. A girl floated ahead of her, her head wreathed in silvery blond hair that fell over her shoulders before continuing down to the small of her back, her skin gleaned a bright tallow, seemingly luminescent, and otherworldly.

To the right, the red strands tangled themselves in a knot before her, presenting their own work. Another girl floated there, suspended over the dark abyss. Her skin seemingly flushed from a chill, and her face standing out against her light auburn hair. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders, maintaining a gleam as it curled ahead of her.

As one, their eyes opened. She smiled as they floated and stared at one another in a state of shock. Completely oblivious to her, the red one opened her mouth as if to speak to the white one. As she did, her eyes widened in shock and she started choking, she heaved backwards. After a moment, a few strands of hair flew from her mouth, errantly flying towards the bemused white one.

When the white one saw what it was she started laughing, her eyes wide in incredulity. Her eyes suddenly went glassy, she wrenched her body upwards and opened her mouth in a silent scream as her eyes grew red and light came from under her skin, all at once it was incinerated as brilliant white flames fought their way from inside of her.

The red one winced, shielding her face from the onslaught of the light and scorching heat. Her eyes opened in disbelief as she looked back at her arms and found them plastered in ice. She watched in horror as the ice silently crept up her arms to her torso, leaving a thick, blue, melting sheath of ice that was semi-transparent, yet showed no skin.

Droplets of water fell from her arm as the white one's flames flared higher. The flames fell to just above her skin as the white one crumpled in space, seemingly exhausted. The red one glanced up from her arm as the heat faded. The room began to cool, temperature dropping fast; the red one's face froze over leaving a facade between her and the world.

The droplets of water from her arms, floated up and surrounded the three, the area shook as the water turned into shards of ice and exploded into nothing. The red one held her hands up in wonder as snow flakes fell down around them, sparkling in the dim glow of the white one's light.

The white one snarled as the snow hit her sending puffs of steam away and dampening her fire. She snarled and let flames fly out from her fingertips, vaporizing the snow and startling the red one from a blissful reverie.

Eyes sparkling, the red one floated closer to the white one, extending her hands in apology. With an audible snarl, jets of flame shot out melting the sides of her arms into cool water. The water fell down into the void, but the red ones face twisted in pure hatred. The water flew up from the void and formed a liquid shell around her.

The shell froze solid, before fracturing outwards into a million pieces. Thousands of specks of ice floated in orbit around her, before sling shotting around her and arcing towards the white one. Sneering, the white one blasted a jet of fire at the ice, melting it into an immense cloud of steam.

Another blast of flame issued from her fingertips aimed directly at the red one, but a smile crept across the red ones face as the flame shot through the cloud of steam. The steam enveloped it, instantly freezing the flame in a solid block of ice. The block broke away from the flame as it redirected itself towards the white one. It flew with increasing speed, but the white one wasn't there anymore.

The red one too had disappeared. With a laugh she watched as the frozen fire arced into the wall and blasted a hole in the void. A shocked scream echoed inside, followed by a fresh breeze and light. She strode forwards along a translucent path; finally she reached the edge of the void, and stared out through the cracks.

A girl stood facing it, with a rifle partially gripped over her shoulder. Beside her stood a large enderman, whose shifting armor was vaguely reminiscent of the void chamber she was inside. She saw their mouths moving but was unable to hear them; she pressed on the crack and winced as it pressed back with a shock. "It isn't fully broken yet." She muttered as she waved her hand in pain.

She closed her eyes and swayed backwards, away from the crack and the view of the outside. She set her face with a sigh and pressed her hand against the crack, slowly her hand moved forward through the dark wall. The room shifted from dark and black to a stunning silvery grey, before shifting again to a deep auburn.

She closed her eyes and the clashes became more violent, sending flashes of color in-between, this went on for several minutes. Finally the two colors smashed into each other, holding in the middle of the great dome, a sliver of pink. The pink grew, slowly pushing at its boundaries forcing the other colors apart.

Her hand pressed through the crack as the last of the colors were overcome by the pink. She grabbed the side of the crack and pulled herself up into the crevice. She stood there, it seemed that time had stopped outside; the girls face was frozen almost mid-word, while the enderman's armor had ceased its subtle vibrations.

Time slowly started its revolutions as she stood up, and strode confidently through the last stretch of the crevice. "Impossible!" The enderman said as she walked into the small cave. His eyes remained fixated behind her; she glanced back and found herself staring at a pink egg hovering about waist-height off the ground.
"Powerful," She said, returning her gaze to the enderman. His eyes narrowed,
"I called it up. As far as I knew, it was unbreakable." The girl twisted her gun further off her back and held it up as if in self defense.
"She is real?" She asked the enderman, in an off tone.

Glancing down at herself, she grinned. "I am real?" An uncertain expression flitted across her face. The room shook violently sending the two girls to the floor. "Diomedes!" The girl cried out as his body shimmered trying to teleport.
"Not happening," He groaned, his shimmering slowing.
"Interesting, I seem to remember you having the ability to teleport." She stated offhandidly as she brought herself up from the floor.
"I use pearls." He said, a harsh edge creeping into his voice. She ignored him, instead inspecting her clothes. She was wearing a pinkish orange dress that fell below her knees, and twin sandals coated with silver glitter.

She glanced back up as she heard a chuckle, Diomedes was looking down at her. "I've figured it out!" He said, "I must be in a dream!" She looked balefully at him and walked over to the girl, who was still sitting on the floor fumbling with the gun. "We don't need that," She said as she pulled it from the girl's hands. "Now do we?" She asked, setting a reproachful gaze on her.

When she didn't respond, she twisted around and mimed shooting a pair of bats that had just flown into the room. She twisted it, before tossing it up a couple of blocks and catching it by the barrel. Glancing at the hilt, a stricken expression fell over her face. She spun around and faced the girl. "Please, tell me you aren't Arnold!" She asked seemingly mortified.
"No," She sputtered, slightly surprised. "That's. That was my dad's name. My name," She broke off, glancing at Diomedes.
"You started, can't stop now." He muttered, and fumbled with something in his hand.
"Jenny." She said, subdued and staring at the ground.

She glanced up at the bats again and tossed the gun towards Jenny. She turned away and flipped over backwards, catching it in midflight before softly landing behind her. "Jenny? Much better name then Arnold, though I wouldn't doubt your father wore it well." She purred into her ear staring over her shoulder at Diomedes. "He wasn't kidding about the ender pearl, was he?" She paused for a moment, "Kind of Gruesome... If you ask me." Diomedes glanced up, with a stoic expression on his face.
"No one did." He said before focusing again on the pearl in his hands.

Shrugging she returned her attention to the ceiling, "Jenny, could you take a quick look at the ceiling for me?" Jenny tilted her head up and quickly surveyed the ceiling, only a couple of blocks from their heads. "Do you see the bats?"
"What about them?" Jenny asked.
"They aren't bats," She looked over at Diomedes and flashed a grin. "They're dragons." He glanced up in surprise, "Dragons?" The two objects transferred from vague shadows becoming clearer and the sharp ridges on their backs becoming more pronounced. Diomedes Cursed and threw his ender pearl out of the room, but it was too late.

The pearl reappeared in his hand as a dark luminescent circle appeared around the now circling miniature dragons. The room shook, and the circle gained depth, glowing an intense black. A voice boomed from the portal, filling all the corners of the room with a jagged old voice. "And Lucifer, hath fallen from the heavens, yet made his home among the mortals instead of his fiery kingdom."

A tight silence flooded the room, "Diomedes, Lucifer never consents to return... Therefore, you give me little choice." A rash chuckle resounded through the cave. "You will return. With or without your consent." The portal flashed a deep purple, and endermen poured through the opening.

They landed and prepped for battle, located their enemy and charged. She held Jenny by the shoulder as the group charged en masse towards Diomedes. Suddenly, Diomedes was in his bestial form. A deadly wolf, ripping apart the creatures attacking him. They too followed cue, shifting into various creatures that defied the laws of nature.

A large cat flew backwards with its guts splayed out on the ground. Another wolf charged into the fray to apprehend Diomedes. It soon laid; face mangled and purple blood oozing out, against the wall it had been slammed into. A raptor swooped down and caught Diomedes' arm, doing no damage but allowing several hits to go unguarded.

For its effort, one of its legs were ripped off by Diomedes, and an eye gouged by one of its own. It flew in an errant circle, swooning from blood loss till it caught sight of her in the corner. It flew at her but veered off from the cold gaze in her eye; instead it flew down and raked the side of Jenny's arm with its remaining talons.

As her blood dripped from its claws, it cawed in elation. Quickly flying back towards the fight as its wounds healed. She turned away from Jenny, Eyes burning in unbridled fury. She raised the gun up and held it towards the flying creature. Jenny glanced up at her in surprise. "It's not loaded." She warned as the trigger jerked back.

The barrel exploded, launching a huge fireball from it. The fire grew in intensity and size till it scorched the ceiling. The group turned in slow motion as they felt the heat. Their blood boiled and sprayed as the fireball smashed into them with a large explosion.

Waves rippled off their falling bodies, their mangled screams echoing through the air. The explosion rippled throughout the room as she turned away from the dying creatures and dropped the gun. It slowly fell to the ground and rebounded upwards with a loud, slow crack.

Jenny moved forward slowly, intent on the gun. She grabbed it and looked up at the portal, a grim smile spreading across her face. She slowly loaded her gun, and aimed it at the portal. The gun clicked, and she started reloading it.

She watched for a moment as Jenny slowly loaded her gun, before turning away and drawing a long silver blade. As she strode towards the nearest group of endermen, the blade lit with a vibrant pink flame. The flames coalesced in this color, before faltering into two colors; bright blue, and a fiery red.

With a sharp cutting laugh she sliced through a charging enderman before decapitating him and launching his head at the portal. She cut through the group she had targeted and dispatched them the same; blood flowing, appendages flying towards the portal.

Behind her, the loud shot of a gun finally rang through the air. Jenny stood, half-crouched cocking her gun to fire it at the portal again. On the other side of the room Diomedes roared, smashing an enderman’s head on the ground before sticking his hand into its chest and withdrawing an ender pearl, along with a fountain of purple blood.

She laughed and dashed over behind Diomedes, slicing the slow-moving creatures into bits. She lunged forward; smashing her blade into the same spot she had seen Diomedes pull the pearl from. She ripped it out and held on it a large ender pearl, pumping purple blood down her blade.

She whirled around, catching an enderman on the side of her with it, and watched in delight as small purple explosions lit the surface of the enderman’s skin before demolishing it. It let out a slow shriek before falling backwards and flashing in a white explosion that sent the enderman around her flying.

Grinning, she turned towards the last group of endermen, grabbed her sword with both hands, and pulled them apart. The flames mingled for a second before retreating to the opposite blades. With a fierce battle scream she cut through the large group.

