Quest for Justice, page 31
Stan had briefly discussed the Enlightenment with Kat and Charlie, but they had just thought of it as a cool, well-written poem that tried to sum up the universe in words, with interesting results. Now though, as Stan looked back on those words, he realized what Sally was trying to say.
The poem, spoken by the two beings on the highest level of universal knowledge, had delivered some words that Stan’s mortal mind could not decipher. It had spoken of a player who had reached a higher level, who had the ultimate power of the universe within him.
“It’s me, isn’t it?” he breathed. Sally nodded, as if she had been reading his thoughts. “I’ve got to kill King Kev because it’s me.” Again Sally nodded. Stan was not even entirely sure what he meant when he said “it’s me,” but then again, he had not yet reached the highest level, and so he could not hope to understand. For the time being though, Stan finally realized the full meaning behind the poem as he could understand it at the time.
There were players, humans, entities, or whatever one chose to call them that were at a higher level than the rest of their respective societies. Being at a higher level freed them to do fantastic things, to do things that no other beings had the ability to do. Call them geniuses, call them prodigies, call them gods, Stan now knew that he was in the league of these others, these players, these higher beings. They had not yet reached the highest level, but they had reached the highest level one could reach in the grand scheme of life, of the universe, of the game.
As he looked into Sally’s eyes, Stan knew that she had recognized this higher level within him from the start. Crazy Steve had seen it, too, and Stan was sure that Sally was experiencing the same indescribable mix of confusion and undoubting sureness that he was. They had no more to say to each other. Stan stood up on the chair and cleared his throat.
“People of the Grand Adorian Militia! May I have your attention please!”
It was odd how quickly the room went completely and totally silent. Stan continued, not knowing what he was going to say next but knowing that whatever it was would be right.
“In a few moments, we will be leaving this village. We are embarking on a journey that will take us far past the point of no return, and by the end of this day all of us will be either victorious or dead. There is no need for me to tell you this, as you knew what you were in for when you joined this militia.”
Stan paused for a moment, and he felt a disquieted murmur circulating the room, as if unsure of where he was going with this. Stan continued.
“We are going to win this fight. We are going to win this fight because we are good. We are going to win this fight because we are on the side of justice. We are going to win this fight not just because we want it more, not just because we are better equipped than our enemy could possibly imagine, but because in the grand scheme of the universe, justice will always prevail.
“If we look back on the history of this world of Minecraft, the world of Earth from which we originated, and any other intelligent world in this universe, you will find that there will always be evil. This is nature, and we cannot change nature. However, there is also an overwhelming power of good to balance that evil, and we do have the power to change what side we choose to ally ourselves with. I have nothing but contempt for the King, who fraternizes with evil, and whom it is my job to kill today. I have nothing but pity for the men and women that he has swayed to his side with his dark temptations.
“However, although evil will always be able to tear us down, this is only because it is indescribably easier to destroy than to create. This game, Minecraft, is not about destruction, however—it is about creation. You will find that creation far outweighs destruction in this universe. That is because for every one evil being in existence, there are a hundred righteous beings to counteract. We are those righteous beings! We are the ones that the universe has enlisted to make this land of Elementia great once again! We are one hundred and fifty players, of one server, of one world, of one universe. And it is our job to save that one server, in the one world, in the one universe, from the darkness that runs unchecked around us!
“So let us go forth, my brothers and sisters of good! Let us go to the stronghold of power that now lies in enemy hands, and take it back for our own! Let us restore Elementia to the vision that its founders once had for it! It’s time for us to make this server a place where future generations can call home! This is our quest, players! This is our quest for justice!”
As Stan enunciated these last three words, the floor of the room broke out into a cacophonic symphony of cheers and shouts, which revved like a jet engine and soon rose into a unanimous chant of “Jus-tice! Jus-tice! Jus-tice!”
