Quest for Justice, page 26
“It’s . . . not . . . coming . . . out . . . ,” grunted Charlie as he tried to pull the pickaxe out of the block. Stan noticed that it was not wedged in the block as much as stuck to it. The block appeared to be made out of some sort of slimy, gelatinous goo that held Charlie’s pickaxe like glue.
“Oh, let me see that, you little wimp,” snapped Kat as she grabbed the handle of Charlie’s pickaxe from him. She was stronger than he was, and in an almighty tug she wrenched the pickaxe from the gooey block and started bearing down into it full force with the diamond tool.
“Why is this block so difficult to mine?” Kat asked no one in particular as she again and again wrenched the pickaxe from the stone block.
Stan watched bewildered. Right as the block was about to break, out of the corner of his eye, Stan noticed a horrified look flicker across DZ’s face. DZ cried out, “No, Kat, stop! I think that block might be—”
But it was too late. As Kat gave the stone block one last strike, it burst apart like a water balloon, dousing everyone in gray slime. But the worst part was that out of the goo burst sprung something small, fast, and gray that latched itself onto Kat’s face. Kat screamed and wildly tried to swat the thing off her, but it was no use. The tiny monster crawled all over her body, moving too fast for Stan’s eyes to track. Nobody tried to get it off for fear that an attack on the monster would hit Kat instead. Every so often Kat would elicit a sound of anguish, indicating that the creature had bit her or stung her.
As he tried to track the monster to get a clean shot at it with his axe, Stan noticed that Kat’s hands were now swatting at various places at her back, suggesting that the monster had crawled down inside her armor. Kat’s fist pounded the back of her chestplate to no avail, as her flailing fists did nothing to penetrate the diamond exterior. However, she gave Stan an idea.
He spun his axe around and with the butt end tapped the back of Kat’s chestplate with moderate force. The diamond armor compressed into Kat’s back, knocking her forward. Stan heard a hissing and a crunching coupled with Kat’s grunt of pain, and something small and scaly fell out of the back of her armor. It was a small gray insect that looked like some sort of odd armadillo-porcupine-worm crossbreed. The monster made Spiderlike clicking noises for a few seconds while it twitched, and then it was still.
“That was Block 97!” shouted DZ, drawing his sword. “I’ve heard stories about it. It spawns those things. Silverfish! Get ready, there’s gonna be more!”
Stan looked around, bewildered, unsure what DZ was talking about, but sure enough, all around the inside of the room they had just mined into, stone bricks ruptured into sprays of goo, and a swarm of Silverfish was on the move toward the players.
The monsters were not particularly strong in comparison to the bite of a Spider or the arrow of the Skeleton, but they were much smaller and faster, like miniature Spiders. Stan managed to kill each of them with one powerful blow of the axe, but every time one of the monsters fell, more and more Silverfish spawned from the stone brick walls.
Stan was tiring of fighting them quickly, not because of their strength but because of their overwhelming numbers. Stan was about to suggest to the three players fighting beside him that a retreat back out of the mine was in order, when the monsters started appearing in fewer and fewer numbers, and a few moments later they had stopped appearing altogether. The players were breathing heavily. The four of them plus Rex must have killed 250 Silverfish in the space of about two minutes.
Stan wiped the sweat off his brow. He pulled the tail end of a Silverfish off his axe blade and looked at DZ. “What just happened, DZ?”
DZ was breathing heavily. He appeared to have killed the most Silverfish out of everybody, judging by the pile of gray scales a block high at his feet, and he caught his breath before responding. “Those were mobs called Silverfish. They spawn when you break a block called Block 97, which is disguised as a stone-based block found in a type of structure, which I guess is a Stronghold. The annoying part is when you attack them, they’ll spawn other Silverfish from nearby Block 97s.”
DZ sighed, an amazed look coming to his face. “I didn’t know that Silverfish or Block 97 really existed. I thought they were just rumors or upcoming features or something.”
“So,” said Stan, putting two and two together. “We can’t mine any blocks in this Stronghold? The way to the End is in this fortress, and we can’t mine anything in here?”