Moments later, she lowered her blades and looked around the room. The cave was covered in dark purple blood, and the screams of the dead still echoed. She looked over at Jenny, and watched as she fired a last shot before slowly lowering her gun in exhaustion. She saw Diomedes leaning against the wall, cupping his hands around a gash in his leg.

She set her face and threw her blades at the miniature dragons circling the portal. As they left her hands everything shifted back into place. The bullets from Jenny's gun slammed through the portal, followed by a stream of body parts. A tight, anguished laugh echoed through the room as her blades pinned the dragons to the ceiling.

The portal vanished as the voice echoed through it. "Truly, you are a creature of the Void, Daughter of my parent’s killer." Then the voice echoed away with a cruel laugh. She looked back at Jenny and Diomedes.
"You owe me." Jenny stared at her in a mild shock, but Diomedes nodded. "I won't remember this encounter when we next meet." She continued, "Therefore, next time we meet. You will treat me with respect, and aid me in any way you can." She surveyed their expressions. "Understood?" They nodded in assent.

She jumped into the air and caught hold of the swords spearing the dragons to the ceiling. "You will help me, or I will remember what you did and why." She pulled her body up, then ripped the swords out of the ceiling and fell towards the floor. She smashed the dragons into the corpse of a fallen enderman, and laughed as a white vortex enveloped her.

-

The vortex appeared in her kitchen and spat her out. She glanced around in meager surprise. She looked down at her blades and found the bodies were gone. Sighing she walked over and sat down in her chair.

She laid the blades on the armrests, and sat back. "A child of the void?" She asked the cool air. "What does that even mean?" She shook her head, and then contemplated the swords before her.

She held her hand over the blue one, "Cautious, intelligent, resourceful." She murmured. The red one flared as she held her other hand over it. "Reckless, Focused, Strong of will." She shook her head and took hold of both blades. They flared a momentary pink before pulling together and returning to their original state.

She swept her blond hair out of her face and narrowed her grey eyes on her surroundings. "Just like me to lose time in a damn chair." She muttered as she got up and walked to the sink. "Wonder who it was that saved me..." She said surveying the small room, before walking away into the bowels of the house.

Chapter 5 - Ender-sight Staff, FoxFiend.

She walked down the hallway with a steely glare in her eyes. She stopped as the redstone lamps flickered. She looked up in exasperation as they stopped their flicker then died outright. She glanced around the coal-dark hallway and cursed under her breath. "Not a good night" She muttered.

With her fingers outstretched, and her feet sliding along the floor, she quickly made her way to the wall. Confident, she walked forward, leaving only a couple of fingers brushing the wall. She gasped in pain as she tripped over a ledge. She reached up the wall and slapped it harshly.

When nothing happened she slapped again a bit higher. She slowly raised herself from the floor searching but her fingers met the ceiling before she found anything. She sighed and traced the ledge below her with her foot. Slightly less confidently, she walked in measured steps along the ledge.

She stepped forward in anticipation of the wall, but instead finding nothing. She slipped as the ledge dropped and she fell to the stone floor. She inched forward trying to find a position to stand up, A click resounded through the room as she activated a pressure plate.

She panicked as she remembered a haywire of traps laid throughout her house. Gingerly she picked herself up from the floor, leaving pressure on the block below her, and gazed around the dark room.

After waiting for a moment, she moved backwards off the pressure plate. Instantly a red light filled the room and a low hiss echoed through the area. Blinking at the light, she walked towards it. A moment of examination showed it to be a not-latch hooked up to a toggle-able switch.

The area above it was bare, and probably was meant to house a redstone lamp. She glanced around the rest of the partially lit room. She blinked as she realized she wasn't even in the wing of the house she thought she was... Instead she was in one of Jack's old rooms, before he stopped collecting his ethereal treasures.

She looked around again and thought for a second, where was he? It had been at least a week since she had seen him last. She walked over and rummaged through one of the chests to find any source of light. The first seemed to be empty, but she knew that in reality it was chock-full of things in the ethereal plane.

She opened the second chest, but just stood there in amazement. In the chest was a golden staff with a blazing pearl threaded through the wood. It pulsated a light purple, showing that it had a different quality from other items. Picking it up she felt power surge through her body.

This was an EnderSight staff, one of the most powerful things ever constructed. It granted its user the ability to teleport instantaneously, and when you gazed through the eye, you gained a momentary ability to see the true sources of power in the world. One of which being rifts that the endermen used to return to their own world, the other obviously the greatest treasure for any adventurer; it showed the residual energies of portals, End portals.

Only one of the three strongholds had been discovered, and its portal had long since been destroyed. But the other two were still hidden somewhere in the vast reaches of this world. Her red hair dropped around her shoulders as she gripped the ends of the staff and brought her head close to the glassy surface of the eye.

As she gazed through it she saw nothing... The view was just tinted a dark green. The staff bucked in her hands as she touched it to the ground. Suddenly, the dark room was gone and she was standing in front of her bed. She blinked, then remembered the teleportative capabilities of the staff.

She walked over to the side of her room, "Where would he even have found this?" She murmured. Shaking her head, she walked over and pulled a lever, she glanced up as the windows opened giving a view of the horizon. The sun was long gone, but the stars shone brighter then ever. She tapped the staff as she stepped closer to the window, then dropped down to a sitting position. Her feet clanked on the glass below her as her blonde hair was cast behind her by a cool breeze.

A clanking sound echoed past her ears and she discerned a muffled curse. She looks up in bewilderment, and catches sight of a rectangular object floating through the air. On the end lies a set of pistons. A row of glass covered the wall and revealed a shadow standing inside, looking outwards. She glanced around and smashed a button placed on the side of the stone with her foot. She looked up at the silhouette and smirked in satisfaction as she heard the Hissing below her.

A large explosion broke the night and a volley of TNT flew towards the ship. The form jumped in surprise and climbed up onto the outside of their ship as the TNT exploded. As the particles flooded the air, she noticed an object shoot up out the explosive radius. She glanced in amazement as made out a thin form clinging onto it. After a second, A phosphorous trail shot out of the bottom.

"He is riding a firework?" She muttered in disbelief, her red hair dropping to her shoulders as she followed the luminescent trail upwards. He climbed into the sky and was lost to her view when explosion rang out and the trail was obscured.

The sky exploded into a sea of colors and she could make out a dark shape superimposed on the vibrant colors. Slowly the dark shape grew bigger, until she could make out the same thin form that had rocketed into the sky drifting down under a Grey cloud.

She looked at the grey cloud as he descended, it swayed and blew towards her, as well as into the path of a lingering piece of the firework. They collided and the cloud caught fire. As the fire spread, the form twisted and pulled something from its pack.

It vaguely looked as though it were a slab but its edges were oddly deformed. The form placed it beneath its feet and let go of the parachute. Now directly in front of her house it plummeted grasping onto the slab.

She Gasped as it fell closer to the ground. Suddenly the corners of the slab caught fire and a muffled explosion sent the form flying higher into the air. The form held on as the slab tilted towards her and raced through the air.

She ducked and felt the fire cross over her seconds before she a clattering and a groan of irritation. “It almost worked.” A male voice said with a tone of disgust. “Well, You are alive FoxFiend.” He muttered.
“Who are you?” She asked, her blonde hair fluttering away from her body and hazel eyes bleeding through a blue overcoat.

“What?” The boy swung around a white redspeckled robe swinging around him. “Who, you, I... You atttacked me!” Her hair shimmered and red peaked at the edges.
“I Don’t like company!” She said voice thundering.
“You, Her, Looking.” He cowered. “You’re her! They, they are looking for you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Who is looking for me? The Wizards?” At that he looked up and a grin crossed his face.
“I am a wizard.” He said proudly. “The bearers said I was special! See!” He held up his hand and a piston appeared in his palm. She moved the small distance separating them and peered at it as her hair shifted to red.

The Piston rotated briefly before settling down on his hand and the head of it pushing out. She moved back slightly as arrays of repeaters appeared over his hand along with hoppers and dispensers. The set up floated upwards above the surface of his hand and an iron casing fell over it.

He looked up weakly at her, and handed the iron cased contraption to her before sitting down and curling up on her roof. She held the strange object in her hand and ran her other along the edge of it.
“Aim Away from you,” Came a sleepy yawn accompanied voice. She glanced down at him and found him near sleep once more. She looked at the end of it and found a hole in it. She pointed it away from her and pressed down on an oddly colored section. She jumped as a flaming bolt spewed from it and arced away from her house into the darkness.

Her blonde hair fell down on her back and she blinked her hazel eyes for a second. She looked down at the boy and sighed. She picked him up and tapped the staff. A blink later she placed him down on a small bed. A glint of light caught her eye as she turned away.

She turned back and crouched. A metal band encircled his neck, and a word was displayed on it. “FoxFiend. Subject seven, COV” She sighed. “Good night Fox-Fiend.” Then turned away and tapped the staff again disappearing up to her room.

Name: Jenny
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Species: Human
Special weapon or Item: A flintlock
Bio: Born in a small village, this girl is really smart. She is excellent in math and language, though a little bad in geography. She was the smartest girl in her village, and they would always call her 'the nerd' due to her knowledge of Minecraftia. While moving out, she found her dad's flintlock, and she decided to make a living by working for the Bearers at the age of 20. With her trusty flintlock and smarts, you should better stand out of her way.

Name: Diomedes Chased

Age: 28

Gender: Male

Species: Enderman

Appearance: When in battle, Diomedes wears full obsidian armor. When he isn't, he wears thiner armor. Which is at least more vulnerable than his full armor. He wears a chain around his neck with an Ender Pearl is, which was his father's before...

Special weapon or item: A sword made of Enderstone

Bio:

When he was a mere infant and had just been spawned into the End, his house was attacked by his fathers enemies. He was scared and alone, his mother spirited him away to a safe place before bidding him farewell. He was raised by his grandparents, out of contact with the rest of the world. After an indeterminable amount of years he finally gained contact with his father, only to find that his mother had long since passed away from a wasting disease.

Angry and distraught Diomedes returned to his grandparents realm and stayed there for a time, but as always War found them. He was forced into servitude fighting a meaningless campaign against his own people for ten long years. He advanced in rank until his command was only superseded by the Draconem itself.

His only wish was to regain contact with his grandparents. The Draconem refused him his leave so he took it instead. He returned to the house only to find a cruel mark listed over the remains of the house. He was escorted back to the Draconem's arena, and chided for disobeying orders.

Enraged he cast his allegiance aside and stepped through the void to reach his father. His father Saw him appear and hurriedly commanded him to leave. Before he could the house was ripped open and the Draconem's children ripped his father apart before him.