Stan looked out into the crowd and saw the Apothecary and Blackraven standing side by side, smiling their ancient, wise smiles at him. DZ and the Nether Boys were going absolutely insane, whistling and chanting and yelling things such as “YOU GO, STAN!” louder than the rest. Jayden, G, and Archie all raised their respective weapons to their foreheads and gave Stan a three-man salute before joining with DZ and the Nether Boys in their wild cheering.
The three faces that meant the most to Stan, however, were right beside him. Kat and Charlie stood side by side, beaming up at Stan with no words, simply staring at the champion of goodness that their best friend had become. Sally was still sitting down and was staring at the floor, but when she sensed Stan looking at her, she glanced up at him and gave him her characteristic amused smirk, which meant more to him than any words ever could.
Five minutes later, the troops were assembled in five lines of twenty-five men each, with Kat, Charlie, Jayden, G, and Sally at the heads. The players in the lines, suited up in full war gear, were still riled up and excited from Stan’s speech, and occasional outbursts of “Jus-tice! Jus-tice! Jus-tice!” were not uncommon.
Ahead of the main body stood Stan, flanked behind by Archie and Bob, the two best shots of the militia. The archers were there to shoot down, with their enchanted bows, any projectiles such as TNT mortars or fireballs that should threaten the whole group.
Stan ordered the forward march and began leading the Grand Adorian Militia through the Great Wood, across the bridge that had been constructed over the hole created by the TNT tower during the thunderstorm, and through the main gates into Element City.
It was a ghost town. The bustling streets of Element City as Stan remembered them had been deserted. He had not known whether or not the fighting would extend into the streets, or if some kind of citizen militia would combat them, but in fact the only signs of life that he saw were fearful eyes surveying him from within the houses. Clearly, these people were under the impression that the invading militia would pose a threat to them as well as the armed forces. Stan, however, had no intentions of attacking unarmed citizens.
“The signal, Archie,” was the only thing that Stan said, keeping his voice in a careful monotone. Like they had planned, Archie pulled out his bow, notched an arrow, and pulled back the string. As soon as the flint tip touched the glowing wood of the bow, the tip of the arrow burst into flames. Archie let the arrow fly in an arch high over the city, not aiming at anybody. This was the signal.
Thirty seconds. If Sirus had not responded to the signal within thirty seconds, it would be assumed that he had been captured or killed. About twenty seconds ticked by before Stan noticed two shimmering dots of light flying up over the city. Sirus had managed to disable some of the castle’s redstone defenses, but not all of them. Unfazed, for this was what Stan was expecting, he ordered the militia to continue the march forward.
The walk down the main road was uneventful. The militia was psyching itself up for the offensive that was now just minutes away by chanting “Jus-tice! Jus-tice! Jus-tice!” louder than ever before. By the time they had reached the outer wall of the King’s castle, the militia was in a frenzy. Stan had to make a quick announcement reminding them that their aim in this battle was to wound if possible, not kill.
As he turned around, he noticed a pleasant surprise: Sirus was running down the length of the wall, a determined smile on his face.
“Hey, Sirus!” Stan exclaimed as the player, who looked the same as Stan but with a lighter color scheme, reached him. “Fancy seeing you here! I didn’t expect to see you until we’d gotten in. You got news for us?”
“Yeah, I managed to deactivate most of the redstone traps and pitfalls, but there are a few still in place, such as arrow and fireball dispensers, although I think I managed to deactivate most of the really deadly ones, you know, your TNT cannons, your automatic lava flows, your tripwires into bottomless pits, but we’d still better be careful, though, ’cause like I said, the arrow and fireball launchers are still online, I couldn’t hack into those, they’re too well guarded, so—”
“Okay, Sirus, okay, calm down,” said Stan, cutting off Sirus’s report, which he had delivered very quickly and in the twitchy manner of a mad scientist.
“Okay, okay, but you’d also probably better know that I rigged a TNT pit under this wall, just hit that button there on the wall and it’ll blow up! Heh-heh,” he said, his face wild with excitement.