“Correct-o,” said DZ, nodding. “We can’t mine anywhere around here or we run the risk of spawning another swarm of Silverfish, and frankly, I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want to fight those little gray parasites again.”
“So,” said Kat, her voice heavy as she realized what that meant. “We have to navigate this entire thing by foot?”
DZ nodded, and Stan threw back his head and groaned. Kat hung her head in despair. Charlie on the other hand, looked at them with amusement.
“Oh, come on, guys, don’t be like that! For all we know, the entrance to the End could be just around the corner! Don’t be such a bunch of downers. Let’s at least give it a shot. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Charlie was right about one thing: while they were navigating the Stronghold, the Silverfish continued to remain the worst thing that they had encountered. It was a fairly peaceful walk, save a few Zombies that spawned in dark corners and storage rooms. That being said, navigating the fortress without mining directly through any of the walls was possibly the most frustrating task that Stan had endured. The Eyes of Ender still pointed them toward something, apparently located deep in the heart of the Stronghold, but there were so many stairways, corridors, turns, and side rooms that it was near impossible to navigate the maze. After they passed the same book-and-cobweb-filled library for the third time, Stan turned to the others, and, struggling to keep his voice level, inquired as to whether or not they had really passed the library before.
“No,” said DZ, pointing down a hallway they had just passed. “You’re thinking of the library down that way. It had the jail cell next to it, remember?”
“You’re thinking of the storage room,” said Kat. “The one that had all that cobblestone in it. The jail cell is the one with the iron bars.”
“But there were also iron bars in that hall back there next to the side corridor. Are you sure you’re not thinking of those?” asked Charlie.
“No, I’m sure that it was a full wall of iron bars,” said Kat.
“Why don’t you let me see the Eyes, and I’ll show you—” started DZ, but he was cut off by Stan.
“DZ, after all that . . . ahem . . . skillful guidance you gave us back when we first met you, don’t think that you’re getting your hands on any kind of navigational tools,” snapped Stan.
“There is a room with lava and a portal made of a strange white stone. Are you looking for that?” came a fifth voice.
The four players turned around to face the voice, and Stan couldn’t believe his eyes. Standing in the middle of the stone brick hallway, a primitive stone hoe grasped in his hands, was Oob. As the players stared at him, the NPC villager smiled and waved at them until Charlie broke the silence.
“Oob? What . . . what the . . . what are you doing here? Why aren’t you back in the village?”
“I would like to help you conquer the End dimension. I feel that I should do my part to help you defeat the one called King Kev. I have been following you, and now I am ready to help!”
“Oob!” shouted Stan, infuriated that their plans would now have to be changed to compensate for returning Oob to his village. “You can’t come with us to the End. Are you crazy? You’ll get slaughtered!”
“But I would like to help you! Come, I have found the way to enter the End!” And with that, the villager hobbled back down the hallway.
Sensing impending danger, Stan sprinted down the hallway after him. Oob entered the room at the end of the hall, which was significantly brighter than the rest of the Stronghold. Stan was only halfway down the hall, and he watched in horror as Oob was knocked back into the hallway, his head slamming into the wall, an arrow protruding from his shoulder. Stan’s mind went blank except for the thought of the villager now slumped up against the wall. Stan knelt down next to Oob, his mind going into medical overdrive as he pulled out his last Potion of Healing, vaguely aware of Charlie, Kat, and DZ rushing in to engage Oob’s assailant.
The arrow had sunk deep into Oob’s shoulder, and the blow to his head had left him unconscious. Stan, adrenaline heightening his intuitions, made the on-the-spot decision to use his last Potion of Healing to cure Oob. As Stan applied the bloodred potion, the arrow popped out of Oob’s shoulder, the wound instantly resealed itself, and Oob’s chest gave a peaceful rise and fall. Confident that the villager would be okay, Stan burst into the brightly lit room to deal with his attacker. What he saw made his jaw drop.