Diomedes cast himself into the void, hoping to die. Instead he awoke in a vaguely familiar world. Slowly he learned how to survive in the overworld, living as a thief and a warrior. Fighting for honor and dignity. He spurns his weaknesses in favor of his strengths and eludes the Draconem's bidding.

name: Foxfiend
gender: Male
age: 23
species:human
appearance: brown ruffled wavy hair. Red eyes, His right eye is covered in a redstone eyepatch that act as a replacement eye(lost in an accident) with extra binocular features. normal steve cothes with a white scientist robe around it that is stained with streaks of redstone(looks like blood from a distance, don't tell him, he doesn't know!).
special weapon or item: anything redstone.
bio: He grew up to around age 8 in a normal village leading a normal life. That is when strange this started happening around him, random redstone would appear around him, the concept of electricity came easily to him after that. By age 9 he mastered his ability to make redstone appear so it appeared when he wanted where he wanted. Then he worked on summoning other redstone things. Pistons, repeaters, torches. This took him 3 more years to master, he was 12. The village sent him to with a group of wizards so they might make use of his skills at age 10. In the mean time he perfected his techniques, and has been working on making his home better and more protected on the nearby mountain.

“Checkmate.” The man in the silver suit lifted the minute white marble figurine depicting a queen in a flowing robe and placed it softly on an unassuming black tile three rows away. He smiled slightly, and leaned back in his armchair. Across from him, the man in the black suit’s eyes flitted across the remaining pieces on the chessboard. A white knight, six white pawns, a white bishop and the white king against four black pawns, a black rook, a black bishop, the black king and the elegant black queen. He set his fingertip on the intricate white marble crown that distinguished his king from his lowly pawns, and tried to think of a scenario where he wasn’t cornered. The black queen stopped his horizontal advance, and a black rook stopped him vertically. He could shift his white king sideways but depending on his chosen square a bishop and a pawn would be ready to meet his advance. After a long silence, he, too, leaned back in his armchair and threw up his hands.

“Well done.” he said cordially in his usual soft, purring German accent, his voice calm even as his eyes continued to flick rapidly from piece to piece, trying to determine what he might have done differently to win. The man in the silver suit chuckled softly. They were both sitting in large, comfortable-looking red velvet armchairs on opposite sides of a large dark brown oak wood table. On the table sat a large, ornate chessboard made of black and white marble and a series of elaborately sculpted marble chess pieces. They sat in a large room with walls made of the same dark brown wood and a floor carpeted with a rich crimson satin rug. A large fireplace made of dark gray stone sat next to the table and armchairs and a blazing orange fire within it cast long tendrils of shadow across the room.
The man in the armchair to the right of the table wore a suit made of silver silk and a black bowtie. His cuffs were white and studded with simple gold cufflinks, and his pants were made of a rich black wool. He appeared to be in his late fifties, and had combed black hair streaked with silver and a silver beard. His smile revealed a row of polished white teeth. His eyes were a bright brown and shone with the spark of vast wisdom. He sat upright again and began to gather the chess pieces, placing them neatly back in their initial positions with a calculated meticulousness. “Are you really that surprised, Karl?” he asked without looking up at the other man. He gave another small laugh. “I’ve played the game for some thirty years now. And even if I hadn’t I can always read you like the back of my hand. How could I not win?”

“I suppose you’re right. Chess is an old man’s game.” said the man in the armchair to the left of the table, eliciting another laugh from his companion. Karl wore a suit made of black silk, and a bright crimson bowtie. His cuffs, too, were white, though his cufflinks were silver instead of gold and had the sheen that came only with recent purchase. His pants were black and striped with silver. He appeared to be in his late twenties, and had combed black hair that he had gelled in place and a short black beard. His eyes, too, were a bright brown, but unlike his companion his contained not wisdom but a blazing, fiery ambition. He sat up and spoke again. “Well, it has been a pleasure playing with you. However the night is becoming quite late, and I would suggest we proceed to opening a bottle of wine and discussing anything you’d like to discuss, if that’s alright with you?”

“Of course.” said the man in the silver suit. Karl nodded.

“Leon!” he called into the hall beyond the doorway. “Would you bring the Bavarian Wine?” In a few minutes a sharply dressed man in a white doublet and black pants hurried through the door, holding a silver tray. He had brown hair and looked to be in his early twenties. He smiled eagerly at Karl and the man in the silver suit before setting the tray down on the table. Sitting placidly on it’s shimmering metallic surface were two thin crystal wine glasses and a bottle of wine with a large brown cork. Karl picked up a wineglass and set it on his side of the chessboard, and motioned for the man in the silver suit to do the same. With one swift flick of his hand, Leon drew a small silver corkscrew from his pocket and unscrewed the cork, allowing it to fall into his open hand. Then, he picked up the wine bottle and poured a sparkling, foamy red wine into each of their glasses.

When he was finished, he picked up the silver tray again and looked expectantly at Karl. “Can I fetch you and your guest anything else, Master Wulff?”

“No, I think that’ll be all. Thank you Leon.” said Karl. Leon continued to smile at both of them and bowed shortly before returning to the hallway outside of the room. Once he was gone, the man in the silver suit flashed Karl an amused smile. Karl shrugged. “The estate needs servants if it’s going to be properly maintained. Leon’s not a bad fellow, just a bit tight in the collar for my tastes.” Karl paused to take a sip of the wine. He set the wine glass down and seemed to silently contemplate the quality of the wine before speaking again. “Marvelous, no? I hand picked it from perhaps a dozen samples at the vineyard. I’m told it’s from the person wine cellar of a Bavarian nobleman, a duke or a count I think. Costly, but what is wealth if not a means toward luxury?” At this the man in the silver suit burst into laughter. Karl looked at him cynically, confused and slightly indignant. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Which memoir did you read that one in?” asked the man in the silver suit between short chuckles. “Honestly Karl, if nothing else, you make an incredibly amusing millionaire.” Karl grinned sheepishly.

“Can you blame me?” he asked. “Ever since last month it’s all been a whirlwind of nice clothes and seaside estates and . I’m drunk on wine half the time and drunk on power the other half.” He tipped back his head and smiled, as though savoring the wealth. After a few moments of silence he turned to the man in the silver suit and smiled at him slyly. “I’m sure you can relate.”

“Yes, I can. But you’ve seen nothing yet. I can tell you Karl, there is very little that a man cannot enjoy in this world with a hundred million Euros at his beck and call.” At this Karl’s eyes widened suddenly and he nearly spit out his wine.

“A hundred million?” he managed to gasp after sputtering for a few seconds. “You turned five million Euros into a hundred million?”

“You didn’t really think this was it, did you? This little estate, a few servants? This is only the beginning.” The man in the silver suit spread his arms wide in a grand gesture and smiled at Karl. “But I didn’t expect you to think that far ahead, at least not yet. You have ambition, Karl, but not drive.” He picked up a small white marble pawn from the chessboard in his left hand and focused on it, his eyes widened in contemplation. He stroked it’s chiseled helm with his finger. “What is the difference between this pawn, one of twenty on the board, completely expendable, and the white king?”

Karl looked at him, puzzled. “Well, if a pawn dies the game goes on. If the king dies the game is over.”

“Yes.” said the man in the silver suit. “But both can die, eventually. Both are men. Neither is immortal, neither fully in control of their own destiny. One wears a crown and the other a helmet, but at the end of the day there is only one real difference between the two. A pawn is nearly useless, a simple foot soldier, a life of little weight on the battlefield, endlessly able to sacrifice its own life with little cost if it will hurt the enemy. A king needs to live, a king must live. A king has the weight of the game on his shoulders. Therefore, when a player acts as a pawn, their desire to survive extends only as far as the limited usefulness of the pawn’s life. When a player acts as a king, their desire to survive extends as far as they value winning the game. A player acting as a pawn has almost no drive, while a player acting as a king has infinite drive. Infinite will to succeed. Something I, and, in another life, you, created for ourselves.”

“But you don’t have the drive I had once. You have a different drive, bred of different emotions. You don’t know what it’s like to work in a dead end job for thirty years in a gray cubicle on the fourth floor of some godforsaken office building in Bavaria. You haven’t been embittered by being passed up for a promotion for the fourth time because your boss simply can’t be bothered, come home to a dusty apartment full of half-finished notes and old furniture that you can’t afford to replace, have your heart broken by that Viola you’re always talking about because ‘you’re a really nice guy, but the relationship isn’t going anywhere’.” As he spoke the man’s voice became steadily louder, and his hand began to tremble slightly. Realizing he was losing his composure, he took a deep breath and turned to Karl with a final frosted gaze. “But thanks to you and me, you won’t need to. We’ve saved you from that Karl. Thirty years of tinkering madly in that apartment by the light of a single dim bulb has saved you from that. And now, finally, we can turn to pursuing what ultimately drives us: the hope of creating a brighter, greater future for you and me.”

“One has a lot of time to think in thirty years of near-complete isolation from the outside world.” continued the man in the silver suit. “I kept myself updated on finances, stocks, rising companies. There are ways to turn nothing into five million Euros, as you have, and then turn five million into ten or twenty, or a hundred or a thousand. I have a path for you, Karl, a path of investments and business deals that will, in the end, work very prosperously for both of us. But I am, quite literally, getting ahead of myself. These are discussions to be had another time. The night really is getting late, and I should be on my way soon. For now, I want you to enjoy yourself. You, and I, have earned it.”

“I am.” said Karl, shortly. “I had no idea what you sacrificed to make this happen. You have my thanks, of course.”

“And I accept them. But don’t feel sorry for me.” said the man in the silver suit. “Those sacrifices will soon be entirely made up for. I have only your best interests at heart, Karl. Think nothing of it. You would have done the same for me.” Suddenly, he drew an object from his pocket and brought it to his eyes. In the light of the fire, Karl saw it was a thin silver pocket watch with a long silver chain that wound down and disappeared into the man’s pocket. The man in the silver suit stared at the glass surface of the timepiece for a few moments before looking back at Karl and speaking again. “It is late, Karl. I should be going soon. It has been a pleasure meeting you. Before I go, however, there is one thing I would like to see, if you would be fine with it.”

“Anything.” said Karl.

“Could I see the ticket. One more time?”

“Of course.” said Karl, fumbling in the pocket of his black pants until he found a small, slightly torn piece of paper, about the size of cinema ticket. He held it up to the light of the fire, now reduced to a few sparks and embers, and held it out to the man in the silver suit. It was red, and bore the black, gaudy designs of a casino at it’s edges. Printed on it’s surface were five numbers in a simple black font: 8, 19, 26, 38 and 57. The other man took it slowly, as though he were afraid it was not entirely real and would shatter at his touch. When he gazed upon it his eyes began to fill with the spark of nostalgia, and a thin smile crossed his lips, as though he were seeing a long-lost friend again after years apart. Karl watched his silent reverie curiously. “I kept it with me, of course. Somehow, I don’t think I could ever get rid of it. It’s like a good luck charm, I suppose.”