“Nice touch, Sirus,” said Stan with a grin. He had been planning to have the Blackstone miners simultaneously break through the wall, but this way would be much quicker. He turned to his troops.
“Soldiers of the Grand Adorian Militia! In a few seconds, we will punch the button on this wall, destroying it. When we do, you are at liberty to charge into that courtyard and put out of order anything or anyone that moves in the name of King Kev. Again, I remind you to aim to wound. We are not like them, and therefore we will not kill like them unless it’s absolutely necessary. Good luck to you all, and I will see you again once King Kev has fallen.”
Tumultuous applause followed this. Stan looked back at his leaders, and the same grim determination was reflected on all of their faces. Even Rex, who stood between the stone-faced Kat and Sally, was baring his teeth in anticipation of the fight he knew was to come.
Stan turned around. This is it. This is happening, he thought. I am about to blow my way into King Kev’s castle and try to kill him in combat. Adrenaline coursed through his veins like a powered mine cart down a track, and as the troops looked up at the wall, a pregnant silence fell. Then Stan spoke.
“Sirus, punch it,” he said in tones of steel.
Sirus’s fist slammed into the stone button. There was a hissing, and a second later the force of the explosion crashed across the militia like a wave, obliterating the wall and giving them a clear view of the castle. Leaving all pretense of fear behind him, Stan gave a savage yell and charged.
CHAPTER 27 THE BATTLE FOR ELEMENTIA
King Kev surveyed the courtyard from atop the same bridge he had stood on when he had given his proclamation that fateful day. Now, however, his head was not unprotected. Quite to the contrary, a diamond helmet covered his head and a diamond chestplate covered his body, two diamond swords equipped with the highest of Sharpness enchantments hung by his side, and a bow with enchantments of Power and Fire was slung across his back. He stood here alone. He knew that the player called Stan2012 would seek him out with the intention of killing him. Stan would be quite happy to find that the initial parts of his invasion would go exactly according to plan. The King respected Stan for his determination, and so he had decided to give Stan the satisfaction of tasting victory. The end results of the battle, however, would fall far short of Stan’s plans.
King Kev had known that the impending attack on his castle was inevitable, but it was really mainly due to his spy within the Grand Adorian Militia that he had come to learn the exact day, time, and style of the attack. The King had found the plans incredibly simplistic. Given that the attack was being made in the majority by lower-levels with inferior combat skills, the King had expected the leaders of the militia to come up with some clever approach.
The King had decided that he would simply play along with Stan’s game and send his regular army of 150 men in against their militia of 150 on the castle courtyard. Then, they would see the power and skill behind his men—the power, skill, and loyalty that would be the reason that he would never be ousted from power in Elementia.
Sure enough, the sun was at its apex in the sky when the wall in front of his castle burst open. This unnerved the King a bit, because his spy had informed him that they would be tunneling through the wall. No matter. It was of no concern. The means of their entry was of no importance. The important thing was the backup redstone traps that had been hidden away from their saboteur, which would now weaken them to the point of being sitting ducks for the King’s army.
But . . . wait, what was happening? The players were charging forward, and they were surging toward the castle walls in a widespread wave. No traps were going off! What was the meaning of this? He had been aware of every move that their little redstone saboteur had made, and they had only allowed him to find a set of decoy traps. So how was it that they were pushing forward still with no resistance?
Shock and horror overtook the King’s features as he snatched up the microphone and bellowed with a reddened face, “Traps are down, I repeat, traps are down! Minotaurus, charge! Caesar, follow! Charlemagne, follow! RAT1, you know what to do! You are now the only defense against them, so CHARGE!”
As the King looked on with an apprehensive face at his men now charging, very belated, into the swarm of oncoming Adorians, a thought struck the King. He looked down at his pale, blocky hand. It would only be just the once, and the possibility of somebody discovering that he was the one responsible was slim . . . but no, he thought better of it. There was no way that he could use his most powerful, most dangerous weapon of all.