He was standing in a stone brick room with pools of lava in all four corners and windows fitted with iron bars lining the walls. In the center of the room was a stone brick staircase. A black cage block stood at the top of the stairs, but no figure revolved within it. This spawner had been disabled. Behind this black cage sat a frame of blocks unlike anything Stan had seen before. The base of these blocks appeared to be made of lunar rock, and the top had an ornate turquoise pattern. These strange blocks were arranged in a five-by-five ring with the corner blocks missing, which formed a frame, and Stan could see that through the center of the frame was a drop into a pit of lava.
However, the feature that drew Stan’s attention most immediately were the bodies of Charlie, Kat, and DZ, all lying lifeless on the ground. Kat had a considerable-sized lump on her head, DZ had a slash across his chest, and Charlie had an arrow protruding from his heel. Rex lay sprawled out, feebly whimpering, on the ground beside them. Above the four bodies stood Mr. A, wearing the same diamond helmet and chestplate as Stan was wearing.
Stan stared in shock. He had believed that the Griefer had perished in the sand trap. Stan noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and saw that Mr. A had pulled something from his inventory: an Ender Pearl, which had not yet been crafted into an Eye of Ender. Stan supposed that Mr. A believed that Ender Pearls alone would activate the portal. In the intense wave of hatred that had erupted in his stomach since he had spotted Mr. A, Stan was about to attack when Mr. A threw the Ender Pearl to Stan. Not knowing exactly what would happen, Stan hopped backward and the pearl landed at his feet.
To Stan’s horror, in a burst of purple smoke the Ender Pearl was gone, and Stan was staring at a pair of legs adorned in black pants. Stan dared himself to look up, and he saw Mr. A standing right in front of him, his arm bringing the sword down across Stan’s body.
The impact of the sword, though slightly lessened by the axe that Stan managed to reflexively raise to block the attack, sent Stan tumbling backward. He came to a stop beneath one of the iron bar walls, and Stan barely had time to raise his axe in defense when Mr. A brought the sword down onto Stan again, putting his full body weight down through the sword onto the axe handle that was now pinching Stan’s neck to the ground.
Stan began to see white-and-red flashes as the axe handle drove further and further into his neck. Determined to die in defiance, Stan focused all his remaining energy into pushing the axe off him, and then he took a frenzied swing with his axe, still blinded by the lack of air, hoping desperately that he would hit something.
Miraculously, Stan heard the clang of diamond hitting diamond, and he knew that his axe blade had struck Mr. A by the grunt of pain he heard. Stan used this lucky blow to buy some time to regain his vision, and when it finally returned, he saw Mr. A notching an arrow and pulling back the string. Stan ducked the arrow and, rage fueling him, used his axe to engage Mr. A’s sword in battle.
The hacking and slashing was intense. Stan’s scowl was mirrored on his adversary’s face as the two battled around the ornate portal in a dance of death. Stan was aware that he was greatly outmatched, so he was absolutely astounded when, by a lucky shot, his double-uppercut combination hit Mr. A’s hand, sending the sword spiraling into the air. Before Stan could follow through, the Griefer let loose a barrage of fire charges that exploded at Stan’s feet in a short series of starbursts. Stan stepped back, away from the smoke, ready for the inevitable retaliation. Moments later Mr. A’s form flew through the smoke, sword back in hand, and Stan had to jump backward onto the stairs leading to the portal in order to avoid being cleaved in half by the sword slash that cracked the stone stairs when it hit.
Mr. A pressed the attack, driving Stan up the stairs, to the very edge of the portal. Stan leaned backward to avoid the whistling blade of the Griefer’s sword, and he found that there was no ground below him, just a pit of lava. Stan kicked off the base of the portal and landed on the other side. The battle commenced, this time with a pit of lava separating Stan and Mr. A. The Griefer let loose a flurry of wild stabbing attacks with his sword. Stan was able to dodge the first few, but then one of the sword jabs caught Stan in the hand and his axe flew backward.
Stan knew that it was useless. There was no way he could turn his back on Mr. A to retrieve his weapon. Energy coursing through his veins, Stan raised his arms, ready to defend his exposed face from the barrage of arrows that would find a weakness within a few shots. The first arrow glanced off his helmet, and he felt the helmet rattle his brain, making it ache incredibly. Stan prepared himself for the next arrow that could very well kill him, when he heard a savage cry of pain, and he dared to look up.