“Neither do I.” said the other man. He reached into the same pocket he had pulled the pocket watch out of, and withdrew a small object. He set it on the table, and set the other ticket next to it. It was the same ticket, a bright red with black designs and writing, though much more worn and tarnished. On it were printed the same five numbers: 8, 19, 26, 38 and 57. The man in the silver suit smiled again, and laughed. “I’ve kept it with me all these years. To bring good luck, yes. But also to remind me that I am the master of my own destiny. Five numbers. Just five simple numbers made it all happen. Five numbers on a red lottery ticket.” He laughed again, and turned his gaze to the fire.

He handed the red ticket back to Karl. “It really is time for me to be going.” he said, checking his pocket watch. He looked at the silver pocket watch closely, and began to turn the small silver dials on it’s side with precise, methodical motions of his fingers. He left only a large circular piston on the side unchanged. “I should return to my own time now. We will meet again, and there will be specifics to discuss. But for now, Karl, I want you to have some fun. Go out, enjoy life. Tell Viola a mutual friend said hello. Go out, take her somewhere nice. Berlin maybe, or Paris or Geneva or anywhere you like. And know that I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you.” said Karl, with a short smile. “I eagerly await our next meeting.” He raised his wine glass. “Cheers, Mr. Wulff.”

The man in the silver suit pressed the large piston, and, almost immediately, small silver sparks began to fly out of the silver pocket watch. The flew around him, becoming quickly larger and greater in quantity. A sphere of silver light began to envelope him.

“Call me by my first name.” said the man in the silver suit with a final laugh, raising his wine glass to meet Karl’s. “Cheers, Karl.”

“Cheers, Karl.” said Karl, clinking his wine glass against that of the man in the silver suit. The sound of glass shaking resonated through the room, and Karl watched as Karl was consumed by the silver light and his body disappeared entirely from view. He saw the other wine glass being lowered slowly, and heard it drop onto the table. The light became bright enough to make him shield his eyes for a moment, and had evaporated into the air as soon as he opened them. There was no trace of Karl or the silver pocket watch left. Karl sat up, his wine glass still raised. He looked at the red ticket in his right hand for a few moments before putting it slowly back in his pocket. He looked at the empty armchair where only a few moments before had sat another Karl, a Karl from a different time. He smiled at it, and raised his wine glass again, clinking it against the air. “Cheer’s Karl.” he said to the empty room, before laughing shortly to himself and draining the last drops of red wine in the wine glass.

This is a collection of poems, songs, parodies and other pieces similar.

By filling this form out and submitting it you are releasing all intellectual ownership of said idea, other than original author. I agree that your name/Username will be posted wherever i use your original idea.

"Everybody please settle down," an NPC Villager requested from a noisy crowd. "The funeral is about to begin."

The crowd settled.

"I am proud to introduce the ruler of everything in existence, Notch!" The NPC Villager announced. The crowd clapped with somewhat of a delight, after all, it was a funeral.

"Vick was an impressive miner, one of the best in the land," Notch began. "I am honored to be here reading his will, and I will forever long his absence. Now, let's begin"

After a couple of hours went by, Notch read the names of the people to which Vick had left valuable items to.

"We are down to the final item everyone," Notch said, "and Vick adressed this special object to his only brother, Kaline."

The crowd silenced, as Kaline stood up from his seat. He walked across the red wool leading to Notch with no emotion whatsoever.

"I'm sorry for your lose, Kaline," Notch apologized. He handed him the final gift. "That is the conclusion to this funeral, Notch out!" He then burst into light and went up into the sky.

Kaline Woolcraft never wanted to go through this. He had millions in diamonds before his home was captured by the Creeper Empire. It was a mansion then. Everything was robbed from him, even the materials he had used on his sancturary. Now, he lives in a simple wooden house with his wife, Crystal, slaving away to gather emeralds for the Creeper King. For if he didn't, he would be lose his home, and put himself and his wife through the same fate as Vick, blown up and tossed into The Void.

Kaline placed a button on some spruce wood, which stood out from the oak wood that made up his house. An iron door opened, and he quickly entered the household, with the gift Vick left to him. Crystal greeted him, and gave him a hug, an obvious indication that she felt sorry for him.

"I can't believe he's gone," Kaline weeped. "Why did he have to look for trouble? Why?"

"He's an explorer, Kaline." Crystal replied. "His curiosity got the better of him."

"It always did," Kaline admitted. He looked at the gift he achieved from the funeral.

"Open it up, Kaline," Crystal suggested.

Kaline ripped away the wrapping, and inside was a familiar object...the enchanted book! His eyes widened, he was familiar with this book. He had to remember what it was, it wasn't entirely clear to him. He opened up the book, and began to read.

"In the beginning..." He began.

Him and his wife quickly gawked, and a loud pounding on the door was heard. The Creeper King was outside.

"Hurry up Kaline! Read the rest!" Crystal panicked.

"That's all it says! Literally, just one single sentence," Kaline replied.

A zombie villager, wearing a suit filled with holes and rips, and an eyepatch over his eye destroyed the iron door with a pickaxe. The Creeper King then entered, not amused.

"Alright Kaline," He spoke. "I'm not in the best mood, so hand me your daily pay in emeraldssss."

Kaline looked at Crystal and nodded. She had an understanding on what he wanted her to do. She went into the back of the wooden house and broke a block of red wool, which was used as for their carpeting. As a result of this act, a lever was revealed. Crystal pulled it, and the reaction signaled a group of pistons, built to act like an elevator of some sort. Up came a chest, which was their hiding place for the emeralds they had worked hard to achieve. However, it was empty.

Crystal looked back at Kaline with a look of worry. As a response, he shook his head in dissapointment.

"Well?" The Creeper King said impatiently, "I don't have all day."

Kaline walked over to the Creeper King. "We have no emeralds to spare."

Minutes passed with silence. Until the Creeper King made a loud hiss, and was actually close to exploding. But he quickly calmed himself, to prevent unexpected death.

"What do you mean you have no emeraldssss?" He grumbled.

Kaline and his wife said nothing.

"I could have you killed for thissss!" The Creeper King yelled. " I would make sure you two experience a death one million timessss worse than Vick!"

Kaline and Crystal began to weep once more after the Creeper King's recent statement. Surprisingly, the Creeper King felt emotion and was actually hurt by what he had said to the two. He then shook his head violently and returned to his angered mood.

"You have by the end of this week to gather a stack of emeralds," The Creeper King instructed. "I will return to this despicable household then, and if no emeraldsssss are in your possession..."

The Creeper King walked over to a golden apple sitting on a table within the wooden house and bashed it with his head.

"You get the idea," He smiled devilishly. "God that hurt! Sometimessss I dread the fact that I lack armsss." He walked out of the household, but his Zombie Villager companion stayed. He looked at the couple and tossed them two emeralds.

"...Just to get you started." He grunted.

Kaline smiled. "Hey Zane."

The Zombie Villager sniffed and walked out the iron door.

"Haven't seen him around these parts in a while." Crystal spoke.

"Yeah, it's nice to see that he's not completely infected...at least not yet..." Kaline replied.

Crystal returned to the previous topic. "What are we going to do Kaline? How are we going to get a stack of emeralds in a week?!?!"

"Forget about it." Kaline responded. "Once this book reveals to us the secrets that it wields, we'll be able to take down the Creeper King and his empire."

"Kaline, he could have us killed!" Crystal yelled. "What could this book possibly do? Barely anything is written in it!"

"It's not the words that matter." Kaline noted. "It's what the book can unlock. It's the key to Coroq Gates!"

"You mean the rusty gates in the center of Witherox?" Crystal asked, "Nobody dares set foot in there! Heck, nobody even knows what lies behind those gates."

"Well it's time we found out." Kaline said with a sense of adventure in his eyes. "We need to find Archie the Iron Golem."

Kaline made a quick trip down the Extreme Hills where his Wooden House stood and reached a small NPC Village by the name of Rush. It's called Rush for its involvement in several diamond rushes over the past few centuries. Archie the Iron golem, whom Kaline longs to speak to, is the beloved mayor of the village. As soon as he made his way through the main gate, he was greeted by many villagers. Suddenly, three villagers whose clothes were covered in filth approached Kaline. Their heavy hard hats with bright glowstone inside indicated that they were miners.

"Hi boss!" One of them said happily.

Kaline smiled. "Blake, Nick, and Orio, I need you to do me a huge favor."

"Sure boss!" Orio replied. "What do you need?"

"Me and Crystal are on to something big and the Creeper King demands we give him a stack of emeralds by next week," Kaline explained. "I need you three to mine at least a fraction of that amount, can you do that?"

"We'll get right on it, boss!" Nick spoke.

"Yeah, we won't let that nasty Creeper King harm you." Blake added.

The three miners took out their shovels and dug down through the dirt, closing it up soon after they were out of plain sight. Afterwards, the sound of a clicking button silenced the village. A large door opened, and a colossal figure stepped out into the open. It was an iron golem, two times as big as a natural one. He had a beard and a mustache to go along with it, and his eyes were blue rather than red. He caught glimpse of Kaline and walked towards him, taking large steps that shook the entire ground. Once he was a few inches away from Kaline, he held out...a rose. The golem's name was Archie.

"Thanks Archie," Kaline said, "Vick would really appreciate this."

Archie smiled. It was clear that he was upset over the death of Kaline's brother, Vick.

"What brings you here?" Archie asked in a deep, yet overall quiet voice.

"I recieved a book from Vick at his funeral," Kaline responded. "I believe it's the same book that was created to lead us to The Climax."

The Climax is a dimension that has only been concieved in fiction. It is believed to lead to a mob that every being in the Minecraft Universe fears. He is described as being twenty blocks high, having four legs, and having a body completely made out of fluid that changes color periodically. He has claws and long arms, and a gigantic mouth with jagged teeth, as well as glaring red eyes. The story goes that he was a mob that thrived in the "beta" times, but was only viewed by few people and eventually claimed to be a hoax, much similiar to Herobrine. Truth is, "developers" felt no need for his presence and sealed him away in The Climax, a shadow-like dimension that serves as the home for abandoned mobs.

"In the beginning..." Archie read from the enchanted book. "You have done a great job, Kaline, this is the book. Tomorrow morning we shall journey to Witherox."

Archie handed the enchanted book back to Kaline, nodded, and went back inside his home. Crystal came running to the NPC Village and met up with Kaline.

"So...Why did you need to talk to Archie?" She asked.