For although the weapon would no doubt obliterate every last one of the Adorian fighters in one fell swoop, it was more dangerous to the King himself than it was to them. No, even when Stan2012 himself was up on the tower battling him, the King would not resort to using his ultimate, most secret weapon.
Stan stood still in the middle of the ongoing charge, waving them forward, and it was only when their men had gotten halfway across the courtyard that the King’s forces charged out of the castle. Stan wondered why they had waited so long to come out to meet them. Besides this, the militia had found a complete and total lack of opposition from the automatic redstone traps he had been sure they would encounter. All of this left Stan thoroughly nonplussed.
He was about to disregard the uneasy feeling and begin teleporting toward his fight with the King when he noticed that the dirt block in front of him was breaking. Stan drew his axe, prepared for an Elementia trooper to burst from the ground, blade drawn and ready for combat. Stan was instead treated to the sight of a stone shovel penetrating the ground, followed by a head that came up in no big hurry.
Stan was shocked. He had seen the head before. He knew this player.
“Howdy-do, Stan,” said the Mechanist with a sly grin as he brushed some dirt particles from his bushy eyebrows.
“You? But what . . . how . . . what are you doing here?” Stan asked in bewilderment, wondering what bizarre chain of events had led this old inventor from his secluded solitude in Blackstone to the dirt beneath the battlefield of the biggest revolt against the King since the time of Avery007.
“Well, it got kinda boring back in Blackstone with nothin’ to do, so I figured that, you know, after I ran out of potion, I might as well come here and help you guys. And lemme tell ya, that potion ran out pretty fast . . .”
“So wait . . . you’re here to help us?” asked Stan, his heart lifting.
“Already did,” replied the Mechanist with a grin, holding up a redstone torch in his hand. “Ain’t you wondering why you haven’t run into any opposition from the redstone contraptions? I’ll give you a hint . . . I designed them, and I’m here.”
Stan’s eyes widened as he realized what the Mechanist was saying. “Are you saying that you disabled the redstone traps manually?” he asked disbelievingly.
“Better than that,” replied the Mechanist. “See that guy over there?” he asked, referring to a player with an executioner’s hood and an iron axe that was locked against the pickaxe of Sirus. “Well, watch this!” The Mechanist went back underground. Stan watched in amazement as a pit opened up beneath the executioner just as he disarmed Sirus, dropping the executioner into the depths below the ground and resealing itself before the Mechanist reappeared.
“I built an entire redstone computer underground here a while back, and I remember how to work it!” said the Mechanist proudly. “Even King Kev never knew about it, and it controls all the redstone circuitry in the city! The thing’s my baby. It lets me override any signals given from the castle with the flip of a switch.”
Stan felt as though an enormous weight had been lifted off his chest. The redstone defenses had been a huge variable in their attack plan, and now they were eliminated completely. Stan opened his mouth to give an earnest thanks, but the Mechanist waved him off.
“You can thank me later, Stan. Don’t you have a King to kill?”
“Oh yeah!” exclaimed Stan, and feeling more confident than ever, he pulled his first Ender Pearl off his sash.
“Oof,” came the dull thud as the player with devil horns was knocked to the ground. Charlie drew back his pickaxe, his eyes peeled for more attackers. He and his team had had an intense fight through the thickest of the combat, and they were now struggling to maintain their position at the base of the King’s drawbridge. The drawbridge was underneath the lava moat now, preventing any troops from entering or exiting the castle. Charlie knew that his team was just a thin membrane separating Stan and the King from a slew of backup support from the King’s forces, should King Kev call on them.
Indeed, the King’s men did seem very discontented that the Adorian forces had established a foothold so close to the base of the castle, and many of them were now swarming back toward them in retaliation. Charlie was just about to panic at the fresh wave of the King’s men thronging toward him when he remembered his special weapon. He hastily pulled four blocks of iron out of his inventory and placed them in a T formation on the ground. The men at the head of the King’s charge realized what he was about to do a second before he did it, and they began to double back, but it was too late.