What he saw was Oob, standing on the edge of the portal, his stone hoe moving through the air as if he had just swung it. Mr. A fell headfirst into the pit, and landed with a terrible, scathing splash into the pool of lava beneath the portal, spraying Stan with a wave of fire particles that bit like wasp stings.
Stan stared at Oob and then at the pit of molten fire with the Griefer struggling to survive. Slowly, Stan made the connection that the NPC had just saved his life. At the moment, however, Stan did not thank Oob but rather looked sadly into the pit of lava containing the enemy that had plagued him from his second day in Minecraft. The turbulence in the molten liquid had stopped. There was no more struggling. Mr. A was no more.
“It didn’t have to be like this, Mr. A,” said Stan, sorrow deeply intertwined with his words. “We could have been friends, you know. There was nothing that could have stopped us from being on the same side, the side of right. There was just the King. The players didn’t betray your friend Avery—it was the King who did that. I only wish that I could have helped you see it sooner, before it was too late.” Stan cast one last long, sad look into the lava that was now stained with the blood of his enemy, and he turned to the NPC villager.
“Oob, thank you. I would be dead without you, and I was wrong. Wherever we go, whatever we do, you are welcome to come with us and help.”
“Amen to that,” came a voice from behind them as the villager beamed.
Stan turned around. DZ was standing up, smiling at Stan and Oob. Charlie was standing behind him, looking proud, and Kat was feeding Rex some rotten flesh she had on hand. Charlie held two empty glass bottles. It seemed that he had used his last two Potions of Healing to jointly heal himself, Kat, and DZ. Relief breaking across both of their faces, Stan and Oob rushed down the stone steps and met the three players and dog in a group hug. When they broke apart, Kat looked at Stan.
“I saw what happened,” she said, looking from him to Oob and back. “You two were fantastic.”
“You really were,” said Charlie, and DZ enthusiastically nodded his consent.
“I just wish that it didn’t have to end like this,” said Stan, and he glanced back toward the portal and the pit of fire beneath it, but Kat took him by the cheek and turned him away.
“It’s okay, Stan. You did what you had to do,” she said, her eyes deep and meaningful, which calmed Stan.
“Yeah. It really sucked that you had to do it, but you did the right thing,” added Charlie.
“You’re right,” said Stan, and he looked at the ground for a moment, letting the memory of the player called Mr. A leave his mind, like letting a balloon soar up to the sky. And with this his mind was clear again. When he looked up at the three players looking back at him, he knew what had to be done.
“It’s time, isn’t it,” he said. It was not a question. They all knew that the time had come.
“Let’s end this,” said Kat, nodding in Charlie’s direction.
Charlie walked up the white frame of blocks, took a deep breath, and pulled out the twelve Eyes of Ender. Each ornate portal frame block had an indent in the middle, the perfect fit for one Eye of Ender. Charlie walked around the outside ring of the portal, carefully fitting one Eye of Ender into each of the twelve blocks that made up the portal frame. When the last Eye was fitted into place, the twelve eyes glowed purple simultaneously, and for a few seconds, they did nothing but give off an eerie sound and emit copious amounts of purple particles. Then, all at once, the space within the portal showed not a drop down into a pit of lava but a dark, spectral space that seemed to go on forever, speckled with luminous dots of all colors, giving Stan the impression that he was staring into some deep, untouched realm of the cosmos.
Stan, Charlie, Kat, DZ, and Oob gathered around the portal, looking into the ominous black depths. Stan looked around at his friends.
“Are we ready?” he asked.
A scan of everyone’s face showed four brave, well-equipped warriors, ready to tackle whatever the ominous End dimension had in store.
With an almighty yell of “BOOYAH!” DZ jumped off the frame and into the black portal, which swallowed him instantly. Charlie was about to jump into the portal next, but he was interrupted when Oob fell into the portal by way of his aimless wandering. Charlie followed behind him. Kat scratched Rex behind the ears. They knew from Charlie’s book that dogs could not enter the End, but they were confident that Rex would manage to find them should they re-enter the Overworld alive. And, with closed eyes and a deep breath, she too disappeared into the depths of the End portal.