"Because long ago, The Wither and the Iron Golem race were allies. Iron Golems helped construct their monuments and The Wither rewarded them with daily needs," Kaline answered. "Archie is the only person who can unlock Coroq Gates with the book."

"Incredible!" Crytal said in amazement. "I always wonder how you get him to talk to you, he doesn't talk to anyone, now that his creator is gone."

Kaline watched Archie getting prepared for the Witherox trip within his house. He frowned. "The Creeper King is a monster."

Zane Helmframe was Archie's creator. He constructed him using four iron blocks and a pumpkin, and trained him to be a master in weaponary and a dedicated adventurer. The Creeper King feared Archie's power and wanted to destroy him. To do this, he tampered with his enchantment table and made a horrid enchantment called "Zombie." Archie was the one who commonly enchanted the village's weapons and armor, at the time however, he was away and Zane was left to do the job. Because of this, he was transformed into a zombie villager, and only has faint memories of his friends and family. Zane Helmframe was corrupted with evil, and the Creeper King took advantage of it greatly. Although it wasn't the result he expected, the Creeper King killed Archie the Iron Golem, but on the inside, for he dreads the fact that his master will never be with him again.

"Kaline look out!" Crystal cried.

Kaline looked behind him and found a Creeper sneaking up to him, about to explode. He was terrified and slashed it away with a sword. It exploded, but at a distance where he was not harmed. Kaline was relieved, and brought out a crafting table.

"Alright Crystal, how much iron ore did we collect?" Kaline asked.

"Here." Crystal said, throwing the pieces of iron ore to Kaline.

"About two stacks. Perfect!" Kaline replied. "Put it in the furnace while I make some more diamond pickaxes and swords. We need to be prepared if we're heading into a dangerous place like Witherox."

After minutes of smelting, Crystal used the resulted iron ingots to make two sets of iron armor on the crafting table.

"Seven...eight...nine..." Kaline counted. "Ten diamonds. That's enough to make each of us a diamond sword and pickaxe."

Crystal and Kaline equipped the armor and stored the pickaxes and swords in a "on the go" chest.

"Let's go rendezvous with Archie." Kaline insisted.

Kaline and Crystal left the mine that they had been exploring and made their way back to Rush. When they came back, they were surprised to see Archie with blocks of obsidian in his hand.

"What is all this?" Kaline questioned.

Archie looked towards Kaline. "If we're going to Witherox, we're going to have to make a portal. The portal to Witherox requires fourteen blocks of soul sand, which can only be found in The Nether."

Archie began constructing a Nether portal out of the fourteen blocks of obsidian he had in his hand.

"I don't know Archie, The Nether is well...hell nowadays," Kaline complained.

"Yeah," Crystal agreed. "The Creeper King has alliances with Ghasts, Blazes, and even Zombie Pigmen. They will destroy us!"

"I know it's a dangerous idea, but we can't just get soul sand out of thin air," Archie stated. "Rush has a bedrock outpost nearby, if we can get there as quick as possible, we won't be harmed."

Kaline and Crystal thought for a few minutes and realized there was no other choice. They agreed to enter The Nether. Archie made a quick grin, and lit the structure with flint n' steel, creating the portal. All three held hands, and jumped through, and with a quick purple flash, they were in the hellish dimension. Oceans of lava lied benath them, and flames roared on the tops of Netherrack as the red sky failed to indicate day or night.

"Over there!" Archie cried, pointing to a small bedrock structure across a bridge. It was only thirty blocks away. "Run!"

All three of them sprinted across the netherrack, when they reached the bridge in a matter of seconds, they felt confident they would make it...they were wrong. A loud screech was followed by a huge fireball that blew up part of the bridge, cutting them off from the outpost. Kaline, Crytal, and Archie stopped in their tracks. A Ghast came up from under the bridge. It wore a cape with the Creeper King's symbol painted on the back.

"Going somewhere?" The Ghast grunted.

Several blazes circled around Kaline, Crystal and Archie as a zombie pigman came and put dispensers on their hands.

"It was the only thing we had," The Zombie Pigman groaned. "After all we have no handcuffs."

The ghast made an angry look at him, and shot a fireball, quickly annihilating him.

"Take all of them to the Nether Fortress," The Ghast ordered. "I'll report them to the Creeper King and see what torture he has in store for them."

Moments after our heroes were captured in The Nether, an important meeting was being held in the center of the Minecraft universe where a set of gigantic fortresses surrounded an overlooking castle. The Creeper Empire's home was here. The Creeper King was in an odd behavior. He was furious, not at any of his subjects, but at himself. For some reason, he had not been able to sentence Kaline and Crystal to death, which has never happened before. Killing people was his all time favorite hobby, although coldhearted, he was filled with joy out of it.

An Enderman shined the emeralds on the Creeper King's crown and placed it on his head. Afterwards, the Creeper King took a deep breath and walked through two wooden doors leading to a large room. A table stretched across the room, filled with multiple types of mobs. He sat down in the largest of the chairs. Each mob at the table then stared at him with a puzzled look.

Minutes passed, and the Creeper King finally became enraged. "What isssss it?!?!" He yelled.

"This is unlike you, Baxtroff," A skeleton with a gold tooth admitted. "Letting a mortal off the hook, especially one who has been ordered to present emeralds each day. You know we need them for the project!""

"I'm aware of the project!" The Creeper King scolded. "After all, I created it!"

"We know," An Enderman suited in gold armor assured. "But we're afraid you've been getting side-tracked and not focusing on it more."

"This project is the whole reason we have given you all our armies, mining crews, and superior materials!" A gigantic spider snapped.

All of the mobs began to yell at the Creeper King and pound on the table.

"Shut up..." The Creeper King begged, but the mobs would not listen. "I said shut up!"

Everyone became silent.

"I jusssst...couldn't kill Kaline Woolcraft," The Creeper King admitted. "Don't think i'm giving up on the project, i'm not. That'ssss why I sent him to collect a stack by thisssss week."

The mobs were delighted and clapped.

"A stack, why that almost completes the amount we need!" A Zombie in a robe said. "Good show, Baxtroff. Forcing this subject to collect emeralds was a brilliant idea, we just thought you let him off the hook for no reason whatsoever."

"It'sss not right though!" The Creeper King snapped. "I've never felt so weak in my entire life. I can't explain to you how much I wanted him dead, I just made the emerald deal as an excuse for my failure!"

A creeper in a vest came into the room. "I think you're all stupid, if this guy collects emeralds, why would you want him dead?"

The Creeper King looked back with a furious look and signaled the Skeleton King, who quickly shot him...head first.

"Kaline gives the people of Rush hope," The Creeper King explained. "Besides, he never collects the emeralds, his mining crew does. I promise, if he doesn't have a stack of emeralds by the end of the week, I will end his life."

The mobs listened carefully.

"Honestly he's a good slave to me, but he's a brother to Vick." The Creeper King continued.

"The one who knew the secret of The Climax?" The Skeleton King questioned.

"Correct. I assume that Vick found a way to tell him about the subject, but if I kill Kaline for that reason, and he didn't know anything about The Climax, neighboring empires not in alliance with us may rebel."

"So let me summarize this..." The Blaze King began. "You want Kaline dead because he gives the people of Rush hope and he may know the secret of the Climax?"

"Correct."

"But...you couldn't kill him for some reason? And the entire emerald thing was just an excuse?"

"Correct."

"I just figured out something! If Kaline doesn't give you a stack of emeralds by this week, you have an excuse to have him dead!"

"Brilliant! That makes everything work out!"

Multiple creepers brought in glasses full of lava for the mobs.

"Don't worry, it's just punch." One of them said.

"Cheers, to the potential death of Kaline Woolcraft." The Creeper King grinned.

"Cheers!" Every mob in the room said.

That night, the Creeper King put on a night cap and entered his bedroom, exhausted from the gathering of the empires. He was about to get into his bed when...

"Something's not right..." Zane Helmframe said.

"Ahhhhh!" The Creeper King screamed. "Don't...do...that..."

"I can see how your little emerald deal is working out, but you know you wanted to kill Kaline. You weren't thinking about the project at all." Zane predicted.

"I wasn't," The Creeper King admitted. "If I killed Kaline, it would probably be harder to collect emeraldssss, after all, he'sss found the mossst. But if I told the other leaderssss that, they would be furious."

"So why didn't you?" Zane asked with a devilish grin.

"I don't know, okay!" The Creeper King yelled. "I would any other day!"

"Well here's your chance, the Ghast King is sending a transmission." Zane said.

The Creeper King gasped as the Ghast King's face came up on a large screen within his bedroom.

"Ah Baxtroff, glad to see you're awake." The Ghast King smiled.

"What do you want?" The Creeper King asked.

"I have three prisoners, are they familiar to you at all?" The Ghast King replied. He showed a snapshot of Kaline, Crystal, and Archie.

The Creeper King was shocked. "Yes, what of it?"

"Well, one of them was holding the enchanted book. You know, the one we sealed away in the Void Fortress." The Ghast explained.

"WHAT?!" The Creeper King screamed. "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"

"I don't know, but i'm awaiting your approval to dispose of them." The Ghast King said.

Zane looked at the Creeper King, who began to sweat. He began shaking rapidly after this question was concieved to him.

"N-N-No...Ju-Jusssst keep them hostage..." He managed to say.

"Roger that." The Ghast King approved. The transmission then ended.

"You failed to kill Kaline again." Zane said, shaking his head in disgrace.

The Creeper King stomped on the ground. "I now know what became of the Coroq Gatessss book....That idiot Vick transported it to Kaline...He knew he would carry out hissss mission!"

Zane observed the Creeper King as his anger began to build up. "I wouldn't talk trash about Vick like that Baxtroff."

"Why?! Don't you see!? Our entire ultimatum is in jeopardy! I must inform the other empiressss immediatly! While i'm at it, i'll snatch Kaline's mining crew and make sure he doesn't collect the emeraldsssss by the end of the week! Yes...I'll make them his replacement, make sure they collect as many emeraldssss as I want them to collect." The Creeper King laughed.

"Because Baxtroff...Vick Woolcraft is still among us. Part of him is inside you. Part of him is preventing you from destroying Kaline once and for all." Zane explained.

"V-Vick...I-inssside me?" The Creeper King stuttered.

"Yes. Before you killed him, his wooden sword must've had the enchantment, "Final Request." Which provides any being with a power to carry out a final desire. Vick's final desire was to make sure you stay out of Kaline's way so he can reach The Climax, mine the Wither Colossus, and make sure the Creeper Empire doesn't activate it with its soul power source, emeralds."

"And I was the last one to be hit with it..." The Creeper King finally realized. "What do I do Zane? He can't win! He can't defeat me...I need to form an alliance with the Witch Empire...Only they have the power to relieve me from this hellish fate."

The Creeper King removed his night cap and once again put on his emerald crown and robe.

"Inform the empires on what has happened!" The Creeper King ordered. "And ask the Skeleton King if I can borrow Dav."

"The assassin?" Zane questioned.

"Yes, if I can't kill Kaline, somebody else is going to have to. And make sure he retrieves that book!"

After successfully gathering enough soul sand to construct a Witherox portal, Kaline began to arrange the fourteen blocks into the significant shape that would bring them to the gloomy dimension.

"No, no! What are you doing?!" Zerrel barked at Kaline.

"Uhhh...constructing the portal," Kaline answered, "We need to get into Witherox as fast as we can! We're already behind schedule."

"Look, this may sound stupid, but Witherox is a bigger hell hole than the Nether," Zerrel explained. "A ghast could easily blow up this portal and BAM! Trapped."

Kaline finally realized that Zerrel was correct, and was thankful that he didn't make one beforehand. Maybe it was a good thing that him and his friends were held captive in the bedrock cell. If they weren't, they wouldn't have met Zerrel.

"Let me take you to Vick's Mining Headquarters," Zerrel suggested, "I'm sure the other members of the alliance would love to meet you, seeing as though you're technically co-owner. Let's go!"

Zerrel punched in coordinates for the headquarters into ZOOM.

"Don't worry guys," Zerrel assured, "Old ZOOM here won't put our lives in danger again."

Archie pulled out a fire resistance potion and drank every last drop of it.

"Here we go!" Zerrel shouted. He then knocked on the block and a blinding flash teleported them out of the Nether. In that split second, a flaming arrow pierced into the netherrack block that Kaline was standing on before he was teleported. On a cliff, a skeleton equipped with a torn cape and iron chestplate, wielding an enchanted bow pounded his fist on the wall. In one of his empty holes where an eye once was, a glowing ord was present. He also had small, pointy teeth completely made out of diamond. Dissapointed about his recent failure in trying to shoot Kaline, he pressed a small button hidden on the top of his bow, and dissapeared in an eerie, black mist.

A few minutes later, Kaline, Archie, Crystal, and Zerrel successfully reached Vick's Mining Headqurters. They were standing in a lobby of some sort made out of iron blocks. Redstone Lamps saturated the place, and were basically a main source of light. Along with that, a fountain spewed glistening water that a pack of wolves began drinking out of. In tribute to Vick, paintings that portrayed him hung on the wall.

"I haven't seen this place in so long," Kaline smiled, "it's glad to see how nice it's coming along."

"Zerrel!" An unfamiliar voice said. Kaline looked around to identify who might have said it, but it was not clear.

Suddenly a bat flew from the cieling and landed on Zerrel's head.

"Hey! What's up man?" Zerrel questioned with glee, "It's nice to see you Lars, where are the others?"

Lars burst out laughing. "They're right behind you, they're invisible!"

Suddenly, three different mobs tackled Zerrel. After the small encounter, Zerrel finally introduced them to Kaline.

The first introduced mob, which was a bat, was named Lars. Although very small, Lars is actually a master at redstone and is responsible for making all the machinery that Vick's mining team uses. He also produces minecart systems that go on for thousands of blocks.

Second, a witch named Rodona. Although the Witch Empire never liked the Creeper King, she became an outcast and retreated from her comfortable hut in the swamp when she heard that they were planning to team up. Rodona is a master brewer and can make potions that no one has ever seen before.

Third, an ocelot named Forrest. Forrest is notable for being the only ocelot in the Minecraft world at this time. The Creeper King captured his entire empire and he was the only one that escaped. Forrest can run really fast and he's a master at crafting. He knows recipes by heart and even has some that have never met minecraftian eyes.

"Lars, Rodona, Forrest, this is Kaline," Zerrel introduced, "He's Vick's brother."

They all gasped.

"Wow! I've been waiting to meet you!" Forrest cheered.

"Yeah," Rodona replied, "We're really honored to have you here, and glad that you're participating in the alliance against the Creeper Empire."

"It's nice to meet you all too!" Crystal replied.

"What about me?" A near voice asked.

Suddenly, out of the shadows came a typical minecraftian. He had green eyes and black hair. He wore a red jacket with a white t-shirt underneath, and held a cane with a golden creeper head on both ends. His shoes were emerald encrusted, and he wore jeans. Along with that, he also wore headphones.

"Oh, hey Pierce," Zerrel greeted with an annoyed sigh.

"Who?" Kaline questioned.

"I'm Pierce," Pierce snapped. "I am the powerhouse of this mining team and overall leader of the alliance."

Kaline frowned, "Vick put you in charge?"

"Let's just say I worked my way to the top," Pierce grinned. "Alright, i'm done here. Get back to work."

Pierce walked into a small piston elevator and was gone.

"What a creep, how did he get put in charge?" Kaline questioned.

"It's not important, Kaline," Lars said, "What is important is that we get you to Witherox!"

"He's right Kaline," Archie agreed, "It's time we finally construct the portal.

Kaline nodded. And with help from Archie, Crystal, and the entire alliance, the fourteen soul sand blocks were constructed into a portal shape.

Forrest walked over to Archie and offered him a full set of iron armor. He was the only one who wasn't equipped with any.

"Do you need it, Archie?" Forrest asked.

Archie shook his head, "I'll be fine out there."

Kaline took out the "on-the-go" chest full of the supplies that he had packed before entering the Nether and pulled out a flint and steel. He nodded at his wife, Crystal, and then at his friend, Archie. He lit the portal, jumped inside the black wisp, and within a few seconds the heroes were in Witherox. The sky was pitch black, and the entire ground was made out of a grayish stone. It was a very mountainous world, and a harsh snowstorm reaked havoc on it.

"I can't see anything!" Kaline cried, using his sword to block his eyes from the snow. "Archie?!Crystal?!"

"Kaline!" Crystal yelled from a couple blocks away, "Look out!"

A loud screech was followed by a soaring wither head that hit Kaline directly in the head with an explosion.

"No! Kaline!" Archie yelled, running towards the explosion.

The source of the attack lead to the monster known as The Wither. His three heads laughed with joy as Kaline fell to the ground in pain.

"And thus the hero fell...ending all the hope for his allies...his friends...and the entire Minecraft universe," The Wither spoke. "Oh what a pity that an experienced soldier such as this...must fall. Ha! Kaline Woolcraft...Crystal Woolcraft...Archie the Iron Golem...What a joke. We die of laughter. No matter, we will soon be treated with a feast in three.....two.....one....."

Kaline Woolcraft withered away.

"Destiny has spoken," The Wither laughed. "We win."

"Vick! Don't go, please!" Kaline cried from the entrance of his wooden home.

"I'll be fine, brother," Vick assured, raising his diamond pickaxe into the air. "When I return, the Creeper Empire will leave the village of Rush in peace, just like you always wanted!"

"But Vick..." Kaline wined. "It's too dangerous, you might die..."

"Have I ever let down on a promise, Kaline?" Vick asked.

"No, never." Kaline answered.

"I promise I will be back," Vick smiled. After a quick goodbye, Vick and his wife Katherine went down the mountain and into the NPC village known as Rush. Suddenly, there was a quick flash, and Vick was in the presence of the Creeper King.

"Goodbye Vick, sssee you in hell, or in this case, The Nether," The Creeper King grinned. Immediately after speaking, he left the room and two endermen piled TNT around Vick and lit it with flint and steel. A giant explosion resulted, and with that, Kaline woke up.

"Vick, no!" He yelled in despair. After he realized it was nothing but a dream, he rubbed his eyes and was curious as to where he was. Everything was completely white. The sky, the ground, everything.

"W-What is...?" He managed to ask himself. He barely moved, horrified as to what would happen if he did.

After a while, he put his foot on a block. Nothing happened. Afterwards, he began to walk around the strange world that he was brought into. Suddenly, he saw the silhouettes of a familiar iron golem and young woman.

"Crystal! Archie!" He said with hope. But his hope quickly faded away. They were indeed Crystal and Archie, but their entire bodies were completely white just like the world, and they were frozen in place. Kaline also saw the Wither hovering in the sky, but he was exactly the same as the others.

"This can't be real...It isn't real!" Kaline said to himself. He began to walk some more across the world, and finally realized something that stood out. It was the Witherox portal! He could see the soul sand clearly, color and all, and the portal was active! Seeing as though there was nothing else to do, he jumped inside the black wisp. Once Kaline was back in the Overworld, he was introduced to the exact same world. It was indeed Vick's Mining Headquarters, but completely white...

"What is going on!?!" Kaline yelled out. He fell to the ground, it was hopeless... no one could hear him.

Kaline walked helplessly around the world for days... of course, he couldn't tell. Nothing existed in the unknown world that Kaline had been plunged into. No moon, no sun, no mobs, no tools, and no blocks. No anything. Kaline then walked into an NPC village which he assumed was Rush and climbed up the tall mountains that lead to his wooden house on the peak. He explored the household and approached the room where Vick once slept before he died. When he did, he saw a man sitting on the bed. He was alive and not frozen, and he had color! He was wearing a straw hat and had stubs of hair that were beginning to form a mustache. He was wearing a jacket and jeans and was fiddling around with a diamond pickaxe.

"This is a nice little tool," He said as Kaline simply gawked at him. "I bet you do some fine mining with this!"

"Who are you?! How did you get in here?!" Kaline asked with confusion.

"....I....I don't know..." The man answered unknowingly.

"You can't remember your name?" Kaline questioned in shock.

"Nope. But some people like to call me Moral," Moral replied.

"Who? There's nobody around here except for us," Kaline noted.

"Well... you can," Moral smiled.

"Alright Moral, tell me..." Kaline began. "What is this place and why are me and you the only ones who are alive?"

"Alive?!" Moral laughed, "We're dead!"

"D-D-Dead...?!" Kaline stuttered.

"Welcome to the end of Minecraft my friend!" Moral explained, "You're currently in an opposite reality of what was Minecraftia. This is where you're judged based on your actions as to whether you spend eternity in The Nether, The Aether or a return to the Overworld in a process Notch calls Respawning."

"Then... was Vick here?" Kaline asked.

Moral made a puzzled look. "I've never seen or heard of a fellow named Vick walking around these parts."

"Oh..." Kaline said with dissapointment.

"But anyway, what you're standing in now is simply a waiting room." Moral spoke.

"A waiting room?" Kaline repeated.

"Yep," Moral replied, "Once you hear a loud beeping noise, a person will be sent to the Greyscale Judge to determine your fate."

"Greyscale Judge who-" Kaline tried to say, but was then interrupted by a loud beeping noise that Moral had just described.

"That's you! No time to lose, good luck!" Moral exclaimed. Kaline suddenly began to glow and went up at an incredible speed into the sky. Within seconds, he landed on a platform in what seemed to be space. The Greyscale Judge sat in front of him, which was a giant, bird-like mob with a cloak and a large staff. Kaline looked around in astonishment at the glistening stars. The Greyscale Judge waved it's staff at Kaline and a small screen appeared over him, measuring whether or not he was worthy enough to be respawned. He looked at it with fear, and crossed his fingers. Luckily, it indicated that he was fit to be brought back into the overworld!

"Well," The Greyscale Judge spoke, "Looks like it's your lucky day. Try not to get killed this time!"

"I won't," Kaline smiled with relief. "By the way, who was that man in the... um... waiting room? He told me his name was Moral and he was really a big help. I do hope that he will get to be respawned just like me."

"What man?" The Greyscare Judge asked. "You're the only one who was down there, no one has been here in quite a while now."

Kaline's eyes widened. He looked down at the opposite reality known as the Waiting Room and debated whether or not his conversation with Moral was even real. Nevertheless, he had been granted with a superior gift, and was ready to be respawned and join his friends back in Witherox.

As our heroes ventured into Witherox and dealt with the Wither's slaying of Kaline, who later was allowed to be respawed, the Creeper King was visiting the Skeleton Empire to address a major issue that involved The Book of the Wither.

"The other empires are furious Baxtroff!" The Skeleton King argued, "If the book isn't returned to the Void Fortress soon, there's a possibility of war!"

The Skeleton King paced in his throne room furiously as the Creeper King sat on a large couch, sipping on a glass of milk and constantly looking at a clock that hung on the cieling.

"Oh come off it," The Creeper King rolled his eyes, "Why would they ever attempt to face me?"

"Don't you see Baxtroff?" The Skeleton King asked, "They've given you everything they have in order to ensure the protection of this project and make sure it goes through successfully. To be honest, some of them dislike you, but you've given them a chance to reach a glimpse of power and succeed in these tough times."

The Creeper King hissed, "I'm sssick of all of you losssing trussst in me! It's not my fault Vick was one step ahead of me."

Suddenly, an eerie noise ran throughout the corridors of the castle where the two monarchs were in. The Creeper King smiled and looked at the clock. Kaline was out of time to collect a stack of emeralds, a week was up.

"Besides..." The Creeper King laughed, "His time is up. He'll have to return to his disgusting household if he wants to return the emeralds, whether he has them or not. And when he does, i'll make sure he'll never see the book again!"

After speaking, a black mist appeared behind the Creeper King, and the same skeleton that attempted to kill Kaline in The Nether appeared. His glowing orb for an eye glistened as he reached out his bony arm towards the Creeper King.

"What's thissss?" The Creeper King asked furiously.

"Impossible," The Skeleton King spoke with shock.

"What? What's going on?!" The Creeper king demanded.

"Dav didn't kill Kaline," The Skeleton King revealed, "He never fails to assassinate a target."

"Pay. Now," Dav commanded.

"I gave you two stacks of diamonds you cheap piece of-"

Dav then pointed an arrow directly at the Creeper King's forehead.

"If I were you I would pay up. I'll make it easier for you this time, I want four stacks of diamonds and i'll decide not to end your life. Deal?"

The Skeleton King was suprised, The Creeper King had never been scared of anything in his entire life. It seems Dav fit the bill for that category, he was his first biggest fear."

The Creeper King walked towards an ender chest and pulled out four stacks of diamonds. He then handed it to Dav, who quickly threw them into a small lava source.

"I don't take diamonds," Dav grinned, "This time I want some of this armor enchanted. Get to it."

He took a full set of diamond armor and piled it on top of the Creeper King, who quickly fell to the ground.

"Y-y-yes...I'll get to it..." The Creeper King stuttered, "Subjects!"

Suddenly, two creepers entered the throne room and replied, "Yes, sir?"

"Take this set of armor and enchant it to the highest level we currently have," The Creeper King said, handing them the armor.

Dav brought out a chest and placed it on a block.

"And when it's enchanted, put it in here and i'll pick it up later."

The two creepers nodded and walked off with the armor. Dav bowed to the Skeleton King, pressed a button on the top of his bow, and dissapeared in the black mist once more.

"I've known you since I was a child, Kullij," The Creeper King said, "How could a nice guy like you have a serveant as dispicable as him? Dav is truly a horrifying mob."

"Lots of fighting experience and training turned him into the ultimate assassin," The Skeleton King replied, "He's simply loyal to all skeletons, let's leave it at that."

"Well, I need to head to Rush and hopefully meet up with Kaline at his wooden home. If not, Dav would've killed him and retrieved the book." The Creeper King said.

That Night...

The ground trembled violently.

"Where's Archie?! Where's Archie?!" A villager cried.

"Look out!" Another yelled.

Thousands of Creepers entered the village of Rush. They made a small path for the Creeper King, who walked up to the front of them.

"Lisssten up!" The Creeper King announced, "I don't know if any of you are aware, but Kaline has reached the end of his time limit. I demand to see him this instant. And if he's still in Witherox, go fetch him!"

"Wait!" Orio, one of Kaline's miners, cried. "We have collected a stack of emeralds! Here they are!"

Blake and Nick brought out a minecart full of emeralds. Sixty-four of them were present, an entire stack.

The Creeper King smiled, "How promising, but he mussst be here to present them to me."

Every villager in Rush was terrified and remained quiet, fearful of what may happen if they weren't. The Creeper King lost patience within a simple matter of minutes, and directed a soldier in his army towards a small house in the village. The Creeper army nodded as a substitute for a salut towards the soldier, and he exploded, taking the house with him.

The villagers gasped.

"Every hour Kaline is not in this village, I will explode one of your precious homes." The Creeper King dictated. "Subjects, build me a temporary base that I may stay in for the night. That is all."

As multiple Creepers of the army began to construct a large structure to serve as the Creeper King's base, a familiar being heard the entire announcement from the top of a hill. It was Pierce. He shook his head in disgust and stomped on the ground. Afterwards, he took out a device that resembled ZOOM, and entered the coordinates of Vick's Mining Headquarters.

"This can't go on," Pierce said, "Kaline needs to return to Rush as soon as possible, even if his life may be at risk."

He pounded on the block and teleported away from Rush. Smoke began to rise into the sky, and flags were put up around the village that had the Creeper Empire's symbol on them.

Kaline blinked and began to yawn.

"K-K-Kaline?!" Crystal weeped.

Kaline nodded with a smile.

"Oh my Notch! Kaline! You're alive!" Crystal said happily. She began to cry with tears of joy.

Kaline was back at Vick's Mining Headquarters. Apparently, Archie and Crystal quickly retreated from Witherox after the attack, and they brought Kaline with them.

"Glad you're back, Kaline," Zerrel added, "Don't worry, we won't let you go back there again."

Kaline shook his head in disagreement, "If anything, we are going back."

Vick's crew gasped.

"You were only there for three minutes and the Wither destroyed you!" Forrest responded, "Besides, you have a bigger issue to attend to!"

"Huh?" Kaline asked in confusion. The crew remained silent after that, however, Zerrel revealed the truth.

"The Creeper King is in Rush, and he's threatning to destroy the entire village unless he sees to it that you give him a stack of emeralds."

"How dare he go back on our deal!" Kaline yelled furiously, "It's only been four days!"

"Wrong," Archie disagreed, "Wherever you went after you were killed by The Wither, three days passed, making a total of seven days. It's been a week, Kaline."

Kaline began to feel dizzy and he sat down. He could not believe what had happened while he was in "The Waiting Room."

Suddenly, he felt an urge of braveness and proudly spoke, "Well who cares! If I approach him he'll kill me anyway, more importantly, he'll take the enchanted book! I've worked too hard to get this far, you guys should be ashamed, Vick would never want this."

The crew was dissapointed, and they finally realized that Kaline was making his own decision and they had no right to interfere.

"You're right Kaline," Lars agreed, "Come on guys, we'll defend Rush from the Creeper King and hold him off until Kaline unlocks Coroq Gates!"

The rest of the crew cheered, which made Kaline overjoyed.

"Thank you," He said as he entered the Witherox Portal once again.

"Wait Kaline!" Forrest shouted. He handed him an enchanted bow, arrows, a communication device, and ZOOM#2. "You'll need these if you ever stand a chance against the Wither and his minions. His throne room coordinates are 355-2344-23, ZOOM#2 will get you there easily. Good luck!"

Kaline nodded and then looked towards Archie, who was looking at a sword being mantled on the wall.

"Something wrong?"

"I want to help them, Kaline," Archie answered, "Rush is my village, if the citizens are in trouble I must lead them to safety or claim victory."

"I understand," Kaline said. He made sure he had all the required gear and held Crystal's hand. Afterwards, he jumped into the portal, dissapearing in a black wisp.

Inside The Wither's Castle...

"It feels nice to destroy," The Wither lectured, hovering over a wooden table where hundreds of Wither Skeletons sat, "Now that Kaline Woolcraft is gone, The Wither Empire can sleep peacefully knowing that Coroq Gates will be secured."

The Wither Skeletons cheered in the pitch black throne room of the castle. The only light source was dim, redstone torches. The Wither floated over to a wall full of Minecraftian heads on item frames, he then placed a head that resembled Kaline's on an empty one.

"A new addition to collection!" The Wither laughed. Suddenly, two beings were transported into the room, attracting the attention of all the skeletons, including The Wither. It was Kaline and Crystal.

"Impossible!" The Wither screeched, as he did the item frame where Kaline's head was planted melted.

"I-I-I killed you! This can't be!"

Kaline and Crystal brought out their diamond swords. The Wither gave them an angered look, constantly glaring at them with his blank eyes. "Subjects! Leave me!"

All the Wither Skeletons in the room instantly got up and sprinted to trapdoors in each corner of the room. They jumped in and every single one was out of sight and not a threat whatsoever. The Wither made a clicking sound with his bony torso and redstone lamps flashed on, brightening the surroundings. The table flipped over and left a rug made of red wool where it once was. Lastly, the nether brick walls transformed into pure bedrock.

The Wither's three heads laughed cheerfully, "It's time we finish this, one on one, to the death!"

Crystal refused to let Kaline fight the Wither by himself, but Kaline notioned her to stay back and simply spectate. Kaline and The Wither looked at each other carefully, waiting to see who would make the first strike. Kaline then brought out his bow and shot The Wither as quickly as he could, resulting in a direct shot in the ceneter head.

"You little- I'll kill you!" The Wither screeched in pain. He attacked for the first time, and began to shoot heads towards Kaline, who managed to evade them. Kaline sprinted towards the Wither, who hovered away and continued to shoot heads in Kaline's direction. As he ran, Kaline shot flaming arrows at The Wither, which struck him each time.

"STOP IT!" He yelled furiously, suddenly, he changed his motive of attack. His eyes glowed and all the bones that made up his body rattled. Immediatly after, a black beam was shot at Kaline and he was thrown towards the wall with a large force and began to be withered. He was knocked out instantly.

"I must say," The Wither began, "You are nothing like my past meals, you show courage and strength...Hahaha! How sad! Prepare to die, Kaline Woolcraft!"

The Wither prepared to fire another beam at Kaline, which would most likely kill him, but Kaline tried with all his might in order to stand up. Once he did, he threw his diamond sword straight into The Wither's chest.

"Gah!" The Wither cried. Kaline ran circles around The Wither, constantly shooting him with flaming arrows up to the point in which The Wither began to drift slowly towards the ground. Kaline jumped on him, pulled the diamond sword out of his chest, and slashed him in the head. The Wither was still, and fell to the ground. Kaline breathed heavily and felt proud about his victory over the ghastly villain, Crystal cheered with glee.

"H....Ha....Haha....HAHAHA!" The Wither managed to laugh. He couldn't float, but he sat up and balanced himself on his torso, seeing as though he had no legs. "I...I...I guess....This is it....Correct?"

"Explain yourself," Kaline demanded.

"W...We die here," The Wither grinned. He hopped over to a small switch and pulled it. As a result, the cieling slid into the wall and revealed a chandilier completely made out of TNT. "We've known about your trip to Witherox for a while now...A-After you achieved The Book of the Wither, we assumed you would come to unlock the secret that lies beyond Coroq Gates...th-they wouldn't let us....they wouldn't let us allow your entrance into the gates..."

"Who? Start talking!" Kaline asked, hoping for an answer.

Crystal looked towards the TNT chandilier and notcied a small symbol implamented on it. It was the symbol of the Creeper Empire. "Kaline! The Creeper King was here!"

Kaline noticed who The Wither was talking about.

"H-H-He's more powerful t-than you think, Kaline..." The Wither warned, "We tried not to let him know the power that The Book of the Wither could unlock...But we couldn't stop him...He wants to rule the Minecraft Universe...he needs to die...he must die..."

The Wither began to fade away.

"Wither! Don't leave now, where's Coroq Gates? What is the Creeper King planning to do?!" Kaline questioned.

"The book will tell you everything..." The Wither replied, "We grant your permission, Kaline, g-good luck...Wish we could say more...but we will be gone in.....3.......2.....1...."

An arrow pierced the Wither and his body burst into flames.

The Wither was shot by Dav.

"What?!" Kaline said in astonishment. Dav, the skeleton assassin, entered the room and approached Kaline and Crystal.

"Finally..." Dav spoke, "I've found you...Kaline Woolcraft."

After defeating The Wither, somewhat, dark skies loomed over the castle of nether brick as Kaline met face to face with a new villain, Dav.

"I must say," Dav spoke, observing the throne room as he drifted ever so closer to Kaline. "The Wither was a loyal slave to the Creeper Empire if he actually constructed a TNT chandilier for my personal use in this fight."

"So," Kaline chuckled, "The Creeper King sent you, I guess he really is out to kill me. And to do so he sent a weak subject like you to do his bidding."

Dav laughed, he was not at all offended by Kaline's comment. "Somewhat, he does want you dead, but his main prize is that there book."

"Well i'm sorry to break it to you, but you're never taking this from me," Kaline snapped. "The Creeper King ended my dear brother's life, he will not get me too. I will fight and make my brother's dream a reality, making sure punks like you taste the ground of The Nether and ending this foresaken empire."

"I see you're determined to do that," Dav replied, "But i'm sorry to break it to YOU, I don't care whether or not I get that book, I just want kill you and make sure nobody in the entire Minecraft Universe knows that Kaline Woolcraft escaped the great skeleton assassin...me!"

Dav quickly took out his bow and pressed the button on the top of it, resulting in his sly dissapearing trick in which a black mist was produced. Kaline and Crystal, both wielding diamond swords, looked closely in each direction to see where Dav had escaped too.

"Kaline look out!" Crystal warned.

Dav came out of the black mist behind Kaline and punched him in the back of the head with a great force. Kaline fell on to the red wool carpeting. He quickly got up and picked up a table constructed of a wooden pressure plate and fence post and smashed it across Dav's face. Kaline was proud that he had got a mighty hit on the vile skeleton, but he was wrong. Dav simply cracked his neck and spit out a diamond tooth, then punched Kaline again, this time in the jaw. Crystal couldn't bear to watch Kaline suffer, in an attempt to save her husband she slashed her diamond sword into Dav's skull. After the impact, he showed no movement whatsoever and was silent, until he pulled it out with his bony arms and threw it at the bedrock wall, where it shattered. The large cut on his skull then began to heal!

Kaline was horrified, not only for his healing technique, but the fact that his power was so incredible that he could shatter a diamond sword just by throwing it at the wall.

"W-W-What are you?!" Kaline questioned.

Dav made an evil laugh, "This is why none of my opponents escape me Kaline, I am invincible."

Kaline, who was unable to get up because he had been severly injured, tried to make one final blow at Dav with his diamond sword, which was still available, but Dav quickly grabbed it from him and tossed it on the ground. Suddenly, he took out his enchanted bow and pointed a flaming arrow directly at Kaline's blocky head.

"Kaline!" Crystal screamed.

With that, the sound of an arrow piercing a target echoed throughout the room. However, it did not belong to Dav, it belonged to Archie the Iron Golem. He had shot a flaming arrow engineered with Power V directly into Dav's chest. He turned around furiously and glared at Archie.

"Who dares interrupt this-" Dav managed to say, until Archie charged at him and tossed him into the bedrock wall.

"Good timing," Kaline smiled. He patted him on the back.

"Well it's a good thing you had Forrest's communication device on that entire time," Archie replied, "I could hear everything that was happening, therefore I left Rush and rushed to Witherox as soon as possible to rescue you. By the way, we were able to hold The Creeper Empire off until your return to Rush, so let's find Coroq Gates!"

"Right," Kaline agreed.

Dav regained consciousness and looked towards the reunited team with disgust. He grabbed his damaged bow and shot a flaming arror at one of the TNT blocks in the chandilier. It went off and it was only seconds before the entire throne room would be destroyed, except for the walls of course, which were bedrock.

"This is not over Kaline Woolcraft, I will defeat you sooner or later," Dav vowed. He pressed the button on top of his bow and vanished once more, this time out of the dimension.

"That fool!" Kaline yelled.

"Come on!" Archie ordered. He grabbed both Kaline and Crystal and sprinted towards one of the trapdoors that the Wither Skeletons jumped into earlier. Without any desire of stopping, Archie immedietly jumped in and met with an enormous fall to assumed death. As explosions rocked the throne room above them, the heroes screamed as they fell to their doom, of course, they only fell in a patch of water and were not harmed.

"That was so close," Crystal said, relieved.

"Archie...What is this place?" Kaline asked as he finally took a look around at the place they had fell in. It was a giant room, about ten times larger than the throne room, and it was pitch black. The floor was mycelium and stone bricks covered the walls and cieling. But in the center was a path made out of gold blocks that lead to a fountain that spewed lava. And behind that, was a gigantic gate made of iron bars, it was Coroq Gates.

"Kaline...This is it..." Archie answered.

Kaline gasped. "Coroq Gates!"

Kaline brought out the enchanted book and he ran towards the entrance of the gates, Archie and Crystal following behind him. He approached a small pedestal that stood out from the rest of the structures in the room, it was eminating a blueish glow.

"This is it, hand me the book Kaline." Archie requested.

Kaline handed Archie the enchanted book. Archie took a deep breathe and set it in the center of the pedestal. In an instant, the entire castle began to shake violently.

"What's going on?!" Crystal asked hanging on to the pedestal with the other heroes for she was unable to keep her balance on the shaking ground.

"I don't know!" Archie answered, "This is kind of a first for me! I may have constructed this place, but i've never had the book to see what the results would be!"

Outside The Wither's castle the blocks of grey stone transformed into glowstone and the winter storm diminished and eventually dissapeared leading to a clear, red sky. Beams of blueish light then shot out of the castle and at that very moment...silence. Everything became calm.

Kaline, Crystal, and Archie looked at the gates with curiosity, waiting to see what would happen. Suddenly there was a loud bang, and the gates creaked open. Once they came to a halt, a portal opened up on the other side of them and out of it came...a minecraftian.

Kaline was angered, "What is this?! He's just a newly spawned weakling!"

Kaline knew this for the minecraftian was clearly dressed as Steve and was only equipped with a stone pickaxe. Archie slammed Kaline across the head.

"Silence!" He yelled, "This is no ordinary minecraftian, this is Coroq!"

"Coroq?" Kaline asked with confusion, "Why does he look like Steve then?"

"In the ancient Iron Golem language, Coroq actually means Steve!" Archie revealed.

"Who has summoned me?" Steve snapped, "I was busy refreshing myself in my luxrious home on the highest cliff of Mushroom Island and now i'm at the gates that were named after me like five versions ago. Speak!"

"Steve, this is a huge honor," Archie spoke, "It's me, Archie, I constructed these gates with The Wither, don't you remember?"

"Oh, right," Steve replied. "Well, good to see you again Larry. Now, who has brought my fabled enchanted book into this chamber?"

"I have sir," Kaline answered. "I have a desire that you will reveal the secrets of this book to me so that I may journey to The Climax, mine the Wither Colossas, and carry out my brother's dream in ending the Creeper Empire."

"Eww, The Creeper Empire? The Wither Colossas? I hate both of them, therefore I like you," Steve smiled. "You've gotten my attention, Kaline Woolcraft."

"How did you-" Kaline tried to ask.

"Yes, yes I know your name," Steve interrupted. "Anyway, this enchanted book means nothing, it was just a failed attempt to make a successful novel back when I had a dream of becoming an author. So to hell with this."

Steve then grabbed the book and crushed it in his hand, where it burst into flames. Kaline, Crystal, and Archie all gawked.

"In exchange for my...er...novel. I hearby give you, Kaline Woolcraft, this second enchanted book. This one will concieive to you everything you will need to do in order to get into The Climax." Steve explained.

"Awesome, thanks so much!" Kaline said, but Steve was no longer in front of him. Kaline shrugged and began reading the second enchanted book.

"What do we do now, Kaline?" Crystal asked.

"In order to construct a Climax Portal we need fourteen Klouncine Blocks," Kaline explained. "As said in here, they are extremely rare and are scattered throughout the Minecraft Universe and its dimensions."

"I bet the Creeper Empire has those gaurded pretty well." Archie sighed. "No bother, this book gives details on where each one is located, plus, it gives us more information that the Creeper King doesn't know..." Kaline continued. "For once, we are a step ahead of him."

Kaline looked up towards the cieling. "Don't you worry Vick, we're almost there..."